The following chronology traces the major adventures of the Drakefire Phalanx, from the group’s first work together in Arkrist through its later expeditions across the Drakefire Peninsula and beyond. Their history combines contracts and public crises with personal searches that gradually drew the group into older magical, religious, and extraplanar conflicts.
Formation in Arkrist
The founding members met in Arkrist during a street fight and were soon directed to the Leviathan Chapter of the Casque & Gauntlet. Their first contract involved the Goldreach Estate, where they uncovered Farvyn Goldreach’s dangerous alchemical experiments and evidence surrounding his death and disputed estate.
A later series of disappearances drew the group into Skimmer’s Row, Arkrist’s sewers, and the city’s criminal networks. They rescued Heldyssa Shadowfall, discovered ritual killings connected to Kalabold, and exposed The Voiceless. Beneath the Grand Cathedral of Anadesia and College-controlled property they also found much older draconic ruins beneath modern Arkrist.
The Voiceless and Xumanon
The Voiceless sought the Deceiver’s Key and worked toward releasing the imprisoned shadow dragon Xumanon. Both the Justiciars and the Wraith River Union suffered major losses in failed sewer raids. Guzzax, believed dead in those attacks, was eventually revealed as both Dawn of the Union and leader of the Voiceless.
The group confronted Guzzax at Xumanon’s prison. Dizra killed him, Flutter recovered the Deceiver’s Key, and the prison was resealed. The organized cult was badly damaged, though the exact number of surviving cells was never established.
Thermeira, Tarentum, and Squall’s End
A coded message left by Koriana Ipswitch led the adventurers first to Thermeira. While pursuing her associates they also completed a Casque & Gauntlet contract at the Swamp Chapel, killing an aberrant drake-like creature that had been attacking merchants.
The trail continued to Tarentum, where the group investigated Neerzyne Zauduis and the Starshine trade centered partly around Maszyr’s Room. South of the city they also helped the Aegis Regnum contain a meteorite contaminated by energies associated with the Nascent Expanse.
From Tarentum the party sailed to Squall’s End. There they explored the Cliffside Temple, an ancient magical-engineering complex containing planar machinery, biological experiments, and the corpse of Voslostro. Speaking with Voslostro’s remains eventually completed the decryption of Koriana’s message and pointed toward Mesus.
Ipswitch Manor
The search for Koriana led to Ipswitch Manor, where the estate existed in overlapping ruined and preserved states. Research left by Lord Albrecht Ipswitch connected the house to Carcosa and the King in Yellow. The group eventually found Koriana alive in a cavern beneath the estate.
Rather than kill her, Korth and the others negotiated a truce. Koriana revealed that the influence of the King in Yellow had once passed through her and had later been transferred to Korth through manipulation involving his former mentor. She agreed to investigate the Pallid Mask in exchange for her life, and the group concealed the truth of her survival when they returned to Arkrist.
The Drakefire Phalanx and Tressedekt
After the Ipswitch arc, Flutter retired from active adventuring and later took leadership of the Wraith River Union. Quill joined the party in her place. The group adopted the name Drakefire Phalanx during this period.
The Phalanx then accepted work from Tressedekt, an antiquities broker who revealed himself to be a Nharvek. His research into recovered tablets pointed toward a drowned civilization in the Gulf of Keravnos and a psionic device known as the Memosphere.
The Gulf of Keravnos
The Phalanx sailed into the gulf and descended to the Sunken Ruins of Keravnos. They explored an ancient religious complex associated with Visthuun, survived psychic wards and sacrificial mechanisms, and recovered the Memosphere from a deeper chamber.
The Memosphere contained preserved memories of the civilization and helped reveal the history of the Eye of Visthuun. Those memories pointed toward the ancient red dragon Zar’Malek, whose hoard contained the Eye.
Khaz’Vel’Tor and the Eye
The search for the Eye took the Phalanx by airship to the Ashfire Cradle and the fortress Khaz’Vel’Tor. There they discovered a kobold society ruled by Scalespeaker Vael Skarrix and organized around reverence for Zar’Malek.
The Phalanx allied with the rebel Cinderclaw Cindercate. They gathered intelligence through the fortress ventilation system, killed Captains Issk and Gravak, poisoned the fortress food stores, and helped trigger an uprising. Once the rebels drew defenders away, the party entered the Inner Ring and repaired enough of its ancient dwarven thermal machinery to survive the approach to the dragon’s lair.
Kada, Dizra, and Quill infiltrated Zar’Malek’s hoard. Dizra located and took the Eye while Quill helped guide their escape. Zar’Malek discovered the theft and began tearing through the fortress, but Dizra severed the dragon’s psychic connection to the artifact. At nearly the same moment, the Cinderclaws launched the open phase of their rebellion and brought part of the fortress down around the dragon. The Phalanx escaped aboard their waiting airship with the Eye, a Foldspace Conduit, and other treasure.
