Drake's Company

Drake's Company was a group of adventurers who were active in Orodeth. Their leader and namesake was the paladin Drake Roxley.

Membership

 * Bran - Male aarakocra ranger. Tortured and killed by the Cult of the Howling Hatred.
 * Drake Roxley - Male human paladin of Nalindra.
 * Gnarls Blackwood - Male half-elven bard. Slain by Olhydra in the Plane of Water.
 * Láfièlthién - Female elven cleric of Del'Braeth. Torn apart by a hydra.
 * Qwynn Cupsigh - Female halfling bard. Retired to Brightstone.
 * Ru Bae Ya - Female human wizard.
 * Sumac Briarden - Male half-orc druid.
 * Waedin - Male aarakocra monk. Slain by undead while battling a necromancer.

The Hunt Begins
Drake's Company originally came together in 2964 when bounty hunters Drake Roxley and Bran sought allies in Drakkengarde to hunt down a dangerous fire genasi wizard named Bastian Thermandar, who was wanted for murdering high-ranking members of the Mercantile Alliance. Bran recruited his old friend Waedin before they set about recruiting for additional help, ultimately hiring Qwynn Cupsigh, Láfièlthién (Lafiel for short), and Ru Bae Ya to join their hunt. Following what scant information they had of his whereabouts, they sailed up the Belsimar Strait to Yalnos and from there traveled to Red Oak Village.

Though they found no direct evidence of Thermandar's presence, the villagers spoke of strange happenings and odd weather of late. The party began searching the nearby hills, eventually finding a small tunnel into a hillside that ended at an iron door. A ghost appeared and warned them to depart its master's tomb, and so they returned to Red Oak. However, that night Lafiel and Waedin snuck back in, defeated the ghost, and opened the door. Beyond was simply a small room with a stone coffin, and the remains of an ancient diary identifying the occupant as Lord Aldus Byron. When they opened the coffin, the sword that had been interred with Byron animated and flew at them, but Waedin simply caught it out of the air; he then shoved it back into the coffin while Lafiel hurriedly pushed the lid closed once more.

The next day a villager told them of a growing evil at nearby Lance Rock. Rather than finding Bastian Thermandar there, however, they encountered a mad necromancer calling himself the Lord of Lance Rock and babbling about "The Eye" that watched everything. Though they dispatched him and his zombies, Waedin was killed in the battle. Bran, mourning the passing of his friend, flew off to the distant Tornoth Peaks to bury him close to the sky. While the others waited in Red Oak they became acquainted with a traveling bard named Gnarls Blackwood. By the time Bran returned, they had recruited him to join them in their hunt. Bran also mentioned a tower he flew over with a large wicker giant erected in front of it.

The Tomb of Moving Stones
Having heard rumors of strange masked figures sneaking about at night, they investigated and found a hidden tunnel that led to an old dwarven complex beneath the village. After narrowly avoiding a trap and being attacked by a half-orc, they found a young boy with several heavy stones carefully piled on top of him to hold him in place without breaking any bones. He explained that he was being punished by his father, a member of a group known as "the Believers," for failing to deliver a message. He further explained that the Believers were a secret group of the most important people in town. Incensed at the boy's treatment, Drake led them deeper into the complex where they found a chamber filled with old bones and even a few fresh corpses with a triangular symbol carved into their foreheads; Ru Bae Ya recognized it as belonging to the primordial Ogrémoch. Proceeding deeper in they found a petrified dwarf around whom a number of offerings had been left. Among them was a magic dagger decorated in star motifs; Lafiel took it for herself, leaving behind what she judged suitable recompense in its place.

Eventually they arrived at a door with an old man seated in front. When confronted he begged for mercy, explaining that he the "great stones" behind the door would move from time to time and that for generations the Believers had divined portents from their movements and used them to guide the village. The group's interest was piqued when he mentioned the recent arrival of an "earth priest" who helped them understand more about the stones. Within the chamber they found several large stone monoliths throughout the room, guarded by a man wearing stone armor and robes made from fired clay tiles. The man attacked them along with several guards whose armor was imprinted with Ogrémoch's symbol. During their fight, they discovered that the floor was enchanted to cause the monoliths to levitate slightly. After killing them, they found some metal bars stamped with the symbol of Korthaz that could only have been stolen. When they returned to the village, they revealed the existence of the Believers and the names that the boy and the old man had given them. Several prominent villagers were arrested, some of whom ultimately confessed to having helped the earth priest hide the bodies of his victims.

The Feathergale Society
While asking about the stamped bars the next day, they learned that a caravan from Korthaz that Gnarls had seen recently had not arrived in Red Oak, though it should have done so a few weeks ago. When a shepherd mentioned having seen some freshly-dug graves in the hills, the party asked him to lead them there. Excavating the graves, they found two bodies wearing surcoats with the symbol of Korthaz, a body wearing stone armor, and a body in a white robe adorned with black feathers. It was clear that they had been engaged in a battle of some sort, and when the shepherd identified the feathered robes as belonging to the knights of nearby Feathergale Spire, they decided that was a good place to start their search. Sensing that their hunt for Bastian Thermandar was liable to result in a good deal of treasure, Lafiel purchased a wagon before they set out, Bran flying ahead to scout.

