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.