We come in to the shadow-less tower and there are more orcs. Some of them are “steaming”, they seem to be chill-born orcs. We dispatch them, but the female orcs run away with sacks over their shoulders.

In the next chamber we see a huge worked stone suspended over a deep pit. Belgha and Fianna climb down on a rope to see what is underneath. We think that this is a portal and the pit is a safeguard against unwanted visitors coming through the portal.

We all climb down and follow a small cavern for several hundred yards to an opening, we are at the edge of the scar. We see some creatures, smoke orcs, on a rock that has fallen and has wedged in the scar. Along with them is a huge orc, and they start climbing towards us. After many tries we finally knock the big orc off of the ledge. We go back through the tower to the city.

We discover that two kids are following us into the city. They are 13-year olds who live on this side of the river. They are from a group of orphans who are still here looking for their parents. Fianna gives them a sack with 400 hold and tells us that she has a soft spot for orphans. They show us a safehouse that is well secured and fortified. The children have us meet Amberson, one of the orphan caretakers. There are 3 adults and 13 children total here. Zanne gives them an additional 300 gold. Amberson is thankful and asks us how he can help out. We ask him for information.

Amberson explains that this side of the city was the more affluent section. The castle is magically guarded. He thinks that the tower has a wizard in it who uses a portal to visit another plane. We ask Amberson to leave us notes if they find out anything else. We suggest if they need our help, they put a white rag in the window at the top of a nearby tower. Also we tell them to visit the shop and get some healing potions. We go to clear the tower so we’re sure that it is safe for them.

We break into the nearby tower, but a dwarf is holed up here. He is a merchant. We exchange him a long length of chain and a large ruby for some magical rings and a healing potion. Also he has an artifact for Zanne (“Abduction Ki Focus”), and Belgha gives the dwarf a jewel and 2 rings for it. The dwarf tells us that his name is Drook. He has tried to sell his wares on a cart or store on the other side of the wall, but Neverember would not let him. He allows us to go to the top of the tower.

Upon scouring the tower, we find some silver dust. This is Rizidium, used as money in some quarters. We estimate that it is worth about 30,000 gold. Also a scroll case contains an “enchant magic item” scroll and “arcane lock.”

We come into another building and kill a few orcs in here, and suddenly the building starts shuddering and rises off the ground! Several other nearby buildings do too. We jump out of the building and try to tie it down so it does not float away. Suddenly we are blasted off of our feet by a blue wave of energy coming from the scar. We are knocked unconscious. We experience immense pain and our skin shifts around agonizingly. Our eyes glow blue. Miri tells us that we have contracted a magical disease. This is what will come to be known as the Spellplague.

Picking ourselves back up, we see that the Black Tower is also floating above the ground. We go back into the building and search around, here we find a magical spear (“Hungry Spear”). Zanne takes this.

We make our way back to the wall to see what has happened there. There are other buildings still rising up and we see cats and rats running around. We take our things to the safehouse.

We leave a note for the orphans and go back across the bridge to the main part of town. Belgha changes himself to a human form and says that we should now call him Gammon. We see people in chaos as we come to this part of the city, a lot of them crying and yelling. We go to Isabelle’s shop but the door is locked. We go in through the back, and find Isabelle there. Upon asking her about the strange happenings she unfortunately does not have answers.

We go to the nearby temple but it has been barricaded shut by the priest. We manage to climb an exterior wall and gain access. There are books missing off of the shelves. Downstairs we find a man sitting at a drafting table writing but he does not notice us. Gadai tries to talk with him but the man grabs his papers and runs off. Gadai grabs him an dsays we do not want to hurt him, but the man doesn’t listen. Belgha asks the man about the Spellplague but he does not have any answers.

The man finally tells us that his name is Atlavast, and he has been here for years, since the Cataclysm. He is keeping the knowledge safe and copying all of the books in the library. He says that the vault containing all the books will stay closed until one of the true bloodline comes; it is magically sealed. Atlavast says that the texts do not specify anything about this Plague or the “blue eyes” effect. He does know about the “Pale One” however; she has been roving the city looking for “royalty” but he’s not sure why. Gadai tells us that he had a dream that told him “The Pale One was the cause of it all.”

