Thimbus has just trained a local wizard who seems enthusiastic; he is now taken in, so Dorian son of Theopolis (MU-3) joins. He is given an amulet and brooch, and made a member of the Lightbringers.

Fjallarr decides retirement is far too boring so he dives back in and rejoins. Party stay put for a while, however.

Cassandra gives birth to a daughter; then almost immediately becomes male!

Creon uses his Cloak to make Cassandra female again.

Arrive Spieadeia, spend a few days shopping. During this time various minor pranks are played on Thimbus; he strongly suspects Dorian.

Party's ship attacked by another vessel clearly seeking only Party. Digger is on this ship but last month Party saw him very permanently die, and correctly assume this to be a clone. A lightning bolt from Fjallarr's sword and a fireball from Thimbus (who can fly now, it seems) almost demolish ship; the significant meltdown that follows doesn't help it any.

Only survivor is ship's helmsman, Chembri charms him and gets some good information including that ship was sent from Suderham by Markessa (who somehow seems to be alive again) and was guided to Party by means unknown. This helmsman seems half-decent, so is hired by Chembri as a hench: Helm(F-0) joins.

Searching remains of attacking ship finds faintly magical sketches of Perseus, Claire, Aisha and Seriter in captain's cabin; these are kept by Party. Thimbus happily blows up what's left of attackers' ship as Party sail away.

Meet with Anstrus, head of local Zeus temple and past acquaintance of Fjallarr etc.; also a known associate of Kallios.

Decide to stay at Kerata, a small town about 5 miles out of Praetos. En route there, Perseus sees Kirkos (!) turning off into an alley; Party follows and catches up, and Kirkos rejoins (or so it seems). He seems to have teleported into hills west of Praetos on drawing his second card in Nakkitou, and has no memory of drawing any others. Much confusion follows.

Seriter's already bored, so he, Chembri and Thimbus head off into local hills to find trouble for a few days.

A message arrives for Fjallarr: he and his companions are to be at Keltheres' old estate at sunset; so all except Helm to Keltheres' estate later; here meet Kallios:

o inform him Nakki-Nakk still exists, Kallios gets mad;
o inform him Saith has re-arisen, Kallios gets really mad, almost kills Perseus who has been acting as spokesman;
o inform him Party are off to eventually try and take out Vaklari, Kallios wholeheartedly approves;
o tell of Kirkos and the cards, Kallios helped create these cards and knows what they do: he points at Kirkos and simply says "Kill him". Party happily oblige, then learn this Kirkos was a clone and there has been at least one other such (and may be more, and they will oppose Party if met);
o On dying, Kirkos' corpse and gear vanish immediately;
o Kallios realizes that Nakki having these cards lends credence to his tale of destroying Xangteng, as they were last known to be in Xangteng's possession;
o Dorian lets slip that Zxancs is tasked with killing an Undead Lord, Kallios gently informs her it will not be he (and sounds very much like Nakki-Nakk in so doing);
o Audun tells of his visions, Kallios explains that flying castles are not unheard of but have not been seen in eons;
o Much discussion and planning lead to Kallios deciding to go after Nakki-Nakk (using Brema's old boat to get there) while Party go after Vaklari, no-one's sure what to do about Saith or even where he is, but Kallios is sure he will become a headache at some point.

Party eventually return to inn to await Seriter etc.

During night a voice asks Chembri group who they are and "have you seen my pets?". Soon realize "pets" are the beasts they were following earlier and that voice belongs to Nakki-Nakk's associate Robson; some small talk ensues while Thimbus flies up and tries some detection spells, but things go awry (largely due to Chembri saying too much) and spells start getting cast in anger: Thimbus flies away and eventually returns to Kerata.

Chembri, Seriter and Helm head back on foot in morning but are found by beasts; C,S+H flee once but cannot flee when found a second time: Helm killed without knowing what hit him, and Seriter killed shortly after despite badly hurting one beast (which runs away). Chembri draws his beast on to Seriter's corpse and flees while it has lunch; Helm eaten by the other one.

Thimbus reaches rest of Party in Kerata but they stay put for day.

Main Party leaves Kerata, soon bump into beasts (who are tracking Chembri, but Party don't see him until later); a messy battle almost kills Audun and Dorian but herbs from Fjallarr save them. Beasts slain and burned.

Drawn by noise of battle, Chembri arrives only to get punched by Perseus and Fjallarr; an argument follows.

Cutting beasts apart finds Seriter parts and some of his gear; decision is to go back to site of his death to recover rest of gear.

While setting camp, Fjallarr notices someone watching from a tree; this is Robson, and brief conversation leads to a short battle: Robson killed. Chembri then casts Death Prayer and Party burn the body.

Meet Anstrus again; he informs Party Robson was to be taken alive (oops) so Kallios could question him.

Seriter resurrected, but he comes back on much friendlier terms with undead: he is reluctant to fight them and may occasionally be able to control them!

A very annoyed Kallios summons Party later and dresses them down smartly: Robson, once captured, was to have been his source of information on Nakki-Nakk but thanks to Party is now dead, burnt, and probably unrevivable.

With most of his gear lost and needing some time to physically recover, Seriter retires. He agrees to help find a new locksmith for Party.

Seriter returns in evening with a recruit calling herself Doris; she has been in hiding in Seriter's guild after running afoul of the Bellringers, and needs to get out of town. Party take her in. (this is Caereluin rejoining in disguise, and her tale is a complete fabrication. It was just good enough to fool Seriter.)

Another recruit shows up, Party take her in as well, so Tyche(NtC-3/T-3) joins. She hides her Cleric side for now.

Party buys a boat and makes ready to sail north.

