Enter the Void

Enter the void is a campaign that takes place in the Alceon setting. It begins in 1450 CE.

### **The current party**

Aglig Vault-Keeper Vurakagorou

Vehri Furribottom

Tsul

Kalu

Seoress'ronaan se Nar'ahnvae

Caligula Tallshield

### **Former party members**

Galarin

Patience

Gin Tatsumaki

Syrabane Sotha-Sil

## Act 1

### **Chapter 1 - The Well is Black**

Our story begins in the small lumber town of Pinedale.

Three adventurers find themselves in a tavern. Galarin from the western city of Sparrow,

Aglig Purgatorio Vurakagoru from the Godspine mountains east of Pinedale, and

Vehri Furribottom from the Northern border of the Empire and Fradenkalde.

A sickly looking boy named Patience isn’t allowed to be inside of the tavern, however eventually he sneaks in and watches the others. The group overhears that the owner of the largest lumber mill in town, Falcio Gilea, has gone missing. His wife is offering a reward to help find him. However before the group can make a plan they hear a commotion outside and go to see what the fuss is all about.

They discover that all the water in the village well. A floating hand emerges out of the well, it has an eye on it’s palm. It seems quite interested in the group, wanting to make sure it doesn’t get too far away Galarin decides to get a bird cage of sorts for it. However he doesn’t feel like looking for it on his own so he gives some gold to patience. Patience then goes with the gold Galarin bought him, he spends most of it on leather assless chaps. Little did we know that these would serve him for the rest of his lives. The group explores the Inn the story started in and come across a young elven woman,Sena. She tells them that she is a noble from Stormfast and her family is being accused of false charges by another corrupt noble. The corrupt noble is allegedly being backed by a member of the Iron circle. They agree to help her and she tells the group about a witch on the outskirts of town that might be able to help with the well and finding Falcio.

Along the way to Silvia, two lights crash from the sky, one being a bright silver and the other a bright purple. Two monochromatic Devas emerge from the crash sites, the silver/gray Deva identifies himself as Syrabane Sotha-sil, while the purple Deva identifies themself as Tsul. It is soon apparent that Tsul has a female and male voice with seemingly different personalities. It is heavily hinted at first that there are two souls inhabiting one body.

Tsul seems to internally argue and thus their body’s reactions are delayed.

Before the group can get to Silvia’s home a Peryton attacks them all. The Peryton picks them up and begins to fly off with them before taking a bit of a magic blast that causes it to drop Tsul. This renders Tsul unconscious. The group eventually talks to Silvia and discovered that another falling star crashed nearby a few days ago and that it might have something to do with the mysterious things going on.

The group investigates and find a crash site and a crater filled with purple goo. Tentacles and a monstrous horse creature emerge from the goo. The tentacles seem to have psychic abilities and temporarily removes Vehri from the fight by hypnotizing her. The horse monster seems to grow more mutated and monstrous as the fight goes on but eventually it is slain as are more of the tentacles. Tsul grabs a large amount of goo and shoves it into a bag before the tentacles regrow.

The next morning the group has made it back to Pinedale. They use a special potion that Silvia prepared on the well to try to purify it. A mutated human male emerged from the well, in place of one of his hands is what appears to be an axe that has merged into his arm. The group believes this to be Falcio and a fight ensues.

The group decides to leave Pinedale and go to Sparrow and check with some of Galarin’s contacts at the Tower or Mages. Vehri accidentally sneezes and extends one of her claws, this kills the small child. It’s an awkward situation for everyone and the group decides to bail out on the town and head to the closest major city, Sparrow. A few miles out of town they find a wagon that has seemingly been attacked. The bodies of the humans and horses all seem to be quite mangled and torn open and the cargo of the wagon doesn’t seem tampered with. The group decides it was most likely some beasts or a monster and that they don’t want to mess with it. They continue to Sparrow.

### **Chapter 2 - Starfall**

The party arrives at Sparrow, Galarin shows takes the group to his patron’s manor only to find it mostly abandoned. As they are exploring the manor they hear a crashing sound and rush up to one of the offices, they see a figure climbing out of a window towards the roof. A chase breaks out, some pursue the thief via the rooftops, others via the streets. As the chase goes on through the streets and rooftops the group discovers that the thief is quite agile and is hard to pin down, multiple obstacles get in the way of the group throughout the chase. One of said obstacles is a small child that begs a few of the party members for money. Most of the group on the streets keeps going but Tsul stays behind and ponders trying to adopt and indoctrinate the child into worshiping them and then at some point in the future sacrificing them. Time stops as the multiverse has an aneurysm due to frustration.  Although they are able to get close and see that burglar appears to be a wererat and that he stole an amulet he is able to escape. In frustration Galarin shouts “CUNT” atop the rooftops of Sparrow. The group makes their way back to the manor and find a very odd looking dagger in the one of the drawers of the Mistwalker’s. Galarin makes contact with an old colleague at the Tower of Mages. The Archmage of the tower informs him that a few nights ago there was a break in and murder. An orb that is used to track the movement of the stars was stolen, as well as two young members of the tower being murdered. A message in their blood was written on the walls near where the orb once was. The message on the wall reads “On tHE DArKEst nigHt. tHE stArfAll will cOmE, tHE AncHOrs will bE sEt, HE sHAll rEturn.”

Trying to pick up on the trail that Sena gave them in regards to the Iron Circle, as well as possibly finding the wererat thief the group heads the the inner docks of the city. They manage to attract the attention of an Iron Circle agent, Pain Savore, and some of her allies. A fight breaks out, the hired thugs are killed and Pain in subdued. The group however suffers a casualty with Patience being slain by Pain’s flaming sword. Vehri takes the sword for herself.

Pain is brought to the mistwalker manor and Aglig realizes he is able see the spirit of Patience that is following them around. After some meditation and convincing he attempts to temporarily place Patience’s soul in the dagger’s gem until he can be revived from the dead. Unfortunately Aglig succeeds a little too well and Patience becomes trapped in the gem.

### **Chapter 3 - Rituals**

Patience is real dead and his soul was accidentally trapped in a magic dagger, maybe an evil one at that. Galarin reaches back out to Breatra Soldshot, the Gnome Archmage of the Tower in Sparrow, and explains their predicament. Breatra examines the dagger and finds it is full of chaotic spiritual energy and the main gem is almost acting like a gate to the chaotic plane of existence Limbo. The dagger is powered whenever a soul passes through it and seems to be able to use souls as a power source for bursts of chaotic energy. Partnering with Aglig and Galarin, Breatra is able to open up a planar gate using the dagger as a catalyst. Vehri, Tsul, and Syrabane rush in through the portal and are able to rescue Patience from the chaotic entities of Limbo. Patience is brought back to life and it is revealed that his appearance as a sickly young human boy was an illusion. He is actually a young gith, a group of humanoids native to the Astral Plane. However it is unknown if he is Githyanki, the xenophobic militaristic space reavers lead by a lich queen, or githzerai, the introspective order of psychic space monks. His eyes also occasionally turn red and he comes quite aggressive for a few moments at a time. No one really takes the time to address this or the traumas of him dying, his soul going into another plane of existence, his soul having to hide from chaos monsters, him being brought back to life, or finding out that his whole life he was actually an entirely different race. Yeah teenagers complain about everything.

