The Planeswalkers

The story so far:

It all began when you were hired as bodyguards by Rybald Goldbeard, a dwarven merchant from ten-towns in icewind dale.
While on the caravan trail, you were ambushed by a pack of curiously intelligent wolves. A spear-wielding half-orc barbarian joined the fight and helped slay the beasts, but not before two of them dragged Rybald away.
With the help of Grognak, you tracked the wolves to a nearby cave where you fought several dire wolves and found Rybald imprisoned. He recounted his tale to you and you discovered that a hob-goblin had come and questioned Rybald about trade routes and bryn shander's defenses. You also discovered a litter of dire wolf puppies and attempted to tame one, but eventually left it with its dead mother. Upon returning to the caravan, you found the horses dead and the goods stolen.
In Bryn Shander, ten-towns' largest town and de facto capital, you settled in an inn and quickly found work tracking down a thief who'd stolen a merchant's scrimshaw knife. You caught the thief and returned to the merchant with the knife and the thief, asking the merchant to take him on as an apprentice. The merchant agreed and paid you for recovering his knife.
After speaking with Rybald, he once again hired you to recover his lost goods. He suggested you speak with the council about the hob-goblin threat. After speaking with them, you found out that the trade route had been repeatedly attacked by bands of wolves, orcs and goblins. They charged you with discovering the source of the attacks and returning the town's stolen goods.
After discerning the approximate location of the attackers' base of operations, you set out into the snowy plains once more. You discovered a camp of orcs and goblins set into the side of a nearby mountain. After dispatching the orcs, you encountered a hob-goblin spellcaster who had raised an ogre from the dead. The battle was fierce, but you vanquished the ogre zombie and its master. Among his effects, you found a note written in an unknown language. You also discovered a cave with 2 wagons full of goods. Back in Bryn Shander, you returned Rybald's goods and sold him the rest of the goods despite the council's wishes that you return the town's stolen goods. You kept one of the wagons and purchased several horses with your reward. A messenger came for Grognak, telling him that several half-orcs were waiting for him at the town gates. He went to meet with them while you visited the council.
Though the council was disappointed that you could not return the goods, they did reward you for discovering the source of the attacks. You presented them with the note, which one of them was able to read, having been written in draconic:
“Continue to harry the trade routes and extract information from the merchants. King Obould returns. Talks with the Dark Ones go well, they should join us soon.” - Elekrys
You returned to the gates to meet with Grognak, where you found him being taken away in chains by a group of half-orcs who claimed he had killed their Chief. He urged you do not do anything to stop this, but suggested you follow.
On the road to the elk village, you stopped by the city of Luskan where you got into an altercation with an old pirate captain and killed him after he fired his blunderbuss at Weyland during an argument. Despite chasing down a witness and convincing him not to talk, mysterious men tracked you down and suggested you leave the city before morning. You stayed in the city overnight while waiting on a special order from a merchant (a manticore wing cloak, fashioned from the wings of a manticore you slew on the road) but awoke outside the city gates. You had been drugged and transported out of the city, along with your things and the manticore wing cloak and a note from a man named Jarlaxle Baenre complimenting your style.
On the road again, you met a human knight of helm named Evendal when you helped him defeat a hill giant he was fighting. He revealed his intent to track down and kill a dragon spotted in the region, and you decided to travel with him.
Your next stop was the human/dwarven hold of Mirabar, which was mysteriously closed to quarantine a plague. You caught up with the half-orcs and spoke to them. You managed to convince them to stay long enough for you to solve the problem in mirabar so that they could pick up a shipment of iron. With information from Rissa's mysterious connection within the city and the help of Weyland's magically persuasive powers, you made your way into the city and found out that the Dwarven king of the undercity had violently expelled all non-dwarven people and sealed the entrance to the undercity. While staying at the inn, Braith engaged in a drinking contest with a burly resident of Mirabar and won with the help of Weyland's magic. The next morning, you were hired by Mirabar's leader to enter the undercity and resolve the situation.
In the undercity, you found a people enslaved. The miners were being forced to mine in endless shifts, enforced by the axe of mirabar (guards). You uncovered information about an ancient feud between the Dwarves of mirabar and the red wizards of thay, in which the nation of Thay presented mirabar with a brilliant Gem that ensorcelled the king and drove him mad with paranoia. A gnome wizard you found in the cells corroborated that story, revealing that the gem had likely been uncovered and once again ensorcelled the king. You managed to talk the enslaved miners into revolting, and armed them against the guards. You stormed the throne room with the rebellious miners and confronted the king. After melting him in his own armor, you recovered the gem and destroyed it within one of the forges. The axe of mirabar was completely destroyed in the revolt, and a new council of stone was formed from the surviving miners. The humans of mirabar gained greater control over the undercity, with the North Diamond Trading company helping with re-establishing trade in and out of the city. As a reward for resolving the crisis, you were offered fine arms or armor from the undercity's vault.
You chose to travel with Fezzik Goldsprocket, the gnome wizard you found in the undercity. Evendal chose to seek his dragon alone, not trusting wizards.
Once again on the road, you entered the Lurkwood on the final leg of your journey to the elk village. You encountered a group of human loggers trying to hang a wild elf druid and managed to talk them out of murdering her after discovering that they were avenging one of their own, whom the druid had killed for hunting in their sacred grove. With the balance restored in the wood, the elves guarded your passage through the woods and your journey was mysteriously expedited when you awoke much further than you had been the night before.
You arrived in the Elk Village and began gathering information for Grognak's trial. You discovered that his brother now acted as Chief, and that he had been with him and his father the night of the murder. According to all accounts, Grognak grew violent when his father anounced that he would step down and name Garrok chief. Grognak slew his father and Garrok knocked him unconscious, but grognak eventually fled.
At the suggestion of the village shaman, you entered the village crypts and fought through several ghostly assailants and trapped corridors. You eventually battled the spirits of the previous chieftains which formed the spirit of the Elk once defeated. The spirit contained the ghosts of every past Chief of the elk tribe. The elk spirit chose to possess Braith so that it could give testimony at the trial. After speaking to grognak, it was decided that the spirit of the elk would possess Grognak instead. During the trial, the spirit of the elk manifested itself and gave its testimony of Garrok's guilt. It was Garrok who had slain Grog, chief of the elk tribe, when he announced that he would step down and Grognak would be named Chief. Garrok was found guilty of the crime, and Grognak executed him by driving his spear into Garrok's throat. Suddenly, the sound of large flapping wings was heard outside followed by screams and the sounds of battle. Outside, you found a large black dragon ridden by a duergar on the roof of the great hall. Duergar warriors attacked the village from all sides. Grognak led his warriors against the duergar while you fought the dragon. In the middle of the fight, Evendal rode in on his horse and joined the fray, but did little before you vanquished the Dragon. Barlang bore the acid breath of the dragon not once but twice and nearly gave his life, but his divine powers kept him from death. In the end, the combined might of Braith's acrobatic attack atop the dragon itself, Fezzik's magical assault, Weyland's inspiring performance, and Rissa's precise onslaught felled the beast.
Grognak's warriors managed to defeat the duergar while you fought the dragon. Among the duergar rider's posessions, you found a note:
“Take your brethren south and attack the elk village. Bring those defiant half-breeds back as slaves in the Onyx Queen’s army! We ride for ten-towns in a week’s time.” -King Obould Many-Arrows
As a reward for saving the village, the hunters of the elk tribe offered to skin and butcher the dragon for you.
Fezzik suggested that his special project back in Mirabar would help you return to ten-towns with great speed.
On the return trip, you came across the same tree where human loggers were attempting to hang an elven druid on your previous trip through the lurkwood. Barely recognizable, you found the bodies of the loggers twisted about the trunk and limbs of the tree, gruesome roots and vines entwined through their eye sockets and bloated stomachs. By Braith’s account, this had been done mere days after your journey through the woods.
Stopping in Mirabar on the way back, you found yourselves attacked in the streets by a band of assassins who revealed themselves to be in the employ of the North Diamond Trading company (with a contract to kill Rissa Greywind). After dispatching them, Rissa disappeared for some time to gather information. In the meantime, the rest of the group found a Dwarven craftsman and hired him to fashion items of power from the remains of the dragon: A staff of dragonbone for braith, a set of dragonbone dice for rissa, a holy symbol made of dragonbone-backed dragonleather for Barlang, a spellbook cover made of dragonskin for fezzik, and a lute carved of dragonbone for Waelyn.
While Rissa gathered information on her family and the Trading Company, the group met with Marchion Elastul Raurym and managed to talk him into providing arms and armor for the soldiers of ten-towns in exchange for “taking care” of a thieves’ guild that had cropped up since the gates re-opened. After meeting back up with Rissa, you decided to meet with the leader of the North Diamond Trading Company, Eomund Cargyll, at his mansion in the market district. After some speechcraft, he agreed to drop the contract on Rissa if you would take care of the rival thieves’ guild and hinted that he had Rissa’s father murdered for her past failure to execute a contract.
You began your investigation in the market square, looking out for any pickpockets or thieves. You noticed an increased number of rats in the market streets, and eventually spotted a pickpocket in action. With the help of Waelyn’s magic, you were able to track him down and accost him. Braith stumbled into him and was stabbed with a poison blade before the thief turned himself into a pile of rats and escaped into the sewers.
In the sewers, you came across many traps and battled with a handful of were-rat thieves hiding in the shadows. You eventually came across their loot, where you discovered a simple human accountant hard at work counting the wealth. After speaking with the terrified man, you discovered that he had been forced into working for the lycanthropes, who had kept him on the verge of full lycanthropy during his tenure, never allowing him to change and using the fear of turning as motivation against fleeing. Barlang promised to cure him of his curse if he would return with them to the surface.
After returning to the surface, Barlang cured the man of his lycanthropy and the group returned to the Marchion for their reward. You kept the were-rat thieves’ spoils for yourselves and accepted the Marchion’s reward of arms and armor for your cause.
Returning to Eomund Cargyll, rissa managed to sneak a poisoned knife into the mansion when the rest of the party was disarmed at the gates. In the meeting with Cargyll, the guild leader attempted to betray you and ordered his men to attack once he received confirmation that the were-rats had been taken care of. Before they could act, Rissa threw her knife and struck Cargyll in the head, killing him instantly. At that moment, the leader of Cargyll’s guild enforcers ordered his men not to attack. Out of respect for her deceased father, he knelt down before Rissa and offered his sword to her, if she would take up the mantle of Guild Leader.
Rissa accepted leadership of the guild, and the accountant from the sewers was placed in charge while you returned to ten-towns. Within the mansion, you broke into Cargyll’s vault and discovered several magical items.
With your business in Mirabar ended, Fezzik lead you to his workshop where he unveiled his special project: a restored halruaan airship. You boarded the ship and departed for ten-towns.
As you were flying over the spine of the world mountains, you were attacked by a female black dragonkin cleric of Tiamat riding a white dragon. You managed to fend off the attack, wounding the cleric enough to force her to flee. As she leapt from the airship onto the back of her dragon, she fired off a beam of flame at the airship’s primary flotation device and caused the ship to barrel down into the mountainside. The ship crashed into the mouth of a cave and you were hurled out into the snow, where a group of dark, slender figures dragged you into the cave before you passed out.
You awake dazed, with a vicious headache. All around you is pitch darkness, but you can feel that whatever arms and armor you were wearing before the crash are gone. Your hands and feet feel as though they are manacled, and from the sounds you hear you can discern that you are underground. You hear the shuffling of feet and the stomping of large animals. You hear the muffled voice of Fezzik, as though he has been gagged. He ceases his attempt to speak, and suddenly you hear his voice clearly in your mind:
“There is magical darkness about us. In fact, I sense magic auras all around.”
Suddenly, you hear the words of a spell and Fezzik’s voice disappears from your minds. After several hours, your transport stops and it sounds as though your captors are taking a rest. Despite your will to stay awake, you pass out from exhaustion a few hours later. What feels like 3 days pass uneventfully. In the middle of the third day, you hear a sudden crash followed by high-pitched cries of battle in a foreign tongue. You hear a monstrous roar followed by the sound of stone crashing against stone. Crossbows are fired, swords clang against shields and moments later the globe of magical darkness surrounding you disappears as your magic-using captor perishes from his wounds. You witness the end of the battle between a group of dark-skinned elves and similarly dark-skinned gnomes and their rock elemental ally. The gnomes are the victors, and they quickly smash the lock on your cage and free you from your shackles. Fezzik speaks to them in gnomish, relaying his conversation to you:
“These are svirfnebli, deep-gnomes in the common tongue. It appears we were captured by a Drow surface raid and dragged to the underdark. They were likely bringing us back to their city, Menzoberenzan, as slaves. He says these were young, likely recent graduates from a place called the drow academy. These deep gnomes are here hunting for a group of Drow who stole something from them. An artifact of great sentimental value to their people. They say that they could use our help. If we were to retrieve the artifact for them, they would give us maps detailing this region of the underdark and its exits to the surface. We could use these maps to return to where we crashed, or even travel underground to icewind dale. I’ve heard tales of caves leading to the underdark as close as kelvin’s kairn.”
