The Gathering Storm Part 1: The Story so Far ...

Following their early triumph at the Grunewald lodge, the servants of justice were approached by a distraught lady. She explained that her merchant husband had gone missing in the town of Stromdorf, a frontier town of the Empire. She feared that her husband had been kidnapped or murdered for his valuable signet ring, which carried much prestige amongst the merchants of The Empire. A less scrupulous person might use the ring to curry favour and gain trust for more nefarious reasons.

Always the champions of the repressed and those in need (as long as there is some coin involved), the party decided to undertake the journey to Stromdorf on behalf of their new employer.

Stromdorf proved to be a particularly sodden and depressing town, permanently under a sheet of heavy rain. Following their arduous journey to Stromdorf by barge, the party gratefully took up residence at the Thunderwater Inn.

Scouring the town for rumours in the hopes of finding the merchants trail, a number of clues added up to suggest that the Merchant had last been seen at the Stewpot Hostelry, his distinctive white horse helping jog the memories of locals. Indeed, locals noted that not many people went to the Stewpot anymore, mostly just the local watch and the occasional local farmer. When questioned, Keila Cobblepot, proprietor of the Stewpot, claimed that the merchant had merely left well before breakfast in the morning after his stay, something she wasn't too surprised about given he was a merchant. The Servants of justice smelled foul play and some burly dwarf based intimidation later, a sobbing Keila Cobblepot spilled the whole story....

The halfling cook had been involved in an insiduous plan to identify lone travellers to a local family of hill dwelling natives known as the Holtz family. The Holtz clan were sacrificing travellers to chaos beastmen who dwelt in the Stromdorf area. After rebuking Cobblepot for her treason, the servants of justice set off to confront the Holtz family and perhaps uncover evidence of the missing merchant.

What greeted the party was the ruins of another homestead belonging to the Eigel family. The evidence showed that they were murdered by the foul beastmen. The party pressed on to the Holtz residence to find the lone survivor of the Eigel clan arguing with the with the Holtz family.

After dealing with the Holtz family, the party learned that the holtz's had a child, Foaldeath. Such was the grotesqueness and severity of his mutations that he was accepted by the local beastmen as a shaman

After a meeting was arranged with Foaldeath, the creature of chaos urged the servants of justice to recover the herd stone of the nearby tribe. A shard embedded in the herd stone seemed to attract lightning, and it was from the power of this artifact that the local tribe grew strong. Once the lightning stone had been captured, he could command the local tribes and thus protect Stromdorf from the rampaging beastmen.

After a bloody battle, the servants of justice retrieved the herd stone from the beastmen. However, it was not without significant loss. was slain in battle by a cruel blow from the beastmen. Overwhelmed by the bestial ferocity of their opponents, the dwarf Bran and his battle brother, the dwarf with no name were dragged unconscious from the forest by Magnus the wizard, along with the lightning stone.