Through the Bowels of Chernoggar

Rhegar let us sleep exactly eight hours before he started pounding on the rooms of the Order members. When he got to Yvala’s room, he had to force the door and drag her out. Muttering curses at the dragonborn, she fell into step next to me as she adjusted the last few strands of her hair. The only member of the party we couldn’t find was Kalena. Since none of her stuff was in the room, we figured she probably went to Swan Tower early.

The sun had yet to crest over the city by the time we arrived at the teleportation circle. Kalena was indeed there chatting with Ioun’s powerful wizards. She seemed giddy, though I couldn’t quite tell if it was because of the interesting wizardry going on in the Swan Tower or if it was the cute wizard she was talking to. As I got closer though, I could hear that the chatter was in fact about the teleport we were about to make.

“So if the wizards are getting us into Chernoggar, how are we getting back? Is there a teleportation circle on the other side?” asked Vixi.

“Not exactly,” answered Kalena. “That’s part of what makes this teleport more difficult than usual. Honestly, they are hoping that we actually manage to rescue Bahamut since there isn’t a good way of getting us back from Chernoggar.”

Yvala was more than a little annoyed at being woken up by Rhegar and declared, “Let’s go if we’re going. This place sounds downright dirty so let’s try to get in and out and back to civilization.”

The wizards made some final calibrations to each of our signals and turned the final step over to Kalena. “Here we go,” she said before taking a deep breath and uttering the final lines of the incantation. The circle on the floor glowed then flashed with a bright white light. When my vision cleared, I could see that we’d arrived in a desolate landscape. The scrubby brush around us looked as if it had been burn. The scrubland stretched on for miles to the horizon. An enormous black castle loomed over the otherwise featureless landscape. Rhegar was already running toward it.

Luckily we caught him before Rhegar – in a very dragonborn manner – attempted to charge the front gate. With her exceptional ranger skills, Kyri set about finding the tunnel we would be using to sneak inside.

Kalena looked at the enchantments for a moment and declared that they had not been kept up and that it would be faster to force the gate. Together, Kyri and Rhegar obliged and the party climbed inside. The acid trickling the tunnel gave off noxious fumes. We tried our best to keep from coughing and gagging as we walked along. I whispered a few healing spells when people seemed to be having more trouble.

By the time we got out of tunnel, we’d easily covered a mile. Overall, this didn’t surprise me much. From the outside it had been easy to see that Chernoggar was miles on a side. Fortunately the room we came out in was empty. The devils living in the castle had smashed the room and all the fixtures, so it was impossible to tell what it had once been.

We started into the hallways with Yvala leading. She would at least be more likely to spot any of the guards before they spotted us. Sure enough, before we’d covered the length of three corridors, Yvala spotted a group of devils.

“Their leader is a succubus and they all look bored,” she told us. “They’re probably on watch or something.”

With a dragonborn, an elf, and two humans in our party, we didn’t trust our luck to bluff our way past them, nor did we think we could beat them in a fight without drawing attention. In the end we opted to sneak by, Yvala and Kyri keeping a close eye on those of us wearing clunky metal armor.

The rest of the day continued in much the same way. I’ll wager we crept through halls until well into the afternoon, but without the sun it was hard to be certain. My legs certainly told me that we had logged a respectable number of miles. The map Erathis had given us was far from complete, nevertheless it more than proved its worth.

At last we came to the final door between the avatar of Bahamut and ourselves. The door was sealed with a magic lock that couldn’t be undone with a spell. Yvala drew the masterwork picks from her pack and settled down in front of the door to work. She gave a little cheer when the last bolt fell into place and swung the door open triumphantly.

The door led to a balcony. In the chamber below the great avatar of Bahamut lay sleeping. Naturally, he took the form of a massive platinum dragon. His blindingly shiny scales glimmered as his chest heaved up and down. Surrounding Bahamut were a crowd of abishai. The largest were breathing clouds of poison gas into the great dragon’s nostrils.

“Those are the same abishai were at the siege of Aurincia,” breathed Kalena as she peered over the railing.

“What?” asked Yvala.

“We saw some of those creatures back in the fight that started this whole thing, well at least for us anyway,” I explained.

“Tiamat was probably going to use them to enslave the population,” added Vixi.

“But then she struck the deal with Prince Farin, which doesn’t exactly make sense. She could have easily broken Perinor but something stopped her,” Kalena mused.

Rhegar pulled his sword. “Well we’ll show the Black Dragon that the sons and daughters of Perinor are not beaten down so easily. For Bahamut!” he crided before running down the stairs.

The abishai, of course, noticed his cry. About half of the guards pulled out wicked iron lances from the floor around the dragon and coated the ends with their poison breath. The other half stayed behind, continuing to drug Bahamut.

The abishai met us partway across the room. We fought hard, making sure to avoid the poisoned tips. If even one of us went down to their poison, those that remained would be in serious trouble. We worked in tandem, flanking the abishai whenever possible to gain the advantage.

We’d beaten down about half of the first wave. The big abishai that seemed to be the leader signaled to two more that they should fight us. I took the chance to look over at Bahamut. It seemed like the dragon was sleeping less soundly now that more abishai had left their places. Thinking it was just my imagination, I glanced over again. This time I could see an eye fluttering open. If one or two more abishai could be forced to leave their posts, Bahamut would awaken! Another abishai left its post and the big dragon gave a shuttering gasp as he shook himself awake.

Too late the abishai realized their mistake. The remaining guards scattered away from the god as he rose angrily to his feet. With a mighty roar he bellowed “You have kept me here too long cowards! Now you will feel the wrath of a god!” Lightning crackled along the length of his body which he unleashed at the abishai closest to him. He plodded forward a few more steps and let loose another round of lightning that took out the remaining abishai.

For a second Bahamut looked ready to launch a third round of lightning at us, but he noticed Rhegar’s tabard and stopped. “So a group of mortals has come to my rescue. I certainly owe you a great debt. Tell me, hatchlings, who sent you here and why.”

Naturally, Rhegar answered his god. “My liege, Erathis sent us. I uncovered some of the details of your capture. She sent my companions and me because there are no others to spare with Hestevar under attack.”

“Much then has happened since my capture. Come hatchlings, I will take you back to the Bright City.” With a mighty roar, Bahamut tore through the chamber wall. Together we left the Iron Fortress, with the great dragon taking obvious delight in creating as wide a path of destruction as possible. Once outside, he plane-shifted the party directly to the throne room of the Great Cathedral where Erathis sat smiling on her throne.

Audience with the Queen of Light

Davir, as it turns out, was an informant for Erathis, the Queen of Light as he called her. He and his former rogue buddies ran information for the goddess and made strategic hits on demon outposts when they could. The rest of their time was spent avoiding the powerful demons that lurked about the city, which was how the system of tunnels we had escaped into had been created. After her conversation with Tierro, Erathis had put word out to her remaining network to watch for our arrival in the city.

“I got to say that the Queen of Light be mighty interested in getting the lot of you to her safe and sound. Must be a decade or more since she’s put out a bulletin that wasn’t about the fight.”

“A decade?” said Yvala a bit incredulously, “Just how long has Hestavar been under attack?”

“Oh, I’d say it’s be around a hundred years now. One day the ambassadors to the Nine Hells and The Abyss just up and left. Next thing you know the demons are back in force and we’re under attack.”

As the githzerai talked, I was putting two and two together. “But a hundred years, that how long we’ve figured the World has been under attack!”

“Well bloody hell if that ain’t a coincidence, but we’ve had too many problems of our own here to notice what’s been going on in the World, much less do anything about it. There’s the siege of course, and gods disappearing one by one. Now there’s none left but the Queen of Light herself to defend the city.”

