The Story of Venglitz

The Hubris of Venglitz

The party have been summoned by Malark Amblecrown to investigate a rather worrying matter.

The Guild have had growing concern as to the wellbeing of one Pious Clane, as he has not sent word of his status in quite some time. He was sent on a diplomatic support mission about 5 years ago to the continent of Venglitz - an island of fiercely competitive merchant states always warring to outdo one another, both economically and territorially - to investigate reports of an erupting civil war. Even though the continent has a reputation as being fiercely competitive, they are known to band together unflinchingly in the face of outside interference, and to hear word of civil war in such a steadfast neighbour is most pertubatory indeed.

After receiving their briefing, the party were introduced to Vanimous Broune and given a variety of magical items to help in their endeavours. Upon leaving the guild, the party headed for the docks where they sought passage from Dotterickes to the port town of Gladstone to the south-east, on the coast. They have gained passage to a freight hauling tug run by the Doyle family.

After some confusion as to why the party was being smuggled aboard the Doyle's tug (river tariffs), at the end of about a day's travel the party settled down for the night. In the morning, there was no sign of the Doyle family, but the party heard some strangely alluring yet broken music coming from further within the forest.

The party found a small shrine hidden in the woods, with the Doyles unconscious and two sirens singing to two seemingly entranced humans. The party fought the sirens and the humans, who turned out to be Green Slaads in disguise, and then set about cleaning and re-sanctifying the shrine. They fussed over whether the Doyles had been infected by the Slaads.

Once satisfied that the shrine had been re-sanctified, the party were interrupted by a strange voice emanating from the woods all around them. They returned to the ship, and finished their journey to Gladstone with some minor antics on the deck from Ace whilst he was "paddling". In Gladstone, they got a tour of the town from some ramshackle youths, who ended up pickpocketing Ace for half his gold whilst showing the party the landmarks in the town. Ace and Fizzle then attempted a lockpick-off at the Thieves' Guild (where Ace was attempting to find his contact Sharkface "Barnivald" Aspengold), only to find a solid wall behind the front door. They ended their day by going to the Epicenter, where Balthazar met another Dragonborn called Kno, and the party were treated to one of the inn's famous evening shows. Gad and Balthazar hear the strange voice from earlier again, and can make out a strange jester's mask amongst the dancers whilst the show is going on.

The party went to check out the Bazaar after the show had finished, and after much deliberation decided not to trade with Phineas for the lance - although Gad did buy some reagants for True Sight and Daylight.

Once the party had gone to sleep for the night, they were awoken by a large explosion at some point, to hear shouting and see flames arising from the shipwright. They rushed from their chambers (some armored, some not) out of the inn towards the shipwright to find it under attack by some nefarious Drow.

The party managed to kill all of the drow infiltrators, except from the wizard figure leading them (Lord Volkmar) who managed to escape using some sort of teleport spell. After having successfully halted the ship's destruction, the party interrogated the souls of some of the dead drow, and found out that they are in cahoots with Dan'kor the Grim (Fizzle's nemesis), and their reason for attempting to destroy the galleon being constructed for the Merchant's Guild was to "stop the meddlers" in their business. They turned out to be part of a notorious pirate fleet known as the Black Scars. The lead representative of the Merchant's Guild in Gladstone, a white-furred Tabaxi named Kharjo, filled the party in on the groups a little bit, and gave them a reward which the party used to acquire some reagants, and Phineas' Academic Focus.

The party boarded the Galerider after an introduction to the captain, Wersel Motterton, and took to the sky. After a tour of the ship, and some time resting aboard the airship, the crew spotted an ominous purplish storm on the horizon. The captain warned of screaming storms such as these that they'd passed through previously. The party pressed on, only to be ambushed by a horde of flying screaming monsters being lead by some sorcerous being on a chariot of sorts.

After defeating their other-wordly attackers, the party were treated to another visit from their jester-masked narrator (Meridian), who said "Most impressive, well done indeed! But hmm, I wonder if they've got your scent now. How WILL our story go from here...". After this, the party took stock of their surroundings before plummeting into an oasis of calm in the center of the strange storm they found the airship they were travelling on in. They had a moment's respite in the eye of the storm before entering the other side of the clouds, where they noticed that the clouds had a strange greenish tinge to them rather than the purplish/pink they noticed earlier.

Unsurprisingly, something went amiss shortly after entering these clouds - another airship was spotted listing far below where the party were currently travelling. As they are wont to do, they went to investigate - only to find that the other airship was covered in a strange, pulsating moss-like growth. They were attacked after finding the previous captain's notes, saying "Mission failed. Managed to escape....litz. Not what we expec..... multiple bandit ambushes, liars... Chaos.".

The party destroyed the noxious daemons in short order, then set about sabotaging the listing airship so that it wouldn't continue its wayward journey towards more civilized domains, and finally had some respite once back aboard the Galerider. A few days' travel later, and the crew of the Galerider spotted another ominous sign on the horizon - there was signs of a large fire somewhere far off in the distance, coming from Whiffer's Point according to Captain Motterton.

Luckily, as the party had some time to prepare (at least a day's travel) before arriving, they set about upgrading the Galerider's defences - Fizzle converted two of the harpoon guns into flame spewing devices, and Balthazar sat ready to fill the ship's coal furnace with Dragongrass upon nearing the upcoming commotion. Upon finally approaching Whiffer's Point, the party's fears were confirmed - the settlement was ablaze, with obvious signs of chaos ever-apparent the closer they neared. Worryingly, as well as fire and fighting, there was also the constant buzzing undertone similar to the one they'd experienced in the strange green storm previously, and from the dense cloud ahead of the ship a large section of droning black cloud seemed to detach itself and head towards the Galerider.

It turned out to not just be a cloud, but also a dense horde of insects that threatened to engulf the ship, however the party's prior work upgrading the ship proved immensely fruitful at this moment - their flame throwing weapons held the buzzing tide at bay and kept it to the periphery of the ship rather than infested every part of it. Out of the cloud of insects, Gad spotted an oncoming shadow that clarified into the shape of a Plague Drone, which dive-bombed the ship. Rather than going for the crew or the party, the drone headed for one of the propeller engines providing the airship with momentum, and after it detonated itself against said engine, the Galerider is forced to go to ground temporarily on the periphery of the warzone that is Whiffer's Point.

The party leave the airship as the repairs are undertaken, and find themselves in a blazing urban warzone on the approach to Whiffer's Point. They can make out numerous humanoid figures in amongst the chaos, although there doesn't appear to be any apparent hostility to the party at this moment…

Obviously, that changed fairly soon afterwards. The party could make out strange song coming from nearby, and upon investigation discovered a group of strange humanoid creatures being lead by a corpulent female figure, who was the one doing the singing the party noticed and keeping a large group of oblivious villagers entirely captivated. Shit went down, and the party destroyed all the enemies after discovering that the strangely captivated villagers seemed to be acting as some kind of damage sponge for the creatures seemingly in charge.

After the fight, the party were taking stock and repairing a carriage with which to expedite the rescue of a group of villagers the last group of enemies hadn't gotten round to sacrificing yet when Ace thought he heard more sounds of combat off in the near distance. The party investigated to find another smaller group of similar enemies, and the bodies of the two heavily armoured occupants of one of the neighbouring chambers on the Galerider - the men who were handcuffed to the dank chest. The party finished off this group of enemies, and then set about investigating the dank chest whilst making their way towards the docks with the remaining villagers.

