August 11, the One with the Racist Dwarf

The group returned to Wolfridge Crossing (after being delayed by a spiderbite) to find the town being defended by a group of dwarves from Darmagon called the Homeland Guard, led by one Tharkon Steadfast, a gray-bearded member of the Dwarven Inquisition. The Inquisition was created to protect the dwarves from wizards and the fey, and some in the party felt Tharkon took his job a little too seriously - he had banned armed fey from the city (much to the consternation of Baiden and the rest of the party when they encountered Sharnok the dragonborn guard), and was generally dismissive of Baiden and Idilai as fey, Vensil as a wizard and Anvar as a member of the intrusive Garden of Sand. In addition, he had closed Vensil's shop for being accused of a place to harbor witchcraft and sorcery.

Mayor Creen seemed unable to stop the dwarves (and not particularly interested in doing so). The Homeland Guard was investigating lost portals in the area, so the party decided to prove itself as defenders of Wolfridge Crossing by going to help the dwarves close down an old portal that once belonged to a halfling cult called the Underfoot who once worshipped demons and the dark dragon goddess Tiamat in the area.

On their way to the location of the rumored portal stone, the group was accosted by a witch named Severell, an eladrin working for the fey mistress hunting Anvar. She, along with a group of phase spiders, wilden (tree creatures), and a dark archer trapped the party at a river crossing. The party defeated them and moved on to investigating the portal stone.

Finding the fallen tower in whose basement the stone once stood, the party descended into the basement. Anvar headed down the hall, but when a voice asked "Who goes there?" Idilai was unable to convince them that she was Anvar and that Anvar was Severell.

July 28, The One with Pleiades and the Poorly Hatched Idea

The group lowered itself into the deathtrap below. Idilai tried to convince them that she was the elf they were looking for . . . to no avail. Valandra exploded out of the box, and combat commenced.

During the fight, with the enormous warforged named Pleiades and a halfling in a gatling-ballista, Pleiades was revealed to be some half-warforged, half-minotaur monstrosity unlike anything you had ever seen.

Defeated, the players returned to Inyela Ironblossom for their reward, which included some custom tailoring from her husband Tarl.

The group then set out for Wolfridge Crossing.

July 21, The One With All the Gambling

After leaving Faelmane Bowertop, the group continued its search for Celedur Ironblossom. After much searching, with the help of the information gleaned from Faelmane's research assistant Fezik Starmantle, the group was able to gain entrance to Vance's. It took the group two trips to Vance's to get the info needed to hunt down Celedur. Apparently, a warforged loan-shark named Pleiades might know where he was, but Pleiades had gone underground. Vance, an eye-patched debonair elf who was an avid gambler, knew where he was. He gambled with Idilai, losing a finger, and revealed the last known location of Pleiades - a warehouse in the Fontis neighborhood.

When the party got there, they found it guarded by elves and warforged, whom they quickly dispatched, to lower themselves into the basement, where Pleiades waited.