As the rain perpetually falls outside this windowless stone structure, you roll initiative against the 2 medium sized creatures that reacted to you from within 2 holes dug into the floor. They are ghoul like creatures with decayed clothes and dead eyes but possess a demonic or abyssal glare. Thomas gave Raven a divine boost for his save roll against undead fears. He makes it! Let the battle begin!

  Melee starts and spells fly. These undead are too quick to deal them bonus damage from sneak attacks as they “spring” about with their attacks. Sharky gets caught between the 2 and is dealt some sneak attack damage from them. As everyone is now within the structure trying to add to the damage being dealt, Stryfe starts to over-run and knocks a foe down.  Duffy takes advantage and uses a powerful spell to trap a foe within a sphere of force. As your foe calls out in abyssal for help, Duffy launches a web across the interior of this structure as the standing foe falls.

 Hoping the web is enough of a deterrent with the possibility of more enemies as you notice one of the holes in the floor continues downward into darkness. As you prepare 2 additional Abyssal Ghouls climb out of the floor, these larger than the 2 you have killed or subdued. They seem to communicate and view the area from the opposite side of the web but end up returning to the hole in the ground after their companion cannot be set loose.

  With a long duration for the trapping spell, you decided to follow the 2 ghoul down their hole and attempt to defeat them as you have found no remains here the Barkeep (Garl) sent you to fetch. So down the tight dark space to a tunnel 5 feet across leading to a small room ahead Stryfe leads. He is jumped by hidden ghouls once he enters the room. Battle begins in this small room with ghouls springing about and party members trying to keep from being flanked.  Another save from Raven with much damage being dealt around from foe and to friend. The battle leans to your favor as the enemy falls. The back side of this room contains an odd structure of stone resembling large teeth, tongue and mouth with another stone tunnel leading beyond. You move within.

  Still seeking some kind of remains the barkeep is seeking, you decided that this locale shows natural elements but in a strange manner. Your checks from Thomas and Stryfe reveal this stone passage and chambers are that of a long dead creature of massive dimensions. You find yourselves traversing the seeming esophagus of these ginormous remains leading you to a larger, deep chamber you have entered at a 15’ elevation above the floor. You can see another passage across this chamber at the same level you stand now leading out. Numerous smaller openings, perhaps 3’ across,  can be seen at floor level all around the wall of the room. But more intriguing are 3 skeletal remains lying on the floor near the middle of this chamber. Decayed clothe, armor, weapons and items can be made out. Sharky  and Stryfe make their way down to examine  more closely. Stryfe checks out some of the openings while Sharky sees 3 dwarven remains here with a pile of shiny items mixed in among the dried bodies. As Sharky moves in to see more detail, he notices a chest, shield, axe, staff and book, as sounds from the tunnels fill the room and movement is seen and initiative is rolled!

After Duffy memorizes the cave for future rescue operations, we flee for our lives.  Returning to civilized lands, we encounter and quickly dispatch some sort of snowflake-pudding-monster.  Fortunately the White Dragon does not make an appearance, so we arrive back in Mulmaster safely.  The party goes shopping while Duffy, Thomas and Raven spend time leveling up.  At this moment, everybody is level 10!  Woot!

We reconnect with "Nightfall" the Helpful Shadow Demon, make final preparations, and set sail through the planes to the Genosi city of Gloamnull.  We spend a few turbulent minutes navigating some trippy rivers, and finally arrive in the harbor.  We dock and disembark, and then Nightfall directs us to a rowdy inn outside of the city walls.  That’s where we will find Zebobonk.

Indeed, we step right in and see a crystal statue standing in the corner.  Sharky strikes up a conversation with the human barkeep, and learns a bit about the statue and the local history.  For, the city has been at war with Efreeti for several years, and only the intervention of a Demon "Dagon" has saved them.  Therefore most everyone swears fealty to the Demon, and considers him to be a big hero and savior.  There's even going to be a big "Dagon-day"celebration within the city walls, about a couple weeks from now.  This crystal statue appeared here--quite mysteriously--after a recent raid was repelled; therefore the barkeep has talked himself into believing that it is a boon and a sort of shrine to Dagon’s greatness.  We’re skeptical, but we keep our thoughts and intentions to ourselves.

In order to cultivate a friendship with the barkeep, we agree to help him with a little side-quest.  He wants us to go into a particular black mausoleum in a dark neighborhood, dig up some bodies, and return them to him.  His motivation is to mount the bodies on his walls as trophies or something.  Sounds a littly shady, but whatever; off we go.

We find the black windowless building and step inside.  In the middle there is a shrine to a fungus god and a bunch of displaced floor slabs.  Under each 5’-square cavity, we see an empty dug-out hole.  Either someone has been here digging up bodies, or some of the bodies have been deciding that they really don’t want to stay buried.  Scouting around, we find that two of the floor holes are occupied by medium-sized creatures.  Duffy tries to capture one, triggering their attack.  Everyone rolls initiative, and --to be continued next week--