After a farewell drink with Seriter, Party sacks out on boat; but sleep interrupted before long by a fireball cast by a Kirkos clone. Party capture but do not kill clone, hoping to use him as bait for a Demon known to be seeking him.

Bait works: a powerful Demon soon arrives. Half of Party flee in terror; the rest stand in and after a brief hesitation decide to attack Demon - and with Perseus, Fjallarr and Chembri doing most of the work they somehow manage to bring it down!

Arrive at Brema's fortress. Thimbus flies over and notes much has changed: a small army is marching around on open ground nearby, 7 ships are in harbour, and a new flag flies from fortress. Party speculate this might be a buildup to an invasion of Praetos as per one of Audun's visions.

Party stand off in boat and eventually anchor near an island while Thimbus flies on to Anaish.

Thimbus to Qar'nora, warns MU guild there of impending trouble.

By now rest of Party has become bored, so leaving Claire, Audun and Cara on boat they decide to explore the island they are anchored by. Before long Fjallarr, Zxancs, Chembri and Tyche are all caught in a net snare; some natives arrive just as Perseus cuts net down, and after a brief attempt at communication Party decide to leave natives alone and retreat to boat.

Thimbus arrives and rejoins.

Party check out native village from a distance; then sail to other island and anchor, sneak in through same caves as before, and sack out once close to Suderham. (and the actual adventure finally starts!)

Audun climbs up into textile warehouse, several Magic Mouths loudly go off. Three guards arrive and are put to sleep by Dorian; Audun nods off too and falls back down shaft. Thimbus flies up while Tyche and Cara climb; Tyche and Cara toss sleeping guards down to Party, Chembri charms one who tags along.

Cara bails down shaft when Thimbus starts casting a fireball, meanwhile Tyche disappears. Lots of guards arrive, Thimbus fireballs many (narrowly missing hidden Tyche) then leaves.

Fireball sucks air out of Party's hiding place; fortunately Perseus and Fjallarr are able to beat down door at end of passage and let some air in.

Retreat to south shore only to find a screaming gale blowing and no sign of boat. Hide in a different cave.

Zxancs goes out scouting for some reason and gets picked up and carried off by a Gargoyle. Some hours later Fjallarr goes looking for Zxancs and guesses from tracks what happened; Party mount a rescue mission and head up hill. 8 Gargoyles later, Zxancs is rescued; Dorian almost killed in process. Return to cave and put up some defensive glyphs.

Stay put for day so Dorian can recover. Perseus, Claire and Audun all feel watched at different times during day.

In evening, a rock is thrown into Party's cave with a taunting note attached from someone named Milerjoi. Fjallarr investigates, finds a "dead body" by shore but when he picks it up it attacks: Fjallarr almost pounded senseless by a now-very-alive Monk before he can react and flee.

In early morning, Party's glyphs set off. Thimbus flies invisible outside and reports cave is surrounded by a number of people, including Myiore. Chembri casts Silence in cave while people quickly plan.

Myiore fed something and sent into cave just as Party decide to leave; they meet in middle and Myiore explodes: Myiore killed, very messily...or so everyone thinks.

Zxancs walks out and surrenders; this throws Party's plans into chaos and people scatter. Chembri flees and after evading some pursuit finds himself alone on island. Audun disrupts a few spells then flees out to sea using water-walk. Claire surrenders and is tied up but is then ignored for just long enough for Thimbus to swoop in and collect her, they fly away. Dorian flees but is soon chased down and forced to surrender. Fjallarr, Cara and Perseus all surrender peacefully.

Audun runs out to sea, circles around back to shore, eventually makes his way to top of "Gargoyle Hill".

Claire and Thimbus try to intercept pursuers of Chembri but accomplish nothing, they then fly off and hide.

Chembri eventually makes his way back to cave but everyone is gone, so he heads up Gargoyle Hill and somewhat awkwardly reunites with Audun.

Captives are bound, taken to Suderham, and thrown in cells.

Late in afternoon, Claire and Thimbus decide to check out Gargoyle Hill - they find Audun and Chembri here.

Late at night, captives freed by an unknown ally; they are left a cryptic map and note indicating a docked boat in harbour. Captives have to pass through slave pens en route to exit, and here find some people: Turin TwoAxe(NrC-1) rejoins (last seen in Krykos the Warlord), also a very weak Myiore, this causes lots of confusion as people saw her explode this morning, but it soon becomes obvious she has been cloned. This seems to be what's left of the original, so they take her in.

Also, Tyche rejoins; she has spent the last few days hiding in town, she saw Party being brought in this morning and had since been trying to get to them.

Party arm themselves with whatever they can find and head into streets.

Meet two skeletons and a ghoul on patrol who don't last long; then get to dock, find boat and most of captives' gear, and sail out of harbour. Decide to head for a nearby island and anchor.

Thimbus tries using talk-rock but only get Milerjoi the Monk; lots of threats get nowhere except Thimbus learns captives are free, so his group fly away from island and start searching.

Perseus etc. stay anchored through day, are eventually found and joined by Thimbus group, so all now reunited.

A Black Dragon rears up out of swamp and attacks. Chembri killed by its initial blast but Dragon otherwise poses little real threat before dying.

To everyone's surprise (including his!) Chembri revived a moment later as if nothing had happened; nobody can figure out why or how despite much speculation.

No sign of Dragon's lair, so keep trudging north through swamp.

Treasury done. Audun retires to train. Turin retires to go home. Myiore retires to recover in a care home in Qar'nora.

Now in open country, Party see several Giants ahead in the distance. Thimbus flies ahead to fireball them and draw them toward Party, but gets distracted by an approaching boat on a huge nearby lake and fireballs that instead; he blows up a magic item or two on board as well. Ship founders.

