Brightstone Heroes

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Revision as of 11:04, 21 January 2012

The Brightstone Heroes was a prominent group of adventurers in the years leading up to the Deity War. The members never referred to themselves by this title while adventuring together; the name was created later by the bards who told of their heroic deeds.

Membership

Current Members

• Balon Stonehelm - Male dwarf barbarian. Currently captain of the guard at Brightstone.
• Gurrard Snevilin - Male gnome spellthief. Currently traveling the world conducting research on whatever esoterica strikes his fancy.
• Leardon Sunflare - Male human cleric of Evening Glory. Currently a lich busy primarily with alchemical research at Brightstone Keep.
• Myra Brigg - Female human sorceress. Wife of Priam Adenis and assistant headmistress at the Trine Academy.
• Priam Adenis - Male human psion. Husband of Myra Brigg and headmaster at the Trine Academy.
• Prov Coren - Female human rogue. Currently head librarian at the Brightstone Keep library.
• Tol Sigurn - Male human ranger. Currently the tavern keeper of The Wood's End in Brightstone.

Former Members

• Arenil - Male elf sorcerer. Returned to Lorius after being drained by a succubus.
• Chizu - Female human samurai. Slain by the Mortal Hunter in the guise of Krom.
• Faust - Male human swordmage. Turned into a vampire, then returned to Tarth Moordra to restore the school.
• Justin Oakenleaf - Male human cleric of Heironeous. Status unknown.
• Krom - Male dwarf wizard. Slain by the Mortal Hunter on the road to Elton.
• Midilono - Male halfling rogue. Left to wander the world. Status unknown.
• Shin - Male human monk. Lost while traversing a river in the Underdark.
• Switch - Male human rogue. Slain by the Mortal Hunter in the Rionwood.
• Zigil - Male dwarf fighter. Left to join his sister at Winter's Gate.

History

The Early Days

The first members of the group were Chizu, Justin Oakenleaf, Krom, Switch, and Midilono, who met in Stark and agreed to travel together to solve the mystery of a plague in the town of Duvik. As they prepared to enter the town's mines, where the plague originated, they were joined by Tol Sigurn, who had been shadowing them since Stark. It was discovered that an orc cleric had created the plague in order to wipe out the town and claim the mine for Gruumsh. They also found a tribe of kobolds, but allowed them to flee as they were not responsible for the plague.

Chizu and Krom departed after saving the town, but the rest of the group continued on to the west, ultimately discovering that the town of Rion had been burned down by the very kobolds they'd allowed to go free. While tracking the kobolds, they were joined by Leardon Sunflare and Prov Coren, whom they rescued from a roving band of orcs. Following the kobolds into the Rionwood, they found them being slaughtered by an orc to power a demonic ritual. While they stopped the ritual, something got through and killed Switch when he became separated from the others.

A Prelude to Greatness

Eventually, the heroes were hired to save some miners who had been trapped in a collapse while digging a tunnel beneath the tower of the wizard Sionaas. Sionaas explained to the heroes that there was an ancient ruin beneath his tower housing an orb that would reveal the location of a fabulous treasure. Joined by the stout dwarf Balon Stonehelm, they dug the trapped miners out of the rubble and ventured inside. However, it was quickly determined that the ruins were actually an ancient temple of Lolth, and when they defeated the orb's guardian they realized that it was far more than what Sionaas had told them and fled with the orb under cover of darkness.

While traveling across the plains, Midilono left to pursue other adventures, and Justin was slain by a weretiger. They took Justin's body to the city of Edras to have him raised, but as they did not have enough money they were instead given a task: to travel north to the town of Karst and save them from a band of orcs that was launching raids from a nearby abandoned keep. After ridding the keep of the orcs, trolls, and goblins that inhabited it, they ventured into the mines behind it where they found an orcish cleric and a horde of undead minions. They slew him as well, Leardon taking the cleric's greataxe for himself, and returned to the mayor of Karst, who rewarded them with the deed to the keep and its mines. The heroes resolved to make Brightstone Keep their new home.

