Seriously. TELL US WHAT HAPPENED NEXT!
Indeed I shall. Once again, I apologize for being so slack about updating this thread. I'm not very good at writing when I'm not in the mood. And the last few months, when I've had a bit of free time, I've not been in the mood for a host of reasons. Most of them good things and a few rather bad things.
Anyway, I'm afraid that my memory has lost many of the details about what happened in which session from on out. But I'll try and give an overview of what happened, filling in details wherever I can.
First there was one more bombshell that they encountered after emerging from the sanctuary. From behind the looming bulk of Drakaru emerged the smaller draconic form that was none other than Steelslicer. This was (for those who don't recall back that long) the corrupted "shadow" dragon that they encountered at the top of the plateau where they emerged from the Prison Mines of Pelor. Her corruption was ended when the explosion of the Glass Book of Light washed over her and she had come to the party's aid when they were fighting Mist Demons (whom she had a taste for) at the River Gate of Karak Tor. Anyhow, she had showed up during the week they were inside the Sanctuary and told Drakaru that she "served the Dragonborn Emperor". Then she settled down to wait.
At this point in the game, the players were at a big crossroads about "What to do next?" Clearly they needed to go after the Dracolich and put an end to whatever nefarious scheme he was up to. The problem was that they didn't know exactly where to find him.
Furthermore, they were missing their key mode of transportation in the form of their airship and its captain, Llyra. They decided to tackle that part by sending Mialain back to Enmurinon to discover whether Llyra had reappeared. There were no airships available in Alboa right now so Eshik (now quietly designated as the Dragonborn Emperor) asked Steelslicer to carry Mialain on this journey. It cut the travel time dramatically.
Mialain arrived back in Enmur and was greeted not merely as a hero, but with the reverent awe due to the High Priestess of Melora. The Tree she had planted, which had grown so dramatically on her last visit, was perhaps even taller now. It completely dominated the center of the city and she could see that offerings to the goddess were being frequently left at its base.
She was immediately asked (not ordered - that's how important she had become) to appear for an audience with the king. He (being a pretty good politician) asked what he might do to pay his respects to the re-emerging goddess Melora. Mialain replied that he should first send whatever aid he could to Alboa to help its citizens who had suffered much to the cruelty of the Dracolich. And he must also begin readying his army to fight against the Dracolich in whatever way they could. The king (who was really hoping that she'd ask him to build a statue or something similarly cheap and easy) replied that he would send what he could to Alboa but that his army was still on guard as their had been some disturbing rumors coming from the western swamps.
It seemed that a few weeks prior Blackegg (the lizardman shaman) had come for an audience with the king and told him that one of the tribes may have broken loose from the alliance of lizardfolk. He could not guarantee that this tribe (Sawscale's tribe) would not make war on the elves independently but that they would try and stop them if they could.
That was disturbing news but there was little that Mialain could do about it at the moment seeing as she was by herself. She asked if there were any further news about Llyra. The king knew little of this but when Mialain asked those who wandered near the Tree of Melora if anyone had news, word spread through town like wildfire and she soon had some information: Llyra and the airship had appeared in town a few weeks ago. It was only known that she had gone back to the swamps to search for Milain and her companions, as that was their last known location.
With this news in hand, Milain left town and headed back to Alboa on the back of Steelslicer (who had also made quite an impression while in Enmur). There she updated her companions on what she had learned and they formed a plan of action:
They would return to Enmur, this time with Eshik riding on the back of Steelslicer and the rest of the party inside the Sanctuary (this is what I had assumed they would do before but it hadn't occurred to them). There they would make one final attempt to locate Llyra and their ship.
With that done (one way or the other) they would seek the location of the Dracolich from the one place where they assumed they could get a straight answer: Mayaheine the Aspect of Pelor's Wisdom.
She had promised them each their choice of Eternal Life (which seemed too good to be true) or the answer to any question they wanted to know IF they would "rescue her brother". Her brother of course was none other than The Dweller, the brooding evil presence that was worshiped by the people of Opkhar and lived in the depths of their plateau.
They knew from their former conversation with Mayaheine that The Dweller had been corrupted by the Mist when he had (foolishly in her opinion) gone to the aid of the mortals in the early days of the Cataclysm. The PC's believed that they had a theory as to how they might remove this corruption: Dragon bones.
Every indication they had was that dragons, and specifically their bones, repelled the Mist. It was hoped that if they could bring The Dweller into contact with a sufficient amount of dragon bones then it might dispel the corrupting effects of the Mist upon him.
They knew of only one place to get enough dragon bone to do this: The River Gate at Karak Tor. That was where the dwarves had tried to fight off the assault by the combined forces of the dragons and Dragonborn, led by the High Priest of Ryukaar (whose soul now resided in the Dracolich). Several dragons had died there, thus causing there to be a "bubble" of clarity within the corruption of the Mist.
So, in short, their itinerary was: Alboa->Enmur->Karak Tor->Mayaheine
More to come! Hopefully soon!