Today will be sunny with a chance of tornado.

We return to the rift. This time we summon forth a powerful wind storm to help clear the fog so we can see where we are going. The fog peels away in layers like an onion being shredded. As we look down through the cleared chasm we see a massive fortress built in the middle. I feel a tugging in my head pushing me toward the NW branch of the chasm. We decide to investigate the fortress first.

The place is old. Thick rust coated porticullis block our entrance, but with some effort we wrench it open. Woken from their slumber just inside the next set of gates are two massive, mutated hydras. Eight scaled heads surround a massive fanged maw in the beast's chest. Unphased we wade into the swarm of snapping heads. A short while later one of the beasts lies crumpled on the ground and for the keep a figure emerges. He calls off the remaining thesla-hydra and demands to know what we want.
As he approaches we notice that it is a liche, probably the ancient wizard Thesla himself who created the abominations we faced. We question him about Dragotha and he laughs.
Go to your doom if you wish, but you would do best to leave while you still can.
We manage to persuade him to give us more useful advice by opting to not tear his little keep apart.
A short ways away a massive hole in the chasm floor drops down and that is the entrance to Dragotha's lair. I still have this pulling desire to head to the NW so we decide to check that out before we decend down to Dragotha.

The northwest branch leads to a cave entrance. A hidden drop awaits us at the entrance and a cavern filled with green and white centipedes that flow through the wall that ripple around them.
Definitely warped by Kyuss these things are and it is only bound to get worse.
As we head farther in some black three tailed scorpions skitter close and attempt to attack, but we don't give them the chance. During the fight we were sounds of spell casting coming from a side branch.
As we pass down the side path towards the casting a field washes over us and peels several layers of spells from our wardings. We press through as the field seems to require some time to recharge, but it catches at least a few others as we go.
Around the bend a mirror imaged massive worm clinging to the ceiling amid a cloud of whispy tentacles. It looks to be a somewhat larger version of the worm we fought in the arena, but this one is casting spells. Its foul sucker mouth intones a chant that leeches the moisture straight from our bodies.
As Slivik launches throught the air at it he find nothing but air as his blade passes through where the beast seemed to be. Xaan attempts to dispel its array of wards only to find that his incantation is turned back upon him. A tricky one it seems. But tricks will only get you so far and we have a lot more tricks up our sleeves. Moonbrook's volleys quickly diminsh the distracting images and with its defenses dropping more of Slivik's swings begin to have thier desired effect.
Beyond the worm a chamber lies and I am pulled to a small sack. As we pick up the sack we get images of Tenser's associate who was investigating the fissure rolling through our head. Other lost knowledge also seems to appear out of no where. It seems like part of him has some unfinished business to do here. The pulling sensation moves and we go to investigate where it leads next.

Where evil hides

After regrouping and recovering in Greyhawk, we make our way to the Wormcrawl Fissure.
A canyon etched into the earth far beyond what we can comprehend. Thick oscuring fog hangs in the air a thousnad feet below us as we peer down the edge of the cliffside. We are not ever going to find anything down there in that mess.

We decide to start at the beginning and descend to the opening of the fissure. As we enter the cloud everything seems so far away. We keep one hand on the person beside us to ensure that we don't get lost in the fog. After what seems like hour trudging through the darkness Moonbrook holds up her hand in an attempt to halt our advance. Unfortunately no one can see her gesture. Her keen elven ear detect a voice in the fog ahead. Its vocalizations muffled into a dull drone.

We begin to spread out hopeful that we will be able to find each other again. The voice continues for a while as we try and approach it. Zinzo unleashes a fireball into the fog hoping to flush the thing out. A sudden powerful gust of wind coupled with a searing blast of flames disclose the ancient red dragon we spied attacking the giant fortress.

Another dragon with mottled hide and a fang filled maw loped near the giant red. As we face off against the red dragon, the fang dragon launches itself upon our mages. The terrible bites sap the vitality straight from your bones. A few snaps and Xaan collapses to the ground. Zinzo narrowly escapes the deadly fangs. He dimension doors close by me seeking healing. As Nallec and Slivik are dealing with the red dragon effectively I move over and restore some of the vitality to Zinzo.

The fang dragon was not to be disuaded, it bounds over to us and begins rending through my armor. The flashes of light as its claws and fangs tear through my protective mantle. I frantically try and keep myself concious. The dragon is relentless and the last I see is its fangs clamping down on me once more. Zinzo also mauled by the dragon is able to grab ahold of my arm and gesture. Both of us appear hundreds of feet away from the battle. Zinzo begins pulling out healing potions in an effort to staunch the flow of blood onto the ground. We bought the others enough time to take down the red as they are able to turn to the blood soaked fang dragon.

We fall back to recooperate as I meditate to call Xaan back to life. We need to keep pressure on Dragotha and his minions so they are not able to escalate whatever plans they are working on. Hopefully the fog does not return by the time we do.

That wasn't so bad

We know the name of the phylactery's location, Koner Thulner.
We visit Tenser to peruse his library to locate this location. What we discover is that all sorts of ancient knowledge that was locked away has been revealed. Books now contain knowledge that they did not before. We realize that Dragoth and his minions may very well already know, or at least soon will the location of the phylactery.

We locate the city of Koner Thuler as being in the chasms in the bandit kingdoms. A hop, skip, and air walk later and we are overlooking a massive city sculpted out of the cliffside. However we also see that massive dragons are assaulting the giant defenders. We see a particularily massive red dragon attacking the central part of the city. Not wanting to thrust ourselves into this battle, but rather wanting to get the phylactery and get out we opt to go to the southern most tower and inquire there.

