Back to the City That Waits

Tower of Test
The warhorns of the Exalted sounded and then keened their deathknell as the party entered the Tower of Test. Here they found the grisly trophies of the brave who had dueled for the rank of the Lord High Exalted, greatest warrior of the Moilian Empire, their silent heads a grim tribute to the prowess of this office. At the entrance to the test they found the still animated head of Gustarath. After being made subject to Boris' diabolic will Gustarath explained that he had seen both the accursed Azerack and and the poncey mage Desato pass by. Gustarath further indicated that the way through the tower was beset with several tests, hence the name of the tower.
The first test was one of agility, might iron pillars adorned with skulls were propped willy nilly through the chamber. Using Warrick's fire walls they smelt the pillars together and the party slowly made its way through the jack straws of the titans. Goldune blundered into one column and slipped causing the mass of metal beams to fall on him. Fortunately his great might and the necromantic helpers of Boris were enough to free him from the dastardly chamber.
The party then found itself blocked by a mighty silver door with single, ice encased handle at its base. Calling upon all his feral might Dorun hoisted the door allowing the party to pass the test of might. They entered a chamber adorned with orbs emitting a discordant hum. Still maddened the brothers charged through the room, triggering a debilitating tone which made Warrick collapse to the floor. The rest of the party rushed across the room to escape as the Warbreed fetched their fallen comrade.
In the next chamber a progressively difficult puzzle lock was eventually stymied by Boris' wit and the party passed though to a chamber of pendulous blades, slicing the air. Using 10' poles and Lextra's rogue skills to disable the blades, they gained admission to the chambers of the Lord High Exalted.
The leathery corpse of the bane warrior strode from a diabolic purple mist. Boris and Warrick identified it as a death ward and protected Dorun, who entered a murderous rage and engaged this undead champion. The two locked blades with homicidal happiness and Dorun's dwaven axe, Deathkeeper, cleaved great wounds in his opponents mummified flesh. The Lord High Exalted's wounding blade made many great wounds in the doughty Warbreed, but in the end the mettle of the dwarf hybrid was stronger and the Lord High Exalted fell, his head smote from his shoulders. The party claimed the spoils of the fallen trophy heads in the chambers below.

Tower of Dream
The party traversed the span to the next tower, a drug den used by the ancient Moilian's to expand their conscious. Here they found the Lucidium used by these decadent mystic race to gain more powers of spell and mind. Goldune spotted a great vaporous head as they entered the tower, but it vanished into the mists of negative energy swirling about the towers. The Tower of Dream held a Moilian zombie disposed of by Boris. They found the tower to be nearly split in two, this chasm held a platform inlaid with red stone bearing an inscription. Following the directions on the stone, they rotated the hour glass above the red stone. This summoned the great vaporous skull known as the Vestige, composed of thousands of insane consciousness from Moil. The brothers Warbreed backed by Boris and Warrick engaged the creature's searing tentacles. The Vestige began absorbing Goldune's consciousness but on they fought. The brothers magical axes, Deathkeeper and Tempest, and Warrick's eldritch might slew the beast. After slaying the beast and restoring Goldune they reset the hour glass, freeing more energy toward the Black Spire.

The Black Spire
This dark, ugly, block of ice disappeared into the mists of the Negative Plane. Wound tightly to its contour was a narrow walkway. Boris used windwalk to transport the party safely to the base of the tower where a small precipice marked the entrance to the Black Spire. Guarding the door were a pair of mighty jackal headed statues and a central peering eye. Inside a dark corridor of ice with many twisted figures trapped within its walls stretched menacingly. As the party entered the figures began to writhe, straining to break the confines of their frozen prison. Warrick made short work of this lot with his eldritch flame. The Moilian zombies were no more and the flames revealed a pit trap that would have claimed the adventurers if they had rushed past the encased undead.
At the end of the hall a chute ringed the stone serpents awaited. Given their experience with the tricks of Azerack, Warrick used his mystic powers to destroy the snakes at range. The brothers Warbreed then climbed through the opening, not realizing the steepness or slipperiness of the chute. As they slid, cursing, down the chute the remainder the party attempted a more elegant egress. At the bottom of the slide a yawning dark cliff awaited and the brothers drove their axes deep into the ice to slow their descent.
From the dark mists sprang a winter wight, an undead spawn of the black fire. Dorun and Goldune wasted no time and grappled with the creature, who spread its dark flames to their flesh. As the brothers Warbreed wrestled with the creature its flames, succored by their life force, grew higher. The remainder of the party emerged safely from the chute while the Warbreed threw the wight into the brink. Boris struck them with a bolt of flame, vanquishing the foul blaze.
The party then proceed along the edge of the cliff to the stable of the Phantom, a great winged monstrosity, an obscene creature of tentacles and wings. Their numerous previous objectives had opened the its arcane stable doors and using the silver key they had found many days before they freed it from its manacles. The abomination knelt before them and the party climbed aboard. With nary a sound the Phantom lifted into the air on its bat-like wings. As they left the city of Moil, Cindia the medical madron became lifeless.
The Phantom flew with the speed of madness, plunging through frigid, stygian darkness until finally alighting at a portal, sculpted in the shape of the yawning maw of the Devourer, the brink to the Fortress of Conclusion...

