From Lexicanum

A Mage Bearing Gifts

As the bones of the Dracolich crumbled to dust, Bucknard turned and silently thanked the Dogs for freeing him, as the spirit began to fade, he infused each of the Dogs with a small part of his power. As the others searched through the Dragon’s hoard, Katahrr brought Dench and Tomas back to life after which Saskia teleported them back to Magepoint. The Dogs urgently sought a meeting with Tenser and were ushered without ceremony into the mage’s study. Tenser was sitting with Agath and Celeste, and all three looked weary and drawn. Tenser stood and greeted them enthusiastically congratulating them on defeating Dragotha and freeing the spirit of his old friend Bucknard. The mage informed them that things were dire indeed in Alhaster. Tzeech’s completion of the pyramid – the New Spire of Long Shadows - had unleashed a tide of undeath (and the ubiquitous worms) on the town and the people were in great peril, their leadership as they had caused the catastrophe were doing little to help. Tenser also told them that he and the others had been trying to do what they could, but they were now in a position where Kyuss could no longer be contained but had to be destroyed. The vast armies of worm-infested undead that Dragotha had assembled in the Wormcrawl Fissure, although lacking direction with the death of their general, was still swarming out across the countryside in uncounted numbers drawn towards the divine presence of their god beginning to manifest. To deal with this Tenser, along with Elegios and Agath, would plane-shift to the ethereal and cast great spell round the city to keep the undead armies out - leaving the  Dogs to deal with whatever was inside – including the worm-god himself, who was now gathering his divine  power and gradually manifesting on this plane. Tenser warned them that they could maintain the circle of protection for five days at most, but by then Kyuss would be able to fully manifest and it would be useless anyway.

Tenser also told them that massive amounts of negative energy, powering the Spire and aiding Kyuss’ return, was being generated from beneath The Boneyard. Before he departed Tenser returned to the party some of the artifacts they had left in his keeping to aid them in their final battle.Tharvel was given the part of the Rod of Seven Parts they’d recovered joined with another. Dench was given the Horn of Kazgoroth – Tenser affixing it to his head which gave him some of the qualities of the long-dead balor. Eric was given the Swords of the Wind-dukes which in combination with the Ring of the Wind-dukes and the Circlet of Zosiel would prove potent weapons against Kyuss. Saskia was told there was a sphere of annihilation in the Tomb of Horrors and given the means to get there. Katahrr was given a small crystal hourglass, an artifact of Cyndor, which she was told if she smashed it would reverse time by six seconds. Tenser even offered to return the Hand of Vecna but no-one took him up on the offer!

After farewells were said, the Dogs returned to the Inn of the All Seeing Eye - via the local magic emporium! After a night’s rest they debated where best to teleport . After considering The Traitor’s Graves as a likely target, they eventually decided on The Boneyard. Arriving in the streets just outside the cemetery, they discovered a very different city to the one they’d left. Dark roiling clouds covered the sky, shielding the sun; ominous pools of green mist hung everywhere. Buildings in the area were wrecked, and the restless dead could be seen prowling the graveyard – the Temple of Wee Jas’s spells failing in the onslaught of Kyuss’ return. Almost immediately, they were attacked by two overworms bursting from a nearby building- Esmeralda and Eric suffering the brunt of the attack. Eric, fearless as ever charged in to attack only to fall almost immediately to a combined vicious assault. The other Dogs rallied, Tharvel, Dench charging in blades flashing, Esmeralda, pausing only to apply silversheen to her blade, tumbled into battle. Tomas unleashed a flurry of arrows; le Saskia cast several Arc of lightning spells while Katahrr dashed in to cast Revivify on Eric. Esmeralda took a vicious bite and collapsed in a a heap - fortunately next to the now conscious Eric who was able to stabilise her with her lay on hands. Unabated, the battle continued to it's brutal conclusion , but eventually the Dogs prevailed.

A Clerical Dispute

As the Dogs tended to their wounds from the confrontation with the Overworms, they were startled as the sound of bells pealing rang out across the mist-shrouded gloom of the stricken city. They quickly headed east towards the sound - which was coming from the temple of Kord – they saw fearful people emerging from the nearby houses and heading that way. As they arrived at the open area in front of the temple a few hundred people had gathered. Their friend, Lanthis Vhax, the high priest of Kord, emerged and standing on the steps began to try to rally the crowd and arrange for a mass exodus of the city. However as he began to get their attention, there was a disturbance at the back as Vieras Spatlepate (the high priest of Hextor) arrived , accompanied by a squad of temple troops.

He began haranguing the  crowd, exhorting them not to listen but to come to the Temple of Hextor as Tzeech himself would be at the temple, seeking the intervention of Alhaster’s patron deity. Things got even more unsettled when Almerah Kosen ( the high priestess of Wee Jas) arrived and began urging the people too seek sanctuary with her goddess ( for an appropriate donation of course) who as a goddess of undeath would be better able to protect them! The mood of the people in the crowd began to worsen. They began to argue amongst themselves, come to blows frequently as the competing views of their religious leaders clashed in their ears! Seeing things turn ugly, Dench pushed his way through the crowd, and stood next to the Lanthis to protect him. Eric, with some special effects provided by Tharvel and vociferous support from Esmeralda and Saskia, strode forward through the crowd, attempting to influence it with the force of her personality.

