Co-op game synopsis thread

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Hi. Feel free to post your co-op game synopses here in this thread. For other co-op game bidniss, use the other thread. Thanks!!

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

After speaking with the Lord Warden Faren Markelhay of Fallcrest, the intrepid band set out for Kobold Hall to collect the bounty on kobold bandits. The Lord Warden promised 10gp per slain kobold, and an additional 100gp for proof that the ruined manor had been cleansed of the filthy little buggers. (The party actually overheard a dwarf and a dragonborn discussing the bounty, and decided to get the jump on the competition!)

The party consisted of: Thoradin, dwarven warlord; Melech Barakas, tiefling warlock; Sariel, eladrin rogue, and Meriele, eladrin wizard. The group arrived at the ruined manor at nightfall, and decided to camp there before exploring the ruins further in the morning. Before they could get settled, however, they were attacked by a vicious pack of wolves! Though surrounded by the beasts, our heroes were victorious.

At sunrise, Thoradin discovered a trap door at the base of the single tower standing in the ruin. He led the way into the depths, soon arriving in a chamber with a pool of green goo, and a single kobold. Ah, the first criminal to be brought to justice! Meriele, excited at the prospect of collecting on the bounty, fired an icy blast at the little brute, and then boldly rushed into the room, only to discover that this beast was not alone! Luckily, neither was she alone, and her companions quickly joined the fray. Thoradin was immobilized by the kobolds strange projectiles, but provided leadership and support even from his awkward position--until a lucky blow from one of his enemies felled him (dwarves are too tough to be killed by something as insignificant as a spear in the chest!). Sariel put her dagger to vicious work, and Melech seemed to be everywhere at once. Unfortunately, that included the ends of his enemies weapons... But our heroes were once again victorious, and set about the unpleasant task of collecting their grisly trophies (the left ears of the kobolds).

Two exits were found out of the room, and the group decided that they should avoid the stairs down for the time being. They took the door to the west, accompanied by the chittering and squeaking of rats. Thoradin discovered a pit in the hallway--by almost falling into it! Luckily, his quick reflexes saved him from a nasty fall into a pit full of rats. Another pair of kobolds leapt from hiding, though, and the battle was on. The pit was crossed easily by three of our heroes--but not so easily by our dwarven friend. He cleared the pit with a mighty jump, however--this is one dwarf that will not be stopped by something as insignificant as the threat of a terrible death!

The party next came to the tribe's common room, and decided in their mercy to simply lock the women and children in. True humanitarians.

The group followed another hallway which led to the chamber where the rat master of the tribe had made his home with his charges. The room was filled with statues which the rat tamer used to confuse and confound our heroes. This was the most dangerous battle yet, and the party seemed unable to find a way to counter the rat masters hordes of vermin. The tide of battle finally turned, however, when the rat master realized that he was not as invincible as he had once thought himself. This knowledge that he could die made him panic, and in his terror he made one too many mistakes and finally fell before the combined might of our heroes attacks, screaming that "the master will avenge me!" (Mostly he fell to Sariel's dagger--Thoradin was particularly inspiring during this battle.)

Feeling their hurts and wondering if they had maybe bitten off more than they could chew, the party decided to press on. They were acquiring a nice collection of ears, but had so far not discovered the "additional rewards" that Lord Warden Markelhay had hinted at. (And Meriele for one was beginning to think that maybe they shouldn't have tried to beat the "competition"--the dwarf and dragonborn at the Nentir Inn--but should maybe have offered to join them.)

The party once again crossed the pit (after checking to make sure that the women and children were still locked in their room), and made their way down the stairs they had previously discovered. They entered a tomb-like area where the kobolds had constructed a crude altar to their dragon-goddess, Tiamat. The kobolds in the room weren't expecting company, and Meriele once again charged in--only to trip a dart trap! Luckily, she dodged the projectile, and managed to catch two of the kobolds in her icy magic (which she was rather happy about, since she had been singularly ineffective in the fight with the rat master). Melech and Thoradin were not so lucky in avoiding the trap, and soon learned the true danger of the darts--immobilization! Both were caught in place, but happened to be side-by-side. Two of the three kobolds charged them, while Sariel engaged the third. Sariel managed to keep her kobold busy, but wasn't the terror she had previously been--Sariel works best when striking from the shadows at an opponent that isn't expecting her, but isn't so good at going toe-to-toe. Despite the difficulties, the party was victorious.

Upon examining the altar, they discovered a note written in draconic. Melech was able to read the script, and deciphered that it was a puzzle of some sort. Sariel and Thoradin searched the chamber for additional clues, and the eladrin found that small dots of different colors had been painted in front of five of the six alcoves in the room. After trial and error, the party solved the puzzle (which involved code-words in the letter that corresponded with the colors of Tiamat's heads, and the colors painted on the floor), and won their prize--a key that opened a heretofore undiscovered secret door.

The party entered into the unknown, descending a series of stairs that led further and further down. Periodically, they were attacked by skeletons that would rise up from the floor. These undead abominations were little more than a nuisance, however--their were so old and fragile that they disintegrated with one good blow.

Much of the parties strength had been sapped during the battle with the rat master, though, and they decided not to press their luck. They needed rest, time to recover from their injuries. After some serious discussion, they decided to stay where they were, on the stairs--it was in an area that the kobolds had evidently not discovered, somewhat easily defensible, and, honestly, the best place that they had found. (Thoradin put forth the idea that they rest in the sarcophagi they had discovered in the altar room, an idea not without merit! It was eventually decided that the risk of discovery was greater than if they simply stayed put.) Thus, our band of intrepid adventurers hunkered down to spend an uncomfortable night licking their wounds on a narrow stone staircase. And each will wonder what the next day will hold.

Who could have left that mysterious note for the kobolds to find? Who is "the master" that the rat tamer mentioned? What terrible secrets could lie in this newly discovered section of ruins? And how deep does Kobold Hall extend?

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

When we last left our heroes, the intrepid band had decided to rest on the staircases. The night was nervously but uneventfully spent, only to end in a heartstopping moment when the party heard the clanking approach of unknown strangers. Could this be some new threat sent by the kobolds of the Hall? A whispered discussion took place, during which time the approaching "threat" arrived. Luckily, this was another band of adventurers sent from Fallcrest by Lord Warden Markelhay to collect the bounty on kobolds. The two parties readily agreed to join forces, the newcomers because they had seen the destruction wrought by the original group, and that group because they remembered how close some of those calls had been!

The newcomers were:
Hanrut Veinhand, daughty dwarven fighter; Adran Sylvan, the sly and speedy elven ranger; and Raiann, the mighty dragonborn paladin of Bahamut. Introductions were made all around, and the two groups united pressed ahead into the dungeon.

The first chamber they came to seemed to be some sort of amphitheatre. The walls were hung with faded tapestries, the floor covered with dry bones and dust. A balcony at the far end of the room was a firing platform for a group of skeletal archers, and two more of the undead beasts rushed at the party on the floor. Adran was the first to strike, his arrow taking one of the archers in the forehead, destroying it instantly. Sariel and Melech moved quickly into the room, looking for optimal positions from which to strike. After a volley from the archers, Meriele put her fire magic to good use, destroying all those remaining. The skeletal warriors moved to the attack, only to be met by the dwarves and the dragonborn. The skeletons were no match for the combined might of our heroes.

The party quickly searched the chamber and pressed on, congratulating each other on their impressive work. They followed a long hallway, and entered what looked to be a dining hall. A long table was seat for a feast, and half a dozen rotting corpses dressed in decaying finery were seated as if awaiting the main course. They rose as the party entered, shambling forward to feast on our heroes--evidently, the main course had arrived! Meriele was quick to act; her frost magic covered a large section of the room--and several of the zombies--in a thick sheet of ice, and destroyed one of the undead outright. Sariel held back to await the perfect opening, while Adran and Thoradin charged in, seeking to make their own perfect opening. In the chaos, Meriele was backed against the wall by a pair of zombies, but Hanrut and Raiann managed to distract the zombies so that she could use her fey magic to escape. And once again, the combined and focused power of the party put these corpses to final rest in short order.

Four bottles of wine were found in the room, two of which had unknown contents. The group decided to investigate those two later, but they took the bottles with them as they explored further.

A short hallway led to a well-appointed study with bookshelves lining two of the walls. Seated in a chair at a table in the middle of the room was yet another undead abomination, but this one seemed startled to see the party, and didn't attack! Instead, he introduced himself as Count Braelast the Undying, master of the Hall. The Count made it clear that he didn't want the party in his home any more than he wanted the kobolds there, but he was willing to make a deal with our heroes--if they would exterminate the kobolds, and retrieve his ancestral sword Soulcry, he would allow them to leave the place alive. The party quickly agreed to the bargain (although I'm sure that each was hoping that some one would suggest that they simply attack the Count, their better judgment prevailed--after all, a corpse that speaks to you instead of simply trying to eat your brain is not one to be taken lightly!). Part of the deal was that one of them remain behind--Meriele agreed that she would stay (partly motivated by a desire to explore the Count's library).

One member short, the companions returned to the tomb where they had discovered the secret door to the Count's sanctum, and there took the stairs down. They came to a room with more sarcophagi, but also another pit of green slime. Each sarcophagus had a small pile of skulls stacked on top of it. Attached to a hook in the center of the ceiling was a long rope, the end of which was wrapped around a big slimy stone. The stone was in the hands of a kobold, of which there were four on elevated platforms at the other end of the room. Evidently, this chamber was an arena for some sort of kobold sport. No matter; our heroes were not here to play games!

Hanrut, having seen the face of the enemy, charged forward with a mighty battlecry, and attempted to leap up to one of the two platforms. ...he failed. Adran slipped into the room and fired upon one of the kobolds, instantly killing it. Hanrut, having never battled this particular form of vermin before, wasn't entirely knowledgeable of their capabilities; he was quickly educated as the kobold slingers fired glue pots on both him and Adran, sticking them both in place. Raiann, thinking the dwarf would make a good springboard, charged across the room, leaped upon the dwarf, and then jumped onto the platform! Or that was the plan, at least. Her scaly feet slipped on the highly polished helm of the dwarven fighter, and she landed beside him. The rest of the party, rolling their eyes and trying not to laugh out loud moved into the room, taking up strategic positions. The warriors at the base of the platform took a couple more hits while Melech learned first hand that getting hit with the Skull-Skull Stone is no fun, but then Raiann managed to climb up on Hanrut's shield and make it to the top of the platform. Once there, she took out her frustrations on one of the slingers, ending it's pathetic life. Melech grinned wickedly, and, calling upon the dark powers of his sinister fey patrons, transformed into mist to instantly travel to the top of the other platform. His grin turned to a grimace, however, when he saw yet another kobold and a pair of "rat-lizards" gazing up at him hungrily from the other side of the platform.

Meanwhile, Hanrut and Adran had broken free of their sticky constraints and had moved towards the doors, and Thoradin had been issuing commands and directing the battle as well as he could--no easy task considering that his forces were split up and he couldn't even see most of them! Raiann was having trouble with the pair of kobolds she had engaged, and Melech was getting the worst of it from the rat-lizard that had attacked him. Sariel came to the paladin's aid, and the pair of them, with direction from Thoradin, made quick work of the kobolds. They then had only to deal with the rat-lizard that had turned it's attention to them. The second rat-lizard landed a lucky strike on Melech, and the warlock fell bleeding horribly from his wounds.

Hanrut and Adran tried to get through the doors. And failed.

Thoradin made it up on top of one of the platforms, and saw his companion slowly bleeding to death. "Oh no you don't," muttered the dwarf. "ON YER FEET, SOLDIER!" he shouted. "YOU DON'T DIE ON MY WATCH!!" Melech heard and struggled to his feet, muttering under his breath that next time, he would have the paladin revive him... Unfortunately for the warlock, the rat-lizard, who had gone to find fresh meat, heard Thoradin's shout and turned back to see Melech rise. With a hiss, the rat-lizard charged back. Melech, angry over first being almost slain and then for being yelled at about it, called upon his dark powers, and blasted the rat-lizard into oblivion. Shoulders hunched and smoke rising from his hands, Melech turned to glare at Thoradin, only the find the dwarf's thick beard split in a grin.

Meanwhile, Sariel and Raiann had managed to dispatch the other monster. The chamber was searched, but little was found in the way of valuables.

Bruised, bloody, and slightly pissed off, our heroes made their way down the wide hallway to the next chamber. Here they discovered a large room with another smaller building contained inside it. Two other raised platforms were here against the walls, and from one of them a boulder crashed to the floor and started rolling about the room, threatening to crush anything in it's path. On the other platform stood the Wyrmpriest of Tiamat and his pair of bodyguards. Melech, still furious, charged into the room, ignoring the huge boulder and cursing and blasting the Wyrmpriest. But then a small flying drake flittered into the room, perching atop the wall of the small building, squawking and staring at the party. Adran took offense at the beast, firing at it and missing. A pair of kobolds charged from the small building and fired slings at Melech and Thoradin. Hanrut and Raiann moved into the room, but took different routes around the building, wanting to divide and conquer. Hanrut went for the Wyrmpriest and his guards, while the dragonborn charged the slingers. Adran continued to fire upon the flying drake until finally Melech blasted it out of existence. Adran sighed; Melech scoffed. And then both moved on.

Meanwhile, Raiann had pursued the slingers to the top of one of the platforms. Thoradin was trying to exhort her to greater feats of prowess, but with limited success. Hanrut and Sariel were systematically slaying the Wyrmpriest's guards. It wasn't long before the Wyrmpriest stood alone. He breathed his frost onto Hanrut, who stoically withstood the blast. The Wyrmpriest screamed out to his goddess, "Tiamat will protect me! She will cause you to suffer for eternity!!"

It wasn't the dragon goddess Tiamat who answered, but rather the dwarf fighter Hanrut, who, his expression never changing, answered the prayer with his hammer crushing the skull of the most unholy Wyrmpriest.

Melech claimed the Wyrmpriest's rod as his dark reward, and after a thorough search of the room a secret door was discovered. As these heroes pause to catch their breath, they must wonder what could lie beyond: Has the master of the kobolds been slain, or does their leader lurk further below? It seems that the sword Soulcry must be further down in the depths, but what guards it? And, once the sword is won, will Count Braelast honor his bargain? And speaking of the Count, how fares his hostage, the wizard Meriele?

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Our group of kobold-slayers had just dispatched the wyrmpriest of Tiamat, chief of the kobolds. After a thorough search of his chamber, they discovered a secret door that led further into the depths of the dungeon. After a brief rest (that may have seemed like a couple months but was actually much shorter...), they picked up their gear and headed down.

The passage wound down and down below the surface of the earth, and eventually opened up into a huge chamber. The immense cavern was split down the middle by a deep chasm which was spanned by a sturdy stone bridge. A number of vicious kobolds stood guard at this bridge, and as the adventurers entered the room, the nasty little reptile men loosed their dire rat pets. As the rats attacked the party, most of the kobolds remained on the far side of the chasm, firing javelins and gluepots across. A pair of heavily armored kobolds stayed in the middle of the bridge, blocking the party from crossing. The party didn't seem very interested in crossing, actually, so the kobolds started coming across to harass them. While Adran fought a ranged duel with three of the kobolds, Hanrut and Raian, with more than a little help from Thoradin, made quick work of the rats. Sariel and Melech were quick to convince the kobold dragonshields that it would be better to back onto the bridge, and they did so after taking a couple swings at the dwarf and dragonborn duo. Raian followed them onto the bridge, hoping to keep them there. Adran finished his duel with the javelineers, and Melech and Sariel finished the other two. Hanrut charged up onto the bridge, and with mighty blows shoved not one but both kobold defenders into the chasm! His attack was so fast and fierce that Raian was left wondering exactly what had happened to her opponents. All she saw there was a dwarf with a wide grin splitting his beard.

The last surviving kobold had finally decided that it was time to utilize the better part of valor, but unfortunately for him, it was far too late. He tried to run, but was shot down by our heroes.

The chamber and bodies were looted, and ears were collected. After a brief rest the group moved on.

The party came to another large cavern, this one filled with stalagmites and stalactites. And rats. A horde of leaping, chittering, hissing rats. Standing in the midst of this noisome pack was a kobold that looked strangely familiar. He raised his hands up and cried, "praise be to Tiamat, I live!" No, surely it couldn't be the same rat master that had earlier vexed the party. He was dead! Regardless whether or not this kobold was that same enemy or not, the adventurers had a job to do, and bravely--foolishly?--charged headlong into the cloud of rats. Melech remained outside the toothy swarm, and Sariel quickly decided that that would be best for her, as well. Meanwhile, the apparently resurrected rat master lay about him with his whip, pulling first Adran and then Thoradin into the rat cloud. Raian was overwhelmed by the swarm, but her loyal companions were able to revive her. After a long and desperate battle, the rat master and his minions were defeated. But the battle was not without cost; the brave dwarf warlord Thoradin was pulled down and buried by the biting wave of rats, and despite his struggles, he was slain.

After a few brief words for their fallen companion, the party decided to rest and lick their wounds. During the night they were joined by a fellow adventurer, the mysterious priest known only as Phelix. His motivations for being in the ruins were unknown, but he was not hostile and offered to join the party. They accepted his help, but decided to keep one on eye on their new companion.

The party continued on, and came to another cavern. A large frozen pool of water lay in the center of this room. The pool was flanked by two natural pillars. Lurking behind one of these stone columns was a terrible beast out of legend: a white dragon! Half of the party were unable to keep their composure when faced by such an enemy, but they held ranks and Adran and Sariel fired arrows and shurikens at the monster. They soon realized their mistake of staying in place, though. The dragon leaped into the air, coming down with a crash to the cavern floor in front of the tunnel leading out of the room...the tunnel where our intrepid heroes had all remained. The mighty dragon unleashed a blast of icy breath, and that combined with the dragon's very presence proved to be almost too much for many of our band. But these heroes weren't about to let a little thing like a dragon end their young adventuring careers. They overcame their initial shock and awe, and moved into position around the beast.

Raian and Hanrut moved directly at the dragon, daring the monster to attack them. Sariel, after regaining her composure, moved into a flanking position at the dragons back, and was joined by the ghost of Thoradin which Brother Phelix had somehow brought back from death. It seemed as if the fallen dwarf wanted to help his friends for one last fight. Adran and Melech moved into good firing positions, wisely deciding to attack the beast from a distance.

Hanrut, bolstered by the presence of his friend Raian, repeatedly pounded his mighty hammer into the dragon's scaly hide, shouting at the beast all the while: "Come on ye overgrown lizard! Attack me if ye dare, ye coward!" The dragon, with a hiss in the ancient draconic tongue--"You fools have met your doom! You will suffer for entering my domain!"--accepted the challenge and focused all of it's ire on the mighty dwarf. The combined assault of the heroes, with powerful attacks from Sariel, Melech and Adran, and much-needed holy support from Raian and Brother Phelix, was enough to keep Hanrut on his feet--well, for the most part, anyway--and proved to be too much for the dragon.

Unable to withstand the combined attacks of the entire band, the dragon decided to try a different strategy. It knew that it couldn't keep Hanrut down, and even if it somehow killed the dwarf, there was another heavily armored warrior there that it would have to deal with. Thus, it decided to risk everything and try to eliminate the more lightly armored but dangerous opponents first, and then finish off the warriors. It was a risky plan, but it was also surrounded. Miraculously, it escaped it's desperate position and managed to break free into open ground. But it was too late. Before the dragon could bring it's fury to bear on it's new target Melech, the party managed to slay the beast and achieve victory.

The party stared in fascination as Raian landed the killing blow, her mighty axe slashing through the dragon's neck. The blood spraying from the wound quickly froze as it touched the air and the dragons scales, and clouds of frost whistled from the wound as the dragon thrashed around in it's death throes. When the beast finally died, it fell over stiff and frozen.

Flush with pride over their mighty deed, the party congratulated themselves as they claimed trophies from the carcass of the beast. Fangs, talons and a section of scaly hide were taken, and the lair was searched. The dragonhoard seemed rather... underwhelming, to say the least. A few gold coins, a pearl, a section of green dragonhide (hmm...), and the sword Soulcry were found.

The band of newly-minted dragonslayers made their way back to Count Braelast's sitting room and turned the sword Soulcry over to him. The Count took the sword and dismissed them without so much as a simple thank you. The party collected their wayward wizard Meriele and left the hall, headed back to Fallcrest.

(Meriele, by the way, seemed much more interested in telling the party about her lovely evening--"oh, the Count is such a charming man, if only he were alive..."--than in hearing about their notable adventure. After about two and a half hours of talking about her evening, Meriele finally asked why they hadn't just killed Count Braelast and kept the sword...)

Once back in Fallcrest, the party went to visit Lord Warden Markelhay. The Lord Warden paid them the bounty he had promised, but seemed surprised and a bit distressed when the party informed him of the presence of a lich in the area. He was confused as to why they hadn't slain Count Braelast, but decided to trust in their judgment that the Count wasn't a threat to Fallcrest. Lord Warden Markelhay thanked them for their services again, and seemed to suggest that he might have need of their services again in the future.

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

After the successful mission in Kobold Hall, our heroes all got a nice long rest in Fallcrest. Three months in fact!

One fine fall day they were hanging out in the town square and Lord Warden Faren Markelhay approached them. He said that he hadn't heard from his brother Tanum in the past several weeks, and offered to pay the group to go check on him. They readily agreed--after all, the brother was probably just busy with the autumn harvest, and they could get well paid for a little walk out of town.

Unfortunately, once they got to Tanum's house, they saw no trace of him or his family. They did see trace of undead, though. The puny zombies were dispatched with ease, and then they turned their attention to exploring the house and grounds. Meriele thought it was kind of weird that there was a graveyard so close to the house--like right next to the house--but who could fathom the minds and customs of these humans.

Anyway, inside the house they found no trace of the Markelhays. Meriele began to think that maybe she and her companions had just destroyed the remains of the family outside. She decided to stick close to Brother Phelix, just in case there were more undead around. (In the back of her mind, she was thinking that it was possible that the charming Count Braelast--an undead being himself--might be involved somehow. No, surely not! Count Braelast wasn't evil, he was just misunderstood. Meriele knew that he didn't really want to hurt anybody...)

During the search of the house, Meriele and Phelix fell through a weak section of floor--evidently, the Markelhays have a termite problem--into an underground dungeon of sorts. What kind of people would have their house located on top of a stone dungeon, and right next to a graveyard? Meriele was starting to grow suspicious...

The rest of the group came down into the pit, and all of them began an exploration of the tunnels. They soon came to a large room with a huge column of bones in the center. The room was full of more zombies, and a pair of rat-like humanoids. During the battle, Meriele summoned the angry death-spirit of Grulthak--mage hand to make one of the many skulls in the room float about menacingly, and light cast upon it to show how powerful it was. The ratmen were not impressed. They were hanging out in a room full of bones and undead, after all.

The hallway leading out of the room featured a pair of ugly gargoyle statues at the far end. Meriele immediately expected them to animate and attack--she had heard of this sort of thing before, you see. But they didn't. Well, they did start moving when the party entered the hall. For every step taken into the hall, they slid an equal distance towards the party. Once the statues were even with Raian (she and Meriele had entered the hallway), they fired darts on her! And not only that, but once the statues got to the end of the hallway, they started coming back the other way--devious! The trap was eventually defeated due to Meriele's use of the Tenser's floating disk ritual. Oh, and I suppose Raian and Phelix helped a little bit, too. (Actually, it was discovered that once the statues had made a there-and-back circuit of the hallway, the trap was disabled--a whole lot of planning with no pay-off!)

The next room was full of skeletons, but the undead beasts were destroyed with relative ease. Sariel's bravado got her into a bit of a tight spot, but the rest of the party was able to come to her aid.

After all this, there was still no sign of the Markelhays. Meriele was becoming more and more convinced that the family was the head of some obscure death cult. They were most likely involved in human sacrifice, cannibalism, necrophilia, and apple bobbing. One or more of them was definitely a lycanthrope, probably rodent in nature. The Lord Warden was surely involved; in fact he looked rather rat-like in the face. Well, no he didn't, not at all, but that didn't exclude him from possible involvement. Meriele was about to bring up her suspicions to the rest of the party when they entered another room full of bad guys. She supposed it could wait.

This room was full of more zombies, a couple sarcophagi, bats, and a pair of goblins. So, the Markelhay cult was consorting with filthy goblins! Their list of sins continued to grow! Battle was joined, and she, Meriele, made them all fall down!! Actually, she only tried to make two of them think they were falling down with a phantom chasm illusion. It actually worked on one of them, but the other conjured up an obscuring cloud of mist that seemed to affect only the good guys. Other than temporarily disabling one of the shamans, Meriele was spectacularly ineffective in this battle royale. About all she managed to do was get pounded by a bat--she hates bats!!

Naturally, the good guys prevailed. The room was searched, and instead of loot, the Markelhay family was found. They were alive and uninjured, if a little worse for wear from their captivity. They were naturally effusive in their thanks at being rescued.

The return trip to Fallcrest was uneventful, and the party was well paid for their heroic deeds. Meriele is thinking that she will spend the next few days/weeks/months in study, hopefully to unlock the secrets of a new spell or two. Also, she's been thinking of buying a sword. She still has her suspicions about the Markelhay family, but has decided to keep them to herself for now...

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

After the valiant rescue of farmer Markelhay and his family, the Lord Warden of Fallcrest (Faren Markelhay, who just happens to be Farmer Markelhay's brother) was so impressed with the heroic deeds of the party that he set them up in their very own house. It seems that Fallcrest likes to keep bands of adventurers on retainer, and so has this house set aside for their use. The former occupants were gone with whereabouts unknown, so it looked like the Lord Warden needed a new band of suicidal--I mean, uh, heroic--adventurers. And our heroes fit the bill nicely.

Meriele had her suspicions about the fate of the former adventurers, but decided not to ask about them at this time. No point in upsetting the Lord Warden and possibly making him change his mind.

Markelhay immediately put the band to work. Escort duty, guarding a caravan of goods to be taken from Fallcrest through dangerous wilderness to the nearby town of Harkenwold. Hanrut and Adran were absent from this expedition--Adran was busy on another task for the Lord Warden (Meriele assumes that he's trying to get his money's worth out of the party before they end up like the last group...), and Hanrut? Who knows where he was...

The caravan was scheduled to leave on the day after the Burning Man Festival. Since the festival was coming up, Meriele decided to craft an effigy instead of simply watching everybody else work. Honestly, these people already have jobs being the heroes of Fallcrest--why volunteer for more work?!

