Nightstone
Played on February 25, 2018
15 Tarsakh, The Year of Twelve Warnings (1494 DR)
Village of Nightstone, The Sword Coast
Grat Ur’Gray woke up in pain.
A bugbear, Grat had been raised in the small fortified village of Nightstone located a few miles south of the Ardeep Forest, in the untamed hills between Waterdeep and Daggerford. A shield dwarf named Morak Ur’gray who owns and runs the Nightstone Inn took the bugbear infant into his care after a group of adventurers dropped him off with no explanation. Before leaving they offered a bag of gold coins to help take care of the infant bugbear. They asked Morak to name the bugbear, Grat.
Grat grew under Morak’s care. Even the other villagers took to the bugbear. Grat was later taught the ways of an Eldritch Knight by a friend of Morak’s who stopped by to visit several weeks ago.
Grat pushed a solid wooden table off him. A rock, some 5 feet across lay next to him. A dead goblin with a crossbow bolt sticking out of its chest lay next to the injured bugbear. Looking up, it seemed the rock punched through the roof, crashed through the upper story, and smashed into the Nightstone Inn’s dining room, destroying a dining table and a pair of long benches on impact.
As Grat slowly regained his senses, he could hear someone rummaging through the kitchen area nearby. Looking towards the window, Grat saw that it was morning. He recalled how he and Morak were cleaning up the dining room before soon after evenfeast when they both heard screaming villagers outside followed by a deafening crash. Then everything went black. How long had he been out, Grat wondered?
Focusing upon his powers as an Eldritch Knight, he called to his hands his bonded weapons, a set of battleaxes he kept in a locked chest in his room upstairs. He wished he could his set of chainmail armor to him.
Catching his second wind, Grat felt a rush of energy flow throughout his body. It helped ignore the many cuts and bruises left by splinters of wood across his body.
After getting up, Grat heard movement upstairs and noticed a movement by the kitchen door. He quickly spied a female goblin who was aiming a shortbow at him!
As a reaction, Grat conjured a magical shield. The arrow struck the magical shield and shattered to pieces. Grat charged at the door and with one feral strike, cut the female goblin in half.
Looking past the goblin, Grat saw that the goblin had filled a sack full of food and cooking utensils.
Grat made his way upstairs where he remembered a human woman had rented a room. He found the woman inside her room. A winged snake was curled around the woman’s left arm. The woman held a hand crossbow and was also armed with a shortsword. She wasn’t wearing any armor but was only clothed in a traveler’s outfit.
He introduced himself. The woman said her name was Kella Darkhope. She had remained in her room after the boulder crashed through her room. She tried to leave the safety of her room after waiting an entire day but thought twice when two goblins arrived late last night.
When asked, Kella said Grat had been unconscious for two days. She thought he was dead. One of the goblins was going to stab Grat with a scimitar when she shot the goblin.
Grat thanked her for that.
He asked if she knew where Morak was. He had found a half-orc crushed under the boulder downstairs but there was no sign of the dwarf. Grat recalled a half-orc talking to Morak and him about paying for a night’s stay when the the rock struck. Kella said she saw Morak check Grat to see if he was alive. The dwarf must have thought he was dead. Screams of terrified villagers forced the dwarf to leave Grat’s body behind. She saw Morak leave the inn and did not return.
He offered to help Kella escape but she was reluctant to leave the safety of her room until the village was completely safe from goblins. Grat said he would return then left her and headed outside, but not before going to his room. Grat broke down the door and found the room he and Morak shared all but completely destroyed. A locked chest containing is armor and that Morak’s stood under a window. It took a few tries for Grat to break the lock. He only hoped he hadn’t broken the two potions he knew were inside the chest.
He was grateful to Mielikki the potions did not break. He first donned his armor. He then drank the potion labeled “healing” then consumed the potion of heroism Morak purchased for an emergency.
I think this is an emergency, Grat thought.
Outside, Grat looked across the street. He saw a pair of goblins busy chasing a large hog inside a muddy pen belonging to a middle-aged human woman named Semile Southwell, who raised pigs and chickens.
Further down the street, Grat spotted a pair of mangy worgs–large wolf-like beasts used by goblins as mounts–fighting over the remains of a dog. Past the stable house owned by the Nandar family, Grat saw a lone goblin inside the East Tower which stood 20 feet high and can be entered through a door which Grat noticed was ajar. The goblin was barely visible behind the tower’s stone crenellated battlement.
