Your dutiful scribe must bring this tale to an end now… Sadly no more records can be found of the brave heroes that saved the world from the darkness of the Keystone Mortalis. Of course, that was only one of their many deeds, if perhaps the most significant. Among their other titles must be Saviors of Arastur, Sijil, and Osteros; Champions of the Arena, Dragon Slayers, and Demon Slayers; Rescuers of the Villagers of Al’abazan; Defenders of the Thri-Kreen Tribe of Chieftain Grux’Nichil; Vanquishers of the Arinfax Colossus; Leaders of the Reborn Empire of Nerath; and of course, most importantly, Adoptive Parents of Lucinda, Rescuers of Lock, and Friends of Old Breddy.

The stone architecture of the castle cannot withstand the strain of the collision and the upper floor balconies in the grand hall fracture and crack apart. (The party’s old dwarven companion, Fargrim, had commented on the shoddy workmanship when the party had first visited Lord Dread’s keep.) Heaps of stone rain down on the heads of the undead creatures filling the first floor of the chamber. The collapsing balconies drop the undead from the second floor down into the heaping pile of bodies and rubble as well.

The party is thrown forward, but fortunately tumbles across the open section of the grand hall, avoiding the crushing tons of rock raining down on the outside edges of the room. They are bruised and battered from the collision, but they all survive. As they stagger to their feet, they feel the castle lurch and rise beneath them as they sense a sinking feeling in their stomachs. The party presumes that Lord Dread’s keep suffered only a glancing blow with the earth as it collided with a tall mountain or hillside, and the necromancer’s undead servants have apparently resumed the castle’s flight and have begun to ascend away from the ground.

The party peers warily down into the opening at the bottom of the shaft as the land passes by thousands of feet below them. Aramil briefly wonders whether he could just fall out of the bottom of the shaft, plummet to the earth, and fey step safely to the ground at the last second to get out of this certain death trap he finds himself in, but decides against it… for now. Instead, the veteran warlord turns to The Zaza, whose crazy vision led them here, and curtly asks, “Well, Zaza, what do we do now?”, purposely leaving out the ‘The’ in The Zaza’s name.

After celebrating Arastur’s victory over the undead army, Invicto, The Zaza, Erik, and Aramil catch up with their friends. Old Breddy and Lucinda tell the party of their adventures during the battle, tracking down the group of undead led by the Deathlock Uthrin, who was somehow able to magically protect himself and a few undead from the pull of the carafe. Erik recalls learning of his true parents, when Queen Larindra told him that his birth mother, the lady Milicin, was married off to Sir Uthrin shortly after he was born. Erik asks Old Breddy to take him to Uthrin’s body, as the wizard plans to use the Speak with Dead ritual on Uthrin’s corpse to learn what he can of the fate of his mother, and of Lord Dread’s plans.

Kendrick informs the party that the entire tribe of ogres, other than their leader, Grull, have all taken up residence in a large mead hall in the village. The structure clings to the edge of the village, half of it supported by tall wooden stilts as it hangs out over a cliff. The group formulates a plan and waits until nightfall to execute it.

Old Breddy and his three remaining soldiers all head out into the street in front of the ogre’s hall, pretending to be drunk as they get into a fight with one another. This distracts the few ogres still awake who lazily watch the spectacle for a few chuckles. Meanwhile, in back of the mead hall, Palloth and Voland climb down to the structure’s wooden stilts. Palloth uses her training in thievery to carefully weaken some of the stilts, while Voland calls upon the divine power of Melora to warp the wood of the others. Soon, the entire structure comes crashing down, falling over the edge of the cliff and pludging thousands of feet down to a rocky floor. A few ogres manage to leap out of the front of the mead hall before falling to their deaths, but the party makes short work of them.

To spread the word of the Empire’s rebirth, Aramil and Old Breddy work with Bane to begin sending missives to everyone they know across the northlands that was at all associated with the Empire of Nerath in the past. The letters ask for their help in supporting the new Empire and bringing peace to the land. Old Breddy receives a confusing response from one of the letters sent to an old sergeant he served with in the Empire, a dwarf named Rort who is now mayor of a small village. The letter says, “I’m sorry I won’t be able to join the Empire. We are already protected by the Sisters of Corellon.” This response is suspicious, as Old Breddy knows that Rort spent many years fighting the Sisters of Corellon as the Empire fell in Quinalyn. It doesn’t make sense that Rort would pledge his support to this group. He manages to convince Aramil to let him take a contingent of men to investigate Rort’s village, Krat’thar, in the dwarven ruins of Arnathon. The party consists of the same group that battled Uthrin on the docks, along with a few soldiers under Old Breddy’s command. Each party member takes time to wish one of their friends good luck on their journey:

