Session One (June 29th)

Kaius, King of Karnath, having heard rumors of trouble stirring in the vicinity of Winterhaven, on the Gardbury Downs, dispatched one or more spies to the area to investigate a possible renewal of Cult activities. When his agent, Douven Staul, failed to report to his contact in Winterhaven, agents of the King dispatched a young, upcoming operative to the area to ascertain Staul's fate and continue his mission. He is to make contact with a Karnathi spy residing in Winterhaven by the name of Eilian. This operative, the Elf known only as Shade, convinced a few colleagues to accompany him. Unbeknownst to him, his friends, a Tiefling Cleric of the Silver Flame by the name of Zar'za, and a Dragonborn Paladin of the Sovereign Host who calls himself Krova'karthis, had already been instructed by the Voice of the Flame to travel to the area and investigate the rising evil. Having made arrangements for a few more operatives to meet them in Winterhaven, the small group set out for the remote village.

The Heroes

Shade: Elven Rogue, employed by agents of Karnath (Joel)

Krova'karthis (Krova): Dragonborn Paladin of Dol Dorn (Craig)

Zar'za: Tiefling Cleric of the Silver Flame (Alexandra)

Lars Solsted: Human Wizard(Brian)

Lodi Fairfield: Halfling Ranger(Nick)

On the Road: Tragedy

The party travels along the King's Road, a worn and ill-kept pathway. The wind howling down from the Cairngorm Mountains bites through their cloaks and numbs their hands. They have been travelling for days and are more than anxious to reach their destination, the promise of warmth and comfort at Wrafton's Inn in Winterhaven. Still a few hours from the village, the party stumbles upon a battlesite. Several carts have been overturned on the road, their contents scattered about. Cautiously, Shade slips into the surrounding woods. Krova and Zar'za close the distance to the carts and call out a challenge. His senses sharp, Shade detects snickering and sibilant whispers from behind the cart. Before he can warn his companions, however, kobolds boil up from behind the cart and charge the party. The battle is on!

Krova charges, laying about with his longsword. Allowing himself to be surrounded, he suddenly pulls back and bathes the attacking swarm of kobolds with his deadly lightning breath attack. More than half of the swarming kobolds drop, twitching and smoking in death.

A few of the dragonmen, obviously more powerful than their comrades, move forward to engage the party. One, a wily, leather armored one wielding two shortswords, engages Shade in the woods. The battle is fierce, but Shade wins the day, leaving the Slyblade to rot in the woods. On the road, Zar'za and Krova engage a pike-wielding kobold and a Kobold slinger, whose stinkpots and gluepots cause much chaos. Again, the battle is fierce, but when the dust settles and the spurting blood slows to a trickle, the party is victorious and relatively unharmed.

The party inspects the battlesite and discovers that larger, booted footprints are about. They find drag marks, seeming to indicate that the former owners of the wagons were dragged away by larger creatures. Sadly, the party is unable to follow the trail through the woods, so they continue their journey to Winterhaven.

Winterhaven

The party arrives in Winterhaven just before dawn. Winterhaven is a walled village atop a prominent hill overlooking the King's Road. They are greeted amiably by a pair of guards at the gate. The guards are slovenly, their equipment ill-kept and worndown. They seem to care little about the kobold attack nor are they concerned with the safety of travellers to Winterhaven. They direct the party to Wrafton's Inn, just inside the gates.

At the Inn, the group meets Salvana Wrafton, the proprietor. She also has little concern for the safety of travellers. She sets the party up with rooms and sees them well fed and comfortable. She informs the party that Eilian is a regular and she expects him to arrive at any time. Some time later, Eilian arrives. He appears to be senile, but when Shade delivers the passphrase supplied to him by his Karnathi contacts, Eilian drops all pretense and becomes quite serious. He informs Shade that his contact, Douven Staul, has been missing for a few days. He had travelled south to an ancient dragon burial site, where he claimed he could find an artifact known as the Third Sinister Rib. Eilian has no idea what this rib is, nor its significance. He only knows that Douven thought it was important enough to risk his life to recover it. The group agrees to travel south in the morning to discover what has become of Douven Staul and to ascertain the importance of the Third Sinister Rib. Eilian also tells the group that they might wish to contact the local sage, Valthrun, for more information about the site. He resides in an ancient tower in the village. The party agrees to meet with Valthrun and Zar'za uses a ritual to send an animal messenger to him, beseeching him to meet with them in the morning.

Some time later in the evening, as the group prepares to head to their rooms, they are approached by an Elven Ranger by the name of Ninaran. Ninaran as much as demands that the party assist her in clearing out a nest of Kobolds to the southeast of the village. She claims that this kobold nest is led by a creature called Ironteeth and is the lair of the kobolds who have be harrassing travellers on the King's Road. The party, already travelling in that general direction, agree to raid the kobold nest and destroy it. Ninaran agrees to pay the party well if they are able to bring back evidence of their victory. She wants Ironteeth's iron teeth.

The party retires for the night....