Back in Arkrist, Tressedekt concluded that the Eye had chosen Dizra rather than merely being carried by him. Jareer separately warned Xanthos that both Dizra’s transformation and Korth’s patron might eventually create conflicts between the Phalanx and the Aegis.
Serathiel Quorr and Broken Time
Soon afterward, the Phalanx accepted a request from Ilyra Voss to find Serathiel Quorr, a College Arcanum scholar who had disappeared into a private extradimensional laboratory. Quorr had spent decades studying temporal magic associated with Abendigo and believed his life’s work was approaching completion.
Inside Quorr’s Extradimensional Study, the Phalanx encountered unstable gravity, crystalline temporal entities, broken portal machinery, temporally suspended chambers, and a damaged golden construct associated with the study’s failing systems. They eventually reached a library where Quorr’s corpse and a large violet spellbook were sealed behind a magical barrier.
An unidentified man in a suit and fedora appeared when the barrier was lowered. He could not be struck normally, treated the party as “interference,” and summoned both specters and advanced constructs while calmly recording the fight in a notebook. After the party destroyed the summoned threats, the stranger withdrew.
Quorr’s body carried a final note reading only “MISLED.” The spellbook proved to be The Chronesthesion, the culmination of his research. Lucious was able to claim the book and continues to carry it.
Singoria and the Displaced Wilds
The Phalanx later accepted a Casque & Gauntlet contract to investigate repeated animal attacks around Singoria. What initially looked like coordinated predation proved to be a displacement problem. Agricultural expansion had destroyed nesting grounds used by large feathered reptiles, while massive burrowing predators farther south prevented those animals from moving into alternative territory.
Working with a dwarf named Thulman Stormtale, the Phalanx chose to eliminate the burrowing predators rather than exterminate the displaced animals. They trapped and killed two of the enormous worms, after which Thulman began moving the raptors into the newly available territory. The attacks around Singoria were expected to end once the animals were no longer forced against the expanding farms.
The Swamps of Thunder
Assad’s mother, Saza, later brought the Phalanx a family tradition concerning the Liyonir warrior Azukhan and Razekah, the Name-Eating Blade. Her research pointed toward the Swamps of Thunder and a fallen sky-pyramid believed to preserve Azukhan’s legacy.
The voyage south crossed an unnatural storm that reacted violently to the Eye of Visthuun. The Eye behaved like a beacon, and a voice repeated the word “Returned.” Korth also experienced a dangerous episode of influence from the King in Yellow during the storm. The party survived and entered the swamps, where thunder that seemed directionless above water could be followed clearly beneath the surface.
The wilderness around their destination had been altered in unusual ways. The Phalanx escaped a clearing where enchanted vines attempted to incorporate living victims into a stationary “choir,” found ancient Liyonir military remains, and finally reached the enormous pyramid known as Thunderwake.
Thunderwake and Razekah
Thunderwake preserved evidence of an ancient society associated with Huraz. The Phalanx found old military and religious relics, machinery that produced the pyramid’s recurring thunder, records showing that Thunderwake had once flown, and a silent Tavashi spirit named Shula who helped them bypass the lower seals.
Higher levels contained ritual circles, alchemical chambers, preserved dead, a temporal or planar viewing device, and three censers used together to reach a hidden sanctuary. The final rite carried the party into a flooded chamber beneath impossible stars, where Muqaddasat al-Qurbān, the last guardian of the sanctuary, initially welcomed them as the Children of Huraz.
Her welcome ended when she perceived Visthuun through Dizra’s Eye. Muqaddasat claimed that Visthuun was an ancient enemy once “broken upon Azukhan’s wrath” and that the world itself had been wounded in the struggle. Believing the Eye had allowed Visthuun to see Razekah for the first time in ages, she invoked Jazriq, Lord of the Final Gate, the Huraz name for Jhadric, and transformed herself into a celestial executioner.
The Phalanx defeated her after a prolonged battle. Assad recovered Razekah from its pedestal and carried it away from Thunderwake. During the journey home he later encountered Azukhan in an experience that crossed the boundary between dream and physical reality. Azukhan warned him that the blade’s acceptance did not prove his worthiness and that leadership could not be created by fear or inherited claim. He also suggested that an enemy he had once struck down might never have been fully defeated.
The Phalanx returned to Arkrist with Razekah and the other recoverable artifacts from Thunderwake. By that point, Assad possessed the blade his family had sought, Dizra carried an artifact of Azukhan’s ancient enemy, Lucious carried Quorr’s temporal masterwork, and Xanthos remained responsible to the Aegis for watching several of the powers now traveling with the group.