Episode 28, "Stemming The Tide"

In the campaign finale, the heroes--accompanied by a small regiment of Iron Gate troops bolstered by the Red Hand (and Slabtown), the mages guild, the Lehren militia and a couple treants courtesy of Elmsea--fortify the canyon entrance to Quanlo. With the mages up high along the cliff face and the troops down below, the lot steels themselves against the onslaught crossbows readied.

As the wave of undead rolls in, the troops manage to cut down quite a few zombies and skeletons before the helmed horrors and blighted ogres arrive. Vyreth and Doc combine forces to hold court with their respective Gods, and they come to the conclusion that meddling in mortal affairs in this case is indeed warranted. The treants arrive and begin hucking boulders down upon the invading army, but the Gods have a better idea. Guided by the hand of fate, the boulders take on an almost comet-like golden sheen and magically redirect straight towards the oncoming dragon.

Despite the terrible odds, the defenders hold their ground; mages raining lightning and fire down upon the legions of undead. The battle rages all night long amidst a violent thunderstorm until Dralek closes in to strafe the entire ground force with his necrotic breath. Seeing the opportunity, the Quanlo mages ready cone of cold and await his arrival while the remaining troops stand ready with their crossbows.

In one attack, Dralek manages to decimate the ground troops by nearly a third and strips the life from Doc who got caught in the blast. The mages get ready to cast their spells when Talos banishes the foul beast to another plane... temporarily.

The defenders use the momentary opportunity to clean up the remaining undead forces before collectively setting their sights on the re-entry point. Sure enough, a portal pops open right where Dralek had been and the monster comes barreling through right into the oncoming fire of an army. The cold blast seizes up one of Dralek's wings and a volley of crossbow bolts embed themselves into his stomach like a pincushion, sending him careening down into the canyon cliff face.

Dralek struggles to get back on his feet but Doc, freshly revived and inspired by Apollo, charges the beast and cleaves its skull with his new Dragonslayer glaive. The dragon collapses to the ground as the remaining troops give a loud cheer. As the sun begins to rise, it illuminates the vast number of corpses littering the canyon entrance clear out past the trade road. The heroes breathe a sigh of relief and begin thinking about their new homes in Quanlo when Talos suffers a debilitating and horrific vision courtesy of Quar-Jezz't--the aboleth who has come to take payment for Talos' failure to follow through on a promise. The heroes gather around Talos trying to determine his state of well-being when he mutters a phrase in some ancient dialect: "...into the depths."

Left to sort out Talos' words and condition, the heroes begin the long, muddy walk back to Quanlo. Dralek is no more, and the realm has been saved from almost certain disaster.

- The End -

Episode 27, "Severing Ties"

The heroes resume their battle with Yzztlach and the vrocks...

With another series of blows, the demon smacks Fhasys down and knocks her unconscious. Doc attempts to plead with Yzztlach to call off the assault but he's having none of that... Things are looking pretty dire when a strange lone cloud of black smoke comes barreling in from the distance. The mages, upon noticing this aberration, know exactly what's coming their way and erect a pair of force walls to shield the party. As the cloud closes in, the heroes make out the black silhouette of a dragon! Behind the shelter of the force walls, the heroes watch as the black smoke cloud washes over Yzztlach causing rot and decay wherever it lands. Dralek's shade slams into Yzztlach, digging its claws into his shoulders and sending them both barreling into the petrified grove like a rogue pinball. The vrocks head back to the safety of their treetop nests while the dragon and demon fight to the death. In the wake of Dralek's entrance, the party stands around discussing options... Do they run for the portal? Use this opportunity to finish off Yzztlach and hope for Dralek's support? Or just wait and see how it all plays out?

