[Balanor]

The Old Man was tired. So tired. With his master so focused on final preparations for the ritual, and knowing not even he could penetrate the wards around the Veiled Tower in Murbant, the Old Man decided it was time to pay the price for all the decades he had allied himself with the great evil that was the Vengeful.

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He started by summoning a great many powerful undead agents to Murbant. These included Mirabela Ebonheart, Karaz Dragonheart, and Anastashia Shadoe who he instructed to fall back to the tower once the zulkir allies attacked, as he had helped prod Lallara and the rest of them along.

Meanwhile, he had given clear signs to Lallara who had been searching for him and for answers to Buvaar’s ultimate plan. She had now narrowed in on him in the Veiled Tower, but his geas prevented him from simply allowing her and her allies into the tower. Based on the hints he had given, she had gathered all allies and hired mercenaries at the base of several of the more powerful remaining allies of the zulkirs on the southern Alaor Isle. This larger force consisted of Tharchion Rand Gallin, Tharchioness Melody Singer, Ihsahn, Kessa Sepret, Sabel Aerlian, Nikos Galambos, Tribune Azura, Melanna Jindaern, Melaa ShadowRaven, Craft Windwalker, Iathouz, Brak, JingJack JermJuke, Kalis Kurm, and Brunar Turnskull.

There she explained the plan to take the Veiled Tower and capture the Old Man for questioning. She felt her special knowledge of the wards surrounding the tower, coupled with her ability to delay the magic of the geas from consuming the Old Man, would be enough to get them answers they desperately needed. The task was made considerably easier once it was found that Melanna already had a key to the tower which, after considerable ‘persuasion’ she reluctantly agreed to use to open it to the attacking force.

Porting the large allied party to Murbant, Lallara and the attackers quickly overcame the undead stationed there. Even the more powerful agents were dispatched who the Old Man then transported to a cell within the Veiled Tower so Buvaar would not be able to determine from any of what was going on.

Fighting into the tower, Lallara bypass several wards and ported herself to the basement level where the old Man waited along with the imprisoned Vengeful Agents and the original guardians of the tower. Mercilessly, she began the slaughter of the members of the Veiled Alliance while the larger force eventually made their way down and assisted in dispatching them and the undead abominations they became.

The Old Man willingly submitted to Lallara’s magic and told his tale:
Buvaar is planning a terrible ritual - one from an ancient tome he uncovered. If successful, it would allow him to recreate the world as he wills it. One of undeath where he would be the only and ultimate ruler. The ritual required certain locations in Thay be captured and purified. While recapturing them could disrupt the ritual, taking the nexus -the most ancient tombs of Buvaar’s far below Bezantur- would most certainly do that. However, to really have a hope against the army of undead forces gathered there, the zulkir Szass Tam would be invaluable. Tam was currently being held by the former zulkir Maligor within the mines where he himself had been trapped for years in a twist of revenge and irony that the god Hoar must have approved.

As the Old Man finished his story in agony, the magic of the geas placed on him finally broke through Lallara’s defenses placed on him and he exploded in a shower of blood and bone. Whether that was the geas though, or the fact that the god Mask had just killed the goddess Mystra would never be known. For at that moment, all magic throughout the cosmos came crashing down with the death of the goddess of magic. In what would come to be called the Spellplague, blue flames sprung up throughout the world, cities were swallowed by massive crevasses that formed underneath them, portals to other planes and realms of existence formed and disappeared, and thousands of other odd and bizarre occurrences changed the Forgotten Realms forever - FOR THE WORSE!!!

The Veiled Tower collapsed around those gathered and strangely they appeared thrown to an alternate dimension with a shard of the Veiled Tower they were in. A long hall appeared before all and, fighting amongst the Vengeful Agents and Zulkir Allies broke out. Strangely though - some appeared to be unable to die and others appeared unable to be damaged. As the fighting drug on a terrible magic was unleashed when the blades of two combatants crossed. After that near death experience, reluctantly they called a truce, focused on the other strange creatures that would occasionally attack them, and proceeded down the long, long corridor that had appeared from their location.