The Towers of Discipline, Health, Treasure, Webs, and Confusion

The Tower of Discipline
Entering the tower they came upon a tall hooded executioner standing behind a scarred chopping block. He hissed in Moilian which caused Goldune to begin to walk toward the chopping block with the intent of placing his head on its much bloodied surface. As the battle raged Dorun engaged his brother, dragging him back from the block, the necromantic and arcane might of Boris and Warrick rained hellfire down upon the doom executioner. Only their spellcraft saved the grappling brothers.

The tower also held a desiccated corpse wrapped in frozen webs and torture cells opposite a demonic mural meant to drive a mortal mad, which later caused Warrick to be shaken by an accursed nightmare. The last cell held a hooded female figure, who emanated evil, the brothers dispatched this foe with the vorpal axe.

The Tower of Health
Over the entrance hung a cadeuces, guarding an observation deck on which several hibernating Moilian zombies. Absalom threw them trough the window to the Negative Plane below. Further within the tower they found a healing madron, named Cindia. She healed the party members injured by blackfire and decided to join the party. They passed a trapped imaging system and eventually met Dr. Tor, another madron healer. However unlike "Cindy" this construct was mad and attempted to drug the party and slay them. The fury of the Warbreed and Boris' hellfire destroyed the blood letting corpse carpenter.

The Tower of Treasure
Was empty...typical

The Tower of Webs
This tower was essentially hollow except for great sticky strands of webbing that stretched across its diameter. Based on the words in the taunting poem at the entrance of the City That Waits the party elected to search near the base of the tower. Thus Warrick flew toward the plane of Negative Energy with Boris who melted away the stone with his magic allowing Warrick to access the riddle box suspended from the bottom of the webs. However hanging from the bottom was another winter wight who Warrick wasted at a distance with his eldritch powers. He then examined the box finding a riddle "Many tails have I, or many a beginning. If I fail people sight; wails mark their passing" under which three icons for were emblazoned a tree, a many tailed cat, and a rope. The Brothers Warbreed (surprisingly) hatched upon the solution, a rope and when Warrick touched this icon a burst of magic exploded forth setting as yet untold events into play.

The Tower of Confusion
This tower was a winding maze filled with a living oily darkness. Using the Warbreed's stone cunning, the party chose the steady solution of the labyrinth by always following the leftside wall. As they drew deeper into the coiled corridors the writhing darkness grew closer and closer. Finally, Boris decided to use the Wand of Daylight creating a temporary gap in the nocturnal stalker. Finally after many hours of delving they came upon a great deviant arachnoid that Boris slew with a single spell, lifting the floating inkiness. This revealed a great black switch, that the party engaged causing the tower to shake and buckle. After some moments of this, they reversed the switch causing a similar burst of expectant magic.

The City That Waits

The Brothers Warbreed, Boris Devilboone, and Warrick Sinister found themselves teleported to a deserted city on the edge of the void, fierce electrical mayhem cascading overhead. The air was dead and bitter cold, and a thick layer of frost covered the towers and thin walkways. Before them, engraved in malachite was a challenge from the lich-god Acererack, daring them to face him in his lair. But first they must brave the many towers of Moil, the City That Waits.

The Tower of Day
The first tower was explored showing the Moilian's worship of the sun before being cursed by Orcus ("why does coinage says us orc again and again"). In this tower they found a chamber with an inscription charging them to initiate the power of Wand of day. Dorun Warbreed touched the middle panel showing the day, unknowingly freeing the wand from its icy prison further in the tower. The group also recovered a golden headband which they would later learn could heal them and allow them to scry the many towers of Moil in the icy thrown. In their exploration they also found the outline of a humanoid figure in the frost, how recently vacated they could not tell. In they end they secured the wand of day.

