Here we stand, in the 5 Nation Tavern as history takes place, though no one knows it yet. Garilee, a wealthy man of elven nobility has a mission, one of which can only be taken on by a strong team. Throughout the course of his travels, he would eventually find these four adventurers here, at the 5 Nation Tavern.

Bruce, the half elf who wields natural magic, better known as druid-craft. Jaz, the human mercenary, strong willed with even stronger weapons. Cobalt, the dwarven barbarian who cares little about rules and much more about being the strongest in the room. And lastly, Julie, the tiefling rogue, who’s skills in the field of stealth are unmatched by any in the group.

Chapter 2 – A Show of Strength

As the four adventurers along with Garilee exited the tavern, they found themselves in a large courtyard. It had wooden walls, about 5 feet tall and clearly hand made. It also had a small trapdoor in the corner which led to the cellar underneath the tavern. The floor was made of stone bricks, though weathering had done some damage to them. In the center of the courtyard was a training dummy made out of straw and wood.

“Go on then.” Garilee told the group. “Show me what you’ve all got.” Hearing this, Cobalt ran forward at the training dummy, swinging his large warhammer with both hands at its abdomen. The hammer met the dummy at full force, causing it to rock back hard on its rollers. Cobalt then moved it back to the center of the courtyard.

“Ha, beat that!” He bellowed, walking back towards the group. As he did, Bruce stepped forward.

“I’ll do my best.” He said, hopingly, with Julie rolling her eyes at him. Bruce hit his staff down on the stone floor, causing two vines to shoot from its tip and pierce the dummy through the abdomen before returning to the staff.

“Eh, it’s fine, the dummy’s been punctured a million times, it’ll hold together just fine.” Garilee reassured as Bruce walked back to the group.

“Nice job kid.” Cobalt added.

Next up was Julie. As she walked toward the dummy, she looked at Bruce as if to say “watch how it’s really done”. She, still about 10 feet away, pulled out her long bow, before firing three arrows at the dummy’s torso. They landed right on target, each one puncturing the dummy in different places across the dummy’s torso. She walked over, taking them out of the dummy’s torso and giving Bruce another similar look on the way back to the group.

“Impressive, all of you.” Garilee spoke. “I believe that there’s just one of you left, why don’t you show us what you’ve got, Jaz?” Jaz then stepped up, unsheathing her great sword. She then swung it upwards, slicing the chest up through the face of the training dummy.

“Impressive to you as well!” Garilee congratulated. “Why don’t we head back inside, maybe grab another drink, I think you guys are the perfect team for the mission that I have in mind.”

As the group walked back into the tavern, the group noticed that it had cleared out slightly.

“Oh, you lot are back.” The bar keeper said. “Well, you picked the perfect time to come back and get a drink. The morning rush just ended and the night rush hasn’t started yet.”

“Oh, perfect.” Garilee responded. The group then sat down, ready to socialize, get to know each other, and have some drinks.

“I’ll have a beer, thanks.” Bruce said to the bar keeper. As the bar keeper walked away, Julie looked toward him.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to handle that? You sure you don’t need something a bit less alcoholic?” Julie said, teasingly.

“I can handle it.” Bruce responded, clearly getting frustrated at the situation and how much Julie had been teasing him. “Clearly you couldn’t, you didn’t even order.” He continued. At this, Cobalt, who was sitting on the other side of Bruce, let out a chuckle.

As this was happening, Jaz, who was clearly not trusting of Garilee yet, was asking him some questions.

“So…” She began. “What mission are you sending us on?” She asked, almost accusatory.

“It’s rather simple, really.” Garilee responded. “I just need you four to head out along the Sayn, and investigate a small, deserted facility. It’s just about half a mile away.”

“Why is this abandoned facility so important?” Jaz asked in response.

“Well, I recently acquired the place at auction and I need you guys to go map the place out. Come back with the floor plan, get rid of any squatters, and bring me any valuables. Do that and I’ll be happy to reward you all handsomely,” Garilee stated matter-of-factly.

“Define ‘handsomely,’” Jaz followed up.

“Some…” Garilee paused for a second. “…15 gold pieces a person.”

Jaz didn’t continue the conversation, clearly thinking and questioning whether Garilee’s intentions were really so simple. This suspicion was not necessarily because she thought that Garilee was suspicious, but more so that she was naturally suspicious of most everyone that she came across.

“Well, I suppose it’s time to tell the rest of the group their mission.” He said, standing up. “Alright you four, listen up.” Garilee began. “Your mission is simple. You will follow a map that I give you, about a half mile up the Sayn you will find a facility of mine. It has long been deserted, and I know not what developments have taken place in my absence. Upon arriving, you will remove any squatters, bring valuables back to me, and provide me the floor plan of the building. Upon your return, I will provide each of you with 15 gold pieces.”

“That sounds just fine to me!” Cobalt shouted.

“Glad to hear it, I will be back here tomorrow morning to collect the plans.” Garilee responded, before handing Bruce the map and walking out of the tavern. Once Garilee left the tavern, Cobalt and Bruce started getting up to begin on the walk.

“Where are you guys going?” Jaz asked.

“To the facility, of course. We need to be back here tomorrow morning, we’d better get going.” Bruce responded.

“Exactly.” Cobalt spoke.

Julie then let out a groan, clearly annoyed, as she began getting up from her seat.

“Fine.” Jaz said in response to Bruce and Cobalt. The group then left the tavern, beginning their journey down the Sayn. As they were nearing the facility, Bruce and Jaz began talking.

“So, how’d you find yourself in the tavern? After all, it’s quite a ways from Alejo.” Bruce asked as they continued walking.

