Norton is shocked to be put at the center of attention all of a sudden. He hesitates a bit as he closes his book and clears his throat. "As I'm sure you all are aware, the original reason for entering Thistletop was to root out the goblins hiding within. I wasn't a part of the team from the beginning, so all I know about that time is hearsay, and I won't try to repeat it in hopes of not muddling it up. I joined the team alongside a young woman named Drea, and alongside Toros and Keghart Valdemar, Valbard the Velociraptor, Opal, Asher and an elven woman named Shalelu, we went back to continue their mission. At first much of our exploration was of uninhabited area, but for a few leftover goblins.

After encountering the goblins, who we chose to let leave, as they seemed harmless..." Norton takes a breath as he chooses to neglect mentioning the one. "We discovered a sturdy warrior who claimed to have previously worked for a woman who had hidden in Thistletop to do her own work. This woman, named Nualia, was the next big threat we had to deal with. See, we ran into her afoul of one of the worst traps I've ever seen. When it triggered, it caged its victim in on both sides, statues on either side came to life and attacked the victim, before finally dropping a pitfall beneath the victim, sealing him up in it. This was what caused us to lose one of our comrades, the Android Asher. After triggering the trap, the woman Nualia revealed herself, and hiding behind the relative safety of this trap, continued to wear us down with a combination of pets and magic, but eventually we won out. However, in addition to the death of an ally, we were emotionally and physically drained, and had to retreat to a safe place, but not before gaining a few prizes among her possessions, and even notes explaining all that she was doing there.

Now, this isn't the end of the story, and in fact, it's where things start to get a little weird. See, one night, there were six of us, as Shalelu had left us by this point, and the next morning, two of us were missing. Drea had returned to her home, traveling as if by magic, and Valbard had chosen to go with her, and her great aunt Leanyi joined us to help us finish her nieces quest. With her as part of our team, we continued further, but came across a hurdle that was nearly as nasty as the trap." He lowers his voice for a moment, as if to add dramatic tension. "Shadows." He returns to his normal voice after that. "While not entirely the most dangerous threat, they managed to do a number on enough members of our party that some of us struggled to even carry our own gear, and had to return home to get some restoration done on our strength. Once back to town, we chose to use this time to figure out how we could remove Asher from his pit home, which is how we ended up meeting up with Draegra here.

While he originally chose to come with us to visit Thistletop, which I was eager to allow as a fellow scholar, he carried his weight in helping us to bypass the trap and attempting to recover the body, although there was no body left to be found. With his help, we found our way to the final hurdle. Behind this final door, we discovered the biggest threat we had faced so far. A Greater Barghest. This thing, who I later learned was named Malfeshnikor, made quick work of Keghart, killing him before the man even had a chance to react to it. Meeting him definitely struck fear into us, as not only was he powerful, but he was also dangerously evasive. Even a perfect strike into him did absolutely nothing, and we tried to retreat. He seemed to have lived there for some time, and we were not prepared for a fight like that, so Opal and myself quickly tried to escape, followed by Draegra. Unfortunately, in the time it took to make the decision and call for a retreat, Toros and Leanyi had managed to get blocked in by the Barghest. We tried to urge them to escape, but they refused, urging us to escape while they bought time, as long as we promised to avenge them. Little did we know though, that the two of them, through sheer willpower and a level of grit that I will forever admire, would successfully take him down on their own. I regret leaving them for dead that day, but we can never know how it would have gone if we hadn't fled...." Norton goes on to explain the minor exploration afterwards with Draegra and Shalelu, knowing that all the exciting parts of the story have already been finished.