Your gear is kept in a chest resting on a cart pulled by 2 Rothe. The chest is regular size, but once opened appears much larger inside (can hold up to 500lbs. Of gear of any size). The gnomes are willing to part with the magical chest and Rothe as well if you help them.
Entering the cave system where the drow are camped, the group was ambushed by a group of drow led by an elite warrior and a priestess of lolth. Once the drow were dispatched, Barlang examined the drow's gear and found it to be made of adamantite (an extremely strong metal that withers to dust when touched by sunlight).
the group was unfortunate enough to step into the attack radius of a strange, bio-luminescent mushroom that exploded into a cloud of noxious spores. Barlang and Rissa were badly hurt by it. The next time they came across one, Rissa summoned forth a creature from the bag of tricks in order to trigger the deadly mushroom. The furry mass turned into a great elk, and though the beast was wounded by the spores, it survived to fight on for the group. Another group of drow awaited them in the next tunnel, where the elk proved deadly against the elite drow warrior.
In the next cave, you found a group of drow accompanied by a spectator (a smaller, weaker form of beholder) guarding a chest. Rissa and Braith were able to sneak up on them, with Rissa delivering a devastating attack on the spectator and Braith finishing it off by leaping atop it and driving her dragonbone staff into its oversized eye. You fought the other two drow (a warrior and a priestess), eventually defeating them both. These two drow appeared to be of higher stature and kept in their possession several magical items. Within the chest, you found a prosthetic forearm made of mithril and ending in a large mining pick. The artifact was etched in runes and gave off a magical aura.
Returning to the svirfnebli, you returned the artifact and received your reward: a map to the surface, along with the magical chest and rothe to pull it. The leader of the svirfnebli told the tale of “most honored burrow-warden Belwar dissengulp”, who wore this prosthetic arm after both of his arms were severed by a drow raiding party. The other arm bore a hammer and still resides in their museum back in their capital city of Blingdenstone.
The journey back to the surface was without incident. Back at the cave, you found the airship largely undamaged aside from the flotation device, which Fezzik was able to mend with magic. Ten hours later, you found yourself back in Bryn Shander, the largest of the ten-towns of icewind dale.
Back in Bryn Shander, you met with the council of elders and told them your tale, as well as warned them of the incoming army of Orcs and Duergar led by this dragonkin cleric. They suggested you seek the aid of either the Uthgard Barbarians north of Bryn Shander or the Dwarves of the iron citadel. You chose to seek the aid of the barbarians.
Arriving at the barbarian camp, you spoke with their chieftain who agreed to help ten-towns if he could be bested in single combat. Braith took up the challenge and soundly defeated the raging chieftain. With their help secured, you returned to Bryn Shander.
Back in town, you spent the next few days reinforcing the town’s defenses. You set up oil pots on the walls, repaired their lone ballista, and made sure the soldiers were armed with Mirabar steel. The Uthgard Barbarians and the half-orcs of Grognak’s elk tribe arrived and camped outside the city gates.
As you walked the city streets, inspecting the defenses, a loud boom sounded throughout the city and the very streets shook with the force of an earthquake. Shouts of “Duergar! Duergar in the docks!” could be heard as well as “Gods! They’ve drained the lake!” In the distance, you could see a vast army of orcs, goblins, and ogres led by a familiar shape in the sky. The Dragon cleric astride her white dragon, leading the charge from the skies.
Fezzik turned to you and said “The airship! I’ll provide air support!” before slamming his staff on the ground and disappearing in a flash of blue light.
As you tried to find your bearings, a guard ran up to you, out of breath and panicked, and shouted “Town hall! They’ve captured the elder council!”
As chaos erupted throughout Bryn Shander, you hurried to the Town Hall in order to rescue the captured elders. In the streets, you were met with a group of Duergar invaders. During the fight, a mysterious stranger descended from the rooftops and engaged the duergar alongside you. This deep gnome proved to be a formidable ally, slaying several duergar with well-placed hand crossbow shots, a keen rapier and arcane magic.
At the town hall, you faced more duergar led by what appeared to be a captain of sorts and a mage. After dispatching the evil dwarves, you found the mayor of Bryn Shander, a man named Cassius, unconscious. After waking him, he revealed to you that the mage had probed his mind for the location of something called the crystal shard.
He explained that the shard was an ancient intelligent artifact kept in a vault beneath the former house of Regis "rumblebelly," a halfling of some repute. He didn't seem worried , however, and warned that they would only find death beneath that house.
Investigating the house, you discovered a slew of dead, disfigured and mutilated duergar. Some left only puddles of acidic goo, while others were turned to a fine powder. A quick inspection of the heavily runed door to the vault by Firble Gemcutter (your new ally) revealed that the door was heavily trapped and guarded against intrusion. You decided to leave the vault alone and returned to the battle.
On the south wall, you took up defense of the town alongside its resident defenders (a host of archers). Rissa took up a sniping position with her bow, along with Weyland and Firble who fired crossbow bolts and spells into the approaching host of orcs (accompanied by an ogre). Braith leapt from the wall and thrust herself into the fray, taking on half a dozen enemies at once with covering fire from rissa and Weyland. Barlang's greatest contribution to the fight came when he leapt from the wall atop an orc and smashed it nearly to death with the weight of him and his plate armor. He then broiled the orc to death with holy light from his holy symbol.
Firble was successful in slaying a few orcs himself, finally leaping from the wall and driving his rapier into the skull of the last remaining orc. Braith looked about her, surrounded by the corpses of orc and ogre, when she noticed a trio of massive orcs marching toward her.
The largest of the three wore various pieces of heavy armor, likely taken from his victims, and bore a large axe and a spear on his back. Atop his head sat a crown of rough and misshapen iron. Beside him were two orcs, no less impressive. One wore light furs and carried a staff with the symbol of their God gruumsh. The other wore heavy armor, bore a great axe and seemed to be missing his left eye.
The party battled king obould many-arrows and his elite cadre. The fight began well, with Braith dealing several deadly blows against the orc king. But the tide soon turned as his shaman compelled the proud Braith to grovel before the king. The orog, an elite orc warrior, took advantage of this and charged the elf with his great axe, nearly taking her head off. As rissa joined the fight, she too was compelled by the shaman's magic and incapacitated. Firble was able to blind the warrior with a magical spray of colors and prevented him from finishing off Braith while Barlang hurried to her side to heal her. Meanwhile, Weyland fired a lightning bolt that nearly killed the shaman and badly wounded the king before weakening the orc king with his mystifying music and preventing a deadly attack against Braith.
With Braith healed and back in the action, she quickly retaliated and took down king obould. Barlang was able to unleash the might of his goddess upon the warrior, with firble finishing the elite orc off his a rapier through the skull. The shaman was then quickly dispatched.
With the orcs leaderless, the onyx queen herself arrived upon the battlefield atop her white dragon. The dragon's breath laid waste to the archers on the wall before the dragon Landed amongst the party. Braith was quick to use her acrobatics against the foe, climbing atop the beast and attacking the cleric. Sensing the moment was right, Weyland unleashed the might of his blunderbuss upon the dragon's unwary hind quarters. The dragon answered by unleashing a flurry of claws and fang upon the bard, incapacitating him instantly.
Firble quickly took to the stone, hiding in plain sight amongst the rocky outcroppings and firing bolts from his crossbow into the fray.
Barlang rushed about the battlefield, healing the wounded. One he brought Weyland back from the brink of death, Weyland set upon the dragon with a illusory spell that held the dragon's attention (at least his bite).
Meanwhile, rissa attempted to distract the dragon with a beast from the bag of tricks and summoned a giant badger, which was promptly eaten after attacking the dragon's face.
Braith continued her assault on the cleric from atop the dragon and was joined there by rissa. Eventually, the evil cleric was defeated and knocked from the back of her dragon. Though the battle was fierce, even the dragon was eventually defeated. It's corpse seemed to instantly decay into ash, as if it had been risen from the dead. The same happened to the orc king after he was defeated.
With the battle won , the group reported to Cassius at the council hall. The entire town was grateful for their aid and invited them to celebrate with them. The group took to the tavern and drank the evening away after visiting endaril's emporium to sell loot and requisition an item of power from a duergar's eye.
The next morning, Weyland warned the group of an evil rising in the south and urged them to follow him to waterdeep. After acquiring horses and a cart, the group departed.
On the road, they were set upon by a set of trolls. The party vanquished the beasts after a fierce battle.
On the second day, the group arrived in the mining town of fireshear, from which they will hire a ship and sail to waterdeep.
The heroes of Icewind Dale arrived in the coastal mining town of fireshear in the cover of night. With the recommendation of the gate guards, they made their way to one of the two taverns in fireshear - the drunken dwarf - frequented by the town's dwarven populace.
Firble the gnome quickly went about inspecting the tavern's stores, while Braith managed to charm the cook and earned herself a tasty fried egg. Weyland the bard, meanwhile, engaged in a musical duel with the incumbent tavern bard.
With an epic take of the party's adventure in the lurkwood, weyland soundly defeated the opposing bard and earned the tavern's admiration. Barlang, meanwhile, engaged in a game of dice with two locals but left the game when he suspected one of them to be a cheater. The remaining player finished the game by stabbing the cheater in the throat. Barlang was able to heal the cheater's wounds and gave him a Stern talking to about the values of sportsmanship. While gathering information on ship's passage, the group was approached by a shady looking luskanite. He offered the group gold in exchange for help raiding a merchant vessel on its way to waterdeep. They refused the pirate's offer, and Firble ended his life with a crossbow bolt to the head. Weyland then opened a dimension door to the sea and tossed the corpse through it. Firble was able to clean the blood from the room with magic.
Among the information gathered, the group discovered that trolls had been harassing merchants from and to Icewind Dale. The troll's den was believed to be in a nearby abandoned mine shaft. A dwarf named Goran Brightaxe was offering gold for their eradication.
The group rested for the night, and in the morning departed for the troll den. The mines proved to be crawling with trolls and heavily trapped by the departing miners. The group engaged trolls throughout the mine and eventually, after a few hours of troll slaying, cleared the mine of the foul beasts. They emerged, Braith covered in the monsters' blood and entrails, victorious. Among the troll hoard they found gems, gold and a silver ring encribed with "to my beloved Yana". Back in town, they received their payment for eradicating the trolls and returned the silver ring to Yana's grieving husband, a dwarf miner in the west end of fireshear. When asked about the hoard, the group lied and said that no goods or wealth had been recovered other than the ring.
After a good cleaning, the group spoke with a ship captain who was sailing for waterdeep. They agreed to protect the ship from pirates and sea monsters in exchange for free passage.
The group boarded a ship heading to waterdeep, with the promise of defending the sailors in case any dangers arose at sea. The first day of the voyage saw the travelers assailed by violent storms that nearly wrecked their vessel. On the third day, a band of pirates attacked and were repelled by the group, albeit at great cost to the sailors and their ship.
Upon arriving in waterdeep, the group sought out the snapdragon inn to meet with Weyland's contact. It was revealed that Weyland is an agent of the harpers, and returned to his home of waterdeep to investigate some agents being murdered in the city. His only clue was rumours of a dark cult beneath the city and a connection to the lords of waterdeep.
The group headed to the sewers, finding a harper symbol carved into a sewer grate near the inn of the dripping dagger. Shortly after descending, the group was assaulted by several monsters - an otyug and two gelatinous cubes. The fight quickly turned dour as Barlang was swallowed whole by one of the oozes. Braith was grappled by the otyugh and swallowed by an ooze shortly thereafter. Weyland was able to fire a lightning bolt into the ooze holding Barlang, but not without striking him and sending him out of the fight. With barlang dying, the rest of the group soon followed until only Weyland was left standing.He fled the sewers and saught help from the guards, but upon returning found his companions being feasted upon by the otyugh. He managed to slay the beast, and now must undertake the grim task of attempting to bring them back to life if their spirits are willing.
Of the four fallen comrades, only Firble the gnome was willing to return to life. As the priests communed with the spirits of Braith and Barlang, neither were willing to return to the world of the living. The priests were unable to communicate with Rissa's spirit.
Weyland and Firble, reunited, had only just left the temple when they came upon a group of angry Calimshites threatening a woman. Weyland was able to calm the men down using his bardic magic, and though conflict almost errupted when one of the thugs caught sight of Firble, bloodshed was avoided. The woman, a fire genasi named Ember, chose to follow Weyland on his quest.
