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Suva gathers his faculties quickly and, remembering that Morin has one of the Hawker bags, scribbles a note to him and drops it into the bag. It’s a painful 5 minutes waiting for the note to disappear but the party use the time to discuss what else they could send if Morin proves to be alive wherever he is (and able to reply, of course).

Jarek, meanwhile, heads towards the lizardmen village to see exactly what his befallen it – Dalrylshana becomes agitated at how the party will know it is Morin if a reply is received and begins to follow Jarek, just as something appears in the Hawker bag: some grass and a couple of leaves. It’s similar to the foliage about the party at the moment, although nobody picks up on the relevance of this detail.

Balin and Kin set off towards the inner garden, attempting to track down the lone worg that escaped death before it can cause any mayhem as Jiriki tends to the body of Fendriar, setting it into a restful, respectful posture, armed and honoured.

Jarek moves into the outer lands of the lizard men as Dalrylshana arrives in support, leaving Suva and Darius in the outer garden, Suva a little bemused at the lack of ideas regarding a message for Morin and feeling direly in need of giving thanks to St Cuthbert for supporting him throughout the trials of the day.

Soon, Jiriki catches up to Balin and Kin, carefully searching, and the three head off east along the corridor leaving Darius to watch over the fatigued cleric, who has received no reply from his second message to Morin.

Some 20 minutes later, Kin comes hurtling into the outer garden at full speed. In staccato phrases as he gulps back warm air, he indicates that he and the others have just stumbled across Morin's body and might need Suva's help, seeing as his lips are green. Suva moves quickly, Darius pausing for a moment, wondering whether to stay to tell the absent Jarek and Dalrylshana what is afoot - but then moves out.

A little later, the party is fortunately reunited in the garden, Dalrylshana and Jarek looking somewhat downhearted and depressed – it becomes clear that many of the lizardfolk have been slaughtered, including the chieftain, who had been carrying a gaudy spear like the one given to the party. Like the party’s, it too was broken.

Morin is OK: he looks fatigued and a little unsteady on his feet, his armour's gone and he's unarmed except for a silver dagger that he grips unconsciously hard; he still has a backpack and some of his belongings, though.

Dalrylshana brightens a little, surprised to see him alive, and so soon. There is a great need for rest and a decision as to what to do next but Morin offers some small explanation of what has transpired first, as he sifts through his remaining equipment, double checking what he has lost.

“I have devoted almost 12 years of my life in training and tracking the murderer of my mother. The records of the crime,
which I managed to get a look at, named Ghurzak Khan as the likely perpetrator. The culmination of all of that time, effort and desire for vengeance could not allow him to get away so easily, so I had to follow him when he vanished through that portal.

He bargained with my life to show them the way out, but I tried to delay him here; it was really touch and go, as to whether he would have Hahkht cut me in half, but I obtained some personal information, and also some insight into Khan. I don't now believe
he is responsible for my mother's murder, but that can now wait while I plan something more suitable for the one named by him. More puzzling (although I'm not complaining as such) is that he didn't kill me.

He had ample opportunity to, but didn't and with being unconscious, he could have done so silently - he also left me a silver dagger, which is a little odd too.........by the way, the magic here stopped him teleporting further, making us all appear in the first garden, and he mentioned a 'wayfarer's gate' as though there must be one here - I think we need to do some thinking.

Good thing is that he probably didn't have time to get the artefact.”

After some more conversation, it is decidced that the party should attempt to find where the werewolf and companions had gone. Morin remembers the shadow wolf was standing at the turning to the northern double doors and feels that he has found his wayfarer’s gate beyond there.

As the need for someone with tracking skills becomes apparent, Darius suddenly looks down at a cheerful hairy face and
wagging tail. Visible clues may be cleared by the imps but smells........? Taking Jax through the inner garden to the worg corpses, he is able to pick up a scent; it's leading, not unexpectedly into the westbound corridor, where Morin and Kin are about to set off, anyway.

Jiriki stays behind to keep guard over Suva and begin to collect more trophies from the defeated ogres as Jarek resets the portcullis into the ‘up’ position and retrieves the boat.

The werwolf trail leads unexpectedly to the route the party took to enter and thus provides its own problems: should the party proceed when not at full strength? Morin and Dalrylshana return quickly to the inner garden (where a soaked Jarek has recovered Hahkht’s armour from the boat and Jiriki has recovered the Drow’s spellbook, her elven chainmail, a necklace of fireballs and some gems) to speak to the priests of the party.

Whilst there, Dalrylshana uncovers the probable reason why Morin was left with a dagger – it has been magically marked to allow it to easily be found or scried, and she negates this magic, leaving it a normal silver dagger.

Much discussion ensues that effectively leads nowhere and then Morin and Jarek return to the rest of the party, leaving a Hawker bag with Jiriki, determined to head upwards and out to see if Ghurzak can be found before any more time is lost.

The flesh golems do not react to the party’s egress and the distance is swiftly covered round the spiral staircase, up through the sliding panel (Morin, knowing what to look for, swiftly finds the hidden lever), through the unlocked door that had the invisible key and back at last to the initial door that the choice of many keys.

This door is locked and Morin cannot pick it. Advance seems halted but shouting for Karnak brings a swift response - perhaps the
barbarian was expecting something or perhaps he just has very good hearing but no hammering on the door is needed before his grunts the other side of the door can be made out.

Karnak is not one for lengthy or erudite conversation but through short answers and annoyed growls you manage to establish the state of affairs at the moment: the three 'guards' (Karnak and his two comrades) were slightl surprised, not expecting a (very) sneak exit from Dhunok Grael (the name Karnak still knows for this place). The party exiting were almost completely away before Karnak himself sensed something and roared to the attack.

The exiting 4 were almost surprised by the sudden attack but an odd wolf they had seemed to lend them silence and shadow which allowed them to melt into the jungle and effect an escape as a worg ran interference and held up the pursuers. The worg was killed and a strange dagger-loaded harness recovered where it was dropped but the other three escaped. That was about three quarters of an hour ago, he would guess.

Karnak's two compatriots are trying to follow them but Karnak, desirous as he is to follow battle, has stood his ground as he was bid. As it also becomes clear that there are no keys on the other side of the door, Morin suddenly reminds Kin that he has the key with him ("Let's take the S key with us you never know the S might stand for skeleton and open every door.").

The mage remembers as the key is mentioned and the door is soon opened and the party gather outside in the warm tropical evening. Morin takes back his harness but a brief leading about of Jax indicates that surprisingly (or perhaps not, given the shadow wolf’s apparent abilities) there are no scents to track further.

It seems fairly unlikely that Ghurzak has somehow managed to get the hilt and his fleeing suggests that his chance ot teleport has gone. Thus, the best option would be for the party to retrieve the hilt themselves before any retrun can be made by the werewolf – they return to the rest of their companions to rest and then press on leaving Karnak on guard, as he was.

There is a feeling that there is something of a need for a little haste and a respectful burial within the river for Fendriar is soon enacted. Any similar concerns for the lizard folk or their chief need to be tempered against just how long any efforts might take and so, sadly, they must be left as they fell, with the hope that returning members of the tribe will be able to pick up the pieces.

Perhaps they have had enough involvement with outsiders for a while, anyway!

Fendriar is carried from his dignified repose, as placed by Jiriki, down through the inner garden and out a little way on the boat. As Suva utters a prayer to St Cuthbert from the mooring point, Jiriki holds his greatsword over the body and Balin gently rolls it out of the boat and into the water. Weighed down with Hahkht's chainmail, it sinks out of view...

After a minute's silence, the party look around at one another and gird themselves; it is time to move on!