Expedition to the Doomdreamer Mountains

Stasi recruits a party to explore the Doomdreamer Mountains between the Temple of Elemental Evil, Markul, and the old Realm of the Gorgon King.  The party's vanguard is composed of Slingblade the halfling thief from the Five Rivers, Warden Greenbrow the high elf apprentice to the late Xanroar Carter, and Dol Arrah a cleric from the order of Light in Numoth.

The party determines they will scale the mountains near the old hold that is manned by humanoids.  They choose the eastern cliff path and find a concealed tunnel leading into the mountain.  The tunnel leads to a laboratory where they find several snake-like creatures that have been magically created and spit venom.  They also find a mutated red goblin and several cells full of zombies.  They destroy all of the creatures and take the magical tomes and other curious items they uncover in the lab.  They leave an ice elemental bound in a magic circle alone after learning that it was summoned by Darkane.

In the next chamber they fight off a Doomdreamer Priest leading a werewolf pack.  During the battle the cleric falls but he is revived after the party defeats the monsters.  They haul the cleric back out of the tunnel to report back to Stasi.

King Mithraelfast's Last Stand

The party and Laralove Dewshining awaken to a horn in the courtyard. The guards notice that the dragons are slow to rouse that morning, and when they do awaken that morning their eyes and mouths are bloody, and they appear weak. The culprits are soon found. Succubi have been hiding among the camp followers and have poisoned the livestock delivered to the dragons the previous day. A calculated and devastating blow to the Nerathi air defenses. King Mithraelfast and Lord Ironfist are encamped on the south side of the ruined city, and their stone giants corps stands with the wardens, blocking the goblin army's advance. They stand ready to meet the great goblin horde, which is lead by Gork the giant, and his two Ogre captains Marl and Valg. The gobins bring up siege engines to pound the King's dwarf and orc footsoldiers from a distance before engaging. They take cover among the ruins of the city just before the dragons come in, tearing into their ranks and destroying many of the knights from the northern lands: the Therund Chargers, Vor Rukoth's Regulars, the Nera House Guards of the noble families, as well as many other northerners serving the league. Laralove turns the city's siege weapons against the advancing goblin horde. She draws the fire of the Iron Circles seige weapons which pummel her defenses, taking out large sections of the south tower and wall, which fall down the mountainside along with many brave defenders. Goblins begin scaling the walls toward the palace, as the King and Lord Ironfist lead a phalanx of Stone Giants into the heart of the Iron Circles humanoid infantry. Xanroar Carter guards the eastern front of the city facing the woods. His wardens watch stoically as a great mass of gnolls and worgs rush out from the forest to meet the rangers in battle. The fighting rages all day, and as night settles in the goblins regroup to the south. Some encamp on the southern edge of the city or the mountainside. The gnolls and worgs run back to the woods, drawing the pursuit of Xanroar and several brave rangers who cut down some of the lingering forces before returning to their posts on the eastern ruins of the city. The King and Lord Ironfist camp in the heart of the new city by the lake at the base of the mountain, guarding the inhabitants from the goblins forces and helping those too weak to fight, but still mobile find their way north on the road out of the city. He sends a group of guards composed of other broken units along with the refugees headed north. When the battle resumes the next day the goblins continue to scale the mountainside toward the palace, firing their siege weapons. Laralove rides the great Adamantium Dragon and leads the rest of the dragon knights in attacking the mountaineers and their siege weapons. Though her magical attacks burn through their ranks and take out half of their trebuchets, a swarm of goblin crossbow bolts eventually takes down the fearless mage. King Mithraelfast and Lord ironfist fall shortly afterward fighting the Ogres Marl and Valg. Once the king dies, the Giant Gork makes short work of his remaining loyal stone giants. Nerath's dragon knights and stone giants kill off many of the goblins scaling the walls, giving some of the defenders of the Exarch's palace time to flee before the Iron Circle's own dragons catch up with them and being to tear them from the sky. Xanroar Carter and the wardens die pressed from the skies by dragons while the gnolls and worgs overrun them and begin buring and looting the city. Laralove's Adamantium dragon and a Mithril dragon are the last remaining dragons in the palace by nightfall. They are too honorable to leave, though the Dragonne, Nickel, and Storm dragon have already fled back to the north. Perched atop the mountain above the Exarch's ruined palace they survey the city in ruins. The officers and elite forces have encircled the Exarch's palace and begin to pick off those few guards who have chosen to remain and die fighting. All of the goblins and iron circle infantry were destroyed in the battle (over 100,000 troops). Their corpses litter the ruins of the city and mountainside below. Another 50,000 defenders lie dead, the rest fled to the north with those few city folk fast enough to escape the Gnolls and Worgs who patrol the northern road. From the mountaintop a great column of remnants snake off into the horizon, making a hasty retreat. The party defends the retreating column from the advancing armies, saving many lives. The unicorn is killed fighting a giant when a Hex Dragon swoops down and attacks the creature with a jet of venom. The party kills the Iron Circles commanding general pursuing the refugees and the remaining soldiers retreat and are cut down by Nerathi allies. The dragons rot from within slowly from the diabolical poison without cure. They leave the field of battle carrying the party north to Mithraelfast, where they are given an important quest by the Queen to find an artifact of great power in some ruins in the Eastern lands near Markul and the Gorgonlands.

