The half-elf Mara Evenwood was was awakened by birds singing and sheep bleating. This would be another day of helping the Pashar family shear their sheep. Herd the animals into pens to await shearing, calm the frightened animals, shear each in turn, gather and bind the wool for transport into town to be sold to the spinners or to brokers who would ship it to Neverwinter. They would start at daybreak and work until the last rays of the setting sun vanished. Getting the wool off about 50 sheep completely occupied the entire family for a number of days.
As a member of the household, Mara was included in the help, even though she was not born into the Pashar family. About 2 years ago she had moved to Phandalin from Waterdeep to escape the painful memory of a failed romance. She now roomed with the Pashar family on the outskirts of town on their sheep farm. As a Druid, she worshipped Mother Moon. At the edge of town, away from the noise of the rest of the townsfolk, she could find a quiet spot to gaze at the moon and speak to her goddess in peace. Mother Moon taught her to channel divine energy to magically accomplish many things: how to speak to animals, how to heal wounds and diseases, how to magically mend items with minor damage. She used these skills to benefit the entire town, and her aid was especially helpful to the Pashar family. She became close to them in short order, and they treated her as one of their own.
When Mara first arrived in town, it was little more than a frontier outpost, mostly serving the needs of the miners and prospectors who sought wealth in the Sword Mountains. Then, a year later, a family of Dwarves, the Rockseeker brothers, rediscovered the legendary lost mine of Phandelver, a rich source of iron ore and silver. The mine also had a magical forge, which could impart magical effects on weapons and armor. Five hundred years ago a massive attack by orcs had destroyed the mine, as well as the original town of Phandalin. The location of the mine was lost, but had been found once again.
A group of adventures had been hired by one of the brothers, Gundren, to escort a wagon full of supplies from Neverwinter to Phandalin. Gundren would ride ahead and meet them when they arrived. Tall, broad shouldered Neega the Sword Bearer was a half-orc Barbarian who wielded a greatsword. Borovik Stayanoga was a scholarly young human who was learning the art of being a Wizard. Bree Thorngage, a halfling and formerly a petty thief, now hired herself out to adventuring groups for her roguish abilities. Kellen of Clan Daergal was a gnome Bard whose biggest delight in life was to tell stories through song. On their way to Phandalin they were attacked by a goblin ambush, but managed to fight off the goblins and bring the supplies to Phandalin.
When they arrived in Phandalin, Gundren Rockseeker had not yet arrived. The party who escorted his wagon of supplies was asked to find what had happened to him. Mara was recruited to bolster the group. They found that he had been kidnapped by goblins, who were going to turn him over to a Drow wizard now occupying the mine.
Gundren was rescued, the Drow wizard was evicted from the mine and the Rockseeker brothers were able to restart its operation. Since the mine reopened, the town had greatly prospered and grown. Money flowed into town, new people moved there, new businesses were established to accommodate the greater wealth of the citizenry. Mara went back to helping diagnose and cure diseases to the crops and herds, as well as performing magical rituals to increase the fertility of the soil surrounding the town.
Mid morning, as Mara and the Pashar family were shearing the sheep, a town militia member came riding up on a horse and called to Mara. "Mara," he yelled, "Phandalin is under attack! Townmaster Hallwinter needs you at the Tresendar Keep as fast as possible to tend to the wounded!"
Turning to the rest of the Pashar family, he urged, "The rest of you should get to the Keep, too. There you will be protected from the marauders."
Leonid Pashar looked worriedly at his wife, Annabelle. "I don't know, honey," he said. "We might just be better off hiding out here on the farm."
Annabelle nodded, "I think you are right. We are far enough from the center of town that the marauders will probably not come out here. I think we will be safer here than trying to run through the center of town to get to the Keep."
"Very well," replied the militia man. "But we definitely need Mara at the Keep." Mara grabbed her holy symbol, her shield and scimitar, donned her leather armor, saddled up her horse and followed the militia man back into town.
The militia man led Mara through the south part of town, avoiding the biggest crowds of marauders in the central part of town. They saw a number of groups of invaders, but managed to avoid confrontations. At one point, Mara saw noticed some of the invaders wearing a peculiar regalia, and realized with a start that they were Cult of the Dragon members. Cult of the Dragon? Invading a town? She had never heard of such a thing. Did Talis know of this? Was Talis involved? What was Talis doing these days? The last time she saw Talis...No! Stop! She had urgent work to attend to, and could not afford to think of Talis now. She rode on in silence, but her heart ached with the still remembered pain of their separation two years ago.
