Avlis Campaign 1

Chapter 1

The party right now consists of a female half-nymph fighter/cleric, a male tiefling sorcerer, and a female elven fighter. Through their own personal histories, the PC's wound up in the M'Chekian village of Blandenberg.

Andrinor is the tiefling. He woke up at an inn in the small village a few days prior, and he has no memory of where he came from.

The noble Lady Aratelda Ringthon decided to strike out on her own to see the world, and to get away from her grandfather who wished her to learn the ways of magic... something she was unwilling to do. So, she asked leave from her father. He allowed it and entrusted her with the family sword, which has been used by the Ringthon family for generations. Ever curious about the war between T'Nanshi and M'Chek, she soon found herself in Blandenberg.

The lovely Vanoviel Niltaurwen was raised by a loving elven father. However, when her father found out his daughter was not of his own blood, but rather the product of his wife's indiscretion with a male nymph, he casted her out of his noble family. After finding her real father and realizing she could not live his type of lifestyle, Vanoviel sought out her elven step-father again who was gracious enough to entrust her to his friend Andreon, a cleric of O'Ma. Andreion enrolled Vanoviel in basic training to be a templar of O'ma to guard missionaries in their quests. As soon as her training was complete, they both set out for Blandenberg.

After a few days of business in Blandenberg, the town was soon overrun by a small army of orcs at high noon. The three heros were knocked unconcious. When they came to, they found themselves on the deck of a ship, in a cage, stripped of their belongings. It was there that the fateful band introduced themselves to each other and set about the business of getting free, but to no avail. After a few days at sea, the more well-behaved slaves on the ship were rotated into ship duties with their orcish crew. It was on one of these rotations that Aratelda, or Arie, spotted a ship on the horizon. Not long after that, the orcs spotted the ship too, and sprang into action. They immediately placed all the prisoners back into their cells.

Not knowing what was happening, Van, Andrinor, and Ari strained to hear what was going on. With her fairly good command of the orcish tongue, Van was able to piece togethor that the orcs feared whatever ship was out there, and that they were thinking of lightening the load of the ship to gain speed. This frightened the heros, and once a crew member came down into the slave hold to check on them, he was quickly neutralized by a sleep spell from Andrinor. That gave them just the time they needed to secure the key to their cell and to hide the body. At this point, the heros did not know what to do, but this decision was made for them when they saw a pair of booted feet coming down the stairs into the hold. With lightning speed, Vanoviel felled the orc in one swoop, and Andrinor used another sleep spell to neutralize the other three. After dispatching the force, the party found a key on one of the bodies and opened up one of the slave cages, freeing the slaves. Soon another party arrived, and it was killed much more easily using the weapons found on the last party. The third party, suspecting something amiss was a little more careful, and the first orc to come down the stairs managed to somehow avoid Van's deadly blow.

A problem arose at that point. The ship that was on the horizon was now right upon them, and the adventurers could hear sounds of battle up on the deck. The orcish crew did not have the manpower to spare to quell the slave uprising in the hold. Only the four orcs guarding the entrance to the slave hold managed to stay behind and parley with the heros. Soon, that four was two because two of them were needed above. Eventually, Andrinor found a dagger on one of the corpses of the previously killed orcs and hurled it at one of his captors, hitting him square in the chest. This triggered a battle that eventually ended with the last two remaining orcs being dead. Finally, after a small amount of snooping around, the heros met their saviors.... a large wemic named General Borrr'Gorak.

The general declared that all the slaves were free and that he would be putting them into port at the City of Andarr, one of the small city-states that makes up the confederation known as The Seven Cities. The general divided his crew between the two ships and stayed with the slaves on the newly captured galleon. The port was five days away at this point, and within that time the adventurers got to know the general. Seeing that the party was fit and intelligent, Borrr'Gorak decided to ask them if they wished to take some revenge on the slavers by helping him find their operation, located most likely within Andarr.

Andrinor, having nothing better to do quickly agreed, as did Ari, because she was determined to recover her heirloom. Van consulted with her mentor, who was also captured on the ship with them. He bade her to go, for it was the will of O'ma and only he knew what was really planned. So she agreed to go as well.

Borrr'Gorak told the adventurers that he had a contact in Andarr named Derot Slimshadow. They were to go to him and get information on what he knew about any possible slaver operations in the city. When they found Derot at the Mainmast Inn in the Docks District, he informed him that his guild, the Grey Dirk, had given him the task of uncovering the slavers too. The Grey Dirk felt that they were not getting a large enough share in the profits, which was their right. Derot told him that he was having a hard time finding the slavers unfortunately. For three months he had been searching to no avail. But he had two leads left. The first lead was a suspicious blacksmith shop, Blythorne's Smithy, run by Blythorne himself. The problem with the shop was not really a problem at all: he paid his "protection money" on time, every time, NEVER missing a beat. Being desparate, Derot felt that this may warrant an investigation of the shop because the smith may be paying on time just the keep the thieve's guild at bay so they don't see him hiding anything. The other lead was a noble in the city by the name of Lord Hargon. Spies in the guild have reported that Hargon had very quick servant turnover. He would purchase servants, and shortly after, they would disappear.

The heroes decided that they would check out the shop, and so they did. Derot investigated Hargon. When a brief face to face discussion with Blythorne didn't pan out, they decided to stake out the place. It was then that they discovered some oddities. There were an inordinate number of orcs around the shop... not too uncommon in Andarr, but it might be something. But the second thing they discovered gave them cause for much suspicion. Two individuals entered the shop, and three individuals left. This happened a couple of times while they were watching. Hargon himself was even seen entering alone, and leaving with two straggly looking human female teenagers. This prompted a late night inspection of the shop from the sewers below that night. (Of course, this was after a small argument between Van and Andrinor on how to conduct the operation.) The inspection revealed a tubular shaped tunnel emanating from the smithy into the sewers and below, but the tunnel could only be entered from inside the shop. So, the heros, quietly as they could, entered the shop through the chimney (after checking for fires!) and in that room they found a tapestry. Behind the tapestry was a door in to the tunnel. The tunnel sloped down below the level of the sewers and opened into a very long, wide, tall tunnel.... guarded by some orcs and some goblins.

After dispatching the ragged bunch with a few blows from Van's new flail, the party continued down the tunnel. They found various things.... some stored household items recovered from raids, as well as stolen weapons, and a few sleeping orcs.... That battle didn't go so well. Van was badly injured and needed to fall back. Andrinor and Ari jumped to her rescue and held the orcs at bay until Van was recuperated through her own healing skills. By this point, Andrinor was unconcious. After remedying that, Ari was getting hurt, and that too was soon taken care of. By that time, the orcs had perished, and the party continued down the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel was a door that opened up into a wide open plains area near the ocean. Off in the distance, about 30 yards, they saw a building guarded by two orcs. While deciding their next plan of action, the heros found themselves being approached by four soldiers wearing tabards with a burning sword on a blue background. The heros hid in the tunnel and ambushed the soldiers. By questioning one of them, they found out that the soldiers were part of Crullath's army. Crullath is the arch enemy of Borrr'Gorak's master, Lord Joral Arvanos V. The soldier confessed under torture that Crullath himself was in that building, and that that building was indeed a slave compound. Having heard enough, Andrinor "took good care" of the soldiers and merrily saw them on their way.... to the abyss. The other heros started wandering back towards the city to report to Derot and then the general.

Derot found them in the tunnel, and they relayed everything to him. Derot in turn informed them that Lord Hargon was indeed buying slaves, but only to later free them after they posed as his servants for a short while. He felt he had no muscle to combat the problem, so he would combat it with money.

Chapter 2

After locating the base of operations for the Andarr slave trade, the party reported back to General Borr'Gorak and Derot Slimshadow of the Grey Dirk guild.

Derot informed the party that a noble named Lord Hargon had been buying slaves from the local trade in order to free them only days after their purchase. Vanoviel relayed that she had seen Hargon on one such excursion to buy slaves while she was staking out Blythorne's Smithy.

The general was very pleased at the new information, and he immediately dispatched spies to gather more intelligence on the matter. He informed the heroes that as a reward, he would give them some money and free passage back to M'Chek where they came from. However, he said that before engaging on that journey, the slave bunker would have to be wiped out. So, after a small amount of negotiation, the adventurers agreed to help come along on the operation.

Borrr'Gorak's top aide, Captain Garrack, assigned the party a special job in the operation. He told them that intelligence reports found that there were two doors to the slave compound.... a front door facing the City of Andarr, and a back door facing the nation of Brekon to the north. The main attack would occur mostly from the front door, and the back door would be the site of a diversion set up by the newly hired party.

Garrack showed them to a room onboard their main ship which contained all they would need for a diversion: smoke powder kegs, metal tubes, clay stoppers, rope, various biting arrows, grappling hooks, weapon black, body black, etc. A new member of the team, Orianna the halfling rogue from the Grey Dirk, was somewhat proficient at the use of smoke powder and weapon black. She helped the party come up with a plan.

The attack would be at dawn. The adventurers sailed a small ways up the coast with the small army and disembarked towards the compound from the beach. After briefly scouting the area, they laced the back door with various explosives which were timed to go off in four successive detonations after a main explosion designed to take out the back door.

When it came time for the battle, the army gave a signal and the explosives were unleashed. The door flew inward into the compound and the other smaller explosives began to go off. Just at that point, some shady characters on the roof were alerted to the presence of the adventurers. They threw down a rope and told the party to quickly climb it. It turns out they were capitalizing on the battle at hand, and they were having a hard time penetrating the roof of the compound. They requested that in return for a share of treasure, the adventurers could lend them some explosives to speed the process of breaking and entering. Orianna, Van, Andrinor, and Ari gladly agreed.

They blew a hole in the roof and dropped down into what appeared to be an office occupied by two very suprised captains bearing Crullath's heraldry. After a brief fight, the foes were vanquished and Van settled down to the task of plucking various daggers and bolts out of her back and hip. (Andrinor and the thieves were not so adept at firing missle weapons into melee.)

As the room was being looted, in walked a very large man with a flaming longsword. He was furious that his office had been invaded, and after cleaving a thief in two with one fell swoop, he retreated from the battle via a ring of teleportation. As it turns out, the rest of the compound was being quickly overrun by Borrr'Gorak's men and the Grey Dirk.

Documents recovered from the office were brought to the general who was disturbed to find out that they spoke of the MAIN slave encampment being located in Brekon. This compound was evidently just a staging area to facilitate the transport of slaves from Andarr up to Crullath's lands in the former Kurathene Empire. Crullath planned to use the slaves as conscripts for his wars against Borrr'Gorak's Lord Arvanos. The general broke the news to the adventurers that their journey home would be delayed in order to take out this encampment.

According to the information on the captured documents, the journey to Brekon would be about a 4 or 5 day sail northward along the coast. Because of the delay, the general proposed payment for the adventurers for their further company before heading back to M'Chek. He assigned them the task of scouting the compound and reporting their findings in order to attack at dawn the next day. During the battle their task would be to concentrate on freeing the slaves.

Thus, the compound was scouted by the adventurers. They reported on the layout of the land, and the outer appearance of the compound. There was a portculis in the south face of the area, and the nort face housed a slave trade marketplace.

When the attack began, the party headed for the marketplace to try to gain secret acess to the compound. After getting help from Borrr'Gorak's archers with the guards in the towers, the adventurers entered the compound through a small slave tunnel where they are normally brought through for display on the market. At the end of the tunnel, they enountered resistance from a group of orcs. The party retreated back into the tunnel to try and lure the orcs in. However, a veerbeeg decided to join the battle. He stood at the other end of the hall and noted their strategy. As he was noting, Andrinor managed to get lucky with a vial of greek fire. The now angry flaming veerbeeg charged mercilessly and rushed the adventurers, hitting Ari square in the chest and taking her off her feet. The move would be his last, because he was promptly hacked to bits afterwards.

Slowly but surely, the adventurers worked their way through a group of orcs and came to a room filled with caged slaves. After fighting the warden and his assistant for the cage keys, Orianna began to unlock the cages while the rest stood guard. Van and Ari were quickly confronted by two suprised Ogres who walked down in to the cage room. After a few blows from Van, one Ogre fell. The other took a little longer, but eventually succumbed.

By that time, the slaves were freed and the party beat a hasty retreat out the way they came. The battle for the compound raged a bit longer before the slavers fell to Arvanos' men and the newly arrived reinforcements from the land of Arvanos itself.

