Chapter 8 - A Dark Past, A Bright Future

**Chapter 8** of Greetings Adventurers solves the previous Chapter's mystery of Baldur Oakback's murder, and set up the next Chapter's arc, revealing the overarching plot's main antagonist. We also get more information on Jaela's dark past, and King Titus Harper's dark past. The Chapter is notable for the death of a player character, and the introduction of two new ones. It gets pretty bananas (so to speak).

Following the events of The War of Wyrmsbane Keep, King Titus Harper has decided to go after the sorcerer who tortured and trained him, Longcryer. His friends Queen Aludra Wyrmsbane, Jaela, and Jett Razor have agreed to join him. It is revealed that, during the Five Year Gap, Jaela was tasked by the Raven Queen, the goddess of death, to find and eliminate the lich known as Sinu the Red. The party had been to The Crypt of Sinu the Red previously. Jaela is called to the Raven Queen, who gives her a Raven Dagger, the eyes of which light up when it is time to kill someone, which she must do once per day.

After some trouble on the road, the party eventually rolls up on Longcryer's Tower, where they are met by three of Longcryer's other experiments/students. There is a battle, nearly resulting in Bucky's death, but Jaela saves him. They defeat the apprentices, and step into the Tower, where Harper immediately clutches his head and falls unconscious. He has a flashback to his time at the Tower as a student, when he was only Lord Titus, not King Harper. His time there was awful. He was forced to drink disgusting potion that was meant to help him tap into his powers, and he was put in painful, dangerous situations, meant to trigger an emotional/physical/magic reaction from him. A family servant, and childhood friend of his, Camille Fordane was sent to keep him company. A few weeks go by of this torture, before Harper, after his friend and bunkmate Feslan Wolfblood disappears, attempts to find him and escape. Fes has been brainwashed and the two are made to fight. Fes' fate is unknown, but Harper finds Askur Thunderbeard the Dwarf lackey of Longcryer who would beat him, and deals a fatal wound to him, before learning that it wasn't Askur, but Camille. She dies, and Harper is stopped from trying to escape by the real Askur, who tells him he passed his final test. Then King Harper wakes up.

The rest of them hear the voice of Camille Fordane coming from Harper mouth as he sleeps. Camille warns them that there is a trap that will instantly kill Harper, but there is a way to stop it. The message cuts out. This happens a few more times, with more clues, and the messages getting fuzzier and fuzzier every time. They learn of an "antidote in her jewelry box", and make their way to Faslan's room, after finding and killing Askur, and find the jewelry box. Inside are two syringes, which they talk at length about, before deciding not to give Harper either one, until things start to "go poorly". They lure Longcryer out by puppeteering Askur's body to beckon him down the stair, while all hiding inside Jett Razor disguised as a large cabinet. The fight begins when Jett opens his cabinet door to shoot at Longcryer, revealing the party. Longcryer sees Harper and tells him that he told the boy never to return. Harper responds, *"And I told you to eat my ass."* Longcryer immediately activates all of the potion in his body to explode him, instantly killing him.

After the death of King Titus Harper, the rest of the party traps Longcryer in Jett Razor's Jerk Yurt, where he is slowly tortured to death by the servants that live there. They then hear battle sounds outside, and find their friends fighting more animal masked assassins. Together with the help of two familiar members of The Coven, they take out the assassins. Lex tells them that there is powerful magic emanating from a large city called Glaine, the Jewel of the East, and also reports of some kind of terrifying monster terrorizing the surrounding villages. They send Ros of to Pelor's Hope to tell Harper's widow, Queen Ashayara Dayne, about his death. She takes Bucky, Daisy, Erynn Colleen, and Marlamin Windlore with her, and the rest of the party heads for Glaine.

Lex flies ahead to Glaine, and tells Cornelius Talionis, Archmage of the White Spire of Harper's death. An assistant named Toby Treacletart, who is a huge fan of the adventuring party, is horrified to learn of one of his heroes deaths. Lex asks Talionis what he knows, and Talionis imprisons her for going outside of her domain. Toby later helps Lex escape and she and Wren return to the Coven as the rest of the party makes it to Glaine. They meet Toby, and instantly take a liking to him. He is star-struck to meet his heroes, and tells them that he built a device called a Ranged Arcana Detector that will track the source of magical energy. They agree to let him join the party, and everyone spends the night in the Jerk Yurt.

The next morning Jett Razor is missing. He left a note that says he went into Glaine to "take care of some stuff." Toby needs to power up the RAD, so they go on a quick side quest to harvest some mushrooms. The machine then points back into the city, straight at Toby's home of the White Spire! They sneak back into the city, and meet up with Jett Razor, who says that he was off searching for "batteries", whatever those are. As they approach the White Spire, it suddenly becomes under attack. Several guards emerge and attempt to prevent the party from entering, but they are thwarted. As one is killed, it turns into a gooey state, similar to Jett Razor's gooey state. They learn that the monster they keep hearing about is attacking the tower, and they make their way inside, assuming it is causing the magical disturbances in the RAD. They get to the floor it is said to be on, and find a barred door with something banging on the other side. As they think about what to do, more masked assassins enter and surrounds them.

One of the assassins asks to confirm that the Dwarf is Aludra, and he is answered by his true master... Jett Razor! He turns on his friends, and reveals his true purpose. He comes from a plane/city called Nareev, which existed in its own plane for years before Zird the Arcane destroyed the Fourth Edition of Magic, and brought in the Fifth Edition. This caused his city to be teleported by accident to the world of Drunkeros, where they found the world crawling with demons, and even after the Demon Apocalypse, the people were like insects to them. They used the magic of the White Spire in Glaine to hold their city in place. Jaela attacks Jett and the beast behind the door breaks through, triggering an explosion, which causes the floor to collapse.

In the rubble on the ground, the fight continues, and Jett casts *Heat Metal* on Jaela's armor. Two of his remaining assassins grab him and the three escape, leaving the party to deal with the monster. The unknown creature tunnels its way toward them, and reveals its face. It is the face of Thokas, which Thom the Dragonborn had collected for his collection of body parts. The face greets the party amiably, with the voice of Steve Meloncamp!

**Chapter 8**