Despite lots of confusion and people going every which way, Party try to charge at Giants. Fjallarr summons a Dwarven horde for the first time, he's happy. Perseus summons an angel. Chembri and Zxancs announce they are going to help ship survivors but instead charge around Giants and eventually come in from behind. Tyche and Cara independently sneak around and try to backstrike the same Giant but only end up getting in each other's way. And despite clobbering a few people with boulders as they approached, the Giants still go down rather easily.

Meanwhile, ship has sunk and survivors are swimming for shore. Chembri, Dorian, Zxancs and Cara head down to meet them; Chembri pulls all as enemies, and all are soon either slain, captured or run off.

Giants send out a search party; Thimbus flies ahead to warn village and Party.

Giants arrive, Party use same tactics as before to good effect. Giant chief proves a handful - takes damage 21 different times (mostly from Magic Missiles) before finally going down. Chembri killed by chief and Zxancs clubbed senseless by another, but Party again prevail.

Perseus uses a Ring to wish that Chembri survived the battle, so Chembri revived.

Party stay with Elves for a few days to rest and recover.

Party (and Thimbus) awakened in morning by a pounding hailstorm, Thimbus grounded and so tries finding Party on foot, no luck; finally finds them later when almost at Giant camp.

Cautiously approach Giant camp. Three Giants are outside; so Party use Silence across cave entrance to block sounds of combat then rather easily take them down.

A second batch of Giants come storming out of cave, these three adults and two children prove much more trouble:
o One adult takes on Fjallarr and eventually almost kills him;
o Dorian tries to put Darkness on one but catches Chembri instead, so he becomes a hazard;
o Perseus takes on one of the kids, doesn't accomplish much before leaving it to Zxancs;
o Several other kids appear in the cave entrance cheering on their friends, Thimbus blows them up, this causes remaining Giants outside to go completely berserk;
o Zxancs is losing to her Giant-child foe so Chembri (in darkness) wades in to help, but he hits Zxancs instead and nearly kills her;
o Tyche and Dorian independently move to find and cure Zxancs, Dorian ends up blundering into Tyche then hauls her out of darkness (thinking she is Zxancs), they argue; and Tyche's NtC class is finally revealed;
o Heroic last stand by the young Giant causes some sort of minor divine intervention, it disappears completely on dying and darkness ends early, Zxancs barely survives and Claire is kept very busy.

Not content with this, and with half of Party barely standing, they form up and charge into the cave. A few more Giants await including a spellcaster but they don't last long, but in hindsight one was clearly an illusion; and Tyche saw someone scurrying away down a passage.

Perseus, Chembri, Claire and Fjallarr form up and chase but cannot find; Cara and Tyche are brought forward to deal with some doors, and lots of exploration and looting follows. A massive wolf in one room is the only useful opposition.

Leave caves, camp nearby. A bonfire containing several enchanted giant clubs fails to provide much entertainment

Arrive Qar'tura, start a long break including training for all except Fjallarr and Thimbus. During this, Party realize loot from Giants is a lot more valuable than first thought; they're happy.

During this time they also meet Rainbow, she agrees to join up but on Flaige 21 inexplicably disappears from a city street.

Reach another road and find a battle - a Human is fighting three others, with a Khri-Halai watching. Party wade in and settle it, then take in the one Human: Nya-Torvee Deshmuir(T-5) joins.

Disorganized Party then starts infighting, mostly centered around Dorian. Nya wonders what she's gotten into.

Reach village of Erba Alba; Perseus, Nya and Dorian to pub for information - they meet another adventuring group here and learn that many more are operating in the area. Perseus then has to pay for the drinks Dorian steals.

Party decide to camp a few miles from village, near road.

During night Party attacked by group from pub, Party easily prevail but a magic surge gives Claire a level in Ranger, so Claire becomes NrC-6/R-1. Tyche's sword does some odd things during this battle - it glows very bright orange and forces her to keep fighting an already-very-dead foe for a while.

A lone traveller approaches in morning, indicates he's been looking for a Gnome; Party killed one last night so traveller takes its corpse and leaves.

Party place rest of corpses along roadside with a sign saying "Don't be a jerk", and carry on.

Meet a Puridian patrol; Nya goes ahead to talk while rest of Party taunt from a distance, inevitable battle results despite Nya's best attempts.

Arrive near ruins then retreat a bit and sack out; hear occasional distant booms (lightning bolts?) during night. (Ruins are much more ruined than Party was led to expect; the Ruins of Fortune group did this a month or so ago while learning how to fly a skycastle, and significant bits of Akrides are now either buried or missing.)

Into Akrides. Defeat a Vampire but not before Tyche loses 2 levels (so back to T-3/NtC-3).

Odd sounds come from a partly-ruined temple so Party investigate, find a talking skeleton chained to a pillar. It says various profound-sounding things to various people, ignores others; Party leave it alone and carry on.

Find someone standing confused in an open plaza, Fjallarr recognizes him: Memnon(F-3) rejoins after appearing here a few minutes ago with no idea where he is or why - or how - he is here. He has none of his old gear except the basics but is carrying an unfamiliar and very magical sword.

Decide to try a cave complex noted on map, Party head there and find a couple of other groups already in area; after staking out territory, Party head in.

A replicating ooze causes a few headaches.

Find a room with large statues - one of Zeus, one of Hera - and a pool of water. Dorian tries fishing in pool. Lots of people try lots of other things until someone realizes there is an area of magic between the statues. Some people walk through it and vanish: Fjallarr, Memnon, Dorian, Claire and Thimbus all leave (to Icebeast). Chembri then casts Augury and learns going through leads to lots of snow. People have second thoughts.

