Kazak's Follies

Kazak's Follies was a group of adventurers who briefly banded together around the time of the Shattering of Orodeth. Their leader and namesake was the dwarven gladiator Kazak Axehaft.

Membership

• Flynn Cupsigh - Male halfling paladin. Granted membership in the Brightstone Heroes.
• Jib - Male water genasi cleric of Aegir. Now captain of his own ship in the Shattered Sea.
• Kazak Axehaft - Male dwarven barbarian and gladiator. Named Kazak Kingbearer by the dwarves of Korthaz. Trying to reclaim Drakkengarde.
• Keiraleina - Female human sorceress. Adventuring across Syra.
• Countess Honeysuckle Bree - Female halfling rogue serving the Church of Zilchus. Now serving as regent for the Duchy of Nord.

History

The Arms of a King

In the spring of 2965, a dwarf from Korthaz named Gargosh discovered the secret location of the tomb of King Torvald Flameforge some ways east of Red Oak Village in Orodeth. He had long sought to recover the axe Orcsplitter from the tomb and bring it back to Korthaz, but could not do so alone. And so he hired five adventurers to help him: the dwarven gladiator, Kazak Axehaft; the water genasi cleric, Jib; The human sorceress, Keiraleina; the halfling assassin, Countess Honeysuckle Bree; and the halfling paladin Flynn Cupsigh, brother to Qwynn Cupsigh of Drake's Company. Flynn had recently heard of their demise from his sister, and hoped that once the tomb was found, they could pick up investigating the elemental cults where his sister had left off.

As the group traveled north from Drakkengarde, storms and earthquakes rumbled across the land on an almost daily basis, and they had repeated run-ins with both elementals and elemental cultists. As they crossed the great stone bridge over the Belsimar Strait, they were attacked by a band of mercenaries who, when questioned after their defeat, said they were working for Gargosh's wicked cousin, Drannin. Finally, they arrived at the ruins marking the underground tomb. After bypassing the traps that barred the way, and solving the riddles that locked the path, they finally found the sarcophagus of King Torvald Flameforge.

It was then that Drannin appeared, and revealed that "Gargosh" was actually a doppleganger in his employ; he had kidnapped the real Gargosh back in Drakkengarde the night before the group set off and given his journal to the doppelganger, hoping the adventurers would clear the path for him. Drannin underestimated them, though, and Drannin and his men were killed while the doppelganger fled into the night. Within the sarcophagus, they found the bones of the king lying atop a bed of stamped gold ingots, and clutching the greataxe Orcsplitter. Concerned by the spate of recent earthquakes, Kazak removed the king's bones and the ingots, intending to bring them to Korthaz along with the axe to be re-interred there.

The Shattering

As they emerged from the tomb, the ground suddenly lurched in a massive earthquake, far more powerful than any they'd felt on their trip. The roaring sounds of crashing rock echoed all around them, and they ran out into the open field away from another that could fall and watched massive fissures crack open in the ground. When it finally ended, though, they were soon presented with a new problem: a massive flood of water racing in from the distance. Taking shelter in the still-intact ruins, they rode out the flood as the land was inundated with sea water.

The next morning, they discovered that the land around the tomb was now an island in the middle of a vast sea that was once the middle of Orodeth. It was only when they teleported to Northeron that they learned the full scale of the disaster; the entire central portion of Orodeth had crumbled away in the earthquake, with the ocean flooding in from both sides. Northeron had survived only by being build high up in the cliffs; Drakkengarde was completely destroyed. Flynn surmised that this was the work of the elemental cults his sister had dealt with, and sent a message to the Brightstone Heroes, for whom he had done some previous adventuring work. The lich Leardon Sunflare responded by arriving in Northeron and formally hiring them to find out what happened and deal with the cultists.

Using the wind walk spell, they flew south and surveyed the destruction for themselves; from the former Belsimar Strait on westwards, as far as they could sea, virtually everything was now underwater, save for a few small islands of land that still remained. Following rough directions provided by Leardon's divination magic, they eventually arrived at a newly-formed tunnel leading underground, still dry despite going below the waterline. Following the tunnel, they eventually found themselves in the ruins of the dwarven city of Belsimar. According to Flynn's sister, it was here that the elemental cults had made their stronghold, and in the caverns below where they would find the answers they sought.

