Editing The Third Eye (section)

====Lair of the Eternal Hive====
After retrieving the chests from Zurafkina's home, Samsadur led them to a ravine about ten miles outside the city. At the bottom was an enormous stone arch engraved with magic runes, guarded by a rotting black dragon writhing with glowing green worms that referred to itself as "we." Samsadur bowed to it and opened the chests, revealing two well-preserved dead bodies. He told the dragon that he had killed two of the three individuals it had tasked him with slaying, but after searching for the third for a year he was now convinced the third was no longer on the Material Plane and could not be found. However, he hoped that these two would be sufficient to fulfill his end of the bargain he'd made with the dragon. The dragon was not pleased with this pronouncement, and became even angrier when Samsadur threatened to simply take the two bodies with him and leave the dragon with nothing. Finally, the dragon ordered its shadar-kai minions to bring out "the item", an ornate magical bow. Then the dragon stomped on it, snapping it in half before kicking the pieces over to Samsadur and angrily declaring their business to be concluded.

Samsadur, though clearly displeased by its destruction, accepted. When Ililen asked about their deal, he told them that the bodies were none of their concern but that he while he had hoped to sell the bow for a tidy sum back home, he was willing to sell it to them for half price, trusting they were resourceful enough to get it repaired. They declined, since none of them fought with a bow. The dragon then offered to make a deal with them in exchange for the usage of its magical arch to return to the Material Plane. Samsadur encouraged them to decline, as he could simply return them home himself. When they asked again to return to the ziggurat in search of the source of the mournful song, Samsadur once again declined; the agreement was that he would being them to the city and back in order to remove the dome, which they had now done. He had no intention of remaining in the Shadowfell while they investigated further, and as they had no other means of getting back short of the dragon's unspecified price for the use of the arch, the heroes ultimately agreed to return with him, feeling guilty about the prisoners they were leaving behind.

Once back in the Material Plane, Samsadur thanked them for their assistance. He assured them he considered Queen Aphinah "bad for business," and that though he knew most of them would disagree ideologically with his organization, on this matter their interests aligned. Asking Orellis to stay behind for a private chat, he then had his agents sneak the Third Eye out of the city.