In the Vast Swamp
Ashe Trickson took over the Linwood Barony and is looking to expand into the Vast Swamp that dominates most of her land. After gathering most of the Razor Eagles together (barring Lux ), she hires a group of adventurers to examine the swamp and clear out any major issues therein. The group, the Swamp Busters, are promised rewards based on what they want upon successful completion of the mission.
The group starts by interviewing the townsfolk to get some baseline information on the swamp. They find out that most people who venture into the swamp die. After that cheery news, they head out and meet up with the a historian Ashe recommended. The historian, Dr. Doop, clarified the history of the swamp. The party picked up one more party member from Doop, Azola.
The Swamp Busters travel into the swamp, discovering it has been shifted to another plane that corrupts magic and plants. A tree whispers that "He hungers. He exterminates." Hearing screams, the party takes off and finds a village under attack from robots. Wigglesme-Tigglesme briefly appears to give a short complaint about this being his territory and to steal two robots. He also agrees to purchase a ""horse"" from Setnirut later, in return for given the reverse-cyborg a Glock. The party also sees that he has with him an insanely powerful weapon that is still coming online. The party, with the help of 75379n1ru7's organic army decimate the robots and reveal the presence of an ultra-gleeok- essentially a seven-headed dragon hydra but scarier. Each of the heads had a different theme, and the astral dragon head had a sword hilt stuck to it that Dracula managed to retrieve mid-fight. After a long fight, the gleeok was defeated and transformed into a golden gem that fit perfectly into the retrieved hilt, with six slots remaining.
The party spoke to the local villagers and got some more current info on what was happening in the swamp. Apparently several years ago the red wizards of Thay had moved in and corrupted the swamp, which used to be a peaceful resevoir. These wizards allied with devils, beholders, and and mindflayers to rule over the swamp. While not particularly pleased with this rule, neither did the townsfolk particularly suffer. However, recently two newcomers appeared, one of which was a six-winged angel. This angel killed the Thay wizards and their allies and began sending mechs to terrorize the town. The party also found that the rumored ruins at the center of the swamp belonged to the ancient elven city of Myth Stellarun. Azola also discovered there was the stump of a world tree in the swamp, which became the party's next port of call.
On their way, the Swamp Busters found a small robot being attack by larger robots with blond wigs and tutus. They quickly dispatched the larger robots and the small robot declared that he was supposed to guide them to the Queen of the Azure Castle. He also displayed an ability to listen to telepathic conversations that were occuring. Since he was headed the same direction as them anyways, the party decided to follow him.
The party reached the stump of the world tree and discovered it was in the center of a ruined town, including a battered observatory. There was also a hole in the center of the tree that led down to a very, very deep hole. The robot said the way was down, so down the party went. They fell for a while before approaching a dragon-shaped island suspended by chains over a pit of lava. When they landed the robot said that he had recieved new orders to take them to a lab, and now that they were on the island, he had the ability to use teleportation circles. Curious about what was going on and without better leads, the party followed him through the teleportation circle and into the lab.
The lab was abandoned, but Alucard broke down most of the doors so the party could explore. The party found what looked like the personal rooms of the head researcher, with the photo of a red-headed man wearing a visor next to a six-winged construct. On the back there was a note that simply read "Axiom". They also found a map of the Kalidescope- an alternative to the Great Wheel Cosmology that also featured a plane of memories. The plane of memories stored the memories of the whole universe and was easiest to acess from the roots of the world trees. Also in the lab was a coat of Imperial Arms, a map of a continent named Gaia and some notes on primordial spells. Primordial spells included: natural phenomena, 11th level spells, and the Ringbearers. The Ringbearers seemed to include Sil , Sazu, Shellus, and Edsel, who seemed to be causing the writer some grief.
In another room the party found some Bone-Logic Technology (BLT) (a computer) that they managed to convince their little robot friend to help them hack, in addition to the use of "Axiom" as a password. The BLT revealed a file on wanted parties by whatever faction own the lab, including many that the Swamp Busters recognized.
Disturbed, the party broke down the final, main door and found a powerful sword surrounded by a disintegration field. Alucard simply tanked to the field to grab the sword, accidentally triggering a petrification beam that caught Maya and Shady. The robot also announced that they had new orders to take them to the court and fired up a magic circle that the unpetrified members of the party quickly shuffled through, grabbing their stoney allies on the way.
The party found themselves in front of Noire Fallenstar. 75379n1ru7 and Azola both tried to bargain with Noire while the rest of the party quitely prepped for a fight as it became increasingly clear that Noire harbored narcisstic, egotistical, and facist tendencies with plans for world(s) domination.
And break out a fight did.
Most of the court cleared the room, with Noire's main enforcer clearing out large swathes of 7539n1ru7's armies and Noire unleashing four constructs, called Archetypes based around members of the Ring Bound - the Pendragon Mk. II, the Eradine, the Zora and the Starflower (based on Larkspur).
As the battle raged and 7539n1ru7's army sustained heavy causlties Noire began a magic ritual as the party tried to stop her. Alucard used a last-ditch ability that granted them more power but at the cost of his own life when it ran out. Despite all that the party failed to stop the ritual and Noire's forces, along with the party, was transported to Arabel where Noire was summoning an eclipse as the first step to a larger ritual. Thankfully, some remnants of the power of Bahamut summoned a draconoid mech for the party to pilot and Alucard used Wish to create duplicates of the dragon to deal with Noire's forces scattered across the city. All but the Larkspur Archetype, called the Starflower Archetype, were swiftly dealt with and Azola took control of the meteor Noire was using to cause the eclipse and crashed it into her. The Starflower Archetype escaped to places unknown.
Noire was driven off and the party emerged victorous, mourning the loss of Alucard. The swamp was freed and Ashe rewarded them as promised.
