Patchwall 18:  Before Taizu and Tarva go to ap Trahaearn’s shop, she puts a large effort into meeting his requirements that she hide her feminity.  She wraps a cloth around her breasts to deemphasize them; whitens her hair with chalk dust, then ties it up and thrusts it under a floppy (ugly) hat.  She puts on long sleeved tunic and trousers, and then a shapeless hooded robe over everything (including the hat).  Finally she takes a boiled flour and vinegar solution and applies it to all that is still exposed: meaning her face and hands.  The appearance of boils that this concoction gives effectively hides both features and her skin color.

Once at the magic shop, TnT are both careful to maintain the silence ap Trahaearn had required of them.  Up in his workshop, ap Trahaearn had Tarva draw Heart’s Reach and hold him while the Analyze Dweomer spell was cast.  The spell took over a minute to complete, and at the end of it the mage looked very tired.  “I’ll write up your report later today,” he said.  “But I can tell you that it is a good thing you had already decided to have all three of your magic items lored, because they are somehow all intertwined with each other.  Exactly how I won’t be able to say until I’ve lored each of them.  So what I write up now will be just an initial description of what I have found out about your sword – I won’t be able to give you the final results until after the third lore.  Come back – not tomorrow, because I’m much too worn out to do this again then, but the day after tomorrow.”

So they leave and go back to the inn – Tarva realizing that she is going to have to go through this disguise ritual at least twice more [and with their patrons expecting her to look golden and un-sickly (at least), she can’t just stay in disguise until then, either].

Patchwall 20:  Tarva and Taizu return to ap Trahaearn’s shop to have Analyze Dweomer cast on her medallion..

Patchwall 21:  Tarva and Taizu go back to ap Trahaearn’s shop to have her bow lored.

Patchwall 22:  Fflamwyth ap Trahaearn presents his written report to Taizu.  Taizu reads it over and asks some questions, then takes it back to Tarva.

Heart’s Reach is a +2 Longsword, intelligent, empathic, and is actively changing himself; thus any report given now will not be completely accurate in the future.  The existence of a sentient sword is unique in ap Trahaearn’s experience.  Outside of nursery tales, nothing in the literature even hints that such a thing is possible, let alone describing how to bring such a thing about, or what the ramifications would be for the maker, the sword, or the wielder.  ap Trahaearn would greatly appreciate it if Taizu would keep him informed of any further changes or developments with Heart’s Reach, as we travel.

ap Trahaearn has, obviously, never tried to cast Analyze Dweomer on an intelligent entity before – that presented some, um, interesting difficulties, and was why he was so tired after the first day’s loring.  Despite a clear willingness to accommodate Tarva’s wishes, he was reluctant to let the mage learn all about him, and actively resisted some probes.  ap Trahaearn still has no knowledge of who forged Heart’s Reach, or how the sentience was achieved.  

The lack of existence of such weapons is, ap Trahaearn now speculates, a direct consequence of the natural laws governing Oerth.  When Tarva was gated into this world, Heart’s Reach felt his consciousness slipping away.  In desperation he reached out, and somehow managed to subvert the medallion which Tarva’s aunt had given her.  Tapping into it, he has managed to maintain a permanently open, but not full-size, gate  back to Feyland, which is allowing a trickle of energy, or force, or maybe natural law, to slip through the amulet from Feyland and revitalize Heart’s Reach to some extent.  It is this permanently open crack and trickle which is preventing the amulet from working as a gate to return Tarva to Feyland.

Whether or not he could speak in the past, in different worlds (and ap Trahaearn is now much more inclined to believe Tarva’s claim of this than he was previously), he cannot do so here, at least yet.  The act of self-preservation appears to have opened an entirely new avenue for Heart’s Reach.  He appears to be learning, still, about how to channel and absorb energy from/through the medallion.  When he is sufficiently charged, he is now capable of performing remarkable feats of healing on Tarva.  Theoretically, were he to have a large enough charge, he could even perform the equivalent of a Regeneration spell on her.  And it is quite possible that he will learn better, more precise control over the channel he has created, and be able to exert a parallel finer control over the uses he makes of those energies.  Furthermore, this ability to learn and change does not appear to be limited to his previous abilities: it is quite possible that he will actually be able to add other powers to those he already has.  

