ADVENTURERS TALES

        So much has happened, and in such a short time, that my head is reeling
from it all!  More likely though, it is the aftereffects of the ritual, and
the long night.  But do let me explain.  But here we are, set and ready to
leave the valley forever, Enkil is captured AND slain!  But do let me tell
how these events came about rather than rattle on about how fast they all
came about.

   Before we attacked Enkil yet again, we thought that we should see what
he was up too.  So, Merlaine drew out one of her crystal balls, and with it
spied Enkil out.  We discovered that he was within a huge cavern, with some
sort of black obelisk near him.  Merlaine said she could also see many
barrels, and giants stuffing human females into the barrels!   So, we had
not rescued all the maidens after all.  Enkil had obviously taken some away
and was now, Shali surmised, preparing to hole up and hold us off until the
house of Vermilion Shadows came to pick them up.
        That was unacceptable.  And so it was that we drank the last of our tea,
swallowed the last of our meal, armed and armored up, and went back into
the pit.  As I mentioned before, Bob and Brianna we left with Moughrim to
guard the maidens that we had managed to rescue.  We asked Moughrim to
animate several more of the ogre corpses, and this he did.  Gods but those
walking corpses are disquieting.
        We used the runestick to port back into the labyrinth.  Once there, we had
no idea of where Enkil might be hiding, so Merlaine took a few moments and
prepared her spell of Location.  This caused a large glowing arrow to
appear on the floor and point directly to where Enkil was.  We figured that
subtly was not really in order for now, and the arrow would be a great help
to us, and the still captive brides of Ice.
        The arrow pointed downward, and to one of the corridor walls.  Since the
nearest door to that was the ornate door at the corridor's end, that is the
door we tried.  Now, we had warning before that this door was trapped, and
indeed it was, almost as heavily as the door to the ice brides chamber had
been!
        Again we used Moughrim's ogres to detonate the traps upon the door, there
was another cloud of acid, and another poisoned barb.  We had seen, during
our battle with the slavers, the ward upon this door go off, but checked it
anyway in case Enkil had re-trapped it; he had not.  We battered down the
door and rushed into the corridor we could see beyond it.
        This corridor soon gave way to a magnificent staircase, made of the same
smoky quartz we had seen elsewhere in this temple.  This stair led out onto
a huge circular chamber, with an enormous pool of water at its center.  At
the middle of the pool was a black stone platform some forty feet in
diameter.  There was, apparently, only one way in or out.  We moved much
more cautiously now, expecting Enkil to attack at any moment.  This
platform was ringed by screens of finely carved sandalwood, so we could not
see beyond, we imagined that's where he was.
        We did a quick check for traps or guards, and found none, so we all
mounted the stairs to the platform and pushed aside the sandalwood screens.
There we found a most ornate desk, made of ironwood, but no Enkil.  It
must have taken an immense effort to get that great desk down here,
probably disassembled and reassembled.  Aside from this ornate desk, we saw
two pallets, one of fine down and silks, and one of straw, soggy with damp
and with a moth-eatin blanket of rough wool.  Melody began to search the
desk, which had several drawers.  She quickly determined that the drawers
were trapped by springing a poison needle trap.  Fortunately, the venom was
not a particularly strong one, and was easily neutralized.  The next trap
was an explosive one, which showered Melody with splinters.  After that,
Melody decided the desk was not worth the time it would take, as we were
after bigger fish.
        The rune I had painted on Shali's forehead was still active, and a quick
glance around by her discovered that yes, all the drawers were trapped.
After that, she turned her attention to the room.  Although to normal eyes,
there was no apparent way out, Shali perceived a secret door near the rear
of the room.  We dispensed with searching the rest of the platform, and
made for the secret door.
        Although Shali could know that there was a door, she could not discern how
to open it, and so Merlaine took a few minutes to prepare and cast her
spell of opening.  While Merlaine readied her spell, Brianna cast
witchsight spells upon all of us, and once the door was opened by
Merlaine's spell, she cast Walking Unseen upon each of us.
