In the grassy planes, somewhere West of the town, Tothmeer... a magical gate opened above the grassy floor; the result of a spell cast by the Sorcerer Dragon, Zoron (who was currently cursed to live in an Elf body).  The gate spell appeared on the planes like a circular doorway with no frame; it was visibly misplaced in the grassy planes, as it revealed a fiery dungeon beyond it's yawning gap.  The gate opened up from the plane that the adventurers were currently trying to escape: The Fire God's Realm. The gate revealed a large dungeon room, red with heat and a large iron furnace in the middle of the room.  The adventurers: Ivellios, Thokk, Bellaphron, Zoron and Silverglade, stood with several spectral forces that they had unleashed from the furnace (the former prison cell the specter souls had each been placed in by the Fire God, since they were each his enemy).  One of these spectral images was the King of Kaza Tir: King Tir Brighlingsea himself... er.. his bodiless soul at least.  A Fire Titan lay dead beneath their feet, the former guardian of the dungeon room.

With the gate spell allowing the adventurers a way to return home, they each began to exit the Fire God's realm.  The adventurers (being kind) allowed the souls they saved to go through the gate first: King Tir, a Titan and the soul of three powerful Elementals walked through the gate and into the Prime Plane.  Fellow party members Zoron, Silverglade and Bellaphron went next, leaving Thokk and Ivellios the only members left to go through the gate.

Somehow, as Bellaphron was going through the gate, the Fire God was able to sense this (...the Fire God is normally able to sense all things in his own plane immediately, but was distracted by another force... until now).  As soon as the Fire God sensed the intruders of his realm, he realized they were escaping with his prisoners; he immediately teleported in front of Ivellios and Thokk, blocking the gate they were about to exit!

The Fire God stood before them, the Immortal himself -in his true form.  He appeared as a human warrior wearing charred black armor - full plate mail, carrying a sword in sheath and shield on back.  His body emanated heat and his eyes were made of intense fire, that flickered wildly from beneath his open eyelids.  He stood, arms crossed at his chest, glaring with intense anger at Thokk and Ivellios.

Quicker than they were, the Fire God attacked immediately; a wave of intense heat blasted out from his body.  The effects of this magical heat drained a large amount of power and life force from the Druid, Ivellios.  Thokk seemed unaffected, luckily...  Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the gate beyond the Fire God, distracting the evil Immortal momentarily.  Thokk and Ivellios escaped, dodging past the Fire God and through the gate as the portal closed behind them immediately.

The white light seemed to come from the powers of the natural world, Nature herself.  The adventurers were safe on the planes of Kaza Tir again.  The souls of the elementals thanked the group, assuring them that they would be rewarded in the future when they gained their power back and that they were welcome at any time on their plane in their respective homes.  The Titan thanked them too, he had previously mentioned that his former body was destroyed though and that he needed a new one.

Ivellios mentioned that it was no longer safe to stay in the grass planes where they had appeared in and suggested that they go to the Capital City of Kaza Tir, to reunite Tir with his body, once again.  The druid, using the spell Wind Walk, turned the group into a vaporous cloud that could travel quickly through air; they headed straight to the capital.

The capital, a great city surrounded by a wall of green emerald stone with a large castle made completely out of crystal in its center, had been under the attack of guerrilla forces for some time.  Kaza Tir's army had gone to attack Tarsus with most of its military power in the North, leaving Kaza Tir vulnerable to small, well planned attacks by the enemy.  The waters in the well had been poisoned and the guards barracks had been obliterated.  As they approached from the sky, the adventurers saw devilish Pit Fiends circling the city, their leathery bat-like wings flapping awkwardly to keep them in the air.  The Pit Fiends were wreaking havoc on the people below in the city, killing them when they could.  Much of the city seemed to be destroyed, rubble lay everywhere.  The King grew sad at the sight of this, as the adventurers flew unnoticed past the Pit Fiends, to the castle doors.

As soon as they flew close enough to the castle doors, the spell Ivellios had used turned off.  An anti-magic wall surrounded the castle for protection from intruders using magic.  All of the group appeared in their regular forms very suddenly above the door and fell 15 feet to the ground.

Two well armored Elf guards, posted at the doors jumped up with spears in their hands, alerted by the groups presence.  Looking up, the two Elven guards saw the floating specter of Tir Brighlingsea with the other souls, as the rest of the group began to get up from the ground.  The Elves bowed immediately at the site of their king, wondering how it could be that he had returned.

