Prologue

On the edge of the Arpagas Wildwood, north of the Obdurate Ridge in Mah’Aridia, there resided an outlaw gang known as the Lamplighters.  They were led by the wise, charismatic, and fearsome tiefling known as Boon, as well as the members of her inner circle, including “Honest” Etterheim, an air genasi tempest cleric (played by Rooney), Corvina Eris, a tiefling shadow sorcerer (played by Sweet), and Caelan Farroot, a halfling drakewarden ranger (played by Jemma), along with Caelan’s drake, Saffy.

A collective of outcasts and misfits with nowhere else to call home, the Lamplighters got by through a combination of legitimate or semi-legitimate business practices, such as moonshining and tailoring, and criminal activity, ranging from poaching to confidence schemes to highway robbery of wealthy travelers.  Aside from simply surviving and keeping their community safe, the Lamplighters were driven by a shared dream: to someday be able to afford land and an estate where they would be able to build a lasting home for all its members and future generations to thrive on.

Session 1

On one evening in early spring, some of the inner circle were approached by fellow Lamplighter Fifer, a kobold with a penchant for fire and explosions who was eager to prove herself and join their ranks.  She told them she’d heard rumor of a potentially tremendous score - treasures dropped down the mountainside by wealthy and arrogant travelers intent on bringing more than they could feasibly carry on their walkabout.  All they would need to do was visit the base of the mountain and scoop up their leavings.  Etterheim, Corvina, and Caelan all agreed to join Fifer in this venture the following day, along with Benyu, another of Boon’s lieutenants who was on the lookout for some stolen phan of his own.

At first, it seemed like the tip might pay off.  The Lamplighters quickly found a heavy chest of potentially full of treasures as they walked the base of the ridge.  Fifer, possibly spurred by the early success, got ahead of herself in challenging her friends to a foot race and dashed ahead of them - only to run headlong into an explosive trap lying in wait for them.  The kobold was knocked unconscious instantly, and as Caelan attempted to run to her side, the Lamplighters were surrounded by members of an enemy gang that had long been a thorn in their side, known as the Shepherds.  

What followed was a bloody tug of war as the Lamplighters attempted to escape with all their members alive, as well as the treasure they’d risked life and limb for, while the Shepherds seemed solely intent on taking the opportunity to see them all dead.  In attempting to rescue Fifer, Caelan bravely went toe to toe with a bugbear fighter, bringing his friend back up and giving her cover to try to escape.  Meanwhile, Corvina and Benyu matched spells and projectiles against the Shepherds’ necromancer and a more skilled archer.

Amidst the chaos, while playing support from afar, Etterheim was repeatedly made the target of the Shepherds’ other archer.  This archer didn’t manage to hit him with a single one of the six shots he fired, to the point of snapping his bow over his knee and sliding down the ridge to attack Etterheim himself.  Feeling more pity for the incompetent archer than anything, Etterheim offered to let him come with them and join the Lamplighters, but the archer seemed more confused by the offer than anything and failed to accept it.

Fifer was repeatedly brought up and felled throughout the battle, but it seemed luck was not on her side that day, and she was fully slain mere feet away from their means of escape.  Having lost one skeleton already Etterheim’s divine powers, the enemy necromancer next brought Fifer’s corpse back under their thrall and turned it against her former companions.  Not wanting to leave her with their enemies, Corvina sent her shadow hound to put the corpse out of commission and had it carried with them as they fled the encounter, covering their tracks as they went - but not before Corvina swore vengeance on the necromancer.

With the special lantern given to inner circle members, Etterheim reported back to Boon that they had been ambushed and lost Fifer.  In a voice laden with sorrow, Boon told them to come home as soon as they could, which they did so after sleeping through the night in the woods.

Session 2

Etterheim, Corvina, Caelan, and Benyu were welcomed home with relief for their safety and mourning for the loss of Fifer.  That day, they held a funeral for the kobold, remembering her years with the Lamplighters and the enthusiastic, if misguided, efforts that had led to her death.  After cremating her body in the Lamplighters’ tradition, Boon brought her inner circle together, to discuss what, if any, outside forces or interference could have led to them being ambushed.  They agreed to travel into the nearby town where Fifer had gotten her tip to see if anything was amiss there.

At the same time, Etterheim sought permission with Boon and the others to attempt a possibly very foolish idea.  Still feeling pity for the incompetent archer, he wanted to attempt to reach out to him and try to convince him to join the Lamplighters, both for his safety and the potential benefit of the inside information he might be able to provide to them.  With Boon’s blessing, he sent the archer two sendings, and convinced him to meet with Etterheim at the nice inn in town the following day.

