The party has barely caught their breath from the battle with the Pactlords when a strange sensation abruptly comes over Minaret. She has a strong feeling, almost a premonition, that Frannie, the young girl that she has befriended, is in dire danger. The group, used to heeding such warnings, prepares to return to the surface immediately.

They make a quick stop at the Church of St. Cuthbert to check in and receive some minor healing. Brother Fabitor is overjoyed to see them; he feared that the church had done something to offend the party. The party assures him that they have no ill will towards the church. Nevertheless, Brother Fabitor concurs that the church has perhaps not been as helpful to the party as it could. He says that he has been authorized to let them stay in one of the lavish guest rooms in the upper levels of the church. Although Minaret is feeling more and more anxious about Frannie, the party humors Brother Fabitor as he shows off the room. It really is very nice: plush beds laid out for each party member, along with numerous locked chests for valuables and a central table with six chairs for planning. A large fireplace ensures that the room will never be uncomfortably cold, and Brother Fabitor proudly points out the view from the enormous picture window, saying that they are in one of the tallest building in the city, and that it is even possible to see the bell tower of St. Thessina, the older, smaller church to St. Cuthbert run by Brother Heth. While the party is grateful for the room, they apologetically take their leave as soon as possible, for Minaret's worry has now crystallized into a low dread.

According to Jevicca Norr, the Inverted Pyramid has enrolled Frannie in the Academy of Wilfrick, the most prestigious school in the Viscounty of Verbobonc (and perhaps Furyondy and Veluna as well). Richter remembers that it is located next to the library, having seen it on his previous researching visits. The party now heads there as rapidly as possible.

The Academy of Wilfrick is a large, imposing two-story stone structure. Wide stone steps rise towards the massive double-doors, flanked by two stone statues of gryphons. The doors swing open, and it takes a moment for the eyes of the party to adjust to the cool dimness inside.

Inside is a large entry hall, with corridors branching out in many directions. The polished marble floor is tiled in a mosaic visage of the late Lord Wilfrick. Rising up on the east and west are stone staircases, each about ten feet wide. Flanking each are two city guards, watching the party alertly. Another guard member steps forward from a desk. “Welcome to the Academy of Wilfrick. What can I do for you?”

Minaret immediately steps forward, then abruptly realizes that she doesn't even know Frannie's last name! She stammers, "Um, I need to see the girl Frannie. She was enrolled here about a week ago."

The guard looks plainly suspicious. "Does this Frannie have a last name?"

"I do not have her last name. It is enormously important that I speak with her right away."

The guard peers at the well-armed, dark and dangerous-looking woman in front of him. "Nobody is permitted to see the students except the staff and the legal guardians of the students. I feel foolish asking this, but are you her legal guardian?"

Minaret, feeling downright frantic by now, replies, "I am not her legal guardian. She was enrolled here by the Inverted Pyramid just last week, and they put me down as her main point of contact. Please, it is an emergency."

The guard stares at her for a moment longer, then surprisingly nods. "I will go and check. Please wait here. What did you say your name was?" Relieved, Minaret gives him her name, and he marches off into the dimness, his footsteps fading.

There are a few awkward minutes of silence. Classes are obviously in session; from the halls above, the party hears the faint echoing of voices raised in lecture and the sound of chalk on blackboards. The other guards do not speak, keeping their eyes on the party, who shuffle their feet, trying simultaneously to look tough and not too threatening.

Five minutes after the guard has left, a sudden, bloodcurdling shriek comes from the upper level. Even the party members, who were expecting some sort of trouble, jump at the sudden sound. Then the screams of children can be heard. Minaret reacts faster than the guards: she races up the stairs two at a time. The guards follow quickly, warning the party to stay where they are. They do not stay to make sure their order is obeyed, which is just as well, for the party has no intention of remaining downstairs. They too run up the stairs, quickly overtaking and passing the guards. At the top of the steps is a long, broad hallway, with arched classroom doors evenly spaced on either side. Several are open, but the one from which the screams are coming is closed. Minaret reaches it and flings it open. There she stops short, for even her hard experience cannot prepare her for the sight that greets her.