As we solidify on the terrace near the large doors we are spotted by several blue dragons that quickly wing toward us. Three fire giants manning war machines are to preoccupied to answer our questions. As the dragons belch forth lightning we return fire. Arrows digging in between the scales and sinking to the fletching. Acid gouts corrode through even the hard dragon scales. Slivik's powerful wings carry him straight to the first incoming blue and he throws all his weight into a single powerful stroke causing scales to be rent from the dragon's hide. The dragon drops quickly. The other younger dragon is driven off by the terrific damage it has taken. As the elder blue closes in we spot another dragon that is creeping along the crenelations of the fortificated wall. A green dragon nearly invisible against the stone. It launches to attack once it realizes that we have spotted it. She circles above and gouts a cone of acid over nearly the entire group. Finishing up the younger of the blue dragons we are able to turn our full attention to this new comer and with powerful strokes we cut the flight from its wings. The elder blue finally decides to join in the fun and attacks Slivik, but Slivik's dragon hard scales hold off the worst of the brunt. The elder blue lashes out viciously, but Slivik's own attacks deal thier own terrible wounds on the massive dragon. With only the one target left and all our fire power focused on it, the dragon's fate is inevitable.

With the distraction out of the way we are able to get a few words out of the defending giants.
They call for their leader to talk with us. We explain why the dragons are attacking in such great quantities and that if we can get to the phylactery and destroy it the dragons will have no reason beyond spite to continue their assault. Their leader instantly dismisses our request to enter the keep and search for the phylactery. He seems terribly offended by the accusation that they would be guarding something so dear to a dragon. We finally manage to persuade him to escort a single one of our group to locate the phylactery. Using a locating spell Nallec proceeds with his giant escort into the twisting hallways of the keep. His spell leads him to infront of the giant's main vault, flanked by some ancient undead giants. The escort refuse to open the vault to let him in.

Nallec dimension doors back out to the landing and we decide that we have given the giants enough opportunities to play nice with us, but they refuse. We teleport back to in front of the main vault. The escorts are still there and attack. During the battle the ancient undead giants are woken from their slumber by a stray disintegration spell hitting one. The leader and one of his best dragon slayers soon join the battle, but are struck down. Investingating the vault door it shows the depiction of us guarding the Order of the Storm druids against Kyuss's horde. As we are investigating it a ghostly figure emerges from the door. The ghost of the young farmer boy Alaster back in Diamond Lake speaks saying that we know the ritual of opening and we need only find the keys to unlock the resting place of Dragotha's phylactery.

Searching the fire giant leader reveals one of the two keys that we require. Another divination reveals the other key to be in the lower section of the cliffside city area. Shifting back to mist we fly over the city to get a better pin pointing of the exact location. As we locate a massive ladder heading down we hear a familiar voice calling out to us. As we look around we spot the Fool from the banquet waving us over to him. We learn that he has been trying to find our group so that he can craft the tale of the exploits of the Green Lady. Some of the group seems a bit uneasy with letting him follow us, but I figure we have more important things at hand than quarreling over letting this bard follow us.

We proceed down in the direction that Nallec's spell is pointing us. It leads to a rusty iron door. Zinzo promptly disintegrates the door. Moonbrook steps inside the doorway to look around and immediately a steel cage drops from the ceiling over her and a foul liquid sprays down from above. She manages to avoid most of the spray. Slivik and Nallec begin removing the bars from the cage as several troglodytes emerge from a door to the right. Moonbrook quickly dispatches four of them with a single volley and a fireball eliminates the rest huddled in the room beyond.
We continue down the hall and come to a room with a hill giant wearing banded mail. After a quick fight we convince him to tell us where the key is and in return we will spare him. He tells us that he threw it down into the cadaver pit and points down a dark corridor behind him.

As we make our way down the foul smelling corridor it opens up into a cavern with metal grating suspended for walking platforms. Underneath between the grating you can see the floor is covered in writhing green tentacled worms. Hundreds of the undulate below us and we pass overhead towards the key. The spell leads us to a massive cavern away from the living carpet of worms. The floor in this area is covered in mold, bones and every other bit of refuse immaginable. The spell indicates that the key is buried in there near the other end of the cavern.

As we decend to search for it the ground below bulges and then erupts as the largest worm ever bursts forth. Eight tentacles ring its tooth filled mouth and it lashes its tentacles out at us. The lashes sting terribly and our sorceror and archer are instantly paralyzed from the ichor of the tentacles. As Slivik carries the paralyzed ones out of reach of the colossal worm Nallec notices that the key is not buried in the refuse, it is inside this thing. So he begins hacking into the flesh of this massive thing. Once in safety I call upon the power of Wee Jas to purge the paralysis from our group. I then make my way back to Slivik and Nallec to lend them what aid I can. The worm proves extremely resistant to damage and resilient to spells as many are just rolling off of its back. Frustrated the sorceror summons a massive centipede to lend aid. The worm seems annoyed by the huge intruder and immediately turns its attention to the centipede, but the terrible lashing tentacles soon tear the insect into pieces and it turns its attention back on us. However that moment of distraction was all that was needed to heal the terrible wounds our fighters were taking. The sorceror then began hurling potent balls of lightning at the beast which burned into its flesh. Finally the realization of the terrible wounds it had been dealt catches up with the dim witted beast and it collapses to the floor. Exhausted we know that we can't pause for too long as we cut open the worm to find the key.