Full Circle

One of the first actions the heroes took was to hire a team of dwarves from Silverstone to rebuild the keep and restart the work in the mines. Soon after the reconstruction work began, an elven priestess named Zephyr Songbreeze arrived. She explained to the heroes that the orb they recovered from the temple beneath Sionaas's tower was actually one of the keys to Lolth's prison, and that due to their possession of it their presence was required at a summit in Silverstone. Prov declined, electing instead to stay and manage the keep, while the dwarf Zigil chose to travel along with them to see the world.

En route to Silverstone, they were accosted by minions of the Skullfire Mages, which they swiftly crushed. Upon arriving in the city, they were immediately ushered into a closed doors meeting with representatives of all the major gods, who consulted them in detail about their experiences with Sionaas and the orb before dismissing them to discuss the situation. That same day, they discovered that the Skullfire Mages had a secret lair beneath the city, and were sent by the city guard to dispatch them. While doing so, they found a sarcophagi containing a mummified drow and two longswords, which they took with them in order to destroy, and a shield guardian, which they took control of. That night at the inn, however, a mysterious figure destroyed the shield guardian and stole the longswords after a failed attempt to kill the heroes.

Deducing that this was the same assassin who had slain Switch weeks earlier, they tracked him to the south, towards Elton. Oh their way they found the flayed corpse of Krom, and arrived in the town just in time to see the assassin, magically disguised as Krom, stab Chizu in the back with one of the drow longswords. He then revealed his true identity, the demonic Mortal Hunter, and dared the heroes to find him in the nearby ruins. They did, and the Mortal Hunter was slain. After burying their friends and taking the blades back to Silverstone to have them magically destroyed in the temple of Corellon, the heroes returned to Brightstone to take a break from adventuring for a time and to continue improvements on their new home.

Sionaas Returns

Sionaas, in his dragon form.

A few months later, the barbarian Torgar arrived at Brightstone Keep with news: he was a longtime friend of Tol, and while they were having a drink together in Karst a wizard had shown up and taken him prisoner. Deducing from Torgar's description that this wizard was Sionaas, Zigil, Leardon, Justin, and Balon resolved to rescue Tol; Torgar went with them. They were also joined by one of the elves who had arrived with Zephyr, a sorcerer named Arenil.

Together, the six heroes traveled south to Sionaas's tower and, locating a secret passage within the temple below it, entered. After battling the undead that Sionaas had set to guard his tower, they eventually reached the top of the tower, where Sionaas was waiting for them. In the midst of the battle, Sionaas assumed his true form: a powerful steel dragon. After a mighty battle, Torgar finally beheaded the dragon and sent its body tumbling off the side of the tower.

After dispatching the Sionaas, the heroes found Tol chained up in the wizard's personal quarters, having been tortured but not seriously harmed. Leaving back through the ruined temple, they found a magical archway that Sionaas had been using to communicate with Lolth. Accidentally activating the device, Leardon was nearly killed by Lolth's gaze before they could shut it down. After bidding Torgar farewell, they returned together to Brightstone.

When they returned, however, they found Brightstone mysteriously deserted. After several hours of searching, they found a mysterious obelisk that had been unearthed in the mine. When activated, it transported the party to the plane of Acheron, where they found Prov being held by an erinyes warlord who wanted to use her for information. After negotiating her return (and then returning to Brightstone themselves), the heroes learned that the elves had left, and the dwarves had been transported to the plane of Mechanus by the obelisk. Using the obelisk to travel there, they successfully rescued the dwarves from the formians who had enslaved them and returned to Brightstone not only with the miners but also several loads of valuable extraplanar ore.

