They made their way north toward the Marching Mountains. The terrain became a little more like sandy desert and a little less rocky. Naraf, Jevvan, and Ka-Fansa seemed perfectly at home here. Jevvan stopped everyone and pointed out the glint of metal ahead, on the lower slope of the side of a raised area of rock and sand. It appeared to be a man in armor. The body was a little beneath a stone outcropping and they were unsure if this person was dead, dying, or just sleeping under some shade. They crept forward, keeping an eye to the rocks around the body for signs of ambush. They didn't see anything but then again, there were a lot of rocks and crags where someone could be hiding. They continued creeping closer. Their guides told them that their biggest worry should be things living in the sand or creatures living in the rocks. Kipp coaxed the camel he was riding to lay down so he could slide off of him and examine the ground for signs of travelers in the area.

Kipp looked for tracks around the area but found nothing. The person must have walked in from the other direction. He moved closer to the ledge and looked over it at the body. He could tell that the individual was dead, shredded up a little. Seeing nothing around in any direction. He felt a light vibration in the ground and backed away quickly asking if anyone else felt it. It was then that the ground erupted and an ankheg pushed his way out. The battle began and was joined by two other ankhegs. The fight took a few rounds but they bested the ankegs. Those with range weapons stayed out of melee range and those better prepared for close combat confronted them head on. Kipp, Audra, and Jevvan were each grappled. They received some acid damage and crushing damage as the ankhegs began trying to pull them into their holes. The ankhegs were killed before that could happen. Jevvan took a lot of damage. Pyreece was able to heal both Audra and Jevvan., Searching the body, they found a long sword, large shield, silver braclet, gold ring, a spear with the word Bellanoria carved in elvish which means “true strike”, and a battle axe with the word Kruze on it in dwarven which means “Bloody”. Naraf expressed a desire to keep the spear. No one else fights with a spear so he kept that.

Ka-Fansa took a liking to Elenor, especially her spell casting ability. She asked if Elenor could teach her, pelting her with a lot of questions as they continued on their way. As evening approached, they found a low spot with a tent. It was placed to be sheltered from the wind. When Kipp asked if this was a common camp area, Naraf mentioned that there were nomads about but none here. This tent doesn't seem to fit their style. As they moved closer, they spotted a shabby looking camel nearby it. There were also odd symbols covering the tent. Above the door was a piece of wood with the word “Fortunes” scribbled on it. Brandy was eager to try that and went into the tent. Audra followed just to keep an eye on her. Brandy found someone beyond a curtain siting at a table. It was a dark figure in black robes. There were several cards on the table. The figure gestured for Brandy to take a seat across from her at the table. Audra was behind Brandy, keeping an eye on things. The fortune teller took up the cards, shuffled them and began placing them down on the table, one by one. The first card is a dark tower. The second card as the picture of a ship. The third showed a coin that was disturbingly familiar. The last card was painted with a green skull on a black background. She laughed a little and said, “Death”. Her voice was familiar.

Brandy asked, “Whose death, yours?”. The wizard laughed and through back the hood to reveal herself as Daresh. She was more beautiful than they remembered her to be. She said, “I watch you closely. I know what you strive to do and I've sent my agents for you. You will die, die, die! Death is your next rendezvous.”. Brandy jumped up on the table drawing her short sword. She took a swing and missed. Kipp had entered the tent and upon seeing Daresh, charged to attack. He missed with one swing but the second strike, which should have hit, seemed to find nothing to hit. Daresh's image began to fade. She taunted them by stating that she had begun her conquest. “My armies were beginning to move and soon all will be under my control .”, she held up her hand showing the coin that was burned into it, laughing maniacally or in an insane and unhinged way. As she did that, they started to smell the odor of rotten meat. The smell filled the room quickly. The tent began to shrivel. Those inside ran out quickly. As the did, the tent shriveled and rolled up becoming the black inky something. It roll up into a big ball and then faded away. It left a black, kind of burned looking spot in the area where the tent had stood. The camel vanished with it.

Naraf, Jevvan, and Ka-Fansa were al completely unnerved by the entire event. Ka-Fansa asked Elenor if she could do that to which she answered, “No, not yet.”. Brandy told her not to worry, it's just that crazy lady, “She's gone”. Jevvan asked, “What is this crazy lady of which you speak?”. Elenor said, “She's a witch.”. Brandy said, “She's kind of nuts, she's tried to kill us before.”. Elenor said, “That's just her trying to scare us!”. Naraf said, “Such intrigue. You come seeking a dragon and you are attacked by a dark witch? I have never seen such things. I have only heard tales.”. Brandy told him that the whole dragon thing had something to do with how we are going to kick her rear end, “That's why we need to find the dragon! I don't know, it's all this magic stuff. Anyway, she tried to kill me but killed somebody else, she hit somebody else instead of killing me so I have a thing against her anyways”. Naraf looked at the burned spot on the ground and then bent to touch it. Pyreece stopped him and told him not to touch it. He rethought his next move and took out his sword and stirred the ground. It didn't appear to be anything more than sand that had turned black. It still had the same granule texture. He dug down and found it went fairly deep.

