Our unlikely heroes’ adventure began just outside of Nightstone. A group of 3 random travellers heard the nonstop aggravating ring of a bell while approaching a village. The first of our heroes is an old human wizard, Norman Riverwoods. Forgetful at times, half asleep, frail, yet wise. He travels with his familiar, a little weasel. While closest to the village, his old age meant that a couple of other adventurers caught up to him before he reached the village gates. One, a Kenku named Mitsui, and the second of our heroes. A male, a female? Difficult to tell with the Kenku, although this one is female. A dark aura surrounds her body, something that has been there for a long time now. This Kenku was athletic and sneaky. Was she a rogue? No…not quite…yes…a monk, that’s what she is.
Our final hero is a female half-orc named Kida. While true that half-orcs are known for being brutes, this one seems quite friendly and cheerful. Out adventuring in order to enjoy the wonders of the world and life, her pleasant demeanor is a welcome change in comparison to the grim half-orcs most are used to seeing. While her personality may break the mold, her physical stature is quite expected for a barbarian.
Upon meeting, they discovered Mitsui had little to no knowledge of Common. Kida seemed to be in a similar boat, referring to her new companions as “bird friend” and “old friend”.
Upon approaching the village gate, our heroes noticed that the drawbridge was already lowered, and that damn bell still wouldn’t stop ringing. Peeking into the village, they decided to take a stealthy approach. Off in the distance they noticed some wolf-like creatures, known as worgs, enjoying a meal. Sadly, that meal seemed to be some local dogs. The heroes decided not to approach the hungry beasts but instead snuck into the temple, which they had determined was the source of their ringing headache. They found a halfing hiding out within the pews. Alarmed at first and ready to strike, the halfing introduced himself as Atlas, a traveller like themselves. Atlas entered the deserted village but then quickly decided to hide when he noticed some goblins were pillaging the village. Luckily for this small rogue, hiding was his specialty. Going into the back of the temple, our heroes found the source of the sound: two goblins having fun swinging on the rope attached to the bell. Kida took some damage dealing with these two, but nothing that a healing potion couldn’t handle.
Leaving the temple, they circled around the back to avoid the worgs, who seemed to be finishing up their meal. They travelled to the Nightstone Inn, where they discovered the backside had been destroyed by a giant boulder now sitting halfway through the wall. As stealthily as ever, our heroes snuck in and took care of some more goblins. In the dining room, they found a goblin already dead on the floor with a crossbow bolt through it.
The party believed they heard some noises upstairs and continued exploring the inn. Mitsui almost took a crossbow bolt to the face as she opened a wardrobe door. Inside was a timid young woman named Kella Darkhope. Kella introduced herself; she was a travelling monk. She had been visiting Nightstone when cloud giants descended from the sky and started assaulting the village, hurling boulders down on it. When people began trying to escape this attack, she tried to join in but was knocked unconscious.Upon awakening, she didn’t know where the townsfolk had gone. To make matters worse, goblins had started pillaging the town, and she was now too afraid to escape. After hearing her tail, our heroes agreed to protect her. Atlas asked about the snake coiled around her arm. Kella introduced him as her pet, Zed. Before leaving the inn, Mitsui took out some more goblins she saw outside by shooting out the window, then had a little snack of cooked chicken she found.
Leaving the inn, the sneaky rogue, Atlas, seemed to have forgotten all of his training. He just stood in the middle of the road, frozen in fear when he saw the worgs. And as luck would have it, they noticed him in return and made chase. The party came to his rescue and started to fight the worgs. The goblins were easy targets, but worgs, unfortunately, were a different story. Kida and Atlas were both knocked unconscious and were near death. In the end, Mitsui finished off the last worg, and the party returned to the inn to tend to the wounded.
Mitsui decided to scout out the village, wondering how many goblins were remaining. Confident that she was not seen, she jumped from hiding place to hiding place. In most cases, she was the observer and not the observed; until one sneaky goblin in the stable house managed to avoid detection and noticed her instead, running off to gather their fellows after she left.
Getting hungry on the way back to the inn, Mitsui realized she had no readily available cooked food. Oh well, she had a live chicken, how bad could it be? She bit into it and thought nothing of it before arriving at the inn.
The party agreed to spend the night at the inn. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to our heroes, the remaining goblins gathered outside the inn, ready to take on this small group of adventurers.
Now, however, was the time for the world to sleep; all becomes dark. Time seems to stop as the world starts to change.
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