[Notes for the run of December 16, 1999.]

As we alight, the Hanged Man releases the rope, which does not drop toward
us but instead seems to retract into the end being held by Rhori.  Soon
Rhori finds himself holding just a short length of rope, which continues to
shrink until it is a bundle of fibers in the shape of a key.  As he and the
rest of us look at it, it merges into his hand and disappears.  "I lost it,"
says Rhori.  "No you didn't," Paris reassures him.
 
Three large figures approach us, walking across the clouds.  The smallest of
them reaches us first, and picks up Mia by scooping the clouds out from
under her.  It says, "Mommy, look, it's just like a rainbow!  Can I keep
it?"  Mia just squeaks.

One of the other giants replies, "Now, Prill, will you remember to feed this
one and clean up after it?"

Anton speaks up ("Oh look," they say, "it talks!") and introduces us,
including Mia.  He says he thinks she's scared, and Prill tries to speak
soothingly to her, but doesn't put her down.

The third giant speaks, asking, "Why are you here?  Did Jarvon send you?"
Mia says the Hanged Man brought us.  Anton thinks a bit, and remembers that
many air spells are named after Jarvon.

Rhori starts to explain why we're here.  "We do not steal.  We do you a
favor, then you do us a favor."  Before he can confuse matters too terribly,
Paris explains more specifically what it is we're after.  It turns out that
the tree we're talking about is what they call the Tree of Life, and it's
what they gave Jarvon as well.

Since it was Paris who asked, the mother giant leans over and, in a rush of
wind and a booming voice that she apparently considers a whisper, says,
"Don't let my husband hear."  She explains that she dropped her wedding band
and it went down a hole, too small for her to reach into.  If we bring it
back, she'll convince her husband to let us have the heartwood.  She adds
that she's seen other things going into that hole, too.  Since this is
Paris's quest, we figure those things are Fell.

Paris asks for Mia back, upon which the mother remarks that instead of
fetching the ring, we could just let Prill keep Mia, but Paris convinces her
to get Mia back from Prill so Mia can help us get the ring.  The giantess
then whisks us over to a hillside.

Rhori tells us that Hobbes reports the scent of Fell creatures.  Hobbes
can't tell whether they're "fallen" Fell or "good" Fell, but Rhori thinks he
can guess.

In we go.  Calais takes the lead to check for traps, and soon finds a
typical orc-trap: a rope strung across the corridor.  He disarms it and we
continue on.  After several hundred feet, we spot some torchlight up ahead.
Rhori suggests we send an invisible scout to check it out.  Hobbes growls in
anticipation, but it's Anton who leaves his magical torch behind and moves
up to have a look.

He finds a watchpost of ordinary-looking orcs, playing some sort of game
involving rolling a die.  He comes back and reports there are a dozen orcs,
too many to kill without them raising an alarm.  (His silence spell doesn't
cover enough area.  And there are three exits from the room, so he doesn't
have enough silence spells prepared to cover them all.)

We discuss setting up an ambush, luring some of the orcs out by making them
think there's food up the corridor, and having Anton silence the corridor
near the room so the orcs that stay behind don't get alerted by the sounds
of battle.  Lucas says he can put us in darkness for a little while so the
orcs won't see us as they approach.

When we're ready to start, Calais calls out in Fell, "Too much food, come
help carry!"  He hears one orc grunt to another, "You say something?"  He
tries again, and this time gets their attention.  Five orcs come out to have
a look.  Anton, standing a bit forward to watch, signals to Lucas to cast
his darkness, and then fades back, worming his way through our lines.
Hobbes hangs out in the orcs' room, with instructions that if one orc tries
to run away, kill it.  Calais remembers to have Rhori tell Hobbes not to
roar.

When they get close enough, Rhori (who can see in the dark) fires off a
couple of shots, killing one and hitting another in the arm.  Lucas drops
the darkness, and Anton casts his silence.  Alexis crits one in the chest,
stunning it.  Paris, swinging her hammer, stuns another.  Lucas and Calais
crowd forward with their spears and finish off those two.  Mia tries to
ego-zap an orc, but fails.

Paris steps up and whacks one of the two still-standing orcs, which fails
to block.  It goes down.  Rhori moves past the remaining orc to block its
retreat.  Alexis misses the orc, but Lucas hits him, and Calais knocks
it out.

Rhori revives one enough to let Calais start questioning it, but Calais
first has to get it to stop screaming.  Calais asks the orc why they're
here, but it answers "Someone say there is food here."  Sigh.  At that point
Hobbes reports that some more are moving up to investigate Anton's whirlwind
(the "visible effect" of the silence spell).