Standing next to the elderly cleric of Kord, she addressed the crowd with an impassioned plea to follow his advice, and evacuate the city. Despite increasingly desperate interventions from the other clerics she began to get the crowd’s attention. An even more forceful intervention by Spatlepate and his temple troops was forestalled when Tomas rose into the air and covered him with his longbow. Eventually Eric managed to sway the crowd and persuaded them that evacuation was the best option. The crowd began to disperse in an orderly fashion,reassured by the Paladin's authoratative tone they headed to collect what belongings they could carry before returning to be escorted out by the priests of Kord to protect them from undead.  Suddenly there was a sound of panicked screams from the crowd to the north.

Drawn by the mass of living humanity, a group of kyuss knights had arrived, the large worms that peered out from their empty eye sockets gazing hungrily over the crowd.. Taking to the air The Dogs moved swiftly to intercept the knights as they began to hew their way through the edge of the crowd sowing yet more panic and despair to feed their worm-ridden master.  Tomas launched volley of arrows from the air as Dench and Esmeralda began weaving their way through the crowd. Saskia cast mass fly and Eric and Tharvel charged, flying over the heads of the crowd, to strike the worm-ridden undead. Katahrr began cast mass cure moderate wounds healing the wounded in the crowd and damaging the kyuss knights. Saskia flitted about casting scorching ray and maximised disrupt undead spells as the others continued the melee. In the combat that ensued, Esmeralda, Tharvel and Eric all suffered  intelligence drain as the loathsome eye-worms of the kyuss knights bit at  them – but eventually the Dogs were victorious. As the battle ended Eric swiftly re-established her command over the crowd - noting that Spatlepate and Kosen, with their hard-core followers had taken advantage of the distraction to disappeared. She urged the crowd to hurry before more of the undead arrived. The Dogs then headed back to Casa Diamante, retrieving their staff and escorting them with the crowd to the city gates, where a squad of the hobgoblin guard were holding the gate against the marauding undead. As he left Lanthis urged the Dogs to seek out and free any of the other citizens of Alhaster who might be trapped in their houses by the pools of green mist than hung over parts of the city. Recalling seeing several of the pools of mist hanging over the area of the graveyard,  they headed back in that direction. Dench also suggested they check out Lashonna’s mansion - now they were aware of her treachery.

Boneyard Bash

Skirting round the pools of unwholesome green mist that hovered over the streets, the Dogs made their way towards the Boneyard. The Temple of Wee Jas nearby looked closed-up and the gate to the cemetery was locked as the restless dead within prowled – animated by the pulses of negative energy. Esmeralda quickly picked the padlock on the gate and the Dogs, led by Dench, moved into the graveyard, picking their way carefully across the disturbed earth and gaping graves. The skeletons ignored them however as they crossed, three bodaks erupted from the ground and attacked. Dench smashed one, Tharvel another and Eric and Esmeralda dealt with the last. The Dogs made short work of the bodaks and avoiding the pools of mist congregating in the far end of the graveyard, clambered over the back wall.

Across the street they could see Mistwell Manor, looking much as it had the last time they had visited Lashonna. Making their way across the empty street, Esmeralda quickly picked the lock, disabling the trap with ease, and they made their way across the exquisitely manicured lawn. The lock on the door (and the trap protecting it) was swiftly dealt with and the Dogs began searching the manor. It quickly became apparent that no-one was home. In fact it looked like no-one had been home for some time!  Running out of places to search in the manor, Esmeralda located the door to the cellar – unfortunately she neglected to search for traps and reeled as the effects of a Harm spell coursed through her body. Heading down there they found a dusty wine cellar and some stored old furniture, however after a thorough search of the area  they located a secret door, which lead to a passageway leading further down and to the east. The passage ended in a large room – standing in the centre of which a large, vaguely familiar, figure stood. Seeing them, the man drew a bastard sword and raised it in challenge.

Though Dench didn’t like the look of the fellow, he and Tharvel stepped forward. The figure charged forward sweeping his orc-bane weapon at the half-orc. As he did so he slammed the orc with his off-hand draining energy and grinned - baring elongated fangs – he was a vampire. As the Dogs reacted this, three more vampires launched themselves from the shadows, their slam-attacks draining further levels from Tharvel and Dench. Esmeralda moved in to confront one, who immediately scamper up a wall and hung on the ceiling. Dench and Tharvel traded blows with the lead vampire, as one of the others sank his fangs into the half-orc’s neck. As the battle raged, Esmeralda and Eric also sufferd from the vampires energy draing attacks until Katahrr stepped in and cast mass Death Ward.  With this protection, Dench and Tharvel finally managed to put the lead vampire down – Eric then stepped forward and began turning the other vampires. Once turned they were easy prey for the Dogs to finish off!

A Fiendish Contraption.

