Date of game: July 13, 2002.

Nuzyael 26, 719: Themeson.

We return to the Caer with the two boys who have been doing food runs for the Agrikans hiding out in the nearby woods.

Some rumours are made more aware with further details:

During our free watch, we are watching a team putting together what should be an arbalest but they are arguing that they should redo it as a catapult. Fennelisa thinks that they are erecting an abstract statue. Johnson tries to quickly help the team on his way to the forge.

We go to bed only to be awoken to calls of "Fire!". We rush out to see a team trying to put out the burning assembly of the arbalest-catapult. The people attempting to put out the fire is composed of the guards who yelled "Fire!" and the team who was putting it together.

Standing there and watching the fire is Ojar, the Tala. It seems that he has arrived this evening. Blarius asks us if we have seen his squire, Juresea (f), since she was supposed to arrive with Ojar.

There is no clue as to who set the arbalest-catapult on fire.

We wake up to more commotion in the yard. A team has brought in a couple of heartwood tree trunks. They are the builders of the arbalest-catapult and the guards who had been on duty when the fire had been set.

Juresea is seen talking with the cook, and trying to tell him how to make breakfast. The cook looks amused. We start calisthenics with Blarius leading us but get to end early when a caravan arrives near the keep and the guards on watch throw catcalls and wolf-whistles.

In the caravan, there is a wagon that is covered in gauze. A lady comes out covered head to toe in guaze and wearing a blue hat. She asks Blarius if they can stay in the Caer. Blarius answers that there are few amenities and that space is restricted but otherwise agrees. The people from the caravan put a show and the lady with the blue hat passes around collecting donations. They lead us in prayer in the afternoon, they are Halean.

Johnson is dismayed and shocked to discover that the forge has gone out. While looking for the reason and trying to restart it, they discover a stone cat in the forge; Skitty has arrived!! It seems that Ojar has found her in Cinar and brought her forward with him. Fennelisa is very happy. Skitty has no trouble finding Fennelisa's quarters but Johnson's cat is not too happy with the company, a small scuffle is heard from Themeson 1-1-1's quarters which ends with a tabby yowl.

Johnson restarts the forge with the aid of magic and the help of a Halean as distraction.

During the rest of the day we clear out the bottom of the keep, going down by basket. The basement of the keep has to be cleared out before the stairs can be rebuilt. It is dirty and exhausting work.

During the night, Cornelius has lost contact with Aki; he can still feel her but cannot enter into communication at all. Cornelius reveals that she has been captured by the Agrikans. Caius reports to Blarius and tells him that our source of information has been compromised and that we need to check up on her and rescue her if we have to. Blarius agrees and suggests that we enlist the aid of Ojar and his men.

The Agrikans are hiding out in a small copse of wood about 1/4 mile from town. While we are part of the way, we come across three mounted Knights of Agrik. They are as surprised as we are at this meeting. On of the Knights decides to charge us, the other two decide to hang back.

Themeson 1-1-1 forms a shield wall with spears while Ojar and his men back us up with lances. The charging knight is unhorsed and dispatched with some difficulty by Caius, Cornelius and Johnson. The poor man has an ear cut off, an arm disabled and is stapled to the ground.

Meanwhile Ojar and another Tala help Fennelisa reach the other two Agrikan Knights by carrying her between them on their horses. Meanwhile the other members of the Tala engaged the knights and unhorsed them. Fennelisa, who was not paying close attention to the skirmish, apporaches one of the downed knight, who had surrendered (although Fenn did not HEAR this!), and tried out her incredible shrinking mace on him. Two members of the Tala rushed to pull her away from the "prisoners of war". They think that either she has a cruel streak or that she has lost her senses.

Fennelisa heals the wounded knight with St-Belsirasin's Sword before the eyes of his companions. The Tala again think that she has gone crazy...

