Rise of the Heretic

Winter is being relentlessly harsh on The Kingdom of Tethyr as heavy snow falls and unusually cold temperatures pounding the north make it very hard for supplies to get from city to city. The people of the Nation-State of Edolas are feeling this more than most as food and medicine are scarce. The players are approached by an official of the Capitol City Harthmell requesting they escort a caravan of food and supplies to the nearby city of Reevost. Upon arrival, they find a blockaide organized by an old friend, a Tabaxi military officer named Five-Of-Wine. She greets the players warmly and asks them to talk to the Lord of Reevost. She is offering more then enough Food, medicine, and supplies to last through the winter, in exchange the Lord (who has a reputation for being heavy handed and very selfish) must sign over the deed to the city, making it an official military occupation. 

Arriving at the city they realized the supplies brought would last a few weeks at most. The sight of the starving masses and seeing the Lord and his family quite healthy and well dressed causes the Party to advocate for Five-Of-Wine, and put the people first. After some tense discussion, and a threat to throw the Lord off a cliff (.. Brum), the Lord of Reevost, fearing his own safety from the masses, agree's to step down and his son takes over, who signs the City of Reevost over to Five-Of-Wine. Her garrison floods into the city with food, medicine, firewood, blankets, everything the city needs to survive and thrive in the winter.

A strange new disease has been discovered in Harthmell as several citizens have fallen ill and petrified in solid ice. The disease is found to have originated in an alchemy lab in a place called The Eiselcross, a section of the Great Phoenix Mountains that is home to the party's own goliath, Brum. Known as "Fridged Woe", the deadly virus was manufactured by a cult known as The Order Of The Dragon Below. It turns out, a dwarf archeologist, Urgon Wenth, was exploring the ruins of a structure known as The Salsvault in The Eiselcross when he unknowingly brought several vials of Fridged Woe back with him, infecting no less then 4 people, and possibly several more. 

All of the vials of Fridged Woe that are known have been recovered, but not before a family of travelers from Nar Shadda have been exposed. Now, the party traveled to the Eiselcross in order to attempt to find a cure. They arrived at a Goliath village which is now home to several of Brum's old friends. They say they had to abandon the old village as undead regularly emerge from the now half sunken Salsvault that sits in the center of a frozen Eiselcross Lake.

Entering the Salsvault, the party quickly discovers many undead as well as several monstrosities created by alchemists. This was once the alchemists lab of the cult of Harudogan known as "The Order of Dragon Below". Searching the Salsvault they come across the main alchemist named Ferol Sal who, even while undead, is still working and dedicated to continuing his work. He made the disease "Fridged Woe" under the order of the deity Ygorl Lord of Entropy, in order to infect and kill the God's. He confirms it is what kills God of Law Primus. The players also discover that once that project was complete, Ygorl ordered Ferol Sol to continue to the next phase, code named "Frostbite". It was then discovered that "Frostbite" was a new form of Fridged Woe that was used to create a great beast, a Frostbitten Colossus, literally made of Fridged Woe. 

The players where able to defeat Ferol Sol without much issue and stop him from completing his project on Frostbite, but then realized that even though the beast wasn't finished, it was still alive and waiting underneath the lake. Not wanting to take the chances of it waking on its own and killing millions, the players decided to engage the beast and kill it. After all was finished, the players stoped Ferol Sol, destroyed the Frostbitten Colossus, and collected many vials of the Fridged Woe cure to distribute.

After returning to the Dwarvan Outpost at the base of The Eislecross, the players arrive to find the outpost deserted and clear signs of a large fight. Also, it is noticed that the Fog is clearly visible and much closer then it was when they left. While looking around for clues, they are ambushed by 4 shadowy figures with red hair and yellow glowing eyes called Shadow Ganon, in the distance, the players notice a larger shadowy figure, but a wave of fire-like shadows surround his form. They escape using the "Anywhere Key" to transport themselves back to Harthmell.