Zxancs meditates in front of Zeus statue, seeking direction. After an hour of this, people get bored; Tyche tries to steal Zxancs' strength girdle and Nya, defending her, runs Tyche through. Chembri saves Tyche while Perseus attacks Nya, then Chembri paralyzes and Perseus kills Nya.

Meanwhile and completely unnoticed, a Chembri glyph has caught a Medusa; Perseus now kills it and takes its head.

Perseus can't talk anyone else into following Fjallarr etc. so he goes alone: Perseus leaves (also to Icebeast).

Zxancs, Chembri, and Tyche - now the entire Party - loot Nya and wait for Perseus to return; he doesn't, so they hunker down behind some Chembri glyphs and wait for morning.

Via Detect Enemies Chembri learns there's lots of danger around. Tyche finds a secret compartment in Zeus statue but when Zxancs plays with it Hera's statue comes to life and chases Party out. (Zxancs also thinks she's turned off the teleporter, thus no chance of Perseus etc. returning now; so might as well leave…)

Tyche's Sanctuary gets Party past a Medusa and outside.

Meet another small party - conversation goes badly, weapons come out, Party wins; meanwhile one enemy caster goes invisible and starts looting her own companions.

Party try talking again, this time things go much better and caster is persuaded to stick around: Angelica(MU-4) joins. She has some knowledge of city and leads Party to House of Roses, their next target; but nobody can figure out how to get in so Party leave town instead and rest a few days.

Back to Akrides through a different gate in pouring rain, lots of tracks in mud lead Party to a uniformed Puridian patrol; Party watch invisible while another adventuring group is searched and released.

A note on map refers to "5th tree after sunrise" so Party start looking for trees; they find what was probably a planted boulevard (half the trees are just stumps, now) and Zxancs ends up somehow talking to a tree spirit, she gets lots of useful information.

During this Tyche fuels Zxancs' growing paranoia by disappearing up one of the trees for a while.

Circle around town to another entrance, rain is getting worse so Party decide to seek shelter but others have got there first; Party finally find a small empty stone shed with a roof and sack out here, still invisible.

The Puridian patrol is doing a building-by-building search, they reach Party's shed. All flee except Angelica who surrenders and is searched - patrol is looking for a one-eyed skull; as this is also Party's target Party get concerned Puridius might be on to their mission. Paranoia grows.

Searchers leave but don't return all of Angelica's possessions, she's mad. Meanwhile, Chembri names his boots of levitation Mary and Poppins.

A battle breaks out nearby, Party investigate: it's another adventuring group vs. the patrol. Party join in and help defeat patrol; things go wrong at the end when Tyche's sword summons a huge white dragon - fortunately for all, it cannot get out of the building it appeared in. Everyone flees after Angelica recovers her ring from a corpse.

Decide to camp outside town (rain has stopped); three survivors of other party tag along but don't seem interested in sticking around longer than one night: they just helped kill off a Puridian patrol and want to get far away fast.

One survivor of other party is a Necromancer, he gives some ideas as to what the one-eyed skull may be. That group then leaves into a cold pouring rain.

Back into Akrides via a different route, to House of Roses. A Chembri Detect Enemies gets lots of pulls, so retreat.

Find a ruined Apollo temple, Zxancs seeks guidance here. A gargantuan undead lizard crawls out of floor, Party destroy it, then go down to where it came from. Find only an elaborate (and well-preserved) crypt.

Back to House, find another party watching discreetly and join them as a third group tries to beat the front door down - until from nearby a powerful fireball blows them away. Fireball caster then strides down street, loots fallen, and leaves.

A Hobbit and a Fighter of indeterminate race seem interested in what this Party is doing, the rest of that group leave.

Zxancs tries walking up to front door and simply opening it, it opens. Hobbit rushes in and vanishes. Others enter more cautiously and thus Xaktcha(F-6) joins.

House is pristine inside so Party take their boots off, in so doing learn Xaktcha is a Satyr. Explore ground floor, it is well-preserved, very ornate, and empty.

Head upstairs, open a door, behind it is an undead who sends Chembri, Angelica and Xaktcha fleeing into the city; they return later but have to run a gauntlet of people trying to bash their way into house. Sack out.

A few people are watching house from across street, led by a guy who resembles a cowboy; all others have left. Xaktcha recognizes one of his companions as someone thrown out of his party a while back.

Zxancs tries to recruit cowboy, cowboy tries to recruit Zxancs, this gets nowhere; so keep exploring house.

Chembri opens another door to another undead; this one sends people teleporting all over the city except Chembri, who defeats it single-handedly. He then gets very bored waiting for others to return…

Zxancs, Xaktcha and Angelica soon reunite outside but can't get in past cowboy and friends, so they try subterfuge; this doesn't work; so they send invisible Zxancs inside to see if anyone in there can help. But instead she just opens the door and leaves it, so cowboy and a heavy Fighter charge in. Chembri freezes Fighter then is almost killed by "useless" companion (in fact, an Assassin); meanwhile Zxancs and cowboy argue until Xaktcha charges in, cowboy joins fight until Chembri (using Giant strength) picks him up and throws him out.

Someone thinks to check the back door and here finds Tyche.

Chembri tries Locate Object and loses his mind (Int. 3). Meanwhile outside, cowboy vanishes.

Explore into a basement, find some traps, return upstairs and sack out.

Today's surveillance provided by a mafia-type across street, another is in back yard.

Decide to finish house, open a door; behind it is a Spectre. Xaktcha loses 6 levels (so now F-0) and barely survives.

Sack out in kitchen, keep watch on backyard.

Angelica tries on a necklace looted from Nya, it tries to strangle her, Zxancs using giant strength rips it apart.

