Session 125

Heroes (lvl 18): Amani, Deet, Gunnar, Hassan, Regall, Ryel

677 Winter

The assault on the Black Defense Tower begins with the Heroes cutting their way through the Orogs barring access to the tower. Once the defenders are defeated, they enter the ancient structure and face the true defenses within.

Golems guard the tower’s interior, while magical traps turn every step into a threat. The Heroes fight their way deeper into the tower, overcoming its constructs and surviving its deadly defenses until they finally reach the crystal core that powers the tower.

They destroy the crystal.

The effect is immediate. The tower begins to crumble around them, and the Heroes race to escape before the entire structure collapses.

They emerge from the ruins as the Black Defense Tower falls.

Across Kal-Saitharak, the consequences are already becoming visible. The magical reinforcement sustaining the fortress walls begins to fade. For the first time, the great walls of the Gorgon’s fortress are vulnerable.

The allied armies are ready.

The assault on Kal-Saitharak can begin.

Session 124

Heroes (lvl 18): Amani, Deet, Gunnar, Hassan, Regall, Ryel

677 Winter

The allied armies advance across the Black Plain, but the Gorgon’s forces make their final stand before Kal-Saitharak. The Heroes are confronted by a host of fire giants, and a brutal battle erupts across the blackened plain. After a hard-fought struggle, the giants are defeated.

With the way cleared, the armies reach the immense walls of Kal-Saitharak.

There is little time to prepare. The Hand of Azrai arrives before the assembled forces and demands the Heroes surrender. They refuse, unwilling to bow to the Gorgon or his master.

As the siege begins, the Heroes discover that the fortress is protected by more than stone. The Defensive Black Towers are channeling powerful magic into the walls, reinforcing them against the allied siege engines and making a conventional assault nearly useless.

The Heroes realize that the towers themselves must fall before the walls can be breached. They begin planning an assault on the Defensive Black Towers.

The next battle will begin there.

Session 123

Heroes (lvl 17): Amani, Deet, Gunnar, Hassan, Regall, Ryel

677 Winter

The allied armies reach the Petrified Valley, but there is no time to rest. The valley is a graveyard of stone, filled with the petrified remains of those who came before them. Here, the Gorgon’s forces make their stand.

Medusas emerge among the ancient statues, turning the battlefield itself into a deadly maze of stone. Among them stands a Hierophant Medusa, wielding powers far beyond those of her kin. But the greatest threat comes from a creature born of the Abyss: a Balor that descends upon the battlefield, bringing fire and destruction with it.

The entire valley becomes a brutal battle. The Heroes fight their way through the medusas and the Balor, refusing to let the Gorgon’s forces halt the advance.

When the last enemy falls, the Petrified Valley finally falls silent.

The way forward is open. The armies gather once more and continue their march toward the final battlefield.

Ahead lies the Black Plain.

LEVEL UP!

Session 122

Heroes (lvl 17): Amani, Deet, Gunnar, Hassan, Regall, Ryel

677 Winter

The advance of the allied armies continues, but the Gorgon’s forces are waiting. The Heroes find themselves fighting across a poisoned landscape, where the earth itself seems hostile to those who cross it. From the wasteland emerge savage gnolls, their demonic kin, and finally a monstrous Goristro that tears through the battlefield with terrifying strength.

There is no respite. The entire day becomes a brutal battle, with the Heroes fighting not only for their own survival but to keep the path open for the armies following behind them.

At last, the enemy is defeated. But the road ahead remains impassable. The ancient causeway has been shattered, leaving a deep and dangerous gap between the allied forces and the road beyond.

Rather than abandon the advance, the Heroes turn to cunning and magic. Working together, they find a way to repair the broken causeway and restore the passage. Stone is brought back into place, magic binds what remains, and slowly the ancient road becomes passable once more.

The armies begin to cross.

With the way forward secured, the great host resumes its march. Ahead lies the Petrified Valley, and beyond it, the heart of the Gorgon’s domain.

Session 121

Heroes (lvl 17): Amani, Deet, Gunnar, Hassan, Regall, Ryel

677 Winter

A year passes since the gathering at Seaharrow. In that time, the Heroes' lives continue to change even as the war against the Gorgon enters its final stage. Several of them have welcomed heirs into the world, while others await the births that will secure the next generation.

For Deet, however, the question of children remains far more complicated.

