Sword of Air

A ragtag band of adventurers emerges from the enchanted forest of the Old Margreve, having defeated the Bugbear Warlord, Gobchuck, and been given a mysterious prophecy by the inscrutable fey witch, Baba Yaga. Something is brewing in the protean swamps of the Festering Marshes. Something beyond good and evil that seeks a dominion of chaos. Something that can only be vanquished with the power of a mythical artifact not seen since ancient times... The Sword of Air!

This story is told by

Tsathar Scourge

Maps

Yore, by Grendelf Erandir
The Wizard Grendelf compiled this map over many years of travel throughout the Realms of Yore. From the Dwarfish Ironcrag Cantons and the sun-scorched Lost Lands of the West, to the Dragon Coast, the Elven forest and Gasping Ocean to the East; from the bustling city of Bard's Gate and parched Old Nuria to the South, to the savage Kingdoms of Lether and Wolfheim beyond the Tuatha Straits, the icy wastes of Trollheim and the dark fey forest of Bor Nyster to the North - Grendelf meticulously mapped every perilous journey he made and eventually compiled them into this comprehensive survey of the central Lands of Yore. He even explored the haunted forest of the Old Margreve, crossed the towering peaks of the Icespires, waded through the endless quagmire of the Festering Marshes and ventured into evil Empire of Morgau. But the traveller should be wary, for even the learned Grendelf could not explore every corner of the continent. Some details may be missing, and - dare I say it - some regions he may have even invented outright, for the sake of completeness. The wise adventurer should treat his cartography with a heavy pinch of salt.