        Beyond the now open secret door was a rough hewn tunnel.  Our advance down
this was much more cautious, and Melody was a good distance in the lead as
her natural stealth would help in case whatever we met could perceive
Unseen beings, like ourselves.
        After a few minutes advance, we reached our goal!  The tunnel ended in a
large cavern which contained a mirror still lake of unknown depth.  At the
entrance to the cavern stood two giants, in chain armor with huge maces at
the ready.  Beyond them we could see Enkil himself, directing a pair of
ogres in putting the Ice brides into barrels, and then sealing the tops.
        We watched as Melody snuck up to, and then past the giants.  it was now
obvious that the giant guards could not see Unseen beings, and we all
walked hurriedly past them as they stood guard, aware the something was
amiss, but not being able to discern what it was exactly.
        Enkil however, was a different matter.  As Melody charged toward him, he
drew out a rapier and main gauche and turned to face her attack.  Shali was
close on Melody's heals, and came at Enkil from behind.  The rest of us
charged into the cavern as fast as we could, weapons at the ready.  Enkil
engaged Shali, and I do not remember when I last saw bladework as fast and
furious as that battle.  Enkil attacked swiftly and expertly with his
rapier, which was tipped with some greenish venom.  Yet ho could not
penetrate Shali's defenses, as she wielded her main gauche with her
customary skill and speed.
          Then an odd thing happened.  A devil flew into the cavern and began
hovering in the air out above the lake, preparing a spell.  We figured at
first that the devil was some assistant to Enkil, and its spells were aimed
at us.  But instead, upon completion of the devils spell, it shot forth a
bolt of lightning which struck Enkil full on!
Although he did not suffer as much damage as one would expect from a bolt
of such force, the attack seemed to unnerve Enkil.
        Enkil then, in one swift movement, sheathed his main gauche, and drew out
from its sheath the gnomish hand cannon.  He pointed the long brass tube at
the devil, and a huge gout of flame and pale foul smelling smoke erupted
from the device.  The devil screamed and vanished in a cloud of foul greasy
smoke with a loud bang, although nowhere near as loud at the thunder the
hand cannon had caused.  Melody and Shali pressed their attack upon Enkil,
who retreated and once again took up his main gauche.
        When Melody and Shali had engaged Enkil, they also had negated their
Walking Unseen spells and were now visible all.  The giants had started to
rush forward, as had the ogre.  One of the giants however, had run right
into To-gurrick, who was still Unseen.  This was fine with To-gurrick, who
proceed to lay into the giant with his heavily mailed fists.  The other
giant, seeing his companion beset, rushed over and began attacking
To-gurrick, so naturally I, Merlaine and Vasquez had to rush to help him.
        The battle between Enkil, Melody and Shali was relatively quick.  Enkil
was one of the fastest swordsmen I have ever seen, but even his lightning
attacks could not penetrate Shali's defenses.  And while Enkil was
assailing Shali, Melody attacked Enkil.   After the lightning bolt from the
devil, it only took a couple of swings of Melody's swords to lay Enkil out
on the ground, well and thoroughly dead.
        The battle between the giants, ogre and To-gurrick and the rest of us took
a bit longer, but was resolved shortly after Melody and Shali came over and
helped.  I had taken several bad wounds, and To-gurrick was near to
unconscious with the pounding he had taken.  None of us but for Melody and
Shali were in really good shape.
        The battle over, we took stock of our surroundings.  We were in a cavern,
natural, and with a still, deep lake of small size ( less than 500 feet
from shore to shore).  At even intervals surrounding the small lake were
three obelisks of black stone, some twenty or so feet in height.  Behind
each obelisk, away from the lake, was a brazier filled with rocks.  Upon
looking at these rocks I discovered them to be oil-shale, which will burn
if ignited.
