While Theona stripped the bodies of anything useful (Tyan ended up with some scrolls), we all cast a lot of healing spells on each other. Tyan explained that the hole in the roof was most unwelcoming, so we decided to let ourselves down the side of the building, and try the front door on this side as well. Theona, also, has gotten back into her worry about Zhents. She’s giving poor Ebin the third degree (although I must admit I’m surprised he claims to know nothing about them. Then again, he says he was raised by elves, so what do I know?).

Theona applied her skills to the front door, and it soon opened to show an entryway, and another door. She and Areon headed inside, and she soon had that door open, too. This time, however, they quickly backed out of the building, looking nervous! Something was clicking away inside the doorway, but, eventually, Theona decided it was the trap, even though disarmed. She carefully worked her way back inside, and we carefully followed. The place was a maze of doors and hallways, but we finally found a stretch that seemed likely to be the prison.

Tyan sent a mental request, and soon, we could hear squeaking from his rat! Theona soon had the door open and Glitch was back on his master’s shoulder. We continued our searching, trying to ignore the rat’s antics all over again… Eventually, we found a room full of sarcophagi, which I prayed over and checked for the presence of undead, finding nothing. Sure enough, we lifted the lids to discover desiccated human remains, and moved on.

One room we found had four hobgoblin corpses strewn about it, and the stench of recent death! We looked them over and found huge puncture wounds in their necks, about eight inches apart! The sight filled us with concern; none of us has met a giant-sized vampire, and I doubt any of us want to. Ebin, in fact, quickly decapitated the corpses and shot wooden arrows through all their hearts, “just in case”.

We worked our way toward the middle of the building, finally discovering the room Tyan had put a skylight into. He’d given us some warning to expect a hydra, and, sure enough, that’s what Ebin attacked! Tyan made for the roof while I healed Ebin from his experience. We ended up in a pitched battle, behind, before, and above the creature. To my great relief (after taking five bites at once!), all our attacks overwhelmed it, and it dropped dead. I then took the time to do a lot of healing for us all!

Theona took a look through the next doorway, the one the hydra had been guarding. She found a giant stone sarcophagus, over twenty feet long! There must be a giant vampire here, after all - what a thought! Since it was still daylight, we decided to make an attempt at destroying it’s lair. We climbed onto the roof, and shattered another hole. We threw huge rocks down onto the lid. We racked our brains. Eventually, however, the sun began to sink to the horizon.

Wisely for once, we decided to move away from the fortress and hide for the night. Not a moment too soon, for as the night fell, we heard a horrible howl of rage from the giants’ lair! Areon had done his job well, however, and we were safe until morning. I wonder what we will find when we go back there today?