As they attempt to ascend, they are attacked by a harpy. The stairway is a trap, steps suddenly flattening out into a slide, threatening to tumble them down into the central space. The group work together, protecting the archer to slay the harpy always flying out of melee range. The elf struggles to lock the stair contraption for climbing. As they make headway up the structure, two gargoyles animate to harass them. The heroes maintain their strategy and one gargoyle crumbles from multiple bowshots and one is felled frozen and smashed by Garrosh. Double-doors at the top lead to a narrow corridor leading east.

Yshven opens a door in the corridor. Suddenly they are attacked by creatures made up of a hodge-podge of humanoid and animal parts. The party slays them all – two foulspawn berserkers killed by Kurgan and Garrosh; two foulspawn manglers laid low by Yshven and Quorbin; and one foulspawn grue killed by ‘the betrayer’ Kurgan.

In the room they detect a hidden passage leading to another room with a strange portal. One of the doors show two humanoid figures, one about to stab the other in the back. Kurgan steps forward and he hesitates. Suddenly the door opens by itself. The others look at each other, then proceed. Nothing notable in the room beyond, just two plain iron doors. They double back. In the corridor outside, Kurgan pulls Quorbin aside and says “Something has put a curse on you! There were voices in my head before I entered that door back there.” Quorbin looks at the warlord, not knowing what to say.

Inside, they are confronted by an irate group of armed humanoids, led by an imposing blue dragonborn in finely wrought black chainmail wielding a wicked looking hand and a half sword. “Who are you? What is the meaning of this intrusion?” demanded the dragonborn, sword held at the ready.

The heroes decide to parlay, and soon discover that the dragonborn is Garash Vren, a bandit leader and raider of some notoriety, who, like them, was trapped with a small contingent of his men by the pyramid. Garrosh, noting the similarity between their names and their common origin, speculates that they may be related. Despite this suggested “blood tie,” however, the negotiation soon breaks down and blades are drawn. Vren orders his men to attack, and a chaotic melee ensues. At the end of the battle, Vren lies dead by the hand of his “kinsman,” and Kurgan bears a shiny, albeit somewhat bloodstained, new sword.

After some more exploration, the companions come upon a room with two doors on the far wall. A bronze plate with levers mounted on the wall nearby to the left of it. The plate shows an interior of a large room, nozzles protruding down from its ceiling. Also, it shows a short corridor, a haze of distortion to it.

Yshven opens a door, it reveals a short corridor ending at a door. Beyond in a room with nozzles hanging from the ceiling, a group of men are milling about, surprised at Yshven’s presence. Kurgan speaks out at them, signifying peace, they are wary and suspicious.

After a terse exchange of names Kurgan strikes an agreement with their leader, a human named Borrick, to allow the group and escort them through their hideout to the pyramid’s exit.

Borrick himself comes with two bandit companions to enforce the agreement. Along the way, Kurgan dupes Borrick’s companions to march ahead to their deaths in a room called the hall of mirrors where some devils and a flame skull lay in ambush. Realizing the treason, Borrik turns to attack but  too late, he realizes the completeness of Kurgan’s treachery. And so, flanked with danger on all sides, Borrick falls alone by Kurgan’s stained blade, an expression of utter shock and dismay on his pale dead face.

The group goes on to fight against the room’s guardians and meet with success. However, to know and witness firsthand Kurgan, their noble leader’s capacity for malevolence sowed a seed of fear among his compatriots and from then on they were instinctively wary of his words and were glad that his malice was directed outward of their circle.

Suddenly, two devils appear in their midst and focuses attacks on Yshven. The dwarf responds with a cleaving blow, hitting them both. The woman turns into a succubus and attacks. The room erupts into confusion as Kurgan and Garrosh fall under the temptress’ compulsion and hack at each other’s throats.

The scuffle is ended when the succubus is finally slain, apologies are exchanged, and tears wiped off scaly cheeks. Searching the altar, a hidden panel yields a chest containing magical and masterfully made plate armor which looks to distort itself every now and then and a garnet gem that is absorbed by Virellis.

