Vel's Grief

From Stormravengaming

In Kingsport the party finds Vel, a barbarian known to Barok. Vel lived on a small homestead in the mountains with his wife Marla and his sons Tep and Mit. He used to come to the trade-arounds every year to sell furs and cured venison and to buy supplies. Now he's alone in the city, drunk, miserable, and wandering from bar to bar.

Three weeks ago Vel went out hunting and checking his traps. When he returned to the homestead, he found it burned. His wife and children were dead, and goblin tracks covered the ground. There was a clear trail away, and Vel took to it with a howl of rage.

The goblin party didn't have much of a lead, and Vel caught them the next day. There was another figure with the goblins when he caught up to them, a figure cloaked in black and riding a pale gray horse. The cloaked figure was talking to a hobgoblin, apparently the leader of this marauding band. By the way the hobgoblin cringed, he was very afraid of the rider. Vel heard only the last few words of the exchange.

"We'll keep searching, Master," the hobgoblin assured. "If any of Tarok's brood are here, we'll find them and bring them to you."

"See that you do." The cloaked figure's voice was all hisses and soft whispers. "Send word to me at the Stone Tooth. And remember, I do not tolerate indolence in my service." The hobgoblin glanced uneasily at a heap of rags, which Vel suddenly realized were the bodies of two or three goblins. The rider whirled his horse around, heedless of whether anyone was in the way, and galloped off to the east.

Vel waited nearly half an hour after the last sounds of the rider's departure before making his move. These goblins had slaughtered his family. Neither the rider nor his horse had left tracks at the homestead. Vel's vengeance fell on these alone.

Half a dozen goblins died before they even realized they were being attacked. Another dozen or so, and the rest broke and fled. But run as they might, hide as they would, Vel hunted them down. And they died. And when the life went out of the last goblin, the final shreds of purpose went out of Vel's life, and he wandered down out of the mountains, eventually finding his way to Kingsport, where he undertook the task of drowning his sorrows.