A few months ago a group of adventurers had encountered a Lich, we were setting out to investigate this occurrence, Liches being quite powerful undead we wished to make sure that nothing untoward was going on.

A day away from the area where the group’s report indicated that the Lich may be found, as night approached, we were met by a Pathfinder. He alerted us to the fact that there were a number of Drow in the area and various other creatures roaming the woods. These creatures appeared to be minor Hepaths of some sort, they presented little difficulty to us. Moving to the waystation where we intended to spend the night we found that it was guarded by Shades, and in fact occupied by Sir Termigan – 2nd in command of the Iron Guard. We exchanged harsh words with him, and a brief scuffle broke out, but nothing too serious. Termigan claimed to be acting on his own business refusing to discuss it with us.

After a short while a Drow priestess arrived, accompanied by more shades – ostensibly to perform some sort of deal with Sir Termigan. Whilst there her shades attacked us, Dark Engulfing those who were carrying the lights Delta, Giles and Sky – this somewhat predictably began a fight. Our numbers depleted early this was a hard fight and in the course of it I was slain, however the priestess was also slain and the shades dispatched. Termigan took the body of the priestess and a Doppleganger, one of his retinue, was substituted. It was his intention that the Doppleganger should infiltrate the Drow to discover what was going on. Rumour had come to him that the Drow had a plan afoot against Wolfhold.

After revealing this Sir Termigan left. Somewhat later that night a Drow strike force arrived, seeking to slay those at the waystation – seeking Termigan we believe, not us. This force was dispatched, although the fight was long and arduous. The rest of the night passed uneventfully.

Come the morning we were attacked by what can be best described as a group of Chaos Elementals, we beat these off without a great deal of difficulty. A while later a group of Saldorians arrived and asked us to take a message to people in our towers who came from their world. The message was that there would be a meeting in 2 months time and all Saldorians were being asked to attend, we agreed to pass on this message.

Later, a short while before we were due to set out, a Duergar scout arrived at the Waystation. He told us that various things were going on, and as members of the Free Towers Pact was letting us know – acting under orders from his superior (whom he refused to name).

Apparently Sarn Starstealer had “acquired” an ancient power and was intending to attack Wolfhold, unleashing that ancient power on Wolfhold. This ancient power was a Hepath of great strength and it was believed that it would be capable of destroying the Tower. From our earlier experiences a couple of years before we believed that this was the Hepath from the old plain of Murandir. In turn we revealed some of our information to the Duergar, that the Drow Priestess had been substituted by a Doppleganger, and was attempting to find out what was going on amongst the Drow. The Duergar left to carry word to his master of this, after briefly describing where Sarn’s camp was.

After some discussion we decided that we had to stop Sarn and his plans, it was not acceptable that we should let one of our Towers fall. We abandoned our previous mission investigating the Lich to direct our attention to this far more important matter. We set off, travelling to Sarn’s camp.

After walking for some time we were set upon by Beleg Aratar (guards of the first three drow houses). These were powerful foes, each of them fully the equivalent of our heroes, with a Shade Prince in attendance. Once more several of our number were Dark Engulfed or Vanished the others being pressed hard, perhaps harder that we had ever been pressed before. A long, long battle raged on, back and forth as the flow and ebb changed between the two sides, finally being swung as our warriors returned from Vanish/Engulfment. In the course of this battle Brother John was slain by the many blows that fell upon his body in his feebleminded state. In the end though we came to an agreement with the Beleg Aratar and suspended hostilities to discuss what was going on.

It seemed that we had been enmeshed in a the middle of Drow Politics. Some of the information that we had been given by the Duergar was true and some false, a mixture of the two to deal with us. The Duergar was one of Sarn’s minions. The basics were correct, Sarn, had an Ancient Power and was going to destroy Wolfhold. However his alliance with the Power had caused great concern amongst the other Drow Houses, especially the first two, who feared that he would soon be seeking to be first house. Thus the first two were working against him. We had been directed into their forces so that we all fight each other. We agreed to combine our forces with the Drow against Sarn and to return to the Waystation where we would be contacted later once they had discovered Sarn’s whereabouts. Ideally we would seek for the High Priest of the 3rd house and slay him. The ritual of Chetzuk, which had been used to gain the Ancient Power some two years ago had three distinct parts, summon, bind and control, all who had attempted had failed. Sarn’s innovation was that he got one person, The High Priest, to perform one part, Sarn performing the other two. It was believed that it would be easiest to deal with the priest rather than Sarn himself.

As dusk fell we were surprised by an undead creature that appeared amongst us, a rank 9 “Eye of the Spider”. This creature touched us, seeking knowledge about us, it was unaffected by our weapons, spells and invocations until Giles dispelled it using a Dispel 9.

