Gettin' inside was fairly easy. We marched around the tower until we found an entryway and then walked inside. The tower was surrounded by jet-black razorvine, which upon subtle experimentation, actively sought out anythin' that came into contact and shredded it - scratch one pair of fuzzy pink earmuffs.

Once inside, there was anelaborate and well groomed garden. No one in the party trusted it though so we stuck to the defined path and headed toward the inner entryway. At this point, we were assaulted by a small green and black creature that was maybe four feet high and ugly. Butt-ugly. More ugly than a rabid earwig infested bullywog. Cha-kan said it was a Quasit. The creature shapechanged into a small green wolf and turned invisible. "It" also sicked its rabid pack of followers on us which consisted of six humanoid lookin' creatures except they were green and it appeared as if their skin was meltin'. They also had maggots crawlin' evilly over their entire body - not like the zombies we've seen before either. Note: Upon death, the "Manes" exploded in a nasty acidic chockin' green cloud. I was unable to do any damage to any of 'em though not for lack of tryin'. Mental Note: Purchase IRON crossbow bolts upon return to Sigel and/or stand behind the big brute Killraven - more often.

Lilah put the majority of the maggot-boilin' creatures into a deep slumber with some intense magical words while Killraven tossed their sleepin' bodies into the semi-intelligent razor-vine. Cha-kan battled the Quasit though how he knew where it was baffled me - it even looked like he had his eyes closed. Of course, I should have been payin' more attention 'cause even with Rogan "hopin'" us on to victory, I couldn't hit the broad side of a beached war galleon. Must have been all the maggots - I hate bugs.

After the fight, Valas handed me an admantium dagger so I could at least defend myself and the Captain led us into the main room. We looted the coatroom when we found a magical coat that the Captain thinks will poison the wearer. Valas took it to examine later - I think we're all wantin' to borrow it for a few 'friendly' neighbors that are bein' too neighborly as of late.

Month 8, Day 18 (Part II) - Restin' in a game room right now. Rogan and I have been havin' a stab at the large giant sized darts to kill some time. I personally don't care much for the dartboard - the four bindin's on it appear as if to hold a body on it while the throwers shoot for points. There are even a few bloodstains on the floor near it. The billiard table is no better - the chalk pieces for the cues are made from dead dust mephets - Gauntwin' the Pale turned a titch more pale upon notin' that to us. I don't want to know what the balls are made from so didn't look too closely.

As for the remainder of the tower - we quickly and systematically finished explorin' it. We ran across a ball room, a dinin' room, even a kitchen - though the small, furry non-human cooks' menu had me heavin' up my last meal; roasted barbarian. That was their menu - not my last meal. We've all looted a little bit though we have returned most of the stuff upon later meetin' the owner of the tower. I've kept a beautiful red robe with an elaborate flower on the back as well as some ink and an expensive quill.

As for the central mosaic design, we found out that its one that changes dependin' on the perspective its looked at. From the 1st floor it appears the pleasant picture of the wealthy man bein' carried happily, into the abyss. On the 2nd level, his look has changed to terror as the angelic hands turned to claws. The 3rd, he is bein' tortured. The 4th he is bein' ripped apart. The 5th is bloody and on the 6th only claws and some scraps of clothin' and spots of blood remain. At least it makes sense for an evil domain. I knew that good picture was too good to be true. Mental Note: The Abyss changes magical things like spells and items. My boots currently appear as boots but when I levitate, they grow little skeletal bat wings that do the liftin' along with an irritatin' and very unsilent flappin' noise.

The tower is owned/controlled/maintained by a beautiful woman with slanted eyes. She's very stunnin' and wore very skimpy clothin'. By some of the scrolls Lilah and I had deciphered on the 1st floor though, we knew her to be a succubus except she had no apparent win's or horns. Her room, though well decorated, was covered in expensive silk cloths - my lootin' gland was perked and drivin' me wild. Killraven was near ruttin' as he kept lookin' at the lady. Rogan was also in awe - though his eyes were fixed on the strange card over her bed that he claimed was the Lovers from the deck he was lookin' for. The Captain, thankfully, kept it to business. After checkin' over our contract, he offered to trade the lady her stone for ours - afterall, our contract only asked us to retrieve the seeker stone. It didn't ask for the return of the original. She said she'd ponder it and told us to sleep in the grey room on the 3nd level til tomorrow breakfast then she whispered somethin' to Killraven and the rest of us left. Before we left though, she sniffed the air, gazed at me and shook her finger. My natural guilty conscious took over even though I'm not positive just what she was disagreein' with - I returned the Red Steel tableware as well as the Red Steel darts just in case.

