The party discusses our future travels, and argues about going to Rauxes. Ulmor and Errol would prefer to stay locally for a while, while the others argue for Rauxes. We eventually decide to get horses and head inland to the mines.

We get horses and provisions. As we return in the evening, we see a tussle in an upstairs window. There is a small man and a large man (who is armed with a knife). The large man falls out the window, but Fritz and Errol make him fall more slowly. After he lands, the big man shouts, "Stop him! Stop the thief!" As Lili goes to look after the big man, Errol climbs the wall and gives chase. The small man jumps through a window and onto the rooves. Errol and Gustav give chase. Three-quarters of the way across the city, the small guy falls through a roof. Errol follows and finds that he is still alive. He has claw marks on his left shoulder.

The rest of the party arrives. After we notice that the door has been securely nailed shut, Ulmor goes in through the roof (painfully). Errol and Ulmor fail to open the door with the crowbar the guy was carrying. Finally, with the help of freezing and Ulmor’s axe, the door is broken open. Soon afterwards, the guard arrives and relieves us of the prisoner.

When we get back to the big man’s house, we let the guards at the door know that we have run down the thief. We find out that the big man is the city treasurer.

In the morning, we are summoned to a meeting in some government buildings with the city treasurer. He tells us of a task:

A rich merchant, "Adals Alzotta", a Northerner, asked the treasurer about an item in the treasury, also asking to buy it for 500 GP. The item is a medallion – the casket containing the medallion also contains documents concerning a sorceror, Yenege Tokan (the original owner), and a high priest (Phalagan) who defeated him. The high priest of Ma’at left instructions that the medallion should not be given to anyone outside his order.

When the treasurer turned him down, the Northerner raised his bid to 600 GP. After the treasurer told him that he would think about it, he set a trail on the Northerner. The trail was the one who tried to kill the treasurer.

A preliminary report from the trail said that the Northerner went out across the lakes and towards the mines. The Northerner came and made another offer to the treasurer, and the treasurer suspects that he may have been trying to affect his mind.

We are contracted to bring this matter to a satisfactory conclusion, with a prepayment of 300 Gold Marks.

The documents tell the story of the battle, including the storming of the keep underneath the tower. The keep was full of darkness, screams and demons. Only the staunchest followers could stay with the High Priest. After the High Priest bandies words with Yenege, a demon with six hands (Pemphevasta) appears. (The demon is a cross between a beautiful woman and a snake, very powerful – a Marilith.) Ma’at triumphs, but the only one who survives is the High Priest.

We accept the task after a deep philosophical conversation in the party.

We go to speak to the prisoner. He tells us of the day before, including:

• many ogres
• a young girl imprisoned, in rags, underground
• his colleagues all murdered
• a command in his mind to kill the treasurer
• he "didn’t want to kill the treasurer but he deserved it for sending us into trouble"
• doesn’t remember getting claw marks

More philosophical discussions about undead ensue.

Fritz goes to brush up on his knowledge of demons, while Errol goes to find information from the Temple of Pelor.

We head out and reach the near side of the first lake. We take the barge across the lake overnight, paying 36 GP.

26 December 1002 At dusk, we reach the other side of the lake.

27 December 1002 Travelling

28 December 1002 At dusk, we reach the near side of the second lake.

29 December 1002 At lunch, we reach the far side of the lake. At dusk, we reach a hamlet.

On the way to the hamlet, we have seen a number of small mines, but the majority are about a half-day’s travel past the hamlet, near/in the gorge.

Lili and Takashi go looking for information, and find out that the merchant passed through in the past two weeks, and that he stocked up with a couple of weeks’ worth of food. There are ruins to the southwest, about 15 miles away.

Corin goes asking a fellow Atreugan for information, but finds that there are ogres around the ruins and that the Atreugans stay away from them. Corin tries to warn Takashi of the dangers of ogres eating him, and ends up calling him "tasty" (Takashi totally gets the wrong idea). We decide to stable the horses and go on foot with our artificial packhorse.

At dusk, we have gone about halfway there. We make camp and survive the night uneventfully.

