The Story So Far

[Incandescent]

In the Beginning
   The adventurers started off as many new to the job do, killing kobolds raiding near their home town of Lakecrest.  Along the way they dealt with some (of what passed for) intrigue in the town as they got caught up in the arranged marriage plans of the local sheep ranchers and a dryad from the feywild.  Raids from the Kobolds continued until the party raided their main strong hold in an abandoned dire beaver damn.  There they discovered that there was a bigger threat in the area,  a black dragon known as Daegoloth to the kobolds.
    Try though the party, local militia, and caravan guards may to curb the influx of monsters into the region it seemed to be a losing battle while Daegoloth was still at large in the delta.  The raids continued to escalate and the adventurers were kept busy with rescue missions, defending scattered hunting camps and pastures, and even defending the town of Lakecrest itself.  It was decided that the only way to end the thread was to kill the dragon.  While the militia drew off the bulk of the orc force that defended the dragon’s lair, an old hydra den deep in the heart of the delta, the party slipped in to deal with the Dragon.
   After cutting their way through the personal guards of the dragon and an epic battle with the young wyrm the day was won.  There were many casualties amongst the militia but the victory signaled a turning point in the fight to reclaim the delta and the trade route it provided.  However inspection of the hoard raised more questions than were answered.  It seemed that the dragon’s name was not Daegoloth, but rather that was some greater being that the dragon and its followers were commanded by.  Several of the monsters had arrived from the kingdom of Minya to the southwest of the Lake of Eternal Mist.
   With the threat to Lakecrest under control the adventurers headed to Eideburg the capital of the empire that used to rule the region northeast of the Lake of Eternal Mist.  Lakecrest is affiliated with Eideburg as they were one of the major trade links between the old Empire and the rest of the city-states, kingdoms, and empires that ring the lake.  Eideburg is also the home of the adventurers guild for the region.  The council of lords working to reclaim the lands of the empire from the monsters and bandits that moved in after the spell plague use the adventurers to drive back the darkness and return peace and prosperity to the land.
   Joining the adventurers’ guild normally requires the sponsorship of one of the local noble families and completing a quest to prove that the party is up to the tasks provided by the guild.  While slaying the dragon would take care of the task, there was still the problem of getting noble sanction to join the guild.
   On their way to join the guild the adventurers also “made friends” with some of the local nobles that fancied themselves adventurers.  The nobles were bullying new adventurers coming to join the guild.  The average level of adventurers coming to join the guild is about three, the last thing the nobles expected was a fair fight from a bunch of level sevens.  Needless to say in the aftermath of the duel the adventurers had ruined pissed off scions of many of the major noble houses.
   Enter Lord Leon of house Sedgar, last heir to the family’s holdings.  House Sedgar had fallen on hard times since the spell plague ravaged the empire.  The lands of the house had been overrun by an undead hoard, Leon happened to be in Eideburg at the time on house business.  Now the other noble families were plotting how to claim House Sedgar’s wealth and holdings to their own (by marriage, assassination, political maneuvering, etc…).
   When the adventurers found Leon, he had just been jumped by a band of sauhagin after purchasing an engagement gift from a merchant.  The gift had apparently been stolen by a band of adventurers that had sold it to the merchant.  The sauhagin baron was out for blood and no apologies or excuses would be taken.  The adventurers help save Leon and in return he sponsors them to be able to join the adventure guild.
   When joining the guild the adventurers needed to come up with a name for their adventuring company.  After a short debate it was decided that they would be the Magnificent 7 (six adventurers + 1 spirit companion).  Later that night at the tavern as they started to plan for what was next with Leon, a band of assassins sent by the nobles tried to take out the party… that didn’t go so well for the assassins.