We ask about the castle. Atlavast says that the Neverwinter Nine, a group of ghostly warriors, wo serve Allegondor and will attack us if we try to enter the castle. Also it has been magically sealed off. There are other ghosts there as well. We apologize for interrupting his work and leave.

We squat at a building next to the castle. The next morning we find that most of us have improved from the disease — only Fianna is worse. Several of the party members are healed entirely.

We go to the castle and Gadai tries to climb up to gain access. We climb around onto a wall, 3 tiers below us. We see a few tents here and a Drow comes out. Belgha recognizes him as a possible friendly. We call to him and come down to speak with him. He says that his name is Jarlaxle, and tells us that the Pale One has been around here looking for royal dead people. He says that he has been keeping tabs on us using an information network (he already knew about our “donations” to the orphans). He says that he will allow us to camp in exchange for reporting back with any information on Neverember.

We go back to our message drop but we see no response from the Orphans. We wait one day for the orphans to respond. During this time, Zanne recovers from the plague; Fianna gets worse again and Lennon stays the same.

We finally hear back from the Orphans and they say that things are not going so well for them. The Plague has affected several of the children, and they are trying to get some help from a friend who is a cleric.

We decide to enter the castle underneath the tower that is now floating. First we start off on the eastmost part of the Scar. We see a woman in a nearby house that is hiding with her dead family. They are all torn apart. She has apparently killed them. Gadai quickly kills her with an arrow. The next house we find our old friend the necromancer (who had the 2 drakes). We had killed him before but not he appears to be back as an undead. We kill him again, but he dissolves into a swarm of bugs that attack us. The bugs have a strange skull design on their carapaces.

We take a long rest here. There is a large hole in the floor here. We make a note of it and move on.

In another building, Zanne sees some candles that look magical. This is a Ghost Light Candle; Zanne takes it. We find people here with glowing blue eyes, just like the woman we found. They are acting strangely, but we decide to leave them be.

We head into a store that used to sell clothing. Most of the clothes are nasty now. We find another artifact here, the “Ribbon of Limitless Questions.” We accidentally trip a trap and smoke starts coming out of the building. We bail. Outside we see a young elf in a tree nearby. He introduces himself as Saloce. We give him back the things we took from the clothing store because evidently he owns it. He says that he is a healer and helps Fianna beat the plague with his skills but in the process she becomes permanently scarred, and now sensitive to the occurrence of Spellplague magic and those infected.

In the next 3 houses we search, we find red paint above the door on each one. These look more repaired and possibly inhabited than the other ones we’ve seen. This must be what the dwarf received from traders.

The next 4 houses are unmarked. The first one looks to have been an armorer’s shop and has lots of armor still in it. We find a mint magical armor that protects against lightning attacks.

We continue on and see the dwarf being attacked by the town guard. We take care of them, but he says that our effort was unecessary. He asks if we want employment with him and we decline, taking our leave.

We stash our loot 15 miles northwest of town at a farmhouse. It is hidden in the bottom of the outhouse; we collapse the structure on top of it.

Spending the night at the farmhouse, we hear invisible creatures approaching but they do not attack.

The next day we return to town through the north gate to a tower. There are orcs in the tower and we slay them. Oddly, we notice that the tower casts no shadow.

Still inside the wall, we scavenge at the inn nearby our last battle. Nearby there is a large bakery with squatters, as well. In the next building we find a goodly amount of gold.

In the next building, Fianna hears a noise. She steps in and falls through the ground. We all follow her down. We appear to be in a tunnel, and we see several bug creatures approaching us. We take them out, and after searching it appears that they don’t have anything of value.

We search around and the tunnels go all over. One goes towards the chasm, we decide not to go that direction! We go the other way and there is another cave-in so we climb the fallen rocks. It is another section of the city that we haven’t yet explored. There is a large stone building nearby but it is locked.

