by Alyssa "Esper" Lee
We were summoned to the city of Dahme within Gau Dring. The Guild of the Guilty had taken over the growing town, and we were called to help. Past the city gates, we found the streets in chaos. As soon as we entered, we were met with lost citizens and hordes of the Eshkin, white goblin like creatures aligned with the Guild. We were able to fight our way in, but unfortunately not without civilian casualties.
We continued our quest, weaving through back alleys and greater parts of town, doing our best to clear the streets of invaders. However, the Eshkin weren’t our only problem. We were met with a rampaging minotaur. It was only by luck that a collapsing building separated it from us. However, in our mad dash to flee, we left behind one of our own: Borjid.
The party continued on to an outpost within the town. One of the city guards warned us of an impending attack, imploring us to shore up our defenses for a gruelling battle. However, many of us couldn’t take our minds off the comrade we’d left behind. We returned to the scene of the collapse, intent on digging our friend out. It was amidst this split that the attack began.
The outcome of the battle was not certain, but finally we emerged victorious. Instrumental in our victory was the town’s ballista, which we ultimately used to slay the minotaur. With the area clear of hostile combatants, we continued our search for Borjid. We found his skeleton, picked clean by the Eshkin.
Through the dismay of our loss, we continued into more treacherous territory. Scattered throughout the pits and alleys, we found items left behind by the ill-fated populace. Among these items were Borjid’s own possessions. Using these, his remains, and a bit of magic, we were able to return our friend to the land of the living.
Borjid was not the only person we had to rescue. We split up to save more citizens of the town, some who had been kidnapped, some who had been left behind in burning buildings to die. Meanwhile, a third contingent stayed behind to guard what little of the town we had taken into our control. How could we rescue the people if they didn’t have anywhere to go after?
After the rescues, the party reunited to combat the onslaught of Eshkin. We were successful in pushing them back. Our defense became a pursuit. The fight was all but won until we came upon a large monster the size of ten men. The beast was ravenous. It devoured its own allies, the Eshkin, without abandon, and surely would have done the same to us if we had gotten close enough. Fortunately, we were able to employ the town’s ballista again to slay it, slinging bombs down its cavernous mouth.