We continue on, with the ground sloping upwards. By lunch, Gustav has still not seen any ruins. Midafternoon, we turn more westerly, to go more directly up the hill. Gustav spots no unusual features at the top of the hill. We camp on the Eastern side of the hill. Errol does some flying practice.

Takashi has a private tea ceremony early in the morning.

We go to the top of the hill and look around. Corin only spots animal tracks. We decide to try and follow the mocassin tracks, but lose them quickly. We continue wandering around.

We head Northeast back toward the hamlet. In the evening, we make camp.

3 January 1003 By dusk, we arrive at the hamlet.

We go to the mines (half a day). Ulmor and Errol go looking for information, being the most likely to fit in. Corin explores the surrounding area. Ulmor completely fails to win over the local dwarves, in spite of buying them many rounds. Errol doesn’t do much better, nor does Corin find anyhting interesting in her wanderings. Takashi decides to try his luck tomorrow, and we go and make camp away from the mines.

Around lunchtime, Corin enters the gorge in cloak, and attracts a lot of attention. Leaving fairly quickly, she finds Takashi and gets invisibled. Then they both go back into town. Ulmor is also there, buying more drinks for dwarves. Errol disguises himself as a miner and starts spreading stories in the tavern about a foreigner offering money for information. Lili and Fritz had stayed at camp.

Takashi buys a few people drinks and finds out that no one knows anything, while Corin lurks but sees nothing of interest. They go back to camp, planning to leave in the morning. Ulmor snores.

We head back to the hamlet. Takashi asks around for more specific information on the ruins, but has no luck. Lili finds out that the ruins haven’t been seen since an earthquake 15 years ago (before that there was a tower). We find out that the woman who runs the bakery has been here more than 15 years, although we are warned that she is a bit strange. Her name is Bria.

Shortly after dawn, Takashi, Lili and Corin visit the bakery. Bria hasn’t seen the tower and tells us that people don’t go out that way since the ogres arrived, and that the Atraugans are more likely to know the way than anyone else. Corin talks to a couple of Atraugans, who are friendly but can’t tell us much except that an older Atraugan, who may know something, passes this way three or four times a month. The party decides to wait a week to see if he (our quarry) shows up. We spend the week in various pursuits.

Bria tells Lili (who has been visiting her regularly) that the merchant was in this morning to buy bread. The party makes various attempts to find out where he’s gone. Corin finds tracks leading to/from the hamlet, but they reach a clearing in the forest and disappear (he first walked around a lot, and the first/last tracks are smudged). Corin brings the party to the clearing, where Fritz reports traces of magic. The magic is identified as transmutation and teleportation. Takashi figures out he could probably only have teleported two miles, so we spread out to hunt for another clearing fairly close by. We find it a quarter-mile to the South, and make camp nearby, since it’s dusk.

We follow the tracks. All day. Lili sends Gustav ahead, but he comes back with no news. We camp.

We keep tracking. Corin has a near-death experience with a booby trap involving a swinging tree trunk, and then a horn sounds nearby. We prepare for battle, but nothing else happens, so after 10 minutes we continue cautiously., Shortly after, someone just misses Ulmor with something bigger than an arrow and smaller than a ballista bolt. We resume battle stations. After pinpointing the archer’s rough direction, Corin fires an imbued arrow at the area and casts entangle on it, then Takashi illusion-fireballs it. The horn sounds again, and while we’re trying to spot the source, the archer has a go at Lili. Takashi mists and spots the archer, then creates fluorescent arrows pointing at him. A variety of people start shooting at the archer. His weapon falls out of the tree he’s lurking in, then Errol climbs up and finds him nearly dead (he’s an ogre). We disable the weapon and continur tracking cautiously (but quickly, in case the archer had friends coming). It gets dark, so we make camp.

In the middle of the night, Corin and Ulmor are on watch when they discover far too many ogres bearing down on them. They wake the others and the battle is on. Lili distracts half the ogres with dancing lights, but is hit very hard and collapses. Fritz runs away (he hasn’t had enough sleep to use magic). The rest of the party brings the ogres down after a lengthy fight. We then move to a new campsite (after certain parties search the bodies) and resume our night’s rest.

