Voern Grey Shadow met with Ke-Herram and Salesat while searching for a place to stay for the night, once they had booked themselves in to an inn owned by a giant named Ae-Radona. Ke-Harram had been drawn to the place by its size and the giantish inscription over the doorway. They went to the barracks after reading a notice about some bandits who were wanted for spying on the caravans in the area and who had holed up in the Battlehome, an ancient fortress in the battles with the dramojh. Migar had already reached the barracks for similar purposes. There they all met with Mynorath the Peacekeeper, a sibeccai who was captain of the guard. He informed them that there was a bounty on the head of these bandits. One was known as being a scribe, Den Rudiger, the other was a snake totem warrior called Merril Yannis. Due to the Bounty Day festival, Mynorath felt that he could not spare the men to search for these two. The bounty would be two hundred gold pieces for each bandit if brought in alive, half that if they were dead. After obtaining quick directions from the captain the group repaired to the hostelry for the evening to be ready for an early departure. Voern generously paid for the lodgings as the others had spent their last coin on equipment.
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 had once been chained and padlocked, but now lay open, with the chain on the ground. A notice mounted on the wall, warned trespassers that a permit was required for entry. The doorway opened into the bottom of the tower, which had a wide stair spirally upwards around the wall; there was no other exit. The party 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 started by sweeping the various levels of the gate wall to see if any creatures were present. They found nothing alive, only a dead body in the well of the westerly gate tower. From the levels high over the gate, the party could make out a large central tower in the cavern, as well as a small building against the eastern wall. On the western side, some buildings were hidden beneath a shelf of stone that covered that area of the cavern from the tower to the wall.
They headed for the small building on the eastern wall. It was once padlocked, but now the lock dangled in the latch of the door, which was shut. Salesat opened the door and peered inside. They noticed a rune on the floor, which they could not identify. Salesat threw a piece of rubbish into the room, which disappeared. Ke-Harram thought that this might be a way of gaining entry into the innards of the complex, but was dissuaded from stepping in by the others. Across the cavern under the stone shelf, the group found some stables that were sized for the radont mounts of the giants who used to dwell here. Further south, they came upon what seemed to have been a forge (from the large hearth and the quenching trough that they found). There was also a well, which had a grappling hook attached to its stone lip. A long knotted rope fell down into the darkness below. Salesat came over to look down the well in the hope of seeing the bottom, but he couldnt, so they pulled up the rope and attached a lantern to the end of it, lowering it slowly. The well seemed to be about eighty feet deep ending in a natural looking cavern, that although damp, was not filled with water. They could not make out the dimensions of the chamber. They pulled the rope back up and detached the lantern, before dropping the end back down the well.
The group turned their attention to the tower, entering it by the large double doors that faced the main gates of the Battlehome. A fifteen-foot long iron slat leaned against the inner wall of the tower to the right of the open doors. Moving through the double doors opposite the entrance they entered the other half of the tower base. Here another set of doors led out of the back of the tower and a spiral stone staircase led up one floor. They followed this path, climbing forty feet to a room with a thirty-five foot ceiling. Only Ke-Herram felt completely comfortable in this environment. The room was huge, but also had many openings and exits. Four large doorways into open air were set into the circular wall of the chamber diagonally. At a separation of six feet, arrow slits circled the remaining wall. On the northern wall, in the centre, ten feet up, a six-foot square window looked out on the main gates. Immediately to the east of this window, a stone pedestal stood five feet high, with a lever mounted into the top. A stone spiral staircase led upwards through the centre of the tower. Ke-Herram took an immediate interest in the lever and persuaded the others to allow him to pull it from its vertical position. When he did so, they were all deafened and somewhat shaken by the awful screeching sound of the main gates slowly edging open. The whole tower shuddered as the portals swung back to stand wide open, perpendicular to their previous position. The group looked at each other, ashen-faced, then quickly took up positions at the various openings and windows in the hope of spotting anyone approaching the tower. Indeed, it was not long until Salesat saw a large black shape emerge into the courtyard south of the tower. He loosed a volley from his crossbow, but failed to strike home. Ke-Herram and Salesat then moved to the top of the stairs, ready to engage the creature. It came on quickly, swarming up the stairs as if its legs were not its only means of propulsion. Ke-Harram and Salesat waited at the top of the stairs, swinging at it when it came within range. The burning heat of the creatures body meant that for every blow that it struck, there was an additional searing pain suffered by the victim. Unfortunately, the creatures blows were strong and Ke-Harram could not stand before it. He fell, bleeding, to the ground. Migar stepped in, lightly stepping over the giants form as Voern tried to attack the creature with an animated weapon. Salesat was the next to fall, then Migar, but Voern did manage to slay the beast and then had enough healing magic to restore Salesat.