Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book Two, Chapter Eleven

Infiltrating Castle Ravenloft

Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren, Knight of Summer
Charlotte, Aurora's violet Faerie Dragon familiar
Eurydice, the Faerie Dragon Feylock, formerly Aurora's familiar
Aiden, Eurydice's Sprite familiar

Dervish, the Kasathe Brass Dragon Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer, Knight of the Erl King

"Shadewing" Corvis Cairunis Umbrusalarim, the Shadow Elf Hexblade Warlock and Knight of the Raven Queen
Cloak, Shadewing's Empty Cloak familiar
Alfred, Shadewing's Raven familiar 
Alucard, the ancient all-powerful wizard; formerly Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor

Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid

Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world, Knight of Spring
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth, and the new DEATH
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue, Knight of Fall
Ceidil Rein, the Human Champion who serves as Eurydice's Knight
Mara Nemestk, the Human Champion who serves as Ceidil's Knight

Comrades we have lost:
Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth- returned to Faerun
Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master- returned to Faerun
Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated - sacrificed to resurrect Alucard
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party- fractured himself into 4 parts to prevent cult from taking his soul
Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster- sent to Elysium through a trap and was never heard from again

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.

***** Lacysnows 27, CY 710, City of Brass

       We got bored with Sigil after a while and decided to head to the City of Brass. It was cold, and we didn't see anyone. As we looked around, something skittered across the road... we didn't stick around to find out what it was. 

       I put Nystul's Magic Aura on my Lolth Blade to mask its energies and shifted us to Dis. Things were much more normal in the Nine Hells. There were a few more guards than normal, but otherwise, it looked pretty much normal. We spent the rest of the day shopping. 

***** Lacysnows 28, Potidaea

       In the morning, Dervish opened an iron flask he'd picked up while we shopped, and out came Rikkle- the dude we met briefly right before I put on the corrupted ring. He decided to help our defenses by making explosives, so I helped them find what they needed in Potidaea. Of course, we had a shitload of gunpowder and cannons in one of the long-abandoned rooms in the College.

       Vish was bored, so he went drinking in Dis. Shade and I went to the Shadowfell to go shopping. A shopkeep offered us draws from the Deck of Many Things; Shade and I declined, but Eurydice and Ceidil decided to draw. Eurydice got the Sun and the Rogue; Ceidil drew the Knight, and Mara joined us; Mara decided to draw and got the Gem, Jester, Star, Sun, Balance, and Vizier. Overall, it was a lucky and rather dull set of draws.

***** Needfest 4, CY 711, Free City of Greyhawk

       After our week of preparations, we met Alucard in the City of Greyhawk and learned that he was the one who had been turned into Eurydice's enemy by the Deck. Thankfully, she had wishes, so she was able to wish he didn't hate her, saving her neck. 

      We were going to Castle Ravenloft to find the scroll, and we had a wayfinder that would take us to it. Alucard said there was no way we could sneak around and there'd definitely be a small welcoming party waiting for us. He would keep Vecna occupied while we tracked it down.

       Alucard began chanting and our scenery became star-like for a moment, then the sky darkened and howls of rage echoed around us. With an abrupt lurch, we were in an old, decayed, decrepit, landscape, and there were vultures circling overhead. Standing in front of us were some twisted-looking pit fiends and balors. One of Narg's tattoos flashed, he vanished, and all of them were dusted. 

       With them out of the way, Alucard ran forward, right into a pillar, and vanished. We found ourselves looking at a pair of big stone doors. Shade began reading some of the runes on it, and of course, they were fucking exploding runes. Eurydice, Ceidil, and Mara went down instantly, but I revived them quickly. The pillars began to rumble and change. Shade attacked one of the pillars and it attempted to steal his sword. Some undead creatures began to appear around us, and Shade dusted a few of them. But there were more pillars and more undead rising. This didn't look good. 

       Dervish said it was time for one of our bombs, and dimension doored up. I grabbed Mara and stuck her on my broom, and Ceidil and Eurydice grouped together. We dimension doored up too, and Shadewing shadow stepped up. Because Dervish loves being a pain in my ass, he began arguing over who should drop the bomb. Then some of the creatures below us began to fly. Shadewing said "drop it," and Dervish and I both dropped bombs... 

       Had Eurydice not used a wish, I would have dropped mine right on her head. Everything in the courtyard area we were in was demolished instantly. Oops? Ceidil and Mara were hit by falling debris and died again. Those two were fucking useless. 

       Vish said an earthquake was coming, and a couple seconds later we felt it as Alucard and Vecna burst out of the rubble. As they engaged in a fucking insane battle, Dervish figured out the general area of the fucking scroll. He took Vish and Shade to sneak around to find it. Before leaving, Shade tossed a spell at Vecna to prevent him from healing; hopefully, it would do Alucard some good. 

       Alucard grabbed Vecna and began flying; the sky started shifting and twisting violently, growing darker as it moved. Suddenly, the sky seemed to expand, then collapsed in on itself, before exploding in a flash of light. I could just make out two figures falling in opposite directions. 

       Shade and Dervish found the scroll, and I grabbed Ceidil and Mara's bodies. Dervish attempted to use a word of recall, but it didn't work; then Eurydice and I both tried to plane shift to no avail; Dervish finally managed to punch through whatever was blocking our magic. 

***** Needfest 5, Free City of Greyhawk

      The sun was rising as we arrived back where we'd met Alucard in Greyhawk. Three minutes went by before a portal opened up and Alucard fell out. We could see Vecna for a brief second before it closed. Things hadn't gone expected, but we'd gotten the scroll, so I guess mission accomplished. 

       Alucard explained to us part of how the Outsiders were turning the Beacons red. They'd created Mantles for their mortal followers- Knights and Emissaries, just like the fae had. This gave them something of a foothold in our realm and let them fuck with things. 

       By this point, only a single Beacon remained that wasn't red- the one in Blackmoor. We were in no shape to deal with the Beacon today, so we decided to rest for the night before heading to Blackmoor. 

***** Needfest 6, Eru Tovar

        We were going back to where it all began. The place we needed to go for the Beacon was the same place where the gala Oryn held that brought us all together had been. Of course, the spell to get us there didn't fucking work. We ended up 240 miles away, in the smoldering ruins of Eru Tovar. Shade found a shadow road, but it went about 100 miles in the wrong direction, so that was fucking helpful.

       I did a legend lore to see if I could find the exact location of the Beacon, and to see if maybe it was a key to stop the cults; the results were fucking weird. "The Gate lies beyond the mountains, where you're unable to see. The door is locked and has been for an eternity. The key is gone far from its homeland."

       We decided to use the Ethereal Plane to get to the Beacon, and discovered that the Beacon's light ran all the way to the very core of the world. Suddenly, Eurydice hissed and a cloaked figure appeared. He babbled as he spoke, not completely making sense: he didn't expect us to come here... we just got our Mantles we don't even know the power we have... why would we come here... we're barely a feast... it'll give us to its god. Then he began floating toward us. I told Shade to get us the fuck out of here.

       I told Shade to get us the fuck out of here. Dervish began launching arrows at him and only hit him once. Black ichor oozed from the wound instead of blood. As the ichor ran down his arm, he began looking more twisted, and we were suddenly shunted out of the Ethereal Plane. 

       "If I kill you here, I can eat your souls," he said, cackling madly. 

