Editing Challengers of the Unspeakable (section)

===The Battle of Silverstone===
The next day, while Ro, Nuraya, Kalth, and Harthur reported their findings to Myra, Tephra launched her [[Battle of Silverstone|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.