As the Questors round the corridor of the passage to enter the Blue Steel doors, they are beset upon from behind again. The Arrow Demons are attacking them in a group of four, one using Dimension Door in and the other Dimension Door out, with their colleagues firing arrows, such that they appear, fire a rain of devastation and disappear in the same turn. Traveller moves to the predicted spot of appearance so that some of the reappearing Demons will be shunted when they arrive in the spot, while marksman Sven hides and readies his deadly crossbow bolts.

Near the doors, the paladin, Keoghen, and the fighter, Aibron, battle against Bar-Lgura skeletons issuing from a room up ahead. Kassadin readies himself for unexpected attack in one of the smaller chambers and Jezrab prepares to take on the main healing duties in the absence of the cleric. Although the Questor’s tactics are effective, they are not able to prevent the tragic death of Tippit, who succumbs to a deadly onslaught of giant arrows.

In a skirmish of deadly attrition, the Questors gradually wear down their foe – turning and battering exploding skeletons and depleting the ranks of Arrow Demons, while all the time moving closer to the entrance of what they discover to be The Temple of the Old and the Dead – a temple containing shrines and statues to both Iuz and Nerull. The room is filled with Desecration and Invisibility Purge and commanded by two Clerics – a male hobgoblin and a female human.

As the Questors force their way into the Chapel, Traveller despatches the hobgoblin Cleric of Iuz with his explosive Eyes of Light. Out in the corridor, two Entropic Enemies appear and Kassadin, able to see them clearly, attacks with his Bow of the Night, gaining extra advantage by using his Careful Strike and Dead Eye feats. Jezrab bolsters the fighters with song and heals them with his wand, carefully minimising the appearance of more Entropic Enemies.

As Traveller battles with the Cleric, Keoghen and Sven move into the room to combat the few remaining demons and skeletons, but two of them Dimension Door into the corridor, where Kassadin succumbs to a mortal barrage of giant arrows that decapitates him and lays his body flat. Near the end, only the one Arrow Demon and the female cleric remain. She knows her time is nigh but as she dies, the Statue of Nerull explodes. From the smoke she rises again, new life in her body through the Divine Power of Nerull. She commands the last remaining Arrow Demon to whisk her away. “Take me to Vayne NOW!” she screams and he uses his _Dimension Door- ability for the last time to place them in front of the doors at the end of the passage.

Opening the door, she manages to escape. While the Questors finish off the last Demon and the remaining Turned Skeletons, the Blue Steel doors ahead shut with a bang! A few minutes are spent gathering magical items from the fallen foes and then Quintine is resurrected through the fading power of the Divine Time Lock, but in arriving, her most powerful item, the Scroll of True Resurrection given to her by Pelius, her brother in Pelor, is destroyed. A minute later, Tippit is resurrected with the loss of his powerful Bracers of Defence.

Kassadin does not return. His soul, it seems, is no longer with the party and their quest. After everyone has magically healed themselves, the Questors waste no further time, and enter through the Blue Steel doors, through short passage, and push open the doors to find a large room populated by three Giant Rutterkins, the female cleric, Shyrath and a thin scrawny man with a staff, who must surely be the wizard Vayne – all ready and waiting. By the shape of the room, the strange spherical balconies and the four burning magical circles inside, the Questors believe they have arrived in The Hall of Beckoning.

The brave Questors attempt to sleep with Kane the Traveller guarding the door. Within an hour a Bar-Lgura skeleton enters the room carrying an earthenware decanter. Undeath and earthenware both meet their end. Twenty minutes later a further four skeletons attack. After killing these, the party decide that rest is best sought through the teleportation ring in the chamber guarded by Captain Starlet and his men.

At 7am (you know how accurate those hour glasses are) the party enter into the Halls of Beckoning fully replenished. They open the door of the room to find a further four skeletons and a demon who promptly disappears. Within the space of one minute, the party are attacked by exploding Bar-Lgura skeletons and ‘teleporting’ Arrow Demons. Both Grunthy and Pelius die, their souls now removed from the quest. Intense fighting continues until four demons and five skeletons die, shutting the heavy metal doors.

Falek Grange, hiding in the empty library, finds a secret door and the whole party sneak into the library of Avagozel. As they stare in wonder at the room full of books, a solitary drow momentarily appears in their midst and slits Falek’s throat. He too leaves the quest.

