Chapter 1: A Friend In Need


You sit in the tavern and feel the seasons literally change. From what it was then, to winter now.
A slight shift in the lighting. The expressions on the faces of everyone that previously ignored you turn to faces of interest.
You just slayed a troll like it was no big deal. Free drinks was the reward. A bit of name cheering for the Spellbound Syndicate, but it died just as quickly as the troll.
But now there is interest. Specifically from a certain bardist fellow with a glorious mustache (History check dc15 to recognize Volo Geddarm, who is considered by some to be a con-artist, and considered by others to be famous and trustworthy.) “You be adventurers, am I right? I could use your help. Let’s find a table to talk, shall we?”
The figure who approached you strokes his mustache, adjusts his floppy hat, and tightens his scarf. “Volothamp Geddarm, chronicler, wizard, and celebrity, at your service. I trust you’ve noted the violence in our fair city these past tendays. I haven’t seen so much blood since my last visit to Baldur’s Gate! But now I fear I have misplaced a friend amid this odious malevolence.
“My friend’s name is Floon Blagmaar. He’s got more beauty than brains, and I worry he took a bad way home a couple nights ago and was kidnapped — or worse. If you agree to track him down with all due haste, I can offer you ten dragons apiece now, and I can give you each ten times that when you find Floon. May I prevail upon you in my hour of need?”