Swamp

-Mishnor mentions that his parents were betrayed
-Andreas tries to convince Mishnor to join them in fighting the Ruk-Shol
-the King tries to convince Mishnor to join us and convinces him that we won't betray him like his parents were betrayed
-We head north and then at an intersecting cave head east. We reach an unnatural dead end, and Mishnor raises his hand, turning the wall to a door.
-When the doors open, there is a bright golden light, as there is large volumes of gold reflecting everywhere in the room, which is 100 feet tall as opposed to the 40 feet of the tunnels. There are huge shelves with gold everywhere and weapons hanging from the walls.
-We force march back to Neshuza. As we're returning, the ground gets soft and spongy, and we see these little pinpoint lights flying around that have the same kind of radiance that the Urash trees have. Most arcanists have myths about them: That they spend time around people or places of high magical power. They're called soul flies.
-They eventually are left behind, but we begin to come up to some other form of magical illumination in the distance.
-Azariah and Nobo'ru act as guides, and in the middle of crossing a swamp they are attacked by Will-o-the-whisps and other unsavory swamp dwelling monsters

Free fallin'

The party quickly learns how to use the ballistas and begins to fire on the buildings to stall the ruk-shol counter attack. Meanwhile, Nobo'ru goes to the grove under disguise from a mimicry potion found on the Ruk-Shol and alerts the king and Dakkon to the situation. He finds a safe route of retreat and that the diversion isn't working as well as hoped- the vast majority are still attacking the grove.

Nobo'ru makes it back to the group and we attack the ruk-shol some more before

Lord Erim and the leader of the Knights of Gahazi... try to convince the king that there are Ruk Shol disguised as his servants, which we already informed him about. The king is suspicious and asks, “Where have you been and why are you unarmed?”

Nobo'ru and Dakkon are both suspicious of them, and Andreas approaches, saying that he was concerned that Lord Eram was dead. Lord Eram relplies, “Do not fear, I am very much alive.” Stepping down from his horse, Lord Eram says as he draws a sword, “If you will not come, then we will have to-” and then is cut off as Nobo'ru strikes out to stop him. The leader of the Knights of Gahazi, Elias, multiplies himself and the battle is joined as Lord Eram's troops engage the king's and the party jumps into the fray.

As the battle goes along, Elias continually dominates Nobo'ru, Kas-sim'dul and Soren, making things difficult as they struggle to protect the king and eliminate Elias and incapacitate Lord Eram. Dakkon does his best to help, then finally calls Andreas and Azariah to rejoin the main group to protect the king as Elias and his multiples blast the king with psionic power and nearly kill him. "You're probably going to hate what I'm about to do" Dakkon says, as he plants his staff in the ground. Suddenly, a rift in the earth opens and the entire party falls in, including the king. They tumble for about 200 feet along the slope before coming to a jolting halt in the dark. Abel is nearly killed by the fall, and the king is rendered unconscious, but both were revived thanks to Andreas' aid.

After resting in the tunnel in a side tunnel dug by Kas-sim'dul, we meet Mishnor- a man with golden irises and fiery flecks in his eyes. He claims that Zamunsol and Humans are betrayers of his people, and wants us to leave as soon as possible. There is only one other group of creatures that could have been around hundreds of years ago that would have been a notable force, and that would have to be dragons. Abel guesses that he is a dragon, which he says would be a logical guess based on history but unflinchingly denies it. When looking at his aura, Abel discovers that there is a strong aura of transmutation coming from him, and is the most magical thing Abel has ever seen. Ask the party asks questions, he leads them to the end of a tunnel that has no light.

And when you play hail to the chief...

We went to the king, presented the ring, defeated the Whispering Ones, then fended off assassings who came in through the roof as the Ruk Shol began to sack the city. The King and his guards went to central gardens, while Azariah ran off to get the other PCs still at the barracks.

The party begins to go towards the gardens. Andreas gathers some survivors, then temporarily relieves the defenders of the castle so that they can retreat. They then make a way towards the king, who Nobo'ru saw trying to get to the trees. Andreas gathers soldiers and civilians as they go towards the grove.

Soren arrives at the grove and scouts for Azariah as he searches for Urash tree seeds, and finds some. Azariah and Soren go to reach the King while Andreas performs a breakthrough action to help the King. We successfully do so.

Andreas plans to seize the siege weapons in the outside of the city and turn them on the Ruk-Shol, Nobo'ru gets out of the grove with Soren and Kah-sim'dul's help. He finds that the artillery is guarded by about 30 Ruk-Shol and that the artillery is at the rear of the Ruk'Shol army and unguarded.

The Borad Elamites send a messenger from Bahirim comes to ask Andreas for advice. They coordinate a breakout operation to get to the artillery.

Kas-sim'dul gets the Priests of the Stars to call down meteors on the Ruk Shol line as the Borad-Elamites and party charge into the breach. After some intense fighting to get to the artillery, they succeed in routing the Ruk Shol guarding and manning the devices and prepare to turn them on the Ruk Shol army as more Ruk Shol bear down on them.