On the way back to the snapdragon inn, the three adventurers stumbled upon more trouble. in a market square, they found a massive cloaked man being harassed by a group of adventurers. As they called him "necromancer" and threatened to kill him, Firble fired his crossbow at the mage of the group, but missed. In response, the mage blasted the trio with a cone of frigid air. The threatened man soon revealed himself to be more than capable, as he summoned forth a storm cloud and called lightning down on his foes. A female half-orc ranger, and her boar companion, chose to join the fight and helped to defeat the murderous adventurers. With the group defeated, the newly formed party quickly fled the scene before the city guard arrived.
Back at the snap dragon inn, Weyland updated lady Desdemona on the situation before retiring for the night. Firble also began his long rest to recover from the exhaustion of returning to life.
Beska chose to find the nearest copse of trees, which happened to be in the city cemetary (known as the city of the dead). There, she was accosted by a viciously violent woman who appeared to be some sort of undead creature. She fled after exchanges a few blows.
The man, now known as "the culler," chose to rest for the night outside the city gates. Ember rented a room for the night.
In the morning, Weyland asked each of his new companions if they would join him in his quest. Beska was difficult to convince, though the mention of a possible demonic connection drew her attention. The culler chose to follow Beska on this quest.
After a visit to the magic shops in the market square, the group decided to tackle the mystery of the missing people in the cemetery. There, they found an entrance to a tunnel hidden inside a sarcophagus inside a mausoleum. The tunnel led to an underground tomb filled with vampire spawn. Ember and the Culler's druidic magic was able to keep them at bay and allowed the group to flee, vowing to return better prepared.
During the night, a note was left on Ember’s bedside table. It seemed to be from the vampire who resides in the cemetery, warning the group that they will find their quarry well prepared when next they meet.
The next day, the group visited the market once more to better equip themselves against the vampires. Firble purchased a jug of alchemy and had a priest bless the waters inside, and Weyland purchased a bundle of wooden stakes from a hunting shop. They hatched a plan to use daylight against the creatures, trapping them in their own tomb and filling it with destructive light. When they arrived at the tomb, Firble discovered magical runes etched into the sarcophagus and disarmed the magical trap. The group covered their weapons in the blessed waters from the jug of alchemy and readied their stakes.
Inside the tomb, Firble discovered another trap and was able to disarm it, and Ember enchanted her shield with the daylight spell. The culler also cast daylight upon a pebble and tossed it within the tomb. Though the vampires were surprised, they were unharmed. Though the spell mimicked the light of the sun, it lacked the purity of true sunlight. Battle with the vampire spawn ensued, and quickly turned in the favor of the group as The Culler placed the vampires in a state of magical confusion. The battle raged on, with Weyland summoning a giant elk from the bag of tricks to aid them. The group’s weapons, covered in holy water, prevented the vampire spawn from healing. Ember was able to summon forth beams of moonlight which harmed the vampires and also stopped their healing. At one point, Weyland used his magic to transport him and firble (who was grappled with a vampire spawn draining his life) to the surface, burning the vampire to a crisp in the mid-day light and leaving them unharmed.
When the spawn were killed, the master rose from his tomb and charged furiously into battle with the group. He was quickly slain, and his body turned to mist and returned to his sarcophagus. The group followed him there and drove a wooden stake into his heart, ending him forever.
In the tomb, the group discovered a magically trapped door engraved with the symbol of a horned skull. They returned to the surface for their reward and headed to the castle library to research the symbol.
With the help of the librarians, the group uncovered this: The symbol represented the mad wizard Halaster Blackcloak
“Halaster Blackcloak was a very old and insane wizard who resided within undermountain. According to legend, waterdeep was built around his wizard’s tower, which he built atop mount waterdeep. In 168 DR Hilather, now calling himself Halaster Blackcloak, arrived at the foot of Mount Waterdeep with his apprentices, collectively called "The Seven". Halaster summoned demons and other outsiders to construct Halaster's Hold and claimed the nearby lands as his own. Most likely he chose the location because of Sargauth Enclave, an abandoned Netherese outpost buried deep beneath the surface. Halaster refused to release the monsters and demons after they constructed his Hold, instead sending them into the caverns to explore. This began Halaster's Hunts, a long series of journeys into the area now called the Underhalls, driving out the drow, duergar, and various monsters that lived there. By 309 DR Halaster had complete control over the near-endless tunnels and caverns and began constructing the largest and most deadly dungeon imaginable, Undermountain. By that time, Halaster had become completely mad and wanted nothing to do with the outside world. He left his hold to live in Undermountain itself, allowing the keep to fall into ruin. Several of his apprentices came looking for him; he slew two before demanding the rest help him fortify his dungeon even more. One refused and managed to escape. Jhesiyra Kestellharp would later become Magister and would provide what little history there is about Halaster, the Mad Mage. Shortly after dawn on Eleint 30, 1375 DR, an earthquake struck Waterdeep. Though the city suffered little damage, many people throughout the town saw visions of Halaster screaming, his eyes ablaze with rage, sorrow, and swimming stars. Arcanists who saw the visions also reported scenes of destruction in the vast maze of Undermountain: pillars cracking and crumbling, chasms and rifts opening, and explosions of sparks. Those brave enough to investigate quickly discovered that Halaster had inadvertently killed himself while attempting a powerful ritual; as he died, he hurled desperate visions and compulsions to people all across the continent.”
With their research complete, the group decided to visit the local taverns for entertainment.
The next day, the party ventured once more into the sewers in search of the missing harper agent. Inside, they ran afoul of several more monsters including ghasts, gelatinous cubes, a mimic and several water elementals guarding the entrance to a cave system.
In the tunnels, they encountered hell hounds and did battle with them. None can tell what horrors lie ahead for them in these dark, winding tunnels far beneath the light of civilization.
The group ventured deeper into the tunnels and discovered underground ruins populated by robed spellcasters. Though seemingly human, these cultists appeared to be under some spell or possession. Their eyes were entirely black, and returned to normal when slain. During one battle against them, Weyland was able to read the thoughts of one cultist and, along with interrogation help from Beska, discovered their purpose. They mean to summon forth a devil in order to question it and discover the location of Halaster Blackcloak’s soul in the nine hells, using the kidnapped harpers as sacrifices in the ritual. With their purpose discovered, Weyland ended the cultist’s life with a knife to the heart. The group continued deeper into the ruins, finding a large locked door, which Firble was able to unlock with his thieves’ tools. The culler then transformed into a small spider and crawled beneath the door in order to scout out the room. He discovered a group of cultists chanting in infernal, surrounding an altar upon which the corpse of a gnomish woman sat. A female cultist seemed to be leading the ritual from a dark corner. The culler returned to the group and relayed the information after returning to his human form. Weyland confirmed the identity of the gnome as Garona Gitzlspark, the waterdeep harpers’ missing historian. The group then burst into the room and engaged the cultists. As they did so, the cultists around the altar completed the ritual and slit their throats, their blood covering the corpse and altar. The corpse then burst open, and a horned and winged devil crawled forth from the corpse, armed with a large fork and razor-sharp tail. Weyland, seizing the initiative, attempted to hold the devil with magic but failed. The devil then flew at him, assaulting weyland with his fork and tail. The tail left a burning wound that continued to harm Weyland for some time. Battle ensued between the group and the devil, with the female cultist assisting the devil with magic. Though several members of the group came near death, the devil was defeated and the mystery woman fled through a side tunnel. Following the woman, the group discovered another stone door marked with the horned skull symbol of Halaster Blackcloak and undermountain. Firble searched the door for traps, and being absolutely sure no traps existed, tried to open the door. A bright flash of light erupted where Firble’s hand touched the door, sending excruciating burning pain into his hand and forearm. The limb turned grey, then cracked and crumbled to ash. As firble screamed in pain and fear, the group argued about where to go from there. Ember was able to heal some of the damage, but the limb was not restored. Further exploring the ruins, the group discovered living quarters where they found a journal and the cult’s coffers, including some magic items and a potion. The journal detailed the cult’s mission to search for halaster blackcloak’s soul in the nine hells, including mentions of a “lord” supporting them. Back at the snap dragon inn, the group filled Desdemona in on their findings and returned Garona’s body to the harpers. Desdemona suggested the “lord” may be a masked lord or noble. The group retired for the night, and set out to gather information the next day. Weyland was able to gather information about the masked lords of waterdeep, including rumours of an exiled Lord who was once a harper as well. Firble contacted his criminal connections and discovered that much of the city’s underworld operates literally beneath the city, in the first layer of undermountain known as “downshadow.” The doors the group has run into beneath the vampire crypt and cultist hideout are entrances to downshadow, and can only be accessed by someone with the proper signet ring. Remembering rumours of a thieves’ guild trying to rise out from the ashes of the previous one, the group decided to seek them out and kill two birds with one stone—they would take care of the thieves for the guards and maybe acquire one of these signet rings. Firble once again reached out to his criminal contacts and discovered the location of this guild known as “the filchers.” The group decided to send him to parlay with them alone, but the encounter turned sour upon questioning and Firble was forced to flee, but not before being pelted with crossbow bolts from rooftop archers. The group then decided to assault the compound from the skies. They gathered near the abandoned tenements, with Firble and Beska climbing the roof. The culler called upon his druidic magic to take control of a rumbling storm overhead, then shifted into a bird along with Ember to scout from above. In a combined attack, Firble and Beska fired upon two archers and the Culler called down a bolt of lightning and incinerated another archer. The group made their way through the compound, slaying the thieves and driving them out from their homes. Eventually, the fight led to the guild Masters’ chamber. With one master dead, the other guild master fled through a trapdoor. The group followed him into a mysteriously carved tunnel. As they chased him through the tunnel, the path opened up into a cave that had been carved by some strange force. Though they killed the fleeing thief, they stumbled upon the filchers’ loot stash - guarded by a beholder! An epic fight ensued, and though the party was eventually victorious, ember was turned to stone, leaving a giant Elk statue in the chamber. After a rest, the culler was able to call upon his druidic powers to restore her form.
In the wake of the beholder’s exploded corpse, a portal to the plane of mechanus appeared. Among the loot, the group found several insignia rings emblazoned with the sigil of halaster blackcloak. The rings allowed them passage through the horned skull door in the cultists’ hideout, and the party ventured into the undercity known as downshadow. There, they found a den of scum and villainy. Firble, right at home, was able to gather information from fellow low-lifes. They discovered that the cult of blackcloak had settled into downshadow in recent weeks, and that their leader Danillp Thann would complete a ritual at midnight in the temple of bane.
After some shopping for illicit goods, the party reconaissed the temple and found it guarded by cultists and a mind flayer. They returned to the surface to fetch gold for more shopping, where weyland discovered that their bag of holding was in fact a bag of devouring. Weyland lost a hand when attempting to store gold in the bag, and a portal to the astral plane was left behind in the bag’s absence. Ember attempted to scry Danillo thann and discovered that she was a woman, and that Desdemona had been captured by the cultists.
Returning to downshadow, the party waited outside the temple until the cultists began to stir. As they began to enter the temple, the party attacked, blocking their way with a wall of fire. The mind flayer was dispatched quickly, but not before blasting half of the party with a psychic blast and incapacitating them.
With the cultists dead, the group entered the temple. There, they found the cult leader and several cultists chanting over Desdemona's corpse. As they entered, the cultists slit their throats. Desdemona's corpse then exploded, and a chain devil emerged from it.
The fight was fierce, but the party was victorious. A journal was found on thann’s corpse, revealing her to be Aela thann, danillo’s grand daughter. It seemed as though his spirit had possessed her in order to exact his revenge on the Harpers.
The party gathered Desdemona's remains and brought them back to the snap dragon inn, where they reincarnated her into a green dragonborn. Desdemona, shocked but grateful, granted weyland one of her magic items as a reward for stopping the plot and bringing her back to life.

Chapter 2: Law and Order

With the threat of the Blackcloak Cult mitigated, the party settled into some long awaited down time. Weyland, the consummate bard, plied his trade and earned a modicum of wealth during this time. He did, however, earn the rivalry of an Acrobat during a performance at a noble’s estate (during which he spied Firble, up to no good). The acrobat turned out to be a good friend of Duke Earendil Stonecrow, the owner of the estate at which he performed. Firble also spent this time plying his trade-of-sorts. He came and went at the inn, usually returning to sleep during the day. By the end of the month, his coin purse seemed to be bulging more than usual and talk was overheard from the patrons of the snap dragon that one of the richest Nobles in waterdeep was robbed recently and was hiring bounty hunters to find the sneakthief. Ember spent her time brewing potions and studying the planes, specifically the one spied in the portal borne from the dead beholder. She discovered much about the plane of law. The culler spent his time in the wilds outside waterdeep in service of his dark benefactor, earning his favor.
At the end of the month, Firble, Weyland and The Culler came back together and decided to visit Evander, proprietor of evander’s magical emporium. When questioned about the “Bag of holding,” Evander feigned ignorance and swore that his sources were reliable. After some persuasion, he finally gave up his source and agreed to set up a meet. He also agreed to pay for Weyland to hire a dwarven artificer by the name of Duglos Longbeard to craft him a new hand.