Meanwhile, Caius interrogated the knights and finds out that there were 27 in their group around the woodsman's hut. The Agrikan Knights had the following belongings:

We decide to take the prisoners with us and advance to the Agrikan lair. While that Tala stays outside the woods and guard the prisoners, keeping ready to assist us, we advance into the woods. We cross several wards but do not know what they set off; one of them was Lyahvi while the others were religious in nature.

Caius evades an arrow that was shot at him by an unseen foe, he had an itch in his foot, or something like that. He charges at what he assumes is an invisible foe. Fennelisa sees two almost invisible attackers against Caius. After much flailing with his sword, Caius connects with one of them while Fennelisa lobs a javelin at the other and successfully hits.

Before we proceed further into the woods, Ojar yells that we are falling into a bait and switch tactic. As we retreat, we are targeted by arrows from unseen archers and Caius gets hit in the calf.

While Fennelisa tends to Caius' wound we assess the situation. There seem to be five archers and there would appear to be more in the hut. At that, Caius decides that two can play the game of invisible tag and dons the Cloak Invisible.

While we play at digging down and waiting out, Caius sneaks about the woods until he reaches the cabin. He encountered several people stealthed with some kind of mass illusion spell. It is not invisibility per se because their movements can been seen; only when they are completely still are they unseen.

When Caius reaches the hut, he sees that there are three people inside with a chest and a covered basket. He figures that Aki is in either the basket or the chest and decides to open the door and step back to take out the opposition one at time. One of the men runs out thinking that one of his companions has opened the door. As he runs out, he starts to tell everyone to sound off but is interrupted when Caius trips him. As the Agrikan falls flat on his face, he disappears by turning invisible. Caius then slips into the hut and checks the chest but it's closed. He peers into the basket and sees Aki.

He picks up the basket and places it into his Cloak Invisible but one of the remaining men inside the cabin notices the missing basket. The man throws some kind of pyrotechnic spell at the, now vacant, place where Caius was standing. The ceiling explodes into flame and Caius catches some debris as he runs out of the hut, still clutching the basket.

As Caius runs towards our lines, the hut suddenly erupts into fire and the invisibility ends, revealing fifteen men scattered aroud the clearing. We target them and fire javelins and four are hit with two falling, one dead and one unconscious.

The fire intensifies and all the men outside disappear except the prisoners and the unconscious and dead victims.

The Agrikans were waiting for someone to meet them here but they were late. We decide to wait for whoever is supposed to arrive.

We ask Ojar to bring the prisoners back to the Caer and ask him to get Elmio, the paladin of Halea, for us. We think that his talents might be required.

When Elmio arrives we get to meet Bella, his Paladin's mount. We explain our situation and Elmio agrees to help us out. While we wait for this mysterious contact, Elmio asks Bella to patrol the perimeter and warn us if someone approaches. We dig foxholes to secure our positions.

After a fair wait we hear the sound of a bell and Elmio announces that it's Bella telling us that something approaches.

We hide into our foxholes and wait. Eventually we see a dark shape break away from the shadows. When it steps into clearer light we see that it an Aklash! The smell of decay and unwashed bodies assails us then. The Aklash has tail! After that a second Aklash arrives, and then another. We decide that we are not equipped to handle three Aklash so we wait out te situation. Meanwhile the Aklash are moving about the clearing and inspect the hut. They seem to be looking for something or someone.

It take a few hours and the help of Bella before we can slip away and return to the Caer to report in. Blarius doesn't really belive us at first (welcome to Phillipus's daily routine...) but eventually rallies the troops. We decide to wait until the next morning to attack the Aklash because they are sensitive to sunlight. We send runners to the town to advise the townsfolk not to leave their houses at night.

Blarius requests the aid of the Halean in the form of scent-removing liquid which we imbibe into cloth to wrap around our faces when we will come against the Aklash.

The next motning we strip the Caer of any fighting men and head out to where the Aklash are holed up, a location known thanks to Bella's help.

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