Nightstone

[Muddbutt]

After following the trail for ten miles, you hear the ringing of the bell. The sound grows louder as Nightstone comes into view. A river flows around the settlement, forming a moat. The village itself is contained within a wooden palisade, beyond which you see a windmill, a tall steeple, and the high-pitched rooftops of several other buildings. Apart from the ringing bell, you detect no other activity in the village. The trail ends to a lowered drawbridge that spans the moat. Beyond the drawbridge, two stone watchtowers flank an open gap in the palisade.
south of the village and surrounded by the river moat. is a cone-shaped, flat-topped hill on which stands a stone keep enclosed by a wooden wall. The keep, which overlooks the village, has partially collapsed. A wooden bridge that once connected the keep to the village has also partially collapsed. View attachment 9864

 

[Jas]

The others seemed to have taken the bard's botched performance well. They seemed mostly to disregard her, making her look the fool moreso than the target of her derision. But she was surprisingly not met with (overt) hostility. Still, when the hume offered to drag Scarlet's chest, which contained her entire livelihood within (plus a few secrets she wouldn't care to part with), she had simply shook her head and offered a soft, "No, thank you," in response. Whether or not the girl had any nefarious intent, she would have declined. "It's no trouble for me. I could probably carry it, but it would be heavy. Dragging it like this is no problem, though." And those were the last words Scarlet spoke before she lay eyes on Nightstone. Instead, she fell back and into her thoughts.

Scarlet spent the remainder of the trip in a pensive trance. How had this doddering druid gotten that scroll? Sure, the woman on it didn't quite look like Scarlet, but--if the half-elf was to be believed--it was an artist's reconstruction from Aster's vision. It was conceivable...

NO! she chided herself. This insanity is infectious.

The scoundrel eyed the zealous naturist mistrustfully. But still... sure, he could have feigned her, but the strange cat-person and lizard-man were clearly depicted on that scroll as well. The coincidences were stacking up, framing a picture which, frankly, Scarlet did no want to see.

Still, if this was something which could impact her, it was only natural to want to know more about it. As she lifted her head to call out to Aster, to apologize for her earlier actions and to inquire further about her role in this farce, she heard the alarm bell, saw the state of Nightstone, and was struck dumb.

"What the...?" was about all she could eke out in her stupor. Scarlet dropped her chest and stood there, frozen.

 

[EldridSmith]

Aster quietly hummed to himself as he made his way down the road with the others, however he frowned as the village came into view, while it wasn't a big city it was a large village which disrupted nature and blotted out the starry skies with it's constant lights, but at least in large villages you could still see stars from a decent portion of the town. Regardless this was where his journey with the others always started in his dreams, and he was somewhat relieved to arrive.

As they neared the town Astor noticed the village was in partial disrepair, but he would comment on that later. He then turned to Scarlet. "Since you're still very skeptic I bet you want to know how I got the scroll, well this is the best version I was able to make over the past few years as the visions came to me. All the drawing of my visions made me good at drawing things accurately, well at least you guys and the scenes from my visions." He stated honestly with a smile. "I can make a copy for you if you want if you don't believe me." He declared as she dropped her chest and declared 'what the' before realizing she was talking about the villages state of disrepair.

"Ah yes probably the work of giants considering what the stars have shown me and how fate is moving within Faerun." He stated calmly, he was expecting events like this to occur, though the visions of this place were misty, he knew when he found the others the plot of the giants would unfold itself soon after. "We should probably run to help." Aster declared as he looked at the group.

 

[Muddbutt]

View attachment 9977
You approach the drawbridge that's connected to the two watch towers. When you reach the end of it, you see two Worg in the far corner of the square. They don't notice you... yet, too busy eating the dog they killed. You also see the town littered with large rocks. (You may choose to be anywhere between or before the guard towers.)