       Eurydice sent Ceidil and Mara to Potidaea so they wouldn't die again. Shade, Dervish, and Vish all managed to hit him- and thankfully he missed them in his attempt to return fire. I attempted to feeblemind him, but it didn't fucking work. A bright purple flame began to surround him, and suddenly there were four of him- fucking mirror image. Time slowed as the other three of him appeared; he hit Shadewing once and Shade looked bewildered; he grabbed at Vish; then he hit me hard. 

       Aurora went insane from the blow and keeled over, a gibbering mess. Shadewing exchanged blows with him briefly, before Shade was hit with madness, and keeled over, in just as bad of shape as Aurora. As Shade crumpled, the man vanished. 

All maps by Anna B. Meyer

Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book Two, Chapter Ten

The Locks Start Crumbling

Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren
Charlotte, Aurora's violet Faerie Dragon familiar
Eurydice, the Faerie Dragon Feylock, formerly Aurora's familiar
Aiden, Eurydice's Sprite familiar

Dervish, the Kasathe Brass Dragon Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer

"Shadewing" Corvis Cairunis Umbrusalarim, the Shadow Elf Hexblade Warlock of the Raven Queen
Cloak, Shadewing's Empty Cloak familiar
Alfred, Shadewing's Raven familiar
Alucard, the ancient all-powerful wizard; formerly Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor

Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid

Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth, and the new DEATH
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue

Comrades we have lost:
Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth- returned to Faerun
Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master- returned to Faerun
Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated - sacrificed to resurrect Alucard
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party- fractured himself into 4 parts to prevent cult from taking his soul
Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster- sent to Elysium through a trap and was never heard from again

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.

***** Lacysnows 25, CY 710, Potidaea Bard College

       While I was organizing my bards to get the college fixed, Alucard came back with an odd man in a raven mask, with a raven perched on his shoulder. He was introduced to us as Shadewing- by the bird, Alfred- who apparently speaks for him. Alucard had gone to the Raven Queen to get us aid, and this was who she'd sent to us. He told us he had to get a couple more people, before vanishing again. 

       Dervish, apparently missing Douchebag, offered him a draw from the Deck of Many Things. Alfred drew first and got the Void... a few seconds later, Alucard reappeared with Narg and the gem Alfred had gotten sucked into. Shadewing himself drew something that made a Yochlol appear and hand his the Tome of the Stilled Tongue. He wanted nothing to do with it, so I picked it up, out of curiosity. 

       A pulse of energy suddenly hit everyone in and around Potidaea. Cause we totally need more shit to go wrong today. I found Briisa, and she said it came from one of the sub-basements that we haven't touched in decades. Fucking wonderful. There was probably some horrible thing lurking in it that would attack. At the moment we got there, the 15-foot adamantine door that had sealed this room crashed to the ground, revealing two golems. Behind them was a human who introduced himself as Tsorig. Apparently, he'd been sent here by his God, Kelemvor, to investigate the mass deaths that just occurred. We quickly explained to him that somehow Pharin had managed to set the world on fire. He readily joined up with us, especially after we told him about Vecna. Probably should have led with that, but really, Pharin may actually be worse for the world than the lich god.

       Lan was the next person Alucard brought to us, and he quickly befriended Tsorig. They decided that they should work together on conscripting some clerics for us. With that taken care of, Briisa and I were able to get back to work. 

       Our archives were in the section of the tower that Pharin blew up. Some of our smaller colleges throughout the world would be able to get us new copies of some of the books, but I knew some of our oldest tomes were kept only here and were now likely gone forever. When this nonsense with Vecna is sorted out, I'll be making backup archives in triplicate. No clue where I'll put them, but I'll think of something. 

       Another fucking wonderful problem was true resurrection wasn't working on any of our fallen. We had a bunch of our bards trying but to no avail. I'm pretty sure the stupid Beacons are the problem. 

       An emptiness suddenly washed over us all for a brief moment as red, crackling energy went from a Beacon into the clouds. Eurydice saw five locks in the sky, and one of them had just crumbled. If all five locks fell, the Outsiders would be able to get in. This was the best time for Pharin to blow up our archives. I just needed a fucking Fate card to fix my tower- just make the explosion be like three feet to the left of the tower or something, so everything we needed wasn't fucking destroyed. Ralliakkan said a Fates card wouldn't cut it for something like this- cataclysmic event and whatnot- but I didn't want to undo the event, just the damage to my tower. I thought maybe I could wish for the knowledge to fix the locks at the very least, so I yelled at a couple of my bards to get me a wish, but none of them had any... and guess where the fucking scrolls were.

       Since we were lacking in options, we decided to head to the second Beacon, in hopes we could stop the cults from doing anything there. I didn't know if I'd actually be able to teleport us all the way there since the fucking Beacons were still messing with that magic. Before leaving, Tsorig summoned a planetar to help us. 

       As I predicted, we did not end up in Asperdi like we were supposed to. Instead, we ended up about thirty miles away... and thirty miles above the fucking Solnor Ocean. Dervish, Vish, Scottie, and I got on our brooms instantly, Shadewing could apparently fly, and Tsorig turned into a griffin. Lan, on the other hand... He was falling too quickly, so I opened a dimension door under him, and dropped a Hand to catch him. The Hand grabbed him, and popped... the paladin continued his plummet into the icy waters below.

       Tsorig sent his planetar after Lan, and it came back up looking bloody. A fucking lightning bolt followed it, aimed for Vish, Scottie, and Shadewing... there was a fucking kraken down there. Then a flash of brilliant light went off and an angel appeared, diving into the water. It managed to retrieve him, and with that, we were all able to head to shore. 

       We weren't entirely sure how to get to the damn Beacon, but thankfully Dervish found a trail pretty quickly. As he rose on his broom, a lightning bolt slammed into him. We were going to have to walk. 

***** Lacysnows 26, Asperdi

       We traveled through the night and into the morning, hoping to get there quickly; but we were definitely in for a ridiculously long journey. Around midday, I set up my mansion for us to rest in.

       When we exited the mansion Tsorig called his planetar back, and it began screaming in agony as red energy ripped through it. The Beacon turned red at the exact same moment. Tsorig set up a wall of blades between us and his planetar. Dervish and Vish flanked it and completely destroyed it. The planetar exploded, covering them in a blackish ichor; Vish began screaming in pain as the ichor sprayed him. Lan began trying to help Vish with the corruption, but there was nothing he could do. We had to knock him out. 

       Since the Beacon we were here for was red now, we decided to head for the third Beacon; and if we couldn't hit that one, we'd just go to Calbut. We ended up on a mountain, in the middle of a blizzard. I took us to Calbut next. 

       Upon our arrival, we realized that Calbut was just where the keystone was, the actual Beacon was eighty fucking miles away. Shadewing found a shadow road we could take to get there, but as soon as he opened it, screams erupted from it. I was out of teleportation magic, so Dervish took us to his paradise so we could gate to the Beacon. Lan decided to go get a weapon, and he'd be back in a while.

       I prepared the plane shift, but then Dervish insisted I scry first... that was fucking stupid. The evil coated me instantly, greeting me like an old friend; after all, it was. My Shadow Twin appeared at my side, and together we turned to face the idiots before us. We charmed most of the idiots, but Scottie was able to resist us. He dropped a circle on me and paralyzed me. Then pain wracked my very soul as Tsorig called upon Kelemvor to remove the corruption from both Vish and I. The corruption keeps coming for me, and I always manage to break free. 

       After a couple hours, I checked on Lan, and he said he was just outside the paradise- he couldn't get back in. We left it to go meet him and headed into town. 

