Helm's Answer

PROLOGUE:

The room before you fills with a white light and your minds are taken to another place. You feel that you are looking back in history to an epic location now only known by those versed in history of a faraway plane of existence known as Greyhawk.
A you follow a group of adventurer's garbed in strange but somewhat familiar dress. You seemed to have remembered seeing them before perhaps in a painting or in a book. They trudge through a swamp and end up at a small hill with several entrances. After observing them for several of their days, you now know them by the sound of their voice, appearance and name. They are:

Sonny Dawnbreaker, the Paladin of a strange god called Heironious
Feanor, an Elven Wizard/Ranger/Druid
Rax Frost, the Wizard
Oakbranch, a somewhat crazed Druid
Mr. Pink, a Thief of great renown

Wither they are there for riches or fame you feel the party has journeyed together for many adventures and are true friends. From their conversations you hear that this is the rumored resting place of an ancient archwizard turned Lich named Acererak. He is described as a creature of surpassing evil. The group enters the tomb and encounters many obstacles, over coming all of them. You yourselves see traps and puzzles that appear so devious that passing through them seems all but impossible. But this group must be lucky, or destined for something greater and they manage to get though the tomb and head into the final room. As they close into the final room, Leif almost has a stroke as the pain in his head intensifies and he screams and drops to his knees. Jax seems to recognize some of the runes on the wall as the somewhat crazed runes from the Garden of Graves in the Faewild. A wild encounter in the last room is overcome, and the jeweled skull of Acererak is discovered! The 5 friends surround the skull and ponder their next move. Rashly, Oakenbranch touches Acererak's skull and it animates! The skull rises in the air and before anyone can act it smotes Feanor dead! The remaining players crush the skull and end the undead life of Acererak! They pile the loot in bags of holding (along with Feanor's body) and leave the tomb.
Time flies by quickly now, hours become days, days become months, until finally many years have passed. The tomb is now inhabited by small rodents and other mean creatures. A rat scurrying by is zapped by some magical energy and a shade arises out of the long dead ashes of the skull. The spirit of Acererak arises, held together by nothing more than its will during the many long years, until it finally gathered enough strength to form an essence once more. It summons its long dormant magic and calls on its infernal allies for strength it was promised. First things first the evil demi-lich thinks, as it sacrifices some animals and breaks long hidden magical gems as part of the ritual. A fiery demon is summoned from the Abyss. Acererak commands it: "You are to slay every son of Rax Frost's bloodline on the eve of their 30th birthday, and enslave their souls. I will feast on his descendants and torment their souls for eternity". Acererak continues, "Mr. Pink is of elven decent and may be among the living. You will find him, and lay this curse upon him. The curse will change his luck to be forever bad, and will eventually make him penniless and destitute. Feanor died in my halls, so I will not curse him, however I will make something especially nasty for the paladin of Heironious. I now call upon my god Vecna to curse the paladin's family! They will love and care about serving their god more than other duties even to family. They will die friendless and scorned by their children. Finally, for the Druid Oakbranch, his line is to be cursed by insanity that will lead to self-destruction. I will send part of my essence into his bloodline to be tainted by me forever! As long as the taint exists I cannot be wholly destroyed! Muh Hah hah!
Your vision fades out, the Drow that are with you look at you all oddly. Rodchewer speaks, "What an odd vision, did everyone else see it too?" The party members look at each other and without a word continue onward.

The tests of Helm

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 3

Several hours have passed as the group has moved from test to test. Sometimes a challenge of skill, intellect or intuition, the party has worked well with the Drow so far. Rodchewer and Hannibal have butted heads a few times, but she has held her troops together the same has Hannibal. The party is lead to a small dining area and are given their late day meal. They are told to rest and that the test would conclude the next day. Both Hannibal and Leif and approached by separate Drow to try some "exotic" love making, only Leif decides to take a chance with Lionsrage, a strikingly tall and muscular Drow. Hannibal rebuffs the advances of Rodchewer, to her dismay.
The next day they are led to a room with a floor that consists of almost nothing but very small cracks that lead across to the exit. Below the cracks are pools of what appears to be lava, which at times seems to burst upward! They notice ropes hanging from the ceiling about 50 feet up and some odd looking material laying by the entrance to the room. The group seems to work long and hard on this puzzle and come up with s solution! They use the materials to ride the wave of hot air from the lava blasts up to the ropes. Once hanging on ropes, a magical bridge appears over the lava and on to the exit. They find a chest with some gold and gems on the other side. Also inside is a magical artifact! It seems to take an interest in Leif and attaches itself to Leif's cloak as a pin or broach.
The next test finds the party in a large glade with a Sphinx in the middle. He says, "Creatures, I am the mouth of Helm. Defeat me in a timely manner and I will answer one question for the each of you, or grant you a boon. I have the knowledge of Helm and a portion of his power. If your combat runs long then you will lose 1 boon per turn for both your group and the Drow. Once you are out of rounds I will take one life per round!" Combat starts! The Sphinx is able to confuse several people a round at will with clever riddles while he fights them as well. The Sphinx is also able to animate statues with his spirit, leaving all damage behind. The party figures this out quickly and starts to break statues before the Sphinx can get to them. Eventually the party starts to run out of turns and almost everyone loses their question/boon except for Jax and Rodchewer. Jax ponders his question for a few minutes and decides to ask Helm why his family line is cursed and what does it have to do with him now? There is a shimmer in the air as he asks his question and then it leaves, the answer to be brought to him later when Helm returns it.
The party is told there is one more test before the final test of Helm. They are to go into the void to travel to the final test, but to traverse the void 16 tests of skill must be completed, covering all the skills that the party has developed over the time they have been together. They get through more or less intact, although Leif does seem to take quite a bit of random damage from failed skill checks during this puzzle. The group moves out of the void and into the final room!

