Althaire and Nausicaa quietly leave the Slave Trail B group. Cyrene catches up a few hours later, looking for word on what became of Aisha and thinking A+N know more than they really do.

Cyrene updates on investigations, and all head for Madam Merta's seeking info. She knows less than they do, but gives a name - Neverus - who might have been involved.

To "The Rope", a rough seedy pub where Neverus can sometimes be found. Bribe bartender to point him out.

Althaire gets in conversation with Neverus, but also gets somewhat drunk and ends up giving away Party's motives. Neverus and some buddies take exception; conversation at swordpoint eventually reveals them to be Bellringers, and Althaire and Nausicaa to be somewhat unwelcome in town due to their failure with Aisha. They do mention they "know where Aisha is"; assuming this means she is safe, Party stop pursuit.

Nausicaa stops by Merta's to update her. Party leaves town by boat for Xania.

During night, 4 Gnolls attack Party's camp: Jocastefellerinus killed and Cyrene almost.

Cyrene tries to cast a cure while hurt, fails, glows red for a while...and gives Nausicaa a hidden Wish!

Start finding isolated ruins; explore.

A ruined castle still has a basement; Party disturbs (and then slays) a minor Air Elemental and some strange undead, but are forced to retreat.

Across a valley to another ruin. This one has living occupants: Party slay 2 Gnolls and are then chased off by many more, straight into other hazards including nasty animated plants. Althaire almost kills herself falling off cliff.

Realize a few buildings here are not so ruined as they seem. Retreat to previous ruin and rest.

That evening, someone tracks Party to their camp; she seems decent enough and also wants to kill Gnolls, so Party take her in: Scala(R-2) joins.

During night, see a few flashes of light from Gnoll holdings.

Intending to rest for day, Party see a band of Gnolls lay ambush for a small passing caravan. Althaire and Nausicaa sneak around Gnolls to warn caravan, rest of Party close in from front; but caravan has its own defenses and most of the hidden Gnolls soon start yowling in agony after a few spells from caravan. Party helps with the mop-up.

Spellcaster thanks Party and caravan moves on.

A caravan worker arrives at Party's camp later with a warning: spellcaster will return and attack. Party moves camp.

Flashes of light overnight again, this time from Party's old campsite. Investigating in morning reveals a mess.

Invade Gnoll holding, painfully take one small building from several powerful Gnolls, then barricade it and rest for a few days.

Into larger building. Inside are lots of odd-angled rooms, mostly empty.

Party disturb a resident magic-user who twice puts them all to sleep except Althaire (who made her resistance roll by 3% and then 2%, with failure on either meaning end of Party); she easily kills him off.

One last batch of Gnolls appears, Althaire tries out a new sword - it's cursed, and she doesn't stop fighting. Party have to club her senseless. Once sword is removed from her she returns to normal.

Find an elevator to a lower level. Exploring soon turns up a large wall-sized picture of a man; the picture speaks:

o picture is obviously of a Monk, now completely at peace with the universe;
o rest of area is a final resting place for those who failed to achieve such placidtude;
o Party are advised that disturbing anything here would be most unwise;
o offerings may be left and will be rewarded;
o picture also passes on a message: "The furies are casting in their forge. Do not let them finish."

Althaire leaves the cursed sword as an offering; all Party's injuries are immediately cured. Axmost and Nausicaa leave some gold, and Scala leaves some magic herbs. Party leave.

Althaire wakes up having gained a level (!) overnight. Axmost and Nausicaa gain lesser experience rewards, in direct ratio to the amount of gold they offered yesterday; while Scala also gains experience.

Nausicaa wishes she had left more as offering; this works (see entry for Coira 23, above), and she too gains a level!

Meanwhile, Axmost and Cyrene have both bumped conventionally, so all to town.

Arrive at general area where complex is supposed to be. A couple of Grashi guard the road but flee behind a huge door as soon as Party do anything aggressive. Party cannot breach door, so retreat.

Smoke is rising from hill, Party seek and find its source: a long narrow crack in the rock obviously being used as a chimney. Scala goes to scout, rest of Party attacked by several Grashi who also quickly flee back into door.

