As the fallen fane is redeemed, the heroes have a brief vision that they are in a forest, staring up at a giant white stag. The stag is 30 feet tall at the shoulder. Its antlers are living saplings, and green vines grow around its legs. Despite its incredible size, it moves with supernatural grace. Its huge eyes gleam with intelligence, and its entire bearing is that of a mighty and noble creature. The grim white stag bends forward and touches Arthas with its antlers. Suddenly, the rest of the party is back in the abandoned temple, and Arthas is gone! This isn't the first time that the paladin has disappeared, and the stag seemed benevolent enough, so the other heroes decide to continue their mission. Elaryan shares some intelligence he gathered from some notes in a planning room in the back of temple, suggesting that the Templar headquarters is location east of the Gray Road called the Ivory Sanctum, and the companions decide to search for it. They have just returned to the Gray Road when Lor spots a huge green dragon in the sky above them. Moments later, the dragon lands, and the heroes realize that it is Ssik'Silith, and its rider is an exact duplicate of Lor. A tense conversation ensues, in which the new Lor reveals his (and Nor's) origin. When the original Lor (whom the other duplicates refer to as "The Root") drew the Twin card from the Harrow Deck , three duplicates of him were created, one for each evil alignment. The three, born with an intense hatred of The Root, conspired to destroy the party but almost immediately disagreed about how to approach the problem because of their different temperaments. Leor, the lawful duplicate, wanted to work quietly with the party's enemies-- particularly the three sorcerer-kings of Uldivai-- but Xor, the chaotic brother, craved immediate action. Xor raced ahead of the party to the Forked Pyre to negotiate with Duke Furcas, but the infernal duke was not interested in his pleas, and slew him. That left Leor and Nor alone. Leor decided to work on returning flight to the city of Uldivai, while Nor traveled to Anestral City to see if he could coordinate with the part'y enemies there. He managed to make contact with the chaos cults below the capital, but then he disappeared-- Leor assumed that Nor had been betrayed by the (always treacherous) forces of Chaos. He is rather surprised to see Nor alive and well, not to mention working with The Root! Nor however remembers none of this; his first memories are of being rescued from the thrall pods by Lor. After some skilled diplomacy by Lor, Leor decides is willing to put aside his hatred for now, if the party will help him and the sorcerer-kings regain King Rail's favor. Nor seems to be considering this proposal, but then he suddenly yells out "We can take him! Attack!" Elaryan reacts instinctively, launching a mythic fireball at Leor and the dragon. Unfortunately, however, the party has not been fully healed since the battle with Svennarobeth. When Ssik'Silith responds to the fireball with his breath weapon-- a fifty foot cone of acid-- Elaryan goes down. Seconds later, Leor calls down an unholy fire which also drops Lor. Nor decides that the order to attack may have been hasty. He uses wind walk to flee from battle, dragging the bodies of Lor and Elaryan with him. The companions flee all the way back to Anestral City. Once there, Elaryan regains consciousness, but Lor is truly dead. Worst, the party discovers that the spell that slew him was destruction , so only very powerful magic can return him to life. Unable to raise his brother, Nor feeds the lifeless corpse to his seed pod, and the heroes retire for the night. In the morning, another surprise awaits the party. Overnight, Nor's seed pod has returned Lor to semblance of life. The halfling's flesh and bones have been replaced with ropy strands of plant material, and his speech is strangely stilted. Nonetheless, Nor swears that this is his brother, returned to life. However, he now refers to him as Root, rather than Lor. Elaryan and Nor decide that the next obvious course of action is to try to unite the four versions of Lor. They decide to start with Xor, whose soul was last seen in the Forked Pyre on Avernus. They have no magical way to travel to Avernus, but they realize that the portal that they originally took there was in Uldivai, which is even now perched upon the plateau that overlooks Anestral City! Protected by invisibility spells, they infiltrate Uldivai, carefully avoiding the devils and elementals that roam its streets. They wait for a changing of the babau guard at the portal, then slip through. Once in Hell, they make their way to the Forked Pyre, where they once again confront Duke Furcas. The duke is somewhat amused by their story, so he does not immediately destroy them. Instead, he offers to return Xor's soul to them if they bring the forge of corruption to him. Nor readily agrees, and the companions plane shift back to their own plane. Everyone who played gains 1,000 XP. Furthermore, discovering his origin counts as the completion of a personal quest for Nor.
