Aravis Telmir
Dranko Blackhope
Ernest Wilburforce Roundhill
Flicker Proudfoot (NPC)
Grey Wolf 
Kay "Windstorm" Olafsen
Kibilhathur Bimson
Makel Troutman (NPC)
Morningstar, Shield of Ell
One Certain Step (NPC)

Runs 1-10
Runs 11-20
Runs 21-30
Runs 31-40
Runs 41-50
Runs 51-60
Runs 61-70
Runs 71-80
Runs 81-90
Runs 91-100
Runs 101-110
Runs 111-120
Runs 121-130
Runs 131-140
Runs 141-150
Runs 151-160
Runs 161-170
Runs 171-180
Runs 181-190
Runs 191-200
 

(1831)

(run 101 begins) (session guest-written by Kevin) Surrounded by ogre bodies, the Company has a fast and heated discussion about what to do next. The priests and wizards are down on spells, but no one is badly injured. Although a quick vote is almost 50/50, it is decided to press ahead before word gets out to all the ogres. At this point Greywolf's stomach clenches, and Kibi once again disappears.

Using the vellum map that had been grabbed, the group manages to negotiate its way through the maze of tunnels, avoiding both ogre searching parties and hunting shocker lizards. It appears that the ogres are deliberately mining the area in a search for something. 

Going off the area shown on the map, the group reaches a chasm in the earth. On the other side, unguarded, is a large raised wooden drawbridge and an enormous wheel to crank it; behind this is an ogre-sized door, the second the group had seen since they entered the tunnels.

While Flicker and Dranko try in vain to muster the strength to lower the bridge, the rest of the group decides that they don't have enough resources to penetrate the ogre stronghold. No one is even sure that the other side of the mountains can be reached through this path, and it worries a number of people that they had expected to be using dwarvish tunnels, not ogre-carved ones. Giving up on the drawbridge, Dranko realizes that the answer to their problem is literally at their feet, and lowers a rope into the chasm. The crack in the earth doesn't go down very far, maybe 30', but it does extend out of direct line of sight from the ogre entrance. One by one, the group lowers themselves down the rope and sets up a cold, nervous camp at the far end of the chasm, 100' from the drawbridge.

One person is assigned to sit and watch the door at all times. Soon after the group camps, the doors swing open and dozens of ogres march out across the lowered drawbridge, armed for war. Two ogres are left to guard the entranceway. The party, listening carefully from below, overhears the guards discussing whether there really is an army of Gish (dwarves) attacking the stronghold. The party snickers, and sleeps fitfully, ever conscious that caves do strange things to sound.

Tuesday, March 2 - In the "morning" (who can tell underground?) the guard has changed, and the group has prepared a plan. Flicker is loaded down with every single protective item he can use, and is layered with spells to keep him silent, invisible and combat-ready. Then, with his short sword of giant slaying and his Ring of Blinking allowing him sneak-attack damage on every strike, Flicker climbs up - alone - to kill the ogres.

Mentally linked to Flicker and Dranko, Morningstar recounts Flicker's progress as he clambers up and takes the first ogre by surprise. Bringing it down almost immediately after two solid hits, Flicker turns to the second ogre, who is prevented from summoning help by the Silence spell Flicker carries. The fight is a bit longer and Flicker is hurt, but he dispatches this ogre as well, and the group climbs to the entrance as the ogres are rolled into the chasm and hidden. While Flicker is healed and congratulated, Kay uses her woodcutter sword to partially saw through the supports on the drawbridge; the next group of ogres to come that way will get a very rude surprise.

Opening the big doors reveals a huge cavern, layered with stalagmites and stalagtites. Dranko is turned invisible by Grey Wolf and scouts ahead with Flicker, hugging one wall. Oddly enough there are no guards, although occasional faint sounds are heard from somewhere up above them. No trap can be detected, though, so the rogues return and the party inches forward. More than a hundred feet into the cavern, the group discovers why ogre guards aren't needed; a stalagmite in the middle of the room suddenly comes alive, whipping a tentacle out and strength-draining Kay down to a fraction of her normal strength! The group reacts quickly, hanging back and using missile fire, but quickly learns why this tactic doesn't work on a roper.. gooey tentacles shoot over 60' into the main body of the group, draining strength from more party members. Even worse, the sound near the top of the cavern becomes louder, and camoflagued boulders are rolled away from balconies, revealing several dozen ogres with missile weapons. By the end of the second round, with more ogres pouring into the far end of the cavern, Kay and Aravis completely immobilized by strength loss, and another party member at a 4 strength, the group is forced to heed the unintelligible commands of the ogre chieftan and surrender. 

Dranko is the only one not yet captured. Still invisible, he climbs the wall to get out of the way of marching ogres, and is able to overhear the brief questioning that occurs when the ogre chieftan finds a tribe member who speaks Kivian common. The ogre asks about Kibi if an army of invading Gish is behind the group; the party refuses to answer. The shaman Detects Magic on the captured group and his eyes nearly bug out of his head. He orders that the group be stripped of all belongings under his observation, and takes every magic item with him as he leaves. Everything except for Morningstar's Ring of Free Action (which she manages to pawn off to an invisible Dranko), including the Bag of Holding , is taken away. As the prisoners are dragged away as well, Dranko chooses to eventually follow the shaman (and the magic items) instead of the prisoners, since he is still mentally linked to Morningstar. She gives him a description of their path as the several hundred ogres slowly leave the central cavern and roll back the ambush boulders, eventually leaving him in the dark.. completely alone.

(run 102 begins) (session guest-written by Kevin) - Dranko follows the ogres who went off roughly in the same direction as the shaman and the chieftain. He still has an Invisibilty spell active, and has all of his magic items - including a Potion of Glibness (originally given to him by Abernathy as farewell present), his Boots of True Stealth (+10 bonus to move silently rolls, leaves no tracks), and his Robe of Blending (+15 on hide checks). Following closer to the ogrish guards than he probably should, he shadows them into a tiny guard room, and then (tumbling out through the other door with barely an inch to spare) into the interior of the complex. He then explores the complex as best he can, even though he ends up clambering up walls to avoid ogres and scuttling from shadow to shadow in an effort to remain unnoticed. He finds barracks upon barracks of bedrolls, massive kitchens, huge halls, an armory… but lots of locked doors, and no big heaping pile of magic items. 

Unknown to Dranko, Pewter (Aravis' feline familiar) is also still free, and is exploring the complex and reporting everything back to Aravis. Aravis instructs him to try and find Dranko, but Pewter has little luck for quite some time. Finally they meet each other, and Dranko sticks Pewter into a sack at his belt. After Dranko is unable to understand Pewter's attempt to communicate Aravis' instructions ("Damn it, cat! Learn how to draw!"), Aravis and Pewter amuse themselves by insulting Dranko back and forth across their mental link.

Meanwhile, all the prisoners have been marched (or carried, in the case of those too strength-drained to walk) along the banks of an underground river to a row of damp prison cells. Locked in individual cells in complete darkness, they are left with only their clothing. Even holy symbols are taken from them. One by one they are dragged from their cells and questioned by ogres. The ogre that speaks Kivian common is there as a translator, but since the ogres have removed the group's magical translation earcuffs, no one except Aravis (who learned the language the hard way) and One Certain Step can understand him. This frustrates the ogres to no end, who are deeply interested as to where the dwarf and half-orc have gone to. 

The group gives no satisfactory answers, and they are tossed back in their pitch-black cells, as the shaman and chieftain return to the chieftain’s rooms. In the darkness, Morningstar lapses into a trance, and prays to be allowed to make a holy symbol from the cloth of her robe. (Her black Ellish holy robe has numerous inverted-triangle designs, which is the holy icon of Ell.) While in this trance she has a sudden sharp vision: her black triangular holy symbol, but right-side up rather than inverted. Along with the image comes a voice: "You must concentrate on this, if you are to have any hope of escape." When Morningstar comes to, one of the cloth triangles near the hem of her robe has fallen out. It is filled with the power of Ell, and Morningstar knows it will serve as a Holy Symbol.

Hungry and irritable, Dranko follows a food-laden guard into a series of rooms that (at last) is the chieftain’s. On a table is a massive pile of items ("Wow! That Bag of Holding holds a lot!" he thinks), and the chieftain and his shaman are experimenting with item after item. The shaman has a full head of long, blonde, flowing hair, no doubt from using Aravis's slightly-flawed Wand of Magic Missiles. The Chieftain is wearing Ernie's Gauntlets of Ogre Power, along with a few other of the party’s items. Dranko slowly slinks behind a statue in the corner of the room, and settles in to wait.

As one of the few people not strength drained, Grey Wolf is dragged from his cell, stripped of everything but his pants, and marched through torch-lit corridors to an arena. He isn't surprised to find himself surrounded by howling ogres. "I knew we were all going to die," he thinks to himself. "Looks like I'm first." In front of him is a large ogrish champion, clearly looking forward to a little elf-beating as public entertainment. While he doesn't know the language, Grey Wolf understands what is expected of him, and steps forward with style. Grinning through snaggled teeth, the ogre champion steps up as well, and Greywolf gets an excellent look as the ogre pulls back his massive fist. Around them, the ogres begin to hoot and cheer in thunderous voices, and the ogre swings at Grey Wolf.

As the ogre connects, Greywolf is knocked back across the rough fighting ring, and the ogres cheer for their champion. It's nowhere near the simple fight they expect, though; even without knowing unarmed fighting, Greywolf loses his temper and launches himself at the ogre. He braves AoO's time and time again, landing punch after punch while being solidly beaten by the ogre's rock-hard fists. Within less than a minute of dirty tricks and brutal punches, Greywolf is staggering.. but so is the ogre, and the audience has gone from cheering their champion to cheering the half-elf who is putting up such a good fight. Finally Greywolf moves in for the kill, but is clubbed down into unconsciousness by his badly hurt opponent. Instead of dragging him back to his cell, they carry his limp body somewhat respectfully back, and dump him into the darkness where he slowly regains consciousness.

Meanwhile Dranko has spent hours crouching behind the statue, watching the ogre chieftan and the shaman try magic item after magic item. At long last the two depart (to go to the Greywolf Gladiator exhibition), leaving only a huge elite guard-ogre in the room. The elite guard's curiosity slowly builds, and he begins to experiment with several of the multiple magical devices laid out across the table.  Dranko uses the opportunity to Summon several celestial badgers on the opposite side of the ogre. 

   Pewter: "Boss, he's going to attack the ogre! We're gonna get killed!"
   Aravis: "What an idiot. I can Dimension Door out of my cell to you, Pewter, whenever you need me. If Dranko starts bleeding a lot, let me know. Sigh..."

As the ogre tries removing the ring he had just slipped on, thinking it will make the badgers go away, Dranko vaults out and sneak attacks the guard. The ogre makes the bad mistake of turning to fight Dranko instead of killing off the one remaining plucky badger; with his opponent flanked, every attack is a sneak attack, and Dranko connects far more often that he deserves to. Within two rounds, the ogre topples like a pole-axed steer, and Dranko starts congratulating himself while Pewter looks on in disbelief. Before Dranko can do more than consider stealing all the magic items and fleeing, the weakened Aravis dimension doors in, and Dranko wipes the drool off his chin and tries to look innocent.

They quickly gather up as many items as they can quickly stuff in the Bag of Holding, leaving behind many non-magical luxuries in favor of the more valuable items. ("Hey, look! I haven't seen this for years. And Aravis, check it out! Ernie's still carrying around a couple of those gartine planks!") Dranko snags Aravis's unused Earcuff of Translation, putting it on and activating it to let him speak ogrish. As soon as they are both ready, Aravis Polymorphs himself into an ogre (boosting his drained strength), Dranko uses his last pinch of Dust of Illusion, and then downs his Philter of Glibness that Abernathy had made for him. Striding boldly out of the room disguised as the chieftan and a guard, Dranko and Aravis bumble and bluff their way past the numerous guard posts en route to the prison cells. On the way, the magically persuasive half-orc easily convinces everyone that the Gish (dwarven) invasion has started, and that the shaman is a traitor. He informs the troops that they should attack the shaman and the other "doppelganger" chieftan on sight, no matter what excuses they make. (+30 to bluff checks! "Hey, your boot's untied. Made you look!") With an ogre guide leading them, Dranko, Aravis and Pewter the cat make their way through the complex, finally feeling like the worst is behind them. Hah.

Meanwhile, upon Aravis's departure, Morningstar and Kay orchestrate their escape. With Stone Shapes and Summoned earth elementals, they manage to release about half of the Company. When Dranko and Aravis arrive, the rest are freed, while Dranko dispatches the guards off to go fight the imaginary dwarvish invasion. Their reluctant guide leads all the Company on a "prisoner exchange" away from the cells, through numerous passages (including the arena where the still-groggy Greywolf fought), to a massive door. There the guide leaves his "chieftan" to his own devices, and the party opens the massive locked and trapped door to wander deeper into the mountain.

Hours of cave-walking later, the group reaches some sort of "no-man's land," a series of huge portcullises that can only be opened if ogres on both sides of the gates turn the cranks at the same time. Clever Polymorphing on Aravis' part makes this possible, and the group slips through from the territory of one ogre tribe.. to the territory of another.  Deciding to try a different tactic this time, they knock on the first door they reach, and demand to the surprised ogre who answers it that they must immediately be brought to the chieftan. Much confusion and delay later, the Company is brought before a shaman/advisor to the new ogre chieftan. 

"Here's the deal," growls Dranko, pushing his luck. "I'm not the chieftan, and these aren't my prisoners that I'm selling to you. We just killed more than two dozen ogres across the way. We did it quickly, and very efficiently, and we could do the same here. But we'd prefer not to. We want passage through your mountain; in exchange we give you details on your enemies' tactics, strength and defenses. And I recommend," as Aravis Polymorphs through a series of threatening shapes, "that you make the right decision."

The shaman Detects Lies, and discovers that the Company is not in fact bluffing; he so doesn't believe it that he tests the spell to make sure that it is accurate. 

He invites the Company to rest and dine.

The group takes him up on the offer, checking for poison, and when the ogre returns to say that they need to verify that the group is telling the truth, everyone agrees that resting is a fine idea. Many people are still weak or low on spells, and the benefit from recharging is considered a worthy tradeoff for the unlikely chance of ambush. Given both food and straw pallets to sleep on, the group is locked in a defensible pantry, and settles down for the night - still amazed that they pulled it off, and that they had managed to recover many of their magical items in the process.

(run 103 begins) The party stews for a while in the locked and guarded pantry.  They are brought food and water, but are not allowed to leave.   They discuss various tactical options for taking on this new ogre tribe, should it come down to a rumble.  Time passes.  They cast Identify on the staff they stole from the Galk; it is a Staff of Earth and Stone , which can cast both Dig and Passwall.  Useful! 

Wednesday, March 3 - It is almost two days later when the party is visited by a new ogre shaman named Tran, accompanied by another shaman who immediately initiates his truth-detection ritual. Tran speaks: 

"We’ve spent some time gathering reports from the Kurth, learning the truth about your story. You stirred up quite the hopper’s nest over there. And it appears your claims of … aggression… were not exaggerated.

"Our tribal council has met at length to discuss what to do with you. The Kurth are willing to pay a great deal for your return; they blame you for the death of Galk’s shaman, and badly want revenge. Furthermore, they have threatened us with violence if we allow to you escape. We are forced to weigh the damage you could do to us in a fight, against the consequences of letting you go. And we have spoken to Galk’s people; you had already been defeated and locked in prison. You only escaped because they were lazy. We fight better than the Kurth. We could defeat you with sheer numbers, and your vast magical wealth could make it worth the losses we’d suffer.

The members of the Company exchange worried glances, not much caring for this line of reasoning. But Tran lets out a long breath, and continues:

"We’ve decided to offer you a deal. If you can fulfill your part, we will show you the way out of the mountains, to the east. According to the Kurth, you have powerful magics at your disposal. We have seen with our own eyes that you can change shape. Do you have magic that can turn living creatures to flesh who have been turned to stone?"

The party admits that, yes, they can do that.  Tran the Ogre Shaman continues:

"Long ago, the wisest of our Shamans was turned to stone by one of the foul creatures that moved in during the Dwarfish occupation.  Even the most powerful of us have been unable to restore him.  Our deal is this: you give us five handfuls of gems as you have already pledged, and restore our Great One to living flesh, and we will show you the way out of the mountains, and make no hindrance to your departure."

The party talks among themselves in Charagan common, weighing the pros and cons of the deal. The money is no issue, but some have reservations about helping the ogres. In the end, though, they decide that continuing on their mission is paramount, and agree to Tran’s terms. Morningstar needs 15 minutes to prepare a Break Enchantment prayer, but other than that, they’re ready to go.

The party is escorted out of the pantry. They are heavily, heavily guarded as they are marched through more hallways and caves (though these are lit with torches, unlike the halls of the Kurth.) At last they are ushered into a large chamber, and two dozen ogre guards array themselves around the walls. The bloody fist, holy symbol of the ogre god, is displayed prominently on the walls, but the room is empty of furniture or other adornment.

There are four ogres in the center of the room already, and these reach down and grab four large iron handles bolted into the floor. Straining, they lift a huge stone slab off of the floor, revealing a wide staircase leading down into the darkness. Several ogres go down ahead of the party, and even more follow behind. After about 20 steps, they reach a smaller room, with another door facing them. Here there are tall pedestals shaped like rising fists, capped with bowls of thick red blood. The party is instructed to completely immerse their hands in the blood, if they wish to enter the holy sanctum where their petrified Great One awaits. Nervously they do so, and then they are commanded not to wipe or wash off any of the blood until they have exited the sanctum.

The ogres open the second door, revealing a second staircase. The Company descends.

The stairs lead to a roughly circular shrine, some 40’ in diameter. At one end are two more stone-fist pedestals, and between them is the stone body of the Great One. He is over ten feet tall, muscular, and has two great bat wings half-folded behind him. Skulls of gnomes, lizards and ogres are strewn at his feet. Morningstar has second thoughts. 

"Take care," warns Tran. "Treachery will be met with swift death." The party has fleeting thoughts of smashing the statue and using the Staff of Earth and Stone to escape, but (probably wisely) decides against it.

Morningstar prays to Ell for guidance and protection, and fervently hopes she is doing the right thing. Ell grants her the Break Enchantment miracle, and slowly the Great One comes to life. As Morningstar’s touches the stone body of the creature, the blood on her right hand starts to move; it feels like it’s crawling on her skin. As her restorative magic pours into the creature, the bloodstain shrinks, but leaves behind a disturbing fist-shaped mark on the back of her hand.