• The Zaza – Lucinda, human ranger
• Erik – Old Breddy, human warlord
• Aramil – Palloth, half-elf thief
• Invicto – Voland, wilden invoker of Melora

While the party is busy taking on the gravest threats the army of undead can offer, there are of course many other skirmishes throughout the battle of Arastur that are of some importance. One such skirmish concerns some of the party’s closest friends. Fortunately, each party member gets a chance to offer an encouraging wave to one of their friends on the wall before the battle starts:

• The Zaza – Lucinda, human ranger
• Erik – Old Breddy, human warlord
• Aramil – Palloth, half-elf thief
• Invicto – Voland, wilden invoker of Melora

Saviors of Arastur
by Mujeh Stomdrik, Bard of the Guildhouse of Ellendor

Deep in the boughs of the city,
The heroes tread through the dark,
Tracking the source of the plague
To its black, infested heart.
Down into lightless sewers
The Zaza followed her pray
‘Til, caught where two tunnels cross,
Joined its allies and joined the fray.
Two lurking in the river of filth,
Abominations from beyond farthest stars,
Where horror and madness dwell
Worse than the nightmares of ours.

“The Empire of Nerath?” A hulking male dragonborn speaks up with a surprised tone. He wears vestments emblazoned with the image of a Platinum Dragon – Bahamut, god of justice, protection, and honor. “We heard the empire was no more, destroyed by an army of goblinoids from the Torin Plains.”

Aramil replies, “Yes, but an heir lives on. We seek to return the Empire to power, as the order it brought to the land is our only hope for defeating the undead armies threatening us.”

The dragonborn nods. “Of course, no one else responded to our call for help. The Empire of Nerath did bring peace and security to the land. I can’t speak for all of my brethren, but you will certainly have my support.” Several of the other priests eagerly nod their approval, though some maintain dubious looks. “My name is Rikus. I am the leader of our small community here, or whatever is left of it.”

The party picks through the ice trolls’ belongings but is disappointed to find very little. The trolls were only carrying several empty sacks, and the party presumes the creatures had entered the small temple community with plans to gather up loot. The Zaza, a studied expert in creatures and monsters of the natural world, knows a little about the tribal structure of trolls. She speaks up to say, “That battle was brutal, but the good news is if these ice trolls were entitled to come through the town for the first pick at treasure, they would have to be the strongest and best of the trolls’ tribe. If we encounter anymore of these creatures, they shouldn’t be nearly as much of a threat.”

The rest of the party nods their appreciation at the news, as the battle drained most of their resources and they still only barely survived. They debate what to do next, discussing trying to track where the ice trolls came from, exploring the rest of the village, or resting for the night to recover their strength. The party is concerned that if the ice trolls’ tribe is nearby, scouts might be sent into the town when the band the party killed doesn’t return. However, Erik suggests that if they really did encounter the tribe’s strongest warriors, they’ll probably be safe – other trolls would doubt that their best warriors would encounter something they couldn’t handle, and would be wary of entering the town and looking like they’re trying to take a share of the spoils that are meant for the stronger warriors. In their current state, the party agrees that inviting more danger could be a lethal decision, so they head back into the ground floor of the temple of Boccob and set up camp for the night.

The party spends a restless night in the ruins of the castle, keeping a tense watch out for more undead. Fortunately, they make it through the night undisturbed, and the large group of soldiers packs up their belongings at first light and prepares to head out. Though some soldiers were lost in the battle, with the addition of Sam’s followers, the party’s group of recruits has actually increased in size on this trip. The party now must decide where it is they’re all headed.

The party and their growing pool of recruits are committed to bringing the Empire of Nerath back to power. However, there is no seat of power to return to. Verind’s Edge, the last bastion of the empire, was wiped out by the Arinfax Colossus and the goblinoids of the Torin Plains. More importantly, political rulers are paranoid of any semblance of the empire sprouting up in their domain. After decades of fighting and bloodshed to earn their independence, the nobles that rule the dotted city-states and regions throughout the northlands have no interest in giving up their newfound authority to a reborn Empire of Nerath. If the party is open about the heir’s heritage he would likely be exiled from anywhere they go, or possibly even assassinated.

