The gang talks about what to do next. Maggot is stressed about being out in the forest at night (she’s only ever lived in big cities), but Sage comforts her, and the group decides to head back to the Goblin camp and get their statue back so they can get back on the road. They were hired by the Silverdawn Guild in Lochore to deliver it to Lord Bram, who lives in Easthollow. If they fail the job they’ll have to pay for damages and lose their deposit fee on the job, but if they can manage to finish it they’ll be paid 50 gold pieces each! That’s almost two months worth of wages in a little under two weeks. It was supposed to be a few days trip and a quick job, but with the roads being as dangerous as they are these days something was bound to go wrong…

The group make their way back the way they came to the Goblin camp by the stream. As they make a stealthy approach, they notice the camp is silent - the fires have been doused by the rain, and there’s no movement through the small clearing or by any of the crude wooden shelters. Zap makes his way through, calling out to the others that it’s empty, before rummaging through the belongings that have been left behind. The others join him in exploring the camp, finding a few satchels and crates of discarded clothes, a random assortment of shoes, different scraps and knick knacks - a veritable hoard of loot from the Goblin’s highway robberies. Sage makes another discovery as he finds a large carving on the back of the central tree in the camp - slashed into the splitting bark is a large circle with three vertical lines through it, clearly made by some type of creature with sharpened claws. Beneath it are a series of strange tracks that they don’t recognise - flat and round with pointed toes, maybe webbed feet? Sage tells everyone not to freak out…!
No one was freaking out.

With no sign of their statue, the Bugbear, or other Goblins they decide to follow the tracks through the wilderness to the north. The group only get a chance to rest once the sun has almost risen, camping a small ways away from the tracks. Their rest is interrupted by a group of small wild hens, but other than that it’s peaceful, for once, and everyone has some time to catch their breath.

They only manage to get back to the tracks in the afternoon, and as they follow them more and more sets of the strange footprints join in. By nightfall they have been walking for a few hours, and Sage realises they must be getting close to Easthollow at this point! As they come to a clearing with a large hill in the middle, the moon is high in the sky and tinged a dusty red - a partial eclipse giving the night an eerie glow. Glimmering in the unnatural glow of the moon are a set of flickering torches floating amongst the ruins on the hilltop. The group discusses what to do next, but Sage seems distracted. They’re still thinking about the strange footprints - could they be amphibian? Reptilian? A large dinosaur perhaps? It’s unlikely, but they could have wandered this far south by accident. Maggot agrees it’s unlikely but it would be cool to see one though! Before the group gets too derailed Theo brings the conversation back on track - by asking what everyone's favourite dinosaur is.
Zap leaves the group and sneaks up to the ruins on the hill.

He explores the ancient, moss-covered ruins in the eerie shadows cast by the light of the torches, until he gets close enough to hear the voices of two Goblins. He peers around a corner and spots them standing guard over a steel trapdoor, while arguing over something. Zap sneaks closer to eavesdrop, and he hears one giving bad dating advice to the other. In that moment Zap decides not to blast ‘em - he’s dying to know more about this gossip…!
With a little smirk he slinks back to the rest of the group, who have busied themselves with playing rock-paper-scissors, and gives them the low down on the situation on the hill. When he mentions the dating advice the group goes quiet, until Maggot pipes up.
She says, she’s not been on a date. Since - at all. Zap is not impressed and gives a dry, ‘Oh’ in response. Maggot quickly backpedals, saying they don’t need to talk about her dating life actually!!! Sage in the meantime has looked up to the stars, eyes filled with tears, to everyone's shock! Maggot tries to comfort her, while Theo has gone very quiet and very red, even in the eclipse’s moonlight.
Zap looks are the rest of the group, flabbergasted. What sorta reaction is this???

“ Just be true and believe in yourself,
but don’t listen to the other guys advice and
it’ll be fine *thumbs up emoji* ”

- and puts the slip into its pocket.
Then he robs the Goblin as a ‘consultation fee' for his advice.

