Episode III: Awakening

***Previous: Episode II: Oasis***

#### Introduction

With their souls returned from Vuul’kira, the Sandstriders realize that their bodies have been used for evil means. Cyric had possessed them and used them to wreak havoc, not only in the Material Plane, but in the Faewild,
 as well. Evils, ancient and new, had been awoken. A great dragon burned
 the city of Styr; the Dwarves fell silent in their caves; the Lizardfolk of Akaeni began attacking the Half-orcs of Woestijn for apparently no reason; and the weather turned chaotic, acting like Winter one day and Summer the next.

Furthermore, a Vitaurum
 crime boss known as the Eighth Son capitalized on the lack of food
caused by the weather, using a front called the Path of Light to further
 his influence in the Central Continent. This same crime boss had sent Laz Ursulus, a drunken rapscallion, to follow the party and report on their whereabouts. Laz joined the party instead.

#### Overview

The Sandstriders had to figure out how to fix what their bodies had caused – and started with the Faewild. However, the Eladrin had sealed the Faewild portal, meaning the party needed to travel through the Shadowfell, the Underdark, and the Faedark in order to get there (see: Planar Pentagon).

They enlisted the help of Dre’, a nervous Drow who agreed to help them after his fellow Lolth cultists had been killed. The travels through the Underdark were perilous, made even moreso when they elected to join Brak’s old adventuring group in their quest to kill Lolth’s daughter Ti’irtha  and reclaim the Heart of their God, Kord. They succeeded, and the Heart fell into the hands of Brak.

In the Faedark, the dark mirror of the Faewild, the group met Ystrom, The Change of Seasons, the fifth Greater Fae who sought to enter the Faewild and restore balance. He offered the group a deal to help them, if they would use the Seasonkeeper, an artifact designed to manipulate the powers of the Greater Fae,
 to help him get through the portal. They refused. Instead, they were
guided by Glimmer, a humanoid owl with a love for all things shiny. When
 they reached the portal to the Faewild, Dre’ created distraction from the group of Drow who waited there, and the party left him.

They worked with Elanwen, one of the Stin Cepel Seven (and Pointy’s sister and Eldak’s wife), to restore balance to the Faewild. They battled the Spring Prince at the Cerulean Grove and restored the seasons.

Upon re-entering the Material Plane, they ran into Godras, an Elven friend, who told them of the plight of another former ally. Elendeil, the party’s very first ally, had
 been framed for the murder of a politician, who was also a black market
 head known as The Mixer. The party discovered that it was Eighth Son who sent assassins to kill The Mixer – the same crime lord who was using the Path of Light to encroach on Stin Cepel.

The group traveled to Vitaurum and worked with some old contacts – including William Maynots – to infiltrate the Eighth Son’s compound and capture him. They also
retrieved some magical artifacts – among them, the Tourmaline Turtle (a Vis’tani item which allows the party to move about the planes) and a slab of wall with the likeness of Laz Ursulus on it, which allegedly came from the Temple of the One, a mystical temple of the God-to-the-Gods.

After some wrapping up, the party traveled to the Astral Sea, as Kord had sent them a message that the Gods were at war.

#### The Sandstriders

* Quen Sandstrider
* McCreedy
* Tolsmir
* Brak Stormbringer
* Laz Ursulus

***Next: Episode IV: Astral Rifts***