What has gone before #4 June 16th
The party rode their horses into the foothills surrounding Nostrilia at a trot. It was hoped that speed would allow penetrating through any goblin parties before the goblins could react. It didn't work. As the party exited a gully the small figures of goblins with crossbows and axes appeared on the three hills in front of them. The encounter was too sudden to allow retreat, and the party hastily galloped to high ground in order to secure a tactical advantage. It became apparent that the goblins were not aggressive, however. A read/speak languages spell allowed communication with the goblins on a rudimentary level, and the party traded several hundred silver for six flasks of "goblin brew", which the goblins associated with "green death". It could not be determined if the brew caused death or saved one from it, but it seemed like a reasonable investment. The party also received a stone with a symbol on it that provided safe passage through the rest of the foothills.
It took roughly half a day to reach the first view of devastated Nostrilia. The consensus was for a hard charge into the city, again with the hope of bypassing any conflict. Fra Rentec removed a wand, an amulet, a single bracer with six inset gems, and six unmounted gems. The unmounted gems he distributed to the party. According to Rentec, three would produce 20 foot radius fireballs when thrown and the other three would produce a 10 foot radius circle of fire for about four minutes. The party mounted and charged into the city.
As they approached the large building that Fra Rentec identified as their destination, the group was surprised to see Arab Mycain and the other Ibisi waving from down an alley, yelling that there was danger ahead. Convinced that this was a trick of some kind, the group ignored it. Suddenly, two powerful cats bounded from the protection of a nearby ruin. "Shadow cats" screamed Fra, twisting around to release a fireball centered on the foremost cat. Guido recognized the name; these were the familiars of the mysterious Myshavar tribe. The fireball caused the second cat to go down in a smoldering ball of feline barbecue, but the first wasn't even scorched. Ziwa and Rocky jumped from the horses to intercept the threat. As the cat closed, however, it vanished from sight as if disintegrated. The frenzied neigh of a horse caused the two to spin around in time to see the cat barrel into the horse, neatly breaking its neck. Two more cats sprung from the same ruins, and all thought turned to survival. The party sprinted for the unknown cover provided by the castle in front of them, fortunately only loosing one more horse in the strategic retreat. The castle had a rotting drawbridge; one more horse was lost as it tumbled into the moat. It never surfaced again, but a spreading red slick on the water was enough to spell out its unhappy fate. A quick scan of the inside courtyard was attempted. This caused an apparition of a attractive young woman to appear. She spoke in the same language as the goblins, which appeared to be a degenerate form of the same language the Tawhiem tribes used. Fra Rentec cast a more powerful read/speak languages spell and translated:
"Welcome to Nyhist castle. Please be warned that automatic defenses are up and any offensive magic in the perimeter of the castle is strictly prohibited. Have a nice day"
The group followed the outside of the castle until reaching the secret door spoken of in Salask's diary. Fra Rentec cast a powerful knock spell that failed to do more that make a slight noise. Disappointed but determined, he insisted that they would have to find a way in from the inside of the castle. The party reluctantly followed. The inside courtyard was in ill repair. The only thing not showing decay was four stone statues of warriors just inside the entrance. As the party started to explore the courtyard, two more shadow cats attacked. Fra fireballed the two with no apparent affect. Everyone paused to weigh the advantages of running or taking on the beasts. Suddenly the statues began to move. Once again, a strategic retreat seemed called for. The party ran up a decaying staircase. Two of the statues headed for the cats, who were just as determined about catching the horses now running abandoned and free in the courtyard. As a statue headed up the stairs, Fra released another fireball, collapsing the rotting wood and causing the heavy golem to crash to the ground. It stood without apparent damage, and the party moved into the interior of the castle quickly.
A search of the immediate rooms resulted in finding a pile of gold down a corridor. Everyone laughed and ignored it. Later, however, they felt the need to search the corridor. Rolling old wooden barrels down the corridor resulted in a strange green smoke that enveloped the point men. One luckily dogged out of the way, but Rocky was overcome. He twisted horribly, and appeared to be dying. Jake decided that there was nothing to loose, and poured a bottle of the "goblin brew" down Rocky's throat. Rocky immediately felt better other that a horrible taste in his mouth. No further serious encounters occurred, although the group was successful in finding some bottles of wine that still appeared to be drinkable. A detect magic was cast, and three bottles turned out to be something more that simple wine. Finally, the secret door down to the weapons cache was discovered.

As the party headed down a long corridor leading under the castle, the stone golems appeared behind them. Rocky attacked the golem, and was smashed to a pulp in two rounds. The rest of the party selected yet another strategic retreat, using a pit trap to isolate themselves from the golems. The pit trap originally contained a undead of some sort, but Fra fried it with a flame bolt from his wand. In the meantime Ziwa used the ability of Facinalethvree, her sword, to gain access to the shadow land and thus recover Rocky's bleeding and unconscious body. The party conducted a quick search of the area of rooms they found themselves in. The rooms contained many skeletons, apparently people who dropped dead in the midst of normal activities. One room, however, had a skeleton with a silver cup containing a candle in it. The individual was apparently intending to place it on the one point of a pentacle that was not currently occupied by four other silver cups with candles. The group took the cups. A prison area was also found. Long thin skeletons spoke of elves locked away to die from starvation or something worse. Finally, a weapons cache was discovered. The swords and other personal weapons were rusted beyond use, but a table in the back of the room contained a single large crystal that Fra Rentec Identified as a STAM crystal. He told everyone to clear the room as he disarmed any remaining spells left in it. As everyone waited anxiously outside, a bright flash occurred with a horrible scream of pain. Bursting into the room revealed an empty table and no Fra Rentec.