We continue, and soon spot the remains of a tower about two miles ahead. After a couple of hours, Corin detects a trap (with her spell), but can’t see it. Errol surprises her and is accidentally hit with her quarterstaff. Ulmor spots the pit-trap and we go around. Shortly after lunch, Corin is suddenly pinned to a tree by another giant arrow. We target the sniper, using Takashi as bait, and kill him fairly easily.

We continue. After a while, some of us spot four ogres to the side of the path ahead of us. They fire at us and then run away, but we pursue them and bring down three of them. Takashi kills two of the felled ogres, and Errol volunteers to interrogate the third. The ogre tells us that a demon lives in the ruined tower and that there are many ogres around. We decide we cannot get any information out of it, at which point Ulmor beheads it. Takashi and Fritz respond by attacking him, Takashi attempting to break his axe, and Fritz casting Scare on him. He runs away.

When Ulmor gets back, Takashi tells him to report to the local magistrate for punishment, when he gets back to town. A philosophical debate ensues concerning the nature of sentients versus animals. Gustav joins in and is teased by Fritz, whereupon Lili and the raven gang up on him. Takashi tells them off for being childish, and we continue with more stealth then previously. Ulmor leads the horse, while the rest are invisible.

We reach the tower. When we look to stash our gear in some ruins, Corin and Takashi look at some interesting bat-like birds, and Takashi identifies them as the things in the cages at the Wizard’s Tower, right at the beginning of the party’s adventures. Errol identifies them as sturges (vampire birds), and mentions that they are a good way to spread disease. We put the luggage from the horse in another part of the ruins.

Corin notices that a large area of the ground beside the tower is "unsafe". Ulmor speculates that the earthquake destabilised the cave ceiling.

As we approach the tower, we hear the voice of a young girl. Lili casts lights down into a drain/cavern area, while Takashi investigates in mist form. The girl looks to be ‘clean’ (in the peasant sense). She runs away, then we hear a scream down a corridor (Takashi notes a magical effect around the girl). Takashi then hears splashing sounds down the tunnel. After casting his own light, he goes down the tunnel and empty cistern area.

After Takashi reports back, we decide to ignore this occurrence. We proceed to the tower. On the front door is a picture of a wolf. There is a knocker on the door, and a broom leaning against the wall. Ulmor finds that he is very suspicious of the wolf, and thinks that the mouth is a way of firing outwards from the inside.

Takashi investigates the door from the inside after Ulmor unlocks the door. He notes a mechanism attached to the door. After discussing various strategies, Corin inserts the broom into the wolf’s mouth, and then opens the door.

We hear snoring upstairs. Corin goes upstairs and sees a "sort of humanoid" sleeping. Corin, Errol and Ulmorgo to tie it up and gag it. As Corin gags it, it rips the gag in half, stands up, the mouth opens very, very wide, and it teleports to just behind Corin, before attacking her. It seems to be flickering. We "drop" it and tie it up, but as we tie it, it dies.

We investigate the ground floor and find that the brass box on the wall is magical. Lili admits that she knows about magic. Takashi tries to make her admit that she casts magic, but fails. Corin, Ulmor and Lili go through the trapdoor and find a cellar with glass jars and an opening that has been sealed off (walled up). On the opposite side, Ulmor finds a secret door and opens it. It leads to a tunnel leading out to the forest (through another trapdoor).

We find that two of the keys that Ulmor picked up fit the front door and the outside trapdoor.

Corin has a go at demolishing the walled-up entrance with the sledgehammer that was lying around. After making interesting use of the sledgehammer for a few minutes, Ulmor starts giving pertinent advice. We continue until dinner time. Fritz starts an unseen servant moving small stones and rubble away from the wall.

After dinner, we decide (after long discussion) to make camp in the ruins, away from the sturges. Corin sleeps in a tree away from the party.

Nothing happens at night.

In the morning, Corin joins the party. Lili and Ulmor search the ruins more carefully, with no result.

Corin, Ulmor and Fritz continue demolishing the wall. Takashi, Errol and Lili decide to mist through a grate looking for an alternate entrance. They explore the cavern area that Takashi found the day before. They see blasphemous evil writings on the walls in chalk, charcoal and blood at regular intervals, as well as things that might be summoning circles.