Seeking an answer to her curse of infertility, Deet turns to her sister Alyona, High Priestess of Kriesha, and asks her to intercede with the goddess. Kriesha answers—but her blessing comes with a terrible price. For seven years, Deet will be fertile, and during those years she must bear at least three children. The first two may remain hers. The third, however, must be surrendered to Kriesha. Should Deet refuse, the goddess promises that the first two children will bear a terrible curse. It is a gift, but one that binds Deet's future to the will of the goddess.

Then, in the winter of 677 MR, the armies of Cerilia begin their final push toward the Gorgon's Crown. The war has raged for years, but now the time has come to bring it to an end. The united armies of the continent march together, with the Heroes at their forefront.

Their first battlefield is a vast expanse of burning wheatfields. The Gorgon has set the land ablaze, turning the countryside into a killing ground. Smoke fills the air as flames race across the fields.

The Gorgon's forces meet them there.

At their head stands a Death Knight general, supported by terrible Brazen Gorgons and an army of savage Orog berserkers. The battle is brutal. Fire consumes the fields around them while steel and sorcery tear through the opposing armies. The Heroes fight at the heart of the chaos, breaking through the Gorgon's forces and finally driving them from the field.

The first battle of the final campaign is won.

But there is no time to rest. Beyond the burning fields lies the next obstacle: the ancient Broken Causeway, the road that leads deeper into the Gorgon's lands.

The army marches onward.

Session 120 - Start of Season Five

Heroes (lvl 17): Amani, Deet, Gunnar, Hassan, Regall, Ryel

676 Winter

The Heroes gather at Seaharrow, where the great kings and queens of Cerilia assemble for what may be the final council before the war against the Gorgon. The gathering is not only political. Three marriages are celebrated, binding some of the continent’s most powerful rulers together as the armies prepare for the final campaign: Hassan marries Nura, Gunnar marries Siobhan, and Amani marries Wilros.

Amid the celebrations, Ryel has a quiet conversation with Anomander. They speak openly about Ryel’s ultimate fate. Ryel appears increasingly determined to take Anomander’s place in the Shadow World, becoming the guardian that keeps the darkness contained. Anomander does not oppose the idea. In fact, he continues to support it. His greatest desire is to become mortal again and return to the “real” world, leaving the Shadow World behind.

Ryel also seeks out Thalion, determined to understand the mysterious lord’s true motives. Thalion gives him a simple answer: he wants the Gorgon defeated. Nothing more. He has spent too long watching Cerilia suffer under the Gorgon’s shadow, and he wants the continent finally free of his menace. Once the Gorgon is defeated, Thalion says, he will leave Cerilia—“to join his father.”

Anomander, meanwhile, confronts Amani over her decision to marry Wilros. He is convinced that the marriage is yet another manipulation by Thalion and urges Amani to stop allowing others to decide her future. When Anomander threatens to leave her side, however, Amani turns his own argument against him. If he truly believes that she must make her own choices, then he must respect the choice she has made—even if he disagrees with it. Her words convince him to stay.

Finally, the kings and queens gather for the war council. Old alliances are renewed, promises are made, and the final military plans are agreed upon. Across Cerilia, the armies are ready.

The march against the Gorgon is about to begin.

Session 119 - End of Season Four

Heroes (lvl 16): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel

676 MR - Autumn

The heroes inspect the Void Closets, opening two narrow chambers that each contain a Sphere of Annihilation. The rooms are traps of absolute destruction, and even brief exposure leaves lasting pain. The spheres are left undisturbed, sealed away once more.

They continue to the Vortex Bridge, a chamber of shifting tiles suspended over a raging gravitational well. Each misstep drags body and spirit toward crushing force, but through trial and careful pattern, the correct path is found and crossed.

Beyond it lies an underwater trench mirage. Illusory oceans surround the heroes as they move through a dream of crushing depths. A sentient shark drifts through the false sea, offering strange, unsettling wisdom before allowing them to pass.

At last, the heroes reach the prison of the genies, the final threshold before the Suncrown. Four beings wait within—djinni, dao, marid, and efreeti—bound as the last guardians of the relic. They cannot allow the crown to be taken, yet they listen as the heroes present Nura as its rightful heir.

The argument sways three of the genies, but the efreeti of fire demands proof. A duel is called. Nura accepts and emerges victorious, sparing her opponent rather than destroying them. Mercy, not domination, proves her claim.

With their duty fulfilled, the genies are released from their ancient bonds and fade from the world. The Suncrown is finally claimed, resting in the hands of the one it was always meant to serve.

LEVEL UP!

