Epilogue

It's all over. This was our very first campaign, and we all immensely enjoyed it. Writing it was a blast, too. Even though everyone was a beginner and we did some really, REALLY stupid things, everyone managed to make it out alive. We're all looking forward to seeing where the next campaign brings us.

Thank you very much for sticking with me throughout the entire story. Your comments have never failed to make my day! =D

What did you think of the story? Did you have a favourite character? Please, feel free to share any thoughts you have with me. ^^

And... see you in the next one.

-Yimi

A few hours later, the group finally made it back out of Wave Echo Cave. They were greeted by a beautiful early afternoon sun shining down on all of their faces. And by something else. As soon as they reached the main road, a group of riders approached them. It turned out to be Sildar, together with a handful of guards from Phandalin. He had gotten worried for them, and rode over to pick them up. The group gladly accepted the ride home.

Phandalin was exactly as they had left it. A small town, peaceful now that the Redbrands had been dealt with. A welcome sight after the harrowing experience in the mountains. The group split up, with Alatar insistent on accompanying Nezznar as the Black Spider was brought to prison. He and Mialee went to the Town Mayor before that, to get their gold from the Cragmaw Castle mission.

He wasn't very happy to see them.

'Oh no, not you again!' Harbin Wester groaned as he saw Alatar and Mialee walk in. 'What do you want this time?'

'The same thing that we wanted last time, Harbin,' Alatar replied in a cold voice. 'You still owe us money.'

'I don't owe you anything!' the mayor huffed. 'You are simply awaiting payment for a cleanup endeavor in the Neverwinter Woods. I told you that we had to verify the situation first!'

'It's been days. If your scouts have not returned by now, they are dead,' Mialee replied. That seemed to annoy Harbin even more.

'Of course they are back!' he snapped. 'They have been back for three days! Our men are incredibly capable rang-'

'Good, so you know that we cleared out the castle and dealt with the orcs,' Alatar rudely interrupted him.

'Well, yes, I suppose that you have indeed-'

'We did. Now hand over the money already.'

With an incredibly vicious glance at Alatar, Harbin snapped his fingers at the reception lady on the other side of the hall. She left immediately, and came back a few minutes later with a large pouch in her arms. It looked heavy.

'Here you go. Your official payment for a job well done,' she said, nervously smiling at Alatar and Mialee.

'Wonderful. Now if you don't have any other business here-'

'Hold on, human. We have to count it first.'

If looks could have killed, Mialee would have been dead on the floor. Instead, Harbin and his female receptionist were forced to watch in silent frustration as the content of the pouch was dumped on their clean counter and slowly, ever so slowly, sifted through. Coin by coin. One by one.

Eventually, the two nodded to each other.

'Well, I guess it's all there. I suppose you aren't completely incompetent after all.'

'Wha- how dare-!'

'Thank you very much for your patronage,' the woman said, quickly jabbing Harbin in his side to make him shut up. Then, after a short hesitation, she added:

'It's always a pleasure. Please don't come again.'

Both of them tensed visually as Alatar and Mialee walked to the exit. The last time they had been here, Mialee had left a bleeding Orc head on the counter, and Alatar had made it into an hour-long stink bomb.

And the wizard remembered that, too. As Alatar walked out, he lifted his hand and aimed it at the two people inside.

'No- no, please!'

He held his hand there for a second, before stepping out with an amused chuckle.

Back outside, Mialee was holding the pouch of coins.

'Do you want your share now?' Mialee asked Alatar. The wizard shook his head.

'No. The others will end up thinking that I took too much, or something. Wait until we're all together.'

He began to walk away. Mialee watched him leave with a frown on her face.

'Where are you going?'

'I have to make sure of something. Go on without me.'

She shrugged, and headed in the direction of the tavern. Alatar wasn't heading there, however. He deliberately walked around the corner of the Town Hall – then circled back, going back to the entrance. Both Harbin and his assistant let out audible groans when they saw him enter.

'Not again. Please, just leave.'

Alatar shook his head at them. This time, he wasn't grinning.

'That prisoner that we brought in. Nezznar. Is he in the dungeons?'

'Well, yes. That's where Sildar told us to put him.'