Balthazar managed to dimension door the chest out of the decoy restraints and locks that had been placed around it, leaving the party with a chest wrapped in a chain with 5 padlocks on it. Ace then proceeded to absolutely ANNIHILATE the lockpicking checks, leaving the party with a dank chest full of strange beast eggs and some potions. After correctly identifying which beasts the eggs belong to, Gad tasted some of one of the potions to discover it seems to boost the growth of whatever consumes it, and Fizzle took the opportunity to open the vial of dark liquid labelled SHADOW in Primordial. The strange viscous black liquid quickly began to ooze from the vial, hampering all of Fizzles attempt to re-stopper it.

The strange viscous liquid quickly spread to encompass the entire carriage, with all the party members and the townsfolk they were attempting to rescue plunged into impenetrable darkness. Arthur attempted to control the regain some control over the horses and the carriage, however without being able to see where they were going the horses were galloping wildly. The frontmost horse and the carriage's tongue collided with something in, and the carriage began the flip into the air, when the party were seemingly frozen in place, and an otherworldly voice called out "Not yet", before there was a blinding flash that seemed to cause the darkness surrounding the party to tear itself apart in shreds.

Having safely disembarked everyone from the now perilous carriage, the party continued on to the docks that they could tell were now close by. As they turned down the final main thoroughfare on the approach to the docks, the party heard a loud whooshing noise emitted from somewhere behind the city's central fortification's main defensive wall, and a giant flaming sphere was launched skyward, seemingly in the party's direction. The party split, with Balthazar having a plan of sorts, Arthur wanting to protect the civilians, and Gad, Ace and Fizzle darting down a side street to safety. As the flaming sphere began its downward decent towards the road ahead of the party, Balthazar wrested control of the sphere with Animate Objects, before commanding the sphere to launch itself seawards, no longer a threat.

The party regrouped and continued on towards the harbour, finally arriving at the periphery to see that most of the seaworthy vessels had already been appropriated, and many silhouettes could be seen fleeing into the night seawards. The civilians with the party thanked them again for their help, then immediately headed towards the closer of the two remaining available vessels. As the party began the board their own small ship, an enormous roar erupted from behind the castle walls at the rear of the docks, before the wall began rumbling then suddenly exploded outwards in a shower of rubble, rocks, bricks and mortar. A gargantuan undead behemoth stepped through the rupture, and began wading out towards the escaping ships in the sea whilst firing gouts of vitriolic acid and hefting multiple grotesque, oversized butcher-like meathooks in an attempt to skewer the escaping vessels and reel them back towards the shore. The party quickly set about attempting to assist the other ships in their escape, wresting latched meathooks from afflicted civilian vessels and throwing PURE DAMAGE at the undead behemoth.

After an epic battle involving multiple civilian ships, the party and the Undead Behemoth, the party emerged having slain the creature (and levelling up in the process) as well as saving most of the civilian ships. They went aboard the Galleon they'd saved, where they were able to rest safely until the next morning. They set out from there towards Venglitz, and shortly after embarking they made a Clairvoyancyaid call to Vanimous, with whom they had a lengthy discussion and were informed about many more details of Venglitz and what is going on currently. They also found a map of Venglitz, and saw that the island is surrounded by a cordon of stone towers in the ocean a few hundred feet from the coastline. The party approached one of these towers, and found that the water surrounding the tower swelled in such a way as to totally impede their progress landwards. Balthazar made the boat fly to the tower in order to defeat this, after Fizzle flew over for a preliminary inspection and found the tower to only contain one room, with a stone pool of water in the center of the room with a strange sky-blue gemstone set into the ceiling above it.

The party spent the night in the strange stone tower, and in the morning the party set off for the island of Venglitz afresh. The instant their boat touched the water after being lifted from the tower by Fizzle using the strange telekinetic abilities of the pool of water, the currents seemed to very specifically target the boat and cause it to rapidly pick up speed and rush towards the shoreline. Fizzle gave chase and caught the party about halfway to the shore, where the party realised that even though they were rushing towards the shoreline, thankfully there was a small beach set into the rugged outline of the shore directly ahead of them. As they approached the shore and made landfall relatively unscathed, Gad spotted a thin line of smoke rising from a nearby stone outcrop. On closer inspection, the party found a recently abandoned raiding camp of sorts, with the wreckage of a longboat and numerous tents and hunting/survival supplies setup around the camp. As they were taking stock of the surroundings and checking the camp for anything interesting, the party heard cries of alarm from somewhere closeby in the distance, and after travelling a short distance inland from the camp, the party came to the edge of a small hamlet with screaming emitting from somewhere within. As they entered the hamlet, the party spotted what appeared to be a party of Orc and Ogre raiders finishing off the last remaining residents, and they entered combat. Shortly after combat began, some unexpected entrants joined the fight - a group of Evolved, and a few Bilecasks (new to the party) - the party chose to put up a wall of fire around them instead of join the fray fully as the two sides appeared to be warring with each other. As they tactically retreated from the fight as they saw the Evolved were clearly on the winning side, Arthur stepped over the body of the leader of the Orc raiders, only to hear something on his person seemingly talking as if muffled. Arthur quickly searched the body to find a canvas bag that appeared to be mumbling.

On returning to the camp, the party gave the bag a quick inspection to determine whether it posed a danger to them, before setting back out to sea in their smuggling vessel to coast slightly offshore whilst having a conversation with their new animated friend, Reginald.

The party spent quite a while asking Reginald about the different settlements of Venglitz, and he gave them well worded touristic information about all of them, except for when asked about the island's capital, Allure - in that case his eyes rolled back into his head whilst he emitted unearthly clunking noises as if machinery were misfiring, before uttering in an entirely different voice to his usual "HUBRIS IS THE SOURCE OF LIGHT", then moments later returning to his seemingly normal, chipper self.

The party deliberated over exactly what course of action to take next for some time, before deciding to head towards the Ashyards by boat to see if they could tell what fate, if any, had befallen it. As they approached the Ashyards, they could see a thick plume of smoke rising from the horizon, although until they got closer they couldn't tell whether this was smoke caused by the day-to-day operation of the Ashyards, or a sign of something more sinister. Upon closing with the Ashyards, the party could make out a discernable and obvious lack of activity outside of the walls of the settlement, and strange winged creatures moving around inside the immense plume of smog emanating from the smoldering city.

The party decided to try to make port at the Ashyards docks, however on their approach they heard a tuneful screech from the city before a small segment of the smog appeared to detach itself and begin making its way outwards towards the party in their boat. As the cloud neared and the smog dissipated, the party could see it was in fact a small group of Ash Drakes that were assailing them. After fighting the Ash Drakes, with Balthazar polymorphing two of them into small shoals of fish, the party decided to retreat from the seemingly hostile settlement. As they did so, Gad noticed a patch of terrain down the coast from the Ashyards that appeared to be coloured with a red hue, centered around a rocky outcrop.

The party deliberated once again over which course of action to take, with Gad communing with his god to attempt to get some further information to aid their decision. The communion resulted in one particularly pertinent piece of information - Gad was told to "Follow the light" when asking whether there was value in the party heading into the Ashyards. With this information in hand, the party resolved the investigate the nearby red hue, as well as forging a path for Allure given what they've been told previously by Reginald about the island's capital.

