Greeba's Rough Run

Bent over her anvil, Greeba was putting the finishing touches on the forged steel sculpture in the shape of a bard’s lute.  This will be placed on a plinth in the Druid garden in Fort Skulnar, in memory of the half-elf bard Trystan who laid his life in the battle with the half-dragon twins.  

Greeba wiped her brow with the back of her hand.  The garden was getting full of her steel forms - a wolf’s paw, representing Arian the elf druid, a lighting bolt for the young sorcerer Xarius, a highly decorative, if not sharp, knife for Errol the halfling rogue... The life-sized paladin shape representing Thibault was placed more centrally, in the middle of the grounds, as it was to him that the Fort was bestowed by the local Duchess.  Greeba thought of Bryn, the elvish lady thief who first offered her friendship when she reached these parts, and not for the first time thought of making a memorial for her - but she fell before the taking of Skulnar, and at least her body was resting in a real grave, unlike her other fallen comrades.

Greeba frowned as she thought of their last adventure, the one that claimed Trystan’s life.  It started well, as the group decided to answer the call of the oppressed and deal with a pair of half-dragons terrorising the local countryside.  Taking a boat to the river island, they were able to get into the Rough Run tower fairly easily, despite a trapped corridor and several fighters trying to block their way.  Brother Eamon the monk quickly switched off the moving blades, and the maze-like hall was still wide enough for the individual combatants to attack and push the rough defenders back, after determining that they didn’t wish to negotiate for their lives.  

On the first floor, however, things changed.  As soon as Greeba climbed the stairs, she received a crossbow bolt through the upper arm.  Luckily it was a clean shot which didn’t do lots of damage, just enough to wake up her rage.  As the others were climbing up next to her, the retreating fighters concentrated on the other staircase leading to the next floor kept releasing their crossbows, and more seriously, started up an automated trap of whirly bladed trees criss-crossing the floor.  Greeba managed to avoid the deadly swirling knives as she moved to the other stairs, finishing off one of the enemy with her Flametongue sword, and managing to pull the lever to stop the killing contraption. Nathia and Arnor followed onto the staircase to finish off the other defenders.  Another enemy fighter slain, the last one managed to run through the trapdoor at the top of the stairs.  Before the door slammed shut, a glowing ball of fire was thrown down into the room, exploding right into Greeba’s face and wounding some of her friends too.  Luckily she has the strength and resilience of her Orcish side, and managed to react by running all the way down to the ground floor, pulling Blurb, the large druid who just joined their group, behind her.  They were just out of reach of the second fireball that burst between Eamon, Gorlock, Wisteria and Trystan, injuring some of them pretty badly.  

On the ground floor, she met Mac the paladin, who came to help them but brought the bad news that the half-dragon twins had come down from the top of the tower on the back of their wyvern, and were coming in through the front door.  As her group was still scattered over the different floors of the tower, Greeba calmed her rage and tried to think, even though it is not her strong suit.  She decided that if the fireball-thrower was coming one way, she, and the others, should go in the other direction.  After all, she’d seen on her friend Errol what happens when you get incinerated, and she fervently wished to avoid that fate.  Running up, she shouted to Blurb and the others to follow her.  She herself was going after Arnor, Nathia and Gorlock, who already finished off the last human fighter and picked up the box of treasure from the half-dragons’ quarters.  

Climbing the ladder, they reached the roof of the tower, offering a beautiful view of the river and its surroundings, but also the only viable way out.  She tied off her sturdy rope onto one of the crenellations and offered the first go to Nathia the Goliath.  Lithe, angelic Joell followed after Nathia, and Gorlock tied his own rope to the other side of the tower to allow Arnor to climb down.  The tall Shadow Fey Guardian refused, wanting to make a final stand as he was already gravely wounded, and handed the treasure chest to Greeba.  It was heavy and it slipped from her grasp as she grabbed the rope, but at the last moment she caught the treasure between her leather-clad knees and continued her sure-handed abseil down the tower wall.  

Passing in front of the window of the second floor, she glimpsed a terrible sight: the blade trees were spinning and moving again, her friends Trystan and Nathia were bleeding and lifeless at the other window, and the bloodied grave cleric Wisteria was losing ground to the large half-dragon wielding a burning sword.  “Run Wisteria, you can do it!” Greeba shouted and was elated to see the elf managing to escape certain death.

Jumping off a few yards off the ground, Greeba ran towards the boat where Joell was already waiting.  On her way she passed by the entrance to the tower and saw a large wyvern and the female half-dragon sorcerer occupied by what looked like a ghostly bear.  She wondered if the druid had anything to do with it, and hoped against hope that he was still alive. That all her friends were alive, however remote that possibility was. 

Greeba’s heart lifted when they started to appear, in dribs and drabs.  Arnor came down the tower carrying gravely injured Nathia.  Blurb the druid suddenly appeared outside and helped heal Nathia as well as Wisteria who’d fallen down onto the sharp rocks surrounding the tower.  Eamon and Mac also made it to the boat, sharing the sad tidings that Trystan the loveable bard had lost his last battle.  Gorlock was the last of the gang to get into the boat, and the strongest four of them hit the oars with all their might, managing to get across the river to safety.  At least briefly.  For they are the Faerun Seven, and justice - OK, treasure too - is much more important.