Panting and lying low behind a boulder near their extraction point, Twitch alternated between licking her singed fur and peeking out looking for her companions' arrival. The bin of magical items and junk lay at her feet; on top of the pile, glowing as it did the day the Outcasts received it from the giants of the Realm of Light, lay the crystal containing a powerful Wish spell. I hope this was worth it , Twitch thought. The Outcasts had met Yipping's father Keh're in the realm of the Modrons. Keh're had explained that he and Yipping's mother Vass had been working to defeat a demon lord who had been using the Slaad to attack and overrun Eberron. However, the demon lord had captured Vass and had infected her with a special Slaad tadpole, the effect of which was to turn Vass into a Death Slaad. Now, the Death Slaad led the demon lord's armies that had attacked Stormreach. Keh're asked for the Outcasts' help--he needed a Wish spell to restore Vass to her original form, which, Keh're believed, would have the trickle-down effect of curing the civilians who were infected in the recent attack on Stormreach. The Outcasts discussed and debated. Twitch pointed out that the group had delivered the glowing crystal to the Dragon Prince, and that the kobold illusionist had claimed that it contained a Wish. On one side of the discussion, Lukar led those who counseled that the group attack and kill the Dragon Prince, take the Wish and take the Dragon Prince's body back to the giant king, and be done with it all. On the other side of the discussion, Twitch was most vocal among those who were less certain that bloodshed was necessary: perhaps they could reason with, bargain with, or trick the Dragon Prince for the Wish ? Ultimately, the group decided to ask for the Wish first, and if necessary, attack. Having transported back to Eberron to a location near the Dragon Prince lair--that word used deliberately!--the group approached cautiously. The Dragon Prince's two frost salamanders stood guard as in the past. Twitch and Envy walked forward and requested an audience with the Dragon Prince; soon, the Dragon Prince's illusion of an ancient red dragon appeared. Over Lukar's muttered curses and protests, Twitch suggested that the Dragon Prince could have the two items they had recovered from the giant king's palace--the magical almanac that Lukar now wanted to keep, and the waterskins containing the magical restorative waters from the giants' fountain--in exchange for something that the Outcasts wanted. But Twitch and Envy never got to finish the discussion. In a temper tantrum, the Outcasts' erstwhile ally the Dragon Prince demanded that the Outcasts turn over the items he wanted while ordering his frost salamanders to move in to attack. Feeling vulnerable and too tightly bunched, Twitch begged Envy to use her dimension-shifting cloak to take the two of them out of range of the frost salamanders' fearsome icy breath, which Envy did; but the frost salamanders advanced forward and used the wide and long cones of their breath to devastating effect, immediately destroying much of Lukar's assembled army of undead skeletons and leaving many of the Outcasts battered and bloodied. In the meantime, an invisible stalker, previously unnoticed, attacked the Outcasts' flanks, posing an additional tactical wrinkle. The Outcasts counter-attacked with characteristic ferocity. Sh'Nezz'Tar, Yipping, and Ariah concentrated their attacks on one of the frost salamanders, while Lukar, Twitch, and Envy provided ranged support. One by one, the salamanders and the invisible stalkers fell to the Outcasts' might. Twitch used the powers of The Traveler to confirm that the crystal purported to contain a Wish was inside the Dragon Prince's lair. The companions moved quickly to enter, but--with Sh'Nezz'Tar having thrown caution uncharacteristically to the side and failing to detect magical wards and traps on the door as he might ordinarily have done--the group set off a deadly explosion of necrotic magic that was warding the entrance. Further battered and bloodied, the Outcasts raced inside--only to discover that the Dragon Prince had more tricks and traps awaiting them. A dense, opaque magical fog permeated the interior of the Dragon Prince's lair--a fog that made it impossible for the Outcasts to see, even as the Dragon Prince had no difficulty seeing through it himself. Despite Twitch and Lukar taking turns dispelling portions of the fog, it persisted mere yards beyond their location. The rest of the companions, prevented from laying eyes upon the Dragon Prince, could only ready themselves for his appearance. But the Dragon Prince cannily used the opaque fog as cover while firing repeated deadly fireballs into the group's midst. And, just as Lukar or Twitch could get close enough to dispel the fog in which the Dragon Prince was hiding, the powerful kobold archmage would retreat to another hidden location from which he could launch his attacks. What's more, the lair's automatic defenses would repeatedly create a simulacrum--a powerful duplicate of the Dragon Prince that possessed all of his spellcasting and other abilities--that threatened to double the archmage's attacks. While Envy set about healing her companions to stave off otherwise certain death, and Lukar and Twitch continued desperately countering and dispelling the Dragon Prince's defenses, the other companions did what they could to attack the hidden Dragon Prince. But the Outcasts' continued attempts to pin down the Dragon Prince proved futile, even as the archmage's attacks proved increasingly closer to fatal. Rushed discussions between attacks led to a consensus to alter plans and retreat. Still concentrating on the spell that was providing the direction to the Wish , Twitch raced to the location--one that blessedly was in the opposite direction from the Dragon Prince at the time--grabbed the bin containing the crystal, and used The Traveler's powers to slip through dimensions back outside. In the meantime, with Envy doing her best to heal the remaining companions, the rest of the Outcasts ran for the door. Peeking over the boulder once more, Twitch muttered pirate curses aimed at the Dragon Prince. Twitch had hoped to avoid further bloodshed, but the Dragon Prince--like Lady Avalera and Neglith among the Outcasts' other erstwhile allies--had chosen to betray the Outcasts and make them his enemy. So be it, Twitch thought grimly. The time for vengeance would come. But first, the Outcasts had another kobold--and potentially a city--to save.