Flamerule, the Year of the Banner
On the hottest day of the summer, Erzimar rode into the dusty town with the Company of the Argent Hawk at his back. A cooper looked up from his work as Erzimar and his companions rode past, clutching an iron hoop in his broad hands. A small knot of women speaking together in the thin shade of a browned oak stopped their gossiping to stare at the travelers.
The half-elf Gethred dismounted with a creak of leather and shrugged his cloak from his shoulder, leaving his sword arm clear. Despite the heat, the handsome swordsman wore a breastplate of gold-chased steel. Sweat and dust grimed his face. He took in the dry, bare ground, and the straw-thatched homes and workshops with a single slow look.
'What's the name of this town again?' he asked.
'Pelldith Lake,' answered Isildra. She, too, wore mail and leather, though her surcoat was emblazoned with the sleepless eye of Helm's faith. She drew off her gauntlets to wipe strong hands across her brow, frowning at the dirt around her. 'That's what they said in Elturel, anyway.'
Erzimar swung himself down from his own mount. Short and wiry, Erzimar did not mind the sweltering summer heat as much as his companions. He was a Shaaran, from the sweltering cities by the Lake of Steam, with golden-bronze skin and straight black hair. He wore a short, curved scimitar at his belt. But his preferred weapon was the staff of rich mahogany he carried across the saddlebow.
'There's the inn,' he said.
'It'll do,' Bragor the dwarf said as he lowered himself gingerly to the ground from his sturdy pony. As round and strong as a barrel of oak, the taciturn dwarf didn't like riding much, and liked riding on a hot day even less. 'I don't care if this is the right village or not, I'm not going another mile today.'
The Vaasan swordsman Murgolm followed suit, sparing one sullen look for the staring townsfolk before shaking the sweat from his long, black hair. Murgolm spoke little Common, but he had some Dwarvish and therefore tended to stay close to Bragor, who translated for him at need.
They led their horses into the inn yard, which was shaded by a line of tall, dusty poplars. A young stable boy with ungainly long arms and legs and a mop of sandy hair hurried out to meet them, blinking in the sunlight. He stood staring at the travelers while Geth-red returned his empty gaze.
'See to our mounts, lad,' Gethred called. 'Don't let them drink yet, they're hot. Bring in our saddlebags and packs when you're done.'
'Yes, sir!'
'Now, lad, where can a fellow find something to wash the dust of the road from his throat?'
'Right through there, sir,' the stable boy said. He pointed at the inn's door. 'There's a taproom inside.' He stared at the travelers again, his face working awkwardly as he struggled with something he wanted to say. Erzimar exchanged glances with his companions as they waited. Bragor turned away with a dour curse, tired of waiting, but then the lad broke free of his paralysis with a small hop and asked in an excited rush, 'Are you here about the dragon?'
Erzimar simply nodded at the boy. The stable boy gaped in amazement as the travelers shook the road dust from their cloaks and went into the warm gloom of the inn's common room. Heavy footsteps sounded on creaking floorboards, and the innkeeper appeared-a short, stout fellow with sweat gleaming on his bald head. His face was sallow, with gray stubble discoloring his jowls and small, quick eyes.
'Good day, travelers,' he began. 'I am Rothas, the master of this house. How many rooms will you be needing, then?'
'We'll take three,' Gethred said. 'And we'll take any good ale you've got in your ice cellar, and something to eat, too. The quicker, the better.'
'Of course, sir…'
The innkeeper hesitated, in much the same way that the stable boy had.
Erzimar took pity on the fellow and said, 'Yes, Rothas, we've come about the dragon.'
Two hours later, Erzimar felt almost comfortable again. His thirst was well quenched, he had a good meal under his ribs, and he'd even found half an hour to dunk himself in the cold lake nearby. He sat alongside Gethred, Bragor, Murgolm, and Isildra in five wooden chairs that had been lined up along one wall of the inn's common room. Opposite them sat the half-dozen aldermen of Pelldith Lake. Two dozen more onlookers clustered in the back of the room, silent and watchful.
The aldermen included the innkeeper Rothas, and the cooper Ethern, the fellow Erzimar had seen as he rode into town.
'We're all here, alderman,' the wizard said. 'Let's hear what you have to say.'
The elders looked at each other, and the cooper Ethern stood up. He knotted his strong hands together as he spoke.
'Thank you for answering our call,' he began. 'When will the rest of your party arrive?'
'We're it,' Gethred said with a crooked smile. 'The Company of the Argent Hawk, five strong. I am Gethred Hesthell of Everlund. This is the Vigilant Isildra of the Temple of Helm, Bragor Ironhand, Murgolm Stoyevsk of Vaasa, and Erzimar Dal Tirza of Innarlith, our wizard.'
Ethern studied them, rubbing thoughtfully at his long jaw, then asked, 'Will five of you be enough?'
'That depends on your dragon,' Erzimar replied. 'We can't help you if you've got an ancient red to deal with. If that's the case, I would advise you to pack up your belongings and abandon the town.' He noted the stricken expressions on the elders' faces, and added, 'Anything short of that, we can likely help.'
'It's big, but not that big,' the cooper said. 'Strong, quick, with a heart as black as a rotten tree. A wicked beast.'
'And it's damnably clever, too,' Rothas muttered.
Erzimar leaned back in his chair and studied the elders. He could see at once that they were scared. Frightened out of their wits, really. No one wanted to meet his eyes. The townsfolk stared at the floorboards or shifted their feet, nervous.
'Listen, Ethern-for what it's worth, we've slain dragons before. We took a black up near the High Moor, and a young but strong red in the Sword Mountains. We know what we're about. Now, tell us the tale from the start.'
The cooper looked at his fellow elders, who offered weary shrugs and nods for answers.
He turned back to the Argent Hawks and said, 'It started about four tendays ago. We started losing livestock. That's not unusual-trolls raid the outlying homesteads from time to time. But we couldn't find any tracks. It was rainy then, and the pastures muddy. Trolls dragging off cows would have left plenty of footprints.
'Of course, we figured out later that the dragon was taking the livestock on the wing. Anyway, after this had gone on for several nights, we assembled a company of watchmen to guard the pastures. Two dozen archers, in groups of four, plus a few folk who have experience fighting monsters: Elzur, our town sorcerer; Brother Stort, a cleric of Lathander; and Selran, here-' the cooper nodded at a tall, sandy-haired fellow who stood in the back of the room, staring blankly at the floor-'who's stalked gnolls in the hills.'
'Didn't know enough to be scared, yet,' Rothas, the innkeeper, said.
'Five nights passed with nothing out of the ordinary,' the cooper went on, 'and some folks thought that whatever it was had moved on. But on the sixth night… on the sixth night it was the dark of the moon. As best we could make out later, it came against Elzur and the archers with him, and killed them all with its breath before they even knew it was there. Then it turned on a nearby homestead. Counting Elzur and our watchmen, ten people dead in one night. That's a hard thing in a town the size of Pelldith Lake.'
'I can imagine,' Erzimar said. 'Go on.'
The cooper cleared his throat and said, 'Well, we knew we had real trouble. We sent for a company of adventurers, a band of sellswords who were exploring some old ruins nearby. They agreed to help us out. The Fellowship of the Sundered Shield, or the Shield Fellows, they called themselves.
'The Shield Fellows searched the countryside for a couple of days-Selran went with 'em, because no one knows the lands nearby better-and they found a dragon's cave in the hills a few miles off Two tendays ago they set off to go deal with the monster. But none of them came back. The dragon killed them all. Only Selran returned to tell the tale.'
