Level 4

Level 4 opened with our crew hammering and sawing, not at monster limbs, but at the mundane timbers of their new tower. Lord Drysdale dispatched a group of craftsmen and soldiers, and soon enough the place felt like home. The crew were enjoying the meals prepared by their new cook, and were perpetually frustrated by the worthlessness of their new steward, Stuart. Some of the crew headed into the Crossroads to offload some of the Chaos shards to the Saruun guildmages, and were accosted by a mind flayer, who wished to purchase them for an exorbitant price, referring to them as pieces of "the Father." They refused, and Low Rent's mind was slightly flayed.

One fine morning, over breakfast, the enfuriating Stuart busted in on the crew, letting them know they had three supplicants. The first was a young lady named Willow, sent from a nearby village with a tale of woe. A recent earthquake had uncovered a cave in a nearby hill, and a plague of goblins had issued forth, raiding their sheep and womenfolk. A group of hunters had gone in, but none returned. She had heard of the bravery and badassness of our heroes, and begged their help. Superion tried to lay his game down tight, but she only had eyes for Alster. The second supplicant was Sir Aron, an emissary from the Red Duke of the Crossroads. He bade them welcome, and told them his master wished only for peace and free trade between their towns. The more studious members of the crew were able to determine, by his armor and tabard, that he was a Knight of the Seasons, a religious order dedicated to hunting the undead, but one which had gone extinct hundreds of years ago. Sir Aron noticed that two of the crew were dedicated to his deities, and he informed them of a ruined temple to Orcus nearby. The third supplicant was an ill-mannered dwarf "adventurer" named Sundgrim Orcspike. He was there to complain about a group of half-orc bandits, stealing magical treasures from travellers near the Pillar of Eyes.

The crew decided to pursue the goblins first, and Willow led them to her village. They entered the cave and were immediately beset by goblins with strange mutations, black eyeliner and poor dispositions. Their shaman carried a staff of strange metal, and when Low Rent attempted to use it, one of his eyes grew twice its size and turned yellow. As they continued further into the cavern, they found seams of ore of the same metal, which appeared to have tiny chaos shards mixed in. The crew interrupted a group of goblins at chow, and ended up fighting their trash heap. Everyone except Low Rent, who wisely stayed away, came down with a horrible case of Filth Fever. The crew carried on, following a soft moaning sound. They found the missing villagers, all melted together into a wall of flesh, blocking off the tunnel. Charna mercifully ended the villagers' suffering, and hacking their way through the wall, they found the entrance to the Fey tunnels, destroyed and covered with foul runes by the mutated goblins. Finally, they came to the bottom of the caverns, where they found barely recognizable mutants mining ore and tossing it into a pool. As the crew drew their weapons, a giant mutant goblin-spider monster rose from the pool, grossing everyone out. However, they manned up and slew the mutants and informed the villagers not to drink from their well, unless they wanted a really cool costume for the Harvest Festival. Willow returned with them to Vanguard Tower to lend her aid crafting magic potions and alchemical items.

When the crew returned, they found Sundgrim had not left, but had set up an impromtu tavern. At first they were pissed, not only was this presumptuous, but they hated this guy. A few free beers and a sad story about how he never wanted to be an adventurer, he just did it because his dad was a great adventurer, and the crew's hearts softened. Everyone had a good cry, and Sunny introduced them to his sister, Guffy, who was visiting. The crew took to Guffy like a duck to water, especially if that duck had a giant axe/spear and a talent for murder. After sobering up, and clearing out the last of their Filth Fever, they set off for the ruined temple of Orcus.

They found the temple in a valley, surrounded by low, forested hills. The temple was once dedicated to Erathis, but was profaned long ago by the Orcus cultists. Descending to the temple basement, they found several dead bodies, including one that appeared to be the priest. A strange purple-glowing chaos shard hung around his neck. As the sun dropped below the hills, an explosion of purple light burst from the shard, and the bodies arose. They fought off the undead, and ran back upstairs to find the temple under siege by a horde of zombies. The crew built up the defenses as best they could, blocking off windows, calling upon the latent divine power left in the temple, and filling in pits in the floor. Wave after wave of zombies attacked, only to be repelled, and the crew would have a brief time to lick their wounds and restore their defenses before they came again. Just as the sun was coming back up, the zombies made one final push, smashing down the walls with two big zombie dragons, but the crew was stalwart, and held them off until the necrotic energy fueling them ran out. As the crew left, there was a earthquake, and the hills fell in, burying the remains of the temple and all the zombies forever. When the crew returned to Vanguard, they found the stones of the temple had mysteriously appeared as a wall, defending their tower, with a small shrine to the gods on the inside. Sir Aron arrived and assisted them in destroying the necroshard, ending that evil forever. Everyone headed into the tower for waffles and a nap.

Finally, they went to put a stop to the thieving-ass half-orcs. They arrived at the Pillar of Eyes, which was a large stone pillar, intricately carved all over with various, strangely life-like, eyes and mouths. They were confronted by the half-orcs, one of whom was known by Low Rent as the stealer of his magical mandolin. Oddly, the half-orcs were in no mood to fight, but just wanted to leave as soon as possible. They handed over all the booty they had on them, and informed the crew their boss was at the top of the pillar. Superion ordered them to assist, but they turned tail and ran at the first opportunity. As the crew climbed, the pillar began to grow more flesh-like, and they discovered the pillar was a giant monster, turned to stone by an ancient wizard. When they reached the top, they found a priest under a force field, droning the ritual to undo the petrifaction, along with Superion's older brother, his deva girlfriend, and two orog bodyguards. Of course Superion II asked his little brother to join him in his evil endeavor to un-stone the beast and conquer the world, and of course Superion IV declined, knowing his badassness would earn him a kingdom eventually, without having to resort to WMDs. They fought, and just before IV struck his loathsome brother down, II pulled a dick move and exploded the force field, knocking everyone down, and he escaped with his girlfriend, who turned out to be a succubus. The crew freed the priest, who had been mind-controlled by the succubus, and took him back to Vanguard tower. The priest, Riggby, was skilled at breaking harmful enchantments, curing diseases, and even raising the dead. He also told them the tale of the mad mage Al-Hazred, the first person to travel to the heart of the Scar and return alive. The same wizard that entrapped the Pillar of Eyes in stone form. Rumor had it that Al-Hazred kept a laboratory in the Scar, but none had entered and lived to tell the tale. But that is a story for another level.