Mara and the militia man curved back around around to the north once they approached the road leading to Tresendar Keep. The battlements bristled with goblin archers, allies from a treaty that Sildar Hallwinter, the Townmaster of Phandalin, had negotiated with a tribe of the Cragmaw Clans. The two of them had gotten there ahead of the marauders and so were able to ride up and enter the Keep with little interference.
Mara looked around for her adventurer companions from the year before, but did not see them. Spotting Castellan the Red, the commander of the Keep, she called out, "Castellan, where are Neega, Bree, Kellen and Borovik? Are they here in the the Keep?"
"No," replied Castellan. "Sildar sent them to Neverwinter this morning to deliver a report to the Lord's Alliance. When the attack on the town began, he told me to send out a goblin scout to tell them to come back. They haven't returned yet."
Mara looked worried, so Castellan said, "Mara, there is nothing you can do for them right now. We need you down in the cavern beneath the Keep. We have set up a combat hospital there to treat the wounded. Sister Garaele is already here." Mara jumped off her horse and ran to the stair leading down into the caverns, while the militia man rode back out of the Keep to join the others fighting the invaders.
The caverns beneath the Keep were spacious, having been enlarged to provide barracks for on duty militia members, storage of weapons and supplies, and provide an alternate entrance to the Keep through a secret door hidden in a wooded area south of the Keep. Mara found her way to the combat hospital and saw a number of wounded people, both militia and regular townsfolk, awaiting treatment. Sister Garaele, an elven Cleric of the goddess Tymora, was overwhelmed by the number of injured, and was elated to see Mara. Mara immediately began applying her knowledge of healing and of herbs to treated the injured, reserving her magic for the most severely injured.
As Mara and Garaele began to get caught up on treating the injured, Mara asked Garaele, "Can you tell me more of what has happened? All I know is the town is under attack."
Garaele responded, "The invasion began in the early morning. It was too big to be contained by the town militia so Sildar gave orders to bring the townsfolk into the Keep. Then he led troops out into the town to slow down the marauders enough to let townsfolk get into the Keep."
Mara shook her head. "Garaele I recognized the apparel of some of the invaders as belonging to the Cult of The Dragon, but I don't know why they would be attacking the town, since their main activities center around convincing older dragons to become liches, and worshipping Tiamat, the evil queen of the chromatic dragons."
Garaele rubbed her chin and pondered that, but had no explanation.
A little after midday Sildar Hallwinter returned to the Keep and came down to the hospital for treatment. His right arm was bloodied with a serious gash he has sustained in the fighting. Mara rushed over to cure the wound with her magic, but he refused. "Just bind up the wound," he said. "Save your magical energy for the more seriously injured."
After having his arm bandaged and taking some herbs to dull the pain, he went back upstairs. "Sildar," exclaimed Garaele. "You aren't going back out to fight, are you?"
"No." he replied. "I wouldn't be much use with an injured sword arm. But I am still needed to direct the troops from inside the Keep." Mara looked worried, fearing that he would faint from the combination of blood loss and exhaustion. But, she didn't argue with him, as a new batch of wounded came down the stairs just then.
By then, a couple of the goblin clerics of Maglubiyet had made their way into the Keep and came down to the combat hospital to relieve Mara and Garaele. "We cannot stop the invaders," said the goblins soberly." The best we have been able to do is slow them down so as to give the townsfolk more time to get to the Keep."
"What about your folk?" asked Garaele. " I don't see many goblins coming into the Keep."
"Our folk have mostly decided to run into the fields and forests to hide," said one of the clerics. "That is how we usually respond to danger."
Mara lay down on an available cot, exhausted and grateful for the opportunity to rest. It wouldn't be long enough to restore her magical energy, but would restore her physical energy.
Rest did not come easily. As soon as she lay down her thoughts returned to Talis. For five years Mara had been lovers with Talis Kasterel, a member of the Cult of the Dragon. But, as Talis began to rise in the ranks of the Cult, her duties required her to perform callous, violent, and sometimes brutal, acts. This offended Mara's Druidic devotion to balance and nature. Talis had begged Mara to join the Cult of the Dragon, but Mara could not stomach the thought of worshipping an evil goddess. Their arguments became increasingly bitter, and two years ago they had agreed that the issues were not resolvable, and that they should part ways. Mara then left Waterdeep for Phandalin to try to forget, and where she only had to walk out the door to be able to worship Mother Moon in silence and solitude. Except she could not forget. Although the two of them had not seen each other for 2 years, she still loved Talis. And now she was tormented by a new doubt. Could Talis have possibly been involved in the vicious attack on Phandalin?