        Then we turned our attention to the barrels.  There were some two score or
so of them arranged neatly against the cavern wall.  The ones that had lids
on we opened, discovering inside yet more women, all beautiful, and all
very deeply asleep.  Then we rested for a bit, for the task ahead of us was
sure to be an exhausting one.  We were still most concerned about the
prophecy concerning the Dolgenin's that we had had from Shavashi, and so
Merlaine decided this would be a good time to try a technique she had
learned recently.  Using her healers skills, Merlaine preserved the body of
Enkil Dolgenen, not only preserving it, but if fact tying its spirit to the
body, so that the spirit cannot wander off to the lands of the dead.
Usually this is done for a companion who has died in battle, in hopes that
his body may be brought to a Priest and restored to life.
        But, since we have reason to believe that the Dolgenen's can retrieve or
raise the souls of their slain even if the body is not present, we decided
to tie Enkil's spirit to this body.  It was with a very mixed feeling of
joy and trepidation as I watched Merlaine lay her hands on Enkil's body and
summon the energy which she used in binding the soul to the body.  Merlaine
echoed my feelings exactly when she finished her work, and announced with
that odd sideways feral grin of hers " there, that should piss them off."
Indeed it should.
        The rune upon Shali's head was still active, and she announced that much
of the stuff Enkil possessed..his armor and weapons for sure, was trapped
magically.  She did not know exactly how it was trapped, but it was trapped
and the traps were lethal.  We decided that we did not have the time or
energy just now to deal with that.  We rested a bit, then one by one we
carried all the remaining brides of ice up the passageway, through the
circular room with the platform, into the room of cages and thence up to
the temple, where we laid them out in the clean fresh air of the day.,
hoping that by some miracle that would revive them.  Since the six brides
Melody had managed to revive were disturbed by the still sleeping ones, we
decided to place the unconscious brides as close to safety as possible.  We
asked Moughrim to have a pair of his ogre zombies moves the still sleeping
brides to the edge of the forest, some several hundred feet away, and to
this he agreed.
        However, the minute one of the undead ogres came near the forest, a Dryad
appeared and demanded that we cause that "foul abomination of a thing" away
from her forest.  Shali and Melody talked with the forest spirit, and told
her that the zombie would not enter the forest, merely lay the sleeping
bodies at its edge.  The dryad seemed somewhat mollified by this, and asked
if there was anything she could do to help the sleeping women.  We told her
that we figured they were sleeping due to a spell of the Collage of Air.
At that the dryad wrinkled her nose and said that air spirits were
untrustworthy and capricious.. in her terms, flighty.  Since there were no
air spirits in the forest, she did not think there was nay help for the
brides.  We thanked her for trying at any rate.
        The Dryad then told us that her and her sisters were preparing a ritual
for the evening.  We were to be SURE that the ogres, or ourselves in no way
disturbed those preparations.  We told her we would be most careful, and
then asked her what kind of ritual was being prepared.
        This forest spirit told us that her and her sisters were preparing their
standard ritual to celebrate the full moon, but in addition they were
preparing another ritual with which they hoped to save themselves from the
coming holocaust that was foretold.  Then this dryad said that as a way of
thanking us for warning them about the coming holocaust, that we could
attend the rituals if we so desired.  During the ritual, the dryads were
going to open a portal to the realm of Faerie, and allow those who wished
to, and who were able, to cross over into that realm.  We were told that we
too could cross if we wished to, but that no cold iron could cross, and
To-gurrick would not be welcome in that realm, as one of the laws of Faerie
is "like attracts like".  If we wished to attend, we were to appear at the
forest's edge at the setting of the sun.  We were warned however, that to
attend the ritual was to participate in the ritual.  After getting a few
more details on the ritual, and deciding that no harm would come to us, we
told the dryad that we would very much like to attend their ritual, but
that we would not be crossing into the Faerie realm.  The dryad then
vanished, as seems to be the way of her kind.