After dispatching the vampire guards, Esmeralda followed their gaseous forms back to the win cellar where they seeped down through a crack in the floor. Moving on through a secret door spotted by Eric, the descended a spiral staircase to a room with a large metal drain set in the floor. The reek of the charnel house wafted from the drain, and as the Dogs gathered two vaporous creates emerged and began attacking - Crimson Deaths. After these monstrosities were despatched they moved deeper into the complex, emerging into a huge cavernous room that obviously some kind of statuary workshop. Somewhat incongruously six liches were working on creating monstrous statues and in the centre a massive representation of the worm-god himself.

Dench charged into the room, swiftly followed by Tharvel, the liches retaliated – casting a couple of spells that had no discernable effect, except one who cast a web spell in the doorway – blocking the way. Dench swiftly smashed the first of the liches into a bloodless pulp while Tharvel engaged the others. After tossing a few fireball and lightning bolt spells, the remaining liches fled, either by running or teleporting away. The web spell was swiftly dispelled by Saskia and the remaining members of the party deployed into the room.
Following the liches they found them clustered inside a glowing magic circle in a nearby room – Dench and Tharvel tried charging them but was unable to get near them as they were protected by an anti-life shell . Eric and the others arrived and the battle resumed at range the liches casting a series of cone of cold and other spells – to limited effect, while the Dogs retaliated at range. The stalemate went on for some time. Katahrr tried dispelling the effect, but only succeeding in despelling the magical glow surrounding the area. The liches tried using summon monster, summoning a colossal centipede which proved but a minor distraction that Esmeralda dealt with. As his fellows cast a series of spells that were ineffective against the Dogs protections, one of their number, in a lull in the battle, took the opportunity to flee again – presumably to get help. Eventually, tiring of the confrontation Saskia and Katahrr unlimbered their big gun spells and blasted the remaining liches to oblivion.

The Dogs began a thorough search of the area – finding a room with a complicated machine was surmounted by a swirling vortex of negative energy. Ignoring this for the moment they went on into the complex – finding another room where some off the monstrous statues where apparently stored.

Heading back through the room where the statues were created, they found a strangely alien-looking room. However, when Dench looked in, he went a bit strange - well stranger than usual - so they decided to leave that room alone! 

Finally, Esmeralda located another door which led to a corridor decorated with strange worm-themed mosaics.

The Unlife Vortex

Returning to the Fiendish device they party began puzzling over the complex controls. Tomas idly pushed one of the levers only to watch in horror as the unlife vortex began disgorging large bat-winged shapes into the room! The nightwings proved more of an annoyance than anything else and were easily dispatched by the combined attacked of the Dogs.
Things having quietened down a little, Katahrr, Saskia and Esmeralda continued puzzling over the complex controls of the machine that was maintaining the Unlife Vortex. Eric and Tharvel warily watched the magic circle the liches had taken refuge in; which had re-commenced glowing and Dench took up a guard position in the corridor. Tomas wandered off to inspect the bricked-up doorway, which he swiftly managed to smash through. Beyond the doorway a long staircase, it walls decorated by representations of various dragons in brass inlay, led upward. Tomas called back for Dench to help him investigate and the bored half-orc eagerly ran forward.

Just as he did so the circle suddenly glowed brighter and the vampire shadowdancers, led by their bastard-sword wielding leader appeared! Tharvel called out a desultory warning to Eric as the vampires leaped forward and with unnatural speed and attacked them. Meanwhile, Tomas and Dench were having their own problems, halfway up the long stairway the corridor was suddenly filled with a maelstrom of acid, cold, fire and electrical discharges. Though partially protected by a combination of swift reflexes and the abilities imbued by the Horn of Kazgoroth, the doughty adventurers beat a swift retreat badly injured by the power of the trap. The battle with the vampires was short though punishing; Tharvel was badly level-drained before Eric managed to turn the shadowdancers, who fled back into the circle and teleported away. Left on his own, their leader proved little challenge to the combined attacks of Eric and Tharvel and was swiftly destroyed.

After some not inconsiderable time studying the fiendish device Katahrr and Saskia found themselves little further forward in deciphering it’s alien control panels. Katahrr cast a mass heal which the Dogs pondered their next move. After briefly toying with the idea of tracking down the vampires to their lair under the floor of the wine cellar, the Dogs eventually decided to return to Casa Diamante and a well-earned rest.

Breath of the Wormgod

Next morning the Dogs emerged into the mist – the Breath of Kyuss -  that had now spread across vast swathes of the city, making their way back towards Mistwell Manor, they were assailed from time to time by the various undead that prowled through the mist, dealing with them with little trouble. As they neared the end of the street, close to the temple of Wee Jas the mist thickened and a huge unnatural shape loomed out of the darkness. It was a hideous monstrosity, green mist oozing from a gaping hole atop it’s torso where a head should be, and gnashing maws at the end of the tentacles that surrounded it

