Challengers of the Unspeakable

The Challengers of the Unpeakable is an adventuring company. The group was officially formed after the wizard Tephra opened a portal to the Far Realm, though with the exception of Kalth they had all previously adventured together.

=Members=

Current Members

 * Gryff - Male human paladin of Nalindra.
 * Ro - Female revenant shifter druid.
 * Harthur - Male half-orc ranger.
 * Nuraya - Female shardmind artificer/shaman.
 * Kalth - Thri-kreen monk.

Former Members

 * Tephra - Female human wizard. Opened a portal to the Far Realm. Now a servant of Allabar.

=History=

Early Days
Stuff from when Tephra was still a member goes here. Fighting bullywugs and stealing their mud and discovering the weird portals and the place with the magic rooms.
 * Retrieved mud from ruins with bullywugs
 * Encountered crazy guy with an imprisoned fel taint
 * Delved into a cave to find the source of the Far Realm taint
 * Found a corrupted crystal; told to learn where it came from
 * Sent by Tol to locate a missing caravan. Find a cave with kobolds, ruined library, ancient wizard's sanctum
 * Sent to kill goblins; Ro dies, find ancient journal & letter of alliance from drow
 * Ro gets better, sorta, as Leardon makes her undead on accident
 * Accident-prone gnome sets his house on fire, animates his furniture and bathroom fixtures
 * Harthur arrested for starting a bar fight; go into dwarven mines to check out some ruins, find duergar worshiping a demon lord
 * Get Harthur back the next morning, kill duergar, take a portal, accidentally wind up in Estorium with Voran's crazy ghost

Far Realm Portal
While clearing out some ruins found in the dwarven mines, the players find another of the portals leading to Secret Mage Hideout of Voran. Sadly, the portal had been sabotaged long ago by Mind Flayers in order to capture Voran. Our Heroes found themselves instead at the chamber where Voran had died. Unfortunately, his ghost was still there, and still quite mad. After a long battle, Our Heroes managed to lay his spirit to rest, then exited the chamber to discover they were in Estorium.
 * Wander through Estorium, find a cabin in the fog with a wizard inside
 * Told of nearby Far Realm taint, asked to find source
 * Mutated goblins found in cave along with Far Realm-tainted pool; bizarre and disturbing dreams while sleeping
 * Wizard deduces that the taint is coming not from the cave, but from the temple of Boccob above it
 * Delve into the temple! Yaun-ti have moved into part of it. Also, undead. Also, a shadow dragon asked to guard a passageway. Also, a room with an anti-magic crystal. More dreams. Find mind flayer opening portal, glowing red scythe stuck in the wall. Kill mind flayer, Tephra opens the Far Realm portal instead of closing it, everyone runs.
 * Wizard gets pissed, turns into Boccob, teleports everyone to Brightstone and leaves to do what he can

Werewolves
On our way to that one place. There was a lake... and werewolves... and we beat them up!
 * Brighstone Heroes completely floored at how the mission went so disastrously wrong; sends the group to Silverstone to find more information, and to drop off a letter in Parrath
 * Group names themselves; Kalth joins
 * In the middle of the night near Parrath, werewolves! Save Regina, local ranger
 * Defend the town from werewolves at night
 * Visit nearby fey barrow; meet eladrin ghost who explains everything
 * Take fey crossing on the island, find good werewolf village; bad werewolves captured their leader, need to rescue him and stop crazy eladrin. Ro stays as hostage, has spiritual journey/quest/thingamajig
 * Werewolves die, good werewolf doesn't die, crazy eladrin beaten and "dealt with" by eladrin nation; return home with dire wolves

Mountain Pass
There were bandits in the mountains. Also Tephra was there, trying to release a terrible Far Realm Thing and destroy the world.

Tomb of the Sleeper
The body of Sir Maligant was stolen by cultists so they could do nefarious Far Realm Things. The party chased them down, beat them all up, and Kalth got a magic skeleton horse.

Kalth nearly died in the final battle against the cultists, but was saved in a vision from the Raven Queen. Kalth would have begun worshipping the Raven Queen as a result of this, but sadly their philosophies were too different. However, this near-death experience has inspired Kalth to research the various deities and religions of the world.