It would be a very good thing if Heart’s Reach does learn better control.  This drawing energy from another plane may not be as unprecedented as the existence of a sentient weapon, but it is at least rare enough that the consequences aren’t well known: at least none of his books throw any light on the subject.  But he believes that a loss of control of that trickle could have disastrous effects.  A loss of the energy flow would most likely only result in Heart’s Reach going into a sort of coma, and the sword becoming just a ‘normal’ +2.  But if too much energy came through – more than Heart’s Reach could channel or store – there is a possibility that the surge would cause destructive, perhaps catastrophic, effects.  ap Trahaearn is only speculating at this point, but he is worried that the result might be comparable to a ‘final strike’ breaking of a wizard’s staff; or possibly like several hundred simultaneous final strikes, if the energy surge was large enough.

ap Trahaearn tells Taizu about impressions he received from Heart’s Reach.  The sword is devoted to Tarva; almost, the mage would say, in love with her.  With nothing to compare to, the mage is unable to say whether this is a normal condition between sentient weapons and their bearers.  However, he feels pity for anyone who tries to use the sword without Tarva’s permission; and he thinks that would apply to previous bearers and even the sword’s maker.  Heart’s Reach is very nervous about her reaction when she finds out that he is the reason she hasn’t been able to use her medallion to go back to Feyland.  

Taizu asks a hypothetical question: “Were Tarva to be incapacitated in a fight, would Heart’s Reach allow someone else to wield him in her defense?”  ap Trahaearn holds out his level hand and wags it from side to side.  “Possibly he would recognize your intent and support it; but possibly he would be outranged at your separating him from Tarva, and thus from his chance to heal her, and would actively fight you.  You and I may know that this is an irrational decision which would actually lower her chances of survival; but while I said he was a sentient weapon, I didn’t claim he was a rational one.”
 
The medallion used to be a (not so much) simple portable gate with a command word and specialized conditions.  However, it has been – corrupted is not quite the right word – by Heart’s Reach and will not work as originally designed.  It is certainly possible that, if Heart’s Reach learns more about how to control gates, he will find a way to both draw the energy he needs and allow the medallion to work as originally intended.  In the meantime, it will still interact with the roving gates Oerth has recently acquired.  In fact, in the vicinity of the medallion, such a gate ought to become visible.  However, and with more insight than the sage Qillathe had (since she did not know about the changes Heart’s Reach had made to the medallion), ap Trahaearn can state that it is possible that the medallion would not cause a roving gate to open.

That might be a good thing, because please note: if the medallion is close to a roving gate and triggers it, and then does not go through the gate, the wide-open nature of the medallion-as-gate would most likely provide just such an oversurge of energy into Heart’s Reach as the mage warned about earlier.    ap Trahaearn dryly requests that any experimenting we do with not using an opened gate, be done several hundred miles away from here.

The bow is normally a magically +1 (with mighty construction to provide up to +2 damage for strong people).  However – possibly because it also came through from another plane with Heart’s Reach and the medallion – as long as it is being used by Tarva, and is near both Heart’s Reach and the medallion, for her (and only her) it will be a magically +2 bow of distance (twice normal ranges).  Anyone else can use the bow without concern, but for them it will have only its normal abilities.

Patchwall 25:  Taizu’s researches into the Council of Wrath have yielded very little solid information.  This is likely related to the one definite fact he was able to ascertain: that whatever it is, it is much larger than the one cell we wiped out.  That would go a long way towards explaining why his contacts started out being reluctant to discuss anything with him, and later started assiduously avoiding him.  It also leaves us hanging with the question of whether they will consider the encounter as: an ‘over and done with’ cost of doing business; an unfulfilled contract which still needs to be completed; or a blot on their honor which needs to be avenged.

[For simplification of bookkeeping, all provisioning will now be at the flat rate of 45gp per person per month.]