Immediately the Dogs leaped into action, Dench and Eric, charging forward, Tharvel and Esmeralda followed after applying silversheen to their blades. As the combat raged, Saskia cast maximised magic missile spells, suddenly, shockingly, Dench went down - as the intelligence-sapping bite of the demon took it's toll. Katahrr angled round and cast a flame-strike - as the holy fire raged down from above,  the demon roared and suddenly crumpled to the ground!
With the death of the demon, the pervasive green mist started to disperse, and townsfolk began to emerge from nearby buildings they had been sheltering in. Ss the Dogs surveyed the area, Dench’s corpse suddenly lurched to it’s feet, dripping in worms, animated as a spawn of kyuss! After a moment of shock, Tharvel stepped forward and with a series of blows, destroyed the wretched creature!  Katahrr began the rituals to cast a True Resurrection on Dench, the other Dogs began rounding up the citizens, taking them to the relative safety of the Modenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion in the Casa Diamante

After Dench had been restored to the party the Dogs set off again, Dench decided to hunt down another Broodfiend and went in search of another patch of mist – which wadn’t hard to find. This time knowing what they were facing, the Dogs disposed of the Broodfiend with ease. They coaxed the nearby citizens out of their homes and led them back to the Casa Diamante. Having recovered about 20 people, they decided to escort them back to the city gates where the Guard were still desperately holding a secure corridor out of the city.
After ensuring the citizen’s safety, they finally headed back to the Manor. It was afternoon by the time they got there and made their way down to the underground complex. There was no sign this time of the vampire guards, however the unlife vortex had spawned a huge nightwalker which waited for them! The Dogs leaped into action, Katahrr finally destroying the huge undead with a bolt of glory, but not before it had managed to summon a swarm of greater shadows. The shadows were quickly dealt with and Katahrr and Saskia turned their attention to the great machine that supported the unlife vortex. After another four hours of careful study, the two felt they had gained sufficient understanding of the devvice to shut it down – however it would require four people operating the controls on each arm simultaneously!

Somewhat reluctantly, Eric and Esmeralda were pressed in to help, and Saskia began talking them through the tortuous process she believed she had worked out to safely shut down the machine. Once everyone was clear on the process they began the shut down routine. It was touch and go for a moment, but eventually they managed to it shut down. As it shut down and the vortex vanished in a controlled implosion, the green fires that danced in the room flared up and manifesting in them, appeared six ghostly figures of avolakias!

Ghosts in the Machine

As the ghostly avolakia rose through the wreckage of the great machine, the Dogs leaped into action, blades flashing and spells flying. The ghosts lunged closer their ethereal forms leeching life energy from their respective opponents. Tharvel was first to despatch one. Eric hewed away at one, the swords of the wind-dukes crackling with energy as they whistled through the ghostly form. Saskia launched off a series of maximised disrupt undead spells.  Across the room, Esmeralda, was making great strides, aided by her ghost-touch blade. Katahrr tried turning the one attacking her but, bolstered in this unhallowed area, the ghost priest was unaffected.  As Tharvel moved to help Saskia, things got more complicated as the surviving lich and the vampires teleported in.

The lich’s opening gambit was to cast a cone of cold at Tharvel and Saskia, as it did the ghostpriest attacking her leaned forward, casting a silence spell on the amulet around her neck. Simultaneously, Vulras leaped down the stairs swinging his bastard-sword in a ferocious blow at Tharvel. The three vampire shadowdancers charged at Eric, just as she despatched the ghostpriest attacking her. Katahrr, who had successfully turned the ghostpriest attacking her, launched a bolt of glory at one of the vampires - annihilating him instantly!
As Esmeralda and Saskia (who had drawn a metamagic rod of silent spell) finished off the last two ghostpriests, Tharvel headed for the lich, obliterating him with a series of blows from the sunblade. As Dench charged forward for his third successive combat with Vulras, Eric almost casually turned the two remaining vampires, who fled. It didn’t take long after that for Dench to (once again) dispose of Vulras! Having defeated the vampires for a third time, the Dogs decided to end things once and for all. Summoning an earth elemental, they broke into the vault beneath the cellars and destroyed the vampires as they lay regenerating in their coffins. Once the vampires were finally dealt with, even though it was late the Dogs decided to explore the rest of the complex.

Esmeralda disabled the trap that had caused so much grief to Tomas the day before and Dench followed the stairway up. It eventually led, through a sloping passageway, to a crypt in the boneyard above.

Esmeralda then disabled the traps in the mosaic corridor. This led first to a small shrine to Kyuss. There were exits to the north and south of the small room. The northern exit led to another of the drains, but the southern one led a huge room with two circular pits at each end filled with kyuss worms. Sensing trouble, Esmeralda drew her sword and began applying silversheen! Sure enough, as the Dogs got to the middle of the room, the pits suddenly erupted in fountains of worms. The rain of worms as they fell twisted and combined into the by now familiar shape of enormous Overworms

A Devil of a Time

As the colossal overworms reared over them, the Dogs struck swiftly. Eric, Esmeralda, Tharvel and Dench each took one worm on while Saskia and Katahrr held back in support roles, Katahrr healing where she could and Saskia launching a series of arc of lightning and orb of acid spells. Although the overworms managed to get some telling blows in – even managing to fell the normally elusive Esmeralda – the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion and one by one each of the overworms was rendered back to a writhing mass of individual kyuss-worms wriggling on the floor.

