King Hekaton returns to Maelstrom only to find himself betrayed once more by his eldest daughters. The Korolnor Scepter has gone missing and Princess Serissa is paralyzed upon the Wyrmskull Throne. Believing the blue dragon Iymrith to be behind this latest scheme, the king embarks on a quest with four storm giant retainers and the orc barbarian Tarancha to slay the ancient wyrm and recover the lost scepter.

Player Characters: Strong Palm Ian, Tarancha, Nimir, Shaldoor, Vasha

1.

In the underwater citadel of Maelstrom, the storm giants celebrated the return of their king. The plot of the blue dragon Iymrith had been exposed, and the role of King Hekaton’s eldest daughters in the scheme was revealed. The adventurers of the Albatross Company were hailed the heroes of the hour. King Hekaton and Princess Serissa bestowed great gifts upon them, including magic potions with the power to turn them into giants if only for a brief time.

All was well until the following morning when the inhabitants of Maelstrom and their guests arose to a new crisis. Now that her father had returned, Princess Serissa had relinquished the Wyrmskull Throne and the Korolnor Scepter which granted power over the throne. But in the night, someone had stolen the scepter and forced the youngest princess to sit upon the throne. The power of the Wyrmskull Throne was such that anyone who sat upon it without wielding the specter would be paralyzed as if frozen in time. Princess Serissa was trapped upon the throne, just as her father had been chained in the hull of the Morkoth.

Now King Hekaton was enraged by the injustice visited against him and his family. Who would be so bold as to do such as thing? It was then that Hekaton’s elder daughters, Mirann and Nym, were found to be missing, along with a number of storm giants who were loyal to them. Perhaps it was they who had laid hands upon Serissa and stolen the Korolnor Specter. If they could not have the throne, then they would wish to make certain that no one else might sit upon it.

Yet they could not have done it alone. They had surely been aided by Iymrith in this final plot against the house of the king. Hekaton vowed to have revenge for the insult against his house and to retrieve the Korolnor Specter.

It was not only for Serissa’s sake that the Scepter had to be recovered. King Hekaton was indeed a powerful king, but his charisma and leadership was not all that kept the evil giant lords at bay. Their fear of the Wyrmskull Throne had made them bend the knee to their king. Without the power of the throne, King Hekaton would never regain his sway over renegade giant lords like Duke Zalto.

With their powers of divination, the storm giants of Maelstrom determined that Iymrith’s lair might be found in the northern reaches of the Anauroch Desert, in the ruins of an ancient dwarven city long abandoned by its original inhabitants. As King Hekaton mounted his roc and embarked upon his quest, he called upon four retainers to accompany him.

They were Shaldoor, a lover of war and battle; Vasha, wise in the ways of beasts and steeds; Nimir, a skilled huntress and most loyal among the king’s retainers; and Orkleth, a quiet but determined soldier. The giants did not set out alone. They were joined by Tarancha, the strongest among the Albatross Company. She alone had the strength to withstand the journey on the legendary roc alongside the storm giants. The rest of the Albatross company would find another way to reach Iymrith’s lair and rendezvous with the king.

2.

King Hekaton and his entourage flew north along the shores of the Sword Coast and then east across the high mountains of the far north, so as not to terrify the small folk living in the mainland of the continent. The journey north took two weeks, which was nothing to a giant, but Tarancha held on for her life as the legendary roc upon which she rode sped on through day and night without rest. Anyone other than Tarancha might have grow exhausted and fallen to her death, but the mighty orc had strength to match even the fearsome giants in her company.

They encountered fell beasts including vicious manticores that waylaid them on their journey, but few were the creatures that could withstand a storm giant king in his wrath. Yet it seemed to the king and his companions that these beasts were not mere predators but domesticated creatures that had been set upon them by unseen foes. Someone knew of their journey to the east and were intent on making their progress more difficult.

After another week of overland flight, the king’s company was passing over the Frost Hills, not far from the dwarven citadel of Mithral Hall, when their scouts spied a cloud giant castle in the distance. The king recognized it instantly. It was Lyn Armaal, the floating keep of Countess Sansuri, a most cunning and devious cloud giant noble.

The King and his companions landed upon the courtyard of the castle and demanded an audience with the countess.

Countess Sansuri, her young consort, and her castellan appeared upon the courtyard along with half a dozen cloud giant guards to greet the storm giant king.