Lili and Errol report back.

Errol tries imbuing the sledgehammer with magic to improve its damage-dealing ability, but it doesn'’ help much. Then Fritz bores holes in the wall using acid arrows.

By lunch, we have a hole large enough for everyone to get through.

We decide that Ulmor wil lead the party underground "as part of his training".

As we enter, we notice a young girl peering out from behind a pillar. As Errol goes to greet her, she gives a small scream and runs down the passage to the cistern of water. Then we hear a loud scream and splashes of water.

Errol, Corin and Lili run down the corridor. A creature comes out of the water and attacks Corin – it looks like it is made of water. Takashi joins the battle.

Simultaneously, a magical effect starts up in the main room, which Fritz dispels. It was a mirror image spell surrounding a ‘girl’ that looks like she has the lower half of a lion. It joins battle with Fritz and Ulmor. Errol, Corin, Lili and Takashi come back to help, and Fritz lays it out with a black ray effect. Then Takashi causes trhe water elemental to run back to its pool.

We proceed to the end door that the lamia (the lion-girl) came out of. The room stinks. The door looks like it has been forcibly opened from the outside some time in the past. It is the den of the lamia.

The second room’s door has also been forced. It looks like it might have been a prison cell. The third room has a wooden door with a grille – the door is rusted shut. It seems to be an armoury. There is a passage leading out from that room, with earthern walls.

We go down the stone passageway and find a room with an alcove with a demonic statue holding up a table. There is a wardrobe in a corner containing a number of green cloaks.

Ulmor starts talking to someone that the rest of cannot see. Ulmor agrees that the party will not harm him. He comes to meet us – his name is Janos Tiske. He tells us that he is looking for a ring that is a family heirloom.

We talk to him at length discussing our dilemma and whether we will help him. We decide to help him by getting the medallion, though not without a lot of distrust. After we ask him, he shows us the "lock" to the "key" (the medallion). There is a pillar in the centre of an eight-pointed star in the middle of a room that is imbued with magic. Takashi identifies the circle as a teleportation circle.

Janos shows us around, then we leave.

We get back to the hamlet in the evening.

19 January 1003 We cross the first lake.

Midway through the day, we see the ground rippling. We see a large armoured creature erupt out of the earth. It eats the pack pony (with the gems onboard), and then we slay the creature.

We arrive back at the town in the evening.

For the next four weeks, Ulmor and Lili train in town.

We speak with the treasurer, and Takashi has no trouble collecting the medallion from the treasurer. We head out of town.

We get to the hamlet in the evening. It is the Festival of Felix. Michelle makes an appearance in a studded leather bikini and dances. Others participate in the festivities, and Ulmor gets drunk enough that he accompanies Michelle up the stairs. ("Michelle" turns out to be Errol…)

Ulmor comes to breakfast with a massive hangover. Takashi analyses the medallion and finds that it radiates a moderate magical effect – both transmutation and conjuration.

We follow Corin’s trail back through the forest. At the end of the day, we make camp in the forest.

While we are travelling, the party notices Corin duck down and try to hide. She has noticed four ogres appearing to search the forest. Everyone hides except Takashi, who helps Lili to hide. The ogres notice Takashi and combat (of a sort) ensues. A number of images of Takashi appear at the same time as Corin entangles some of the ogres. Lili gets hurt, then all of the ogres get entangled. They pull free of the entangle – Errol taunts them by dancing amongst the entangle area. We move on.

At about lunchtime, we see the top of the broken-down tower. Just a bit after that, Corin gets clobbered by a tree trunk. Soon after, we walk through an area that stinks of rotting flesh. Lili investigates and chooses not to report back in detail.

Corin notices a snare, avoids it, has Errol surprise her and smacks him in the face. She then gets collected by another tree trunk.

We get to the tower in the late afternoon.

Fritz, Lili and Corin go to look for Janos while the rest of the party sets up camp in the ruins. However, no one encounters Janos, though none of the party actually walks around the underground complex.