There was a rumble as Davir finished his statement and he held one hand up to his lips for silence. His other hand he placed flat against the wall. The rogue looked concerned, then puzzled for a minute. Then, his eyes widened and he threw himself to the floor moments before a snake made of magma burst through the tunnel wall. Two more magma snakes oozed through the wall on the opposite side. A shaking below our feet brought our collective attention to the floor, where four more elemental snakes exploded through the floor, these ones made of flowing bits of rock. Though the snakes had effectively surrounded us, we managed to defeat them without collapsing the tunnel on ourselves.

The tunnel led almost all the way to the Cathedral of Light. One block up a boulevard was all it took to get us to the wide golden gates. A cadre of Exalted of Erathis were already waiting to take us inside.

The outside of the cathedral was stunningly decorated with towers and statues but I was still awed by the inside. The whole chamber was enormous. The high roof and long windows gave it an airy feel. The whole thing was decorated in shades of gold, cream, and blue, and it was lit with a warm, golden light. Painted scenes depicting the gods decorated the ceiling and the spaces between the windows. At the head of the cathedral were two thrones. The avatar of Erathis sat on the right hand one. The left one – Pelor’s throne – was empty. Erathis rose as we walked toward her. She wore the same gold chiton we had seen in Tierro’s evaluator. A blindfold made from the same fine fabric of her dress covered her eyes and nestled into the pile of dark curls at the back of her head.

“Bold adventurers, thank you for answering my call. As you know, Civilization is all but extinguished in the World following the God War, and I am seeking champions to drive back the forces of Evil and bring back the cities and nations. The other gods of the Shining Host are missing; I alone remain as a bastion against the Night. I would beseech your aid in finding them.

“But first, let me hear your tales again, this time when I can ask questions. There may be clues there as to what the gods of Evil have done with those of the Shining Host.” Erathis made a motion to her servants who soon reappeared with food and drink.

I told the goddess the story of our travels for the second time in as many days. Erathis peppered the telling with questions, many of which we could not answer. Kyri was able to fill in a few of the blank spots regarding the politics in Perinor while she had been with the elven counsel before rejoining us. Once Erathis was done questioning the lot of us, she turned to Yvala and quizzed her about Vertinina, the cult of Asmodeus, and the new race of tieflings. Yvala was pretty frazzled at the end and could only reply to the goddess’ questions with “I don’t know” and “That kind of thing was way above me.”

Finally, she turned her attention on Rhegar and said “And you, who left your companions to recapture your racial homelands, what can you tell me of Arborea?”

Rhegar bowed before the goddess and stepped to the front of our group. “The campaign has exceeded our expectations and we are advancing fast. Under Garn’s leadership, we have broken the back of Tiamat’s forces. Less than a month ago we were able to break through the forces surrounding our former capitol of Skogg. It was good times. Our forces swept through the city in celebration, putting to the sword those who had fled the front lines and exploring the once great city of our ancestors.

“My squad was searching a tower for several devils that had attempted to escape from the justice we brought to them. While combing the tower we stumbled across a room which must have belonged to a very important advisor or general. There were letters and scrolls from devils in the Nine Hells covering every flat surface. I flipped through a couple on top to see if there was any information that would be of use to our campaign.

“That is when some disturbing notes about Lord Bahamut. Some of the letters spoke of a treasured prisoner; one even mentioned a platinum dragon. I ordered the squad to call of the search and assist me in going through the letters. We managed to piece together that the avatar of our Lord Bahamut had been taken in an ambush by that treacherous black snake, Tiamat. He was then imprisoned in a place called Chernoggar, held in a dreamless sleep by her Poison Abishai. The letters spoke several times of the need to change our the abishai.

“I took the news to Garn, but he waved me away. He told me that it was likely planted correspondence designed to distract us from our goal and seemed to think that there was no conclusive proof that Bahamut had been captured. He told me he was too busy clearing the city, preparing for his wedding, and planning the next offensive, to go on a wild goose chase. Naturally the other captains followed his lead and wanted to be where the glory of battle would be. Even the other paladins began to dismiss the letters when Garn would not show his support.

“But I cannot see how they would plant such information and my faith in Bahamut demands that I discover if the rumor is true and mount a rescue mission if necessary. So, I pulled in a few favors and borrowed a ship that would let me contact the Order to see if they would help me. As they were already headed to see you, your Ladyship, I decided to come with them. I ask you know, are the rumors of Lord Bahamut’s capture true?”

Erathis nodded her head in a slow, sad manner. “Alas, it is true. Bahamut was one of the first gods to disappear. I had heard that Tiamat had caught Bahamut unaware, but my informants were unable to uncover where he had been kept. That she would hold him in a sleep makes much sense.

“Chernoggar is a nightmarish place indeed. I know little about it first hand, but I have some information from a successful rescue attempt several centuries ago. It details a secret passage into the fortress near and acid drain that empties into the River of Despair. There are also notes about the maze of passages inside the Iron Fortress. Take these tools, which may be helpful in defeating any defenses that might have been put in place since my agents were there last.” The goddess held out a set of thieves’ tools, lockpicks and the like with Yvala stepped forward to take graciously. Even I could tell that they were of the finest craft, much better than the set our rogue currently owned.

“Your grace, is there an expedient way to travel to Chernoggar?” asked Kalena.

“I will have the Wizards in the Swan Tower prepare Ioun's personal teleportation circle. While it cannot teleport you directly inside the Iron Fortress of Chernoggar, with skill and a little luck you should be able to get relatively close. I wish I had soldiers to spare that I could send in your place, but it is not to be at this time. Good luck, brave adventurers.” Erathis rose from her throne and gave us a short bow of respect, our cue that she had no more questions, or advice, for us.

Rhegar wanted to leave immediately for Chernoggar saying, “Now that I know the truth, I cannot be delayed further.”

The rest of us weren’t so inclined to depart so soon, especially Yvala. “Why you arrogant, impulsive, zealous dragonborn! You want to leave tonight?! We fought pirates, broke through the demons at the harbor, ran wildly through the city, and have just spent the last four hours having a goddess pick our brains! And now you want us to crawl through a fortress?! There are beds here! Comfy, comfy beds!”

At this point I felt it was necessary to restrain Yvala, who was going for two or the many daggers stashed about her body with a very murderous gleam in her eyes. “Easy there, Yvala.” I told her. “We’ll be spending the night and you’ll get your very own bed.” This seemed to calm her down a bit. With a pointed look at the dragonborn I added, “Rhegar isn’t stupid enough to insist that we attempt to break into a place called the Iron Fortress without catching up on the sleep we’ve missed in the last day and a half.”

At this point, Kalena popped in with a bit of logic. “One night isn’t going to matter to a god who’s been trapped for close to a century. That same night matters much more to us, especially after the gauntlet we came through to get here.”

“With a full night’s sleep, we’ll be better prepared to get through the traps Chernoggar has waiting for us. Think it through Rhegar. You’re much less useful to your god by being captured yourself than you are completing the rescue,” added Vixi.

Grumbling, Rhegar acquiesced that it would be better to leave in the morning. We trundled off to the dormitories, with me leading Yvala as far away from Rhegar as possible.

Into Hestavar

The Astral Sea was amazing. I didn’t get tired of looking at the stars no matter how long I gazed off toward the horizon. The blissful serenity of the Astral Sea didn’t last long though, unfortunately. A vessel appeared on our starboard side. The quick actions of the crew and their relentless pursuit of our ship told me that they were more likely to be pirates than an escort from Hestavar.

“Can we shift in the plane?” Kalena called out to Tierro.

“No, no. T’would be useless to try. They are closing on the ship too fast. Tierro would never finish the spell in time.”

“To the railing, then,” cried Rhegar, “We’ll take out as many as we can before they try to board.”

My sword would be useless at that distance and I was a dreadful shot with a crossbow, so I pulled out the wand Sigfrida had made for me. I smirked as a few ideas of what I could do at this distance popped into my mind.