In Harthmell, they notice that the Fog has advanced here as well and is now less than a mile from the city. Old friends, Five-Of-Wine, Hope, and Prince Edrador have gathered and are discussing what to do about the advancing Fog. Edrador shows them a large monolith, 50ft wide by 300ft tall that sits just inside the city limits. He tells that his royal wizards designed the monolith in order to ward away the fog, keeping it from coming closer to the city. Five states that it seems to be working but theres no real way to test it. Hope says that during her travels the last few weeks she has been unable to locate the missing Pandora's Box.

Just then, a guard approaches stating that the players have visitors. The Modron's, a lawful race of clockwork-style sentient robots, walks up. Quinton, a Modron that attempted to arrest Brum for opening the Pandora's Box several months ago, stands leading the group. He says that the NEW God of Law Primus wants to undo the errors of his predecessor and bring back The Raven Queen (remerge Hope and Despair). They are in possession of the Potara, items needed to fuse the 2 together, and he knows the location of the Pandora's Box, the key to Despairs prison. It is in a cave past the Palisade City of Reevost being guarded by many Kobolds, remnants of Shkiv's army, but his Modron's are not enough to take it back. The party agree's.

On their way to the cave, they stop by Reevost to notice that the city is now vacant. They see in the distance, The Heretic's shadowy figure standing before a large grouping of Shadow Ganon accompanied by many Undead all marching towards the capitol city of Harthmell. The party presses on towards the cave hoping to get the box and resolve it without fighting the large army.

Upon arrival to the cave, the remaining Kobold are there discussing what to do now that Shkiv is gone. The players come up with a plan to fool the Kobold into beleiving they where sent by a new dragon looking for followers. The plan works as the Kobold believe them that there is a "One-Eyed Orc-Dragon" and they seem eager to have a purpose again. The Pandora's Box is recovered and the party tells the Kobolds to "go forth and spread the world of the One-Eyed Orc-Dragon".  

That night while traveling back, they are woke by a Modron saying someone is approaching. They look to find the Shadowy figure with a flaming shadow aura come to be called, The Heretic, is standing just outside their camp. The Heretic begins to take a solid form and as the shape emerges, their friend thought dead, Balx, walks forward. Balx explains that he is part of something bigger called, The Absolute, and he must help his new deity Ygorl, finish it. He asks the players to "stay away, go south, forget about the city, forget about the Fog, forget about me." he explains that if they stay, he can not guarantee their safety. Balx says that "The Absolute is Lord Ygorl's perfect world. He intends to tear down the walls between the planes, creating one giant plane where all deities and mortals, living and dead, all exsist together". Realizing that means that there can never be order or even balance, only chaos, the players respond saying they will not leave and will not allow Balx to continue his path of destruction. During the ensuing battle, Balx escapes. 

Now in possession of the Pandora's Box, the players think that releasing bringing back The Raven Queen is their best chance of eliminating the Fog and stopping Balx. Hope and Prince Edrador are in agreement and Edrador volunteer's to show them where he saw the large structure last time he was in the Fog. Brum once again opens the Pandora's Box and light constructs come flying out at high speeds, but Hope is able to capture one of them. Once that Light from the construct fades, reveals Envy, the child-like sin that had befriended the players. Envy was happy to see them and agree's to accompany them on their journey through the Fog. While searching the Fog, the party is attacked by Shadow Drake but are able to defeat them without much issue. As they arrive at a large structure, Edrador becomes excited an begins to walk faster towards it. The Structure is enormous, 150ft wide and well over 500ft tall, the massive stones form a triangle but have no center. A soft light comes from between the structures see-through center. Celtis fires an arrow through the center and it disappears into an invisible doorway.

Brum takes the first leap and jumps through, arriving inside a very tall, circular prison cell with stone floors, stone walls, and more cob-webs then stone bricks. On the edge wall of the room, stands a very large and imposing casket about 6ft wide and 15ft tall, wrapped tightly in chains which hold the casket upright on end against the wall. There is a key hole in the wall that is in the shape of the opened Pandora's Box and Brum approaches and places the Box into the hole. The ground shakes violently as dust, webs, and chains fall off the massive casket. The door creeks open to reveal an average sized female with pale skin covered in black tatered rags of what use to be a hooded toga. Her yellow eyes and black hair pierce through the darkness underneath her raised hood. She walks slowly out of the casket and her jet black angel-like wings revealed as she snaps them out to a 15ft wingspan, clearly stretching, as heat waves emanate from her as she does so. Without words, Hope conjures her wings of light and approaches Despair, eyes locked as unspoken tension fills the room. 

