Epilogue

Back at Greywall Keep, the four Heroes feast and drink to celebrate their victory. Though the world above may never known what they have accomplished, they rejoice in the knowledge they have averted a great catastrophe.

Yet their bravery will not go unrewarded. While they enjoy one more mug of dwarven beer on the battlements of Greywall keep during a starry night, an imposing figure approaches. 

A red-furred minotaur, bare-chested, but wearing bracers and greaves of gold and platinum. He wields an impossibly heavy hammer engraved with divine symbols. The minotaur snorts, the he talks to them with his deep baritone voice.

"You have punished a god... once again. You are worthy. And I have an offer to make you"

Session 31

Heroes: Moryak, Ruthinn, Tarkin, Thoradin

The Heroes take advantage of the chaos in the city, and sneak inside the tower of Sorcere. They reach Gromph Baenre's chambers, and face the magical guardians and traps put in place to protect the Book of the Nine. With the book finally in their hands, they leave Vizeran's amulet in Gromph's study, and go back to Araj.

While Vizeran prepares himself for the ritual, the Heroes go back home to rest and say their goodbyes. They receive the visit of the ancient golden dragon Prothanter, and his retinue of metallic dragons. Each of them presents the gift of a powerful magical item to use in the battle to come. Only Prothanter bears no gift, yet he assures the Heroes that he has not fogotten them.

The day after, the Heroes go back to Araj, where Vizeran informs them that the ritual will be completed in one day. The Heroes teleport to Menzoberranzan, and ready themselves for the Rage of Demons to be unleashed on the drow city.

Several hours go by, when rifts in reality start to appear, uncontrolled surges of faerzness from which hordes of demons come forth, to battle each other in a frenzy on the streets of Menzoberranzan. Eventually, the nine demon lords make their appearance, and begin to tear into each other. As the battle unfolds, the chaotic energies of the fearzness fill the demons with their power. But it's a power that means their death.

Unable to contain it, one by one the demons literally explode, leaving behind only their stench. The demon lords battle each other, until only Juiblex stands (!) triumphant. Then the fearzness surges all around the massacre, and also the ooze lord is destroyed. 

The Heroes survey the carnage, thousands of elves dead, buildings destroyed. Yet it seems that the battle is won. They couldn't be more wrong. As the faerzness surges once again, a portal opens above the ruin of Menzoberranzan, and Lolth, Queen of Spiders, makes her entrance, in the form of a drow priestess.

As she laughs and gloat upon the corpses of her former servants, she notices the Heroes and battle is joined. Even though she cannot use her full divine powers on the Prime Material Plane, she's a terrible foe. The Heroes fight her with all they have, with Thoradin losing his life in the battle. When Tarkin manages to cut her head, the Heroes have a few second to rejoice.

Then, from her drow corpse, the hybrid form of Lolth arises, a gargantuan monster with a humaoid torso and a spider body. With their powers almost completely spent, Ruthinn calls for a divine intervention from Sune, goddess of Love and Beauty. The goddess answers the call, and raises Thoradin from the dead, while at the same time infusing the Heroes with renewed strength.

Battle is joined again, and this time the Heroes have an ally. Plunging on the monstrous form of Lolth from above, the golden dragon Prothanter unleashes a river of fire on the goddess, then claws and bites into her.

Dwarves and dragon fight the Queen of Spiders; after a hard battle, Moryak aims his crossbow one last time, and hits Lolth square through the eye. The form of Lolth begins to discorporate. The Heroes have won the day! 

Session 30

Menzoberranzan

Heroes: Ruthinn, Tarkin, Thoradin

Having recovered one more of the components needed by Vizeran, the Heroes return to the archmage, though they still have some doubts. The drow wizard plans to unleash the ritual in Menzoberranzan, where many thousands will die. Thoradin still believes the ritual should be performed in some place less populated, but Vizeran insists that Menzoberranzan is the only place where he can be sure the ritual will be successful.

While Vizeran creates the amulet of the Dark Heart, the Heroes return to Greywall keep to enjoy some rest before the final steps of their journey. Tarkin contacts Prothanter, the ancient golden dragon that helped the Greywall brothers during the Rise of Tiamat. He seeks the counsel of the powerful creature, and also warns him of the impending danger. Prothanter warns the Heroes against the deceptions of the dark elves.

When the Heroes return to the Tower of Araj, Vizeran gives them the Dark Heart. They will have to place it in the same spot where the ritual book of Gromph Baenre can be found, inside the tower of Sorcere in Menzoberranzan. Once the amulet is in place, they must return to him with the book, and he will unleash the ritual upon the drow city.

The Heroes travel to Menzoberranzan, magically disguised as dark elves. They make their way through several sections of the city, when sudden disaster strikes. Dark wraiths rise from the ground in great numbers, slaughtering drow and slaves alike. They are the harbingers of Orcus, demon lord of undeath. As the giant form of Orcus makes its way to Sorcere, the Heroes attract its attention, and battle is joined. The demon lord seems to have the upper hand in the beginning, but when the Heroes manage to organize and combine their efforts, not even the great Orcus can resist them.

