Legends of Istaros

"Many heads in darken'd lair come undone And blazing ice 'pon golden shores shall fall And beast beneath shall rise to face the sun 'fore the Godslayer brings an end to all"

- The Stranger's prophecy

Legends of Istaros (also known as Saturday One-Shots) is the first campaign set in the world of Dhorum. The campaign follows the adventures of the Rat Pack adventuring group (later known as the Golden Standard) on the frontier continent of Istaros.

Prologue: The Master's Vault
In the year 989 2A, the retired adventurer Elaria Feywing passes away shortly after graduating her final class of students. After her funeral, her former students receive Elaria's last will and testament, in which she tasks them to open the mysterious vault behind her mansion.

The adventurers travel around Merriam Vale, securing the vault keys that Elaria hid away long ago. After tangling with kobolds, flying snakes, and a loyal ghost, they eventually return to Feywing Mansion and open the vault. Inside, they are greeted by a projection of Elaria Feywing, who reveals her secret past as Erris Dawnforge. Under that name, she stole the Eye of Death, a powerful necromantic artifact, from a cult known as the Pact of the Lich. She informs her former students that the Pact was most likely responsible for her abrupt passing and that the Eye's whereabouts (detailed on a map within the vault) must be kept secret from the cult.

As the projection of Elaria finishes speaking, the adventurers are ambushed by Drazal Vibbin, a member of the Pact of the Lich, who has come to claim the map. After defeating Vibbin, securing the map, and splitting up the vault's treasures, the adventurers part ways.

Chapter I: Humble Beginnings
A year after Elaria Feywing's death, three of her former students (Sola Emrai, Luxon Everlight, and Rhysil Xanfira) have left Parabor and the Merriam Vale behind and joined up with an adventurers guild in the northern city of Goldshore.

Along with other novice members of the guild, they take up several small-time contracts. They clear out a giant rat infestation, uncover the truth behind a missing brother, rescue a merchant's daughter from her unscrupulous captors, and uncover a long-lost treasure; they rescue the village of Oallhelm from raiding goblins, put a poltergeist to rest, defeat a wicked nature spirit, and end the experiments of a crazed wizard.

The party of adventurers later name their group the Rat Pack, a tongue-in-cheek reference to Lucky, a giant rat tamed by Kain Iraemin during his first contract. As the Rat Pack, they slay two chimeras that had been terrorizing both northern orcish tribes and the settlement of Ehrshire.

It is this act that wins them the attention of a mysterious stranger; the Stranger arrives at the guildhall not long after their victory, inquiring about the chimeras and piquing the interest of many of the guild members. Attempts to ascertain his identity bear no fruit, and he disappears shortly after asking his questions.

Chapter II: Rising Stars
With the chimeras' deaths, the Rat Pack ascends in the eyes of the public. Now regarded as seasoned adventurers, they go on to face more dangerous threats.

Amidst orcish migration to the south as a result of the chimeras' attacks, the Rat Pack escorts a traveling doctor to plague-ridden Holderton, though it later becomes clear he has his own secrets. They help renowned transmuter Finethir Shinebright reclaim his tower from a disgruntled apprentice and narrowly avoid death at the hands of a treacherous wizard (who'd originally hired them to recover several powerful elemental weapons from cultists).

The party also halts the spread of a strange disease that had affected the town of Valmar, end the reign of a cursed queen, investigate mysterious happenings in the Velyn Forest and the Mistmire Swamp; they slay an undead lord, uncover a sanctuary out of legend, recover a powerful artifact, and end a potential slaadi incursion.

With their growing list of accomplishments, the Rat Pack gains the attention of renowned bard and tinkerer Jon Yorke, who invites them to a magnificent banquet in honor of his latest invention. The banquet is interrupted by the arrival of Barnabus, a horned devil, who claims Yorke's soul as part of their "bargain." The Rat Pack follows Barnabus and Yorke into the depths of the Nine Hells, defeating the eccentric Barnabus in a contest of musical talent and rescuing Yorke.

