My travels had brought me close to Fallcrest, a hotbed of blasphemers and unbelievers. If only the fools knew what lurked but a short distance away…

In my dreams I have had visions of the cold earth throwing forth a wave of undead. Past experience has told me to trust these visions… A gift from my Queen..

For all the powers bestowed upon me by my Fair Mistress,I fear I will need assistance in my quest to stem this foul necrotic tide. Indeed, I have heard rumours of bands of adventurers who travel the land and some even fight for glory, not just pure greed.

What luck! As I mount the brow of a hill, I am confronted by not just the one thing I have sworn to destroy, undead, but a small group of fierce warriors who show no fear when facing the gigantic horror!

Even better, two seem to be holy warriors!

Dark Queen's blessing!

What I have feared all my life is going to come true. Karavakos is not dead!

He is alive and well in me, his son. I will become Karavakos, his demented evil is laughably amateur compared with what I shall become. I will conquer worlds and rule with no mercy. I will ensure every living being will spend their whole lives in exquisite pain and delightful fear.

So, dear Griselda, Kayleth and Grimdak (for I know that some day you will have the painful task of reading this) I must act to ensure that this blighted future never comes about. I hope you will forgive me for my actions – our journey together must end.

I will not sacrifice myself needlessly “for that is an act of a coward!” as my cousin Damok would say. But the next time we are in a fix (and let’s face it, that will be very soon) if I fear that one or more of you is in mortal danger then I will do everything in my power to prevent you meeting your end. If you are reading this, then it has already happened; I wonder who I saved, I wonder if I succeeded.

If you are still alive Griselda and Grimdak then I want you to know that you are both a credit to Moradin, there are places by his side for you both, I am sure he will not mind your minor imperfections (inappropriate facial hair and rampant alcoholism).

Beautiful, scary Kayleth, if you are still alive then I worry that your future is not dissimilar to what mine may have been – I hope you will be able to do the right thing when the time comes, DO NOT underestimate the temptation of evil!

I wish you all luck and good fortune. I would be honoured if Griselda were to conduct my final ceremony and I ask you Griselda if you would take the responsibility to ensure that my remains are entirely destroyed making resurrection impossible – be warned there will be many people who will quest to bring me back – make sure they do not succeed.

I will be watching over you all from whatever hell I am now to be sent.

Thank you

Skamos

P.S. DON’T RAISE ME!!! P.P.S. EVER!

Grimdak, Griselda, Kayleth and Skamos spend the night in a small cave. They are in an area of hilly grassland, with little tree cover. Kayleth remembers that the area is known as Gardbury Downs.

Dawn arrives, and with it a good view of the Nentir Vale. Away to the north-east is the Stonemarch, a formidable mountain range. Nestling in its foothills is the town of Winterhaven. Many miles to the north they can make out the Winterbole Forest, home of the Tigerclaw barbarians. Just a few miles north they can see the King’s Road. Following it eastwards, sometimes visible and sometimes hidden by small hills, it eventually reaches Fallcrest. They can just make out that town and the Nentir River which runs alongside it.

The adventurers are travelling with Ransak the Bronze, a reknowned wizard of Hammerfast, and Lady Allande Markelhay, wife of Lord Warden Faren Markelhay of Fallcrest. Grimdak is keen to return Ransak to Hammerfast and reunite him with his wits, currently residing in the brain of a servant of Vecna whose body is in the party’s Bag of Holding. Lord Faren must be desperate for news of his wife by now so Fallcrest looks like the logical direction for the rest of the party to strike out in. Since Fallcrest is on the way to Hammerfast, it seems as if the party will at least stay together until they reach that town.

Finally, we win free from the nightmare pyramid.

The keys we collected opened the three doors, but begrudgingly – the whole place shook as the locks turned, and the crush of falling masonry pushed us onward. In the chambers beyond were many characters all bearing the face of Karavakos. I rushed to defeat the wizards but got caught in a blast of ice, and something strange happened with the minotaur: suddenly the others were shouting about him dying and the spirit of a former comrade arising from the body. This new figure, Damok, certainly knew how to handle a sword and was soon cutting through the sorcerors.

