Chapter 1
East Freeport Inn, Room 11
"I don't get it," the young half elf declared, "Why would they just abandon us like that? I mean we've been working with them for so long…" He clenched his fist and looked up at the faces in front of him. He knew them as if they were his siblings, and was sure they held him in the same regard. The light from the small fire in the corner of the room danced across all their faces as an eerie silence filled the room.
"Don't beat yourself up Khallen," Bibo, the young Halfling said, breaking the silence, "there's nothing more we could have done, we were very fortunate to have escaped the way we did."
Khallen smiled at that remark as all the memories of Bibo came flowing back into his mind. This particular scruffy red haired Halfling was unlike any druid he had ever met. His love for mischief had quickly put him high in Khallen's regard as he himself was a rogue. Although Khallen couldn't understand why Karana still allowed him to use His power, he was glad to have him on his side. He nick named him 'Bristlebane's only druid' and it would always get a good laugh (and a free round) at the local pubs of wherever they visited. They had met through a chance encounter in HighPass Hold, when Khallen was on official rogue business with his Boss, Stanos and Bibo was out investigating a certain Dyllin Starshine. They began to talk and before the night was done Bibo had decided to join Khallen as a partner in his work for Stanos. It was a match made in heaven.
"Bah… you're right Bibo," Khallen said admittedly disappointed, "but look at us! We're all injured! I've got a broken arm, you've got a gash across you're face, and Thormus over here has a cut down to the bone on his arm, not to mention his armor that is all banged up…" his voice trailed off in frustration.
"Well our injuries aren't a problem for long," Bibo replied "I can heal us once I get enough mana from Karana, and as for the armor, it can be repaired by a smith or even I can do it if we find a public forge."
Thormus let lose a heavy dwarfish laugh, "Hahaha! Little one, I'm never trusting you with any of my armor again after what you did with it last time, I had to buy a whole new set because of you! Brell bless my soul…"
"Well I did you a favor, your old armor was so damn crappy Brell himself was about to disown you!"
Khallen fell over laughing and the pain came shooting up his arm but he could not contain himself. Thormus was the cheapest Paladin he'd ever met. If it wasn't for Bibo purposely destroying his old armor, he'd still be wearing bronze. And even then, he only bought fine steel plate as replacement, when he could have bought some nice acrylia for a few platinum pieces more. He remembered meeting him as a child in Butcherblock Mountains trying to ward off skunks with a rusty dagger he had found under the docks. He kept insisting that it would be fine and it was just a matter of technique. He never did learn or think of buying a weapon more adequately suited and so he ended up being the stinkiest dwarf in all of Kaladim. To this day he still would not admit his foolishness, he was stubborn indeed.
"So what now Khal?" Bibo asked.
Once Khallen was done laughing, he sat up wincing, "I'm thinking we go see Stanos and explain to him what happened. Plus we can get a smith to repair our armor cheaper there," Thormus' eyes lit up, "How much money do we have Bibo?"
Bibo checked their coin purse and looked up with a worried face, "Not much, hehe"
Thormus pounded his fist on the table with his good arm, "See! Had we bought bronze armor instead of this steel, we wouldn't be in this predicament!"
"Relax Thor, I'll use my roguish skills to get us out of this bind," Khallen said with a crooked grin.
"Ya I'm sure that's going to work real well with that broken arm of yours," Bibo replied sarcastically.
"Watch and learn little ones, watch and learn…" and in a flash of speed, Khallen had left the room and could be heard making his way down the stairs to the pub on the main floor.
"10 plat says he doesn't succeed," Bibo offered.
Thormus rolled his eyes, "How can you bet without any money?"
"Good point, but I was simply-"
Suddenly there was a loud crash of glass from downstairs and shouting could be heard. Footsteps approached their room and then Khallen stood in the doorway with a look of terror on face. "Get ready!" he shouted as he ran into the room. More footsteps were heard approaching until a Freeport guard was in the doorway, weapons drawn.
"Filthy rogue! Think you can steal from me huh? Well prepare to die!"
"Root him Bibo," Khallen screamed as he scrambled to dodge the guard's well trained attacks.
"I call upon you Karana to entangle this being with the roots of the storms…" he murmured.
Instantly, out from the floor boards grew think brown roots that began to wrap themselves around the guards legs until he was unable to move. He struggled for a while and then began to hack away at the roots with his short swords, slowing chipping them away. He then spotted two fellow guards outside via the window in the hallway and he called them to his aid.
From the other side of the room Bibo looked up at Khallen, "We don't have long till the others arrive…"
"Ya ya, I know…" he said dismissively, trying to think, "Thor can you stun the guard?"
"Well I certainly can try, can't I?" he said as he began to cast, "Brell give me the strength to stop this being dead in his tracks!"
And with a flash of red light the guard froze, and just as quickly Khallen bounced forward and grabbed the guard's coin purse. More footsteps could be heard rapidly advancing up the stairs now. "Bibo quick, get us out of here!" Khallen yelled as he got as close to him as possible.
Midway thought Bibo's long cast, the two guards entered the room scowling at them, ready to attack, weapons drawn. Both were equipped with formidable armor and shiny broadswords, quite intimidating. They charged simultaneously towards Khallen and Thormus, who had placed themselves in front of Bibo. Thormus' stun had worn off and the first guard resumed hacking away at the roots that entangled him while shouting words of encouragement to his allies. As the guards approached, Khallen quickly grabbed a throwing dagger in each hand and threw them at the incoming enemies. The first dagger hit the guard right in the throat and he crumpled to the ground wheezing quietly as he convulsed around the floor. The second dagger however, missed completely and the guard continued to press forward. He raised his sword to strike as Khallen scrambled to find his weapons at his side, but it was too late. Khallen could not dodge the attack either as he had no where to go so he fell to his knees and prayed to Bristlebane. As the sword swung down and approached Khallen's head, Thormus grunted as he lifted his shield to protect Khallen in true paladin fashion. The force of the impact left a resounding clacking sound and knocked the paladin and rogue to the ground. Somewhat frustrated the guard lifted his sword once again to retry his attack, but it was too late, Bibo had finished his spell and all that remained of the three was a faint blue smoke that dissipated almost immediately.