As the ship closed, we could see that it was crewed by Githyanki. The Gith were a sad race. They had been imprisoned by the Illithid, otherwise known as mindflayers, for many hundreds of years. When they finally escaped, there was a split among the refugees about how to use their mental prowess developed over the many years of their imprisonment. The ones who thought their mental gifts should be used for learning and peace became the Githzerai. Those who thought they should use their mental gifts should be used to fight a world that had done nothing to free them from the Illithed became the Githyanki.

“Ah. That it should be Githyanki that attack so close to the Bright City!” moaned Tierro. “You must be careful when you fight for it is well known that they manipulate probabilities.”

“Surely you have something in your cart that can help us,” said Vixi.

“No, no. Tierro would join you at the rail, but he must protect his goods should they board us. Remember the probabilities,” he said as he retreated to the shadow of his steel predators.

Coward, I thought as I watching him. Tierro was driven from my mind, however, by the rousing roar of the pirates as they closed in. The distance between the two ships gave Kyri a chance to show off. Arrows from her longbow tore through the githyanki pirates with deadly accuracy. I swear I saw one slice a githyanki’s chest wide open. As the ships closed a bit more Yvala and Kalena were able to get some good shots in as well. A favorite of mine was when Kalena blew her stinking cloud across the deck, causing the githyanki to scatter just as they were about to board. After that, it was easy for Vixi, Rhegar, and myself to jump aboard and dispatch the remaining crew.

The ship had a tidy sum of gold aboard and some minor trifles as well. Tierro seemed quite pleased about adding some of the items to his inventory, but an “Excuse me, those were captured through our fight,” from Yvala and the sight of her pulling a dagger to merely tidy her nails had him paying us for what he wanted.

As we closed in to Hestavar, we could tell that all was not right with the city. Though it still glowed in its ethereal way, we could see that the glow was hiding much damage. Indeed, whole buildings looked like they were on the verge of collapse. Window glass was blown out everywhere and there was an occasional boom that indicated an explosion in the inner city. Debris cluttered the space in between the earth motes that made up the land masses of the city. Tierro stood at the helm next to Captain Raccan, carefully guiding us to the main earth mote of the city, Aurosion. The great cathedral was on Aurosion and that was where we would meet Erathis.

“This is bad. Very bad. When Tierro was last in Hestavar, the demons had only taken the outermost motes. Of course, Tierro has not been in the Bright City for some time. Inventory must be kept up,” he twittered nervously as we came into the docks of the main mote of the city.

Indeed, as we neared the dock, we could see that there had been a fight recently. Flames gushed out of several of the buildings and I could see bodies lying in the street. Several lower level demons were still milling about the area and our ship had attracted their interest.

“You’re sure there isn’t another way to get to the Great Cathedral?” Rhegar asked the merchant.

“Not expediently. Travel between the motes was roundabout in the best of times. It is probably far worse now. Dropping you here will be the quickest. The Great Cathedral is at the highest point of the mote, so as long as you are headed up, you can not get lost. Trust me. Tierro will care for your ship.”

“All right. Weapons at ready, then everyone,” commanded Rhegar to the rest of us.

Captain Raccan maneuvered as close to the dock as he dared. Fearing to take the time to put down a plank, we jumped directly from the ship to the dock. The demons milling about the harbor rushed down the dock when they saw us disembark. Two were ape-like creatures that burned with flame instead of fur. Three more looked a bit like dogs, if dogs had a huge gaping hole instead of a muzzle. At the end of the dock, blocking our path was a tower of flaming skeletons. Kalena identified the demons as Balgura, Canoloth and an Immolith, respectively. She mentioned that the Canoloth are also known as Dogs of the Abyss and have wicked tongues that whip out to grab you if you get too close.

“Why do the skeletons move as if they are being burned alive?” asked Vixi with horrid fascination.

“On some plane, they probably are burning alive. Legends say that Immolith’s are composed of the souls of people who died committing a heinous act at the same time,” I replied. “Don’t get too close. The bodies are known to try and grab bystanders and drag them inside the flames, much like a drowning victim will latch onto a rescuer,” I warned the party.

The hounds bayed, screaming out their rage for the living as they ran down the dock. Blades clashed against claw as we stood our ground. Rhegar, naturally, led the charge. He fought nearly back to back with Vixi. When she cleaved neatly through a Balgura with her greatsword he exclaimed, “I much approve of this new fighting style you have adopted.”

“Thank my father,” she replied.

The Immolith had stayed on the land and fired balls of flame at us. Kyri and Kalena fired back. Yvala wasn’t able to sneak around on the narrow dock, so she had been firing her crossbow at open targets and taking time to check out the harbor. “Tavia,” she hissed at me, “I think some of the demons have gone to gather more.”

“I don’t doubt that,” I replied as my sword struck down a Canoloth that had made it past our two defenders. “And we’re perfect targets as long as we are stuck on this dock.” I noticed Vixi and Rhegar striking down the last of the mobile demons in the corner of my eye and shouted “Charge through the Immolith. Yvala says we’re going to have another wave of demons soon.”

We hit the Immolith all at once, scattering chunks of burning bone into the empty space that served as the harbor waters. Yvala was grabbed by one of the skeletons, but Rhegar broke its grasp before the flames could singe her tiefling skin. We broke into a run as soon as the demon had been thoroughly broken up. We tucked into one of the narrow alleyways leading away from the harbor to avoid the demons that would inevitably be coming after us.

The alley was cramped and winding. Garbage was strewn everywhere along with pieces broken off the surrounding buildings and the occasional body. The alley branched so many times, it was hard to tell if we were merely circling the mote. We didn’t dare think of navigating the streets though. After an hour, we came to a dead end. Frustrated, we took some time to catch our breaths and grab a pie from our magic pie box.

We backtracked out to a deserted street. There were a trio of ugly looking demons at one end but they soon caught a glimpse of something down a side street and ambled after it. I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t us. More than likely they had caught sight of one of the angels of the gods that kept court in the Great Cathedral, an Inevitable, a Solar, or a Planetar. We’d seen them ourselves on the few occasions we had been forced to cross a street to get to the next alley.

We took the opposite direction of the demon and crept along the street. Things were going well until the street we were on dumped into a small plaza. In the center of the plaza was a Balor. It was crouched over the body of a Solar, happily eating the angel’s organs. Its head snapped up as we tried in vain to back out of the plaza and it gave an unearthly roar before leaping up to chase us.

I was so terrified by the Balor that I didn’t notice that Kyri, who had been running out in front of the rest of the party, had been jerked into an alley instead of ducking into it. I almost screamed out when I came face to face with the Githzerai who had pulled her aside.

“I am Davir. I have a tunnel,” he said quickly before starting down the alley. When we hesitated he turned and beckoned to us, “Follow me if you feel like living this day.” The alley twisted then crossed a street. The Githzerai whistled as we spilled onto the street and we swerved left rather than taking the obvious alley across the way. He touched a panel on the brickwork that moved aside to reveal a tunnel that dropped under the street. Quickly we ducked inside and collapsed in a breathless heap as the doorway dropped back into place.

Of Blue Skinned Merchants and Market Detectors

The order stayed in Sellah for the remainder of the week, resting and waiting for Markas to return. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only party member attracting attention from the higher ups. Vixi had been out at the same cliffs I frequented. While she was meditation with her pact partner, the little fey asked Vixi if she was happy. Vixi replied that things were good but no, she wasn’t completely happy and proceeded to tell the fey how much she missed her adoptive family. And she explained just how much she missed the sword lessons given by her adopted, paladin father and just using a sword in general. Magic was fun and interesting and made her feel closer to her birth mother. But in battle, magic lacked a certain oomph. The fey sprite offered to blend her essence into any sword of Vixi’s choosing. That way Vixi could get the drive she wanted in battle while she retained the magics she used to feel close to her mother.

