This adventure begins like many others. A group of friends sitting in a tavern, unknowing of what is to come. However, before that point this group of four friends had other business to attend to.
Vorroth Erragar was wrapping up his day in the forest outside the city called Lastvault. He had just shot a buck with his longbow, skilfully taking down this beast of a deer and stringing it up to a tree limb to process it down. While Vorroth was processing his kill, his mind wandered to what he would be drinking and eating tonight. Perhaps he could bring a slab of venison to the Giant Cat tavern – a place him and his friends met every week to catch up. If anyone happened to spot Vorroth while he was pondering and processing his deer, they would have an odd sight indeed. After all, it is not every day that one would find themselves face to face with a humanoid dragon, let alone one that was civilized and processing a deer so deftly!
In a dark alley-way shaded by the towering residential buildings in Lastvault, a tall, slim gray-haired man pushed a wheelbarrow along. He had managed to walk right under the securities nose, Thormond thought to himself as he walked towards his destination. He never asked what he was delivering, after all – what kind of smuggler would Thormond Wynrip be if he couldn’t smuggle a wheelbarrow through the city. Thormond made it to his destination and left the wheelbarrow covered with rough-spun cloth, nestled between a chimney and some crates. The wheelbarrow didn’t look out of place in the least. Satisfied, Thormond went to pick up his payment and then head over to the Giant Cat tavern.
Wandering the streets of the Jade district of Lastvault, Morizur J’kleth felt right at home yet out of place all at the same time. Many half-orcs worked and lived in the Jade district, and that made Morizur feel at home. There was only one thing out of place here. These half-orcs weren’t of the J’kleth tribe. Supposing that was a good thing though, because Morizur is an outcast from his own tribe, he wore a toothy smile, thinking about his family back in the Ruggidlend. He knew he was an outcast and for good reason, but Morizur couldn’t help but to miss his tribe, and they held a special part of his heart. With a shrug Morizur left the Jade district to meet his friends at the Giant Cat tavern.
A group of people gathered around Istonet Jhalyr, an elf of dark skin, silver hair and dark eyes. He was telling a priest of some god that the god the priest worshipped wasn’t real. That the only real presence ‘above’ or ‘below’ is the void. This was not a popular opinion in the least, and the priest was becoming very flustered. The group gathering around Istonet were none the more pleased. Knowing that danger was imminent, Istonet began looking for a way out of this situation, while still telling the priest about his false god. It just so happened that at that point Morizur was walking by. Istonet smirked and hollered for Morizur to come to his aid, knowing full well that Morizur would lay down his life to protect a friend. With a glare and a yell, Morizur sent the crowd running and the priest crying. Istonet laughed and reminded the priest again about the false god and his insignificance. Istonet joined Morizur as they walked to the Giant Cat tavern.
Istonet and Morizur approached the Giant Cat tavern, on the outskirts of Lostvault. This part of the city is usually pretty noisy, as the market is nearby. People trying to make a living here are constantly bustling about doing errands or setting up stalls to sell their goods, making for a noisy environment. It is a pleasant, alive noise that really shows what civilization is. People working together to live and provide for their family. Istonet enjoys the noise, but Morizur could do without the constant annoyances of children running about here and there. Soon enough the pair was at the doorway to the Giant Cat tavern, made obviously clear by the almost childlike drawing of a large cat face on the wooden sign hanging from the awning. Despite being in such a noisy part of Lostvault, once inside the tavern it was a pleasant roar outside, not that dissimilar to the crashing of the ocean on a warm summer night. The Giant Cat tavern is a perfect little place to grab a bite to eat for this group of friends because of numerous reasons that amalgamate together so nicely. Firstly, it is a dimly lit tavern, so Istonet doesn’t have to shield his eyes from bright lights. The owner and her husband are both half-breeds which makes Morizur happy. If they can be successful in a city where only the full-breeds are on top, maybe he can find a place like this one day for himself. For Thormond, the Giant Cat tavern is a place where he can avoid his job as a smuggler, and can enjoy a meal without questions of how this aging man got his money. Lastly, Vorroth feels at home in this tavern. Being one of the few dragonkin for at least a thousand miles, pieces of home are hard to come by, and the fireplace in the Giant Cat tavern had draconic scrawlings on the mantel, carved ages ago.
Istonet and Morizur sat at a table while waiting for Thormond and Vorroth to show up. Istonet took out a small book from a pouch that hung at his side and began writing some basic words down such as “back, be, about, down” and a number more. This is to teach Morizur how to read, something that Istonet believes to be important, and because Morizur cares so deeply about his friends, he tries his best to learn, even though it is incredibly difficult. After a while of attempting to teach Morizur, Thormond walks into the tavern and takes a seat with Morizur and Istonet.