Meanwhile, townsfolk continued to stream into the Keep. Some came in through the main gate. But the road leading to the Keep was becoming increasingly controlled by the marauders, and more and more townsfolk were entering by the secret Keep entrance. Those who had weapons experience were recruited to relieve the wounded and tired militia. The rest were directed to the barracks area of the caverns, where they would be shielded from the fighting above.
Shorty thereafter Neega, Borovik, Bree and Kellen made it back to the keep, after fighting through the streets. The attackers were close behind them, so the main gate had to be closed after they entered. They came down to the field hospital to talk to Mara as they took a short rest.
"Mara," said Borovik. "Sildar asked us to go through the tunnel leading from the secret entrance and ensure that the enemy has not found the entrance and that people could continue to get into the Keep through the secret entrance."
"Will you come with us, Mara?" asked Kellen.
"No," she sighed. "I think I am needed more here in the field hospital tending the wounded. You all should be okay if you can avoid getting into a fight."
After resting, the party, without Mara, went out to secure the Keep secret entrance. They found it clear of enemies and no sign that it had been discovered. Several Keep defenders went to the entrance to guard it in case it was discovered later.
A couple of hours later, a militia man ran down the stairs, calling out," Mara! Your blade is needed upstairs! The Sally Port is under attack!"
Mara put on her leather armor, grabbed her scimitar and shield, and followed him back up the stairs. The sally port was a narrow doorway on the north side of the Keep, used to send defenders to attack any troops bringing a battering ram against the main gate. When Mara reached ground level, she saw Bree and Borovik on the battlements, along with a contingent of goblins, battling the foes with magic and arrows. The door had been breached and a couple of ambush drakes were just inside. A cheer went up as Borovik cast a fireball spell and killed most of the attackers on the other side of the wall. Neega ran up to one of the ambush drakes inside the keep and slew it with 2 mighty swings of her greatsword.
Mara suddenly realized she had not prepared any battle spells when she awoke this morning, and decided she would be of more use in a wildshape form. She turned into a lion and attacked the second drake inside the keep. Bree and the goblins peppered the few remaining enemies with arrows from their shortbows.
"Eat my arrows, you stinkin' rats!", Bree shouted at the enemies.
The one remaining kobold tried unsuccessfully to strike defenders on the battlements with its sling, while Borovik and Neega finished off the drake inside the keep and one just outside. Mara ran out the door to see if there were any remaining foes that needed to be taken down, but saw only one badly injured kobold. She saw a dead cultist on the ground in the garments of a Cult of the Dragon dragonclaw, one of their lower ranking officers. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Just as they thought they had repulsed the invaders, a group of reinforcements arrived, consisting of a couple of dragonclaws, a couple of thugs and several kobolds. The kobolds shrieked in fear at the sight of a lion, but a sharp command from the dragonclaws kept them by their sides as they all ran toward the defenders. Mara saw most of the kobolds fall to the combined magic, missiles and greatsword blows of Borovik, Bree, the goblins and Neega.
Kellen cast Bardic Inspiration on Mara as she ran toward the thugs, giving her additional luck on hitting with her attacks. Upon reaching the first thug, she realized she was out in front of the rest of the group, and was surrounded by enemies. Though she bit and clawed furiously, she was being hit by three different enemies. She soon was rendered unconscious and dropped out of her wild shape. Jumping back up in her Druid form, she continued the battle with her scimitar.
"Mother Moon, give me strength," she cried and struck one of the thugs. He staggered and groaned as a serious gash opened up on his weapon arm.
Goblins rained arrows down on the dragonclaws and the thugs from the top of the western wall. Bree and Kellen joined them so as to be in position to attack the enemies. Neega's greatsword took down one of the dragonclaws while Borovik finished off the last kobold by throwing 3 glowing missiles of force damage at it. Kellen played his harp and cast a spell at one of the thugs, hoping to do psychic damage and impair its ability to hit enemies. Unfortunately, the thug dodged out of the way of the spell at the last second. The thugs and remaining dragonclaw continued to attack Mara and she was now seriously injured.
"This is what a REAL blade can do!" snarled Neega, turning her attention to the dragonclaw to get his attention off Mara. The dragonclaw cried out in pain as Neega hit him with a mighty blow. One more blow from Neega took the dragonclaw out of the battle.