The lazy sunlight of the afternoon casts rays through the dusty air of the classroom, shedding a beautiful light on a horrific scene. A group of about twelve children, one of whom is Frannie, are huddled against the far blackboard, whimpering and looking fearfully at the head of the class, where the body of a female instructor lies upon her desk. With hellish clarity, Minaret can see chalk dust on her bloody outstretched hand. Her head is missing, and blood spurts and gouts from the ragged, bloody stump of a neck. The head itself is clutched in the massive hand of the blue creature the party last encountered in the Banewarrens… now grown mightily since they last saw it. As the rest of the party reach the doorway, the creature turns towards them, and grins evilly as it raises the head to its mouth and bites down. Minaret's stomach turns as she hears horrible crunching and chewing sounds that sound like the munching of an apple filled with wood chips. That seems to break her paralysis, and with a shout she leaps into the room.

Minaret's first thought is protecting Frannie and getting her out of there; she therefore goes invisible, and makes her way to the back of the room. The others confront the creature, hoping to keep it at bay. The battle is a difficult one; it is now quite obvious that the blue creature has increased its abilities as well as its size since they last fought. However, Vangkor has remembered the previous battles with the creature, and immediately casts a dimensional anchor on it. The creature howls in fury, aware now that it can't disappear. One of the guards bravely charges forward, his sword raised. The creature sees him coming, and one of its powerful fists pistons out, connecting squarely with the guard's head. There is a wrenching crack, and the guard's head bounces back along the floor back to the party. The other guards look at each other, and gulp audibly. However, they do not flee; they bravely hold their ground, switching to light crossbows and firing from a difference. Sadly, the wounds from few bolts that the creature does not avoid seem to close up rapidly on their own.

Minaret reaches Frannie, and, still invisible, quickly picks her up and heads towards the door. The creature sees the young girl seemingly floating through the air. It immediately deduces that Minaret must be carrying the girl, and charges the girl. Frannie screams as the creature's fangs and claws come within inches of her. Minaret desperately attempts to hold the creature at bay, until Richter summons a Lemur, a minor demon to attack it. The creature is distracted, allowing Minaret the chance she needs to leap out the door with the child.

Once in the hallway, Minaret quickly puts the girl down. "Now, Frannie, you need to get out of here. Run, as fast as you can, back to the Ghostly Minstrel. Send word to Jevicca Norr. I will join you there as soon as I can."

"But... what about you? I can't see you, are you dead?" Frannie's eyes are filled with terror, and her hand clutches tightly to Minaret's, but the skin is cool, and her hands do not tremble. Minaret clinically notes that the girl is still in control her emotions. Although Minaret is saddened by it, the girl's innocence has forever departed. Now she is a survivor... much like Minaret herself.

"No," Minaret replies, "I am not dead. But death will come quickly to both of us if you don't leave now. You will see me again. Now fly, and quickly!" The girl takes one last look at the place where she can feel Minaret standing, then turns and runs as fast as she can towards the stairs at the other end of the hall. Minaret watches her go, hoping that her last promise to the girl is a true one.

Meanwhile, in the classroom, the creature continues dealing horrible damage to the party members. Larry and Gemloch are engaged in melee combat with it, while tell dances about the desktops, firing arrows at it. Richter manages to herd the rest of the children away from the fight, and leads them out the door. Showing perhaps diplomacy with children as Minaret, he yells at them to get out of there, and they flee down the stairs, screaming. Richter then bumps into the invisible Minaret, and together they re-enter the fray. Things begin to go downhill from there. Another of the guards is killed, leaving only two. Richter attempts to use a knife-spray spell doesn't seem to affect the creature. Eventually, the Stalker manages to hit both Larry and Minaret with its paralyzing attack. Then, abruptly, it changes course and smashes one of the classroom windows. The party, assuming it means to retreat, is surprised and dismayed when it picks up both Larry's and Minaret's bodies, and actually hurls them out the second-story window. Enraged at this cavalier treatment of their allies, the others redouble their attacks. The two remaining guards, realizing that their missile attacks are not doing much good, bravely run forward and actually manage to grapple the creature. This keeps it busy trying to disengage the guards. Richter, using his mace, joins Gemloch in landing blows on the creature, while Vangkor hurls every offensive spell he has at it. Finally, the creature is brought down. The party, fearing its regenerative power, burn the remains.

