After their morning repast the group decided to head off around the town while they waited for their evening appointment. First they went to investigate a faen bar that Kiar had been in the night before. At this time of the morning, it was rather quiet and the group quickly moved on to the Verrik enclave. Here they found that the Verrik were the ones who lived in the orderly rows of stone built houses that they had seen the previous day. They found what seemed to be an inn, and although its doors were wide open, it was being aired, rather than being open for business. Its few tables were empty and some of the stools were upturned. Seeking more interesting entertainments, the party removed themselves and headed back towards the market square. There they came upon a crowd who were agitatedly discussing a notice that had been posted on the wall of the well chamber. Pushing forward, they saw that a reward had been posted for the apprehension of two bandit spies who had been identified by one of the caravan guards. Interested parties should contact the Peacekeeper.
The three promptly forgot about their previous interests and headed straight for the barracks. There they met with Mynorath the Peacekeeper. He greeted them and told them that one of the guards that they had brought back from the caravan attack had recovered sufficiently to identify two of his attackers as residents of Gahanis. One was known as being a scribe, Den Rudiger, the other was a snake totem warrior called Merril Yannis. Due to the upcoming Bounty Day festival that was due to begin in two weeks and that bandit activity had increased in the area in general, Mynorath felt that he could not spare the men to search for these two. So, the reward had been posted. It was believed that the bandits might be hiding in the Battlehome a fortress that the giants built to defend the area during their battles with the dramojh. The group left the Peacekeeper and headed back towards the market. On their way through the square, they were approached by a flamboyantly dressed, very cheerful verrik. Qzyid did not seem to be terribly impressed. The verrik turned out to be called Nefenr and he offered the group the chance to relive one of their memories in the form of a memory sculpture. Arric was fascinated by this and readily agreed. Soon the whole group could see the three bandits that had attacked the party moving and acting as they did by the roadside. Unfortunately the display lasted only a few minutes. They thanked Nefenr and moved on.
Deciding against heading straight off to the Battlehome the three rested and relaxed for the rest of the day before their appointment with the Jaren. When they arrived at the warehouse at the designated time the three spotted another verrik also waiting to go in. This person was about five feet tall with white hair and the normal crimson skin of the verrik. He introduced himself as Zadadir, a traveller from the south. He said that he had also received the dream message from the Jaren. He walked into the warehouse ahead of the other three, with a long staff in his left hand. Once inside the main warehouse door was closed behind them. After a few moments in darkness a door before them opened revealing a room, which was dimly lit. At the rear of the chamber stood, or maybe, hovered, a figure matching the visions they had all shared. The figure behind the mask gestured for them to sit in the chairs that were arrayed before it. It transpired that the Jaren Guildmaster wished for the return of the two bandits just as the Peacekeeper did, but that he also had a more pressing concern; an item was stolen in the raid that the Jaren wanted to have returned to them. Once the group accepted the assignment the Guildmaster gave them details of the item, a book, the Inmagus Libellum. The Jaren were mostly concerned with the secrecy of their enterprise and this was stressed to the four adventurers. Happy enough with the charge that they had been given, the four left the warehouse together, Zadadir deciding to change his lodging to the giant run inn that the others were staying in.
Next morning the group set out early and by a circuitous route began heading south towards the Battlehome. Kiar suddenly realised that they might need a permit to enter an ancient place from the time of the dramojh, but they all decided against obtaining one. After a pleasant walk through some low hills the group could see that they were approaching the Battlehome. Just before they entered a gully that would lead them to the entrance, they spotted a human sitting meditating on a hill before it. It transpired that he was an artist by the name of Howorand Sala who had been commissioned to paint some views of the Battlehome. His patron, Nefenr had given him a memory stone to record his experiences so that he would not have to actually paint there. This small blue stone was hovering over his left palm. He asked whether any of the group would be willing to carry it with them into the fortress so that he could have impressions of the inside of the structure to draw from, as he was much to careful of his own health to try this himself. Zadadir would not consider this without payment, but Howorand pleaded poverty and they parted without agreement on the matter.
Descending the gully, the party arrived at a flat stony area at the foot of Veil Mountain. Before them was a massive cave sealed by a long wall of stone across the lower half of the opening and covered by a latticework of stone spans across the upper half. Massive gates stood precisely in the centre of the stone wall. Two towers flanked this gate rising to the height of the latticework above. On closer inspection, the tower on the left had a smaller door at its base. Heading straight for this, the group saw that this entrance was chained and padlocked. The padlock had a stylised G engraved on it and there was a notice mounted on the wall, which warned trespassers that a permit was required for entry. Kiar picked the lock. The door opened into the bottom of the tower, which had a wide stair spirally upwards around the wall, there was no other exit. Carefully, the group started their ascent, when they got up to the next level they could see a walkway extending along over the gate towards the next tower. This had murder holes set into it. This walkway reached beyond both towers to the ends of the wall where it met the wall of the cavern. They could see spiral staircases of iron leading up and down.