Scala finds a cave; this turns out to be a back entrance. Party wade in and manage to take out an enormous bear and a couple of Troglodytes before retreating to outdoors.

Back in, continue exploring except interrupted a few times by Stirges.

Find a stream flowing into a small passage, Althaire wants to explore but can't fit, so wishes Axmost was a Hobbit; and it works: Axmost becomes Hobbit. Her gear does not change size, however, so she suddenly has no armour. She vows to someday kill Althaire. (in Enter Magraine, Althaire briefly had possession of a Luckblade; when she gave the sword away its wish stuck to her. Here she gets her wish, still without any idea where it came from.)

Party decide to retreat all the way to town.

Approach entrance again, run into and kill another hunting party en route.

Plug chimney, spend day waiting for response.

A Grash comes out of main door in evening, Party gain door. Behind it is a rope bridge over a very deep chasm; Scala and Hyperia charge 2 Grashi holding far end and gain a bridgehead, but Scala then tries to push one into chasm, blows it badly, and goes over the side herself: Scala killed (at -65) when she hits bottom a moment later. Grashi soon slain.

Explore, find and rescue Geradil and Courana, a couple of prisoners.

Overnight rest disturbed by a band of Grash, then a Turvitian: Party battered.

More exploring, find a way out; so rescuees sent home and Party rests for a few days.

More exploring, a few stray occupants are easily dispatched.

Open a door, behind it is a Grash shaman and a couple of friends; Althaire the only Party member to remain awake after shaman casts Sleep, so she takes on shaman (thus saves Party once), then Grash and Party wake up. Shaman flees, other Grash slain, then Party starts (and loses) a game of cat-and-mouse with shaman who ends up putting all of Party to sleep again - except Althaire (at 0 h.p.) who battles shaman (at -4 h.p.), winner take all. Althaire wins, and thus saves Party again.

Explore, find lots of caves.

Learn about the Grick, a previously unknown monster, by defeating 2 of them.

Fish out a couple of mold-covered skeletons from caves full of fungi; Party never realize just how dangerous the mold is while looting skeletons for their treasure.

Find some Troglodytes, easy win; but then give remaining Trogs lots of warning (thus time to set up ambush) before walking into it; outnumbered well over two to one, Party is lucky to survive. Tamwyc twice kills two foes with one swing during this battle.

Retreat and rest for a few days.

More exploring.

Tied up behind a door is a Telaure; Party untie her and take her in, so Amrithwyn T'eleraysh Il 'Derapshi(T-2) joins.

A bit further on is a Roper. Party quickly conclude they can't win a fight with it, but it's hungry, so they agree to bring it the baby Troglodytes left upstairs. It happily chows down on these while Party keep going.

Althaire and Amrithwyn wade around in some dirty water, then all retreat and sack out.

Arrive back at complex and wade in.

Four Troglodytes greet Party, Hyperia fails save vs. stench 4 times in a row!

Explore until met by several Duergar, Party pay for some useful information.

During this, Amrithwyn tells Raoul to guard the door, but he's terrified and so instead flees entirely - with much of Amrithwyn's gear. Raoul retires.

Walk into a forge, the Furies are busy working there and don't initially see Party, so several characters pull out weapons and charge! Guilty-looking Furies vanish, but not before almost killing both Tamwyc and Cyrene.

Party then go back and kill off Duergar boss: a hammer thrown by Alecto and now wielded by Hyperia turns him to dust. The rest flee.

A door leads to a ghostly creature that drains Tamwyc and Hyperia of some Wisdom (they recover later).

Keep exploring until meet a much bigger Duergar: Althaire killed in one blow, and Party have to work hard to win.

Find a kitchen; a large table animates and attacks, it is soon reduced to splinters.

Hyperia spends quite some time going toe-to-toe with a Wight but manages to keep her levels.

A large rug animates: Amrithwyn killed when it smothers her, and Hyperia fortunate not to meet the same fate.

With no Thieves left and the Furies driven off, Party decide to retreat all the way to town.

Arrive Kapos.

Raoul has already made it back to town; he sees Party carry in corpse of his ex-boss.