Chapter 3

After dismantling the slaving operation in Brekon, the two ships carrrying the rescued slaves and the adventurers left once more for the City of Andarr. Once arriving in Andarr, they dropped off the former slaves.

At that point, General Borrr'Gorak took his leave and said he had business to the north back in Arvanos. He left one of the ships in the care of Captain Garrack to continue the journey southward towards M'Chek.

Before leaving, the general's mindbender informed the adventurers and their crew that tensions between Arvanos, Crullath, and Dagroth were high. Lord Arvanos, upon hearing of the slave trade in Brekon and the Seven Cities, publicly accused Crullath and Dagroth of illegal activity. Both of the offending Lords vowed that they would take revenge to clear their names.

Thus, the crew sailed southward under these ominous circumstances. It wasn't long before they were attacked by one of Lord Crullath's galleons. Once the ships were grappled, Arvanos' crew surged toward them and quickly dispatched them. Their ship was stripped of its ballistae and any provisions, treasure, and spare parts it may have had. Then it was scuttled with the help of Orianna and her skill with smokepowder.

Heading southward, the crew was more aware of their danger. So when they saw another galleon alledgedly belonging to Lord Dagroth of M'Chek, they were more cautious. When that ship got close in an attempt to grapple, its mainmast was struck by an explosive bolt from Arvanos' newly acquired ballistae. The mainmast did not fall, but it did catch fire however. Efforts to put out the fire were hampered by a darkness spell from Andreion. He placed the spell on a crossbow bolt and sank it into the mainmast just above the damaged area.

With the ship slowed down, and damaged even further from a second explosive ballista bolt, it was no match for the adventurer's ship. They easily outran it despite losing a main sail to a fiery ballista bolt sent in retaliation from Dagroth's ship.

Having left those dangers behind, the shipmates settled into a routine again. That routine was boring, but one day it was noted that some of the crew were not only bored, they were comatose. The comatose state also happened to be spreading from bow to stern among the crew. Van took note of this and called out a warning, but it was too late. Nixie bandits were already attacking.

So, a fierce battle took place between twenty nixie bandits and the seven crew members that hadn't been charmed. Near the end, a group of O'ma Nixies came to the rescue. They apologized for the inconvenience and dispelled the charms. They said the Nixies who attacked were Titanean nixies... followers of Titanea, the fairy queen. They were attacking because of encroachments on their territory. O'ma's nixies could not put up with slaughter of innocents, so they came to rescue. After that brief encounter, they retreated back down to their ocean homes.

Not so long after leaving nixie territory, the crew came upon a derelict ship. They noticed that there were people on board and that the ship was smoldering a bit still. Once they got on board they realized the people were not people, but instead they were zombies and another curious kind of creature. The creatures were corpses too, but they were not decayed at all, and they did not smell. Their skin glowed with a pale white light, and they were able to move very fast.

After a brief battle on the deck, the adventurers searched around. They found the hole on the deck which was smoldering and they saw it contained a swirling mass of black and white energy. Perplexed, they searched the deck further and found other scortch marks. About 20 minutes later, the creatures that they killed rose up again and attacked once more, this time joined by some more creatures from below.

Orianna suggested that they beat a hasty retreat, and Van, Andrinor, and Ari agreed. They rested up and got help from three of Garrack's men (wearing red shirts) to go back to the ship and investigate. With their new help, they cleared the deck, and some more creatures on the deck below. The adventurers figured out it was best to pitch the creatures overboard once they were killed, and this was done by the red shirts.

Ari entered a door she found. The room had a zombie and a corpse creature in it. There was also a ritual setup in the room containing a silver chalice with a stone balanced on its edge. When she entered the room, she roused one of the zombies and the zombie came towards her, knocking the stone into the chalice. A woooshing sound came from outside but no one noticed it.

Meanwhile, Vanoviel entered the other door that was visible across from Ari. She found a ruined library, and the heart of the energy disturbance. After checking behind another door, she came back to the library and sat down to read.

Back at the ritual room Ari instructed the red shirts to remove the bodies and pitch them overboard. They came back and said that they couldn't, because the ship was now surrounded by a force field. They were trapped!

Everyone then met at the library and started to sift through tomes. Van found a diary written by a necromancer named Kilneihn. She found that Kilneihn was a mage who owned a tower in the Negative Energy Plane, aka the Negative Material Plane. He wished to destroy his rival Rifeiln who lived on the Positive Energy Plane. The easiest way to get to the Positive Energy Plane was to go through the Elemental Plane of Water, where he knew of a permanent portal to the Positive plane. So, Kilneihn entered the Prime Material Plane at the City of Redgate and journeyed to the City of Andarr where he commissioned a ship to take him to the Nixie settlement of Qwandovia where they guarded a permanent portal to the Plane of Water. The journal ended with Kilneihn testing his new portable entrance to his tower on the Negative plane, which he had set up in the ship's cargo deck where he kept his library.

During that time, Oriana and Ari found some phantoms who had been sailors on the ship. They told them that they were going about their business sailing, when a man materialized in mid air off the bow and threw a ball of fire down onto the front of the ship. The fireball incinerated a bunch of crewmates and scorched the deck. Apparently, they came under attack.... someone was after Kilneihn.

At that time, two ghostly figures appeared in the library. One was a shadowy robed figure, the other was a brightly sparkling robed figure. They were Dorlarath and Terach, Kilneihn's apprentices. The apprentices told the crew that they were helping their master open the mini portal when they came under attack by Rifeiln. The enemy mage casted some sort of spell which disrupted the magic of the portal and caused an explosion which obliterated both mages and their apprentices. It also created some sort of rift, apparently between the positive and negative energy planes.

The adventurers also asked the apprentices about the force field now surrounding the ship. They knew of it. They told them it was a defense mechanism, should the ship ever come under attack. A force field spell was casted right up until the last step, which involved dropping a rock into a silver chalice. That way, the field could be quickly raised if it was needed.

The one thing that puzzled the ghostly pair was that the field needed a power source, usually a magic item. However, it seems that all the magic items on the ship were destroyed in the blast. They believed that the force field was now drawing its power from the rift itself. The rift was also responsible for the regenerating of the zombies and sadiks.

Terach and Dorlarath told them that undead get their life force from the negative energy plane, and that neverdead get their life force from the positive material plane. When the rift was created the crew was killed, and half turned into zombies from the negative energy, and the other half turned into sadiks from the positive energy. Terach himself was a spectre, and Dorlarath was an anti-spectre. They were turned into spectres because of their proximity to the blast.

They said that more info on closing the rift and taking down the force field would be found in Kilneihn's library back in his tower. They thought the tower could be reached through the rift.

Upon inspecting the rift, Van found that she was able to see an entrance to Kilneihn's library appearing and disappearing at timed intervals in the swriling energy. Van and Andrinor promptly entered and dispatched two ghouls waiting in the library.

While Andrinorwent crazy looting everything in sight, Van searched the library for useful information. She eventually found a tome of Arcane Planar Abnormalities, and a tome of Force Transmutations.

The pair then went back to the ship. In the tomes it was found that the force field could be manipulated, but not directly taken down without destroying the thing which it surrounds. The rift could also be closed by destroying the place in which it was housed, i.e. the ship.

The party needed to destroy the ship, but they were trapped on the ship by the force field. To take down the force field, they needed to destroy the ship also. It was a problem. But eventually they decided to use a spell found in one of the tomes to extend the force field about 15 feet out from the ship so they could jump in the water. Then, they would burn the ship.

Thus, they pulled it off without much of a hitch. Once the ship started to break apart, the force field cracked and buckled, and the rift closed. The suction of the sinking ship almost took Andrinor with it, but he was saved once more by Van.

Chapter 4

The heroes continued the last leg of their ocean voyage to M'Chek. Captain Garrack informed them that they would be putting into port at the capital city of Mikona. He explained to them that once there, they would be on their own with no assistance. However, he told them to feel free to dispatch any messengers to the Kurathene Empire should they find any evidence of slave trading occurring in the city.

This conversation was interrupted by the sighting of a ship on the horizon.... the ship bore a striking resemblance to the slave ship which took the heros to the Seven Cities against their will. Garrack noted this as well, and made the decision to attack this ship even though he was somewhat low on crew. After a brief battle, most of the orcs, and one ogre on the ship were killed. They had a mage on board for defense, but that was taken out swiftly by an arrow from Orianna. Once the ship was looted, and the slaves were freed, the heros set off. Ari found a curious, and familiar gem on board the slave ship. It was a clear, quartz-like prizm. She somehow knew what it was, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. While taking a nap later that day, she remembered that there was a word associated with the crystal. When she woke up, she held the crystal and tentatively said the command word. A bright beam of light appeared to shine from the crystal. After some tinkering and some help from Andrinor, they figured out that the direction of the beam of light could be controlled mentally.

Soon, they docked in Mikona and disembarked after saying their goodbyes to Garrack. The first order of business from there was to get past the customs agents. They were a little hesitant about letting elvenkind into the city, but the party members each decided to give them about 5 golden reasons why they should be let in. The next order of business was to find a place to settle. They decided that since they were in a strange city, it would be good to stick togethor until they each got their bearings. Upon sighting an Inn, they approached it only to find a man hunched over in the alley. The man turned out to be Andreion, Van's mentor. He was in pretty bad shape from a poison dagger stuck in his side. While he was dying, he said his goodbyes to Van, and told her that after leaving the Seven Cities, he decided to investigate the slave trade in M'Chek. He must have gotten too far in his inquiries because a Dominator of Valok found him and told him that his inquiries would end. Before that he found out why Valok's men attacked him.... the head cleric of Valok, Mandaharuk, has decided to help Lord Dagroth store and sort slaves in an effort to take over some of Arvanos' land way up in the Kurathene Empire. Lord Dagroth is power hungry and eager to settle new areas, and Mandaharuk of Valok was none to happy to oblidge him his request for some unknown reason. Andreion also handed the heros an invitation to a party at Dagroth's palace commemorating the Spring governmental session.

The heros decided that they would need to get into this party and find out more, and hopefully avenge Andreion. Orianna left to get forgeries. Ari left to find out where Dagroth's palace was located. Vanoviel left to try to get a job at Dagroth's palace as an easy entry to the party, after stopping off to make friends with a cleric of Mikon. The cleric told him the general layout of the theologies present in Mikona. Andrinor left to find anything he could get his hands on, and to get a lay of the city.

The party members then met up back at the inn with their new forgeries. Van left immediately to go report for work. The party was the next day.

At the party, there were many festive events. Van walked around serving drinks while Orianna listened in on conversations. Each member of the party was able to piece togethor small amounts of information. Van learned by flirting wtih Mandaharuk that something was suspicious between him and Dagroth. Orianna confirmed that Dagroth was asking Mandaharuk to store some slaves in the bottom of his temple before they could be covertly shipped out at night. The cleric agreed. He also mentioned his attack plans for Arvanos, and that shortly he would begin sending slaves to the basement.

At that point it got ugly. Party members were being clandestinely attacked at the party. They had to flee, but on their way out they ran into the Dominator that killed Andreion.

After a short and brutal exchange of blows, the heros realized they were outmatched. They beat a hasty retreat back to the Inn where they left their weapons and armor. The Dominator was in hot pursuit, and he would have caught them if he was not delayed by a darkness spell from Andrinor which was centered on his sword... the same one used by Ari's family for generations.

Once they retrieved their gear, they had lost the Dominator. Van decided to head back to the temple of Mikon to tell the cleric what happened to them, and maybe get some assistance with the Dominator. The cleric received them well, but he said that he would not interfere in such affairs. At that point, the Dominator caught up to the party while they were exiting the temple. A grand fight ensued on the steps. Ari, and Orianna pelted the warrior with their bows, and Andrinor with his crossbow. Van waded in and engaged. It was hard fought because of the wounds the party members received from their first encounter. But because of the healing they got from the cleric of Mikon, and Van they managed to pull through.... the Dominator was slain.

Chapter 5

When we last left our heros, they had just killed an evil holy warrior working in the service of the god Valok. The adventurers were a little worn out by then, because it was the middle of the night.

We picked up immediately from that point.... disposal of the body. Everyone in the party figured it would not only be unsanitary, but downright risky to leave the body of a high ranking city church official in the middle of the street.... especially when he was last seen chasing the heros down the road. So, the plan was to drag the body into a nearby residential area and drop it down a sewer.

