The party (Garrick, Garrett, Whosis, Ilmak & Brock) wake up near where they made camp in the Mushroom Caves and find that Veszafein the Drow has again departed. Examining the surrounding area they find the corpses of a dozen Sniveblin Deep Gnomes who were apparently fighting the Kruthik who had taken over their Mushroom farm.
They continue down a long dry lava tube sloping downward on their way towards the abandoned city. They arrive at the abandoned city and it appears to have been created by Kobolds, though there's no sign they are still here. Whosis walks into the chamber and shouts "Is anybody here?"
Darkmantles drop from the ceiling. They are squidlike creatures that disguise themselves as stalagmites then drop down onto the heads of their foes, covering their faces and choking them while casting a blinding magical darkness that surrounds them. Brock, Ilmak, and Whosis struggle with the creatures, while Garrett and Garrick stand agap, unable to help them.
After a brief battle the five creatures are slain, but five more abberant creatures resembling large snakes with beaks and tentacles called Grick slither up from cracks in the floor. A longer battle draws the attention of a larger creature, and as the last Grick is destroyed, a rumbling heavy step is felt from beyond the gates of the abandoned city and a huge Tyrannosaurus Rex emerges.
Garrick casts a wall of flame in the way of the T-Rex, which boldly steps into the fire charging towards them. As the T-Rex moves into the fire Garrett casts a magical hold on it to trap it in the flames, burning it further. The rest of the party attacks the creature at range until it expires, but with its dying breath it breaths a gush of fire on some of the party members. This creature was an early ancestor of the kobolds, dragonkind, and lizardfolk.
After the T-Rex is destroyed, Coriatris Wyvernjack, apprentice to the Chairman of the Archmage council appears atop one of the guard towers and offers to reward the party if they give her the Hand of Vecna. She saw Garrett use the hand on the surface and wants to use it to save Ironview. They refuse and she orders her guards drakes and a small column of Infernal Armor magical constructs to attack them.
Garrick casts a web spell on the stairway down from the gate, making it impassable. The guard drakes move around to one side and engage Whosis Kid, while Ilmak takes on the column of armor on the other side of the stairs. Coriatris uses a powerful icestorm to immobilized Whosis, Ilmak, and Garrett and covers a wide area, including the corpse of the T-Rex and the webs in a thick layer of glare ice.
Brock uses a lasso to yank Coriatris off the guard tower, but she has a ring of feather fall and glides swiftly to the floor behind him. She is quickly beaten down and knocked out. The drakes and armor are ground down until only one suit of infernal armor remains battling Ilmak.
A small recon construct from Ironview rushes up behind the Infernal armor and it tries to defend itself but the scout leaps up and knocks off its head. The party greets the construct who spearheads the entrance of a unit of Goliaths and Constructs lead by Gradus Glimmergaunt (a distant relative of Lady Gurmorel Glimmergaunt, and a well liked though not particularly powerful mage in Ironview). He explains that Coriatris was banished by Walgeon Magesblood the chairman of the archmage council for treason and that she was seeking the Eye of Vecna in the Underdark to try and wield its power to declare herself the leader of Ironview.
Gradus and his forces lead the party to a wall overlooking a great lake at the bottom of the Great Chasm and shows them a hivelike mass of undead crawling up the walls towards Ironview. This is Orcus' army and the great bulk of them will reach the city and break it's defenses in a little more than a week's time. The party gives Coriatris over to Gradus as a prisoner. He thanks them and wishes them well on their quest to liberate Mistmeadow from the red mist that curses the town.
They spend another half a day passing through a wildly twisting set of narrow passages. Eventually the passageway opens up to the shores of the great sunless sea. An inky black body of water extends outwards inside a massive cavern with stalagmites and stalagtites protruding that have diameters bigger than many walled cities and towns. The cavern is faintly illuminated in places by the starlike lights of unknown creatures eyes that hang from the ceiling.
