Today finds 4 travelers on the road to the prosperous town of Greenest. Each are travelling to the town for different reasons but soon find themselves road companions and begin to share their stories as they walk along.
T'an Kina is a woodelf monk who has just come from his home town which was decimated by a rival clan of monks. He has is now on the trail of the enemy monks which has led him to Greenest. He tries to believe the best in everyone, but the rival clan must pay for their actions.
Arno Hacket is a rock gnome wizard, a surly creature who prefers his little inventions than the company of idiots. He considers most people idiots. He has had, with increasing frequency, apocalyptic dreams of the world destroyed by cold, choking fumes, lightning storms, waves of acids and horrible fires. He seeks the riddle of his dreams in the town of Greenest.
A stout hill dwarf cleric named Harbek, with a small squirrel with strange markings on its head, which rides on his shoulder. He has come out of self imposed seclusion of meditation to try to right the wrongs of his father. He learned that his father was part of a group called The Cult Of The Dragon. They paid him to smuggle goods across the Sword Coast. He on his deathbed urged Harbek to investigate the cult and try to undo any potential evil he may have helped foster.
And finally Danifae, a drow wizard who is cold and seemingly unfeeling tells of his childhood friend, a half-elf named Talis who has been taken by a strange group of dragon worshiping cultists. He has been on her trail for some time now and it has led to the town of Greenest.
As the crest a rise in the road, they look down on the prosperous town of Greenest at sundown. Normally a peaceful and tranquil town nestled in a slight valley along a lazily meandering river, it now presents itself to the journeyers as a town under pillage. Several houses are on fire. People are running from houses being chased by an odd collection of human bandits and kobolds. As they take in the horrible sights of murder and thievery from a distance, they notice in the dying light a large winged creature swooping down, again and again, over the large stone keep at the center of town.
Several of the road companions rush to the besieged town, while Arno deeply sighs, puts away his trinket he was currently working on and trudges on to keep up.
Seeking The Keep
525 XP
As the adventurers travel into the town they soon come across a series of burning small houses. Emerging from one of the houses is a small family. The father badly wounded with an arrow protruding from the front of his shoulder and limping badly. A mother attempting to protect her two young sons behind her wielding a broken sword. They are pursuded by several human bandits and kobolds. The humans are carrying the small amount of goods they have collected from the home while the kobolds laugh and titter at the fun of harassing the family.
The group hesitantly steps up to protect the family. It all happens quickly.
T'an moves to the shadows while the wizards call upon spell after spell which soon decimates the humans. T'an and the cleric Harbek move among the kobolds delivering fatal blows to them. When all the enemies are defeated and their bodies relieved of their ill gotten loot, the mother urges them all to the safety of the Keep at the centre of town.
As they approach the Keep they see their way blocked by more bandits and more kobolds. This time they are aware of the large blue dragon that is attacking the Keep. As the party moves towards the keep they have to work their way through several of the bandits and kobolds. The kobolds stay a small distance away and hurl rocks from slings while the humans use their scimitars to devastating effect. The group is also surprised to find a winged kobold which drops a large boulder onto Danifae. Finally, the group, beaten to near death helps the injured family towards the keep only to find that above the door is a large blue dragon looking down from atop the Keep waiting slyly for them to make a run for the closed gate entrance.
The woman with her children does not hesitate. She runs headlong towards the closed gate. Harbek, close behind, uses a thaumaturgy spell to whip open the doors to the date. The rest of the group sees this and runs to the gate. All except T'an who holds back.
The mother with her children in tow and Harbek with the injured father over his should rush inside the safety of the Keep. Arno and Danifae approach the gate at a sprint but look up to see the dragon above smile and take a deep breath. The air around them crackles with static electricity and a whiff of ozone fills the air. The dragon releases his breath of lightning down upon the two running creatures. Only their momentum carries their limp and lifeless bodies into the keep. Arno and Danifae's crisply burned bodies lie at the feet of Harbek who reaches down and heals their wounds bringing them back to life.
T'an seeing the horror of the dragon but still needing the safety of the Keep, runs serpentine. The elf monk runs randomly all over the place but always heading towards the Keep. The dragon fills his lungs but is unable to unleash his power before the monk achieves safety inside.
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
Save The Mill
300 XP
Once inside they discover many have had the same idea of refuge. The area inside is litter with the injured and dying. They meet Kara a cleric who is able to further heal their injuries. They also meet Governor Nighthill. Tarbaw Nighthill is an elderly human who is badly injured himself. His head and one eye are bandaged and his arm is in a sling. He thanks the group for helping to save the Taran family. He is apologetic but he believes the group can further help the town.
Scouts have informed him that the towns mill is under threat of fire. If the mill burns the town will potentially starve from lack of flour during the winter. It is imperative that the mill survive this siege.
The group is hesitant. They have just faced two small bands of marauders and have been badly bloodied. Nevermind that there is a dragon out there that can instantly kill them. He quietly asks Kara, the resident cleric, for potions of healing. She is reluctant. There are many that need healing and many more that may be arriving that are mortally wounded. She eventually gives in and hand the group 3 phials of precious health.