After visiting the artificer and securing the details of the request, the group found themselves attacked by a human bounty hunter and his wizard ally. The human turned out to be Evandal, the ex knight of helm who once traveled with Weyland and the heroes of icewind dale. He sought to capture or slay Firble for the robbery of Duke Earendil Stonecrow, and could not be convinced otherwise. When battle ensued, Firble was able to incapacitate the wizard with the throw of a bead of force. As it exploded, the bead created a force field that encased the wizard and rendered her useless in the fight (especially after being tossed across the city by Weyland’s Bigby’s Hand). Evandal, however, proved to be much more formidable than before and provided quite a challenge to the group. In the end, the failed knight turned out to be a failed bounty hunter as well and was killed in the battle.
While traveling, the group encountered a modron that stepped through a portal in a wall and murdered a thief running from his mark. The modron, after killing the thief, simply flew away: while traveling through the city, you see a wall begin to slide out in the shape of a cog. It pops out, then rolls to the side and reveals a portal. Suddenly, a large brass sphere rolls out from it and onto the street. Two metal arms and legs pop out from it, and it stands straight up as a pair of metallic wings unfurl from its sides. A large eyelid opens, revealing an eye that covers much of its front face. It blinks a few times, looking at you, then turns its gaze to a side alley. It extends its right arm out and a sharp metal spike erupts from its hand, the length of a short spear. It grabs the spike with its left hand and holds it out like a spear. You begin to hear the sounds of running feet, followed by the shouts of someone saying “stop! thief!” A man suddenly comes out from the alley, too busy looking back to notice the creature planting its feet and driving the spear into his belly. The man gasps in surprise as his flight is suddenly halted. Blood splatters the brass creature, but it does not react. The creature pulls the spear from the man, pushing his corpse onto the street, before flying away into the skies of above waterdeep. A merchant comes out from the alley to find the dead thief and thank you for your service before rifling through his pockets for a bag of coins. He thanks you again and walks away, back to his shop.
The group met with Evander’s contact, who proved to be associated with Blackstaff Tower. He obscured his face and voice, however, and remained anonymous. He agreed to sell magic items to the group if they wished, and offered to contact them magically when he had wares to sell.
A week later, Weyland’s new hand was completed and the group went forth to Duglos’ shop to retrieve it. The hand, made of brass and copper and intricate enough to be used in Weyland’s complicated music, was a masterpiece of engineering. When it came to the bill, however, Duglos revealed that Evander was refusing to pay. The group visited Evander and, after threatening his shop and his life, were able to convince him to pay the Dwarf 3,000 gold (1,000 gold more than the Dwarf was aking). Weyland used his bardic magic to alter Evander’s memory and obscure their violent encounter. Returning to the Dwarf, Weyland paid him 2,000 gold and pocketed the remaining gold.
The group celebrated by visiting many local pubs and making a few new friends. They retired to the snap dragon inn for the night. In the morning, they awoke bound and gagged in some dank dungeon beneath the city. Before them was a massive Beholder, each of his eye stalks decorated with gold, silver and brass rings. Beside the beholder sat a fish bowl elevated on a marble pedestal. The beholder introduced himself as The Xanathar, and reminded the group that they had killed one of his progeny beneath the thieves’ guild in the docks district and seriously hindered one of his more profitable ventures.He offered to forget these trespasses if they would only help stop the encroachment of the plane of mechanus, which threatened to invade the material plane. As a being of pure chaos, The Xanathar did not welcome this encroachment. He offered a piece of advice: that such an invasion had occured in the past and they should research this. The group discovered that this invasion had occured 1,000 years ago. The druids of neverwinter wood had rallied together the forces of the faewild against the threat. At the same time, a hero from Luskan journeyed far into the anauroch desert and returned with an army of shades.
Returning to the Xanathar with this information, the group was tasked with meeting a bedine guide the xanathar guild uses to smuggle artifacts in and out of the anauroch desert. They spent a week preparing for the journey, selling magic items and purchasing supplies before departing.
The group returned to the snap dragon inn to find the place packed with adventurers. They met a dwarf named Dain Stonearm of clan battle hammer, a battlerager who had fallen out with his mercenary company and sought work with the party. They also met a firbolg cleric of kelemvar who wished to travel with them and “protect the balance of life and death.” On the road, the group soon found themselves being followed by a band of riders from afar. After a few days, they found the riders still following them and chose to challenge them. They waited until night and camped by the road while Firble stealthily approached the riders. He recognized one of them as the elven mage they had encountered with evandal, accompanied by a drow assassin and two human warriors.
As the riders maneuvered for an ambush, Firble set off the trap and fired upon the would-be assassins. Battle ensued, with the mage attempting to cast a spell of polymorph upon weyland but failing. The assassin attacked Kedran the cleric, while two warriors charged weyland from horseback. Their attacks were largely unsuccessful, and weyland was able to render himself invisible and escape. Dain the battlerager entered his battlerager frenzy and charged the mounted warriors, his greataxe swinging wildly, managing to nearly kill one of them outright. As Firble and Kedran fought the assassin, the mage fired a fireball into the camp, killing two horses and wounding Firble, Kedran, weyland (now visible) and the drow.
It was then that Firble tossed a bead of force at the mage and she was once more captured by the magic item. While Dain battled the two warriors by himself and Kedran battled the drow, weyland summoned forth bigby's hand and picked up the captured mage, sending her 60 feet into the air. The drow dropped a globe of darkness at his feet, using it to escape Kedran and Firble. With the mage out of commission, Firble turned to the escaped drow and attempted to enter the globe of darkness. Not knowing the drow to have escaped the globe, Kedran slashed at the unseen assailant and wounded Firble with his sickle.
Meanwhile, the drow attempted to sneak up to Dain but was spotted by the surprisingly alert battle rager. His surprise attack foiled, the drow found himself exposed and was swiftly dispatched by Firble and his hand crossbow. As the last warrior tried to flee on horseback, Kedran called upon his God’s wrath and struck him down in a beam of flame. As the horse slowly burned to death, the warrior tried to crawl away but was met with Dain’s axeblade in his skull.
The group gathered together and waited for the bead of force to expire, sending the mage plummeting to her death from far above. As they waited in anticipation, nothing happened. Weyland lowered the hand and found that the forcefield had indeed dissipated, but the mage was nowhere to be found, likely having polymorphed into a flying creature to escape. They continued on and reached the town of secomber 4 days later.
The party approached Secomber disguised to avoid alerting common folk at the sight of a deep gnome and firbolg. Weyland also used his newly acquired hat of disguise to disguise himself as an old man. They visited one of two taverns in town, where Weyland challenged the local blacksmith to an arm wrestling contest and lost severely. Dain ordered the strongest drink on tap and managed to hold his own for a time, but eventually succumbed and lost consciousness in the middle of the tavern. Firble and Weyland visited the town’s store and purchased tents to replace their burned ones, where they heard about the town’s trouble with kobolds and missing livestock (and some fanciful tales of a green dragon in the high moor to the south). After talking to the town guard, they were hired to seek out the kobolds and eradicate them.
They departed with 3 days’ supplies, venturing into the marshes of the high moor. The further they went along, the worse the marsh became. They found trails of animal carcasses, melted to the bone by acid, leading further south. On the second day, as the fog grew denser and denser, they discovered a massive hedge. Firble attempted to send his snake familiar up to the unseen top of the hedge, but the snake was zapped by some unseen magical force and sent flying to its death in the bog. They entered the hedge through the only entrance and soon found themselves in a maze laced with magical traps and monsters.
Barely 100 feet into the maze, they were attacked by black sludge erupting from the hedge walls. The sludge formed into two vague oozing masses, one at their back and one at their front. As combat ensued, Firble and Kedran found fire to be highly effective and used their magic against the creatures. Dain, a warrior of more simple means, attacked the oozes with his greataxe and soon found himself facing off against 4 smaller oozes as each slicing stroke split them into two seperate creatures. Weyland then unleashed a lightning bolt against one of them and further split it into smaller oozes, doing no damage at all. As Kedran and Firble continued their fiery onslaught again the larger ooze, Dain discovered his spiked gauntlets and boots to be far superior in dealing with the creatures. He managed to slay most of them, but his own attacks and the attacks of their pseudopods wore him down with acidic damage. By the time the oozes were destroyed, Dain was badly wounded and Kedran found himself low on healing magic. The group then decided to forgo this quest and returned to town, gathering their wagon and leaving in the cover of night. Ember, who had left waterdeep 3 days later than the group, arrived in secomber as the group returned from the maze. The next morning, she found the town in an uproar over the departure of the adventurers. She chose to follow the town guard (led by ranger/mayor Traskar Selarn) as they rode out in search of the group, flying high above in the form of a hawk.
As the rest of the group readied their camp for departing, the sound of many hoofbeats alerted them to danger. Weyland used his magic to turn into a giant eagle and fly above to scout, while Firble hid in a nearby tree. The entirely conspicuous Dain and Kedran merely remained at the campfire eating their breakfast. As the guard approached the camp on horseback, Traskar Selarn challenged them. As he spoke, weyland descended in eagle form and screeched at the ranger, knocking him off his horse. As he changed shape back into a half elf, the guards fired their bows at him, striking him 7 times. Firble burst into laughter from the tree and fell down. As Kedran pulled the arrows from weyland and healed his wounds, weyland managed to diffuse the situation. With some convincing, he managed to glean some new information from the mayor. It seemed as though 300 years before, a green dragon moved in to the high Moor and made a pact with the town. As long as they would send adventurers into the Moor for him to kill and loot, he would not attack the town. With this new information in hand (and the guarantee of dragon loot) and the help of ember, the group decided to go back into the swamp and slay the dragon.
The hedge maze proved to be less dangerous than expected, though Firble had to disarm and dispel many traps. The group encountered a foul beast of rot and decay and slew it. In the center of the maze they encountered a massive Froghemoth and, after an epic battle, slew it as well. As it died, its corpse erupted and revealed a green shimmering portal. The portal led the group into a secluded swamp Grove where the mist was thinner.
There, they found kobolds serving the dragon. They attempted to capture and question one, but alerted the dragon when another kobold screeched at the sight of them. Battle ensued, with the dragon frightening Kedran and weyland early in the fight. Ember turned into a rock elemental and joined Dain at the forefront of the battle. The dragon’s poison breath proved to be nearly deadly for weyland, but Dain nearly shrugged it off thanks to his dwarven endurance. Eventually, the badly wounded dragon was drive away back to his cave. At the group trudged through the swampy water towards him, he unleashed his poison breath once more and knocked both weyland and Kedran unconscious. He did not, however, count on the elemental ember tunneling through the ground and emerging next to him on his Rocky perch. While Firble used a healing option to revive Kedran so he could heal weyland, Ember unleashed a rocky onslaught upon the dragon and Dain scored two solid hits with thrown javelins (enhanced by a curse from Kedran). Finally, weyland (now healed by kedran’s magic) summoned a bolt of lightning that took down the mighty dragon.
In his cave, the group found a massive hoard of coins, a magical horn and a magic staff. They harvested parts from the dragon, cut off his head and began their journey back to town. As they stepped through the portal once more, they found themselves in the swamp again, the hedge maze having disappeared entirely.
Back in town, the group returned with the head of the dragon in tow. The town gathered around them and the mayor, Traskar Selarn, was summoned. He thanked the group for slaying the dragon and promised their payment of 300 gold would be delivered to the inn by morning. Weyland, Kedran and Dain revelled with the rest of the town in the tavern, drinking heavily and eventually passing out (though not before Weyland defeated Dain in a drinking contest).
In the morning, they found Ember missing and a note saying she had druid business to attend to and that she would catch up with them later. Firble was found in a catatonic state, his eyes black, mumbling in a foreign tongue. The remaining group chose to leave him, with Dain choosing to leave a note telling him to find them further down the road. On the road towards loudwater, the group came across a traveller on horseback coming from the east. He wore some form of scale armor, though of obviously foreign make. He had short black hair covered by a wide-brimmed straw hat, a scruffy beard and slanted eyes. At his hip was a wooden scabbard holding a long curved sword and another shorter scabbard and sword, as well as what appeared to be a dagger. He appeared to be wearing a long deep blue tunic beneath his armor. As he spoke, he revealed a foreign accent. He introduced himself as Takahashi Akari, a disgraced warrior from a foreign land seeking what he called a “good death.” When questioned about this, he relayed his story:
“I was once most trusted samurai to Lord Kakita Shimitsu, Daimyo of crane clan. After defeating the lion clan in battle, my Lord hosted the Daimyo of the lion clan at his home. As I reveled with my men, I drank too much and wandered into the tent of the lion general Akodo Suikihime. I challenged him to a duel, but he refused. I drew my sword in anger and ran him through the back. Realizing what I had done, I cut my topknot and fled. I am forever exiled for my betrayal of Bushido, and can only redeem my family by earning a good death.” Dain accepted his challenge and battled with the samurai. Though the warrior was a highly skilled swordsman with impeccable discipline and precision, he was no match for Dain’s battlerager fury. The final blow nearly cleaved the man in twain, Dain’s axe driving deep into his shoulder down to the heart. Though Weyland suggested looting the corpse, Dain suggested giving him a proper burial instead. With the help of Kedran, a burial mound was constructed and the samurai’s spirit was sent on its way.
