The Manticore (or, Warning Attabrah Quinn)

Where was I? Ah, yes, we had arrived at the windmill of Attebrah Quinn only to find it under attack by a manticore. This huge monstrosity tore into the structure. We could hear a woman calling for help. As a group, we leapt into action. I blessed my compatriots to give them the power of Mitra and charged into battle. Blithe and Tuath fired their bows. A dwarf came in from the north, bravely joining the fight, charging and throwing javelins. The manticore turned on us, flinging spikes from his tail and flying at me in a counter-charge. A spike smashed into me and, I have to admit, I was briefly stunned. But we quickly turned the tide of battle and brought the brute down.
 
Attebrah helped me with my scratch. She seems quite nice in an independent way.
 
The dwarf joined us. He answers to Ozzie and has a soldier's training. I quickly recruited him into our band. (The elf Tuath seemed a touch uneasy. He may not be a strong judge of character.) Ozzie, like the rest of us, is setting out to make his mark upon the world and is thus a perfect match.
 
We gave Attebrah the note from Harbin Westor and told her the rumor of the dragon. She was unimpressed. She wrote us a note to return to Harbin but declined to come back to town with us. We did a basic repair on her broken tower door, stripped the manticore of valuable parts ( a wing, some spikes and some teeth, shared between the rangers), and dug a pit to bury the remains of the manticore (which seemed to us to be more intelligent than a simple beast). Then we returned to town.
 
Harbin Westor paid us for the task of warning Attebrah. We picked the next job on the board as the trip to warn the local prospector dwarves. Ozzie comes from there so we now have an in.
 
We headed to the inn where Toblin took excellent care of us. Rooms, food, beer, and rumors. He has again heard that there are orcs moving in the area in numbers that threaten the town.
 
I have taken over the shrine in the middle of town and started running sunrise services. The locals are a little stand-offish but they will come around. The first time a farm kid gets stepped on by a horse and needs actual healing will be the turning point. As Mitra grants me spells at dawn (indeed, as part of the service), I am happy to use any and all remaining slots right before the dawn service (and the new day's spells if the need is sufficient).
 
After a day of rest (including some shopping, I needed a shovel to be prepared to bury the dead), we are set to head out on our new task of warning the prospecting dwarves.