As they were putting their plan into action, an elven lady stepped out of the shadows. She introduced herself as Jade Sunstreamer, an emissary from the elven nation of T'Nanshi. The party was a little skeptical of her at first... especially since she immediately set about asking probing questions about their actions. But after a while it became clear that her interests were similar to theirs.... She informed them that th Church of Valok in the city was mainly responsible for instigating the wars with T'Nanshi, and for promoting the slave trade. Jade was not suprised to find out the details about their past adventures, which the party laid out for her.

Jade was especially amused at their latest accomplishment... killing the top holy warrior of Valok in the city. She asked the party if they would be willing to accompany her to the governmental session the next day. In return, she would give them her protection, which she assured them was a big deal.

So, they went back to their Inn. Jade met them there the following noon, and took them to the building in the Government district where the Noble Assembly was in session. Lord Walsington, the head of the nine noble panel that ruled the land, allowed the adventurers to speak.

Lord Dagroth and Mandaharuk, the high cleric of Valok, were both present. They were outraged at the speach given by Van. A big uproar sounded in the chamber, and Lord Walsington called for order. He announced that a judgement would be passed the next day.

That night, Jade accompanied the party to their room at the Inn. She enlarged one of the doors on an empty room to make it stick tight. That served as a decoy. On the real door, she placed an illusion of a bare wall in its place.

That night Mandaharuk attacked. Sure, the illusion fooled him, but it didn't stop the Baatezu he had with him from seeing through it. Three of his templars burst into the room after he shattered the door with his clerical magic. The heros woke up and fought for their lives. Jade, Van, and Ari took the front.

After dispatching the three templars, things got ugly. Van got hit by a flamestrike spell from Mandaharuk, and Jade went after him into the hallway only to run into the Baatezu, which no one saw until this point. Mandaharuk promptly casted an insect swarm into the hotel room, and everyone immediately started to scramble.

A bloody battle between the cleric and the devil, versus the heros and Jade took place. Eventually, the Baatezu fell, and the cleric retreated using a plane shift spell. The heros fell to licking their wounds.

The next day, everyone was gathered in the chamber of Nobles, including some members from the Commoner's Assembly. Lord Walsington pronounced his judgement. Mandaharuk was to be banished for his part in the slave trade. All of his acolytes would be interrogated pending a banishment. Dagroth was to be fined a sum of one million gold pieces, he said as he surrepitously put his pinky up to the side of his lip.

Both men were outraged. Mandaharuk stormed out, and the session ended.

Jade told the adventurers that that was not the last they saw of Mandaharuk and his church. The only way to get Valok out of the affairs of men and elves, was to destroy Mandaharuk, and some of his church along with him. She suspected that Mandaharuk would magically journey to Brekon, the capital city of the orcish nation by the same name.

She said she had a way to get them most of the way there...

Chapter 6

After the meeting in the government halls was adjourned and Mandaharuk was seen storming out, Jade and the heroes decided that they would need to do away with Mandaharuk. That meant they would have to follow him to wherever he was headed. Jade believed that he would be headed to the city of Brekon, which is the capital of the Orcish nation of the same name.

Earlier, it was revealed that Mandaharuk had the ability to cast a plane shifting spell when he needed to escape. Thus, he would be able to use that spell to travel the 1400 mile distance to Brekon very easily. Jade told the party members that she had a means of travel that was almost just as fast: shadow walking. She explained that by entering the plane of shadow, one could traverse the 1400 miles in about 24 hours.

She had the necessary magic scroll to accomplish this back at her residence in the government district. So, the party set out to fetch the scroll and get supplies for their journey.

When they arrived at Jade's house, they immediately stocked up on necessary supplies and magic. Jade told them they would need a shadowy place to open the shadow portal, and she had such a place in the kazeebo in her back yard. But when they opened her back door, they saw a familiar orc.... Mandaharuk.... "Leaving so soon?", he asked. Van explained that they were just about to leave, but now it looks like he'd be saving them the trip. She charged the evil cleric.... and was promptly headed off by two of Mandaharuk's dominators. At that point, a big battle broke out. Jade and Ari engaged two of the baatezu that Mandaharuk brought along. Andrinor and Orianna concentrated on the dominators. Blows were traded, and spells flew back and forth... nearly catching the whole place on fire. Eventually, Mandaharuk got off a flamestrike which utterly obliterated Orianna.... burning the life right out of her. Jade immediately called a retreat: Orianna was dead, and the rest were soon to follow. She told everyone to head back into the house and into the pantry in the kitchen. Van picked up Orianna's body and headed in, followed closely by Jade. Ari and Andrinor valiantly held off the pursuers at the door as long as they could. By this time, Jade had started casting, and a baatezu had teleported into the house. After a few more seconds, a portal opened in the pantry, and the heroes hastily threw themselves into it one after another. Jade then hastily closed it when they were all through.

When the tumult was over they were still in the pantry.... except the door to the pantry was now closed.... funny, they thought they had left it open when they were running into the portal. Jade opened the pantry door to reveal the kitchen.... except it was not scorched and bloody. It was just a dilapidated mess, and it was dark. Stepping out of the house, the heroes realized they were still in the city of Mikona, except it was different somehow. Everything was a warped reflection of the way they remembered it. The buildings were unkempt, and some were in ruins. The people were less numerous, and all of them were forlorn and dreary. It was also night time, when just a few minutes before they went into the pantry it was afternoon. Jade explained how the plane of shadow mimics their home plane, and that they would be able to use the plane's properties to travel much faster. Within about 10 steps, they were out of the city. Jade explained that they would have to divert their journey to the village of Blandenberg in order to try and resurrect Orianna. The village was about 400 miles away. They got there in about 10 hours.

When they arrived in Blandenberg, it looked much as it did in their home plane when they were captured from their places there weeks ago. Again, however, it was warped. Soon enough they found the temple of O'ma where Vanoviel used to serve as a missionary guard. They noticed that the temple was largely the same, but there were some small differences in the holy symbol and the religious items. They asked the acolyte at the door if they could see the head cleric for a resurrection. The acolyte showed them into an office where the head cleric sat.... the heroes were nearly taken aback when they saw who the head cleric was.... a shadow reflection of Mandaharuk! Once they managed to conceal their suprise, they asked the cleric for help. He agreed to raise the halfling girl in return for a favor. There was a local cleric of Valok who was causing trouble in the town. He was converting villagers to the ways of Valok, and stirring up anti-elven sentiment in the area. He needed the cleric and his local clerics eliminated. Van was a little concerned that this was not in accordance with O'ma's principles on her home plane, but she went along anyway to save her comrade.

Thus, the party set off across the village to the center of Valok's worship in the area. They walked into the building and asked to see Andreion.... on a hunch. Lo and behold, the acolyte on duty showed Van to a shadow reflection of her dead mentor! Van did not know what to do about this, even though she suspected this might be the case. She talked with her mentor a while, hoping she would find the kind old man she once knew... but to no avail. She left the room, and on her way down the stairs she wispered to Jade, "Burn it..." Jade shrugged and fireballed the staircase and upper hallway. The whole place exploded in flame. Andrinor cringed and wondered why no one ever told him about these things, as he drew his weapon. A fiery battle ensued in the stairwell, and eventually Andreion and all the clerics were dead either from Jade's fireball, wall of fire, Andrinor's flaming spheres, or the blades, clubs, and bows of the others..... well, one cleric died of smoke inhalation, but he didn't count.

Chapter 7

After annihilating the outpost of the Church of Valok in the shadowy village of Blandenberg, Van, Ari, Orianna, Andrinor, and Jade went back to the temple of O'ma to recouperate. The next morning... as much of a morning as there is on the Plane of Shadow... they set off on their journey.

Meanwhile, far away, on the Prime Material plane there was a girl in trouble. Tupaia and her faithful cougar companion, Alistrina had no intentions of causing trouble when they stumbled upon a meeting of sorts. A group of M'Chekian special forces were deep inside enemy territory meeting with a contingent of Titanean fairies about a possible alliance against the elves. In return, the humans were pledging to help the the Titaneans against the O'ma fairies once the elves were out of the way. Through the course of this meeting, the conspirators became aware of the eavesdroppers, so they gave chase.

Tupaia and Alistrina ran for their lives with the conspirators on their tails. A little ways off, they spotted a large oak tree with a hollowed out trunk. Tupaia and her cougar ducked into it for cover. Immediately upon entry, there was a popping noise and everything turned dark for them. Where it was daylight outside a minute before, it was dark now. Tentatively, the pair stepped back out into the forest to discover it was night time. This puzzled Tupaia. She studied her surroundings, and she found that the plants were of the normal type and species for the area, but they were all made of some strange shadowy substance. She gingerly walked northward towards her home when all of a sudden her pursuers popped through the opening in the tree to come after her. The chase started up again.

Just as Van, Ari, and the other heroes were leaving Blandenberg, they spotted a lone female figure with a catlike animal running in their direction. Behind her, Van spotted some shadowy figures in pursuit. As the figures got closer, they hailed the girl. She frantically pleaded that the heroes help her against her attackers. Without knowing what to think, the heroes waited until the pursuers came within parleying range. They called out to them, and a female human stepped forward. She told them that Tupaia was a criminal who was wanted for espionage and that the heroes should hand her over. After more discussion, the heroes realized that the humans were from M'Chek and that they had evil intentions against T'Nanshi. They told the people who wanted Tupaia that they would not get her without a fight... and fight they did.

The humans drew out bows and started firing. Most of the arrows glanced harmlessly off of Van, but Tupaia was almost killed by a magic missle from the mage who in turn was almost killed by a lightning bolt from Jade. That same bolt took out one of the human bowman and a fairy.

Eventually the two sets of warriors closed in on each other. A steady exchange of blows occured for a while, only to be interrupted by an entanglement spell from Tupaia. However, due to a slight miscalculation, her spell managed to entangle just about everyone in the battle, on both sides.... much confusion ensued. It took a long time, but most of the humans managed to be killed. The surviving fairies attempted to change to their smaller form and break free. One fairy who did this was gobbled up by flaming spheres sent by Tupaia and Andrinor. The other one who managed was subsequently swatted by Van's flail to score a direct hit on a human enemy's forehead. The guts and refuse from the body stung his eyes a little bit, but it wasn't long before he was cut down by Ari's sword and aura bolts from Jade and Andrinor.

Eventually, all the enemies were slain. Tupaia formally introduced herself to the heroes. They introduced themselves in turn. Jade explained to the druid that she was now on the shadow plane, and that she could accompany them to get back to the Prime. Jade then explained the mission that the heroes were on, and that their mission played a large part in what Tupaia had just witnessed, as well as a large part in the safety of the world. Jade asked if Tupaia would be interested in coming along to help them, since their mission would eventually lead to the preservation of her homeland of T'Nanshi. Tupaia readily agreed.

Eventually the heroes reached Brekon. The city disgusted them immediately. The gates hung wide open, and all were allowed to pass through without harrassment. However, the occupants of the city were mostly orcs, goblins, ogres, and giant-kin. There were scatterings of humans, halflings, and even elves about the place, but not many. The adventurers entered the place to find an Inn where they could base their campaign against Mandaharuk. Jade told them that she had some connections in the city that she wanted to check out, and that she would meet them at the inn in 3 days time. She told them NOT to cause any trouble, but to explore and figure out how the place worked, so it would be easier to get to Mandaharuk. Then she left.

The adventuerers wandered around, and eventually they settled on their second Inn. After getting a room they turned in for the night. The next day they decided to split up and explore. Tupaia and Ari took Alistrina to explore the perimeter of the city. Orianna, Van, and Andrinor decided to explore within the confines of the walls.

Tupaia and Ari went out the gate that they entered originally, and they started to circle the perimeter. They found two more gates. A little while later, Alistrina the cougar was troubled by the scent of something following them. She couldn't figure out what the scent was... but it was definitely not orc or goblin. Tupaia and Ari pressed on. Shortly after, they spotted a couple figures on the walls of the city looking down on them. So they smiled and waved. At that point the figures disappeared, and about 6 more appeared out of thin air in front of them. They introduced themselves as urban sprites, and they were interested in the heroes because it wasn't often that fairy kin came to Brekon. They were wondering what the party was doing in the city. After some warming up, and talking, the urban sprites alerted the girls that there was trouble brewing under the temple of Valok. An urban sprite named Harry claimed to have seen all the influential clerics assembled at the bottom of the temple for a summoning. They were summoning large amounts of denizens of evil.... enough for an army it seemed. This troubled Tupaia and Ari, and after the urban sprites gave them a tour of the city, they returned to the Inn.

