Episode Eighteen Recap

We rejoin our party high atop the tower of Ilghast.  Stranded by a magical hurricane, the party left their ship anchored in the relative safety of a nearby bay, and fought their way up the nearby mountain, and then on to the top of Ilghast's tower.
Having defeated Ilghast so swiftly at the end of Episode 17, the gnome lay defenseless under the iron grip of Cairn.  Ilghast pleads for his own safety and the party relents, with the promise of help from the powerful illusionist.  Zirkin is given the Death Moon Orb, an artifact of great power, with scrying and mind control properties.  The orb is also the prison to a young woman named Yaphyll, a prophet of great ability, who pleads for her release.  She was imprisoned by a previous owner of the orb, and has apparently been trapped within the orb for a very long time.  She offers up the following vision, "The black queen is troubled but can't say why, her black moon hidden, the Northern King has fallen, his son will fall next. The white queen clothes the assassin, his plan remains hidden. The roots of the world shake-eaten from within, they shall burst forth, the cities will burn, the world ready the Gods will come…the worlds collide."
After some very effective negotiations by Alecdora, Ilghast agrees to use a vision spell he had saved to a scroll.  The spell was cast, and further insight is given about Yaphyll's vision, specifically about the mentioned assassin, "His plan is to redeem himself, under the tutelage of Laece, once Ash. He has seen the error of his ways and seeks redemption."
Aside from helping out the party with a great deal of knowledge about the Beast Lord, Elora, and their sinister plans, Ilghast offers to transport the party to a place where they can find an ancient relic of Chauntea; an item that will help Noah a great deal.  Or he will send them to Winterkeep, but warns of a massive army there, sieging the castle.  Though the seige has ground to a standstill, as the general of the invading army had been killed.  The party agrees to quest for the relic, and they are given magical Bracers of the Planes, which allow them to travel between planes of existence.  They magically travel to the island of Ruathym, where they find Yggdrasil's Child.  They begin to float up along the great tree until they've reached the coulds, where the tree begins to end...then another begins, and they slowly find themselves falling instead of climbing into the air.  As they gain speed coming through the clouds along the mighty Yggdrasil, they see the entirety of the plane of Concordant Opposition spread out before them.  As they approach the ground they begin moving away from the tree and make their way to a thick forest near the middle of the plane.  The have landed in the Great Mother's Garden, within the House of Nature, home to Chauntea (also known as The Earthmother in the Moonshae Isles).  There they encounter Bone Devils and lesser Demons.  After a brief battle, the party realizes many spells do not work, and their weapons are barely capable of dealing damage in this plane.  They push on into the forest, which gives way to plain of many crops, accented sparsely with trees which seem to follow along a riverbank.  As they approach the river, the come across a very old woman, hunchbacked with bowed legs and very unkempt.  She appears to by trying to fish with her hands, hip deep in water, to little avail.  The party assists her, and in doing so Noah makes a discovery reaching into the river.  He finds the ritual bowl and bronze sickle of the Earthmother.  The grizzled woman reveals herself as the Earthmother and offers advice to Noah, "never lose the necklace from your father, you will need it."  To Thondar she offers, "stand and fight, even when hope is lost," referring to the encounter in Ilghast's spell.  To the party she offers, "You are known as The Company of the Dead, have you ever considered why?"  With that she offers to send the party anywhere or time they wish.  They choose Winterkeep, one year prior to today's date.
With that The Earthmother bids them farewell, and they find themselves in a dark, dank crypt...far below Winterkeep.