The shepherd's directions led them into a wide canyon, in the middle of which a tall tower rose up atop a spire of rock. Though Bran had not yet rejoined them, they rang the bell and were greeted by a knight named Savra Belabrante. Lafiel introduced them as "Drake's company," and when they told her of the body they had found she lowered the drawbridge and brought them to the Feathergale Society's lord commander, Thurl Merosska. Thurl thanked them for telling them of the body of their comrade, explaining that the man in the stone armor, as well as the earth priest below Red Oak Village, belonged to an evil group called the Cult of the Black Earth whom they had frequently clashed with. While they spoke a sentry announced that they had spotted a manticore, and Merosska invited the hunters to fly upon their giant vulture mounts to help kill it. After a successful hunt, Merosska asked them to join them for a feast and stay the night in the tower. They told him of their friend Bran, and hoped he would find his own way to the spire to join them.

During the feast Thurl Merosska asked for their tale, and Drake explained that while they had found new enemies in the Cult of the Black Earth, his true target was Bastian Thermander. Merosska said he had not seen any sign of him, however. That night, the knights awakened the hunters from their beds at swordpoint and marched them to the top of the tower. There, Thurl Merosska sorrowfully explained that their opposition to the elementals' servants made them a threat, and that they would be thrown from the tower in sacrifice to the primordial Yan-C-Bin. Realizing that the knights were in fact cultists of elemental air, they fought back. Though initially at a disadvantage without their armor, they were soon bolstered by the arrival of Bran and a flock of aarakocra. Many of the knights were killed in the ensuing battle, and though Thurl Merosska tried to escape Lafiel chased him back down into the tower to finish him off. Quickly grabbing their gear from their rooms, they departed with the aarakocra before the knights could regroup. Bran explained that he had been attacked by a knight riding a vulture while scouting and nearly killed, but that the local aarakocra had saved him and told him the truth of the Feathergale Society. Recognizing that his companions would be in danger, he led the aarakocra to help them.

The Lost City
The next day they returned to the Spire to find it deserted. After looting what valuables had been left behind and retrieving Lafiel's wagon, they found a letter from Queen Aerisi Kalinoth who noted that the Cult of the Black Earth was based out of the Sacred Stone Monastery. Unwilling to let the air cultists go free, though, they tracked them to a passage hidden in the cliffs along the canyon's edge. They descended deep underground, much to Bran's consternation, before discovering a vast dwarven city with a pyramid in the center occupying the caverns. In a plaza just inside, they found a half-elf bard named Windharrow playing music with several air cultists. Upon seeing them, the bard asked if they would like to audition for the band. Lafiel agreed, and when he approved of her flute playing he gave her a set of initiate's robes. Bran, however, feeling anxious from being so deep underground, succumbed to his hatred for the air cultists and attacked the bard. The bard teleported away and the cultists retaliated, driving the hunters back out of the city. Lafiel, having donned her new robes, remained behind.

With her disguise, she learned that the cultists were known as the Cult of the Howling Hatred. Their queen, Aerisi Kalinoth, could be found within the pyramid, known as the Temple of the Howling Hatred. She had also summoned a djinni to help rebuild the city. The bard, Windharrow, was her personal minstrel, though likely serving more out of fear than loyalty. Lafiel also learned that Savra Belabrante had survived and led the surviving knights into the city, furious at the losses they had suffered in Feathergale Spire. When her reconnaissance was over, she returned to Red Oak Village to find her companions had thought her dead. With her information, they concluded that they could not strike against the temple with their current resources; Bran decided to return to Drakkengarde and attempt to gather allies to fight the cultists.

A Circle of Flame
Though they planned, to travel to the Sacred Stone Monastery and deal with the earth cultists, a new caravan brought rumors that suggested Bastian Thermandar may be traveling to the same tower that Bran had flown over after burying Waedin. When they arrived at the tower, they found several camps of druids outside who explained that a druidic order known as the Circle of the Scarlet Moon had called upon fellow druids in the region to join them in performing the Rite of the Wicker Giant to help restore nature's balance. Drake led his companions up the slope to the wicker giant, where a pair of robed figures asked them to leave. When Drake asked about Bastian Thermandar, the figures revealed themselves as members of the Cult of the Eternal Flame and attacked before summoning a fire elemental within the giant and releasing their kenneled hellhounds to attack the party.

As the wicker giant burst into flames, chaos erupted amidst the camps as fire cultists lurking among them in disguise attacked the real druids. While the druids fought back, including a pair who were secretly werewolves, the party destroyed the elemental but found themselves at a disadvantage with the fire, smoke, and darkness and retreated alongside the surviving druids. The next morning, the druids left to carry word back to Underbough Temple while the others returned to the tower in search of Thermandar. Unfortunately, the fire cultists anticipated their return and, using the narrow walkway along the outside of the tower as a chokepoint, conjured a stinking cloud that obscured their vision and assailed them with fire spells. Driven back once more, they decided that even if Bastian Thermandar were in the tower, they would be unable to get to him. Instead, they turned their attention back to their other goal: defeating the Cult of the Black Earth.

Sacred Stone Monastery
After stopping at Red Oak Village to resupply and gather information, the party headed east to the Sacred Stone Monastery. After bluffing their way past the guards, they were led into the central shrine where the one of the priests dropped them through a trap door to a chamber with a caged umber hulk. After slaying the umber hulk, they climbed back out and killed the earth priests. Acting on a sudden impulse, Gnarls carved the symbol of the Cult of the Eternal Flame into one of the pillars. They then retreated back outside and made camp. The next morning, they snuck back in through a side door and killed the abbess. After leaving yet another Eternal Flame symbol to be found, they breached a magically sealed door and encountered a lich who politely asked them to depart. Drake noticed the lich's interest in his holy symbol, however, and after some conversation learned that he was actually Rennard Carras, a paladin who had helped found the monastery where Drake trained. Though long thought dead, he had actually gone into seclusion as a lich. Rennard explained that he was not part of the Cult; he had taken a room in the old monastery for himself, and when the cultists moved in they mutually agreed to leave each other alone. Rennard granted Drake and his companions permission to rest in his chambers, but declined to aid them directly.