Yvala avoided me for the first two days after I found her with my diary. She actually seemed ashamed of using it, or at least that’s the impression I got when she apologized to me. I accepted, grudgingly because I was still pretty pissed about the situation. As I got up to leave, she said “Look Tavia, I know I pushed you too far, but please don’t close yourself up again.” What she said got me thinking, and I probably would have pondered it all day, if Markas hadn’t returned.

It had been just over a week since Markas had left Sellah. He was different, filled with a drive that he had been missing before. He told us of the odd behavior of the shadar-kai and that he had been contacted for an audience in the Shadowfell. He didn’t know for sure what it was about, but he was sure it would be important. At the very least he thought it unlikely that he would continue traveling with us. He apologized for leaving but insisted that it was his duty to go and left as quickly as possible once he said his goodbyes.

Nor would Karel continue traveling with us. Some of the council elders had worked with Far Plane portals in their youth, and with luck they would be able to close the one on Trion. Karel bid us a much fonder farewell than Markas, saying that we had all made fine travelmates and that it was a shame none of us were dragonborn, as we were such fine warriors. He said that he would readily join us with our quest, were he given permission to do so by his mother.

So it was that we left Sellah a party of five – Kyri, Yvala, Vixi, Kalena, and myself. Five girls up against the world and still searching for a way to save Perinor. I’m not sure who should be more worried; us or the world.

The elves and eladrin invited us to stay, but there wasn’t much for us to do other than helping with the skirmishes with the local drow. As doing so wouldn’t help our mission, we politely declined. Nonetheless, they showered us with gifts, including a dress of chain that felt light as silk when worn. I accepted it to replace my well-worn armor.
We returned to the Southern Stream with no good idea of where to sail next. Most of our original options had been investigated and found to be in worse shape that Perinor. As we had acquired a healthy amount of cash from our travels, a trip back to Aurincia seemed like the most reasonable thing to do. Not only could we check in with the counsel, but we would be also to replace some of our worn gear with upgraded equipment.

We had no sooner set foot on the ship when a swirling silver portal appeared. When it subsided, a gypsy wagon stood on deck. It was painted with large gaudy glyphs in a variety of colors. Instead of horses, the wagon was pulled by three creatures that looked like panthers made entirely out of sharp blades. Seated at the reins was a blue humanoid dressed in black silks and festooned with jewelry. Even seated I could tell he was tall. “Hello!” he cried out as he climbed down, jewelry clanking.

“Well, well. It’s been quite some time since Tierro’s been to the World. Yes, yes a very long time indeed. Far too expensive of a trip to make when one expects little return. But the market detector is never wrong and it has led me here so here Tierro is. I am Tierro the Trader. If you have gold to spend, Tierro’s the mercane to buy from. Best deals on any plane and he always gives you the true value on any item.”

Yvala grinned manically at the trader’s appearance and the rest of us looked at each other with more than a little excitement. Afterall, we’d just been talking about the items we each needed to replace. Kalena, however, wasn’t just going to take this guy for his word. In the course of our travels, Kalena had become our accountant and overall treasure keeper. It made sense, seeing as how much of our collective wealth was in ritual components. It turns out that she’s pretty stingy though when it comes to purchasing. She also has to get the best deal. Kalena walked right up to Tierro, put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot on the deck before asking, “And just how do we know you’re giving us the best deal? It’s not like there is anyone here to compete with.”

Though the mercane stood nearly two heads taller than our slight wizard, he looked plenty cowed by her questioning. Maybe Kalena’s glare held a bit of that gleam she gets when she’s about to fireball someone – it scares me. Tierro clutched his hands to his chest and exclaimed, “My dear woman, Tierro would never swindle such fine ladies as you. But to calm your fears, he will show you his methods.” He threw an arm around Kalena’s thin shoulders and drew her toward his cart. From the seat he pulled two melon-sized glass globes. One had a blue glow and showed a close-up of the coastline of Danaria with a flashing dot, most likely indicating our current position aboard the Southern Stream. The other had creamy clouds that swirled about the interior. He held up the first and said, “This is my market detector. It notifies me of the exact location of any persons in need of Tierro’s services.” He held up the other and said, “This is my universal appraiser. It determines the value of any weapon, piece of armor, potion, piece de’ arte, and even the value of information. Both were crafted by the goddess Erathis and how they came into Tierro’s possession is a very amusing story. But it can be told after matters of trade have been attended to.”

A couple of things were of utmost importance. First, a new set of hide armor for Vixi since she would now be doing most of the protection for the party. Upgraded robes for Kalena were the second purchase. Our third purchase was an upgraded crossbow for Yvala since we relied so heavily upon it for sneak attacks. All the items were brought out by Tierro’s three beautiful assistants-Gamma, Sigma, and Zeta. All three had the most flawless alabaster skin and wore silk purple chintons.

Most of what we had to sell was of low level and median quality. In other words, it wasn’t worth very much. We put the value toward the purchase of our new items. While we eyed some of the more extravagant items Tierro had, Yvala elbowed me. “Hey, the orb pays for information,” she said. “Tell him about your travels. That’s got to be worth a couple hundred gold.”

“Why me? Kyri’s probably got a better grip on the whole thing,” I replied.

“Because you’re the one that just got blessed by her god and turned into a storyteller. Just go on,” she said, shooing me forward toward the mercane.

I sighed but realized that she had a valid point. “If your orb pays for information,” I told the merchant, “then I think it will have a keen interest in what I can tell you about the state of the world.” I began with our meeting in the tavern and the sack of Aurincia. I wove the tale through meeting Yvala in Vertinia and how we stopped Tiamat’s duality with Vecna by restoring Zariel to power. But the time I got to our meeting with the gold dragonborn on the isle of Trion, I noticed how easily the tale was flowing from my lips. When I finished retelling our adventures on I’wakanaan and Danaria, I could see that the entire ship was sitting about the deck listening to me speak.

When I had finished, Tierro began to consult the universal appraiser about the price of my story. Before I could think much about the audience I had acquired, the universal appraiser changed. Black clouds now swirled about the inside and I could just barely make out the figure of a woman in a blindfold and gold chinton. When she spoke, her voice was warm yet firm and commanding. “Tierro,” she said, “I am calling in my marker.”

“But my lady, I am in the middle of a transaction,” Tierro stuttered.

“I know Tierro, I have been listening. The story these travelers have told is intriguing and there is much that I wish to know more about. I want them brought to Hestavar at once so that I may question them personally.”

“But, my lady, the cost is too high and they would not fit into my wagon.”

“So use the ship. I trust you know how to prepare it, and the vessel will make traversing the Astral Sea far less tedious,” she paused and her voice grew a little harder, “I am calling in my price Tierro.”

Tierro bowed deeply. “Yes, my lady. They will be there by tomorrow.”

She nodded and the cloudy interior of the orb returned to its normal cream color. Tierro stood and signaled to his assistants. “Gamma, gather the pigments to make the paints. Sigma, pass out brushed and bowls. Zeta, get the spelljammer helm and meet me on the quarterdeck.” The assistants rushed to their tasks and Tierro turned to the rest of us.

“We’ll be plane shifting the entire ship and all souls on board. To do that, the sails and hull need to be painted with glyphs with the correct symbols.” The party indicated what we could each do to help, from missing paints to dictating symbols to climbing through the rigging to paint the glyphs. As I had knowledge of both the symbols and familiarity with sailing, I volunteered to prepare the topmost sails. By the time I returned to the deck, the work on the rest of the ship had been nearly completed.

Tierro stood up at the helm, chanting a spell. First the spelljammer affixed to our helm began to glow, then it began to spin. The glyphs began to shimmer and glow, starting with the ones closest to the helm and spreading outward. “Everyone grab hold of the ship!” Tierro shouted over the rising din. I caught a final glimpse of the shore as I grabbed the railing and gasped when I saw it had color-shifted into the blue range. I shut my eyes and felt my chest tighten as if a giant tentacle had been wrapped around it. After a few seconds there was a pop, like a cork pulled from a wine bottle and the pressure released. I opened my eyes, but to my dismay I saw the coastline of Danaria.