During last watch, Corin finds herself being sucked on by sturges. She jumps out of her tree and starts attacking them. Lili, Gustav, Wiley and Takashi move to help. The sturges either get killed ot driven off. Corin looks very pale and weak. Takashi and Lili tend her.

We let Corin sleep. Ulmor goes hunting. Ulmor manages to bring down a faun. Takashi goes looking for Ulmor around lunchtime. The two argue about eating a young faun versus forest sustainability. Takashi extracts Ulmor’s word that he will not kill young healthy animals for food, but allows Ulmor to take the dead faun back to the camp.

During middle watch, Ulmor hears a bugle. He wakes Errol and Takashi, Errol reconnoitres the area out to about a hundred yards, but finds nothing. Then, Ulmor volunteers himself to go out further. He gets attacked by ogres. After getting clobbered, he goes on the defensive. Errol and Talashi go to the rescue. Gustav tries to imbue Ulmor with extra energy, but Lili hasn’t had enough sleep to cast. In the middle of combat, Errol drops a fireball bauble, creating a huge bang in the forest, and then drops the other one.

Corin runs to help while Takashi pours a healing potion down Ulmor’s throat. The party retreats with Corin guarding the rear.

Corin and Wiley harrass the ogres until they mooch off. Wiley finds an unconscious and badly wounded Ulmor in the bushes. Corin leaves Wiley guarding him and goes to get Lili from the camp. Lili inspects him and decides that he’s only alive through sheer stubbornness. She doesn’t want to move him so Corin takes her cauldron and goes hunting for water to clean the wounds. Lili stays (with Wiley) to guard him and do what she can for him. When Corin returns, they clean his wounds and then make a stretcher to take him back to camp.

Errol and Corin stand guard while the others sleep late, after which the party goes about trying to recover with magic and rest. Janos shows up and berates us for leaving him for over a month. Apparently the ogres are moving back into the ruins, with the lamia and the "toadstool" gone, and Janos has spent the last six weeks hiding from them. He then recommends we go underground for safety.

Levitating Ulmor (who screams and protests until Takashi sends him to sleep), Janos leads us back to the hidden entrance to the underground chambers. Everyone goes down except Corin, who refuses and stays at the entrance. The rest make camp below and rest. (Ulmor now has many bandages and his shield arm in a sling.)

After a little while, Lili goes looking for Corin and finds her asleep up a tree. The others continue healing activiies underground.

In the morning, Janos wants us to use the medallion immediately, but the party argues that we need more time to recover. We agree to go tomorrow.

We assemble in the altar room (including Corin, who is summoned by Lili). Takashi places the medallion in its slot atop the pewter pillar, but nothing happens. Takashi and Fritz turn their attention to the six levers, but they won’t move. After a lot of fruitless searching, Takashi finally thinks to spin the medallion. It turns of its own accord to face the mural on the wall, and there is a brilliant pyrotechnic display. When nothing else happens, Takashi pulls one of the levers down. It eletrocutes him, all the levers drop, and the effects stop. After many attempts, we figure out that the order in which the levers must be pulled corresponds to the number of points on the weapons in each of the mural’s hands. When the last lever is pulled, everyhting goes black.

Fritz creates dancing lights, and we see we are in an identical room to the one we left, but with no pewter pillar (the medallion is on the floor). The air smells dank.

Corin rushes out and discovers a room 20 feet fown the passage. It is a square and contains a broken statue. There seems to have been a battle here – lots of poisoned crossbow bolts are in the rubble. Janos identifies that we are near Leukish, and the bolts belonged to drows.

Takashi asks Corin to lead the way, but she is having a panic attack from being underground with no way out. He tries to calm her and Errol casts a courage spellsong which helps. She leads the party out of the room and down another passage. We find a ledge on the edge of a wide cave. A bridge arches over the cave, but is broken in the middle. Corin and Takashi mist and float across the gap. Errol grows wings and flies across with a couple of ropes, which are secured at each end. Fritz starts inching along the ropes, very precariously. Janos gets bored and starts levitating Ulmor across the gap. Ulmor protests and Janos breaks the spell, letting Ulmor fall 40 feet, until Janos catches him two inches above the ground. He protests again and gets dropped the final two inches.