Meanwhile, the other heroes explored the city. When they got to the temple of Valok, a hooded figure approached them. He introduced himself as Kalik. He was an orc who claimed to know a lot about the dealings of the city, and that for a price he would tell the heroes whatever they wanted to know. Van agreed to this and motioned for the rest to follow Kalik to an Inn. Once there, Kalik gave them some information. He told them that the orcs were planning on using the slave army and Crullath's army to wipe out Lord Arvanos in the north. Once that was done, the orcs would turn on Crullath and take all the land for themselves. Kalik saw the merit of this plan... it would give them eventual control of the whole east coast, along with unification with Dubunat, the other orc nation. But Kalik saw flaws in this plan too. Namely, the orcs were not powerful enough yet to pull off a plan such as this. He told the heroes that if the current plan could be stopped, and he could install himself as leader, the attacks could be averted. Van asked why he doesn't kill Mandaharuk, and he explained that Mandaharuk, while influential, was not the most powerful figure. The government was in league with Mandaharuk, specifically two generals, Gilun and Bilak, and a district head named Crayn. Those three had to be eliminated for change to come, and then if they wished to kill Mandaharuk afterwards, they could. He explained that in exchange for all this information, the heroes are to go to the Goblin's Niche and kill the three people he mentioned. Van agreed.

All of the adventurers met back at the Inn and exchanged information. Van was troubled to learn that an army of baatezu was being raised in the lower depths of the temple of Valok. She went back to tell this information to Kalik. He paid her for it hansomely, and said that now more than ever they must kill the generals and district head.... to weaken the resolve of the invasion. Van gathered the heroes and went to the Goblin's Niche.

The place amazed and disgusted them. The Goblin's Niche was a pleasure house for orcs, goblins, and other nasties. The girls in the establishment were according to that taste. At the front desk they were met by a charismatic goblin. After some palm-greasing, he told them that government officials and generals do in fact frequent the place... usually they are in the suites on the top floor. Van promptly ordered a suite and 3 female goblins for the whole party. A likeable ogre named Francois was summoned to show them all up to their room. When they got to the top floor, they glanced around and noticed one door being guarded by an ogre and some orcs. After Francois took his leave, they noticed another hallway with a hill giant guarding the door.

The heroes made a plan. They would go up on the roof and hop onto the balconies of the rooms to sneak in and kill the occupants. Using some rope and some of Ari's biting arrows, they made easy access to the roof from their own balcony. Orianna walked over to the suite directly across and snuck in. She found a sleeping orc there who had just finished with his whore. She killed them both in their sleep, stole a governmental medalian off a chair and snuck out. One down.

The next one was a little tougher. Upon entering the suite guarded by the orcs and ogre, they awoke the general. He scrambled to put his clothes on. By the time a few arrows from Orianna and Ari flew at his neck, he had turned his clothes into platemail! Just as he picked up his wicked looking axe to charge, some more arrows caught him in the throat and he fell dead. The ogre guard bursted through the door with his orc companions at that point. The Ogre charged and slammed into Van. He was slain soon after. Tupaia and Andrinor roasted the orcs with some flaming spheres for a while before they fled, only to be cut down by Van while retreating.

After Tupaia put the flames out with some conjured water, the party set the place back to normal. Ari slew the ogress whore, and they left. Now the worries came. They had to kill the next general without rousting the hill giant. Tupaia went back to the room and paid their goblin whores to try to distract the giant, while the rest of the party went for a full attack.

The plan worked. The general was suprised in bed, and he was cut down with his whore in a fairly short and brutal battle. The giant did not hear it at all. Quietly, the heroes slipped out of the building togethor and back to their inn to recouperate once more.

Chapter 8

After getting back to the Inn that night, the heroes set up a cautious watch and slept and recuperated. The next morning they awoke and decided to shop for supplies. Tupaia split off with Ari and hung out outside the city. There she found herself a hawk companion. In the meantime, Vanoviel found a small shop where she was able to barter some items to get a better shield for Ari. Andrinor and Orianna stayed back at the Inn to wait for Jade.

When Jade arrived in the afternoon she was a little upset at the ruckus made by the party in town. It wasn't widely known that they were the assassins who pulled off the gig at the Goblin's Niche, but she knew it. In any case, she said that they had better get a move on, but right at that instant, the heroes were attacked by a group of drangonari elves in the hallway.

The battle was fierce. Flaming spheres were exchanged, and a flamestrike nearly killed a few heroes. The drangonari elf monks that were there got killed fairly quickly, but not before doing some damage. At that point, the main cleric fled the scene and left his lackeys to die.

Immediately after, urban sprites appeared in the hallway out of nowhere. They had a human cleric of O'ma with them. They told the adventurers to come with them immediately because it was not safe for them here.

They retreated through the streets to an abandoned wearhouse. Inside the wearhouse where nearly 100 followers of O'ma ranging from templars, to clerics, and even rangers. The head cleric introduced himself as Sarmon, and he told the heroes that he had been in town for a couple weeks hiding out and gathering his forces for a strike on the temple of Valok. The urban sprites alerted him to the presence of Baatezu being summoned in the dungeon beneath the temple.

He told them that the lower levels of the temple had two entrances.... one was small and could be accessed from the sewers. The other was large, big enough to let a small army into. But it was barred heavily from the other side and there was a small magic dead area around it. Sarmon requested that the heroes make their way into the smaller entrance, cross the dungeon to the big door and let the army in. They agreed and after some healing they set out for the sewers led by some guides sent by Sarmon.

Upon entering the lower temple levels, they were immediately confronted with all sorts of minor to moderate Baatezu blocking their way. Some of them, such as the Lemurs, were easy enough, but the barbazu were a little bit more risky. Orianna scouted the area for traps after almost falling victim to a poison dart trap on one of the doors. Afterwards, the progress was slower but much safer. Eventually, the party fought their way across the dungeon and killed the barbazu guarding the big door. Removing the bar was easy enough, and on the other side of the door they were quickly reunited with their new friends who streamed in and down the stairs to the main summoning chambers.

The adventurers reasoned that if Mandaharuk were in the vicinity, he would probably be on a level somewhere above. So they went up while the army went down. That brought them into a large foyer with two small doors and a very very large set of iron double doors.

Jade spoke up at that point and said that it looked too easy. They must be expected. So she casted a few preparatory spells and asked the others to do the same. Once geared up, the party pushed through the double doors and found a fairly tranquil looking sanctuary to Valok.

Standing in the sanctuary were some familiar faces.... the saw the two generals, and the town official whom they just killed shortly before... as well as a couple of minor clerics, and standing in the back were Mandaharuk, and their friend Khalik... who has apparently betrayed them.

Mandaharuk gloated for a while about how they would not leave alive this time. Khalik said that after they were dead, he would work on displacing "the vortex" and bringing their lord and master, Valok, into the world. This puzzled the heroes, but they didn't have long to ponder it before the battle commenced.

Mandaharuk and Khalik were cautiously standing in a minor globe of invulnerability and holding their attacks while the generals dealt with the main fighting. The minor clerics were quickly dispatched with a lightning bolt from Andrinor and a flaming sphere from Tupaia. The enemies all seemed to be resistant to heat, arrows, and physical attacks which made things much harder.

After a while the generals where whittled down, and Khalik and Mandaharuk played a fairly minor role up to that point. Eventually they started in on the fighting too. Mandaharuk headed off a charge from Vanoviel with a blast from his ring of the ram. Khalik tried a few mind altering spells and failed miserably. Eventually the generals where dead, and Jade, aided by an illusion, snuck up on the globe and casted a cone of cold into it, severely hurting the two inside. By that time the warriors had gotten to the enemy spellcasters and started to beat on them. Khalik, feeling badly hurt, used his ring on the pool of water nearby to open a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water. Running past the warriors, he took a few hits but managed to jump in and escape by the skin of his teeth. Mandaharuk wasn't so lucky. He stood and fought by dishing out a few flamestrikes. But as he took a very nasty hit from Ari's sword, so he decided to cast a sanctuary spell on himself and make a break for it. That worked against all except Vanoviel and Andrinor. As he was running out to get to the pool, Vanoviel hit him, and as he exited the globe Andrinor casted a lightning bolt that sizzled him to ashes and severley hurt Ari in the process.

The battle was won, and Mandaharuk was dead. But the greater danger, Khalik remained.

After looting, Jade found a bag of holding and said that they must all follow Khalik to the plane of water. The only entrance she knew of was located in the Nixie city of Qwandovia, which lies off the shores of Arvanos' lands about 380 miles to the north. She said that if she casted a fly spell on herself and aimed to teleport to some spot high off the ground, she could carry everyone in the bag of holding and they could traverse about 300 of those miles instantly.

The party agreed and after leaving Brekon to sort their treasure, they teleported to Arvanos' lands.

Chapter 9

Upon arriving in the border lands of Arvanos' holdings, the adventurers set out to the northwest to get to the shore. It dawned on them that they would need a method to breathe under water if they were going to the plane of water, but they didn't know how they would obtain the necessary means. Andrinor came up with the idea that he could polymorph them all into nixies which could breath water. So he started the process which took 3 days. Van and Ari were polymorphed into male nixies. Rynn was polymorphed into a voluptuous female nixie, while the others were polymorphed into average female specimens.... well, Tupaia was made slightly less than average. Alistrina the cougar was less than thrilled at the prospect of being polymorphed into a swordfish so she casually took her leave of Tupaia and headed for the forests.

On the road, they were joined by an elven bard named Rynn. He said that he was looking for some food and shelter and that he'd be willing to play for it. He was in the habit of wandering the lands far and wide and taking comfort when and where he could. Jade and the others allowed him to accompany them, although they warned him that they were going to no ordinary city and that they would be possibly encountering powerful foes. Nonetheless, Rynn said he would accompany them for as long as it was entertaining, if they would have him.

Shortly further down the road, they met some soldiers who were making camp for the night. They said that they served Sir Rajivik Roan, a vassal of Lord Arvanos. They were out on patrol and they were returning to the keep to be relieved by the next set of soldiers. Sir Roan only really has about 20 soldiers, they said. But it keeps the land safe enough. They told the heroes that their master is fond of guests and that he would love a chance to put them up for the next night if they accompanied the soldiers to the keep. The party agreed, since the keep was on their way.

The next day they found that the keep was actually a tower surrounded by a hexagonal wall. The soldiers brought them to the door and said farewell. The door was answered by what Van identified as a sadik (a neverdead version of the zombie). The sadik motioned them in and bid them to wait in the sitting room. Shortly after Rajivik came down. He was wearing a long white robe. His skin was nearly as white, almost glowing, and his features were fine like an elf's, yet he was human. He appeared almost to be cut out of marble. But he recieved them warmly and told them he would be glad to put them up for as long as they wanted. He gave them free reign of the kitchen, guest quarters, and library. The guests all settled down to some wine and a bath. Van went up to the libary to start researching.

For the rest of the day, Rajivik asked the party about their quest. He was very interested, and he gave them much information in turn. But as the sun went down, he pulled away and said he needed to retire upstairs.

The rest of the night, Van, and Andrinor spent time researching the basics of planar travel, and god avatars, as well as the monsters one could encounter on the planes.

The next morning, the guests awoke feeling very refreshed. They had all had much food and comfort. Breakfast was served. Rajivik then took everyone back up to the library to explain things.

He told them that he would start by explaining the vortex Khalik spoke of. He said that magic on Avlis emanated from one of two vortices. One was accessed only by the gods for God Magics. This vortex originated from the fabric of all the planes, and it permeated the world all through. The second unseen vortex was the source for all conventional magics. It emanated from one plane only. Currently, it was the plane of Arborea. But that was not always the case. Rajivik explained that since there was no god or goddess of arcane magic, the vortex was apt to shift its plane of origin, although uncommonly. When that happened, things in the world often changed. First off, mages would be rendered powerless until the figured out which plane the magic came from and made the necessary changes to their spells. This could take weeks. Second off, the magic sometimes partly took on the character of the plane it attached to. As an example, Rajivik told of the time of the Great War when the orcs attacked the fairies and were subsequently attacked by the other good races. At that time period, the vortex originated from Baator. Thus that age was characterized by large scale orderly war and bloodshed. If a greater god had help from a mortal and maybe one or two other gods, it is conceivable that the vortex could be purposely shifted from one plane to another. This may be what Khalik intends.