The festival was a lot of fun, and passed in the normal manner--ie, nobody attacked the town or anything like that.

The next day the party, in varying degrees of hangover, met with the caravan leader and his assistants: Harry Amokdell and the Smith brothers, Sam and Max. Some members of the party decided to help these strong and able men load the goods onto wagons--a task that didn't require help--instead of doing their real job, which was, of course, guarding the wagons. The wagons were quickly loaded, and the three day trip to Harkenwold was uneventful.

Evidently, the wilderness was less dangerous than had at first been believed.

Harkenwold is a town just slightly bigger than Fallcrest, and signs of their own Burning Man Festival were still evident when the party rolled into town. The business of the caravan was conducted, and the Rusty Monster Inn and Tavern was found and patronized by our heroes. The inn, a nice place, with decent food and good drink, is decorated with rusty weapons and armor and whatnot--relics from a nearby dungeon that was cleared by local heroes. Meriele was in the process of getting the whole story when she was rudely interrupted by the paladin, that dragonborn hussy! Meriele quickly lost interest anyway, and consumed heavy quantities of alcohol, along with the dragonborn and Brother Phelix (rumors that Meriele flirted outrageously with the cleric are exaggerated...she hopes...).

In the morning, Meriele found a note that had been slipped under her door. It was from Count Braelast the Undying. Meriele eagerly read the words of the charming, gracious and handsome Count--well, maybe not handsome. He thanked her for the lovely dinner (it was lovely, wasn't it!), and apologized for the nasty business at the Markelhay farm (Braelast, you cad); evidently, he was simply wanting to do some experiments and things got out of hand (an accident, well, of course). He also warned about an army that is being assembled nearby. All he knows is a name: Mayor Darkhell. That's the only information he could give, and also offered Meriele some advice: don't trust anybody. Well, she already doesn't trust too many, so that isn't a problem.

Meriele decided to keep the contents of the note to herself. She'll tell when and if it becomes important...

The return trip to Fallcrest was as uneventful as the initial trip. And Adran was still not back. Lord Warden Markelhay approached the party again (now this is getting kind of ridiculous) and asked if they would complete the job that Adran was doing. And also, like, kinda rescue their friend. They readily agreed.

The party followed Markelhay's directions to a cave in the nearby cliffs. The cave turned to carved stone just inside the entryway, and the walls were lined with lit torches. Hmm, somebody was obviously there. The party soon came to a large room with a bloody altar in the center surrounded by pillars. They could hear voices conversing in a language they couldn't understand. Perhaps the restless spirits of the dead, returned from the afterlife to torment the living and exact revenge on those who had taken their lives?

No. Turned out it was goblins. The party saw the little bastards fleeing the chamber through doorways made of blue light. Obviously magical portals, our heroes were not daunted in the slightest. They charged through the nearest gate...

...and found themselves split up and alone. Meriele was in a stone chamber with a blue portal at each of the four corners. Also in the room were a pair of goblins. The nasty beasts hissed as the eladrin wizard prepared to annihilate the vermin with her most powerful magic. Second most powerful magic, that is. The air crackled with arcane energies, and when the smoke cleared, the goblins, who seemed to not have noticed the fact that they were supposed to be, like, dead, were charging with swords raised. "You're lucky I don't drop you into the pit of doom!" Meriele shouted at them as she ran through the nearest blue portal.

She came into a room identical to the one she had just left. She stopped for a minute to catch her breath, and another pair of goblins stepped through portals into the room with her. "You gotta be kidding," Meriele muttered as she ran through another portal.

She stepped into a room with more goblins, but also in the room was Brother Phelix, who was fighting for his life. Meriele launched herself into the fray to help her close friend, and the pair managed to hold their own. But then a blue-skinned goblin clad in robes adorned with bones entered. "Aw, crap," Meriele thought as the blue goblin began casting a spell. She fired her ray of frost at it, but the goblin managed to complete his spell, and Meriele was struck blind! With a squeak followed by many un-lady-like words, Meriele fired blindly in what she assumed to be Blue's direction. Phelix, meanwhile, was feeling none too happy about the whole situation, and was prepared to exit stage left in a big hurry, when Meriele's blindness wore off. He heard her shout, "I can see, now, big boy! Now it's your ass!" Phelix (who hadn't realized that Meriele had been blinded in the first place) decided he should maybe stick around for a minute or two. During those couple minutes he managed to dispatch his enemies, and Meriele finished off Blue with a ray of frost directly to the brain.

The pair stopped to catch their breath--and during that time, Meriele did not throw herself into Phelix's arms. And if she did it was only for a second, and only because she was tired and confused and hurt...yeah, hurt! She just wanted healing!

The pair did have the idea that entering one of the portals at the same time might allow them to travel through the maze together instead of getting split up and having to wander alone. Phelix offered to carry Meriele (whose breath did not catch when he suggested it), and they tried it. It worked! They came through the portal into the same room, and it wasn't long before the entire group was back together. The group employed a similar strategy to stay together while negotiating the maze (they held hands--it wouldn't have been very practical, or possible, for one person to carry the rest, now would it?). Several bodies were looted, and chests were opened. And it wasn't long before the party managed to find their way back to the first room with the bloody altar.

And waiting for them were the only goblin survivors--a rather large goblin with a huge axe, and his only surviving lackey. Our heroes made quick work of them. It wasn't pretty.

A door was found, and a clever puzzle was solved. Beyond the door were jail cells, one of them containing the prize that Lord Warden Markelhay sought, and another containing the missing Adran. "Boy am I glad to see you guys," he said. "Hey, can I have that sword?"

(There was a lot more action in the maze--and I mean a lot--but Meriele wasn't there to see it. So maybe the other party members would like to tell their versions of the battle royale...)

(Also, a couple random quotes:
"I've tried to, but I just can't stop battling!" Raiann
"No loot for Hanrut." Me)

[Gir]

Well... Sariel thouroughly enjoyed the Burning Man Festival... mostly because it left many homes unoccupied. So she did a little snooping while everyone else was getting drunk and torching giant straw-men. Sadly most of the townsfolk are not nearly as interesting as one might assume. Even her own group of adventurers didn't have very many interesting things... though a certain other Eladrin's underwear drawer was somewhat shocking... tisk-tisk! (just kidding... she knows Meriele hates to have her undies riffled through)
Well Sariel went along on guard duty all the while burning with desire to see what we were guarding. She thought it best to not pry this one time... and will forever regret not looking. For the most part she stayed in the background and went unnoticed and bored.
When they got to the cave and saw the bloody alter she was at first repulsed but then intrigued. No time for snooping... She's pretty sure someone might have pushed her through a portal where she met two nasty little goblins. Having no one there to help she feystepped out of range and ran through the nearest portal. In fact she ran through many portals. She got lost and confused... hurt badly by several goblins. She was glad for the the few times she found some of her friends and tried to help but she knew she couldn't take many more hits. She did manage to kill one or two goblins and ran across a few dead bodies that were in severe need of looting. She gladly took it upon herself to secure any treasure for the group she came across.
Then she stepped through a portal and practically fell over a body. So, thinking only of getting something for the group she quickly snagged the pouches. When she looked up she saw several of her friends across the room fighting some goblin or something... it was hard to see since he was surrounded. Before she get over there he was slain.
Despite some angry words thrown at her by a certain cleric she agreed to the hand holding and found several treasure chests on their way out of the strange maze. She gladly opened all of the chests and shared the contents of the pouches she had gathered wich just so happened to contain the keys to the door they needed to open in order to find and rescue their missing comrad.
All things concidered she had a fairly good time in that odd portal maze. It was a most interesting thing... and if not for the goblins being there she would have kept wandering about for a long time... you never know what secret things might be hiding in a place like that!

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

After their quest in the teleporting maze, our heroes returned to Fallcrest and took it easy for about a month. Their vacation wasn't exactly by choice; things were quiet, very quiet. It was the talk of the town leading up to Slain Beast Day. The roads were uncommonly safe to travel, no attacks on outlying farms had been reported, and merchants were able to brave the weather without having to worry about bandits.

The party spent the night of Slain Beast Day at the Silver Unicorn Inn, listening to stories about the Beast Slayer, and consuming large quantities of food and drink. The stories told were all as different as the storytellers, but that seems to be the point of Slain Beast Day.

The party did hear one story that didn't involve the slaying of beasts. Harkenwold had been attacked by an army of goblins and undead, and the people had been driven into the forest near their town. Our heroes did what any heroes would do: they went and asked their boss if they could help.

Lord Warden Markelhay agreed at once, and told the party that they would be his personal representatives to Baron Stockmer and the people of Harkenwold. He instructed them to help the Baron in any way they could; Harkenwold is a close ally of Fallcrest, and relations must be fostered.

The group followed the King's Road to Harkenwold, but on the way, they were set upon by a pack of deathjump spiders! The spiders, being dumb beasts guided only by the desire to feed, were driven away without too much trouble, but our heroes decided that they couldn't let the monsters live. After all, they would recover from their injuries and plague other travelers in the future. (Their decision was in no way influenced by greed...I'm sure of it!)

A short search of the area and excellent elven eyesight allowed the heroes to discover the spiders' underground den--a tunnel that led to a large dirt chamber. The three surviving spiders were within, hoping to recover from their wounds in peace. Not a chance. They were destroyed with ease. A search of the chamber turned up the possessions of former victims of the spiders, including a nice suit of armor which was quickly claimed by Hanrut.

The group moved on, and when they came to the bridge over the White River, they found that the army that had attacked Harkenwold was still in the area. Goblins had been stationed on the bridge, and they were eager for some action. Our heroes were eager, too. The goblins attacked from a distance with their bows, and the two archers managed to do some significant damage during the fight. They were no match for the party, though, and despite their leader's commands, the goblins were soon dealt with. Our heroes used an innovative strategy against the leader in the battle, to keep him from escaping--they dumped him off the side of the bridge, removing him from the fight long enough to finish the underlings. This kept the goblin boss down in the river, and away from the road and his avenue of escape. The party didn't want him to escape and warn his superiors--again, greed was definitely not a motivation here.

The party made it to Harkenwold, and observed the town from hiding. Sure enough, goblins and undead roamed through the streets. Whoever could assemble and control such an army would surely be a fierce opponent.

It was while observing Harkenwold that the party met Denton, a young man with delusions of grandeur. The party talked him out of single-handedly attacking the town, and convinced him to take them to Baron Stockmer. Denton really didn't need much convincing.

Denton led the group to the survivors' camp, and then into the Baron's tent. Brother Phelix performed some healing on the Baron's injured leg, and the group did what little they could to help the survivors around camp. That night there was a discussion in the Baron's tent as to what should be done about Harkenwold. Present at the meeting were our heroes, Barons Stockmer and his two advisors--Coltar, a pious dwarven smith, and Dr. Lyseece, a tiefling philosopher. Denton was present, as was Baron Stockmer's grandson, Junior.

It was eventually decided that the party could slip into Harkenwold disguised as goblins, make their way to the army leaders, and assassinate them. Dr. Lyseece would be able to perform a ritual to magically disguise them as members of the Ear Chewer tribe, a tribe that wasn't present in the army. That way, the party wouldn't run into any goblins that they would be expected to know.

Unfortunately, none of our heroes could speak goblin. Eh, a minor problem and one to be worried about later. Probably wouldn't even come up.

The group, disguised as Ear Chewer goblins, made their way into Harkenwold. They recieved a few stares, but nobody attacked them. It looked as if the disguises were good. They began to look around for the most likely headquarters for the leaders, when a group of goblins confronted them. The party didn't know how to react, and took the abuse, trying to use sign language to convey that they had been stricken deaf and dumb by foul magicks. The goblins weren't buying it, but before they could do anything about it, another goblin came running up to break up the fight before it started. This goblin was evidently somebody important, because the angry goblin gang walked away.

The party were led to the Griffon's Nest Inn, where the shadar-kai leaders of the army were headquartered. Ah, that's why the angry goblins backed off. The leader of the army, a dark-haired woman, asked the party several questions in the goblin tongue, but when they didn't answer, she figured out their little ruse, and the battle began! Along with the witch, there was a chainfighter in the room, along with a pair of skeleton soldiers and a number of goblin servants. The chainfighter cut a bloody swath through the party, but he was stopped short by Raian, who was kept busy during the battle by the chainfighter and one of the skeletons. Meanwhile, the witch picked her target carefully, and blinded Adran. She surrounded herself with coiling shadows, and backed away up the stairs to watch the action.

Meanwhile, appearing out of thin air right next to Hanrut was a ghostly shadar-kai woman with a huge sword. She and the dwarf began a battle that turned out to be very defensive in nature, with neither of them able to inflict much damage.

Brother Phelix and Raian were contained near the door, and were kept plenty busy by the chainfighter and skeleton there. At the other end of the room, Sariel had moved towards the stairs, and Melech was headed that way; the witch decided that she probably didn't want to get boxed in there, and so teleported back to the floor, near to Adran, who still couldn't see... The second skeleton pursued the warlock, ranger and rogue as they retreated to the stage, and the witch turned her attentions to the battle near the door.

Phelix summoned his ghostly guardian to further confuse matters, but the shadar-kai ignored it for the most part, despite the fact that it was slowly but surely whittling them down.

Hanrut and the swordswoman continued to deal very little damage to each other.

Back on the stage, the strikers were making a comeback. The skeleton had been defeated, and they turned their sights back to the witch. Unfortunately for them, she turned her sights back on them. Adran was blinded again, and was then struck senseless. As he lay bleeding on the floor, the holy warriors near the door managed to finish the chainfighter and that skeleton during the distraction--Adran had sacrificed himself for the greater good, though that probably wasn't his intention...

Not long after, Hanrut and Phelix's spirit guardian managed to defeat the gloomblade. The party, including Adran, who had managed to recover from his wounds, was now able to turn their full attention to the witch.

The witch, now out of allies and all alone, desperately sought a way to escape. Though the shadar-kai mindset is one that embraces death, the witch didn't want to follow her allies into the arms their goddess. At that moment, she wanted revenge, and to get her vengeance she needed to escape to reach her goblin minions just outside. Unfortunately for her, when our heroes can focus on one enemy, that enemy is not long for the world.

With the enemy defeated, the party quickly ransacked the bottom floor of the inn, looking for clues as to the real power behind this army. They found some treasure on the shadar-kai, and liberated it for the greater good.

Now they are in the Griffon's Nest Inn, still disguised as goblins, and in the middle of a hostile army. That army's leaders have been slain, but do the troops know that? When the goblins learn of the power vacuum, will they fight for dominance among themselves, or decide to kill the heroes first? And what of the undead? Now that the shadar-kai are gone, will the undead in Harkenwold be out of control? Perhaps these questions can be answered in the not too distant future!

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Meriele had been away from the group for several weeks, "pursuing important research," as she put it. This important research was actually involved with trying to learn the identity of the mysterious Mayor Darkhell. Meriele would have preferred to consult with the charming Count Braelast, but unfortunately, he didn't tell her where he had moved. Oh well; one doesn't become a powerful wizard without developing numerous scholarly contacts, and Meriele decided that she would consult with those contacts.

She had time to visit only a few of them: some worldly, some not so worldly, some otherworldly. She quickly decided that she really wasn't getting anywhere; all she could learn was a name, and she already knew the name. She decided that field research would be a better use of her time, and so returned to Fallcrest. Perhaps a message with more information from Count Braelast was waiting for her.

Such a message was indeed waiting--it seemed that Mayor Darkhell had gathered an army and had used it to occupy Harkenwold. Meriele's friends had already left for Harkenwold to liberate the town. Meriele hurried after them after a brief consultation with Lord Warden Markelhay.

Meriele made the best time she could, having to flee from a group of giant spiders. She could have destroyed the spiders, of course--there were only eight of them, after all--but time was of the essence. She arrived at Harkenwold just hours before her companions returned from the occupied town. In the excitement of the reunion, Meriele may have forgotten to tell them what she had learned about Mayor Darkhell--specifically that he exists and that he was behind the army that attacked Harkenwold.

At Baron Stockmer's request, the group decided to stay in the area for some time to make sure that the goblins and undead dispersed. The disintegration of the army was predictable, but also spectacular. The goblin tribes began fighting amongst themselves, each wanting to assert dominance in the sudden power vacuum. The result of this conflict was bloody and wasteful; as soon as one tribe could assume control, the others would band together to topple them, and the struggle would begin anew. The goblins ended up slaughtering each other for the most part, and it seems unlikely that there will be much of a goblin threat in the area for years. (Goblins do tend to breed fast, though.)

The undead were a bit more problematic. Suddenly released from whatever control the shadar-kai had exerted over them, the zombies ran a bit rampant. The goblins managed to kill most of them, but a few wandered into the hills and some of the Harkenwold survivors were attacked. Meriele and her friends managed to drive those few away, though.

A month passed before the people were able to reenter Harkenwold and try to start rebuilding. It was at this time that Baron Stockmer requested our heroes' help once again. Several people from Rivertown (one of the Harkenwold towns) had been taken by hobgoblin slavers known as Bloodreavers, a tribe that had been part of the occupying army. The group agreed to help immediately. Raian decided to remain in Harkenwold to help the people rebuild their community.

The group followed the Bloodreavers' trail to Thunderspire Mt, and soon came to a maze of sorts. Overhearing a conversation (in which an abducted halfling inexplicably offered to buy himself for 20 gold), our heroes had found the goblinoids! Hanrut, in typical dwarflike fashion, kicked in the door, revealing to the group a gang of 5 hobgoblins. The monsters seemed unsurprised at the adventurers' abrupt entrance, however, and immediately formed up into some sort of phalanx-like formation. Excellent, Meriele thought to herself; it's so nice when they cooperate. She let loose with color spray, dazing three of the beasts. Sariel was into the room quickly, and she put her dagger to good work. The rest of the party did what they do best, and in fact seemed to do it better than ever before. Could it be that they were starting to come together as a team?

The halfling the group had overheard was named Rindle Halfmoon, of the Seven Pillared Hall Halfmoons. Or so he said. Very talkative and excitable even for a halfling, but the group was able to make out that he knew where the Bloodreavers could be found--specifically, the Chamber of Eyes.

From what Meriele was able to piece together from Rindle's confused babbling, Thunderspire Mt was a gigantic maze, a kingdom of sorts unto itself. Seven Pillared Hall was a frontier town in Thunderspire, and the Halfmoons owned and operated an inn there: the creatively named Halfmoon Inn. There was a bit of confusion when Rindle spoke of the authority as "enforcers who take money for protection." Meriele automatically assumed that the mage enforcers were some sort of mafia demanding protection money from the honest businessmen in Seven Pillared Hall. That turned out not to be the case. Seems that they were just tax collectors, an entirely different sort of organized crime.

Rindle offered to let the group stay in his family's inn overnight, and in the morning they were invited to a meeting with Orontor, the head "enforcer." A human mage. Meriele disliked him before she met him.

At the meeting, this Orontor asked for help in finding one of his missing wizards. Evidently this upstart dabbler couldn't keep track of his own people, and needed to beg help of any competent adventurers who happened by. Meriele wanted to tell him exactly where he could stick his missing wizard, but cooler heads in the group prevailed, and it was agreed that the group would keep their eyes open for this wizard. But only because it was likely that he was in cahoots with the Bloodreavers. The wizard's name was Paldimar, and the group agreed to keep an eye out for him.

Not long after, the group made their way to the Chamber of Eyes, or at least the door leading into the Chamber. There was a balcony nearby, and Meriele immediately suspected an ambush. She cast light atop the balcony, but there were no lurkers there. Still not convinced, she fey stepped up to the balcony and discovered a door. Her curiosity got the better of her at that moment, and she crept silently into the door to get a look on the other side (she didn't know it at the time, but her companions were frantic with irritation that she seemed to take matters into her own hands). She discovered a hallway with stairs that led down to sleeping quarters; two goblin and a bugbear were in the quarters, completely oblivious to her presence. She crept back out of the room, signaled down to her companions, and snuck back in, confident that they would follow her lead.

It was tactically brilliant. Meriele held the three enemies in the sleeping quarters, allowing the rest of the group the opportunity the deal with the other two in the main hallway. They took longer than she had anticipated, but it would take many more than a mere three goblinoids to defeat a wizard of Meriele's power. Melech decided to come to her aid, and though the help was unneeded, it was not unwelcome. The rest of the group followed shortly after, and the goblins were defeated swiftly and efficiently.

A multitude of options presented themselves with no obvious path to follow. The path that the party did follow led them to what looked to be a mess hall. More goblins here, along with a pair of humans, and not of the slave variety. The enemies were taken by surprise, but proved to be surprisingly resilient. A bottleneck of sorts formed near the entrance to the room, and the enemy archers were able to take cover in good firing positions while their skirmishers kept most of the party busy near the bottlenecked entrance. As a result, Meriele was unable to bring her devastating magic to bear as early as she would have liked. While most of the group battled near the entrance, Melech charged in bravely to engage the archers near the rear of the room. Meriele didn't want the teifling to have to fight alone, and so joined him quickly. After all, they had worked brilliantly together in the previous battle. Unfortunately, Meriele hadn't expected Melech to employ the strategy he used; the warlock allowed himself to become surrounded by the enemy, so that he could unleash his magic against all of them at once. A daring strategy, indeed, and Meriele wasn't going to let him be more daring than she! She cast her color spray into the whole group, figuring that Melech, himself a student of the magical arts, would realize that the spell was nothing more than illusion. Unfortunately...well, let's just say that eladrin magic is much different than tiefling magic and leave it at that. Melech recovered quickly, though, and he and Meriele made short work of the archers. They then moved back towards the entrance to the room to help finish off the remaining hobgoblins.

It was in this place that the group found a black longsword. Obviously magical, the blade seemed to reflect light strangely, and Meriele had an uneasy feeling when she held it. Despite her misgivings, she took the weapon with the blessing of the rest of the party. It wouldn't be long that she would put it to good use.

The group suspected that they were getting close to their goal of finding the leader of the Bloodreavers, and they were not wrong. The next door opened into a room in which a pair of dark dwarves were no doubt plotting their next slave raid. Duergar, filthier than the average dwarf and entirely evil, they seemed not the least bit surprised to be confronted by heroes. It quickly became apparent that these were foes to be reckoned with, much more capable than the goblins and hobgoblins the group had previously encountered. The duergar were soon joined by the hobgoblin chieftain--presumably the leader of the Bloodreavers--and a hobgoblin spell-caster. Meriele and Adran attempted to contain the two hobgoblins in a cramped hallway while the rest of the party dealt with the dark dwarves, but the hobgoblins proved to be rather powerful.

"We need to retreat!" gasped Adran.

"You go, I'll hold them," Meriele replied, perhaps a bit too confident in her abilities.

"You sure?" asked Adran.

"Go!" said Meriele. "But don't let Phelix forget about me!"

Adran pulled back, and Meriele, wrapped in the protective embrace of her magic, moved up to hold the hobgoblins in the hallway.

It was the perfect plan, really. Meriele would keep this pair of hobgoblins busy while the rest of the group dealt with the dark dwarves. Her magic would protect her while her flaming sphere--a powerful new spell she was dying to try out--worked it's fiery goodness on the warcaster. And, in the unlikely event that anything went wrong, Brother Phelix would be there to save her.

The hobgoblin chieftain stabbed her with his spear, penetrating her magical defenses and drawing an alarming amount of blood.

That's okay, Meriele thought, we planned for this...

Faaa--WHOOM!! Meriele was suddenly against a wall, a very loud quiet booming in her ears, about eighteen dwarves in front of her, and the knowledge that her flaming sphere was about to wink out of existence. She quickly regained her senses, maintained control over the sphere, realized that there were only two dwarves in front of her (Hanrut and the last surviving duergar), and drew her sword.

That hobgoblin mage was evidently more powerful than she had originally thought.

In her dazed condition, Meriele found it difficult to follow the flow of battle, but she did see the chieftain charge into the room, and the last duergar fled into the hallway, taking up a position to protect the warcaster from her flaming sphere. Damn fire resistant dark dwarves! Brother Phelix moved his ghostly servant into a position to contain the caster and duergar in the hallway while the rest of the party finished the chieftain. The warcaster again unleashed his magic into the room--faaa-WHOOM!

Meriele was feeling rather woozy at this point...

The rest of the battle passed in a sort of blur for Meriele. She knows that assorted varieties of death were sent howling into the hallway in rapid succession, and that the hobgoblin and duergar didn't last long.

Barely pausing to catch their breath, the party moved into the main Chamber of Eyes. Melech and Meriele came in through one door that led to a balcony while the rest of the group came in through the main double doors. The tactic was once again devastatingly effective, and the party made short work of the guards in the Chamber.

A search of the lair turned up a contract between the Bloodreavers and somebody named Murkelmor Grimmerzhul. The contract was an agreement to purchase the Rivertown slaves for 1000gp, and was dated two days previous. The party was too late!

It seems as if the Bloodreavers have been defeated, but the captive Rivertowners have been taken elsewhere. There is no sign of Paldimar, but he is surely involved in the wicked plot. And where and who is this Murkelmor Grimmerzhul? And why does he have such an unpronounceable name?!

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

((Unfortunately, I think I may have skipped an installment or two. Sorry bout that! And also, there was some DMing confusion, so this might not make a lot of sense from a continuity standpoint. But we do what we can.))

Our heroes had successfully retrieved the Ancient Skull Sceptre for Grindar, and had also rescued the Harkenwold slaves from the Grimmerzhul clan. The band of companions had escorted the freed captives back to their homes and were on their way back to their own home in Fallcrest, when, while on the road, they came across a strangely floating and glowing gemstone. While the rest of the group stood contemplating this oddity, Sariel, having no fear of such mysteries, reached out and touched the stone. (One might say that she was motivated by more than curiosity, one such as Meriele. One might also note that Meriele was conspicuously slow to give warning...)

Once touched, the stone flared brightly, and when the light dissipated, four of our heroes found themselves standing in the middle of a gloomy swamp. Melech, Sariel, Phelix, and Hanrut found themselves stranded in this dismal place, while Meriele, Riann, and Adran were nowhere in sight. The gemstone was gone, too.

Having little choice, these four companions set off to try to find a way back home. Evidently, they had grown accustomed to these sorts of things, because they didn't question the fact that half of their group had mysteriously disappeared. (Or maybe they just assumed that it was they themselves that had disappeared... Perhaps it's better if we simply move along and not think about it too hard....)