Unbeknownst to them, the Cult of the Eternal Flame had not simply let them escape and had sent a pack of hell hounds to track them. While they rested in Rennard's study, the hell hounds entered the Sacred Stone Monastery. The cultists, now on high alert and suspicious of the Cult of the Eternal Flame, presumed it was an attack and defended themselves. Now thoroughly convinced that the Eternal Flame was targeting them, after dispatching the hell hounds they gathered most of their forces and marched west. The heroes emerged to find a scene of devastation just outside the door, and ultimately caused even more damage to the monastery fighting the minotaurs left behind to guard it. They eventually located the cult's prisoners; among them was the dwarven sage Bruldenthar, who had been part of the delegation from Korthaz. He confirmed that their caravan had been attacked by earth cultists, and that they were ambushed by knights riding giant vultures on their way back to the monastery. His books had been sold to a band of pirates, and his surviving companions had been taken away to an unknown fate. With the monastery cleared of cultists, they decided to escort the freed prisoners south to Westford.

On their way to Westford, they came across a burning farm that had been attacked by orcs. Tracking the orcs, they found them escorting prisoners and rescued them. The rescued farmers led them to the nearby Dellmon Ranch, which had already begun fortifying themselves against the recent orcish attacks. After Ru Bae Ya's owl familiar confirmed that the orcs were massing for an attack, the adventurers sent a message to Westford for assistance and helped bolster the ranch's defenses. The orcs were relentless in their attack, first sending up a smoke screen to hinder the defenders and then sneaking close enough to set part of the ranch ablaze, but Drake and his companions held them off until dawn, when reinforcements arrived from Westford and drove off the few surviving orcs. In the aftermath, Westford's commander asked for the name of the group of adventurers that helped save the ranchers; Lafiel shrugged and once again said, "We're Drake's company," and the name soon spread across Orodeth.

Rivergarde Keep
When they group finally arrived back in Drakkengarde, Ru Bae Ya announced that she wished to throw a party in a week's time to celebrate her birthday. She also suggested hiring some ronin samurai from her homeland of Yung Shai to aid them in a renewed assault against the fire cultists. During the week they spent in the city, Drake learned of a group of mercenaries that had recently begun operating out of the ruined Rivergarde Keep to the north. While ostensibly being paid to fight the raiders harassing ships traveling the Belsimar Strait, it was becoming apparent that they were actually in league with the raiders themselves.

Ya threw a magnificent party, explaining that she was a noble from Yung Shai and that this day marked the one year anniversary of her leaving home to travel by herself, starting a new life and choosing that date as her new birthday. The following day, they departed north with six new samurai companions to deal with Rivergarde Keep before continuing back to Scarlet Moon Hall. Lafiel declined to join them on their journey, as she would need to stay in Drakkengarde an extra few days to complete the rites to advance in Del'Braeth's priesthood. However, she promised to join them as soon as she could.

Five days later, the band arrived at Rivergarde Keep. They told the guard they were sent to discuss the mercenaries' contract, and were escorted inside to meet their leader, Jolliver Grimjaw. Grimjaw had little patience for them, and once he realized they were aware of the elemental cults' activities and suspected that they were in fact the very raiders they were being paid to fight, he ordered his men - now revealed to be members of the Cult of the Crushing Wave - to attack. During the fight Grimjaw transformed into a wereboar and gored Drake, but was slain in return. The battle soon spilled out of the great hall and into the courtyard, then the chapel that the water priests had repurposed for their own worship. In the end, the keep was cleared of cultists and Drake's Company had a prisoner and their own boat. Lafiel arrived up the strait the next morning, and they all sailed back down to Drakkengarde together to turn their prisoner over to the Mercantile Alliance. Lafiel couldn't help but notice, though, that Drake was grumpier than usual.

The Nettlebee Ranch
After handing over their prisoner to the authorities, the company heard rumors of a fire sorcerer terrorizing the Nettlebee Ranch to the north. Believing this to be Bastian Thermandar, they set off immediately to talk to the Nettlebees. Upon arriving, the cantankerous old halfling Wiggan Nettlebee merely crumbled at the expensive of the fire witch's attacks, but his children told them that two weeks ago, a nearby barrow mound had suddenly erupted in flames; since then, the symbol of the fire cult had been branded on their cattle during the night. Wiggan's grandson, Watson, investigated the barrow and found that the stone sealing it had been destroyed, and terrifying whispers issued from within. Watson explained that his father, Bertram, had spotted a figure wreathed in flames in the night, and feared this fire sorcerer would soon burn down their ranch. Drake's Company investigated the barrow, finding it just as Watson had said. When they went inside, an undead barbarian chieftain appeared and accused them of desecrating his tomb. Speaking quickly, they managed to convince the revenant chieftain, Javor, that they were not responsible, and had in fact come looking for clues as to who was. Their discussion was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of an earth elemental, which collapsed the entrance before attacking the company. While they fought it, Javor worked to clear the fallen rubble.