As the party made landfall and approached the rocky outcrop that appeared to be the epicentre of the reddish hue colouring the surrounding land, they noticed that the wind picked up strongly as if they were in the midst of a storm, and they began to hear chanting coming from the peak of the outcrop. On making their way up the rocky path winding its way to the peak, the party were stopped by barking emanating from somewhere on the path directly in front of them. After uncertainly skirting their way past the barking, with all of the party receiving some damage from the Invisible Watchdog, they finally saw what was at the peak - a group of darkly robed humanoids, standing in a semi-circle around and ancient stone idol, in the midst of some sort of ritual surrounding strange glyphs carved or painted into the ground in front of the idol.

The instant the party made eye contact with one of the figures, they responded by conjuring a stone wall around themselves and concentrating on their ritual, with a beam of reddish light appearing from inside the stone hut, and shooting up into the sky. The party attempted for a few turns to reason with the figures, asking to parlay but being ignored, and with the wind picking up speed the whole time. Eventually, Balthazar put a stop to the ritual by casting Enlarge/Reduce on the bottom supporting part of the stone wall, causing it to grow and drop the stone roof on the figures concentrating on the ritual, killing them all instantly.

At the end of the fight, Gad got an incredibly strong urge to cleanse the Stone Idol, similar to the one he had at the beginning of the party's journey when encountering the shrine full of Green Slaads. As he prayed and cleansed the idol, a bolt of radiant lightning burst down from the sky, striking the head of the Stone Idol, and splitting it straight down the centre with the two halves toppling to separate sides and breaking into various sized chunks. In the remains of the idol, the party found the Corruscating Radiant Band, with the word "PIOUS" engraved along the inside of the ring.

Gad then set about fully cleansing the area, and as he did so the party noticed that both the reddish hue that was colouring the areas started disappearing with normality returning to the area, and the hench smoke plume emanating from The Ashyards was starting to dissipate, and the crowds of Ash Drakes appeared to be breaking into smaller flocks and leaving. As this was happening, Balthazar investigated the sigil on the ground, Fizzle cast Legend Lore on the Stone Idol, Arthur attempted to find the tracks of the cultists who were performing the rite, and Ace searched the cultists' pockets. Balthazar learned that the sigil was written in some strange red paste, and the runes surrounding the outside were the name of a Devil Duke written in Infernal, with the centre of the sigil being the Aspirants' of Hysh's symbol - it was some kind of summoning circle that has apparently been used multiple times judging by the layers making up the sigil. Fizzle discovered that the statue was ancient, seemingly having been appropriated by multiple different cultures over the aeons, with all of their worship surrounding Death - however in both a destruction and resurrective manner depending on the culture. The oldest part of the statue was the huge skull set into the centre - it was made of bone, and its teeth appeared to be stained red with blood on closer inspection. Arthur could find no signs of the cultists entering the area, leading the party to presume that they arrived by some means other than walking. Ace found nothing on the bodies of the cultists except their strange ritual daggers, and noticed that all the cultists have the same summoning circle tatooed onto their chests.

The party them had a small chat with Vanimous via the Clairvoyancyaid, after which Gad attempted to Scry on Pious using his Corruscating Radiant Band. Gad's vision took him to the center of the map of Venglitz, zooming in on Allure before fading to white, with a vision of Pious clarifying in the center, only his top half visible, with his hands bound somewhere above his head. No surrounding details could be seen, although muffled voices could be heard intermittently on the edge of the vision. Pious appeared to be grimacing as if in continual pain and discomfort, however for but a fleeting moment he seemed to make eye contact with Gad, even appearing to begin to smile before the visage disappeared to be replaced by a familiar grimace.

Whilst gathering themselves and deciding how to proceed, the party noticed that there were distant rumbles, almost like tectonic activity, and Gad noticed one of the mountain tops move.

After having fully inspected the area, the party decided to continue heading south following the coastline, with their end goal being Allure. Fizzle flew Gad up into the air to see if he could see anything on the horizon, and other than what was presumed to be another of the towers of the Circumfence, all Gad could see was a momentary flash of light from far south on the very edge of the horizon. The party headed towards the next tower of the Circumfence, and on approach found that the tower instead of repelling them drew them in at a dangerous speed towards the rocky base of the construction. Gad controlled the waves masterfully in order to safely deposit the party in their small vessel onto the balcony of the tower, and the party spent the night there resting up in relative safety. During the night, the party's watch noticed on each of their watches that the gem set into the sconce above the stone pool of water blinked dully for a moment exactly once before dimming again. As the party went to leave the following day, Fizzle managed to disable the tower's control of the surrounding seas by dispelling the magic on the gemstone (he rolled a 19) and managed to shrink the gem to extract it from the ceiling. As the party are preparing to set out on another day's adventuring, Gad notices once again the shame bright glimmer on the horizon, closer now.

The party followed the coastline southwards, somewhat following the glimmer that Gad had been keeping an eye out for and had now begun to see with more consistency. They party discussed their next steps for some time, with Gad communing with his God for more information before the party decded to head towards the next tower in the Circumfence to rest the night before heading towards the glimmer that they now presumed was Suncross Shinings. Before reaching the tower, the sun set meaning that Fizzle and Balthazar had to take over sailing duties being the only members of the party with any kind of darkvision. After a few more hours of travel, they reached what they calculated to be the danger zone of the next tower, however found themselves unperturbed in their approach. On reaching the tower, the party found it to be in quite the state of disrepair, with numerous holes studding the stonework, and holes abound where bricks and mortar was missing. Gad once again controlled the waves to deposit the boat on the balcony of the tower, as the roof was missing its ballustrade leaving a precarious at best platform for the party's boat.

Fizzle has a dream of dark hooves, with dark armoured boots and a dark cape galloping over a dusky landscape - DANKOR.

After spending a relatively uneventful night in the deactivated, decrepit tower, the party set off after more deliberation in the direction of Suncross Shinings. On approach, they noticed that the city wasn't actually on the coast, but was a kilometre or so inland, set alongside one of the many tributaries of the that join the sea along the coastline. As they made landfall and closed with the city on foot, the party could see an immense cuboid building set just aside from the city that reflected the light fiercely as they looked at it.

Once they made their way to within eyeshot of the city gates, the party discovered that the entire city appeared to have been transmuted into glass - all the buildings, all the furniture, people, animals, everything had been turned into incredibly detailed glass statues. The party has a quick look at the general overview of the city, before scouting by air and not seeing any immediate signs of life - after which, the party debated on where to go. They decided to check out the Mandrel and Focal Point in the very centre of the city, and on approaching they noticed that the chimney at the center of the Mandrel was very lazily emitting a small plume of colourful smoke. When they reached Focal Point, the party could see the strange mirrored bowl with an even stranger cuboid construction suspended above it that make up the very epicenter of the city, around the periphery of which they spotted some very similar sigils to those they'd seen at the Stone Idol near the Ashyards. After more deliberation, Balthazar set about removing the sigils, however when he began cutting into the 2nd of 5 sigils, a guttural, resplendent voice rang out saying "Stop them!" and the party noticed the statues of people filling the city center began to move towards them, with their faces changing to horrified grimaces.