They see a trio of Kua Toa on the shore loading two small rafts. They approach and try to speak to them but none speak the language of the underdark, so they try to pantomime. After an confusing exchange where the Kua Toa think they are bargaining and give them some goods in exchange for those they offered, they finally convey that they wish to arrange transportation on the rafts they are pushing. As the rafts have no oars of sails, the Kua Toa hold them and push them through the water by swimming.
After travelling some distance, they see orbs of light in the distance. The Kua Toa board the raft and sit very still and stoic, watching the lights. One of the orbs begins to approach the rafts and stops just ahead of the party's raft. Whosis Kid speaks a loud greeting to the light. When he does this an invisible field drops and reveals that the glowing orb is suspended on the tendril of a giant angler fish monster with razor fangs and a mouth big enough to swallow the entire raft and party whole in one bite.
Whosis leaps of the raft to one side, either in terror or to lure the beast away, none know. But his action did save the party as the creature immediately dove down after him. Ilmak tried to retrieve Whosis using his magical bracelet of friends, but to no avail, the halfling was lost to them. The Kua Toa waited for the lights to pass and about an hour later began paddling towards the Isle of Nidhogg, a great Slatagmite that protrudes out of the water and has a great city carved into its side.
On the beach the party is surrounded by a large crowd of various reptilian races who all dwell together in the city peacefully. They find a troglodyte who speaks draconic and offers to translate for them. He advises they should bring a suitable gift to pay tribute to the Baron in his court. They enter the court and approach the throne of the Sahauguin Baron with a platinum greataxe they took from the Bear Khan. The Baron is very pleased with his gift and offers them his hospitality.
They learn that thought many of the Sahaguin are rulers of the deep, this particular noble is unaligned with his mostly evil followers and operates this backwater trading outpost to serve his own needs. The ancient temple of Nidhogg for which the Island is named has recently become occupied by surface dwellers, the followers of Nortumal the Black Snake. The Baron asks if the party would be willing to remove them for a reward. The party asks for nothing, but offers to investigate for him. All the baron's parties thus far have not returned or had most of their men slaughtered.
In court they also meet a Dragonborn Warlord named Vicmorn Shieldheart who is living with and studying their civilization. He was sent to observe the followers of Nortumal by Baron Redspawn of SummerSpring, who he serves under in the Imperial Garrison there. Vicmorn is an academic and a warrior and offers to assist the party in their investigation, as he's been meaning to make the trip to the temple, but as of yet has found none willing to join him.
They load a small boat and paddle around the island to the opposite shore where the Temple of Nidhogg lies on the side of a narrow beach. Brock creeps up into the temple where ritual is taking place. Nortumal's medusa queen leads a ceremony around a smoking pit with three snake cultists. All four are chanting and do not see the gnoll enter.
Brock casts a lasso around the medusa's neck and draws her into the smoking pit. She falls in and the snake cultist nearest Brock with a large snake-shaped staff attacks him with a wave of force, knocking him into the smoking pit as well, which turns out to be fairly shallow, but is full of giant snakes along with the medusa. She tries to petrify the gnoll with her gaze but gets one of her serpents instead. Brock becomes insubstantial, turns into a bat, and flies out of the pit.
Garrett is attacked by a green guardian naga that shoots lighting bolts at him and uses waves of force to knock him into another large pit filled with snakes that spit flaming poison. Ilmak engages a black guardian naga that bites him several times, disabling him with venom that induces a dreamlike state.
Garrick and Vicmorn fight the snakes and cultist. The medusa is slain by a crushing blow to the skull by Vicmorn's maul. Just before Brock can kill the snake cultist with the serpent staff she casts a beam of energy at the portal in the far wall and its panels open revealing a darkness with swirling smoke. From the darkness leaps a giant Red Slaad, a being of pure chaos struggling to hold corporeal form. It attacks Brock.
The two cultist fall, then the remaining snakes, and then the nagas until only the slaad remains. They surround the beast and take it down, though Vicmorn and Brock are infected by it's razor talons and become ill after the battle, though they can still fight.