Tornado, Giles and Sky then revealed that we were being protected in this place by Lord Sandaster’s Kryakin who were turning aside most of the Drowic forces that were seeking us. We were told that only the most powerful foes would be able to enter and challenge us, later that proved to be the case when a Lolth AntiPaladin and retinue assailed us. This AntiPaladin was accompanied by another Eye, using it’s knowledge he fought skilfully, but fell to our blades in the end.

Setting a guard we passed the night. Come the morning Tornado was taken from us, to meet Lord Sandaster, whisked away by Kryakin so Giles and Sky told us. There seemed to be little that we could do to rescue Tornado at this time, but Giles and Sky assured us that he was safe, at this time. A short while later we were contacted by the Beleg Aratar, who had discovered the approximate location of the High Priest. They also told us of the attack upon the forces of Sir Termigan that night, that he had had his forces decimated by the attacks of Sarn’s Drow in the night and the Ancient Power. These forces were now approaching us in great numbers.

We set out almost immediately, seeking the High Priest. Along the way we fought with several groups of Drow, being weakened by them, but not too unduly pressed, however each of these attacks slowed us down, allowing the forces approaching to get closer. We were also subject to several chaos effects, radiating out from Giles, originating from the Hepath ring he bore. As we travelled a feeling of doom and despair began to grow upon us. We drew near to the Tor where the High Priest was.

The Ancient Power being but some fifteen minutes behind us. It was then that the trap was sprung upon us, a wave of despair and hopelessness took us, rendering us lost, whilst the forces drew near. We managed to summon our courage and fight off this wave and launched our attack, at that moment as the high priest cast terror on Sky, he was asked mentally if he wished us to be taken to safety. With the unnatural fear of the terror invocation on him sky said “yes” and we were teleported away from the Tor, far away across the face of Orin Rakatha.

Recovering our senses Quicksilver began to recognise the area – we were a day away from the original Dymwann tower, a place Quicksilver had been to before. He advised that we should make for a waystation he knew nearby whilst we took stock of our situation. Meanwhile both Sky and Giles had been in communication with Lord Sandaster, for it was he who had taken us, seeking to save the Air Elves, his people, from the trap laid for them. Those others of us had been saved by him because we were comrades and friends of Sky and Giles. Melkeron was not with us – this caused us great concern.

Following Quicksilver’s directions we passed into a forest, where we were attacked by a group of powerful undead – again Quicksilver had advised us of these, as he had met these guardians of the grove before. Ultimately we defeated these undead, but were so weakened that we had to rest before continuing. Arriving at the waystation Quicksilver knew of we met with the Windborn and Miphon Hurst/Lord Sandaster. The following summarises several hours of conversation.

Lord Sandaster claimed to be the ancient king of the Windborn (which included Air Elves, Kryakin, and many other magical beings). Many thousands of years ago he had fought and lost a war against the Earthborn (humans) and had been imprisoned in the void by a spell cast by three kings . He had been freed recently by Miphon Hurst (the chief Dymwann researcher, head of the Cadre), and had taken Miphon’s body.

He did not care about Dymwann or anybody other that his own people. He was seeking to free those others of his people still trapped in the void. He was also greatly concerned about those of his people who were here as well, who had not been imprisoned – Tornado, Giles and Sky. He asked both Giles and Sky to acknowledge him as king and eventually both did. He told us that Tornado had sworn already and had been sent back, but had been attacked. He had sent Melkeron on to heal Tornado.

While at the waystation he had to leave several times to deal with other matters, one of those times we were espied by an undead, that successfully fled into the night, bearing word of our presence. Sandaster then left us, as he was not willing to jeopardise his position with the Dymwann.

Some time later we were attacked by a group of powerful undead. An Unranked Ghost, unranked Minor Spirit of Death, R7 Skeletal Warrior, R9 Mummy. A major fight took place in which Delta was slain by the Spirit of Death – a being that took three resurrections to be laid to rest. After this fight was over Sandaster returned, he raised the defences of the grove to protect us for the rest of the night. At the request of Giles and Sky, Lord Sandaster agreed to search for and teleport us near the High Priest in the morning. Come the morning the defences of the grove faded, as expected and we were informed that a major group of Dymwann was on it’s way here to destroy us. Lord Sandaster advised that we should prepare to leave as soon as possible, for we had little time, and a few minutes later teleported us all. We appeared in a room where there was a statuette of a spider, covering it, for we feared it was being used to spy on us, we left. Discovering where the High priest was we descended upon him and his retinue in our full fury. A battle then raged between us and them in which he and his entire retinue were finally slain. We then travelled back to the towers.

We had broken the binding on the Ancient Power, frustrated Sarn’s plans, saving Wolfhold from destruction, preserving our alliance.

Merlin