Challengers of the Unspeakable

The Challengers of the Unpeakable were an adventuring company formed to oppose the wizard Tephra after she opened a portal to the Far Realm. They did not remain together after accomplishing their goal, instead all going their separate ways.

Members

 * Chrip - Male kercpa sorcerer. Became the new leader of the Winter Court fey, and retired to his new palace in the Winter Wood.
 * Elytra - Female dragonborn battlemind. Sacrificed herself to close Tephra's portal to the Far Realm, becoming trapped on the other side.
 * Grayson - Male drow rogue disguised as a wood elf. Betrayed the party within the Pyramid of Shadows, and was stabbed in the heart by Gurrard Snevilin.
 * Gryff - Male human paladin of Nalindra. Sucked into an imploding Far Realm portal and returned as an undead aberration. His soul was claimed by Nalindra upon his death.
 * Harthur Grai - Male half-orc ranger. Fell into a portal to the Abyss, eventually becoming first exarch of the Nightbringer.
 * Kalth - Thri-kreen monk of indeterminate gender. Briefly became Vyrellis's bodyguard, but vanished without a trace some months later.
 * Kayleth Lifesinger - Half-elf bard. Lost in the Abyss, but returned due to the intervention of the Nightbringer.
 * Kitsu - Female hengeyokai ranger. Joined Chrip in the Feywild.
 * Nuraya - Female shardmind artificer/shaman. Left to the join the Trine Academy after failing to save Gryff.
 * Ro - Female revenant shifter druid. Imprisoned within the Pyramid of Shadows by Vyrellis, now leader of a tribe of Arboreans in Palmheart.
 * Sarahlia - Female warlord, claimed to be human. Trapped in the Abyss with Orcus. Tortured, killed, and sewn into a series of ghouls.
 * Tephra - Female human wizard. Opened a portal to the Far Realm and became the chosen of Allabar. Slain by the other Challengers and devoured by Allabar.
 * Zohar - Male angel of Moradin. Returned to Celestia after the threat of the Far Realm was ended.

Early Days
The individuals that would eventually form the Challengers of the Unspeakable first met in The Wood's End tavern in Brightstone in 2959. At the time, Tephra, Gryff, Ro, Harthur, and Nuraya were simply prospective adventurers looking to earn some coin. When the lich Leardon Sunflare posted a notice asking for adventurers to journey to a nearby ruin in the Dawning Woods, the five decided to band together to take the job. The mud-choked ruin had been taken over by bullywugs, and Leardon believed that their presence may have imparted certain properties to the mud that would aid him in his ritual research.

Within a chamber deep in the ruin, the adventurers found a magical staff being used to open a portal to the Elemental Chaos, through which the mud had been slowly trickling in. Though they didn't know how long it had been there, they closed the portal and took the staff. On their way back to Brightstone, they encountered a wagon that had collapsed into a hive of giant ants. Rather than accept their help, though, the insane caravan master ordered their deaths. During the battle, a glass container fell out of the wagon and shattered, releasing a bizarre aberrant creature. The adventurers dispatched their foes, but were disturbed by the creature they had encountered. Leardon agreed to look into it, and the next day told them it was a fell taint, a predator from the Far Realm. Since the presence of one implied the presence of more (and possibly worse, with their connection to the Far Realm, Leardon had spent the evening magically tracking it to a cave deeper in the woods. The five adventurers agreed to travel there and investigate.

The cave was filled with fell taints, making their investigation quite treacherous. As they continued deeper they found a network of twisting, narrow tunnels that spiraled down into the earth, making navigation both confusing and hazardous. At the bottom they discovered a glowing, crystalline golem with some sort of stone at its heart. Though the golem was a powerful foe, they eventually defeated it and recovered the stone, which turned out to be a crystal clearly corrupted by the energies of the Far Realm. When they brought it back to Leardon, he got worried and brought his fellow Brightstone Hero Priam to see it. Priam told the adventurers that the crystal looked to be a corrupted version of the same crystal that had given him psionic powers, and that its very existence worried him greatly. He and Leardon thanked them for their efforts and began conducting further research on the corrupted crystal.

While Leardon and Priam looked into the crystal, Tol Sigurn asked the adventurers, now that they had proven themselves, to deal with a brown dragon named Kethendtir that had been attacking caravans recently. The five traveled to the cavern where the dragon made its lair and slew it, but found a passage leading to an ancient ruin used as living quarters by Kethendtir's dragonborn and kobold allies. Within the ruin was an inactive magic portal and an ancient journal from someone named Voran, as well as a piece of chalk that could activate the portal. The portal led to a wizard's sanctum deep underground. After dispatching the rest of the dragon's allies, they found another portal, activated by a floating lantern, that transported them to the ruin in which they had faced the bullywugs. Returning to the sanctum, they also found a ladder leading down into an enchanted living area containing five doors, each with the name of one of the adventurers, leading to extradimensional bedrooms. After resting and deciding to claim the sanctum for themselves, they returned to Tol with news of the dragon's defeat.

A few days later, Tol asked them to deal with a nearby band of goblins that had been getting more aggressive as of late. The goblins' lair was hidden in a tangle of spiderwebs, and guarded by giant spiders that were inexplicably serving the goblins. While climbing down into the hole that served as their hideout, Ro was knocked free and plummeted to her death. Her allies finished dealing with the goblins, killing their chief, Urgog the Mangler. At the bottom of the goblin hole, they found a few curious things. The first was a drow relic used to control summon and control spiders, accompanied by an unsigned letter proposing an alliance with the goblins in exchange for the destruction of Brightstone Keep. The second was a series of ancient journal fragments indicating that Voran was a wizard from Estorium who had led a band of survivors to settle here after the Illithid War. Unfortunately, they ended with the deaths of all of them at the hands of a group of illithids who had apparently followed them. The four surviving adventurers returned to Brightstone with Ro's body. Tol was quite distressed about the possibility of drow nearby, and immediately left to speak with the other Brightstone Heroes about finding and eradicating them. Meanwhile, the adventurers brought Ro's body to Leardon to be raised. When he performed the ritual, however, she inexplicably arose as an undead revenant. While Tephra spent the next day in the library researching Ro's condition, the other four found themselves having to come to the aid of a gnomish alchemist named Fonkin Twiddlefist when his alchemical laboratory exploded, trapping his cat in the burning building. Though the interior of the building was awash in chaotic magic as a result of the explosion, the four successfully rescued the cat. Tephra arrived and joined them outside just in time to see Fonkin's bathtub, animated by the ambient magic from the blast, leap out of an upstairs window and charge off down the street.

Priam asked the adventurers to return to the ruin where they had encountered the bullywugs to look for more information about Voran. Using the staff they had pulled from the mud, they cleared it away and revealed a hidden tunnel deeper beneath the complex. Though it was filled with fell taints, they eventually found a chamber containing one of Voran's journals. It indicated that he alone had survived the illithids' attack on his settlement, and thereafter threw himself into researching how to fight against them using a number of illithid artifacts recovered during the war. The fruits of his labor were a number of crystals that could imbue humans with psionic powers - just like Priam's. They also found a disturbing magical tome covered in the skin of several faces stitched together, which moaned and wailed whenever it was opened. Tephra claimed the tome for herself, reasoning that it would contain considerable knowledge about their aberrant foes.

A Name and a Promise
The next day, the adventurers were given another task. Brightstone's miners had uncovered some ancient dwarven ruins, but they needed someone to go in and make sure no monsters had taken up residence before they began their excavation. Unfortunately, they found that Harthur had been involved in a brawl in the Wood's End tavern and been arrested, so the other four had to go in without him. They spent much of the day dealing with giant insects and a handful of duergar, before returning to Brightstone to rest and recover. The next day, they went back in - alongside Harthur, who had been released in the morning - and discovered that a mad duergar named Hargash Bitterblade was summoning the giant vermin in the name of the demon lord Obox-ob. When they confronted him, he fled deeper into the tunnels and summoned demons to defeat them. Though the tunnel collapsed in the battle and cut off their retreat, after slaying Hargash and the demons the adventurers realized they had found their way into another of Voran's hidden sanctums. When they tried to activate the portal and escape, however, it transported them to a ruined tower where they were forced to do battle with - and ultimately destroy - the maddened ghost of Voran himself.