Both keys in hand we teleport back to the vault. As we insert the keys we recall the ritual of opening and recite the ancient words. The vault doors spring to life and open revealing a room with a dragon statue raised up on a dais. The statue is holding the phylactery in its rib bones. The Fool dimensional hops over to the statue and begins looking at it intensly. The rest of us move toward the statue as well. Suspicious Moonbrook heads along the wall and trains an arrow at the Fool in case he betrays us.
As we reach the phylactery we notice another visitor to the chamber. The cleric we fought on the druid's library island. It seems he is determined to obtain the phylactery. Just as Slivik grabs the box we hear whispering throughout the room and the Fool explodes in a spray of worms. The sorceror is coated with them and the instantly disappear beneath his skin. Nallec cuts the traitorous Fool into pieces as we regroup with the box. As I purge the worms from Zinzo's body we teleports us to the druid's island. Slivik drops the phylactery and begins smashing it. We notice a scrying sensor appear and Slivik looks up at it and smiles and he lands another powerful blow upon the cursed box reducing it to splinters. The sensor disappears and we wait anticipating retribution, but it does not come.

We have done it! Dragotha's phylactery is destroyed. He must be furious, but he is now killable.

That which was lost shall soon be found

Having all the quests completed we head back to the black stone circle. There the guardians emerge and accept our token or acknowledge our success at vanquishing the foe. Except for the guardian who tasked us with the living feather. He berates us for letting the Roc King perish. He then demands that we defeat him in battle or he will not accept us as being worthy.
We try to argue our innocence in the killing of the Roc King, but the guardian does not listen.
It begins chanting as it rises into the air. Iritated the wood elf mutters something under her breath, raises her bow and without pause launches an arrow. The arrow flies straight into the eye socket of the guardian and passes clean through. The figure drops to the ground immediately and melts away into nothing. Stunned we just stare at it for a while.

The other guardians don't seem fazed at all and transform the black stone disk into a fountain of water. I drink from the fountain and everything goes black.
Nothing, yet everything seems to exist all around me. Eternity seems to pass, but it seems like just a few seconds.

Eventually we awaken on a cliffside. Below us in the valley two massive armies clash. Ancient banners of long forgotten kings and rules sway in the wind as they face off against an unending horde of worm infested undead. Massive towering worms slime their way through the ranks, giagantic centipedes spitting out swarms of worms, large numbers of spawns of Kyuss. Every horror immaginable and several more are waging war upon the defenders of all that live. It seems that we have travelled back hundreds, if not thousands of years ago to when Kyuss' armies spread across the world.

Our attention to the battle is broken by the shouts of the Druids of the Order of the Storm. They have Dragotha's phylactery and need some time to get it away from here. If they destroy it, Dragotha will surely vent his anger upon the army desperately fighting for its life. However should they escape with it, Dragotha will be unsure and withdraw from the battle. The horde of undead will falter without its general. As he quickly explains this to us, Lashonna the elven noble that aided us before. She seems to have no recollection of us at all. She vows to hold off the airborne attackers of Dragotha including several large undead dragons. As she steps off the cliff her form warps and shifts into that of an immense silver dragon that wings off to the attack. The Druids task us with holding off any others that slip by Lashonna. They then head over the ridge to deal with the phylactery.

Before we have much time to prepare as two squads of the heavily armed knights of Kyuss haul themselves to the top of the cliffside and begin their advance towards us. Xan drops a field of black tentacles upon them to buy us some more time to prepare. However, the knights launch a massive volley of necromantic blasts at our line. Xan falls to the life draining magic as several others are wracked with agony. Reinvigorating our life force we begin warding against further attacks as well as launching our own against the knights. Arrows and acidic blasts answer further necromatic assaults. I was able to complete the summoning of a greater air elemental. Under my command the elemental twirls into a potent vortex and sweeps over one of the squads, dust billowing from it obscuring most of the battlefield and giving us the time to recover from the damage we have sustained. The undead are lifted off the ground and spewed out into the valley hundreds of feet below. By the time our death wards are fully raised many our barely hanging on to life, but the knights have been dealt telling blows as well. Despite their ability to repair the damage we deal with their necromantic blasts we have been able to fell most of them.

About then two more squads of knights crawl over the cliff. With our protective wards up we are feeling much more confident in our ability to deal with them. Nallec and Slivik advance to deal with them in hand to hand combat. I advance and begin to rebuke the unholy beings.
As the tide is turning in our favor a massive serpentine mass of bones flys over the ledge and attacks Slivik snatching him in its coils. Slivik struggles in its grasp keeping it from holding him immobile, but not able to free himself. Meanwhile the knights are laying into him with their greatswords. Severely wound I move in and am able to heal him as he pulls himself free of the creatures bony coils. Unfortunately it immediately turns its attentions to me and buries me in its mass of bones. I am quickly unable to move, as it grasps my skeleton and tears it clear of my flesh. My mind reels in agony as I watch my horrified team mates deal the killing blow to my killer.

Darkness envelopes me.

I awake whole back on the storm tossed island, only now there is no storm or ruins upon it. Shaken by what seemed to have been my death I pat myself down to make sure that I indeed have all my bones. I notice that Xan is also picking himself off of the ground very much alive.
Knowing that we succeeded in buying the Druids time to get away with the phylactery we now know where they secreted it.

One down three to go.

The gargoyles begin opening fire. Their aim is deadly accurate. Many arrows find their mark in the unprotected flesh of our sorceror and warlock. They grit their teeth and return fire with blasts of fire and gouts of sizzling acid. Our own archer takes cover and returns her own volleys of arrows. Meanwhile Slivik and Nallec head toward the line of archers swinging their weapons to swat them out of the sky. Many of the gargoyles begin to fall and we rout the survivors. Several of our members are terribly injured, but we survived.

