Sunsend 8 (cont.):  Ahb Heals Rowan for 18, Taizu for 23; Arvee for lots and lots; Tarva Faith Heals Arvee for 18; Taizu casts a Cure Light on Tarva.

Rowan, with help from Arvee and Glendon, field dresses the dragon.  In two hours they remove the skin intact.  Another two and they have the heart and skull in excellent shape.  Plus some choice cuts for cooking for dinner.

Darred and Ahb go off to fetch the horses and establish them nearby (but not where the dragon's body will spook them).  

Meanwhile, Taizu is helping Tarva set up to cast Detect Magic on not only everything from in the dragon lair, but also, belatedly, on everything we lugged with us from the Giant's caverns:

1. coins
     1.a 5,300sp
     1.b 2,570gp
     1.c   121pp
 
 2. gems
     2.a banded agate (two)
     2.b red gem / red stone (146)
     2.c blue dragon small turquoish colored gem
     2.d blue dragon small red gem (two)
     2.e blue dragon small yellow gem
     2.f blue dragon medium sized reddish opalescent gem
 
 3. jewelry:
     3.a leather wolf collars (five)
     3.b silver hydra collars (seven)
     3.c dire polar bear silver collar
     3.d queen ring one
     3.e queen ring two
     3.f queen ring three
     3.g queen bracelet one
     3.h queen bracelet two
     3.i queen necklace
     3.j queen tiara
     3.k ogre leader silver amulet
     3.l blue dragon gold dragon comb with red gem for eye
 
 4. armor
     4.a large chain shirts (thirteen)
     4.b very large chainmail (queen)
     4.c breastplate (ogre leader) MAGIC
 
 5. weapons
     5.a huge great axes (nine)
     5.b huge great clubs (nine)

 6. miscellaneous
     6.a giant in front of lair mouth 100' x3 rope
     6.b ogre leader headband  MAGIC
     6.c ogre leader cloak  MAGIC
     6.d bedroom chest giant key 
     6.e everburning torches (four)  MAGIC
     6.f blue dragon 10" x 3/8" wooden rod  MAGIC

Ahb and Tarva discuss the large weight and small value of the nonmagical items: especially weapons and armor.  Ahb offers the items they select to anyone in the group who wants them, then everything else is thrown away.  Tossed are: hairpin, thirteen large chain shirts, 100' x3 rope, nine huge great axes, very large chainmail, nine huge great clubs, huge black iron greatsword, gargantuan morning star, giant key.

Taizu carefully examines both of the magical wooden rods, which we now assume are wands.  The just-found 10" wand has a delicate tracing of lines all over it; the 8" wand from the Giants' lair is of a more pronounced reddish quality of wood, and has a faint pattern in one place.

The hide weighs 100 pounds, the skull 25, and the heart 3.

Ahb casts a Divination to obtain guidance: "Are we meant to continue on, or should we explore this cave?"
    "Both choices may lead to the greater good;
    "Both may save lives.
    "The powers of undeath lie on the shorter road
    "While the greater evil lies on the longer."
Ahb takes this to mean that there are undead somewhere under the rubble blocking the passageways from the dragon's (makeshift) lair.  But also that it is more important for us to press onward.

The rest of the day passes peacefully.  Night passes.

Sunsend 9:  In the morning Ahb casts Stone Shape on the mouth of the lair to close it.  We start off towards the next town, Asperdi.  Get through the day.  That evening Tarva tries Faith Healing on Heart's Reach.  She also casts a Cure Light on HR.  Neither seems to have any affect on him.  Get through the night.

Sunsend 10:  Late in the day we reach the (largish) town of Asperdi.  The group splits up for various errends.  TnT check out the inns.  The best two already have entertainment in place, so we end up at the third best, the Tainted Rose, where our gigging will bring room and board.  [Note: this is a transparent part of the 45gp per person per month group expenses - clever negotiating or extraordinary performing will not affect that fixed cost.]

Ahb and Rowan take the dragon parts and go find an apothecary.  The gnome Apnee Furnak is up late working at his shop.  Ahb offers the heart and skull for sale, which Apnee purchases for 137gp and 141gp respectively.  Then, for a fee of 10gp, he 'fixes' the dragon hide so it will not deteriorate; telling the very interested fellow alchemist Ahb what he's doing at each step, and with which reagents, and why.