Outside the tower, the adventurers found themselves in an immense, ancient, ruined city. As they walked through the ruined streets, a fog sprang up around them, obscuring their sight. Stumbling through the fog, they found a small cabin. Inside lived an old man named Jorn. After letting them eat and rest, he told them that he was a wiard living a hermit's life and had recently detected worrisome levels of energy related to the Far Realm. After hearing their tale, he asked them to travel to an ancient temple of Boccob known as the Temple of the Mind's Eye and eliminate whatever aberrations they might find. It took them most of the day to reach the temple, so they made camp outside. When they did, though, they experienced bizarre dreams. Though all were slightly different, they all featured dark, winding corridors filled with the sounds of grinding rock and scraping metal, a woman's bloodcurdling scream, a giant stone eye, and the opening of a great door. They awoke to find themselves under attack by mutated goblins; after defeating them, they chased those that fled into the cave where they encountered more of the twisted creatures. At the bottom, they found a planar leak from which energy was seeping from the Far Realm, which had so greatly warped the goblin tribe dwelling there. With great effort they managed to close it and returned to Jorn.

Though Jorn thanked them for dealing with the goblins, he could tell that the planar leak was merely the symptom of a greater problem originating from within the temple itself. The five set back out for the temple, camping outside once again. As before, they were plagued with strange dreams; this time, the imagery was much more vivid, and they saw the door open to reveal terrible aberrant horrors. Resolving that they must stop the disaster that their dreams were warning them about, they entered the temple. They first encountered a band of yuan-ti inside the temple, but when they explained their goal the yuan-ti allowed them to pass in order to eliminate a mutual threat, as they had claimed much of the temple for themselves. The adventurers traveled through grand chambers that had long-since collapsed, leaving only thin tunnels between the rubble, eventually encountering a shadow dragon in the darkness. It engaged them in conversation for a bit, before explaining that its mistress had set it to guard the passage, and that it would have to kill them. Though the dragon was powerful, the adventurers ultimately proved stronger.

Passing through the ruined sections, they found a long hallway that had been rigged with dozens of deadly traps. They just barely managed to reach the other side alive, where they found an enormous domed room painted with massive images of Boccob. In the center of the room was a small altar, atop which was a gem projecting a massive anti-magic field. After some discussion, they elected to leave it undisturbed. Continuing further in, they entered a vast chamber with a massive fissure through the middle and an enormous scythe with a glowing red blade embedded in the back wall. Beneath the scythe, a mind flayer had opened a small portal to the Far Realm through which several aberrations were emerging. The five adventurers leaped into battle, and though it took nearly everything they had, they finally killed the mind flayer and all the aberrations it had summoned. While they bandaged their wounds, Tephra volunteered to seal the portal. As she opened the wailing tome and began to intone a ritual in deep speech, her allies realized too late that she was not sealing the portal, but opening it even further. As it spread to cover the entire wall, sucking the scythe deep into it, a small army of aberrations appeared on the other side. Tephra simply smiled as they approached, looking to her for leadership. Realizing that they could not face this foe and live, the other four adventurers fled even as a massive aberration stepped through with the scythe in its hands.

Returning to Jorn's cabin, the wizard was furious. With a sudden sweep of his cape, he revealed that was in fact the god Boccob, having been turned into a mortal following his defeat of Nerull in the Deity War. He angrily told them that he would do what he could to clean up their miss, then teleported them to Brightstone. The four quickly reported what had happened to Leardon, who immediately called a meeting of the Brightstone Heroes. The four adventurers retired to the tavern, where they decided to make it their mission to stop Tephra and close the portal to the Far Realm. Calling themselves the Challengers of the Unspeakable, they drew up a sigil and each had it tattooed upon them as a sign of their bond. While discussing their next move, a thri-kreen introduced itself to them as Kalth, announcing that it was a monk whose one goal in life was to battle evil and asking if they knew where it could go to do so. The newly-christened Challengers of the Unspeakable explained to Kalth what their mission was, and invited the thri-kreen monk to join them. Kalth eagerly accepted, though it took some convincing for the monk not to immediately set out for Estorium right then and there.

Wolfheart
The Brightstone Heroes were appalled at how disastrously things went in Estorium. While they prepared to gather their allies and head south to battle the aberrations, they asked the Challengers of the Unspeakable to travel east to Silverstone and research means of closing the portal. On their way, though, Tol asked them to deliver a letter to a friend of his named Regina Tress in the village of Parrath. As the five adventurers made camp near the village, they found Regina being attacked by werewolves. Regina explained that the village had recently been plagued by a number of wolf attacks, though the creatures had rarely troubled them in the past. When they attacked the village in force, she realized they were werewolves; the next morning, her husband and several other villagers were missing. She and several of the village's warriors searched the island of Wolfheart, but all the rest were wiped out.

The Challengers accompanied Regina back to Parrath. That night, they helped the villagers fight off a second attack not just by werewolves, but other lycanthropes as well. One of the villagers told them about an ancient burial mound to the south, and when they investigated they found the ghost of an eladrin woman named Omaphara. She told them that that when the Feywild rejoined the Material Plane, a fey crossing opened on Wolfheart. This led to a conflict between a local clan of werewolves and the eladrin city of Mithrendain known as the War of the Pelt that resulted in her death. Though a truce was ultimately called, her husband Querelian vowed that he would avenge her. Recently, Querelian had visited her grave and - though he did not know her spirit was still present - said that war would soon return, and her death would at last be avenged. Her long years of seclusion, however had given her time to reflect on the war; she now believed that only tragedy would come from renewed bloodshed, and begged the Challengers to stop Querelian. She gave them her longsword, Moonclaw, and explained that the fey crossing on Wolfheart only opened during the full moon; this would be their only chance to stop him.

The band took the fey crossing to Brokenstone Vale within the Feywild, and journeyed until they came upon the village of Shatterstone where the werewolves had made their home. The werewolves were initially hostile, but the Challengers managed to talk them down. The werewolves explained that their leader, Viktor Mazan, had been kidnapped and evidence suggested the eladrin of Mithrendain were responsible. Though many of them were eager to attack Mithrendain and rescue him, they were convinced to let the Challengers rescue him in their stead. As insurance, Ro remained behind as a hostage.

The Challengers tracked Viktor Mazan's kidnappers to the lair of rival werewolves and rescued Mazan, as well as uncovering evidence that Querelian had paid them to capture and kill Mazan and plant evidence implicating Mithrendain. While Mazan returned to Brokenstone Vale to calm his people, the Challengers followed the information they found to the ruined keep from which Querelian was orchestrating his plans. The mad eladrin accused them of being werebeasts and elf-foes, spitting vitriol and invectives as he and his allies fought back. The Challengers ultimately subdued and tied him up just as forces from Mithrendain arrived to battle against the werewolves. The Challengers were quickly able to explain what had happened, though, and turned both Querelian and Moonclaw over to them.

Back in Shatterstone, the werewolves' elder shaman told Ro of a prophecy that a hero would one day arise wielding the powers of life and death to save the world. As an undead druid, he believed her to be that hero. He guided her on a spiritual journey to improve her powers, helping her to fully come to terms with her nature. When her companions returned, the werewolves thanked them for averting renewed warfare and gifted them dire wolf mounts.

Duvik Pass
The heroes continued down the road for several days, eventually reaching Duvik Pass. As they traveled, they were attacked by a medusa whose arm was branded by a dark green rune leading a gang of bandits. The Challengers narrowly defeated her, though as they did the rune vanished and reappeared on Harthur's arm, poisoning him. Harthur quickly determined, however, that he could channel that poison into his blades. Fearing that more bandits were wielding such powers, they followed their tracks off the pass and into the mountains until they found ruins covered in similar runes. They also found more bandits, these ones led by a minotaur with bright orange runes glowing on his neck. As before, when they killed him the runes transferred to Gryff, searing him with pain but enabling him to channel fire into his sword. Exploring the ruins, they found sketches of a set of standing stones with runes drawn next to them. Fearing what the bandits had stumbled upon, they continued to the top of the mountain where they found the standing stones and the bandits' leader. Though a heavy cloak obscured most of her features, when she spoke they realized it was their old ally, Tephra. She explained that she was now serving a being known as Allabar, who had given her the ultimate power she had always dreamed of and who would soon remake the world in his image. She intended to free the primordial Hoshotath, who would destroy the world's defenders and pave the way for her master's arrival.