Supporting Cast

Abn-Axam
An Azer, cast out of the City of Brass by Idu Maagog, and enslaved by Karazan the Mad, Derro shaman of Dagon, the God Below.
Aelar Caphaxath
A severe Elf in heavy black robes, Aelar is the High Shadowmancer of Barad Quali. Haunted by his explorations of the Shadowfell, he is adept at Shadow Magic and has the ear of King Eoneril.
Amona Large
Rotund and ruddy landlord of the Shady Tavern beneath the cyclopean foot in Sparrowkeep.
Anahita
An immortal water nymph of the Feywild transformed into a mortal predatory hag by the spreading corruption of the Shademurk.
Ashari Yaeldrin
Estranged sister of Tanueviel, who was brought to Qualimor from Bor Nyster when she was young to develop her natural talent for Druidic magic. She lives among the small Kagonesti population on Tol Dru in Qualimor.
Baba Yaga
Inscrutable oracle and fey avatar of Hecate
Beleriath Vaethrann
Marksman extraordinaire, nephew of the Elven King and Captain of the Royal Qualinesti Rangers
Bloondar Toadhunter
A Gnomish Illusionist and the King's Bounty Hunter, hailing from the Hidden City of Treeholme; most oft to be found astride his trusty steed, Gerard the Giant Badger
Captain Manherring
A tedious and meticulously moustachioed officer of the Zobeck City Guard militia.
Chief Golak
Mherren’s Chieftan of the Tor’ug Mountain Orc tribe. He sent Mherren on the Vision Quest that led the young Half-Orc to become a Warlock in the service of Demogorgon.
Chief Slibbenorbin
Tetchy and nervous, but fiercely proud and brave beyond his size, Chief Slibbenorbin is the leader of the Svirfneblin (Deep Gnomes), who live below the Galentaur in a vast cave network called the Neblinhala that extends almost to the great Morgrod of Qualimor. The Deep Gnomes work hard, and not without sacrifice, to keep their home, which was once part of an ancient Dwarfish kingdom, clear of the evil Duergar who dwell in the Lower Deeps.
Claude, Edeila & Yanis
A family of smugglers from Utherwick who have press-ganged a local farmer into manufacturing gunpowder for a Tiefling called Sati, who has links to the Cloven Nine. Yanis is grey-bearded and swarthy; his daughter, Edeila, is a skilled hunter and archer; his son, Claude, is obese and slow-witted.
Consul Brethan
An upstanding but haughty member of Zobeck's Free City Council. He has made a deal with the Rat King to keep the underground factions of Zobeck in check, and has tasked the Red Mask Assassins with the job of ridding the city of The Cloven Nine.
Corazon de Ballena
Deluded and narcissistic pirate rogue, self-appointed Captain of the Dead Calm, aka Percy the Pirate
Dagon, the God Below
Far below even the ancient city of Runor, there sleeps a terror from beyond the stars: the Leviathan whom they call Dagon, the God Below.
Dash Flashheart
Narcissistic captain of the Flashheart Mercenaries, last seen working for Illintendo Sharpchin in the vicinity of Sparrowkeep.
Demogorgon
The Sibiliant Beast has elected a champion, in the form of Mherren Halfblood, to recover a an esoteric book that contains lost rites to summon him to the mortal plane. He refuses to share in any power that Orcus or any other demonic overlord might attain, and so also competes to find the Sword of Air and wield its power himself, spreading madness and ruin to the living souls that will not bow to his dominion.
Duorik the Geomancer
Duorik was a hero of Hvel-Runor, the now-ruined Dwarfish civilisation that extended for miles beneath the Galentaur. He died about 3,000 years ago, towards the end of the glory days of the Hvellic Dwarfs, but he rested uneasy and exists today as a twisted shadow of his former self. The Ironcrag Dwarfs still sing songs of Duorik, recounting how Duorik wielded Bouldir the returning hammer against the Great Hydra, the last Dragon of the West, and used his earth-magic to raise the Stoneheart Mountains and bury her beneath them.
Eberneb
Also known as "Sarge", Eberneb is a Svirfneblin with an apparently fierce but ultimately cowardly disposition. He commands scouting parties that patrol the vicinity of the Neblinhala.
Elovyn Sorrowsong
Outcast Qualinesti Priest of Arden
Enna Nailo
A reckless Deep Purger based at Barad Aegtul in Qualimor, Enna is a courageous Halfling, allied to the Qualinesti, with a deep hatred and unsurpassed knowledge of the evil denizens of the Underdark.
Erasmus
Spectacled elderly principal of the Great Library in Zobeck.
Fibblestib
A curious young Svirfneblin of the Neblinhala.
Gavan of Utherwick
A farmer from the arable lands on the outskirts of Zobeck. His mill has been repurposed for the clandestine manufacture of gunpowder, which he supplies to a nefarious faction within the city.
Gilmoras the Mummer
A spy for the Winter Queen in the Palace of the Summer King.
Glibbol Wiggletoes
Leader of the Brownleaf Goblins. Killed by Lightstrike the Epic at the Battle of the Bearded Man.
Gobchuck the Clevva
Bugbear Chieftan, who was given an intelligence-enhancing magical crown by Illintendo Sharpchin in order to dominate Glibbol Wiggletoes and the Brownleaf Goblin tribe and bring evil to the Old Margreve Forest. Killed at the Battle of the Bearded Man by Tanueviel Yaeldrin.
