Ground Floor

The GoG were in a free-fall, plummeting down to the Bed.  The group panicked and each tried their own method of survival.  Vath called for someone to stop the lift from falling.  In response, Skia turned, once again, into a dire bat and gripped the chain, trying to slow the descent and Kriskahn created powerful webbing to try and hold the box in place.  They had slowed it, but only momentarily.  Kaszuk summoned several hippogriffs and instructed the GoG to mount them and fly free of the lift.

  Several of the team members were also fighting back the approaching sentries.  A few were pushed out of the lift or dispatched by the front line team but Atreides was rendered unconscious in the exchange.  Plex, now riding a hippogriff, snagged his limp body out of the air.  Seeing that they were losing the battle the sentries began to retreat.  Parachutes burst out of the backs of two of the sentries as the were pulled clear of the top of the elevator.  Plex, seeing them do this, activated his own parachute pulling him and Atreides from their mount and out of the lift.

   Mounted on hippogriffs the remaining members of the party were free, all but one.  Zorak refused to let the hellhound fall to it's death alone.  He struggled, attempting to pull the beast on to the hippogriff, but the winged creature wasn't strong enough to support them both.  Instead of releasing his grip on the hound, Zorak was pulled from his mount as the elevator reached the bottom floor.

   From high above the Guardians watched and waited to see if he would stand.  The lift had been reduced to splinters and the three lizardfolk slaves who'd been chained were nothing more than piles of bone and viscera.  As they descended the rubble moved, slowly, Zorak uncovered himself and his dead dog.

   The crash had, as one would expect, drawn a crowd.  Orc slavemasters and their lizardfolk slaves gathered near the crash site, amazed that anyone could've survived.  As he was standing, cleaning himself off and waiting for his allies to reach the base, Zorak spotted the elevator controller.  The one who'd taunted them and sicced the sentries on them.  Zorak didn't need to go into a rage, he'd just lost his dog, he was already enraged.  Without effort he leapt to the back of the crowd and towards the now fleeing lift master.  The crowd parted as he came down, his massive Switchblade in hand, and he cleaved the man in two.

   Plex, using one of the destroyed sentries, was able to begin intercepting instructions and communications between the remaining sentries.  He explained that they were preparing a defense at 'The Vine' the other location that allowed one to travel up from the base.  The GoG were confident in their ability to defeat them in combat, but avoiding it and fining another method may be a better option.

   After such an intense battle following a day of travel the Guardians were exhausted, they found a close by inn run by a surly goblin woman named Marcus.  As often happens with the Guardians, she was not cooperative and they were not patient.  In short time the woman was knocked unconscious and bound so that they could have a peaceful and relatively safe night's sleep.

   Unsure of how to proceed Kaszuk consulted with Semuanya.  Together, the Guardians decided what to ask her; 'What route to the Wizard's Asylum has the greatest chance of success?' and she replied; 'Three ways to go, Though one is unknown, Two are watched by foes, The other a stranger has shown, The stranger comes at night, He is a helper to you, Though his master wants to fight, For the answer to his clue'.  They ruminated on this before turning in for the night, setting watches accordingly.

        In the night they were interrupted by a knock at the door.  It was a brown-scale lizardfolk.  Once the necessary posturing was completed by Kaszuk and Zorak he explained why he was there.  Tyrant was impatient, he had asked them to deal with Scourge and felt they were taking to long.  Perhaps he'd forgotten that they were going to take care of the "Bellowing Beast" in order to acquire the Dawning Unguent  before moving on to fight Scourge.  Either way, this lizardfolk was offering to be a guide to the GoG, something they'd never had access to before.

   Reluctantly, and only because his coming was foretold be Semuanya, the GoG accepted his help.  Plex then announced that the building they were in was surrounded.  The sentries had tracked them down and were preparing to strike in the middle of the night.  They needed to decide how to proceed.  Their guide suggested sneaking out somehow and avoiding conflict.  The GoG are not threatened by these automatons and are ready and willing to fight their way through.