Finally arriving in loudwater, the group found a city split in half by a river. After asking for directions, they decided to visit an inn known as the Enchanter’s Ecstasy on the north bank of the river. They found the exterior of the inn as peculiar as the interior, with various garden gnomes dotting the manicured lawn. As they entered the inn, the front door thanked them for going through it. Clocks strewn about the place belted out the time in various voices, and statues of smiling wizards decorated various shelves. As they entered, a thin woman with disheveled hair and a nervous disposition emerged from behind a counter to greet them. As they discussed buying a room for the night, the woman’s attention seemed to trail off randomly during the conversation and returned as quickly as it had left. When asked about the peculiarities of the inn, she revealed that she had inherited the inn from her family, and that a wizard had opened it ages ago. When pressed about it, she also revealed that she believed the enchantments to be related to the ancient elven ruins the city was built on.
After acquiring the room, Kedran left to visit the all-faiths altar on the outskirts of town. Meanwhile, Dain and Weyland headed for a tavern called the Old Owl. There, they found various older humans and half-elves enjoying a quiet drink and conversation. The tavern was run by an older, grizzled ex-adventurer who did not tolerate any unruly behavior from his guests. When asked for work, he offered none and was insulted by Weyland’s suggestion that the place was “boring.” The pair left for the other tavern in town, the merry mer-she. There, they found a rambunctious crowd, drinks being thrown across the room along with racial slurs against half-elves and loud music being played by a band of minstrels. Weyland challenged one of the racist humans, but was foiled by the barkeep shouting him down. The pair once again asked for work and found none.
Finding the ale watered down and cheap, they returned to the Old Owl where Dain charmed the owner with his own tales of bravery while enjoying the tavern’s fantastic home brew. Weyland was able to discern more information about the town while talking to the elderly guests, largely learning of troubles from stone giants in the dawn pass and the destruction of the town of llorkh on the way. He also heard once more that the town had been built upon ancient elven ruins and that both harpers and the zhentarim had once tried to seize control of it in the past to unearth its secrets. The Zhentarim managed to drive the harpers out over a hundred years ago and control most of the region, but eventually diminished as the organization was slowly torn apart by the work of the harpers in the sword coast. Weyland also learned that some of the older families may still have loyalties to the Zhentarim, and may be trying to rebuild the organization. At the end of the day, the group retired to the inn and found their sleep disturbed by various bizarre dreams involving unicorns defecating sweet confections, garden gnomes and other enchanted creatures. Nevertheless, they awoke fully rested and soon departed from the east gate after purchasing supplies from the general store.
Some days later, they passed the ruined town of Llorkh at the foot of the Graypeak mountains. Two days into their climb through the Dawn Pass, they came across a pair of Stone Giants on the road arguing about who would be looting the corpses of their next victims. Rather than confront them violently, Weyland approached with civil intent and engaged the giants in conversation. He found the giants less than intelligent, and was able to convince them to ease their passing by paying them 1,000 gold pieces and a diamond from their bag. The giants, revealing themselves to actually be 3 in number, allowed the group to pass safely while they fought over the “shiny rock.” Several days later, the group reached the other side of the dawn pass and, after passing through the lonely moor, arrived at the anauroch trading post at the mouth of a canyon entering the desert of anauroch.
At the trading post, the group found various merchant selling their wares out of tents. Some of them hawked so-called netherese artifacts from the depths of the desert, while others sold basic goods and wares. They found a large tent acting as a tavern and inn, where the bedine guide hired by the xanathar guild waited for them. He introduced himself as Abbas Ibn Homan, and suggested they purchase any supplies they need as well as clothing better suited to the desert environment before leaving in the morning. They did so, and while Kedran retired for the night Weyland and Dain managed to find themselves private tents where they paid for the services of anauroch’s finest ladies of leisure.
In the morning, the group departed along with their guide. Not two days into their journey in the baking hot desert, a group of raiders on camelback tried to assault them but were disrupted by a giant purple worm erupting from the sands. Their guide Abbas hid behind the wagon while the group battled the worm. Before it could wreak much havoc, Weyland managed to paralyze it with his bard’s magic and allowed Dain and Kedran to unleash their might upon it. As Kedran cursed the beast in the name of Kelemvor, Dain unleashed a barrage of attacks from his great axe. Only once was the worm able to act in its defense, and during that time nearly swallowed Dain whole and spooked his horse. Without much bloodshed of their own, the worm was slain and fell across the sands. As Kedran harvested spikes and teeth from it, he noticed a glittering light from within it. Dain agreed to crawl into the beast to retrieve it and found a stash of precious stones as well as burning stomach acid that melted away parts of his armor and singed his skin.
As the group made camp that night, Ember arrived in the form of a giant eagle and rejoined them. Firble also appeared out of some shadows, with no explanation. They rested for the night and departed once more in the morning. After five days of travel, they arrived at the outskirts of the ruins of Thulthantor, the city of shade. Weyland stumbled across a bottle in the sand and, after a moment, disappeared into it. Ember was able to deduce that it must be a djinn bottle, and that he would likely need to overcome some challenge to leave it . The superstitious abbas chose to stay outside the ruins until their return, refusing to enter the “cursed” city.
They found the ruins of a city that appeared to have fallen out of the sky, by the state of several ruined spires. Carved into the side of a mountain, they found the entrance to a tomb and a curious creature inspecting it. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that he was a lizardfolk samurai named Thoxlax hunting some shadow demon. He wore armor similar to the disgraced samurai from the road, but carried a similar but much larger and two-handed sword on his back. He also seemed to be carrying several items used in the hunting of supernatural beasts, such as stakes, a holy symbol and holy water. Their purposes aligned, he agreed to join with them.
The tomb entrance sealed, the group tried everything to open the door but failed at every turn. After over an hour, Ember suggested they wait until night and Thoxlax echoed that idea after conferring with “spirits.” They set up camp by the door and waited until night. As the last rays of the sun disappeared over the mountains, a great cacophony of howls erupted from the ruins as shadow hounds poured out from the streets. The group battled them, but several of the hounds made their way to the horses and feasted upon them. With the last hound slain, the group realized that the door was now translucent in the night’s darkness. They put out the last of the fire and, now in total darkness, found the way to be open. They gathered supplies from their horse-less wagon and abandoned it as they ventured into the tomb.
The tomb entrance proved to be a portal to the shadowfell, and they were transported to a shadowy mirror of the anauroch desert. As soon as they entered, they were overwhelmed with a sense of dread and despair. Firble began to doubt his reality, and found his mind not as reliable as usual. After traveling west for a day down the only road, they retired for what they could only guess to be the night. They rested in shifts, and during Ember’s shift were greeted by a pack of shadow men known as shadovar. Though the shadovar appeared mostly curious at first, their intentions were made clear when they drew blades. The group battled the shadovar, and as they slew them the shadovar erupted in explosions of light that burned and blinded the group. When the last of the them were killed, a female shadovar came out from the shadows and approached Firble. She seemed to recognize him, and drew her short sword threateningly. Firble recognized her as his slain companion Rissa, but defended himself against her threats by attacking her with a shadow blade. Now in close quarters, Rissa reached for the djinn bottle at Firble’s belt containing Weyland and was able to snatch it. She referred to a light she saw from a distance guiding her to it, saying it led her to the one who left her to die. She sought to kill Weyland for abandoning her in the sewers of waterdeep. After hearing this, Firble backed away and chose not to intervene. Ember, on the other hand, was ready to kill her to retrieve Weyland. A deal was struck with Rissa, who asked the group to kill the tyrant of Gloomwrought who had been oppressing her people--the Shadovar. She offered to lead them there, but revealed that the city was simply at the end of the road they were on
Two more days passed as they traveled to Gloomwrought, the shadowfell despair overcoming them in varied ways. Firble hallucinated a sack full of maggots, Kedran and Dain were overcome with apathy and Dain tried to chase an imaginary chicken down the road. Sleep was difficult to hold on to, and the group found themselves strained and restless. Despite their setbacks, they reached the city on the third day and visited what passed for a tavern there. The whole city was mostly ruins, populated by Shadovar listlessly hanging about. Apathy, dread, and madness ran rampant. In the tavern, they found a barkeep who hadn’t had any paying customers in 100 years. They purchased a room and found some comfort in the safety of its four walls. For the first time in days, they slept. The next day, the group visited the palace of Prince Rolan and brought Rissa along. There, they found an old, decrepit old man whose eyes belied his old age. Firble attempted to speak with him, but was overcome with dread. Ember spoke instead, challenging his oppressive regime. Prince Rolan’s response was to disintegrate Rissa. When Ember readied an attack against him, Firble asked her to hold her wrath. This was the man they had come to see, who had led an army of shades against the modrons 1000 years ago. After some discussion, he agreed to help the again if they would only retrieve an item for him from a nearby structure. The group agreed and departed that day.
They found the structure to be pyramid made of solid obsidian with a single entrance. Entering it, they found the inside completely hollow. Each surface was identical, with pools of black ooze in the center and three sepulchers surrounding it. The ooze and various rubble stayed in place on each surface, defying gravity. Firble investigated the black liquid and, with the help of Thoxlax’ supernatural knowledge, found it to be necrotic in origin. He filled an empty potion bottle with the liquid. In each of the sepulchers, engravings of 4-armed gargoyles acted as doors with their arms as the handles. Firble picked their locks and found inside various objects, scrolls, scroll-cases and leather boxes. Each sepulcher hummed with arcane energy, and he found himself able to disrupt the flow of eldritch energy. His first attempt failed, and he discovered that all 3 sepulchers would need to be disrupted at once. Firble, Kedran, and Thoxlax each took one sepulcher and attempted to disrupt it. Each failure was met with a wave of painful force from within. Eventually, they succeeded and the three sepulchers ceased their arcane humming. As they did so, the pools of black ooze started to bubble and each erupted, shooting ooze into the center of the pyramid where it solidified into the shape of an ornate floating skull, with two rubies for eyes and 8 glowing diamonds for teeth…. Battle with the demilich ensued. Ember attempted to magically confuse the enemy, but failed and instead shifted into the form of an air elemental to better assault the flying skull. Dain, Thoxlaxx and Firble tried to attack it with projectiles, but all missed. Kedran cursed the lich with a prayer to kelemvor. In response, the demilich let out a blood curdling scream that tore into the life force of everything living within the vault. Thoxlaxx and Firble’s hearts stopped, and ember’s air elemental form was dissipated into nothing, sending her tumbling into the pool of black ooze. As Thoxlaxx and Firble lay dying, Ember called upon her druidic magic to burst into flames and turned into a giant, flaming eagle. She managed to singe the demilich before flying away. Dain, seeing the pillars of white marble standing around the pool of ooze, chose to use one of them to get closer to the flying creature. He climbed a pillar, then leapt from it with his axe but missed the lich entirely. Kedran called upon kelemvor to heal his compatriots, and brought Thoxlaxx and Firble back from the brink. The demilich then assaulted Kedran and Dain with necrotic energy, sapping them of their life force and healing itself in the process. This brought the demilich closer to one of the pillars, and Dain was able to climb onto the pillar and unleash his rage upon the lich. Thoxlaxx charged the lich and leapt into the air, striking it with his flaming sword as Firble climbed atop one of the sepulchers to fire his crossbow at it. Ember, in the shape of the flaming eagle, dove at the lich and was able to burn it with her flames. Kedran continued to heal the wounded.
As the tide seemed to turn against it, the demilich let out another blood curdling scream and brought the flaming eagle, kedran and Firble to the brink of death. Ember, now in her natural form, used her magic to heal her dying friends while Dain and Thoxlaxx continued their assault on the lich. The fight seemed doomed as the demilich continued to drain Thoxlaxx and Dain of their life force, healing itself in the process. Too exhausted to shift forms again, Ember instead called upon a beam of moonlight to strike down upon the demilich. The creature reeled in pain and burst into red flames as the moonlight enveloped it. Combined with the attacks of Thoxlaxx and Dain, the demilich seemed badly wounded. Firble, atop the sepulcher, fired a crossbow bolt at it and struck it directly in one of its ruby eyes. The gem cracked as the bolt drove deep into it. The demilich’s mouth opened, shining red light, and it began to tremble. Finally, it exploded in a burst of red flames and showered the vault in gems and bone fragments.