Naraf asked if the Daresh was human or if she came from some other dimension. Pyreece said, “She was at one time, human, but I'm not sure since she merged with the coin and began loosing her mind what she is.”. He asked if they were fearful that one such as this pursued them. Brandy answered casually, “No, she's tried to kill us before.”. Audra pointed out that Daresh said she had built an army and was coming to take over everything. She said, “We are, now, all, being pursued. We can deal with her now or deal with her and her army later.”. Brandy told Naraf that it was not the first time that someone tried to kill her, “You kind of get used to it after a while.”, she said. Naraf replied, “You are very brave, little one. You may be short in stature but you are great in courage.”. Brandy said, “If you are going to try and kill me, don't miss.”. The three guides laughed but their was an uneasiness to it. It was getting late and they decided not to camp near this dark spot. Naraf told them there were some rocky outcroppings nearby and if they wanted to travel another 7 or 8 miles, there was the ruins of ancient Kybor. That might make resting a little easier. They decided to make for the ruins.

They travelled toward the ruins. As they got close, they could see some dim lights, like the glow of a couple of campfires. Brandy asked if they could be nomads. The three guides looked at each other with Naraf answering, “Nomads usually have their own tents and don't usually take advantage of ruins like this, but maybe?”. At this point, they were about 50 yards away from the ruin. Kipp moved on ahead of everyone. As he got a little closer, he could start hearing some voices. As he got about 10 yards away, he could also make out a little ravine that ran just below the plateau that the ruins sat upon. It provided a little darkened area that ran underneath the edge of the plateau, a good natural hiding place from which to observe those inside. There was a little bridge structure that crossed that ravine. He turned and motioned for everyone else to come up quietly. They did. Ka-Fansa stayed close to Elenor. Kipp motioned Brandy forward. They decided to climb the wall where they were and did so. Low walls provided excellent cover as they reached the top. Brandy saw a figure laying on the ground nearby. The talking was coming from further away. What Brandy was actually able to see was an 8 foot bipedal creature with fur, wearing some armor. There was a dark stain of liquid around it. It wasn't blood and the creature was curled up hugging itself. Clearly he was not doing well.

Brandy motioned for everyone to head that way. Oglesby donned his hat of disguise becoming the elder halfling, Barry. About that time, Brandy distinctly heard someone throwing up. Brandy moved further in to get a better look at things. Audra and Pyreece climbed up the ledge to the plataeu and found a place to quietly stay as they gathered in what they could make out. Brandy was finally able to make out that one of the creatures was a gnoll. Not far away from him was another one. It was sitting on a stone like it was taking a dump. It was leaning over itself, looking down. They were armored and had weapons on them but they were a little out of it. She returned to the rest of the party and told them that it was a bunch of gnolls and that they appeared to be drunk. Kipp's temperament seemed to change at the mention of gnolls. He specifically said, “Gnolls? Let me at em!”. He took off and charged up over the wall and attacked the one curled up on the ground. The gnoill heard the approach and turned to see him coming,n and growled at his approached. Kipp stated, in the gnoll language, “You're dead!”, as he attacked. He caught the gnoll off guard and cut him down before he could even mount defense.

Other gnolls started moving in to fight back but they were sluggish. There was something clearly wrong with them. That didn't slow down Kipp as he dropped the next one he approached. He found there was puke on the ground nearby. Two more moved to meet his advance. Everyone began moving into the battle. Oglesby move to a darkened area between the rest of the party and a group of gnolls moving down from the north. He was waiting for them to get past him before back stabbing the last one of them, killing him. Jevvan and Naraf moved up the wall with Ka-Fansa hanging back with Elenor. More approached the group from the west, still moving sluggishly. They were definitely sick. Audra met those head on. Oglesby was able to drop one quietly and return to the shadows to wait for his next victim. At one point, Oglesby used the hat to make himself look like a gnoll and came out pretending to be sick. The gnoll leader pointed out the enemy and barked commands that Oglesby couldn't understand. He just continued to appear sick or drunk and staggered away. He turned and attacked the last gnoll from behind and killed him.

The battle raged on for quite a few rounds with the sickly gnolls putting up a fight but unable to stand up to their assault. At one point, the remaining gnolls recognized their ineffectiveness and decided it was time to go. As they made a break for it, they were cut down from behind. None escaped. They ended up killing 20 or so gnolls. Pyreece did some healing of those of her party injured during the battle. They looked around and determined that the well was what made them sick. They found that the gnolls carried black scabbards emblazoned with the silver infinity symbol on the front. They carried mostly battle axes. They wrote a note on a board in several languages warning that the water was bad. They added a note in the gnoll language saying the water was good and they can drink it safely. They found a place away from the puke where they could rest. They discovered that the ruins they were in were destroyed some 100 years ago by the very Blue Dragon they sought to approach. Pyreece cast a detect magic on everything they'd found so far and found the spear and the blood axe were magical. Everything else they'd found was not. Elenor identified them before they rested and determined the battle axe was +1 and the spear was +2. They rested through the night

Exp. 428 + 43 = 471