One task completed we rest for the night and set out looking for the location of the next task.
We spy a valley filled with brambles. As we discussed how best to proceed we notice a cave opening on the far side of the valley. Deciding the easiest way is the best we fly over the thorns and enter the cavern. An enormous expanse with crevices filled with rising steam lies before us. We cautiously advance scanning for any sign of danger. We spot it in the back of the cave. An enormous hulking beast roars its defiance over our intrusion. It fires a sickly looking ray towards us. Slivik snarls and roars back his reply. The echo rings through out the cavern. Slivik launches himself toward the massive beast as a fireball erupts around it. While the beast is momentarily distracted by the blast of flame Slivik slams his whole weight behind the single stroke of his great sword. The splintering of bones and armor plating crackle through the cave. The telling blow had been inflicted and the fight has gone out of the monster. A few more blows resolve the second task.

As we were scouting the mountainside we had noticed the tallest peak was covered in a dark cloud with lightning flashing in it. We decide that this is the most likely place for the Roc King to reside and head there next. As we reach the summit of the peak we see a nest spanning at least 40 feet. However we see no trace of the Roc King himself. As we near the ridge of the nest we see what appears to be the remains of the Roc King torn and dead at the bottom of the nest. As we examine the corpse we find no trace of a living feather, but we do notice that spells and blades are what killed it. As we are nearly done a massive four armed gorilla scales the edge of the nest and rushes to the attack beating its chest. Having had much practice lately at fighting massive beasts it pays off and the gorilla is defeated without too much trouble.

Disappointed on missing the feather we go searching for the last task. A dark misty forest proves itself to be the Doom Shroud when we hear the sounds of singing coming from deeper in the woods. We approach a large clearing and in the middle is a massive tree with the tune seeming to emanate from it. The sound of the song overcomes several of our party and they begin heading to the tree to sit at its base. As Nallec moves in to put a stop to it it begins thrashing at him powerful limbs beating him on every side. With much difficulty we cut the tree down and as we are regaining our breath and senses we hear clapping coming from the edge of the trees.

The group we scrying on the ship heading here is moving into the clearing thanking us for completeing this part of the quest. Knowing that they have the feather we need to take them down. A powerful battle erupts with the flame skinned efreet riding a massive flaming horse riding over our heads slashing down with his scimitar. The cleric with the Hand casts some potent spells only to be foiled by sheer luck on our sorceror's side. His mount winks out of existance the duration over he plumpts to the ground. The ground collapses under him as he lands near a groggy bullette. The twins spring to the attack attempting to take out the warlock, but the tielfing falls to the blade of Nallec. The power of the other group is astounding and what is worse the cleric in the blue robe begins demanding wished from the efreet. The first wish rendering the warlocks invocations useless against them. Our warlock then turned his attention on the bullette that seemed intent on devouring the sorceror.

Just when things are not looking good for out side we hear crunching of branches as three enourmous rocks come crashing through the trees. The sharp talons and beaks begin tearing into the slayers of their king. With the reinforcements turning the tide we take down all but the cleric who pleads for his life. He offers us the feather in return for allowing him to live. Regrettably we agree, only to find that the kenku who I had already called down destruction upon was the one carrying it. Before we can verify it the cleric has departed.

Next we can access the font of knowledge and learn how to prevent the phylactery from ever being recovered.

Land Ho!

We learn that the dragon that made off with the stone at Kyuss' temple later became the powerful dracoliche Dragotha. Lashonna informed us that members of an ancient circle called the Order of the Storm disrupted Dragotha's attempts at ressurecting Kyuss and stole the liches phylactery. The phylactery has since been lost and the Order purged it from thought and history.
There may be one place where the knowledge yet remains, on a remote island where the Order kept a repository of all their knowledge. If the knowledge of the location of the phylactery is anywhere, it would be here. The island is engulfed by a terrible storm.
Lashonna admits that others have found out about the location of the island and casts a scrying spell to allow us a glimpse him. A man, Heskin, is strapped to the mast on a ship that is floundering on the enormous waves. We catch glimpses of the others on board; a pair of fiendish origin, probably tieflings, a massive fire giant, a kenku, and a being in blue robes who seems to possess the Hand of Vecna. He spots the scrying senson and he reaches out and touches Heskin on the forehead and Heskin spasms in pain before he perishes.
The scrying link broken we realize that we don't have much time. They are near the island and we cannot let them find the phylactery. We quickly devise some plans of cutting through the terrible storm as fast as possible. We decide on pacting some enormous water elementals to carry us beneath the stormy waves to the island.
Upon arrival on the storm bashed beaches we encounter the orcish sailors of the enemies boat. They have been stranded upon the island left to fend for themselves. We question them and promise to offer help in leaving the island for information on those they transported here.
We then proceed into the maze of rubble hoping to cut in front of the others.
We eventually find a huge obsidian stone with three sockets. Our warlock manages to coerce the magics to let us travel without possessing the keys. We find ourselves on a different island. This one much larger and populated with all sorts of wild animals.
We also find four beings stepping out of nearby trees. They introduce themselves as the guardians of this place and that they have four tasks for us to complete in order to gain access to the knowledge that resides on the island. The first of the tasks is to Retrieval of the Golden Belt of Krathanos. Then the trials of the Silence of the Doomshroud’s Mournful Song folowed by the Death of the Thorn Vale Nightmare amd the Harvest of the Living Feather of the Roc King. Then will we be able to access the repository of knowledge.

Ready to begin right away we decide to head off to the east and look for any signs of this Krathanos fellow. Windwalking across the sky we reach the eastern beach, so we swing to the south and travel near the coast. We spot a building with some large creatures flying above it. We land a ways from the building and proceed on foot.
Four huge displacer beast leap from the undergrowth and launch themselves at us, but their meal has turned against them. As we are wiping the grime from our armor several large gargoyles land near us and request that we follow them to their master. We proceed and are met by a massive titan named Krathanos. He is a follower of Kord and desired to rule over everything within his grasp, but the Order of the Storm inprisoned him here and obolished his ability to leave this plane. Unwilling to free what must be a dangerous being upon the world at large we decide to demand his belt and if he resists, to take it by him with force.
We learned the terrible might of an angry titan. Fortunately we were able to bring him down. The mouldering acid from eldritch blasts eating gaping holes in his flesh. As we are about to relax and investigate his lair more thoroughly we are reminded that we are not alone as up on the ridge above us perch the gargoyles armed with bows.

