Cobblecrest Chronicles

  Velvet Poison Chapter 1: The Gilded Lily's Gleam The Gilded Lily lived up to its name tonight. Candles, hundreds it seemed, bathed the inn’s grand hall in a warm, liquid gold light that shimmered off polished oak beams and the brass fittings of the chandeliers. Laughter and conversation ebbed and flowed like a tide, punctuated by the merry strumming of a lute from a corner alcove where a traveling bard held court. Cobblecrest, nestled contentedly between the Maerthwatch Mountains and the Adder Peaks, might seem a simple village, but tonight, it played host to nobility, and its finest citizens had turned out in kind. Tables groaned under the weight of silver platters piled high with roasted boar, glistening fruits, and pastries dusted with sugar fine as snow. The air was thick with the comforting scents of woodsmoke from the great hearth, spiced wine, roasted meat, beeswax, and the fresh, clean perfume of flowers adorning every surface. Yet, beneath the revelry, a subtler, sharper...

  The Resonance of Stone and Light The cool morning breeze of Cobblecrest, usually a cheerful herald of market day, carried an unfamiliar weight. It rustled through the brightly colored awnings of the town square, mingling the scents of Elara Whisperwind’s carefully tended herbs, Nella Greenbriar’s fresh-baked bread from the Golden Roll Bakery, and the distant, metallic tang from Balin Ironhand’s forge. Kaelen Vance, his hand resting instinctively on the pommel of his longsword, scanned the familiar crowd. His Tethyrian features, usually set in a soldier’s stern lines, softened slightly as he watched Lyra Meadowlight haggle good-naturedly with a fruit vendor, her dark brown hair escaping her practical tie-back. Across the square, Kriv Stronghorn, the gold dragonborn paladin, stood in quiet contemplation near the village well, his plate armor gleaming even in the diffused morning light. Elara, ever the scholar, was already at Featherfoot’s Tales, lost in some ancient tome. A murmur,...