Our story begins in the village of Haven. It is a town of over 300 families located on Feyfoot Isle, inside the Bay of Gazing. We find our new heroes sitting at a large banquet table as honoured guests. They are Direli Wolfswift, a female human fighter with a burdened past, Baba Zephyr, a male human druid with ambitions of being the village's medicine man with an affinity for snakes and poisons, Finley Clearwater, a courageous halfling warrior, a legend amongst his family, and Alera Goldwing, a human wizard, daughter of a merchant family. All four have been friends in the town since childhood.
They were chosen, along with a dozen other villagers, by the town leaders Therrah Gerrywill, an old white haired man, and Jennu Kehlash, a very old Silver Dragon, to compete in a competition to see who would earn the right to rename the town, a tradition that happens every half a century.
After the feast, all four teams were to sleep in the same long house on the docks. When Direli went for a jog before resting, she heard the sounds of paddling off in the distance. When she alerted a nearby guard to the noise, they soon realized that they were about to be attacked by pirates. The guard ran to gather reinforcements while Direli woke the other competitors to help defend the harbour.
The new foursome was put to the test, along with several other groups who had never seen true combat before. They all fought bravely though, and were able to repel the attackers with ease. Jennu flew above and out into the bay to deal with the main ship. His roar, and the cries of the terrified pirates rang through the giant canyon. No one from the town died that night, or suffered any grievous injury.
The following morning, despite the events of the previous night, the village thought it best to help raise the spirits of the town after the attack. They would continue with the competition.
The four competitors were led to their areas. The events were an Arcane Alteration challenge, a wildlife taming challenge, a marksmanship challenge, as well as a one-on-one duel.
The four heroes all prevailed in their respective competitions, and overall placements were announced. the top two teams were to take part in a 4 on 4 battle to decide who would gain a large advantage in the conclusion of the festival.
The two teams met in the arena the following day. The arena had Clerics surrounding it to act as first aid should any of the competitors suffer great wounds, but even those precautions wouldn't be enough.
It was an incredibly tense fight, but things took a terrible turn when Direli, empowered by one of Alera's spells, dealt a fantastically powerful blow to the other side's strongest warrior. Argo, the half-orc barbarian was killed immediately, and the clerics on the side were helpless to save him. With the remainder of the group staggered, Jennu flew down and grabbed the body of the barbarian in his claws, as well as one of his other severely wounded allies and took them away.
The crowd, shocked at what they had just witnessed, cheered. The four heroes left the arena, rather disgusted at their town's reaction to such violence. It was a tragic accident. Therrah would assume responsibility for not taking all the precautions needed to protect his townsfolk from harm, and would need to find a way to begin the healing process after Argo's death.
The four heroes named the city Nevermore, so that the town would never again allow something like this to happen. The town was to become a beacon of peace, and protection.
The town was then left to contemplate the events of the day, while one of the group's friends came bearing information on the pirate's attack from the night before...
To Be Continued...
