5. War spreads and we stop new recruits

We wake up in our new quarters, happy and refreshed. Waah, however, decides today is the day she will set up what she calls a "training room" in our common room. I'm not sure what she'll be training, and why it needs a whole room, but she rambled about logs and ropes, and I am not sure what she wants.
 
Darrett knocks on our door because he has a mission for us, plus some news. I'm still not sure why he cannot join our group, but I suppose he is soon going to be a knight. Maybe Sterling will be his future squire. We'll see. Either way, the council here was disturbed to hear our news of the mechanical dragon. They want us to go see an inventing gnome, called Tatina Rickeldust. Why her? She is well known, but I still don't see why they can't ask our friend from Vogler. I mean, his gnome launcher worked! But either way, they want to ask her questions, so we will travel about 12 miles south and bring her here. Hopefully she likes to travel.
 
We head out soon after, after I ask Waah if she is sure she does not want to join us. And why? But, her training room will be necessary for her to continue to train. So we go without her. As we travel south, with the majestic Blackguard mountains in view, I am reminded of how small we are, and I hope that the army will not spoil these lands. After about 2 hours of walking, we notice 7 figures walking close by, coming towards us. They look armed, and we decide to pass them by. If they speak to us, we'll ask about Tatina. But they seem like thy have a purpose. They see us, but neither party wants to change course so we can meet. Plus, they are armed - maybe they would do us harm.
 
Soon after, we notice at the top of a hill a weird structure. It is a cottage, but with iron, and it is surrounded by goblins trying to enter. Sometimes, a gnome's head pops out of a clock, and she seems to be defending herself. In the back hangs a shadowy figure, which seems to wait for the goblins to get things here under control.
 
This is probably Tatina. But even if it is not, this seems like an unfair fight. We decided to talk to the goblins first. And by "we", I mean Sterling. He goes and talks to them. In turn, the shadowy figure fires an arrow at him. The goblins don't seem to pay him any attention, probably because they are all too distracted by this home's defenses, which would keep anyone on their toes. Well, if Sterling will take care of the goblins, I should probabyl help with the shadowy figure. After all, the goblins are a mess themselves. It works, and soon the last two goblins run away.
 
Tatina comes out, and we talk to her. She is an inventor, and she loves to create new devices. She says that the dragon may be a weed-clearing device that she made to resemble a dragon at someone's request. She says a man with a black and red armor came by because he liked her fire-breathing weed clearing device. She did not seem to notice all the signs that he could be evil, like the flaming sword, the symbol of Takhisis, the troops he commanded, etc. But he offered her a large amount of money to make the weed clearing device look like a dragon, so she did, and thought nothing more about it. I ask if she can help us figure out how to stop it. She says she cannot, since the stranger had asked her to make something else, but she has already forgotten about it, even tough he will come back and ask about it, probably soon.
 
What has distracted her from the commission she received? Well, these "fargabs" - strange metallic backpacks with horns, that allow two people to speak to each other up to 18 miles away. This can give us a great advantage to reporting our findings to the Kalaman council, as we will no longer need to travel back. Or maybe we can just tell them information faster. Either way, this seems like a good invention. I tell Tatina that she should come with us to demonstrate such great invention, as she doesn't seem interested in leaving to speak to the council.
 
We spend the night and rest, and the next day, ask we walk back, a kinder walks by and asks if we have seen a dragon. Sterling tells her that the dragon that is rumored in these parts is a mechanical one. Either way, the girl wants to go east, and continue to search for the dragon of her dreams. Normally, people run away from dragons, but alas.
 
Back in Kalaman, Derrett sees that Tatina is well taken care of. We convince her to lave a pair of Fargabs with us. We ask Darrett if he will keep one with him, while Mal carries the other one.

For the time being , we get some well-deserved rest in the city. I make it my business to learn where Lord Jerk and his son stay in the city, and find some information on him. I visit the Unicorn Inn where they are at, and the owner, Gwendolyn tells me about how important the reputation of an inn is, but will not give me much more information. She says that her daughter, Layla is a server and may know more about him. I approach Layla, and ask her.
 