The Tower of Chance
In this tower they faced their first Moilian zombie, its properties earlier studied by Boris and Warrick in the Black Academy. The Brothers Warbreed were only lightly harmed by the soul feeding zombie's powers before Warrick's eldritch might destroyed the foul deadspawn. They discovered evidence of Desato's presence here as well as a decanter of purity in the casino's bar before discovering a room labelled the Final Game. Here Boris' vampire thrall Absalom used his gaseous form to slip under the door and vanished. The Warbreed broke the door down only to vanish into a cursed mirror above the door. Boris used a magical stone hand to destroy the mirror without being caught in its irresistible reflection, freeing the brothers, a Moilian zombie, Absalom, and an ancient Moilian thief named Lextra. After deactivating the Moilian zombie before it could absorb too much life force they threw it out the window. Using his magical gifts, Boris was able to communicate with Lextra, who had no evil aura, who chose the join the party.
As they explore the tower they found a skeleton incased in clear ice, which suddenly animated and attacked the party. The Warbreed engaged the creature at close range, only to find themselves entangled by blackfire, fueled by their very vitality. Boris called on his hellfire to scorch away not only the winter-wight but the blackfire as well, the trollblood in the brothers allowing them to quickly heal from the inferno.
Later in the tower they found a magical roulette table from which Lextra gained the gift of agility. But even that was not enough for her to deactivate a tantalizingly glowing curio cabinet, which the party was forced to leave behind. Using her skills and Absalom's undead nature the party was able to defeat both a ward of insanity and of death guarding a vaulted, steel valve door. Inside they found another Moilian undead, from which they took arcane gauntlets of armor and the powerful sentinel mask.

The Tower of Portals
The less said about the trials of the maze of this tower the better, gentle reader...

The Aqueous Tower
The fourth tower was naught but cold and brine. Inside a ladder led down into dark, icy salt water. Forwarned by Acererack's posted challenge the party made ready to battle the brine dragon guardian of the Key. Bespelled against cold and water the party entered the depths, traversing the crystalline caverns of the dragon's lair. As they explored the brackish tunnels, Warrick discovered some illuminated runes which activated to dispel their magical boons. Fortunately the Boris might was greater than the magical trap and the party continued unmolested. Finally they came upon the great brine dragon, slumbering in the salty depths. Boris swam forward and launched his wail of the banshee, striking it dead in its sleep. The party collected the dragon's expansive treasure of platinum coin and magical items, including a death scarab and dwarven thrower.

Episode XV: Darker times in Fiendsguard

Veterans of the Golemech Corps are aging but still serve in fewer and fewer numbers.  

Meanwhile the children of each succeeding generation become more tainted by fiendish traits, becoming more more degenerate and less mortal generation by generation.

No cause or cure is in sight as the citizen senate debates endlessly and the military remains ominously silent.

Hanon 16 Year 62 Planar Reckoning

Special Unit (SU) Wolf Blue, Golemech Core, Fiendsguard Defense Force (FDF) received orders from General Cor Redhand of the Fiendsguard Defense Force Command to capture or execute Mage-General Galvius for the crimes of treason and sedition.  The Mage-General along with a chest of documents within his possession were to be intercepted and returned.  He had allegedly last been seen heading in the direction of the abandoned Outpost 17, aided by fiend agents.  Some indistinct impressions, as if another document had been written atop the orders, were also noted.

SU Wolf Blue in their mighty golemech armor journeyed to Outpost 17, narrowly avoiding the fiends ubiquitous to the Planes.  At Outpost 17 they attempted to arrest Galvius who refused, angrily defiant, stating that they were the traitors and they didn't even realize it.  Galvius and his companions, mostly tieflings, fought to the last man but fell before SU Wolf Blue, who subsequently recovered the black chest.  On their return trip they were beset by fiendish giant ants but managed to escape unscathed.

General Redhand accepted the chest from them personally and commended them for their action.  However, SU Wolf Blue was dissatisfied with the mission, due not only to General Redhand's suspicious manner but also since Galvius, prior to his death had been a hero of the FDF with an unquestioned record.  Seeking further answers, they sought out Galvius' friend, the tiefling Citizen-Senator Mazzua, who after learning of the Mage-General's death explained that both she and Galvius suspected the FDF Command of deliberately preventing the return of the Fiendsgaurd's citizens to the Prime Material. She further presented evidence, including intercepted messages from General Redhand.

