NPCs: Shade, Alkanon and Anastasia
PCs: Serena Greymayre, Gruntrok, Sir Orim Windgrace, Thandral, Armand Darkini, Arya and Draven
Taking advantage of the relative peace in the beholders now empty lair, the party camps down for the night. In the morning, Anastasia, Rajaska, Dill and Zarzen have all gone missing. As everyone remaining starts to scramble about looking for where the missing folks might have gone, a golden rift suddenly opens in one corner of the room. Bracing for yet another battle, the group is pleasantly surprised to see one of the eagle riders poke his head through. He calls back to someone that the location was right, and then yells for the party to hurry through because the gate won’t last forever. With that he pulls back through the rift and is quickly followed by the others.
On the other side, the mornings disappearances are explained as Anastasia, comes running forward to explain how the others brought her up to the surface and then went to their respective homelands to explain the situation. She was found by the eagle riders and taken to their wizard, whom she convinced to open a portal to where the party was. With that all explained, the wizard comes forward and asks that the party make ready to leave for Lankmar, post haste. There is barely time for everyone to collect any last few possessions that they had in their rooms and for Gruntrok to make a brief stop at the armorer’s. What he finds there is breathtaking; a suit of rune carved, diamond studded, mithril, plate armor that is human crafted, but dwarven styled and consecrated as a holy item to the god Forge. Even Arya found it ALMOST as pretty as herself. The eagle back trip to Lankmar was glorious and exhilarating if a trifle uneventful.
Once they arrived in Lankmar, the party was immediately presented to Duke Moray, a middle-aged man with the swagger of military officer, and his sorcerous advisor, Slythe (a humanoid wizard with black scales and dark robes). While they appreciate the importance of the party’s mission, they also realize how difficult it is to arrange High Council audiences, and so offer to house the party until all the arrangements can be made. About half of the party retires to his home for refreshments and some much needed rest. However, Gruntrok, and Orim decide instead to visit the cities main temple of Bahamat. Armand decides to tag along incase some local “Acquisitions experts” take an interest in Gruntrok’s new armor.
At the temple, Orim is finally relieved of the antlers that had been becoming just a little too important to him. The priest who removed the antler’s curse refuses to even try and deal with the orb. However, he does revel to the others information about a librarian who might potentially know how to destroy the orb. Armed with this information, they return to the rest of the party.
When Armand, Gruntrok, and Orim arrive, the others are just sitting down to dinner, where they are formally introduced to the duke’s children Ruby and James (apparently a budding magician) who are each around 5 years old. Unfortunately, as the meal progresses, conversation turns to a series of magical pranks/attacks that have plagued the city of late. It is insinuated that if the party can find out anything about these occurrences, it would be greatly appreciated. After the meal, everyone but Gruntrok, who sits a vigil in the library with the orb, retires for the night. Several hours later, Gruntrok is roused from his reverie by a sound out in the hallway.
It seem that an injured dog just outside his door is the cause if the disturbance. When he goes to help the poor animal, it suddenly twists and buckles in a most unnatural fashion, snapping bone and rending skin. When the transformation is complete, Gruntrok finds himself alone against a Hellhound, but in true dwarf fashion, rather than wait for reinforcements, he shouts a battle cry and charges into battle. Several members of the household are woken by the screams and quickly rush to their source to aid Gruntrok. The hound puts up a good fight, but is eventually overwhelmed. It is then decided to search the rest of the house in case there are more of the hounds about or their summoner, both of which are eventually found: sort of. More hounds are found when they transform other hosts (such as the guards) into bodies for themselves. Their summoner is discovered when James comes crawling into Draven’s room looking for protection. Apparently, he had called forth a demonic playmate that got out of control and was now causing all sorts of havoc. The night comes to a grizzly conclusion when Ruby’s skinless body is discovered stuffed into James’ toy chest.
