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tuesdaydnd · 7 years

Text

Old D&D Game

OUR STORY SO FAR

08/20/2012

Nine adventures meet in a bar. Actually they meet at the headquarters of the Adventurer’s Guild in Verenzia, a city on the east coast of Ataria. This is a center of trade ruled by an oligarchy of rich powerful people and several prominent guilds, including the Assassin’s Guild and the Thieves Guild. Our heroes are hired by Lord Arliak, a powerful Elven sorcerer to pick up a locked sandalwood box from a ship that has just pulled into the docks.

It sounds easy enough, but when they get there our heroes discover that the Star of the Sea is under attack by mud golems and the box has already been stolen by pirates. Captain Mayland is talked into taking them to Bloodport where the pirates have unloaded their booty. In Bloodport, they share skull wine at the Boneyard tavern with the Yuan-Ti pirate, Captain Velox and learn that the seemingly worthless box is going to be auctioned on the next day and is being kept in the city’s central warehouse.

The Tiefling “Bloody” Fernandez and his Halfling cleric companion Tassolhoff spot a living gargoyle watching the warehouse and follow it to an inn where they meet its creator, the human wizard Mourdal, who specializes in bringing things to life. He is an arch rival of Arliak from their days studying magic together in Xersia and plans to get the box for himself. It contains an immensely powerful magic item, a sphere which is one of the five geometric solids of creation that was used to construct this plane of existence. Fernandez and Tassolhoff agree to betray Arliak and work for Mourdal.

Meanwhile the mysterious nameless Elven duskblade has gone off on his own to find the box in the warehouse. While attempting to free some slaves he has a serious encounter with two female chain demons and is captured.

Before the auction the next day the duskblade is pressured by Skorzia, the pirate queen of Bloodport into revealing what he knows about the box. At the same time, the group’s druid goes into the jungle outside of the city to commune with nature and befriend the local chipmunk population. He discovers that a ship from Brigitainne, the greatest naval power in the world has anchored on the far side of the island, and they are sending one hundred men across the small island to take the city by surprise.

Fernandez, Tassolhoff and Mourdal go to the auction accompanied by Mourdal’s gargoyle, a golem and Moudal’s attractive, yet oddly disturbing girlfriend Vita. The rest of the team frees the duskblade from prison and discover that the box is in the hands of the pirate queen and isn’t going to be auctioned. Eventually everyone gathers in the throne room and the deal is struck to sell the box and sphere to Mourdal with Captain Velox getting most of the profits and Skorzia accepts a spell from Mourdal for brokering the deal.

One of the powers of the sphere is that it can make magic spells permanent. Skorzia wants him to use it on the wands of fireballs that the pirates use to guard their harbor from invasion, so they will never be defenseless. Mourdal does this, and also casts the spell making Vita permanently alive, since she was actually just a cleverly constructed golem that he has fashioned.

The druid arrives with news of the invading army, but unfortunately Mourdal has exhausted himself with spell casting, and can’t be of any help. By the time Skorzia can rally the pirates and organize them, the army will be inside the city.

Our heroes split into two groups, one harassing the invaders and slowing them down, while the other group prepares the city. The Brigitainne troops are well trained, but they meet unexpected resistance. By the time they arrive in the city, the streets have been blocked off, forcing them into a narrow channel where they are pelted with arrows from the rooftops. When their commanding officers are killed the rest of the troops flee.

After a great deal of celebrating, our heroes make an arrangement with Skorzia. The grateful pirate queen allows them to have land on the far side of the island for their own use so long as they watch out for any attacks from that direction. She also gives them a ship, a sleek fifty foot single masted corvette. It originally belonged to the pirate who had betrayed them to Brigitainne, selling them a map of the island to make their attack. After being tortured, the traitor is fed to the sahuagin who live in the harbor. Our heroes also inherit the ship’s crew, including Zadock, a Hadozee, one of the “monkey men” from a nearby island who can glide with the flaps of skin under their arms. Originally the topman, the canny sailor is quickly made first mate, replacing the members of the crew who fled the queen’s wrath.

Mourdal has spent all of his money acquiring the sphere, and decides to settle in Bloodport, to avoid being attacked by Arliak. Skorzia marries Mourdal and Vita in a small private ceremony.

Our heroes are excited about the prospect of having their own trading port, but it’s going to take a lot of money. They head back to Verenzia and manage to get paid by Arliak, even though they give him an empty box. The Elven sorcerer takes no action against them, but he is clearly angry at being tricked. Needing work, the adventurers find that Brast has two promising jobs on the bulletin board. Nineteen young people have been kidnapped from nearby farms and goblin footprints have been found. There has also been a problem with ships being attacked just off the coast and the merchants want someone to do something about it. Both missions look dangerous, so they decide to maximize the risk by splitting the party.

An Elven ranger who recently joined the party accompanies the duskblade, Laurence, the human rogue and Alexander the human fighter in a small trading vessel that sails up and down the coast hoping to attract the raiders. After several fruitless days, they are struck with fire arrows at night and discover the raiders are Orcs who have taken to the ocean in large war canoes. A pitched battle ensues on the burning boat that ends when one of the Orc canoes is sunk and the rest flee. The ranger, the duskblade and Laurence raise the canoe and paddle into the darkness after the Orcs, hoping for the bonus they will get for discovering the lair of the raiders.

Alexander stays with the terrified crew in the damaged ship to help them make it back to port. As the sun rises it becomes clear that their situation is serious. The incoming tide is going to smash them into the rocks, the ship has no mast, and the blood in the water has attracted a sharktapus. Despite being hampered by plate mail armor that makes a dip in the water a death sentence, Alexander is able to save the sailors and get the ship repaired. Meanwhile his companions have taken out another canoe in a battle at sea and have discovered the raider’s secret, a hidden base in a sea cave on the cliffs near Essentier.

While this is going on, the paladin Link, Tassolhoff, Fernandez and an Irda wizard follow the trail of the kidnappers. They find several small towns that live in fear of something they will not speak of. That night the streets fill with wolves. Tassolhoff, who spent the night outside is surrounded and discovers that they are actually werewolves. The wolves are acting as guards for the kidnappers, who turn out not to be goblins at all, but humans who are kidnapping innocent people to turn them over to vampires in the city of Falconrath. If the slavers don’t obey the vampires their own families will be taken by the ever hungry vampires.

While Tassolhoff is taken with the captives, the rest of the party follows behind. The group stops to rest in a small city which is populated entirely by werewolves. They free the captives, but even in daylight the werewolves are formidable foes, and the Irda wizard is killed by the angry mob. That night the heroes and the newly freed prisoners are easily overtaken by the combined forces of the wolves and vampires. The ruler of Falconrath and the leader of the vampires makes a personal appearance, but he is brought down by a spell from Tassolhoff. Before the vampire can recover he is ripped to shreds by the wolves under the orders of Liliandra, the new queen of Falconrath.

The newly minted queen is so happy with her post that she allows the heroes and the prisoners to go free. Before leaving, they get a glimpse of Falconrath itself, a walled city with dark brooding architecture where every single person in the city is under the spell of at least one vampire.

Laurence, the duskblade and Alexander arrive back in Verenzia before the other group. They take advantage of free lodging by using the key they have been given to Mourdal’s old house. Inside they find the half finished results of some if his experiments, including parts of a female skeleton carved out of ivory. Unfortunately staying at the house has brought them to the attention of a group of mercenaries and bounty hunters. Arliak still wants the sphere that he now believes is in Mourdal’s hands. Meeting up with the rest of the party, they manage to get away from the mercenaries, but with the high price on Moudal’s head, they decide to vacate Verenzia.

Joined by the Grey Elf Laucian, who had been driven out by his people, the group heads back to Bloodport to assess their situation. Several of the former kidnapping victims decide to move to their fledgling colony rather than return home. Construction is already underway for their new castle; the new villagers begin to clear land to plant crops and build houses.

After studying the maps they received from the pirate ship, Fernandez notices that there is a permanent hurricane off the apply named Storm Coast of Ataria. For unexplained reasons he seem strangely compelled to investigate this phenomenon. The storm has been stationary for as long as anyone can remember, but according to legend there is an island at the calm heart of the storm. Sailors who get too close to the storm are said to be driven mad.

Our heroes are warned away from the island by members of the Darfellan, a generally peaceful race of humanoids who live at sea. Their black and white skin gives them a resemblance to killer whales. They have been warning sailors away from the storm for centuries, but they don’t know the secret of the storm. For that information, the group has to talk to the Aquatic Elves. Corda, a Darfellan warrior agrees to accompany them to find the sea elves. During their stay they discover that the Darfellan are unfamiliar with rum, and set up a brisk trade exchanging alcohol for high quality crafts.

Before reaching the elves their ship encounters the battered remains of the Carpathia, a Brigitainne trading vessel which is sailing out of control, being flung out by the storm. On board they find that the ship’s crew has been massacred and eaten by Benny, the sole surviving crew man. The captain was found lashed to the wheel, and Fernandez takes his uniform. In the captain’s cabin Tassolhoff discovers the captain’s log, which reveals that the Captain Cormack was obsessed with the storm after a series of dreams. Upon entering the hurricane, the ship was badly damaged and the crew started to go mad. This does not deter our heroes, who continue their quest.

The Aquatic Elves have little contact with the surface world, and no desire to help the heroes. The island is evil and the hurricane is there to keep away strangers. The high priest does agree to a ceremony that will allow some members of the party to contact Sassrindal, the goddess of the sea whom they worship. It was Sassrindal who created their race, splitting them off from the Elves thousands of years ago.

Fernandez and Link partake of the full ceremony and enter a magical grotto to commune with Sassrindal. Tassolhoff accompanies them, but does not perform the full ritual. The sea goddess appears to Fernandez and Link as a shark mermaid with tentacles for hair. She appears to know all about the group, including the fact that Fernandez apparently isn’t from this world. She reveals that she made the hurricane to trap a terrible creature on the island hundreds of thousands of years ago. This was one of the elder powers, a thing that had to be contained to save the world.

The group agrees to kill the creature for her, and Sassrindal concedes that after having been trapped there for so long it might be possible for them to defeat it. She gives them a spell that will allow them to travel safely underwater so they can reach the island without a ship. Secretly she adds to their power to give them more of a chance against what awaits them. Accompanied by Perlancil Te, an Aquatic Elf ranger who becomes their reluctant guide, they make their way across the ocean floor to the island.

Along the way they find an injured merman and are ambushed by a school of sharks driven towards them by the Sahuagin. While the rest of the team fights against the sharks, Fernandez continues without stopping towards the island. When he gets there, he races towards an unknown goal, leaving the others behind. The island is filled with ruins of some ancient civilization. There are strange, hairless rat-like creatures on the island and giant slug-like monsters that eat the rats. One of the giant, tentacled slugs attacks, and the group has to fight it off. Fortunately Laucian brought his alchemy kit and is able to use salt to weaken the creature so it can be killed.

The feeling of horror and dread that fills the island is almost overwhelming, but Fernandez manages to make it to a temple in the center of the island. Along the way he has a vision of his Tiefling family being massacred by the Lady of Pain in the village in Oyashima where he grew up. As the group makes their way across the dark, rubble strewn island, the duskblade breaks off on his own. He finds carvings indicating that there was a battle of gods in the distant past, and this creature was one of the losers. Before he can make any further discoveries he is caught up in a vision of a city he has never been in where the Elven king has just been killed by a duskblade. Guards are rounding up all the duskblades, and he finds himself in chains being lead to a dungeon. He is only saved from a further descent into madness when Link startles him out of his vision with a glowing arrow. Link has barely recovered from the fight with the slug that left his hair completely white.

Fernandez arrives at the temple and sees a very attractive Tiefling woman. She says she has been unjustly imprisoned and wants him to set her free. As he begins to hack away at the chain the rest of the group arrives and each of them sees the prisoner as a woman of their own race.

Laucian recognizes the creature as an elder god and tries to communicate with it, while Fernandez continues to try and cut it free. Finally the duskblade cuts it with a knife, causing it to change form to threaten him.

It reveals itself to be a shape shifter, constantly moving from one form to another, a horrific vision of flesh, fur, scales, feathers and various internal organs. The sight of it convinces the group that it must be killed, and Fernandez eventually stops trying to set it free. A debate occurs as to the best way to kill it. While debating they go after the remaining slug creature, which has now doubled in size. Eventually it is decided that they should trap the monster in a form where it can be killed. Since they have no binding spell available to them, something will have to be done to fake it while Laucian uses a suggestion spell to convince the creature that it should go into the body of a fish. Using the body parts of the now slain slug creature they are able to craft a convincing spell and the shape shifter goes into the body of the fish.

Instantly the body sprouts legs and begins to escape, but they are able to kill it before it gets too far. When the creature is gone the storm starts to dissipate, and the island is hit by sunlight for the first time in thousands of years.

Returning to their castle in Bloodport they are told that they need better building material if they want a decent castle. The best stone they can get comes from either Messilona or Aquea, on the western coast of Ataria. Fernandez opts to go to Messilona, but first they have to drop off the papers they took from the Brigitainne ship the Carpathia, and perhaps return Bennie the cannibal crewman, who has become part of their party.

Under the watchful eyes of the massive Brigitainne warships they sail into port and find the docks for House Valacar, where the Carpathia sailed from. The docks and warehouse do not look as prosperous as some of the other noble trading families, but they do have one large ship called the Resolute that looks ready to sail. A dwarf takes them in and calls for Lady Thresha, the head of House Valacar. An older woman with a formidable disposition, she admits that her house isn’t doing as well as they could be. They have lost a great many ships, including the Carpathia which was captained by her cousin. The man who was supposed to take charge of her new ship suffered a mysterious “accident”. When Fernandez seems interested in the ship, she offers to make him captain.

Outside on the heroes’ ship, a small, winged creature is seen, spying on them and eavesdropping on their conversations. It is killed by a few quick spells from Laucian.

Lady Thresha prepares the papers that will seal her bargain with Fernandez. Our heroes prepare to move their belongings and their crew onto the Resolute. When Garrick sees the homunculi he curses and declares that it’s the work of Master Riarcan, a magician from Zathican in Quedara who works with Lord Othridge of House Turan. Turan and Valacar are rival houses and Turan will stop at nothing to put Valacar out of business.

That night, as they settle into their new ship, Lawrence is sent out to sell their old ship. After exploring the city and noting the armored knights who fly on winged horses, he enters Shipmasters, a bar for ship owners and wealthy trading houses where a great many deals are made. Just as he is about to seal a deal for their old ship, a stocky man with red hair enters the room, which everyone reacts to oddly. The man orders a whole lamb freshly killed and brought to his table, which he proceeds to roast with his flaming breath.

“That’s Verinthram the red,” someone explains to Lawrence. “He’s a red dragon; try not to stare, he hates drawing attention to himself.”

The dragon in human form begins to messily tear the lamb to pieces and consume it. Lawrence finally sells the ship for one thousand GP.

Meanwhile Bloody Fernandez has been taking stock of their situation. They have joined House Valacar, but they seem to be at a disadvantage compared to House Turan. Turan’s docks are across the bay and are bustling with activity, with many ship unloading. They have a galleon even larger than the Resolute, which has been unloaded and looks ready to sail. Tassolhoff and the duskblade are sent off to make friends with the crew of the Rentham. Meanwhile Laucian is preparing alchemists fire for the catapults of the Resolute. He also takes the time to construct a glove that will fire a dart for his own self defense.

Lawrence and Laucian are sent to hire a ship that will take them to Messalona where they can buy the stone they will need for their castle on Bloodport. Fernandez has a late night conversation with Lady Thresha where she warns him against rash actions while feeding live chickens to her pet griffin.

“Don’t forget, if you’re caught it will reflect badly on me,” she warns him. “Ships destroyed at sea are much harder to trace than ships destroyed at a dock.”

With this information in mind, Tassolhoff and the duskblade are sent to join the crew of the Rentham, which sails in two days for Zarak Khune, a continent of monsters where there are no major human populations, but House Turan obviously has some sort of trade agreement. The two adventurers are well supplied with alchemist’s fire so they can do in the ship when the time comes.

The next morning at Shipmasters, the contract is signed in blood by Fernandez and Lady Thresha. It is a magical contract drawn up by a skilled Elven lawyer, which prevents either side from lying to or betraying the other without dire consequences.

At that moment a naval officer arrives with a sealed envelope. Thresha has been ordered to turn over the Resolute to the admiralty to use as troop transport. They are sailing north to put down a rebellion by the highland Orcs. Thresha curses. She knows this is the work of Lord Othridge, but there’s nothing she can do about it. The government does have the right to seize ships in time of emergency.

As Tassolhoff and the duskblade watch helplessly from their new berth on the Rentham, the Resolute prepares for its first mission, a non paying one, transporting the 33rd light foot infantry north to fight the Orcs. The thirty third is made up of a scrappy bunch of violence prone Halflings, with a few Elven and human officers. The Resolute sails north for two days into the cleft, a passage with chalk cliffs on both sides. They are attacked by giants who hurtle boulders ate them, but a timely shot with a catapult loaded with Greek Fire drives them back. Commander Dawson worries that giants siding with the Orcs could mean trouble.

The Resolute pulls into the docks at a small fishing village, but something is clearly wrong. The village is oddly quiet, and carrion birds are pecking at the people standing very still in the streets. A glance through the spyglass proves that the people are the bodies of the villagers propped up to draw the ship in closer.

Commander Dawson orders the 33rd to attack and the battle ready Halflings rush screaming into the city where they are met by a large party of Orcs. The bloodthirsty Halflings are making short work of them when more Orcs start coming out of the water, climbing onto the ship with grappling hooks.

During the fighting on the decks, Captain Fernandez is nearly stabbed by one of his own men, who screams a slur about being demon blooded while attempting to stick a knife in him. Eventually Lord Vian the Elven military sorcerer puts a stop to the attack and order is restored.

Dawson refuses to allow Fernandez to leave with the ship until he knows more about the situation. If the uprising has gotten out of hand then they will need every man. That means the captain and crew of the Resolute are in it for the duration.

While the ship waits in northern Brigitainne, Tassolhoff and the Duskblade have signed on to The Rentham a ship which sails for Zarak Khune, a continent where monsters rule and there are few human settlements. The ship is full of dangerous and violent men, making every day a challenge. They are forced to work under the watchful eye of Bokour, a ruthless Orc who is missing his left hand and has had a cat o’nine tails attached in its place.

The crew is particularly brutal to Tassolhoff because he is a Halfling and they believe he cannot defend himself. Fortunately the duskblade steps in to help him.

Back in Brigitainne, Fernandez and Link are waiting for the Halfling scouts to find where the main body of Orcs is. Link goes out himself on a scouting mission. Instead of Orcs he stumbles across a mysterious robed stranger riding a horse accompanied by a prisoner in an iron collar and a burlap sack over his head. The man’s name is Ilarai, and he seems strangely eager to see the captain of the Resolute. Link brings him back, and they talk while under the spell of truth created by the paladin.

Ilarai reveals that his prisoner is a strange man with no hair, but an odd tattoo across his scalp. The prisoner never speaks, but he and Ilarai exchange a few silent looks that implied a great deal. It seems that Ilarai has been sent by a person he will not name to examine the new captain. He has orders to kill him if necessary, but he has decided that it isn’t necessary.

Fernandez invites the strange man to stay with them on the ship, to save his horse a long ride south. Ilarai agrees, revealing that he is a Skarn from Quedara. He can make sharp spikes thrust out of his forearm, which can be used as deadly weapons.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff and the Duskblade are sailing deeper into the unknown. In the distance they see the line of active volcanoes that separates the land of the elves from the rest of the continent. Not long after that they are attacked by Gnomes riding on a tentacle ship, a pirate vessel built around a giant squid. As it draws closer, the captain orders all hands down to the oars.

Since Tassolhoff is too short to work an oar, he stays on deck to continue firing the catapult. One shot hits the target, sending Gnomes scattering into the ocean and the Rentham escapes to the deep sea where the other ship can’t follow.

That night Tassolhoff is the man of the hour. He is rewarded with extra rum from the rations. While in the officer’s mess he notices that some of the wooden planks that make up the ship have almost human faces. The captain admits that key parts of the ship are made from Ents. The tree men provide strength and flexibility once they’re cut down and trimmed to fit.

The cruelty of House Turan becomes more clear the next day when they pull into the walled city of Beltan, hidden from the sea up the mouth of a river. Captive ogres open up massive wooden gates to reveal a gold mine in the side of a mountain. Captive Skaven, or rat people labor in the mine, putting the rock and dirt on a conveyor belt to where it is mixed with water and turned in a huge drum. The drum is moved by chained up minotaurs. As it spins the heavier gold is brought out where it is scooped up and brought to be smelted by captive gnomes.

The cruelty and barbarism of the place is appalling, all the more so when a group of Orcs arrive with freshly cut Ents to be shipped back to Brigitainne. The crew is enjoying a brief shore leave while their ship is loaded. Tassolhoff slips away from the crew and manages to free the ogres. As they run amok, he uses the distraction to free the minotaurs. The Skaven attempt to escape as well, but they are beaten back.

There is mass chaos and confusion. Finally one ogre is captured, but the other manages to rip a door off its hinges. Although one of the minotaurs is killed, the three others manage to make it to freedom.

The captain of the Rentham wants to leave a soon as his ship can be filled and let others deal with the mess. Tassolhoff convinces him to stay and help hunt down the captives. He and the Duskblade are trapped here until they can make it to their meeting with the rest of their team, and they have no way of knowing how long the military mission is going to take.

Far to the north, the Halfling scouts have reported back that there is a very large gathering of Orcs and giants. It looks like more than just a simple uprising, but rather the start of a full fledged war. Commander Dawson sends one of his men, equipped with seven league boots south to warn the army. They can have a flying squadron of knights on winged steeds there is a few days. Until reinforcements arrive, it is up to the 33rd light foot infantry and the crew of the Resolute to hold off the army. They sail south to head off the army and protect the next city from attack.

Meanwhile Laucian and Lawrence are on a merchant ship, sailing for Ataria. They seem to have taken the easiest of the three missions, but they are unaware of the surprises that are in store for them.

On Zarak Khune the duskblade and Tassolhoff join the sailors and the men from the compound to hunt down the escaped slaves. They are attacked by goblins and must fight off an attack by the viscous killers. When the sailors start to panic Tassolhoff rallies them and they are able to drive the goblins back.

The escaped minotaurs have made it to a game trail where they will be able to make better time. They find parts of goblin bodies littering the trail and realize the Ogre has feasted on the goblins and is sleeping in a cave. While the duskblade uses his touch of fatigue to keep the monster asleep, the others are able to put him in chains.

With some difficulty they drag the ogre back to the compound. The duskblade offers some gold to the goblins if they will help and three of them take him up on the offer. When they get the ogre back, the duskblade tries to get out of paying them, resulting in an attack that leaves him injured.

Meanwhile Fernandez and Link have taken their ship to Tamshire, the next target of the Orc attack. The Elven sorcerer uses a spell to observe the enemy and they are surprised to see a highly organized and dedicated group of Orcs lead by a charismatic leader. They are joined by giants and some Picts. This army is on the march towards Tamshire and they have to hold them off for three days until reinforcements can arrive.

Fernandez offers his ship to townspeople who want to flee the destruction of their homes while Link feverously prepares some kind of defense and the Orcs march ever closer.

As the Isadore sails south carrying Laucian and Lawrence they sail past a leviathan kill and watch six ships cutting up the huge majestic beast. The blood in the water has turned into a feeding frenzy of sharks and other things even more dangerous. As the ship steers out of the way they are attacked by flying manta ray. Laucian uses a fear spell which causes one of the creatures to panic and lash out, killing a crewman.

The ship steers well clear of Telmara, which is an old enemy of Brigitainne. After some discussion they decide to sail all the way around the continent of Ataria to reach Messalona. There the adventurers can buy their stone for the castle and Captain Sammart can unload his cargo.

Months in the future the Isadore arrives in Messalona. While the captain prepares to sell his Brigitainne cargo, Laurence tries to get the best deal he can on Black Basalt that they need for their castle. The dwarven merchants drive a hard bargain, and Laurence comes to understand that the stone they are after is the very best and can only be used by dwarf master crafters.

Meanwhile Laucian rents a room at an inn so he can unpack his alchemy supplies. While he and Lawrence are in the park, Laucian is suddenly embraced by a beautiful human girl. She is being pursued by someone wearing a cloak of invisibility and says she will be killed unless he helps her.

Lawrence takes the opportunity to pick her pocket and finds a small coin purse marked by a crest. He keeps the coins and removes the crest. Laucian takes the mysterious girl to his room at the inn and hires some guards to keep away strangers.

In the park Lawrence is scouting out someone to pickpocket when he overhears that the crest on the coin purse was from the royal family. He decides to follow his companion and searches for the inn.

In their room at the inn the girl confesses that she slipped something into his pocket. It is a gold ring with a crest carved into a pearl, the sign of Lord Verchak. Someone named Leander wants the ring which will prove he is the rightful heir to the vacant lordship. Leander is also about to marry her cousin, which will give him a connection to the royal family. Once he has both wealth and position, he plans to eliminate anyone who stands between him and the throne, including her. She says her name is Cassindra.

As Cassindra has been talking she is startled by his strange experiments and finally asks who he is.

“Basically I’m a professional murder hobo,” the elf explains.

Strangely this does not deter her; in fact a plan begins to form in her mind.

Laurence finds the inn where his companion is staying and notices the guards that Laucian has hired. In the tavern he notices an invisible man, but the enemy escapes his grasp. Reuniting with Laucian, the Elven alchemist sends his guards after the invisible figure while they hear the rest of the girl’s story.

“I can’t imagine why my cousin Berice is going to marry Leander,” Cassindra explains. “If you two will protect me, I’d like to go to her to find out the truth.”

From down below in the tavern they hear a fight. Laucian’s two guards are killed by a katar wielding man in an invisible cloak. The cloak is torn and rendered useless, but the killer manages to escape.

Laucian and Laurence take Cassindra to see Berice and get to the truth of the situation.

In Brigitainne the morning sun reveals an army of orcs gathered outside of Tamshire. Link knows his wall will never be ready in time, so he rallies the Halfling foot soldiers to attack the enemy. Meanwhile Fernandez and Ilari the Skarn are heading back to the ship. They are suddenly surrounded by invisible picts. Ilari’s slave senses them with his telepathy, but is wounded by an arrow.

As they fight it becomes clear that the picts have rendered themselves invisible with some sort of magic body paint. As arrows begin to rain down it becomes clear that they are surrounded. The sound of more fighting reaches them and Fernandez realizes that it comes from their ship. The picts have cut them off and placed the vessel under attack.

Meanwhile Link leads the Halflings in a charge against the Orcs. At a command from the Orc leader, the group splits in two allowing giants to attack. The giants use boulders to bowl down the attacking Halflings. Ten of the fifty Halflings are crushed in the attack. Link orders his group to swing around and attack the enemy head on.

Meanwhile in Zarak Khune the Duskblade is fighting off the goblins. He manages to kill one of them and get his money back, but the wound in his arm shows every sign of being poisoned. Unfortunately there is no cure for the goblin poison, but he manages to suck some of the poison out and bind the wound.

The head of the mining camp wants to send the group out again. They have the ogre, but they can’t get the mine up to full capacity without the minotaurs, or some other very strong race that can be captured.

With Bokour as their leader, the Duskblade, Tassolhoff and the rest of the party head into the savage wilderness again. As it starts to get dark, they find a group of eight Orcs around a campfire. Scouting ahead with his superior night vision, the Duskblade makes contact with the Orcs, who challenge him to a fight. They have no love for the interlopers from Brigitainne who enslave people and pillage the land’s wealth for their own profit.

After the fight is settled they give the Duskblade an ointment which heals the goblin poison, although it is terribly painful and will leave a scar. Tassolhoff joins them and reveals that they plan on taking over the mine from the Brigitainnes, an idea that the Orcs are in favor of. They say that the minotaurs have moved north towards their own land. They must also be careful because there is a gnome war machine in the area.

Eventually it is decided to send the rest of the party back except for Bokour. Tassolhoff and the Duskblade will join with the Orcs and together they will head off into the wilderness.

In Messalona, Laucian and Laurence find that Berice is an elf who lives in a lavish mansion. The Elven princess admits that she has no desire to marry Leander, but she has no choice. Many years ago she had an affair with a dwarven bard. She later discovered that he was only using her, but somehow one of the letters she wrote him has wound up in Leander’s hands and he is using it to blackmail her. If she doesn’t marry him, she will lose her reputation.

She also confesses that Leander is associated with the assassin’s guild, and that crossing him could well be deadly.

As they plan their next move Laucian has an idea. Leander needs the ring to prove that he is next to inherit the title of Lord Verchack and all that goes with it. Without the ring there is no heir and the title can only be claimed after a lengthy court battle.

If Laucian arrives with the ring and a forged letter, he can claim the title. Cassinda assures him that stranger things have happened. Unfortunately that means he will be a major obstacle to Leander’s plans and a target for the Assassin’s Guild. Laurence decides to join the assassins and try to work from within to stop Leander and keep his companion alive.

In Brigitainne, Fernandez cuts a path through the invisible picts to get to his ship, accompanied by Ilari the Sharn. They manage to get there before the picts can set fire to the ship and rally the crew against the attackers, but only after ten crewmen are killed,

Meanwhile Link and Alexander are leading a charge of Halflings against the Orc army. As half the troops split off and make their way to the woods, the triumphant Halflings pursue them only to be attacked by more Orcs waiting in ambush. The death toll is heavy and Link can’t come to their aid because he is face to face with a giant.

“Hold the line, even if that is the biggest giant you’ve ever seen!” Link shouts.

As Link struggles against the giant, Alexander finds himself confronting Aggarath, the cunning and dangerous leader of the Orcs. His combat skills prove to be a match for Alexander as the two of them fight without either gaining any advantage. As more Orcs appear from ambush, Alexander finds himself surrounded. Aggarath orders the other Orcs back so he can take on Alexander one on one.

Link manages to injure the giant by running between its legs and slashing at it, but the giant slams him with one powerful fist and sends him flying. As he staggers to his feet, he sees the Halflings retreating from the woods. They are trapped between the giant and the approaching Orcs.

From his ship, Fernandez can see that the village of Tamshire is under attack by a group of Orcs, but he is too far away to save them, and there is no way of knowing how many invisible Picts still lie in wait. In addition, the tide is out and it will still be three hours until there is enough water to float their ship.

In Messalona Laucian gives the forged papers to a government office to verify that he has inherited the title of Lord Verchack. He is surprised to find that he has possession now of a mansion in the city, a castle in the countryside and a great deal of land, including vineyards and a winery. He is even more surprised to find that he has inherited a wife, the Drgaonborn Harren Kava who is Lady Verchack.

She married the previous Lord Verchack to keep from being deported. In Messalona only humans, elves, Halflings, and dwarves can be citizens, the other races can’t own property or sign documents. She offers to leave the city if he wants to divorce her, but Laucian says she can stay if she moves into the basement.

Laucian is still trying to take all this in when a crossbow bolt comes through the window and hits him in the shoulder. It doesn’t seem too serious at first, but when the bolt is pulled out, it leaves the sharp point in the wound.

When his body is racked with agonizing pain, Laucian realizes that the point is burrowing up his shoulder, cutting a path through his flesh towards his heart. He pulls out a knife and manages to cut the point free, but the injuries cause him to pass out. He awakens to find that Harren Kava has dressed his wounds and restored some of his health.

At the same time Laurence is making inroads with the Assassin’s Guild. After spending most of the night in a bar with Helga, his poodle, he is invited to enter an alley. A mysterious stranger named Smiler steps from the shadows. His flesh is pale and he has inky black hair and facial piercings that extend from the corners of his mouth up both cheeks, giving him a cruel mockery of a smile.

When Laurence says he wants to join the Assassin’s Guild, Smiler offers him a chance to prove himself. He is to kill someone here in Messalona, and bring back proof that he was the killer. Smiler will judge him based on his success and sense of style. The more impressive the kill, the greater his chances of getting in.

In Zarak Khune the Duskblade and Tassolhoff set out after the escaped minotaurs accompanied by Bokour and the eight Orcs they met the night before. Along the way Tassolhoff begins to get Bokour to question his loyalty to his employers, the House of Turan.

The next morning the group is startled by a strange noise and a group of six terror birds charge past them. The Orcs eagerly try and attack the giant fast moving birds, but they mostly get themselves injured.

The birds were stampeded by a large clanking vehicle that rumbles into view, which the Orcs recognize as a Gnome tank. When the tank starts shooting spears out of its ports an Orc is killed immediately with a spear through the chest. Tassolhoff summons a mist to obscure them. Under cover of the mist, the duskblade attempts to use his acid splash to eat away at the tank, but he is injured as well.

The fight continues. One Orc dies under the treads of the tank, another is drugged by a strange gas that shoots out of the top hatch and falls to the ground. Finally the duskblade has managed to work his way through and sees spinning gears and chains inside the vehicle. Tassolhoff attaches a rope and pulls himself up, feeding some extra rope into the gears.

The sound of the terror birds screaming alerts them to a new threat. The tank has herded the birds into a narrow valley. There is a fence on top of the hills and gnomes with armor and crossbows who are waiting to shoot the birds. As the damaged tank rotates around it exposes the duskblade and Tassolhoff to the crossbows.

The duskblade attempts to charge the gnomes with the crossbows, but is brought down by a well aimed shot. Meanwhile Tassolhoff has managed to get inside the vehicle and is fighting against two gnomes in the hot, cramped interior of the tank. When a spring propelled spear shot goes awry, the mechanism begins to shake violently.

“It’s gonna blow!” one gnome shouts. He throws an emergency switch that causes the back of the tank to pop open. As the tightly wound springs let go, gears and chains whip through the air. Once on the ground, Tassolhoff and the Orcs quickly subdue the gnomes, but the duskblade is still under fire from the crossbows.

The gnomes offer to let them go if they release their captives, but the Halfling is having none of that. Using obscuring mist again, he manages to escape with the two gnomes, although the duskblade takes another shot from the crossbow that very nearly ends his life.

Tassolhoff attempts to interrogate the two, but they refuse to give up any secrets except the name of their city, Glinix, which is two days away. It’s a heavily armed fortress, they are told.

While still trying to debate what to do, one of the gnomes tries to escape with a knife hidden in his boot. Tassolhoff discovers the other boot has an oil ejector. They decide to keep both of them captive as they head north after the Minotaurs.

In Messalona, Laurence the rogue has been given the task of killing someone to prove himself to the assassin’s guild. He returns to Laucian, now reinforcing the security of Lord Vercheck’s estate. Laucian has hired a shifter by the name of Ianous to be his new body guard.

Seeking someone who needs to be killed they allow Harren Kava, Laucian’s dragonborn “wife” to point out and old enemy of the previous Lord Verchack, Lord Dolace. Dolace has hired several mercenaries to seize the vineyards that come with the Verchak estate. Nothing could ever be proven, of course. Seeing the security at Dolace’s mansion, Laurence decides to come back during the day.

The next day while Laucian is working on making gloves of arrow catching and Ianous is off buying a spiked chain, Laurence visits the Dolace mansion again. He sees the lord leaving in a carriage and follows it, hanging onto the underside.

At a busy intersection the carriage stops to allow a veiled and heavily cloaked woman to enter. They ride around the block for some time before returning to the same intersection.

As the woman leaves the carriage, Laurence, impulsively stabs her and drags her into a back alley. He is astonished to find himself face to face with a female dark elf. He’s looking for someone to kill, and by an odd coincidence, she wouldn’t mind killing Lord Dolace for him. All she wants is what Dolace has promised her and has failed to deliver: the vineyards that belong to Lord Verchack.

Meanwhile Ianous has purchased the spiked chain, but he spots some of the action involving Lord Dolace’s carriage. He decides to follow the carriage himself. When it arrives back at his mansion, Ianous climbs over the gate to get inside.

He is easily spotted by the guards, who attack him. As he slays the first Orc guard, twelve more come in answer to the alarm.

In Brigatainne Link is waging a losing battle against the giant. The Halfling troops have retreated and more Orcs are arriving. Not too far away Alexander and Aggragore, the leader of the Orc uprising, meet in single combat. They seem to be evenly matched. As they battle their wounds begin to add up. The Orcs have surrounded them now. Aggragore gives Alexander a chance to retreat with honor. Reluctantly the wounded knight makes his way out of the woods. He is given two Orcs as an escort.

They are unaware that not too far away Captain Fernandez has ordered his ship to be made ready to sail when the tide comes in.

In Messalona Ianous is overwhelmed by the attacking Orcs and plays dead. He loses his tower shield and is dropped off a bridge into a river where he must rip off his breastplate to keep from drowning. He manages to make his way back to his new boss Laucian.

In Brigitainne Fernandez gets ready to sail with the villagers from Tamshire safely on his ship. He manages to convince Commander Dawson that they must evacuate the civilians. As Alexander and Link join him on the ship, they set sail for Corvall, the capitol of Brigitainne.

Meanwhile in Zarak Khune the five surviving Orcs, Bokour, Tassolhoff and the Duskblade are marching north towards Minotaur territory. It has become clear that the Orcs are a rowdy band out to cause as much trouble as possible. They can only return to their village if they come back with trophies and battle scars. The group encounters belligerent centaurs who warn them of a stampede of giant cattle that is due soon.

That night the Duskblade has one of the captured gnomes make an axe out of the beak of a terror bird. He notices a Minotaur creeping up on their camp. When the Orcs are told to approach the Minotaur they take the order too seriously and try to attack. It is all the Duskblade can do to calm them down.

Sensing a disaster in the offing, Tassolhoff and Bokour take their leave. The minotaurs want nothing to do with going back to the mining camp even if it is to destroy it. As they talk there is a sudden bolt of light that shoot up in the air from the campfire. The minotaurs realize that the party is keeping gnomes captive and want no part of that madness.

The Duskblade brags that he and his companions have defeated gnomes before. The minotaurs say to come back when you have beaten them again.

Next morning lets the captive gnome lead him to their city, in the opposite direction to which Tassolhoff and Bokour have gone.

That same morning the Resolute sails south with the surviving villagers of Tamshire. As time passes, the sea grows rough until by nightfall they must move away from land to avoid being dashed onto the rocks of the coast. That night the waves are breaking over the bow of the ship.

While pacing the deck of the ship, Alexander sees a strange fishlike creature with legs and tentacles ride the waves onto the deck. It seems to be overpowering the sailors and pulling them overboard.

After getting the remaining sailors to tie themselves to the ship, Alexander races to the helm where the ship’s pilot is under attack by two of the creatures. Alexander attacks one, but gazes into its glowing eyes and realizes too late that it has hypnotic powers.

The next thing he knows he is underwater, being carried down to the ocean floor. He is saved from drowning by the spell placed on them by Sassrindal the goddess of the sea, which is still in effect.

Trapped in a cave at the bottom of the sea, he has lost his scythe, but finds a longsword and shield among the equipment left behind by others who have been dragged here to die. Two sailors from the Resolute have survived the harrowing journey, but six more are dead and being slowly devoured by the creatures known as morkoth.

Speaking to each other in a strange screeching language, the creatures try to surround him, but with his newfound weapons Alexander is able to drive them off. He escapes with the two sailors, who cling to him, desperately trying to breath the air bubbles that swirl around his body. After much difficulty he is able to make it to the surface, much to the amazement of the crew, who are busy fighting off the monsters.

Earlier that day in Zarak Khune, Tassolhoff and the Duskblade have gone their separate ways. The Halfling and his Orc companion travel through the night and are still crossing the open plains when they hear a rumbling and see what looks like a dust cloud coming at them. It is the wild cattle called the Auroch which is stampeding towards them.

As the animals get closer the ground shakes under their hooves and Tassolhoff realizes that the huge cattle are much larger than he is. Even their horns are almost the length of his entire body. Before they can be trampled to death a centaur charged past and sweeps them up. Tassolhoff and Bokour get to ride on the backs of the centaurs as they weave in and out of the deadly stampede, knowing that one misplaced hoof will spell the end of them.

The centaur points out one Auroch which is their prey and they expertly cut it away from the pack. Tassolhoff hurls his harpoon at it, but the damage isn’t enough to slow it down. The centaur races ahead of the wild bull and slashes with his spear, bringing it down. Tassolhoff leaps onto the injured animal as it rolls across the plains, tearing up clumps of dirt with its sharp hooves. He manages to slash its neck, and the powerful animal bleeds out before it can get to its feet again.

The herd of Auroch has divided to go around them, but one bull lowers its head and charges straight at the Halfling. Fortunately a female centaur heads him off, matching her speed to the bull, she grabs him by the horns and gives a savage twist, using the animal’s own momentum to snap its neck.

When the massive herd has passed there are several dead centaurs, but they have brought down eight of the massive animals. A wild celebration ensues as they prepare to cut up the meat.

All during that day the Duskblade, his Orc companions and the two gnome prisoners are moving deeper into the uncharted wilderness towards Glinix the city of the gnomes. While crossing a river, a turtle shell that has been fitted with razor sharp spikes flows downstream into them. The Duskblade manages to avoid serious injury, but the gnome who was leading them cuts his rope and escapes.

On the far shore an Orc heads into the woods after the gnome. For a few minutes there is no sign of them, then there is screaming. The badly wounded Orc, with a round sharp blade protruding from his chest, staggers back to camp dragging a dead gnome. The deceased gnome is not the one who escaped, but a stranger.

The Duskblade patches up the injured Orc as best he can, but ultimately it is decided to leave him behind. Now with four Orcs and a single gnome prisoner, the Duskblade continues forward. He finds the location of the fight, but no sign of the escaped gnome.

They continue to travel late into the night, being wary of traps. At one point they come to a steep slope that ends with spear points driven into the ground. It doesn’t seem like much of a trap, but before they can go around the incline, they are confronted by strange objects that emerge from the woods heading straight for them.

There are six of what appear to be tower shields with spinning buzz saw blades in their center. They are being pushed from behind and running on a wheel in front, just behind the shield. The Duskblade uses his ice attack and freezes the ground, which brings one of them crashing down, but the other continues, slamming the spinning blade into him.

Badly injured, the Duskblade staggers back and narrowly avoids going off the edge of the steep slope. He uses his acid attack and moves away from the attacker. As he turns to run, he sees one of the odd constructions hit an Orc, slicing him up and sending him over the edge. The injured Orc slides down the incline much faster than seems normal, and hits the spears on the ground hard enough to impale himself.

As the Duskblade and the three surviving Orcs race along the edge they see the secret to the off creations. There is a gnome pushing a tower shield mounted on a wheel. Gears cause the sharp blade to spin the faster the wheel moves. All the gnomes are repositioning their vehicles to chase the survivors.

Reaching the safety of the trees, the Duskblade climbs into the branches and orders the Orcs to do the same. The gnomes seemingly do not follow them.

Suddenly the gnome who has been tied to the Duskblade frees himself and scampers into the higher branches. He ignores the Duskblade’s warning and manages to ignite a small amount of powder which burns with a bright flare. An acid splash puts out the fire and injures the gnome, causing him to fall. The Duskblade catches him and holds him prisoner again, but not before he takes acid damage himself.

The Duskblade is very weak, high in a tree and the long night is far from over.

Far away in Messalona, Laucian’s hard work on his gloves of arrow catching is interrupted, first by his vintner, an elderly elf who needs his opinion on some wine that has been aging for twenty years, then by a mysterious hand clutching a knife that comes through a dimensional hole. Laucian is stabbed as the hand with the knife reaches through a hole and slashes in the room. Ianous rushes to his side, but the appearances of the hand with the blade appears to be random.

In a bar Laurence meets with Mirenza, a beautiful and mysterious dark elf. She’s after some land that belongs to Lord Verchack, and is very pleased to hear that Laurence works for the new lord. She is even more happy to hear that Laurence has been trying to kill Lord Dolance, the man she was meeting with earlier. Dolance was working with her to seize Verchack’s land, but he may have just outlived his usefulness. Laurence agrees to take her to meet the new Lord Verchack.

As they arrive outside Verchack’s mansion, Laurence is startled to see a small creature clutching at a lamp post and reaching his hand through a dimensional hole. Mirenza identifies it as a boggle. Laurence manages to wound it, making it teleport away through one of its own dimensional holes.

Inside the mansion Laurence gets to taste the wine and discuss future grape plantings with the vintner while Laucian talks with Mirenza. The dark elf woman wants half of his vinyards, but won’t tell him why. Laucian suspects treachery, but she points out, she’s asking him to trade land he hasn’t even seen. In return for the land she is more than happy to kill Dolance and deliver his head. Laucian draws up the necessary papers.

Back in Brigitainne the Resolute is sailing south to Corvall, the capitol city. They are attacked by homunculus carrying small flaming brands. The creatures are successfully defeated, but the sails have been damaged. Fernandez decides to spend another night at sea rather than pushing the damaged ship too hard. When he arrives the next day he is shocked to hear that charges have been brought against him for dereliction of duties.

Lady Thresha is willing to defend him, but they must both report to the admiralty to straighten out the situation. She is certain that it is more maneuvering by Lord Orthridge of House Turan, her arch enemy. The homunculus are a specialty of his personal wizard, Riarcan, but there’s no way to prove that.

Dealing with paperwork and stuffy officials drives Fernandez almost to the breaking point. With difficulty he is able to contain himself. Eventually he is cleared of all charges, but he vows to pay House Turan back for all they’ve done to him.

Now that he’s free of his military obligations and something of a hero for saving the civilians of Tamshire from certain death, Lady Thresha wants him to fulfill his original commission, to sail the Resolute to the unknown port of Valacar’s Reach on the unexplored continent of Srathus.

Leaving the Admiralty, Fernandez sees his companion Ilarai the Sharn meeting with his employer, the enormously fat Lord Thrace of Beryll House. Ilarai admits that he was hired to kill Fernandez because Lord Thrace believed Thressa had summoned a demon to be her captain. When Ilarai found out that Fernandez was not a demon, he had no reason to attack him. Fernandez is invited to return later that night to meet with Thrace at Beryll House.

While his ship is being prepared to sail the next day and his crew is enjoying a well earned shore leave, Fernandez goes to Beryll House. He finds it is a baroque castle full of ornate carvings. In a large room hung with silk and with thick carpets on the floor, the master of Beryll House discusses plans with Fernandez.

Thrace is willing to go after House Turan in a way that can never be traced back to Fernandez. Of course he wants something in return. He’d like to know the location of Valacar’s Reach, the secret trading post that only captains of House Valacar know how to find.

Fernandez can’t simply tell him the location, since that would violate the contract he signed in blood. There may be a way around that. Fernandez happens to mention that one of his officers, the paladin Link also knows the location of the port, and Link is out drinking at a certain pub.

Lord Thrace assures Fernandez that they have a deal, and all will be taken care of. Not exactly certain of what just happened, he leaves Beryll House.

A short time later as Link is enjoying his last night in town he is approached by two striking women. They seem to have no hair, but they have tattoos across their scalps stretching down to their faces. Link guesses that they are of the Aza race, like the slave who accompanied Ilarai on the mission to the North Country, but he has no idea why they find him so fascinating.