Exiting the barrow, they were met with a dozen barbarians from the Dragon Lands; their shaman had received a vision that their ancestor would wake from his tomb, and come to aid him. Javor announced that he could sense the one responsible for the desecration... And pointed the way to Nettlebee Ranch. The heroes managed to convince the barbarians to capture the halflings, rather than slaughter them indiscriminately, so as to avoid innocent bloodshed. Together they quickly rounded up the Nettlebees, despite Wiggan's attempts to bribe Drake's Company into fighting the barbarians instead. Questioning the Nettlebees, they soon determined the truth: Wiggan and his son Betram were in league with the Cult of the Black Earth, and had been commanded to lure the heroes to their deaths. They made up the story of the fire sorcerer to get them to the ranch, then sent them to the barrow, where Wiggan used a scroll he was given to summon the elemental to collapse it and trap them; Wiggan and Bertram had broken into the barrow and set it on fire to sell the ruse, and Betram had secretly branded their own livestock in the night. Having heard their confessions, Ya told the barbarians to kill Wiggan and Betram, which they did without hesitation. The remaining Nettlebees gave the barbarians half their livestock as recompense for the desecration, while Drake's Company located Javor's treasures that Wiggan had stolen and returned them to the barrow. His vengeance sated, Javor died once more.

Flames of Vengeance
As Drake's Company returned to Red Oak Village, however, they found it in flames, under attack by the real Cult of the Eternal Flame led by the druid Elizar Dryflagon as revenge for the attack on Scarlet Moon Hall. Though Drake's Company fought well, the fire cultists' magic proved stronger than anticipated and they were driven back to take cover behind a burned-out building. Elizar called out to them and offered a deal: turn over Drake Roxley to be sacrificed to the Eternal Flame, and the cultists would depart immediately and never return. Refuse, and they would all burn with the rest of the village. Though Drake, badly wounded, was willing to take the deal, giving his life to spare those villagers who still survived, Ru Bae Ya refused to trade lives and delivered a stirring speech that rallied her comrades in a renewed assault. This time the tide turned against the fire cultists, and when Elizar Dryflagon was slain the survivors fled into the wilderness.

Two days later, after recovering and making sure the survivors were cared for, the heroes set out once again for Scarlet Moon Hall. Though they found the tower collapsed into smoldering rubble, when they dug through it they discovered a tunnel leading deep underground. They followed the tunnel for days, and the further they went the more Drake's mood darkened, until at last when they arrived at a dwarven ruin, Drake viciously attacked the hobgoblin guards. As he pushed into the chamber beyond and attacked the fire cultists stationed there, however, he suddenly transformed into a giant boar. The others restrained him while they dispatched the cultists, Lafiel realizing that he had contracted lycanthropy from the wereboar in Rivergarde Keep. Joking that "he's always been a bore..." she helped keep him restrained until he returned to his normal, human form.

The party continued further into the Temple of the Eternal Flame, dispatching a group of ogres occupying a dwarven tomb before finding a prison occupied by salamander and azer slaves, forced to forge weapons and armor for the cultists. Though the two groups disliked each other, the heroes convinced them to form a begrudging alliance against the cultists and set them free, arming them with weapons taken from the slain cultists. Continuing into the foundry, the sight of an armed revolt caused the slaves working there to immediately turn against the cultists and their efreeti overseer.

Leaving the foundry in the hands of their elemental allies, the heroes pressed forward into the cultist's barracks, where they found none other than Bastian Thermandar himself. Despite Bastian's magic, and his offers of a great reward to spare him, Drake took him prisoner to face justice in Drakkengarde. Drake's anger only grew upon finding a letter in Bastian's quarters asking the genasi sorcerer to kill Drake. Not only did the letter state that the Bastian's murders in Drakkengarde were on the sender's orders, it implied that the sender was also responsible for the murder of Drake's family years earlier. With the sudden realization that there was a greater conspiracy at play, Drake resolved to learn the identity of the letter's sender, an individual referred to only as "Stormfront."

A New Year
After a long journey, they arrived in Drakkengarde as the festival marking the New Year approached. Drake turned Bastian over to the city watch, collected his bounty, and asked to be kept apprised of the sorcerer's fate. Expecting him to be tried and executed, Drake was instead informed that Bastian had cut a deal; in exchange for valuable information about the elemental cults and their leaders, Bastian's sentence was instead commuted to imprisonment. Furious at what he saw as Bastian getting away with his crimes, especially after he confirmed that he had murdered Drake's family and framed Neff Willowrush on Stormfront's orders, Drake renounced Bahamut, having seen too many failures of justice to worship its god any longer, and stormed away from his companions. Drake returned to them a week later, having rededicated himself instead to the worship of Nalindra, the goddess of vengeance. Along with his initiation rites into her service, they had also cleansed him of his lycanthropic curse.

Meanwhile, the others had been told of a nearby shrine to Berronar Truesilver. Though its location was normally kept secret, the dwarves wished to reward Drake's Company for their efforts against the cultists by inviting them to celebrate the New Year's festivities there. Deciding that it would be a welcome respite, they followed the given directions and found a the shrine's impressive facade overlooking a magnificent view of the vale, but curiously no one to greet them. Inside they discovered that the priests had been slain by a band of duergar led by a blue-skinned ogre mage, attempting to dig through the stonework behind the altar. While the others fought the intruders, Lafiel approached the altar and prayed to Berronar Truesilver to help her defeat those who had defiled the shrine. The Silver Maiden answered her call, and Lafiel channeled her divine magic to destroy the ogre mage.

