I have been traveling a long time now. My travels brought me to this place, Oakshade. It is a peaceful hamlet, nice enough that I could find work here. This story begins as I entered Oakshade as I encountered the people who would become my traveling companions.
We met in town, all of us. Each of us was trying to find a local wizard, Exatorus. Hebo is a singing goblin, an assistant to a local farmer. Luna is an eladrin hexblade – a warlock with a magical, color-changing trident – with apparently no memory. Petra is a sorceress with dragon scales on half of her face. The four of us met and decided to form a company as we sought the wizard. While asking the townspeople, we were approached by Ezio, an assassin employed by the Court of Owls, the governing body of Caladmein. He suggested we avoid Exatorus, but did not explain why before he left to find the wizard on his own. In the end, we found the wizard’s keep with the help of his employee, a barbarian mountain dwarf named Oromis.
Exatorus interviewed our group and decided to help Hebo with his problem: all of the animals at his farm were dying. The wizard suggested that some beast was attacking, and would offer us money if we could capture it. To help, he sent Oromis with us to procure the beast. As we left, the assassin Ezio joined us, suddenly very eager to work for the wizard. This alarmed us, given his warning to avoid Exatorus not an hour earlier. Nevertheless, we six left Oakshade and followed Hebo to his farm.
We arrived at the farm by nightfall. I soon realized that I was the only member of this party to lack darkvision. My comrades all seemed very alert in the darkness. I was fortunate that the moonlight made things easier for me. Ezio seemed on edge, insisting that we find the attackers as soon as possible. To our great regret, we decided to use the remaining living animal on the farm as bait. Ezio and I hid up on a hill while the others waited to ambush the attackers.
Our ambush failed miserably and the animal was immediately killed. Three phase spiders, larger than I ever knew could exist, attacked us. The thunder cannon, the great weapon of my illusioned past, failed me in the dark. But it did its job. The loud noise distracted the spiders so that my comrades could dispatch them. Oromis and Hebo attacked one. Ezio and I were ambushed on the hill, but we defended ourselves well enough. Petra and Luna cast their spells to keep them at bay.
The fight was a victory for us, despite the loss of the animal. Hebo, using only his voice and verses of a foreign song, gave Oromis unfounded strength as he impaled one spider. Another spider went for Spoink, Hebo’s steed (which is actually a very large pig). Hebo, in an apparent desperation, launched his tiny form at the attacker and stuck it in the head with his small dagger. Luna was injured by the last spider, but Petra came to her aid and reduced the spider to ashes with a fireball.
Only after the three spiders were dispatched that we remembered: Exatorus wanted one alive. Oromis laughed it off, knowing his master would not truly require us to spare something as dangerous as a phase spider. For now, we gathered ourselves and decided to look around the farm.