The Great One’s wings fan out, and its lungs draw their first breath in many years. Its skin is tinged a light blue color, and it regards Morningstar with a keen gaze that hints at intelligence beyond typical ogre-kind. Tran prostrates himself before the creature. "Great One, we have returned you to the flesh from your long sleep! The Sumik have kept you safe, and now you are brought back to life!"

The Great One speaks to Morningstar, in a deep, resonant voice. "I have been as stone, I know. I remember well the basilisk; the last thing I saw before my sight fled. Is it you who have restored me?" Morningstar nods. It continues: "Then you are the slayer, and by your hand the circle is complete. I thank you. When the time comes for the Throggun’s ascension, you will be summoned, and you will slay again. Return here at once."

As the Great One speaks these lines, Morningstar feels an unpleasant tingle on the back of her hand.

"Now," the winged ogre continues, "there is much to set in order. Shaman, what bargain did you make with this person?"

"We promised that she and her kind should go free, beyond the eastern wall."

"Then fulfill your promise. Leave me now, all of you. I must pray."

The Great One turns its winged back on them, and kneels before the pedestals. The party is escorted back up the stairways to the upper chamber, and the great stone slab is replaced.

Without further ceremony, Tran and two dozen additional ogres take the party to the edge of the Sumik territory. That journey takes about two hours, many dark ogre caverns and tunnels. They pass sparring rooms, sleeping caves, and crude chapels to the hideous Ogre God Luthark. One tremendous cavern has a polished floor and a huge stone fist rising from the center, while greenish mold casts an eerie glow all around. The party also passes through a mining operation where dozens of chained and guarded gnomes are hacking away at a stone wall with picks.

Eventually the group hears the sounds of a distant falls, and the noise grows louder until after another few minutes they are brought into a another huge cavern. A thunderous waterfall crashes down from the darkness near the ceiling and into a pool that fills most of the cavern. A river exits the pool to the south-east. Tran speaks his final words to the party: "If you follow that river for two sleeps, you will reach the eastern edge of the mountains. If you are sighted again within the boundaries of the Throggun Empire, you will be considered invaders and dealt with as such." 

And the ogres turn around and go back to their homes.

The river has carved out a wide tunnel for itself, about 12’ wide, with 2’ wide banks. The party travels gingerly along one narrow and slippery bank, tied together for safety, with Continual Flame torches providing a small pocket of light in the otherwise utter darkness. There are several near-disasters, and in one stretch the Company improvises with ropes and spikes to navigate a short waterfall.

Friday, March 5 - After about two days of walking, their bank narrows even more, and then dwindles away to nothingness. The party crosses the river and walks for a while along the other bank, but a hundred yards later that bank too disappears. The party halts, wondering what to do. The river rushes fast and sure into the darkness, but the ceiling is too low for Burning Sail, their Folding Boat. 

Morningstar casts Rary’s Telepathic Bond on Aravis, and then Aravis Polymorphs himself into an owl and flies down into the tunnel, a few feet above the flowing river. But even this scouting plan is foiled, as the ceiling of the tunnel starts slanting downward until finally it touches the water. Faced with a tunnel entirely underwater, Aravis takes a deep breath and turns into an otter (planning on turning into a fish if he runs out of air). He swims on through the darkness for another 100 feet, and the river gets faster and faster. Then he sees a spot of brightness up ahead, rushing towards him. He realizes what’s happening, but it’s too late; the current is inexorable, and Aravis is swept along the last 50 feet of the river…

…and out the side of the mountain, a thousand feet above the ground! He can see a beautiful valley stretching out below him, and the silver strand of the river snaking off into the east. On the eastern horizon is the dark line of the jungle, still several days’ journey away. Closer in that direction, he can see a tiny village (at least, it looks tiny from up here) only a half-day’s walk distant. Then the otter starts to fall.

Fortunately it’s simple matter for Aravis to turn back into a bird before he falls very far. He communicates this new turn of events to Morningstar, who informs the rest of the rest of the group about their new predicament. They spend some time formulating a plan to get them all out. That plan is this:

Grey Wolf will cast Fly on Dranko and Makel, who will shoot through the waterfall and join Aravis. Grey Wolf himself will use Dranko’s Ring of Feather Falling, and tie himself to most of the remaining party members with short (<10’) lengths of rope. Dranko, Makel and Aravis will spot the Feather Falling group in case any of the ropes snap. But the river is narrow enough that someone will still be left out using this scheme. Kay has used up her Fly spell for the day, but Morningstar has an idea. She will use her Protective Sleep ability on Kay, and the party will just throw Kay’s body in the river. 

At least they tell Aravis about this last part of the plan before they execute it. Kay is put to sleep, and her body tossed into the river. There are few tense moments as her body becomes lodged in the waterway, but after a minute it works itself free, and Kay’s recumbent form goes rocketing gracefully out into the air… and falls 1000’ feet to the rocks below. 

Even knowing that Kay is protected from all physical harm, Aravis can’t watch. He drags her body to shore, turns her over to drain the water out of her lungs, and watches as she dozes on peacefully. The others soon come rocketing out of the mountainside, and Grey Wolf’s ring immediately kicks in. They fall slowly for a while, and then the duration of the spell runs out, and they get an exciting plunge of a few yards before it kicks in again.

Eventually all are safely down on the banks of the river. Dranko and Aravis fly in the direction of the village to scout it out, and are met by two small humanoid creatures coming the other way. They are about 4’ tall, simply dressed, and look a little bit like the gnomish slaves the party saw in the ogre kingdom. They approach Dranko and Aravis curiously, and start to speak to them, but neither speaks the language. Dranko casts Comprehend Languages, but this only lets him understand them (and not they him). 

Using a combination of sign-language and pictures drawn in the dirt, Dranko communicates to the two small people (Named Pan and Foona) that they’re friendly, have a group of friends a couple of miles away, and came from somewhere far to the west. Pan and Foona are two members of a peaceful gnome-like race called the Yuja who live by the banks of the river. They are amazed by Dranko and Aravis’ use of magic. "It’s like the Light!" they exclaim. They invite the party to their village for dinner.

The Yuja village consists of simple wood-and-thatch huts, and its population isn’t more than a couple hundred. The party is treated with awe and trusting friendship – a welcome change after their recent adventures in the mountains. Their leader is a woman named Sora (who is also the village healer), and Morningstar casts Rary’s Telepathic Bond on her and some other party members to allow better communication. The party asks if there are any sick Yuja that could use special healing magic, and Sora takes them to a small hut built on the outskirts of the village. Another Yuja named Pleah is there in bed, her breathing shallow and raspy. Above her head have been hung a number of small carved wooden trinkets. 

Sora has been tending to her using time-honored herbal remedies, but mostly it just eases the patient’s discomfort. Pleah is suffering from the Wasting Sickness, from which the Yuja do not recover. None of the party clerics have Cure Disease ready, but they tell Sora that if Pleah survives the night, they’ll be able to help. Sora is extremely grateful.

The Yuja hold an impromptu feast in honor of their strange visitors, and they bring out their most revered possession to show to the Company. "Magic!" they proclaim; it’s a torch with Continual Flame cast upon it, similar to the ones used by the Sumik ogre tribe. It must have fallen in the river and washed up on a nearby shore. The Yuja believe it a gift from Sada, the River God. (The party knows that the Kivian God of the Sea is named Posada, and figure there’s a connection.)

The Yuja ply the party with delicious fried fish and juicy fruits that grow in abundance near their village. They light a huge bonfire, and there is much dancing and singing and game-playing. The language barrier is no hindrance, and Ernie teaches some of the Yuja children to play leap-frog. At last, under a cool and star-filled sky, the party falls happily asleep without fear or worry.

Saturday, March 6 -  (run 104 begins)  The party wakes the next morning under a clear sky, to the sounds of Yuja children running around the village. Some of the children have carved small wooden trinkets and give them shyly to party members. Again using Rary's Telepathic Bond to communicate with Sora, they learn that the patient (Pleah) is still alive, though growing sicker. They all go to the hut where Pleah convalesces, and see that more wooden trinkets have been hung over her bed, for luck. Dranko casts Cure Disease on Pleah, while Ernie casts Lesser Restoration and some standard healing spells for good measure. The raspy breath of the patient becomes deep and steady, and they leave her to sleep. Sora and the other Yuja proclaim it another miracle. 

Sora has consulted with the village elders, to gather any knowledge about the jungle that might help the party. They have heard tales of a carnivorous plant creature called a "red vase," which looks like a large red urn turned on its side with something shiny at the bottom. When creatures go in to take the shiny object, the plant turns "upright," and digests the victim. According to the tales these plants are quite large, capable of devouring a full-grown Yuja. 

Grey Wolf spends the day calling a Familiar. The rest of the party expects that he'll call a wolf, but instead he chooses a monkey, and at the end of the day he finds himself bonded to a small but long-tailed monkey that he names "Edghar."

Sunday, March 7 - There is some discussion about how best to interpret the directions gleaned from Kinnvhad's letter. "40 miles south of the Whistling Stone, 100 miles east of Posada's Tears." Does that mean one travels 100 miles east and then 40 miles south? Or are those directions by which to triangulate? Most of the party thinks that the huge waterfall through which they were ejected from the mountains must be Posada's Tears (described by Kinnvhad as a "great cataract"), though Kay and Aravis point out that the letter specifically says that waterfall is in the jungle, not a few days travel west of it. Regardless, the party sets out eastward, generally following the river as it tumbles down the wooded foothills toward the dense jungle beyond. 

Monday, March 8 - Tuesday, March 9 - Journey overland toward the jungle.

Wednesday, March 10 - Eventually the hills flatten out somewhat, and the party plunges into the jungle. (They have stopped following the river, which bends away southward.) Progress through the dense foliage is slow going; in some places they can make good time along game trails, but usually they have to hack their way through hanging vines, press through stands of saplings and underbrush, and step over huge, gnarled tree roots. 

The jungle is teeming with life. Insects buzz all around them. Dozens of brightly colored butterflies flit about the tree trunks and flowers. Birds fill the air with the sounds of cawing and the fluttering of wings. Small, furry rodents and things like porcupines scurry through the underbrush, while huge tree sloths hang in the boughs above. Occasionally some larger jungle denizen wanders by, but nothing decides to mess with a party of nine humanoids. Each night Aravis puts up a Leomund's Secure Shelter, and the party sleeps comfortably inside. 

On the first night in the jungle, Morningstar receives a dream-visit from Previa, who has both good news and bad news. The good news is that she has researched a prayer (Direct Dreaming) that will allow Ellish Dreamwalkers to appear in Ava Dormo anywhere they want, including on the other side of Posada's Boundary. This means Morningstar will be able to visit all of her students at once, back home in the dream-Charagan. Furthermore, a powerful cleric from Kallor named Swan has joined the cause. And Swan has learned a prayer (Dream Anchor) that will allow Dreamwalkers to take other people (who don't have to be Dreamwalkers themselves) into Ava Dormo. 

The bad news is that the High Priestess of Ell in Kallor finally issued an official decree, that the Illuminated Sisters of Ell are no longer considered a legitimate branch of the Ellish church. While there have not been any hostilities, the Illuminated Sisters have been cut off from any financial support from the mother church, and furthermore, clerics who have declared for the Illuminated Sisters are forbidden from casting spells while on Ellish holy ground. Previa estimates that over 100 Priestesses have now decided to join the Illuminated Sisters, and reports that Amber has already begun expanding her church in Tal Hae. 

Thursday, March 11 - The next day the party hears a number of animals crashing through underbrush toward them from the north. A small stampede of porcupine-like creatures crosses the game-trail the party is following, and continues on to the south. They are followed by numerous other animals, and the party can see more of this stampeding for as far as they can see both east and west. Kay casts Speak with Animals , and learns that the animals are fleeing from ants. Ants? 

The party decides that the animals know best; they take off as fast as they can in the same direction as the animals. Soon they reach a swift, deep stream, and it looks like the fleeing animals on the other side have lost some of their urgency. The party fords the stream, while the animals on the other side disperse. Once on the other side, the Company sees why all the animals were fleeing. An advancing carpet of red is spreading across the jungle floor, felling saplings and devouring underbrush as it flows. It reaches the stream and stops; the party sees that the ants comprising the swarm are each about the size of a human thumb. As the party watches, the ants start to make a bridge of their own bodies to cross the stream, but it looks like it will take them at least an hour. The party uses that hour to hustle on to the east, out of the path of the encroaching insects.. 

At night, Morningstar casts Dream Anchor and takes most of the party with her into Ava Dormo. At Morningstar's suggestion they spend time trying to create objects familiar to them, and trying to move by thought in the fashion of Dreamwalkers. Only Ernie has any real success, and the whole thing is mentally tiring for everyone involved. 

Friday, March 12 - On the third day, the party sees that they are passing near a large area of jungle inhabited by Red Vases. They carefully avoid getting too close to them, and aren’t fooled by the glittery silver things at the bottom of the "bowls." But Dranko gets too close to one, and a number of the hanging vines (which have been omnipresent in the jungle) twine suddenly around his limbs and waist, and hoist him into the air and over the now-tilted-upward bowl. 

Aravis lets fly with a Lightning Bolt , aimed at the bowl; part of it is fried, but the vines drop Dranko into the bowl, which then closes over him. Dranko, his voice muffled but understandable, shouts out "lightning or fire?" Aravis answers "fire," whereupon Dranko casts Protection from Elements: Fire on himself. Then Aravis wastes the plant creature with a Fireball. Standing in the smoking ruin of the dead Red Vase, Dranko casts Speak with Plants, and issues a stern warning to the other plants in the vicinity: mess with us, and meet the same fiery fate! He receives no answer from the surrounding vegetation, but the party makes it through the area with no more attacks by the carnivorous plants…

Saturday, March 13 - The next day the party is continuing to trek through the jungle when they are attacked in an ambush. It seems that the jungle itself is attacking -- specifically, two large mounds of rotting underbrush and vegetation rise up and whip cable-like vines at the party. A battle breaks out, and the fighting is fierce. The party learns the hard way that lightning only strengthens these plant-creatures, and that fire is of limited utility. And while the party seems to be doing well at the start of the fight, more and more of the things rise up out of the underbrush as the rounds tick by. By the time they've killed four of the creatures, six more have appeared, and the monsters are wearing the party down. Aravis has Polymorphed into one of the plant creatures, and is doing well fighting back, but more than one party member drops unconscious, and things look grim. 

That's when a huge human fighter comes charging into the battle, wielding a great-axe. He is soon joined by a half-orc in a chain shirt, wielding a pick in each hand. There is a moment of great tension, as the party thinks these might be Lapis' friends, come to kick the party when they're down. But the two newcomers attack the plant-creatures instead, doing significant damage. Also, a Searing Light spell blasts out of the jungle from a different direction, annihilating one of the remaining foes. (Predictably, two arrows fly from the jungle as well, aimed well at Aravis, who looks just like the plant creatures. He turns back to his human form, shouting angrily.)

With the help from the newcomers, the remaining plant creatures are dispatched. Four more people enter the area: a female elven archer with a longbow made out of bone; a female human priest wearing a holy symbol of Tiria, Goddess of War and Chaos (and whose followers are engaged in endless war against the halflings of Appleseed); a male kobold with a dagger and short bow; and another Elven woman, unarmed save for a dagger at her side. There is an awkward moment as the party realizes who she is, and she confirms their suspicions by introducing herself as Lapis. 

Lapis wastes no time getting to the point.

"I was hoping you wouldn't force my hand," she says, "but we had little choice. You see, we need you alive, just as you need us. We've been wandering in the jungle for some time looking for the Crosser's Maze, but you actually know where it is. We need you to take us there. And you need us, because you don't know the password needed to actually acquire the Crosser's Maze. Yes, you need a password. That leaves us at something of an impasse." 

There follows a very tense day, wherein Lapis wants to be chatty, and is eager to learn the party's motivations. Most of the party, on the other hand, don't want to have anything to do with her, reasoning that anything they say might give away information that Lapis doesn't have. Only Dranko and Aravis seem willing to chat. Lapis promises that tomorrow, she'll swear under truth magic that she does, in fact, have a password that she believes is needed if one is to obtain the Crosser's Maze. (She does, and does seem to be telling the truth.) 

Although Lapis doesn't talk in great detail, the party learns the following from talking with her: She finds Shreen the Fair just as repugnant as does the party; she followed the instructions in the book she took from Shreen, and traveled to the southern country of Ocir. It was there that she learned that the Crosser's Maze was in the jungle, and that there was a pass phrase involved. She claims that there were some political difficulties in obtaining that information, and denies using physical force in getting it. She freely admits hiring both the Animators and the Faceless to kill the party, and is disappointed especially in the Faceless for having failed. 

Sunday, March 14 - Tuesday March 16 - For the next few days the tension remains high. Lapis seems quite amiable, though most of the party still refuses to talk with her. She seems especially intent on talking with Kay. "Have you seen the bones stacked at Verdshane?" she asks. "That is how the Spire has always treated the Elhen Tarathi. First to fight, first to die." Kay responds with a scathing remark about the elves killed in Ghant, by the Blood Gargoyle released at the behest of Lapis' employer, "P." Lapis admits remorse over that attack, but stays convinced that her employer is doing what is best in the long term for the elves and the kingdom has a whole. Frustratingly, she offers no additional details about why she believes this. She is clearly convinced, however, that if her side loses, the peoples of Charagan will end up miserable and enslaved. 

"But your side is trying to help the Enemy break through into Charagan!" the party says. "How is that helping anything?" Lapis says no more on the subject. Two of Lapis' henchmen, the half-orc Snokas and the human fighter Byrmyn, seem friendlier than the others. Makel chats up Byrmyn, trying to establish a camaraderie betwixt sellswords, but it's clear that Lapis hasn't told him any real information about the Crosser's Maze. 

Each night the camps separate, and both sides put up Leomund's Secure Shelters to sleep in. There is no fighting between the two groups, but lots and lots of tension. Eventually, the party comes to the conclusion that something must be done before they reach the Crosser's Maze. After all, once they arrive, Lapis and Co. will have no more use for them, and will probably try to kill them. They devise a cunning plan to gain leverage; Flicker will sneak Invisibly, using Dranko’s Boots of Stealth, into Lapis' camp one morning while they're preparing breakfast. He'll dump some of the addictive Powder they've been carrying into their oatmeal. That will give them some bargaining power, since only the party knows how to prepare the antidote. Ernie (as a cleric of Yondalla) has strong misgivings about poisoning someone’s food, but agrees to go along with the plan.

