The Great Hunt Begins
After leaving the Lonely Mountain and deciding on their next destination, the party continued their journey with Declan and Thibbins Wattlebee among their companions. The cheerful grung was still happily tagging along, bringing a welcome dose of humor to the journey.
Suddenly, the party noticed a fire breaking out in a forest roughly 500 meters away. At almost the exact same moment, the runes on Kaela’s Gauntlets of the Sanguine Soul activated, revealing the location of the first target of the Great Hunt — somewhere in the very same direction.
Driven by bloodlust and the promise of the hunt, the party rushed toward the flames. There, they discovered a group of Stone Giant poachers who had deliberately set the forest ablaze, using the fire to drive the animals toward a specific location. As the battle erupted, however, the situation quickly spiraled out of control. A massive herd of gigantic forest creatures suddenly came charging through the area, trampling everything in their path. Their sheer weight and force shook the earth, creating a tremendous crack in the ground. Despite the chaos, the party managed to defeat the Stone Giants, and Kaela’s Gauntlets grew stronger as she claimed the reward of the hunt.
With little time to spare, the group hurried back to Drasilgard before continuing toward solid ground.
Thibbins and the Planar Forks
While the party sailed down from the floating lands of Yggdravia toward Tollvarn, Thibbins Wattlebee was happily enjoying a small snack aboard the ship. Nothing about this seemed particularly unusual — until the party noticed the rather interesting fork he was using.
The group immediately recognized it for what it was: a set of magical Planeshift Forks, each already attuned to a specific plane. Thibbins casually possessed forks attuned to the Shadowfell, the Nine Hells, and Mount Celestia — something that was considerably more difficult to come by than he seemed to realize. He handed all three forks over to the party, still treating them as nothing more than ordinary cutlery.
The party, understandably, was somewhat shocked. Thibbins, however, simply explained that his first week as an adventurer had been “rather turbulent.”
To prove it, he showed them several maps he had drawn of the three planes he had apparently visited. Unfortunately, the maps were barely recognizable. The drawings were crooked, heavily smeared, and so shaky that it was difficult to tell what was supposed to be what.
It seemed that Thibbins had not been exaggerating.
His first week as an adventurer really had been turbulent.
The Black Concord
Eventually, they returned to Tollvarn, where they once again visited their old friend Kegory at the Knight Club. This time, however, they were looking for information about the Black Concord.
For Declan, the confrontation was personal. He had once belonged to The Guild, an organization founded as a refuge for the orphaned and abandoned before the Drow twins turned it into another instrument of the Black Concord’s coercive network. Declan had left after their takeover, unwilling to accept what the Guild had become. Now, traveling alongside the party, he had unfinished business with those who had taken it over.
With the knowledge Declan possessed about the old fortress and its layout, the group devised an elaborate plan to infiltrate the stronghold. Kaela went ahead alone, successfully sneaking into the ruined fortress and locating a secret entrance that could be used by the rest of the party. She also managed to determine the whereabouts of the Drow twins, Zevran and Nyssara.
However, just as the plan was coming together, the party decided to abandon subtlety altogether.
The Whale Falls From the Sky
Aerenthal prepared a teleportation spell, and instead of quietly entering through the secret passage, the group chose a far more direct approach.
Two enormous boulders, the party itself, and Jin — transformed into a massive killer whale — were teleported directly into the Drow twins’ great hall.
Stone and adventurers came crashing down from nowhere, followed by an entire whale. The Drow and their guards were left completely stunned by the absurdity of the attack. After all, how often does a whale simply fall out of the sky onto your enemies?
Despite the chaotic opening, the battle quickly became a brutal fight for survival. The Drow twins unleashed their deadliest weapons, the Veiled Eight, and their assault nearly claimed Madrach’s life. The party nevertheless managed to turn the tide and defeat their enemies.
But victory came with a final complication. One of the Drow twins, Zevran, managed to escape at the very last moment, using Dimension Door to vanish before the party could finish him.
The fortress had been breached. The Black Concord had been dealt a devastating blow — but one of its leaders was still alive and now had every reason to seek revenge.