But we plane shifted. I know we did, I felt it. I thought. Up at the helm Tierro was swearing up a storm and cursing every god he could think of. I glanced back at the shore and noticed that instead of the healthy greens and rich browns of the real Danarian coastline, all I saw was shades of grey. That’s why he’s swearing, I thought to myself, we shifted into the Shadowfell.

Kalena grabbed my arm as she hurried up to the quarterdeck. Tierro had calmed down enough to tell us, “Something went wrong. Probably a glyph out of place or painted in the wrong color or it was drawn wrong altogether. Gods but this is why I didn’t want to be the one to have to bring you to her.” He sighed and looked up at the blank sails and sighed again. For a second he looked as if he would start ranting again, but thought better of it. “You’ll have to go ashore and get more plants for the pigments. That run used most of what I had.”

Kyri was all no nonsense about the whole situation. “I want a Hunter’s Headband to use when we go foraging and a list of all the herbs and pigments we need to find.”
“Yes, yes. I have one of those. Sigma, go get the Hunter’s Headband out of the cart. As for herbs, we need Goldthorn, Lady’s Slipper, Mireblood, Calf Thistle, and Bachelor’s Blue Button. We need red clay and mica as well.”

If looking at the grey coast had been slightly unnerving, walking on it was even more so. It felt like someone was watching over your shoulder, yet when you turned there wasn’t a soul in sight. The forest was also was devoid of any sort of bird or woodland creature.

“The faster we get out of here, the better,” Yvala said with a shudder.

“I think I’m starting to agree with you again,” I replied.

Further conversation between the two of us was cut off by the sounds of crashing up ahead. A quartet of zombies under the control of an Orcus cultist broke through the underbrush. “Devour the brains of the unbelievers!” he shouted. The zombies rushed forward.

I tried to hook onto the threads of divine power that would call up the hot winds that turned undead, but they slipped through my fingers like spider’s silk. Sigfrida’s swap of my powers less than a week ago had all but erased the divine connections needed to perform such a powerful spell. “Fine time to be unable to turn zombies,” I muttered aloud to myself, hoping that any annoying valkyrie watching me would have heard it. I sliced through the decaying flesh with my new sword and as I did, I noticed that the martial stores I had been imparted with offered up new moves and tactics that I never would have noticed before. And the arcane rivers of power provided me with means to capitalize on the openings my enemies left. A distant enemy could be pulled closer. An extra flick of my wrist and a whisper could stun an enemy and send him stumbling back into a waiting Vixi or Yvala. I was so caught up with exploring my new powers that I didn’t noticed that the fight had finished.

Yvala was ecstatic with the thought of me sliding enemies toward her in the future. “It totally makes up for you not being able to turn them anymore,” she gushed. “I mean, you’ll be able to do it to more than just undead. And that means more stabbing for me!” Her gleeful laughter at the last statement was so infectious that I stated laughing. And once I stared, Kalena and Vixi joined in. We only stopped when Kyri reminded us that we had a job we were supposed to be doing and that we were in the Shadowfell. The last part shut us up pretty quickly.

Kyri was easily able to find the plants and clays Tierro needed to make the glyphing paints. She is, afterall, an elf – and a ranger to boot. The rest of us were there to carry the supplies and as protection.

We returned to the ship without another attack and set to work pounding the plants into pigments and mixing paints. This time, after all the painting had been completed, it was double checked by someone who hadn’t worked on that particular area. Tierro resumed his place at the spelljammer on the helm and began the ritual anew. As we had gathered more than enough pigments, Tierro recommended that we first plane shift back into the world rather than attempting to calibrate a plane shift from the Shadowfell to the Astral Sea. Not wanting to get stuck somewhere else, the Order and the sailors heartily agreed.

The Shadowfell blurred to blue and the crushing feeling returned. I felt the pop and I snapped my eyes to the sun shining gently down on the true Danarian coast. We set about preparing the ship for the next run with a reasonable amount of efficiency considering that we had just gone through the whole routine twice. As we were going through the double checks, communication appeared on deck. This one was blue with silver swirls and to our amazement, held the face a familiar dragonborn. “Hello mammals!” he says with great enthusiasm. It was no other than our dear friend Rhegar.

We left our tasks to go and talk with him. Afterall, the last we had seen Rhegar he was leaving with Garn to retake their northern homelands of Arborea. Once we had all said hello, Kyri asked the question on everyone’s minds, “Why are you here?”

“Well the fight has gone well. We have cleaned out most of the scum that thought to conquer Arborea. But I have heard distressing news and am in need of assistance. Is your ship still off the coast of Danaria?”

“Yes, in a manner of speaking,” Kalena answered. “What is it that you need help with?”

“An avatar of Bahamut is being held captive by the forces of Tiamat.”

“That is distressing news indeed,” replied Kyri, “Do you have any idea where he is being held?”

“I have some details but very few. What I do know says that he is in the Astral Plane.”

“Then you are lucky that you caught us when you did,” said Kalena to Rhegar. “We were about to plane shift to the Astral Sea. We have been summoned there by Erathis.”

“Yeah we got gods hanging out the doorbell here,” said Yvala off to the side. I surpressed the desire to laugh out loud at her comment.

“Plane shift? You have been busy in my absence. Well, I am prepared to help you in your quest if you can help me in mine. I’ll need a few days to get to your location.”

“Can we wait for Rhegar to get to us?” Kyri asked Tierro.

“The goddess wants you to her palace most expediently. Tierro thinks it better that we shift to his location instead.”

“Excelent,” said Kalena. “Rhegar, wait right there.”

The Southern Stream shifted to his location and we appeared out of a cloud of mist. We took Rhegar aboard and made the appropriate introductions. Tierro called everyone to their positions and we began the ritual for what would be the last time that day. This time why my eyes opened after the plane shift, a huge grin broke out across my face. Up at the helm I could head Tierro whooping and hollering. Even the sailors were cheering. The ship was floating in midair. In every direction, I could see stars twinkling in the sky. Off in the distance sat a shimmering sapphire glow. Tierro pointed at it and said, “There she is - Hestavar, the bright city! We made it the Astral Sea!”

I Can't Take This Anymore

I am going to kill that rogue. I’m serious this time. It’s one thing to steal my diary. Oh wait, that’s right, she didn’t steal my diary. She found it lying on the ground. Of course she had to read it to find out what it was and who it belonged to.

WHAT SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO DO WAS READ THE WHOLE DAMN THING! OR WRITE IN IT! AND SHE ESPECIALLY DIDN’T HAVE TO MAKE LITTLE COMMENTS IN THE MARGINS!

The Order hasn’t been reunited for two whole days and what do I find Yvala doing but thumbing through MY DIARY happy as can be. The diary that Cora embossed with storm clouds before giving it to me as a birthday gift after embossing the leather covers. The very diary that I’ve been looking for during the last week. And she was opening it up to a blank page to start writing. I mean I thought we were getting to be friends. I thought I could maybe trust her with some things. Not money or anything valuable, but you know maybe girl stuff. Fat chance I’ll trust that two-bit thief now.

Anyway, I saw her sitting there my diary spread out before her like it was her own, and I saw red. She was lucky the rest of the girls happened to be nearby and heard my screech of rage. Kalena tackled me before I could get my hands on the wretch and I was so shocked by the little wizard that she managed to keep me on the ground. Vixi acted quickly to find a blank diary to give Yvala for her own while Kyri plucked mine from the dirty thief’s hands. I would have given anything to zap her with a spell as she sauntered off while I remained on the ground underneath Kalena, which is to say nothing of the way I felt when I found the comments on my earlier entries.