Wednesday, March 17 - Flicker manages the sneaking part of the plan just fine. He even manages to dump the Powder into the food that Snokas is preparing. But Lapis' kobold henchman senses something, and shouts an alarm. Another of Lapis' companions casts Detect Magic while Flicker scampers away. And unfortunately, while the Powder doesn't detect as poison, it does detect as slightly magical.

Lapis barks a quick order that no one eat the oatmeal. It is too late for the half-orc Snokas, who has already eaten a spoonful, and likewise for Lapis' elven archer. But the gambit has essentially failed; Lapis and the rest of her crew have avoided the Powder. They dump the rest of the oatmeal onto the ground. After both groups have packed up again and are on the march, Lapis casually approaches the party and asks: "So, what did you put in our breakfast?" The party clams up and doesn't respond. "Well, it makes no difference," she says, seemingly unperturbed. "Though I'm disappointed in you." 

In secret, the party sends out a scouting expedition of flying polymorphed party members (Aravis and Dranko), and they see in the distance a small cluster of rocky hills rising out of the jungle. As they approach, they can hear that wind blowing through a formation of boulders is causing a clear high-pitched keening. The Whistling Stone! Aravis and Dranko return and report.

Kay then starts to lead the party along a meandering path, figuring that if they follow a straight line to where they think the Maze is, Lapis' group will be able to figure it out on their own. 

Thursday, March 18 - But the next day Aravis and Dranko (again while scouting) discover a clearing in the jungle a few miles away, and a small bamboo hut in the center of that clearing.

Seemingly "painted" on the grass is a green ring, about 60' in diameter and glowing slightly, with the hut at its center. Dranko and Aravis approach the ring but do not cross it. Aravis tosses a stone across the ring, and nothing happens. But when he tosses a field mouse across, there is bright flash, a dome of green force appears for an instant around the hut, and the creature is vaporized. Hm. They fly back to the party to report.

Friday, March 19 - By the next night the party has a plan. Aravis will Polymorph Morningstar and himself into birds, and they will fly back to the hut. Morningstar has prayed for 17 (yes, 17) Thought Capture spells. She plans to cast them all around the green ring, figuring that someone must have left behind the thought of the pass phrase while trying to gain access to the hut and (presumably) the Crosser's Maze. 

They land in the clearing without incident, and Aravis returns Morningstar to her normal form. She begins casting Thought Captures at various locations around the circumference of the green ring. The first five are "duds"; she finds thoughts of people experiencing sudden confusion or terror, and one more coherent thought of a person wondering what was going to happen to himself. But the sixth Thought Capture does the trick. She collects a coherent thought of someone deliberately speaking the words: "Void in the glass, I return to thee." She and Aravis (connected via Rary's Telepathic Bond) have a quick consultation, and Morningstar decides she will speak the words and see what happens. 

Aravis (in owl form) retreats to edge of the clearing while Morningstar approaches the glowing green ring. "Void in the glass, I return to thee!" she says. The green ring flashes, and turns to a glowing white ring. Morningstar takes a step across the ring... and vanishes. The Telepathic Bond is immediately cut off. And the glowing ring turns back to green. 

Aravis immediately starts flying back to the camp at top speed. There is a brief, hurried discussion when he arrives, and they decide they can't waste any time in finding out what happened to Morningstar. They have enough flying ability (via spells) to fly the whole party for about 45 minutes, but after that they'll have to walk. Unfortunately, while two people Polymorphed into birds have been able to sneak away quietly, there's no way for the whole party to make a stealthy getaway while crashing through the tree canopy. As they burst out above the jungle, they can hear a bird cawing loudly, and then sounds of Lapis' camp beginning to stir. They take off at top speed. 

After 45 minutes they land back in the jungle, and begin a desperate dash toward the clearing and the hut. Fearing both for Morningstar's life and being caught by Lapis, they push themselves to the limit. Of course, "the limit" is slow, as they bushwhack their way through the jungle in the dead of night, but there is no sign of pursuit. By the time they emerge into the clearing hours later, many in the party are limping with cramps and pulled muscles. They stagger toward the glowing green ring, and Aravis utters the phrase "Void in the glass, I return to thee." The ring again changes to white. Still no sign of Lapis. 

They step across. 

There is a blinding flash...

(run 105 begins) Dranko surveys the common room of the Sands of Time, the inn that employs him as a bouncer. He spots a pair of likely troublemakers right away – an overdressed Citizen is trying to provoke a tired-looking Worker at a table near the corner. He catches the eye of his partner, One Certain Step, and motions with his head toward the increasingly loud pair.

Kay, the house musician for the Sands of Time, has just finished a song for a small crowd around the stage. Looking out over her appreciative audience, she also notices the brewing commotion near the other side of the commons. 

Ernie is hard at work in the kitchen, and thinks he has things well under control, but his bumbling assistant Flicker (who’s knife-quick but just doesn’t understand cooking) has left a roast in the oven too long. Smoke is starting to pour out of the brick furnace, and so Ernie hurries over to rescue the blackening meat. "Go stir the soup, and chop up some more carrots," he tells Flicker.

Grey Wolf and Aravis are kept quite busy tending the long bar, as the demand for drinks is high and steady. Makel roams the floor, taking orders and picking up empty mugs and plates. It’s a typical crowd for an evening, a mix of Citizens and Workers taking their ease after a day of leisure or toil, respectively. 

Up in her room, Morningstar, owner of the Sands of Time, reviews the inventory and silver coin tally for the day. Since opening for business three weeks ago, the inn has been bustling with activity, and she needs to increase deliveries of almost everything. She had a week by herself to get the place ready, and then another day assigning jobs to the others who arrived later. The Sands of Time had been a popular night-spot, one of the best known spots in the Azure District, and many Citizens and Workers were happy to see it reopen after being closed for several months. 

Morningstar can smell the aromas from the kitchen wafting up to the upper floors, roasting meat and vegetable stew and…hmm, a bit of smoke. Ernie is an excellent cook, and she expects the popularity of the inn to increase in the coming months. Everything seems to going quite smoo…

CRASH! Oh, for crying out loud. It seems that the inevitable has finally happened.

Down in the commons, Dranko and One Certain Step were unable to stop the brewing fracas in the corner from becoming an all-out bar-brawl. There wasn’t much they could have done; the Citizen, clearly having imbibed a bit too much ale, punched his companion in the face with no real provocation. Oddly, said Citizen has a big grin on his face, and Dranko gets the sense that he’s been intending to start a fight this whole time. 

Seconds later, chairs and bodies are flying, patrons are ducking under tables, and fist-fights break out all over the place. Kay spots a large man beating up on a smaller man who’s not even fighting back, and goes to his rescue. Dranko and Step, with help from Aravis, Grey Wolf and Makel, wade into the fray trying to break up individual fights. The Citizen who started it all still has a big smile on his face, despite a bloody nose and a cut above one eye. He’s obviously having the time of his life.

After a few minutes of fighting, while the employees of the Sands of Time are still getting things under control, eight Bluecoats march silently into the common room from outside and stand at attention just inside the doors. No one pays them much attention, and they don’t actually do anything (and probably won’t, as long as no one tries actually to kill anyone else). 

Eventually the employees of the Sands of Time manage to quell the brawl. Ernie intentionally sets some greens to smoking in the kitchen, and then starts yelling "fire!" to entice people into leaving. With Morningstar shouting that the inn is closed until tomorrow, the last unruly patron files out, followed by the still-silent Bluecoats.

Morningstar looks about in dismay, assessing the damage. Tables and chairs have been broken, dishes and glasses smashed, and here and there are small bloodstains from especially violent outbursts. She immediately details a plan of action to get the place in business-shape for the next day, and puts everyone to work. Everyone will get an extra Silver for working overtime, assuming the job gets done. 

The party knows certain things. They know that they’re in the City of Zhamir, which goes on forever and is… all there is. Morningstar re-opened the Sands of Time about a month ago, and the rest of the group started working there about a week after that. Before that… ? Well, who cares, really. What’s important is that they’re Workers in the fine city of Zhamir, performing a valuable service for the Citizens. It’s a fine life. They could be like the so-called "rabids" (who have gone crazy and live in the city below), and they’re indeed fortunate to be entrusted with a popular establishment like the Sands of Time.

Yes, it’s a fine life.

They have no important possessions beyond their clothing and basic necessities, but in each of their rooms is a very large locked trunk. Often at the end of a hard day, their minds start to wander in an unpleasant fashion, but this can be eased by sitting in their own room and meditating upon their trunk. Something locked inside helps keep them grounded, and focused on their important labors.

Of course, they would never dream of opening the trunks, even if they could.

The morning after the brawl sees the party continuing their clean-up effort, which is proceeding nicely. Kay goes out to the Avenue of Illusions to recruit a new performer for tonight’s crows. The Avenue is always crowded with Citizens showing off their magical abilities, mostly creating clever and dazzling illusions. Kay finds a likely one of these, and convinces him to perform at the Sands of the Time for a reasonable quantity of Silvers.

The rest of the crew finishes repairing and cleaning the common room, and Ernie begins preparing the evening meal. Everyone is happy and content, just the way Workers should be.

Except Morningstar. Something is bothering her. She’s not sure what, but she feels it every morning when she leaves the Inn and walks to the market to arrange for deliveries. It’s nothing specific, just a nagging feeling of unease. But each day it passes quickly once she starts walking, and the demands of her position become her primary focus.

Another day passes, and things go more smoothly. There are no brawls, no unexpected surprises. But the next morning, when Morningstar again sets out for the market, she stops. She finally realizes what’s been gnawing at her these past few days. It’s the sign on the shop across the street, the sign that reads "RUBY STREET CHANDLER." Something about that sign… something… something…

Oh my god. 

The lettering on the sign is stylized, and the "A" in "CHANDLER" is a filled in upside-down black triangle. Just like she saw in her meditations in the ogre prison, when she prayed to turn a piece of her robe into a holy symbol.

The ogre prison!

And it all comes back to her. All her lost memories come flooding back, and she remembers who she is, and the hut in the jungle, and the Quest for the Crosser’s Maze. All of it. She rushes back inside, and orders everyone into the storeroom for a emergency staff meeting. She tells everyone about her revelation, and one or two party members are immediately snapped out of their memory-robbed state. But not all of them. Some of them think Morningstar has gone mad, and inflicted a similar madness on some of the others. They flee.

A madcap chase ensues, with some party members chasing after others, yelling out details of the party’s past, hoping to jar their memories back. It works on some of them, but Grey Wolf and Aravis hold out for a long time. Grey Wolf locks himself in his room and then climbs out the window while (from his point of view) his deranged companions shout out gibberish at him.

Meanwhile, Flicker (who has been "freed") starts in on the trunks in their rooms, that some of them suspect hold their belongings. But as soon as he picks the lock and opens the first one, a loud alarm sounds, ringing all around the inn and up and down the street. He moves on to the next trunk (Kay’s, which holds the Woodcutter sword.)

Finally Grey Wolf is snapped out of it ("Remember how much your stomach hurts when Kibi shows up?") and the party is entirely free of the memory-sapping power of Zhamir. Once Flicker has opened Kay’s trunk, opening the rest of them goes much faster, and within 10 minutes, the party has equipped and re-armed themselves.

And that’s when the Bluecoats show up. There are a dozen of them, wielding swords, and they march into the inn and demand that the party surrender in the name of the Sultan. Instead of giving themselves up, they give the Bluecoats a Fireball, which roasts most of them. The Bluecoats don’t bleed normal blood, instead shedding a glowing golden light which splashes everywhere when they’re injured. After the Fireball , there’s glowing stuff all over the place. The party defeats the rest of the Bluecoats in an easy battle, and then flees into the city before more can arrive.

They spend the day on the run, bolting through streets. Curious Citizens and Workers watch them, but none of them take any action to stop the running party. (After all, Bluecoats will deal with any trouble.) The Company runs past open markets full of haggling Workers, more Illusionists showing off their prowess, snake-charmers and rope-trick artists, and many Citizens just out for a pleasant walk in the warm and bright day. (There is no sun in Zhamir, though the sky brightens and darkens on a regular schedule. And the temperature never varies from a comfortable range of mid-day warmth to evening coolness.) 

The ground in the Zhamir is uniformly flat, and the architecture of the city, while it varies from avenue to avenue, is uniformly opulent. The Company passes a number of strangely-built houses and other odd buildings, but the strangest is the Museum of a Thousand Steps. It has no walls or roof, but numerous staircases of different styles wind around and up and down among floating exhibits. Statues and paintings hang in the air, and Citizens walk up and down the stairways admiring the works of art. It’s just maze-like enough that it piques the party’s curiosity, but the Workers who guard the "entrance" (a free-standing archway in front of the only staircase that touches the ground) inform them that only Citizens may enter the Museum. The party asks how they know they’re not Citizens, and this question puzzles the guards. "You’re… just not," they say, assuming that the party is jesting. That at least tells the party that they won’t be able to impersonate Citizens and fool any of the inhabitants of Zhamir. 

They press on, though to where they’re not sure. As the light grows dim, the party finds that they have left civilization behind, though the city and buildings have continued. After half an hour in which they see no other living soul, they find themselves approaching an immense wall, which is unexpected because as Workers they "knew" that Zhamir went on forever. The wall is made of opaque glass, that looks like it should be reflective but isn’t. It stretches out to the left and right, as well as upwards, as far as they can see. Grey Wolf casts See Invisible to see if anything interesting shows up – and it’s a good thing, too. He spots Lapis’s small kobold companion standing still and silent in the shadow of a building some 60’ away. The kobold is watching them intently, and it notices right away that it has been spotted. It cries out, and a Lightning Bolt comes flashing out of nowhere and scorches half the party!

Immediately the party finds itself beset by Lapis’s henchpersons, and a bloody battle ensues. The beefy fighter (named Byrmyn) charges into the party, swinging his great-axe. Step responds in kind. Arrows from Lapis’ archer come raining down. Kay responds in kind. There is a flurry of spells from both sides; Fireballs from Aravis and Grey Wolf, and a Flame Strike from Lapis’s Tirian cleric. 

Lapis herself then attempts to cast the spell that the party has learned is her modus operendi, and the Company braces for an onslaught of Earth Elementals – but the spell fizzles, and nothing is summoned! It seems that Summoning spells don’t work in Zhamir, much to Lapis’s dismay. She casts another spell, that the party discovers is a hemispherical Wall of Force when it protects her from a return Lightning Bolt.

Aravis casts Dimension Door and appears inside the force sphere with her, but she then Teleports out of it, leaving Aravis trapped. The fight rages on, with Byrmyn fighting fiercely and trying to break Step’s greatsword with his own greataxe. The half-orc Snokas fights with picks in either hand, and the kobold (named Skahnji) manages to dodge and evade every spell cast his way. 

Another Lightning Bolt comes crackling out from a new direction, blistering the party; Lapis has reappeared. Aravis has managed to free himself by using his Staff of Earth and Stone on the stone road, and crawling out through a tunnel of his own making. Then he uses it to create a pit beneath Snokas and Byrmyn; both fail to leap out of the way, and fall in. Meanwhile, Step has fallen unconscious from fighting with Byrmyn, but Lapis’s cleric and archer have been slain. Lapis herself, who by now has been caught in enough spell blasts and hit with enough arrows that she’s on her last legs, Teleports away one last time. 

Skahnji finds himself the last of his group still standing; he leaps onto Step’s body and holds a dagger to the paladin’s heart. "Back! All of you! Or I plunge this into his chest!" There’s a brief stand-still. The party inches back, not wanting to making any sudden moves. Many actions are held. 

But Step is lying unconscious and possibly bleeding to death, so Dranko takes the chance. He casts his last remaining distance-healing spell on Step.

Step reflexively shudders and takes a sharp breath. Skahnji shrieks "Betrayed! You asked for it!" and plunges his dagger downward. Step twitches, hardly having opened his eyes, and goes unconscious again. The party then jumps on Skahnji en masse, dragging him off the body and dispatching him in short order.

The Cure spell and the dagger have effectively canceled each other out; Step is barely, barely alive, but fading quickly, blood pooling beneath him from the knife-wound. Kay steps forward to cast a healing spell… and finds that her connection with Pikon, God of Nature, is gone. She concentrates intensely, praying with all of her being for Pikon to answer her… and a small trickle of divine energy comes to her from somewhere (she senses) far above her. Healing energy pours into Step’s body, and once again he is saved from the brink of death.

Only Byrmyn and Snokas still remain, trapped in Aravis’s impromptu hole. Byrmyn hoists Snokas out of the pit, but he refuses to come out himself. Aravis has spotted Bluecoats approaching, so the party takes Snokas as a hostage and leaves Byrmyn to the tender mercies of the city guard.

(run 106 begins) - With the Bluecoats approaching, the party quickly asks Snokas where in the city Lapis and Co. have been staying, and they start moving in that general direction. But they send Morningstar back first (invisibly) to the scene of the fight, to cast a Thought Capture where Lapis was last seen. The thought she gets is one of someone thinking "By the Circle, I hope I don't die." She sees that a squad a Bluecoats is standing stoically around the edge of the pit into which Aravis dropped Snokas and Byrmyn. Aravis flies over the surrounding area, and Dranko checks briefly for signs of a blood trail, but Lapis is not in evidence.

The party spends some time interrogating the affable half-orc mercenary Snokas. It seems that Lapis and her crew found themselves in Zhamir in a similar state as the Company – memories wiped, and employed in a large smithy with the warrior Byrmyn in charge. The Cleric of Tiria (Erelia) was granted a vision by her goddess which snapped her out of the city's thrall, in the same way as Morningstar’s recognition of the inverted Ellish holy symbol. After breaking open their chests of possessions (as did the party) and fighting off the Bluecoats who arrived (as did the party), they fled into the city (as did the party). After some days of wandering and sleeping in parks they found an abandoned tannery and holed up there, and Lapis then hired as many messengers as she could to find news of either the Company or the Crosser's Maze. No messages had come back regarding the Maze, but two days ago, a messenger had arrived with news of the party, and Lapis and Co. had immediately set off to track the party down. 

Snokas adds a request that someone in the party take up the duty of casting Neutralize Poison on him every day, to stay the effects of the Powder that had been slipped into his food. Morningstar agrees to do this. 

The party discusses their options, and whether or not Lapis would have retreated back to the Tannery. They end up deciding that the strange Museum they had seen earlier that day must be related the Crosser's Maze, and head back that way instead. The museum is closed for the night, unguarded, so the party spends some time exploring it, nominally pretending to be cleaning the exhibits. Although there are many bizarre and curious works of art there (not to mention the strange "architecture" of the place itself), the party finds no clues to the nature or whereabouts of the Crosser's Maze. Tired, they go to a nearby public park and go to sleep on the grass. 

