The Kompanions woke refreshed from their rest after there adventures in and around the lost dwarven adamantine mine. They packed up and began the long flight back to Vanessas’ Lament. With only one encounter in the boglands with a vampiric vapor creature, the party returned to the Temple of Chaos near Woodhurst. Several months ago, they had buried a large quantity of alchemy fire under the road and then used mud to rock spell to conceal it. It was intended to ambush Lord Willem but things didn’t work out quite that way. The party, having invested a lot of money in the procurement of the flaming liquid death, wanted to retrieve the stuff. However, there’s a problem.

A number of strange naked people were running around the site. They seemed unable to speak any intelligible language and one of them was chasing another with deadly intent. After use of their formidable magical capacities, the Kompanions determined these people were formerly animals and had been polymorphed into humans. They also determined that the area where the battle with the Great Druid and Lord Willem occurred was being warped by a swirling storm of Chaos. After bringing in Akbar’s army of skeletons, it was decided that Pompous and Tyrius would stay in Woodhurst for a while to retrieve the alchemy fire and work on improving the situation of the locals in Woodhurst.

The Kompanions returned to Vanessa’s Lament where they took the destroyed adamantine golem to their master smith, Fasulfr. They also asked him to take a look at the ore they had acquired at the mine. He determined he could reuse the materials and could refine the ore however it would require a considerable investment in a bloomery.

The Kompanions returned back to the temple and traveled through the Hall of Infinite doors to Nightside. They had several business transactions to make. They picked up the completed ioun stones from the wizard/gemologist. One of their primary intentions was for the party to go visit the odd biomechanical humanoid creature that had constructed a lab in one of the dungeons below Nightside. They went off to visit the wizard Gitrix who owned that particular entrance to the undercity.

When the Kompanions arrived at the home of Gitrix, they noticed a chimney had been built in the middle of his garden. Gitrix had been, in previous encounters, somewhat annoyed by the interruption of his studies and charged a high fee for those who sought to use his entrance into the dungeons. In this instance, he was quite happy to allow the use of the door and did not ask for a fee. Piquing their suspicions, the party used their magic to check Gitrix out. He did indeed have some sort of enchantment placed on him but it was unclear what that enchantment was.

Entering the dungeon, the air was very hard to breath. It stank of sulfur, smoke and death. Reaching the first room where the Kompanions had defeated a pair of ettercaps some time ago, they came across a group of mechanical automatons. Most of them were smaller than a human, had an egg shaped body with some sort of central lens and big crab like claws. Two larger machines had a spout with a small flame coming from their bodies and crab like claws similar to the smaller machines. Another new addition to the room was a machine which had a large chute on one end and a small drawer on the other. There was a great deal of blood, hair and bits of flesh around the chute end of the machine. The automatons did not immediately attack the party but were moving in their direction. The adventures quickly held up the ingot of adamantine they had acquired from the abandoned dwarven mine. The machines stepped aside as the party made their way deeper into the dungeons.

As they moved on, the air became harder still to breath. Two of the party’s ioun stones eliminate the need for air and the fighters made use of them. Moving from room to room, it became apparent that visiters to this part of the dungeon were very welcome. The party came to learn that the bizarre biomechanical creature was named Crux and it was processing adventurers seeking treasure in the dungeons and processing them into organic raw material for its creations. There was some interest in simply attacking it, however, its usefulness and skill as an artificer stayed the hand of “justice”, for now. The Kompanions, made their trade with Crux. They gave him the ingot and in return it provided them with information and a map of the deepest level of dungeon that could be accessed directly from The Shaft. From there they returned to Rexor’s villa. They had a tea party to prepare for.

The Kompanions had engaged a spy to keep an eye on the wizard Tarix.  Tarix is an old business associate and powerful wizard who had fled from their home world to “retirement” in Nightside where he could study and practice the magical arts related to travel. The spy had learned he was mostly a home body but did go out to dine with some of the more prominent residents of Nightside. The party decided to surprise him by inviting him over to meet the new neighbors. They sent a messenger with an invitation which he readily accepted. The messenger was explicitly instructed not to tell Tarix who the new neighbors were.

The party received their guest who did not seem to be surprised at all. He came with a few of his personal servants and not his usual guardians. The Kompanions and Tarix had a pleasant conversation over an extravagant meal provided by Rexor. Rexor feeling that he was in need of some redemption asked how he could have the demon armor he’d been wearing removed. Tarix replied that it could be taken off with a remove curse spell. Akbar, they learned, has the magical knowledge necessary to perform the task. When it was remarked that he could have done this a long time ago, Akbar replied, “You never asked.”

The party asked why Tarix had left the prime. His response was that he felt it was likely that the planet would become overwhelmed by Chaos and it was time to get while the getting was good. He expected that the planet would become a smoking ruin; a playground for demons and other forces of Chaos and he would need a new place to keep his stuff.

Throughout the meal the Kompanions learned a great deal of important information. The region where they had been adventuring all this time was an important nexus of energies. Not only does it have a stable access point to the Hall of Infinite doors, there is also a thin somewhat permeable barrier to a realm beyond the known multiverse where strange and terrible beings lurk, seeking entry into the prime material plane. Should Chaos become too strong, it would weaken barrier allowing the awful entities entry and a great destruction would occur.

Tarix also shared his knowledge of Nightside and the dungeons below the city. Most importantly he told the party that the “treasure” at the center of the great block of stone on which Nightside sit was a mystery. He told them some of the lore of the city and its origins. The Kompanions took this information and pondered it as they decided on their first exploration of the deep levels of the under city.