Yshven is swarmed. The other crossbowmen divide their fire between Yshven and Kurgan to bring them down quickly. The bolts cause them to stagger, dazed. Kurgan and Garrosh dispatch the club-wielding swarm with their dragonborn breaths. Blackened corpses lie on the ground at their feet. More surge forth from the sidelines. Kurgan does his muttering thing. Garrash Vren suddenly bows his head, eyes closed and mutters to himself as well. He does a Kurgan! The group is amused. But the companions suddenly find themselves in a gush of electrical sparks and tendrils as Vren blasts them with his breath.

Surprised, Vren connects with a slash against Yshven. Quorbin surges forth, scoring a double hit at the enemy warlord. The surrounded Garrash blocks Yshven with his shield as the remaining bowmen and club swingers focus on the attacking dwarf. Quorbin ruins one bowman’s shot, his bolt ricocheting across the room. Kurgan shouts something terse to Garrosh making him resolute.

Blades continue flashing, drawing blood. Shafts and arrows fly pinioning hapless targets. The tide swings this way and that. Finally Garrosh, calling upon divine fortune connects with a deadly slash and his dragonborn kin falls lifeless by his hands. The group clears the room of remaining stragglers. One of them opens a door, however, unleashing a captive werewolf on the group! A new wave of fighting ensues, taxing the groups endurance.

In the end, the werewolf is slain. Kurgan’s blade sliding out drenched from the creature’s ribcage.  He quickly claims the fallen Garrash Vren’s equipment while Yshven wonders aloud whether the recently deceased blue-scaled dragonborn warlord bandit is in anyway related to their companion who has a strikingly similar name, Garrosh, also a blue-scaled dragonborn.

The group finds another of Virellis’ items and gives it to the eladrin head.

“What is this racket?” He demands. “Who are you?” Kurgan fronts, offering cooperation to escape but the dragonborn says, “Escape? How? There is no escape here! Trust me, we’ve tried and we’ve been here longer.” To impress him, Kurgan shares their victory over the Charnel Lord. The dragonborn stranger is incredulous but remains unconvinced. He asks not to be bothered again and sends the group on their way without trouble. He advices them to avoid their area of control — the rooms beyond the southern stairs, from the lizard room. “My men are there. The next meeting will bring battle.” he warns.

The group leaves. Just then, Virellis pipes up asking for them to go back, “I can sense something I need in one of the rooms near where we were,” said the head. Without second thoughts, the group backtracks.

Garrosh moves to flank the hulking reptile but opens himself up for an attack. Yshven swings in at the momentary lapse of the bruiser’s attention. Kurgan lets loose with a guarding strike against his skirmisher and connects. Quorbin aims at the the bruiser and hits home twice. The reptiles attack Yshven and Garrosh but both prove to be too battle wizened. Both hit in retaliation, Garrosh with a divine strike lining the bruiser with divine light, Yshven with a hard-hitting charge. Kurgan surges against his mark hitting it twice, bloodied and sore.

Quorbin looses on his hulking quarry but is still vexed by his misses. Garrosh and Yshven continue to dance away from harm delivering tremendous blows in return. The club wielding reptilian hulk goes down with a blazing attack from Garrosh. Kurgan trade tremendous blows with his target but the smaller reptile proves inferior, it falls a flayed crisscross of slashes.

Virellis directs the group to a small dry room, there is a statue of an eladrin knight. They spy the moonstone, one of the objects Virellis needs on a table before it. “Touch it to the orb!” Virellis says and Kurgan tries to do so. He fails and asks the elf to do it. As Quorbin touches the moonstone to the orb, it disappears.

Garrosh keeps planted from the whirlpool’s suction and casts priest shield. Hackfrost arcs and falls, leaving a fatal freeze dried gash on the bruiser’s torso. He faces the other one as his target falls to its side, a mean gleam in his eye. Kurgan breathes fire at the pair of spear wielders including the mystic. With a croak, the mystic falls boiling fat mixing with the darkened water. He continues with his attack, making an ugly gash at a skirmisher’s arm.

Quorbin designates one of Yshven’s targets as his quarry, leaving two arrows sprouting from its scaly back. It sloshes down slowly under the surface, very surprised and very dead. Garrosh ducks from a massive club swing but the reptilian bruiser is wise to his maneuver and clubs the dragonborn back toward the suction behind him.

