Having become more experienced in their roles and abilities, the party breaks camp and begins trekking towards Fal-Hatet again. They note that their melting of the bridge below must have worked; they see no further signs of kobolds exiting the tunnels, and no one has touched the giant’s corpses slain the previous day.
The party stalks through the winding, mountainous passages, until they come across the aftermath of a bloody battle. Half a dozen kobolds litter the path; some killed with brutal blows, one decapitated with a broken shield, and one with the haft of a maul jammed into its skull, laying near a dragonborn, slumped against a rock, and clade in what was once ornate plate armor, now sundered, pin cushioned with crossbow bolts.
As they approach, the dragon hisses out “finish me, you tiny scaled cowards..”
The party realizes that the dragonborn is not quite dead yet, and probably a bit delirious. They give her some water, and are able to ascertain that their feeble skills cannot heal her grievous wounds. They attempt to comfort her, and slowly she becomes lucid enough to talk.
The party learns that their task might be a little more perilous than they were led to believe. The errant paladin Sora was part of a group sent on the same task a few days before the party embarked. They made it to the town, but walked into an ambush and were overrun. Their druid was slain immediately; their barbarian raged and flung himself into the thickest mass of foes; and their roguish guide disappeared. She attempted to smite the Elder Mountain Giant that approached her party, but her ancient holy powers faltered. A warforged fighter named Bulwark ntervened; stoically taking blows meant for her, though the Elder Giant, who favored two equally giant axes, soon overpowered the metal man. Powerless, she fled, and was pursued by kobolds. She made her stand here, and while wounded, the kobolds were recalled before they delivered the killing blow. She unclasps a tome, chained to her belt, and gives it to the party. It is a chronicle of her life and deeds. Should they ever run into another paladin of the Wayward Blades, the party is to give them her tome, so the order can study and learn from her life, as is customary. With her last breaths, Sora implores the party not to be too hasty, and to not split the party.
The party continues on, arriving shortly at Fal-Hatet… and almost immediately begin ignoring Sora sage advice. The town is U shaped, it’s hightest point in the upper left of the U, then descending down to the bottom of the U, and eventually even further down, to the upper right of the U. Zyn was able to quietly guide the party off the main path and into the second floor of a building in town, but while the party begins planning their plan of attack, Bearchief topples out of the building onto the ground, and some enemy patrols are alerted.
Quick thinking and quick reflexes were able silence the patrols’ call to arms, and the party is able to find and consecrate one of Brenda’s brethren, who had been bludgeoned to dust. The party investigate a few buildings, and find evidence of a conflagration, and some dispatch some zombies lurching out of the burnt out building.
Encountering another patrol of kobolds, Bearchief roars, intimidating them, but also alerting the rest of the town to the party’s presence.
An arduous, brutal street fight ensues, with the party fighting their way all the way to the bottom of the town, where a (slightly) better-equipped giant shouts a warning into the chapel. The party end him, and peer into the shadows wondering what perils will await them in the chapel of the Sealers of the Stone Maw...
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