The session started with the party in the Inn of the Dead in the Necropolis. There they met a female gnome named Velma Softbottom Peesquirt Neverquiet Thundersnap, who was on an investigation of her own. She compared notes with the party and found that they were trying to leave the Underworld. Since she had arrived at the Necropolis with no idea how to leave, she decided to tag along with them.
The party informed Velma that they had to return the soul of The Bone King back to his body so that they could open access to the real Grey Citadel on the material plane. The easily found the mausoleum where they found a The party informed Velma that they had to return the soul of the Bone King back to his body so that they could open access to the real Grey Citadel on the material plane.
They easily found the mausoleum where they found a ghostly woman draped over a stone coffin, crying. In the room was a beating heart.
The party eventually decided to pick up the beating heart and place it on the coffin. When they did, the ghost of the Bone King emerged from the coffin and began to dance with the now happy woman. They turned to the party and thanked for helping to reunite them. Time slowed down as the couple danced.
Finally, the Bone King said, “A Drow and a nearly dead female Half-Elf, as well as D’Haran guards and others including a one-armed fox and a horse, have made it through the portal. My power in the material plane is gone. But I am happy, I am with my Daffodil.”
Behind the couple, an ominous huge dragon appeared, in the act of razing the Grey Citadel. The two didn’t seem to notice or care, and with their eyes lost in each other, they continued to dance.
The party hustled to the Shadow Gate and ran through. Swirls of psychedelic lights rushed past and soon the party found themselves back in The Bone King’s mausoleum in the Grey Citadel, where they heard shouts and screams from above the tomb.
The floating Grey Citadel was a beautiful palace with endless hallways, stairs, and ramps that led everywhere and nowhere. Walkways passed overhead and across expanses of nothing but air. The palace was alive with sounds: echoing footsteps, distant shouts and yells, clashes of steel, and screams.
There was a horse with a fox on another walkway – was that the horse from the stable that the party had met when they first arrived in the Grey Citadel?
The party saw Teak rush by, helping a severely injured woman. He yelled, “We must stop Barak from taking the Box of Orden—it will open the lock!”
On another walkway they saw a rag-tag group of militia, led by Kate, run by.
Suddenly the party heard a commanding voice echoing through the hallways. “Come forward—I have been waiting for you.”
Feng, Jon, and Kriick all sensed that their respective dragons were nearby.
The party continued to run this way and that, and what seemed like hours went by. Smoke and fire from the burning city below could be seen from the walkways. They heard dragons roaring and the flapping of wings in the dark clouds above. Occasionally they saw multiple dragons battling.
Bride guided the party on by claiming to “sense” a presence. Eventually the party arrived in a throne room and found Barak Vasak, Kayrn and a D’haran squad.
The floating Grey Citadel is beautiful palace with endless hallway’s, stairs and ramps that lead everywhere and nowhere. Ramps pass overhead and across expanses of nothing but air. The palace is alive with sounds: echoing footsteps, distant shouts and yells, clashes of steel and screams.
There is a horse with a fox on another walkway – was that the horse from the stable in the Grey Citadel? You see Teak rush by helping a severely injured woman—He yells, “We must stop Barak from taking the Box of Orden—it will open the lock!”
On another you see a rag-tag group of militia run by on another walkway.
“Come forward—I have been waiting for you,” Echoes through the hallways.
Feng, Jon and Kriick all sense their respective dragons nearby.
The party continues to run this way and that—what seems like two hours goes by. Smoke and fire from the burning city below can be seen when you walkways. You hear dragon roars, and the flapping of wings in the dark clouds above—occasionally you see multiple dragons battling.
Bride guides the party on by claiming to “sense” a presence. Eventually the party arrives at a throne room with Barak Vasak, Kayrn and a D’haran squad.
Elaborate decorations and carvings lined the walls, and a flight of stairs on the north side of the room went up to a raised platform with a ramp that led to a throne. The room was filled with natural light as its ceiling was actually a combination of glass sky-lights and stone. Smoke and clouds blocked the sun, and shadows fly by… dragons?
On the throne was a metallic box – the Box of Orden!
On the main floor below the throne, four huge marble statues of mounted, armored warriors – all human—circled a large dais. Each statue had a spear that aimed towards the dais. In the middle of the dais was a swirling portal similar to the one in the cave where Bride was found.
Standing on top of the portal was Teak, with lightning slamming into him from the spears of the four warrior statues. At his feet, the party saw the hands of a creature trying to break through to grasp upward. Lying next to Teak on top of the portal was a horn—the same one that Kriick blew in the Silverstand forest a few months earlier (in-game time).
A lightning bolt from the metallic box on the throne struck Teak, and he fell to his knees.
Karyn was next to Teak, her agiel in his ear as she commanded him, “Reach down and pull him through the gate…. Come on my love…. You want to please me, right?”
She twisted the agiel in his ear, and Teak, in agony, hands extended down as if to push back the groping hands that were reaching up, growled through gritted teeth “I… will… not…”
Next to the metallic box on the throne, an almost bored-looking Barak stood aggressively over a kneeling woman with blood dripping from her mouth. “Teak,” he said, “do as your master commands, or Elinda dies.”
Elinda weakly replied, “Teak, my love, do not stop—be stong—do not let the lock break. I will see you in the afterlife…”
Furious, Teak yelled, “LEAVE ELINDA ALONE! YOU WILL DIE FOR THIS!”
Suddenly Bride started to glow, and Jon and Kriick felt Bride’s emotions begin to swirl— anger, frustration, hurt, love, all boiling together. She exclaimed “Jerikki! Come to me, my love!”
As if in response, a hand reached upward through the portal, like a hand stretched through a rubber balloon. The party could see every detail of the hand – its size, even in the veins in the back of it. It reached for the horn…. but the portal held firm.