The two women are charming companions. In fact they seem to answer his questions before he can ask them. As the wine flows the evening gets a little fuzzy. Link awakens the next morning alone, but he’s almost certain he had a good time. He races to the docks to make it to the Resolute before she sails.

Before the ship sails a message arrives for Fernandez from Beryll house stating that their bargain has been struck. The ship sets sail for the south, as Brigitainne fades into the distance Fernandez ponders exactly what kind of deal he has made.

During the previous night the Duskblade slept uneasily in his perch in the tree. He awakened to the sound of crashing branches and saw that gnomes have floated over him in balloons and are now dropping down on his tree. Around him there is the sound of combat as the smaller, lighter gnomes leap from the branches onto the Orcs.

The duskblade attacks with his sword. Losing his balance, he drops from the branch and catches himself with one hand. As he dangles there, his ray of frost makes the limb slippery, sending a gnome crashing to the forest floor. The gnome tied to his back begins to swing back and forth, throwing off his balance.

Before he can react, a gnome drops from above, slashing with his knife as he falls. The flash of pain stuns the Duskblade and his fingers slip, sending him downward. He hits the ground hard, trying to stagger to his feet with his last breath. The gnomes move in on him, slashing at him from all sides with their sharp knives.

As he falls to the ground, the Duskblade glimpses the face of one of his attackers. It is the gnome he captured at the tank and dragged through the woods, the one who escaped earlier. It is the last sight he sees as the world turns black and he feels the knives cutting into him and his lifeblood draining out onto the forest floor.

In Messalona Laucian’s work is once again interrupted, this time by Cassinda, the princess who started him on this whole adventure. Her cousin Berice is going to be forced to marry Leander. Apparently he wants to go through with the wedding even though he still hasn’t become the new Lord Verchack. He gets a more pleasant surprise when Mirenza shows up with the head of Dolace. He gives her the papers which enable her to take control of half his vineyard.

Laucian agrees to help Berice avoid the wedding. They can either kill Leander, or find the letter that he’s using to blackmail her. They decide killing Leander is their best bet.

The next day they ask Berice to summon Leander to her house supposedly to accept his proposal. Laurence is waiting in the rafters to drop down on him. Ianous waits outside to keep an eye on the situation.

Leander arrives with two bodyguards courtesy of the assassin’s guild. One guard is a dangerous looking dwarf with a crossbow, the other a half-orc with an axe. When Leander enters he is attacked by Laurence. During the fight, Leander uses a magic knife that returns to his hand, slashing at Lawrence.

Outside the two guards hear the fight and start to rush inside only to be cut off by Ianous. The shifter holds them at bay with his claws and his sword. The dwarf fires, but misses, then backs away to reload. The half-orc has better luck with his axe and soon he and Ianous are exchanging blows.

Inside the house Lawrence has scored a near fatal hit on Leander who screams and runs for the door. Lawrence brings him down and finishes him off with his knife and short sword.

Hearing their boss in trouble, the half-orc rushes the door, slamming Ianous aside. When he gets into the building he sees at once that he’s too late. The dwarf had readied another bolt, this one marked with magic runes. Lying in the doorway, Ianous looks up and sees the dwarf taking aim. He rolls aside, taking himself out of range of the attack. The half orc picks up the body of their boss and heads outside for the carriage.

Concerned that his men have not reported back, Laucien heads for Berice’s house. “What the hell is going on here!” he demands, kicking open the sole remaining door, but it is obvious the fight is over.

As the carriage rolls away, the half-orc expresses surprise that Laucian is still alive.

After leaving Brigitainne the Resolute spends six weeks at sea. They stop by their fledgling city at Bloodport Island and find that the community is continuing to grow, but the stone needed for their castle still has not arrived. The trade with the Darfellans has been established, a profitable one in which they supply rum in return for pearls. Unfortunately it’s hard to sell the pearls at a good price in any of the nearby ports. Fernandez takes half of the pearls with him to sell them in Brigitainne where the demand is greater and the prices higher.

The ship sails on to Valcar’s Reach. Fernandez and Link go ashore and ring a gong, which summons copper skinned humans riding dinosaurs. Recognizing the banner of their trading partner, the natives welcome them to their land.

Fernandez finds that they are a people without a great deal of metal. The weapons are obsidian and the armor is wood covered with fur and feathers. Lady Thressa is trading metal and hard wood items items like pots, swords and furniture for jade, turquoise as well as very expensive feathers and fur.

That night there is a party celebrating their arrival. The king of the city has three beautiful daughters. After a night of partying, Fernandez and Link each enjoy the company of a princess.

On the ship, Alexander is having a less fun evening. A poisonous snake has crawled on board the ship and bitten a crewman. After killing the snake, Alexander peers over the side and sees that the water is teeming with sea snakes. He orders the men to hold torches to the anchor chain to keep the snakes from creeping on board.

The sailors take turns keeping the snakes at bay. By the time the sun rises the snakes have vanished. A low slung ship driven by oars comes into view. The captain of the ship hails the Resolute and asks to speak to them.

Cautiously Alexander uses one of the small boats to meet the Yuan-Ti captain on the water. The other man is a hulking snake hybrid with a snake’s body and no legs. He warns Alexander about how dangerous the continent is to outsiders, then offers to pay more than the villagers for their trade goods.

When Alexander accuses him of sending the snakes, he gets no answer. Ultimately Alexander must tell him that he is not the captain, which prompts an offer that the Yuan-Ti will help him take over the ship. Alexander politely declines. Back in the city Fernandez and Link are still fast asleep, unaware of what has transpired.

Far away on the continent of Zarak Khune Tassolhoff the Halfling cleric and Bokur the Orc enjoy the feast provided by the centaurs. The leader of the tribe warns that the open plains will soon be the sight of a savage battle once winter sets in and food starts to run low. Hundreds of thousands of ratmen and goblins will be on the march, attacking anything in their way.

The centaurs plan to take their supply of fresh meat and head north to take refuge from the coming war. The tribe is short a healer and they ask if the strangers want to travel with them. Tala the female centaur seems to have taken a liking to the little Halfling.

Tassolhoff decides not to accept their offer and begins the long march back to the gold mining camp. As he and Bokor make their way across the wilderness, they have to stay one step ahead of dangerous predators drawn by the massive killing of the auroch. As they get nearer to the mine they have to dodge more and more patrols of goblins.

One night they sneak into the outskirts of a goblin camp and discover that thousands of goblins are massing for war, just as the centaurs warned. One tribe of goblins has trained giant spiders which they use as war machines. When they return to the camp they find it under siege by the goblins.

Fighting their way past the goblins Tasselhoff and Bokor arrive in the mining camp. They haven’t been able to produce any more gold since their captive minotaurs are gone, and their men are being picked off one by one. Tassolhoff makes his report and explains how the whole party was wiped out except for himself and Bokor. He also explains how easily the goblins will take the poorly defended mining camp once the giant spiders come into play.

The man in charge of the mine wants to stand his ground. He is too terrified of his masters at House Turan to think of abandoning their mine. The next day giant spiders climb over the walls while catapults rain down debris on the men. Tassolhoff has been rallying the sailors, and they are quick to make their way to the ship. The Rentham sails away with its cargo of gold, ent wood, and gnoll hides just as the walls collapse. As the ship sails away they see the slaughter of those who stayed behind.

Even combining the crew of the Rentham with the survivors of the gold mine, there are still barely enough people to crew the ship. The captain is harsh with his discipline and will be quick to blame the losses on someone else when the ship gets back to Brigitainne.

Tassolhoff and Bokor have no trouble persuading the crew to mutiny against the captain. They are clearly not going to get paid for this voyage, and it looks like Lord Orthridge will clasp them in irons when they return.

One night while the captain sleeps the crew turns on the officers. Bokor leads the men against the company mercenaries. During the fighting Tassolhoff is able to capture the captain. When he refuses to surrender he is cast overboard to wild cheering from the crew.

The banner of House Turan is taken down and Tassolhoff announces that from now on they will be pirates. They sail west for Bloodport, the pirate haven. While the crew enjoys themselves Tassolhoff visits the far side of the island where his companions have started their settlement. He finds that the black basalt still hasn’t arrived to fortify their walls, but a team is supposed to be in Messalona securing it. The Halfling also discovers that he just missed Fernandez, who has taken the House Valacar ship Resolute south to the largely unexplored continent of Srathus.

Tassolhoff remembers that Valacar has a secret port on that coast, something called Valacar’s Reach on the map that they found on the derelict ship. On a hunch he reassembles the crew and heads south.

Meanwhile in Messelona a mysterious figure with glowing marks on his body is wandering the streets. He is a genasi, a race tied to the elements who are unusual in this part of the world. The well travelled warrior hears a scream and a loud crashing sound. It seems to be coming from a large mansion.

Zaanzzabar the genasi leaps the wall and enters the grounds. The battle inside seems to be growing more intense. He smashes through a window and finds that the fight is in the basement. As he heads down the stairs he is confronted with the sight of a Dragonborn woman battling short, twisted, dangerous looking men. They appear to be the Derro of legend, a race he has heard of but never seen.

“Get Lord Verchack!” the Dragonborn woman screams, barely able to take her eyes off her attackers. Zaanzzibar tries to aid her, but he is driven back by a crossbow bolt.

He decides to exit the house and try to find this mysterious lord.

Outside Laucian and Ianous are returning to the mansion satisfied with a good night’s work. They are startled to see that the window has been broken and are even more startled when a strange character rushes out of the house asking for Lord Verchack.

Zaanzzabar quickly explains what is going on and the three of them head into the basement. It appears that Harren Kava is defending the house from a group that burst up through the floor. She has managed to kill three of them, but she has taken some injuries and now is on her knees with a knife at her throat.

In addition to the Derro, there are strange masked figures crawling out of the hole in the floor. They appear to be elves and humans with long clawlike fingernails wearing nothing but rags and a metal mask over their face with eye holes and a grill for a mouth.

One Derro shouts in undercommon for the masked figures to attack and they swarm out of the hole.

Thinking quickly Laucian uses a sleep spell on his Dragonborn wife and the person holding the dagger. Both of them slump to the floor. Ianous and Zaanzzabar rush forward to take her out of harm’s way, but they are cut off by the masked figures.

The derro are laughing and screaming madly. “Where is she? We know she was here!” one of them shrieks. He is waving a magic rod that has a circle on one end and is glowing softly.

Zaanzzabar and Ianous manage to bring down two of the masked figures and drag Harren Kava to safety. As the crossbow bolts fly through the air, Laucian uses a spell to fill the room with suffocating smoke. When they make their retreat they slam the door shut and it is sealed with a spell.

The Derro pound on the door, but after a while the noises stop.

As our heroes wait to see if there will be any further action they discuss the situation. Ianous wants Laucian to hire the new man Zaanzzabar. “All right,” Laucian announces. “But if he screws up, I’m punishing you.”

When they reopen the door the Derro have escaped down the hole. They have stripped their dead, but left the bodies. One masked attacker is still alive, and the genasai finishes him off. He tears aside the metal mask and finds that it is attached to the face of the elf.

The sight of the dead bodies reminds Laucian of all the alchemical things he can do with the parts, so he immediately begins to cut it to pieces. His gloves of arrow catching are finished and he needs a new project. As he works he tells his two men to go down after the attackers.

Meanwhile across town Laurence is in a bar celebrating. He hears about trouble in the sewers and is reminded of a first level adventure. Immediately he recruits a barbarian and an elderly wizard and sets out to find out whats going on. In the sewers he find the body of a homeless person crucified by crossbow bolts. He was apparently tortured as he hung on the wall dying. Laurence is beginning to suspect that this is no ordinary first level adventure.

Eventually he tracks down a mysterious group who are in the sewers coughing and trying to catch their breath. He circles around to take them from behind, telling his two new men to move in on his signal.

Surprisingly he notices that this sewer runs under Laucian’s mansion, and there is a hole in the ceiling leading up to Laucian’s basement. Laurence meets Ianous and Zaanzzabar as they enter the sewers.

Laurence is able to sneak up on the Derro and take one from behind. As he battles with it, his two companions rush in. The low level characters find themselves overpowered. The barbarian is hit with a crossbow bolt and the wizard is brought down by the masked people after firing a few magic missiles. Their sharp nails tear out chunks of his flesh, literally tearing him to pieces.

Finishing off his enemy, Laurence rushes to their aid just as Ianous and Zaanzzabar join the fray. The battle is fierce, and it quickly becomes clear that the Derro will not be easy to defeat. Despite their cackling madness, they are used to fighting in tunnels and the Derro have them outnumbered.

“We know you have her! Give her to us!” one of them shrieks. He is the one carrying the rod with the circle at the end. At close range Ianous can see that there is a single long hair tied across the circle.

“Who?” he demands. “Who are you talking about?”

The Derro describe their enemy. It quickly becomes apparent that they are after Mirenza the dark elf and have somehow tracked her to Laucian’s house. Ianous decides to tell them that she isn’t inside the house, and is probably at the land she recently took control of out at the vinyards.

Screaming that she shall pay for what she has done, the Derro grab their wounded and vanish into the darkness. The heroes are left wondering just exactly what happened. Laurence has to get his injured people to a healer, but he stays long enough to loot the body of the Derro he killed.

In another continent far to the south Fernandez and Link awaken after and try to shake off the effects of a night of celebration. The king seems particularly eager to set him up with his daughter, believing that it will help foster good relations between their two people. He also apologizes because the gold he promised Lady Thressa isn’t there yet.

Arriving at the ship, Fernandez hears a report from Alexander about the encounter with the Yuan-Ti. He is troubled by this and worries about damage to his ship. He decides to order Alexander to take the Resolute out for two and half days. The gold from the mine should be in by then.

Back at the city, Fernandez and Link spend their time learning about the people, including their unique weapons and the dinosaurs they ride. Their king expresses surprise that the Yuan-Ti are sailing triremes. The snake people have longed dreamed of conquest, but they are not a seafaring people. The best ships they have are basically large canoes which can only hug the coastline. The Yuan-Ti have never even been able to figure out exactly where their city is located, but if they have gone after the Resolute, they must know the city is near the harbor.

Word arrives that the gold mine has been taken by the Yuan-Ti. Fernandez volunteers to lead a party of thirty men to get the mine back. Link stays behind to shore up the cities defenses in case this is a trick to lure the army away.

After taking time to master the dinosaur mounts, Fernandez rides through the dense jungle following a well travelled road. Unexpectedly a raptor drops from a tree and decapitates one of the warriors. Suddenly dozens of viscous flesh eating dinosaurs are leaping from ambush. Amidst the bloodshed and carnage the mounts begin to panic. Several of the dinosaurs take off at a dead run, and Fernandez finds himself charging into the jungle.

By the time he gets his mount under control and returns to the battle it is a scene of devastation. He whips out his sword and charges in, noticing the highly intelligent gleam in the dinosaur’s eyes.

Even while that pitched battle is being fought Alexander discovers that his ship is being followed by two Yuan-Ti triremes. As the vessels draw near they split up, to take him on both sides. He had deck weapons, but he can only take on one ship at a time and will be helpless before the second ship’s attack.

Suddenly another ship appears around the headland. Alexander doesn’t recognize it, but it is clearly of Brigitainne design and is flying a blank flag. When the catapult on the new ship fires, it smashes the oars on one of the Yuan-Ti ships.

On the deck of the Rentham, Tassolhoff recognizes the Resolute and knows that he has been reunited with his friends after many long months apart. He orders the catapult to be reloaded and the ship to unfurl its sails, moving to attack speed.

As the damaged trireme tries to get back under control, Alexander brings the Resolute around to bring its forward catapult to bear on the attacking ship. The Yuan-Ti manage to send grappling hooks to the Resolute and swarm over the deck. The second ship sinks a harpoon in the stern of the Resolute and they reel their own ship in closer, which puts them under fire from the Rentham’s catapault.

While the battle is going on, a massive sea snake slowly rises to the surface and rears its head. When the Rentham hits it with their catapult, it responds by plucking a sailor off the deck and swallowing him whole.

Meanwhile Alexander has managed to drive back the Yuan-Ti. Damaged by a second catapult stone, the first Yuan-Ti ship begins to flounder. Alexander cuts the cables and lets it sink.

When the deck is clear the Resolute fires a ballista bolt through the head of the giant snake. It falls back to the water and thrashes about while archers from the Rentham finish it off.

The remaining Yuan-Ti ship attempts to flee. It has already been damaged by one catapult stone and the Resolute is able to catch up with her and finish her off.

Meanwhile Bloody Fernandez and the warriors from the Omahlan city are still reeling from their ambush by the velociraptors. Although the dangerous predators have been driven off the smell of fresh blood is bound to draw larger, even more dangerous predators. The trail they are on has now grown too dangerous and they must head into the jungle to make it overland to the gold mine.

Reluctantly Fernandez must send Thick McRunfast, his faithful ornithomimus mount back to Omalha for safety.

The head warrior, Tepetan leads Fernandez and a handful of surviving warriors into the jungle. He takes the time to teach Fernandez the lore of the dinosaur filled jungle and how to use the japuta, a raptor claw weapon that attaches to the hand.

Their best hope for avoiding trouble is to hide in a large herd of Apatosaurus. The incredibly huge animals are like moving mountains, who don’t even notice the humans darting between their legs.

Safely in the midst of the herd, they walk for the rest of the day. As night falls they must change course, and so duck out between the massive tree trunk legs. This time Fernandez is not so lucky and is kicked by a foot that sends him tumbling.

Tepetan makes sure Fernandez gets to safety. He comments on how important the alliance between his people and House Valacar is. He also mentions that he was very close to the princess Omaza before Fernandez arrived and swept her off her feet. Perhaps from his point of view it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Fernandez were to have a fatal accident.

Nevertheless, he patches up the tiefling, and even instructs him in how to use the kaua’koi, a staff weapon carved from the thigh bone of a dinosaur.

Back in the city Link has spent the day building up their defenses. He inspects the twenty foot high wall and finds it sound, although not as strong as the castles back home. He has two towers built to provide advance notice if the Yuan-Ti start to attack. He arranges the guards in groups of five along the wall.

That night he dines with Sodiva, the middle princess. After dinner she leaves, saying she has important business to attend to.

To the north in Messalona Laurence the rogue is going over the previous night’s action and notices that he has an adamantine dagger from the body of the Derro he killed. He decides to head to the assassin’s guild to gain a membership, which was promised him when he returned with someone’s head. He now has two, the recently deceased Leander and Lord Dolace.

The leader of the assassin’s guild, the heavily pierced Smiler welcomes him. The guild is upset to lose Leander, who was a patron, but they have bigger plans. There is another scheme planned for that night and they want Laurence there to make sure all goes well.

A woman is supposed to slip something into the drink of a wizard named Purforce, who is an advisor to the king. All the hard work is going to be done by their client, an elven wizard named Arliak, who has traveled from far off Verenzia and plans to make a place for himself in Messalona and wants the assassins to clear the way. To Laurence the name is terrifyingly familiar, he is the wizard who hired them on their first job, the one who still is after them for losing the Sphere, one of the five geometric solids of creation.

The assassin’s part in the plan is very simple, but they want someone there in case something goes wrong. They offer to buy him a new suit of clothes so he can fit in with the gentry.

Back at Lord Verchack’s house, Zaanzzabar decides to try on the iron mask he took from one of the dead bodies. The metal adheres to his face and he falls to the ground screaming in pain. The mask now is a part of his face and cannot be removed.

Meanwhile Lord Verchack is visited by Berice the elven princess. Apparently killing Leander and burning his house wasn’t enough, she is still being blackmailed. Now someone wants her to slip a powder into someone’s drink at a royal dinner that night. She feels she has no choice but to obey.

Laucian examines the powder and discovers it is a type of tranquilizer that will make it hard to cast spells. If Purfoyce is drugged with this, he will temporarily lose his magic.

Ianous is worried about the Derro who are still on the loose and Mirenza, the dark elf woman who now has half of the vineyard. He wants to investigate further, but Laucian orders him to stay in the city to be on hand for the nights activities. On top of that, Zaanzzabar arrives with a plan that involves pretending to kidnap Berice so she can’t put the powder in the drink. Berice doesn’t think much of this plan.

The three of them argue about their plans and almost come to blows. When Laurence shows up, they inform him what is going on. Laucian suspects this plot is the work of the assassins, but Laurence swears that it is not.

The men continue to debate the situation as the time for the dinner and dance draws ever closer.

On the continent of Strathus, Link awakens to a new day and continues setting up defenses for a possible Yuan-Ti attack. Later that day Captain Tassolhoff arrives with the Rentham and fills Link in on what has been going on. Alexander has chosen to follow orders and continues at sea for the next day and a half. No one has heard from Fernandez and his party who went out to the gold mining village, but some of their dinosaur mounts have returned showing signs of battle, which is not a good sign.

That evening Princess Sodiva invites Link to her rom for an intimate dinner. During the meal he begins to feel very sleepy, and he finally passes out.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff has become suspicious. He searches the princess’s room and finds a secret passage to the ground floor. Someone has taken a rolled up carpet down to a cart drawn by two dinosaurs. When the drivers pull away, Tassolhoff follows them.

At the gate, the drivers of the cart show a document signed by the princess and demand to be let out of the city. The Halfling cleric continues to follow them into the jungle where they turn the rolled up carpet over to the Yuan-Ti.

When Link awakens he realizes he is being kidnapped and starts to struggle. When Tassolhoff sees Link fighting back, he supplies obscuring mist and rushes in to help. They manage to escape into the jungle before the startled Yuan-Ti can capture them.

Back in the city, they join King Tolmaz in demanding an answer from Sodiva. At first she pretends innocence, but under the power of a zone of truth spell, she confesses that she is actually a Yuan-Ti using the power of illusion to take the place of the princess. The real princess was captured months ago and is being held prisoner in their city of Ma’hateel. If they want to see her alive again they dare not harm her.

Holding the spy captive, Link and Tassolhoff realize that they have another quest to perform.

Meanwhile, far to the north in Messalona, Lord Verchack prepares for the dinner and dance. He is disturbed by the actions of Laurence, who doesn’t seem to be himself lately.

Before they leave, Lord Verchack gets a message from the master of his vineyard. Some woman claims to own half of it, and threatens to kill anyone who comes on her property.

Lord Verchack and his two men, Ianous and Zaanzzabar prepare for the evening by planting alchemical bombs, both smoke and explosives. These are placed strategically around the room as the guests gather.

During the meal, Laurence is seen watching the royal table very closely. Lord Arliak has arrived and is in the back of the room with the courtiers. Berice manages to slip the powder into the wizard Purfoyce’s drink without anyone noticing.

While the dinner is going on, Jims Rose, a human bard has been entertaining them. He has been warned of possible trouble and is on the lookout for anything suspicious.

Just as the tables are being cleared for the dance, Lord Verchack and his men move into action. The first set of bombs fill the room with smoke. Shouting warnings, Ianous and Zaanzzabar try to get everyone to leave. The royal family evacuate by a door in the back of the room, as does Lord Arliak and the mysterious bard.

When everyone has cleared the room, Lord Verchack sets off the explosive charges, bringing down the ceiling. Verchack and his men has followed the royals into the tunnel. They see Purfoyce try to protect his majesty with a shield, but he doesn’t have the power after being drugged.

In the smoke and confusion of the falling rubble, Arliak suddenly announces that he saw Laurence put something into the wizard’s drink. It must be Laurence who is responsible for the debacle. At the same time the bard recognizes Laurence as his uncle.

Laurence realizes that he has been framed, and that this was the plan of the Assassin’s guild all along. He struggles against Ianous and Zanzaabar, but Arliak hits him with a jet of flame and sets him on fire. As he falls to the ground in agony, Jims Rose puts him out of his misery with his own knife.

Lord Verchack makes an opening in the wall to get the king to safety, but it is Arliak, who has been protecting the king, who leads the royal family through the hole.

After the dust has settled, and part of the palace has collapsed, the king announces that he is going to reward the heroes who helped him, including Jims Rose and Lord Arliak along with Verchack and his people.

Far to the south on the continent of Srathus, Link and Tassolhoff prepared to sail the Rentham to Ma’hateel, the city of the Yuan-Ti to recover the kidnapped princess Sodiva. On board they had as a bargaining chip Ashissa the spy, who claimed that she was a Yuan-Ti princess. As they sailed she almost managed to escape by hypnotizing the guards and had to be put under strict security.

Later that same day Bloody Fernandez and the warrior Tepatan arrived at the gold mine. They were not surprised to find that the Yuan-Ti had raided the mine and burned the village. They were surprised to find survivors of the massacre ties to posts in the ground being eaten one by one by an allosaurus.

There is no way the handful of warriors can overcome the huge meat eater, but Tepatan has a plan. Not too far away he located a small herd of triceratops, the natural enemy of the allosaurus. While his people try to draw the triceratops closer, Fernandez volunteers to lead the allosaurus into a trap.

Waving bloody meat in the air to draw the huge animal’s attention, Fernandez manages to lure it away from the prisoners. Once in the jungle he leads it toward the charging triceratops only to be caught between them. He falls and narrowly escapes death after being knocked down by a triceratops.

The battle between the dinosaurs is an incredible spectacle. In the end the allosaurus is wounded and limps away into the jungle to heal. The triceratops go on about their business, munching plants.

Once set free the surviving prisoners describe the brutal attack of the Yuan-Ti. They stole the cart of gold that was headed for Fernandez’s ship and kidnapped several of the villagers. In addition the collapsed the gold mine, and it will take weeks to dig it out again.

Fernandez sees the deep tracks left by the wheels of the gold cart and knows he has no choice but to follow it. Tepatan assures him that the heavy cart won’t be able to make good time in the narrow jungle trails giving them time to catch up. There’s only one place the cart could be heading, north and west to Ma’Hateel.

In Messalona Lord Verchack and his party prepare for their meeting with the king. The ship that they hired is full of black basalt stone that will be used for building their castle so there is no longer any reason that they have to stay. Lord Verchack realizes it’s time to return to being Laucian the elf again.

Laucian contacts Cassinda, the noble woman who started him on this adventure in the first place. He gives her the ring marking the heir to the title of the Verchack estate and draws up papers that will allow her to take over. One of the clauses in the document states that should he ever return to Messalona and stakes a claim, the title will revert to him. Cassinda is surprised and touched by his generosity.

Just as his party leaves to meet the king, they receive word that the Derro have been seen attacking Mirenza, the female Drow who now owns half of one of his vinyards. They are not surprised, since it was Ianous who sent the Derro after her in the first place.

At the ceremony with the king Laucian and his party are all given medals of valor for helping save the king.They are all officially heroes of Messalona now. The head of security would like to use magic to replay the events to try and determine what really happened, but apparently that proved too difficult. The wizard Purfoyce seems shattered by the events of the previous evening, and Lord Arliak has taken the opportunity to ingratiate himself with the king.

Jims Rose, the bard gets a medal as well for keeping their spirits up during the crisis. Laucian decides to invite him along when they leave for Bloodport. A merchant ship heavy with building stone is waiting in the harbor and their mission has come to an end.

In Srathus the Rentham draws near Ma’Hateel. They stick close to the shore to avoid patrol boats, but are able to see that there is a Brigitainne ship from House Turan at the docks. Tassolhoff agrees to go ahead to scout the area by floating into the harbor in a barrel.

Tassolhoff makes it to port and sees the Brigitainne ship along with captured vessels and a large shipyard where the Yuan-Ti are building larger ships along the Brigitainne design. The Halfling attempts to climb the wall but fails and is caught by the guards. He pretends to be lost and confused. The guards take him inside to a building where he is searched and thrown in prison.

In the prison cells he finds the survivors from the ships in the harbor. Some of the crewmen have been used for experimentation; others are used for slave labor building the boats. Using his command spell to take over a guard, Tassolhoff is able to recover his equipment and free the prisoners. They search the building and find it largely deserted, but the sun will be up soon.

Meanwhile Link has grown impatient waiting for Tassolhoff, so he hoists the flag of House Turan and sails boldly into the harbor, docking near the other House Turan vessel.

The captain of the other ship is in the city, but the first mate is more than happy to talk to Link over a bottle. Although the plans aren’t exactly clear to the mate, it seems that House Turan has agreed to help the Yuan-Ti with their plans for conquest, provided that Brigitainne is left alone. In addition, they are going to attack and destroy the Resolute thereby severing the ties between King Tolmaz’s people and House Valacar. Since it was only the weapons provided by Valacar trading ships that let the humans stand against the Yuan-Ti then Tolmaz’s people will fall.

Tassolhoff leads his escaped captives out into the streets, but as the sun starts to come up he realizes his time is running out. He leads them into the sewers and heads for the large castle in the center of the city.

Outside the gates, Link has become more desperate to get in. After finding the sewer entry blocked, be decides to boldly pound on the gtate and announce that he is the actual representative of House Turan and the other ship is an imposter.

The guards summon a very dangerous looking Yuan-ti named Sethik, who takes Link to Captain Balfor so the matter can be settled. Surrounded by Yuan-ti abominations, Link follows him into the city.

Out at sea, Alexander is preparing to take the Resolute back to Valacar’s Reach when his first mate spots a raft floating on the water. On the raft is a beautiful elven woman with red hair. She has large wings which are pinned to the raft with metal spikes.

Carefully they take her on board the ship and free her. She is in bad shape after two days in the sun with no water, but they believe in time she will recover her strength. She says her name is Teal and she is an avariel, or winged elf. They are a reclusive people with little contact with the outside world.

As she heals the ship heads back to the safe harbor of Valacar’s Reach. Just as they arrive they meet the merchant ship rented by Laucian. The ship contains Ianous, Jims Rose the bard and Zaanzzabar. For the first time in months the group is close to being united.

Meanwhile miles to the south Bloody Fernandez and Tepetan have caught up with the wagon full of gold stolen by the Yuan-Ti. Just as they are about to strike Fernandez syddenly realizes that there is a jaguar warrior standing right next to him, having crept up silently.

“I’ll be back,” Fernandez tells him.

While Tepatan strikes from the front, Fernandez rakes the back, peppering the snake men with arrows. The leader immediately orders the abominations to kill Fernnadez, confirming the belief that the whole attack was about isolating and killing the House Valacar captain. The battle is short and violent. Fernandez manages to take down the two hulking abominations, but is wounded again in the process.

The jaguar people are indifferent to the struggle between the humans and the snake people, but they are intrigued by Fernandez, the first Tiefling, and the first stranger from outside their continent they have ever seen. While Tepatan takes charge of the dinosaurs hauling the gold, the jaguar people lead Fernandez deep into the jungle where he is healed by their medicine man.

The jaguar people live simply with almost no metal. Their fur is adorned with beads of jade and crystal. After being nursed back to health Fernandez is eager to learn more about these people and their unique fighting system, which depends largely on their own claws instead of any carried weapons. When he heads back to Valacar’s Reach a jaguar woman agrees to accompany him to teach him their ways.

Even as Fernandez journeys north, Tassolhoff attempts to climb the walls of the palace. He is caught by the guards and manages to escape by summoning a cloud of mist to conceal him.

Once inside the building he searches until he finds an elven woman and a man in a kitchen killing small animals to provide someone with breakfast. He convinces them to come with him, although they are very dubious that they will be able to escape.

Tassolhoff discovers that the Princess Sodiva is upstairs in another part of the castle. He goes there and discovers that Sodiva is pouring water into a large bath tub where a female yuan-ti lies lounging in the water. With a simple spell the Yuan-Ti pureblood freezes him in place. She explains she’s certain he’s an intruder since they haven’t collected any Halflings yet.

Tassolhoff finds himself locked in a small cell until the spell wears off. The prisoners he had been trying to free hurry back to their duties.

Meanwhile in Valacar’s Reach Laucian has discovered that the rest of the party has sailed to the Yuan-Ti city. Taking Ianous with him, he decides to make the arduous journey by using dimension door. The rest of the group can only watch as he vanishes.

The Resolute sails to Ma’Hateel the Yuan-Ti city. The winged elf woman named Teel has started to recover from her wounds, but her wings are still too damaged to fly. As they sail along there is a loud screeching noise and the lookout sights something circling very high above the ship. The sound of the screeching throws Teel into a panic. She opens up about how she came to be left on that raft to die.

The Aerie have been fighting with the savage Pterons for centuries, but so long as they stay out of each other’s territory there is usually peace. The winged elves live in trees in the vast rainforest while the Pterons nest in caves on the mountain cliffs. The area was attacked by pirates in a wooden flying ship. The pirates raided and looted the area until the Pterons defeated them. Shortly after that the top of a mountain lifted into the air and became the new flying home of the Pterons.

None of the Aerie have any idea how the magic works, but the pterodactyl men now have a flying base to attack from. They flew over an Aerie tree city and simply dropped down on it, crushing them. The survivors were picked off by the savage flying dinosaur men.

Teel was chosen by her people to go as an envoy to try and make a deal with the Pterons. She got in to see their king, but they had no intention of stopping their attacks. After being brutalized, she was pinned by her wings to a raft and left to die on the water far from her home.

Teel takes cover when the winged creature swoops down to attack the ship. They have somehow followed her here. The first Pteron slices up the sails, but Captain Alexander orders the sails to be dropped, catching the intruder in the thick canvas. It falls to the deck and is pummeled unconscious.

The cries of the first Pteron have drawn several others to the ship. Ianous and Zaanzzabar lead the crew in trying to hold them off. Alexander firs the ballista, but they are too small to hit. When he hears the sound of breaking glass he knows the Pteron has broken into the captain’s quarters.

Racing below decks, he engages the Pteron in the narrow hallway and manages to pin it down with his shield, killing it. On the deck Ianous and Zaanzzabar each slash a Pteron as it swoops past. Badly wounded, it goes over the side of the ship and is skimming across the water when suddenly a sharktapus erupts from the waves and snatches it in its tentacles. The crew realizes that a school of sharktapi have surrounded the ship, drawn by fresh blood.

Alexander heads to the harpoon gun and fires off a shot, killing one of the sharktapus and scattering the others. The ship sails on to the Yuan- Ti city.

Meanwhile in Ma’ Hateal, Tassolhoff spends an uncomfortable night in a tiny cell. The next morning he is dragged out and into the presence of Miress, the Yuan-Ti noble woman whose bath he interrupted the night before. She wanted to know who he is and what he’s doing here, but she seems to be more curious than threatened by his presence.

The Halfling admits that he came to rescue Princess Sodiva, but he doesn’t mention the ship that brought him. He discovers that most of the slaves are humans and elves who have been taken from ships for experimentation. The ones who survived are second and third generation slaves. They know they can’t escape because they are in a city of fifty thousand Yuan-Ti surrounded by ocean, an impassable swamp and thousands of miles of dinosaur infested jungle. Sodiva, with her knowledge of the area might be the only one who stood a chance.

While talking to Miress, Tassolhoff discovers that Yuan-ti society is split into several castes. She is of the noble class, who are in charge and run things. Their caste, always the most powerful have fallen out of favor since the military caste and the magician class have taken over. The dream of world conquest has put the military in firm control and the magicians are backing them up.

Tassolhoff proposes a plan that might help Miress. He suggests that she make a treaty with the human city that they have been at war with for so long. This would be a good way to show the city what the nobles are capable of.

They are interrupted by the arrival of Killig, the abomination warrior and Sassini, the slaver. They have heard that there are intruders in the city, and want to arrest Tassolhoff. Miress refuses and claims the Halfling for her own. After the pair leave, Miress insists Tassolhoff must wear a bracelet with her sign on it, marking him as belonging to her, which should help to keep him safe. When he says he’s rather have his weapons, she agrees to look into where his equipment went, and in the meantime gives him a knife.

Back at Valacar’s Reach, Bloody Fernandez has returned. The jaguar woman refuses to follow him into the city. When the tiefling is reunited with the king he discovers what has happened in his absence. When he learns the Resolute has gone to the Yuan-Ti city, he contacts the shamans to cast a spell that will let him send a message to Alexander, ordering him to return at once. While they wait, Fernandez proposes to Princess Omaza. Her father is delighted and hopes that the marriage will bring his people even closer to Brigitainne.

In Ma’ Hateal Tassolhoff is attacked by four humans. He surprises them by being armed and manages to kill one. During the struggle guards arrive and the rest of his attackers escape. When Miress sees the body she thinks it’s one of Sassini’s people, but she can’t be sure, since his wrist band has been removed. She does give him his equipment back, along with some supplies for sending a message to Valacar’s Reach.

Fernandez is reunited with his ship and his crew. He interrogates Zarak, the captured Pteron and learns that their flying fortress is somehow powered by a device they stole from Oyashima pirates. The pirates had been using their flying ship to raid the area but fell victim to the Pterons. They manages to figure out how to use the object and lifted a massive chunk of rock off the cliffs to be their new home in the sky. Fernandez finds this story very interesting

The next morning in Ma’Hateal, Tassolhoff joins Miress to watch three swollen corpses taken from the swamp. It is three of Sassini’s people who were eaten alive by mosquitoes while “trying to escape”.

Miress explains more to him about Yuan-Ti society. The law prevented the guards from searching Sassini’s private chambers, even though Mirrss was certain the attackers were there. The whole thing is set up to make assassination inevitable, since it’s a fact of life the Yuan-Ti must live with every day. Of course, some killers are caught and punished. She goes on to describe the six ways in which someone can be decapitated much to Tassolhoff’s horror.

As the Resolute sails for Ma’Hateal they receive a message from a trained bird in which Tassolhoff describes his plan.

Arriving in the Yuan-Ti city Fernandez presents himself to the city guard with the seal given to him by Tassolhoff. That’s good enough to get him and his crew a meeting with Miress. She is intrigued by the visitors offer of an alliance with the humans of Valacra’s Reach, but warns them that the warrior class and the mages hold all the real power.

Fortunately they have a plan. Unfortunately there is a commotion in the streets and they see several abominations searching the streets. Killig and a human captain named Hammersmith are trying to find the captain of the Rentham who has vanished. They are also trying to find out what the Resolute is doing in Ma’Hateel. Hammersmith recognizes the lines of a Brigitainne ship, but he left port before House Valacar had unveiled their new ship and doesn’t recognize it.

Tassolhoff and Fernandez arrange a meeting with Hammersmith, Miress and Killig. Hammersmith warns the Yuan-Ti not to trust the newcomers. Killig sees no reason to make an alliance with the humans since they are on the verge of a war of conquest which will make them masters of the world.

Tempers flare and when Fernandez sees his opening he challenges Hammersmith to a duel. They agree on the terms and decide to fight in the public arena in five days. The fight will be three on three with a strict no magic rule.

During the days leading up to the fight Fernandez spends more time with Zerak the Pteron, and even shares a drink with Hammersmith. The captain admits that he had his men check out what happened on the Rentham and he has already sent a homunculus flying back to Brigitainne with a letter describing what he has learned.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff is getting to know more about Yuan-Ti life. He takes part in a ceremony for their sun god and is given a lizard/cat hybrid as a pet.

When the day of the fight arrives Fernandez, Alexander and Zaanzzabar find themselves facing Captain Hammersmith, one of Hammersmith’s bugbear mercenaries and a black warrior from his crew. Fernandez manages to hit Hammersmith with an arrow, but the captain charges forward, ignoring the injury. The black warrior casts a spear into the chest of Zaanzzabar while Alexander and the bugbear face off.

In the end Captain Hammersmith is badly injured and struck with a poison blade that puts him under. Even with explosives, Zaanzzabar is barely able to slay the black warrior. Alexander and the bugbear seem evenly matched, but Alexander rages and manages to get in a powerful strike, planting an explosive in the wound which destroys his foe.

Zaanzzabar keeps the interesting metal wrist weapon the warrior was carrying. Alexander cuts off the head of his foe and is surprised to see eight bugbears emerge to take the rest of the body away. Fernandez rushes Hammersmith to a healer where he is able to save the man’s life.

Killig gives an order to his men. With Miress’s help translating Tassolhoff discovers that the Yuan-Ti warriors are going to seize Hammersmith’s ship. Fernandez considers trying to stop them, but decides not to. For now they have a tenuous agreement with the serpent men, but who knows what the future will bring.

Surprisingly Link arrives just as the arena fight is ending. On his way to the palace he was ambushed by Yuan-Ti and has been hiding out for two days. He rejoins the party and shares information with them.

Hammersmith is glad to be alive, even though he knows he will die anyway. Captains who sail for House Turan are poisoned and only get the antidote after a successful mission. Since he has lost his ship and crew it seems unlikely that he’s going to get the antidote. Strangely Tassolhoff scans him with detect poison and can’t find any trace of poison, nor do they know of any poison that can stay in a person up to a year and suddenly kill them. According to rumors, the bodies of those who have displeased Lord Othridge just burst open.

The Yuan-Ti spy Ashissa is set free from the Rentham to rejoin her people. The plan for making an alliance with the humans at Valacar’s Reach seems not to be working as the city moves ever closer to war. The massive ship which will be the center of their navy is almost ready. It will set sail in a week, joining their triremes and the captured merchant ships. Fernandez realizes he must do something before the situation gets out of control.

Miress summons the heroes to a meeting, along with Hammersmith. A message hawk has arrived from their spy in Cardisea with the information they need for their attack. The map gives the locations of the wrecked ships that protect the entrance to the large port city. With this map the Yuan-ti fleet can sail in and attack, taking the city by surprise.

Complicating this is the fact that Cardisea is allied by treaty with Telmara, the largest military power on the continent. If Cardisea is attacked Telmara is bound to respond with the full force of their fleet.

All of this troubles Hammersmith a great deal. Although he has worked with House Turan to sponsor the Yuan-Ti fleet, he’s certain that once the Telmaran fleet gets involved the Yuan-ti don’t have a chance. Any attempts to make the army attack some other less well defended city meets with failure. While speaking to the generals Fernandez suggests that they simply cut out the middle man and attack Telmara first. The Yuan-Ti generals think this is a great idea although they have even less chance of succeeding against Telmara than against Cardisea.

Hammersmith tells Fernandez one more detail to make things even more complicated. Before leaving on his mission he saw Lord Othridge speaking with Vercinthram the Red, the dragon who has saved Brigitainne in the past. It seems as if the dragon has had a hand in this affair, but no one knows what his motives are.

Gaining the trust of the military, Fernandez gets them to release Hammersmith’s men and his ship so he can go back to Brigitainne to gather more support for their attack. Tassolhoff even agrees to let him take back the Rentham to try to appease his boss and escape a horrible death. Before they leave a homunculus arrives carrying the news that Master Riorcan the wizard of house Turan has unexpectedly died. This pleases Fernandez a great deal.

Hammersmith leaves, taking Zaanzzabar and Alexander with him. The rest of the team prepares to liberate the Yuan-Ti ship before it can set sail. The ship is virtually finished, waiting to be formally launched in a ceremony by the king.

Fernandez, Tassolhoff and Linc arrive at the slave pens with orders apparently signed by Sassini to send the men to work on the ship. Once there the men join their fellow captives in trying to attack the guards. The attack is covered by Jims Rose who does his bard act for the guards on the wall to keep them from noticing what’s happening.

After a brief bloody battle Link, Fernandez and Tassolhoff manage to overwhelm the guards. Since most of the slaves are captured sailors, they will help Link sail the ship to freedom. All they have to do is slip past the fleet in the harbor.

Tassolhoff christens the ship Periwinkle after his lizard cat just before it slips from its birth. Jims Rose is distracting the guard which only leaves the many ships in the harbor. Laucian manages to make the sails invisible which helps them tremendously. Although one Yuan-Ti ship does spot them slipping past, they are too surprised to sound the alarm.

When the sun rises Linc sees that there are no ships in pursuit so he turns the Periwinkle north towards Bloodport.

The same morning there is chaos in Maha’Teel. The Yuan-Ti have discovered that their greatest ship is missing. Angry mobs fill the streets shouting accusations. The only clue anyone has is that the orders which freed the slaves came from Sassini.

Naturally she denies having anything to do with this. Her lover Killig is backing up her story with the full force of the army behind him. Their entire fleet has been sent out to capture the ship, and he suggests they do nothing until the ship is returned.

Miress is taking full advantage of her rival’s humiliation. Tassolhoff and Fernandez also try to rally the crowd against Sassini and Killig. Laucian is about to step in with some magic when he senses that the saber Killig carries has a powerful spell on it. During a commotion he manages to shrink the sword off his belt without Killig noticing. When Laucian touches the tiny blade to make it invisible he feels a powerful compulsion to attack Cardisea and Telmara.

The yuan-ti mage Sethik arrives to take charge of the situation. Before he can get the crowd under control, Laucian floats the small, invisible sword over to Sassini’s ear and expands it to full size. The suddenly growing sword slices deeply into her skull. As she screams and falls to the ground, Killig throws himself across her. Sethik uses a stasis spell to preserve Sassini’s life. She is taken away to the healers, but not before everyone has seen that she was attacked with Killig’s own sword.

Miress gains the attention of the crowd and announces that the aristocracy must step up in this hour of need and provide the much needed leadership that will see them through the crisis.

Even as the reins of power start to shift in Maha’ Teel, Linc sees that a single ship is following his stolen vessel. He orders his crew to take in the sail. As it draws closer he recognizes one of the merchant ships taken by the Yuan-Ti and knows he has no choice but to engage them.

The Periwinkle is the more heavily armed ship, but the merchant vessal survives a barrage from catapult and ballista to send their own catapult full of snakes to the deck of the Periwinkle . As his crew fights off the snakes, many of them suffering from deadly snake bites, there is no one to man the weapons and the other ship radly approaches.

When the ships are close enough a powerful Yuan-Ti abomination leaps onto the Periwinkle. Linc draws his sword and engages him in combat. It is clear that they are evenly matched, but at least his helmsman is able to turn the ship and keep the rest of the serpent men from joining the battle.

Realizing that he is running out of time, Linc manages to deliver a kick that sends the abomination tumbling over the railing into the sea. While his crew peppers the swimming Yuna-Ti with arrows, Linc finishes off the rest of the snakes and loads the catapult. He sends a stone crashing into the side of the other ship, opening it up at the waterline. As his ship flounders, the wounded Yuan-Ti abomination manages to make his way to the deck.

“Ramming speed!” Linc shouts. His massive ship bears down on the smaller merchant vessel. As the two ships collide the huge snake figurehead on the Periwinkle momentarily comes to life, plucking the abomination off the deck . As he dies screaming the two ships collide and the Periwinkle cuts the other ship in two. Linc orders no mercy for the survivors. Knowing how well the Yuan-ti can disguise themselves as human, he feared that if he left them afloat they would make their way onto a passing ship.

Many miles to the north, Captain Hammersmith’s ship and the Rentham are making their way to Brigitainne carrying Alexander and Zaanzzabar, as well as the six surviving bugbears. While Alexander confers with Hammersmith on the other ship, Zaanzzabar watches the bugbears conduct a funeral rite for their fallen comrade.

After the ceremony one of the bugbears asks why a Snake person was allowed on board and points to a crewman. Zaanzzabar doesn’t see anything suspicious about the man, but he keeps his eye on him.

