The adventure so far (I wasn't doing recaps before that point)
The adventure began with the party in the employ of a shipping company. They were tasked with delivering goods brought from over seas to their various inland destinations. At one of these towns, they helped a blacksmith find and save his kidnapped daughter from a band of Goblins. The next town had some strange troubles that seemed to center around a mysterious and very old temple to a long dead god. During the night, before the party could investigate, they were abducted by the townsfolk and brought to the temple's prison.
After breaking free, they began exploring the temple and quickly found the central chamber where a strange teenaged boy with crystal shards stuck through his chest and right wrist was conducting some dark ritual. They interrupted the ritual, causing catastrophic results and had to fight off the awful thing that was spawned by it. After the fight, they were approached by a mysterious man who offered them a job, but first wanted to look around the temple. As he lit a torch to ward off the darkness, it ignited a huge pocket of natural gas and caused a colossal explosion that send the party falling into the Underdark.
After several grueling days, they managed to escape the murky depths and return to the surface. They found that the landscape had been changed drastically by the explosion and that Drow were now waging an all out war on the surface. They were attacked by a band of drow, but managed to take shelter in a derelict fortress built into the side of a mountain. After fending off the assault, they decided to make this fort their home base.
Rorgak's adoptive father drew them to their next encounter with the strange teenage boy whose name, they learned, was Nir. After thwarting his plans once again, he vowed vengeance against the party, threatening Balasar's home village. After a hasty trip across the untamed wilds of the southern lands, they found his village. Although all seemed normal at first, it had been taken over by a Naga, sent by Nir. The party dispatched the beast and continued on their way.
After traveling far across the land and doing many things that the DM cannot quite remember at this time, they eventually found themselves in the captial city of Zekarna. They found it under attack and siege by Drow. A large amount of the richer population had fled, leaving the city in shambles. The party met with the impromptu leader of the military in addition to the new mayor. They pledged their aid to Zekarna and set about accomplishing various tasks to improve the defense and preparedness of the city. During this time, they learned that Nir was acting as an adviser to the mayor.
Before much could be done about that, the Drow launched a huge assault and the party was forced to respond to that. They fought off the initial Drow assault and went to confront Nir, which prompted the start of the first arc's final boss fight. The fight was cut short by Balasar, who went ham all over the boss (a god that had been roused from slumber), tearing off it's arm and beating it to death with itself. Nir was slain and the Drow retreated back into earth.
Six months passed as Zekarna put itself back together. A portal was established that led between Zekarna and the player's growing town. The party set up a shop in Zekarna to sell the various goodies they found and looted from corpses on their journey. One of their allies was a being not unlike the one that Nir had summoned but not evil and crazy. During the fight, it had been injured and drained greatly and now resided in the body/form of a house cat named Kim. During these six months, Illistair made a very powerful set of armor for Rorgak. Umi awoke a number of treants to guard their town.
Things got hectic once again when a portal opened in the sky above their town and a strange being fell out in addition to the back half of a ship. This being's name was Zera and he had come from very far away in the Astral Sea searching for the party, having heard that they were able to slay a god. The ship was repaired and they found that it was a flying ship. From there, they took the ship into the Astral Sea in time to see a large Mind Flayer ship approaching. As they were surveying the scene, a mysterious woman appeared on the deck of their ship and announced that she had an offer for their world and that they should join her for a meeting. As they entered the Material Plane once more, they saw that she was gathering all the world's leaders onto a brass disk that floated far above the ground.
After a short, but heated, discussion, the leaders took a vote and decided not to accept the offer of safety but subjugation under the Queen of Pain. She left, warning them that she would be back to claim this place by force if needed. The disk floated to the ground and the party used their ship to escort everyone back to a dock where they could make their way home. During this time, Illistair noticed and was noticed by the leader of the nation of Daragoul (famous for hunting and killing demons). Tensions flared and a fight almost happened, but was stopped (for a while).
