Chapter 1

### A joyous morning of humble beginnings

Our story begins on a joyous fall morning in the festival grounds of the Eastden neighborhood of Ashden in the 508th year since the thaw of the Frostbit Coast. It was the first day of the annual fall harvest festival and the citizens of the Ash Isles not only had the festival to look forward to, but to a rare visit from King Iordanos XV to bless a newly built temple dedicated to the elven goddess of Wisdom and Trade, Diera.

Gathered amongst the merchants, locals, and performers were a few faces that would soon become familiar to our story. One, a well dressed half elf named Merkorios, rested his elbow on a balcony railing overlooking the festival grounds and the newly built temple standing across the street. His gaze dotted around the busy square, taking note of any potential threats that could befall his royal father. A row of children are led through the festival grounds by Sansarya Purebreath, an elven princess disguising herself as a mere school teacher. Despite traveling far from home, to distance herself from her past, she still strides through the busy crowd with an aura of royalty. The local druid Synkronos Gaia, a stout half tree / half goliath, was gently making his way through the crowd trying to find the epicenter of the mysterious tremors he had been sensing. Farmers beamed at him as he passed by their stalls, knowing that his careful tending of the Isle had helped lend them the bounty they brought to market that day. Those with a careful eye might have caught sight of Alexander Silverwald, a human dressed in worn down clothes marking his life tough life on the streets of Ashden. His eyes still bore the the cunning curiosity of his academic youth, an ember his street urchin life had not extinguished. Lastly, we have Maegor Arkos, a soldier in training worn down by the horrors of war but still held together by a sense of duty. He scanned the crowd for an opportunity to beseech the king, or anyone else of importance, to deliver the Marquis of West Gholon's message.

A horn echoed in the distance, somewhere further down the roped off road leading from the royal residence to the temple, noting the beginning of the King's March. After a few minutes, the procession to came into view, giving the crowd enough time to find places along the route to get a better view of their monarch. The honor guard entered the square, followed by King Iordanos XV, his wife and Lady of Ashden - Queen Alonash, and Innate Kirhya - the leader of the Dieraian faith. As the full procession came into view, a rumble shook the square. The honor guard paused and draws their weapons forming a defensive position around the king. A second rumble followed, leaving the once bumbling and boisterous square completely silent. The silence was broken by King Iordanos shouting for his Queen to get to safety. As she followed his warning, a significantly louder third rumble broke the silence further. With it, the ground below the king and his guards shattered, sending them into the depths below.

### Can our heroes rise to the occasion

While most of the crowd stands stunned, a royal bastard, a princess in disguise, a street urchin, a local druid, and a worn down initiate spring into action. Reaching the pit, one of them finds a rope and secures it to a nearby post, allowing them to descend into the dark unknown.

A melee ensues but Synkronos' quick thinking turns a skunk thrown at the party into an unlikely ally. Defeating the kobolds, the party scans the room and decides to follow the newly placed cart tracks further into the temple, hoping to find signs of the king and his entourage further inside.

Following the tracks, and dispatching a few enemies along the way, the party found themselves in a circular room baring frescos of a saint's life along the walls and a statue depicting the saint holding up a staff with a glass orb inside of a functional fountain.

South of this chamber, the party found a heavy stone door covered with the residue of numerous explosions. An elven inscription on the door read "Surround yourself with the enlightenment of Saint Aelfthryth and discover the secrets of her journey". After some trial and error, the party discovered that passing light through the orb illuminated numbers on each of the walls. This information allowed them to solve the puzzle to open the secret chamber. Due to their reliance on dark vision, the kobolds were unable to solve this puzzle themselves, instead resorting to brute force via gunpowder.

Opening the secret door, the party discovered a round chamber containing a sarcophagus wrapped with vines. The room also contained a floating deep purple orb, which emanated bird songs and flooded the room with a soft orange light. Hearing the sound of bird songs emanating from the orb, Sansarya and Synkronos approached it. As they did, the party was pulled into a dark endless foreign landscape slightly illuminated by a purple sunset like horizon encircling the entire plane. A lava lamp like bubble emerged from the surface and takes the form of an eight eyed crow. The interior of the bird's wings is made up of spider webs, which appear to be holding back an endless abyss. The crow approached the party and folded the top of its beak back as if casting off a hood, revealing a woman clad in robes made both from only silk and only from foliage at any given moment. Turning to the party, the goddess Deira spoke, "Behold the Eye of Drest, that protected my kin. May it now protect you, for I fear that those who wish to swallow the earth are once again awake. Deal with them my children and you shall be rewarded." Left of kilter and aghast by the divine being before them, the party found themselves drifting back towards the tomb they were formerly in before any could mutter a thought or a question.

Finding themselves on the floor of the chamber, the party regathered their senses and began looking for the king and his entourage once more. Once again following the mining tracks the kobolds installed, the party found a room that once served as the temple's eating chambers but now functioned as the kobold's gunpowder storage chamber. Using his keen senses, Alexander detected a muffled voice coming from the other side of the western wall. Opening the trap door, the party found the wounded king and his remaining guards bound in the pantry.

A medium sized bearded demon squatted on the table above her, chewing on her arm. Ignoring the party, he continued to probe the corpse for answers. Enraged by the demon's actions, the party attacked. With the demon weakened, Alexander went for a killing blow. His short sword hit the mark but instead of falling, the demon vanished in a poof of smoke, departing with a blood curdling laugh.

### The party stands before the privy council

Upon exiting the subterranean temple, the party was immediately escorted by guards before the privy council led by Merkorios' step mother, Queen Alonosh (due to the king's injuries). In attendance were Admiral Bloes, General Gorok, Ambassador Hadid Al Zi, Lord Braden Birch, and Tome-Master Gregory. While the general was asleep and the ambassador was largely uninterested in the proceedings, Birch talked the Queen's ear off about potential measures and Admiral Bloes paced the floor back and forth. Although the queen commanded the party to relay what they discovered, the party chose to keep their cards close to their chest, only revealing a part of their encounter. Bloes' bemoaning regarding the unaccustomed tardiness of his son, Commander Downta, caught both Merkorios' and Maegor's attention, with the later revealing that he had actually crossed paths with the Marquis of West Gholon. The commander had turned his cohort around after hearing of the orc invasion at the Beacon academy and instructed Maegor to relay the news to the authorities at Ashden. Hearing this news, Merkorios immediate demanded that the party ride north to Ol Gholon to provide assistance. Although the young prince wanted to set off in haste, Lord Birch counseled the group to spend the night at his estate while he gathered the necessary provisions for their travel.

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