The group set out along the driest path they could find, and soon came to the "home" of Morly, a pathetic gnome. Morly was dirty, ignorant, and smelled none too nice. Not only that, but he pointedly refused to share his rat-n-snake stew. He was moderately helpful, though, and suggested that the party visit the hag Semelra if they wanted to find their way home.

On the way to the hag's home, the party encountered a group of less friendly swamp dwellers. A lizardman spellcaster, and his bullywug minions, along with a swarm of spiders. The frogmen fell quickly, but the swarm proved to be more of an annoyance. The lizardman was even more irritating as he repeatedly hexed the party and transformed the into frogs! Luckily, his curses were only temporary, and the party managed to defeat him.

A quick search turned up a magical warhammer that the hexer had been carrying. The lizardman never used it in battle, but why had he been carrying it?

Naturally, our heroes didn't question it. They simply moved on. ((sigh))

Semelra was every bit as distasteful as the grubby gnome, but she offered to help our heroes if they would agree to help her. There was a shapeshifter in the swamp that had become something of a thorn in the hag's side. If the party could provide proof of Graktha the shapeshifter's death, she would provide them with a way out of the swamp.

They readily agreed and proceeded to follow the directions to Graktha's cave lair.

They came upon the ruins of a tower, where a group of lizardmen had evidently taken up residence. Two of them charged forward, swinging greatclubs, and managed to flank Sariel. The rest of the party charged to her rescue, however, and managed to neutralize that threat. The other two lizardmen used a wicked form of poison magic, and one of them managed to escape into the lower portion of the tower.

Our heroes decided to rest for a moment before chasing the escaping magus into the depths.

They proceeded down the stairs, and found the escaped magus conferring with a bullywug clad in mud. Flanking the pair were a pair of monsters that seemed to be made of mud. Battle was quickly joined. The fight turned against the heroes early on, as Hanrut passed too close to a well in the room, and was attacked by a creature made of sentient vines. The vine horror earned it's name as it entangled and constricted every one of the heroes with creeping vegetation that came from the floor and attacked them. The escaped lizardman took up a position behind a giant sarcophagus and repeated poisoned the blood of Hanrut with foul magic. The bullywug moved to the other side of the room, croaking out it's own spells against Phelix. One of the mud monsters focused it's attention on Sariel, who was in dire straights having to deal with the entanglement caused from the vine horror. Melech seemed overwhelmed by the situation, and blasted away at different targets.

Eventually, the party was able to gather their wits and defeat their enemies, but not before Phelix was felled by the bullywug mud lord (how embarrassing...). He was revived, though, and the party decided that a rest was in order.

The room was looted, and treasure was found. Included a suit of leather armor that Sariel claimed.

The next day, the party came across a pair of lizardmen bruisers and their pets (a giant spider and a horned drake) harassing a helpless peasant who was attempting to drive them off with a scythe. Engrossed in their sport, the monsters didn't notice the party until Sariel snuck up to one of the lizardmen and stabbed him in the back. Battle was joined, and quick work was made of the enemy.

The peasant introduced himself as Esep and thanked the party profusely for their timely rescue. When asked about the shapeshifter Groktha, Esep told them that they should stay away. Groktha had been inciting the lizardmen in the swamp to attack the more peaceful folk that dwelt there. After little pressure, Esep did point them in the direction of Groktha's cave lair.

Our heroes easily found the cave, and upon entering discovered a woman chained to a table. Another woman was torturing her, asking questions in a language they couldn't understand. Naturally, the party attacked the torturer. Upon being struck, she transformed into some sort of spider-person, and her pet deathjump spider joined the battle to defend her. The party easily defeated spider and spider-woman, and then turned their attention to the woman chained to the table.

As the party tended her wounds trying to save her life, the woman managed to gasp one word: "Esep."

At that point, the peasant stepped from out of the shadows.

"I told you to leave it alone," he said. "But you wouldn't listen. Now you must die."

With that, he transformed himself into a huge snake crackling with electricity. Esep was Groktha the shapeshifter!

At that moment, it wasn't the least bit important that the party found themselves in the middle of a story that wasn't their own. They were fighting for their lives as Esep/Groktha surged forward, laying about him with the fury of thunderstorms. Hanrut and Sariel took up flanking positions, and it was all they could do just to survive let alone strike the beast. Phelix stood back, trying vainly to wield the power of Pelor and keep his friends alive. Likewise, Melech stood back, bringing his own darker powers to bear.

All of their efforts seemed in vain. Their strikes and spells seemingly couldn't penetrate the shapeshifter's defenses. But slowly they picked away at the monster, irritating it more than damaging it, and Esep/Groktha changed his strategy.

Perhaps he grew tired of the fight. Or maybe he simply wanted to show his "true power." Whatever the reason, Esep/Groktha began to unleash his most powerful abilities, blasting the party with thunder and lightning, and counter striking their own blows.

And then, something strange happened. Perhaps it was the hand of Pelor, or maybe the Lady of Fortune. Or perhaps it was just that our band of heroes reached deep within themselves and decided that this day would not be their last.

Suddenly, every blow struck home, every spell seared flesh. Slowly but inexorably, the tide of battle turned. Esep/Groktha suddenly found itself fighting for it's life, and attempted to escape. It managed to retreat from the circle of doom the party had entrapped it in, and raced for the exit. Hanrut would have none of that. While Sariel chased the shapeshifter, the dwarf warrior moved to cut off it's path of escape. The two of them trapped it with no way of escape, and Esep/Groktha realized that the only way it could survive was to slay the dwarf and flee it's lair. As the final blow struck home, felling the dwarf, Melech's arcane might killed the beast.

Our heroes were victorious!

A search of the cavern revealed a small wealth of treasure, including magical prizes that Melech and Phelix claimed for themselves.

Unfortunately, the captive woman had died during the battle. Having no other alternative, the party carried her body with them as they returned to the hag, Semelra.

Semelra greeted them in her brusque manner, and our heroes told the story of how they had defeated the shapeshifter and that they were unable to save the life of the captive. A small smile curved Semelra's thin lips as she gazed at the body of the dead woman. She took the corpse into her abode, and then returned with a small glowing gemstone, identical to the one that had transported the party to this dismal swamp.

"A favor for a favor," Semelra said, and then turned and hobbled back into her home.

Sariel once again reached out and touched the glowing, floating stone.

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

((Hmm, it seems that I skipped another installment. Let's see if I can rectify that...))

Once back in Fallcrest, the party awaited their next adventure. Hanrut decided to use the downtime to return to Hammerfast to visit with his family. He didn't give much explanation, he just sort of took off. Meriele occupied her time by lounging around and taking it easy, as is her wont. The rest of the party likewise did what they did.

It wasn't long until the party received word of a possible adventure. A little snot-nosed punk, young Peter Hastings, contacted them with a job offer. The kid wanted them to find his little halfling friend, Tebbin Halfmoon of the Halfmoon clan (of the Halfmoon Trading House). Meriele was skeptical, but agreed to the job; a trading house would surely be well off, and would no doubt offer a handsome reward for retrieving a missing boy. That, and the rest of the party insisted that she come along.

Peter had dared Tebbin to stay the night at the haunted Tower of Waiting, an old ruin located on a small island in the Nentir River. Peter hadn't expected his friend to accept the dare, and when he heard screams he took off. Smart kid.

Our heroes went to the island and explored the ruin. Within, they encountered a variety of undead creatures, but handled them handily. (Meriele refuses to admit that she may have been slightly less effective than she could have been.)

The boy was found, mere seconds before being sacrificed to some evil god. More likely a demon, actually. Both Tebbin and Peter were returned to their families, and Meriele was satisfied to see the Hastings boy punished harshly by his father, the guardsman Big Roy.

The next two months were rather quiet. Meriele spent her time in study, wanting to improve her admittedly lacking skills. A staff that she had found in the Tower of Waiting proved to be rather potent, and she honed her skill using it as a spell-casting implement. She further improved her fey-heritage teleportation abilities. And spent the rest of her time snooping through Sariel's underwear drawer. (Returning the favor, as it were.)

One fine day, the group was contacted by Lord Warden Markelhay. The Lord Warden had received word from the mayor of Nenvale, a small town south of the White R. near Harken Forest. A sickness had befallen the town, a strange disease that started with fever and quickly led to death. Meriele inquired about compensation, and was informed that the group must negotiate with Mayor Gil Telpex (of Nenvale). The townspeople were hiding in a cave near Nenvale, and the party should look for them there.

Without further adieu, the group set out, Meriele traveling in stylish fashion on her Tenser's Floating Disk. It took most of a day to reach Nenvale, and once there, the party saw that some sort of green contaminant was staining the water of the White R. Meriele discovered that the green stuff was chemical and arcane in nature. The group tracked the green contaminant to its source: a cave not far from town. The group entered, assuming that the townsfolk would be within.

Once inside the cave, the party was beset by several packs of undead. Meriele's intensive study paid off, as her spells were more effective than in the past. Unfortunately, Hanrut learned this first hand as he bore the brunt of her magic more than once. The big lug was understanding, and forgave her despite his gruff words.

On the way through the cave, it was learned that Sariel is quite susceptive to mind-control magic, as she was psychically dominated more than once. Meriele also learned first hand how skilled the rogue is with a blade; luckily, Phelix is also quite skilled in the holy arts of healing, and he saved her life with his prayers. Sariel was very...enthusiastic...in her apologies to Meriele (hot eladrin on eladrin action may or may not have taken place, but Meriele will never admit it unless plied with copious amounts of wine...or gold...).

The party soon discovered the source of the contamination--a pipe was spewing gunk into the river. They found a lever that closed the pipe, and then discovered a hidden door nearby. Beyond the door was another cavern, and within the cavern were more undead, including a disembodied brain floating in a jar! The party managed to dispatch these creatures, but the adventure thus far had depleted most of their resources--Hanrut in particular was feeling the hurt. They decided to take a rest here; there were two doors to defend, but they were confident that they could handle anything that happened to come through either of them.

Questions remain: Who is responsible for the contamination of the White River? Where are the people of Nenvale? Where are all these dang undead coming from? What will Count Braelast think of Meriele's "experiments" with Sariel? And most importantly, will the party be handsomely rewarded for their efforts?

((As always, feel free to post your own version of events; especially redshirt, since I may have gotten that Tower of Waiting adventure completely wrong [sucky notes, long time lapse].))

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

((More installment skippage; man, I suck! Course, none o' the rest o' y'all installed any installments, so I don't feel so bad! Let's see what's going on with our heroes.))

The band of intrepid heroes continued on their way into the cavern complex. After passing through one of the doors, they found themselves in the sewers underneath the town of Nenvale. Therein, they encountered a group of workers, four in number, who begged for help while they repaired the damaged filtration system. Meriele was interested in learning more of this system, but there was no time. The four workers--Thorian Morinveld, Elgar Modela, Elias Novak, and Ulik Matisse--were all business, and were in no mood for a tour. They got straight to work, and their worries were justified when a band of ruffians attacked them!

Due to the brave actions of the Defenders of the Vale, the workmen were able to complete their work, despite repeated attacks by squads of assorted nasties--gnolls, orcs, bugbears, and even humans!

What mighty force could have brought these disparate beings into an alliance? What sinister plan did they have regarding the township of Nenvale? Why would they poison the water instead of just razing the town?

No answers were immediately forthcoming, so our heroes simply went to Nenvale to cash in.

A banquet was to be held that night at the Sleeping Harlot, Nenvale's finest--and only--inn and tavern. Before the night's festivities were to begin, Meriele received a message from "an old friend," and departed, uncharacteristically skipping the banquet. (Sariel claimed, loudly and for all to hear, that Meriele had gone off to see Count Braelast. Could this be a bit of jealousy?) Naturally, Melech arrived just in time to receive a reward that he hadn't earned. He also managed to appear as if he belonged there.

The workers--Thorian's crew--had been spreading tales of the Defenders' awesomeness all day, and the crowd that gathered was frighteningly enthusiastic. Our heroes managed to finally work their way into the Sleeping Harlot--and that sentence could have been worded differently... Once inside the Harlot--oh, my--they met a fellow adventurer, Marcus, a holy warrior dedicated to the service of the Raven Queen, who had been in the Harlot for most of the day--erk. The Defenders quickly struck up a friendship with the young man.

Most of the crowd at the Harlot was a faceless mass interested only in being part of something bigger than themselves--well, they were actually more interested in free booze and food. Hanrut struck up a conversation with Sherm Shieldbreaker, an extremely rich and extremely drunk dwarf. Sherm told him of the vast treasure to be found in the Kalton Manor, located half a day to the south. Hanrut remembered little of the conversation since he consumed copious quantities of ale. Melech was propositioned by Quaina the Dark, a fat old tiefling cougar, but he was unwilling to swallow his pride--despite an offer of cash--and bravely ran away. Sariel talked with Constable Kreen, the dragonborn representative of law enforcement in Nenvale, and managed to break through his stoic exterior and touch his shiny green scales. Mayor Gil Tolpex personally thanked Phelix--a thanks disturbingly absent of cash--and quickly fled the conversation.

The group was also approached by a lovely woman named Eema Norday. She was very curious about the Defenders, and Phelix quickly grew suspicious of her questioning. Sariel immediately accused her of being the harlot from which the inn had gotten its name, mostly due to the fact that Eema wore too much cheap jewelry. Phelix and Melech didn't like the line of questioning, and all the answers they gave were vague. Eema departed shortly thereafter.

The party eventually wound down, as parties tend to do, and most of the patrons, having had their fill of free booze and chicken wings, pulled out of the Harlot--oh, good God--and made their respective ways home to their own beds. Marcus, who had observed moderation, decided to question Barsh Bluster, the scrawny half-orc proprietor of the Sleeping Harlot. Unfortunately, Barsh was more drunk than any of his patrons. No problem for Marcus, who healed Barsh of his "poisoning." He managed to learn of a couple of areas of interest near Nenvale--Kalton Manor, said to hide vast treasure, and Kobold Hall, a place that none had ever returned from. Phelix happened to overhear the questioning.

"Ahem," the priest said, hefting his dragon hide-covered shield. "We've been to Kobold Hall."

The Defenders, motivated by dreams of avarice, decided to explore Kalton Manor. They set out for the Manor, but were ambushed on the road by a howling hag and her band of bandits. During the battle, Marcus was knocked unconscious. Phelix managed to employ his healing skills to keep the Defenders in the fight, and eventually the hard-fought battle was won. Questions may or may not have been raised about the decision to allow Marcus to join the group.

The next day, the Defenders of the Vale reached Kalton Manor. The once-proud keep had been reduced to rubble, no more than a couple towers and a few walls remained standing. Blithely disregarding any pretense at caution, the group immediately ran forward to investigate the rubble. Naturally, they failed to notice the dozen or so warriors that were camped outside the ruin. Battle was joined.

The Defenders quickly went into action, practicing their profession with skill and efficiency. Hanrut did what he does best--pissing people off and then killing them. Sariel kept to the shadows, striking swiftly and silently. Melech destroyed his enemies in violent surges of eldritch power, flashy yet calculated. Phelix provided confidence in the form of Pelor's power, performing his demanding task proficiently and professionally.

The newest member of the Defenders, Marcus, proved himself to be a young hothead. He taunted his enemies before striking them down, but his inexperience showed when he was caught by a bugbear assassin. The bugbear proved to be a match for the paladin; the burly beast garroted him, and used him as a human shield. Sariel didn't expect the surprise move, and when her dagger struck, it pierced Marcus' hide!

Meanwhile, Melech and Hanrut had begun an assault on the tower. Archers had been firing down into the battle, and the tiefling and dwarf were determined to put a stop to it. Melech used his fey trickery to deposit the angry fighter into the midst of the human and gnoll archers. The enemies were quickly dispersed, but not before exacting a heavy toll on the invaders. This served only to piss Hanrut off, and, ignoring his wounds, the angry dwarf chased the archers from their stronghold.

By this time, the other Defenders had managed to slay the strangler and revive their new companion. They set about eliminating the rest of the archers. It was swift and messy work, involving several long falls ending in abrupt stops.

The Defenders of the Vale gathered once again in the courtyard to collect their collective breaths. Thus fortified, they decided to enter into the keep proper from the ground floor.

Ambush! A highly skilled squad of warriors lay in wait for the Defenders. They had chosen to make their stand in the living quarters of the keep, and they managed to create a bottleneck at the entrance into the keep. A rabid orc berserker held off the Defenders for quite some time. Melech got inside the building, but quickly found himself overwhelmed by a human hunter and his drake pet. The tiefling warlock desperately kept moving, drawing as much attention as he could in an attempt to buy enough time for his companions to get inside. But it seemed as if there wouldn't be enough time. The Defenders hacked away at the orc berserker, inflicting terrible punishment, but the orc just seemed to ignore pain.

Marcus and Sariel attempted to take the berserker down, but he just would not stop. Bolstered by the foul magics of a half-orc death mage, the berserker kept chopping away. Phelix frantically invoked the name of Pelor in an attempt to support his companions, but it seemed as if it wouldn't be enough. Hanrut, seeing that the situation was dire, charged past his friends and into an empty hall. With two mighty blows of his hammer, the dwarf shattered a stone wall and charged into the fray! This action proved to be the turning point of the battle.

The Defenders, now able to consolidate their considerable might, were able to bring the full fury of their powers to bear on their enemies. The battle was long, but the Defenders of the Vale prevailed!

The Defenders paused for a moment before proceeding. They took stock of their situation. Obviously, Kalton Manor was not as deserted as they had been led to believe. But why had these various tribes of humanoids come together here? Had they only happened upon each other by chance? Not likely. There must be some dire purpose behind them. But what is this plot? Could these beings be behind the poisoning of Nenvale? It seems that that must be the case. But why? Have they come together to find the fabled treasure of Kalton Manor? Or is there some other mystery? And, regardless of the purpose, who is organizing them? Whose sinister plan is this?

Though bruised and bleeding, the Defenders know that they cannot stay here. They must press on. There are questions to be answered, treasures to be found, and enemies to be punished.

Adventure awaits!

((Don't be shy, post your own synopsis!))

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

The Defenders of the Vale had thus far proven to be a match for the forces residing within the Kalton Manor. But they realized that greater forces than mere bandits had to be at work here. What sort of power could have brought all these various tribes together? And what about the fabled treasure of the Manor?

And where the hell was Hanrut?

"Hey, wait a second," said Phelix. "Where's Hanrut? He was here just a second ago."

"I don't know," said Melech, his eyes narrowing. "It wasn't my turn to watch him."

"Tell me, Marcus," said Sariel, eying the muscular paladin speculatively. "What kind of underwear are you wearing?"

"What makes you think I'm wearing any?" asked Marcus. "And who's Hanrut?"

"That two-timing hussy!" said Meriele, sitting at a polished desk in a room miles away, gazing into a mirror that didn't show her reflection, and wearing nothing but her underwear. "Oh, you're going to pay for this, baby."

"What's that, darling?" came a voice from another room.

"Nothing, dear," Meriele answered. She waved her hand and the mirror went gray. "Just talking to myself."

"Sometimes I think you're even crazier than I am."

"You have no idea," she said.

The Defenders passed through the door and into a room with a dilapidated floor and a foul stench rising up from several rotted holes in the floor. Torches burned along the walls, and Phelix decided that he wanted one of those torches.

It is unclear who first stepped onto the rotting floor, but the chain reaction that followed could be characterized as unfortunate. Or comical, but we won't use that term since these are, after all, heroes. I will simply say that Melech, Sariel, and Phelix ended up falling quite some distance to the chamber below, while Marcus remained standing on relatively sturdy ground above, and possibly only slightly terrified.

"You guys okay?" the paladin called.

"Get down here!"

The Defenders found themselves in a trash pit full of offal, slime, refuse, and all other sorts of nastiness. A very obvious and large trap door was in the middle of the room, and a strange control panel of some sort was hanging on one wall. Sariel and Phelix immediately began investigating the panel, while Marcus and Melech decided to dig through the trash; after all, there was a slight possibility that the treasure of the Manor was located here.

Suddenly, with a roar and a thrashing of tentacles, the Thing That Eats Everything burst up through a large pile of filth and lumbered forth. Battle was joined! Marcus leaped forward and kept the monster's attention by repeatedly getting himself wrapped in the beast's tentacles. Phelix ran to the rescue, doing his best to try and keep Marcus breathing while Melech blasted the thing with his dark power. But it seemed that nothing the Defenders could do could stop the beast. Sariel had an idea, though, and worked feverishly at the panel of dials, levers, and switches.

"I've got it, I've got it!" she shouted. "Get it onto the trapdoor!"

Through a combination of fey trickery and divine might, the Defenders managed to lure the Thing onto the trapdoor. Sariel pulled the final lever, and the trap door dropped away from under the beast. Marcus managed to escape its clutches at the last moment, and the Thing That Eats Everything fell down and down and down to an unknown fate.

Our heroes climbed back up out of the pit and managed to find a safe path out of the area. They soon came to a chamber guarded by the "elite guard" of the Manor--a necrosavant and her undead minions.

Battle was joined! Melech enshrouded half of the battlefield with a cloud of roiling darkness, frustrating the necrosavant and her blazing skeleton, but her ghouls were undeterred from their lust for living meat. Phelix invoked the power of Pelor and took two of the undead temporarily out of the fight, but the remaining ghoul managed to paralyze Marcus with its filthy claws.

"Are you prepared to meet the Raven Queen?!" shouted Marcus to the necrosavant.

"Prepared?" she replied. "I plan to make her my bitch!"

Infuriated, the paladin unleashed a flurry of destruction. He had more than a little help from his friends, and though the battle was long, the outcome was never in doubt.

Moving on, the party came to a spiral staircase leading down. At the bottom of the staircase was a stone chamber, and it was here that they met Belsamen the Aberrant, a goliath arcanist, and his strange minions--a carrion crawler and a grell!

"You may have saved Nenvale for now," cried Belsamen, "but Mayor Darkhell will have the last laugh! Bwahahaha!!"

The carrion crawler surged forward, trapping the Defenders on top of a sheer drop with its sheer size and many tentacles. Meanwhile, the grell moved behind the party, and exposed Marcus' weakness--more tentacles. Thus trapped between the aberrations and stone walls, the Defenders seemed to be easy prey for Belsamen's sun magic.

Not so fast, gentle reader! Melech invoked the power of his fey masters and transported to the lower level to engage the goliath one-on-one. A magic duel! The holy warriors Phelix and Marcus engaged the grell--Marcus had little choice in the matter--while, with a roll of her eyes, Sariel fought the carrion crawler alone.

Naturally, the crawler was the first casualty, slain by the spinning blades of Sariel's shurikens. The duel between Melech and Belsamen was the stuff of bards' songs, a chess match where the loser lost his life. Melech proved to be the more masterful. The grell was a tenacious opponent, but it too was defeated.

The Defenders of the Vale had proven more than equal to everything the Kalton Manor had thrown against them, but would this continue?

They climbed one last staircase, and found themselves in a well-appointed sitting room. A fire burned in the hearth, a bookshelf held tomes of inestimable worth. Wine, cheese, fruit, and meats had been set on highly polished tables. To a large easel were tacked maps of the Nentir Vale, Nenvale, Fallcrest, Winterhaven, Harkenwold, and other towns in the southern portion of Nentir Vale.

Also in the room were the representatives of the Four Tribes of the Coalition: Kleth Hyge, gnoll archer and Chosen of Yeenoghu; Kroll Bloodfist, orc hexer and military advisor to the Coalition; Enguth the Unseen, gnoll pugilist and Foremost of the Four; and Eena Norday, human knife fighter and noble of Nenvale.

"I knew it," said Sariel, glaring at Eema.

"Prepare to die," snarled Eema, rising from her chair and drawing her daggers.

"Wait," said Enguth, eying the Defenders speculatively. "Perhaps you would be interested in a deal?"

"What sort of deal?" asked Marcus.

"This is dangerous," said Kroll. "I agree with Eema, we should kill them now and be done with it."

"No," said Enguth. "Mayor Darkhell would be interested in them."

"Mayor Darkhell?" asked Marcus. "I've heard that name. Who is he?"

"He is the one that poisoned the water of Nenvale," said Enguth. "He will one day rule this land. And you could be a part of that conquest."

"Really," said Marcus. "And what's in it for us?"

"Power," said Enguth. "What else is there? Mayor Darkhell rewards those who serve him well, and punishes those who fail him. But power can be yours. Simply abandon your allegiance with Nenvale and serve Mayor Darkhell. He will reward you."

"But why attack such a small town?" asked Marcus. "It makes no sense."

"You don't think properly," said Enguth. "It must start small. A small town here, another there. In an insignificant part of the world. But enough small towns, enough people enslaved, soon it becomes big. Soon it moves beyond this insignificant part of the world, but by then it is too late to stop it."

"Clever," said Phelix.

"The question is," said Enguth, "will you be a part of it, or will you be crushed beneath it?"

"If we were to join your Coalition," said Marcus, "when would we meet Mayor Darkhell?"

"When would you meet him?" asked Kroll. He and Enguth looked at each other and then burst out laughing. Eema merely rolled her eyes. Kelth, standing atop a balcony, never changed expression.

"That would come in good time," said Enguth chuckling. "Our offer is before you, power or death. Choose now and decide your fate."

"I have one last question," said Marcus. "Do you honor the Raven Queen?"

"The Raven Queen?" said Enguth. "She is a god, like all other gods. I've never had much use for them, and I hate her like I hate all the rest."

"That's all I needed to hear," said Marcus as he drew his sword.

Battle was joined disastrously as the Coalition proved to be more than the Defenders could withstand. Kroll's hexes, Kleth's arrows, and Enguth's fists dealt devastating damage, but Eema's daggers were fatal; in a frenzy of stabs and slashes, her deadly dance brought Marcus face to face with his goddess.

"Surrender now or die!" shouted Enguth.

"Only if I can tend to my fallen comrade," Phelix answered, realizing that there was no other option.

Enguth nodded, and the priest of Pelor threw down his mace. Melech and Sariel reluctantly followed suit.

As Phelix knelt to tend to his fallen comrade, Eema picked up Sariel's dagger.

"Fools," the noblewoman said with a chuckle as she examined the weapon. "You should have accepted our offer at the beginning. Now it's going to be bad. Real bad."

