Hi,
Boamund tried improving the room's barricades and found a little bronze flask amidst the junk, but nothing of further use. The mechaghouls were scratching and shrieking outside, and soon they'd break through. As he faced them, his comrades began sputtering back to activity, coughing up blood and phlegm from the dessicating magical grip of the Zzaburi mummy. As they rose, the ghoul-things broke in, howling with screeching mechanical noises that startled the weakened party; but Boamund forced them back with his shield, and they soon returned to their chamber. You followed them, soon finding that two more of those pernicious anti-magic spirits manifested; so Miguel could not heal Boamund's or others' wounds. You decided to take out the ghouls, but it wasn't so easy.
Boamund forced them back into the rear of their chamber so you could enter. Then he released the power of St Karkovoch and the ghouls rushed you, shrieking. Boamund and Miguel each faced two- Boamund held his own at first, tripping both; and Miguel's heavy armour held off the bites and scratches as the ghouls grabbed his left arm. But then Boamund took a series of crippling bite wounds to his right leg and fell, bleeding. Fraud, however, had just caused his foe to rip its chest asunder so he came in to save the day; soon joined by Bog. Soon enough the tripped ghouls were slaughtered and you then beat down Miguel's hapless marauders. With some very skilled first aid via Fraud, Boamund was back on his feet, albeit limping. You explored the room and found many bronze scrolls that Bog and Fraud collected for Miguel to ensorcel into destruction. Finally you carried these out safely from the ruin, followed still by the spirits. Miguel took Boamund's idea to try his Adamant arrow on the anti-magic spirits and found that it worked splendidly, so soon you were free of their curses and could heal. Miguel cast a potent bronze-sculpting formula and turned the scrolls into lovely brick-like lozenges that you left there by the portcullises. You were weakened, so you left to rest.
Just before you left Good Toad Food, Miguel heard running water and saw a waterfall through this swampy jungle. Inspecting through the mist, he learned it was a hot spring of sulphurous minerals, bursting forth from a steep conical hill like a miniature volcano. He also noticed a dark cave behind the waterfall and tried slipping in, but instead slipped into the soothing clear, warm waters and had to crawl out, ashamed. Fraud instead managed to climb in and found a small, semispherical natural cave with old Giranois totems covered in the mineral deposits of what might be an Age. As he explained to you what he'd found and you began making your way inside to join him for a rest, a voice entered his mind and spoke; asking who you were, that you were not of its people. Fraud spoke back kindly to it and soon earned its trust, although it did not know of the “Thralls of Granno”. It was unusually calm for what turned out to be an ancestral spirit of the Giranois from the Second Age-Gulga Nobody, younger sister of Huru the Eldest. They'd been foes of the undead, chaos, Godlearners and others in the battles before the Shattering and Iphara's Mist left Gulga isolated here, and they'd been joined by allies from the spiders, Uz, Arkati and more. When asked about Croalar via Bog, he told you that there was a fortress of Arkati nearby (at #10) that had been the stronghold of Ollamor Thundertamer, an Arkati hero who worshipped Zorak Zoran, and that name of Croalar had been known to her via him; Ollamor was a Giranois ally. In return for this information, it insisted that you promise to leave a Giranois holy ground nearby alone- this place was somewhere in location #9 and you hadn't seen it yet, but she would give no details save that you'd probably know it if you saw it, and must not trespass unless invited by her kind. Furthermore, she asked that you tell the Huru of her location and interest in reconnecting, which they surely would desire. You certainly agreed, and she gave Fraud a gift that he could call her name in the future and a fire-spirit would come to aid him.
You rested a little while, then returned to the Spider-Temple to rest for 3 weeks so Boamund could heal. The spiders said that soon they should gain their God-spider embodiment again and that reborn leader might know what to do about Gulga (and more!). Fraud read some secret scroll he had and told you of a magic it taught him (via Syrr Kogag) that could reveal hidden Chaos enemies and render them vulnerable to anti-Chaos magic. He also taught Miguel some more Militia skill. Then you left to hike into location #10, as Bog was very excited to seek out this mystery Arkati! You decided to use stealth to approach, trying to avoid the flying horrors you'd been warned of by the pirates. That worked. Miguel led you to view of the grey stone ruin from across a sludgy stream, facing north. There was a central river leading to a waterfall that exited the south side of the fort, but otherwise the walls/cliffs across the stream were about 6m high and the stream was treacherous, with Bog finding it deep and strong despite its seeming sluggish nature from the surface. Worse yet, Miguel had seen a muddy brown reptilian thing with tentacles for limbs floating in the stream before the waterfall (it had fumbled its Stealth!), so you were extra wary. Bog was excited to see grey stone faces of Uz mounted on the fortress walls to either side of the river/waterfall. It was indeed a place of his kin!
With a combination of expert stealth, strong bottom-walking and Fraud swimming along with Miguel to tug him across, you all made it to the far side of the stream, west of the waterfall. All but Miguel managed to climb tree-roots into the jungly gardens behind the cliff-walls of the fort, but Miguel fell while climbing, three times! And yet managed to avoid attracting any trouble, finally opting to slip stealthily along the wall to the west and then climb ashore by the fort's southwest corner. There, he found a tree that he climbed to mount the 6m high rampart walls, seeing thick webs that were likely of the Monster-Spiders around a ruined statue on that southeast corner, so he quietly climbed down into the central gardens, soon finding the rest of you. (He'd been lucky-good stealth rolls and bad Perception rolls all along the way saved him some big trouble!)
The gardens were web-choked in the southeast corner but this gave way to just thick, weird foliage through the gardens on this side of the river that split the garden in two. There were some stairways that led east-to-west down underground, but the nearest one turned out to be flooded and collapsed beyond any hope of navigation. You saw several options to explore: the walls that Miguel had come from, the central river or garden's far shore to the east, or to the north you saw a big central tower-complex at the fortress's core. Miguel had also seen a smaller tower on the northwest corner of the walls, before he descended to meet you. (Small map in Dropbox now)
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