A meeting was held in the throne room of the castle and the King's body was brought from secrecy and into the throne.  The important people of the kingdom all watched as the king's body was placed in the throne.  King Tir's soul floated to his body and sat inside of it once again - after a long absence.  The body's eyes opened looking across the throne room at his court; it had been such a long time since Tir had felt the regularity of his own body that it seemed new again.  Loud, victorious cheers echoed throughout the throne room by the people inside.  The cheers from the throne room carried out into the halls.

King Tir closed his eyes again and gripped his hands onto the arms of his crystal throne.  Bowing his head, an intense flash was seen as he unlocked a great protective magic from the castle onto the city surrounding it.  The walls of the castle began to glow and a semi-transparent, blue energy-shield formed outside, in a dome shape around the city, protecting it again.

The Pit Fiends that were attacking the people became filled with fright as the castle's divine magic radiated outward; they all fled from the city as fast as they could, away from the now glowing Crystal Castle.  Flying away from the castle to exit the city, the Pit Fiends were forced to encounter the blue energy-shield that was now in place at the cities borders. The devils took damage as they moved through it to the outskirts of the city beyond the wall; some of them dropped dead because of this and fell from the sky.

As it goes, Half-Giants are moody people.  An aspect of their alignment changes daily and today Thokk happened to be consumed by Chaos and Evil... Being in the throne room for Thokk at that time, turned out to be less than pleasant.  Feeling the effects that the castle now had upon chaos and evil, Thokk ran out of the castle as fast as the Pit Fiends fled the city.  He ran out the front gates of the castle, asked to be led out by the guards through the garden maze in front of the castle and left the front gates of the maze there.  He dug a hole right in front of the gates to hide!

Inside the castle throne room, King Tir thanked Ivellios and the group for coming to his rescue and for returning his soul to its body. Magical gifts of great value were given to the adventurers as thanks.  Amidst those present in the throne room at that time, was the odd, but highly powerful magician known as The Hermit.  The Hermit was given his name because no one alive seemed to know his real name and also because he seemed to have been alive for much longer than humans were known to live -having made appearances in historical texts.  The Hermit never seemed to be part of any one group, did not appear to be an Immortal himself and did not seem to have any specific agenda, other than to gain power; yet, he seemed to appear at given times to (what seemed like random) people in the world, to give them integral advice.  So, there he was, in the throne room, doing just that.  The Hermit approached Ivellios, he was covered in dirty brown robes, smelled funny and looked as if he had not bathed in months.

The Hermit spoke to the King and Ivellios at once, telling them of a fact that Ivellios knew of, but that the King and most of his court did not:  The Avenger, Lord Veneficus, was not in his right mind; the reason for his fall from Good into Evil, was due to an Evil demon known as Vetis who possessed his body.  The demon, Vetis, kept Veneficus' mind aware enough to see all of the disaster that Vetis was commiting in controlling his body like a puppet to the demon's advantage.  It was a horrible fate, as the demon was one of Veneficus' mortal enemies.

The Hermit said that there was hope, however, and that he suggested that Ivellios and Thokk pursue a mission that might prove worthy of saving Veneficus while giving a chance for the demon to be slain.  He told them of a mountain, two times the size of Mount Darokin (30,000 feet up), where, given the proper enticing, the greatest of all of the Immortals, IO, could be met.  There, in a plea to IO, could the adventurers gain a sword eligible to strike the demon down.  IO would also be able to tell the adventurers how to separate the demon from Veneficus' body, a task that is essential because Veneficus is the only one that could kill the demon with the sword.

Outside the castle, word had spread that the adventurers had brought the king back to safety and many of the towns people began giving thanks to the adventurers, when they spotted them.  Ivellios used this recognition to win the people even more and gave the lower class gold during an event he set up.  The King allowed the Elemental souls passage back to their planes, via the power his Sorcerers held.  The soul of the Titan remained in the castle as they began to make plans to find him a new body.  The following day, Thokk was in a different mood and was able to approach the castle (Chaotic Good today).  There Ivellios, Thokk, Silverglade and Zoron (who the king helped turn back into his regular dragon form) prepared to travel to the mountain.

The mountain was in a territory far away from their home continent, Mainland.  The territory was was made of multiple kingdoms, it was a place known as The Crown of Bulvi, only the Hermit was able to teleport them there.  He had instructed the adventurers to find a church in the swamps below the mountain, where the could fetch a star stone that was protected in the church, below in its crypt.  The star stone would then need to be brought to the top of the mountain.  The swamp as well as climbing the mountain involved various tests to prove the adventurers worth to the Immortal IO; depending on how they did, they could either please the Immortal greatly - or incite her wrath.  The adventurers prepared themselves in Kaza Tir, the Hermit awaited them.