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It didn't take long for The Red Order to arrange a meeting with the so-called Inheritor of Io, wyrmpriest of the Io'Vanthor kobolds.  He was an aged little reptile, and quite set in his ways.  He refused to believe talk of an outside world, and insisted that Io was alive and spoke to him, the god living in the city and selecting the kobolds as his chosen race.

When prompted for aid in locating the Dragonborn in the city, the wyrmpriest refused to involve his tribe in the war between the Tiamatites and the tieflings - Io's plan was for the kobolds to hide and grow in number, allowing the other factions to wipe each other out.  The fact that those factions kept attacking the kobolds and stealing their food didn't seem to him like a flaw in his plan, although after badgering ...

Omar turned out to be female.  Shibboleth was as surprised as anyone, but a Dragonborn has to learn to accept that female reptiles look just like male ones, without the gender identifiers that mammals display.  

She led the team through darkened tunnels, skittish at the slightest movement.  It was the sound that caused The Red Order to draw blades however, spooked by the moaning, wailing and dragging footsteps out in the darkness.  Until Arthur pulled out a sunrod to revealghosts and Dragonborn wights that refused to see The Red Order's noble mission blocking both ends of the corridor.  Casting aside the cumbersome light source, the sword-mage teleported straight into their midst.



Fig 1: The extent of the sunrod's glow.  Also,ignore the land shark.

Of course, ...

Flying toward the mountain wherein Io'Vanthor was housed atop their phantom steeds, The Red Order realised that there was a blue dragon circling the area.  Deciding to err on the side of caution and not confront the creature, they took a detour.  When it seemed that the dragon had spotted them and was headed on intercept, they dove toward a tropical forest, hoping to lose the pursuer amongst the trees.

Ralvereon and Arthur, toward the rear of the group, had their steeds caught in the lightning blast of the dragon just as they hit cover, toppling through the branches of the trees some distance from the main body of the party (with their cultist prisoner Maziar).  In normal circumstances reuniting would have been simple, but there was a severe excess of fog building up around...

Fig.1: teamwork as applied to demon-slaying 

So, The Red Order had been relaxing for some half a year since the end of their last adventure, getting to grips with their epic destinies.  Shibboleth Sequitur, Dragonborn cleric of Bahamut, Scion of Arkhosia, Destined Scion and all-round humble dude, was meditating in the heavens (as one does at Epic tier) when Kuyutha, exarch of Bahamut appeared unto him.

There was much to be said.  The primordial dragon kings were far from defeated (despite The Order's sterling efforts in the last tier), yet the world was not ready to face them.  An alliance of as many races as possible would be needed to take them on, and Bahamut would kindly like The Red Order to gather some.

The targets of this Diplomatic Mission were not ones that Shibboleth...

The crystal skull, mounted atop a self-built artifice of stolen corpses, was surprised as the party took about half a minute to disassemble it.  It sprayed poison, it caught Ungarth up in its coils, it shed bodies to make zombie allies - all for naught.  Once more, it found itself in Pik's hands, and all its temptations and threats were nothing to the druid.

The group took care of the jewel-encrusted contraption choking the Tree of Life by smashing it to pieces.  The central component was a staff topped with a large shard of crystal, which Pik used to smash the skull to pieces.

The Tree thanked the party as it managed to grow unrestricted, breaking apart the walls and ceiling of the tomb complex with the aid of the still slightly adrenaline-filled party.  It showered fruit...

The cairns didn't appear to be too interesting, moved into the room from the garden outside for some reason.  Karas wandered further into the chamber, noticing a large door in one wall, the only part that wasn't covered in creeping ivy.  He didn't have much time before an eyestalk emerged from the foliage and the plant wrapped him up in vines and dragged him out of sight.

The rest of the party didn't have time torush immediatelyto his rescue, and from the cairns three zombieladrin and a hulking corpse clawed their ways from the cairns to attack them.

Ungarth was snatched up by the hulk, which began draining his life-force as it leaped around the room.  The barbarian stabbed holes in it and Pik joined in, the vicious poking of his staff finally deflating the shell to reveal ...

The wraiths tore into the party at incredible speed, the group seeming to move incredibly slowly compared to their assailants.  Throughout, the mad mumbling of the undead was draining their minds, and sword swings were being deflected by hanging tapestries.

Erik, Karas and Pik had collapsed by the time the fight was done, and another retreat and rest in the map room was called for.  Afterward, the trudge took them back to investigate the tapestry chamber, and while there was no treasure to be found, the clicking noise had been the opening of a secret door.

The corridor diverged, the sound of merriment coming from one fork.  Ungarth, the only member of the party to have anything approaching an effective stealth skill, went down to check it out.  The room was empty of people,...

The party took a while to collect themselves after overcoming the lamia, retreating back to the map chamber to rest up.  Shallahai's remains proved beyond Pik's ability to reconstitute, although the druid did keep the wilden's detached face as a rather gruesome souvenir.  Resembling a piece of dried cactus, in his bag it went.  It took the place of the crystal skull, which could not be located in the lamia's lair; she must have taken it elsewhere.

Pik directed his Restore Life to Unbreth, who proceeded to quit the garden as quickly as he was able.  If the others didn't make it out, at least one of the Un-'s needed to be free to return to and save their tribe from the Veynes' schemes.

The group was not understrength, however; following their rest, a mulworm crawled...

Somehow, after rising from the dead and finding that his lady love WHOSE NAME HE STILL DID NOT KNOW had given ten years of her life to bring him back, Pik found it possible to bring both Raina and Unbreth to life again.  This recovery period took a couple of days, and the Veiled Alliance allowed one of its agents to aid the party in their return to Aeaeca - Erik the Psion.  They were particularly concerned that somehow the crystal skull had gone missing while Pik's body has lain in the lamia's lair.

The party assembled a good stock of alchemists' fire before heading back - this time they would be prepared for any swarms they encountered!

Anyway, we shall skip over the journey back - Kotnalishmaelantok assisted, naturally - and again to the Garden of Graves.  The statues had...