During night Zxancs and Tyche try to lure a bat close enough to cast Messenger on, watchers in backyard shoot at Party so Angelica blows them away with an ice wand. Bat duly sent on its mission to find cowboy.

Try again with a few crows in morning but invisible watcher chucks a couple of fireballs in window and nearly kills Tyche, Angelica freezes this one too, crows fly off (or get crisped). Caster is identical to an Elf killed during night, Party suspect cloning.

To basement again, explore into new areas, a couple of columns animate and again nearly kill Tyche, Zxancs puts 68 h.p. damage into one in a single swing. Sack out after this for a few days.

Tyche gets a strong sense of foreboding during morning prayers so still-battered Party carry on.

A door in basement leads to a shaft, Chembri lowers a light down and a big set of teeth come up and swallow light.

Another door leads to darkness, Chembri dispels this against long odds revealing an endless cavern with door and hall jutting out about 10' into empty air.

Various people try various things here until Zxancs notices something on underside of hall, eventually recovers a gold fish and a piece of paper.

Paper tries and fails to turn both Zxancs and Angelica into fish when they look at it, Angelica reads in Puridian:

those who sin
fear the fin
do not fail
with the tail
use the head
join the dead

Find a secret door, going through sets off some sort of alarm. (and Vaklari immediately starts Shadow-walking north) Behind is a passage to a cavern holding 3 sarcophagi and a small building.

A trap on building deafens some people for a while.

Zxancs tries fish key on a sarcophagus, it's filled with oil and trapped to explode; she's lucky, it doesn't.

Use fish key on building and get in, Vaklari shows up, Tyche and Xaktcha flee (Xaktcha killed soon after by people waiting on street outside, Tyche captured).

Chembri breaks a skull in room, this clobbers Vaklari but does not slay him; he and Party find themselves on a plane of endless mist in all directions. Vaklari flees.

Party and Vaklari each eventually realize their thoughts affect "reality" here; Zxancs and Vaklari end up in a small room, Chembri and Angelica soon join. Angelica loots a wand from a chest and blasts it, but shoots backward into chest, various things break and Angelica killed.

After a long tough fight Zxancs, at 1 h.p., puts a critical hit into Vaklari and kills him.

Party (except Perseus) suddenly arrive in high Arctic wilderness in the depths of winter; most don't have winter gear, it's -15 and snowing hard. Claire casts some cold-endurance spells, Party settle in to wait either for a way back to appear or other people to arrive.

Perseus arrives an hour or two later with a bloodied sword, tells of killing Nya. He tries using a ring of wishes to get Party back to Akrides but nothing happens, he's not pleased.

Party stay put for night.

Thimbus reconnoitres from air in morning, sees a village a few miles off. It's now about -25.

Party to village, Fjallarr talks Party in then Dorian talks them out and nearly starts a brawl in process; Party leave and head south.

Find a Dwarven borderpost, Dorian almost talks Party out of this too but is hushed.

Arrive at city of Kaaparik. Inquiries lead Party to local Freyr temple, they can provide transport to Celtic lands (i.e. most of the way to Akrides) but they demand a payment: Party must slay an Icebeast that has been raiding farms and livestock to the south.

Party see a map and are shocked to learn just how far north they are; they arrived in northern Valksheim near the Arctic circle!

Freyr types send an observer along: Knorrvi Sefnirsson(NrC-4) joins. Party leave town.

Into hills, find a man - Brogan - half-frozen and badly hurt. His cabin was attacked by wolves and a Turvitian; Party track down and kill these then spend night at Brogan's cabin after Kesferrah and Knorrvi help with repairs.

Wolves and Turvitian were all wearing silver collars, this concerns Brogan as silver collars were a sign of belonging to "the snow witch" when she used to terrorize these parts years ago. Brogan explains where her base once was, Party are going that way anyway.

Some Yeti attack in forest during morning, they too wear silver collars.

Party see a Frost Giant in the snowy distance and charge; it happily engages, along with its hidden pet Remorhaz (a.k.a ice worm, and probably Party's original target) which nearly kills both Fjallarr and Perseus. Giant has a silver collar.

Backtrack Remorhaz until attacked by a smaller one that doesn't last long.

Find an odd pit, Thimbus explores by flight then everyone in by rope; a third Remorhaz lives here and attacks. It manages to swallow Dorian and clobber a few others but dies; a Thimbus lightning bolt brings some of the roof down onto Kesferrah and pins her in place during this. Rest of roof very unstable.

Thimbus finds a door in roof but Claire Augury shows danger so door ignored now and enspelled shut later.

Back to surface, sack out.

Into pit again to loot. Several Remorhaz eggs destroyed during night by falling roof. A magical statue of an Elf is hauled out and put on a travois.

To Brogan's cabin, debrief him. He becomes very concerned when shown all the silver collars, but Party decide to leave snow witch for locals to deal with.

Claire, Thimbus and Dorian to Llangelyn - T+D need training but there are no MUs in Kaaparik - everyone else stays put and some train.

Inquiries re statue determine it to be a petrified (by accident) Elf that would probably die anyway if un-stoned.

Some Turvitians attack, Party barely works up a sweat.

That night various people notice a faint glow to the west, Party decide to investigate.

A crow lands on Fjallarr during his watch, at daybreak Dorian shoots it. Tied to its leg is a cryptic note. Claire patches crow up, it flies away.

Arrive at a swamp, head out toward a structure until attacked by 6 Trolls. A Thimbus lightning bolt alerts entire swamp to Party's presence.

Flying Thimbus notices a huge serpent-like creature in water.

A small tower in swamp has a wall and gatehouse, Party messily attack gatehouse. Thimbus fireballs Memnon and Fjallarr inside, F is lucky to survive but loses some magic gear.

