The heroic ones stayed in Mithrandar for several months healing the hurts received in the quest for the Wyrmskull Throne. When it was time to leave, winter had already arrived and the sea was frozen all the way to shore. The heroes made the journey from Mithrandar to shore on foot, taking a full month to do so. It was hard traveling, but with the spiritual and medical aid of Unrau, who was now back to his non-feebleminded self, no limbs had to be amputated due to frostbite. Phil noticed that some of the stars in the sky were gone. Very strange indeed.
Upon reaching the shore, the heroes came across a city larger than any that they had seen before. It was called Stormgate and offered shelter from the winter's cold. After gaining lodging at the Fair Warrior Inn, a place run by Handsome John, the heroes were amazed to see their old friend Sir Fightsalot. He was sent out from Glantry to `go south and fight the enemy', which he did, bringing him to the southern tip of continental Glantry. Here he ran into a dragon that killed and ate his horse and sent him fleeing until he came to Stormgate.
As the old friends were rekindling their warm feelings for each other, a strange old man was being bullied by a drunk. The heroes put an end to this, and learned that the old man was a lunatic spreading the word of an evangelist named Master Enoch, who would save your soul for a few pieces of gold. The old man hurried off to continue his good work just as Torg was making his moves on a distressed young lady sitting alone at a table. It turned out that her name was Joanna and her brother, Durgan, had been missing for several days and no one would help her find him. The heroes decided that they would help, if only so that the amazing one could make a suitable impression on the fair damsel in distress.
The next morning the company, except Sir Fightsalot who was in a meeting of some sort, followed Joanna to her brother's home and guessed that he was abducted and dragged into the sewer. The heroes, having no fear whatsoever of raw sewage, leapt into the sewer in search of Durgan. After wallowing in the sludge for a few hours, the party ran into a pair of nooglioitoids who killed and ate Torg. The nooglioitoids were eventually killed, and at the request of his girlfriend the heroes hauled the lifeless Torg with them so he could be resurrected. They quested on and found Durgan, but to their distress he had been rendered feebleminded. As they were preparing to leave the sewer, they were attacked by a hideous creature that looked like a cross between Yoda and a snarling abominable snowman. Battle occurred and the evil beast was killed. It was noted that the body of the beast was clothed in the tatters of a uniform of some sort.
The heroes got back to Janine's house where the washed the sewage off of themselves and prepared to take Torg to a priest to be brought back to life. The heroes all sacrificed their amassed fortunes plus many of their magik items to pay the resurrection fee, but it was well worth it. They then went to see the sermon of Master Enoch. It was very convincing; Phil, Kain, Unrau, and Joanna all realized that Master Enoch was showing the true way and was deserving of all of their money. Mr. Wind and Josephine realized that he was a fraud that was somehow taking advantage of their gullable friends.
The next morning while Phil, Kain, and Unrau were already waiting for Master Enoch's evening sermon, the heroes picked up Torg, who was alive but in need of much recovery. They then went out in search of Gaston the Old, who instead of being wise sage-like man who they were expecting after Handsome Pete's description turned out being lunatic who had ideas that were even crazier than those of Master Enoch. A discussion between Gaston and Phil regarding the truthfulness of Master Enoch's teaching quickly digressed into a session of name calling and the heroes decided to leave Gaston and find clues elsewhere.
They found out that Sir Fightsalot's meeting, from which he never returned, was with Janine at the warehouse that she runs. The heroic ones went to the warehouse where they were lured into a trap that resulted in mind flayers attacking the heroes as they waited in the lobby of the warehouse. The alien beasts were driven off and a map was recovered from one of their bodies. The city guard was called by Janine, who was a high standing business woman in Stormgate. The heroes fled to the inn where they looked at the recovered map until the inn was stormed by the police. Having little other choice, the heroes left the recovering Torg and leapt into the sewer opening in the bathroom of the inn, since the map apparently showed access to areas of the sewer.