Prince Edrador walks forward from the back to of the group, visibly awed by Despair as he slowly walks towards her. Despair looks at Edrador with confusion as he cautiously approaches. Suddenly confusion snaps to hatred as Despair raises her hand and strikes the prince at point blank range with a fireball that completely engulfs Edrador. Hope jumps back and shields the players from the blast when a swirling wind extinguishes the flames to reveal Despairs victim. Prince Edrador, his cloths completely burnt through, but his body is completely unharmed. He looks down at his arms in surprise, "Well... I'll be damned..." as he looks back to a very confused Despair. Edrador lifts his hand and in a flash of light, Despair becomes a glowing blue rock of living crystal, a Lacrama. He looks at the shocked and confused players and before they can react, "Eggshells" he speaks out loud as a ruin circle luminates the floor, casting Symbol of Stun on everyone in the room. 

"You know, I sensed the symbol when we walked in and I could tell it was mine, so I have to remember to place that in the future... well... My future, your past... Living a non-liner timeline can get confusing sometimes." Edrador then slowly walks over to a immobilized Hope. Again, he reaches out his hand and in a flash of light, Hope becomes a blue glowing Lacrama. "I guess I should thank you. I could not have done this myself. Primus warded the Pandora's Box so I couldn't open it. I tried to use him but NOOO! Turns out you can't turn deities into Lacrama, I tried. I even had those Harudogan Cultists make me a disease that could infect a God. Even after THAT, I STILL couldn't turn Primus... Well, turns out my old friend did me a favor after all right?!? I mean, could that God stick his nose where it doesn't belong. But in doing so... made a Goddess MORTAL!?! Well... 2 halves of a Goddess mortal. Which I would have been just happy with 1 half, but you all just handed me BOTH! More than enough power to tear apart the walls between worlds. I'm sorry, have we not met yet? I don't live in a straight time line so I never know where we're at... I, am Ygorl." 

Ygorl, satisfied with his win over the players, teleports them back to Harthmell to a battle that is already in progress. The Shadow Ganon and their leader Balx have begun their attack on the capital city. The players, still tired and wounded from their journey through the Fog and the ambush by Ygorl, decided to throw themselves on the front lines and take charge of the Royal forces defending the city. 

A long fought battle proves a small victory for the players on their end of the city, but the knights where not able to hold the eastern wall. Balx and his Shadow Ganon pour into the city, with their sights set on the monolith that is suppose to be keeping back the Fog. The Players arrive first as a stand-off between the players and their old friend occurs, ending with battle. Balx attacks but falls to the players. While Onyxia plants dynamite to destroy the monolith, she is attacked by Ygorl who has teleported in. Onyxia falls back as the explosion occurs, but the monolith and Ygorl are unharmed. "The monolith, thats the Anima Canon. The weapon Ygorl uses to destroy the walls of the planes. exists outside of time, slightly offset from our time. You can't harm it by normal means." Balx attempts to warn the players while he struggles to his feet. The players decide to engage Ygorl in combat but quickly realize the Lord of Entropy is much more then they can handle.

Ygorl calmly walks over to the Anima Canon monolith and places 2 lacrama, Hope and Despair, into the side. The Anima Canon begins to power up with lightning surging up the monolith and fires into the sky. A massive tear in the sky the size of the city appears and the people begin to be lifted into the air, including the players. Balx responds as he outreaches the Fog that makes up his body and forms a shield around the players. A huge boom can be heard outside the shield, as it falls, every living thing is gone. Every bird, every cow, every man, woman, and child has been pulled into the crack in the sky and it begins to grow.

