Mask of the Dragon Queen

A Humbling Experience

    South of Baldur's Gate there lays a large town by the name of Beregost. Mostly a religious town of Lathander, it mostly catered itself to the travelers going between Amn and Baldur's Gate. While most of the town worshipped Lathander, there was a small church of Bahamut located on the edge of town. This simple wooden church was home to three human priests, and a rather large gold dragonborn.
    As the Dragonborn strolled through town, his gold plated greataxe slung over his shoulders, he was recognized by many of the shopkeepers in the merchant square, one in particular calling out, "Hey Pellion, Estarossa said he was looking for you, something about a bear on the outskirts of town eating livestock."
    "Thank you, Darron, I shall go see him now." The seven foot Dragonborn called back. Making his way to the edge of town all the while greeting his fellow townsfolk as he passed. He finally reached the church about half an hour later and walked in, ducking as to not hit his head like he had so many times before. "Greetings Father Vosk, is Father Estaorossa in?" The Dragonborn inquired.
    "Yes Pellion, he should be in out back tending to his flowers." The middle aged human answered back. "I'm guessing he has more work for you?"
    "It sounds like it." Pellion chuckled. "What would this town do without me?"
    "We'd have a lot more bears to worry about thats for sure." Vosk laughed.
    Pellion went out back to see Father Estarossa, the high priest of the church watering his flowers and humming hymns to Bahamut. "Hail Father Estarossa, Darron said you had more work for me?" Pellion called out.
    "Ah, yes Pellion. There's been a bear killing some of the sheep by the Griffonscale's farm, so I told them you would handle it." The high priest explained.
    "Is it at least a brown bear this time, those black ones are too easy and they don't have enough meat on them. I need a challenge if I wanna keep this body maintained." Pellion said flexing.
    Estarossa simply pushed Pellion's arm down and explained, "We do this for the good of the town, not to show off. Honestly Brother Vosk has been filling your head with nothing but tales of heroes and glory since you were a child. You need to learn that life in the country isn't all that bad."
    "With all due respect Father Estarossa I can't exactly become a paladin of Bahamut by slaying bears every week, I need to get out there and oppose Tiamat wherever she rears her ugly face." Pellion said, the sparkle of excitement in his eyes.
    "It's pride like that that will get you killed Pellion, you need to be more humble and accepting of what you have been provided, your lucky you were brought to the church as a baby, otherwise who knows what could have become of you." Estarossa explained.
    "You all were the one's who took me in yes, but my destiny is still my own. I will become a paladin of Bahamut." Pellion stated, "now, I'm off to go fight a bear."
    On the way to the Griffonscale's homestead, Estarossa's words kept turning around in Pellion's head. He had trained his whole life to be a Paladin, why was Estarossa so keen on keeping him stuck in this podunk town where all he had to fight was bears, and the occasional thief. Pellion yearned for a real fight, one where he could unleash his full prowess and skill he had trained so long to acquire. Pellion sighed as he walked, wondering if the quiet country life really was all that destiny had in store for him.
     After searching around the forest surrounding Beregost, Pellion came upon a sickening stench of death. Looking around he could see the carnage of blood and wool, but no sign of the bear. Pellion felt a wave of dread come over him as he sensed a very large presence behind him. Steeling himself, he clenched his greataxe tight and swung around with enough force to send any normal bear stumbling back, unfortunately as Pellion saw, this was no ordinary bear, this was a dire bear. Standing at five foot tall and over 8,000 pounds, this bear took Pellions axe hit in stride as it let out a deep growl and lunged forward, biting into Pellion's gold plated armor. The armor stopped the bear's teeth from piercing his shoulder but as Pellion found, he could not shake free. Dropping his greataxe, Pellion started punching the bear in his neck, but its skin was too thick and tough for it to feel a thing. Thinking quick, Pellion looked directly into the eyes of the bear and smiled. "I'll give you a taste of hell itself then, beast." Pellion announced as he as he reared his head back, heat growing in his throat.
     Pellion let out a mighty roar of fire into the dire bear's face, causing it to let go of his shoulder, but not before dislocating it. Unable to weild his greataxe, Pellion huffed as the bear regained its bearings and began advancing once more. "I am a champion of Bahamut!" Pellion declared. "If I cannot defeat some simple bear what chance will I have once I have to face Tiamat's ugly heads!" Pellion started glowing with warm light and clenched his fist, prepared to face the dire bear head on. The bear charged forward as a now glowing Pellion let loose a mighty punch that impacted with the bear's skull, causing it to turn its head, and then continue his charge at Pellion. With a paw the size of Pellion's torso, the bear slammed its hand into Pellion, sending him flying backwards into a tree with enough force to partially uproot it. Winded and dizzy Pellion gazed up to see the beast poised to strike him down. Pellion glared into the eyes of the beast ready to watch his own demise, but it never came.
     As the dire bear was about to lunge forward and tear into Pellion there was a flash of light as the bear's severed head fell at Pellion's feet. Looking up, Pellion saw a eight foot tall goliath with an ornate black and gold halberd. Amazed but dazed all Pellion could do was look on as the goliath glared down at him. "Is this all a self proclaimed champion of Bahamut can do?" the goliath sneered. "You couldn't even defeat a simple dire bear and yet you have the guts to think you can take on Tiamat! Wake up Pellion! You are not a champion of Bahamut. Not yet." The golath declared. "You lack humility and reek of arrogance. If you truly want to serve Bahamut you need to think before you blindly go off challenging foes you know you can't beat. I do however sympathize with your dedication to be a hero, so I will give you a chance at real glory. Go to a town called Greenest. There you will find what you've been seeking all this time." And with that the goliath unfurled a pair of giant golden wings and took off into the heavens.
     Pellion lie there, taking in what had just happened. He would have chocked it up to hallucinating due to blood loss if there weren't a dire bear's severed head at his feet. "Greenest?" Pellion questioned. What could be there? He wondered as he shakily got to his feet. He would have to leave the bear here, he had at least two broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder to tend to as he mustered his way back to town. Father Estarossa isn't going to believe this. Pellion smirked. I finally get my chance at glory.