“Welcome to Lyn Armaal, your majesty,” said Countess Sansuri. “I am most pleased to see that you have returned from your long absence. Now, what brings you and your entourage to our humble abode?”

“We might ask you the same question,” said the king. “You are far from your home among the clouds of the Evermoors. What brings you so far north to these cold and barren hills?”

“Ah, but they are not so barren as of late, my lord. My attention was drawn hither by the dwarves of Mithral Hall. They were mustering an army led by a dwarf king named Bruenor Battlehammer who evidently had some grievance with Duke Zalto of Ironslag. The dwarves set out to assault Ironslag, but their siege failed when their king went ahead of his army, overeager to challenge Duke Zalto in single combat, and was captured by his enemy. What army can prevail when their own king is held hostage against them?”

Countess Sansuri seemed most amused as she recounted her tail. Yet Tarancha was not happy to hear of the capture of Bruenor Battlehammer. Though she had no love of dwarves, it was her company’s lies that had led King Bruenor to set out on his ill advised quest. What was more, Tarancha sensed that Countess Sansuri was holding something back.

“She is full of lies,” said Strong Palm Ian, appearing out of nowhere to sit beside Tarancha upon her roc.

3.

After departing from the Eye of the All Father, Strong Palm Ian had struck out on his own to learn more about the blue dragon Iymrith who had led to the fall of the brave frost giant Harshnag. Ian had sought out what contacts he had in the Sword Coast to aid him in his investigation. His search led him in time to the Evermoors, where he encountered the cloud giant keep of Countess Sansuri.

Strong Palm Ian became a guest in the floating castle of the cloud giants. The Countess seemed curious about this half orc monk from diatant Kara-Tur. Lyn Armaal was a most splendid castle, full of all manner of beautiful things. Aarakocras with multicolored feathers attended the giants and their guests. They were some of the most beautiful creatures that the half orc monk had ever seen. But something felt wrong about them. Strong Palm Ian thought that they looked strangely similar to one another. In time, he realized that they were the same aarakocra!

After listening to the whispers among the cloud giants living in the castle, he learned the awful truth. These were the simulacrums of an original aarakocra, a beautiful creature who had arrived in Lyn Armaal long ago. A benevolent cloud giant noble might have treated such a guest with the utmost respect and lavished gifts upon them. But Countess Sansuri was not such a noble. Instead, she imprisoned the creature and made countless magical duplicates of him while the original aarakocra wasted away in her dungeon. In time, she felt that she had made enough duplicates and put the original aarakocra to death, to ensure that no other could have the same host of beautiful winged creatures as she did.

This revelation told Strong Palm Ian all that he needed to know about Countess Sansuri. Yet there was one other piece of information that he had acquired. Countess Sansuri had been in contact with the princesses Mirran and Nym after their flight from Maelstrom. Ian discreetly imparted this knowledge to Tarancha and the storm giants who harkened to this words.

“What is the meaning of this, Countess Sansuri,” demanded King Hekaton. “Do you conspire against me with my treasonous daughters?”

“You misjudge me, your majesty!” said the countess in her most innocent voice. “I am but a humble servant of the crown, and if I had contact with the princesses, it was not to conspire but to aid the king in his quest for justice. Indeed, I know the whereabouts of the princesses. I would gladly share my knowledge with the king. In exchange, I ask only that he grant me a small favor sometime in the future.”

King Hekaton looked to his companions and asked for their advice.

“A king is only as great as the people he keeps by his side, and he is no king if he does not lend his ear to their counsel. Tell me, what would you have me do?”

Tarancha, Strong Palm Ian, and the storm giant retainers were divided in their opinion. Some of them wished to seek out the princesses and their loyalists, but the greater part did not wish to deal with Countness Sansuri for fear of becoming embroiled in her schemes.

Therefore, King Hekaton and his entourage departed from Lyn Armaal, putting aside their search for the Mirran and Nym for the moment, and made haste toward the Anauroch Desert.

4.

Another week went by before the edge of the vast deserts of the Anauroch came into view. The immense barren landscape stretched across the horizon as far as the eye could see. In the midst of the dunes of sand, the storm giants saw the dwarven ruins from their divinations.