Two of the Order mages sneak up to the melee to weigh the situation, and they urge the heroes to lay low for the time being. Doc, meanwhile, wanders off into the grove to the South in search of a shiny object that was sent flying when the two giants collided. He ends up finding Wishram's bauble, an amber glowing glass sphere, and stuffs it in his pack. Unfortunately, Jorun was keeping an eye on him and wanders over. The mage asks for the bauble so he may begin the ritual of releasing Wishram before Dralek returns his focus on them and Doc acquiesces. Jorun places the sphere atop a tree stump and begins the ritual while Faerun uses mage hand to pluck another bauble from the treetops to use as a decoy. A vrock, obviously not happy losing its bauble, follows the hand down the tree to the group below and attacks.

Doc manages to hold off the vrock while the ritual is performed, and Vyreth notices that his new scimitar is creating a magical stream of water slowly winding its way to the bauble. A strange urge to take the bauble begins to overtake his senses and he closes in, but by sheer will alone common sense prevails and he resists the almost overwhelming temptation.

Dralek polishes off Yzztlach, tearing his head from his body and holding it up to warn the heroes of what's to come. Faerun chucks the faux-bauble his way, but Dralek scoffs at the ruse and charges. Cracks begin forming in the glass bauble, rays of amber light beaming through the openings, as Jorun finishes the ritual. As Dralek plows his way through the grove toward the heroes, the bauble finally shatters releasing a swirling mist of amber that slowly coalesces around a gaunt, menacing figure wearing a fancy robe.

Wishram is free. He immediately takes Jorun's life as sacrifice for the ritual, then walks straight up to Dralek stopping him in his tracks. The dragon seems to know Wishram. The sorcerer welcomes Dralek as "his pet", infuriating the shadow dragon. Dralek sits up on his haunches and readies himself for a breath attack. Wishram casually extends his rotting arm, places his hand on the dragon's chest and utters one word... "Die." The dragon screeches out in pain as a wave of disintegration radiates out from where Wishram had touched leaving nothing but a pile of dark ash in its wake. Wishram, having upheld his end of the bargain, turns to face the heroes.

Wishram greets Talos and congratulates him in having grown into such an adept mage, and asks the heroes what business they have releasing him. The heroes explain the situation with Dralek, Wishram thanks them for releasing him (not a good thing) and urges their hasty departure. Having just been released from a century's slumber, Wishram is very very hungry...

The heroes gladly depart the Abyss and head back through the portal to the Underdark for a bit of R&R and conversation with the remaining Order mages. The heroes agree to protect the Order's secret of creating Dralek in exchange for not getting framed for his release and the mages make their way back to the tomb for further research, leaving the heroes to fend for themselves on their way back out of the mine.

The return trip is uneventful and eerily quiet; even the upper levels of the mine are completely silent save for the sounds of heavy rain and thunder from outside. Emerging from the mine, the heroes take in a frightening scene... It is night with a huge storm breaking overhead, and the intermittent flashes of lightning illuminate a large army of undead making their way across the desert toward Quanlo. Dralek is making his final attack.

Trace comes racing up the trade route and skids to a halt outside the mine. He implores the heroes to return to Quanlo as Dralek's army is at the gates. The heroes feel deja-vu, swearing they'd just killed Dralek, but shake it off and agree to return. When asked about Dralek, Trace says he'd been tracking the dragon for weeks when something happened causing it to suddenly fall from the sky as if injured. The heroes mention the battle in the Abyss but Trace doesn't understand the connection. He suggests meeting with Reeser at the guild to learn more.

Back in Quanlo, in the safety of the mages guild, the heroes press Reeser for payment and identification services in return for killing Dralek's shade. They discuss recent happenings in the Abyss managing to dodge most questions about what they found, and Reeser somberly advises the heroes to steel themselves for the final assault. Without his shade, Dralek is vulnerable and must be taken down. War is afoot.

