DISCLAIMER: I do not own Dungeons and Dragons or their d20 system. I did not make money writing this story. DnD and all its supplements are owned by Wizards of the Coast. Do visit their site for this epic awesome game.

Chapter XI: The Raid

Nothing had showed that this was going to happen. Most of us were too tired or drunk to defend ourselves. They must've known what was going on in Ravensburg, for they were not a force we couldn't have handled if we were sober.

Hundreds of Goblins and Hobgoblins were pouring through the streets as the Guild was doing what they could to fight back. The militia quickly gathered, arming themselves, but this night they were weak men.

Our team hurried forward as we sought the commander of the raiding group, but there seemed to be no orders given to the hundreds of enemies. They were well prepared, they knew what to do; they were not going to give away their weakness, their leader, their heart.

It only took an hour for half the city to burn, and many people were already dead. Civilians who had stayed at home were run down. We still hadn't found the mind behind this invasion, and fighting the hordes of enemies back was tiring and very difficult. Soon, I had used all but my most basic spells, and we were all covered in wounds and soaked in blood both ours and the enemy's.

We were doing our best fighting the enemies back, but we were slowly being pushed back. 'We have to retreat!' Bardryn yelled. We turned tail and fled, but for many it had already been too late.

The fighting was as good as over; there was no way we could've won this battle. Everywhere I looked, I saw people running for their lives. Many were run down by the Goblins. We passed bodies of people we knew, loved, for who we had worked, and those we had worked with. There were almost no Guild members alive as far as we could tell; we had already passed most of them as they were lying on the ground, dead.

I didn't think we would make it as the Goblins were running after us, striking anyone down who they passed, and I was close to turning around and taking some of the bastards down with me. Instead I kept running for my life as we all sought ways to lose the chasing army. Suddenly, Surina howled in pain as an arrow hit her in the leg. She almost fell, but she pulled the arrow out of her leg as she regained her balance.

We turned around a corner, and we were surprised by what we saw. The Goblins were all retreating, and we noticed that the Goblins who had been behind us were also running away from us. Then I noticed that the growling that I thought came from the flames, was actually coming from the skies. As we looked up we saw something that looked like a big bird of prey circling through the sky. We now finally knew who their leader was; a Dragon.

We helped put out the fires and heal the wounded, and we did the best we could. But in the end we lost half our city, and our fellow Guild members were dead. There were only a few still alive. We gathered the bodies and sorted out the Guild members who were still recognisable. Among them was the Gnome I had been dancing with, and it saddened me. We also found the Guild Leader there, Area Cali. He was hardly recognisable, being covered in wounds and blood, and his clothing and skin seemed to have melted.

We later heard that the Dragon had appeared about halfway through the battle, walking through the streets in relative silence. It had slain anything in its path, among which half the Guild. He had been seeking Cali, so he could challenge him to a duel.

Seeing his city and Guild fall apart Cali felt like he had no choice but to accept. The combat had been brutal but short, as Cali was no match for the Dragon. The beast played with him before finishing him off, and after he had done this he had flown away, sounding the retreat.

Immediately everybody capable of digging started burying their loved ones and dead. We buried them all in the Guild's garden and courtyard, since there was no Guild left.

We didn't say a thing as we buried our friends, but we didn't need to. We all knew what the others were thinking. We were the only ones left to defend this city. We were the only ones left to find out what actually caused this massive attack from the Dragon, and more importantly why it'd left. We knew that we'd have to leave the city for a while to research our mission and find out more about the Dragon we'd be hunting.

We knew that we were the only ones left to avenge our friends.