Having surreptitiously returned to Citadel Drezen, Elaryan begins to search for the Sword of Valor and the corruption forge . Eovan, still under the effects of the River Styx, follows quietly behind his master as they roam the citadel's halls. Opening a door at the end of a twisting corridor, Elaryan is surprised to encounter Arthas, standing over some vanquished minotaurs. The paladin is mounted upon a mighty hippogriff and panting with the exertion of a recent combat. He explains that the party was almost defeated by these fiendish beasts, and that Nor and friends fled towards the end of the melee. He also introduces his mount, Hubris. "CAAAW", screeches Hubris in greeting. Arthas and Elaryan wait several moments for the Si'Kinkian subparty to return. But eventually they get impatient, and decide to explore further. Consulting Aron's map, they plot a route around the wall of stone that No cast, trying to get into the room beyond via another door. Unable to cast spells, Elaryan transforms to demon form in case they encounter any more sentries. A short while later, they find themselves in the minotaurs' lair. Originally the keep's grand Officer Court, the room is a shambles. One half of it has collapsed, and minotaur scat litters the floor. At one end of the lair, a decapitated dwarf head is impaled on a spike. Elaryan approaches a large door behind the dwarf head. As he draws near, the head's eyes open and track him, but the sentry seems otherwise harmless. Using his massive, abyssal strength, the ape sorcerer smashes down the door. The room on the other side is some sort of planning room, complete with maps and a sturdy desk. A dwarf cleric, protected by three unusually ferocious babau demons, stands ready. With a roar, Elaryan rushes into the room. The dwarven cleric casts blindness on the sorcerer as he crosses the threshold. Suddenly, Elaryan finds himself unable to see, surrounded by babau with wicked longspears. He fights valiantly, but is clearly outmatched. Arthas attempts to come to his companion's aid, but his options are limited. He fires arrows at the babaus, picking them off one by one, but he cannot see into the room with the cleric. Clearly the enemy can see him, however... as an array of spells come flying though the doorway. Arthas and Elaryan desperately retreat into the minotaur lair, the paladin covering their retreat with a volley of arrows. Arthas has almost finished off the babau when the cleric summons an even more powerful minion: a vrock demon. The vrock uses its stunning screech ability to stun both Arthas and Hubris, then attacks the seemingly helpless Elaryan. Even blinded, however, the mighty ape demon is not completely defenseless. He grabs the vrock in his bare hands and pins it to the ground while Arthas recovers. By this time, Arthas has a clear line of sight on the dwarf, but his attempts to defeat him are frustrated by the cleric's ability to heal himself. After a minute or two of fighting, Arthas realizes that he may be at an impasse. Meanwhile, the vrock has disappeared, its summon spell expired. Elaryan, still blind, charges towards the sound of combat. The dwarven cleric reaches out his hand and plane shifts the sorcerer to some other dimension. Wounded and alone, Arthas decides that discretion is the better part of valor. Ignoring the exhortations of Erastil's Fury he spurs Hubris away from the conflict, back to the stairway where the party entered the keep. Reaching the opening in the wall, Hubris squeezes through, then launches herself out into the sky. As he flies away from Citadel Drezen over the Styx, Arthas scans the horizon desperately for any sign of the rest of the party... Everyone who played gains 1,500 XP
