Episode 23, "A Long Way Down"

With the dragon's departure under the cover of night, Trace hastily hopped on his horse and gave chase leaving the heroes with Malik and Reeser in the mages guild courtyard amongst the rubble. Talos and Vyreth went to work searching for victims in the debris, Fhasys wandered down to the Lonesome Lodestone to lighten the pockets of an unsuspecting drunk, and Doc turned in for the night.

In a surprising stroke of luck, Talos and Vyreth managed to find an older mage barely clinging on to life, buried under the debris. The man, in a delusional state, mumbled something about the Thanon mine--the next destination for the party--and Vyreth popped a health potion to bring him back to life. Turns out the man had been with the Order for some time as an apprentice and he divulged some juicy secrets in exchange for saving his life. Unfortunately, the depth of his secrets were limited to only what he knew of the Order during his brief stay: that they were a very old cult of sorts who came about during Quanlo's founding as architects of the stability of the realm. Back in the day, the realm was a crazy, chaotic, magical place and someone had to pull strings so everyone got along. According to this ex-member, the Order was no stranger to resorting to unscrupulous tactics when the situation warranted. After saving the mage, Talos rented the finest room in the shittiest inn in town while Vyreth made his way to the fanciest for a bit of music and R&R.

Upon arriving at the Lonesome Lodestone, Fhasys discovered a few late-night stragglers at the bar and decided to prey upon a dashing, albeit completely hammered man who clearly was down on his luck. In the lady department anyway. Turns out he'd just won a small fortune at an archery contest and was in the process of blowing it all at the bar. Fhasys turned on her charm which, while fiery, didn't seem straightforward enough to get through the man's inebriated conscious. They had a glass of wine, the man bought Fhasys a room at the inn, and she suggested maybe they go back to his place instead. What ensued was an awkward attempt at seducing a terribly drunk man who was teetering on the edge of unconsciousness. Frustrated, she decided to try and sneak up behind him to brain him with her crowbar... but the floor squeaked. Her next plan involved taking him to bed and suggesting she tie him up for fun. This spooked the man nearly sober, and realizing that her new-found loot might be in jeopardy she went ahead and clobbered him right where he lay. Fhasys left a sweet note behind and made off with his gems... Poor sod. On her way out, she also realized that the bartender had seen them together and would likely hear the story of his night fairly soon thereafter.

Vyreth arrived to the Lodestone shortly after Fhasys and the drunkard left. He pulled up a front-row seat to the bard, ordered a phat meal and passed out.

The next morning, the heroes and Malik headed out of Quanlo to the Thanon mine to see what this "strange discovery" was all about. They arrived to a puzzling scene--a group of guards huddled around a slave wagon to the east side of the quarry and a sole horse tied up outside the admin building to the west. Fearing the guards were awaiting their arrival, perhaps an Order ambush, they discussed options. But in the end, Doc managed to convince everyone just to be straightforward and approach them like nothing was wrong. One of the veteran guards got off his ass to greet the party, Vyreth and he traded barbs about the slave trade, and seeing no threat to his slave caravan the guard returned to his crew.

The heroes then turned their attention toward the admin house where they found Bruenor and a slave merchant named Clifford engaged in a rather testy exchange. Cliff was trying to (again) off-load women slaves and Bruenor was having none of it. Vyreth cut-in and asked about Varishna, his lost love, but Cliff had no recollection of any blonde slaves in his possession. Cliff also stressed that he only dealt in "volume" trades, but he'd ask his employer about it next time they met. They also managed to score a map of the mine from Bruenor, just before a whole lot of screaming happened outside.

Emerging from the ad-house, the heroes discovered a lone hill giant had descended upon the slavers and was trying to pop the lid of the cage like a Pez dispenser. For a moment, the party thought maybe they'd just let the giant and the guards sort things out... but then the true form of "good" alignment won them over and they engaged the brute. Combat ensued and the heroes quickly dispatched the oaf leaving the slaver caravan a couple guards shy of their original number.

Turning toward the mine, the heroes made quick work of the upper-levels (thanks to the map) and soon arrived at the "discovery"--a collapsed section of tunnel floor that dropped down into an abyss of a cavern shrouded in darkness. A faint greenish glow could be seen far below, likely some sort of ground cover, and they went to work trying to figure out how to get down there. Malik, perhaps being the only sane person in the group, decided he'd let the adventurers do their thing and head back to the guild for lunch.

