Date: 12/12/10

XP Awarded: 2,700

Start: The sea caves of Kraken's Cove in Blood Bay, on the southern coast of the Shining Sea, dry season (late Ches), 1369 DR.

After the attacking fungus is destroyed, the party searches the laboratory and find several poisonous plants and toxins on the workbench. Nather also discovers two potions on the gnome's partially decomposed body. The adventurers leave the laboratory and enter an unexplored cavern deep inside the complex.

The far half of the cave consists of a large, frothy tide pool thick with seaweed. Several narrow fissures in the ceiling seem to lead up and out through the cliff face overlooking Kraken's Cove, allowing a brisk breeze to whip through the chamber. By the tide pool, crouched over a pile of half-eaten raw fish and sea anemones is a slavering madwoman with a twisted jaw of shark's teeth, a hunched back, and wide splayed hands writhing with additional hook-tipped fingers. She leaps to her feet, shrieking out in a hoarse voice "Where are you, my love? Is that you? I knew you wouldn't leave me! Sooooo hungry... please... feed me..." When she sees the party enter the cave, she picks up a rapier by her side and charges across the cave to leap at Taark.

The party's warriors surround the misshapen monster and cut her down mercilessly. From the remaining pool of acidic green goo, Memnon pulls a silver locket with a miniature portrait of Vanthus Vanderboren inside. Taark realizes this poor creature must have been the remains of the Brissa Santos that Vanthus' notes spoke of bringing to Kraken's Cove.

Moving deeper into the caverns, the group enter a labyrinth of small tunnels. With shrieks and howls, several more savage pirates appear in the maze-like tunnels and attack the party. Though it's difficult to maneuver, the adventurers manage to take up a defensive formation and destroy the violent creatures with little resistance. After following several dead-end passages, the party eventually find one that leads to a larger, circular chamber outfitted with the finest in stolen furniture.

Thick rugs cover the floor and fine silk tapestries and masterful seascape paintings hang from the walls. A four-poster bed takes up much of a large nook at the far side, and nearby stands an oak desk with a matching armoire. Unfortunately the furniture is gouged from swordplay and stained with gore. A skeletal body dressed in the ruins of a once-fine suit of studded leather armor lies at the foot of the bed. Five more bodies lie about the room, horribly deformed men and women that seem to have perished on a rapier's point. After a quick search, Azaad's spells reveal an enchanted rapier kicked under the bed, and the party continues down a darkened side passage.

As the adventurers follow the curving tunnel, the sound of combat, the the unmistakable slobbering cries of rage and hunger from several savage pirates, and a woman's strong voice shouting profane threats and curses rise above the background din. The tunnel opens into a large cave, the floor sloping downward from the entrance to a large tide pool in the back of the cavern. The waters seem to be surging from a submerged passageway, and a hammock is strung between two stalagmites next to an overturned table and broken chair. Using the table as cover to fend off a half-dozen savage pirates is a bold beauty with raven-black hair that flows like the deepest shade of midnight against her deeply tanned skin. She wears tight leather armor studded with fire opals and pearls and wields a curved rapier and dagger in a blinding display of swordplay. When she sees the party, she cries out "Oi! Get in the fight or stay outta me way, buckos. These things are lookin' ta die, an' I plan on obligin'." Over a dozen of the creatures lie dead on the ground, though the woman bears several red bite marks.

Taark, Tilan, Memnon, and Laurrens immediately charge into combat across the sandy floor, while Azaad and Nather pull out their crossbows and snipe at the monsters. As the woman fights, she seems to recognize one of the savage pirates and says "Jebediah? Is that you lad? You've looked better boy. Here, let me send you on your way." Azaad uses a spell to conjure the image of a corpulent wizard in the back of the room, and several of the misshapen creatures turn to try to feast on its flesh. Seeing that his crossbow isn't much use against the monsters, Nather draws the magical rapier and leaps into combat, cutting one down with a well-placed critical blow. With the creatures' attentions now divided between the woman and the party's blades, they don't last much longer.