Meet and talk to Antarcus, a gate-house resident; he gives some useful info.

Decide to sack out, but Dorian opens a door and Party end up plowing through rest of gatehouse.

Thimbus scouts top of structure, sees something large and reptilian in a dark room.

Meanwhile, trouble finds rest of Party:
o Doors to Party's room open but nothing comes in, Party close doors;
o A small Demon appears, whole Party cower in fear except Claire, Memnon (both are fearless) and Perseus;
o Perseus charges and clobbers Demon, it vanishes (and dies later);
o A tiger appears and attacks Claire;
o Doors open again, a warrior appears and attacks Perseus;
o Claire and Perseus freeze in place leaving Memnon as entire functioning Party, he gamely carries on;
o Thimbus returns and starts casting from outside, Dispel Magic frees up Claire then Web glues up combat;
o Tiger has turned into a woman, she doesn't last long once Claire starts removing fear on Party;
o Memnon killed inside web by warrior, who then slowly plows his way out only to get killed by Party;
o Web burned away, caster surrenders.

Conversation with Leptor, the caster, alerts Party that Antarcus is also a threat but - oddly - was probably also responsible for the crow (see T 12). Fjallarr then kills Leptor.

Party return to Antarcus, determine he is evil, and leave; then Thimbus and Dorian fly back and start pounding fireballs into his room from outside. He flees far enough to get outside walls before one last round of fireballs finish him off.

The serpent (a Dragon) from swamp appears in flight right next to T+D: Dorian killed instantly by its breath and Thimbus almost, he staggers back to Party where Claire patches him up.

Dragon, having made its point, chooses not to pursue Thimbus; instead picks up Dorian and his gear (and Thimbus' expensive staff, Dorian had borrowed it to increase firepower against Antarcus) and returns to swamp.

By sunset about 2000 Lizardmen are outside walls. Party hide.

Lizardmen gone by morning. Party fly to top of tower where 3 Wyverns nearly poison several people; Fjallarr's herbs come in handy.

Claire tries for divine intervention during this and it shows up shortly after in form of three very lost people; they seem useful, so Party take them in: Hestor Granitemill(B-4), Sturm(F-4) and Tysheirah(WrC-4) join.

Start exploring tower. Fjallarr and Sturm each aged a few years by something, otherwise top few floors provide only puzzles.

Thimbus messes with a puzzle and teleports all but Fjallarr and Sturm into a barred cell.

Get out, explore, Kesferrah wanders down a hidden passage and gets hit by a thrown rock, she returns quickly.

A skeleton in next cell holds a medallion, Hestor tries to retrieve this and skeleton releases an apparition. Kesferrah soon flees in fear and Knorrvi chases, others spend a long time at it but finally destroy apparition.

Hestor summons warriors during this and gives medallion to one, it disappears with him when spell expires.

Fear wears off Kesferrah, she and Knorrvi climb a ladder until they hear combat above, then stop.

Meanwhile Fjallarr and Sturm make their way down tower and find trolls, they handily defeat these; this the battle heard by K+K waiting below.

Kesferrah and Knorrvi gather up Perseus, he goes up ladder and finds Fjallarr and Sturm; Party reunites then finds a place to rest.

Back downstairs. Fjallarr finds and follows some big tracks but Sturm gets there first and is met by a bunch of Turvitians backed up by three Fog Giants. Sturm and Fjallarr (who each have Giant-slaying weapons) have a field day with these while Thimbus blasts away with lightning, and Party prevails.

Explore, loot, and retreat.

A glass case holds lots of magical books, Party extract these and start reading until Tysheirah finds an Exploding Rune the hard way; Fjallarr disappears due to a resulting surge. (teleported to Quirine's, he wakes up there a month or so later and makes his way to Torcha, arriving on Yavia 28.)

Kesferrah hears nearby noises a moment later, caused by a very lost person. Party take him in: Ieisuk(I-5) joins having just teleported from Caer Cadwyn; Party wonder if that's where Fjallarr went.

Ieisuk's first action is to plunge half of Party into darkness; he then gets whipped by Tysheirah.

Another book holds a deadly scarab beetle. Party barely keep it out of Tysheirah so it goes for Perseus; Sturm kills it just in time.

Try teleporter again, to a room that quickly starts filling with water; Party get a door open before they drown.

Explore here, lots of doors.

Sturm petrified by mist breathed from a carved bull's head. Kesferrah and Knorrvi move the statue clear while others explore.

Ieisuk goes off on his own and gets thrown into a pit with a lake below; Perseus follows and also gets thrown in, he almost drowns but fortunately for both Ieisuk has flight.

Rest of Party clobber Invisible Stalker responsible; for some reason after this Claire feels glad to have done so.

All reunite; keep going until a Demon shows up, soon joined by several Mummies etc. Knorrvi heroically holds the line (oddly, none will attack Perseus fighting next to him) and Party - painfully, in some cases - prevail.

A book sears Hestor when he touches it, he cannot be cured.

Several people (including Perseus, again) get thrown into lake-pit by a trap, soon rescued.

Ieisuk flies around exploring lake, finds stairs leading out of it. Party follow and find another Demon; this one breathes fire, so Hestor and Tysheirah killed and rest of Party hammered before Perseus kills it.

A chest here holds, among other things, a potion that glows bright green. Party sack out.

Retreat to tower, stay here for day.

In evening Perseus notices green potion is glowing brighter along with outside of tower, he pours potion onto tower and both go dark.

A Claire glyph goes off overnight, Party hear footsteps fleeing out a window...

Back down for more exploring; a hall with lots of doors - some painful - leads to a treasure chamber.

