Apparently I was unconscious for quite some time. Kor had done what he could to help my wound, but it is not pretty. I think it is infected, and it hurts a great deal.

When I did awaken, I found myself in a small stone room with a heavy wooden door. The door had a small barred window in it. Kor and Keygan sat in the room here with me. Kor didn't look so great himself. I imagine he got a good beating before being taken down. When I asked him about it, he said he was a lot worse, but they had one of their mages heal him up before throwing him in here.

Apparently they tried to heal me too, but it didn't work so they gave him some very limited supplies to do what he could. I regarded the cloth bandage around my torso. Kor had done the best he could, but it was obvious I needed a more trained hand, preferably Ari's. The pain in my chest was pretty bad, and I don't imagine it's going to just get better on its own this time.

As I sat there, I regarded Kor's bloody knuckles. He had some bruises on his body too. He noticed me eying him suspiciously. He then said that injury occurred trying to break us out of here. He could not break through the dome. Dome? I saw no dome in here. After a brief discussion with Kor, it was determined that there was some kind of magic preventing him and Keygan from seeing or getting to the walls or door. I described the room to the pair of them, and we came up with a plan to get out of here.

While we were discussing I heard voices outside the door. I snuck over to the door to listen. I heard a couple of men talking. The door muffled most of the noise. I overheard some of their conversation. Seemed they were talking about their plans to get even with someone.

Kor thinks he can take out the door with a well timed hit. Apparently he knows quite a bit about breaking in doors. I'm not sure what I should make of that. He also mentioned this isn't the first time he's been imprisoned. He didn't want to share that story, however.

I was pretty sure I could, at least temporarily, remove the magic dome. Kor needed some preparation time, but he claimed to be able to break the door down. We didn't have our equipment; hopefully we would find it on the way out. I could not lose the family sword to some thugs. That would bring great dishonor to me and my family.

We had Keygan start counting aloud so we could time our actions to fit within the tiny window that my dispelling ability would allow. I successfully dispelled the dome, and Keygan cheered gleefully. I then turned my ability on the door, and had to try twice before successfully dispelling the protections on the door. Kor hit the door with a flying leap. The door shattered and he went flying through.

We were prepared for the guards outside, but they were utterly surprised to find us charging them. Fortunately, both Kor and I are proficient in hand to hand combat and we managed to quickly disarm the guards and take their weapons. Kor breathing fire gave us a definite advantage. We knocked them both out. I think one of them is either dead, or soon will be. Kor looked pretty banged up from the encounter, and I was feeling horrid. We needed to get out of here quick.

We grabbed some armor and weapons from the armory. My family sword, of course, was not there. We then looked for an exit. We heard noise coming from one of the doors, so we took the other one. We rushed down the hallway and eventually found our way out of the building. My chest felt like it would explode. I thought I might pass out at any moment. I told Kor as much. He grunted something I didn't hear, and we made our way to the temple of Adanos in a hurry. Keygan was right on our heels. I think we were pursued a short distance.

Once there, we found Rufus who was able to heal our wounds. Apparently some metal ball was still embedded in my chest! It was intensely painful as his holy power pushed the ball out of my partially healed chest. He then healed the wound and I felt increasingly better. I needed to rest a minute, and fortunately Kor was considerate about that.

While we waited we came up with a plan. Keygan's place might be compromised, so we decided to head for the Rusted Gate. Shamus might be there, as well as Remus. We needed to find the others. Hopefully they succeeded down in the dwarven fortress. Also, I need to find my family sword.

When we got the Rusted Gate, we did not find our companions. I asked Mrs. Potter if she had seen Shamus and she looked at me funny and told me that she last saw him leaving with me headed toward a mansion. After some questioning, we discovered that someone was posing as both Kor and I and was working with the party up at the governer's mansion to protect some folks from Khorinis. Not knowing what was going on, but sure it was not a good thing, we raced for the governer's mansion.

When we got there, there were signs of battle, but no bodies. We raced to the front door and knocked. Griff answered the door and I got time to say "thank goodness you are alright" before he slammed the door in my face. I looked over at Kor. He shrugged. I knocked again. I could hear yelling inside, but the door was latched. The door was opened again, and Kor and I quickly stepped inside.

Standing next to the party was the blond haired man that had lured us into the trap and another of the men that I remembered seeing in the fight. They were, apparently, pretending to be us. They must have used some kind of magic on the party, as not even Shamus seemed to know the difference between us. Shamus told the pixie to light the stone and he then gave it to one of the imposters. Apparently Shamus didn't see what he expected and the fight began.

It was a quick fight, really. The imposters went down pretty quick, but not before putting a huge cut into my leg with my own family sword. We still managed to dispatch them, and retreat upstairs. Some zombies came rolling into the courtyard shortly after the fight. The iron creatures like the one that party had with them did most of the work against the zombies. We held the room until morning.

I picked up a letter of sorts off the guy who was pretending to be me. He clearly had an interest in documenting our party and finding our weaknesses. Clearly this guy worked for someone with an axe to grind. I could think of only one source. Here is the contents of the letter:

Later some guy that was introduced Lord Blackwell thanked us and offered us the use of one of his houses. I assume he is the guy in charge. He was very keen on having another company around.