       Dervish apparently missed Pharin. He offered the innkeeper some draws from the Deck of Many Things. The innkeeper drew the fucking Void... His daughter then took her father's Deck and drew the Fates card. Dervish's Deck vanished, as she made it so he'd never gotten his in the first place. The innkeeper was back, since he'd never drawn the Void, and insisted Dumbass take a draw for himself. Dervish drew the Idiot, which was beyond the perfect card for the Dumbass to draw. Shadewing drew Donjon, and something else that made him vanish. Vish drew a Fates card; Scottie drew the Void. Then Vish, sick of it all, used his Fates card to undo the entire thing. I never drew, I couldn't risk losing Luna or the Lolth blade. 

***** Lacysnows 27, Calbut

       In the morning Briisa told me that Vecna had the knowledge to stop the Outsider's cult from unlocking the gates. But there was no way we could get it from that asshat. Over breakfast, the others decided to play with the Deck of Many Things again. Lan drew the star, the knight, and the key- giving him a luck blade. Tsorig drew the vizier and the gem; the vizier could be a huge aid to us. Lan's new knight drew the fool and the moon. Then Eurydice decided to draw, getting the moon and the knight- a little human girl; that was kind of disappointing, I'd hoped she'd get a little faerie dragon knight.

       We needed some divine aid in this, so Shadewing went to the Feywild to seek an audience with Mab. I headed to the Abyss to talk to Lolth; Lan and Tsorig decided to follow me... I just hoped they wouldn't fuck up my chances of getting help from her.

       I was greeted by Ralliakkan when we got to the Demonweb Pits. She told me Lolth wasn't seeing people at the moment, so I explained to her what we were looking for. About two hours later she came back and told us that there were only three things that could hurt the Outsiders. One was Lan's sword, another was Tsorig's sword, and Ralliakkan was apparently the third thing. With that, a yochlol sent us back to where we'd been, and only five minutes had passed since we initially left.

       Shadewing sent Alfred back to get us, told us we were all going to the Feywild, we were meeting them at the oak in the very center. There were tons of fey sitting around the Stone Table, discussing the situation. Apparently there was only one lock left. Shade told them we were here to offer aid, and gain aid.

       To gain this aid from them, we'd have to join them with a treaty, and serve them to gain protections. They were all willing to contract with us. None of the fey knew what was on the other side of the gate, or how long it would take to get through. We then were each taken by a different fey lord to work with. The Erl King took Dervish as his Knight; Mab took Tsorig; Titania took me; Celeste, the Queen of Spring, took Vish; Syndall, the Queen of Fall, took Ralliakkan; and the Raven Queen took Shadewing. We were all given familiars by our fey patrons, who would instantly remove our Mantles the moment we died, to prevent the cults from getting them.

       After the rituals to gain the mantles, Alucard showed up, and had some dire news for us. The Outsider cults were trying to rip a hole in time and take Vecna's soul; they wanted to put his soul in a gem to superpower their god, or something. It was odd and worrisome, though I didn't pay attention to the whole thing; I just didn't care that much.

       We headed to Sigil after that to get supplies. People were leaving it because of the locks breaking, but there were still enough shops open to burn some money.

All maps by Anna B. Meyer

Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book Two, Chapter Nine

Reviving Alucard

Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren
Charlotte, Aurora's violet Faerie Dragon familiar
Eurydice, the Faerie Dragon Feylock, formerly Aurora's familiar
Aiden, Eurydice's Sprite familiar

Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth, the Dark Conjurer
Sarlockh, Pharin's choldrith familiar
Vilrath, Pharin's flesh golem

Dervish, the Kasathe Brass Dragon Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor

Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated 

Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid

Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master
BarraZotreth, Andolin's displacer beast animal companion

Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth, and the new DEATH
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue

Comrades we have lost:

Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party- fractured himself into 4 parts to prevent cult from taking his soul

Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster- sent to Elysium through a trap and was never heard from again

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.

Pharin and Andolin have merged into a single body and are pretending to be Cyrrik Goldmattock, an ancient dwarven king who vanished thousands of years ago. The party believes both drow to be dead.

***** Lacysnows 24, CY 710, Ruins of the Free City of Greyhawk

       Lothar said that the only way the spell to bring Alucard back would work was to sacrifice the active Lothar. If we took him out, there'd only be one Lothar left- we'd killed two that had been found by the cults. Without sacrificing him, we wouldn't survive the ritual. Before we could even start this, we needed to find the illithids. 

       Cyrrik sent away the remains of the coffin Alucard's body had been in. He asked the Stonemason for the Sword of Kas and the Wand of Orcus, but for some reason, the Stonemason couldn't give them to him. The Deck must have done something to them. He didn't want either of those and really the sword could only be wielded by Lothar; the wand would have been better in one of our hands. We started debating how to help the dwarf when a flash of radiance and a loud ringing sound exploded around us. Lothar had slammed his hammer down to shut everyone up. I was deaf for the next couple of minutes- lesser restoration wouldn't even fix it. 

       While I waited for the deafness to fuck off, I received a memory stone from Briisa. There were five hundred thousand barbarians in shadowy armor outside my college- which had a whopping thirty thousand bards. The small chasm that always surrounded Potidaea had grown by about thirty feet- another layer of defense. Narg looked scared... I didn't think that was even possible. Behind the barbarian army was a horrible cry, and a huge circle lit up, revealing the tarrasque. Apparently, these fuck holes had figured out how to find it after we beat it. That's just fucking wonderful. 

       I scryed the rest of the world, and things looked just as bleak. The area around the Forgotten City was completely black; when I zoomed in I saw that the thri-kreen had surrounded it. ALL of the thri-kreen had surrounded it. The other two Beacon Keystone locations were also surrounded by cultists- including four guys who all looked like the Sultan of Nothing. Evidently, they'd made copies of that fuck hole- cause there's no way they'd gotten him back from Lolth. 

       All of a sudden, all the dwarves vanished, except for the Stonemason and Cyrrik. Everything lit up and the sound of a hammer striking an anvil rang. Moradin took over the Stonemason- whose name I learned then was Runegear. Runegear/Moradin told us all to get out so he could do something- but I was the only one smart enough to listen. Streams of wires, gears, and other mechanical shit came out of his hands and covered the room. I felt a slight tremor deep inside myself, right where the soul shard from Oryn had gone into me. The mechanical room sprang to life and hummed with energy for the next few seconds before Runegear/Moradin grinned and said: "Now the fun begins." As soon as he said that, Stonefist grabbed me and yanked me back into the room. 

       The room lurched and began moving through the sky. We spent the next half hour soaring in a tiny room through space, all the while that soul shard was shaking harder and harder. Runegear was constantly adjusting things and switching directions. As soon as we'd taken off, Lothar collapsed and began to shake violently; Alucard's body was shaking in time with his. Lothar was comatose, and it was as if everything inside him was shaking. 

       I held onto Lothar as best I could, trying to keep him from swallowing his tongue. I know we were just about to kill him, but I was rather fond of him, so I felt the need to attempt to at least bring him comfort. Dervish found a scar on Alucard's body- which somehow led him to an intelligent idea- that maybe Alucard's organs were inside Lothar like Lothar was a living canopic jar of sorts. 

      After another hour we could feel some magic trickling into the room, and Cyrrik collected hair from each of us; he said it had to do with the ritual somehow. Two more hours passed before everything went completely silent- both Lothar and the body stopped shaking, and so did the soul shards. The dwarven bard with us went flying into the wall when it all stopped moving. Runegear was gone. 