A statue animates and knocks some people around but Claire bashes it to pieces. Party then dive into the loot while carefully watching another statue - this one stays put.

A glass case holds a large open book but glass won't move; Thimbus tries a Knock to no obvious effect but when next someone tries moving the glass its top slides free, but it is trapped: Kesferrah and Ieisuk killed in a fiery blast, and Claire's true sight gem shatters in her hand. Book is undamaged, Perseus closes it and scoops it up.

Behind another door is a room full of statues, and more loot.

Speak With Dead on various Party corpses, they all want to come back.

Ieisuk buys an interesting gem for his forehead, when installed it starts talking in his head and will not stop; he eventually realizes it is a Kiira - in effect, a spellbook in a gem. Problem is, he's an Illusionist and the Kiira is trying to tell him MU spells. He barely remains sane.

Ieisuk removes gem later, it's safe; and sells it for 10x what he paid.

End DE-3, of a party of 7 there are 2 survivors; Dictys is one.

Dictys needs to train again so heads north to Qar'nora; once done, he keeps going north until meets Raven's Key Party in Lazudo in early Yavia.

Perseus' group feels watched and uneasy.

A shot across bows of rest of Party gets a violent response, but it's just a Ranger trying to get their attention. After tempers cool they take him in: Caramon Woodstride(R-5) joins. He doesn't get off to a good start when he and Party surprised by spiders shortly after; things get somewhat worse when Ieisuk Colour Sprays everyone else - including himself! - except Dogan and Knorrvi who manage to prevail.

Caramon knows area and can guide to Mirani's castle, also knows of strange effects around there.

All reunite in evening; by now all feel watched.

That night, most people have odd and vivid dreams.

Reach Mirani's castle. Try going in through roof, access blocked by some sort of invisible forcefield. Try a small door at ground level, a bear comes out and clobbers Knorrvi in its attempts to play with him (and find food, it was starving); Party kill it in 15 seconds much to Caramon's annoyance.

Main door leads to a large room with a couple of interesting paintings, one is magical. A Ghost shows up:
o Tysheirah flees in fear in mid-spell, its surge costs Thimbus 2 Wisdom points;
o Kesferrah talks to Ghost while others attack, it carries on a conversation with her during battle;
o Ghost briefly takes control of Claire but she resists before doing anything too harmful;
o Dogen's age goes up the Human equivalent of 60 years; Claire and Knorrvi also significantly aged, and all three now have ridiculously high Wisdom scores;
o Kesferrah tries to destroy the magic painting but instead winds up on the beach it depicts: Kesferrah leaves;
o The other painting is of a man, he steps out of it at one point but does nothing, then vanishes;
o Ghost destroyed.

Party keeps exploring but are soon down another: Knorrvi leaves into the painting as no-one else will go after Kesferrah. (see below for what he and Kesferrah get up to next)

Half a dozen Were-rats make Dogen and Tysheirah lycanthropic, soon fixed.

Find a crystal ball on a stand, Thimbus looks through it and checks up on various people but never thinks to look for the Key the Party is here for, or any clues thereto. Party then shatter ball while trying to remove it from stand.

More exploring - until a bunch of Shadows pour out from behind a curtain. Outside to rest after this.

A Dragon drops by that evening, Thimbus killed by its opening breath but Party soon bring it down.

Back inside, more exploring, some minor battles with local pests.

Perseus disturbs a couple of Carrion Crawlers then almost single-handedly saves Party when they paralyze all but Hestor. (and Ieisuk's Colour Spray doesn't help)

Upstairs. Perseus finds a key on a wall, he picks it up and it talks to him - when it starts counting down he throws it away but it goes boom. Ieisuk killed by this, Caramon killed shortly after by his own exploding items.

Thimbus still has a watch from the Timeless Caverns, it breaks now and releases a Time Elemental which surrounds Perseus. On seeing what it is doing to him Claire and Dogen dive in; they get much younger and remove most of their recent Ghost effects, but Perseus is reduced to one year old. Elemental destroyed.

Claire patches up who she can, then all sack out.

Party wake up but their morning watch is gone: Claire and Thimbus leave with baby Perseus, his gear, and their best guess as to their share of this adventure's treasure. (see below for their exploits)

Now down to only 4 members, Party rest a few days. Tysheirah casts some Augury spells to help figure out what to do next.

Resume exploring. Find a secret room bypassed before, in here is a starving Wererat and a bunch of loot.

Downstairs. Dogen throws a spear into a pile of hay and out come two Black Puddings (was just one but he split it); Party stretched to the limit to deal with these, then retreat; hear scavengers fighting over dragon corpse outside.

Realizing they need help, Party decide to head back to town. A lion had won the scavenger battle outside, Tysheirah blinds it with a Light and it flees.

Navigational woes see Party take 5 days for a 3-day trip to town.

Meet Yond in a.m. then go recruiting. Althaire and Nausicaa have gathered a small Party around themselves but have no mission; these guys have a mission but not much Party left, so a merger is obvious: Eikinskjaldi(F-4), Quiet(F-4), Vita(T-4/I-3) and Dictys(NrC-5) join along with Althaire(T-6) and Nausicaa(I-6).

Meanwhile Hestor leaves as he needs to train (to B-5).

Meet Yond again in p.m., he recognizes Nausicaa: Yond's employer is an associate of someone Alth. and Naus. took out during their AN-series adventures.

Reach castle, soon find someone here: Pheradra Chime(R-3) joins, and this confuses Althaire and Nausicaa greatly as they last knew her to be completely dead.

Wade into castle, find and bury bodies of Caramon and Ieisuk then spend lots of time trying to reach missing floor. Althaire and Nausicaa eventually figure it out.

