The Fane of Tiamat
The Wyrmsmoke Mountains
Next
morning the Party arrived fro their audience with Lord Jarmaath and
were ushered into a side chamber. Jarmaath shared some worrying news.
Based on intelligence gathered and from captured prisoners and
recovered documents, they have determined that the strange and terrible
dragonspawn they had faced as part o f the horde army were just the
advanced scouts on an even greater infernal host of devils, fi
ends
and Tiamat's spawn. Azarr Kul, the High Wyrmlord of the Horde, was not
present at Brindol for one simple yet terrible reason - he has remained
in the Fane of Tiamat to complete a complete month-long ritual to open
a portal to Tiamat's court to augment the horde with an infernal army.
If he succeeds the horde will become all but unstoppable. He informed
them that he has made arrangements for a group of elves with giant owls
to meet them a Drellin's Ferry to take them into the Wyrmsmoke
Mountains, where the Fane of Tiamat lay. Immerstal the Red had supplied
a scroll of teleport to get the Party to Drellin's Ferry as quickly as possible.
Later
that morning after gathering supplies, Cecily used the scroll and they
met the elves in the ruins of Drellin's Ferry, mounting on the giant
owls they headed north and west into the mountains. Far below
them as they flew they could see various bands of creatures and
monsters that infested the area but fortunately they did not run into
anything capable of flight, so Gothram cheerily waved as they passed by
unharmed. As the late afternoon sun began to set the elves dropped them
off, and after briefly resting, began their long journey home. The
Party decided to rest for the night rather than brave unknown
monster-infested territory in the dark, and fortunately their rest was
undisturbed. Next morning they set out and save for a brief encounter
with some achaierai,
manged to avoid any serious trouble. They arrived near their
destination late afternoon finding a sinuous path led up the
mountainside in a series of switchbacks through a narrow ravine. Rather
than tempt fate by going on in the dark, they decided to rest.
In the small hours as Rosil kept watch, they were spotted by an ogre
patrol heading out. Rosil woke Gothram and somehow the two manged to
bluff the ogres that they were faithful servants of Tiamat, possibly
helped by the dragonscale armour Gothram had looted from Wyrnlord
Kharn. Almund fortunately, slept though the entire encounter, otherwise
things would surely have ended in battle!
Next morning they
ascended the winding path running into a group of trolls, who were not
deceived by Gothram's fancy armour, however the Party ultimately
prevailed. About mid afternoon as the winding ledge they had been
following turned a corner onto a sheer cliff they saw the Fane - a
lifelike rendition of a five-headed dragon- easily a hundred fifty feet
tall - carved out of the stone of the cliff face. The heads
protruded from the cliff face, each leering down as if to challenge any
who dared approach. At the base of the cliff under the dragon's belly,
a huge pair of closed stone double doors were set into the cliff, each
six feet wide and twelve feet tall.
The Dragon's Lair
Surveying
the area around the entrance to the the Fane of Tiamat, the Party
looked for another way in - other than the very obvious front
door. Wild-shaped into a
falcon, Louella was dispatched to scout around and found a cave about
sixty feet above. Landing in the doorway, she discovered that it was
occupied by a large blue dragon when
it hit her with it's breath weapon. As the dragon charged forward,
Louella threw herself backward out of the cave, landing with a 
sicking crunch at Gothram's feet.
As Cecily dashed forward to cast cure moderate wounds,
the dragon flew out and attacked. Almund and Gothram drew bows and
fired-off arrows, while Louella and Cecily cast numerous spells, as the
dragon swooped around with flyby attacks. Rosil meanwhile, headed for
the rocks and hid, badly affected by the dragon's frightful presence!
Eventually the dragon, wounded, made the mistake of landing which
allowed Gothram and Almund to charge in and eventually dispatch it.
Realising
they needed somewhere to rest, the dropped the dragon's corpse down the
mountainside (much to Rosil's lament as he wanted the skull for his
collection) and then clambered up into the cave. Most unusually it
looked like this cave had been the shared lair of five different dragon
types, and the Party recovered a considerable amount of treasure before
resting.
Next morning they headed off down a narrow passageway
that led them into a corridor just the other side of the massive doors
that fronted the Fane of Tiamat. Heading up a short staircase they
opened the doors into huge room dominated by another five-headed dragon
statue in the ceiling. Also in the room were two zombie wyverns, which Almund immediately moved to attack.
