Editing Amethyst Guard (section)

===Heart of Nightfang Spire===
Over the next year, the Amethys Guard continued to build their reputation. Eventually, they began to hear rumors of people going missing, last seen heading north into a canyon in the Ashen Plain. When they asked around about the area, they heard rumors of a black dragon that had made its lair atop an old haunted tower called Nightfang Spire. Deciding that this warranted further investigation, they set off for the tower. When they arrived, they found it to be a nearly 300-foot tall spire of solid stone carved with gargoyles, demonic faces, skeletal visages, and other frightening imagery. However, there were no doors, windows, or other obvious ways in. As they wandered around outside the tower, an unnatural storm suddenly began gathering in the sky above. As there was no way in from the ground, they decided to fly up to the top. There they found the tower's crown to be open to the sky, with a flying aberration guarding the entrance. It lashed out with its tentacles and called lightning down from the sky, but did not survive their onslaught. As it died, the skies cleared.

Descending into the tower, they found a small mound of gold coins underneath the half-eaten corpse of a black dragon, whose acid had dissolved a hole leading into the tower below. Climbing down into the tower proper, they made their way through the hallways, climbing across walls that had been knocked down by the dragon. Though they found few valuables, they did encounter several vampire spawn outside of a molten vault door. Within the now-empty vault, they found a crude mosaic depicting a red dragon. Elsewhere, they encountered a number of shadows, and a chamber with a thin layer of necrotic liquid seeping across the floor.

Taking a spiral staircase down to a more intact level, they found a chamber containing several ornate sarcophagi. They began systematically searching the sarcophagi, most of which proved to either be empty or conceal deadly traps, but one contained a powerful mummy that nearly killed Callisto before it was destroyed. After passing through a chamber containing a vampiric gibbering mouther, they found a large broken room in which several girallon were busy cleaning up. Though Lizard tried talking to them, the creatures simply attacked, eager for fresh meat. The noise of the battle soon drew a pair of mohrgs, skeletal undead with vicious worms writhing in their ribcages that sucked the vitality from those they caught. Though it was a hard fight, the heroes ultimately prevailed and found another stairway going further below. There they found more girallons, as well as several wights, but as they passed by a doorway they heard a voice calling loudly for help. On the door was a Draconic inscription reading, "Rhunad is interred here. Leave him in peace." The voice assured them that this warning was placed by his captors to deter would-be rescuers, and eventually they decided to open the door.

Inside they found a large magical circle inlaid with silver, in the center of which sat a demonic vrock. It introduced itself as Rhunad, and begged for its freedom, explaining that it had been bound for centuries and promising to tell them everything about the master of the undead within the tower. When they demurred, it further promised to help them fight whatever foes they encountered on their quest. They ultimately agreed, on the condition that he tell his story before they freed him. Rhunad accepted the bargain and told them that centuries ago, a man named Gulthias was the leader of a cult that revered the red dragon Ashardalon, and Nightfang Spire their base of operations. Rhunad was summoned around this time, and kept bound for whatever Gulthias might need of him. When Ashardalon was slain by a powerful circle of druids, his cultists recovered the dragon's heart and interred it deep within the tower. Determined to follow the object of their worship into death, the cultists converted the entire tower into a tomb before committing mass suicide in a single moment. This concentration of death supercharged Ashardalon's heart with negative energy, raising Gulthias into unlife as a vampire lord. Inextricably linked to the heart, Gulthias was able to draw huge quantities of necrotic power, which he used to raise the rest of the cultists into undeath. Rhunad is unsure what Gulthias's ultimate goal was; the vampire lord seemed to have mostly forgotten about him by then. Rhunad also heard, years later, that Gulthias ended up staked to death before he could enact his plan, and without him Nightfang Spire languished in obscurity, an eternal tomb for the undead cultists. Of course, someone must have removed the stake, because Gulthias recently returned after centuries away, and surely now seeks to restart whatever foul plans he had. The Amethyst Guard, recalling their first adventure in which they found, and subsequently burned, something called the Gulthias Tree, realized that they were the ones who had inadvertently allowed the vampire lord to rise once more, and determined to stop him for good.

Vorelyth asked Rhunad how to reach Gulthias and the heart, and the vrock explained that it was sealed against entry except by incorporeal beings. However, there is a magical dragon key that can unlock a door beneath the tower, split into four pieces and hidden throughout the catacombs. The pieces must be found, melded back together, and used to open the way into the tower's core. Satisfied with this explanation, she broke the circle and freed Rhunad. Together the group continued through the hallways, where they found a trio of half-dragon flesh golems that had been assembled by the cultists and were still quite active. Unfortunately, soon after battle was joined, Rhunad betrayed and attacked them, seeming to simply revel in the carnage, teleporting away before they could kill him. Once the golems were dead, they found another staircase that, after a brief ambush by more mohrgs, led into the catacombs. The catacombs were filled with a large number of mohrg, as well as even more girallons, though their alpha offered to talk rather than attempting to kill them. She told the Amethyst Guard that they lived in the catacombs long before Gulthias returned, at which point he pressed many of them into slavery. When they told her they intended to kill Gulthias, she willingly parted with a piece of the dragon key her people had found. The party continued through the catacombs, braving traps and killing yet more mohrgs and even a tombstone golem, eventually finding the other three pieces of the dragon key. Once assembled, they located the keyhole and inserted the key, causing the entire core of the tower to rotate until a doorway was exposed. Stepping through, they found a tall circular chamber, at the top of which a massive blackened heart hung suspended in midair, burning with black fire and occasionally pulsing as though with an unnatural heartbeat. They had little time to examine it, though, as Gulthias descended from above and unleashed powerful magic on them. Though powerful, he proved no match for the Amethyst Guard and dissolved into a cloud of mist that seemed to be drawn into the heart of Ashardalon. Richter and Vorelyth simply blasted it with their own magic into the black fire went out and the enormous organ crashed to the floor, now little more than a dessicated lump of dead tissue. Of Gulthias, nothing at all remained. Within the heart they found a chamber filled with grave dirt; they scattered it so that any lingering trace of the vampire would have nowhere to rest, and then departed for good.

As they returned home from their final adventure, however, they couldn't help but wonder... If Ashardalon's heart had survived, such as it was, what became of the rest of the dragon all those centuries ago?

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[[Category:Amethyst Guard| ]]
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