They went up to the next level, which was at the top of the solid wall. Here, small winged leathery creatures, that they nicknamed Dark Scamps, attacked them. There were four of these creatures, which flew down from above, swiping at them with their claws as they passed. Qzyid was sorely wounded by two fly bys. Zadadir had to use his Lesser Battle Healing to allow him to stand again. Eventually they were finished off by Arrics sling and Kiars quick sword. They paused a moment after the combat for Qzyid to call upon the power of the green and for the others to survey the cavern below them. The major feature was a central stone pillar which rose high above their present position. It seemed to be floored on the inside as it had regular rectangular openings around and along its surface, the purpose of which the group could not fathom. This vantage was not enough for them, so they proceeded up the iron stairs to the third and fourth landings. Each held little interest apart from a better perspective on the cavern, though now they could discern strange metal poles of varying thicknesses and lengths descending vertically from the ceiling. They did figure out that the levels of the landings corresponded to the levels of the openings in the tower. They had not yet investigated the tower on the other side of the gate, so they entered this at the upper level and descended the ramp. At the bottom they found a dead human who had been partially eaten (probably by the scamps, if the teeth marks were anything to go by). His brigandine armour did not conceal the fact that he had probably been dead for two weeks or more. The group left him lying there.
When they reached the floor of the cavern for the first time they looked for tracks on the floor, but the ventilation of the chamber must have been too vigorous for dust to gather. They headed for a room set into the left hand wall of the cavern that they had seen from above. The door was padlocked and also inscribed with the G symbol they had seen before. Kiar picked this lock too. The ten foot square room beyond had a rune engraved in the centre of the floor. Arric thought that it was a rune affecting movement. Qzyid thought that he would test this by dropping the dead human that they discovered onto the rune, but the bodies of the scamps that had fallen to the floor of the cavern were a handier tool. Once dropped onto the rune, the body of the scamp disappeared. That was enough information for the group, so they turned and headed for the other side of the cavern where a flat roofed area covered the space between the tower and the right hand wall of the cavern. Here they found a building that must have been the stables for the radonts, the mounts of the giants. They also found what might have been a smithy and a well. Coiled up in the hearth of the smithy they found a long knotted rope attached to a grappling hook. They reasoned that this was probably used for going down the well, so they lowered a lantern on the rope down the well to see where it led. Qzyid was able to tell them that the well was dry when he leant over the edge and examined it. The lantern light revealed a natural cavern extending beyond the foot of the well some eighty feet below.
The central tower was their next goal. They went to the double doors at its base, which faced the massive doors in the front wall. They opened these and found that the room beyond was semi-circular with another set of double doors immediately opposite. A large bar of metal was propped against a nearby wall; apart from this the room was empty. They opened the central double doors. These led into another semi-circular room with double doors on the outside wall opposite as well as a stone spiral staircase immediately to the right of the group. Again, the rest of this room was featureless. The party decided to go up the stairs, at the top of which, forty feet further up they found themselves in a circular room. The centre of this room had a larger spiral staircase, again of stone, leading upwards. Ten feet above the floor in the northern wall a six-foot square window looked out over the main gates. Just to the right of this window a five foot high stone pedestal had a lever emerging from the top. The lever was in a vertical position. To the south wide openings led out onto catwalks over the walls of a courtyard behind the tower. The group went up the stairs to the next level where they found a number of pedestals around the outer rim of room. Each of the eight bore a rune, which Arric identified as being some form of safe falling magic. No exits existed here apart from the staircase winding up, which the group took. The next level had openings at the cardinal compass points; here they could see some of the thickest poles that they had seen earlier, descending to this level. They could see that they were at the same level as one of the ramparts opposite. The stairway continued upwards, so they took that route. The room above was like the one below except that the openings were on the diagonal, and that there were animal and human bones scattered over the floor. A number of square metal plates lay scattered across the floor, each of which had a rune etched into its surface. Arric said that this also had to do with safe fall magic. On the next floor, the top floor, they discovered the lair of the dark scamps. It was full of the debris and detritus of their kills. A thorough search of the area turned up some coin for each of the group as well as a shield for Kiar. This level also had openings at the cardinal points.
Returning to the bottom of the tower the party opened the double doors to the south, entering the courtyard beyond. Here they saw that another set of double doors was set into the very rear of the cavern, opening into the base of the mountain itself. They opened the doors and the troop could see a hallway before them leading to a door. To the left and right corridors led off with openings immediately to the south in each. After briefly examining the relief of a giant fighting a dramojh on the doors before them they turned left and entered the enclosure to the east of the hallway. This and the one on the other side turned out to be empty of interest, but full of cobwebs, lumber and other rubbish. Following the corridor around to the east they found that it lead to another door before opening out to the west where a door was slightly ajar. The first door was made of iron and had two latches, both carved with the G of Gahanis. Only one of these latches held a padlock. On the opposite side another iron door possessed the same latches, but had no locks. The group went back to the double doors with the relief and opened them. A modest stone throne sat in one corner of this sadly neglected room and they could see the door they had earlier noticed, slightly ajar to the southeast. Rubbish of many kinds was piled up beside the throne. Before them a stress fracture in the stone floor spread jaggedly across the room. A slight mouldy smell drifted up from this opening. As they started to search this room, the companions were attacked by three dire rats. Thankfully these creatures were dispatched quickly and the search continued yielding some coin and a spryte sized silver slipper.