Following your success at the goblin caves you enjoyed some celebrity among the locals especially at having saved the young boy Orin. Some did not care much for your newfound fame notably a unit from another company fostered by Lord Keorse a much more "militant" even brutal leader. A group of his men accosted Eira and were planning beating her to "put her in her place" when the party came to her aid. You fought off the attackers and Jean, remembering the brutality he experienced in the past went so far as to actually kill one of the attackers. They quickly lost what fight they had and you were all rounded up by MPs. After a little over a week in custody you are brought before Lord Gerald Highdrake, your patron. He is to determine your fate but it becomes very clear he is distracted and doesn't even know your crimes. You spot on his desk a copy of the "S" symbol from the caves and prompt him, thinking it will curry favor to remind him of your success. He is startled and quickly ushers his guards out and speaks with you in private. He heard nothing of this in the reports of your deeds. It turns out this same symbol has been used in harassing his daughter Miriam. She is recently returned from training to be cleric of the DayStar in hopes of losing her attacker but the harassment continues here even in her private quarters. At a loss for options, Lord Highdrake opts to send his daughter into hiding with Tronc, Kovacs and Jean as protectors. They are to blend in in whatever way possible, he suggests posing as adventurers since you look the part. The official story is that you fled custody and Miriam is said to have quietly returned to her schooling. En route to Fallcrest you happen upon a group of kobolds attacking a wagon at dusk. You manage to save the farmers and note the kobolds have covered themselves with white claw prints on their persons and their gear. Once in Fallcrest you spend some time settling into the town. It is a small farming community and not much happens here. They grow crops for the fortress. There is not much work to be had but eventually you are approached by the sheriff. He has heard of your work on the road and asks that you investigate the kobold threat. They have appeared in recent months and these white-handed kobolds are making their presence known. You accept and track the kobolds from the site of the attack on the wagon. It leads to a large rundown old mansion on a hill. The house itself is in ruins but you find a trapdoor leading down.... it reveals a series of rooms/tunnels populated by the same kobolds with white claw markings. The temperature steadily drops as you progress through the rooms, bypass a couple traps (by setting them off) and defeat a number of kobolds including several armed with home-made contraptions, a well equipped fighter with a strange white shield and a Kobold Sorcerer you find the secret entrance to a deeper and even colder cave. Here you come face to face with the patron of the kobold group, a white dragon wyrmling! The arrogant young dragon assumes you are there to join it's cause but is quick to attack as you try to position yourselves while distracting it with talk. A couple ice mephits burst from their hiding and attack as well. The cold of the dragons breath and the mephits attacks are hard to overcome and Jean was knocked unconscious but Tronc was oddly less affected. In the end Kovacs ran up an icy stalagmite and leaped onto the dragon as it flew and pummeled it into death. The group collected their treasures and opted to stay here for the time being to rest and recover. Eira Eira was kept behind at the fort to be the public "face" of the crimes. She was officially/publicly discharged from the militia and left in the stocks for 4 days. Then she entered into the service of Lord Highdrake to "atone for her part in the crimes". Unofficially she is still in the militia (as is the rest of the party). Eira is tasked with discovering more about the "S" symbol and who could be leaving it. She starts he search returning to the goblin caves where you first encountered it. As she travels, Eira gets the feeling she is being watched and the woods are somehow more...sinister. She enters the caves and find it is populated by a small group of kobolds. They attack her and fearing for her life she transforms into an elk and beats the shit out of them. One escapes and flees the caves. Eira notes the kobolds have similar but not identical "S" marking on their persons. She deduces the differences are based on the racial differences (the kobolds made their own marks, the goblins their own). Outside the caves Eira notes a figure in the woods to the east and hears a faint voice calling for help. She investigates and finds the body of the last kobold. The voice and figure draw her deeper into the woods where she is attacked by a series of plant/stick creatures. Each time the voice is thankful. Eventually she finds a large once beautiful tree that is now rotting and festering. At it's base is a slight figure that looks to be "ill". In it's boughs is a horrid creature with a beautiful voice. The harpy asks if the "little elk" has come to heed the call as well. "Can't you hear it little elk? Seether calls to us. It makes us come and it ....taints us." After an extended combat with the harpy Eira drives the harpy off, though she vows revenge. Eira realizes the figure on the ground is a dryad bound to the tree that is now sick and twisted. The dryad Laylia repeats the message from the harpy. She heard Seether's call for wickedness and being bound to teh forest could not leave. Seethers call was persistent and sometimes overwhelming. It...broke her and she and her tree became twisted. The plant creatures Eira fought were spawned from her own dark dreams. With no way she could heal Laylia Eira did as she was asked and mercifully put her to rest. As she examined the tree, she saw grown into the bark different "S" symbols. Hurrying back to the fort Erira arrived in the early hours of the morning. She cleaned up and ate before reporting to Lord Highdrake. She presented herself to the guard and was directed to his private study, where he had spent the night. Entering, Eira found his body on the floor in a large pool of coagulated blood. The top of his head had been ripped off and his brain ripped out of his skull. On the floor next to him scrawled in his own blood was the "S" symbol. Eira examined the body and the paperwork at his desk and found that Highdrake was researching the Fractured Lands and the Old Kingdom within it. All his books and those that had been rifled through on the shelves dealt with science and energy theory of the Old Kingdom. Eira was interrupted by a guard at the door screaming "What have you done? You've killed Lord Highdrake!" He started yelling for help and pulled out his weapon. At a loss, Eira tried to explain briefly but then quickly scooped up what papers and books she was near and jumped out the window. Guards burst from the door as she ran and were closing in on her. She transformed into an elk once again and escaped into the forest with guards pursuing on horseback.