On the morning the party was to leave Seagate, Derenedeth turned up terribly injured (almost dead) at the inn where the party was staying. The rest of the party healed him and when he recovered he told them he'd been taking care of business when he'd gotten careless and had been captured by the Beggar King's minions. The party went back to sleep. When they got up again to leave, they heard the cook telling the innkeeper how ten dead beggars had been found floating out of the sewers so far that morning. The party decided to skip breakfast and leave right away.

They reached the South Lending in the Brastor Holding on 25 Silemore 849, where they intended to wait for the mercenaries and engineers to arrive (except for Remy Gill, who was already with them). As soon as they rode into town, however, many of the town's merchants accosted Jamie Molson and demanded the money he owed them. After much arguing Jamie and the party managed to convince the merchants (helped by Jamie's lack of scaring and his pleasant facial expression) that the Jamie Molson who owed them money was an imposter posing as the real Jamie Molson.^[30] After yet more argument the local constable was also convinced, though still suspicious. Unfortunately for Jamie, the innkeeper wasn't convinced until after he beat Jamie about with a piece of firewood.

The first night they were in the South Lending they set a watch and Magelocked their windows, fearing that Jamie's double was after him again. Alas, they were all cast into an enchanted sleep and Jamie was Teleported away from them. The Teleport woke them up, however, and they immediately began looking for Jamie using Seeker. They found that he was about a half a mile away, on the other side of town, and set out for there immediately.

Jamie,^[31] on the other hand, found himself in a dead-end alley facing two figures — one his double and the other a demonic creature spitting fire. He attempted to Teleport back to the inn room, but a Teleport Shield prevented it. He then cleverly Teleporteded behind the two to attack them from behind, but was never-the-less overpowered and captured.

When the rest of the party arrived they found a number of burned spots and some blood on the ground. Upon again Seeking Jamie they got an image of him lashed over the back of a demonic creature and behind him seated his double, who was laughing manaicly and periodically digging at Jamie with his dagger as they traveled through a hellish landscape. The landscape seemed familiar to Basgoot from his dreams...

The party gave up hope for Jamie and moped around the South Lending until the mercenaries and engineers arrived to survey the road. When the survey mission reached Blackstone Chapel they found that several important factions in the order opposed the building of the road, worried about losing the isolation necessary to a religious order and the possibility of conflict with the savage hill tribes. Indeed, some of the Chapel elders went so far as to threaten legal proceedings to block the road, with some apparent legal justification. The elders agreed to let the road be built after the party surveyed an alternate route for the road that did not pass through the middle of the Chapel complex and the party was convinced to build a wayhouse (at a probable cost of 100,000 to 200,000 farthings) for the order at the intersection of the new road and the old.

Some miles past the Chapel they found the ruins of what could have been an inn or manor house set back a bit from the road. This could be repaired, though only partial walls remain now. They did not find anything unusual about the ruins. Some days past the ruins the party noticed they were being watched by a group of tribesmen. The characters approached the tribesmen, who all had a design worked into their clothes with blue-dyed leather. The tribesmen communicated with the party with sign, asking what they were doing there. The party managed to convey something of their purpose, and though the tribesmen were displeased, they seemed resigned. They also seemed to indicate that hostile tribes lay futher along the party's path.

Several days later the party was attacked by a couple of hundred tribesmen, who ambushed them in a narrow valley walled with trees and thick underbush. Even though the party was ambushed, Orm and his troops and the characters easily managed to defeat the tribesmen, having only 3 dead and 3 severly injured, while many tribesmen died. All of the tribesmen were found to have an irregular eight-pointed figure worked into their clothing with red-dyed leather.

Further along in the bending south of the road's path, the party followed a disturbance into the brush one night because they saw Tesla (who had stayed behind in Seagate to manage the business) running towards them, but before they could reach her she had been pulled into the bushes. When they reached the area she was gone.

Tracks of unusually small humanoids lead away and the party followed them to the foot of a tall crag, where the trail ended. Gim Walked on Air to the top of the crag, but saw only the ruins of a castle. Remy and Shay investigated inside the rock of the crag, but found nothing. After much searching about, Derenedeth cast Flight on four of the party and they carried the other party members to the top of the crag, where they saw the castle ruins, but this time there was an intact tower! Gim Bird Controled the giant owls nesting on the top of the tower away, and the party landed and entered the tower.