Their fame also attracts the attention of Aurelius Duvellon, the Lord of Goldshore, who hires them to deal with a growing group of cultists rooted in the city. The party discovers that the cultists, under the leadership of former priest Frederick Irenicus, plan on bringing about the return of their lord Icefire. Tracking down the cultists' lair, the party arrive too late to prevent the resurrection of Icefire, a long-dead white dragon; despite Irenicus's role in his resurrection, however, Icefire devours the cult leader and attacks the party.

The Rat Pack defeats the dragon before it can begin terrorizing the city. For their efforts, Lord Aurelius formally honors them as heroes and funds the construction of their own stronghold in the countryside north of the city.

The dragon's death also brings the Stranger back to the Rat Pack's guildhall. After asking more strange questions regarding the dragon and their slaying of the beast, he disappears once more, leaving the party with more unanswered questions about his identity.

Chapter III: The Threat Below
In the wake of their newfound fame, the Rat Pack undergo several changes. Renaming their party to "The Golden Standard," they go about securing their independence from their patron, Guildmaster Westin Aimsley. With financial support from Lord Aurelius, they transfer ownership of the guild from Aimsley to the guild's members as a collective whole and relocate the guild's base of operations to their new stronghold, the Vault.

As the Golden Standard, they defeat an ambitious beholder and an upjumped hobgoblin overlord. Word of their exploits reach even the insular duergar of Vardhun-thad, who ask for their assistance in reclaiming one of their mines from invading undead.

Upon further investigation of the undead, the party discovers that this was but a token force sent by a far greater threat: a vast empire of intelligent, organized ghouls in the darkest reaches of the Deeprealm. The party informs the various leaders of Istaros's settlements about the ghoulish threat, who begin preparing for a potential ghoulish invasion.

Meanwhile, the Golden Standard tackles other threats cropping up across the frontier. They lay the spirits of the Albrec family to rest at Gloomthrone Citadel, defeat a mummy-lord banished by adventurers long ago, and slay a titanic, monstrous snake. They prevent an ambitious devil from tampering with the Weave of magic, treat with a void dragon matriarch, and save a wealthy lord from a conflict engineered by his traitorous adviser.

With the assistance of the Goodfellow League, an adventuring party that once slew a blue dragon alongside the Golden Standard, the two parties destroy a Darakhul surface outpost, uncover the locations of other such outposts, and retrieve vital information that would allow them to open a portal to the Darakhul capital.

As the other settlements of Istaros prepare for war, the desert town of Valmar finds itself in trouble once more. Natural disasters plaguing the countryside destroy villages and towns, create famine and drought, and leave the region in ruin. Mayor Davin Rahmid asks the Golden Standard to retake control of the town's water supply from Jephron, a traitorous priest of Eldath, and his followers.

After Jephron's death, Valmar is directly attacked by the source of the recent natural disasters: a purple worm. The party defeats the monstrosity, winning Valmar's support for the war effort against the Darakhul. Shortly after returning to the Vault, the Stranger mysteriously appears at the party's stronghold, this time inquiring about the purple worm's death before disappearing just as mysteriously as he'd arrived.

At the behest of Archmage Sindara Elistrade of the College of Magi, the Golden Standard investigates the long-abandoned ruins of Rivermarch Keep, uncovering the truth of its inhabitants' disappearances twenty years ago and foiling a devilish plot. With the assistance of Ingra Dhurngrad, they put an end to the cursed death knight brothers, Ser Ballamar and Ser Valdemar.

The Golden Standard also helps organize a meeting of local Istarosi leaders at the newly-reclaimed Rivermarch Keep to discuss the war effort against the Darakhul, serving as arbiters between old rivals and ensuring unity in the face of the undead threat.