Janos levitates across, and Fritz climbs back and uses a jump spell to jump across. With just Lili left on the other side, we undo one of the ropes on our side so it drops on hers, and she drops the other one on ours. Lili and Ulmor join us.

On this side of the bridge is a stone wall with a slab of white marble set in it, corresponding to the passageway on the other side of the cave. On a stone circle in the middle of the marble is the same mural we saw in the altar room. Lili identifies a very strong abjuration in effect.

Takashi touches the medallion to the marble, which starts glowing red. He then touches it and is badly burned. He tries touching it with the medallion again, but the medallion passes into the light (which is not a solid surface) and his fingers touch it, burning him again. After a bit, the marble solidifies again.

Errol tries the same trick – for him the glow is orange and he gets seriously burned.

Fritz uses a mage hand to touch the medallion to the wall – this time the glow is yellow. Corin ties an arrow to a rope and throws it – it passes throught the glow and, when she pulls it back, is unharmed. She then touches the glow and is nearly killed.

Fritz keeps touching the medallion to the marble – it cycles through the spectrum and goes back to red. We are stumped.

Finally Janos suggests trying a spell as a "key" to the "lock". Takshi tries knock (on the marble) and colour spray (on the glow) with no effect. Lili tries dancing lights, and Corin tries entangle, with no luck.

After a great deal more playing, Takashi finally figures out that this is a prismatic wall. He turns it blue, casts magic missile, and we walk through.

On the other side of the wall is a room with a pillar of iron in the middle. There are 10 foot spikes all over it. There is a passageway across the room. The walls are porcelain tiles that glow green and look slimy, it’s warmer and there’s a faint smell of incense on the air.

We go carefull around the pillar and down the passageway. The next room we find is very high and has archways set at different heights in the other three walls. There is a motif of very lifelike winged demons on the walls near the ceiling, one on each wall. Lower down, the tiles bear an elemental motif.

As we start to discuss what to do next, the demons’ eyes start glowing red and the smell in the air intensifies. We back into the passageway and the four demons dive at us. Takashi (the last out) casts a fireball that doesn’t seem to affect them, and combat ensues. Takashi kills one with his katana, but it is a different demon that vanishes (the one he hit doesn’t seem to be affected). Corin takes out another one with her bow (again, it vanishes instead of dying). Takashi is injured and gets some kind of substance on his arms.

Fritz takes out the third demon with shocking grasp. Janos sends a lightning bolt at the fourth one, but it passes through the demon, frying the opposite wall.

The remaining demon (the real one) is a lot tougher, and immune to regular weapons. Finally, after much injury to Takashi, Errol and Lili, Fritz fries it with enervate.

Takashi and Errol, the only two people who were fighting in the room (instead of in the passageway), have vines growing out of their arms. Fritz gives them Holy Water to pour over the vines, Lili casts delay poison, and the vines are killed.

Errol suggests that we rest up. However, Janos and Corin want to go on. Healing spells occur to boost Corin and Errol’s health.

We stop for lunch, clean out the cauldron with water, then Errol uses Ulmor’s grappling hook to put a rope up to the left-most archway. As he climbs the rope, it works loose and comes free. Takashi climbs up with spider climb and has a look. He then casts a Tenser’s floating disc, which acts like a lift.

We proceed along the corridor. Errol investigates the door, then proceeds to open the door. This triggers machinery that drops a block of marble on Errol, Corin and Lili.

We then proceed to the next archway. At the end of the corridor is a demonic statue. It fires enervation rays. Janos gets hit and ushers us out. Takashi decides to test it out again by climbing along the roof, but gets hit too.

We talk about whether we move on or rest. Errol, Takashi and Lili are opposed to going on, while Corin, Fritz and Janos are for going on.

Corin, Fritz and Janos go to the next archway. At the end of the corridor, there is rubble. As Corin pokes her head around, rocks fly at her. Fritz finds no secret doors and the three move to the next archway. At the end of the corridor is a T-junction. There is a door to the left and a set of stairs leading up. As Corin opens the door, the stairs drop out from under her. She slides into a pit. A shrieking head chases her, and Fritz kills it with a flask of Holy Water.

