Tim (Antok of the Storm Tribe) has managed to make it safely to Ireland, so the group now consists of just Paul (Marik), Chris (Gruul), Chuck (Galen) and Bruce. Given that Tim is going to be gone for some time, the group discusses what to do with Antok. The decision is made that he will be hanging out with Joluth "in the basement" until such time as Tim returns. This is a weird enough thing to do that everyone agrees it is right in character for both Tim and Antok.
The characters find themselves in the tunnel underneath the wall between the Tower of Swords and the Kitchen Tower when they hear the distinctive sounds of metal and leather, and the triumphant shout, "I think I've found them!" The corridor fills with a crowd of armed men, piling in from the kitchen. A quick count reveals that there are eleven attackers: eight of Surgul's common thugs, plus the warriors Gurvo and Tamtun, and the archer Joven. Two of the common thugs appear to be made out of stone, courtesy of Surgul's magic.
The characters pull back to the stairs down to Joluth's demesne and assess their options. Marik starts out by throwing +1 Haste spells on Galen and Gruul. He then changes himself into tiger shape and rushes out into the fray, forcing Gruul to chug an Ares potion and hurry out after him. Galen gives himself a +2 DX bonus with a quick Dexterity spell, and then stands back behind the corner of the wall to ready his crossbow.
Marik and Gruul wreak terrible damage upon Surgul's followers, chopping and clawing their way through the mass. They find that the two tougher warriors slow them down somewhat, in Marik's case by inflicting a terrible wound upon his flank, but Gruul's single-arm-chopping strategy carries them through until one of Surgul's men manages to inflict enough damage to drive Gruul into a berserk frenzy.
Galen, his crossbow finally loaded, peers out around the corner in time to almost catch an arrow from the archer Joven, who had been quite careful to stand back from the general melee. He responds by raising his crossbow and sending a well-aimed bolt out to pierce Joven's side. Joven's return shot goes wide. Galen exults to see the cowardly archer beat a quick retreat back into the kitchen, then draws his greatsword and prepares to lunge into the fray.
Noting that Marik was close-pressed by several warriors, that some of Surgul's men were readying spells, and that a fire elemental was launching gouts of flame at Gruul, Galen elects to make a devastating all-out attack upon Gurvo. He rushes out from his hiding place, only to catch himself upon a loose floor tile and stumble, leaving himself open for terrible retribution. It is only by Gruul's efforts to distract Gurvo (by chopping at him) that Galen avoids an untimely death.
Gruul cuts down Gurvo, ignoring the fire elemental's final weak spit of flame. Gruul watches the elemental fade away and calls out, "Yaay! We killed one! We killed him by ignoring him!" His happiness is cut short as one of the last of Surgul's men engulfs the corridor in choking fumes with a Stench spell. The characters swiftly deal with the fellow. The wounded survivors from Surgul's men immediately surrender, only to be savagely butchered by Gruul (thanks to his Bloodlust).
Galen advances up to the pillar nearest the kitchen and stands guard as the other characters promptly turn to looting the dead. They find a total of 720 clavars in money purses, plus the attackers' weapons and armor. Additional equipment recovered includes:
None of the characters wants to stick around in an indefensible position for long, so they search quickly and retreat back into the Tower of Swords. They take the clavars and the potions and leave everything else for the ravens. Gruul drags the two chainmail-wearing corpses over to Joluth, asking, "If I give you more bodies to eat, can I keep the chainmail?" Joluth's booming voice rolls up the stairs, "YES." Gruul should back, "Okay!", hurls the bodies down and runs for it.
The characters sneak their way back to the Armory. In passing they see that the Maker-Thing is now working on spearheads. The characters speculate upon what his work schedule looks like. Mindful that everyone else is quite badly wounded, Gruul sends Galen up first to check out the first floor of the Tower of Swords before the other characters move up.
It takes the characters 36 minutes to recover their fatigue and treat their wounds. Noting that they can restore not only health but also fatigue, Gruul hands out four Chiron potions from his pack, three to Marik and one to Galen
Gruul suggests that the characters talk to the Sewn Men. Given that the Sewn Men appear to have some sort of rivalry going with Surgul, they might be able to provide a way for the characters to attack from a less-heavily defended point. He guesses that the loss of twelve guys is probably pretty bad for Surgul, but probably not anywhere close to Surgul's actual strength. The characters know that Hulfri Wren is kept in the Tower of Bells, and that Ghelgul's Heartseeker is in the Main Hall. They don't know where the Parcyclan Gyre is, but suspect that the Main Hall would be a good guess.