Balthazar noticed that the sigil he had been cutting was re-sealing itself where a cut had been made, and the rest of the party noticed that the statues, instead of approaching to combat distance, were instead linking arms and forming an eerie perimeter around Focal Point, with the rear ranks of statues clambering atop the shoulders of those already forming the barrier, building higher and higher until a dome of glass bodies was constructed around the party. As this was happening, the party noticed that the surfaces of the tiny mirrors mounted all over the many surfaces of the strange cuboid were melting off, dripping into the bowl of mirrors beneath and filling it with a mercury-like, opaque reflective liquid. With all of the mirrors melting off into the bowl below, the liquid almost filling it, ripples appeared in the surface before an immense, corpulent monstrosity emerged from within. A fight ensued, with the party having to dodge The Glutton's elemental splashes, as well as the dice-determined area effects in the arena they found themselves. Ace got the finishing blow on The Glutton, before the party rapidly broke the remaining seals on the ground. The Glutton drooped back into the mercury-like liquid, before that itself drained out of the bottom of the bowl of mirrors into seemingly nowhere.

The party noticed that with their foe vanquished, the faces of all of the statues forming the dome around them had changed from grimaces to pleased smiles, all of them looking down on the party happily in a slightly eerie way. As they did so, cracks began to form on their surfaces, before spreading throughout, with the whole dome finally shattering into tiny shards and showering the area around the party. Whilst taking this in, the party heard a clattering from behind them, and turned to notice something falling from within the cuboid structure into the centre of the bowl of mirrors beneath - a weathered, worn tome with a strangely ornate fork jammed into the front cover. This turned out to be Pious' Holy Tome, and The Gluttonous Spork. After collecting and identifying these items, the party regathered just outside the bowl of mirrors, and noticed that not all of the statues had shattered - only those forming the dome around them during the combat - there were still statues of animals and children spread throughout the city, as well as the buildings and furnishings of the city itself. These began to crack as the party watched, however instead of shattering like the adults, the remaining statues appeared to have something inside them, with the animals and children attempting to free themselves from the glass that encased them.

Gad freed Timothy Timbo Tomlinson, as well as a relatively large group of the children in the area, then the party set about freeing the rest of the children in the city. With this done, they set about attempting to instill some kind of order and organisation to the survivors, after much deliberation getting to a state where they were as happy as they could be that the remaining young inhabitants of Suncross Shinings could make some sort of life for themselves in the now-adultless version of their home. Ace also freed himself a particularly scraggy looking feline, who took an immediate liking to him.

After spending some more time making sure they were comfortable with the supplies and instructions given to the children of Suncross Shinings, Ace noticed that the cat that he had rescued appeared to be acting strangely. He was convinced he heard it meow as if a person was speaking rather than a cat meowing. Fizzle dispelled magic on the cat, and it transformed into a skinny, bearded man named Mason - a scouse cat burglar who had been turned into a cat when burglarising someone's property. The party set about ensuring that he could cause no trouble in the city of innocent children, watching him closely until the following morning. Satisfied that the children of the city had the best possible chances of making lives for themselves, the party moved down to the dock, where they gave Mason a boat and some supplies, after which he set off for the open seas, then the party embarked on a newer, slightly larger boat than the one they had previously.

The party set out once again following the coastline, slowing when they approached Coingate - it appeared from a distance that the city was untouched by the madness and destruction that seemed to have affected the rest of Venglitz, there were armored humanoids guarding the gatehouse, towards which the party approached. On closing with the guards, they found they were challenged almost immediately by the first guard they encountered, with him demanding that they declare any valuables they were carrying. Arthur and Ace managed to skillfully disarm the situation with a combination of Ace's panache and Arthur's diplomacy, saying that they just wanted to be taken to the guards' commander. Surprisingly, the previously hostile guards relented in their aggression, and lead the party into the center of the city, where they were taken to the Mint. Inside, they found it was a bank of sorts, being guarded by 3 coinguards, who left the party alone as long as they made little noise. The party headed down into the lowest vault of the Mint, the Lord's Vault, inside which they found riches and treasure aplenty. As they were investigating the vault however, the largest pile of various coins and currency sprung to life, and a Coinstruct began assailing the party.

The party defeated the Coinstruct, and set about investigating the vault's contents properly, however they did notice that as the fighting began, they heard the heavy clatter of metal from atop the stairs they entered down, presuming they had been locked inside the Lord's Vault.

After more closely checking over the valuables in the vault, the party checked the top of the stairs to find that the gateway they entered through was encased in a layer of golden material, blocking all egress from the vault. Arthur inspected the large ruby left behind in the remains of the Coinstruct to find that it was covered in fine engravings of sigils very similar to those seen previously. The party confirmed with Vanimous that this sigil read "Mammon" - another arch duke of one of the hells. Gad attempted to Sacred Flame the ruby, only for there to be a flash of red light after which the rest of the party saw he had disappeared. One by one (eventually), the party also dealt damage to the ruby, all disappearing in flashes of red light (the others noticed strange discolorations in the ruby for each of the party members that disappeared). They found themselves in a domed chamber with strange crystalline growths protruding from all surfaces except the floor, and were greeted by Mammon. A fight with Mammon ensued, with him dealing some of the highest grievous wounds to the party encountered yet before finally succumbing, at which point there was another flash of red light accompanied by a loud shattering noise.

The party came to their senses to find themselves back in the vault, with shards of ruby covering the area around them, and the entrance to the vault atop the stairs once again unblocked. They collected as many rubies an emeralds as they could carry (about 10k each), as well as taking some other valuables from the vault before exiting. After much deliberation, the party decided the next best course of action was to clear some space in the bag of holding, seeing as a fair amount of it was being taken up by the collection of eggs the party had amassed. They decided to use the aging potion found earlier to hatch some of the eggs, with Arthur hatching the hippogryph egg and Balthazar &; Fizzle hatching the dragonborn egg.

Arthur bonded with the hippogryph successfully, with it seeing Arthur as its parent - he then aged it to about 1 year old, nearly full size, at which point he set about teaching it basic husbandry. Balthazar hatched the dragonborn egg to find it was a male dragonborn of green/blue colouration, whose breath appeared to be somewhere between lightning and poison. He named the youth Chegwin, before aging him to about a year and a half - the perfect age to shape his future. Chegwin displayed at least some natural aptitude for sorcery - similar to Balthazar when he was but a youngling, he managed to instinctively produce flames from his claws, and showed a deep natural interest in the magical arts when discussing them with Balthazar.

The party spent considerable time speaking to Chegwin, discovering more about his character and personal motivations/beliefs. With much guidance and advice from the party, Chegwin has effectively evolved into a level 1 character. Arthur also spent quite some time bonding with Risha, who, after some hunting trips throughout the party's continued journey down the coastline, has been hunting for dinner every day. Risha now follows the party without prompting, and responds to Arthur's call.

As the party were following the coastline, they noticed a faint trail of smoke emanating from a particularly dense grove of trees in the now resplendent landscape beside them. Arthur took Risha over for a closer inspection, however on closing with the grove, and attempting to see the source of the smoke, they were both hit with a vile stench wafting from the grove, and the smoke was seen to be emanating from the dying embers of a campfire. Deciding against further investigation, Arthur and Risha returned to the party's vessel and their journey towards Nahrung continued.