They made their way in the sewer to a place just beneath Janine's warehouse. Here the heroes found a pool of mind flayer larvae. Unrau disturbed the sensitive mind flayer ecosystem by allowing raw sewage to contaminate it. They quested on until they found a pair of mind flayers. Josephine and Joanna had their minds flayed. The mindflayers were eventually disposed of. All that was found in the lair was some notes in an unreadable language and some other papers, including pamphlets from Master Enoch. Behind a strange barrier, the heroes found Sir Fightsalot.
Unknown to the rest of the heroes, Torg was arrested at the inn and was being picked on by his cell mates as the mind flayer battle was going on. Durgan was also arrested, but was too feeble-minded to care.
So there they were. They had sold all of their belongings and spent all of their money to bring Torg back to life so that he could be arrested and possibly executed. They had no money or extra weapons. Josephine was dead and her brain, damaged as it was, had been eaten. Torg's girlfriend was also dead. They were trapped in the sewers and in danger of getting arrested if they were seen on the streets. Things could have been worse for our heroes, but not much worse.
But it did get worse. Josephine the Ranger was repaired, but her brain was even more damaged that it previously was. Torg was rescued; this is not 'worse' in an of itself, but the tactics left something to be desired. A massive jail-break was executed complete with tunnels and attacking the guards. It was a success of sorts, with the only casualty being Durgan, who got stuck in the escape tunnel and was shot full of arrows. Not only was Torg's girlfriend dead, now her brother was too.
The Heroes fled town being guided by a voice in Sir Fightsalot's head. Actually the voice was from a strange mark that appeared on his hand. Or so he claimed. They travelled to a village that was a supply camp for the mind-flayers. All of the folk except for a few brave rebels were kept in stockades to provide food for the hungry brain eaters. More battle happened, the heroes were victorious, and the townsfolk were safe. Sir Fightsalot's hand said to continue on the mysterious quest, so off the heroes went telling the townsfolk not to worry and that they would make everything aright.
As they were leaving town, the valiant ones notices a caravan behind them. As they made progress, the caravan made more progress. One night, Mr. Wind failed to notice the followers sneak up on camp and the party was ambushed. Three vicious and strange men attacked the sleeping heroes and things looked bad. Then a very strange being that looked like a brain with legs joined the fray and things looked really bad. The foes were vanquished and their bodies were looted. A box of rings and jewelry was found among the villains complete with the fingers of their previous owners. So much for the village being safe while the heroes were on the job.
Fightsalot's hand convinced them to travel on until they came across a huge crater. A small cave was found that led them several hundred feet below the ground. Here they found a mysterious boat. It's mysterious aire was mostly due to the fact that it was in a cave below the surface. They also found a mind flayer vampire. It was very unpleasant, with Torg and Mr. Wind being weakened considerably during the encounter. Torg almost became the undead antihero. The party decided that while they liked mind flayers little, they liked undead mind flayers even less. The badly beaten adventurers discovered the secret to the mysterious boat, and are currently flying through space with little control of the ship and little knowledge of what is going on and what to do about it...
But the heroes needed no knowledge or control. Things happened anyway. They talked to the disembodied brain that was flying the ship. They could think of nothing important to talk about, so the brain got bored and ignored the party for the rest of the trip.
After flying through a cluster of space slime, some critters found their way into the ship. Torg picked up one of these `helper spores' and investigated it enough to decide that maybe they weren't helpful after all. By this point, the valiant ones came to the same conclusion and were being slain by these decidedly unhelpful spores. The little critters that Torg was looking at had grown into huge hell-spawn beasts. The heroes were doing badly. Very badly. Most were dead, the rest of them dying. An act of divine intervention was required to keep the beasts at bay (literally. They went and hid in the cargo bay). Torg's `helper spores' managed only to help Torg to an early demise. He will be mourned.
