Chapter 1: Second Chances

The year is 1586 DR. Alton Quickstep and Kathra Fireforge are two criminals released onto the Silver Marches in order to pay for their crimes by working as adventurers and mercenaries. They gather together in Hawk’s inn, an establishment run by an ex-adventurer in the heart of Nesme’s western quarter. A popular gathering place for adventurers, the inn’s proprietor Hawk gathers rumours and leads and posts them on a board to be perused by the inn’s patrons.
Kathra and Alton began their adventuring career by collecting a note from the board warning that a group of Elven nomads outside the gates were attacked by creatures and had a valuable item stolen. After meeting with the wood elves, they learned that the creatures had stolen a bear-claw amulet from them. The amulet had tremendous sentimental value, and belonged to their druid. The elves’ command of the common tongue left much to be desired, and made communication difficult and misleading. At one point, the elven caravaners tried to sell the group a dog. They suggested asking around town to see if anyone knew of the creatures.
Back in town, Hawk pointed the two to Dwarf Town, saying that the rumour was brought in by a pair of Dwarven traders from Mithral Hall. At Moradin’s throng, a tavern in Dwarf Town, they learned nothing of the creatures by were pointed to the garrison by the tavern’s proprietor Meradin Bitterbeard.
At the garrison, the two adventurers spoke to a Dwarven clerk who told them about kobold attacks that had been happening around nesme. He revealed that kobolds had moved into the Troll Moors nearly 100 years ago. The townsfolk at the time had captured one of them and learned that they came from the High Moor north of Secomber, where they served a Green dragon that had been killed by adventurers. They sought a new master in the troll moors, and settled into caves and dens in the swamp when they never found one. The clerk told them if they returned kobold tails, he might be able to pay them a bounty.
After gathering supplies, the two departed towards the swamps. On the way, they came across a very young Knight-in-training from Cormyr named Wolder Tolon. He was also tracking the kobolds, and joined them on the hunt. After a mishap leading the group to track a crocodile rather than the kobolds, they made their way deeper into the swamp. During the night, they were attacked by kobolds and slew them easily. Using their fresh tracks, the group found the kobold den and made their way inside.
The den proved to be a maze of narrow tunnels, filled with kobolds and traps. The kobolds proved largely easy to defeat, but several varieties of kobolds including winged beasts and some with higher-level intellect proved more difficult. In one particularly narrow tunnel, Alton failed to disarm a trap and a bucket of acid was dropped over the group, nearly killing them. As the group made their way through the den, they killed the kobolds and smashed any kobold eggs they found. Finally, they reached a shrine depicting a large rocky creature battling a dragon and winning. The shrine was guarded by a kobold druid who turned into a black bear and assaulted them. After killing the druid and his retinue (and finding the bear claw amulet), the group found a hoard of coins and items stolen by the kobolds from traveling merchants in the area. They gathered the treasure and headed back out into the swamp, returning to Nesme within a few days.
Back in Nesme, the group sold their treasure and turned in the kobold tails at the garrison for 2 gold pieces per tail. After returning the amulet to the elves, they were paid 400 gold for their efforts. The elves proved to be much easier to communicate with (and more courteous) when speaking the elven tongue (with Kathra obliging).