Fhasys grabbed a crampon and began pounding it into the rocky tunnel floor while Vyreth worked on tying three 50' ropes together. Neither of them did a stellar job, but it seemed to have worked out. Talos, meanwhile, handed Doc his fine shirt of feather-falling and cast flight on himself. Vyreth took the lead climbing down the rope with Fhasys above him (good thing she wears pants) while the mage and paladin floated daintily down beside them. Once through the hole in the floor, it became obvious rather quickly that the heroes had once again found access to the Underdark. Gritting their teeth and trying to stave off memories of adventures past, they continued their descent.

About 40' down, Vyreth's hands slipped sending him plummeting to the cavern floor below. The druid fell a good 80' before plowing into a thick layer of gigantic, bio-luminescent fungi. What sounded like multiple air raid sirens began sounding all around him (shriekers), filling the cavern with a raucous noise so loud he couldn't hear Fhasys shouting down at him from above. He'd also apparently crushed several poisonous 'shrooms as a thick, greenish spore cloud began to settle all around him making him feel rather sick. Stunned and disoriented, Vyreth watched another similarly amusing scene unfold above him on the rope.

Several darkmantles bombed the trio from the cavern ceiling, two attaching themselves to Talos and engulfing his head in slimy darkness and a third which barreled down straight for Vyreth. Talos managed to keep his elven cool and stayed suspended despite his new-found friends, and used repeated chill-touch attempts to freeze-dry the squid. Doc, being in perpetual motion, quickly fell out of range toward the mushroom patch below. As talos struggled with the darkmantles, Fhasys was similarly accosted by one of her own. She tried to keep climbing down but, in a fit of rage, lashed out with her rapier and accidentally severed her own rope sending her plummeting down toward Vyreth.

Talos finally managed to shatter the squid on his head, just in time to see Fhasys falling to the cavern floor and Doc landing gingerly atop one of the gigantic spore caps like a ballerina. Vyreth, finally coming to, realized there was a squid heading for his own face and reflexively cast mirror-image, splitting his visage into 4. The darkmantle plowed through one of his illusions, smashing into the dirt and injuring it. Doc took the opportunity to cleave it with his glaive. Talos finally descended to ground-floor amidst the incessant shrieking, Fhasys got up and dusted herself off, and the heroes looked around apprehensively wondering what in the hell they'd just gotten themselves into. The hole through which they'd entered seemed now like a distant star in a dark night sky.

Welcome back to the Underdark.

Episode 22, "Uncovering the Past"

The heroes filed into the grand dining hall of the Quanlo mages guild and sat around a huge, ornately carved wooden table. On one end sat Reeser Cloudlake, headmaster of the guild; at the other, one Malik Everborne, guild historian and archivist. Trace joined the party for the feast as did a couple other apprentice mages who were there overseeing the entire dinner affair.

Upon Reeser's request, the heroes recounted whatever stories they could summon from their recent travels involving anything odd or supernatural in order to bring Malik up to speed. Beginning back in Lehren, they described the Embershale mine and the breach to the Underdark, the encounter with the aboleth, Quar Jezz't, the blighted ogre who--after rampaging through town--died and gave rise to ghasts amidst a pool of black ichor, various sightings involving the massive undead black dragon, the tomb of Urzaan and its strange illusory bubble, and the recent undead onslaught thought to have originated from a nearby lumber camp.

Malik listened to the historical recounts with intense fascination, and finally he and Reeser offered their own findings as the food finally arrived to the table: a handful of missing mages, a potential connection between the "eye" amulet found in the tomb and a rough sketch of some mages made during the early days of Quanlo, and another sketch of a dragon flying high above the countryside--again, created during the founding days of the city. Neither Malik nor Reeser found any direct mention of any sort of organization or cult revolving around the amulet's sigil, but Malik suggested a possible connection between the portal found in the tomb and another bizarre discovery in the Thanon mines.