Inquiries about hammer thrown by Alecto get Party thrown out of various places in town until Aphrodite temple takes them in: they soon find hammer belongs to Hephaestus; it's one of His forging hammers, the Furies stole it and He wants it back.

Days of divine negotiations end when Aphrodite Herself stops by and takes hammer; a box of fine weapons (made by Hephaestus!) soon appears in its place, and Althaire and Amrithwyn raised as well.

With this, Party start a treasury and training (Alth. to T-5, Cyr. to WrC-4, Amy to T-3) break.

During this, Amrithwyn finds and confronts Raoul about her missing gear; he thinks he's met a ghost, and flees into the hills.

During her morning prayers, Tamwyc receives a garbled message: ".…help….henge…." is all she can make out.

Arrive Xania, start training.

Leave Stila, head north.

Tamwyc's message slowly gains more words (but makes no more sense) as Party progress north.

Arrive Qar'tura. Dagda has a temple here; Tamwyc and Party check in hoping for help in deciphering message.

Before long, Party escorted to a room and left there; and instead immediately find themselves outdoors in a cold wet windy forest.

Find a relatively sheltered campsite and sack out. Not everyone has winter gear, Tamwyc's spells help here.

A small band of skeletons disturb Party after dark and are easily dealt with.

Rain turns to snow overnight, ends by daybreak but it then gets much colder; everyone shivering.

Tamwyc's prayers get clear reception for the first time this month, but message is gone.

Nausicaa scouts from air, sees a henge on a nearby hill and a village beyond.

Party head for henge, trip interrupted by a living plant that drags Cyrene underground and tangles Hyperia and Tamwyc as well. Plant slain, then Nausicaa barely gets Cyrene out in time to prevent her suffocating; but the plant has severely weakened her (Con. down to 4) and she cannot stop coughing up dirt.

Althaire explores around henge, then Party make camp in hopes Cyrene will recover with time.

As soon as night falls, Party find themselves surrounded by dozens if not hundreds of undead. Tamwyc's glowing hammer keeps most of them at bay while Party break camp and carefully move away from henge; Hyperia's sword finishes off most of those that do get through.

Back to henge; a more careful exploration finds holes in three standing stones (to north, east, and west) and lots of magic in corresponding place to south.

Cyrene is feeling no better, so decide to head for village.

Reach village of Caerwyllyn, talk with a local and find out (among other things) where they are.

To nearby village of Llyndisfare, and to pub. Hyperia gains a fangirl and has fun. Althaire finds a handsome farmhand and has fun, then leaves all his right boots on his roof.

Arrive at small city of Tewys, make some inquiries with Dagda types about how to fix Cyrene; they make her feel better (she had in fact become seriously ill) but fixing her Con. will cost more than she can afford.

Also learn there are three stones missing from Henge (thus the holes); adventurers had been working on recovery and had found two but were attacked not far from town, and the recovered stones were again lost.

Decide to do some recruiting and get buried in people. Meaghan ap Tyrwll(NtC-3) and Angrenon(Mk-3) join, while the half-dozen or so rejects are made into a Party of their own and turned loose.

Amrithwyn finds a willing partner and has fun.

The hills fight back: 4 rolling stones attack and soon become a serious problem. New recruits acquit themselves well - Meaghan spends entire battle running up and down hill curing the Party's numerous fallen. Nausicaa almost killed; Althaire and Amrithwyn not in much better shape.

4 Turvitians had been watching this battle from a nearby hill; Althaire now sees them and gives a danger signal, but they think it's an invitation to fight so they charge. Party slay with relative ease, then retreat and camp.

During night, Tamwyc is visited by a faintly-glowing wolf during her watch; she correctly interprets this as a sign from Dagda. Wolf leaves, then Tamwyc spends a moment tending deeply-incurable Nausicaa and Amrithwyn. Both are fully recovered by morning.

Rest through day.

Turvitians are sending out hunting parties, Party decide to start picking these off one by one but are interrupted by several wolves en route to ambush point.

Ambush a hunting party, this goes perfectly from Party's point of view: 6 Turvitians slain without taking a scratch. Hide bodies in a nearby pit, then sack out.