As our newfound mage investigates the pyramid being built in the SW corner of the city, we listen around town some more and we hear that the owner of the Deluxury has some tickets to the prince's party. We gather up the group and go to see the owner. He is very accomodating and suspiciously does not even ask for anything in return for the tickets. I get the impression that he would rather have the tickets out of his hand and not be involved with Zeech at all if possible. Talking with him we learn that the Prince has some rather interesting tastes in party games. Bird shooting, head bowling, and other grisly sounding activities. He also expects lavish gifts to be bestowed upon him by those attending his party. We need to pick up some appropriate attire including jewelry.

That evening we decide to check out the destroyed temple of Cuthbert. What we find is rather disheartening. There is a survivor of sorts after all these years. The head priest has become a grave touched ghoul. He does not accept his current state and refuses to acknowledge it. However he does inform us that there was a cult hiding in a building across town that the clerics were about to investigate before Zeech attacked. Under command of Wee Jas' might we bring him along with us. He should get a chance to finish what they started and maybe even get justice for himself.
Investigating the suspected building we discover an elderly woman who runs a hospice for the poor and ill here. She is extremely suspicious about us but we manage to convice her to talk with us. We discover she is the only remaining Cuthbert worshipper in town, but that she sides with the Prince on the temple matter. She does not seem to know much about what is going on in town and we decide to introduce the priest to her to see if that jogs some info out of her.
It jogged a scream out. I quickly silence the area and we take action. We bind the woman and our mage disguises himself as her as the rest of us climb down the hidden trapdoor in the floor. The scream did not go unnoticed as four of the angel winged devils come swooping in to investigate.
My suspicion that they would be able to penetrate our mages illusion proved true, but he is able to dimension door down to the waiting party. I only hope that they don't discover where we went. We may want to start blocking scrying attempts on our mage, just as a precaution.
At the entrance to the hidden lair of the cultists 100 feet below the surface we are attacked by an animated mass of ropes. It lashes out at use, but soon is rendered into a pile of shedded fibers. Hopefully the devils above did not hear the battle.
We proceed into the lair...

Where, oh where has the little Kyuss gone? Where, oh where can he be?

We descend down to the bottom of the chasm rent through the middle of the pyramid.
At the bottom there is a massive cavern filled with a sea of writhing worms. A few outcrops of rock jut from the seething, slimy mass.
We hover a foot off the ground to avoid the swarms of worms that are following our every move. We discover another of the worm nagas that implores us to free him from the prison by teleporting it out. We attempt to extract some information from it, but it does not have much knowledge to impart.
We fly across the sea of worms to investigate the passages on the other side.
The writhing carpet erupts in a wriggling wave as a worm of gigantic proportions rears up. It maw quickly envelopes me and if it were not for Nallec's quick thinking it would have devoured me. Slivik and Nallec are pounding the slimy beast as I rebuke the Kyuss minions.
Inim darts over to open several slashes into the spongy hide of the worm, but in a flash it writhes and the sawing mouth of the worm drops her into the mass of worms waiting below.
The worm then turns its attention to Slivik and swallows him. That was the last thing the worm did as Slivik in a fit of rage tears the worm apart from the inside out his claws shredding the inside of the collossal worm. Gooey slime dripping from him I quickly blast the mass of worms that have coated him.
We then encounter an ancient liche who is also trapped in this prison. He talks much of the prophecies that will be fulfilled, but offers us little solid information.
As we explore the rest of the temple we receive the vision that Kyuss during his ascention seems to have done something wrong. He was trapped inside a large crystal atop the pyramid. The visions we have received also show us that a dragon has taken the crystal and flew off to the west with it. Kyuss is not trapped in this prison as he should be. Tenser must be alerted.
We head back and talk with Tenser. As he is investigating our findings we prepare to return and deal with the liche.

Kyuss' ancient temple

We had to wait a while to see Tenser, but we were able to procure some valuable equipment while we waited for Tenser to return. It seems that he is aware of the recent happenings, but has been too involved in other matters to make a personal investigation. He did send someone to make some inquiries, but they have not returned so he has asked us to check up on a few things.
First off he wants us to check this ancient ziggaraut that has connections to Kyuss long ago. Tenser also gives us gifts to help on our quest.
Using an ancient mural as a focusing point we teleport directly to the temple.
The pyramid is encircled by a massive black stone wall. Flying over it we see that the ground is crawling with the green worms. The wall seems to have been constructed to contain whatever exists inside this structure.
As we cross the wall we are greeted with visions of times long past. We see what must be Kyuss at the height of his reign.
We pick a black opening in the base of the pyramid and begin our exploration.
Clacking and chittering seems to be emenating from within. It grows louder as we near a chamber. Several large beetles are clacking mandibles at a terrific pace and an unholy undead being leads them to attack. The undead soldier has no eyes, but rather has long toothed worms in his sockets which lash out at anyone near. The clacking sound is overwhelming causing many of us to clutch our heads trying to focus on the battle at hand. The beetles are faster than one would suspect and the snapping mandibles are tearing chunks out of anything that they can reach. Desperately we fight them off and slay the undead creature leading them. Badly wounded we head back over the black wall to rest and plan for further investigation.

