Here's where it all begins...

I was born in Sand Point, some 17 years ago. It's a fair-sized town, compared to some, but really, I guess some people could be impressed by it's size. I should mention, in case you don't know me, that I am not so big myself. As a black male halfling, I stand at just four feet in height, not that the white halflings get much bigger. I'm not going to tell you all about my history now, but maybe I will some day. This should be enough for now: When I was a kid, I got sent to the big city, Korvosa. I didn't have much choice in the matter, at the time. Some people figured I was smart enough to attend the Wizards' Academy of Colleges there; and I was smart enough... to know I didn't like it.

Korvosa itself was interesting, and I might have liked that place, if it wasn't for all the scumbags, pimps, gangsters and other bad types that no one wants to see alone on a lonely street. Yeah, I know - you're wondering, "Those people were at the Wizards' College?" No, they weren't. The people at the college were worse, especially the instructors. Why else do you think I would ditch classes and hit the streets?

Anyway, all that Wizard stuff was pretty easy to me, and to make a long story short, I graduated on-time, without ever summoning no devils, neither. So recently, I went back to Sand Point, and like I said before, this is where it all really begins....


So it's the annual Swallow Tale Fesival, of 4708. On the 1st day of the month of Rovagug, in the Age of Lost Omens, and I am back home in Sand Point. My Grandmother, Iris, lives here - she has for all her life, I think. Gran'ma Iris is an old lady. She works for the rich glass maker's, Kaijitsu's, family. Why they need a little old lady to clean up after them, I don't know, but Granma seems happy enough, and really, I guess no one knows just what else she would do. Anyway, she's happy, and they're happy - hell yeah they're happy - they're rich. So one night, I rolled back into Sand Point, after fleeing, I mean, graduating from Korvosa, and Granma took me in. But I couldn't stay with her forever, so I went out into town to look for my own way.

At this Festival - something about butterflies and love or something - the new high Priest is giving his sermon. I heard all of these guys before. This guy sounds just like his predecessor, Father Tobin. Now there is some story for Father Tobin: about his daughter disappearing and how his church burned to the ground. He's buried in the graveyard here- or what's left of him.

Then the Mayor took over talking. We have a Lady Mayor, Deveran, in Sand Point, but I think she does the job about as good as any man could, not that I have any faith in any politician. At least she can be funny, or she tries to. The humans here seem to like her, and they laughed at her joke about Larz Rovanky, the workaholic tanner. She also said there is some new play, "The Harpy's Curse," coming to the Sand Pointe Theatre. You know, this theatre we have is nearly as big as some of the ones in Korvosa, and it is definitely the biggest for leagues, around here.

I was off to the side edge of the crowd, listening, but minding my own business, as I do. I saw some elf in the crowd make a smirk at something Mayor Deveran said. Now why did he do that? Just then, I heard some high-pitched singing, if you could call it that. It sounded more like some creaky, grating, shrieking, to me. So then, these little skinny grey things with big wide heads jumped up out of the cemetary and rushed into the gathered crowd!

They were about as tall as me, or maybe a little smaller, and there were around thirty of them. The Sheriff, named Belor Hemlocke, made a cry to rally the farmers to him, but most of the villagers fled in a panic. I got a little swept up in the throng, but I was able to skirt around a building to find clear ground. I fired off a couple of spells, but I missed the two goblins I tried for, although one was such a close miss. Maybe I had missed one too many classes, too. I knew they were goblins now, since I had seen one before, in town. Well, that goblin I had seen was a dead Chieftain, pickled in a big glass jug, owned by this crazy old Ranger guy who runs the livery here.

Meanwhile, the battle didn't look to be going too poorly. A few villagers had been killed, but the Sheriff had a strong group around him, including his huge - and I mean BIG - nephew, Lyk. I just saw blades swinging and goblins falling, over there. There was a gap between the town defenders, where some goblins filled in, so I fired a Force Orb spell into them. That took care of three of the buggers, but I should have got the fourth one. I don't know how I could have missed him.

