A party of four adventurers and Ragath Blackgranite were among the few
patrons sleeping peacefully at the Ol' Boar Inn in the small town of
Oakhaven (pop. 900).

For the four adventurers - Adoemos, Aetius, Rheanna, and Shadow - it was
just another stop on the New Road to rest up and figure out where to go
next. They had adventured together for a few months now and survived many
dangers. Adventuring gave them both a sense of purpose and quite a good
income. It felt good to be doing something out in the world instead of
hiding in some pocket of civilization performing repetitive, tedious tasks
in the hopes of making a decent living.

To Ragath, it was a place where he was known, respected, and could meditate
in peace as he reflected upon all that had occurred a couple of weeks past.
In the Sunless Citadel and the wild caverns underneath he had found evil and
helped to destroy it. In fighting for his life against the goblins and their
master, he had felt a sense of retribution for the death of his parents.
Still, some of the things that were done disturbed him, and although he was
glad to see that his training was paying off he saw no need to be happy in
killing the goblins. It was just another test - another lesson to reflect
upon and finally put away in his memory.

For these five things were about to change. They were all to be tested
again.

A couple of hours past midnight, the inn's silence was shattered by the
muffled screams of children downstairs and adults elsewhere inside.

Upon awakening, Ragath sensed something in his room. He leapt up and saw
four goblins wearing the same colors as those within the Sunless Citadel. He
shouted in goblin for them to stop, and without pausing to consider his
words they immediately attacked. Ragath dodged the crude morning stars of
three of them, but took a hard hit to the side by the fourth - the spikes
digging into his flesh. He brought the goblin that hit him down with a skull
crushing blow to the head, and was able to dodge the other three as he took
them all out with two lightning fast flurries of attacks. After bringing the
goblins down he smelled smoke, so he gathered his belongings preparing to
evacuate.

While Ragath was busy with the goblins, the others had their own problems to
deal with. Aetius was the first out of bed when the clamor began. He
immediately rushed out of the door to see what was going on, and saw three
orcs. Two guarding the stairs, and one walking down the hall in his
direction with a greataxe dripping with blood. Aetius immediately stepped
back into the room and slammed the door shut while yelling, "ORCS!". Adoemos
and Shadow began to put their armor on, hoping that Aetius and the door
could hold them off while Rheanna prepared to shoot the first orc she saw.

SLAM!!! The door shook with a huge impact and the edge of an axe went
through. Aetius heaved on the door and leapt back, hoping to disarm the orc
and allow Rheanna to get a shot at it. Unfortunately the orc held fast to
his axe, and Aetius only served to help pull it free. The door slammed open
and Rheanna's bolt flew past the orc, shattering against the wall behind it.
The orc leapt aside after seeing it was outnumbered, and called down the
hall. Adoemos and Shadow continued putting their armor on as Aetius strung
his bow and Rheanna covered the door with her crossbow.

The orcs rushed the room. The first one was winged by a bolt from Rheanna's
bow, and went for her. She weaved and dodged his swings and eventually
brought him down with a point blank center-torso blast. The second went for
Shadow, who only had his armor half on. He was able to kill the orc with his
whip, but only after it dealt him two massive axe wounds that nearly killed
him. The third went for Aetius, who was able to dodge its attacks and killed
the orc with a well placed bowshot. *THWOCK!*

By now everyone smelled smoke and the air was getting a bit hazy. Adoemos
helped Shadow heal his injuries, and Ragath ran down the halls yelling
"FIRE!"... trying to alert whoever might still be alive. The four
adventurers hurriedly dressed and gathered their equipment before joining
Ragath. Together they searched all of the rooms, but only found the mangled
remains of one patron.

They cautiously went downstairs and found the innkeeper, weeping on the
floor of the common room with two dead orcs nearby. "They're all dead! My
family are all dead," he cried. They searched and found the innkeeper's
wife, killed in her bed, and his four children's bodies in another room. By
now smoke was pouring from the kitchen. Having found no one else alive,
everyone carefully left the inn by the front door with Ragath taking the
innkeeper in tow. As soon as they got outside, Shadow called his wolf
companion to join them.

Outside there was a flash, and a rolling ball of fire crossed the road in
front of the inn. It slammed into two orcs, immolating them. The town's
healer was obviously doing her part.The Hucrele home, abandoned since Ragath
and his previous companions had discovered the fate of its young
adventurers, was completely engulfed in flames. The party sensed no other
threat, but suddenly a voice - a familiar voice to Ragath - cried out from
overhead. "I go to the new master now, and take the others with me!" it
said. The sound of leathery wings flapping faded and was gone.

The druidess walked up to Ragath, and gave him a broken sword. "An orc that
was trying to set my home on fire had this. It has the mark of Durgeddin,"
she said while pointing to a dwarven glyph on the crossbar. "The mayor knows
a lot about dwarven history in these parts. Perhaps he can tell you more
about it."

While Aetius split off to make sure there was no other potential threat to
the town, the remainder of the party spoke with the town healer and the
mayor in order to find out more about the threat to the town, and the item
the healer had found. Apparently a large band of orcs had traveled through
town up the old road from the south (no one had seen any goblins, though
there might have been some). They had been very selective with their targets
and had quickly continued northward.

The mayor recognized Durgeddin's mark, and told a tale of the famed smith
Durgeddin the Black, who had died a couple of centuries ago. Durgeddin was
famous for making magical blades of exceptional quality. His original home
had been destroyed by a clan of orcs. He took what remained of his people
and dug out a stronghold in a large hill/small mountain called The Stone
Tooth, named for a rock that projected out of the top like a huge stone
tooth. Unfortunately the orcs found out about Durgeddin's new home about
three decades later, and were able to tunnel their way in and kill all that
was left of Durgeddin's clan.

An old dwarven path leading eastward to The Stone Tooth supposedly begins a
couple of days up the north road from town. The mayor explained that he had
never been there, but had heard of this path from other adventurers that
came through from time to time.

Aetius regrouped with everyone else and after a short conference it was
decided that the five would go north after the orcs in the hopes of catching
them. The town healer gave Ragath several potions that she thought might be
of use, and the party left immediately.

For the next two days the party tracked the orcs, who never deviated from
the old road. As the farms thinned out, Adoemos went to a nearby farmhouse
and asked the farmer living there if he had seen anything unusual. After
some persuading, the farmer reluctantly said he had seen "many beasts"
running northward along the old road several hours ago, with a small flying
creature seeming to lead them. The farmer appeared scared, said he didn't
want to be involved in all of this, and shut the door in Adoemos' face.

As daylight began to wane, the party reached a path leading to the east.
Indications were that the orcs had all turned east and gone down this
pathway. Through a break in the trees, the party spotted The Stone Tooth
about a mile away. A thin stream of smoke could be seen rising from
somewhere on its southern slope.

With daylight fading fast and the orcs apparently far ahead, our adventurers
decided to camp here.