Villains Unite

Dolan

Helena

Selena

Yao

Dartak

Ephraim

Cassandra

Sabah

Ikki

Dolan, Helena and Artemis headed over to the rubble of town square on their way to the guild to let Artemis recover and Artemis used Detect magic to notice a small string connecting the prime material plane to the astral plane. This meant the strange creatures, which Artemis identified as Githyanki, had a way to teleport back. Dolan took this information and left for NewTown. Artemis came back to the guild and told everyone that she had gone to Avernus with Selena and Cassandra, and that Selena was drinking blood. Her story wasn’t very coherent but it got the point across.

When Tarthurac woke up, Cassandra told him she had been helping him after he fell. Tarthurac said his memory was fuzzy but he remembered killing a white dragonborn but being knocked out in the process. Cassandra said she was sorry about it, and that she was glad Tarthurac handled the situation. Tarthurac volunteered to recover at Macchio's house rather than in the temple of Sutahn and he left.

Dartak and Selena met in a tavern after she disguised him as a tiefling and they met up with Sabah and Cassandra. They agreed it would be best to keep Dartak out of sight and that Artemis needed to be dealt with because she could blow their cover story. Dartak agreed to stay out of sight and meet them by the second fork in the river in a week’s time and he disappeared. At this time a ranger sitting in the corner of the tavern came over and offered his services. He introduced himself as Ephraim and said he could keep Selena hidden for the next few days. She agreed, and the group headed south of Alfenheim in an attempt to reach the black market.

However, as this was happening, Cassandra showed up at the guild and apologized to Artemis, assuring her that everything they did was for Tarthurac’s good. At this point Kalwain went to ForTown and got Tarthurac.

The next morning Tarthurac showed up and compared his memory to Artemis’ and came to the conclusion that Selena had been messing with his memory. He sent Kalwain south to try to find her, but Selena’s familiar saw Kalwain on the prowl. Ephraim had his pet wolf take something of Selena’s and run south with it to spread her scent, and Kalwain followed the dummy trail while Selena and Ephram slipped into the city and made it to the black market. Inside Selena was promptly caught trying to steal a +1 dagger and she had her pinky sliced off for thievery and was thrown out. She had to pay to have it surgically replaced.

Tarthurac meanwhile got the guild together to raid Selena’s shop, but they found nothing incriminating there. Tarthurac did take back his plans for the cloaks of protection though. Helena used a wild magic surge and was teleported to the astral plane for a moment where she saw a floating island and a fleet of githyanki ships docked around it before being teleported back. Tarthurac left Dolan and the NewTown defenders with orders to arrest Selena if she returned.

The villains met up together one week later and Dartak revealed he had brought another dragonborn from Avernus in this time in case Artemis had blown their cover and they needed a scape goat. He said he could animate it long enough to let Tarthurac kill it so he could feel better about what happened. Dartak suggested Selena claim she had transferred Tarthurac's dragon plague into the red dragonborn that got away, and she had been trying to track it down as her excuse for not being around for the past week. She could say the fuzzy memory was part of the transfer process. It was also revealed that Dartak had his own Paladin’s mount, a chameleon-like drake named Yunab.

Cassandra got Tarthurac’s location from the guild, Ephraim told Tarthurac that Selena was tracking a dragonborn in New Harbor, Selena and Dartak set up the battle and Selena helped Tarthurac kill the reanimated dragonborn on the New Harbor docks, making it look like the dragonborn was trying to get away. Selena convinced Tarthurac she had done it to make good on their deal she made to get his plague out of his arm. Tarthurac agreed to let her go but warned her to keep him updated whenever she decides to pull a stunt like that again.

The villains grouped up again and Dartak volunteered to try to fix the fallen castle of Faerbaron which Selena had found just offshore of Flouna in the ocean. As Dartak was sworn to serve Selena for the next year but had to stay out of sight, setting him on repairing the castle seemed like a good idea. However, he said he would need an artificer, and he suggested they recruit Ikki.

Ikki, on the other hand, had received news from his dwarven contact, Thordin, in his home on Pride’s peak that the dwarves had discovered Dendritic crystal ion their mines and he was in Alfenheim trying to find information on the nature of this strange regenerating crystal. He had learned of the string connecting Alfenheim to the Astral sea and that it was attracted to the crystal but not much else. As he was flying over NewTown, Dartak cast a spell on him to make him land and they offered him the chance of a lifetime, to restore a flying castle.

Ikki was intrigued and the group headed to the ruins of Faerbaron together. They got to the engine room and Ikki used his dendritic crystal to get the engines running again, but not at full power. The castle began to rise to where it was almost completely out of the water. Dartak agreed to stay there with Ikki and repair the castle.