[Gir]

Serial couldn't believe it, her friend Hanrut has inexplicably disappeared just when things were getting good. Now who was she going to pester??? She set her sights on the new guy, Marcus. Of course she was just dying to know what he had on under all of that armor and religious garb. Even as she inquired about his undergarments she was thinking of dear, sweet Meriel. Meriel had the BEST undies of anyone!
Soon enough she was distracted by a small room with holes in the floor and torches on the wall. Just as she was crossing the room to help get a torch the floor fell out from under her. Several of her companions tried to catch her only to fall in after her. The next thing she knew she was laying in a pile of filth full of untold wonders!! But it did stink pretty bad and she did hurt herself a little.
Something caught her attention on the wall. Ohh!!! Levers! She just had to play with those levers! Once the whole group was in the trash heap she heard someone mention a trap door and then a monster appeared in the far corner. "Crap!" Thought Serial... "Just when I find something to play with a monster would have to show up!" So she threw a shiruken at it to no avail. "Let the men take care of it!" She snorted in disgust as her weapon returned to her hand. She took a quick look at the trap door and a thought popped into her head... "I bet these levers will open that door and then we can push that big ugly right into it!" So she set to work pulling levers and watching to see what happened. Pullies pulled, belts moved, lights lit up. "I just hope the guys keep that thing occupied!" It took several tries but she got it open and just in time! She turned just in time to see the creature disappear from the room. Quickly she closed the door just in case it could crawl back up.
After a climb up Marcus rope she followed her friends back into the hole room and on into the next room. There were a couple of bad guys and suddenly part of the room was all shrouded in darkness... "That silly Melech and his dark arts" she chuckled as she began throwing her shirukens at some hideous thing. She spotted a women in a black thong, sadly she and her ugly friends were killed off quickly. Serial didn't even get to take a closer look at that thong! Bummer, but she did find some gold and a nifty cloak. But it didn't really go with her outfit so she gave it to Melech.
The next room had more ugly baddies. The guys were soon engaged in their own little battles while she fought a monster bug climbing up the cliff. The minute he drew his last breath she saw a wonderful opportunity! Two of her friends had an ugly tentacle brain guy flanked which meant she could throw her weapons and help finish it off! She took a few painful blows in the process but by the time they finished it off Melech had made worm food of the other guy.
They made their way back into the tower and found themselve in an oddly nice library of sorts. Serial was not the least bit surprised to see the lady with the cheap jewelry in there among the bad guys.
"I knew it!!! I knew she was up to no good!!!" Serial cried out triumphantly. Marcus and Phelix kept talking to them about joining forces and stuff but Serial really just wanted to kill that bitch!
The talking finally stopped and the fight began. Serial dew first blood on her opponent thanks to a well placed spell of some sort from Phelix. She took a few hits but never lost confidence when suddenly she started to feel funny and everything started spinning. When she came to she almost wished she had died... they had been captured... or to be more accurate Phelix had surrendered them. Serial was going to have a talk with him when they were alone....

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

The Defenders of the Vale had seldom suffered defeat of this nature--in fact, they had never suffered defeat of this nature. Captured by their enemies, stripped of their possessions, and thrown into a dungeon cell clad in only their underwear. Humiliating, to say the least. At least the cell was furnished with rotten stinking straw, rats, bugs, bones, and nice acoustics; the Defenders had never been known to accept injury without a generous helping of insult on the side.

The companions searched the cell numerous times, seeking a way out, but all they found were the aforementioned straw, rats, bugs, and bones. The mighty Marcus attempted to muscle through the door, but he was rewarded only a sore shoulder for his efforts. Melech and Phelix were unable to employ their magical/divine powers to find a way out, and, bereft of her tools, Sariel was unable to defeat the lock on the cell door.

The Defenders were soon joined by another captive, brought to the cell by a smirking Eema Norday. The party wisely decided not to attempt an escape. The new captive's name was Thorn, a razorclaw shifter archer who apparently had a weakness for liquor; he claimed to have gotten drunk and been captured by Coalition forces.

"I can't believe they're buying that story," muttered Meriele from her sitting room miles away. "Guess I better get down there." She waved her hand and the mirror went gray. It was a nice toy, and she decided that she would have to get one of her own.

"Going somewhere, darling?"

"Yes," Meriele replied with exasperation. "They can't do anything without me. Whether we decide to stop the Coalition and Mayor Darkhell or not, looks like our vacation is cut short."

She began rummaging through the wardrobe for her traveling gear.

"What makes you think I'll let you go?" he asked.

Her eyes narrowed, and her gaze flitted to her staff and sword.

"What makes you think you can stop me?"

His flesh creaked and cracked as his lips curled into a grin.

The cell door opened again, and a little goblin girl was thrown into dungeon.

"Thought you might be getting hungry," said Eema Norday with a laugh.

The little girl's name was Grenka, and she promised to help the party if they promised not to eat her. Though blind, Grenka had "powers," and she used them to melt the lock on the door. The party proceeded with very little caution out of their cell and into the chamber beyond.

Where, naturally, they were set upon by the zombies and rats that inhabited the dungeon.

Phelix, Thorn, and Sariel had wisely armed themselves with bone weapons before leaving the cell--crude, but better than nothing. Marcus would have none of that--it was a sword or nothing for him. Luckily, a somewhat fresh corpse lying in the guard room had a sword. Marcus appropriated it, and set about attacking a swarm of rats that had been feasting on said corpse. Meanwhile, numerous zombies emerged from the other three cells in the dungeon. Thorn picked up a stray crossbow, and, though not his weapon of choice, put the instrument to good use. Melech and Phelix were unhampered by a lack of weaponry; their power comes from different sources. Sariel stayed as far back from the battle as possible, hurling various odd bits of bone and other refuse to adequate effect. The Defenders used superior tactics to defeat their mindless assailants, and the battle was quickly won.

The spoils of victory were meager, but in the companions' current state, welcome. Some debate was given as to whether the party should head back into the keep proper or delve further into the theretofore unexplored depths of the dungeon. Eventually it was decided that they were too poorly equipped to tackle the leaders of the Coalition a second time, and that they would head into the caverns.

The Defenders of the Vale soon came to a huge cavern filled with slime and bullywugs. Bullywugs? Seriously, Ixos? The party made quick work of the frogmen. Upon searching the chamber, they discovered some of their missing gear.

Next they came to an underground lake. A small stone building was on the other side. Marcus, who had found a pair of wavestrider boots, walked across the water to one of several islands in the lake. The rest of the party was hesitant to swim in the water, but Thorn eventually took the plunge. Their trepidation was well-founded, as the shifter was quickly attacked by a shark! Melech used his fey-given power to transpose his place with Marcus, who then charged across the water to rejoin the battle. Sariel and Phelix contributed just enough to defeat the beast before it could finish feasting on Thorn.

Phelix and Sariel remained on the shore as Marcus walked across the lake to the ledge in front of the stone building. Melech and Thorn followed more slowly, but the impatient Marcus didn't want to wait for them. He opened the door, and was confronted by a squad of bullywugs. The frogmen and their mud elemental pet attacked. Melech cast a spell to block the door while Marcus and Thorn turned their attention to the elemental, which had made its way onto the ledge. Wisely fearing Melech's spell, the bullywugs remained in the room. Phelix and Sariel began to make their way across the lake while the other three quickly dispatched the mud lasher.

The initial threat neutralized, Marcus slammed and held the door shut; this ended Melech's spell, but the bullywugs were unable to get out of their chamber. Until Marcus was ready for them, that is. He let go his grip on the door, and the party quickly defeated their enemies.

The building turned out to be the treasure chamber of the Coalition, and contained much of the Defenders' gear (and nothing else--seems the Coalition is running on a tight budget...). Though rearmed, the party decided that they weren't quite ready to face the leaders of the Coalition for a second time. Not yet. They would need reinforcements (Meriele and Hanrut--and just where the hell were those two, anyway?). Their first priority was escape.

They pressed on into the dungeon and soon came to another underground lake. It was here that they encountered for the first time the fifth member of the Coalition: the sahuagin. It was here that the high priest of the shark men had set up his scrying mirror; obviously, he had been warned that the Defenders had escaped their prison, and he and his guards attacked without a word.

The shark men and a pair of elite bullywug warriors managed to trap the Defenders in a bottleneck at the entrance to the cavern, and it was there that the battle was fought. But the Defenders were victorious. Towards the end of the battle, Melech activated the scrying mirror; the image of Kroll, the Coalition representative of the orcs, appeared. Melech was in no mood to talk, and he ignored Kroll. The battle ended quickly, and Kroll was there to see it. Thorn fired an arrow into the mirror, shattering it.

"Thought he might step through," he said.

The Defenders continued down through the depths, coming at last to another wide cavern. They were confronted by the leader of the sahuagin, a burly four-armed being. A trident was gripped in one of his four hands, and a leash was wrapped around the wrist of another. The leash was attached to the neck of an eyeless, hissing, drakelike beast.

"They told me you were coming," said Baron Lashelkasha. "Though it offends me to be relegated to guard duty, your deaths will be more chips on the bargaining table."

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

When last we left our heroes...

The Defenders continued down through the depths, coming at last to another wide cavern. They were confronted by the leader of the sahuagin, a burly four-armed being. A trident was gripped in one of his four hands, and a leash was wrapped around the wrist of another. The leash was attached to the neck of an eyeless, hissing, drakelike beast.

"They told me you were coming," said Baron Lashelkasha. "Though it offends me to be relegated to guard duty, your deaths will be more chips on the bargaining table."

Battle was joined, and the timely arrival of Hanrut helped swing the momentum to the side of the Defenders. Baron Lashelkasha and his sahuagin warriors were defeated and the party, having finally escaped the dungeons of Kalton Manor, made their way back to Fallcrest. They were joined on the road by Meriele who had arrived just a little too late to aid in their escape. Sariel asked several pointed questions about Count Braelast, to which Meriele answered that it was none of her concern, indicated that she didn't want to talk about it, and assured the other eladrin woman that they would never have to worry about the Count again.

That was all that Meriele said, but what she was thinking...well, Count Braelast had earned the nickname "the Undying" somehow. She tried not to let that worry her...

Once back in town, the Defenders decided to enjoy a little RnR at the Blue Moon. Meriele decided that she wanted to drown her sorrows with copious amounts of ale, and that served to only inflame her anger as she watched Sariel flirting with the serving wench. She didn't say anything, but if looks could kill...

It was at the Blue Moon that the Defenders met a merchant named Bob. Bob was the proprietor of Ye Olde Curio Shoppe, and he was worried. He told our heroes that there had been murders in town and that the City Watch had been unable to apprehend the killer. Priests at the Temple of Ioun had performed a scrying and had learned that the guilty party could be found at Bob's shoppe. The party readily accepted his offer of a reward to solve the problem.

They made their way to his shoppe, at which point they discovered shadar-kai intruders.

Shadar-kai. Meriele hated shadar-kai. The tricksy bastards.

The Defenders of the Vale fought their way down into the sewers where they discovered the true source of the threat: a young black dragon! Well, thought Meriele, a dragon is sure to have a hoard. This little expedition might not be pointless, after all.

Battle was joined, and the beast proved to be a nightmarish foe for our heroes. Meriele and brave Hanrut stood toe-to-toe with the ebon wyrm, attempting to distract it while the rest of the Defenders rained down doom. Meriele had overestimated her own resilience, however, and she eventually succumbed to the dragon's acidic breath.

A figure made of stars and light stood before her.

Meriele, my child.

Who are you?

I am your mother, Meriele.

Momma?

Yes, my child. You have a choice. You can return to the cold, sharp, cruel reality of life, or you can join me here in paradise. The choice is yours to make. But you must decide quickly. There isn't much time. Join me here. All your troubles will be over. You will be with me and your father. You will be happy.

Why are you talking like that, Momma?

What do you mean, my child?

I'm not "my child;" I'm Merry.

The being of stars and light suddenly grew dark; the benign countenance transforming into a skull twisted with hatred.

You are mine, bitch! I shall torment you for an eternity!

Count Braelast thrust his claws at her chest. Meriele drew in breath to scream--

--and found herself lying in the sewer surrounded by her companions. She exhaled the terrified breath into a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" somebody asked.

"Yes," Meriele replied. "I'm fine. Thank you."

"Dragon's dead," somebody else said.

"Hoard!" everybody shouted.

The dragon's meager hoard was found after a quick search. Meriele claimed as her reward a small marble carving of an elephant. None of her companions seemed interested in the item, but Meriele had heard of such treasures before, and she eagerly claimed it as her own.

Upon returning home, Meriele soothed her body in a very hot, very long bath. She tried to forget all about Count Braelast, Sariel, and dragons. She occupied her mind with thoughts about a new spell she'd discovered; she thought that she might like to try it out soon.

Cleaned, soothed, and clad in one of her favorite gowns, Meriele went to the Blue Moon to join the rest of her friends. She noticed Sariel's appreciative gaze and decided not to acknowledge it. She also noticed that Marcus had returned from whatever business he'd been on.

Not that she would have been able to not notice him...

"Wow, Meriele," he exclaimed loudly. "You look like you've been in quite a tussle."

"It was nothing," she replied.

"Looks like you skinny-dipped in acid," Marcus said with a laugh while hoisting a tankard. "Mauled by a dragon, were ya?"

She didn't answer.

"Damn, girl," the paladin exclaimed, gazing at her hips. "Have you put on a couple pounds?"

Meriele simply glared. The paladin was both annoying and arrogant, but, she had to admit, handsome and useful.

When nobody was looking, Meriele turned for a surreptitious appraisal of her bottom. The word is "voluptuous", she thought. I'm still sexy. She pulled her gown tight across her posterior and frowned. But I might want to lay off the ale, a little. Just a little.

Later during the night, a dwarf rushed in and grabbed Hanrut's ear. The dwarf was named Riga Oathender, and he had news that there was trouble at Hammerfast, Hanrut's homeland. Riga said that Hanrut was needed at Hammerfast, but that there also was trouble at Nenlast. He promised a reward of 2000 gold pieces if the party would take care of it. They were to contact Mayor Sabine upon arrival.

The Defenders of the Vale set out for Nenlast, Meriele riding upon her new magical beast; she quickly fell in love with the conjured elephant, and steadfastly refused to allow any of her companions to ride with her. A petty, selfish attitude, she knew, but...but, well, what?

On the way to Nenlast, the party was attacked by a small herd of bulettes. The land sharks proved a stout challenge for our heroes, but Buttercup--Meriele's new elephant companion--acquitted herself admirably, and the battle was won.

Upon arrival at the hamlet, the Defenders were surprised to see the townsfolk run from them. The commoners fled the streets, hiding in their homes and peeking out from shuttered windows. Mayor Sabine finally found the bravery to approach the party, and told them that bandits had been attacking the tiny town; four people had gone missing, and the bandits had been harassing them regularly.

Meriele looked around at the ramshackle huts and wrinkled her nose at the stench of smoked fish; this little village was as poor as could be. Why on earth would bandits attack this little burg? It had nothing to offer.

Sabine told the party that the bandits were holed up at a ruined keep to the east.

After a swift but frenzied battle at the ruins, a crude map was discovered. The map was held by the duergar leader of the bandits. Duergar? Meriele had never heard of duergar in the Nentir Vale.

The map led to a cave system in the mountains. Lurking in the cave were more of the dark dwarves. Meriele recklessly threw herself into battle against her enemies with little regard for her companions as she rained her magic down. The rest of the Defenders said nothing to her, but she thought she could see their sidelong glances.

Meriele didn't know why she behaved as she did. Was it because of her recent encounters with Count Braelast--both in the living world and the dead world? Was it because of Sariel's indifference towards her? Was it due to an overestimation of her own abilities? Was she letting her emotions overrule her intellect?

No. That was a problem she had long ago solved.

The Defenders fought their way through waves of duergar warriors and then faced the leader of the bandits: an evil priest of Asmodeus.

The priest proved to be a powerful mindwarper, and managed to turn the paladin Marcus into his plaything. While some of her companions shouted claims of treachery, Meriele realized what was happening. The priest and his minions were eventually defeated after a long, hard-fought battle.

A search of the chamber turned up a note that indicated that this band had been hired by somebody named Grimnir to harass Nenlast.

But why? Nenlast was among the poorest of towns in the Nentir Vale. They had nothing to offer but smoked fish! Was this somehow related to the trouble in nearby Hammerfast? Was it maybe part of the plot of the Coalition? Still, it made no sense to Meriele; why attack this tiny hamlet? Why expend resources for such little gain? Maybe Hanrut would have some answers when he returned.

Meriele decided to just ignore these questions for the time being. She didn't want to think. All she wanted was a hot bath and a tankard of ale.

And perhaps a little warm companionship, that night.

Never mind the companionship, she thought. Maybe just a good book.

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Brother Guathak had come to Winterhaven simply to buy some supplies and eat a hot meal that he hadn't killed and cooked himself. It would have been nice to sleep in a warm bed under a roof. He thought that a couple mugs of ale would hit the spot. And honestly, he wanted somebody to talk to; it had been a couple weeks since Krolga had fallen from that ledge and Gauthak was lonely.

But Kord works in mysterious ways, they say. At least, that's what Gauthak assumed they said; he had never had any formal training in the service of Kord, but he had noticed that his god seemed a bit...moody.

Anyway, Guathak found Winterhaven deserted. There was blood in the streets and the buildings had been damaged by fire and what Gauthak knew to be the blows of giants' clubs. The town had obviously been the scene of a battle of some sort, but there were no bodies lying about. Guathak searched for any survivors.

At last he came to an old dilapidated house. Inside, he found a couple of corpses and a band of what turned out to be complete strangers. There was no time for introductions, however, as the band was immediately attacked by the residents of the house--or rather, the former residents--a group of ghosts.

After the battle, Guathak learned a little more about his new companions; actually, not much more than their names: Hanrut, dwarven fighter; Sariel, eladrin rogue; Quinn, human monk; Pherril, half-elven sorcerer; and the Doctor, a being who claimed to be from some alternate reality or time or something that Guathak didn't understand. The Doctor seemed to be some sort of alchemist or tinker or something; not that it mattered--Guathak had seen that he could handle himself in a fight and that was good enough for him.

The companions searched the house and discovered some clues that led them into the Cairngorms. They found some pieces of crystal, part of a wooden key, a bag of minerals, and an eyeball. Sariel took the eyeball, only Kord knows why. Guathak didn't fully understand why they decided to head to Cairngorm, and he really wasn't looking forward to heading back into those mountains--after all, he'd just left them!--but there was nothing for him in Winterhaven and he figured he should offer his help. So off they went.

On the way into the mountains, Gauthak and his friends were ambushed by what he learned were quicklings--speedy fey creatures that refused to stand and fight! Guathak quickly discovered that he hated quicklings, the cowards!

It wasn't long til the group came to a small hut. Inside lived a xorn, a creature from a different plane. Guathak knew a little about xorn, the most important thing being that they liked to eat gems and other various minerals. Turned out that the group had "the payment," whatever that meant, and that "she took it." "It" was some sort of holy relic, a hand. Guathak didn't know why a hand would be a relic, but he figured that maybe it had once belonged to some great hero of some god. He'd heard of such things before, even though he thought the idea was kind of weird. The group gave the xorn half of the payment and agreed to give the other half once they had recovered the hand.

Gauthak didn't think about this deal until a little later. But, being a rather quiet sort, he spent his time thinking about it instead of talking to his new companions and getting to know them as a normal person would. The group didn't know what the hand was, and they hadn't made any deals with this--or any other--xorn. Why pay for something they hadn't known they'd wanted? And, why pay for something that they had to retrieve themselves? He supposed it made sense if one looked at is as paying for the information that led to the hand, but again, why did they want the hand? The xorn seemed to think it was important, but if that was the case, why wouldn't the xorn pay them to go get it?! Gauthak decided not to voice these concerns; he didn't know the group very well and they all seemed rather excited. He hadn't ever been one to give orders, so he decided he would follow along.

Until they reached the fire giant cave and he learned that they intended to sneak through it. Sneak!! Of all the cowardly, humiliating, disgusting attitudes! Brother Guathak almost refused to follow the plan, but he figured that the others wouldn't join him in the frontal assault he wanted. He also figured, since they had already decided on sneaking, that they would probably abandon him if he took charge and, well, charged. Gauthak swallowed his pride and sneaked, fully humiliated and fuming with pissed offedness. The Doctor seemed to take issue with the manner of Guathak's sneaking--which, of course, wasn't the best example of the practice since Guathak had rarely in his life sneaked. Guathak answered him with a glare and growl. And they all made it through just fine.

They made it to an abandoned temple; the xorn had said that the hand was there, apparently. A sphinx was guarding the entrance. Now, Guathak had heard a little about sphinxes, so he wasn't too confused. He knew that the sphinx would ask a number of riddles and likely eat the entire party if the riddles were answered wrong. He also knew that he wasn't too bad with riddles. And further, he knew that Kord would fill him with the power of mountain and storm should anything go wrong--actually, this last had little to do with the sphinx, but still. And that last didn't matter anyway as the riddles were answered correctly and the group was allowed to pass.

A search of the ruined temple (the sphinx had warned them not to damage the temple, which Guathak found quite funny as the place was already falling apart--how much more damage could they do to it? The rest of the group didn't find that as funny as Guathak; obviously, they have no sense of humor...). Uh, a search of the temple turned up some more pieces of crystal and more parts of the wooden key. The crystals were assembled and formed another key that opened a chest in the temple. Inside was found a cloth with the imprint of a hand; the hand had been there, but had been removed. Failure!

The group went back to the xorn, and found that the thing had been joined by more of its kind. The xorn told the group that the quicklings--damn quicklings!!--were also after the hand and they were at "his" temple. They wouldn't talk about "his" temple, though. They wouldn't talk about "him" but they did tell the group where the temple was. Off to the next temple!

Inside, the group discovered that the quicklings were indeed involved in the plot--which, at this point, the group really didn't know was a plot. The speedy bastards proved to be tenacious fighters, and they taxed the group almost to their limit. During the battle, Sariel abandoned the group and began running about the temple complex, but what she was doing, the rest of the group didn't know.

Turned out that she was looking for the hand. The Doctor also abandoned the battle, and Guathak at first believed that he was in cahoots with the eladrin, but he simply wanted to confront her about her behavior. Gauthak thought the timing maybe a bit inappropriate, but he swallowed his tongue and helped cut down the rest of the quicklings (time enough to deal with the Doctor later).

The battle was over, and there was a captive in a side chamber. Before the party could assemble the rest of the wooden key to free her, Sariel opened a pair of double doors to reveal a room full of darkness and death. And Vecna.

Gulp.

At this point, Brother Guathak did some of the fastest thinking he had ever done. On the one hand, one of his new companions (he had almost started thinking of them as friends, but this most recent turn of events nipped that in the bud) had just turned out to be a servant of Vecna. Another of his companions had left the battle to join that other one, presumably to stop whatever she was doing, but Guathak wasn't so sure at that moment. Gauthak didn't know any of these people, and though they claimed not to know each other, people are tricksy and treacherous (Captain Thranul had taught him that lesson); could he trust any of them?

On the other hand, all of these people, except for the eladrin, seemed horrified that Vecna had shown up. If they were servants of this evil god, wouldn't they be more...not horrified? And wouldn't they have simply slain him in his sleep if they were all part of some evil plot? Also, there was a captive in the next room, and Guathak couldn't just leave somebody to their death at the hands of Vecna and his servants. Even if it meant his own death.

Brother Guathak readied a prayer, one that would begin with something along the lines of, "Kord, let me be your mighty fist, let me be the thunderbolt of your will. I will strike down this upstart god and make the world a place where--"

He decided not to finish the idea; Vecna had disappeared by this point. Sariel--actually a doppleganger posing as the eladrin who was locked in the nearby cell--had given him his Eye (remember the eye from earlier?). The group, instead of running (an act of cowardice that Gauthak had considered briefly, himself), made quick work of the false-Sariel and then managed to free the real Sariel.

Vecna left them one little parting gift, though--another demon. Which was quickly slain.

So, what now? Guathak decided that the group worked well together, so maybe he should stick with them for a while. He had already been thinking of some tactics to make them more effective in battle. Assuming they listen to his ideas... And with the threat of Vecna loose in the world, somebody will have to stand against him.

But that can wait at least long enough for a good meal...

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

What a wonderful thing a few nights in an honest to gods inn can do for one's point of view. Brother Guathak and his new companions had decided to remain in Winterhaven for a few days, not only to rest and recuperate but also to try and get the memories of their confrontation with Vecna from their minds. Gauthak had trusted his new companions only about as far as he could throw them, which is admittedly not an inconsiderable distance, but the past three days had changed his mind. Sariel, who he had at first viewed with distrust--he knew that the Sariel he had first met and that had betrayed them had actually been a doppleganger, but still it wasn't something one so easily forgot--had grown on him. Pherril seemed a good fellow, and Quinn was enjoyable enough to be around. The Doctor had vanished shortly after their battle with Vecna, so maybe there was some truth to his claim to be from another time or place. Thorn, a friend of Sariel and Hanrut, had showed up. Gauthak talked with him a little, but he had always thought the best way to judge a man was to see him in battle, so he was reserving judgment until that time. Guathak took a liking to Hanrut, a stout warrior who could drink as much or more than Guathak.

The two spent the three days in Winterhaven proving their prowess.

Some of the group learned to play a strange dice game. Thorn was the best at it, and thus earned a little respect from Gauthak. The goliath loved contests of all kinds, and anybody skilled--or lucky--enough to win consistently was okay in his opinion. Guathak lost more money than he liked to think about to the ranger.

It was the night before they had planned to travel to Fallcrest and Gauthak and Hanrut were busy trying to drink each other under the table after a dice game. Hanrut explained that he and Sariel--and their former companions--were a big deal there. The lord mayor of the town had given them a house to stay in. The house was in exchange for past and future services rendered. Guathak had privately considered staying in the Cairngorms, but eventually decided that it would be interesting to see something besides mountains. Also, he figured that Commander Thranul would be hunting for him, so vacating the area wouldn't be a bad idea. He still wanted to search for Krolga, but figured that the spear warrior, if he was still alive at all, could handle himself. Also, it would be nice to see his old mentor, Grundelmar. The rest of his companions, the Defenders of the Vale, never asked Guathak if he wanted to accompany them to Fallcrest; it seemed as if they assumed he would join them. And so he never brought up his own doubts about the matter.

Anyway, it was the night before they were scheduled to leave Winterhaven when a bloody and beat up young man burst into the Wintermist Tavern. He groaned out some words before falling to the floor. Brother Guathak leaped from his chair and rushed to the young man's side. Gauthak didn't hear him as the boy tried to speak; the goliath priest was more interested in trying to save his life. He felt the rush of Kord's power flow from his hands and into the boy's body, stitching his wounds back together and stopping the flow of blood. Gauthak wasn't surprised by his actions, but he was surprised to realize that he didn't feel nervous or guilty at calling upon the power of his human god.

