Story
Notes
These notes describe the story, as recollected circa 2005, in no particularly graceful order.
A brief history of the game:
- Tarsakh 14, 1377
- On a mission for the Red Wizard Gael Zorn of Bezantur, Dorian encounters Hyacinth. Long story short, she kills him, burns down his house, runs away with Dorian, gets cornered in a bar, and blows another red wizard’s head off. They teleport to Calimport. Hyacinth tells her story; he completely doesn’t believe her, but it does have that impossible ring of truth. She is concerned about this strange black sword she encountered; it’s likely the reason she’s here. Turning on the charm, she appeals to him to help her return home. Diplomatically, he offers to examine the sword. In the meantime, she is free to stay in his home and explore the town, provided she doesn’t murder anybody or get him in trouble. He calls in Nerrick Spellchaser, a shadow mage he met 5 years ago in Cormyr, on an adventure he’d rather people didn’t know about. Now calling himself Kage, Nerrick had undergone some changes, but he was still amiable to the idea. After several days of analysis, he concluded that the sword was none other than Midnight, a sword forged in a far away world, long thought to be destroyed. It was an extremely powerful artifact with the power to rend and destroy magic; though none of them knew how to use it, Hyacinth seemed to have some sort of resonance with the thing.
- Tarsakh 21, 1377
- Kage explains to them that this sword of magic is poorly understood by terrestrial mages; it is Shadow magic, and they must consult the experts in that field. Kage introduces Dorian and Hyacinth to Lucia, a high priestess of the largest temple to Shar in all the realms—right under the Syl-Pasha’s nose. At this point Hyacinth is growing desperate to find a way home; Lucia insinuates that she can help with that, should Hyacinth help her with some tasks of her own. Hyacinth accepts, pushing Dorian to comply as well.
- Mirtul 11, 1377
- The party slays an elder brown dragon in the Calim desert. In his lair they find a grand statue of Tiamat, and steal some artifacts from it. An earthquake strikes, and they barely escape with their lives.
That night, Dorian consults with Suryn, an elven archmage and scholar of ancient artifacts. She identifies the artifacts of Tiamat, and notes that the goddess of greed might take issue with the party. Dorian tells her of the nightmare shards, and she is intrigued—enough to join the party.
- Mirtul 26, 1377
- A half-elven harper agent attacks Dorian in the night; he is soundly defeated, thanks to the handiwork of Den, Dorian’s newly-hired personal bodyguard. Dorian takes the subdued agent into his lab, and nobody ever sees him again.
- Kythorn 15, 1377
- Kage explains the existence of the nightmare shards. The party ventures to Anauroch to raid a recently-unearthed Netherese ruin. Among rescued texts, ancient treasures, and mythallar shards, they find a nightmare shard. This begins Dorian’s extensive study into mythallar creation and Netherese magic. He has an odd knack for understand the cryptic texts, even while Kage does not.
- Kythorn 22, 1377
- Tensions ignite between Dorian and Hyacinth. A heated argument ends with Lucia intervening magically. Later, Hyacinth thwarts Dorian by befriending his thrilled manservant, Faysal. She tries to heal his destroyed mind using an artifact stolen from Tiamat. After enduring such an affront, Dorian arranges a traumatic event for Hyacinth. He summons a powerful demon to assault her as she meditates with her new best buddy. Alone, she is powerless against the mighty demon. It attacks and kills Faysal, but just in time, Dorian arrives to save Hyacinth. Defeated and humbled, Hyacinth backs off...
- Kythorn 24, 1377
- Hyacinth doesn’t back off in the slightest. Dorian uses a powerful divination spell to help the Syl-Pasha route a group of anarchists touting a theory about “democratic rule”, which Hyacinth herself fostered in them. He is paid off and the group is captured. She thwarts him by setting them all free; he thwarts her by having them hunted down and murdered. This leads to a greater degree of isolation on Dorian’s part, and staunch independence from Hyacinth.
- Flamerule 8, 1377
- The party journeys to hell to retrieve a nightmare shard from Stygia. They defeat an army of devils at the Pit of Avernus, and bribe their way past guards in Dis. In the third layer, Dorian purchases a fiendish green dragon as a slave from a devil. They breeze through Phlegethon with magical protection (lame Manual of the Planes spells), and in Stygia they find what they’re after. It’s protected by a great wyrm blue dragon priest of Tiamat in a devil city. Great. Anyway, they kill it, and grab the shard.
- Flamerule 30, 1377
- Dorian and Hyacinth embark on a private date to Myth Drannor and other exotic locations, during which they revel in the murder of a bunch of Zhents.
- Elasias 4, 1377
- Dorian, Hyacinth, and Lucia venture into the Forest of Tethyr to seek the ruins of Shoonac, all in the name of Dorian grabbing some super-powerful artifacts. Their plan is derailed by a great wyrm ghost dragon who persists for an unrequited love of Elminster. They travel to Shadowdale to the get the whole thing straightened out. The dragon goes away, but they don’t bother heading into Shoonac. It’s about time for a vacation.