The group calmed as the realization that the demilich was dead sunk in, but barely a moment later Firble picked up the phylactery from the sepulcher and placed the necklace around his neck. His eyes turned black, a shadowy gloom swirling around him. As he turned to face the group he raised his crossbow and fired a bolt at Dain. The bolt struck a solid hit, sinking deep into dain’s shoulder. As it became apparent that Firble had turned on them, the rest of the group prepared for another fight. Firble retreated atop the sepulcher once more and fired his crossbow at them. Thoxlaxx fetched his longbow and tried to fire arrows at the phylactery, hoping to destroy it. Ember moved her moonbeam atop Firble, enveloping him in searing moonlight. Dain charged in, but rather than attack he grappled the gnome and began trying to wrest the amulet from his neck. He was finally able to rip the thing from Firble’s neck and tossed it aside. Firble’s eyes returned to normal as the shadowy gloom seemed to be sucked back into the phylactery. As it did so, a black orb flew out from Firble’s floating magical stone and entered the phylactery just as a purple orb flew out from the phylactery into Firble. The floating stone ceased glowing and dropped to the ground.
Firble explained that his soul had been taken by what he called “the shadow man” when he discovered the stone during a treasure hunt. The shadow man lived within the stone and held his soul ransom. The shadow man turned out to be a lich and none other than Prince Rolan of Gloomwrought. His soul was returned, and the lich’s soul returned to the phylactery. The group decided to destroy the phylactery. Firble gave ember one of his crossbow bolts dipped into the black ooze, and she drove it into the phylactery. It exploded in black ooze and red flames, sending sharp pain up her arm and sapping her of some life force. As she did so, the vault began to tremble and crumble. The group ran out, and the entire pyramid collapsed in on itself. Back in gloomwrought, the group was hailed as heroes by the shadovar. They offered to help in the coming conflict with the modrons, and linked themselves with Firble’s mind so that they could be called upon when the time came. The group rested and left the shadowfell by way of a shadowy portal not far from the city gates. Back on the material plane, they gathered their things from the now useless wagon and trekked across the desert back to the trading post. Back in civilization of sorts, Ember used her druidic magic to open a portal in a tree that sent them back to the sea ward of waterdeep. They emerged from a tree in a garden amongst Waterdeep’s leisurely nobility. After some shopping and a visit to the bank, they reported to the Xanathar beneath waterdeep and began planning for their journey to neverwinter wood and the feywild.
While sleeping at the snap dragon inn, the djinii bottle that weyland had been trapped in began to tremble and spew forth strong winds. Dain grabbed the thing and ran out into the streets with it, where weyland appeared from it in a flash of light. He described having to perform for the djinn and defeating him in a battle of music, but little else. The next day, the group secured ship’s passage to Neverwinter. On the way back to the inn, they were suddenly transported to the plane of mechanus, where the elven mage Elorienne Silverweave waited for them. She had discovered a planar rift and used it to travel to mechanus, where she says she “acquired” the beast she then unleashed upon the group. The thing materialized before them, a giant four legged panther-like construct similar to modrons but sleeker and made of black metal. The mage was able to polymorph Dain into a rat, while the metal beast teleported to weyland and unleashed a dizzying roar at the group. As the battle continued, weyland teleported himself and Dain up onto a floating gear where the mage stood, but she teleported away to another platform. Meanwhile, the steel predator teleported itself up to weyland and tried to kill him. Weyland leapt from the platform onto a lower one, but the beast teleported back to him. It clearly had eyes only for him. Dain followed down and unleashed his might upon it, as the beast clawed at weyland and Kedran tried his best to heal his wounds as he received them. Meanwhile, Ember engaged in a magical duel with the mage which ended in the mage being electrified to death by lightning from above. Eventually, the beast was taken down as well. Weyland managed to open the rift back up and allowed the group to return to waterdeep before closing it.
At sea, the group awoke to find some of the crew murdered in the dead of night. On the deck, they found the rest of the crew had turned into monsters with gaping maws, claws and tentacles. They were led by a tentacle-faced priest of some sort calling down a storm around the ship. As they battled the beasts, the group began to be overwhelmed by their numbers and ability to stun by screeching. As the tide of the battle turned against them, Dain blew into his horn of Valhalla and summoned forth 11 berserker spirits to fight for them. With their help, the group turned the tide against the monsters and slew them with ease. They found the captain of the ship wounded but alive, adrift in the water. They rescued him and, with his help, finished the voyage to Neverwinter. In Neverwinter, the group explored the city and visited the merchant quarter before retiring to the moonstone mask inn. They found the place populated by adventurers and staffed by beautiful women of various races wearing moonstone-decorated ball masks and black gowns. The barkeep seemed skilled with magic, and the entire inn seemed catered to adventurers. After spending the night there, they departed for Neverwinter wood and arrived there after a day and a half of travel. An old human druid named Theros Wilderwood greeted ember, recognizing her from her childhood there. He offered to lead the group to the feywild after they rested in their camp.
In the morning, the group left he druid camp, led by Theros Wilderwood. He led them to a great gnarled tree in the midst of a clearing. The group entered an opening in the tree trunk and descended down a spiral staircase built into the trunk of the tree. As they descended, they suddenly reversed and began climbing the stairs instead. As they came out of the tree in the feywild, they were instantly met with a massive battle between Eladrin and werewolves. The party chose to side with the eladrin and helped them slay the beasts. After some discussion, the Eladrin told Ember of their village 2 days’ travel to the north. The eladrin left to hunt more werewolves, and left the party to make their way to the village.
As they traveled, the group met several obstacles on their way. Strange songs threatened to lull them off their path, and they even met maddened, older versions of themselves on the road. Firble opened fire on his doppelganger, and Weyland dispatched two more of the group with a lightning bolt. Unsure about his decision, Weyland ceased his attack but Firble and Thoxlax continued and finished the elderly group off. As they camped that night, Ember warded their resting place with powerful druidic magic. In the morning, the group departed and soon found another mystery on the road. They discovered a fanged humanoid skeleton with vines wrapped through its bones, a strange handheld blunderbuss of sorts discarded by its corpse. Ember used her magic to repair the heavily rusted item, and Firble held on to it. As they traveled, the group soon found themselves back at their last camping site. As day turned to twilight (the perpetual twilight of the feywild night), they decided to stay there again for the night and depart once more in the morning.
The next day, the group departed once more and encountered a magical mushroom that entranced Firble and Weyland into eating it. As they consumed the thing, they fell into a deep, magical slumber and could not be awakened by any normal means. Kedran and Thoxlax each carried one of the two sleeping adventurers and the group ventured on towards the eladrin village. As they reached the village, they were accosted by the Eladrin and questioned once more. Ember was able to convince them of their good intentions and they were led to the village elder, the druid Teldaron. As they spoke with him, he told them of his own visions of impending doom from mechanus. If they would take care of the werewolf problem, he promised to lend his people’s aid to repelling the great modron march. The group spent the rest of the evening in the village tavern, where Weyland engaged in a bardic duel with an Eladrin bard and was soundly defeated (but not before the eladrin’s lute strings suddenly snapped, ruining his final performance).
The next day, the group departed for the werewolf den with directions from the elder druid. Unfortunately, the magic of the feywild sent them traveling in a circle once more and they wasted an entire day. They spent another night in the eladrin village before leaving again the next morning. During this day of travel, invisible fey cut their armor and belt straps, stealing their food and the bag of holding. After wandering aimlessly looking for the thieves, the group retired for the night and, in the morning, Ember called upon the spirit of the forest to ask for guidance. She discovered that not only a powerful fey resided nearby, but several spirits were trapped somewhere inside Firble’s pack. After challenging him, Firble tried to flee but came to his senses and returned to the group. He promised to consider releasing the souls, and the party went on their way to find the thieves.
In a secluded grove, the group discovered a coven of green hags and several redcaps hanging about a downed dragon skeleton. The redcaps tried to access the bag of holding, but were unsuccessful. The party engaged the creatures and battle ensued, with Weyland turning Ember invisible as she turned into an earth elemental after attacking the hags with frost magic. The redcaps proved little challenge, save for one wave of steel-booted attacks against Kedran. The hags, on the other hand, proved more challenging as they used their magic against the group, paralyzing them, turning firble into a rat and firing lightning bolts. When the first of the hags was slain by Weyland with a lightning bolt, the other hags turned their wrath upon him and tried to slay him with necromantic magic. One was foiled by Weyland’s own counterspell, but the other managed to strike him with a finger of death and nearly killed him. After an onslaught from Thoxlax and Ember (in the form of an earth elemental), most of the hags were slain and the last of them was finished off with a crossbow bolt to the head from Firble. The group recovered their bag of holding and took a short rest before returning to their journey south.
As the party departed again on their journey to the werewolf den, Weyland stumbled upon a gleaming rapier in the underbrush. It immediately began insulting Firble as he attempted to identify it, and revealed itself to be a sentient weapon. When asked, it gave its name as Talondil the foul, and told the story of its demise at the hands of an ogre king that had slaughtered his family. He became trapped within the blade after being killed by the ogre king following a string of insults targeting the ogre’s mother. When Talondil began cursing the ogre king’s mother as the blade, the ogre tossed the sword far into the woods where it waited millenia for a worthy wielder.
On the way to the werewolf den, the group encountered a faerie tea party. Weyland, Dain and Kedran were enthralled and charmed into joining the tea party. As Ember tried to use her magic to free Kedran from the charm, Firble slit a sprite’s throat and angered the rest of the fey creatures. The fight was largely one-sided, and the fey creatures were quickly dispatched. When they arrived at the werewolf den, the group entered the cave system and encountered several werewolves. As they battled in the narrow caves, more wolves joined the fray and soon found themselves slaughtered by Ember in her fire elemental form. The narrow corridors proved to be a boon to the party, as the large elemental provided no escape for the lycanthropes. After slaying many werewolves, the group encountered a very large werewolf who could only be Kenarus, their leader. Though stronger than his kin, Kenarus proved no match for the party and lost his head to Dain’s greataxe. They discovered sylvan runes etched into his hide, detailing a sort of contract between the wolf and an unknown entity. The contract granted Kenarus the ability to inspire a great bloodlust in his people in exchange for the murder of the eladrin archdruid Talondil. The contract specified that the second-in-command druid Thorondil Oakwind would be left alone. At the back of the cave, the group found the females and children of the werewolves, but chose to leave them be. Outside, the party discovered similar sylvan runes etched into the bark of a nearby tree. They detailed a summoning ritual to summon an arch-fey. With this news, they decided to drag the werewolf leader’s corpse out and let Kedran use his magic to speak with the dead leader. They asked him several questions and discovered that Kenarus had summoned the archfey for an unknown reason, and that they would attack the eladrin village in 2 days’ time.
Ember used her magic to return the group to the Eladrin village via a tree portal. They found themselves not in the eladrin village, but in a dark secluded grove where a 12-foot tall creature stood at the center of a small island. Covered in moss, with glowing yellow eyes and a long beard of red and golden leaves. Atop his head was a crown of twisting wood, forming out of the top of his head. Vines stretched across his body, wrapping his arms, torso and legs. As he moved, he seemed to creak like an ancient tree. He revealed himself as the archfey, and claimed he was impressed with their abilities. He asked that they not meddle with his scheming, and offered to aid them in return for making sure the archdruid was murdered and the eladrin came under his command. The group refused, and he transported them to the eladrin village after saying it was “unfortunate.”
Back at the eladrin village, the group revealed the plot to the archdruid, who called for Thorondil to be presented to him. He used magic to read his memories and discovered the truth of it all. Thorondil tried to flee, but Ember used her magic to restrain him. He was captured and sent away. The eladrin offered their aid in the coming battle, and created a mental link between them and Ember. They sent the group back with a scout to guide them to the tree portal, but on the way the scout was mutilated by deadly vines and the archfey presented himself once more. He made a final offer to work with him, but when that offer was turned down again he summoned forth several fey and a treant and attacked the group. His first action sent the group straight into the air 100 feet, as he reversed gravity and then let them fall. Ember turned into an air elemental and was able to grab Kedran, but Dain, Weyland and Firble fell the whole way. Weyland tried to cast feather fall, but the Archfey counter-spelled and stopped him. The fall nearly killed weyland and firble, but dain was only slightly wounded. Attacks from the treant and the fey further wounded weyland and firble, and the archfey summoned forth a cloud of stinging insects that killed Weyland outright and left Firble bleeding to death. Sensing doom, Dain blew into his horn of valhalla and summoned forth 15 berserkers to aid them in the fight. Ember was able to safely bring kedran down to ground level, where he healed Firble and resurrected Weyland before being blasted by a feeblemind spell from the archdruid. Ember turned back into her natural form and unleashed damaging spells on the archfey as Dain and the berserkers chopped away at the treant. Firble fought off redcaps and quicklings as Weyland inspired him to great feats of cunning. The combined might of the party and the berserkers proved too much for the Fey, and they were eventually defeated. As ember cast her final spell at the Archfey, it roiled with boils of tree sap and exploded in a mist of moss and splinters.