[Incandescent]

The Magnificent 7’s Undead Adventure
   Now that the party were certified adventurers they decided that the next course of action was kicking some boney undead butt and take back House Sedgar’s lands.  Leon provided the adventurers a list of important people that were lost when the undead overran the area to see if they could track them down.  The only thing Leon knows about their foes is that they are led by a Skull Lord.  Taking the boat left by the merchant that abandoned Leon to the sauhagin the Magnificent 7 headed up the river towards Knot, the last known standing settlement at the border of House Sedgar lands before the undead blight.
   Asking around in Knot got the party little in the way of information about the people on their list to track down.  The towns folk were able to confirm that a bunch of people did flee to Eideburg but no one recalled any of the people on the list passing through.  Also no one could explain why the town of Knot hadn’t been sacked yet by the undead.  The town’s limited defenses and militia would have been easy pickings.  The town’s location is of strategic importance as it is on a minor fork of the river that connects to several key locations in the House Sedgar holdings.
   Having only come up the more questions than answers the party resupply for the journey ahead and attempt to get one last night of sleep in a comfy in bed before facing the nightmarish undead.  Attempt being the key word as in the middle of the night the party awakens to discover that Knot hadn’t escaped the undead as they had initially thought.  During the day a powerful illusion restores the town and it’s people to its living glory before the town had be ransacked.  By night the town reverts to its current state, undead prowling the street looking for any living souls to consume and add to their ranks. Quickly getting dressed the party flee the ruined inn before the prowling undead can pin them in.
   A running battle through the streets of the devastated town ensues as the party tries to make sense of what happened.  Eventually they detect and track the massive arcane energies that fuel the glamour that shrouds the town.  Controlling the foul magic they find a Devourer and its servitors.  Already weary from lack of sleep and the running battles with the population of Knot the Magnificent 7 can sense victory if they can end the Devourer and disrupt the spell around the town.  After a long and bloody battle the Magnificent 7 emerge victorious.
   The victory is short lived however as rummaging through the Devourer’s belongings they find orders from the Skull Lord indicating that a large army of undead recently excavated from an ancient battle field will be arriving in Knot shortly, as well a supply of weapons and war machines are on its way down river to Knot.  Once supplied the undead hoard will begin launching attacks on the surrounding area using Knot as a base of operations.
   Realizing there are a lot more undead than initially anticipated the Magnificent 7 come up with a plan.  Using a sending they contact Leon to advise him that more adventurers are going to be needed.  They then setup an ambush for the supply barges hoping to at least destroy those leaving the undead less prepared for an adventurer counter attack.  The plan works and after defeating the wights on the barges the party sets them a blaze and flees into the nearby woods as the undead army marches into view.  While the undead are numerous the Magnificent 7 confirms that due to the age of the bodies they aren’t very powerful undead and will likely be easy pickings for the other incoming adventurer parties to pick off, especially without the extra arms and armor.
   The next few days are spend dodging undead scouts and making their way to a temple complex in the woods on the southern edge of House Sedgar’s lands.  The hope is to locate the priest that runs the temple and get some additional divine assistance with driving the undead from these lands.  Sadly the temple has already fallen, and worse some sort of arcane engine seems to have been setup to syphon energy from the temple for some foul purpose.  On the bright side they do find the priest… well only his soul… which was bound to the engine channeling dark energy from the three wings of the temple into it.  Wights, wraiths, and even a vampire stand between the Magnificent 7 and the sources of dark energy fueling the contraption setup in the center of the temple.  Unfortunately whatever was being crafted didn’t like being cut off from its energy supply and breaks out of the machine.  Returning to the central chamber of the temple the Magnificent 7 faced off with a pair of blood elementals.  While the Magnificent 7 were victorious over the elementals it was a literal bloodbath as the party was dyed a dark shade of crimson by the time the battle was over.
   Once they freed the priest’s soul he called in some favors for the party in gratitude for being rescued.  Shortly afterward a group of divine warriors teleported to the temple to secure it against further undead attacks.  The brought with them an artifact for the party to use to bring an end to the undead menace much faster.
   Montage was a great wizard of times long past, well for a short while anyway.  Montage hated the dull, boring, repetitive parts of delving into arcane mysteries; he wanted to get right to the exciting stuff.  To further this aim he created a set of hour glasses that could be used to “skip” the boring stuff and get right to the important bits.  In a very short period of time after developing the hour glasses Montage became a great wizard, accumulating vast amounts of lore and magical power, and then promptly died of old age about 3 months later.  There were two major flaws in the design of the hour glasses, firstly they were one use only before needing to be recharged (no one since Montage has figured out how to do that), secondly while very little time passes in the rest of the world, users of the hour glasses age as if they had experienced twice the time they had skipped.  While this normally wouldn’t be an issue if used sparingly Montage was quite fond of using the hour glasses and just ran himself out of time.
   Armed with this reality bending artifact the Magnificent 7 were able to take what would have been several months of hacking through undead and reclaiming House Sedgar’s lands and compress that down to about an hour of highlights from along the way.  Now standing outside the library in Castle Sedgar the Magnificent 7 were ready to deal with the Skull Lord once and for all.  To its credit after getting an hour of reports from across the occupied lands of a party of adventures, the same ones each time, showing up and destroying his facilities, the Skull Lord wasn’t overly shocked when the library doors were kicked open and he had a party of angry adventures with an ornate, but empty hour glass, come rushing in.  The battle was fierce; the Skull Lord’s necromantic magics basted the Magnificent 7 as they cut their way through his guards.  But the day (year?) was won by the Magnificent 7, lifting the shadow from the lands of House Sedgar and ending the undead threat to the surrounding countryside.

