The Final Raid

Disaster / Destruction

After a year of recovery, Ashridge was met with a horrific fate. Droves of raiders swept through Ashridge with little warning and quickly overwhelmed the town. Hollowguard and other mercenary groups pushed forward, some stayed behind to drive out monsters and bandits reaching the inner parts of the town. Nobody's sure if the raiders were fought off, or if they had found something they were looking for and had simply left.

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This event is a traumatic and better-forgotten memory of all of the denizens of Ashridge.
As the first year since The Second Raid  passed, things in Ashridge were beginning to seem normal. Its populace had finally began to relax again, merchants were returning to the town, and Hollowguard had began to rekindle and take jobs again. Aezon felt good, though his scars still stung and he was weak from recovery.
In a post-birthday celebratory meeting for Barrett, the party was elated to finally be in high spirits again. Many of them, including Aezon, had spent the greater part of the past year recovering from their failure during The Second Raid  and were finally getting back to work. When festivities were winding down there was a sudden and large explosion, a plume of dark smoke, and a deafening silence that fell among the party. Their hearts sank, Aezon could feel his beating out of his chest, and the screams of terrorized civilians began. Barrett, pulling Aezon aside as the rest of Hollowguard began donning their arms and armor, quickly pulled out Lovell's Pendant and placed it over Aezon's head. With a soft smile he spoke these words:

My family has passed this down for many generations. It's given to the child who demonstrates complete dedication to our cause and faith, one who may one day be a champion of it. It also happens to be a good luck charm. I want you to have it.

Barrett's warm smile was betrayed by the sadness and fear in his eyes, not unlike that of which Aezon saw after Yvone Lovell IV passed and Barrett took over the house. They were both aware of what was to come.
Hollowguard then split. Martial and ranged fighters moved out to the front lines to push back incoming attackers, while the deft and silent moved inwards to assist in guiding civilians to safety. By the time Aezon made it to the outskirts of town, a quarter of it had been lit aflame. By the time he was told by Brendryn Cinderstone to retreat and find the others who had stalked inward, half of it was blazing.
Aezon wasn't bothered much by the flames, but smoke choked and blinded him as he searched for friends and survivors. Heart hammering in his chest, barely keeping down the bile that built up in the back of his throat, he pushed forward and guided who he could to safety.  

Rounding onto a main road to Tradesburrow square, Aezon was met with the sight of Barrett Lovell already bloodied and holding on to life by a single thread. And he fell. Before he could react, steel pierced through Aezon’s armor, rended his breast and shattered his clavicle in a near-instant deathblow. Falling back, Aezon pleaded with the Raven Queen to aid him in vengeance. Warm blood pooling where he laid, vision blurring and breath shallowing, he watched Barrett’s limp form fade from vision.

Several hours, or perhaps days, passed where Aezon laid still. By some miracle, breath returned to his lungs. Caked in blood and bone fragments, unable to move his left arm, and in a dazed state, his eyes opened. A cold, late-autumn rain fell, and smoke rose from cinders still left burning. At his side sat a silvered blade adorned with an ornate, blackened hilt.  

The new warlock reached out for it, gritted his teeth and used it to steady himself as he stood. He was much weaker than he anticipated, and a voice called out to him. Kaleb appeared, climbing over the smoldering rubble of what was once a bakery. Plumes of smoke surrounded the town square, small groups of people picked through ruins and gathered bodies. Aezon locked eyes with Hollowguard’s leader for a moment, and his vision faded once again.
The next time he woke, Aezon was bandaged, emaciated, and in the warm and familiar living room which he grew up in. He was alone, and noticed the blade sat on a nearby shelf. Over the next few weeks, his mother scolded him for moving too much, his father treated his wounds, and he awaited his friends to enter the room ready to berate him for nearly dying.
But he knew what he saw, and nobody came.