The group goes back to the mistwalker manor to interrogate Pain for information about the Iron Circle. Patience declares that as payment for killing him her wants to bite off all of her fingers and toes, the group finds this more annoying than alarming. As a compromise Patience gets to hang from the rafters of the ceiling in the room that they question her in. After a bit of mind magic from Syrabane and the DM misreading a spell Pain is surprisingly helpful and actually fills the group in on the Iron Circle’s plan of removing bodies from the hall of the dead and taking them to a hideout to experiment on them. She tells the group that they either raise them as undead, use them as hosts for devils, or occasionally other necromantic experiments. The group decides to leave the manor and see if they can gather clues about the body smuggling going on.

Conveniently the issue of Patience’s true heritage is revealed when a group of Githyanki Plane shift in front of the group. They are lead by a Githyanki knight named Drozog who declares they have come to return Patience to their home fortress. They need all able bodied Githyanki for the upcoming war in the astral plane. No one asks about this, which is somewhat understandable seeing as a bunch of yellow nazi space goblins just materialized in front of them. Would of been nice though if someone did...

Regardless combat ensues and the group is put into a little bit of a bind by the Githyanki “Inner” Tsul somehow manages to convinces Tsul to give them the metaphorical “reins” as it turns out he is actually a lot better at tactical thinking. Thus the legendary tactical formation known as “Eight Horses cornering a tough guy so he can’t move” was born. Generals around the empire take note and horse training doubles around the land. Drozog manages to teleport back which seems pretty cheap, but hey they can do that. The group decides to sell all the dead Githyanki equipment, which includes armor made in the astral plane and silvered swords. This is a poor judgement call on their part.

###

### **Chapter 4 - To Start a Fire**

####

Thanks to Pain (and the DM misreading a spell) the group now knows that the Iron Circle leader in Sparrow is named Traneiros, and is ranked as the the First circle, one of the nine circle leaders. Pain never directly worked for Traneiros and instead was a spy under orders from Ulfang the Black, the third circle and the Iron Circle member that Sena mentioned back in chapter 1. The group knows that the wererat’s name is Leu-Chin and he was hired to steal an artifact that Ulfang wanted from mistwalker manor. She wasn’t sure of the purpose of it but knew it was a magical amulet of some kind. She isn't sure of the location for the main Sparrow base but knows of the whereabouts of a lieutenant named Egor Slashblast who is smuggling the bodies around the city.

#### **Hunting the Iron Circle**

The group does a bit of sleuthing around town to try to gather more information about this “Traneiros” eventually learning that the current head priest of Bahamut in Sparrow has the same first name. The group visits the temple of Bahamut and meets with a few acolytes and with Traneiros. He seems pretty normal and talks to the group about how attendance has be dwindling lately and it seems like in the last few months fewer and fewer prayers have been answered. The group ignores this worrying concerns and instead squints at him distrustfully due to their suspicion of someone sharing a name with someone else in a city of a few thousand.

That night the group decides to do some stakeouts and look for anyone moving around carts of bodies. That should stick out right? The group gets a whiff of something foul and starts to follow what they believe to be Iron Circle members moving around some carts with cargo. Galarin comes up with a idea of sneaking into the wagon of dead bodies and trying to blend in. No one else thinks that this is a good idea and even when combat eventually starts Galarin still tries to sell it by acting like a dead body. This was mostly due to Galarin doing a very poor job and selling it and also knowing that Aglig and Vehri don’t have a stealthy bone in their bodies. Vehri tries to sneak up through an alley to get a better view but unfortunately she crashes into a pile of garbage and the Iron Circle members are alerted. As the Iron Circle members come to investigate the noise the rest of the group tries to hide (except for Galarin who tries to go around to the cart) however this is in vain as Vehri gets up and shouts “Flame On!” activating her new flaming sword. To no one’s surprise this attracts more attention and a fight begins.

The fight is a little rough and the group gets pretty beaten up, this is primarily due to a Patience wanting to stay hidden and Galarin getting into the cart full of corpses and trying to blend in. We also start to see how terrifying Vehri is with her new flametongue.

The group enters the base and explores around, fighting various Iron Circle members until going into a small chamber where a summoning ritual is being performed. Unfortunately they are unable to stop it in time and have to fight a summoned devil. Carrying on the group finds a treasure stash and takes the valuables that they can find. They come across Egor Slashblast who keeps his distance while firing his heavy crossbow at the group. The group finds partial cover however they are unsure of how much they want to advance knowing that Egor’s crossbow hits hard.

Aglig uses his spiritual weapon spell, which conjures an ethereal glowing weapon that can do melee attacks, the weapon form he chooses is a bow. He moves the bow around and it smacks people. Aglig realizes he didn’t fully think this through. Eventually the group defeats Egor through a clever shatter spell. The group goes through the remainder of the base and learns through notes and journals that the main Iron Circle base in Sparrow is located underneath the temple of Bahamut and that Traneiros is actually the first circle that they suspected him to be. The group leaves the base to recover and plan their assault.

While in a carriage ride, Aglig and Galarin discuss with Pain that the Iron Circle will most likely be looking for her once Traineros is taken down, knowing that she was. Agreeing that since her capture she has been peaceful and helpful they both agree to let her go however she must make it look like an escape. As they cross a bridge Pain bursts out of the carriage and dives into the river. Patience however is quite angry that the Tiefling gets to just leave and he also jumps off the bridge into the river. Patience isn’t able to catch up as it turns out he isn’t a great swimmer. When the carriage driver asks if the group should stop Aglig and Galarin tell them to keep going. As they arrive at the temple in the evening Patience catches up to the groups saying he lost his wallet in the river. The group is confused about where he even kept it based off the assless chaps, jock strap, and lack of pockets in his vest.

Through a mixture of wild shaping and stealth the group is able to open the entrance to the lair underneath the temple by pulling down on the main chandelier of the solar room. The group fights through the undertemple eventually getting to what they believe to be the main chamber. Deciding that the Iron Circle already knows of their presence Vehri decides to ride into battle on horse Tsul. She mounts onto horse Tsul, opens the doors to the next chamber and shouts “The jig is up!” The battle between the group and Traneiros begins, he has a few followers and devils there with him. As the battle goes on Traneiros declares that he is channeling the power of Zariel and morphs into a much larger devil form. Tsul attempts the use the “4 giant venonmous snakes biting” strategy, unfortunately Devil Traneiros is immune to poison damage and is covered in spikes. The snakes do not fare well, however we all learn that Giant Octopodes make great tank allies.

Leaving the main chamber and exploring other parts of the temple that they hadn’t gone the group finds a flesh golem that has gone berserk due to its master (unknown who it was) being killed. Syrabane accidentally makes it worse by hitting it with his Witchbolt spells and he overcharges it with lightning making it even stronger. The group defeats the golem and raids the undertemple for equipment.

Syrabane gets a magic scepter that has a special power for warlocks, he has yet to use it to this day. Additional magic items of note are goggles of night vision and a pouch of dust of disappearance, both of which go to Patience. By clearing out the threat of the Iron Circle in Sparrow they are granted the titles by Decem Manus Ian Banderbottom and are given permission to enter Archon’s Knot.