The boy explained that his name was Altarr, a squire in the service of King Battleheart of Castle Wintermist in the Cairngorms. Guathak was surprised to hear this; he'd lived in the Cairngorms his whole life and had never heard of any Castle Wintermist. King Battleheart was a dwarf who ruled over a small nation of many races. Altarr explained that the king had sent him to Winterhaven to summon help for some trouble he was having. The squire didn't know the nature of the trouble, and he had gotten his wounds on the road to town.

The Defenders naturally agreed to help the king and his people, and Altarr gave them directions to the castle. The return to Fallcrest was going to have to wait.

The group set out for Castle Wintermist the next morning. Guathak looked for signs of a hangover in Hanrut but didn't find any. He thought he saw the dwarf looking for similar signs in himself. There were no such signs, of course, and Guathak indulged in a private chuckle at the frustration on his friend's face. It was a nice day for walking in the mountains, cold but sunny, and Guathak enjoyed stretching his legs again in the wilderness. He hoped that he wouldn't lose the opportunity to travel like this after he moved to Fallcrest, but his decision had been made and he wouldn't change his mind. He decided to just enjoy it for now and not worry about the future.

These quiet thoughts were rudely interrupted by a gang of ogres, their pet bears, and their ettin leader. Ogres. Almost as bad as giants. Guathak grinned at the thought of ogre blood on his axe. And an ettin; he had fought ettins only a time or two in the past, and they could be nasty opponents. He relished the challenge.

The Defenders of the Vale made quick work of the ogres, but the bears proved to be tenacious critters. And that damn ettin was a wizard of some sort! Guathak fell under its curse more than once, but the mighty hand of Kord shielded him from the worst of it. The ettin had obviously used its bears in combat before, as its tactics were both sound and effective. But Brother Gauthak had been devising a few tactics of his own, playing to the strengths of his new companions. Guathak's tactics prevailed in the end.

The group was ambushed a second time further down the road. Brother Gauthak wondered how Altarr had managed to survive his journey, at all. There was obviously more to the boy than met the eye.

Time enough for speculation later. This group of bandits--if bandits they were--looked to be a bit tougher than the last group. There were giants--yes!--and a beholder. Brother Gauthak had never seen a beholder before, but he had heard about them. Floating spheres of nastiness, they were little more than a mouth and eyes. Lots of eyes. And they could wield magic with their eyes.

No matter. Guathak and the Defenders had overcome every challenge they had faced thus far, and he knew that they could defeat this thing and its giant pets. Kord damn him if it weren't so!

The battle was won, and the beholder proved to be no more resilient than any other foe. Brother Gauthak's respect for his fellow Defenders continued to grow. Was there any challenge they couldn't overcome? In the back of his mind an idea grew; maybe some day in the not too distant future, Brother Gauthak and the Defenders of the Vale could go to Cairngorm and settle matters with Commander Thranul.

Just a daydream. But one that persisted until the Defenders reached the Mithral Caves, entrance to Castle Wintermist.

Inside the Caves, the Defenders encountered their toughest challenge yet. Besides Vecna, of course. A group of monsters consisting of salamanders--fiery lizardman things--along with ice monsters and another beholder confronted the group. Gauthak wondered at the presence of creatures of both flame and ice working together, but not everything was as it seemed. The ice monsters had at their core a kernel of fire; the Defenders would learn this later and exploit it.

It was in the Caves that Gauthak's carefully planned tactics broke down. The battle started well enough as he and Hanrut took up their customary positions at the front line of battle. The two warriors focused on one of the salamanders, hammering away at it with controlled fury. Sariel, Thorn, and Pherril began their ranged assault on the poor beast. But they were out-maneuvered. While Gauthak and Hanrut kept a pair of salamanders bottled up in one tunnel, the other two managed to move into flanking positions from another tunnel and attack the other three Defenders. Meanwhile, the beholder had moved around to attack from the rear.

The Defenders were surrounded in the caverns, unable to use the mobility that made them so effective. Gauthak and Hanrut managed to kill both salamanders they faced, but the other three Defenders were suffering attacks from the remaining two salamanders and one of the ice monsters. The second ice monster attacked the dwarf and goliath, so they decided to keep that one busy and trust to Sariel, Pherril, and Thorn to fend for themselves, just for a little while.

The beholder had, in the meantime, entered the fray, and it wreaked havoc with its eye magic. Gauthak was dismayed to see Hanrut flee from the battle, but quickly realized that the eye tyrant had ensorcelled him. Guathak roared with frustration and rage, hacking at the ice monster.

"Damn you, Kord!" he shouted. "Get off your lazy ass and help me!"

The storm god answered his prayer: Brother Gauthak was the next to suffer the beholder's magical terror. He howled with fury and shame as he fled the battle.

The other three Defenders had managed to kill the third salamander, and Sariel and Pherril had escaped from their position. Those two ran towards Gauthak and Hanrut, seemingly thinking that it was time to quit the field and live to fight another day. But Thorn was still surrounded by their enemies. The ranger worked his mighty bow with frenzied speed and skill, desperately avoiding the numerous attacks aimed at him.

It was during their flight that Hanrut and Gauthak encountered yet another opponent: some sort of air beast. First Hanrut and then Gauthak felt its power as it lifted them from the cavern floor only to drop them unceremoniously back down. But the two warriors made it back to the fray, and the Defenders were able to regroup.

It was then that they learned of the ice monster's tendency to explode upon death. Only the beholder suffered the blast, and it died quickly to its allies' strange quirk.

"Take that, you dirty bastard," Hanrut muttered.

"Yeah!" said Gauthak.

Battered, bleeding, and bruised, the Defenders of the Vale came at last to Castle Wintermist. In the main hall, they encountered King Battleheart. Or what was left of him. The king lay dead on the floor, an enormous spider looming over him. The spider was joined by several cyclops--more giants to taste death at Gauthak's hands--and a drow witch. The Defenders were too late! They wouldn't be able to help the king, but at least they could avenge his death.

The battle was fast and furious, and Gauthak used all of Kord's power to end the fight quickly. He had never faced a drow in combat before, but he had heard that they were not only evil to the core, but also wicked practitioners of demon worship; their demon-goddess Lolth granted wicked powers to her priestesses, and Gauthak had no intention to taste those powers.

Kord proved mightier than Lolth that day; after all, what spider can stand unscathed before the fury of the thunderstorm? The drow priestess fell quickly to combined efforts of the Defenders of the Vale.

"Take that, bitch," muttered Gauthak.

"Yeah!" said Hanrut.

A search of the chamber turned up a puzzle. Gauthak appreciated the idea of puzzles; it was a mental challenge, different than a physical challenge, but no less rewarding when overcome. The Defenders eventually solved the riddle and claimed their reward.

Pushed to their limits, but not too much worse for wear, the group took stock of their situation. Where were the people of Castle Wintermist? Had the drow witch and her spider killed them all? Had they been enslaved and sent to the drow homeland? If such was the case, then the Defenders couldn't just leave them to such an evil fate.

But first things first.

"Nice work, everybody," said Gauthak to the group.

"Thanks," said Pherril. "I'm getting all emotional."

Sariel just rolled her eyes.

"Nice work with that bow," said Gauthak, nodding at Thorn. "I half expected I'd be giving you last rites."

"Eh, I'm okay," said the ranger with a grin.

"Okay, what now?" asked Pherril.

The Defenders of the Vale all looked off into space as they pondered their next move. Everybody turned their gaze to Hanrut.

"Why y'all lookin' at me?" the dwarf rumbled, a wary tone in his voice.

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

((More installment skippage, let's see if I can remember from redshirt's game and then add mine. As always, you all should feel free to add your own stuff!))

The Defenders of the Vale had slain the foul drow witch and her minions. They had been unable to save King Battleheart. Minutes after the fray in the throne room, they decided to rest for a moment and take stock of their situation. Hanrut went to scout the castle. The rest of the Defenders heard screaming coming from distant halls, and, being heroes, went to investigate.

They were unable to find the source of the screaming in the maze-like halls of Castle Wintermist, but they did come to a place where they were able to overhear a sinister conversation. A person they identified as Lord Zethada (a man they had never heard of before) was chastising one of his lackeys, a man named Ranel. The Defenders were able to make out only bits and pieces of the conversation, but they learned that Lord Zethada was angry at his lackey for failing in their search for the Jester and the Hand. Mayor Darkhell had failed, and Zethada hinted that Ranel would join Darkhell's fate if he too should fail. Lord Zethada had armies in the Nentir Vale stirring up trouble to cover the search for the Hand and the Jester, but Zethada was getting impatient. Ranel promised to double his efforts.

The Defenders pondered this new information for some time. They knew that Mayor Darkhell had formed the Coalition of Five Tribes, the leaders of which the Defenders had already encountered (and been trounced by...). And it seemed as if Lord Zethada was Mayor Darkhell's boss. They figured that the Hand that he mentioned must be the Hand of Vecna. With this information, the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place. Lord Zethada was looking for the Hand of Vecna, which he knew was hidden--or at least used to be hidden--in the Nentir Vale. Mayor Darkhell was one of Zethada's lackeys, and he had formed the Coalition of Five Tribes to harry the peoples of the Vale and provide cover for Zethada's search for the Hand. But Darkhell had failed, somehow. The Defenders knew that they hadn't bested him--or actually, they didn't know who he was, so if they had beaten him, well, they had no way to know about it. Could there be some other agent in play looking for the Hand? And who or what is the Jester?

The Defenders pressed on, hoping to find Lord Zethada or Ranel and beat some more information out of them.

Castle Wintermist, they found, had become completely infested with demons, undead, and more of Lord Zethada's minions--shadar-kai. Some of the Defenders of the Vale had dealt with shadar-kai in the town of Harkenwold. So the shadar-kai were the fifth member of the Coalition. The plot thickens.

Evidently, Lord Zethada believed that the Hand could be found here. They encountered a dying woman who begged them to save her daughter. The Defenders were unable to save the woman, but they promised that they would find and rescue her little girl.

They were unable to fulfill their promise. The Defenders fought their way through Zethada's servants and made their way to a shrine to Vecna. Shadar-kai and drow filled the area, and the little girl was tied to a bloody altar. As the Defenders stormed into the temple, the drow high priestess ended the little girl's life at the climax of her dark ritual. The Defenders were unable to save her life, and there was cold comfort in the fact that they avenged her death after a hard-fought battle.

Although the Defenders of the Vale had slain Lord Zethada's forces in Castle Wintermist, they knew that the place meant nothing but death for the free peoples of the Vale. Should the drow and shadar-kai return, they had little hope of holding the Castle against them. They decided that the most prudent course of action would be to return to Fallcrest and report their findings to Lord Warden Markelhay.

On the King's Road they were ambushed by assassins. During the battle, the Defenders were joined by Sir Light Maxim, knight of the Order of the Golden Sky. After the assassins were slain, Sir Light explained that he had been tracking the Coalition and Lord Zethada (against whom Sir Light had a personal grudge, which he did not explain) for weeks. He apologized for arriving late, and offered his services to the Defenders, who he knew were working against the Coalition. The Defenders readily accepted him into their ranks.

On the corpse of one of the would-be assassins, our heroes found a note addressed to Oltang. The note instructed him to slay the Defenders on King's Road, and told him to go to the tower at the south edge of the Cloak Wood. Ham, whoever that was, would let him in.

Now, the Defenders of the Vale are not the sort of beings that will let an assassination attempt go unpunished. They headed south, skirting the Cloak Wood, and soon came to the tower mentioned in the note.

They were attacked at the tower by Ham, a stitched-together monstrosity with a pig's head, and his two companions, beings that were also made of parts of other creatures. The Defenders made short work of these unnatural things, aided in their battle by a dragonborn warlord who had been captured by the monsters. His name was Johnny Bravolord, and he became the newest member of the Defenders of the Vale.

The Defenders, suffering from wounds that had not been healed by Brother Gauthak who was off on his own business in the Cairngorms, felt it prudent to rest up before exploring the depths beneath the tower ruins.

The next day, the party fought their way past the guardians beneath the tower--an ettin and his owlbear pet. They found an iron door bearing the broken skull symbol of Vecna. Sariel picked the lock and the Defenders descended further.

At the bottom of the stairs they entered into the laboratory of Ranel. Ranel was an elderly shadar-kai, driven mad in his quest to perfect his twisted science. It was here that the Defenders learned the consequence of Mayor Darkhell's failure--he had been turned into a monstrous thing of flesh and wood, stitched together, made of meat from many men, festooned with "spiders" that consumed the foul fluids that flowed from what used to be his body, possessing only the barest fraction of what was once a mind. And here Ranel revealed the truth about Mayor Darkhell, his true identity--Mayor Darkhell, minion of evil in the Nentir Vale, founder and leader of the Coalition of Five Tribes, was actually Lord Warden Faren Markelhay of Fallcrest!

Battle was joined, and it was here in Ranel's laboratory that the Defenders encountered one of the most insidious foes they had yet faced--Lady Festa il'Sook, a drow enchantress who can warp men's minds with a kiss. Quinn was the first to taste her sweet lips, defending her from any attack with no regard for his own safety or that of his companions. But the wily monk was able to trick her and escape her mind control. Sir Light was not so lucky. The knight found his body ignoring the commands of his mind, and succumbed to Festa's insidious commands, defending her from the attacks of the rest of the Defenders of the Vale.

The Defenders quickly identified Lady Festa as the most dangerous threat, and focused their ire on her. But, unlike Ranel and his manufactured monstrosity, the drow mindwitch was no stranger to combat, and she knew when it was time to quit the field of battle. Lady Festa decided to cut and run when it was obvious that her side was losing the battle. The Defenders were unable to pursue, as Ranel and what Markelhay had become demanded all their efforts to defeat.

The Defenders of the Vale prevailed, fighting off the flesh spiders that spawned from the slime pit, and they eventually managed to slay Ranel and the former Lord Warden of Fallcrest.

In addition to much treasure, the Defenders uncovered a page from Ranel's journal. The page detailed the scientific specifics of Markelhay's transformation in addition to Ranel's insane ramblings. It also mentioned Ranel's intense hatred of Lady Festa. Did Lord Zethada share this hatred? And if so, why is she here? Is she so valuable that an evil mastermind is willing to keep her around despite his hatred?

Questions, questions, always more questions. Ranel and Mayor Darkhell have been defeated. But what of the Coalition of Five Tribes? Does Darkhell's failure mean that the Coalition no longer exists? Or will they simply find a new leader? Will Lord Zethada be that leader? Or perhaps Lady Festa (which would make it a Coalition of Six Tribes--humans, orcs, gnolls, goblins, shadar-kai, and drow?)? Why is Lord Zethada looking for the Hand of Vecna? Does he want it for himself, or does he want to give it to the evil God of Secrets, Vecna himself? And what of
Fallcrest? The town has no leader. Who will step up and govern?

But most importantly, what's next?

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Hmm, we're famous, thought Brother Gauthak when word arrived from faraway Timber Vale requesting the help of the Defenders of the Vale. They had been in Fallcrest for barely two days. Rumor had it that Lord Warden Markelhay had gone missing; the Defenders silently listened to these rumors, but none of them decided to enlighten the citizens of Fallcrest of what had happened to the Lord Warden. Instead, not wanting to get mixed up in local politics--a distinct possibility considering the fact of their celebrity status--they decided to depart for Timber Vale immediately.

Pherril, Quinn, and Sir Light had decided not to accompany the rest of the Defenders to Timber Vale, each muttering half-assed excuses for why they didn't want to travel; Brother Gauthak knew that they really just didn't want to walk in the winter weather. Gauthak personally relished the idea of a longish journey--he'd been cooped up in one town or the other for far too long (having not accompanied the group in their foray to Ranel's laboratory due to legitimate reasons of his own...), and he longed for action. After all, Kord's Book says that battle is the true test of the soul: weather the storm of combat and one can weather any storm.

So the Defenders traveled to Timber Vale to meet with Rangrim Glintshield and solve whatever problem he had for them. They arrived in town and went to the Knothole Inn (Sariel said something about "the Gloryhole Inn," which Brother Gauthak assumed was a joke since the rest of his companions laughed; he didn't get it). The Knothole served strong ale and good food, and the rooms were adequate if not ritzy. Good thing, too, as the Defenders were forced to wait on their patron, Master Glintshield. So they waited. And waited. And waited.

While in town, Brother Gauthak learned of a ruined temple of Kord nearby. He visited the place a couple times and vowed that he would restore the temple. But he never got around to it due to weather and other excuses. Instead, he spent his time drinking at the inn and getting to know Johnny Bravolord, a dragonborn warlord with a reckless attitude, and Black Darksteel, a mechanical man, of all things, and possessed of an attitude reckless enough to rival Johnny's. They seemed like good enough men, but Brother Gauthak decided to reserve judgment until he saw them in battle.

Two months passed before Rangrim finally showed up. Brother Gauthak had grown extremely impatient by this point, but the rest of his companions seemed willing to wait for the dwarf, so he held his tongue and consoled himself with the fact that the Knothole really did have very good ale. But the Glintshields finally arrived, a scared family, huddling in the road, obviously scared witless.

They explained to the Defenders that their stronghold in Stonefang Pass had been attacked and taken by the Severed Eye tribe of orcs. The Severed Eye orcs were determined to reawaken Stonefang, the titan that gave the pass its name, and that the Glintshields were keeping bound by magic. The orcs had managed to steal three fragments of the titan's body, and the fourth was being kept safe by four dwarven elders who had remained in the keep. But the binding was weakening, and the elders would not be able to hold out forever.

The Defenders agreed to take this challenge, on condition that the
Glintshields pay their tab at the Knothole for the past two months. They agreed to this along with the usual stipulations that loot remained with the Defenders and so on and so forth.

The party headed out for Stonefang Keep the next day. They came to a bridge over a river that Gauthak didn't know the name of, and it was here that they were attacked by a pair of hippogriffs. Strange, as Brother Guathak knew that the flying beasts usually preyed upon horses and the like, and the Defenders weren't mounted. No matter. It was battle, and he was ready! During the battle, a school of strange fish made their presence known. The fish spit water and somehow managed to pull people towards the river. Gauthak had never heard of fish like this, but he assumed they were scavengers hoping to feed on the leavings of the hippogriffs. Only Black fell victim to the fishes and the rushing water of the river.

Although the group made quick work of these enemies, they found a more significant surprise waiting for them on the other side of the bridge: Severed Eye orcs! Ah, thought Gauthak, an enemy to truly test my skills!

The orcs were arrayed with archers on towers and footmen on the ground. They were led by a big ugly bastard mounted on a dire boar. Ah, that's the one I want, thought Gauthak. I'll get up on him, and see how he likes the taste of my axe. Wonder how well trained that pig is; kinda tired of walking everywhere, and that swine looks like he could carry my weight.

Brother Gauthak changed his strategy as soon as the archers fired their first volley. The Defenders were clustered on the bridge, and arrows fell like rain amongst them. Sharp, pointy rain. Although Gauthak himself was protected by his thick plate armor, not all of his companions were so lucky. His new friends, Black and Johnny, seemed to suffer the worst of it.

Okay, archers first.

The footmen charged, but Hanrut took care of them; he did what he does, taunting them close and then smashing them. Guathak had heard once that when you have a big hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Hanrut had a very big hammer. Guathak had also heard that when you have a big axe, everything begins to look like a tree. Gauthak had a very big axe.

He rushed the closest tower, and began his ascent. His fingers were made for climbing, and although he didn't make it to the top as fast as he would have liked, he eventually came face to face with the orc. The orc dropped its bow, and Gauthak grinned his nastiest grin, despite the stink of the thing. He went to work.

Meanwhile, Hanrut had become entangled in a net thrown by the orc leader, and Johnny had made it to the top of a different tower to engage the archer there. Gauthak had lost sight of Black, but assumed that mechanical man was putting his huge sword to work. Sariel hung back, flicking her blades with deadly accuracy at the orc that Guathak was facing.

Little girl has a good arm, he thought with admiration.

"Little help over here!" hollered Johnny Bravolord. Brother Guathak glanced over at the warlord, and saw that he was being hard pressed by the orc he was fighting. Gauthak finished his enemy, wrinkling his nose at the stinking blood that spattered his face.

"On my way!" he shouted at his companion. Guathak climbed down the tower and charged across the battlefield just in time to see Johnny get knocked off the tower by an arrow from one of the other archers. Hanrut had, in the meantime, joined battle with the orc leader and his pig, and Black was on top of a tower fighting a third archer.

"We'll take this one!" Gauthak shouted as he began to climb. Johnny didn't answer. Gauthak looked back only to see the dragonborn charging the tower that Black stood on. Gauthak growled as he pulled himself to the tower top. He took a second to find Sariel before engaging this orc; her arm was already cocked back to throw at Gauthak's opponent.

At least somebody's following the strategy, thought Gauthak. He decided that he would need to explain to his companions--again!!--how these things were done...

Gauthak brought his axe down onto the orc, and an arrow from the fourth archer hit him in the shoulder, spinning him around and knocking him from the tower! If Gauthak had had time to think, he would have thought that the impact was really going to hurt, and he would have been right.

"Okay, now I'm pissed," he muttered as he began to climb back up the tower. And he was starting to understand why Johnny had decided to move on.

Gauthak and Sariel killed their orc at about the same time that Johnny and Black dispatched theirs. Gauthak looked over his shoulder, only to see Johnny Bravolord leap with much gusto from the top of the tower to the ground forty feet below.

"Crazy son of a bitch," Guathak said as he climbed down. "And I'll bet a hundred gold he's gonna blame me."

The battle was over by that point, although the orcs didn't know it. Brother Guathak and Sariel killed the fourth archer while Hanrut, Black, and Johnny slew the orc leader and his pig.

A shame, thought Gauthak. But maybe we'll have some bacon, later.

The orc leader was carrying a part of Stonefang's body--his Seeping Heart. Gauthak decided to carry it.

The Defenders entered a cave in the side of the mountain, coming to a chamber split by a crevasse. Brother Gauthak looked into the deep pit, but saw nothing there. The group moved past the crevasse and noticed a gaping hole in the ceiling of the chamber. Gauthak, Hanrut, and Johnny decided to investigate the hole while the others stayed back. As they examined the hole, three giant spiders emerged, arraying themselves across the ceiling, and three more spiders came out of the pit.

Great, spiders, thought Guathak. I hate spiders.

The spiders attacked, hoping to feed on the presumably tasty flesh of the Defenders. Hanrut grinned as the arachnids attacked, and charged those near the crevasse while Gauthak and Johnny faced the three that had emerged from the hole in the ceiling. Gauthak watched as Hanrut repeatedly kicked spiders back down their hole, only to watch them emerge seconds later. The dwarf was growing more and more frustrated, and finally decided to just smash the things. But the spiders were quick, easily dodging the blows the Defenders attempted to rain down on them. All of the Defenders got a taste of the spiders' venom before they were finally dealt with. Johnny took the brunt of the attack, and Gauthak had to admit that the dragonborn looked a little haggard.

"I don't feel so good," Johnny said. "I think I need to lay down for a few minutes. Or days."

"Suck it up, Scaly," said Hanrut with his usual tact.

"Yeah, I don't know," said Johnny. "I think I just need to rest for a bit."

"You'll be fine," said Gauthak. "Trust me. Just don't get hit so much."

Johnny opened his mouth to speak, but just then an earthquake shook the entire mountain.

"Uh oh," said Sariel. The Defenders hightailed it towards the exit, but something caught Brother Guathak's eye.

"Be right there," he said, stumbling towards the fallen columns in the room. It was another fragment of Stonefang's body, his Stout Rib. Gauthak picked up the heavy fossilized bone and lugged it, staggering, to the exit.

The quake stopped, and Black told the Defenders that he thought he had heard a voice during the event. A growl, or a roar. Now what could that mean?

"I really think I need to sleep a little," murmured Johnny, swaying on his feet.

"Welcome, fools! Prepare to meet your doom!"

The taunt came from a trio of orcs standing near a bonfire, bones piled around them. Brother Guathak didn't hesitate. He charged the orc in front, chopping into the beast with his mighty axe. Battle was joined, and a pair of ghostly skulls rose from the bone piles.

The battle was fast and fierce. Brother Gauthak, Hanrut, and Black charged the enemy while Sariel and Johnny hung back, Sariel putting her deadly blades to work, and Johnny exhorting his companions to greater effort. Brother Gauthak felt the power of Kord enter into his body, and the god's mighty hand shielded him and his companions from harm. The orcs were destroyed.

A search of the bodies revealed the third of Stonefang's fragments--his Burning Eye. Gauthak picked it up.

Suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, four dwarves appeared. They were the four Glintshield elders that Rangrim had mentioned. They had been maintaining a magical forcefield, guarding the fourth of Stonefang's fragments, and keeping themselves safe from the Severed Eye orcs.

"Thank the gods!" cried one of the dwarves.

"No, thank us," said Sariel.

"Greetings, cousins," said Hanrut. "You're the Glintshield elders that Rangrim spoke of, I assume."

"Yes," said another of the elders. "We deeply thank you for--"

"Yes, yes," said the third elder. "Time grows short and we have no time for pleasantries. Stonefang stirs, and he must be contained. The binding has grown weak."

"We have not the strength to renew the binding," said the fourth elder. "This task falls to you. If Stonefang were to escape..."

"It would be bad," finished Black.

"Very bad," said the first elder. "Here is the fourth fragment."

The dwarf presented a huge stone hand. Johnny took it with a nod.

Just then, the cavern convulsed with renewed shaking.

"Stonefang is coming," said the first elder. "To renew the binding, you must place the fragments in a specific order and recite the following incantation: 'Stonefang, I bind you to the pit of doom.'"

The cavern shook again.

"He comes!" shouted the second elder. "Go!"

"Uh, the order?" asked Sariel.

The third elder explained the specifics and the Defenders entered into the Hall of Stonefang's Prison. There were four magic circles in the Hall, each glowing with powerful magicks, and each a different color. Brother Gauthak charged into the Hall towards the closest magic circle,and it was then that Stonefang arrived.

A titan is not something one sees every day, and Brother Gauthak thanked Kord for that fact. Stonefang emanated power, the power of stone and earth and everything that mortals walk upon. Stonefang stretched out his arms and roared, shaking the chamber with a rage that had lain chained for far too long.

"Kord, give me the power of your sky!" Gauthak shouted as he ran to the first circle. He threw down the Burning Eye and spoke the incantation. Stonefang roared again, and turned to Guathak, but Hanrut had charged the titan.

