Lyrayth's Last Stand / Talie 1422
Lunian hurried on his journey to the Revorwood Inn, glancing back over his shoulder at the woods that lined the east side of the road. He could swear he had seen small figures moving inside the woods matching his pace but it was so hard to tell due to how densely the trees grew and the abundance of underbrush. It was nearing sundown and he wanted to be behind a locked door and in front of a roaring fire before nightfall. Word had reached him of a group of adventurers that were staying at the inn, as befuddled as the last group; the group that seemed to be stuck at the Shady Dragon Inn, a few days travel north. It seemed that the number of adventurers had decreased over the last few years and Lunian did not know the exact reason why - perhaps more and more were being affected by the memory loss sooner. That madman at Sathenge, if man could be a term used to describe him, was closing his iron fist tighter and tighter - Lunian's list of allies was becoming short indeed.
Lunian walked up to the front door of the Revorwood Inn just as the last rays of the setting sun disappeared behind the Blackthorn Hills to the west. The inn was a modest two-story affair and Lunian had come to know and trust the proprietor, Kalin since the very first day they met. The bar was unattended but that was not unusual given Kalin's history with the woodland sprites that seemed to infest this region of the Revorwood. Kalin was usually off helping the sprites with one thing or another and Lunian had to cut his musings short as he abruptly remembered why he was here - certainly not some social visit! Lunian spotted what must be the adventurers sitting in the corner of the bar, huddled around a table. As Lunian crossed the room he noticed something odd, nobody from that group had even looked in his direction when he came in and they did not seem to be moving at all. Lunian hurried over to the table and in his haste did not notice as a slim shadow near the front door detached itself from the surrounding shadows, closing the front door and locking it with a quiet but solid click.
As Lunian reached the first of what he thought was a group of adventurers his senses told him what his heart had feared the whole way here - they were all dead. The bodies had been propped up but on closer examination Lunian could see that they had all died very violent deaths; even a cursory glance from up close would have revealed that most of their wounds had been caused by fang and claw and fairly recently. So confused and thunderstruck was Lunian that he was caught completely off-balance when he heard the soft hissing behind him. Lunian whirled, staff at the ready and his heart sank when he saw his enemies. One creature stepped forward and in a mouth unused to human speech said, "Lunian. Or shall I call you by your real name, Lyrayth? Loth. . ." the creature paused in mid-word as if remembering some cruel torture, a grimace crossing its draconian features. It continued, "My. . . .master sends his regards. He feels you have been absent from Sathenge for far too long and would like to invite you for dinner." Lunian had a funny feeling that an invitation for dinner would probably mean him as the main course. "Tell that vile creature you serve that he can stick his invitation where the sun. . ." but Lunian never finished his sentence as he raised his arm and arcane energy coruscated from the wand he had quickly drawn, striking the creature in front of him full in the chest.
Kalin half-watched from a nearby hillock in the woods, tears streaming down his face as his livelihood, the Revorwood Inn burned to the ground. The Revorwood sprites had spirited him away in his sleep the night before, fearful of what would happen to him if he was found when the evil ones (as the sprites called them) attacked. The adventurers that had only recently arrived at the Revorwood Inn in the days before the attack were slaughtered wholesale, some in their sleep. The sprites cast soothing spells of forgetfulness on Kalin to ease his suffering and to prevent him from running back into the inn and being slaughtered with the rest. Kalin spent the next day in a daze, hardly able to move from the hillock and he watched as if in a dream as Lunian came up the road and into the inn. He watched as the bright lights engulfed the inn and loud sounds came to his ears as if from a great distance. He continued to watch as Lunian was dragged out of the inn and thrown into a cart like a cast-off sack of rotten potatoes. A distant part of him felt a primal need to scream to the heavens and run down the hill with weapon raised high but as he lay there drifting off the cart headed north - he had no idea if Lunian was alive or dead. . . .
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Dragons (version 3.5) campaign, please contact the Dungeonmaster