A start

As the sun crests the horizon, the sleepy village of Rosenford awakens. The birds sing a joyous chorus that celebrates the wakening of a new day. Soon, the shutters open on the windows, the doors open, the forge fire is stoked and built up, and the inhabitants of Rosenford stir about on their daily business.

Sighs... this might be ok later on, but from what I've read, a book needs a jumpstart to get the reader hooked and to keep reading the book. But, this is going to start out with the kids with their families, in their hometown. Maybe give the reader a sneak peek at what's happening to the northwest? Maybe a "fight" of some sorts that involves the pc's? A fight between a pc and their mother/father/sibling/etc.? A spar where the reader isn't aware that the fight is just a spar? (Why would they be sparring??)

Here' the outline of some things I jotted down during lunch.

• Quick town overview - we briefly see the highlights of the town and meet the main characters briefly.
• The kids are ready and eager to be off, and they head out
• First couple of days, the travellers have good weather, albeit a little cold in the morning and evenings, but it almost seems a grand party for them. The last couple of days are wet and cold, and the whine and bitching quickly begin.
• They make it to town about mid-morning of the 5th day.
• They go out into the town, getting a feel for the place and finding where their mentor's reside. They start to get settled into a routine.
• After a couple of weeks, the town is raided by a largish party of gnolls. They come in the hours just before dawn, and more or less do a smash and grab at the town. The steal livestock, foodstuffs, or anything they happen to see that is of obvious value. Just as they are seen, the alarm goes out, and the gnolls make a break for it, but meanwhile left 1 guard dead, another injured, and several items stolen. (A sack of flour, a small cask of ale, and a couple weapons). The next morning, once the town's leadership has assessed the damage done, they call a meeting. Every able person in town, that is unmarried and over the age of majority (16ish) is asked to join the guards. They will primarily only be needed at night, but meanwhile, they will be trained in basic combat arts of defense and offense. While on duty, they will be given armor and weapons to wear, and will be paid a stipend for their service. Their main duty is to watch out for the attacks, sound the alarm if one does happen, and then last but not least, stay alive if an attack does happen.
• These attacks have been happening for several weeks now at seemingly random intervals. There was once a raid 2 days after one, yet the last attack was a whole month of ago. The village doesn't know what's going on. They've sent messages explaining the situation to some of the nearby villages, including the elven village of Lorithon, but so far, they've had no response.
• The pc's, along with 2 other villagers/craftspeople are recruited into service.
• The local wizard hasn't had any problems at his tower, but there are spells in place that misdirect people looking for his place. He says he will see what he can do in the way of helping protect the town with his arcane knowledge.
• The cleric of the group has been studying at the local temple with the acolytes, and they are able to heal the wounded guard.
• ** note** need to come up with a name for this "artisan's" settlement.
• Within the next week, 2 elves arrive in town, to help defend, and also to help train any new guards. The ranger in particular quickly takes up with them, and soon becomes quite the expert at gnolls. They also sharpen their tracking and fighting skills with them. The others are trained with the elves as well, but the ranger has an affinity for many of the same things that these elves do, not to mention one is a ranger as well.
• The elves also tell them that they have had a noticable increase in creatures crossing their lands.
• From the South, a couple of rough looking fellows come into the settlement. They are retired mercs, that settled there, and since their own guardsmen have their hands full with attacks on their village, they come to offer their support. They own a tavern in their village and get quite a bit of their spirits through an artisan here in ???? that distills all sort of product.

Just some ideas I wanted to get down. How's it sound? Does the plot line sound predictible? too familiar, or overused from other stories you've read or heard about or seen in a movie or something.