As the last falls, the woman wipes clean and sheathes her blades and regards the party with a cold, appraising eye as she catches her breath. "What manner of driftwood do we have here? Speak up! Your names, lubbers! If only so's I can cut 'em inta yer chests and save the undertaker some askin' round." Memnon introduces himself and his companions and asks who she is. The woman introduces herself as Captain Harliss Javell of the Crimson Fleet - the party recognize the name as the most bloodthirsty and feared group of pirates to sail the Shining Sea. Captain Javell demands to know the party's business in "this little piece o' hell", and when Memnon explains that they are searching for Vanthus Vanderboren, she flies into a poetic litany of profanity that lasts for several seconds and is as magnificent as it is scandalous to hear. When she recovers herself, she rights the toppled table and sits down upon it as she relates what she saw.

"All this ye see here," the flamboyant woman said as she waved her hand at the slaughtered deformities, "and what nightmares ye must have fought through t'get t'me; t'was all Vanthus Vanderboren's doing! That vomitous pig came t'me with his hussy 'n asked t'see our wares; made like he were a black marketeer lookin' fer some fur or scale t'move. Told him we had a ship comin' in today what were full of exotica for him ta' shop, so he stayed on a bit. Seemed a fine enough chap, but then not an hour ago, he dumped a hold full o' whale oil inta' the cove and lit it up. I was on th'Slippery Eel at the time, and that's when I caught the two of'em aboard, fixin' t'rob me! Can ye imagine that? A pair of base curs tryin' t'rob Captain Harliss Javell? Anyway, I stuck the fool in the arm with me blade, he yelped, and then as he ducked aside he dropped what he were tryin' t'rob. Were a black pearl. One th'size o'a man's fist, mind you! Was goin' ta make some fair coin off that bauble, but as it fell, the thing cracked like an egg. Some o' Vanthus' blood from my blade spattered the pearl, and it boiled and flashed with light. This foul, chokin' green gas started spewin' from it, burnin' through the wood like it were acid. I grabbed th'thing, ran up topside, then threw it inta' the water, but as it struck, the thing exploded!"

"After that... things got a bit weird, mind ye. A green mist filled my vision, and I felt strange. Like someone else were in my head. Someone... someone hungry! And the rage! Rage like I never felt 'afore! And then, just like that, it were gone. Vanthus were on deck too by then, but he and I were th'only humans left. That pearl, it did somethin' to me crew. Ta' Vanthus' little girly, too! Turned'em bad, like somethin' ye might find in a net and throw back on account the sun got no purpose lookin' upon it. These things!" She kicked one of the deformed pirates in distaste. "Whatever were in that damnable pearl turned over three score men into... into man-eatin' freaks!"

"Vanthus, he seen what his friend and the rest turned into. He dove inta' th'water ta get away. I did the same, only I swam for shore. Found me first mate Drevoraz there. He'd resisted the change too, as had some others here and there, yet they were nothin' but the banquet for those things. We fought our way inta' th'caves and managed to hole up with Captain Kigante, the man who keeps these caves fer us. Only, Kigante's freak food now; he got jumped by a mob of'em not twenty minutes ago. Tore 'im apart like they was sharks!"

"And one more thing. I think they got the sick in their maws. The places they done bit me still burn, and it's hard ta think straight... But hey! You fought yer way in here! That means there ain't much left of'em out there, right?"

The party explains that they've cleared out the caves, but when Taark asks for additional details about the pearl, Captain Javell curses and flies into another tirade about Vanthus Vanderboren. "I'll learn that cur what it is t'foul my business! I know who he is! The Vanderboren name's no secret to me. I know he's got family 'n holdings in Sasserine! I sent my right hand Drevoraz to deal with 'im, I did. Drevoraz is on his merry way ta Sasserine as we speak. He'll do for Vanthus' sister, his mum and pop, and any other family or friends th'bastard has in that dunghill city. Cross the Crimson Fleet and we take everything in your life from ye. Best not forget that, boyo!"