Though the Challengers fought fiercely against the elementals she summoned, she was able to shatter enough standing stones for Hoshotath to begin to enter Syra, scouring the mountaintop with his power. Tephra herself assailed them with both powerful arcane magic and tentacles that whipped out from within her cloak. She was ultimately defeated by a mighty blow delivered by Kalth, but her body erupted into a mass of writhing tentacles and her telepathic voice told the Challengers that they would see her again.

As Tephra vanished, another set of magical runes carved themselves into Nuraya's chest. Though she could feel Hoshotath's will driving her to kill her companions and finish freeing him, she found that she also understood the ritual that had bound him. Pushing back against the primordial's influence, she was able to inscribe new runes upon the ruined stones that forced him back into his prison and bound him once more. Once the binding was complete, the runes vanished from Harthur and Gryff but remained carved into Nuraya's crystalline form.

The Sleeper's Tomb
The next day, the Challengers encountered priestesses of the Raven Queen escorting the body of a paladin named Sir Malagant. They priestesses explained that he was a paladin of Wee Jas who, long ago, had given his life defeating a great evil from the Far Realm known as the Sleeper. His body was taken to a nearby temple where an exarch of Wee Jas appeared and told the clerics that they must consecrate his body with a special ritual a hundred years hence. That day had now come, and they were on their way to the site of his final battle to perform the ritual. While they spoke, however, a group of cultists attacked and made off with Sir Malagant's body. The priestesses asked them to retrieve his body. Kalth swore, in the name of the Raven Queen, that they would succeed in this quest.

They tracked the cultists to a nearby hill where the mouth of a carving of an immense stone face formed a tunnel into the hill. They were met there by more cultists guarding the entrance, including a tiefling on a hippogriff. Kalth leapt up onto the hippogriff and tried to drag it down, but failed and fell. On the way down Kalth hurled a rock that struck the hippogriff in the head, killing it and causing its body to fall on the monk. The tiefling vanished in a burst of hellfire. The heroes proceeded down into the hillside, finding themselves in a massive tomb complex that the Sleeper's followers had built for it. They learned that the tiefling, Volkanth, had recently received prophetic dreams that led him to rebuild the Sleeper's cult in preparation for its return.

While sleeping in the tomb, the Challengers were beset by horrible nightmares of a man with empty eye sockets, screaming that they stole his eyes. Though disturbed, this strengthened their resolve to destroy such a potent evil. After passing a variety of torture devices and sacrificial chambers, they found a skeletal horse animated by a magic bridle that Kalth took ownership of. The monk also found, and began wearing, a black cloak with a demon's skull sewn into the hood, its horns protruding upward. As they continued through the tomb the cultists got more and more paranoid and deranged. They also encountered a variety of aberrations and fiendish traps. When they came at last to where the Sleeper itself was entombed, they beheld Volkanth and his inner circle involved in a dark ritual. Blood dripped down from the ceiling towards the mummified body of Sir Malagant, a hole carved in his chest where a horrific tentacled creature curled and drank the blood offered to it. It was clear from the cultists' intonations that this was the Sleeper.

In the ensuing battle Kalth was nearly slain by the cultists. In the moments before death, however, Kalth beheld a vision of the Raven Queen herself, who healed the monk's wounds. With the help of this divine boon, they were able to slay Volkanth and his cultists, as well as the Sleeper before it could be reborn in Sir Malagant's body. They returned the paladin's body to the priestesses, who performed a ritual of their own. At its conclusion, Sir Malagant's soul appeared in the air, pledged himself to Wee Jas for eternity, and lanced into the sky. Kalth found a newfound reverence for the Raven Queen as a result of the vision, but as their philosophies were too different the monk did not become a true worshiper. However, the experience inspired Kalth to research the various deities and religions of the world.

The Tomb of Horrors
When the Challengers arrived in Silverstone, they learned that the Brightstone Heroes had already sent word ahead about the Far Realm, realizing that their mission had merely been a ploy to sideline them for a time. They busied themselves with researching the Far Realm until they were contacted by the sorceress Theriana. She explained that though they may be on different sides, she had a vested interest in the world not ending and thus wished to help close the portal. As it had been opened with the scythe of Nerull, closing it would require powerful artifacts of both Nerull and the Far Realm. Theriana had two in mind in particular.

The first was the skull of the demilich Acererak, who had built a deadly tomb to lure adventurers and treasure hunters to their deaths to gather souls for Nerull. The second was an extradimensional Estorian prison known as the Pyramid of Shadows that used the energies of the Far Realm to teleport throughout the world. Theriana proposed that she would obtain one, while the Challengers obtained the other, after which she would use them together to close the portal. The Challengers agreed and decided to go after Acererak's skull, and though she warned them not to tell Myra Brigg of her plan they did so anyway. Myra believed that she wanted to avert the world's doom, but warned them not to trust her even so.

The challengers delved into the Tomb of Horrors, overcoming many deadly traps and powerful monsters. They 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 the skull into dust, the gemstones clattering to the floor. After picking them up to take back to Theriana, they plundered the treasures within Acererak's crypt. Among them was a crystalline axe named Farbane that Harthur claimed. They then departed the Tomb of Horrors and began traveling back to Silverstone.

As they headed up the mountain pass they were stopped by Tephra, who wanted Acererak's soul gems. When they refused, she attacked them briefly before 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. Reasoning that Shoth-Gorag's heart was itself a powerful object infused with the powers of the Far Realm, they decided not to meet with Theriana at all. They gave the heart and the gems to Myra, who began researching a way to use them to close the portal.

The Tear of Boccob
After learning of multiple attacks on nearby towns by aberrations, the Challengers volunteered to help defend these far-flung areas while waiting for Myra to conduct her research. They were sent via hippogriff to the town of Wellspring, which soon after came under attack by grell searching for something called "the Tear." After defeating them they met Dierdre, a priestess of Ioun from the local temple. She told them of the Tear of Boccob, an ancient artifact said to be hidden within a tower in the mountains.

The Challengers found the temple a crumbling ruin, filled with aberrant monsters and individuals corrupted by the Far Realm. One of them, a woman named Denva, was not too far-gone and surrendered, explaining that she was part of a mercenary company called the Stormcrows that was hired by a mage named Cylus to find the Tear. Though they succeeded, it was tainted by the Far Realm and corrupted them all. The Tear was stolen shortly thereafter, prompting their leader to send the grell to Wellspring to find it. They continued up the tower and slew the remainder of the mercenaries, but could find no clues as to where the Tear had been taken. The Tear's corruption also gave them concern for Boccob's fate.

After returning to Wellspring, the Challengers heard rumors that people had been mysteriously vanishing recently. Now, though, citizens were being murdered in broad daylight. The Challengers began investigating these crimes, and discovered evidence that the murders were being committed by horrific warped monsters coming up from the sewers. The kidnappings, on the other hand, seemed to be the work of beings from the Shadowfell. Moreover, all the trouble seemed to start around the time Cylus hired the Stormcrows. They immediately sought out Cylus at his room in the inn, but discovered that he was dead, the four jagged holes in his head clear evidence of a mind flayer. They cast Speak with Dead, and learned that Cylus had been hired to find the Tear of Boccob for Tephra. However, while waiting for the Stormcrows to return with the artifact, he was attacked by an illithid named Shathrax who forced him to divulge all he knew of the Tear before devouring his brain.

As they left, they ran into a group of dark ones arriving out of a Shadowfell portal in search of more victims. Defeating and interrogating them, the Challengers learned that the dark ones were employed by Shathrax to kidnap people and drag them to the illithid's lair in the sewer, where Shathrax would expose them to the corrupted energies of the Tear of Boccob to transform them into monsters. Worse, the Tear's energy was seeping up into the town and driving the citizens mad.