Darred has asked Ahb to accompany him and Glendon when they report in to the caravan owners.  So after visiting the apothecary she catches up with them.  Gnome Hamarha Pernac is the head of the Pernac trading family, and is willing to see Glendon and Darred immediately.  When they introduce Ahb to him, it turns out he has already heard of her, and tells her that her clan sends their love.  He is very disturbed to hear of the fate of the caravan; thankful towards Ahb for rescuing who she could; commends Darred and Glendon for performing well in a difficult situation.  He asks everyone to also report this incident to Decius, the captain of the town's guard.  And he pays out Darred's and Glendon's remaining fee: 25gp each, and offers them positions as warehouse guards

Rowan has no idea where the group will be staying, but by simply swinging by each inn and looking (listening) for an overly tall elf, she quickly finds the one TnT have located. 

Arvee is looking for a smith who will be willing to rent his forge so Arvee can make some armor.  After that he also finds the appropriate inn.

Ahb drags Glendon and Darred along with her as she also searches out the inn TnT have ended up at.  As they walk she fills them in on what she sees as the group's next actions: training here in town, followed by continuing on to help out her fellow cleric in Hamlet.

At the inn that evening, Taizu and Tarva have an exceptionally up performance.  Glendon and Darred have never heard singing like this before.  TnT each earn an additional 9gp in tips because of the quality of the gig.  Tarva sings a new song she's written about the fights in the Giant's lair:

    The  Lair  of  the  Giants  Frost

On  our  way  a - cross  the  Lort - mils
Our  ran - ger  found  some  tracks:
Gi - ant  foot - steps  to  a  cave  mouth;
Out - side,  one  dies  from  whacks.
Ar - vee  slays  the  slee - per  on  watch,
Res - cues  guards  else - wise  lost,
Wan - ted  to  coupe  two   more  slee - ping
In  the  lair  of  the  gi - ants  frost.

Glen - don,  Dar - red  get  their  gear  back
Say  cap - tives  still  in - side;
We  trash  the  cook  and  kit - chen  help
Then  watch  them  as  they  died.
When  Glen - don  casts  his  spell  of  Grease
Wolves  to  their  doom  are  tossed,
We  but - cher  them  and  then  with - draw
In  the  lair  of  the  gi - ants  frost.

Tai - zu  does  turn  us  all  un - seen:
Two  gi - ants  are  on  guard
With  Ro - wan,  Ar - vee  cuts  them  dead;
Ax - es  shat - tered  by  bard.
Smash - ing  ta - bles  to  chase  Ahb,  a
Gi - ant  duo  our  path  crossed:
Kil - ling  both  is  quite  a  strug - gle
In  the  lair  of  the  gi - ants  frost.

Se - ven  times  the  hy - dra  breathes  cold,
Ar - vee,  Ahb  cut  it  down;
Dar - red  flies  up  to  scout  a - head,
A  thrown  rock  makes  him  frown.
The  gi - ant  king  angr - ily  crim - son
Joins  the  fray  to  our  cost;
We  pre - vail  but  bare - ly   all  live
In  the  lair  of  the  gi - ants  frost.

Sunsend 11:  The day dawns clear and cold.  Everyone in the group agrees that it is only fair to include Darred and Glendon in the treasure splits.  To simplify matters, we decide to consider everything found since leaving Beldwyn's Keep to be all one split - even those items which were taken from the two giants before their rescue.

Tarva goes off to get our various items lored (666gp) and appraised (175gp).  This will take a few days to accomplish, so meanwhile everyone hunts down what instructors they can find for the various skills, feats, and spells they want to learn.  Ahb of course goes off to the Pelor Temple to check in with them.  Tarva goes there also for her usual offer to stop by each morning and help with any healing that is needed.

Sunsend 16:  Now that we know the full value of the treasure, we (meaning Taizu makes Tarva do the arithmetic) determine that 5% is 5,143.15gp, which we donate to the Temple of Pelor to thank him for his support, through Ahb and in other less obvious ways, during our adventures.

This leaves each member's share at 9932.96gp.

As there are eleven potions of Cure Serious (Kelly green), we use group funds to purchase three more from the Pelor temple, at Ahb's reduced rates, and give two to each person.  After that, Tarva went down the list of magical items, and each person indicated whether or not they were interested in that item.  Occasionally more than one person would be so inclined, but in each case the two (or, once, three) people involved worked out a compromise among themselves.