Tunnel Rats Explore the Bonepass

The party learns that the Changeling King who rules Bonepass Hold and serves Demogorgon plots against the city of Nera. They set off to find out what happened to the tunnel rats who disappeared a week ago and take out the Changeling King before he can strike them.

Laralove has posted a Dragonne outside the Bonepass gate with orders not to let anything in or out alive. G'Kar drugs the Dragonne with poisoned wine, and the creature crawls off to the stables where it eats some horses and falls asleep. The party slips inside. In the underground river shores they find the tunnel rats dead, their bodies torn and eaten. A balhannoth and several gricks attack and they retreat.

By the time they get back down the Bonepass to the gate Laralove has been summoned and meets them in the tunnel. She scolds the party and tells them they must guard the Bonepass as the tunnel rats and to report back next week. She locks them into the tunnel magically.

As the party camps outside the gate to wait a week rather than fight the Balhannoth, the thing and its hangers one come in the night. The party fights of the beasts, but Artemis is killed by a grick in the battle. Several days later another wander monster called a cloaker comes to attack the party and swallows G'kar but he manages to escape and they drive the beast off.

Hearing their screams, a dwarf named Beldine who guards the door defies Laralove and opens the gate. When Laralove learns that Artemis has died she expresses sincere remorse. The party tells her what they know about Demogorgon and the Changeling King and she gives them a holy avenger and sets them off on their quest to take him out.

Artemis' body is sent upriver with Aelor, who had been guarding the border with the wardens, and who just got back from escorting Prince Eagleheart to set sail with a small fleet to rescue his father in Zaarnath. The rest of the party heads back into the Bonepass, along with their new companion the dwarf guard named Beldine

At a chasm bridge, they fight a mighty battle against a dire bear and seven strong orc warriors. The monk blunders into an ambush as he scouts ahead, but the rest of the party quickly rushes up to his aid, and after a furious battle they are victorious.

They rest and scout ahead, moving to the Stone King's territory. The stone king turns out to be a stone giant who deserted Laralove's army on patrol and now rules a large band of norkers (very tough underdark goblins). The norkers offer tribute to the party and pay them gold to move along without interfering with their territory or affairs. The party accepts their offer.

At Bonepass Hold they find that it has been abandoned, or the residents have hidden themselves well amidst the ruins of the old dwarf hold. The doors are open and they find a horrible scene of carnage in the main hall. Bodies of all manner of creatures have been dismembered, dissected, and hung from chains all over the place in a gruesome tribute to Demogorgon. Among the bodies they find Prince Eaglehearts personal effects, and it appears that they have been in the gore for at least several weeks (sometime between when they went with the prince to the clocktower, and when he sailed for Zaarnath). Apart from the bodies, no creatures challenge them and they return to Nera with grim news.