The party looks out grimly at the undead army spreading out before them. In all, they count 40 undead minions – assorted zombies and skeletons that don’t look like too much of a threat to the party or they’re well-trained allies. In addition, they can pick out some much more powerful undead – eight Dread Knights lurk amongst the unholy horde, well-armored and equipped with black blades that radiate necrotic energy. Finally, the undead’s leader, Uthrin, stands in the back of the force. Even from this distance, Erik and Invicto can tell he is not a ‘lich’ as Larindra described him, as he was not a powerful wizard in his former life. He is most likely a Deathlock, a powerful undead creature that is granted a number of magical necrotic powers by its master when raised.

Uthrin calls out to his troops, “Forward my minions! Find the heir to the Empire of Nerath and kill him! I will see the Empire ended once and for all tonight!”

During the long journey at sea, Invicto finds his skill at demon summoning is growing. He fully masters the four rituals he learned earlier, and no longer has any trouble controlling the demons and devils he summons to complete the rituals for him. The Zaza makes an interesting discovery of her own as well. After enduring a dose of the infernal poison of a Pit Fiend’s barbed tail in the arena and surviving, she finds that that which did not kill her has made her stronger. She has developed a small resistance to poisonous attacks.

The party finally arrives back in Arastur, and they are delighted to see their new home come into view. When they left Arastur, winter had just begun and snow was falling as they pulled out of the docks. But, having been gone around four months, spring is now in full bloom, and the forested city is truly a sight to behold. Lush trees spread out as far as the eye can see, and patches of wildflowers blanket the hills leading down to the coast.

As the party prepares to journey into the mountains northeast of Sijil to track down Ignacious Malatar, Palloth mentions to Aramil the issue of the 18 new recruits that signed up to follow the party yesterday. Before the group leaves the Jeweled Cities to head north, the recruits need to be screened to ensure that only those who are actual capable fighters are accepted. Some of those that signed up are likely untrustworthy, unskilled louts, just looking for some quick coin. The party is confident they can handle Ignacious on their own, so Aramil agrees.

Razzing Aramil

Palloth, Brutus, Azaz, and Azad begin making preparations to test out the new recruits. Aramil insists, however, that those who choose to leave, or who are rejected, are given a gold coin each, to ensure there is no hard feelings. Aramil wants to be certain that the party’s reputation is solidified as an elite fighting crew rather than a cheap one, and paying a gold to the rejected candidates will show that they were not accepted purely based on their skill, not on the size of the party’s payroll.

As the party catches their breath at the Wind Sailor Tavern, they debate what their next steps should be. They agree that they can’t let Ignacious roam free, and will have to do something about him. The natives of the Jeweled Cities, Palloth, Brutus, Azaz, and Azad speak up with their assessment of the situation. They say that not only will House Malatar be banned from the arena, given how out of hand things got, they may face a hefty financial penalty from the city. Moreover, Palloth notes that the spectators in the front rows that were slaughtered by some of the devils were likely the sons of nobility or wealthy merchant houses. If that’s the case, the mayor of Sijil won’t be able to overlook their deaths. The city will likely seize their assets as recompense to the families who suffered losses. Before the week is out, House Malatar may not even exist anymore.

The party arrives in Sijil with eight days until they’re scheduled fight in the arena with Ignacious Malatar’s mysterious opponents. They are still debating what course of action to pursue – to try to uncover what their opponents might be, to try to free Lucinda and Old Breddy, or to just try to assassinate Ignacious. The first order of business, though, is to book a room at an inn in Sijil. As the party makes their way from the docks through the streets of the city, The Zaza’s keen eyes notice a dark, hooded figure following them.

A Mystery Solved

The Zaza and Erik stop at a market stall while Invicto and Aramil continue on. The shadowy figure hesitates, but then continues to follow Invicto and Aramil. As the stranger passes The Zaza and Erik, the dragonborn and the wizard can see that it is a female half-elf following them. After she passes, The Zaza and Erik begin moving again, following the half-elf as she follows Invicto and Aramil. The gnome and the warlord both start to slow their pace and eventually turn around, catching the stranger in the middle of the party.

Waiting for Aramil to arrive, Erik picks through the gnolls’ equipment and finds little other than a few gold pieces. He does, however, find that one of the gnoll soldiers’ shields is magical, so he slings it over his shoulder to keep. Aramil arrives, and once the party comes around they are glad to see the eladrin has been cured, although they would’ve appreciated it if he had arrived sooner with his large Thri-Kreen war party. Aramil and The Zaza both try out the magic shield Erik found and find that it’s a little light for the well armored dragonborn, so Aramil tosses aside his old, battered shield and straps on the new magical one. The Thri-Kreen head off to the location in the salt flats that the traitorous shaman tried to lure the party to while Aramil and the beaten and weary party members head back to the village.