Mental Note: At one point, the lady asked Killraven who had poisoned him and he responded a sorcerer king along with some name I forget now. The lady equally responded she knew of someone that could help him find an antidote. The two of them were going to work it out later...

I've been in the greyroom but I ain't sleepin' here. Rogan seemed to feel the same. The two of us fled for the gameroom. Rogan seems to be quite happy even though the location around us isn't one of happiness - well, depends on what the person's mood is I guess. Maybe its the card he got a quick touch of. The Captain and Lilah have stayed in her library researchin' things related to the tower. Apparently anythin' related to bondage, domination, sadism and masochism - anythin' bizarre and sexual - I bet they bone puppies here... er... the inhabitants, not Lilah and Cha-kan though I shan't even begin to question their sexual preferences.

As soon as Rogan is done playin' with the Liqueur cabinet locks, I'll be havin' a drink and gettin' back to our dart game. Right now, I've got him 3-1 in matches but these darn darts are so heavy its next to impossible to hit a bull.

Month 8, Day 19 - Mornin' shines early here. Actually, its no different. The sky is the same. The blood red sun hasn't even twitched since we arrived. Rogan and I stayed up all night and are lookin' a bit haggard. Good darts. I just couldn't sleep in that room with the horrible paintin's on the walls.

The lady has offered us breakfast. I've tried to stick to vegetables after seein' the roasted barbarian and not knowin' what the sausage was, yet everyone else didn't seem to be bothered by it. I gave up eatin' all together though, when this huge 8 foot vulture-like humanoid came in and started eatin' a plate of baby bloodworms. That did it for me. At least I kept down the water I had drank.

As soon as the meal was over, the lady made the swap for the stones and we were off back the way we came. Gauntwin' tried to get us to give him the stone but no one was buyin' it. He had to wait until we got paid. Soon, we'll be through the portal and back in Sigel - hopefully we won't get gypped.

Month 8, Day 19 - (Later) - Finished the trade and we each now have a small pouch with 400 cage in it. We've also got two magical weapons. The trade itself, happened in the Ubiquitous Wayfarer and the gent in question had long slender hands that were well groomed and trimmed. He hid his face and body inside a cloak though. After he showed us the payment, we contacted Cha-kan with the mind-link bracelet. He arrived shortly and we got the goods.

The first weapon is a long slender blade much like the o' captain from the Wallopin' Toadstool before he would hi-ho us to another ship. The blade is some darker silver that shivers my lootin' gland just lookin' at it. Its also got spidery runes that boldly name the elvish blade; Spectre. Valas studied the weapon and gave us a brief rundown. Seems it both leaves a silvery trail in the air as it swin's and is silent in all its hits. It also remains in perfect place when suddenly released such that its bearer can not easily be disarmed (Valas said some minor levitation). Though it is primary for combat and specifically for slayin' undead, Valas believes it grants the abilities of Detect Magic as well as Detect Undead . He believes there are more though as of yet we ain't sure - except that its wielder might be magically proficient with it. At this time, there seems to be some minor argument over just who would be best to use this weapon or if we should sell it and take the coins.

The second weapon is actually a pair of long slender leather gloves which are bound with bronze wires runnin' down the fingers - maybe for combat. Valas experimented with it as well, and determined it was protected from scannin' except that it requests its user to enter into some kind of magical oath to protect cats. They will then grant the user all of the abilities. He suspect it helps climbin', aids in hand to hand combat as well as some cat-like properties but at this time, he ain't sure. Lilah has taken 'em and agreed to the oath - hopefully she'll share what they can do.

The next path we take most likely will be a small out of the way journey for the Doomguard - maybe somethin' like that. The Captain don't think we are good enough yet to visit Beyator's deeper layers and find the icy leaf that we need to continue the Indepth poison antidote. It also seems we have a follower as Gauntwin' has been released from the services of his master - he is now followin' Rogan around like a lost puppy. Rogan doesn't seem happy. Could be worse - could be me.