Ivellios and Thokk returned to Kaza Tir. They had decided to take on the quest offered by the Hermit, after a change of heart (that the Hermit seemed to have nudged along).  They arrived at the Crystal Castle with Silverglade and Zoron, where the Hermit (amazingly!) appeared - as if he had been expecting them.  "Finally, you have gained some good sense," the dirty elder preached.  The Hermit told them that only two of the four adventurers in their group were allowed to go on the quest. Since Ivellios had originally turned down the quest that they had come back to take now, the kingdom had tried finding another hero - and found someone.  The Hermit stated that the new person they had chosen, was still entitled to go and that Ivellios and Thokk would have to accompany him now (adventures are taken for profit and glory and it would make the kingdom look bad to withdraw the opportunity to the other adventurer at this point).  

The Hermit only wanted to transport three people to Bulvi's realm, since there was less of a chance for Bulvi and his men to notice the adventurers this way.  Bulvi was a good king, but he would most likely seize the adventurers for questioning and even forbid them from the sacred mountain.  Bulvi would, without doubt, find out Zoron's true nature as a Red Dragon as well, as he hunted Red Dragons. The kingdom of Kaza Tir could not afford any hold ups.  

Zoron, ready to leave on that note, immediately shaped back into his natural, Red Dragon form, right in the middle of town and flew off.  He scared some commoners in the area as a result of turning back into his dragon form.  Most people were afraid of Red Dragons, since Red Dragons were allied with the enemy, Tarsus - not to mention they were all Evil (with the exception of Zoron of course).  Silverglade invoked power within a magical ring he was wearing, which allowed him to fly.  "Damn it," Silverglade said, and flew off after Zoron; his work of 'baby sitting' cut out for him.

The adventurers met the King in the throne room, where their future companion would be. There, stood the most Law abiding (and goody-two shoed) Paladin, Spark.  Ivellios had previously encountered Spark when he was watching over the King's treasure inside the kingdom vaults.  Spark had given Ivellios a couple of speeches about what was right and wrong, when Ivellios wanted to take items from the chamber.

The King thanked Ivellios, Thokk and Spark for accepting the quest they were about to begin.  The Hermit, stepped forward into the center of the throne room and slammed his staff into the ground beneath his feet, the sound echoed off of the crystal walls in the chamber and a circle of glowing energy appeared around him.  He finished casting the spell and prompted the adventurers to step into the Teleport Circle he had created, when ever they were ready.

Ivellios, trying to bully the Paladin he was forced to travel with, ordered him to go into the circle first.  The Paladin, Spark, raised an eyebrow and said, "very well... at least some of us here are brave."  Ivellios tried to say something to the Paladin, but he entered into the circle and disappeared.  Thokk and Ivellios followed.

The three were transported to a roadway in the middle of unfamiliar grassy planes, it was raining and it was later in the day there.  With it being later in the day, they soon realized how far away they had been transported.  To the North a large mountain appeared, it was Mount Valorn, which they would have to climb to ask help from the Immortal, IO. But first, they were to delve into the swamps below the mountain. There they were to capture the legendary star stone, which was hidden in a crypt somewhere in that swamp.  Once the star stone was achieved they could bring it to the top of the mountain as proof of their heroics and present it to IO, where they would await her response.  To the South was a large castle, King Bulvi's home.  Ivellios looked at Spark and said, "What is Bulvi?"  "A Man," Spark answered.  Ivellios scoffed as if the news was uninteresting and sized the human king up in his own mind.  

They traveled North, through the rain and reached the bottom of the mountain at nightfall.  The swamp was there, with chirping frogs, crickets and strange growls heard all around.  The swamp was dense with dark wicked trees, that would make it hard to travel through or to spot things clearly.  A foul stench was in the air and a greenish-brown fog lingered everywhere, it seemed to spring up from the swamp water and muddy banks as the rain poured down onto it.

Ivellios and Thokk were able to see with their natural low light vision.  Spark, however, was human and could not see in the dark.  Ivellios made fun of Spark for not being able to see, but agreed that it would be better to travel in the day time.  The three of them found a cave that was not too far away and made camp for the night.