She asks the party why they're searching for Vanthus Vanderboren, and listens attentively as they explain that they seek to capture him dead or alive to pay for his crimes against their employer. Apparently satisfied, she nods and apologizes for any trouble her first mate may be bringing to the Vanderborens. She encourages the party to make haste to warn Lavinia, but doubts they'll get there in time. While the adventurers begin discussing plans for returning, she walks calmly out of the cavern into the darkened tunnels.

The party is split along two lines - one group led by Taark wish to race back to Tashluta at top speed in order to warn Lavinia of the assassins dispatched to her manor. The other group wants to finish looting the caverns and find a way to sail the Sea Wyvern back to town, which will take more time. Azaad and Nather, being the least armored and encumbered of the group, race back to the Nightbreeze to ask Captain Amella to sail into the cove so they may use some of her crew to help navigate the Sea Wyvern out of Blood Bay and back to Tashluta. While those two make their way, the other party members set about collecting anything worthwhile from the caves in preparation for loading onto the ships.

After climbing from Kraken's Cove up to the clifftop jungle path, Azaad and Nather make good time despite the oppressive midday heat and humidity. All along the way they find more warped and dead jungle wildlife, and at one point are chased by a hissing group of small mutated lizards covered in horned tentacles. Reaching the cove where they'd stowed "Old Salty," they row out to the Nightbreeze where Captain Amella is anxious to hear details about what the party found. The two spin a vague tale about how they've captured a pirate ship and need the help of her crew in sailing it safely out of Blood Bay, and Captain Amella agrees. She orders the crew to cast off, and soon the pinnace is cautiously moving up the coast to the cove's entry.

Back at Kraken's Cove, the party has ferried their goods out to the Sea Wyvern and are busy preparing the ship for sailing under Memnon's instructions. It's a fine three-masted caravel that seems to have served as a pirate ship or warship for years. Her sails are decorated with stylized figures of a wyvern, tail raised over its back as though to strike its enemies. Even its figurehead carries the motif – a powerful wyvern, wings unfurled, crouches at the prow. The ship has seen plenty of action – her hull is scarred in many places by scratches and dents, and a single huge claw mark rakes across the starboard, deliberately left as a scar of battle. The ship’s wheel is designed to represent a dozen-headed wyvern. A metal plaque in the captain’s quarters notes that it was launched from the shipyards of Athkatla almost 30 years ago.

When the smaller Nightbreeze arrives, Captain Amella is impressed by the ship. She sends over a few of her crewmen led by her boatswain Barlicc, who is skilled at handling ships in treacherous waters. Memnon relinquishes the helm to Barlicc and the caravel slowly makes its way through the blood-coloured bay. With the detailed charts Memnon found, Captain Amella has no problem plotting a quick course into the open waters of the Shining Sea. Strong currents buffet the ships, but Memnon pilots the caravel well under Barlicc's watchful eye. The other adventurers are busy learning their way around the ship, tutored by the crewmembers Captain Amella has sent over.

The sun slinks across the afternoon sky and into thickening clouds at the horizon as the convoy makes its way along the coast. Deciding that it's too risky to sail through a cloudy night in the treacherous waters near Cape Talath with an inexperienced crew, Captain Amella stops in a small, swampy bay. Pulling the Sea Wyvern alongside, the combined crews share provisions from the Nightbreeze and spend the night anchored under overcast skies.

The ships are off again at the break of dawn, and another cloudless day breaks over the waves of the Shining Sea. After a night of rest and the attention of the party's healers, Memnon's strange infection spreads no further, but doesn't heal either. Despite his companions' urgings to get rest, the feel of the Sea Wyvern's sturdy wheel in his hands is too powerful a draw. Though weak winds prevent the fast ships from reaching top speeds, the day passes uneventfully as the Tashtan Coast drifts past. As the sun again draws near to the horizon, Captain Amella signals that there's no chance of making Tashluta before it's too dark to safely enter the harbour, and the pair of ships again anchor for the night.