The party noticed the verdant landscape becoming more and more healthy and abundant the closer they came to Nahrung, passing by plenty of farmland used for a variety of produce, although all sharing one similarity - there were no signs of current occupation, with all of the fields of produce being untended, though none of the wildlife was suffering for it - all of the flora was bearing bountiful fruit, and the fauna was all relaxed and overweight, carelessly lulling around whilst snacking on the natural abundance about them.

As Nahrung became more visible on the approach, the party could now also obviously see the enormous opening that was the mouth of the Uberlauf as it met the surrounding seas. The verdant landscape and farmland was still everpresent, persisting up to and past the mouth of the Uberlauf, which the party could now see was spanned by some kind of strange bushy plantlife, seemingly growing up out of the surface of the river forming a natural hedgerow barring passage up the river. They paused about half an hour's journey from Nahrung, in the bay of the Uberlauf.

Moving closer to inspect the city, the party noticed some brightly coloured tents in a clearing of sorts amongst the dense overgrowth of the streets and buildings of Nahrung, which they began to make their way towards through the ever-present plant life. After some minutes of pushing their way through the overgrowth towards the clearing, they spotted another, larger clearing in the area in front of Nahrung's castle that was even more teeming with vibrant, brightly coloured plant life than even the rest of the city was, but they decided to push on to the brightly coloured tents first.

Arriving in the clearing with the brightly coloured tents, the party found themselves in an abandoned fairground, strangely devoid of the overgrowth taking over the rest of the city. Looking around in the tents, the party amused themselves with a few of the attractions before investigating the bigtop, and finding a stage inside with a pile of furnishing and other miscellanea - amongst which there were numerous instruments, which Chegwin with his newly chosen Bard speciality was very interested in. He ended up walking away with a banjolele.

Upon exiting the strange fairground, the party made their way over towards the brightly coloured clearing in the area in front of Nahrung's Castle, and upon closing with it noticed that it appeared to be a glade of sorts rather than fully overgrown - Arthur flew overhead on Risha, and saw that there appeared to be an opening in the centre of the glade that had a large Willow tree growing within. Approaching the densely intertwined overgrowth at the periphery of the field, the party attempted to press forwards, and found that the teeming, tangled plant life seemed to untangle and loosen ahead of them, allowing them passage further into the clearing. After a deceptively long time travelling, the party eventually emerged in the central clearing, finding themselves in a serene glade with the largest Willow tree they'd ever seen growing from the centre, surrounded by delightful rockpools and streams. Investigating the area more closely, Ace recognised a few of the particular plants growing in this area that hadn't been seen elsewhere, having seen one particular kind of flower planted at gravesites in the past. Examining these plants more closely, they appeared to have been recently planted, and upon disturbing the loose earth at their base, the party found unidentifiable remains of some sorts - a pile of bones was shallowly buried underneath the pinkish flowers.

As they were examining the strangely unique plantlife in this area, Arthur noticed something protruding from the base of the trunk of the giant Willow, and moved closer with Gad to examine it. Upon closing with the object, they noticed it was in fact a strange red sword that was plunged into the centre of a wood and brass shield, pinning both to the trunk of the tree. Arthur removed the sword and shield, and as he did so blood began pouring from the wound into the rockpools at their feet, and Arthur noticed that there was a strange sigil, different in nature to those seen previously, carved into the wood of the trunk where the sword had penetrated. A giant section of the enormous willow tree animated and began to attack the party - the Tabiearch had come.

After dispatching the Tabiearch, the party identified the two new items they'd acquired, and also collected up the 10 strange Bulbous Purple Fruits that had fallen from the branched of the Willow upon the Tabiearch being defeated. They also levelled up.

The party spent some time collecting themselves in the grove where the Tabiearch was dispatched, before deciding to set off in the direction of the nearby keep of Nahrung. They pressed through the still dense overgrowth enclosing the grove, however the strange entanglement they noticed before had dispersed allowing them easier passage than on their entrance. They made their way through the gatehouse of the keep, noticing that attached to either side of the keep building itself were two long warehouse structures with silos protruding from the centre of each of their rooves. They spotted dense, verdant plantlife sprouting through numerous holes in the walls of the warehouse buildings, and pressed on towards the main doors of the keep itself. Entering through the rotten doors, the party found themselves in a grand reception hall, with a plinth at the far end covered in overgrowth with two distinctly coloured trees sprouting from atop the plinth, over what appear to be thrones. Whilst investigating the room, Fizzle noticed a bright golden gleam coming from the roots at the base of the two trees, and upon further deft investigation he managed to retrieve a mask identical to that seen on the figure that the party encountered earlier in their journey, Meridian. At the back of the grand hall, the party found a doorway leading to a staircase going up, to a small mezzanine set in the eaves of the roof. Inside, the party found a locked closet containing a small lockbox, inside which Ace found 5 diamonds and The Pulverizer.

The party decided, after collecting their belongings, that they would leave their ship safely moored at the docks here in Nahrung, and instead they would hatch the Triceratops egg still in their possession, using their Growth Formula. This idea was cemented after searching Nahrung for any interesting shops, and finding a strange magic item store that had the Yoke of Relentless Plowing, and The Scythe of Plenty. The party decided to gather outside the northern gate of Nahrung, and on their way in that direction they noticed obvious signs of the passage of a very large group northwards at some point in the past.

When they'd gathered outside the northern gate, the party began hatching the triceratops egg, with Arthur taking the lead. When the triceratops, henceforth named Barney, was hatched he didn't seem to take any particular interest in Arthur, and out of all the members of the group Chegwin stepped forth as a surprising candidate, and seemed to easily bond with Barney. At this good news, Fizzle began planning and construction on a 10x20ft wooden wagon that would attach to the yoke on Barney once he was aged and grown, and the rest of the party watched as Chegwin applied the remainder of the Growth Formula, and continued bonding with Barney. Once he was fully grown, the party fitted the Yoke of Relentless Plowing around Barney's neck, just as Fizzle completed his fabrication of the wooden wagon.

With their new perpetual motion barneywagon, the party set off northwards in the direction of the Uberlauf, and the Pinnacles. After following the road for a few hours, the party came level with the previously barred mouth of the Uberlauf, and could see the plant matter that had formed the hedgelike barrier now dissipating into the water and being carried out to sea on the current, as well as a section of the hedge that had seemingly survived the dissipation, and was now slowly travelling upstream with a faint trail of smoke coming from the top. Arthur flew over on Richard, and upon landing on the hedge tumbled down to the surface of a brass boat, which upon further inspection was of gnomish construction, and contained heaps of spices along with a small tinkerers corner which Fizzle gathered some supplies from. Having their VASTLY superior barneybus, the party left this strange vessel slowly chugging its way upstream, and continued along the path of the Uberlauf.

As the party neared the Pinnacles, they could see the path that the Uberlauf cut through them ahead, with almost sheer cliff faces on either side. As they approached, the party saw numerous flashes and heard accompanying booming sounds shortly afterwards, as explosions near the peak of the Westward Pinnacle demolished a section of the mountainside, causing an enormous section of the peak to topple and crash its way down towards the Uberlauf, with a mammoth accompanying rockslide filling the pass ahead of the party with giant piles of rubble. Gad noticed that the peak on its way down appeared to have strange column-like edifices protruding from its base where it was attached to the rest of the mountaintop, and as the calamity settled the party noticed that the peak in fact seems to have been a gargantuan living organism, seemingly covered in many tiny forms scuttling about it's giant body as it wrestled amongst the rubble and rockfall.