Fianna tries to chop down the door with her axe. She does it but there is a trap here — acid pours down on her head and wounds her. We rush inside and see goblins here. We defeat some of them but one disappears into a trap door. We find some small items including a “savage mask” that is a shield against will-based attacks. It is from a shaman named Zane, and is called “Tools of Zane’s Vengeance.” There are some books and a rug here, we take them with us.

Before we leave, we hear from upstairs some moaning. We go up to find an Eladrin trapped in an electrified net. We decide that he is friendly and let him go — he leaves through a hole in the wall and goes around to the entrance of the city as if he were coming from outside as not to attract undue attention. He signs up to be a member of the watch and joins up with us again.

That night while sleeping, we hear boats coming into port nearby. We decide to go and check it out. They may be ships of Neverember’s troops. We check them out but they just seem to be resupplying. The next day they are still at the ships as we go to work at the wall.

We check our stash before heading in further; we see that the door is open and there are eight orc corpses laying here. The treasure is untouched.

Belgha sees tracks of a “flying tentacled fish monster.” We see a large manor house with a crypt behind it. We go check out the crypt. On the first floor there are several coffins. There are skeletons and two burning skeletons! We defeat them, but hear cackling from the basement as well. We think this might be the “semetorium.”

In the room there is a fountain, beyond there is a room with more corpses but one is missing. There is a locked door and it is held closed with spikes. Fianna knocks it down. The next room has the bodies of the lord and lady of the house and a hole where someone had broken in. We collapse the tunnel and leave.

We go into the manor house and there are lots of pictures and decorations. Underneath in the master bed is a trap door that goes into a crawlspace. Through the passage there are hallways that lead to a room with armaments, also a large chest. Inside there are a belt, also a magical scroll, and a map of the “unseen lands.” We find a small piece of parchment that is on the stairs. It has a drawing of a ring with dragons on it.

We come upon the flying fish monster, floating into the crevasse.

At the next house, a merchant’s quarters, we find some gold. We head back and stow the loot in our “safe.” We leave and go to the Moonstone Mask to get paid for our week of work. We get 300 gold apiece.

Slowly you drift off with in the warm and wooden walls of House Sheerspear. Gilwen had made such a grand feast for your return from beyond the wall, you couldn’t have paid for better. Peter was straight faced, yet you could see in the corners of his mouth he was happy to see you all back again in good health. For the first time since you have stepped foot in this crumbling mess they call a city, you feel relaxed. You are becoming a bit more familiar with the streets and people. Most of the scum and mercenaries that were hired on with you have all fled. Even what looked to be the bravest and strongest of them had no time for such silly “military” works and sailed off. Over the last three days you have noticed that the presence of Lord Neverember seems to be very strong and interestingly enough growing. He does in fact seem to be winning over the larger portion of the populous with his charm and coin. He has started to work on more trade routes, that would boost the merchant footprint of the once grand city. You even hear a few of the people’s whispers say “Even if he is truely of false blood, he is still putting the city first and I’ll follow anyone that does as such.” and “Heir or not, he is picking up the pieces here in Neverwinter where others have failed. We are honored to have him here in Neverwinter.”

The moment your reality pulls you into the realm of dreams is the first time you feel fear again. More fear then when the ground shook with the movement of a large stone creature under neither your feet. You feel this fear so greatly because of what your brain sees…

You see a flair of blue light so bright you feel as if your eyes shall never re-adjust. Then out of the pure burning with in your eyes and mind you hear a deep horrifying vibration shuttering through your bones. It feels as if someone has taken all the horns of the northmen and blew them all at once under the very ground you stand on. The sound finally falls to it’s fading pitches when you then hear the sound of rock and boulder fighting within the ground. Something is coming… and it seems to be very large. As you look down to the ground you notice a burning sensation as blue lines seer your flesh and move up your skin like snakes climbing a tree…

You awake all at once, back with in the close courtiers of the small room. Each of you looking at each other in the bleak dark night’s enveloping shadow. You all know what one another have seen…

We try and determine the source of the shared dream but cannot. We decide that we should go back to sleep.