The next morning it is clear that Memnon's condition is worsening, but the party's urgent mission to warn Lavinia Vanderboren allows no delay. Three hours later, under the guidance of Amella's mate Barlicc, Memnon carefully pilots the Sea Wyvern between the treacherous broken columns that once supported the now-ruined Seagate and into Tashluta's harbour. The adventurers can't help but note the throng of revelers atop the Seagate, and a burst of fireworks appears in the air high above the harbour. Slowly bringing the ship into the empty space at the end of one of the stone piers, the party can see that the streets of Tashluta around the harbour are filled with minstrels, acrobats, and celebrating crowds. Leaving Captain Amella's crew to finish tying up the caravel, the party pushes through the crowds to the harbourmaster's office.

Inside the small building is Harlo Sinwalla, the city's acting harbourmaster. He seems unhappy to see the adventurers - he says that it wasn't an hour after sending the party to find Captain Amella that a merchant lord arrived with a gaggle of city officials waving papers and demanding to confiscate her ship. Their little trick of slipping out of the city just ahead of the law is not fitting behaviour for bearers of the Tower of Tashluta medal, he feels. Once Memnon apologizes for that incident and explains that the party were merely passengers, and that he's got a caravel to dock for two days, Harlo is mollified. He explains how the party can hire security for their ship, which the party does before racing off towards Vanderboren Manor.

It's slow progress through the heaving streets of Azure district. Every tavern is surrounded by a thick horde of partiers, and processions of masked and painted celebrants clog the avenues. As the group press on past a crowd gathered around a pair of juggling street performers, something small but heavy crashes into Laurren's leg. Looking down, he's amused to see a very drunk gnome until he notes the smouldering fury in the carouser's eyes.

The small, dark-skinned gnome practically froths at the mouth as he accuses the party of being a bunch of rude, oversized louts. Weaving from side to side as he rolls up the sleeves of his shirt, he demands an apology. Laurrens reacts with embarrasment, but Nather and Taark immediately start scanning the surrounding crowd for pickpockets. Tilan sees a burly half-orc pushing through the crowd towards the party, but notes with relief that he's unarmed. The half-orc reaches the confrontation between Laurrens and the gnome and pleads "Come on Jilanth, let it go. Let's go have another drink!" But when Laurrens moves to push past the gnome while explaining that the party has an emergency to deal with, the tiny humanoid shrieks with rage and leaps at the much larger priest.

Laurrens tries to move back, but there is limited room in the crowded street, and the half orc yells "I'll teach you to pick on someone your own size!" as he moves to make a powerful strike against Laurrens. Taark bellows in frustration and plows ahead, slamming his helmeted head into the half-orc's waist and knocking him down. Immediately Tilan and the dwarf leap onto the prone figure and struggle to pin him. Meanwhile, the gnome is flailing away at Laurrens while Laurrens struggles to keep him at arm's length. Nather draws his sap and moves up to flank the gnome, delivering a sharp blow to the back of his head that immediately drops him unconscious, so quickly that none in the gathering crowd even see it happen.

Seeing the half-orc struggling to free himself under the two heavily armored warriors, Memnon draws his doru and commands him to freeze. Ordering him to take his gnome companion, Memnon instructs his comrades to loose the half-orc. Gathering up the unconscious gome, the half-orc glares at the party and vows that they haven't seen the last of him, then disappears into the gathered crowd. Wasting no time, the party pushes on up the hill towards Merchant district.

While starting to get short of breath from the climb up steep Palm Street through the busy heart of the Merchant district, Memnon and Nather distinguish cries of alarm rising out of the boisterous partying further up the street. Glancing up, they see a runaway float-wagon carrying a huge humanoid form shrouded in wriggling paper-mache snakes and bearing two burning lanterns for eyes rolling down the hill directly at the party. Memnon immediately bolts up the road toward the wagon, preparing to jam his doru into the spokes of one of the wheels. Nather follows, and seeing Memnon readying his weapon, draws his as well. Unfortunately, the wagon is travelling too fast and the rapidly spinning spokes batter the weapons out of the way without slowing.