Zaanzzabar notices that the man doesn’t eat anything, but when he confronts him about this the man grows agitated. Finally he leaves and Zaanzzabar orders the Bugbear to watch him. Later the bugbear reports that the man hasn’t done anything suspicious except for eating a few rats in the hold. Apparently he prefers his meals alive and eats the rats head first.

Now Zaanzzabar is truly suspicious. He gives the bugbears permission to kill and eat the sailor. No sooner have they ambushed the man than screaming comes from below decks. Zaanzzabar arrives and finds one bugbear on the deck, clutching at his face while another is fending off a knife attack from a shapely Yuan-Ti woman. It is Ashissa, the spy who formerly disguised herself as the princess at Valacar’s Reach.

She talks to Zaanzzabar and freely admits that she was sent on board to spy on them. She just wants to make sure that Lord Othridge and House Turan isn’t going to betray them. Zaanzzabar has no problem with this and allows her to stay on board, but she has to move from sleeping with the crew to sleeping with the officers so he can keep a close eye on her.

In Maha’Teel there is a meeting of the power brokers in Yuan-Ti society. Tassolhoff and Fernandez manage to attend. They discover that Sassini has died and Killig has stepped down from his position in the warrior caste. Unfortunately his position has been filled by Kraticus, a snake headed abomination who is equally violent.

Sethik the mage has also discovered the compulsion spell that was placed on the sword before it left Brigitainne. They now believe that they have been manipulated into attacking the enemies of Brigitainne, and the plan all along was for them to lose. The Yuan-Ti now consider Lord Othridge and Brigitainne to be their enemies, but there isn’t much they can do about it since they have lost their flagship and Brigitainne is very far away.

The city is uneasy and there has been some rioting. Kraticus suggests that they attack someone so the people can have treasure and slaves to placate them. After studying a map he decides on White Cove, a trading city in the Hundred Islands which is home to a population of humans and bird-like kenku.

As the Yuan-ti fleet sails the visitors realize that it might be time for a quick retreat and prepare to make their exit, but not before one final caper.

In Bloodport Linc has arrived with the Periwinkle and gets it prepared for the coming mission. He doesn’t dare sail it back to Maha’Teel, so there’s nothing he can do but wait for his companions to join him.

In mid ocean on the way to Brigitainne Alexander is suspicious of the Yuan-Ti spy that Zaanzzabar has uncovered. While they are debating what to do with her a hawk arrives with a message. It informs her of the theft of their flagship and the treachery of Lord Othridge. Her new orders are to investigate and discover what the real purpose behind the alliance with the Yuan-Ti. Now Alexander and Zaanzzabar are more than happy to let her stay. There seems to be a high chance she’ll take out their enemy in Brigitainne.

In Maha’Teel with most of the army gone, Fernandez makes plans to loot the Yuan-Ti treasury. Miress is upset until she learns that she will be getting most of the gold. It will be enough to permanently secure her position in society. She provides them with maps and information about the guards. The greatest danger in the treasure vault in the giant snakes which guard it.

In preparation for the theft, Laucian prepares some portable holes. As part of his preparation he has to convince Ianous to cut off a finger. Laucian contacts Messelona to have 4,800 gold sent to pay him off. The money is put on a ship to Bloodport.

Tassolhoff uses a command spell on one of the guards to get into the treasure vault. Once there they start scooping up as much gold as they can, keeping the magic items for themselves. They are quickly attacked by a giant snake, but as he battles it, Fernandez is struck by an arrow that changes into a snake. Killig, the disgraces warrior has been waiting for them. Somehow he knows that they are responsible for all that has happened to him, and he plans on making them pay.

As Fernandez fights off the snake and the poison, Tassolhoff battles Killig. Days of mourning have taken their toll on the massive abomination, and the Halfling is able to defeat him. As the group leaves with their treasure, Laucian uses explosives to bring down the roof of the tunnels.

There is nothing to do now but sail away. Fernandez has arranged a meeting with the Pterons and their flying mountain. Princess Sodiva has been returned to her people and there is a tentative peace between them and the Yuan-Ti.

As the Resolute sails away, Teal the winged elf leaves to return to her own people. She is still nervous about the meeting between Fernandez and the Pterons.

The ship sails to Valacar’s Reach where Fernandez expects to marry the beautiful Princess Omaza. When the ship arrives they find the Silken a trading ship from Beryll House is already there and their captain is meeting with the king. Riding his trained dinosaur, Fernandez reaches the palace. King Tolmaz has been plied with lavish gifts, including new cash crops that can be grown in the tropical environment. Captain Durock from Sahasra is in the throne room with Tam his Aza slave.

The king is grateful for all that Fernandez and his people have done for him, but now that they have such a good trade agreement with Beryll House and there is peace with the Yuan-Ti, there is no reason why his daughter has to marry Fernandez.

Princess Omaza thanks him for saving her sister, but Fernandez notices that Tepatan the ranger is already showing interest in the princess.

The rest of the crew arrives at the palace to back him up, but there seems nothing Fernandez can do. Captain Durock is extremely polite, but it is clear that House Beryll is there to stay.

Depressed, Fernandez plunges into the jungle. He located the tryranasaurus he once fought and is able to capture it with some of the Yuan-Ti magic items that they took from the vault. As the Resolute is restocked He feels a stirring in his blood and knows that the magical contract he signed in blood is drawing him back to Brigitainne.

The Resolute stops by Bloodport where they are reunited with Linc and the Periwinkle. After some debate they rename the Yuan-Ti ship the Nebuchadnezzar.

Ianous picks up the gold he got for selling his finger and decides to use it to build his own ship. Laucian helps by putting a haste spell on the workers to complete the job faster. When the Resolute and the Nebuchadnezzar sail for Brigitainne, he stays behind to finish his ship and recruit a crew.

Even as the rest of the group sails north, Alexander and Zaanzzabar are already days ahead of them. Pulling into the capitol city of Corvall they see that the entire harbor is gearing up for war. There are military ships everywhere and the merchant vessels are being fitted with new weapons.

Hammersmith and Zaanzzabar, along with Ashissa in human guise meet with Lord Othridge on the docks. He is not in a good mood.

Othridge is furious that the Yuan-Ti fleet hasn’t attacked yet. He demands answers, but the ships left before the Yuan-Ti flagship was stolen, so they honestly don’t know exactly what happened. The Yuan-Ti fleet was supposed to attack Cardisea, then the Telmaran fleet would leave port, sailing south. That would leave Telmara undefended from sea, ripe for the picking.

“The Red trusted me with this and now it’s gone wrong,” Othridge snarls. “I’ve spent a fortune on this and I can only get it back if I get the spoils from Telmara. They promised to make me an admiral!”

When Zaanzzabar starts to haltingly explain a “better” plan to invade Temara, Othridge realizes that he may have found someone he can pin the blame on and invites the genasi to an important meeting the next day.

Hammersmith wants an antidote to the poison that is supposed to kill him in a week’s time. Othridge cruelly informs him that it isn’t a poison; it’s a parasite growing inside of him that in a week’s time will be big enough to burst free. It can be stopped, but Othridge sees no point in helping the man who bungled the Yuan-Ti mission.

After he leaves Alexander and Zaanzzabar discuss their plan. They intend to keep a close eye on Ashissa, but to their chagrin they discover that she has already vanished.

Next day Alexander takes one of the bugbears with him to try and sniff out where the Yuan-Ti spy might be hiding. Zaanzzabar takes another bugbear to his meeting to expose Ashissa if she tries to infiltrate the meeting.

Zaanzzabar finds himself facing a hostile crowd of nobles who are demanding answers that he doesn’t have. Lady Thresha seems eager to place the blame on Lord Othridge, but Othridge intends for Zaanzzabar to take the fall. It doesn’t help that he can’t explain why he was in Maha’Teel in the first place and they have no interest in his battle plan.

When he makes the mistake of insulting Lord Othridge the guards are summoned to take him away. Before that happens a disheveled man with red hair enters the room. Instantly everyone falls silent. Unaware of who he is facing, Zaanzzabar begins to tell the Red his plan.

His words do nothing but make the Red angry. “I have been playing this game for hundreds of years.” Menacingly the man looms closer. As everyone in the room runs he unleashes a blast of fire that sears Zaanzzabar.

A stunned Zaanzzabar is dragged away in chains, accused of treason. He tries to communicate something to his guards to try and get a message to Lord Othridge, but he is ignored and brought to the dungeon.

Alexander and the bugbear are searching the docks. They find Ashissa using her disguise powers to take the place of a waitress in a bar. With her hypnotic abilities she has no problem getting the sailors to talk, but she doesn’t like what she hears.

Confronted by Alexander, she surrenders without a struggle. She has learned that the Brigitainne plan was for the Yuan-Ti to attack Cardisea, which would make the Telmaran fleet sail south. While the Yuan-Ti were being wiped out by the largest, best equipped fleet on earth, the Brigitainnes would sail into Telmara and attack. It was a good plan, and all it would cost is the lives of thousands of Yuan-Ti.

Dejected, she allows herself to be taken back to the ship. Alexander notices that Zaanzzabar isn’t back yet, but he has no idea what has happened.

Meanwhile the Resolute and the Nebuchadnezzar have been putting on heavy sails to make it to Brigitainne as soon as possible. They arrive the next day, leaving the Resolute in its berth at the docks for House Valacar. Fernandez boldly sails the Nebuchadnezzar to the docks of House Turan next to where Alexander waits with the Rentham.

Lord Othridge visits the dungeon to see Zaanzzabar. The genasi is willing to tell him about Captain Fernandez. Othridge recognizes that name. He works for Lady Thresha. If he can convince the Trade Lords and the Admiralty that House Turan sabotaged the plan perhaps he can shift the blame for the failure to them. It will require that Zaanzzabar sign a confession that Lady Thresha sent them to the continent of Srathus to disrupt the partnership with the Yuan-Ti. This may not be strictly true, but Zaanzzabar is willing to sign it.

As he leaves a messenger arrives telling Lord Othridge that a strange boat has docked and the captain is asking to see him. Arriving at the docks, Othridge is stunned to see Fernandez himself waiting for him.

“This ship has a disturbingly familiar design,” Othridge tells him. It has become clear to him why the Yuan-Ti never launched their attack.

Fernandez asks to have Captain Hammersmith join his crew. Othridge doesn’t understand what’s so special about the captain, but he is willing to give the antidote that will take care of the parasite if Fernandez will cooperate with him.

After the Nebuchadnezzar docks at House Valacar’s pier, Hammersmith arrives with an antidote. The potion causes him to go into convulsions, but he vomits up a black wormlike creature. Fernandez immediately puts it into a bottle for safekeeping.

As the wheels of destiny turn in the heart of Brigitainne Ianous sails north in the Katrina unaware of what fate has in store for him.

Lady Thresha arrives at the docks. She is happy to see the Resolute is back, but she is less happy to see the Nebuchadnezzar. Fernandez claims that he got the strange ship with the snake figurehead in Bloodport. Fortunately for him, Lady Thresha, unlike Lord Othridge, does not recognize the ship or understand it’s significance.

She announces that her accountants will go over the ship in the morning and if the figures add up, she will annul the contact she has with Fernandez.

Fernandez decides to celebrate by heading into the city on his dinosaur Thick McRunfast. He is accompanied by Jims Rose the bard. As they leave Alexander quietly moves himself, along with the bugbears and Ashissa to the Resolute and away from the control of Lord Othridge.

While touring the city Fernandez encounters Lord Anarion the elf who is master of House Telemnar. His spies have filled him in on what’s going on and he informs Fernandez that there is a prisoner who is about to sign a confession that Lady Thresha hired him to break the alliance with the Yuan-Ti. Once the confession is read Lady Thresha is finished, and unfortunately a certain ship docked at her pier is going to look very bad. Anarion likes the balance of power and doesn’t want to see Lady Thresha fall.

Fernandez guesses that the prisoner must be Zaanzzabar. He races to House Valacar to discuss the situation with Lady Thresha. He also sends a message to his ship to take it out to sea. Lady Thresha wants Zaanzzabar killed, or at least stopped from signing the confession. Fernandez realizes that his own fate is tied to her at least until he is free of the magical contract.

Meanwhile Alexander is awakened by the bugbears who ask why everyone but them has fallen asleep. Racing to the deck, Alexander finds that everyone on the Resolute, the Nebuchadnezzar, and the newly arrived Katrina has fallen into a deep sleep.

As he awakens everyone he hears the sound of music and spots a mermaid playing a lyre in the water. There is another mermaid towing away from the Resolute a raft heavy with gold and furs. Alexander, Laucian and Ianous leap into action. Alexander and Laucian are helped by the fact that the airy water spell is still in effect around them, but Ianous has a harder time of it.

While Alexander grapples with the mermaid using the lyre, Laucian blows up the other mermaid with a series of bombs teleported into place. Alexander falls under the spell of the mermaid and can’t bring himself to attack her, but Ianous manages to injure her with his claws and Alexander is set free. As a wounded Ianous heads for the surface Alexander attacks again.

The surviving mermaid flees into a tunnel leading under the city. Alexander and Laucian go after her while Ianous stays behind to return the stolen goods. The tunnel turns out to be a storm drain, and it becomes hard to follow her in the murky water. When Alexander catches up with her, she has grabbed someone and is trying to drown them.

When Alexander approaches he is stabbed by someone on the surface with a sword. He knocks the sword from the man’s hand, but returns it after Laucian blows up the mermaid’s head. Surprisingly the man doesn’t seem to be very grateful. He attacks Laucian. When Alexander announces that the stolen goods belonged to them, the two men take off.

Alexander and Laucian return to the ship.

Meanwhile Lord Othridge has come to the prison with a confession for Zaanzzabar to sign. The earth genasi debates with him, trying to learn more about the dragon, even suggesting that a rebellion might overthrow the dragon. Othridge is not interested.

Fernandez and Jims Rose arrive, having first gotten sacks and masks for their faces. By saying they are with Lord Othridge they get past the already bribed guards. Once near the cell, Jims Rose uses a song to put the men to sleep. They leave the prison with their captives and return to Lady Thresha.

Once there, Lady Thresha orders Zaanzzabar killed. She wants to keep Lord Othridge alive, and has special plans for him. Fernandez returns to his ship believing his problems are over, unfortunately he finds out about the theft. While going over the restored items it becomes clear that some of it is still missing. The raft they stopped must have been the second raft.

Alexander, Laucian and Ianous head back into the storm drain to search for what was taken. Traveling underwater they overhear two men talking about the theft. They are afraid to continue without the mermaids. Oddly the men vanish in the middle of the concrete tunnel.

Laucian investigates and finds that there is a hidden door. Traveling down a hallway they encounter a room where ten men are going through the stolen items. There is also a harpy and a hill giant with a Halfling sitting on a chair strapped to his chest. The Halfling must be the mysterious Gibbler they heard the men talking about.

Alexander and Ianous attack, but the Halfling makes a break for it and the giant turns out to be a tough opponent. Ianous starts to focus on the harpy, but is attacked by several of the men in the room, who are all armed. The hill giant goes after Alexander, driving him back. So far none of the giant’s blows have hit, but Alexander’s luck can’t hold out forever.

As the brutal battle continues they are joined by Sernan the irda wizard. Gibbler tries to escape but is trapped behind a magically sealed door and a wall of ice. Ianous finishes off the harpy while Alexander continues to hack away at the giant. The thieves in the room surround Ianous and Senan, attacking from all sides.

Seeing that the battle is going against his people, Gibbler orders the giant to clear a path to the other door, the one leading to the storm drain. Before he can get the through the door Laucian seals it with hold portal, trapping everyone inside.

The fight turns into chaos. An ice storm erupts followed by the unexpected appearance of a bear. In the midst of the carnage the giant is stunned by one of Laucian’s bombs. Making his way across the icy floor, Alexander wounds Gibbler just as the Halfling is about to hurl knives in his direction.

Ianous kills Gibbler, which sets off the hill giant, who has to be subdued. Finally the doors are unsealed and the groups is able to stagger out of the carnage. They place the stolen goods back on the raft that was used to take them in the first place.

Everything is restored just as Lady Thresha and her accountants arrive to do the inventory. She is accompanied by her elven lawyer and a small army of armed guards. When the counting is done, the lady is impressed with the haul and Fernandez nets a cool 240,000 in gold pieces. He also gets fifty percent of the sales of the other goods he was carrying, but he allows her to make the sales first and she will be back later to pick up his profits. Their contract is annulled and his deal with her is ended, but they part on friendly terms. She agrees to be his agent for selling items in Brigitainne, and will look into getting him a lordship.

While they are still on the docks Lord Anarion shows up and casually mentions how he stumbled across Lord Othridge in one of the filthiest dives in town. Anarion saved him from the city guard, and all it cost Othridge was two of his ships and one of his ports.

Now a rich man, Fernandez does everything he can to grease the wheels for any future dealings he might have with Brigitainne. He donates five thousand to support the admiralty, and gives an enormous amount to charity. He also takes the time to outfit the Nebuchadnezzar with iron plating and new deck weapons.

While making plans to sail to his homeland of Oyashima Fernandez discovers that Othridge is in some financial difficulty. He spends more of his money buying the Rentham from House Turan which he gives to Bokour to sail to Bloodport. Ianous is also planning on sailing to Bloodport to pick up some money owed to him by Laucian. The bugbear tribe, now no longer working for House Turan would very much like to be taken back to their home in Zarak Khune. They manage to scrape together seventy five gold pieces and Ianous agrees to take them home.

The next morning as the ships prepare to sail with the morning tide a strange vision appears in the sky far above the city. They see a woman with horns and green skin fighting a dark creature. Vercintham the Red watches the fight in dragon form. When the woman is overwhelmed by her dark foe he lands at the docks and changes into human form.

Fernandez casually asks him about what happened. It seems the green woman was Marlagi the mistress of wands, potions and staves and she’s been overwhelmed by Gogorath. The battle of the gods annoys the dragon, but it doesn’t affect him because he never uses wands, potions or spells. That kind of magic may work differently now that she’s gone.

The three ships sail away, the Nebuchadnezzar on a long voyage to Fernandez’s home on Oyashima, the Rentham for Bloodport and the Katrina to drop off the bugbears on Zarak Khune.

Arriving off the coast of Zarak Khnue the Katrina is suddenly attacked by a kraken. The monstrous tentacles sweep three men off the deck as they battle. Finally Ianous is able to chop off one tentacle as the monster flees, leaving behind a trail of black blood in the water.

Since his mast is damaged Ianous has no choice but to put in for repairs. As the bugbears return to their home his crew starts repairing the mast, a job that will take at least two days.

Exploring the wilderness Ianous finds a small village of orcs who raise cattle.While he is there goblins attack and stampede the cattle. There is a brutal fight that leaves several goblins dead, but many of the cattle are gone. Ianous agrees to help look for the cattle the next morning when it will be easier to track them down.

Next morning Ianous goes back to his ship and checks on the repairs. He also gets his riding dinosaur so the cattle round up will be easier. When he gets back to the village he is surprised to see several heavily armored elven knights. They are demanding the cattle that the orcs owe them and don’t want to hear that the goblins have them. The orcs are given until sunset to return the missing cattle or the village will pay the price.

Ianous leads the orcs into the wilderness. They find many of the cattle, but there are still about thirty missing. When they run into traps they know they are getting close to the goblin encampment.

In Bloodport Linc’s ship the Interceptor meets with Tassolhoff’s ship the Rentham . They have been trying to find new trade routes and exotic animals. Fernandez has left them standing orders to look for large flightless two legged birds. According to the merchants of Bloodport some very large feathers have come from Nyambe, but no one knows what kind of animals the feathers come from. They decide to take their ship and sail for the far away shore.

Even further away the Nebuchadnezzar has sailed a vast distance to reach the island nation of Oysashima off the coast of Khitian. Fernandez is shocked to find his home destroyed. The buildings have long ago been burned and the people massacred. It must have happened exactly like the vision he had on the island of storms, but in the vision it was the Lady of Pain who killed the people, but here the attackers were clearly mortal.

Finding some nearby fishermen he demands to know what happened. The city was attacked by pirates from the island of Akitsu. There is part of the story so unbelievable that they hesitate to tell it until Fernandez forces it out of them. During the attack the pirates looted a large cave under the city. When they were done somehow one of the pirate ships took off into the air and floated away.

Searching the caves beneath the city he finds a wrecked ship that looks as if water has never touched it. The design is very foreign. It has been looted and many things stripped from it.

Fernandez immediately sails for Akitsu looking for answers. The port is protected by a chain that keeps out his larger ship so he is forced to go ashore only in a longboat. Once there he is attacked by several guards while making his way to a government building. A seasoned warrior challenges him on the steps of the palace.

When Fernandez demands to know why his city was attacked he gets a puzzling answer. They were hired to do it by a man with yellow skin. They betrayed him and he was forced to flee.

Arriving back on his ship Fernandez has a lot to think about. The mysterious flying pirate ship may well be the same one the Pterons defeated in Strathus. Unfortunately Laucian has more disturbing news for him.

When Laucian was buying his ioun stone from the mysterious merchant in Messalona who was wrapped in bandages he noticed the merchant had odd yellow skin. The merchant had been hunting for the man with hell colored eyes. There was a very valuable object that the merchant wanted and this man might know where it was.

Fueled by rage Fernandez is determined to get to the bottom of this mystery, no matter what stands in his way.

On Zarak Khun Ianous comes face to face with the enemy in a wooden stockade. Aided only by a crippled Orc named Sart he manages to kick the door down and engage the enemy in brutal combat. When the goblins threaten to overwhelm him, he makes a break for the large structure in the middle of the stockade.

There he finds that the goblin leader is actually a savage ogre. Female goblins scatter as Ianous and Sart attack the ogre. The ogre is strong, but Ianous manages to wear him down and an arrow from Sart sends him to the ground.

The savage female goblins capture the ogre and put him on a spit. Outside a cheer goes up as the goblins celebrate being released from their captivity to the ogre. They allow Sart and Ianous to take the rest of the cows they’ve captured and even give Ianous the cure for the poison on their weapons.

As the sun starts to set they head back to the orc village, hoping to be able to meet the demands of the mysterious elves.

From far away Oyashima Fernandez points the Nebuchadnezzar west towards Messalona. After sailing for many miles across the trackless ocean they arrive at their destination. Fernandez learns from Laucian about the mysterious merchant who sold the ioun stone to him. The odd yellow skinned merchant in on a hunt for a valuable object that he believes is in the hands of the man with Hell colored eyes.

In Messalona Laucian is excited to be back in the city where he is still nobility, but he is less excited when he contacts the woman whom he put in place as Lady Verchack. It seems the winery hasn’t been doing very well since one of the fields was torn up by a drow woman, and there was a great deal of damage done to the crops in a fight between her and the derro. The bank account only has about two thousand gold pieces in it, and there won’t be much coming in until six months in the future when the grape harvest comes in.

Meanwhile the hunt for the small shop where he bought his ioun stone hits an unexpected snag. It seems to have vanished. There are now two shops next to each other and no way that another shop could have been in that location. The rug merchant next door says that the shop just appeared there one day, then vanished just as mysteriously.

Desperate for assistance they call on Lord Arliak, whom Fernandez remembers from Verenzia. Arliak isn’t exactly happy to see them, he still blames them for the loss of the Sphere, but he has risen in station and now is very close to the king, so he’s feeling magnanimous.

Arliak has heard stories about a shop that appears and disappears in various cities. He agrees to make a special distortion seeking spell which he places on a needle. The needle will point to the shop if it’s still in town.

Following the needle leads Fernandez and Laucian to the small shop with the striped awning which is currently located between two buildings owned by wealthy merchants. Inside is the same off mixture of strange exotic goods that Laucian remembers. The shopkeeper recognizes Fernandez and whips out a strange glassy blade, but when Fernandez does not draw his weapon they decide to talk.

The shopkeeper is a Githyanki named Viquar who has been trapped on this world for some time. He has been tracking down rumors of an engine that might let him escape and return to his home. His attempts to learn more about the Tieflings who were on Oyashima led to the raid that wiped out the village killing Fernandez’s people.

Fernandez realizes that the mysterious flying pirate ship that was defeated by the Pterons had the device from his home. Somehow it is all linked together and he knows how to find the floating home of the Pterons.

The group sets sail for Thrassus, taking Viquar along with them.

Meanwhile in Nyambi, Linc and Tassolhoff find their way blocked by the greedy trade minister Tolo. He wants ten thousand gold pieces for the right to go into the interior. They also meet up with the expedition that Fernandez hired from Brigitainne, but apparently all the gold that Fernadez sent ahead has already been spent. The only thing Linc finds out for sure is that the feathers they want come from the rare Moa bird which is deep in the interior.

While they are still negotiating Sernan saves the life of Princess Isanti. That earns him an invitation to a feast where he meets the Takara the king. They are having problems with attacks by the Zandi tribe, whom they describe as savage cannibals. Since they are planning to attack the Zandi anyway, the group agrees to accompany the warriors into the jungle outside the city. Meanwhile Linc makes plans for the diamond expedition to bypass the city of Basharka.

On Zarak Khune Ianous has returned as many of the cattle as possible to the orc village, but they are still 18 cattle short. There is no way the village can defend itself since all their warriors are off raiding other villagers, leaving behind the women, the old and the inform such as Sart with his bad leg. The arrogant elves plan on massacring the village, but Ianous manages to talk them into a compromise. They will come back next year and they will demand one hundred and fifty head of cattle. The number sounds almost impossible to reach, but the orcs know they have no choice but to accept the terms. For now they are left alive, but with no food left to pray to their gods for survival until their warriors can return home.

With his job completed Ianous sets sail for Nyambe to try and catch up with another part of his group.

At that same time in Nyambe Linc, Tassolhoff, Spirit and Alexander prepare to join a military force entering the jungle to seek vengeance for the attack on Princess Isanti. Linc sends the diamond expedition ahead to travel upriver. They plan on meeting at the huge lake at the base of the mountains.

The warriors from Basharka warn them about the savage Zandi tribes, but the heroes can’t help noticing all the villages near Basharka have been emptied of people. When they pass a slave caravan coming from the interior the warriors from Basharka defend the practice by explaining that it’s just trade and their city runs off trade.

Tassolhoff manages to scrape together enough money to free a man from the slave caravan. They plan on using him as a guide when they ditch the soldiers, then set him free. While they are talking to him a strange throwing knife comes out of the jungle, killing the leader of the soldiers.

The men start to panic, but Linc manages to get them in a defensive circle formation. Spears and arrows shower down on them. The freed slave warns them they should run, and the group decides to take off, leaving the soldiers to their fate. Men come from the jungle and don strange wooden masks. When the masks are in place they seem to come alive, transforming the person into a representation of that animal.

The masked men descend on the warriors who panic and are torn to pieces. The lion mask allows the shaman to rip into the warriors as if he were a real lion.

Once they are safe they sit down and talk to their freed captive. His name is Kovo and he’s a Zandi blacksmith from a village that was attacked by slavers. Although they tell him that he’s free, he’s more than happy to help them with their quest. He’s never seen the Mao bird, but he knows they live deep in the interior.

With his help they travel for days into the jungle. They stop by a village where Kovo is able to talk the inhabitants into opening their doors to them. The villagers stare at Linc and wonder why he’s so pale and doesn’t have a tail. Apparently he reminds them of a race called the wakyambi. They are mischevious tricksters who live in the heart of the jungle.

Tassolhoff studies with shamans to learn the magic of the masks. A magician must carve a mask with his own hands and imbue it with the spirit of the animal the mask represents. Each mask only works for the person who carved it. Some of them are very powerful. He shows off a mask of his own that changes him into a bird and allows him to fly.

Tassolhoff knows it will take a long time to learn the magic, but vows to return to the village in the future.

Soon their quest takes a dangerous turn. One night a strange cold fog settles on the ground. Linc and Spirit look around and realize the rest of the party is asleep and that Tassolhoff has vanished. Rousing the others they find tracks that lead to a strange collapsed city that is half under water. As they approach it a giant frog appears from the murky water and wraps its tongue around Linc’s waist. Kovo warns that the animal’s skin is poisonous.

Fortunately they are able to sever the tongue before Linc is pulled into the mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. Spirit puts an arrow into the monster, and when it leaps into the middle of the group, Alexander puts a sword into it’s head. He proceeds to pull the teeth from the frog’s mouth while spirit applies some of the animal’s poison to his blades.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff has awakened and found himself a captive of strange green scaled creatures that seem like a cross between fish and frogs. They are definitely carnivores, since he sees the remains of their previous captives.

He attempts to escape, but his caught and has to run for it. He is caught in the water as the shouting of angry voices brings more of the creatures down on him.

Far away, off the coast of Srathus Fernandez and his crew is approaching the spot where the floating island of the Pterons was supposed to be. He sees a huge floating chunk of rock riddled with holes and caves that the Pterons can use to fly in and out from any direction. Two Pterons fly down to the deck of his ship, but fortunately the captive that they freed has alerted them to Fernandez’s arrival. They agree to take him to see the king.

Fernandez, Jim’s Rose, Laucian and Viquar the Githyanki are carried up to the floating stone fortress. Once inside Viquar slips away to find the engine that drives the floating mountaintop. Fernandez, Jims Rose and Laucian face the king.

The leader of the Pterons is a battle scarred veteran who has little interest in the visitors. He had winged elves held captive, their wings shredded so they can never escape. When Fernandez says he’s come for their flying engine the king orders his warriors to attack. Fernandez leaps forward and tries to kill the king with one blow, but fails to do so. The bard desperately starts a daze spell song as the winged terrors move in for the kill. Meanwhile Viquar has found the engine, but it is bolted to the floor and heavily guarded.

The king of the Pterons lashes out at Jim’s Rose, smashing his lute and injuring him. As the guards descend on the adventurers, Laucian manages to seal the door to the chamber to keep reinforcements from arriving. Some of the Pterons fly up to the ceiling to open a secret door, but a spell summoning spiders keeps them busy.

Fernandez has a heated battle with the king, but his two guards keep him at bay. Only after the king is pinned to his throne by a web spell is Fernandez able to slay one of the guards. Meanwhile Jims Rose has gone to his back up lute to continue spellcasting.

As the battle rages they are able to hold off all attacks until Laucian can use his alchemical explosives to destroy the king. The massive stone fortress shakes, but is undisturbed by the explosion. Finally finishing off their opponents, the adventurers make it out of the throne room and head to where the flying engine is. They are accompanied by two of the winged elves who are held captive, their wings shredded so they can not escape. Outside the throne room there is a spot where the floor falls away showing the sea far below. By the time the group is able to make it across the gaping hole the Pterons are behind them, howling for blood.

The room where the engine is held is a room slightly smaller than the throne room. There are two men captive there apparently tending the engine. Viquar the Githyanki is already there, badly wounded and fighting against Pteron guards with a strange silvery sword. The engine itself is several feet across and made of a strange substance. There is a hollow crystal sphere in its center which has small glowing objects whirling around the interior and small blue lightning bolts. There are also two rings made of brass which slowly rotate around the crystal sphere. It looks as if there are other parts of it which have been removed.

Fernandez, Jims Rose and Laucian attack the remaining guards. By the time they are able to defeat them the Pterons are closing in on the room. Fernandez refuses to leave his prize and orders everyone to start prying the engine off the floor. It is held down by iron bands which have been bolted to the floor with spikes driven into solid rock. It’s going to take a long time to get it up.

With no more spells to hold portal, Fernandez grimly stands at the door and prepares to make a final stand against the Pterons. Meanwhile Viquar is admiring the engine.

“One of the old voidjumpers, I haven’t those in years. Your people really knew how to steal, um acquire things.” Viquar hastily corrects himself.

It dawns on Fernandez that Viquar and the two captives know how to operate the engine. He orders them to take the flying mountain top down to the sea just as a horde of Pterons burst in on them.

Far, far away on the continent of Nyambe, Ianous has arrived with his ship at Basharka. After paying his crew for their service he starts off on the back of his dinosaur mount. In the harbor he notices ships from many lands, and there are some vessels that are clearly slave ships.

In the center of the city he witnesses a barbaric spectacle. A man is being flayed alive in front of a huge crowd. The king and his daughter watch as he is horrifically tortured. Ianous has no way of knowing that this is the assassin who attempted to kill the princess only days before.

At the gates leading out of the city Ianous encounters guards who refuse to let him pass. They are offered a bribe, and eagerly accept it, allowing him to go on his way. Once on the jungle trail he encounters a small group of Gnolls who are driving a group of chained slaves towards the city. The men are white and clearly are not from the area.

“Help us, we’re from the Viceroy out of Telmara,” one of them begs Ianous. His plea earns him a savage blow from the Gnolls.

Ianous demands to know what is going on. A powerful looking female is the leader of the Gnolls who dismisses Ianous curtly. A fight erupts between them, but the dangerous gnoll is able to hold him off and inflict severe blows. Finally Ianous offers them all the gold he has left.

The Gnolls eagerly snatch his gold and begin to take everything he has. When they attempt to remove his breastplate they are struck by the spikes. The female is enraged at their clumsiness and orders her men to get back to work.

Before leaving she puts her spear point under his chin and warns him not to cross a gnoll queen again.

Meanwhile far out in the jungle and several hours in the future it is night in the ruined city half sunken in the swamp. Tasselhoff manages to escape his captors and plunges into the fetid water. It is up to his chest and the slimy bottom makes it very difficult to make any headway. He realizes the aquatic creatures will soon overtake him, so he heads for high ground, a hill which contains a building that hasn’t completely collapsed and it above the water.

At the same time Linc, Alexander and Spirit are entering the city to rescue him. Kovo stays behind to guard their supplies. As they enter the water they see dozens of the Ulak-Tiri lurching out of the shadows at them. Linc attempts a flanking maneuver while Alexander and Spirit pepper the amphibians with arrows. When they are attacked, the creatures dive below the water, making themselves almost invisible. Linc feels one of them slash his leg as it swims past him.

More of the creatures are coming after Tassolhoff. The Halfling retreats to the interior of the building, but strangely the Ulak-Tiri do not follow him. They seem to hold the building in a kind of superstitious dread.

Tassolhoff finds himself inside an ancient ruined temple. There are tiled mosaics on the walls around him. He sees the city in better times, when it was beautiful and proud. There is a race of green skinned people looking not unlike lizard men worshipping their god. The deity is depicted differently in every representation. Tassolhoff is reminded of the every changing monster on the island surrounded by a perpetual hurricane that his group killed.

One of the mosaics depicts the every changing god being attacked by humanoid beings. Tassolhoff recognizes Marlagi, the green skinned horned woman whose image appeared in the sky over Brigitainne and Sassindril the goddess of the ocean. They, along with a group of other gods defeated the changing god and deposited him on an island where Sassindril exhaled, creating a vortex of wind and waves permanently around the island.

The images start to lose their quality at this point, as if the people were losing their skill. The crude images show their city being destroyed by earthquake and flood. The people are now depicting themselves as being shorter and stunted.

Realizing what he is seeing is a depiction of the history of this people, Tassolhoff finds building material and begins to depict new images. First he shows his group killing the ever changing god in his island prison. Next he tries to depict the image of the god he worships, the mailed fist clenching the scales of justice.

Linc arrives just as the Halfling is displaying what he has made to the Ulak-tiri. The strange twisted creatures let out an undulating cry. All over the city the fighting stops as they begin to gather in the water outside their ancient temple. Alexander and Spirit follow the crowd and rejoin their friends, but no one is certain what will happen next.

Far away on the floating home of the Pterons a desperate fight for survival is taking place. While Jim’s Rose, Laucian, Viquar and the two prisoners struggle to free the flying engine, Fernandez tries to hold off the attacking Pterons. Turning one of the rings on the engine causes it to lose altitude and drives the Pterons into a frenzy.

Viquar points out that if they free the engine it will cause the giant stone fortress to simply drop like a rock. He also points out that the Illirium casing is missing as well as the Veridium control rods which will prevent the engine from ever leaving this universe. That makes it useless for his plans, but he assumes that the Tieflings who first stole the engine and fled to this world never planned on going back so they sold the Illirium and the Veridium to make themselves rich. There’s no telling how valuable those substances would be since they are the only known samples on the entire world.

When the rock hits the water the ocean immediately floods the fortress through the many openings. The engine is free now, and floats in the air. Taking the engine towards the exit everyone grabs on to it, and Viquar deftly manipulates it to float to the Nebuchadnezzar. Fernandez rides on top of the engine, fending off attacks with spears.

The Pterons have already started their attack on the Nebuchadnezzar. While the engine floats across the ocean they can see the crew valiantly defending themselves against the attack of the winged creatures. Hammersmith is on the deck, leading the sailors in battle. He is about to be struck down when Zadock the Hadozee swoops down from the rigging and smashes a Pteron to the deck.

By now the Pteron’s home is gone and the remaining creatures are in a frenzy of rage. Before the adventurers can be overwhelmed they are saved by the arrival of Teal and a group of winged elves. They have been following the Pterons hoping for a chance at revenge, and their moment is finally at hand.

The aerial battle between the two old enemies is savage and without mercy. While it rages Fernandez places the engine in his cabin and chains it to the floor. Once it is activated the Nebuchadnezzar majestically rises from the water and floats in the air.

Teal and her people are victorious. Fernandez now must decide what to do with his flying ship. It is the only one of its kind on the world, and if word gets out, he is bound to be a target. Determined to locate the missing pieces of the engine he points the bow towards Chevax, the city where demon worship is the dominant religion. He is hoping the Tieflings there may have a clue as to where to find the missing parts.

Far away in Nyambi, Ianous has caught up with the rest of his party. He finds them hard at work trying to bring civilization back to the Ulak-tiri. It’s an uphill struggle, since they have only dim memories that they were ever a civilized race. Tassolhoff decides to stay with them long enough to learn their language and Alexander agrees to stay to keep watch over him. The others head into the wilderness with their guide Kovo to seek the great bird with the valuable feathers.

Tassolhoff manages to work o0ut an agreement with the nearby tribes that if the Ulak-Tiri stop preying on them, the people will stop attacking the Ulak-tiri on sight. The amphibian carnivores are attacking the tribes because they have a dim memory of being at war with them. It turns out to be easier and less dangerous to go after zebra and antelope.

Plunging deeper into the jungle, Linc, Spirit and Ianous travel to the most remote village that Kovo knows about. This is the village that his people traded with, and he knows that they have contact with the birds, since they use the feathers for barter.

Arriving at the village they sense that something is wrong. There are no guards and no sound comes from the village. There is the smell of blood and the buzzing of many flies. When they reach the fence around the village they see that the gate has been knocked in. Everyone inside is dead. They appear to have been slaughtered and eaten. There are many parts of bodies left which show signs of having been gnawed on. As they cautiously search the village they are startled when a man whose legs are gone suddenly leaps up and moves after them, walking on his hands.

The man’s body is covered with strange marks like scarification and his teeth are all razor sharp, like the teeth of a shark. He attacks obsessively, biting spirit on the thigh before he is killed. When he is injured his thick blood bubbled out sluggishly.

Kovo identifies the marks as that of the Kuru, the savage cannibals who haunt the jungle, but he also points out that the man was clearly a villager who has been transformed by dark magic.

They search the village and find no survivors. Ianous takes the opportunity to steal a gold necklace from the throne room. That night they build a fire and keep careful watch. After ending his watch spirit heads for his sleeping roll, but the others see that there are faint lines on his face that resemble the Kuru.

He next morning Spirit takes off with Kovo to search for the legendary Wakyambi, who may have a cure for the Kuru curse. They plunge deep into the jungle, past the trails they have been following. Meanwhile Ianous and Linc press on. They are stalked through the jungle by some Kuru, but they manage to defeat them without being bitten.

Entering a part of the jungle where the trees move freely, spirit finds himself confronted by two strikingly beautiful dark skinned people with pointed ears and long tails. The tails seem to stretch out, allowing them to drop down from the branches of the tree.

He tries to ask for their help, but it isn’t clear if he gets through to them. The male and female disappear into the branches. That night as they make camp they see a strange sight. A small furred animal comes out of the bush and peels its fur off, throwing himself on a spit and placing himself over the fire to be cooked. Spirit and Kovo are too weirded out to eat.

The next morning the female Wakyambi doesn’t understand why they didn’t enjoy the dinner. Spirit manages to make clear that he needs a cure for the Kuru curse. She sends him to get a blue flower from high in a certain tree.

By traveling through the branches like a Wakyambi, spirit reaches the tree. Once there he is attacked by another plant that has attached itself to the trunk of the tree. The plant attacks him with small biting mouths until he manages to cut it free from the tree and send it crashing to the ground.

Once he has the flower he brings it to the woman who takes him up into their city which is moving constantly in the canopy overhead, being passed from one branch to another.

The Wakyambi emerged from a hut with the blue flower in her hair and the antidote in a gourd. As Spirit drinks it she informs him that “Most people don’t bother to save the tree.” The plant that he killed was a parasite attached to the tree, so in killing it he helped the forest.

The drink cures him. The Wakyambi is disappointed to find that his tail isn’t as useful as theirs, so she uses her magic to give him a prehensile tail.

Back in the sunken city Tassolhoff works with the Ulak-tiri to try and bring them make them a civilized people again. As he learns their language he gets to understand them better, but not all of the amphibian warriors are so happy at being made civilized. Tassolhoff is attacked by one of the warriors and who is defeated by Alexander.

They are joined by Sernan the wizard who has recovered from the fever he contracted in Basharka. Unfortunately he is not the only one to come from the city. Slavers have penetrated deep into the jungle searching for new villages to attack. When a stream of refugees fleeing the slavers arrives Tassolhoff knows the time has come to put the Ulak-Tiri to the test.

With the help of Sernan he leads the Ulak-Tiri into attacking the slavers. They are victorious and Tassolhoff lets them feast on the flesh of the fallen slavers.

Meanwhile far away Fernandez has made some changes to the Nebuchadnezzar that will allow him to land the ship on dry land if he has to. While they are at their castle in Bloodport Laucian takes the opportunity to stock up on alchemy supplies. Skorzia the pirate queen informs Fernandez that the Yuan- Ti ships have been conducting raids everywhere, which is drawing the attention of the Telmaran navy. Fernandez promises to look into that.

After they sail away Fernandez hears a confrontation between the two pirates who tend the engine and Viquar the Githyanki. Viquar demands to know why they massacred the whole village and the former pirates swear they didn’t do it. When they attacked the Tieflings in the village called out and suddenly there was a masked woman with swirling razor sharp blades that cut them to pieces.

Fernandez recognizes the description of the Lady of Pain from Sigil.

The former pirates freely admit that they ran from the apparition and took shelter in a cave under the city where they found the strange craft. They recognizes the object that Viquar told them to find, but decided to keep it for themselves rather than turn it over.

Viquar and Fernandez discuss the situation. The Githyanki is obsessed with leaving this world behind because he wants to get out before the planet is destroyed. It’s become obvious that there is a war going on between humanoid gods and non-humanoid ones. The adventurers were responsible for slaying the ever changing god under orders from Sassrindal, the goddess of the ocean. Recently they witnessed Marlagi the goddess of wands, potions and staves being defeated by a black tentacle thing in the skies over Birgitainne. The loss of the gods and goddesses is going to be a bad thing for all the humanoid races.

On top of that there is the threat of the mind flayers. Viquar arrived on this world as a prisoner of the mind flayers, and he knows that eventually they will break through from the Underdark and attack the surface world, enslaving it just as they have conquered many other worlds. He’d just as soon not be in this universe when that happens.

The things they need to make the engine fully functional are Veridium stabilizing rods and Illerium casings to hold them in. The Illerium can affect time and space and is used to open gateways to other worlds. The Veridium makes it safe enough to pass through without collapsing. Both substances are unknown on this plane, making these objects among the rarest things in existence. There’s no way of knowing how long ago they were sold or what they are being used for.

They sail to Cerindar the port city of Chevax, the land ruled by demon worshippers. Before they arrive they see a dangerous looking ship from Telmara, but the Telmaran pirate hunters keep their distance. Another ship openly approaches them showing the flags that they wish to speak with them.

The ship does not fly the flag of any nation, but rather the flaming fist of Salidar, the lawful good religion that has been growing in popularity. On the deck of the ship a paladin named Gillian warns them to stay away from Cerindar. She does not see that Fernandez is a Tiefling since he keeps his helmet on.

Her warning seems so sincere that Laucian winds up giving her some Greek fire to use against some enemy.

Sailing into port they bribe the harbor master to get a good berth. Fernandez sees a slave ship from House Turan in Brigitainne, no doubt trying to make up for the terrible losses the house recently suffered.

The docks appear to be very run-down and there are dead bodies floating in the water. Fernandez and Laucian come ashore and explore the city. They notice that there are many different types of Tieflings there, obviously descended from several different blood lines. Men with bits of metal coming out of their bodies act as city guards. They are descended from chain demons.

In a bar they find Vlack, an obese hairless man with teeth like a shark who is busy wolfing down human flesh. He claims to control the markets at the docks and agrees to look for what Fernandez is after. Outside Fernandez encounters Killara, a horned woman who warns him that Vlack can’t be trusted and offers to help him herself.

Killara explains that everything is the reverse of a normal city since they follow demonic law. The only real shops open at night. Also it is against the law not to bribe the officials. There was recently a trader who was killed when it was discovered that he wasn’t skimming enough of the profits. She promises to look for the items and report back.

Far away in Nyambi, Linc, Ianous and Spirit have finally found one of the fabled white Moa birds. The bad news is that it’s dead. The bird has been speared by two female wemics, the fabled lion-centaurs of the jungle. They are somewhat reluctant to speak with the strangers, but eventually invite them back to their village to meet their king.

The Shining Land Pride consists of about thirty wemics who live a semi-nomadic existence. Their current home is made up of hide tents surrounding a watering hole. In their largest tent the king holds court protected by two dangerous looking warrior women. In this tribe it is clearly the females who do all the hunting and fighting.

Linc tells them that they seek the white moa. The king agrees to think about aiding them, and offers the hospitality of their pride for the night. The adventurers are given a tent to themselves.

Shava, one of the hunters that they saw earlier comes by the tent and discusses the moa with them. The bird eats only fruit and nuts despite its fearsome beak. It does have a deadly kick, which many people underestimate.

While the conversation is going on there is some drumming and dancing around a fire in the center of the village. Shava is shocked when Tura, the other hunter they saw earlier dances towards the adventurer’s tent and hurls a knife into the ground at Linc’s feet.

To their surprise it turns out that the knife is a marriage proposal in their community. Wemic females have the right to pick their own husbands, and as one of the top hunters Tura can technically have anyone she wants. When shava tries to talk her out of it the other wemic refuses to discuss it.

“This is bad,” Shava points out. Linc is now expected to stay with the pride as Tura’s husband. If they leave the pride have every right to hunt them down and kill them for insulting the pride.

There is one way out, but that’s almost as dangerous. If a man wishes to resist the advances of a woman they both have to undergo a ritual test. Deep in the jungle they are separated and both of them have their hands tied behind their backs. They have been blindfolded so they can’t find their way back to camp. The ritual is supposed to test their ability to survive with just the power of their animal lower bodies, but Linc has only two elven legs and not four legs with claws to help him.