        Faced with the knowledge that we would soon be departing this valley,
Melody and Shali decided to go back and have a second look at the ornate
desk in the depths of the temple, while Merlaine decided that it was worth
while to have a last consultation with Shavasji, the temple guardian.
        Merlaine had to steel her nerves for the talk with Shavasji, because even
though his duty in unlife is to guard this temple, those who draw their
life, or unlife, from the dark, are an anathema to the elves.  But steel
herself she did.  She entered the cemetery that contained the headstones of
Dreamers past, and told Shavasji that we would soon be departing this
valley for the last time.
        As way of thanks, Shavasji gave us a reading, which was thus:


Wolves to the north.
Wolves to the south.
Three fingers of darkness point the way to the source.

I of course did not hear the exact reading, as I was down near the forests
edge guarding the still sleeping brides, as my presence did not upset the
dryads the way the undead ogres did.  But Merlaine is a worthy scribe and
noted it down.
  We puzzled over the reading for some time but could make neither heads or
tails of it.  The three fingers of darkness we take to be the three black
obelisks beside the underground lake.

  Melody and Shali returned, having found some loot in the desk.  They had
managed to liberate a full set of high quality ships navigational
instruments, 20 or so wooden tubes which we deem to be loads for the
gnomish hand cannon, six or so vials that contain an unknown substance, a
score or more fine gryphon feather quills, and vellum and parchment, as
well as more utilitarian writing instruments, and a large silver and iron
bound ledger book.
        No sooner had they emerged than Melody took the ledger book outside the
temple walls and opened it.  A large blast of fire erupted as the Greek
fire trap within ( for Vasquez say that it surely what it was, Greek fire
leaving a distinct odor after its burning) the book detonated.  The
infernal liquid engulfed the book completely, rendering all its pages to
ash almost instantly.  What's more, the book must have been trapped with a
warding as well, for upon its opening, three lizards, several feet in
length and brown-red in color with eyes that glowed the color of long
burning embers appeared with a sulfurous flash.
        The three lizards attacked instantly, one of them burning Vasquez badly
just by staring at her!   The other one gazed at one of the revived Brides
of ice... with a scream, she fell to the ground unconscious.  Melody, Shali
and Vasquez attacked the lizards, and dispatched them in short order,
Melody killing two, and Vasquez and Shali finishing off the third.  So
quickly were the lizards killed that I hardly had time to nock an arrow to
my bow.  I do deeply regret the loss of that book and the secrets it
contained; the Dolgenen's obviously wanted badly to keep those secrets from
falling into our hands.  Melody skinned the lizards, and thinks their eyes
my be of some use to Alchemists.  Shali's crow, Mischief, showed up and was
enraged that Melody got to keep all they eyes, but was somewhat mollified
at being offered the entrails from all three of the lizards.

        Merlaine healed Vasquez and Thaisha, the injured woman as best she was
able.  Once that was done, we cleared out of the valley.  We made sure to
to take every last bit of food and usable stuff we could from the
mercenaries stores, and we brought with us the horses that were left here.
We also placed Enkil's body into a bag and stowed him on one of the pack
mules.  We have not the time or energy right now to deal with it.  The six
revived women were more than happy to leave.  We had to summon help from
some of the former slaves in order to move the nineteen remaining brides of
ice, who still sleep on.  The gold from the mercenaries pay chest that was
not claimed by Rupert, we distributed amongst the freed slaves.  We used
the runesticks to port back to our hillside camp, which now resembles an
army encampment more than anything else.  Shali spent some time getting
reacquainted with her dogs, whilst I went and cared for my eagle.  My
eagle, Windrider, had remained hooded and jessed throughout our stay here,
and the slaves were afraid to go near him...and rightly so.  They cared for
him by tossing a rabbit near his perch every now and then, and putting
water nearby in a helmet that once belonged to a slaver.