Stilling the Wind
One of the duergar had a set of letters and maps suggesting that they sought the tomb of King Torvald Flameforge, believing it to be hiddne in the shrine. One letter from a companion mentioned trying a route from the Underdark, and they suspected that the duergar may be in league with the elemental cultists, who had taken over what was now all but confirmed to be the lost dwarven city of Belsimar where Torvald once ruled. As the tunnel leading to the Temple of the Howling Hatred was nearby, they decided to return and put an end to the air cultists.

During their descent, they found a large number of dead Drakkengarde soldiers, their wounds suggesting they had been violently hurled into the narrow walls and ceilings of the cavernous tunnel. Though they suspected these were the soldiers Bran had gathered months earlier, there was no sign of their former companion among the dead. When they reached the cultists' stronghold within Belsimar, they once again found Windharrow practicing with his flute. Telling him that they had returned to join the band, he gave them all cultists' robes and sent them on their way.

After exploring the temple, and accidentally setting free a number of ghouls trapped within a ruined tomb, they dispatched Aerisi Kalinoth's wyvern rider guard before entering her pyramid and confronting her directly. The mad queen called upon her guards to defend her, but the heroes easily dispatched them before Gnarls Blackwood stabbed her through the heart. Her body disappeared into a sudden gust of wind as she died, her garments and silver spear clattering to the ground. Qwynn decided to take the spear, a magical weapon named Windvane. Windharrow was relieved when he learned of Aerisi's death, explaining that he was once a simple bard hired by her parents to entertain her, but over the years she had grown into a cruel madwoman; he had only continued to serve her out of fear that she would have killed him otherwise. After giving them a rough map of the complex showing the strongholds of all four cults and a deeper cavern below the city, he departed to find a new future without her.

Calming the Waves
Drake's Company continued east into the territory of the Cult of the Crushing Wave. While the Cult of the Howling Hatred had mostly been made up of human devotees to Aerisi Kalinoth, the water cultists counted more monstrous members among their ranks, and the heroes were forced to contend with bugbears, trolls, ogres, lizardfolk, a hag, and at the heart of the temple a young dragon turtle named Bronzefume that burst out of the canals to attack them. After besting all these challenges, they finally arrived at a shrine of Olhydra guarded by a group of cultists led by a demonic hezrou. Recognizing the demon's might, Qwynn polymorphed it into a newt as they fought the cultists. Unfortunately, a passing lizardfolk mistook the newt for food and ate it; the demon exploded out of the unwitting creature's body as it returned to its full size, but was slain soon after.

Beyond the shrine was a staircase descending down into a rocky cavern, where a swift-flowing underground stream rushed northward to waterfall down into a deeper chasm. When Lafiel went to inspect the stream, a water weird burst up and dragged her into the water. Drake dove in after while their companions attacked the weirds from the shore, and though the elementals were soon dispatched both Drake and Lafiel plunged over the edge. They splashed down in a deep pool within another cavern, containing a wooden boat and a large floating globe of water. Locating a set of stone steps leading back up, they decided to return up to the temple in Belsimar and finish eradicating the cultists before continuing their explorations.

The remaining water cultists were easily dispatched. As they completed their search, they found a fountain with a gargoyle spewing water into a basin; Lafiel was entranced by the mechanism and spent over an hour attempting to discern how it worked and where the water source was, before finally giving up and following her companions back down to the cavern below. Moving away from the stream, they found a den of lizarfolk; Lafiel's quick talking resulted in a truce, contingent on providing proof that they had slain Bronzefume; they promised to return with such. Following the caverns to the west, they encountered a small cave filled with a magical whirlwind, and another cavern where three fire cultists were chained to the walls, prisoners of the Cult of the Crushing Wave. Convincing the prisoners that they, too, were Cultists of the Eternal Flame, Lafiel set them free and brought them along as they first gathered some scales from Bronzefume's corpse, then delivered them to the lizardfolk. The cultists, suddenly realizing they had been lied to, were immediately killed by the lizardfolk who announced their intention to claim the former Temple of the Crushing Wave for themselves. Drake's Company, meanwhile, descended back down the waterfall in search of the leader of the Cult of the Crushing Wave. Ignoring the watery globe, they took the boat and rowed into the eastern caverns. There they found a dozen cultists, but after killing several of them the remainder surrendered. When questioned, they told the heroes that their prophet, Gar Shatterkeel, could be found in the lake to the south. They also explained that the watery globe was a means of transport; it would float to the lake if someone climbed into it. As the path to the south was lined with rapids, they instead used the bubbles. After cresting the final waterfall, they found themselves overlooking a massive underground lake. At the center of the lake was a rocky island, and above it floated a massive watery sphere. Gar Shatterkeel stood before the sphere, a trident raised high in the air.

Their attempts at stealth were soon thwarted by the massive crocodiles swimming in the lake, which alerted Gar to their presence. The prophet used the enormous cavern to conjure a storm above their heads, assailing them with lightning as they attempted to swim for the island. Though Ya flew above the water and rained fireballs on his head, Gar summoned a water elemental to hold off her companions. Qwynn, sensing they had gotten in over their heads, decided to save herself and teleported away. Her fears proved unfounded, however, as slowly but surely her compatriots managed to fight back the crocodiles and the elemental and crawled up onto the island to face Gar directly. Finally, with the last of her strength, Lafiel sank her blade into Gar's chest; the prophet's body dissolved into inky black water, and his trident, Drown, clattered to the ground.