As they catch their breath, Lord Nortumal, the Dark Naga emerges from a side passage. Garrick casts a wall of fire on the stairs which the Naga enters fearlessly, slowly plodding towars them. Garrett uses the hand of Vecna to push the Naga back into the fire each time he tries to emerge from it. The naga appears unphased by the flames, continuing to lure Garrett closer to him with his charming gaze then striking him with his poisoned tail.
Finally their efforts destroy the creature and in its deathknell it releases a powerful wave of psychic energy before crumbling to dust that glows and takes flight, escaping into the misty portal along the far wall that the Slaad entered from. The portal closes and the battle is won.
They find a book bound in Drow skin called the Chronicle of Nidhogg and learn the following:
"When Asmodeus created the bridge to the Abyss he summoned a powerful beast called an Ouroboros. Ouroboros are powerful giant time consuming serpents that roam the outer planes feasting on the remains of dead places and things. In summoning the Ouroboros named Nidhogg, Asmodeus created a portal through space and time that linked the first layer of Baator to Gladomain and Gladomain to the Abyss.
The ritual trapped Nidhogg in place because in order to consume a living world, the Ouroboros must first swallow the world, then recursively consume it's own tail to digest. Asmodeus summoned the beast first in the Seventh World to make a sacrificial offering and bound the beast to serve him. Once it had consumed the Seventh World and was lethargic, he summoned it again to the first level of Baator, where he opened a gate through to Gladomain and offered it the second morsel for dessert, the tiny world of Gladomain.
The bound Ouroboros, was tethered to Baator and stretched it's extradimensional maw around Gladomain. Asmodeus tempted the creature yet again by offering it a gate through Gladomain to the Abyss, to the Demonweb of Lloth to be precise. The creature was unable to resist his offer, but it found that once it consumed the Demonweb, it could not recursively swallow it's own tail to digest Gladomain and the Demonweb because the connected layers of the Abyss were infinite and it could not loop back around.
So the mindless beast was permanently trapped voraciously consuming and linking the worlds together. The plan for the Abyss was to destroy the world tree to make the world of Gladomain unappetizing so that Nidhogg would regurgitate the Abyss (though Gladomain would likely be destroyed in the process). If this happened Asmodeus would perhaps sever his binding ritual to the Ouroboros and banish the creature before it could recursively swallow its tail and digest all of the Baator in one swift motion.
It is also possible that the world of Gladomain could be partially dead and cause the Ouroboros to become ill enough to regurgitate it, then the world ash could be replanted in time to save it, though that would cost many their lives. The chaotic ocean is a result of the time and space rift created by the world's immersion in Nidhogg's belly.
Asmodeus could, if he chose to, turn the creature lose and call the whole thing off, saving Gladomain and the Abyss (and killing the Oroborous in the process), but he hates to waste his resources and so refuses to do so unless Baator is imminently threatened with destruction.
The Dark Lord Nortumal is working to destroy the world tree so he can save his deit, Nidhogg, from his imprisonment. He is allied with other extradimensional chaotic beings, the Slaadi, who are dedicated followers of Nidhogg from another plane called Limbo."
The party returns to the Barons palace with the heads of the nagas. He is overjoyed at their success and offers them magical items as presents. Vicmorn and Brock are healed of their condition and the party rests for another day enjoying the hospitality of the Baron's court. Vicmorn says he will depart soon to tell Baron Redspawn and the Imperial forces in SummerSpring of Nortumal's defeat.
Garrett asks the Baron if they hunt the great sea anglers and they said they do in the right season. They ask for them to keep their eyes open for any sign or remains of their fallen comrad Whosis and the lizardfolk agree. The night before they leave the Isle of Nidhogg, the lizardfolk fill hundreds of blue glass spheres with candles and set them afloat in the sunless sea to bless the soul of the lost soul of Whosis Kid, Hero of Mistmeadow, Pit Fighting Champion of Ironview, Loyal Servant of Ottian the Archmage, He Who Beheld the True Form of Pale Night the Obyrith and Lived, Liberator of Blackshore, and good friend of Gurmorel Glimmerguant and Drandis the Silver in Kodrus Vale.
