The Dark Gaping Maw...and the Cult of Ga!

A local street urchin shows up in a tavern with a bag of riches, proceeds to share his good fortune with the entire tavern, gets drunk and regales his new "friends" with tales of the dungeon below the city where he found it. Unguarded treasure...free for the taking!

There was apparently more, but he took all he could stuff into a sack. In his drunkenness, he ended up speaking freely of where the dungeon would be found...and the race was on!

PCs enter dungeon in search of riches. Fought stirges, a giant frog, whip-scorpions, centipedes, skeletons, etc. but more importantly, discovered a dazed band of goblins in the service of a strange, demon-god entity named, Ga.

Ga, the mongrelman priest of Chaos, had opened a gate to the plane of Pandemonium and was using it to create abominations. The heroes defeated Ga and toppled the gate

The Forsaken Temple of the Serpent King

The PCs hear rumors about lizard-folk raiding the outskirts of Stormhaven and hauling away helpless citizens. After some investigation, the heroes track the lizard-folk to an ancient ziggurat located in mangrove swamps west of the city.

Once at the ziggurat, the PCs discover that villagers are being sacrificed by lizard-men, apparently to appease their God so that the tribe may produce offspring once more. The normally peaceful tribe has been subverted by an evil Lizard King, King Greenscales, who demands these sacrifices. After defeating Greenscales, the PCs learn that the lizard-folk are in exile from their ancestral home of Sacred Rock. Their tribe will perish if they do not return their eggs to that holy site.

The Demonstone

The PCs travel to the Forlorn Hills, north of Stormhaven, in search of the Demonstone, to hunt and slay the man-eating demon which have taken up home in the lizard-mens' ancestral home. Once there, they encounter and dispatch a pack of hell-hounds, en route to the Demonstone. At the Demonstone, they encounter a pride of manticores.

After defeating the mantcores, they delve deeper and find an abandoned Duergar city in the Darkness Below.

The Darkness Below

The party investigates the Duergar city and encounters a dracolisk. Saliq is stoned and the party decides to flee. Saliq's stoned body is hauled out and Eagle flies to Stormhaven to purchase a stone to flesh scroll. Saliq is restored and the party decides to leave the Duegrar city for another day. While preparing to leave, the party sees a group of ogres in the distance leading chained human slaves to an unknown fate. The party intervenes and defeats the ogres. One of the captured ogres says they serve a master called One-Horn. They later learn from a nearby village, Windham, the ogres have waged a terrible raiding campaign against the nearby villages and request help. The PCs agree and track the ogres to a ruined keep, the lair of The Horned One.

Against the Horned One

The party is hired by the Mayor of Windham to defeat an band of plundering ogres ruled by One Horn. They travel to a ruined keep west of the village and discover the ogres are merely minions of a demon named The Horned One. They battle ogres, demons, and ghasts. Several party members are slain in the epic battle that ensues, but fortunately their spoils enable Eagle to resurrect his most of his companions. Sadly, Norion is lost in the process. For their efforts, the heroes are awarded a tract of land just south of the village and earn the  everlasting respect of the villagers.

Longshadows

The party returns to Stormhaven and begins investigating a mysterious tower in Oldhaven. Inside they encounter a flesh golem, wights, spiders, stirges and a host of other minions, before finally tracking down a vampire, and namesake of the tower. The vampire turns out to be none other than Lord Myron, an petty noble the party (mostly Ben) had long had their suspicions about. Longshadows is defeated in combat and the party eventually finds the vampire's inner sanctum and destroys the monster for good. Along the way, they make the acquaintance of one Madame Drucilla, a kindly ghost trapped within the ruined tower.

Slithering Overload

The party was approached by the Lord Mayor of Stormhaven to take on a mission against an evil Naga who has attacked a Temple of Pelor and stolen holy relics and kidnapped three members of the clergy. The party followed the Naga to a lair beneath the city, guarded by troglodyte minions. The party dispatched the troglodytes and defeated the Naga. Having recovered the relics and order members, the party is treated to a heroes welcome and has earned the respect and admiration of the city's elite.

Interludes

The heroes of Stormhaven, wealthy beyond their humble beginnings wild imaginings, and with it, fame and stature, spend several months of peace in Stormhaven.   The city itself seems under assault from horrible weather, but to the heroes, safely inside nice taverns, the mages Guild, and the like, time passes in relative boredom.

