Drake donned the earth crown, an act which immediately set-off a chain of events. One by one, the crystal columns in the center of the chamber shattered. Each column revealed a secret: It had contained the essence of a powerful creature for centuries, as a final guardian to those who would seek to acquire the power of the earth crown.
Standing now, within the midst of the party were a fiendish looking ettin and a writhing mass of tentacles, mouths and eyes, which Solanthos understood to be a chaos beast. Each adversary moved to attack, with the Ettin taking some small abuse early. Solanthos detected a third foe, when he felt the force of a powerful wind which tried to push him back. Squinting, he could just see the outline of an invisible stalker.
As dangerous as the creatures appeared to be, the steadfast heroes demonstrated that they were far more dangerous. Going into a rage, Ymir pounced on the ettin, cutting deeply between the creature’s two heads. The force of the blow almost cleaved the ettin completely into two halves. Needless to say, the creature died where it stood, with one half of its body falling one way and the other half falling in the other direction. The force of the fall tore at the skin, completing the dissection. The ettins bowels spilled out on the floor at Ymir’s feet.
Drake meanwhile used the power of the earth crown to summon two large earth elementals. The first one slammed into the chaos beast with such ferocity that it liquefied the foe and splattered its guts all over the floor and on everyone standing nearby. Moving from outside of the shadows, the tiefling that the group had recently encountered now tried to sneak attack Dexter. The foolish tiefling had apparently not been paying attention to the awesomeness that was once again on display. The second of the two elementals slammed into the tiefling, literally smashing his face into the back of his head.
The only thing left was the invisible stalker. Dexter had managed to sling it a few times. Already hurting, the stalker was fairly easy prey for the earth elemental, who finished it off.
Congratulations to the party. You are now the proud owners of the Keep of Kings, and, with earth elementals under your control, you put them to work to make necessary repairs and to start new construction. If everyone would like, make a floorplan of what you want your section to look like. Also, Korik might want to build a temple of Pelor. Solanthos might want to build a gambling hall. You might want a barracks or community living quarters. You might consider adding an inn and trying to find people who would want to live in your keep. I am sure that notes, posted in Brindinford or even in the Capitol, Tringlee, might attract people hoping to profit from your newfound locale.
About two months into your work, a stranger, with a foreign accent came to you. He was bedraggled and apparently quite exhausted. He introduced himself as Targen Klem, follower of Villeforte Mondago. He explains that his master was abducted by a dragon lord for whom he had been searching. According to rumor, this dragonlord has been collecting dragon eggs and placing them within a type of nursery, somewhere in the Lortmil Mountains. This unnamed dragon lord is apparently planning to raise the dragons and sell them off as mounts to evil people, eventually in the hopes of taking over the known world. This dragon lord is also apparently a follower of the old ways of the Ddraigasa: Those who worshipped Ashardalon, the fearsome red dragon. Targen offered the party 500 gp each for the safe return of his master. In addition, since, as Targen pointed out, his master’s mission was to destroy any and all evil dragon eggs, Targen offers the party 500 gp for each and every dragon egg that they bring to him. Targen pointed out the general vicinity of the dragon egg nursery for you, and, with haste, the party left.
The journey was largely uneventful. At one point, the party came upon a crazed treant, who screamed out nonsensical rantings about a dragon. He accused the party of being in league with “the dragon” and would not listen to reason. The treant died at the end of Ymir’s blade and that night, the party had a nice roaring fire.
Another few days travel brought the group to the mysterious nursery. Tragedy almost claimed Drake’s life, when he was unable to detect the presence of an acid trap at the entrance to the ancient cavern. After successfully disabling the trap, the group proceeded in and cautiously looked to see what they could find. Drake noticed a pair of large blackscaled lizardmen in a corner of one room, and, hoping to score a quick kill, he loosed two arrows at one of the LouSs. (Lizards of unusual size) He missed on both shots, and the the battle started. Pouring out of almost every nook and cranny, LoUSs and hobgoblins came after the party. Gyrr and Korik took the brunt of the attacks. Gyrr came close to being knocked out several times, as did Korik, who was finally able to get close enough to keep both himself and Gyrr alive. Solanthos was, at one point, hurting as well, but, given enough time, the party showed just how resilient it can be, and killed off all of the enemies.
Searching around turned out to be quite fortuitous, as the party amassed quite a collection of treasure. In addition, the group entered a back room and found an old acquaintance of Korik and Gyrr’s: Meepo the kobold. It turns out that Meepo is the dragonlord, but, he is not acting as Targen Klem described. In fact, Meepo explained to the party that Targem is the one with evil intentions. Targem is hoping to raise the Tsaggest Darkweld, the dracolich, and, he needs dragon eggs for the ritual that will awaken the terror. Meepo has asked for your help in stopping Targem. He gave you a map of the surrounding area, which pinpoints locations to which you will need to go. Meep explained that in order to stop the ritual, you will need to find the Egg of Bahamut and the Egg of Tiamat. In addition, Meepo gave you a half-dozen dragon eggs that are actually dead, saying, “If Targen come for eggs, you give him these to fool him.”
And now, you are on your way. . .
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