Greetings, stranger, my name is Tock. That is what you may call me today. My friends know me as their unstable gnome wizard companion, but everything I do serves a purpose. Even if I do not know that purpose yet, my lady Sehanine does not let me down. My orders come to me daily through a deck of cards. Some days you may know me as Lola, some days I am vengeful and torturous, others I am quite calm and carry out executions without a hint of emotion. These are the faces I have shown in the town of Woodwell this week.
Woodwell, a decent sized town, hosts the market bazaar this week. My companions and I have come here seeking to purchase some gear and possibly earn back some funds by enjoying the drama of a commercial hub. We had not seen much action, Woodwell being a pretty clean town and well maintained by the dragonborn guards. I joined my friends this day as Lola, for that is what Sehanine wished of me. Enjoying a sparkling wine while the halfling all but drown in ale, we sat discussing gorgeous men in the tavern. One man in particular could not take his eyes off the group. Our tiefling comrade decided to confront this man, for he looked, many times, as if he wanted to speak to us.
“His daughter has been taken,” was the official story. The man, a merchant traveling between Woodwell and Monolith, had been attacked by bandits, knocked out and when he woke, his goods and daughter were gone and his wagon was in pieces. He offers good money to have his daughter returned in any condition, and the goods are of no importance.
Good money, good adventure, we accept the offer and make our way through the city to search for leads. I approach many men at the bazaar dressed in my best gown.
“On my way to Monolith, dear, you wouldn’t happen to know of any trouble on the road. Pretty little thing like myself can’t risk being jumped by hoodlums.” They warned that I should stick near the towns, because the local law was not patrolling the main road as much while the bazaar was in full swing. The guards were staying close to deal with thieves and angry customers.
I met up with the halfling and dragonborn to share what I had found, but the tiefling had not yet returned. Hours later, he finally joined us with some story that he had followed a lead to a whore house, but did not find the girl. Likely story!
We decided our next course of action would be to purchase a wagon and act as decoys to draw out bandits. We first needed to purchase a wagon. I went with Iceborn the tiefling warlord, to inspect some wagons at the bazaar. We found a cheap looking setup, but the old man was asking a ridiculous amount. Iceborn attempted to talk him down while I cast an illusion on the wheel to make it appear as though we would have to have it replaced. “Think what we’ll have to pay out of our own pockets to have this wheel replaced!” The old man was embarrassed and dropped his price considerably. I did feel bad for him, but we needed the wagon. 10 gold sounded like a steal, even for an old wagon and mule.
Cherry, the halfling rogue, and I rode in the front, under the guise of two tiny merchant women alone with a great mass of wealth from the bazaar returning to Monolith. Though it was a new day, I would still need to maintain my appearance as Lola for a bit longer. Iceborn and Kriv, the dragonborn fighter, hid in the back of the wagon, ready to attack any bandits who didn’t notice the horns and tail underneath the blanket.
We traveled for a while drawing no attention, until Cherry spotted the wrecked merchant wagon just off the road. We stopped and went to inspect. Bits of wood and nothing more, just some kobold tracks leading off into the woods. How strange that is! Kobolds don’t usually come this far south. In fact, aside from the dragonborn order, dragons and their kin are practically never seen in this kingdom. They must be working for someone, I imagine at this point.
The men come to see why we have stopped and are naturally as surprised as we were to see the tracks. We must go after them soon, but the mule and wagon would not be able to make this journey. After a bit of discussion, I suggest we sell them to some merchants traveling the main road. It would be a fine way to get some money back and not leave the poor mule to be eaten alive come nightfall.
After a while, a man and his son ride up and hail us. Iceborn offers to sell the wagon claiming 30gp is the going rate for wagons in Woodwell, and that 25 would be a bargain. The old man is baffled that prices have gone up, but his son seems determined to have his very own mule and wagon. They go back and forth about responsibility and Ice drops his price to 20gp. The man makes a deal with his son, that he may use his own money to buy the mule and wagon, but the son only has 15gp. “Very well, your boy seems to have his heart set on following in the family business, so for him, I’ll make a special deal. 15gp and the mule and wagon are his.” The boy’s eyes light up and he pays all the money in his pouch. He hugs the mule around the neck with joy. The farmer offers us a ride, but when we turn him down he begins to question whether this wagon we had just sold his son was ours or something we had stolen. Ice cautioned him to be on the lookout for bandits and the two travelers quickly headed for Woodwell.
I shucked my gown and cleaned my face. I drew a card, Tock once again, this time as a torturer. We trekked through thick brush and deep mud until Cherry noticed something ahead in the bushes. She claimed that it must have been a raccoon and my hungry friends began making plans for lunch. I made my way to the front to see if I could spot the critter only to see a larger humanoid bolt up a tree. Just as I turned to tell the others, a crossbow bolt struck me in the shoulder. “B#%&!” I snarled and slipped into ether. Ice and Kriv made haste up the tree, Cherry searched the area for more scouts and I made my way to the base of the tree to keep out of view. A grappling match waged between Ice and the scout who eventually lost his balance and fell the the ground. The men jumped down to restrain him, but he resisted, up until the point where I reappeared with a dagger placed into his ear. “Stop!” I barked at him. He raised his hands. “You shot me. That wasn’t very nice.” He stopped resisting and we began to question him about his dealings with the bandits and where they made camp. He seemed unwilling to help but my dagger reminded him that he would be an awful scout with one ear. Not killing him was not a good enough deal for some information, but money sounded a bit better. He began to be more reasonable.