After the party discusses the other door, we decide to put a hole in the door with the axe to look through. Takashi does the job with flair. We see a room with an altar, chains and pillars. A voice booms out, "Free me, false wizard." We decide to try to bargain with the entity when it appears to confirm that it is a devil, though this is not for certain.

We get the whole party up, bargain to let the devil go, with the condition that it not harm us, then take an axe to the altar.

(Fritz does some hypnotherapy on Corin, meaning she is now not scared of anything underground.)

Takashi chops his way through the lid, and the devil laughs before the chains go limp and the lights go off on the gold plates.

Corin opens the door, setting off a trap, but it affects no one. Throught the door is a study, which we loot. However, Janos’ ring is not there. We continue down the corridor. On the walls are pictures of demons, including a vrok and a balrog.

The next room is a huge room with lots of gaudy furnishings and lots of treasure. Out of a mirror, we can see the marilith looking at us. There are several trees with monkeys sitting in them, glaring at us. These 10-feet tall monkeys (gorillas) smell of sulphur, and they attack. After a number of people get hit really hard, Fritz and Takashi cast Protection from Evil, and then the monkeys get taken out one by one: Janos casts huge spells, Lili casts a huge illusory Pemphevasta, Corin takes potshots, and Takashi’s image attacks, while Errol capers.

There is lots of treasure in this room.

Janos plays. Krugnut rolls around in piles of coins. You get the idea.

Krugnut and Errol spend all night sorting the treasure, while the spellcasters rest.

Healing takes place in the morning, then the entire day is spent sorting treasure.

We lug the treasure to inside the portal and start working on finding a way out. We go looking for the missing pedestal under the bridge. Errol goes upstream, Fritz and Takashi look upstairs, and the rest go downstream. Those downstream run into a large spider that won’t stay for them to hit it back. Arrows make it hurt. Ulmor gets munched on, Corin takes hurt, then the spider is killed. Ulmor cuts out the probable poison glands. The search continues…

Those downstream find a narrowing passage. Everyone explores the passage and we find a cave. There is a cave-in at the back of the cave, and some evidence of a campfire near the front. The party is attacked by a large tentacled stone creature. After a short fight, we kill it. At the back of the cave we find the pewter pedestal and a box of magical crossbow bolts.

We rest in the caved-in passageway for 24 hours.

Errol, Corin and Takashi ferry all the treasure to the portal room, while the others keep resting.

We go back to the portal room. Everyone except Corin loads themselves up with treasure to take back. Corin pulls the appropriate levers (second try), and we teleport back. Ten trips later, we have all the treasure brought over.

Corin goes out to scout around and get Wiley. She finds him at the building we left our extra stuff in, but then discovers she’s in the middle of an ogre ambush. As she runs for the door to the tower, the ogres attack.

Gustav warns the party, through Lili, of trouble. Errol heads for the stairs, Ulmor, Takashi and Lili go for the tower exit. Janos and Fritz follow, invisible. Corin makes the tower after taking a lot of hurt, shuts the door on the ogres and yells for help. Takashi (hasted) arrives at the bottom of the ladder and suggests arming the door trap. He comes up and does so. He then activates it, apparently spraying acid on the ogres outside the door. The ogres, meanwhile, aren’t in yet because they’re trying to break in an outward-opening door…

The others arrive, minus Errol, as something big thumps against the door. Takashi heads upstairs to look out a window, leaving Ulmor to work the trap. As he races back downstairs and yells for us to retreat, the door is broken down by a red dragon that is now outside.

Fritz casts "dispel dragon" (he dispels the transmutation spell on the ‘dragon’), turning it back into an ogre in short order. Battle ensues. Takashi disarms the ogre mage who was the dragon, taking his wand away. The ogre mage vanishes.

As fighting continues, we catch a glimpse of the oge mage flying past the building before he vanishes again. He casts a cone of cold at us in passing. Then Errol arrives (having come the long way) in Lamia form. Unfortunately, the ogres have enough backup that they’re no longer cowed by a lamia – several attack.

