The party found themselves wandering into the historic town of Hommlet. Upon their arrival, rescued children in tow, they spotted several men, armored in the black plate of the Black Guard of Lankmar, the Overlord's men. Upon delivering a child to their grandma-ma they discovered that the Black Guard were in town to mount an offensive against the brutal Wild Men of the North, savages who fought as beasts. The heroes politely rejected financial award from the local granny, but did accept her barn as a place to stay. Continuing up the road, they delivered the cousin to another famer. He to offered a reward but it was rejected by the heroes.  It was here they were approached by the Captain of the Guard. He chose to ignore the women folk of the party but addressed GORHAM directly, imploring he join the Blackguard, which GORHAM refused. The Captain gave GORHAM a coin of the OVERLORD as a reminder of whose kingdom it was. Moving further to the the North End, across the bridge, and Little River the party returned a daughter to her father, the pawnshop owner. He rewarded RAGNA with a magical DAGGER +1.  The last child was returned to the local Trading Post. When the child was returned the men at the store asked "Why are you here?" Which FREYA questioned suspiciously, rightfully so. FREYA then drew her WAND OF ENEMY DETECTION, SURPRISING one of the treacherous traders and gaining the ire of the other. SURE ENOUGH-ENEMIES DETECTED! A fight ensued with magic-missiles being shot and men DISSAPPEARING! Suddenly, ANNIKA was stabbed in the back with a VENOMOUS DAGGER! ACID WALL was suddenly engulfing the room! The child was disintegrated before the horrified eyes of all! ANNIKA was stabbed again, and dropped UNCONSCIOUS from the loss of BLOOD! RAGNA ran up the stairs of the trading post only to see FREYA backing out firing spells! RAGNA grabbed ANNIKA and dragged her out, incurring an ATTACK of OPPORTUNITY against the MERCHANTS turned AGGRESSORS! As RAGNA dragged out ANNIAK one of the men did a flying kick to her chest, nearly knocking her to the ground. She HEALED ANNIKA brining her back around where she promptly KICKED the ATTACKER in the testicles, critically injuring him! Meanwhile the other attack came out swinging, stabbing at GORHAM who saw the commotion from across the street. GORHAM returned the blow with a hammer strike to the jaw. The MAN then disappeared like the other, only to appear again stabbing at GORHAM from behind, but failing to pierce his heavy mail armor.  GORHAM struck again! The battle with the other assailant raged on with FREYA casting HOLD PERSON stopping the man in his tracks! ANNIKA than kicked him clear into the wall of acid where he and the floor collapsed into the basement, where he continued to burn and die under waves of noxious green acid.  GORHAM offered a truce if the man were to surrender, but instead, he too utilized some DUST OF DISAPPEARANCE and was not seen from again. The Black Guard were the first to appear on the scene, perplexed by the swath of damage done to the trading post, wondering where the local merchants had gone to, finding one disfigured trader or TRAITOR lying in a melted heap on the basement floor.  TO BE CONTINUED!