Since it seems like he has no choice Linc goes through with the ritual the next day. The two of them are left apart, both deep in the jungle. Linc orients himself by the sun and starts to make his way towards what he suspects is the village.

Suddenly the jungle is filled with roaring and screaming. From the cover of a tree Linc sees Tura fighting off four Gnolls. There are already deep wounds on her sides and one of the Gnolls is on her back strangling her from behind as she desperately tries to free her hands.

Even with his hands bound, Linc can still smite evil, which he does, sending the Gnoll on her back to the ground stunned. Tura rears up on her hind legs and brings her paws down on the skull of the Gnoll who was facing her, shattering his skull.

Telling Linc to leap on her back, the two of them go bounding through the jungle. Tura eventually stops, exhausted from blood loss. She explains that the rules of the ritual say that you cannot free your own hands, but someone else can free you, which is why he was cut off from the rest of his party. She bites through the ropes holding his wrists and he unties her.

With two Gnolls still after them, they arrange a trap. Tura leans against a tree and appears to be too weak to move while Linc climbs overhead and waits for the Gnolls to attack. They are successful and manage to take out their opponents, but the day is far from over and they are still deep in the savage jungle far from safety.

Linc and Tura find some water and talk while resting. Tura admits that she has nothing personal against Linc and his people, but she resents the way outsiders come into their land and take things away. The Wemics used to live somewhere else, but they were driven away by constant raiding and now dwell deep in the interior. Unfortunately this has placed them in direct conflict with the Gnolls who claim all this land as their own.

Linc explains that he only wants the birds, and is willing to protect their land. He has to explain to her what a paladin is, since her people have no concept of that.

Since they have time until they are rescued by the people of the village, Linc decides to try and track down one of the birds. Tura explains everything she knows about the animals. After a few hours Linc’s perseverance pays off, and they find the distinctive three toed footprints. Unfortunately when they follow it to its nest they find it is not the plant eating white moa, but the meat eating black moa.

Despite warnings from Tura, Linc throws caution to the wind and attempts to tame the bird. It is startled by being approached and he is actually able to ride it for a while. It bolts when it sees a rabbit run past, throwing Linc to the ground.

Eventually he is able to mount it again, but this time the bird takes off into the jungle. When it throws him a second time, Linc discovers that they are being watched by Gnolls. He manages to bring one down with a rock, then the two of them head off across the savannah while arrows whistle out of the trees, falling all around them.

A few miles away in the village of the wemic, Ianous and Spirit are anxiously awaiting the results of the trial that their friend is undergoing. As the hours pass, there is suddenly disturbing news. Gnolls have invaded the area, making it too dangerous to go after Tura and Linc. The head shaman of the pride refuses to risk the lives of a dozen warriors to save two people.

Ianous and Linc plunge into the jungle after their friend. Using the dinosaur that Ianous is riding they are able to make good time, and quickly arrive at the location where the two were left. Using his ranger tracking skills, Spirit follows their trail and finds the evidence of their fight with the Gnolls.

Another Gnoll raiding party has entered the area and they only narrowly avoid being caught. They find the open savannah and the black moa that Linc tried to tame. Entering the jungle on the trail they are startled to find a party of six Gnolls following the same trail ahead of them. Spirit slips off the back of the dinosaur and vanishes into the jungle to go around the Gnolls. Ianous leaps to the ground, baring his claws, feeling the feral rage overtake him as he faces down the six Gnolls.

Many miles away at the village of the Ulak-Tiri, Tassolhoff is makes slow progress on teaching them civilization. A shaman from one of the nearby villages has moved in to help Tassolhoff carve a wooden mask for himself. The Halfling has chosen an eagle as his animal totem, a powerful mask, but a difficult one to make.

One day a mixed party of natives and Ulak-tiri fail to return from the hunt. Alexander goes out into the jungle after them. He finds evidence of an attack and a few bodies, but most of the party is missing.

As he follows the trail he heads someone pounding something three times ahead of him. The same sound later comes from behind him. As he follows the trail he becomes aware of something in the branches above him. Before he can react, a shaggy four armed figure drops from above, slashing him with its claws. It is a savage girallon. Alexander attempts to attack it, but it proves to be too much for him and slams him back against a tree. When he hears a second creature moving through the trees, the barbarian fighter heads back to the sunken city of the Ulak-tiri. He hears the rapping sound again, but this time it sounds four times instead of three.

Once back in the city, he and Tassolhoff make plans to head out the next day to try and track the beasts.

Many miles away in the port city of Cerindar Fernandez receives a report from the Tiefling woman Killara that he sent after the Illerium and Veridium that he needs to complete his engine. She claims to have found something, but wants him to personally investigate.

Killara leads Fernandez, Jims Rose and Laucian to the dark market an underground market where they find an incredible assortment of goods both legal and illegal. It seems as if everything is on sale here.

Laucian buys some intestines to make into bombs while Fernandez shops for something dangerous. He finds a Drow hand crossbow that seems sentient. It whispers in his ear until he shoots it at a passing person.

Killara introduces them to Dellisar, an elf with a demonic sigil around his neck. When city guards come by, he takes the adventurers into a sort of restaurant where the demon of gluttony is worshipped. As they gorge themselves on the free food Dellisar explains that he may know of some Illerium, but it was sold years ago to someone from Xersia, the city of wizards.

Leaving the restaurant the adventurers are startled by the arrival of a demonic creature that appears to be a cross between a dog and a lizard. It is rampaging through the market until Laucian puts a hold spell on it. This angers Choribrum, a hell knight who is a paladin of the demonic churches. He is wearing plate mail and has a sword that glows red hot once it is drawn from the scabbard. The hell knight explains that he is protecting the monster from harm until the spell that summoned it wears off and it returns to its home plane.

Managing to escape the attention of the hell knight, Fernandez, Jims Rose and Laucian try to enjoy the exotic and dangerous wares at the underground market. Laucian is looking for a way to make something called blood coins and finds an old book in a stall that mostly sells exotic foreign drugs.

The owner of the stall, Jian Molay appears to be a Skarn, the mysterious race who have bone spurs jutting out from their arms. He says he is from Zathican in Khedara and invites Fernandez and his crew to visit him there. The little stall is guarded by dangerous looking creatures that Molay calls Orug. They are the Orcs of the distant continent, but instead of being massive and beefy, these Orcs are lean and hard dwellers in the mountains and deserts.

Fernandez buys some samples of Molay’s mysterious drugs and an amulet that seems to be on fire that turns ordinary weapons into flaming weapons. Laucian is busy ignoring the warning about the dangerous book he has just bought when a messenger bird arrives with a bloody strip of paper attached to his leg.

Racing back to the Nebuchadnezzar they discover that the crew is under attack by slavers. Jims Rose lulls most of the attackers to sleep while Fernandez and Laucian make short work of the others. It turns out the slavers are working for House Turan. They had no idea Fernandez had a history with their boss, Lord Othridge. They merely struck because the ship wasn’t flying a flag and they assumed they could get away with attacking them with no repercussions.

Fernandez orders the ship to leave harbor, headed for Xersia.

Far away in Nyambi, Ianous attacks the Gnolls with his feral rage. He manages to make short work of them, but he is injured. Reuniting with Spirit, he heals his wounds and they continue the search for their missing companion. Linc meanwhile is continuing to hunt for the elusive white moa. As he and Tura head deeper into the jungle they hear the sound of fighting behind them, but decide not to turn back.

Spirit and Ianous aren’t the only ones tracking Linc and Tura, another party of Gnolls, this one lead by a queen are also on the scent. Facing overwhelming odds, the pair have no choice but to flee. They head to the Wemic village where they find that Linc and Tura have already made it back.

At the same time, hundreds of miles away Tassolhoff and Alexander start out in search of the strange four armed gorillas. Following the trail they are ambushed by one of the creatures, but Tassolhoff puts in under a spell that gives it control over the animal. When a second and a third arrive, he takes one of them under his power and orders it to kill the one he cannot control.

Using the captive animal to guide them, they follow the trail into an ancient ruined city. The massive vine covered stones are home to a whole colony of the four armed gorillas. They see an old fountain that has been made into a makeshift prison which houses several captive Ulak-Tiri as well as some natives from nearby tribes.

The leader of the tribe is a gorilla larger and more dangerous looking that the others. He has a horn on his head and an almost human intelligence in his eyes. He is pounding the ancient stones with a wooden walking stick that causes the stone to shatter. As he beats his chest the beast snarls what sounds like the name “Bargus.”

Next to the king is a mound of flesh, bones and the body parts of many different animals and humans. As the king chants the mass starts to move, rising up on its legs to look out through the empty sockets of a gorilla’s skull. A mass of flesh ending in a clawed hand reaches out to Tassolhoff and points to him.

“I know you,” a hideous voice burbles from inside the skull. “You are the ones who killed my brother the Changing God.”

“Sorry dude, I think we’re going to die,” Tassolhoff tells Alexander.

Far away in Cerindar, Fernandez makes ready to sail. When Viquar the Githyanki sees the book that Laucian has he instantly recognizes it as coming from Ravenloft and gives a warning. “On your world magic can be used for good or evil, but on Ravenloft there is only evil magic.”

That night Fernandez has a strange nightmare in which he learns the origin of his Drow crossbow.

The next morning Zadok, the Hadozee topman spots two ships sailing on an intercept course. They appear to be ordinary merchant vessels, but Fernandez orders that they steer clear of them. Later that day the Nebuchadnezzar is struck by a stone from an invisible ship.

One of Laucian’s spells makes the other ship visible, allowing them to see that they are facing another Yuan-Ti ship similar to their own. The two ships approaching them are captured merchant ships now armed and crewed by yuan-Ti. Apparently Skorzia’s fears about the yuan-ti navy were well founded.

When the two ships meet both serpentine figureheads come to life and battle each other. The other ship manages to wound the Nebuchadnezzar’s figurehead, but Fernandez fires a shot from the ballista that not only does damage to the enemy figurehead, but kills the captain of the ship. The figurehead of the Nebuchadnezzar is able to gain the advantage and begins to swallow the other figurehead whole, gulping it down and drawing the bows of the two ships closer and closer together. Fernandez and his crew swarm onto the ship and engage the enemy in hand to hand combat.

After Laucian takes out the other two ships with fireballs it’s only a matter of mopping up. When Fernandez tries to interrogate the officers of the yuan-ti ship they scuttle it, opening all the hatches and sending the ship to the bottom.

Victorious the Nebuchadnezzar sails away. That night while working late Laucian sees an odd vision. There is a figure in black plate mail standing over the book Laucian purchased. The mysterious figure points to a passage in the book which relates the story of Koss, a knight and magician who found a way to cheat death. The details of his story are a little vague, including exactly how he became immortal.

Laucian takes the book immediately to Fernandez and describes what he has seen. Laucian wants to continue working with the book, but it is becoming clear that the book is much more than it appears. That night Fernandez has a second disturbing dream which reveals more about how the crossbow works.

Fernandez has used a messenger hawk to send ahead a note to Xersia saying that he wants to buy a runic guardian. The powerful figure will make him invincible, but it will cost the rest of his money. He receives a message back that someone is working on it.

Later the Nebuchadnezzar pulls into port in Avonmere. The sophisticated city has little in the way of a black market to help the party, but Fernandez, Jims Rose and Laucian are able to get horses and supplies and head inland for Xersia.

Far away in Nyambi, Linc sets forth to finally capture the elusive white moa. Tura the wemic accompanies him and Spirit follows behind as well. After following the trail for hours they find a Gnoll encampment which is run by a Gnoll queen.

They manage to avoid a battle at first, but no sooner have they found the bird than the Gnolls are upon them. Linc needs all his skills to tame the bird and ride it to safety. Spirit covers his retreat.

Back in the wemic village Linc is satisfied with his quest and ready to return home. Spirit agrees to stay with the wemics long enough to wipe out the Gnoll encampment. During the battle that night he comes face to face with a powerful Gnoll queen and finds himself in trouble despite being able to triple-wield with his prehensile tail. Fortunately the wemics come to his aid and they are triumphant.

Linc and spirit set out for their ship in far away Basharka which they left almost a year earlier.

Miles away from them in another part of Nyambi Tassolhoff and Alexander are facing a mass of reanimated body parts which calls itself Bargus the Lord of Slaughter. They have no way of knowing that Ianous is racing to their aid through the difficult jungle trails.

Tassolhoff tries to talk to the Lord of Slaughter, but he doesn’t seem to be in a talking mood. He is much more interested in killing them to avenge his brother’s death. When it seems like talking is going to fail Tassolhoff comes up with a desperate plan. They agree to fight with Bargus, but it must be without any interference from the apes. The dark god agrees to this.

As the mound of flesh rears up and lashes out with its animal claws, Ianous finds the remains of a group of natives that have been killed and their blood drained. He is attacked by what appears to be a man who has been skinned. The creature has fangs and claws and is clearly responsible for the murders.

As he battles the creature Ianous has no way of knowing that this is a terkow, an undead creation of an evil witch doctor. In fact this is the would-be assassin who attempted to kill the princess of Basharka. After he was caught he was skinned alive and allowed to die slowly. Upon his death he was raised as an undead under the control of the witch doctor who has his skin. The king of Basharka wants vengeance for his last slaving party being wiped out and has sent this monster to accomplish the deed.

Even as that battle takes place Tassolhoff and Alexander are going against the dark god Bargus. Alexander manages to land a few blows, but the reanimated mound of flesh doesn’t seem to feel any pain or be incapacitated by the damage. Fortunately it is slow enough with its disjointed limbs that they are able to keep out of it’s way.

When his first spell fails Tassolhoff remembers that he has two containers of Greek fire given to him by Laucian. He hurls one of the containers and the monster bursts into flames. Alexander manages to cut off it’s head, but the thing is still coming. After the head had been smashed, it leaps on Tassolhoff, driving a bony claw into him and setting him on fire.

Tassolhoff saves himself by producing water and Alexander manages to run his sword through Bargus and force him off the Halfling. Eventually they are able to get the last container of Greek fire into an injury Alexander has made in the monster’s side. As it burns the warrior leaps off a stone and drives his sword through the creature, pinning it to the ground until the fire slowly consumes it.

The four armed gorillas seem startled that their god is gone. The leader of the tribe turns his massive horned head to the strangers and growls the signal to attack. Tassolhoff and Alexander race out of the ruined city with the whole tribe on their trail.

Further down the path Ianous is grappling with the skinless monster. His claws are damaging it, but it is driven by a maniacal fury to drink his blood. In a rage he is finally able to rip its head off and it falls to the ground in convulsions.

Ianous has no time to enjoy his victory, for Tassolhoff and Alexander race past with the angry gorilla tribe right behind. The three of them head down the trail, avoiding the sunken city of the Ulak-Tiri. Instead they suddenly find themselves facing a war party from Basharka, including a witch doctor who is cursing the human skin that he has been wearing as a cloak. The skin has begun to dry and shrivel.

The party keep running, racing past the confused Basharka warriors. Seconds later the gorillas burst onto the scene and a fierce battle ensues. The warriors fight valiantly, but the angry animal tribe tears them to pieces. Using a handy spell the witch doctor is able to escape, but the others are horribly slain. As they enjoy their meal the carnivorous apes seem to have forgotten all about the fight in their city.

Alexander and Tassolhoff return to the Ulak-Tiri city where Tassolhoff will continue to work on his mask. Ianous returns to civilization where he sells the necklace he found in the city attacked by the Kuru and receives five small diamonds.

. In Ataria Fernnandez, Laucian and Jims Rose continue towards Xersia. They find their way blocked by a thorny hedge that grows back as fast as it is cut. Laucian remembers a spell from his new book which might be able to help and blasts away the foliage. When he does so he sees a metal gauntlet appear on his hand. No one else can see it, and it fades away quickly.

They pass many signs of odd magical activity. In a small town they rest for the night they find the owner of the inn has only half his body, the other half has vanished. “Still it could be worse, he says, pointing to the coat rack which looks like a statue of a man screaming. “The last owner of this place was turned to stone.”

It seems that misplaced spells are frequently bouncing down on them from Xersia causing all manner of chaos. In addition potions are poured down the drain which goes into the water supply and contaminates everything. Most people in town work in Xersia cooking, cleaning and so forth. Sometimes spells are tested on them, which is incredibly dangerous, but the pay is good at least.

Outside the inn the group sees a cat which can catch birds with its long, frog-like tongue and a dog that has tentacles. The dog gets away, but the group keeps the cat. The inn keeper tells them the cat’s name is Muffin.

Next day they set off again. Xersia abruptly appears before them when they pass through a barrier hiding the city. It is a strangely beautiful city with many districts that float in the air. They are met by Abelard, the wizard they have been corresponding with. He is limping since one foot is still a dog’s paw. He was turned into a dog for thirty days by a magistrate for a minor offense and the spell hasn’t fully worn off yet. He’s already started work on the runic guardian, but it’s going to take some time and he may well fail some of the necessary spells.

Abelard explains how the really powerful magicians in the floating castles never lower themselves to performing practical magic that actually does something. They prefer to study magic as theory rather than actually attempt to do anything that might be useful.

The person who supposedly has the stolen Illerium is called Vikeal. He lives in a posh floating castle with it’s own waterfall. The water appears in midair and falls into another portal in the air. Fernandez is left to ponder exactly how he is going to approach this powerful magician.

Back in Nyambi, Linc on his moa and Spirit bid farewell to the Wemics and head back to the Ulak-tiri city to reunite with their party. Along the way Spirit manages to get a monkey to become his pet. Tassolhoff is almost finished with his mask, but before the final ceremony can begin there is a massive trade faire called and the Zandi all leave to meet up with travelers and trade goods. The companions decide to accompany them.

At the trade meeting there are people from many places. They see Nabula, nomads who travel with beasts of burden known as engargiya. They have travelled from far to the north across the Karashimba Mountains. There is also a group of fierce amazons who have come from their homeland Naboma with trade goods.

Spirit buys a blowgun and Ianous trades one of his diamonds for a large amount of a material he has never seen before called silk. The Nabula say it has been brought all the way from Khitan. They also mention how difficult it will be for them to travel back across the mountains since most of their guards were wiped out by attacks on the way there.

Tassolhoff notices that one of the traders goes from one group to another talking to them. When the rags covering his wrist slip it is clear that he is wearing a gold wristband of some sort. Suddenly a group of carved wooden figures attack the group, moving toward the man with the gold wristband.

The heroes leap to his aid, but the little wooden men prove to be fierce opponents. They are animated wood statues with sharp carved fingers. As the fight goes on the man with the wristband is injured.

After finally smashing the rest if the wooden idols they have a conversation with the man. He tries to hide the wristband and seems reluctant to speak with them. Eventually he explains that his name is Abara and he is on a quest for a sacred axe called the Udamalore which is carved from a single elephant tusk. Abara claims that the wristband is a family heirloom and the axe is needed for ceremonial purposes. Apparently Naza,the shaman of his village sent the statues after them in order to stop him from finding the axe. It could have been worse; Naza is the high priest of a leopard man cult.

Although he is obviously holding back information the party decides to help him fulfill his quest.

In Xersia Fernandez, Laucian and Jims Rose are standing beneath the floating castle where the Illerium lays when a platform lands gently next to them containing three figures. One is a man called Barakul whose face is hidden by scarves. He has a large book floating next to him which is attached to him by a chain around his wrist. One of them is Salim, a pleasant looking man in a turban and the third is a woman called Azure with bright blue hair who spits lightning bolts.

The trio is not happy with what they have seen in Vikeal’s castle. He is obviously making a bid for power and as members of the Mage council these three stand in his way.

Fernandez introduces himself and offers to help. It turns out that Vikeal was a wizard with some ability at using elemental magic, but now suddenly he has opened portals to the elemental planes and has become much more powerful. Fernandez explains that the secret is probably the Illerium that Vikeal has stolen. He gives them an abbreviated and mostly truthful story of how Vikeal came to have the substance.

The three wizards recognize the value of the substance and the danger Vikeal represents with it. Barakul argues that they should kill the newcomers and take the Illerium for themselves, but the other two favor using Fernadez and his team to attack so they can gauge Vikeal’s strength.

Fearing that they will be observed Salim summons a genie which carries most of the group to Salim’s floating palace. Azure changes into her blue dragon form and flies on her own. Before they leave Laucian allows them to see the book he has from Ravenloft, which both startles and intrigues the Xersian wizards.

In Salim’s palace they make their plans. Fernandez wants the Illerium back and the wizards of Xersia want Vikeal to no longer be a problem for them, so they have a reason to work together. Unfortunately the city laws make it difficult for magicians to challenge each other openly, so they can only give covert help. They agree to provide speaking stones so the group can communicate with each other as well as a new song book for Jims Rose. Laucian asks for and receives a pair of ring gates. Fernandez gets a strength boost for his armor.

To help locate the Illerium all three of the wizards concentrate on making a ring for Fernandez that will find extra planar substances.

They decide to infiltrate the castle by using one of the elemental gateways that Vikeal has already opened. Choosing the realm of air as the safest they manage to survive the hurricane force winds long enough to find an opening into the castle grounds.

Appearing in a courtyard they make their way inside where they find a female figure swimming in a swimming pool filled with lava. They tell her they don’t want any trouble, but she apparently does and splashes them with lava. Laucian stops the lava by cooling it with water, but the fiery woman rises from the lava and comes for them with a burning hatred in her eyes.

In Nyambi, Ianous, Spirit, Tassolhoff, Alexander, Linc and Sernan continue to trade at the faire. Sernan sells some of his potions and buys a magic staff that is nearly unbreakable and can create shock waves when he slams it on the ground. Ianous ponders making his silk into a cape, but the local weavers aren’t used to such fine material.

The next day there is a lavish ceremony in which the bird orisha is placed in Tassolhoff’s mask and he gains the power to fly. It exhausts him a great deal, so he can only go up a few minutes at a time until he grows stronger in the magic.

After the ceremony the group is approached by Onyenka, who is the shaman of the Amazons they saw the day before. She claims that they know who has the udamalore. They fought a fierce tribe called the N’gohi whose king was armed with a magic axe of just such a type.

Rejoining Abara the group accompanies the Amazons on a two day trek south to find the village of this tribe. When they arrive they discover that it is a city of about two hundred people in a walled city surrounded by a sea of quicksand. They attempt to cross the quicksand by cutting down some trees, but the trees quickly sink and the noise alerts the guards. The tribe attacks with a spear thrower that gives them much more distance than expected.

Calling out to them Tassolhoff manages to get them to agree to speak. The group is told to wait at a clearing the next day and the king will see them.

In Xersia Fernandez is attempting to negotiate with the female fire elemental. Her name is Ashe, and she seems very casual about the whole thing. As they talk two earth elementals arrive and attack them. Fernandez is injured despite his armor but Jims Rose manages to stun the elementals with song and they are destroyed.

Ashe is amused when they open the door to the castle and find nothing but a wall of solid earth. She explains that the door is really a portal to the elemental plane of earth. They could dig through it forever and never get into the palace.

Frustrated, Fernandez goes to the other side of the castle and opens another door. This door lets loose a high pressure blast of water, as if it opens onto the bottom of the sea. Jims Rose is nearly swept away and has to be rescued before he is washed down a drain that falls to the streets below.

Fernandez uses his armor to walk through the door, but all he sees is an endless ocean with huge dark creatures moving in the depths. Frustrated, he manages to get the door closed.

Laucian has no choice but to use one of the Ravenloft spells to get rid of the elemental portal. This time the gauntlet appears again and it is visible to everyone. It takes several minutes for it to fade away.

Ashe accompanies them as they search the castle. Fernandez’s ring guides him to a hallway where they face an air elemental in the form of a whirlwind. Their attempts to battle it only create more shrapnel that it hurls at them. Fortunately Ashe manages to get rid of much of the oxygen surrounding it while Laucian blasts it with explosives.

An enraged Ashe breaks down the door revealing Vikeal who instantly starts opening more portals to the elemental realms with a wave of his hand. Fernandez confronts him while Laucian sneaks into the room invisibly. Taken by surprise Vikeal is easily overwhelmed and Laucian cuts his arms off.

In Nyambi, spirit, Tassolhoff, Ianous and Sernan meet with the king of the Ngohi tribe. Since the amazons are enemies of this tribe the warrior women hide in the jungle. Their shaman Onyenka makes herself invisible so she can observe the meeting without being seen.

The king of the Ngohi is a huge man who is carried out on a litter decorated with human skulls. Onyenka warns them that the Ngohi have a ritual that allows for their warriors to absorb the strength of their enemy through ritual cannibalism. The king is as strong as ten men because that’s how many he has beaten in combat and killed with his own hands.

The meeting is tense, but peaceful. The king is unwilling to trade for the udalamore and doesn’t believe the strangers can offer him anything. It appears that he agreed to the meeting just so he could get a look at the strange races he has never seen before. Abara recognizes the axe when it is brought out as the Great Udamalore that once belonged to his grandfather.

Before anything else can happen they are attacked by a savage band of warriors with the features of savage animals. It is the leopard cult that Abara warned them about. The keen senses of our heroes alert them to the danger in time to warn the Ngohi, and the battle is joined.

The leopard cult is savage and swift, killing several Ngohi. Ianous uses his feral rage to activate his full shifter powers, but the cult has their own feral rage and he is outmatched by two of them.

Only the fact that the cult is concentrating on killing Abara keeps them from overwhelming the rest of the group. Onyenka uses her power to secretly help, but Tassolhoff has no choice but to call for the amazons to join them. With their help the tide of battle is turned and the leopard cult retreats into the jungle.

In Xersia Fernandez manages to kill Vikeal after Laucian cuts his arms off. They find a bracer on his right arm which has two lengths of a milky white metal held in place by leather straps and clearly is not made for defending him in a fight. It is the missing Illerium that they have gone after.

Laucian sets bombs while an enraged Ashe starts burning everything in sight. Fernandez finds a treasure room and takes the gold. More elementals attack and they manage to fight their way out of the flaming castle before in explodes and comes crashing down. Fernandez protects Ashe by putting her in the portable hole in his armor.

Once on the ground they are confronted by a golem carrying a staff. He calls himself a magistrate and takes them away for questioning.

At the hall of justice the entire contents of everyone’s portable holes suddenly spill out onto the floor, including Laucian’s bombs and Fernandez’s gold as well as Ashe. The golem leads them into a room where they face what appears to be a sleeping elderly elf. Unexpectedly the elf sits up and the golem shuts down. Apparently the magistrates enforce the laws by placing their consciousness into invulnerable golem bodies. The party notices that all the guards around them are heavily armored, but are also powerful spellcasters.

They are being charged with flooding part of the city and dropping a flaming castle on the city creating fires which has now been brought under control. Fernandez claims it was a party of adventurers who attacked Vikeal while they were there to see him. The magistrate warns them that they may face murder charges if the story surrounding Vikeal’s death doesn’t hold up.

Fernandez is certain that the council will support them so they can get their hands on the Illerium, but his confidence begins to fade when the party passes through the floor and wind up in a sealed room with no doors or windows.

After a time they are let out and the magistrate takes their statement which will be compared to a statement made by Vikeal’s ghost, who has been summoned by a necromancer. Salim and Azure, the council members who agreed to support them are there, but they claim not to know Fernandez.

Fortunately Vikeal’s ghost is still a little confused about how he died and his story is close enough to Fernandez’s version of events that the magistrate is hesitant about holding them further. Salim agrees to take the party, including Ashe into safekeeping himself until a determination in the case can be made. The magistrate agrees.

The adventurers find themselves a place to stay. Fernandez is disappointed to find that it will take another month before the runic guardian is finished. That night while Laucian is working on a spellbook he is surprised to see a wooden chair in the room suddenly come to life and take the Ravenloft book. He recovers the book and Fernandez smashes the chair, but it is clear that their adventures in Xersia are far from over.

In Nyambe the leopard cult has been driven away, but the flesh eating cultists are still lurking in the area and the tensions between the amazons and the N’gohi tribe are threatening to explode.

Tassolhoff tries to keep the negotiations open. Unfortunately the king has very little that he wants from the outsiders. When Ianous offers the king his silk the cannibal fails to recognize it for the valuable material that it is. Finally he agrees to accept the broadsword of Ianous for the Udalemore. This will give him a powerful weapon to use against the Amazons in their future battles. The party knows that the steel blade will rust quickly in the tropical humidity, but none of them mention it as they leave.

Abara is exstatic to finally have the Great Udalemore, the sacred axe of his grandfather for which he has searched for so many years. He admits that he is a prince of his kingdom and with the axe he can claim the throne and become king.

He offers to reward the adventurers handsomely if they will accompany him back to his kingdom, but Tassolhoff has had enough and changes into bird form to head back to his ship. Ianous, Spirit and Sernan continue north with Abara to his distant home, being stalked every inch of the way by the surviving leopard cultists.

They are ambushed causing Spirit to summon concealing mist. In the confusion Ianous is separated from the others. Spirit grabs Abara and takes off with him through the trees.

The next morning Sernan continues on his way alone and encounters a single leopard cultist. The shape shifting cult member tells him that they are willing to let him go if he tells them where the prince is. Sernan truly can’t say where the prince is. The cultist runs ahead. Sernan finds that the dense jungle has given way to open savannah. In the distance stands the mighty Kalashimba mountains. Abara said his city lay somewhere in that direction, so Sernan starts off alone, making excellent time once he summons a horse to ride.

Spirit and the prince rest in the branches that night. The next morning they leave the cover of the forest only to find that two leopard cultists have been waiting for them to show themselves. As the two attack, Spirit sets fire to the grass, but they split up, coming at him from both sides of the blaze.

Back in Basharka an exhausted Tassolhoff finally arrives where he left his ship the Rentham. Linc has already returned to his ship, the Interceptor. Flying over the docks Tassolhoff is startled to see people he recognizes from Fernandez’s diamond expedition held in chains on a slave ship.

Upon landing he discovers that they have been bought by House Turan from Brigitaine. Although slavery is illegal in Brigitaine itself there is no law stopping them from getting slaves and using them in foreign countries. The ragged members of the expedition explain how they suffered from disease and animal attacks, but were almost able to make it to the mountains when they were captured by Gnolls. At that point there were only fifteen men left alive.

The Gnolls sold them to the Brigitaine traders for some weapons. Apparently House Turan wants to use them to reopen their old gold mine in Zarak Khune, the same mine Tassolhoff shut down.

Linc begins advertising in town to try and get enough men to sail the three ships Fernandez hired for the expedition, but Tassolhoff dislikes slavery and begins to ponder what he can do about the situation.

In Xersia Fernandez, Laucian and Jims Rose settle into their new house and try to decide what to do until the runic guardian is ready. Salim borrows the bracers with the Illerium to study it.

At a bar Jims Rose has started drinking when they see a small man with an oversized head getting drunk. He announces that his name is Ruck, and he’s a Gen, a magical creature who worked for Salim. He’s celebrating now that Salim is gone and presumably dead, so he’s free until another magician summons him.

Fernandez demands to know more and Ruck admits that Salim used the bracer to get to the City of Brass. There is a long story as to why he wants to get there. It seems that years ago Salim lost his wife to a powerful emir who captured the woman and locked her in his harem. To get her back Salim summoned a powerful Ifrit lord. The Ifrit agrees to defeat the emir in return for whatever treasure he can fit into a small wooden box.

The Ifrit does as he is ordered and slays the emir, freeing Salim’s wife. When it comes time to collect his reward, he shrinks Salim’s wife down, puts he in the box and vanishes. Salim has tried for ten years to get her back, but the Ifrit put powerful wards in place that have kept him out. Now with the power of the Illerium bracer he has finally managed to succeed.

Ruck is pretty sure that Salim is dead or being tortured. Unfortunately Fernandez wants the bracer back, and there’s only one way to get it. They have to go to the City of Brass, the home of the Ifrit.

Ruck can take him there, but Fernandez is more interested in having Ashe take them, since only fire based creatures have any rights in the city. Jims Rose refuses to go with Fernandez, so the Tiefling decides to use the speaking stones to contact other members of the party. Linc agrees to go, but he’s thousands of miles away.

For two thousand gold pieces of the six thousand Fernandez recovered from Vikeal’s castle, a wizard agrees to teleport Linc to Xersia. The teleportation is so unexpected Linc doesn’t have time to prepare, but he does arrive with a rather startled Moa.

Laucian agrees to go and prepares an alchemical potion to protect all of them from the heat. Linc decides to leave his riding bird behind. Ashe teleports them to the docks, a district that is open to outsiders and is one of the safest places in the city. The City of Brass is a trading port for many different worlds and is famous for its metal goods and the huge slave market that it there.

The City of Brass is built in a huge bronze bowl forty miles across, floating on a sea of fire. The city appears to be made of metal and shimmers in the heat. The metal that supports the city is drawn from the bodies of people who made really poor bargains with Ifrit and were killed by them. Others who bargained slightly better wind up as slaves, spending the rest of their life in the wretched mines, digging out metal to be forged into various trade goods.

The city is home to about fifty thousand people, forty percent of them Ifrit, there are also numerous azers, salamanders, fire giants and Ifrits, humans with a heritage of fire elementals.

Leaving the busy port they make their way to a wagon going deeper into the sweltering city. At a mine where slaves toil endlessly to dig metal they see a fire giant working a huge bellows making the metal into weapons.

The cart isn’t going any further, so they’re on their own. Stopped by salamander guards at a checkpoint they go into the tunnels under the city where they escape the random jets of flame and return to the streets in the wealthy district past the checkpoint.

When they find the palace of the Ifrit lord they see Salim outside the building in a hanging cage which has spikes on the bars. He is in very bad shape and has nothing but his turban and a loincloth.

Fernandez decides to knock on the door.

In the port of Basharka in Nyambe, Tassolhoff suddenly finds himself alone when Linc vanishes. He finishes finding a crew for the three ships and waits until the slave ship has left port to take hid small fleet of four ships and intercept the slavers. There is a brief fight, but Bokur uses his cat o’nine tails to pull down a plank linking the two ships, tossing the captain in the water. Some magic whips are dispatched with weighted fishing nets. After that a lucky shot from the catapult is able to cripple the slave ship.

Tassolhoff takes the ship with almost no casualties and frees the slaves. The ship’s captain says he will die now from the poison the Lord Othridge has given him. Tassolhoff uses the speaking stone to contact Fernandez. Fernandez explains that the poison is really a parasite that has been implanted in him, which will grow until it bursts out of his body unless Othridge uses a spell to kill it. The parasite can also be removed with an operation, which Fernandez explains to Tassolhoff.

The captain of the slave ship agrees to work for Tassolhoff in return for his life. They sail all five ships back to port and the surgery is performed that saves the captain.

Deep in the jungles of Nyambe Ianous, Sernan and Spirit continue their desperate race against the leopard cultists. Sernan has entered the foothills of the mountains and finds that his path leads through a narrow pass that has leopard cultists waiting in ambush. While he waits Ianous catches up with him and they debate what to do.

Miles behind them Spirit and Abara fight the cultists amidst the smoke from the sputtering fire. The leopard men attack from both sides. Prince Abara attacks with his sacred ivory axe while Spirit and his monkey hold off the second attacker.

Spirit is badly injured, but the leopard cultists take enough damage that they slink away into the jungle to heal. Spirit and Abara fall into an exhausted sleep, watched over by Spirit’s monkey.

Ahead of them on the trail leading into the mountains Ianous and Sernan come to a conclusion. Sernan uses his power to change his shape to resemble the leopard cultists, then pretend to have taken Ianous and his dinosaur captive.

One of the leopard cultists leaps down from the rock to confront them. He notices that Sernan smells suspicious, but allows them to pass, telling him to take his captive to camp. After wandering aimlessly for a while they smell something cooking and locate the encampment.

There are about a dozen of the leopard cultists living in tents. Most of the ones in camp are women, but they are lead by a powerful priest of the cult. The leader refuses to believe that Ianous doesn’t know Prince Abara’s plans and orders him to be tortured. As they start to take off his armor, Ianous blurts out that Sernan isn’t one of them.

Before the surprised leopard people can respond, Sernan changes into a winged elf and flies away. Ianous manages to free himself in the confusion, but is wounded as he leaps on the back of his dinosaur. He races back towards the narrow pass while the cultists are in hot pursuit. Realizing he cannot escape, he tells his dinosaur to flee while he makes a stand.

Ianous is captured by the leopard cult and taken back to their camp. He is held prisoner without any of his weapons, armor or supplies.

Further back along the trail Sernan finds Spirit and Abara resting in a tree. When they hear how many of the cult is waiting for them ahead, Spirit tries to find another path to Abara’s home.

They can climb the mountains, but that will add a week of hard climbing up a steep cliff face to their journey. They can follow the river towards his home, but that will take them further afield and bring them back into Gnoll territory. Spirit decides to go with that, since they’ve already fought the Gnolls once and can hopefully take them again.

The trio set off for the river. With Sernan scouting from the air they are able to avoid the Gnoll patrols. Moving north along the river bank they climb higher into the mountains. After several days travel they reach a spot where a low hanging cloud seems to cling to the mountain. Spirit wants to wait for it to blow away, but Abara informs him that this is part of the magic that protects his home.

They are getting near their destination, but there is still one more obstacle to pass, a cave they have to enter, and it will be a perfect place for another ambush.

At the camp of the leopard cult the leader has grown suspicious when days pass and there is no sign of Abara. He realizes that the prince must be trying to slip past him by going another way. He orders all the leopard cult to return and break camp. Together the thirty cult members go deeper into the mountains, dragging their captive.

The route to the prince’s city goes through a cave that is hidden behind a mighty waterfall. It is possible to walk along a ledge on the rock face and go behind the falling water to enter the cave. When Sernan scouts out the area however he spots one of the leopard cult lying in wait. The cult has gotten there ahead of them, cutting off their only access to the city.

Meanwhile in the City of Brass, Fernandez’s knock on the huge metal doors causes a face to appear which asks a riddle. “I have cities but no people, rivers but no water and you cannot travel far without me. What am I?”

After a great deal of discussion Fernandez guesses a map, which is the correct answer. When the door opens two salamander guards usher him into a throne room where Fernandez, Ashe and Laucian come face to face with Sabir Azakar-Alaman, a lord of the Ifrit.

When Fernandez demands the bracers Sabir is amused by his arrogance, but he sees no reason to deal with the mortal. Laucian slips out of the house to secretly prepare a spell from the Ravenloft book that will destroy the Ifrit. He finds one easily enough, but it is a close range spell, he has to go back inside the house to use it. Unfortunately the door has sealed behind him and he must answer another riddle to open it.

Far away in Nyambe Spirit and Sernan faced a crisis. There was only one way to the city and that was through a cave hidden behind a massive waterfall. Spirit fills the cave with obscuring mist and sends his monkey ahead to throw rocks and distract the leopard cultists. The trick works, but when spirit himself slips into the cave he is spotted.

The leopard cultists let out a fearsome roar of anger. At the sound the rest of the cultists rush to the base of the mountain where they have set up a ladder and a temporary bridge which allows them to reach the cave even though they are on the wrong side of the river from the ledge. Ianous realizes that they aren’t watching him very closely and decides to slice through his bonds.

Inside the cave Spirit is wounded making his way past the cultists. Going deeper into the cave he sees more leopard cult members who have lit torches. He douses the torches with a torrent of water and slips past them in the confusion, scooping up his monkey with his tail as he rushes by.

Sernan uses his shape shifting ability to fly up to the top of the cliff where he deposits Prince Abara. The top of the cliff is a bare rock face with nothing but a river a half a mile wide flowing over the cliff to form the waterfall.

Ianous breaks free, but is spotted by one of the women guarding him. He is wounded as he attempts to flee. Turning and facing his attackers he manages to finish her, but now another woman and a male guard are bearing down on him. After a brutal fight he has been injured almost to the point of death and has no choice but to flee. Fortunately the leopard cultists have all heard the signal that someone is moving through the cave, so they ignore their captive and head towards the cave.

Ianous tries to outflank the cultists, but finds that there is no way he can reach the cave to get to the city. In desperation he calls out, attracting not only the leopard cultists but Sernan who is flying around scouting out the area. Remembering how he was betrayed by Ianous, Sernan swoops in. The former comrads attempt to speak, but their fight has gone beyond words. Ianous leaps on Sernan and slashes him with his claws seconds before a lightning bolt sears through him sending him into a coma. He is oblivious as Sernan ends his life with a well placed magic missile. As the leopard cultists surround them he shape shifts back to winged form and flies away.

In the cave Spirit has managed to elude his pursuers, but as more cultists pour into the cave it’s obvious he won’t be able to hide for long. Smelling fresh air he heads for the exit from the cave. The mouth of the cave looks out on a lush valley of dense jungle where a huge city glistens in the sun.

Spirit heads out of the cave into the jungle which he finds is filled with fresh fruit. While getting fresh water from a river he finds a herd of friendly elephants. After casting a speak with animal spell he talks to an elephant and has no problem getting a ride into the city. Several farmers see him and stare. They clearly have no idea what a dragonborn is.

At the city gates the guards order him off the elephant. Spirit complies and asks if the prince has gotten there yet. The guards are excited to hear news about their missing prince, but they are very suspicious of him. He is escorted to the palace, which is where Spirit wanted to go anyway.

At the palace Spirit is interrogated by Kirabo, the head of the guard. He seems to believe the story, especially when Spirit describes the gold bracelet the prince was wearing. Suddenly they are interrupted by Nazar, the leader of the leopard people cult. He accuses Spirit of lying and proclaims that the prince is dead. Before Spirit can protest he is dragged off to a prison cell deep in the castle, but his monkey manages to escape out a window.

That night when food is brought to him spirit is visited by Tenashe, Prince Abara’s beautiful sister. She wears a bracelet much like his and she believes spirit’s story. Unfortunately if her brother is on the way to the city he is heading into terrible danger.

When Abara came of age Nazar declared that he could not assume the throne unless he went on a quest and recovered the Great Udelamore, which was taken from the city by their grandfather many years ago. Abara had no choice but to go on the seemingly hopeless quest. While he was gone his father began to weaken, perhaps because of poison. Finally Nazar declared that Abara was dead and announced his intentions to marry her. Tenashe has no choice but to marry the high priest no matter how much she detests him. Under their most ancient law there must be a ruler on the throne, and the high priest is considered royalty and fit to marry a princess.

Spirit assures her that her brother succeeded and is on his way back with the ivory axe. Tenashe warns him that Nazar will never allow Abara back into the city, and Spirit knows too much to be allowed to live. She tells Spirit where the keys to his cell are, but there is nothing more that she can do.

Earlier in the day Prince Abara and Sernan stood atop the rocks looking down at the waterfall and across the mighty river. There is no way they can get down to the cave without revealing themselves to the leopard cult. The cave that they need to enter is by now filled with the enemy. The only way to reach Abara’s city is to have Sernan fly him across the river. The river is very wide and filled with rapids. If Sernan’s exhausted wings give out they will drop into the white water and be swept across the waterfall to certain doom.

With great difficulty Sernan manages to fly across the river. He collapses on the other side. He and Abara will attempt to enter the city on the next day. They have no way of knowing what awaits them.

Hundreds of miles away in the city of Basharka Tassolhoff questions Tholas, the captain of the slave ship that he saved from certain death. Tholas has sailed for House Turan for a long time and is willing to tell all he knows. Lord Othridge is desperate to make up the losses from the disaster in Srathus and no longer has the protection of the Red. He wants to take back the gold mine in Zarak Khune, but it is still overrun by goblins and can only be liberated by an army. House Turan is hiring as many mercenaries as they can and keeping them in a fort built further up the coast from the gold mine.

The entire expedition is being financed by a powerful new drug that Lord Othridge is selling. The highly addicting substance comes from Sahasra, a country on the southern coast of Khiatan which has very little contact with outsiders. The drug, called Thoon eventually causes purple veins to appear and the face to become deformed its effects are so powerful and addicting that he has no trouble selling it. House Turan has been bringing the new drug to every corner of the earth and reaping enormous profits. Presumably the drug is eventually fatal, but no one really knows what happens to long term addicts.

Tholas agrees to do what he can to stop House Turan. They can spread word about the “curse” which is really a parasite, and the surgeon who saved Tholas agrees to help. The only way to put a dent in Lord Othridge’s plans is to sail to legend shrouded Sahasra and find the secret of thoon.

On the ship Katrina, Zenithar the wood elf has waited more than a year for the return of Ianous. When it is clear that he is not returning Zenithar follows the last orders he was given by his adopted father and takes command of the ship. He offers his services to Tassolhoff, but the Halfling cleric plans to sail for Sahasra with only Alexander and his loyal crew.

Needing money to pay the crew Zenithar goes into Basharka to try and find work. The only job open is that of hunting down a lion for four thousand gold pieces. No sooner does he accept the job then Zenithar finds himself in the company of Zyx, a mysterious dark elf. Framed for murder in the underdark the rogue has found his way to the surface and made it as far as the savage coast of Nyambe. He offers to help Zenithar for a share of the reward.

Together they embark on a journey deep into the heart of the jungle. It is a long and difficult trip that finally finds them on the trail where the lion was last spotted. This is the main route used by traders whom the lion has been attacking. After buying a goat from a village they begin looking for signs of the lion.

The fist evidence they find is the remains of a group of adventures who have been mauled by the lion. They have been dead for a few days and Zenithar is able to get a new quiver full of arrows. His wolf companion is scouting the area and senses that the lion is nearby. As they enter the brush the wind shifts. Now the lion will have their scent for certain.

As Zyx climbs a tree to get the drop on the lion, Zenithar prepares his arrows. The lion bursts from the brush and charges at him with a bloodthirsty roar. He manages to get an arrow into it, but the lion takes him down with one swipe of his paw. Abandoning his bow, Zenithar attacks with his short sword only to have the beast grab his arm in a bone crushing grip.

As the monster lion begins to chew through the elf’s arm Zyx has positioned himself and drops down on the animal, driving his daggers into the lion. It is wounded, but with a savage roar it slams against a tree, knocking him aside.

In the time it takes Zenithar to draw his bow the lion bolts for the dense jungle. The two elves follow him into the bush, heedless of the danger. Zenithar barely avoids falling into a spike filled pit.

Even as this struggle is going on, far to the north, in the shadow of the Karashimba Mountains, Spirit fight for his life in the cells beneath the palace. The murderous wooden figures that he has fought before come into his cell and attack him. Without his weapons he has only his monkey companion to help in the fight. He is barely able to overcome them.

Using his ability to speak with animals he chats with a rat and discovers where the keys to his cell are. After his monkey retrieves the keys he is out of his cell, but still locked in the dungeon. Only after cleverly slipping past the guards is he free to roam the palace.

Unfortunately he has no idea where to go, and the alarm bell is already sounding. Spirit leaps out of a window and hides in a tree until the coast is clear. Outside the city Sernan and Prince Abara approach the main gate on an elephant unaware of what lies in store for them.

