Unfortunately, they did not make it back to town before the spell of travel around them expired. Splitting up, the group returned to the city in three groups: Toll and Lusipher rode back all night on the back of Vheshema; Gwendon and Sirrathi teleported back into the castle with Gallandro; Kobort and Misha teleported back into the city sewers with Jakkara. Gallandro and Gwendon decided to go out and hunt Red Hoods again. Kobort and Jakkara returned to the castle for a night “together”. However, upon arriving at the castle, Balin began to laugh and cry and yelled that “Pelor was crying” from his balcony on the third floor – before leaping off to splat on the floor nearly 50 feet below. Jakkara’s quick reaction saved his life, where he promptly forgot what he did when questioned. Disgusted, the pair took him back to his chamber before going to Kobort’s room. Misha began to search the sewers for the “elf” that they were told lived down here.
Misha searched for a short while, and found the elf at last. Calling out in Elven, she stopped the elusive fae from retreating, and spoke with him at length. Apparently, Zephrin is the keeper of Elven lore that remained behind to ensure that the Elven knowledge left behind was not corrupted by the drow. In the meantime, he had become sick of the brutal treatment of performance art and was waging a one-elf war against them. But none of the beauty and serenity of the elves would be accepted by the barbaric humans, who had debased theatre with nothing more than a glorified song and dance about the arena. After some talking, he agreed to help Misha in any way possible – going so far as to give her a harp that would allow her to trace a cherished possession back to its owner without error. Misha thanked him – a little unnerved at some of his revelations – and agreed to return to see him later, before returning to the castle for the night.
An invisible Gallandro and Gwendon found the Red Hoods in the People’s Ward, and began to follow them. They noted that the group appeared to actually be a bumbling group of incompetents – arousing suspicion in Gallandro. Having his pseudo-dragon look around, he discovered a pair of invisible people less than sixty feet from where he and Gwen were trailing the Red Hoods. Moving over to where Gwendon was watching (with the aid of the dragon), he whispered to her about the existence of the invisible people. Then he said no more as the pair felt a sting on the back of their necks, with an invisible Gallandro falling on a startled Gwendon. Quickly dropping a smokestick, Gwendon grabbed Gallandro and his pseudo-dragon and made way into the sewer – to fly back to the keep. There, after the invisibility spell had worn off, she discovered that Gallandro was dead. The needle had apparently killed him instantly.
Searching through the castle, Gwendon woke Misha to have her help look at Gallandro. Unfortunately, Toll was still on dragon back at that moment, so Gwendon settled down in the entry hall to wait for his arrival. Misha pulled all of Gallandro’s belongings out and sorted them looking for something that might help – but was merely confused by the enormity of everything that he had. In the end, Toll was able to return life to Gallandro when he and Lusipher arrived at dawn. He then cast the transportation spell on all who wanted it before turning in to get some rest.
While the group prepared to sleep, lady Arlinde got Asgrim, Misha, Gwendon and Toll and pointed out to the fields in front of the castle, where she said a message from the Dark Stalkers was being signaled. Lusipher quickly went out into the city to talk to the dwarves about hiring help for his bar – where he heard that the Weirdlin’s had captured a small green dragon for the Arena – before returning to the keep to sleep. Back at the castle, Gwendon translated it to mean that the Dark Stalkers had killed four invisible Red Hoods – capturing three of the bodies while the fourth was taken by its companion into the sewers and was lost. They quickly realized that the Dark Stalkers had actually killed Gallandro by mistake. After agreeing never to tell him of this, the group finally settled down for some rest.
Once the group was awake for the day, they decided that they would investigate the supposed ‘Secret door’ behind the throne of the castle. Lady Arlinde also asked that they retrieve Acelia, as she was needed to perform the ritual of coronation between the Queen and the land – as was Toll. She explained that there were two rituals – the public ritual for the people to acknowledge their new ruler and the private ritual that would connect the queen to the spirit of the city and the kingdom. Apparently, the Queen and those sworn defenders have inherent control over portions of the city, such as making any water source become airy, or opening or closing any gate. Furthermore, there were many abilities the queen has exclusively to aid in the defense of the city. Toll contacted Acelia magically and she agreed to help. Gallandro agreed to teleport out to retrieve her, as he remembered well the half buried loggers where Acelia asked to meet. The others went to explore the ‘secret door’.
Arriving at the circular pattern in the floor, Gwendon told it to open, which it did, forming a narrow spiral staircase down. At the bottom was a narrow hallway that dead ended with a palm print on the wall. Touching the print, Gwendon moved through the wall, changing as she did into water as she stepped into the pool in front of the throne. The others could not continue forward, so had to go back up. This disturbed Asgrim greatly, as his charge had a proven tendency to get into trouble if left unattended. He hurried back up to try and find her, but there was no trace. Lusipher informed Toll about the dragon attraction at the Arena, before heading out to finish his bar business. Meanwhile, Gwendon discovered what was at the end of the secret passage, a chamber underneath the large royal seal in the main hall of the Keep. Within the chamber she found the Queen’s champion: A pristine condition Megalith standing at least 20 feet high! Amazed at her discovery, she returned to the rest of group and told Asgrim what she had found – after a good scolding from him on her ditching him again.