Rewards in Disguise

They are greeted as heroes by the Chieftain and he offers thanks in the form of a few small gifts he has accumulated from travelers who have perished in the hot sands of the desert. Speaking through the ‘junior’ shaman, he produces two items he says are supposedly magical but that Thri-kreen can’t make use of as they are designed to be worn on the head. The items just won’t fit on the bug-men’s oddly shaped insectoid craniums. The party inspects them and finds that the first is a Circlet of Mental Onslaught, which Erik excitedly dons.

The party notices that one of the gnoll lurkers is still breathing so they bring him back to consciousness to interrogate him. He asks the party what they want with the gnolls and Erik replies that they are the ones asking questions. Through a mixture of threats and promises to let him live if he talks, they get the gnoll to tell them the location of the leader, whom the demon-eye gnoll refers to as the ‘Fang of Yeenoghu’. He is apparently in the gnolls’ hideout, a shallow cave a few hours southwest of the Thri-Kreen’s village. The gnoll provides a couple of relevant landmarks that will help the party find their way and assures them that if they go there it will be certain death for them.

Having obtained the information they wanted, the party lets the gnoll go and he lopes off into the desert. They debate about what to do next, and they all agree that, though Aramil has little time to live, they have no hope of saving him by pressing onward. They plan to go back to the Thri-Kreen village to rest and regroup and then to seek out the gnoll leader tomorrow. They cut off the heads of the gnolls they have vanquished and bring them along to prove to Chief Grux’Nichil that they are making progress. Certainly he will be pleased that they have slain at least five gnolls.

Making good headway into the desert, the party finally stops to rest in the blazing heat of the mid-afternoon sun. They’ve seen no sign of pursuit from the castle of undead, and figure it’s safe to rest awhile. Aramil collapses in a heap and is struck by another vicious fit of coughing. He feels incredibly weak and realizes he must be ill. The rest of the party helps examine him, and they soon come to the conclusion that when he was struck by the mummy in the party’s last battle he contracted mummy rot, a deadly magical disease that has claimed the life of many an adventurer.

Prognosis Negative

Through their various religious and arcane training, the party pieces together what they know of mummy rot. The disease can only be healed by magical means and if Aramil isn’t healed he will most assuredly die.

In the aftermath of the battle The Zaza senses that her Axe of Light is immensely pleased with its new owner. Through images flashing in her mind, the Axe shows her new ways to use it in battle against undead foes and the paladin is eager to put it to use again soon. Despite The Zaza’s thirst for more battle, the party knows they’ve got to get out of the castle as quickly as they can. They debate about what to do next. They decide that if they can’t recover their furniture, they’ll try to win their case with a magistrate by offering proof of Jal’imry’s death. They attempt to stuff Jal’imry’s entire body into their magical Bag of Holding, but find it is a tad too large, so they simply cut off the head and drop it in.

By the Skin of Their Teeth

Rushing out of the grand dining room, they quietly approach the main entry hall to the castle where they came in. From the landing at the top of a grand staircase they look down into the entry hall and see at least 50 of a variety of undead creatures milling about just inside the castle’s doors. Suddenly a pack of ghouls comes around the corner of a hallway on the party’s level and spots them, shouting and giving chase. The mass of undead creatures below joins in the pursuit, and the party turns to run for their lives, an army of undead close on their heels.

A couple of days after their renowned victory in the arena, the party is enjoying a meal in a local tavern. An imperious looking man enters and approaches them. He introduces himself as an agent of House Malatar, the house that owned the dragons the party defeated. The party eyes him warily, and asks what he wants with them. The agent assures them he is not looking for trouble. He knows the party used some kind of magical dragon-slaying blade in their battle. House Malatar would simply like to know who gave them the item.

Foreshadowing

The party sees no need to deceive the man, as they did not violate the rules of the arena by using the dagger. They admit to receiving the gift, but assure the agent of House Malatar that they received it from a cloaked figure who did not wish to reveal his identity. The agent finds this hard to believe.

After arriving in Sijil, the party has a few weeks before their fight. So, they ask around town about House Malatar’s dragons to find out what they are up against. When the dragons fight in the arena a magically constructed, enormous steel cage is set over the battlegrounds so that the creatures cannot fly away. The cage is dome-shaped, and at its peak the height of the dome is low enough to keep the dragons within range of melee attacks at all times, so the party does not have to worry about the front-line fighters, The Zaza, Daza, and Aramil, ever being out of range.