For Minaret and Larry's part, when they were thrown from the window they both had the feather fall spell active, so neither were wounded in their fall. This did cause some ruckus on the street: passersby saw a window on the second floor of the Academy abruptly explode, then, one after the other, two bodies popped out and then floated serenely to the ground. Observers were quick to run for the city guard, but nobody was brave enough to get directly involved in such magic. The two adventurers, while unable to move, still had their sight. Thus Larry, who happened to land facing Minaret, saw something strange happen. Two figures, a female dwarf and a large spider, both materialize as if from nowhere. They grab Minaret's helpless body, and the dwarf drops a scrap of paper. Then as mysteriously as they appeared, they vanish... taking Minaret with them.

**

Eventually the City Guard arrives in the classroom. When they learn what the party has done, they are extremely grateful. They promise to give the party the advertised award of one thousand gold pieces. In addition, both the private guards of the Academy receive city commendations for their brave work. All are glad that the "Blue Terror" has been dealt with.

The air of celebration is dimmed, however, when the party heads outside and finds that 1) Larry is still paralyzed, and 2) Minaret is missing. Searching about they find the piece of paper left by the female dwarf. It is apparently a ransom note. It reads:

"Your friend is alive and will be returned to you tomorrow if you put 100 platinum coins in a leather backpack and leave it behind the Bull and Bear armorers in Midtown tonight, after midnight."

This enrages the group greatly. Who has abducted their companion, and why? Thieves with magic? Are the Pactlords behind it? Or someone else? Before any other questions can be answered, they need to revive Larry, who still cannot move a muscle. They request that the city guard pay the reward in platinum pieces (as per the note), and then head back to the Legion with their paralyzed companion. There Larry's paralysis is removed. Early that evening, the City Guard, as promised, delivers one hundred platinum pieces as the party's reward, and the party then hunkers down until near midnight, when they drop off the coins as directed. They wait, and as promised, at midnight they see a dark figure amble by, pick up the coins, and move on. The party decides not to follow, instead returning to Legion, waiting to see whether the next day will see Minaret returned to them.

Brewfest 9

As promised, the following morning the Legionnaires find Minaret lying unconscious on the doorstep of the Legion. Though apparently not wounded, when woken she seems very fuzzy on what happened to her. She remembers being abducted by the dwarf and the spider, and being transported to another place. Then she was knocked unconscious, and can remember nothing from that point until now. However, other than that she appears fine, after eating a decent breakfast.

Now that the group has been reunited, the party tries to determine what their next move should be. They feel that although they seem to have explored the entire Outer Vaults, they haven't found another Sealed Door yet, and they know that the Inner Vaults lie somewhere beyond. Their hunch is that there must be some sort of exit beyond the air elemental screen they encountered on their last trek down. However, to deal with the elemental, they'll need some more specialized supplies. They decide to do some restocking and preparing, agreeing to meet again at the Legion that evening. Richter does some more research at the library, Vangkor spends some time working on magic items, Minaret asks Tell to join her to do some shopping in town and to check on Frannie, and Larry and Gemloch hang out at the Legion, sparring and practicing.

That evening the party reconvenes, but are short two people: Minaret and Tell have not yet returned. They immediately become nervous, wondering what has happened. Their curiosity is not long-lived, for soon there is pounding on the front door of the Legion hall. It is Tell, looking wild-eyed and frantic. He says that Minaret is not who she claims to be. She tried to kill him in the marketplace, and he only just escaped. While the party is reacting to this sudden news, a Legionairre says that a man has shown up asking to see the party. Cautious but feeling it might have something to do with what's going on, the party agrees to see him. The man, who is dressed as a bard, is led into the room. He looks at everyone present, and then asks where Minaret is. Everyone pointedly looks at Tell, who recounts again what happened. The man looks hard at Tell, and then, to everyone's surprise, says flatly, "You're lying."

