A bearded man walks into the Prancing Pony and sits with one of the regular patrons. The regular smiles at the newcomer and calls for a tankard for his companion.

"I'm surprised you made your way to Bree," Tim Strawley says.

"I'm trying to think through something that happened near the river and it seemed better to do it in peace and comfort," Winston says.

What happened to you?"

I was huntin a white hart and managed to land a hit but was unable to give chase. I sent an adventurer farther into the wilds to find the deer for me. I was confident that the hart would die from the wounds of my arrow."

"That sounds like great luck," Tim says. "You've always been a great hunter."

"The problem was something else got to it before the adventurer did. They managed to track the thing to the river but lost it there. One of the fishers knew what we were talking as it had been stealing his fish."

"What was it?"

"I don't know," Winston says. "I saw the creature and gave chase. I wasn't able to catch it. I did get a good look but I don't know what it was."

"What did the elves think of having some strange unknown thing running around the forest?"

"They didn't seem surprised by the discription I gave them. They know something about it but refuse to tell me."

"That doesn't surprise me," Tim says. "The elves have many secrets."

"That is true. What happened to you? One day you were just gone."

"I was attacked by the wolf men."

"How did you get away?" Winton asks.

"They were more interested in my cart than me. I let them break open the crates and just ran off."

"That's probably the best way to deal with them."

"I've already decided I'm not returning to the forest," Tim says. "I don't care if I lose money if it means I don't need to deal with those people."

"I'm afraid I'm going to be returning to the forest after I get some rest."

"The wolf men shouldn't be too aggressive for a while. My friends hired an adventurer to kill many of them and collect the things they stole. The person even brought the figurines to my wife. She thought it was funny that they thought I was dead."

"It's not a surprise that everyone thought you were dead since we couldn't find anything that said you lived through the attack," Winston says.

"I didn't leave anything other than the cart behind so that makes sense."

"Well we were all happy to get the news that you were alive and back home."