Convinced that they had been duped and led to assassinate an innocent man, SU Wolf Blue decided to once again obtain Galvius' black chest,  but this time from Cor Redhand's private office.  Their espionage expert, Sirhc, gained entry to Redhand's office only to discover that he was in fact a fell pit fiend.  With Redhand in pursuit, SU Wolf Blue was able to reach the golemech hanger, arm their suits, and drive the pit fiend off.  The contents of the chest were found to be the location and activation words for a gate high above Fiendsguard that would return them to the Empire of Mellas in Frazeel on the Prime Material Plane.  Furthermore it revealed that Redhand and several other key military leaders were disguised fiends.  It also detailed the plans to use the people of Fiendsguard in a rapid breeding program for spies and soldiers to invade the Prime Material Plane.

Aware that an imminent attack from outside Fiendsguard was looming due to Redhand's escape, SU Wolf Blue brought this evidence to Mazzua who began organizing an evacuation.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the military, their covers blown, had disappeared.  SU Wolf Blue organized the FDF to fight a delaying action so that the citizens of Fiendsguard could escape.  As hordes of fiends poured after them, SU Wolf Blue remained at the tail of the withdrawal in the thick of the fray.  At the brink of the portal to Frazeel, Gresticar's golemech was wrestled back into the underworld.  He set the self-destruct and ejected being pulled through the dimensional portal by his unit mates.  His exploding golemech sealed the portal leaving a patch of otherworldly rock forever in the plains of Mellas.

Golemechs One-shot Introduction

Fiendsguard is a carved, ruinous dark city seemingly sculpted out of and tacked onto a huge stalagmite deep within the planar crevasses of the Blood War. Strangely, Fiendsguard is not a city of demons and devils but a decaying prime material city-state besieged by both. This misplaced city is the result of a tear that allowed the Blood War to spill into the Prime Material world of Frazeel. The Emperor of Mellas, in an effort to avert greater calamity and destruction, had the Imperial mages create a rapid seal. In doing so many cubic miles of the fortress city of Kurr and its environs were pulled through the rift and seen nevermore by any of the Empire.

But many of the distorted city survived and the military stationed there rapidly took over in this time of crisis. The old name of Kurr was forgotten and Fiendsguard was birthed from its twisted remains. The gods were heard no more and their priests cast down, their divine spell might forever gone, the connection with the gods forever sundered. In this strange new world a magical renaissance the primary result of which were warriors capable of facing a fiend on its own terms.

Today, Fiendsguard is a strangely enlightened military dictatorship protected by the elite forces of the Golemechs --hulking, manned humanoid war machines, armed to the teeth withmagical weapons and items of the finest quality. An anarchistic “senate” of civilians decides policy within the Fiendsguard but the military has control of everything that deals with the outside, battling the incessant attacks of both demons and devils. The citizenry deals with internal events that might let the creatures that lurk outside in, the military rarely if ever has to intervene.

However as each new generation is born they have become more tainted by the hellish energies of the Blood War,
becoming more fiendish with each passing year. More and more voices are clamoring to return to Mellas and
abandon Fiendsguard. The military has met these protest with ominous silence, some conspiracy minded folks believe that there is more to the military’s obstinacy, since their children too are getting more monstrous, and their young recruits more recognizable as an enemy than an ally.

The PCs are in a elite Golemech unit functioning as pilots and gunners. They can be of any generation with their stats adjusted accordingly. All classes are represented, except no clerics. Other divine-like spell casters such as druids, paladins, and rangers are still available. The PCs will adventure both outside Fiendsguard in their customized Golemech as well as deal with the political and social turmoil within the besieged city.

Generation	PC Types
“Primers”	5th level human, 64-100 y/o 5th level dwarf, 112-148 y/o 5th level elf, 182-218 y/o 5th level half-elf, 69-105 y/o
First	4th level tiefling, 48-75 y/o (MM I) 4th level maeluth, 40-60 y/o (FF)
Second	2nd level shfyt, 32-50 y/o (FF)
Third	1st level half-fiend, 16-25 y/o