Unseen by the Party on the balconies that overlook the room were two blue abishai. One of the abishai cast major image and caused Gothram and Rosil to believe the five dragon heads had animated and were using breath weapons against them, the other abishai flew down and joined the battle. It was a brutal combat, complicated by the fact that two of the Party were distracted dodging illusionary attacks, but eventually the zombies were destroyed and the abishai slain.
The Devilish Kitchen
Moving swiftly on to avoid raising an alarm the Party headed though one of the side exits of the room, passing by a storeroom and then making short work of some blackspawn raiders who had been lounging about in barracks. They managed to liberate a considerable number of potions form the blackspawn and Rosil found a nice bejewelled sceptre, some bracers of archery and a +1 flaming hand crossbow in a box under one of the tables. The corpse of a huge copper dragon was strung up in this room as some kind of macabre decoration, Rosil briefly considered taking the head for his collection but decided it was too big to fit in his bag!Moving on they found a
torture chamber where a bone devil was not particularly please to see
them and made his displeasure known – mainly on Gothram before the
managed to finish it off. 
After the combat Gothram, devilish venom
coursing through his veins, was severely weakened and Louella cast a
Heal spell form her staff of healing to counteract the effects.
Cecily and Rosil searched the cells surrounding the torture chamber but
there were no unfortunates imprisoned therein.
Backtracking, they found themselves in a wide central corridor that ultimately led to a stairway going down. Following Almund’s advice Gothram headed for one of the side passages, finding a kitchen where an old woman was stirring something on the stove and somewhat incongruously two bearded devils appeared to be doing household chores! Gothram attempted to bluff his way in, and it first seemed to be working at first as the old woman, whom Gothram now noticed seemed to have horns, directed him to the nearby pantry. It soon became apparent that his bluff had failed when the old woman, a night hag, locked him in there!
Shouting loudly, Gothram tried a few times to break down the door, but failing, decided to console himself with the contents of a barrel marked “Gin”! Hearing his cries to be let out, Almund charged in, immediately engaging the bearded devils, while the rest of the Party following in the paladin’s footsteps, concentrated their attacks on the hag.
The Temple of
Tiamat
The Party
exchanged blows with the night hag and the bearded devils for a couple of
minutes, Gothram growing increasingly irate at being locked out of the combat,
until suddenly Louella hit up the novel idea of actually getting him out of the
pantry! Reaching behind the hag ignoring her bite attack, she flipped up the
latch freeing the fighter. As she did, Rosil struck a telling blow
killing the hag, just as Almund despatched one of the bearded devils. The
remaining bearded devil did not last long, allowing Cecily to offer healing!
Once they had got their breath back they explored the eastern end of the complex finding it empty of occupants and, after a brief visit back to the entrance foyer, decided to head down the stairs where they found a temple dedicated to Tiamat. The temple was guarded by five wyverns, but these proved ineffectual guardians and were quickly despatched. While Gothram busied himself desecrating the temple, after seeking permission from Almund and Cecily, who confirmed it was an evil temple. Rosil meanwhile searched the area, finding a secret door behind the altar. The passageway beyond led down to a large stepped cave.
The first level of the cave, apart from stalagmites stalactites ad fungus, contained a large sinkhole, which brief fascinated the dwarves. Rosil dropped a coin down and estimated the hole was several hundred feet deep. Louella examined the fungus carefully, informing the others it was harmless and they made their way to the edge of the area. Cecily clambered up the ledge to the next level only to be immediately attacked by two greenspawn razorfiends!
The Outer Sanctum
An already wounded Cecily went down rapidly to the flurry of attacks from the razorfiends. While Gothram clambered up and attacked, Almud tried to reach the stricken cleric but was unable to do so. Fortunately Louella still had a mass vigour in mind and was able to stabilise her friend.As two more razorfiends appeared from the vegetation and attacked Louella and Rosil, Gothram and Almund began carving their way through the first two. Gothram’s sword crackled with bursts of electricity in the shadowy illumination as he struck his opponent. When the razorfiends were finally despatched, most of the Party were suffering wounds and the healing wand was once more in high demand!The Party moved on, clambering up another short cliff face to a huge chamber circular chamber dominated by a three-tiered circular platform. Five stone dragon necks arced up from the second tier. In each of tier jaws a brilliant sphere of rapidly pulsating light, shifted from white to red to green to blue to black. Around the platform several hobgoblin clerics were chanting ominously. Almund and Gothram changed forward only to be attacked by wraiths that emerged from the stonework. Fortunately Cecily and Almund were able to Turn the undead who fled. Unfortunately this drew the attention of the hobgoblin clerics who cast two flame strikes at the Party. The Party changed forward, rapidly cutting a swathe through the clerics, save one who cast air walk and fled through a shaft in the ceiling.