The rest of the party, caught by surprise at first, now springs into action. With his short legs pumping, Taark charges up to the wagon and slams his warhammer into one of the wooden wheels, hoping to shatter it. His poorly aimed blow doesn't do any real damage, and on the opposite side of the wagon Tilan's attempt to jam the wheels also fails. With a magical incantation, Azaad disappears and reappears atop the jolting wagon. Spying a pile of lumber stabilizing the figure, the scrawny mage struggles to push the heavy wooden boards off the front of the wagon to stop it.

Casting his eyes ahead, Azaad notes that the wagon is about to run down a fleeing citizen, and beyond looms the crowded outside garden of a busy tavern. Frantic revelers are trying to escape before the wagon slams into the flimsy structure, but a knot of people has formed at the narrow gate and is preventing most from escaping. Changing his tactics, he scrambles atop the lumber and tries to grab the wildly swinging lanterns. He only manages to get one before a collision with the crowd in the tavern garden is imminent, and uses a quickly muttered incantation to swap places with Memnon. With a shuddering lurch, the wagon hits and lumbers over a man desperately trying to run down the street ahead of the runaway float. Caught off guard by the violently shaking, Memnon almost loses his balance while preparing to jump free.

Laurrens rushes to the aid of the wagon's victim and uses a prayer of healing to stabilize the nearly fatal injuries. Just down the street from him, Tilan and Taark take mighty swings at the wheel hoping to destroy it and bring the wagon to a halt before it reaches the crowd just in front. Tilan's swordblow breaks several of the spokes, and the wheel begins to wobble. With a quickly muttered prayer to Moradin, Taark's warhammer strikes the axle and snaps off several more of the wooden spokes. The wheel twists, and the remaining spokes snap off. The wagon wrenches itself to the right, away from the garden, and Memnon goes flying off the top. The figure atop the float slams into the ground in front of the careening wreck and the remaining lantern shatters, spilling burning oil over the paper mache. The wagon quickly becomes an inferno in the center of the street, and the crowd inside the garden give a relieved cheer.

The adventurers don't wait for the city guard, but instead rush on towards Vanderboren Manor. The roof of the gothic manor house is just coming into sight when Taark gets a funny feeling about a group of juggling stiltwalkers that seem to be taking an unusually keen level of interest in the party. He notes an acrobatic woman in a black bodysuit painted with the white bones of a skeleton racing towards Memnon at the front of the group, and when she gives a loud yell, the juggling stiltwalkers each toss a bottle with a flaming rag in the end at the party.

The bottles shatter on the hard cobblestones, spilling flaming liquid over the street. The jovial partygoers immediately become a panicked, screaming mob as they try to rush past each other and the adventurers, shoving and pulling. Some are on fire and drop to roll around, further confusing the scene. As the party struggles to react, the stiltwalkers follow their inital volley with hurled daggers. From atop their stilts, they have no problem moving through the chaotic melee below. The woman in the black bodysuit weaves and tumbles through the crowd to reach Nather and delivers a graceful yet painful unarmed strike - it's clear she's an experienced martial artist.

Azaad moves away from the panicked crowd and casts a sleeping spell upon two of the stiltwalkers at the party's rear - their eyes close and they topple off their stilts, vanishing below the trampling feet of the mob. Taark invokes the fiery power of Moradin's forge to blast a gout of fire at three of the stiltwalkers above him, but they avoid the worst of the flame. Nather fires a crossbow at one of the scorched ones, and he is thrown backwards off his stilts with a bolt in his chest. Laurrens, Memnon, and Tilan soon find that the stilts are made of solid, thick wood that resists blows from their metal weapons. Taark gives a hard hammer blow to a stilt, but the stiltwalkers are very skilled at keeping their balance.

The stiltwalkers continue to fire thrown daggers down at the party, who are having a difficult time reaching their assailants through the rushing mob. The acrobat's movement is unhampered though, and she constantly dances through the crowd to harry Nather and Azaad each time they try to escape her. Laurrens finally has some success chopping down one of the stilts with his greatsword, and Memnon and Nather manage to drop the acrobatic assailant with a coordinated onslaught. Moments later the last of the stiltwalkers falls, and the party can already hear the shrill whistles of an approaching squad of guardsmen. Once they've arrived, the party's Tower of Tashluta medals and several witnesses quickly convince them of the party's version of events, and the adventurers are released.

