After having acquired a Morning Rose from Lathander's temple hidden in the woods. The Trollskull Crushers decide to spend the night inside of the Dome of the Rose, making good use of the roof above their heads while they have the chance.
During nightly guard duties, Punko notices that some of the vines that had disappeared after defeating the Rose Dragon were slowly regrowing and creeping towards a sleeping Tinnitus Kakafonia. In a panic, Punko manages to keep away the vines but wakes up the rest of the party in the process.
Still in a bit of a haze, Tinnitus while scared that he might be attacked again while sleeping, creeps up closer to Quertex and manages to have a decent nights rest.
As the first light shines through the dilapidated stained glass windows. Nithgrea opens her eyes and finds herself without her friends. She quickly notices that the temple around her has changed drastically. What she knew to be an old, crumbled down, forgotten temple now stood before her as a beautiful and radiant display of Lathander's glory. Never before had she seen such a wondrous temple, the one in Waterdeep pales in comparison.
While taking in the gorgeous sights, a lady who seems to be made of lustrous plants with a bright flower acting as her hair walks up close to Nithgrea.
Looking down at her, she scowls at Nithgrea. Telling her that she is a traitor and that she no longer walks in the light of the morning lord. She questions Nithgrea about if she even knows what she is, and what the source of her power is.
The nature spirit starts pointing around the room at the many frescos along the walls depicting Lathander interacting with a beautiful Solar with flawless skin, gold-feathered wings, and a blindfold covering her eyes. The story on the walls shows the Solar's fall from grace into the nine hells where she takes on a more diabolical appearance; a halo of fire burned atop her head, her once-fine skin was scorched, and her angelic wings, ruined by flame, turned leathery. Her blindfold was abandoned, fully revealing eyes that glowed with white-hot rage, and she had lost one of her hands and replaced it with a flail.
This is the story of Zariel. Once Lathander's right hand commander, now one of the lords of hell. And Nithgrea is told that she is the source of her new found strength and blazing wings. But after seeing the despair in Nithgrea's eyes. The nature spirit tries to comfort her: "Do not worry, I can still feel the Morning Lord's light within you." The nature spirit gives the greeting of the sun with her hands after which Nithgrea wakes up in a fright.
On the road back to Waterdeep
While traveling back home on their horse and carriage. The party hears some strange noises coming from the woods. Both crying and high pitched laughter can be heard not too far off the path.
Tinnitus and Quertex decide to stay with the horse while the others go investigate.
The find a small clearing in the woods where they notice someone whom they might have already seen "too much" off. The Bugbear Oakfall who just a few days ago did a very "interesting" performance at Cracuta's farewell party.
Around the bugbear are flying some small pixies who seem to be pestering him. The party goes in to help the bugbear but quickly get cursed by fey magics:
Punko somehow transforms into a Half-Orc which causes him to lose his balance due to the sudden lack of tail.
Nithgrea on the other hand starts seeing a vision of Lathander standing next to her in the flesh. This causes her to immediately fall onto her knees in reverence to her deity, begging for forgiveness for being cursed with Zariel's powers.
Skalmold sees all of this happening to her two friends. But as she does, she starts hearing whispering coming from the woods. The whispers are saying they're about to kill her. And the whispers are coming from the trees themselves. Knowing she can't fight this army of trees, she runs away in hopes that the trees will spare her friends.
Quertex and Tinnitus later also join the fight, after hearing Skalmold yell to the "trees to come and get her". But they too fall to the fey curses.
Quertex starts hearing the voice of Jerry The Fisherman, who seems to be very depressed about being killed and not being saved by Quertex.
Tinnitus, while moving closer the the small pool of water in the middle of the grove, notices his own reflecting winking at him. But something seems off. He wasn't always this handsome was he? As he gains the beauty of the gods.
After Skalmold setting the large tree on fire and it being doused again by the combined efforts of Oakfall and Punko, they finally manage to defeat the pixies.
The bugbear explains how the fey creatures have been pestering him for weeks now. They are also the reason why he was forced to partake in that scandalous act at the festival. He thanks the party and offers them some potions and a nice dinner as a reward.
On their last night camping before reaching Waterdeep. The party somehow manages to fall through cracks in the ground, ending up in a forgotten laboratory or workshop seemingly from the Cult of the Dragon from the times of The Dragon Wars.
The workshop was built very close to the surface, it only being a few meters deep. The whole room was covered in dirt and dust, it looked like no one had been here for more than 10 years.
Quertex manages to find some dust covered research notes which he seems to recognize as partly being his own research notes that he had deemed as failures decades ago. The notes depict schematics and magical circles written out by Quertex himself, but written over it would sometimes be adjustments and explanations written in a different hand. The party also discovers a wooden box containing an Emerald Gem Egg.
Opening the Vault of Dragons
The party arrives back safely in Waterdeep and spend a good night's rest at their home Trollskull Manor.
Tinnitus, no longer having a place where he belongs, is openly welcomed to stay with The Trollskull Crushers seeing how a room had just become free.
The next day, they head on over to the location of the vault. Thinking they might try their luck with the three keys they have gathered.
They are greeted by Eszvele Rosznar who joins them to the vault entrance.
When they arrive, three emblems on the large adamantine double door start lighting up one by one after which the door starts to slowly slide open, back into the walls.
The vault they now find themselves in is clearly of dwarven make. All around the many chambers statues and paintings of dwarves can be seen working in the forges or fighting the goblin hordes.
Making their way through some tricky traps and over some dangerous broken bridges, they find a secret passage that goes even deeper into the earth.
After making their way down the stairs they see the following:
Although deep underground, this vault is lit by streams of sunlight that pour down from the ceiling, catching motes of dust in their luminous pools. Ornate columns support a thirty-foot-high vaulted ceiling, which is adorned with carvings of dwarves basking in the presence of their gods. Deep alcoves line the walls, and piled in one of them is a vast golden trove.
Out of the dusty gloom steps an aged dwarf clutching a staff carved and painted to resemble a pair of entwined dragons — one red, one gold. Despite the dwarf’s age, his eyes are steady and bright. “I wasn’t expecting anyone,” he says plainly. “As you can see, the place is a mess. Perhaps you should come back later, after I’ve tidied up a bit.”
The dwarf introduces himself as Unknown and explains that he was hired by Dagult Neverember to guard his treasure.
The party tries to persuade the dwarf by telling him they are trying to return the stolen gold back to the city. The dwarf, who had no idea that the gold was stolen in the first place, slowly starts to believe the party's words. But after noticing some new invisible enemies entering the room, he quickly loses his temper and starts shouting at the party.
"Thieves! You will never take this treasure from me!" The dwarf says, as his body starts to turn and shift into a large Adult Gold Dragon.