The party continues through the citadel. Tha’tsaru goes off on his own and encounters an Abyssal Maw, a hideous creature who attacks him with a flaming mace.

We find several foot lockers containing a wealth of gold, though there is no way that we can carry it all. We take a few coins and move on. We also find an armory room with demon weapons and equipment, and Tha’tsaru dons a suit of black plate mail.

The group continues through the fortress, exploring and fighting many demons. Two succubi (female demons) attack us and we defeat them.

We continue to set up camp, along with our 150 ranger companions and 30 dwarves, at the River Rat Inn. A bald, greasy man approaches us and demands to know why we are here. We tell him that we bear bad tidings from Elleday. Eilenos and That’saru accompany the man (who appears to be the proprietor of the River Rat) into the inn. The place is crammed with rowdy patrons; mercenaries, traders and merchants, and also several guards armed with swords and shields.

We find Josephus speaking with a hooded man at a table at the back of the bar. We notice, strangely, that he has gray hands protruding from his cloak, but we cannot see his face. Josephus gathers us and introduces the man as Ennar, the guide who we met at Dunnerton several months ago. His skin, as we saw, is a pale grey and he has a strange rune tattoo over his left eye. His eyes have an eerie, reddish hue to them.

Josephus explains that he sent Ennar on an “errand” after our adventure in Dunnerton. He traveled to Mulkra, the center of the planet, to find one of Antinius’ Trappings: Berethenu’s Will, the paladin’s fabled longsword. He reached an evil fortress in Mulkra, the home of Y’rzadel the demon and many other sinister creatures. These demons, the servents of the evil god Grom, were charged to protect Berethenu’s Will from falling into the hands of the righteous. Ennar was able to find the resting place of the sword, but was captured before he could obtain it.

Ennar was held captive at the tower for over four months, and was horribly tortured. The demons attempted to turn him evil by casting spells on him, but he managed to escape. While he was fleeing he was able to find the Ring of Restoration, another of Antinius’ Trappings.

Since his return to the surface, Ennar has been studying ways to combat and kill demons. He shows us a weapon he has obtained, a spear with orange glowing runes. He explains that it is the Dark Lance, imbued with runes of pain to slay nearly any foe.

Josephus explains that he will remain and gather more forces to stand against Necros, but we must accompany Ennar back into Mulkra to retrieve Berethenu’s Will and the other artifacts which reside in the demon’s tower. The dwarves and rangers will assist Josephus in his task, as only a small group of us can be transported to Mulkra. The Shadow Hunters, too, will continue their mission of warning the outlying towns of Necros’ return. They have already encountered scattered bands of undead in their travels.

Agreed on our task, we retire for the evening. The next morning we pack our belongings and say our good-byes to everyone. Presently, Ennar produces a black stone from his robes, speaks in a strange language, and a swirling red vortex surrounds us. We feel nauseous, and things go black. We come to and find ourselves on barren rock, with an angry red sky above us.

We see before us our destination, a huge black tower. As we travel toward it, Ennar explains that demons are generally immune to lightning attacks and poison, and can communicate telepathically. In order to resist demon mind control, the party consumes emerki roots before entering the tower.

The party approaches the front door and Ennar proclaims our purpose to the demons within. A small demon appears, and Ennar jabs his wicked spear into it. We advance into the castle and fight the demon hordes in the entryway. After defeating the first wave, we take in our surroundings. There are murals and carvings everywhere, and it is lit by red torches. We move through the fortress, led by Ennar.

It has been four months since the defeat of the Gnolls. The party has been aiding in the efforts to reconstruct the fort and bury the dead. A stone masoleum is constructed for Cardollan by the Brewing Brigade at the spot he was killed. Cardollan’s body and all of his belongings are placed in the shrine.

As we see Cardollan’s body, we finally understand the reason for his longevity. By his telltale ears, it is apparent that he is a Half-Elf.

There have been no reports of Gnoll activity in the area since the battle. The remaining Gnoll forces have either fled Gnollwood entirely or have remained in hiding.

The rangers of Fort Talathas are now leaderless and seemingly aimless, not knowing what to do next. Josephus approaches Porodo and suggests that he consider taking command of the ranger forces, to assist our group and the Dwarves in their efforts to regain control of Skraag.

We call a meeting between our group and Josephus late that evening. We decide that we will return to Daemyr to seek the advice of the Matriarch. We will take the rangers with us, and close down the fort. Porodo decides to take the responsibility of leading the rangers.

The next morning, Josephus announces to the rangers that Porodo will be their new leader. The rangers cheer with approval, and Porodo makes an empassioned speech, saying that they must assist the Dwarves in retaking Skraag, because they came to the aid of the Elves. The Dwarves join in the cheering.