Patchwall 26:  We leave Waybury.  The plan is to continue heading for the town of Hamlet and the Pelor cleric there who has been seeing Visions of Evil and requesting help.  Along the way we will pass through, by, or near: the Stone Reaver Clan dwarves; the North Pass across the Lortmils (known to be afflicted by giants); a gnomish community; and an area reported to be infested with dragons.  Day passes.  Night passes.

Patchwall 27:  Day passes.  We are now in the Lortmils foothills, heading into the mountains themselves.  Night passes.

Patchwall 28:  Towards the end of the day, a trail branches off to go to the Stone Reaver Clan.  Although moderately well traveled, it does go through heavy forest with correspondingly very little visibility.  Day passes.  Night passes.

Ready’Reat 1:  Day passes.  About halfway through third watch:

1: nobody notices until a 40 pound rock hits Beldwyn for 14.  Rowan moves to wake Tarva and Arvee; Beldwyn yells loudly and moves to wake Ahb and Taizu.

2: first rock misses Ahb; second hits Tarva for 19.

3: Tarva is up and asking, “Which direction is it?”; Rowan responds “From the north,” as she runs 120’ in that direction; Tarva then runs (a mere 30’) off at an angle; Beldwyn casts Mage Armor on herself, then also runs north; Taizu gets up, grabs his bow, instructs everyone to “scatter” and also heads north; Ahb runs north; giant throws two stones at Arvee, hitting him once for 14; Arvee yells, “you want to play, big thing?” and runs north.

4: Tarva runs north 60’ (best she can do without light); Rowan runs; Beldwyn runs; Taizu runs; Ahb runs; giant throws two more rocks at Arvee, hitting him for 16; Arvee runs.

5: Tarva runs; Rowan sees a Frost Giant, recognizes it as being very strong and immune to cold damage, yells, “It’s a Frost Giant – they don’t like heat.” runs up to it; Beldwyn runs; Taizu runs; Ahb runs; giant draws a huge greataxe and hits Rowan for 26; Arvee runs.

6: Tarva runs; Rowan misses, then hits for 9; Beldwyn runs; Taizu shoots and hits for 7; Ahb runs; giant hits Rowan for 24, then misses; Arvee charges and hits for 18.

7: Tarva runs; Rowan goes Total Defense and backs up, but giant AoO on her for 16, knocking her unconscious with –7 hp; Beldwyn runs to within sight of the giant; Taizu dashes to the side of Rowan’s body and casts Cure Moderate for 8, bringing her up to 1 hp and back awake; Ahb casts Shatter on the greataxe but it saves; giant hits Arvee for 27 and then misses; Arvee hits for 21, then misses.

8: Tarva runs; Rowan gets up and moves away, then downs a Cure Moderate potion for 15 hp; Beldwyn cast Lightning Bolt for 20; Taizu casts Shatter on the greataxe but it saves again; Ahb ??? <sorry>; giant hits Arvee for 22, misses; Arvee misses giant twice.

9: Tarva flanks the giant (with Arvee), suffers an AoO where the giant hits her for 26, then she hits it for 14; Rowan gets behind a tree and gets her bow out; Beldwyn casts Lightning Bolt for 13; Taizu shoots, hits for 9; Ahb casts Summon Monster IV for a single giant eagle, which hits giant for 10; giant hits eagle, hits it again and kills it; Arvee criticals for 74, kills giant.

900 ep for fight;
Tarva made 7th level!  Becomes a 6th Fighter & 1st Bard.

On the giant we find: huge greataxe; huge chain shirt (mostly in ribbons); 100’ strong rope (3x normal weight); huge (smelly) cloak; huge hand chopper; head-sized lump of wax; 2 pieces of smelly, poorly cured hide; huge (very long) knife; hunk of meat; huge wooden bowl & spoon; huge whetstone; huge tinderbox; 150gp; six gems; 9” long piece of wood.  We bury most of this: see treasure list for what was kept, and details on them.

