Chapter 1: Blood and Lightning

If Hrafe tries to recall, the beast is not one he has met before, but it was large, had wings, and breathed lightning. There are no sorcerers here, but it is not unlikely to be a dragon.

You collect your things and your breath and continue down the road. You camp another night and wake up the next day, arriving at Boltstrike Tower a little after noon. You see a tower that looks more like a massive stone column that is hollowed out to allow people inside rather than a tower build brick by brick from the ground up. It is surrounded by a few stone and timber dwellings or storage structures, a well, an herb garden, small pens for livestock such as goats and sheep, and an archery range where you see some soldiers practicing. As you look at the tower, you get the sense that it is a notch above what you can handle at your current skill level.As you approach, you are greeted by a few individuals. The one in front is a half-elf woman in wizardly robes, but you think you hear chain armor as she walks. Next to her is a human in robes, and carries himself like an excited mage. The rest seem to be guards, all fighters by the look of it. The woman speaks first. "Greetings. You must be the adventurers that I was told would be coming to help us. This is Boltstrike tower, an old spire we use due to its residual magic to control the weather. My name is Ameliefor, and I am the commander here. I would like to get straight to business. How was your journey here?"

"Goblins you say?" Ameliefor says with surprise. "Our divination magic did not detect the presence of goblins. And necromancy, you say? We can't assume it is the Lich King's work, but it is safe to assume he or his minions may be involved. Well for now, let us get you settled in. You cannot enter the tower for a while, as we need to perform a ritual to allow you to be seen as guests or else the barrier will slowly kill you." As she says this, you notice a light hum in the air that you may have mistaken for a ringing in your ear. However, you realize after this comment that this must be a sound produced by the invisible barrier around the tower. "I was also instructed to give you a weapon we have here named Glazentorg. It is attuned to the tower and thus cannot be removed from it, but we are working on a ritual to end its attunement that will be done by midnight. My second in command here, Varis, will answer any further questions you have. I must attend to the divination. Long live the Dragon Emperor." Ameliefor strikes a pose and walks off. All but 2 of the soldiers and Varis remain.

Varis speaks up. "It is a pleasure to meet you. Apologies for the short conversation. Ameliefor is a 'straight to business' person. I can answer any of your questions, whether about the work here or anything else. However, I do have one for you first. Who will be taking Glaezentorg?"

"Understood." Varis takes out a notepad and writes something down. "I will tell the mage to give Glaentorg to you. What was your name again?" He gets the name Hrafe and writes that down. "Now, the divinations takes about 10 minutes. Do you have any questions for me while we wait? This may be a good time to introduce yourself as well. We knew adventurers were coming but not who to expect."

"There have been rumors of the Three arranging an attack against the tower. We are safe as long as we have the barrier, but not enough guards to investigates signs of troops massing nearby. You will be asked to take care of anything that is not immediately near the tower."

"This tower is very safe, but also extremely important. It is 2 days away from a fortress, and if it could be used to manifest storms then most of the people within a few days travel would be at the mercy of those storms. If they do have a plan, we hope the divination will find them and we can have you deal a big enough blow that they abandon the idea."

"Well," Varis looks back at the tower. "The commander's divination shouldn't take much longer. She will have a mission for you soon, if the divination finds anything that is. We didn't see anything about goblins on the road earlier, which is odd. You can ask me more questions or walk around outside of the tower for the next 5 or so minutes.

Varius looks at Hrafe. "Glaezentorg is a weapon that was taken from an Orc leader. It wants violence and tries to make its wielder more violent, but a strong soul can resist. It is too violent, however, for the guards here to use and so we figured a group of adventurers would make a better home so we mentioned it when we asked for assistance."

Looking to Salix, "We have been controlling the weather for long enough that I do not recall the natural weather. I believe there used to be some flooding, which inspired the tower to begin with. Nothing evil, but irritating as it would wipe out homes some years if built too close to a river a few miles from here. For the most part, now the the tower is in operation, it is more about not letting it in the wrong hands."