Session 118

Heroes (lvl 16): Deet, Rhys, Hassan, Ryel

676 MR - Autumn

The heroes enter the Hall of Discordance, a long chamber where magic and sound intertwine. Along the walls, enchanted instruments rest in carefully carved niches, each humming with restrained power.

At the far end of the hall, sealed doors await a performance worthy of passage. Mere noise is not enough—the magic demands mastery. The heroes rise to the challenge, and it is Rhys who succeeds where the others falter. His performance resonates through the hall, and the doors finally open.

Beyond them lies an ancient library, heavy with dust and silence. Five statues of eagle-headed men stand watch among the shelves, unmoving and severe. When the heroes reach for the books, the guardians respond. Stone animates, wings spread, and battle erupts among the stacks.

The statues are shattered one by one, their vigilance ending in ruin. In the aftermath, the heroes search the library’s remains, recovering several magical scrolls and tomes—fragments of knowledge wrested from a place that no longer remembers its keepers.

Session 117

Heroes (lvl 16): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel

676 MR - Autumn

The heroes hold all four artifacts needed to open the way to the Temple of the Suncrown. Drawn by their combined power, they travel into the desert, where an ancient elemental obelisk waits beneath the sun.

At its base, the artifacts are placed into four sealed sockets. The obelisk awakens, and in the distance a rocky formation trembles as three doors open along its face.

The first proves to be a deception, a false passage meant to mislead. The second is sealed by shifting runes and layered enchantments. The heroes solve the magical puzzle and force the way open.

Inside, the temple answers intrusion with violence. Two trapped chambers test precision and resolve, but the heroes endure and press forward.

They emerge into a hall of silent jade statues. The stillness breaks as the statues animate and attack. Stone shatters under steel and spell, and the guardians are destroyed.

Session 116

Heroes (lvl 15): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel

676 MR - Summer

The Heroes descend into the shadow beneath the Black Mirage, stepping through an obsidian gate that cracks open only when each of them speaks a truth they would rather abandon. Inside, the air turns cold and thin. Masks carved from shadowglass float in a silent gallery, each one replaying the death of someone the Magian has consumed. The echoes strain at the Heroes’ resolve, but they push through and find the staircase spiraling downward into darkness.

The sanctum’s heart waits below: a vastchamber threaded with strands of blood-red and shadow-black energy. Each thread pulses like a vein, anchoring the Magian’s sorcery to places far beyond this ruin. The Heroes carve through the web, unraveling the power that feeds him, while rift-born creatures melt out of the air to stop them. The chamber trembles as more of the threads snap.

At the center stands the shattered plinth, holding a fragment of twilight shaped like glass—the last relic they need. As the Heroes approach, the shadows condense into the Magian himself. Cloaked in runes and smoke, he descends upon them with a wave of blood magic and impossible force.

The battle twists the chamber around them. Spells warp into illusions. Reality fractures. When his body collapses, he reforms as a creature of pure void, striking with killing precision. But even this final shape falters. When the Magian falls at last, the relic fuses before their eyes into its true form: the Mirror of Dusk.

The sanctum begins to implode, dragging itself into a vortex of sand and darkness. The Heroes race up the collapsing stairway, dodging shards of obsidian and bending gravity, until they burst through the crumbling gate just as the sanctum collapses behind them.

Breathing desert air again, they hold the final relic.

The genie seals will be next.

LEVEL UP!

Session 115

Heroes (lvl 15): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel

676 MR - Summer

The Heroes enter the Necropolitan Frontier, where the desert abruptly gives way to a borderland that refuses to decay. Bones lie exposed but unrotted, bleached clean yet unnervingly intact. Dust storms rise and collapse in silence. The land feels held in suspension, waiting for a command that never comes. As the Heroes advance, skeletal guardians shamble from half-buried ruins, animated not by life but by a cold, ritual stillness. They cut through the patrols and press deeper toward the Magian’s domain.

They soon reach the Ossuary-River, a wide channel of drifting bone fragments flowing like water, carried by magic rather than current. To cross, the Heroes must navigate shifting barges of fused ribs and shattered skulls while skeletal remnants rise from the churning mass to pull them under. The crossing becomes a brutal struggle against the dead and the river itself, but the Heroes force their way through and climb the far bank as the bone-tide roars behind them.

Beyond the river lies the Failed Ascension Pit—an enormous crater surrounded by broken pillars carved with failed incantations. In its center stands a ritual cage, the remnants of an abandoned attempt at immortality. The Magian’s lesser experiments, twisted undead that never achieved form or will, crawl from the walls and attack with desperate hunger. The Heroes fight through the malformed horrors, finally silencing the last of the failed creations.