Decide to check Turvillage again, so circle around to west and Nausicaa makes everyone invisible (thus Hyperia, still following, loses all track of where they are). During this, Amrithwyn checks out Turvitian bodies and finds Hyperia's weapons, she scoops them up and keeps them.

During day, Hyperia's curse seems to lessen or go away entirely; she goes to recover her weapons but they are gone. She thinks this is an after-effect of her curse, and keeps going.

Party (and Hyperia, elsewhere) still watching Turvillage when three Giants show up. Snap decision is to try and see what they are up to, so Nausicaa creates some diversionary illusions while Althaire and Amrithwyn sneak into village. Althaire manages to get right inside village's main hall, but this has all taken long enough that the Giant leader (a Frost Giant) is about to leave. He does, and heads east; and unknown to anyone else Amrithwyn follows.

During all this, a Turvitian sentry has discovered Hyperia. She flees (she still has no weapons) and is rescued by Party; she is nowhere near as repulsive as a few days ago, so they take her back in.

With no sign of Amrithwyn, Party decide to abandon her and follow Giants east.

Giants travel at forced march through night.

Party follow through night then decide in morning to sack out for day.

Amrithwyn follows through night and does not stop, eventually goes up a long scree-filled valley and finds a cave at the foot of a glacier. Just inside cave is a guardian Giant, but Amrithwyn tries to sneak in anyway; Giant is not fooled. Amrithwyn killed in one blow.

Party press on, get to foot of scree valley and again stop for day to watch.

At one point a band of a dozen or so Turvitians come down valley, turn north, and leave.

While approaching valley, Party runs into someone else out here doing much the same thing: Cadence(R-3) joins.

Follow path up valley, reach cave entrance. A messy battle with guarding Giant, his buddy (another Giant), and a hungry Yeti that happened to wander by sees Party defeat all.

Enter cave, make good some exploring.

Suspicious, Tamwyc moves ahead to cast Detect Life; Angrenon follows as a guard. Giants hear her casting and spring their ambush: Tamwyc and Angrenon completely cut off from Party (who can do nothing to help, Giants have blocked the passage) and have to deal with at least 4 Giants. Inevitably, Tamwyc and Angrenon killed.

For some reason, Tamwyc's corpse appears in Party. Party pick it up and leave.

Reach village, notice there are fewer Turvitians. Decide to head for ambush point used on previous visit, but instead get jumped in forest by a small hunting party; no great problem.

Back to watchpoint above village, stay put for night.

During night, Althaire and Nausicaa sneak up on a Grashi sentry and kill him, then notice he was already manacled. Unsure what to make of this, they return to Party.

Around daybreak, a small group of Turvitians come to check on sentries; Party ambush and (messily) kill these. Utnoat tries to sacrifice bodies after but this goes badly; a holy symbol taken off a Turvitian shaman starts burning its way through her backpack, so she drops it and pours water on it to cool it down. The resulting smoke and steam attract attention from the up-till-now-amazingly-unobservant village.

Lots of Turvitians come charging up the hill. Party handle the first wave without much problem, but one Turvitian gets away and runs back to village. Caleb killed.

Party notice a second wave coming but dig in instead of fleeing, and it almost wipes them out: Kynhemys, Utnoat, Tamwyc and Hyperia all killed; the last two in suicidal protection of fleeing Althaire, Nausicaa and Rainbow. Gruumsh even tries to help Utnoat out at the end, she becomes gigantic and super strong but dies anyway.

Meet a strange fellow in hills; he claims hills are his living room and seems to know a bit about Party, but he seems harmless so Party leave him alone and keep going.

Late in evening, Party hear distant screams; investigating finds someone being chased by a wolf and two Turvitians. Party take out pursuers and take in what turns out to be an escaped Turvitian meal: Merisa(MU-3) joins. She has no gear, no spells, and no book to learn from; so for now she functions pretty much as a commoner.

Reach Turvillage, drop some rocks on some huts, Nausicaa gets shot and almost killed by an arbalest, Party leave.

Head north into forest, find a hiding place, and rest for days.