Mindsgate: Battle of the Burning Tower

The hardy party awoke the next morning and as they began their morning absolutions a distant keening rapidly gained in intensity. As they scanned the dim horizon the Hand noticed the flat grey waters of the Unconscious Sea being thrown aside by a rapidly approaching cube. As the group scattered from the center of the platform an ornate box of exotic woods and heavy metal clasps some three feet in every dimension halted precisely in the center of the platform, nearly disemboweling Drakkar in the process. The chest floated approximately a foot above the platform before bejeweled clasps on all four sides burst open and the lid floated vertically, a pale wholesome light emanating from the opening.
A small curly haired figure, exquisitely dressed and coifed crawled from somewhere within the confines of the magical chest and spoke, "Greetings, I'm Verren, Valet to His Imperial Highness, I have your things."
Verren then scampered back into the chest throwing rich, well fitting clothing, gear, weapons, and armor from the inside. He warned them that they could not enter the chest nor could he leave due to a curse cast by the Unlord, with perceptible shudder he said, "we've tried that before.". Verren was largely able to fulfill their requests, supplying healing potions and other vital equipment. He even scrounged up Kai's enchanted banjo and some simple magical weapons. As the fantastic floating chest began to vibrate the lid closed Verren cried for the party to free him from his curse. With that the chest streaked off into the horizon.
Restocked and restored the party climbed the hovering stone steps of Burning Tower once more, the Hand prowling silently ahead. He scaled the central stairs to the level above, now free thanks to the party's brave battle with their sentient flame guardian. The room above was dark, but the doughty rogue heard heavy wet breathing from the level above. Stealthily climbing to the edge of the trap door, he peered in seeing three great bipedal shapes each about a head taller than a human with a thick body covered in rubbery gray hide and coarse, ropy hair. They had stooped postures, low foreheads, and long thin noses with prominent lower canines that resembled boar’s tusks. Their limbs were long and ungainly ending in powerful hands and feet armed with sharp claws.
One of the hideous humanoids spotted the Hand and began to lumber to the trapdoor. The rogue lay in wait ready to grab the large beast and pull him through. Unfortunately the trorc struck first wounding the foolish rogue and rending him with its claws. The Hands lifeless body fell to the dark stone floor below as the trorcs rumbled down the stairs. Drakkar struck with Maulstrom missing but badly cracking the stone ceiling with the electrified ball of the mystical flail. Hurth used a potion to heal the Hand while Kai fascinated the first trorc. The remaining trorcs dropped to the floor and engaged the party. Drakkar smite one trorc dead with a single blow while the second clawed Kai grievously. To everyone's surprise the fascinated trorcturned and slew its companion. Unsure of its loyalties, the Hand and Hurth then dispatched the creature.
The chamber that the three trorc guards had come from. The chamber was the same flat gray stone as the the Tower on the Undead Tree. The room had one set of stone steps built into the wall on one side opposite to which a rope disappeared in a small hole in the ceiling. All the windows were crudely blocked by stones and excrement. Three foul smelling pallets and the filthy remnants of food and/or prisoners littered the floor. Sounds of a many trorcs engaged in carousing and fighting could be heard emanating from several floors above. Attempting to see more clearly, the Hand used one of the continual flame pendants provided by Verren which rapidly summoned more trorcs armed with great falchions from the level above. A cleverly thrown tanglefoot bag tripped the first trorc who was trampled under the cruel feet of his brethren. A fierce battle followed in which Drakkar wielding the elemental might of Maulstrom slew two more of the despicable denizens of the tower. The Hand struck another trorc dead with a series of bone breaking martial blows, its internal organs bursting under the iron-like flesh of the Hand's fists. Kai extruded a thin black blade from her hand and cut violently at her foe. For a moment nothing happened but then the trorc fell before her, smote in twain by her deadly blade.
Following the battle Hurth fell ill, victim to a seemingly small blow. Lucien having remained in reserve took the wounded barbarian under his care as the party proceeded. The Hand and Kai also noticed that despite having received many wounds Drakkar had never once bled or been healed. The party questioned him but Drakkar was unaware of his unnatural history, he had always been like this but was concerned about his inability to heal. Lucien revealed that he too had noticed Drakkar's unnaturalness after the glasshark attack, but had decided to say nothing at the time.
The next floor appeared to have been an old laboratory coarsely converted by the trorcs as a second guardroom. A metal ladder ascended to a round stone trapdoor, the din of many raucous trorc voices and heavy blows of weapons on armor. Along the wall several man-sized harnesses of sliver set with pale stones at the hands, chest, head, and feet lay in disrepair. One of the harnesses appeared in good repair and the Hand donned it. As he did the Lycanthrope Harness activated, spines extruded from the harness buried into his skin, his body increased in size straining his clothing as his teeth lengthened and sharpened, his nails became claws, and gray hair grew in his body and limbs. His eyes glinted yellow and menacingly in the half light. The Hand twisted the stone in the center of the harness and returned to normal. Further inspection of the laboratory found several books in poor repair as well as some notes on the creation of mechanical life, golems so complex as to be able to pass as living men. The notes were mostly so advanced that neither the Hand, Kai, or Drakkar could decipher them. The notes did explain that certain mystical iron keys could be inserted in the base of the skull to heal these constructs. All the notes bore the scrawled mark of the Unlord, a skull with a U glyph. Recalling the key provided to them by Leatherbones, the Hand found a keyhole in Drakkar's head and healed the man-construct. The key then vanished. Drakkar and the Hand decided to preserve the notes for further study at a later time.
