You have an uneventful night at the Wayside Inn.

The next morning,as you are preparing to head out, a young halfling named Silla Scalesweep approaches your group. She wears her long hair in five braids atop her head, and she is very talkative.

"Would you allow me to travel with you, if you are heading on to Leilon?" She asks the group of you, looking up at you hopefully.

"We are heading that way," Last Tree Standing agrees. "But I'm not sure if you want to be traveling with us. We seem to run into a lot of troublez and monsterz. Why are you heading for Leilon?"

She listens to the halfling with a strange sense of suspicion, wondering if the story she tells is true. (Insight 13 )

Silla smiles up at Last Tree. "I am hoping to get hired on as a fisher by Valdi Estapaar, the woman in charge of the fishery in the town." She explains. "I can play you some music as we walk if you wish..." She adds on, hoping her ability with her instrament might sway you to her cause. "But, if you powerful adventurers are likely to be in trouble on the walk, think of how a small halfling like myself would fair..."

Her words ring true to Last Tree.

"What do you think Last Tree? It should not be too much trouble to allow her to travel with us." Then Reginald looks at the halfling, "or at least she shouldn't be any trouble for the likes of us."

Seruk shrugs, "We're headed off that way, if she'd like to tag along, I don't see any reason why not."

"I won't be any trouble." Silla says with a smile. "I can tell you all about my trip this far, and play music as we walk, and even help with anything you need help with..." She looks really really hopeful you will let her travel with you.

With a twinkle in his eye Reginald will lean down and ask her, "Have you ever ridden on an elephant?" And then without waiting for a response he will lift her up and place her on the back of the elephant behind Last Tree.

Then he will jump up onto his horse, "We all ready to go?"

"Let's go!" Last Tree Standing agrees. "Elmer likes you."

She mutters as an aside, "TOLD you an elephant would be useful."

The travel goes uneventfully as the day lengthens into afternoon. As you are getting closer to your destination though you find...

Roughly fifty people stand in a clearing just off the High Road, where the forest to the northeast and the swampland to the southwest give way to grassland for a bit on each side of the road. The beginnings of gardens or larger fields of crops are half-dug here.

The people mill about in a panic. Some shake in fear, others shout in anger, and in the center of it all an enraged dwarf waves her arms and tries to get those around her to listen. A bored-looking human in a chain shirt and shield decorated with the sigil of Neverwinter stands next to the dwarf. He finally bangs his spear against his shield to quiet the tumult.

The dwarf begins by berating the townsfolk for being such an unruly mob as they evacuated the town. She calls out a few individuals by name, shaming them in front of the group.

She asks if anyone saw anything strange happening in the town as they were evacuating. One of the stonemasons claims that she saw something strange happening in the water out on the swampland, past the marsh islands, but then she picked up her tools and ran as the soldiers ordered her to evacuate.

Another stonemason claims to have heard some of the returning fishing-folk, who were still out on their skiffs in the marshland, shouting in panic. Others nod and “harrumph” to indicate they heard this as well.

At this point a short dragonborn wearing a holy symbol of Lathander shouts, “May the Morninglord forgive me! We are missing two of the children. Smithwell and Burnice aren’t here. They were right behind me as we left the town.”

This pronouncement sends the collected townsfolk into a panic again, forcing the guard to put spear to shield to quiet the crowd.

The dragonborn insists that they must immediately go back to town to retrieve the children, consequences be damned. The dwarf insists that they stay right here until one of the soldiers from the town comes to tell them that it is safe. Until then, no one is going anywhere.

Seruk sighs as they approach, "I don't know if its bad that we keep running across so much trouble, or good that we have an opportunity to prove ourselves useful to the locals."

(What are we doing here guys?)

"Seems like an opportunity to me, to at least spread our name a bit further." Aria says as she follows Seruk. Looking the crowd over, she calls out to the dwarf. "Maybe we could be of assistance? What exactly happened here?"

Reginald dismounts form his horse, as it might be a bit unsettling to the villager and commands it to stay behind. Then approaches the dragonborn and introduces the group. "Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, did I overhear you lost some children back in town? We can help but what are we to expect waiting for us in town?"

The dwarf and dragonborn look to you as the group walks over, many eyes of the folk going to the massive elephant with Last Tree atop it.

"We don't know." the dwarf growls out. "No one be seeing what be causing all the trouble, just turning and running off without actually seeing nothing. Best just be waiting right here until the threat is past, whatever it be."

Patrice gives their business cards to those who seem to be in charge and turns to the others.
“Maybe we can find out.”

Her raven lands on her shoulder and Patrice coddles him for a bit, then gives instructions to check things out. The raven flies off obediently.

"Yes, it seems we will be neighbors and speakikng for the group, that we want nothing but peace in the area. We are a capable bunch and will go in to the city and rescue the kids that were mentioned just as soon as my friends ravens responds back. When we go in all that I ask is that you watch over our mounts." Reginald reassures the townsfolk.

Seruk stays on the elephant and sends his bat to help Patrice's raven look around the area.

The ravena nd bat barely head towards town when they come flapping back, alerting the approach of danger...

Strange knights bearing a symbol with three lightning bolts striking ride horses made of water. Accompanied by a wagon full of archers, pulled by another of the water steeds. They head straight for the cluster of villagers.

The steeds move at 30 feet per round, and otherwise cannot attack or be harmed.

As the strange knights and archers attack, the rest of the citizens of Leilon scatter. The acolytes of Lathander shepherd the children to safety, and the rest of the adults move toward the safety of the nearby trees. The human in the chain shirt and shield decorated with the sigil of Neverwinter, it should be noted, flees faster than anyone.

Roll initiative. I'll be putting together a map.

Last Tree Standing initiative: 9

Patrice Initiative 5