A recounting of what passed for those who were not there.

The party talked to both the city of Beryl and the Black Company about a number of topics. The city had no items that we were looking for, and no interest in us being in the city any longer. The Black Company couldn't provide any training or items, but they did provide us a liaison to their group; a soldier (Rich's new character) with a unique crossbow with incredible range for use in removing enemy officers in the midst of battle.

Before leaving the city, the shaman summoned some spirits for those who needed any, but when he tried to restock his supply of earth elementals, he ran into the beginning of his troubles with summoning on this world. A 37 cubic meter gnome forced his way into the summoning circle and "asked" for a donation in magic points.

The next day we headed out of town, soon stopping at a county fair to acquire horses and a wagon for the journey north. Our sorcerer merchant began negotiations with a well-skilled bargainer. Negotiations were not going in our favor, but it became obvious that only the sorcerer missed the signs of the mid-bargaining aneurysm that his opponent had. The party got better than it could have hoped, but let the sorcerer think he had wasted the 20,000 lunars spent on mounts with combat training, saddles, tack, fodder, wagon and 4 jackasses, one of which was about to foal. Everyone mounted up and the Great Troll, eager for his first driving lesson, climbed into the wagon, which protested the abuse through ominous groans.

Not too many nights later, the pregnant jackass began to have her baby. One of the Humakti (Keith's character) was pressed into service as mid-wife, delivering a foal that periodically appeared to shift in shape for a fraction of a second such that the party wasn't sure if it was really happening or was a trick of the eye. After the birth, the shaman detected something powerful inbound, circling the party in a counterclockwise manner. Calling out to the entity, he discovered that this creature was a Pooka, a nature spirit of this world, and the foal was his offspring. Asked of the party's intentions to the child, the shaman replied that unless the Pooka claimed the child, the party would raise it and train it for mightiness. The Pooka extracted a promise not to enslave the foal in addition to what the shaman declared and the Pooka gave the Humakti mid-wife a gift for his services. The gift was one use of a pooka-like multiform at need. The Pooka left with a "Thanks Toots" to the jackass and the party considered the long-eared, supernatural addition to the group that we soon dubbed, "Pooky."

The party makes it way to Topaz, and it appears that our reputation earned at Beryl has preceded us. The city tells us how they are threatened by the "Ladies of the Forest" and asks the party's help in destroying the threat to the city. They offer us 70,000 pieces of silver, but Head Humakti (Dwayne's character) tells them that we don't need money but what we do need is magic items. The city is unable or reluctant to give us what we requested in exchange for killing the Ladies of the Forest so the party proceeds north after the Afijani sorcerers.  Soon we cross the paths of riders fleeing south back to city, racing before a fog that is streaming out of the forest and heading for Topaz.  As there is no way around the creeping fog towards our goal, the party heads back to Topaz to try to strike whatever bargain we can to get some pay for something that we will have to do anyway. Unfortunately, the fog is moving faster then we are capable it is obvious that the confrontation will be on our lunars and not the city's silver pieces.

Striding through the fog are three ladies that approach the party. They tell a tale of a bargain that was made many years ago between them and the city of Topaz. Topaz was given the crown of the forest, but had not returned it as was the age-old deal. The ladies were coming to the city to take the crown back. When the Head Humakti and worshipper of the justice god Maat perceived the oathbreaking aspect of this situation, he performed a ceremony to Maat to ask for a ruling. Maat declared the town oathbreakers and the party agreed to go back to Topaz to get and return the crown to its rightful owners. The ladies offered us 3 "Earth Blood"
potions as payment for our services. Instructions were given to not use the potions "while standing in sea water or in bare feet upon the ground." The potions are said to be able to heal anything, "not just physical damage." Leaving Pooky and the some of the party behind with the ladies, the two Humakti, the Black Company liaison, the 6 remaining trollkin standard bearers, the last two Spartans and the Great Troll shaman strode out of the fog before the city and approached the gates of Topaz..

As our "heroes" approached the city, the party could see a number of mercenary companies in front of the city of Topaz.  Some appeared to be trying to bargain their way into the city and others appeared to have accepted a contract with the city; one a group of knights and more lightly armored lancers, one other a group of halberdiers. The two Humakti and the Black Company man approached for a parley while the shaman, trollkin and Spartans remained back near the fog. Talking to the leader of the mercenary company in employ, the Head Humakti explained the reason that the ladies of the forest had issue with the city leaders. The mention of oathbreaking especially concerned the mercenaries in light of their contracts with Topaz. The leader's lieutenant mounted up and rode back to the waiting city leaders to tell them why our company was arrayed before the city and question them about their transgression with the spirits.

At this point things deviated from expectations. The city leaders decided to try and bolster their defenses by offering a large sum of gold to a mercenary company without contract. Head Humakti shouted to the Black Company man to take down the mercenary leader in a not so subtle attempt to persuade them to stay out of the situation. The crossbow twanged and struck the leader in the arm outstretched for the gold. With the leader collapsing unconscious after being struck at a range not normally possible his group wavered and decided to see how things played out. The city man hurried back towards the gate and into the city along with any who could get in after ordering the contracted troops to attack.  The negotiating leader, reacting to an apparent breach of etiquette drew steel and attacked. His lieutenant hearing the commotion, reined in his horse, turned and prepared a charge. The shaman wondering what had happened nevertheless ordered the trollkin and Spartans forward to the others to maximize our defensive position.

Parley-ending combat took place as the banner guard moved into position to form a shield wall as the knights formed up for a charge. Quickly our trio overcame the two mercenaries in close combat and the Black Company man ducked the charge of the lieutenant while frantically cranking the uber-crossbow and then shot him out of the saddle.