A Ghast from the Past

Ben’s chance encounter with a strange ghast leads the party to a sewer lair.  Beneath the city they encounter more than a single ghast, but oddities that do not add up.   Trolls growing flowers, a magic snake made from children’s wooden blocks but deadly, ghasts being experimented on.  The party safely defeats the monsters, and sets free a strange aerial servant who answers their question but asks for a pair of boots and a hat in return.  They learn that someone called the Mistress is behind this odd nest, and she is working with an ancient enemy of Stormhaven, the Army of the Tooth and Scale, led by the ruthless Captain Tethi.  Why they had rooms for small children remained a mystery.

The Lighthouse of the Royal Astronomer

Summoned to the Great Hall by the Lord Mayor, the party is asked to investigate why the Royal Astronomer has not sent in his monthly report in several months.  Something he has never missed in decades of service.  The group travels along the sea coast for two days before finding the lighthouse in a state of near ruin.  Inside they are confronted by strange spirit trolls, and eventually the Mistress herself.  Beautiful as she is strange, she seems to consider the heroes as “her” champions at times, other times, seems to threaten them.   They are finally transported to the dungeons beneath the Lighthouse where they find the captive Astronomer, Beniz.  He reveals he has been researching the timing for when the three “Brothers” will align, three stars that line up every 500 years or so.   Using information the Mistress provided, he gave an exact day (though it was an educated guess).  The heroes recognize that the code she has provided him comes the edges of the three Golden Discs they rescued some months back and reside under guard back in the Temple of the Sun in Stormhaven.  With them, Beniz will be able to exactly predict the event.    It is likely the cause of the bad weather as well.   Fighting their way out of the dungeons, Ben is spirited away into a mirror where he confronts an alternative self, and the dead bodies of alternative Saliq, Inas, and Rath.  He kills his darker self and returns as the mirror shatters, bringing with him some of their magic items.  Outside the Lighthouse, an army is waiting, led by the scarred Giant, Captain Tethi.   The party is given a chance to join them and swear allegiance to the Mistress, but in the end, they choose to fight.   With help from their old friend Eagle, the party wins the day.   They return to Stormhaven to deliver not only Beniz, but much news as well.

The Many Facets of Skeleton Island

At a private council with the Lord Mayor, heads of State, and heads of Guilds, the party learns that the Mistress is working to raise the dark master Syrix, using body parts the party itself has providing (unknowingly).  The heroes are sent to Skeleton Island in an attempt to restore the Mistress’ soul, trapped all these years in a crystal or glass hoping it will allow her to see the error of her plans. After fighting undead dragons (Gyrrallyss ), a mind flayer once frozen in ice, lizard creatures, and encountering a strange garden looked over by a most unusual caretaker, the party succeeds and smashes the mirror, releasing Scillia, the Mistress, who is returned to Alysium to face justice for her crimes.  But in doing so, is saved.

A Darkness in the Glades

Strange goings on in the swampland at the edge of town have the heroes investigating.  They meet a withered warlock, Elixi.  None too happy with his strange methods of using dreams and people like puppets, they are distrustful of him.   When he explains that his sister is none other than the Morde Witch, and how she was once in league with Syrix, it gets worse.  She was also obsessed with dragons, and has captured many over the years, swaying them to her will.  The great white gold dragon that Elixi raised as a youth, she stole and transformed to her will.  The heroes killed its undead self, Gyrallyss, and in doing so, laid claim to its final will and testament.  Its treasures to be shared by whoever freed it from its half-life, and half to go to its offspring.  A new dragon of this kind can only be born when the older one dies, so the eggs is still out there somewhere.  Elixi asks the party to help save it before the Morde Witch finds it.  Returning to Stormhaven they find it under attack by dozens of Vrock’s, monsterous demons.  They help fight off the monsters, but no one knows how or why they attacked??

The Quest for Seven Falls Canyon

Elixi finds the baby dragon, Astral, through its dreams (or nightmares).  Held in a cavern near the Seven Falls Canyon, the party heads off to the rescue.   On the way, just outside of the city, they have a minor skirmish with orcs, but also find a huge pentagram burned into the forest.  A tent nearby has evidence of the Ogre Magi, and a voodoo dolls that looks like Rath in it.  Travelling on, the party finds the caverns, and interrupt some kind of deal going down between a group of MindFlayers, and a Magi with a Djinn, some trade involving the little dragon.  A pitched battle ensues in which much of the party is bent to the will of the flayers.  With the Magi and Djinn having fled,  Saliq plays a gambit, using the strange book the party found in Syrix’s fortress as leverage.  It was unreadable, but clearly of Flayer origin.   They agree to trade the dragon, freedom to leave, all for the book.  And just like that, the party leaves with a small and very precocious dragon as their newest bestest friend ever!