The party set about closing in on the gargantuan fallen creature being assailed, and once close enough started clearing the strange grasshopper-like creatures from the surface of the fallen behemoth. Gad casted Sanctuary on the beast to protect it even further in its attempts to right and fend for itself. Eventually, the party cleared the creatures from the behemoth’s surface, at which point it managed to stand up fully and began re-ascending the mountain it had tumbled from. It turned to Gad and uttered a single word in Primordial - “THANKS”, before Gad requested that it clear the rockfall blocking the pass. The Leviathan did so, before finally beginning it’s inevitable yet slow ascent.

As the party continued down the pass that was now clear of debris, they heard more explosions ring out from atop the mountain, just as they could see the Leviathan nearing its peak, and the noble yet enormous creature toppled once more before tumbling back down the pass, accompanied by a large rockfall. The party, however irked by this, chose to continue onwards in search of their goal.

Exiting from the pass splitting the Pinnacles, the party emerged into a dry, featureless, arid landscape pockmarked only occasionally by dark outcrops dotted about the horizon. The party’s relentless tread continued ever onwards, as they strode purposefully into the deserted landscape, following the path of Uberlauf as it winded its way inland. As they travelled, the noticed a new set of sounds greeting them - it started just at the cusp of their hearing, with wailing and screeching being intermittently audible, before eventually building to a constant wash of screams and howls - never building to a truly worrying level, but deeply unseating and persistent nonetheless.

On their first night in this new landscape, during Gad’s watch the Barneybus approached one of the dark blots on the horizon, which turned out to be the burned out, decrepit ruins of a settlement of some sort - Gad chose to lead the party through the most expedient path - straight through the centre of the settlement. As he led Barney through the town, Gad noticed that Barney’s footfalls were making a noticeable splash when hitting the ground, and Gad was assailed by many strange screams and noises, even more unusual than the constant background noise that seemed unavoidable in this deserted region of Venglitz.

The following day, the party came across another, smaller dark blot on their travels inland, and upon closer inspection this dark blot turned out to be a small group of buildings, most likely an old farm of sorts. The party dismounted, leaving Chegwin and Barney at a safe distance outside of the darkened, sodden ground, before moving in to investigate the abandoned farm. As Arthur and Gad moved into the interior of one of the old barns, they were both assailed by voices similar to those Gad had resisted the night before. Gad resisted once more, however Arthur changed immediately, turning to Gad whilst firmly requesting his meat. A fight ensued, with Gad freezing Arthur in place, before Balthazar dominated Arthur’s possessed mind, returning him to his usual self.

Leaving the haunting farm behind, the party continued their travels inland, soon seeing the ominous, spiky outline of the Shrieking Forest now just about visible on the horizon. After a few more days' travel, without encountering any more dark blotches or anything else of real note for that matter, the party came close enough to be able to see the periphery of the Shrieking Forest up ahead.

Choosing to rest a “safe” distance from the Shrieking Forest as nightfall approached, the party could see lights emerge from the forest as the night settled in, with the lights forming into 2 noticeable groups between the party and the treeling. Voices began to carry towards the party on the wind, audible amongst the ever-present howls and screams, all saying the same thing - MEAT. Suddenly, a wave of noise hit the party as the sounds of visceral combat erupted ahead of them, and the heavy smell of blood soon followed.

The following morning, the party prepared themselves to journey into the Shrieking Forest, with there being no sign of the previous night’s audible slaughter on the approach to the treeline. As the party mounted up and began to move out however, more humanoid figures began to emerge from the trees as the same scene from the previous night was carried out anew, although this time in full daylight. Set in their plan, the party charged Barney headfirst into the throng of rabid humanoids, getting about halfway through the masses before Barney began to slow. Fizzle cleared a proximity ahead of them with a rapid fireball, before Balthazar expedited their journey somewhat by teleporting the party on Barney’s back to the edge of the treeline, then making Barney fly once he noticed that the path into the trees looked precarious to say the least.

When Balthazar detected that the spell of flight was about to run out on Barney, he impressively cast Feather Fall and Dimension Door to safely get the entire party onto the forest’s floor without risking injury on any of the sharp wildlife all about them. Fizzle then set about quickly furnishing a howdah to fit on Barney’s back, with the party having to leave the old barneybus amongst the violence of the rabid crowds during their hasty exit earlier.

Continuing into the Shrieking Forest for a few more days, the party noticed that the branches of the trees throughout the forest were filled with strange, canoe-shaped mossy growths, however they were otherwise unperturbed during their travels until they arrived at a clearing in the thick of the woods. Entering the clearing, the party could see that there was a strange giant skull construction protruding from the centre of a circle of fallen pillars. Ace surprisingly vaulted forwards, offering to investigate the site. As he entered inside the circle of pillars, his demeanour immediately shifted, and he turned back to the party demanding their MEAT. A fight ensued, with the party clearing Ace’s head quite quickly, before Balthazar was taken by the voices - eventually this violence was resolved when Arthur shattered the giant skull construction, leaving everyone slightly worse for wear although clearly having enjoyed the thrill of fighting their equals.

As soon as the skull was shattered and the sigil in its mouth invalidated, a single, voluminous roar echoed throughout the forest before all fell silent, and the party now had their first moment of peace in weeks. Taking their time to look around the strange site they found themselves at, the party found a body on the stone altar in the centre of the now destroyed skull’s mouth, amongst the possessions of which they found Dankor’s Right Hand, and a note with instruction to “find the source of light, the source of POWER”.

After some more days’ travel, the party eventually emerged at the inner fringe of the Shrieking Forest, and as they approached the thinning edge of the treeline they could see more bleak, featureless terrain ahead of them. As soon as they crossed the treeline, however, they were momentarily blinded by radiant sunshine, and looking about them they saw verdant, lush meadows full of plant and animal life as far as the eye could see. They spent some time investigating this strange phenomenon, before eventually concluding after a discussion with Vanimous that this was some sort of planar anomaly, or conjuration magic - it was always daytime here.

Continuing on their now somewhat idyllic path, the party spent a few days having the easiest travel they’d had in quite some time - food was abundant, and easy to acquire, and there didn’t seem to be any predators or obvious dangers that the party had to take heed of. On the 3rd or 4th day of travelling towards the centre of Venglitz, however, they spotted a change in the landscape up ahead - the untended meadows they’d been passing through up to this point changed into ploughed and furrowed fields, with a tapered line of white stone statues or pillars demarking the boundary between the two. Inspecting the pillars more closely, the party could see they were all identical, in very good condition, and were topped by a bird holding its head proudly to the sky, with flames about its feet.

Pressing on into the fields, the party eventually spotted the outline of settlement or city on the horizon, as well as a brilliant glow from a second sun rising slowly about the horizon as they approached - as the second sun grew brighter and larger on it’s tectonic rise from behind the city ahead, a radiant, scintillating light emerged between it and the sun everpresent in the sky, linking them like a cable of light.

Approaching the city, the party eventually made out the familiar sights of people up ahead - this city appeared to be fully functional, and teeming with inhabitants. The party moved through groups of peasants working the fields as they made their way in towards the city’s entrance archways, and after conversing with numerous peasants, the party found them well-intentioned yet confusing as there seemed to be some sort of inexplicable language barrier - these people were all talking like Skyrim Nords.