My week here in Danaria had been bad enough without the incident with Yvala and my diary. It was pretty much just icing on top of the cake. First, there was the fight with the drow scouts in the woods. Then, Markas and I got dragged off to Sellah to help the eladrin and the elves with a pestilence that had been plaguing their society. Walking into Sellah was horrible enough. The scent of putrid wounds hung in the air. Everywhere I looked there were sick and dying fey. Some were coughing horribly. Most had pustules and bruising on their exposed skin. But the worst part was the way they looked at Markas and me with such hope in their eyes. Like our presence alone would cure them.

I wasted no time in lending my services and spent the first half of the week dealing with open sores and chest colds. Now Markas had never been much of a healer, but he did the best he could. I don’t blame him for leaving when he got the chance. A group of humans from up the coast came to Sellah asking for help with some shadar-kai. Since Markas is a devotee of the Raven Queen it was natural that he would want to investigate. Still, it was tough being the only one in Sellah whom people were hanging their hopes on.

Avandra pulled through for me on that end though. A day or so after Markas left, I was treating some of the warriors who had first come down with the pestilence. When I was cleaning the sores on their legs and arms, I noticed what looked like large spider bites. Figuring it was at least one thing I could do to help make the patients more comfortable, I inquired about for thistledown seeds for Brother Mynard’s spider poison remedy. But thistledown, as I found out, didn’t grow in Danaria, so I made up a paste of elm bark and swordfern roots. To my amazement, I saw improvements in the patients by the end of the next day and rushed to let the Melorian clerics know. Soon the awful lesions were clearing up, and the coughing and chest infectionslessoned as the days passed. What the clerics had thought to be a contagion spread through the air was actually a poison that spread by touch and that affected the lungs as well as the skin.

Well, at that point everyone wanted to meet the amazing cleric that had saved them all. I hid out in the temples mostly, insisting to anyone who tried to thank me that it was just a blessing from Avandra. When that got to be too much, I wandered up to the cliffs overlooking the sea. If I had known what would happen to me, I would have sat out in the middle of the temple square.

I was in a meditative cycle when I distantly heard footsteps behind me. Know that the Order was expected to arrive in Sellah that day, I remained where I was. I expected it to be one of the girls. What I didn’t expect was to hear the words, “Brown? Really brown? I definitely thought you would have given up pretending to be a brunette by now. And I really thought that traveling with an adventuring party would have loosened you up more by now. I mean you’re traveling with a sex priestess.”

My eyes widened. The voice was familiar but certainly not anyone I knew here. I spun around to see a woman striding up the path. She could have been my cousin. She was a couple of inches taller, and curvier where I was straight up and down, but she had the same storm blue eyes and her hair was the same gold blonde shade mine was naturally. She wore knee high boots, greaves, a short chainmail skirt and a chain top Yvala would have been happy to wear. A sword was slung across her hips and I could see a shield over her shoulder.

I stood up quickly as she finished walking up the path. “First of all, it doesn’t matter what color my hair is. Secondly, I am perfectly loose. Third, I think I would know if I was traveling with a sex priestess.” I told her.

She cocked her head to the side and said “Huh, I could have sworn she was one of Sehanine’s. Oh well.” She shrugged and smirked at me. “You’re the one I’m interested in anyway.”

I scoffed and turned around toward the water. “Well, I’m not interested in having anything to do with you.”

“You don’t really have a choice there kiddo.” She ran a finger down my braid, which unraveled at her touch and faded back to its normal golden blonde.

I smacked her hand away and started to stomp back down the rock path. “There was no call for you to do that. Maybe I dye my hair for a reason, so that people pay attention to what I do instead of passing me off as I dumb blonde.”

“Trust me, they pay attention.” I could hear the smirk in her voice.

Infuriated I shouted, “I’ll tell you the same thing I told that deva whoshowed up five years ago – leave me alone.”

She swore. “I knew we should never have let Brunhilde try to contact you. It was too early.” She ran after me and grabbed my arm. “Tav, wait. I didn’t mean it like that. People pay attention. I mean obviously we valkyrie are paying attention.” I crossed my arms over my chest. I knew it was childish but the valkyrie was pushing my buttons and making me more than a little petulant. “That’s exactly the kind of attention I’m tired of. I’ve had enough divine intervention in my life. I don’t even know who you are.”

She held up a hand. “I’m Sigdrifa.”

“Well Sigdrifa, you can find another girl. Last time you valkyrie tried to involve me I took out the outer wall of the abbey compound.”

“But you won’t now. You’ve matured, your power has leveled out. The cleric training you’ve had will help you control it now.” Sigdrifa sighed. “There is no one else. Don’t you think we’ve been trying to deal with this situation for years now? Followers of Kord are getting harder to find. You’ve seen the situation in the world. You’ve been to Vertinina, to Danaria. The world is going to crumble to dust unless we find out what is causing this mess. Gondul and Freyja are missing. The rest of the girls and I, we’re spread too thin. Communication in the Astral Sea is so bad we didn’t even know about Danaria until you came here.

“And we certainly aren’t getting help from the lugs up there is Valhalla. Half of the fallen are gone, the other half don’t seem to realize the magnitude of what’s going on. We have clerics and paladins and more than enough fighters. We need someone with brains to help us figure out what’s going on. We need a skald.”

I shook my head. “The temple wouldn’t have trained me as a cleric if I was meant to be a skald.”

Sigdrifa snorted. “Not a single cleric or paladin in Pernior had seen a skald before you. Your magical aptitude would have easily been mistaken for the effects of divine prayer. Of course they wouldn’t have known what you are. There hasn’t been a skald for 150 years.”

“No, I read about skalds. The power source is different.”

“And you’ve already proved you can tap into it.” I hadn’t even noticed Sigdrifa move until she grabbed my hand. Somehow she’d drawn her sword without my notice. She brought my hand up to the hilt and cupped it with her own. My other hand joined of its own accord. “You’re going todo just fine.” She whispered something I couldn’t quite hear and the sword flashed bright white. I could feel the energies swirl around the two of us. My power, her power. Divine magics mixing with arcane. I heard voices, saw battles, listened to a hundred generals, watched empires rise and fall. Occassionally I heard a woman singing. Not Sigdrifa, someone older.

It’s hard to remember what I saw. I do remember the energies calming down and the composition of what I could draw from had changed. The divine threads were all but gone, replaced by a store of martial resources and a wealth of arcane lore. I realized that the sun was close enough to setting to bathe the cast in gold. Sigdrifa set me down on a rock and took my mace. She set it on the ground and cleaved it in two with her sword. The pieces glowed and shifted into new shapes – a longsword and a wand. She put both weapons in my lap and knelt down.

“If no one’s been a skald for over a century, how and I supposed to learn how to do this?” I asked as I fiddled with the sword. “I gave you everything you need. It’ll come to you in time.” Sigdrifa put a hand on my shoulder. “Relax when you get the opportunity. The road you and your companions are on is hard enough.” She stood up and shook out her hair and her wings. They were white, like a swan’s.

“I didn’t want this.” I said, my voice catching in the wind. She looked back and smiled. “None of us did. I certainly didn’t when I was turned. Velkommen til die sosterþingen.”

My life is so screwed. The girls really should have let me kill that rogue.

On to the Eladrin

The island of l’wakanaan was shaped like an upside down L. The dwarfs occupied the flat northern end of the island, the volcano sat on the corner, and the eladrin colony lay at the southern end of the long peninsula. “Could we not borrow a boat to go to the eladrin?” “No, the High Lord had answered, “See, the foulspawn have used that trick before. They sailed around both ends of the island. One group waited for the other to make its attack then went in pretending to be the dwarfs looking for assistance. So now we wait 7 days before contacting them by ship.” A rather ridiculous method, I thought. I mean, the dwarfs could signal each other around the volcano, but not the eladrin? But the dwarfs insisted, and our ship needed fixing, so we set out on the long, rocky, alternately boggy trek overland.