With the pit cleared, the path to the Magian’s true sanctum opens beneath a cracked slab of obsidian. The Heroes descend into darkness, leaving the Necropolitan Frontier behind as they prepare to confront the architect of this frozen, deathless land.

Session 114

Heroes (lvl 15): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel

676 MR - Summer

The Heroes push deeper into the ruin and enter the Hall of Echoes, where whispered fragments of their past lives swirl around them—memories twisted, rearranged, or spoken by voices not their own. They steady themselves and continue forward, refusing the illusions’ pull.

Ahead waits the Bridge of Paradox, a grand stone span that does not truly exist. Recognizing the deception, the Heroes step off the false path and walk across the empty air on an invisible bridge revealed only through their certainty.

They reach a door that is not a door, a frame opening onto nothing. Understanding the nature of the trial, they close their eyes and walk forward, trusting the unseen. The temple shifts, accepting them, and they pass through unharmed.

In the Court of Sands, the Sphinx finally reveals herself—vast, ancient, and hostile. Her riddles give way to violence, and the chamber becomes a storm of claws, magic, and swirling golden dust. After a brutal battle, the Heroes bring the Beast of Paradox down. As her body collapses, the Sunfire Ankh, a relic formed from her very skeleton, emerges from the remains.

But the victory is brief. The temple begins to fill with cascading sand as the ancient structure unravels. The Heroes flee through collapsing corridors, escaping into the desert light with the third genie relic secured. Only one remains.

Session 113

Heroes (lvl 15): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura, Hassan, Ryel

676 MR - Summer

The Heroes cross the burning desert on their way to the forgotten temple-city of Khemetra, the domain of the Sphinx who guards the third genie relic. Along the way they meet a band of sun-marked hermits, pilgrims who warn them that the ruins are alive with trials of wisdom, truth, and humility. With their guidance and a gifted amber charm, the party presses on into the shifting sands.

Khemetra rises from the dunes like a mirage of gold and stone. Inside, sun-bleached corridors twist and loop on themselves, and ancient warding glyphs still pulse with divine magic. The Heroes navigate the illusions and traps until they stand before the sealed Gate of Suns. There, the Sphinx’s unseen voice challenges them with three riddles. Each answer unlocks a portion of the gate, while wrong answers burn their minds with psychic force.

When the final riddle is spoken, the last seal trembles. The gate shudders open—and the temple awakens its ancient defenders. Two Sunforged Guardian steps from their alcoves, eyes blazing with molten light. The chamber erupts into chaos as the constructs swing their radiant fists and flood the room with blistering brilliance. After a brutal fight, the guardians collapses into a dying sun-spark, leaving the stairs to the inner sanctum exposed.

As the dust settles, the Sphinx’s voice echoes through the golden hall, calm and resonant:

“You have passed the questions of stone. Now face the questioner.”

The party descends, knowing the true trial lies ahead.

Session 112

Heroes (lvl 14): Deet, Horgin, Rhys, Nura

676 MR - Spring

The Heroes cast aside their disguises and announce themselves openly, revealing their true names and purpose. Word spreads quickly through Cravengate’s perfumed streets, and before long, the Lamia’s envoys arrive — elegant, masked courtiers who extend an invitation to the grand masquerade ball in her palace. They bring with them silks, jewels, and ornate costumes, ensuring the guests of honor look suitably magnificent for the night ahead.

The ball unfolds in a haze of music and incense. Beneath golden chandeliers, nobles sway and laugh, their eyes glassy under the Lamia’s spell. The air itself hums with enchantment, every note of the orchestra and every breath of perfume tightening her hold on the revelers. When the Lamia finally appears, radiant and terrible, she commands the room without a word. Her gaze finds the Heroes, and with a smile, she invites them to her private sanctuary to “discuss alliance.”

Within her opulent sanctum, illusion gives way to truth. The Lamia’s beauty twists into monstrosity — lion’s body, claws gleaming like polished bronze, eyes burning with hunger. Her offer is no alliance, but enslavement. When the Heroes resist, her children descend from the shadows, snarling and shrieking.

The battle is vicious and desperate. The Lamia bends light and mind alike, weaving illusions around the party while her children tear through the marble halls. Yet one by one, her glamours falter, and her perfume turns to ash. When silence finally falls, the throne room is littered with broken masks and shattered mirrors.

