Chapter One - Part One: Greenest In Flames

The cultist howls in pain as Octavia’s spear drags across his upper thigh. He’s not in as bad a shape as the injured kobold. Kel swings at it with her sword but it manages to deflect the blow with its dagger. However Kel once again using that moment swings around with her leg as delivers another absolutely devastating kick to its chest. The kobold looks like its choking for a few moments before it falls dead to the ground.

The cultist swings his sword at Octavia and draws a gash across her left upper arm. The kobolds look scared, glancing over at the cultist quickly. They decide to stay and they try to stab Kel and the Greenest guard, but their frantic attacks are easily repelled.

Map as of start of round 2

While Kirsk and Octavia are locked in a duel with the cultist who surprisingly are managing to dodge and deflect their attacks. Zachary mumbles an incantation. You all hear the sound of a large bell tolling and the two kobolds drop to their knees, blood pouring out of their pointy ears. One of them drops to the ground dead, the other one is left barely standing.

The cultist slashed wildly at Octavia and again hits, this time her right thigh. The kobold on the other hand wants no more part of this. Despite being afraid of the cult, it’s currently way more afraid of this group of characters. It turns to flee off into the night. The guard is quick to seize the opportunity though and he thrusts his spear forward, burying it deep into the side of the kobold. It falls dead.

The cultist looks around at his fallen comrade and the dead kobolds. With a trembling hand he throws down his sword, gets to his knees and puts his hands in the air. His face may be obscured, but there’s no doubt that he’s terrified. "P-p-please...I-I yield!".

The cultist shakily dresses down to his breeches. As he removes his mask you can tell that he's probably not much older than 20. The Greenest guard shakes his head in response to Octavia's query as he binds the cultist's hands behind his back and yanks him roughly to his feet. "Get up you scum! You have much to answer for!". He drags him along with him and turns to you just before they disappear into the tunnel, "Thank you for your help, we've been stretched so thin...I don't think we would've been able to catch one without you. I'll make sure to get back to my post here as soon as I've delivered the prisoner to Governor Nighthill. I'll be seeing you soon. Good luck".

They disappear into the dark, leaving you standing in the shallow stream amongst the dead raiders. Towards the east you can see the faint outline of the temple tower in the orange sky.

You all travel east, following the stream for about 2-300 feet. The temple towers above most of the other buildings in the city and the stream takes you straight to it, so you have no issue keeping your bearings. As you approach you climb onto the bank and move up to the wall surrounding the temple. The temple itself is square in shape and is made of fieldstone with a peaked slate roof, the wall is short enough for you to climb over but you will remain hidden while crouching behind it.

As you approach you see the back of the temple and a group of raiders consisting of four men (3 are human sized and 1 whose slightly shorter stature and stoutness makes you think he might be a dwarf) and four kobolds. The men are all dressed in masks and similar black leather tunics with flared mantles as the two men you encountered by the tunnel.

They are heaping burning straw up against the back door, but have had no success in actually causing any damage to the structure. The only thing they've succeeded in is creating huge, black plumes of smoke that has started to cover the surrounding area and which grows denser as you observe them. You hear the dwarf angrily shout at one of the other cultists, "I thought ye knew how te set a bloody fire!".

You can also hear intermittent loud thuds and a few voices coming from the front of the temple, but you can't see them from where you are.

Temple of Chauntea