       Cyrrik set up the altar, which was covered in the symbols of literally hundreds of gods- some even I didn't recognize. I opened to door to reveal a hallway made of diamond. It was fucking beautiful. Dervish decided to lean out of the room- without exiting it- to try to mine the hallway, which failed miserably. Cyrrik continued working on the ritual for another two hours- everything was perfect, but it didn't work. 

***** Lacysnows 25, location unknown

       Since the damn ritual hadn't worked, we decided to explore this place, hoping that whatever would make the ritual work would be out there somewhere. We spent a couple of hours walking, with absolutely nothing changing, but it definitely was not a maze, so we kept going. An hour later Stonefist stumbled and fell over, which somehow made us figure out we were in a hall of mirrors. Eurydice managed to find us the correct path.

       Cyrrik randomly whacked a wall, producing a deafening ringing, which Dervish quickly silenced. We kept going, and the Priest of Moradin figured out where the next part of the path was. It was then that we realized the silence was lasting much longer than it should have and seemed to cover a much bigger area than it should have as if the magic was being amplified or something. Dervish summoned an earth elemental to guide us through the area, and it did a seriously shitty job.

       Eventually, we reached a cliff, which was found by Stonefist falling down it. He was hurt, but alive- glad it was the monk who'd fallen. Cyrrik tossed a pipe down after him. Dervish decided to fly down to get Stonefist and ended up getting confused and attacking his own reflection. I don't know how that idiot is the leader of his entire fucking world.

       Cyrrik floated down to help Stonefist and found the monk's leg was shattered. He amputated it so Stonefist could regenerate it as they worked their way back to us- cause that's so much easier than just fucking healing him. The pair ended up on the other side of the cliff instead of coming back to us.

       Dervish's stupidity was showing proudly now. He ran away from his own reflection in terror- I didn't think the Dumbass was quite that ugly, but apparently I was mistaken- then somehow managed to tie himself up. The dwarves went to help him, and the idiot attacked them, then tried crawling away. The dwarves beat the crap out of him and ended up dropping him, while he tried limply to fight back, tangled in the rope. Once they dropped him, they tied him up properly, then revived him.

       Cyrrik came back for us around then, and since we needed to make sure we wouldn't get separated, we had to get creative. Three of the dwarves got into a portable hole with a bottle of air, another dwarf and I got on a carpet, and we tied Dervish to a broom, which we tugged along behind us on the carpet.

       When we made it to Stonefist, he'd apparently been smoking in a Hut, which as soon as it was dropped, got everyone high. Great fucking idea, that'll totally make this place less confusing.

       The next tunnels we went through were bright and seemed to be a bit more reflective than the others. The silence spell was still lingering, and I didn't dare use my Words of Thunder spell that would break the silence, that could end up with thunder ringing in our ears instead. Then the tunnel abruptly ended, with no apparent way to go from here.

       Cyrrik dispelled the silence spell finally, and literally, all of our magical effects ended with it. He cast something else, which failed. Dervish randomly cast greater invisibility, and all of us went invisible. I used legend lore to try to figure this fucking place out, but it doesn't exist anywhere. Cyrrik began trying random shit to open the dead end, but nothing happened. When he grumbled that he was getting low on ideas, Dervish used the knock spell on the wall.

       We found ourselves in a dark, empty void. In the middle of it a was massive, one million point circle in the shape of a sphere, with Lothar and Alucard inside it. Between them was a dagger, and as we watched, they began whirling around it, and the soul shards inside us began to shake violently in response. It felt like they were trying to get out of us and go to Lothar and Alucard. Little sprites of pure arcane energy began swirling around the pair.

       I cut myself where the shard inside me was to help it escape, Dervish followed suit. Cyrrik drew his shard out with a ring of mind shielding- Vish didn't do anything to his, and it ripped out of him violently, blood flying everywhere.

       Pharin realized that two pieces of the soul weren't here: enchantment and transmutation. He touched divination and was wracked with pain by the visions it contained. Pharin found transmutation in the hilt of a dagger. He reached out for conjuration next and attempted to summon enchantment to the group. First, he called forth an axe that had once held the fragment, but on his second attempt, a ring appeared on Alucard's finger. 

       With all of the soul shards here, we realized we needed to get Alucard's organs out of Lothar. Dervish sliced him open, but couldn't break his ribs. Cyrrik lopped off Lothar's head, sending blood flying everywhere... some got in my mouth, and instead of the usual coppery taste, this blood tasted sweet and tangy. The blood was pouring into the center of the room, getting bigger and denser, and it quickly became bigger than was possible, there was no way that much blood was in Lothar's body.

       We had to leave the room quickly, as there was so much blood in there that we couldn't fit anymore. With nothing left for us to do, we began making our way back through the tunnels. Getting out was much easier than getting in, and when we went through the door that should have taken us back to the room we arrived in, we found ourselves in the courtyard outside the castle, in Greyhawk.

       An army of liches was waiting for us in the courtyard.

       Pharin finished up a spell he'd begun much earlier, making quickened assassins of the group, only with modify memory so they believed they'd already killed their targets; making duplicates of the entire party. The modify memory spell he put on them didn't work though. 

       The Sultan, but not, walked up to us and told us that they weren't going to take us alive. Vecna wanted us all dead. Now. I set up a Hut, but the asshat dispelled it. Eurydice dropped another Hut, and this one stayed, protecting us from a volley of shit.

       Cyrrik surrounded the liches in a curtain of fire, which slowly began closing in on them- Not-Sultan tried to cancel it but failed. I attempted to teleport us all to safety, but it didn't work, apparently travel magic was still fuckered up. As the liches broke down the curtain of fire, a multi-point circle appeared in the crowd. We began falling back to the 100-point circle room- hoping it was still there- and found a man sitting in the middle of it.

       He looked somewhat elvish, and almost like Alucard, but not quite right, and he had no idea who he was. Cyrrik had him help activate the circle in the room, and I guess that made him remember who he was. The pair hurried outside to get the defenses going again, to get the fucking liches off our backs. Then Cyrrik turned into a dragon, startling Alucard and making the nodes attack him. Alucard then appeared on a balcony above us, said we're friends, and our lives passed before our eyes as he looked into our souls. He said he'd meet us at Potidaea, and I attempted to teleport us again; thankfully it worked this time.

       When I appeared in Potidaea, one of my bards- a female tiefling whose name escaped me at the moment- stopped in her tracks and asked me where the Hells I'd been. I gave her a quick rundown of what I'd been doing, and accidentally made her insane; I fixed her though before going to find Briisa.

       Apparently, Narg was fighting the tarrasque completely on his own, and the barbarians were just standing around watching. Cyrrik and Dervish turned into dragons- I hopped on Cyrrik's back, and he scooped up Stonefist, polymorphing him into a remorhaz; we flew out to help Narg with the damn tarrasque.

       Narg was badly injured, I sent Charlotte to him so I could give him a power word heal, but he still seemed off. Cyrrik dropped Stonefist right on the tarrasque before he and Dervish divebombed it. They all hit it fucking hard, and the beast writhed in pain. Narg speared its mouth shut with its own horn, and as it tried to pull it out, it hurt itself even more. Stonefist managed to burrow into the tarrasque, killing it by exploding out of its chest. That was even cooler than the quivering palm diarrhea he did to it earlier.

       As the tarrasque died, the barbarians all screamed in rage. Behind us we heard applause, we'd impressed Alucard with how quickly we brought the damned thing down. Alucard said there was a fucking ghost fleet behind Potidaea because five hundred thousand barbarians and the tarrasque weren't enough. Cyrrik had an insane idea, so Alucard made an enormous circle for him, out of the tarrasque's corpse. He wanted to try to summon positive energy elementals to take on the ghosts.

