The burning sun shown down on the sleepy little town of Graeton. It was a mostly unremarkable town, like much of the other surface towns were. It was comprised of just a few neighborhoods of houses, and at it’s center the bulk of the town was taken up by the main square.

The main square was a wide, cobblestone square, but it was where all the activity of the town took place. A few small shops and the tavern owned by a local dwarf names Tobi made up the perimeter. The one thing that really stood out in Graeton though, was the church. It towered above the main square, it’s tall stone column reaching high up towards the sky, bringing a feeling of peace to the town.

It seemed funny that the main square was so large for such a small town, but the amount of commerce that took place within Graeton made it a necessity. For today, like most other days, stalls were set up throughout the large square filled with merchants selling their wares, and those who wished to purchase them. It wasn’t just individuals from the town that would make purchases. Large covered wagons from out of towns would come for entire shipments of items to take back to their underground kingdoms and small surface towns. The chatter in the town was loud as merchants worked their magic, trying to unload as much of their product as they could before the afternoon.

The fact was, afternoons were a pretty poor time to do business in Graeton. Just outside of town was a large, lush pine forest. The trees near Graeton were just the outlet of a very long, large valley of trees that ran all the way between the mountain range that rose high in the west. The mountains were so large and ominous that they almost blocked out the entire western hemisphere of the sky, casting the early afternoon of Graeton into deep, chill shadows until true dark set in.

Back in the little tavern on the main square, Tobi walked hurriedly back and forth behind the bar. Tobi knew that there would be a mad rush coming soon as all of the potato farmers headed in from their fields (for potatoes were all that would grow well in bulk in their shadowy existence), and the other townsfolk settled into either their houses or headed to the warm, fire-lit tavern to pass the afternoon away.

Tobi was a young dwarf, having lived over a hundred years, he was considered a young adult by any human standard. He had a neatly braided brown beard and a short, stalky build, much like his ancestors who used to mine subfloure up in the mountains. Given the fact that he was a dwarf and a bit out of his element, historically speaking, when he bought the tavern he had a subfloor installed behind the bar that brought him up to the height of everyone else who entered. He would go on and on to patrons about how this was the best way to serve them, but in reality he just wanted to fit in. It also made it so none of his employees could go behind the bar very easily, and that was just fine with him that they keep out.

“Ay! Thor!” he yelled across the bar to his bar maid, Thora. “Three drinks here for them folks outside!”

Thora, a dark-skinned woman in her mid-twenties, looked up from the table where she was currently serving an ale to a dark stranger. “Catch you later, tall and broody,” she said to the hooded man sitting at the table as she made her way over to the bar. Her green skirt billowed around her ankles as she moved, her work smock following the motion of her dress. “I’ll get these right out to them, Andre.” She said to Tobi, using the endearing word that meant ‘father’ in her native tongue.

Thora had come to work for Tobi when he found her living on the street as a very young girl. Her family had been killed in a raid by Emperor Cosimir’s army, and Tobi brought her into his care after he caught her trying to steal bread from his tavern. She started by helping him clean the floors and restock ale, but as she got old enough, she started to remember orders and deliver beverages and food to customers. Thora made it a habit to work every day of her life, against Tobi’s suggestions to take some days off. Unfortunately for Thora, she knew nothing else but work.

Grabbing the drinks, Thora set them on her wooden tray and headed out the swinging tavern doors. The bright sun blinded her for a moment before she gathered her barring and headed to the tall standing table occupied by the only outside customers. Three regulars she was used to serving often, Lena, Mathias, and Osric.

She could see they were in the middle of a heated discussion, so approached carefully so as not to disrupt them and began quietly serving the drinks around them as they spoke.

“We had just gotten some new dissertations in on a wagon from Baeville,” said Mathias, the town healer. His long, pointy nose and spectacles were unmistakable, making him a familiar sight in town. He often received good-natured jests about a possibility of goblin ancestry from friends, though he paid them no mind. Dressed in his usual bright-red, intricately detailed tunic, Mathias carried an assortment of herbs and remedies in pouches strapped to his belt, a true symbol of his role. Despite his larger size, he often seemed out of place when standing next to others, his rugged features softened only by his bushy beard and the ever-present satchel on his back, brimming with plants and tools of his trade. “I was hoping to find something that could help me figure out what those strange bumps are that are plaguing that poor little Meeko boy.”

Standing next to the man was the tall, slender potato farmer, Osric. He was always in town around lunchtime to refuel for lunch and restock on oil for his torches. Being the owner of a few fields outside of town, he saw it as his duty to work through the shadowy evening and make sure his work for the day got finished. His face and hands covered in dirt, as they always were, he pulled nervously at the collar of his shirt at the sound of what Mathias was telling them. “Nothing like Cosimir’s Scourge, I hope?” He bent down a little so he was closer to Mathias’ height and whispered, “Knowing that old bastard he’d love to bring that damn plague back and drive us all underground. Stop all the rebellion once and for all.”

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Mathias waved his hand, “Nah. Nothing like that. From what I read it was some kind of weasel pox. Boy has likely been wandering around the woods too much.”

Across the table the elf, Lena, threw him a dirty look. Her old, wrinkled face wrinkled even more as she glared at him. Mathias withdrew a bit, because she was a formidable form. Standing taller than even Osric, she towered above everyone else in town. She would often come into town to sell her goods that she hunted and gathered from the nearby forest where she lived. Her potions were a hot item not just in town, but throughout the land. Much like everything in her life, her clothes were handmade, died a light lavender color from some flowers she had gathered in the woods. She was often found taking a break from her stall at the noon hour with Mathias and Osric, her two closest neighbors to the woods, as they lived on that edge of town.