The ogre mage appears again and is enervated by Fritz. Takashi then casts an illusory fireball that brings him down. He gets up and charges at Takashi, who fells him, whereupon the other ogres start running. Errol and the two ogres he is fighting are unaware of all this. Errol bursts past the ogres and runs around to the front of the tower, with ogre in pursuit. Corin shoots him before he yells out and identifies himself. The ogre behind him is easily dispatched.

Using deathwatch, Fritz finds out that the ogre mage is still perfectly healthy. Takashi tries to coup-de-grace him several times and discovers that he can regenerate. Finally we set fire to him.

We leave the burning ogre corpse with several others outside the tower, and go back downstairs to spend the night.

We arrive back in Leukish and find OneShoe and company in the inn. OneShoe is enthusiasticaly telling of their exploits defeating ogre mages. Takashi reports to the treasurer.

We spend two months training and doing other things.

These festivals occur: Autumnul Equinox, Homecoming, Ahriman’s Day, the Witches’ Festival, the Smiths’ Festival, and the Craft Fair.

Takashi clutches his head and collapses to the floor in pain. A few seconds later, as Lili rushes across the tavern to tend to him, Takashi disappears. The noise of the tavern erupts into every ear, making it difficult to hear. Corin strides across the room, shakes a shift-looking man by the shoulders and shouts, "Orin, I didn’t expect to see you here" at him. The man addressed as Orin starts as he is grabbed by the shoulders.

Fritz casts a glance at the shifty-looking man and starts to move toward him. "Orin" seems to be surprised and pointedly ignores Corin. Corin then pulls the hood back and looks directly in his face. Meanwhile Errol charges across the room and hits the stranger in the side of the head. The stranger is revealed to look like Takashi, at least vaguely.

A few people run out the door, looking frightened. Takashi draws his katana in the middle of the tavern as the stranger bolts out the door, foiling Corin’s lunge at his cloak-hem. The stranger is pressed in the throng out the door, away from the party.

The stranger runs with incredible speed, leaving behind everyone but Takashi and Gustav. Takashi and his assailant engage in magical battle as they run down the main street. The rest of the party (except Ulmor) follow Lili, who is following Gustav.

Invisible, Takashi seems to convince the stranger that he is no longer being followed. The stranger slows down, heading for the river, whereupon Takashi catches up and attacks him. They clash briefly, then the stranger bolts for the docks. Takashi runs after and shouts for him to surrender. He keeps running, whereupon Takashi cuts him down. He is wearing a bright red robe under his cloak. Takashi is arrested and taken in front of a magistrate, who is mollified by the sight of the medallion presented to Takashi by the city. Takashi tells him the stranger is a hired assassin and he was only acting in self-defence. He peace-binds Takashi’s sword and lets him go with a caution.

Takashi returns to the tavern and is asked to take his business elsewhere. The rest of the party (who gave up trying to catch up and came back) interrogates him a bit. This leads to the party making their way to the dwarf tavern.

The party decides to move on, heading to the harbour. There they have a conversation about dividing the treasure as they seek to find a ship to the Pirate Island. The ship found is the Unicorn, captained by one Joseph Bourke out of Oakham. The captain does not seem to object to being the carrier of the party to Rauxes, though wants a bit more to carry a wolf cub as well.

Takashi bargains for Wiley’s food on the passage. The end result is the acceptance of the writs of passage plus a hundred marks. The ship sails on the morrow a couple of hours after midnight. Errol suggests selling the horses as well as the pony. 230 Gold Marks later, the party is horseless. 85 goes to Errol for the warhorse, 100 for Wiley’s passage, and 9 each for the rest of the party. The party does not have time to convert funds.

At 3 in the morning, the ship sails. Ulmor is promptly sick over the rails, and consequently a joke for the sailors. Takashi spends some time gathering information about pirates, then seems to be found below decks most of the time. Fritz tells Corin that she has some fears she needs help with. Corin denies everything and tells Fritz to keep out of her mind. Fritz tells her that he merely taught her some techniques. Corin agrees that thinking of a nice place in the forest is not messing with her head.

Takashi agrees that Lili should be paid back from party funds for creating healing potions, to the total of 500 Gold Marks. Each person takes two potions of Cure Light Wounds.