The Strange Affairs of the Morde Witch

Despite having saved Astral from the Flayers,  Elixi believes she will never be safe as long as his sister lives.   She is so powerful, he believes only if he dies also will she be vulnerable but he is willing to do this to protect Astral.   The party chooses a most unusual tactic, to try to approach her Island not across the sea but by slipping into the Plane of Dream itself.  Her island is connected to that plane as well and so the party leads a very strange, wonderous, and at times dangerous journey across a most strange landscape.  In the end, it works, they assail her very underground fortress, battling till they reach her sleeping quarters.  There, protected within a glass coffin, impenetrable, she sleeps safely for all time.   As the party battles foes both real and from her evil imagination, Rath tries a desperate attack driving his magic trident into the coffin.  What should have NOT worked, works, the very hand of god imbues the strike and it shatters the forcefield and drives through the heart of the witch.   The heroes sail for home, even as the many dragons of now “Dragon Island”  begin to make peace amongst themselves.   Elexi has died and Astral is returned to live with her own kind, and party returns home with a huge horde of dragon treasure.

Stormhaven: interludes

After a bit of down time at home, the party notices and hears of strange goings on in the city.  A mysterious shapeshifter asking questions about them, and even their friends/family.  The odd CPP, Church of Peace, which seems to have gained both power and fortune, pouring money into the city and gathering influence at an alarming rate.  And all the while, claiming to be a church with no gods or goddesses.  Some Lord from Empire of the Shifting Sands has sent word that assassins from the mythical Everlasting (a bogeyman of stories told to children) have been dispatched to Stormhaven on an unknown mission.    Meanwhile, Lord Mayor has fallen ill and not been seen for a month, and his trusted Seneschal, Ingelbern, has left the city (also ill, rumors abound?).  Investigating, the party has a dinner with the Lord Mayor who claims to be feeling somewhat better, however, mid-dinner, they are attacked.  By, none other than four assassins disguised as the party itself.  When confronted, all the assassins die easily, but the damage is done, many guards have seen them enter the Keep, force their way to the hall, and attack.  With the Mayor somewhat addled, who will believe them.  So, they leave the back way, the way they came in, and return to their tower to decide what is next.   There, another surprise awaits.   The mysterious shapeshifter, a Mind Flayer, who not only doesn’t attack them, but recruits them.   It turns out the book Saliq traded for their lives, was missing five pages.  Dangerous and powerful pages that the Flayers want back….or else.  They are offered a chance to return these and even the deal.  Oddly, this flayer claims to be part of a small but growing sect within the race that is not hostile towards humans.  He sweetens the pot with a gift of a compass that will point towards the nearest page, and a reward if they are recovered that he will make the adventurers minds immune to mind control.   Faced with too many options, the party decides to track down Inglebern, as he seemed always to know what was what within the city,  perhaps he can guide them to understanding of the forces mounting against them and their reputations.



In the Shadow of the Mountains

Learning that Ingelbern has left for a mysterious place called Peryn’s Crag, the party heads out in cover of the night.  Following the western seaside of the giant and growing Iron Mountains, of which they heard a few stories from their long lost Norion, they make their way steadily north.  As the mountains rise,they encounter the famed dwarven system of roads. Above them somewhere lies entrance to the great halls of the races of dwarves and even the starless highway that is rumored to run under the mountains.   Occasional checking of the compass shows it  often change directions, perhaps it doesn’t work??    After crossing the great dwarven roads systems, the party is nearly to their destination when they are attacked by a strange golem.  It seems impervious to both spells and weapons, and nearly kills Saliq and Rath, before seeming to become confused and leave on its own.  With their wounds refusing to heal, the others rush forward to the Crag.

Peryn’s Crag

A strange and lovely town built high on a lone stone crag jutting out above the great forest.  It is quiet by design, the roads covered with sand, wagons well-tended with leather bound to the wheels make almost no noise, and the people talk in almost hushed tones.  It is a place of healing, houses dedicate to many facets of healing line the single road as it rises to a high temple that that no roof.   Healers and the sick make up most of the denizens with only a few taverns, inns, craftsmen scattered throughout.  Here, the party is healed of its wounds, meet with Durien (Doorwarden of the Mage Guild) and discover that Ingelbern was poisoned by a stinger in his lower back, and despite removing it, has continued to suffer greatly. No cure has been found for his malady yet.  The gnome, who is said to be the latest Peryn, tells the party that Vengeance Golems such as they fought wrought untold damage centuries ago, nearly impossible to destroy, they are created by using a powerful magical artifact, often hid inside the mouth of the beast, not an easy thing to remove and live doing but the only way to defeat it.