Episode 26, "Along The Path Of Temptation"

Having defeated the invisible servant guarding the throne room door in the Tomb of Urzaan, the heroes inch up the stairway to listen-in. Their ears are keen this time, and they pick up a whole lot of useful information from three Order mages conversing on the other side. The Order has been closely guarding the secret of Dralek, the dracolich terrorizing the countryside, for over two centuries now and are scrambling to try and figure out how to handle him now that he's reclaimed his soul (thanks, Doc). They discuss the potential of framing the heroes for Dralek's rampage, and then toy with the idea of retrieving the soul of an old and powerful sorcerer from a demon on the Abyssal plane to begin the process of destroying the dragon itself when Fhasys decides to try and open the door. A trap triggers, zapping the rogue with a dose of lightning, and Vyreth dispels whatever magic might be lingering around the door itself.

The door-fiddling alerts the Order mages on the other side who steel themselves for a fight. Some words are exchanged through the door and finally, cautiously, the heroes file into the throne room to talk to the mages. Talos takes up the lead as ambassador for his party and speaks with the mages in Elven. In a strange turn of events, it turns out that the mages and Talos share a common goal--to find and destroy the sorcerer, Wishram's soul, for good. (Wishram is Talos' ex-master, now enslaved by the demon Yzztlach due to an unfortunate turn of events quite some time ago). Fhasys, once again, finds the general high-and-mighty attitude of the Elven mages to be abnoxious as best and she tries to stir the pot a bit... But, cooler heads prevail. They discuss the varied dangers of the Abyssal plane for a bit and then make their way back to the portal room.

The new group teleport to the Abyssal plane, a dark and foreboding landscape, and immediately spot their destination--a softly illuminated grove of twisted, petrified trees perched on the ledge of the humongous floating chunk of rock on which they stand. Along the way, each hero stumbles upon a rare magical item placed conspicuously in plain-view, clean and sparkling as if fresh out of the shop. Sendil, the head of the mage trio, points out that Yzztlach is a galbrezu--a demon who feeds off of tempting mortals into their own destruction. Despite cautions aired by the Order mages, the heroes snatch-up their new trinkets and store them for future identification.

As the heroes near the grove, a cacophony of screeching and squawking fills their ears. Dozens of strange, black silhouettes dangle and perch among the branches of the grove; some seeming hybrid of monkeys and giant vultures. The soft glow spotted from the portal door also comes into focus, revealing large glowing baubles hanging from the tree limbs here and there. While the heroes contemplate a surprise attack, the mages caution to keep a cooler head as they have a history in dealing with Yzztlach that they do not want to tarnish. The heroes acquiesce and the lot moves into the grove.

The vrocks in the trees above seemingly pay no notice to the passers-by as they travel through an archway made of petrified branches toward the sounds of a woman pleading for help on the other side. Once they clear the grove, the party arrives at a rocky ledge overlooking an abyss and another floating hunk of rock some 20' out on which stands a solitary, bedraggled woman. Vyreth immediately recognizes the woman as Varishna, his lost love, and teleports over to the rock for a teary and happy reunion. With their final prize accepted, the demon Yzztlach makes an appearance.

Sendil and the Order mages fire an opening volley of respect and reverence to the demon, but things quickly start coming off the rails when he suggests that they must sacrifice both Wishram's soul AND Varishna to Dralek's shade in order to defeat him. The mages had assumed only the soul was necessary, but begrudgingly accept the new marching orders. The heroes, on the other hand, start to question this entire scenario from the ground-up. As they debate, Doc asks what they need to do for the bauble around Yzztlach's neck and the demon asks for a "sacrifice" from each group. When asked to clarify, the demon dances around the subject--clearly believing himself to be in the position of power. Faerun decides to volunteer herself for the exchange and steps toward the abyss willingly, but amidst the debate within the hero circle Talos looses a lightning bolt squarely at Yzztlach. Combat ensues.

