Chapter 1: The Chase

(For the preamble and premise, start here) 

Drink-addled, Kyre's wild swings with his trusty cutlass cut only air. The others are not caught so flat-footed. Acting with lighting speed, the Tenebrael Shard and the Hag Queen spring forward and dispatch two of the eerie cultists. At this their two companions flee back through the portal, which snaps shut with a sucking pop! Once again giving chase, the quartet see the evil mage disappear down a winding staircase on the other side of Cinderfall Street, and they scramble to catch them. 

Hearing loud sounds of carousing, they burst through the door at the bottom of the stairs to find themselves in a hidden and disreputable-looking tavern. A sign, askew over the door, reads "Bloody Ends." The party looks at one another and enter. 

A quick search and whispered threats reveal a secret passageway past a stack of ale barrels, on the wall opposite the entrance. Squeezing through, they find themselves in a dark and narrow alleyway, where they hear the skittering of little feet and a snicker of cruel laughter... 

The Heroes find a narrow alleyway behind a secret door, 

and are affronted by a swarm of Giant Rats. 

Kyre leaps into the room and cuts down three of the giant vermin, but the last one manages to elude both the Shard's claws and the witch's knives, thought it is so consumed with forestalling certain death that it cannot latch it's teeth around any of the Aelves swirling around the alley. Finally, with a sigh, the Mistweaver steps to the doorway and begins lobbing eldritch bolts at it, until one finally connects and it expires with a heavy sigh of its own. 

Momentarily winded, the group pauses to catch their breath, and the Shard finds a gold piece wedged between two cobblestones. 

They steel themselves for conflict, and open the door at the end of the alley... 

Browsing Olmor's Hidden Shop 

They find themselves in a dark bazaar, full to bursting with all manner of goods. Potions of every color line the shelves of one wall, while a rack of gleaming weapons sits in one corner. In another, an Orruk guard looks up from a dice game and glares menacingly. The proprietor is obliging to the point of obsequiousness until he discovers that none of the Aelves have enough coin, at which point he brusquely shows them a second exit, which reveals stairs leading down from the shop. 

As the party cautiously descends, they are confronted by an orange glow emanating from the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. As they reach it, they see a pair of hideous gibbering creatures standing before a swirling door of fire in the dank chamber beneath the streets, their attention fixed upon the instructions of their master, the sorcerer from the inn. He turns at some instinct, flashes a wicked grin and lifts his staff to attack. Kyre staggers under the force of his sorcerous assault, and can only watch in frustration as he steps towards the portal, the stolen artifact held aloft in his clawed hand. Meanwhile, his grotesque servants turn and approach the doorway, snarling, their silver blades gleaming in the firelight. 

The Dark Gate 

Soundlessly, the Tenebrael Shard steps through the door and vanishes into the shadows, only to reappear at the far end of the chamber, finger blades gleaming as he falls upon the hapless sorcerer. The mage shrieks in fear and pain, and lashes out with his Runestaff as the team charges towards him, sending them all reeling. With a triumphant screech, the sorcerer leaps through the portal and vanishes. 

The two hideous Horrors leap to attack the assassin, and it is all he can do to fend off their attacks, while his exhausted companions rush to help him. Finally, the witch closes the gap and cleaves one of them in two - only to have each half reappear as smaller copies of itself, only blue instead of pink! Together with the remining Pink Horror they overwhelm the Tenebrael Shard and send him to the ground, before turning to the rest of the party, blades and magicks flashing silver and cyan. 

But the remaining Aelves are not so easily cowed, and they too press the attack. The second Pink Horror is buffeted by blasts from the Mistweaver, and as it turns to wreak its vengeance on the mage, the pirate captain lunges and finishes it off with a vicious blow from his murder hook. It too splits into two smaller creatures, whose frenetic capering showers pink fire over everyone in the room. The witch sinks to one knee. 

Finally, the exhausted heroes manage to smash the remaining Blue Horrors, and the even smaller Brimstone Horrors that they spawn. As the last one is skewered by the Witch's sacrificial knife, a sudden silence falls over the small space. 

Kyre looks around at the carnage, at the slashed and bleeding figures of his companions. A grim smile breaks across is face. They have won.