The four Everlasting Torches were made group property. 

The Temple of Pelor was requested to take the scroll with Inflict Light Wounds, and the Unholy +1 Longbow - possibly for study into how to counteract such magicks - but mostly just to get them off our hands.

Ahb choose the +2 Magic Warhammer, plus the remaining 2,036.60gp in gems, artwork, and coins.

Arvee choose the Boots of Speed (plus something more), the wand of Bull Strength (28 shots), and the potion of Heroism (Fire Red); then paid 871 gp back into the pot to cover his overage.

Darred choose the scroll of Minor Image, the brouch of Shielding (72 shots), and the scroll of Flaming Sphere; plus the remaining 8,622.50 in unselected magic items, gems, artwork, and coins.

Glendon choose the potion of Hiding (Black), the blue steel ring of Warmth, and the wand of Web (7 shots); plus the remaining 7,204.50 in unselected magic items, gems, and coins.

Rowan choose the cloak of Magic Resistance +2; plus the remaining 6,133gp in unselected magic items, gems, and coins.

Taizu choose the circlet of Persuasion; plus the remaining 5,658gp in unselected magic items, gems, and coins.

Tarva choose the headband of Intellignece; plus the remaining 6,115.50 in unselected magic items, gems, and coins.

The blue dragon hide was taken sequentially by Arvee then Tarva: Arvee carefully removed all the scales from it, for use in making scale mail.  Tarva wanted the hide without any scales, for turning into a suit of leather armor. 

Sunsend 17:  Taizu found some special arrows which contained Alchemist Fire and would do additional flame damage upon impact.  He talked the other two archers in the group - Rowan and Tarva, into going in with him and purchasing five arrows each at 71gp per arrow. 

Tarva found a master leather worker / armorer who, for 15gp, was able to prep her dragonhide so that it could become MasterWork quality. 

Tarva found some Elven Chainmail (+1) and even though it would do bad things to her Armor Check Penalty (unlike her current leather), she lusted after it.  [Possibly she is still insecure about being 'only' a human girlfriend to Taizu, and subconsciously is hunting for ways to hide that.]  In a not-too-complicated three-way deal, Tarva traded her +2 leather for Taizu's +1, plus the difference in coins and gems; then traded that +1 leather, plus a lot of gems and coins, for the chainmail, whose total value is 5,150gp.

Ahb mentioned that it would be nice (i.e., useful) if the group had a 500gp diamond, because she could now use that to cast a Resurrection spell, should any of us get killed in upcoming adventures.  Taizu and Tarva thought that was an excellent idea.  They found no 500gp diamonds, but did find one at 1,000gp value, and paid another 50 to have it carefully split into two 500gp stones, which they then donated to the group treasury.

Tarva found someone who could make a wand of Cure Light Wounds for her, for 750gp.  It has 50 shots.  She did not find anyone who had, or could make, an item which would allow her to see in the dark.

Other people were purchasing other items and services, but Tarva was much too busy [in addition to her own trainings, the little bit of shopping she managed to fit in, gigging, and time helping out at the temple, Taizu and Ahb had her doing all the group's finances] to keep track of that, or of what training anyone else took.  [She did notice that Taizu was unable to find a magic longbow, but probably she noticed even that much only because he continued to borrow hers.]  Her own training was in Perform and Heal (of course), plus Concentration, Decipher Script, Pick Pocket, and Herbalist.  Also Knowledge (The Planes) in hopes that it would help Heart's Reach (she read everything she learned aloud to him). And she received formal training in and leaned Gnomish, Elven, and (proper) Dwarvish. 

She also learned the Blind Fight feat, and picked up the cantrip Easy Math.  Unfortunately, while it allows rapid and fairly accurate guesswork, it is only fairly accurate.  And when Taizu caught her at it, not only did she have to go back and do everything over again by hand, he also made her calculate by what percent each of her guesses was off.  Close to doubling the math she ended up doing.  [Tarva still thinks that Taizu's assurances that she'll enjoy this some day are so much fertilizer: she doesn't notice him being in any hurry to take any of these task back from her.]