The quest is joined by four new members – Quintine (Priestess of Pelor), Aibron (Fighter of Greyhawk), Sven (Shield Dwarf of Faerun) and Kassadin (Blood Elf Infiltrator of Greyhawk). Their arrival must surely be Divine Providence because Tippit is aware that the Heart of the Dracolich draws them into its power and thus into the coexistant Plane of Shimring in which the others all exist.

Inside the room the party discover three spellbooks, a copy of Boccob’s Blessed Book, a mithral leaf and two adamantine boxes. By the end of their period of intense investigation they have identified an Analyse Dweomer scroll, which they use to identify the other items, adding two powerful scrolls and two Wishes to the party’s arsenal.

At 7.30 am (By the hair of Boccob, that hourglass is accurate!) the Questors leave the room and open the Heavy Steel Doors. Another set of doors awaits, but when they open these, an alarm is sounded and once more the party is beset by a deadly combination of Bar-Lgura skeletons and Arrow Demons, killing the new Cleric, Quintine, in the first round.

The battle continues………..

With the party united, interrogation of the prisoner begins. Tippit offers some bleak alternatives and Falek tries to use feigned friendship but Balaik Troistan, self confessed Marshall of the army of Genreral At-Ur is unmoved and Jezrab Flinchal suggests the use of magic, None of his Charm spells are effective so he starts singing. It is such an emotive song that the Marshall is totally fascinated and Jezrab begins to contemplate suggestions, but just at that time the noise of clinking armour is heard and the Sorcerer, Tippit and Grunthy ready themselves for action, Grunthy fires an arrow into the shoulder of one of the emerging Greyhawk troops and the voice of Captain Starlet pleads with the Questors to desist from further damage.

While Pelius talks to the priests, Jezrab and newcomer, Kane the Traveller check out the portal and decide to enter. The party spend some time handing over the Obisidian Key and other important information to the Greyhawk force but when Sir Keoghen and the others discover that the gnome and the monk have left, they follow, entering the Halls of Beckoning to find that Jezrab and Traveller have found them a restroom. After a few minutes of rest, they are rudely interrupted by a Devil knocking on the door.

The party, apart from Falek, who is lying on the floor recouperating from wounds and exhaustion, attack with all their might. Pelius is grappled and life begins to seap out from him, but just before he expires, he touches the Barbed Devil with a mighty Harm spell and the Devil falls like a sack of potatoes before it can utter the name of the Devil it intends to summon.

The party are now in the Halls of Beckoning but they are both tired and spent and it seems that sleep or rest is not even an option!

With effects from the vanquised Gauth still weighing heavily on the Questors, they are quite litereally stunned when they bump into a rogue Illithid. With Grunthy, Falek Grange and Sir Keoghen all stunned it falls on the spell users Pelius and Tippit to prevent horrid brain suction, with the musical moral support of Jezrab Flinchal and his powerful emotive songs. Things are looking desperate as spells fail and tentacles flail, but in the nick of time, one of Tippit’s Feeblemind spells takes effect and with the mindflayer unable to escape, the group act as one to despatch him to the dark netherworlds of existence.

Without wasting any time or even stopping for second breakfast, the group forge on into a hot smoky room filled by enslaved Verbeeg golem builders. A primordial power effect creates a bubble of chaotic energy and Falek falls to the ground with a massive surge of Divine Energy that informs him of a new party companion – Kane, the Traveller. Straightaway he proves his worth as he flies in to engage the Efreet that seems to be controlling the giant golem builders. However, the Efreet moves, and would do serious damage but for the critical arrow from Grunthy that slays him.

As the party mobilize to defeat the remaining Verbeegs, they begin to realise that another is firing arrows from the door behind. Pelius, flying past the door, shoots a Sunbeam into the man’s eye. The sunbeam seems to blind the Soldier, but he closes the door and magically pulls the last of his Verbeeg followers inside. By the time the party can get through the door and kill the Verbeegs, the Marshall is gone.

A secret passage is found, and while some of the party track down the blinded warlord to a room guarded by a demoness pretending to be an elven princess, Falek, Keoghen and Jezrab investigate an alternative exit and set off a gas trap but manage to bypass the threat with Dimension Door, only to discover a new enemy – a giant axe-throwing Formorian named Mashface. After succumbing to some mighty blows, Falek, on his last legs, makes a sword thrust worthy of the greatest Dusk Covenant blade masters of Faerun and fells the giant in one great arc of his mighty arm.

