(May 2019, and by Email)

After coming back from Hades, the Party found many pressing matters waiting for them. They met with Perry, who introduced them to the Pelor Strike Team, and gave them more information about The Fortress of the Black Lotus. They warned him about the Shadow Lord, who he had not heard of.

In Sigil, they saw many wanted posters for Skippy, which said that Graz'zt would pay 10,000 Gold to anyone who brought her to him alive (because she had changed the destination of the gate in his realm). The Party considered hiding Skippy, but she maintained that she would prefer to stay with them for safety.

Balbito went back to the church of Pelor. His experience on the bridge (29), and other encounters in the Abyss, had left him shaken, and he felt unable to continue traveling with the Party, at least for some time. The Party wished him well and hoped that he had a speedy recovery, so that he could resume his journeys with them.

Dash-A went back to the foundry to visit the other Dashes, and found that his glass business, despite staying in the black, was not doing as well as he had hoped. He put some time into developing it further.

Reinhalt went back to his office, and prepared a potion of Black Dragon's Heart, crushed gems, and lilies, which caused him much intestinal distress after he drank it.

Cal spent time with his girlfriend, Zena, and his father, Evandariel. As the Party had agreed to help him on his quest to find a sacred bow in the Beastlands, he decided to do some investigation into its whereabouts. He gained more information from his Druid friends, Diane and Artemis:

“As you know, the legends of Thaas say it lies on the burial mound of the druid Anastrianna Amakiir. Many accounts say Amakiir was buried in Karasuthra, the deepest layer of the Beastlands where night is perpetual and the sun never rises. The same accounts tell of Demons who still bear a grudge against Amakiir and Forest Hart, even in death, and many enterprising fiends seek favor with their Dark Lords by invading the Beastlands to find and desecrate her last resting place. None have succeeded, as the Beast Lords unite against such an invasion. But if anyone wanted to find Amakiir's burial mound, any stories of Demonic invaders would almost certainly point in the right direction.

“One more thing…an ally of our Grove has given us a lead on narrowing down Thaas' location. An Avariel (winged Elf) named Allarien, Prince of a small band of his people in an outpost in Krigala named “Ilifar-In-The-Wind”. According to him, a water nymph (Alisimphine) near his territory was once an ally of the druid Amakiir. This nymph may have information that can lead you closer to Thaas.”

The Bishop checked in at the Dirty Habit, and also spent some time with his fiancee,Savrin and his sister Ranessa.

The Rule of Three came to the Dirty Habit to consult with the Bishop on this matter. He mentioned that has contacts in the Argent Palace in Zelatar that he could convince to have Skippy's bounty retracted. They want a favor done in return:

Before the end of that month, an envoy sent by Kiriansalee the Drow death goddess would be passing through a part of Lolth's Demonweb Pits called “The Demon Skull” (which connects to her realm. The envoy was supposedly going to meet Lolth, and possibly other important Abyssal figures, for some kind of conference…which the Argent Palace wanted to disrupt. If the envoy and its entourage were intercepted and destroyed after they arrived in the Demonweb Pits, but before they arrived at Lolth's meeting, the Argent Palace would consider that worth dropping the bounty.

Rule-of-Three strongly implied that the Demonweb Pits would be difficult to navigate without a recent map, and seemed aware that we had found one earlier. The Bishop, wanting to protect Skippy, was in favour of this mission, but most of the other Party members balked at doing a mission for a Demon Lord.

Helga and the Bishop went to visit the Army in Ysgard, and found everyone in low spirits. Apparently, a group of soldiers claiming to be from the Church of Pelor joined, including a powerful cleric and an mean looking gnome. The gnome is assumed to be Jeb (of the Evil Party, the assassin who had earlier killed Martigan and the Judge. He and his companions murdered about a dozen of the Army, who would not return from the dead because they did not return heroically in battle.