Grol
A Duergar of Moradin’s clan, whose pet Intellect Devourer took the minds of Shurq Elalle and Mherren Halfblood.
Illintendo Sharpchin
Brother of Sati and master of disguise; an ambitious villain of Tiefling descent thought to have betrayed the Cloven Nine in favour of some other dark cult. Whom does he really serve? (See also "Derek Desleigh" in the Against the Cult off the Reptile God NPCs entry @[Inhabitants of Orlane, monstrous and otherwise...](person:d15606b8-b841-4ebf-b638-aa5f76deff4d))
Izachar of the Cloven Nine
Cult Leader and Warlock of Orcus, Izachar was once one of the Cloven Nine, but has since defected to the Lord of Undead.
K'Varn
A powerful Beholder intent on dominion over the denizens of the Underdark.
Kareb, Assassin of the Red Masks
Kareb was found by the Fellowship planting a cursed talisman upon the pirate brig, the Dead Calm, in an attempt to foil the machinations of Izachar of the Cloven Nine. Our heroes have deduced that the Red Masks are linked to one of their number, and are in the employ of the ruling council of Zobeck.
Ki-Shun
A kind and wise Dragonborn monk from Draconia, skilful with Ki and with his gold-wrapped scything polearm.
King Bloblingoop
King of the Forest Gnomes in the Hidden City. Bloblingoop is currently in the arduous process of gathering his scattered people and reestablishing his kingdom after it was destroyed by the crazed minions of the Old Margreve.
King Eoneril Ostoroth
Summer King of Qualimor, wise but brutal leader of the Qualinesti (High Elves)
King Moradin Thane
Dour King of the Nidlhammer Duergar clan, who was enslaved by the Illithids of Ilthe-Ba'Manza. Once a proud and ruthless sovereign of the bloodthirsty Deep Dwarfs, Moradin is now a shadow of his former self, mindlessly subservient to the ceaseless demands of the evil Mind Flayers.
Kla'rota Xi-Huitl
An Illithid cast out from Ilthe-Ba'Manza and left to die a painful and protracted death for dabbling in the arcane arts.
Knobberknocker
A Svirfneblin rebel illusionist, incarcerated by Slibbenorbin for insurrection.
Lenkh & Coleslaw
The mischievous twin children of Bloondar Toadhunter.
Light Touch
Shadowy Guildmaster of the Red Mask Assassins, rumoured to be a shape-changer and master of disguise.
Llolth
The Spider Queen feeds upon the worship of her devoted Drow in Arach-Lluth. She believes herself to be far superior to K'Varn, but the Beholder has some powerful allies...
Longroot Oakroot
A Treant of the Galentaur and ally of the Qualinesti Elves, Longroot Oakroot knows the forest like the backs of his branches. In his roots are carried centuries of wisdom - but he takes a very long time to impart it to others.
Lumenita
A Karivian fortune-teller whose stall is in the Shimbles in Zobeck.
Marvin Bighorn
A caravan outfitter and ex-adventurer in Sparrowkeep. Outside his shop are mounted two gargantuan horns of some unnamed beast.
Meld-Sovereign Hgranathodh
Long-reigning sovereign of the Myconids of the Galentaur Deeps, Hgranathodh has recently been enslaved, along with his servants and spores, by the Illithids of the Deep Lake.
Meriel Quaremar
Fist of the Queen's Guard at the Winter Palace in Qualimor, Meriel is a grim, stoic and loyal servant of Caerdonelle Mystra.
Mordenkainen the Magnificent
Famous Archmage, one of the Three Archwizards of Yore, and proprietor of Ye Specialiste Magicks Shoppe on the Shimbles in Zobeck
Mrs Rinkeldbloomers
A jovial and homely resident of Sparrowkeep.
Ningauble of the Seven Eyes
An horrific benefactor of obscure motivation.
Oswald the Otyugh
A depressed Otyugh employed as a garbage disposal unit by the Rat King in Zobeck.
Phil Bottomcleft
Weasel-faced and mean-spirited innkeeper at the Creaking Inn in Sparrowkeep.
Prithvi Keeper of the Bramble
An arch-fey Dryad of the Feywild corrupted by Shadow.
Qai-letha
Qai-letha is High Druid at the temple on Tol Dru in Qualimor. She is a Kagonesti Elf, and has trained the acolyte Ashari (Tanueviel's long-lost sister) in Druidic magic.
Queen Caerdonelle Mystra
Haunted Winter Queen of the High Elves of Qualimor
Razazel
Blood Elemental Mistess, Guardian of the Heart Of Dagon, The God Below
Regon
A bandit leader of the Zobeck Cartways, magically shrunk, thrown in a sewer and left for dead by a company of adventurers.
Sati of the Cloven Nine
Troubled Tiefling sorcerer in league with a demon-worshipping terrorist cult. She wields a wickedly curved Nurian bronze khopesh.
Senuthius the Ageless
Cleric of Arden and Sage of the Astral Library of Athenaeum. With the help of the Priests of Arden, Senuthius created the Astral Library to protect important religious and occult tomes from marauding barbarians.
Sharif of Nuria Natal
A necromancer from the southlands of Nuria, who reincarnated the pirate Shurq Elalle.
Sheriff Felica Fullintraye
Diligent and honest Sheriff of Sparrowkeep.
Shurq Elalle
Feisty and dangerous pirate, pale-skinned and perpetually perfumed, retired Captain of the Dead Calm and unwilling Master of the Skeleton Crew
Slobbi the Duergar
Slob is a drunken and malicious Grey Dwarf, who escaped from the Underdark and ended up in service to the Cloven Nine.