“I was relieved of duty, and needed to find new work.” Jaz responded.

“Like… you were fired?” Bruce asked, confused.

“More like… let go.” Jaz began. “They liked my work, but said that they found someone better and cheaper than me.”

“Well, hopefully whatever Garilee has set up for us will go we…” Bruce said, stopping mid sentence. The group had found the facility that Garilee had told them to investigate. The building standing before them was massive, larger than any ordinary building that the group had ever seen.

“What’re we all standing around for?” Julie asked, breaking the silence. “Let’s head in and get the old elf what he wants.”

“Is she talking about Garilee?” Bruce whispered to Jaz, confused as to why she would talk about him like that.

“I think so,” Jaz responded. “C’mon, let’s head in.” She continued, beginning towards the warehouse. Julie was the first to enter through the warehouse, though the creaking that the door made could be heard for miles. As she walked forward, and into the darkness of the warehouse, the others were just entering.

“How can she see in here?” Jaz asked rhetorically.

“She’s a tiefling,” Bruce said matter of factly. Upon seeing Jaz’s confused expression, he continued. “Tieflings have evolved to have dark vision, same as dwarves.” He said, gesturing towards Cobalt.

“That’s quite right!” Cobalt said, chuckling a bit. “I hadn’t expected such a young lad as yourself to know that.” Upon regaining his composure, Cobalt spoke again. “Right there, to your left, Jaz, is a light switch.” He said, pointing into the darkness to the left of Jaz.

As she reached into the darkness, Jaz felt something, flicking it. As she did this, some sort of magic ignited the thick candles lining the walls of the warehouse.

“It’s crazy that they don’t have a window anywhere in this whole place, without the candles, we’d be doomed.” Bruce said as the candles flicked on.

“Indeed.” Jaz responded. The three of them began looking around the place, staying together. They didn’t know where Julie was, but they knew that they could get lost in such a big place, so they stuck together while charting out the floor onto a small piece of parchment. About half way through the process of going around the perimeter, Cobalt noticed something.

“Hey guys,” he began. “Does this look like a door to you?”

“Yeah, good catch, let’s head in to map it out,” Bruce said, reaching for the door handle.

“Wait.” Cobalt said, grabbing Bruce’s hand. “It’s locked, there is someone in there who doesn’t want to be noticed. See how the door blends into the wall?”

“Oh… yeah.” Bruce responded, lowering his voice to a whisper.

“Hey guys…” Jaz began. “Is that blood?” She continued, not scared, but confused.

“Yeah, looks like it,” Cobalt responded, grimly. “It leads into the room.” He continued, looking up at the door.

“We should pick the lock, we can enter quietly.” Jaz said, taking out what appeared to be a lock picking kit from her bag.

“Oh forget that!” Cobalt shouted as he unsheathed his great hammer. He then ran full speed into the door, knocking it off its hinges. The door then flew across the room, hitting the wall on the other side. Jaz and Bruce rushed in, though the three of them simply stood in the doorway, looking at the scene in front of them.

On their right hand side, there were a group of people in lab coats, holding clip boards filled with data. On the ceiling was a large, iron trap door that seemed to lead to the second floor. Then, on the left hand side of the room was, which the group was horrified to see, the passed out body of Julie, shackled to the wall.

Upon seeing the adventurers, the people in lab coats fled through a hidden door in the back of the room which seemed to lead outside. While most of the people fled, one of them hit a large red button on a control panel before fleeing with the rest. Bruce ran over to Julie, beginning a procedure to resuscitate her. While he was doing this, the trapdoor in the ceiling opened up, seemingly caused by the large red button from before. Cobalt and Jaz looked up into the trapdoor, trying to see if anything was up there.

By the time they saw it, they were too late, being forced to jump out of the way of whatever was coming down into the room with them. They watched, in horror, as three zombies fell through the trapdoor and into the room, ready to attack the adventurers.

Chapter 3 – The First Battle

After processing what had happened, Cobalt let out what sounded like a war cry, echoing off the walls of the room, before charging at one of the zombies, his great hammer raised above his head. He plunged the great hammer into the first zombie’s head, crushing it.

“We’ll handle the undead, go make sure Julie’s okay.” Jaz told Bruce.

Bruce, pulling out a small medicine kit, began working on Julie. He pressed a finger to her neck, checking for a pulse. “She’s alive!” He called out. “Just unconscious.”

Jaz and Cobalt didn’t respond, as they were battling the zombies. Cobalt had already killed one when he plunged his great hammer into its head. Jaz had then unsheathed her great sword, charging towards the other two zombies. She swung her sword, slicing both of them across the chest, though they weren’t yet down.

Cobalt then let go of his great hammer, taking a small axe from his belt and throwing it at another zombie, nailing him in the head once again. After this, and newly free of being outnumbered, Jaz stabbed her sword through the remaining zombies chest, before retrieving it just to slice off its head.

“Well that was a nice fight,” Cobalt chuckled.

“I wouldn’t say so…”, Jaz began. “The undead are meant to be extinct, how were they here?”

As she said this, a gasp of air came from the other side of the room, as Julie awoke. Bruce, seeing this, picked up his staff, a thick vine coming from the end and snapping the metal shackles.

“Thanks… I guess,” Julie said to Bruce.

“No problem,” Bruce responded.

While they were talking, Jaz picked up what appeared to be a letter that was sitting on a table in the room. It was addressed to the scientists here and read: The king thanks you for your efforts, but you will need to make haste. I have sent a group of adventurers to the warehouse so that your zombies’ strength can be tested. Let us hope that your horde is as strong as the others. Sincerely, Garilee.