Ready’Reat 2:  Try to track giant to its lair.  Ranger Rowan has almost no problem backtracking it.  Travel all day.  No end to trail; no lair; no other giants.  Give up on this; camp.  Night passes.

Ready’Reat 3:  Travel back towards trail to dwarf clan.  Day passes.  Night passes.

 Ready’Reat 4:  About noon we are approaching the Stone Reaver Clan when we come across a sign, in Dwarvish, naturally, which says, “Beware Plague.  If any of you can help us please go find Durzh.  He’s an alchemist a day in that” <--“ direction, but may not know of our plight.”  Deciding that going into a plague town just to satisfy our curiosity wasn’t a wise idea, we head off in ‘that direction’, getting presumably halfway there during the remainder of the day.  Night passes.

Ready’Reat 5:  Around noon we see a wide, squat, circular tower next to a a gorge with a raging river running down it, violently enough to raise a perpetual mist.  The keep is 60’ in diameter to its 30’ height, someone comments that only a dwarf would consider anything so short to be a tower.  There are four dwarves outside, working; when Beldwyn waves at them, they wave back.  As we come closer, some of the party notice that the chain shirts the dwarves are wearing are draped in a peculiar manner, and seem to have their armholes further forward and center than would be usual.  Then we see three dead dwarvish bodies, with both weapon-caused wounds as well as other wounds with the torn/ripped look more common to animal attacks.  The four living dwarves are tending them and preparing them for burial.  They say that they’re merchants from the Bloodstone Clan, setting up a new trade route, and thus traveling with only samples, not cumbersome loads of herbs and apothecary equipment.  They found the keep like this; don’t know what happened.  Their leader is inside the keep.  Ahb decides that talking to the leader is the next thing to do.  Two of the dwarves go back to tending the bodies, the other two escort the group – minus Taizu and Tarva, who are staying outside to watch the horses – into the tower.  Both dwarves pick up crossbows, from a stack of four of them at the foot of the outside stairs, as they go by.  At the top of the stairs are a pair of 5’ x 5’ doors opening into a central floor of the keep.  Taizu starts singing softly (Inspire Courage), almost under his breath: he is very suspicious of these ‘merchants’ with no merchandise.  

As she reaches the doors into the keep, Ahb hears a clicking noise, but can’t tell what is causing it, or even which direction it is coming from.  Inside the doors is a small foyer.  There appear to be a couple of arrow slots in the walls.  To the left is a doorway, but between the foyer and the doorway is a pit.  Wererat₁ jumps across the 5’ wide pit and announces that they haven’t been able to figure out how to safety the trap, but the leader is back this way.  Ahb declines to try jumping across anything that wide (twice her height).  Arvee does jump across, noticing as he does that the pit is filled with spikes, and that there is a humanoid figure in chainmail, probably dead, at the bottom.  Just outside, on the landing at the top of the stairs, beside Rowan, Beldwyn announces, “Ahb, I don’t like the looks of this.  Let’s ask him to come outside to us.”  Through the doorway on the other side of the pit, Arvee can see a table and chairs, a dumbwaiter, further doors.  Ahb moves back to the doorway, shouts out it, “Taizu, there’s a trap here; come clear it out.”  To which Taizu replies, “Only if Beldwyn takes my place.”  But before Ahb can respond to this:

1: Wererat₁ pushes Arvee into the pit, Arvee takes 5 hp from fall but is not impaled; from the bottom of the outside stairs, Wererat₂ shoots his crossbow at Rowan but misses; Wererat₅ shoots an arrow out of a wall slot and hits Ahb for 4; Beldwyn casts a spell on Wererat₁, Dazzling him for one minute; Taizu is singing louder, shoots Wererat₄ for 12, kills.  Arvee is climbing out of the pit, but slips and slides back down; Tarva misses Wererat₂; Rowan hits Wererat₂ for 8, hits Wererat₂ again for 1, kills.
 
