City of the Dead

Expedition

Trapped in the Shadowfell, Mirian must lead the rest of The Bonner Boys through a Necropolis to another door to the material plane.

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Ludomir tells Indigo he’s killed both Leonis and Bastion and commands him to obtain the new dragon eggs so he can give them to the Queen of Night and Magic as a wedding gift. Indigo is given a new team of shadar-kai. Tillon, a young hunter girl, Arconis, a great big guardian warrior, and Emerline, the beautiful enchantress he first saw from the astral plane.   The Shadowfell is a cold and dark place, one that can sap even the most lively souls of all feeling. It’s something that can be fought, but over almost two weeks in this place Daryl has fallen to its power. He feels nothing as Danger and Mirian discuss his orb just outside the Necropolis. It must be a powerful artifact if Braes had it locked away in his lair, so Danger sets about trying to discern what its capabilities are.   Indigo and his Shadow Unit ride onto Haven Battlefield back in the material plane. The shadar-kai are usually as cold and reserved as the Shadowfell itself, but in the material plane, their emotions are freed and feel like they’ve been dialed up to eleven. They approach the council site, collapsed in on itself and deduce that Gith was saved by the Chronomental. Arconis calls it Danger’s “son.” Tillon catches a glimpse of the gold dragon flying their way and Indigo uses his key to send the rest of the shadow unit into the Shadowfell before the dragon can see them.   Danger, transfixed on the orb, and Daryl, poor conversation these days, leave Mirian to turn his attention out to the desert they’re perched above on a guard tower. He sees the strangest thing. Like the portals Indigo could open, a curtain in reality unfurls and dumps a Water Genasi out onto the desert. Then, the sand around her whips up and begins draining the life from her.   Mirian runs out to save her, Daryl lazily dropping down to join in. Danger is unable to follow. The orb doubles in size in his hands and he’s unable to tear his gaze away. The undead attacking the Genasi, an Edimmu, is feeding on the water in her body. It’s joined by an Accursed Defiler, another undead with its own personal sandstorm whirling around it. This one moves in on Daryl, whose lightning breath leaves chunks of glass at their feet.   Gould lands before Indigo with Hogarth on his back. Indigo tells them he lost the rest of the party in a fight against the Moonlit King. He gives his condolences to Gould who tells him Leonis is alive after all. They tell him to stick around; another Council of Dragons is meeting right now.   Danger looks into the orb and sees another world, one where devils from nine rings of hell do battle with one another. He sees a tower, and within it a woman, or something more, eerily flawless. Unlike everything else he sees, she sees him too. She reaches out toward him-- But Danger snaps out of it. He understands the orb; The Orb of Dragonkind. It can give him magic, with a few downsides, and the ability to summon chromatic dragons to his location.   He leaps into the fray as Mirian and the Genasi finish the Edimmu, losing Mirian’s rapier in the process. The Genasi fires at the Accursed Defiler with an arrow imbued with planar energy. She misses and hits Danger instead. He kills the Accursed Defiler and moves on the Genasi. Mirian barely stops him.   Her name is Jett, and she’s a Horizon Walker: a Ranger that guards the inner planes against the outer planes and the gods that live on them. She’s concerned about the planer movements happening between the material plane and others and has come to gauge the threat of the Fey Court, including the Moonlit King. When Danger describes what he saw in the orb she tells him that’s a plane called The Nine Hells, and he most likely saw a god, but cannot say for sure which one.   Indigo excuses Braes’s absence at the Council meeting but notes that Lawrence Arden did not arrive, nor Leonis (recovering), and Sable of course had to appear alone. Sanguine claims to have killed The River King, leading most of the dragons to dismiss the Fey Lords as threats. Indigo decides to join in and proclaim the Fey Lords to be not worth their time. When the conversation turns to what Sable should do about a new bond, Indigo casts the deciding vote to allow Sable to choose his bond himself. After the meeting he quickly returned to Ludomir.   Danger tests out the orb by scrying Indigo. He sees Indigo with his Shadow Unit in the Tower of the Moon. Ludomir waves in two Monolith Footmen for them to set up as guards before the entrance to the Library of the Gods.   Since the party is basically the authority on the Fey Court, Jett decides to stick with them and help them escape the Shadowfell. They make a plan to enter the Necropolis through its tunnels. A few undead hands grab at them but they swat them away. Seeing a Bone Collective rise in the distance they hop out of the tunnels and onto the city surface. Jett casts Pass Without Trace and they begin sneaking across the city.   Mirian senses Indigo and five others appearing near the Library of the Gods. As he gives the Monolith Footmen their instructions, Emerline tests Indigo to see if he feels anything for her. He does.   A Bone Naga suggests the party goes to an odd-shaped building and when they do, they enter the domain of a Ghoul. Ghouls are a race born undead and are native to the Shadowfell. This Ghoul, Darakhul, appears smarter and more mannered than anything the party has seen in the Shadowfell. He wants to help them escape in return for a book in the Library of the Gods. They agree.   The Shadow Unit steps back into the Material Plane where the party’s messenger hawk finds Indigo. He learns that Meriele’s tree has taken root in the druid’s grove and that a yellow man was spotted in Essonas. He commands the hawk to always deliver to him before anyone else. At the entrance to the library, the party faces the two Monolith Footmen, constructs powered by an odd shadow fey fire. They pour water on both of them, snuffing out the fire and beating them.   They enter the Library of the Gods and come face to face with that statue of 16 figures that resides within. Jett calls them The Pantheon in Absentia, shrouded in mystery, their names and domains were forgotten long ago. At present they are only known as:

• The Architect
• The Logician
• The Commander
• The Debater
• The Advocate
• The Mediator
• The Protagonist
• The Campaigner
• The Logistician
• The Defender
• The Executive
• The Consul
• The Virtuoso
• The Adventurer
• The Entrepreneur
• The Entertainer

  "The Architect" rings a bell in the party's memories. When they asked Gith who built "The Hatchery", that was the answer. Could The Architect be behind Danger's Orb as well?   Darakhul leads the party upstairs where they find nearly all the books have been taken save for a few. Including, a book of light and a book of darkness bound together. Darakhul unbuckles them and grabs the black one, The Book of Vile Darkness, allowing the other, The Book of Exalted Deeds, to vanish from the plane. He promises the party he’ll help them fight the Moonlit King and leaves.   The party poaches every remaining book and leaves for the material plane. There they get all the mail they’ve missed. The Moonlit King fought Bastion and Leonis at the Council. While their dragons fought an army of undead he rose in that spot. They did real damage to the Moonlit King but he used a shadow-based attack that felled both of them. While Leonis was able to stabilize himself, Bastion is dead. Now Leonis is taking Bastion's body back to the Dark Elves. In the chaos, Gith escaped with the eggs. He’s out there somewhere too.   They write letters to their allies, warning them of Indigo, and decide to track down Gith. Their only lead is a newspaper article stating he was spotted stealing a boat in June, Essonas.