“How was your day Thormond?” Istonet asks politely,
“It was good, and it will be better when Vorroth gets here and we can have our meals and drink. Care to play a game of sevens with me until then?” Thormond responds.
“Not with your dice, not after you cleaned me out last month. I had to work at a brothel ‘cleansing’ the people when they left.” Istonet shuddered, followed by Morizur laughing and saying
“They let you cleanse them?! Bahaha! That’s hilarious, don’t they know you don’t have any gods giving you divine power?” Istonet smirked
“Clearly not, and the gods aren’t real. I didn’t cure some of them, just because they recognized me and refused my services based on their belief that I can’t do anything without divine favor. The presence of the void is enough to let me feel my own power and cure people that way.”
This banter continued for a while. Morizur knows he isn’t the smartest, but he is wise enough to keep his mouth shut when Istonet starts ranting about the falsehood of gods. Thankfully the patrons of the Giant Cat tavern are used to Istonet’s claims and pay no mind. Everyone at the table was too busy focusing on Istonet that they didn’t realize Vorroth come in with a large package of meat and walk back into the kitchen. Shortly after he came back out and sat down at the table, and only after the tavern-keeper brought out four plates of venison steak, bread, and ale did anyone notice the large dragonkin at the table.
“Oh, Vorroth, I didn’t see you come in. How was your hunt?” Morizur asked while he had a piece of meat hanging out of his mouth and a hunk of bread in hand.
“You’re eating it. My kill was a beautiful buck.” Vorroth said plainly.
Everyone ate their meal and drank their ale and talked about their week. The things that had happened, the things they had seen or heard about. Nobody dared bring up the past, and the people they had lost. It was time for enjoying each others company and looking forward to next weeks meal together. However – next weeks meal at the Giant Cat tavern was never going to come. In the middle of conversation, Morizur and Istonet notice that the dull roar from outside has hushed. In fact, everything was silent except for the inside of the tavern. Like a cascade, everyone slowly became quiet. This silence was not natural for the city of Lostvault. When the tavern finally fell silent and motionless, everything went dark. The fire in the hearth was snuffed and smoke began to fill the room. The candles stopped burning as if someone blew on them. It was Thormond who stood first and approached the door to the Giant Cat tavern. His party soon followed, each member had a pit in their stomach that reminded them of their past dealings with conflict. The feeling was unwelcome, as it foreshadowed dark events, and they all knew it. Thormond wordlessly opened the door and stepped out into the street, and people were nowhere in sight. A few stray animals were hastily leaving the area, fleeing from something that the party had not yet seen. Moments after the party gathered on the street the ground began to quake, and an explosive sound emanated from the Jade district. It was then that the party noticed people, not standing and staring, or standing by their stalls, but screaming and running away from the explosion. It took every ounce of will that the party could muster to not do the same. Instead of running away, they darted towards the sound, not quite sure who started running towards it first. One thing was clear, there was no way they would abandon one another. People streamed endlessly past the party of four, a pillar of smoke was billowing from the Jade district. It didn’t take long for the party to get into a part of town where there was less people, but when they did, all hell broke loose.
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The scene was pure carnage. The city guards were dead. Blood seemingly seeped out of every pore. A foreign force was piling the bodies into a heap, having a laugh at their triumph over these guards. Thormond could attest to the quality of the city guard, they were well trained, but he was better than they were when it came to smuggling. It shocked him that they were overrun so quickly. With the party standing in the open, the foreign soldiers of black and blue livery got into formation. This would be the first time Thormond, Morizur, Vorroth, and Istonet fought together. Thormond called out for the formation. “Morizur, get in front of me, Vorroth, get to a vantage point and Istonet I need you behind me. Now!” it took only seconds for the party to react, and the foreign soldiers were already advancing. Thormond calmly counted the numbers in a hushed whisper. “One… Two… Three… Four… Five… We can do this.” Istonet unhooked the mace he kept at his side, and raised his shield in a defensive manner towards the approaching soldiers. Vorroth deftly found a few crates he could vault off of to reach a ledge that would give him partial cover and a vantage point on these soldiers. Morizur hoisted his greataxe with one hand and bellowed a loud roar, causing a few of the opposing soldiers to waiver. Thormond unsheathed his dull-gray longsword and leveled it at the soldiers, who were about to be upon the party.
“Captain Fitz, what do we do?” one of the soldiers asked their captain regarding the group that they were approaching.
