The Cleansing Storm

The King of Galdaria has mobilized the army to deal with the demons left from the Great Rift but it was unable to find the elusive band of demons. By the time they arrive all they found were the remains of decimated villages. He stationed the army at the boarders to stabilize the region. He then asked for all able bodied adventurers to find and eliminate the remaining demons. To make matters worse the strenuous relationship between the Galdaria and the Octavious Expanse had further escalated and no travelers have been seen coming from the Expanse, further lending credit to the rumors of darker tidings, going well beyond the band of roaming demons.

At the behest of the king the adventures joined the army at the border towns to help deal with the demon menace. A report came in that a town was under attack and the adventures mobilized. By the time they arrived the town was destroyed but some of the demons had lingered. They were quickly dispatched. Once dealt with the lone survivor, an old man, crawled out from the rubble. He sold them a demon killing manual. With it they decided to finally stop the demons by killing the Demon Commander himself.

They immediately set about gathering the supplies they needed, the soul of the litch that originally summoned the demons. A Stone of Grounding, to make sure that that the demon couldn’t escape. Lastly the found and recharged the Dagger of the Void, used to permanently destroy the demon’s essence.

Once the items were gathered Duke Ceian created a summoning circle and summoned the Demon Commander. Once he was summoned he was set upon by the adventurers and killed; the Dagger of the Void was plunged into his heart, ending the threat once and for all.

That evening when they returned to the army there was a huge celebration filled with gladiatorial games, food and gambling. Amongst the celebrating some adventures were secretly approached by the Great Wyrms. The time had come for them to choose champions among the mortal races. They whispered of the coming of the Great Wyrm Mancos. He had chosen to break the Covenant that prevented the Great Wyrms from warring on the moral realm and to walk the world once again and exert his will in an effort to overcome the coming chaos.

The following day word came from the capital of Galdaria that the whole kingdom had been thrown into chaos and the army was to return the capital at once. The adventures set off right away as the army made their preparations to mobilize. On their way back to the capital they came across a deserted town. The ground was cursed and covered in dead bodies but there was no sign of an attack.

Suddenly the bodies began to move, showing themselves to be the undead and the adventures were attacked. Through the writings of the villagers they learned that a black stone, found by some of the villagers young adults, was to blame. Outside of town they created an alter and placed the stone on top of it. Once they found the alter they removed the stone and all the undead stopped moving, their unlives coming to a final end. Yet despite the undead threat being neutralized the stone was still emitting an unholy aura. After many attempts to destroy the stone they eventually found the right spell and shattered it. The aura slowly dispersed.

Once they arrived at the Capital they found it in shambles. Buildings were burning, areas were rioting. The countryside was little better. There were roving bands of monsters and bandits. No word from the Octavious Expanse had been heard in weeks. It was found that the bridges leading to the Octavious Expanse were destroyed. Once the bridges were repaired (through the efforts of Morally Ambiguous Companion Enterprises) they found that the Capital, Octoberg had been attacked and the populace captured and enslaved by dark elves.

They followed the tracks back to two cave entrances. They fought hard and killed the cave guardians however as they started down the tunnels the remaining dark elves caved them in. It took some time before they were cleared for the adventures to proceed, but once they were cleared they moved in force.

After traveling through the tunnels and overcoming traps laid by their enemies they came upon an immense cavern, lit only by the light of fungus growing along the stone. Inside the cavern was a stone city populated by dark elves where they were enslaving the populace of the Octavious Expanse. It was a long hard fight but eventually they broke into the city and lead the populace to safely, narrowly avoiding the traps in the tunnels. However the victory was short lived; the coming of Mancos was at hand.

The next day Fire Team lured their fellow adventures into the forest with the promise of an ancient artifact they could use to defeat the Great Wyrm, but Mancos had chosen his champions as well, Fire Team. Once the adventures were lured into the forest Fire Team unleashed their trap, killing many of them in one fell swoop. The remaining adventures chased them into a canyon where Fire Team, with the help of the giants caused an avalanche.

They worked tirelessly to remove the rubble while being attacked by Fire Team and their giants. Eventually they were able to clear a path but Fire Team managed to escape to the Armies of Macos. The adventurers found an excavation site. Apparently the information about an ancient artifact was no ruse; they found one of the Stones of Anothath. Along with the stone they found clues to the other two stones, one was given to the race of Men and the other to the race of Dragons.

While the armies finalized the defenses of Galdaria and prepared to meet the Armies of Mancos in combat the adventures were tasked with finding the Stones of Anothath. The Stone given to the race of Men was long lost into legend, but the Enchantress heard rumor of where it could be located. She sold that information, as well as the key to getting into the secreted area at a high cost, but it was paid and the stone was found.

The stone given to the race of Dragons was being held by the dragon Oronth and his kobolt horde. It was a hard fight but the adventurers banded together to steal the stone. While the horde was engaged the stone was secreted away. Oronth pursued but was unable to retrieve the stone and he and his horde was left to stew in their anger.

With the stones in hand they were ready to face Mancos in battle. All they needed to do was to take the stones, place them at the feet of the Great Wyrm, let them charge up and expend their energy and the Great Wyrm would be turned into stone.

The armies of the kingdom engaged the Armies of Mancos to provide a distraction for the adventures giving them a chance to attack the mountain that was Mancos. It was a hard fight, where Mancos stepped dozen of warrior died, and where his tail swung men went flying. All of this was hard enough but they also encountered the champions of Mancos, Fire Team but eventually the stones were placed and charged. In one spectacular moment the Great Wyrm went from living flesh to hardened stone. The fight was over but at a cost.

The armies of Galdaria were decimated and the kingdom was on fire. If it were not for the defeat of Mancos his armies would have over ran the kingdom but as soon as they saw that they no longer had their Great Wyrm they fled from the field in great haste.