#### **Archon's Knot**

Being inspired by the magical experiments they witnessed Syrabane and Galarin decide to make something of their own. The two perform a ritual and end up creating an adorable homunculus. The homunculus seems to really have a thing for potatoes and radishes so it is named Tater. Secretly Tsul also feeds Tater bits of purple goo from the crash site. How could this possibly go wrong?

The group goes to fort Brightfoot and learns a bit of history about Archon’s Knot. As the hero Sparrow had settled the city he decided to build a large dungeon to test those who wished to acquire his treasures. The guards at the fort tell them that no one who has entered has ever returned and that the last adventuring group that went in was 25 years ago. The group accepts that a challenge and enters the dungeon. After a few hints and a leap of faith the group enters the lower portion of the dungeon where things begin to become a bit more challenging. They first encounter a wraith like warrior who appears to have originally been from Fradenkalde. After defeating the wraith they solve a statue puzzle that requires great strength and are awarded with the ruby gem required as a key, along with bracers of defense, a stag helmet, and a frostwolf pelt.

The next wraith they encounter is the most ethereal of all of the wraiths in the dungeon, she appears to have previously been an elf or a half-elf. The caster wraith floats up high in the puzzle room of skill and is almost able to temporarily banish Vehri to the ethereal plane, however the group prevails. The group finds an arcane blunderbuss, boots of elvenkind, a dagger of venom, a set of midnight sixes, and four bombs.

Between the next puzzle the room comes across two wraiths, one appears to have been human of half-elf as he glides around the hallway with boots that gush water out of the soles. The other appears more bestial, Vehri belives that this was once a shifter who was twisted in undeath. They fight off the duo of wraiths and claim the surfsurge boots from the one wraith. After the right they find a chest and investigate it, it turns out of the be a mimic and it’s jaws clamp down onto Aglig’s arm. In a panic he asks the group for help, Galarin makes an offhand comment wondering if Goliaths can regenerate lost limbs. This later proves to be quite ironic.

The group moves onto the next puzzle room that gives them a bit of a challenge. A creature that can be best described as a baby angel made of blude mud appears in the small library and tells the group that before they can leave the room they must correctly tell the mud baby the correct order of the founding for the five largest guilds in Sparrow. The groupy quickly learn that if they fight the mud baby the damage it sustains just forms another mud baby and so on, they realize that combat is not the way through this room and they need to stall the mud babies. The group begins to solve the puzzle however Galarin thinks they are all wrong and thinks it’s something else. Galarin loses his shit. The rest of the group figures out the puzzle. Galarin complains that whoever designed it did a bad job. Galarin is drunk and the multiverse pauses to take a deep breath before the multiverse decides to smite Galarin. In this puzzle room we discover a taliman similar to the one that Syrabane took from the ransacked wagon all the way back in chapter one. The two talismans begin to glow when they are near each other and everyone realizes that they are probably magical and part of a set. The Divine Charger and The Blue Archmage talismans are analyzed and some of their powers are discovered.  Additional treasures found in the room are a headband of intellect, a ring of spell storing, a cloak of the manta ray, and a scroll of water breathing and scroll of teleportation circle.

The group makes their way to the final room where they discover the final wraih, a strange pale body that seems to constantly shift around and seems to have exposed injured organs. In addition to the wraith is a zombie beholder. A difficult fight ensues and Syrabane finally uses the first ability of the Divine Charger talisman and summons a spectral silver haired paladin named Leeroy who charges in. Leeroy holds his own for a bit but he eventually is defeated and fades away. Galarin is knocked unconcious by the Galarin and his arm is bitten off by it, despite seeing the irony in this Aglig rushes into the save Galarin from death. The group manages to defeat the wraith and the zombie.

The spirit that resides in the Zudanaichi takes the group on a vision quest where she and her allies go after the Elder Lich Ultimas when he harnesed a sphere of annihilation. Ultimas creates a magical construct that channels the negative force energy from the sphere into a giant beam weapon that destroys everything in its path. This is made more problematic due to said construct being attached to a floating castle that is heading to a major city. The heroes fight hordes of undead and fight the greather Lich himself. The heroes that survive the initial fight with Ultimas perish as they destroy the sphere before the tower can destroy the city of Gideon. The heroes are brought back the the present  and to the top of the dungeon through a magic elevator after the vision. The Zudanaichi declares that it has chosen Vehri as her partner. She becomes even more terrifyingly strong.

Knowing that they need to deal with Galarin’s missing arm the group visits a rock Gnome who goes by the name Tinker. This isn’t actually his real name but he explains that Gnome naming conventions are long and complicated due to Gnomes really loving names. It’s just easier for non-gnomes to call him tinker. The group looks at the selection of arms and Galarin is oddly silent and stays outside, this seems like it would be an incredibly important decision for him to be there and make...however he isn’t and the group buys him the cheapest arm that they can get. Galarin installs his new F1DG37 Model 2 prosthetic arm and realizes that whenever he casts a spell there is a chance that the arm will disengage and pop off. He is quite annoyed...

### **Chapter 5 - Into the Darkness**

Clearing the city of Sparrow of it’s Iron Circle influence and clearing out Archon’s Knot the group now decides it is time to head to Stormfast to hunt down Ulfang the Black and help Sena’s family. The Decem Manus of Sparrow has arranged for a ship to take the group to Stormfast rather than them travelling by foot. He says that its captain, Cameron Bluegill owes him around 34 favors. The voyage via ship should take around 4 days.  Along the voyage however Tater’s danger sense begin to tingle and he flies off. Tsul and Syrabane also have a weird tingly feeling.

The group directs Cameron to change course and follow the flying homunculus towards Moongazer mountain. The group takes a small craft to the shore and heads towards where they believe Tater has flown to. They come across a group of cultists at the base of the mountain, they are muttering strange phrases and one of the cultists seems to be holding an orb as a focus. After a few moments a small orb of purple light appears in between the ring of cultists, it then quickly expands into a planar rift. The group engage the cultists and a few rush in through the portal while the others fight the group. After defeating the cultists that stayed outside the group recovers the orb which they believe to be the Starmap from the Tower of Mages. Knowing that some of the cultists that went into the portal were discussing retrieving something  the group decides they should go as well thinking it might be some powerful artifact or something else. Regardless of what it is they don’t want the cultists to get a hold of it.

As the group enters the portal seems to close behind them after a minute or so which seems a bit problematic. Also an issue is that the group appears to be in a cave in another plane of existence, outside they can hear the wind howling in a way that is so unsettling that spending a long period of time exposed to will cause exhaustion and minor bits of insanity. As they take a few steps into the cave they also realize that visibility is an issue. Even those with darkvision can only see about 5 feet or so in front of them. The whole cave seems to be filled with magical darkness. This causes the group to be the most cautious they have ever been. As they slowly work their way through the cave they are occasionally attacked by strange aberrations, combat is made considerably more challenging due to limited visibility as the group is constantly being ambushed. The more they explore the cave the more they also discover dead cultists. At one point Vehri and Aglig enter into a small passageway and realizing it is just the two of them she gets uncomfortably close to him, particularly his face and Aglig blushes quite a bit. Upon seeing Aglig and Vehri walk out of a hidden passage together and Aglig blushing and Vehri having a mischievous look, Tsul is furious and begins her rivalry with Vehri.

