...over

With locked magic doors and only one knock spell we decided to go back and try the door in the dining room. This opened to a kitchen storeroom.

Back again to the stables and we tried the middle door, this led to a spiral staircase and we descended to the lower level to another corridor with 5 doors. The thief opened the first two to find storerooms of weapons and armour. He unlocked the next two but they were empty. Unlocking the third he set off a lightning trap. I helped him still smouldering to the back of the group where Braylec cures some of his electrical burns and I open the door to be confronted by a mage and two guards.

"Kill the prisoners!" the mage shouted. One guard peels of to a door on the right. The other comes at me and hacks at me with his sword. My blood wells out of a ragged gash and I am too stunned to be pushed out of the way by Braylec. Behind us Jutiapa casts a spell and the mage runs of choking to the door on the back wall. I step out of the way and Braylec wades in and a couple of stokes knocks the guard to the ground where he lies groaning. Braylec runs off after the other guard and Jutiapa runs after the mage while I tear the fallen guards’ throat out with my nails so that he can’t cause us any more trouble. Shaylea cures my wound and I she follows after Braylec. Cronnen is guarding our retreat so I join Jutiapa who has stopped in front of the door. Down the corridor there is no sign of mage but a stone golem guards the way. These things are impervious to most magic so Jutiapa doesn’t advance further.

An elf runs from Braylec’s directions and disappears towards Cronnen so I leave him to deal with her. I cast a spell to shatter the ceiling above the golem but the rock that falls on it has no effect. Braylec and Shaylea return with a dishevelled elfin looking fellow and another guy who doesn’t seem to be all there. I mention that the fallen guards’ equipment looks magical and that the golem hasn’t moved so far. While Braylec retrieves the sword and armour from the dead guard the elf comes back in and I am introduced to Quilathe and the other elf is none other that the Thanodel we’ve been searching for. Our attention is turned to the door on the left that we haven’t checked yet and Quilathe checks it for traps and finds that it is the same as the one that got Rosco lightly sautéed. Braylec throws over the keys that the guard had for the door to Quilathe but I go to the door and say "Stand back" she throws the keys to me and I unlock and open the door setting off another lightning trap but I am unaffected by this and stare at the contents of this storeroom. There are potions galore and in her rush to get to them Quilathe brushes by me and earths the electricity still coursing through my veins. She checks the potions and finds two that are for healing. Rosco and I share one of these and his blindness is cured and my leg mends instantly. The rest are put into the bag of holding and we are surprised by the golem as it tries to extract itself from the fallen rubble. I cast another shatter directly at it but it is unaffected so I change myself into the form of a leopard and run up the stairs and into the stables and wait for the others to catch up.

We put some distance between ourselves and the keep so as not to be followed. Thanodel and the other guy are given the second healing potion but only Thanodel comes to his normal self; the stranger is still appears witless.

We make our way to Glantri and after checking all is OK with Bob at the house we enter the city and go our separate ways. Braylec and Jutiapa go to see Captain Black, Thanodel takes Quilathe to the thieves guild and I get a couple of new dresses and the permits I need to be back in this strange city. I take my chit to the Volospins representatives and they help me locate my amulet. It is near the city of Athenos and I am given directions to its location.

I make my way back to our meeting place the Flying Squirrel and am told that we are going to go to Darokin and deliver the stranger we rescued. This is fine by me as I get the benefit of travelling most of the way with this lots protection. I’m sure one of the others must of passed the message onto the rulers of clan Erwan for the elves.

We leave Glantri by covered carriage to disguise our passage but it is obvious that we are being watched remotely.

Away from the city we ditch the coach and proceed at speed towards Darokin.

After we passed the fork that led to the northernmost three towns in Darokin the stranger came out of his mindless state to tell us he’d rather go to Athenos. This pleased me greatly as I now can go all the way with my guardians.

As we arrived in Athenos I was most disappointed to notice that the directions I’d been given led directly into a huge lake. After dropping off our ward, everyone split up to gather information on the Veiled Society. I took the opportunity to go off on my own and went directly to the lake. Changing into the form of a large pike I swam down into the depths and a ways in and 100’ down I found a cave system but the pressure was too much for me to proceed. On my way back to shore I was pulled out of the water by the fishermen who started waking me with their oar as I reverted back to my normal form before they could gut me. I managed to cast flare and daze them enough to get out of their net by shredding it with my long nails (I hadn’t noticed how talon like they are getting with all the travelling we’ve been doing). They didn’t look too happy so I changed back into a pike and swam for all I was worth back the shore (perhaps in hindsight a plesiosaur would have been a better choice of form).

After a few days in the town I’ve been unable to find anything about these caves and the rest seem to be having the same trouble finding the information on the slavers.