Any evening of a day in which her Faith Healing was not needed at the temple (admittedly rare), she would cast it on Heart's Reach.  Not really with any continuing expectation that it would help him (although she continued to hope), but for the friendship and companionship: the "I'm doing everything I can - don't you give up either" feeling she hoped it conveyed.

Sunsend 20:  Darred and Glendon had discussed this with each other, and now came up to Ahb to ask her if they could join the group.  Ahb told them it wasn't up to just her: she'd have to get consensus from the entire group, and went off to talk to the rest of us.  Everyone was in favor of their joining.  Tarva wondered out loud if Darred was going to remain as authoritative and inflexible as before; and upon Ahb's "assurance" that this was most likely, said something about the usefulness of having readymade targets at hand.

Sunsend 23:  This is the Festival of Marihuyd, which includes a parade of people in white costumes following a white horse.

Sunsend 26 through 28:  The last three days of the month are devoted to Thoughts and Reflections.  Tarva has several of both.

Needfest 1 - 7:  The last week of the year.  And then we start CY 587.

Fireseek 2:  A message from Rathen the Keen comes to the Pelor Temple, and some of its news directly affects Ahb's choices and decisions.  The grave problems affecting Rathern earlier have all been resolved.  Well, we knew that the Stone Reaver Clan's nonappearance, and the Disappearing Caravans in the Northern Pass, and the Dragon in the Eastern Lortmils had all been resolved, from personal involvement.  But the problem disturbing the Kron Hills Gnomes has also been dealt with.  Rathen now reports that his visions are about activity concerning the Temple of Elemental Evil; not at the site of the destroyed temple, but more towards the Lortmils.  Perhaps there is another, maybe larger, still active Temple of this sect, possibly near where the village of Raston used to be. 

That afternoon Ahb returns from the Pelor temple accompanied by two young, human female acolytes. It turns out that the temple has requested that Ahb provide them with in-field training, and watch over them as they take their first steps in developing their abilities as holy servants to Lord God Pelor.  Their names are Lysette and  Neva.  The group is a bit surprised at this sudden, and undiscussed, addition to the party, but recover rapidly and are supportive of the idea.  Glendon and Darred each contribute 100gp to Ahb to help cover obtaining basic traveling supplies for the acolytes.  Tarva counts the number of horses we now have, feels that something isn't right, and uses the cursed math to figure out that we can no longer carry enough horse food (essential for being in the mountains in winter) for our herd, to get from one likely re-supply locale to the next.  She talks to Ahb and then purchases, with group funds, two new pack horses and their tack.  She names them Maledicent and Malachite, to go with the earlier pack horses: Melasande and Mendacity.

During their gig that evening, Tarva surprises Taizu by changing their song set (with no forewarning) to insert one, not usually part of their repertoire, at the end of their next to last session.  But it is one he knows well, and he quickly recovers and picks up the flute part to accompany her.  It's the song she wrote for him: "When First We Met". During the break, before he can ask or comment or anything, she reminds him that a year ago, today, he first heard her sing, and tried to kidnap her to the College.

Fireseek 3:  We leave Asperdi, going back the way we came, heading towards where the village Raston used to be.  This will take us almost directly past the dragon's lair (but not any closer to Gross Fall), so we can check up on it.  Get through the day.  Third watch an Elf Ranger, Cheryvarsolacia, hails the watchers and chats for a while before traveling on. 

Fireseek 4:  When he gets up the next morning, Taizu is outraged that nobody thought to ask the Ranger (or wake him so he could) pertinent and useful questions such as: current conditions in the direction we're going; locations for any stocked storm shelters we would be permitted to use in a blizzard; rumors of activities by large groups. 

We come across the Blue Dragon's lair in mid-morning.  It is still sealed up.  From here we're headed North Northwest.  There are no passes between here and Raston, not even any real trade paths - we'll be traveling up and down over low mountains, trying to keep a consistent general direction.  Day passes.

Those on first watch hear a snapping sound, which seems to be heading towards us.  Darred ducks inside the Tiny Hut to wake Ahb, then goes back out (ignoring the rest of the sleepers).  Ahb wakes the other sleepers.  Tarva slips out of the hut and around to its back, against the chance that this is a distraction for a real attack from the other direction.  Glendon cocks his crossbow and heads out after Darred; Arvee uses his boots to move 80'.

