1151 BCY

The era from 1151 to 1143 marked a time of upheaval and turmoil.

Though the adventurers that were sent to find and kill the necromancer never returned it was assumed they were successful.

In reality the necromancer was consolidating power and performing profane rituals. The heroes not only were defeated but also enslaved within the Soul Anchor, a phylactery specially crafted to control large amounts of undead with ease.

With the power of the Soul Anchor and additional alliances with the a priestess of Lloth the City of Fleeth crumbled.

The emperor was executed along with most of the clergy. The imperial family was able to escape, but was forever changed by the experience.

The people of Fleeth looked forward to torturous experiments and depravity, but within a week a miracle occurred.

The necromancer disappeared and his minions burned away in an explosion of light. At the center of the light stood the now resurrected heroes who had pursued the necromancer so many years past.

• Casillius Fan'pier
• Byron Hightower
• Corinth Inrick
• Thadric Rienhold III
• Ikora the Vengeful
• Elias Baumann

Soul Engines and the Orcish Invasion

In return for the assistance of the drow in the sacking of Fleeth the necromancer taught a select few the art of creating Soul Engines. With the Soul Engines the drow began to build a fleet of sky ships from which they would, with their orcish allies, assault the heart of the Grey Wood.

The resurrected heroes first dismantled the drow's supply of wood by assaulting a labor camp to the southwest of Orkun.

As they grew closer to the ship yard near Kraxen Deeps the adventures received an invitation from drow leadership to participate in a contest. The drow hoped to humiliate the heroes and solidify their shaky alliance by proving their strength in the challenge pit. But the party survived the melee long enough to directly challenge the opposing team. With half the team swallowed by the drow's strange lizard pet the chances of success looked dim. With skill and a little luck the drow were defeated and their alliance with the orcs was shattered. Only a few drow managed to escape the pit on completed ships.

Later with allies from the Gray Wood and a healthy supply of alchemical fire the heroes returned to permanently destroy the remaining ships before they could begin their assault on the elvish city.

Fire Cleansed Corruption and the Trade King

Sir Corinth Inrick called Fairbridge his home and desired greatly to return to it after his resurrection. Once the oldest brother he found his younger siblings near the end of their lives and a new generation ready to take their places.

But not all was right in the great trade city. The leader of the city was sick and his unstable son was causing worry amongst the noble houses. Sides were being drawn between those loyal to the Trade Baron and those who saw an opportunity for new leadership.

Rebellion was brewing in the streets and outside the city hobgoblins were raping and pillaging in wanton aggression. If refugees, rebellion and political maneuvering were not enough, something even more nefarious was spreading. Ikora's keen senses detected a stink of corruption at all levels of society.

The adventures used Inrick's political connections to get a lay of the city. Following tips from the mercenaries charged with protecting the West Marches the party hunted down a hobgoblin war party. To their surprise they found that the goblins were in league with a mysterious patron in the city. The owner of a new and very successful brothel.

Tracking multiple leads in the city led them to the conclusion that there was a fiend involved in creating the refugee crisis and who was taking advantage of it. With scraps of half a dozen plots the party found themselves accidentally helping the fiend and outing the rebels.

The city seemed to settle a bit, though the demon was still on the loose. A messenger arrived with the news that the Trade Baron had died and that after the funeral court would be held to discuss new leadership.

Taking advantage of the current weakness of the Empire the nobles of the Trade City declared themselves and independent state, elected the Trade Baron's son as their King and divided up industries and consolidated power amongst the strongest houses. Due to pivotal role the Corinth's family had played and the strength of their house they were granted control of overland trade routes.

Soon after the adventurers were invited to sup with the King. They discovered their meal to be poisoned and Ikora outed the King's consort as a powerful succubus. In a series of stunning reversals the party dispatched guards, succubus and finally the distraught King who to the heroes surprise had already discovered the nature of his lover.

With the body of the succubus as evidence the party was exonerated of any guilt. Things began to return to normal in the trade city.

Perpetual Darkness and Kidnappings in Grimhollow

The city of Grimhollow was also in crisis. Constant darkness covered the sky prevented natural sunlight. Kidnappings were rampant and trouble was brewing in the cities cathedral and in the Dread Wood.

When the party first approached the city they found themselves meeting a strange orphan child, one of the few who had returned from the kidnappings. She had only fuzzy a recollection of her time in captivity but was obviously psychologically and physically scarred. Part of the child's skin had been replaced with something cold to the touch and quite unnatural. She was sensitive to sunlight, heat and felt little need to sleep.

Grimhollow's Cathedral had become corrupted, bodies exhumed from the ground and missing. The party found the cardinal murdered and his cold body setup as a puppet to warn away the curious. They found and freed a holy warrior named Volney who had been trapped in the catacombs beneath.

Volney was able to give the group information on the transformation of the area and point them toward the Dread Wood where the heroes found and destroyed a tortured unicorn. The next day sunshine returned to the valley.

Further into the forest they also found the lair of the Necromancers greatest lieutenant a cambion known as Acererak. Acererak had been kidnapping and experimenting on the people of Grimhollow, trying to create a new uncorrupted kind of undeath similar to the transformation that his master had achieved.

The party was able to defeat and banish Acererak. Not all the kidnapped survived. Among the prisoners was an celestial creature who Thadric was able to release and who aided in soothing the curse to which he and his progeny were destined.

With the help of Acererak's notes many of the people of Grimhollow were cured.

Dydd's Druids and the Dracolich

The last of the minions of the Necromancer was hidden amongst the mountains of the Silver Spine.

The party found knowledge and help among the druids of Dydd in the Dym Wood. Dydd and her kin had fought and banished Ashardalon many years ago and had killed his brood wife Amargahnyth. The druid found two of Ashardalon's offspring and raised them as her own.

Dydd was aware but unable to prevent the Necromancer from finding and corrupting the brood mothers bones and turning her into a new form, an undead dragon. When the necromancer had disappeared Amargahnyth returned to her mountains to sleep. When the ancient druid told her kin what had happened her adopted daughter the red dragon Shaligith left to find her mothers bones.

The heroes later found Shaligith on the peaks trying to use bound soul of her mother to free her father from his imprisonment in the planes. Dydd and the adventurers were in a race against time to stop Shaligith having the choice to defeat mother and daughter or father in daughter. Ultimately Ashardalon had to be forced back into the portal or his imprisonment.

The rise and banishment of Vecna

Having destroyed the necromancers minions the party discovered his lair and were able to plunder several of his secrets. They learned of his life and his strange connection to the primordial elves. They learned the name he took for himself, Vecna and of his transformation from a powerful magician to an unliving lich.

Vecna had first desired to punish the City of Fleeth out of vengeance, but in his defeat finally came to understand his mortality. He knew that accepting lichdom would only delay the inevitable and so sought further knowledge by trying to understand the ascension of Pholtus and nature of the elven pantheon and the Raven Queen. Both Vecna and the party disappeared for years. Written in sealed and dust tombs amongst the elves a story is written of a young magician visiting, corrupting and eventually splintering Corellon's family.

Records speak of a time when all the world heard the voice of Vecna calling to them, driving fear, demanding worship and threatening the entire planet with destruction. Gathering their allies, including the fallen Paladin Casillius the heroes confronted Vecna as he began his ascension to godhood. Victory was impossible, death assured, but Casillius' sword, a vile creation of the demigod himself struck a blow that severed the necromancers eye and hand before banishing both Vecna and Casillius to an unknown realm...