The tower was filled with many strange things, including invisible servants, golem guardians, macabre decorations, and all the modern conveniences. In a room floored by a huge five-pointed star in a circle the party was attacked by five golems after a fireball dropped out of the ceiling and exploded in the middle of the room. In the throne room they were attacked by 20 demons while another demon carried Tesla down the stairs to the basement. The surviving demons Blinked out down the stairs when the party had slaughtered most of them, and the corpses revealed that they had actually been short humanoids. The party recognized them as the “Little People” of BAMF's report.

When they tried to follow they ended up on an endless stair trap that finally led them to the roof where they now found an observatory and an orrery, which when pushed caused the stars to whirl violently, making all of the party terribly ill. Going back down to the basement they found it completely filled with what they thought was water but what was actually a Sucking Reek that turned Gim into a Body of Air, sucked him in and nearly dissolved him. After returning to the throne room for much discussion, they tried the basement again and this time it was dry-floored and contained a steeply inclined tunnel that lead down through the crag.

At the bottom of the crag they found an arid plane of dust-filled winds and sand and gravel and baked clay, littered with various body parts. Over them a huge blood-red sun visibly rose in the west, and all around were crags and huge piles of boulders. They heard distant screams and Gim remembered legends of such an infernal place. They followed some tracks to a crack in the bottom of another crag, which lead into a series of passageways resembling nothing so much as the digestive system of some huge subterranean beast. Disoriented by the foul air and the nature of the passageways they stumbled through a central chamber with six exits and out another tunnel.

This tunnel eventually turned to stone and led to a set of double doors. When they opened the doors they were looking upon a huge semi-spherical room with a number of statues, a five-pointed star in a circle containing a dismembered body, a blood-covered figure rising from the floor, and Jamie tied to one of the statues. They recognized the figure as the mage who threatened them in Suliman Trade's warehouse during the Crypts of Stonesboro adventure, and he recognized them! The party immediately began a desperate attack to cover Basgoot's attempt to rescue Jamie. After Hasteing himself, Basgoot ran out and slashed Jamie free from the statue with Narung, slicing him slightly in the process, then ran back to the double doors. While this was going on the others were trying to cast spells (which all fizzled out), keep open the slowly closing double doors, and endure the attacks of fire and ice triggered by the mage. They managed to keep the doors open until Basgoot had dragged Jamie through (Cormac losing the last joint of the little finger on his right hand as the doors closed) and then fled back up the passage under a hail of ice-daggers and fireballs.

Fleeing back through the slimy tunnels, they again stumbled through the central chamber and took another tunnel. This one eventually turned to packed earth, which started collapsing about them as they squirmed through. Several of the party got stuck in the collapsing tunnel, but the others managed to pull them out, into the bottom of a pit, above which was a beautiful blue sky.^[32]

The session began with the characters at the bottom of a pit, staring at a wonderful blue sky above them. Upon investigating, they found that the pit was surrounded by tall poles surmounted by skulls and short, painted wands tasselled with feather or furs. Off in the distance is what appears to be a tribal encampment of Horse nomads. The tunnel they came through is only partially collapsed, so the characters decided to dig back through, after spending some time resting and healing themselves.

They began to dig, but while they are digging they hear something taunting them and cursing them; when they look up, on the edge of pit is a horrible creature: a spider with a 3-yard leg-span and a human torso attached to the front of its cephalothorax! Needless to say, there's a lot of cursing going on as part of the party stands the monster off while the rest finish the digging. They manage to flee back through the tunnel without anyone being killed, though some were bit.

The characters travelled back through the tunnels (or bowels as the case may be), through the central chamber, and out through another tunnel. This one eventually turned into a stone tunnel that narrowed down to an 3 foot tall, 18 inch wide crack, which opened into a rough-hewn corridor that lead off to the right and left. Deep, gravelly voices could be heard coming from both directions, but no-one could hear enough to determine what they were. Foolhardy and brave, the characters decided to sneak down the corridor to the right, which lead them to a chamber full of Orcs. Against the back wall of the chamber was a throne of huge bones and tusks, upon which sat a huge orc holding a large sceptre or mace. All of the Orcs where busily employed devouring their meal; it's probably best not to inquire what was on the menu. The sounds of bones cracking under the pressure of orcish molars covered whatever sounds the characters may have made during their approach, and they decided that discretion was the better part of valour and retreated back down the crack and into the slimy, odoriferous tunnels.

