Shadows of Witchlight Kavan

080701 - The adventure begins

By the grace of Avandra, what a day!  Scarcely had I arrived in Fallcrest and I’m finding myself wrapped up in some minor local intrigue and quickly embroiled in battle with beasts!  But I’m letting my excitement get the better of me and jumping to the end.  

As Branolyn had bid me to do, I journeyed to Fallcrest to find more information on the vague stirrings he hinted at to me.  The journey was entirely uneventful, with only a slow traveling merchant on the road heading in the opposite direction who gave me nothing more than a nod.  As I arrived in Fallcrest a guard directed me to the local temple of Avandra.  There I met the most peculiar dragonborn.  Admittedly though he is the first dragonborn I’ve met, so perhaps they’re all as peculiar?  He does fight for Avandra though so that, as they say, makes him good in my book.  Anyway, after entering the temple we met with the head of the chapterhouse who after a quick briefing bid us to wait a spell.

Shortly afterwards I saw a besotted human enter with a tiefling soldier.  An actual tiefling!  The human smelled like he’d been bathing in an ale barrel but by Avandra I’d seen a tiefling and a dragonborn on the same day!  The tiefling went in to meet with the head priestess then soon came out to bring the three of us in.  Once our unlikely group was assembled the head priestess informed us that a local farmer was missing a number of livestock.  Of main import to my companions was that we’d receive 20 gold apiece for returning them.  Quickly they all accepted.

We walked out to the farm, running into the farmer who informed us that a ranger had been by not much before and that he was tracking them to the north.  We followed the trail as best we could but eventually lost the trail.  As we did though that is just when we heard strange noises around a small hill.

My group quickly formed up in a defensive position and found ourselves beset upon by no less than two fire beetles, a stirge, and two kobolds.  Showing himself to be even more ale-addled than I’d previously thought, the human wizard, Torgan, cast a fiery spell at the beetles.  I swear their resulting chittering was what passes for laughter among their kind.  Then the stirge came down and attached itself to the mage’s face.  After several minutes of struggle we managed to separate the mage from the stirge who then attacked the tiefling soldier, Dirge.  The dragonborn fell after the fire beetles closed on him and we saw the ranger was struggling with the two kobolds to the east.  Calling for Avandra’s blessing, I was able to get the dragonborn to his feet again and moved to the aid of the ranger.  Whilst the others finished off the stirge, one of the fire beetles, and put the remaining fire beetle on the run, the ranger and I meted out enough damage to the kobolds to make them break and flee.  Finally showing that he hadn’t just found his bow yesterday, the ranger managed to finish off one kobold but the other creature had enough time to take cover and hid.  Rather than wasting time tracking the remaining kobold down when he looked as if he would probably die from his wounds if unattended anyway, the ranger followed the mage as they flanked the sole fire beetle to put him down.

For the first time our ragtag band had worked together I believe we did well.  Through cooperation and the grace of Avandra we emerged victorious.  My companions intrigue me and everything happened so quickly that I’ve barely had any time to learn anything about them.  I believe I’ll see if they want to stay together and look for more adventurous fun.