Sloog the Ogre
The "troll" of the Festering Marshes, Sloog worked for the Brownleaf Goblins, keeping people away from the Festering Caverns where they had their lair. When they migrated to the Margreve Forest, Sloog went with them but met an untimely end and was raised by the corrupted forest as a Zombie, only to be destroyed subsequently by a company of adventurers.
Snorg, Nork & Plooka
Wererat henchmen of the Rat King. Snorg is malevolent lieutenant, Nork a sage and advisor, and Plooka a fool with a gift for sorcery.
Sumnes Horineth
Sumnes is a Thoronlamba (Eagle-Speaker) of Qualimor. She lives on Tol Silma, the Starlit Isle, in a modest stone hut where she tends to her eagles, including her favourite, Arianne. She is a childhood friend of Elovyn Sorrowsong.
Tavis
The Queen's Armourer - a skilled arcane blacksmith in the city of Hrivenost in Qualimor.
The Captain
Known only as "the Captain", and commander of the Chain of Acheron (now ensconced in Bard's Gate), this malevolent halfling currently has King Ovar of Yore under his diminutive thumb.
The Elder Brain
Kheremblethoth: the central hub of the Illithid hive mind in Ilthe-Ba'Manza, sickened and weakened by some mysterious and sinister external influence.
The Hedge-Wizard Grendelf Erandir
Known as Elendil (Elf-friend) by the Qualinesti Elves, Grendelf Erandir (the Wanderer) was an itinerant cartographer and mage. He is thought to have met his death at the hands of the Brownleaf Goblins, who killed him at the instruction of Illintendo Sharpchin and fed him to an Ooze. Gobchuck took his Headband of Intellect and proclaimed himself Gobchuck the Clevva, Goblinking.
The Rat King of Zobeck
Underground gangster and vigilante leader in Zobeck
The Ratcatcher
Felix "the Ratcatcher" is a halfling spy for the Consulate, most often to be found roaming the Cartways and sewers of Zobeck.
Tomas
A city guard and jailer in Zobeck.
Varg
A cruel and avaricious Gauth in the service of the Beholder, K'Varn.
Varo Qualanthri
An elderly, greying Elf, slight of frame and ponderous of manner, Varo is one of the Enydil, or Treant-friends, who are reclusive Soothsayers of the Onodrim. He has a great talent for speaking with both flora and fauna of the Galentaur, and it is by watching the borders of the Qualimor through the eyes of the forest that the Soothsayers help to keep the Qualinesti safe from external threats. Varo's title is Keeper of the Treesleepers, for he spends his days tending to the sleeping Huorni upon Tol Ornemithas, where he can often be found meditating and communing with Nature.
Viper the Quasit
Viper is Mherren's familiar, granted him by Demogorgon, and is summoned from the body of a live snake. He chatters away constantly and loves to be sent on missions of mischief.
Winnifred
Mutant guardian of the portal to Athenaeum in the Great Library of Zobeck, and cataloguer of the Specialist Archive. Winnifred gave her soul to be magically split between dimensions, so that she now exists simultaneously as a bookish crone in Zobeck and as a tentacled cuttlefish mutant on the Astral Plane.
Xar-graata M'thilid
A powerful Mind Flayer of the Illithid colony known as Ilthe-Ba'Manza, Xar-graata has spurned the Illactite city above the Deep Lake and has instead occupied an abandoned Dwarfish fortress beyond the Deep Lake, where he plots to hold dominion over the colony. It was Xar-graata who cast out Kla'rota for dabbling in the arcane, and who lured Elovyn Sorrowsong into the Deeps, where his enslaved Duergar minions captured her so he could probe her mind for information on the Sword of Air.

LIVE

Session 37

The Nerdventurers barely escape from being crushed and find themselves trapped in the innards of a leviathan. After doing battle with the sentient contents of its stomach, they find their way to its gigantic, beating, black heart. There they are challenged by Razazel, the Lifeblood of Dagon, and her blood and electric elemental henchmen, but with Lightstrike's vorpal boomerang and Mherren's fire elemental form, they win through and still the beating heart, before finding teir way to the mouth and breaking through its baleen. In its death throes, the beast breaks through the planet's crust and swims up into the air, before coming crashing back down into the rugged terrain of the Hinterlands. Lightstrike and Haji Baba are unscathed, but Zellingar is severely wounded, and Mherren and Zimlok are knocked unconscious. Healed by the periapt and Lightstrike's quick thinking, they leave Dagon's mountain-like carcass behind and make their way to a rocky shelter, where they make camp and enjoy the feel of the fresh air and natural light. In the distance they can hear a voice singing a strange song, and overhead they see a portentous, bloo- red comet in the twilight sky.

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Sword of Air

This story is told by

Maps

Maps

Yore, by Grendelf Erandir

Supporting Cast

Session 37

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Tanueviel Yaeldrin

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