The heroes took some time to rest and tend to their wounds, before Ya cast a flying spell upon them all so they could escape, taunting the surviving cultists with Gar's trident. Along the way they sent a magical message to Qwynn informing them of their success; Qwynn, who had only teleported as far as the Temple of the Crushing Wave in Belsimar, insisted they were actually all dead and she was just hearing things. Nevertheless, she joined them in a celebratory drink when they reunited in person.

As they rested that night, however, they were beset by terrible visions of watery death, of stone doors bearing the relief of a circular, fanged maw, of a sunken tentacled idol, and of a slime-covered altar carved with horrific mouths. Realizing that their fight against the cult was not yet over, they returned to the lake to investigate the sphere of water. Lafiel attempted to fly into it, discovering that it was a portal to the Plane of Water. On the other side was an endless ocean, and a massive wave surging from the distance. Lafiel returned and reported back; Gnarls, tying a rope to himself first, decided to enter the portal himself to investigate. As he went through, a jet of boiling water shot out of the wave and struck him before his friends pulled him back out. Deciding that he had a better understanding of what he would face, he entered the portal once more. This time, however, the rope suddenly went slack and fell out of the portal, the other end a frayed mess where it had been ripped apart. Lafiel quickly followed after, but was struck by boiling jets herself and barely made it back out alive. Drake and Qwynn, refusing to leave their friend, tried to go in after him as well but were pulled out by Ya; the wizard sorrowfully told them that whatever was in the water was beyond their power. Gnarls was gone.

Though at first they continued their exploration of the cavern by flying over the western waterfall, when they encountered slime-covered cultists with translucent skin and blank expressions, Lafiel connected the dots and realized an aboleth was in that part of the cavern, and it had sent them the visions to lure them back and enslave them. Facing a choice between two powerful foes, and with Gnarls already lost, they instead retreated out of the caves and made their way back towards Drakkengarde. Despite the aboleth's presence, they reasoned that with Gar Shatterkeel slain along with most of the cultists, the Cult of the Crushing Wave had been effectively destroyed.

The Devastation Orbs
As the party returned to Drakkengarde, they encountered a half-orc druid named Sumac Briarden who had set out from Underbough Temple to conduct his own investigation into the elemental cults. Seeing as their goals aligned, he decided to join forces with Drake's Company.

Once in Drakkengarde, Drake went to the guard and demanded Bastian Thermandar's head. Bastian, however, was providing valuable information about the cults, including that the earth and fire cults were respectively led by Marlos Urnrayle (wielding the war pick Ironfang) and Vanifer (wielding the dagger Tinderstrike). Moreover, elemental disasters were now striking the region; Red Oak Village had been devastated by an earthquake, and Westford by a hurricane. They told Drake to eliminate the final two prophets to end the threat, and then maybe they would consider his request for Thermandar.

Meanwhile, Lafiel met with her broker to sell the treasures they had taken from the cult strongholds, including Drown. Her broker also provided her with a tip: a group called the Hand of Yalnos had acquired a magic orb said to be a powerful weapon of elemental fire, and planned to auction it in five days' time. The heroes decided that they should intercept it to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. That night, Lafiel's dreams were visited by a robed figure with a pulsing magic orb who warned that they had "offended the Elder Elemental Eye," and that as a consequence Drakkengarde would be destroyed at dawn.

Waking up in the middle of the night, she roused her companions. Ru Bae Ya cast a divination to try and determine where the attack would take place, and received a message "the storm will strike the ships at sunrise." Between the message and what Lafiel had seen in her dreams, they determined that the cultists were sailing down the strait to activate the orb in the harbor. They successfully intercepted the ship and slew the water cultists on board, but in the fight the magic chest housing the orb was destroyed. They quickly identified that when the the orb detonated it would create a powerful storm. That detonation would occur within a matter of minutes, or if the orb was broken, and with the chest destroyed there was no way to contain the blast. Thinking quickly, Lafiel picked up the orb and Drake struck her with a banishing smite, removing her and the orb to a small, empty demiplane. There the orb detonated harmlessly, and a thoroughly drenched Lafiel reappeared on the ship when Drake's spell ended a minute later. Now understanding what sort of magic might be unleashed by the orb in Yalnos, they grew more determined to stop the auction.

Drake's Company traveled to Yalnos and made contact with a representative of the Hand. Though they confirmed the chest containing the orb had been taken from fire cultists trying to smuggle it into the town of Boros, they refused to elaborate further on how they got it. The auction was interrupted by an assassination attempt on the seller, who escaped in the chaos. Afterwards, they were contacted by another of the buyers: Prov Coren and Myra Brigg of the Brightstone Heroes, who also intended to keep the orb out of the wrong hands and were previously acquainted with Qwynn. Joining forces, they followed the seller to their hideout in the cemetery. After fighting off the group of drow attempting to seize the orb for themselves, they secured it before repeating the Banishing Smite trick to safely detonate it within a demiplane. Myra then teleported all of them to Silverstone so they could spend a few days conducting further research on the elemental cults. There they learned of the four primordials known as archomentals: Yan-C-Bin, Olhydra, Ogrémoch, and Imix. Imprisoned within the Elemental Plane, it would be disastrous for them to be set loose upon the Material. Armed with a new resolve, they had Myra teleport them back to Drakkengarde to continue their fight.

