Editing Challengers of the Unspeakable (section)

===The Tear of Boccob===
[[Image:Elomir.jpg|thumb|left|The leader of the Stormcrows, corrupted by the Tear.]]
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.

[[Image:Cylus.jpg|thumb|right|The remains of Cylus.]]
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 one]]s 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.

[[Image:ShathraxTear.jpg|thumb|left|The mind flayer Shathrax, holding the corrupted Tear of Boccob.]]
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.

[[Image:FortressCliff.jpg|thumb|right|A Fist of Tephra stands atop the cliff outside the Fortress at World's End.]]
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.

[[Image:FrozenSpirits.jpg|thumb|left|The mysterious Pool of Frozen Spirits.]]
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.