On their way out of Kobold Hall, the group thought it best to disable the rolling-boulder trap. Mab volunteered to swim back through the underground river to where the perpetually tilting floor was powered. After a few moments the boulder stopped rolling and the floor came to a grinding halt. Mab returned and changed manifestations right before the groups' eyes, from a watersoul genasi to a windsoul. Absorbing that odd bit of display the group continued their journey from Kobold Hall to their new acquaintance's airship.
A short journey brought them to the river where the huge sail-ship was moored. Mab hailed one of his crew-mates onboard and the group was given the ok to come aboard. The ship, which Mab called The Blue Narciss. He brought them below-deck to meet his captain; Captain Adaira Wixom. The stormsoul genasi captain welcomed the group aboard her ship and thanked them for assisting Mab in his task. She agreed to transfer the lifedrinker enchantment from the sword the group found, to Benjaar's axe. While she took the time to do this, Mab gave the group a short tour of the ship. One interesting thing that the Sprohmann, Benjaar noticed was that while this was an Akanul Naval airship model, it lacked a passenger deck and it was longer and sleeker than the standard model. Plus, it had two ballistas on the upper deck instead of just one. After the tour Mab took the helm and began maneuvering the ship toward Fallcrest. The genasi were headed to the small prairie city for the summer Market Days. As the ship began to lift out of the water, the group noticed that the pair of large blue sails appeared to burn with green fire. The ship took a sharp turn, banking back toward the south, and landed softly back in the river where it stayed for the remainder of the journey.
The group took this time to rest and Cassius was able to procure a few Rituals from Captain Wixom to copy to his book. Once they reached the city, the ship floated right past the upper quays toward the waterfall. It calmly crested the falls and sailed through the air to rest at the lower quays. The crew began unloading as soon as they were moored, and Mab and Wixom bid the group farewell and told them to feel free to stop by while their in town for the week. Before they left, Wixom presented the group with a bag of holding as additional thanks. She explained that she knows just how dangerous this area is and she's happy to help adventurers brave enough to fight the evils hidden in Nerath.
The PCs had important business to attend to yet; the small mountain of kobold heads they'd accumulated would fetch a hefty bounty, not to mention the white dragon head. They also had to return the green dragon hide to Teldorthan, the dwarven smith. Their first stop was the leader-board in the common area near Moonstone Keep. Olan, with his Tenser's Floating Disk filled with kobold heads; and Benjaar, with the white dragon head perched on his shoulder caught the attention of many of the assembled townspeople. The guard near the leader-board eagerly readied the chalk to write down the final tally; 30 kobold heads, and one white dragon head. When confronted with the question of what name was to accompany this tally the group eventually settled on the acronym C.H.O.A.B.. So, the former leader, Bartleby, was bumped to a quite distant #2 spot below C.H.O.A.B.. The group then headed into the Keep to speak with Lord Marklehay and claim their bounty.
The august keep had no superfluous decoration or adornment. It was a simple, sturdy structure made to defend the city, not impress. The inside was as austere as the exterior, and the group found the meeting hall almost dour. Lord Markelhay, seated on his large yet simple chair, rose as the group entered. After they were introduced he descended the small dais to inspect the group's handy-work. He nodded, satisfied, and presented them with their bounty. Impressed he offered the group another task; The road to Hammerfast had been harried by goblin bandits of late. He offered the group 1000 gold pieces to clear the road of these bandits. The group was more than happy to accept the chance to knock some heads and get paid for it. So they planned to head out with the next wagon headed for Hammerfast to intercept the raiders. But first they went to Teldorthan's to return his dragon hide, receive their reward, and buy some dwarven armor for Benjaar.
The wagon driver was glad to have extra protection on the road (especially for free). Eventually the group came across a large band of goblins lying in ambush for the wagon. Luckily, they were spotted early and the group dispatched them in short order. One proved much hardier than the others and managed to slip away.
Hadarai tracked the bleeding goblin to a ruined farmstead; two ruined towers, a crypt, and a rather unstable-looking stable. As the group caught-up with the wounded goblin it called-out to it friends in the ruined tower. Almost a dozen more goblins came pouring out of the ruined tower, but after a good fight, they were all disposed-of.
The group searched the ruined tower but found nothing of interest, so Akriel collapsed the already decrepit second story. Moving toward the crypt; the group found the stone doors to be barricaded from the inside. Benjaar plied his muscle to the portal and gave entry to the small structure. Inside, the group found the remains of a humanoid dressed in robes. Upon inspection, the robes were enchanted, so Olan gained them for his use (+1 robes of contingency). The walls of the small crypt were covered in stone placards with various names carved into them.
Satisfied with their inspection of the crypt the group moved on toward the stable, however, as they were leaving the crypt, Cassius was attacked by a small winged creature that appeared as if from thin air. His armor managed to deflect the wicked tail-barb with which the creature had attacked. At that same moment the air around the group became obscured by a miasma of green fog and a pair of goblin warriors harried the group with javelins.
The owner of the green fog was a goblin hexer whom was accompanied by a pair of goblin berserkers. After a rather difficult fight, during which the goblins were joined by additional forces from the stable; two fire beetles, four goblin cutters, two more goblin warriors, and a goblin blackblade, the PCs were left rather wounded. As the PCs were regrouping, Olan began running back to the crypt, yelling that there were drakes headed toward there position.
Sure enough, bounding out from the second ruined tower (located on the other side of the stable) were a pair of guard drakes and two swarms of needlefang drakes. Not in any shape to fight the draconic beasts, the PCs fell-back into the crypt and re-barricaded the doors. Here they would take an extended rest (and level-up!).