By then I had reached a line of five townsmen, who themselves had not seen any combat. I stood in front of them, and then I noticed that same elf again. He had been shooting his bow all the while and had backed-up to stand next to me. Now I was in position and ready to unleash all my arcane fury, but there were no more foes left on the field. All the goblins were dead, except for two that tried to run and were taken prisoner.

I approached closer and saw a cloaked man interrogating one of the goblins, with his drawn dagger. One of them said that they were from the Mountain tribe, and were taken here to be sold to the "Long shanks woman with the scarred hand." Or was it "scary" hand? Then he took the two and stuffed them into a barrel. I wondered if he knew our local crazy ranger and was trying to preserve these ones, too.

There was some talk about how this goblin force was a diversion, so the Sheriff took off with the villagers, leaving an odd group standing amid the fallen. They were most of them talking and hypothesizing, but I stood off, barely noticed. One was that elf, and then that cloak guy with the daggers was there, and big Lyk and the High Priest also remained behind. The goblins used some nasty rusty blades, so the new Priest conferred with this dwarf. I guess they could put their holy symbols together and figure out some cure, in case anyone who got cut got infected.

Some talk of the recent unpleasantness, which no one here likes to talk about, came up. Basically, it involves Father Tobin, his daughter Nuale', that fire and some mystery. Gossip stuff, if you ask me, but maybe it has something to do with this Scarred Woman and these goblins. We walked over to check the cemetary, and sure enough, Father Tobin's grave was all dug up and there was no body in there. His daughter is supposed to be buried next to him. I mean, there is a grave there, but most people know that there's no body in it, since she disappeared. I did remember hearing the end of the goblins' song said something about eating people....

No one had said anything to me, and I was being quiet. Then that cloaked guy asked me if I was Arcane. I said, "Yes," to him. I guess I didn't notice all the people around, since it seemed that the whole village had returned by now. They started yelling about how I was a devil worshipper and evil or some nonsense stuff. I mean: people are ignorant. If they don't want to listen or try to understand anything, you just can't make them. I really didn't think anyone but Mr. Cloak & Dagger would have heard me anyway, but I guess they were all being quiet and snuk up to eavesdrop on us.

Then they started to yell about how I was going to summon a devil or some thing. I said, if I could, I would summon one right now and show you all, but I can't. That's the truth that I can't - but I saw some people that could, at that Wizards' Academy in Korvosa. Why do they think I am here and not there?

Well you just can't explain things to some people, so I stood there. A young boy, although taller than me, picked up some crap, probably from one of the dead goblins, and threw it at me! He missed, but he took a second shot and hit me square in the chest. I should have used my Mage Hand cantrip to block it, but it was all I could do to control my temper. I have a cleaning cantrip to take care of that later, anyway. It didn't matter what I said to them, at that point. Lyk tried to cool them off, and he offered to take them all to the bar. That kind of distracted them, but it wasn't until Mayor Deveran spoke up that they listened. She said that the town owed a lot to these heroes, since they had saved Sand Point, from the goblins. I guess she was including me in that group, although I didn't think anyone saw me do anything. Come to think of it, I wonder where the Mayor had disappeared to, or how she got away, since she was up in the front on the stage, when the attack began. Maybe she can turn invisible or fly? I heard that Wizards can do those things, too. And you know what? That sounds a lot more interesting to me than summoning up any smelly old devil. But these people here don't want to hear that. My home town.

"The Saviors of Sand Point!" she called us, saying that it would have been worse if we were not there. She even included me in that, saying, "Even this little devil worshiper."

"My name is Riley," I said, shaking my head. Calling people names is bad business. It leads to stereotypes and discrimination. But I have to give this Mayor credit. She soothed the crowd and probably saved me - or saved them. Then she gave us each a bank note for a hundred Gold pieces. A Hundred! She told that crowd and all business owners to give us a discount or to even make their sales to us, at cost.

