DnDNerds!

In Llorkh, Rustle Ironbottom accepts a job from Winget Sparrow of the Black Network to protect his boss Jahan during a meeting with the Miner's Cooperative at a shady warehouse. Rustle, Neville, Zim, and Kain make plans to protect their VIP and try to find a Sleep scroll. On the evening of the meet, things go well until a hit squad shows up and kills the miners, then throws poison and shoots arrows at Jahan. The party is caught between deadly archers and unknown shady figures in the warehouse and gets into a tricky spot, while Neville makes his way outside and around to try to rescue them with the wagon. Suddenly the building itself collapses and the trapped wizards and their protectee Jahan are all crushed in the rubble! In a dramatic set of death saves, all players get to their fifth and final round - Zim perishes while Kain and Rustle pull through. Before the city guard can arrive, Neville loads all the bodies in the wagon and they make their way to Winget, who takes posession of Zim's corpse and one of the hostiles, and Jahan decides its time to take that out of town promotion he's been considering. A few days later, the party accepts a job from Gunther Strojny of the Miners Cooperative to smuggle the goliath skull they previously stole to a waiting goliath warrior, but Rustle has awful dreams where he is haunted by the dead shaman's skull and cannot rest properly, leading to exhaustion and near death.

Elior takes the lead in Llorkh, where he accepts a job from Gunther Strojny of the Miners Cooperative to recover a magical goliath skull from the Zhents. This involves a young Zhent wizard, Skylar Nazariel, who knows where the skull is held and wants to get out of town. With the help of Kain, Zim, and Neville, Elior plans the heist and also colludes with the local goliath street gang to smuggle some gems out of town. Nazariel is rescued (and her death is faked), the skull is stolen from the basement of Vince Mustachio's house, and the crew gets the gems to the fence at Oleg's trading post, returning with a cargo of copper ore (and paying hefty bribes both directions).

A new party of 1st-level spellcasters heads east towards Llorkh, led by warlock Neville Cavendish. On the way, they fight twig blights, get chased by an ogre, get extorted by some Zhent thugs, and get their horses eaten by a manticore. Upon reaching Llorkh, they go looking for a good place to set up shop and they end up purchasing a rundown inn which they rename the Manticore's Muse.

Gnome druid Jorgrim leads Arty, Swift, and Bariq to hunt down a threat from a misshapen fomorian giant near the Shrine of Lurue. On the way there they encounter some bandits, a bear, a crag cat, some giant snakes, and a few curious settlers, and they borrow some skirmishers from the village of Perfection. Once there, they interrogate a bugbear and formulate an ambush, which almost goes as planned, but the giant's evil eyes and the wicked blades of its redcap companions are a vicious threat and not every party member will survive the battle.

Dwarven death cleric Thronor leads Jhank, Artvirous, Jorgrim, and Swift Current to try and secure the hexes where the Maze of Moradin and Moradin's Forge are located, but they are attacked by the fang dragon Incyzor, who downs Jhank while everyone else scrambles for cover! Some quick thinking saves Jhank's life and the party explores looking for all the ways in to the Maze of Moradin. They explore the cave of giant bats and encounter the rust myconids, then try another way in the hopes of finding where the drow raiding parties are coming from. They conduct reconnaissance on a drow outpost and make plans to counter this threat to their nearby domains.

Jhank leads Floki, Swift Current, Thronor, and Render to the monastery of the Order of the Burning Forge, where grief-stricken widow Yulia Bronzevow detains them for the murder of her husband Gorya (Episode 34!). They face a dwarven tribunal of justice, and their sentence involves going upriver to battle foul spider-children of the demon queen Lolth!

Caradoc leads Thronor, MikMek, Render, and new kobold warlock Saurod set out to handle the remaining problems at the Golem Workshop under the house of the cyclops Harpalos. This goes terribly awry when the wraith who haunts the creepy mist observation room life-drains Saurod in a single hit. Thronor drives away the wraith but then animates Saurod as a zombie, much to his cousin MikMek's dismay. Arty joins the party as Caradoc and MikMek crawl into some steam tunnels and encounter several mephits there but eventually have to back out without defeating them. The party returns to the surface and shares treasure with Harpalos and discusses whether to build him a new home somewhere else or murder him. Leaving the problems in the golem workshop unsolved, they head west, encountering the dryad Leshanna in her grove and discussing a nearby hex with religious pilgrims. Crossing the Thorn River, they run into a storm that causes them to waste a day taking shelter. On the other side, they encounter a tree cult and sacrifice the zombie Saurod to the twisted dryad there. They track a tatzylwyrm and get into a scrap with some competitive hunters, killing their leader and scattering the others. They find and kill the tatzylwyrm and save its head, fulfilling a quest from one of the very first sessions of the campaign! Exploring further, they get into another battle with some dark fey meenlocks who have taken over a former lumber camp.

Arty leads Bariq, Jhank, and Render to Highstar Lake, where they search for the underwater bubble they glimpsed many months ago. They find an enormous bubble protected by arcane traps and considered to be the property of Sh'derra D'zeer, the amethyst dragon who claims the lakebed as her own. They go to investigate rumors that the Wererats of the Hark are building canals and stop to attack a depressed hill giant along the way.

Render the warforged artificer leads Jhank, Caradoc, Eaglebane, and Bariq to explore the ruined workshops and laboratories underneath the house of the cyclops Harpalos. On the way there they have a run-in with the stone giant Kuljarn, meet some goliath shepherds, and see evidence of ettins in the area. Harpalos welcomes them into his home and allows them in his basement on condition of bringing him back treasure. The party quickly gets entangled with a guardian wood golem, finds an enchanted oil vat and explores the ruins. A password found in the ruins allows them to avoid combat with the kitchen golems, and they find a strange viewing room haunted by a wraith. Eaglebane causes it to flee and they backtrack to explore another wing, where they once again get into a scrap with one of the guardian constructs. They send Caradoc down a privy to look for gold and find a wall safe that they can't quite crack. Big plans are made to restore the ruins to some of their former glory if they can either convince Harpalos to let them stay or, y'know, murder him...

When word reaches the higher-level characters in the western forest that MikMek was petrified in the Razorvine Ruins, wildfire druid Bariq leads Artvirous the lizardfolk ranger, Jhank the dwarven rune knight, and Jorgrim the gnome druid back eastward to try to rescue him. Along the way they encounter a hostage situation with some bandits, which they resolve with a combination of cunning and violence. At the Giant Skunk Hunting Lodge they exchange Jorgrim for the warforged artificer Render and make their way up to the basilisk-infested ruins. Relying on Jhank and Arty's blindsight capabilities, they try to take on the basilisks without getting anyone else turned to stone. However, the ruins hold a few other surprises including a gelatinous cube and a minotaur skeleton. MikMek is rescued and turned back from a statue into a kobold and the ruins are cleared of hostile creatures so that the Lowerthorn domain can try to expand here. Post-game, we have a discussion about some of our house rule systems and whether it would be worthwhile to try to publish them for other gaming groups to enjoy.