As they’re up on the hill Maggot looks around and notices small lights nearby - the town of Easthollow must be there on the other side of the woods! It dawns on her that if that’s Easthollow then these ruins must have been the Windsbane Castle. She studied local folklore across the county of Hawick, and the Windsbane Castle was used to protect Easthollow and guard the main road back when it was a larger town. The Castle was said to have fallen when Hymore unified and became the Empire it is today, and now it lies in ruins.

After the spontaneous history lesson, the gang opens up the strange steel trap door and has a peek inside. It leads them down a flight of steep stone stairs, chipped and worn by years and a steady trickle of water that seeps through the crumbling mortar. As they reach the bottom of the stairs Talion pipes up again with a cryptic warning - he smells the stench of dragon’s blood! Which… is literally impossible. Dragons went extinct over half a millennium ago, Sage points out, only for Talion to snap back, “I’m here, and I’m a dragon!”.
“You’re a sword!” Maggot counters (they've clearly had this conversation many times). “A dragon trapped inside a sword! That’s how it goes sometimes when you’re a super cool and powerful dragon, and everyone is jealous and wants to stop your plans of world domination!” Talion yells.
Theo asks how he fits in the sword, since dragons are supposed to be, y’know, big? Talion insists he was big when he was a dragon, which is why he’s called Talion, King of all Dragons! He was the biggest and fastest and strongest too! Theo is not impressed, pointing out Talion’s the king of one dragon, since he’s the only one around. Sage tries to de-escalate the situation before a fight breaks out as they reach a heavy door at the bottom of the staircase.

Maggot opens it up as they’re talking, leading into a musty, mildewed stone cellar - and in the center stands a strange creature, bi-pedal with reptilian features, large claws and fangs but wearing armour and wielding a heavy club. It quickly turns its attention to the intruders, and before anyone can react it lunges for Maggot’s throat! Despite being on the backfoot, the group outnumbers the creature 4-to-1, and they manage to hold their own against its size and strength. After a quick tussle, Maggot lands the finishing blow, but as Talion strikes the creature down, its body rapidly calcifies, turning to stone as a noxious gas shoots from its corpse at high pressure. The room is quickly filled and everyone covers their mouths, but not before Zap inhales some of the gas!
Flecks of skin around his mouth and nose begin to harden and flake like rock salt, as a mottled grey colour spreads from his lips and he slumps down on the floor. Sage rushes to him, and the group watch in horror as their new

One of the doors on the opposite side of the room suddenly flings open and the group are not alone for long, as two Kobolds come rushing in. Their fight has clearly alerted the rest of the basement's inhabitants, and Theo and Maggot jump out to protect the back line. Zap gives out a strangled wheezing cough on the stone floor, before his eyes blink and flicker, and his breath suddenly comes much easier! Sage helps him back on his feet and gives him one final check over. It seems that the effects of the gas might only be temporary, either that or Zap managed to shake it off.
They don’t have time to ruminate as even more reinforcement arrives - several more Kobolds and a familiar Bugbear rush into the room - the same Bugbear that had robber them on the road! With Zap back on his feet, himself and Sage join in the fight, Zap sending shocking bolts through the crowd and Sage raining down blasts of starlight, but it’s not enough. The group starts being backed into a corner as the sheer number of foes becomes overwhelming. The Kobolds stab at them with jagged shivs from below, and the Bugbear in the back swings a gnarled, spiked flail, using its long burly arms to reach over the crowd. Theo blocks the flail with his shield, the sound of metal scraping against metal echoing off the ancient stone walls as he’s pushed back by the sheer force behind the swing.

The sudden transformation takes most by surprise, and Sage capitalises on the moment of hesitation - they pull their arm back in an arc, and a stream of silver is drawn back from their fingers like the string of a bow. They let out their breath and steady their aim, as they open their pinched fingers and an arrow of pure starlight shoots from it, lodging itself between the Bugbears eyes.
A moment passes before the creature falls to the ground with a resounding thud, and the tide of the battle has turned. The Kobolds become scattered, and one after the other fall to starlight arrows, lightning bolts, or sword strikes. Once the last Kobolds falls the group takes stock of what happened, taking a moment to catch their breath before exploring the rest of the cellar. It seems as though the reptilian creature was what Talion had sensed before, and its body did turn to stone, the same way a dragon's does when it dies, though Talion has never seen a creature like it before. Could it be some sort of mutation or descendant?