As the maddened citizens of Wellspring began rioting in response to the kidnappings and killings, the Challengers fought their way through the aberrations that had been drawn to the sewers by the Tear and eventually found Shathrax's lair. Unfortunately, the Tear had been magically stolen from Shathrax shortly before the heroes' arrival; believing that they were responsible, he attacked. Shathrax was slain after a brief battle, but the Challengers were forced to leave empty handed.

Upon their return, they discovered the temple of Ioun being attacked by Tephra's minions and fought them off. Entering, they discovered that Dierdre, having been told of the Tear's corruption, had used her magic to teleport the Tear to herself so that she could cleanse it. Unfortunately its taint had been too strong, and she had been warped into a twisted mockery of her former self. With her dying breaths she confessed what had happened and begged them to follow Tephra's agents into the Shadowfell to retrieve it. She also gave them an iron box that she had enchanted to contain the Tear's corrupting energies. Kalth wished she had told them of her plan before they went into the sewers, as it would have saved them all a lot of time and effort.

One of Tephra's captured minions revealed that the Tear had been taken to the Fortress at World's End, and gave them directions on how to reach it through the Shadowfell. The Challengers mounted their hippogriffs and tracked Tephra's minions through the Shadowfell to the shores of the Umbral Sea, where they found the Gloaming Gate--a portal that would take them to the fortress. Though it was guarded by demons, Kalth convinced them that they had business with Tephra and to let them through. Once Harthur and Gryff passed through the gate, however, the demons attacked Ro, Nuraya, and Kalth. Across the gate, Harthur and Gryff found themselves on an ice floe at the edge of a frigid sea where they were beset by even more demons. The battles on both sides of the gate were intense, with the Challengers finding their healers split from their fighters. Eventually, however, Nuraya physically threw herself at one of the demons, catching it off guard and shoving it through the portal, allowing the three of them to join their companions on the other side. Together they were able to kill all of the many demons who had tried to stop them, with the exception of a shadow demon that managed to escape. Staring across a thin ice bridge to a massive cliff to the south, and recognizing that there was no portal to return to where they came, they made camp for the night.

Flying up to the top of the cliffs, they found several guards and the shadow demon waiting for them. They defeated the guards, though the shadow demon escaped once more, and stormed the fortress gates, battling their way past a horde of icewights. Atop a large dais set into the cliff, they found a shrine containing a massive orrery rotating around what appeared to be the Tear of Boccob. The device lashed out at them with blasts of psychic energy, but when they destroyed it the device violently exploded. Realizing that this was not the real Tear of Boccob but a fake designed to lure them into the orrery's trap, they searched the courtyard until they found a trap door leading down into the real fortress.

As they made their way through the halls, battling human and demon minions alike, they eventually discovered a mysterious fountain that radiated an unnatural chill. Studying it, they determined that it was imbued with elemental cold and that by drawing a portion of its magic into themselves, they could gain magical protection against the cold. Seeing no downsides, all of the Challengers did so. Further in, they found Tephra's study and her personal notes. What they learned from them was staggering. Tephra's power had increased tremendously, allowing her not only to subdue Boccob but also to contact the demon lord Orcus and make a pact with him; in exchange for the scythe of Nerull and the souls of the dead, Tephra would gain demonic minions and knowledge of demonic magics. What was more, she was now serving a mysterious master within the Far Realm known as Allabar. More worrisome, though, was evidence that she was planning some sort of attack on Silverstone. The Challengers gathered up all the documents they could find, including notes detailing her plans for the Tear. Boccob had managed to close Tephra's portal by binding it to the Tear, corrupting it as a result. Having found the Tear of Boccob, Tephra was now in the process of using it to reopen the portal.

Locating the room where the ritual was taking place, the Challengers smashed through the door and confronted Tephra, the shadow demon, and several aberrant creatures standing around a massive orrery. At its center was the Tear of Boccob, its energies having opened a large portal to the Far Realm above the device. A massive battle ensued, during which Kalth was able to snap Dierdre's box around the Tear of Boccob. Though this caused the orrery to stop spinning and the portal to close, Tephra easily overpowered the monk and returned the Tear to its place, restarting the device and reopening the portal. Kalth eventually managed to close the box around the Tear once more, but this time, remembering that Tephra's notes stated that it would be catastrophic should the Tear come into contact with the portal, hurled the box upwards. The box immediately crushed in on itself as the Tear of Boccob imploded, the force of the closing portal pulling everything within the room towards the portal. Cursing the Challengers for ruining her plans, Tephra fled into the portal. Ro and Nuraya managed to get out through the door, while one of the foulspawn hurled a twisting ball of energy at Kalth. Gryff threw himself in the way, intercepting the ball as Kalth managed to escape out of the room. Harthur, seeing there was no way to escape, simply plunged his sword into the floor and held on tight. Gryff, having been stunned by the foulspawn's attack, was drawn helplessly into the Far Realm portal. Nuraya attempted to magically anchor him, but her spell failed and the paladin disappeared through the portal just as it snapped shut.

The Challengers returned to the surface only to discover that their hippogriffs had been slaughtered. Fortunately, they had a teleportation scroll that they were able to use to return to Silverstone. Though they had stopped Tephra and destroyed the Tear of Boccob, Gryff's loss made their victory a hollow one. Nuraya was so distraught over her failure to save him that she decided to retire from adventuring to take up a teaching position at the Trine Academy.

The Battle of Silverstone
The next day, while Ro, Nuraya, Kalth, and Harthur reported their findings to Myra, Tephra launched her attack on Silverstone, devastating the Lower City in the opening assault. Nuraya and Harthur stayed in the Academy to help defend it, while Kalth and Ro went to try and rescue as many citizens as possible. While battling the hordes of foulspawn already running through the streets, they encountered Sarahlia, a ranger with a talent for healing spells; and Elytra, a dragonborn werebear.

Once the immediate area was cleared, Harthur joined up with them as they regrouped with the city guards under the command of Thoras, a paladin of Kord. They were immediately sent to scout the ruins of the Lower City for information. There, amidst the chaos-twisted ruins and former guards transformed into monsters by aberrant magic, the heroes scaled the outer wall and discovered that the city was surrounded by a dozen monoliths matching the descriptions from Tephra's notes. After reporting back to Thoras, a counterattack was planned against the monoliths. The Challengers of the Unspeakable, with their two new teammates, attacked one while several other groups assaulted the rest. Though the monolith was defended both by aberrant guards and its own magical attacks, the city's defenders were ultimately able to destroy them.

This was but a temporary reprieve, however; a wall of blue fire had been seen beyond the city, and it was clear that this was the ultimate source of the attack. In the morning, it was decided that the forces of Silverstone would engage the Far Realm army, while the Challengers of the Unspeakable attempted to pass through the blue fire and stop whatever was commanding the attack. Unfortunately, As they approached they all found themselves afflicted with minor corrupting effects due to the Far Realm's influence. Worse, they found no way to pass through the wall. Consulting Tephra's notes, they discovered a ritual that would allow them to pass through the wall of fire by pledging themselves to Orcus. Though the pledge did not appear to be magically binding, pledging themselves to a demon lord still concerned them. As they contemplated their options, they were approached by Theriana. The sorceress offered to cast a spell that would allow them to pass through the wall, but demanded Acererak's soul gems as payment. After some consideration, they decided that they would rather pledge themselves to Orcus than risk helping Theriana release the drow from their imprisonment. Theriana left, but not before swearing that one way or another she would get the soul gems.

After performing the ritual and pledging themselves to Orcus, they passed through the flames unscathed. On the other side, they found the landscape twisted and corrupted by the Far Realm. As they cautiously advanced, the ground suddenly rose up beneath them, and they found themselves standing atop large chunks of rock entwined in the enormous tentacles of a truly behemoth aberrant monstrosity. Harthur heard a faint voice, telling him where to strike to slay the creature. Sharing this with his companions, they battled against the creature's thrashing tentacles and snapping mouths, perilously risking their lives as they attacked the mass of flesh at the creature's core until finally, a killing blow was struck. The heroes barely survived as the ground they stood upon toppled in the creature's death throes as it burst in a shower of blood and gore. At the center of the desolation left by the behemoth's demise, they found a badly wounded Boccob, his chest torn open and a black stone embedded in his still-beating heart.