The training of the trollkin must have paid off as they made the shield wall although the second Humakti almost tripped everyone up. One end of the wall was anchored by the Black Company man with set spear and the other end by the Humakti leadership tandem, the trollkin and Spartans in the middle with the Great Troll behind. As the knights charged, the shaman released his last gnome in front of our line although it took a bit of liberty with its position settling off center to right side of our formation.

With instructions to trip anything that crosses over it the gnome did a wonderful job of taking out 5 of the 10 charging knights, killing all but 2 of the knights outright. The right half of our line was clear, but the left had to accept the charge. Humakti 2 cast fanaticize successfully on a number of the charging knights in a not so intuitively obvious move to limit their defensive capability. As the knights crashed into the line, one trollkin was struck down as a knight leaped the line, but the remainder could not penetrate the party's wall and most became pinned under their mounts before our weapons. The Great Troll moved to intercept the remaining knight, and struck him off his horse with one blow of the Frost Hammer. Humakti 2 finished the last of the knights before the line.

By the time that the dust settled and the noise faded, the gnome had pulled the corpses under the surface and the shield wall successfully closed its gap. The next line of lighter armored cavalry, upon seeing the lack of effect or even any of the knights in the prior charge, failed their morale and routed towards the city. Before we could get into the city the gates were closed leaving the unaffiliated mercenaries and us on the outside of the wall. Humakti 2 was left to advance within shouting distance of the gate to repeat our demands. The sudden breakdown in talks had allowed no one now inside Topaz to know of their leader's failure to live up to the bargain struck with the Ladies of the Forest. The city remained closed to us, so the party plotted to remove the obstacle of the gate. The shaman rejected releasing his bound fear spirits and shade into the city without a concrete purpose as a waste of resources that he might not be able to replace until a return to our world. In the end, the party decided to cast protective battle magic and sorcery on the gnome at hand and send it against the gate. The gnome gave a valiant effort, but could not bring down the gatehouse before being destroyed.

With no back-up plan, it was left to the shaman to attempt the summoning of another gnome to try to finish the job. Given his previous problem with summoning gnomes in this world, the shaman returned to the fog generated by the Ladies, hoping that the summoning would be more favorable within. Those who had remained in the fog with Pooky cleared out of the area...just in case. This summoning proceeded like the first, an exceedingly powerful earth spirit answered the Great Troll's call. Calling out in spirit speech, the shaman asked the spirit to knock down the gate to the city in exchange for sharing in the payment that the Ladies had given us. The spirit took 2 of the powerful Earth Blood potions and began to spin into the ground becoming something not unlike a whirlpool in the earth. The spirit raced for the gatehouse with barely enough time for Humakti 2 to get out of the path of destruction. The spirit hit the gatehouse and it disintegrated in a massive explosion. Somewhere about this time the all-out panic started in Topaz for some reason. The party raced through the gate and headed for the docks to cut-off fleeing city leaders.

It turned out that we were too late to prevent the escape of the merchant guild leaders of the city. A delegation of independent crafters met our party and presented us with a letter. Reading the letter we discovered two things; (1) the leaders fled because they couldn't meet our demands as the crown had been sealed in the lower levels of the citadel within the tomb of a dominator-era warlord, and (2) the city was ours to do with or rule as we wished.

As the reality of the situation started to sink in, the party took stock of its options. A people's committee had gathered and began petitioning efforts. Looting and the fleeing merchants had removed easy wealth from our grasp if we chose to put the town to the fist. A numerically superior collection of mercenary companies milled about the open space between the city walls and the fog encircling the land about the city guaranteeing a minimum of time to decide our path. Our true purpose for being in this world ultimately decided that which the party would do. The party could not afford to stay in Topaz as long as the Afanjani sorcerers still breathed and plotted against our community.

One of the first actions was to barricade the breach in the walls and come to a reasonable set of terms with the mercenaries outside. Trade with the companies was started over the makeshift fortifications and small numbers of soldiers were allowed into the city for short durations. As the panic died down, the town began to take on a semblance of normalcy. The party worked with the people's committee to provide a smooth transition for their ascent into rule of Topaz, which was to no longer be called Topaz but something else that was still to be determined as the party turned its attention to the citadel.

Without the crown, the fog and the Ladies of the Forest remained exactly where they had settled, raising the tension level of the city despite our better efforts. It became clear that the party would have to broach the depths of the citadel soon. A quick search of the citadel revealed that anything that wasn't bolted down had been removed during the flight of the merchants and subsequent looting, and it was possible to get the townsfolk to show us the entrance to the depths of the citadel. Once again stone and mortar barred our access from our goal.

The party decided to split its forces, despite the danger. One half would penetrate the wall and go for the crown and the other half would try to keep the lid on the city until crown was in the hands of the spirits. Fearing nothing while within the aegis of Gil-Galad's banner, the trollkin guards and Spartans took formation at the rear of the assault group. After a check on the wall for wards, magical power or spirits the assault group quickly knocked an opening and stepped within.

As the glow from the banner and sound of footsteps faded into darkness and silence, those of the party that remained behind stood watch at the entrance wishing perhaps that they could have been chosen to go below and earn a bit of glory in the name of the party. After a time, as they turned away to go out into the city something odd caught their attention. A noise rose from the darkness, reverberating off the walls.

It sounded of one man, or perhaps many, screaming in agony. It sounded like someone you know. As the scream droned on, those at the entrance felt a vibration thrum through the massive quantities of stone beneath their feet. Wizened in the ways of adventuring, the half of the party still above could sense the impending arrival of the magical pressure wave from below. And over the hoarse screams coming from below, faintly could be heard, "FREE, FREE!"