K is for Kevin

Hello! Welcome to Aggie’s Tavern, the best stop for a drink and a tale in Caerac Keep! All right, it’s the only tavern at Caerac Keep, but the ale is good and the company is better. Only we haven’t had as much company of late. Folks have been disappearing without a trace from within our Keep’s walls. Less people are coming in for a drink, especially at night. Some say it’s the Vampire Corwyth, rising from his chained crypt to create an undead army of the living. Aggie, my boss says that’s nonsense, but there’s an uneasy look in her eye. She used to adventure, winning fortune with her sword back when it wasn’t a questionable practice. Some say she once fought at the side of Lord Caerac and the Vampire Corwyth himself back when he was a mortal cleric, yet Serpent-Born. Aggie scoffs at this, but she gets real edgy when you bring it up. She doesn’t like to talk about her past life. My elder sister says Aggie was nothing but a murderer and a thief. The tavern she runs was built with the treasure Aggie stole from kobolds and goblins. Truth is I like Aggie, but she comes from a different era. Her sword hangs over the bar in a place of pride which she refuses to take it down from, no matter how much her patrons grumble. It’s a funny thing, really. Our customers get all angry about kobolds and goblins being called monsters, yet they shrink away from Rhodry Nevalyn’s golden hair and eyes, not to mention his name. It comes from Nevalyn Herself, the Great Serpent and enemy of the world before Serena Jasior united the queendoms and conquered her. Not that this union lasted, the queendoms fractured with our land, Rowenda, becoming even more fragmented into Keeps. Tales are still told, carrying the old fear of golden hair and eyes, even though we’re told to be more tolerant of bat wings, slitted eyes, claws, and snouts. Personally I think Rhodry is a lot prettier than a kobold or a goblin, although I wouldn’t dare say so to my sister. I’d ask him out on a date if I were brave enough. Alas, courage is in short supply at Caerac Keep. It dwindles in the face of the company Rhodry keeps, especially the pale, golden-eyed wizard who’s started accompanying him. Now there’s a Serpent Born if I ever saw one and that’s one possessive eye he keeps on Rhodry. I watch from afar, not sure what to do. I heard Rhodry’s guardian, the mysterious sorcerer of the tower, Daeric Nevalyn has gone missing. One of the reasons Rhodry is now keeping odd company is this group is trying to find him and the other missing people. A foreign girl, an Aethyrian is looking for her sister. I think I remember her sister. Always had her head in a book or a scroll, covered with a hood. Very different than this maiden, who wears leather, which shows off her muscles. There’s another girl in the party, one of the Points on the Unicorn’s Horn. I’ve never seen her in this tavern before even if I’ve spotted her wandering around the Keep with the other Points. Gave me the creeps, those three. Now folks are saying one of the Points is missing and the other is ailing from a mysterious illness. Got to wonder what would have the power to mess with any of those three! Something bad is happening, no question, there’s Trouble at Caerac Keep. I’m just not sure what I should do about it or if I should simply try to stay out of it.