here goes nothing...
Three unlikely heroes
At a country fair a girl dressed in dusty blue robes stood before three men (3). They laughed and joked, "Come dance with us, lass". But she declined "I am in no mood for dancing, but I could use the assistance of three such as you." As she told her tale the color drained from their faces and one by one they recalled they should be elsewhere. One heard his wife calling; another remembered cows that needed to be brought in from the pasture. The third at least had the decency not to offer some feeble excuse, but simply ran.
The young woman sighed and headed for a nearby tent. Inside a young girl stood on a barrel behind a makeshift bar and serving drinks. As the traveler approached an empty stool at the bar she noticed that the "child" had a woman's features, slightly pointed ears, and straight black hair: all the marks of a halfling. The traveler took the stool and asked for water. The barkeep, noting the color of her robe and the medallion showing two crossed sheaves of wheat, offered fruit as well. The traveler sat in silence, drank water, ate fruit, and watched the performance of a dancer on the other side of the room. The entire audience was captivated by her performance, the men even more so-possibly because of her exotic looks. Her hair and skin were darker than that of most of the people the traveler had seen at the fair.
When her dance was over she made her way through the appreciative crowd and approached the bar. The barkeep handed her a glass and she took a grateful gulp. “Today is the last day of the fair. Tomorrow we leave,” said the dancer. The barkeep grinned, “Tomorrow it is.” She poured herself a glass and raised it, “To adventure.” “To adventure,” the dancer echoed. The traveler turned to them. “If it’s adventure you want then perhaps I have one for you, if you’re more courageous than the men in these parts….”
“My name is Alara, and I am a priestess of the Goddess. A little over two weeks ago I was sent from my monastery north of here to carry a message to the monastery east of this village. Do you know the one I mean? It is a quiet, peaceful place on top of a hill. (1) When I arrived there three days ago there were no sisters left alive. Their corpses were strewn about the place, but oddly nothing was left of them but bare skeletons (2). There was no sign of fire or pestilence. And from the looks of the animals, which were left alive, whatever happened only took place within the last few days. I’m not sure what evil took place there, but with no contacts less than two weeks’ walk from here I could use help finding out. ” Her listeners appeared surprised at the tale, but not anywhere near as frightened as the men she spoke to earlier. The bartender introduced herself as Halla and the dancer as Jadiya. “Your tale unnerves me,” said Halla, “but we really had meant to leave the village in the morning and find adventure and this certainly sounds like an adventure, albeit a more dangerous one than we had in mind.” Alara questions the skills they bring to the endeavor and finds that Halla, besides tending bar, is good with a sword-the sword in question being almost as long as Halla was tall. As for Jadiya, well, Jadiya can dance.
“We may not need to look far for answers or advice,” Halla points out, and suggests that they speak with the village wise woman. To the wise woman the description Alara gives sounds like the work of a demon. “Not a very large, or very strong one, as demons go, but it will grow stronger as it feeds on souls. As it happens, one of my predecessors faced a demon like this and she kept very detailed journals. It will have a gem in its possession, several in fact, but only one that houses the power allowing it to remain on this plane. You must break that one, or damage it enough to release its energy.” “How will we know the right one?” Alara asked. The wise woman left them for a moment to search for something in another room and brought back what looked like a large tome wrapped in cloth. It turned out to be a piece of a tablet decorated with musical instruments and notation (4). “To determine the correct gem, someone must sing or play this melody and the gem will respond by glowing.” Jadiya volunteers for this duty-it turned out she also sang. “The tune is short and simple,” the wise woman points out, “but once the demon realizes the purpose of it he will, of course, try to keep it from being completed. Alara and Halla will have to protect you while you sing.”
With this semblance of a plan in place the three women set out the following morning. During their journey Jadiya practiced the tune in between telling heartening tales of valor to lift their spirits. Apparently in addition to dancing and singing she was also good at telling stories. Just after noon on the third day they reached the monastery (1). Passing it on the road one would have thought it a peaceful place, fitting for the Sisters in service to the Goddess. The wooden door set in the stone wall surrounding the monastery was closed-as Alara had left it when she left before. The bones of the dead were still in the courtyard, the halls, and the chapel (2). Alara had not checked every room in the monastery on her first visit. Now it was necessary to do so, and quietly, lest they alert the demon. Room by room they went, through the outbuildings, the chapel, the tower, and finally the basement.
The demon was in the wine cellar enjoying the monastery's finest vintage and, apparently, gnawing on a bone..."But what's that greenish glow?" Alara whispered. Jadiya gasped, "He's feeding on their souls!" "Start the song," Halla said, drawing her sword as quietly as possible, "I'm ready." Alara already had her staff in hand, Jadiya nocked an arrow in the shortbow she carried, then took a deep breath and started singing. The demon stopped his gnawing at the first note and growled menacingly. Several of the skeletons lying at his feet rose and advanced towards the three women standing just inside the entrance to the wine cellar. What had sounded like a short tune on the road seemed to take Jadiya hours to complete in the heat of battle. And the skeletons being fended off by Halla and Alara were none the worse for wear, while the would-be adventurers seemed on the verge of collapse. A gem set in a ring on the finger of the demon began to glow, faintly at first; barely distinguishable from the glow of the soul he fed on. But as the glow grew bright enough to tell them apart, the demon also realized where the glow was coming from. He paused in his feeding, startled for a moment. That moment was long enough. Not long enough for Alara or Halla to break away from their opponents, but long enough for Jadiya to let an arrow fly.
Well, actually two. The first one missed, but the second one, following closely behind, found its target. The demon screamed once - well, actually it was more of a startled yelp - and vanished. The skeletons doing battle with Halla and Alara collapsed. The three women watched as a green glow rose from each skeleton like steam and dissipated. “We couldn’t save them, but at least their souls can return to the Goddess,” Alara said. Then she turned to Jadiya with a puzzled frown. “How-” “Ironwood arrow,” Jadiya replied. Seeing that the puzzlement remained she added, “Well, I know how to shoot a bow too, I just don’t do it as well as I dance.”