A Worthy Task

A few weeks later, an elven messenger arrived at the gates with urgent news. She explained to the heroes that the Winter's Gate, the door of Lolth's prison, was set with five seals. These five seals were the focal point of the magic spell sealing her and the drow in the valley of Doth'Candorun. In her pack were the remains of one of the seals, which she had been sent to Brightstone with as soon as it cracked and fell. She later learned that a second seal had been destroyed while she was traveling. She told the heroes it was imperative that they travel to the elven land of Lorius to plan the next move, and then died, victim of an ambush she barely escaped shortly before her arrival.

Not wasting any time, the heroes returned once more to Stark and hired a ship to take them to Lorius. Along the way, they came upon another ship that had been attacked and investigated. They found that all aboard had been brutally slaughtered, with the only survivor a young and frightened half-elf girl. After calming her down, they took her back to their own ship and burned the damaged vessel. The girl quickly took a liking to Arenil, and he soon found himself returning her affections. Three days later, alone in his cabin, she kissed him... And revealed her true nature as a succubus. While the others were busy on the deck battling a trio of vrock demons she had summoned, she drained Arenil's life force and appeared topside just long enough to gloat before teleporting away. While Leardon was able to restore Arenil to life, he found that he could no longer wield magic and decided to return home once they reached Lorius.

After docking, the heroes were led deep into the forest to the Great Scar. Their guides vanished, and a mysterious elf appeared to explain that this stretch of woods that had been blighted by Lolth during the Elf Wars three thousand years ago, and had still not fully healed. During the course of their conversation, the elf revealed that he was Corellon Larethian himself, and that in light of their earlier recovery of one of the keys to Lolth's prison, he wanted them to find and secure the remaining keys. The first step was to send the party to Winter's Gate to rendezvous with the guardians who stood watch there. As the forces seeking to free Lolth from her prison would be watching for divine magics, Corellon had one of his wizards perform the teleportation spell. He also called upon a human monk named Shin to aid them in their quest, before the wizard teleported them away.

Lost

Unfortunately, the heroes arrived not at Winter's Gate, but at a mysterious tower in the middle of the sea. Worse still, Balon was no longer with them. Ascending the tower, they found others who had been trapped there as a result of failed teleportation spells, ultimately discovering that the tower had been created for that purpose. One of the fellow refugees they met was a druid named Gulin who had been surviving off of his own magically created food and water.

After destroying the crystal responsible for the tower's magic, Gulin helped them escape by teleporting them into the elemental plane of air. Eventually they encountered a genie who agreed to transport them back to the material plane. He explained that he had once been forced into the servitude of a beautiful, powerful, and wholly evil wizard named Theriana. He eventually escaped, but still wanted to exact his revenge upon her. While Gulin returned via a planar gateway he knew of, the heroes agreed that if they ever encountered the wizard they would do their best to capture her alive and deliver her to the genie, who then transported them to what he described as a great, glorious city where Theriana had conducted most of her business when he still served her.

A grell patriarch with a lightning lance.

Expecting to appear in Silverstone, they were distressed to find themselves instead amidst ancient, crumbling ruins. While searching for some indication of where they actually were, they happened upon a colony of grell living in a cavern below one of the buildings. While searching the cavern to ensure they had killed them all, they discovered a baelnorn: an elf who had willingly transformed himself into a lich in order to protect something of importance to his people.

Their meeting with the baelnorn was cut short, however, as two black-robed wizards arrived: Theriana, and another mage named Valthian and demanded that the baelnorn give them what they came for. Instead, he ushered the heroes into his private chambers and attacked the duo. There they found a strange dagger made of black stone, which had the same magical aura as the orb they found beneath Sionaas's tower, as well as a boat tethered in an underground river. Realizing that this was another of the keys to Lolth's prison, and that the two wizards must be seeking to free her, they took the dagger, climbed into the boat, and let the river take them wherever it went.

The river quickly picked up speed, rushing around corners and down waterfalls in utter darkness. Though they held on as best they could, Shin was thrown from the boat and lost during the journey. Eventually, the river emptied into a large underground lake, and the heroes went ashore to rest, mourn their lost companion, and figure out their next move.