       Forty elementals appeared, but then he decided to turn them all into a single elemental. It went with Dervish to deal with the ghost fleet. Alucard stalked toward the barbarians, his cloak flared, and he was suddenly in black armor. I tried to charm the barbarians with one of my Bae'qeshel abilities, and it failed. I'd forgotten that shit didn't work on these fuck holes. 

       Then Cyrrik started summoning little positive energy flying nugs familiars the size of doves, summoning and releasing, over and over. Which was awesome until the daft dwarf decided to have them draw from the Deck of Many Things. The first one to draw pulled the Balance card, turning it evil... an explosion of epic proportions went off in a five hundred yard radius. All the dwarves were gone- Cyrrik included.

       Pharin found himself in Acheron, which is in the Outer Planes, facing a dragon slayer. Pharin quickly banished himself back to Faerun, and then realized the slayer had his blood. There was only one thing Pharin could think of to keep that hunter from finding him: destroying all of his blood. He activated the contingency, burning every drop of his blood on every single plane. 

       Fire rained down upon the world, water and land igniting instantly. Everything exploded in a whoosh, and three of the Beacons turned blood red as the door to the Positive Energy Plane slammed shut. As soon as that was over, all of the dwarves were resurrected by Moradin, and Stonefist was declared king. The entire battlefield stopped in awe of the massive explosion and flames that engulfed the world.

       One-third of the world burned, water, creatures, plants, gone. The elementals had been passing the east side of Potidaea when the explosions went off, and the entire wing was gone... that was where most of our library was. 20% of my bards were gone. Dervish's 27 half-dragons, that were made of Pharin's blood, were dead, his familiar was destroyed, 30% of Dervish's people died, as did Dervish himself. Our communication rings exploded, as did half of the brooches- only half of those because Allysandra had made the other half. Pharin had just brought devastation to this world that was greater than anything Vecna's cult had done. I knew he wasn't dead. Istus was right about Pharin, he would have a hand in ending the world.

       From behind me, I felt a whoosh of air as it was drawn into Alucard, then he blanketed the battlefield in flames. I dropped two firestorms on the barbarians, which he amplified to cover the entire battlefield. The few that survived the series of infernos began to run, and I told Alucard we shouldn't let them get away. Alucard raised his hands, and a red mist swept over all of them, with a flick of the wrist, they all exploded. That went well.

       I went looking for Narg, worried he'd been hurt in the explosions. He wasn't in great shape, but he'd be okay in time. Allysandra and Scottie found Dervish and resurrected him; he no longer had dragon blood, he was just his boring self again.

       Alucard told us he needed to go to the illithid for a scroll, one that's supposed to resurrect anyone who ever lived. He told us to meet him in Greyhawk in a week, and to be prepared to infiltrate; we're going after Vecna directly.

Map by Anna B. Meyer

Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book Two, Chapter Seven

The Challenge to Become King

Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren, who is the last Vale Elf
Eurydice, Aurora's faerie dragon familiar

Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth, the Dark Conjurer
Sarlockh, Pharin's choldrith familiar
Vilrath, Pharin's flesh golem

Dervish, the Kasathe Brass Dragon Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer

Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster
Grax Thunderhorn, the Lightfoot Halfling Assassin with a voice in his head
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor

Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated 

Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid

Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master
BarraZotreth, Andolin's displacer beast animal companion

Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.

Pharin and Andolin have merged into a single body and are pretending to be Cyrrik Goldmattock, an ancient dwarven king who vanished thousands of years ago. The party believes both drow to be dead.

***** Lacysnows 21, CY 710, Jotsplat 

       Around midday, the dwarves came to get us from the quarters they'd taken us to the night before. A group of stewards came to clean us up first, putting Vish, Dervish, and I in dwarven half plate. It was absurdly uncomfortable, ridiculously heavy, and moving was difficult. Dervish and Vish looked absolutely ridiculous in theirs, they weren't as bulky in their chests as dwarves were; I laughed my ass off when I saw them. I fared a little better, thanks to my significant endowments. 

       Eventually, they led us back to the council chambers, and Cyrrik and Stonefist- the naked monk- began debating who was the rightful king. Stonefist's argument was basically that he should be king because it's his clan's turn. The Goldmattocks had reigned for hundreds of years, with the Stonefists standing by their side, and it was time for the table to turn. The council pointed out that lineage was always determined by the axe Cyrrik had, and they had to change the system when it vanished with Cyrrik. Now that Cyrrik was back, they said he had a much more ancient claim to the throne than Stonefist did. 

       Stonefist was not pleased with the council's response- not surprisingly. He suggested they throw Cyrrik in the pit to test his ability to defend the kingdom. Apparently, this pit was said to be the gateway to the tarrasque. Cyrrik readily agreed to the challenge. Instead of putting Cyrrik through this test, they decided to dismiss everyone and convene privately to debate what to do. They'd have an answer for us by sunset. This was fucking ridiculous.

       I took the opportunity to speak to Stonefist, and he swore to me that he would help Potidaea if he was crowned- so we'd have aid no matter who got crowned. Stonefist knew what we needed to get to the tarrasque, so he went to get that while we changed into armor that actually fucking fit. 

       While we waited for Stonefist, I checked in with Briisa. The barbarians hadn't started attacking yet, they were just standing there like they were waiting for something. They had a shitload of siege weapons though, so things would not be good when they finally did decide to attack. 

       When we met back up with Stonefist, he had a statuette of Moardin from the temple, and when he touched it to the wall it melded into it. A visage of Moradin appeared briefly before a hallway appeared behind it. What Stonefist had just done was considered desecration and he'd be banished for it; guess that cemented Cyrrik as the king. 

       We walked for six fucking hours before Stonefist did something to speed us up a little bit. This was taking for-fucking-ever. Eventually, we reached a huge metal gate covered in some of the most powerful containment runes to ever exist. It was a rune puzzle. I contacted Allysandra for help, but apparently, I'm not very good at getting directions. I had Dervish give her better directions, but she couldn't get to us now. They'd found the door we'd opened and were in the process of reapplying the wards... which could lock us out. Asshole dwarves. 

       Cyrrick and Stonefist began working on the puzzle together, hoping that their royal blood would help them or something. Suddenly, Vish was hit hard by something... I think it was Pimbin again. I never liked that fucking halfling. Cyrrik began glowing with an ethereal shield, while we looked around for the little fucker. Vish saw him briefly and managed to land a blow. Then he seemed to vanish until Dervish spotted him, and he did something that put Dervish in a frenzy of sorts. I still couldn't see him. A shot hit Cyrrik, followed by a blast of thunder, which slammed Stonefist into the door. 

       The stupid halfling was working with the damned Gunslinger, who appeared, standing right fucking next to me. I hit him with faerie fire to keep him from hiding again, but the fucker extinguished it instantly. I hate this fucking guy. Cyrrik charges him and began beating the Hells out of time, though the fuckhole seemed to resist most of it. The Gunslinger pulled out a stick and snapped it, shrouding himself in smoke- which Cyrrik and I were also stuck in. 

       An eerie, blood-chilling giggle rang out and the smoke dissipated. Sil- her eyes black and skin white- appeared and sent the Gunslinger flying into the puzzle door. Creepy ass tendrils of blood were coming from the Gunslinger, and Sil sent them to find the stupid halfling too. Pimbin was so terrified of her blood magic he stopped trying to hide as he fled the terrifying child. 