Galen mentions that the Sewn Men speak the language Parqui, which both he and Marik are able to speak.
Gruul pokes his head and a white flag out of the Tower of Swords. He sees some movement out in the arrow slits of the Tower of Eyes. Marik notes, "If I were them, I'd wait 'til you advanced into the middle of the courtyard before opening fire..." Gruul ignores Marik's carping as he looks around the room for large pieces of furniture. He settles upon a table, upending it and chopping it's legs off to form a crude shield. He tells the others that he will carry the table if someone else who can speak Parqui (which the Sewn Men are reputed to speak) goes with him. Everyone reluctantly volunteers to go.
The three characters creep their way out into the courtyard, carefully keeping Gruul's table-shield between them and the Tower of Eyes. They are taken totally by surprise when an arrow speeds from the Tower of Bells to strike Gruul, felling him in one shot. Galen turns to the source of the attack in time to see a second arrow expand into a spear of flames before it hits him. Marik, upset to see his comrades shot down from ambush, shouts out "Run! Run back to the Tower of Swords!" He turns to flee when he notices that a great, bright light is shining from the door of the tower. He is even more horrified to see a group of large fire elementals emerge from the tower. He gives voice to a new clarion call, "Run! Run for the Tower of Eyes!" Gruul responds to this call to action by groaning and burbling up blood.
Marik, knowing that his stubby little legs cannot carry him fast enough to evade the oncoming elementals, casts a Flight spell and rises up from the ground. Galen winces and groans as he pushes Gruul onto the tabletop, then hides underneath it as Marik Levitates it along. With everyone accounted for, they head for the Tower of Eyes with all speed.
The characters reach the door of the tower. Galen and Marik pound upon it frantically, shouting out hopefully-friendly phrases in Parqui to whatever creature might be listening on the other side. After some brief interrogation, the door opens and they find themselves drawn into the Tower of Eyes.
They are introduced to several Sewn Men in rapid succession. Stitch is the doorman; his ears are terribly misshapen, but they go well with the rest of his play-doh features. Bolt and Grommet carry bows and stand off from the door, watching carefully. The characters wait until Stitch is able to summon Boot, who appears to be some kind of leader.
Boot asks the characters what they think they are doing in the castle. Marik and Galen explain that they have just recently killed many of Surgul's men, and want to kill more of them if only the Sewn Men would help them. Boot scoffs, "Who you kill? Your big man fell to Long-Seeker. Your other man hit by Flame-Burster. You not kill Surgul's great lieutenants Joven or Kaifura."
Marik responds rather lamely "Well, we killed some of them... Uhh... We killed Rob!" Boot fails to be impressed: "Rob? Who is Rob?" Gruul instructs Marik to tell Boot that Rob made flames shoot out of his nose and a horrible noise shoot out of his ass. We hated Rob. Marik complies. None of the characters are too sure what sort of thoughts are going through Boot's head.
The characters ask Boot for a bit more information on Surgul's lieutenants. Boot tells them that Kaifura is a stork-magician, a tall woman who is "the same on both sides." The characters guess that Boot is comparing her to his own patchwork features, but Gruul cannot help but speculate, "Is she the same side-to-side or front-to-back?" Both Marik and Galen tactfully refrain from passing this thought on to Boot, who goes on to explain that Joven an archer, and that he carries the Far-Seekers. Marik responds: "Oh, we know about Joven. We put an arrow in him."
Gruul instructs Marik to tell Boot "We want two things: we want Surgul dead, and we want the woman Surgul took." Boot denies any knowledge of a woman. Gruul helpfully explains, "A woman looks like Galen, but with symmetric lumps of flesh on the front."
While Gruul and Marik are negotiating, Galen is cracking jokes about "Boot, Grommet and Stitch Attorneys at Law." Everyone ignores him.
After the characters have made their plea, Boot goes downstairs to think. The characters wait on the second floor. While they wait, another Sewn Man with the head of a crocodile comes down with stew. The characters refrain from eating until Marik verifies that it is good. During dinner, Gruul suggests moving in, finding a tower, and founding their own faction. Perhaps hire a bunch of zombies from Mournful Sara, and occupying the Tower of Swords. Galen warms to this idea, offering, "We could just cover the zombies with spearheads and order them to hug any stranger they see..."
Boot returns to tell the characters that he has decided to help them. He leads them up to the top of the Tower of Eyes. The characters are able to see that the tower has a total of seven floors and a quite substantial population of Sewn Men. They see a number of the creatures doing completely incomprehensible things (for example, they see one very carefully washing the surface of a mirror with soap).