Again the characters travelled back through the passageways, again through the central chamber, and again out through yet another exit. This time they came out into the night in a niche on the side of a hill, a flat place with steep sides and a short cliff on the back, where the tunnel entrance was. The niche overlooked a desolate heath, and in the distance the characters saw a faint glow, and some of them occasionally heard chanting. They were attacked by two of the “Little People”, but soon defeated them. Looking around a bit they found some stained leather bindings that looked like foot-wrappings and still had traces of the slime from the tunnels.

Since the pressence of the Little People seemed to indicate a likelyhood of finding Tesla, and no other interesting features presented themselves, the characters set off north towards the glow and the chanting. Out on the heath the characters came to a barrow mound, and beyond the barrow mound was a ring of standing stones, and in the center of that was a three-legged dolmen. There were three fires in front of the dolmen, around which danced many of the Little People, and beside one of them was a wizened oldster bedecked with feathers and furs and paint, sharpening a cleaver. Atop the dolmen were four warriors, and what looked suspicously like a bound human.

Attacking the Little People. Rescuing Tesla, with lots of invisibility and flying.^[33] Because of his great strength, Basgoot was probably the one who grabbed Tesla, although there was probably someone who also helped with Tesla. Shay Uvall probably attacked the shaman and took his cleaver, and there may have been others attacking the group of Little People. In general, lots of hacking and slashing went on.

Not surprisingly, the Little People were not pleased by this assault on their religious rites, and pursued the characters with fury, cries of rage, and sharp objects. Luckily, the characters were faster. Not to mention largely invisible. Still, it was a close race back to the tunnel entrance.^[34]

The characters fled back through the Belly of the Beast, for such it now seemed certain it was, for as they scuttled through the depth of the slime increased, jets of slime shot out of orifices in the walls, the tunnels shook and quaked and quivered, seemingly in agony, and a terrible deep beat reverberated throughout the the tunnels. Things Were Obviously Not Well. Luckily, this time as they stumbled through the central chamber they chose the exit that lead out to the infernal desert, above which rose the castle on its crag.

Finally they reached the crag and tiredly climbed up the tunnel into the castle dungeon. After some difficulty getting out of the castle due to uncertainty of the stairs leading one to where one expected to go (“Didn't we just do this?”) they managed to escape and returned to the the camp with their mercenary soldiers, and found out that they had only been gone only one day. They continued with the survey of the road. When they got to the cliff, they had to leave their horses behind, but they continued with their survey, heading down out of the mountains towards the Vale of Morin.

Jamie, troubled by the pains of his wounds and the even greater pains of worries about what his double was up too, was wandering about in the night and stumbled upon an badly wounded orc standing over the newly killed body of another orc. The remaining orc attacked Jamie, but because of his wounds was easily dispatched. The Orcs had two Evil-looking magic items: a Mace in the form of a metal Skull and an Axe fancifully engraved with the visage of a hideous demon.^[35]

The next day the outriders reported a large part of Orcs very near coming quickly toward the party. Orm quickly commanded the party up onto flat spot above a extremely rugged and steep hillside to await the Orcs. About a hundred orcs approached, and send out a herald to parley. He demanded the return of the of their two sacred relics. During the parley, another group of about a hundred orcs appeared, to the anger of the first group, and they also sent a herald to demand the return of their sacred relics. After some stalling by the party, the two groups of orcs both attacked the party, co-operating against a common enemy, though obviously enemies themselves. The party was outnumbered by more than two-to-one, and these Orcs were clearly better armed and armored than the tribesmen had been. Cleverly, the characters thought to abduct^[36] and neutralize the Orc mages and leaders, which helped, and their defensive location helped, but even so it was difficult battle. The party was successful, though, with the orcs fleeing the battle at the end, and all the characters surviving.

So we left our heros on the field of battle, tending their wounded and wondering what it was all about.