At the end of the corridor they found Lallara and several powerful doors of energy. In the middle was the god Velsharoon, bathed in flame and appearing to writhe in agony. But when any would try to enter the side corridors to bypass him, he would slide through the barriers and attack them! In order to escape, Tharchion Rand Gallin sacrificed himself by moving to a side corridor and battling Velsharoon with Lallara’s aid while she yelled to the rest to move past them to the nearby portal with the final words of “Go and live if you can!”.

While Mirabela fought to aid her god, strange magic began porting her around the corridors and the bizarre structure began to collapse. Eventually, cut off from her god, she was the last to flee through the portal as the magic of the structure began to collapse completely with Lallara and Rand still battling Velsharoon fiercely.

The portal itself led the survivors to a pitch black and eerily quiet portion of the Abyss, and though they should have died many times, some strange magic shielded them from true harm and all made it through the Abyss to another portal which gratefully returned them all home to Thay - or what was left of it.

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Brianna could no longer hear the voice of her god. He did not always answer her prayers, but most often he did. And now, here in the Fugue, she had not heard him in days although she knew well that Mystra’s death and the Spellplague caused by it had thrown the entire cosmos into utter chaos. Most of her magic no longer functioned, but her ability to return the dead souls of Thay still remained. Curious. And disturbing.

Should she continue returning them? Should she return to the prime material plane and search for her god? Should she flee now, assuming she was free? But where would she go?

The questions were many and so she sat pondering what to do, remaining at her assigned position within the Fugue Plain.

For now...

[zDarkShadowz]

With a slight shudder of the earth, a pile of mouldy bones upon the other-wise desolate crypt floor rearranged themselves into a skeleton, reaching down to draw a rusted, large greatsword from its moth-eaten sheath. Another, new blade comes swinging out of the darkness towards it with brute force, cracking in its skull, and with a thrust, tangles itself within a mass of broken, shattered ribs. A large, metal boot quickly relieves the new blade from its malady, sending the pile of bones back to the floor where it belongs. The boot and its brother walk towards a corpse laying in the distance, and above the boots, a flicker of recognition emanates beneath a cold visor. The dead body of that woman is lifted up, and hurled over the newcomers shoulder...

... miles away and much later, the same body is thrown before the tomb of Ythazz Buvaar, lying where it had once rested for mere moments long ago. Melanna Jindaern has fallen.

[Balanor]

Brianna had made her decision. Her damnation was about to end. She was through with the Fugue, the perversion of the cycle of life and death she caused by being there, the Vengeful, and most of all her absentee god - Velsharoon. They had twisted her from a once caring and innocent young woman into...’this’. And she hated them all for it.

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First she went to several of the Vengeful agents one last time. True to his treacherous nature, Karaz Dragonheart eagerly accepted her offer to remove the Vengeful’s geas and, while still undead, restored his pre-death form. Amazingly enough, or perhaps wisely enough in seeking aid from all avenues, the zulkir-allies did accept him despite their reservations. Perhaps some had seen him take 80K in gold he had swiped from one of the chests at the end of the little adventure together, but perhaps not...

Treacherous to the last.

Saragatha had chosen to remain loyal to her new master and allies and had gone down fighting the zulkir-allies in the strange golden room in the Gold Mines of Thay. Extremely powerful, it had taken much effort to put her down, but eventually the powerful magic of the Vengeful failed her, and the treacherous Red Wizard would come to fall as well.

But the few remaining allies of the zulkirs gathered in Tyraturos where Brianna came to them and the last remaining ‘free’ zulkir - Maurin Greyhand, whom she helped provide some insight into the changing nature of magic enough so that he could create a portal to the Gold Mines of Thay where the imprisoned Szass Tam was held. The mighty force he brought with him included Tharchion Melody Singer, Heirarch Kessa Sepret, Ihsahn, Sabel Aerlian, Tribune Azura, Nikos Galambos, Khalida Senka, Treana Llun, Brunar Turnskull, Kalis Kurm, Sirien Ilphukiir, Melaa ShadowRaven, JingJack JermJuke, Karaz Dragonheart and, if for nothing else but comic relief, Craft Windwalker.

Understanding that they would likely need Tam’s aid to break the power Buvaar held over the undead in his new ‘land’, they fought through the Gold Mines of Thay against Drow and worse, through the near-invincible Sargatha, and finally reached Tam ironically imprisoned in Thakorsil’s seat surrounded by Golems of the Void, Darkenbeasts, and the man behind all of them - the fomer zulkir of Transmutation, Maligor. This battle was fierce and bloody as well. But the sheer numbers of the attackers overwhelmed Maligor and he was killed. Tam was freed from his imprisonment with the destruction of the singular Rune of Chaos that Maligor had cast, and the party looted Maligor’s significant treasure horde before making their escape out of the mines.