       Blood began freely pouring out of the Gunslinger as he screamed in agony. Stonefist looked rightfully grossed out and disturbed. Sil snagged Pimbin and began working on him; then she spent the next five minutes slowly draining the gunslinger before flinging him away. 

       The gears on the door began to shift and the door swung open, revealing the ruins of an ancient city... the same fucking city we were just in activating the fucking Beacon. Apparently, this place was fucking enormous, since we didn't see a fucking tarrasque lurking when we were here earlier. 

       Stonefist decided we needed to get drunk and loud to announce our presence, and he pulled out a cask of ale- I don't know where he was storing that. Everything went quiet after we made our presence known, and then a rune exploded. Then a fucking pit fiend appeared. 

       Dervish sent his bunny at it first, and the bunny kicked it hard enough to stumbled. Dervish and Vish followed up with sword hacks of their own at the fiend. Cyrrik was hacking into it well with his axe, and Stonefist- not wanting to be outdone by Cyrrik- began punching the fuck out of it. The Sil pointed her creepy staff, that looked like it was made from humanoid flesh, at it and told it to sit; and it fucking listened. Then she told it to die and it turned to dust; the dust began swirling around and took on a new form: a Balor.

       The balor popped up right in front of me and grappled me with its whip before yanking me closer to it. Dervish and Vish went for it, and with a flick of its wrist, the balor slammed me right into Vish. As Cyrrik and Stonefist began attacking it, Sil wished it would become its true form... the tarrasque. She giggled in terrifying glee.

       Stonefist ran in terror from the tarrasque- guess he's not up to the challenge of being king. The beast swallowed Dervish whole. Vish, Bunny, and Cyrrik all began hacking into it. I used my Shadow Twin from my Lolth blade, and we both began hacking at it, using both of our Moonblades. It bit Vish and swallowed before slashing at my Twin with its claws. As Cyrrik hacked into it, it bit him and swallowed him up too. Leaving only Sil and I outside of it- well, Stonefist too, but he ran like a little bitch. Oh and the Bunny, who was the next one to be eaten

       My twin and I slashed at it over and over, in perfect unison, trying to destroy the tarrasque on our own. At one point, Sil appeared between us and it, got covered in the tarrasque's blood, and vanished again. She was definitely up to something. I just hoped I'd be able to keep the beast at bay until she could set her creepy plan into motion. After what felt like forever, Stonefist finally grew a pair and came back, and began punching the tarrasque right in the ass. He hit it in the asshole just right with a quivering palm, and diarrhea shot out of it, covering Stonefist completely, and ejecting Dervish and Vish. 

       Just as I hit it with a particularly hard hit, it began jerking and clawing at its face, like it was trying to rip its own throat out. Then Bunny and Cyrrik went flying out its mouth, my Twin's head exploded, the tarrasque puked blood, and Sil came out with it. I knew she'd come up with something amazing and disturbing to help. 

       The tarrasque turned to flee us, but we all used dimension doors to catch up to it and continue our assault. Stonefist jumped right up onto its nose and punched it right in the eye. It began to list to the side at that, so Cyrrik jumped on its head and started hacking at its neck, while Stonefist continued punching it in the eye. Cyrrik severed its head, which went flying, with Stonefist still on the nose. 

       We spent the next couple of hours sorting through the treasures that were inside the beast. We found a couple of things that led me to freeing Eurydice as my familiar so she could become a warlock. While we were all talking and sorting through everything, Stonefist left using a Well of Many Worlds we'd found. He knew he'd be exiled for what he'd done to get us to the tarrasque, so he didn't see a need to stick around, I guess. 

***** Lacysnows 22, Jotsplat

       We eventually transported ourselves back to where we'd come from, but something was off. Andolin told Pharin there was a very powerful psychic nearby. Allysandra was disoriented like she wasn't sure if Dervish was real. He, being the dumbass he was, decided to pinch her to prove himself as real, and she punched him. Sil wished that she had the psychic powers of whatever was causing this offness and that whoever was doing it was no longer psychic. Things cleared up, and we realized everything was just a little fuzzy around the edges.

       Then Sil wished we were resistant to Vecna- the mind of a child is damned brilliant sometimes; none of us would have ever thought of that. She also wished for Pimbin and the Gunslinger's blood- which we're pretty sure killed both of them. Good fucking riddance. 

       We were ushered into the council's chambers after that, where they started going off about protocol. One of the council members said Cyrrik had proven his strength and power by destroying the fucking tarrasque. Another asked him how he'd weed out the followers of Vecna in the surface town without causing an uproar. Cyrrik demonstrated with holy water and explained the ritual we'd done. Then Sil got blood from that dwarf, put a bloody handprint on Cyrrik's head, and briefly melded with him. Which led to everyone who wasn't on the council or with us to be kicked out of the council's chambers. Fucking dwarves.

       We explained to them the situation with the cult and reminded them of the attack on Potidaea. Then Lothar walked in- but it wasn't actually him. Cyrrik noticed a hand poking out of his pocket and chucked an axe at him, killing him. That Lothar had passed the council's test and managed to get past them. At that point, they wanted a private meeting and kicked the rest of us out. I tried to have Eurydice stay there to watch, but it kinda backfired and I had to revivify her... Maybe freeing her wasn't the best idea. 

       While we waited for the asshat council, a guard came down and told us the surface village had been destroyed and an army was now standing at the foot of the mountain stronghold the dwarves inhabited. Cyrrik busted into the council chamber and found them all screaming at each other. He slammed his axe onto the table, making a loud gong ring throughout the room. Cyrrik and the dwarf who seemed to be the council leader agreed that this beaurocratic bullshit needed to end right the fuck now, and they needed to make him king right away. One dwarf objected, and the council leader killed him, then asked if there were any other objections to Cyrrik assuming the crown. Four idiots raised their hands and Cyrrik chucked his axe, killing them all instantly. 

       Cyrrik demanded they summon the war council. The high priest of Moradin hurried into the room at that point and said he needed to come with him. We were led to a large, sealed door with an axe-like imprint on it. Cyrrik put the axe into the imprint and it opened, revealing thousands of terracotta soldiers. He activated them right away, and we were then led to the parade grounds. On the way, I did a sending to Briisa to check in; the barbarians hadn't attacked yet, it seemed like they were waiting for something- which was honestly more worrisome to me than if they'd just attacked right away.

       Dervish had apparently been off contacting Aerathema for his army- and she was pissed at him about the Vale. He told us the army outside was made of volcanic ash. Dervish wanted to do sendings to every major city to see how far this thing spread, so I rattled off the names of every major city on the continent. While he was occupied, Cyrrik and I were taken to a balcony that overlooked the battlefield... there were thousands of these fucking things. Cyrrik thought water might hurt them, so Aerathema whipped up a storm. Aerathema could see through Pharin's facade but decided to wait to call him out on it, since there were much bigger issues at hand, and they needed the dwarves to cooperate. 

       While Cyrrik started giving off a speech, I went with Dervish to talk to the warriors. The terra cotta army was currently in the process of surrounding the volcanic army. Such a weird fucking combination- volcanic ash vs. clay. A couple of badly injured dwarves stumbled into the room with a small bone fragment they'd found in one of the ash golems. Cyrrik mended it to give us a better idea of what it was. It was a little bone token with the right hand of Vecna and runes on it- there were exploding runes on the other side, but he managed to catch it before it went off. He tasked the rune master to create a circle to connect that token to all of the others. I think he intended to set them all off at once, to destroy the enemy at once instead of bit by bit. 