That night Kay has a dream in which she is back in the woods of Cyric, traveling with another ranger whom she doesn't not know, but recognizes as a mentor. Although most of the dream is hazy, she remembers one specific bit quite clearly. The other ranger turned to her and said (paraphrase) "I hope you realize how much effort that required. It may not be possible in the future. And tell the others: treating my name with disrespect will do them no good in the long run." 

That morning, the party discusses what the dream meant. At first they ascribe it to having something to do with their exploration of the museum, but that explanation doesn't sit right with Kay. She eventually realizes that the "effort" mentioned must have been that of her healing spell that saved One Certain Step's life, and that the "disrespect" is the party’s consistent light-hearted mockery of the Pikonish religion. Kay has never considered that she draws her power from Pikon, having assumed that it comes from nature and the world itself; this dream certainly implies some stronger connection between the two. The party spends some time praying sincere thanks to Pikon, and Kay's discomfort eases. 

(According to the Charagan Calendar of Holy Days, there are many Pikonish holidays throughout the year on which it is customary not to work. This has led to an ongoing string of in-party jokes about how followers of Pikon must always be lazing around, having one of their many days off.)

After some more discussion, the party decides that the Maze is probably somewhere in the City Below, an undercity full of madmen that they had heard some references to back at the Sands of Time. Unfortunately they have no good leads as to where to find an entrance. (There are no sewers in Zhamir; the chamber-pots empty themselves each night, as do the street-sweeper's buckets.) The party elects to follow Snokas toward the tannery, hoping to find something useful there, while keeping an eye out for entrances to the City Below. 

And at about this time, the true nature of Zhamir suddenly occurs to Dranko. 

It’s a city with a towering glassy wall, and there’s supposedly nothing beyond it. There are no hills; in fact, the city is unnaturally flat. There is no sun. Kay was able to channel a trickle of holy power from somewhere high above them. To get into the city in the first place, they had to speak the words "Void in the glass, I return to thee." And according to Shreen the Fair, this would be the "City of False Life." 

Zhamir is a City in a Bottle.

Later that day the party finds themselves walking down the wide pedestrian avenue known as the Avenue of Illusions; numerous Illusionist performers are generating fantastic visual displays for the entertainment of passersby. It is here that Morningstar notices that the party is being followed by a Citizen in a fancy rust-colored cloak. She walks some distance ahead of the others, to more discreetly cast Detect Thoughts, while Dranko walks off to the side of the Way and uses his magical robe to change his appearance. He then waits while the rust-cloaked gentleman passes him, after which Dranko sneaks up behind him. "You only have a few seconds to live," Dranko says," unless you tell us why you're following us." 

The man stops, and chuckles a bit. 

"Because I want to talk with you," he says. 

"About what?" Dranko demands. 

"I believe you're looking for something," he replies. "Some... acquaintances of yours are looking for it too." 

Morningstar is detecting no thoughts from the man, which makes sense; from previous experience she knows that Citizens have no discernible thoughts. 

The man and the party retire to a nearby park for little chat. His name is Pog, and he has come by some interesting information. It seems that someone named Lapis had sent out numerous inquiries, regarding both a thing called the Crosser's Maze, and a group of people whose description matches that of the party. That could hardly be a coincidence, thinks Pog. He asks if the party might also be looking for the Crosser's Maze. They admit that they are. 

And Pog tells them that he knows where it is, and even offers to take them there. It is the property of an acquaintance of his named Solomea, and he will take the party to visit him for an interview. The party is highly suspicious, especially when he offers to accept payment contingent on how well their meeting with Solomea goes. But he seems genuine, and the party assents to go with him. Solomea, he tells them, lives in the City Below, and Pog knows one of the few ways down to that place. 

Pog also offers the less-good news that he had sent a message back to Lapis at the tannery, with directions to that entrance into the City Below. Which means that Lapis may possibly be en route, or even be there already. 

Pog leads them to the edge of the Ochre District, also known as the "Ghost Quarter." It is a huge section of Zhamir that it entirely uninhabited; according to Pog, this occurs from time to time as the Citizen population of Zhamir changes. Aravis does a brief fly-over checking for signs of Lapis, but there are none. Dranko casts an Augury to find out if "finding Lapis in the City Below will cause weal or woe." The answer comes back: "Irrelevant. The mind is already wandering." "Crap!" Dranko exclaims. He takes from the Augury that Lapis has already found the Crosser's Maze. 

The party follows Pog into the Ghost Quarter, and after a few minutes he turns off of a street into what looks like an abandoned guild house. Kay does some tracking and finds some relatively fresh mud on the ground inside the house. Pog leads them into a back storage room and opens up a trap door in the floor. A long vertical shaft is beneath, leading down via ladder into the darkness. Dranko jumps in and Feather Falls down. Pog then warns the group to "ignore the shrieking" and not to talk with anyone. He also tells them that they may meet a partner of his named Mazzery, who is also a friend of Solomea. 

Down they all go. 

Nearly 150' down, the vertical shaft opens onto a wide stone corridor with a black glass floor. The party surmises that they have reached the bottom of the bottle that contains the city of Zhamir. Screams, loud sobbing, and maniacal laughter all echo throughout the City Below, which seems to be a latticework of straight stone corridors and mostly empty rooms. A small child huddles near one wall of a corridor, begging for water. Pog warns the party to ignore him, but Kay and Ernie cannot abide the child's pathetic pleas, and give him water to drink. He takes a sip, and then begins screaming that he's been poisoned, and launches himself at Kay, scratching and kicking. He does not relent until Ernie knocks him out. 

Shaken, the party continues on, while screams and babble resound all around them. At one point, an old man pokes his head out of a dark room, and the party recognizes him from a portrait in Repose; it is Kinnvhad, but he is mad beyond help, and goes into fits when the party asks him of details of his former life. 

At last the party is brought into a small room with wooden benches, and with one simple door at one end. 

"Solomea is through there," Pog tells them. "Don't speak too loudly to him, and understand that he is quite eccentric. I won't be going with you; he is quite particular about that when he talks to strangers. There will be a short length of hallway, which opens into Solomea's room. Good luck!" 

The party heads through the doorway, and the hallway stretches into the darkness before them. As they pass the threshold, each feels a slight shiver, and a feeling of unease comes over them. Morningstar casts Thought Capture – and immediately goes unconscious. She comes to after a few seconds, with a splitting headache. They continue on. After about twenty more seconds of walking it is clear that this is no "short length of hallway." They turn to look back toward the door -- and see that there is no more door. Rather, the hallway ends at an endless, star-filled space, like a stone catwalk hanging out over an abyss. 

In fact, the space is slowly advancing toward them, and the hallway itself is being "eaten away" by it. Dranko walks to the edge, taking constant steps back to stay on solid ground. He can see that the space extends in all directions; the hallway empties out into a vast starry void. 

The party is essentially chased along the hallway by the encroaching void, but after half a minute they can see the same void ahead of them as well. But with nothing else for it, they continue ahead until they find themselves standing on a wide iron disc, floating all alone in space. All around them, above and below, stars twinkle in the night. 

Then the face appears. It is unimaginably huge, taking up a full quarter of the horizon, its distance impossible to gauge. It is a old man's face, with stringy grey hair and a mostly-salt salt-and-pepper beard and mustache. And it begins to laugh, a slow, resonant chuckle that booms through the void. It speaks in a voice that echoes from everywhere.

"Welcome to the Maze. Welcome, to my mind. See what the Maze has done to me, and… what it will… do to you. It is… but a reflection of your minds, which are now in my mind. Ah, yes, I'm afraid you won't be leaving. Yes, I'm very afraid." 

Then, in a softer voice, with a clear note of panic in its pitch: "Very afraid." 

And finally, in a soft voice filled with unmistakable terror: 

"Help me…" 

The face fades away, leaving them alone on an iron disk floating in the void. Then, high above them, something fills the sky. It is a vast iron labyrinth, terrifying in scope, stretching through the blackness as far as the party can see. It is upside down from their point of view, as if the Gods themselves are holding it inverted high above their heads. 

And it is descending. Closer and closer it comes, filling all space and thought; the sky is a huge iron maze, and it is falling. Then they notice that another equally large maze is rising up from the depths below their floating disc. For a few brief seconds, they can see that both mazes are irregular, mostly filled with even iron-walled passages, but with various strange features dotting the expanses – rooms, walls of other materials, blotches of color. But the two labyrinths, falling from above and rising up from below, seem as though they are going to crush the party like a pair of monstrous jaws. The party braces for their collision…

(run 107 begins)…and the mazes meet with a thunderous clang of metal striking metal. But the party is not crushed. Both mazes, above and below, have a round iron room in their very centers. And it is here that the Company now finds itself – at the center of a labyrinth that stretches out to eternity.

The party regards their surroundings. The walls, floor and ceiling are flat gray iron. There are some cobwebs up where the round wall meets the ceiling, but there's no dust on the floor. All is quiet save for a sound of even, steady breathing that echoes all around. 

They spend some time debating where they really are and what they should do. They decide that they're either in the Crosser's Maze, in the mind of Solomea Pirenne, or possibly both. And clearly they need to find Solomea and rescue him, but none of them are sure how. 

While they ponder, they hear occasional skittering sounds above them, as if a small animal is running around on the other side of the ceiling. There is no sign of any other life. Thinking that they might be in a place where thought can affect reality, they all concentrate (in unison) on Solomea, thinking of how to find or help him. Dranko and Grey Wolf receive a brief flash of a mental image: a small white chess pawn. Aravis and Ernie get a different image: a growling brown wolf. 

Further similar experimentation (thinking about other things) doesn't yield anything useful. They try thinking of Solomea one more time, and several of them get a mental image of a large silvery-grey spider. 

Eventually they decide to start moving, and leave the starting room by one of the two exits with Kay leading the way. They find themselves wandering a maze of iron corridors, some 10 or 15' wide, some narrow enough to force them into single file. In one 10'-wide stretch, they come across a section of mirror set into the iron wall, with an adjacent mirror set in the floor. Aravis tries to use the wall-mirror to Scry for Solomea, but gets only a sharp pain in his head for his efforts. 

They spend a minute or two examining the mirror, but there doesn't seem to be anything special about it, so they move on. As they go (with Kay picking her way through the maze in a fairly arbitrary fashion), they see more sections of walls, floor and ceiling replaced with inset mirrors. One time, they see a large (dog-sized) gray spider scuttle from around the corner, clinging to the ceiling. It runs to one of the ceiling mirrors, and vanishes inside, as if the mirror were a hole in the ceiling. When the party goes to investigate, the mirror is just a mirror, solid to the touch. 

Turning another corner, Kay finds herself confronted by an old man about 15 feet away. He's dressed in a old gray robe, and has a white beard and thinning white hair. His right arm is stunted and withered, only about half the size of his healthy left arm. The fingers on the right hand are twisted at cruel angles. His face is the same as they saw filling the sky when they first arrived. But after a few seconds the image fades, and Kay is simply looking at her own reflection in a mirror. 

They continue through the bleak iron maze, listening to the slow sound of the omnipresent breathing. Then Kay passes a mirror which doesn't reflect her own image back. In fact, she doesn't see anyone's reflection -- except for Morningstar's. Each party member looks in the mirror, but the only thing they can see is Morningstar's reflection. Morningstar herself stands in front of the mirror and looks in -- and her reflection shimmers and distorts, and becomes that of Shreen the Fair, night-master of the shrine of Dralla in Djaw. 

Shreen speaks in his hideous modulating voice: "Greetings, night-child. I want you to remember your promise to me, to bring me back Lapis' head, and the Crosser's Maze. You promised. You PROMISED!" 

Morningstar responds with cold disinterest: "Do you have anything relevant to say to me?" 

"Oh, yes," says Shreen. "Remember. You made a sacred promise, invoking the name of Dralla while standing on Her sacred ground. I can see in your heart, that you intend to twist your promise and the words you spoke. But Dralla knows the true meaning and intent of our pact. If you dare try to twist Her sacred intent, you will pay dearly. Oh yes, you will pay!" 

And then Shreen fades from mirror, and nothing can now be seen in it. Slightly shaken, the party moves on. 
Kay takes another turn at a fork, and sees that the corridor ends about 20 feet down, and the end is painted a bright white. But when she goes forward to investigate, she sees that instead the hallway opens into a perfectly white room. Another exit leaves the room at the opposite corner. 

More interestingly, Solomea is there, laced into a straightjacket and strapped down to a bed. His eyes are open, and his faces twitches. His right arm is the same withered stick the party saw in the mirror. Next to the bed is a small table, and on the table is a chess set. He seems to have already lost the game; his black king is toppled over in resignation. 

When the party approaches, he begins to mutter, rave and whimper. "I just wanted to be young, that's all I wanted," he cries softly. "I was so old... I thought it would be easy... I just wanted to be young again." 

Ernie offers him water, but he grows agitated and warns them not to touch him, or the chess pieces on the table. But he also says that he's desperately thirsty, and would love some water. Solomea seems to have a severely split personality; once facet is cruel, and speaks harshly to the party, often taunting them. Another facet seems sympathetic and grateful, and tries to whisper hints and warnings to the party as if it's terrified of being discovered. A third facet is simply raving, uttering words of hopelessness, when they mean anything at all. Ernie leaves him some water where he can tilt his head and drink, and he seems extremely grateful. 

Then he looks down at his arm, and starts to whimper, and then scream: "get it off me...Get it off me! GET IT OFF ME!!!" Small silver spiders are emerging from his sleeve and walking along his arm. Kay has Oa Lyanna blow the spiders onto the white floor of the room, where they crawl away. Again, Solomea thanks them, and then starts raving to himself again. Suddenly, in a clear voice he says: "I never learned my lesson. When you are starting on a journey, you must always have the end in sight, if there is to be hope of success. Remember that. And remember: in my Maze you are your own worst enemy, and your own best hope." 

Just as he's falling asleep, he mutters to the party, "go, go, help me, please... you can ... buy things... " And then he falls into slumber. The members of the party look at one another. "Did he say "buy things?" Huh? Did we mis-hear?" Morningstar casts Protective Sleep on him, so that his sleep will be peaceful and undisturbed. Kay leads them out of the room, and onward into the maze. Heeding some of the lucid words of Solomea, they now endeavor to keep images in their mind of finding and rescuing Solomea, thus "keeping the end in sight."

The Maze beyond this room is different. The ceiling is still gray iron, but the ground is honest-to-goodness springy grass. The walls are painted floor to ceiling with a continuous mural of a pastoral scene, with meadows, lush hillsides, green trees, and a bright blue sky with puffy white clouds. The overall composition of the murals is extremely clever, demonstrating an excellent sense of perspective along the curving walls of the maze. But the individual details -- the trees and clouds and flowers -- are crude, as if drawn by a child. The party also notices that many of the trees have spider-webs drawn in the boughs -- spider-webs, not cobwebs. From somewhere far off, coming from -- inside? -- the mural, there is the sound of a wolf howling, though there is no sign of a wolf. 

Around a corner of this new aspect of the maze, the party comes across something truly bizarre. One section of the wall is shimmering slightly, and a mild breeze comes out from the pastoral meadow. To Oa Lyanna, it feels real. But the bizarre (and mighty disturbing) part is not the breeze. About 30 feet "inside" the mural is a floating horror. It looks mostly like a beholder -- a floating orb about 5' in diameter, with numerous small eyestalks protruding from the top. (The right-most eyestalk is only half as long as the others, withered and brittle.) But the truly horrific part is that Solomea's human face is stretched across the entire front-facing hemisphere of the creature. Instead of a single beholder-eye, Solomea's own two human eyes, horribly stretched, look at them across a stretch of lush grass. His human mouth is huge and twisted, with oversized teeth poking out at odd angles. 

The Solomea-beholder floats above a picnic table that is laden with oddments. It beckons them forward in a friendly but faintly-hysterical voice, to come forward and have a chat. Hesitantly they approach, stepping into the mural and walking across the grassy slope to the table.

Ernie, always desiring to be friendly, asks the beholder if it wants to hear a joke. The others are aghast, but the creature says "sure!" Ernie proceeds to tell the old saw about the brass rat, and when he reaches the punch-line "Do you have any brass tax-collectors?" the beholder starts laughing uproariously. "I haven't heard a good joke in so long," he says. "Thank you!" The beholder bobs expectantly, and tells the party that some of the things on the table are for sale, if they're willing to pay the price. "What price?" they ask. "A little of what's best in you," it replies amiably. "And of course the payment cannot be rescinded while you’re in this place." 

Among the items on the table are a picnic basket, a quill-and-inkpot, and a pair of spectacles, but these are not for sale, and the beholder warns them not to touch them. The items the beholder is willing to part with are all small crystal figurines, each about the size of a finger: 
* a small red crystal spider 
* a small clear crystal minotaur 
* a set of white crystal chess pieces; the king and pawns are not for sale. 
When the party asks what these items are good for, the beholder responds: "Oh, you'll know, you'll know. And trust me, you'll be glad to have them." 

Morningstar decides to buy the minotaur figurine... she reaches to take it, and feels her mind become unfocused and muddled; she has lost 2 points of Wisdom. Ernie decides to go for it all, and reaches for the Queen chess piece. The Beholder warns him: "that one is very expensive. Higher value comes with a higher price." He takes it anyway, and weakness floods his body as he loses SIX points of Strength. Kay takes one of the chess Knights, and loses 2 points of Dexterity. And Step takes the crystal spider, losing 2 points of Charisma. When the party asks what else they might find in the maze, the nasty personality takes over. 

"It doesn't matter," Solomea snaps. "You'll never get out of here."

Then, in a faint voice: "…thank you for the joke." 

The wolf howls again in the distance, and the beholder tells them: "Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the wolf…." It drifts closer, and whispers in a soft voice: 

"…just don’t beat me."

And then: "Get out of here!" It turns its back (such as it is) on the party, and they are unable to get anything else out of it.

The party walks back across the meadow to the hallway, and continues on. Abruptly they find themselves facing an empty black void, as the hallway empties into a pitch-black abyss. As they watch, an object appears in the blackness: it is a baby’s crib, suspended in the black void. 

Tentatively the party steps out into the blackness, and finds that there is (fortunately) a floor to hold them up. As they move forward, they see that a baby is lying in the crib, cooing happily. Behind them, from nowhere, a voice speaks.

"The Silver Recluse. Not as aggressive as the Forest Widow, nor as deadly as the Ocirian Acid Spider. But the Silver Recluse’s venom is as fast-acting as any." 