1: Arvee sees a 9' tall humanoid, over 4' across at the shoulders, hairless, with six eyes and a big mouth; Tarva reserves for any movement; Ahb moves forward 40'; Darred moves up silently; Taizu moves up, but to the side, and reaches for a wand.

2: Arvee charges X and hits for 18, then hits for 21; X hits Arvee for 14, grapples, rends for 18; Tarva reserves; Ahb moves to within sight, recognizes X as a Grey Renderer; Darred does a double move up to within sight; Glendon moves to within sight, shoots, misses; Taizu moves into range, uses wand, no effect; Rowan moves to behind X.

3: Arvee attempts to oppose the grapple but doesn't escape, tries again and gets out; X on Arvee misses, misses, misses; Tarva reserves; Ahb moves to X, X AoO on Ahb misses, Ahb casts Light on X, now everyone can see it; Darred casts Choke on X for 4hp and -2 to hit; Glendon casts Grease, but X doesn't fall down; Taizu begins singing Inspire Greatness to Arvee, switches to bow and shoots, hits for 10, 8; Rowan tumbles through X's AoO space, doesn't fall in the grease, and hits for 12.

4: Arvee hits X for 19, 19, 17; X hits Arvee for 16; Tarva reserves; Ahb hits X for 10, kills.

There is nothing on the body.
Tarva Faith Heals Arvee for 18; Ahb Heals Arvee for 24.

229 ep. 

Those on second watch see an owl fly by.  Otherwise, we get through the night.

Fireseek 5:  10:00am  Rowan, scouting slightly in front, becomes aware of an ambush-like arrangement of humans up ahead.  She rides back to alert the group, but:

0: from about 250' away, X5 stands, shouts, "Fire!", shoots, misses.

1: Rowan rides to behind a bush, dismounts, shoots at X5 and criticals for 28; Darred rides off to the side; Tarva yells, "Taizu, give me my bow" and rides up beside him, holding out Taizu's bow; Arvee dismounts, activates his boots, moves 120'; Taizu swaps bows with Tarva, dismounts, strings his bow; Tarva dismounts and strings her bow; Ahb tells Lysette and Neva, "Take the horses and get back", dismounts, tosses the reins to Lysette; Glendon dismounts, cocks his crossbow.

2: We can now see eleven more men standing up from where they would have ambushed us, had Rowan not brought back the warning.  They all have banded mail, slung swords, small wooden shields, and longbows which they're shooting at us, hitting Neva for 2, Maledicent for 7 and 5, Malachite for 6, Glendon for 7; Rowan shoots X12 for 11, kills, shoots X11 for 9, kills; Darred runs all out for 120'; Arvee moves to X5; Taizu moves 120'; Tarva shoots X4 for 4, 4; A moves 80'; Glendon moves loose horses out of sight.

3: X5 drops his bow, bloopers and snags his bastard sword while drawing it; X10 also bloopers, breaks his bow string; others hit Taizu for 7; Lysette and Neva bail, with horses; Rowan hits X10 for 9, kills, hits X9 for 8, kills; Darred runs 120'; Arvee hits X5 for 17, kills, charges X4, criticals for 82, kills (and destroys bow, shield, and armor); Taizu shoots X6 for 5, misses; Tarva hits X7 for 9, 1, kills; Ahb pronounces, "By the Grace of Pelor, why do you attack us?  We don't want to kill you.", and moves 80'; Glendon shoots X1 for 8.

4: all the remaining ambushers bolt, dropping their bows; Rowan moves 240'; Darred starts to collect the horses and will take care of the acolytes; Arvee intercepts the running X1, grapples successfully, subdues; Taizu moves to the nearest body to start searching it; Tarva shoots X6 for 5, kills, shoots at X8 but misses; Ahb establishes herself as the new 'home base' and waits for others to come to her; Glendon gets back on his horse and moves 120'.

5: Neva and Lysette wait for Darred to catch up to them; Rowan criticals on X3, kills, hits X8, kills. Darred gets back to his horse, mounts; Arvee runs after X2; Taizu is searching; Tarva starts hauling bodies to a point near Ahb; Glendon rides after X2.

6: X2 runs 120'; Arvee catches up to him; Glendon on horseback catches up to him, says, "Surrender and I'll protect you from the dwarf."