Pertaining to Avatars, Rajivik said that a greater god could work with a servant to bring his avatar to the prime. That would be very unfortunate for the world if Valok came, he said.... whether he was helped by Baatezu armies or not.

To aid the party in their quest, he donated a magic ring which enables one to breath underwater by creating a bubble of inexhaustable air around their head. He said that polymorphing into nixies is not a good idea because the spell could be disrupted, dealling death to the victim. He suggested that they find alternate means. He knew a lady necromancer named Alanna who lives in a keep not far off. He told them that they should go there and ask her for what she has. He also requested that they deliver a letter to her for him.

This they did, after another refreshing night's sleep. Upon reaching Alanna's keep, which looked much like Rajivik's own, they were ushered inside this time by zombies. They waited in the parlor for about an hour and a half at which point they were greeted by Alanna. She wore black robes and had fairly pale skin and long dark hair. She had read the letter which the adventurers gave to one of the zombies to deliver to her. She said that she had two rings for waterbreathing, and that she was willing to trade for them. Van traded her two magical axes for the rings. She seemed happy with this, and said farewell. She told the heroes that they could stay the night in her tower if they wished. She knew of a group of nomads nearby called the Romini, who had a witch with much water magic. She warned them to treat the witch well, however, and to ask her if she could trade for any more useful water items.

That night the adventurers cautiously stayed in one room in the tower. They did some more research in the library there, and found more of the same information. Curiously, they found the letter which Rajivik had sent to Alanna. It turned out that they were lovers. The letter explained the heroes quest and that they were to be treated well. It also made reference to a curse that they were under. Van figured out that this curse was somehow related to the necromancers' strange behavior. Rajivik was never seen at night and was often seen healing people, as well as keeping neverdead servants. Alanna was obviously a vampire necromancer. That must make Rajivik a neverdead vampire, or Infusor. They thought it sad that the two of them could never meet again, for one is active in the day and the other at night.

The next morning, they went to the Romini camp.

Rynn got into an instrument duel with one of the locals, and he barely lost for best out of three. The people were in good spirits though, and as they relieved them of some of their belongings, they showed the heroes to where the witch was keeping a lean-to.

The witch was crotchety at best. She didn't want to deal with outsiders, but after much coaxing, and a special song written by Rynn, she was persuaded to trade. She traded to the heroes an amulet of waterbreathing, bracers of waterbreathing and free action, and a ring of water command. In the process she clarified the curse that she put on Alanna and Rajivik. It turned out that about 60 years ago they were involved in the death of her son.... something about accusing him and his friends of stealing... ridiculous. But he was dead nonetheless, so she cursed them. Only she could lift the curse, but once she died it would be eternal. She was happy about this. All she really wanted from the two was an apology..... and some monetary compensation. But the heroes let it all be and wandered towards their destination, Qwandovia.

Chapter 10

Once entering the ocean, the heroes figured they had about one or two days of underwater travel before they reached the city of Qwandovia. They took some time to settle on whether they wished to swim or walk the ocean bottom to reach their destination. Once deciding that walking was better, they set out. The 33 mile journey to the nixie settlement went fairly smoothly. Tupaia used her sense of direction to keep them going in the proper direction, since underwater visibility was not extensive.

When they approached near to the city, a small group of nixie guards challenged them as to their business there. They noted that even though the heroes looked like nixies, they were behaving strangely for that kind. Tupaia used her command of the aquan language to try to relate to the guards they they were passing through the area to use their portal to the elemental plane of water in order to chase down the evil orc wizard Khalik. This however only served to make the guards very suspicious. They agreed that the heroes would be allowed into town if they gave up their weapons and went immediately to the town elders under escort. They reluctantly agreed to this and were shown the way.

The city of Qwandovia was not like a conventional land city. The huddled stone buildings and congested streets were absent here. Instead, small clusters of buildings ranged about an open area. Most of the structures were built out of combinations of shell and stone, along with bits of driftwood, although some of the buildings were extensions of natural caves, holes, and other depressions on the ocean floor. Each building had at least one story, and some had three or four with circular doors, some of which entered the buildings on a level above the ground floor. The buildings towards the center of the city were etched in mother-of-pearl and highly decorative. One of them was obviously a temple, and the others although they were pretty, had no obvious function. It was to one of these that the heroes were escorted. Once inside, they were placed into a waiting room for a while, and after a small time they were escorted to a small audience chamber where three nixies sat at a dais. One seemed to be a cleric of O'ma, another was a female warrior type, and the third was hard to determine. The three elders scrutinized the adventurers and repeated the series of questions asked by the guards. Eventually, the cleric in the group casted comprehend languages to aid in the discourse. This made things much easier and the elders were able to determine what the heroes intended to do.

In reply, the elders decreed that the heroes would be allowed to use the portal to the elemental plane of water if they completed a small task for the city. The party members did not like the sound of this but they agreed. The elders said that a dragon turtle had recently taken up residence nearby and was harrassing the town. A troop of nixie warriors was to be sent out to kill the thing the next day, and the adventurers were to accompany them.

That night the heroes rested, and early the next morning the nixies picked them up and they set out. After about 10 miles, they came to the mouth of an underwater cavern. Immediately inside was the dragon turtle, apparently sleeping, but no one could tell. The warriors and adventurers split into two groups, with 4 nixies posted outside the entrance to try and prevent escape. The battle was bloody. The dragon turtle was in fact not asleep, and immediately spotted the nixies' attempts at being stealthy. Half of the troop paid for that mistake with their lives when the dragon breathed a stream of hot steam over them. Ari was critically injured in this blast as well. Luckily, Jade fired off a quick healing spell, and Tupaia gave her another healing boost from her wand of healing. In no time she was wading back in. Meanwhile the dragon clawed away at some more nixies. Van got there next and started trading blows with the beast while Andrinor experimented with polymorph spells to little avail. Tupaia supported the mix by summoning large sharks to their aide, and Rynn did the same thing. Jade meanwhile kept up the much needed healing.

After a time, Van was caught in the dragon's breath weapon and then snapped up in its jaws. Luckily, by this time however, the damage inflicted earlier by Van and the others through various means had taken its toll. Just as the dragon was about to finish Van and turn on the others, she reached up from its jaws and hit it in the head with three well placed bludgeoning blows, thereby killing it.

Four nixies out of 15 survived the encounter, and they all returned to Qwandovia. For their efforts, the heroes were allowed to rest and use the portal the next day.

Stepping through the portal was an interesting experience. The plane of water is a featureless ocean with no surface and no bottom. It is water in all directions to infinity. The adventurers soon found out that "up" was determined by one's mind, and that "down" was simply the other way. After a few short falls, the group got the hang of it and with the help of their nixie guide, they set forth to the portal leading to the City of Doors. The journey was brief, lasting only one day. However, it proved perilous. A voracious group of water elemental sharks assaulted the party first, and they caused some moderate damage before they were dispatched. This encounter however weakened their resolve for the next encounter when they were attacked by four fearsome elementals. Everyone took severe damage before Jade was able to block them off with a ring of steam (fire) and a wall of force. From this safe shelter, the magic users in the group were able to pick them off at their leisure. After this incident, they all decided to rest. When they were just about to wake up, a huge countercurrent vortex opened up nearby and sucked them in. Most of the group swam to safety almost immediately, but Ari took severe damage from it.... she was unable to swim out for some time.

When they were almost at their destination, they came upon another curious sight: marids were battling efreet who were apparently trying to make a break to escape through a portal to the plane of fire. The water genies known as marids were losing to the efreeti, so the adventurers decided to lend a hand and hopefully make some friends. However, all the marids soon perished in the battle, and the efreeti were dispatched by the heroes soon after. No friends were made afterall.

From there, the party continued on and came to their destination: a huge rock, with many holes and tunnels. This evidently served as a marid community. Deep within lay the portal to the City of Doors. The adventurers dragged with them the bodies of the efreeti they killed and thus gained quick access to the establishment. They were not harshly challenged, but they were watched. Once reaching the center, they came to a large spherical cavern, where there was a portal guarded by some marids, and a marid leader of apparent power.

The Marid leader, Joon, told them they could pass through the portal for a toll. As an example of what could be used for a toll, he showed them a blue sapphire gem left by a previous visitor named Khalik. The orc, Khalik, told Joon that he had gotten the gem off of an elf maiden long ago when he was in T'Nanshi studying elf magic. Her name was Rinturn, or Ringwald, or something like that. Ari recognized that to be one of the gems which belonged to her Ringthon family heirloom and immediately demanded it back. "I want my gem!" The marid looked puzzled that they should be demanding things from him, and he refused them..... so a fight broke out. After a small pitched battle, the party prevailed and recovered the gem, along with a magical bow that could enchant its arrows by the type of gem locked into it.

They entered the portal immediately, for they heard other marids in pursuit. They came up out of a fountain in a small stone building, and breathed a sigh of relief because they were once again on dry land.... that would make things much easier for them.... or so they think.

Chapter 11

Upon exiting the portal, the adventurers found themselves in a strange place. They were standing in a small fountain within a stone building that was apparently empty but for the pool. The doorway of the structure opened out onto a street, which seemed wet from a newly fallen rain. As they strolled out of the building, they saw a fairly quiet street. There was nothing more than a few humanoids here and there walking around. One odd thing they noticed was that no matter which direction they looked down the streets, they all seemed to be going uphill. As the cloudy sky started to clear, they also noticed that high above them were the twinkling lights of the rest of the city! It appeared as if they were on the inside of a gigantic tire.

Decidedly confused by this, they set out to look for the evil orc mage, Khalik, and to find shelter on the way. They soon found their way to a tavern that gave them directions to a more comfortable sleeping Inn just a little ways down the road. While at the tavern, Andrinor decided to order drinks for himself and his companions.... water for the whole lot, and an abyssal ale for himself. When the bartender put the smoking concoction down on the table, Andrinor gulped it in one swaft.... and was promptly knocked on his rear in a drunken stupor. The party members carried him out on their way to the next Inn. Once they set up a couple rooms at the new place, they left Andrinor to sleep it off, and Tupaia to watch him. Rynn decided to play a few sets at the barroom to earn drinks for himself, and the others decided to head off to find a way to get to Khalik.

Back in the room where Tupaia was in tiger form resting, and Andrinor was comatose, they got a big suprise. A huge hulking spider-like scaly demon teleported into the room! Tupaia immediately attacked it and rended it with her claws, but it seemed to pay her no mind. It fixated solely on Andrinor, who was helpless in bed. Once it got him in its jaws, it disappeared, wounded badly as it may have been. Tupaia ran downstairs to Rynn frantically and told him what happened. They decided to wait for the others to come back.

Meanwhile, Van, Ari, Jade, and Orianna were patrolling the streets of Sigil. They got directions to the Hive district, where information was usually bought and sold. Once there, they struggled to get through the twisted streets of the chaotic quarter, and suddenly they bumped into a very pretty blonde haired elf woman. She was stunned to see them. Ari recognized her from somewhere, and it was revealed that she was Leirehanna Ringthon, the aunt that left the family when Aritelda was very young. They exchanged a bit of information, and when Leire heard about Khalik being in the city, she was alarmed, for they had known each other. She quickly invited them back to her place, and they agreed to go after they collected their companions back at the Inn.

Upon reaching the Inn, they received the distressing news from Tupaia and Rynn. When Leire heard that Andrinor was with them, she was equally alarmed and said she would explain back at her home.... where they had better retired to quickly.

Meanwhile, Andrinor came to in a room with a small array of demons present. He was beaten and bound in a chair. Next to him was a curious looking cambion. The cambion had some very strikingly similar features to his own, and he realized this quickly. The cambion looked at him curiously, and then sighed. A voice inside Andrinor's head greeted him and introduced itself as the cambion, Andrin... his father. Once Andrinor figured out he could communicate telepathically with this person, he asked a lot of questions about what was going on. The cambion summarized that he was the son of a mighty Balor lord named Lastryxx. The Balor lord was highly involved in the Blood War between the Tana'ri and the Baatezu, however, his son Andrin did not want any part of it, so he fled his father's realm. The father did not appreciate this, and he was constantly sending out agents to retrieve his son.. and eventually, when the cambion settled down and married an elf named Leirehanna, or Leire, the agents started to come after their son Andrinor. This distressed both of them greatly, so with the help of one of Andrin's psionicist friends, they erased part of Andrinor's memory and placed him on Avlis to be safe. They had no idea he would wind up back there in Sigil. Andrinor imparted the story to him.