At the top of the tower, they find Legs, Scar, and Felt on guard. They also note that they have an excellent view of the entire countryside, including the rest of the castle. Boot points out some important landmarks, particularly the Tower of Owls, the Tower of Bells, and the Main Hall. He tells them that the Sewn Men know of a tunnel between the Tower of Owls and the lower level of the Main Hall, and that Eyes will lead them there.
The characters ask for a place to rest and heal their wounds. Boot tells them that Eyes can take them to an underground chamber. He says that this is safer, because Surgul's spies like the air and will not go underground.
Eyes is good to his word, leading the characters down into a small underground room. The place is dank and dark, and rats have used it as a latrine, but it seems safe. The characters rest.
Eyes tells the characters, "I bring stew." He returns with stew. And bowls. Of metal. All strangely identical. Eyes explains that the Maker-Thing makes things (no, seriously). The characters ask him where the metal comes from. Eyes says that the Tekkututrlings bring it up from the Bilges, and the Sewn Men are sometimes able to steal it from them.
The characters spend the rest of the day hiding underneath the Tower of Owls. They spend some of the time discussing the strategy of their attack. Gruul says that there are three things they must accomplish in the Main Hall: kill Surgul, get the Gyre, and get Ghelgul's Heartseeker. Galen mentions that recovering Hulfrey Wren is also important, and that she is captive in the Tower of Bells.
The characters debate the timing of the attack. Galen poses the question, "What do you think the odds are that this guy is going to have a dozen guys around him at 3am?" Gruul responds, "There's not much we can do about his bodyguards. What we do want to avoid is showing up at mealtime."
The characters look at the three potions they took from Surgul's guys. They notice that they're labeled in Parqui. Two are Ares, one is Chiron. Gruul finds that he has accumulated a total three Chiron potions (presumably not counting the four he gave away earlier?), so he gives one to each of the other two characters, keeping one for himself. He also distributes several of the potions from the group's common supply of loot. Galen gets a Heracles potion. Marik gets a Hermes potion. Everyone gets an Ares potion, even though Marik is none too happy to accept something that forces him to be brave.
The characters make their final preparations and head out in the early morning. They take particular care to tie down their armor and equipment to keep it from making noise, and cover their skin with dirt and soot. They take necessary armor and weapons, leaving bedrolls and whatnot in the underground chamber under Eyes' guardianship.
Eyes leads the characters to a trapdoor that he says leads into the chambers behind the Main Hall. Eyes tells the characters, "This is it. Nobody in room above. I wait here."
The trapdoor enters into a darkened room. Gruul and Galen emerge, their crossbows loaded. The room is windowless, with two doorways out and no door in either of them. One door leads to an empty corridor, looks like an empty doorway further down leads into the main hall. Other door leads to a smaller storeroom containing some barrels. The other characters are appalled to realize that Marik has Stealth-12 by default from IQ - Galen spent a point on it and only has Stealth-11. This doesn't stop them from sending him out in the lead. He sucks down a Hermes potion to gain +4 Stealth and +4 Climbing as a precaution.
Marik picks his way down the corridor and peers into the Main Hall. He can see a ghostly thing flying through the center of the hall and a single giant stork sitting on a column on the far side. The entire hall is littered with junk and tables. A stone altar near the center of the far wall shows evidence of having been used for some truly rip-roaring shamanic rituals.
Marik takes his time plotting out a good route between his current position and the cupboard under the stairs. Galen moves up to a position in the corridor and carefully aims his crossbow at the stork sentry's head.
His route chosen, Marik picks his way carefully towards the object of his desire... and steps on a loose tile. The stork hears and steps over towards the sound. Slowly. It cranes it's neck to get a better look. Galen tenses his finger upon the crossbow release. The stork pauses. Galen pauses. Marik forgets to breathe. Galen still holds off on loosing his bolt. Then the stork squawks out a loud warning. Galen is broken from his reverie and shoots the stork dead.
Four guards rush out from the back rooms on the second floor of the other side of the hall. Three fire elementals, which had been patrolling the courtyard outside, flare and rush in through the main doors.
Sensing that the jig might be up, Gruul and Galen head for the upstairs as quick as they can run, while Marik breaks into the cupboard and quickly retrieves a broadsword with the phrase "Ghelgul's Heartseeker" carved into it's hilt. He only barely notices that the weapon is of extremely high quality and has a strange red vein along the blade, as he struggles up the stairs behind the other characters.
Gruul bursts into the first room he sees at the top, finding three of Surgul's men still fast asleep. He draws forth his axe and massacres them. Marik turns at the top of the stairs and hurls a Mental Stun at the leading fire elemental. In the excitement, his tongue warps around the necessary phrases and he twists the spell terribly wrong. He realizes that he has forgotten how to cast it (and will not remember for another seven days). Choosing a quick alternative (haha), he throws Haste on himself and heads for cover.