Shadows Under Nera

At the request of Ser Eagleheart's squire, the party investigates his recent death. This leads the into the sewers by the ruined clocktower. As they pursue the shadowy figure they encountered in Bonepass last adventure, G'kar intimidates his way past a throng of foulspawn that block their path.

They find their way into a labyrinth where they are lost for several days. They fight an abberrant creature sent to hunt them by the foulspawn and bypass several traps to find their way into an old thieve's guild.

They unravel the mystery of the Exarch and learn that he was deposed almost a thousand years ago by the theieves guild who now has replaced him as symbolic leader of the city (though they allow all the nobles to make important decisions). The theives guild was overrun by doppelgangers who picked them off one by one until only the head of the guild remained and he fled but was captured by the tunnel rats (until his escape last adventure when the party distracted his captors).

The party joins the theives guild of Nera and the guildmaster resumes his leadership as Exarch. The imposter Exarch escapes with some of the Exarch's treasured items including a magical mask, sword, and flute, though the guildmaster still has the Exarch's signate ring used to seal all official documents.

The Exarch has the party reassigned to his temple guard. Laralove Dewshining accepts the transfer. When the party returns she is about to punish the squire harshly for missing three days of duty, but they manage to get him off the hook with only a slap on the wrist. The squire returns to duty as Dewshining's personal attendant.

Defense of the City

Laralove Dewshining sends Aelar to help the dire rats who guard the tunnel under the mountain pass catch a theif who stole a magic flute from the Exarch of Nera. Ser Eagleheart notices some strange things about the Exarch and shares them with the party. The party is joined by a Monk in service to the Exarch and they fight several ghosts in the Bonepass. The flute is returned before it falls into the hands of Demogorgon's cultists.

The party rides out to see what happened to Xanroar Carter and the wardens patrolling the woods. They find signs of a battle and fight a large gnoll raiding party. After the battle, Ser G'Kar's cursed sword goes off a bit and they bury it in the woods. They track Xanroan and the wardens south and find an Orc war party. They are hesitant to attack the orcs and Xanroar finds them and sends them south to find a missing miller and his son.

The party crosses the border into Iron Circle territory and defeats several Dercassian knights sworn to Asmodeus. They free the miller and his son and return them to the city. They find when they return that Ser Eagleheart fell from the battlements on night patrol and died. Guy the monk recovers the body and the Exarchs servants cremate it after failing to resurrect him.

Journey to the Faterift

G'Kar and Stasi journey to the Harkenwood near Marshglen, searching for the young lord Erathon and a party that set off to protect the town but disappeared a week ago. The people of Marshglen report raids by monsters and are moving to the walls of Rathmore and safety, abandoning their villages. The rest of the party patrols the woods north and south of Marshglen, looking for monsters and signs of Earthon's party.

They head east and find a lizardfolk village that Erathon's men sacked. The lizardfolk had been raiding Marshglen so he killed all their warriors. The rest of them were clearing out the town and heading north.

Continuing east they found a hag living among some ruins with several scarecrow constructs doing her bidding. She gave them a map of the faterift and told them Erathon headed east and is probably dead. She and her three sisters were kicked out of the Faterift vale to the east by Darcayn and her followers.

They rest in the ruins and fight off a venom eye basilisk. The next morning they set off to the Tower of Ashes, the first of three structures built in the Faterift, a giant tear in the fabric of time and space. The Tower of Ashes is built on a great portal to the elemental chaos and a pillar of flame juts out of the top of it. They fight off several fire bats and their master, a wicked pyromancer, but G'kar kills the wizard with his black magic longsword.

They rest again at the hag's ruin and travel east again the next day back through the burned woods to the Tower of Ashes. Inside they find some astronomy books, charts and a telescope which they collect. They also find several of Erathon's party burned to death in the tower.