Three orcs appear in the area of the silence spell.  Alexis pushes her
running in order to get close enough to swing at them immediately; Lucas
also heads that way.  Rhori drops the orc he was holding for Calais and
moves up as well.  He and Alexis both get nicked.  Mia, surprised that
nobody is restraining Calais's orc, tries to fire her ego-blast at it, but
again misses.  Paris also moves up, and stuns one.  Rhori kills the other,
then Alexis and Lucas pound some more on the first.

Two more head for the battle, and Hobbes complains to Rhori that not one but
two orcs are trying to run off.  Rhori tells Hobbes to kill them as fast as
he can.

The orc we were questioning sees Llyurylly'yl, whines "Elves! They'll kill
us all!" and tries to scooch away, sitting on the ground.  Calais tells him
to hold still and answer questions, and tries to cover him with the spear,
but can't quite pin him down.

We finish off the orcs in the silence area, and Hobbes chases down the two
in the room.  Calais manages to get his spear against the wriggling one.  He
asks, "Which path lead to Uruk-hai?"  "Chiefs are down that corridor."  The
orc indicates the passage where Hobbes caught the last fleeing orc.  The
other two lead to their water supply and the garbage dump.  Calais asks
about a big round thing, and the orc understands.  "Our Shaman very mighty,
call great golden ring down from sky."  It's in his altar, down through the
mighty warrens of Clan Deathguard.  Have to pass great moat.  Temple on
island in center.  It's down the same passage as the chiefs' rooms.

Meanwhile, since Calais is busy with the questioning, Mia and Anton look
around the room and find fifteen copper, and the usual shiny rocks, which
they turn over to Calais.  (It's not clear at this point whether mere copper
would attract Calais's attention the next time he happened to be sifting
through the party's possessions, so they probably could've held onto the
coins, but it appears they've grown accustomed to giving him such stuff.)

Rhori asks about the path down the corridor.  Calais relays the question,
and is told there's a maze.  Rhori suggests offering to bring him along,
gagged, to show us the way.  The orc says that to get to the island, they
have to put a bridge out.  After Calais translates all this, we realise that
the water supply might connect to that moat, so we follow the passage to the
water.  Rhori knocks out the orc, and we tie it up, gag it, and hide the
body.  (We can't hide the fact that there's been a fight back in the room,
but there's still merit in keeping the orcs from finding this guy.)  Mia
casts her water breathing spell (twice, since there's nine of us, counting
Hobbes and the elf), and in we go.  Anton first re-racks his silence spell,
since we're expecting to meet a shaman.

Eventually we come to a place where we see torchlight above the water.
Anton leaves his light with us (we hide it with our shields) and swims up to
have a look.  It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust, then he sees one
island with a bridge on it (not currently down), and another piece of land
with lots of orcs on it.  He looks for a spot where he thinks we might be
able to climb out without being immediately spotted, takes his bearings, and
goes back down to lead us to it.

We clamber out and dry off as much as we can.  Hobbes shaking himself off
doesn't help.  Finding no openings where we are, we send Hobbes around,
invisible, to have a look for entrances, while Calais climbs up to have a
look on top.  Hobbes reports there's a door.  There's also several orcs, and
one is pointing at him and shouting; oops, apparently the shaman can see
him.  We hear a >whoomph<, and Rhori feels a blast of pain.  He runs to
follow Hobbes.  Paris follows him, and Lucas also goes that way.  The rest
of us (except Calais) go around the other direction, and see two larger orcs
standing near the bridge, looking at us.  Calais moves along the roof to
that side as well.

Rhori runs up to Hobbes, who is stunned and perhaps unconscious.  He notices
an ogre inside the building.  Paris also sees into the building, seeing
various large orcs, and the biggest darn goblin in robes she's ever seen.

Calais hears one of the bridge guards shout "Three more coming this way,
and they've got an elf!"  He runs past Anton, but doesn't bump into him
nor notice him in passing.  The other guard starts cranking to lower the
bridge.

Two sergeants run up and swing at Paris, but miss.  Lucas comes up and finds
that combat, and sees Rhori with Hobbes also coming under attack.  He
unracks a darkness spell over the latter to give them some cover.  Rhori
dodges for good measure within the smoky area.

Alexis tells Llyurylly'yl, "We could really use some help now," and runs up
to engage the charging bridge guard.  The orc swings at her, and severely
damages her shield.

Mia ego-zots the cranking orc.  It screams, "Fish! No!" which puzzles
Calais, who's the only one who understands it.  (Apparently fish are this
orc's greatest fear.)  Anton runs up and whacks it with his greatsword,
impairing one arm.

