And the oddities never seem to cease

Very well. We made it back to the airship using word of recall, thankfully avoiding a fight in which we would have been outnumbered hundreds to one....pick your battles carefully and victory will always be in reach. heh..

After some discussion, we conclude that there is a grave keeper who may know of a mausoleum that may be the room our two little quarries are located in. Lady Ann has the airship to an about face and we heard right back to the citadel, making for the graveyard.
Upon arrival, we disembarked the airship and made our way into the graveyard. It was massive. Biggest damn thing I've laid eyes on in...heh.....a long time, lets leave it at that.
The group wound their way towards a rather aornate crypt with a familiar name on it. Semies.....

"You are dead? Or were dead?" , I asked aloud, my eyebrow arching rather high off my forehead...

Well im sure ill find out about all that in due time.....ahem.....
The party makes its way over to another large crypt marked with a family name, "DelCova", and they begin to poke around as if searching for something. Always the odd ones it seems....
The only out of place item is some fresh flowers at the entrance. But other than that, nothing unusual. They continued seeking this gravekeeper to ask about the room of weapons the girls had been envisioned in. We assume it may be a tomb of a great warrior. We approached him outside what would appear to be his dwelling tending to the flowers, and seemingly speaking to someone. As we approach he seems to wrap up his conversation and greets us, rather reservedly. We ask him to commune with the spirits and help us find the two girls. After some very mild reluctance he agrees and walks us over to a group of old cairn stone looking graves. He whispered to the spirits and there were questions posed. The spirits knew of this place but could not tell us where it was. They insisted the girls were safer where they were, and we needed to essentially butt out. After a couple more questions and us not really getting to far, we thanked the tender and departed. On the way out of town many MANY eyes were upon us.....and we made haste to the waiting airship outside the citadel walls. No sooner did we approach the ladder than dozens or were rats came pouring across the field after us. Bastard all to the ninth circle and back...i was already halfway up the blasted ladder...so natch, i made it rain, so to speak....heh...
After vaporizing about half, i began trying to work my way down to the fight, but by the time i hit ground, all but one were dead. : sigh : never can be like the good old days anymore...
Annja had bound him with magic rope and the little bugger was obviously pissed. Kept trying to gnash and bite. So i shoved my Obad-Hai talisman right down his throat. Wish silver hurt em like it used to, but no. he just gagged.
Annja and i dragged his were rat arse up the ladder into the airship where we...ahem...sequestered him in a side room, and fixed him firmly to a support beam.
After that, Ann and I spent some time alone making our...guest...more comfortable....Specifics all aside, we introduced him to pain and then to joy, before realizing he didnt speak a lick of common. Well damn.
Luckily I have a few spells to deal with this problem, and he and i conversed, shortly after i conjured up some food for him. He told us the lycans were consorting with magic users. He then gave a location to where this meeting place was and demanded we set him free. Heh, yeah right.
Eventually we struck a deal, where we give him enough food for a few days, and he leads us to the temple. Fine and dandy, just like candy. Deal.
But first, we need Jules and Garnar. Could prove useful.

:: illegible scribbling and some doodles in the margin of the next page ::

Well we stopped at Bethrengard and i got myself a new icon to replace the one i fed Rat boy, and we got Jules and Garnar on board. We made for the temple and found ourselves in a swampy environ that the airship couldnt travel over. Back to foot work.

:: The next few pages have smelly stains along the edging that resemble rotting algae, and fetid water marks ::

Well we're here. The rat boy led us through the gases, with Garnar keeping a whirlwind around us to keep the worst of them at bay. Once we reached what looked like it may have been ruins, the little informant grew anxious and wanted to leave. Fine. We let him go, and trekked off in the last direction he pointed.
The swamp gas grew thick and fetid. Gods, im never getting this smell off of me....
and we trudged over the soft spongy earth, we could hear.....things...moving around us...and out of (Stupidity) curiosity, we had Garnar blast a wind tunnel out into the murky mists, and immediately wished we hadn't, as it reveals what looks like a treant, but....rotting....pustules and weeping sores, and rotting wood...and just like that it vanishes back into the mists...
And the fire spells are soooo on hand right now...
As with everything, it comes down to an 'eventually'.
Eventually, we find two massive stone pillars rising out of the rotting loamy goodness that makes up the ground.....which in turn leads to a corridor just barely concealed in the mists.
I open up my senses and try to see if there is any magical doom awaiting ahead, and all i see is radiance everywhere.......everything is permeated with magical residue.....as if something titanically powerful washed over everything in this area....
I close off my senses to save my sanity, and we continue through the corridor, with Ann and I in front. Annja picking up on loads of traps that didnt seem to spring.....
Not to far a journey, the corridor opened up in front of a moderate sized ziggurat. Havent seen one of those in awhile.....and the last time was in an ancient tome....never in person....how...odd..
Piles of bones, intact bones, LYCAN bones, lay strewn about and we were very close to one such pile, when it.....activated.
The bones rattling loudly as the skull turned in regard to us, and then the others as well. They all began sliding forward under something elses power, not their own, and took up what appeared to be...royal guards(?) positions on either side of the path that lead to the ziggurats entrance. Spider like creatures retracted webs covering what looked almost like witch light. Well, what the hells....why not? We made our way up and into the massive step pyramid, and followed corridors and passageways as they opened up for us...leading us....deeper inside.
Suddenly, a door opens up in the side of the passageway, and it seems to just beckon us inside...and of course, we go inside...
Im not one for mystery and suspense, so let me be brief about this. Inside was a rather shadowy figure, whom i wouldnt be surprised if he turned out to be an ancient necromancer, kept alive by his own magicks. But to Ladies Ann and Semie, he revealed to them the story of the two angels romance during the war.
But as suddenly as this fellow offered that information, he also told us to leave lest he be found by those that followed us. Followed? Yes followed. They tracked the damn rat.

We hurriedly depart the ziggurat, and leave the courtyard, and as we enter the swamp, it became apparent that we were outnumbered. We could hear many feet tromping through the swamp, and the battle began...

It was Fierce and Fast, and although now it escapes me as to what was said, it does still ring clear, that a necromancers ego is an easy thing to toy with.
Shortly into the fight, i had to cast my Blades Barrier to keep them from sending reinforcements into the fray.
This intrigued the spell caster....or one of them, who attempted, more than once to end my spell, be it by dispel ( which failed ), or by trying to kill me, ( twice ), which also failed.
In the end he sent an assassin to try to dispatch me.
A lycan hurled a satchel of poisons at me and it luckily hit at my feet, but the damage was enough....I called out to Annja for the wand of healing, and did my best to fight on.

However, two of them seemed to stop fighting for a moment...and the voice belonging to our favorite mancer called out " YOU WILL DO AS YOURE TOLD! REMEMBER WHO YOU SERVE! "
.....Hmmm.....

One of the two looked at me and i told him, " You can come with us....or you can die here...your choice "



...."I didnt sign up to die", he said.

And at that, the mancer bellowed out once more, with " TO ME! ". And the other were departed into the mists.

I looked back to the party and told garnar to get us out of here as soon as possible.
As he moved towards a tree, a low chanting rose from the swamp and the lead mancers voice cackled out to us, " You WONT leave the forest alive!! "
The tree opened up and we stepped through to an earthen tunnel....our escape route i would assume....
And in this group it would seem....The oddities never seem to cease......