The Hand then climbed the ladder to examine the round hatch in the ceiling. The din from above continued and he was unable to detect any traps. Both the Hand and Drakkar tried to push the hatch open but were unable to budge the stone trapdoor. Deciding to circumvent the trapdoor the three broke out a window in the guardroom below and scaled the side of the tower. As they scaled the tower the din quietened until they scaled the two stories to the level where the din should have been loudest. They broke open one of the windows and entered a dusty, bare and deserted room. No sound but the party's own stirrings could be heard. Drakkar, Kai, and the Hand decided to rest.
After a few short hours the tower suddenly sprung into an uproar as the trorcs discovered their slain fellows. Claxons and alarms rang as trorc voices bellowed their anger. The Hand spied a trorc head searching from the window they had escaped several floors below. He quickly drew his bow and fired an arrow into the thick skull of his foe. The trorc turned more insulted than injured and the clamorous alarm doubled as trorcs swarmed from the windows both above and below.
Seeking to escape the party searched first the square trapdoors above and below finding a nauseating interface between the levels, a terrible, shimmering that drove them back ill and weak. The party did see trorcs both above and below. They were trapped as three trorc heads appeared in the window. Drakkar, Kai, and the Hand engaged in a furious combat, corned in the shrinking tower chamber as the trorcs built a beachhead on the fallen corpses of their brethren. Drakkar's mystical flail was never more terrible, Kai's blade was keen death, and the Hands devastating manipulations crushed his foes innards to paste. But still the trorcs came and the three fell back.
Seeing the futility of fighting further, Kai broke out the opposite window as the Hand lengthened into his rope form. Drakkar sprung through the window but missed the Hand, falling to the slate colored waters below. The surging trorcs struck Kai in the back, lofting her unconscious form through the window. The Hand retracted nearly to the platform at the sea's edge. As Drakkar restored Kai to health with a potion, Lucien and Hurth exploded down the stairs with hundreds of trorcs in angry pursuit.
The party turned and began to swim toward the shadow they believed to be their raft.
The large shadow materialized into a gigantic black swan its wings furled like sails. On the side of the swan a closed hatchway opened at Kai's request and the party climbed gratefully into an opulently outfitted hold that sprang into illumination. Several fitted portholes ran the length of the belly. Toward the neck a doorway lead to a galley and a set of stairs climbing upward. Kai quickly sprang up the ladder-stairs passing the next floor of state rooms up to the head. Inside the bridge's glass cupola Kai took the captain's chair and a rich female voice spoke, "The Black Melody awaits your command, captain." Kai told the craft to fly as below she saw several trorcs floundering gradually toward the swanship. The Black Melody sprang lightly into the air. The Hand wondered at its offensive capabilities, to which the rich voice replied, curtly, "I'm a swan not a hawk." The craft circled the tower, well out of range of the javelins hurled by the trorcs. The top of the tower was revealed to be several stories higher than that of the Undead Tree. The top four floors had been sheared off at a steep angle.
Kai requested the Black Melody to land toward the top the tower, but the swanship declined saying that it had orders superseding her own. She told them she was taking them to the First. The brief trip lasted a few hours and as they passed a horrible, undulating, tower composed of skeletal undead she directed them to her navigational map, saying it was the home of the Unlord.
Shortly after, the Black Melody descended before a small stereotypical wizard's tower. The squat tower was covered with thick ivy and flag stones ran from its front door disappearing into the sea. Several swans and an albatross of similar kind as the Black Melody floated in the sea around the tower. On the tower's ramparts two cruel looking hawks of similar make to the other avian craft perched in waiting. Standing at the base of the tower stood a tall white-bearded wizard smoking a great pipe and dressed in the imperial colors of Mellas.
As they approached in the small craft provided by the Black Melody the stereotypical wizard greeted them, "I am Daerrus, called the First. We must speak." Daerrus told them that Kai, the Hand, and Lucien along with several other denizens of Mindsgate were fragments of the Emperor and that if they reformed they would be able to escape the prison but in doing so they would free the demon prince, Naberaxus. Daerrus urged them not to seek escape, since the Empire was now prosperous and safe. Furthermore he told them that if they reformed they would cease to exist as individuals. Everything threatening the Empire had been consumed by the Midnight's Hunger followed by its only remaining threat, the Midnight's Hunger itself. Since Daerrus knew that all the threats were here and no one else could enter he felt that it was his duty to protect the Empire by keeping the status quo and policing Mindsgate. He told them that their previous incarnations had agreed with him and one time destroyed themselves to prevent the possibility of reformation and escape. He would provide them with the Black Melody and guidance in return for striking against those who planned escape such as the Unlord and Grimspyne. He demurred the Hand's accusations that per others in Mindsgate, Daerrus could not be trusted. The party returned to the Black Melody to consider his offer.