An odd individual passes by in early morning, she looks Human from a distance but Elf when seen from close up. Party approach, most stand down once it becomes clear she's harmless (or so they think) but Rainbow keeps at it and soon realizes she's talking to some sort of Forest Spirit (or deity???); this goes well enough that Rainbow ends up with a rainbow over her head and a feeling of having been blessed.

During conversation, Forest Spirit reveals the moon Fieros does not belong where it is.

Spirit leaves, Party resume their ambush.

4 Grash appear, Rainbow - still sporting a bright rainbow above her - steps out into path; Grash see her and flee.

Emboldened by this, Party head for Grash camp; Grash see Rainbow and treat her like a god, so she proceeds to talk them out of a huge amount of loot in place of Merisa's spellbook, which they have burnt. Party then retreat to forest.

After dark, Stabos rises; Rainbow's rainbow shoots up into the sky toward it (hence, a rainbow moonbeam) and soon disappears.

A Frost Giant strolls down valley to Turvitian camp. Half a mile away, Dial steps out of woods and makes himself obvious (hoping to get Giant to charge); Giant instead heads back up valley.

Half an hour later Giant comes back with several friends, they all head toward Party; Party leave quickly and head all the way back to Turvillage. Sack out in main hall here.

Someone sneaks into hall in early a.m. then announces his presence, after a bit of discussion Real(R-3) joins.

Some Dial-Rainbow banter suddenly turns nasty: Dial slugs her in the face. An argument follows (and Real starts to wonder what he's got himself into); and before long Rainbow leaves Party. She heads for Tewys.

Party decide to head north and try the Grash camp again, so off they go arriving late in day.

Thornapple and Althaire independently sneak into village and look around while rest of Party try to taunt Grashi into charging - eventually one does, then two, then lots in a series of disorganized waves that end up giving Party loads of trouble.

Grash chiefs leave village to join battle, Althaire and Thornapple (still unaware of each other's presence) both follow until Thornapple sees his chance and assassinates the head chief outright. Amazingly, the only people who notice this are Althaire and one ordinary Grash; Thornapple takes out the Grash and is then scooped up by Althaire.

Meanwhile, a massive battle is raging upslope. Emoba killed and several others almost; the late arrival of Althaire and Thornapple turns the tide but Thornapple almost dies too.

Cedric burns all the charges out of a Staff of Healing to get people functional; the Staff crumbles to dust. Party retreat into forest as remaining Grash flee their camp.

Grabil and Myridos are survivors of another party that lost a battle vs. a third much nastier party; this group now decide to head a day's travel northwest and check out battle site.

A couple of corpses left by Grabil's group are now up as Zombies, Party easily slay.

A corpse is wearing a very fine suit of plate armour, but anyone approaching gets progressively blinder until cannot see at all. Undaunted by this, Dial removes the armour by feel - until it animates and puts itself on him (outside his current armour); he immediately starts evilly chuckling…

Grabil uses Hold Person to freeze Dial. The same Zombies arise and are slain again.

Much effort put into restraining Dial, he finally ends up tied to a long pole, and Party - in dark of night and through unexplored territory - start a forced march south.

A hungry wildcat jumps Real; while Party inefficiently deal with this the same Zombies show up again (!), this time Party remove all their limbs after slaying. With this, Party finally decide to stop and rest.

Travel through day, get turned west by mistake.

Meanwhile, unknown to Party Rainbow reaches Tewys and starts trying to seduce her way into the local nobility.

During night an enormous mushroom somehow manages to get right into Party's camp before anyone notices; it paralyzes a few people with its clouds of spores (but most - against the odds - resist) and squashes Nausicaa, but doesn't last long after that. Nausicaa barely survives.

Travel for a few more days, interrupted once or twice by local wildlife.

Several powerful Remove Curse spells are cast to get Dial free, then armour and mace are sacrificed.

Start a lucrative treasury break.

During night a band of Leprechauns find Party, their intent is to play some tricks but when Donogb chops one in half things get serious; Party barely manage to run them off.

Althaire and Thornapple keep watch through morning while everyone else sleeps off Leprechaun effects.