Through the Darkness

With nothing to guide them, the heroes began wandering aimlessly through the Underdark. Fortunately, they eventually happened upon a patrol of deep gnomes, who took them back to their city of Mirarton. Their leader listened to their tale and agreed to take them to the surface... For a price. A mind flayer had recently taken up residence in a nearby cavern and was threatening the city. If the heroes killed it, then they could accompany Mirarton's next trading caravan to the surface. They agreed, and headed off to the mind flayer's cave.

The heroes fought their way past the mind flayer's thralls, eventually discovering a living prisoner who had not yet been enslaved: a gnome wizard named Gurrard Snevilin who had been captured while researching the Underdark. Glad that he had been saved from having his brain devoured, he happily joined them as they continued through the cave and did battle with the mind flayer. While they were ultimately successful, during the battle it plunged its tentacles into Zigil's head and sucked out his brain. Fortunately, Leardon was still able to raise him from the dead, and the six returned to Mirarton.

Across the Desert

A few days later, they accompanied a deep gnome caravan aboveground to the city Kerthis in the Pharis Imperium. After gathering information and consulting a map, the group decided that their best course of action was to head south across the desert in an attempt to reach Winter's Gate on foot. The journey was long and arduous, and they encountered many dangers, including gangs of kobolds, giant sand worms, a young blue dragon in its lair, and a skirmish between an army of demons and several tribes of nomads.

Eventually, they found themselves in the ruins of Haraxx, an ancient city filled with undead. Hiding out in a temple dedicated to Nalindra, they found that the temple's priests were also undead... but instead of attacking the heroes, they told them of the city's fall, and how its ruthless leader, Ten-ap, had transformed them all into an undead army. With help from the undead priests, the heroes located and destroyed Ten-ap. In doing so, they also destroyed all the undead within the city, granting the priests the eternal rest they had so long desired. Afterwards, they searched the city for valuables, eventually finding Ten-ap's treasure vault. As there was far more treasure within than they could possibly carry with them, they stayed long enough to mentally fix the location in their minds before Leardon magically sealed the entrance and they continued their journey southward.

Only a few days out of Haraxx, the heroes ran afoul of a group of asherati, having unwittingly stumbled into their territory. Their chief was eventually persuaded to let them go, on the condition that they prove their strength with an endurance trial. A jug of water was placed on the ground between Tol and the chief, and the two were told that the first one to touch the water would lose. After several long and parching hours, Tol eventually picked up the jug and upended it over the chief. Laughing, the chief congratulated him on his ingenuity, and even provided the heroes with supplies for their journey.

At World's Edge

The heroes continued southward for several more days, passing remnants of a war fought long ago, including a massive crater of blackened glass, a planar rift into the Negative Energy Plane, and a zone of wild magic. When their camels were killed in a sandstorm, Leardon reanimated their bones so they could continue on. Finally, after a seemingly endless journey, they at last arrived at the Bitter Cliffs, which marked the northern edge of The Frostland. While pondering a route up, a human suddenly appeared in their midst. After a brief moment of bewilderment that he had not arrived where he had intended to go, he introduced himself as a swordmage named Faust. He explained that he was from the battlemage school of Tarth Moordra, located at the top of the cliffs, which had recently come under attack from cultists of Lolth. He had attempted to teleport to Silverstone for aid, but due to the chaos of the battle he had grossly miscalculated his destination. The heroes readily agreed to come to the school's aid, and Faust informed them that he knew of a hidden path up through the cliffs. Unfortunately, Valthian and Theriana were already aware of the path, and constantly appeared to taunt the heroes on their treacherous ascent, sending a variety of monstrous creatures to slow them down.