As we proceed into the ruin there is an enormous room with an enormous pit churned from the ground in the center. doors lie in the four cardinal directions and stair lead up to a higher level. We decide to investigate the doors before ascending.
We encounter some celestial beings, sword archons and an eldarin that have been corrupted by the power fo Kyuss. They radiate corruption and evil and attempt to lure us to our death. They unleash globs of slimy worms as they pound on the walls and ceiling. The worms tearing into any opening in my armor the toxins they secreet wearing my mind down. The eladrin launches powerful spells upon us as we battle, one of them taking a huge toll as Solara is completely destroyed with nothing remaining. We made the fallen angel pay for that, but it is not enough.
We returned to update Tenser on our discoveries that the temple is active and powerful creatures lie guarding it within. A associate of Tenser from another plane, a githzerai has offered to help, and we accept needing all the help we can get.

Back once more we investigate the other doors, but they don't lead anywhere. More visions appear to us as we investigate giving us a chilling account of the attrociaties that Kyuss performed here.

We decide that the chasm is our next avenue of exploration. As we decend we see that tunnels are burrowed into the sides of the shaft. All of a sudden we are assaulted by large worms with the head of a man. They radiate a powerful aura that snaps mortal minds leaving them dimwitted. They also unleash powerful spells upon us. If is all we can do to retain our minds as we fight these horrid worm naga off. All but Nallec and I have had our minds crushed by these things. I barely retained my mind almost giving in to the insanity that radiated from them.

As I spend the next day restoring the shatter minds of our team I wonder what horrid monstrosities are to be found in this cursed place. Wee Jas give me the strength I need.

Rivers are red, Alustan is blue.

The right hand door lead to a dead end with the dread wraith. So we turned and tried the right hand door. It revealed a cavern with a channel of red water flowing thorugh it. A stone bridge spanned the chasm. The bridge did not look very safe so Nallec bestowed flight upon my skeletal dragon and we rode it across the chasm.

On the other side was a large metal gate with strange symbols inscribed on it. The corrosion was bad and we were unable to determine what the symbols meant.
Solara went to work and trying to get us past this door. The gateway would present her with a series of dials, switches, levers, and buttons. She meticulously poured over the gate looking for any signs of danger and then set to work manipulating the door to grant us access.
The gateway seemed impassable.

As we waited the guardians of the gate grouped up and attacked.
They rose up from the solid rock and set upon us. I rode upon my still flying dragon steed near the back of the party and was immediately set upon by no less than four of the creatures.
They had three arms spread around its cylindrical body with an enormous gaping tooth filled mouth set right at the top. They put their maws to good use as they crunched down on the dragons limbs. Bones were splintering all around me as the dragon began rending and biting at one of them. It did not take too long until all that was left of the dragon was splinters of bone littering the ground. The xorns were not sated. They turned their gaping mouths to feed on us next. The dragon had bought us valuable time though. We were able to drop about half of the xorns by the time they turned to the more fleshy ones in our group. The remaining three xorns fell to our blades.
Frustrated by the gate thwarting our every attempt at passage Nallec began beating the door with his massive warhammer. The resounding tolls echoed through the cavern, but the gateway was giving way. Shortly we were able to peer past the wreckage to see an identical door just five feet beyond. Something did not seem right here. Slivik inspected the aura of the surrounding area and noticed the aura of an illusion spell. We decided that this passage might be tricky to pass and we still had another route to explore.

We crossed back over the stone bridge on foot with several of us slipping off the slick surface to land in the water below. We had anticipated that and had tied ropes to ourselves.
After ringing out the water from our clothes we opened the remaining door. It lead into a room that appeared to be well decorated, at least at one time. The carpet had long since decayed away, but a statue still held up fairly well. A single door in the right wall leads to a strange conical chamber. The floor slopes down to the center of the room and a large iron spike come down from the ceiling and stops just above a large sphere of crackling electricity. Alustan hangs suspended inside the sphere badly injured. Beyond him is a door set into the wall.

Snorri steps inside the chamber and is immediately struck by a bolt of lightning leapiong off of the central spike. I quickly ward us against such further attacks. The sphere of lightning in the center of the room stops any attempt to pass through it. I summon up the energies to disable the magic of this room for a short time. The hum in the air immediately abates as Alustan drops to the floor. Slivik scoops him up and we retreat into the previous room. We proceed to tend to Alustan's wounds. Once he awakes we relay him to happenings of Raknian at the arena and the passing of his friend. We also impart that we need to seek out his former master. Alustan tells us what he has been up to that there is a power item buried in this tomb. He advises that it is best if we locate it to use against this worm incursion. We agree as we still have unfinished business in here anyway.

After resting up Alustan decides to head back to Diamond Lake to lend as much help as he can, while we continue exploring. We head across the electrical room to pass through the door on the other side. However Slivik is struck by one of the bolts and is teleported into the electrical sphere. The rest of us make it to the other side and head down the ladder that is past the door. As I am preparing to negate the magics in the room once more the group below me set off a trap sealing the hallway they are in and begins to flood it. They quickly locate a secret door at the far end of the corridor and Nallec flies the out of the hall before the wall of water reaches them. Meanwhile my attempt at freeing Slivik has failed. Nallec drops Solara and Snorri of at a doorway across the river and heads back to get me and Slivik. We figure the quickest way of freeing him would be to destroy the metal spike. Nallec flies up and begins mangling the spike beyond recognition. Soon Slivik is freed and we rejoin the rest of the group across the river.

The small room ahead of us has 6 statues along the side walls. As we advance into the room one of the statues moves and attacks us. At the same time two sets of iron bars drop from the ceiling sealing off the exits of the room. Solara and I are stuck outside of the room while Snorri, Nallec, and Slivik battle the statue.