Moving through the city’s nearest entrance, the party spotted no sign of any military or authoritarian presence whatsoever - all the inhabitants going about their business dedicatedly, with no signs of any trouble anywhere. After taking in the sights at a market near the city’s entrance, and Ace getting a free statue of a Phoenix from a rather enthusiastic if slightly zealous idol salesman, the party decided to make their way towards the centre of the city. As they neared a crossroads on their path inwards, Gad heard a raspy, croaky voice call out “Seekers! Seekers, help!” from a nearby alleyway, and the party moved in cautiously to investigate. Having sprung the ambush that had been laid for them, a fight ensued against some monstrous Driders, one of whom was in possession of Dankor’s Left Hand. Emerging victorious, the party headed for a nearby inn, where they spent a rather pleasant night in relative comfort, all for free as the innkeeper demanded no payment.

Come sunrise, the party heard a resonant voice ring out through the skies of the city, stating “REJOICE MY CHILDREN, THE NOURISHING DAYLIGHT PERSISTS - MY GIFT TO YOU ALL” before the eerie peace of the “nighttime” ended and the city audibly came to life about the party. Bidding the innkeeper farewell, the party moved out towards the centre of the city once more, however soon after embarking they were drawn towards a plaza where villager appeared to be waiting anxiously for something. Moving in to observe, the party saw the Phoenix King emerge from a strange cupboard atop the plaza’s stage, being greeted adoringly by the crowd before beginning reciting a prayer. The party watched quietly until the ritual was completed, before the Phoenix King said to the crowd “BEHOLD MY CHILDREN, I GIVE MYSELF SUCH THAT THE FLAME ENDURES!” at which he immediately began to catch light, being quickly engulfed from the bottom up by flames which burned brightly momentarily before clearing, all that was left being a small pile of ash on the floor that was quickly scattered by the wind.

Leaving the plaza slightly befuddled, the party continued onwards before seeing an almost identical situation to the one they’d just encountered, closer to the centre of the city. This time, rather than watching silently, Balthazar interrupted the prayer by stating “Are you the Phoenix King?”. The Phoenix King was replying to Balthazar, questioning his insolence, when Ace threw a rock which struck the Phoenix King, and a “fight” ensued - the party, unsure of how to proceed, watched tensely as the Phoenix King quickly chased Ace down, blinded him, then HELD him in place before returning to the stage and finishing his prayer. Once completed, he began a somewhat casual conversation with the party, telling them NOT TO INTERFERE numerous times and offering little detail of his greater plans. However, when questioned about Dankor he did relent and say “HE IS A STAIN THAT MUST BE REMOVED FROM THIS DIVINE LANDSCAPE” before once again self-immolating and disappearing.

The party, now resolved to find out what The Phoenix King was doing with Pious (he said he was both EVERYTHING and NOTHING), made their way towards the centre of the city, where a grand temple was clearly visible atop a rocky plateau that elevated it above the rest of the city. They came to a gatehouse stationed by the first signs of authority they’d seen other than the Phoenix King, who gruffly told them “HALT, GRUNGUS UNCHOSEN” before directing them towards a large, domed building nearby.

Investigating the domed building, the party could see numerous groups of civilians huddled outside, seemingly waiting for a guard to intermittently come out and give them some news - this news being both good and bad, as the party saw different pairs of civilians leaving the area - some were elated, some distraught. Ace, ever eager to go off-piste, had Balthazar make him invisible before nimbly sneaking inside the TEMPLE OF MIGHT. Making his way inside, Ace could see a gruff, Reginald-esque humanoid stomping backwards and forwards near the pulpit at the far end of the domed hall that made up most of the temple. He appeared to be peering into a large tome atop a lectern occasionally, and when Ace went to investigate the book, the humanoid noticed and cried out “SACRILEGE” before grasping out at the space where Ace was, and actually managing to get a firm grip on Ace. As the party heard this commotion, they began to make their way in to assist, with Fizzle turning to Gad and saying “TAKE ME WITH YOU”, and Balthazar DOMINATING the minds of the two guards closest to the entrance.

After dispatching Chosen Grungus and his guardsmen, having taken some damage, the party collected Grungus’ copy of the Holy Flame, as well as his armour of relentless purpose, which Fizzle wished to don post-haste. Spending some time short-resting in the Temple of Might, the party re-arranged magical item attunements before setting out in the direction of the inner city’s gate. Just before leaving, Balthazar cast Seeming on the party, such that they appeared as though they were Grungus and his entourage, with Balthazar taking on the appearance of Grungus himself.

Upon arriving at the gatehouse, the party were expecting some sort of resistance as they cautiously drew nearer, however when the guards caught sight of Balthazar, Seeming to look like Grungus, and wearing the floral badge that was pinned to Grungus’ armour, they moved abruptly to the sides of the gatehouse and bowed their heads in respect, allowing the party frictionless passage into the inner city.

Entering into the inner section of the city for the first time, the party took in their surroundings, and were surprised to find there was very little activity or groups of people moving about, even though this district was full of impressive, immaculately kept temples dedicated to a shockingly wide pantheon of gods, with every god the party had encountered having at least a small shrine dedicated to them as they moved through the district.

Pausing at an intersection to take stock of their surroundings, the party heard numerous voices sounding from behind one of the temples near them, and Gad noticed that another of the temples in their vicinity bore all the iconography and signage that Kelemvor’s temples normally have. The party quietly waited for the voices to move off into the distance before continuing further into the district. Some time during their journey through the temple district, the party spotted the source of the voices they’d heard earlier - there were numerous groups of dark robed figures moving around in pairs, leading large groups of children (the first that the party had seen in the city) to the various temples, where the children appeared to be tending and maintaining the various edifices. Making their way every inwards in this surprising city, the party spotted a rough-hewn rocky pathway cut into the side of the plateau forming the very centre of the city, which the large domed temple that served as the origin of the beam of light sat atop. At the foot of the pathway the party spotted a gatehouse practically identical to that which they’d passed through to enter this inner Temple District. Seeing that the gatehouse was stationed with a purposeful number of guards, and being somewhat down on their resources, the party decided to turn back towards the Temple of Kelemvor and attempt to long rest in there to prepare themselves for the journey ahead to the central temple.

The party spent quite some time deliberating whether a disguise would be necessary for resting, or even whether it would advantageous to mix disguises amongst the party, before eventually concluding that they’d rest in easy to hide spots inside the temple, and re-don their disguises of choice once the new day had dawned and they’d had a chance to take stock of their situation, and whether their presence (and the lack of Grungus’ in his temple) would have been noticed.

After successfully finishing their long rest, the party re-donned the same disguises they’d used the previous day, with Balthazar once again taking the mantle of Chosen Grungus, before they headed out from Kelemvor’s temple in the direction of the very central gatehouse. Approaching the gatehouse, with even more trepidation than last time, the party were relieved to find that they had a similar reception with the guards posted at this checkpoint, as they moved to the sides upon catching sight of “Grungus”, nodding respectfully as they allowed the party passage.

Winding their way up the rocky path cut into the side of the city’s central plateau, the party found themselves met with absolutely no resistance on their climb upwards. Upon reaching the end of the path, the party saw a grand marble entranceway cut into the stone of the plateau, with the resplendent, massive domed roof of the central temple of Venglitz jutting into the sky above the peaks of the plateau, with details now visible that weren’t from a distance showing the level of craftsmanship involved is even higher than the rest of the buildings in the city.