The group holds that thought as they search the rest of the cellar. They did find the Bugbear, so their statue could be somewhere nearby! As they search the cellar they come across an unconscious man who has been handcuffed to a table. He has bruises across his body and a nasty series of gashes across his face and left eye. Sage stays with him and Zap and tries to clean him up as best they can, washing the wounds and wiping off dirt.
Theo and Maggot search the rest of the cellar and find a study, filled with magical paraphernalia, strange maps and notes, a small chest full of loot, and the statue they were looking for! Yahoo!
They read through the notes and find some letters between someone called Keldobold, and Vangmar. There’s a report from Keldobold saying they have captured Easthollow and are exploring the nearby Mirror Cave. Vangmar writes back orders to keep the town under siege while he is off to Scorchfountain. Each letter is signed with the mantra, “Be consumed by the flames, pierce the veil”, and are stamped with the same symbol they saw carved into the tree - a circle with three vertical lines through it.
There’s clearly something bigger going on here, and they continue to search the room for more clues. Under the rug they find yet another trap door. It opens up into a dark cold pit, seemingly some form of long term storage which has been dug out and expanded, exposing the earth and rock around it. But most notably, down in the pit, are a huge crowd of children.
They range from about 5-6 all the way up to some teenagers around 15-16, and are huddled in groups and sprawled out around the pit. All their eyes look up as the trap door is uncovered, and they begin shouting out for Theo and Maggot to help them get out of here! Without a moment’s hesitation Maggot takes out a bundle of rope from her pack while Theo rushes to get Zap and Sage. Between the four of them they start hauling the kids out of the pit with a makeshift set of rope ladders Maggot and Zap put together. Sage helps lead the kids back out to the room where they found the injured man (don’t really want to take the kids to the room full of dead Kobolds), and some of the older kids start to fill the group in on what’s happening. Apparently, the town of Easthollow was overrun a little over two weeks ago by a small army of Goblins, Kobolds, and the strange reptilian creatures, who call themselves Draconians. They were led by a Draconian mage, and after the town was quickly routed they took a bunch of the kids as hostages to keep Easthollow under their thumb.

As the kids are gathering up, the injured man comes to consciousness. He quickly looks around and rushes over to one of the older kids, and is reunited with what turns out to be his daughter, Lisa. She asks what happened to him, and he admits he came here looking for her after she was taken, but got caught…
The gang do introductions, and find out the man is Shaun Bram… the lord they were meant to deliver the statue to! He thanks them for coming to their rescue, and asks what’s happening in Easthollow. The group tells him they only just found out it was under siege, so it wouldn’t be safe to bring everyone home. But they also agree that it wouldn’t be safe to stay here, if these ruins are the headquarters of this band of marauders. The gang decides to clear the path out of the cellar and bring everybody outside and back out a slight ways away from the ruins to set up camp. The eclipse has passed at this point, and with the help of Lord Bram and some of the teens they manage to wrangle the younger kids into their sleeping bags and settle down for the night. Maggot has gone full babysitter mode while Zap is telling some of the kids pirate stories, tales of high adventure out on the sea, and other kids crowd around Wendy the donkey for a cuddle. The atmosphere is strangely relaxed considering the situation, but the adults and older kids try to keep things light. The little guys have had a tough past two weeks and deserve to have a break and feel safe.
Once the kids have fallen asleep the group have a chat about what to do next, and it’s quickly decided they’ll take a look into Easthollow in the morning and see what the state of affairs is. Their delivery job is technically over, but none of them are heartless enough to want to bounce with their check (also Lord Bram doesn’t have any money on him atm, so he couldn’t even pay them yet if he wanted to, Zap). There is more danger ahead of them, but this is something they can’t turn away from. What will happen when the group tries to sneak into Easthollow to scope out the situation? And what about the strange Draconians, where have these creatures come from?
Find out next time, on Sonnet of Flames!


" Thank you so much for to playing my game " ∼ DM