Solomea is standing behind them, dressed in a white robe with a golden Fleur de Lis on the front. He gestures toward the crib. As if they were watching a movie and the camera suddenly zoomed in, the crib grows larger, nearer, and they can now see a small gray spider crawling on the baby’s right arm. The baby idly brushes it with its left hand, and immediately the spider plunges its fangs into the fleshy pink right arm. Ernie reaches forward, desperate to grab the spider from the baby, but his hand goes right through the scene, as if it were naught but an illusion. Then the "camera" zooms in again, until the fangs of the gray spider are as big as swords, sinking repeatedly into the baby’s arm. The baby shrieks in pain. Solomea in the robes shakes his head sadly. 

"My father’s healer did what she could, but she did not have enough time." 

The baby’s right arm is turning a sickly gray, spreading outward from the bites.

"I remember it all with such clarity. It seemed so large to me at the time. And the pain. I was an infant; there was no understanding. Just the pain. Just the pain…" 

The crib and baby vanish, and Solomea’s robed body suddenly becomes made up of thousands of small gray spiders. The resulting tower of arachnids collapses onto the floor, and the spiders start swarming toward the party! At Kay’s hasty request, Oa Lyanna blows the small spiders back into the black void, and the party flees back the way they came.

Now the halls are the plain gray iron that they were back at the start. The party talks among themselves, and despite the warnings of some to keep their thoughts fixed on their ultimate goal, others start talking about the chess theme, and the beholder’s whispered warning: "don’t beat me." And just about then the hallway empties into a large empty iron room; there is another exit on the opposite side. When all of the party has gone into the room, the whole place transforms:

On the floor, a huge chessboard pattern appears. The white squares are marble, and the black squares are dark mirrors. 

A few seconds later, on the opposite side of the board, a set of living chess pieces appears. The pawns are all black crystal spiders, the size of large dogs. The rooks are siege towers atop miniature elephants. The bishops are tall robed men, both with a book in one hand and a staff in the other. The knights are armored female warriors, holding swords and seated atop black war-horses. The Queen is tall and regal, and wields a flaming sword. The King wears a robe and a crown but is unarmed.

Then a balcony appears high on the wall above the black pieces, and Solomea as a middle-aged man is standing there, leaning on a railing with his one good arm and grinning. He wears shimmering black robes, similar to that worn by the black king. 

Off to the side of the board, an enclosure of smoky glass appears.

Solomea speaks: "This is Ri’Jan, a game with which some of you are familiar. I was quite fond of playing, back in the … old days. I was never able to beat that confounded Three Corners, no matter how hard I tried. He’d never let me forget that I couldn’t beat him. But now I’ll play against you. Play wisely; the penalties for capture cannot be restored by your spells in … this place. Now… I think the drunkard and the coward should be pawns. Oh, and the fool as well."

Flicker, Makel and Snokas are suddenly teleported to the starting positions of three white pawns. White spiders appear to take up the positions of the remaining pawns, and a white King appears opposite the his black counterpart.

"Now," continues Solomea, "the rest of you take up positions as you’d like."

As the party moves to take up their positions on the chessboard, Ernie and Kay feel warmth coming from the chess figurines they had purchased from the beholder. Ernie goes and stands in the Queen’s spot, and puts down the figurine. As he does, the flaming sword of the black queen is extinguished, the queen bows her head… and vanishes. Kay steps onto a Knight’s square and does the same. The black Knight opposite her dismounts from her war horse, bows her head, and also vanishes. The rest of the party takes their places: Dranko and Morningstar are bishops, Step and Grey Wolf are rooks, and Aravis is the other knight.

Solomea frowns. "A handicap game, I see. I’ve never played such a match. Very well. I’ll still get my revenge on Three Corners. It’s your move!"

Many in the party have never played chess, and don’t have much to offer in the way of strategy beyond "hey, that black horsewoman is getting close… maybe I should move?!" But the two wizards, Aravis and Grey Wolf , have some knowledge of the game, and they direct the moves of the white pieces. Solomea is a good player, and he has the advantage that the party is unwilling to trade pieces (except for their own spider-pawns). Early in the game, Aravis and Grey Wolf realize that they can gain a serious tactical advantage by trading Flicker’s pawn. Flicker’s clearly terrified but tells them to do what they must. They instruct Flicker to move forward to a vulnerable square. He does. And then one of the black crystal spiders crawls along the diagonal and spears Flicker through the gut with a pointed crystal leg. Flicker screams in pain, vanishes, and reappears a second later in the dark glass enclosure alongside the board, unconscious. 

Solomea may be good, but so are Aravis and Grey Wolf , and Solomea isn’t skilled enough at Ri’Jan to make up for his starting lack of material. His style is naturally aggressive, and this proves his undoing. Dranko, picking up on clues from Solomea’s table-banter, starts to mock Solomea. 

"Now I know why you couldn’t beat Three Corners," he taunts. "You’re not much of a player. You’re hardly a challenge." And more like that. 

As a bishop, Dranko places himself in a protected square, but vulnerable to a black rook. "I’m surprised Three Corners even bothered to play with you," he says, grinning. And Solomea loses control, and takes Dranko’s bishop with his rook. Dranko is crushed beneath the foot of the miniature elephant, and there is a horrible moment when everyone can hear the sounds of his bones snapping like twigs – and then he too appears in the enclosure, out cold. But white then captures the rook, and the material advantage becomes even greater. 

Black’s entire king’s side is exposed to a relentless attack, and a few moves later it’s clear that white has won the game. Solomea plays out the string like a caged animal, seeking only to make some last-minute capture of a white piece. He manages to do it; Makel is captured near the end, knocked in the head by the staff of a black bishop. But then Aravis and Grey Wolf maneuver the black king into checkmate. The enemy king takes off his crown and bows low before crumpling to the ground. 

Solomea on his balcony screams in rage. Then he abruptly vanishes, as do the walls of the enclosure holding Dranko, Flicker and Makel. The captured party members regain consciousness, but Dranko discovers that he has been struck blind, and Makel and Flicker both feel weak and clumsy. The others help them toward the exit. Behind them the pieces remaining on the board are shattering, spraying pieces of black and white crystal all around the room. The Company flies from the chess room as quickly as they can.

Back into the iron corridors of the Maze they go. As they progress, they hear from somewhere far ahead of them a horrific scream, a male voice, crying out in pain. At the same time the slow sonorous breathing (which has not changed in all the time they’ve been in the Maze) quickens for a few seconds, and then returns to its original speed. Not knowing what to make of that, the party continues on.

After another few minutes they start to hear a dull, rhythmic sound coming from somewhere ahead. As they home in on it, the noise resolves itself into the distinct sound of an axe chopping wood. They turn one corner, and find themselves looking out onto an outdoor scene. There is a hut in a forest clearing. In front of the hut is the same picnic table they saw with the beholder. And nearby is a young man, with a shriveled right arm, chopping logs on a stump with his left arm. When he sees the party, he waves them over, and invites them to sit at the table.

He seems quite friendly, and goes into the hut to bring them food and drink. The party helps him chop some of the wood, and Kay uses the Woodcutter sword to carve a divot in the stump, making future chopping easier for the one-armed man. When the young Solomea comes back out, and they are all seated, he tells them more coherently about what’s happened to him. 

"When I first arrived in Zhamir," he says, "it was an accident. I was a member of an order called the Walkers of the Maze, and we used the Crosser’s Maze to travel the Planes. But when I had grown old, I though I knew how I could use the Maze to travel back along my own line, and make myself young again. 

"I was a fool. Instead I was brought to the City in the Bottle, which by its nature draws errant travelers into itself. My mind was wrecked, but the Maze was with me, and I destroyed several Workers and many Bluecoats before I found my way down into the City Below. Finally I met and… absorbed… two Citizens. You’ve met them: Pog and Mazzery. No one had yet escaped my mind once they were drawn in, but Citizens have a strong tie to Zhamir, and they returned to their bodies. Furthermore, they now knew what I was, and knew my potential. They have used me ever since. 

Often, when powerful people (like yourselves) are drawn from the various Primes into Zhamir, they (again, like yourselves) manage to dislodge themselves from the City’s grip. They typically reclaim their possessions, which (as yours were) are kept near to them so that they stay sane longer. Pog and Mazzery are always on the lookout for such people. They lure them down here, and they become lost in my mind… in the Maze. I kill them all, you see. I’m insane."

The party asks Solomea where Pog and Mazzery are right now.

"Looting your bodies, I imagine," Solomea answers. "They’re stockpiling. I don’t know for sure, but I think they’re planning eventually to make an assault on the Sultan himself, and make themselves rulers of Zhamir."

The party then asks Solomea if Lapis is in the Maze with them.

"Yes, I’m afraid she is. She believes very strongly in her cause. But I don’t have much hope for her. She doesn’t have what you have, and as a result, I think she is doomed."

"What do we have that she doesn’t?" they ask.

"Friends. Anymore." Solomea answers.

Suddenly, the cruel aspect of Solomea’s personality takes control. "It doesn’t matter to you, of course. You’re not getting out. Never. You can’t escape me, any more than the others did." Then, softly, "you have to find me. Please, help me. Quickly… go! Go…"

(run 108 begins) - The party retreats from the area, back into the dull iron corridors of the Maze. Makel and Flicker are greatly weakened, the penalty for their capture in the chess game. Dranko is blind and needs to be led by the others. And Ernie, Kay, Step and Morningstar are still feeling the effects of their payments to the Beholder for the purchased figurines. 

The breathing continues, steady, unabated. Morningstar is now leading the way, and the party wanders through the branching iron pathways until Morningstar is brought up short by a barrier of opaque black glass. It seems like a mirror with no reflections, but Flicker, peeking through the ranks, claims he can see something in the glass. He wiggles his way to the front of the line, looking intently at the glass. Then he starts to shout: "No! No, no, don’t open it! Please!" 

The black surface shimmers, and now everyone can see what Flicker sees: Tor Bladebearer is standing in a musty stone room, about to open a large wooden trunk. Next to him is Mrs. Horn, dressed in mourning black. 

"Don’t worry," she says. "I’m sure it’s safe. Flicker would check if there was any chance it was dangerous. Open it."

"Nooooooooooo!" Flicker shouts, but it’s too late. Tor opens the chest, and there is huge fiery explosion. Mrs. Horn’s body collapses in a charred heap.

"No, no, no, no no!" Flicker cries. "I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I was afraid!" He runs into the room, through the opening that had been glass before, and starts beating his fists against Tor. Tor just stands mute, looking down at Mrs. Horn’s body. 

For a while, Flicker is inconsolable. He admits that, back beneath Gohgan’s basement, he had thought he should probably check the chest for traps, but he was too scared. He rationalized it, and let Tor open the chest, and it cost Mrs. Horn her life. "I killed her, and then we brought her back and that killed Abernathy! I killed Abernathy!"

The rest of the party (mostly Ernie, Morningstar and Dranko) talk him down from his despair. Ernie tells him that Dolly and Barnabas are both proud of him, and of what he’s accomplished since. Morningstar assures him that it wasn’t his fault; that none of them thought to stop Tor from opening the trapped chest. And Dranko tells him that he’s proven many times since then that he’s no coward, and that he should stop whining, and get on with his life. 

His resolution bolstered, Flicker agrees to leave the incident in the past and move forward into the Maze. A door appears on the opposite wall from where they entered, and the party plunges once more into the iron hallways. Dranko, still blinded from the chess game, is guided by Aravis and Grey Wolf.

After another few minutes the party turns a corner, and they find themselves looking through a large stone archway into a sun-lit hedge-maze beyond. They can see 12’ tall hedges forming a wide avenue straight ahead, some wooden benches near one wall, and about 20’ away or so a tall statue of a woman against the opposite wall. Once all the party has walked through the arch into the hedge maze, there is a sharp sound behind them, and they realize the archway has been closed off by a large mirror. Set above the mirror is a crystal eye; Flicker stands on Makel’s shoulders and investigates, but the eye is inert and not particularly interesting.

More investigation shows that the hedges aren’t actually plants; they’re made of metal, sculpted with meticulous detail to resemble natural flora. They’re sharp, too, as Flicker discovers while demonstrating the "keep your hand on the left wall" method of maze navigation. The party also finds a free-standing mirror on the ground, at the foot of the statue. It has a string by which it can be hung, so the party hangs it on the outstretched hand of the statue, which seems like it might be there for just that purpose. Nothing happens. Hm. 

In addition to the slow breathing, the party can also here a scuttling sound coming from the other side of many of the hedge walls. Dranko thinks the place smells like the spiders encountered in the crib room, so they all proceed with caution, slowly navigating the hedge maze and watching for an attack. 

As they proceed, they find more and more mirrors lying about. Some are mounted and hanging on the metal hedges. Some are lying on the ground, or leaning up against various statues. Thinking that the mirrors might be gateways through which spiders could come, they turn all the mirrors face down, or with their reflective sides up against the walls of the maze. 

At last they reach the center of the Maze, in which there’s a bubbling fountain at a four-way intersection. At this point, the gray spiders attack, climbing over the walls in great numbers, each the size of a large dog. Grey Wolf starts things off with a Fireball, intended to explode out and above the hedge, where it will get several of the spiders they can see, and hopefully many still waiting to climb the wall. Unfortunately, none of the party has yet discovered that there’s an invisible "ceiling" covering the maze like a huge transparent lid, just at the height of the 12’ high hedges. Kaboom! All of the party is caught in the blast, and much cursing follows. Many nearby spiders are also roasted, but more come to take their place, somehow swarming over the walls despite the invisible ceiling. 

In the ensuing melee, many saving throws are rolled against the venom of the spiders, but only Aravis fails, and he’s drained down to (gulp) a 1 Strength. Also, Morningstar reminds One Certain Step about the red crystal spider he bought; when this is tossed to the ground it grows to many times its original size, until it’s slightly larger than the gray ones attacking them. This red spider turns out to be a killing machine, and takes care of many silver spiders all on its own. Meanwhile the rest of the party is acquitting itself nicely. One spider leaps down onto Makel’s left arm, and he smashes it into the metal filigree of the adjacent hedge, killing it. Eventually all of the spiders are killed, and while many are wounded from spider bites, only Aravis has been weakened. Morningstar gets him back up to a 5 Strength with a pair of Lesser Restoration spells. The red crystal spider stops moving when the last gray spider is dead, done with its purpose.

About this time, from somewhere off in the distance (ahead of them), the party hears a bloodcurdling shriek of a woman. It cuts off abruptly, and for a few seconds after, the omnipresent breathing quickens. Then it reverts to its slow steady pace.

The party makes their way to the opposite end of the circular hedge maze, finding more loose mirrors as they go. They find what is probably the exit – a stone archway – but like the entrance, it is filled in by a large mirror, and has a crystal eye set in the rock above the arch. The party ponders how to try "opening" this second arch, and makes a few unsuccessful tries. Then Makel and Dranko speculate that perhaps the various mirrors around the hedge maze should be placed in such a way that would let the two crystal eyes "see each other." This takes some time and effort, lining up all the mirrors just so, but eventually all are in place except for a final mirror held by Aravis. As he tilts it into position, he feels it become fixed in space. The eye above the exit gate flashes, and the mirror dissolves away, leaving a clear way out. Success!

Beyond the hedge maze is a completely black room, with faint light shining through a door visible on a distant wall. As the party moves in, a windowpane appears high up in the air, floating. Then a teen-age girl appears, sitting in the window frame. She laughs, and says "Ernie! Quick! Catch!" Something comes hurtling down from her window. Ernie instinctively turns to catch whatever it is – and is crushed by a large anvil. It breaks several ribs and knocks him unconscious. The girl laughs in an annoying giggle. Dranko is blind but recognizes the laugh – it’s Praska. 

"Dranko!" she calls. "See what I did to your friend? Oh, how silly. Of course you can’t see!"

"I know you’re not Praska," growls Dranko. "You’re just part of my own imagination."

"Not true," Praska responds. "Some of this place is from your mind, but some is drawn from the universe itself. And I know everything, Dranko. I’m part of the Black Circle now, and we know things. I’ve already foiled several schemes that the church of Delioch was cooking up. I see everything, and no one can tell."

"If you’re real, and not just part of my mind," Dranko says, "tell me something I don’t already know."

Praska doesn’t answer, and Dranko snorts. "I thought not. Let’s go."

But as the party heads toward the door, Praska calls after him. "Here’s something you don’t know. You know how Harmon always suffered from a bad back? You did that to him you know. One of your pranks; he slipped cleaning up the pig’s blood you got all over the floor, and his back has never been the same since. He couldn’t get one of the clerics to heal him without admitting how he’d gotten hurt, and didn’t want to get you in trouble. He never had the heart to tell you. There. Something you didn’t know."

"You’re not Praska," Dranko says defiantly. "And we’re moving on. Good-bye."

They leave her behind, listening to her grating laugh.

The Company keeps moving. They’re now back in the "standard" iron corridors of the Maze, listening to the slow breathing. A few minutes later a ten-foot-long section of iron wall vanishes, and is replaced by a translucent amber-colored section of wall. The party can see another section of similar amber wall beyond that. Soon, all around them, sections of iron wall are being replaced by lengths of translucent amber force-walls. To most of the party these new walls are solid, like a Wall of Force, but Morningstar feels her Minotaur figurine begin to grow warm. To her, the new amber walls seem almost invisible, and insubstantial. Some experimentation shows that whoever is holding onto the Minotaur figurine can pass through the walls as if they didn’t exist. 

Soon the iron walls have vanished all together, and the party finds itself in a dynamically shifting maze of amber sections. Then humanoid shapes start appearing out in the shifting sea of amber, like shadows moving in and out of the walls.

And then the Minotaurs attack. Large, brutish, with gleaming horns and sharp battle axes, they move through the maze from several different directions. Flicker starts by activating his Ring of Blinking, which allows him to make some wicked sneak attacks. Dranko, blinded, is still able to start off with a Prayer spell, that turns out to make a world of difference. Ernie, weakened from his purchase of the Chess Queen, calls upon the Strength of Yondalla, and feels the power of his Goddess (as 8 points of Strength) fill his veins. One Certain Step swings his mighty flaming greatsword and scores as mighty blow, but the Minotaur is strong and does not fall. Aravis fires off a Lightning Bolt, searing two more, but these also endure the blast. Kay tries using the Woodcutter sword to attack the axe-handle of the nearest Minotaur, but her attempt fails, and her remaining two swings are deflected by the beast.

There are seven Minotaurs, and four of them launch a vicious series of axe and goring attacks. In short order, many in the party find themselves suddenly short on hit points. Morningstar answers with a Flame Strike , badly wounding three more. Grey Wolf starts firing off crossbow bolts, and Makel steps forward to engage the nearest Minotaur. 