Making their way forwards and attempting to pass through the temple’s entranceway, the party found a group of Phoenix Guard standing to attention in the lobby, with 2 cultists standing behind them in discussion. Whilst the guards looked on emotionlessly at the party as they made their entrance, the cultists seemed to notice something out of the ordinary about the party, even with their current disguises, and called out Balthazar (Chungus) as “Grungus does not enter, the Phoenix arrives”. After a short, tense parlay, a figure began to clarify from the scintillating, dazzling lights shining from further within the temple - the Phoenix King had arrived.

WIth the Phoenix King’s arrival, the party entered into combat, with Balthazar surprising the enemies with a fireball to commence the violence. After a rather hefty combat involving more mind controlled Phoenix Guards, and some of the most confusing Cavalier nonsense ever recorded in human history, the party emerged victorious. Balthazar very capably slayed both one of the Phoenix Guards, and the Phoenix King himself with a twinned Disintegrate, however the Phoenix King didn’t seem overly fussed by this, locking eyes with Balthazar as he disintegrated and leaving him with the final words “This matters not, we shall meet again soon” before crumbling into dust completely.

Moving further into the temple to investigate, the party found the central domed chamber that was the source of the scintillating lights seen from the lobby - the pillar of light that shone up into the sky was coming through the floor of this hall, and the beam itself was surrounded by a bizarre yet impressive curling, carved statue of a phoenix leading a blazing trail of fire around the base of the brilliant beam of light. There were 3 other entrances other than the one the party had used to enter this chamber, with the one directly opposite them being raised about 15 feet off the ground, with a stone walkway protruding from it and jutting out into the centre of the hall, meeting the pillar of light at the centre.

Moving off down the left hand side corridor, the party quickly spotted the rooms to the south were full of youths of a variety of ages, although all definitely still children, who were tending to various stockrooms and cupboards, and seemed to be generally taking care of the area. The party noticed that the entirety of these children were wearing strange, dull, featureless metallic bangles on one of their wrists, and also noticed there were a number of the same strange bangles lying on the floor of these chambers.

Leaving the chambers full of youths behind them and travelling up the corridor to the north, the party found themselves entering an area of unusual darkness that seemed to be centred around a small containment area with divided into a number of small cages surrounding a large, central cell. The darkness, whilst not causing those of the party with Darkvision and issues, interfered with light such that it maintained an area of unnatural darkness even when torches or other light sources were lit. Moving into to investigate the larger central cell, Fizzle jimmied the locks whilst Ace was off searching for the keys, and entering the cell alone he found a body lying on the floor in the middle of the cell. The body, on closer inspection, was that of one of the Black Scars Drow Mages, however other than his robes he appeared to have been stripped of all useful belongings. As Fizzle bent down to more closely inspect the body, an ominous chuckle emanated from the thick darkness in the very corner of the cell, closely followed by the (unmistakeable to Fizzle) silhouette of a heavily armoured, black-clad figure strode confidently from the darkness.

Fizzle quickly recognised this as his arch-nemesis, Dankor the Grim, and lunged primally for Dankor’s throat screaming “I’ll get you, you bastard!” as combat ensued. With the rest of the party being outside of the central cell and either unable to see or unable to alter the current situation in a controlled manner were left to watch as Fizzle and Dankor exchanged a few quick blows before Fizzle darted to one side of the cell and turned invisible. Dankor’s response to this was to chuckle, before calmly stating “Two can play at that game, old foe.” and disappearing from the party’s view.

After thoroughly searching the area, and finding no trace of Dankor, the party decided to move on in frustration, and they set out down the tunnel to the east of the cell area. Moving down the corridor, the party saw it branch off leading to the raised walkway seen in the grand central hall they passed through earlier, and continuing without taking that branch the party found the hall terminated in the cosy, grand bedchambers of someone of import. Aside from the immense bed that took up almost a quarter of the room, the party found a strange pool of liquid that smelled distinctly of strong alcohol, and a curved corner desk/storage unit that contained various miscellaneous items. Rifling through the contents of the desk, the party found various tomes and parchments detailing a variety of magical experiments, namely Temple of The Gods, Mirage Arcana, Planeshift, Summon Lesser/Greater Demon and finally a hefty, leather-bound tome with a padlock affixed to the front detailing experimentation using Gate. They also found a finely kept, bound scroll of Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion.

Before attempting to find their way deeper inside the temple, the party decided to explore the last section of the area to the south-east, where they found 4 cultists praying devotedly to a large altar with various phoenix insignias covering it. The party began attacking the cultists to attempt to stop whatever they were doing, however the cultists appeared utterly dedicated to their task at hand - to the point where they almost completely ignored any damage done to them or any attempts to interfere with their duties. The party dispatched one of the cultists, after confusing them with a sphere of silence, and moved off in search of a way downwards after deciding that the cultists posed no immediate, obvious threat to them.

Moving back into the domed central chamber of the temple, the party made their way up to the raised stone walkway with their goal being to enter the beam of light, expecting to be whisked up towards the orb of light making up the “sun” in the sky. However, as the party boldly strode towards the beam of light at the chamber’s centre, they found that the light formed an undulating, impassable barrier easily as hard as bedrock - they needed to find another way forwards. Gad, with his impeccable senses, noticed that the pathway to the centre of the chamber was worn to one side near the very centre, and ushered the party off of the stone walkway and down onto the body of the curving phoenix statue that winding its way around the pillar of light. After some time inspecting the head of the Phoenix Statue, Fizzle attempted to climb atop its beak and rub its eyes simultaneously, however as he reached his perch and began his task he found himself beginning to fall. With a natural 20, Fizzle grasped out to arrest his fall, and in doing so covered both of the Phoenix statue’s eyes, causing a grinding noise to begin as the statue’s mouth opened slowly, uncovering a slide/flume/tunnel of sorts descending deeper into the temple’s depths.

After some time deliberating the best way to get the entire party, dinosaur and all, down this slide, the party found themselves in a roughly hewn stone chamber with two stairways descending into the floor. The room next door contained an extravagant altar with winding cloth patterns aligned along the far wall, although not much else of interest. Ace, whilst scouting the area, noticed that the floors and walls were being shaken constantly by a somewhat distant rumbling, and moving in further to investigate found a set of doors on either side of the complex they found themselves in that opened out onto a central chamber filled with a whirling vortex of noise, wind, smell and sound, surrounding a floating central platform that contained the epicentre of the beam of light, as well as a now familiar figure staring inwards, seemingly deep in contemplation.

As Ace watched the figure, who soon was revealed to be the Phoenix King, a patch of shadow seemed to detach itself from near one of the walls and began moving towards the Phoenix King. As it approached, the shadows cleared and Dankor could be seen moving intently inwards. As Dankor neared, the Phoenix King, seemingly with no impetus or warning, spun on the spot and pointed at Dankor whilst gesticulating, and with a brilliant flash of light Dankor was nowhere to be seen.

The party spent some time resting in the Magnificent Mansion to prepare themselves for the fight ahead, before super-buffing Arthur such that he was able to one-shot the Phoenix King on turn 1. At the very end of the first round of combat, the pillar of light began to stutter, revealing the restrained form of Pious looking exhausted and strained, as well as emitting the renewed, regenerated form of the Phoenix King.