Joined by Boon herself, they rode to the town of Ormos to investigate.  On the ride over, Etterheim spoke with Corvina, confessing that he had initially resented her when she first joined, believing her to represent a more comfortable lifestyle she would surely return to someday.  However, as she stayed on and continued to prove herself, he realized she belonged there, as did anyone who chose this life, and it wasn’t up to the Shepherds to try to push them out.  While he advised her not to let her desire for vengeance consume her, she should keep her fire burning to help them in the days to come.

In return, Corvina confessed she was the child of a wealthy, married elf and a drow courtesan and, in order to hide the shame of her existence, her father had exiled them to an estate on a remote island for the first hundred years of Corvina’s life.  When Corvina had realized her father had no intention of letting her leave and ever see the outside world, she escaped on her own, wandering the wilds till she was taken in by the Lamplighters.  She fully expects to be found and captured by her father again someday, but Boon, Etterheim, and Caelan were quick to chime in, saying he would have to go through them first.

Arriving in Ormos, the Lamplighters checked into the Red Dragon, the cheaper and seedier of the town’s two inns.  In the morning as they had breakfast, they spoke with Mori, the half-orc barkeep who had given Fifer the tip, who freely confessed she had given the information to others as well, and that Fifer herself might’ve been overheard by a kobold affiliated with the Shepherds at the time.  They also learned that the Shepherds were up to their old tricks selling faulty potions to customers of the local brothel, something that concerned Corvina and put Etterheim on edge.

Afterwards, they made plans concerning Etterheim’s meeting with the Shepherd archer.  Compromising between Etterheim’s desire not to scare him off and Boon’s abundance of caution so soon after the loss of one of her charges, the cleric took a table at the Shady Willow after casting Find Traps at the entrance, while Boon, Corvina, and Caelan kept an eye on him from another table at the inn’s outdoor seating.

Shortly after the appointed time, Etterheim was approached by the archer, a young man named Jevan who was clearly nervous to be there, and was trying, but mostly failing, to put on a tough face - failing even harder after Etterheim pointed out his waiting companions.  He confessed his continued confusion as to why Etterheim had asked him there and his misgivings about the Lamplighters, saying he’d heard they constantly stole from and harassed the Shepherds - that they’d even kidnapped a potion maker from a splinter group of theirs at one point.

In the interest of honesty and earning Jevan’s trust, Etterheim confessed his own history - that after losing his own home, he’d been taken in by a gang called the Ratcatchers and given shelter in exchange for brewing healing potions for them.  However, the healing potions were cut and watered down when being sold, and when Etterheim attempted to confront them about this, the Ratcatchers’ leader said he would just be killed and replaced if he didn’t comply.  It was only when the Lamplighters were hurt by the scheme and took out the gang responsible that Etterheim was freed and learned to place his trust in them.

Jevan briefly warmed to him, sympathizing and saying he’d lost his home too, and showing that, for all his bluster of his power, he actually could cast the Thaumaturgy cantrip, though he wasn’t sure why or how.  But despite this, Jevan was still hesitant to leave, worrying over how dangerous the change in allegiances could be and fretting he would lose everything he’d left with the Shepherds.  Etterheim acknowledged this, but told him the change would be worth it, and agreed to give him the rest of the day to consider it - offering him a Potion of Heroism to help him make a choice before he left.

As the Lamplighters regrouped after lunch, thinking they might investigate further into how the Shepherds had been interfering with the town lately, there was a commotion with the townspeople and they found a dwarf that had been brutally killed, possibly by a red dragon that had been terrorizing the region as of late.  Using Boon’s magical talents to interrogate the spirit of this dwarf, they confirmed these suspicions, that he had been killed by a dragon with a mighty hoard in the mountains.  

Boon put it to her companions at this time - the possibility to slay this dragon and claim both the repute and gold to wipe their slates clean and secure their dream.  Etterheim, Corvina, and Caelan all agreed to follow her into battle and do what they could to make this happen.  Intending to leave before nightfall, they made their final preparations in town.  

Corvina and Caelan both attempted to seed rumors of the dragon being found in different locations in hopes of throwing the Shepherds off any possible trail, while Boon and Etterheim went to the meeting spot they had arranged with Jevan.  After a while of waiting, Boon caught sight of something in the stables and brought Etterheim over to find Jevan, scared and crying, but still present and willing to leave with them.  Gratefully taking their new recruit under their wing, the Lamplighters rode off into the night to return to camp and prepare for the battle to come.