Leading off this chamber they found a bedroom and what appeared to be a summoning chamber. The occupant of the bedroom a young lady, charmed Gothram asking him to protect her privacy and the doughty fighter stood guard at the doorway, not allowing any of his friends to enter.
Rosil meanwhile had busied himself searching the walls and discovered a secret door.
The Inner Sanctum
Rosil opened the secret door to reveal a short passageway leading to a stone stairway. Gothram, after being persuaded that they had no interest in disturbing the lady's privacy, and Almund led the way but the top of the stairway was trapped with a Wall of Tiamat’s Wrath and Gothram was hit by a combination of cold, electricity, acid and fire. Almund dropped back, but Gothram charged through taking more damage as he did. With the light from his magic blade he could see the room beyond was diamond shaped and there were five chests against the walls, each seeming constructed from he scales and bones of a chromatic dragon. What he didn’t spot immediately was the barbed devil waiting patiently in one corner, which lost no time in introducing itself forcefully. This proved too much for an already badly wounded Gothram and he fell to the ground.Unaware of what was happening above Almund charged through the Wall of Tiamat’s Fury, just as the demon threw Gothram’s sword blade though it at Rosil, who had been trying unsuccessfully to disable the trap. Realising Gothram was in trouble Louella charged through, as did Rosil, after thoughtfully retrieving Gothram’s sword. While Almund distracted the barbed devil, Louella darted round to Gothram and used her Staff of Healing to cast Heal on him. Rosil returned Gothram’s sword to him and he joined the paladin in despatching the devil.
Rosil examined the chests but the locks and traps for the most part proved too complex for him and though badly damaged he did manged to open the one constructed from a white dragon from which they retried several items. Meanwhile they had spotted an inscription on the wall which they speculated was the password for the trap, unfortunately no one cold speak infernal! Cecily manged to decode the message using her magic - “By the grace of Tiamat do I live and breathe”, and they manged to leave without any further damage.
After healing up they headed for the only place left to them – the shaft where the hobgoblin cleric had fled earlier. Louella wildshaped into a bird and the rest ascended courtesy of some Fly spells from Cecily. Gothram, drinking a potion of Invisibility on the way, was fist to arrive in a large room heavily decorated with dragon statues. Five brilliant geysers of cracking energy lit the room pluming from the maws of the dragon statues, gathered in the domed celling above in a swirling vortex of energy In which strange shapes seemed to writhe and dance. Two erinyes hovered in the air, guarding a hulking blue half-dragon chanting in the centre of a dais – the High Wyrmlord Azarr Kul!
Immediately Gothram charged forward and struck, taking a couple of arrows from the Erinyes who could see though his invisibility! Almund was hot on his heels, also attacking the warlord with a smite evil. The others swiftly followed attacking the Erinyes. A short brutal combat on the dais ended as the Wyrmlord fell to repeated devastating blows from Gothram and Amund. As his body crashed to the ground he cried out a final prayer... and his cry was heard.
The swirling vortex of energy was swept away ... along with the roof itself. A searing hell-wind blasted through the inner sanctum, thick with the gut-churning reek of brimstone and burning flesh as a blasted landscape of twisted mountains and red lightning-plagued skies was revealed – and a colossal figure, Tiamat herself, turned one of her heads towards them. The god’s massive blue head darted down and swallowed Azarr Kul’s body with an effortless gulp while her other four heads leered down and jaws gaping unleashed an unholy blast of divine retribution! Almund and Gothram bore the brunt of the god’s fury, dropping to the floor unconscious and saved only from dearth by a mass vigour spell from Louella.
As Louella stepped forward to cast heal on Almund, a frightful form manifested on the dais – an Aspect to Tiamat, which attacked and nearly killed Cecily. Rosil still under the influence of the fly spell, dashed forward and grabbed Gothram’s unconscious form dragging him back down the shaft, thoughtfully grabbing his sword as well. Almund realising they were in no condition to fight such a monstrosity grabbed Cecily’s unconscious form and dragged her down the shaft as well, Louella wildshaping once more, completed their escape, secure in the knowledge they had defeated the plans of the Queen of Evil Dragons - for now at least!