After a few short minutes we felled the last of the foes – “shards”, Skamos called them. Before we had a chance to gather our wits or tend to our wounds, a set of doors burst open and Karavakos – the real one, the third in the long-promised series – attacked. He had made his lair in a large chamber; two ominous pitch blocks stood to one side absorbing the light cast by a pair of huge floating energy orbs. Between these was a stepped stone pyramid. Damok and I moved to engage Karavakos, whilst Griselda cast bolstering and healing spells and Kayleth attacked him with her arcane bolts. Skamos had sneaked in by some other route, and over Karavakos’ shoulder I spotted him clambering to the summit of the ziggurat, attempting to draw energy from the crackling orbs.

He was over-confident, and the force he drew forth struck him down. Damok repeatedly landed blows on our nemesis, but Moradin offered me no aid and my axe fell either side of Karavakos to strike showers of sparks from the stone floor. Griselda and Kayleth rushed up to Skamos; Griselda to resuscitate him and Kayleth to take on the challenge of mastering the power it possessed, with more success than the tiefling.

Damok’s sword was truly mighty, and soon Karavakos was blooded and pinned in place having repeatedly tried to break free of our attacks. Suddenly he leapt away and neither sword nor axe could restrain him. Ignoring all else, he ran forward to the summit, shouldered Kayleth aside and the stream of energy flowed to him.

As he spat forth mocking cries of triumph, Skamos took careful aim and a spell shot from his wand to an unwarded area of Karavakos’ chest. The cries turned to agony, a great gout of blood drenched the stone. He fell to the ground still and lifeless.

It was odd indeed to emerge from the pyramid, into that room from which the conniving goblin had wrenched us with magic. Lady Markelhay, Ghedrin and Ransak emerged soon after, and as a group we moved away rapidly, not wishing to face the Verdant Ruin – or the Ice Dragon – who were surely making their own way from the erstwhile prison.

So now I have to leave them, this motley group of Unbelievers. My path leads back to my beloved DeepDelvers with Ransak, whose power can surely be regained with the restoration of his memory. Perhaps Griselda will accompany me, or maybe not, but I go forth in Moradin’s service.

Grimdak Longbeard Paladin of Moradin

I stand at the top of the steps and watch.

I watch as they meet my old friend Trathkul Zorn, finally released from his frozen tomb. I watch as he tells them lies, spinning his tales as he used to do for me. Secrets? Ha!

They enter the Chamber of the Monoliths and argue with the eladrin hag. I laugh heartily as they abandon her, rolling her spherical prison down the corridor. Poor Vyrellis! Who will look after her now?

They fight bravely against the gargoyles on the stair trap and defeat both them and the harpy who has allied with them. They are confused by the oozing of the Far Realm into the pyramid, yet win through the Three Gates of Agony. They meet my second self in the temple, and I am surprised, very surprised, when they defeat me. I am glad to be rid of that monstrosity, though his final words may prove to be troublesome. And with his death…

For the first time in many decades I have questions. Can they win through to the top of the pyramid? What will happen to Vyrellis? They are powerful in battle – but are they clever enough to open the locks?

Is the tiefling Skamos really my son? If so, how could Jorhara have kept his existence secret from me, with all my powers?

And…could they actually be powerful enough to defeat me?

They push on into the pyramid. They fight stuff. The stuff dies.

They go south and run into five bandits behind a barricade. They make short work of them and then discover that there was a big trap in the room they managed to avoid. They also find out that the bandits are working for Gharash Vren, the outlaw who escaped custody in Fallcrest.

Beyond the bandits, a passageway leads them into a small room palpably radiating divine power. A timid young woman is praying before an altar dedicated to Bahamut, Kord and Moradin. She turns as the adventurers enter, clearly afraid for her life. There is a brief look of recognition as her eyes meet those of Skamos but she denies knowing him.

They find out that the room is warded and that the woman cannot leave. They try to break the ward and two powerful devils appear! They quickly finish them off and continue using the power of prayer and arcane magic to break the ward. Eventually it does break. The woman transforms before their eyes into a succubus. She mockingly thanks them for their help and then disappears into thin air.

After passing through a room filled with statues who sing praises to the same gods revered in altar room, they enter a set of rooms containing the rest of Gharash Vren’s gang. Skamos persuades some of the gang to join the adventurers. They take one look at Skamos and readily agree. After a very short fight, Gharash and his remaining men capitulate. He agrees to stay in these rooms and not to interfere with the party.

They find out that behind a pile of rubble in these rooms there lurks a werewolf.

The adventurers move off to further exploration.