2: Ahb backs into the corner, is below the arrow slots and can’t be aimed at, pulls out her sling but misses Wererat₁; all the ‘dwarves’, living and dead, change shape and become vaguely rodentish; Wererat₁ misses; Wererat₃ hits Tarva for 2; Wererat₅ misses Beldwyn; Ahb feels a brief, small wind as an imp tries to sting her with its tail, after which it flies to Wererat₁; Beldwyn Magic Missiles Wererat₅, through the arrow slot, for 10, kills; Taizu hits Wererat₃ for 8; Arvee pulls himself out of the pit on Wererat₁’s side, Wererat₁ AoO but misses Arvee.

3: Tarva shoots at Wererat₃, Wererat₃’s AoO on Tarva misses, hits for 8, kills; Rowan sheathes sword, draws bow, goes into keep; Ahb reserves for imp, says, “There’s an imp in here.”; Wererat₁ hits Arvee for 1; Beldwyn reserves for imp; Taizu runs into tower; Arvee gets up,  tells Wererat₁ “Drop your axe or die”, (no drop) hits for 18, kills; Tarva watching outside; Rowan watching inside.

Taizu checks the trap.  Arvee looks around the room he is in: it has been trashed, as in searched for plunder.  He finds a hooked pole and brings it back to use in pulling up the pit trap cover.  Outside, Tarva is rejoined by Taizu and they search bodies: Wererat₄ has 19sp; Wererat₃ has 22sp; Wererat₂ has 23sp.  Taizu insists that Tarva see Ahb because she was hurt.  Inside the tower, Ahb casts Remove Curse on Tarva, as a preventive against lycanthrophy.  Beldwyn joins Arvee across the (now covered) pit; they throw rat bodies into an otherwise empty corner room.  Another room off this main one is a water closet, and behind it a room full of machinery and plumbing.  In the center of the tower is a spiral staircase going both up and down.  On a far wall Beldwyn finds pegs with cups and plates for twelve people, each with a name plate.  None of the name plates is for “Durzh”.  She goes into another side room and:

1: Wererat₆ hits Beldwyn from surprise for 28.

2: Beldwyn casts Lightning Bolt on Wererat₆ for 8, and yells in pain; Wererat₆ hits Beldwyn for 7; Arvee runs up to Wererat₆, who AoO on Arvee for 2.

3: Tarva runs up to Wererat₆, who misses his AoO on her; Beldwyn goes total defensive and backs up; Wererat₆ misses Arvee; Ahb gets to Beldwyn for healing next round; Arvee hits to subdue on Wererat₆ for 15, and it falls down unconscious.

Ahb casts Remove Curse on Beldwyn.  Tarva starts up the spiral stairs.

1: As she reaches the next floor, a flask of acid barely misses falling on Tarva, hits the stairs and breaks, splashing her for 8 hp.

The stairs continue on up, but at this level it opens onto the main defense room for the keep: two ballista, crates of tar and oil.  There is a dwarf, bleeding and badly hurt, leaning against the hearth of a fireplace.  When he sees Tarva he jerks his hand into the cinders and shoves some onto the floor.  Tarva just has time to see that it has been covered in a layer of oil before the whole floor ignites in a whoosh as she ducks back down on the stairs below the floor level.  She retreats to the main level and tells everyone there what happened.  Ahb and Taizu dash up the stairs past her.  Ahb casts Create Water and dumps fourteen gallons on top of the dwarf.  Taizu casts Fire Resistance on himself, picks up Ahb, and tries to run across to the dwarf.  Unfortunately he doesn’t keep his balance on the slick floor and falls, causing Ahb to take 5 points of damage from fire.  As Taizu struggles back up, Ahb casts Create Water to dump another fourteeen gallons, this time on herself and Taizu.  

Finally Ahb gets to the dwarf and casts Cure Critical on him.  He revives, hair restored, wounds healed, feels wonderful.  His name is Ilist, is from the Stone Reaver Clan, hired to be part of the guards for the alchemist Durzh, who is also from Stone Reaver Clan, but who likes his privacy while working on his potions and things.  Is quite willing to take us through the rest of the keep, looking for Durzh, and disabling – or rather pointing out – any other traps, so as to avoid our falling afoul of them.  

