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Ring and Boots
Overview
[Yes, I know it's a sucky title. Sue me.]
A few months after their first adventure, on a humid Eleasias (August) morning in 1357 DR, the Ashaba Heroes receive the visit of a man named Thurl. He's an employee of one of the farmers of Shadowdale, Hamlin Zhul. Thurl asks the adventurers if they want to accompany him to the farm because his boss wants to ask them a favor. They accept and when they arrive at the farm, they meet the farmer and his family. Hamlin Zhul explains the situation:
The night before, after a long day at the market, selling his wares, his employee, Thurl, returned to the farm with a small chariot filled with money. A sinister group of people attacked Thurl with crossbows. According to Thurl, the quarrels were obviously poisoned because only one of the quarrels scratched him and he fell unconscious. A patrol of soldiers from the Ashaba Tower found Thurl the next morning, under a tree next to the Temple of Tymora. The chariot filled with money had disappeared.
The farmer asks the Heroes if they could try and help him find his missing money. He promises to give two objects to the adventurers if they bring back all his money : an old pair of worn out leather boots and an iron ring. Hamlin claims that these two items have mysterious properties and might be magical in nature. The pair of boots allow it's wearer to run at very high speeds and the ring allows it's wearer to fall from very high and not get hurt. The Ashaba Heroes accept and before they leave, Hamlin tells them about a recent rumor that has been circulating in the village : According to certain soldiers of the Ashaba Tower, there is a group of drow that operate under Shadow Ridge. He suggests that it might be a good place to start searching.
Indeed, the adventurers discover the entry to an underground complex under Shadow Ridge to the north of the village. They encounter and dispatch many drow and they find Bultog, one of the dwarves they had rescued under the Ashaba Tower during their first adventure. After having been freed by the Ashaba Heroes a few months ago, the trio of dwarves (Bultog, Groldar and Brongo) decided to return to the surface and go on an adventure. However, one of them, Brongo, wanted to go back to a treasure chamber that they had found under the Twisted Tower. It was guarded by a behir, a very powerful creature. The two other dwarves tried to reason with Brongo but without success. Brongo never returned... One night, when Bultog and Groldar were leaving Shadowdale to start their adventure, they were attacked by drows. The next thing he knew, he woke up inside a cell in some underground complex. He doesn't know where his friend Groldar is and he decides to join the adventurers to try and find him.
After having explored the underground drow complex, the adventurers discover a huge underground fortress located in an immense grotto. The fortress is the main headquarters for the drow in this region. Bultog is reunited with his friend Groldar after they free him from a cell inside the fortress. Also, in the prison, they free a soldier of the Ashaba Tower named Berkley. He says that he was sent by Captain Thurbal to explore the tunnels under the Ashaba Tower a few months ago and that he was captured by the drow and brought here for interrogation and torture. He decides to join the adventurers to help them.
The Ashaba Heroes vanquished the drows in the fortress and their leader, a drow named Kalius, who wielded an exquisitely forged sword. When one of the adventurers tried to grasp the sword, it shocked the adventurer with a powerful lightning surge and fell back on the floor. They decided to leave the sword there... They eventually found the farmer's money along with many other magical items and they returned to the surface by navigating an underwater river that led out of the underground caves.
The two dwarves, Bultog and Groldar then asked the adventurers if they wanted to accompany them to that treasure room guarded by the behir under the Twisted Tower (a behir is a dragon-like creature that emits lightning bolts and squeezes its victims to death). Even though Berkley warned them several times, the Heroes decide to accept the dwarves offer. Berkley thanks the adventurers for their help and he leaves to go and report to Captain Thurbal. Sadly, when they reach the treasure chamber, during the fight against the behir, the two dwarves get eaten alive by the creature. The Ashaba Heroes eventually manage to kill the behir and become even richer in the process. They return the money to Hamlin Zhul and they received the old pair of boots and the iron ring as a reward (which turned out to be boots of speed and a ring of feather falling).
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