'Bring me to him. I have a couple of questions for our… guest.'

Echo and Yorda were sitting on the roof of the tavern when Mialee came running by. They waved at her and shouted something, but the brown-haired elf paid them no attention. She sprinted by the tavern's entrance and headed south.

Her destination: Edermath Orchard.

It did not take Mialee long to arrive. Daran was outside, tending to the many trees in his orchard. His silver hair was tied together and his eyes were squinted against the sun as he cut a couple of branches off. Mialee walked up to him, digging around in her pockets until she had found what she was searching for. A small flute. She'd made it on the way back from Wave Echo Cave. It was the only one so far that had turned out well.

Daran saw her coming. He stopped trimming the tree next to him and placed the shears on the ground.

'Mialee. I see you have returned. I am glad to see that you made it back in one piece.'

The brown-haired elf didn't answer. With a nervous expression, she stuck out her arm to hand him the flute.

'Is this for me?' Daran asked, his eyebrows raised at the gesture. Mialee nodded.

'It's a flute. From one of the branches that you gave me. I, uh… I never really thanked you for the branches that you gave me.'

'There's no need,' Daran smiled at her.

'Well、 I did kind of trespass on your property, too. And one of the flutes really came in handy in Thundertree. It kind of… protected us, in a way. So I need to thank you.'

'Don't worry about it,' Daran replied, but his smile widened. 'I'm glad that I could be of some small help to you. Honestly, I'm just relieved to see you return safely.'

Mialee nodded. She was glad, too. There were a lot of moments in the past few weeks where things could have ended badly. But despite all that, she was still alive. She even had some hope for her lost clan. That was more than what she started with in that prison.

Fate really was a strange thing. Mialee let her gaze travel across the orchard as she thought about it. If she hadn't chased that deer, the humans would not have arrested her and thrown her in prison. She never would have met the group. And she never would have met Daran, either. Even though he was only half elf, she felt… at ease around him. It had been a long time since she'd felt at ease anywhere.

'You seem to have taken quite a liking to my orchard,' Daran keenly noted as he saw her looking around.

'Yeah, I… I guess I have. This place is very calming.'

'It does have that effect,' the man in front of her smiled. Daran leaned over to one of the nearest apple trees, bumping into it with his shoulder. It was just enough to make two apples fall down from the tree. He caught them in his hands without even looking. His gaze was still locked with Mialee's. With a smile and a wink, Daran handed one of the apples to her. The brown-haired elf blushed as she accepted it.

'You are welcome here anytime, Mialee.'

After delivering Nezznar to the Phandalin prison, Nala had split off from the group to find some time for herself. Her feet led her to a barren patch in Quelleen's farmland. She sat down and closed her eyes. The sun on her scales felt good. Being underground for so long had almost made her forget how good it felt. Around her, birds chirped in the trees. A small breeze blew by. It was… tranquil. Peaceful.

As she sat there, Nala turned inward and took a very long, hard look at herself. She wasn't happy with what she saw. So much had been on her mind down there. So much anger. Alatar had stoked the flames until they had grown so large that she lost control over her own emotions.

'I will kill him. The next time I see him, I will fucking kill him.'

A sense of shameful guilt came over Nala. She really had lost her cool. The wizard had stoked the flames, but the fire was already there. To take that out on Alatar, as frustrating as he could be… wasn't fair. The Dragonborn was being too hot-headed. She had lost her focus on her Oath. Nala had promised to shelter the light against those who would render it barren. But that was not the part of her vows that mattered the most. She meditated on the words, letting them resound inside of her once again.

'Kindle the light. Preserve your own light. And most of all: Be the light.'

Nala nodded to herself. The Dragonborn had been out of line. She had to calm down. She had to rethink her actions and act properly according to her Oath. The paladin realized that, in a way, her past had led her to be too hot-headed and emotional. She'd known that before… but had never thought she'd be confronted with it this much. Not until her current band of companions came along. They were a weird bunch. Nala truly hadn't expected to meet a group of people that would, even unknowingly, confront her on so many aspects of her own past and personality. She hadn't expected to handle it so badly, either.