A cloaker, a giant manta ray like creature that lurks on cave ceilings, descends down onto the group and manages to kill Patience. The group manages to pull Patience out of its mouth and Aglig uses one of his diamonds to cast revivify and brings him back from death. Eventually the group gets towards the entrance to what they believe to be a medium or large cavern. A malevolent voice begins to follow group and growls “thief.” Appropriately this freaks the group out. Before they can fully retreat a huge blast of psychic energy hits all of them. The group quickly advances in the opposite direction. The voice however continues to follow them and it seems to focus a bit more on Tsul. The group immediately asks her “WHAT DID YOU DO?” Tsul just responds saying she doesn’t know, she doesn’t think she has done anything. The first glimpses of creature is a spindly bat like creature with a twisted over face. The group is concerned as it seems to be moving around quickly and through the group. It strikes with claws and with psychic blasts. As the fight in the dark goes on they piece together that there are four creatures, possibly clones of one original.

Knowing that the creature(s) is targeting her quite a bit, Tsul drinks the potion of fire breath that she received back at the Iron Circle base in Sparrow and then transforms into an Allosaurus. Aglig then climbs onto her and rides her. It would truly be a sight to behold if it wasn’t so damn dark in here. Eventually they defeat the shadow creature and in its place is a glowing purple sphere. Patience reaches up and grabs it and it is absorbed into his hand. This grants him the Deep God mark of Shadow. After a bit of struggling and the group going a little insane Patience manages to open up another rift so that they can escape.

 Upon returning to the material world a strange entity appears before the group, the entity almost appears to create a human shaped window to the astral sea. It lifts an arm up and points at Patience. The words “I see you” echo through everyone’s minds and then the figure dissipates. It’s quite concerning but the group decides to go try to find Cameron and get back on the boat. Cameron and the ship are nowhere to be found. Annoyed the group walks the rest of the way to Stormfast noticing that it seems slightly colder than they remember. Aglig tries to activate the Star Map just to see if it is actually that Star Map. It is actually the Star Map, however rather than showing a map of constellations it seems to show an outline of the northern continent with a locator of where they are and a dimming purple light right next to them.
After a few days the group finally arrive in Stormfast, after talking to a few gatemen they realize that the flow of time in the rift was completely different timeflow than in the material plane. What a day was for them was two weeks in the material world. The group is let into the city and they begin to try to come up with a plan to investigate Jordis Malvoni.

### **Chapter 6 - Blood and Thunder**

After arriving in Stormfast Galarin tells the group that he is going to follow up with some contacts of his and see what information he can gather. He is never seen from again. Despite their companion going missing the group continues on their current mission and using their titles gained from the Decem Manus of Sparrow, Aglig and Vehri are able to acquire an audience with fellow Decem Manus Alexis Tempesta.

Alexis doesn’t personally believe that the Aeravanonel’s have committed any crimes themselves and is frustrating at the Patrician infighting going on in Stormfast. She tells Aglig and Vehri that Jordis has accused the Aeravanonel of being iron circle conspirators as well and she is dealing with immense pressure from her council due to the events at Kald and Riverwren twenty some years ago.

Aglig and Vehri eventually emerge from Summerwind Castle and discuss with the Devas the issue at hand. As they walk through the streets and talk about the issue a cloaked figure bumps into the group and gives them a note saying to meet in an alley at a nearby tavern. Having a “sure why not” vibe the group goes to meet the person. It turns out to be the cloaked figure who introduces himself as Gin Tatsumaki, captain of the Aeravanonel’s guard and forces. He reveals that he has been in cryptic communication with Sena and that she informed of him the party as potential allies weeks ago. After talking with the group Gin agrees to ally himself with them and prove his adoptive family’s innocence. Gin provides some evidence that Jordis is working with the 3rd Circle, Ulfang the Black. For a moment the group is slightly confused because they feel like they should be dealing with the Circle leaders in order...this puzzles Gin.

Regardless the group heads back to Summerwind Castle and asks to set up a meeting with Decem Manus. Surprisingly after a few minutes a handful of guards come directly to the group and state that Alexis wishes to meet personally with Aglig...but not any of the others. This infuriates Tsul but Aglig decides to go ahead with the meeting anyway. Despite Aglig trying to keep the meeting focused on the Iron Circle Alexis is oddly flirty with him and keeps redirecting the conversation to questions about him. Tsul, who has wild shaped, is spying on the meeting and is distraught when Aglig seems to be flirting back with Alexis. Unknown to Tsul Aglig’s flirting is mostly to keep up appearances and to please one of the most powerful nobles in the land. Tsul however takes this as a slight against her and leaps off of the balcony that she is perched on. This is problematic due to the castle itself being 300 feet above sea level, and the balcony itself is another 100 feet above that. Forgetting that gravity is a thing she plummets to her death. The party manages to recover her body as she starts the reincarnation process.  Syrabane stalls their reincarnation, however Tsul’s body is warped with two distinct halves. It appears that “Inner” Tsul has one distinct half and outer Tsul has the other. Inner Tsul becomes more vocal as he and Outer Tsul are now equally “piloting” their shared body. Gin allows the group to stay in his safehouse as Tsul’s condition stabilizes.

When returning to Summerwind Castle the group learns that Patrician Malvoni is in a closed door meeting with Alexis and that he has already arranged for Rilian and Xaver Aeravanonel to be transferred to another prison. This causes immediate concern and some Malvoni guards come in with orders to arrest the group. Although Outer Tsul wants to immediately start a fight Aglig is willing to go along temporarily.  The group is imprisoned briefly however they notice that Rilion and Xaver are already gone. Using Detect Magic they see that a teleportation circle was inscribed in the floor and was most likely used to teleport Rilion and Xaver to wherever the Iron Circle wanted  though due to some epic wall climbing from Gin and Tsul using Pass Without Trace they are able to escape.

After escaping the group lays low in Gin’s hideout. Knowing that Ulfang often acts as a sort of pirate lord the group believe it is likely that he is smuggling the Aeravanonels via ship. Unsure of which ship or where they might be headed the group heads down to the docks to try to gather some information. After visiting various taverns they finally come across one that is shady enough to hold some actual pirates. Gin agrees to take part in a fist fighting competition to gather some information. Gin handedly wins the few boxers that are willing to take him on and is told about a recent ship hiring sailors for an journey transporting cargo to Mount Kraza, the large volcano that is two to three days journey out into the ocean.

The group has a stakeout at the docks in hopes to catch the ship before it leaves and hopefully intercept the Iron Circle members as they are loading the ship. Unfortunately as they arrive and start to setup their perimeter they realize that the ship is already loading with a hulking cloaked figure barking out orders at the crew. Patience sneaks closer and is able to see that the cloaked figure is actually a chain devil who is the acting captain of the ship. Patience is able to overheard that Xaver and Rilion are already on the ship and they are ready to depart. Unfortunately by the time he rejoins the group the ship is already departing. The next morning the group is able to find a captain, Neville Shortop and his ship the Nimbus 3, that are willing to travel to Mount Kraza for a hefty fee.

#### **Mount Kraza**

As the group sails near the Volcano they notice some strange dark clouds begin to gather around the top of the Volcano. Captain Neville is able to get the group to a clear landing site while avoiding the few Iron Circle ships that are also anchored near the volcano.