[Incandescent]

The Magnificent 7’s Mind Bending Adventure
   With the undead incursion in the mop up phase The Magnificent 7 began digging into the Skull Lord’s research notes and possessions trying to determine why the undead had invaded, where they came from, and if there may be another invasion coming now that they had defeated the first hoard.
   The letters and correspondence indicated that some key books to an arcane phenomenon it was researching could be found in the House Sedgar libraries. The Skull Lord had been based out of the wastelands that used to comprise Bael Turath and Arkhosia Empires before they destroyed each other.  Likely there would be no further incursion as the Skull Lord answered to no one.  Hoping to capitalize on the death of the Skull Lord the party decided to try and find the Skull Lord’s wasteland hide out and loot it before other parties got to it.
   In the border mountains between the wastes and the Empire the Magnificent 7 stopped in a small dwarven hold for the night.  During the night the hold was attacked by some Shadow demons, fortunately for the town the Magnificent 7 sprang into action and defeated the demons before they could cause too much destruction.
   Setting off from the dwarven hold restocked and reprovisioned the Magnificent 7 entered the wastelands.  Even before the spell plague these lands were a blasted waste of twised magic.  Much of the devastation was cause by the use of powerful magic from the time of the Teifling/Dragonborn war.  When the spell plague hit the already unstable region went right off the deep end.  Elementals, demons, and undead are all common through the wastes as are strange magical phenomenon.
   Locating the Skull Lord’s holdings proved to be very challenging.  Places in the waste have a way of staying hidden from those searching for them, while places that want to find someone can bend the lands to cause people to find them.  Both of these factors came into affect with the Magnificent 7, the Skull Lord’s hide out was in no hurry to be found, but something more interesting was waiting for the Magnificent 7 to venture into the wastes.
   After several days journey and having to deal with some of the wasteland residents that don’t like adventurers the party came upon a strange structure.  A large stepped pyramid rose from the desolate plain and battling over and around it was a host of demons and angels.  Upon spotting the Magnificent 7 the battle greatly intensified as the demons and angels rushed to get to the party.  Fortunately for the party the angels got there first and managed to get the adventurers past the worst of the demons and onto the pyramid.
   The Magnificent 7 met with the leader of the angels defending the pyramid from the demons.  He explained that atop the pyramid is a great oracle that has been waiting for the Magnificent 7 to arrive.  The angel explained that this particular oracle is somewhat special.  Normally it hides outside of time and space arriving just before an epic catastrophe to warn of its coming.  Previously it has arrived before the dawn war, before the war between the Dragonborn and Teiflings, and most recently just before the spell plague.  While the angel did not know what was coming up this time it would likely be very, very bad unless something is done to prevent it.
   The Magnificent 7 were then brought before the oracle, an ancient salad.  The salad looked at the party for a long while before making the following statement:
   “The time of answers has come before the questions of the unforgotten have appeared.  More reality seeks entrance to existence and reality that is not reality seeks to join reality.  The unforgotten’s contract goes unfulfilled, the merging has not completed.  The one from beyond seeks victory by opening the gateway at the edge of everything and allowing that which was excluded entrance.  The mortal servitors have already been bloodied, now seek vengeance against those of secret keeper and forgetters.  Gain the questions, then strike from existence the understanding of the unforgotten to merge the realities, only then can the rift sealing be completed and everything be as it will be.”
   With that the pyramid began to collapse in upon itself. Demons, angels, and adventurers alike fled from the pyramid before they could get sucked into whatever extra dimensional space it came from.  Sadly being at the center of the pyramid the party were exposed to some of the warping magic and raw stuff of creation that made up the pyramid’s structure as it dissolved around them.  When all was said and done the party were left alone in the wastes, suffering from some odd affliction brought on by their exposure to the weird stuff of the pyramid, and with a paladin rather than a fighter.
   The walk back out of the waste was much shorter than the trip in, much less eventful as well.  Once back in civilized lands there was the purchase of a remove affliction scroll and then a few days were spend getting of the strange warping disease that had affected the party.  Deciding that maybe it would be better to skip the wastes for a while the Magnificent 7 decided that maybe some nice clean and clear lake air was what the doctor ordered.  As such they set off back to Lakecrest to sign on with some trade ships and deal with some of the pirates that were harassing shipping on the Lake of Eternal Mist.