While the others sought the relative safely of the raised platform at the far end of the room, Katahrr used a wand to cast repel vermin holding the worms at bay, Eric took advantage of this and picking the unconscious Esmeralda up carried her to safety. Katahrr then used teleport to try and join the others – unfortunately her teleport was intercepted and she found herself in the centre of the antilife shell in the summoning circle in the other room. Realising that she couldn’t exit the circle normally she used plane-shift to escape, before plane-shifting back – arriving several hundred miles away. The cleric then began the process of teleporting back to Alhaster and then carefully crossing the undead infested city.

The others, realising that Katahrr was not going to join them immediately for some reason – went onwards. The doorway at that end of the room ended abruptly in a silver wall. Esmeralda quickly established there was no secret door or mechanism to bypass the wall. Saskia established that the silver wall was magical, and after some deliberation resolved to use a disintegrate spell. The disintegrate spell broke through the silver wall and they had a glimpse of a richly appointed room beyond. On a central table a large leather-bound book stood and on a silver shelf on the wall several caskets were visible - before the silver wall magically repaired itself.

Saskia prepared to cast another spell, warning the others to react quickly. Casting the disintegrate she flew into the room – straight into a meteor swarm spell. A she staggered from the impact of the spell, two cornugons stepped out of the darkness, their spiked chains swinging crashing in to her with juddering blows – unable to take this massive punishment the sorcerer fell dying to the ground. The Dogs swiftly deployed into the room, Dench and Esmeralda taking attacks of opportunity. As they charged past, someone cast a fireball and a quickened fireball spell which detonated around them. Eric meanwhile dashed forward and used lay on hands to stop Saskia dying.

As battle was joined, another two fireball spells detonated around them. Dench took a series of ferocious hits from one of the cornugons and stood stunned by the magical chain attacks – with his true seeing ability he could see in the far side of the room a huge pit fiend who had been casting the fireball spells. Esmeralda, Eric and Tharvel concentrated their attacks on the other cornugon, who despite putting up a furious resistance was swiftly slain. They then turned their attention to the second cornugon as another found of fireball spells detonated round them. The cornugon, under the fury of their assault, withdrew and began gulping a healing potion.

The pit fiend cast a mass hold person spell - but fortunately all of the Dogs (except the already stunned Dench) managed to shrug off the effect. Seeing this the devil dropped his invisibility and strode into combat - attacking Esmeralda. Esmeralda tumbled round the huge devil, trying to get a more advantageous attack position, however the pit fiend grinned evilly and snatched the sword from her hand - snapping it two with its immense strength.  Tharvel and Eric refocused their attack on the pit fiend; Saskia, having swallowed a healing potion, cast a series of arc of lightning between the pit fiend and the cornugon. The battle raged for some time, with ferocious hits being given and received by both sides – the pit fiend even using his once-a-year wish to heal himself at one point – but eventually the concentrated attacks by the Dogs prevailed, forcing the pit fiend to flee – closely followed by the last remaining cornugon. Badly wounded and bleeding heavily from infernal wounds, the Dogs surveyed the burned scorched wreckage of the (formerly) richly appointed room. The leather bound book on the desk was little more than a pile of ashes, but the caskets on the shelf appeared to have survived intact.

At just that moment Katahrr arrived back and was able to distribute healing. Esmeralda checked out the caskets finding that they contained a fantastic amount of jewellery and precious gemstones – all red. There was also several magic items – including one that appeared to be an artefact a silver vial carved with erinyes containing a reddish liquid

A Gathering of Allies

Returning to the Casa Diamante, the Dogs held a council of war. Though they had managed to destroy two broodfiends and the Unlife Vortex, there was still too much to do – and only three days remaining. Many broodfiends still prowled the city spewing the poisonous breath of Kyuss into the air; the streets of the city were still infested with undead and overworms; a massive army of undead was marching cross country from the Wormcrawl Fissure. Not to mention there was still Lashonna and Kyuss himself to deal with! They rapidly came to the conclusion they were going to need more help.

Next morning they headed out to the refugee camp outside the city – pausing only to slay another broodfiend along the way and rescue some more citizens. Arriving in the camp near the Traitor’s Graves, they were greeted as heroes and swiftly ushered into the tent where the informal council that was running the refugee camp was meeting. As well as those surviving notables who had made it out, the council included Lanthis and the captain of the Watch B’krus. Seeing Eric, B’krus, leaped to his feet, embraced his “Little Paladin” and produced a stone jar of grog from somewhere. After a few drinks were had, another Council of War was held. Eric asked Lanthis to assemble the people later that day as she wanted to address them – in the meantime she was going to deal with the army of undead! Taking Katahrr with her, Eric used the Helm of Teleportation to go to the headquarters her order - the Knights of the Holy Shielding – in Critwall      
While Eric was gone Tharvel began gathering intelligence from the Watch officers and citizens, plotting the locations of the broodfiends on a map of the city. Esmeralda and  Tomas headed back into the city to make contact with the Resistance, meeting the bard Miomay and Magnus in the basement of the Playhouse. They agreed to come out to the camp to meet with Eric.