        We sat then at a council meeting of sorts, our party, Rupert and three
representatives from the hundreds of slaves we had freed.  We noted that
even thou there still seems to be a huge number of people here, there were
not as many as before.  The three representatives said that indeed, this
was the case.  A night or two ago, fully one third of the slaves up and
left, fearing that we had been defeated and the slavers were now going to
come and kill them all.  Those that left had tried to take more than their
share of food, and an altercation had broken out.  Fortunately, no one was
killed.  Of the slaves remaining, a good half of them are getting
organized, and hope to form a mercenary company of sorts, as they figure
they have no more villages, or homes or family, but they have weapons and
now know how to fight.  The rest of the freed slaves have family or friends
in various towns and villages that they want to get in contact with.  Their
thought is to get to the town of Ironholm; once there they can camp nearby
and arrange to get letters to relatives, and the newly made mercenaries can
get better training and perhaps some prospect of hire.   And also, Ironholm
is large enough that it might have a Priest or Priestess who is powerful
enough to help cure those brides of ice whom Melody could not help.
    That brought me to the next problem of logistics,  To-Gurrick.  It is
true that he is an orc, and our enemy; but he has saved all our lives and
fought ferociously beside us, even if the was magically compelled to do so.
I cannot bring myself to simply kill him.  Yet he cannot come with us
where we are now going.
        The solution to that problem proved simpler than I had thought it would.
While reading Blooddancer's books and speaking with To-Gurrick, I have
learned the rudiments of the orcish language.  I sat down and penned a note
to To-Gurrick, explaining what we had done, and that he was now alive, and
very wealthy ( by Orcish standards) and the leader of his clan because of
us.  Hopefully this will mitigate his wrath at what we have done.  This
note I sealed in a bone scroll tube, which I then took several hours and
placed a warding upon.  The warding contains the counterspell to my own
collage, when To-Gurrick opens the tube, the spell controlling him will be
dissipated.
        I then handed the tube to To-Gurrick, with the instructions that he was to
go and intercept the members of his tribe that Enkil had summoned to
replace the ones that were killed by us, and open the tube only at that
time.  By the time the others of his clan arrive here, this place may well
not exist, as they still ( by our estimates) have over a week of travel
left before they are supposed to arrive.  I know that sending To-Gurrick
off alone to travel overland is putting his life at risk, but considering
the powers that we have annoyed at us, he is probably safer than we are.
To-Gurrick of course, did not want to go, but after a bit of talking to (
or yelling at, as an Orc only takes you seriously if you are yelling) he
agreed  He packed his stuff and after a brief farewell; left.  We of course
gave him ample food and equipment for his journey.
        And then we prepared for the Dryad's ritual.  We had brought along our
nice black and sliver trimmed suits that we purchased back in Nvym-Dar,
however, they were a bit the worse for wear.  We aired them out, washed
them and generally tried to make ourselves presentable.  Melody is amazed
that none of us will wear our armor.  We do not think armor appropriate for
a ritual.  Melody insists on wearing her armor, which I'll admit looks very
fine and well made.  Just a bit before sundown we ported back to the ruins,
and then waited at the forests edge.  And we did not have long to wait, for
within minutes one of the dryads had appeared, and with a smile and a nod,
indicated that we should follow her into the woods.
        The woods had that same slightly "off center" feel that they had before.
After a time, we came to the heart of the woods.  The trees here were
magnificently tall, and a profusion of rare wildflowers abounded.  A small
waterfall tumbled from a spring, over a large boulder to form a pleasant
stream, and in a small island in this stream was a golden birch tree, with
three trunks that joined at the bottom.  The ground around us, and indeed
the entire clearing was covered with mushrooms.  They were large as a
humans fist, and some were red, while others were spotted and some were
black with streaks of gray and still others were a cream white with a faint
glow to them.  Of all these mushrooms, I recognized not a one
        Around us we could see several other dryads, and a host of forest
creatures, all waiting for something.  We had not long to wait.  A dryad
appeared and stood upon the boulder.  She was dressed in a long flowing
gown of spiders web with tiny flowers embedded in it, and her head-dress
was a huge crown of stag antlers with veils of moss and spider web with
fireflies on it.  She was one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever
seen, tis true.
