01.002 - "An Infestation of Cultists"

The party, seeing a building full of cultists, attempted to lure out a couple at a time. It did not work, and suddenly the entire group of Guards and Cultists were flooding out of the building. Blak had conjured an illusion that scared off most of the kobolds, and Able, Bismark, and Sir Hector rushed forward to form a front line, while the others (minus one druid who was off doing her own thing) stood back in support roles.

In the middle of the fighting, the filthy druid walked up in the midst of the battle, and began rummaging through her clothes for a bug. Brynne, looking surprised, said “what da fuuuuuuu” while Able started to gag. Bismark, seeing the infestation summoned onto the man beside him, stepped back slightly, disgusted. Gamble, from the bank of the river, simply said "gross" and Brynne, who was standing nearby, turned to Gamble and said "Well tha' was different." Able commenced to gag again, and the battle continued to raged on.

Gamble, excited at the idea of getting to kill humans, started a contest of sorts with Brynne as to who could do it the best, and the arrows and bolts began flying fro the two as they stood beside each other near the edge of the river. Meanwhile, the front line held and cut down many of the enemy before Able was knocked unconscious, but was quickly rejuvenated by Leo. Through the tough battle, The Party wreaked havoc on the band of mercenaries holed up in the mill - eventually capturing one of the Guards.

Several of them attempted to interrogate the guard - first among them being the druid A'postrofae, who demanded he tell her where Frulan was. The guard's eyes widened in recognition of the name, but was too groggy to be able to give much help other than to say that Frulan was in the town. The guard also mentioned about a Raider Camp that had been raiding villages in the greenfields area, and currently has a dragon egg. In an attempt to intimidate more information out of him, Blak walks up and begins licking his sword blade... consequently cutting himself and hopping off muttering “Agh, I cut my tongue!”. Blak and Leo began collecting Kobold horns as trophies.

Captive in tow, The Party made their way back to the tunnel into Greenest Keep, where they found the two guards that Gamble had sold his "potion of courage" to. Matt, the guard, lay there dead in a pool of blood. His companion drunkenly explained to the party how bravely he fought and how they wouldn't have been able to do it without the potion. RIP Matt. Making their way up the tunnel and into the keep, the party finds Governor Nighthill, arm in a sling and a bandage over the left side of his face giving orders to the guards and support staff around. The prisoner is handed over, interrogated some more - primarily by A'postrofae, who continues to demand to know where Frulan is - and the party sits down for a moment.

But only a moment, because an alarm is raised up that "The west sallyport needs defended!" Several of the party rush out to the courtyard, where a pack of kobolds, an acolyte, and a drake have burst in. Siezing the opportunity to strike first, Bismark rushes at the Acolyte, whose hands glowed as he prepared to cast a spell. He yelled "Vee must protect zees house!" and thrust his rapier into the chest of the Acolyte, who promptly dropped to the floor, dead. As the acolyte slumped, however, the drake jumped over his lifeless body and began sinking its teeth into Bismark. Hard. Bismark blacked out, unconscious, and the battle was underway.

The party was able to distract the drake into coming after them as Bismark came to, and took a swing at the drake as it ran off... and whiffed. The drake turned and attacked Able, who also took a vicious bite to the leg, but the drake's teeth seemed to be caught in his armor, allowing Able to use his halberd to break the beast's jaw and hold it while Brynne delivered a killing blow with her mace to its head. Meanwhile, A'postrofae walked out onto the parapet and began squeezing the river water out of her robe, which she then used to cast ice knife - decimating the kobolds below her in the courtyard. The fight was over fairly quickly, but our heroes were now bloodied and tired.

Returning into the tower of the keep, the party sees Nighthill, who is impressed with their work, and is receiving a report from the Castellan Escobert the Red - a well armored dwarf in charge of the guard, who gives Brynne the evil eye every time that she catches his glance. The party overhears that there is still looting going on in the north of town, the sanctuary is still under attack, and that the dragon's attacks on the keep seem to be slowing down.

After learning this information, A'postrofae and Leofinas have a heart to heart where they trade bugs and eat them (A'postrafae eats a lightning bug, Leofinas eats a hellgramite) as a sign of their friendship and willingness to work together to fight this scourge in the land. The rest of the party watches in disgust as they munch on the bugs. A'postrofae says to them "I grew up in the forest of wyrms... we should hide. Dragons are not to be feared, they are to be respected."

A quick discussion ensues as to what they should do from here, but a consensus is reached that they need rest and some healing, so they take a seat inside the keep to get some rest.