Stupid dragon! If it had never returned I’d still be living like a king atop my pile of gold. Well his pile of gold technically, but still he left and didn't return for years! What was I supposed to do? Just sit and stare at that oh-so-massive hoard of gold? I think not! Anyways he should be singing my praise! In his absence I grew his hoard for him. Kobolds continued to give tribute to the mighty “Grondis, Eye of the Tempest,” I made up the title and don’t get me wrong, Grondis is a wonderful name but it needed a bit more flare to really instill fear in my new followers. Instead of praise I was sent out to the savage frontier to finish the job old, “mighty” Grondis could not finish: retrieving the orb that was stolen from him by a group of adventurers. He didn’t even let me keep the small diamond I had used to convince the other kobolds of my affinity to lightning. No matter I would find a way to reacquire that power and much more, and who knows maybe with the help of this orb I can overthrow Grondis and retake what was once mine that was taken from him! And now I find myself standing in front of the Stuck Pig Inn awaiting on the other members of my party to arrive. I had browsed the local rumor board and not seeing any mention of this orb I was searching for, I allowed myself to lean towards a slightly more selfish job. A local man with some wealth was in need of adventurers to go in search of his daughter. In return he would provide each adventurer with a horse and more importantly 50 gold pieces, just enough to maybe resecrue the diamond that Grondis had denied to me when I had originally set out on this quest for him. Dex, the purple tiefling was the first to arrive. Without so much as a single sound she appeared out of what appeared to be thin air, or I might have been unaware of her approach as I was daydreaming of the riches of my hoard. In stark contrast, Invictus, the triton paladin, made plenty of noise as he approached. He made a mention of a King Icarus so I’m thinking that he must be pretty high in his society of he is rubbing elbows with royalty. Regardless, I knew who I would choose to stand behind should I ever feel threatened! Next there was Narc, the lizardfolk. By his appearance I would classify him as some sort of survivalist, a handy type to have on any adventure into the wild. Finally our final member was a holy man by the name of Brynnan. A wholesome type which, after browsing the population of Hope, seems pretty rare in Hope. With a common purpose driving us, we began our journey North, or so we thought! I guess I was just too entertaining with my array of lightning tricks that I must have distracted Narc. Before we knew it we found ourselves not North but West of hope at the edge of the renowned mausoleum. We had all head stories of this place and while most of us elected to remain towards the edge of the crater, Dex pushed in to investigate a statue of a dwarf. FInding nothing of value we left that accursed place and made camp a ways off. That night an opportunity arose as I stood watch with Invictus. He addressed me as a dragon, and for a brief moment I saw an opportunity to regain some of the power that I had lost. In the end however, I decided to be honest with the man who might very well save me in the near future. I told him about the dragon and my quest. Turns out he too seeks an item found somewhere in this terrible place, and while I see myself as an imposter, don’t get me wrong I was really good at pretending to be the dragon but no where close in power, he is confident that one day, with the right help, might be able to overthrow this dragon. Taken back from his sentiments, I reassured him that I would also keep and eye out for this song he was searching for. The next morning we awoke well rested and with a positive attitude and hope we set off to the North East trying to correct our course. We were successful and along the way past two tall obelisks we were set upon by some sort of sentient fungi-type creatures, and while we were successful in felling our foes, it was a healthy reminder of just how fragile we were out here. Invictus proved to be most valuable in running around and returning the fallen, including myself, to consciousness. I made the right choice in being honest with my companions. As the final fungal creature was slain Brynnan uses a bit of holy magic to return Dex to consciousness. Truly a wholesome character, but alas no good deed goes unpunished especially here. That night as we were resting to recuperate our strength, Brynnan was caught unaware with his pants down so to say by a swarm of snakes. I awoke to his cry of pain, but realizing that it may already be too late to save him, I readied myself to attack should the swarm of snakes continue to advance on our campsite. Turns out that they were most likely defending their home and only attacked poor Brynnan because he got a bit too close to their nest. Once they had cleared away back into their home, we carefully gathered Brynnan’s body and buried it near the campsite. We took his holy amulet as a token to return to those he left behind. Then the most unlikely thing happened. Out of the wilderness strode a bard named singing and playing music. Upon seeing us gatherer solemnly around the fresh grave of our late companion, he offered to sing a song in honor of Brynnan. It seemed like a sweet gesture so we bid him to perform his song, only it seemed to only honor himself and not the fallen Brynnan. I swear inbetween the flickering light of the campfire I saw a murderous look appear on Dex’s face. Despite this setback we were short one member and Azhad volunteered to accompany us for the remainder of the quest. Pressing onward following a set of tracks that Narc had discovered the previous night, we arrived at the site of some ancient ruins. In the distant we could see some sort of large bird in a wooden pen. Dex scouted ahead and when we were given a signal, that Azhad said he understood, we approached. Unfortunately in my haste to catch up to dex, I fell into a pitfall trap taking a rather healthy sum of damage. Fearing enemies nearby, I cast an illusion of a 5 ft boulder and hit within the illusion. Hearing the fighting begin in earnest above I decided that I couldn’t leave my friends up there to fight without any assistance. So calling upon the storm inside of my, I flew out of the pit and cast a thick fog cloud obscuring our group from several of the enemies. What follows is a testament to team work, the dangers of the savage frontier, and the power of bears. After obscuring the bandit’s view with the fog, we managed to eliminate the few kenku, a birdman type creature well rehearsed in mimicry, and a swarm of raven that were on our side of the fog. Just as we though the battle was won, a second wavo of bandits approached. Apparently this group was gambling in the larger building to the North when one of the previously injured and fleeing kenku alerted them to what was happening outside. Using the fog as cover, I attempted to pepper the bandit’s with flames, but as the battle raged on I watched as one by one my companions were felled. The mighty and selfless Invictus rushed head first to the front lines to stabilize the unconscious forms of Azhad and Narc. I lost sight of him at that point as he cast his own fog of cloud to provide himself cover, but a little over fifteen seconds later the cloud was released revealing Icarus’ body having also fallen. Only Dex and I were still standing and my own fog cloud was about to vanish. Alerting Dex to what was about to happen, I dashed into the Eastern room, where we had discovered a bear chained to the back wall. Gambling that the chain would save me, I positioned myself as far away inside the room as I could. Turns out fate did not smile on me this day and the bear charged me and with one claw brought me into unconsciousness. When I awoke, I was back in Hope. According to Dex, after the bear mauled me, he managed to break the chain holding the bear to the wall. Then the furious bear took out its anger on the kenku that had been mistreating it. According to Dex just about every kenku besides the boss made a run for it, terrified of the bear. Only the boss stayed to fight it and ultimately perished and was dragged into the forest by the bear. After the bear left and we were all stabilized, Dex investigated the ruins finding some goods to bring back to Hope to vendor, some axe beaks, and most importantly the daughter of our employer. While Brynnan’s loss was indeed unfortunate and weighs heavy on some of us, our first adventure into the savage frontier was mainly a success. Now I need to hurry up and find a local gem cutter. I need to find a diamond!
