Jayna, Forrest, Lichfield, and Jorr stood in the hidden treasure cache in the basement of Vraath Keep. The three gated rooms before them looking fairly pristine when compared to the decaying walls and rooms found on the surface. The adventurers pushed into the first small room, a vault with ten small lockboxes. The group was pleasantly surprised to find the lockboxes were not locked or sealed and made quick work opening them. While there were notes of credit from debtors likely hundreds of years past a time where they could be claimed, there was also a moderate sum of gold, silver, and copper that the group pilfered and divided evenly. Forrest also came across the ancient deed to Vraath Keep which he quietly pocketed without making much noise about.
The first room now sufficiently explored the group turned their attention to the second of the iron gates. Jorr noticed that Lichfield was very careful to not touch the metal as he cautiously passed through the portal. "Hey, four eyes. You don't like this stuff just like your cousins huh?" And he rapped the iron bars causing a soft clang.
"Does that appear to be the case, woodsman?" came the response.
Jorr sensing he caused some resentment shrugged and offered a very short apology. "Sorry don't know as much about your... kind (pausing as not to call him by an offensive slur)." So the group pushed on into the room which was filled with many books and texts. The makeshift library was studied for a few minutes before Jayna and Jorr lost interest and moved on to the final room. Litchfield and Forrest stayed behind and were able to sort through the information which was mostly a telling of the history of the keep. One journal contained a humorous final passage gloating about how the might of Amery Vraath having permanently solved the problem of the forest giants in the region.
Jayna and Jorr entered the final room and found a smaller chamber with mostly barren walls and a single large chest resting in the middle of the chamber. Jayna brazenly opened the chest the contents within seemingly placed here due to some importance. A large polished skull belonging to either of a young dragon or some other very large reptile, a thick string with at least two dozen giant teeth, a chainmail shirt, and a huge spiked gauntlet. The group gathered in the foyer of the rooms to further inspect the treasures, Forrest casting detect magic and learning that indeed the chainmail and the gauntlet were imbued with magic. At this point, Jorr addressed the group. "I have seen the patrols of soldiers and the church in these woods, no fuckin way this is where they hole up. It's just a stop or refueling spot of some kind and if we stay here we may have another fight on our hands. Now I know some other places in the woods we can check, but it will soon be dark in these woods and I can't guide you all the way there in that short time. More so with this old ass version of four eyes that needs to use a cane. Do you all think Captain Anitah may know more if she saw these things we found off that jumper?" The group agreed that she may provide some guidance about what to look for next. "Look I have a friend that even you guys should be able to find without me putting you on top of him. If you bring him that," Jorr explained as he pointed to the large gauntlet, "he will likely give you a place to stay tonight. Without you slow city folks slowing me down I can get to Drellin's and back to you before you are done with breakfast tomorrow." The group seemed to agree that this was as good a plan as anything else so the map and letter from the Army of the Dragon King were given to Jorr who quickly departed to the south. The rest of the group gathered themselves and headed north, hauling the huge gauntlet with them.
A few hours later, there was a stirring in what had been a deathly quiet Vraath keep. A soldier slowly regained consciousness coming to the realization that both his hands and feet were bound but he was now all alone in the dark...
The now guideless adventurers moved at a vastly different pace than earlier in the morning. Eventually, not long after leaving the keep they came to a large effigy of some kind where a small footpath splits from the main forest road. Near the large marker was a crude depiction of a frowning tusked face, a symbol matching what was etched into the large gauntlet they carried. Considering this to be a sign of the way to meet Jorr's friend, it is decided to take the small path into the deep woods. The old track ending after not much further travel in the shadow of a large hill looming up from the surrounding woodlands. At the hill's base sat a collapsed ruin of what was once a massive wooden fortress. Inside the heap of moss-covered rotting logs that were once mighty walls, sat a giant at a great fire pit, cooking a large boar on a spit the size of a lance. He seemed to be talking to himself and not aware of the new travelers until Jayna yelled out to him. He harshly confronted the adventurers claiming to not know of anyone named Jorr, but his mood was softened when presented the gauntlet as a gift, he did not say so but it seemed to have some deep meaning to him. In a far less surly manner, he introduced himself as Warklegnaw and he invited the group to join him and his friend for dinner around the fire. After a bit of brief conversation, it was revealed that the giant was not alone as BJ the Marvelous released his invisibility spell and appeared with a theatrical spin and wave of his hand. Litchfield had mentioned he was looking for Sertieren the Wise and upon hearing this BJ felt the need to introduce himself as the man Litchfield was looking for. There was a bit of confusion over what the wizard's name really was, but neither party dwelled on the matter. The giant completed cooking the meal, quickly doled it out, finished his portion, then headed to bed while the adventurers continued some brief conversation before all finding shelter within the ruined fort and sleeping for the night.
