The party makes their way back through the catacombs. Arriving in the prisons, carnage awaits. Numerous dead bodies litter the floor, the remains of escaped prisoners trying to force their way into the tombs.

T'kral makes his way to the Witch Hunter's torture room. A secret door is soon found, and the party enters. A ladder ascends to the Witch Hunter's quarters, which appear to be empty.

On searching the room, a man that the party recognises as the Witch Hunter emerges from behind the desk. Hiding his embarassment well, he gives the party some information on the castle layout, and offers to create a diversion. However, Kerac points out that the quickest way to the library is back down the shaft the party just came from.

Exiting via a Passwall spell, the party enters another secret passage and ascends to the library. Unfortunately the books of interest to Aramis have all been taken by Calcaneous, and are not available.

From GM Giles:

Quick time is made through the palace to the royal quarters. A troll is seen running towards the king's study. Before the door he slows and drops to a fighting stance and tentacles can be seen sprouting from his back. Clutching a spear that glows with faint holy radiance he rocks back onto his massive left leg and slams his right foot into the wooden door splitting it down the middle. A second kick sunders the door and a horrific scene is laid out before him.

Five figures stand on the far side of the room.

On the extreme right is a T'skrang of unusual size. Not his bulk alone marks him as great: his skull seems unusually broad, and powers are alluded to by his very presence. E

ither side of the middle figure stands a pair of twin monks, as identical as reflections.

The far left is a man of ashen pallor, his figure at six foot five could only be described as slender and is accentuated by this hairless head. Close fitting leather clothes of burgundy seem foreign but their origin is unknown.

In the middle, flanked by these guards stands a figure that once was Aramis Moriarty. The fit and hale figure that left Jerris nearly two years before has been reduce to a skeletal frame. Fragile liver-spotted skin is drawn across limbs and hands that are more bone than flesh. His red rimmed eyes are the only colour in his face save the errant lock of black hair that is plastered over his brow to his cheek. His skin glistens with a clammy sheen of sweat, his hunched frame appears constantly perched on the edge of a consumptive coughing fit.

Between these five figures and the shattered door is a magic circle of black sand. The arcane energies of this ring focus inward to contain its fetid captives. The Troll Grishnack easily identifies the enormous deformed chitinous spider as the Horror Bebilith. Its companion sitting in a cloud of its own putrescence is the Toad Horror, a Herzou.

After an initial scan of the combatants the rest of the rooms contents are quickly surveyed, the door way is litter with pieces of dissected corpses each fresh enough to bleed. Along the back wall four tall glass cylinders house poorly visible naked humanoid forms in bubbling yellow briny liquid. Two chests sit with their lids agape, each filled with innumerable gems of various sizes. Brass stairs wind tightly up to the observatory. Ethilion and his companions catch up to Grish. The figure in burgundy flees upstairs and the battle is joined...

Grish's Celestial companion was the first to fall, disrupting a ball of antimagic. The twin monks fell to the party's magic and Grish crosses the circle to confront the creature in Aramis' body. The horrors, now free to roam the room, quickly assault the party. Grish encased in sticky web and Ethilion beset by the Bebilith. Rising on its long spindly hind legs the Bebilith pounded two barbed front limbs into Ethilion chest. Rending them apart in a shower of chainmail links, Ethilion's chest was also torn asunder. The Herzou soon falls as Mereoni rushed to her Prince's side.

Rushing up the stairs Aramis finds the burly T'skrang, dazed and bewildered. The room holds many artefacts but most striking are the two open Portals. A breeze blows through each. One warm and dry, the other cool and salty. The man in leathers is gone...

Below, Aramis' elven body crashes to the ground and the Bebilith reaps his revenge on his tormenter, ripping the torso in two. The party intercedes before the horror can return to the astral plane with his prize.

All opposition subdued, T'kral rushes to the chest of gems. The contents are spilled onto the floor and a frantic search ensues, priceless crystals and stones are cast aside in frenzied hunt. The party consumed with the revival of Ethilion fails to notice the prize she eventually finds and T'kral, obsessed with her treasure is oblivious to the windling Aramis' arcane chanting. Her joy turns to horror as her soul is sucked into a gem and replaced by the spirit of Aramis. The windling body falls to the floor like a rag doll and begins to rot...