Grat snuck across the street and entered what remained of the Southwell house. Grat was saddened to see Semile’s body crushed by a huge rock that crashed through the woman’s house. Grat recalled how Semile used to offer him bacon she was fond of cooking.
Unaware of his presence the two goblins didn’t notice the bugbear’s approach until it was too late. When they finally did notice Grat, he thought the goblins must have taken him for some wild humanoid because they didn’t draw their weapons.
Grat took advantage of the goblins’ mistake.
After killing both goblins, Grat hurled a magic missile at the goblin inside the East Tower. Unfortunately the spell didn’t slay the goblin outright. Seconds later, the goblin whistled and called upon the two large worgs nearby.
Grat quickly made his way back to the inn. He ran upstairs and warned Kella about the worgs. Moments later, the beasts entered the inn through a gaping hole in the kitchen and made their way to the dining room.
Grat and Kella ran to the top of the stairs where they fought the worgs. Grat managed to kill one worg. The other, after being severely wounded, ran back outside.
Grat ran after it, followed by Kella and her pet flying snake.
When the worg saw Grat and Kella, it rushed at them both. Grat waited until it reached him. He struck it dead before it could bite him.
Grat and Kella quietly made their way to the stable house down the street. From the stable’s front doors, Grat was able to see the village square. The square was a muddy open area with a 5-foot-deep hole in the middle of it. The nightstone once stood there. The obsidian megalith had strange glyphs carved into it and radiated magic under the scrutiny of detect magic spells, but its properties and purpose couldn’t be ascertained. The villagers assumed it was a relic of some bygone age or kingdom and left it alone.
But someone–or something–had taken the megalith and left the hole behind. North of the hole was a covered well. Other features of the village square included an empty wooden cart and a couple of tethering posts planted firmly into the ground. From the square, Grat and Kella can see signs identifying the Nightstone Inn and the Lionshield Coster trading post.
Once inside the stable, Gart closed the door and looked around. There was a large gaping hole in the stable’s roof some twenty feet above. A hayloft occupied the upper half of the stable, accessible by two ladders. A large rock was embedded deeply in the dirt ground. Five draft horses and five riding horses were still confined in their stalls.
The fleeing villagers didn’t have time to free the horses Grat noted. He and Kella went to give the horses some food and water they found.
When they had completed their tasks, Grat climbed up to the hayloft. Kella followed him.
The hayloft was filled with haystacks and sacks of oats.
Suddenly, an arrow zipped past Gart. He spotted a goblin poking its head out from behind a haystack. The bugbear immediately rushed the goblin. But instead of killing it outright, he slapped the goblin with the flat of his battleaxe, knocking it unconscious.
“Why didn’t you kill it?” asked Kella.
“It can give us information about the other goblins,” Gart answered. He then shook the goblin bringing the creature back to consciousness.
During the next few minutes he questioned the goblin, who said its name was Derp. Gart didn’t have to interrogate the goblin at all since it apparently considered Gart an ally. Gart, again, took advantage of a goblin mistake.
Gart learned that three days ago, a cloud giant castle passed over Nightstone and dropped large rocks on the settlement and its keep. Unable to defend themselves against the bombardment, villagers who weren’t killed in the attack lowered the drawbridge and fled into the nearby hills, taking refuge in some caves. The villagers were surprised to find a clan of goblins and an allied pair of ogres lurking in the caves. The villagers were ambushed, captured, and brought before Hark, the goblin boss. Hark interrogated them, learned of the giant attack on Nightstone, and sent a band of goblins to plunder the abandoned village.
Gart knocked the goblin out with the pummel of his battleaxe after the goblin had revealed what it knew. “Morak may be among the survivors,” he said to Kella.
“Possibly. But first, the village must be freed of goblins. Otherwise you risk the villagers’ lives if they returned with goblins still around.”
Gart agreed.
Kella also mentioned that she had friends who would be arriving to Nightstone soon. When asked who they were, she revealed to the bugbear that her friends were fellow Zhentarims who could help with the problem at hand.
Gart tried to recall what he knew of Zhentarims, but he could only remember that they were mercenaries. Kella assured Gart that the Zhentarims would make sure that Nightstone and its citizens would be kept safe from any future attacks.
Gart sensed that Kella wasn’t telling him everything. He wondered if the Zhentarims would be better or worse than goblins, or even giants.
Dramatis Personae
Grat Ur’Gray (male bugbear Eldritch Knight)
Kella Darkhope (female human fighter)
Plot type
Chapter
Parent Plot
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