Episode 1: We arrive at Sandpoint

PLEASE NOTE: This particular story gets a bit edgy and could trigger some people. The cut scene can be troubling to some, please skip it if you are concerned. It will not detract from the overall story at this point.

So recently at work there was an opening in another game that had been going on for awhile so I made a character and jumped in ... right at the end of that adventure pack. So after a couple of weeks of back and forth wrapping up that game pack and getting characters sorted out, we launched this new adventure.

Two characters from that game decided to go on this new adventure, plus me and my last minute character, and two of the original players made new characters. We also added another player so we're at 6 players/characters.

Also another thing to note is that the original group was in the kingdom of Cheliax, a literally Lawful Evil country that has dealings with devils and the like. It is an unhappy place where there is trouble and heavily armed guards everywhere, where worshiping the good deities is heavily discouraged.

The original party were sent from Cheliax to the neighboring kingdom of Varisia, specifically to the town of Sandpoint, to meet with a lady ostensibly to learn about their form of government. In this group we have Bucky, a Goblin fond of fire; Fallos, a Halfling swashbuckler; Wazboot, a human cleric; and Ashryn an elven fighter. I will describe the other two characters once I actually know anything about them. Ok, on towards the story!

<cut-scene>

We see a simple room with a bed, dresser, basic wooden walls. There is an extraordinarily beautiful, pregnant, woman looking at her reflection in a mirror. The beautiful woman's expression turns to pure rage and she slams her fist into the mirror, then proceeds to tear the sheets off her bed and pull over her dresser.

A pair of holy sisters enter the room at the commotion "Nualia, what's the matter?" The woman though screams back at the sisters, enraged "Get OUT OF HERE!" but she then she keels over in pain as blood appears and she falls back towards the bed.

One of the sisters looks under Nualia's dress and addresses the other sister "It's time, go get me a wash basin." The other sister scurries off to gather the supplies and returns quickly. However, the labor was not going well. After hours of intense screaming, more than one would expect, the baby is born as Nualia passes out. The sister looks at the child and her face is an expression of horror, quickly wraps up the child and hands it to the other sister. "Take this and burn it!" She looks utterly terrified but takes the baby, turns, and runs out of the room.

Out in the courtyard she places the wrapped baby on a pyre, which she then lights. As the fire burns away the cloth we see a monstrous looking child with horns and black scaly skin.

Suddenly Nualia appears, struggling hard to hold herself upright, at the door to the courtyard yelling "Where is my baby?! What have you done?!"

<end cut-scene>

When we return to our heroes we see the group from Cheliax arriving in Sandpoint after a long journey. At the South-Eastern gate there's a mirror hanging that reads "We hope you feel welcome here, because you are". Riding in further we realize there's a festival going in so we find a handy stable to park the horses ... and wolf ... at. Yes, Bucky the goblin rides a wolf. The stable's name is "The Goblin Squash Stables" and yet Bucky goes to stride right on in. Even the sign shows a picture of a Goblin head under a horse hoof.

Luckily Wazboot restrains Bucky, slightly, and goes in first followed closely by Bucky and Fallos. Ashryn follows up the rear, remaining in full armor/helm and choosing to remain silent.

However, entering the stables has proven to be entertaining. And not in the good way. There are numerous dried goblin ears with their names burnt into them nailed to the walls. There's a full sized goblin preserved in a jar upon the counter. And the proprietor, upon seeing Bucky, starts shouting at him - threatening him if he didn't leave.

Luckily Wazboot quickly realized what was going on informed the proprieter that the goblin is his slave. Turns out the propieter's name is Davrien Hosk and while completely surprised and a bit confused about Bucky being Wazboot's slave, he accepted the explanation. At this point Bucky and Fallos leave and go out into the street to apparently do some performing. Fallos does well. Bucky, not so much.

Davrien then regales us with a tail about how he hates goblins and loves to torture them to get their name, then burn the name into the goblin's ear. "See, they think it steals their souls to write down their name, so I cut off the ear and burn it in there and then kill the goblin." Davrien also states that he'll pay for any like ears. Wazboot finishes up his business with Davrien and gets our horses - and wolf - parked for now.

Back out in the street, and rounding up the short halves of the party, we continue on into town. It's quite bustling and there's not a lot of armed and armored sorts about, hardly any at all in fact. Ashryn very much is standing out at this point, but she's not relaxed enough to even remove the helm yet. But the whole town was drifting north towards the pristine brand new temple.

This is when our lunch hour ended, more later!