Paris swings back on one of her attackers, stunning it.  She swings again,
knocking it out.  Since there's a second one, she also uses her defense
maneuver and puts her levels on defense.

Calais hears, "Gruntor! Move straight forward!"  Then a bolt of magic comes
out of the building and flashes Anton.

An elven arrow shoots past Alexis into her opponent, stunning it.  Alexis
follows up with a sword blow, but it's not down yet.  Calais shoots the one
at the bridge, hitting it solidly in the leg.

Lucas hits the other orc on Paris.

Gruntor, the ogre, moves past Rhori and Hobbes, coming out of the smoke.  He
continues moving all the way to the bridge, using his full movement to get
there.  The other bridge guard ducks under cover, scrabbling for his shield.
Anton, figuring he's already flashed, sets off a ground zero flash of his
own.

Rhori uses his "free segment nine" to stop dodging and heal Hobbes.  Hobbes
feels much better, though the area still smells of wet, burnt lion.

Paris hits her opponent, but for no real damage.

Calais hears a squeaky voice call out in Fell, "Hey there, pretty boy...".
He deduces it's the elf, trying to distract the ogre.  The ogre doesn't
notice, but Llyurylly'yl still shoots it.  Mia heads forward to try to find
the shaman.

Rhori stands up and sweeps the two orcs in the darkness with him.  The first
one blocks him, spoiling the sweep, but ruining its shield.  Hobbes then
jumps the other one, ripping his lungs out.  (Those of us outside the smoke
hear a snarling, and bits come flying out of the darkness.)

Calais hears Llyurylly'yl call out, "Come on, big boy, I have some shoes for
your mother."  (These must be orcish insults.)  The elf fires another arrow.

Alexis calls out, "Anton, what you just did, do it again!"  Then she strikes
at her orc foe, leaving its shield about as damaged as her own.

Alas, it appears the ogre has flash defense.  It swings at Anton, laying his
stomach wide open.  Anton goes down.  Mia lobs a healing spell at him, which
reduces the bleeding a bit, but the wound is still quite severe.

Rhori wants to charge the shaman, but is still engaged by an orc, so he
tells Hobbes to deal with the orc.  Hobbes obliges, and Rhori starts to
charge.  The shaman, however, had reserved his action; seeing the last orc
go down, he lobs another fireball.  Rhori dives onto Hobbes to give him some
cover.  The fireball goes wide, but that causes it to include Paris and
Lucas as well as Rhori and Hobbes.  Still, they all avoid the worst of the
explosion.

The elf puts another arrow into the ogre.

Alexis's orc, having blocked her last time, gets to go first.  It destroys
the last bits of her shield.

Calais shoots Gruntor, who finally falls unconscious.

Lucas tells Paris, "Get the mage, I'll deal with this one."  Before she
can comply, the orc swings at her, forcing her to block.  Lucas smacks him.

The remaining bridge guard tries to crank the bridge from under cover,
with his one good arm.  Mia spots his foot and tries ego-blasting him
again, but misses.

Paris swings at her opponent, chipping its shield.  Rhori stands up and lobs
a throwing axe at the mage, hitting him in the chest.  A flaming shield
appears in front of the shaman, destroying the haft of the axe, but the axe
nevertheless stuns him.

Llyurylly'yl finishes off Alexis's opponent.  Alexis runs to the bridge and
finishes off the cranking orc, who falls back into the water, screaming "No!
Not the fish!"

Paris runs up to the mage and knocks him out before he can recast his
defensive spells.  We easily finish off the remaining orc(s).  Alexis thanks
the elf for his help, and looks through the various orc equipment for a
replacement shield.

Mia tends to Anton, while the rest of us investigate the building.  We find
an altar with a huge gold ring.  We also find seven cards.

Lucas checks the shaman for fire-magic paraphernalia.  Among other things he
finds a really good-looking sword, usable as a focus.  Then he goes out for
a while and uses his crossbow to slow down the orcs trying to build a
makeshift bridge from the other side.

Calais checks behind the altar.  As he comes out again, Alexis asks if he
found anything.  "Oh right, now where did I put it?"  He produces a chest,
which he checks for traps, finding nothing.  Lucas comes back and offers a
key that he found on the shaman, and Calais opens the box, finding six gold
and twenty-one silver.

Mia manages to get Anton conscious, and we sneak behind the temple so the
orcs don't get to see us duck into the water.  They do eventually figure it
out, though, and come chasing up the passage after us as we finish
exfiltrating the cave.  (Alexis finishes off the captured orc as we pass
by.)  As the orcs start to follow us out of the cave, they are driven back
by a barrage of lightning bolts.