Layla talks about how troublesome the father-son pair are. I ask if they have been up to anything, but she says that they have done nothing that she cannot handle. Apparently, anyone who becomes too troublesome is referred to the cook. I assume it is so that they will get drugged and calm down, but I don't ask. Either way, much like her mother, Layla is very interested in preserving the Inn's reputation, so they will not tell me much more about them. It seems that if I am to do something, I will have to do something that will not sully the Inn's reputation.
 
As I leave, I make a vow to return and eat dinner here at some point. It smells delicious, and maybe then I can observe what the Lords Bakaris and figure out a plan.
 
The next morning, Darrett comes and talks to us again, with news. A family has sough refuge in the city, because their family was overrun by soldiers. So we are going to go check it out, after speaking to the family, first.
 
We ask them about what happened, but they are simple farmers who left because their farm was overrun. They did not stop to observe or ask questions. We will simply have to go see for ourselves. About 15 miles out, we hear the thumping of hooves on the ground. We hide and observe, in case these are enemies. Half a dozen humans soon ride by, all with that dreaded red and black armor. The leader holds a lance, and he looks like a knight. We can only assume this is a heavy patrol of this area. Luckily, they are not coming directly along our path, but going in a different direction.
 
Once the patrol is out of earshot, we send Darrett a message about what we see. He receives the message and says that he will tell his superiors. We continue on our way.
 
As we approach the farmhouse, we see smoke. The place is still smoldering. Between the house, shed, and barn there are figures about. 1 person seems to be marching the other people, teaching them to march or attack on command. As we get closer, we see 1 human soldier trying to train 6 hobgoblins.
 
I get into position by hiding in the barn, the closest building to where they are at. Sterling will just bravely walk towards them, demanding they surrender. I will then jump down and attack. But I fib. And Sterling does not break, and continues to valiantly distract them, at his own peril! Next time, I manage to surprise a stinky hobgoblin! We start the battle, and defeat everyone.
 
On these jerks, we find a note that tells the human leader not to keep anyone who cannot "cut it" because the Dragon Queen requires more strong soldiers. What a recruitment tactic! We decide not to rest, and to return with this news as soon as we can.
 
On our way back, we come across some Kalamanian scouts being attacked by more soldiers. We even out the fight by attacking the soldiers in turn. We manage to save most of the scouts, and they recognize that Mal has called upon a god. They now know that at least Mishikal has returned! They are even happier now that Mal has graced them with her blessings! We send a message to Darrett about the scouts and the skirmish. The guards are kind enough to offer to keep guard so we all get a good night's rest.
 
In the morning, we take a good look at the weapons our enemies left behind. They all have the symbol of Takhisis on them, so at first we discuss how to destroy these weapons. But Sterling says that maybe these weapons can still be put to good use by the soldiers of Kalaman. We finally get to talk about what they were doing here. They tell us that a detachment was reported taking over this area, and they came to scout. Unfortunately, they were spotted, and the detachment sent the 6 soldiers we helped defeat to kill them. Mal goes ahead and sends the message to Derrett.

We decide to return not only the armor, but the weapons. We do our best to rid those of that dreadful symbol before we go. We travel back towards Kalaman, and we can tell we are approaching because there is a large number of caravans, jammed up trying to enter the city's East Gate, the same one we sailed to. We decide to go through the West Gate, and we see from the west, a small group of soldiers marching our way. We drop the scouts off at the city, and circle back, keeping an eye on this suspicious group.
 
As they approach, we see that their colors are not red and black, but the colors of Kalaman! They are exhausted, and teeter as we call for them to halt. From the middle, Cudgel appears, and we are so happy to see them! These are what remain of her Iron Clad regiment! We speak as we walk into the city. We tell them they are heroes, and tell her of our story so far. She wants to join us too, to put her men to work for the defense of Kalaman. We find her and her people a place to rest, and know that Darrett will take care of them until they are ready to meet the Mayor and the Marshall.
 
We return to our quarters, and I think of something horrible to do to that stupid noble.