While Malik and Reeser contemplated all of the disparate stories and goings-on, Vyreth and Malik suddenly and intensely took ill. Someone(s) had poisoned the food! Vyreth struggled to hold it together at the table but soon collapsed at the table. Malik, turning ghostly pale and weak, began to hemorrhage blood from his eyes and nose. Fhasys was first to notice the signs and alerted Reeser, who immediately called for a guild-wide lock down until they could sort out what was going on. The dwarven cooking crew was filed out of the kitchen and questioned by the guards while Doc set to work healing Malik and Vyreth. Once the chaos of the poisoning subsided, Reeser suggested the heroes search the vacant rooms for clues and then head to the Thanon mine with Malik to investigate whatever was discovered.

While searching the mage quarters, Talos discovered recently used ink and paper, took a coal rubbing, and a strange rhyme--written in Abyssal--emerged: "Ruby soul of heartless glass, callous, cruel, and treacherous past." Based on the language alone, the party assumed it had something to do with the tomb and the dragon as well... Collecting their things (and helping Malik to his feet, exhausted from the poisoning), the heroes left the guild for the Thanon mine.

Episode 21, "Homecoming"

The heroes turn back toward the forest path to the South leaving Lake Sera, Peter, Elmsea, and Zizzle in their rearviews... Despite having discovered the "true" nature of Peter and Elmsea's love, most of the adventurers feel a twinge of regret for not staying behind and allowing themselves to become swept up in the magic of the dryad's glade. Ignorance, in this case, could certainly have spelled bliss. Doc is, perhaps, the most troubled as he is voluntarily leaving his childhood friend behind to a lifetime of being charmed by a fey. But, having tried on several occasions to snap Peter out of it, his friend simply saw nothing wrong with his situation in the glade and opted to stay put.

Returning to the riverside campsite from the night prior, the party discusses what to do next. Some express concern about treking it all the way back through the dense, hostile jungle and suggest a lengthy detour through the grasslands and up past Lehren to the West. Vyreth expresses his concern over his village and the state of the women who were stolen some time ago. He'd like to either go to Veir to find this "Gandrin" person (see previous journal notes) or to the Thanon mines to give Bruenor a talking-to. The crew eventually agrees to trudge forward along the forest path as it's the quickest way back to town.

Upon their return to the abandoned lumber camp, under the cover of darkness, the heroes encounter a small group of Iron Gate guards camping in the clearing. Relieved that they're no longer alone in the woods, the two groups come together for a fine night of drinking, banter, and story-telling. As the guards start to nod off, a strange visitor appears out of nowhere asking if anyone had bothered clearing the barracks (nope). It was a rhetorical question. The stranger's name is Trace, an elven ranger of some repute whose face everyone recognizes from the Ruins of Enra (see doppleganger). Once disbelief wears off, Fhasys finds her heart a'twittering once more for the shady character and they wander off for a late night chat. Fhasys, being the sharp cookie she is, discovers that Trace is in fact her long-lost father... The so-called "psycho" that her mother, Sybil, had driven away before giving birth.

While Fhasys and Trace caught up on history, the forest edge nearest the Gate campsite begins to warp and twist violently, eventually spewing forth two humanoid tangled masses of vine and leaf who charge the camp. Combat ensues.

The strange creatures turn out to be quite tough, and one manages to grapple and squish two of the Gate guards! Vyreth tries his hand at lightning, but to everyone's surprise what's expected to damage the creatures only ends up healing them. Doc valiantly puts himself between one of the shambling mounds and Fhasys/Trace, and he takes a solid beating for it. Finally, with no more of the guards remaining, the heroes triumph. Clearly sick and tired of the forest at this point, the group high-tails it out of the forest and back to Quanlo.

Returning to the Mages guild, Talos seeks out Reeser to discuss the situation in Lehren (sealing the mine) and whatever Reeser has managed to discover about the dragon, the tomb, and the strange "eye" medallions he'd found. Reeser presents a mixed-bag of results, but says there's much to discuss and offers to gather everyone over dinner at the guild hall.

For the next two hours or so, Fhasys finds a guild enchanter who charges way more than she can afford (always frustrating), Vyreth finds a potion store and stocks up, Talos spends some time in the guild library and Doc takes a nap.

Dinner time finally arrives and the heroes are greeted by Reeser once more, to be lead to the great dining hall where much will be divulged.