Nausicaa needs training and wants to turn around for town, most others want to keep going; so after some discussion Nausicaa and Althaire leave, and eventually retire.

Probably attracted by nearby Turvitian corpses, a pair of Carrion Crawlers wander into Party's camp and cause all kinds of mayhem before dying.

A travelling Hill Giant gets no further than Party's ambush point. Party then decide to stay put and rest for a few days.

A small group of Grashi stumble into Party's ambush site, easy pickings for Party except one flees to get help…

Help arrives later, in form of half a dozen Turvitians including their chief and his queen. Cedric killed but Party otherwise prevail - Thornapple and Grabil each go one on one with a Turvitian and, though outgunned, survive; and once Donogb gets freed up he just wanders around clobbering everything in his path. Myridos learns the value of a well-placed Laughter spell when he incapacitates the chief with it and thus saves his own life.

Party move camp.

To scree valley. Turvitian camp at entrance is deserted, so Party keep going up valley until a boulder thrown from clifftop lands on Thornapple's head and nearly kills him. A mass charge of Turvitians then comes down valley and Party flee under cover of darkness spells.

Around now it occurs to Party there's nobody left who was given the original task for this adventure, so what are they doing out here anyway; they decide to retreat all the way to town and take it from there.

Meanwhile, A + N reach Tewys. Althaire warns all and sundry about highwaymen, then joins a caravan set to spring their trap.

A skeleton of a deer bounds out of forest, looks at Party, and runs away. Grabil notices a significant ruin on a hill near where deer was sighted.

Arrive Restenford in evening, start gathering information. It soon becomes clear that letter-sending Krassos died rather famously in a local battle over 175 years ago, this causes concern as the letter was quite recent in origin.

Attempt to meet with the local Baron, , but he's a Very Busy Man - this gets nowhere. Leave town.

Meet a Tegrashi en route, she seems both friendly and useful so Party take her in: Locinda(F-3/T-3) joins.

A pack of tough skeletal wolves attack, Party take care of these then sack out on the spot for what would become a frequently-interrupted night's sleep

Up to ruins. A single vastly-outgunned Bugbear guards an entrance through a collapsed wall but still kills Locinda.

Party see movement across courtyard and try to charge, things go very wrong:
o Arrows and a fireball come from very well-warned occupants of upper story of ruins, Party scatters;
o Donogb keeps charging, finds another Bugbear, he and Dial take it on;
o Mediocrates tries to escape through a collapsed wall, finds a skeleton, gets bogged down;
o Thornapple sneaks away and hides, eventually joins Dial and Donogb;
o Merisa stays put and foolishly tries casting a spell, she gets filled in with arrows then staggers behind wall with Mediocrates;
o Grabil, Myridos and Averjax each head for building wall, see a door, head for that, and eat a second fireball: Averjax killed when he bleeds to death a few moments later, and Myridos also down;
o Grabil tries to flee but his god Clanggedon will have none of it, he is turned around and forced to cast a spell - he gets Myridos up and then collapses;
o Meanwhile Normar has gone into a small nearby structure, in here is a skeleton clutching a horn, so Normar takes the horn and blasts it. Two completely berserk Vikings appear, Normar killed before he knew what hit him;
o Vikings burst out of structure and charge Myridos, they get shot and Myridos flees so Vikings charge building instead; they get inside and cause all kinds of headaches for the occupants.

Remains of Party reunite outside walls, invisible Merisa sneaks in to recover loot from Grabil and Averjax, realizes Grabil is still alive and merely stunned so he is recovered as well; all to town.

Somewhere along here, Myridos realizes most of his gear including spellbook was destroyed in the fireballs.

Grabil finally snaps out of stunning in morning but has lost a level - Clanggedon is very displeased. Grabil doesn't help his own cause any when he immediately starts complaining and swearing about his god - while Clanggedon happened to be listening! A 'zot' comes from above, and Grabil is burned to ash.

Grabil's holy symbol remains in place and is glowing; Party eventually figure out it is trying to help, and touching it to people (except Mediocrates, a racial enemy of Dwarves) cures their ails. Holy symbol stops glowing once it has touched each person once.