Leopard cultists at the gate announce that the prince is an imposter, a shape shifting demon who has taken the form of the prince. As the guards attack the prince gets the elephant to keep them busy while he and Sernan make a run for it. Fortunately he knows a different way into the city. There are secrets known only to the royal family, including a secret passageway through the city walls and into the palace itself.

Once in the palace they are reunited with Spirit and together they meet with Princess Tenashe. She will be forced to marry Nazar the high priest of the leopard cult in two days which will make him the ruler of the city unless they can find a way to stop him. The group is joined by Kibaro, the head of the guard who is still loyal to the royal family and a wild plot is hatched. It will depend on the shape shifting ability of Sernan and a certain amount of subterfuge.

That afternoon when the market is at its most crowded the princess, accompanied by Kibaro goes into the streets. As always she attracts a large crowd of well wishers. Suddenly a figure that appears to be Prince Abara appears and threatens her with a knife. In actuality it is Sernan, using his shape shifting power to impersonate the prince. The real Abara arrives with the sacred axe just in time to save his sister. After pretending to be struck with the axe Sernan changes into a demon form and flies away. Spirit helps by firing an arrow into him, giving him a minor wound. Sernan flies off and when he is out of sight changes into a more normal form.

The crowd goes wild when the princess declares that her true brother has returned. The jubilant people lift the prince on their shoulders and carry him to the palace. There amidst the celebration he announces that he has fulfilled his quest to return the sacred axe and now takes his place as the rightful king.

His first act as king is to cancel the marriage plans of Nazar. Next he plans on lavishing gifts on those who have helped him in his quest. All Spirit really wants is an elephant, but Sernan is looking for some sort of enchanted robe. The king agrees to check the treasury to see what they have.

As one adventure comes to an end another is beginning. The Rentham pulls into port in the city of Jahalawar. Tholas recognizes another ship from house Turan is in port, no doubt to pick up a load of thoon. He agrees to guide Tassolhoff to the only merchant in town who sells the new drug. Tassolhoff, Tholas and Alexander leave Bokor in charge of the ship as they enter the teeming city.

Tholas guides them to the surprisingly dingy shop of Dravi, a local merchant. Despite the low quality of his wares Dravi himself is wearing only the finest jewelry and very nice clothing. Believing that Tassolhoff has come from House Turan for more thoon he warmly greets them. When Tassolhoff reveals that he plans to shut down the thoon trade Dravi grows hostile. Fortunately Alexander is there to keep him in line. Unfortunately he doesn’t know much about the thoon beyond the fact that it is delivered to him in sealed containers. You are never supposed to get the containers wet or to sell any of the thoon anywhere in Sahasra.

Before he can say any more a curtain opens and Chantha glides into the room. She is a beautiful Naga, human from the waist up, but below the waist she has glittering scales on the body of a huge snake. She laughs at Tassolhoff’s plan to shut down the thoon trade and willingly tells him that it comes from a temple deep in the jungle. She even promises not to send word ahead that they are coming.

As the adventurers leave the shop Tholas reveals part of the reason for her confidence. Not only does Dravi have the protection of a powerful rakshasa, but the temple she has directed them to is the home of the deadly cult of Yig. They are an assassin cult who worship a sacred snake and consider the naga to be sacred.

Far, far away, in Xersia Jims Rose is still in a bar drinking and waiting for his friends to return. Finally growing bored, he decides to take off and return to Avonmere for Bardfest, the annual gathering of the world’s best bards which was had just started when they passed through.

Avonmere is a quieter and cleaner town than many he has visited. The streets are patrolled by something called warforged, which seem very capable of keeping order. Although many of the visiting bards don’t notice, there is an odd atmosphere of fear that seems to permeate the streets. He watches a citizen who is arrested by the warforged dragged off screaming.

That night at one of the festival events Jims Rose watches an attractive woman play a lute and sing a song about oppression and the loss of freedom. Several warforged enter the room and quietly approach the stage. When he warns her, the woman takes off running. The warforged are after her, and unfortunately they now believe Jims Rose is working with her, so they start chasing him too. Suddenly he is on the run with a mysterious woman while mechanical engines of destruction hunt him down.

Meanwhile in the city of Brass on the elemental plane of fire Laucian has finished studying the spell that he will use against the Ifrit lord. He and Linc solve another door riddle and storm inside the room just as the battle between Fernandez and Sabir Azakar-Alman begins. Fernandez narrowly avoids being shrunk by one of the Ifrit’s spells just as Laucian lets loose a blast of ice. Badly wounded by the cold, the Ifrit is driven back and crashes into a wall.

During the pitched battle the Ifrit manages to grow to giant size and make his wounded body red hot to keep the attackers at bay. He is wounded by the obsidian blade the Linc weilds and demands to know why the strangers are fighting so hard.

Fernandez explains again that he only wants his stuff back. Realizing for the first time that Fernandez really isn’t there to rescue the magician Salim, Sabir decides to turn the situation to his advantage.

After mocking the value of what Fernandez has come to retrieve, the Ifrit offers him a chance to win the prize back, if he can pass a test. To fail would mean that he stays prisoner on the plane of fire. Fernandez accepts the challenge. He is faced with two doors. One door leads to his prize, the other certain doom. Each door has a guard, one guard tells only the truth, the other tells only lies.

Since he is only allowed to open one of the doors Fernandez cleverly asks the guards a question that he already knows the answer to, “am I only allowed to open one door?” Easily learning which of the guards he can trust, Fernandez easily gets the bracers with the Illerium back.

Before he leaves however the Ifrit still has one more sly plan up his sleeve. Sabir casually mentions that there is still one more piece needed to complete the Illerium casing, and only he knows where that piece is. In return for completing a simple mission Sabir will give him the location of the missing Illerium.

Fernandez and Laucian brace themselves for a trip to the elemental plane of water, but Linc has had enough and asks for a trip back home.

Meanwhile in Nyambi Spirit and Sernan enjoy the splendid celebration as the true king of Oparia ascends to the throne. The new king lavishes those who saved him with eight thousand gold pieces. Sernan is also given leather armor made from hippopotamus hide which will help with his armor class. Spirit is given a many bladed throwing knife that always returns to the hand that threw it. After picking up more gold for those in their party who couldn’t make it, they set off for the long trek back to Basharka.

In Jahalawar Tassolhoff and Alexander have learned the location of the temple where the thoon is being prepared. It is located many miles in the jungle. As they prepare themselves for the journey they encounter a local character. Siringar the facilitator recognizes that Tassolhoff is new in town and offers to help with his endless knowledge of the city and its peoples. Among other things he points out that if they leave now for the temple they will arrive after dark. He arranges for them to leave later, and be carried to the temple by elephant.

As they are preparing for their journey Tassolhoff runs across two Halflings with shaved heads who explain that they used to be like him, but found true happiness when they gave up on material things. “You are dead to me!” Tassolhoff exclaims.

The next encounter is even more unsettling. A crippled woman in a wheeled cart pulls herself across the ground on the stumps of her arms. She is blind and has her tongue torn out. In addition there are two places on her forehead where there are terrible wounds as if something has been ripped out of her head. Her legs have been crushed and she is filthy, dressed only in rags. Still, there is something about her green skin that reminds Tassolhoff of something.

“She fell to the ground over a year ago,” Siringar explains. “No one knows a thing about her, but it’s good luck to give to her.”

Tassolhoff decides to try his healing powers to see if he can help. The second his powers kick in he is overwhelmed by a rush of visions. He sees a terrible mid air battle between the woman and a terrible tentacle creature. For a split second he feels her agony as horns are ripped from her brow and her eyes and tongue are pulled out.

Suddenly Tassolhoff remembers the fight he saw from the deck of his ship back in Brigitainne. According to the dragon who witnessed it, the woman was Marlagi, the goddess of staves, wands and potions who was doing battle with Gogorath. He had also seen her image in the mosaics at the Ulak-Tiri city and he knew that she, along with her sister Sassrindel was responsible for imprisoning the ever changing god on the island and causing the Ulak-tiri to degenerate into a primitive species.

Shocked by his discovery he immediately rushes her to his ship for safekeeping.

Accompanied by Alexander, Tholas, Siringar and three of his sailors Tassolhoff makes his way to the temple. It is the heart of a death cult that worships the half snake Naga as gods. In addition to the cultists there are also the Nagaji to consider. They are a race of snake men bred by the Naga to serve them.

Siringar reveals that the Naga split with the Yuan-ti thousands of years ago because the Yuan-Ti were trying to make themselves more human while the Naga embraced their snake heritage openly. In a country to the north called Mahasarpa the Naga are the undisputed rulers.

Boldly approaching the temple Tassolhoff demands that they show his how they make thoon so he can shut it down. The Nagaji on guard duty are taken back, but they defer to their boss, a mysterious figure with a hooded cloak.

Undaunted, Tassolhoff continues to press his demands. The cloaked figure turns out to be a floating Beholder. Although he is in charge of the thoon production, the Beholder is still just another link in the chain. Before they can get the name of his boss, the Beholder attacks.

During the course of the fight Alexander discovers that Begolders are very hard to hit. Tholas and the sailors take care of the Nagaji while Tassolhoff moves to one side, beyond the range of the anti-magic beam the monster puts forth. Thinking cleverly he casts blindness, shutting down the creature’s many eyes. Blinded and powerless it screams and flies off into the jungle.

The captured Nagaji are willing to talk, but there’s a limit to what they know. Some mysterious stranger arrived in Battanbeng, capitol of Mahasarpa. Apart from the fact that he represented a power that dwells deep below the surface of the earth. The Nagarani, queen of all Naga agreed to work with this stranger and set up a thoon distribution system in Sahasra. The port of Jahalawar is famous the world over for its exotic goods, so a new addictive substance wouldn’t attract much attention. Although there has been some attempt to distance the Naga from the thoon, obviously they never considered security to be a big problem.

Inside the temple Tassolhoff, Tholas and Siringar see a black powder being packed into wooden boxes that are sealed airtight with wax. More of the thoon is on a drying table. The young Naga that are carefully preparing the drug scatter as the Halfling leads his people deeper into the heart of the temple.

In the next room there is a large but shallow pool of water. Inside the pool are countless small creatures swimming. They look like black, slimy tadpoles, but with tiny tentacles. They watch as workers lift the creatures out of the water with tweezers, place them on a table, then slice them up into pieces with very sharp knives. It is the bodies of these creatures that dry into powder, becoming the thoon.

Tassolhoff is determined to destroy the pool and these tiny creatures, but before he does so he decides to find out what happens when the thoon gets wet, since one of the few rules House Turan was given was not to keep the thoon dry.

Taking a little bit of dried thoon, he sprinkles water on it. Before his horrified eyes the black particles start to wriggle about. They join together and gradually reform into the small tadpole creatures again.

After seeing that, Tassolhoff and his companions quickly destroy with fire everything that is left. They race back to the port, knowing that they have uncovered only a small part of a dangerous conspiracy.

When they reach the docks Tassolhoff sees what seems to be panthers made of solid shadow cutting them off from their ship.

“Those are creatures of the Rakshasa,” Siringar explains. “They must have reported that we raided the temple.”

Using obscuring mist the group tries to sneak past the creatures, but their preternatural senses prove too keen. Tholas is struck on the leg with shadowy claws that pass through his flesh but leave him numb and weak. Tassolhoff renews his strength with a spell as they race for the Rentham . Just before they reach the ship one of the shadow creatures leaps and brings down the crewman who was accompanying Tassolhoff.

The Halfling cleric tries to help, but none of his spells can affect the shadow creatures. Suddenly a flaming metal disc comes flying out of the shadows and strikes one of the creatures down. A silk clad woman swings from a rope onto the docks distracting the remaining shadow panthers until Tassolhoff can get his crewman to safety.

Immediately the Rentham sets sail. They are going to Basharka to pick up the slaving ship that Tholas once commanded and from there to continue the fight against House Turan.

Far away Fernandez and Laucian prepare themselves for a trip to the elemental plane of water. Fernandez makes sure that Ashe is protected by spells from the Ifrit so she can survive the watery world.

When they are teleported to their destination they see a magnificent city carved from coral floating in front of them. This is the home of the Marid Queen Ayesha who possesses the pearls that they have come to steal. As soon as they arrive however both Fernandez and Laucian begin to sink rapidly. Fernandez is dragged down by his armor and Laucian has one arm still encase in the black plate mail of the dark lord from Ravenloft, which appears to be permanent.

As they sink Laucian manages to cast featherfall on Fernandez, which gives him a chance to desperately swim towards the city and casts merfolk blessing on himself to let him swim.

Along with Ashe they manage to make it closer to the city, swimming past giant deep sea fish which ignore them. As they near the city guards come out who resemble sauhaguin, but instead of legs they have long eel-like bodies.

The guards force them into the city and to the air filled throne room of the Marid Queen. They are greeted by the imperious Ayesha who demands to know why they have entered her city. After some small talk Fernandez boldly states that they have come for a pearl. He has his eye on the peals which are floating in the air near her throne. One of these pearls, each of which is the size of a man’s head, is undoubtedly what they have been sent to steal.

Curious about the newcomers, and thinking perhaps they meant to steal a smaller pearl from someone else, she allows them to leave, but promises to keep an eye on them. The city is filled with water breathing creatures from many worlds. They manage to find a place to stay, but the spells that allow them to move easily in the underwater environment are going to wear off eventually.

Laucian consults the book from Ravenloft again. As usual he sees a few spells that might solve their problems. But he’s already lost one arm to the insidious power of the book. Fernandez had already been been threatening to cut the armored arm from his shoulder.

Laucian feels as if he is doomed. The power of the book is too great not to use, but if he goes too far not only will he be trapped in the book, he will unleash a terrible evil on the world. Now, trapped on the plane of water until they can accomplish their goal he seeks out a desperate plan. He can guarantee that Fernandez gets the pearl, but only at the sacrifice of his own life. It will help accomplish their goal and end the threat of the book.

In his darkest hour his mind turns back to friends of old. He thinks of Zyx the roguish dark elf with whom he shared so many adventures before their lives took different paths. If anyone should gain the benefit from what he has created and collected in his life it should be Zyx. Gathering everything together in a bag of holding, he concentrates on Zyx and puts all of his power into one final spell, teleporting the bag far away, back to the Prime Material Plane.

Soon it is time to put their plan into effect. Laucian creeps into Ayesha’s chambers and finds her in a huge bath. He approaches her with a knife only to see the cartilage skeletons of sharks floating towards him. He dodges one shark, heading for the Marid queen with the knife in his hand. Fernandez bursts into the room behind him and runs him through with his sword.

A split second before the blade strikes home with its mortal blow Laucian hears the voice of Koss, the death knight from Ravenloft. The words to a spell appear in Laucian’s brain. He knows if he casts the spell it will reverse the damage of the sword thrust, injuring Fernandez instead of him. The knowledge of the power Koss can offer him dances in his brain. For a single frozen second he sees all that he can do with the book. He can even pass the curse on to another if he can find someone else to read the spells from the book.

The temptation is incredible, but Laucian refuses to say the words that will save his life. He feels the savage thrust of the sword and sees the bloody blade erupt from his chest. Instead of pain a sense of calm fills his mind. As he falls forward he sees the armor vanish from his arm. As he strikes the floor and his vision grows dim he knows that he is free and far, far away he hears the distant screams of the death knight trapped forever in his private hell.

Earlier that day in the steaming jungles of Nyambi Zenithar and Zyx were preparing to take up the trail of the rogue lion when suddenly Zyx finds a bag of holding at his feet. Inside is a note from Laucian which Zyx reads.

Meanwhile Sernan and Spirit are riding elephants back to Basharka with the gold they have gotten from Ophiria. Sernan impulsively decides to stop off and help with the lion hunt while Spirit carries on.

After being interrogated by Zyx at knifepoint Sernan is allowed to join the party. They hear the sound of a tree crashing to the forest floor and go to investigate. There is a group of men felling trees under the watchful eyes of Amazon warriors. Sernan recognizes Nzinga, one of the Amazons from when they had helped recover the Udamalore.

As they talk Nzinga thanks Sernan for the help his group gave them. With the Udamalore the Ngohi were unbeatable, but the first time they went into battle the sword they had traded for rusted to the scabbard and was useless. The Ngohi are a conquered people as evidenced by the fact that the former king is now pulling the logs back to the Amazon city.

Nzinga also explains the story behind the lion. Some months ago a trading party passed through a village which offered them food and shelter for the night. Unfortunately the traders were sick with some disease that swept through the village killing almost everyone. Mad with grief the witch doctor captured a lion and had his assistants perform a ritual where they cut out his heart and placed it in the chest of the lion. Now it has the speed and strength of a dire lion, but the cunning of a human. It has a hatred of all outsiders, so it only attacks trading caravans. The amazons have simply been ignoring it, since they belong here the lion doesn’t attack them.

The Amazon warrior agrees to help them hunt the lion down. Zenithar races ahead, but is ambushed by the lion which has been lying in wait for him. Sernan blasts it with a lightning bolt, allowing Zenithar to free himself. Zyx climbs a tree, hoping to get a better angle on the beast and have a chance to use the new crossbow he has just inherited.

The crossbow injures the lion, and Nzinga’s spear hurts it as well, but the animal is clearly very strong and has at least some magical protection. Another lightning bolt strikes it and Nzinga plunges her spear down the roaring throat of the lion. It staggers away, screaming and spiting up blood. Finally it is brought down and killed.

For them the battle is ended, but many miles across the ocean in Avonmere Jims Rose finds himself beginning a battle of a very different sort. The female bard who calls herself Dekka takes him to an underground club. He sees someone doing an interpretive dance about the coming of the warforged. When the dancer is done everyone applauds by snapping their fingers.

Dekka says they need to find the secret of how the warforged are made, but to do that they need the help of a very talented bard. It seems like Jims Rose is just the man they are looking for. The plan involves winning an early round of the competition at Bardfest that will give the winner a magic some of home. When it is played an image of home will appear next to everyone who sees it. If they can win that song and get a warforged to hear it they may learn where the magic forge is hidden and learn the secret of how these creatures are created.

The next day Jims Rose enters the competition. Dekka can’t do it herself because she’s now wanted by the police. As he studies the competition he notices Armando, sneering harpist is the most talented performer in the competition. Armando sneers at jims Rose, saying he isn’t a real bard because he s[ends all his time fighting monsters and having adventures instead of living only for his art.

As the first round begins it is clear that Armando is the only real threat. Jims rose manages to beat him, but during the performance a dart shoots past Jims Rose. He instantly suspects it was fired from Armando’s harp, but he can’t prove it. After he wins that round he finds a small dart caught in the curtain behind him.

Hiding the dart in his hand Jims Rose congratulates Armando, shaking hands with him. The dart pierces Armando’s palm. When he goes into the final rounds the harpist fumbles with the strings, as if his hands have gone numb.

Easily winning that round, Jims rose decides to keep going after getting the song of home. Over the course of the evening he wins one round after another, finally taking the grand prize, a fabulous lute. The case for it fires off arrows.

Now that he has won he plays the magic song. An image of home appears for each person who hears it. The two warforged each have a disturbing image of a screaming man being forced into a machine which closes on them, locking them in.

“I know where that is,” someone in the audience shouts. The people of Avonmere pour out into the streets and head down to the justice building. Several warforged guards try and stop them, but they are overpowered by the angry mob. More and more people are spilling put into the streets to join the struggle.

Jims Rose finds himself swept along with the crowd. In the basement of the justice building the mob finds the machine that creates warforged. Although Jims Rose tries to think of some way to save the device, in case he needs something like it in the future, there is no way for him to stop the mob from tearing the machine to bits.

The warforged that are fighting the rioters suddenly stop as the machine is smashed. Memories of the person they had once been come flooding back. One of the warforged, who used to be a rebel recognizes Dekka and asks what happened. He can’t remember anything since he was arrested on trumped up charges and dragged down to the basement.

All over the city the warforged are remembering how they had been stripped of their humanity and enslaved to serve the corrupt government. As rioters fill the streets the powerful warforged turn on those they once protected. The lord mayor is hurled to his death from his bedroom window by his own warforged bodyguards. All over the city there is looting and fires break out.

All of this is unknown to Linc. He has asked the Ifrit to teleport him back to his ship rather than go on the suicidal mission to the Plane of Water. The Ifrit grants his request and he appears on the deck of the Interceptor, which is docked in Avonmere. Looking out into the city he sees that it is ablaze and he is stunned to see Jims Rose being carried on the shoulders of the rioters. Later when things have calmed down Jims Rose makes his way to the ship and asks for passage back to Bloodport. There may be a new ruler in Avonmere, but Jims Rose isn’t sticking around to claim any credit for the coup. They set sail south for their city on Bloodport Island.

Having received a valuable pearl as a gift for saving the life of the Marid Queen, Fernandez teleports away, leaving the body of his slain comrade behind. He gives the pearl to Sabir who implants in his mind the location of the last piece of Illerium. It is located in far off Zathican, a city Fernandez has never been to.

After being teleported back to Xersia Fernandez avoids embarrassing questions about what happened to his friends, or the wizard Salim who is still a captive of the Ifrit. Ashe the fire elemental is swept of her feet by the gifts showered on her by the Ifrit and elects to stay with him. Fernandez picks up his ridiculously overpowered runic guardian and heads for his ship. He sets sail in the Nebuchadnezzar for Bloodport, not knowing that he is only a few days behind the Interceptor .

In far off Nyambi Spirit takes command of the former House Turan slave ship that Tassolhoff had taken. The dragonborn sails it towards Bloodport. Not far behind him, Zyx, Zenithar and Sernan arrive with the carcass of the dire lion they had battled to the death. After cashing in the bounty on the savage beast, they also make haste to Bloodport.

One by one they gather in the city with the looming black basalt castle. The masters of the city have not been back in many years and they are surprised to see that it has grown into a bustling seaport of some six hundred people. Fernandez collects taxes and uses the money to build new roads, expand the city and hire guards to protect the townspeople. The Yuan-Ti pirate fleet has grown even more numerous and dangerous in the years that they have been gone.

When Tassolhoff and Alexander arrive on the Rentham he brings dire news of Lord Othridge’s return to power and the threat of thoon.

Plans are made inside the great castle. Together for the first time in years, the adventurers prepare themselves for battle. Sernan gets a trained war hound. Spirit has Zyx use the venom from the poisonous toad on his throwing knife. The best healers in the city try to work with the crippled woman that he found in Jahalawar, but to no avail. The Ravenloft book whispers to Fernandez that it can cure her, but he successfully ignores it.

The ships prepare to sail. Before they go, Fernandez visits Mourdal who is still living in splendid isolation on Bloodport Island. The magician is more than happy to provide them with golems to protect their city in case of attack while they are gone.

The ships sail across the ocean to Zarak Kune where House Turan is assembling an army to take back the gold mine. The adventurers are armed with an important weapon: knowledge. Going into the camp under a flag of truce negotiated by Tholas, Tassolhoff, Alexander and Fernandez reveal the treachery that Lord Othridge has used to control the captains of his ships. Each of them has a parasite inside of them that will kill them unless it is stopped. Othridge lied to them saying it was poison only he could cure.

The six generals are angry and suspicious, particularly the leader of the highland barbarian Orcs who have come from northern Brigitainne to fight under the House Turan banner. Tassolhoff has brought one of the parasites as proof, and in addition he has been working on a healing spell that will force the parasite out of their bodies.

When one of the captains agrees to have the spell done and he coughs up a tiny creature, the others are impressed and more than willing to turn on their employer. The compound is filled with fighters, a band of bugbears, a phalanx of hobgoblins as well as the Orcs and the humans and elves from the six ships. All of them are spoiling for a fight.

Tassolhoff makes a speech to sway the many races over to his side. He offers them gold and glory and for the Orcs, a chance to be free of control by the Brigitainne lords.

“House Turan has to pay for what they’ve done,” he tells the doubters.

Now the easy part is done. The fleet sails for Batanbeng, the capitol of Mahasarpa, a city few outsiders have ever been to. There in their great temple is the secret of thoon and the answer to the deadly riddle of Lord Othridge’s return to power.

First they take the docks area and gain control of the visiting ships. Moving silently in pre-dawn hours the small army stalks though the streets to the massive temple that overlooks the city. Linc stays with the human soldiers to keep control of the road to the temple while the others head inside.

After a brief skirmish with the temple guards the group finds themselves facing a huge five headed snake. As the monstrous beast towers over them Tassolhoff manages to gain control of it and after riding it to panic the guards, he sends it on a rampage inside the temple. Meanwhile a gong sounds, alerting the city to the attack. As Naga and Nagaji pour out of the city Linc and his troops make their stand. The Bugbear shamans stay outside the temple to tend to the wounded. Spirit remains with them.

Although Tassolhoff’s control of the snake should still be in effect it becomes oddly silent inside the temple. The Halfling cleric senses his control over the beast shut off suddenly by a powerful force. As they venture inside the temple they are ambushed by a group of Nagaji temple guards. As Alexander fights them off the rest of the group goes deeper into the temple. They are suddenly attacked by the snake now under control of another. During the course of the battle Fernandez brings his runic guardian into play. One of the snake heads snaps at Fernandez, crushing his arm and pumping deadly poison into him.

As the brutal fight continues the snake show no signs of stopping. It is blasted with lightning bolts by Sernan, flaming arrows by Zenithar and bombs by Zyx. As a wounded Fernandez retreats from the fight Tassolhoff charges forward on his reanimated dire lion to attack the snake with a harpoon.

Outside the temple the Naga commanders and the Nagaji warriors have driven Linc and his troops back to the temple gates. Spirit leads the nonhuman troops into battle to give them a respite. The Hobgoblins fight as a phalanx, a tight unit of men while the bugbears form a skirmisher unit and attack along the periphery of the fight. It is enough to help Linc rally his troops to keep the snake people back.

In the temple the brutal battle continues. The army of Orcs tears into the snake, keeping it distracted. As the snake surges forward, everyone must scramble out of its way to avoid being crushed. Tassolhoff winds up behind the five heads and attacks from behind. Meanwhile one of the heads strikes Zenithar, brutally mauling him and leaving him poisoned with deadly venom.

Fernandez manages to make it back to the fight and this time he crawls down one of the stumps of the severed head down into the snake’s body to kill it from inside. At last the snake is in its death throes.

Zenithar gets healed by the Bugbear shamans, and when he sees how the battle outside is fairing he goes to help, using his spells to entangle enemy troops and rain fire down on them. Soon Fernandez has his runic guardian hurl one of the severed heads of the giant snake out into the field, startling the enemy troops. The tide of the battle turns against the Naga.

Moving deeper into the temple Fernandez and Tassolhoff discover a Naga priestess and two guards. “My name’s Tassolhoff and I’m here to get rid of the thoon,” the Halfling Cleric tells her.

She turns away the undead dire lion and attempts to charm the two heroes, but they are able to resist. After they subdue her the true threat emerges.

Tassolhoff is struck down by a mind blast from a mind flayer who suddenly appears. Fernandez manages to resist and staggers to the attack. He is thrown back by the creature’s telekinetic powers, but when it attempts to steal his sword from its scabbard, Fernandez is able to grab the blade first and slash at the creature. As they grapple it attempts to defeat him again with a mind blast, but again fails.

When the mind flayer is finally dead Fernandez and Tassolhoff make their way deeper into the temple. They find a room flooded with water that contains a huge brain. It is a breeding pool for the mind flayers. The water around the brain is filled with thousands of the tiny tentacle creatures, just waiting to be ground up and made into thoon so it can grow inside of its victims, turning them into mind flayers as well.

They collapse first the room, then the entire temple on the breeding pool. With the temple gone the Naga and their allies retreat back to the city. Standing in the ruins Tassolhoff holds aloft the head of the mind flayer and tells the captains of House Turan that this is what Lord Othridge had planned for them and the rest of the world, a horrible transformation into a monster. They must go forth and contact anyone who still sails for House Turan and tells them what is really going on.

With their victory in Batanbeng the fleet sails away from Mahasarpa ahead of the monsoon rains. Tassolhoff plans on sailing back to the camp on Zarak Thune and the other ships will join him.

Excited by their victory the decision is made to do something about the terrible fate of Malagi, the former goddess of wands and staves who has been reduced to a pitiful wreck by Gogorath. She has been safely kept on Tassolhoff’s ship the Rentham but all attempts to heal her have failed. Spirit bravely agrees to read a healing spell from the Ravenloft book, although they can’t know for certain what effect it will have on him. Hopefully the worst that will happen is that he gains a piece of armor.

The spell is read and Malagi screams as the magical energy courses through her. Her body convulses as she begins to change, the damage done to her slowly being erased. Just as he sees her being whole again Spirit suddenly finds himself pulled away from the world by a strange force.

To the people on the deck of the Rentham it appears as if Spirit vanishes. From his point of view the ship suddenly fades away and he finds himself floating in an endless void encased in a suit of armor. He realizes he has exchanged places with the death knight. Now he is trapped in the death knight armor inside the book while the death knight himself must be free.

Koss the death knight, one of the Dark Lords of Ravenloft steps onto the deck of the ship. It is the first time he has felt anything beneath his feet for hundreds of years. Fernandez was worried that something like this might happen and immediately attacks. He is successful, but the undead flesh is very hard to cleave through and Koss reaches out with one hand and touches his palm to Fernandez’s armor. There is a cracking, crunching sound. A long black blade with flickering green flames appears in Koss’s hand.

As Fernandez moves backwards out of the way he hears a crash and his armor shatters around him, shards of glass cascading down to the deck and inflicting shallow cuts on him. One touch from the death knight changed his powerful suit of armor to glass and now it has been destroyed.

Tassolhoff tries to engage Koss in conversation. The death knight is grateful at being freed but is in no hurry to help our heroes. Koss admits to being an enemy of the mind flayers, but refuses Tassolhoff’s offer to join with them.

It seems that Koss was trapped in the book because of his armor which protected him from magic spells. When they tried to banish him from Ravenloft they actually banished his armor, but he was bonded to it at the time and so was trapped in the book. Once in a kind of limbo he was able to loosen the armor and plot a way to escape.

Being inside the book allows the person trapped to touch the mind of whoever opens the book. Since it was his spell book in the first place, Koss already knows the spells. He has no trouble leading the reader of the book to whatever spell they need. Each time a spell is read, Koss tests his power by sending through one or more pieces of armor.

With each spell that was read the power holding him weakened, but the spell on his armor was too strong, so he would have to leave it behind. All he had to do was wait until someone read a spell with enough power to breech the veil between worlds and he would be able to leap out, trapping the person reading the spell in his place.

When Spirit read the so called healing spell, Koss knew it was his chance. Malagi was crippled because the power of Gogorath was keeping her in this form so she could never be truly healed. All he had to do is cut her off from Gogorath to let a normal healing spell take hold. Koss was more than willing to do this, knowing the power would be enough to set him free, and as an added side effect, it would bring down the wrath of Gogorath on the hapless mortals.

“You have more important things to worry about,” Koss warns the crew as they close in on him. Above him the sky rips open and a huge tentacle form appears in the air. It is Gogorath the defiler.

The huge monster screams, causing the deck of the ship to vibrate and the sea to turn to white caps. Tassolhoff orders his ship to attack it with everything they have. Zenithar throws a rope between ships and climbs over to the Rentham while Sernan zaps it with a powerful lightning bolt.

Not everyone is so quick to jump into the fray. Dark elf Zyx gets into a longboat and pulls away, heading as far from the fight as he can get.

Gogorath survives all of their attacks. It is clearly immensely powerful and so far all they have managed to do is make it angry enough that it starts to destroy the mast of their ship.

Fernandez turns to Koss for assistance, but the death knight has teleported away. In frustration Fernandez calls on his runic guardian to blast the monster with magic missiles. Gogorath is affected by the attack. Realizing that only magic can injure it, Tassolhoff casts blindness. It is uncertain if he truly blinds the huge creature, but it does float away from the mast.

Tassolhoff helps Malagi recover from her ordeal. Now that her nightmare of pain and suffering have ended she finds herself dazed and not exactly certain of what is going on.

“Snap out of it!” Tassolhoff slaps her on the face. The shock of it brings her mind back into focus.

Still not up to her full power, Malagi manages to grab a shard of wood and turn it into a blasting rod. Unfortunately it has to be at point blank range to work and the monster is still high overhead.

Fernandez snatches the blasting rod and climbs into the catapult, demanding to be fired into the face of the enemy. Tassolhoff mans the catapult himself and makes an uncanny shot, sending Fernandez right into the enormous eye at the center of the creature’s mouth. The rod goes off at point blank range, damaging the creature, but the force of the blast sends Fernandez tumbling backwards into the air. The flailing razor sharp tentacles whip through the air, catching him in their deadly grip. At once it begins to squeeze, driving spikes into him. Fernandez feels as if his body has become softer, more pliable, like an object that the monster can reconstruct at its whim. The only thing that keeps him from blacking out is that his runic guardian is taking most of the damage for him.

Knowing Fernandez has only minutes before a horrific death, Tassolhoff demands that Malagi do something. She produces more blasting rods from wood shards. Using his bird mask, Tassolhoff changes into a hawk and delivers the rods to the creatures face, blowing a hole in it.

Badly wounded now, it screams and writhes in midair. Zenithar fires one of the blasting rods up to Gogorath, but although he misses the head, he is able to blow off the tentacle holding Fernandez. Now temporarily free, the badly wounded Tiefling gats his hands on another blasting rod and drives it home for the monster’s face. When the rod goes off he is thrown back, this time clear of the tentacles and towards the churning water below.

The wounded god opens a rift in space and begins to move backwards through it. With his last thought before hitting the water, Fernandez orders his runic guardian to fly after Gogorath and self destruct.

Just as the rift in space starts to close there is an earthshaking blast and a burst of white light. Charred bloody flesh rains down until the rift closes. Fernandez bleeds out in the water. Just before he passes out he feels someone grab him to take him to the ship for healing.

As Spirit floats in limbo he hears the voice of the Bugbear shaman speaking to him through the spiritual link they forged during the Bugbear ceremonies. The shaman explains that Spirit is inside the book, but he doesn’t have command over the book’s spell like Koss because he is not a wizard and the spell book doesn’t belong to him. He teaches Spirit meditation techniques to calm himself and keep from going mad as he floats in the endless void.

Back in the real world there is a great deal of debate as to their next course of action. Zenithar wants to get a crewman to read the spells from the book so he will be trapped, but Fernandez plans on sailing for Brigitainne and taking the book with him. Meanwhile Tassolhoff plans on taking his ship back to Zarak Kune to the base camp that House Turan had previously established.

As the Rentham and the Katrina sail to Zarak Kune along with three House Turan ships, the Nebuchadnezzar sails north to Brigitainne. Sernan, on board the former slave ship commanded by Spirit discovers that he can hear Spirit through the speaking crystals. Spirit orders him to sail north after Fernandez since that’s where the book is, and if he gets free that’s where he’s likely to come out. The Bugbears are staying onboard the ship as well. The Orcs and Hobgoblins have remained with Tassolhoff’s ship.

Even as the company parts ways Fernandez lies wounded on the deck of his ship and gasps out the name of the Lady of Pain. He has called the name before without any result, but this time fate takes a hand and suddenly a red robed woman with a masked face ringed with razor sharp blades appears over the ship. Before the horrified eyes of Jims Rose and the rest of the crew the Lady of Pain gestures and Fernandez is cut to pieces. He dies on the day of his greatest triumph.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff sails his ship far away to the western coast of Zarak Kune where he returns to the stockade that was built by the house Turan mercenaries. There he finds that a sleek new house Turan ship has arrived with more troops and an elven female captain who demands to know what’s going on.

Tassolhoff explains that he took the mercenaries on a raid to destroy the thoon supply. He also offers to cure her of the parasite, but she isn’t worried about that. Apparently Lord Othridge is rich enough now he can buy loyalty and doesn’t have to use a parasite. Wayzin says that she is very familiar with Othridge and his methods.

Tassolhoff flatly warns her that if she tries to flee to Brigitainne with the news of what he has done he will have no choice but to kill her. Since the monsoon storms have closed off the Oolon Gulf, there is no way for Othridge to find out what’s happened to his thoon supply. Wayzin warns him that it originally came from the underdark, and that he’ll never stop it completely.

While they are talking some of her men come back from the woods. They’ve been hunting and were attacked by goblins. Tassolhoff has experience with these goblins. He leads Alexander, Bokour and the Orcs into the woods to see what has happened.

The goblins have left a wounded deer as a trap for the men. Tassolhoff finds evidence that the goblins have fled and begins to chase after them. The trail they are on is blocked by a giant spider’s web, evidence that this is the same spider-riding clan that took control of the gold mine a few miles south.

As they make their way around the web, a goblin drops from the trees on a spider silk line and attacks them. Zenithar does battle with him, but it is valiant crewman number three who finally brings him down.

The group presses on into the woods and toward the waiting goblins.

Meanwhile far away the Nebuchadnezzar Jim’s Rose the bard finds the drew of the ship turning to him for leadership. As the closest thing to a friend that Fernandez had it is assumed that he will take charge of the ship. Hammersmith, Zadock the Hadozee topman and Viquar the Githyanki all await his orders.

The ship is sailing north for a confrontation between Fernandez and Lord Othridge, but with Fernandez dead, Jims Rose is no longer sure he wishes for such a fight. After a great deal of debate it is decided the most important problem is freeing their comrade currently trapped in the Ravenloft book.

Jims Rose orders the ship to turn for Bloodport. There they can get Mordal the wizard who specializes in golems to make something that can free Spirit. Following behind in Spirit’s ship, Sernan hears through the crystal what their plans are and turns the ship to follow them.

Sailing into the warm waters south of Ataria, the Nebuchadnezzar starts to encounter more ships. In the distance they see one of the Yuan-Ti pirate ships, which sails to intercept them. Clearly the snake people recognize the Nebuchadnezzar as a ship of their design and are after it. Jims Rose weighs his options and finally decides to take to the air.

The startled Yuan-ti have no defense as the Nebuchadnezzar floats over them and drops its anchor, shredding the sails. A few most strikes of the anchor has it lodged firmly in the deck of the Yuan-Ti ship. The Nebuchadnezzar lifts up, tearing the other ship to pieces.

Far away on Zarak Kune the rest of the party engages in battle against the goblins and their spider mounts. Tassolhoff leaps onto the back of one of the spiders and fights to get it under his control. Alexander kills a goblin and tries to tame the spider, but it attacks him.

Meanwhile Zyx has gone behind them and is launching a surprise attack. Zenithar attacks, but is pinned down when a spider leaps on him.

When the Orcs wade into battle the tide quickly turns against the goblins. One of the goblins, apparently the leader attempts to escape on his spider and is pursued by Tassolhoff. After climbing into the trees to evade pursuit, Tassolhoff is able to corner him.

When the goblin leader defends the attack by saying that they were just defending their homeland, Tassolhoff tells him that they are not an invading army and they are only here temporarily.

“Take that message back to your people,” the Halfling cleric tells him.

When he returns to the battle the goblins have surrendered. Tassolhoff orders the survivors to be released unharmed, an order that does not sit well with the Orcs.

Back at the compound an unrepentant Wayzin refuses to be impressed by the fight against the goblins. She remains loyal to Lord Othridge and House Turan. Tassolhoff bluntly tells her that if she tries to sail away with what she knows he will have no choice but to kill her.

Far away in the southern waters off the Atarian coast the Nebuchadnezzar encounters another ship as they sail to Bloodport. This is a sleek, well armed pirate hunter sailing a Telmaran flag. Our heroes have had very little contact with Telmara, but they are aware that the Telmarans have the largest army and navy in Ataria and are bitter rivals of Brigitainne. They have also suffered greatly at the hands of the Yuan-Ti pirates.

Captain Kandel on the Telmaran warship orders the Nebuchadnezzar to surrender. After some debate, Jims rose decides to haul up his sails and let the warship catch up with them. Kandel is clearly surprised to see that the ship is not manned by the Yuan-Ti. He lets them go, but tells Jims rose that if he’s serious about fighting the Yuan-Ti, he should join them on the island of Caledon, which they have recently taken over and made their base.

Jims Rose says he will remember the offer. While the two ships are side by side it is clear that the Telmaran vessel is a powerhouse. It has a “gun deck”, an open platform in the heart of the ship that bristles with ballistas.

As they sail to Bloodport they see that the harbor is being blockaded by Yuan-Ti ships. Jims Rose orders the crew to sail to their city, which is on the far side of the island. There they find their castle under siege by more Yuan-Ti.

The fight has been going on for a while since the Yuan-Ti ships are already sunk. The crews of the Nebuchadnezzar and the Ryuk commanded by Sernan attack the serpent people.

The battle is short and brutal. The massive stone walls of black basalt easily withstood the siege. Once the help arrives the defenders rush out and join the fight, crushing the Yuan-Ti. Corda the Darfellan happened to be at the city trading at the time of the attack and helped out by drilling holes in the bottom of the Yuan-Ti ships, sending them to the bottom.

Now with even more fighters, the crews of the ships make their way to the south side of the city of Bloodport where the walls the pirates built are being tested by the Yuan-Ti. Skorzia, the pirate queen is leading her troops, but so far they have been too evenly matched. With the help of the two ships the Yuan-Ti are caught between the two groups and crushed. Sernan takes a few of the Yuan-Ti hostage and tortures them, but gets very little information.

As they savor their victory Jims Rose notices that many golems fought alongside the pirates and remembers that they came to the island to see Mourdal the golem maker, so they can get Spirit free from the Ravenloft book.

At the apparently living house they find Mourdal buried in his work. His somewhat odd wife Livia is cold to them at first, but then becomes friendlier when she learns that Fernandez is dead and that they have been sent by Tassolhoff.

Mourdal agrees to help, but only a sentient golem can cast spells and he won’t trap a sentient being inside the book for an eternity. He compromises by casting a spell that brings a golem temporarily to life, just long enough to cast a truly powerful spell and make the switch.

After some discussion they decide to cast a tidal wave spell that will strike Srathus and the Yuan-Ti city. The spell is cast. The golem fades away and Spirit returns to the world. The ocean around Bloodport Island recedes, then flows back after a few minutes. Aside from that there is no sign of the damage their spell has caused.

Far away on Zarak Kune Tassolhoff and the others wait out the return of the House Turan ships. The captains he worked with have gone out to tell the other captains what Lord Othridge has done to them and about how the destruction of thoon has destroyed Lord Othridge’s power base.

While they wait they make a peace treaty with the goblins and Link clears the area around the stockade, increasing the fortifications. They agree to give the fort to the goblins when they are done.

Two small ships are built. One, the Windrunner will be given to Sernan when he arrives, the other is for Zyx. Zenithar decides he wants a riding spider and is able to get a young giant spider to raise from the goblins. The mind of the spider is difficult and foreign, but with the aid of spells he is able to control it.

One day while Zyx is hunting wild boar he finds that the wounded boar has fallen into a trap. He watches as ratmen known as Skaven appear and rip the boar to pieces. Upon retreating back to the fort the goblins inform them that the skaven have been on the move. They are worshipping a new god of slaughter called Bargus that is convincing them to increase their numbers and leading them to war.

The word of a god of slaughter brings back bad memories for Tassolhoff, who remembers fighting something like that in Nyambi. So far the goblins have been avoiding a direct fight with the Skaven, but Tassolhoff and the others are in a large fort. It is only a matter of time before the rat men find them.

Before that happens the house Turan ships begin to return. Many of the captains sailed off on their own, taking their ships and cargo with them. There are only a few merchant ships left sailing for House Turan, but unfortunately the war fleet he was building all have well paid, highly loyal captains and crews so all of them are still loyal.

Eventually the harbor is filled with sixty ships. Sixty captains turn to Tassolhoff to find out what comes next.

Jims Rose and spirit arrive from Bloodport, uniting the group for the first time in many months. There is an intense strategy meeting as they try to find a way to attack Lord Othridge without triggering a war with Brigitainne. Finally they decide to divide and conquer, to assassinate Othridge, but pin the blame on House Valacar and House Beryll. The only way to accomplish this is if a small team of men into Brigitainne while another group goes to form an alliance with Telmara, Brigitainne’s ancient enemies. Meanwhile Alexander has decided to stay behind to pit himself against the slaughter god with only a handful of men.

While Jims Rose and Spirit sail for Caledon, the island base of Telmara, with the bugbears on board, Tassolhoff, Link, Zyx and Zenithar sail for Brigitainne. The two groups arrive at more or less the same time.

Jims Rose and spirit talk to Kandel, the Telmaran captain they spoke with earlier, suggesting an alliance since there is about to be a slight war with Brigitainne. Unfortunately most of Telmara’s southern fleet is heading south to Maha Teel, the Yuan-Ti city so they can see what’s become of it since the tidal wave struck. Besides these decisions are over his head.

They meet with the commanding officer who listens to their story in song as Jims Rose sings the tale of how they created the tidal wave. Unfortunately there is no real evidence that they did it, since the spells have faded from the Ravenloft book. Spirit volunteers to return to Zarak Kune to get the goddess they helped, knowing that she will verify their story.

Meanwhile the other party is in Brigitainne. Tassolhoff manages to bluff his way into the house by joining the kitchen staff. Slipping away from the Orc woman who runs the kitchen, he manages to find a pantry with butler uniforms and sets to work altering one to fit himself. At the same time Link has joined House Turan’s guards as a mercenary. He finds himself in a barracks full of hard, dangerous men.

Zyx rents a space in the shambles, knowing the dark, narrow streets are a perfect cover for their activities. Zenithar disguises himself as a beggar and stays on the sidewalk to observe the comings and goings from the city block sized compound. Eventually the guard comes and forces him to move.

Far away in Zarak Kune the bugbears suggest to Alexander that they attack first while they have the advantage of surprise. This happens to be exactly what Alexander is thinking. Instead of waiting for the skaven to attack, they will take the fight to them.

Alexander divides up his forces. He personally leads the Orcs and twenty of the humans to attack the front. Meanwhile the hobgoblins, split in two will strike from two different sides in back and the other humans will come in from the sides.

The scouts of the rat people are taken by surprise and quickly killed. As the army surges forward the ground suddenly erupts. Skaven with no armor have burrowed under them and now have the element of surprise. Alexander mortally wounds one of the skaven. Its shrieks send all the others to its side and Alexander is surrounded, hacking away at the creatures. The woods they are fighting in are too dense to allow the army to move forward as a unit, and the rats are taking them on one at a time. From all around him he hears the sounds of battle and knows that the war has begun on all fronts.

In Brigitainne the conspiracy surrounding Lord Othridge slowly takes shape. Zyx and Sernan stalk the markets looking for the ingredients they need. They find hallucinogenics and contact poisons, but not hallucinogenic contact poison. Zyx tries to explore the black market looking for oil of taggit, which they seem to need in large quantities.

Meanwhile Zenithar has decided to join the guard surround Lord Othridge. He impresses them with his archery skills, but makes a foolish mistake when he attempts to turn down money for being a guard. The suspicious captain of the guard decides to keep an eye on him.

While this is happening Tassolhoff is exploring the castle in his new position as butler. Lord Othridge leaves, summoned to an important meeting. He takes off in his coach surrounded by a company of guards, including Linc and Zenithar. They soon find themselves guarding the carriage outside a tavern where Othridge is meeting with Vercinthram the Red. The conversation does not seem to be going in Lord Othridge’s favor.

