Withdrawing from the tower’s vicinity while the ungern patrol is still out seems like a great idea and the group skedaddles overland while avoiding the worst encounters the scrublands have to offer. They journey to Ludensheim, where they pick up a large quantity of cached loot and alert MIles of the golem factory on his northern border, then off to Botkinsburg and then to the port. A sail across the bay and within six months the group has landed in Impiltur. Wares are sold and bought and the Torm church is appraised of the progress of the party in the quest to undo the evil.

After some time, the group re-equips and departs to retrace their steps returning to Ludensheim in some 18 months time from when they departed...

Rising early, the invisible party skirts the ungern camp and approaches the rubble piles near the tower base. Drawing upon information gleaned through a flyby, the Malformed one climbs up the side of the tower and drops a line to the res tof the party. Within minutes, the group is on the roof of the second floor and begins investigating.
A lovely entrance gallery ringed with crow statues – statues filled with some kind of smelly tar – is left for later and the group presses on.
They discover a priest of some sort apparently locked in a trance and communicating with a statue of the Horned One. When the group slays him, the statue bellows and this has the unfortunate effect of drawing all guards in the vicinity...

With a little bit of fire and ice, the group slays hundreds of rats and a quintet of kobold that trail the horde. Tiring of the slaughter and deciding that half-starved kobolds pose little real threat to the Ludensheim region, the group returns to tell Miles of what they have seen and killed.

The group leaves the town by traveling along the remnants of the road by which the Horned One’s troops poured into the area. Despite being old, it is still in good repair and the group makes good time, traveling 4 days northwards without any major encounters. The landscape is barren and the cleric sustains the group with magically produced food and drink. one day, the sharp-eyed ranger spots a metallic glint from the foothills on the other side of the river.

Curiosity piqued, the intrepid and invis...

Returning to the room of evil tiles – the group retraces its footsteps but someone is left in the complex, for when they open one of the concealed doors discovered during their last outing they trigger an alarm. While Lad looks for the source of the noise, a dagger sprouts from his thigh and the battle is on. Within twenty seconds, the battle is over and a bugbear lies dead on the floor while the other surrenders.

Brief communication is attempted and while some answers are forthcoming the group is suspicious of the motivation of their captive and ‘persuade’ him to walk in front. While the group is investigating a firepit and piles of straw a commotion rises at the end of the line. The group has been seen by a trio of orcs, and the orcs flee pell-mell.

The group gives chase and ends up fo...

Venturing within reveals a warren of rooms, ending in a throne room tiled in evil tile bisected by a line of black tiles that are not evil.. Not good perhaps, but not evil. The evil tile paralyzes the first person to set foot upon it. There is a distinct lack of enthusiasm for setting foot upon the tiles. A plan is hatched to defeat the evil tile, and additional exploration is undertaken by the spider-climbing mage. This reveals a series of hidden cells and a passage out of the throne room. Before the group ventures further, the case is made for securing the various unexplored passages. More exploring is undertaken. The results of this inquisitiveness is a trio of gnolls – apparently working as independent contractors for the red hats...