The group looks from the stranger to Tell. "And how would you know that, sir?" asks Tell.

"Because I am Minaret."

At this there is chaos. After the furor dies down, the stranger explains further. "When I was captured, I was knocked out. When I came to, I was being strapped into a huge machine. I don't remember much, but the room I was in had a steepled roof and stone walls... sort of like a bell tower. There were two people there; both had their backs to me, but I could see one, who was adjusting the machine, was human. The other was a bugbear with a heavy iron religious symbol around his neck. Then, despite my struggling, I fell deeply asleep.

"The next thing I remember was waking up somewhere totally different. I was in a bed, in a room I'd never seen before... in this body. I made my way here, hoping that I would find you all, so I could warn you: if I'm in this body, who or what is in mine? I see I may have been too late. Something got into my body... and now it might have moved elsewhere." The stranger looks pointedly at Tell.

The others are not quite ready to take the stranger at his word. "Why should we believe your word over that of our own comrade?"

"Simple," the stranger replies. "Allow me to demonstrate." He leads the party directly and unerringly into Minaret's room. There he flings open the closet, and begins digging around in the various belongings there. The others look uneasily at each other. Then the man triumphantly holds aloft a leather sack tied at the top. He unties it, and suddenly there is an explosion of black feathers... Soot! "When the other 'Minaret' returned here, my familiar knew immediately that something was amiss. Since Soot can talk, whatever was posing as me knew that Soot had to be hidden. It left Soot to starve in this sack, likely because killing Soot by violence would have been noisier and messier, and thus harder to cover up. This way he could say that Soot just disappeared. Now the question is, where is this creature now?" He turns to Tell. "You say that you and Minaret went out, and that Minaret suddenly attacked you, and that you managed to escape her. I think it went differently... that Tell realized that something was amiss with Minaret, and whatever was posing as her had to remove Tell from the picture. It killed Tell, and then took his form, and now stands before you."

The others look at the ranger. "This is... um, you know he's lying..." Abruptly, Tell leaps out the window, moving faster than any human should. The party, though is quick to act, blocking off his escape. He turns to face the party, his eyes glowing with hate. The party, needing no further proof that this creature is not Tell, move to attack. The battle is fierce but short: they manage to bring the creature down. As it dies, it turns into an amorphous, multicolored, steaming puddle of goo.

The party feels crushed: not only is Minaret literally "out of her head", but in all likelihood Tell is dead. Minaret, though does not let them rest long. Whatever was impersonating her earlier lured Tell on the pretense of a visit to Frannie... which means that the girl might still be in danger. The group quickly heads to the Ghostly Minstrel. There they find Frannie, safe. The girl is confused that the stranger could actually be Minaret, but seems to recognize the personality of her friend quickly. She says that Tell and Minaret showed up earlier, and began leading them towards the Legion. Then abruptly, Minaret vanished into an alleyway, only to surprise attack Tell. Tell fought back, but then Minaret changed into a huge, albino-looking giant! The girl shudders at the memory. Tell bravely told her to run, and held off the creature while the girl made her escape. She made her way back here.

Minaret comforts the girl as best she can. She is again struck by how much the girl has grown. In the space of two days, she has survived not one, but two deadly encounters with powerful creatures bent on killing her. Lesser children would be catatonic by now. Frannie is different, and Minaret feels that she will be able to take care of herself when the Academy re-opens. She leaves the girl with an embrace, telling her that she only need to call if she needs help.

The party then departs, making for the alley where Frannie said "Minaret" attacked. There they find Tell's body, and have him raised. The ranger is glad to be back on his feet, and all the more eager to discover who is behind all this.

The biggest clue the party has to what is going on is Minaret's remembering that she was in some sort of bell tower. After thinking harder, she remembers being able to see out the bell tower to the Velvedyra river below, as well as spires of the church of St. Cuthbert in the distance. Abruptly, the party flashes back to Brother Fabitor, showing off their new room in the church, and pointing out the view. There are many churches with bell towers in Verbobonc, but is only one of them has a view of both the Velvedyra and the Church of St. Cuthbert: the tower of St. Thessina!

