After plundering the room of all its secrets, the party hurries upstairs and starts systematically emptying rooms of all that they can find that retains any value, while keeping an eye out for any guards or forces of the Baneites. A few hours later they conclude that any remaining forces must have fled along with the priest – probably to raise the alarm. Nonetheless, for the moment – their work at Castle Krag is done. Rounding up the locals, they set off on a day’s march to the nearest thorp in the shadow of the Krag. There they tell their tales, try to inspire the populace a bit, set tongues-a-wagging, and redistribute 1000 gold coins to the elders, This prompts a small celebration, and the group (except for Bud, because he is still stone) enjoys themselves.

The following day, the castle plunder is marked for identification and the more memorable items are investigated. Bud is returned to flesh and the group stumbles across a personal diary of the high priest.
Within they find information that – when combined with what they already know – sets them on a course to find the likely temple of Shar, whose clerics are involved in weakening the weave of magic in the area.

They seek and find and enter, battling a behir, discovering secret doors and corridors, fighting enchanted suits of armor and being sniped by screaming crossbow bolts before finally entering a vast chasm full of floating boulders. Perhaps this is the ‘Grinding Gulf’
they have been seeking…perhaps not. Time will tell…

With the echoes of the hounds dying away, the group decides that haste makes the most sense so they beat fleet feet across the courtyard and through a wooden door into the round tower that makes up a part of the curtain wall surrounding the hilltop. There they find signs of inhabitation – a lot of doors and a set of stairs leading down. They scurry down the stairs and into the basements of the tower, Immediately they encounter a huge ogre and a pair of souped-up undead that are moving boxes. The group attacks with the element of surprise.

Dalliance uses her Undeath to Death to quell the onrushing undead while Lubbitch, Reza, Bud and Barada battle with the ogre. The foe is fearsome and deals savage wounds to the attackers, but after a few tens of seconds the ogre is slain. Humbar casts a Detect Traps spell and peeks his head around the corner of the hallway and collapses in excruciating pain after finding the trap. The hallway marks the entrance to a temple of Bane. Entering the temple, the group is attacked by undead – some puny and laughable, one scary and fearsome.
The scary, fearsome one drains 5 energy levels and 16 points of Constitution before Reza manages to land a solid blow with the Mace of Disruption and consign it to the void.

Despite the notion that there was a survivor of the temple battle that may be spreading the alarm, the group falls back to repair in the Mansion, using Humbar’s Restoration spells as well as Selune’s Silvery Kiss to heal themselves. Emerging after 21 hours, they quickly return to the temple area and begin to search. They find trapped false doors and concealed doors that lead to a silvery portal located in the temple antechamber. A quick bit of head-scratching leads to the temporary solution of a Wall of Stone to seal off the portal from this side. With the threat of reinforcements eliminated for the moment, the group decides to try and clear the fortress of mercenary troops.
They search for, find and investigate the priest’s bolt-hole then go to search his bedroom. There the ubiquitous detection of magic yields two magic books and a pair of magic undead basilisks that turn Bud Feaster into a garden statue.

The party responds with alacrity, alarm and maximum effect – so Bud is the only casualty of the creatures. Wondering aloud what sort of person could sleep with two undead under the bed, the group returns to the main storeroom, the scene of ogreish combat. Choosing a door at random, Reza boots it open and stares in disbelief at the Horned Devil that stands within and beckons to him to enter. Behind the devil, a semi-circular wall studded with doors and torture equipment. Barada is quick with the Gem of Seeing and yells to the party that the devil is illusionary!

The announcement prompts a fireball that streaks towards the group.
Reza thinks he knows which door it came form and he charges into the room, followed by Lubbitch. As Reza bounces off of the stout door, a second fiery ball explodes. While a Globe of Invulnerability is prepared, Dalliance shatters the door to flinders with a bolt of lightning and reveals the occupants – ugly, twisted demon gurners. As Reza and Lubbitch retreat in search of healing, Dalliance fires off a fireball of her own. It is ignored and returned, and as the Globe arrives, the creatures charge the party. The hand to hand is savage and brief and the creatures are vanquished.

After extinguishing the flames, the group batters open the various doors and releases the occupants. Most are villagers taken from nearby to act as forced labor, but one captive tells the party that he is a local ranger. He offers to help the group by raising a host from the forests nearby in support of their mission to rid the area of evil.
While the help is appreciate, the party tells the villagers to wait in the tempe are while they go and neutralize any remaining threats.

Along the way to the stairs to the surface, they discover a secret door to a secret corridor to a secret room. The secret room has old secret coins and an old secret rug and and old secret sword that turns Reza’s outlook on life decidedly lawful and quite good. Whether the change is permanent or temporary is yet to be determined…