After checking their stocks of food and water, the heroes discussed options as to how to most safely travel back to Quanlo - a 30 mile walk South through the unforgiving desert. Deciding to accept the heightened risk of encounters, the party opted to travel under the cool blanket of night and set out on their trek.
The first night passed by fairly uneventful, and as day broke they set out to find shelter. Doc, scouring the mostly featureless and flat horizon, spotted a darkened spot in the shadow of a giant boulder nearby... likely some sort of burrow or hole. Fhasys headed over to investigate, and cautiously made her way down a long, rough-carved dirt tunnel sloping beneath the boulder overhead. After a brief walk, the tunnel leveled out and opened into a wider area, walls covered in a multitude of openings that were too dark to see into. As she investigated the holes in the dirt room, Fhasys was nearly struck by some type of blue metallic appendage, sharp and lethal, that jabbed out from one of the wall holes nearest her. Once she'd caught her breath, she took another careful look and saw the silhouette of a large spider.
Heading back out topside, Fhasys explained the predicament to the group-there was shelter enough for all, but they'd have to clear out some spiders first. The party agreed that a few spiders would be better than dying of heat exhaustion and headed down into the tunnel. Combat ensued.
Three phase spiders blinked into existence, immediately surrounding the party and attacking in a blur of razor-like teeth and claws. The heroes had never encountered these particular spiders before and were quite taken by surprise, but they ultimately prevailed. Vyreth searched the corpses for useful chitin or venom, but didn't possess the skill needed to properly extract either. They cleaned up a bit and set up shop for a day of sleep.
In the night, on Talos' watch, one final spider phased-in and ambushed the meditating elf. The last spider having been slain, the heroes tucked themselves in one more time in hopes of a solid night's sleep...
They woke up well rested and climbed out of their spider hole back into the blue moonlit desert for the final leg of their journey. As they stood around bickering and discussing the prior night's events, the ground beneath them began to vibrate and then shake. A huge dust cloud appeared on the distant horizon, and despite the continual shaking underfoot, the heroes stood their ground in curious anticipation. The shaking grew in intensity as they watched the cloud draw slowly closer and a few heroes struggled to stay on their feet. Then, just in front of the approaching dirt cloud, a giant purple worm breached the surface of the desert and-after a momentary arc up through the air-plowed back underground once more. The shaking intensified.
Bigzid, a dragonborn of a local mountain clan, was on the chase of his life! But, after pursuing this humongous worm for nearly two days straight, he and his horse were beginning to tire. He'd chucked a spear or two at the immense creature to no effect, and no matter how fast he rode the worm casually ambled onward just out of reach. Still, he was intent on bringing back this trophy to his peers to prove his value as a hunter.
In the flurry of dust being kicked up by the worm, not to mention the nearly deafening sound created by all the rocks breaking-up all around them, Bigzid barely heard someone yelling through the chaos. Then, in the blink of an eye, his horse instinctively veered off course to avoid four humanoid figures standing dumbfounded right in his path. The image stuck in his mind for a few moments, eliciting enough curiosity to derail him from the chase, and his horse skidded to a halt some hundred feet out. Knowing there really was no way in hell that he could actually bag this monster, Bigzid decided instead to discover these rare desert travelers.
Offering his skills as a desert guide, Bigzid lead the heroes the rest of the way to Quanlo safely. However, once the foothills appeared in the distance, it was clear that something was amiss. A huge swath of campsites dotted the area surrounding the canyon entrance to Quanlo-a strange sight to behold. Perhaps there was some sort of massive event going on in town? The heroes drew closer and Talos approached some random campers to inquire.
As it turned out, a small horde of undead had descended upon Quanlo, forcing the barring of the city gates and displacing hundreds of travelers heading that way. Doc, Vyreth, Fhasys and Bigzid headed into the canyons to investigate the situation while Talos looked for anyone who might be in charge of the ramshackle settlement. He found one old man, quite snarky and cynical, who rebuffed his initial attempts at persuasion to conscript a peasant army to fight the legions of undead. But, as Talos was full aware, this was a perfect situation for Suggestion. Eventually, the rest of the party reconvened in the encampment and the old man had set off (under Talos' advice) to find the best fighters among the civilians for an assault.
Bigzid gave a rabble-rousing speech to the conscripts and the crew headed into the canyons toward Quanlo. As they grew nearer to the city walls, the sound of screaming and clashing of metal echoed off the canyon walls. A black morass of undead globbed around the walls like some disease infesting the city, a handful of well armored Iron Gate guards hacked their way through the mob valiantly, and archers rained down arrows from the parapets. Even closer and the stench of rotting flesh became so overpowering that some heroes couldn't help but stagger and retch. By their estimates, there were around 60 undead-a mix of skeletons, zombies, and ghasts-and 12 soldiers defending the walls on the ground. Bigzid tried his best to "pull" onesie-twosies from the mob into his civilian defense force as Talos levitated himself (and a rope) up the side of the wall.
The archers atop the wall, upon seeing a robed elven mage casually levitating at their level, were a bit surprised to say the least. They trained their bows on Talos and summoned the sergeant, who ended up being highly skeptical of his honest approach. Eventually, the sergeant acquiesced, escorting Talos into the mages guild to meet with Reeser about the tomb. As they walked away, Talos anchored a long rope beneath the wall ledge using Mage Hand and all but Bigzid climbed to safety.
The black dragon circled overhead as a massive battle ensued. Fhasys joined the archers launching arrows down into the fray while Vyreth and Doc exhausted their spell supply. Huge lightning storms erupted above the mass of undead, frying dozens to a crisp, and Bigzid worked deliberately to pull small groups of undead into his conscript force.
Talos, meanwhile, me with Reeser to discuss the details of their findings in the Tomb of Urzaan. Reeser was confused and concerned by the mention of the scepter they'd handed over to the ancient black dragon, but admitted that he knew nothing of either. During this discussion, Talos spotted a mage standing near a doorway across the room suddenly grab his things and shuffle off down the hall muttering, "It can't be... It simply can't be!" Reeser committed to sending a group of mages to Lehren to seal the Embershale mine, as promised, and Talos headed back out to the walls.
Many of the Gate soldiers perished during the battle, but ultimately the wall was freed of the putrid invasion. The dragon, spotting the heroes below, dive-bombed and blasted a wide swath of acid across the path into the city immediately melting the conscripts and causing some damage to Bigzid. Talos, seeing the dragon come barreling down through the canyon, rushed down to the inner walls and persuaded the guards to crack the gate so he could come inside.
As the Quanlo guard gathered around the heroes cheering their victory, a knot formed in their stomachs... Was this invasion somehow related to the scepter they handed over to the dragon a couple nights prior, outside the tomb?
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