Back in Tyraturos, the group met in council with Tam and Maurin and developed a plan to strike at Buvaar and disrupt the terrible Ritual of Unmaking that, if rumors held true, when completed would literally destroy the world and remake it to the caster’s desire.

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Ythazz Buvaar felt something he had not in centuries. For a moment it threatened to overwhelm him and he literally froze in his preparations. Could it be...fear? After all this time? Malark Springhill, the last remaining captain of his now decimated organization, paused for a moment as his master stopped what he was doing.

Finally Buvaar spoke in his harsh and evil voice. “My magic over the undead above has been corrupted even beyond the damage over that which the Spellplague caused. They will no longer multiply in the areas we control when they are dead, and any living who die I am no longer able to raise as undead.”

“Tam has struck us,” he rasped and turned to Malark with his next commands. “Prepare the defenses down here. There is no more point in deception. They will be coming for us, and they will be able to fight through the forces we have in the city now. I wish they had not moved as quickly as they did, since I need is a little more time to finish the preparations. You must slow them down, and do whatever is necessary.”

As Malark turned to leave he added “And Malark,” he paused dramatically, “Unleash the Vengeful Spirits on our unwanted arrivals. Soon they will not be needed, regardless.”

[Balanor]

The Overgod Ao had watched and waited for eons. Balance in all things. And in the end, what must be made must also be unmade...

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The end began with the summoning of the god of strife and tyranny himself: Bane!

Szass Tam had planned the ritual and called Zulkir Maurin Greyhand and their allies, Ihsahn, Tharchion Melody Singer, Kessa Sepret, Kalinda, Azura, Nikos Galambos, Ira Ravenheart Blake, Kalis Kurm, Melaa ShadowRaven, JingJack JermJuke, Karaz Dragonheart, Alice Blackstone, and Craft Windwalker to the plains just east of the Keep of Sorrows. The purpose of the summoning, was to gain the knowledge the gods themselves were only just learning, in how to control magic in a world where the Weave had been irreparably damaged by the death of Mystra.

Only after pledging Thay to Bane and Tam’s service after 1000 years, along with the aid of those assembled, all at the summoning secured his aid. Painful knowledge of how to use magic again flooded through those there, and even the non-magic-users were able to understand and successfully use their many magic items once again.

Now armed with their potent spells, Tam explained that Ythazz Buvaar was very clever, and with his centuries to plan it was only recently have he came to understand the full genius of his design. The Ritual of Unmaking had already begun, and it granted the ability to unmake the whole of existence and remake it as the caster saw fit. But the process was so complex no one being could complete it alone. Buvaar somehow had done it, and with the Ritual started had already started remaking Thay - starting with himself!

Buvaar created himself anew and worked to reshape reality from the Keep of sorrows, while his original self worked to unmake reality from Bezantur. Only by stopping the ritual in both places could his work be undone. To do so, Tam explained that the powerful force with him must go to the Keep of Sorrows and they would use the portal conduit Buvaar himself has created to his nexus in Bezantur, while Tam would remain in the Keep of Sorrows. Only by acting in concert both groups defeat both shards of him in time to disrupt the ritual.

The assault on the Keep of Sorrows went as planned - likely because Buvaar was expecting an attack on Bezantur itself, and quickly the force had cleared it of the most dangerous undead and made their way into the crypts where the portal lay. Fighting through the crypts, they encountered the version of Buvaar in the lower crypt working the ritual there. Szass Tam attacked in full fury, and Buvaar returned in kind with undead swarming around after the remainder of the group.

Rushing past the two archwizards lichs in their terrible spellbattle and further into the crypt, the party eventually found the Portal to the Nexus. Defeating the powerful undead guardians around it, they plunged through and were transported to separate cells within the Crypt of the Vengeful deep below the Bezantur City Tombs. Gathering together those around them forming two smaller parties, the adventurers set off through the crypts to find the one who had been behind their slaver encounter so long ago.

What they found was even worse.