At that point the demons in the room started to force march the pair down the street. They stopped at a sewer drain. Once there they pulled the grating off and threw a bone into the hole, at which point a portal opened up. The captives where thrust through the portal and the demons followed. They came out in a spiked pit in the middle of a forest. After taking some cuts from the spikes, they got out of the pit and continued their march towards another portal to the Abyss, which was perhaps a day or two away. Andrin and his son got caught up on things during that walk.

Back in Sigil, Leire and the adventurers related their stories to each other. The adventurers where stunned to find out that Leire was Ari's aunt, and she was ousted from the family about a century earlier for her lack of enthusiasm in learning magic. The Ringthon family was adept at magic, although their founder, Deritel Ringthon, was a warrior. He was the original wielder of the sword which Ari now held. Leire said the sword was crafted during the Great War on Avlis. It had four stones to enhance its power. When Leire left the family, she started to wander, and became interested in the sword's history. She traced the location of a couple of the stones, and actually was able to retrieve two of them. The saphire which she retrieved was held in the lair of a dragon out in the country of Ferrel. That is where she met a young orc mage outcast who helped her retrieve the stone, but then double crossed her by running off with it and the dragon loot. This was none other than Khalik. On another occasion she recovered a pink stone from the sword which gave it the power to function fully to its ability on any plane. This she imparted to Ari. After that, she told of a long series of adventures where she eventually met and fell in love with a cambion named Andrin.... and to them was born a son named Andrinor. This revelation stunned the party. Ari was suddenly aware that the greedy sorcerer was actually her cousin. At that point, while everyone was sharing, Tupaia divulged that her last name was Dagroth... which further stunned everyone to complete the evening.

Leire informed the adventurers that her husband Andrin was kidnapped shortly before Andrinor. She said that she would uncover information on Khalik's wereabouts, while the rest of them went out to save the father and son. She gave them directions to a portal in the city sewer which was triggered at noon by any dried bone. The next day they bought horses and set out. Orianna also picked up a stone for her gem bow.

Out on the outlands the party road hard to catch up with the kidnappers. When they finally overtook them, a bloody battle ensued. Ari nearly cleaved a Hezrou demon in half with her enchanted sword. The Tana'ri promptly used its supercharged deeper darkness spell to blot out the whole battle in blackness. This unerved everyone and ruined the targeting of spells. They fought on, and took much damage. There were three pincer demons, called Retrievers, who fought the adventurers ruthlessly by using their fire, ice, or lightning rays. Jade managed to dismiss one of them before the battle began. Almost everyone was badly hurt, especially Ari and Van, who suffered badly from the Hezrou's stench. But in the end, Andrin freed himself of his bonds and walked out of the darkness globe and unleashed the full power of his psionics on the demons. In his first blast he obliterated almost 5 of them. By this time, there was only one left, and he later obliterated that one with another of his powers.

The party then made introductions, and it was revealed to Andrinor that Leire was his mother and that Ari was his kin. They set off bag to Sigil which went quickly using Jade's teleport spell and the bag of holding. The next noon, they got back into the city and went back to Leire's house.

She informed them that Khalik was due to have a secret meeting in one of the local demon Inns. However, that was all she could find out. The adventurers then set up to stake out the place. Orianna kept guard while Rynn went in to ask questions. Later on, a second mission by Andrinor revealed not much more information. They needed a way to ambush Khalik and to get into his room. They eventually found out he was staying at the Inn, and with a trip to the roof and into the ventilation system, they zeroed in on his room. However, he was not alone. His minimum company was two golems, and at least two devils of some kind. They decided against attacking from the vents, and retreated.

The next day, Jade, Van, and Andrinor went in again to spy on the meeting from the vents. The others waited out back in case anything went wrong. Khalik was to meet with someone named Quilan. He took his seat in the room with his two devil assistants, and eventually Quilan showed up. From the long conversation they learned many things. Quilan was a former pupil of Angadar's who felt he was mistreated during the god's mortal days. He was determined to get revenge. Khalik proposed that they could help with that revenge if Quilan did some things for him. Quilan was the owner of some rituals he needed. One of the rituals was for changing the origin of the magic vortex which powered all magic on Avlis from the plane of Arborea to Baator. The second ritual was for enchanting a special portal to bring Valok fully onto the Prime Material Plane so he could rule Avlis. Quilan was to supply the mages, and the rituals. Khalik and Valok would supply all the god power needed, as well as taking care of distracting the god Mikon from Valok's entrance onto the Prime. In return, Valok would destroy Angadar for Quilan.

Quilan agreed, and the meeting ended. Khalik revealed that there were two pit fiends in the room with him that were getting ready to set up the deal.

Jade was very disturbed at this news, and when the party reassembled, she informed them that their next stop would be her father's Realm on Avernus... the first layer of Baator.

Chapter 12

Once the heroes collected and shared all of their information on Khalik's deal with Quilan to betray and murder the god Angadar in exchange for helping Valok, they returned to Leire and Andrin's house to rest. There Jade told them about some of the dangers they would be facing in Baator when they went there to petition Angadar for help in stopping Valok. Later that night they did a LITTLE BIT of shopping in order to divest themselves of their funds and acquire better equipment for their trip. Along with an endowment from Andrin, they brought most of the dragon hoard that they liberated back at the Nixie settlement of Qwanderal.

After the shopping was finished, they went back to Leire and Andrin's house for the night, and after they were stocked up on supplies by Leire, they left for the nearest portal to Baator. The portal itself was located back at the Inn where they had last spied on Khalik. Carrying an apple as a portal key, they walked through the door to the firepit room and emerged in a burnt out street in some small ruined city.

The sky above them was crimson red with darker red wispy clouds. The air smelt of brimstone, and the occasional fireball would fall from the sky periodically and wiz by overhead. Some came close enough to feel the heat. At some point all of the buildings in the city had been damaged by these random blasts.

While the heroes were marvelling at the horific landscape and the forlorn settlers of Darkspine, a small group of Hamatula guardsmen came upon them. "Halt! Are you allied with our master, Bel?" When the heroes hesitated to answer, the guards attacked. The fight turned ugly and the guards fell, only to be replaced by four more. When the adventureres saw that they were fighting a losing battle, they fled. Turning a corner, Van was grabbed by somebody and dragged through a secret door in the alley. The others followed.

The woman who grabbed her introduced herself as Irena Nightwalker. She was a leader in the resistance of Darkspine. She explained that Darkspine was once located on the outlands in the neighboring plane of neutrality, but the evil actions of its citizens caused it to fall into Baator. The resistance was determined to liberate the town by instilling non-Baatezu belief structures in the current settlers, and attracting non-adherents to law and evil. At this point Irena questioned the travelers on their origins. When she found out they were from Avlis, she said it was curious, but that someone else from Avlis had just arrived.

She led them down a corridor deeper into the bunker. They reached a main chamber with other members of the resistance going about their tasks. Walking up to a door, Irena opened it to reveal a large meeting room with a long table. At the head of the table sat the shade of Lord Dagroth. He was recognizable as his old self, but he was a little hagard looking and pale. The heroes were stunned and annoyed to see him, but not suprised. They quickly figured out that he had been killed back home and that he came here in the afterlife. He however was upset by this knowledge. Jade further upset him by informing him that soon the plane would take his essence and convert him into a lowly Lemur, the lowest form of mindless devils. She said that the only reason why he wasn't converted right away was because he was powerful in life. However, it would be a matter of days or weeks at most before he finally succumbed.

Dagroth was not happy to hear this information. He asked the heroes where they were headed and they told him that they were looking to talk to Angadar. Dagroth begged them to take him along so that he could become a loyal petitioner of that god and not lose his identity. The heroes were clearly unimpressed with his request, but Dagroth pressed the issue and swore that he could be usefull for them. He knew of a devil who could shorten their journey to Angadar's realm which lies on the opposite side of Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells, or Baator. The party was skeptical, but agreed.

Irena led them out of the city through a secret underground tunnel so that Dagroth could call his devil friend. Once there, he summoned an Erinyes named Vrominestryx. She was a beautiful woman with feathery wings, and a sweet voice. She was more than happy to see Dagroth, and overjoyed when they asked her for transportation to the outskirts of Angadar's realm. She said she would do it for payment... anything of value. The heroes were immediately skeptical that she was about to request a soul. Andrinor in particular said that there would be no souls given, and she replied that she swore she would not take his soul. The party agreed to transportation, and once the deal was filled on her end she demanded payment. Payment was to be rendered in the form of Orianna's soul, for afterall, she swore she would not take *Andrinor's* soul. The party was not inclined to agree, and a fight broke out. After taking some hits, the devil lady casted an improved invisibility spell on herself and later enveloped Ari with a magical rope that tied itself to her and a rock. Tupaia eventually outlined her in a faere fire spell, and she took a couple more hits. At this point she was feeling very wounded and cancelled the deal and teleported away.... swearing revenge.

The party licked its wounds, recovered its new magical rope, and continued on towards the River Styx which lay right ahead. After a little contemplation, they allowed Rynn to put them in the bag of holding and fly them over the river with his newly acquired ring of flying which he got in the hidden magic shop in Sigil during the shopping spree.

Jade announced that Angadar's realm was not far off... just around the corner, and through "The Garden". When they rounded the corner however, they were greeted by a small patrol of about 30 lemurs and a hamatula which immediately attacked. The heroes made minced meat of them and breathed a sigh of relief, when all of a sudden, about 250 more lemurs and about 4 hamatulas came pouring over the hills after them. They immediately made for the garden ahead. When the reached the foliage the army turned away in fear. Jade explained that Baatezu were afraid of the garden.... no one knew why.

Not liking this, Andrinor decided to cut a swath through the army with a lightning bolt... and then another. Pretty soon, the bug spread to the rest of the party and they all attacked the retreating army of about 250 lemurs. After a long and gooey fight, every magic user in the party casted every offensive spell they had, and every fighter's weapon was covered in lemur slime. Van had waded right into the middle of the force and cleaved them on all sides of her. Tupaia had transformed into a Rhino and bowled them over. In the end, about 250 lemurs where dead and the hamatulas fled to fight another day.

The heroes took refuge and rest in the garden. Jade explained that no violence was possible there and that they would not be bothered. So they rested and slept. Feeling restored, they searched out the door to Angadar's realm. Eventually they found it under some vines. Jade opened the stones and lead them through a long corridor under the ground. The corridor opened into a cavern.

The cavern was immense. Part of it on the opposite end was open to the crimson sky. The rest of it was under a rocky roof and it contained a myriad of dark brownish-green skinned elves studying tomes of all kinds. Jade told the heroes that this was the first of three layers to Angadar's realm. It was where all his non-drangonari elven followers went when they died. There, they read tomes about all kinds of arcane knowledge. Whatever they read instantly went into Angadar's mind and knowledge base, thereby increasing his power.

At the end of the cavern which was open to the sky, there was a stone staircase. Jade led them up it and out into a forest. The trees in the forest were immense. The inhabitants here were much like the elves below except they also had scales and fangs. They were full drangonari elves. Jade explained that this was where the drangonari elven followers came when they died. Also some followers from the level below were sometimes promoted to this level if they did good work. They were converted to drangonari elves if this happened. On this level the petitioners were sometimes allowed to leave the realm for the purpose of recovering more tomes to be read below. Other petitioners here worked on their mental concentration and discipline. These were responsible for increasing the size of the realm and protecting it. Jade led them through this realm and up to a gigantic tree with a wooden sprial staircase wrapped around it. Two drangonari elves with leathery wings guarded it, but they immediately stepped aside upon recognizing Jade.

The adventurers went up the staircase and came to a large wooded platform city in the trees. This was the third layer of the realm. Jade said this was where those who knew Angadar personally dwelt. Many of them were responsible for the day to day operation of the realm. Others dealt with outside politics, and others were at the god's beck and call for whatever he wanted.

Jade led them through this portion of the realm to a small dwelling carved into one of the trees. She opened the door, put down her stuff and told the heroes to take seats. She then went into the pantry and started fixing tea. She said this was her home once, and it hadn't changed in over 50 years. She announced that soon there would be messengers of Angadar arriving.

