On our search for them, we ran into a circle of mages, who were thwarting off the magical attack of the Goblin shamans. The city mages seemed almost at the end of their powers and if Eridanai and Cariss had not entered the circle to aid them, the Kilos Yisais might have had the undeserved pleasure of seeing the city razed to the ground by their minions.
We then continued our search and by chance, or the will of the Gods, our companions literally ran into us. Aided by the local thieves guild, we left the still burning but undefeated city. Leaving some items behind, which we feared might enable the Kilos Yisais to pinpoint our position, we now headed for the Temple City of the Sun. Hrun was captain of the City Guard and would easily enable us to enter the City undetected. There his mysterious friend would teleport us to our destination. To ensure, that we had enough time, we intended to enlist the help of the Duregar, the powerful Dwarves of the Underdark. Thorn had received his magical sword from them. It seemed to have a special meaning to them and we figured, that using his special status, we might be able to convince them in delaying the attack of the Kilos Yisais, led by Tiofan, the bearer of the Black Gem, on the City of the Sun. We would then hopefully have enough time to recover The Sword Forged Anew, which was the only way to kill Tiofan, who was practically invulnerable as long as he possessed the Black Gem, Damodredd's heart.
In a village, a few days away from Saltwater, we again met members of the Saltwater thief guild. They had been sent by Cariss' friend, the leader of the guild. We were given a hint as to where the nearest entrance to the Underdark lay and they volunteered to accompany our Monk Johann to the Temple city, where he would warn the City Council of the coming danger of the Tiofan's attack.
The rest of us travelled on to find the entrance to the Underdark. We had to cross a marsh area, where we had to fend off the attack of a giant water reptile, which Hrun identified as a Swamp-Bethir. Towards the end of the swamp, we lost Lexi our Healer and our Blacksmith Lachlan. Whilest waiting for them on drier ground, Eridanay and I lokked for and eventually found the cave, from which a tunnel would lead us down to the comfortable debths of the Underdark. When we returned to our group, Lachlan and Stimpy had already caught up. In a suddenly appearing mist they had lost us. Then a wee creature had attacked them and Lexi, showing true fighter spirit, immediatly stone darted the creature to death. Showing how pathetic they were, her gods then struck her blind and robbed her of her magic, just because the creature had been a harmless brat of some mud-loving swamp people. As our ex-healer was still deemed important according to the prophecy, we took her with us into the Underdark.
Questioning some Goblins, which had come into grabbing range, we found out, that the Kilos Yisais were waiting for us on route to the Duregar fortress. We decided to take a detour and took the risk of meeting an unknown being, to which the Goblins only refered to as Nanatu.
And did we meet Nanatu! It was a seriously powerful spectre, which cost me my magic sword and Hrun his magic great axe. It also managed to drain me of some my health permanently. And all this probably because the our Scout and our Thief, who were leading the way, could not resist grabbing any item they found in a tomb, the fools! They even got away scot free, because the spectre appeared between them and us and rather hindered us passing its tomb than catching up with the other two. Eventually we succeeded in bribing our way passed the former-mage-now-spectre with magic items.
After descending deeper and deeper, we finally ran into a Duregar guard, well before the fortress. These black skinned dwarven people are incredibly adept at magic and making beautiful, gem-encrusted magic weapons and armour. They seem to spend their time summoning demons from distant plains of existence and forcing these demons into the magical objects they created. If one values one's health, one does not argue with them, so we simply stated our business and on showing Thorn's sword, the guard speedily flew us down through miles of tunnels to the entrance of the fortress.
We were left in a hall, guarded by four huge magically bound demons, until finally the King himself appeared, carried by some unfortunate Demonic slaves. Thorn then told our story and pleaded for help. The King then led us into a vast arena, which quickly filled when thousands of Duregar teleported themselves there. They discussed the matter amongst themselves using telepathic means. Thorn's intelligent Duregar sword, which, as we now knew, contained a demon, could give us some details of the silent discussion.
Finally they came to a decision. It would not be impossible for them to just leave this world and travel to another, so the threat of Raven's release was not of overwhelming concern to them and they would not intervene in a conflict between Dark Elves and Follk. Fortunatly their final decision was to they help House Torellan Sia against Damodredd and his minions. They guaranteed us to hinder Tiofan's attack on the Temple City for one month. This was the time we had to find the Sword and to kill Tiofan. The matter being settled for the Duregar, they teleported us back to the cave entrance near the swamp, where we had started our descent to their fortress.
It was typical for their warped sense of humour to teleport us from relative safety into a relatively dangerous situation. Something had been waiting for us. That something was a giant flying caterpillar, whose many legs slashed at us with razor sharp claws. After bombarding it with fireballs and much hacking and slashing, it finaly decided to do the disappearing act, leaving me and Thorn doubling up on the onset of the poison from its claws.
Fortune and the Gods again smiled on us and a group of Swamp People stumbled over our resting group. Not knowing or disregarding what Lexi had done to one of their children, they treated us with herbs, which soon neutralised the poison. While the others rested and ate their food, Eridanai and I sacrificed animals of the swamp to the Gods of darkness, thereby regaining our lost strength. Then we travelled on to the Temple City of the Sun.