They continue on to the Tower of Skulls, built on a portal to the Shadowfell, in the middle of some red mud flats. They fight several zombies, including a rotwing and an undead ettin. They defeat the creatures and rest then enter the tower, made entirely of bones and skulls. Inside they fight the undead ettin again and a ghoul ally. In the heart of the tower they find a cocoon dripping acid into an urn. They perturb the cocoon and a teifling necromancer escapes and summons an ochre jelly to attack them. They fight desperately against the beast but prevail in the end.

Resting in the Tower of Skulls they find more texts and learn that Darcayn plans to perform a ritual at midnight during a special lunar eclipse (just hours from the time they read the text). During the ritual she will sacrifice eight elven maids to Lolth to gain eternal life.

They decide to rest and gather their strength rather than rushing ahead in their weakened state, though they know that some of the maids may die in the ritual if they are too late. They arrive in a field of ruins near the Tower of Sorrow just before midnight as the eclipse is underway. In the ruins they find a terrible gibbering mouther born of the rift to the Far Realm that the Tower of Sorrow is built on. The fleshy mass of eyes and mouths spews acid on them, but they fight past the thing that twists the landscape wherever it passes.

Moving to the gate of the Tower of Sorrow, Stasi squeezes through a rusty portcullis, silences the winch and door with magic, then opens the door for G'Kar. On the battlements they fight a party of four evil humans armed with magic weapons and armor and defeat them.

Inside the Tower of Sorrow they find Darcayn working her ritual. Two of the eight maids have already been slain. She is using a holy avenger stolen from Erathon for her profane ritual to achieve immortality. Darcayn is an evil artificer called a fleshweaver and has grafted several spiderlike magic limbs to her body, which she uses to attack them when they interrupt her ritual. The battle is long and bloody but G'Kar eventually takes down the chaotic arcanist.

In the dungeons they find Earthon's body, which they return along with his magic sword to Baron Pernod in Therund. They also return the six surviving maids to their kin in Rathmore on the journey home. They are rewarded with gold and titles of honor in Pernod's court. Attempts to resurrect Erathon are unsuccessful. All presume that Darcayn somehow stole his soul or it was lost somewhere in the Faterift Vale. Stasi and G'Kar carry his body in the funeral procession to be burned in a pyre in the city square.

Pilgrimage to the Moon Door

After the siege at Harkenwold is finished, Lord Ironfist heads north to Hammerfast to deal with some bandits on the King's Road. He sends G'Kar, Artemis, and Morwyn on a skiff down the White River to visit the Lord Mayor of Moonstair and remind her that she promised to send a dozen elven archers to join the league's militias in Therund.

When the party arrives in Moonstair they are well received, but the Lord Mayor advises that she needs her rangers to guard the pilgrims to the Moon Door, a magical portal that opens every full moon to the Feywild (and the means by which Neyvara and Morwyn the Eladrin have come to the lands of Nerath). Pilgrims traveling to the Moon Door have been plagued by two bandits who rob and sometimes kill and eat travelers. If they rid the town of this menace she can spare the men.

They inquire around town and learn from survivors of the attacks that the bandits are two half troll/half orc Kruggs. Moonstair is built on the ruins of the ancient Troll Kingdom of Vardar. The lands to the west of the river are still under the rule of the Troll King and his hill giant tribes. Orcs also are found in abundance in the woods of Harkenwold to the east of the river, so creatures like Kruggs are not uncommon in the area. Though smaller than trolls they fight with their ferocity and can heal quickly unless damaged by fire or acid.

The party disguises themselves as pilgrims, buying a mule to carry a small keg of oil. They also light some torches to carry and set off the next morning down the trail to the Moon Door. They come upon a turn in the road where the sweet smell of flowers barely masks the scent of rotting flesh. There the Kruggs leap from the bushes.

G'Kar charges forward to draw their blows while Artemis and Morwyn plant their torches in the ground and use them to light their arrows as they fire them at the monsters. Artemis uses a magic missile to smash a rock one of the kruggs used as a weapon, so it must resort to its clawed hands. The other holds a large scimitar. G'Kar holds them off for a while then retreats behind the archers badly bloodied, but one of the trolls circles around trying to follow him. The donkey is spooked by the battle and jumps, but artemis holds it.

