We caught our breath near an inn and who strolled out of it, but Scorch.  He had no idea that he had been missing for two hours.  He said he walked through the door and walked out of this one.  I handed him his pack and told him everything that happened to him while we were away.  I was sure happy to see that little white-haired pyro.

We looked ahead toward the citadel, which was a Keep, not carved into a mountain, but a smoke belching volcano.  At the intersection were our old friends the Sun Lich with their newly risen humanoid zombies.  We decided to take our chances and sneak behind the buildings.  I explained the need for Pinroy and Mathias to be as quiet as possible, but I don’t think Mathias understood me as he and Pinroy were seen the moment they skittered from behind the building.  Chillax threw down a blasting spell that dropped most of the red robed Sun Lich.  The trackers were still on us.  We ran, outdistancing them and heading to the crumbling entrance to the section of the city that was the citadel.  

Chillax flew above and saw our old friend Chaos (aka Mullak) and his demon friends attacking the citadel and the Sun Lich Elite, including freshly raised dead also attacking.  Two dragonborn magic wielders were raining down lighting on the demons and Sun Lich army.  We decided our best bet was to avoid Chaos and try and sneak past the Sun Lich army.

Scorch came up with the plan that we should disguise ourselves in red robes and be invisible.  We all decided going through the back door would be safer.  I ran back and stripped the red robes – the other Sun Lich elite are no longer in sight.  We donned our disguises and scampered over the wall, and in Pinroy’s case, under the wall.  With Mathias staying back we became invisible and began to sneak when we are stopped by one of the Sun Lich’s red robes.  Pinroy was busily filling in his hole, and the Sun Lich red robe questioned why we weren’t at our posts.  I bowed low and said we are chasing the Heros who are heading to the citadel. He informed us they would be making sacrifices to bring the Sun Lich back. He waved toward a group of slaves kneeling before their executor.  I cast a quick glance at Pinroy, but he was patting Mathias goodbye and didn’t hear.  “All hail the Sun Lich,” I mumbled. 

He instructed us to stop the Heroes and sent us on our way.  He turned his attention to the Fire Giant that had barreled his way through the cathedral.  It seemed the Sun Lich red robe is controlling him.

We hustled in the sneakiest way possible and were stopped in our tracks by a earth rumbling roar that shook the very Keep.  Chillax and Oberon, eyes wide with fright, moved away from the mountain and we followed.  We weaved our way through ballista and catapults, hearing the whoosh of bolts and rocks flying overhead to crash into the citadel.  We got through the army and made our way behind the citadel where there is an orc guarding the entrance to a cave.  Beyond him was Rary, the magic user who tried to steal the staff from us because he wanted to use it to find the Crown of Claws.  He and his orc henchmen seemed to have the same idea as we had, but were unsuccessful in finding a way in.  

Chillax convinced Rary that we only had the staff and Chaos had the crystals.  If he got the crystals from Chaos we would let him have the staff so he could find his artifact and then we would use it to find an artifact we wanted. Rary was convinced and destroyed his orc minions and vanished. 

Scorch easily found the secret entrance that led up into the ramparts close to the magic wielders who had a pile of scrolls behind them so they could continue to rain down lightning and disintegration spells.  We saw Rary was talking to Chaos and we knew the rouse was up.  Rary disappeared and Chaos began to run toward the citadel.  The Sun Lich appeared in the blood of the sacrificed slaves.  All of our enemies were here and all of them wanted the one thing we had…the staff. 

I jumped across to the magic wielders and had the bright idea of throwing the scrolls down instead of grabbing them for Scorch.  By the time I realized my mistake, Chillax and Scorch brought them down and the scrolls were destroyed.  We didn’t have time to contempt the loss we ran to the entrance of the citadel and the heart of Onipegro’s sister.