Faerun, realizing the gravity of the situation at-hand, pleads with the heroes to stop their attack while Sendil and Jorun (the other two mages) argue about making a move vs. surrendering on the spot. The demon sprouts wings and flies into the middle of the group, then proceeds to casually grapple and pummel Talos into unconsciousness. Not a good sign. The others take notice and begin to worry that perhaps they're in over their heads. Still, the attacks from the party continue. Fhasys decides to make a persuasive attempt to convince the mages to side with them, and does so successfully. With their new-found confidence, the mages loose a fireball and volley of magic missiles at Yzztlach with little effect. A small flock of vrocks begins to form above the petrified grove and several swoop in using their terrifying screeches to stun... everyone. Vyreth rushes over to Talos' aid as the vrocks begin lashing out with their beaks and claws. A heavy feeling of dread descends upon the party as Sendil prepares for his next attack.

Episode 25, "Out On A Limb"

After a harrowing affair with a mind flayer and its intellect devouring associate, the heroes decide what to do next... Doc and Talos study the scimitar dropped by the flayer and, after identifying it, reveal it to be the Scimitar of the Primordial--a perpetually condensing magical scimitar that expands one's extra-sensory receptivity, making the wielder both more in-tune and vulnerable to his or her surroundings on an intuitive level. It also deals 1d6 psychic damage and has pretty underwater flora designs etched into the sides of the notched blade. Score!

Fhasys, mostly ignored up until this point, gets some ad-hoc treatment by the party's very own druid. He gives her a firm slapping (to no avail), tries yelling at her and shaking her, and finally lays down the law with Dispel Magic... but nothing seems to snap the rouge out of her vegetative state. Worry sets in. Finally, the heroes decide to barricade themselves in the feeding chamber and see what a long rest does for her brain. It helps. A bit.

Fhasys awakens suddenly capable of abstract thought and communication, but still nowhere near as sharp as she used to be. Frustrating. The mob gathers their stuff and makes their way south through a tunnel that seems to be carrying a bit of a draft. The heroes soon emerge from the tunnel on to a ledge jutting out from the side of a canyon wall deeper in the Underdark and find themselves feeling alarmingly exposed. The darkness of the canyon extends above and below and outward in all directions save (again) for the scattered bio-luminescent fungi cluster dotting the canyon walls. While the ledge on which they sand had long since crumbled into the abyss below to their right, it continues some distance to their left toward a descending stairway. Fhasys and Talos toss ball bearings about hoping to learn more about their surroundings but only discover another ledge below. Steeling their resolve and readying their weapons, the heroes slowly and stealthily make their way across.

Halfway to the stairway, Fhasys gets a weird feeling and catches some strange activity overhead. It would appear some thing or things are hovering just outside the visible boundary cast by the lit braziers along the walkway. She throws another ball bearing up toward the movement and receives only a strange, disembodied moan in response. Shrugging it off, the party continues on.

They begin descending the staircase and make it roughly halfway down the 300-odd step switchback when the "things" from the darkness above begin their slow descent. Two large manta ray looking creatures with grotesque fleshless skulls for faces swoop down upon the exposed party: The first of which emits a deep, bone-chilling moan that sends all but Vyreth running for their lives and then mirror images itself into 3 copies. The second cloaker slams into Vyreth, grabbing on to his shoulder with its teeth and wrapping around his body like a thick leathery blanket. Four darkmantles piggyback on to the opportunity and come crashing down from the ceiling above; one manages to lodge itself firmly on Vyreth's head, beginning the process of suffocation, while the rest slam harmlessly onto the staircase. Blind and choking, Vyreth struggles to stay on his feet and decides to shape shift into a bear with hopes of breaking free.

Vyreth, now in his bear form, thrashes about wildly dislodging both of his passengers for a moment of freedom but is once again overwhelmed by the cloakers and darkmantles. His compatriots, once Fear has worn off, suddenly come to at the bottom of the staircase wondering where the hell Vyreth is. They look back and see a pile of cloakers and assume the worst. A bolt from Fhasys kills one of the cloakers, sending it sloughing off the stairway and into the abyss. Talos blasts the second cloaker with a lightning bolt, immediately disintegrating it and revealing Vyreth's now unconscious form: A slimy, ooze-covered and matted bear with two darkmantles still attached and constricting him. Doc takes a valiant swing with his glaive but loses his grip mid-swing sending the weapon spinning away into the darkness. Ultimately, they free Vyreth from his hosts and manage to bring him back from the brink.

