Through The Caslan Woods
Traveller finds himself walking through the Caslan Woods on his way to Waterdeep. The woods slowly turns muddy and foul. The fresh breeze turns humid and stagnant. Traveller finds a more compact earthen path and so sticking to that he finds himself led towards a small village. The village is surrounded by a rough palisade of freshly cut timbers. It’s loosely packed planks allow a view of a small and simple farming village beyond. Traveller is challenged at the gates by a young redheaded girl atop the gate. Her name is Natalja Bloomland and she claims she is in charge of the safety of the town during the day. She wakes a dozing younger boy beside her and after questioning the Traveller they deem him to at least not be a dammed kobold and allow him entry. The Traveller offering the gift of coin certainly seemed to help matters.
Natalja welcomes the Traveller to R’Town. They walk through a small village of rough wooden houses and she finally offers him some warm stew in her simple home. Coming home to see what the commotion was all about, Grovan Bloomland enters and is welcoming to the stranger. He is keen to hear of news of the outside world.
He hides his disappointment well when he learns the Traveller has very little memory of any recent events or even his name for that matter and cannot help with Travellers questions about his past. Grovan shares that the R’Town was a thriving farming village but that changed about a season ago. Lately, the ground fares no more than one cut a season, if that. More and more of the ground goes rotten, seed rotting before it has a chance to sprout. Then there’s the kobold raids. They took Natalja’s Great-Ma not a tenday ago.
The druids of Caslan Woods haven’t been around for near a season. They used to come to aid the sick and infirm. Hudsyn Greenyard went seeking them out a few days ago, to aid his ailing newborn. He has never returned.
Traveller hatches a plan to allow some kobolds through and lay ambush to them. He and Natalja find a spot in the palisade which she has recently patched. Traveller undoes her handy work and creates a kobold sized gap. Then he finds a vantage point above and waits.
Night falls and Natalja is not one to be persuaded to leave the fighting to the new stranger. She has her own dagger you know.
When the kobolds do come in the dead of night they swarm through in numbers that Traveller cannot contain himself. They surge by him and in the ensuing battle, Natalja is mortally wounded. She dies in Travellers arms, all the while putting on a brave face saying, “It’s ok. I’ll be ok. I’ll be…”
Enraged, Traveller surges through the village and kills any kobold he can find but by now the kobolds have taken what they came for and have retreated back into the woods.