And then the walls of the maze shift again. Aravis is suddenly left trapped in a cul-de-sac of amber walls, his only way out blocked by a minotaur. The remaining Minotaurs attack, taking advantage of the new configuration of walls. And from the blurry amber outskirts of the melee, more Minotaurs can be seen moving in to join the fray. Snokas fights bravely, and spears the nearest Minotaur with his heavy pick.

The battle that follows is bloody and vicious, and made more confusing by the ever-shifting walls. Everyone suffers from the cruel slashes and gores of the creatures; even blind Dranko, safely in the middle of the party, takes some of Aravis’ injuries from a Shield Other spell. Almost everyone is brought to below half their hit points, and a few people (Flicker, Step, Makel and Dranko) come perilously close to death. Snokas isn’t so lucky; a flurry of axe blows, finishing with a critical hit, tears his body to pieces. He screams as he dies, and the sound of the omnipresent breathing around them quickens briefly. More Minotaurs have also joined the fight, making an even dozen in all. Things look grim indeed, and parts of the labyrinth keep shifting, changing the tactical battlefield.

Only the constant use of healing from all the party clerics, as well as from Step, keep anyone else from dying. Makel is reduced to 5 HP before getting healed back up. Dranko, flanked by two Minotaurs, takes 58 points of damage in a single round, and he drops to the ground (actually with 8 hit points remaining, but hoping that the Minotaurs will keep fighting his still-standing comrades.) Aravis finishes off a couple of the beasts with Magic Missiles from his wand, and after spending most of the combat casting spells, Morningstar the person pulls out her Morningstar the weapon and does some serious damage. 

At last the final Minotaur is slain, and no more come out of the shifting amber labyrinth. Most of the party is out of spells, or nearly so. The walls start winking out one by one, until the party is left standing on an iron floor in a vast darkness. The shimmering form of Solomea Pirenne appears in their midst, smiling. 

"Well done!" he beams. "The Minotaurs were the true guardians of the Crosser’s Maze. You have defeated them, and now I am free. I am here to give you the Crosser’s Maze. Which of you will take it?" 

Ernie volunteers, and Solomea places into his hand a small round iron labyrinth, glowing slightly. "You can use this to get out," Solomea says. "All the way out, of the Maze, and the Bottle as well. Wherever you want to go. Simply wish it to be, and it will be."

"What happened to Lapis?" the party asks. Solomea clucks his tongue, shakes his head sadly, and vanishes.

There is a brief discussion about where to go. If they go straight back to Charagan, it’s not clear that their magical rope from the Spire will function to bring them back to Kivia. (That’s because the rope will bring them back to the exact location on Kivia where it was used the first time, which would be nowhere, really.) In the end, Ernie makes the wish that the party "Appear somewhere safe, but near the tower of Het Branoi, and with Lapis’ body and all of her possessions, along with all of our own possessions."

The blackness around them is gone. The party is now in a dry stone cave, looking out onto a gentle hill in what seems to be fading sunlight. In the cave with them are piles of all of their belongings, as well as Lapis’ body. All of their wounds are healed, and their drained ability scores restored.

At the top of the hill, a stone tower is visible. Het Branoi! They’ve made it! Not only have they found the Crosser’s Maze, but they’ve been freed from Zhamir, and been spared what would have been a hike of hundreds of miles to the region of Branoi. The party breathes a collective sigh of relief.

But then Dranko says, "I though Het Branoi was supposed to be invisible." And immediately it is. The tower up on the hill blinks out of sight. Hm. That’s odd. 

Then Dranko hears it. 

The slow sound of breathing. It’s still with them.

And they realize it’s all a sham.

As they come to that realization ("I knew that seemed to easy"), the cave vanishes, and they are back in the Maze, still wounded, still drained, still trapped. Dranko is still blind. Makel swears like the sailor he is.

Almost out of spells and weary from the fight, the Company decides that they should try to sleep and regain their strength. But even that is denied them; in the Maze, sleep is impossible. After an hour of trying, they give it up, shoulder their packs, and prepare to face whatever else the Maze has in store for them.

(run 109 begins) - As they walk across the endless iron floor through the black void, more shapes start to appear and disappear around them. They are bookshelves, long bookshelves, flickering in and out in a vaguely maze-like configuration. 

Then at once they all become solid and real, and the Company finds itself in a luxurious library, surrounded by stacks of books. Mirrors hang from the shelves in many places, making the library seem almost infinite in scope. 

In front of the party is a long table, and behind that table is sitting Solomea, a young scholar with spectacles and his withered arm bound to his body. "Please, sit down" he says in a calm voice, and comfortable chairs appear for all the party. They sit. Some notice that a few books are open on the table; their pages contain no words, but many are splotched with ugly bloodstains.

"You are doing well," he says, looking at each of them closely. "I found myself wondering just who… hold on a minute… oh, that’s fascinating!" 

He has fixed his gaze on Grey Wolf.

"Oh, that’s very interesting. Do you know, Ivellios, that someone has been tampering with your mind?"

(This is the first time the others have heard Grey Wolf's real name.)

Grey Wolf shakes his head no.

"Ah. Well, they have. The memory that you think most clear is nothing but a fable! I think your friends will find this interesting as well. I’m sorry if this is uncomfortable for you; look!"

He gestures to the broad side of a long bookshelf, and it shimmers, and now the Company can see in it a clearing in a green forest, and a small house in the clearing. It looks real, and the sounds and smells coming from the scene are absolutely genuine. A young Grey Wolf is there in the scene, mending a wooden shed a few dozen yards from the house. Suddenly half a dozen mercenaries bearing the insignia of a gray wolf come marching into the clearing. Grey Wolf’s father comes out of the house while Grey Wolf watches. 

The mercenaries demand tribute from his father, who refuses and orders the mercenaries away from his home. And without further warning, one of the gray wolf company draws a weapon and strikes down the father where he stands. Grey Wolf screams and rushes the men, holding only the hammer with which he was mending the shed. The scene blurs. One of the mercenaries is now holding young Ivellios, and the last thing he sees is the pommel of a sword coming down at his head… and the scene is gone. 

In the library, the party is looking again at the side of a wooden bookcase.

"A terrible memory," Solomea says sympathetically. "I’m sorry to make you relive it. But it is a fiction, planted there by those who want to hide the truth from you. Do you want to see what really happened that day?"

Grey Wolf slowly nods.

"I’m afraid it’s not any happier," says Solomea, as he gestures at the bookshelf.

The same clearing appears, with the same house, but with the "camera" at a different angle. Grey Wolf is working in the kitchen with his mother; outside, his father is turning earth in a small garden. As they watch, three men and a woman in silver cloaks emerge from the trees. 

One of these steps forward and speaks briefly to the father. The two exchange heated words. Then the woman and one other man grab the father; the speaker makes a motion with his hands up to the sky, draws a longsword, and with one swift stroke hacks Grey Wolf's father down. Grey Wolf's mother has moved to the doorway; she screams and charges out of the house. The fourth silver-cloak casts a spell, and both Grey Wolf and his mother are paralyzed. The swordsman speaks briefly to the mother, and then slays her as he did the father.

As he approaches Grey Wolf, the watching party can clearly see that the clasp of the silver cloak is a seashell. He moves to strike down Grey Wolf just as he did with the parents, but is suddenly riddled with arrows; sixteen grey wolf mercenaries come out of the woods, and overwhelm the other Silvercloaks in a brief battle. Grey Wolf is still standing there, paralyzed and afraid. The mercenaries then have a discussion:

"What do we do now?" asks one.

"We go back and report to the Silvercloaks that the job is done." says the leader

"And this one?" the first one points to Grey Wolf.

"We don’t want him poking around, asking questions about the godsdamned half-shells. And we cannot apprehend him; there are still spies in the group. We have our orders. We modify his memory. Make him think this was just an attack by bandits looking for… tribute. Heh. Loot the house, to make it look like it was just a robbery. Then...oh... throw him into the woods, and set the house on fire."

The image vanishes, and the library with it. The party finds itself back in the labyrinth of iron corridors. From somewhere in the distance, the sound of a wolf howling echoes faintly.

(plot refresher: the Silver Shell is a zealous organization that formed in direct opposition to the Black Circle. They haven’t much been heard from in the past few centuries, since the Black Circle was all but wiped out. But the party has crossed paths with that group twice before. Once was when they found a Silver Shell agent spying out the dwarven tavern that was the front for Manzanill’s excavation below Hae Charagan. The other was when they rescued Rosetta, a Silver Shell agent who had been imprisoned and tortured in God’s Thorn.)

After some more wandering the walls start to fade, becoming windows onto a beautiful outdoor scene. It’s the same scene as the one depicted by the child’s painting when the party met the beholder-version of Solomea, but this time it’s real. They can see green rolling hills, stands of tall trees, and flowers blooming everywhere. 

Then some objects and people start to come into view. A road snakes through the scene, and there is a carriage pulled up by the roadside. Four stoic armed men stand around the carriage. Fifty yards down a gentle hill from the carriage, a family is having a picnic at the edge of a small wood. A blanket is spread out and a picnic basket sits next to the small boy. The boy’s right arm is stunted and useless.

Suddenly a dark shape springs from the woods; it’s a snarling brown wolf, rabidly foaming at the mouth. Some of the party tries to run forward into the scene, but there’s some invisible barrier blocking them, keeping them in the hallway. The wolf leaps immediately upon the mother; the child springs to his feet, points his left hand at the wolf and utters arcane words. A spray of dazzling colors flashes out, and both the wolf and the mother drop unconscious. The four guards are running down the grassy hill, too late to intervene.

The boy’s father, who had stood by frozen for the few seconds in which the attack occurred, gets to his feet. He picks up a sword lying by the blanket, and runs the wolf through. Then he barks at the guards to return to the carriage.

The small boy is beaming with pride, and the father, having dispatched the wolf, calls his son over to him. But the father’s expression is grim, and the smile on the boy’s face turns quickly to one of confusion and then pain as his father turns him over his knee and begins to beat him with a heavy switch.

"An abomination, you are!" he snarls at his son. "How could you disappoint me like this, practicing vile sorcery on your own mother! You are the son of nobility, not a filthy scale-blooded wizard!"

And as he administers his punishment, the child turns his tear-streaked face to the party watching from afar, and cries out "help me!" The barrier preventing the party from intruding on the scene shimmers and vanishes, and they all go charging across the field to help the child.

As they approach the picnic blanket, and demand of the father that he cease beating young Solomea, the father looks up and snaps "Begone! You are not wanted here." And with that, a wave of nausea sweeps over the party. Some of them shrug it off, but Aravis is knocked to his knees, his mind suddenly filled with the memory (and pain) of having his head slammed into a rock wall by a huge ogre. Kay is similarly stricken, feeling the shock and heat from the blast of the lightning lizards from the ogre caverns. And Morningstar’s mind is filled with the horror of being crushed in an iron maiden by a troll, so many months ago.

Those who are still standing repeat their demand that the father unhand the son, but Ernie is more furious than any of them. "You should be ashamed of yourself!" he yells at the father, his temper completely lost.

"My son has brought shame on our house!" The father insists. "He has…"

"He has not!" Ernie shouts. "He was brave, and did what he had to save your wife, and probably yourself as well! You should be rewarding him, not punishing him. Who cares about his blood? And anyway, doesn’t his blood come from you? And instead of rewarding him with love, you punish him, beat him? If anyone has dishonored himself and his family, it’s you! You are a coward, and a bigot, and…"

As Ernie’s tirade has gone on, the father has grown silent, and his expression has gone from anger to fear to embarrassment. And just when Ernie is coming to the end of his breath, the father suddenly disappears. 

The child looks up at Ernie, his expression a mix of gratitude and fear. "Thank you," he says in a small voice. 

The child and picnic and meadow vanish, and the party finds themselves standing in a small but elegantly-appointed room. There are beautiful paintings on the walls, and a fresh smell wafts through an open window along with the sounds of children playing. Solomea, gray-haired and gaunt, is lying peacefully in a bed beneath the window, his withered arm resting on his chest. His face shows serenity and contentment. 

He realizes that the party is in the room with him, and he sits up. "You’re here. Good. There’s someone who wants to say something to you. She’s lost most of her mind, but there’s still something she needs to say…"

Lapis appears in the room. Her eyes are wide and wild, two windows onto madness. In a hurried voice she starts babbling: "Please, I beg you. You must stop him. It doesn’t matter who rules in the end, not really. I see that now. But you have to stop Naradawk. He’ll enslave everyone. He’s too powerful. I…we… can see his armies, massing beneath the iron gates of Chinniphath. All the swords of Charagan can’t stop him. They can’t. Only the Maze can stop him. Only the Maze. Only the Maze…"

And then she is gone again.

"She is gone," Solomea says sadly. "She had no hope, walking the Maze alone. It was too much for her." 

He beckons the party to him, and they crowd around the bed.

"You have been… so kind to me. Your good intentions shine from you into my mind. You fought against my fears, and won. You tried to save me from the Silver Recluse. You gave me water when I was thirsty, and…"

He turns his old face to Ernie, and tears are rolling down his face.

"…and you… you told me a joke, when I thought I would not hear a joke again for an infinity of tormented years. For this, I will warn you some of what is to come. You are almost… to the end. But it is in my nature to take guardians to myself, from those who enter my domain. The core of my mind is guarded by the last group of adventurers to make it this far. They will not be easy to defeat, for they are as persistent and talented as you. But I will try to help you, when I can. I may be able to… remove… some of the powers of your enemies.

"And this also I will do for you. I will heal you, and I will give you rest, in a place where you will be free of worries. Prepare yourselves. Tomorrow will be a telling day. For all of us."

He lays his head back on his pillow, and the room vanishes from around them…

…and the members of the Company find themselves standing in the living room of the Greenhouse!

Even better, the various weaknesses inflicted elsewhere in the Maze have fallen from them. Ernie feels strong, and Kay feels nimble, and Morningstar’s mind is cleared. Flicker and Makel feel strength and agility return, and Dranko can finally see again. Argol and Smeggy come running up, meowing loudly, clearly happy to see them. 

They hear the sound of footsteps coming down the main staircase, and they stop their relieved chatter to see who’s approaching. 

It’s Abernathy.

"Is it really you?" they ask.

The old wizard looks around, his expression one of curiosity and mild surprise.

"Honestly, I’m not sure," Abernathy says. "It’s true that the Crosser’s Maze generates reality out of your own memories. But it’s also true that Solomea’s awareness extends far into the multiverse, and in some sense encompasses it. And I certainly feel real."

His eyes twinkle in just the way they all remember.

"I’m very proud of you, you know," he says. "You’ve grown so much since that day I brought you all to my tower. I feared for your safety, back in the old days. Now your enemies should fear you. I had a good feeling about you from the start, but you’ve surpassed my greatest expectations."

He turns to Flicker.

"You should listen to your friends. You have nothing still to prove regarding your bravery, so as Dranko says, stop your whining and get on with it." He smiles as he speaks, and Flicker blushes.

"Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work." He winks at the party. "Lying on the beach all day takes some doing!"

And with that, Abernathy goes back up the staircase and is gone again. 

The party sleeps soundly in familiar beds. 

The next morning the party rises, refreshed and ready to face the final challenge. Looking out the open door of the Greenhouse they see a curious sight. It looks like Tal Hae, but strangely reconfigured. A single wide avenue runs straight from the door to a distant stone tower. On either side of the street are various familiar buildings that in the "real" world are scattered all over the city, but now are all visible at once. Resolute and hopeful, the Company walks out the door and down the street toward the tower. In preparation for any impending trouble, Grey Wolf casts Invisibility on Dranko, and Endure Elements (fire) on himself.

After they have a gone a short way the scene around them begin to shift and flicker. Buildings are vanishing and being replaced by other images: foreign places, rooms, forests, buildings and people the party has never seen. The perspective changes confusingly. Undaunted, they continue on.

Some of the scenes on the sides of the road become sharper, more real:

· Solomea sitting at a chess table, across from a small grinning man
· Solomea and three other robed figures running in terror down a dark tunnel, pursued by a Beholder
· A beautiful green meadow, with Solomea’s smiling parents at a picnic cloth
· Solomea grinding a glass lens
· The Silver Recluse crawling on a baby’s arm
· A circle of men and women in long navy robes, standing around and touching a central figure with something glowing on his forehead. 
· A vast city of crystal towers

And then the images start to become familiar:

· A panorama of the Mouth of Nahalm, with a Ventifact Colossus in the distance
· Morningstar training with Clariel back at Kynder Hold
· Tor about the smash a green glass seal, as the party crowds around the Death Kiss in the Black Circle Bestiary
· Flicker, grinning, picking the pocket of a boorish halfling who’s complaining about the service in his parents’ inn
· The Company standing around Abernathy’s death bed, hearing his last living words.
· Kay as a small child listening to her mother sing an Elvish song, while a breeze flutters the curtains
· Sitting and eating with the Yuja around a great bonfire
· Ernie waving goodbye to his parents as he sets out for Tal Hae, Pyknite strapped to his side
· The Ventifact Colossus looming over the city of Sand’s Edge, while Stormknights and Utholites battle in its shadow
· Dranko being whipped by Califax with a leather strap, leaving red marks across his back
· King Farazil the Soul Eater in Sovrenna’s body, falling back from the burning gates of God’s Thorn and then laughing as she rises from the mud
· Aravis standing mute, looking across a burned field at the burned out shell of his home.
· The keelboat Floating Light gliding through the Sea of Snakes
· Grey Wolf facing a small koboldish creature handing him a small green pellet
· The Company standing in the huge glass cylinder beneath God’s Thorn, the air above full of globes.

These images are flashing faster and faster, and all around them now. The street has long-since ceased to be visible. And then, all at once, the images cease. The members of the Company find themselves in a huge – room? -- with stone walls and an iron floor. It’s like no room they’ve ever been in, but at the same time it’s shockingly familiar. Set in the floor are two shallow pits full of squirming, squeaking rats, just like those beneath Gohgan’s basement. Near those, along one wall, is an iron maiden, the very one that a troll closed on Morningstar years earlier. 

In another part of the room are rows of pews, arranged as they were in the defiled Temple of Brechen during their fight against Hodge. 

One corner of the room seems to be broken open, and it opens onto an endless desert of fine shifting sand – the Mouth of Nahalm. 

In the center of the room, set into the floor, is a large obsidian Black Circle. 

The Company only has a few seconds to take in this crazy amalgam of battle-sites and horror taken from their own past. But they realize that something is about to happen, and quickly cast some preparatory spells. Ernie and Grey Wolf cast Shield. Morningstar casts the cold version of Fire Shield. Aravis casts Stoneskin on Kay. Dranko casts Protection from Evil.

