Salvation Comes A'Calling
or, If One Falls, Two Shall Rise to Take His Place
After their disastrous expedition to Greatwall Keep, the remaining characters took stock of their situation. Clearly, they couldn’t allow Druga’s brutal death at the hands of the vicious ettin to go unrevenged. But equally clear was the fact that they didn’t have the power to overcome that foe.
So they recruited some help. By the next day, two likely candidates had approached the beleaguered PCs.
The first was Alarion Northsea, a bold paladin of Altius who served as a member of Bishop Cael Carlein’s Silver Circle, an elite group of holy warriors dedicated to the Highfather. Currently on his way back to Helmsport after a circuitous survey of the province, Alarion saw the young heroes’ need for guidance, and realized that he couldn’t turn down their plea for assistance.
The second, and far more enigmatic, of the two recruits was Eandrynn, an elven archer from the forest kingdom of Brithonen. Eandrynn, who claimed ties to the Brithonen military, agreed to assist the characters more out of curiosity than anything else.
The company now numbered six: Aethelred, Duran, Seth, Alarion, Eandrynn, and Adarrial Smythe himself. With a renewed sense of purpose, the heroes returned to the site of their greatest defeat. Now forewarned of the ettin’s presence, the heroes’ superior tactics allowed them to defeat the creature and gain entrance to the crumbling fort.
Once inside, they battled a pack of goblins—apparently refugees from the same tribe that once inhabited the Sunless Citadel—and their leader, a powerful hobgoblin named Grak.
The heroes then encountered the master of the keep: a strange man who called himself Lord Vaughn and emanated a palpable power and presence. Choosing discretion over valor, the heroes left with the treasure taken from the goblins rather than pressing Adarrial’s claim to the keep.
But the heroes’ triumph was short-lived. Upon their return to Great Rock, the characters discovered to their dismay that their peaceful town had been raided by slavers in a ship bearing bright red sails. Survivors of the attack reported that a number of savage northmen were among the slavers, and that several townsfolk—including Robert Rander, Duran’s stepfather—were taken as captives aboard the ship, which headed off to the south.
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