A New Queen of Air
Back in Drakkengarde, they received a message from the Mercantile Alliance: several elemental cultists had been seen entering Rundarth Manor. This abandoned mansion was known to be the lair of a shadow dragon known as the Dark Lady, and while they had been content to leave her be so long as she did the same, they were concerned that the cultists were seeking an alliance with her. Drake's Company entered the ruined manor, and in the cellars beneath it the Dark Lady appeared to them in the guise of a drow woman. After she confirmed that she had not allied with the cultists, but rather devoured most of them and sent the rest back with a warning to leave her be. Lafiel gave her what information they had learned about the cults; in exchange, the dragon confirmed that the cults had opened portals to the Elemental Plane through which they intended to summon their archomentals, and that the cults were only nominally allied with each other. Once assured they intended to destroy the cultists, the Dark Lady sent them away and warned them not to return.

The company descended once more into Belsimar, through the Temple of the Howling Hatred, and were surprised to find it reclaimed by air cultists. The cultists warned that they had a new leader now: Savra Belabronte, formerly of the Feathergale Knights, had taken charge following Aerisi Kalinoth's death. Qwynn simply held Windvane aloft and told them that by virtue of holding the spear, she was by rights the true leader of the Cult of the Howling Hatred, and Savra merely a usurper. The cultists readily accepted her claim, and told them that Belabronte could be found in the Howling Caves below.

The band descended into the caverns once more, following the cultists' directions to a series of caverns through which the wind continuously whispered and howled. Those air cultists they encountered were easily convinced to make way for their rightful leader, Qwynn. In one chamber, they found a nycaloth torturing an aarakocra prisoner. After freeing her, they asked about Bran and she sorrowfully confirmed that he had been imprisoned with her and, ultimately, tortured to death. Drake swore that he would avenge his friend's demise. In another cave, they found a multitude of fungi, some of which had magical properties; Qwynn decided to eat one, and found herself magically (and irrevocably) de-aged back to thirteen years old. Annoyed at the prospect of having to repeat puberty, she lead them onward through a tunnel in which the wind carried voices that whispered threats that they would betray each other; they ignored these lies and pressed on.

Fighting against the wind, which was now blowing with a gale force, they forced their way into the final chamber. Wind roared within around three massive stone spikes surrounding a massive storm cloud that occasionally parted to reveal a glimpse of an endless blue sky within. At the heart of the chamber was Savra Belabronte herself, who declared Qwynn to be a false prophet and attacked alongside a pair of air elementals. After a pitched battle, Qwynn stabbed Belabronte with Windvane, killing her. She proclaimed her renewed leadership over to the Cult of the Howling Hatred, suspecting that the winds would carry her message to all of her new subjects. Though the group recognized this cloud to be a gateway into the Elemental Plane of Air, much like the watery globe where they had lost Gnarls, they lacked the means to seal it and returned back to Belsimar to rest.

Extinguishing the Flames
With the Cult of the Howling Hatred dealt with, Drake's Company returned to the upper level of the caverns to search for the paths leading to the other two portals. Battling past harpies, fungal creatures, a pair of hill giants, and even a band of fire-breathing minotaurs, they finally arrived in a huge cavern dominated by a stone ziggurat. Pools of oily water on the sides of the cavern blazed with fire. At the top of the ziggurat stood Vanifer, prophet of the Cult of the Eternal Flame, preparing to sacrifice a prisoner upon a black stone altar.

Vanifer praised their resourcefulness, complimenting Qwynn on wielding Windvane and thanking them for "culling the weak." She asked them to swear allegiance to her and the Eternal Flame, and in exchange she would grant them power undreamed off. The heroes immediately declined and attacked, prompting her to summon a pair of fire elementals to defend her. One by one the elementals fell, though, and finally Lafiel slew the prophet. Vanifer's body melted away into black smoke with a final scream, and the dagger Tinderstrike fell to the ground.

Qwynn immediately moved up the ziggurat to free the prisoner bound upon the altar, but suddenly grew very still and, without a word, turned and ran out of the room. Staying behind only long enough to free the prisoner themselves, her companions rushed after her as she made her way back through the tunnels, descended once more into the Howling Caves, and headed towards the portal. They caught up with her as she raised Windvane towards it and began chanting an incantation, wrestling her to the ground and prying the spear from her grip. Once she was relieved of Windvane she returned to herself, confessing that something powerful had taken control of her mind and tried to use her to summon Yan-C-Bin, the Howling Hatred himself, through the portal. Worse, she now realized that Windvane actually contained a tiny spark of the archomental within it. Though they did not know how, they knew that the only way to truly prevent the cults from achieving their goals would be to destroy the four elemental weapons.

A Dark Fate
Returning to Drakkengarde to regroup, Ya purchased a vault in Drakkengarde's bank to secure Windvane and Tinderstrike while Lafiel asked her broker about Drown. Unfortunately, it had already been sold, and he had little information to provide her about the seller. Their next destination was the church of Ioun, where they purchased Legend Lore spells to learn more about the four weapons. Though the answers they received were not entirely straightforward, they confirmed that the weapons were the key not just to summoning the archomentals through the portals, but possibly to closing them as well. Unfortunately, the divination also seemed to confirm that Drown was purchased by a cultist of the Crushing Wave, and that the trident was now in the possession of the aboleth within the submerged caverns.