Some hours later Eric and Katahrr returned. Eric informed them, to cheers from the council members, that she had persuaded the Knights to ride out against the army of undead marching towards the city. The council was then joined by Miomay, after some fast talking, Eric finally persuaded the bard to work with B’krus - whom she’d spent the last 5 years fighting against.

Outside the tent, a crowd was gathering, and as the council meeting ended, Eric went out and addressed them. In a  rousing  speech she exhorted the people to conquer their fear and take up arms against the abominations that infested their city. Her call to arms was met with resounding cheers, and hordes of eager volunteers.  As B’krus’s men began trying to get some sense of order into the volunteers and make sure that each had some rudimentary arms and armour, the Dogs and the fighting members of the council spent the rest of that afternoon co-ordinating their plans for the people of Alhaster to begin to re-take their city. To round off their new collection of allies, Esmeralda cast her five scrolls of planar ally – contacting five planetars. The planetars offered to help on the understanding the Dogs would finance the rebuilding of the Temple of St Cuthbert in the city should they prove successful. Esmeralda agreed and arranged that two of the planetars would aid them against Lashonna and three would be available for the final confrontation with Kyuss.

That evening after the Dogs returned to their base in the Casa Diamante, they slept with a real sense of accomplishment – the battle for Alhaster would begin in earnest tomorrow!

The next morning dawned dull and grey.. After the usual breakfast preparations, the Dogs decided to swing past The Delucxury to see if they could rustle-up more allies. Moving through the back streets of the town, to avoid confrontations with broodfiends, they stopped across the road from the familar building - it was under attack !

The Spire Ascendant

Barely pausing, the Dogs charged forward straight into a cone of cold from one of the liches in the undead attackers. As the Dogs attacked - targeting the more dangerous of the undead assailants - the liches, vampires and Kyuss knights – a ragged cheer came from the defenders of the Deluxury. Saskia summoned a huge fire elemental that began cutting a swath through the lower level undead, primarily spawn ok kyuss that were swarming all over the building clambering through broken windows. The liches were targeted first, Eric, Tharvel and Dench cruising into action in the teeth of the fearsome spells cast against them. Baulked by the death ward spells cast by Katahrr, the vampires snarled in frustration as they were unable to effectively harm their opponents. Dench and Tharvel did start to suffer from the  intelligence-draining worm-eyestalks of the kyuss knights who joined the fray, but ultimately they too proved ineffective before the Dog’s onslaught.  

After the last of the intelligent undead was slain, they quickly mopped up the surviving spawn of kyuss still continuing their mindless assault. The survivors sheltering within raised another ragged cheer as the Dogs despatched the last dregs of their attackers. After things had settled down the survivors were directed to the refugee camp outside the city.

Once the survivors had been secured, the Dogs felt it time to head to the ziggurat Tzeech had built on the north-east of the city. Arriving there, they found the ziggurat was now surmounted by a massive tower, some seven hundred feet tall. Those of the Dogs who had been at the ancient city of Kuluth Mar - where Kyuss had ascended to godhood - felt a curious sense of déjà vu. This tower was eerily similar to the ancient spire they had seen in the visions they had experienced there.

As they approached the ziggurat Saskia cast mass fly on the party, but following Dench’s lead, the Dogs strode confidently up to one of the ground-level entrances. Seeing the entranceway was guarded by four kyuss-knights, the fighters in the party deployed for combat. Saskia cast sphere of ultimate destruction tossing it almost casually  at one of the kyuss knights. Katahrr cast a flame strike as the four kyuss knights charged out -  to be met by Dench, Eric and Tharvel’s silvered blades. Esmeralda dashed round to a flanking position  - just as more kyuss knights came swarming out of the entranceway.

Immediately the Dogs were surrounded by over a dozen of the kyuss knights, each swinging fearsome executioner’s maces, their intelligence-sapping eye-stalks striking ferociously. The Dogs defended desperately, but the numbers were just too great and one-by-one they each sought the safety of the air!

The Wrym That Turned

 As the Dogs rose up into the air, they could see the battles raging in the western quarter of the city as the concerned citizens and hobgoblin guards, fought to join up with the Resistance in the Playhouse as they attempted to reclaim their city from the undead and worm-ridden hordes. Outside the city walls they could see the banners of the Knights of the Shield arrayed in battle against the undead army that had marched from the Wormcrawl Fissure.
 
Katahrr noticed that they had risen above the vortex of negative energy that swirled from the base of the ziggurat. The Dogs hung there for a moment gathering their breath when suddenly Tharvel and Esmeralda noticed two huge figures launching themselves from the level above – broodfiends. As Tharvel and Esmeralda flew up to attack the one on the left, the other let-loose it’s breath weapon engulfing the others in an acrid cloud of acid. Tomas retaliated with a flurry of arrows and Saskia started casting spells.
 