Gruul finds a way through a junk room leading to a stairway down. He calls out to the others, "This way!" Marik pauses to cast Glue upon the hex in front of the door behind him before he follows the others. Galen draws out his greatsword (ignoring repeated requests from both Gruul and Marik to "Use the damned magic sword!") and stations himself in ambush.
Surgul's three warriors make a brief effort at attack, but Galen and Gruul chew through them like so many piñatas. By this time, Joven and one crossbowman have made an appearance and sent a few arrows the characters' way, to distressingly little effect (the balcony around the walk serves as very effective cover).
The characters push their initial success, rushing down the walk to the other end of the hall. Gruul is in the lead, and is the first to be waylaid by a confusing flock of giant storks that burst from a side chamber. While he swats at the storks, Galen and Marik rush past him to be confronted by more of Surgul's men, including the warrior Senjuk. They are quick to notice that several of their opponents, including Senjuk, have the same stony skins the warriors in the tunnel had. Galen is able to see a magician standing in the back of the pack of fighters, but doesn't immediately recognize that he is looking at Surgul Bloody-Arms himself. Doubtless the confusion of battle causes him to think that there might be several scarred, mad-eyed sorcerers clutching tall, twisted metal gyres in the building.
Galen and Marik quickly find themselves hard-pressed by their stone-sheathed foes. Marik uses his Sleep spells to good effect, peeling away opponents one by one. Galen is the first to notice that the room has filled with a powerful rotating windstorm, centered upon Surgul. He quickly finds himself struggling not only to avoid Senjuk's blows, but also to simply keep standing in the grips of the powerful winds. Marik elects to do something about this problem and throws a Madness spell at Surgul, piercing through his defenses and leaving him pathologically afraid of fire, blades and hunchbacks. Surgul screams despairingly and flees the room. His own winds catch him and fling him to the ground on the way, forcing him to crawl into the corridor beyond.
Gruul manages to chop apart almost all of the storks and is set to rejoin his comrades when half of the room bursts into flames, blocking his way. He heads back to the walkway, hoping to find (and kill) Joven. Along the way, he picks up the body of one of Surgul's followers. He advances holding the corpse in front of him as a shield. Joven sees this, fires one quick shot, then vanishes down a side passage. The crossbowman next to him quickly follows his example.
Despairing of being able to match the agile Joven's speed, Gruul heads down another corridor, looking for more of Surgul's minions. He is surprised to find himself face to face with Surgul's crawling form. Gruul reacts in the only way he knows: he goes bananas on the shaman with his axe. He finds the process slow going: Surgul is protected by Body of Stone (total DR 9) and has more vitality than any two normal men (HT 15, 18 hits, plus several levels of Hard to Kill). By the time he is finished chopping Surgul into hamburger his axe has been blunted and the corridor is full of stone chips.
Looking about at the devastation, Galen comments, "At least storks are good eatin'. Hey, wait, they just turned into goo. They weren't real storks!" He seems oddly put off.
The characters link up again after the fire and windstorm effects dissipate. They swiftly loot Surgul's body, then head for the trap door and the relative safety of the Tower of Owls. Back in the underground chamber, Marik spends some time analyzing the various magical artifacts Surgul had been carrying. All told, the list of items includes:
A necklace of copper beads carved into the likenesses of different kinds of eyes. It contains two enchantments: Rear Vision-15 and Alertness-15 [+2 improvement max], and includes a dedicated 5 ST powerstone to power them. Rear Vision costs three energy to invoke, and one energy to maintain. Alertness costs two energy to invoke and one energy to maintain per +1 gain.
The Parcyclan Gyre is a 30cm tall artifact made of intertwined strands of twisted wrought iron, studded with sharp bits of crystal. It holds energy like a powerstone, with a maximum capacity of 400. It can only be charged with the owner's blood: 1 HT of blood sacrificed adds 1d energy to the Gyre. Only the user's blood will work: any other blood will discharge the Gyre down to nothing. Wounds incurred through sacrifice to the Gyre cannot be healed through magic or time until the stored energy has been used (or the Gyre has been discharged).
The session ends with the characters' victory over Surgul Bloody-Arms. Each character gains five experience points. The characters are currently recuperating in an underground chamber beneath the Tower of Owls. They already know that the archer Joven has escaped them (though they do not know if he is still in the castle or not), and that the sorceress Kaifura is still at large (though they have seen some of her storks).