Safely within the temple, the group barricades the doors and huddles together until morning. Zelena keeps watch overnight. As an elf, she requires only 4 hours of rest each night. Around 2 hours past midnight, her ears perk up to the sound of very large wings beating outside. Something huge and heavy lands on the roof of the temple and shakes the building, creating a cloud of dust inside. The beams holding up the ceiling bend downward under the increased weight. After a moment, a booming voice shouts out like the sound of thunder, “Peasants, all of you insects. I appreciate your tribute to me, Lithium, the Blue Fire, and to the Dragon Queen herself. Muahahaha…” Following this brief speech, Z hears a loud scraping noise as Lithium takes flight again. The rest of the night was dead silent.

In the morning, the town of Greenest collects itself. Refugees of the temple and the keep trickle out to see all the fires have been put out. Outside of town, a few hearty folks start digging holes six-feet deep. Issa chats with the local masons and, with their guidance, uses her burning hands to bend the metal beams of the temple back into place. Nymbee sees a tall man to whom she owes several hundred gold, and she immediately ducks behind Z to remain unseen. He is too preoccupied complaining about his destroyed house to notice the little gnome. Vola sits quietly in the pews, contemplating what choices led her to this moment.

After a few hours, Cassie the Governor enters the scene. All the townfolk stop what they are doing to bow their heads in her direction and murmur, “Mi’lady.” With a wave, she dismisses them. Behind her trails a young man limping with his right leg in a splint. He grunts and rests against the wall. Cassie speaks, “Strangers, thank you for your assistance last night. You managed to protect my people and allow Sir James to defend our food supplies. The people of Greenest are in your debt.” She bows slightly and continues, “If you are willing, we require further assistance. Many of our locals have gone missing overnight. Not killed, as I initially thought, but witnesses say they were carried away by the raiders. In addition, most of our valuables, gems, and coins have been removed from our homes. If you are true adventurers, could you find the raiders’ camp and return our people? They cannot have gone far in only a few hours.”

The women mumble together for a moment. Surviving a dragon attack creates an unspoken trust among warriors. “Yes, we can find your people.”

“Excellent. Upon your return I can provide for each of you 300 gold.” Then Cassie points behind her at the injured man. “This is Nelson. He may have some useful information.” She turns to exit the temple, “Thank you and good luck.”

Nelson waves slightly, balancing one arm on the wall and wincing while shifting his weight slightly between legs, “He… Hello, ladies. I’m Nelson.”

Zelena brings a chair over to him. “Hi, Nelson, what do you know?”

He sits awkwardly to keep his splinted leg straight. “Thank you. I am a monk in training. Last night I also arrived in town with my master Leosin Erlanthar. That blue dragon cast it’s lighting breath directly at us, and I lost him in the flash. I jumped right and Leo jumped left. I bolted to the keep and stayed there all night with the townsfolk. This morning, I returned to where the dragon hit us, but all I found was Leo’s necklace.” He holds up a silver necklace. The charm is a crescent moon and a harp, but the clasp is clearly broken. “I fear he has been captured along with the villagers. When you find the camp, could you please look for him as well?”

“What does he look like?”

“He is an elf with long dark hair that he usually keeps tied back. Average height. Wears a leather armor.”

“Alright, we will look for him too.” Issa asks to take the necklace; it may help in the quest.

They pack up their things and head out to the edge of town. Nymbee kneels down to the inspect the ground, happy to be away from her lender. She sees a deep path of footprints leading southwest into the wilderness. The trail leads away from rolling green hills into fresh scenery of steep rocky plateaus. After a few silent hours, the tracks lead between two outcroppings. As soon as the group steps foot between them, a dozen arrows shoot out from above. Several raiders jump out from behind the rocks, screaming with daggers at the ready. Zelena throws up an ice knife to pierce those atop the outcroppings. Issa wild shapes into an elephant to trample everything coming their direction. Realizing this ambush was a bad idea, one raider decides to make a run for it. Vola throws a fireball at him, exploding a good portion of the rocks in the process. The last remaining ambusher fights to the bitter end. Phoebe slices off his head in a single swing of her axe saying, “No time for questions.”

-In general, the players and I all struggle with roleplaying conversations. It takes practice. Even though I fumble though a lot of the conversations, we always have a good time. I think this session began the “kill first think later” strategy. They could have saved the last ambusher for questioning, but why would they do that?

-Side note, the character represented by Phoebe is a combination of two paladins whose players left our group for various reasons.