Returning to the War Room both groups meet up with joyous news – a glorious victory over a powerful giant and a captive Marshall, firmly grappled and ripe for questioning. Where will they go from here?

The Questors enter the Vaults of Creation. Dealing first with a slimy black pudding, they are attacked by a group of Verbeegs. Falek Grange charges ahead, with Sir Keoghen following. One of the members escapes into the dark tunnels ahead but one is captured. Keoghen offers freedom in return for surrender. Pelius protests, but in the end the party allow the poor frightened Verbeeg to leave, and he runs up the stairs.

The party shuffle through the passages, finding a room guarded by more Verbeegs, including the one that got away. Falek charges in but is immobilised. Something else seems to be in this room. The verbeegs put up a brave fight. They seem scared and manic. Then a secret door opens and a great floating eye moves into the room, casting dangerous rays that seem to slow Falek somewhat, and seriously affect Grunthy and Tippit. Jezrab Flinchal sings a mighty song that bolsters the company’s spirits and they attack with new vigour.

Falek dimension hops up to the creature and engages in a grapple. In the chaos, Pelius summons his Clerical magic and in a great flash of divine destruction, the creature is defeated. The questors pick up magical glaives and breastplates from the Verbeegs and find a secret stash place under the bones of the beholderkin’s meals. A small amount of treasure and magic is found.

Blundering down through the darkness, the windwalking Questors make their way to where they last saw the ogres, finding, as expected, that they have already left. Stopping briefly to check for tracks, Grunthy determines that they have fled down the stairs, and they decide to fly like the wind downstairs. At the bottom, Jezrab Flinchal spots two ogre legs lying in a large cavern under a massive whole in the roof. Carefully they make their way around a large curve and pursue their unseen foes into the darkness.

They are a noisy bunch, and move through the darkness with heavy breathing and armour a “aclinking”. Jezrab is the first to be hit by a bolt of chain lightning. Grunthy evades the electrical energy but most of the others are painfully aware that they are now under attack by what they soon discover to be a Nightmare Beast, a huge spellcasting monster of tusk and claw that pounces out into their dim light and starts ravaging them. Luckily, Falek Grange sneaks past it invisibly and delivers deadly blows with Pelius‘s mace. Sir Keoghen takes the brunt of the attack but is saved by his cleric’s prowess and healing powers, with some excellent supplementary aid from Jezrab.

Tippit delivers further fire attacks and together the group quickly bring the huge beast to the floor. Falek finds a bag on the floor and realises that it is their lost bag of holding, but all are now exhausted and they retreat to the empty lair to rest for 12 hours. When they return, they disembowel the creature and salvage more gear from the decomposing ogres within the great gut of the monster. They make their way down the stairs and prepare to enter The Vaults of Creation.

Down down into the Dungeons of Greyhawk. Falek Grange slipping on stinking slimy floors that magnify the sound and after a difficult passage over a foreboding chasm, further chaos erupts as spells fail and Entropic Enemies appear, harrying the questors as they squeeze through the caved in tunnel only to be confronted by ogres of ugly disposition. Not only are they unfriendly, but they are also backed up by Ogre Mages, who fire spells while the poor Questors wrestle with fierce entities of invisible energy. Falek stands bravely at the front but is knocked down by fire and ice. Pelius shows his mettle but succumbs to horrid attack, and for Tippit, Sir Keoghen, Falek and Pelius, retreat gives way to Death.

Only Jezrab Flinchal and Grunthy make it out alive and flee to the surface, hoping that some of their friends will join them. Once again dead souls are rejected by the Gods and returned to their quest. Two enter their bodies slumped in an ogre den. Two others stand naked in a distant room, their bodies already burned and eaten by hungry ogres. Figurines of Wondrous Power, a Belt of Dwarven Kind, and two swords are lost to the magic used to reincarnate the dead characters.

But mighty characters such as these do not take death lying down. No! Pelius and Falek kill the leader of the ogres and take back the lost Heart of the Dracolich, Falek becoming wielder once again, and all meet on the surface. Sir Keoghen’s faith proves mighty indeed, and with a great surge of power the group gather in a whirling windwalking mission to track down their ogre adversaries and try and reclaim their lost treasure. Time is short and friends, it seems, are few!