Dench, flew up to join the assault against the first one but unfortunately for the orc, the broodfiend got in a lucky hit, it’s massive jaws biting down on him. Dench survived the initial damage, but succumbed to the demon’s intelligence-draining effect. As Dench hung limply in the air, Esmeralda and Tharvel redoubled their attacks. The second broodfiend, in the tech of another flurry of arrows and spells used it’s breath weapon again – to devastating effect and Tomas and Eric slumped in the air – fortunately as both had received a Fortunate Fate from Katahrr that morning, both were saved from death. Saskia flew over to see if she could help Dench, but a quick assessment revealed it to be hopeless.
 
Eric joined Tharvel and Esmeralda in despatching the first broodfiend, while the second withdrew to the relative safety of the ground in the face of Tomas’s arrows and Saskia’s spells. Its retreat was short-lived however as they swiftly followed it down and finished it off. The battle had a hideous coda however, as Dench’s inert form suddenly spammed into unlife – reanimated as a spawn of Kyuss. Tomas swiftly put the unfortunate out of his misery with a hail of arrows, despite it’s attempts to flee to the safety of the death knights below. Their friend's corpse, sword and the Horn of Kazogorth were quickly retrieved.
 
Recovering Dench’s corpse (and his sword) they Dogs flew up to the ledge the Broodfiends had come from. As Katahrr prepared to cast True Resurrection on Dench, a silky-smooth voice sounded from the room inside the ziggurat. Turning they could recognise their former patron – Lashonna – standing flanked by two erinyes while a third hovered nearby. The two planetars arranged by Esmeralda appeared,  as Lashonna smoothly invited them into the chamber, her silky voice cast it’s  weave of charm effects about them. All of the Dogs and one of the planetars, fell under the spell of her voice. Entering the room, Lashonna offered them drinks, the sole planetary who had  resisted the charm effects desperately tried to negate the effect with a dispel magic, After failing, he first cast a blade barrier that destroyed the suspect drinks, and eventually, in frustration, resorted to attacking her!  As she was attacked, Lashonna changed forms to her natural silver dragon form. The shift in form somehow negated the charm effect and belatedly the Dogs leaped into action – as did the erinyes!
 
As battle was joined, the planetars and Tomas concentrated their attacks on Lashonna, after casting greater dispel magic, to remove Lashonna’s antilife shell , Saskia began firing off her most offensive spells on the dragon as well. As the others began dealing with the erinyes, Katahrr dashed forward, casting heal on the vampiric dragon. Lashonna roared and lunched a devastating flurry of attacks on the cleric - felling her instantly.
 
As the epic battle raged, the dragon reared up several times, using her cold based breath-weapon to wreak havoc on the Dogs – nearly killing Tomas and Saskia outright. Fortunately Tomas was saved by the Fortunate Fate spell and Saskia by a lay on hands from Eric.  The planetars switched to spell-casting realising their weapons were having little effect on the dragon, both casting a series of heal spells on the dragon, followed by an implosion and a disintegrate spell.    Not even the mighty Lashonna could take the amount of damage being dealt her, and eventually reverted to gaseous form, fleeing the combat. The planetars followed to complete their mission and harry the vampire as she fled. As lashonna fled, Katahrr's corpse suffused with negaive enegies from the ziggurat, rose as a spawn of Kyuss and after somewhat innefectually attacking Eric, was quickly put down by the paladin.
 
After despatching the last of the erinyes, the surviving Dogs barely had time to catch their breath before  Tharvel noticed that the Kyuss knights were storming up the staircase from the level below. Saskia bought them time by casting a wall of fire across the top of the stairway. This gave the battered and bruised Dogs sufficient time to recover the bodies of their fallen comrades and Dench's sword and teleport to safety in the Casa Diamante.

The Prophecy Fulfilled

Early that morning, as the risen Dench rifled through the party treasure seeking to re-equip himself, the other Dogs filed out of the Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion and filed into the kitchen of the Casa Diamante. They were somewhat surprised to see a wizened old monk waiting for them.

He introduced himself as the Father Abbot of the late lamented Moonflower’s order and advised that he and his brothers had arrived to assist on the appointed day - in accordance with the Prophecy! After brief introductions, the abbot informed them that the resistance and the city guard with sterling assistance from the good folk of Alhaster had retaken a swathe of the city from the main gates to the Playhouse. He also informed him that the undead army marching on the city had halted on the isthmus outside the city walls and the Shield Knights had accordingly formed a protective cordon around the refugee camp.
 
As Dench joined them, clad primarily in gear looted from the late unlamented Vulras (although he did  decide to forego the orc-bane sword), the Dogs headed out into the street. A motley collection of about 30 monks waited for them, springing to attention like some kind of honour guard. The monks took up position around them and escorted them through the eerily silent streets - the only signs of life were in the temple of Hextor and Tzeech’s palace. As they neared the ziggurat, undead clustered thickly around. The monks swung into action, clearing a path for the Dogs to the entranceway.
 
