Battle of the Grazelands

Military: Battle

Completing a scouting mission to ascess the enemy host, the party participates alongside the Elbasine Army launching a surprise attack on the goblin army. Victory is achieved and the party meets with Arkhan the Cruel, a paladin of Tiamat who requests the party assassinate the emassary who came to visit him, a Black Dragon Rider from Veliouna.

The party begins their scouting mission by sneaking up on the Goblin Warcamp as they are tucked into a number of valleys in the badlands in the Grazelands. An apparition from Acheron, a Dread Knight of Tiamat is able to detect the party and is easily dispatched as the party camps down. With their intelligence, the party races back to Tirana, meeting the Elbasine host along the way and offering their support in the coming battle.   The goblins are caught out in their encampment when the Elbasine fall upon them, a vanguard of infantry with the party in the middle, with tides of horse archers circling the remainder, slipping in and out of the canyons. The party fight through several waves of hobgoblin warriors, injuring a black dragon with its rider that had been harrying from the sky, before meeting with Arkhan the Cruel to parley. He offers surrender, and requests that his distinguished guest be killed. This guest being an emessary from Veliuona, recruiting an army of hobgoblins to fight for the elves.   Finding the injured dragon and its rider in a gulley, Akvor challenges the rider to a duel of honor. When the rules of single combat are broken, the injured black dragon attempts to help its master, before both are killed. Akvor takes the rider's greataxe, Dervish.   Jake finds a former member of his crew amongst the Elbasine, a weasely weak man who is has few qualms in murdering.