Arriving at the gates of Vanderboren Manor, all seems in place. The peaceful grounds of the stately home are in stark contrast to the noisy scenes of debauchery outside the surrounding walls. Led by Taark, the adventurers approach the front door and let themselves in.

The enormous great hall's marble stonework is smooth and white, but marred by thick streaks of mud. Two oak stairwells with burnished brass railings ascend to an open first-floor landing, where two bulky frog-headed humanoids with mottled green and grey skin stand with longbows. Behind them, tapestries depicting a beautiful and savage frontier of sprawling jungle landscapes and an eerie shoreline hang from the upper landing. At the bottom of the stairs, two more of the frog-like humanoids turn to face the party with wooden spears in hand, and a fifth can be seen lurking in a dark corner behind the stairs.

Memnon shouts a warning to his comrades that the creatures are swamp-dwelling bullywugs, he hustles up the stairs to engage the archers in combat before they can bring their deadly arrows to bear on the party. Nather follows him, while Taark, Tilan, and Laurrens move to engage the creatures on the ground floor. Azaad stays to the rear and takes up a firing position with his crossbow, snapping off a shot at one of the archers before Memnon reaches them. Working together, Nather and Memnon overcome the two archers. The battle downstairs takes longer - the bullywugs are powerful though unsophisticated opponents.

After the battle comes the realization that the party has arrived too late to protect Lavinia from Drevoraz, and the mission has now changed to one of rescue. Putting their heads together, the adventurers go through what they know about the layout of the manor and decide that the first place to look for their patron is the master bedroom on the top floor. From the first floor landing, the party proceed cautiously up a smaller staircase to the top floor, where a grand hallway lined with three pairs of double doors surrounds the open stairs. Moving to the doors that open onto the master bedroom, Nather gives the signal to his companions to be silent and concentrates. He informs the others that he's heard the muffled sounds of oversized feet, and the party take up positions for bursting into the room.

When Taark bashes the door open, the group rush through to find a dark and cloying room. The shutters are all closed, and the air smells of a rank combination of body odour and swamp mud. The desk, chairs, and other furniture in the room have all been draped with white dust covers, giving the chamber the eerie feeling of a tomb. Only the large four-poster bed in the corner has been uncovered - on it lounges a bloated bullywug with sickly yellowish skin and a large sagging throat pouch that sucks and dribbles noisily as the grotesque creature breathes heavily. In the center of the room are four back-to-back chairs holding tied captives - two members of the Jade Ravens adventuring group, the halfling servant Kora Whistlegap, and Lavinia herself. All have been badly beaten, and the two Jade Ravens are unconscious. It's apparent that Kora is dead, from the amount of blood that's spilled from her throat down her front, though Lavinia still lives and is regarding her captors with eyes narrowed in fury. Behind them is a muscular half-orc in studded leather and decorated with numerous tattoos. Between the captives and the party is a line of several spear-wielding bullywugs.

Azaad steps forward to speak, but before he can open his mouth the half-orc raises his scimitar over Lavinia and orders the party to lay down their arms or he'll hack off their pretty employer's head. Azaad attempts to explain that the party was sent by Captain Harliss Javell and that there's a misunderstanding, and that the party seeks revenge upon Vanthus Vanderboren as well. Enraged by the party's refusal to drop their weapons, Drevoraz raises his arm to strike Lavinia. At that moment, Lavinia wriggles free of her bindings and tumbles out of her chair, lunging away from the half-orc pirate's scimitar.

Memnon charges Drevoraz, moving right past the bullywugs before they can react. The digustingly bloated bullywug hops out of the bed and moves to Drevoraz' flank to start a slow, deep rhythmic chanting. Azaad recognizes it as a relatively powerful summoning spell and uses a faster enchantment of his own to momentarily stun the bullywug, disrupting his concentration and ruining the conjuration. He shrieks in a rage "Dagon will take your souls!" - Taark recognizes this as the name of a foul, watery demon lord. Laurrens, Tilan and Taark move up to engage the bullywug guards, in order to clear a path for Lavinia to retreat into the party's ranks for safety. Memnon and Drevoraz are locked in a vicious back-and-forth, inflicting heavy blows on each other, the half-orc leers at him as he says "Dead lubbers tell no tales, ye bilge-sucking addlepate!" At the doorway, Nather hears another door in the hall open and sees several bullywug guards coming to join the battle. He takes up a defensive position to protect Azaad and warns the mage that he can't hold them off for long.