Convinced that Fra had teleported out and left them in the lurch, the party continued searching the area. Smashing in the door of a room that had been bypassed in the original rush into the complex, Legum was horrified to be confronted with rotting corpse like creatures. He attacked aggressively, but one hit caused him to collapse, unmoving. Guido and Jake also went down, paralyzed by the touch of the living dead. Use of the fireball gems and swordplay ended the attack, but little was left of the party. The few mobile members sheathed weapons, picked up the the bodies, and headed for the outside. Fortunately, the shadow cats were nowhere to be seen, and the weary group escaped the now terrifying ruins. As they exited the pile of ruble that was once city walls, they spotted another party approaching from the west. Convinced that it was the KNI expedition that Fra said would be following, the group turned north and headed for goblin foothills. They camped out that night without incident.
June 17th
The next day two of the paralyzed members of the group recovered. Guido, however, had taken a turn for the worst. It looked unlikely that he would survive much longer. Forging on lead to the expected encounter with goblins. The goblins used drawings and sign language to explain that they had been attacked by fourteen Urakai during the previous day. This was the group that had been entering Nostril ia as they exited. The party bartered for a boat and a week's food and water, intending to cross the river into the elvish forest. The goblins agreed, but indicated that death waited in the forest. Frustrated with their inability to communicate with the goblins, but concerned that the Evael forest might contain more than elves, it was decided to head down river. The shallow but long canoe slipped through the water with the group anxiously scanning the west bank of the river as they passed the ruins of Nostrilia, but no signs of the Urakai or any other life form was spotted. They decided to camp for the night on the west bank, staying away from the Evael.
June 18th
The next -day was spent making good time on the river. As night approached however a difficult choice appeared. The river snaked its way through Smagean, where Veskavar, the ancient dragon, ruled. The stories of the Dragonnewt attack on the Tagyer tribesmen during their journey north made entering the city appear less than exciting. The choice was to port the canoe over miles of open fields to circle Smagean to the west, or to attempt to sneak around the outskirts of the ruins on the east side of the river, hoping that the bridge connecting the Evael and Tawhiem sides was unused by Veskavar's dragonnewts. The east side was selected, as Guido's health was failing rapidly, and the party quietly dragged the canoe ashore into the ruins. As night fell on, they set watches and fell into an uneasy slumber, full of dreams of death in the ruins of a once proud city. During the third watch the party was surrounded and taken prisoner by a group of twenty dragonnewts.
June 19th
The rising sun broke over the bone weary and defeated group as they approached Veskavar's palace. The dragonnewts were singularly uncommunicative, and the fate of the party remained uncertain. Inside the palace, the bits and pieces of ancient artifacts stood stacked like storm tossed debris against the walls of the old building. A single human-made shield containing a symbol of a sword jammed through a tree stood in one corner. The party was lead up a spiral staircase. Huge double doors opened into a great hall occupied by seventy feet of massive blue dragon. One eye the size of a dinner plate opened slowly to gaze on the humans. The trembling humans fell to their knees and cried for mercy. "Don't grovel" shouted Veskavar, "I hate people who grovel!".
A short time later, the story had been told. Veskavar had been captured from his home by the Chen Kunda. He was supposed to assist in the attack on Smagean, for which he would receive passage back. He refused, and settled in the ruins after the Chen Kunda had sacked it. Since then, he had been looking for a key to the Chen Kunda teleportals since they would not work without one. After five hundred years, he had lost hope as he settled into old age and rapidly approaching death. Then some Urakai had attacked the dragonnewts. Normally peaceful, they had responded in kind and brought two prisoners to Veskavar. He had questioned them and determined that the Urakai had used the teleportal, although it was unclear whether the ones that escaped had the key or if it was back at the home base of the Urakai. He had searched in vain for the Urakai, using the dragonnewts to question travelers and his own powers to try to find them more directly. The conflict with the Tayger had been accidental, more from their surprise at seeing the Dragonnewts outside of Smagean than from any hostility on the Dragonnewt's part.

The party suggested that a key might be found in the Chen Kunda breeding area they had found. Veskavar became convinced, and had the group mount his back. In a half day, they covered what had taken six full days with horses. Veskavar revealed unbelievable power by blasting a tunnel into the central room to the Cften Kunda lair that the party had been unable to penetrate. Inside they found eight giant bathes full of the same fluid used to preserve the eggs, and in each bath was a full grown Chen Kunda. Veskavar waved his hand; seven of the bathes exploded in flame and ruin. The last Chen Kunda was removed from the fluid alive. It began twitching feebly as Veskavar shook it from side to side in one might claw. Veskavar and the Chen Kunda conversed in a language that could not be understood. Mr. Magoo cast read/speak languages just in time to hear Veskavar roar "WE HAD A DEAL!!!" as he tossed the hapless Chen Kunda against the wall with enough force to splatter it all over the room. Veskavar rapidly regained his temper, however, and turned back to the party. He held no grudge, since they had attempted to help. Veskavar took his leave with a final statement; if the group could find the key to the Chen Kunda teleportal and return it to him, he would make them rich'beyond their wildest dreams.
The remaining Chen Kunda preservation fluid was used to pickle Guido, since it appeared that the hobbit's death was very close, and the party continued on to Nol.
June 26th
The party arrived in Nol without incident. The Kethem heavy merchant Go Fer Broke and the Free Trader Backbumer were due into port in three or four days. The delight over surviving the unexpectedly deadly expedition began to give way to a new apprehension as the confrontation with the Kethem Naval Intelligence began to approach....