Boccob told them that he had survived his battle with Nerull at the end of the Deity War, though he had become mortal as a result. After Tephra opened the portal to the Far Realm, he returned to the temple and closed the portal by binding it to the Tear of Boccob, but was stabbed with Lifecutter, sapping his strength enough for Tephra to overpower him. After extracting all of his vast magical knowledge, she pierced his heart with the stone core of an aberration much like Shoth-Gorag; the beast fed on his power, transforming him into the monstrosity they had just killed. He told them that while Tephra's ritual with the Tear had only reopened the portal by a crack, it was a crack that would steadily widen if not closed. He implored them to find a way to close Tephra's portal for good, lest Allabar enter the world and usher in the end of all things, before begging Harthur to kill him. The ranger solemnly obeyed, bringing Farbane slicing down through both the aberration's heart and Boccob's. Boccob's body dissipated into pure magic, which was drawn into the crystalline blade.

They returned to find the city in celebration. They warned Myra of Theriana's threat, but she nonetheless invited them all to a celebratory feast that night. Kalth spent the day visiting a number of temples to try and remove the various Far Realm afflictions, as well as finding atonement for pledging herself to Orcus. The temple of the Raven Queen gave her a quest to slay a powerful minion of Orcus as a sign of her repentance. Ro, meanwhile, visited the temple of Ioun to relate what had happened to Boccob. That night, at the celebratory feast, Theriana appeared with several drow and a shadow dragon. Theriana captured and escaped with Myra, promising her safe return in exchange for the soul gems. She left behind a ring as a clue to where she could be located, while the Challengers were forced to fight off the dragon and the drow to protect the other guests.

The Brightstone Heroes cast divinations upon the ring, determining that Theriana was either in the mountains to the north, or in a drow enclave. Unfortunately, while they were able to discern enough information about the enclave to teleport to it, they were unable to determine its precise location. The Challengers expected both the mountains and the enclave to be traps, but decided that the drow enclave seemed a more likely place to find Myra. Before they left, they commissioned a set of fake soul gems and enchanted them with a magical aura. Though they did not expect them to fool Theriana for long, they hoped they would fool her for just long enough. Having lost Gryff and Nuraya, they invited Sarahlia and Elytra to join them on their quest, officially inducting them into the Challengers of the Unspeakable.

The Drow Enclave
The Challengers appeared in a cavern in the Underdark in the midst of a battle between living and undead drow. Both sides assumed they were enemies, and the fight ended with the Challengers killing all of the drow, living and undead. Continuing through the tunnels, they soon reached a massive chasm within which hung the drow city of Phaervorul. It soon became clear they had arrived while the city was on the losing end of an invasion by demons and undead. Entering one of the houses, they found a statue of an elegant drow wizard. Kalth, fearing it could animate to attack them, began to destroy it, drawing the attention of the wizard himself, a drow named Jhaelant. Seeing that they were not part of the invading force, Jhaelant told them that the attack came from Orcus's domain in the Abyss, and was led by a drow named Zirithian who had begun worshiping the demon lord. When the Challengers asked about Theriana, he admitted that she had spent some time in the city. He agreed to provide them information about her in exchange for their promise to slay Matron Mother Urlvrain, as he had long detested her rule. When they agreed, he gave them a map and pointed out both Theriana's dwelling and that of a drow priestess named Lareen who was also known to worship Orcus.

Fighting their way through the streets, the heroes investigated Theriana's house for clues. All they found though were more undead, and a terrified half-elven woman hiding in the back room. She claimed that she had been captured shortly before the undead attacked and had spent all of her time hiding. With no other clues forthcoming, the Challengers decided to bring her with them, reasoning that it was safer for her to be with them than alone. As they made their way to Lareen's house, though, the woman grabbed Ro, admonished them for trusting her, and teleported away with the druid. Without Ro, the party realized they had no spellcasters who could get them out of the city. Undeterred, however, they pressed on to Lareen's house where they discovered the priestess had been transformed into a powerful vampire lord. Though they defeated her minions, she fled through a portal. Exhausted, the Challengers located a secret room in the building and bedded down for the night. In their dreams, they found themselves walking through a thick mist, which eventually cleared to reveal a large room infused with a palpable sense of evil. Upon a throne sat a drow with blood-red eyes and a dark blade. After demanding that they prove their skill, he urged them to finish what he began and exterminate the drow of Phaervorul. They woke feeling refreshed, but unnerved by their shared vision.

Deadhold
The Challengers settled on a plan: follow Lareen through the portal and kill her, then go to the Temple of Lolth and demand a reward for saving the drow from the invasion. Once in Matron Urlvrain's presence, they would kill her and ask Jhaelant how to get back to the surface. Thus convinced, the heroes entered the portal. On the other side they found a series of platforms connected by spiderwebs floating in a dark void. Lareen was waiting to ambush them, but as planned they killed and beheaded her. They also captured a cambion named Starvaal, who revealed that he served Orcus and offered to open a portal deeper into his master's domain in exchange for his freedom.

Passing through Starvaal's portal, they found themselves in the Abyssal realm of Deadhold, a vast desert of gray sand and ash. There they met a hunched figured known as the Keeper, who was arguing with an angry kercpa. The kercpa's name was Chrip, and he had been exiled to the Abyss after angering the Prince of Frost. Ignoring him in favor of the heroes, the Keeper eventually agreed to allow them into Deadhold. He also agreed not to warn Zirithian of their coming so long as they took Chrip with them. He further requested that Starvaal remain with him, but the cambion put up such an impassioned plea for mercy that they took him with them as they set out across the desert. After several hours of death flies, ambushes, and gravestones bearing their own names, they arrived at a ruined fortress. They initially tried to bluff their way in by claiming business with Zirithian, until Starvaal shouted that they sought to kill Zirithian and the guards attacked. The Challengers defeated the guards, making sure to kill Starvaal first. Though Chrip nearly died in the ensuing battle, he managed to show off his mastery of ice magic.

The band continued through the fortress, maintaining their ruse that they had official business with Zirithian. When they arrived at the Midnight Ziggurat, where they had been told they would find Zirithian, they were stopped by a skeletal guardian who demanded they prove to him that they were not living beings, but lost souls. Harthur alone failed to convince the guardian, who allowed him to pass but inscribed his name upon a ledger containing a list of those who had angered Orcus. As they passed into the temple, each beheld a vision of Orcus upon his throne, offering to raise them as his exarchs if they slew Zirithian in his name. Though Kalth and Elytra steadfastly refused, Harthur, Sarahlia, and Chrip showed some interest. Orcus then further offered to fulfill their deepest wishes if they also delivered Zirithian's sword to him.

The heroes suddenly found themselves within the center of the ziggurat, facing Zirithian himself. Declaring them to be worthy sacrifices to Orcus, the vampire immediately attacked them alongside dozens of his undead minions. The battle was long and bloody. At one point Elytra attempted to put Zirithian to sleep, but his magical armor redirected the effects to Kalth. Zirithian them dominated Elytra's mind and ordered her to attack her companion, nearly killing the thri-kreen. In the end, though, Zirithian and his minions were destroyed and Chrip claimed the sword. At that moment, an image of Orcus appeared before them and demanded they fulfill their bargain by giving him the blade. Chrip bargained for free passage back to the Material Plane and Harthur's name being stricken from the ledger, with the portal in advance. Orcus agreed and opened it. Elytra, wanting nothing to do with Orcus, immediately left. Kalth stayed to try and talk the others out of making bargains with a demon lord.

It soon became clear, however, that Orcus only considered his bargain good for the individual who gave him the sword, and not the entire party. Sarahlia was eager to have the honor, while Harthur deferred to Chrip for having gotten his name removed. When Chrip prepared to throw the sword to Orcus, both Sarahlia and Kalth moved to stop him; Kalth wrested the sword away and bolted towards the portal, but Harthur threw his sword and struck down the badly wounded monk. When Chrip picked up the sword once more, it suddenly spoke and begged them not to give it to Orcus. Huddling in discussion, they decided to keep it for themselves instead. Sarahlia revived Kalth but lied, saying that they had already given the sword to Orcus, feeling that the monk was liable to do something irrational otherwise. Kalth, no longer wanting anything to do with companions who had clearly joined the forces of evil, departed through the portal.

