Marpenoth 7, NE 1:

Grunk returns to the Last Rest after a about a week of soul searching in the mountains with a bag full of dragon teeth and a tale of grumpy lizards and glowy rocks that make you feel all tingly inside--after some questioning by fellow adventurers, they piece together the story: Robin Adlehyde, Bronwen Fox, and Elfriede Simbledon descended into a long-abandoned dwarven mine that went deep into the earth for several days' worth of travel, finally discovering the lair of a great black dragon and its brood of wyrmlings. After slaying one of the juvenile dragons (and running into a very lost Grunk), they were confronted by its parent, but with some quick thinking and persuasive support from his party, the wizard Elfriede was able to convince it to let them pass deeper into the mines, with the promise of sharing what treasures they might find--but only after they prove themselves to be competent enough to defeat ther remainder of the dragon's spawn. After a brief and bloody fight, the party impressed the dragon enough not only for him to let them pass, but he gifted the hero who delt the final blow a magical black blade. Descending further past pools of bubbling acid and bottomless chasms, the heroes eventually discovered what a dwarven ghost referred to as "the vault" whose breaching caused the miners to flee in the face of some "ancient evil": a strange room, clearly the remnant of some truly ancient civilization, carved with glowing arcane runes and apparently possessing the power of teleportation--which the party discovered when Elfriede touched the plinth in its center and launched himself and most of his party further downward, while sending Grunk to an old stone circle in the foothills not far from the Last Rest.

Uktar 9, Year 1:

Bronwen Fox, battle-scarred and bearing a strange mechanical glove afixed to the stump of her arm, arrives at the Last Rest dragging a singed and unconscious Elfriede behind her. No one can get a clear story from her as she falls exhausted to the floor, but on the horizon over the Darkwood plumes of ash and fire can still be seen in the direction from whence she came. As for Robin, there is no sign--but once Bronwen and Elfriede muster the strength to tell their tale of Elder Architects and Ancient Dragons, his name will be sung as loudly as the rest.

Full Report:

As Bronwen and Elfriede recover from their trials, they begin to share what transpired deep below the earth.

After nearly a week of travel down an ancient dwarven mineshaft revealed by an old map that Robin discovered, their party encountered an ancient black dragon and its spawn inhabiting the main area of the mine; however, instead of immediately destroying them, it made the heroes a bargain--if they proved themselves worthy by defeating its children, it would let them pass, with the promise of sharing any treasures they found below. Agreeing to this deal, they slew the dragon's wrymling spawn and mercilessly butchered their corpses for leather and scales to ward them from the toxic vapor arising from the chasms ahead; impressed by their brutality, the ancient one rewarded Robin with a cursed black blade, and moved aside.

Traveling deeper into the mines, the party activated an alien portal that transported them to its furthest depths; despite their protective gear, the radiation emanating from the earth at this level sickened and exhausted them. It was only at the enthusiastic encouragement of an orb-bound scholar's sprit they had brought with them that they pressed onwards towards what he ensured them was a valuable repository of truly ancient artifacts created by an elder race he referred to as "the Architects." Arriving after some time at the gate of a subterranean city, the party struggled briefly against the curse of the dragon's sword, which attempted to fly from Robin's grasp rather than pass through the powerful wards under the archway. Collectively, the party managed to carry Robin with his sword through the gate, effectively banishing the evil spirit from the blade--along with that of the professor in the orb. Without a guide, the party traveled further into the vault of the architects, which appeared to be some sort of mechanic town interconnected with pulsing archanotech cables and glyphs, still humming with energy after untold eons--and at the back of the cavernous space, they found the source of the toxic waste that had spilled into the mines above: an enormous vast of glowing green plasma-like, irradiated fluid contained by a powerful protective ring of machinery and magic. They also spy the source of the breach: a massive dwarven machine, long and snake-like, with a giant rusted drill bit at its nose suspended from a giant rift in the side of the cave, the drill tip just barely touching down on the ring in a spiderwork of fine cracks from which a thin trickle of nuclear sludge is slowly escaping. Before investigating this any further, however, the heroes first had to overcome two lumbering mechanical titans that attacked them as they poked around in the vault's cogs and cables--after defeating them by severing the nest of wires connecting the hulks to the rest of the vault, the party discoverd that the two great automotons seemed to have been battery sources of sorts for the city's wards, as their destruction trigged a power grid shutdown, leaving the pit as the only source of light in the cavern. The party quickly looted as much of the ancient machinery and other relics as they could fit in their bags as they made their way towards this ominously glowing vat--and the brightly glowing relic that had appeared on a platform far above the roiling plasma.