At the bottom of the staircase, the heroes discover another ledge leading to a doorway with a solid black stone door. Not wanting to risk anything more, Vyreth casts Dispel Magic to pop the lock and disarm the trap, and the lot shoves their way inside... anxious to get out of the Underdark. Inside, they find a portal room, complete with hand-drawn pentagram and various scattered objects. The lot shuts the stone door behind them and prepares to do a lot of thinking...

Talos does some poking around using his arcane knowledge and comes to the conclusion that some combination of trinkets and/or other gestures/sounds will open the portal. Vyreth and Doc search around but find little else other than what was already mentioned. Fhasys ponders for a moment and decides to just start trying combinations while the others think some more. Her first couple attempts temporarily open the portal but aren't lasting enough for travel. Her third attempt creates a magical concussive feedback blast blowing everyone against the walls. Ouch. She regroups and tries again. A second feedblack blast knocks out everyone but Fhasys, so she decides to use the opportunity to take a nap. The rest of the party awakens an hour or so later and resumes their investigation.

Fate eventually blesses the group with insight and breaks them free of the bondage of collective amnesia. Fhasys reminds Talos of the rubbing taken back in the abandoned room at the mages guild; the prose that read, "Ruby soul of heartless glass, callous, cruel, and treacherous past." Using this clue, they decide on some objects and place them in the center of the pentagram. However, the portal activates and flickers out once more. Vyreth, out of the corner of his eye, catches a piece of paper fall from Talos' bag (fate, again); on it, a note simply reading "Dralek". Using the same objects as before, plus uttering the dragon's  name, blows open the portal and the lot make their way through.

Fhasys, being the first to make it through, scans the new area and recognizes it as being the portal room in the tomb of Urzaan! Small town. The heroes wind their way back through the tunnel, across the underground stream, and are met with the blunt-force trauma of another invisible stalker's fists. Combat ensues. The heroes take turns running up to the front of the line and unleashing their attacks in the general direction of the stairway ahead and, after a pretty significant beating, manage to destroy the servant. Exhausted and bruised, they take a moment to heal and drink some water before continuing up the stairway toward the (now) closed wooden door to the throne room.

Episode 24, "Hunting the Order"

Just as the heroes dust themselves off from the long fall into the Underdark, the ground beneath their feet erupts into an explosion of dirt, mycelium, bones and detritus. Some nasty creature (otyugh), awakened by the visitors' arrival, lashes out with huge brown spiked tentacles and a gaping maw of dagger-like teeth. The heroes manage to slay the creature handily, only to be attacked again by a small horde of phase spiders. Wave upon wave of the blue metallic insects wink in and out of existence as they advance on the newcomers atop fungi hill. A sense of impending doom engulfs the party as they ready their swords for the onslaught.

The spiders have no problem phasing their way through the deadly mix of giant mushrooms littering the dirt mound but the heroes find it a tad more difficult to navigate. A spell and an errant bolt from Fhasys' crossbow detonate a couple gas spores sending a cloud of toxic gas in all directions. During the melee, Vyreth gets poisoned by spiders so badly that he collapses to the ground and gets dragged-off causing much concern. Fhasys manages to track Vyreth as he gets dragged down the hill and luckily keeps him from being cocooned. The battle rages for what seems like hours until finally the last of the spiders crumples. The heroes, at this point barely clinging on to life, manage to orchestrate a heal-fest using their remaining potions and spells and take inventory of their surroundings once again.

