The Protectorate of Fureck had not sent a guard, as we expected, but instead has sent a strange combination of would be heroes.
I was too young at the time to understand my mothers fear: A Minotaur? A Drow? There are lots of peaceful ones around Ere-Stade, but in little villages like our own we are used to them as raiders and destroyers of the peace.
They immediately sprang into consideration of our village, the Minotaur directed us in the construction of a palisade around our farming community, leading men to cut down trees for its construction in the nearby copse's. A human traveller with them eased our minds with tales of bravery and strength, skilfully setting us at ease about the strangeness of the people now walking amongst them.
Leaving us to build up our defenses, they set out to track the Kobolds that had most recently attacked our farms.
We did not hear from the travellers until the next day, where they returned to us in the early morning. They had slain six full groups of Kobolds and suspected more in the area.
They spoke plainly to us, describing what the Kobolds were up to. We were scared, we were incensed, we were angry. They drummed up support from us and led us to one last camp emplacement, where they expected to find a magic circle and a group of kobolds plotting our demise.
Our community had the upper hand, these travellers led them, but our community slaughtered the ones at the magic circle, and the patrol hoping to prevent that from happening. They returned successful, roaring with pride and joy.
That night we partied long and joyously, and I met another traveller who was with them all along, a Gnome, as tall as I was back then. She offered me cake and we danced, I often wondered if she remembers me at all over the next few years. I had not seen her before, she told me that she often sat atop the Minotaur; I had not been able to see the Minotaur up until now, which I think is why I never saw her before. Talk was so focussed on the Drow and the Minotaur that no-one had paid much attention to the details of the others. I heard later that a Shifter had been with them, but had slunk off into the night, while we were rejoicing merrily.
I waved bye to them as they set off out of the village to end our Kobold problem entirely. A traveller joined them at this point, on the outskirts of our community. She was an armoured wandering soldier. Sword and shield in hand, she joined them in their quest.
It was not until afterwards that we realised the full extent of the danger we were in. The Kobolds taskmaster was not a young dragon or a charismatic Kobold priest, but an elemental that had bullied the Kobolds into joining it by possessing one of them. The elemental had remained hidden until the travellers had cornered it and it started using powers far beyond the ken of Kobolds.
The travellers fought bravely, defeated the threat, and came back to us as heroes instead of travellers.
Worton Vale as we know it now, a small village growing larger everyday, would have been destroyed back then, if it were not for those travellers.