"Not so fast, big guy," Hanrut said as he swung his hammer. Stonefang turned his attention to the grinning dwarf as Sariel ran up to Gauthak.

"Give me a piece!" Sariel said.

Gauthak's eyes widened as his jaw dropped.

Sariel rolled her eyes.

"A fragment of this titan," she said.

Guathak sheepishly handed her Stonefang's Seeping Heart and felt his face grow hot.

"I...you said...I thought...uh," he stammered.

Sariel just grinned and winked, and then she vanished, only to appear on the other side of the angry titan, rushing for the magic circle.

Meanwhile, Johnny had lugging Stonefang's hand to the purple circle, and Black had joined Hanrut to battle the titan.

Gauthak ran to the last circle and slammed the Stout Rib into the middle of it, shouting the incantation. He felt Stonefang's fury and anguish as he turned to face the titan and join his companions. He could see that the beast had weakened, and the battle should be a short one.

Gauthak charged, joining his companions as they battled the titan. He called upon Kord's power, smiting the beast with all his might. Stonefang staggered, unable to attack as he tottered at the edge of his pit prison. Gauthak grinned.

"He is ours!" he shouted. "Don't let up now!"

Johnny charged in, evidently having overcome his sickness. But Stonefang was not done, yet. He actually managed to shake off Kord's binding and then reached out with his primordial mind to possess Black's mind.

Gauthak watched in confusion as Black ripped Stonefang's hand from the magical circle and hurled it into the prison pit. The titan laughed.

"Mind control," muttered Brother Guathak as he brought his axe back. "Dirty pool. It's dishonest. Low."

He struck with the fury of Kord, roaring with the strength of the thunderstorm, and once again Stonefang staggered back. The Defenders pressed their advantage, and Stonefang was thrown once again into his prison.

The five of them stood at the edge of the pit, looking down into the black depths.

"Think he'll be back?" asked Black.

"He knows what's waiting for him if he does," said Hanrut.

"No balls," said Sariel. "He's not coming back."

"Ouch," said Johnny. "I really think I need a nap."

Brother Gauthak opened his mouth to speak, but the four Glintshield elders entered the prison chamber.

"You've done it!" cried the first elder.

"Praise Moradin!" said the second.

Brother Gauthak started to explain that Kord had had more to do with the victory than Moradin, but then decided against it.

"You've done it," said the third elder. "You've defeated Stonefang. He shall trouble us no more. We can reclaim our keep."

"Yes," said the fourth elder. "The stories are true. You are, indeed, mighty heroes. Although we can never truly express our gratitude to you for what you've done this day, we hope that these offerings can suffice. Please, Defenders of the Vale, choose from among these treasures what you consider to be a proper reward. And know that you will always find friends among the Glintshield clan."

The dwarf produced a small bag, and, with a flourish, upended it, spilling a wealth of treasure upon the floor of the chamber. Brother Guathak glanced at his companions and saw their mouths watering. Gauthak understood their feeling, and he suppressed a grin when he saw that axe...

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

The Defenders were enjoying some well-deserved R&R at the Nentir Inn in Fallcrest. They had met the new Lord Warden of Fallcrest, Ernesto Markelhay, son of the late Faren Markelhay (who had been corrupted by Ranel and subsequently slain by these Defenders—they prudently did not mention their involvement in the death…). The Defenders were less than impressed by the young Ernesto. And it seemed that some in Fallcrest, particularly the tiefling lord Serim Selduzar, suspect Ernesto of partaking in his father’s death.

At the tavern, Hanrut and Black tried their strength against a fat, hairy dwarf named Dungoth Hammerstrike, aka “the Anvil.” Neither hero could defeat the Anvil at armwrestling. Several of the Defenders gambled a little, learning a game called Castle. They also learned that they aren’t very good at it, and lost a few handfuls of coin.

It was at the tavern that the group met Erdann Swift, an elven archer. They welcomed Erdann into the ranks of current Defenders of the Vale. Quinn had decided that he’d had enough of the life of a hero, and departed to seek enlightenment or some nonsense, joining the growing ranks of former Defenders.

The group returned to their home, and Erdann claimed one of the empty rooms. Brother Gauthak was away on business of his own (possibly also seeking enlightenment or some nonsense). It’s a good bet that he would have had strong words to say about what happened next.

What happened was that a hot young drow priestess of Lolth managed to sneak into the house and get the drop on Pherril, sorcerer not-so-supreme. Luckily, the girl wanted to talk, and she told her story to the Defenders.

Her name was Seeta Em’Dayn, priestess from the drow outpost of Zebarza. The outpost was established in the Vale by the drow to further their aims on the surface world. Said aims, of course, were “not important” at the time. What was important was that the outpost, led by High Priestess Festa Il’Sook, had turned their backs on Lolth. They now worshipped Vecna, one of several gods of death (if you also count the Raven Queen and Orcus, which some would, you can be sure). Seeta, a faithful acolyte of the Spider Queen, found the situation both horrific and intolerable. Worse still, she had reason to believe that Festa knew the location of the Hand of Vecna. If this were true, and if Festa should obtain the artifact, well, that’s bad news for both the drow and the Vale. Her messages to Neganzia, the drow city deep in the Underdark, had gone unanswered, probably intercepted by Festa. That’s why Seeta had fled. Having nowhere else to turn, she did the only thing she could think of: contact the mightiest heroes of the Vale and beg for help.

It was the “mightiest heroes” bit that did the trick, and the Defenders agreed to help her (and, she’s a hot drow; you can imagine that all of the Defenders had that fact firmly in mind). Seeta bestowed the Blessing of Lolth upon the heroes, and promised to make the blessing permanent if and when they stopped Festa.

Led by Seeta, the group set out for Zebarza, located in the Cloak Wood. The outpost stank like death, and was strangely absent of spiders—little ones, anyway. The Defenders discovered that there were still a few big ones in the outpost; seems that the drow, despite having turned their backs on Lolth, were unwilling to dispose of their highly-trained pets.

The first chamber was a guard post. The guards here were commanded by a drow battle wight, and his troops were archers. He also had a couple blade spider watchdogs. The drow had formulated a good strategy for repelling invaders: he and his spiders would try to bottle neck any intruders in the cave mouth while his archers fired poison crossbow bolts at the enemy. The strategy worked for awhile, and Hanrut in particular suffered from several volleys, but once the Defenders broke through the arachnid wall, the archers were easy enough to chase down.

The Defenders next came to a deep crevasse spanned by a stone bridge. There were spiderwebs hanging near the bridge—evidently, a clue that another big spider was near. There was a spider of sorts at the near end of the bridge—a drider, to be specific. The none-too-bright drider was having a conversation with an important looking older drow woman. Actually, the drider was trying to understand his assignment: guard the bridge. The drow woman explained that Lady Festa was in council with the Leaders of the Coalition of Five Tribes, and that she was about to seize control of the Coalition. With the Coalition under her control, the drow could move against the rest of the Nentir Vale. The drider only needed to guard the bridge and make sure the Jester didn’t come to crash the party.

Her explanation given—or rather, her frustration at the drider’s subpar intellect having worn her patience thin—she turned to go. But surprise! With a cry of “haha!” Erdann charged from hiding with much bravado and loosed an arrow at the old woman. The poor girl never knew what hit her. Well, she knew when she saw the tip of Erdann’s arrow sticking out of her chest. Pherril, not to be outdone, charged after Erdann and fired off a spell. The stately drow (actually a powerful arachnomancer with the capability to really make the Defenders have a bad day) whirled to face her enemies, only to be blasted from existence by Pherril’s magic. Archer and sorcerer gave each other a high-five, there was much rejoicing, and all that. But wait! There’s still a drider and his other two buddies! The buddies in question decided to retreat across the bridge and fire their hand crossbows, but the drider opted for a head on assault. The Defenders obliged by trying the old surround-n-pound. The drider summoned darkness upon them, and stabbed a few. He also managed to web Black before Hanrut came to the rescue and pushed the pesky mutant off the bridge.

Meanwhile, Pherril and Sariel had been exchanging fire with the other two drow. Pherril got a little too close to the edge of the chasm, though, and came face to face with the creator of all the webs in here—a white widow (affectionately called Emfeena by her arachnomancer mistress; Emfeena means “Precious” in the drow tongue). Pherril crapped his pants (bravely), and tried to get away from the monster’s fangs. Unfortunately for him, he had nowhere to go, and was bitten several times. Black to the rescue! The warforged had managed to break free of his webs and ran to help the sorcerer. He and Sariel opened up a path for Pherril to escape. Meanwhile, Hanrut had charged across the bridge to finish off the remaining drow skirmishers.

Pherril and Erdann were still patting each other on the back as the heroes decided to take the right hand corridor from the room (bypassing the newly dedicated Temple to Vecna—shh, don’t tell ‘em…). They soon came to the training room, where Betoil Ik’Dyl was busy instructing some of his students in the finer arts of kicking ass. Betoil is what is technically know as a “bad motherfucker.” He used to be known as the White Spider, but was now known as the Whispering Skull. Both of these are nicknames he gave himself, but bad motherfuckers can get away with that. And he had the opportunity to prove it.

Pherril, still awfully proud of himself for pwning an old woman, charged forward and blasted Betoil with a spell. Erdann fired off an arrow. Both of the Defenders scored good hits on the drow chainmaster, and Hanrut charged in cause that’s what he does. But Betoil had a couple pets that Festa had made for him—a son of kyuss (a worm infested corpse), and ghoul eater (you know it’s nasty if it eats ghouls). The ghoul eater decided to eat dwarf for a change, and kept Hanrut pretty busy for some time. Betoil launched a frenzy of spiked chain ouchies, hollering out to his students, “this, kids, this is why I can give myself nicknames!” All of the Defenders got cut up, Pherril and Black seeming to take the worst of it. And, just to add insult to injury, Betoil lashed at a couple of the training posts in the room; these posts burst with concussive force when struck. Black and Seeta, unprepared for this, were both knocked on their asses.

And then the son of kyuss decided he wanted to play, too. And he wanted to play with Pherril. Poor, poor sorcerer. I swear, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a magic user take a beating like this in all my years of DMing. I mean, well, have you ever seen Fight Club? When Travis or Cornelius or whatever his real name is is beating the shit out of pretty boy and all the spectators are wincing and turning away and puking and stuff? Yeah, that’s kinda how it was for poor ol’ Pherril. I almost felt sorry for him, but since I am an evil DM, I feel no compassion for the PCs. Pfft. Anyway… Uh, where was I? Oh, yeah. Pherril did the best he could, but he got infected with the son of kyuss’ worm disease. Black did, too (and he wondered aloud how he, a man made of metal, could catch a worm disease; the gods had no answer for him).

But the Defenders prevailed, and Betoil and his pets and his students were dispatched with much brutality.

“I don’t feel so good,” murmured Pherril, swaying on his feet. “I think I need to lay down for a few days.”

“We can set up a guard post here!” said Sariel enthusiastically. “The robot can stay awake and guard!”

“Well, I’ll need to rest for a couple hours, but yeah,” said Black.

“This how you guys usually operate?” asked Erdann. “Camp in the middle of enemy territory? I’m down with that.”

Hanrut, who had finished digging the last of the worms from the bodies of Pherril and Black, chimed in.

“No, that’s not how we operate,” he growled. “We stay here and there’s no way we get out alive. These damned dark elves will keep coming. We need to keep moving or leave the place entirely.”

After a brief debate (spirit voices may or may not have been involved), the Defenders remembered that they are, in fact, NOT punk bitches, and decided to press on.

They reached their goal at the end of the next hallway: the council chamber. Within, Festa was in the process of sealing the deal to gain leadership of the Coalition. Eema Norday, leader of the human contingent, wanted nothing but to kill Festa, Enguth the Unseen (goblin leader) and Kroll Bloodfist (orc leader) pretty much told her to sit down and shut up. Kleth Hyge (gnoll leader) remained silent during the argument. Lord Zethada (and who the hell is this dude, anyway?) observed all from a magical mirror in the room. Lady Festa finally revealed her trump card—the Hand of Vecna was grafted onto her left arm! Lord Zethada granted her leadership of the Coalition, and her first command was to kill the eavesdroppers—the Defenders of the Vale!

Battle was joined. The leaders of the Coalition—who are, in fact, very good at what they do, and who had asserted their dominance on the Defenders when last they met—proved to not be so bad as was previously indicated. Of the four, Kroll made a nuisance of himself by turning Erdann into a frog for a limited time, and Kleth fired some arrows, but the Coalition leaders were quickly dispatched with little muss, fuss, or bother. Festa and her pets—another son of kyuss and an animated scarecrow—proved to be more troublesome.

You remember Festa from before, right? No? Well, she’s an enchantress. She charms people into doing her bidding, and if she kisses you, you’re pretty much in love with her from then on. And she remembered the Defenders from the last time they met (in Ranel’s workshop). She immediately went after Hanrut, having previously decided that if she ever ran into these yahoos again, she wanted a stout little dwarven protector. And she got one.

The Defenders had trouble fighting their way down from the balcony. Or perhaps this was their strategy. It proved to be pretty effective, whichever it was. Festa sent Wormy and the scarecrow up the stairs after the Defenders, but Black got into the thick of things (as he does) and laid waste to all around him. Sariel didn’t seem to care that Hanrut was jumping in front of the daggers she was throwing at Festa. Either that, or she had decided that the dwarf was a traitor and he had to die.

It was actually kind of embarrassing, Hanrut jumping to protect his new mistress with love in his eyes and cries of, “no, don’t hurt the mistress!” I imagine that it will be quite some time before Hanrut can live this shame down.

Unfortunately for Festa, she wasn’t able to exploit the abilities of the Hand as she had planned. The Defenders managed to make quite a defense (heh) on the stairs, and she couldn’t get close enough to them to start inflicting necrotic nastiness on them. And when her minions went down, the target was squarely on her head. Well, she had a pet dwarf for that, but it was still annoying.

Hanrut eventually fell to a combination of attacks, mostly Sariels daggers (Sariel, was that really necessary?), and Festa went looking for a new slave.

“One down, four to go,” she thought with a grin.

Erdann thought he saw an opening, and fired off one of his trademark pwnage arrows.

“Now why would you shoot at me, sweetie?” Festa asked him with an evil gleam in her eye. “I think you should kill that obnoxious cow on the balcony.”

Sure enough, the arrow flew true—straight into Sariel.

“Sonuva--!” the eladrin cried.

“Oh yes, darling,” said Festa. “And there’s more where that came from!”

The enchantress used her charms on Pherril, next, and the poor put-upon sorcerer blasted his friend with an acid orb.

“Shit, sorry!” he shouted as Sariel staggered.

Seeta (remember her?) had jumped up on the table and was trying to do her best to heal people with her foul, drow magic (foul but appreciated, you can be sure!). She blessed Sariel with healing magic at the same time that Festa found her new target.

“My, my, aren’t you a big one?” she said, looking at Black with greedy eyes. “Kiss me, you fool.”

Black couldn’t help himself, and Festa had herself a new beau.

The barbarian, since he’s a barbarian, decided that he wasn’t ready to commit to this kind of relationship and tried to stay as far away from Festa as possible. The Defenders had figured out how they might defeat this heartbreaker drow, and sent everything they had at her when her slave ran away.

Meanwhile, Erdann had managed to work his way around to the barely breathing body of Hanrut. Some quick first aid and the fighter was back on his feet.

“Alright,” said Hanrut, “enough of this bullshit.”

“My dwarf!” exclaimed Festa, happiness in her eyes. “I thought I’d lost you! Come give us a kiss!”

Kissed the dwarf was, but he’d decided that he didn’t want any more of this relationship than Black did. He avoided Festa with all his might, and the jilted lover decided she’d had enough of this party.

“You may have won this round, but I’ll be back. I just need more drow,” Festa said. “And undead. And maybe even spiders!”

She charged up the stairs, taking a few hits from the Defenders on her way. Erdann, who had gone down the stairs, went back up. He pulled his swords and slashed. Festa, who was beginning to think that she may have pushed her luck a little too far, dodged the blows as well as she could. She pulled the door open and ran for her life, deeper into Zebarza, going to find more drow and undead. And maybe even spiders.

“Damn it!” Hanrut growled, throwing his hammer to the floor.

Meanwhile, back in Fallcrest, Brother Gauthak returned home after a few days wandering in the wilderness. Although he likes civilization quite a bit (food and drink is readily available, after all, and he doesn’t have to kill and/or make it himself), he sometimes feels the need to “get back to nature.”

“I wonder what the guys have been up to since I’ve been gone,” wondered Brother Guathak as he opened the door of his new home. “Probably getting drunk at the tavern and gambling away all their money. Damn, wish I would’ve stayed.”

The house was empty. There was a note on the kitchen table. It read:

“Off to Cloak Wood to kill drow. Hot drow girl asked us, we couldn’t say no. Look for a rock with Vecna symbol on it. Once inside, follow the trail of dead bodies. See ya soon!”

The note was signed “the Defenders of the Vale.”

There was a post script: “Bring ale.” Signed “Hanrut.”

There was another post script: “Why is your underwear drawer empty?” Signed “Sariel.”

Brother Guathak rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. “Such friends I have,” he said to Kord. “Thanks.”

He went up to his room to gather his adventuring gear.

“And I guess I’d better get some gods damned ale…”

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

((More installment skippage. I'll see how much I can remember of the previous game. Kinda dry compared to recent installments; sorry bout that... ))

The Defenders pursued Festa through the caverns, eventually battling their way outside where they encountered a large group of drow all wearing tabards with the symbol of a red fist. After defeating these drow, the Defenders decided to make their way back to Fallcrest. On the way, they encountered a group of citizens from Fallcrest who explained that the town had been attacked. The army all wore the red fist symbol. According to these refugees, the entire Nentir Vale was under attack by this army.

After a battle with some quicklings and a steel dragon, the Defenders decided that they would need help to try to defeat this attacking army and save the Vale. Erdann left for his homeland to try to recruit the elves to the effort. Seeta disappeared during the middle of the night (treachery!), and Roland Glintshield (brother of Rangrim) arrived to ask the Defenders for help once again.

It seems that shortly after the group departed from Stonefang Keep, hordes of drow had attacked and placed the dwarves in some sort of stasis. Not only that, but evidently not all of Stonefang's artifacts had been destroyed; the drow were trying to revive him.

On the way to the Keep, the Defenders encountered a gang of yuan-ti. Were the snake-men part of Lord Zethada's plot, somehow? A search of their lair returned no evidence.

The Defenders returned to Stonefang Keep, Roland in tow. There they encountered a gang of cyclops and their drow mistresses. As if that isn't bad enough, the drow were necromancers! They used their black arts to bring their slain slaves back from the dead, raised as zombies to continue the fight. These formidable enemies almost proved a match for the mighty Defenders of the Vale, but Kord smiled on them that day (and the almost dead Brother Gauthak bringing the mostly dead Hanrut back from the brink helped a little, too).

Further into the Keep, the Defenders encountered more drow priestesses and their spider minions. These were defeated, and the group searched for a way to break the stasis entrapping the dwarves. In Stonefang's chamber, the group found yet another drow priestess in the middle of performing a ritual to attempt to awaken the titan Stonefang!

"No!" she cried. "I'm almost finished!"

She cast a spell, summoning a goristro demon! Hanrut raced to keep the goristro busy, and Sariel was entrapped and held pinned in the air, but the rest of the Defenders made short work of the priestess. Hanrut made almost as short work of the demon, driving it to and then over the edge of the bottomless pit.

All in a day's work for the Defenders of the Vale.

The heroes freed the dwarves, who agreed to join in the effort to battle the drow of the Red Fist. The heroes told them they would call when they were needed.

On the way out of the Keep, the Defenders found a veritable army of drow arrayed against them. Uh oh. Preparing for what was likely to be their last glorious battle, the Defenders were surprised when Seeta came forward. Well, not surprised to see her, but surprised by what she said next.

"Sorry," she said. "These were all the drow I could rally to fight Festa the Blasphemer."

Now with new allies, the Defenders must find a way to defeat Lord Zethada and his armies. Although the leaders of the Coalition of Five Tribes have been slain, it is more than likely that new leaders have risen to take their places. Festa il'Sook the Blasphemer was alive and well and evidently in charge of the majority of Lord Zethada's forces. There was still the question of Erdann's mission to his homeland and his attempt to rally the usually aloof elves. What would be the Defenders' next move?

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

With Fallcrest sacked and looted by the remnants of the Coalition of the Five Tribes (or whatever they are calling themselves now that Festa and the drow have taken over), the Defenders of the Vale headed to Winterhaven to join up with the survivors of Fallcrest.

In Winterhaven, the Defenders were approached by the new Lord Warden of Fallcrest, Ernesto Markelhay. He explained that the raiders had come upon them suddenly, and that the few citizens of Fallcrest that had managed to escape had been forced to flee with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Lord Warden Markelhay believes that Nentir Vale can mount a war against the dark forces assailing them, but they will need money to outfit and maintain their armies. The vast treasury was abandoned in the flight from Fallcrest, but the vault is well-hidden; Lord Warden Markelhay believes that the raiders may not have found it, and asks the Defenders to travel back to Fallcrest and liberate the treasury. He also asks that they retrieve his sceptre, a family heirloom.

The Defenders of the Vale agree, of course, and they set out immediately. Pherril remained with the wagons (brought along to haul the loot back from the ruins of Fallcrest). On the road, the Defenders encountered a small group of half-orcs that were attempting to wrangle a number of large boars into a pen. What exactly they were going to do with them after that, no one knows. But the Defenders didn't take any chances, and attacked them immediately and with extreme prejudice. They were joined in their efforts by a couple of the boars who turned on their captors.

The battle was going swimmingly for the Defenders until a dying orc opened the pen and released the other captive boars. The angry pigs made their displeasure felt, indiscriminately attacking both orcs and Defenders. Mostly Defenders. But the battle was won.

Sariel commanded Pherrill to make himself useful and cook them some pork. The sorcerer did so with not too much complaint.

The heroes made it to Fallcrest and approached the sacked town. Fires were still smoldering in the rubble and corpses littered the streets as they made their way to Markelhay's castle. They arrived to find a group of dark dwarves and their carrion crawler pets poking through the rubble. The duergar immediately attacked, but had some trouble coaxing their pets to fight (the crawlers seemed more interested in eating corpses than in trying to eat something that would fight back).

The dark dwarves were defeated with little trouble, but their presence in the ruins raised new questions. Had Festa really managed to unite every evil race in the Vale into a single army bent on destroying the good races? The evidence seemed to point to yes. The Defenders would have their work cut out for them.

They found a survivor amongst the ruins. He told them that he had seen the raiders cart off the loot from the treasury, including a sceptre. He thought that they were headed north.

The Defenders naturally set off in hot pursuit. It would take them two days to reach their destination. On the way, they came across a beautiful elf woman, camped in the hostile wilds all alone. Now, the fact that she was alone should have told them something, but the gullible Defenders approached anyway and offered to share her fire and protect her. Turns out they would need protecting, as the elf woman suddenly transformed into a dryad briar witch! The foul fey and her plant monsters attacked the hapless Defenders, and did their best to destroy them.

They nearly succeeded. Brother Gauthak went down, and only a timely intervention from Hanrut saved him from the afterlife. The Defenders were pushed to their limits, but they finally managed to defeat the plant creatures and their vile mistress.

To be continued...

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

((More installment skippage?! Hrm, well, uh, let's just say that the Defenders managed to liberate Ernesto's scepter and the treasury and rescue some refugees. Sorry bout that, but ya'll know that you can do synopses of yer own, too, so I ain't that sorry! Also, I didn't bother to edit this one too much, so please ignore any typos or lameness.))

The Defenders of the Vale returned to Winterhaven with the treasury of Fallcrest and a couple dozen refugees in tow. The little town was overrun with other refugees from across the entire Nentir Vale, and conditions were not exactly pleasant. The Defenders met with Lord Warden Ernesto Markelhay (son of the late Faran Markelhay, Vecna cultist and secret member of the Coalition of Five Tribes), and Baron Wind Iceangel, lord of Winterhaven. It quickly became obvious that the two didn’t much like each other.

The two lords related to our heroes news of the war. The dwarven army of Stonefang had engaged a Coalition force of orcs, gnolls, and goblins (this Coalition army led by a gnoll warchief named Kretch Hellrise); the dwarves won a costly victory, and Hellrise’s army was scattered, but the dwarves suffered heavy losses and had to retreat to Stonefang. Another Coalition army, this one led by Lady Festa Il,Sook, had sacked a number of towns including Nenvale, and were currently headquartered in a town called Wealthy Giant. Seeta Em’Dayne’s drow army had fought a few skirmishes with yet a third Coalition army made up mostly of troglodytes and human mercenaries (the leader of this army is an orc witch named Raven Strifedream), but neither side had won a decisive victory.

Baron Wind and Lord Warden Ernesto later approached the Defenders separately and it was then that they learned the reason for the strife between the two: Baron Wind claimed that Ernesto was demanding that the people of Winterhaven give their stored food and supplies to an army that he had put together. After all, an army must eat. But Baron Wind said that the demand was unfair; Winterhaven was willing to share, but Ernesto wanted all of their supplies. Ernesto said that, yes, he wanted to food and supplies; he intended to march on Wealthy Giant and defeat Lady Festa’s army. Baron Wind was unreasonable, greedily hoarding his supplies; after all, if the Coalition forces weren’t defeated, the people of Winterhaven would die, hungry or not.

The Defenders decided to dig a little deeper and find some things out on their own. They went to where the army was camped, and got to know a few of the soldiers and citizens of Winterhaven. They heard several rumors about both Baron Wind and Ernesto:

• Ernesto is a worshipper of Vecna just like his father was.
• Ernesto is a member of the Coalition.
• There’s a plague running through the army, started by Ernesto and Lady Allande (his mother). They’re necromancers and intend to raise the army as undead when they all die.
• Baron Wind used to be a paladin of Pelor, but he murdered his wife and nailed her to the altar in the boarded up temple.
• The temple was boarded up and abandoned about the same time all the Fallcrest refugees started arriving.
• The old High Priest was found dead in a field – murdered or old age, nobody seems to know.

Most of the rumors seemed to point to the temple of Pelor, so naturally that’s where the Defenders decided to investigate next.

As they were sneaking into the place, they encountered Sir Light Maxim, an old friend who’d travelled with them previously. Sir Light was also trying to sneak into the place, and since everybody looked trustworthy, they all decided to enter together.