The group fights their way up the volcano, cutting through mercenaries, Iron Circle members, and devils. This process is eased somewhat by Tsul casting Call Lightning and blasts through a good amount of enemies. As the party clears a small ravine they rush towards the top of the mountain only to find a large group of the Iron Circle already there. Towards the mouth of the Volcano the chain devil captain is seen with Rilion and Xaver who are bound. No far away is who the group believes to be Ulfang, he is leading a bound and tied Sena who seems to be stumbling in a way that suggests is under the influence of a substance or spell. Ulfang turns and greets Gin and the rest of the group and congratulates them on making it this far and assumes that they were the ones who took out Traneiros. He draws out an amulet and a dagger and slits the throats of three Aeravanonels and shoves their bodies into the crater of the volcano. This sends Gin into a rage, he charges forward towards the devils and warriors.

The Chain devil captain, spined devils, and iron circle soldiers manage to hold the group off while Ulfang descends the volcano making it to a ship. He heads off while the group rush after Gin who is fighting the large crew that he left behind. After the fight winds down Gin screams out in rage and anguish over not being able to stop the Aeravanonels from being sacrificed. Gin tries to commit suicide via volcano, which to be honest is a pretty epic way to go out, however Aglig grabs onto him at the last moment and saves him. The group descends down the mountain and find a remaining Iron Circle ship and take it over.

#### **Temple of Sacred Storms**

The group follow Ulfang’s ship and eventually come across them anchored just seemingly out in the open water. Tsul uses speak with animals to talk to some bro-doplhins that tell her that there is a large rock structure near Ulfang’s ship and it appears that there is an underwater cave. Tsul reports translates to the group and after seeing a strange dark energy twist out of the water and into the sky they decide that must be where Ulfang is. Mysteriously Spirit Bear Lebowski disappears and Aglig is unable to connect with him. This does not bode well for whatever strange energy is coming from the water. Aglig uses the scroll of water-breathing that he acquired back in Archon’s Knot. This enables Aglig, Gin, Vehri, and Syrabane to breath underwater. Patience uses his Cloak of the Manta Ray to breath underwater and to propel himself around and Tsul turns into a giant octopus. As the group swims closer to what they believe to be the entrance to the cave a group of Merrows, fiend like merfolk, attack the group. Gin, Aglig, and Vehri all struggle some due to their armor causing them to slightly sink. Vehri initially believing to be at a disadvantage due to not wanting to get wet and Flametongue not working discovers that having a magical blade that arcs with electricity works tremendously well underwater. She makes quick work of the Merrows and the group is able to enter into the cave.

As they emerge from the water they come across a group of Kuo-Toa, monstrous humanoid fish people, who have been hiding from the Merrows and Ulfang. The group tries to have a discussion with the Kuo-Toa but no one can communicate with them that well. Aglig seems to space out in thought for a few a moments and when he comes to he sees that the Kuo-Toa have been slaughtered. When asked for an explanation he is told that Tsul and Syrabane tried to communicate but the Kuo-Toa interpreted it as a threat and begin to raise their weapons at the group. Feeling responsible Aglig walks over their bodies and performs a simple ritual to help their souls pass on. Once he finishes the ritual he notices a cave painting that depicts a strange squid like creature. The group looks it over and determine that it must have been there for thousands of years. They wonder if it was painted by Kuo-Toa that worshipped a kraken of some kind.

The group goes further into the cave to discover an ancient elemental temple. As they depict the runes carved into pillars and walls they learn that this temple is known as the temple of Sacred Storms. Once inside they see Ulfang at the main altar point performing some kind of ritual with four amulets, however he has enacted a magical barrier that blocks immediate access to him. The group explores the temple in hopes of finding a way to access the altar room. Along the way they discover another mysterious talisman, the talisman of the Elemental Spirit, and Aglig equips it. Coming to a room with puzzle room involving a riddle and some spheres the group channels their knowledge of the elements and seasons. At last the barrier falls once the puzzle is solved and the group has access to Ulfang.

The fight with Ulfang begins and although the rogue gets a few good hits on the group the tide shifts as the group begins to surround him. However Ulfang turns the situation to his advantage when he shifts into his Devil form, channeling an aspect of Mammon to become a giant black hydra. As the fight goes on the group is worn down more and more by Ulfang’s hydra form. The more damage they deal the heads sprout from the creature and the more attacks it gains. Aglig manages to keep the group healed long enough using his spells and newly acquired totem summons from his talisman. Eventually Vehri and Gin are able to slay the devil.

The group notices an ancient looking trident in an altar towards where Ulfang was performing his rituals. Various members of the group try to remove the trident from its slot in the altar however the trident only allows Aglig to remove it. Once he removes it from the altar he immediately hears a voice in his mind from the trident. It introduces itself as Wave, a sentient trident, and asks if Aglig worships Melora. Aglig tells it that he worships nature itself and Melora by proxy. Wave psychically exclaims “that’s good enough for me!” Let’s get moving new partner.” Aglig isn’t quite sure what to do with this newfound ally/weapon.

After returning to their stolen ship they see the tail end of the dark energy whipping into the sky. Still unable to contact Spirit Bear Lebowski Aglig tries to reach out to the nature spirits but is unable to. After Wave offers, Aglig uses it as a conduit to commune with sea spirits and is only able to feel the waning energies of spiritual energies before they fade out. As the group gives up hope and unsure of what to do next Spirit Bear Lebowski, using his personal closeness to him, temporarily possess Aglig and tells the group “Get Aglig to the well...the worm is here...tearing everything...eating everything...we need him...” Regaining consciousness Aglig asks what the hell just happened and informs him. He in turn tells them that he has heard stories of a spring near the godspines referred to as the Well of Spirits. The group has a new destination.

### **Chapter 7 - Visions**

Wasting no time the group sails from Mount Kraza southeast to Longmont and then follow the river inland until their hijacked ship can’t go any further. The group departs on foot and heads along the river towards the Godspines. Having a vague idea of where to go Aglig leads the group to an area at a base of a mountain where there appears to be a small amount of humanoid traffic. The party finds some natural springs near the base of a mountain in a cavern and notes that there a few people coming in and out of the water. The cavern itself is full of elven and goliath carvings and symbols as well as a few nature spirit idols that Aglig recognizes. Tsul and Aglig are able to detect a small amount of magical and natural energy coming from the springs but not nearly the amount the expected to find, they believe this isn’t the actual Well of Spirits.

After wandering around the area for a bit they come across a small pool of water that seems to reach down incredibly deeply. The group believes this to be the actual Well of Spirits. They each wade into the small pond and sink, only to come out the other side of a large pond in what they believe to be the spirit plane. As the group walks out of the pond and onto land they look at each other and realize they all have somewhat different appearances.