While the meeting is taking place Tassolhoff searches Lord Othridge’s study. There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of incriminating documentation lying around, but he does find a secret passageway. The hidden passage also connects to Lord Othridge’s bedroom. It descends down a flight of stairs until it finally reaches a door.

The door is sealed magically, but Tassolhoff uses stone shape to get past the rock surrounding the door. It leads into the rain drainage system that keeps the streets clean. Following the sewers Tassolhoff goes all the way to where the water reaches the river where it gathers in a foaming caldron to be strained through an iron grate. He is searching to see if Othridge has another of the spawning brains producing more thoon for him, but that does not appear to be the case.

Back at the tavern Linc manages to hide one of the speaking stone near the table where Othridge and the dragon are talking. Tassolhoff overhears the conversation and relays it to Linc. Vercinthram demands that Othridge turn over the bulk of his fleet to attack Telmara. Since all the Telmaran fleet is heading south to take advantage of the devastating tidal wave that hit Ma ‘hateel, the capitol city will be unguarded. “This is our best chance to take Telmara” Vercinthram snarls.

Othridge manages to stall the red dragon. He doesn’t dare admit that his fleet is almost gone. The twelve remaining warships aren’t going to be nearly enough to satisfy Vercinthram. On top of that the dragon is making the same demands on the other large trading houses, and if Othridge doesn’t come across it will soon be very apparent that he is in trouble.

Lord Othridge manages to get out of the meeting in one piece, but things do not seem to be going well for him. He has no way of knowing that it is only the beginning.

Back at House Turan, Lord Othridge goes to bed while Linc organizes a quick game of three dragon ante with Tassolhoff dealing. They manage to involve about fifteen guards in the drinking and gambling.

Using his zone of truth Linc and Tassolhoff question the guards. They find the guards are all more or less loyal to Othridge and all more or less evil. Fortunately the influence of the ale keeps anyone from noticing that none of them are able to bluff during the game.

Finally the drunken guards are all killed so the crime can be blamed on House Valacar and Beryll House. Linc and Tassolhoff even wound themselves to make it more real. Linc is given a scar across his face.

When the bodies are discovered they are the only two survivors. They spin a yarn about being attacked by Ilarai of Beryll House and Moorbridge of Valacar. Quinya, the captain of the guard is suspicious. The attacks don’t look like the two men. Moorebridge always fights with two weapons and Ilarai kills with his spikes.

As the next morning dawns the entire estate is on alert. Zenithar is sent to duty in a guard tower. Tassolhoff delivers breakfast to Lord Othridge and sees the trade lord studying some papers. Apparently he has been assembling a file on his enemies, but the only faces Tassolhoff recognizes are Fernandez and Zaanzzabar who are dead and Alexander who is in Zarak Khune. Othridge doesn’t know about Tassolhoff or Linc.

While this has been going on Spirit has been on a long sea voyage to locate Malagi the goddess and bring her back to the Telmaran base. The goddess is only a shadow of her former self and still suffers from the damage done by the mad god that attacked her. The long journey is made faster by Sassrindal the goddess of the sea. She is a former companion of Malagi and uses her power over the waves to send the ship radly on its way. Spirit has heard his friends speak of the sea goddess, but he wasn’t involved in the adventure that sent some of the party to the storm lost island to face the shape shifting dark god.

On the island of Caledon Spirit meets with Cestus, the Telmaran Grand Admiral. He makes sure to warn the admiral of the twelve warships Lord Othridge has in reserve and offers to make a peace between Telmara and the city state the adventurers rule. Cestus listens to the story with great interest, and says that he will await a decision.

That night Spirit has a dream in which he sees a huge lion with a glowing green mane. It is Linnease the spirit of Telmara. The coins and flag of Telmara both have a green lion on them, but this is the first sign spirit has that it is a real creature. Despite being obviously male, it speaks to him with a soft, almost feminine voice.

The lion stresses that the fleet must sail south to deal with the yuan-ti. Spirit offers to join them. “When Ma’Hateel is secure, then you shall have the aid you seek,” Linnease promises.

Meanwhile far away in Zarak Khune Alexander fights against the horde of rat men. The skaven have unleashed two rat ogres, huge, fearsome monsters ready to devour all in their path. One group of hobgoblins is torn to bits by an ogre, but the hobgoblins manage to overcome the other one, and rush forward to join battle alongside Alexander.

During the brutal fight Alexander is injured and the bite wound he received has begun to throb and burn. Reduced to half its strength the rat ogre staggers away to attack another group, momentarily freeing Alexander to press the attack in another direction. As the rats swarm around him it becomes clear that many of his comrades have fallen.

As his rage fades away Alexander feels his strength start to ebb. From the darkness lunges a skaven in leather armor with a blade in each hand. It is clearly a higher level warrior come to claim his victim. With the battle swirling around them Alexander comes to blows with Tokash the Backstabber.

In Brigitainne Zenithar is anxious to see some action. Unfortunately the guards of house Turan are on edge from the massacre and Quinya, the captain of the guard already doesn’t trust Zenithar. The elf ranger surprises Quinya by quitting.

He tracks down Moorbridge, one of the directors of house Valacar and Lady Thresha’s top man. By offering information about Lord Othridge Zenithar is able to get himself a place on Moorebridge’s personal guard. Unfortunately what Moorbridge really wants to know is the secret of thoon, but Zenithar has been warned to keep that to himself. Despite holding back crucial information, Moorbridge gives him three hundred gold pieces worth of gems as a reward.

Meanwhile Sernan is working on the potions while Zyx learns all he can about Moorbridge and Ilarai the Skarn. With the help of some faked references sent by magic crystal from Tassolhoff, he manages to get a job in the Stolen Child, which is Moorbridge’s favorite pub.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff and Linc have decided that they have outstayed their welcome in House Turan. As he is quitting Tassolhoff runs into Ossrel the Orc woman who runs the kitchens. She is upset to see him go, but he offers her more money if she’ll come with him and she agrees. On the way they contact Bloodport. They want Mordal to start making golems for them and they wish to have an army of Darfellan warriors meet up with their fleet.

Going back to the inconspicuous ship they sailed in on, Tassolhoff and Linc sail away. Meanwhile Moorbridge continues to press Zenithar for more information. All the elven ranger can tell him is that thoon is dangerous; it will destroy your life.

Far away to the west and south the ships of the Telmaran fleet draw close to Ma ‘Hateel the yuan-ti capitol. From the deck of the Nebuchadnezzar Jims rose sees the devastation caused by the tidal wave. The dockyard has been smashed and part of the city is flooded.

At the railing of the Ryuk Spirit is surprised to find himself joined by Wayzin, the elven woman he has had locked in his hold for weeks. She has set herself free and gotten food and drink from the ship’s stores.

“You don’t believe that crap about Telmara helping the yuan-Ti do you?” she asks. She knows how Telmara operates. They may have arrived to “help” clean up after the tidal wave, but the end result will be that the Yuan-ti will become subjects of the Telmaran Empire.

Entering the city they see that the Telmarans are busy getting treasure from the sunken and collapsed buildings. When the Yuan-ti find them they attack. Jims Rose holds them in place with hypnosis while Spirit finishes them off with his returning throwing knife.

Spirit gives Wayzin permission to loot as much as possible, so long as they split the proceeds. During the attack she manages to make off with some gold.

Later spirit and Jims Rose have dinner on the flagship of Admiral Cestus. There is a Yuan-Ti woman waiting on them who recognizes Jims Rose. She is so startled to see him that she spill some wine, which earns her a swift blow from Cestus.

Spirit demands to know why he had to hit her and Cestus explains “The Yuan-Ti can’t be trusted. They’ll turn on you in a heartbeat.”

The sight of the ruined city has already triggered guilt in the heart of Jims Rose. Now to make matters worse he recognizes the Yuan-ti woman who was beaten. It is Miress, the noble woman who had “owned” Tassolhoff when he was in Ma ‘Hateel. The adventurers had set her up as one of the most powerful people in the city, as well as the richest. Obviously things have not gone well for her.

The food is delicious, but the two adventurers find it difficult to digest.

Later that night Spirit goes out to scavenge more treasure. He is attacked by Yuan-Ti, but manages to panic them and send them away.

At the same time Alexander is engaging his most dangerous opponent yet in the brutal fight against the skaven. Tokash the Backstabber confronts him and they exchange a flurry of blows. Alexander manages to keep the duel wielding rat man at bay, but he begins to feel very warm and knows that the bite he received has started a fever burning inside him.

The backstabber klives up to his name by leaping over Alexander and trying to attack from behind. Alexander manages to keep out of his way.

Looking around he realizes that more low level skaven have come up from underground and have scattered the Orc and human troops. Their charge has been reduced to a chaotic melee. The Orcs and humans are more powerful, but the rats are wearing them down with sheer numbers.

At the same time the more organized hobgoblins are still fighting as a unit, but they are all engaging the remaining rat ogre and cannot come to his aid. With no choice Alexander calls on his reserve of strength and once again rages.

As strength flows back into his wounded body he sees Tokash suddenly run. Pursuing the backstabber is almost disastrous. Tokash is on the other side of an area where the skaven dove into the ground for their burrowing attack. If Alexander sets foot there he will be trapped in the loose earth unable to move.

Alexander leaps across the pit and is once again face to face with his enemy, their blades clashing together. The fight is brutal and a wounded Tokash stumbles backwards, using his twin blades to defend himself.

From out of the shadows comes Skreezul the high priest of the Skaven. He begins a strange chant. Alexander manages to stun him with a rock, but even after he slays Tokash it is clear the chant has done its job. A strange patchwork figure shambles forward. The arms and legs of various races are attached to it, including a human arm with three knives sticking out of the hand. As it lurches forward the glowing red eyes land on Alexander.

“You,” it screeches in its inhuman voice. “I know you.”

It is another avatar of the blood god Bargus similar to the one Alexander fought in Nyambi. Then he had Tassolhoff to back him up, but now he is alone. The troops he arrived with have been scattered and cut down.

Bravely he faces the monster, exchanging blows with it. He manages to wound it, but it is clear that he is too weak to let the battle continue. The monster is far stronger than him.

Reluctantly Alexander realizes that he has no choice. He must call a retreat. Gathering his remaining troops around him, he orders them to pull back. They retreat to the safety of their stockade and bar the gates.

The skaven attack, but are driven off by arrows. As the days pass Alexander realizes that he has come down with a deadly fever. The bite of the Skaven has infected him and there is no one in the camp that can cure him.

In far off Ma Ha’Teel Spirit counts the loot from the city and finds that he is eight hundred gold pieces richer. He discusses taking the bugbears with him on his next day of looting, but they are strangely reluctant. The shaman doesn’t see the wisdom in stealing from a people who have already lost everything. Spirit decides to allow them to remain behind on the ship.

The next day Spirit and Wayzin meet with Cestus. He has Miress and is demanding that she tell him where the main temple was where the magical weapons were produced. When she refuses to speak he hits her.

Spirit steps in and suggests that he go with her underwater to find the weapons. Cestus doesn’t trust Miress at all and doesn’t really trust Spirit either. He allows them to go exploring, but puts one of his men with them for safekeeping.

Spirit manages to whisper his plan to Miress. The Yuan-Ti unexpectedly turns out to have been hiding a dagger all along and pretends to attack Spirit. Miress kills the Telmaran sailor and escapes after inflicting a minor wound on Spirit. To make it more convincing he asks Wayzin to break his arm. The elven sea captain gleefully complies.

When Spirit explains what happened Cestus is not pleased. After shouting at spirit he redoubles his efforts to find the temple. He orders one of the captured Yuan-Ti taken from the holding pen and questioned.

Spirit returns to his ship to have the bugbear shaman heal him. Spirit contacts Jims Rose and has him fly high in the sky to try and locate the temple from above. Jims Rose does this, but first he disguises his ship with phony dragon wings so no one will suspect that it is a flying ship.

The next day with the location from Jims Rose, Spirit goes to the temple with Wayzin. They find some weapons, but not as many as should be there. It becomes clear that Miress gave him a false trail to follow while she and her comrades took what they needed from the temple. Spirit and Wayzn keep some weapons for themselves, but give the rest to Cestus and the Telmarans.

That night fireballs rain down on the ships in the harbor. Several Telmaran ships catch fire as well as the Nebuchadnezzar . Jims Rose manages to get the fire out, but notices that the ocean is filled with thousands of venomous sea snakes. Any sailors who dive into the water to avoid the flames are doomed to a horrible death. While the Nebuchadnezzar and the Ryuk pull out to sea, Spirit and Wayzin and a few of their men row to shore in a small boat. They find the docks in chaos because of the Yuan-Ti attack. Apparently Miress and her allies are making good use of the weapons they took.

The reason for the attack becomes clear when a wounded guard stumbles forward to reveal that the compound where the Yuan-Yi were being imprisoned was raided and everyone was set free. The attack on the docks and the fireballs at the ships was a diversion.

With Cestus and most of his officers still on their boats, the men look to Spirit for leadership. He guides his men deeper into the city to track down the retreating Yuan-Ti. They haven’t gone very far before they are ambushed by archer on the rooftops. Just as he rallies the men to fight back, the snipers run away. Wayzin chases them until they vanish beneath a flooded street.

Meanwhile a Yuan-Ti with a huge scimitar comes out of the shadows and cuts into the men. One of the men uses flaming hands to heat up a sword and tosses it into the man as Spirit orders.

The attacker is quickly killed, but it is clear that this is just a delaying tactic meant to slow them down. Spirit and his group follow the fleeing Yuan-ti into the swamps. It is much slower going in the swamp and the men are beset by mosquitoes and some of them become trapped in quicksand.

Soon Spirit and Wayzin are leading a handful of people deeper into the swamp. As they get further from the city Wayzin asks why they are bothering with this. Even if they catch up with the Yuan-Ti, what are they going to do with them? It’s a question spirit can’t answer. Finally he agrees to turn back.

The next morning the city appears to be empty of Yuan-Ti. Cestus no longer has the excuse that they have to stay to “assist” the Yuan-Ti in their recovery. He leaves behind a crew to start rebuilding the city to make it into a Telmaran colony and orders the bulk of his fleet to sail north towards Brigitainne.

In Brigitainne Sernan has finally finished the potions he has been working on, but there is very little he can do but wait until the time arrives to use them. Meanwhile Zenithar has settled into his role as a member of Moorbridge’s staff and Zyx has started work at the Stolen child.

The human who owns the bar welcomes the dark elf thanks to the fabulous resume given over the magic speaking crystal, but the surly dwarf who tends bar and the three waitresses are more suspicious. The waitresses, one human, one Halfling and one nagaji want nothing to do with Zyx until he steps in to end a brutal bar fight and manages to clear the bar in record time. Impressed with his abilities and his skill at making toasted cheese sandwiches they eventually accept him.

In Zarak Khune the fever has left Alexander in a weakened condition. A delegation of goblins arrive who are upset that Alexander didn’t finish off the Skaven like they were hoping. Unfortunately there is nothing to be done about it now.

Just when it seems that Alexander might succumb to the fever the ships from Brigitainne pull into port. Tassolhoff is able to cure the fever in the nick of time.

The Halfling cleric is upset to find that half the men he left behind are dead. He asks the goblins if they wish to join their fight. The goblins aren’t exactly known for sailing across oceans to find an enemy, but if they stay they will be overwhelmed by the rapidly breeding rat men in no time. Packing their spiders and sailing away seems like the best option.

As preparations are being made a ship arrives from Bloodport with the golems and the Darfellan warriors. At the same time Spirit prays to the sea goddess Sassrindil to speed them on their way. The Nebuchadnezzar, the Ryuk and the Telmaran fleet are caught on a powerful current that sweeps them towards their goal.

Plans are laid and the fleets sail towards Brigitainne. In the capitol city Zenithar continues his work for House Valacar. One night he is roused from sleep by an emergency. Rushing across the city on horseback with Moorbridge he is surprised to see a large beholder laying waste to the Valacar shipping offices and warehouses.

A large number of people are already fighting the beholder, but many of them have been killed and the warehouse is on fire from the heat beams projected from the eyestalks. Zenithar hits it with a few arrows. But it seems to have little effect on the powerful beast. Moorbridge attaches a grappling hook to the creature and attempts to have his men haul it down, but the beholder simply flies higher, lifting several men with him.

Zenithar heads to the ships on the docks trying to find one with a catapult that will help him with the beholder. By the time he locates one the beholder has apparently decided to simply fly away. Zenithar has the sailors put barrels of water into the catapult and launch them at the burning warehouse.

Lady Thresha arrives in time to see the warehouse fires put out and compliments Zenithar on his ingenuity. The next day every Valacar holding in the city is on high alert. Zenithar hears a rumor that Beryll House was also attacked in the night and wonders if it is Lord Othridge seeking revenge for the massacre of his men that he believes the rival houses are responsible for.

As the fleet sails north they split into two groups. One ship will go ahead and land allowing some men to creep into the city. One group goes through the sewers to House Turan where they will attack Lord Othridge. Another group will remain in the sewers to guard the escape route that Tassolhoff discovered. The chaos that the attack causes will hopefully allow the rest of the ships to attack successfully. The Telmarans are eager to enter the battle, but once their ships are spotted it will mean total war.

Before they can get very close to shore they are spotted by patrol ships from the Brigitainne navy. Two ships move to intercept them while a third is close enough to observe the battle and help out if needed. Reluctantly Jims Rose uses his flying ship to sink one of the two Brigitainne ships. The fight isn’t as easy as he expects and he is hit by a catapult before he is able to bring both ships down. Unfortunately they must make sure that there are no survivors to preserve the secret of the flying ship.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff sails the Rentham to intercept the third ship. During the battle the Brigitainne ship is rammed using the new ramming prow that was installed during the layover in Zarak Khune. With the two ships locked together Alexander leaps across to the other ship and leads the crew in the attack. As he grapples with a well trained officer he sees a messenger hawk leave the ship with a note attached to its leg.

Upon hearing of the hawk Tassolhoff dons his wooden mask and transforms into an eagle. He has an aerial duel with the swift hawk until finally he maneuvers himself over the bird and removes his mask, dropping on it in Halfling form and wrestling it into the sea. The message turns out to read “attacked by enemies with flying ship, send help.”

Alexander has managed to wound the officer as the men, lead by Bokor take control of the ship. They manage to leave before the ship sinks.

As the Brigitainne ship goes down Tassolhoff returns to eagle form and flies ahead to check out the harbor. He sees that it is heavily patrolled and full of ships. Every dock is filled, many with merchant vessels being refitted for battle. Apparently Othridge wasn’t the only one asked to bring his ships home, the other trading houses have done the same giving Brigitainne a navy of formidable size. Apparently they are preparing for war at the very time that our heroes are approaching.

When Zenithar leaves the barracks to meet with the rest of his group he is surprised to see how many armed men there are in the streets. The army has been called out and the trading houses have begun to hire more mercenaries as Brigitainne prepares itself for battle.

Zenithar and Sernan head into the city through the storm drains. Sernan and Alexander surface near Lord Othridge’s compound while the rest stay in the sewers to wait for Lord Othridge to be flushed out. Unfortunately they are spotted by troops patrolling the streets almost as soon as they surface. They are able to defeat the soldiers, but everyone in the compound is on alert. The gates are locked and alarm bells ring.

An angry Alexander hurls the body of a dead soldier over the walls before attacking the gate. Sernan changes into a winged elf and flies above the compound only to see a huge beholder emerge from one of the barracks in Lord Othridge’s estate. It is the same monster that attacked the docks, apparently in the employ of Lord Othridge.

Before he has a chance to rain fire down on the mansion he is attacked by the beholder. Changing to an incubus gives him enough protection that he manages to survive being hit by the disintegration beam. Sernan chooses to flee and is pursued by the beholder. He takes shelter in a bridal shop only to have the beholder set the shop on fire with its eye beams. Fortunately in the smoke and confusion he is able to slip away.

Meanwhile Alexander has knocked down the gate and is leading a force of orcs and hobgoblins into the compound. They are engaged at once in a furious battle. The orcs are out of control and race in first. Alexander orders the hobgoblins to cover his flanks.

The battle is going in their favor when unexpectedly a hooded figure emerges from the house. It turns out to be a mind flayer. Alexander charges at him, but is struck down by a mental blast.

While this fight is going on Sernan leaves the shop with an expensive silk dress. The fire is causing people to spill into the streets, but in all the confusion it should be possible to get away with a great deal. He finds an exchange shop, a sort of ancient pawn shop, but when he tries to force the back door he is struck by a lightning bolt.

Forcing his way through the booby trapped door he finds that all the valuables in the shop are in a large safe. Unfortunately it is also protected by a spell, this one of paralysis. He decides to trigger the spell with rats until it has finally used all its charges. Paralyzed rats build up on the floor around him as the sound of battle in the streets increases.

Sensing that something may have gone wrong with their plan, Spirit uses the speaking stone to contact Zyx, who is pulling a shift at the Stolen Child. The dark elf leaves the pub when a fire brigade forms to try to control the flames started by the beholder. Zyx realizes that Lord Othridge’s mansion still isn’t on fire and decides to return to the pub.

Alexander awakens to find himself tied up and his weapons and armor removed. He is in the mansion facing Lord Othridge and the captain of his guard. Things look very bad, but one of the remaining hobgoblins bursts in to save him. Using the distraction, Alexander kicks the captain of the guard, removing his kneecap completely. As the man falls to the ground screaming Lord Othridge vanishes, either teleporting or turning invisible.

With the help of the hobgoblin, Alexander is soon free. Through the open doorway he can see that the fight isn’t going very well for his side, as the mind flayer is taking out the remaining orcs. Alexander orders the hobgoblin to set as many fires as possible to keep to their original plan. As they race through the house starting fires Alexander is attacked by a knife wielding Halfling maid, but he sends her flying with a well placed kick.

Outside the army has arrived to take charge of the situation. Lord Othridge has reappeared, but the mind flayer has vanished. The trade lord is in the process of ordering the army to save his house by putting out the fires when Alexander spots him from a second story window. Seeing his chance he opens the window and jumps.

The ship that brought them to Brigitainne has sailed back to the harbor. Tassolhoff gives an inspiring speech to his men as they sail into battle. The darfellan have already been at work drilling holes in the bottoms of the ships on the docks. Now the Nebuchadnezzar and the Rentham sail towards Lord Othridge’s prize warships at the House Turan docks. The ships seem to be ready for them and start returning fire even as Tassolhoff flings blazing ballista bolts at them. Unexpectedly one of the House Turan warships fires its own ballista at the Rentham. The huge spike sinks in deeply allowing a crank on the other ship to draw the two ships together. Tassolhoff orders the crew to steer towards the attacking ship, but suddenly his deck is filled with savage orcs in padded armor who have been flung onto the Rentham with a catapult. Many of the orcs are killed in the attack, but enough of them survive that there is chaos on the deck.

From the deck of his own ship Jims Rose orders the Nebuchadnezzar to ramming speed and prepares to plow directly into the attacking ship.

Spirit grows tired of waiting for Othridge to arrive in the sewers and decides to come to the surface. He sees panic in the streets, lots of troops and the biggest fire isn’t in Lord Othridge’s house. When he sneaks around to the other side of the high wall he finds the gate knocked open and arrives in time to see Alexander leaping from the window.

Alexander lands on Othridge and manages to get a sword to his throat. The army is caught by surprise and their commander, Major Dawson orders Alexander to surrender. Seeing that his companion is in trouble spirit leads Zenithar, Wayzin and some of his recently recruited men to the surface to join the struggle. Meanwhile, the bucket brigade has gotten the burning dress shop under control allowing Zyx to assess the situation. This seems like the sort of situation that calls for explosives. Fortunately he has some left over from his deceased friend.

As Alexander starts to back away, holding the sword to Othridge, spirit and Wayzin launch an attack using the snake arrows they recently recovered from Ma Ha’Teel. Dawson is hit with one and aside from being injured by the arrow, the snake sinks its poison fangs into him. At that point explosions start to go off. The guards are scattered by the force of the blast.

While they are stunned Alexander makes his way to the stables to steal a fast horse. Lord Othridge tries to escape and is slammed against a post until he is unconscious. Zenithar joins him in the stables and finds a white horse that he instantly bonds with. Just as they leave the stables disaster strikes.

Zyx suddenly collapses. Alexander shouts a warning that there is still a mind flayer about. He spurs his horse and races for the gate. Zenithar follows him, but changes course to try and pick up Zyx. Once in the range of the mind flayer he too is struck down along with his horse. Seeing his fallen comrades from his position on the wall spirit debates their chances of extracting them from the violent mess that the compound has turned into. There is smoke and fire everywhere and the new recruits to his cause have desertred. When Wayzin warns him that the troops marching down the street are the 33rd Light foot infantry, an almost unbeatable band of Halfling warriors, Spirit’s mind is made up. He concentrates and reaches his bugbear companions who respond to his call by swarming to the surface.

The bugbears take control of the situation, easily overpowering the remaining troops. They also grab Zyx and Zenithar and take them out of the city by way of the storm drains. Spirit decides to use the fireball spell stored in his staff and hurls it at Lord Othridge’s house. The mansion is finally engulfed in flames. The sole surviving hobgoblin manages to leap from the burning structure as the flames sweep through it.

They enter the sewers to escape as the Halfling troops take control of the streets. Not too far away Sernan has finally gotten past the magic wards on the safe door. He uses a spell to force it to open and is astounded by the treasure that lay within the safe. He has barely begun scooping up all the treasure into his portable hole when the owner of the shop arrives and starts to call for the troops. Sernan blasts him with a fireball, leaving him a horribly charred wreck, but that has brought the attention of the soldiers who have arrived to impose martial law.

Sernan changes into a winged harpy and flies away, being struck by several crossbow bolts before he manages to escape. After circling the city to make sure he has lost any followers he settles into the house that he and Zyx were renting to count his ill gotten gains.

At that same moment the prow of the Nebuchadnezzar slams into the House Turan ship with wood splintering force. The figurehead instantly comes to liofe and begins plucking screaming sailors off the deck. Tassolhoff orders the Rentham to ram the ship as well. As the two ships crash together the Halfling slips between the legs of the orc he is fighting and stabs his shadow with the magic dagger that he recent gained. The orc screams, clutches at his throat and falls to the deck dead.

The crew of both ships make short work of the house Turan warship. While this fight has been going on the goblins have forced their ship to the docks and are swarming off, attacking the House Turan mercenaries that are defending the warehouses. Instead of offering support, the Telmaran warships have sailed deeper into the harbor, intent on an unknown goal.

The darfellan have managed to sink or cripple six of the House Turan ships, and Tassolhoff and Jims Rose sank another, but there are still five ships to deal with. Moving with oars they need no sails or wind and maneuver to cut off the Rentham and the Nebuchadnezzar, trapping them against the docks where they cannot escape. A constant barrage of arrows rains down on both ships.

A lucky shot from one of the house Turan ships takes off the mast of the Rentham, leaving her helpless. As the ship flounders Tassolhoff orders the ballista bolt with the chain attached pulled from the side of his ship. Loading it into his own ballista he fires it at one of the attacking ships. When it strikes he has his men haul aon the chain, pulling the two ships together.

There are battles in the streets as the Telmaran forces come to blows with their hated Brigitainne enemies. More fires break out. When Tassolhoff looks to the horizon he sees white sails and knows that their time is running out. The main Brigitainne fleet is at sea guarding the coast, but with the chaos in the city all the ships are returning home. By dawn they will have sealed off the harbor and no enemy ship will escape them.

Looking across the bay Tassolhoff sees the ships belonging to Lady Thressa’s House Valacar and Lord Voss’s Beryll house. Both of them have sizable fleets with fully armed ships at dock across the harbor, but neither of them are rushing to defend Lord Othridge and House Turan.

Hitting on an idea, he orders Bokor to take command of the ship. With his eagle mask Tassolhoff flies across the bay to where the House Valacar ships are docked. They aren’t very welcoming at first. They think Tassolhoff is allied with the Telmarans, which he is, but he’s also attacking House Turan which they approve of. Tassolhoff remembers that Othridge sent his huge beholder to lay waste to the Valacar warehouse just a few days before. He informs them that the monster worked for Othridge, then ads something he has just learned from his speaking stone, that Lord Othridge is now their captive.

As one the captains of Valacar house throw in their lot with him. As the fleet sails across the bay Tassolhoff goes to the docks housing the ships for Beryll house. There he has very little explaining to do as a woman with no hair but a strange tattoo on her scalp immediately tells the captain, “They’ve captured Lord Othridge.” It turns out that a mind flayer had attacked Beryll House the same night that the beholder struck at the warehouses. The telepathic Aza slaves have been standing guard to protect the fleet if another attack occurs. The Beryll House ships join in the battle as well.

By this time the Ryuk and the Katrina have arrived with Spirit and Zenithar at the helms. Lord Othridge is chained up in the hold of the Ryuk where he formerly kept slaves.

The two new ships attack from one side while the ships from the other two trading houses sweep in from the other side. The remaining ships from house Turan are caught between them and destroyed. There is no time for celebration. When Tassolhoff returns to his ship he sees a massive red dragon over the city. Vercinthram the red has decided to take a hand.

Bracing themselves for a battle they might not be able to win, Tassolhoff decides on a mad gamble. He puts the mask back on and flies up to the dragon to speak to him in draconic. Meanwhile Jims Rose orders his ship into the air to take on the dragon above the city.

Vercinthram at first seems in no mood for listening. He is extremely angry that he has to take an active hand again. This is just like a century ago when he has to stop the invading Telmarans from conquering Brigitainne.

“Why are you so upset?” Tassolhoff demands.

“Because I am Brigitainne!”

Eventually the Halfling convinces the dragon to explain. Between strafing Telmaran troops with fire he reveals what has been going on behind the scenes.

“It’s the Long Game,” the dragon rumbles, “and she’s beaten me again.”

“Who?”

“Linneascene, the Green of Telmara.”

It turns out that the immortal dragons have devised the Long Game to while away the centuries. It involves each dragon picking a city and building it up as much as possible before pitting the cities against each other. Much of what our heroes have been through has actually been the maneuvering of the two dragons. At the present time only the Red of Brigitainne and the Green of Telmara are left in the game, the others having been defeated over the years. The last to drop out was the copper dragon of Messelona who was crushed in a cave in.

Much of what the heroes have been through was a result of the Long Game. Vercinthram wanted to arm the Yuan-Ti and use them to attack Telmara. After the Telmaran fleet was drawn away he planned on leading a Brigitainne attack. His plan was thwarted when the adventurers caused a leadership change in the Yuan-Ti and drove Lord Othridge’s people from the area. Verconthram blamed Othridge for the failure, but the killing of Zaanzabar by Lady Thresha placated him somewhat.

Since Linneascene has twice forced him to come out from behind the scenes to defend his territory, it looks like she has won the game. This puts Vercinthram in a very bad mood. Although he is still reeling from these revelations Tassolhoff is quick witted enough to suggest a new game, saving the earth from invasion by the mind flayers. This intrigues Vercinthram, but he warns Tassolhoff that the green of Telmara is a tricky customer and she will not be easy to deal with.

It turns out that Vercinthram knew nothing of Lord Othridge’s deal with the mind flayers, and he isn’t happy that Brigitainne was endangered by Othridge and his foolish plan.

The Telmaran forces are defeated and the remaining ships of House Turan surrender. On board the Ryuk Lord Othridge has been poisoned by one of spirit’s snake arrows to force him to talk. Othridge admits that he made the deal with the mind flayers to increase his wealth and power. He planned on betraying them before they had gotten too powerful. Unfortunately he communicated with them through a magic mirror which was in his house when it burned. After some of his guards were killed he felt he was under attack by the other trading houses and he talked his allies into sending him some support in the form of a mind flayer and a large beholder. He had to keep the two of them secret so no one in Brigitainne would suspect that he was allied with the underdark monsters. Before the sun rises the beholder is spotted dropping down from the clouds where it had remained hidden all night. It vanishes into the area of Lord Othridge’s compound.

The sun rises on a new day in Brigitainne, but there are many questions yet to be answered. The fires in the great city are still burning and Tassolhoff wants to make contact with Gutripper and the 33rd Light Foot infantry.

It is a morning of chaos and trying to take stock of what’s happened the night before. As Lord Othridge is on the verge of death Tassolhoff meets with Lady Thresha. She had been preparing the paperwork for Fernandez to take over one of the trading houses, but now that he is gone she can have her elven lawyers prepare the papers for Othridge to sign, giving over everything he owns to Tassolhoff. Instead of house Turan Tassolhoff decides to call it House Anchore, after the name of their island home.

Othridge is finally allowed to die. Searching his belongings Spirit finds a ring of invisibility which Othridge had used to elude capture earlier.

While investigating what remains of the House Turan compound the adventurers find marks in the ground that have been partly erased. Spirit copies what remains of the marks and takes them to a wizard to have them analyzed. Meanwhile Tassolhoff investigates the ruins of the manor house and is startled to see the Halfling maid Mira still alive and unharmed. Before the building collapsed she hid in a closet that was protected with spells to preserve the valuable clothes. Tassolhoff and Spirit find many expensive garments and Tassolhoff locates a ring of jumping.

Zyx resigns from the Stolen child pub. He wants to stay on good terms with them is he ever needs a job again.

Spirit takes the marks from the magic circle he copied and shows them to a wizard. The wizard can tell that it was a circle of teleportation that was marked in the dirt. The circle was big enough to have transported the beholder away, possibly to the underdark.

At first Tassolhoff appeals to the government to try and get money to rebuild his estate, but there was a great deal of damage done during the battle and the government offices are flooded with requests. Facing a sea of bureaucracy he starts building on his own.

As a trade lord Tassolhoff is in one of the two ruling bodies that govern the isle along with the limited monarchy. The other house is made up of wealthy aristocrats who have controlled the island for generations. The adventurers try to get a seat in that house as well, but many of the powerful people in Brigitainne are deeply entrenched and they don’t appreciate upstarts coming in and trying to seize power. Spirit is able to buy some land that he will grow crops on, but it’s a long way from being one of the power brokers in Brigitainne.

Investigating the warehouse that now belongs to him Tassolhoff discovers what happened to the goblins that he brought ashore. They attacked the warehouse as ordered, then they barricaded themselves inside, smashing everything they could find while holding off soldiers. Now that the fighting has stopped they are still there, buying food and beer from passing food venders. He puts a stop to the drinking at once and brings them safely to the compound where they can stay while he rebuilds. The goblins would rather stay there than return to Zarak Khnue where the skavin have probably overrun their land.

Tassolhoff also hires Gutripper and the 33rd away from the army to become his troops. He needs them to take the place of the many that have fallen in battle. Corydon, the sole surviving hobgoblin asks for the full pay of all his people who fought and died. He wishes to return to Cassomier and tell his people of the bravery of those who died. Tassolhoff grants his wishes.

While the House Turan ships are being outfitted as House Anchore ships they ponder their next move. Jims Rose finds a panicked Viquar the Githyanki. He escaped to this world because he wanted to flee the mind flayers, and now the mind flayers have arrived here. Jims Rose promises that he will see what he can do about getting the rest of the missing parts to complete the ship.

First they have to worry about the meeting between the two dragons that will hopefully end the Long Game. Messages go back and forth between Telmara and Brigitainne. Linneascene the green feels as if she’s won and is in no mood to concede anything to her ancient rival. At first she insists that the meeting take place on her territory, but the heroes refuse and finally the meeting is held on neutral ground, their home at Anchore. Spirit arrives first to get everything ready. Skorzia the pirate queen isn’t too happy about ships from the two countries that have done the most damage to pirates in her waters, but they calm her down when they offer her a chance to sell her goods in Brigitainne. Now that Tassolhoff is a trade lord they will have a ready outlet for anything the pirates can get. She also agrees to tell the pirates not to attack Brigitainne ships.

The meeting between Vercinthram and Linneascene is tense. Neither dragon is willing to give any ground to the other. The interdimensional threat posed by the mind flayers is explained in detail and Linneascene agrees that they are a worthy foe. She and Vercinthram move their game to a new level in which the dragons compete to see who can take out the mind flayers. Tassolhoff had hoped for an outcome that would keep innocent people from getting killed, and while this isn’t exactly that, at least it brings an end to the war between Brigitainne and Telmara.

As they leave Brigitainne Sernan resurfaces with his loot from the store that he robbed. Since the city is lynching looters he gives the jewelry to Tassolhoff who will sell it when he gets to a distant port. Although most of the group is heading for Zathicar, the capitol of Khedara, Spirit gets the idea that they should visit the elves of Essentier, since they are very long lived as well as being powerful magicians, so they might have learned some secrets of the mind flayers over the centuries. Zenithar, Zyx and Sernan accompany him.

Tassolhoff, Jims Rose, and Alexander find Zathicar a bustling port and an ancient city. They make their way to the docks and warehouse which formerly belonged to House Turan and find that the warehouse is storing slaves that are being held waiting for the next ship to arrive. Tassolhoff frees them.

They are greeted by A’on, the representative of Beryll House. He has come to welcome them to Zathicar and show them around. Even though the two trading houses are competitors, there’s plenty of money to be made in town and they are glad to see Othridge gone.

While walking down the streets they hear shouting and suddenly a wave of dizziness passes through the crowd. As our heroes struggle to stay on their feet they see a man with tentacles coming off the lower part of his face running through the streets. He looks like a thoon addict in the last stages of his addiction. He has started to lose his humanity to the metamorphosis. The wave of dizziness was caused by the sudden activation of his psionic powers.

Tassolhoff, Alexander and Jims Rose attack, but he slips away from them with the help of three people who come from the crowd and give him a robe to hide himself. Although they kill two of them, one of the group escapes with the new mind flayer.

A’on identifies them as cultists and doesn’t seem bothere by the transformation since thoon addiction is apparently so common. He directs them to a rundown part of the city known as the thoon district.

At a bar called the Tentacle they find a waitress who clearly is about to lose her humanity to the thoon. There is also a gelatinous ooze which the bartender seems to have trained somewhat. After offering to buy some thoon and being shown a sample they know they are in the right place. Alexander menaces the bartender and throws him to the floor. Tassolhoff places a trail of peanuts on the floor to lure the ooze onto the man’s arm. He offers to tell them all he knows.

The bartender doesn’t know all that much. Since the original source of thoon was cut off they were running low, but someone new showed up with a supply. He’s expecting the person to come by with a new shipment in two days time, but the bartender swears he has no idea where the source of the drug is. Alexander shoves him into a barrel, then stacks another barrel on top of it and places them in a closet.

They leave him, but take his ooze with them. They decide to call it Squishy. A’on shows them the house Othridge used when he was in town. He invites the group to his place on the next night to give them a proper welcome.

The rest of the group sails to Essentier. Since the Elven city high on the cliffs has no port they have to dock in a nearby city and walk the rest of the way. The bugbears choose to stay behind on the boat.

As they approach the city they find a caravan under attack by three owlbears. The exotic foods the caravan is bringing in has attracted the animals and the guards with the caravan can’t hold them off. A fight ensues with the owlbears finally defeated. Our heroes take the fur, feathers and meat for themselves.

In Essentier the elves seem surprised to see Zyx the dark elf, but he takes it all in stride. They find they have a difficult time finding lodging since Zenithar has brought along his spider and wolf and there is no inn that will have them.

Spirit goes to the library to look up mind flayers and finds, among other things that they call the race illithids. It’s hard to get much information since everything in the library is written in elvish. Spirit has also brought the copy of the marks left behind in the magic circle from Brigitainne.

While he studies the rest of the group wants to shop.

Their stay in Essentier is marked by difficulties. Because of the giant spider that follows them around no inn will put them up. When they are thrown out of one place they are rudely insulted by one of the high elves.

While spirit gets a good night’s rest in a room the other three head into the nearby woods. Unfortunately their sleep is disturbed when they are attacked in the middle of the night. An arrow hits their campfire, setting off a bright flash of light. While they scramble to defend themselves they are hit with blunted arrows. Climbing into a tree while his vision clears Zyx seen three figures creeping through the woods with cloaks that help them blend into their surroundings. He fingers his bombs, but decides not to toss one when it becomes clear their attackers aren’t out to kill them.

Sernan casts a shout spell that sends out a sonic attack, stunning their foes. The cloaked figures retreat. Zenithar tries to follow them, but loses the six foot prints when they reach the main road. It seems likely that their attackers have come from Essentier and now have returned there.

After all the excitement it’s impossible for them to sleep so they head back into town for the rest of the night. Zyx and Zenithar sit in the town square. They are approached by someone in chain mail who orders Zenithar to take the spider out of the city. Reluctantly he agrees. One of the guards remains behind to follow the adventurers.

Next morning the adventurers enjoy some fine Dwarven stout at an expensive tavern and return to their shopping. Spirit enjoys a morning cup of Khava and returns to the library where the librarian has been up late doing research. The drawings Spirit showed her are definitely a teleportation circle, but it can’t be powerful enough to reach the Underdark. In fact it’s supposed to be impossible to teleport into or out of the Underdark.

They theorize that there might be a series of teleportation circles, each of them further away until they have one that reaches the Underdark. There’s only one way to prove that theory, they have to get a powerful wizard to cast the spell on them while they’re in the circle.

Meanwhile in Zathicar in far off Khedara, Tassolhoff has to wait three days before the thoon dealers will come back to the bar with more supply. He spends his time going over Lord Othridge’s holdings and making plans for what he can export. The city is at a crossroads between east and west and is a conduit for spices, peppers, exotic foods, as well as silk and jade from the Far East. The country is metal poor; the most valuable imports are iron and copper.

The Halfling attends a party in his honor thrown by A’on, the representative of Beryl house. Along with the fine meal he enjoys entertainment and meets Sasra, the Aza slave who belongs to A’on. The Beryl House trader informs him that to do business he will have to make a deal with the minister of trade, who will require 500 gold pieces minimum.

Tassolhoff asks him to arrange a meeting with the minister the next day. Tassolhoff also asks about the part of town that has been devastated by thoon addiction. A’on is disturbed by this, but doesn’t see what can be done about it. The city guard are corrupt and have obviously been bought of, or it would never have gotten so bad. He admits that he tried to get into selling thoon, but Othridge had a monopoly on it.

Nevertheless A’on agrees to arrange a meeting with the captain of the guard the next day. Tassolhoff asks A’on to accompany him along with the slave girl. They have to disguise her with a spell so no one will suspect who she is.

Sasra tells him a little about her people the Aza. At one time they were rulers over the land and enslaved all the humans and skarn. After a revolt the aza were themselves enslaved. She seems to speak of being a slave as if it were inevitable, something she could not avoid.

With Sasra’s telepathic help Tassolhoff is able to bargain the minister of trade down to a fraction of what he originally wanted and get a green light for trading in Zathicar.

Their next visit is to the captain of the guard. He is a gruff soldier who seems resigned to the thoon trade and the fact that it has destroyed part of his city. There are people in town who want the thoon trade protected and that’s all he needs to know. “I’ve sworn to destroy this, no matter what,” Tassolhoff declares. He gets the captain to help by sending some of his men to the bar where the thoon is going to be dropped off in a few days. Tassolhoff also sends a message back to Brigitainne for the 33rd to come at once to help with the clean-up.

When the thoon shipment arrives everything goes according to plan. The nervous bartender almost gives it away, but when Tassolhoff introduces himself as the head of House Turan the courier assumes that Tassolhoff is going back into the thoon business and gives the address of a temple where they get the thoon from.

The temple of the cult of the Eye is in a shabby part of town. When Tassolhoff and his people, along with some city guards arrive two men in robes try to stop them. The two men are defeated very easily, but their shouts bring more heavily armed men as well as a bizarre woman who seems to have a Beholder for the top of her head.

A battle ensues. The city guards are too startled to join in at first, but Linc manages to rally them and they take on the guards who are much better armed and trined than the cultists. Jims Rose provides inspiring music and distracts the priestess with ghost voices.

Alexander manages to resist a fear ray from the priestess while Tassolhoff maneuvers into position to cast his blindness spell. This time the spell fails to bring the woman down. As Alexander draws her attention Jims Rose creates dancing lights that give the priestess a convenient shadow. Tassolhoff uses his dagger to strike at her shadow. When she retreats she is tripped and they place a burlap sack over her head so they can safely knock her out.

The strange feeling of whispering is coming from a room in the basement of the temple. Here they find all the tools necessary for the thoon trade and the recently transformed man from a few days before whom they had seen on the street the day of his transformation. He has become more fully a mind flayer, but obviously isn’t in full command of his powers. They decide to put him out of his misery and kill him.

There is also a circle cut into the floor, but there are no runes on it. Tassolhoff and Spirit discuss the situation and Spirit says they are ready for the librarian to teleport them.

In the library in Essentier the librarian has drawn the circle based on the markings from the original circle in Brigitainne. She also agrees to put an invisibility spell on them.

The spell is cast and the group suddenly finds themselves in a circle in the basement of a building. They see a girl about nine years old sitting on the floor. She apparently has heard something because she reaches for a rope that is connected to a bell. Zyx wounds her before she can ring the bell. They don’t know where they are or what’s going on, but Spirit decides to kill her just to be safe.

After she is dead spirit rings the bell. The sound brings a heavyset man in an apron down the stairs. Zyx ambushes him from behind and kills him.

Reaching the top of the stairs the invisible group realize that they are in an inn. Zenithar decides to rob the bar and finds fifty gold pieces. Not satisfied with this he sees two people sitting at tables in the bar. Creeping up to the unarmed men, one of them a farmer, the other a salesman he murders them and searches their pockets, but he comes away with only a few gold coins.

Before they come up the stairs Spirit searches the basement. He discovers another circle with different runes around it. He alters the runes to keep the spell from beaing cast.

They leave the bar, Zyx stealing a bottle on the way out. They are in a very small town with wooden buildings, none of which are more than two stories high. None of them have ever been here before and they have no clue where they are. In order to get information they break the invisibility spell. Someone on the street tells them that it’s the town of Barrow Holt before someone notices that Zyx is a Dark Elf and shouts a warning.

At that moment the door of the inn bursts open and a woman comes out screaming for help. Her husband and daughter have been murdered. The villager’s suspicions turn to the strangers in town. As the crowd grows more agitated ten figures in gleaming armor ride up. Their armor and livery is marked with the symbol of the sun.

Spirit creates flame, which panics one of the horses, causing it to bolt. The remaining knights start to ride down the group. Zyx takes off and scrambles up a wall to reach a roof. Spirit and Sernan run towards a wall while arrows shower around them.

Sernan and Spirit manage to make it to a rooftop, but Zenithar is hit twice by the broadsword of the leader of the knights. He barely reaches the roof where he takes a healing potion to aid in his recovery.

Zenithar’s spider is injured, but also leaves the streets for the rooftop where Spirit heals it.