Mindsgate: The Fall of Hive Town and the Burning Tower

"Silence, I am Grimspyne," spake the giant ebon wyrm. Lucien and Hurth returned the great dark dragon's cruel eyes as he related the tale of being drawn into the Midnight's Hunger when he faced the Emperor of Mellas. He spoke how he had prodigiously fornicated to create his dracobold cohort. Grimspyne claimed to have battled them previously. He finished his tale and demanded that the party, "Free me from this prison or die. Now."
As Lucien and Hurth attempted to parlay with the irate black lizard the Hand, Drakkar, and Kai acquiesced to the insistent dracobold growls and with weapons drawn scaled the steps to the platform. The party had individually ascertained that the village supported by the Undead Tree was not a dracobold habitation and that furthermore the tree could not bear the sudden increased weight of several hundred dracobolds as well as the bulk of a huge black dragon. As they looked around at the hive like huts of the village they noticed caterpillar-like vaguely humanoid beings either slain or being held hostage by the dracobolds. Some of these harmless appearing creatures were rapidly weaving themselves into cocoons.
Lucien finished parlaying with Grimspyne, saying that they could help him escape but that they needed to go elsewhere for it to happen. When pressed Lucien claimed that he knew the key to escaping. With that Grimspyne snatched him up and flew away instructing his mongrel children to kill the rest of the party. As several hundred dracobolds wheeled to attack, the Hand struck one down from the skies with his bare hand. However the battle rapidly turned bleak as the overwhelming odds of the situation became apparent.
But then the cocoon adepts struck from their silken sheathes emerging as large ferocious insectae and arachnidae: enormous wasps, scorpions, and spiders launched themselves at the hoard of hybrid humanoids. In the middle of this the doughty party battled its way around the trapdoor. A spell from Drakkar caused the cocoon adept's to ignore the group and his errant good luck caused several kobolds to collide in the air before him. Kai was neigh eviscerated by a brutal dracobold attack and fell to the floor. Meanwhile Hurth stood above her still form and smote dracobolds from the misty sky with Splitter. However as he battled the blade slipped from his gore and sweat layered hands falling from his grasp. Splitter spun about and flew back to his wielder's hand cleaving a dracobold in two in its return arc. The Hand healed Kai as Grimspyne flew into the fog with Lucien desperately arguing that the dragon needed all of them to escape.
The battle raged on, the desperate party defending themselves in the midst of the small war between Grimspyne's progeny and the cocoon adepts new forms. Lucien was born further away still arguing that more of the party was needed to escape Mindsgate, finally telling the dragon that Splitter was the key to escaping. With that the dragon wheeled and returned and as they again broke through the haze, Lucien could only gaze in horror as the top of the Undead Tree broke and began to topple into the metallic grey sea below.
On the platform the fierce band of brawlers faced a new challenge as the Undead Tree broke and fell into the sea. Drakkar had attempted to escape down the the stairs only to find the very ground beneath his feet turn over. As the Hand clutched at him through the trap door, Hurth buried Splitter deep in the platform and clutched the hilt. Kai grabbed hold of the barbarian but as the massive timber fell into the flat sea of Mindsgate they all fell free of the platform with Splitter still embedded in the village floor. As the party surfaced they saw Grimspyne perch above the water on the broken cocoon adept village, approximately a hundred feet away the hive mother of the cocoon adepts lay drowning, her children feverishly trying to save her.
Apparently taking Lucien at his word, Grimspyne tore Splitter and the surrounding floor of the village free. The great wyrm then rose majestically into the mist filled air and as he rose hurled Lucien to his death. But as Lucien fell he took on the aspect of a great white swan and drifted majestically to the rubble and water below, a power of his Ring of Animal Guardians.
The party quickly gathered materials for a raft which they constructed on the small pedestal that the Hand, Drakkar, and Kai had awoke upon a "day" before. As they built their raft they saw blood spreading in the water from the many dracobolds crushed under the falling village. Shortly after that a great clamor of insect-like screaming could be heard from the vicinity of the cocoon adepts attempting to save their hive mother. Later the inchor and bile of the caterpillar men came drifting around the remnants of their village. As they worked Hurth went to warn Weemag and the rest of the Sprayspawn that Grimspyne would most likely return when he realized that Splitter was not the key to escaping Mindsgate. The party sailed off in the direction opposite that taken by Grimspyne as Weemag and his people readied themselves to travel in a direction perpendicular to both.