The rest of what happened is still unclear to Brownwen and Elfriede. They discovered the tesseract, the three of them climbing up to its pedestal and witnessing the glowing, ever-shifting relic of the Architect's power and genius.

They also discovered that ancient black dragons cannot be trusted.

As Elfriede approached the relic, a tall, pale-skinned man appeared behind them, projecting an aura of impossible evil and power. The following scraps of memory can be pieced together from the chaos that then ensued:

Bronwen, understanding the threat before her, interposes herself between the figure and her two younger companions.

Elfriede, understanding the need to get to the artifact before the figure, sprints for the tesseract.

Robin, stunned by this turn of events, slowly reaches for his artificiery for something that could help.

The flash of a pale blade, a black hole of a man brushing aside the insects in his path.

Bronwen kneeling upon the pedestal with the severed stump of her arm cradled in her lap.

A spray of blood over the surface of the relic, a shifting response, an arcane connection.

Robin and V blasted out of the figure's path by wave of necrotic energy, falling through the air toward certain death below.

Elfriede, holding more power within him than he ever thought possible, the tesseract in his hand, green energy pulsing through veins illuminated beneath his skin.

The wards on the pit below vanishing as he does so, globules of nuclear plasma unburdened by the force of gravity beginning to float upwards in roiling globules.

The ancient one, his laugh echoing off the chamber walls, his long-awaited treasure before him finally unlocked, unfolding to his full draconic form, and guzzling greedily from this well of raw power.

Eldfriede coming back to himself, seeing Bronwen before him, holding out the tesseract to his friend as her lifeblood spills from her severed limb.

A connection. A rush of power. Brownwen wielding a glove of shifting metal and magic.

Robin unleashing every ounce of artificiery and arcana to keep himself alive as the acid eats at his armor and flesh, grabbing hold of the dragon's head as it plunges into the well beside him in a desperate attempt to escape.

A weapon lost to time materializing around Brownwen's arm, fueled by the power of the ancients, drawing from her own lifeforce, and bolstered by Elfriede's own magic as he channels it into the tesseract.

Chaos. Blood. The dragon's eye exploding as a lance of necrotic energy errupts from Bronwen's arm.

Robin thrown free, his mind sharpened to cool clockwork as he moves towards the dwarven machine.

A daring leap from the platform. A mad scramble for the drill's control cabin.

An ancient dragon's face, half its skull shattered and oozing acidic blood, death in its remaining eye.

Elfriede slipping as he climbs.

The dragon smashing into the drill, one massive hand crushing Elfriede into unconsciousness.

The party suspended in the air as the drill begins to slide into the well, the dragon clawing upward towards them, Bronwen gripping a limp Elfriede in her mechanical hand, the other holding onto Robin's for dear life, the dragon's mouth opening to consume them.

Bronwen and Elfriede making it to safety.

Robin falling.

Robin falling.

The dragon's maw closing around him as Bronwen slams shut the door.

A distant rumble. A flame lit in the belly of the beast.

Fire. Heat. Impossible speed.

The mountain erupting in a gout of molten rock.

Bronwen dragging Elfriede's broken body from the wreckage of twisted metal, limping through the Darkwood with the last of her strength, at long last making it to safety, and to rest.

The end of a chapter for the Black Dragon Heroes, and a song that will be sung in legends for generations hence.