Alatar really had been right back then. Both of them- no, all of them had a lot to work on and better about themselves. Including Nala. The Dragonborn sighed, silently coming to her own conclusions.

She still had a long way to go. But there was always a way forward. And this time, that way started with an apology.

She would take that first step as soon as she had the chance.

'Hey – isn't that Mialee?'

Echo cracked an eye open from her sunbathing time on the roof to glance down to the street below. Yorda was right. Mialee came dashing by, not bothering to look around her as she sprinted off towards… something. A weird elf, that one. In a good way. Echo was strangely content with her current company. It was a pleasant change from the usual suspicion and prejudiced stares.

Echo glanced at Yorda from the corner of her eye. She was sitting to her left, looking up at the clouds in the sky. That one was weird, too. In a different way.

Come to think of it, she'd been acting weirder than normal down in those caves. The Tiefling brought over her tail, poking her on her left shoulder to get her to look the wrong way. It didn't work. Yorda turned her way immediately.

'Hey. You were acting pretty weird down there. Different than normal, I mean. Was something the matter?'

The small half-elf just looked at Echo with that blank expression of her. Echo half expected no answer to come out at all. That's what she was used to. But Yorda surprised her. The pale half-elf turned away from her and looked at the sky.

'Around… sixty moons ago, I encountered an earth elemental roaming the span of a small ravine. It was causing light tremors. We- I thought that it was using them to communicate, and tried to do the same.'

A frown appeared on Echo's face. She kept silent, letting Yorda continue.

'It attacked us. Separated me from… from a friend. It chased me to the edge of the ravine and caused a rock slide that buried me alive. It took me two days to claw my way back out. Ever since then, I've been really… really afraid of going underground.'

Her hands, clasped onto the edge of the rooftop, were trembling slightly. For a moment, Echo didn't know how to respond. The story was still processing in her mind. And then she realized. They had been inside those mines for days. They had fought countless monsters in a ruined mine that could have collapsed at any moment. And Yorda never told any of them.

'You… you did a really good job, then,' the Tiefling finally stammered. The weight of what she'd just learned instantly became clear to her. Yorda had revealed a weakness. A real, very exploitable weakness. Echo never revealed anything. To anyone. Ever. But this weird elf trusted her enough to share a very personal secret. And without expecting anything in return.

That had never happened before.

'We need to celebrate,' the Tiefling finally said.

'Celebrate?'

'Fuck, yeah. We could have died a million times over in the past three weeks. And we're still alive. Mostly. If that isn't cause for a fucking celebration, then I don't know what is.'

She nodded at the small half-elf, who was looking up at her in confusion.

'What should we do?'

'Oh, I don't know. Get drunk, I suppose. Or we could go to Neverwinter. Oh, I know! We should go to the beach. We can turn you into a giant dolphin and go swimming, or something. That sounds like fun.'

'I have never seen a dolphin,' Yorda replied cautiously.

'Well, shit. Then we'll go to the fish market and see if they've got one for sale.'

'A fish market?'

'Hell, you really haven't been around town much, have you?' the Tiefling smirked. 'Don't worry. I'll make sure you don't get robbed.'

Echo was mostly joking around. But a part of her was sincere, and really wanted to go. Over the past few weeks, in a weird way, she'd come to respect the little half-elf. She wanted to show her the city and its wonders, and see Yorda's reaction. Echo hadn't felt like sharing part of herself with anyone in a long, long time.

But now, she wanted to.

Back in the Phandalin prison block, Alatar had bullied the guards away from Nezznar's cell. A chair, previously put next to the exit, was now standing directly in front of the bars. Alatar was sitting on it, leaning against the wall, eating an apple. He threw the core into the cell. It bounced off against Nezznar's chest, who stood right behind the bars.

'What do you want from me, wizard?' he growled at Alatar. His previous grin had faded into a frustrated scowl when he saw Alatar enter. The wizard took his time to answer, fishing another apple out of his pocket.

'We never finished our conversation,' he finally said, taking a large bite.

'What conversation?'

'Oh, don't play dumb. You know exactly what conversation I'm talking about.'

He leaned forward on his chair. His eyes, once again hidden beneath his hood, gleamed with a strange curiosity.

'You're going to tell me who you're working for.'

-End-