[Incandescent]

The Magnificent 7 Talk Like Pirates
   The simple life of being guards on a boat was just the kind of break that the Magnificent 7 needed.  Sun, fresh air, and all the fresh sea food you can catch at 10 squares of movement per turn.  The good life, made exciting when the lookout spotted a fleet of pirates heading for their ship.
   Most of the fighting was your standard swashbuckling combat. Lynx was surrounded on the enemy boat, Fig attempted to nap with the fishes, and Lo-kag had to get his yearly bath fishing out Fig.  Fortunately the Magnificent 7 managed to fend off the faster scout ships before the heavier ones with more damaging weapons could get in range of their ship.  The one thing of note was that many of the pirates seemed to be from Minya.

[Incandescent]

The Magnificent 7 Deal With Aberrant Invaders
   Back on dry land after their swashbuckling fun the Magnificent 7 find that a small foulspawn force has been steadily growing and is now becoming a major threat.  Teaming up with other adventurer parties and the local druids the party beat back the foulspawn advance and managed to seal the gate to the far realm that had let them loose.
   With the reinforcements cut off efforts now turned to mopping up the last of the foulspawn that had setup a base in a ruined city nearby.  The Magnificent 7 slipped through the city to an ancient library that was still mostly intact.  It seemed to be the hub of foulspawn activity in the city and it looked like they were searching for something.
   The magnificent 7 set about cutting their way through the guards posted through the library finally reaching the upper floors where they faced off with the lead foulspawn.  After a lengthy battle, involving some trips to an extra dimensional space, the party defeated the mystic and retrieved the book he was searching for (conveniently found for them by one of the mystic’s minions just after the party finished the fight).
   Taking the ancient tome back to Leon’s castle they set about trying to decipher and decode the ancient text… and promptly failed to understand the book.  Deciding that now would be a good time to invest some of their hard earned gold the party hired a group of sages to translate for them.  The book was the script to an ancient play, apparently one that was never popularized.  The summary was that some adventurers went about gaining the favor of all the major powers of the cosmos (gods, major demons, titans, primal spirits, etc…) in order to allow a set of dimensional travelers to come into this world and settle it as theirs had been destroyed.  The part of the book detailing how this was supposed to work and what happened was heavily damaged and could not be recovered.