Sernan changes into harpy form and flies away with Zyx. Three of the knights follow them on horseback, leaving seven to surround the others. Zenithar tries to jump from one building to another, but falls. Spirit saves him from being taken right away by using his fire spell on his shield and hurling it to the ground. Zenithar attempts to make his way out of town on foot, but he is hit with crossbow bolts. Four of the knights, including the leader is bearing down on him. He manages to kill one of the horses, but the knight rolls free before being trapped under the horse.

On the rooftop spirit talks to the spider to calm it down and begins to milk it for venom.

Realising there is no way out Zenithar surrenders. The leader of the knights reveals himself to be Gilead, a paladin of Salidar. They question him under a truth spell. It becomes clear that although Zenithar didn’t actually kill anyone, but others in his party did.

Zenithar tells them about the threat the mind flayers pose, but they seem to care little for Zenithar’s mission. They execute him and leave his head on display to warn others.

Miles away an exhausted Sernan finally comes to the ground. They have flown across miles of farmland and the knights are still chasing them. Changing back to his natural form he summons a horse and he and Zyx ride away. They are heading for the nearest woods.

On the rooftop Spirit is told to surrender and he will be given a quick death like his friend. Instead the dragonborn chooses to try and wait out the knights. Eventually ladders appear on the edge of the roof. He orders the spider to help him push the ladders off the roof. Unfortunately he waits for the knights to get halfway up the ladder before he pushes them, and in that time a new figure has crept onto the roof.

As Spirit pushes the ladder down he is stabbed. Desperately he tries to keep his attacker at bay with the knife held in his tail.

Far away Tassolhoff, Jims Rose, Linc and Alexander begin to question the high priestess. She snarls insults and threats at them, but eventually caves in. It becomes clear that “she” is actually a woman whose skull has been opened up by a mind flayer and a beholder has settles in the empty skull, working the body by attaching itself to the spinal cord.

The priestess says that only a ninth level wizard can cast the spell that makes the teleportation circle work. She isn’t powerful enough, her only job was to insure the distribution of thoon and protect the newly formed mind flayers. The beholder was one of several who came to serve the mind flayers. In return they were promised that they could rule over what was left of the earth when the mind flayers were done conquering it.

At that moment there is a commotion outside and the city guards run from the building to support their comrades. Fearing that this is an escape attempt by the priestess, she is killed. Outside they see the city guards being buffeted about by two air elementals.

General Sabara leads his troops against the elementals, but before the fight even begins a figure wrapped in robed from a rooftop boldly interrupts. He announces that he is here to stop the thoon trade and punctuates his statement by blasting the building, setting it on fire. As the rest of the group puts out the fire Tassolhoff manages to get the man’s attention and talk to him.

The new figure turns out to be Toltak the brass, a dragon who is eager to prove himself in the new version of the Long Game. Even though he doesn’t control a country like the red or the green, he intends to make his mark on the game. He attacked the building believing it had easy access to the Underdark, but is disappointed to find that this isn’t the case.

Inside the building Toltak examines the ring in the floor and deduces that it can be used to send objects or people into another distant ring with matching runes, or it can be set up to receive something from another ring just by changing the runes. He has no idea what the runes are, or where the circle could lead to, but it seems clear how the thoon was getting into the city.

While this has been going on Jim’s Rose has felt an odd tingling on his finger. It is the ring Fernandez was given that shows the location of the last piece of Illerium needed for the ship. Originally the Illerium was in Zathicar, but now the ring seems to be drawing him away, far outside the city.

It occurs to them that with the power of the ship to jump worlds they could more easily take the fight to the mind flayers. They convince Toltak to help them, but before they can leave A’on approaches them, distraught over the loss of Sasra. The Aza slave has fled, leaving behind the crystal that contains her soul. With the crystal he should be able to contact her and control her actions, but he is cut off. Every Aza is bound to a crystal, which explains how they are kept as slaves despite their telepathic powers.

Jim’s Rose plays his song which reveals people’s secret home and finds Sasra is linked to a ruined city in the mountains many miles away. Oddly the ring seems to be leading them in the same direction.

With the help of the dragon and the two elementals they are able to leave the city and fly to their destination. A’on trusts Tassolhoff and gives him Sasra’s crystal. Tassolhoff gives him a communication stone so they can stay in contact, and instructions to take care of the thirty third when they arrive.

The strange group takes off, flying high through the air. They pass over rocky desolate countryside where the only farms are supported by irrigation from the meager rivers. By the time they arrive it is night, but they can see the ruins looming in the darkness at the base of the Zagreb Mountains.

Earlier in the day, back in Barrow Holt, Spirit is still trapped on the roof. Fighting off the knights that are scrambling to the roof he tries to leap to another roof, but falls to the ground. With horses pursuing him, the dragonborn races out of town, pausing to hurl poisoned knives at the horses of his pursuers.

As he pauses to drink health potions Spirit is overtaken by the leader of the paladins who deals a deadly blow with his longsword. After he is knocked to the ground Spirit is trampled by the paladin’s mount, but manages to slash at the horse, killing it with a savage blow.

Overcome with grief at the loss of his faithful mount the paladin allows the other knights to close in on Spirit. The dragonborn tries to run, but continues to be peppered with arrows. Finally the paladin draws his longbow and lets an arrow fly, sending the shaft deep into Spirit’s chest.

Stumbling and bleeding Spirit is overtaken by the rest of the paladins who strike at him with their swords. Knowing there is no hope for mercy from the paladin, Spirit takes his own life before he can be slain.

In Ibnath the party has just recovered from the flight when they are attacked by two giant scorpions. Toltek ignores them, commenting that they won’t hurt him and goes to explore the ruins.

The giant monsters descend on them. Alexander remembers something he heard about scorpions having a bad reaction to alcohol, and since he has a bottle with him, he decides to test the theory. As he races for a collapsed building to gain some altitude the scorpion is right behind him, snapping its claws inches from him.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff tries to control the beast with a spell, be he fails. Linc steps in and manages to get a solid attack to the scorpion’s head only after he is smashed by one of the waving claws.

Finally Tassolhoff does a spell to calm emotions. The scorpion instantly stops its aggressive behavior. It wanders away, ignoring the party. Meanwhile Alexander has managed to dump alcohol onto the other scorpion. It thrashes about wildly until he jumps down and cuts off its tail.

As soon as the fight ends Tassolhoff feels the crystal A’on gave him start to tingle. When he touches it he feels Sasra. As she draws closer to him he can sense her presence.

Sasra emerges from the ruins and is startled to see the adventurers. When she sensed the crystal she assumed it was A’on who had come after her.

“You have to leave, this is incredibly dangerous,” she insists.

They ignore her warning and start to question her. She is carrying an odd helmet. It looks like leather with bits of metal sewn into pockets around the head. Sasra is reluctant to speak of the helmet or why she is in the lost city in the first place.

At last Tassolhoff gets her to talk. A part of her seems to be relieved to tell someone what is going on. Ibnath was once the capitol city of the Aza when they ruled this land with an iron fist. She has come here with Nal, an Aza who dreams of freeing his people from slavery. In fact he plans on going back in time and keeping the skarn from finding the secret of the crystals so the Aza will never have been enslaved.

It seem that the key to their servitude is the crystals. When their psionic powers start to develop each Aza child is exposed to a crystal and that crystal takes part of their soul. The crystals are then sold and traded and the Aza have no choice but to obey the holders of the crystal. They can’t even escape since the owners of the crystal can track them down.

There’s obviously a problem with her story. She somehow managed to run away and A’on couldn’t find her. The crystal Tassolhoff had didn’t even register her at first. The answer lies in the helmet. It is lined with galvorn, a metal that protects them from their link to the crystal.

She used the helmet to sneak out of the city. Years ago her father made her promise to help Nal in any way she could to free their people. She never thought it would actually come to this. Nal is owned by a Skarn wizard and has slowly used his psionic powers to influence his master’s mind until the wizard does as he commands. Apparently the wizard stumbled across some rare substance that helps make gateways, and now Nal believes that they can cast a spell that will take them back in time so they can stop the Aza from being enslaved.

Tassolhoff, Alexander and Linc are still trying to digest this when they hear the roar of a dragon and they know that their time has run out. Sasra leads them to the central square of the city where Nal’s wizard is going to cast the time travel spell.

When they get there they see Nal, a ruthless looking Aza, an elderly Skarn wizard who seems to be in a trance and the brass dragon Toltak.

“Kill them!” Nal shouts, pointing at the intruders. Toltak turns to the group, his eyes appearing more glassy than usual. They realize that the dragon is under Nal’s power.

Tassolhoff races to find a spell that will counter the dragon, but even under the mental control of someone, a dragon is a formidable opponent. Before Toltak can fry them Linc races in and strikes a mortal blow to the wizard.

“Noooo!” Nal screams, seeing all his plans vanish in a single sword stroke. He directs a mental blast at Linc, knocking him from the saddle of his bird.

“Wait, I can help.” Tassolhoff rushes in. Summoning all his power he manages to cast enough healing spells to bring the wizard back to life. Nal does not appear to be grateful.

While healing the wizard Tassolhoff notices a strip of milky white metal stuck in the pages of the book. It is the missing piece of illerium. He carefully slips it from the book.

“We have to go back in time, it’s the only way to save my people,” Nal insists.

“We can find another way, we can destroy the crystals,” Tassolhoff insists. He has fought slavery everywhere he went and is sympathetic to Nal’s cause, but time travel is far too dangerous a solution.

The wizard is saved and so far the dragon hasn’t attacked yet, but Tassolhoff, Alexander and Linc are still facing a powerful and determined telepath in a lost city thousands of miles from civilization.

Far away on the continent of Ataria, Sernan and Zyx have gone to ground after a lengthy chase by the paladins of Salidar. Sernan falls into a much needed sleep while Zyx stays awake to watch for trouble. Late at night the sound of someone creeping through the woods reaches the ears of the dark elf.

Zyx awakens Sernan who quickly changes into a harpy and takes off. As he lifts off the ground with Zyx two throwing axes sail through the air and strike him. A man in leather with axes hanging from his armor steps out from behind a tree. Others appear who are armed with longbows and it is clear that Sernan and Zyx have been surrounded. Fortunately they are able to fly away fast enough that the trees give them cover from the arrows.

Once in the air Sernan circles around and sees the knights of Salidar with their horses further down the trail. Apparently the knights were keeping back so the sound of their armor and their horses didn’t give them away.

Once again Sernan and Zyx take to the air. They fly until they see a campfire. Circling in for a landing they discover it belongs to Telanis, a monk of Baltor the god of justice and heroism. The elven monk is startled by the arrival of the strange companions, but they convince him that they are on the run and innocent of the charges that are being made against them. Telanis believes them. Together the group makes plans to visit the nearest city.

The nearest city turns out to be Griffin Breaks, a walled city of about a thousand people near a place where the river goes underground in several places and traders have to go overland rather than by water. The group times their arrival for the opening of the city gates in the morning so they can mingle with the travelers. Zyx disguises himself to keep anyone from guessing he is a dark elf.

Once in the city they stop in a tavern called the Happy Halfling for some refreshments. The bartender is a font of information and even has access to some poison. Unfortunately he does not know how to travel to Bloodport quickly. They are a half a continent away from the island nation. After discussing matters the group decides to head south along the river and make for the coast with Cardisea their ultimate destination.

Before they leave Zyx makes inquires about where he can get some thoon. The bartender promises to look into it and Zyx rewards him with a big tip.

Meanwhile in the lost city of Ibnath Tassolhoff and Linc are trying to talk down an increasingly desperate Nal. The Aza is determined to free his people by any means necessary and its become clear that it is Nal and not his wizard “master” who is controlling Toltek the dragon.

Tassolhoff wants to find a way to destroy the crystals, but first he has to figure out how they work, and where they come from. The source of the crystals is a closely guarded secret since they are all that keep the Aza in line.

Toltek is released from mental control, but he responds with rage at being dominated and starts to attack. Tassolhoff holds him at bay with a calm emotions spell and Jims Rose weaves a hypnotic pattern spell. The dragon instantly settles down.

Tassolhoff wants to make sure Nal and his people aren’t going to get revenge when they are free. Nal wants to make sure that Tassolhoff isn’t trying to trick him. The group assures him that they are telling the truth, Linc even swears to it as a paladin.

Tassolhoff calls A’on on the rock phone and gives him an update. Even A’on doesn’t know where the crystals come from, but he knows where he can find out.

At this point Toltek stops looking at the pretty lights and realizes that they have tricked him. He starts to attack, but Tassolhoff manages to calm him down by explaining how helping the Aza is going to let them defeat the Mind Flayers, earning them more points in the game.

At the foothills of the Zagreb Mountains the group makes their plan. Jim’s Rose and Alexander will go after the crystals. They are flown back to the city by Toltek. Once in Zathicar they join up with the 33rd. A’on has done some bribing and manages to find a crystal hunter who will show them where the crystals come from. The man has been left behind because of an injury by his fellow crystal hunters. They consider themselves a prestige class and never share their knowledge with outsiders.

They travel into the desolate countryside beyond the city. In the highlands they find only a barren rocky plain. The crystal hunter uses a tuning fork to search for crystals and sends them off after them. Apparently when the tuning fork is struck it sets up a vibration which the crystals resonate with.

Before they find the crystals they encounter the remains of another party of crystal hunters who have been massacred. The 33rd puts their armor on, preparing for battle.

Toltek the dragon flies back to accompany Tassolhoff and Linc. After Tassolhoff scouts the area in bird form they find a pass that leads through to the other side of the mountain. After an assist from Toltek they land near a small outpost high in the mountains and are confronted by guards. Tassolhoff tries to negotiate with them to get some of the mysterious metal. The guards are suspicious of him, but impressed by the dragon. They send a messenger down the mountain to being back a superior officer. In the meantime they try to feed Toltek a captive human slave. The man was a citizen of Brigitainne, but was captured by pirates and sold to the Ogre Magi. Tassolhoff magically generates food so the man can be spared.

In the distance the party can see an ogre magi general arriving riding a large horned beast and accompanied by a column of soldiers.

Far away in the town of Griffin Breaks, Zyx, Sernan and Telanis are preparing to leave the city when Zyx and Sernan spot an unexpected sight. The ranger who attacked their camp is in Griffin Breaks along with a group of bowmen and the two paladins who have been on their trail since they fled Barrow Holt.

They decide to leave at once. A young Halfling gives Zyx a not as they head out of town, joining a group traveling down the river. Since the river goes underground for a period everyone is carrying their supplies. The rivermen have broken down their keelboats and are carrying the planks to where the river emerges so they can continue downstream.

Among the travelers they see a tiefling merchant called Borgas who has a cart pulled by his servant. The servant has one foot that resembles a chicken’s foot, which he describes as “a curse”. There is also a large bearded man named Torvall and a polar bear who are taking a cargo of fur and pelts downriver.

The group has no trouble buying passage on the boat. It is an open boat with no below decks, only a small shack to protect the man who works the tiller. The river men propel the boat with long poles, pushing themselves away from the bank and into the deeper, faster moving parts of the river.

Not long after they begin their long journey south the open boat is attacked by griffins that swoop down from the nearby cliffs. Apparently the town of griffin breaks has earned its name.

Sernan casts false life to protect him during the attack. A griffin attacks the servant of the Tiefling, but Telanis leaps to his aid. The monk strikes the monster, but is driven back by its sharp beak. Sernan steps in with a lightning bolt spell.

As the monster is reeling from the lightning bolt panic sweeps across the deck of the ship. No one is steering and the ship is heading for rough water. Sernan manages to grab the tiller to keep the boat from smashing against the rocks.

After Sernan manages to stun the griffin with a shout, Zyx leaps on its back and attacks it with hidden daggers. It bucks and twists, carrying him into the air and over the rushing water. The dark elf manages to do fatal damage and leaps off the back to land on the boat before being taken by the water.

Meanwhile another griffin has snatched a crewman off the deck and is carrying him away. Sernan puts him out of his misery with a fire ball that sends both monster and victim into the water as charred corpses.

Far away in the Zegreb Mountains Tassolhoff confronts Krask the ogre magi general. When the Halfling offers pearls and silk for the metal that blocks mental powers Krask scoffs at him. The monstrous general explains that ogre magi are spirits that have taken on the form of living beings. After existing as disembodies spirits for so long they desire to experience everything they can in this new existence.

“Can you offer me something we have never experienced before?” Krask asks.

Tassolhoff knows that the ogre magi trade with pirates to get much of their material goods and must work to come up with something that he can use to barter with them. He is invited to go to the ogre magi capital city to meet with their leaders. So far Krask and the others have been very cordial with him, but the ogre magi didn’t get their reputation for being chaotic evil for nothing. Their city is undoubtedly the heart of untold dangers.

Miles away in the high desert of Khedara the group decides to take a defensive position. They reach the top of a hill where the Halflings get into position. From their position they can see the mysterious Bhuka creeping ever closer.

The desert barbarians rain stones down on the caravan with their slings. Taking command of the party, Linc orders them to keep on the move. The warriors form a phalanx around the valuable camels. As they move the Bhuka attack from many angles, leaping out from the rocks. Linc and the Halflings of the 33rd fight them off while Jim’s Rose inspires them with music.

Linc notices that when one of the Halflings is overwhelmed by the Bhuka they do not kill him. Instead they tear off his pack with his food and water in it and make off into the desert with their prize.

Curious about their actions Linc uses his paladin abilities to detect evil. The Bhuka are not evil and he realizes that their attack may have been motivated by a desire for supplies. He creates water for them, which the barbarians eagerly scoop up. He also gives them some of their food and while the Bhuka are enjoying their gifts the expedidion is able to escape.

The crystal hunter takes them deeper into the high desert. He finds a shallow cave and his tuning fork leads him to a rock which he cracks open to reveal a psionic crystal inside.

The crystal is much smaller than Linc and Jim’s Rose had been hoping for. They wanted to try and find a huge crystal to try and gain contact with all the Aza, but that might not be possible. They could gather more crystals, but they are now dangerously low on supplies and have little choice but to go back.

With the aid of the speaking stones they contact Tassolhoff. He agrees to meet them in Zathicar.

At the other end of the speaking stone Tassolhoff and Alexander are engaged in delicate negotiations. Having traveled to the city of the ogre magi they find it a dark city reeling with the cruelty of the ogres and the despair of their captives. Toltek the dragon grows bored with the time it takes them to reach the city and flies off.

In the throne room they are introduced to Scarros, the huge king of the ogre magi. He is indulging himself in a spicy meal, grabbing huge handfuls of black pepper, curry and salt and simply putting it all in his mouth. Tassolhoff remembers that the ogre magi were all originally spirits that have taken on human form. They crave experience and sensation, the more extreme the better. The lives of others have little meaning for them since they don’t think of themselves as being truly alive.

Tassolhoff explains that he needs around one thousand helmets to help the Aza, but Scarros doesn’t think helping the Aza is a good idea. He probes Tassolhoff verbally to see what he’s made of and is disappointed to find that the Halfling cleric is interested in helping people and doing good. Tassolhoff tries to argue his point but the king dismisses him.

Trying to ignore the suffering of the slaves around them Tassolhoff are brought back into the king’s presence for a lavish meal. There is a variety of cooked meat, including what appears to be human and elf. Alexander chooses to eat the barbequed ox creatures that the ogres ride on.

During the meal Tassolhoff has the chance to state his case. The mind flayers are coming and nothing can stop them. They have used thoon to spread themselves across the world. No one knows how many there are or how powerful. He also discusses the council at Anchore and invites the king to be a part of it.

Scarros has an innate distrust of anyone who is basically good, but the idea of the council intrigues him. The ogre magi have always been isolated in their city, cut off from the wider world.

Before the king can reach a decision there is the sound of a fight from outside. Running to the window they see that Toltek has returned and is fighting with three ogre magi. Alexander immediately leaps into the fray, rushing to the side of the dragon.

Toltek is able to down one of his foes, and Alexander wounds another, but there is still a third combatant. The streets around them are filled with ogre magi who are watching the fight as if it were some sort of play being put on for their amusement. They are excited by the action, but don’t seem inclined to join in.

When a blast from Toltec fails to bring down the remaining Ogres, Tassolhoff knows he has to step in. He blasts the healthiest ogre magi with a searing ray. The ogre stumbles back, temporarily blinded.

“Now, finish him,” Scarros commands, but Tassolhoff refuses.

“I’d rather take him with me to make him stronger, Tassolhoff explains. “You’ll see that mercy is better than cruelty.”

This statement produces a roar of laughter from the king. He is so amused he orders his soldier to accompany the group and grants them the rights to the galvorn metal. Meanwhile Alexander pursues the wounded Ogre magi into the streets where he dispatches it with a decapitating stroke. The body of the monster deflates like a balloon, collapsing back into base matter as the spirit that inhabited it fades away.

As they prepare to leave they are contacted by Linc. Discussing their situation they feel that they may need the help of some of their friends back in Bloodport. Bolmin, the eccentric dwarven engineer who constructed their castle might know of where they could find a giant crystal. Possibly Mordal the wizard they gifted with a powerful artifact could use his abilities to make an extra powerful version of the small crystals.

In any event it is time for them to return to their city of Anchore on Bloodport Island.

As one group begins its long journey another party is making its way downriver to the distant ocean. The raft they are on stops at River Bend where it spends the night and the river men can take on more supplies. On the docks a party of city guards is waiting along with a cleric of Salidar. He is from the same church that supported the paladins back in Barrow Holt. Sernan quickly assumes the form of a female elf.

The cleric scans everyone with his detect magic. He detects Sernan, but the Urda explains that he used false life to make himself healthier, and the cleric seems to accept that.

Sernan and Telanis spend the night in an inn while Zyx roams the streets. The disguised dark elf is the first one to notice that it is snowing even though the air is far too warm. He hurriedly goes to the inn where the others are staying.

Looking out the window Telanis sees strange figures flying around in the clouds. When one of them swoops past the window the glass becomes covered in frost.

The party attempts to get the innkeeper to do something, but the man refuses. Outside they hear someone being interrogated by a strange figure is a grey cloak.

“Where is Krakov?” the hissing voice demands. The man on the ground is shivering and rapidly succumbing to frostbite.

Sernan and Zyx become invisible as Telanis throws a rock to get the creature’s attention. When it turns around it is revealed to be a pale beautiful woman with chalk white skin and blue lips. She makes the same demands of Telanis as the fist man.

“Where is Krakov? You will know him by his axe and his armor.”

Telanis tries to reason with her, but the creature doesn’t seem to be in a talking mood. When the city guard come by with torches, she takes off. There are two others flying through the clouds above the city.

The next morning as the travelers set on their journey they talk to Torvall, the man with the polar bear companion. He’s from the north, and apparently so are the mysterious women. Torvall says that they are the witches of the wastes, but he claims not to know any more about them, or the mysterious Krakov.

On the docks the ranger in leather armor has arrived along with the paladins of Salidar. They are searching for the killers from Barrow Holt and have used canoes to catch up with the rafts.

The group is grateful to be back on the river again. Unfortunately they encounter a problem. There is an ice flow blocking the river. The river men desperately try to steer clear of the huge chunks of ice, but to no avail. The raft smashes into a chunk of ice and wood splinters off the bow of the ship.

As the ship rocks violently the pile of furs that Torvall is carrying topples to the deck, revealing an elaborate piece of armor and a large axe. The party has been watching Torvall and his bear very closely and it is Zyx who puts together the clues.

“Krakov is the bear!” he exclaims.

The polar bear admits that he is indeed Krakov and that all of this is his fault. He is being hunted by the witches of the wastes because he killed their queen in a fit of rage after they froze his wife and cubs. When he gets angry he goes into a blind rage and can’t control himself. Now the witches have come after them. He and his trapper friend Torvall have travelled far down the river hoping to reach a place where it is too warm for the witches to follow, but clearly they haven’t run far or fast enough.

The river men have no choice but to pull over to the riverbank and cut more timber to make repairs. As time passes it becomes clear that the job won’t be done by nightfall and the river men tell them to make camp there for the night.

As the sun goes down Krakov begins to fear that the witches will come by night and kill the entire party. He pulls out his axe and throws the backplate on himself.

“If I leave the rest of you will be safe,” the bear informs them.

Torvall and the other try to talk him out of it, but Krakov would rather sacrifice himself than see any others die.

The group discusses their options. They decide to try to polymorph Krakov so the witches won’t find him. That night as they huddle around the fire the witches fly back, swirling through the air and dropping the air temperature. The fires start to flicker and snow falls, but the witches cannot see through the polymorph spell.

They snatch one of the travelers and lift him into the air, freezing him. He dies horribly, screaming as he is frozen alive. The witches drop the body which shatters like glass when it hits the ground. They swirl around in the air all night, making everyone miserable, but finally they become convinced they have lost Krakov’s trail and fly away before the sun rises.

The three adventurers make their long journey down the river towards Anchore on Bloodport Island. They are followed every step of the way by their relentless pursuers, the ranger in leather and the paladins of Salidar. Finally at the inland sea they are able to shake off their trackers. Sernan and Telanis arrive ahead of Zyx.

The rest of the party is already in their city. They find a thriving metropolis of eight hundred people. Immediately they set to work spending their profits to build new roads and bridges as well as a modern sewer system. While they have been gone trade has brought them a great deal of wealth. Linc goes to work recruiting and training new soldiers.

A ship arrives flying the flag of the church of Salidar. On board is Gillian, the twin sister of Gilead, the paladin of Barrow Holt. She has come seeking the killers from the Barrow Holt massacre and believes that they may be on the way to Anchore. Tassolhoff and Linc welcome them and agree to be on the lookout for the killers.

Arriving in Anchore Sernan realizes that the word has spread even to here. He disguises himself as a female elf to avert suspicion. Telanis is still blissfully unaware of what transpired with the other characters.

The Nebuchadnezzar, the Rentham and the Interceptor are all prepared for a long voyage. Jim’s Rose’s ring points far to the east. As new crew is hired Sernan signs on with one of the ships, neglecting to mention that he knows most of them from fighting alongside them in Brigitainne.

The magic ring is pointing to one of the viridium control rods that they will need to stabilize the Nebuchadnezzar‘s dimensional portals. The trail leads to far off Khaitan and its capitol Huijin. This is the seat of a monarchy that rules an enormous kingdom of over 3 million square miles and encompassing two and a half million people. Unfortunately very little is known about the country. Trading with the outside world is only allowed at certain ports and even those make every effort to keep the foreign sailors isolated from the population. Khaitan is the source of expensive porcelain, silk and high quality paper.

Arriving at the capitol city Tassolhoff finds himself in a city where Lord Othridge has not established a trading post for him to take over. All the visitors to the city must stay in the foreigner’s quarter, which is guarded by soldiers. Many of the inhabitants go back and forth at will, but outsiders are not supposed to leave.

Using the ring as a guide the party leaves the foreigner’s quarters and enters the clean, orderly city. Soldiers attempt to stop them, but they seem to have been given orders not to kill visiting traders. While they hesitate Tassolhoff and Jim’s Rose slip away from the others. The rest of the party return to their ships to wait.

The pair of adventurers play chess until the sun sets. Under the cover of darkness, Tassolhoff and Jim’s Rose slip out and begin to search the streets. Unfortunately the ring leads them to an enormous walled portion of the city. It is literally a city with the city. To enter these forbidden walls is death.

Tassolhoff changes into bird form and lowers a rope to jim’s Rose. Inside the walls they see no human soldiers, but the streets are guarded by clay figurines who look like warriors made of terra cotta. Tassolhoff helps Jim’s rose avoid the patrols until they reach the door to the imperial palace.

Jim’s Rose boldly knocks on the door and announces that he is a bard here to entertain. Tassolhoff stays on his shoulders, pretending to be a trained bird. The guards are suspicious, but someone in charge finally lets them in. As they go down the corridor Tassolhoff takes the ring and flies away. Some guards chase after him, the rest escort the bard to a room.

Inside the room Jim’s Rose sees a beautiful Asian woman who is referred to as Princess Shin. He plays the lute to entertain her. Everything seems to be going well, when she suddenly collapses into convulsions. He notices that one of her feet suddenly sprouts three large clawed toes. As she writhes on the floor he also sees that she has a second eyelid, a membrane that slides down over her eyeball.

As she collapses more guards arrive. A physician comes and gives her an elixure from a small bottle which seems to calm her. A large bald man takes charge of the situation and orders Jim’s Rose arrested.

The bard is taken away and forced into the dungeon. They refuse to explain why they are doing this. Meanwhile Tassolhoff has found the vault which hides the viridium control rod, but there is a massive door with a complicated lock. He goes to work on one part of the lock, and manages to get it open, but no sooner has he done so than gears spin deeper inside the mechanism and another lock is set in place.

Tassolhoff is still struggling with this when he gets a telepathic call from Jim’s Rose. Changing back into his bird form he flies towards the dungeon. Unfortunately he runs into some guards who are still trying to catch him. As the guards chase him, he manages to get far enough ahead of them that he flies around a corner and changes back to his Halfling form.

In the dungeon Jim’s Rose meets with the bald man who tells him that he must be executed. Apparently he can’t be allowed to live with what he knows, but Jim’s Rose isn’t sure of exactly what he knows. Summoning his lute he tries a spell to charm the man, but it fails. He is left facing execution the next day.

Tassolhoff meanwhile quickly dons his chef’s hat from back in Brigitainne and tells the guards that he is the new chef. A few of the guards berate him for being out of the kitchen and escort him back. The kitchen turns out to be a huge place where animals are in various stages of being cooked. The head chef, a wild looking man with a beard and mustache orders him to catch the chickens.

Some attendants take live chickens out of cages and toss them through the air. As the chickens fly past the head chef he whips out his twin meat cleavers and becomes a blur of motion. Feathers fly everywhere and the raw meat sails through the air towards Tassolhoff. The Halfling manages to grab a pan and catch the meat before it hits the floor, which earns him an inarticulate grunt of satisfaction from the head chef.

“This is nothing like my last cooking job,” Tassolhoff thinks.

As the Halfling learns the secrets of Khaitan cuisine Linc grows restless. When night falls he leads a party through the city, managing to avoid the soldiers on patrol long enough to reach the Forbidden City. The only way in is a massive gate that is guarded by two large bronze statues of foo lions.

Telanis the monk leaps over the wall and lands safely on the other side. Two terra cotta warriors attack him as he throws open the gate from the inside. The rest of the party rush forward only to have the bronze statues come to life and attack them.

A furious battle ensues as the animated statues try to stop the group from advancing. A half ord barbarian who has joined the group for this expedition strikes a telling blow, but his arm is caught in the powerful jaws and crushed. When he pulls away he discovers that his arm is getting hard to move. It looks as if his arm is slowly being turned into clay like the terra cotta warriors.

The half orc continues to fight and eventually is able to overcome the beast. Once the statue is smashed his arm returns to normal. Meanwhile the party has managed to defeat the second foo lion.

As they pour through the gate they realize that the alarm must have been sounded. Dozens of terra cotta warriors are rushing through the streets towards them from all sides. Linc places the best fighters in front and forms a living wedge, driving his troops into the heart of the enemy.

As the battle starts Sernan changes into his harpy form and takes to the air, bringing Zyx with him. Both of them become invisible.

Even as they fly towards the palace, Tassolhoff declines the chance to get some rest and decides to explore the building. Security is too high to get to the dungeon to help Jim’s Rose, but he does find someone reading a scroll in a library.

After a brief conversation Tassolhoff discovers that the young man is actually a prince, a cousin of the emperor. Tassolhoff takes the opportunity to ask him why Jim’s Rose is being executed. The answer turns out to be part of the terrible curse that has been inflicted on the royal family.

Reluctantly the prince tells the story of his family. It seems that centuries ago the land was menaced by creatures from a place called the Poison Realm. They advanced, destroying everything in their path. In desperation the emperor called upon the great celestial dragon.

The dragon used its power to create the Dragon Wall, a huge barrier far to the west which set the border with Khedara. The magical wall was not only a physical barrier, but a magical one that the denizens of the Poison Realm cannot pass. In return for this the dragon was married to the emperor’s beautiful daughter.

For some time all was well. The grandson of the emperor who first made the pact with the dragon grew tired of the dragon’s influence at court and the extravagant expenses it incurred. With the help of powerful wizards he tried to assassinate the dragon. Unfortunately he failed.

The dragon turned his blood from a blessing into a curse, inflicting the royal family with madness and uncontrollable physical changes. The great dragon wall would have collapsed, but the power of the dragon was preserved by an artifact that held the spell in place. The royal family withdrew behind the walls of the Forbidden City and it was a death sentence to see them in their transformed state, or ever speak of it.

Tassolhoff begins to understand what’s going on. Jim’s Rose is sentenced to death because he saw the princess partially transform. Also it’s very possible that the viridian control rod they are after is the artifact t that is maintaining the dragon wall, and that this entire empire depends on it.

The prince continues that he is a distant cousin of the king who was raised in another city. He hoped the curse would spare him, but he shows Tassolhoff his arm which had been hidden under the robe and his hand has become a dragon’s claw. Unfortunately he has little control over the hand.

When the curse began to show he was sent to the Forbidden City where he must remain for the rest of his life. Here he has everything he could want, but he can never leave. The emperor is obsessed with keeping the family curse a secret. Not only do they not allow anyone to leave the Forbidden City, but he has orders their fleet sunk and they have very little contact with the outside world. That is why foreigners are forced to stay in one part of the city near the docks.

Meanwhile Linc has been waging a losing battle against the army of terra cotta soldiers. Each of the animated clay figures is made from six hundred pounds of sand. They are slowly wearing away at the living warriors, forcing them back. Linc calls for a retreat, and they pull back outside the gates.

On their way back to the ship they are confronted by human soldiers. Although they stand better chance against the soldiers, Linc knows his troops are exhausted and wounded. He decides to talk instead of fight.

The general wants them arrested, but Linc explains that they have come with grave news for the emperor about a threat to the entire world. The general seems doubtful, but he decides to allow Linc and his troops to return to their ship.

In the library the prince tells Tassolhoff how he longs to leave the city, but he cannot. Although he doesn’t have enough clout to get Jim’s Rose free, he does hold off the execution. There is going to be a great banquet the next day as a way of marrying off the king’s daughter before her transformations make her too inhuman. That was the feats that Tassolhoff had been prepping food for.

Sernan and Zyx explore the palace invisibly. They find the library and offer to free Jim’s Rose, but Tassolhoff tells them not to interfere. A message arrives from Linc ordering them home, so Sernan takes to the air again, carrying Zyx back to the ship.

As they near the docks Linc is surprised by the appearance of a vanara begger. The monkey man seems to know a great deal about them, including the fact that they tried to enter the Forbidden City.

The begger is named Bao, and he is master of the iron monkey technique. He says he came from the southern provinces to seek the emperor and have him redress wrongs committed on the people by corrupt administrators, but Linc is suspicious of his story. With a bit of prompting it becomes clear that Bao is wanted for defying the government, but he really did come to seek the emperor only to find that the royal family was cut off from all contact with the outside world.

Bao reveals some of the truths that the government keeps hidden. Although the emperor is very powerful and has a huge army, he really only controls half the country. Dividing the northern half form the southern is a vast plain which is filled with nomadic barbarians. Sending troops through the plains is dangerous and expensive, so the emperor depends on local governors that he has appointed to rule in his name.

Far from control of the royal court many of these governors have grown corrupt. They enslave the people and impose brutal taxes. Bandits haunt the road and wandering monsters go unchallenged. To combat this several martial arts schools have sprung up to train monks to bring justice to the people, but there are far too few of them.

Linc is still suspicious of the strange beggar, but he feels he has gained valuable knowledge. Meanwhile in the library Tassolhoff pours over old scrolls with the help of the prince, trying to glean something that will be of help. In the dungeon Jim’s Rose strums his lute and waits.

Tassolhoff spends the rest of the night reading scrolls on dragons which are translated by the prince. He learns quite a bit about Asian dragons and how they differ from what he’s used to, but nothing that seems to help in this situation.

The next day he sets out to see the emperor, only to find out that no one actually sees the emperor. Even if you have an audience with him, the emperor is always hidden behind a screen. There will be a dinner with a visiting governor later in the day.

Tassolhoff decides to see the governor. He turns out to be Jou Kang of the Tien Wei province in the south. He has come to the imperial city to marry one of his two sons to the daughter of the emperor. This is a good deal for him, since the princess will arrive with a dowry that will make him very rich.

More importantly the marriage will make Governor Kang a member of the royal family and he will return to his lands with the imperial seal which he can use to sign any laws that he decides to pass. With the imperial seal all his laws instantly take effect and to question them or defy them is punishable by death. It will give him absolute power.

Kang intends to use his new power to increase his holdings and ruthlessly crush the rebels who are trying to overthrow him. Tassolhoff tries to convince Kang that he doesn’t have to kill his enemies; he can learn to work with them. Kang is unconvinced.

Kang is interested in getting rich however. He eagerly agrees to set up a trade deal with Anchore. He will trade exotic furs and pearls for jade and gold.

Tassolhoff has already heard that the center of Khiatan is dominated by open plains which are ruled by nomadic barbarians. Governor Kang admits that to reach the imperial city he had to bribe the nomads to let him pass. With the gold he expects to get as part of the royal family he can hire mercenaries to protect his holdings from the barbarians.

Kang has been imposing heavy taxes on his people, causing them to rebel. The governor is willing to take children as slaves in lieu of gold, a deal he finds eminently fair, although Tassolhoff, with his long standing fight against slavery disagrees. As they argue it becomes clear that the people rebel because Kang unfairly taxes them, and that the more powerful he becomes the more they will rebel. The best way for Kang is to learn to rule more wisely, but Kang, born to a life of wealth and privilege has a hard time grasping that concept.

As they argue it becomes clear that Kang has no idea what the curse of the imperial family really is. All he knows is that he will lose the son that the princess chooses forever. The Halfling is torn with indecision. He wants to find a way to use his knowledge, but to tell someone the secret is a death sentence, and he doesn’t remotely trust Kang.

Eventually he settles on a slight trick. He creates a document which he says is a spell that will cause Kang to explode if he reveals the secret that he is about to share. Curious, Kang dismisses his body guard and signs the document.

At fist Kang is happy with the news of the terrible transformation the royal family suffers. True, it means his grandchildren will never visit him, but he can live with that. Only when Tassolhoff tells him that after the wedding the curse will jump to Kang’s family does the governor start to get worried.

Unfortunately he has invested too much in this marriage. If he fails to make the marriage happen not only will he lose face with the nobles in the south who are supporting him, but he won’t have enough money to bribe the nomads on the way back.

Governor Kang decides to go through with the marriage and hope that some of the magicians in his land can save him from the curse. This will give him an excuse to conquer other governors so he can use their magicians in his cause.

Tassolhoff isn’t certain that Governor Kang has changed any, but one thing is certain, the royal marriage will take place.

On their ship Linc orders Sernan, Zyx and Telanis to find a caravan that is heading west. Sneaking out of the foreigner’s quarter they find a beehive of activity. Many merchants are there with the goods they have bought from the foreign traders.

In the midst of the confusion Sernan spots something that he recognizes. One merchant has engargiya as pack animals. He has seen the traders in Nyambi use them to cross the perilous mountains. The animals are famous for their ability to eat almost anything and travel for long distances without water.

The merchant who owns the animals is known as Old Peng. He is travelling east, going south of the Jade Sea to where Khaitan has a border with Khedara. This means he will have to pass near the lands controlled by the barbarian nomads, and then travel on to the land very near the Ogre Magi city. Even more dangerously, it puts him on the wrong side of the Dragon Wall, to the land where the Poison World is still trying to seep into reality.

When Peng is brought back to meet Linc, the paladin offers the merchant his own troops as protection for the journey. It’s an offer Peng can’t refuse. He needs bodyguards, and he can’t afford to hire the best. The deal is quickly struck.

Back at the palace the lavish meal Tassolhoff helped prepare is being served at a state luncheon. Governor Kang is there with his two sons, both of them looking like condemned men. The princess is beautiful, but they know that marrying her will trap them in the splendid prison of the imperial city for the rest of their lives.

The emperor is there as well, but he is guarded by his eunuch sorcerers and is being served by two of his concubines who feed him food by hand. The concubines have had their tongues cut out so they can never tell anyone what the emperor truly looks like. Tassolhoff gets an impression of a heavy body slowly moving behind the opaque screen.\

While Jim’s Rose plays the lute Tassolhoff tries to convince the emperor that the mind flayers pose a threat to the imperial kingdom. Only after the prince joins him does the hidden ruler start to feel that something must be done. The royal court has lived in isolation from the outside world for so long it is almost impossible for them to convieve that something could threaten them.

To defeat the mind flayers Tassolhoff needs the viridian control rod, but the rod is the only thing keeping the Dragon Wall standing and protecting them from the poison world. Tassolhoff proposes a mission beyond the Dragon Wall to find if they can replace the wall with another spell, or if the wall is even still needed. This expedition gives Tassolhoff, Jim’s Rose and Alexander the excuse they need to get out of the imperial city alive. The prince joins them as well to represent the interests of the emperor. This is convenient, since Tassolhoff already knows that Linc is preparing an expedition.

Just when it seems that everything will go smoothly a fight erupts in the palace. Tassolhoff and Alexander rush out to find that Zhang, Governor Kang’s bodyguard is fighting with Bao the vanara begger. Apparently he snuck off the ship where Linc left him and crept into the palace to confront Zhang. Bao accuses Zhang of destroying the monastery where he was trained, something Zhang not only admits, but he seems kind of proud of it.

As the fight continues it becomes clear that Zhang is a master of powerful martial arts. When he punches thin air the force of his bow shatters stone where Bao is standing. Tassolhoff manages to come between them and stop the fight.

When Tassolhoff demands to know what is going on, Governor Kang explains that a temple was teaching the peasants to fight back against his soldiers. When he had a patrol ambushed by farmers he recognized the techniques of the temple and had Zhang lead a party to destroy the temple and kill the monks.

The arrival of the palace guards keeps the fight from continuing. For now the situation is calm, but their struggle is far from over.

Safely away from the palace the group prepares to travel to the west with Peng the merchant. He is grateful to have so many armed men with him. The vanara Bao asks to rejoin them and is reluctantly accepted back into the party.

Linc organizes the fighters protectively around the wagons carrying the trade goods. Linc is riding his bird and Tassolhoff is on his spider. Two weeks into the journey their precaution pays off. As they pass close to the Kazhaki Plains they are set upon by the nomad barbarians who call that area home.

A small band approaches the group and demands that they surrender. When they attack Linc kills the spokesman. Tassolhoff disperses the others with his sound burst and Sernan does the same with his earthquake staff.

As it turns out the first group was merely a distraction. Three columns of mounted men are riding at them from three different directions. Linc takes his men and forms them into a wedge, driving deep into the barbarians ranks. They swiftly find themselves outnumbered and surrounded.

At the same time Tassolhoff leads the 33rd against another column. The rest of the group fights defensively to keep the trade goods safe. Although each column of men has over forty riders, the party is able to hold them off.

While the 33rd and the riders exchange arrow, Tassolhoff has his spider lay webs across the ground to trap the horses. The barbarians aren’t used to such tactics and their horses shy away from the spider.

Meanwhile an obscuring mist protects the carts from attack. The remaining attackers pepper the caravan with arrows, but most of their shots miss. Zyx attacks with his crossbow and Sernan uses lightning bolt to bring down the riders.

Sernan uses mirror image to make it appear that Linc has twice as many men. The attackers are startled and in the confusion Linc is able to lead his men into pitched combat, driving back the mounted warriors.

As the riders circle closer and closer to the wagons Telanis and Sernan fight them off. The monk is able to bring down a horse with one punch, but it is clear that the horses and their riders are well trained and not easy to bring down.

Linc’s group manages to break free of the surrounding barbarians, but although he kills the leader of the group, several of his men fall. Sernan freezes one rider to death, while Zyx invisibly plies his crossbow. Still the riders keep coming.

Seeing the tide of the battle turn against them Tassolhoff orders his spider to leap onto the back of one of the riders. It’s not an easy jump to make, but when he manages to land on one barbarian the rest of them start to panic. The momentum of their attack is broken as they fight to control their panic stricken horses.

In the chaos of battle the nomads sweep forward, attacking the circle of wagons. Between the concealing fog and the dust throw up by the horses the plight of the defenders is lost on the rest of the group. The skilled horsemen leap over the barricades and suddenly engage the heroes in hand to hand fighting. One of the nomads sees EJ the druid and unexpectedly grabs him, throwing him into the saddle to make good his escape. The mysterious ranger known as L attempts to stop him, but the rider gets away.

Telanis the monk takes off after the rider carrying his comrade. Although he is able to run as fast as the horse, he is hampered by caltrops hurled in his path by other nomads. Eventually he engages them in combat, using his martial arts skill to take out their horses.

Meanwhile Sernan uses his shocking grasp on one ride and manages to take control of the rider’s horse. He uses it to chase after his missing friends.

EJ uses charm person on the rider and is surprised to discover that the barbarian means him no harm. They want him safe and sound back at their camp so he can help heal their leader’s wife.

Telanis manages to rescue him, but by now EJ is intrigues and agrees to follow the nomads back to their camp.

A few miles away they arrive at a sprawling, but portable camp for the nomads. Inside the barricade they met the dangerous looking leader of the group. One of his wives is very ill and he believes that a druid can save her. Their own shamans have already been killed, leaving them with no one skilled in the healing arts.

They examine the young woman the nomad king is married to. She is in convulsions and is very weak. Telanis surprises everyone by revealing that in addition to being a monk he is also a skilled alchemist. He takes a sample of her blood to be analyzed.

They are informed that she is dying from the poison of the Vishkanya, the people who rule the poison lands. As the dragon wall grows weaker they are starting to cross over into this world. His wife was with a group of women who were washing clothes in a stream when they were attacked by the Vishkanya. She stayed behind to delay them while the others fled. Now she is paying for her sacrifice with her life. Every part of the Vishkanya is poison, a drop of sweat or a few drops of blood is deadly.

Telanis believes that he has an antidote. It will require some rare herbs that only a druid can find and harvest properly. EJ and L go out onto the plains to find the herbs accompanied by three nomads. No sooner do they locate the herbs than their guard is struck down by arrows. The rival Red Banner tribe has attacked and they are cut off from help.

Back at camp Telanis has prepares a potion that will slow the progress of the poison, but without the herbs he cannot make a cure. Meanwhile Sernan, still in the form of a beautiful Elven woman discovers that he is very popular amongst the nomads and spends his time collecting gifts from them.

With the aid of his wolf and a summoned earth elemental Ej manages to hold the attackers off long enough for them to harvest the herbs. They make it back to camp just as the king’s wife is slipping into a coma. Sernan and EJ work feverishly to make the cure.

They are successful and the woman will live. The leader of the nomads is so overjoyed that he holds a feast in their honor. An ox is ceremonially slaughtered and cooked over an open fire.

After the dust has settled the caravan realizes that several people have vanished along with the raiders. After some discussion they decide that they must press on, lest they be attacked by another band of raiders.

During the second day of travel Telanis, E.J., L., and Sernan catch up with the rest of the caravan. They arrive riding the strong but thin ponies of the steppes.