Then the guardians that Solomea warned them about appear in the room around them:

There is Ernie, clad in dark grey plate mail, a black circle emblazoned on the breastplate.

There is Flicker, with horrible tiger-like features and his palms curving backward away from his fingers.

There is Dranko, his orcish features grossly exaggerated, and wearing a grey eye-patch with a black circle on it.

There is Grey Wolf, wearing a silver cloak with a shell insignia.

There is One Certain Step, wearing grey armor with a downward-facing wavy dagger on the front – the symbol of Vinceris, Kivian demigod of murder and assassins.

There is Morningstar, wearing her usual black robes, but with a Black Circle holy symbol hanging around her neck.

There is Aravis, his body deformed, with bugbear-like features and black beady eyes.

There is Makel, flames playing around his body, his face horribly burned.

There is Kay, hunched over slightly, with a deformed orc-like face.

The eyes of all their foes blaze with a fierce hatred. 

The battle begins.

(note: the following was written based on detailed notes taken by Tim Stellmach (a.k.a. Dr. Rictus) during the battle.) 

Kay opens up by shooting her mighty longbow at Evil Grey Wolf. One arrow finds its mark, dealing 12 points of damage.

Evil Flicker immediately activates his Ring of Blinking. (This seems to confirm that their enemies are equipped the same as they are…)

Evil Makel uses his magic short sword to fire off a Melf’s Acid Arrow at Aravis, and this also hits.

Flicker activates his own Ring of Blinking.

Dranko uses his Protective Ward power on himself, to give him a large bonus on his next saving throw.

Aravis casts a Fireball and fires at one group of enemies. The Company has appeared in one general area in the center of the room, but their evil counterparts are in two groups, one on either side of them. The 30-point Fireball engulfs Evil Morningstar, Flicker, Kay, Grey Wolf and Makel. Evil Flicker evades, ducking behind a pew. Evil Morningstar is partially protected by her Fire Shield.

Evil Grey Wolf hits the whole party with a wimpy 16-points Fireball.

Evil Aravis hits the whole party with a less-wimpy 26-point Fireball . Many saves are failed.

Evil Dranko casts some spell at Kay, but she makes a saving thrown and is unaffected.

Evil Kay fires her own bow at Aravis, and like her good counterpoints she scores a 12-points hit with one arrow.

Grey Wolf casts a Fireball at the same evil group as did Aravis, but the flames are weak and scattered – full damage is only 9 points.

Ernie casts Silence at a point in space near to where the Evil Morningstar is standing.

Makel fires his own sword to fire an Acid Arrow at the Evil Aravis, but misses.

Evil Ernie casts a spell at Kay, but again she makes her saving throw and is unaffected. Ernie mocks his evil counterpart: "That was stupid, Ernie! I happen to know that your portion size is tiny!"

Morningstar casts Healing Circle, restoring 10 HP to everyone but Dranko. 

Evil Step takes a double-move toward Aravis.

Evil Morningstar, realizing that she’s in a magical Silence , picks a direction and moves away until she starts hearing things again. Then she casts a 32-points Flame Strike at the party. Most saves are made.

Once Certain Step runs to protect Aravis from his evil counterpart. He uses his Smite Evil ability and deals 18 points of damage to Evil Step.

Kay runs up to Evil Grey Wolf and attacks, but misses.

Evil Flicker, blinking, sneak attacks Kay for 16 points of damage, but her Stoneskin absorbs most of the damage.

Evil Makel launches a full attack at Kay, but only hits once, and only 1 point of damage gets through the Stoneskin. Aravis takes 4 points of acid damage from the Acid Arrow.

Flicker, blinking, sneak attacks Evil Makel, but blinks out at just the wrong time. His sword thrust goes into the Ethereal Plane.

Dranko casts Prayer, getting all of the party except for Aravis, and also encompassing many of the enemy.

Aravis casts a 30-point Fireball, roasting Evil Dranko, Evil Aravis, Evil Step, and dozens of rats. Evil Step fails his save and is looking near death. 

Evil Grey Wolf tries to maneuver out of the silence, but eschews the most direct route to avoid attacks of opportunity from Kay, and doesn’t manage to find his way clear.

Evil Aravis fires of a 24-point Lightning Bolt at Step, Makel and Grey Wolf. This reduces Step and Grey Wolf to 1 Hit Point each! Makel makes his save but still goes unconscious. 

Evil Dranko casts Hold Person at Flicker, but Flicker makes his save and is unaffected.

Evil Kay is now battling Good Kay toe-to-toe. Evil Kay swings and hits once for 9 points and again for 11, but the Stoneskin takes almost all the damage. Still, Kay’s Stoneskin is running low at this point.

Grey Wolf lobs yet another Fireball, this one for 16 points. It gets Evil Aravis, Evil Dranko, Evil Ernie, and the other rat pit. There’s a lot less squeaking in the room now.

Ernie moves and casts Cure Moderate Wounds on himself, curing 8 HP. Meanwhile Makel lies unconscious on the floor, bleeding.

Evil Ernie moves and casts Protection from Good on himself.

Morningstar casts a 28-point Flame Strike of her own at Evil Aravis and Evil Dranko. Evil Aravis makes his save for half, and Dranko evades it entirely.

Evil Step, gravely injured, attempts to Lay Hands on himself. To his shock and the party’s delight, nothing happens! This may be what Solomea was talking about when he promised to "remove some of the powers of their enemies."

Evil Morningstar casts Searing Darkness at Ernie, dealing him 17 points of damage. This brings Ernie down to 1 HP again, and shows the wisdom of his previous healing action.

One Certain Step Lays Hands on himself for the full amount – 24 points. This only makes the evil Step more frustrated at his own failure.

Kay and Oa Lyanna, surrounded by three enemies, use their Whirlwind power, doing 14 points of damage to each of their targets. Evil Makel is left stunned by the attack. 

Evil Flicker is unfortunately not stunned. He delivers a blinking critical hit to Kay, dealing 19 points of damage even after the Stoneskin absorbs its share. 

Evil Makel, stunned by the Whirlwind, does nothing but try to clear his head. Aravis takes another 4 points of damage from residual acid.

Flicker delivers a sneak attack of his own to Evil Makel, dealing 15 points of damage. Evil Makel crumples to the ground, dead. The party cheers. 

Dranko casts Cure Light Wounds on Grey Wolf for 8 HP.

Aravis casts Haste upon himself. 

Evil Grey Wolf finally finds his way out of the Silence, and Fireballs the party (and Evil Step, who’s in its radius) for 20 points. Grey Wolf, already badly injured, fails his save, but is barely alive thanks to an Endure Elements. Makel, already unconscious and bleeding to death, has no such protection. When the fireball clears, his dead body is charred and smoldering.

Evil Aravis then follows this up with a well-placed Lightning Bolt. Grey Wolf and Step are caught full on in the blast, and both are struck dead! Things look grim.

Evil Dranko tries to use his Ranged Healing ability on Evil Step, but this ability also fails him. Thank goodness for small favors.

Evil Kay only manages to score one hit on Good Kay, and it bounces entirely off the Stoneskin.

Ernie casts a healing spell on himself, but rolls poorly and only gains a few hit points back

Evil Ernie casts Shield of Faith on himself.

Morningstar casts a healing spell on herself.

Evil Step attacks Aravis, but misses.

Evil Morningstar follows the example of her good counterpart and also Cures herself.

Kay responds by slashing at Evil Morningstar with her swords, but doesn’t manage to drop her. 

Evil Flicker then sneak attacks Kay, but he blinks out as he attacks, and misses.

Dranko distance-heals Aravis for 6 points.

Flicker, having killed Evil Makel on his last turn, steps forward to attack Evil Morningstar. His blow is perfectly placed; he blinks in with his sword stuck entirely through his victim’s body. Evil Morningstar slides off the sword, still standing but near to death. 

Aravis casts Haste on Morningstar, and then Polymorphs himself into an ogre, healing himself 7 HP in the process.

Evil Grey Wolf peppers Morningstar with 11 HP of Magic Missiles .

Evil Aravis, knowing a good thing when he sees it, Hastes himself.

Evil Dranko pulls out his Book of Infinite Spells and starts flipping through its pages, hoping to find one that can have a serious effect on the battle.

Evil Kay takes another 10 points away from her counterpart’s Stoneskin. At this point there is only 1 point remaining out of the 70 points of protection from the Stoneskin spell. 

Ernie heals himself for 14 HP.

Evil Ernie double-moves toward the thick of the fight.

Morningstar, now Hasted by Aravis, casts Searing Darkness twice in rapid succession. The first does 15 points of damage to her own evil counterpart, burning right into and through the black circle holy symbol around her neck. Evil Morningstar drops, unconscious. The second Searing Darkness strikes Evil Grey Wolf, but only for 8 points of damage.

Evil Step attacks Morningstar with his greatsword, but misses.

Good Kay attacks Evil Kay and hits twice for enough damage to knock her foe out of the fight. 

Evil Flicker sneak-attacks Kay, proving that Good Flicker isn’t the only halfling-sized killing machine in the battle. He criticals for 21 points of damage and the last point of Stoneskin. 

Dranko, who has been invisible since walking out of the Greenhouse this "morning," finally takes an offensive action. He sneak-attacks Evil Aravis, misses, and becomes visible for his efforts.

Flicker tumbles around Evil Ernie and swings his short sword, but misses.

Aravis fires 11 points of Magic Missile at his double, and then (still in Ogre form) charges at Evil Ernie. Having learned a hard lesson back in the mountains about ogres and grappling, he wrestles the smaller halfling to the ground. 

Evil Grey Wolf gives Aravis some Magic Missiles in return, and does the same amount of damage – 11 points.

Evil Aravis attacks Dranko with his Rod of the Vampire, but misses. Then he takes a step back and fires off more-reliable Magic Missiles, doing 14 points of damage to the half-orc.

Evil Dranko casts a spell, and then moves forward to deliver a touch attack on Good Dranko. It’s an Inflict Serious Wounds spell, and Dranko takes 20 points of damage.

Ernie attacks Evil Flicker, and hits twice despite the blinking of his target, dealing out 15 points of damage

Evil Ernie tries calling upon the Strength of Yondalla, figuring that will help him escape from Aravis’s ogrish grasp. But his attempt is futile; like the specially-granted divine powers of the other evil clerics, this one too fails to work.

Morningstar casts Divine Power to improve her melee ability, and then closes with Evil Dranko.

Kay casts Cure Light Wounds on herself, healing 11 points of damage.

Evil Flicker attacks Kay, and while he blinks out on his first attack, he connects on the second for 17 points of damage. Kay drops unconscious, and would be dead had she not just healed herself.

Dranko uses his Distance Healing ability on Kay, Curing her of 12 points of damage and bringing her back to consciousness. 

Flicker attacks Evil Grey Wolf but misses.

Aravis, knowing first hand what it feels like, charges with Evil Ernie toward the nearest stone wall and slams him into it. But Evil Ernie’s plate mail absorbs the shock, and Evil Ernie is still struggling. Aravis then tries to use Evil Ernie as a bludgeoning weapon against Evil Aravis, but Evil Ernie wriggles free before he can be used as a club.

Evil Grey Wolf swings his sword at Flicker but misses – the blinking is making it tough for the two to hit each other.

Evil Aravis fires off two Magic Missile spells at Morningstar, and the 8 missiles do a total of 25 points of damage. Ouch!

Evil Dranko casts Dispel Magic on Morningstar, and checks against six different spell effects, including Fire Shield, Prayer, Haste and Divine Power. To her great relief, he fails to dispel a single one!

Ernie attacks Evil Flicker, but both his swings miss.

Evil Ernie attacks Aravis twice, and both of his swings miss. Tough round for the Ernies.

Morningstar heals herself for a much-needed 23 points of damage, and then attacks Evil Aravis. She fumbles, dropping her weapon.

Kay stands up and attacks Evil Flicker, and she misses. That little bugger is hard to hit!

Evil Flicker attacks Kay twice, and he returns the favor of missing.

Dranko casts Hold Person on his evil twin. It works! Evil Dranko is held.

Flicker attacks Evil Grey Wolf, and succeeds in one of his sneak attacks. Evil Grey Wolf drops to the ground. A killing machine, I tell you!

Aravis, having dropped Evil Ernie, grapples his own evil double. He squeezes with his massive ogrish arms and deals 7 points of damage.

Evil Aravis, not having many options while being grappled by an ogre, uses his Ringblade to stab at Aravis. He hits, for 5 points of damage.

Evil Dranko, magically Held, uses his Robe of Blending to take on the appearance of another ogre, in a pathetic desperation move. No one is fooled.

Ernie slashes at Evil Flicker and actually connects, doing him 8 points of damage.

Evil Ernie casts a spell and tries to deliver a touch-attack to Aravis, but fails to hit.

Morningstar casts Hold Person at Evil Flicker, but he blinks out at the right time and avoids the spell. Morningstar then goes back to melee, picking up her weapon and swinging at Evil Ernie. It’s a solid hit, delivering 17 points of damage.

Kay launches a full attack at Evil Flicker, but the nasty little halfling blinks out on all three swings, much to everyone’s dismay.

Adding more injury to injury, Evil Flicker attacks Kay, landing a 13-point sneak attack that drops Kay unconscious.

Dranko delivers a coup de grace on his Held counterpart. The evil half-orc’s head is pulped with a mace-blow. 

Flicker attacks Evil Flicker, but with all the blinking going on does not manage to score a hit.

Aravis throws his own evil double into the iron maiden, and gets the door partially closed. There’s a crunching sound from inside.

Evil Aravis, not yet dead, pokes his Wand of Magic Missiles through the iron maiden’s door and zaps Aravis for 10 points of damage.

Ernie tries to heal Kay, but fails his Concentration check to cast defensively, and his spell fizzles. Kay is still down.

Evil Ernie attacks Morningstar, but his blows are deflected by her armor and shield.

Morningstar steps around Evil Ernie’s Shield spell, but slips on the slime that was surrounding the rat pens. As she’s Hasted, she stands back up and swings her weapon at the evil halfling, but misses.

Kay lies on the ground bleeding to death. Evil Flicker decides to not wait for nature to take its course. He bends down and slices Kay to ribbons.

Dranko moves to flank Evil Ernie with Morningstar. His sneak attack deals 11 points of damage, which sends Evil Ernie to the mat.

Flicker finally gets the blinking in synch with his own weapons. He hits his evil twin twice, both sneak-attacks, and deals a total of 42 points of damage. Evil Flicker is very, very dead.

Aravis tries to slam the iron maiden on his evil double, but can’t get good footing on the bloody and slimy floor. Still, there’s more of that crunching sound, and Evil Aravis whimpers. 

But he’s not dead yet! He uses his wand to Magic Missile Dranko, doing 19 points of damage.

Ernie tries to heal Kay, but it’s no use. Evil Flicker did his job well, and Kay is dead.

Morningstar, who well remembers what it’s like to be caught in an iron maiden, finishes off the battle herself. She takes a running charge into the mostly-closed door, and there’s a hideous wail from within that dies out a few seconds later. Blood pours out from the bottom. 

The last enemy has been dispatched. But the price is high – Makel, Grey Wolf, One Certain Step and Kay all lie dead.

Mere seconds after the last foe is gone, the entire room vanishes, leaving the five remaining party members standing in a black void. Solomea is there before them, old, but with an expression on his face like that of Abernathy on his last living day. On his forehead is a disc of silver lines, like a labyrinth. Silver lines run all over his skin as well. Small lights zip along the tracery. 

Solomea speaks: 

"The Maze can at last be freely given. It only exists in the mind, and should go to someone of high intellect and with knowledge of the arcane. Anyone else would be driven mad by its very presence. Do not use it without great care, and probably not even then. It takes a great amount of training to use the Maze, and without it even those who think they’re able to use it will succumb to its power. 

I, Solomea, have been defeated by it, and my mind was broken long ago. But my mind is also one with the Multiverse, and I can see the truth in things. In return for your help, I will answer your questions about…"

But his face twists horribly, and the dark side of Solomea asserts its dominance one last time.

" No!… no, we will do no favors for the ones who would kill us, who you are going to let… hm… No, I think I will. Perhaps your appropriate torment will come from knowing what was almost in your grasp. I see that what you most lack, and most desire, is knowledge. And you know so little about so many things. Here is what I will do. I will answer one question for you, and only one, regarding those things that I can see in the web of the Multiverse. Afterward, you’ll have the answer to one question.. and be haunted by all of the answers you might have had, that I could have given you.

Consider: some of the answers you will find less relevant than you might think, and others more. Some answers will be brief, and others long. Some you would find satisfying, others less so. Some may raise yet more questions. But enough of my invaluable counsel. Here are your questions. Choose one."

And he spits out a litany of eight questions:
 

1. Why did Califax warn you not to trust Praska?
2. Why are people trying to kill Grey Wolf?
3. Who killed Grawly and Thewana?
4. Why are rats and ravens attacking Aravis, and why do cats think he's "like a cat?" 
5. Where is the body of Sagiro Emberleaf?
6. What is the purpose behind the schemes of the Sharshun?
7. What is the full meaning of Step's poem? 
8. Who is P?
 

The party debates. Some questions -- mostly those concerning only individual party members -- they don’t even consider. But there are a few that they find hard to choose among. They would love to know who killed Grawly and Thewana, since that could be critical to the safety of the Spire. They very much want to know what the Sharshun are up to, and strongly consider asking the question that concerns them.

But in the end the final question seems to important to pass up.

"Who is P?" they ask.

Solomea smiles. "I will tell you."

"’P’ is the first initial of Parthol Runecarver, a name you may have heard. Your masters in the Spire have certainly heard of him. Long ago he was one of the greatest Archmagi on Charagan. But he strayed from the path of servitude to the people, believing the mages themselves should rule outright. Frustrated that his fellows in the Spire did not share his lust for power, Parthol found a way to communicate with Naloric across the planar boundary, and it was only by Parthol’s treachery that Naloric was able to come back through the gate, bringing his army. His treachery cost the Elhen Tarathi their lives. He never told Lapis that part. When Naloric was defeated, Runecarver faked his own death and went into hiding.

Now he plots with Naloric’s son Naradawk for the same purpose: to have his revenge upon the Spire. By his machinations the Blood Gargoyle was loosed upon Ghant, and while Fylnius was distracted, Meledien, Octesian and Restimar were brought through to Charagan. And with their help Parthol has goaded the humanoids to the heights of war, a war which is forcing the Archmagi to more immediate need, leaving the Gate even less well secured.