“Well Miru, we’re gonna attack them and kill them like we did the city guard. We’re under orders to do so, and you know what happens when you don’t follow orders, don’t you?” Fitz warned Miru, the youngest soldier in his squad. After saying that, he stepped closer to the half-orc with the great axe and lunged with his longsword, making a clean hit in the abdomen. Morizur screamed, not in pain but in rage. Without hesitation Miru went to attack this half-orc as well but upon hearing the blood curdling scream of rage he misstepped and swung wide with his sword, nearly hitting his captain in the process. Istonet immediately broke formation and attacked Miru with his mace, clobbering the side of his head, but otherwise not doing much damage. “Damn, this mace is too heavy!” Istonet cried. Morizur stepped back and cleaved with his axe at Fitz, managing to go hit for hit, slicing through the chain shirt Fitz had on underneath his livery, bringing the captain to his knees clutching at his stomach.
“Damn half-orc beast!” Fitz swore at Morizur, who continued his angry onslaught, looking at the man that missed him previously.
One of the other soldiers called out “Alexander, get the captain back on his feet! I’ll take the dragonkin rushing towards the roof!” the soldier named Jon called out. Alexander immediately held out his hands, and they began to glow a bright white, and he muttered a prayer, sealing the wound on the captain’s stomach, but not much else. Jon rushed toward the dragonkin that was attempting to clamber onto a ledge, and realized his mistake as a handaxe sunk deep into his left shoulder.
“How did you-?” Jon asked as he fell to the floor in shock. His body began convulsing as Vorroth finished clambering to the ledge and made a mental note to grab his handaxe back from the cadaver when the fight was finished. He righted himself and took aim with his longbow, aiming directly at the one soldier that had not yet done anything and stayed in the rear. Thormond told Morizur to restrain the captain, and lunged towards Miru with his longsword leveled at Miru’s throat. It sank effortlessly into the flesh. The light in Miru’s eyes faded and his body went limp, falling to the ground off of the sword. The soldier in the back immediately upon seeing Miru’s death ripped off his own helmet, displaying his orcish heritage.
“Tath liked Miru, and you killed Miru!” Tath yelled, causing Istonet to retreat back behind Morizur and Thormond. Tath charged forward with his sword raised, targeting Thormond. He pushed his captain out of the way to reach Thormond, but in the process was caught in a wild swing from Morizur’s greataxe. Despite the massive damage dealt to his leg, Tath continued and tackled Thormond, due to his damaged leg he wasn’t able to swing his sword.
Captain Fitz assessed the battle as he’d been trained to do. Quickly and efficiently he noted that Miru was down and the numbers were even, four versus four. However, despite his own squad’s abilities, these civilians had the tactical advantage and were putting up a greater fight than the city guard did in this district. Smirking, Fitz realized that Tath was raging, which could tip the battle, and what is more, he realized that Tath was on the ground with the civilian’s leader. Fitz came back to his senses and slashed again at this half-orc that just hit Tath, his aim seemed true but bounced off this half-orc’s beat up dagger that hung at his hip.
“You have the luck of a dwarf you bastard!” Fitz cursed. Istonet reached forward and spoke a word, causing Morizur’s wound to close up while he was violently flailing his greataxe around. Morizur responded to Fitz’s insult with “I am not a bastard, you’re a bastard!” and cleaved again with his axe, finding purchase deep into the captain’s spine.
“Alive Morizur! Alive!” Thormond yelled between thrashings on the ground. Alexander noticed that his captain had taken damage to his spine, and that he was not trained to deal with such injuries, so instead he focused on taking down the half-orc that dealt so much damage to his captain. Muttering a prayer, Alexander caused his sword to glow and launched an attack at the half-orc finding purchase in his chest, sinking deep. Morizur fell to his knees, and in the process grabbed hold of Alexander and headbutted him, knocking him unconscious. On the rooftop Vorroth gambled his shot at Thormond and Tath. Letting loose an arrow from his longbow, it sunk deep into Tath’s back. Tath let out a loud roar and slammed Thormond to the ground again. This was what Thormond was waiting for, a distraction, a bit of recklessness, any slip up would spell the end for this assailant. Thormond broke free and drew the daggers from his sleeves, slamming them point first into Tath’s ears. Due to the damage Thormond had already taken, one of the daggers missed and did nothing, but one dagger pierced the head and killed Tath. Aside from the heavy breathing everything went quiet again.
Istonet rushed to Morizur’s aid and withdrew the blade from his chest, and drew upon his personal pool of mana to bring Morizur back from the edge of death. Vorroth lept from the ledge of the building and ran over to the group.
“We should get inside, there are more soldiers coming, and I don’t know about you but I don’t have a death wish. Not today at least.” Vorroth said with fear in his voice.
“Let’s bring the captain with us. Vorroth, grab his legs, Istonet, stabilize him. Morizur, I know you just went through a lot, but I need you to help bring this man into a shop. I’ll unlock a door to a warehouse. Follow me.” Thormond instructed, and everyone wondered about this man they call their friend.
“Just what does he do to make him so skilled at this?” they wondered as they wandered off the street and into a locked warehouse.