When last we left our intrepid adventurers…
It is the 18th of Eleint, and they had gone away from the Waterdavian caravan to search for Rinn, the shady half elf. Velo, Zeek, Anais, Wevami (and Jardin), and Jac had entered into what they knew to be a Kobold cave, and had thoroughly alerted everything inside to their presence.
The session began with a bit of failed skulking, as Zeek attempted to sneak around to see if he could see any Kobolds, tripped over a rock, and bit it hard in the middle of the cavern. He was quickly fired upon, and battle was upon them. Two blue-skinned kobolds put up a small bit of resistance, but ultimately were quickly vanquished – but not before one of them could blow a horn that made no sound.
Anais, convinced that there was more to this cave (as they’d all seen the drag marks left by Rinn’s unconscious body) set the whole group to looking for a secret passageway or door, which Jac (the guard) stumbled through. Another tunnel – this one much larger (much to Zeek’s relief) – led further into the hill and ultimately led into a large room, where several things happened all at once.
Rinn and two other prisoners managed to free themselves while the Kobolds were distracted by the incoming skirmish. Several Kobolds set up defensive positions only to be overwhelmed by ranged attacks from the party. The Kobold Leader – a sorcerer of some kind – charmed Jac and he turned and attacked the party as well.
The two other prisoners (soon to be introduced as Van Whisperfool and Cassius Skarpi) pulled a fast one-two punch against a Kobold, marking the first, and probably last, time the Wizard would get a killing blow with an unarmed strike in this campaign (on an attack of opportunity, no less).
After mopping up the last of the kobolds, the party is fully introduced. Van is a gnomish archer fighter, just over 3 feet tall – fairly young, with brown skin, blonde hair, and green eyes. Cass is a human wizard, a lanky, very tall (6’5″) man with curly, shaggy brown hair, pale skin and freckles, and spectacles. He too looks very young, and after some discussion is revealed to be Waterdavian.
After healing Velo, Anais uses her bells and the power of soothing voice and touch to calm Rinn, who had begun to panic while the rest of the group rolls the bodies for loot.
They find:
A Black arrow with a silver arrowhead and fletching (An Unbreakable Arrow – which went to Van)
A Bronze Tankard of Sobriety (to Cass)
A small wooden buckler (to Zeek)
and a Horn of Silent Alarm (4 charges, recharges on a long rest) which alerts one listener – and one listener only – when it is sounded. This was given to Anais, as she most often takes first watch.
In exploring the rest of the cavern, the party upended the cauldron of goop that the head Kobold had been watching, and it dumped out (among other things) a huge blue leathery egg. Between the group, they were able to piece together that this was a Drake egg, fashioned from the scales of a blue dragon and the dessicated bodies of human sacrifices in a terrible ritual that takes days to complete.
Drakes – large draconic dogs – are huge and powerful and hard to control, and also very deadly.
Zeek, upon hearing that this was a dragon thing, slashes up the egg with his shortsword and the rest of the party dump the dead, partially-formed body into the fire.
Van and Cass inform the group that they had heard large booming voices speaking in Draconic in the night they’d spent trapped in the cave, and the party decides to get the fuck out of Dodge before whatever that voice belonged to came to check on the egg. Anais’ curiosity of whether the Dragons were using the Kobolds to raise drakes for a purpose, or whether the kobolds were smart enough to be doing so on their own, remained unanswered.
After a quick march, accompanied by Velo’s melodic harmonica playing, the party safely makes it back to the Waterdavian caravan, just in time to arrive at Red Larch, the trading post halfway between Ironford and Amphail.
And thus we leave them until next week – whether they will become fast friends or simply traveling companions is yet to be determined, but the Caravan of Misfits gains two members and all seem determined to make it to Waterdeep – though to what ends not everyone has revealed, and some may only have revealed part of their tales.