Oh, but it is a dangerous game the Runecarver plays, and his schemes are as deep as his malice. His days are filled with fear, despite his power. What if Naradawk finds out? What if Mokad, who doesn’t even know Parthol is alive, finds out? 

In the end, Parthol wants the same thing you do, my friends. But he needs Naradawk to topple the Spire, before he breaks it.

And takes its place."

Solomea’s face contorts again as his benign personality takes control again.

"…now, quickly. Who will take the Maze from me?"

Aravis steps forward. Of all the Company his mind is the most keen, and he has deep knowledge of the planes. Solomea reaches out his hand towards Aravis’s head.

"Again, I warn you, be extremely cautious, and do not seek to plumb its depths, lest it destroy you. It will always seek to distract you, call to you, but that path will lead you to madness. Beware! 

"But I will do one last thing; I will help get you out. All of you. Golden strands, my friend, golden strands. Take them with you. But focus only on them; do not let the expanse distract you. Now… please… take it! Take my doom from me…"

Solomea’s hand touches Aravis, who is nearly overwhelmed by the shock of the contact. His mind is filled with a cacophony of images and strange ideas and vast spaces and lines of power and endless magic and swirling lights and colors and…

…he shakes his head, and concentrates on Solomea’s last words: "Golden strands." All around him are twisting cords of golden light, one rising from each of his companions, even those recently slain. They travel in close formation out into the unfathomable void. Aravis feels a close affinity to his friends and their ties to reality; it seems that friendship has its own manifestation in the maelstrom of the Maze.

He reaches out to the essential cords of his companions, grasps them with his mind, and is swept up with them, hurling into the eternal cosmos where magic and thought are inseparable.

For Kay, Makel, One Certain Step and Grey Wolf, what they experience cannot – and should not -- be explained. A description of even approximate accuracy could by itself be enough to tear the sanity out of any mortal soul. 

So it is just as well that they have no clear memory of what it was like to be one with Solomea’s lunacy. 

Grey Wolf’s eyes snap open. His mind rings with echoes of that madness, and he instinctively shuts it out. A survival reflex. He knows that to give ear to those echoes would break his mind. Kay, Makel and Step experience the same thing upon waking; each has a memory of death, and something far, far worse beyond death. Now they are alive again, but their minds are not the same. There are fine cracks there, and an errant thought could be enough to shatter their psyches like crystal. All four who died in the Maze have lost two points of Wisdom, permanently.

The others also open their eyes. They were standing in the void, watching Solomea reach out to Aravis, and now… 

…now they are lying on the floor of a stone corridor. Mazzery is nearby, rummaging around in their Bag of Holding and pulling out handfuls of loose coins and jewelry. Pog is struggling to finish getting Ernie out of his plate mail. Snokas’s body is lying close at hand, but there was no golden cord for Aravis to take, and no life remains in him.

It comes to each member of the Company that less than a minute has passed since they fell unconscious, drawn into Solomea’s mind. 

The two rogue Citizens of Zhamir are entirely unprepared for the Solomea’s latest victims to actually get up. After all, no one survives in the Maze. Actually killing the victims is typically an afterthought, a final distasteful task to perform after divesting their prey of all worldly goods. As a purely practical matter, armor is easier to take off of a living person than a stiffening dead one. And why should they get blood all over what are about to become their own possessions?

It only takes the party a few seconds to overpower Pog and Mazzery, who have no idea how to fight. Soon the two of them are trussed up like pigs. Pog is babbling all sorts of lies about how surely they can come to some agreement, and how there’s no need for hostility, and how it’s not how it looks, and how pleased he is to see the party alive, and…

Whap! Makel belts him in the chops. Dranko gets right to the point.

"Where’s the rest of the loot?"

"Loot?" Pog says innocently.

"You were looting our bodies. I’m sure we weren’t the first. Solomea told us you were stockpiling. Well? Where’s the stockpile?"

Pog gulps. "We… might have some odds and ends tucked away, but I’m sure you wouldn’t be…"

"Take us there. And don’t try anything."

But before Pog moves, Makel looks over at Aravis.

"Er... Aravis. What... happened to you?"

The rest of the party looks toward Aravis and gives a collective gasp. 

On his forehead is a silver metal disc about two inches in diameter, protruding ever so slightly from his skin. Closer examination reveals it to be a finely detailed labyrinth. But that's not the creepy part.

All along his neck and arms (and one might assume the rest of his body) is a tracery of metal lines. Occasionally a dot of white light flashes along one of these lines. But that's not the creepy part either.

No, the creepy part is his eyes. He has no pupils. No irises. No whites. Where a normal person has eyeballs, Aravis has two windows into black, star-dotted space.

So, by the way, does Pewter. 

After the Company verifies that Arvais is ok and can see just fine, Pog leads the party down a couple of hallways and stops before an imposing iron door.

"It’s right through there," he says eagerly.

"Is it trapped?" they ask.

Pog mumbles under his breath, but when prodded he admits that yes, there are traps that will go off if some passwords aren’t uttered.

"You’re going first, so we suggest you dispel the traps," the party tells Pog.

Pog meekly complies, and the door is opened.

Oh. My. God.

They are looking at a treasure room like none they’ve ever seen.

It’s a large stone room lit with Continual Light torches all around the walls. There are several wooden tables set around the room’s perimeter. One is piled with finely-crafted and probably-magical weapons, and next to it is one heaped with potions and scrolls. Some large bags stuffed beneath the table of weapons are spilling with coins of all different kinds.

In one corner is a huge pile of mundane weapons, armor and random items – mirrors, spikes, coils of rope, a 10’ pole leaning up against the wall, lanterns, a grappling hook, tents. A table in the opposite corner from the "junk-pile" is festooned with obviously-enchanted items of all descriptions. There is a set of green-covered books in their own metal cages leaning against a table leg. Perhaps most intriguing is an obsidian black circle with an interior diameter of about a foot. It has 30 diamond studs on it, and 2 small round gaps where diamonds could be set.

"It’s the mother lode," whispers Flicker. 

"Treasure bath!" exclaims Dranko.

They re-bind and gag Pog, and prepare to get down to business.

(run 110 begins) Grey Wolf begins to feel that familiar churning in his gut, but it’s milder than usual. It continues for about three minutes, and then suddenly the pain in his stomach becomes almost overwhelming. Aravis feels an odd twang in the part of his brain that holds the Crosser’s Maze, as if a taut fiddle string had been violently plucked. 

And Kibi appears in the room. 

The usual reunion takes place, with the party giving Kibi a recount of all that had happened since the his brief appearance in the Ogre caves.

After spending a few more minutes gawking at the piles of treasure, the party suddenly wonders what has become of Solomea. They un-gag Pog just long enough to ask him and are directed to a room a few turns down along the subterranean halls. Flicker pops open the lock and a foul smell wafts out: the odor of a sickroom. When they push the door open they are met with a grim scene. 

Solomea’s body rests on a rickety and filthy bed, with a dirty bedpan by his side. One corner of the room is an open latrine. Some moldy bread crusts litter the floor. The room reeks of sickness and death; Solomea’s body lies lifeless, sore-riddled skin stretched over thin old bones. He had been barely kept alive, but no longer. Solomea’s suffering, mind and body, has ended.

Some party members want to kill Pog and Mazzery on the spot. 

It gets worse. Realizing that they need to bring back Lapis’s head to satisfy the demands of Shreen the Fair, they force Pog to lead them to the bodies of their victims. The party is brought to a small room like a dark pit, and this smells worse than Solomea’s room. In it are 30 or 40 bodies in various stages of decay. The freshest is that of Lapis, lying on top of the heap. Grey Wolf is lowered into the room, where he hacks off Lapis’s head with his sword and brings it back up.

Now the party really wants to kill Pog and Mazzery, but instead they decide that an appropriate punishment will be to leave the two of them tied up for the Bluecoats to find, with a note indicating their plan to overthrow the Sultan of Zhamir, and their guilt in the deaths of dozens of people.

Back in the treasure room most of the party begins hastily packing away all of the loot (most if it into the Bag of Holding). While this is going on, Aravis sits quietly in a corner and concentrates on the Crosser’s Maze. He gets a quick flash of an image: vast spheres floating in space, permeated and surrounded by colored volumes of energy. 

It’s a fantastic vision of the Dance of the Planes, and it knocks Aravis unconscious in about one second. He comes to a few moments later.

Carrying the body of Snokas and the head of Lapis, as well as the trussed up persons of Pog and Mazzery, the Company ascends out of the City Below and into the abandoned district. Their immediate plan is to have Kay fly up to the "roof" of the Bottle, carrying Flicker, to see if there’s an opening at the top. Morningstar uses Rary’s Telepathic Bond to keep in touch with them. 

She’s distracted before she gets more than a hundred feet up. About 500 yards away, at the closest "wall" of the Bottle, is a huge crowd of Bluecoats – perhaps three hundred in all – swarming around the base of the wall. A bright light twinkles on the wall but she’s too far away to make out what it is, so she flies over for a closer look.

What she sees is quite strange. The twinkle turns out to be a large swath of light, as if someone had thrown hundreds of buckets of glowing paint on the wall. The Bluecoats nearest the wall are pouring light out of their own eyes and fingertips and into the glowing patch on the wall. As they do so, the patch gets smaller. Kay watches while two of the Bluecoats empty themselves entirely in this manner, their blue uniforms falling empty to the ground; others move forward to take their places. More Bluecoats are arriving on the scene all the time.

As Kay gets close, she starts to feel pulled toward the glowing swath, and the party suddenly realizes that what she’s seeing is a hole in the wall of the Bottle, a hole which the Bluecoats are hastening to close. Kay flies down closer to the top of the swath (about 20 feet off the ground at this point), with Flicker dangling by her legs. He flips himself into the light… and vanishes! He is also snapped out of the Telepathic Bond , indicating that he has left the plane, and thus adding more evidence to the theory that it’s a hole in the Bottle.

Kay barely manages to avoid getting sucked through herself, and flies back to the party. Meanwhile the others have moved forward to a spot just around the last corner before the crowd of Bluecoats. Dranko has gone first, invisible, and is perched atop the nearest rooftop (about 60’ from the hole.) 

They form a plan to get everyone else through. Aravis Polymorphs into a Pegasus, so that he can fly two others (Morningstar and Makel). These three fly up to the roof to join Dranko. Kay flies back, picks up Step, and heads back to the wall. Kibi casts Haste, Invisibility and Fly on himself, picks up Ernie, and also flies toward the roof. That’s everyone… except Grey Wolf. Oops. And now a bunch of the Bluecoats at the back of the crowd have noticed the various flying party members, and about a dozen of them start advancing toward Grey Wolf. Screw this, he thinks, and lobs of a Fireball at them. They are burned, but keep on coming. Morningstar sees this from the rooftop, and helps Grey Wolf’s cause with a massive Flame Strike. Whooom! 7 of the 12 bluecoats become smoking smears of glowing light on the ground. The remaining five keep advancing, and about 15 more detach themselves from the crowd and start marching over.

By this time Kibi has decided to change course and fly down to rescue Grey Wolf, but he finds that he’s not strong enough to get both Ernie and Grey Wolf into the air. Aravis sees this, and realizes he’ll have to fly down to rescue Grey Wolf, but he’s already got Morningstar and Makel on his back and can’t carry any more. Being a Pegasus he can’t tell them to dismount, and so he rears up and tries to throw them. Makel falls off, but Morningstar, not understanding Aravis’ motive, makes a riding check and hangs on. Well, good enough, thinks Aravis. He flies down with Morningstar and lands by Grey Wolf.

At this point Grey Wolf tosses one more Fireball at the five nearest Bluecoats, and gets two more before the remaining three attack him, one landing a blow with its sword. But he’s able to climb on Aravis’ back, while Morningstar, finally realizing what the plan is, dismounts. Aravis flies back to the rooftop with Grey Wolf, and Kibi is strong enough to lift Ernie and Morningstar. Whew. 

Meanwhile Kay has flown with Step over to the ever-shrinking glowing hole in the wall. Bluecoats continue to pour their essences into the gap, and now the hole is only 10’ high and about 5’ wide. This time Kay is not strong enough to keep herself from getting dragged into the hole. She and Step both vanish into the glowing rift.

That leaves Aravis, Makel, Dranko, Morningstar and Grey Wolf atop the building, all of them thankful that the Bluecoats don’t have ranged weapons. Still, their chief concern now is that the hole will close before they can fly the 60’ over the heads of hundreds of Bluecoats. Kibi, still carrying Ernie and Morningstar, flies over and makes it into the hole with time to spare, though two Bluecoats manage to slice Ernie’s dangling legs with their swords as he flies overhead. 

Aravis is only strong enough to carry two passengers, but Dranko has a plan. He quickly rigs a rope harness around Aravis’ Pegasus-midsection, and holds on to the other end. When Aravis flies off the roof, Dranko’s Ring of Feather Falling kicks in, and so Aravis is able to tow him while carrying the other two. They fly toward the shrinking exit…

…and Dranko sees that while the Pegasus will make it, he’s hanging too low, and is going to smack into the wall below the hole while the others make it out. Not relishing the thought of being scraped off and dumped into the midst of hundreds of Bluecoats, he desperately pushes off with his feet against the heads of the Bluecoats nearest to the wall, as they try to hack at him with their blades. He fails once, but at the last possible moment, he plants his feet squarely on the head of one of the Bluecoats who’s pouring light into the hole. He kicks himself up, and just makes it through the bright fissure after the others…

Sunday, April 5

…and there they all are, breathless, in a clearing in the jungle, just on the other side of a glowing green ring that surrounds a lonely hut.

They’re free!

Remembering that the green barrier will Disintegrate anything that touches it, they move hastily away, and then several of them collapse onto the grass. Oa Lyanna is overjoyed to be out in the open air, and Kay offers silent prayer to Pikon. 

After a few giddy minutes of celebrating their escape, they turn to some of the more pressing and sobering matters. Morningstar casts Restoration on Grey Wolf, hoping to undo the permanent Wisdom drain from dying while in the Maze. It fails.

Then Dranko casts Speak with Dead on Snokas to find out if he wants to be raised from the dead. The results are disturbing; the deceased Snokas is unable to answer Dranko’s questioning. His eyes are wide open, and his mouth is twitching, and he manages to gasp out a barely-intelligible "help… me…" before collapsing. Clearly he is not quite entirely dead; they surmise that part of his soul must still be trapped in the Crosser’s Maze. 

Morningstar then goes into Ava Dormo, and uses the Direct Dreaming spell to travel to the Ellish temple in Tal Hae. Obsidia is there, and she is overjoyed to see Morningstar again. Morningstar asks Obsidia to relay a message to Ozilinsh via Eddings, asking if they should come home immediately with the Crosser’s Maze, or if it would be acceptable if they were to stay in Kivia for a time. (There still being the matter of Het Branoi and the erstwhile Eye of Moirel.)

Monday, April 6 - The next day the wizards start casting Identify on the large pile of magic items. That night Obsidia again meets Morningstar in Ava Dormo, and has this message from Ozilinsh: "Things have become unstable; while not immediately urgent, we’d like you to come home at your earliest convenience."

Tuesday, April 7 - Friday, April 10 - The party spends a few days camped in the jungle, while the wizards keep Identifying the new found loot. Then Ernie uses his Rope of Return, kept safe lo these many months, and in a flash the party is teleported back across Posada’s Boundary and in fact right into the secret room in the Greenhouse behind the bookshelf. There is much, much rejoicing at being home.

Eddings and the cats are well, and extremely pleased to see the Company back safe and sound. One of the first things the party does is contact Ozilinsh on the crystal ball, and their Archmage Patron immediately Teleports over for a short debriefing. He is fascinated by the Crosser’s Maze and the physical changes it has made to Aravis. The party starts to give him a summary of their trip, but he stops them. "The Spire wants to convene very soon," he says, "and you can tell all of us then. And we’d like for the council to meet here, in the Greenhouse. Unfortunately, the Meeting Tree was attacked and burned to the ground several months ago, and the Greenhouse is the only place secure enough to gather all the leaders of the Spire together." 

The party does insist on warning Ozilinsh that the mysterious "P" is in fact Parthol Runecarver, but Ozilinsh finds that highly unlikely. Parthol is remembered as a hero, a great Archmage who died in the decisive battle against Naloric Skewn. On the other hand, Ozilinsh muses, he has long thought that the Boxes of Transport (used by Gluefoot and Frohwirth, two of P’s lackeys) were crafted by someone extremely powerful. It will bear investigation. Then Ozilinsh leaves, needing to get back to the Tower and make sure Mrs. Horn is holding up.

Eddings tells Dranko that a letter has arrived for him: it’s a long list of numbers, several pages long, similar to the one Califax used to send his "coded" message about Manzanill’s operation beneath Hae Charagan.

Dranko then immediately goes to visit Turlus Whitecake – before having bathed or changed his clothes. (Remember, all of the party’s spare clothing was lost in the ogre caverns.) Turlus tries his tight-lipped best to get Dranko out of his shop as soon as possible, as Dranko’s stench immediately starts causing other customers to leave. 

After a wash, the clerics go to visit their respective churches and report in. The halflings at the church of Yondalla are overwhelmed by Ernie’s tales, and want him to give a sermon in the near future.

Morningstar goes to visit Amber at the Illuminated Temple of Ell and she too is asked to give a sermon. More priestesses have come to join the Illuminated Sisters, and Amber reports that the combat training in Ava Dormo is going well, though a bit more slowly than she’d like. 

Dranko visits his old mentor Harmon at the church of Delioch. He mentions that he found the Candlestick of St. Jenniver, and while Harmon is impressed, he’s also incredulous that Dranko didn’t bring it back with him. "You had one of the most scared relics of our faith in your hands, and you left it with some farmer?!" Also while visiting the church, a novice delivers a letter for Dranko that is filled with scrambled letters clustered in blocks.

On his way back from the church, an unfamiliar voice sounds in Dranko’s head: "Dig beneath the oak tree planted in the park three blocks south of the Ducal Palace." He walks on as if nothing has happened, and makes his way by a roundabout route to the tree in question. He scares off a couple sitting on a nearby bench by acting crazy, and then digs up a scroll tube buried at the foot of the tree. Inside is a thin piece of onionskin parchment on which are drawn several hollow rectangles. 

What’s more, Grey Wolf has found that a letter was left for him at the Mages’ Guild, which is also filled with meaningless scrambled letters. But when the onionskin blocks are overlaid upon the page of numbers, and those blocked-off numbers are applied to the scrambled letters, a message is gleaned with grave warnings about Mokad, and Grey Wolf's place in his plans.

(next diary page)