A Dragon's Wish – Aftermath
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Even if the spirit of Kavorquian had not actually been with you, one of the Gods must have been smiling down on your party.  The battle went from bad to worse.  First, despite your best efforts, Prince Jaggar still got the drop on you, stealing the last component -- and Darkstar's hand along with it -- for the spell, then sealing himself in a prismatic sphere where he remained unaffected by your best efforts to disrupt his task.

Fortunately, Bensarian, Rankin, and Pep's combined knowledge of the arcane was enough to crack the magical combination lock of his incantation, though not before Jaggar was able to raise the lich-like form of Luminac under his control.  Even once the sphere was dispelled, the combined might of Halfdan and Thurn barely seemed to affect the wizard as he led the dragon on a rampage against the rest of the party.

Your mages' most powerful spells had no effect, and even the powerful might of Donovan, Daria, and Serena seemed easily deflected by the dracolich's impenetrable exterior -- only the savage force of Darkstar's blade Scorbane, the slayer of Red Dragons, seemed to be bringing the dragon down.  In response, Luminac unleashed his full fury on his aggressors, reducing Datria to a pile of ash, and nearly ending the lives of many other party members, including Donovan.  A follow up barrage of icy undead talons and fangs and a final ram from the dragon's tail were enough to nearly end Darkstar's days and send him hurtling, unconscious into the volcano's chimney.

Prince Jaggar, sensing his position was not optimum, attempted to acquire a better vantage with a sly escape by shadow walking out of his portable hole.  Quick thinking on the part of Rankin helped to locate the archmage in the shadow world and allowed Tornado and Thurn to position themselves when he reappeared.  The gemstone dragonheart which Jaggar held in his hands was obviously the focus of Jaggar's spell.  Halfdan rightly presumed that it was through this that the wizard was able to control the dragon, and upon his re-appearance, Halfdan quickly knocked the heart from the Glantrian's hands.  In that moment, however, Jaggar informed them what a foolish mistake that was...  Luminac was now free of all restraints!

Hoping to regain control of the situation, Bensarian bravely leaped out to grab the heart.  However, as soon as he touched the heart, the pure evil of its nature caused a massive system shock to pass through the aging sage's form, and Bensarian collapsed to the floor on the verge of death.  Assuming his own nature would not conflict so harshly with the evil nature of the dragonheart, Rankin followed suit, grabbing the heart.  He assumed correctly, and though he was shocked by a blast of raw malevolence, he remained conscious and focused.

However, Rankin terribly underestimated the will and concentration necessary to overpower Luminac's fearsome drive now that he had tasted freedom once again.  Despite his best efforts, Rankin was unable to regain control of the beast, and Luminac leaped across the caldera, biting deeply into the mage before tossing him in the air and swallowing the wizard and heart in one bite.  Rankin fell lifelessly to the floor through the dracolich's exposed ribcage, however the heart was nowhere to be found.

It was at this point that Luminac began his villain's exposition.  It was he who had been behind everything from the start.  He had played the part of Kavorquian's ghost while simultaneously appearing as Tulwin to the likes of Sarrah, Erren, Tarrayo, and Merkul.  He had carefully arranged the gathering of all of the components necessary to return him from the extra-planar prison in which Kavorquian had placed him many decades before, playing on Jaggar's ambition as well as your resourcefulness to bring his plan to fruition.  He had even gone so far as to fake Genivive's death while coordinating the growing forces of the Shadow Elves and the Denagothians so that he would have an army ready to do his bidding, and a kingdom in chaos ready to conquer.

But the dragon's arrogance also proved to be his downfall.  Just as he used his stone of controlling earth elementals to re-open the sealed caldera and began his flight to freedom, Daria leaped to his back and with one mighty blow, felled the beast!

.....

Even as the last of Luminac's bones clatter down to the stones at your feet and into the volcano's chimney, Prince Jaggar shifts forms to that of a red dragon and leaps skyward and through the re-opened caldera.  Amidst the rain of scales and bone, none of you are able to stop him.

As you take a brief moment to survey the carnage, you are surprised to find yourselves thinking how amazingly unscathed you came through this... considering the alternative.  But your respite lasts only a few breaths.  Even as Rankin's pocket dragon, Ancalagon, comes flapping madly up the entranceway, you hear the cries from the passage behind him.  Rankin looks to his familiar and in an instantaneous silent exchange sees what Ancalagon has seen.

The mage is quick to action, a terse command word launches the seed of a fireball from his staff and lofting silently down the passage the way Ancalagon came.  "Quickly!" he bellows as the fiery blast detonates with a thunderous roar.  "Find the stone that was in Luminac's paw or none of us are leaving here alive!"

At once you recall Luminac's final words, "...  The Shadow Elves below will be arriving momentarily..."  Despite your weariness, you all leap into action again.  The sounds of the Shadow Elves darkly lyrical speech begins to reach your ears as they move nearer.

"We spotted at least twelve-hundred of those mud-pointies in the chasms!" Thurn reminds you, hoping to spur you on as only a dwarf can.  "With Thunder Eye, I can only be sure to take three-score or so myself!"

Bensarian is the one who finally locates the stone.  Gathering his remaining will, he calls down the Earth Elemental which had opened the caldera to seal the passage through which you entered.  The bulky form motions its arms, and a wave of rock begins to seal over the tunnel.  The cries of agony from within tell you just how close they were.  Even as Bensarian directs the Elemental to begin sealing the chimney entrance, you know that this is only a temporary reprieve.