As we are heading to work today, Isabelle runs into us and tells us that two giant lizards tried to break into her shop but they were unsuccessful and fled back to a cemetery. She is scared and tell us that we should look out for the lizards as we are going to our watch. We attempt to track the lizards, but the tracks go up a brick wall. We see no way to get through except to go over the wall, so Lennon uses his magic to float over. He does not see anything but drops a rope down to allow the rest of us go over.

We go in and see a large tomb with some old tracks. There is a body missing from one crypt. We determine that they are womens’ boot tracks, but they disappear after a while. Lennon thinks that they may have used a scroll or potion to teleport out. We decide to check the broken crypts to see what else is here, but can’t find anything.

We head to the wall for our fourth day of working on the wall. We go in and check on our stash; the guardian is still patrolling, so we start searching the nearby houses. Soon we find a large tavern. There are barrels of drinks here, and six rooms upstairs. We find some trinkets but nothing major. The last room is locked and Belgha picks the lock. Suddenly fire engulfs us, it appears that an alchemist set a trap here, however it doesn’t affect us much. We put the fire out and see two female skeletons in the room, along with some hide armor. Also there is a clear sense powder for alchemy. We take some linens and other worthless items to take back to the watch.

As we are leaving we hear a noise coming from across the courtyard, like thinks being pushed around, and from a window we see humanoid shapes with some armor. Fianna goes outside as bait to see if she can draw them in. It works and they advance on the building and try to get in the door. We open the door and attack them and they fall like bowling pins. However, it looks like the real enemy is approaching.

Zanne and Fianna are slammed with some sort of a thunder attack and are stunned. We see a figure approaching with two lizards by his side. He slams us with a lightning attack and his lizards move to strike us. Belgha casts a spell that limits his visibility to only a few paces and Fianna charges through slamming into him with extreme force and slicing him with her axe. He falls and his lizards scatter. We take his treasure (stoneskin armor, some gold, jewels, casting wand, quarterstaff and a necklace) and bring his head back to Isabelle, who seems to have warmed to the rest of the group now after we’ve done this for her.

In the man’s robes we find a note with some strange symbols. The rest is in common, and it reads “Seize the wand witch. -TG” and we see a bloody thumb print on it.

We wake up and get some food, then report for our shift. It looks like no one else has come here, the rest have left probably due to seeing the other groups coming back as gibbering idiots.

With only five of us, we find it stressful to watch the entire perimeter of the wall.  We decide to go in to the scarred region and find a chest with a bunch of gold. We also find a magical pouch with an hour’s worth of breathable air, and later a huge number of fist-sized gems.

As we come into the inn we are attacked by a group of orcs. We defeat them but they were difficult foes. They were carrying daggers and wearing leather armor, and one carried a halberd. We search the place and can’t find anything of use.

Another building next to the inn has a room with a large skeleton wearing thick armor and holding a giant battle axe. Belgha uses his lizard familiar to check it out, it seems empty. He crawls inside and sees that there are red runes all over the inside. We find that is is a guardian armor that would activate to defend the room, and the runes are currently inactive. Lennon could re-activate them if we needed. Fianna takes the great axe that the armor is holding and replaces it with her old one.

In the basement we come across a spirit. He says “Bear one, come with me.” and walks through the nearby wall. Miri follows him and goes right through the wall. The rest us only feel solid wall. Miri sees what looks to be a wizard and alchemist’s laboratory with potions, books and contraptions.  There are hundreds of gold pieces worth of alchemy components here as well.

We decide that this is a great place to store the goodies we’ve found.  Zanne drags the items from outside. The piece of the crown we put in the basement and close up the wall, along with our goodies.

We go back to the gate and bring some measly items with us. Paul goes back to collect his wand and make his final payment, using one of the diamonds that we got from inside the wall. There are several wands that he can choose from. He decides on the Wand of Allure. Since the diamond is worth a bit more he negotiates for some potions and a sun globe as well.

We go through the gates, and we smell decaying corpses. We see a lot of bones and it is bright and warm — just after noon.

We see the edges of the chasm so we move closer to the wall, then turn East towards the outside walls of the city.