Exp. gained: 3980

The Judgement of Helm

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 2

The party is hot on the trail of the Drow army that has captured Riddick. They come upon the end of the trail which has appeared to end at an underground lake. Undaunted, Jax casts a water breathing spell and they continue on. When they come up on the other side of the lake, they are ambushed by some Drow archers and warriors. After several rounds of combat they overcome their attackers. Smiling as he dies, one of the Drow says there is a nice surpise ahead of you complements of the House Tab'bar. As they travel, they are in fairly continual contact with several key figures, Ellanzo, the Justicar, and Etzheeth. Both the Justicar and Etzeeth are heading toward the group to rendezvous and join forces. They are coming from different directions so the likely hood of meeting up with one or the other is fairly good. Both are experts in traveling the Underdark.
They next come to large cave with stream running through it. On the other side of the stream is an odd looking Drow waving a vary large sword over his head as if he is challenging the group. Melee ensues and as the group gets closer they see that this Drow looks to have been once a living member of Riddick's lost House! He is wearing what was fine armor, now tattered and torn. The weapon he is wielding is exquisitely fine, and has sigils of Riddick's house as well. Once the party is in the room, a trap is sprung! Out of the water and around rocks come many other undead, following the lead of their wight captain. All were members of House Tab'bar, some appear to be little more than youths, some are aged women and men. Loth was merciless in her slaughter of Riddick's house. Luckily Jax was well prepared to fight minions, and makes short work of them. Hannibal, Lucius, and Krux destroy the wight captain and take his sword as a weregild for Riddick.
A large waterfall needs to be traversed, in which a water sprite lives, as party members shimmy down the rope to the bottom, she plays with them to try and get them to fall on the rocks below. Luckily Jax has a feather-fall spell ready to catch anyone that falls.
They continue the chase... A few hours down the road they come to a fork where the drow forces split. A small force went off the right, the rest to the left. The party decides to purse the smaller force, and after a couple of hours they come to a long lost temple. The last communication with the Justicar had him a couple hours behind the party. He warns them that they are entering a part of the Underdark that was ravaged by the spell plague years ago. As the party approaches the temple, the Drow can be seen coming out with a large sack. The Drow spot the party and head back into the temple. The party gives chase and engages them in combat in the main hall of the Temple. According to Leif this was a temple dedicated to Helm, the Vigilant One, the Great Guard and the Watcher. He has long been seen as deity who impartially judges those that deserve so.
Part way though the fight the image of Helm appears! He speaks through a huge avatar: "Interlopers, Agents of Good and Evil! You have defiled my temple!" The image before the party has them quaking and some go prostrate. All fighting ceases... "You will now suffer my wrath", Helm speaks. He continues, "I curse you to pass the test of Helm! Pass or become my servants in the afterlife to serve me until the world is unmade". Leif and Jax, both learned in the ways of religion, know that the Test of Helm is a curse given to two fighting people or groups that upset Helm for some reason. Most fail to pass the test since co-operation and trust is required to pass the test. Helm bellows: "The first test is combat!" and with that he attacks both the party and Drow. Rising up from the floor are four pillars, after several rounds they find the trick is to figure out how each pillar is aligned and then have the correct person stand on each pillar. This weakens the Aspect, and eventually they defeat it.
The surviving Drow are composed of 3 females, Rod Chewer (the leader), Reethtar, and Lion's rage. The male is introduced as Landon. The females berate Landon and beat him constantly when they are angry, which is often. It seems your new mates are a rough bunch.

Exp. gained: 2850