Aglig’s tattoos glow brightly but otherwise he appears normally. Gin is surrounded by shadows and sinks down into the ground when he stands still for too long. His blades appeared rusty and chipped. His mask is now blank. Vehri has fire and lightning on her claws and forearms, as well as swirling around her. She has a warm aura about her and her footprints glow with green light for a few minutes afterwards. Tsul is now very tiny, around five feet tall at most, her voice is weak. She has green scales all over her, two tiny wings on her back, as well as a green frill that runs from the top of her head down her back to her waist. Syrabane is wet and cold to the touch. He has a third eye on his forehead.  Patience has a purple and red eye. The mark on his hand glows intensely, occasionally his right arm turns mostly invisible showing only glowing purple veins that fade around his shoulder. Whenever he unsheathes the dagger of red chaos horrible screams can be heard coming from it. As the group look each other over they notice an extra person there with them all. This mysterious figure is bright and unstable, almost flickering at times. His voice echoes and sounds like Male “Tsul.” He is tall, around 6’7” and identifies himself as Kalu, known to them as Male/Inner Tsul. Kalu’s spirit form and Tsul can act as separate entities in the spirit realm and this allows them to be able to act apart for the first time in thousands of years.

Before the group is fully able to take in each other’s forms and being able to talk to Kalu a massive bear spirit approaches the group. Everyone is cautious at first but as the bear begins to speak it reveals that is actually the true form of Spirit Bear Lebowski. He informs the group that whatever ritual that Ulfang did has reached into the spirit plane. A massive evil spirit known as the Lindworm has been released and it is trying to break into the material world. This is a major problem as the Lindworm will devour the souls of everything in its path and is only really able to be contained in the spirit plane. Spirit Bear lets the group know that in a nearby Elgara Tree there is a structure known as the “Vault.” The Vault can contain any spirit that is placed into it, it just needs someone who is compatible with it to perform the activation. Spirit Bear Lebowski believes that there is a chance that Aglig is compatible with the Vault and could use it to trap the Lindworm. He notes however before it can hold a new spirit the Vault will destroy any spirit it is currently containing. Spirit Bear warns the group to help Aglig steel himself as there will most likely be another spirit pleading for its existence from inside the Vault.

The group starts the voyage to the Elgara tree and along the way they see the massive twisting serpent that is the Lindworm as it tries to break through the barrier between the planes in the sky of the spirit plane. The group come across a large ravine and a gate of sorts. As they all approach the gate blue flame like letters appear in the gate, it informs the group that it will build a bridge for them if it can answer a few riddles. The bridge spirit asks the group 4 riddles and with each correct answer twisting thick vines burst out and a bridge grows before their eyes. The group is able to move on.

They come across a stream and follow it and the spirits travelling along it to a spring of sorts. Spirit Bear Lebowski refers to this spring as the Fountain of Far Sight and tells them that if they drink from the mainspring they will either receive an answer or a vision.

Fountain of Far Sight, Vehri is the only member of the who has a vision appear to her. “You are underground, in a great cavern. In the wall of front of you there is a large crack that runs along it, it is 20 feet long and at its widest point it is 2 feet wide. As you look in you see that on the other side of the crack is a glowing astral sea.”

The group finally arrives at the Elgara tree and see a number of human sized wood spirits wandering around, at first the group seems on guard and hostile but as soon as they calm down the wood spirits acting as guardians back off. Aglig goes up the Elgara tree and places his hand on it, he has a spiritual moment of connection with the tree and it acknowledges his potential and accepts him as a Vaultkeeper. The Elgara tree notes that Aglig’s inherent spiritual aptitude as well as his ability to banish people to the spirit plane makes him an excellent Vaultkeeper. The tree imbues him with energy to help him unlock his abilities. The Elgara tree moves some of its roots and the group is permitted to go under the tree to the main vault.

Underneath the tree the group wanders down until they come across a cavernous space filled with roots, vines, animal spirits, and a orb like structure that they assume to be the Vault. The Vault itself is seemingly made out of stone is is almost shaped like a large eye.  On the side of the Vault facing them is what appears almost like a circular glass. As the group approaches Aglig sees the spirit that is in the vault and he freezes in place. The spirit in the the Vault seems to recognize Aglig is pounding on the glass and looking ecstatic. Aglig knows that the spirit inside is Gireluk.  Aglig realizes that he must have always had the ability to be a Vaultkeeper because when he accidentally banished Gireluk he might have sent him directly into the vault. He tells the rest of the group to back outside. When Tsul protests he snaps at her and yells at everyone to leave him alone so he can perform the ritual, although they hesitate eventually the group complies.

Aglig slowly walks up to the Vault, half smiling, half crying. Gireluk tries to speak to him but no noise seems to pass through the Vault either way. A few moments pass as the two Goliaths look at each other. Aglig mouths a few words to Gireluk hoping he can read his lips, Gireluk looks back confused at him. Aglig then reaches inside himself and pressing his hands against the Vault begins to process to destroy Gireluk’s spirit and trap the Lindworm inside.

On the outside the group is unsure of what is going on, the passage of time in the spirit plane is incredibly distorted. However after what they estimate to be around 30 minutes they hear the Lindworm begin to screech as it is pulled into the base of the Elgara tree. They know that Aglig must have succeeded. Aglig emerges from the tree and he appears cold and broken. He doesn’t speak to anyone but simply walks in front of everyone and raises both of his hands. The entire spirit plane seems to warp around the whole group and before they know they find themselves in front of the pond again. Aglig pleadingly asks everyone to go back and the group does so.

After returning to the real world Aglig and Syrabane begin the process of separating Tsul from Kalu. Now being able to detect his personal spiritual energy Aglig is able to latch onto the two separate energies with the knowledge he has gained from becoming the Vaultkeeper proper. After separating the two the group makes camp for the night, as they look up they realize it is a full moon.The newly separated Tsul wishes to spend the night with Aglig however he rejects her and wishes to be alone in the cold winter air.  As first watch starts it appears as though there is a small meteor shower in the sky above.

## Act 2

### **Chapter 8 - The Darkest Night**

The winter solstice is finally upon us, the longest night with a new moon. Aglig mourns on his own while the rest of the group spends time with Kalu and Tsul as they get used to having their own bodies. As morning comes and Spirit Bear Lebowski is able to join the group again the party knows that things in the spirit plane have returned to a sense of normal. Curious about the lights that the group saw they activate the starmap only to have it show a strange new light near what they believe to be the city of Bastian. The group has a new direction and heads through the Split Woods along the Azure river towards Bastias. Aglig can’t help but chuckle at the sad irony of him travelling through the mountain range he used to call home.

After two days of travelling the group arrives at the outskirts of Bastian only to find a hastily put together wooden barrier outside one of the main walls. The group notices as handful of soldiers nearby and asks what the barrier is for. The soldiers look over the odd looking group that is the party and then tell them that some strange magic sphere fell out of the sky a few nights ago. The party is allowed to take a look at the sphere and see a large glowing orb of astral energy surrounded by three metal rings that are rotating around the orb. As they get closer Patience’s shadow mark begins to glow and crackle confusing everyone and causing the soldiers to believe that the group is attempting to perform magic on the orb. Patience’s arm jerks up on its own and points itself at the orb. The rings around the orb spin quicker until they all align themselves and rotate around the orb on a single axis. This makes the orb appear eerily like a portal or gate of some kind and Tsul takes the opportunity to literally right into the orb to test out this theory.

Aglig yells out in frustration and tells everyone he will be right back and he’s going to drag Tsul’s ass back. As Aglig enters the gate he is rushed forward at an insane speed. The whole word seems to stretch out around him and after a few seconds him finds himself suddenly still again. He almost falls over from the sudden lack of motion and notices that he is inside the walls of a city with a large crowd of guards with weapons drawn surrounding him. Additionally he is next to another one of the large energy orbs. He immediately hears Tsul declaring herself a goddess that should be worshipped by the common folk. Meanwhile the guards and the nearby civilians are incredibly confused at why two green strangers seemingly walked through the magic orb that fell out of the sky.