Brewfest 10

The next morning, the party prepares to visit the temple of St. Thessina. They make their way to the nearby blocks, then duck into an alleyway. There they prepare themselves for a reconnaissance. The plan is that the party will try to infiltrate the temple via the back door, with Minaret invisible and on point, while Tell magically flies up to the bell tower to investigate. After buffing up, the party begins their assault.

The temple is currently closed, ostensibly undergoing renovations: multiple scaffolds line the north wall. The party now suspects that something much more sinister than "renovation" is going on here. The back door is locked, but easily bypassed by Minaret. She leads the group inside. After passing through several offices, they reach a circular stairwell. There they hear hushed voices... their presence has been detected! After some further preparations, the group charges up the stairs. Waiting for them are four male human warriors wielding two-bladed swords, a male half-orc barbarian, and the female dwarf who helped kidnap Minaret. A fierce melee ensues.

Meanwhile, Tell floats up to the bell tower, whose top is open to the outside. There he sees Minaret manacled to what looks to be an operating table. Attached to the table is an evil-looking device, about five-feet square, with many tubes and wires attached to Mianret's body. Another device, different but of about the same size, sits a few feet away; this second device resembles nothing so much as a large steel oven with a hinged door. What immediately catches his eye are the two figures bending over the table: one human, one bugbear. They are speaking in low voices, but don't appear to have noticed the ranger. Quietly he draws an arrow. He aims at the bugbear, and fires. The arrow seems to bounce off at the last minute, as though the bugbear wore some invisible shield. Both of them whirl around, and Tell is shocked to recognize the human as Brother Heth Neferul of the Church of St. Cuthbert! Only now he is robed in black, and wears an all-too-familiar symbol: that of the Elder Elemental Eye! The bugbear is wearing one of the Pactlord rings. They both wear knowing grins, and Tell has a sinking feeling that they have been waiting for him.

Inside, the others manage to overcome their foes after a protracted battle. After the last fighter falls, Vangkor continues up the staircase to the third floor. There he finds a nasty surprise: a chained basilisk! He manages to avert his eyes in time to avoid being turned to stone. He hastily shouts a warning to the others, and continues up the stairs as fast as he can. The chain prevents the basilisk from following, but it is no less of a threat.

Vangkor reaches the top, where he finds Tell engaged in a life-or-death battle with the bugbear and Brother Heth. He quickly joins the fray, casting damaging offensive spells at Brother Heth while Tell deals with the bugbear, who is also some sort of priest. Heth diverts his attacks from Tell, and runs towards the large oven-like machine. Now that he's away from Tell, Vangkor brings out the big guns: he drops a powerful sonicball directly on the hapless priest. However, he is unprepared for what happens next.

The sonorous boom of the sonicball is immediately followed by a much larger detonation, as the machine next to Brother Heth explodes with a massive blast of energy. Both Heth and Vangkor are knocked back, badly burned, as he entire top of the bell tower is blown apart in an explosion of stone and iron shrapnel. Debris rains down for several city blocks; the population at large stops what its doing and gapes at this spectacle. Several people are injured by falling debris, but no one is killed, luckily.

Vangkor struggles to his feet, dusting himself off. He makes a mental note to himself not to cast damaging area-effect spells next to evil-looking devices that he knows nothing about. Then he sees Heth getting to his feet, and rejoins combat. As he fights, he suddenly hears a small voice in his head, urging him on to destroy the priest. He has no time to determine its source, but continues fighting. The others arrive shortly after. Although Heth was extremely hard to damage before, it appears the blast has removed some of his power, and together the party manages to take him down, along with the bugbear priest.

Minaret approaches her body on the table. It does not appear dead or damaged... the steady rise and fall of her chest is visible. She reaches out to touch the body, and then wonders what will happen to the spirit of the body she is currently inhabiting. However, her desire to be back in her own body overrules caution. She makes contact. Immediately the world swims before her, and there is a disorienting sense of vertigo. She then opens her eyes... her own eyes, and sees the bard drop to his knees, shaking his head. She is glad that he lives... he is as much a victim as she.

