"My dear friend Allustan -- what your adventurers have stumbled into sickens me to my soul. Every new leaf I turn reveals an even darker secret. Here are my notes. You must take them to our one-time master -- although I fear that even he may be ill-equipped for what writhes in all of our futures. Until then..." The note is not finished. Much of the contents of the other notes is what Eligos told the group just before the Champion Games.
Having heeded Eligos’ final note, Vasco, Nabiros and their new colleague Adnan band together and decide to head to Diamond Lake. They send a final night in the Free City, Nabiros enjoying all the attention of the many fans and followers of their victory in the Champion Games. They purchase potions and scrolls before Shadow Walking to Diamond Lake, destined for the Observatory.
When they arrive, they find the observatory has been pulverized and charred. Looking beyond into the town, they find a community in the throws of emergency recovery from some terrible tragedy. They walk into town, seeing several destroyed buildings and the charred city square, and find Allustan’s house in a ruin. In the garden of Allustan’s house they meet a clever elf, who claims to be a kind of archaeologists (and indeed wears the signet ring of the Seekers), who claims to be looking for Ubu, someone he has not seen since before the devastation. Ubu, who had recently returned to the city, despondent about something terrible that had happened in the Mistmarsh, and had met him at the Ferrel Dog, where they chatted very briefly about an interesting ruin called the Whispering Cairn. Yldar the elf had head that Ubu and Allustan had known each other, so he was looking to see if Ubu had shown up here. Vasco makes the connections with his old parties past, and a new party of four is formed to find Allustan and Ubu and perhaps return to the Whispering Cairn.
They go to Ferrel Dog where they meet miners that they knew, who explained the devastation of the black dragon in recent days, and that he had been looking for Allustan, torturing people until some half-orc had, in exchange for the lives of a bunch of wounded locals, told it that Allustan had gone to the Whispering Cairn. The dragon had left several days ago, but the town has been worred about it returning ever since. The group goes to the Church of St. Cuthbert, where a great many poor and wounded have gathered, seeking healing and the advice of Jierian Wierus, the cleric of the church who had been preaching to the croud the virtues of self-flagellation to rid themselves of their pains and terrors, including those that the dragon has brought. Adnan unleashes a burst of healing amongst the wounded, who see it as devine confirmation of their flagilation efforts. The church’s acolyte Hameneezer is helpful, but is unable to provide any of the kinds of powerful magic potions that they party had come hoping to find. After their experience in the Free City, Diamond Lake is really feeling like a small town.
The party decides to destroy the dragon and find Allustan at the Whispering Cairn. They find their old shack unmolested, with signs of someone, they suspect Ubu, having recently used it. He is nowhere to be found however, and the party spends the night providing Vasco the time to prepare his spells. Just before dusk, they set out to the Whispering Cairn to find the dragon.
Yldar goes invisible and sneaks slightly ahead of the party, but is seen by Ilthane the Black who executes an ambush attack of acid. Ilthane takes to the air, where Vasco and the dragon then engage in a battle of tailslaps, bits, fireballs, cones of cold, with mostly unsuccessful vollies of arrows coming from the ground. Eventually Vasco draws the battle to the ground, and the party has the chance to more directly engage, slowing the dragon with a newly sticky tanglefoot bag, and suffering effects of his fear aura, acid breath, bites, claws and tails. Finally, the battle draws near the end and Ilthane withdraws, calculating the timing of his retreat from these clearly powerful foes too late. The hastened paladin, using a potion of fly, pursues and finally kills the dragon, the two falling from the sky together.
Dusting themselves off from the battle, the party enters the Whispering Cairn where Nabiros picks up the tracks of a human who has obviously fairly recently restored one crumbled passageway. Vasco looks through and sees what he thinks might be a magic black seal portal in a chamber that had been blocked by rubble when he was first here with Ubu, Rancik and Arthur. This must be the path that Allustan took, Nabiros figures.
