Finding James

We all awake refreshed, thanks to a stay in the tiny hut provided by Frank (though I don't know how much sleep Raiden got since Slippy used his cloak as a nest).  Upon awakening, you see the Siege Workshop Captain trying to free himself from his bonds.  Calvin casts Zone of Truth, which compels our prisoner to answer truthfully to our inquiries.  As we question him further to see what he has to offer, we find out that he has the crystal shard already on him!  He had been for weeks luring guards down here, convincing them of riches to help him find out what lay at the end of the hallway.  What happened to these guards?  He gestures down the dark hallway beyond the trapped armor and boulder.  Several bodies are strewn about sticking halfway out of the floor.  Convinced that maybe a few of us would also fall prey to some traps, he goads us on to get across.

Bam-Bam is eager to do so and makes the leap using the Jump spell to get down the hallway.  (Raiden secretly hopes that there is another trap...oh man!  Bam-Bam got through unharmed!)  Upon placing the crystal into a keyhole, the traps disengage, allowing for all to enter the room beyond.  It is a small room and the smell inside reeks of death and decay.  There are small cracks along the walls where moisture seeps in as well as thick, black, oozing muck all over the floor.  As Binx enters he strides over to a skeleton slumped in one corner of the room.  He has a pouch in his hands that contains 5 different, but identically cut, jewels (Diamond, Topaz, Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire) and a letter.  He reads us the letter:

I've sold my soul to the devil, but not the one in my nightmares.

The king has called for the weapon to be tested. I dare not unleash it

again. My dear Marla has already paid the price of my dark research.

The court has “compensated” her family, and they will forever believe

that she died nobly, but what nobility is there in secrets?

I've confessed to my shame in plain sight on the dial above. I seal

myself in with the keys where the king shall not find us. I’ve caused

his line to forever be blind to its signs in the hopes that they will

eventually cease to seek for it’s power. The staff I've given to Halstad.

Though he was reluctant to take it, now that it's awakened, I know

not what trying to destroy it would do. He will secure it in the tomb

of the Twilight Mistress, so that it may be under her guard and

protection.

To whomever finds me, should things become bleak, and I fear

they will, deliver the jewels to Halstad and warn the monks of

Fortune. They know not what sleeps beneath their temple. I have

seen it in my nightmares, the time when Fortune fails to reign in the

withering darkness. Our sins be known, that as the authors of death

itself, we broke Him in pursuit of our own salvation and at the cost of

doom to our posterity. The blight must never again be used on the

peoples of Klorin.

Ombra forgive my carelessness and accept my penance.

The letter indicates that this is indeed James, and he has locked himself away because he can’t live with himself and a weapon that he helped to create.  The weapon has been given to someone named Halstad and is said to be stored in the Tomb of the Twilight Mistress.  The letter also says that Halstad should know what to do with the Jewels as well and included a need to warn the monks of Fortuna.  Frank, upon hearing the letter, thinks...okay, he says out loud, "you humans are really strange.  He knows of this weapon but instead of warning his old friends, he dies with the knowledge?  What an...what is the word...LOSER!"

You choose to keep the crystal rather than attempt to return it. Calvin, who knows that Bam-Bam took it out of the key hole after we all left, reluctantly doesn't say anything about him having the crystal but hopes that he doesn't do anything stupid with it.  Bam-Bam takes some scrap from the burnt-down workshop, giddy with the possibilities that these metals can create, and quickly make an exit out of Solfare toward Roanor and the Tomb of the Twilight Mistress.  On the way out of town, Frank tries to right a wrong with the jewels he stole from his time investigating the Jewelers shop.  The Jeweler was annoyed, thinking he was part of the guards he paid to stage the break-ins and quickly took the jewels back.

Happy to leave this psychologically warped town, the party heads towards Roanor which is a day and a half ride out.  As night falls, they stop by one of the campsites along the roadside and find remnants of travelers strewn about.  Upon further investigation, Raiden finds a body.  Calvin does some quick thinking and puts out the word to the underground (literally).  Some groundhogs come to his aid, and with the promise of some food, they tell him of some loud and heavy creatures nearby.  Several orcs are found in the mouth of a cave in a nearby hillside, and the team goes straight to work dispatching them!  The plan is to bring them out of the narrow-mouthed cave.  Binx climbs above the mouth of the cave for some advantage, but the rest of the team keeps them bottlenecked inside.  While doing some massive damage, people are not following the plan to bring them out of the cave.  Raiden is a little miffed by this (can we for once stick to the plan!), but goes ahead with his spell to strike lightning through the group.  Bam-Bam takes the hit as well and falls.  Once the Orcs are finished off, the group stabilizes Bam-Bam and find some loot.

As the party settles in for the night, Bam-Bam, who can't sleep because he is too excited about the possibilities, stays up to modify his flamethrower with the scraps from the Siege Workshop that he procured.  In the morning he is eager to show off his modifications.  To the shock of some of the group, he has mounted the crystal inside the thing.  Some of the group want to see what his new invention will do and proceeds to light it off into the cave.  Bam -Bam is so excited to show them what he can do!  Yet, what happens only confirms Raiden and Calvin's worst fears.  Instead of harnessing the magic of the crystal, the contraption sets off a massive fireball that erupts forth out of the flamethrower, but when the fire is gone, and all of us get back off of the ground from the sheer concussive nature of the blast, Bam-Bam is unconscious on the floor, looking as though his skin is molting all over and the water has basically left his body, leaving him very dehydrated.  Calvin picks up the 'weapon' that Bam-Bam made with the crystal and hands it to I.G. and then stabilizes him, but doesn't heal him and feels that this last instance has proven to him that the group should not include Bam-Bam in the group.  While they often prove useful in battle, it also proves just as dangerous to himself and the group.  Hoping that he will be alright, they all continue on toward Roanor, leaving Jones in the dust.

As we traveled, Binx finally vocalizes what many are thinking. "I don't feel that it is right to leave him behind."  Calvin agrees that the decision was rash and quick but feels that eventually Bam-Bam's actions would or could get any of the party killed.  Or, worse, he could inadvertently release the blight that the crystal contains back into the world.  Raiden confirms Calvin's thoughts and even though the party leaves him behind, many hope that he lives and can find his place in the world.