Richter, while peering over the edge of the bell tower at the damage below, finds an unusual patch of space near the edge. It almost seems to shimmer and waver, as if not quite real. Not trusting it, he backs away and alerts the others.

Vangkor, in his attempt to discover the source of the small voice he heard during combat, discovers a long, steel-bladed dagger, with a silver-and-blue hilt with white diamonds. Apparently this is the source of the voice: the dagger is named Yaeshla, and the dagger's hilt houses an intelligent spirit. She was under the control of the Pactlords until the magic-dispelling blast of the machine set her free. Now she is happy to tell her story to the party.

Yaeshla was originally created by ancient elven artisans and imbued with the soul of a dying elf child. She was originally not a dagger; the hilt was originally part of a magical staff known as the Staff of Shards. Her owner, an elf wizard named Maeritha Moonrise, was one of those who defeated Eslathagos Malkith, the Dread One. The Staff was the only thing existing that could destroy the Dread One's form; however, it was broken in battle against the Dread One. After the battle, Maeritha Moonrise fled with Yaeshla and one other piece of the staff, a rodlike midsection. For even though Eslathagos Malkith had fallen, contingent magical wards in his fortress threatened her and her comrades. The bottom tip of the staff was left in the deepest portion of Jabel Shammar—the top of the Banewarrens—known as the Dread One’s Path. The whole place was sealed behind them. Maeritha believed there was no way to reunite all the portions of the staff.

Yaeshla wanted to stay useful even in her limited form, so Maeritha gave her to her apprentice, a half-dragon elf named Thurnuin. Thurnuin gave Yaeshla the blade she now holds and kept her at his side. After Maeritha passed away, Yaeshla witnessed Thurnuin’s gathering of some rather surprising comrades in the secret extradimensional realm his master had created: the Quaan.

Thurnuin’s companions were a beholder named Charch-Pahn, a mind flayer named Ilaprisarol and a black dragon that called itself Father Claw. Together, the four of them swore a Pact to work together from the pocket dimension of the Quaan to eliminate the hated humanoids “infesting” the world. (Yaeshla remains uncertain whether Thurnuin was always evil, fooling even Maeritha, or if something corrupted him toward the end. She did, however, come to learn that Thurnuin’s anti-humanoid feelings sprang from the ridicule he received due to his draconic heritage.)

Centuries passed, and the Pactlords grew in power. Father Claw left, and many other original members died. As far as she knows, only Charch-Pahn still lives, a shriveled husk of a beholder. Yaeshla herself was ensorceled so she would operate as a spy for the Pactlords, her will subverted to darkness. She was passed around from owner to owner among the Pactlords of the Quaan and their servants until she was given as a “gift” to Brother Heth Neferul for his service—actually, she was really there to observe his actions and report back to her true masters.

Now that she is free, she wants nothing more than to rejoin the other portions of the Staff of Shards. She tells the party that the Staff is the only thing that will destroy Danar's hand, the key to the Banewarrens. She knows that the odd, wavering area just off the bell tower is actually a gate to the Quaan itself. It is there where the second-third of the staff lies, in a place known as the Black Manor. She is relatively certain that the third part remains in the Banewarrens, close to Jabel Shammar, the fortress at the top of the Baneheart Spire.

This is a bit of news for the party to digest. If they can assemble this staff, they will have the means to destroy the only way into the Banewarrens, preventing further incursions. This could be done after finding and using the Sealing Rod that Geristranomos mentioned to re-seal the Banewarrens. Curiously, the party asks more about the Quaan. Yaeshla tells them what she knows:

The Quaan is an extradimensional realm all its own, a gloomy, gray, hazy place, and is the realm of the Pactlords. She doesn't know if they created it or if they found it and decided to inhabit it. There are many natural hazards like swamps and steaming bog pools, but the greatest dangers are from the Pactlords themselves. Unfortunately, the portal from the bell tower is one-way; the only returning gate that she knows of lies in the Tower of Charch-Pahn, the ancient beholder and one of the Pactlords. This gate leads back here to the bell tower, and is the only other way she knows of to return (barring some other means of extra-planar travel).