peril: Danger ; also: a source of danger : RISK
A Tale of Guilt and Honor
Brother Yerrond, an aging cleric of the Sovereign Host, bashes the ornate stained-glass windows of his temple. He scratches runic symbols on his forehead. He leaves town, carrying a bar laden with weights across his shoulders, leaving his community wondering what hidden guilt had been eating away at him. The heroes are asked to track down Yerrond, and when they do, they find him making his way toward the Mournlands. Yerrond assures them that he hasn't gone mad, but he asks for their help in locating a particular family from Cyre. Because he killed the youngest son during the final years of the Last War, he seeks to offer his life in the name of Dol Arrah to the family as payment for their son's.
necromancy: the art or practice of conjuring up the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future.
hag : an ugly or evil-looking old woman
hunch : to assume or cause to assume a bent or crooked posture.
The Captain and the Hag
Captain Farras tells no stories of being a Karrnathi Last War veteran; he was an officer whose red scale armor held decorations from many victories. He fought alongside and among legions of elite undead, and he became more comfortable with these vicious, living-hating abominations than with live soldiers. Now that the War has ended, drowning in emptiness and purposelessness, he's still obsessed with those undead creatures. One night, as he roams a graveyard gripping a shred of war-banner, a hunched and twisted figure who perceives his plight approaches him. She offers to teach him the discipline of necromancy, and he accepts.
Jury Duty
Mrs. Bebblebaum lost her three children in the War over five years ago -- but she doesn't know it. One year ago, the nearsighted and slightly senile old lady opened the door to Gim, a brave changeling who served shoulder-to-shoulder with her three children. Gim began to tell her the tragic news -- but somehow the pathetic look of Mrs. Bebblebaum made him shift into the persona of her eldest son instead. She embraced him and welcomed him in.
Through a heroic effort of shapeshifting skill, Gim impersonated her three children for a year. However, Mrs. Bebblebaum's brother recently found out, and now Gim is on trial for fraud and supernatural impersonation. According to local law, he must be judged by a "jury of impartials," which usually means travelers not native to the area -- and the PCs are chosen to be that jury.
veteran : an old soldier of long service
The Warforged-Forged
A warforged veteran takes up a kind of sculptural armorsmithing and forges dozens of suits of platemail "self-portraits" in an attempt to express and understand his new destiny in a peacetime world. A barely sane worshiper of the Fury named Iruvia takes advantage of the sculptor's industriousness by casting animate objects on the suits of armor, filling the warforged's empty manikins with a dark purpose. After Iruvia's temporary army makes a pit stop at the weaponsmith's shop, they terrorize the town. Does Iruvia seek a way to make the armor her permanent entourage? Will the sight of all those copies of himself attacking his home village drive the sculptor mad? Was that Iruvia's plan all along?
Taint of the Past
Kennrun, the site of several major battles on the eastern edge of Breland, is now a grief-stricken human settlement beset with awful memories of the Last War. Strangely, however, memories about the war have been spotty recently. A Sharn-native biographer in Kennrun contacts the heroes when she discovers that the townsfolk have forgotten the War completely. Investigation reveals that strange machinery is running below Fort Kennrun -- an eldritch machine that can steal memories -- and that preparations are being made to expand its power to affect entire countries of Khorvaire.
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