Nashkel

Nashkel was a small town on the northern slopes of the Cloud Peaks. Although formally a part of Amn, Nashkel was separated from the rest of the kingdom by the mountain passes and as such, was relatively autonomous. Starting point for our adventurers.
This story started several years ago, more than a decade. This story includes several people, and old elf paladin named Kyrtaar Longshadow (Dave), a halfing druid (Heather).
We start in a town called Nashkel where we find four children and one old man (elf), the children are all friends who loved to explore their local woods each day a&er they $nished their chores and their studies and their old elf friend would come and tell them stories of his adventures at nights. These friends would play for hours every day until after night fall, staying out every last moment until they were called home for the night. They would have their own adventures outside the town, or some'mes (against their parents’ wishes) in some of the smaller caves at the lower ends of the Cloud Peaks.
There was a certain hill that the children favored where the old elf met them for stories. While this hill was a distance away from the town, it gave a great view of the town and both the Uldool Trail and the Coast Way. They would often spend the evening on the top of the hill looking at the stars or trying to spot the lanterns of camped travelers on one of the two roads trying to guess that what fantastic people gathered around the campsites, wondering about their possible destinations.
This is how they spent every day, across all the seasons, until one fateful night when things changed. It was just after nightfall in the very early days of summer (on a day when the old elf was not there) when one of the children noticed that one of the stars in the sky seemed to be getting bigger.
By consensus the children agreed to leave their lower hills and they all headed back up to their favorite hill to get a better view. The children watched as the spot grow larger and larger and after it seemed like forever, they were able to make out what it was. It was a ship, it looked like a sailing ship, a galleon sailing through the skies hurtling towards the ground.In later discussions the children disagreed on what happened over the next moments, some thought they saw things (creatures?) jumping or dropping off this “sky ship” as it approached but others thought it was simply debris from the vessel.
Unfortunately, there was no time to cement any view in their minds as they had dashed from the top of their hill because the vessel was going to crash! Moments a&er they had left the top of the hill the ship struck, shattering into hundreds of pieces. All of which tumbled down the hill towards the mountains. The children started to head towards the crash to investigate but the sound had caught the attention of townsfolk and they had called them all back to town. Their curiosity had to wait until the next day.
When the children returned to investigate the crash, they found only one creature, barely alive. This creature was something they had never seen, a race they had never heard of before but it was in need, so they helped it. The children make a makeshift travois to move the creature to one of their caves and over the following weeks nursed it back to health.
As it recovered the creature tried to speak to them, but the only sound they heard reminded the children of crickets, so they called it Cricket. Thankfully Yesalya (Heathe)r was able to speak to it in its mind and Cricket had the ability to speak to all of them in their minds as it thanked each of them for saving its life. It took many months for Cricket to fully heal, mainly thanks to the friends bringing food and supplies.
Kyrtaar Longshadow (Dave) helped the children find a safe cave for Cricket to stay in away from the town. During those months Cricket would share amazing stories of its adventures sparking the children’s desire to see the world.
Over the years that followed Cricket has come and gone from the town on its own, each time bringing back more and more stories of its adventures. Those stories grew the children’s yearning for their own adventures. Over the years as they grew up they each took their own paths to gain the knowledge needed for their own path but all promised to return to Nashkel before heading of to make their own stories.
Now, today, they have all gathered at the top of that hill ready and prepared to start their own adventure, all they have to do is face their parents one last time and they can head out on their own. One of the group (Dru), has a plan to make arrangements to get them setup as bodyguards to a trade caravan heading out to Elturel the fabled city of light. But they are going to have to spend some time in discussions with the caravan to make this happen given their groups lack of experience and they will have to join the group a&er that is completed.