Later that evening, after Lusipher had returned and the rest of the group heard about the dragon, the group decided to go investigate – as their friend Dart who they left back in the caverns had become a green dragon after his last death. Jakkara informed them that she knew the way, and so led the group there.
Dart spent a long time training in his new form and relearning martial arts and then decided to head north to rejoin his companions. Unfortunately, while sleeping in a tree one night, he was captured by a group of 12 Weirdlin ravagers – anti-rangers whose spells destroyed nature instead of embracing it. He was then brought into the city and caged in the Arena next to the winged elf ‘Gaelwind’. After some time, a Halfling came down to feed him – asking if he was a real green dragon. Breathing a cloud of acid at the Halfling he discovered his answer. He then informed Dart that the Brothers of Stone would attempt to free him before scampering away. Not long after the Halfling was gone, a magical wind swept into the cell area and slowly took form as the group. Recognizing his friends, Dart greeted them and asked to be freed as quickly as possible. With the aid of Jakkara and Gwendon, Dart and the elf – whose name was Rhelvin – were released.
Rhelvin agreed to come with the group until he had fully healed and could make the journey home. Part of the group returned to the castle, while the rest checked the other holding chambers in the Arena. Not discovering any other special creatures being held there, they decided to leave. Spotting a drow, Gwendon decided to make a grand exit and slammed into him in wind-form at 60 miles per hour. Unfortunately, he was wearing magic, causing her slam to be real instead of a 60 mile per hour blow through. Snapping his back like a twig, the drow fell dead while Gwendon was left reeling – bruised and broken. She quickly made her way back to the castle where Toll could heal her. Dart was happy to be back with his friends, though obviously there was much catching up to do. And so another night passed.
The next morning, the group went out shopping, with Lusipher once again heading out on his own to handle business. Dart went out with the group, but stayed in mist form throughout the morning. After preparing for the ‘Grand Gala’ the group decided to see if the Luck O’ the Leprechaun pub was open for business yet. Arriving there, they found Lusipher already there with his new employees – A father and two daughters to run the bar and a wild looking Halfling female to cook. After chatting with him for a bit, the group decided to check back with Galthuda to see if she could tattoo Dart.
After a day shopping and running errands, the group returned to the keep to coronate the new queen of Mythrazel – Gwendon. Acelia and Toll performed the ritual, with the rest of the group watching. After the ritual was completed, Gwendon remained in a trance-like-state for 10 minutes or so. When she finally opened her eyes, they began to fill with tears. She informed the others that the swearing of fealty had to wait until morning – and could Toll come with her. While Toll comforted the new queen, the others settled in for the night.
The next day, after swearing fealty to the new queen, the group scouted the rivers of the kingdom for the sign of Deva and Phlame – the next two Dragon eye crypts. Taking most of the day to find them, the group finally returned to the keep after dark. They decided to retrieve the eyes the next day, and started to settle into the keep for the night. Misha, however, received a summons and had to go and visit the mysterious elf that lurked within the aqueducts of the city. When she finally returned, she had a strange new bow that was made out of mithril and seemed to be a double sword as well as a bow.
Starting out bright and early, the group tackled the lair of the Eye of Deva first. Traversing the puzzle proved to be no problem, and defeating the White Dracolich was a simple task. Without even checking on their new treasure, the group moved on to the second site – the lair of the Eye of Phlame. After quickly bypassing the traps and retrieving the Eye, the quick kill failed as Toll’s spell was disrupted by the bite of the dragon as he began to cast. Rushing to the surface to prepare for battle, nothing arose from the ground but a large stone. Perplexed, the group watched the stone – when suddenly the Dracolich appeared beside Lusipher, unleashing an unholy fire upon Lusipher, Toll, and Vheshema. When the fire cleared, Toll lay dead on the ground – his magical lock still in his hand. As combat began, Gwendon rushed down to Toll and turned back the key that was still turning in the lock. Toll found himself rising from the water again, unsure how he got there, so took a different place in the battle. This time Lusipher and Vheshema were the only one damaged, with no deaths of the group. The battle resumed as it had, with the massive Dracolich punishing the group for their trespassing. Unfortunately for it, in a wondrous team play between Toll and Gallandro, the Dracolich was crippled by a teleport delivered heal spell that left it defenseless. A quick strike by Misha delivered death to the great beast, after which healing began.
