Chapter 30: End of the Road.
Back at the outpost, the hellraisers set out east back towards bezantur to find the lieutenant "wilfred" the death knight had mentioned. On the way, they encountered a group of druids in a patch of pristine woodland. The druids were chanting around a stone circle, and once approached revealed themselves to be druids from the forest of tethyr to the north. They were on a mission to cleanse the Thaycreep, but required a powerful artifact (the beating heart of an archfey) to help them. In their travels, the druids had come across sites of power where necrotic energies proved stronger. They theorized that these were the locations of Szass Tam's phylacteries. They agreed to tell the party about one such place if they retrieved the artifact from the feywild.
As they stepped through a rift conjured forth by the druids, the group found themselves in the Feywild. They beheld the vivid colors and unsettling features of the feywild, and ventured deeper to find the relic. Pan found himself to be growing antlers and had a green tint to his skin while in the feywild. The group encountered a coven of green hags and their pet dragon (a green dragon covered in moss). The dragon's breath paralyzed rather than poisoned them, and as they battled it the hags joined in with magical assaults. Eventually, they proved victorious over the dragon and slew one of the hags. The remaining hag begged for her life, and the group decided to let her go in return for the relic. They took the heart (made of wood, moss and magical green energy) and returned to the material plane (and the hag disappeared with her dead sister after cackling). After learning the location of the phylactery from the druids, they witnessed the ritual but were dismayed when the druids were ripped apart from the inside and the grove corrupted once more. They heard a cackling voice as the druids died, and knew the relic (and the spared hag) to be the cause.
The hellraisers then went on to the phylactery site (a place of learning for necromancers in the days of the Thayan empire). They sent a company of knights to clear the dead, and the company lost 6 of their number. As the party entered the school, they encountered several undead spellcasters and monstrous undead creatures. After a few battles against the dead, they decided to rest for a moment. Shortly after, they were interrupted by a loud sound and flash of light as a tiefling necromancer and a massive floating skull appeared before them. The necromancer unleashed a spell at them while the skull (an undead beholder) fired rays from magical red lights floating around it (in place of eye stalks). Surprised, they came to action and quickly realized the death tyrant's eye prevented them from healing from their wounds. After a protracted battle against the powerful undead and his necromancer master with limited resources, pan and nalzmyr were slain while within the sight of the death tyrant. Their bodies rose as zombies shortly thereafter, and Kathra and Dorn knew them to be lost. After retreating to heal her wounds away from the death tyrant's gaze, Kathra returned and cut the floating skull in half with a sunbeam (and accidentally also beheaded the zombified pan). Dorn followed up with a devastating array of halberd attacks against the necromancer, slaying him.
In the necromancer's chambers, they discovered the phylactery and destroyed it. With half their number dead and unable to be revived, the hellraisers returned to the outpost and gathered what knights remained. After learning of the last phylactery's location, they ventured into a sunken temple near thaymount and battled undead sahuagin, giant sharks and two hydras to recover the relic. As they destroyed the final phylactery, their curses were lifted and they were able to attack thaymount with the remaining knights. They were accompanied by the Tiefling warrior Red and the Genasi Cleric Pyros who stayed behind to battle the dracolich in the ruins surrounding Thaymount (allowing Kathra and Dorn to enter the fortress). After making their way through countless undead minions and traps, the two finally discovered Szass Tam in the midst of a ritual stealing the divine essence from Myrkul--god of death. They interrupted the ritual and slew the lich regent of Thay, ending the nightmare of the thaycreep once and for all and preventing him from ascending to godhood.
After ensuring the outpost could survive on its own, Dorn and Kathra sailed back across the sea of fallen stars to Cormyr. For vanquishing Szass Tam and ending the thaycreep, they were granted landed knighthoods in the kingdom of Cormyr and small estates in the countryside. Their names became legend, and the tale of the hellraisers (and the savage seven, and the forsaken company) would be told for centuries to come...
The Forsaken Company
Alton Quickstep (deceased)
Baen Gypsumaxe (disappeared)
Kathra Fireforge
Sai (disappeared)
The Savage Seven
Baen Gypsumaxe (disappeared)
Kathra Fireforge
Keladrien Enalodel (left to travel with Arkhan the Cruel)
Nalzmyr (deceased)
Pan (deceased)
Sai (disappeared)
Yelmic The Ashen (disappeared)
The Hellraisers
Dorn
Kathra Fireforge
Nalzmyr (deceased)
Pan (deceased)
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