Kobolds and a Dragon

The party sat at the wood line staring at the old broken down manner home. All seemed to be fairly quiet.

"Well looks like there's not much going on here." Baelor said, "I think that we should head towards the Abby and look for this Reith character!"

"We gave this young woman our word that we would help her," Cormick replied, "I think we should clear out this area first."

"I really do have better things to do," Baelor snuffed, "Come along Ben, gold is nice, but I have a whole inheritance to collect."

Baelor started sneaking back towards the main road. The rest of the group looked on in amazement, and then turned their eyes to Ben. Ben gave a shrug and a smile and then darted off after his friend.

"Hmm that was interesting." Kalen said.

"Yes wasn't it?" Cormick Agreed.

"Well that's enough of that, let's get on with it shall we?" Said the guard.

"Yes, let's." Echoed Keera. "By the way, I didn't catch your name."

"Oh ya didn't?" The guard scratched his head. "You can call me Gus, wait here a sec."

Gus didn't wait for anyone else to respond. He moved through the forest like a ghost, not making a single sound. He got to the manner home and seemed to disappear inside. A few moments later he appeared again and waved for the rest of the party to follow.

"It seems to just be a shell of an old house, must have burned down just after the Bloodspear war." Gus informed them in a hushed tone. "I found an entrance to what looks to be the old cellar."

Cormick drew his blade and then motioned for Gus to lead the way. They followed him to the rear of the house where a set of double doors laid across the ground.

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Some time later, after many battles with kobolds the party was headed back to town with a few new magical items, a heap full of gold, a bag full of toes, a few drakes heads, a pelt from a dead young white dragon, as well as several bags full of bloody dragon parts.

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Once back in town the group was met with oohs and awes as they tromped towards Lord Markelhay's Moonstone Keep.

"Wow look at that dragon pelt, he must have been a mean one." Someone in the crowd whispered.

"Oh my, it looks as though they were successful in slaying the kobolds." Said another.

"They really are mighty Heroes!" Shouted a third.

Full of smiles and grins the adventurers approached the keep.

"Open the gates!" Gus motioned as the gates parted and the other guards looked on in astonishment.

The party was quickly escorted back into the Lords chamber, where he declared there would be feast in their honor, and he paid them their due rewards for the kobolds and the dragon that they had slain. They also inquired the lord for information about obsidian artifacts that might be related to his ancestral sword. The lord directed them to discuss the matters with Nimozaran the Green.

Kalen, Cormick, and Keera then returned to the Septarch's tower to discuss matters with "Nimo". (And thus began the quest of "Finding Nemo" ^_^) At the tower they quickly found Nimozaran sorting through paperwork in the main entry way of the tower. They inquired him about several obsidian artifacts and he seemed to remember mention of them in a book. He quickly retreated to his library with the group in tow. Once there he climbed a ladder and moved his way quickly around searching for the book he was looking for.

"Hmm you think he would just use mage hand or something." Keera said to Cormick.

With a huff towards keera's comment Nimozaran found the book he was looking for and read it's contents to the party:

"Lore of the Outter Planes (The Shadow Keeper):
The Shadow Keeper was supposidly the watcher of a place known as the shadow gates, a place in the Astral Seas that connected all known dominions and places of existance together via a uncountable number of portals. The location of the shadow gates is unknown, except perhaps to the immortals and demons of the outter planes. It was said that the Shadow Keeper wielded four obsidian artifacts: A Longsword, an amulet, a mask, and a ring. It was said that each of them was forged in the fires of the Elemental Chaos."

Nimozaran seemed upset about the news of the Shadow keeper and decided to go discuss matters with Lord Markelhay. Meanwhile the party split up, Keera decided to return through the portal to Hywind to deliver the dragon parts to the Wizards Guild, and Kalen and Cormick decided to see if they could get the local armorer to turn the dragon scale into something more useful (Scalemail Armor).

Kalen and Cormick found Teldorthan's Arms, the shop of Teldorthan Ironhews, the towns weapon smith and armorer. They showed Taldorthan the elder white dragon hide they had found in the Kobolds lair, as well as the young dragon hide that Cormick had skinned from the young white dragon.

"That's my Hide!!" Teldorthan said peering at the elder white dragon hide. "It was stolen from one of the Caravan's on it's way from Winterhaven!" After some tight bartering Kalen and Cormick exchanged the elder dragon hide for some gold and a promise of some new armor from the young dragon pelt.

Keera entered the Portal room and discovered no way of opening the portal. She would need the assistance of Nimozaran. Making her way down stairs she ran into a little halfling named Tobolar Quickfoot, a might esentric and very unpromising wizards apprentace that had been studying under Nimozaran for some time. After discovering how untrained "Toby" was in the arts of Magic, Keera took it upon herself to teach him how to use mage hand. He was estatic and quickly used it to clean the entire tower.

Keera returned to the Moonstone keep, only to find that Nimozaran was preoccupied and that she would see him at the feast later in the evening. She returned to the tower to speak again with Toby and found that he had a scroll of portals. She asked him if she could use it and he gladly gave it to her for her kindness earlier in the evening.

Back in the portal room Keera discovered her old Mentor and Teacher sitting on a stool reading a book. After a short discussion Corwin, The Arch Magus of Hywind, gladly took the dragon ingredients for use at the tower. He also gave Keera a Guild Amulet that would allow her to send a single message per day to anyone in the wizards guild that possessed a similar amulet. He then told Keera to discover what she could about this lord Reith (pronounced "Wraith"). It was a named from an ancient tongue. She agreed, still worried over her past with Cormick. Corwin gave her the advice to perhaps confide in Cormick, although to take things at her own pace.

Later in the evening the Feast was a grand event, although the party was slightly somber. Cormick hated dancing due to his past and Keera worked hard to maintain her facade. The night ended with Cormick falling asleep drunk on a gravestone in the grave yard and Keera returning to the Septarch's tower to find her dingy cell made clean and fresh with new bedding.

The next morning Keera and Cormick met for breakfast at the Silver Unicorn Inn. And with large heaps of Waffles (which Keera knew Corwin LOVED), she used her new amulet to send Corwin a message about how amazing the waffles were. An instant later a slash of light split the air besides the door to the inn. The entire Inn grew quiet momentarily. The slash of light then opened to reveal a portal to the busy streets of Hywind. Corwin stepped threw and the portal blinked out. "WAFFLES!" He said with a large grin on his face. He quickly sat down and Cormick slid him a large plate of syrupy goodness. After breakfast, and a breif conversation as old friends between Cormick and Corwin, a new slash of light split the air and Corwin tossed a Platnium piece on the table for dinner and disappeared in a blink of light.

"Well since the Lord gave us free room and board, I guess this is all profit." Cormick said as he pocketted the platnium piece and smiled. "Now where were we?"

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The story continues!!...