The Lamia lies slain. Freed from her enchantment, Cravengate stirs from its long dream — its people uncertain, its beauty hollow. In her treasury, the Heroes find riches beyond measure and, among them, the Perfumed Veil, the second relic needed to unseal the Palace of the Suncrown.

LEVEL UP!

Session 111

Heroes (lvl 14): Deet, Hassan, Horgin, Rhys, Nura

676 MR - Spring

The Heroes reach the oasis city of Cravengate, jewel of the desert and seat of the Lamia’s power. They know that she holds one of the four relics needed to break the genie seals — the Perfumed Veil — and decide to infiltrate the city under the guise of wealthy merchants.

Within the walls, they find a place steeped in decadence. Golden-masked guards patrol perfumed streets, ensuring that nobles remain drunk on vice and illusion. Slavery flourishes openly. The rich lounge in silk-draped pavilions while the poor and disfigured are herded into shadowed alleys, unseen and unwanted. Servants drift through the streets offering mulled wine and spreading incense, both laced with subtle alchemical compounds that leave minds pliant to the Lamia’s magic.

The Heroes make contact with the underground resistance, a desperate network of beggars and outcasts clinging to scraps of freedom. From them, they learn the truth: the Lamia wears the Perfumed Veil herself, never parting with it, a constant source of her power.

When night falls, the masquerade ends. The streets empty as lanterns dim, and those foolish or desperate enough to linger are set upon by the Lamia’s children—creatures of lion’s haunch and woman’s face that prowl the darkness, devouring stragglers. The city breathes like a living thing, its beauty a thin skin stretched over rot.

Session 110

Heroes (lvl 14): Deet, Ryel, Hassan, Horgin, Rhys, Nura

676 MR - Spring

The canyon shakes with thunder as two Brazen Gorgons emerge, iron beasts blazing with molten fire. Their breath scorches the air, their hooves shatter stone, but the Heroes stand firm. Steel and sorcery smash through iron hides until the constructs collapse into cooling heaps of obsidian.

The way forward leads into the shattered shrine of Basaïa. Once a radiant temple, it now lies corrupted — halls lined with petrified priests, mosaics warped into shadow, veins of crystal crawling across the floor. The very air hums with the Basilisk’s curse. The Heroes press on, pushing through collapsed passages and avoiding traps where divine light has twisted into necrotic flame.

Then the tremors rise. Dust rains from the ceiling as the Stone Tyrant emerges. The Basilisk towers from the sanctum, marble-scaled and many-eyed, its mane bristling with shards of stone. Around it lies its hoard of bones and statues, and at the center gleams the Obsidian Eye.

The battle shakes the temple. Gaze after gaze threatens to turn flesh to stone, columns collapse, and shattered statues lurch to life. Yet the Heroes endure. With a final roar, the Basilisk shatters into fragments of blackened stone.

The Obsidian Eye is theirs — the first relic to break the Seals of the Suncrown.

Session 109 - The Suncrown

Heroes (lvl 14): Deet, Ryel, Hassan, Horgin, Rhys, Nura

676 MR - Spring

The Heroes gather in Dorotheas, the sea-born capital of Hassan’s realm, where they meet with Lord Thalion to plan their next great expedition. The council turns to a single prize: the Suncrown, the sielshegh-encrusted diadem that embodies rulership over the people of Basaïa. Thalion reveals its resting place, hidden behind four elemental seals woven by ancient genies. To break them, four relics must be recovered — each held within the hoards of dreaded awnsheghlien: the Basilisk, the Lamia, the Sphinx, and the Magian.

The Heroes set their course for the lands of the Basilisk, a cursed canyon where none return. There they encounter the canyon nomads, who refuse to aid strangers without proof of worth. Through trials of survival, endurance, and faith in Avani, goddess of the sun, the Heroes win their trust and earn a map that guides them toward the monster’s lair.

As they press deeper into the valley, they find a landscape littered with statues — men, beasts, even entire warbands frozen in stone. One figure draws their attention: a paladin of Avani, petrified for more than a century while on her own quest for the Obsidian Eye, the relic tied to the Basilisk’s hoard. The Heroes break her curse, and she warns them of the creature’s true danger — a gaze that can sweep across many at once, turning all to stone in an instant.

The air grows foul with sulfur as they near a cluster of caverns. The ground trembles with thunderous hooves, and from the haze emerge brazen gorgons, iron beasts with molten cores. Their charge shakes the canyon walls. The Heroes draw their weapons, ready to face the guardians of the Basilisk’s domain.