Porodo then pays his respects to Cardollan. Josephus tells him that Cardollan mentioned before he died that he would have stepped down from his command to allow Porodo rule the rangers. Josephus gives to Porodo a gift from Cardollan — a magical ring with the etching of a shield and a unicorn.

The group starts packing up the fort for the long trek to Daemyr, and this takes the remainder of the day. The next day everyone is prepared to leave, and we decide on the (longer) easterly route to get to Daemyr, since we would travel through less forest.

We travel for three days with no incident, but as we near the northern border just 20 miles from the city, we hear a strange whistling roar on the wind. In the night sky we see a giant flaming ball that seems to be hurtling down to earth. It is coming down to the southwest of us, towards Daemyr.

Upon seeing the object and closing his eyes for a moment, Josephus orders us to ride to Daemyr, as fast as our horses will carry us.

We ride as quickly as we can to the city, but soon we hear an immense explosion that shakes the ground under our feet. Ahead we see the town of Fionna, which stands just north of Daemyr. The entire city had been leveled — blasted flat by the fireball.

We continue to Daemyr, riding on through the night. As we near the city, however, Josephus stops us. He informs us that Daemyr is gone, and a black citadel has arisen in its place. At that moment, Eilenos hears Necros’ voice in his head, mockingly saying “I am here!”

Josephus tells the party that Necros will raise all of the Elves that had been killed in the attack and use them as his undead army — we cannot stand against his might, even with the strength of the rangers and the dwarves together. We must travel to the Midlands, he tells us, to the River Rat tavern, to meet an “old friend.”

The Shadow Hunters agree to stay in Elleday and warn all of the villages in the area that they must evacuate. We travel north again to River Run, and tell the inhabitants there what has been happening. Josephus gives a small glass orb to the Shadow Hunters and one to Porodo — apparently this is something of a two-way radio so we can communicate directly with them over long distances.

We ride north, and on our way to River Run we warn as many towns as we can. We finally make it the River Rat tavern, more than a week later. We unload our gear and set up camp nearby.

As we are at our camp in Gnollwood that evening, we hear a strange noise and a flash of light blinds us all. A 20-foot tall man appears with a large huge hourglass in his hand, which is turned sideways. Time slows and stops for everything except for us. The man tells us simply, in a booming voice, “It is happening.”

We rush back to the fort, knowing that the warning must have meant that the battle had started, and find it being assailed with many siege devices. It appears that most of the battle has been fought, with many Gnolls lying dead on the battlefield. Arrows from the rangers’ bows stick into the ground like so much wheat in a field.

We quickly attack the Gnoll forces from the rear, managing to disable several of their siege devices, but the Gnolls topple one of the fort’s battlements.

The party gains entrance from the back of the fort and begin assisting the rangers and Dwarves with the battle. The Dwarves open the front gate, flanked by Cardollan. After attacking for several minutes they retreat back into the fort and close the door. Cardollan, unfortunately, had been struck by many arrows as they fought, and seemed in dire shape.

The party leads a charge out of the front gates, and Krodmich blows the Horn of Summoning to challenge the Gnoll Leader. We kill him and his captain, sending the ranks of Gnolls into despair.

The Gnolls finally retreat, and we count our fallen numbers. 175 rangers and Elf warriors were killed in the battle. We tend to Cardollan, but realize painfully that he is too far gone. The arrows that slew him, we find, bear the mark of Necros’ Assassins, the same ones that previously attacked the group.

The long process of rebuilding begins.

It has been four months since we raided the Gnoll hideout, and winter is fast approaching — there is already snow accumulated on the ground. We have been spending most of our time practicing our fighting skills with the rangers and doing scouting missions. We are now well acquainted with the fort and all of the rangers, and seem to have been accepted whole-heartedly by them.

The Gnolls, however, seem to have been gathering their forces. We have seen them moving siege equipment to their base, so they may be readying a large-scale attack on the fort. The rangers are waiting for reinforcements from Daemyr before they can act against the Gnolls.

A group of 30 dwarves, a band known as the Black Mountain Brewing Brigade, arrive at the fort. They have come to assist us in our battle, and we are greatly relieved by their presence. Krodmich is elated to be with his kinsmen.

That night, as the rangers are celebrating with the Dwarves, Eilenos sees a vision of Berethenu in his drunken haze. Berethenu warns him that Necros can see everything that he does, and that he, Berethenu, must undo it yet he does not know how. He tells Eilenos that he must trust in his friends, and to continue searching for Antineous’ trappings.

The next day, several hundred Elves appear — the reinforcements from the Matriarch of Daemyr! Josephus arrives a day later.

Josephus informs Eilenos that he has found the names of all of Antinious’ Trappings:
*The Hands of Justice
*Charm of the Righteous
*The Ring of Restoration
*Berethenu’s Will (Longsword)
*The Helm of Truth
*Justice Guard (Chain Mail)
*Holy Ward (Shield)

Josephus tells the party that he will remain at the fort for the duration of the battle.