Ivellios was on first watch, as the others slept.  He sat, watching the rain fall outside the cave entrance.  The cave was particularly small and Thokk, being a Half-Giant, was only able to get inside the cave by crawling.  For a while, Ivellios sat in silence, only the rain making any noise.  Ivellios thought it would be funny to play a trick on the Paladin while he slept and moved over towards his sleeping body.  As soon as Ivellios tried to grab Spark, he unexpectedly jumped up and befroe Ivellios knew it, the Paladin's sword was at his throat!  Ivellios backed off.  Spark realized what was going on suddenly and told Ivellios not to do anything like that again.  Spark had fought in the war against Tarsus, it was his instincts to react this way, to prevent armies sneaking up in the night to kill him in his sleep.  He went back to sleep and left Ivellios to watch again.

Later in the night, still keeping watch, Ivellios noticed something move past the cave entrance.  It was blue, moved quickly and made no noise, but he wasn't able to make out what it was.  Ivellios woke Thokk and Spark, telling them what he saw.  "Let's go investigate," said Spark.  Ivellios, being pushy, ordered Spark, "you go first!"  Spark looked back at Ivellios, raised his eyebrow and said, "fine ... at least some of us are brave here."  Ivellios mocked him, as he left.  

Spark disappeared, climbing up the side of a hill that the cave was beneath, out of view for Thokk and Ivellios.  Spark had on very special armor, one of a kind mythral plate mail.  The armor made no noise; Thokk and Ivellios could not hear a thing from the cave.  Ivellios looked at Thokk, who was in crawling position and hopped on his back.  Thokk jolted upward, flinging Ivellios off and to the outside of the cave. Outside, up the grassy slope above the cave, Ivellios could spot the Paladin, quietly moving toward the top of the hill.  Spark was starring at the top of the hill as if he had spotted something that he was moving in on.  

Ivellios, using his druidic power, shaped himself into the form of a hawk, outside the cave entrance.  He flew over to the Paladin and hovered above him.  Ivellios thought it would be funny to begin bugging the Paladin, since he did not like him much.  He came down, flapping his wings to hover above Spark's head and began trying to poke at him with his claws, for fun.  Spark, not realizing what was going on, thought some strange flying creature was attacking him. The Paladin turned around and swung his sword, a Holy Avenger, at his target without looking.  A solid blow hit the hawk's body and another swing sliced the Hawk dead.  

The hawk was launched a couple of feet back, gravity returned its body to the floor again, with a small thud.   The hawk's dead form lay there for a moment - then suddenly, the dead hawk turned back into a dead Ivellios.  Upon seeing the dead hawk become Ivellios, the Paladin realized what had happened and rushed over to heal him.  He reached into his bag of holding and pulled out a healing potion to feed into Ivellios' mouth.  Thokk poked his head out of the cave at this point and came up to them.  

When Ivellios recovered, they began to decide what to do next.  Just then, what they were looking for appeared out of no where.  The blue form Ivellios saw previously, turned out to be an incorporeal warrior spirit.  The warrior spirit appeared near the top of the hill.  It was the image of a powerful warrior, wearing a style of plate mail from many ages prior to this one.  The spirit was donned in symbols heralding him as a champion and follower of the Immortal IO.  All expression in his face was dead, as he starred out at them with eyes underneath a helmet's face shield.  The adventurers could see right through his body, it was blue in color and semitransparent.  A resounding voice came from the spirit, "Why are you here?"  Ivellios spoke, "to get the star stone."  They all watched the spirit; it didn't move or speak.  Ivellios began to ask another question and the spirit warrior vanished.

They went back to sleep and woke up the next day.  They traveled back to the swamps in the morning.  Mist still hung in the air, and with the density with which the trees in the swamp packed it, they had difficulty maneuvering their way through.  The swamp waters they were forced to walk in, where generally about 2 feet deep.  Ivellios, being 4'9", was almost halfway submersed in the wretched waters, while Thokk being 10 feet tall, had less of a problem with it.

While traveling through the swamp, Ivellios' keen perceptive skills picked up on something.  He spotted an area of dense shrubs that looked out of place.  Further investigating what he saw, Ivellios realized that the shrubs were the result of a spell that he was familiar with, plant growth.  The spell had been used to block off an alleyway created by some trees, to hide the path there.  The adventurers thought this might be a prospective place to search for the crypt and chopped their way through the shrubs.  They walked the pathway beyond the shrubs, it led them to an open area of water.  