Session 108

Heroes (lvl 13): Deet, Ryel, Gregor, Alyona, Voron

675 MR - Winter

Wyrm's Rest, Realm of Tuornen

The Heroes prepare for the awakening of the ancient dragon Tuornen. Deet and Voron remain by the petrified wyrm’s side, while the rest of the company positions themselves thirty miles away, waiting within a cavern chosen as a refuge and a cage should the dragon’s fury prove unrestrained.

With a surge of magic, Deet dissolves the petrification, scales shifting and eyes flaring as Tuornen breathes once more after a century of stone-bound slumber. At the same moment, Voron calls upon his spells to signal Alyona, who unleashes the Orb of Dragonkind. Compelled by its ancient power, Tuornen takes wing toward the mountains, Deet and Voron clinging to her tail from their dragonnels as they hurtle through the skies in her wake.

The dragon arrives at the cavern, bewildered but not enraged, her massive form looming in the shadows. There, her son Belzekyr awaits, lending the moment both tension and gravity.

The Heroes approach with care—offering reverence, promises of treasure, and the bond of shared purpose. They speak of Raizhadik, the ancient dragon who razed the Giantdowns and once slew Tuornen’s mate. The words strike true. Old hatred stirs, and vengeance steels her resolve. At last, Tuornen sets aside suspicion and accepts her place once more as the protector of Tuornen, now an ally bound by honor and cause.

LEVEL UP!

Session 107

Heroes (lvl 13): Deet, Ryel, Gregor, Alyona, Voron

675 MR - Winter

Castle Targov, Realm of Zoloskaya

The heroes and their allies study the Orb of Dragonkind, probing its mysteries. Alyona steps forward and seizes it, bending its dangerous will to her own.

Their search for further aid reveals the legend of the Pool of Wounds, a sacred place once used by the followers of Kriesha and Belinik to forge weapons against dragons. Old tales tell of a clan who stood against Vore Lekiniskiy with blades blessed by its waters, protecting a village that was eventually annihilated by the dragon.

The heroes journey to the ruins of that village and find it trapped in a time-loop, its people reliving the final hour before Vore’s fiery destruction. They investigate the strange phenomenon and uncover a tower where a shaman of Belinik struggles endlessly against a demon. Long ago, the shaman bargained with the creature, binding the village in an endless cycle.

The heroes shatter the pact and slay the balor, breaking the curse. The ghost of the shaman lingers, possessing Voron long enough to reveal the true location of the Pool of Wounds.

At the pool, the heroes discover a warband of vos berserkers seeking to claim the site’s power. Battle erupts, and when blood spills into the sacred waters, ancient dragon bones rise, coiling into the form of a dracolich. After a brutal struggle, the heroes prevail over both berserkers and undead wyrm. At last, the pool is theirs, and their armaments are blessed with dragon-slaying power.

Session 106

Heroes (lvl 13): Deet, Ryel, Gregor, Alyona, Voron

675 MR - Winter

Castle Targov, Realm of Zoloskaya

Deet, Ryel, and Gregor return to the cold lands of Vosgaard, bringing with them Belzekyr, son of the petrified dragon of Tuornen. At Castle Targov they summon the realm’s rulers — the Ersheghlien Karol and Ekaterina — and the high leaders of the Temple of Might, Alyona and Voron. Together they weigh the peril of awakening an ancient wyrm whose temper may be death itself.

In private, Deet seeks counsel from Alyona about her barrenness. Through prayer, Alyona communes with her goddess and returns with a grim truth: Deet carries a curse laid upon her for defying Kriesha. Only atonement can lift it, though the path is shrouded in silence. The goddess offers no guidance, only the demand.

The council turns its focus to the dragon. Through lore both mundane and arcane they uncover mention of a relic — the Orb of Dragonkind — a vessel of power said to summon and even command dragons. The last whisper of it points to the lair of Vore Lekiniskiy, the Dragon of the Vstaive Peak.

The heroes set forth and descend into the cavernous lair. There, amid the stench of brimstone, the Orb rests within the chest of a towering iron golem, half-submerged in a molten pool. An ancient salamander coils through the lava, its heat and fury bound in alliance with the construct. The battle is long and merciless, fire and steel clashing against mortal will. At last the golem is shattered and the salamander slain. From the ruin, the Orb of Dragonkind is seized — its surface alive with a dangerous, beckoning light.