Back in Bastias a few minutes after Tsul and Aglig have gone through the gate Patience’s danger senses start tingling and he has a bad feeling in his butt cheeks. Not longer after that a group of githyanki seemingly appear one by one near the orb and approach the group. Finally the last githyanki, Drozog, appears and draws his silvered greatsword. They do not speak to the group like they have previously, instead they immediately go after Patience. Vehri, Patience, and Kalu all notice that the githyanki seem much stronger than they were previously and that their psionic abilities are enhanced. Also they all have eerily bright blue pupils. The group in Bastias is in for a rough fight as they are slashed into and tossed around by the githyankis’ telekinetic powers.

An incredibly confused Aglig asks the guards where they are and one of them answers that they are in Goldborne. This concerns Aglig for a number of reasons, primarily that Goldborne is something around 1400 miles away from Bastias and the rings around the orb have left their “gate” position and are rotating around. What surprises Aglig even more is when they see what appears to be a deva floating through the city towards them. The deva lands and calls off all of the guards. Most of the guards and nearby civilians all bow or kneel to the deva. She brushes this off introduces herself as Garbhyana and asks Aglig and Tsul to come with her to the Dragon Rose tower as they have many things to discuss.. Tsul isn’t having any of it mostly because she is annoyed that everyone nearby seems to be worshipping a deva that isn’t her. Garbhyana seeing Tsul’s attachment to Aglig uses her divine powers to control Aglig’s body into following her. This greatly upsets Tsul but causes both of them to follow along to the Dragon Rose tower.

The fight outside Bastias continues and unfortunately the group seems to be at a major disadvantage without their leader and primary healer. When Vehri is knocked unconscious the group knows that they are in serious trouble. Gin is killed by Drozog and Vehri and Patience are both taken by the surviving githyanki and Drozog. This is unfortunate as Kalu actually had a plan and was trying to act on it, however the multiverse’s attention was temporarily elsewhere and it had poor listening skills and it accidentally ignored Kalu’s plan.

After arriving that the Dragon Rose tower Tsul and Aglig meet four other devas that reside there, Asajan, Kumana, Gulmi, and Bhanara. Asajan immediatly apologizes for Garbhyana’s behavior and tells Aglig that since she is a follower of Melora they had hoped she’d be able to better communicate with him. Upon hearing that Garbhyana is a deva follower of Melora Wave gets some ideas but Aglig manages to temporarily shush him. Kumana asks Tsul how much she remembers of the dawn war and the answers is that she doesn’t really remember much at all about herself. Tsul and Aglig learn of the origins of the dawn war, a great war fought by many gods. During the war many of the gods realized the need for warriors and agent that would be able to adapt moreso than their current angels.  One of which was the deep god, Dea’Koh. A great Leviathan from the far realm that made a pact with Tiamat. Their alliance was never completely stable as Tiamat made another alliance with Asmodeus and planned on betraying Dea’Koh

Seeing that the floating ringed orb is no longer “active” Kalu and Syrabane attempt to use it like Tsul and Aglig have. They both hold their hands up and focus real hard hoping that the simple fact that they are from a different plane will activate the orb. Mysteriously but also incredibly conveniently this does actually work and the rings assume the “gate” position again. Kalu and Syrabane travel through the gate and arrive in Goldborne as well. A number of guards almost collapse at the sight of more devas travelling through the gates. Kalu and Syrabane catch up with Tsul and Aglig as the devas of the Dragon Rose tower immediately notice their presence in the city. Aglig is devastated by the news about Gin, Vehri, and Patience and wishes to return to the site of the battle to bury Gin. The devas of the tower provide a scroll of Teleport so that the group can return easily.

The group buries Gin and notices on the starmap a purple marker of sorts has appeared to the north of them. They decide to head that way assuming it must be more deep god activity. Around a day or of travelling north in Kyzash river valley a purple void appears right in front of the group. Everyone immediately draws their weapons not knowing what to expect. Out of the void tumbles Patience and Vehri who both look incredibly worse for wear. Vehri has a few visible purple veins and Patience....well his left leg is now a tentacle and he has a number of purple streaks all over him. They explain that they were taken to a githyanki astral fortress and were going to be made into soldiers for Dea’Koh. They aren’t sure of what the process would have been but it seems as though Dea’Koh has managed to take over most of the githyanki in the astral sea. Although it took him a couple of attempts Patience was able to escape with Vehri by using his mark to open up a portal to the Void of Shadow. Unfortunately once they were inside the void Patience struggled to open up another portal to let them out. They lost track of time but believe they were in the void for around a week. Patience was obviously twisted by his time their, as was Vehri however her divine protection helped repel most of the corruption. Vehri is overall most dissapointed that she wasn’t able to recover her flametongue but is still grateful that she managed to hold onto Zudanaichi.

The group decides to continue on heading north along the mountains to investigate the new blip on the starmap. After another day of travelling they hear a fight up ahead, the group rushes up to the top of a hill only to see a group of Iron Circle members being slaughtered by a man in red armor. They all stare in disbeleif as Gin Tatsumaki himself cuts down Iron Circle soldier after soldier. He whistles and a black horse with a mane made of fire trots up to him. He hops onto the hellish horse and rides up to group. He greets them cheerfully and the group notices some immediate differences. His skin is a pale gray, almost like that of a corpse. One of his eyes has a black schlera with a red pupil and the other eye has a ghost white pupil. Gone are the two katanas he previously wielded and in their place are what appeared to be warped githyanki longswords. Gin explains that as his soul floated along the Raven Queen must have recognized his rage and his desire for vengeance and decided to raise him as a revenant. When Vehri uses her Divine Sense she can detect that Gin is certainly a Revenant, an undead bound by their quest for justice or vengeance, but she also detects a faint fiendish presence. When questioned about this Gin simply states that he most likely absorbed some of his demon masks powers. The group isn’t fully sure of how they feel about this. However a convenient trait of revenants are their ability to have a sense of direction for wherever their closest enemy is and as Gin’s sword enemy is the Iron Circle he tells the group to continue heading north.

The group continues north and following the star map they come across what they believe to be another portal that has opened up to the Void of Shadow. Nearby are a group of squid like monsters and a shadowy naga emerges from the Void. The squid creatures are only challenging due to their numbers, the naga however poses much more of a challenge. The naga has inherent magical abilities and uses Dominate Person on Vehri and the spells in unfortunately successful. This proves nearly disastrous for the Group as most of the party is knocked unconscious by Vehri as she is being puppeted by the Naga. Tsul is able to use Call Lightning and the amount of lightning that strikes Vehri is enough to subdue her long enough for Tsul to help stablize some of the party and they are able to defeat the naga. Vehri apologizes profusely for what happened and everyone but Tsul accepts the apology.

Patience is able to use his mark to close the portal and the group wonders how many random portals will open now. Regardless they continue to head north towards a town called Stonewood.