Jorr made Drellin's ferry before the moons had fully risen into the night sky and quickly found Captain Soranna. She assumed like the initial thoughts when seeing the documents that a force was organizing and planning on marching through the vale with Drellin's as the first stop on the warpath. She took Jorr to Waldo and the rest of the lightkeepers to share this information. Meeting in private at the Old Bridge Inn, Jorr introduced himself and complimented Waldo's choice for guildmates based on their ability to fight both the hydra and soldiers earlier in the day. While this confused Waldo a bit, the group then decided it would be best to fully scout out this threat to the town and that Jorr would take Dickie out to rejoin those in the woods before first light in the morning. Jorr and Dickie headed back into the Witchwood, Jorr was not impressed by his new acquaintance's ability to keep the pace or tell any entertaining jokes as they moved through the woods. They arrived at the old giant fortress at Bald Hill just as everyone was awaking from the previous evening.
Jorr and Dickie relayed the plan to scout Skull Gorge bridge and after a bit of discussion over breakfast it was decided that everyone but BJ would leave to do so. As the group departed BJ again cast invisibility and followed the group from a short distance away. It did not take long for the group to reach the edge of the forest where Skull Gorge was crossed by the ancient dwarven stonework. BJ appeared out of his spell and Forrest noticed this, but just smiled to himself instead of alerting anyone. It was decided that Jorr and Jayna would get as close as possible to the bridge and report back what they saw. They cautiously approached the edge of the gorge and as the trees petered out they came across a stretch of barren ground, about sixty feet wide, ending at the gorge.
Roughly a hundred feet wide at its narrowest point, the gorge drops away precipitously to a fast-rushing stream far below. Anchored at both ends to large stone towers with pentagonal roofs, the bridge seems sturdy despite its obvious age. It is, clearly, the only easy way to cross, since the gorge continues as far as the eye can see to the east and west. On the far side of the bridge is a small encampment of a half-dozen tents clustered together. Curls of smoke from campfires attested to some sort of activity, while a single humanoid figure stands at the watch post on the top of each of the bridge's four watchtowers. Yet the most impressive creature present is certainly the sleek and menacing green dragon that perches on the roof of the northwestern watchtower on the far side of the gorge. It lies basking in the sun, but its bright yellow eyes remained fixed on the bridge.
Slightly shaken by the sight of the mythical creature, Jorr and Jayna quickly decide to retreat into the woods and relay its presence to the group. It is decided that no one has the deathwish to challenge a dragon unprepared, and the evidence points to a dragon lead force marching to Drellin's Ferry and destroying it. The group, including BJ who reveals his presence with his trademark theatrical flair after running out from behind a tree in the woods, decides that they should warn the town immediately of the oncoming danger. They depart back toward Drellin's Ferry and with Jorr's guidance traverse the Witchwood with no mishaps. After reporting their findings to Soranna, she quickly relays the message to Town Speaker Wiston and an impromptu village council meeting takes place.
The adventuring party and Jorr's testimony is able to convince most that the immediate danger is both dire and on a catastrophic scale, Drellin's Ferry has no way to prepare for a dragon lead attack against it. Evacuation to save the lives of the residents seems like the most sensible plan. Iormel, a wealthy landowner who has been on the town council for thirty years, can not abide the thought of the money he would lose if forced to leave town and promises to oppose the evacuation unless he would be personally compensated for the loss. Despite Iormel's protesting, it is decided that the following day news of an incoming assault would be presented to the town residents with the recommendation that they abandon Drellin's Ferry and head west toward Brindol. The next morning the evidence is presented to the town and most of the town is able to quickly get over their shock and concern and begin the emergency evacuation. Iormel gathered the few he could and attempted to stop those leaving town, he soon had bigger issues to deal with as BJ the Marvelous unleashed a color spray spell that not only provided pyrotechnics for the pro-evacuation directives but also completely blinded Iormel. Altogether it was enough to convince seventy-eight percent of the town to leave, only the most stubborn, those fooled into thinking the risk was exaggerated, and those simply who did not believe in dragons choosing to stay in town.
The adventurers were amongst the first to leave town and mark the beginning of a flood of refugees heading west on the Dawn's Way toward Brindol. They are less than an hour outside of the city when they come across a battered soldier. She introduces herself as Teyani Sura, a Lion of Brindol (an elite soldier of the Brindol town guard), and after being dispatched to investigate rumors of raids in the Vale their detachment ran into a roadblock. The opposing soldiers pushed back her own small detachment and her captain ordered they scatter and warn other travelers. Relating the story of the similar blockade that the adventuring party defeated they added they also found a small encampment guarded by a dragon and that Drellin's Ferry was evacuating due to a supposedly Dragon King battle plan found. Teyani was startled to learn this and felt she at once must head to Brindol to inform Lord Jarmaath of the developments. She pointed out exactly where her patrol ran into the roadblock and wished the adventurers good luck in breaking that roadblock as they had done previously, that act with the help they previously provided to Drellin's would indeed buy them goodwill from the leadership of Brindol and the rest of the Vale. The adventurers decided to investigate the roadblock and altered their course to where Teyani had directed them, they would likely arrive there before the sun would set.