Later, they destroy a world-threatening artifact with the help of a githyanki ally and secure an old guildmate's position as Lord of Highsquall Apex. When the demilich Somnnil attempts to enslave the city of Goldshore with his necromantic magic, the Golden Standard destroys him and his undead minions.

Finally, the unified armies of Istaros march on the ghoul capital of Darakhan with the help of teleportation magic. The Golden Standard and their allies from the Goodfellow League infiltrate the city and disable its defenses, allowing the armies to push past the city walls. The party makes their way to the royal palace, where they confront and slay the Darakhul leader, Emperor Nicoforus the Pale.

Chapter IV: Restoration
Heralded as legends for their part in the fall of the Darakhul Empire, the members of the Golden Standard enjoy a few quiet weeks of peace as the leaders of Istaros return to their political quibbling.

A month later, however, they are contacted by Kulaga Everfall, a self-proclaimed seer who informs them of a terrible threat to the south that only they can destroy. Chasing the aberration Anaxro along a winding path through the Timestream, they eventually destroy the monstrous creature he summons from the ocean and put an end to the aberration himself.

A few weeks pass before another threat appears in the countryside: a massive volcano originating from the Elemental Plane of Fire, bleeding into the Prime Material Plane and threatening to destroy nearby Goldshore. The party travels to the Elemental Plane of Fire, where they infiltrate the volcano, Iskh.

Further investigation reveals that the volcano's stirrings are due to the machinations of Pasha Baltazar, who assaulted Iskh, took its azer occupants prisoner, and have been forcing them to forge magic items to feed to Talus-Mir, an ancient evil lurking in the volcano's caldera. The party rescues King Magnar of Iskh and Thoranir Grenton, adoptive father to Agatha Grenton, before slaying both Baltazar and Talus-Mir, an ancient red dragon.

At the height of the Golden Standard's fame, they receive another visit from the mysterious Stranger. He appears in the Vault's library without warning, agitated, rambling, and pulsing with wild magical energy; an uncontrolled flash of magic transports the party to a massive underground cavern. While the Stranger is nowhere to be found, the party materializes in the middle of a fight between two empyreans, one of whom is grievously wounded and begging for his female counterpart to stop.

After defeating the female empyrean, the party tries in vain to save the dying empyrean, who introduces himself as Ingvus. He informs the party that he and his siblings are survivors of the Titanwar, an ancient conflict between empyreans who thought themselves worthy of godhood and the gods. The war ended shortly after the gods created a massive monstrosity known as the Godslayer, which destroyed the empyrean rebel army before being sealed away in the cavernous World Scar.

One of the six seals has already been broken, Ingvus tells them, and without divine magic, it cannot be resealed; however, he tells the party that they might have the strength to defeat the Godslayer. Just before succumbing to his wounds, he suggests that they break the remaining seals and destroy the creature before it is unleashed upon the world.

The party breaks the remaining seals one by one, unleashing the Godslayer from its prison. Harnassing the residual divine energies from the broken seals, they destroy the Godslayer, ending the threat it poses to the world. As the Godslayer collapses, the Stranger reappears; he draws divine energy from the remains of the Godslayer's prison and is transformed.

The Stranger introduces himself to the party as Valhoun, Aspect of Knowledge. He explains that, in the years prior to the Dawn of Mortals, he was attacked by treacherous empyreans who infiltrated the Upper Planes; the attack wounded him grievously, fragmenting his Divine Essence and sending him to Prime Material Plane. Trapped in a volatile form and unable to remember the truth of his identity, he wandered for many years before he was struck by a prophecy that warned of the Godslayer "bringing an end to all."

Fearing the implications of this prophecy, Valhoun followed it for many years; his attention was brought to the party when their actions began to match what the prophecy foretold. He informs the party that he now believes it was the Godslayer's death that brought an end to his torment. He tells the party that "a new age should dawn" and that it is one the Golden Standard will usher in, bidding them farewell before returning to the Upper Planes.