[right][h3]Cardherday, 27th of Rainwater
1257 GC[/h3][/right]

It had been nearly a week and a half since the Voice of Vaul had come, spoken, and departed, and though rumors of the coming invasion traveled like wildfire through the town, all was quiet on the Empire’s eastern front. As quiet as it ever was, of course. 

Though the forest goblins and orcs of the Caegwenn, the northernmost stretch of the Great Adean Forest, had always been a problem, the occasional raids on farms and caravans took on new, graver import in light of the Voice’s proclamation. Panicked citizens reported goblin highwaymen as advance scouts of an invading army, and the guard was spread thin as they responded to calls for aid that grew wilder and more panicked as the days drew on and the story of the Voice spread. To keep order and assuage the fearful citizenry, Lord-Mayor Duridan Hillhame dispatched a significant portion of the guard north into the forested foothills to combat the Mosswolf Clan, long standing enemies of Orzamar responsible for many a raid on a trader and murder of an Imperial citizen. 

Though this act pacified the people, tragedy struck as goblins of the White Skull Tribe launched a large-scale attack on a caravan of traders, coming east from Hillcross. The few survivors arrived at Wayfarer’s Rest, at the western gate of the fortress-town, and described the butchering of the Imperial and dwarvish citizens, and how the goblins had taken a dozen or more of the travelers captive as they escaped south. Desperate to keep the peace and to protect his people, Lord-Mayor Hillhame requested that his captain of the guard, Emmanuel Harrad, recruit mercenaries to assist in the rescue and return of the kidnapped citizens.

Fortunately for the Lord-Mayor, Orzamar lacked not for such adventurers. Many came to Orzamar in search of work as mercenaries and adventurers, for there was mystery beyond the eaves of the forest, loot to be found, and monsters to be killed, for gold or thrill as a man may please. 

Emmanuel Harrad and a company of guardsmen had no difficulty recruiting a party of adventurers to aid them in the rescue attempt. 

At the same time, Pelial Skadden, a professor of magic working at the Imperial College of Orzamar, had developed grave concerns for the safety of his students. 

The Imperial College of Orzamar, called the Observatory, was not a college in the same vein as the Colleges of Teres, Valador, and Crowngarden. It was a small set of buildings on the northern side of the fortress-town where professors of magic brought their students for academic courses in astrological analysis, divination, and herbology in the field. Skadden, a professor of enchantment and herbology at the Imperial College of Valador, had brought a few students to Orzamar to study the powerful leylines beneath the Forgewall, the curious potency of the Caegwenn Forest’s herbs, and the properties of orichalcum, a metal similar to gold with powerful magical applications, the ore of which was extracted from veins under the Forgewall. 

Tinwarren was a kobold mine northwest of Orzamar which extracted tin ore from the earth and sold it in Orzamar to be smelted and refined. Tin from Tinwarren was one of Orzamar’s chief exports to the Empire. In addition, however, the kobolds of Tinwarren often extracted orichalcum as well. Recently, the kobolds had struck a peculiar vein of red orichalcum, and Professor Skadden dispatched several of his students, accompanied by assistant professor Fillion Flexner, to investigate. 

A week and a half after the Voice of Vaul had come and gone, Skadden had not yet heard from his students. Concerned for their safety, he petitioned Captain Harrad to dispatch a company of guardsmen to investigate, but the town guard was stretched too thin to assist. Fortunately, he found another avenue by which he might assist his wayward charges. 

A group of adventurers headed east on the Road to Tinwe toward Tinwarren.