[Incandescent]

The Magnificent 7 Go Digging for Dwarves
   Paragon, the tier of globetrotting adventure.  Now that the Magnificent 7 had attained the prized level 11 the world opened up for them, new locations to visit, nastier bad things to squish, and dwarves asking for help as their underdark mining outposts are being flooded.
   Now to be honest it had been getting wet in the underdark for a little while, but there were bigger problems facing the world that needed the Magnificent 7’s attention.  But now it was time to help the dwarves get teleport circles setup to their main mining outposts so that they are not cut off by the rising water and starved out or lost.  Mostly this involved transporting the magical components required to setup teleport circles and setting up water proof wards in case of a major leak.  This seemed easy enough, except that the rising water was bringing out every air breathing underdark fiend  trying to find a dry spot to call home.  Not to mention undead cause by the rising water were attacking anything still breathing to ensure it went to a watery grave.
   Armed with packs full of supplies and a map of the tunnels they needed to follow the Magnificent 7 set off into the underdark.  While there were some minor encounters along the way with the squishier denizens of the underdark many of the more challenging encounters were with the undead moving into the area.  With two stops down and the last one around the next bend the Magnificent 7 heard the ominous sound of a dwarven dam giving way and water rushing down towards them.  Standing between them and their destination was a dark dwarf war band simultaneously holding off some undead on one flank while besieging the dwarven hold.
   The battle was fierce as both sides unloaded their big guns as quick as possible in an attempt to finish their foes before the water reached them.  Being in fireball formation was an issue for both sides of the conflict as the blasts and bursts of magical energy were fast furious.  It wasn’t looking good for the Magnificent 7 as the dark dwarven defenders would not die.  As the water started rising the Magnificent 7 finally managed to crack the wall of dark dwarf defenders. After that they swiftly mopped up the rest of their foes.
   At the last moment the dwarves threw open the gates to their hold, and the Magnificent 7 rushed inside ahead of the water.  Safely inside the party delivered the last of the magical supplies.  A quick teleport later and they were back in the main dwarven hold  with access to the surface.  All access to the underdark had been cut off by the rising water.  No one had any answers for where all the water could have come from.  And without the ability to breath under water the answers would not be easy to come by.
   At this point Fig decided that he wanted to start his career as an evil mastermind and decided to part ways with the rest of the team.  After a last round with his old team there was a send off out behind the tavern.  The next morning the Magnificent 7 left the dwarf holds less one Fig, and Fig left with the shipment of manure from the stables to fertilize a farmer’s field.

[Incandescent]