7: X2 surrenders.

They all have: MasterWork quality bastard swords; small wooden shields, longbows, 18 longbow arrows each, and MasterWork black banded mail, with a symbol: stylized six-pointed star (three points at top, verticals sides, three points at bottom) in red, and a potion of Light Green.  X5 also had sigil on a chain: a point-down triangle with lines bisecting each side to meet at a circle in the center.  Except that there are only eleven, not twelve, shields, sets of armor, and longbows (because Arvee totally destroyed X4's).  Taizu recognizes the symbol as being that of the Temple of Elemental Evil.  Ahb recognizes this particular variation as relating to the element of Fire; and that the (presumably) Chief's sigil is that of an Elder Elemental Eye: a cleric's symbol for Tharizdon (The Elder God), more of a pyramid than a triangle; delights in acts to hideous to describe; other Gods have imprisoned him.  Ahb also is able to identify the potions as being for Cure Light Wounds

Ahb Heals Maledicent, Malachite, and Neva.  Tarva casts Cure Light on Taizu to heal him.

64 ep. 

Glendon and Arvee interrogate X2.  His name is Greeves, he is in Sgt. Jelon's squad.  As a squad of Temple Guards, they were assigned to find people to take back to the Temple.  For what purpose?  So the people could worship at the Temple.  Temple of the Eye.  There are twenty squads of Temple Guards, all under Lieutenant LeMark and Captain Cassison.  During all this he has been interrupting himself with strange jerks of his head and neck.  Suddenly he goes into convulsions and starts foaming at the mouth.  Ahb cannot do anything to stop this.  Incoherent fragments of speech come from Greeves for a while: "Great One / Forgive / Find Me / Kill Me / Burn Me / Consume Me" and then nothing understandable any more.

X1 is then brought back to consciousness.  His name is Charin.   He sees Greeves and says, "He's been taken."  He also begins to have the strange jerks of his head.  Before he joins Greeves in convulsions and incoherence, he tells us that the Temple is in the Mountains, days away.

10:30am Glendon assigns himself to become a perimeter guard while the rest deal with the bodies - dead and convulsing.  Darred and Rowan start backtracking the squad, looking for a camp - the thought is that if they're assigned to bring people in, they must have some way of constraining those people for the several days trip back. 

11:30am  One hour (or so) later, with no change in their conditions, Ahb asks Arvee to administer a Coup de Grace to each, to put them out of their misery. 

12:30am  Rowan and Darred, having found nothing during an hour's backtracking, then spend another hour returning and are now back.  They do report that at one point they saw three flying somethings, very high up, traveling in a V formation, heading in this direction.  However, nobody here noticed them. 

Ideas are tossed back and forth about how to proceed.  Glendon suggests disguising some of our party as Palace Guards and escorting the rest back as prisoners. Darred doesn't like the idea of infiltrating such a large organization, suggests going around as targets to be ambushed, and picking off the squads that attack us, one by one.  Glendon elaborates on that by suggesting we make ourselves look more like a merchant caravan.  Taizu points out that the leaders are going to notice if they start losing squads in a patterned order, and double-ambush us with real forces, not these ballista-fodder wimps.  Glendon does the math and says that twenty squads (nineteen now) of fourteen each should only be 280.  Tarva thinks that even 266 (she can also do math) is too many for us to take on, even with an Arvee Of One on our side; and furthermore that so many wimps will surely have several magic users, unholy servants, and real fighters in charge, back at headquarters.  Ahb declares that we will spiral in on the temple, whose location we have a vague idea of, and hopefully pick up more information as we go.

1:00pm We leave the bodies for scavengers, leave most of the weapons and armor, distribute the Cure Light Wounds potions, and head off.  The rest of the day passes.  Night passes.

Fireseek 6:  day passes.  It starts snowing in the evening.  On second watch:

0: Glendon sees a large wolf, sneaking towards us, he tells Taizu and Arvee, then uses his wand to cast Web on W1.

1: Glendon goes to the Hut, yells "Wolves!"; Taizu moves forward, switches to his wand of Slow, reserves until any wolves are in range; W2, W3, and W4 move to near Taizu; Taizu casts Slow; Arvee activates his boots and charges, only the boots don't activate (!).