The next morning, Cardollan tells the party that we must go to the forest to scout the area, and report if the Gnolls are beginning the attack. We leave for the forest and set up camp, beginning our scout. Porodo hunts and kills a wild boar for us to feast on as we wait.

Arriving in River Run, which is a town only 15 miles from Fort Talathas, we stop briefly to rest and re-supply.

The next day we finally arrive at the fort. We meet the leader of the ranger forces there, an impressive man named Cardollan. He tells us of the Gnoll creatures that have taken over the forest to the north of the fort, which is now known as Gnollwood. They reside inside the fortress Grath, which is in the middle of the forest, and it is guarded by a force of 1000 Gnolls.

We spend four day settling into the fort and celebrating with the rangers. We also find out a few tidbits from our time with the men: apparently Cardollan is much older than he appears. We also learn of a small group of rangers that all hunt together, who call themselves the Shadow Hunters.

The Shadow Hunters consist of five individuals:
Rayner, a Human
Shiera, a female Elf
Beorn, a Dwarf
Dorgal, a Dwarf
Kerry, a Sprite

In the days that follow, we raid a small Gnoll “nest” that is near to the fort’s supply route. They had previously been attacking shipments to and from River run. We wait until they attempt another raid (which was really a caravan of rangers, meant to suprise the Gnolls and wipe them out), and infiltrate their lair. Killing the Gnolls that stayed behind, we wait for the raiding party to return and dispatch the remaining Gnolls.

As we travel to Fort Talethus, we are beset by a group of monkey-lizards.

Rather than travel the long miles to the Elven city, a portal to Daemyr is created for us, and we step through to find ourselves only a few miles from the town.

A Kithsara approaches us a few moments later and introduces himself as Thatsaru. He is an emmisary from the Elven Matriarch in Daemyr, and he is to lead us into the town. He accompanies us for the remainder of the trip.

As we near the city, we are beset by a group of brigands. Eilenos, being unused to the heavy armor and weapons of a Berethenu Knight, falls victim to one of their blades and falls unconscious. As the brigands are defeated, however, it is discovered that their weapons carry a diseased taint and they all are marked with a strange skull tattoo on their arms.

The group continues into Daemyr, carrying the unconscious Eilenos, and meet Josephus. Eilenos is healed by one of the royal priestesses, and as he recovers the group discusses the origin of their attackers.

Josephus identifies the skull tatto that they carried as the mark of Necros’ Leage of Assassins. Apparently Necros has teamed with Galignan, the god of disease, and this explains the taint on the weapons.

We rest for the evening.

The next morning we re-supply and sell some of the “loot” from our previous adventures at a few of the local establishments. We return a few hours later to the temple for a summit with Josephus and Daemyr’s Matriarch.

The Matriarch tells us of two threats that we could possibly address at the time being. The first is a situation at a nearby town, which has been overrun by a group of hyena-men known as Gnolls. The Gnolls have taken over the forest north of Fort Talethus, and it is now being referred to as Gnollwood. Fort Talethus has been attacked extensively by the Gnolls, and they will need assistance in defending against this threat.

Also, there have been stirrings from Skraag, the former Dwarven empire that is now occupied by Orcs. Reports of undead forces attacking temples of Berethenu all over Juravia are rampant, and it seems that Skraag may be readying some sort of attack on the Elven kingdom of Elleday.

We decide that Gnollwood is the more imminent threat, and decide to travel to Fort Talethus. The Matriarch promises assistance, and presents gifts to the members of our group.

Among them are Karathel’s Vestments, a magical armored vest; Kili’s Storm, deadly twin scimitars; Brom’s Call, a horn of summoning; Erethel’s Bow & Quiver, which replensihes its own supply of arrows; and Antinius’ Charm of Righteousness, a sacred amulet.

Stumbling upon a secret room, we find that it is a shrine dedicated to Berethenu. Eilenos enters the chamber, and is approached by a spirit, which is apparently is his ancestor, Antinius the Lightheart. He tells Eilenos that he must turn from the path of the Necromancer, and become a Knight of Berethenu.

The vision disappears, and Eilenos sees before him a set of armored gauntlets — the first piece of Antinius’ armor, the Hands of Justice. As Eilenos takes the gauntlets, he finds that his necromancer powers are fading, and that he now has the knowledge to use spells of Berethenu. He emerges from the chamber a changed man, and the skeletons he had raised turn into dust.

Pushing on, the group is finally able to find the Vemora, and they return to the village as heroes. After a few days of celebrating it is time to continue their journey to Daemyr.

As we continue through the keep, we face a Higmoni warrior among other foes. Eventually reaching the King’s Bedroom, we find a magical orb that allows you to understand multiple languages (which we give to Nadia), golden treasure, and a few other items. We continue on.