Then the cloaked man talked to Mayor Deveran, asking her some questions about his cousin Delek and the Kaijitsu family, but I had to kick him under the table. I knew what he was talking about. I took him aside and told him that Delek was involved with that Nuale', and he left town shortly after the time when the Church was being rebuilt, after that fire where she died or disappeared. It seems to me that maybe Nuale' could be this new scary woman who sent the goblins. Then I said: Hey, if your cousin isn't in town, and you are staying at his trailer.... I asked if he had room for a halfling there? I don't take up much space. He did extend an invitiation for me to crash there, so that was cool. He said his name was Andrian Constantin, but I had to kind of look askance when he said that. He didn't say it like it was really his name. I know about names, from what those Wizards said. They wouldn't shut up about names! I guess a name is pretty important for their devil summoning stuff. So I didn't believe this guy, when he told me that was his name. Another reason is that, earlier just that same day, someone in a cloak, who looked and sounded a lot like, "Andrian," was at the Kaijitsu place, asking for a meeting. But he said his name was Vladimir something-or-other, which sounds a lot different than Andrian, to me. Yeah yeah, if this guy is going to mess with the Kaijitsu's and my Grand'Ma, I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on him.

So I went with Lyk, "Andrian," the bow slinging Elf named Carufinwe, and the Dwarf Priest to have a look at what we could get from these shops in Sand Point. After talking to some shopkeepers, including that crazy old Ranger who told us why he'd get the Goblins' names and carve them into their ears before he nailed them to his rafters, and getting what we needed - most of them bought armor and weapons, I just got some components from the alchemist to perform my rituals; and no, I am not going to summon a devil! How many times do I have to tell you that? - we were in the street, and this buxom woman approached us. Well, she went straight up to Lyk, to tell the truth. She seemed to be hitting on him pretty hard, but he didn't seem to get it. She even made up some story about how a dog-sized large rat was in her basement, and she would go and feed it cheese. I had to laugh; it was so funny.

So I said, "Hey Lyk, you take care of her, and I'll go take care of that rat in her basement," winking. But she didn't like that, so I had to duck when she slapped me a couple of times. Lyk was able to figure out that he should go with her, but I'm not sure what happened with all that, since I went with Andrian to the jail. I told you; I will have my suspicion on this man.

He wanted to interview the goblin prisoners, and he did get some information from them. They described, "The Mistress," as they called her. Then Andrian was able to get each of the goblins to tell him their name. He wrote one on his scarf and scared that goblin so bad, the little grey thing ripped its own neck open, killing itself. The other one was mad scared now, so it told Andrian all that it could. These things ain't too smart, and now that I think about it, maybe I should have another name myself, to tell to people....

After we left the jail, we saw that dwarf cleric, Brunt, again. He seems okay. A messenger came up to us, with an invitation from Aldern Foxglove, to go Boar Hunting. Then some woman came running up, carrying her boy in her arms. He was bleeding, I mean a lot of blood, everywhere. So Brunt set his holy words and symbols to work for him. See? I told you that dwarf is alright. I can read people. I surely seen enough bad ones, to know when I see a good one.

While Brunt helped out there, Andrian and I ran off to her house. She had cried about how her husband was in trouble. Andrian busted in, and he tried to help that man, pulling him out of some hole in the floor that he got stuck into, but we were too late. So since it was open, and I heard something down there, I cast my Light cantrip and jumped down in.

Sure enough, it was another Goblin, but this one looked bigger and meaner than those others - more like that chief. The space was so cramped, even I had to duck. Andrian fell in after me, but he could barely move, since it was so close. This goblin hit him good and bloody, so I fired a magic missile into it, but that wasn't enough. I could hear Brunt and Lyk coming through the door upstairs, but there was no way they could fit down here. Help was on the way, but luckily, the goblin missed Andrian; and he was able to strike back, where it had left itself open in its crouch, killing it.