On our journey to Tulvor Wave had asked Seymour about Bill as we were sure he as a demon or some other sort of evil creature.  Wave asked if Bill was part of the Caravan long?  No, Seymour said, Bill joined the merchant caravan outside of the City of Warmth. He keeps to himself mostly, but once in awhile comes to the nightly fire.  Seymour believes that Bill is one of Onapegroe’s (the dragon goddess worshiped by the red dragonborn from the City of Warmth) priests and is also her son. Seymour said the day they left the City of Warmth two of the ten servants of Onapegroe (all her children) betrayed her and disappeared. It was quite a coincidence that Bill just happened to join the caravan on that same day.

We arrived in the town of Tulvor, where we can buy these camel beasts for our journey to the Sea of Dust.  Seymour is coming with us as he is heading to the boom town of Boartore, while the rest of the caravan is heading to the Hold of the Sea Princes. We say we are heading to Ran Mould and Seymour says that Ran Mould is but a ghost town destroyed during the Sun Lich’s reign. Seymour told us the history of this place.  While many of us heard of Sun Lich we did not know many of the details – how for years the war went on between the Sun Lich and Onapegroe until the day the Sun Lich harnessed the power of the sun through his staff, creating the Sea of Dust.  Many of his armies and cultists abandoned the Sun Lich and he alone marched against Onapegroe.  Historians still believe that somewhere buried in the ruins of Ran Mould lies the Sun Lich’s sun staff. Sister is not so sure why we are travel to this inhospitable place. There was rumor that Raver, who was known for his betrayal of the Circle of Eight, disappeared into the Sea of Dust 10 years agon in search of the Sun Lich’s staff.

We ask about the travel from Tulvor to Bortore to better gauge what supplies we need and Seymour says that he has never traveled to Bortore from this direction and has hired a guide.  He did think there was an oasis on our way so maybe water for a week.  We would also need camels for travel as horses have difficulties. He said the natives of the Sea of Dust, direct descendants to the followers of the Sun Lich, we

Oberon said he wasn’t feeling well and set up his tent near the caravan to rest.  He gave Ronyn the Bag of Holding so we could buy supplies for our journey.

When we arrived in Tulvor, Pinroy announces us by his nasally cry “Traveling Priest, anyone need healing…traveling priest.”   A young boy ran up and asked Oberon to heal his grandfather, which he did and he was very grateful.  He aid his son, Jim, and his wife, Val, had been adventurers and disappeared in the Sea of Dust.  He said their house was on the outskirts of town and we were more than welcome to stay there while we were staying in town.  The house was run down but had a solid roof and Pinroy was very happy to see bats roosting in the eaves.  I promised him that I would catch him some for dinner.

We went back into town and soon discovered that everything was VERY expensive.  But we procured the rental of three camels (Pinroy calls them Bantas), 8 kegs of water, rations for both us and the camels, warm clothing, shovels, and booties for both ours and the camels feet.  The merchant said that it helps keep the vibrations down  so the sand worms can’t hunt us.  Pinroy then regaled us with the other dangers of the Sea of Dust, the shifting sand, the Bedouin that ride giant tortoises, the bitter cold of the nights.  Sister asked if we should buy wood for a fire and Pinroy said no fire as the Bedouins and other hunters of the night can easily spot us. Sister asked why we were even thinking of crossing this Sea of Hell.  I said if we want the Captain’s treasure and we want to get home.

While sister, Pinroy and I were shopping, Wave went to check on Bill.  Bill’s remaining slaves were tied to a tree and the imps were gone. He knocked on the ruse he was looking to buy something but no one was home. Beneath a blanket he found what looked like a portal.  On the dresser was a box.  When Pinroy, Sister and I arrived he was sitting with the slaves.  He said he had tried to free them but couldn’t get their manacles off. Wave told us of the portal and we decided to explore, but first we decided to see if Seymour had any healing potions because we didn’t know where the portal went.  Seymour said he wants us to capture Bill as he heard that Onapegroe has a large bounty put on her son’s head.  He would split the bounty with us and would give us four potions of superior heal if we capture him.  All we had to do was get magical manacles on him and he would be powerless.

With Sister telling us she thought this was a very bad idea, we stepped into the portal. 

Hell laid before us – demons of every shape and size were marching in a line a few 100 yards away from us.  There were tentacles grabbing dead demons and humanoids that were scattered across the landscape and shoving them in what we assumed was its maw.  It looked like a great battle took place. 

To our right was what looked like a makeshift prison was erected. Coming toward us was a demon that was 90% mouth.  He spit at us and out of his mouth popped a zombie.  We were definitely not on Oerth anymore. Without Oberion it was a tough fight and once Wave went down, but Pinroy got him back on his feet and we were able to defeat him.

There wasn’t a chance to catch our breath as a huge devil strode over to us, sarcastically clapping our victory.  He introduced himself as Chaos and said he was banished to the 502 level of the Abyss for a transgression against Prince Orcus and is stuck in the Abyss until he is allowed back in. Apparently, there was a great battle between Baphomet’s legions and Chaos.  Chaos won, and the Durgar who were caught in the middle because they were trading with Baphomet, were captured.  Chaos wanted to know where their clan home was but the Durgar refused to answer.  The wares the Durgar had on them were slowly being taking away from them in hopes to make the Durgar tell him.

Wave said we were looking for Bill and Chaos said he knew him in his true form, as a red dragon.  Bill came over and told us he was aligning with the followers of the Sun Lich.  He trades in secrets which he has many.  He and his sister secretly worked with the forces of the Sun Lich, but Onapegro found out and killed his sister and Bill escaped by posing as a merchant of the caravan.

We told Chaos that we could get the information from the dwarves if he let us talk to them.  Chaos agreed and we were led to the stockade.  The majority of the Durgar were wounded and Pinroy went to see if he could ease the wounds of the dwarves who were grievously wounded.  Their leader, Tussel, said that they only joined Baphomet’s legion to keep their clan safe.  Their clan is hidden away on this plane, which we can get to if we jump in the hole surrounded by tentacles.  We needed a plan. 

The imps were complaining how bored they were guarding the Durgar.  We needed a distraction to keep the imps busy and sneak the Durgar out.  Problem was the majority of them were wounded.  “Follow my lead,” Wave said and left the tent.  He called out to one the imps and asked if they would like to play some Three Dragon Ante.  He enticed them with a couple of shiny gems and the imps and Wave hunkered down and Wave started dealing.  When they were deep in the gambling we guided the Durgar toward the tentacles as quickly and quietly as possible. We managed to get them down the  hole without incident when we heard a fight behind us.  Wave was running toward us while a pile of imps rolled around the stockade.  As I slid down toward the others, I saw Chaos watching us with bemused smile.  I waved as I disappeared into the Durgar level.

The Durgar were overjoyed to have their warriors back and we were given a stone of recall to come back to view their wares. To show their gratitude they gave us 15,000 gp store credit.  We said we’d be back, first we had to go an capture a Red Dragon.

We arrived back in Bill’s vardo and decided to lay in wait for Bill.  We surrounded the portal and Sister was given the task of trying to get the manacles on Bill before he turned back into a dragon.  He was quite surprised to find us there and Belindapoop was on our side as Ronyn was able to get the manacles on him and the magic kept him in his human form.

In exchange for his freedom, Bill is going to led us to his lair.  We convince Seymour that we should take him up on it as it will be much more than the reward Onapegro is offering…and whose to say Onapegro would keep her end of the bargain…she is a red dragon afterall.