He would guide us to the cave where the bandits were keeping the girl, and we would pay him to leave and bother us no more or so we claimed. Of course none of us trusted the other. We would not kill him because he would be useful as a guide, and he would comply because the other option was that we kill him now anyway.
Further into the forest we traveled until night drew near. I took first watch. The scout begged to sleep in a tree, but this was simply impermissible. He attempted to sleep on the ground. My watch went by without incident and I soon took some rest. Sometime in the night we lost the scout. I hear Cherry had become quite hostile with him and he fled. I drew a new card. The Hangman. There would be death, but that’s my job.
Along the way we came across three kobolds patrolling the forest. It was a short battle. My deadly magic took two, while Cherry made quick work of the third.
More tracks led us finally to a cave. Two kobolds sat at the entrance warming themselves by a fire. Cherry had a brilliant idea to lure just the two of them to us so as not to alert anyone further into the cave. She took a moment to set up a tripwire that might make the fight even easier. Quickly, she rushed in, hurled a javelin and ran back to the place we were hiding. The kobolds followed, but stopped just short of the trap. I stepped in and blasted one to bits and the other fled into the cave as he suddenly found himself outnumbered. We raced after him and took him down just inside the cave before he had time to alert others.
Close now, but in the dark, I cast light on a javelin I had picked up from a previous kobold. Up ahead the sound of water. Fast water rushing through the cave. It looked clear, but the current seemed very strong. The smaller people could not cross without help, so we climbed onto the backs of our larger friends. Cherry held tight to Ice’s horns and they waded through the water with no problem. Kriv had taken me on his back and was making his way across when something under the water snapped and the current snatched me away. I thought I was a goner for sure, but caught myself at the opening of a hole. I looked in to see sharp points meant to tear me to bits as the force of the water pushed me through. Ice reached out with his axe and I grabbed on as tight as I could. He pulled me to safety. At the same time, Kriv managed to free himself and catch a breath. Ice quickly reached his axe back out for the near-drowned dragonborn and dragged him out of the water also. I lay on the ground for a moment. The only light coming from my javelin that was wedged in the trap several feet under the water. I dried out my deck of cards and pulled myself together. I cast light on a spare javelin and in a few moments we moved forward.
Cherry heard something further up the tunnel, but saw nothing. Suddenly a giant bat swooped in and lashed at us with a long, barbed tail. Our warriors sprung into action, wailing on the bat each time they could get near it. I projected a high-pitched screech into its ears to try and confuse it. Bloodied and in a state of panic, the bat fled across the water and hid in a corner to lick its wounds. In no mood to cross the water for some ordinary bat, we continued on. Hoping we had not caused such a ruckus that the bandits might have already done something to the girl.
Cherry could see three more kobolds and a man ahead, but she could hear the girl’s muffled voice further inside the cave. Glad that she was still alive, but fearing they might kill her if we just rushed in to fight, we decided to try to get the attention of one or two at a time. I imitated the sound of large rats, hoping they might consider it a minor annoyance and go to take care of a simple pest problem. The kobolds began barking orders at the human who eventually came alone to investigate. As he rounded the corner, he saw Ice readying his great axe and shouted “OI! DEMON!” We must have all been worried at this point that the others in the cave had gone into a frenzy, because we were missing desperately. Finally, we silenced the man and listened. The kobolds had done nothing yet, but were debating the fate of the girl whose evil blood they should have spilt already.
Ice asked me to mimic the man’s voice and try to call the kobolds out. “That’s the biggest demon I’ve ever seen, you should come see this!”
“Demon, leave it, get back here,” they barked.
“No, I can’t, I need help, it’s huge,” I said in return.
“How huge?”
“As big as a cow!”
“We’re screwed. Kill the girl!” snapped a kobold.
We jumped frantically to save her, and our movements became clumsy and rushed. Swinging swords and axes wildly and throwing spells to no avail, somehow the rogue kept her cool enough to take down a kobold. Then with one great swing the fighter decapitated the other two. There was a man at the back of the cave with the girl and all we could see was a cutting motion. We raced in to see him cutting her roped and raise his hands.
Scared for his life he begged to just run free and be no bother to us. He didn’t want to work for the kobolds and pointed to the chest that he had been hired to obtain. He claimed the girl wasn’t even part of the deal and he never wanted to kill her.
We let him go and he ran out of the cave, accompanied by the sound of the large bat squealing at him. The chest was quite easy for Cherry to pick open, and inside it, we found six large eggs. Larger than kobolds might have, but definitely reptilian. Dragonborn give birth to live young, so this was something we hadn’t seen. I was naturally very pleased with the discovery, because there had not been dragons here in all my life. Everyone knew they still existed, but it was more legend and warning. We helped the girl up and she explained that neither she nor her father knew what they had been transporting, that they had just been paid to move this chest and the kobolds wanted it.
We decided not to tell the man that we were keeping the eggs. When we brought his daughter back, he was just happy she was alive and didn’t even ask about the chest. The girl asked him about the eggs and he was stunned. He turned to us and Ice simply said, “They have been destroyed. It’s taken care of.” The man turned to Kriv to confirm this and Kriv nodded. “No more courier work for us!” the man said. He paid us for our service and we parted ways.
We retired for the evening and as I lay resting, I drew a new card. The Broken One.
