The travelers arrived in the trading post town of Triboar late in the day. A crossroads town protected by a keep but no wall, it was a strange affair, full of dusty caravan campgrounds
but also a posh hotel and hobbit-elven cuisine restaurant. The travelers settled down for a meal that only successful treasure hunters could afford and made a new friend, a sorceress drow elf who hailed from the hollow depths of the earth, the Underdark. She told a harrowing tail of her home city Menzorberrenzen, a dark metropolis, overrun by hellish demons from beyond this dimension: "The lords of the the Nine Hells stalk the night below!" After that it was left to divide up the bill.
The next morning the group asked around, looking for word of one "Harshnag Grey-Handed". The search lead them to the wizard tower of Kolstaag the Friendless. After some tense mystical negotiations and the payment of a worthy diamond the wizard consulted his crystal ball, ranting a bit about a great tragedy, that Harshnag was a witness to it all, and that he was nearby. Only then did all look out the window to see the approach of a trio of red bearded giants in black iron armor, lobbing boulders at the town while a phalanx of cavalry lopped ahead, armored orcs on massive featherless ostriches. They charged into the town, setting houses afire, slaying livestock and townspeople.
The heroes of Barovia did not shirk the challenge this time, as they had in Waterdeep. They harnessed magic to fly all of them to confront the assault. In the brutal battle that followed, one giant was banished from the world, one slain, and one driven off with the help of an unlooked for ally, a white-bearded frost giant, who called himself Harshnag. "What were they after?" queried the bard, as the druid brought rain to douse the many flames.
"The Vodinod," answered the blue skinned titan, pulling a massive metal hoop from the ground. "This is a piece of an ancient artifact of war, Duke Zalto seeks to rebuild. Pure adamantine, indestructible."
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