Eventually, they reached the top and continued to Tarth Moordra, but arrived too late; everyone there had been slaughtered. Making their way through the carnage, they came at last to the office of the school's High Warmaster, which had been thoroughly ransacked and searched. Hoping to find some clue as to what the attackers were after, the heroes found a blood trail leading into a wall. Investigating further, they found a well-disguised door sealed with deadly traps and a puzzle that could only be solved by one intimately familiar with the school's residents. Faust eventually deciphered it and opened the door, revealing a staircase descending down below the school. Following it, they eventually found themselves in a small room. Within was a damaged teleportation circle and the dead body of the High Warmaster's gnome butler. Upon searching his body, they found a letter revealing that he actually was Archmage Gond Twiddlefoot, a well-known gnomish adventurer thought to have been killed twenty years ago. The letter, however, revealed that an unnamed group wanted him dead; the former High Warmaster offered to fake his death and grant him a new identity, in exchange for staying at the school in order to guard one of the keys to Lolth's prison. When it became clear that the defenders were doomed, he fled to the chamber where the key was kept and teleported it away, destroying the circle so that none could follow it before succumbing to his wounds.

After conferring amongst themselves, the heroes decided that their best course of action was to alert the Temple of the Warm Embrace, a nearby temple dedicated to Evening Glory, and then proceed to Winter's Gate. However, their path out of the school was blocked by a wall of fire. Valthian appeared shortly thereafter, finally sick of the heroes' meddling and determined to end their threat for good. However, after a long battle, it was Valthian who perished upon Tarth Moordra's steps.

With everyone he knew dead, Faust decided to continue traveling with the heroes and, taking a bit of hair from every fallen mage so they could be raised later, he joined them as they traveled west to the temple. Barely a day away from their destination, however, they came under assault by an ice devil that had been summoned to stop their progress. It tried to capture Gurrard and teleport away with him, and when that failed, it killed him shortly before it was slain itself. The rest of the party took Gurrard's body with them to the Temple of the Warm Embrace where, with Leardon's connections, he was raised free of charge.

After a long meeting with the head priests, and after assessing the situation, it was decided that the heroes would be escorted to Winter's Gate under heavy escort to prepare for an assault by those seeking to free the drow from their prison. It was also decided that they would raise all the slain mages of Tarth Moordra to aid in the defense; in exchange, Faust agreed that the swordmages would train certain residents of the temple as well as provide swordmages of its own for the temple's defense, believing that his superiors would agree upon their resurrection. Faust also met a particularly lascivious vampire named Silresti at the temple and, after a night of wild passion, became a vampire himself. With the important duties of aiding in his order's rebirth, Faust remained behind at the temple rather than follow the heroes to Winter's Gate.

The rest of the journey to Winter's Gate was uneventful, and they found several camps set up by the additional defenders sent to garrison the gate. Gurrard, meanwhile, had discovered that after returning to life he was mysteriously unable to decipher the arcane symbols in his spellbook... But he had instead gained the ability to drain magical spells from his opponents with his dagger, and then cast them back at his foes.

The party was met by Corellon Larethian, who was relieved that they had survived and believed the worst after they had failed to materialize at the gate several weeks earlier. They were quickly ushered into a war council, where they discovered that the threat of an imminent attack on Winter's Gate had been a diversion; somehow, earlier that day a large number of drow had managed to escape Doth'Candorun by magically transposing massive pieces of land inside the prison with various locations throughout the world. While most of the initial drow raids had been repelled, they were unsure of how the drow had managed it; to do such a thing would require colossal amounts of power, which the drow should not have had at their disposal within their prison. As the largest force of drow had attacked Silverstone, the heroes were teleported there to begin their investigations.

City of the Spider Queen

Arriving in Silverstone, the heroes were told that the drow had attacked from the north, and that they been tracked back to an abandoned dwarven mine in the mountains. On their way there, they spied smoke rising over a ridge and, following it, found a gang of bandits riding from a small burning village. After dispatching the bandits, they found only one survivor: a fourteen-year-old boy named Priam Adenis. Though they were originally going to escort him back to Silverstone, they changed their minds upon discovering that he had psionic powers but was entirely untrained in using them. Deciding that he needed to have his skills focused and directed rather than risk him accidentally losing control, they took Priam with them on their hunt for the drow.