Bride began to glow blue — and magical energy from her hilt connected to Teak.
She yelled to “Teak, pull Jerikki through—he will help us!, Jon, help your brother!”
In reply, Teak weakly gasped, “Jerikki will break through and the gate will fall. The Demon Lord will be right behind him!”
Just then Kate arrived, with Stumpy, Jim Fox, Weck, and the rest of her rag-tag rebellion.
Barak lifted his hand and cast a spell, and Kate and her followers were flung up in the whirlwind vortex.
As the party started to react, Barak broke the glass egg, releasing a Stop Time spell. It took effect, with Jerikki’s hands raised through the portal, Teak’s pushing back down, and Ellinda’s eyes wide with terror.
Barak smirked. “So, my plan worked. I let you have Bride down at the abandoned temple. Why you ask? Wizard’s first rule—people are stupid – they will believe what they want. You feel that you somehow freed Bride—what idiots. I let you have her – I wanted you to have her – so you would do my bidding.
“We were baiting a hook. We needed you to help us. We knew that Bride would force you to find her lost love, Jerikki, that useless ranger that fell at the hands of the demons after the first purge, after I left those losers to serve Lord Deskari, one of Orcus’ generals.”
“I knew that you would go to the Underworld to appease the Bone King – so that you could get here to protect the Box of Orden. Not certain why the Bone King was there but someone needed to get his foolish soul. We tried to trick it with Horace’s soul; I guess he can tell the difference.”
“We needed you to get Jerikki awake again— he hasn’t served his purpose yet—but he will—as he is about to do,” as he pointed to Jerikki’s hands reaching up through the portal.
“Thanks to you there,” he said, pointing to Jon Marston, “taking Bride into the Underworld is exactly what I wanted—what we needed. Bride and Jerikki—I know them well; they were my party mates when Lord Deskari was imprisoned. They have a bond that is unexplainable but some would call it love. They want to be together—and they will,” he laughs. “So, when you took Bride into the Underworld, it woke Jerikki and engendered a passion such that he would do anything to break through the gate to get to her.”
“My master, Emperor Terrance D’Hara wants the Box, and he wants it unopened. The only way for that to happen is for you to either use Bride to release the box from this lock, or for the lock to fail, which it will do if Jerikki frenzied struggles are enough to get the Void Horn. Teak is trying to resist Karyn’s ‘charms’, but he is also fighting Jerikki’s attempts to break through the veil. But he will fail. How do I know? Because some idiot blew the horn a month ago and now, we all have a problem – which I will cover shortly.”
“But back to the options. You have a druid with you who has the Book of Counted Shadows. If your druid would open the box, it will be freed from its prison here BUT it will keep Jerikki in his prison.”
“Teak will be killed by Karyn, at which point Jerikki breaks free and comes after you because of Bride. And I will just take the box and walk out the back to door”, he said, pointing behind the throne.
“So to recap, we have 4 options:”
- “Bride removes the box from the lock, unopened, and I take the box, but the dragons are not harmed and Jerikki is not freed.”
- “Your druid opens the box with the Book of Counted Shadows. Jerikki is not released, and Teak lives… and I take the box.”
- “Karyn kills Teak and Jerikki bursts through, and comes after you because you have Bride.”
- “Or I just kill you all, take the Book of Counted Shadows, Bride, the Void Horn, the skull, and I become the new emperor. Come to think of it…. If I open the box perhaps that is the best for all.”
“Now, we are under some time pressure here- you see, someone blew the Void Horn, which summoned a huge Void Dragon. This Void dragon is what destroyed the Grey Citadel below and is now above us here” – and he pointed to the glass ceiling.
“When the Void dragon entered the material plane, she sensed that everything was not in order and she did not leave. Someone has broken the truce and she went ballistic and is carrying out the Purge all over again. If we open the box, we can deal with her… seriously, when will you people stop screwing things up? But no matter, once, I open this Box of Orden another third of the dragons will be destroyed—I am not worried.”
“So, make a decision, my time spell is about over. Which is it—which will you choose? Let’s start with your druid, where is he? Oh, he is not here, no matter. You see, Jerikki will rage and slam himself against the lock—and it won’t even matter if we open the Box of Orden, which we are going to do.”
“Emperor Terrance will be pleased that you did what he wanted—really any of those options are acceptable. We needed Jerikki frenzied and we need Bride to guide you to the gates—check—mission accomplished.”
Suddenly, there was a shattering of glass from the ceiling as Argone dropped into the room from the back of one of the dragons just as the time spell expired.
The fight went on and on. Teak and Elinda were killed and revived, and Jerikki climbed out of the portal.
Xexilla, the huge Void dragon, stuck her head through the broken ceiling and caused some dragon fear.
Zordan was able to use Bigby’s Hand to grab the Box of Orden, and then it went from bad to worse. Teak was grabbed by Jerikki, who also took the Void Horn, and pulled back into the portal. The buildings of the Grey Citadel began to fall away, leaving just floating rocks.
Barak ran towards a waiting airship and the party, now in possession of the Box of Orden chased after him.
As the party neared the airship, they saw Loo, Ryan and Blaze, all badly hurt, fighting Xexilla. The Void dragon tried to grab the Box of Orden with her mouth but failed to wrestle it away from Bigby’s hand. Blaze came and blasted Xexillia with fire, and some of the party were also caught in the flames.
Some members of the party had Barak grappled, when suddenly a horn sounded from the mists surrounding the remains of the Grey Citadel. Xexillia was immediately sucked into a blackhole that caused a huge concussion wave that nearly blew Zordan off the rocks to his death, and did blow Barak off to his!
The party saw the airship, and the session ended with the party now at level 11.