As if it was timed, there was a knock at the door that instant. Jade answered it and there was a man standing there. He had short blond here and a catlike smile. He walked in with roguish grace and introduced himself as Stephanus, an attendant of Angadar. He asked the adventurers why they came to this realm, and what Jade was doing back there. They explained their story about what they heard Khalik say, and how Angadar was in trouble, along with the entire planet of Avlis. This troubled Stephanus greatly and he said he would bring the matter to Angadar's attention. Then he asked what Dagroth was doing there, and they told him he came to declare loyalty as a petitioner. At the moment, he split into two complete copies of himself. One copy beckoned Dagroth to come with him, and they went through the door. The other copy stayed and had tea with the heroes.

They asked him eventually about how he did that splitting trick and he told them it was an ability of all demigods. He demonstrated other abilities, such as his immunity to mortal magic, and mortal magic weapons.

After a while, the other copy of Stephanus knocked on the door and he had a huge muscular 9ft tall minotaur with him. The minotaur's name was Bobil. Stephanus then merged into one copy and said that Angadar wished to see them in his audience chamber. Along the way to the palace, the heroes witnessed Bobil do the same splitting trick that Stephanus did earlier.

They were then led to Angadar's palace. A metal construction of silver and gold, and other metals. It towered into the sky with six spires around it at regular intervals. When they came into the audience chamber they saw a blonde haired elf dressed completely in blue with a glass shortsword at his side and a staff tipped with a large red gem leaning on the wall next to him.

Angadar introduced himself and then asked the heroes to repeat their story. After digesting it and checking its validity, he said they were correct in that it was a grave matter. They had his attention. He said that he would think on a way to disrupt Valok's plans, but he would need some time. After toying with Andrinor's mind a little bit, he sent them on their way and told them he would be contacting them soon. He then split into four pieces and each one teleported away, except for the one on the throne.

The adventurers went back to Jade's dwelling. Later on, Angadar himself came to the door and summoned Vanoviel to walk with him. He confided to her that he was in dire trouble if Valok wanted to kill him. Valok was a greater god than he was and was more than able to finish the task. He confessed that the only way to disrupt Valok would be an all out assault. For this, he proposed that Vanoviel get help from her god O'ma. Angadar was holding a captured Planetar of O'ma, and he wished her to convince it to summon O'ma for his help with the attack. He then showed Van to a room with the Planetar and left her there. The planetar was startled to see a cleric of O'ma there, but he bore the development stoically. Van explained to the celestial agent what was occurring and he eventually agreed to go back to Elysium and inform O'ma of the troubles. At that point, Van left the room and was rejoined by Angadar who thanked her and freed the Planetar.

A little while after Angadar came to the door to get Van, he came to the door again thirty seconds later to get Andrinor. He pulled the tiefling aside and told him he wanted to make a deal with him. Andrinor's interest was peaked.

Angadar explained that long long ago when Avlis was young, there was a Tana'ri that came to the planet and discovered the mortal magic vortex. He wrote a book on that vortex that explained all its mysteries, but the book was only readable by one of Tana'ri blood who was of chaotic philosiphy, and who possessed great power. Angadar told Andrinor that he possessed none of those qualities except for great power, but that Andrinor was both chaotic in his thinking and of Tana'ri blood. Angadar told him that he possessed this book among his tomes, and that he would give Anrinor the great power he needed to read it in exchange for letting Angadar link to his mind and absorb the knowledge as he learned it. Andrinor asked some more detailed questions about the deal and asked for complete access to Angadar's libraries in addition. The god agreed and the deal was done. The two were wisked away with a wave of Angadar's hand down to the subterranean level of his realm. There, Angadar said he knew a spell that would instill great power and that he was casting it now. At the culimination of the spell, a great beam of energy shot out of Angadar's hands and instantly killed Andrinor, leaving his shade standing gap face in his place. Angadar smiled at the shade and told it to reconstitute itself a new body. Andrinor's shade was puzzled, but after a little concentration he managed to make a new body for himself... more powerful than ever, and with slightly darker skin, like a drangonari elf, but he still had the same look of a tiefling. Then Angadar handed Andrinor the tome and he began to read.

As he read, the pages turned faster and faster, and in a manner of ten minutes the tome was completely read. Andrinor found out everything about the vortex of magic and how to control it. He found out that in order to take control of the vortex, an infusion of good, evil, and nuetral energy was needed. One of these could come from the caster, but two of the energies must be from the true essences of gods. He also found a curious spell in the book.... it was a spell for breaking mental links... even if they were from a very powerful being.... hmmm....

Stunned, Andrinor went back to Jade's house and shared his knowledge with Van and the others, who did the same about O'ma.

Chapter 13

After receiving their revelations about what was about to occur on Avlis, things got really quiet for the heroes. Angadar informed them that he needed some time to think and plan what he would do about his predicament. This gave the heroes a lot of time to relax and wander Angadar's realm. Almost immediately, Andrinor, Ari, Tupaia, and Orianna gravitated towards the library where the shades there were very helpful in helping them select tomes for improving their personal qualities. The other adventurers decided to take the free time as a vacation from the horrors which they recently went through. This lull proceeded for around seven days, as near as they were able to tell by the unchanging crimson skies of Baator. On that seventh day, Stephanus and Bobil came to the door of Jade's dwelling and informed the party that they were being summoned to Angadar's audience chamber over in the palace. When they got there, the usually smug deity looked very grave. He immediately greeted the heroes and launched into a long oration about how it was necessary to foil Valok's plans for the sake of his own life (and, oh yeah, the lives of lots of others too). In foiling Valok's plans to enter Avlis, he informed them that they will also be foiling his plans to shift the vortex of magic origin from the plane of Arborea to Baator. This he cared little for, but it was a side effect nonetheless. In order to do all this, he explained, a full scale assault on Valok's realm would be necessary. For Angadar and the adventurers it would be suicide to directly challenge Valok. But Angadar meant only to disctract him, while the small party of powerful heroes sneaked in through a back realm. The plan was to use a full assault on the gates of Valok's realm as a decoy battle. The adventurers would then be teleported by Angadar to a little known realm at the heart of Valok's fortress. This realm belongs to the goddess Tianna, Valok's lover, and the matron of Deceit and Trickery. They were to navigate their way through that realm which would put them close to the center of Valok's fortress where nearby a ritual conducted by Quilan and some powerful mages would be in progress. When they got there, they were to stop the ritual at all costs.

Angadar announced that they would need further preparation before they left. At this point, he summoned a planetar into the room. The planetar was an agent of the god O'ma, whom both Tupaia and Vanoviel worshipped. In a lofty gesture, the planetar announced the arrival of O'ma's avatar to the plane. The god's likeness appeared in a flash along with some other minor avatars. Van and Tupaia were stunned by the appearance. The rest were respectful, if impressed. O'ma looked down on all of them and smiled benevolently. He introduced himself and his companioins, and then reiterated that Angadar's plans were for the greater good of Avlis, and that their goals were in agreement on this. Valok must be stopped. He announced that he had constructed some items for the party in cooperation with Angadar. They would need them in the battles ahead. To each hero in turn he gave enhanced items to help them on their way. Ari was given a powerful shield with the ability to reflect magic spells back on the caster. Orianna was given bracers to help her steady her bow aim. The others were given items of like strength, and more. The last person covered by O'ma was Vanoviel. To her he gave an important title. She was appointed as the head of his new holy order of warriors: The Champions of O'ma. Her new orders were to immediately start training new members for the order upon arriving back on Avlis from Baator. In the meantime, he gave her two gifts. One was an extremely powerful sword crafted with god magic. It lent its weilder the ability to resist spells, as well as the ability to inflict minor amounts of pain on weak demigods. The other gift was a matching short sword which was able to provide its weilder with a measure of protection like armor. With these weapons came permission to use them, for up until this time, O'ma's clerics and templars were forbiddent to use sharp weapons. Van accepted them graciously, and immediately after, the party was wisked away to the battlefield by Angadar.

Once there, Angadar said they would mount the attack immediately. All of Angadar's army of followers were present in formation with O'ma's cohorts. Directly in front of them lay Valok's fortress.... and unimaginably large metal building with numerous towers and parapets and multiple layers of battlements. Above the fortress and in front of it swarmed countless devils and petitioners.

With a second wave of his hand, Angadar placed the party into Tianna's realm. At first, the heroes thought they were inside a castle, like any other. But once they started to walk through the halls, they realized that things were not what they seemed. Walls were sometimes illusionary, and hallways were often just walls. The layout of the place also made absolutely no sense when they tried to decipher it. They were in a maze that in effect could change its own route. As they wandered, they became restless. Andrinor suggested using magic to find their way, but he had none that would do the job. Tupaia was also unable to use her direction sense. They were going blindly. Eventually, a curious figure showed up. She was a female with dirty blonde hair and a girlish figure. She was short of stature and dressed in very roguish finery. She eyed the party down and asked them why they were intruding in her realm. When the heroes failed to offer a feasible answer, she decided it was time to "play" with them. Upon hearing that, Van rushed in for an attack and hit her with her sword. The curious lady took the hit and squealed in alarm that such a weapon would harm her. She then became very angry and opened a pit at Van's feet which she fell into. The spikes at the bottom of the pit cut her sligthly. The other party members saw this as an illusion, but Van did not. At that point Andrinor gated in a planetar to fight the woman. When the planetar arrived, the woman looked unnerved, and immediately split into two identicle copies of herself, both of which tried to dismiss the creature. The dismissal failed, but when the planetar swung his great sword at one of the ladies, it passed right through them without harm. The demigoddess laughed. But by this time Van had climbed out of the pit and attacked the original copy of the goddess, thereby dissapating its form. The other form scowled at him and disappeared into the wall (after throwing a fireball down the hallway at the other adventurers for good measure). The adventurers then came to the stunning realization that they had just fought against a demigodess, and she was only toying with them. This lead them to the conclusion that they had better find a way out of her realm fast. They asked the planetar for help and he tried as best he could for the duratio of the gate spell.

He led them close to a doorway which opened into a series of rooms (after Orianna checked it for traps of course). The room was crowded with hundreds of thief petitioners still engaged in the wheeling and dealing that occupied their mortal lives. Andrinor tried to talk to one about where to find the exit, but he was not very helpful, even with payments in shadow gold from Van. However, his advice led them to stumble on the door not long afterwards.

Once through the door, they found themselves in a castle courtyard. To one side the sky was alight with flashes and the sounds of battle. There was only one door leading out of the courtyard, not counting the one they came in from. During his battle plans, Angadar informed them that there would be a cavern under the courtyard where the ritual was being cast. They had to find the entrance to the cavern and enter. Andrinor used his clairvoyance abilities to spy on what was going on. He caught the mages as they were just finishing the ritual to open the portal! Alarmed, the heroes jumped into action. They clung close to Andrinor while he hasted them all, and then casted a timestop spell. From there, he teleported them all down into the cavern and used the rest of the timestop spell to obliterate all but one of the mages in a single onslaught. The last mage alive was a lich named Xackon. He was impressed, but once his turn came, he used a timestop as well and hurled an onslaught of his own against the party thereby killing Ryn in the process. Before his timestop ended however, he teleported away.

Stunned, the heroes looked at the carnage before them and realized that the portal was open. Valok could go through at his leisure. Nothing they tried would close the portal. At that time, Tianna showed up again, and she was angry. She explained that she would kill them now, but not by toying with them. She immediately changed into her true energetic form. Just as she was about to permanently smite them all, another form of energy swooped down and pushed her through the portal. The form then coalesced into the smugly smiling form of Angadar. He watched her go through the portal and compact into her physical form. She looked confused, but once she realized where she was she became alarmed. At that point, a giant hand came down from the sky and wrapped around her. It then squeezed her until she exploded into thousands of tiny shards of energy. The hand then changed into the form of an impressive warrior in steely gray full plate armor and a glowing gray rune etched sword. It was Mikon, god of Neutrality, and creator of the humans on Avlis. He stepped throught he portal into Baator and Valok's realm. Valok himself, a warrior in bronze full plate armor with a rune etched sword of his own appeared next to the party. He looked angry. Mikon then launched into a tirade at Valok for trying to get into the Prime. Valok explained that Mikon was not supposed to know about it, but Mikon told him that a cleric of O'ma named Sarmon informed him and Sarmon heard it from the adventuring heroes themselves. This angered Valok, and so did the death of his lover, Tianna. Mikon then explained that he killed Tianna as punishment and a warning that no god should try to enter the Prime Material Plane. He then looked at Angadar gravely. He told him that he was doomed for as soon as he left, Valok would kill him. He could not help him there, but as a consolation he would give Tianna's mantle of Deceit and Trickery to Angadar. Mikon opened his hand and a blue ball of energy flew out of it and went into Angadar, who immediately changed back into his energetic form. The energy form that comprised him then got larger and brighter. Angadar cackled with glee. He was now what was known as an intermediate god, and he ruled over Deceit and Trickery, as well as his previous followers.