With the archfey dead, the group left the feywild through the tree portal. Dain and Ember lost their memory of their time there, but Kedran was able to restore it with a prayer to kelemvor. The archdruid of the circle of swords gifted Ember with a staff passed down from her mother, and the group left neverwinter wood. Outside the woods, a great portal opened from which Fezzik’s airship emerged. He landed near them and greeted them, with a strange githzerai monk standing by him on the deck…
Fezzik explained that he had gone looking for the kingdom of Halruua, where he “borrowed” his airship, and found nothing but a crater. He tracked its arcane trails through a rift that took him and his airship to the astral plane, where the city of Halruua floated. It had been taken over by githyanki, and was in the midst of a githzerai uprising. He helped the githzerai overthrow the githyanki and rescued his first mate Krozag, who owed him a life debt. He traveled the astral plane for some time (seemingly much longer than he’s been gone), but returned when he noticed the modron march heading towards the material plane. He tracked the group down to find Weyland, and help him stop the march. Ember suggested using her plant travel spell to instantly return to waterdeep, but instead opened a portal to mechanus in a tree. After closing it, the group decided to take the airship back to waterdeep. After a day or so of travel, they neared Waterdeep. Suddenly, crackling portals opened in the skies and giant brass obelisks fell from them in perfect unison. One of them crashed into the ship, and modrons emerged from it. The group fought the constructs, with most of the smaller ones being defeated easily. Weyland summoned forth bigby’s hand and managed to shove the larger modron from the ship, where it plummeted to its death.
In waterdeep, fezzik dropped the group off at the snapping dragon inn, where they formulated a plan. Firble and Ember contacted their extra-planar allies and went off to command them, while Weyland, Krozag, Dain and Kedran followed up on rumours that the modrons were pouring out from the yawning portal tavern. On the way there, they came across the gnome Evander of evander’s magical emporium, who was trapped beneath rubble. Though they pondered the idea of leaving him, Weyland decided to help him and had Dain lift the rubble and free him. In a market square, the group encountered a large force of modrons and snuck past them successfully. The next group they encountered, however, noticed Dain and attacked. Dain wanted to stay and fight, but Weyland urged the group to flee. As they fled, Weyland was caught by the pentadrones, paralyzed, and beaten to death. The group returned for him, where Kedran revived him as Dain and Krozag stood their ground. Weyland then tried to use the dimension door spell to escape, but found himself in the plane of Mechanus instead. The group fled and found their way to the yawning portal. Meanwhile, Weyland found a planar rift and was able to open a portal back to waterdeep.
Reunited at the tavern, the group found the well that descends into undermountain as the source of the modron incursion. Rather than charge in alone, they recruited two other adventurers (a fighter and a mage) and headed down the pit. In undermountain without a rogue, they triggered the first trap in the dungeon. The group was dropped into a tunnel, stuck between two portals on either end and a rolling steel boulder. As the boulder reached the end of the tunnel, the portal would return it to to the top where it would roll down again to smash into the group. After taking some damage from the boulder, Weyland was able to use bigby’s hand to stop the boulder in its tracks. The group left the tunnel through a ladder at the far end.
As they traveled deeper into undermountain, the group triggered several more traps (with the “disposable” adventurers in front) before their new allies refused to be fodder for traps. Weyland instead summoned forth creatures using his bag of tricks and triggered the remaining traps. As they entered the main chamber, they found a massive portal encased in a brass device. The portal was guarded by two pentadrones and a hulking Modron they could only guess to be the leader of the invasion. Kedran seized the initiative and cast a powerful spell of flame, destroying the two pentadrones instantly and mildly wounding the leader. The hulking modron retaliated with a blast of radiant energy that killed the two “disposable” adventurers, wounded the entire group and stunned most of them. Once he was able, Krozag ran to the portal and began destroying it as Dain fought the modron boss and Weyland turned himself into a mammaoth to charge the enemy. The battle soon turned against the group, as the modron’s attacks proved more powerful than anything Dain had ever suffered. Kedran, realizing the might of this construct, cast a spell of banishment on it and sent it back to mechanus. As the group started destroying the portal, however, it returned through the portal but lost an army when the unstable portal flickered as it walked through. The group unleashed all their might against it, but it retaliated with another wave of radiant energy that seared and stunned the group. Weyland lost his concentration and reverted to his usual form, and the rest of the group came very close to death. Finally, Weyland cast a lightning bolt at the modron leader that felled the terrible thing. Dain and Krozag then finished destroying the portal, and the invasion ended.
As they made their way back, the group fell once more into the boulder trap and were rescued (mostly) by Weyland and his dimension door spell. They left undermountain and regathered at the snap dragon inn. After some drinking, the group rested for the night. The next day, they found agents of the xanathar guild in their rooms. They were led back to the beholder, who thanked them for saving the city and declared their debt to him repaid. Back on the surface, the group set out into the city to help with rebuilding and tending to the wounded. At the end of the day, they retired to the snap dragon where they were given a letter from the city. It contained a land deed for 2 acres north of waterdeep, and a note saying certain “elements” had made them aware of the group’s role in saving the city. The group discussed what they would do with the land, and Weyland and Dain went drinking. When Dain tried to summon the berserkers with the horn of valhalla, the warrior spirits failed to appear. Weyland called upon Fezzik, who promised to study the item and see what happened.

Chapter 2: Epilogue

Having pushed the modrons back to their home plane of mechanus with the aid of the shades of shadowfell and eladrin of the feywild, the group set into motion plans to start construction of their own keep. Built upon land granted to them by the lords of Waterdeep (under suggestion from the leader of the Xanathar guild, The Beholder known as the Xanathar himself), the heroes of Waterdeep each organized their own part of the construction over the course of the next year. Weyland, still reeling from the loss of most of his Harper allies in Waterdeep, set about rebuilding the local Harper organization from the keep as he oversaw construction. He spent his time recruiting new agents and gathering information about any local trouble. Desdemona, proprietor of the snap dragon inn, kept a steady stream of Harper hopefuls coming his way from Waterdeep. Though, to be fair, she needed little more than Weyland and his group’s renown in Waterdeep (garnered via a certain braggadocious and often drunken Dwarf) to recruit young new agents to their cause. Weyland expressed a desire to retire from the adventuring life and focus on running the administrative side of the Harpers’ mission at the keep. Dain decided to open a fighting school on the new land and soon set about advertising his plans in Waterdeep. Though his intentions were good, most of his excursions into the city ended in his eventual descent into drunken and disorderly conduct. This did little to diminish his efforts recruiting new students, however, and a steady stream of eager young warriors made their way to the keep to learn from the heroic battlerager. Near the end of the year, a newcomer arrived at the keep looking to challenge the Dwarf’s abilities. This high elf, dressed in fine clothing, with finely crafted leather armor inlaid with gold and silver and a masterfully forged scimitar, watched from afar as Dain trained the next generation of battleragers. He has yet to challenge the Dwarf. As the keep underwent construction, Fezzik began work on a permanent teleportation circle within the grounds. When not working on the circle, he studied the horn of Valhalla in order to glean any information from it as to why it ceased working. He eventually gave up, and suggested the group find out themselves by visiting Valhalla itself (a demiplane of ysgard). As soon as the keep finished construction, he readied his spelljammer airship for a journey to sigil, the city of doors. His first mate Krozag rarely left his side. Ember spent her time in the nearby woods, working her magic to create a permanent druid grove on the grounds. When not working on this, she worked to build farms and used her druidic magic to bless them with good harvests. She worked with the staff and made sure that the farms would produce well, and the yield would be traded locally. During construction of the keep, she ensured the process was not too disruptive for the local flora and fauna. When not on the grounds, Ember traveled the sword coast and was even spotted in distant lands learning about exotic beasts. Kedran revealed that he would be returning to his abbey to better serve Kelemvor there. He mentioned not wishing to travel to the realms of the gods, preferring to stay on mortal ground where he could continue to help usher spirits to their final resting places. Firble was seen here and there in Waterdeep, in taverns and other dark places. He even visited the keep grounds once or twice. He mostly locked himself in his room at the snap dragon inn, hauling in stacks of books every so often. Some patrons of the inn reported hearing several different voices from the room, but only ever saw Firble come and go. One day, his door was found open and his room emptied of his possessions. He was never seen again, having vanished as mysteriously as he came that fateful day in Icewind Dale. Thoxlaxx traveled to the keep grounds with the group, but soon disappeared into the nearby woods and very rarely returned. Some of the staff have seen him sleeping in the woods, hunting animals and training with Dain.

Chapter 3: The Great Beyond

With the keep construction completed, the group ensured everything could run smoothly without them and began preparations for embarking on their planar journey.
Fezzik and Krozag joined them at the keep, and a strange elf made his presence known to them. Calling himself “Aloro,” he claimed to have been drawn to them by his elven gods on a pilgrimage to the mysterious elven realm of Arvandor. When he discovered they were getting ready to depart for the outer planes, he asked to join them on their journey.
While fezzik discussed magical things with the elf (who turned out to be a bladesinger, an elf warrior-mage), Ember challenged him to a duel in order to gauge his abilities. They met on a field outside the keep and battled. Ember set herself ablaze with magic and turned into a monstrous stegosaurus. Aloro began his blade dance and cast a spell on himself go improve his physical ability. As he charged in, he was burned by Ember’s flames but unleashed a torrent of sword swings combined with force energy that badly wounded ember. In turn, ember unleashed a massive swing of her spiked tail and broke Aloro’s spell. Aloro retreated and, after suffering another attack from the beast, fired a disintegrating Ray at ember and obliterated her beast form. Aloro then yielded to Ember before either of them were badly wounded.
Convinced of Aloro’s abilities, Ember agreed to bring him along and the group set forth the next day in Fezzik’s spelljammer. As the ship rose into the sky, it plummeted to the ground and pierced the veil between world's, entering the astral plane. They traveled through the astral sea for some time before emerging in the outlands, the plane at the center of the multiverse. This barren diskworld hosted a massive spire atop which floated the city of sigil. They parked the ship atop one of its many docking bays and entered the mind boggling city (shaped like a hollowed out donut).
There, they found a massive city packed with structures and people from across the multiverse. They found their way to a tavern, where they were approached by a strange blue skinned cleric of oghma who offered to be their guide. He led them through the city, explaining its laws and factions. After trying to purchase a tuning fork at the market and failing, they decided to work for the factions in order to appropriate the portal key. Choosing the godsmen, they visited the great foundry and met with a very bureaucratic fire giant who sent them on a job to retrieve a stolen religious artifact (the spear of an unknown god). Suspecting the athar (a group who deny the omnipotence of the gods), the giant sent them on their way.
The group managed to track down the spear in a warehouse near the headquarters of the athar, where they found several robed and masked spellcasters, as well as a heavily armored man wielding the spear. Battle ensued, and the group eventually vanquished the thieves, leaving one alive as they retrieved the spear.
As the group left the warehouse with the spear, tendrils of animated razor wire curled out from the ground and covered the entrance to the warehouse. Skallagrim explained that it was razor grass, the only flora known to sigil. The group took a detour to avoid Athar lands as they returned to the great foundry. They returned the spear to the godsmen and were thanked for their service, suggesting that the dustmen over at the city mortuary have been having trouble in their crypts.
The group found themselves in a tavern frequented by hardheads, sigil’s own guard force. One of them, a bugbear, suggested they visit them at the barracks for work. The next day, the group traveled to the city barracks and met a Satyr sporting unique telescoping goggles working as a clerk for the barracks. When asked about work, the Satyr referred them to a murder case involving a Giff merchant in the market ward. When they arrived at the crime scene, they found the door to the shop barricaded by razorgrass. The deadly flora parted as they entered, though, and they were given access to the store. Inside, they found a dead Giff and surmised that he had been shot by a crossbow-but the bolt had been removed. Skallagrim then suggested that he could bring the poor Giff back to life and question him about his murder. Aloro agreed, and they set about reviving the murder victim. After composing himself following his revival, the Giff told the group that his murderer was one Victorio Corcino--of the Corcino crime family. He had come to his shop to collect protection money, and when the Giff failed to produce it the exchange became heated. Victorio broke the Giff’s legs and had his man shoot him with a crossbow after a witness escaped.
With this information, the group set about gathering information on the Corcino family. They discovered that the lower level henchmen congregated at a tavern in the market ward known as Deadfinger’s tavern. There, Aloro deceived his way into getting the trust of the corcino mooks. After some drinks, he led one of them to an alley and questioned him. He used his magic to paralyze the thug, then slowly cut at him with his sword. He then dropped the paralyzing magic and listened to the man as he revealed where Victorio could be found. Aloro then slit the man’s throat. The group departed for the Hive, where Victorio had been staying following the murder.