After a bloody battle, Thoradin punches the demon lord one last time in the jaw with his magical Bigby's Hand, and mighty Orcus falls in defeat.

Orcus

click to enlarge

This demonic humanoid is squat and bloated, standing nearly three times as tall as a normal human. It goat-like head sports large, spiraling ram-like horns. Its legs are covered in thick brown fur and end in hooves. Large powerful arms wield a wicked skull-tipped wand. Two large, black, bat-like wings protrude from its back and a long, snake-like tail, tipped with a sharpened barb, trails behind it. 

Orcus is the Prince of the Undead, and it is said that he alone created the first undead that walked the worlds. Orcus is one of the strongest (if not the strongest) and most powerful of all demon lords. He fights a never-ending war against rival demon princes that spans several Abyssal layers. From his great bone palace he commands his troops as they wage war across the smoldering and stinking planes of the Abyss. Orcus spends most of his days in his palace, rarely leaving its confines unless he decides to leads his troops into battle (which has happened on more than one occasion). Most of the time though, he is content to let his generals and commanders lead the battles.

Session 29

Heroes: Moryak, Ruthinn, Tarkin

The Heroes go back to the Tower of Araj, to deliver more components to Vizeran. All that's left is to gather the rare timmask mushrooms, and the notes of Gromph Baenre. The Heroes decide to go for the mushrooms first, and travel to Araumycos, a huge sentient fungal growth covering hundreds of miles of the Underdark.

While crossing the moss-infested tunnels, they encounter a parade of myconids, dancing and skipping on their way to a grand event. Further investigation reveals that the myconids are under the influence of Zuggtmoy's madness, and and travelling to the center of Araumycos to witness the wedding of the Lady of Rot with Araumycos itself.

But not all myconids are lost; the sovereign Basidia of Neverlight Grove contacts the Heroes, giving them the ability to enter Araumycos mind to try and stop the unholy union. The Heroes travel to the center of Araumycos just as Zuggtmoy is performing her ritual to bind herself to the ancient being. They enter Araumycos' mind, and find the Queen of Fungi waiting for them. They battle her in the alien mindscape and defeat her!

When they come back to reality, they have no time to rejoice. Weakened by her battle with the Heroes, Zuggtmoy is now being devoured by Juiblex, demon lord of slime and oozes, who is executing a surprise attack on his hated adversary. The Faceless Lord and his legions of slimes roll over the myconid, engulfing them with their pseudopods. The Heroes do not shy away from this challenge, and charge to attack Juiblex. Even weakened from the fight with Zuggtmoy, the Heroes throw all they have at the Oozing Hunger, and defeat one more demon lord!

Baphomet

Baphomet appears as a great, black-furred minotaur, 20 feet tall with six iron horns. An infernal light burns in his red eyes. Although filled with bestial bloodlust, there lies within a cruel and cunning intellect devoted ti subverting all of civilization.

Baphomet wields a great glaive called Heartcleaver. He sometimes casts his deadly weapon aside so that he can charge his enemies and gore them with his horns, trampling them into the earth and rending them with his teeth like a beast.

Session 28

Heroes: Moryak, Ruthinn, Tarkin, Thoradin

Guided by Ruthinn's find the path spell, the Heroes arrive at the Gallery of Angels, where they find the petrified forms of fallen celestials cursed for ancient crimes. As they chip off their feathers to be used in Vizeran's ritual, the trapped minds of the angels send out thoughts of fear and despair. Ruthinn experiences a bout of madness, and his companions are forced to knock him unconscious before he kills them with his divine powers. When he awakes, the madness is gone. Having gathered the feathers, the Heroes follow their monodrone companions to the Orderer, a powerful artefact of Law created by the modron god Primus.

A few days later they arrive at a huge cavern, dominated by a wide rift. Inside the rift, the Heroes spot a spherical contraption of steel and brass, stuck 40 feet above a lake of magma. But the Orderer is not unguarded: the demon lord Baphomet has left a nalfeshnee demon and several vrocks inside the cave to make sure no one tinkers with the powerful law-aligned artefact.

The Heroes fight the demons, but very soon both Thoradin and Moryak are stunned by the vrocks' screeches, and are thrown into the magma, while Tarkin and Ruthinn fend off the band of demons. On the brink of death, Moryak regains his wits, and thanks to his magical boots flies away from the magma with Thoradin, and deposits both of them on the Orderer. Thoradin activates the artefact, which begins sending forth waves of wild magic.

In the distance, the four dwarves can hear the thunder of massive hooves approaching. Could that be Baphomet himself? The Heroes ready themselves for one more battle, when the Orderer unleashes a last wave of magical energy, sending all extraplanar entities in a 100 miles radius back to their plane of origin. The modrons disappear, and the cavern falls silent again, as the Orderer sinks into the magma.