After finishing with the Sun Brigade, the group turned back to their mist form and started to head for the castle – when they were distracted by a gleam of metal from the cliff top. Investigating, the group discovered a Pristine Condition Megalith looking down on the city below. It resisted all attempts to communicate, and fled into the Ethereal plane when the group attempted to open it. The only distinguishing marking on the megalith was a blue handprint on one shoulder. Unsure what to make of this new player in the game, the group decide to shelve it and kick some Draco-lich butt. Heading to the castle to armor up, the group then headed to the forest for the first cache.
Toll, Gwendon, Gallandro and Sirrathi went down to retrieve the eye – but instead of the same setup as they had encountered before, they came out of the water and fell 10 feet to land at the top of a huge ramp that sloped off into darkness. With some experimentation, they further discovered that the way down was anti-magicked – meaning it was a one-way journey. Retrieving the rest of the group, the party headed down the ramp in pairs, with Sirrathi and Gwendon leading the way – triggering the correct mechanisms along the way to ensure the parties safe arrival at the bottom. Upon arriving, the party found themselves in a large cavern, which lit up as they moved forward. The cavern measured at perhaps 2000 feet wide and nearly 400 feet high, with a large dais in the center. The group traveled to the halfway mark to reach the platform, at which time the light in the cavern winked out and a glowing circle winked momentarily into existence before dropping the chamber once again into darkness.
A voice then began to taunt the group, offering them a single chance to leave. Upon their denying the offer, the group found themselves enveloped in a fire storm – severely wounding several members of the party. As Toll cast a healing circle on the injured, the others began to spread out – with Gwendon taunting the voice. Her taunts worked, as a wall of fire sprung up around her – though Gallandro quickly dispelled it. The creature then teleported near Gwendon and began to attack her. Misha proved to be the master archer, shooting several arrows in the dark to strike the creature – which turned out to be a dragon! Battle erupted in haste, with Dartel nearly killed by the Hellstorm Wyrm’s fiery breath attack. Misha found herself distracted for a short time as the dragon summoned in a devil to assist it. It proved only to be a distraction for the lethal archer, as she took it nearly as soon as it appeared. The dragon proved to be more resilient, though took severe damage from Vheshema’s icy breath (courtesy of two white dragon draughts). It soon learned the lesson that one creature does not stand much of a chance against a horde of self-healing adventurers and fell to Lusipher’s mighty blade.
The bodies of both the Hellfire Wyrm and the Devil began to dissolve, returning to the plane from whence they came. The group then proceeded to loot the contents of the dais before heading back home. The day after returning from the fight, the group split up to attend to some business while a few people waited in the castle. Misha and Gallandro went to visit the Bear Clan to see if their friend Ilea had returned, while Kobort, Gwendon, Jakkara, and Dartel went to Galthuda the tattooist. While the rest of the group remained in the castle to read or do other work, Lusipher went to his bar to check on how his business was doing.
Upon arriving at the tattoo parlor, the group turned back to mist form. Immediately, Brialyn began to vibrate in Kobort’s scabbard. Warning the others to get inside, which Dartel ignored, Kobort drew the sword. Immediately, a burst of light enveloped the Lost Ward for the second time in its history, and a beam of light shot up into the sky. Shortly afterwards, to the great glee of the hag Galthuda, the sun turned red. “Once more and the sun goes out”, she joked to Gwendon. After getting a few tattoo’s – a new one available to Kobort called “World’s End”, the group headed back to the castle. With the great flare of the light of Brialyn, Toll and Gallandro went to investigate – taking a break from their appointed tasks. Seeing nothing going on when they got there, other than a bunch of blind commoners, Gallandro returned to the Bear Clan while Toll healed everyone in the name of Moradin. Meanwhile, Lusipher discovered that someone had come into the bar the night before and smashed his gemstone goblet. Angered, he headed for the Bear Clan to try and find Gallandro.
At the Bear Clan mercantyler in the Lost Ward, Misha found Ilea who had just arrived two days ago, and was talking to her when Gallandro arrived. She then sent Gallandro to Toll to see if he could come and enspell Ilea to be able to turn to mist. Shortly after he left, Lusipher arrived to find Gallandro gone. As he was about to storm out again, Misha alerted him to the fact that Gallandro would be coming back, causing him to change plans and just wait. Shortly, Gallandro arrived with a small hammer figurine from Toll, which Ilea broke and was magically transported to the castle’s library where she had to wait patiently for Toll to move books around for her to get out. Gallandro informed Lusipher that he could not track anyone, so Lusipher had to check with Toll. Ending back in the castle, Toll attempted to scry the person by the verbal description that was given to Lusipher, but failed. Lusipher returned to the bar, where he had to liquor up one of the regulars to be able to draw a good likeness of the perpetrator – go figure!
