A Malevolent Rebirth: A D&D Story

| Journey | Wastelands of Evergreen | Part 1 |

The group awakens from their naps. Having gotten up early to meet the king, most decided to finish their morning's rest before going on the cross-state expedition.

In the rush to leave, however, one thing is overlooked.

The group mounts their horses and exit the Caverns of Holdo, making way towards Evergreen once again. Only the group consisting of Alain, Zavari, Errich, Thokk, and Grym, in their haste even Grym must have forgotten to make sure they grabbed Zasheida before they departed. With the rush of the upcoming mission and danger clouding their judgment, their new friend was left behind, resting blissfully unaware of the group's current heading within the confines of her room. 

Zasheida comes to consciousness, her room dark as her candle had burned out. She retrieves her pack and exits the room, she makes her way towards the bright lights and energetic air of the tavern portion of the Inn.

Arriving in the room, she is greeted by the barkeeper. She waves Zasheida over and holds a note up to her.

"Your friends left this morning, mentioned something about stopping by Evergreen city for supplies and then heading south."

Zasheida puts the note in her bag, and storms out of the Inn. She was pissed.

"How could they fucking leave me." 

She says to herself as she walks down the road towards the main gate. She glances over to her left and sees an owl perched on a house watching her pass. It was stationed in front of a small building with a sign above the door.

Earynspier Arcanum

She decides to avoid entering that shop, as while it would intrigue her, she still wished to wait for Zavari despite her being a part of those who left her behind.

She mounted her horse and the guards opened the small horse stable gate to let her out. She took off at a fast pace hoping to meet with her group before they got too far. Her main fear is being caught by those Lizardfolk soldiers without her team nearby to help her. She knew they could deal some damage, and she knew she couldn't take them all on by herself.

The sun began to set and she was starting to see what looked to be the smoke of a small camp a few dozen miles ahead of her, so she picked up speed.

An arrow thunks into the sand ahead of her horse, causing her to pull the reigns and get her mount to a halt. She glances around and sees about ten of the smaller lizardfolk and about three of the larger ones emerge from their hiding spots and begin to approach her.

A lizardfolk she recognized to be of a higher rank due to his posture and seemingly higher intelligence parted the surrounding group and stood twenty feet from her. It spoke in Draconic to give orders to the soldiers to watch her movements, then turned to Zasheida and spoke to her but to her surprise, it spoke in common.

"Dismount." 

She got off the horse and put her hands up above her head. It walks closer to her.

"Why are you out here?"

The creature stood a full head taller than Zasheida and looked down on her. She looked up into its eyes.

"I'm just trying to pass through, I didn't mean to cause any problems."

The creature leans down and takes an inhale of the air around her.

"You seem, scared. We won't harm you so long as you answer all the questions I ask. Truthfully."

A drop of sweat rolls off Zasheida's forehead, she swallows then replies.

"Of course, I'll cooperate as much as is within my power."