Adventure 32: The Dead Lands
The party turns in for the night. Fathan, who has had a very tiring day seals the door behind him and turns to look out over the balcony. As he lies down he notices a silhouette, and finds that he has been joined by the White Lady.
She explains to him that the power of Wraith’s spell book will eventually drain him. Wraith was a vampire and undead; ageless in a way. His magic was brought over from the Dead Lands before they were known as that, and so his magic, used as Fathan had been using it, would eventually kill a mortal such as Fathan if he continued to use them as he had for the past day. She explained his options; that he would have to choose some sort of undeath, giving up the powers completely, or maintaining a level of discipline and ignore the powers, using only those which he had memorized. If he chooses none of these options it is clear that very soon he shall die. With that she puts him to bed and departs.
The party slumbers and the night passes uneventfully. When the group wakes they find that their hosts have prepared a bountiful breakfast and that the orcs are already feasting. After a short time the Goblin King arrives and it seems clear that he and Tar-nok have formed some sort of alliance.
The group eats and then talks with Tar-nok about what is to be done. They decide that there may be answers in the Dead Lands and so, after a bit of preparation (some shrinking) Fathan teleports the group there in an effort to discover more about what Atrieus has told them and to see if the good dragons of Draco Moore can be gained as allies against the alliance that seems to have been forged between Darkstorm, the corrupted fey, and the evil dragons.
The Dead Lands prove not to be what the group expected. Once there they find that the air is polluted with ash and soot, that the ground is charred and parched, and magma burbles just beneath the earth’s crust. They also see in the distance several things that glimmer with a shimmering black light in the shape of giant spiders. As the move toward these things they are attacked by a dragon that bursts forth from the earth. It also has fiery cracks through its black body, and its eyes glow with red fire. It blasts the group with searing flame, and Fathan quickly uses his special abilities to teleport the group back to Lancington.
After their fiery encounter the party decides to think upon their options.