Rather than going up on up to the top (and determining that we’re not leaving any enemies behind us, we proceed downstairs to the level below the main (entry ) one.  This has several living quarters, most with just drapes for ‘doors’.  The first one, however, is an actual room with door, which is locked.  Taizu momentarily borrows Tarva’s gloves, picks the lock.  Serge’s room (guard leader), nice, not ransacked.  

When we open the second of the curtained alcoves a frenzied dwarf, wearing pajamas and wielding a dwarven war axe, charges us.  Arvee grapples him and constrains him until Ilist can calm him down.  His name is Sneri.

Several of the party feel a breeze.  Thinking ‘imp’, Taizu casts See Invisible.  Sneri runs upstairs, figuratively bounces off Beldwyn and Ahb, and goes to hide in the pantry.

Nothing else on this floor.  Next floor down is storage rooms.  Mostly perishables, one locked cage with, presumably (we’ll check later) items that Druzh doesn’t want the guards getting into.

Sneri, in the pantry, screams.  When Beldwyn and Ahb investigate, they find him nearly incoherent, and suffering from an obvious sting.  Beldwyn goes to the stairwell to shout this information down to the rest of the party (but it comes through quite distorted).  Suddenly she sees that the prisoner ratboy has been untied.

1: Wererat₆ bites Beldwyn for 2.  Beldwyn casts Lightning Bolt –Wererat₆ gets AoO, bites for 3 – on Wererat₆ for 10, kills.

Ahb gets to Beldwyn and casts Remove Curse on her, commenting that she’s running short of the ability to do this today.  The two of them agree that stinging Sneri was a diversion so the imp could untie Wererat₆.  With no more prisoners to guard upstairs, they now join the rest of the party.

Below the storerooms is the lab.  Ilist doesn’t want to go down there: it was always off limits to the guards.  He does point out that one of the stair steps will summon an Earth Elemental if trod upon.  We mark the wall by that stair to remind everyone.  Reluntantly, Ilist can be talked into going down with us (“if we see Durzh, we’ll tell him we made you come down here”), but wants to be last.  Tarva thinks that’s not such a great idea, warns him that we might be attacked from behind, and thus convinces him to let her be last, instead.  As the first people reach the lab level, Taizu asks Arvee to tell Durzh that “we’re here to save you” so as to avoid any repeats of the misunderstanding Tarva and Ilist went through.

1:  Wererat₇ casts a spell, Ahb saves, Arvee fails to save, suffers Dread (but still functioning); Tarva starts singing Inspire Courage; Ahb moves off stairs, along right-hand wall corridor; Arvee moves down left-hand wall corridor, thinks he sees something down there; Taizu starts singing Countersong, moves up next to Arvee; Beldwyn clears bottom of stairs, asks, “What’s up?”

2: Taizu shoots at Wererat₈ and misses; Wererat₈ shoots Arvee for 7; Rowan moves to near Ahb, sees Wererat₇, shoots, arrow hits but bounces; Tarva, still singing, gestures for Ilist to get back upstairs as she pushes past him, to the bottom of the stairs, and down corridor after Ahb and Rowan; Wererat₇ misses Rowan; Arvee charges Wererat₈ and hits for 18, kills; Taizu moves to Arvee and sees a bedroom (in typical post-randsacking mess); Beldwyn Magic Missiles Wererat₇ for 10; Ilist flees up stairs.

3: Rowan shoots twice, hits but bounces once, misses the other; Tarva reaches Wererat₇; Ahb misses; Wererat₇ hits Ahb for 12; Taizu moves back to bottom of stairs; Beldwyn Magic Missiles Wererat₇ for 9.

4: Rowan switches to sword, hits Wererat₇, kills.

Tarva moves to the opposite corner from the stairs, where a passageway leads off into darkness (for her, anyway).  There is a trail of blood down the passageway.  She stays there on guard while bodies and the rest of the floor are searched.  Wererat₈ had chainmail, crossbow, and a plain platinum ring; Wererat₇ had chainmail, a dwarven war axe, and 17pp, 4gp in coins.