Kellen looked down from the wall and saw Mara bleeding profusely, so he cast a healing spell on her. The added health gave her courage, and she slashed the thug across the abdomen with her scimitar. The blow cut through his armor and sliced deeply into his flesh. He turned pale and dropped to the ground, unconscious.
"Die, you losers!" shouted Bree, as she took down the last of the thugs with an arrow to the throat. As the last of the attackers fell, Mara dropped to her knees from exhaustion and pain.
The party looked around to see if any more reinforcements arrived, but none did. It seemed as if the attackers had been acting on their own, without any orders from higher up. Borovik and some of the carpenters set about mending the sally port door with one of his cantrips, and the dead bodies of the attackers were brought inside. Mara was staggering from her wounds, so Keep defenders helped her down to the field hospital to be treated.
Downstairs, Mara mournfully admitted to Garaele that she had forgotten how to be an adventurer after a year spent tending to the needs of farmers' crops and herds. "I didn't even have any combat spells prepared! This morning when I awoke I didn't think I would need them!", she sighed. "And I fought like a rank amateur. I was more a hinderance than a help to the rest of my party!"
"Now, stop beating up on yourself, Mara," Garaele said. "You did what you could when you were needed. Take a short rest and recover your health. We will probably need you to do more treating of the wounded." Mara agreed, but still felt ashamed of her poor showing.
A short time later, Neega, Borovik, Bree and Kellen came downstairs to see how Mara was doing. Relieved that she has recovered most of her health, they told her that the sally port door had been repaired and no further attacks had occurred.
"And look!", beamed Bree. "We got a whole bunch of coins and jewels out of the coins purses. And that doesn't even include the weapons and armor that went into the armory. Hmmm, I wonder if I could get a vest made from the hides of those dead drakes."
"We could make vests for you and me both from the hides of 3 drakes!" grinned Kellen. The rest of the group laughed and tried to imagine vests made of ambush drake hides.
"Look, folks," said Mara, staring down at her hands. "I'm sorry I did such a bad job fighting just now. For a year I have used my magic only for helping things grow. Now I have lost my ability to kill things." She struggled to keep her voice from breaking.
"What are you talking about, Mara?" exclaimed Borovik. "I saw the fear in the eyes of the enemies when a lion ran at them!"
"Yes, but for all that, I didn't do that much damage, and I sure took a lot of damage," Mara said quietly.
"Those bad guys were a lot tougher than any of the ones we fought before," chimed in Neega. "We all had a lot more trouble from them than we expected. They hit hard and they hit fast. And the only reason why the rest of us didn't take a lot of damage was because you managed to get the attention of of so many of them at once."
"Yeah," said Kellen, sadly. "I feel bad we did not support you better. Maybe if we had been more observant, we would have come to your aid before you nearly died."
"Well, you need to stop blaming yourself and listen to what Sildar Hallwinter told us," said Neega. "He needs us to regroup together as an adventuring party. He believes there are more battles coming before the invasion is finished, and he wants the band of heroes to be part of the defense."
"I'm sorry, I can't join you." said Mara, looking sad, "I don't know how to fight anymore."
"Mara!" cried Neega, fighting to hide the tears welling up in her eyes. "We need you! You were there with us when we drove the Redbrand gang out of Phandalin. You were there with us when we took down the king of the Cragmaw goblins and rescued Gundren Rockseeker! You were there with us when we kicked that evil Drow wizard out of the Wave Echo Cavern! You have to join us!"
At this moment Garaele walked up and looked straight at Mara. "You know that they are right, Mara," she said. "Remember all the healing you did for the party? Remember all the spells you cast to damage the enemy? Remember all the times you roared into battle as a lion or as a brown bear? You can do that again. It will come back to you. Mother Moon will be by your side."
Mara still looked doubtful, so Garaele asked "Have you prepared all the spells you can for the day?"
"No," Mara replied. "I saved some spells in case something came up that I hadn't anticipated."
"Well," said Garaele, "I suggest you take a little time now to prepare a few combat spells. I think you may need them before the day is out."
Fortunately for the adventurers, there were no more battles for them to fight that day. The invaders surrounded the Keep, but did not seem interested in storming it. By now it was late afternoon. The team gratefully ate supper and prepared to take a long rest.
Mara slept fitfully, worrying about the Pashar family. She prayed to Mother Moon to keep them safe. And Talis? What was her role in all this? Tears fell from her eyes as tried to escape into sleep.