The party rowed into the mists toward the dim outlines of great towers in the distance. They rowed until the sudden dark of the Mindsgate night and then rowed on in the morning. In the middle of the day their craft was suddenly bumped by something. As they looked in the water they saw only the water churning as if something was swimming there. Suddenly, they spied a glowing yellow eye the size of a dinner plate not far astern. The eye flashed then vanished and the attacks on the raft became more violent, a sudden jolt sent Kai and Drakkar into the churning grey water. The Hand called upon the divine power of Obad-Hai and commanded the watery creatures to flee. Two did so but two larger shapes still roiled the waters. As the others rushed to save them, Drakkar attempted an unseen servant but the aquatic environment corrupted the spell, making it drag him under the waves. Lucien clutched at Drakkar's hands and attempted to pull him out. Meanwhile Hurth heaved Kai out of the sea as a great invisible maw took a bite out of the raft right behind her kicking heels. Suddenly a great set of transparent teeth bit down on Drakkar but then loosed him. Lucien was able to cast light upon the great beast biting his comrade. The waters ceased their turbulence and the illuminated glasshark blended once more with the depths.
That night the party rested and saw in the distance three towers, the first was 60^o to port and had a single white light burning in it. The second was 10^o to port and showed a changing array of white, blue, and red lights. The final tower was 30^o to starboard and looked like a great red fire rising into the fog. The party chose the Burning Tower.
The next morning the party approached a great column of fire burning from the waters and reaching into the haze. As they approached they felt the blistering heat of the Burning Tower and saw their raft begin to smoke and blacken. The Hand prayed to Obad-Hai for guidance and heard, Do not fear the flames. With that the Hand dove into the boiling waters and swam to the tower, he felt his skin blister and his hair singe then burn but on he swam. Finally, with faith in his deity he disbelieved the illusion. Lucien was also able to follow the Hand, but only with much convincing did the rest of the party join them.
They found themselves on a platform much the same as the one they had set out from. This one was ringed by torches and above them a great ball of flame writhed hypnotically. Kai rushed the stairs but was blasted by a flaming jet from the step. The Hand determined that this was a trap and they circumvented the step and ascended into the room above. They saw the great bonfire in the center reaching up and through the next floor. A spiral stair ran up inside the inferno. As they examined this curious set-up a great flaming arm swung at Hurth. With that the party became embroiled in a fierce battle with the flaming giant hidden in the floating furnace. The Hand struck with his martial skills and summoned a small celestial monkey to help. Kai fascinated the flames with song and attacked with her ebon blade. Hurth, bemoaning the loss of Splitter, attacked with his trusty spear. Lucien used his sorcerous arts but was badly burned by a vicious swing from the elemental. Drakkar also used his magic to attack the creature and narrowly escaped being ignited. In the end, the party destroyed the elemental and a strange flail fell from the dissipating smoke of the outsider's remains.
The party climbed back down the stairs to rest and heal. As they did Kai related the tale of the flail Maulstrom a powerful weapon of the Druidic Order. Kai recalled that Maulstrom was an ancient weapon presumably crafted as a natural balancing to other planar channeling weapons used by the Empire of Mellas. While its devastating electrical power made it a formidable part of the Imperial arsenal, its evil tendencies made its usefulness limited to agents of His Imperial Highness. It was stored away under heavy guard, but the armory it was housed in was sacked. During the Great Orc War, the Emperor himself faced the paragon of the orcs who bore this weapon. The orc champion and Maulstrom, along with several thousand heavy orc shocktroops were sucked into the insatiable vortex of the Midnight’s Hunger. Maulstrom was seen nevermore.
A guard was set and the party rested. During his watch Hurth saw flashes of light and the enraged screams of a great dragon away back where the Tower of the Undead Tree had stood.