Kazak's Follies

Kazak's Follies was a group of adventurers who briefly banded together around the time of the Shattering of Orodeth. Their leader and namesake was the dwarven gladiator Kazak Axehaft.

Membership

 * Flynn Cupsigh - Male halfling paladin. Granted membership in the Brightstone Heroes.
 * Jib - Male water genasi cleric of Aegir. Now captain of his own ship in the Shattered Sea.
 * Kazak Axehaft - Male dwarven barbarian and gladiator. Named Kazak Kingbearer by the dwarves of Korthaz. Trying to reclaim Drakkengarde.
 * Keiraleina - Female human sorceress. Adventuring across Syra.
 * Countess Honeysuckle Bree - Female halfling rogue serving the Church of Zilchus. Disappeared without a trace.

The Arms of a King
In the spring of 2965, a dwarf from Korthaz named Gargosh discovered the secret location of the tomb of King Torvald Flameforge some ways east of Red Oak Village in Orodeth. He had long sought to recover the axe Orcsplitter from the tomb and bring it back to Korthaz, but could not do so alone. And so he hired five adventurers to help him: the dwarven gladiator, Kazak Axehaft; the water genasi cleric, Jib; The human sorceress, Keiraleina; the halfling assassin, Countess Honeysuckle Bree; and the halfling paladin Flynn Cupsigh, brother to Qwynn Cupsigh of Drake's Company. Flynn had recently heard of their demise from his sister, and hoped that once the tomb was found, they could pick up investigating the elemental cults where his sister had left off.

As the group traveled north from Drakkengarde, storms and earthquakes rumbled across the land on an almost daily basis, and they had repeated run-ins with both elementals and elemental cultists. As they crossed the great stone bridge over the Belsimar Strait, they were attacked by a band of mercenaries who, when questioned after their defeat, said they were working for Gargosh's wicked cousin, Drannin. Finally, they arrived at the ruins marking the underground tomb. After bypassing the traps that barred the way, and solving the riddles that locked the path, they finally found the sarcophagus of King Torvald Flameforge.

It was then that Drannin appeared, and revealed that "Gargosh" was actually a doppleganger in his employ; he had kidnapped the real Gargosh back in Drakkengarde the night before the group set off and given his journal to the doppelganger, hoping the adventurers would clear the path for him. Drannin underestimated them, though, and Drannin and his men were killed while the doppelganger fled into the night. Within the sarcophagus, they found the bones of the king lying atop a bed of stamped gold ingots, and clutching the greataxe Orcsplitter. Concerned by the spate of recent earthquakes, Kazak removed the king's bones and the ingots, intending to bring them to Korthaz along with the axe to be re-interred there.

The Shattering
As they emerged from the tomb, the ground suddenly lurched in a massive earthquake, far more powerful than any they'd felt on their trip. The roaring sounds of crashing rock echoed all around them, and they ran out into the open field away from another that could fall and watched massive fissures crack open in the ground. When it finally ended, though, they were soon presented with a new problem: a massive flood of water racing in from the distance. Taking shelter in the still-intact ruins, they rode out the flood as the land was inundated with sea water.

The next morning, they discovered that the land around the tomb was now an island in the middle of a vast sea that was once the middle of Orodeth. It was only when they teleported to Northeron that they learned the full scale of the disaster; the entire central portion of Orodeth had crumbled away in the earthquake, with the ocean flooding in from both sides. Northeron had survived only by being build high up in the cliffs; Drakkengarde was completely destroyed. Flynn surmised that this was the work of the elemental cults his sister had dealt with, and sent a message to the Brightstone Heroes, for whom he had done some previous adventuring work. The lich Leardon Sunflare responded by arriving in Northeron and formally hiring them to find out what happened and deal with the cultists.

Using the wind walk spell, they flew south and surveyed the destruction for themselves; from the former Belsimar Strait on westwards, as far as they could sea, virtually everything was now underwater, save for a few small islands of land that still remained. Following rough directions provided by Leardon's divination magic, they eventually arrived at a newly-formed tunnel leading underground, still dry despite going below the waterline. Following the tunnel, they eventually found themselves in the ruins of the dwarven city of Belsimar. According to Flynn's sister, it was here that the elemental cults had made their stronghold, and in the caverns below where they would find the answers they sought.

The Secrets Below the Earth

 * Bust some cultist heads
 * Bust some more cultist heads
 * How many cultists are there!?
 * Very smart demons guarding a wardrobe and masks
 * Find ooze trying to eat svirfneblin, go downstairs
 * Some more cultists, some fire cultists, an evil altar on an evil ziggurat
 * Sigil of the Elder Elemental Eye (broke the sigil, scattered the bone dust)
 * Ghost shows the way to dwarven hammer
 * Svirfneblin helps find shelter, goes home
 * Further down, cultists
 * Xorn wants gems, gets death
 * Roper beat-down
 * Hook Horror Canyon
 * So many umber hulks
 * Captive dwarf forging armor, explains Ogremoch is free and maybe Olhydra too
 * Go back to Silverstone
 * Get help from Brightstone Heroes
 * Ride a dragon back in
 * Tear up Ogremoch's avatar
 * Rescue Sumac and Drake
 * Fight Olhydra
 * Myra shatters staff of power
 * Long fight, Sumac closes the portal
 * Leardon gets sucked in (but he's a lich)
 * Jib gets a boat
 * Bones are returned, Kazak Kingbearer