The area surrounding the mound on which they stand lay shrouded in darkness; a seemingly endless expanse of unknown. Fhasys looses a fiery bolt in each of the four cardinal directions in an attempt to feel out the dimensions of their cavern. Sure enough, with a thud and a steamy hiss, each bolt lodges into a far wall covered in lichen and spider silk. The cavern, however, is too damp to foster a cleansing wildfire and the bolts quickly extinguish. The light from the bolts suggests a large cavern some 500' in diameter, crudely carved from the dirt and lined with spider webbing. At the junction of the floor and walls on all sides of the cave sit clusters of shiny spider eggs. They've fallen right into a spider nest! A couple tunnels are spotted as well, but the heroes decide to risk a much-needed long rest before making their way down the hill.

Their rest, of course, is interrupted by several more phase spiders and combat ensues. On their second attempt at extending a short rest, they manage to get some R&R in the dark quiet of the cavern. The heroes turn their attention to the tunnels and set to exploring. A handful of resting spiders guarding cocooned prey are discovered at the end of several winding tunnels, and Fhasys cuts open the cocoons only to find decayed miner bits. Talos has a bright idea and animates the corpses to be used as probes, but they're quickly torn to shreds upon discovering the next cluster of spiders. After a short while of exploring, a cry for help comes echoing through the labyrinth. The party pensively decides to investigate.

With Fhasys in the lead, the heroes attempt to stealth to the best of their ability but Doc's squeaky metal armor gives away their location. They soon arrive at a crossroads of sorts with a dead robed Order mage lying on the tunnel floor just beyond a large opening into some sort of room. Assuming she's stealthed, Fhasys pokes her head around the corner and is spotted by the room's occupants--one humanoid figure clad in a dark leather trench coat with a purple octopus-like head and one raised miner corpse standing idle, swaying slowly by the entrance. The mind flayer, sensing Fhasys' arrival, cassts mind blast and then planeshifts out of existence. Fhasys, partially stunned by the blast, slumps against the dirt cavern wall as the raised miner slowly shuffles toward her. The mind blast, having reduced Fhasys to zero intelligence, creates an opening for the intellect devourer using the miner as a host. The miner grabs on to Fhasys' shoulders, opens its mouth and issues forth a blackened fog from its mouth engulfing her head.

Unfortunately (or, perhaps fortunately), the rest of the party--having filed neatly behind Fhasys--doesn't really know what's happening at this point. They call out her name but she doesn't respond, standing slumped against the entrance to the room motionless. The heroes rush in to investigate and immediately cut-down the miner locked in some sort of "moment" with Fhasys. The rogue, released from the intellect devourer's attempt at brain theft, collapses on to the tunnel floor and stares blankly out into space seemingly unresponsive. The corpse of the now slain miner lies still for a moment, then its head splits open gushing ichor all over the ground. Its brain, apparently having sprouted legs, claws its way free of the confines of the skull and dies. Meanwhile, the mind flayer planeshifts back into existence and snares Vyreth into a strangle-hold. The heroes attempt to wrap their minds around all that's transpired while the flayer goes to work on Vyreth's skull with some ancient, serrated blade. As the cold metal cuts through his skin, Vyreth stands paralyzed and helpless. As the party gets ready to assault the mindflayer, it suddenly drops its weapon and vanishes. Talos finds himself once again overcome by a familiar voice and imagery as the aboleth Quar-Jezz't reaches out through the Underdark using telepathy. The aboleth kindly reminds Talos to follow-through with their original bargain made in the Embershale mine, or next time they won't be so lucky.

Talos comes to to a grisly scene... Vyreth lay on the ground, scalp bleeding profusely from an attempted brain extraction. Fhasys sits slumped against the tunnel wall apparently incapable of rational thought. And the dead, four-legged brain of an ex-miner lay in a puddle of ooze at the entrance to what appears to be the food storage room of the phase spider den. Those heroes still capable of evaluating the situation at hand all agree... Shit just went from bad to worse. And, they haven't even found the Order mages yet.

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.