They decided to go treasure hunting while on the way to the dracolich’s lair in the forest. Blame the magical map. Found a glade containing a bloody whirlpool.

Attacked by blood slimes and some kind of wraith. Freaking lethal auras, and it required some clever forced movement to mitigate the kind of punishment those were dealing out. Fortunately, no one was dominated which would have sucked hard.

Barely won, and then Tegalad was volunteered to go swimming around in the necrotic pool (he had the best resistance!) searching for the treasure. He dragged up a locked box, and the party eagerly opened it to find…

Chapter 5: The Rise

They go upstairs to do battle with the beholder, only to discover that he’s also undead. Jack is turned to stone early in the fight, leaving the rest of the party to battle the aberrations without him. They pull it out with style, then search the city for a ritual to deal with Jack’s condition. The paladin restored, the complete the deal with the mindflayer bartender, and leave Ooltul.

They enter a bony forest and decide to throw down with the denizens of an ancient cemetery. They win, but there is no sign of the secondary treasure shown on Tegalad’s map.

Chapter 5: The Rise

They meet a duergar trader, Dooger T. Digger, and accompany him to the ruined beholder city of Ooltul. There, the gray dwarf assures them they will find someone who can help them locate the yuan-ti stronghold they seek.

Directed to a bar run by an aged mind flayer, the heroes find out that they are not the only ones seeking the artifact crown. They are asked to dispatch a beholder and his gang to protect the interests of the would-be informant – the slimy barkeep himself.

They agree, strongarm a devourer into giving up the location of the gang headquarters, and begin their assault.

The party is ambushed by necrotic spiders and undead in the egg-shaped chamber on the Underdark side of the portal. Defeating these creatures, they walk up Set’s Shadow Bridge to the only exit and proceed through the tunnels.

They find their way blocked by water. Set performs a ritual allowing everyone to breathe water and move freely through it. Walking along the bottom of the watery tunnel, they come to an underground lake. Defeating the kuo-toa guarding it proves difficult because of the lightning moss growing along the shore.

They cross another Shadow Bridge to escape this chamber after looting the fish-men.

Joining forces with the earthquake dragon, the heroes take the fight back to Terrakrant in his lair and narrowly defeat the gray in his lair.

Set performs the ritual to open the portal in the Earth Node to the Underdark.

Work In Progress

Rekshee paced back and forth in the craggy chamber, his teeth chattering from the cold. These paths through the veil were incredibly uncomfortable, but the Master was in his head forcing him to stay and wait. Unfortunately if the Commander arrived too much later then Rekshee would be another victim of frosty climate of the dank caverns. He paced some more to keep the joints in his legs from stiffening again.

He almost tried to turn to leave again, sure that the Commander would not be back this night, but as soon as he did he remembered the coma inducing pain that would stab at his mind. It was like someone had blown arctic wind into his ears at such a high pressure that it liquefied and froze his brain at the same instant. He stopped on his toes and stayed put thinking of warmer thoughts and pacing again, always turning away from the path behind him.

Back on the Prime, the adventurers found themselves placed within the streets of Barter’s Pass. Startled refugees scattered as the group of four men, bloody and beaten, hauled a corpse in armor to the front door of the temple of Chauntea. Dara Esterlee answered the men and sent a pale red-haired girl – Rose – to fetch her “father” Thadius… The heroes of Barter’s Pass had returned from Hell… And one had fallen within its depths.

Rose was stopped before even reaching her father as he strode past her quickly, heading toward the house of the priestess. However he did not enter, he did not even make for the door. Instead he pointed directly toward the elf leaning against the outside wall. “Tegalad,” he stated, “you have brought me the sword… Give it to me.”

Written by zero and Jasper

Jack Wolfram came out of the Kickin’ Chicken after breakfast and took a deep breath as he looked up and down the street, wondering what he should do next. His house was built, the construction of both new temples was well underway and no one had reported any trouble lately. He thought that perhaps he might slip off to do some fishing, maybe even inviting Ixtab to come along when his plans were suddenly interrupted by a sight that disturbed him deeply.

Some of the refugee children were gathered around a pale-skinned figure with long red hair in tight braids. At first glance, he thought that The Rose was out socializing, but then he realized that the pale figure lacked the alabaster artifact’s curves. Frowning, Jack recalled a report that he’d received about a man whose face seemed to ripple and change shapes. When he’d read it he had been distracted with other matters and dismissed the report as the result of some illusionists’ trick. He decided to take a closer look, and walked over to the crowd of children.