        She thanked us all for coming, and said the she and the woodland had
provided the mushrooms to help the ritual along.  She asked of us to please
pick and eat them, but not to eat the ones that seemed to be intelligent or
aware.  This confused us, but we said nothing.  Then this being, whom the
dryads call the Wise One, then spoke a bit about life, and the impermanence
of all things, and of how that without endings, there could be no
beginnings.  With that, she welcomed us all to the last moon ritual that
would be held in this valley, and bade us make it a memorable celebration
of the great cycle of life.  The the Wise One bowed her head, and from the
distant shadows, music began to play.
        The instant the music  touched our ears, our mood lightened.  The woodland
became even more beautiful that it had before, and our feet began to move
in time to the unseen piper in the shadows.
        With a grin on her face that we have all come to know, and fear, Vasquez
reached down to pluck a mushroom.  This fungus however, let out a shriek,
hiked up the hem of its stalk and bolted off into the woods on tiny black
legs.
        Vasquez felt bad for scaring the poor 'shroom, but bad feelings could not
linger long here, and so within a few minutes Vasquez reached down and
plucked another mushroom, this one refreshingly unanimated.  Popping it
into her mouth, Vasquez announced with glee that it tasted like chocolate.
        Melody then picked a few mushrooms, but was assailed by a squirrel who
seemed to want the same mushrooms as she.  As Melody tried to stow the
fungus in her armor, the squirrel would gleefully dive in after them.
After a short time, we were not sure if Melody was dancing with the
squirrel beneath her armor, or just what was going on over in that
direction, but it was most amusing to watch.
        Yet another mushroom passed Vasquez's lips, and then in an instant, our
doughty dwarven warrioress, was a whopping ten feet tall!  Her cloths of
course, had not increased in size with her and now hung in rags about her
shoulders.  But Vasquez did not seem to mind, she merely danced all the
harder, sending mushrooms screaming and running for cover as she
approached.
        The rest of us were too busy dancing to bother with squirrels or
mushrooms.  We were alive!  We had succeeded!  We had come through the
flames and nightmares and we were alive!  It was indeed a cause for joyous
celebration!
        The dryads danced, leaping over the stream, and cavorting into one tree,
only to appear from the trunk of another.  Bats did a silent, high speed
ballet over the stream.  Faster and faster the music played, and faster and
faster we danced.  Vasquez's footfalls shook the earth and brought
sparkling drops of dew down upon us all from the treetops.  And still we
danced, and still the music played faster.
        Eventually, just before the sky began to turn the first light shades of
azure, my muscles could take no more, and in spite of the music's wild
playing I collapsed on the ground in an exhausted heap.  Around me I
noticed all my companions and most of the woodland creatures had done the
same.
        Through out all this the Wise One had stood aloof, and watched, smiling.
Now she stepped forward, and the music stopped.  The Wise One began to
chant.  Her chant was precise and measured, and had a sing-song quality to
it that I found mesmerizing... or would have if I had not been gasping for
breath like a beached whale.
        As the Wise One finished her chant, the rock in the stream began to
shimmer, and as the light of the full moon struck it, it turned to mist and
vanished.  Within the space left by the boulder I could now see swirling
pearl gray mist, and catch faint glimpses of a lush and green landscape
with dense forests abound on it, I was seeing the Blessed Realm!
        For a time I lay there, unable to move because of exhaustion, and my
companions were in a similar state, all we could do was watch.  We watched
as one after another, creatures emerged from the woods.  Tiny sparkling
things that were hard to see, birds of wondrous color and an occasional owl
flew down, and then through the portal of mist.  At one point some small
gray and overly wrinkled creatures that looked a bit like gnomes emerged
from the water, and went through the portal; as they waded down the stream,
the leader of the wrinkled beings pointed at us and said " Look, food, they
are dancing with food!"  The Wise One hurried these creatures on through
the portal.