The monks formed a defensive cordon around them holding back the undead masses as the Dogs pondered their next move. Tomas tried drinking from the potion recovered from Lashona's hoard, but immediately found himself confused as his mind was assaulted by the views from 15 different pairs of eyes!  Looking into the ziggurat they could see more of the loathsome kyuss knights massing in a defensive formation inside. Rather than fight their way through the ziggurat they decided to fly directly to the top. Katahrr summoned a solar while Esmeralda summoned the planetars she had arranged for and Dench used the feather to summon Zulshyn. Once all were assembled, Saskia cast Mass Fly and the Dogs and their allies headed directly for the top of the Spire.
 
 On top of the Spire the obelisk that Kyuss was imprisoned in stood proud surrounded by an honour guard of kyuss knights. Violently swirling green-tinged clouds swirled above ominously - as the Dogs arrived a burst of energy exploded from the obelisk ripping through them. Following immediately on this  the worm-god himself  began emerging from his imprisonment.
 
Battle was swiftly joined the planetars and Esmeralda attacking the kyuss knights as Eric charged forward, using Holy Smite to attack the emerging god - artefacts of the Wind Dukes glowing fiercely and empowering her . Saskia started casting maximised disrupt undead spells . Tomas targeted one of the kyuss knights sending a flurry of arrows into it. Unfortunately for Tomas, the knight he’d picked was Maralee - the strongest of the kyuss knights - who retaliated with the Gaze of Kyuss, turning the elf’s eyes in their sockets into writhing worms that immediately began burrowing towards his brain.  Fortunately for the elf, Zulshyn was able to intervene to save him by casting  Wish.
 
The battle raged on as Kyuss emerged from his aeons long imprisonment> One of the planetars advised the Dogs  that half the kyuss knights were not real – the were simply simulacra created by the will of the god to replicate the kyuss knight’s slain previously by the Dogs. Immediately they party refocused their attention on the knight’s they knew were “real” andof course  the god himself.
 
Eric, who had been in single combat with the god, was coming off poorly. Tharvel dashed forward calling on the others to aid the paladin in her battle. Dench, Esmeralda and one of the planetars, charged forward - using their martial prowess to aid the paladin’s attacks in the face of the worm-god’s fearful onslaught. Another series of Miracle spells, this time cast by Zulshyn, helped keep the party alive as Kyuss’s massive executioner’s mace cut it’s terrible swathe through them. The solar also charged forward striking at the god doing little damage, but coincidentally helping the others by includeing them in his aura of protection.
 
Suddenly in an instant, the tide of battle seemed to turn . Aided by the other Dogs, Eric unleashed a furious series of blows - critically injuring the god. Tomas, having finally despatched Maralee, launched the single worm-bane arrow he had received from Tenser casting Find the Gap to bypass the god’s armour, a couple of Bolt of Glory spells  further weakened the god. Kyuss was just about to cast Time Stop to gain time to heal himself when a final Holy Smite from Eric struck the emergent god fatally .
 
As the worm-god crashed down, the ziggurat began crumbling under the combination of the shock and the god’s fading will. The Dogs took to the air – below them they could see the battle which had raged unnoticed through their own confrontation with the god – was ending. The various worm-ridden undead fleeing before the combined assault of Shield Knights, City Watch, monks, rebels and the good citizens of Alhaster . As they flew down they also spotted Tenser, Agath, Celeste  and Elegios in the  crowd – somewhat wearily the wizard waved to them. No longer held together by the will of kyuss many of the undead simply collapsed, inanimate corpses once more – destroyed by the death of their god. Those few surviving were being efficiently dealt with as the Dogs alighted to the cheers of the crowds as the ziggurat collapsed behind them.  
 
The cheers faded somewhat as Tzeetch and his few remaining loyal guards arrived on the scene. Somewhat pompously he challenged Eric to single combat! The paladin accepted, and to massive cheers from the assembled crowd, swiftly defeated the blackguard. Al though she was pretty sure that Tzeech deliberately left himself open to her attacks; she accepted his sword, and his throne, as he knelt in surrender before her. The crowd went wild, and although much of the city lay in smoking ruins around them, an immediate and impromptu party commenced. In the wake of the transfer of power, the other Dogs were acclaimed as lords of Alhaster in their own right.
 
Eric, over the next weeks and months, somewhat reluctantly accepted her role as ruler of Alhaster. Swiftly, however, her sense of order prevailing, she settled into her administrative duties and arranging the rebuilding of her new domain.  .
 
Esmeralda bought the Casa Diamante, and settling down, used it as the base of operations for planning the restoration of the Temple of St Cuthbert.
 
Katahrr, after staying for and officiating at the coronation of Eric, eventually returned to her own lands - secure in the knowledge that the will of Sotilion had been carried out. Before leaving the cleric donated her ring of three wishes to Zulshyn in return for the aid she had given them in the final battle.
 
Tharvel decided to remain in Alhaster, retaining his role as Eric’s bodyguard and revelling in his new role as Defender of the Crown.
 
Tomas, after straying for the parties, disappeared one day into the wilds, returning to his people.
 
Saskia too settled in Alhaster, enjoying the company of the many drawn to her fame, though often departed on long shopping trips to more cosmopolitan climes!
 
Dench, after enjoying himself intemperately at the many parties, eventually departed with Zulshyn to a life of luxury in their new home - Mistwell Manor, gifted to them by Eric