Yshven dodges two spear thrusts. Kurgan’s fair closes in, his flanker gets lucky and he grimaces at a pair of wounds at his side. Yshven attacks, pushing his enemy back with hammer blows and shield shoves. Garrosh advances out of the vortex, healing himself and bracing for the next swing.

Garrosh, still dazed closes in on his attacker. Kurgan ignores the large club wielding reptiles in front and instead goes after the caster hiding beneath the water level. Quorbin readies for when it surfaces. The bruisers attack Garrosh, one connects and slams him into the churning vortex behind. He keeps his footing and resists getting pulled in.

The caster pops above the water surface but is met with two arrows connecting in chorus. Undeterred, he sends another gas cloud towards Kurgan and dives again to hide from the archer. Kurgan holds his breath in time. The skirmishers circle Kurgan wielding spears but he avoids their thrusts. They are more agile than meets the eye and Kurgan is severely wounded by an assault of ten spear thrusts in mere seconds.

Garrosh shaking off his confusion, strikes his attacker and breathes catching it in electrical tendrils and sparks. Kurgan moves away from the flanking skirmishers taking a spear thrust in the process. He mutters to himself and engages the caster with an invigorating strike, connecting with the prone reptile.

Rummaging through the monster’s possessions, Kurgan discovered a strange glass orb, within which floated the disembodied head of a striking eladrin woman. As Kurgan examined this oddity, the woman’s eyes opened and the head spoke! It introduced itself as Vyrelis, an eladrin princess, whose head, and life essence, were trapped in the orb by the foul sorcery of a wizard she named Karavakos, “the master of this place,” as she claimed. Vyrelis offered to help the heroes, providing advice and information, in exchange for undertaking several “minor tasks” for her. “Without my help, you will not be able to free yourself from this prison, this pyramid to which you have been drawn,” the head declared.

Lacking information, and options, the party reluctantly agreed to the offer. With Vyrelis in hand, they set off down one of the passages from the chamber.

The group follow stairs leading down to water. The stairwell opens into an irregularly shaped flooded room. At certain places, there is a churning of the water. The water is thigh deep. The interior is lit with a dim magical light, as with the rest of the places within the pyramid the party has been to, its source unseen but its effect predominant.

Wading within the room, two upright reptilian hulks wait ready to engage on contact. Quorbin looses with a well aimed arrow followed by another quick shot and connects with both drawing first blood. However, another reptilian biped, obviously a caster of some sort brings forth a cloud of poison gas from deep across the room shrouding the elf and Garrosh, the dragonborn cleric. They are dazed and poisoned. Smaller reptilian skirmishers pop up and make a fighting line just beyond the churning vortex, Quorbin nimbly shoots at the caster who responds with another cloud of poison engulfing everyone.

As Yshven moves, he is sucked into the churning water but holds his footing, continuing his movement to avoid the fighting line and close with the distant reptilian caster. Garrosh is likewise pulled in and with a splash disappears from view. He is spewed out deeper into the room but obscured from view of his friends. He emerges dazed and slowed behind another duo of hulks. One of them senses him and charges trying to slam him with meaty arms, Garrosh ducks, evading the initial onslaught.

“But what of our reward?” asked the dragonborn, “We were promised recompense for undertaking the quest against your traitorous brother.”

With a sigh of irritation, Onotor looked back. “Oh very well,” muttered the magus. He made a curt gesture and uttered a few sharp syllables and suddenly, there a flash of light quickly followed by a small explosion of air. On the floor before the adventurers was a bulging cloth sack and a huge, two-handed sword in a scabbard of white leather etched with silver. “Payment in full,” declared Onotor, as he walked out of the room, “I shall expect results on your new ‘assignment’ within a few weeks.”

Kurgan bent to pick up the sack, which he noted was filled with gold coins, while the priest Garrosh took up the sword. The magus suddenly stopped at the door. “Oh, and the sword is called, Hackfrost,” he said before finally stepping out of the room.

The dragonborn drew the blade and saw that the steel was rimed with ice.