Balx screams out, "I had no idea what I was helping. I have an idea to stop it, but I need Onyxia's crystal."  Onyxia reluctently hands over her crystal given to her by her old master, and Balx begins to reach out and funnel the Fog through it. As the players struggle against Ygorl's god-like power, Balx finishes compressing the Fog into the Crystal Sphere and he merges the power together, then fires the resulting magic into the massive, city sized fissure that Ygorl has created. The fissure begins to close and as it snaps shut, a firework of sparkles and magic rain down on the battered city of Harthmell. People begin to reappear in the streets and the sky returns to its normal blue. Balx, now transparent as the Crystal Sphere falls through his intangible hand and Onyxia dives to catch the weakened crystal before it hits the ground. Ygorl, his plans foiled, looks at his old acolyte in disgust, "If you where still tethered to this world, I'd kill you for that." Ygorl teleports away in defeat.

Balx turns to his old friends, now free of Ygorls influence. "I'm sorry. He said he was going to unite the multiverse, not destroy it. I was so focused on becoming a powerful Necromancer that I would do anything for that power, I didn't see what it was doing to me. Whenever I used the magic of the Fog and Onyxia's Crystal Sphere to force the tear in space closed, the side effect was a new plane of existence, made entirely of Fog. Any creatures that are magically connected to the Fog would have been pulled there, including me" as he looks down at his hands which are now barely visible. "If you ever get the chance, come visit me?" as Balx fades, completely transfering into the new plane, now called The Negative Plane.

A few days of recovering the town of Harthmell, General Five-Of-Wine tells the players that there is a way to restore Hope and Despair from their Lacrama state. An old elf wizard, about 750 years in age, tells the players that he does have training in Necromancy and he has great knowledge of the Lacrama. He says that there is a way to reverse the process but it requires a material component he does not have. A Khyber Dragonshard, which can only be found in the Underdark. He warns, "be careful though, Khyber Dragonshards give off an aura that attracts fiends, so find a spot that has high fiend activity and you'll find the dragonshard". The players remember an entrance to the Underdark near an old Manson they visited a long time ago, so they set out. 

Upon arrival, an Ettercap and several Giant Spiders guard the entrance to the Underdark and ask for a toll for passage. Brum, with much confidence walks up to the ettercap, "Sure, here's your payment" and slashes the ettercap with his great axe, after which the players make quick work of the remaining spiders. Traversing the cave of the Underdark, they find it is quite a tight fit and very slimy. Everything is covered in a think layer of slim and greese-like substances. Fighting their way through various fiends like Bearded Devils, they finally enter a large cave section with a very high ceiling. On the far cave wall, they see a glowing red vain of crystals that fits the discription of the Khyber Dragonshard, but also a massive roaring echo's through the cave that makes all the other fiends run in fear. 

Brum makes a run for the Dragonshard and comes face to face with one of the most feared Underdark beasts, a Pit Fiend. A battle ensues as the players take turns holding off the Pit Fiend while another player attempts to pry the Dragonshard from the cave wall. The Pit Fiend, proving stronger then the party hoped for, begins to wear them down. In a risky attempt, Celtis desides to cast "Polymorph" on the Pit Fiend. With much luck, she catches the Pit Fiend off guard and successfully polymorphs him into a frog. Brum, with much joy, picks up the polymorphed Pit Fiend and shoves it into his bag of holding where it suffocates. Now with the Dragonshard in hand, the player head back to Harthmell.

They give the Khyber Dragonshard to the old wizard and he is able to restore Hope to her normal self with ease.  Next was Despair. As the wizard returns Despair, she reforms in a might burst of magic, shattering nearby windows and outstretching her wings. Hope speaks to her through telepathy and the two agree to reform the Raven Queen. As the Potara is placed on each of their necks, a huge flash of light occurs and the two entities are smashed together. Emerging from the magical eruption, a shock wave so strong it pushes back the players several feet as carts and barrels are knocked over. Once settled, the dust clears to reveal a female form 20 feet tall with black wings so massive they encircle the entire courtyard. The female form is cloaked in a black robe with a golden chest plate, she wears a white mask of a frowning face. The Raven Queen's presence clearly causes a pressure shift in the city. The Raven Queen, Goddess of Death, Emotion, and Memory expresses gratitude to the players for bringing her back and she offers several gifts and her patronage should any of them need it. Just as spectacularly as she came, she vanishes in a whirlwind of light and shadow.