The Magnificent 7 and the Raiders of the Temple of Melora
   Having had enough of damp claustrophobic spaces the Magnificent 7 decided to go deal with whoever was responsible for raiding one of the main temples to Melora on the Lake of Eternal Mists.  The odd thing in the reports is that no bodies had been found and most of the treasure had been left in the temple.  Hopping a boat out to the nearby fishing village made for a quick and uneventful trip.  Arriving in the fishing village the Magnificent 7 were given a rather cold reception.  It seems that several other adventuring parties had flooded the area and they weren’t being very polite, diplomatic, or respectful.
   Heading up to the temple they found two angry mobs out front of the gates and a small group of guards trying to maintain control.  On one side were the adventures wanting access to the temple to investigate, the other had the villagers indicating that all the adventurers wanted was to steal the temple’s treasures, and stuck in the middle was Captain Shieldguard of the Lakecrest militia.  Stepping up the Magnificent 7 managed to defuse the situation and got the villagers to go home and the adventurers to back off on getting into the temple.  As well they also foiled a robbery that almost set off a riot with them in the middle.
   Once they had a few moments of peace Captain Shieldguard got them up to speed on what his preliminary investigation had found.  No bodies were found anywhere in the temple complex, nor were there any signs of struggle.  Whoever or whatever had happened had either been exceptionally quick or extra ordinarily stealthy and professional.  However with the trouble between the villagers and the adventurers he hadn’t had any time to conduct a proper investigation.  Now that the Magnificent 7 were here he was hoping they could get to the bottom of this while he ran interference with the villagers and adventurers.
   The Magnificent 7 set about combing the temple for any clue as to what had happened.  It became clear the clergy had not planned on leaving when they did; it looked as though everything had been dropped right in the middle of what they were doing.  Also it seemed that whoever had done this had taken the time to erase all signs of their being in the temple.  All signs except one, lodged deep into a beam in the main chapel Lynx noticed the glint of metal.  A harrowing climb up later and they recovered a crossbow bolt head. Further investigation and a short nap later revealed that it had been coated in an exceptionally potent sleeping poison.  This lead to the logical conclusion that drow had made off with the entire clergy of the temple for some reason.  Investigation into what the temple did indicated that they specialized in making underwater breathing magic items.
   The adventurers scouring the woods found what appeared to be a trail about a half hour into the woods.  The near end pointed towards the temple and it seemed to be heavily traveled.  To the trained eye of the Magnificent 7 they could see that the trail in fact lead to the temple, but it had been expertly camouflaged for the length near the temple.  Following the trail it ended at what looked to have been used as a small camp.  Investigation revealed that there was some residual magic from the use of a teleport ritual and amongst the ashes of the camp fire a fragment of map was found showing a different camp further into the woods. A trail could be seen leading off in the direction of the second camp.
   Following the trail lead the Magnificent 7 to a small elven village.  The elves were celebrating as it seems they had found and killed them some drow raiders.  Putting two and two together the party realized that they elves had just killed their chances of getting answers as to what happened in the temple.  Fortunately the drow had been killed recently enough that Thistle was able to use a speak with dead ritual to get some answers from the leader of the raiding party.
   It seemed that one of the drow factions wanted the priests expertise in making underwater breathing gear for some reason.     Little else was gained and not much more was expected based on how secretive the drow can be with their plots.  Deciding it was worth a shot the party decided to head on to the main camp in case there were some additional clues to be found.
   Arriving in the camp it was apparent that while no drow had made it back they had left some stuff in the camp as a cache and supply dump for their trip back to their city.  While the area was drow free it did not mean that the camp was unguarded.  It seems the drow hadn’t traveled all the way on foot, and their spider mounts decided that a snack of Magnificent 7 would hit the spot until their riders got back.  Unfortunately for the spiders the Magnificent 7 were really looking forward to a fight after all the headaches they had put up with thus far.
   A short skirmish later and the Magnificent 7 had a pack of spider mounts of their very own.  Finding little else of use at the cache the party packed it all up and headed for the elven capital and the drow embassy located there.  Needless to say a band of adventurers with a pack of spiders in tow going to the drow embassy caused quite the stir.  In the embassy the Magnificent 7 were not kept waiting long for a meeting with the ambassador based on their entrance to the city.  The ambassador listened to their story and the proof they had accumulated indicating that the drow had raided the temple after agreeing to peacefully live on the surface.  The ambassador remained remarkably calm through the story before excusing herself to see what could be done to resolve the issue as peacefully as possible.
   The Magnificent 7 were kept waiting for a couple of hours while the ambassador checked in with her government on what could be done.  While the soundproofing magic in the embassy was good, every now and then an outburst could be detected over the silencing spells (though what was being said was muffled to the point of being unrecognizable).  After the wait the ambassador invited them out to the teleportation circle in the courtyard.  Shortly after arriving outside a group of drow guards teleported in with the clergy from the temple of Melora.  An official apology was issued from the drow government for the actions taken by the rogue house that had orchestrated the kidnapping and a sizable donation was made to the temple to make up for any inconvenience this may have caused.  The Magnificent were given the spider mounts as a reward for bringing this heinous act to light.  The ambassador assured everyone that it would not happen again as the rogue house members were either dead or enslaved for their crimes.
   In appreciation for their work in rescuing them from the Drow the clergy provided each member of the Magnificent 7 with a specialized underwater breathing charm.  It allows normal movement and operation underwater however the bearers cannot take extended rests using them.  All the priests could confirm from their time with the drow was that they really wanted underwater breathing items for some reason.  The drow ambassador seemed equally as clueless to the motives of the drow house that kidnapped the clergy.  However the Magnificent 7 figured that there was more going on than they were being told.
   With the underwater breathing gear the Magnificent 7 decided that maybe probing the mysterious formation of lake Meteo may lead to some of the answers the drow were unwilling to provide.

[Incandescent]

Ok, there is the story so far, from here on it's up to you guys to update this with what went on and points of interest.  Scott has volunteered to to the majority of the note keeping so the rest of you should just have to make sure he didn't miss any highlights

Side Note: if the forums eat my campaign notes again I'm going to be very sad.