The party returned to their town and were greeted by a woman, clad in green. It was obvious from looking at her and being near her that she was immensely powerful. She introduced herself as Gaia and explained that there was another way to protect their plane from outside invaders. She gave the party a list of four artifacts that needed to be collected and brought to temples in the four elemental planes. From there, they would need to bind a power source to a final temple in the Feywild and the defensive systems would activate. The party went back out into the Astral plane to examine the Mind Flayer ship which had been damaged by the Queen of Pain on her way in. They also noticed a giant turtle with a forest on its back as well as another ship that looked very strange.
They investigated the turtle first and found that it was home to a strange race of humanoid frog creatures known as Throden. The turtle turned out to be siblings with the cat-creature Kim and they had a long talk. When the threat of the Mind Flayers was brought up, some of the Throden offered to join them in their fight. After that, the party went to investigate the other ship. It was made of a strange light metal with four wings (one on each side) that seemed to float and dance in a non-existent breeze. As they approached, a port opened and they were greeted by a strange creature with upper body of a slug and the lower body of a slug, sporting feathered wings. It introduced itself as an Arkxa and that they had come from a very remote part of the planar system with the intent to observe and learn. The party was treated very nicely on their ship and given gifts that would help them if they fell from their ship.
When the party entered back into the material plane, they noticed that the Mind Flayers had entered as well and they flew out to meet them. A huge fight ensued and when the Mind Flayers tried to retreat, the party pushed forward and boarded their ship. A brutal fight took place across the ship that culminated in many dead Mind Flayers and Umi being killed but brought back by a magical item acquired much earlier in the adventure. Through the use of some quick thinking and even quicker casting, Umi was able to flee the Mind Flayers and made his way to the dock of the ship only to find that they had flown high into the sky. Kim had waited for him and told him to jump with her and that she would take care of him. He did.
He lost consciousness on the way down, and when he awoke, he was lying on Kim's lifeless body. Thinking on their feet, the party cast Revivify on Kim, but she came back as just a cat. They returned to town to lick their wounds and plan their next move. During this time, a strange entity calling itself Vincent appeared to them and offered them all deals that would give them more power, but at a cost. Some of the party accepted, others did not. After gathering all the needed, they set off to collect the artifacts Gaia had told them about. The Soul of Air and the Bones of Stone were collected with ease. They ventured far north to the lands of Lafavel to search out the Veins of Fire. While they were there, they took a detour to collect Everfrost in order to trade for a stock of magic items the Elves of Lafavel had, but when they ventured into the northern mountains, they were assaulted by Frost Giants. In a desperate bargain, Zera offered himself up as a slave to the giants if they would let the rest of the party leave unharmed. They accepted.
When the returned to the city they had been staying at, they found a Throden who had been knocked off course while entering their plane. They consulted what to do next and how to deal with Umi's worsening mental condition that seemed to be linked to the Elder Brain that had dealt the killing blow to him several weeks ago. Vincent was summoned, Nimble made a desperate gamble with him while Illistair summoned his dark patron. Nimble lost the bargain, but between him and Illistair they managed to piece together that they were not being hounded by Mind Flayers, as Umi's divination spells had indicated they were being. The act of finding this information out left Illistair drained of his usual power.
Nimble set off on a stealth mission to try to steal the Veins of Fire from the Salamanders that inhabited the mountain where it was located. Umi transformed him into a large bird and he attempted to dive bomb the mountain to collect the Veins of Fire and escape. Unfortunately, he was not able to fully escape before he was knocked out of bird form and being falling. Through some quick footwork and a little luck, Nimble landed on the outside of the volcano as it began to rumble and erupt. Although it was close, Nimble made it off of the volcano with the help of the party before it collapsed. With the Veins of Fire in their possession, they set off to collect the last of the relics. The Body of Water.
It was on the Scaled Cliffs, an ancient Dragonborn city that was said to house one of the last living dragons. They had met this dragon during their time on the brass disk and an invitation to visit the Scaled Cliffs had been extended to them. They arrived and were brought before the dragon, who's named they found out was Rah. Rah explained that taking the Body of Water was both necessary and would kill him and the society of Dragonborn as it was the only source of magic that was holding up all of their floating structures. Before they did that, Umi descended into the water and with Rah's help, was able to sever the connection the Elder Brain had over his mind. After that, the party moved quickly to secure the Body of Water and beat feet out of there as to not take any unnecessary Dragonborn lives.