Descending down through the mines, their first sign that they were on the right track was when they came across a small group of drow sentries. Continuing further down, they were met with a shocking sight: a massive fissure filled with massive spiderwebs., the wall of which was lined with caves filled with drow. After some initial forays into some of these caves, they returned to Silverstone to rest and resupply for their final push. When they woke up in the morning, however, Zigil was gone. He had left a letter, though, explaining that their enemies had made a major assault against Winter's Gate, and his sister, who was stationed there, had been badly injured. He was going down there to help, but had arranged for someone to be sent to help the rest of the party. Shortly thereafter, a representative of the temple of Bahamut arrived and introduced them to the sorceress Myra Brigg, who would accompany them on the rest of their mission.

With their new ally, the band returned to the fissure and began systematically clearing out the drow. Initially, Priam showed an intense dislike of Myra, who was several years older and would repeatedly point this out to him. Their arguments escalated, until eventually they realized that their mutual dislike was actually a mutual attraction, and spent a night together settling their differences. Thereafter, the pair were inseparable, and often coordinated their abilities together against the drow, to great effect.

Eventually, they located a drow temple, within which was a magical gateway. Tol volunteered to go through and investigate, taking Gurrard along with him for his magical knowledge. When they returned, they had troubling news: the portal led straight into Doth'Candorun, where a series of silver cables led from the portal to a strange tower twisting up around an orb of darkness. Energy from the Negative Energy Plane was being siphoned from the orb along the cables to power the portal. Steeling themselves, the heroes stepped through and started off toward the tower.

The Undying Temple

Inside, the heroes were immediately set upon by drow and undead alike. Though they initially seemed to be getting the upper-hand, Tol suddenly turned and plunged his blades into Gurrard's back. Justin quickly ascertained that he had been mind controlled and moved to counter the effect, while Leardon acted quickly to save Gurrard from almost certain death.

After dispatching their foes, they made their way much more cautiously up the tower, eventually arriving in a room with a large window, giving them a direct view of the orb itself. As they stared at it, a horrific creature, seemingly comprised of pure negative energy, emerged and attacked them. Priam immediately blasted it with a beam of positive energy, and it retaliated with a bolt of darkness, which slammed into Priam, destroying him and utterly consuming his body, leaving only his possessions to clatter to the floor.

Despite Priam's death, the others were able to destroy the beast, after which Leardon and Justin blasted the orb with enough positive energy that it collapsed in on itself. Knowing that with the orb gone, there was nothing to power the return portal, Gurrard quickly cast a flying spell over the party, and they flew out the window and towards the portal, squeezing through it mere seconds before it closed.

Back in Silverstone, they were hailed as heroes. Three days later, they were called to the temple of Corellon, where the elf god himself met and congratulated them. Leardon told Corellon about Priam, and how he had died in their final battle against the dark creature. Acknowledging his efforts, Corellon restored Priam to life. He told them that they had successfully fought off the attacking forces at Winter's Gate, but that without their efforts in destroying the orb and shutting down the portals, the war as a whole would have been lost. And so, Corellon offered each of them any one reward of their choice.

Tol got a pair of elven blades that would never dull or rust, and a suit of armor to match. Myra asked that Priam be magically aged to eighteen, and for herself to be youthened to match him, so that they could be together. Leardon asked for magical enchantments on his axe, which he named "Sydhime." Priam requested an expanded knowledge and understanding of his psionic abilities, and Justin had his armor magically enchanted to ward off all but the strongest of blows. Gurrard asked Corellon to create a floating castle for him, which he then used to host an informal poker game for some of the gods. Having earned a much-needed rest, they all parted to go their separate ways, promising to return when they were once again needed.