In Which the Party Nearly Meets its End

The events leading up to the Band's journey to this foreign plane will be chronicled in due time.  The band has been on the hunt for a shadar-kai named Sarshan.  They followed him through a planar portal and battled their way through dragons, cyclops, wights and blood ooze, blood ooze and more blood ooze.

On the body of a fallen skull lord servitor, the party found a ritual book containing not only a planar portal ritual, but notes describing the location of Sarshan's lair within an obsidian tower on the sea of fire.  Further, they discovered that the skull lord had been a minion of a lich famed for its use of ritual magic.  Their resources depleted more than they realized, the party chose to rest before proceeding through a portal they knew would bring them to Sarshan's doorstep.

The newest recruit,  a human fighter named Eric With a K, volunteered to take first watch while Juggsy meditated.  When the eladrin ranger awoke from her trance, she saw her sleeping party members and no sign of Eric.  While she saw no signs of struggle or sounds of intruders, Juggsy found heavy human footprints leading away from the camp.  Cursing, she woke up the sleeping Shade and Sora.
"He's wandered off," she said, "and I don't hear anything."
The trio followed the footprints back the way they had come, and before too long found Eric's slumped body against a wall.  At first there was no sign of breath or life in his body, and the females readied their weapons and searched for any signs of foul play.  Suddenly, though, a gigantic snore erupted from the human, and they realized what had happened.  He had left to relieve himself and fallen asleep, pants down, against the wall.
"Wha--?" he woke up with a start and followed the party back to the campsite, where the rest of the night passed without incident.

In the morning, the group examined the ritual book and began to activate the portal.  Shade called upon Ioun to initiate the ritual and drew a circle around the deactivated portal.  The runes began to glow, and she used her arcane knowledge to draw a rough image of the tower within the circle.  Like flame following oil, the blue light flowed from the outer ring through the image of the tower.  With a flash, everything was illuminated and the party quickly moved through the portal.

Sickened and disoriented by the teleportation, the Band of Jenkins finds themselves on a small slab of earth, floating on a sea of lava.  A tower on an island stands before them.  "I guess we're here..." observes Sora.  A sort of seawall surrounds the tower, and through the heat waves they are able to see waves of lava breaking against and washing over the wall.  "We're also not alone..." says Juggsy, who was facing the other direction and could see the duergar and fire belcher on neighboring chunks of land.
Fearing nothing, man or beast, Eric With a K, strode boldly across the lava ("Magic boots, ladies!" he called over his shoulder.) and drew his bow.  Once he reached the berg occupied by the fire belcher, he let fly a freezing arrow which penetrated the beast's hide.  From there, he saw things were worse than originally assessed, as two githyanki stood waiting on the breaker wall.

Back near the portal, flames leap up near Shade.  She recoils for an instant, before realizing the flame had materialized into a fire shard.  Swinging her sword in a wide arc, she connected with something substantial within it.
[to be continued]

The Things in the Warehouse

Approaching on the catwalk that groaned and complained under his considerable weight, Pelias surveys the situation and lays a scorching burst over the whole group.  As flames singed the hair and fabric of the combatants, one of the thugs fell to the ground.  With a word and a motion, the doppelgangers became invisible to Kreegan and Pelias.  Shade and Sora isolate one of the creatures and call out to Kreegan.  Swinging on the chains hanging from the catwalk, he crosses above the battle and drops down behind where he assumes the doppleganger is standing.  Crouching quickly, Kreegan scoops a fistful of dirt and gravel from the warehouse floor and throws it toward the face of the invisible figure.  Shade, still able to see the thing, brings her greatsword down squarely on its neck, dropping the doppelganger's body to the ground.

The man from town attacks Juggsy as she is prone, drawing a swift magic missile from Pelias.  On the warehouse floor below them, Shade and Sora make short work of the remaining doppelganger.  Sora's mace connects with the thing's chest, and a word to Bahamut bolsters her allies, healing and re-energizing them.  Juggsy, standing once more, swings her axes and slices through the leather of the possessed man's armor.  Before the man can retaliate, Pelias' dirty magic missile knocks him from the catwalk and he remains motionless on the floor below.

With the attackers defeated, the Band begins the process of cleaning their weapons and searching the bodies for clues.  Within moments, however, another band of thugs rushes in.  As they move into position, Pelias, from the catwalk, lights them up with a scorching burst.  Two of the six figures are instantly incinerated.  The remaining hired swords, however, surveyed the situation briefly.  Faced with a  300 pound Eladrin above them and clearly outmatched by the adventurers closing in on them,  the street thugs turned and fled.

Before the party can take up chase, they hear a sound behind them.  It seems a doppelganger has enough life left in it for a closing monologue.  Kreegan closes on the figure and presses his short sword against its throat.  "Who hired you, little flamingo?"
"The general-- General Zithrun..." it stammered, "the deal was done through a messenger.  I never saw his face."
Pelias leans in, "Why was the false Dunkirk coming here?"
Seeming to ignore the question, the doppelganger continued.  "The general wore an outfit fashioned from leather and steel.  He wanted to question Dunkirk about the security of the Moutnainroot Temple.  The false Dunkirk sent all the real priests to work on the Stone Anvil, as a diversion.  The general took the true Dunkirk to an interrogation room in this warehouse for questioning.  He soon grew frustrated with the priest's lack of information about the temple's defenses.  He has gone to the temple to investigate it for himself."
"Informative, if in a roundabout way," Shade muttered.  "All right.  The real Dunkirk?  Where is he?"
The doppelganger indicated where they could find the trap door, and then died on its own, saving them all the moral dilemma ("Not for some of us!" noted Kreegan) of whether to kill him or let him go.

Follow that... dwarf...?

After a night of rest, the Band of Jenkins paid a visit to the block of buildings that make up Overlook's war ministry.  At the gate, they were intercepted by two guards, who denied them entrance.  The band was approached by the new captain of the guard, formerly Aerun's second-in-command.  He could not answer any of their questions, and claimed that he did not know anything they might find relevant.  He thanked them heartily, though, for all they have done for Overlook, and requested they continue their investigation of Dunkirk, although he could not give them any official sanction.

Once more the Band of Jenkins made their way to the Stone Anvil

Dead Ends and Doppelgangers

We catch up with our heroes a little too early in the morning, after a little too much of Regan's finest mead--and far too many rounds of ale purchased by far too many grateful citizens.  Nevertheless, the Band of Jenkins set out to get to the bottom of the changes in Overlook.

Something's Wrong with Overlook

After fighting their way out of the fortress, the group found no rest on the road back to Overlook.  While Shade slept, a voice spoke to her.  Identifying itself as Lavinia, the disembodied voice warned of an unseen threat growing in Overlook and beseeched the party to make haste to the Shrine of Erathis in the city.  

Greystone Fortress

After returning to Overlook from the mines, the Band of Jenkins found that a messenger from Brindol had been looking for them.  She had been captured by mercenaries and held in the abandoned temple of Pelor by the meddlesome Lost Ones.  Our heroes faced the Lost Ones and their super-intelligent hounds and rescued the messenger.  She begged that the Band return to Brindol, as their aid was needed once more.

In the Beginning

The Band of Jenkins have made a name for themselves in the Elsir Vale.  Based out of the town of Overlook, they have proven themselves to be brave and resourceful adventurers.  It is not known who exactly this "Jenkins" was, although it is said he acted boldly and daringly, and ultimately died the way he lived.  

In its current formation, the Band is a party of six.  Four of the founding members remain: