You sit down with an uncharacteristically morose-looking elf sitting at a back table, quietly nursing a pint of fermented kank nectar.
"Alas!" he moans. "My friend, Cyne, took a commission to deliver a message to... uh, another friend... in Urik. But he has not returned, and my tribe has moved on. I have little to repay you with, but if you could recover the message and learn the fate of Cyne, my tribe and I would be indebted to you. He said he planned to run through the badlands at the base of the mountains, to avoid the worst heat, on his way to Urik."
"Alas!" he moans. "My friend, Cyne, took a commission to deliver a message to... uh, another friend... in Urik. But he has not returned, and my tribe has moved on. I have little to repay you with, but if you could recover the message and learn the fate of Cyne, my tribe and I would be indebted to you. He said he planned to run through the badlands at the base of the mountains, to avoid the worst heat, on his way to Urik."