The Callous Case of the Child Snatcher

> "*You reach the room just in time to find the strangest of creatures stuffing the little girl easily into a large brown sack. It's a grotesque and alien thing that defies any creature you've seen before. In the moment of brevity, it leaps for the windows, popping into smoke and reappearing on the other side of the glass unharmed...*"
>
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The Callous Case of the Child Snatcher was the first ever mission documented by the Split Shields. The children of Stonewood (a ward in Port Ral'Endas) were going missing in the dead of the night, with no clue as to how they were being taken or why. The guards of the town were baffled by the incident and before the Split Shields had gotten involved, two children had already disappeared. The Split Shields were sought out by one Yvonne Ambersash, a resident of Stonewood who was fearing for her own daughter's safety and wanted more protection. Allia Darrow, the leader of the Split Shields, is a good friend of Yvonne's and promised to help, so she hired a group of freelance adventurers to oversee the daughter's safety.

## Characters Involved

The following PCs were involved in this adventure:

* Torug (Glass Gnome / Rogue-Wizard)
* Lune (Half-Elf / Sorcerer)
* Cade (Halfling / Fighter)
* Noah De Montford (Human / Fighter)
* Giles Axton (Half-Elf / Rogue-Bard)
* Cyrus (Mythric / Paladin-Warlock-Sorcerer)

## Plot

The party arrived in **Port Ral'Endas** in response to a notice that had been left around the various taverns that dot the towns that make up the Further Kingdoms. The notice stated that it was looking for freelance adventures that would be up for security work for the **Split Shields**. Following the directions on the notice, the party found themselves in **The Inn by the Water** where they met **Klombroth FireFire** (and after a quick arm wrestle) the dragonborn walked them through the town towards the Split Shield Tower to meet with the group's leader **Allia Darrow**.

Upon entering the tower they were marched through a few of the tower's rooms, including a main room that had been set up like a hunter's lodge, and a room containing a dwarf known as **DramClam the Wizard**, who was in the process of setting up a portal. Klombroth took them to see Allia Darrow in her office, who greeted the party and quickly told them of her recently formed group the Split Shields. The group, in short, had been formed as a response to the **Summertime Siege** and the great loss of guards that had occurred as a result, the Split Shields were formed to protect Port Ral'Endas in times of great strife. After explaining what the group was, Allia told them about the troubles Stonewood had been experiencing.

Children were going missing in the Stonewood Ward and the townsguards had no clue as to who or what was taking them. It left no traces and no one had seen anything. At this point, two of the ward's children had been stolen, and although the guards were actively looking for them they were coming up short for answers. Allia has a friend in Stonewood known as **Yvonne Ambersash** who has a child of her own, Dayya. Allia hires the party to protect Yvonne and Dayya until some resolution to the child snatching presents itself.

The party, along with Klombroth, move to Stonewood and get to work at protecting the house, setting themselves up in various position to keep watch on it for any trouble (mainly, the door to the girl's room, the roof, and the streets below her bedroom window). Unfortunately their efforts proved unfruitful, as a few hours into their watch they heard a sound like the crashing of a bookshelf and rushed into the room just in time to see a strange and alien creature stuffing Dayya into a sack. It teleported out of the window and onto the streets below in a puff of smoke and the party gave chase. The chase came to an end when Lune cast a Fireball spell as it was travelling across the rooftops of various houses. The spell exploded the roof, causing it to collapse, bringing the ire of the party and Klombroth upon Lune. Fortunately no one was hurt and Cyrus (after flying up and into the roof) discovered that the creature was still alive, disappearing to other rooftops in the area.

The party searched the streets for any sign of the creature but couldn't find anything, it had escaped. Klombroth suggested visiting the town's **Standing Tower** to research the creature and the party agreed. They travelled back to the Split Shield Tower, along with a distraught Yvonne, and got some rest from their chase encounter. The next morning they arrived at the Standing Tower and were greeted by one of the **Idle Prophets**, an acolyte known as **Zoro Lura** who was quick to find them information about the creature based on their descriptions. Zoro revealed the creature to be a **Xackladon**, which steals children to feast upon them and has a particular weakness to honey. The information conveyed also revealed a clue in where the creature might be, stating that it enjoys high up places that are dark and abandoned.

Following Klombroth's guidance, the party worked their way to an abandoned tower that had been partially destroyed during the **Summertime Siege**. They worked their way inside and discovered both the children and the Xackladon in the highest part of the tower. As much of the party fought it, Giles focussed their attention on getting the children to safety, luring them away from the fight with food and reassurance. The party eventually won out against the creature after Cade destroyed a clutch of eggs it had been harbouring in the attic with a Green Blade spell.

Dayya was returned to her mother Yvonne and the other children were taken to a local church for healing. Allia offered her appreciation to the group for going above and beyond their service, and also gave them each a magical **shield token** that could allow them to return to the port if they were ever needed.

## Rewards

These were the rewards offered to the party by Allia Darrow at the completion of their adventure:

* 500 gold pieces
* Shield Tokens