Orcus, meanwhile, made a final demand: turn over the sword immediately or suffer his curse. Sarahlia delivered her response by holding up a holy symbol of Orcus she had taken off of one of his slain followers, and desecrating it. Orcus blasted her with dark energy, and while she survived it Chrip and Harthur decided that their best option was to immediately leave. Shortly after passing through the portal and emerging back into Phaervorul, the portal snapped shut, trapping Sarahlia on the other side. They soon rejoined Elytra and Kalth, who had retreated to the roof of a nearby building to plan how the two of them would survive by themselves. They revealed that they had not given the sword to Orcus, instead keeping it for themselves. Chrip further revealed, in the course of their discussion, that he actually had little concept of who Orcus was or what being his exarch would have meant. Begrudgingly, Kalth and Elytra joined them once more.

Destroying the Drow
The Challengers decided to continue with their plan to use Zirithian's body to gain access to Matron Urlvrain and slay her in exchange for Jhaelant's help getting out. On their way, they ran into a female half-elf bard. She told them her name was Kayleth Lifesinger, and she was part of a group of adventurers sent from Hargram to investigate where the drow were attacking from. Unfortunately, the rest of her party had been killed by the undead while she escaped only by turning invisible. Still mistrustful after Ro's kidnapping, and reasoning that if she fled the undead she wouldn't be much use in a fight, they left her behind but she followed them anyway.

When they reached the temple, they explained that they were adventurers who had slain the drow responsible for the undead invasion and wanted a reward. When they were presented to Matron Urlvrain, she expressed delight at the deaths of Zirithian and Lareen and asked them to name their reward. Kalth asked for information about Theriana, explaining that they were to trade Acererak's soul gems for a prisoner of hers. Urlvrain offered to make the trade for them, and asked that they stay while she contacted Theriana. They handed over the coffer of fake soul gems, and were unsurprised when Urlvrain immediately ordered her guards to kill them.

Kalth clambered up the pillar, only to find Ulrvrain guarded by a drow and a pair of venomous spiders. Kalth managed to hurl Urlvrain off the pillar where she was quickly knocked unconscious by Elytra, but she and the others still had to content with the rest of the guards and a hulking, twisted drow monstrosity. The statue in the room animated as well and began hurling bolts of poison until Kayleth banished it to another plane. As even more guards streamed into the chamber Kalth jumped down to try and help but had been weakened by the spiders' venom. The Challengers began to fear they would fall as guards continued to arrive and the animated statue reappeared, when Kalth managed to shake off the effects of the poison. The drow had largely ignored the weakened monk, who swept through them in a flurry of claws and rocks, felling most of their opponents. With the tide turned, they managed to finish of the rest of the drow and behead Urlvrain, her soul consumed by Nightbringer.

The Challengers marched triumphantly back to Jhaelant with Urlvrain's head on the end of a staff, which deterred any further attacks. Jhaelant told them that Theriana had gone to the Halls of Asar, home of the fire giant king Snurre, and told them how to reach it. It was a long journey, and on the way they restocked at a svirfneblin trading caravan. Upon reaching their destination, they found the gates firmly closed and flanked by a pair of stone pillars. Recalling their battle with Matron Urlvrain, they assumed the pillars might animate and tried to destroy one, and were entirely unsurprised when the pillars did precisely as they expected. Passing through the doors, they battled their way past salamanders, drow, and fire giant skeletons until they reached a staircase. At the top waited Theriana and several fire giants holding Myra captive.

Kalth offered to trade their coffer of fake soul gems for Myra, hoping it would fool Theriana, though neither party trusted the other. During their negotiations they mentioned that they had repelled the invasion of Phaervorul by Orcus's forces, which seemed to surprise Theriana. Eventually they agreed that Chrip would carry the soul gems up the stairs to Theriana with Kalth right behind him, make the trade, and bring Myra back down the stairs. Theriana carefully examined the soul gems and seemed to accept them, then told the giants that Myra was no longer under her protection and teleported away. The giants sucked Myra into a massive crystal as the stairs burst into flames. Seeing that Myra was evidently in pain within, the others charged up the flaming staircase while Kalth tried to protect Chrip from the giants. Kayleth dealt with the drow archers shooting at them from above, while Elytra and Harthur kept the giants busy. Chrip managed to focus his magic into the crystal to force it to eject Myra, and Kayleth quickly healed her. Though the giants then sucked Chrip into the crystal, he was able to free himself as his companions finished off the giants.

Retreating back into the Underdark in case more giants arrived, they realized that they had no means of directly teleporting back to Silverstone and Myra had been relieved of her ritual book. Her wedding ring was enchanted to teleport her to the Trine Academy, and she decided to go teleport there before sending back a wizard who could teleport the others. When they arrived, however, they discovered that Theriana had captured Myra's husband, Priam Adenis, when he went looking for her, and used his ring to teleport to the Academy herself and attack. As they followed the trail of destruction to the Academy's vaults, they encountered resistance from several groups of monsters that Theriana had released from the Pyramid of Shadows to slow them down.

Searching through the vaults, Chrip came across a frozen acorn that he immediately recognized as the Seed of Winter, a powerful artifact once wielded by the Prince of Frost. He revealed that what Orcus had offered him in Deadhold was to become the new Prince of Frost, an idea he had been mulling over and now decided was exactly what he wanted to do. He took the Seed of Winter, using it to considerably enhance his powers. When they came upon a white dragon named Chillreaver and a band of eladrin that Theriana had released, Chrip's possession of the Seed of Winter helped him convince the dragon and eladrin that, if they helped him overthrow the Prince of Frost, they would be well-rewarded. The dragon and the eladrin agreed, and let them pass.

Soon after they encountered the sorceress Vyrellis, who had also been left to bar their path. She offered to talk, but the Challengers did not trust her and attacked. She continued to talk during the battle, revealing that Ro was imprisoned within the Pyramid of Shadows and ultimately offering to work together against Theriana. They refused her, however, and struck her down. As she fell, her body dissolved into mist. After defeating Vyrellis, they located the vault that Theriana was attempting to open and confronted her. She proved to be far more powerful than they had anticipated however, and after she killed Elytra they were forced to retreat. When they returned to recover her body they found Theriana gone, the vault open, and a coffer of fake soul gems lying on the floor; it turned out Leardon had anticipated the possibility and kept the real soul gems elsewhere.

The Ziggurat and the Dragon
A few days later, after bringing Elytra back to life, she was recruited by the Order of the Topaz Crusaders, a group dedicated to battling incursions from the Far Realm with psionic powers. As her first mission, she and her companions were asked to deal with aberrations that had been spotted near the Ziggurat, a structure at the eastern edge of Estorium. They and a few other Crusaders flew there on the back of the silver dragon Orantis, who bore a scar on his chest from an aberration that had attacked him and had to be burned off. While the Crusaders set up camp, the Challengers set off to the Ziggurat.

They found the Ziggurat infested with aberrations called sebaceans, searching for an artifact to deliver to the "Mad Architects" within the Far Realm. While dispatching them and searching for the artifact, they found a journal detailing how the ancient Estorians had conducted research on the Tear of Boccob until one of their own, a wizard named Kask, betrayed them. Their efforts yielded an hourglass that could manipulate the flow of time, however, which they used to kill their betrayer. The centuries and the Tear's power had turned Kask into a larva mage, and the Challengers were forced to battle and destroy him once more. In order to reach the innermost sanctum of the Ziggurat where the hourglass was held, though, they needed to first defeat the dracolich Rukaleth whome Kask had placed as a guardian centuries earlier. Though it was a formidable foe, Harthur ultimately used Nightbringer to consume its soul. Passing beyond Rukaleth's chamber, the Challengers ultimately located and claimed the Estorian Hourglass.

When they returned to the Crusaders' camp, they found them slaughtered. The one survivor, Macaebus, told them that the aberration they thought had been burned off Orantis had in fact remained within him, and had now driven him to madness; under its influence, Orantis slew his fellow Crusaders before disappearing into a demiplane he controlled. Macaebus sent the Challengers into Orantis's demiplane, urging them to stop the dragon. Within they found the once-pure and radiant demiplane to be full of rot and corruption, its very nature growing increasingly unstable as the passages reoriented themselves. Eventually they made their way to Orantis's lair and found that the dragon himself was rotting away even as he attacked them. When they finally killed Orantis, the aberrant parasite burst from his chest and attacked them anew, but they were eventually able to destroy it as well.