After many sleep cycles, the ship landed in a strange land - the Strange Planet. There, the heroes met strange people. Mr. Wind, in a rare act of brilliance, discovered that the navigator brain could talk to both the strangers and the party. Thus, communication was possible. The heroes were led to the capital village in the land and met the leaders of the community, including Unter the chief. The only problem was the expected mind-flayer attack. And oh yeah, the space critters that by now had probably figured out that the ship's door was open and they could leave and become helper spores in a new and vulnerable ecosystem.
The valiant ones heard from Fightsalot's hand that the `Annulus' was a mysterious, magik item that would save not only the Strange Planet, but all of the worlds everywhere. And it might get them home, too. The only person who might be able to guide them to the Annulus was Hollerath, the shaman. Unfortunately, Hollerath had just recently been captured by the evil Vivimancer. The heroes heroically volunteered to rescue Hollerath and rid the Strange Planet of the Vivimancer. They were lent `Asudath', the heirloom sword of Unter, and were sent off with Tarabumara, Unter's son.
On their way to meet the Vivimancer, the valiant ones found many people who were apparently under his control. After much stealth, they found the Vivimancer's lair and proceded inside. There were many fell beasts and traps and the tragic casualties included Tarabumara. This would be difficult to explain to Unter. But they did manage to defeat the Vivimancer and rescue Hollerath. And eventually, the people under the Vivimancer's control regained their personalities. So the heroes returned to the village with many rescued villagers. They explained how valiantly Tarabumara died (most of the explanation was true to some degree), and while Unter was saddened, he took comfort that his son died in battle, approximately.
With his full recovery, Hollerath shared all of his inconsiderable knowledge of the Annulus. It seems that there was a local hero - Eric, who had lost the Annulus. He found it deep beneath the surface of the Strange Planet, where he died confronting the `unredeemed beast' who had claimed it. So simply enough, the heroes were to find the hole where Eric had descended into the planet and succeed where he failed. Easy.
Not easy. Even descending the hole almost proved too difficult. There was not enough rope and it was much to far to drop. By tying all of the ropes together, plus some rags and scraps of garbage, the heroes descended into the bowels of the planet. Here they met Forager and Conroe, the only survivors of a recent expedition. The remainder of their crew were killed off by a breed of horrible mantis-like creatures. They couldn't climb back out of the hole (no rope), so they decided to battle the Matisses and hope for the best.
The best was only barely good enough. Conroe was killed and eaten. Everyone else was badly hurt.
At this point it should be pointed out that anyone who the heroes befriends, falls in love with, or just casually meets on the street seems to have a much, much better than even odds of dying.Amidst the garbage of the mantis' nest there were a few survivors. They were people, but people who had evolved underground and had no eyes. But they were grateful to be saved and agreed to help the valiant ones. The heroes responded to this gracious offer of help by accidentally dropping bundles of burning garbage into the shaft that led to the survivors' home.
The fire was put out, ropes were found to descend the shaft, and the heroes met Inanun, the leader of this subterranean community. They were allowed to stay the night, then were given access to the `forbidden room', where the heroes were sure their quest must continue from...
But the quest almost ended, rather than continued, in the `forbidden room'. The door was opened for the heroes to enter - after a secret knock was agreed upon so the successful heroes could leave - and they were immediately set upon by a horrible monster. It was a huge, powerful man-shaped beast that could send magik rays from its single, evil eye. The `unredeemed beast' was very, very appropriately named.
After receiving as many hurts as they gave, the valiant ones defeated the unredeemed beast and found the Annulus and were transported to a place stranger than all of the other strange places they had seen put together. They were on a large, donut-shaped spaceship filled with mind flayers. A space battle was taking place that would decide the fate of the entire universe. If the mind flayers won, a great and permanent darkness would fall over all of creation. The heroes met an ally who was a human who had taken the form of a mind flayer to infiltrate the dark forces of the enemy. It was him who took the Annulus and used it to destroy the space craft. The mind flayers were unhappy about this and killed Forager in their anger.
So the heroes saved the world again. Or rather, they were standing nearby while others saved the world again. They were swiftly transported back to Glantry City where they received the commoners welcome that they so richly deserved.