A Beautiful Place to Live

For many, the city of Verbobonc is an ideal place to live. A free town that answers to no higher lord. A center of commerce that is small enough to remain a close-knit community. A place of charm. Yet it also seems to be a magnet of evil. The Temple of Elemental Evil. The Cult of Tharizdun. Horrors yet unknown. After the most recent threat--Tharizdun--was eliminated, for instance, everyone was prepared to settle in for a period of peace and prosperity. Yet a new evil had already taken root in the bowels of the city. An alien evil. It tried to hide for a time, but eventually tendrils of its spreading foulness began to show. The city's leaders sent brave souls to investigate, but none were heard from again. Finally the master of the Silver Consortium himself was able to divine a name: Aerin. It turned out one of the champions who had defeated the Cult of Tharizdun had not escaped the enterprise untainted. Juelihm gathered the powerful personages of the city--Ingish Blackhand, the druid Reshaph, the bishop of the cathedral of Pelor, champions from the new church of St. Hadrian, Mia Dragonslayer--and headed into Aerin's foul lair to expell him from their fair city. He had dug himself in deep, and in the end it was the recalled hero Degolar who made the difference. Aerin was defeated, banished to the alien plane that had already seized his soul. And Verbobonc was once again free from evil. For now.