Eikinskjaldi walks into a room; the floor swallows him, rest of Party nearly kill him while trying to rescue.

Althaire opens a large chest in room, a Vampire emerges, proves to be an illusion but not before causing concern.

Chest has a false bottom, when opened it goes 'BOOM': Dogen, Dave, Nausicaa, Eikinskjaldi and Pheradra killed.

Nausicaa raised. Dogen taken to nearby Monkish monastery, they send someone out as a replacement thus Jleim(Mk-4) joins.

Yond informs Party that statue is not of any use by itself; Party need to try again.

Dave raised.

A recruit wanders by and gets taken in: Ray van Keye(F-4) joins.

Explore castle until Quiet, Ray, Althaire and Nausicaa all vanish into a mirror; ignoring them, Party keeps exploring.

Dave does some work with the exploding key, all he accomplishes is to fry himself.

Dictys gets a divine message during morning prayers; he then leads Party to mirror and - with help - smashes it. This gets all the missing people back, plus a very confused Nymph.

Conversation with Nymph proves useful as she knows a bit about this place and what makes it tick. She then leaves.

Decide to go through painting; Trolls on beach quickly disposed of.

Push boat out to sea, Ray left behind on shore. Boat goes into maelstrom then appears near another beach, except Vita falls out en route; by the time she is recovered she has drowned: Vita killed.

Boat disappears, so explore a bit while waiting for Ray, he eventually joins.

Sometime during this Vita's corpse vanishes with all possessions.

Into cave, take out some trivial opponents though fumbling Althaire blows up an expensive sword.

Start exploring, soon find remains of Kesferrah and Knorrvi, take out scorpion that killed them, then sack out and field-test some treasury items; Althaire is thrilled when a belt she puts on makes her extremely strong.

Explore. Nausicaa clears away some annoying illusions. A fear-causing effect in a passage provides lots of fun; Althaire's telekinesis ring and Tysheirah's spells eventually get people through.

Find a coffin, it holds a Mummy that Party destroy in less than a round.

Althaire and Nausicaa go into a reflecting room and vanish; Tysheirah and Dave soon follow. All meet and defeat clones of themselves on a featureless plain, then return to Party who quickly decide to sack out.

During night a Xorn tries to pull Jleim into the floor, Party kill it.

Explore until shriekers attract some Wights, Tysheirah turns these away while Party explore further; Dave loses a level when Wights come back later.

Althaire makes a sacrifice to a statue, it answers a question for her; answer is of limited use. Meanwhile not far away the roof collapses on a Gelatinous Cube.

More exploring, lots of caverns, sack out.

A Minotaur wanders in during night and quickly dies.

Next cavern along is full of mold, Quiet and Ray go in and mold releases spores: Quiet killed by these. Retreat.

Explore until Ray notices (!) something odd about a cavern, it turns out to be a freestanding door. Ray, Tysheirah and Althaire go in then door vanishes leaving everyone else behind; those three go through a maze then get attacked by living boulders. Return to rest of party when last boulder dies.

A cavern holds some Mind Flayers, they soon turn out to be illusions guarding a coffin full of treasure and a corpse.

Find a Purple Worm in process of dying vs. an Umber Hulk, Party then kill 'Hulk.

Purple Worm had babies in another cavern, Party kill these too.

Another odd door leads to a maze; Tysheirah, Jleim and Dave left behind while others enter. A Water Naga awaits in here, Althaire makes good use of her telekinesis ring to kill it but not before it nearly drowns Dictys; all then return to Party.

Althaire can't reach a lock so still-incurable Dave picks her up, he glances up her skirt and remarks how good the view is; she forgets how strong she is for just long enough to slap him - and she breaks his neck: Dave killed. The resulting argument, mostly between Dictys and Althaire, goes on for quite some time while Party sack out.

Keep exploring, lots of doors have dire warnings on them, amazingly Party take heed and keep going.

Eventually find a room containing two Liches, once everyone gets over their fear they introduce themselves: he is Xangteng (as in the Undead Lord, thought by most to have been destroyed a few centuries ago), she is his wife Bianca. Incredibly, nobody attacks and a cordial conversation begins:
o Xangteng asks that a pile of treasure looted from a coffin be returned as the deceased was a good friend of his, Party comply (he later tells them about the deadly curses on some of it);
o Party ask about the Raven's Key and how to find it, once Xangteng is given details about who wants it he offers to provide it freely;
o Xangteng reveals he allowed Nakki-Nakk to "win" their battle in order to disappear to a quiet existence with Bianca, they have mostly been here since;
o X and B are responsible for nearly all the magical defenses thus far encountered by Party, and he takes a brief inventory of what he has to fix;
o Bianca is a high-level Cleric, she is asked to Raise Dave and on payment of a gift (Althaire, quite remorseful about what happened, supplies this) and the usual sacrifice (Althaire pays half) she does so, so Dave raised (and thus becomes the first character in history to be brought back to life by an undead!). An odd side effect of this is Dave has now become invisible to most undead including a rather surprised Bianca.

The conversation then devolves into an argument about funding of Dave's raise; Xangteng looks on, bemused.

Party decide to take Xangteng up on his offer of the key once Dave recovers.

Yond introduces Party to Sidney, his boss; Sidney gives Party 62,000 g.p. in reward - less than first promised but they are a bit late, after all.

Jleim makes contact with her monastery, they have been looking after Dogen's remains and ask for his treasury share to cover his expenses.

Dogen resurrected.

Much of the rest of Quelle is spent shopping and resting. Dogen goes to his own monastery and delivers what's left of his share. Dictys goes to find Hestor who is still off training somewhere in Hobbit lands. Etc.