### **Chapter 9 - Descent**

The group arrives in Stonewood and notices signs of recent conflict. Knowing that something must have happened they ask around the village and discover that a few nights back a group of drow raiders attacked the town and took a number of townsfolk with them. The group talks to the local patrician and takes a contract to help retrieve them. Gin is frustrated because he can sense that they are not heading directly after the Iron Circle and to blow off steam he finds a male halfling prostitute and spends the night with him. Patience watches from the rafters.

The next morning the group readies themselves for the voyage into the caverns and most likely into the underdark. They travel into the local caves and look for signs of the recent raiders. Finding a few clues they descend deeper and deeper into the earth. After two days journey into the caves they come across a group of drow scouts and fight with them. The group discovers first hand that they need to be careful when facing drow due to their poisoned weapons. After the scouts are defeated the group takes some of the crossbows, crossbow bolts, and Tsul takes a set of enchanted drow armor and a Staff of Swarming Spiders.

After dealing with a roper and some darkmantles the group comes across a room full of glowing fungus. Seeing a chest covered  in the fungus they decide to burn some of it away. The proves to be a poor decision as the fungus releases toxic spores as a defense mechanism. Patience manages to unlock the chest however he is knocked out along with Tsul and Aglig. Gin and Vehri drag them all out and eventually they come to. Inside of the chest was another talisman, the blade in the dark.

The group manages to come across a few townsfolk that were left behind, Aglig sees to their wounds and asks them where they others are. They inform them that they were taken further into the underdark, to the drow city of Thoz’Undekkenia. After healing their injuries they are given a few torches and told to either wait for them to return or to start heading back.

Once the group arrives at the outskirts of the underground city they notice a large amount of massive spiders that are patrolling the walls along with other drow patrols. Tsul transforms into a giant spider to do some recon work. She notices a section of the city that is completely enclose and separated from the rest of the city. She reports back to the group about the area and the group wonders if it is a sort of holding area to break the morale of slaves. They investigate.

Aglig uses *Mold Earth* to open up a passageway into the walled off area. Once inside they notice a run down section of the city, as they look around they notice that all of the drow inside tend to look somewhat sickly. On closer inspection they notice that they all have fungus on them in various stages of growth. As some of the drow notice that there is now and opening an uproar beings to spread through the quarter. Some are ecstatic about the potential for escape and others are terrified that they can leave. The group makes the assumption that this is some sort of quarantined area and that the fungus must spread like an infection. Many of the infected rush for the exit to try to escape the infected ward, thankfully the group is able to get past them and are able to seal the infected quarter back up by Aglig earthbending the walls.

The group finds a blindspot along the walls and Tsul shifts into a more normal sizes spider, she crawls into the city to try to gather more intelligence. Once inside she sees a huge structure that appears to be either a temple or a castle, possibly both. By picking up bits and pieces from passerbys she is able to learn that the structure is the grand temple of Lolth and that it does actually act as a palace to the queen of Thoz’Undekkenia, Web Queen Ulvirmur Beltorza. Running short of time she returns to the group and tells them what she has learned. The group makes a camp outside the city and plans for Tsul to do the same thing the next day.

Spider Tsul returns and heads for the grand temple. She overhears bit and pieces about the recent raids and how the slaves taken from Stonewood are going to a special location arranged by Aunthara Beltorza, who is believed to be one of the queen’s daughters. The strange thing is that the slaves were taken out of the city and marched near the walls towards the far side of the city. Learning this Tsul returns to the group and informs them. The group heads towards the other side of the city and after some investigating find an opening towards the bottom of the one of the walls. The group enters and finds a series of tunnels.

    After going through some tunnels the group finds an amphitheatre of sorts that looks like it might have been an old shrine or temple. They immediately notice a dozen or so cultists chanting and sacrificing people. The sacrifices are believed to be the capturned townsfolk from Stonewood. Before the group can interrupt a large yellow portal opens up to what the group assumes is a Void. Looking at the cultists they notice that only a handful of them are actually drow, others are humans and others are dwarves. The tallest cloaked figure removes its good and the group sees that they are actually a mind flayer. Seeing a mind flayer sends Patience into a rage and he charges at it.  Fighting ensues, Patience and Gin are killed when the Mind Flayer slurps out their brains. For Gin this is a minor inconvenience as his body begins to reform after an hour or so. For Patience however this is the end. With his brain destroyed there is no way to restore him to life. The group mourns the loss of their strange friend. Floating above his body is the mark of shadow waiting for a new wielder. The group debates on what they should do with it but a reformed Gin takes initiative and claims it for himself. After licking their wounds they decide it is best to head into the Void.

#### Into the Void of Mind

As they enter through the yellow void the group is nearly blinded by the bright daylight above, moving from the underground amphitheatre to an open sunny desert. Adjusting themselves to the harsh light and warmth of the sands a few of them notice in the distance a large pyramid like structure with a bright yellow light at its tip. They think that would be as good a place as any to start their search for whatever might be in this void.

Along the way the group finds the skeletal remains of an adult dragon and Tsul obsesses over it, however the group manages to drag her away for the time being and continue towards the pyramid. The sands begin to kick up with the wind and the group begins to fear a void sandstorm will begin soon. The winds pick up more and more and their fears come true as huge amounts of sand are blasted around in swirling gusts of wind. Aglig uses his elemental abilities and creates and earthen dome like structure as a makeshift shelter for the group during the storm. Using this as a distraction Tsul slips away as the storm is beginning to claim some of the dragon bones for herself. Once the rest of the group is safe in the earthen dome Tsul’s absence is noted. Gin volunteers to go off and look for her saying that worse case scenario he dies and reforms somewhere else in either the void or back on the material plane. The group worries about what might happen to him if he reforms in the void and if that would corrupt him even further.

Meanwhile Tsul is happily finding which dragon bones she wants to take from the skeleton when the worst of the sandstorm starts to make its way towards her. She manages to get a good amount of the bones either in her pouches or strapped to herself however the sandstorm starts to seriously injure her and she risks being buried under the sands and suffocating. Thankfully Gin remembered where the dragon skeleton was and correctly assumes that is where the little green one is. With a mostly cloth covered face and his eye of the revenant he is able to rescue Tsul from the sandstorm. As she is being carried and coughing up sand Tsul throws a minor tantrum due to not being able to continue collecting bones. Gin and Tsul are reunited with the rest of the group at Camp rockdome and everyone waits out the rest of the storm.

    After the storm passes the group presses on in exploration of the void as they move closer towards the large pyramid structure. It takes the group a few hours of travel through the extra planar desert to get to the pyramid and to find an entrance to the base level. Once they enter the pyramid they find themselves completely in the dark and what appears to be a maze of some kind. Everyone agrees that they are getting the sensation that they are being watched. Not long after starting the solving of the maze Tsul slips away from the group and tries to explore the maze on her own. This leads to her being attacked by gricks and she is almost killed by them.

### **Chapter 10 - Broken Promises**

#### Family Reunion

Orithae Curse-Spawn Vurakigorou

Keveak

Dhuldahn

#### King of the Mountain

Dea'Koh speaking through a possessed Ragmir

"“ How noble of Ragmir to offer himself as an offering. I....have...been watching you...all of you...for some time now. You....are...tiny fish....in a massive ocean. Yet....you still try. No matter, you will fall soon enough. Even if you have two pieces of me. You will join my forces soon enough, it doesn't matter if your mind or your body fail you first."