The Quest for the Dragon Queen's Hoard

## Prologue

Three meetings were called on the same day; three meetings that would herald an adventure the likes of which had scarce been seen upon the continent of Andaria since the end of the Age of Winter. In the city of Junon, within the depths of its Great Library, a dark elf scholar met with his superior Librarian, to discuss a request for aid sent by a peer. At the Dragon's Cathedral, in the very same city, a half-orc knight awaited assignment from her superior, who first mused on the fundamental goodness of the donation of copper coins to the draconic god of justice. Hundreds of miles away, in the storm-blasted mountains bordering the Lost Territories, a sorcerer whose blood coursed with powers infernal and draconic received his instructions from a master terrible with bloody purpose.

Each of these three received instructions that would shape their destinies: the scholar, accompanied by the knight, would meet the sorcerer in the village of Greenest, to discuss certain activities that each of their superiors had determined too suspicious to escape scrutiny. Whispers from Lordsleague had reached the ears of the Grand Librarian, the Lord Commander, and the High Inquisitor: whispers of dragonworshipers and ill conspiracies. Each of the three heroes were given instructions to aid each other, and find the truth of these whispers, and stop whatever sinister plot was brewing.

And so Lytharos, Karma, and Drake arrived in the village of Greenest, on the same night as the fiery raid.

## Chapter I: Greenest in Flames

When the Heroes of Greenest first arrived in the sleepy village that would later become their namesake, their eyes were filled with terrors that would have driven away lesser mortals. The village of Greenest was under attack: savage kobolds and cultists were terrorizing the streets, while above the chaos flew an one-eyed green dragon.

Yet these heroes were no lesser mortals: the brave knight, Karma, and her learned charge, Lytharos, charged into the mayhem, and their first victory was the rescue of a family fleeing pursuing raiders. Here, they were aided by the young tiefling sorcerer called Ixenfueryon, whose command of flame was a terror to behold. In short order, they rescued the commoner family from their peril; thereafter, they escorted the family to the safety of Greenest Keep, whereupon their adventure began in truth.

For there they met with Townmaster Nighthill, who thanked them for their bravery and yet begged for more. Not all of the townsfolk had made it to the sanctuary of the Keep; moreover, as noted by Escobert the Red, a secret entrance to the keep had yet to be secured. In the end, the Townmaster begged the heroes' generosity in securing the secret entrance and rescuing as many townsfolk as could be saved.

The heroes, as chivalrous as they were brave, gladly accepted, and secured the secret entrance--a drainage grate, emptying into the solitary stream flowing through Greenest--as well as forayed into the village to stop the raiders.

For the rest of that terrible night, the brave heroes rescued many townsfolk and halted many evils. At times, they roamed the village in the midst of the raid (assisted, in part, by a halfling grandmother named Rosie Whitfoot, who proved a competent asset to the heroes' endeavors), engaging in such heroics as halting the burning of the village's watermil, and the rescue of Chauntea's faithful from the village church. Sometimes, the heroes assisted in the defense of Greenest Keep, against foes ranging from lowly raiders to a young green dragon with one eye. All these foes, and many more, the heroes slew or chased away.

In the process of these heroics, a few notable developments occurred. First of these was the welcoming of a knight by the name of Sildar Hallwinter, an agent of the Lords' Alliance, into Greenest Keep. Second of these was the interrogation of one raider, a sullen human in filthy black robes who had been left tied to a post in the stables for questioning after the most dire crises of the village were tended to. Sildar had tried unsuccessfully to interrogate the raider while the heroes were rescuing the last of the townsfolk, but to no avail. When the heroes learned of this after their return to Greenest Keep, they knew that they alone could pry intelligence out of the outlaw's sealed lips. Decisive shows of force by Ixenfueryon the Drake and cunning, barbed questions from Karma led to the raider spilling what secrets he had in a mad show of bravado.

The raider was no mere bandit, and the raid on Greenest was no mere show of outlaw aggression. The robed man identified himself as an initiate of the Cult of the Dragon, a rag-tag collection of desperate fanatics whose sun most learned folk had thought long since set. In the past, they sought to necromantize dragons into fearsome undead creatures they called dracoliches. Now (so claimed the cultist), they were conducting raids across Lordsleague and all Andaria, amassing a hoard of treasure so as to summon Tiamat, the Dragon Queen, and usher in a new age of fire and terror in which dragons reigned supreme (aided and comforted, of course, by their loyal cultist followers).

Before the full gravity of the cultist's testimony could set in, however, a fearsome warhorn sounded, whose baleful tones echoed throughout Greenest Keep. The heroes joined the garrison on the battlements of the keep, and there beheld a mob of thirty or so raiders led by a blue half-dragon warrior. The raiders presented prisoners--a mother and her children--and the half-dragon offered a challenge to the defenders of Greenest. The raid had been successful, declared the half-dragon monster, and as such he felt generous. He offered the return of his hostage villagers on one condition: that he be permitted to fight, in honorable single combat, a champion from among the defenders' number.

The air hung heavy after the half-dragon issued his challenge. After a pause, Sildar Hallwinter, wounded though he was, began to make his way to meet the half-dragon; but the brave knight Karma stopped him, and offered herself as the champion to fight for Greenest.

The half-dragon seemed amused by this display of selflessness from an obvious outsider such as Karma, and complimented her on her bravery. Then the duel began, a whirlwind of savage blows. Karma fought bravely, driven simultaneously by her chivalrous duty and the rage that boiled deep in her blood. So savagely did Karma fight that, even when she seemed on death's door, she rose up once more and landed a decimating blow upon her foe. Yet, in the end, the half-dragon prevailed. For reasons unknown to the villagers of Greenest, the half-dragon seemed to merely incapacitate Karma over aiming to kill the young knight--perhaps the monster was impressed by so worthy an opponent, and did not wish to eliminate the possibility of a second match with so promising a foe.

The half-dragon was true to his word, however, and released his hostages into the arms of the Greenest defenders. Thus departed the raiders from Greenest. While the people of Greenest had lost much in the way of wealth and things, they could have lost many lives had it not been for the brave heroes who had come to their village in its hour of direst need. For this, the people of Greenest would forever be grateful to the three heroes: Karma, the young knight; Ixenfueryon, the young sorcerer; and Lytharos, the young scholar.