With Orantis's death, however, the demiplane rapidly began to collapse. Kayleth and Chrip immediately put their magical skills to use trying to frantically slow, then stop the collapse, and then finally to bind it to Kayleth's lifeforce to allow it to stabilize once more. Kayleth chose to name her new planar dominion Solaris. Meanwhile, Elytra discovered a tablet bearing a longer version of the prophecy that had led to her being trained in psionics from childhood, revealing information about the twin sister she had been separated from in infancy and clues as to the coming conflict. Worryingly, it suggested that only one of them would survive it.

The Assault on Estorium
Back in Silverstone, Myra tasked the Challengers with escorting the wizard Jorlin, with Acererak's soul gems, to Estorium so he could study them in closer proximity to Tephra's portal in order to devise a means of using them to close it. The heroes teleported with him to an old teleportation circle a mile outside the ruined city of Terastra, where they were immediately set upon by demons. They managed to fight past them and get Jorlin to Terastra, where the Brightstone Heroes and their forces had established a base to act against Tephra, but it was under attack by more demons supported by mercenaries known as the Ebon Riders. After a heavy battle they managed to defeat the mercenaries and kill not only the demons but the Aspect of Orcus that was leading them.

After seeing to Jorlin's security, they followed the Ebon Riders to where they were maintaining a portal to the Abyss within a ruined temple of Boccob. They found themselves attacked not only by the lich Ghovran Akti but also by the Ebon Riders' leader, a dwarven death knight of Orcus named Mauglurien. After Harthur relieved Mauglurien of both his soul weapon and Ghovran Akti's phylactery, the weakened dwarf was forced to retreat back into the portal. The heroes then closed it and destroyed the lich. Chrip, knowing Ghovran Akti to be a powerful servant of the Prince of Frost, suggested taking the phylactery into the Feywild to destroy it. Meanwhile, Harthur secretly made a pact with Nightbringer to become a death knight himself in exchange for serving the blade's will.

Using a nearby Fey Crossing, the heroes arrived in Mithrendain just in time to foil the assassination of Councilor Saffrenia. She explained that she believed someone on the council to be corrupted by evil, and asked their help in getting to the bottom of the dark plot. While speaking with the other councilors at a public celebration that night they learned of a newly-arrived eladrin noble named Jelvistra who was bribing Councilor Flaeorn and blackmailing Councilor Laemu, and had some deeper connection with Councilor Dresyae. Saffrenia led the heroes into the catacombs below the city, which had recently been sealed by the Council. They eventually discovered that Jelvistra was none other than their old foe Querelian, who had been corrupted by Tephra into an aberrant horror. Disguised as Jelvistra, he had pledged to help Dresyae take control of the city in order to further his own goals of vengeance. The Challengers slew Dresyae and destroyed Querelian, before turning Ghovran Akti's phylactery over to Saffrenia to be destroyed.

Returning to Terastra, they found the outpost under attack by drow trying to assassinate Jorlin. After fighting off the drow, Jorlin told them that he had located an ancient ruin to the north that, if the texts were correct, would be sufficiently warded to protect him from the drow. The Challengers escorted him there, only to discover that in the intervening years it had become the lair of the orium dragon Zanathakla. Zanathakla agreed to allow Jorlin to remain there with him to study ancient relics, in exchange for pressing the Challengers into his service. His first request was to investigate an ancient temple of Wee Jas. While exploring, they discovered that refugees from the Illithid War had fled there, only to be turned into vampires.

In one chamber of the temple, they found a sarcophagus heavily warded against aberrations. Inside was Gryff, and though he had no memory of how he had gotten there after being pulled into the portal he was able to answer all of their questions as to his identity. Still unwilling to trust him, Chrip suggested opening a portal back to Silverstone but, in order to ease the passage, Gryff would need to drink a vial of "portal lube." Gryff agreed and promptly fell unconscious, as the vial actually contained a potion of dreadful sleep. In slumber, "Gryff" transformed into an aberrant monstrosity and they realized that it had merely been imitating him from their memories and killed it. In another chamber, they found an oni who opened a portal to the Abyss and threw Harthur through it. The Challengers gave chase, and found themselves on a high cliff overlooking a horde of demons; Harthur was nowhere in sight. With the portal closed and their friend seemingly lost, they sorrowfully plane shifted back to the Material Plane without him. After reporting their findings to Zanathakla, they asked Jorlin to scry upon both Harthur and Nightbringer to determine their fate. After performing the ritual, Jorlin informed them that he could not locate Harthur, but saw Nightbringer held aloft by a powerful balor. Concluding that Harthur was certainly dead, they returned to Terastra.

In Terastra, the Brightstone Heroes told them they were planning to establish a new base closer to Tephra's portal in the ruined city of Rathna and wanted the Challengers to escort a caravan of troops and supplies there to open a portal for the rest of them. The journey was long and fraught with danger, as they came under attack by foulspawn, an astral kraken, and even a powerful beholder. Though the latter very nearly slew them all, they managed to wound it enough that the other soldiers could finish it off and heal them. When they arrived at Rathna they found the city infested with foulspawn and undead, but were able to fight through them to open the portal. They had little time to rest, though, as the very next day Tephra personally arrived at the head of a massive army of foulspawn, undead, and demons to obliterate them all in one fell swoop. Joined by an elven rogue named Grayson who had been helping the Brightstone Heroes in Terastra, the Challengers fought through their ranks and confronted her, along with her new champion: Gryff, who had been corrupted into an undead demonic aberration. Telling themselves that this monster was no longer their old friend, they struck him down. As they did so, a burst of light flared into the sky as Nalindra herself claimed the soul of her paladin. As Gryff's spirit ascended, the light flared into a massive explosion. Tephra teleported away, but her entire army was vaporized by divine power. Gryff's mace and armor, which had likewise been infused with Nalindra's might, were taken up by Elytra who dedicated herself to Nalindra's cause.

The Pyramid of Shadows
Some time after the Brightstone Heroes established their new base at Rathna, the sorceress Vyrellis wandered out of the jungle, surrendered, and requested an audience with the Challengers of the Unspeakable. Leardon joined the meeting, in which she explained that while her goal of claiming rulership over Estorium once coincided with Theriana's, such was no longer the case and she intended to defect. She explained that the drow attack on Terastra had in fact succeeded in killing Jorlin, but was made to look as though it had failed in order to replace with wizard with a doppelganger. Upon escorting him to safety, he had promptly contacted Theriana who claimed not only Acererak's soul gems but also slain Zanathakla and raised him into undeath. With the gems and the Pyramid of Shadows, Theriana would be able to close Tephra's portal... But her true plan was to trap the portal's energies and then use them to free Lolth.

Vyrellis had a plan to stop this, but it would require the Challengers to get themselves captured by Theriana, who would likely imprison them in the Pyramid of Shadows. Once inside, she would be able to help them escape and relive Theriana of both the Pyramid and the soul gems. All Vyrellis wanted in return was the pyramid itself. When they demurred, refusing to trust her, she told them that it would also give them the opportunity to rescue Priam, Gurrard, and Ro who were also trapped within it. She also promised information on how to close Tephra's portal. Ultimately, they relented; though they did not want to trust her, they felt they had little choice in the matter - especially after Jorlin's corpse was discovered hidden away in Terastra. They used their Sending Stones to tell "Jorlin" that they would be teleporting to him, and arrived to find themselves surrounded by drow. Theriana laughed at them for falling into her trap and, as Vyrellis predicted, showed them the Pyramid of Shadows - small enough to hold in her hands and adorned with Acererak's soul gems - and promptly imprisoned them within it.

Within the pyramid they found a great many monsters that had been trapped in the Pyramid of Shadows over the centuries. As they explored, Grayson repeatedly left on extended scouting missions. In one section, they found a twisted, gnarled thicket populated by arboreans. They fought their way in, only to discover that the arboreans' leader was none other than Ro. She told them that Vyrellis had taken her to Theriana, who trapped her within the pyramid. As an undead druid she ended up forming a curious raport with the arboreans, and eventually became their leader. Though she appreciated the opportunity to escape, she did not wish to abandon those she now considered her people. They promised they would find a way to release all of the arboreans as well. Elsewhere, they found a hengeyokai named Kitsu who decided she would be better off accompanying them.

