Earnest Enemies

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## Meeting with the Enemy

The party wake up in the already blistering heat of the morning and head towards the town, where they see dozens of hobgoblins watching them from the walls. Garkuk stops them just outside the front gate, and brings forth a couple of bags for all their weapons and arcane foci to be put inside. More bags are required as Ahsatan hands over her custom rake and other random objects, and they are then all handcuffed and lead through the city streets to the outpost. Journeying through the streets Grimmholm, the damage dealt by the guardians of the forest the day before becomes apparent as many hobgoblins are seen helping citizens gather their belongings from their wrecked houses and evacuating them to a steadily growing camp site to the East of the town.

Arriving at the outpost, the party is led into what was once Emota's office and are told to take a seat. Zaldran spins around in his chair on the opposite side of the desk and formally introduces himself. He expresses his admiration of the party in their ability to somehow continuously disrupt his schemes despite lacking a clear lack of organisation. Odd compliments aside, he continues to say that they have been fighting each other on opposite sides to achieve the same goal; to do what is best for the country. He points out that the technological and monetary divide between the smaller towns such as Grimmholm and the large cities such as Sheaflund is astounding, and only negatively affects those who live in the smaller places. He also criticizes Rayner's leadership of Grimmholm, explaining that most of the town's funds are spent on magical items (such as a cape that billows on command), and that the stoneguard are barely functional, having been nearly overthrown by some amateur yuan-ti assassins.

With the party unsure what to make of his beliefs, he offers them a job deal. Not too long ago, some of his scouts stationed elsewhere sent a distress letter to him requesting for aid to be sent. Due to the vagueness of the letter, an enquiry was sent to their last known location, but no reply came. Zaldran asks the party to go out to the scouts' last known location and find out what the problem is, solve said problem, and ensure the scouts are brought back safely. In exchange for completing this deal, the party will be allowed to walk freely wherever they like along with their friends who were locked up in prison. If the party refuse however, they are still allowed to roam free, but Zaldran threatened that he would not hesitate to cut them down if they interfered with his plans again. He steps outside the office and offers the party a moment to think about his offer.

After some intense discussion and metaphorical banging of heads against walls, Zaldran re-enters and the party accept his deal, but only under the circumstance that Grimmholm is successfully rebuilt and Vakon gets his tavern rebuilt and given back to him should he want it. He accepts their deals, and happily states that they will travel with Garkuk and a few other hobgoblins, and that they will be leaving in a few hours. With that, the party are led out the outpost, given back their things and left to roam free wherever, so they head back to the farmhouse. Mirik is also handed his two letters.

## A Contract Accepted

At the farmhouse, Mirik tears open the letters and sees they are from Cardinal Dannell, his carer back in Ketterdam. There is also a sending scroll inside one of them, which was included for Mirik to tell Dannell where he is so he can come and speak to him in person. Mirik uses the scroll and tells Dannell that they are currently in Grimmholm but it is occupied by hobgoblins. Dannell replies saying that he would arrive on the morrow. Ven and Mirik pray together during this time to Pelor in an attempt to ease any tension from Mirik's dream the night before. Nothing happens.

A few hours later there is a knock at the door as Garkuk, the tattooed mage lady, arrives with six other hobgoblins. She seems a little miffed, but the two groups gather their things and set off towards the destination; a small camp by the river Mundare, not too far from the foothills of the Rocksoll Highlands in the East. The intense heat makes travel difficult for the group, and so by the time they reach the camp at the river they are feeling very hot and tired. The camp is very small, made up of only three tents and a campfire. The tents are battered and torn, and the campfire heavily trampled. There is no sign of any hobgoblins, other than their random camping equipment. It also appears that some foot traffic occurred across the river and further East, so the party cross the shallow river and take a closer look. Kiira is scared to cross the water, so the hobgoblins group together to carry her across.

Ven suddenly hears a strange noise from behind some nearby rocks which sounds like a strange growling. He calls out to the noise, approaching the rocks in a non-confrontational manner. Shifting is heard as a freshly woken hill giant sits up from behind the rock. In a tense moment of silence, the giant stands up to his full height and awkwardly begins walking away to the East. Carric keeps an eye on it as it walks away whilst the others discuss what to do, until he spots the giant duck behind a boulder in the distance. Not long after, distance barking and howling is heard as the giant jumps out from behind where it just ducked into with three large beast-like creatures running in front towards the party. Carric turns invisible as the rest of the party hide behind bushes and in trees...