Old Peng’s destination is Samarakan, a trading city located on the rivers east of the Jade Sea. This city has access to the riches of the east as well as exotic merchandise from Sahasra and Mahasarpa. Peng thanks the travelers for their help and proceeds to sell his merchandise.

As Peng unloads his cargo the group starts to get a feel for the city. Samarkan is a wealthy and exotic city corrupt with the wealth of the valuables that flow through there. It is also a favorite port for pirates to sell their ill gotten gains. At the docks Tassolhoff is surprised to see the elf Wayzin at the helm of the Ryuk the ship that had belonged to Spirit. Although they had expected Spirit to kill her, in fact he had kept her alive and left her on board when he went on his last ill fated mission to Barrow Holt. Apparently she decided to take to the seas with her bugbear crew.

They accuse her of stealing spirit’s ship. “If he were still here, he’d want me to have it,” she proclaims.

Tassolhoff informs her that Lord Othridge is dead, therefore she has no one to be loyal to anymore. Wayzin is fine with this; she’s been living the good life on the open sea. She agrees to join up with Tassolhoff’s mission to save the world from the Mind Flayers.

Another familiar face presents itself. Siringar the Facilitator from Jahalawhar has settled in Samarikan. He was forced to leave his home when the rakshasas came after him for helping Tassolhoff stop the thoon trade. It isn’t the thoon that the rakshasas is upset about, but no one does anything in his territory without permission, and he feels Tassolhoff has disrespected him by not reporting the thoon trade and letting him stop it.

Fortunately Siringar is already very familiar with the area. He agrees to sell pearls for the group and offers to guide them to the far side of the Dragon Wall. While in the marketplace the party hires one of the mysterious Yak-Folk from far off Butar to replace the members of the expedition lost in the battle on the steppes. He is a skilled sorcerer with a tiny normal yak as his animal companion.

On their way to the Dragon Wall Siringar tells them all he knows about the Vishkanyas, the mysterious poison people who are trying to invade the earth. It turns out there is a little more to the story that the Emperor and his allies were letting on. It seems that centuries ago a former emperor fell in love with one of the Vishkanya. This race is very beautiful, with slightly iridescent skin and extremely fine scales covering their bodies. Unfortunately every part of them is poison to most other species. Their blood, their sweat, their tears, even their spit can kill. Naturally this emperor didn’t last very long after falling for her.

After his death the next emperor declared war on the Vishkanya and sent the army to wipe them out. A fierce battle ensued at the end of which the Vishkanya were driven back to their home world where they had originally come from. The Dragon Wall was erected to keep them sealed in.

At last the party reaches the fabled Dragon Wall. It stretches from the Jade Sea to far in the north. At first glance it looks like an ordinary stone wall, simply a very large one. On closer inspection every inch of it glistens with magic. On the east side of the wall there is a field with green grass and small trees growing. On the west side of the wall is a barren wasteland where nothing lives.

Since they already know that some of the Vishkanya have already slipped through the wall they walk the length of it looking for a good spot to cross over. They finally locate a spot where the magic seems to be the thinnest. With some difficulty the main members of the party manage to make it through. The rest of the group follows somewhat more slowly.

The other side of the barrier is an odd looking forest with a wide stream. Everything seems to be the wrong color. Telanis the monk is the first to notice that something is wrong. The grass had begun to irritate the exposed skin on his feet. He is wearing sandals and the rest of the group is in boots. As his skin starts to blister he wraps something around his feet to protect them.

It becomes clear that everything in this world, every drop of water, every blade of grass, every leaf on the trees is poison. Hurriedly they make their way along the stream hoping to find a town.

Reaching the outskirts of a village they see ordinary people who lock their doors and windows at the sight of them. Eventually they encounter Shrizenya, a Vishkanya woman who is out walking her pet venomous centipedes. Each animal is the size of a large dog.

She tells them that the Vishkanya have sworn to lay waste to the world on the other side of the wall in retaliation for the near genocide of their people in ages past. She is haughty and arrogant and slices her own arm with her knife, covering it with her poisonous blood in anticipation of a battle.

Tassolhoff thinks there should be a better way to handle things. He asks to see someone in charge. Eventually Shrizenya takes them to Lord Chell. Chell is even more arrogant than her. They have been planning to invade for generations and now that the wall is growing weaker their time is almost at hand.

Tassolhoff sees his opening. He claims to be a diplomat sent by the emperor to open negotiations with the Vishkanya. He also informs Lord Chell that the royal family is already suffering from what they did so long ago and describes the curse of the dragon blood. He has documentation already drawn up to prove this.

Eventually Chell agrees to the treaty and will not send his people to make war, but he still wants to cross the barrier for trading purposes. Tassolhoff has no problem with this.

As Chell describes the many years his people have been trying to cross the barrier it becomes clear that getting back to the world will be much harder than getting to the poison land. The soft spots where one can slip over constantly change position. On this side there is no wall to guide them, nothing but a spot of shimmering light in the air. If they lose track of the hole they might be trapped here.

Someone from their party arrives with the grim news. The hole is slipping further away. Worse yet, it’s going out over the water, making it almost impossible to reach without splashing in the deadly stream.

Racing back to their team they find the crew has chains trying to keep the hole from going over the water, but to no avail. One by one the party try and make it through. It is extremely difficult and more than a few of them wind up in the water and need cure poison. In addition they have been breathing the poison air for so long that they have begun to cough up blood.

The exhausted party manages to make it back. Unexpectedly Sernan drops his female elf disguise and becomes a harpy, carrying away Zyx. Linc remembers what the Paladins had told him about the people who committed the Barrow Holt Massacre. He brings his power to bear on them, seeking out the truth.

After the rest of the party has vouched for them, Sernan admits that he is an Urda, but sidesteps any mention of the killings. Likewise Zyx admits being a dark elf, but nothing else. Ultimately Linc decides to be merciful.

The group sets out for Samarikan where they can take a boat back to the Imperial city.

For many weeks they sail the Oolon Sea past exotic ports of call. They sail past Hahasarpa the sight of their battle with the Naga, past Sahasra with its great port of Jahalawar where Tassolhoff destroyed the thoon temple. Sailing up the coast of Khaitan they eventually reach the capitol city of Huijin.

Tassolhoff heads at once to the palace in the Forbidden City. He is stopped on the way there by the prince whom he had befriended. The prince warns him that the eunich priests who guard the emperor are worried that Tassolhoff will break their power over the throne. Several of the priests have lesd the army out to the west where they planned to ambush the company on their way back from the Dragon Wall. Fortunately the group has thwarted their plans by returning by sea.

Still the palace guards are under the control of the eunuchs and they don’t plan on letting any outsiders pass. Tassolhoff changes into his bird form to fly over the heads of the guards carrying the treaty with the Vishkanya.

As he flies away the rest of the group grapples with the soldiers. One general stands out from the others and leaps into battle clutching a sword that is pierced with metal rings. This is the general who challenged Linc months before when they first arrived at the Imperial City.

The general fights with Alexander. Fredric their new Yak-man companion ants the general stunned so he can use body meld to assume his form. Alexander is forced to hold back while the general strikes with all his strength, easily holding off both Alexander and Fredric. The general’s troops sweep in, cutting off the combatants from getting any aid from their allies. The general mocks Alexander for not fighting with his full power. Having no choice, Alexander goes after him with everything he has.

Meanwhile Tassolhoff has arrived at the palace and entered through a window. He flies to the door of the throne room and scratches on it. The eunuch who opens the door proclaims that it is an assassin and blasts him with a burst of chi, the Asian form of magic missile.

Tassolhoff uses sonic burst to blow the eunuch back and swing the doors open. He flaps past the stunned sorcerer and changes form, quickly averting his eyes lest he see the true form the emperor. “Sir, I have the treaty,” he announces.

Although the eunuch blusters and protests the concubines slide a screen in place before the emperor and take the treaty to him. The emperor is astounded that they now have a treaty with their age old enemy. It is so hard for him to believe that he demands the full story from Tassolhoff. The Halfling cleric tells him most of what happened while the eunuch growls his displeasure.

Finally the emperor agrees to grant Tassolhoff whatever he desires. All Tassolhoff wants is the viridian control rod that is in the royal treasury. Since the true power of the rod is in keeping the magical barrier at the Dragon Wall from collapsing and the Vishkanya are no longer a threat there seems to be no reason why he can’t have such a minor treasure.

Tassolhoff contacts Alexander to stop the fight, but unfortunately it is too late to save the general from being beaten unconscious after his arms are pinned by Fredric. They decide to hide his unconscious body and Fredric makes off with the nine ring sword.

After making sure they have a favorable trade agreement with the emperor of Khaitan, the party decides to head south to the Tien Wei provence and from there to mysterious Butar in the Xizang mountains. They have Fredric, who is from that country to act as a guide.

As they journey they are attacked once again by one of the nomadic tribes of barbarians that make travel so difficult. These nomads aren’t sure what to make of the party. The group has been pared down to its most powerful members, but the nomads can see it isn’t a war party. Nor is it an army sent to vanquish them and pacify this area in the name of the emperor. Even more confusing the party is not carrying trade goods that can be looted.

“We’re going to a monastery,” Tassolhoff explains, and points to Frdric. “Look, he’s a Yak, he’s going home.”

Ultimately the nomads realize that there is nothing worse fighting for and agree to let them go.

By the time the party reaches the city of the Yak-Folk the difficult terrain has already caused some of the party to become separated. Nevertheless, Linc sizes command and presses on. Without the aid of Fredrik their Yak-Man companion negotiating with the reclusive people might prove difficult.

Knowing that the Yak-folk don’t trust humans, Linc decides to approach with the non human members of the party. Linc, Sernan and Zyx approach the wall surrounding the city and talk to the guards. The guards have been told to keep outsiders away from the city, but it becomes clear that the Yak-Folk depend on a certain amount of trade with the outside world. They are invited in to see the king and talk terms of a trade agreement.

The group is forced to wait and is placed in a room that is well guarded. Meanwhile a band of Yak-Folk warriors attacks the rest of the party. Linc communicates with them and tries to get the party to avoid killing any of the Yak-folk, since they are in the middle of negotiations.

The raiding party attacks the group, ripping open their packs. They seem disappointed not to find valuable goods inside. Finally one of the warriors simply attacks Alexander. The fighter defends himself and the battle is joined. Linc orders the group to defend themselves.

As the battle progresses it becomes clear that the warrior Alexander is fighting is enjoying the fight. Jim’s Rose stuns them with a sonic boom while Ej calls down a flame strike that helps drive the attackers away. The warrior fighting Alexander keeps the battle going until he is slain. The rest of the group scatters. No sooner have they reported this back to Linc than the king agrees to see them.

It becomes clear to Linc that the attack was a kind of test. If they were so weak that they couldn’t defend themselves, the Yak-folk wouldn’t have to negotiate, they could just take whatever they wanted. Now Linc is meeting with the king and negotiating from a position of strength.

The king of the Yak-folk is huge and powerful with massive horns that are covered in carvings and tipped with gold. He is more than happy to export the minerals found in their mountain home for some of the luxury goods that the party can provide.

The king also agrees to assist them with finding the crystals, but there’s a limit to how much help they can give. The crystals lie high in the mountains in the domain of the Yeti. The Yak-folk are more than happy to provide warm furs and advice of the high altitudes as well as a map, but after that the party is on its own.

There is no way to take any of their mounts into the high altitude. They leave the 33rd behind with their horses and the rest of the supplies and start the long trek into the mountains. For days they travel as the air grown thin and cold. Finally the trail they are trying to follow is covered with snow and they need landmarks to help them navigate.

One day there comes a rumble and a huge boulder comes rolling down the mountain at them. Most of the party manages to leap out of the way, but Linc is caught in the path of the boulder. Desperately Amnon throws Zyx through the air. The dark elf grabs Linc and tumbles out of way with him just as the boulder comes crashing down. The ranger L is not so lucky and is hit by the boulder.

While he heals they decide to rest for the night. They hear a savage cry from higher in the mountains and know that the boulder wasn’t just a random rock fall, but that it was tossed at them. For protection as they sleep Jims Rose summons a house for the main party members, and EJ shapes the stone of the mountain into an overhang offering protection from any more boulders that might come down on them.

As the howling wind blows the snow against the windows of the hut they stare into the darkness, knowing that somewhere in the darkness the rulers of this unforgiving land are watching them.

As the party huddles against the snow they hear a rumbling. Another boulder has been thrown and this one has triggered an avalanche. Tassolhoff changes into an eagle and flies away. Sernan does the same, lifting Zyx and himself out of harm’s way.

With only seconds to spare as the tons of rock and snow rush closer Fredrick of the Yak Folk uses acid splash to carve a channel while EJ uses flame strike to melt the onrushing snow. With the full force of the avalanche averted the rest of the party is able to take shelter under the rocky outcropping.

With his wings beating fiercely in the thin air Tassolhoff rises even higher. He sees the yeti that tossed the boulder. As soon as he lands the creature roars with pure anger and hatred and tries to attack him. The Halfling cleric uses a spell to calm the creature’s emotions. Strangely instead of simply calming down the creature vanishes.

Fredrick arrives and uses his disguise ability to pass himself off as a yeti. Following the footprints back he discovers two more yetis. They scream incoherently at each other. Sernan flies over in harpt form, but he is spotted and one of the yetis hurls a tree at him. He is injured but with the help of Tassolhoff he manages to get himself and Zyx to the ground safely.

Angrily Sernan blasts the monster with lightning. EJ joins the battle as well. Finally Zyx is able to bring it down with a bolt from his crossbow. As it dies the yeti vanishes.

Climbing high into the air Tassolhoff spots even more yetis. They seem to be wandering aimlessly smashing things and roaring with anger. Far below Fredrick is following their tracks trying to find a lair, but he has no luck.

As the sun rises he spots a temple with bright yellow and red pillars and a large elaborately carved wooden door. Flying past the prayer banners he lands and takes his Halfling shape again. There is a bell near the door. When he rings the bell the great doors open revealing a monk in brightly colored robes.

Tenzen the monk invites him in. The monk seems very calm and relaxed. When the Halfling cleric asks about the yeti he is informed that they are actually tulpas, thought forms created by the monks themselves. In order to create a deeper meditative state they cast out their dark, angry emotions which take on the forms of the monsters on the mountainside.

Tenzen assures Tassolhoff that the tulpa fade away not long after they are created. This doesn’t seem to fit with what the party saw on the mountain, which seemed to be teeming with monsters. In addition there appeared to be more yeti than there were monks, even though that should be impossible.

The rest of the party arrives. Tenzen gladly tells them they can have some of the enormous crystals that grow deep in the caves, but to get them they must pass through the meditation chamber where the monks unleash their dark emotions.

After much discussion they decide to take the risk. Tassolhoff and Linc go in first. It is a long hallway with the wind from outside whistling through various objects that line the walls and dangle from the ceiling. There are doors in the wall through which the tulpa can be thrown that will allow them to escape safely to the mountainside.

Their shadows begin to twist strangely and come to life, growing into monstrous shaggy forms. Tassolhoff uses his ability to calm anger and Linc uses his dispel evil power. Both of their tulpas vanish. As they proceed they see a strange object hanging from the ceiling. It is the final viridian control rod they need to fly their ship.

Others follow them in. Sernan grapples with his tulpa and manages to throw it out one of the doors. Zyx tries to sneak in while invisible only to be attacked by an invisible tulpa. Using a spell to see the invisible he sees a wiry, dark form with bone spurs jutting from its wrists that resemble Zyx’s own hidden blades.

Dark elf and monster battle. Zyx manages to smash the bone claws and is finally able to drive his own blades into the heart of the beast. As it fades away Zyx feels an overwhelming calmness pass over him. It’s almost as if defeating his own darkness has caused a change in his basic nature.

At the end of the cave they find the huge crystals they came looking for and start loading up their portable holes with as much as they can carry.

As they leave they discuss the viridian rod with Tenzen. It belonged to a traveler who journeyed to the monastery hoping to learn the secret of what the rod could do through meditation. Unfortunately he was caught by a winter storm on the mountains and by the time the monks found him he was dead from the cold. As a tribute to him they placed the rod in their most sacred place, the meditation hallway.

Tassolhoff realizes that it is the rod that is causing all the problems. The viridian sustains magic spells. Just as the other rod was used to keep the Dragon Wall intact after the dragon withdrew his power, so this rod is sustaining the tulpas that are created. Instead of fading away after a while they are roaming the countryside and getting more and more numerous.

With the final part they need to make the Nebuchadnezzar fully functional and the giant crystals safely stowed away the party makes their way down the treacherous mountain. They still have many miles to reach Huijin where their ship lies at anchor.

Along the way they have an unexpected encounter. Fredrick the yak man who has been carrying the viridian rod awakens to find a figure in black robes searching through his pack. When he realizes he has been seen the man stuns Fredrick. However enough noise is made in the struggle that people start to wake up. The man in black hurls some powder into the fire which causes it to belch smoke.

Attempting to flee in the confusion the intruder is caught by Zyx who stabs him with poison blades. By the time he is tied up it is clear that the man is a monk in black robes. He has been sent to steal a magic artifact that the fate of the world will rest on. He says he works for Master Zhang and willingly gives them the location of the monastery before he is killed.

The group decides to pay the monastery a visit. When they arrive they are invited in by a polite monk in black robes. They enter a long hallway filled with pillars at irregular intervals. The pillars have holes in them at different heights. As soon as everyone is in the hallway the door slams shut and the pillars suddenly sprout wooden beams from the holes. The pillars begin to rotate back and forth, turning the hall into a maze of rapidly moving wooden clubs. The pillars are situated so that if you move out of the path of one pillar you will be caught by the wooden projections of another pole.

The monk is obviously familiar with this hallway since he dives past the spinning wooden beams and makes it to a door at the end of the hallway. EJ uses his power to warp wood to stop one pillar from rotating, but the others are pummeled. Zyx uses his acrobatic skill to tumble down the hall, narrowly avoiding the spinning beams. When he gets to the end of the hall he faces a locked door which he must open while dodging the spinning pillars.

While Fredrick uses acid splash to disable another pillar, Zyx makes his way past the door. Inside the room he is able to bring the trap to a halt. As everyone races into the room they are facing an elderly but powerful looking figure all in black.

Master Zhang orders them to surrender the magic object to him. From the way he speaks he doesn’t even know what it is he is trying to steal, but for some reason he knows the viridian rod exists and that it can “change the face of the world”. He summons his power of negative chi and draws Fredrick across the floor to him. Once he has his hand around Fredrick’s neck he begins to drain away his chi, causing the yak man to lose strength and health.

As Fredrick struggles to break free monks start pouring into the room from hidden doors. Sernan changes into a harpy and flies above the action, but Amnon is struck by a distance punch thrown by one of the monks. In the midst of this flurry of action Tassolhoff sends his spider in to panic the monks. Fredrick attacks Zhang only to find the old man can dodge him even when they are only a foot apart.

L fires an arrow at Zhang while Fredrick attacks again. They are finally separated, but another monk, this one armed with a ball and chain appears to attack Fredrick. As the battle rages Fredrick manages to get the drop on Zhang and finish him off with an acid splash while Sernan uses lightning bolt to finish off the monk with the ball and chain.

The monks live a disappointingly frugal lifestyle. The party finds very little to loot. While searching Master Zhang’s private quarters Tassolhoff is surprised to find a young woman who is blind.

The woman says her name is Misa and Zhang kept her for her ability to predict the future. She apologizes for sending Zhang after the party. When Tassolhoff demands to know why she didn’t predict Zhang’s death Misa admits, “I don’t always tell Zhang everything.”

Taking Misa with them, the party makes its way back across the huge continent to Huijin. Along the way Tassolhoff pays Sernan for the goods that he fenced. Arriving at the docks they are surprised to see that Wayzin the elf hasn’t absconded with one of their ships. The bugbears cryptically inform the party that she “still has a role to play”. As the party leaves port Seringar the facilitator asks to come along.

Sailing far away from port where they can not be seen the ship lifts majestically in the air and sails into a hole that appears in the sky.

On the other side of the hole is a vast expanse that seems to stretch on into infinity. It has a strange glow and there are strands of color running through the void. Deftly manipulating the wheel, Viquar manages to steer into one of the color streams which immediately causes the ship to accelerate.

Behind them there is a huge object of opaque crystal. As they pull further away from it they can gradually see the curve and realize that it is an enormous sphere whose size is impossible to calculate. Their entire universe, the earth, the sun, all the planets and stars are encased in that crystal sphere.

Although they feel as if they are moving forward there is no wind hitting them in their faces. The void stretches in all directions so there is nothing to judge their speed by. There is also no way to judge up from down. They are deep in the strand of luminous color that Viquar chose to ride in, and they know they are going somewhere because the sails are rippling. It is almost like being caught in a powerful current.

Viquar explains something of how he navigates. The different colors are currents in different directions. No one knows exactly how the void works. Some say the flow of phlogiston is really the prayers of the faithful on their way to the sphere where their gods dwell and the divine power flowing back the those spheres, but no one knows if this is true.

Although there is air to breathe, Viquar warns them that if they fall off the deck and are caught up in the flow they will probably never make it back to the ship. Death by starvation and dehydration is the terrible fate of those who are thrown overboard. The phlogiston seems less dense that air to creatures that try to fly in it. They have to beat their wings twice as hard to get anywhere, which quickly exhausts them. Also swimming in the flow is nearly impossible since there isn’t anything to push against.

Although there seems to be normal gravity holding them to the deck of the ship Viquar explains that the gravity is a field created by the spelljammer helm. Interestingly it has two directions, and if they crawl across the side of the ship to its bottom they are held to the bottom of the ship by the same gravity. It also becomes clear that the gravity field grows weaker at the top of the mast. If the lookout isn’t careful they could jump up and float right off the ship.

Tassolhoff orders everyone of the topmen to secure themselves to the ship with rope. Oddly Zadock the Hadozee doesn’t mind the new environment. He leaps from the mast and glides gently to the deck as if he has been doing it all his life.

EJ the druid feels strange. Here in the void he is cut off from the earth which is the source of his power. As Viquar explains the working of the helm below decks Misa suddenly exclaims something about water. Everyone turns to stare at the blind girl.

From the deck there is a cry of warning. Ahead of them is a huge sphere of water. It is heading right at them and far too big to dodge. Viquar explains that it must be a chunk of the elemental plane of water that broke off. “It’s a good thing it wasn’t from thr plane of fire,” he comments.

Grabbing the wheel the githyanki manages to steer the ship over on its side so that it skims the surface of the bubble of water. Since their ship is made to float on the surface of water they are able to keep themselves from descending into the depths by surfing the surface tension of the water. The rapidly moving water churns around them and the ship creaks and groans as it strains to survive forces that it was never designed for.

Once they have cleared the water Viquar finds another strand of the flow and takes them to an outpost called Braal. Braal station turns out to be a huge asteroid, a massive chunk of rock bristling with buildings and landing piers.

In a ring around the middle of the station is a row of metal tubes that Viquar describes as cannons. Apparently the phlogiston can be caught and altered through alchemical means which turn it into an explosive once it is compressed in great boilers. It is very dangerous.

The Nebuchadnezzar pulls up smoothly to one of the many docks. They are joining dozens of other ships of many different makes and models. Some are graceful and elegant, others resemble sailing ships and one is sharp with metal and adorned with a skull.

Inside of Braal Station there are a number of races that the party has never seen before. There are the tall, willowy and androgynous Reigar who seem to be surrounded by a slight sparkle. Even stranger is the Quom who have a powerful body like a dwarf, but are as tall as a human. They are hairless and some of them actually have a second face on the back of their head.

When Tassolhoff announces that they’re looking for the home of the mind flayers everyone laughs. No one knows where the mind flayers come from. Somehow they’ve managed to hide their entire crystal sphere. Even the Githyanki who escaped slavery at their hands centuries ago don’t even know where the mind flayers are. “You’d have to have someone who’s attuned to the void to locate their world,” Viquar explains. “And they’re hard to find.”

As the conversation continues Viquar is suddenly confronted with a fierce female of his own species who snarls a stream of curses at him. She is accompanied by an umber hulk that is apparently her pet. She demands to know what happened to the ioun stones that he stole from her. Viquar protests that he has been helping the poor people of a distant sphere to fight off the menace of the mind flayers. Viquar encourages the rest of the group to back him up, which they do.

As it turns out the spinning glowing things in the helm are actually ioun stones. There are several possible sources of power for spelljammer helms and theirs one runs off of ioun stones. Finding this was a lucky break for Viquar since he already had the stones he took from Lakadda when he became stranded on the heroes’ planet.

Even with the party backing him Lakadda is still going after Viquar for selling her into slavery. The umber hulk, sensing its owner’s anger unexpectedly attacks and suddenly battle is joined. The umber hulk manages to paralyze EJ with its stare. Zyx climbs on its back invisibly and stabs it in the eye, but the creature continues to attack.

Sernan changes into harpy form and lands next to Lakadda to keep her from attacking as well. Finally the umber hulk is defeated, but Tassolhoff proves the party means no harm by healing it. Lakadda is grateful and hugs her pet.

Returning to the ship they make their plans. They need to find where the mind flayers are and to go back and gather their weapons and supplies from their world for their assault. Linc Fredrick, Sernan and Zyx choose to stay behind and try to track down the mind flayers, or illithids as they are called in wildspace.

As they are talking Misa suddenly feels the presence of a new ship. No one can see anything at first, but a few seconds later a ship becomes visible and pulls up to Braal. When asked how she knew the ship was there the blind girl explains that she felt the waves washing over her. No one else on the ship felt anything unusual.

The new ship turns out to be manned entirely by devils from one of the hell planes. Even Linc the paladin won’t feel bad about attacking them and taking their ship. While the rest of the group returns home, those who stayed behind make their plans.

Fredrick uses his body meld power to take the place of the captain after he is knocked out in the bathroom. Thanks to Lincs zome of truth they already know the devils have a helm that runs off living beings and the devils have come to Braal to kidnap fresh fuel. Returning to the ship accompanied by the invisible Zyx and Sernan Fredrick discovers that some of the captives know how to fly the ship.

The party frees the captives from the device that was raining their lives away while the demons are drugged and captured so they can provide power for the ship.

Meanwhile the rest of the group is heading back to their home to gather their forces for one final battle.

Back on their own world the crew of the Nebuchandzer send out messenger hawks to the four corners of the earth to gather their allies in Anchore. They are also hoping to get as many dragons as possible since this is the final gambit of the long game. As they wait for their allies to arrive they meet with the ogre magi who have been forging helmets from the material which blocks psionics. The king of the ogre magi insists on sending along his troops to prove how superior they are to the pathetic lesser races and the party is happy to have them.

Next the ship flies to Zathican, the capitol of Khedara. As they approach the ancient city they see that it is in flames with huge columns of black smoke. Drawing near they see the army battling with a brass dragon. The head of the dragon is made of tentacles. With a shock Tassolhoff realizes that their old companion Toltec has fallen prey to the mind flayers and now has been converted into one of them. He is a huge mind flayer dragon.

Among the combatants they see General Sabara giving orders. A’on and his slave Sasra are there as well. There is an odd figure on the roof who looks like a female dark elf. There is something oddly familiar about her. The living crossbow carried by Jims Rose begins to vibrate strangely.

Tassolhof orders the Nebuchandzer to lower over the dragon. Then he drops an anchor on its head. The monster screams and thrashes, but the anchor sinks in deeply. Slowly the ship begins to hoist the dragon off the ground. Alexander races down the anchor chain. As the monster writhes beneath him he fights to maintain his balance. Tassolhoff orders the ship to tilt to one side so they can fire the ballista into the dragon. The huge bolts sink deeply in, giving Alexander the handholds he needs to try and slash the creature’s wings.

Even transformed the monster is still a brass dragon. When Alexander can do no damage to the wings he heads for the head. Tassolhoff helps by shooting the catapult into the monster’s skull.

Far below the soldiers continue to try and hit the monster with arrows. On the roof top the dark elf looks upset. It seems as if she climbed to the roof so she could jump down on the monster, but now has lost her chance as it is dragged above her. In her hand she carries a strange blueish violet blade.

The battle continues. With no mouth the former dragon has lost his breath weapon. He quickly finds his psionic powers are useless against his attackers. His tentacles lash out, wounding Alexander even as the ship slams more ballista shots into the beast.

When Tasolhoff oders the anchor withdrawn the great dragon body falls to the ground, its wings too heavily torn with ballista bolts to support it. Alexander is injured in the bone jarring crash as it hits the ground. As he staggers away he sees the female drak elf descend from the roof her odd purple blade in her hand.

Alexander is busy cutting off the head of the creature when she stabs it with her blade. Oddly the weapon changes from a dagger to a sword just before she strikes. From the point where the blade penetrated the flesh, the body of the dragon who was once Taltok begins to turn to ash.

It is a melancholy sight to see a former friend brought down, but Tassolhoff and the party have no time to mourn. They have come to free the Aza from enslavement. With the aide of powerful wizards they are able to make one of the giant crystals resonate with the same frequency as the tiny crystals that control the Aza. It is a simple matter for the huge crystal to override all the others, setting the Aza free. Tassolhoff makes sure that there are safeguards to prevent a massacre once the slaves are free.

A’on and Sasra are overjoyed. Nal still longs for vengeance, but he is held in check. Many of the Skarn are upset at losing their slaves, but after the city has been devastated by the war with the mind flayers there are very few people ready to fight over it.

While this is taking place the party talks to the dark elf. Her name is Mirenza and she has vowed to destroy the mind flayers and all their allies. Her city chose to ally themselves with the monsters from another star. When her clan rebelled they were all but wiped out. Her brother was tortured and made into a living crossbow. She herself was tortured, but managed to escape.

She sought a weapon that cpould destroy the mind flayers and found it in the secret writings of the Derro. The strange twisted creatures knew of a rare metal that fell from space which had a deadly effect on aberrations. Unfortunately there was very little of it in existence. She crossed the globe trying to find enough to form a weapon out of, pursued all the time by the Derro who vowed to kill her for breaking into their knowledge vaults.

Finally in Messelona she discovered that there was a deposit of the mineral, but it was in a vineyard that was owned by the recently appointed Lord Verchack. In return for committing a simple murder she was given the rights to half his vineyard. There she was ale to mine the last of the metal. She barely escaped with her life when the Derro caught up with her.

Her story sounds familiar to Jims Rose. The bard joined the party in Messelona when Laucian was masquerading as Lord Verchack. The crossbow she is referring to must be the one which is hanging from his belt that he inherited from Bloody Fernandez.

When he gives the crossbow to Mirenza she is overcome with emotion. The spirit of her brother is inside the crossbow eternally in agony. Tassolhoff offers to try and exorcise the spirit and let him find peace.

The Halfling cleric casts the necessary spells and finally is able to send the drow warrior to rest. Mirenza is grateful and joins their party, eager for a chance to get her revenge on the mind flayers. Jims Rose is given the crossbow back, but he is no longer sure if it is magical.

Far, far away in the deapths of the void the stolen ship with Fredrick and Sernan on board crosses the depths of space. The engines are running off of the captured demons and for a navigator they have Tryrol, a Quom with two faces. Unfortunately he repeats what everyone has already told them, that no one knows where the mind flayers home planet is.

As a plan B they decide to seek out the people who know the most about the mind flayers, or Illithids as they are called in this space. They go to a vast monastery which houses some of the Githzerai. They are an offshoot of the Githyanki who are devoted to meditation and developing their psionic powers.

At the monastery they meet Magdhal, a female monk who sympathizes with their cause. Many would like to defeat the Illithid, but it’s almost impossible. Every group of them is controlled by a great brain. This brain in turn is linked to other great brains which are linked to one giant brain which is located somewhere unknown. What one Illithid knows all of them become aware of. Every defeat just makes them wiser and more powerful unless some way can be found to sever their connection to the true great brain.

None of this sounds very encouraging, but they do get the name of the last world the Illithids have conquered. Perhaps the great brain there will reveal the location of the brain that they are seeking.

Meanwhile allies are streaming in to the island nation of anchore. Skorzia the pirate queen offers her men. The company of goblins reunites with them. The survivors of the once mighty Yuan-Ti empire emerge from hiding. From the heart of Nyambi comes the fierce and proud amazon warriors lead by Nzinga. The Darfellan arrive from their home in the sea lead by Corda. From Brigitaine House Valacar, Beryll House and House Telemnar all answer the call with men and ships. From Zarak Khune the centaurs arrive on ships sent by Anchore House. The wizard Mordant has been hard at work making golems. He has a hundred of them prepared, sixty of them strong but simple minded, the other forty are smarter and able to think for themselves on the field. As the endgame comes in their great game thirteen dragons arrive. They are reuinited with the red of Brigitainne and the green of Telmara as well as others including Azure the blue.

There are so many allies that their ship can’t possibly hold them all. There is some talk of linking several ships together, but that proves too cumbersome. They finally decide to take their entire castle since it’s made from black basalt and designed to withstand almost anything. The castle is reinforced. Malagi the goddessof wands arrives and produces fireball and lightning weapons for the towers. Meanwhile Bao the Vanara martial artist is teaching king fu to the amazons and the other warriors who want to learn.

The forces have all gathered. Now there is nothing to do but plunge into the void for the final confrontation.

Far out in the void the stolen spelljammer ship heads towards the world of the Rilmani, the last people known to be conquered by the mind flayers. On board a struggle erupts when Zyx tries to take control of the ship and steer them away. He wants to go to Krynn where they can possibly recruit more allies. Sernan considers joining Zyx. Krynn is his original home after all.

In the end when the great black castle sails into view Sernan changes to harpy form and flies over to it.

On board the castle Tassolhoff is getting the troops ready when Misa suddenly senses something. Despite being blind she is sensitive to the flow of the void and feels that there is something up ahead of them. L the ranger leads a group of archers to the highest tower and sends a volley of arrows into the nothingness of the void.

Surprisingly the arrows strike something. There is an invisible ship lying between them and the crystal sphere that contains the Rilmani world. The ship has a design like a nautilus shell with long powerful tentacles stretching out in front. From the deck catapults fire sending a wave of beholders at the castle.

“You see, this is why I didn’t want to come here,” Zyx points out.

Six beholders circle around the castle firing their eye beams into the courtyard. It is chaos as people fall from heat beams and cause serious wpounds beams. With the anti-magic beam coming from the beholder’s eyes most of the castle’s weapons won’t function. Archers try to target the beholders, but the spheres are fast and viscious.

Tassolhoff avoids the anti-magic ray and manages to cast searing light using the crystal to amplify its power. He manages to knock three of the beholders out of commission temporarily.

Flames shoot up on the stolen ship as a heat beam catches it on fire. Zyx leads the crew in escaping to the castle. By the time the last of them has reached safety the ship has started to drift away and the ropes holdiong it in place are broken. Zyx leaps from the burning deck using his acrobatic skill to tumble through the void and reach the relative safety of the castle.

Seeing the ship tumble slowly in flames reminds Zyx of something. A former member of the team had been an alchemist who was able to make Greek fire spheres that could be fired from a catapult. It’s been a while, but there should still be some of them stored in the castle.

As the alien ship moves closer its massive tentacles reach out. Their enemy is going to use the tentacles to tear the castle apart brick by brick. Tassolhoff changes into his bird form and flies the damaged ship on a collision course into the tentacle ship. He is caught before he can reach the bulk of the ship, but at the tentacles crush the smaller vessel they catch fire. Tassolhoff returns to bird form and flies back.

Meanwhile back at the castle catapults are shooting Greek fire at their enemies. One beholder is engulfed in flames and finished off with arrows. Zyx fires the catapult at the tentacle ship and sees it engulfed in flames, but still attacking.

As a beholder seeps by Zyx takes the opportunity to leap up and land on it, attacking with his hidden blades. All around him the tide of battle is slowly turning. With a few of the beholders out of the action some of the castle’s defenders are able to open up with their fireball and lightning wands.

Seeing that the burning ship is still attacking Tassolhoff orders their most powerful lightning spell placed inside one of the magnifying crystals. It is launched at the ship, but fails to go off. Nzinga the amazon climbs to a tower and casts her spear at it. The second the crystal is shatterd all the power of the lightning is unleashed. There is a brilliant flash and an explosion that shakes the foundations of the castle. The ship is blown apart. Before the celebration can begin a mind flayer rises from the wreckage.

The mind flayer is wrapped in some kind of glistening black body armor which has tentacles whipping off of it. Each tentacle fires a beam much like the eye stalks of a beholder.

In the courtyard EJ takes out a beholder with a flaming sword while L keeps another at bay with a flurry of arrows. Even as the beholders fall their master draws closer. The first few catapult shots are tossed aside by his telekinetic power. It dawns on the party that with his ship destroyed the mind flayer has to seixe their ship to get its spelljamming helm. Without the helm he can never open a crystal sphere to escape the void. It is a choice of kill or be killed now.

When attacked from all sides the mind flayer proves that even his armor can only take so much. He is finally brought down by a blast of Greek fire. His dying telepathic screams are just so much silence to the people protected by the helmets.

Leaving his burning body behind the castle approaches the crystal sphere. At this point the dragons who have agreed to join them finally catch up to the castle.

“This is just a taste of what’s in store for us.” Tassolhof warns the party. “When we go through that sphere we have to be ready for anything.”

Their final plans are made and the castle enters the sphere. They see a world in devastation. Millions have been killed and the survivors enslaved. Whole cities have been destroyed. The forests and wilderness have been set ablaze so the survivors will have no place to run. The constant burning causes a layer of smoke to fill the air, cutting off the sun to the mind flayers who prefer to live in darkness.

Once the Rilmani were renouned for their devotion to neutrality. They had metallic looking skin and eyes that seemed to be made from crystal. They were famous as peacekeepers and diplomats. Now all that is gone, washed away in a savage fury.

Everyone on the party knows that this is the fate of their world if they fail to stop the mind flayers.

It seems as if the prisoners are all being herded towards on place on a large continent. The castle heads in that direction. Below them they see an endless line of prisoners being driven by hulking creatures with whips. Several behilders and a few mind flayers hover in air observing the destruction.

The flying castle with its dragon escort immediately draws attention. Tassolhoff has ordered all wizards to apply their buffs to the dragons who will be charged with protecting the castle agfain all attacks. The mind flyaers move in to attack only to find themselves struck down by powerful breath weapons. The mind flayers send out a telepathic blast that should have rendered the dragons senseless, but it has no effect. The mind flayers back on their own world may have taken Toltek, but these dragons are ready for them.

As the air war rages above them the castle lands on the alien world. When the gates open the calvery sweeps into action. A unit of centaurs hit hard and fast, driving their spears into the bodies of the massive slavers. The winged elves give them cover from the air, bringing down anyone who attacks with their arrows. The ogre magi follow, like living tanks that cast spells.

When the prisoners are freed they tell their terrible story. They are being forced to tear down their own cities and build new structures for the mind flayers to live in. The heart of their capital city has already been transformed. At the center of the city is a massive tower of a strange black metal.

It seems like the tower is their destination, but Tassolhoff knows the castle will continue to attract attention. He orders the rest of the ground troops into the fight and gives weapons to the Rilmani. They are to go from one slave group to another, freeing them until everyone is liberated.

Even as they speak they hear a scream and a dragon falls from the sky, his body cut open by the cause serious wounds ray. It is clear they are running out of time.

Getting back into the castle he leaves the troops to carry on the fight and flies through the ruined city towards the tower. Once there an elite squad will jump off, leaving others to man the castle and keep drawing enemy fire.

A small party reaches the tower as the castle flies away, pursued by beholders. No sooner have they reached the tower that a beholder larger and more fiersome than any they have ever seen emerges. Not only is it huge, its body is covered with spikes and protective plates.

“It’s a hive mother!” Zyx exclaims. “You see, I told you not to do this.”

Deadly eye beams lance out, each of them powerful enough to kill with one strike. Zyx dodges a beam, but another is targeted at Tassolhoff. At the last second Wayzin the elf captain who once sailed for Lord Othridge shields Tassolhoff with her own body. The heat beam cuts through her. As she lies there the bugbear shaman reminds Tassolhoff that it was predicted that Wayzin still had a role to play.

Knowing that he only has seconds if he wants to save her, Tassolhoff ducks out of the way of the ani-magic beam to cast. He has never tried his blindness spell on a creature this powerful, but by a stroke of luck he is able to succeed. As soon as the big eye is blinded he sets to work healing Wayzin.

Temporarily blinded, the monster lashes out wildly. Zyx leaps onto its back and stabs it. The wounded creature is brought down by the party.

They enter into a huge room at the base of the black tower. The ceiling is held up by arches which are marked with familiar runes. It is part of the teleportation spell the mind flayers use, but no one has ever seen this configuration of runes before.

The shaman can stay behind to trigger the teleportation, but there is no way of knowing where it will take them. They have to find the secret of the mind flayers, the way they are able to coordinate their attacks so well. It seems that they have no choice but to teleport themselves.

Before they go Zyx gives his repeating crossbow to L, knowing the ranger can make good use of it. A’on has a more personal request from Tassolhoff.

“Will you marry us?” he asks, hugging Sasra. Now that she is free there is nothing stopping the two of them from being together.

Although taken back by the request Tassolhoff is more than willing to marry them. He performs a quick, simple ceremony as they reach the teleportation platform.

When the teleportation spell is cast, Tassolhoff uses a hold portal spell to keep the gateway open so that they can return. They find themselves oddly standing in a building that looks exactly like the one they just left. It is a large teleportation chamber made from black metal. The primary difference is that the light from outside is peculiar and there is a terrible smell in the air.

They are attacked at once by a single powerful mind flayer. His telepathic blast is so forecefull that they feel a tingleing despite their helmets. Sernan launches a lithgning bolt at him, but he contemptuously turns it aside. While distracted by other attacks Zyx manages to snak attack him. Although the dark elf does serious damage, he himself is slashed by the mind flayer’s razor sharp claws and falls to the floor wounded.

L sees him fall and unleashes the repeating crossbow. Unprepared for such an attack, the mind flayer is wounded. Bokor pins his flailing tentacles with his cat o’nine tails while A’on and Ilari strike with their forearm spikes. Staggering backwards, the mind flayer is sliced open by a sudden charge from the Ulak-Tiri.

“There is a consciousness here like nothing I’ve ever felt before,” Sasra warns them.

Stepping out of the tower they are faced with a walkway of the same black metal. It leads away from the tower to another tower some distance away. Looking to the horizon they realize the walkways form a grid for as far as they can see with black towers where the lines of the grid intersect.

Each tower must represent a world they have conquered. The towers stretch on into the distance. They are still trying to grasp what they see when they step onto the walkway and receive an even bigger shock.

It is neither ground nor pavement beneath the walkway. Under them is a pink mass shining with cerebral fluid and full of wrinkles and folds. This is the substance the planet seems to be made of. With a growing feeling of horror it dawns on the party exactly what they are seeing.

It is a gigantic brain. They haven’t reached the home world of the mind flayers, instead they have found the single planet sized brain that is in charge of all mind flayer activities.

They already know that each planet of mind flayers is dominated by a single large brain is a pool. Ach of these brains is in touch with the mind flayers on their world, and each of these brains is constantly ntouch with this huge brain. Every mind flayer in the multiverse must be in constant contact. What one of them knows all the others know as well.

No wonder they are almost impossible to beat. When their flying castle arrived at the sphere it must have been recognized since the mind flayers of their world communicated constantly with the mind flayers taking the Rilamni.

It’s also clear that the giant brain knew they were coming. Lightning bolts of pure psionic energy begin to ripple across the surface of the monster brain. Telekinetic energy forms into huge tentacles that threaten to crush them like insects.

They dodge out of the way as they form their plans. Nal the Aza rebel is hit by a psionic blast that reduces him to stray atoms. Jims Rose whips out his lute. Now is the time for a spell he has been saving for just such an occasion.

Although he has to actually touch the slimy surface of the brain, Jims Rose os able to cast a displacement spell that will cut the brain’s chances to hit them by half. The tentacles strike, but the party is able to avoid them.

Zyx empties his prtable hole full of explosives and detonates them. Angry ripples cross the surface of the brain, but it is so large it is almost impossible to kill. Sernan slams it with his earthquake staff which sends a vibration deep into the continent sizer cerebellum, but more tentacles form and start to attack.

There is no more time for subtlety; this is the time for desperate action. Mirenza has her magic blade which can kill mind flayers, but how can she make it work against something of such a massive scale. Zyx has an idea. He grabs the duct tape that was invented by the slain alchemist and attaches the dagger to the earthquake staff.

When Sernan activated the staff, Zyx leaps into the air and drives the dagger down as deeply as he can. The vibrations cause by the staff cause the dagger to sink in deeper and deeper. The tissue that touches the dagger starts to turn black and die. The brain mas beneath him collapses so fast Zyx almost falls into the hole he has made, but he is pulled out in the nick of time. Tassolhoff provides the final blow with a death knell spell which finishes off dying creatures.

The staff drives the dagger ever deeper, reaching far into the massive brain. Grey matter turns black and collapses all around them. The surface of the brain falls in and they hear the metal walkway groan. Without the brain to support it, the walkway can’t stay in place. In the distance they see towers sway and fall into the yawning crevice where the brain matter had been.

Without a backwards glance they race back inside. The tower that they are in starts to sag. Just as they step through the portal they hear it give way and collapse, closing forever the system of teleport stations that sent the mind flayers across the stars.

From all around the globe word comes that their liberation is at hand. The Rilmani throw off their shackles and fight alongside the soldiers who have come in the flying castle.

No longer in constant communication with each other many of the mind flayers panic and are easily picked off. The ones who recover quickly enough seize the ships belonging to pirates who have come to loot the world and fly away to safety. The beholders have been enthralled by the mental powers of the mind flayers fo so long many of them have no idea where they are or why they are suddenly fighting dragons on some strange world. Like the mind flayers, the beholders also flee.

As individuals the mind flayers will still be a menace, but in the future their telepathic powers will be limited to short range, making them much easier to deal with. The beholders as well are a dangerous and powerful race. Once freed from the control of the mind flayers they will no doubt return to their own nefarious plans.

Linneascene the green dragon of Telmara collapses to the ground wounded in many places. Vercinthram the red of Brigitainne swoops down next to her, his own wings riddled with blast holes from heat beams.

“At last I beat you,” the red dragon exclaimed. “I clearly killed more beholders than you.”

“Yes,” the blue replied wearily, “But I killed more mind flayers.”

“You did not!”

As the two continued their long argument the other surviving dragons circled lazily in the air.

When the talking crystals report back their success cheers fill the castle. Squishy the gelatinous ooze burbles happily, not really understanding what is going on, but happy to be a part of it.

Watching the celebration the bigbear shaman smiles wearily. All has come to pass, though not exactly as predicted. When he told Zaanzzabar of the powerful forces that were at work he had no idea that Zaanzzabar himself would not live to see the resolution, but that he and his tribe would make it to the very end.

The crystal sphere of the rilmani is free, but countless other worlds remain to be explored. The world where the adventurers came from still is infected with mind flayers. Somewhere in the heart of the void new menaces may be lurking, but for now this long struggle has reached its end.

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