Among the undead of the crypts, they encountered notorious individuals just like them. Some thought dead, long since disappeared, and even those who had apparently retired from the adventuring life have reached their goals: Zephris Kuthra, Sirius Silverlight, Jamie Wolf, Heather E'lin, Vicho Kenthenthir, Juston Alley, Tristella d'Flagellad, Colarinee Willows, Karena Esether'a, Kellen Brightshadow, Victoria Beatrix, Adrian, Slarthy Bartfaust, Luyannah Ash, Maric Bross, Richal Derthur, Grostil Zirelman, Mara Hollows, Aerin Stormbringer, Kaylan, Duston Connors, and Kaiser Signe

Throughout the crypts, they battled these unfortunates who -for reasons that would never be known- had been unable or unwilling to resist the geas and the power of the Vengeful. Several fought against the party eagerly. Others cried to them for release. Eventually though, each was struck down and disappeared in a blast of magic as their souls were drawn to the Ritual Chamber.

As the separate parties final rejoined forces, Buvaar’s words ripped through their minds that just as he could remake himself, he could remake them as easily. As the now-reunited party pushed forward, they encountered alternate versions of themselves. In a terrible and bloody battle that resulted in many bleeding and calling for aid, the force of the anti-Vengeful faced the force of the Vengeful and nearly wiped each other out. Miraculously, perhaps through the aid of some gods, the anti-Vengeful party finally managed to dispatch their alternate selves.

Nearing the final chamber, the combined force finally encountered the Vengeful’s most notorious: Vortar "The Mad" Blood of Tharax, Ryech Voralt, Siucre Voralt, Cain Darkfist, and Uzan Ankara. But Szass Tam, straining to provide one last bit of assistance, worked his will to free the powerful Vortar from Buvaar’s hold - perhaps as his own chance at revenge against the organization that had so embarrassed him. In a rage, Vortar was made the battle decidedly one-side - however it took some time to calm him down enough to stop attacking everyone around him once the other notorious Vengeful were dispatched.

Behind Vortar and his wife, the group reached the Ritual Chamber where on a central dias surrounded by a bottomless pit, Buvaar was in the final stage of completing his ritual. Perhaps more disturbing though was that the Spirits of all those gathered, as well as all the notorious individuals they had fought were surrounding the pit. Vortar rushed the closest spirit who faded away as his sword cut through him. Next to him though, Vortar saw the spirit of himself and as he attacked it in a rage, both were unmade in a burst of dark magic mingled with his draconic heritage.

As both spirits Vortar had eliminated disappeared, Buvaar’s scream of frustration and agony could be heard throughout the chamber even over the sounds of the ritual itself. Now knowing what to do, the heroes rush to touch or attack each of the other spirits and they dissipated, causing a similar reaction from Buvaar as he began to lose control of the ritual. Their own spirits though only they could remove, and as they did so each individual was unmade and ceased to exist but further disrupted Buvaar’s attempt to complete the ritual. Finally, with Karaz Dragonheart redeeming himself and being the last individual to touch his spirit and be unmade, the Ritual spun out of Buvaar’s control and began its unmaking - starting with the demilich and then rapidly consuming everything else around it!

The world had been unmade, but it would not be remade by an utterly dark evil.

There would be Balance as it was remade.

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Those who had sacrificed themselves to stop Buvaar were neither living, dead, or undead. Neither here, nor there - for there was nothing but a faint shimmering white light and darkness. But the voice of Ao spoke through the light and those who had been there at the end heard. They alone.

He spoke of how everything that was made must one day be unmade. Balance in all things must be preserved. Through the selfless acts of those who sacrificed themselves at the end, despite who they may have been before that, when the cycle continued and the world began anew, it would not be molded by the utter evil that was Ythazz Buvaar. It was a risk he had to take, but in the end Balance was maintained as those who sacrificed themselves for the good of all had balanced out the utter self-serving and evil nature of the demi-lich trying to remake the world.

Ao ended by saying that in the new time to come some of them would return, but even if so, they would not remember. The sacrifice they had made, he explained, would perhaps benefit different unknowing souls in the ages to come. Their influence, their presence, would be made known in ways - perhaps large, perhaps small - in those who would come after them. And though they would eventually leave, they would not be forgotten - just as those who came before them and left were not forgotten.

Perhaps they will all meet again. In another time and place...