       Pharin received a message that his wizard tower was under attack by flesh golems, he instructed them to evacuate to his location. Then Ralliakkan sent him a message that her group was being attacked by vampires. 

       Narg and Oryn appeared and told us the cult had found Alucard's body. Because today just couldn't get worse... well, it could, but you know what I mean. Narg went to Potidaea to help Briisa and told us to go find that body. As much as I loathe to admit this, we should have apparently listened to Douchebag when he insisted we find the body. I scryed for Alucard's body and in my crystal ball, Greyhawk was shown smack in the center of the continent, which is not where Greyhawk is on the map. 

       While Aurora was scrying, Cyrrik used the city's Horn of the Ancestors, summoning spirits to help defend the stronghold. The golems down below began screaming. Then a group of 300 birds- giant eagles and rocs- came swooping in; the Vale Elves had come to help. A grotesque skull appeared in the sky and began cackling, then everything went red. When it vanished the golems began attacking.

       I scryed for Greyhawk itself next and a chilling visage appeared in my ball. It was an undead thing, but it wasn't quite like any I'd ever seen before. We needed to get to Greyhawk right the fuck now. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that because of the battle down below us. Our army didn't seem to be doing very well. 

       Oryn had an idea that would slow down the cult from reviving Alucard, and gathered myself, Cyrrik, Dervish, and Vish in a circle. He shattered into four pieces, and one fragment went into each of us. So since Alucard had fragmented his soul into eight parts, we now each contained 1/4 of the 1/8 of the soul that made up Oryn. I know it's fucking confusing, it doesn't make much sense to me either, but whatever.

       The person Dervish had tasked with getting sendings out to all the major city's came back and told us that every major city in Oerth was under siege. The cult was playing hardball now. With that, Dervish hurried to the battlefield to lead his people. Both he and his Bunny turned into brass dragons. A massive purple dragon appeared in the sky- Aerathema- and started laying waste to the volcanic warriors. Then a bunch of balors appeared right in the center of the battlefield and started attacking the golems; Pharin had sent in the balors as fodder. 

       As our fighters were blown up by the volcanic golems, their fucking souls were being burned out. I prayed to Lolth to take those souls so Vecna couldn't have them. She said she was trying, but she was a little busy at the moment. A meteor swarm rained down over the battlefield; Pharin was using that for demon drop pods. 

       Dervish had Scottie use his blood to fuel a shield to help protect his army from the friendly fire. Skeletons started coming from somewhere and seemed to be on our side. Another of Alucard's soul fragments was aiding the group. 

       Then the ground began to rumble and the rain turned to blood.

Map by Anna B. Meyer

Adventures in Oerth- The Bane of Vecna: Book Two, Chapter Five

The Final Beacon

Dramatis Personae:
Aurora Isilime, the Valley Elf Bard of Valor and Bae'qeshel of Lolth, the Silver Tongued Siren, who is the last Vale Elf
Eurydice, Aurora's faerie dragon familiar

Pharin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Conjurationist Wizard and Priest of Lolth, the Dark Conjurer
Sarlockh, Pharin's choldrith familiar
Vilrath, Pharin's flesh golem

Skye Vindhalle, the Air Genasi Druid

Dervish, the Kasathe Fighter and Dragon Blood Sorcerer

Willow Liadon, the Eladrin Arcane Trickster
Oryn Talus, the ancient and mysterious halfling who has employed the party; also know as Cinder, the ancient power that is said to destroy every world

Lan El'Mandragoran, the Human Paladin of Pelor

Lothar, the Sovani Smith and semi-Cleric of Moradin, High Priest of Lolth, Cleric of Istus, forced Cleric of Asmodeus; Kas Reincarnated 

Aerathema, the Wood Elf Druid

Andolin Braz'Dracon, the Brass Dragon-Drow Fighter/Beast Master
BarraZotreth, Andolin's displacer beast animal companion

Narg, there's really no way to describe Narg, Narg is just Narg
Elder Vish, Dervish's friend and mentor from his world
Sil'ilos'anon Braz'Dracon, the "Drow" Warlock Blood Mage of Lolth

Comrades we have lost:
Ralliakkan, the Drow Rogue- killed by Cinder

NOTE: Things will be mostly from Aurora's perspective. Anything in italics is from a third person since the bard can't be everywhere at once.

***** Lacysnows 14, CY 710, Forgotten City

       When I finished my reverie, I immediately began setting up my resurrection ritual so we could get Dervish's fucking mages up and running again. I had Eurydice aid me with the spell so that I could get two of them revived at once. Once those two were breathing again, they volunteered to do the true resurrection ritual for Scottie so I could take care of other things.

       Apparently, while I'd been in reverie, douchebag had found a whole new section of the bunker, a fucking residential section. Now I had no idea where those assholes were. I explored as I went, and eventually found a tactical command room with a map of Flanaess. There were lights on the map that indicated the Beacons that were activated, and it included the Beacon we hadn't gotten to yet. Just below the tactical room was the Beacon Key room, which was where the others were.

       Even though this Beacon was already on, we were hoping we could belatedly put some spells into it. After spending way too fucking long debating on it, we decided we were going to try to resurrect Haas, turn off the dimensional lock, and sequester Cinder until the means to cleanse him are brought before him and the words "Awaken Alucard" are spoken. Allysandra set up a three-tiered circle for us around the key, and we set to work. 

       As I began to call Haas' soul back, Pharin got the hair-brained idea (pun intended) to have Andolin control Dervish and cast find familiar through him. The assholes were trying to make Haas Dervish's fucking familiar. A bunny appeared in the circle moments before a giant rift from the Plane of Positivity opened up in the room, and the amount of pure good that poured from it was a bit suffocating. Didn't help that my Lolth Blade was having an adverse reaction to the energy, making my discomfort worse. The tear made us think we wouldn't have time to perform a true resurrection, so Sarlockh used a rod of resurrection instead... Nothing happened. His soul was truly destroyed. 

       Allysandra announced that with the amount of energy we'd just wasted on that stupid bunny, we could either sequester Cinder or try to shut down another Beacon. At that moment, I realized exactly what spell was on the Beacon that had shut down travel: Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum. Knowing which spell had been doing this made Pharin and Allysanda decide to go to the other Beacon to shut that shit down. 

       Pharin and Allysandra entered the other Beacon, and it was then that Pharin realized that each Beacon needs to represent a different alignment; something no one had been doing, there were two good and two evil Beacons, and if the final Beacon was activated with either of those, it would have a nasty fallout for the world. Allysandra expertly unraveled that spell.

       While Douchebag and Allysandra were dealing with the other Beacon, the ground began to rumble; Cinder was nearby, and he was burrowing to us. Wards began lighting up on the walls, one by one, and then a small crack appeared in the wall. I hoped those fuckers would finish before Cinder kills us all. The wards flared, nearly blinding everyone, and a web of energy appeared. The wards exploded as Cinder broke down the wall. Fuck. 

       Vish was able to engage Cinder and keep him off of us, but who knew how long he'd be able to do that. As soon as Pharin announced that they were done, I decided to use the circle to teleport all of our asses the fuck out of here- aiming for the next Beacon. The problem was, Cinder was really fucking powerful. Everyone else was teleported out of the room, and I was left alone with Cinder. Terror wrapped its icy hands around me. I knew I wouldn't survive him.