The bodies of the fake Pelorites all had a tattoo on their left breast, of the Norse death goddess Hel's face, bisected by a sword. This was assumed to be a mark of some crazed death cult worshiping said goddess, which later investigation revealed to be members of the Blades of Hel.

An immediate investigation involving the Bishop's men and several Clerics flushed out several more spies, who unfortunately were able to escape the camp undetected. Helga gave orders to rearrange the camp to lessen the information learned by the spies, as well as to step up security, and to screen any new recruits who volunteered. To get the troop's mind off the matters, she had Sigurd and the Gith take them out to battle dangerous monsters in Ysgard. She also started looking for some assignments the army could do in order to get their fighting spirit back, especially one that involved the Blades of Hel, the Black Lotus, or at least slavers in general. She sent out a scouting party, at the Bishop's suggestion, to check on the two towns with the faulty bridge and the Water Elemental that the Party had met very early in their adventures.

The Party finally received some good news, that Martigan would be rejoining their ranks for some time. His people were not ready to hear his message yet, and he felt the need to bring the legendary sword he wielded to full power before returning to his lands again. During the downtime, Martigan spent some time catching up with Cal and Silverpaw, and training with Helga and Toby in Ysgard.

He also went to the Sandstone District of Sigil to talk to the Goblinoid community about the evils of slavery. Although many of the community remembered him in a positive light due to his aid bringing the Hobgoblin Killer to justice, few saw the need for a crusade against slavery. This was in part due to their main deity, Maglubiyet, who sees nothing wrong with enslaving the weak.

However, a few Hobgoblins quietly approached him later and told him that the secret worshipers of Meriadar, a god who preaches pacifism and tolerance among humanoids. They offered to help the army with healers where help was needed.

Lord Count Ferdinand, who was running the Filthy Frock, had previously made it known to the Bishop, that he had been hired by Lord Treavor Pendleton (the corrupt, former head of the Sensates in Sylvania, who was being bribed by the Black Lotus earlier in the game) in order to harass the Bishop.

The lord was in a jail (thanks to the Party's revealing his evil doings) in Arborea, under watch by Warforge guards. He had an extremely comfortable cell, and was able to bring his fortune with him to jail, but was unable to leave.

Reinhalt, the Bishop, Skippy, and Dash-Z went to visit him, in disguise. Reinhalt questioned him, but he did not learn anything of significance, while the Bishop and Skippy stealthily made away with all of his treasure.

Upon returning to Sylvania, they were informed by Bartholomew that the Filthy Frock had burned down, and Count Ferdinand was nowhere to be found. One of the Bishop's pions (showing the symbol of The Order of the Kantele) was pinned, unharmed to one of the posts, making many people speculate that the Bishop had orchestrated the whole event.

After the encounter, the Bishop went to the Rose Arbor Performance Hall, an upper-middle class music venue in the Clerk's Ward featuring a string quartet Skippy is familiar with. He and Savrin began to make plans for building a town nearby the army in order to profit from it. He also gained some information on the Planar Trade Consortium.

Reinhalt visited Inspector Drept of the Harmonium, and learned more details about Jeb's escape.

He also learned that the Hobgoblin Killer was still in prison awaiting trial, and that the public prosecutor, belonging to the Fraternity of Order, wanted to do a full investigation on the dagger before proceeding. Drept also mentioned that he noticed a certain Barrister at the pre-trial hearing, a Barrister's named Jian Shang-Di, who has offices in the Lower Ward.

He also inquired after the well-being of the Magistrate Lady Simone du Bouvoire, and started to maintain correspondence with her.

He managed to obtain a piece of Jeb's clothing from the prison, as well as one of his hairs, and was able to successfully scry on Jeb. He saw him in a misty place (presumably the Gray Waste), outside of a wooden building, losing his temper while attempting to train some members of the Blades of Hel.

Earlier, the Bishop and his contacts at the Tiger's Claw had also found some information about Jeb and the rest of his crew.

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