The Silver Elites return to Edmund Keep victorious. Captain Tiberious Johns greets them at the gate and congratulates them on their success. He advises them to clean up and get some rest as Prince Jorum has planned a special festival for them on the morrow.
The heroes take the clean up advice, but not so much the rest . . . they decide to make a night on the town which is mostly uneventful.
The next night Prince Jorum Edmund and his court greet the heroes in his great hall. With everyone dressed in their finest and a bountiful table laid for the feast the heroes find a rousing good time. Prince Jorum addresses the court and calls on the people of the Principality to treat the Silver Elites with the respect and honor they have earned. He particularly calls on the people of Fallcrest to praise them. Prince Jorum awards each of the heroes a silver pendant with gold highlights and the Edmund family crest inlaid on it. Then the feasting begins.
Throughout the feast various dignitaries approach the heroes to offer them congratulations and adulations. Count Dougal Arken, the ruler of Arken County where Fallcrest lies, meets with Melantha and offers her a personal reward of a magical longbow as thanks for the service to his family. He gives this family heirloom to her and begs her to use it further the glory of his family.
The festivities continue into the late hours of the night. The heroes meet in small groups or in duos with numerous courtiers, retelling the glory of Phausziek's demise and catching up on court gossip.
The night takes a more interesting turn when Jadestar Kaldoran, the dragonborn borderguard captain from Fallcrest meets them. She asks many probing questions about the kobolds and takes great interest when Koron recalls Phausziek's battle cry, "Bring me the dwarf's head for the glory of Gafir!" The name, Gafir, reminds Jadestar of something. Over the next hour or so the heroes piece together bits of information from their own knowledge and from that gained from others. A black dragon by the name of Gafir terrorized the area around Fallcrest about one hundred years ago. He led a band of devoted kobolds of a unique nature (they had wings and razor claws) on many raids against the people in and around Fallcrest. The dragon's tale of woe and blood ended when Prince Joshua Edmund, the current Prince's grandfather, led a massive army into the hills. The army exterminated the kobolds and gravely wounded Gafir, but at great cost. Prince Joshua and many hundreds of warriors died in the battles. The dragon fled the field and no one has heard of it since.
But now, one hundred years later, a kobold tribe in the hills north of Fallcrest invokes the dragon's name in battle. Melantha proposes that the dragon may not have died these many years ago. Dragons will sometimes enter a long hibernation, or torpor, to recover from wounds or otherwise pass the centuries. Could it be that Gafir is awakened from the long sleep?
The heroes ask around some more and finally Koron manages to learn something of extreme importance from the dwarf merchant, Kharas Fireaxe. The seemingly drunken dwarf lets slip to Koron that he knows of the wizard Gafir. Koron, sensing a falsehood presses the dwarf for more. Under some duress Kharas hesitantly admits that some people, maybe dwarves, may possibly have heard of a treasure, maybe, that was the horde of what might possibly have once been the dragon called Gafir, and it's possible that maybe they . . . woke the dragon from its sleep. But you really never can be sure of such things when no one returns from the quest for treasure, now can you?
The heroes leap into action. They pool their knowledge of dragons in general, more especially of black ones and even particularly of the dragon Gafir. With a bit of input from Jadestar, Captain Tiberious and the Prince's Steward, Lord Gregor Austin, they decide to go to the Prince.
Prince Edmund meets with Lord Gregor, Captain Tiberious and the Silver Elites to assess the situation. They determine to send an emissary to Stonehome, the dwarf kingdom, to find what the king there knows of the situation and to make plans to solve the problem. Koron suggests that the Silver Elites should make this trek for the Prince as he is not sure they can trust Kharas. Prince Edmund agrees, and the heroes retire for the evening to make plans.
Rewards: 100 xp; flameburst longbow +1
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