Before these investigations begin, however, Duran became the target of a surprise attack while resting in his royal apartment. Luckily, the young priest was able to fight off his assailant, who fled into the night. But as strange as the unprovoked assault was the identity of the would-be assassin. When Duran related the tale to his friends, he confirmed that the attacker was Druga Entier-Dahl, one of his boyhood friends and, until Druga's death at the hands of an angry ettin, one of the heroes' boon companions!

A quick sending to the priests of Great Rock confirmed that Druga's remains still lay in the church cemetery, so who could this villain be? He knew too much about Duran and his past to be a simple disguise-artist, and even if so, why choose a false identity so easily disproven? One nagging suspicion lurked in the heroes' minds: If they could bring Rexander from the Shadow Realm to this world, couldn't others follow the same path? And if so, could this brutal, murderous Druga actually be the shadow version of their old friend?

But that conundrum would have to wait--the heroes still had a lost soul to find. They spent the next month tracking down every lead, whether mystical or mundane, that might aid their quest. Church elders had little to contribute, and the fact that Rexander was not a native of this reality--but rather a visitor from the Shadow Realm--limited even the usefulness of more celestial resources. Divinations confirmed that Rexander's soul had not returned to the heavens, but instead indicated that the archon was "in the shadow of great darkness."

The characters realized with some surprise that the summer solstice, which would mark the one-year anniversary of their adventure in the Shadow Realm, was almost upon them. Positing that answers to both mysteries plaguing them might well lay in that realm, they returned to Great Rock in the hopes that the thinning boundaries between light and shadow might allow another interdimensional trip. Once across the border, the characters would infiltrate the greatest bastion of darkness and evil known to them in that realm: the temple dedicated to Seth, the Dark God, and controlled by the young man of the same name.

Sure enough, as the sun set on the day of the solstice, a faint silhouette of the castle known as the Shadowhold appeared once again. With the help of their own magical powers, the characters crossed over into shadow once again, exactly one year after their first such venture. Disguising themselves as cultists of the Dark God, the heroes snuck into the shadow Great Rock and into the bowels of the Temple of Seth. Unfortunately, their search turned up no evidence of their missing comrade. However, their travel appeared not to have been in vain, as they discovered two intriguing pieces of information.

The first was an interplanar gate, clearly designed to allow travel from the Shadow Realm to the heroes' own world. The gate was still open for a return trip, suggesting that whoever had used it planned on returning. Could this be the route used by the shadow Druga? If so, it meant that the assassin was still at large in their world.

The second was an overheard reference to the "Hound of Seth." Unfortunately, without further context the heroes could only guess if this referred to a servant of the young man of that name, or of the Dark God himself, and the identity (and nature) of the Hound itself remained a mystery.

Thwarted in this avenue of investigation, the heroes returned to their world. If the "shadow" reference in the divinations didn't refer to the Shadow Realm itself, what else could it mean? Further investigation revealed the name "City in Shadow," which referred to Iego, a city stricken by plague and completely evacuated centuries before. Today, the city lay quiet in the shadow of the high valley walls that surrounded it.

Iego lay a few hundred miles to the south, but a wind walk spell covered the distance in mere hours. The heroes prowled cautiously through the crumbling city, gazing with wonder on nature's continuing efforts to erase the existence of this once-thriving metropolis. Entering a rough earthen structure on the edge of town, they discovered the building housed a mysterious being that identified itself as an oracle. Though the characters didn't know who (or what) they spoke to, they asked it about the lost Rexander. Though the oracle's answers were vague and cryptic, the heroes deduced that the "soul-napping" was somehow associated with those who wore sign of the broken ankh: a symbol once used by the cult of Seth to indicate its break with the Church of Altius.

As they heroes left the oracle, they encountered a group of humans approaching the building. During the brief struggle that ensued, they realized that the "humans" were actually serpent-blooded yuan-ti. Capturing one of the snake-men, the heroes questioned it about the yuan-ti's presence here. The scaled creature admitted that the yuan-ti all but ruled the ruined city, but also revealed that the worshipers of the Dark God had a presence here as well. The two evil forces, while perhaps not entirely allied, appeared to have a truce of sorts--the yuan-ti allowed the cultists to keep a base of operations secreted in the ruins in exchange for unspoken favors. The yuan-ti scoffed at the cultists' dedication to "a mere child," insisting that the serpentfolk's ancient deity Merrshaulk was the only true power of evil.

After a few days of preparation, the heroes were ready. The frustrations of their mission weighed heavily on their minds--in short, they were itching for a good fight. They hit the cultists' headquarters hard, not letting up until they reached the subterranean temple dedicated to the Dark God himself. There, they met heavy resistance from battle-raging guards, stealthy priests of evil, and other powerful foes, all of whom wore the broken-ankh symbol they had been warned of by the oracle. Weeks of pent-up aggression were released in minutes, and soon the temple lay empty of enemies.

In searching the documents left behind by the cultists, the heroes discovered references to themselves, noting that "the yuan-ti are in possession of an ally of our foes--perhaps a trade is in order?" Could this be the crucial clue to Rexander's whereabouts? Did the object of the heroes' quest lie close at hand, held by the vile serpentfolk right here in Iego, the City in Shadow?