[ We designate the Shaman, Miri, is the party leader ]

In the first house we find some weapons, armor and gold. In the next house there is a lot of gold and a trunk of 3 dresses. Next we find tapestries and a family tree of the famly Isla. Behind a lose tapestry we find 2 doors. They appear to be covered with runes. Belgha says some words in Elven and blue runes appear. The trap may entangle us. Lennon sets off the trap but is not harmed. We go in. We find some books, one in particular interests Zanne because it has pictures of his tattoos in it. We find some other books. We discuss why Neverember would have sent us here — perhaps he wanted the family tree of this family. We decide to hide it so he could not use it.

We move to the next area. In the merchant area we see rotten food. Near there is an armory, but it is great axe heads and sword hilts. Next we find saddles.

In the next house we find more gold — suddenly the ground rumbles and the house shifts sideways. We run out and turn around to see a rock monster smashing the house from underneath. The two half-elves are caught in the wreckages and are almost certainly killed. Fianna charges him and the others follow. After a while he is defeated and crumbles into rubble. In the rubble Belgha finds a strange blue orb/potion with an ornate leaf in it.

We decide to move on and find a dead person with jewelry and wearing a badge of “berserker”. Fianna takes this. Also “moon” chain armor.

Outside we see a girl, nude, wearing only a cloak. She runs away and we chase — she lifts her mask, which looks like a skull, and drinks a black potion and disappears. We think she shifted into the shadow realm. She came from the nearby gate — perhaps passed through it.

We return to the wall and the guards do not know what to do with us, since generally people who come back are insane or they don’t come back at all.

Sabine appears impressed with us — they ask us to take the loot further west. WE swing by Isabellas (merchant shop) — the wards & reagents store. Belgha shows her the blue liquid and she says that it is part of the crown of Neverwinter. She is legitimately frightened.

Belgha gives Isabella a down payment on a wand, which she accepts, and puts the coins into a chest brimming with gold.

We go out for drinks and dinner and such at the Moonstone Mask. We visit Peter & Gilwyn Shilspear, and they let us eat and stay there.

We are Zanne, a human monk; Belgha, a half-elf bard; Lennon, a halfling sorcerer; Fianna, a human female barbarian; and Miri, a half-elf shaman. We are all from the area around Neverwinter, and it is 30 years after the spell plague.

Before we arrive in Neverwinter, we all have a strange dream of walking a long distance, searching and seeing faces around us. It makes us think that we are destined for something great.

We travel to the city in search of adventure, and have heard tales of the money they are offering to those willing to lend their services to the city. They are offering 300 gold per week to work for the city. All of us sign up and pack into a room, there are free drinks here that most of us imbibe. Lord Neverember comes in and tells us that he wishes to rebuild his city and we will be part of this.

Generals comes in and tells us that we are all on the first watch of the outer wall facing the scarred part of the city. Others are less than happy to get worse jobs than we got or no job at all. The generals explain the rules to us in great detail, things like rules of behavior and protocol. They do not provide us a place to sleep, but there is a small island to the east that has a nice inn. Others have just been sleeping on the street or in repaired buildings. The other bridges in the area are almost all broken and unusable. Finally we make our way to the wall and are shown where we will be guarding. We hear people saying that those who went into the scarred part of the city returned mentally damaged, and they eventually disappeared.

We spend the time until our shift begins, the next morning, to check out the area. Miri goes to the barracks and talks to the people training; Fianna just waits for her shift to begin; Belgha finds an elderly couple that have a room to let; and Zanne goes to the street with the merchants and finds that most of the items here are probably stolen.

That evening a group of guards returns from the Chasm into the Protector’s Enclave (where all of us are) and are quickly escorted away by a group of guards. This makes all of us somewhat uneasy.

The next morning we show up in our designated spot but the general who gave us the instructions is nowhere to be found. Soon the previous shift of guards come down from the wall, and they tell us to go up. As we go up we see for the first time the amount of destruction beyond the wall. We see strange bodies that may or may not be humans. By lunchtime there has not been much activity and we are getting bored.

After lunch the female general loops around us and doesn’t seem to much like what she sees, except for Fianna. She spits off of the wall and picks out a few half-elves and also the five of us, choosing us to head into the Chasm.