The Golden Empress
The party works its way back to the surface with no opposition; the forces that maintained the interest and attention of all those supernatural beings has waned, and it is now just a dead volcano. But the party still holds the interests of certain parties, and in the forest outside they find their old confidant Alys the bard.
First they have to rescue her from a pair of hell-hounds. She explains that she dares not use her magic, for fear it will reveal her location to her enemies (who shall remain unnamed, for the same reason).
She has come to the party seeking assistance. Rhian has renamed herself the Golden Empress, reaching heights of power previously unimaginable. Soon she will be unstoppable. The Resistance against the Golden Empress's totalitarian rule - such as it is - has prepared a strategy. They know where the Empress will be on a given date, and can sneak a wagon full of hidden adventurers in to ambush the Empress and destroy her once and for all. In exchange the party can keep all the treasure, including the fabled Helm of Brilliance.
The party quickly (for them, at least) agrees to this scheme. They travel through the wilderness to the edge of the kingdom and wait patiently (for them, at least) while Ayls fetches a farm wagon. Then, hidden under bales of hay, they travel into the city, waiting for Ayls's signal to leap out and attack.
However, the get a slightly different signal, when six Frost Giants leap next the wagon and smash it to bits, trying to kill the adventurers hidden within. The Bard escapes, seeking to flank the giants, only to discover an army of archers has ringed the battlefield. It's a trap! One carefully set by Alys never actually telling a lie. She used the classic Bard trick of the Oracle of Delphi - "a great empire shall fall," without specifying precisely which set of enemies she was hiding from or setting a trap for.
The Wizard shuts down most of the archers, but things look pretty dangerous until the Bard gets a Fear spell off and forces most of the giants to retreat for a few rounds. With their battle-line broken, the Ranger, Barbarian, and Bear overwhelm the giants piece by piece. The last death is Alys, as she tries to mind-control the Barbarian, fails, and is immediately cut down.
This leads to certain mysteries, such as how did a bard cast a high-level sorcerer spell? But more importantly is what to do next, and the party, having barely survived a brutal battle, immediately decides to press on and end the Golden Empress once and for all.
They know where the palace is, after all, and they have Invisibility, Disguise, and Glibness. Surely they can sneak past a sentry or two. As usual, the process is more drawn-out and violent than necessary, but eventually the advance into the throne room.
The woman sitting on the throne is not the Empress, though she is wearing the Helm of Brilliance. Her protection seems weak, being only a handful of low-rank sorceresses and a pair of Frost Giants. But as the giants advance and the casters prepare counter-spells, the lady flicks her hand and sends a Prismatic Spray against the party, so neatly framed in the doorway.
The Barbarian is hit by a red ray and bursts into flames. But the damage is minimal, and in any case he shrugs off the magic by dint of rage-induced spell resistance. The Cleric is struck by a stronger effect, but makes his save. The Druid is immune to the green ray's poison. But the Ranger is not, and dies on the spot; the Wizard, bathed in violet light, goes violently insane; the Bard strikes a permanent pose as he is turned to stone.
A single spell, and half the party is down! Yet the remaining members manage to kill the woman in the helm before she can act a second time and trigger the device to self-destruct - an effect that would have certainly slain everyone still standing in the room.
After mopping up the rest of the resistance, the Cleric undoes the various debilitations. They even have enough tael to restore the Ranger's lost rank, though once again it leaves them broke. They hardly care - they have taken possession of one of the few known artifacts on the continent. That the Empress has still somehow evaded them does not trouble them overly; they believe her army to be broken and disorganized. Loaded with conventional wealth from the Necropolis, they set out to visit Kek for a shopping a trip.
Likely to be their final shopping trip, in fact, as they discuss the obvious next step is destroying Kek and looting his empire for more tael and artifacts with which to face the dragon. Few tears are shed over this inevitable development, as Kek, despite his usefulness, is after all an insane mummy lord trying to destroy the world.
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