Before the party made its final withdrawal from the Western encampment, Silvana, Stealth, and Pepper took a short side-trip into Lifeblood, where a grey elven priest transported in to tag their spirits for later retrieval. Meanwhile, Thorongil worked out the details of his cloning with Argon. Once all this was taken care of, the party rode west to Stronghold, the main Western base south of C-Ra, and then revved up the cloud ship for the trip north to the dwarven caverns.
As the cloud ship approached the mountains, a young adult blue dragon was patrolling around; viewed with eyes of the eagle, it appeared to have a very small rider, possibly a githirat. Several years ago, some githirats (some of whom are out to simplify their lives by killing everyone else on the plane, starting with chaotics) engaged the services of a blue dragon to kill Tremere in the desert after Hajmola had implanted a chaotic spirit in him. (Afterward, said dragon's scales were used to fashion Ganeth's armor.) Since this dragon had flown over the mountains and out of the desert, it might have been gunning for Ganeth, the granddaddy of chaotic vessels...in which case it would have been quite disappointed, except it never spotted the ship and the party got away.
At the dwarven caverns, Frankel trained ranger-7 under Thorongil. Beeel dropped one of his extra specializations in nunchaku in an attempt to learn another parry manuever, but ended up with an empty proficiency slot instead. Silvana successfully dropped musical composition and picked up direction sense and obtained permission from to dwarves to plant a grove of oak trees above their caverns (to get the grey elves from the Forest to the cavern rendezvous point after being returned from the dead), provided the dwarves get to use the wood after the elves return or ten years go by. She also learned that dwarves are partially immune to the effects of the orange gas: They die, but their souls remain free. And the party left their magic and metallic items with the dwarves for safekeeping (at least for the next millenium).
The Consortium arranged a dream conference between the party and Ganeth, where they got their plans in synch. They also paid the party a few thousand gp to ransom back the hellcat (with the cat getting 10% in exchange for its help in extracting payment from the devils). Various pieces of organic equipment were requisitioned.
Back on the altar, the Consortium took a tissue sample from G for bodily resconstruction while he used a well-timed Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer to boost his quota of spells for the mission.
The party acquired two dwarven guides to bring them to the Veins of Abbathor. The trip through the caverns was unusually quiet; the only encounter in the first few hours was with a group of fire beetles, which immediately scattered and fled. And then the party rounded a corner and encountered the Crypt King, a dwarven vampire (still in plate and battle axe, though both are quite rusty) who was once one of the dwarves' finest warriors, and his giant rat servants; he doesn't attack dwarves (though he does charm them), but he considers anyone else fair game. The Crypt King wanted either gold or the life of a party member, but got neither when Silvana summoned Tylerion to deal with the glowing-red-eyed menace. (Looks like somebody is against this little mission.)
After a bit more travel, the party met the Consortium's escort, a group of hook devils. The guides went home and the party went on, eventually reaching the dull red archway at the entrance to the Veins. On the other side of the arch were a woman in dark fur and an enameled metallic mask (the group's leader), Yves (a survivalist from Silverton), Quaz (a psionic formerly decapitated former Spider Monk, with convenient amber focus, who's the "hired guide" for the mission), a bunch of hook devils, some rather average medium warhorses, lots of supplies (including a week's worth of food for each person and horse), and a coffin (containing Ganeth, with whom no further chances were being taken).
Beeel assumed command of the mission...
"We are entering an extremely hazardous environment. We must function smoothly and efficiently, as an integrated unit. This is also the reason that the chain of command must be clear and respected at all times. I do not expect to have to give many orders, but when I give them, they must be carried out."...and chose the desert land for the party's destination. The woman unfolded a wire frame into a twelve-foot-tall dodecahedron, standing on one face. Since Ganeth was riding Undertaker Express, his item allotment was given to Pepper for the trip. The woman activated the portal, causing the dodec to fill with orange mist (and several eye-like floating spheres); she then removed three struts to create an opening for people (and equines) to step through. Which the party did. (Ganeth's coffin was shoved in by the woman; the coffin shattered, and whoever hadn't gone yet saw a flash of G before he was sucked away.)