       I tried again to teleport the fuck out, and he stopped me, again. I frantically activated a Hut, I knew he'd probably dispel it instantly, but it was all I could do. Surprisingly he didn't break through the Hut right away, which gave me the dimmest glimmer of hope, before he stopped me from teleporting, again. I was now out of the magical energy required to get out of here. I wouldn't make him easy to take me out though, I'd make it one for the books- and I wished I had a memory crystal on me so I could record it for those books. 

       Cinder broke down my Hut, grabbed me by the throat, and lifted me off the ground. I was frantically trying to come up with a plan when Lan came flying out of the rift we'd opened to the positive plane, slammed into Cinder, and sent him flying! Lan sliced the air with his sword, told me to go through it, and squared his shoulders, ready for Cinder to come at him. I wanted to watch the fight, but I knew I needed to leave. On the other side of the portal was Calbut, the town where the Beacon Key was located.

       Appearing out of nowhere in the middle of a street isn't a good idea. I'd never recommend it. I found myself surrounded instantly by a group of guards throwing questions at me too quickly for me to even attempt to answer them. As I started trying to tell them who I was and that they needed to fuck off, Douchebag and Dumbass appeared and found themselves surrounded too. Of course, this is the one and only time Douchebag would ever label me the leader of this shitshow. Problem was, none of my magic was working to calm these fuckers down. 

       They began taking me to their leaders when Douchebag set up a Hut, and somehow he managed to collapse two buildings in the process. Pharin excels in destroying things. He told the guards to let him go or drop their weapons, which they didn't appreciate, so he started freezing them. Then, because when things go to shit everyone decides to join in the fun, the fucking Gunslinger showed up. Turned out the guards were vampires, and his appearance prompted them to reveal themselves. 

       Seeing them sprout fangs, I dimension doored the fuck away from them, just in time for Pharin to summon a plague of spiders... which Andolin then enraged... Screams erupted all around us as the angry arachnids began killing everyone in sight. The final death toll ended up being around 31,000... Meh. Pharin used a dracolich's phylactery- I don't know how he got it- as a magical battery to keep the spiders going. 

       Scottie crossed his arms and glared at Pharin for the devastation he was enacting, so Pharin grabbed a little wood elf child and revived her. He was adopting her or sacrificing her to Lolth, or something... I don't know. That fucking drow does weird shit.

       Once the screams had died down a little, we now faced the problem that the entire town was covered in spider webs, making it kinda hard to look for the stupid Beacon Key. So, since it wouldn't hurt the spiders, I dropped a fireball on the webs. Turns out that was a bad fucking idea... 

***** Lacysnows 18, Calbut

       It took three days for the fires to die down enough for us to get into the city. I probably shouldn't have done that, but oh fucking well. We spent those days on the ship, hovering above the city, watching the flames devour it.

       During those days, Dervish wandered off to find his people, and Pharin took the little elven girl, who he named Sil'ilos'anon, and turned her into a drow. Then he unofficially adopted this little four-year-old and took her to the Demonweb Pits to try to give her a warlock pact with Lolth. I don't care enough to feel bad. 

       Now that we could finally get into the city, Andolin found where he thought the Beacon might be. Pharin spent two and a half hours tunneling us down to the entrance, and he had to activate the dagger to find the damn place. I put a private sanctum up first. 

       We walked into the building where we thought the final key was, and there was Ralliakkan, lounging on the throne. Apparently, it had been her clone that died. At least we were in the right place.

       It took us forever to decide what spells to use in this Beacon. It was so fucking ridiculous that I stopped arguing and just envisioned myself killing Pharin and Dervish, over and over, in the most brutal ways I could think of. That was an enjoyable diversion. Eventually, it was decided that we'd make brooches using fabricate, that would function like our communication rings, and would have a few buffs on it: umbral weapon, ethereal shield, and investiture of wind.

      Almost right after we decided this, the ground began to rumble. Fucking Cinder found us. Allysandra went to deal with him while the rest of us prepared the ritual. Pharin spent a couple of minutes getting the framework for the spell up and running, but thankfully this was one he'd created before, so he knew what he was doing. We'd decided to use Dervish to activate this Beacon so we would have a different kind of alignment in the mix.

       Right before we turned on the Beacon, Cinder broke in. Allysandra quickly threw up a barrier to keep Cinder from interfering with the spell; I hoped it would be enough. When Pharin finally activated the Beacon there was a massive blast of energy, as the drow began funneling 4,000+ souls through Dervish, into the Beacon. As Dervish began to age, Pharin funneled some of his blood into Dervish so he wouldn't die. Then Sil activated fucking blood magic to empower the circle and strengthen the barrier between us and Cinder; she used the last of the blood she'd taken to pin Cinder against the wall. That child is fucking terrifying. 

       The spell finished and the barrier faded out, turning into a red mist. Thanks to what Pharin did to Dervish, he'd aged 340 years and was now a half brass dragon. Bunny, his familiar was a miniature brass dragon too. That was fucking weird. We teleported back to the Forgotten City before Cinder could do anything to us. 

       Cinder followed us, but he couldn't get through the wards into the bunker, so he threw a rather terrifying hissy fit in the key room. We really needed to do something about him. I told the others about the Silver Star and said I'd retrieve it in the morning. 

***** Lacysnows 19, Potidaea

       I teleported over to my college first thing in the morning, only to find it was in complete chaos. I couldn't get an answer out of anyone, so I rushed to Gabrielle's office and found my friend, mentor, and idol, dead at her desk. The room was ransacked, and I could tell from what was used to kill her, that was no way I could bring Gabby back. I hurried up to the top floor, where the mute Dancer's rooms were, and found the Drow bitch and the Duergar were attacking her. Suddenly Gabby's sending to me made sense. It wasn't Cinder attacking them, it was these fuckers. 

       They had the Dancer flanked, so I bitch-slapped the drow bitch with Bigby's Hand. That distracted them enough for the Dancer to trip both of them, then gracefully leap away. The drow dropped a Hut over the two of them and they began chanting. It was then that I realized where Gabby would have hidden the Star- on the top of the lightning rod on top of the College. 

       I used my Shadow Twin to keep them fucking busy while I teleported to the Star, taking the Dancer with me. It was much hotter up here than it should have been; I learned later that Cinder had followed me, and a fireball the size of a boulder was slowly descending on my college. We got the Star and I teleported away with the Dancer. Apparently, my Shadow Twin can't teleport with me, so she instead drained the Drow and Duegar's Hut, turning it into a super Hut that protected the college from Cinder's fiery ball of death.

       I gave Allysandra the Star because I would not give something that powerful to Captain Douchebag. As she worked on that, Cinder returned to the Forgotten City and was putting together a circle, most likely to attack the wards and get at us. 

       Sil suddenly became fucking terrifying. I felt the familiar magic of Lolth seep into the room, supercharging the child so she could fight Cinder. When she got into the key room, she shouted something I couldn't make out, but her intent was clear: she was calling the Blood God. Sil stabbed herself, turned into a skeleton, and sank into the floor. She was turning into an Avatar for the Blood God.

       As soon as Allysandra figured out how to get the Star working, after some debate we decided to have Cinder cleansed only a few minutes ago- right about the time he would have been attempting to decimate my college. I wanted to wind it back earlier, but a certain idiot pushed that we not do that because of paradoxes. Even though the dumbshit doesn't know much about magic, Pharin still decided to listen to him instead of me. Fucking frustrating assholes. 

       We gathered in the circle and used the Star to cleanse Cinder. The Star vanished, and we were able to contact Oryn again. 

       I received new memories from my Shadow Twin; instead of taking over the circle to protect my school, she banished both of those assholes.