As they made their way up they found a section that was warped and twisted by the energies of the Far Realm. As they fought through the aberrations inhabiting it, they found Priam trapped within a swirling vortex of aberrant energies and rescued him. Ascending further they found the unholy dominion of an evil necromancer who was preparing to sacrifice Gurrard, rescuing the gnome as well. With all of their friends found, as well as some new ones, Vyrellis appeared and showed them a hidden route to the very top of the Pyramid, which pulsed with necrotic energy. She warned that they would likely face a tiefling wizard named Karavakos, who had taken control of it. As Vyrellis began to weave a spell that would both transport them out of the Pyramid of Shadows and transport it away from Theriana, they were attacked by the spirit of Karavakos. As the battle began Grayson suddenly turned against them, insisting he could not let them succeed. Gurrard hurled a lightning dagger into his chest, but Grayson teleported away before he died.

Though they hurled their strongest attacks at Karavakos, the tiefling simply drew greater and greater amounts of power from the pyramid to compensate. However, this ultimately proved his undoing as the power became too much for him to handle and he exploded. Vyrellis then ordered the others to channel all of their magical and psionic power into the pyramid to complete the ritual. The Challengers found themselves back in the jungle next to the pyramid, almost completely drained of strength but alive. The soul gems, however, were nowhere to be seen. Vyrellis simply walked past their prone forms and picked up the pyramid, telling them that they should feel better in a day or two. She thanked them for their assistance, gave them a scroll containing a ritual to close Tephra's portal, and told them she would see them again soon before teleporting away to establish her new empire. When they recovered enough to stand, the Challengers and Kitsu slowly made their way back to Rathna while Ro left to find a new home for her arboreans.

Allies of Frost
While the Brightstone Heroes set to work analyzing Vyrellis's ritual, the Challengers of the Unspeakable departed to help gather allies for their impending assault on Tephra's stronghold in the ruins of Derenath. At the recommendation of Tol Sigurn, they headed into the Iron Crags to recruit the Iron Skull tribe of barbarians led by his old friend Torgar Beornagar. As they approached the village they encountered two barbarians being hunted by a polar worm, and earned their favor by killing it and saving them. When they reached the village, though, they were told that Torgar was dead; slain in an attack by the Iceblood Clan of frost giants. The tribe's new leader was a dragonborn named Alae, and Elytra's long-lost twin sister. Alae showed no strong affection for her sister, though, and instead challenged her to a test of strength. The pair brawled without weapons or armor, and though Alae triumphed she still agreed to pledge her tribe to their cause in exchange for retrieving Torgar's axe, Wintersbite, from the frost giants.

Outside the frost giants' lair they found a mortally wounded silver dragon, who told them the giants had kidnapped her children and begged the Challengers to save them as she died. Sneaking inside, they discovered emissaries from the Prince of Frost in the Feywild. After some fast-talking convinced them to support Chrip when he made his move against the Prince, the Challengers decided to magically disguise themselves as eladrin and pose as emissaries themselves. Eventually they encountered a frost giant named Vaald, who saw through their ruse but nevertheless asked them to kill Jarl Grugnur so that he could take leadership of the clan. When the Challengers arrived near Grugnur's quarters, they raised an alarm to draw away the guards before slipping inside and killing him. In the back of the cave they found an injured silver dragon named Kairothrax, whom Grugnur had been trying to train as a mount. After reclaiming Wintersbite from the Jarl's treasure, they returned to the Iron Skull tribe. Taking up the axe, Alae was officially named their new chieftain and issued the order to travel to Estorium. Kairothrax, meanwhile, offered his services as a mount for Elytra.

Seeing that the Prince of Frost was reaching out to the frost giants, Chrip decided the time had come to dethrone him. They traveled to Senaliesse in the Feywild to petition the Summer Queen for aid against him, but she was unwilling to act openly unless it could be shown that he posed an existential threat. The information about his attempted alliance with the frost giants, however, suggested that he was attempting to awaken the primordial Cryonax. Recognizing the scale of the disaster should he succeed, the Summer Queen sorrowfully agreed to march against him.

While the Summer Queen's army - accompanied by the various allies Chrip had gathered - assaulted the Fortress of Frozen Tears head on, the Challengers of the Unspeakable snuck through an icy cavern to a secret back entrance. After battling a pair of blizzard dragons guarding the door and stumbling into the winter wolf kennels, the Challengers found themselves facing the Prince's daughter, Koliada. Though a fierce combatant in her own right, she was ultimately slain when Kayleth stabbed her through the heart with her own sword, Rimefang. Elsewhere in the fortress they found the body of the Queen of Winter, magically preserved within a glass sarcophagus.

After convincing more of the Prince's servants to turn against him and sending them to free his prisoners, Chrip got the idea to magically disguise himself as Koliada. They ascended through the fortress, battling past some of the Prince's strongest minions, before confronting the Prince of Frost himself. Disguised as Koliada, Chrip announced that she had decided that her father was no longer fit to rule and demanded he step down and give the throne to her. The Prince of Frost refused, denouncing his daughter as a misbegotten bastard and a traitor and attacked. Though as an archfey he was a formidable opponent, Chrip discovered that the Seed of Winter had the power to bypass his defenses and turned the battle against him. Driving the Prince of Frost to his knees, Chrip give him a chance to end his reign with dignity, offering a potion to place him into eternal sleep beside his beloved Queen of Winter. The Prince of Frost spat his "daughter"'s mercy back at her face, and Chrip ended his life with a final blast of ice magic into his heart.

Letting his disguise drop, Chrip took his seat in the Prince of Frost's throne as the power of the Seed of Winter transformed him into an archfey. Stepping onto the balcony, he announced to the armies assembled below that the Prince of Frost was dead and he now ruled the Winter Court as the Emperor of Winter. The battle over, both sides ceased their fighting. After appointing an aide to see to things in his absence, Chrip returned to the Material Plane with eladrin of the Winter and Summer Courts to fight against Tephra.

Planar rift
After returning to Rathna, Myra explained that after analyzing Vyrellis's notes the portal would need to be closed by creating a "primal anchor," a concentrated magical ward against aberrations utilizing four aspects of magic: life, death, the sun, and the arcane. Given the magnitude of Tephra's actions, the primal anchor would need to be made from divine sources of magic. Vyrellis recommended using Nerull's scythe Lifecutter as the source of death magic and the base of the spell since it was used to open the portal. Gryff's mace would suffice for the sun magic, leaving only life and arcane magic sources. While they debated what to use for them, they received word of a massive planar disturbance to the south.


 * Meteorite from Limbo crashes through the planar wall, leaving a rift.
 * Fight slaadi, channel planar energy into the rift
 * Enormous abomination of darkness emerges, starts killing everything
 * Planar energy from the meteorite channeled into it, destroys it
 * Something stabilizing the rift, preventing it from closing.
 * The heroes thought they had fallen out of time for three years and that the world had ended in Tephra's victory.
 * Turns out they were in a layer of the Abyss called the Barrens, ruled by the demon lord Oublivae.
 * They defeated her and returned to the Material Plane, where the rift closed, but Kayleth was lost in the Abyss

The Scythe

 * Located the Scythe of Nerull hidden in a nearby ruin, as Orcus had entered the world through the planar rift and was looking for it.
 * Zohar, angel of Moradin, shows up to help, brings the sword of Corellon for the ritual to seal the portal.
 * Forbiddance zone for miles around the portal prevents teleportation. Fly in, fight aberrant copies of angels and a living sphere of annihilation.
 * Defeat an aberrant avatar of Nerull and recover Lifecutter.
 * Orcus challenges them as they leave, dispels forbiddance, tries to summon Doresain, Harthur shows up instead.
 * Harthur kills Orcus, Nightbringer becomes the new demon prince of undeath. Harthur returns with him to the Abyss, heroes take Farbane with them.

Final Battle
Stuff happened, victory!