The troll with the scimitar lunges forward hacking at the ranger and moon priest as they let loose more arrows. G'Kar opens the keg of oil on the donkey's saddle pack and begins to cover his weapon in it. Before he can recork the keg, the trollthing's rushes toward him and the donkey bolts, though it is cut down by the two krugs. It lets out one final bray and collapses on the trail, with lamp oil leaking everywhere. Morwyn fires a flaming arrow at the keg on the donkey's saddle and it explode blocking the trial and casting fire in a wide area.

The kruggs move away from the fire, and Artemis pins one in and hits it with a bottle of oil that sets it on fire. The monsters screams as it hacks Artemis apart, separating one arm and shoulder from his torso and cutting deep through his heart and lungs. G'Kar and Morwyn finish the beast as it's unarmed ally rushes off, vowing that its master Darcayn will punish them for this.

They take Artemis to the priests at the Moon Door. That night they take him through the door at midnight and perform a ritual in the Feywild to resurrect him. He gives them a large sum of gold to pay for the components spent to bring him back to life. The next day they continue further south following the Krugg's trail through the swampy part of Harkenwood.

As they follow the creatures path through the swamp, Morwyn's cat Kiara is struck by a poisoned dart. They move forward along the trail and in the distance a lizardfolk raider is sending more poison darts their way, but they shrug them off and advance. At a fork in the trail, a large blackscale lizard chieftain and a hunter leap onto the trial to strike out.

Artemis is knocked back by the large chief, but he returns equal force and shoves the chief back. The two bands fight for several minutes before the bloodied lizardfolk, not reknowned for their bravery, all beat a quick retreat back toward their village.

They find a small island with a clearing in the swamp. A broken cart has been dragged into the clearing and a terrible smell emanates. The sun is starting to set and the rain looks like it's moving in. They approach the ruined cart and find that the Krugg that ran away is taking shelter beneath it. He rises and begins to toss large rocks in their direction. Morwyn and G'Kar distract the monster while Artemis sneaks up behind him. Artemis sets his sword on fire and stabs the krugg in the back then breaks a bottle of oil over the monsters head, setting it and himself aflame. Artemis' allies quickly move in to roll the thief over in the wet grass to put out the fire on his cloak, then gently rouse him back to consciousness. They take shelter under the stinking cart full of some treasure and odd items.

The next day they see that there are dragon prints leading east and human prints going south on a trail. They head south and find the settlement of Marshglen where they tell the folk there that the bandits have been defeated, presenting the krugg's head. A farmer takes them back up the river to Rathmore where they catch a ferry north to Moonstair. The Lord Mayor fulfills her promise and gladly sends the dozen archers south to Therund to join the militas there.

As the party travels to meet up with their friends in Therund they see another barge on the river with a half dozen nobles struggling to stay afloat. The oarsmen are gone and the barge is taking on water, listing toward the western shore of the river, where several trolls and hill giants wait to eat their prey. The party orders their ship's mate to sail them alongside the barge and they bring several over the side successfully, but four of the nobles are already in the water and the current is taking them toward the trolls.

G'kar is too burdened by his armor and complains that he cannot swim as well so stays on the craft, but the ranger and rogue leap in and begin paddling toward the drowning nobles, rescuing three of them. The last noble, a young noblewoman is caught up by the trolls and giants and dragged off kicking and screaming to be eaten. One of the trolls in the water attacks artemis when he gets too close to the shore, but he eventually gets out beyond the monsters reach and it abandons the chase and returns to shore. Several rocks are thrown at the ship but they all miss and they continue on to Therund.

In the capitol city, Ser Eagleheart warmly welcomes them and they sit at his table at the Baron's feast. Later in the evening the militiamen from Sarthel and Vor Rukoth start a brawl, accusing one another of consorting with devils. While they honor Artemis' bravery as a hero they ask him to stand aside when he tries to calm their dispute and the melee continues until the city guard kicks both militia's out beyond the city's walls where they sleep off their spirits down by the river.