As they returned to Belsimar, they noted semi-regular tremors, reminding them that the Cult of the Black Earth still stood strong below them. Descending once more into the caverns, they found the water foul and slimy. They were soon attacked by the lizardfolk tribe they had previously treated with, who were now diseased thralls of the aboleth. As they made their way through the submerged caves, they were constantly assailed by terrifying visions of death and madness, warning them away. They pressed on through these visions until they found the aboleth itself, the trident Drown held in one of its tentacles. It announced itself as Yngukulub the Devourer, Prophet of the Crushing Wave, and said that having failed to heed its warnings, they would now become its slaves. The heroes fought hard, but it soon became clear that the aboleth had the upper hand. Recognizing that they were unlikely to prevail, they teleported themselves to safety.

The party rested overnight back in the Temple of the Crushing Wave. Despite the tremors, they still felt that reclaiming Drown from the aboleth was a more pressing need than dealing with the earth cultists. Armed with a plan, they returned to the watery caves below. The aboleth was not in the same cavern they had previously encountered it, and as they proceeded into a large chamber filled with sunken ships that had been washed underground, a massive hydra burst out of the water. While they were occupied by the creature, Yngukulub the Devourer returned and renewed its assault. They found early success when Ru Bae Ya froze the surface of the water, trapping the hydra beneath it so they could focus on the aboleth, but when a stray fireball shattered the ice the hydra reemerged and devoured Lafiel. Sensing their impending doom, Qwynn once more elected to cast dimension door and teleport herself to safety. Unlike the last time, though, her companions were not so lucky. When they neither returned nor contacted her in the next several hours, she was forced to accept that they had perished. With a heavy heart, Qwynn returned to Drakkengarde alone.

Vengeance for the Fallen
With the defeat of Drake's Company, the Cults of the Black Earth and the Crushing Wave were successfully able to summon Ogrémoch and Olhydra into the world. The two archomentals were no more allied than their cults, however, and clashed within the caverns below Belsimar. Their titanic struggle resulted into a massive earthquake that devastated the center of Orodeth, and enormous tidal waves that flooded the land. The cataclysmic destruction of what would come to be known as the Shattering of Orodeth did not go unnoticed, and the Brightstone Heroes, along with Qwynn's brother Flynn and his adventuring party, Kazak's Follies, joined forces to put a final stop to the elemental cults. They first descended into the caves occupied by the Cult of the Black Earth, where they slew Marlos Urnrayle, destroyed the avatar of Ogrémoch, and used Ironfang to seal the portal, destroying the weapon in the process.

The band then traveled into the submerged caves, the water level of which had risen enough that they had to cast a spell of water breathing upon themselves to traverse them. Making their way through the eastern section of the caves, they found a terrifying shrine decorated with carvings of tentacles and fanged maws, guarded by none other than Drake and Sumac, now mind-controlled thralls of the aboleth. Though the two put up a fight, the Brightstone Heroes were successfully able to break the aboleth's mind control and restore their senses. Drake and Sumac eagerly joined the others, leading them into the large central cavern, now so thoroughly flooded that the portal was below the surface of the water.

Here they found not only the aboleth and its pet hydra, but a mind-controlled Ru Bae Ya as well. And, emerging from the water, the Crushing Wave herself: the archomental Olhydra. This time there were no warnings, and no threats; both sides knew it could only end with the total destruction of the other, and so an epic battle began that would determine the fate of Syra. The hydra was quickly dispatched, and while Ya hurled powerful spells at her former companions they were eventually able to break her mind control as well, allowing her to direct her attacks against the aboleth and Olhydra. When Olhydra engulfed Myra Brigg, she decided on a desperate move and broke her staff of power. The resulting magical detonation completely vaporized the sorceress, and though it injured Olhydra the archomental was not destroyed and continued to assail the heroes, who began to fear that she could not be stopped. Eventually, though, Gurrard Snevilin killed Yngukulub Devourer by shooting a crossbow bolt into the aboleth's eye. Sumac, seeing their chance, dove beneath the water, picked up Drown, and thrust it into the portal. As with the earth portal, Drown disintegrated into rust as the portal collapsed in on itself, pulling Olhydra back into the plane of water as it closed. Leardon Sunflare, who was trapped inside her at the time, was pulled in with her.

Their victory was bittersweet. Olhydra and Ogrémoch had been pushed back out of the material plane, the portals they used and the weapons that activated them destroyed. But while they knew Leardon could find his way back, one way or another, the same could not be said about Lafiel or Myra. The entire group returned to Brightstone Keep, where after he returned several days later Leardon presided over the funeral service for Myra. As Kazak's Follies and the Brightstone Heroes went their separate ways, the remaining members of Drake's Company were left to decide their futures.

Qwynn, who had luckily left Drakkengarde before its destruction in the Shattering, had already decided to retire when she believed her former companions to be dead. Their return brought her some measure of relief, which she channeled into writing books about her experiences. Drake, somewhat humbled by his time as an aboleth's thrall and knowing Bastian Thermandar was almost certainly dead, retired to a small farm in the Free Cities. Sumac returned to Underbough Temple, which had survived the cataclysm, to help his fellow druids tend to the broken land. And Ru Bae Ya, never content to retire, simply sought further adventure on their own. But though they had seemingly won for now, they still promised to contact each other again if they needed to. After all, Windvane and Tinderstrike were presumably still out there, somewhere, and the portals they were keyed to had never been closed. Someday, if they discovered the means to do so, they intended to finish the job.

The Varen Investigation

 * Years pass.
 * Joining Drake in going to Varen to find his family's killer.
 * Attacked by a Scyllan, Ya and Sumac hop through the Nine Hells.
 * Dinner with Stormlord Lanak Iskarr.