Mikon then bowed and left through the portal, closing it behind him. Valok screamed in rage and swore he would kill them all right there. Angadar was fast, however, and he managed to teleport them away back to his realm.

The heroes thought they were finally safe, but Angadar was unnerved. He grabbed a staff with a red gem on it. As soon as he did that, the bottom level of his realm exploded, and Valok's scream could be heard coming through after them. Angadar said that they were being chased and it was time to flee. He had a spell in the staff that let him open a portal capable of pulling his entire godly essence through it. Such was not possible with normal magical gates. Gods could send avatars through, but not their entire essence. Angadar needed to get off of Baator entirely, else Valok would surely kill him. So he opened a portal and everyone went through.

They emerged on a barren land made entirely of iron. The sky was a dark gray. All around them, large iron cubes floated through the air.... some of them were miles across. It then occurred to them that they were on a cube too.... all around them on every cube there were battles taking place, including theirs. On one end an army of goblins approached an army of orcs coming from the other end. As soon as these realizations hit them the armies clashed all around them. They were caught in the middle. Angadar then said, "Welcome to Archeron... land of battles. Hold them off while I rest, will you? That spell is exhausting." While the adventurers and O'ma fought the orcs and goblins on all sides, Angadar rested in the center oblivious to the swords that would pierce him occasionally. Soon after the great battle started, Valok burst through a portal of his own on a neighboring cube. Angadar was horrified. He never thought Valok would take his entire essense onto the neighboring plane to try and destroy him. The chase was on....

Angadar immediately got up and casted a mass fly spell. He told them all to go straight up and look for some kind of crack in the surface of the cube. They found a crack running along one length that turned a few times at right angles. At the end of the crack was a small glowing portal. Angadar said that portal would lead to another cube. They immediately made for the portal, and after interrogating an orc on where it lead they went through. They emerged into another crack on a faraway cube. This crack was occupied by fire giants who were very annoyed at the intrusion.... another fight broke out. Angadar said soon he would be ready to open another portal. After ten more fire giants met their deaths, Angadar opened a portal. "Next stop, Mechanus.", he said.

The crew emerged on another metal surface, but this one was that of a gigantic cog, more than a mile in diameter. Another cog interfaced with it on each end forming a seemingly endless chain of them leading into space in all directions. Angadar told them all to rest, and that the safest thing to do on Mechanus was stay in one place and not talk to anybody. Unfortunately, this peace was short-lived, for the next cog over to them exploded into tiny shards as Valok popped in after them. Angadar told them all to flee for their lives. The destruction of the cog summoned hoards of modrons to investigate the area. They were not pleased with their findings, and they immediately went after the adventurers to detain them for questioning. When Ari realized what was going on, she suggested that they all surrender themselves so they could be taken away from Valok. The rest of the party thought this was a good idea. They were then wisked away towards the Ciminal Investigation and Processing Center Alpha-2473. Upon arrival, they were placed into a cell and quickly separated for interrogation. Each member of the party was submitted to exhaustive questioning invariably ending in threats of arrest and "correction". Just when they couldn't take it anymore, Angadar gathered them in the cell and opened a new portal.... this time to Arcadia.

O'ma was apprehensive about Arcadia. He told them that the plane had a tendance to force people to "sacrifice" themselves for the greater good, and that anyone who was found to be evil was immediately attacked. He stated that for a goodly plane, it was not so good all the time. Angadar took refuge on a hilltop overlooking a town with perfectly rectangular streets by fields with perfectly straight rows of crops and a perfectly straight river that ran through it and made a right angle turn exactly a mile down stream from the town. Even the forest nearby had its trees arranged in straight rows. O'ma gathered the heroes up and told them they should go into town and inform them of Valok's arrival. At the local tavern, Andrinor whipped up an audience and explained to them that they should quickly mobilize a force to distract Valok while they make their getaway.... because it was for all their greater good. Oddly enough, they fell for it and a dwarf in the tavern summoned a planetar friend of his who was immediately set to the task. Just then, there was a clamor on the hilltop.... Valok had come through early and was engaging Angadar. The heroes and O'ma quickly returned to him, and Angadar opened a portal, this time at Andrinor's suggestion the portal opened to the Outland plains on Concordant Opposition. From there, O'ma used his true form in Elysium to open a portal for them from the other side, and before they knew it they were safe... for the time being.

O'ma explained that if Valok came to Elysium he would battle him personally on his own home plane. But in case things got ugly, he needed the heroes to retrieve an item from his realm.... the item was familiar to Angadar, for he was the one who took it from Nemeril the evil wizard during his mortal days.... this was the same sceptor used to slay the Emperor Curass, and used to ban O'ma from Avlis. O'ma's dismissal from Avlis was ended by Angadar, which brought about their odd friendship. The sceptor was affectionately known as "The Sceptor of Godslaying", for although it could not actually slay a god, it could banish a god's influence from a plane....

Chapter 14

With their arrival on Elysium, O'ma and Angadar began to prepare for Valok's invasion. While they were readying themselves, O'ma spoke to them about retrieving the "Godslayer" from his fortress. Just then a horrified look came over the deity's face. He seemed to be searching for something in his mind that he was unable to find. After a short time he announced a change of plans. The sceptre had been stolen at the most inopportune moment. He did not know who did it, but just then it was too late to ponder because Valok made his appearance. He hastily bid the heroes to find the sceptre.

Chaos broke loose at that point. Angadar and O'ma transformed into their true energetic forms and attacked the invader. Servants of O'ma followed their leader into battle against the hoardes of devils that came with Valok.

As the battle started, Andrinor remembered his conversation with Angadar previously about the Negerai tome that would enable him to take control of the Vortex of Mortal Magic. He recited an incantation from the tome that cut his mental link to Angadar, who was too busy to notice. Then he started the ritual for control of the Vortex. As he strained through the incantations, his concentration nearly broke several times, but he managed to hold on. As the gods fought above him, he utilized their energies in his spell, and finally after a long hard recitation, the ritual was complete. At first he did not feel any different. But then there were some changes. His body started to feel like a small confining shell from which he needed to break free. His consciousness expanded at the speed of light... it was almost too much to bear. But then the transformation culminated: Andrinor's body exploded in a brilliant flash of light... but he was not destroyed.

In his new energetic form, Andrinor was free. He was able to contemplate thousands of tasks at once, and he had total control over the vortex and all magic emanating from it. He even felt the presence of a new vortex, which was not under his control. This one was the magical source for all of the gods.

His revelations were cut short however when he felt an irresistable pull. Confused, he tried to resist, but he was unable to halt himself from being sucked into a large portal that opened up near him. When he was taken through, the landscape was changed. He found himself in a cavernous land of gorges, canyons, and fiords.... Ysgard. The land where he stood was an island floating on a huge river made of earth. He got the feeling that this island was to be his new home, and it was his to shape.

Meanwhile back on Elysium, the battle raged on. The heroes were riveted by what just happened to their comrade. Only Orianna knew the complete story of what happened, and Jade filled in the rest. Once that was settled, the heroes decided they need to go find the sceptre.

This was only a momentary notion, for immediately after two minions of Valok arrived. They were Pit Fiends, among his top aides, and one of them was carrying the sceptre with an eye on O'ma. The heroes knew that if that fiend was allowed to hit O'ma it would be disastorous. So the entire force of heroes lashed out immediately.

They had an advantage at first, for the fiends' backs were turned towards the deific battle overhead. This gave Orianna a clear shot at the head fiend's back, which got its attention and made it turn around. The other fiend soon turned and a fight broke out.

After taking a hit from a fireball thrown by the main fiend, the party advanced. Ari charged the fiend and hit it with her sword. Jade casted a spell to speed up the heroes movements enabling Vanoviel to rush in full throttle and attack. The attack was executed from behind the fiend after she jumped clear over it, and it devastated it. Tupaia lended some other magical support while the fighters finished it off. This took a large toll on them however because the fiend fought with sceptre, tooth, claw, wing and tail. The other fiend did the same, in addition to hurling magic into the fray. One such spell slammed into Vanoviel and was negated by her sword. Eventually, the fiends fell one by one, and Van snapped up the sceptre. With the help of her ring, she jumped high into the air and swung into Valok's shimmering field of energy.

A wave in Valok's energy rippled outward from the impact. Inside their heads, the heroes heard a terrible scream, and a few seconds later Valok's form winked out of existence... back to his home plane. All of his minions immediately retreated.

Calm once again reigned over Elysium. O'ma turned his attention to the heroes and thanked them. Angadar did the same, and then he immediately set out back to his home plane in order to repair his realm and make amends with his former friend.

The heroes healed their wounds and recieved O'ma's thanks, along with gates to any location they desired. Tupaia requested a gate back to her home forest, and the rest of the heroes requested their gate to open up at the home of Rajivik Roan, the infusor who helped them what seemed like ages ago. They wanted to repay him for his kindness by informing him that the curse over him and his lover could be lifted if they only apologized to the Romini lady who placed it. Rajivik received them well, and he put them up for the night before their long journey back to T'Nanshi.

Epilogue

After their long and arduous journey, the heroes were anxious to get to their homes. The long sailing voyage from Rajivik's tower went uneventfully, as did their respective overland journeys.

Aratelda Rinthong eventually patched up her differences with her father and the rest of the family. House Royal, the ruling family of Elves, took notice of her from the stories which were circulating of the epic deeds which the heroes had recently committed. They dubbed her with an official title, "Savior of the Elven People", and they gave her command of the standing elven army of T'Nanshi. Aratelda accepted her awards gracefully.

Soon after, other Ringthong family members who had affinities for the warrior way started to consult Arie for instruction. This displeased the more magically inclined family members who themselves were descended from the warrior Solerion Rinthon, a hero from the Great War. At some point in history the name was changed to Rinthong by the ruling sorcerers. This rift in the family eventually forced Arie and her followers to part with their magic using cousins and reform House Rinthon after a warrior's fashion. The two houses, Rinthong and Rinthon stayed amicable towards each other, but separate.

Andrinor took some time to get used to his newfound power. He went about his business of making himself known to the magic users on Avlis as well as building his realm on the plane of Ysgard.

Orianna journeyed immediately to Mikona, the capital city of M'Chek where she began assembling her own Rogue's guild. She ran into some early troubles carving out territory from the already existing guild in Mikona, but with the help of her contacts from the city of Andarr, including her old friend Derot Slimshadow, she managed to work out a nice living. Even her old mate Vanoviel Niltaurwen stayed in contact with her.

Vanoviel, charged with a sacred duty from her god, started construction of her order, The Champions of O'ma. She chose a small area in the northern part of T'Nanshi to construct her keep, which is eventually to be expanded into a castle, and even a town later. Her order was founded with the help of her old comrade Sarmon, the cleric of O'ma. He accepted a commission as a Champion and began training. Today he is one of the top members of the order and generally runs business in the keep when Vanoviel is away. The first batches of Vanoviel's Champions were sent in small groups to the border with M'Chek to oversee the battle against the humans. A few other small contingencies were sent northward and eastward.

Tupaia settled down in her home forest very close to Champion's Keep. She began to tend to the forest area around it as well as training some fledgling druids who began coming to her for knowledge. Eventually, her following developed into an order of druids working for O'ma. They watched over the forests of T'Nanshi and made sure that business with the Titanean fairies never got too much out of line.

Rynn stayed nearby Rajivik's tower in the Kurathene Empire. He felt it would be more interesting to spread his new tail in the north part of the continent. Thus from Rajivik's place, he went to Kuras, the capital city of the once renown Kurathene Empire. He makes his living to this very day singing about his epics in the local taverns. Jade went to T'Nanshi along with Van, Ari, and Tupaia. However, she journeyed to the capital city and retook her position in the government as a foreign ambassador. She requested a position far far away from Mikona.....

Sources

Chapter 1 notes

Chapter 2 notes

Chapter 3 notes

Chapter 4 notes

Chapter 5 notes

Chapter 6 notes

Chapter 7 notes

Chapter 8 notes

Chapter 9 notes

Chapter 10 notes

Chapter 11 notes

Chapter 12 notes

Chapter 13 notes

Chapter 14 notes

Epilogue notes