During the battle they discover that the statue is just an illusion covering a mechanical warrior. The wound on the being are repairing themselves and the thing drains the life energy from just a mere touch. The construct seems very resistant to spell so I am left with little to do but enlarge myself so that I can reach at least some of the people in the room to lend them healing. The constuct seems to heal itself nearly as fast as we can damage it. Its metalic covering deflects much of Solara's arrows. It is up to the axes and blade s in the room to put the mechanical being down. After a protracted battle and learning to anticipate the being moves in combat they are able to avoid several of the draining touches. Crippled by not receiving the repairs those touches brought the construct falls to the massive damage it has received. We raise the porticullis and wait to see what we will find next.

Tournament wraps up and we go home.

Searching around this shrine proves to provide little of any information. There was a heavily warded door that defeated out attempts to gain passage. Wounded and weary we retreated back to the barraks to prepare for out fight the next day. We overheard some guards talking about the ice salamander that was giving them trouble. I suspected that Raknian would pit us against this ice salamander in the monster battle in hopes of killing us off. I was right and wrong at the same time.

Raknian did indeed have us fight in the monster round. However what we faced was not an ice salamander at all. It was this hideously huge, bloated froglike creature with tentacles. In the ensueing battle it proved resistant to fire spells. Raknian had pulled a fast one on us. But Ash's versatility in the elemental magics made the ploy of little use.
The behemoth was crushing everything it could reach and swallowed Solara. By the time we subdued the beast Solara had passed to the other side. I spent the evening calling her back. We needed her help to stop what ever Raknian was planning.

The next morning we prepared for the battle with Orreck the golems. What we got caught us by complete surprise. As the opening move the opposing mage cast a terrible spell on Ash rendering him as weak minded as a dog. That was just the start of our troubles. In the middle of the fight the center of the arena erupted in a shower on debris. Out of the chasm climbed an enormous green worms with numerous tendrils waving through the air around it. The tendrils caused severe pain at the slightest touch. We offered a truce to Orreck and we turned to face the thing together. The golems smashed away at the worms fibrous, slimy hide. We could have really used Ash's magic in this fight. The giant worm turned towards Orreck and slammed its head down to the ground around him. When it lifted its head Orreck was nowhere to be seen. A short while later the beast let out a terrible pulse of negetive energy that radiated all through the arena. Most of the people in the stands collapsed to the ground as thier life force was consumed. The worm spat our Orreck, but he had been transformed into one of the worm zombies. It then inhaled the life force of all the people in the arena. Its wounds healed instantly. However we heard a cry come from down below in the chasm. While we were busy taking care of the worm I sent the diabolical minion that I summoned down into the hole to take out whoever was responsible for this.

Just as we brought the lumbering slug down out of the chasm rides Raknian atop of some infernal mount. However Raknian had been changed into an undead being, a death knight. As he rode out of the arena we realized that we had failed. Raknian had used the Apostolic Scolls. We looked around at the devestation in the arena and realized we had little time to properly tend to the dead. Powerful magics that consume your life often cause you to come back as an undead being. We burned many that evening.

Later we stopped by Eligos' house. It had been ransacked and Eligos was dead. We found a letter that he had written to Alustan. Apparently they had both trained together under the same master and that this teacher of theirs would be able to get us more information on what is really going on. We do a sending to Alustan, but there is no reply. Worried, we fire off another sending to Alustan's brother. The reply we receive is troubling. A large black dragon has attacked the town and is demanding to see Alustan. We head towards Diamond Lake as fast as we can. Last seen Alustan was investingating the Whispering Cairns. We head there stopping at the old shack for the night.

The next morning we find the dragon. It was waiting at the mouth of the cairn. The power of a dragon is a terrible sight to behold. It is a mass of slashing claws, nashing teeth, and beating wings. Its fury was dropping people left and right. Somehow most of us made it out alive, but Ash has been taken from us again. His spirit needs rest and we lay him to rest at the shack.

Slivak had been tracking the dragon all the way from the marsh and joins us to find what caused the dragon to head all this way to find Alustan. The dragon will pay for destroying part of the town and killing innocent villagers. Wee Jas has allowed me to command the very bones of the massive creature. Tomorrow we will attempt to find Alustan in the cairn.

The collapsed section of the barrow has been cleared away and it leads to a strange black portal.
Some sort of spider-like ghoulish creature lurked behind it. We defeated it and proceeded to pass through the portal. We had to proceed one by one as we pushed through the gelatin like door. The room beyond is a corridor with howling wind sweeping through it. Six cloudy, winged elementals waiting in ambush for us. The wind swept corridor continues in darkness ahead. Hopefully Alustan is still alive.

Let's get ready to rumble!

A tense evening passed as we awaited the upcoming fight early the next morning. Janith was up before dawn already saying blessings and prayers for those about to meet Wee Jas face to face this day. We were preparing for the worst. Nallac and Janith began laying down layers of blessings, invocations, and wards upon the group as they entered the elevator platform. The clanking of chains ticked down the time before the fight. As we reached the top we instinctively scanned the opposing forces. A squad of elven archers, a mangy looking band of gnolls, and a trio of mounted knights. Knowing what a danger the knights could pose we decided to head to them first and then swing around to the archers.
As soon as we finished our planning, the battle started. Gnolls snarled and began loping across the arena floor towards the elves while the elves launched a nasty volley of arrows felling one of the gnolls before it knew what hit it. Seeing them preoccupied we turned our full force on the mounted warriors and Ash let loose with potent blasts of fire eliminating the knights mounts.
The leader fought on, but it was a losing battle. The whole affair was over rather quickly.
The survivors of the other two groups were too worn out to put up much of a fight.
Unfortunately more souls went before Wee Jas this fight than in any previous tournament match. When you are used to fighting for your life it is hard to hold back.