Azaad shouts a warning to Nather who ducks just in time to avoid a blast of brilliantly coloured magical energy that washes over the guards who have just arrived. All the guards but one fall to the ground incapacitated, and Nather leaps into battle to hold him off. Distracted by the reinforcements, Azaad isn't available to counter the bullywug shaman as he begins chanting another summoning spell. With every party member engaged in a furious battle, Taark decides it's up to him and breaks off from the bullywug guard he's fighting to strike at the shaman. His hammer blow falls on the surprised bullywug, disrupting the conjuration a second time, and the creature again screams "The Lord of the Briny Deep will take your soul!"

In the back of the room, Lavinia is ducking and weaving to avoid the battle, still searching for an opening that will allow her to dart across the room to reach the party. Memnon shouts encouragement to her, but he's bleeding heavily from several nasty wounds delivered by Drevoraz' scimitar and is forced to momentarily retreat from the battle to Taark's flank to drink a healing potion. The bullywug shaman retreats from Taark to a better defended position in the rear of the room near Lavinia, and casts a powerful healing spell on Drevoraz. Tilan has dropped the guards he and Laurrens have been fighting, and moves to engage Drevoraz to prevent him from following the badly wounded Memnon. The paladin is hit by a particularly clever upswing from the half-orc that strikes through a weak spot in his armor - already wounded by the bullywug guards, Tilan is dropped by this critical blow. Laurrens rushes to his side with a healing spell that saves his life.

In the back of the room, the shaman starts yet another summoning spell. Taark charges dangerously near Drevoraz' scimitar to attack the shaman, hoping to disrupt the spell, but the effort of avoiding the half-orc's blows spoil his aim. As the spell nears completion, Azaad fires off a volley of magical missiles across the room that slam into the bullywug, ruining the spell. Badly wounded, the creature pulls a potion from a pouch at his hip and drinks it - his wounds are magically healed. On the other side of the room, Drevoraz is now fighting several of the party members and is slowly being beaten back. Lavinia sees her opening and dodges past the chairs holding the unconscious captives to Laurren's side.

Seeing his tribe members dying or unconscious and Drevoraz surrounded, the shaman turns to flee. He runs past Taark, Memnon, and Nather, but none of their attacks can reach him. Leaving Laurrens and the badly wounded Tilan to deal with Drevoraz, Memnon chases after the shaman to prevent him from escaping. Nather also follows - when the bullywug sees that he has no hope of escaping with these two on his tail, he spins and drives his spear into Nather's chest, dropping him. Memnon shouts in outrage and strikes the toad-like creature down with a two-handed thrust of his doru. Drevoraz notes that he's now the only one remaining, and he too chooses to escape. Leaping onto the desk next to the shuttered window, he prepares to burst through when he's dropped by a mighty overhead swing of Laurrens' greatsword.

Lavinia rushes over to the bloodied Memnon and throws her arms around him, delivering a passionate kiss to the surprised warrior. Seeming somewhat surprised herself, she blushes and thanks the adventurers for rescuing her and her companions from a certain death. The party's healers tend to the captives as they are cut loose, though it's far too late for anything to be done for Kora Whistlegap. They explain that they were in the manor's garden when a large number (more than twenty!) of bullywugs burst into the garden from the manor. A fierce battle ensued, during which the Jade Ravens were scattered and lost track of each other. Two Jade Ravens are missing - the sorceress Liamae and the druid Kaskus Kiel. While the group search through the gear of their defeated foes, they make plans for searching the rest of Vanderboren Manor for the missing adventurers. Taark finds an interesting message carried by Drevoraz that he makes a mental note to investigate further.