***

Before travelling north to the “place of power” indicated on Paldemar’s map, the party decided to tie up some loose ends. First stop on their journey was their hometown of Fallcrest. Here, they sold most of the treasure they obtained from their adventures in the depths of Thunderspire.  With the gold thus gained, Yshven and Garrosh commissioned the town’s armorer, the famous dwarven smith Teldorthan Ironhews, to craft several suits of magical armor.

While in Fallcrest, the mage Casval, whose increasingly erratic behavior was starting to become a cause of concern to the party, suddenly declared that he was setting out on his own and demanded his share of the treasures reclaimed by the heroes from the labyrinth. Yshven, the keeper of the party’s coin, gave him a magical staff as his portion of the spoils. At first, it seemed that Casval would refuse and that the conflict over the treasure would explode into violence. Eventually however, the mage backed down and took his leave, but not before uttering several dire threats against the remaining heroes.

While the rest of the party rested waited in town for the armorer to finish his work, Quorbin took a trip into Harken Forest, home to his clan of wood elves.  Here the ranger brought word to the clan elders that his brother, Ayesh, was lost in Thunderspire Labyrinth, apprently fallen. This task done, Quorbin travelled back to Fallcrest to rejoin his companions.

Their business in Fallcrest concluded, the heroes then travelled by riverboat to Riverdown, home to the captives they had freed from the hobgoblins, duergar, and  gnolls in Thunderspire. Here they were greeted with gratitude and celebration. A feast was held in their honor, and various public tributes given them. After two days of feasting, they left, heading for Winterhaven.

At this remote village to the west of the Vale, the party delivered the goods they had procured from the drow merchant in the Seven Pillared Hall. After collecting their payment for this task, they set out north, following Paldemar’s map.

After over a week’s travel through the rugged hills and tangled woodlands of the northern Vale, the heroes arrived at their destination — a strangely silent clearing deep within the Winterbole Forest. Immediately upon their arrival, the party was  ambushed by a well-armed group of brigands. The heroes, however, had faced and triumphed over foes far more fearsome, and made quick work of the bandits.

The threat repulsed, they searched the clearing, and discovered a discovered a mound of stone, oddly placed in the center of the clearing. Before their eyes, the mound seemed to grow, sucking them into its depths. Suddenly, they found themselves transported into a deep pit with stone sides, filled, most gruesomely enough, with the corpses of various humanoids. As they were still taking in this strange turn of events, a booming voice emanated from above the pit, “Heads! More heads for my collection!”

As the heroes looked up, they saw peering down on them, a two headed giant brandishing a huge club studded with spikes. They were in yet another fight for their lives.

The warder hits Yshven. Garrosh sees an opening and makes good on a swing, stepping away at the last instant. Yshven takes advantage and connects this time in a shower of sparks and parts. The bronze warder’s reach affords it a swing at the fleeing cleric and Garrosh falls finally, his yelp of pain clipped.  Both swaying Yshven and the warder engage with a flurry, Yshven imbibes a health potion from his belt pouch.

Yshven contends with the Warder, two norker slingers and a flailer. As the situation worsens, he shifts into a more focused form, shrugging off all the pain. This turns the tide. He prevails and end the battle, dropping first the flail norker with a timely hammer strike. Later, another norker slinger is felled with a whopping blow. The bronze warder and the remaining slinger fall before the dwarf’s unyielding constitution.

In the misty room, in a coffer under a bed Yshven finds a hefty amount of coin. A table yields a map of the Nentyr Vale indicating a specific spot as having “Vast power for the taking – Seek Carravacus”; also he finds rituals for Arcane Lock, Brew Potion and Leomund’s Secret. He takes Paldemars’ Staff, as well. He rests til Garrosh and Kurgan come around.

Yshven lunges against Paldemar, igniting the fiery magic of his hammer. Paldemar burns and shockspheres both Kurgan and Yshven in retaliation, The warder swings and misses Kurgan. Garrosh rises but misses Paldemar, he draws inner power and heals Yshven instead. Yshven heals himself some more but misses Paldemar with his hammer. The flailer norker swings at Kurgan, flail heads digging deep, Kurgan hangs on the verge of unconsciousness but still manages to stand. He mutters introspectively and slashes at the flailer with his sword, wounding it in turn. Yshven slams Paldemar but the evil wizard just won’t die. Casval gives up a rattling cry and expires.