Inside the temple, they found a bloody, mutilated corpse nailed to the altar, just like the rumors had described. The body was in such bad shape that it was impossible to determine gender or even race. While the Defenders were examining it, they were attacked by a group of quicklings. The quickling guards were defeated, but their leader, a blademaster, managed to escape.

The defenders set off in hot pursuit, not wanting the blademaster to warn her allies. They chased her down into the secret dungeon below the temple and into a sitting room occupied by a delegation of shadar-kai and their cyclops bodyguards. The shadar-kai were put out of their misery, but the speedy quickling managed to escape again! The Defenders plunged deeper into the dungeon, and soon came to the end of the worked stone and into natural cavern. A huge underground chamber housed a small temple near a shallow stream. The stream was spanned by a bridge, and the bridge was guarded by an abyssal eviscerator. The demon howled its warning upon spotting the Defenders and was soon joined by its demonic allies – a vrock and a babau – and its duergar masters. Unfortunately, the quickling blademaster was nowhere in sight.

Battle was joined, and although the Defenders had their hands full with these fiends, they managed to prevail. The duergar lord tried to escape, but he was stopped and slain.

Pressing on, the Defenders of the Vale finally came to another underground temple. Within, they found sitting upon a throne Lord Warden Ernesto Markelhay! The young man was accompanied by an undead thing dressed in rags with loose skin – the remnants of his father, Faran! Ernesto congratulated the heroes for being useful pawns, and actually seemed to regret that he no longer had any use for them. Ernesto indicated that he was now Vecna’s champion (truth or a cocky boast?), and that his mother had plans for the army he’d raised (seems that rumor was true). He also hinted that he was a servant of Lord Zethada, and that he would “get his.” After his short monologue, he and his undead slaves (and his drider) attacked.

The first wave of undead (ghoulish drow and the disgusting sons of Kyuss) were dealt with handily, but then the drider was able to reach the front line where it wreaked a considerable amount of havoc while the second wave of undead arrived to do their stuff. Ernesto and his father (aka Mayor Darkhell) stayed behind their mighty drider and sent waves of necromantic magic into the Defenders. The drider was finally slain, but it was then that Erdan succumbed to the vile curse of Kyuss; he was killed and then rose again as an undead monstrosity!

One assumes that it was with heavy hearts that the Defenders put their former friend down (but one can never be too sure, of course). With the drider dead, and the undead minions destroyed, Ernesto and his father had little chance. Ernesto, filled with bloodlust, refused to flee the battle and was cut down. Mayor Darkhell, having suffered a tremendous amount of damage, transformed into a thing of bloody flesh and attacked with a frenzy. Sir Light was slain, but the few remaining Defenders managed to defeat the monster and claim a victory for the free peoples of Nentir Vale.

And what now? It seems obvious that Lady Allande Markelhay must be dealt with before she can enact her plan to transform Ernesto’s army into zombies. And there’s still a little problem with Lady Festa and her army in Wealthy Giant. And at least one more Coalition army roaming around Nentir Vale. And Lord Zethada, who will certainly need to be dealt with sooner or later. And the Defenders of the Vale are suffering quite a bit of attrition in this war they’re fighting. Who can be found to replace those who’ve given their lives to protect the people of Nentir Vale? Guess we’ll have to wait to find out…

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

With the Vecnite Ernesto Markelhay killed, the Defenders of the Vale returned from the desecrated temple back out to Winterhaven. Evidently, Lady Allande Markelhay had been busy while the Defenders had been dealing with her son – she and the army the two had been raising had fled the area. Baron Wind Iceangel explained the situation to the Defenders, and although Brother Gauthak really (really) wanted to go after them, the baron’s other news interested him and the rest of the Defenders more – Lady Festa il’Sook’s army in Wealthy Giant was ready to move on Winterhaven, and the Defenders of the Vale needed to hustle to that town and somehow try to find a way to stop her.

Before heading out to Wealthy Giant, Baron Wind put the Defenders up in town’s inn. They received room and board for the night (both were hardly adequate, in Brother Guathak’s opinion, and the incessant whining and moaning of the refugees grated on his ears; lucky for them, he was able to sleep…). During their meal, they met an eladrin named Dayereth Stormcrow, a warden who knew Seeta; he claimed that she had sent him to join up with the Defenders of the Vale since they had “trouble keeping their members alive.” Despite his feelings of distrust (the first words out of this dude’s mouth was an insult, and he remembered what happened with the other eladrin when he joined the Defenders), Brother Gauthak greeted him with a hearty “you look trustworthy!” in attempt to put the man at ease (and not tip him off that the big goliath would be keeping his eye on him).

The next morning, the group headed out for Wealthy Giant. Naturally, they were ambushed on the road near the Cloak Wood by a gang of ogres, members of the Coalition of Five Tribes (Brother Gauthak decided that this name was a misnomer, and plans to suggest calling their enemies the Coalition of Varied and Numerous Tribes That Mean the People of the Vale No Good). After the beasts were dealt with, the group heard shouts nearby. Investigating, they found another group of Coalition soldiers threatening a man clad in motley. One of them called him Jester – could this be THE Jester that the Defenders had heard about? Turned out that he was, but they still didn’t know how or why he was important, only that he was.

The Coalition goons were slain with dispatch, and the Jester was rescued with grace, charm, and panache. The Jester begged the Defenders to take him with them, saying that he would be safer with them than by himself. Brother Gauthak tried to explain that they were on an assassination mission, headed to a town overrun with the very same brutes who’d just tried to capture him, and may have repeated Dayereth’s words of the previous day, but the Jester would not be dissuaded. So, join them he did, but he least he stayed out of the way, for the most part.

The Defenders reached Wealthy Giant the next day, but before they could even form a cunning plan guaranteed to get them into the town undetected, they were interrupted by a fleet of airships sailing overhead. This caused the Coalition forces in the town great consternation, and Lady Festa came out of her stronghold (the inn) to order her troops to intercept the unknown troops on the airships. Being the leader she is, she retreated back into the inn after giving her orders.

This was their chance! With almost everyone in town rushing to meet the coming battle, Wealthy Giant was mostly deserted. A short fight when they got to town commenced, but the Defenders trounced them with great ease and lots of “haha!”s. The Defenders rushed to the inn and charged on in, crashing through the door like they owned the place.

Lady Festa, of course, was not alone. She had some zombies and a couple drow bodyguards with her, not that she necessarily needed them; she can twist the minds of her foes, remember, turning her enemies into her BFFs. Brother Guathak decided that the best course of action was a frontal assault, and with a mighty “gonna get you sucka,” charged the drow noble, leaping over a table with a war cry, axe raised and ready to split the woman like a log. One look at her lovely face made him reconsider his murderous intent, though, and he decided that he was in love with her right there on the spot.

Somewhere, a dwarf laughed gleefully.

Lady Festa’s first command for her new pet was to slay the warden. “Yes, mistress!” Brother Guathak cried happily – he still didn’t fully trust that fey dude. The battle raged, but the Defenders, remembering their last encounter with the evil drow noble, managed to keep it together and defend themselves decently well.

Meanwhile, the Jester peeked his head in the door to see how his saviors were doing. As soon as Lady Festa caught sight of him, though, she lost all thoughts of playing with the Defenders; she charged the Jester, clawing him repeatedly with her left hand – the Hand of Vecna. The Jester did little more than curl up in a little ball and whine “stop, stop!” Lady Festa’s inattention did give the Defenders the opening they needed, and they managed to defeat her other bodyguards. Brother Gauthak, Festa’s enchantment over him broken, was still partially in her control; he couldn’t bring himself to harm her (she’s so preeetty), but he was no longer interested in taking a shuriken for her.

The other Defenders had no problem attacking the distracted head of the Coalition, and they set upon her with vengeful relish. Lady Festa didn’t like this turn of events, and I think you can understand why. She charged up the stairs to the second floor of the inn, followed by the Defenders of the Vale. Once upstairs, she charmed Dayereth (traitor!), but the Defenders were ready for this. Sariel knocked Dayereth off the balcony, Pherril blasted, Brother Gauthak charged, and Lady Festa was all like “screw this noise.” She ran and jumped through a window, and the Defenders followed. And, best of all, thanks to Sariel’s ring, they all landed on the ground unharmed and in that dramatic kneeling pose we all love so well. They made short work of Lady Festa after that, and then claimed the Hand of Vecna.

Now to escape Wealthy Giant. During the battle in the inn, the town had been overrun and the Coalition forces scattered to the winds. The Defenders hustled through the mostly deserted streets, but then were surrounded by a group of the attackers from the airships – githyanki! The alien warriors surrounded them, and the Jester rushed up to them. His form changed to look like the githyanki, and he reached into his hat (up to the elbow, evidently a hat of holding), and pulled out a black bastard sword – the Sword of Kas! He gave the weapon to his githyanki commander, and the commander remarked something like, “good work, Ace, they’ll never kill Vecna without this! Now, you four, kill these yahoos.” Four githyanki, somewhat already beat up, stayed to finish the Defenders while the rest of them (and the Jester) returned to their ships. The Defenders defeated their enemies rather handily, and rushed for the airship that had remained behind.

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Wasting no time, the Defenders of the Vale charged the githyanki clipper. They could see a number of gith soldiers on the vessel preparing to repel the attack, and at the same time, a couple other armed men rushing the vessel from the side. Since these two didn’t look appear to be members of the Coalition, and they looked trustworthy, the Defenders were happy to fight at their side against the githyanki.

The battle was fast and furious, and when it was over, the Defenders had themselves a brand new githyanki-style Astral clipper, which they named the Prize. The strangers were named Orgoth the Relentless, goliath berserker, and Raish, a dragonborn warlord. The two got along with the Defenders and found them to be trustworthy as well.

Still confused about what exactly was going on, the Defenders returned to Winterhaven to report the success of their mission, and these new developments, to Baron Wind. It took them a little time to figure out how to fly the airship, but they did with a little brainwork. On their journey they saw scattered members of the Coalition running hither and yon, and assumed that the Coalition was all but defeated.

Once arriving in Winterhaven, they learned that three allied armies had recently arrived – the dwarves of Stonefang, reinforced and reprovisioned, and led by Lord Barthol; the “friendly” drow led by Lady Seeta il’Dal; and a force of halflings, humans, and elves from the east led by their old friend Meriele! The reunion was over quickly, and it was decided that the Defenders should take the Prize into the Astral Plane and try to figure out just what in the Nine Hells was going on. Baron Wind believed that Meriele and the others could deal with the remnants of the Coalition in Nentir Vale, especially now that their greatest general (Lady Festa) was dead. The Defenders agreed and set off for the Astral to retrieve the Sword of Kas, the Eye of Vecna, and to find out what the deal was what with all the goings on.

It took a little more ciphering to figure out how to get the Prize into the Astral, but they soon found themselves there. The Astral Plane is a silvery gray void, full of a whole lot of nothing. They were promptly attacked by a group of (what they would later learn are called) quom and their pet warder devil. The quom (they would later learn) are religious fanatic pirates scouring the multiverse for the missing pieces of their blowed up god; nobody seems to know what will happen when they find all the parts, but most right-thinking free individuals figure it’s no good. That’s pretty irrelevant for this situation, though; the quom were looking for the pieces and thought the Defenders might have some. The two ships were boarded, first by the warder devil who died in a blaze of glory. The quom were dealt with rather quickly, with nary a sweat being broken. Their comet ship – completely alien and indecipherable to the Defenders – was left to drift in what passes for the tides of the Astral Sea.

A day or so later, the Defenders of the Vale came upon a tavern called the Cheerful Jester. This could have been the proverbial “ill omen,” but only Hanrut seemed to be a little concerned about it (and not very, for that matter). The Defenders went in, ordered ale, and started talking to the gnoll bartender about the githyanki. The bartender didn’t know anything, but he did point out a figure wearing a robe and wrapped in rags that might be able to help them. This man agreed to help them for a price, and he didn’t want cash or sexual favors. They two parties eventually agreed that the Defenders would give him their magic githyanki Astral charts in exchange for the name of and directions to a sage (Ashem) that could provide them with answers.

The Defenders soon reached the sage’s tower, a squat structure built on a smallish chunk of debris that had somehow managed to support some thriving flora. The sage’s guardians were none too pleased to see strangers, and they did their best to repel the invaders. Their best was actually pretty good, but the Defenders of the Vale managed to emerge triumphant after a long, hard fought battle.

They made their way underground, seeking the entrance to the tower. In a cavernous chamber they discovered the corpses of some monsters; evidently, these were more of Ashem’s guardians that had recently been killed. Somebody had gotten here before them! How they had managed to evade the huge plant and stone beasts outside was a mystery, though.

The Defenders reached the tower and searched it thoroughly, but neither hide nor hair of the sage was found. Nothing but a note he had left for anybody who happened to be looking for him. The note said that he had likely been captured by one of two factions of gith looking for the Sword of Kas – either the dragonrider Or’Dumath of Ack’it’ad, or the gish It’ene of Kor’Kimoth. Or’Dumath wants to retrieve the Sword for Vlaakith the Lich Queen, undead ruler of the githyanki. It’ene has less noble motives – she wants the Sword simply because Or’Dumath, her rival, wants it. Ashem seemed to believe that if It’ene had the Sword, she would likely hang on to it for awhile rather than immediately handing it over to Vlaakith.

More disturbing was what Ashem believed Vlaakith wanted the Sword for – he believed that it was her goal to use the Sword of Kas and the Hand of Vecna to actually kill Vecna and take his place as the god of secrets in the pantheon! Such a thing, he claimed, would be disastrous for the whole multiverse, but he didn’t elaborate on the specific reasons why. Ashem also asked in the note that anybody finding it should come and rescue him; such an action would be considered payment for any damage to his guardians.

The Defenders had a choice to make, and no clues to help them make that choice. But that situation didn’t last long. As they left the tunnel that led back to the exterior, a gang of githyanki led by a dragonrider confronted them. This dragonrider was Or’Dumath, and he demanded that they hand the sage over to him.

“Give me the sage and I’ll make sure you die quickly,” said the gith.

“We don’t have him,” said Hanrut.

“He’s back in Winterhaven,” said Pherril.

“Preposterous,” said Or’Dumath. “Ashem would never leave his home here.”

“Look, you,” said Pherril, trying on his scary voice. “He’s in Winterhaven, he’s got the Sword, and he’s going to sell it to the highest bidder!”

“Lies!” shouted Or’Dumath. “You seal your fate of a slow, agonizing death!”

“Come on,” said Pherril, “can’t we work this out? I’m telling you the truth!”

“No!” shouted Or’Dumath. “I give you this last chance or I feed you to my dragon!”

“Then bring it, Mr. Poopypants!”

“Nobody calls me that and lives!”

Battle was joined, and for awhile it looked as if Or’Dumath might be able to carry through with his threat, but a mighty blow from Hanrut stunned Or’Dumath’s bigass steed. The rest of the Defenders unloaded on the poor beast, Orgoth and Pherril in particular dealing punishment in heretofore unprecedented magnitude. Or’Dumath, his goons dead and his dragon slain, fought with desperation, but Raish proved his worth as he led the final charge that ended the battle and Or’Dumath’s existence.

In the aftermath, the once-mighty dragon was ignominiously sliced open by Pherril who was looking for any loot that the creature might have inadvertently eaten. His gory effort was rewarded with a valuable gem. Or’Dumath’s Astral skiff, the Deep Harrier, was also looted, and the Defenders got themselves a nice haul, including several suits of magical armor.

Flush with victory and decked out in fancy new duds, the Defenders of the Vale paused to take stock of the situation. The clues they’d discovered led to the following assumptions: It’ene of Kor’Kimoth had captured Ashem the sage before the Jester had found the Sword of Kas. She’s a gish, and therefore a powerful arcanist, and had evidently used her magic to evade the exterior guardians, but had been forced to kill the interior guardians on her way either in or out of the tower. Evidently, her agent the Jester had been in Nentir Vale for some time looking for the Sword, but he was only able to find it after It’ene had gotten info on its whereabouts from Ashem. There was no way to know if Ashem still lived or not, but, according to his note, it seemed likely that It’ene would still have the Sword of Kas. And it also seemed likely that Ashem might still be alive; judging from what little the Defenders knew of her, she seemed like the kind of person that would keep a resource as valuable as a sage alive, relatively well, and either happy enough or scared enough to answer all her questions.

So it seems obvious that the Defenders must seek out Kor’Kimoth, rescue Ashem the sage, and steal the Sword of Kas from It’ene. Assuming that their assumptions are correct and she hasn’t handed the weapon over to Vlaakith, that is. And also assuming that it is even possible to invade and/or infiltrate Kor’Kimoth...

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

The Defenders of the Vale tried several times to get to Kor'Kimoth, but where stymied at every turn. Seems the outpost is too well-defended. They needed to use other means of gaining entry, specifically, sneaking. They learned of one man who might be able to help - B'sogg, the boss of a mining colony located on a Budong (a petrified primordial floating in the Astral Sea). The Defenders sailed the Prize to the colony, and sought a way to speak with him (Hanrut and Orgoth remained on the ship to keep an eye on things).

Brother Gauthak cleverly interrogated one of the dreary miners there ("where is B'sogg?" "that building over there"), but before they could enter, they noted a large gang of githyanki warriors leaving the place, each packing a chest presumably full of Nogelti crystals (things that make Astral ships go). Before the gith could discover them, a teenage street urchin named Tysla hustled them into an alley. They explained to her that they needed to see B'sogg, and she told them that he would never tell them how to sneak into Kor'kimoth. Unless they had some sort of leverage against him.

Now, Brother Gauthak seemed to think that the swords and axes of he and his companions should prove leverage enough, but Tysla mentioned that several of the colony's workers had gone missing. If the Defenders could link the disappearances to B'sogg somehow, they could blackmail the secrets of Kor'kimoth out of him. The Defenders agreed to investigate.

Tysla led them the area where people had gone missing. There, the Defenders encountered a group of miners that had somehow been altered, warped into strange, aberrant forms. And, as usual, although the Defenders "wanted to talk", they were "forced to kill" (ha!). Having no idea how or why the miners were altered, the Defenders pushed deeper into the mine, where they found a roper and a pair of smokey spider-things. They made quick work of these monsters, as well.

Pressing on, they finally came to a large chamber where a human in a black robe was muttering to himself about how somebody didn't want him to find the master, but he would find him, oh yes, he could hear his voice, the master was close, and so on and so forth. Now remember, the Defenders of the Vale haven't had many happy times with crazy religious zealots, and they figured they wouldn't with this one, either. After an intense battle, they managed to slay the fanatic and his stoney servants. Turns out, this was Tarvis, B'sogg's brother. The Defenders had the leverage they needed.

But before they could do much more than catch their breath, another rocky shape emerged from the wall of the mine - a huge rocky shape. Evidently, this was the master Tarvis was muttering about. Maybe Tarvis' god really was divine, as it was accompanied by a pair of gray skinned angel looking things (which Brother Gauthak killed with a pair of mighty blows). The stone behemoth proved to be a capable foe, but hardly godlike. The Defenders killed it and then returned to the mining colony to speak with Tysla and bully B'sogg.

B'sogg (grotesquely fat) caved quickly (and evidently a coward) and told the Defenders that he would smuggle them into Kor'kimoth aboard a Nogelti crystal ship. He also gave them a pair of communication crystals with which they could call their getaway ship, the Prize.

Before the doors of the storage compartment closed, the Defenders took a last look out at B'sogg. And to their shock, they watched as a mind flayer walked up behind the man...

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

“Good evening, Brother Gauthak,” said a small voice near his head. The goliath spun, swinging the back of his hand at the little creature – an imp. The thing fluttered like a scaly moth as it dodged the wild blow.

“Who are you and what do you want?” asked Brother Gauthak.

“Easy, easy!” the imp exclaimed. “I’m Mistress Meriele’s familiar! She sent me here to see how you all were doing. Don’t kill me or anything!”

“A familiar?” asked Brother Gauthak.

“Yes,” the imp said. “Her familiar. She used a ritual to send me here.”

“Why send you? Why not just use a ritual to talk to us directly?”

“If you are insinuating that my mistress sometimes grows tired of my company…” began the imp.

“I would be right?” Brother Gauthak finished. The imp narrowed its eyes in a glare. Brother Gauthak merely chuckled. Although this thing was a denizen of one of the Nine Hells, it was harmless; it was bound to Meriele, and wouldn’t harm him or the other Defenders of the Vale. It could get up to some kind of mischief if left unwatched, though, so Brother Gauthak intended to not let it go unwatched. He turned back to the task of polishing his armor, which the imp had interrupted.

The silence stretched for several moments.

“So?” asked the imp.

“So?” replied Brother Gauthak.

“How are you all doing?!” the imp screeched. “Mistress wants to know!”

“Fine,” said Brother Gauthak.

“You’ve found the Sword of Kas and eliminated the gith threat to the Vale, then?”

“Sort of , and not exactly.”

“So that’s how it’s going to be, eh?” said the imp. “You seem determined to make my task as difficult and unpleasant as possible. I’ve dealt with people like you before, brute. You think you’re clever, but you’re not, and in the end, you’ll get what’s coming to you.”

“Is that a threat?” asked Brother Gauthak, still not facing the imp.

“Maybe,” came the reply. “My mistress is a powerful creature, and she doesn’t appreciate it when her servants are toyed with!”

“I know your mistress,” said Brother Gauthak. “She’s a friend. And she’s exactly the kind of person who would like her servants toyed with. She’d even do most of the toying.”

“I mean my true mistress, you – ” began the imp before cutting himself off. Brother Gauthak decided to store that little slip of the tongue away in a safe place in his mind. He was sure that Meriele knew what she was doing having an imp as a familiar – at least he hoped she did – but it would be good to remember the imp’s apparent hidden agenda.

“You’re right,” said Brother Gauthak. “I should cooperate. The sooner you get what you want, the sooner you’ll leave. And therefore the sooner I get what I want.”

“Good,” said the imp.

“We did find the Sword, but we don’t have it, yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a little more difficult than we’d assumed.”

The imp sighed. “What do you mean?” it asked, rolling its eyes.

“We thought we’d found a way to sneak into Kor’kimoth,” Brother Gauthak said. “A man named B’sogg offered to smuggle us in on a mining ship. Er, the rest of the Defenders, that is; I remained aboard the Prize.”

“Wait a minute,” said the imp. “So I’m getting this information second-hand? Bother! I’m going to go talk to Sariel!”

The imp turned to flutter out of the room, but Brother Gauthak, careful to avoid the little devil’s stinger, grabbed its tail. The imp squawked and glared at him.

“She’s busy,” Brother Gauthak said. “Talk to me.”

“Get on with it, then!”

“Well, B’sogg told his flunkies to betray us. They told the dock captain where the others were hiding. They were all pretty pissed about it, especially Raish. I swear, I thought he was going into apoplexy while they told me about it.”

“So what then?” asked the imp. “Did they get captured or something?”

“Of course not,” said Brother Gauthak, waving his hand dismissively. “They slaughtered B’sogg’s boys and everybody else on the docks. Except for some slaves. One of them, think his name is Endold or Osmond or something, he’s a spell caster of some sort. Cast a ritual to make the guys look like githyanki so they could infiltrate Kor’kimoth. He said that the Sword was kept in the trophy room, and drew them a map. All he asked in return was a little gold. Cheapskate Pherril offered him like 5 gold, but Raish was more generous.”

“What’s ‘generous?’”

“Oh, five thousand, I think.”

The imp’s eyes grew wide, and he began to sputter as if choking.

“There were dozens of slaves,” said Brother Gauthak, “and money isn’t worth as much on the Astral as it is in the real world. I’m sure they’ll put it to good use.”

“And the rest of you had no problem with that?” asked the imp. “Nobody said anything? I’m sure the dwarf, what’s his name, I’m sure he wasn’t happy! Imagine all the ale that money could buy!”

“Hanrut didn’t say anything,” said Brother Gauthak, his face growing dark.

“Oh please,” said the imp. “That’s all dwarves are good for – stinking, drinking, and pissing! I’m sure Hanrut or whatever is no different.”

Brother Gauthak lashed out, grabbing the devil out of the air and imprisoning it in the iron grip of his hand. He brought the imp close to his face, his eyes burning holes.

“Hanrut was the best of us,” Brother Gauthak said, his voice dangerously quiet. “I’ll not have you slander his name.”

“Was?” the imp squeaked. “Something happened, didn’t it?”

“Hanrut gave his life so that the others could escape certain death.” Brother Gauthak looked away and shook his head, remembering what the others had told him about what had happened. “I should have been there. I should have fought by his side, died by his side, if it came to that. And I wouldn’t have left his body in the hands of those monsters!”

“So let me get this straight,” said the imp. “Sariel and Mistress Meriele are the only surviving members of the Defenders of the Vale? She’s gonna shit when I tell her!”

Brother Gauthak roared and flung the creature at the wall. The imp barely managed to get its wings unfolded enough slow its flight, but it still hit the wall with an oof. Brother Gauthak reached down for his axe, a prayer to Kord already spilling from his lips.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” the imp screamed. Brother Gauthak swung his axe, and the blade passed through the devil as if it were made of paper. The imp vanished.

It was two hours later when Meriele appeared in his room. The eladrin wizard was ghostly, a projection from her study in the Nentir Vale. She wore a jeweled sword at her hip, a flowing cloak on her shoulders, and a smirk on her lips. Her arms were folded across her chest, and her foot was tapping lightly. The imp was cowering at her shoulder.

“That’s him, Mistress, that’s him!” the imp said, pointing at Brother Gauthak. The devil then vanished.

“Next time you want to talk to me,” said Brother Gauthak, folding his own arms and facing Meriele, “don’t send your minions.”

“That’s why I’m here, Brother of Kord,” she said. Her voice seemed distant, which of course it was, traversing through the multi-verse from the real world to the Astral Sea. Brother Gauthak knew a few rituals himself, but he had never had any interest in the types of magic that allowed travel from one reality to another. Well, except for those that allowed travel from death to life. And vice versa.

“You’ve made an enemy, you know, Brother,” Meriele said with a small laugh. “Dullhorn is very sensitive, and he holds a grudge.”

“You know that you are not that creature’s only mistress,” said Brother Gauthak.

“Of course,” she said. “But he’s useful, and it’s convenient for me to have him in my service. For now. When he’s outlived his usefulness, I’ll deal with him. Don’t worry about me, Brother.”

“You’ve used my title,” said Brother Guathak. “How can I return the favor? How should I refer to you? High Mage? Sword Dancer? General? I won’t call you ‘Mistress.’”