Studying the Enemy

They also discover that the dragons are very young, giving the party hope that they can actually defeat the beasts. Fully grown, adult dragons would surely spell doom for the party – they are steadily becoming very accomplished fighters, but still have little experience with such epic threats as an adult dragon. The dragons are of two different types. One is a black dragon, a dark-scaled monstrosity that spits caustic jets of acid at its foes. The other, which is slightly older and more dangerous, is a blizzard dragon, a deadly creature that sports icy white scales and is encircled in a powerful aura of frost that ebbs and flows throughout the battle. More specifically, they learn that the blizzard dragon slowly builds up its elemental power as it fights, periodically releasing it all in a crescendo of icy death for its enemies.

The rest of the party’s journey is thankfully uneventful, and after about three weeks at sea, the group arrives in the city of Unayzah, northern most of the Jeweled Cities. The Jeweled Cities are known as a land of intrigue and opportunity, an exotic locale, unlike any other place in the world. Unayzah certainly seems to live up to this reputation.

As their ship pulls into dock, the party is assaulted with a variety of sights, sounds, and smells they have never witnessed before. The party disembarks and finds the air is filled with odd scents as peddlers cook a myriad of strange fruits and vegetables wrapped in some kind of flat, unleavened bread to offer for sale. The sun beats down on the city making it stifling hot, even by the water. Amongst the crowds there are some large segments of tieflings and halflings, and the native humans sport a dark brown skin tone, rarely found in the north.

The party wakes up the next day and finds snow falling on the city of Arastur, as winter has fully arrived. They first head to the residential property Erik was given. They find it to be a large, luxurious spread, already equipped with a handsome half-orc butler named Hunrit. Hunrit welcomes the new owners and the party is very pleased, to say the least, with their new home.

Then, they head down to the business district of the city and seek out the New Moon Merchant Company’s offices. They aren’t particularly impressive, but aren’t completely run-down either. The company seems to be a fairly small but successful operation. Entering the establishment they speak to the current manager of the business, an elf named Yinlis. They present the seal and paperwork they received from Varna and Yinlis quickly accepts them as the new owners. He updates them on the merchant house’s current business outlook which is fairly grim.

The party debates for a while about what to do next. Aramil insists that Luwin must be ‘taken care of’, as he is a blight on all civilized society. Erik talks with his father about the situation, and Varna has apparently still not given up on his son, even though Luwin attempted to murder him. He insists that Erik leave Luwin be, and that his adoptive brother will somehow come back around one day. Erik is tempted to do as his father wishes, but the rest of the party sides with Aramil, and after further discussion Erik agrees to head back to Osteros to finish off Luwin once and for all.

Perin decides that punishing villainous nobles and constantly risking life and limb is not what he was interested in when he signed up to travel with the party. He is happy to have journeyed with the party back to the forests of Quinalyn, and he decides now would be a good time to take his leave and return to the simple life of a hunter. He bids the party farewell, and The Zaza, Erik, Invicto, and Aramil press on with their task at hand.

The party arrives in Erik’s home town of Trannyth so the lone human in the party can pay a visit to his adoptive elven father, Varna. Aramil asks about Erik’s relationship with his parents, and Erik attempts to explain his strained connection to his adoptive parents, and relates the story of what he knows of his birth parents, with his adoptive father having an affair with his birth mother and then taking Erik into his family thinking he was his own bastard son, but then realizing he wasn’t, and how Erik later slept with the Queen of the Empire of Nerath to discover that his birth mother is now married to the vile Sir Uthrin, whose kingdom was somewhat warring with Verind’s Edge and the Empire of Nerath before it was destroyed… Aramil tries to listen attentively, only letting his eyes glaze over a little, and eventually nods with a “So, it’s complicated…”

A Chilling Reception

Walking through the town, Perin recognizes some old acquaintances, as he spent some time hunting in the forests of Quinalyn. Invicto and The Zaza, the only two party members who haven’t spent significant time in Quinalyn are quite taken with the raised homes built into and on the trees of the town. The party’s entourage of Verind’s Edge survivors heads into the center of town to find a tavern at which to pass the time. Erik remembers the streets of Trannyth well, and figures he should get straight to what he came for. The party soon turns onto a quaint wooded lane, and Erik is flooded with memories of his childhood. His parents’ home stands in the shadow of several massive trees. A richly adorned house, it is one of several homes in Trannyth that was constructed to stand on its own, rather than built into a tree. Erik strides up and knocks on the front door.