The first day was uneventful. Nothing to see but masses of tropical vegetation, huge bright flowers, and the occasional gorgeous ocean views. Early on the second day, we heard voices arguing in common. “Mine,” shrieked one voice. “No it’s mine,” called a second. Both of you are wrong. It will be mine.” The exchange was followed by shrieking and the sounds of scuffling. Yvala was about to creep forward when Kalena stopped her. “No need to sneak up. I can tell from the scuffling noises, it’ll be harpies. Listen to the way they squawk as they screech.” The rest of us agreed and we all crept close to get a better angle on the group. Karel charged into the middle of the trio, spouting fire in the hope of chasing the harpies off without a fight. The harpies were loath to give up their prize of two boars. They scratched at Karel but only got a few attacks in before the rest of us arrived. The harpies were no match for the six of us and we were soon on our way again.

The rocky path ran down into another swampy lowland. “Stay alert through here,” Karel said as he took the lead. Yvala was the first to spot another group of the lizardmen we had encountered on first exploring I’wakanaan. “These buggers move way too fast through the marshes to attack. We draw them to us,” Markas said before busying himself by casting a protective aura over the party. Karel and Yvala loaded up arrow and bolt and fired once they were satisfied the rest of us were ready. The lizardmen squawked at us and charged through the marsh muck. We were more than ready this time and were able to land some good attacks before they reached our position. This group of lizards had some sort of shaman with them. The shaman conjured up a smelly gas that boiled up from the swamp underfoot. “Hey, that’s my trick,” exclaimed Kalena as she silenced the shaman with a fireball. The rest of the lizardmen fell to blows from Karel and Markas.

The path climbed out of the swamp into a series of black rock bluffs overlooking the ocean. As we came around one particular bluff, we saw a group of humans setting up a fire. Apparently foulspawn weren’t the only things to have been drawn to I’wakanaan, as the humans were wearing the purple robes of the cult of Torog. Unfortunately one of the cultists caught sight of us as we tried to slip back around the corner. “Ready the ballista!” cried Karel. “We have no ballista, you bloody rock-crazed dragonborn!” I replied as I drew up a battle-prayer. “Well now would be a good time to use one,” he replied, ignoring my sarcasm and adding none of his own.

Yvala stopped one cultist with a bolt through the eye but none of us were quick enough to stop a group of 4 from slitting their throats. “I heard snatches of their suicide chant,” said Kalena as she loosened a cloud of dagger. “Then there’ll be a grell there soon enough. Be a dear and conjure up something to greet it with,” I said. “If Karel and Markas occupy it, I’ll cast sleep, but I can only cast after it appears.” “Understood, wizard,” one of the fighters called back and the two cut a swath through the cultists. Yvala and I followed cleaning up the stragglers, while Vixi positioned herself beside Kalena and fired spells at anyone who aimed at the wizard.

When the grell rose, Kalena’s spell hit. It fell asleep after a small thrashing attack, and we took the opportunity to take it out before it woke. The remaining cultists were rather infuriated that we had taken out their summoned beast so quickly and in desperation, threw everything they had at us, stupidly standing their ground. Not that it mattered much. We looked through the cultists’ measly belongings and decided that this was a decent place to camp for the night.

The morning hike greeted us with more lush greenery and black cliffs. As we came to the top of a hill, Karel brought us to a halt, shushing the conversation Kalena and Vixi had been having about the local flora. Yvala snuck a peek over the hill to see 2 eladrin and 5 purple robed cultists. After deciding nothing good could come of such a conversation, Yvala opened fire with her crossbow. The rest of us charged in and repeated the last battle almost exactly, with the exception of restraining the two eladrin rather than killing them. After all, they might have been enchanted by the cultists, but I still was not going to turn my back on them.

The eladrin eventually came around but they weren’t talking to us. We debated about what to do with them. Yvala was perfectly fine with leaving them there. I was a little concerned about leaving them to the elements, but not much. She must be rubbing off on me. The rest of the party didn’t really care either way but was enjoying listening to us argue. Our problem was soon solved by a group of 30 eladrin walking through clearing at the bottom of the hill.

They spotted us, hailed us, and walked to our position. The leader, a tall eladrin with steel grey hair, walked up to Karel and held out his hand. “Thank you, stranger. You’ve captured the traitors we were hunting for. These two have been trying to align themselves with these bastard cultists.”

“You are welcome, friend. It is our pleasure to kill any cultists that strive to take over another’s home,” said Karel. “I can only assume that you are the shipwrecked travelers that we expected to receive in a few days.” He noticed the shocked look on Markas’s face. “Oh, those dwarfs. They think we can’t read their signals. We sent a ship over with repair items and carpenters to repair your ship. Honestly, we were just waiting for you to arrive since we didn’t know exactly what route you had taken.”

“Come on, we’ll give you some decent food before sending you back to the dwarfs and your ship.”
As we were walking, Kalena’s curiousity got the better of her. “There’s one thing I don’t quite get. We fought many of the same creatures on the island where we met Karel. Do you also come from the same homeland?”

“We heard rumors that a gold dragon was taking eggs and fleeing to a new home as we departed the Southern Continent, but we dismissed it as a desperate hope of a fleeing people. Aye, Torog drove us from our home as well as from our homeland. And now they have followed us here. But we’ll fight them for now and one day we’ll be able to return home.”

“And the dwarfs?” I asked. “I think they will be content to stay on I’wakanaan. They have adapted and are content to worship the volcano gods. But we eladrin only wish to go home.”
As we feasted with the eladrin, we tried to convince them to come to Perinor. Despite our best persuasions, they refused, citing the fact that they had already moved their civilization once. We boarded the Southern Stream and continued on to the Danarian coast.

Aloha Island

With the ship partially out of the water, Captain Raccan and his crew were able to assess the damage. To fix the damage, we would need to find metal fittings, strapping, and sealant. We were discussing the possibility of people on the island when we heard an explosion and saw a plume of smoke rising in the air. As we watched, the smoke changed colors in an orderly pattern. Friendly or not, the explosion was our best chance at help and we followed a small stream inland.

The stream led us into a bit of swampy lowland. Over the whine of mosquitos, we heard several voices arguing in draconic. One voice said, “This is a good kill.” And a second slurred, “Go to the clearing.” Yvala shrugged off her pack and snuck to the edge of the tree line. She reported back that six lizardmen were standing around a large animal they had hunted. They didn’t seem all that friendly, but it’s not unheard of for such lizardfolk to be open to trading with non-swamp dwellers. Karel stepped forward with his longbow nocked, but held loosely in his hand, his other arm raised in a greeting. Markas followed him, also giving a friendly wave. Alas, the lizardmen were unimpressed and they charged across the open swamp with an ease born of traveling through it their whole lives.

Kalena threw up a cloud of stinking gases, which did a great deal in blocking their movement and allowing us to get a few extra hits in. The lizardmen were no match for us and we soon defeated them. A path on the far side of the clearing led to higher ground. Eager to avoid more of the lizardmen, we followed it. Happily, I noted that it was steadily climbing up above the treeline to the spot where the smoke signal had been released.

The trail ended at an outpost two-thirds of the way up the island’s central peak. Three wooden buildings sat on a natural shelf, with a cave leading into the mountain beyond. The cave mouth had a series of intricately carved totems depicting splashing waves, huge flowers, and angry little men with big heads and sharp teeth.

Ten dwarfs milled around. They were by far the strangest dwarfs I had ever seen. Their hair was cropped short and the piles of braids on the females’ heads were far shorter than expected. Their clothing was brightly colored cloth, there was barely any armor on any of them. The loose shirts and skirt were decorated with the same motifs as on the cave mouths, favoring the flowers.

Naturally, they’d been watching our progress and yelled something in dwarven at us once we reached the ledge. Karel stood firm at the head of the group and replied, “I am sorry but we do not speak that language.” “Then you, friend, are a barbarian,” says the same dwarf that spoke before. Vixi looked curiously at the dwarfs and whispered to me, “I’ve never seen a dwarf before. They don’t all look like this, do they?” “These are the only ones I’ve seen dressed this strangely,” I said with a laugh. Poor Vixi, her father never let her out much. At least she’s exploring now, I thought.