“’Meriele’ is fine,” she said with another laugh. “Although any of those would be appropriate. I don’t demand that my friends show proper respect. Mostly because I know they won’t.”

Brother Guathak nodded and allowed himself a little smile.

“Dullhorn told me about Hanrut,” Meriele said. “I wish I had been there.”

“As do I.”

“Tell me about it,” Meriele said. “All Dullhorn said was that you’d been betrayed by this B’sogg, and that Hanrut had been killed.”

“He told you about Unrod, I guess,” said Brother Gauthak. “After he cast the ritual, the guys went into Kor’kimoth. He’d drawn them a map, but he isn’t a very good mapmaker, come to find out. They had a general idea of where to go, but they kind of had to wing it.”

“They’ve never been good at that,” Meriele said. “And this sneaking thing…”

“There was no other way,” he said. “From what I understand, they did a pretty good job, though. Their disguises were good, better than the map, anyway. They managed to bluff their way past some real guard patrols, and went into the ruined section of the fortress. They even had It’ene’s son, for a little while.”

“Who’s It’ene?”

“The commander of Kor’kimoth.”

“Oh, that’s right,” said Meriele. “What did they do with him? I assume they used him for leverage.”

“Well, they didn’t know who he was while they had him. He was just a lost little boy looking for his mommy, so they took him home. It wasn’t until later they learned who he was.”

“I’ll bet that irritated them.”

“Oh, they still tried to use him. They tried to convince It’ene that they still had him once they met her. But she either didn’t believe them, or didn’t care.”

“Seems like the githyanki way,” Meriele said. “The strong live, the rest die.”

“Either way, they couldn’t convince It’ene of anything other than that they were thieves out to steal the Sword of Kas. They got to the trophy room, no problem. The place was huge, they said. More like a museum. And the Sword was on display, only it wasn’t the real Sword. It’ene was carrying that.”

“So what happened when they got to the throne room?”

“Hanrut and Dayereth stayed outside to guard the door. I guess that was part of the ruse, relieving the guards on duty. The other three convinced the guards inside that they were there to relieve them, but these two were more suspicious. But those guards left, and Sariel disarmed the trap on the Sword case. It’ene must’ve been really proud of that Sword, too, since it was displayed in the middle of the room.”

“Well, gith are pretty proud of themselves.”

“After that,” Brother Gauthak continued, “It’ene showed up. And she had the real Sword of Kas, and a couple elite bodyguards, and scads of soldiers. Pherril and Sariel tried to talk their way out of it, and according to them, they were eloquent and convincing, but It’ene wouldn’t be swayed.”

“And we both know,” said Meriele, “that they were crass and blustering.”

Brother Gauthak nodded and shrugged, knowing that he would have used threats of violence himself had he been there.

“I assume,” said Meriele, “that It’ene activated the trap from her position.”

“You assume correctly. She pushed a button or something, and the floor dropped away from around the Sword case. Sariel, Pherril, and Raish fell down into some kind of arena where It’ene had her pet, Foofie, or Pookie, or something. And it was a pampered pet, too, from what the guys say, with its own umber hulk attendants.”

“I’m sure that was irritating.”

“To hear them tell it, it was an epic battle to end all epic battles. Hanrut and Dayereth made their way into the room and took a couple gith into the pit with them. Dayereth was close to death at one point, I think, but, well, you know how they are.”

“They’ll always surprise you.”

Brother Gauthak paused, remembering Hanrut’s fate. And Meriele was right, he thought; they would always surprise you. Hanrut shouldn’t have died. He should—

“So they killed Poofie and then..?” asked Meriele.

“They found a skeleton in the arena,” said Brother Gauthak. “They looted a magic ring from it, but something tells me that skeleton was important. I don’t know why, it’s just a feeling I get.”

“Had they taken a bone, you could have raised it, correct? Or talked to it, or something?”

“Yes,” said Brother Gauthak. “But they didn’t, so it isn’t important. All the gith had been watching the fight from the trophy room, and the guys found a way to get back up there. They fought bravely and fiercely, but there were just too many of them. They finally figured out that they could not win, and that’s when Sariel called me on the magic crystal.”

Brother Gauthak grew silent.

“And then?” asked Meriele, already knowing the answer.

“That’s when Hanrut died,” said Brother Gauthak with a sigh. “He stood to hold off the enemy while the others escaped.” He shook his head. “At first I blamed them for leaving him behind. How could they flee while he fought? But then I realized that I would have done the same. I would have fought to make sure the others escaped, I would have used my abilities to help the others get away, trusting in Hanrut to hold the line, to stand there facing the enemy, daring them to face him. He had always been indestructible. It’s just…”

Brother Gauthak shook his head.

“If only they’d brought his body!” he said. “I could have brought him back!”

“It was not to be,” said Meriele.

“We’ll meet in the afterlife,” said Brother Gauthak. “We’ll hoist a tankard and complain about old times.”

“So what happened after…?”

“I arrived in the Prize at the docks of Kor’kimoth. The guys were running from every githyanki that lives there. They got on the ship and, well, here we are.”

“You escaped, but you didn’t get the Sword.”

“Correct,” said Brother Gauthak. “But we know that It’ene has it. We have the Hand of Vecna still, and Vecna himself has his Eye. We’ll need to develop a new strategy.”

“Thank you, Brother,” said Meriele. “I’ll let you get back to what you were doing.”

“Back to the Vale, then?”

“No,” she said. “I think I’m going to visit Sariel for a few minutes. Or a few hours.”

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

After escaping from the botched invasion of Kor'kimoth, the Defenders of the Vale decided to return to the mining colony on the carcass of the Budong for a little retribution against B'sogg, the boss of the colony that had double-crossed them. Brother Gauthak, for one, thought this a fine idea; he was itching to get his fingers on the slimy, fat toad.

The Prize sailed into the docking area, only to find it completely abandoned. No ships, no people, nothing. Further investigation of colony turned up more of the same. Completely flabbergasted, the Defenders finally found a hidden laboratory behind B'sogg's "throne room" (a jumped up office; seems B'sogg thought pretty highly of himself). I the lab they found a teleportation circle and the body of Boss Toad; B'sogg's brain had been removed from his head, and he'd been posed with a pair of scrolls in his hands: one to lead to Kor'kimoth through the teleporter circle, and one to come back. Whoever left the message thought it clear, but the Defenders aren't known for excessive brain power. A little cyphering led them to the idea that the mind flayer they'd glimpsed earlier was gently suggesting they head back to Kor'kimoth; the githyanki would no doubt be spreading themselves thin hunting for them, and thus the Sword of Kas would be easier to pilfer.

The githyanki plan (kill Vecna and replace him with their Lich Queen Vlaakith) is something the mind flayers would not want to see happen. Evidently, the mind flayer at the colony had grown tired of B'sogg, and was probably a little miffed that his toady had tried to turn the Defenders over to the gith. Especially since the flayer wanted to use them as its tool against those same gith.

"It's really quite simple when you sit and think about it for a minute," explained Brother Gauthak.

"You didn't explain that," said Raish. "Somebody else made that happen."

Brother Gauthak glared; he had no argument for that impeccable logic.

Anyway, the Defenders grabbed the scrolls, hopped in the circle, and blipped back to Kor'kimoth. At their destination they found a lone githyanki. Battle was joined, and the gith used magic to animate half a dozen ornate suits of armor. The battle was swift and rather one sided. Afterwards, with only one way to go, the Defenders went.

They encountered a patrol, and intended to make quick work of them. Their work wasn't as quick as planned. There were a number of githyanki, and a trio of orc demon hybrid mutant things. The mutant things hit really hard. Brother Gauthak managed to keep the githyanki leader and one of the mutant things busy, trusting his companions to take care of the other enemies. It's a time honored and effective strategy (somewhat effective).

"Take out the archers, first!" Brother Gauthak shouted after feeling the dazing sting of their arrows.

"On it!" answered Raish.

Blows were exchanged, when suddenly Brother Gauthak felt another arrow enter into his tender flesh.

"Why are those archers still alive?!"

"Our strategy is to focus fire!" Pherrill growled. "You've drilled that into our--"

"When you have guys with arrows, tactics have to--" The rest was lost in an incoherent holler as Brother Gauthak defended himself against his two foes.

The battle raged long enough that the Defenders began to worry about enemy reinforcements, but finally they were victorious. Words were exchanged post combat, but their debate on strategy and tactics was cut short as they heard voices coming from the top of some stairs leading out of the room.

To paraphrase: "Quit messin' around It'ene. Overlord Kada'ne wants that Sword and the prisoner. And I mean NOW, dammit!"

The Defenders had no idea who the prisoner might be, and didn't really care; they knew exactly what the Sword in question was, and they wanted it. They hustled up the stairs after It'ene, but by the time they got there, she was gone.

What was there was a huge two headed dragon. The dragon had a massive wingspan, red scales, and a rime of frost covering its body. It also had a squad of flunkies in attendance. Our heroes had little time to ponder why a dragon was bossing around It'ene; that will surely be a question to answer at some later date, though.

The flunkies died quick, thanks to Pherrill's magical prowess in fluky-killin'. The dragon did not die quick. The beast possessed uncanny speed, and was tough as nails. It also had a tendency to freeze peoples' feet to the floor. It also seemed to have an unhealthy hatred of both Pherrill and Raish, taking turns smiting them with extreme prejudice, moving from one to the other with glee. Both Dayereth and Brother Gauthak had trouble keeping the thing's attention, but Sariel managed to avoid the worst of its wrath.

The battle was a long, grinding affair, with the dragon chasing Pherrill and Raish around the huge cavern, and Dayereth and Brother Gauthak chasing the dragon. Sariel attacked from the shadows - it's her MO, after all - but the dragon evidently didn't consider her to be a threat. At least, not an immediate one.

Finally the beast was slain, but not until it had grievously wounded both Pherrill and Raish; despite his prodigious healing capabilities, Brother Gauthak was hard pressed to keep his friends' blood and entrails inside their bodies (and this with Raish's own healing powers working overtime).

"Oof, I'm feelin' kinda woozy," Raish said after the battle.

Kord's Balls, thought Brother Gauthak, rolling his eyes. Not this again. He held his tongue, though; Raish didn't look good, honestly, but the dragonborn sucked it up and the Defenders moved on. Or well, they moved back to the room they'd encountered the patrol, having found nothing down the other tunnel leading from the cavern.

Once in the guardroom, they heard a scream coming from the second tunnel leading from that room. The scream ended in a gurgle; not a pleasant sound. But the Defenders of the Vale do not run from the unpleasant; instead, they charged to the rescue!

They kicked the door down and walked in like they owned the place; the place was a torture chamber. The source of the gurgle was a man strapped to a table with his face melted off. A pair of gith torturers where beating up a human man who was strapped to a chair, and another human was chained to the opposite wall. With a roar, this man broke free of his chains and attacked.

As it always does, the strategy the Defenders had honed over the past months broke down almost immediately, but this is no big deal as it is actually part of the strategy. Clever, yes? Yes, I think so! Unfortunately, a strategy of chaos sometimes leads to chaotic things, and such was the case here. Raish attempted to dramatically jump up onto the torture table to attack one of the gith with much flourish and bravado. Naturally, when a spectacular maneuver fails, it does so spectacularly. Raish slipped in the gore on the table top, and fell directly onto the victim's melted face. He attempted to break his fall, but his sword hand slipped - and plunged directly into the bucket of acid that had been used to melt the aforementioned victim's face. It did the same thing to Raish's hand...

After this, the battle could do nothing but end anticlimactically. It did so, and the Defenders took stock of their situation.

They first checked Raish to make sure he wouldn't die from his injuries. They then checked on the man strapped to the chair. A little healing magic fixed him right up. Turns out, he is a human named Maugris Bayard, a warrior with a preference for the fullblade. Brother Gauthak noticed that his tabard had once born the symbol of Bahamut, but that it had been removed. A fallen paladin? Maugris explained that he was hunting somebody named Overlord Kada'ne. Hmm, very interesting!

"It just so happens that we might be looking for this person," said Brother Gauthak. "Or at least somebody who's going to him."

"He will die," said Maugris. "That's all I care about."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," said Pherrill. And it was decided; the trustworthy looking fallen paladin of Bahamut would join the Defenders of the Vale in their quest to--

Wait, wait, wait!! What about Raish's hand?! I know that's what you're thinking, and really, there's nothing to worry about. After a brief discussion, it was decided that the Hand of Vecna would be used to replace Raish's hand. He needed a hand, the Defenders happened to have one. It's perfect symmetry! What could possibly go wrong?

[Ixos 2: the Sequel]

Meanwhile, Back in the Nentir Vale

“Idiots,” said Count Braelast the Undying in his dust-dry voice. “Entertaining, but idiots nonetheless.”

“Yes, master,” said the shade at his side.

“I told you to be silent, Allande,” said the Count, never taking his eyes from the mirror on his desk.

“Yes, master,” said the shade, Allande. “But in two minutes you will ask me a question and become enraged when I don’t answer you. I’ve given up trying to guess your moods and wishes, so I will simply speak when I have something to say. Master.”

“Gifted Vecnites were never so disrespectful in the old days,” said Count Braelast with a sigh.

“Maybe they actually considered it a ‘gift,’” said Allande.

Count Braelast didn’t answer. Her statement wasn’t deserving of one. He simply watched the images in his mirror, the images of the Defenders of the Vale and their quest on the Astral Plane.

The Count had run into them before, and honestly hadn’t considered them to be much of a threat. He’d met them early in their careers, and very few of the original Defenders were still alive. That first meeting, he’d demanded that they retrieve his sword Soulcry from the dragon beneath Kobold Hall, which they’d done without question. They’d even left one of their own behind as a hostage, the eladrin wizard Meriele.

Braelast’s leathery lip creaked into a vicious curl at the thought of that woman…

The Defenders were in the Astral seeking the Sword of Kas and the Eye of Vecna. They had the crazy idea that if they acquired these artifacts they would be able to kill Lord Vecna. Fools. Idiots, indeed. But they had actually managed to win the Hand of Vecna, and a dragonborn named Raish had attached the holy artifact to his own arm.

If Braelast could still laugh, he would have roared.

These fools, most of whom he’d never met, had sailed their skiff the Prize to an outpost called Tremka. The Hand’s Slave had told them that he’d had a vision that they should go there. What followed was an entertaining argument with some fire giants that the Defenders tricked into giving up their parking space.

At a bar called the Warm Nymph, the warden Dayereth – another thrice-damned eladrin! – had exposed his gambling problem whilst gleaning information about the whereabouts of It’ene, the githyanki gish who currently possessed the Sword of Kas.

“Not for long, though,” muttered Count Braelast.

“I assume you are talking to yourself,” said Allande the shade. “It makes it hard to answer when I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Then stay silent,” he said.

The Hand’s Slave found more information from the djinn minstrel, and the fallen paladin of Bahamut irritated the bartender into giving more clues.

“Fallen paladin of Bahamut,” said Count Braelast. “How devilishly interesting.”

“Nobody talks like that,” said Allande the shade.

The Defenders pieced together enough of the puzzle to go to the Broken Backbone Inn where an AWOL member of It’ene’s retinue was hiding. They chased the githyanki out of the inn, only to run into a squad of Lord Vecna’s servants. But the Defenders, through foul luck, managed to defeat them.

“Lord Vecna should have sent me,” said Count Braelast. “Brute force is the last thing we need here! These Defenders understand brute force, they don’t understand finesse! I could take the Hand back from them with ease!”

“Our Dread Lord should have sent me, too,” Allande the shade snarled. “I want these Defenders dead! They killed my son, and my husband! I want to see them die, I want to drain the warmth from their bodies! I want to feel them die, to hear their whimpers as the life drains away from them, to see the light leave their eyes! I want to see their corpses frozen and twisted in the last throes of—”

“Silence, Allande!”

“We should go, Master,” the shade continued. “We should go to the Astral and slay these Defenders, take the Hand from them, take the Sword of Kas from It’ene. You have the power to take us there! Lord Vecna would reward us beyond belief!”

“Silence!” Count Braelast shouted. He was embarrassed to hear the pitiful, strangled noise coming from his own throat. Several centuries of undeath are not good for the vocal cords.

But it was enough to make Allande shut up.

“Lord Vecna has other plans for us,” he continued. “You will not mention this idea again.”

He turned back to the mirror in time to see the Defenders approaching the Trask Estate in the Vinta District of Tremka. Ah yes, Osyrimon’s rented estate. But why would they think It’ene would go there? The woman was terrified of Osyrimon learning her secret. Vlaakith the Lich Queen of the githyanki had sent her most trusted general, Osyrimon, to Tremka to intercept It’ene and take the Sword from her. Vlaakith obviously didn’t trust It’ene, and with good reason, but Count Braelast didn’t think Vlaakith knew what It’ene was really up to.

The Defenders made their way into the Trask Estate after bluffing their way past a marut gendarme who’d paused to find out why they were so interested in the property. The halls of the estate were splattered with gore. And no wonder; It’ene’s soldiers had come into the place and attacked in a fury. The battle had raged fiercely with many casualties on both sides. The Defenders followed the trail of blood to deep below the estate, and came to an underground chamber where the final battle raged, gith against gith, It’ene with the Black Sword dueling Osyrimon, general of the githyanki.

The arrival of the Defenders changed everything, though. Githyanki rivalries were put aside temporarily to face this new enemy. Osyrimon charged to battle the Defenders of the Vale while It’ene used her gish magic to blast away at juicy targets. But the Defenders used the githyankis’ own magic against them; they’d acquired several silver swords during their quest, and managed to banish Osyrimon to “elsewhere” many times during the course of the battle.

Count Braelast studied this battle with keen interest. He watched intently to observe his enemies’ strengths and weaknesses; he knew that eventually he would meet them again, and he would have to test his power against theirs.

Sariel and Pherril he’d observed before, and he knew their tactics; these two would hang back in any fight, they would attack from a distance, and those attacks would be devastating. Sariel the sneak would attack with various sharp, pointy objects, and Pherril the dabbler would attack with lightning. Neither wanted to engage in melee combat, and so they had both honed their abilities to focus on mobility.

Dayereth the defender wasn’t imposing, but was surprisingly resilient. That one could be a thorn in Braelast’s side if ignored.

Raish the Hand’s Slave Braelast had observed before; the man seemed suicidal, throwing himself into battle with reckless abandon (among other clichés), but evidently unable to survive his recklessness. Maybe the man really did have a death wish. Of all the Defenders, Braelast was the least concerned about this one; Raish was the Hand’s Slave, after all.

Gauthak the brute wasn’t with the Defenders for this battle, but Braelast had gathered enough information on that one. The priest of Kord was powerful but unimaginative; a little finesse, a bit of trickery, and that one would fall.

Maugris the fallen paladin was the one Count Braelast was most interested in. He was the newest member of the Defenders, a stray they’d only recently rescued. And from what Braelast could see, the man was a terror with his sword and seemingly invulnerable. But he was a slave to his own anger. If Braelast could only somehow turn that to his advantage…

“Master,” said Allande the shade timidly (and Braelast was pleased to hear the timidity in her voice), “I don’t understand what’s going on. It’ene and Osyrimon are both githyanki, and they both serve the Lich Queen. Why are they fighting? Why did Lich Queen Vlaakith send Osyrimon to collect the Sword of Kas instead of waiting for It’ene to bring it to her? And why did It’ene storm Osyrimon’s estate?”

“You weren’t this stupid when you were alive, Allande,” said Count Braelast, “think it through.”

“We know that Lich Queen Vlaakith wants the artifacts of Lord Vecna because she foolishly thinks that she can use them to kill our Dread Lord and take his place as the God of Secrets,” said Allande. “It’ene has one of the artifacts, the Sword of Kas, and she is on her way to deliver it to Vlaakith. But Vlaakith doesn’t trust her for some reason, and has sent her general Osyrimon to get the Sword from It’ene at Tremka instead of waiting for her to deliver it. What I don’t understand is why Vlaakith doesn’t trust It’ene.”

“Watch, Allande,” said Count Braelast. “I believe you’ll have the answer to that question presently. And then you’ll have another question.”

Count Braelast and Allande the shade looked back into the mirror to see the Defenders win their battle against the githyanki. Both Osyrimon and It’ene fled, Osyrimon beaten and bloodied, It’ene untouched but fearful. The Defenders chased It’ene.

“Naturally,” said a voice near Count Braelast’s ear hole. “Eyes on the prize. Osyrimon is just a bump in the road so far as they’re concerned. They want the Sword.”

“Dullhorn,” said Count Braelast. He slowly turned his head to regard the imp, the desiccated muscles of his neck creaking like old wood. “To which of your mistresses do I owe the honor of this visit?”

“Guess,” said the imp with a smirk.

“Meriele,” called Count Braelast with his tortured voice. “You don’t have to hide from me. Come on out and say hello.”

“Hello.”

Count Braelast turned and there she was, leaning against the doorframe, ankles crossed and arms folded across her chest. Arrogant as always and as beautiful as he remembered her. Her blonde hair spilled over the black cloak she wore on her shoulders, and a jeweled sword rode her hip. Braelast smiled, flakes of his face falling to the stone floor with the motion.

“I’ll assume this isn’t a friendly call,” he said. “You’d make a lovely lich.”

“I’m only here for one thing, Braelast,” she said. Then she frowned and looked to the side. “Actually, I guess I’m here for a lot of things. But becoming a lich isn’t one of them.”

“I’ll assume that killing me is one of the things you’re here for.”

“Didn’t I kill you once, already?” Meriele asked. “Guess it didn’t take. I could try again if you want.”

“Maybe you could kill me,” said Count Braelast. “Maybe. But it wouldn’t be quick and it wouldn’t be easy. And I think you might want to see something.” He stepped to the side and gestured at his mirror. “Remember this?”

“Oh yes,” Meriele said. “I’m here for a lot of things, remember?”

“Then you might want to take a look. I believe your friends are about to learn something.”

Meriele walked to the mirror. Count Braelast stepped aside, maneuvering slightly behind her. His hand started to move toward his sword Soulcry, but his eyes strayed to the images in the mirror, and even a reflection of a reflection of a goddess is something that one cannot ignore.

Tiamat.

The Defenders of the Vale had chased It’ene into the grave-filled courtyard of the Trask Estate. Boasts and threats were exchanged, and then the aspect of the goddess of dragons arrived, falling to the ground like a meteor. Even through the mirror, Braelast was affected by the majesty of the goddess. He could do nothing but watch as battle was joined far away on the Astral.

“Rise, my child,” said Tiamat to It’ene. “We are pleased with you, despite your troubles. You have performed well—“

“’My child?!’” Allande exclaimed. “It’ene serves Tiamat?!”

The outburst broke the spell the image of the goddess had cast on Count Braelast. He glanced at Meriele, who was still evidently enthralled by the action in the mirror. His lip curled again, and his hand gripped the hilt of Soulcry.

“You don’t pick very intelligent servants, do you, Brealast?” asked Meriele. “This one isn’t any smarter than the wraith. But at least she figured it out.”

“I’m going to drink the souls of your friends, witch!” hissed Allande the shade. “I’ll make you watch while I do it!”

“Well, I was going to accuse Bray-Bray of keeping you in the dark,” said Meriele. She stood stock still, staring at the epic battle that raged in the mirror. Count Braelast slowly drew his sword from its sheath. “But instead I’ll just call you a stupid dead bitch that can’t count to ten with both hands.”

Count Braelast struck with the speed the Gift of Vecna had given him. His blade was a blur, slashing through Meriele with savage fury. Allande’s shadowy claws struck at the same time, ripping into the eladrin’s flesh.

The woman simply laughed.

“Nice try, Bray-Bray,” she said. Count Braelast turned as the illusion faded. Meriele stood where she had before, leaning against the doorframe, her imp familiar sitting on her shoulder. Dullhorn cackled like a mad hyena.

Count Braelast stepped towards her.

“I’m going to kill you, Meriele,” he said. “I’m going to kill you and I’m going to make you into my eternal plaything. Countless delightful centuries that I’ll have you all to myself. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of hurting you.”

“You seem to forget that I killed you once,” she said.

“That was then,” he said, the desiccated flesh around his eye sockets tightening. “This is now.”

“No, this is still then, now,” she said. With a casual flip of her hand, Count Braelast vanished.

Meriele walked to the mirror where the battle between Tiamat and the Defenders of the Vale still raged. Allande the shade backed away cautiously, seemingly unsure whether to attack or flee.

“Oh, you guys,” said Meriele to the mirror as the Defenders retreated from the battle. “You bit off just a little more than you could chew.”

The Defenders fled through the gore-splattered halls of the Trask Estate, and the goddess Tiamat pursued, shattering through the walls and stonework of the mansion.

“A new trick,” said Count Braelast from behind Meriele. “Impressive. But not quite enough, I think.”

“That was quick,” said Meriele, glancing at him from over her shoulder. “Let’s try something else!”

Count Braelast quickly recited the words to one of his favorite spells, twisting his hand into a gripping fist to complete the incantation. A hand of stone rose up from the floor of the ruined castle, engulfing Meriele in its stony grip.

“How cute!” she said with a giggle, and then suddenly vanished. Thrice-damned eladrin! Count Braelast whirled in time to see Meriele behind him, her sword a blur as it sliced into him. And he was sent elsewhere again.

“I would like a little privacy,” Meriele said as she walked back to the mirror. She looked into its magical depths and saw that her friends were surrounded by a posse of marut police.

Well, it could always be worse.

Meriele glanced over at Allande the shade who was doing her best to disappear into the shadows in the corner.

“Do you really like him?” she asked.

“What?” asked Allande.

“Never mind,” Meriele said. She lifted the mirror from its brackets on the desk. “I’m going to take this. I don’t want to miss anything, and I won’t be able to pay attention with your boyfriend constantly trying to kill me and stuff. Ta-ta!”

Meriele vanished with the mirror in her hands. Dullhorn remained a moment longer, grinning leeringly at Allande, and then he too vanished.

“Oh, very good!” said Count Braelast as he reappeared in the chamber in blast of noisome smoke. “But I tire of this game! Breathe deep the mist of—“

He stopped in his tirade, and looked around the empty chamber. Allande came out from the shadows.

“I hate her, master,” she said. “I want to eat her soul. I want to make her suffer for humiliating you. I want to make her fingers shrivel and her toes rot. I want to hear her beg for mercy. I want to make her grow old from the torment. I want to make her eyes go blind and her hair turn gray and her…”

“Shut up, Allande,” said Count Braelast.