        After some time, all creatures who wished to go through the portal seemed
to have done so.  During the exodus of creatures, a lone dryad had been
engaged in a ritual of some sort just behind the place the Wise One was
standing.  Now she finished her ritual.   I and all my companions felt the
earth beneath us shudder and tremble.  The dryad stood with her eyes
closed, as if in a trance or communion with some greater power.   Then, to
my amazement, the limbs of all the trees began to move, reaching out as if
to grasp at something.  The entire clearing seemed as if it were alive with
the moving, clawing limbs.
          One by one, the earth beneath the oldest of the great oak trees turned
to mud, and the trees fell over.  It near broke my heart, for as they fell,
there was much tearing of roots and breaking of limbs.   As each tree fell,
one of the dryads would vanish, standing around the Wise One one second,
then gone the next.
        Once a tree had fallen, the grasping limbs of the other trees grabbed at
it, wrapping tugging and pulling at trunk and branches, until the fallen
tree had been pulled and dragged into the stream.  Once in the stream, the
fallen trees floated, with the aid of some nearby bushes, down the stream
and through the portal.
        One by one the giant trees fell, and one by one the dryads vanished.  Dawn
was just beginning to dispel the morni ng mist when the portal was suddenly
a rock again, and all but one of the great old oak trees was gone.  Gone
too was the three trunked golden birch.
        Very slowly we picked ourselves up.  Melody thinks that we are sure to be
attacked, and so downed one of the precious healing potions in order that
she might have energy in case we are.  Vasquez made sure to pick some more
mushrooms and stuff them in what remains of her pockets.  Sometime during
the evening she returned to her normal size, although I do not recall
exactly when.  We walked, at a much reduced pace, back to our encampment.
The feeling of finality is heavy upon us.  I hope that they dryads had some
way to replant their trees once in Fairee.  And I know that one of them had
to cast the ritual that made the tree limbs move, and that that ritual
requires immense concentration.  Having your tree uprooted surely would
break such concentration, so one of the dryads had to stay behind to help
the others escape.  I wish she had made an appearance, but the woods were
amazingly silent as we made our departure.
        Despite Melody predictions, we made it back to the camp without incident.
I used the energy in my Runewand to cast counterspell on the portal sticks
as we used them, so that I would at least be able to retrieve half the
valuable sticks.  Once back at the camp, even though it was daylight, we
fell to bed.
        After several hours sleep, we rose, and had a final consultation with the
freed slaves chosen representatives.  They are going to head for Ironholm.
We expressed that we would not tell them where we were going, for they
cannot divulge what they do not know should they be captured.  they
expressed many and repeated thanks for all we had done for them.  they also
expressed thanks that we would not be traveling the same trail as they, for
against the forces we have angered here today, they stand not a chance.
        Taisha and the other awakened Brides of Ice shall go with them, while
Moughrim seems to want to stay near us.  At least, he spends more time
cowering behind us that any others.  And so it was that we left.  The
slaves wanted to put as many miles between themselves and the dread valley
as they could, and we were of similar mind, if different direction.   For
it has been determined that we shall head for Nvym-Dar.  Merlaine hates
this idea, but it is there that we know we can find a mind mage..even
though I'd rather battle a score of ogres that have to deal with that
pernicious poet again.  And also it is there that the collage of Necromancy
has it largest school, where we can return Moughrim to them, and perhaps
see what can be done with the dead but preserved body of Enkil.
        And so it is once again that I must put down quill and parchment and pick
up pack and armor, for we are on the trail again!



                   By My Elated, yet Solemn Hand,
                   This afternoon of the 19th day of Juno,
                     The Year of our Lady 540

                                                Drashak Khea Milari