Yet Tarancha and Strong Palm Ian saw nothing, for they were held within a sack in the hands of one of the storm giants who hoped to make their remaining journey more comfortable. However, a rain storm that they encountered on the way had drenched the sack and filled it with water. Although the water eventually drained away, the period spent in a wet, cold sack took its toll. Tarancha withstood these conditions, being a hardy barbarian who had endured far worse in the north, but Strong Palm Ian was coughing and sneezing as the giants landed upon the desert.

In the ruined amphitheater, King Hekaton and his companions saw dozens of stone statues depicting hideous gargoyles. There were two large trebuchets, one on either side of the amphitheater, but the giants saw no defenders to man the siege engines or resist the invaders. And the blue dragon Iymrith was nowhere to be seen.

One of the giant retainers, growing anxious and impatient, swung her greatsword and beheaded a stone statue within reach. In that moment, the headless statue came to life, as did all of the other statues scattered across the amphitheater. Those that were near the trebuchets began the load and operate the siege engines, aiming them in the direction of the giant invaders. The Battle of the Desert had begun.

Despite overwhelming numbers, these gargoyles were no match for the storm giants and their two companions from the Albatross Company. The giants hurled thunderbolts across the amphitheater, shattered the statues by the dozens and setting the siege engines aflame. Strong Palm Ian and Tarancha quaffed the potions given to them by King Hekaton and stood alongside the giants. They cut their way through swathes of enemies, leaving crumbling stone in their wake.

In the midst of battle, the storm giant named Orkleth called to the blue dragon Iymrith, taunting her with a challenge that echoed across the amphitheater.

Soon after, the dragon emerged from beneath the sands.

The enormous wyrm crawled out of a large hole in the center of the amphitheater. As she stretched her long scaled body beneath the sun, her neck reared up toward the heavens and her voice sounded across battlefield like the threat of a desert storm.

“Welcome, oh king. You have come to meet your doom in this desert, and it will be at the hands of your own kin.”

The dragon looked to the north where a flight of rocs bearing storm giant riders were approaching the ruins. They were Mirran and Nym with two of their loyal storm giant followers. As the king stared with quiet fury at the approach of his daughters, he did not notice the blade that was thrust into his back. It was held by none other than his own retainer, Orkleth!

“You have sat upon the Wyrmskull Throne for far too long, my king,” said Orkleth the betrayer. “Now it is time for the reign of Queen Mirran to begin.”

5.

Soon the battle was joined by the princesses, clad in shimmering mail and armed with long, fell blades. With the ancient wyrm on one side and the traitors on the other, King Hekaton and his companions were surrounded and outnumbered. One by one, his loyal retainers Nimir and Vasha were overwhelmed and cruelly slain, until only Shaldoor remained by the king’s side.

Tarancha and Strong Palm Ian tried to hold the dragon at bay, but their hearts were filled with the terror of her approach. Strong Palm Ian’s years of training in his monastery allowed him to still his mind, but Tarancha was not so lucky and nearly fled from the field.

Yet in that moment, a figure descended from the sky like an angel from the heavens. Sister Mary had arrived with the rest of the Albatross Company! They had flown across the continent upon the floating castle of Zephyros the cloud giant wizard, who had arrived above Maelstrom to lend them his aid. With her calming voice, Sister Mary dispelled the fear that had clutched Tarancha’s heart.

Tarancha faced the dragon once more, and together with Strong Palm Ian struck a fearsome blow against her. The orc barbarian and half orc monk broke the dragon’s thick scales with their magical weapons. As her blood blackened the sands around her, Iymrith felt fear for the first time. Reluctantly, the wyrm drew back and retreated beneath the sands to her hidden lair beneath the amphitheater.

The heroes had pushed back the dragon, but they did not rejoice just yet. King Hekaton and Shaldoor had drawn away the princesses and their loyalists to continue their fight elsewhere. The Albatross Company had to decide whether to save the king or to hunt down Iymrith before she escaped.

“We can try to rescue King Hekaton now, but we may lose our only chance to defeat Iymrith and recover the Korolnor Scepter,” the heroes said.
“The only way to save the king and Princess Serissa is to slay the blue dragon and find the missing scepter.”

The decision was made. Hoping against hope that the king and his lone retainer could hold on against overwhelming odds, the Albatross Company descended through the cavernous hole in the sands in pursuit of the ancient dragon.

To be continued…