2: Tarva is up, out of the Hut, drawing Heart's Reach and a light stone, which she tosses towards the commotion; Glendon casts Flaming Sphere on W1 for 8, plus an additional 6 as the web catches fire and also burns W1; Taizu yells out that, "winter wolves, fire will hurt them", switches to his bow, and shoots W3 for 6 with an Alchemist Arrow; Rowan is up, out, stringing her bow; W1, freed from the web, bites Arvee for 13; W2 charges Taizu for 14; W3 charges Taizu but misses; W4 tries to charge Taizu, but appears to be slowed and doesn't get that far; Lysette and Neva wake up and huddle together; Darred is up, casting Darkvision on himself; Ahb is up, out, casts a 60' circle of  Daylight; Arvee yells, "Wand me!" as he criticals on W1 for 73, kills, moves to between W2 and W3, W2 AoO on Arvee for 13.

3: Tarva starts singing Inspire Courage, charges W2, hits for 14; Glendon rolls the Flaming Sphere towards W4; Taizu casts Blur on himself, W2 AoO misses, W3 AoO misses, W3 takes 4 points of damage from the Alchemist Fire; Rowan moves 5', shoots W4 with a flaming arrow for 8 and 6; W2 on Tarva for 7; W3 hits a blur of, instead of the real Taizu; W4 finally makes it to Taizu; Darred replies, "Arvee, I need to touch you for this to work", casts Magic Missile on W4 for 9; Ahb runs around the hut to check on the horses, sees W5, yells, "They're coming from this side, too."; Arvee hits W2 for 17, 16.

4: Tarva still singing (Inspire Courage now takes effect), hits W2 for 10, kills, moves to W4; Glendon starts moving the Flaming Sphere towards Ahb and the horses; Taizu drops his bow, draws his sword, and hits W4 for 9; Rowan moves 30' towards Ahb, shoots W5 for 7; W3 on Taizu misses; W4 on Tarva misses; W6 attacks Rowan but misses; W5 attacks Ahb but misses; W7 charges Horse1 for 10; W8 charges Horse2 for 14; Neva and Lysette step out of the Hut; Darred yells, "Get back in the Hut!", moves towards Ahb; Ahb on W5 criticals for 23, misses; Arvee bulrushes Taizu (trying to knock him out of the attack zone), W3 AoO on Arvee for 8, Arvee successfully bulrushes a Taizu blur, leaving Taizu where he was.

5: Tarva still singing, hits W4 for 11, 11, kills; Glendon lets the Flaming Sphere dissipate, runs to beside Darred, takes out his numchaku; Taizu on W3 misses, misses; Rowan drops her bow, draws her sword, hits W6 for 13, 11; W3 hits Taizu for 9, then breathes for 8; W6 on Rowan hits for 9, then breathes for 15; W5 bloopers, takes 10 points from his own breath; W8 attacks D, hits for 7, breathes for 11; W7 attacks Horse3 for 8 and 7 breath; Lysette and Neva retreat back inside the Hut; Darred uses his wand to cast Hypnotic Pattern, W8 is hypnotized, Darred yells that he has this wolf under control; Ahb tells her war pony to attack, hits W5 for 10, 11, kills; Arvee runs past Darred and near W8, breaking the hypnotic trance, W8 AoO on Arvee for 13.

6: Tarva still singing hits W3 for 14, 9; Glendon attacks W8 with an unarmed stunning, but misses; Taizu goes total defensive; Rowan hits W6 for 14, 8, kills; Felicity - Ahb's horse - hits W7 for 5; W7 decides to withdraw, trying to entice it back, Ahb yells, "Your mother was a cat!", shockingly, W7 replies: "I've got friends!"; W3 misses Tarva; W8 hits Darred for 8, trips him; Darred gets back up and hits at W8, but misses; Ahb goes to the hurt horses, Heals Horse1 for 14 (full); Arvee criticals on W8 for 76, kills.

7: Tarva still singing criticals on W3, kills; Ahb Heals Horse2 for 16 (full).

Ahb is down none
Arvee is down 13+13+8+13  =  -47
Darred is down 7+11+8  =  -26
Glendon is down none
Rowan is down 9+15  =  -24
Taizu is down 14+9+8  =  -31
Tarva is down 7  =  -7
Horse3 is down 8+7  =  -15

229 ep.