Paldemar, still burning, swings his staff at Yshven and surprisingly, connects with a hard thud. Garrosh maneuvers aside and imbues his allies with divine vigor reconstitute themselves. Yshven harasses Paldemar but the wizard shifts away to blast him. The norkers harry Kurgan mercilessly. Paldemar burns and tries to backstep from Yshven but the fiery distraction proves good enough and the craghammer finds his jaw. He topples over flat, half his face a soggy bag! Yshven zeroes in on the bronze warder. It is pummeling Garrosh with its huge axe. Yshven positions but misses. The warder swipes at Kurgan, joining the norkers in concert. He drops at the relentless barrage. Garrosh and Yshven lash back at the warder in tandem while the sling norkers turn on Yshven. The flailer takes a hit stepping in but still manages to find Garrosh’s flesh.

Only Yshven and Garrosh now, thinks Quorbin to himself. Would they survive this? Would the group prevail in the end? Too tired now. Too tired to look. Cold. Darkness falls. Quorbin breathes his last.

From floor-level, everyone seemed to look like giants. The heavy shadows of the protagonists obscured what was happening. What was happening? It was important that he knew. Also everything was further dimmed by an overlay of dark red. Motion blurred and everything moved sooo slowly. Blackness edged his vision and he struggled against the encroaching peace to stay aware.

A few steps away, Garrosh glows in a healing haze. He pursues Paldemar and but draws an attack from the bronze warder. He grimaces at the pain, his scale armor trailing blood. The warder draws a swing likewise, from Yshven but it is still a ways off from falling. Paldemar shifts away from the attacking cleric and casts eyebite rendering himself invisible to Garrosh. He laughs at the dragonborn clerics frustration. Undaunted, Garrosh pursues the invisible Paldemar, swinging his sword with a growl. He grins as his quarry cries out in pain, a large spatter of blood evidence of the wound inflicted. Yshven joins the pursuit but his passing attack misses Paldemar and the warder both. The norkers concentrate on Kurgan and he falls to the slings and flails.

Paldemar braces himself, daunted by Garrosh’s attack, and blocks Yshvens hammer-swing with an angled staff parry. The bronze warder gives a mechanical shriek and tramples Kurgan and Yshven, hitting the dwarf on the charge. Garrosh mutters a healing word for the fallen Kurgan, steps aside and swings at Paldemar but misses. Paldemar interrupts Garrosh with his eyebite again and connects drawing a bitter curse from him.

Yshven misses Paldemar and bleeds from the warders attack. The norker slingers miss Kurgan, but one of the flailers connect.

Yshven gives a taunt, drawing the enigma and the warder into melee range, he pounds the enigma drawing blood. Some norkers file in from the open door to join the fray and loose slings against the prone archer, one of them leaves itself open to an attack from the dwarf, Nevertheless, they connect and the bloodied archer goes down. More norkers wielding flails move in, making a line to defend the slingers.

Kurgan shouts egging his friends on, Garrosh and Quorbin wake from their stupor. He heals Garrosh and Yshven some. Quorbin scrambles to rise, aiming at the enigma. He misses but with a surge of effort, lets loose again. The enigma falls, taking a tremendous hit. The deadly arrow imbedded through an arm and into an eye.

Paldemars appears from the doorway again casting a shocksphere against Yshven, Quorbin, Garrosh, Casval and his own bronze warder. The warder takes the brunt of the electrical spell but enough splash damage downs Casval and Quorbin. The warder hacks, missing Yshven.

Prone and wounded, Quorbin sees a door behind them open. A hooded figure appears at the doorway, eyes burning with inner fire crackling with eldritch energy, he intones, “ So, the havock-wreakers in my tower! Pay the price for your intrusion!” He raises a rune-covered staff which erupt in blinding electrical bolts. Kurgan and Casval are hit. Kurgan is barely saved by the magic of his armor, unlike Casval who drops limply in a heap. With that, Paldemar closes the door, his laughter still ringing in the hallway.