In the opening, they spotted a cave in the trees just past it.  To their right, a branch from one of the trees hanging out above the open waters had something attached to it.  Three white, ropy strands were attached to the branch, each strand fell from the branch and into the murky water below.  The strands looked like they were placed consecutively and seemed deliberately placed as well.

Ivellios walked over to the strands, through the water.  The waters became progressively deeper the further he traveled into the opening.  Fearing there would be a sudden drop in the waters, he stuck to the banks at the opening.  Analyzing the strands, he realized that they were ropes made from web.  Ivellios stepped closer to look further and stepped on top of something strange and out of place.  Whatever it was seemed to be attached to the web ropes.

Spark trudged out into the opening, sinking as he walked into the waters.  A loud splash was suddenly heard coming from the cave beyond the opening, they all looked.  Nothing was there.  A small ripple was seen in the water and moved to the left, disappearing.  The ripple in the water looked similar to a water snake's motion for a moment before disappearing. 

Suddenly, swamp water erupted outward from the middle of the clearing, splashing foul waters upon everyone around.  Surfacing from the large waves made in the water, an enormous Black Dragon rose his head up out of the waters, roaring loud and violently!  His face looked much like an elongated black skull, with horns on either side of his head, extending outward toward his snout.  His mouth was gapped open, displaying many sharp teeth that dripped with rotting water; his scales looked strong and extremely black.  The dragons neck extended out of the water and his head loomed over Spark, the Paladin who was now right next to him.  His eyes looked sunken in, adding to his head's skull like features.  Green eyes gazed down at the three, with looks of anger. The adventurers had trespassed into the dragon's den.

Acting without fear or surprise, Spark attacked before the dragon had a chance to.  His Holy Sword was ready prior to the dragon surfacing.  He whirled his sword at the dragon's neck, but missed.  Thokk ran out into the waters, pulling his great sword out, a very large diamond blade that he had found in the mountains North of Kaza Tir long ago.  His attacks also missing.   The Black Dragon's neck curved as he turned his head to the left, pointing his gaze at Thokk with Ivellios too in his sight, beyond Thokk on the banks.  His mouth made a hissing sound and a sudden stream of green acid sprayed out of his mouth hitting Thokk and Ivellios.  The two tried to dodge the oncoming line of acid, but were unable to, and suffered acid burns all over.  Ivellios was too surprised to act further!

The Paladin attacked again and began hacking his blade into the dragon's neck, chopping into him multiple times.  The Paladin's Holy Sword, seemed to have an effect on evil creatures, like this dragon.  Every hit caused the sword to glow white with divine energies, that further injured the dragon. Thokk joined in, damaging the dragon with the powerful blows.  Though they had beaten the dragon harshly with their weapons, he was strong and still able to fight.  He bit at Spark, who raised his sheild to block the dragon's deadly jaws from clamping onto him.  The dragon's tongue tasted the shield and could sense its magical protective properties, he wanted the magical item for his treasure horde!

Ivellios regained clarity and daringly jumped into the swamp waters, running right to the dragon!  By the time he reached the dragon, the swamp water was above his head and he blindly gabbed for the dragon.  He cast a deadly spell, Harm, that drains a man or any creature of almost all of its life!  He reached out and felt the dragon's neck, then released the evil energies of the spell.  The spell caused the dragon to practically collapse.  

The Black Dragon begged for his life then, raising his front claws to show defeat.  Spark, being a Paladin whose goal it is to destroy evil beings, thought they should have ended his life then and there.  The dragon begged, "please, I will never harm you again!"  At Ivellios' suggestion, he had Spark use his divine magic, to cast Discern Lies on the Black Dragon, to see if he was telling the truth.  Under the spell's magic, he should not be able to lie.  The dragon repeated again that he would not ever harm them.  He knew he was outmatched.   Ivellios let him go, though Spark was ready to kill him, even then.

The dragon sank back into the waters and disappeared.  He had mentioned too, that there was treasure in the cave beyond, that the adventurers could now take.

...to be continued...