By the time Lusipher returned to the castle, everyone else had returned so Ilea could relay her information. It seemed that she had retrieved the two other pieces of the Septerra Core, leaving the group with 4 of the 5 pieces now – the other piece being with the Weirdlin. Also, it turns out the Toujin Horde in the mountains above the valley were amassing on the southern tip of the valley and using the Valshiren (Serpent Forest) to move siege engines down into the pass. Acelia volunteered to investigate the Valshiren and try to awaken it to its former purpose once more. Misha, Dart, and Rhelvin decided that they would accompany her, with the youthful Rhelvin deciding that he would swear fealty to the kingdom to defend Mythrazel with his life! Gwendon also asked the groups help on what a Hummingbird was, which Lusipher identified as a large Megalith (Giant Mech) that could fly. She then asked if anyone knew what the fountain in the green was, and were there 26 of them? In the end, it was figured that the entry into any of the various wards of the city had to be done through a large octagonal gate yard with an enclosed green-glass dome that had a fountain in the middle. It seemed that the city had a Hummingbird Megalith hidden in each of the green gate yards, though this was not evident in the maps and plans of the city.
Of Lusipher’s vandal, Toll was able to scry the perpetrator this time, which appeared to be at home in bed. With Gwendon showing yet another marvel of the castle, she was able to use the keep’s door as a teleportation gateway to allow the group to snatch to the man into the castle. Lusipher proceeded to pummel the man, after which he was questioned magically by Toll. It seemed that he was not the vandal, though it was definitely his visage. After making another entry into the apartment of the man’s girlfriend and questioning her, it turned out the man had recently quit the thieves’ guild for the love of his girlfriend, but in doing so had apparently made an enemy. Now someone had used his guise to come into the bar and break the goblet, which Toll proceeded to fix magically – restoring it to its pristine condition. Sirrathi asked to group to use the resources that were now available to them to scry the tunnels of the Draggeth Bahn’s lair and find the location of the egg so that Gallandro’s quest could be ended once and for all. After a quick once over, it was decided that in a week’s time, they would send the Sun Brigade in through the front entry as a distraction while the group attacked magically from deep within the caves. This would allow the group time to complete their mission while the Sun Brigade provided a distraction.
To give him a distraction from not being able to catch the vandal, Gwendon then assigned Lusipher and Ilea to talk to the Orc’s of the Bleeding Eye and see if they would defend the valley against the Toujin hoard. After speaking with House Breakspear, it was decided that the Orcs would not defend the valley, but if they were not in the way of the hoard they would not join them. The pair then journeyed to the Badger and Wolf clans to see if they would allow the orcs passage through their land to the now abandoned land of the frost giants. Through the apparent fierceness of Lusipher and the fact that Ilea is daughter of the Bear Clan chieftain, the two tribes agreed to allow the orcs, but would watch them like a hawk.
A week later, the group reassembled to take on the Draggeth Bahn. Guarding the chamber was 5 warriors wearing dragon helms – a red, green, black, blue, and white. Planning their attack, the group ambushed the five as the Sun Brigade attacked the caves. Beginning the battle with a disjunction cast out of the one of the belts, the battle was fierce! Massive blows were exchanged on both sides, but the group won the day without a single death on their side. After quickly looting the dead, the group prepared to try and figure out the five pillars set up in the middle of the chamber.
With the five guardians defeated, the group surrounded the 5 pillars looking to Gallandro for advice on how to continue. Having everyone available take a pillar and a gem, save Gwendon and Toll, he had each person place the gems in the appropriate order that Balin’s prophecy seemed to indicate. One by one, the gems were placed, lighting the pillar and the one across from it (Or turning it off if it was already on). In the end, all pillars were lit and the egg of Bahamut appeared! FYI, the actual riddle given to Lusipher by the dying stranger in the Valshiren was “Watch the one for all the dragons in the deep six under the seven moons. In the end try to avoid the touch of the twins.” Looked at as a number puzzle, the answer is 1456732 (one four (all dragons 5) six seven try twins).
After the egg appeared, Gallandro summoned the outsider Kyreeth from the Bear Clan caverns so that he could take the egg back to Bahamut. After the butt kicker for justice was summoned, he in turn summoned a hoard of Astral Deva’s to take it to the Draggeth Bahn. Making sure that his daughter, who turned out to be Sirrathi, did not want to go home with him, Kyreeth and company flew out of the caverns to make war on the cult of dragon worshipers! The group scrambled to return to the castle so that they could refocus the magical portal to the caverns of the Draggeth Bahn so they could join in the fray! Unfortunately, it seemed that they had used the portal too many times that week, and its powers were exhausted. Turning to mist, the group headed out of the castle and physically joined in the battle within the tunnels of the city.
Arriving at the battle, the group joined the combat in progress, while Toll stopped in the tunnel to heal the Sun Brigade members who were injured. The battle was very fierce, with Kobort and Lusipher both near death at points in the battle. At one point while fighting the leader of the Draggeth Bahn, Kyreeth uprooted the Daern’s Instant Fortress Gallandro had just put down to use as a giant club to smack the leader around some more! Finally, the Draggeth Bahn surrendered when the last of the Half Dragon members were defeated by the Astral Devas. The remaining members were rounded up and marched through a planar gate by the Devas to be brought before the god of dragons, Bahamut, for judgment. The Sun Brigade decided to take the cavern as their hideout for now, till they could rest and recuperate and sort out the spoils of the battle. The group settled with a few items from the haul, and returned to the keep, with one quest under their belt!