Silverstone
The party finally reaches Silverstone! After attempting to arrange a meeting with high officials to warn them about the impending Far Realm threat, they discover that a member of the Brightstone Heroes actually lives in the city, teleported back here right after the meeting in Brightstone, and already warned everyone - meaning Our Heroes were sent on their urgent overland journey mostly to get them out of the way for a week.

After attempting to research the threat, Our Heroes were approached by a very definitely nefarious person named Theriana, who outlined a plan to close the Far Realm portal. She also asked that Our Heroes not inform Myra of this plan (Our Heroes promptly informed Myra of this plan).

To close the Far Realm portal, two articles of great power were needed. One empowered by the dead god Nerull - the skull of the demilich Acererak in the Tomb of Horrors, and the other full of Far Realm energy - an Estorian extradimensional prison that teleported around through the Far Realm, known as the Pyramid of Shadows. Theriana suggested that she can acquire one item if Our Heroes go retrieve the other.

Our Heroes chose to tackle the Tomb of Horrors. They will return to meet with Theriana in two weeks time.

Tomb of Horrors
The challengers delved into the Tomb of Horrors, facing many deadly traps and powerful monsters, but eventually reached Acererak's crypt, finding the demilich to be nothing more than a floating skull with gemstone eyes and teeth. They battled the demlich, even as he teleported them throughout the tomb, until at last Kalth landed a mighty blow that shattered his skull into dust, the gemstones clattering to the floor. Picking them up to take back to Theriana, they prepared to leave the Tomb of Horrors and return to Silverstone.

As they traveled up the mountain pass, they encountered Tephra, who wanted Acererak's soul gems. When they refused, she fought them, before eventually summoning the aberrant monstrosity Shoth-Gorag to kill them. After Ro slew the beast, it melted, leaving only a large black stone - its heart. They took it back to Myra.

This meant that they did not need to meet with Theriana at all. After handing over the gemstones and the heart to Myra, she began researching how to utilize them to close the portal.

Wellspring
After learning of multiple Far Realm attacks on nearby towns, Our Heroes volunteered to help the Silverstone guard defend these far-flung areas while waiting for Myra to do her thing. They were sent to the town of Wellspring. Shortly after Our Heroes arrived, it fell under attack by a Grell searching for The Tear of Boccob. After defeating the attackers, Our Heroes decided to find the Tear first.

Their investigation led them to a ruined tower in the nearby mountains, which they discovered was badly tainted by the Far Realm. After defeating the inhabitants, including a former mercenary party called the Stormcrows, they learned the following.

The Stormcrows had been hired by a mage named Cylus to find the Tear. They succeeded, but the Tear was corrupted with Far Realm energy, which drove all of the Stormcrows mad. Shortly after they found the Tear, it was stolen, prompting the Stormcrow leader to send the Grell to town to find it again.

The Tear being horribly Far Realm tainted has really concerning implications for the fate of Boccob.

Returning to town, Our Heroes learned that recently inhabitants of the town had been mysteriously vanishing. Now citizens were being mysteriously murdered in broad daylight. An exhaustive investigation revealed the following:


 * Agents from the Shadowfell were responsible for the abductions. This started around the time Cylus hired the Stormcrows.
 * Monsters from the sewers were responsible for the murders. This started around the time the Tear was stolen from the Stormcrows.
 * The mage Cylus had been eaten by a Mindflayer. This happened around the time the Stormcrows found the Tear.
 * With help from a Speak with Dead spell, Cylus revealed that he wanted to find the Tear for Tephra. The mindflayer who killed him was named Shathrax.
 * After capturing and interrogating some Shadowfell agents, they revealed that they were working for the mindflayer Shathrax, and that Shathrax has the Tear.

It appears that Shathrax is kidnapping and mutating the citizens of Wellspring via the Tear, turning them into horrible abominations that are popping up from the sewers and murdering people. His ultimate goal is currently unknown, though undoubtedly it has something to do with Tephra. Our Heroes are venturing into the sewers to put a stop to the mindflayer and recover the Tear (hopefully without going mad like the Stormcrows did).