By now, Karel had gotten frustrated with trying to talk to the dwarfs. He waved a hand back at the dwarfs, muttered, “Fine” and started back down the trail. I grabbed his arm as he walked by. “Come on, don’t leave.” “They think I’m an idiot.” “You know that’s not true,” I replied.
Up the hill, Kalena noticed that the dwarfs were watching Karel with interest. “Hey, would you like to meet him?” she asked. Another dwarf bobbed his head enthusiastically. “He is the color of the fiery ones.” “See, they do want to meet you,” I told him as he went back to the dwarfs. Several of the braver ones came forward and oohed and ahhed over his color. They kept going on and on about the fiery ones.

Meanwhile, Yvala was getting frustrated with their lack of forthcoming. She adjusted her armor for a bit more exposure and sauntered up to one of the dwarfs. “We’re lost and stranded and could really do with some help and information.” “Aye, lass, go on,” he said as he stared unashamedly at her breasts, which were right at his eye level. “We saw a signal come up. Was that you?” “Yes, we saw the ship come in and we signaled to the main village on the other side of the island.” “Is the village large? Our ship is badly in need of repairs.” “Well, why didn’t you say that. We can lead you through the passage in the morning. But now we will have a feast to honor the fiery ones!”

Strange though they looked, the dwarfs definitely knew how to party. They brought out a smoked pig to heat over the fire and spent half the night dancing and singing songs of praise about the fiery ones. Turns out that these dwarfs had been like most others long ago. They had lived on a continent to the south, but 100 years ago, creatures of all sorts began attacking their homeland. Creatures with mottled skin and twisted limbs. They fled north until they found this island. Naturally, the creatures followed, but the fiery ones came to their rescue, hurtling fire and driving away the enemy. The dwarfs settled and now mine inside the volcano and worship the fiery ones and the volcano as gods.

In the morning, one of the dwarfs led us to the entrance. “I can only go with you so far, as I must return to the guardpost.” A couple hundred yards in, he opened a secret passage in the rock wall. This will lead you through the mines in the heart of the volcano. It’s a 2 day walk, but the village is easily spotted on the other side. They know you are coming. As long as you stay away from the fiery ones and others, you’ll be fine.” With that, he turned and left us in the passage.

We began the slow hike through the warm passages. It was easily 100 degrees inside and I was sweating inside my armor. It was easy to see why the dwarfs wore cloth. We took short breaks as we walked, making sure to drink as much as possible. Sometime around what would have been nightfall, we debated about stopping for the night, but the temperature was so uncomfortable that we decided it was better to walk through the night.

Around midnight, the mountain began to shake. We huddled against one of the walls and luckily nothing fell on us. As we continued walking, Kalena remarked, “Is it just me, or is it getting warmer?” “I don’t know; it’s hard to tell in all this armor,” I moaned. “Possibly,” said Vixi. “It does seem to be glowing more than usual ahead,” I said. Sure enough, several chambers ahead, one of the walls had fallen, revealing a lake of magma. We walked around the chamber, sweat pouring off of our bodies. Everyone seemed nervous. “Do you think the fiery ones are angry with us being in their mountain?” I asked. “Why?” said Vixi, “would they be mad at us. They let the dwarfs mine.” “Yeah, but we aren’t worshippers!” “She has a point,” said Kalena. “Shush,” said Markas. “There’s another opening ahead.”

There was indeed another break in the corridor wall. This time 6 glowing creatures stood in the hallway. Their skin was dark with a multitude of glowing orange cracks running over their bodies. They were looking at something down the other way. “They’re magma beasts. They come from the chaos of volcanic areas,” Kalena said. “And they’re known to eat humans alive,” she added with a gulp.

“Guess we don’t have a choice to take them out first,” Yvala said as she pulled out a dagger and her crossbow. “Sure hope these aren’t the fiery ones.”

The beasts hurled balls of magma made of their own flesh, but they were slow and easier to avoid than other things we’d had thrown at us. It also helped that part of our group was fire resistant. At the end of the fight, we were a little crispier, but no worse for wear otherwise.
The bodies left nothing but coals and ashes behind, but we could see what they had been after. A door had been set into the stone wall. As we walked forward, the ground started to shake again. “I sure hope those weren’t the fiery ones,’ I repeated. The shaking subsided and we sent Yvala to check for traps. “Nothing I can find,” she reported. Karel pulled on the handle and we found ourselves looking at a hallway identical to the one we had entered through.

The sun was just setting as we left the confines of the tunnel. There were no dwarfs to meet us, something I found odd after our reception on the other side. A short way down the mountainside, we could see a small shrine. Even from where I stood, I could tell it was a combined shrine from the symbols of Moradin and the dancing flames and idols that intermingled on the walls. A path down to the harbor could be seen and we took it down to the harbor.

As we came around the corner, the harbor came into view. I gasped. I couldn’t help it. Smoke rose from various areas and fire balls were being hurled toward the harbor. The whole scene was lit by a river of lava flowing down the mountainside. “Oh no, we’ve angered their gods,” said Markas “Relax,” said Yvala, “the other guy said there would be hostile beasts inside the mountain. We did nothing wrong.” “Still,” added Kalena, “it may not be a bad idea to be cautious. The locals could be agitated.”

We walked carefully into the harbor town, bewildered by the fact that there were still no dwarfs to be seen as the six of us came smack into a group of something most of us never thought we’d see again-Foul Spawn. “Fires of the Host!” shouted Karel, “Where are my ballista?” The foulspawn were just as surprised to see us and bolted down the left hand alley. Karel charged after them with a growl and the rest of us followed. “This guy is worse than Kyri and the drow!” panted Kalena. “Give him a break,” I said. “He’s been fighting them his entire life.”

We shortly caught up with Karel, who was attacking the grue of the group with roars of pleasure. The fight was short. After having fought plenty of foulspawn in the tunnels, we knew all of their tricks. Karel seemed disappointed that the fight had been so short and dug idly through their packs of sea rations. “Cowardly spawn,” he grumbled. He looked up at us with a gleam in his eye. “I thought you had never seen their like before?” “And it’s still true,” said Vixi, “this is the first time we’ve ever been to this island.” “Perhaps the forces of the Crawler also followed them from the south,” I said. “It’s quite possible you are both of cultures that fled the Southern Continent,” Kalena added. “The only thing I ever saw before I joined with this lot was Asmodeous cultists,” Yvala chimed in as she cleaned her nails with the tip of her dagger. Karel nodded, “Ah, yes, another scab on the world that Asmodeous. You did well to escape from that place.”

Yvala’s answer as interrupted by a party of dwarfs coming down the street. “Excellent,” said one, “I see you have taken care of this lot.” The dwarfs were dressed in the same bright manner as the dwarfs on the other side of the island. “I expect that you just came through the mountain. “Yes,” answered Markas, “Is there a problem?” “No. We had warning from the outpost that you would be coming that way. It is fortunate that you have arrived as such a time for you are blessed to see the fiery ones in action. See how they throw their fiery balls at our enemies?” Indeed out in the harbor, 5 ships were burning merrily. Dwarfs on the beach were slaying any foulspawn stupid enough to go ashore.

The party brought us to the Dwarf High Lord. “Thank you for your work. My men tell me that you slew a party of foulspawn. Most excellent.”“Perhaps you have heard of the plight of our ship then?” Markas asked. “Yes. We can give you the strapping, metal fittings, and timber, but for the sealant you’ll have to travel to the eladrins on the other side of the island. But we can tell you more of that in the morning. Please, join us. Part of the cleanup is a party.” The dwarfs piled foulspawn onto a bonfire and danced all night. Roast pigs and fruit were brought out.
“Say what you want about the strangeness of these dwarfs, but they sure know how to throw a party,” said Yvala, as she left with another dwarf she had enticed.