The group debates hard about how to exit the Keep and carry out the mission until an old dwarf, Castellan Escobert taps Harbek on the shoulder and informs him that there are other ways out of the Keep. He leads them down into the belly of the Keep. There they are shown a secret old tunnel. It was constructed to allow escape if the Keep were to ever fall to an enemy. The gate to it is old and rusty but Escobert hands Harbek the key and tells him that there is a similar gate at the other end.
Descending into the tunnel T'an is the first to discover that a swarm of rats has made the tunnel their home. They bite to defend against the intrusion and T'an is wounded badly. He runs from the unexpected attack and leaves the rest of the group to fend off the rats. When each of the rest of the group attacks the rats and each in turn run through the swarm they all end up meeting T'an at the end of the tunnel.
Harbek unlocks the gate at this end of the tunnel. The gate is old and rusted from years of neglect. It opens but Harbek tries his best to minimize the gates rusty noise. Once outside they find themselves at the banks of the river. Staying in the mist from the river for cover they find the mill. The choose to stay concealed and simply observe the group of humans and kobolds that are starting a fire at the door of the mill. The group is about to move out to attack when Arno holds them back and tells them to watch closer. The band of enemies is making the motions of starting a fire but is not actually lighting the fire. There is something else going on here. Quickly and quietly the move to take out each one of the enemies taking minimal damage to themselves.
Once cleared Harbek and T'an approach the mill. Harbek passes by unlit windows and opens the door with T'an close behind. Inside the mill the gears are still engaged and the mill stone still noisily turning. Harbek tries to figure out how to shut down the mill but with little success. Arno from the door sighs and slowly, as though speaking to an idiot, points out the large levers on the other side of the building that will shut down the stone. Moving across the room and grabbing the levers one by one shuts them down with a large thunking noise. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Arrrgggghh.
The noisy pulling of the levers was in fact 3 spears hitting the wall beside Harbek but the fourth finds its target in the back of the dwarf. This has been an ambush.
It is a battle in close quarters but the group finally is able to overcome the enemies. They are hurt but still alive. An accomplishment not to be taken lightly. When only one human is left, T'an shouts, "Keep him alive!". Arno is able to poison the bandit within an inch of his life but keep him alive. They question him.
They find out that he is simply a sword for hire. He was recruited to help with the collection of loot from this town. A cult, the Cult Of The Dragon is collecting as much coinage, gems and other valuables for some purpose he doesn't know of. They have also convinced kobolds to their cause as well as a dragon. T'an finishes what was left of his life.
With the noise of battle done with and the noise of the mill silenced. They can now hear screams for help from outside coming from the direction of the church.
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
Sanctuary
400 XP
The group uses the river bed and its mist to move concealed up to the church. There they find that several townspeople have taken refuge or were caught at the time of the siege within the church. Three large bands of humans, kobolds and drakes have taken to assaulting the church. Presumably for its riches within.
One group is busy at the front doors with a makeshift battering ram trying to gain entrance. Another group is patrolling around the church, It is a large group of at least 10 kobolds skipping, tumbling and horsing around while 3 humans try to keep them on task. Two of the kobolds have a drake each on a leash. The last group is a smaller group which is trying to build a blazing fire at the back of the church to smoke out the people within in hopes that they will exit the building.
After cautiously watching the 3 groups the adventurers come up with a plan. They will wait for the circling group to pass. This group takes several minutes to make the round trip. They hope they can take down the group at the back door using the heavy smoke for concealment. The plan goes well with T'an moving from enemy to enemy taking them down moving from within the obscuring smoke. Danifae smashes in a large stained glass window and tells the people to come out. It takes a bit of convincing for the people within to trust the black skinned drow but the fire and the continual battering ram convinces them. They move a pew up to the window and begin their escape. Harbek opens the back door and tells them to exit via the back as well. They tell the people to keep within the smoke as much as they can and make their way to the mill, which has been cleared of enemies.
It is then that the front doors give way to the battering ram and the kobolds and a large half-dragon enter the church. The kobolds run and try to collect as much loot as they can while one kobold sees the fleeing church patrons and kills two during their escape. Arno and Danifae lob spells into the church trying to start a fire but this only attracts the attention of the half-dragon who makes his way to the window but is eventually killed before he can inflict much damage.
Fleeing the now burning church the group collects up the survivors from the mill and heads back to the tunnel which will lead them back into the safety of the Keep. Their the governor is pleased that the group has saved the mill, learned of who is behind this atrocity and saved dozens of his townsfolk.
He dares not ask them to do anymore.
Champions Challenge
But just then someone approaches the governor and whispers something to him. He turns to the group and he says, "You may want to see this.". He leads them to the top of the Keep's wall in time to see a large half-dragon dressed in purple robes.
Beside the group a man badly hurt gasps as it is his wife that the half-dragon holds prisoner. The group debates what to do. They are badly hurt and cannot face such a foe as this one on one. They already have done much for the town. This is too much. As they turn to tell the governor, they see below them the woman prisoner's husband approach Langdedrosa, limping but boldy going to save his wife.
The group, from the safety atop the wall, witness the half-dragon wield his sword and with one blow drop the man to the ground. Once fallen, Langdedrosa stabs the man through the head and raises his sword in victory.
He turns and the group of humans, kobolds and drakes turn to leave with him. Their acquired loot in tow and lit by the burning houses around them.
There is nothing the newly formed group can do further.
MetaGame Spoiler Inside
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