Session 3

Back at camp, they shared news of the upcoming battle to the excitement of the rest of the gang.  They sent their scout, Carlos, out towards the mountains to seek out the exact location of the dragon.  In the days that followed, people who would be going into battle addressed what was most important to them.  Corvina confessed her feelings to Benyu, who reciprocated, and the two became a couple.  When noticing that she seemed distressed, Caelan tried to comfort Boon.  It seemed to be to somewhat limited effect with their enigmatic leader, but she did gift him a special coin to show her confidence in them.

The night before they intended to leave for the battle, Etterheim prayed to his god, Panla, for the first time in years.  He apologized for being a poor worshiper but found his faith renewed, and offered “Honest,” the name he’d carried for years, in exchange for Panla’s help in protecting his new family.  As he slept, he dreamed of quietly walking beside a certain figure on the beach, and when he woke, he re-introduced himself to the Lamplighters by his real name, Venlinir - or Venly, as his brothers used to call him.

As Boon stayed behind to protect the Lamplighters’ camp, Caelan, Corvina, and Venly set off along with Benyu and the barbarian, Bellamy.  They found their way to the cave Carlos had marked for them and began to make their way in.  They found a magically hidden entrance along the cave walls and went far deeper in the earth, in passageways lined with glowing, red crystals.  At one point, they found a large patch of lava they needed to bypass, which they more or less managed with Saffy flying an immovable rod up and using that as leverage to swing across it.  Venly had a bit of trouble sticking the landing on the other side, but only burned his feet a little, ultimately.

Not too far beyond that, they found the lair - as well as the massive hoard - of the dragon, that the dragon herself was presently accounting for.  As their approach managed to be a little less than subtle - thanks again, Venly - stealth went out the window, and they charged in, spells, fists, and blades blazing.  It was a ferocious battle that saw Caelan flying on Saffy for the first time after feeding her a potion of growth from Venly, and Venly and Corvina alternately slinging spells and being polymorphed into young bronze dragons and tearing into their opponent with claws, fangs, and lightning.

But the dragon was not only powerful in her own right, but proud enough to mock her opponents throughout the fight.  She taunted them as being nothing but the latest in a long line of minions sent by her sister to die at her hands, but the Lamplighters remained determined to keep fighting for their leader or for their family.  Through their tenacity and skill, they pushed the dragon to enough desperation to try to escape, and as she did, Corvina pounced in her own draconic form and made the final attack to put an end to her.

Despite access to their now immense treasure hoard, there were conflicting emotions amongst the Lamplighters in face of the revelations, but they agreed to put them aside until they could hear the truth from Boon herself.  Corvina attempted to use their sending lamps to tell Boon they had won and they would talk - but the sending didn’t land on anyone.  

While attempting to gather as much treasure as they could for one journey, Venly found another hidden passage behind the hoard, and followed it far away, along with with Caelan and Saffy.  They came up on the other side in a distinguished tent - and the unfamiliar camp of the Shepherds.  There were, however, some familiar voices there, and they found the Lamplighters’ cook and tailor, husbands Avery and Lane, captured there.  After Caelan freed them and they began to flee down the tunnel, Avery talked about how they had been grabbed by the Shepherds while on an anniversary getaway in town, and though they had called out for Boon through their sending lamp, neither she, nor any Lamplighters till them, had come to rescue them.

The Lamplighters returned home as quickly as they could, only to find that three members were missing - Boon, Carlos, and Oswald, Boon’s shady, long-time confidante.  In seeking them out, they found a shaken Carlos, who himself had found a journal left behind by Oswald.  The journal described Boon’s life - born a fire crystal dragon and the twin of Skylar, leader of the Shepherds.  The two of them had been playing this game for years, building gangs out of desperate folk, using them to build their hoards, and abandoning them to the other’s wrath when they found it was time to move on.  They also had an arrangement between them, that whoever could kill the other would inherit their twin’s power.  

They deduced from their journal and from recent events that this was meant to be the dragons’ last hurrah in the area, as Boon abandoned her gang to be slaughtered and either to start over, or to finally defeat her sister.  It seemed the latter at least had happened, with a powerful ruby dragon now roaming the empire - but aside from her and Oswald, the gang remained whole and safe and with more than enough treasure to make their dream come true.  Caelan, Corvina, and Venly agreed to keep the truth of Boon’s identity a secret, and set off with rest of the Lamplighters to begin building their new home.