After a brief foray to the south, where they meet a hag who claims to represent the ‘Verdant Ruin’, a collection of fey and woodland creatures, the adventurers head east.

They find themselves approaching a large chamber mostly filled with salty water. They command Beery to enter the water, but he appears to be caught by some kind of trap. There is a loud sucking noise, a strange gurgling, and Beery disappears! He reappears explosively a few seconds later in another part of the room.

There are valves all over this room which the unwary adventurer can get sucked into. That’s not so bad, but after a few seconds the inhabitants of the room reveal themselves: a sahuagin baron and four sahuagin raiders.

They are engaged in a long fight with the sahuagin. At one point both Griselda and Grimdak are down, but once again Griselda is blessed by Moradin and recovers miraculously. Grimdak, upon being healed by Griselda, dedicates a battle cry, “for Moradin and all his little angels”, and launches himself from a platform to the east of the room on to the back of the sahuagin baron.

As the sahuagin baron dies, he falls into one of the valves. There is a very loud gurgling noise, and the corpse reappears next to a very surprised Skamos.

The platform leads to a small room. There is a statue with a gemstone in it. Kayleth expertly levers it out of the statue.

At the back of the library, there is a pair of double doors. The adventurers pass through. They find a small room, inside which there is a stone angel with wings folded back on a pedestal. It displays the symbol of Ioun. A table and cabinet are against the far wall.

They walk past the angel and some kind of magical trap is triggered. There is a throbbing vibration and an invisible wave of energy batters Grimdak, dazing him. It appears to be coming from the angel.

At that point, battle is joined. Three eaters of knowledge appear and attack. Then, another figure appears. Vyrellis shouts, “There he is! A splinter of Karavakos’ life force!”

The figure attacks with a magic missile. Waves of energy continue to smash into the party. The power of the angel seems to be growing all the time. The battle continues, and Karavakos fires off a lightning bolt.

Karavakos’ hood falls back to reveal that he is a tiefling. With the exception of Skamos, who has temporarily retreated, the adventurers can’t help but notice a distinct similarity between Skamos and Karavakos. Karavakos seems to be struggling to remember how to cast spells.

The combat continues, and eventually the party defeats Karavakos and the eaters of knowledge. Skamos makes the killing blow against the wizard. As he dies, Vyrellis cheers. Karavakos hits the floor and a sphere of purple energy forms above his head. It quickly heads off through the library. Asteron tries to follow it but gets caught up. Karavakos’ body fades away into nothingness.

Vyrellis claims no knowledge of whether Skamos is related to Karavakos. She claims that tieflings all look the same.

In a chest, they find some treasure: an ivory statuette of an angel, a silver necklace which Vyrellis says used to belong to here, some pieces of jade, some gold and some magical boots. On Karavakos there is an adamantine key. Written on it in draconic are the words “first in hardness, not in place”.

Karavakos’ rooms and the library both dissolve away into nothingness on Karavakos’ death. The adventurers find themselves back in the corridor. They take a short rest.

They enter a room which appears to be a library. A library with a grassy patch in the middle, at the centre of which is a statue of an eladrin princess. It’s a depiction of Vyrellis.

“The library!” says Vyrellis. “Beware the whispers…” Then, Vyrellis begins to get agitated. She clearly expected something to be here which isn’t.

Several humanoid figures appear – servants of Vecna! They do not appear to be qualified librarians. Kayleth identifies them as ‘eaters of knowledge’ – embodiments of Vecna’s endless thirst for secrets.

“Vecna must have secrets…” one of them whispers. The adventurers attack.

After a fierce battle, they win through. Towards the back of the library they find the body of a dwarf from the Deepdelver clan. It is Ransak the Bronze, the wizard that Grimdak is on a quest to find.

Vyrellis is now hysterical. Kayleth and Skamos try to calm her down but she is extremely upset about something. Eventually she calms down.

Skamos finds a bone tube in the library containing a scroll, together with a vial of residuum. It is a scroll of Raise Dead, and there is enough residuum to cast the ritual. They return to Ghedrin’s rooms to rest and Skamos casts it on the dwarf. After a long and arduous process Ransak is returned to life. However, he does not remember anything, especially about being a mighty magician, despite Grimdak’s encouragement.

Skamos believes that he may recover his memory with the aid of another ritual – Remove Affliction – but that an additional component might be needed: the essence of the brains of the eaters of knowledge. To this end, they go back and rather messily extract them…