Bright Fangs, Big City
The black dragon Nightscale was defeated, but all was not well with the heroes of Helmsport. One friend, the conjurer Seth McCullin, had fled the city in fear (or shame). Another, the paladin Alarion Northsea, was dead and…digested…by the dragon, leaving naught but a clean skull.
With Bishop Cael Carlein away in Blackmere City, no cleric in Helmsport had the power to restore Alarion to life. So five heroes—Adarrial, Beran, Duran, Thorgrimm, and the newest member of the group, the diviner Stannis Alensin—packed their bags for a long overland trek to the capital of the kingdom, Blackmere City. Accompanied by the paladin’s forlorn cohort, Verdigris the wyrmling bronze dragon, the characters set off on the trip on a hot August morning.
Along the way, the heroes heard rumors of a band of hobgoblins that threatened a local town. With the bulk of the Royal Army in the east guarding against incursions of goblinoids from the Shard Mountains, such tales were becoming all-too-common. Thanks to the wilderness lore of the ranger Beran, as well as a group of helpful centaurs, the heroes soon tracked the bandits to their lair.
Adarrial, posing as a wounded hobgoblin hunter, infiltrated the box canyon lair of the hobgoblins. Under covering fire from Beran, Thorgrimm and Gree charged the guards while Duran and Stannis provided magical support (including fireballs from the flying wizard). The heroes got a bit of a scare when the bandits’ bruiser—a mighty ettin—came out of the cave, but the characters’ superior strategy and firepower won the day.
Inside, they found a wealth of stolen goods, as well as a captive cleric brewing healing potions for the hobgoblins. Beran volunteered to stay behind and take care of cleaning up the mess left by the bandits while his friends continued on their journey.
As the heroes finally sighted the Great Mere—a salt marsh that once served as home to the mighty black dragon whose name now graces the kingdom itself—they knew they neared their destination. Stopping in Northton before the last day of travel, the heroes met the paladin Aurelia, who told them of a rash of troll sightings in the past few weeks. While trolls were relatively common in the area, the frequency of encounters suggested something more than mere happenstance.
On the evening of August the 26th, the adventurers finally entered the great metropolis of Blackmere City. As they passed through the outer gate, the characters entered the newest section of the city, primarily devoted to visitors and traveling merchants. Each successive gate brought the characters further into the ancient core of the city, as if peeling rings from an onion.
The Great Cathedral of the Highfather stood in the oldest (and thus most central) section of the city, This fabulous structure—larger than anything before seen by the heroes—instilled a sense of awe in even the least religious among them. Thanks to their small measure of repute from recent triumphs, the characters soon gained audience with Cael Carlein, Bishop of the Western Province. Carlein, looking a decade younger than his 50+ years, greeted the heroes graciously, congratulating them on their good works to date. He quickly consented to resurrect Alarion, noting that the paladin was one of his trusted Silver Circle, an elite organization of paladins and clerics within the Church of Altius.
The next day, in a quiet ceremony, Bishop Carlein performed the necessary rituals and incantations to restore body and soul to Alarion, calling him back from the gentle rewards of Altius. After tendering their thanks to the bishop, Alarion and his friends departed the city, eager to return to a more familiar locale.
When passing back through Northton, the heroes again met with Aurelia, who asked a favor of her fellow Silver Circle paladin. Apparently, a vile criminal named Esau Enoch had recently fled the city into the Great Mere. Due to the increase in troll attacks, Aurelia couldn’t spare any troops to track him down, and asked for the characters’ assistance.
The next morning, the heroes set out into the fetid marsh, following a map that purported to lead to the villain’s hideout. The map proved true, but a lengthy search of the aging mansion found no sign of any occupants. Only the sharp eyes of Gree prevented a wasted trip, as the dragon discovered a sign of a secret passage into a subterranean area.
Beneath the house, the characters found more signs of occupation, specifically evidence that some of Enoch’s captives—for he was known as a kidnapper—may have lived there. A further search revealed yet another secret area, guarded by an enormous constrictor snake. Beyond this guardian, the heroes encountered four bestial humanoid creatures that seemed half man and half reptile or serpent. Quickly besting these creatures, the characters delved even deeper.
Beyond the entrance, the heroes found Enoch himself, along with his lieutenant, a half-elven invoker named Domino. After defeating the two villains, the characters investigated the area, to discover to their horror that Enoch’s kidnap victims were supplying the villain with victims for transformation into horrible creatures like the ones encountered earlier. In fact, both Enoch and Domino bore signs of minor (apparently, more successful) transformations as well. Clues found in the lair pointed back to Blackmere City, where some greater power commanded the crimelord.
Rushing back to the city, the characters soon found a hidden cave network beneath a ruined inn and investigated. Soon they were beset on all sides by the deadly serpentfolk of the distant southern jungles, known to explorers of that region as yuan-ti! Worse yet, the yuan-ti were led by a terrible demonblooded medusa named Vithis, who wielded twin scimitars with incredible skill and dexterity.
After falling back, the characters returned with better preparations and defeated the horrible serpent-creatures. The yuan-ti menace to Blackmere City had ended, but the heroes found a recent letter to Vithis, supposedly sent by her sister Kalivilya from the Southern Province city of Beloyannis. The missive suggested that even more dire plots were underway, perhaps involving the long-thought-dead dragon cult of Ashardalon.
But that mystery would have to wait for another day. The heroes, bloodied and tired, wanted nothing more than to return home to Helmsport. And, after another long trek, they passed through the friendly gates of the river city on the 30th of September, only to find that all was not well within its walls.
Apparently, a few weeks earlier, the duke’s elder son Damian, after hearing rumors of his young bride’s infidelities, discovered her a compromising position with an acolyte of the Church. Already distraught about his wife’s recent miscarriage, Damian flew into a rage and slew both her and the acolyte, only to immediately be taken into custody by the city guard. With no question as to his guilt, and with the Church choosing to take a position of quiet non-interference due to their acolyte’s involvement, judgment was swift. In a rare sign of mercy, the court spared Damian Avan’s life, instead stripping him of title, position, and even name itself, then banishing him from the city, province, and kingdom and erasing his very identity from the royal scrolls.
With this somber air hanging over the citizens of Helmsport, the heroes perhaps wondered if things could get worse for the city.
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