We follow the passageway and blood trail for a while until  the passageway splits, follow the bloodtrail side some ways longer, and noticeably down, to a 10’x15’ room with a window looking out into the grorge (and its waterfall).  Rowan ties a rope around Taizu and he goes out the window: no ledge, no sign of a body, 40’ or more drop to the bottom from here.  Taizu comes back in, takes off the rope, uses his wand of Alter Self to turn into a sprite, and flies out and down to the base of the gorge.  He finds traces of more blood, but no body; flies back up to us.  He stays in sprite shape since it is good for quite some time yet, and might be useful later.  We go back to the split, take the other direction, which leads to a spillway and a lot of water-driven mechanical ‘stuff’ – no way to proceed further without going into (and under) water.  Taizu elects to fly back to the other room, out the window, and downstream hunting for the body that was thrown out.  

The rest of us sweep back up the levels and stairs, searching for more hostiles.  All we find are the bodies of Ilist and Sneri, both killed, apparently by the imp.  The very top of the keep is a turret.  Searching the (not previously searched) bodies yields 22gp, 27gp, 11pp, 3 dwaren war axes, 3 poor chain shirts.  

Meanwhile, Taizu, near the end of his spell time, sees a dwarvish body drifting in the river, swoops down to: (a) make sure that it is dwarven; (b) see if it is dead; (c) pull it to shore.  That’s to the nearest shore, thus across the river from the keep.  He then flies a lot of the way back, but changes to walk the last part.
 
Rowan goes out to check on the horses, finds evidence that the imp has tried to scare them away (hobbles and leads cut, stings), but was unsuccessful as even then they didn’t run far.  She brings them back and cares for them.

875 ep from fight. 
Taizu made 7th level!

Searching the lab & (presumably) Durzh’s bedroom level reveals (not that it was hidden): a lot of alchemical equipment; a small library of alchemical books; but nothing in the way of the kinds of raw materials one would expect – and which Beldwyn and Ahb were expecting to find, in hopes that, with Durzh dead, they would be able to come up with something to help the dwarf city.  Taizu is vaguely bothered that he missed something in his searching, but can’t put his finger on it.  

Tarva and Rowan take three of the horses and go to recover the dwarven body Taizu beached.  That was far enough downstream that they have no problem getting themselves and the horses down to the side of the river.  Tarva takes a rope, strips, and swims across to the body.  She ties the rope around it then comes back, and both of them pull the body across the river.  They place it on the third horse and bring it back to the Keep for burial with the other dwarves.

Ready’Reat 6:  From the ledgers, Taizu is convinced that there must be: 1) a lot of alchemical source supplies; 2) a fair amount of finished product; all hidden here somewhere.  More alert, he re-examines one particular section of wall, and finds a secret door which opens up into a storeroom.

Reading the books, Ahb believes that she can use some of them to identify which plague has afflicted the dwarves.  She puts together a party, consisting of herself, Arvee, and Rowan, to go back there with her and see what they can determine.  Meanwhile the rest, Beldwyn, Taizu, and Tarva, will stay with the keep, to guard and explore it.

Ready’Reat 8:  The other party returns to the keep.  From the descriptions of symptoms the dwarves were able to give her, matched with what she found in Durzh’s books, Ahb was able to identify the plague  It, luckily, was only a debilitating plague, not a lethal one (except for the frail, or for those who remained debilitated too long without care).  When she described the solution listed in the book, the alchemists in the city said they could duplicate that potion and make enough of it (although they were going to have to purchase some supplies to make that many doses).  They were very grateful, and offered Ahb 1,500gp – all they could spare given the potion materials they were needing to purchase.  Ahb turned them down: would not accept money for an errand of mercy.

They also stated that, while the Keep belonged to the city, Durzh had no heirs, and we were welcome to anything of his in the keep. They also offered to sell the Keep; their starting price was 30,000gp.  Finally, with Durzh gone, they are quite interested in opening an arrangement, similar to the one Durzh had, with some new alchemist, and would we please make that announcement as we travel.

See treasure list in next (between run) diary.