Prologue, Part 3

Will we get through the prologue today?

We meet the half-elven mayor, Kessa Albin, of the beleaguered town. We're shown around, and it seems that the raiders have are mostly just trying to cause havoc, but haven't even bothered the main town hall.

There are a few minor magic users here, and a small number of guards, with the towns populate having been reduced by some amount.

We decide to set a spike trap at the wall opening, and take the attackers by surprise. We also have a general idea on which direction they come from, so we'll focus on manning those watchtowers, supplemented with alarms spells placed by Dhell. Dhell and Davomir also identify the attackers as dretches, based on villager descriptions. Davomir also organizes the hunters of the village.

There are a few raiders who have attacked in the past, such as Miranda Wolfsbane, but this doesn't seem like her style, and she's primarily based on the other side of the island.

It's after midnight when the attack happens, with goblins and dretches emerging from the forest surrounding town. As expected, they try to attack via the hole in the wall, but most of them don't proceed further when the trap is activated.

Instead, they wait a moment, and a fomorian, a misshapen giant humanoid, emerges and starts trying to make a new hole in the wall. Ravosh and I position ourselves to stop the onslaught of goblins and dretches once the hole has been made, but Ravosh makes eye contact with the fomorian, and his face bubbles and distorts, and he falls.

By this point Dhell had mostly blocked the hole from further by using a grease spell and setting it on fire, but Ravosh was on the other side of the fire. So of course I run through it to get him out, yelling incoherently as I do so.

The formorian doesn't linger long, and the battle quickly turns in our favor.

Ravosh's face returns to normal, and we rest and recover from the night's ordeal.

I help rebuild, and Dhell returns to report to Father the events here.

Sai and Davomir track the retreating invaders, and they find a giant's village, with two giants talking to a wizard.

After a little while, it seems that the attacks have stopped. Whatever effect the attackers either succeeded in some unknown way, or they deemed that they had been thwarted by our presence.

The years pass.

Davomir and Rachelle have a kid, and Rachelle seems much more pleasant towards Davomir. Altaire takes up the life of a monk, much to Father's displeasure. Sai and Panic are best friends, and Walt visits Ravosh periodically. I no longer have to share a room at the manor.

Some things don't change though. Alyse is still white as a sheet. Lord Croft is still cruel when he wants to be, although perhaps more often now. Lady Reva Croft is still ill from whatever unknown disease.

Father has requested we help the twins with a task, something about finding spell reagents, and soon enough we find ourselves in a cave that smells like bear gas.

We're attacked by kobolds, and during the attack, the way back is blocked, so we have no choice but to press forward.

The twins seem to know where they are going in the cave system, but before long we find a room in which every corner is covered with viscera and gore.

We try to ignore the smell, and continue on, and the caves get cooler, and the side passages become less frequent.

We are interrupted by grimlocks, whose coloring blends into the stone, emerge and attack us. Fighting them is tougher, and Alyse even feigns to use a spell on them. As they die and fall to the ground, they seem to blend back into the stone.

We examine their corpses, and notice something strange. Each of the grimlocks has a small bit of twine tied tightly on each of their upper arms.