"Like all Elves," Darkstar says, rubbing at the pink flesh of the new hand created by the magics of the Elvenstar, "our Dark Cousins are strong in magic.  Such a barrier will certainly not hold them back for long."

"What is the next step?" Jet asks.

"We can't possibly leave all this treasure here!" Donovan cries.  "And the rest... the gold bars!  There was nearly a million in that vault!"  His pain is obvious, though you'd like to think it has something to do with the loss of his lieutenant, Datria.

"He's right, of course..." Bensarian affirms.  "... even if possibly for the wrong reasons.  To leave such potentially powerful magic behind to fall into the hands of our adversaries would be very unwise.  A beast such as Luminac would certainly have acquired at least a few items which I would not want in the possession of my enemies."

"Here!"  Serena motions to the floor at her feet.  "The Prince left behind his portable hole ."

"Between that one and mine--"  Pep draws the fold of black 'cloth' from her pouch and tosses it on the floor near the hoard.  "--we might just be able to get most of this out of here!"

"We are still going to need an exit," Halfdan reminds everyone, looking skyward.  "It seems that our adversary probably had the right idea.  Can we scale or magic our way out?"

"I'm certain," Darkstar says, with a sidelong glance at Rankin, "that some of us have been reserving a way out of here.  Of course, anyone who might want to lay claim to any piece of what this beast--"

"DEAD beast!" Scorbane, Darkstar's sword, pipes in.

"--might have accumulated, will have to cooperate," the elf finishes.

"Unless, of course, he'd like to finish things right here and now," Genivive offers, flicking idly at the hilt of her sword.

Rankin shakes his head, the best pained expression he can muster on his face.  "You guys have me all wrong!  I don't know what it will take to convince you, but you've really got me all wrong.  Of course I'll help!"

"As long as he does not know what is hidden in that pile," Jet says under his breath.  "He's as bad as the thief!"

"I resent that!" Donovan cries.

"Enough!" Halfdan bellows.  "It was not my intention to start a round of petty mud-slinging.  I, for one, would rather die my noble death another day!  My wife and unborn son await me, and I would very much like to return to my domain to see them.  Not to mention that I aim to provide General Gevren's forces with a fight the likes of which they've never seen!"

"I must agree, Your Majesty," Bensarian says.  "Viscount Rankin has agreed to subject himself to the justice of his peers to answer for his misdeeds, and I'm certain he will.  I suspect that his contributions, just now, to the disruption of the plot laid out by his main source of backing may result in an 'unfriendly welcome' on his return to Talonbluff."

"Yes, yes, all that's fine," Rankin mutters with a nonchalant wave.  "Let's just get what we can into the portable holes before Donovan pockets it all.  Once we get back to your place we can take care of any 'details' we need to..."

Genivive steps forward.  "Fine, let's get Rankin, Pep, and Bensarian seeing what they can do about mustering up enough magic to fly us out of this place.  I'll take a peek upstairs to make sure the coast is clear, and the rest of you get to work shoving what you can into those holes !"

"What about the gold bars?" Donovan asks, his voice quivering.

"I don't see a choice," Genivive says.  "We're going to have to leave them and come back for them later."  She turns to look at Rankin once again.  "Because even though they're on the soil of the Viscounty of Pelamon, I'm sure that we can work out a mutually beneficial arrangement."

Darkstar smirks.  "Well, Your Majesty, if you happen to hit any diplomatic stumbling blocks with the Viscount, here, I'm sure that the Empire of Alphatia would always be interested to know we've located one of their ancient treasuries."

"Now, now!" Rankin cries.  "Let's not get out of control, here.  I'm sure we can work something out to benefit all parties involved."

"Ah, there's always plenty more gold where that came from!" Thurn snorts.  "Damn humans can't mint worth a damn, anyway..."

"There is too much talking and not enough action, here," Halfdan states.  "Let's move."

"Ok, but if anyone happens to find my hand... I'd like it back, please..."

.....

You return to the friendly lands under Queen Genivive's control post-haste.

The next stage is to decide what you are going to do about Rankin.  And it gets more complex than just a simple punishment.  I'm afraid, Herr Viscount, that it appears that you have already returned from your adventure.  Yes, an impostor (a puppet of Jaggar, you presume) has taken your throne.  In conjunction with this and the loss of both Folowan and Leptus, forces loyal to you have ceased to exist.  There's no sign of Groln, but you're guessing that he's moled his way in somewhere and is likely still in the Viscounty.  At any rate, the word is that you are to be stopped on sight (no mean task, but you're certain that the Prince has probably accounted for that... somehow).  Looks like you may be hanging out on Wendar's side of the border for a while... if they'll have you.

In the meantime, based on Luminac's final words you know a fight is brewing.  You can expect trouble from Denagoth (and therefore likely Lamnun) in short order, as well as the Shadow Elves.

And one last thing...  You all have the same dream the night you return to Wendar.  You are back in the volcano, standing over the body of Luminac, and something is nagging at you...  Something terrible that you've forgotten.  When Luminac chewed up Rankin, he also swallowed the gemstone dragonheart which was the focus of Jaggar's spell, but while Rankin came out, the heart did not...  Was the heart magically absorbed?  Did it simply become stuck or magically anchored in the dragon's body...?  You realize, with a feeling of horror, that you simply don't know where the heart is...  The heart which contained the essence of the dracolich's spirit...  Did it fall into the volcano?  Was it absorbed by the skeleton?  Is is simply lying there, out of sight... waiting for the Shadow Elves or someone else to stumble upon it...?  If Luminac could beat death once by surviving trapped in a ring for nearly a century, couldn't he beat it again...?

And next time, he might be angry...