After the fight our manager came down to talk with us. He said that he had other motives for asking us to fight in the tournament. Seems like his sister was friendly with Loris Raknian last year during the tournament and she has been missing since. He wanted us to find out what happened to her. Without much discussion we agreed as we were planning to be doing some investigating already.

We snuck out of the holding pens under an illusionary disguise. We discovered a section of buried ruins with a stone seal in one wall. Breaking the seal we encountered some ghasts and warning runes telling of more undead down one hall. We chose to explore the other path which led into what appeared to be an old drainage tunnel. Slimy oozes dropped onto us from above, but proved little more than a warmup of what was to come. The tunnel dead ended leaving just a sloping drainage tunnel as the only way to continue.
We slowly scaled the slippery slope pounding pitons into the wall and using ropes to scale the slick surface. Snorri lead the way his stout form seemed to give him extra purchase on the slime coated floor. When we reached the top of the drainage sluice we found it to be the bottom of a pit that opened up into a small room above. However the worm encrusted Sons of Kyuss had been waiting there. Snorri was struggling to provide a way up to the ledge where the zombies were as he was avoiding and smashing worms that the zombie threw onto him. Not as skilled at climbing as Snorri, many of us ended up taking a bumpy ride down the chute.
The zombies started swarming all over the ledge above Snorri and he was forced to retreat down the slope as supernatural waves of fear were breaking up any reinforcement he would get.
As the party was forced to retreat and regroup and our spell power was fairly depleted we all decided to return to our rooms and rest.
The next day we had no fights to worry about and we are able to devote all of today into exploring the area with the worm-ridden zombies. This time better prepared for the waves of fear we had little trouble storming the drainage sluice and into the above complex. There we met a hiddeous mohrg and a tiefling priest. They put up a tough fight, but eventually fell. The priest mangled by Solara's deadly accurate arrows.
It definitely looks like we are in the right place, now to collect some information.

In which we learn much and little

After working out a temporary truce with the Twisted Branch lizarfolk we made our way back through the ice cold swamp to the outpost. The bitter cold bites through my meager robes chilling me to the bone. Nallec and I worked some enchantments to keep us from freezing during our trek. Upon arriving we discovered that one of the guards stationed there had been feeling ill and while we were gone he had dragged two guards down with him into the cellar before the rest of the guards were able to barricade him in there. They had seen strange green worms dropping from their former friend when he attackes so we quickly went down and took care of the three infested guards.

Our first encounter with the worm infested undead taught us much. First off is the horrid wave of terror that radiated from them. Even my calm demeanor was shattered as they supernatural horror took over me. We also learned that the worms die quickly without a host, but the zombies spread the worms as they batter you with their fists. The worms are not too hard to remove if done quickly, but I shudder to think what would happen should they burrow in. Also, if the worm inflicted are not destroyed quickly they will swiftly heal any damage received, but they are still subject to the Lady's command as I was able to rebuked them.

The tower was assaulted by a worm infected lizardfolk later that evening.
Concerned with the spread of this plague my fellows and I confered and we decided that we should head back to the Twisted Branch tribe's den to investigate further.

I am really beginning to hate swamps, and I think Nallec has developed a fear of snakes.
The lizardfolk were not helpful believing that the soft-skins had brought the evil worms and they attacked us after we insisted on seeing their shaman Hishka instead of leaving.
After fighting our way into the den we found Hishka and convinced the other lizardfolk to let us talk.

We discovered that a single lizardfolk had fallen ill recently and he was exiled from the den. Trying to find possible sources of the worms we questioned Hishka further. We learned the lizardfolk chieftain had made a deal with a black dragon to have it guard the tribe's eggs. The dragon had left one of it's own eggs in the hatchery as a token of its intentions. Fearing that the dragon may be the cause of the outbreak in the area we went to investigate the hatchery.

Invoking blessings and various protections we swam through the submerged tunnel ready for the worst. What we found were mere guardians, strange black scaled kobolds that were well equipped. They did not put up much of a fight as I called on Wee Jas to let a peal of sound that left them reeling.

We investigated the hatchery and found nothing out of the ordinary. There were more eggs than we had expected to be there, but they all seemed healthy and there did not seem to be anything strange with the dragon egg. Not wanting to draw the ire of a dragon upon us we convinces Slivik to leave the egg where it is after I purged any diseases from it as a precaution.

We decided to head back to Diamond Lake after not turning up much at the Twisted Branch tribe. Solara, now adapted to this dreary swamp environment, managed to detect signs of crocodiles and giant snakes waiting in ambush. We were able to avoid any further attacks as we made our way out of the chilly swamp.

Sun's Ebb the 15th
We arrive back in Diamond Lake and go see what Allustan has been up to since he teleported back to town after finding out the outpost was under attack. He suggested that we bring several of the artifacts that we had found to an acquaintance of his named Eligos in Greyhawk.

We set out right away and arrived a week later. Asking around as we neared the city we were able to find a druid willing to attempt a reincarnation of our departed friend Ash. The ritual was a success and Ash is back among the living. I daily strive in my prayers with the Ruby Lady to give me the strength I need to protect my companions as we investigate this unnatural occurrence.

We arrived at the city of Greyhawk and endured the long lines of travelers waiting to get in. The guards at the gate were searching those that looked suspicious quite thoroughly. After bribing them we managed to get in without investigating our possessions to closely.

While making our way through the city to where Eligos resides we encountered a caravan of entertainers and carts filled with exotic creatures.
On of these, a three-headed beast with a lion, goat, and a dragon head burst out of its cage and started a rampage in the street it's electrical breath frying several of the onlookers. In the confusion a pickpocket nabbed something off of Nallec and fled during the commotion.