In the hive, the party found a run-down house where the murderer was staying. Krozag snuck into the house during the night and incapacitated Victorio. With the murderer in tow, Aloro teleported the group back to the barracks to turn him in. The hardheads thanked them for their service and suggested they come back in a few days to help the mercykillers escort him to his trial. Aloro questioned the clerk about the laws of sigil, and the legal system therein as the clerk mentioned that laws change daily. The clerk also suggested they come back for more work later, as they need adventurers to go on patrols.
Aloro suggested the group visit the courthouse, where they found a massive collection of lawbooks and learned that the sigil courthouse houses laws for every plane of existance--leading to laws changing nearly every hour. The clerk offered work for the group convincing a faction leader to vote for a new law, but turned the offer down and instead returned to the Foundry to speak with the Godsmen again. Having been days since they visited, they found that the Godsmen and the Athar were now at war following the retrieval of the spear. The group offered their services, and Skallagrim used his smithy’s skills to forge them weapons while Aloro enchanted them. After a day’s work, the group had aided the Godsmen war effort greatly.
The next day, they decided to visit the Mortuary as suggested by the Godsmen foreman. There, they spoke with an emotionally stunted mortician and learned that some sort of evil spellcasters had been interred in their crypts recently and returned from the dead. The group entered the crypts and, after a protracted battle against several undead warlocks and their shade minions, managed to destroy the undead threat. They earned the favor of the dustmen, and brought more order to the city.
while walking through the streets, the group stumbled upon a man being accosted by devils and helped him out. He turned out to be looking for the group and claimed an entity named Angela sent him to sigil to find them. In combat he used a gauntlet wreathed in white flame, and after combat his helmet and armor turned into common clothes and the gauntlet disappeared. He called himself Edmund
The group then visited the great library to look for lore on portal keys. They found a massive mess of books impossible to sort through. Others there used some sort of Divination magic that led them to the books they needed.
The group looked for such a "seeker" enchantment at the market and found the merchant selling it, but chose not to purchase it.
Finally, the party helped escort Victorio corcino to prison. On the way, a group of humans (most likely corcino family) tried to assassinate him and killed the mercykillers escorting. The party battled the assassins and managed to keep Victorio alive by banishing him to the material plane during the battle. They delivered him to the mercykillers HQ at the prison.
The group then helped convince the factol of the dustmen to sign off on a law governing hierarchical movement in the nine hells. The factol was a glabrezu (demon), who agreed to sign the law if the group continued their efforts to support the war between the godsmen and athar (thus sowing chaos).
They Discovered the godsmen will be attacking the athar headquarters at the ruins of the temple of Aoskar. During a vision from his patron, Edmund also learned that a demon will steal the portal key to ysgard from the athar during the chaos of the battle and give it to the group.
At the behest of Pyrios, the godsmen Factol, the group traveled to the docks and interrupted a weapons shipment meant for the Athar. There, they battled smugglers including a large demon armed with a crossbow that fired various lethal payloads. Ember obliterated most of the smugglers in a storm of fire, while Edmund banished the demon and Aloro finished the remaining smugglers off with a fireball. After questioning a survivor, who turned out to be nothing but a smuggler, the group destroyed the weapons and headed back to the foundry.
Back at the foundry, Pyrios frantically told them that a demonic cambion had stolen the spear of Asmodeus (the same spear they had recovered from the Athar previously). He turn, he sent his forces to the shattered temple to attack the Athar.
At the temple, the group found death and destruction everywhere. As they entered, they found more dead and encountered the result of the Athar’s failed summoning--a pit fiend that had slaughtered the entire temple. They battled the devil and emerged victorious, though Aloro suffered grievous wounds at the hands of the fiend. In the ruins, they found an Athar cultist holding a portal key to the material plane near a flickering portal. He had tried to flee through it, but failed and died at the hands of the pit fiend. They took the portal key and returned to Pyrios. The fire giant was thankful for their aid in destroying the Athar, and in payment re-tuned the key to Ysgard and revealed that he was a native of the plane--specifically the real of muspelheim.

Chapter 3-B: In the realm of heroes

The group returned to the airship, where they found an ecstatic Fezzik. After resting, they departed for Ysgard. Using the tuning fork, Fezzik guided the ship through the astral plane to the plane of Ysgard.
They arrived in a place of golden grass fields and perpetual twilight known as Asgard. There, they met with the giant warrior-race known as Asgardians and relayed their fears about Valhalla. The asgardians took them to see a man named Jarl Unthol, who explained the cosmology of Ysgard to them and told them that the Valkyries had not returned from Valhalla in some time, and that the heroic dead were no longer being taken there. The dead had begun to rise in Midgard, and they feared something was amiss in Valhalla.
Unthol agreed to send the party to Valhalla if they proved themselves by retrieving the hammer of Surtr from the fire giants of muspelheim (namedly King Snurre). The group agreed, and after a night of revel among the Asgardians, they departed for Muspelheim.
Fezzik landed the airship near the border of Midgard and muspelheim, and the group walked along the root bridge to muspelheim. When they reached the land of fire, Skallagrim used a magical eye to scout out the region and found a patrol of fire giants as well as a fortress nearby. They traveled along this path, battling the fire giants along the way. As they reached the fortress and began climbing up the hill upon which it sat, they met with an Asgardian jogging barefoot down the hill. He named himself Balder, one of Aesir. After bragging about wrestling King Snurre for fun, the group asked him how best to retrieve the hammer. He suggested they challenge the king to single combat, and after some deliberation they chose to follow this course.
Outside the fortress, Edmund knocked upon the door and, when answered, Krozag used his telepathic ability to tell the giants they wished to challenge King Snurre to single combat. The giants led the group to the throne room, where Krozag battled King Snurre (hasted by Aloro’s magic and protected from flame by Ember’s). Though the giant king’s attacks were extremely powerful, Krozag’s great speed proved the greater asset as he defeated and killed the King. As soon as the king died, the other fire giants--extremely surprised by the outcome--began to attack the group. Ember shifted into an earth elemental and grabbed the massive hammer, while Aloro used his magic to teleport the group back to the airship. Though the target was highly familiar to him, the stress of the situation made it more difficult for him and the spell was slightly askew. They arrived some miles west of the ship, upon the great root bridge between Midgard and muspelheim. From there, they walked back to the ship and readied themselves to return to Asgard.
After returning the hammer to Jarl Unthol, the group reveled with the asgardians and, in the morning, were given ale that transported them to Valhalla. There, they found a grim mountain covered in undead heroes and valkyrie. Atop it sat the mead Hall of Valhalla. After fighting through a horde of undead, Skallagrim brought one back to question. He revealed that a frost giant necromancer named Grymir had enslaved all the heroic dead and taken over Valhalla alongside the frost dragon nidhogg.
They fought their way up the mountain, battling undead warriors and Valkyrie. Upon reaching the top, they discovered that nidhogg was an undead dragon (a dracolich) and unleashed a hellstorm of flames upon him and his undead allies. Battle raged, and the group easily dispatched the undead ogres but found nidhogg much more difficult. Eventually, the dragon killed Krozag, Edmund and Skallagrim and almost killed ember and aloro. As he lifted into the air to unleash his frost breath upon them, ember (in the shape of an elephant), gored his underside and tore it open, slaying the beast.
The two survivors entered the mead Hall and found it empty and ransacked. The necromancer had lived here for a time, but had returned to his fortress in niflheim, leaving his pet dracolich behind. They also discovered a portal and destroyed it for fear of the necromancer returning, then rested. The following day, they tried to teleport back to Asgard with their dead companions but found the spell ineffective. They instead used plane shift to return to their keep in the material plane and used a spell of sending to ask Fezzik to return to get them.
Back at the keep, Ember reincarnated Skallagrim (who returned as a drow), and then Skallagrim resurrected Edmund and Krozag, but Krozag's soul was unwilling and did not return.
Fezzik eventually received the party's messages and returned to the keep, where he discovered Krozag had perished. After some time to recover, the group left for Ysgard once more. As the airship emerged from the astral plane into Ysgard, it collided with a mountain and came plummeting down to midgard. Following the crash, the group traveled East to Niflheim (first passing through a human village and playing a game of chess with a peculiar man in a pointed hat with an eyepatch over his right eye).
In Niflheim, the group was assaulted by a group of frost Giants and a frost salamander in the middle of a snow storm across the tundra. They emerged victorious but sustained some grievous wounds. They followed tracks left by the Giants to a mountainside cave entrance. Skallagrim scouted out the giant stronghold using an arcane eye and discovered a secret passage as well as Grymir's generals and his phylactery (also revealing him to be a lich) guarded by an Asgardian slave. The group used this knowledge to sneak in using dimension door and steal the phylactery, rescuing the Asgardian as well. Skallagrim destroyed the phylactery and the group left the mountain.
Back on the tundra, the party teleported themselves and the Asgardian Hraesvalgr back to the airship crash site. They decided to return to Asgard with Fezzik and Edmund. Back in Asgard, they updated jarl unthol on the situation and discovered the way to enter Helheim to find Grymir. They would return to midgard, board a ship and sail the midgard sea until they found the well of urd at its center.
In midgard, the group traveled to the coast and found a thin man with black slicked back hair offering use of his ship for free. They set sail and, eventually, managed to make it out to sea. Before they could reach the well, the boat's serpent-headed mast suddenly animated and turned around. Soon, the entire ship turned into a massive dragon turtle and attacked the group. After nearly killing several of them with a blast of steam, Aloro teleported the group back to the coastal village. There, they found no traces of the man who lent them the boat.
After a rest at the tavern, the group departed once more for the sea. This time, Ember turned everyone into mist and they flew across the ocean to the well of Urd. They descended the well, but returned to their normal forms as an antimagic field within the well affected them. They plummeted into an underground lake of acid and had to swim to safety while being burned by it.
On the shore of the cavern, the group encountered The Norns (three undead giantesses) who challenged them with three riddles. Though they struggled for a time, all three riddles were answered and the group was allowed to pass into the halls of the dead.
The tunnels ahead appeared as writhing corpses, the group walking upon their backs and avoiding grasping arms. As they walked through the halls, they began hearing whispers from each other. The whispers drove them into believing their companions would kill them, and the entire group began attacking each other. Edmund unleashed celestial magic upon Ember and Alorro, who retaliated with their own magics. Skallagrim unleashed a storm of fire upon them all, nearly killing Edmund and severely sounding Alorro. After a brief fight, each member of the party broke free from their madness and returned to normal.
Further in the halls, the group was subjected to visions of Weyland with his throat slit, blaming Ember for letting him die. The vision turned to Firble, who unleashed a cloud of magical poison gas upon them before fading. The group proved immune to the poison thanks to their heroes’ feast skallagrim had summoned that morning.
As they walked deeper into the halls, they began hearing chanting of “Grymir...Grymir...Grymir”. They left the halls after resting in alorro's magical mansion and came upon a giant circular pit. The inside of the pit was lined with prison cells filled with the screaming, mad dead. Each ring of the pit spun in a circle, forcing the dead inside to walk across jagged stones for eternity. Alorro cast feather fall on the group and they descended into the pit.
At the bottom, they found Grymir the frost Giant Lich sitting in a throne of skulls. Battle soon ensued, with Grymir unleashing necromantic magic at the group. With a word, he stopped Edmund's heart and killed him. Ember fired solar Rays at the lich and assumed the form of an earth elemental. Suddenly, 3 gates opened and a horde of ghasts flooded into the room. Alorro focused on the beasts (bringing most down in a fiery explosion) while Skallagrim brought Edmund back to life. Before he could rise, Grymir unleashed a fireball upon them and brought them both down. Ember continued her assault with both solar blasts and pummelling fists. Grymir, becoming more badly wounded, cast a spell to reverse gravity that sent the group flying 100 feet in the air. He fired another fireball at them before bringing them falling back down. Alorro used feather fall to bring himself, Ember and Skallagrim down slowly but Edmund came crashing down, nearly dying again. As Alorro finished off the ghasts and Ember continued her Stony assault, Edmund summoned a flaming sphere that caught the lich's robes aflame. The fire spread and consumed the lich, ending in an explosion that freed all the souls he had captured.
In the lich's lab behind the throne, the group found an iron flask, nidhogg's phylactery and journals detailing how Loki had granted him lichdom and sent him out to sow chaos. Grymir, having conquered Valhalla, was sent to Helheim to conquer the souls of the Dishonored dead. He challenged Hela to a game of chess in Helheim, where he trapped her within the flask.
Skallagrim destroyed the phylactery by channeling holy magic into it, then Ember released Hela from her prison in the flask. Hela, though quick to dismiss them at first, agreed to reward them by sending them back to Asgard.
Back in Asgard, Jarl Unthol celebrated their victory by ordering a great 3 month feast and fest in their name. He also returned the horn of Valhalla, now restored. The group reveled for a week before turning to the keep in Faerun.
There, they found the keep populated by Harper agents weyland had gathered there. Alorro chose to part with the group and return to his quest for his god Corellon. The rest of the group stayed to help rebuild the Harpers.