The group left Nol, spending the first day walking north through the clear terrain outside of Nol, then heading east down the ring road once they had reached it. Tallow, using the skills he had learned to stay inconspicous, lagged behind the party to watch for any suspisious activity. Sure enough, another party of Kethemers mounted and started after his friends in a way that suggested something other than coincidence.

Tallow shadowed them until nightfall, then moved off the road to the south to circle around the group. He saw a fire to the north of the road and stayed well clear of it. Working his way though the scrub brush and uneven but fortunately flat terrain in the dark was difficult and time consumming, but he finally felt like he could return to the road after several hours of cautious walking. To the east, he saw nothing. Thinking about it, he suddenly realized that he was already past where his friends should have stopped for the night The light dawned, and he made his way quietly back to the campfire. It was his friends.

Later that night, the sentries, alerted by Tallow, heard horses passing in the dark on the road.

The next day, they began walking with a man on point to watch for possible ambush. Suddenly, in the distance ahead of them, they saw an individual who appeared to be unconcious in the middle of the road. Recognizing this as a trap set by the previous night's riders, the group left the road and approached the area with extreme caution. As a result, they were able to ambush the ambushers, ripping the other party apart before they had a chance to mount an effective defense. Most of the opposing force was killed. Three of them got away, and from a distance several of the friends recognized the tall, hulking form of Bearclaw.

The best was yet to come; Bearclaw's group had dismounted and tethered their horses just up the road from the ambush site, and the party now had mounts that would speed their travel enormously.

Later on, the party came across a lone man walking along the road. They rapidly came to the conclusion that this was one of Bearclaw's henchmen. Rather than kill him, they sent him back to Nol with the word that Bearclaw was a liar, a cheat, and a backstabber.

After a few days, the group of friends were as far east as they needed to go. It was time to cut north, overland, to reach Veskavar the dragon. It would also take them near the old teleportal site, and possible news of the group of Ibisi that had been spying on it. They had suddenly stopped sending back information two weeks before.

The party ran into a group of Vulf tribesmen, who warned them that something very strange was happening up north. They spoke of an entire tribe of 200-300 people disappearing. Was there a connection with the ancient Chen Kunda ruins the group had discovered during their last trip this way? Or did it have something to do with the teleportal? Or both? It was not clear, but the decision to skirt that area was made.
As the party reached the foothills that fell between the Kodor, Vulf, and Sherevar tribes, the party had several night encounters with mounted Ibisi. The Ibisi avoided any direct contact with the group, however, even after Arab Mycain called out to them as a friend. Arab Mycain and Arab Myina were puzzled. It seemed like it must be the Sherevar, the Horse tribes, but the Sherevar were a friendly people, and almost always would stop to talk, or at least check out, wandering parties in their territory. "Something terrible must have happened to them" said Arab Mycain.

The party continued northward. Legum shielded his eyes from the ten foot tall, blazing neon sign that said "EXTREME DEADLY DANGER AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION, OR BETTER YET, GO HOME". "Probably some Ibisi's idea of a joke" Legum muttered under his breath.

That night, with standard watch rotations set up, and no special precautions taken when setting up camp, the two people on watch heard sounds approaching. They began to wake up the party when a group of Urakai, most of them bleeding and burnt severly from some previous battle, ran into the group. The fight was instant and deadly. After it was over, the Urakai had lost, but at the cost of the lives of Hammerhand, Nial, and El wood.

Jake was able to talk with the Urakai, who seemed friendly with Jake. The Urakai explained the condition of his party. They had been attacked two weeks previously by a group of Chen Kunda - one adult and many adolescents - when the teleportal was activated by the Urakai chief at the other end. Clearly, the Chen Kunda had planned on attacking at this particular moment while the gate was open. Taken by surprise, the Urakai lost a large number of warriors, and broke and scattered. The Urakai did not know whether the Chen Kunda had taken the teleportal, or if it was open long enough for the Chen Kunda to get through or not.

It took a week and a half for the Urakai to regroup. Then, they had counterattacked. The charge was short, and not at all sweet. Dead medium-size Chen Kunda littered the area, and the surprised Urakai found themselves fighting twelve to fifteen foot tall jet black humanoids. These things appeared unharmed by Urakai battlemagic, and attacked with two swords many, many times each melee round. They were surrounded by a blue glow, and Urakai in combat with them received horrible burns from small, jagged lightning bolts every melee round they were in combat. The entire party of Urakai, numbering about twenty in all, was crushed in a matter of a few melee rounds. The nine badly damage Urakai that had run into the party, who were the lower level, less capable Urakai and thus had made up the second rank, were the only survivors.

While questioning the Urakai, another Kethemer, Galrog, joined the party. He explained that he had been captured by Urakai and was a slave. He escaped when the Chen Kunda attacked and had been wandering until he found them.

While the party was traveling the next day, strange storm clouds rolled over the area and Arab Mycain and Arab Myina were hit by strange lightning bolts from the sky. Arab Mycain was unconcious for most of the day, then woke with a burning desire to return to Nol.

The group decided that their best option was to make a hard charge back to Nol, trying to skirt the Chen Kunda ruins as quickly and quietly as possible. Unfortunately, they were ambushed just on the far edge of the plains surrounding the Chen Kunda ruins. Arab Mycain saved them at the cost of his life.

The group continued along. Another wandering Kethemer joined them, Anthrax. Anthrax had been a hired guard on a trade mission to the Vulf tribes. The mission had been over run by Tuga tribesman, and Anthrax had barely escaped with his life.

The party reached the ring road, and was making good time to Bythe, when they were joined by yet another wandering Kethemer. This one, Nazar Lean, was returning from a disasterous expedition to the Kirander. He simply asked to join the group until they reached Nol. The group agreed.

The next day on the road, the party ran into a high ranking Kethemer woman, Catherine Belgi. She was the daughter of Dano Belgi, leader of External Affairs for Trusk hold in Bythe. She had been leading the trading expedition that Anthrax was guarding.

They also ran into a Vodan cleric, , who decided to join the group. He told everyone that all shipping from Kethem had suddenly, and without warning, stopped arriving at Nol. He also told them that the strange lightning that had struck Myina and Mycain had also rained down on all the Ibisi in Nol, who were now gathering together to rush to the aid of the Kazanti, the tribes being overrun with Chen Kunda to the north west of Nol.
The next day, they ran into a group of eight armed men on horseback. They insisted that they had been sent by Dano Belgi to rescue Catherine. The party refused to give her up, and a fight ensued. The party was victorious, although the fifth level fighter leading the group did escape. Questioning one of the prisoners revealed that Lord Montor had hired them to capture Catherine for unknown reasons.

Finally, battle weary, the party arrived in Nol.