The Secrets Below the Earth

Entering the ruined city, they were quickly met with a large number of earth cultists and a handful of tamed bulettes. Battling their way past their foes, they came across a room filled with lifelike statues of figures recoiling in fear and guarded by a shadow demon. The bedroom beyond was uninhabited, though, and they found only a wardrobe filled with fine clothes and a collection of hideous masks. Continuing through the Temple of the Black Earth, they found a bound svirfneblin about to be fed to a giant black ooze. After they rescued her, she explained her name was Rukh and that she was an explorer from the Underdark; she was captured while trying to sneak through the caverns below. She told them that the cultists had created some sort of powerful earth node down there, and led them to the stairs descending into the caves.

Rukh led them past the tomb of an ancient dwarven hero, where Kazak took the time to say a few reverent words. Rukh pointed out a narrow passageway hidden in a cluster of purple gemstones, then asked for an escort to the passage back to the Underdark. Their path took them past both earth and fire cultists, and then to a massive stone ziggurat topped with an evil-looking black altar. A dozen earth cultists stood on and around the ziggurat, and when Kazak stepped into the cavern one of the cultists conjured a wall of stone across the tunnel to separate him from his companions. They soon discovered that they had not trapped the dwarf with them, but rather trapped themselves with the dwarf; by the time his companions managed to break through the wall, Kazak had slain a third of the cultists single-handedly. Once the rest were dead, Kazak used Orcsplitter to shatter the altar. In the next cave, they found a sarcophagus with the evil symbol of the Elder Elemental Eye carved upon its lid. After destroying the sigil, they opened the sarcophagus and scattered the bone dust of whatever had been buried within.

As they reached the abandoned mineshaft marking the entrance to the Underdark, the spirit of the entombed dwarven hero appeared and directed Kazak to a pile of rubble in the corner. Digging through it, he found a magical dwarven hammer. After bidding Rukh farewell, the group took some time to rest before continuing deeper into the earth cultists' lair. When Kazak jokingly lamented the mess he had gotten himself into by signing on to search for the dwarven king, his companions just as jokingly called themselves Kazak's Follies. As they talked it became less of a joke, and they began calling themselves that from then on.

Descending below, they found themselves in a network of caves lined with veins of luminous purple crystals, and guarded by yet more earth cultists who identified the caves as the Black Geode. Fighting their way past even more cultists and earth elementals, they eventually found a skeleton clutching a steel helmet with a golden crown. When they picked it up, a duergar ghost appeared. The ghost told them that he and his companions had been searching for the tomb of King Torvald Flameforge. Following a lead of his own, he had located the king's crown in the possession of the Cult of the Black Earth but was killed before he could escape. His soul was now bound to it, unable to rest until the crown could be laid to rest with its owner. When Kazak revealed that Torvald's tomb had been destroyed, and he intended to lay his bones to rest in a new tomb in Korthaz, the ghost resigned himself to follow them until their task was completed.

After fighting their way through a canyon full of hook horrors, the band attempted to rest within a large fissure in the wall but where interrupted by an umber hulk. After slaying it, they moved to another fissure but encountered two more umber hulks and an earthquake that buried Honeysuckle in a small rockslide. After digging her out, they eventually managed to find safety long enough to patch their wounds and restore their magic. Battling past still more cultists and elementals, they discovered a large cavern that had been turned into a makeshift foundry, where cultists watched over a dwarven slave who forged weapons and armor for them out of enchanted stone. The group quickly killed them and freed the smith, who had been part of a caravan from Korthaz several months ago that was attacked by cultists. The smith confirmed sorrowfully that Marlos Urnrayle, Prophet of the Black Earth, had indeed succeeded in summoning Ogrémoch several days ago, and he had personally seen the towering primordial stride past the foundry. Following the massive earthquake, however, Ogrémoch had returned looking badly wounded; the smith had not seen the elder elemental since, but heard the other cultists saying that the Black Earth was gathering his strength after driving back the water cult, which had summoned their own primordial, Olhydra. Honeysuckle scouted ahead, and found a massive cavern containing a portal into the Elemental Plane of Earth. The group quickly determined that they had no hope of winning in a battle against a being that was nearly a god. Flynn, however, knew who might: the Brightstone Heroes. Keiraleina teleported them all to Silverstone to request their aid.

The End of Elemental Evil

• Get help from Brightstone Heroes
• Ride a dragon back in
• Tear up Ogremoch's avatar
• Rescue Sumac and Drake
• Fight Olhydra
• Myra shatters staff of power
• Long fight, Sumac closes the portal
• Leardon gets sucked in (but he's a lich)
• Jib gets a boat
• Bones are returned, Kazak Kingbearer