Glancing back at Lena nervously, Mathias continued. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing out there. You’re an expert!” This seemed to lighten the expression on her face, and she brushed strands of her white hair out of her face and continued to listen.

“Anyways,” Mathias kept on, “I was reading in my rooftop study, enjoying the weather, when a crazy light came down from the mountaintop. Seemed to light up the whole sky! It was an eerie green. Never seen anything like it before. Sent a chill right down my spine.”

Lena cleared her throat to speak in her slow, rhythmic tone. “The woods were full of a strange wind last night as well. Normally it comes from the valley, but last night it was coming through from the southeast. An icy chill that was not of this season.” Mathias nodded at her, indicating he had felt the change in temperature as well.

Osric straightened up to his full height. “The armies were meant to reach Fluore in the coming days. Perhaps they have reached the end of their mission? For better or for worse...”

Thora overheard this as she was starting to walk away from the table, and her ears perked up. The rebel armies of the kingdoms had been waging war to free the land from Cosimir’s harsh reign for the last three years. It had finally come where they had freed the kingdoms and were making a final assault on Cosimir’s near-impenetrable stronghold of Mt. Floure.

“Could be,” said Mathias, cocking his head to the side. “I heard rumors they were still a week out. Hard to tell as they were approaching from the west. If they did reach the peak last night, they got blasted to hell by that damn dark mage. That light lit up the whole sky!”

Now Thora turned back around to face them and join in the conversation. “That crazy lightening last night? I didn’t see it direct, but it sure lit up the square while I as out here sweepin’ the deck. The whole place bathed in green. Never seen anything like it.”

Osric shook his head. “So one way or another, it’s likely over now. Hard to believe. Feels like it’s been thirteen years, not three. The war’s been hell on the farm. Cosimir’s goons raiding to feed that damn army. It was a blessed day when Eli and the others drove them out and headed north to free the lumber mills.”

“Agreed,” Lena chimed in. “With the Dungeon Lords free to make their own decisions on shipments, my Moonshade potion exports have been in such high demand, I can’t keep up. I keep raising my prices, but the demand just isn’t dying down. Guess that happens when you need a lot of healing due to the war.”

All of their heads turned as the tavern doors swung open. They all dropped their gaze as Tobi came out to greet them. It was rare that he would exit the tavern and his raised floor. He looked up at all of them and opened his arms. “How are the drinks my friends? Gossiping about that crazy light last night? It’s all anyone inside can talk about.” He turned to Thora, “People in here waiting on some drinks, Thor. I can’t keep up by myself!”

Thora gave a slight curtsy. “Yes, Andre. Right away.” She headed back inside and Tobi made his way over to the table that towered over his head.

He stood back a bit so he could see his patrons as he spoke. “Bit of a shady fella in a gray cloak inside. Said he came from the mountains last night. Heard all kinds of weird noises after the light hit. Not natural, whatever happened up there. I fear we came out the worst on it.”

Mathis held up his hands to calm him. “Don’t be so negative, my young friend. Cosimir the Eternal was pretty old and held together by all sorts of dark spells. The light could have simply been the dark magic escaping as Eli blasted him to dust. We’ll have to wait for official messengers to be sure.”

Tobi nodded, but also said, “You always call me young, good healer, but you know we’re about the same age, yeah?”

Mathias narrowed his eyes behind his spectacles to focus in on Tobi closer. “Ahh, I always forget how dwarfs age so much slower than us humans. You’re lucky you still look so young, next to an old wrinkled goblin-face like me!”

This sent a laugh across the four of them. Lena even gave a slight chuckle. “Either way, I always want to think on the positive side of things. Even if Cosimir did win, we still have the rest of the army as well as the Dungeon Lords to keep the campaign moving forward. The most that this should affect us is a minor flux in our economy until things get back in order again. Graeton is much too small to matter too much to either side, or to be involved in any serious way.”

As he said this a swell of birds rose into the sky from the forest a short ways away. They all looked at the trees, seeing an odd rustling.

“The army?” asked Osric, his body stark still, except for his slightly shaking hands.

“Which army?” asked Tobi, wishing he was back at his bar where his axe was strapped to the underside, waiting for trouble.

“Too small of a commotion to be an army,” Lena said simply.

“Then what the…” Mathias began, before he was cut off by screams of people on the outter edge of town.

People began running back towards them, away from the stirring in the woods. They turned and watched them fleeing towards large church that towered over the square, running inside for sanctuary when they reached it. The four all looked at each other, wondering if they should run, when the cause of the commotion burst out onto the town square.

A big beast with a large furry head was charging towards people, anyone it could find. Mathias found it odd that it didn’t appear to be trying to attack them. It was walking on two legs, reaching it’s arms out as if pleading to people. When it was close enough they could hear it speak in the common tongue. “Help! What happened to me! Help me!”

As everyone cleared the square, the beast stopped it’s gaze on the four standing at the tall tavern table, the only ones who didn’t seem to be running away. It began charging over towards them. Mathias adjusted his glasses to make sure he was seeing things correctly. It was the large head of a lion set atop a human-esque body. It was wearing a blue tunic and brown pants. The four braced themselves as the creature drew closer.

“What the fuck is that?” Tobi screamed at the others as he pulled a dagger from his boot, bracing for the beast’s impact.