The dwarf trots along the forgotten road trying to catch up with his team. The red castle seems closer now but something is approaching from it so he steps aside drawing his crossbow and waits. A bearded man in blue robes runs past panting. “You don’t want to go that way. There’s an angry vampire looking for blood. My name is Morlaf, goodbye.”

The dwarf watches him go and along comes a woman in a tattered black dress holding a black satchel. “He’s been sucking at me for months. I’m not going back there” she says as she runs after Morlaf.

She is followed by a strange stitched bear with a cats head and ravens wings. It gives the dwarf a sidewards glance as it struggles to keep up with its mistress.

He continues to the castle and does a quick sweep of the area and checks out the coach. Crossing the bloody courtyard he finds the group talking to a ranger. They are discussing where to rest up.

“Well shouldn’t we look for the vampire in daylight. We don’t want to wait until dark.” says the newly polymorphed young lad.

They heartily agree and Makfire leads them directly to the corridor lined with statues. The mage and dwarf discuss the workings of the trap for a while. The dwarf notices something unusual about the wall behind the broken statue and with the aid of the mage casting Detect Magic they find a secret door. Inside is a short corridor with the missing coffin wedged firmly across their path. The boy polymorphs back into his dragon form and rips off the lid of the coffin. Inside it is Mitgur and he looks at the group crowding around and cries “Oh no, not again!” In a flurry of action the dragon starts chomping on his head, the mage smashes a vial of holy water in his face and the dwarf tumbles past and hacks away at him from the other side. Overcome by the sheer force of attack Mitgur assumes his mist form and is powerless to act as they smash his coffin apart. Knowing he is doomed they leave the mist to swirl mournfully in the corridor and search the rest of the castle over the next few days. They find otyugs trapped in the catacombs and leave all the skeletons where they are for the time being. They make grand plans on how to use this resource and Makfire coax some wild cattle to be temporary replacements for the horses. They set off back to Borderdale to find new vassals.

On the way they investigate the hole that their predecessors ignored and after a short crawl through the close burrow they find the ankheg nesting place. Old masticated corpses and their belongings have been stuffed into the sides of the burrow. The party find a few nice items from they magical glow the emit but most has rusted to uselessness. Nearing the end of the looting the wall explodes in front of them and an ankheg squeals its rage. This is all it gets to do as the dragon having polymorphed again into a tiger rakes and rends the ankheg in a short burst of ferocity. Behind them the wall bursts outwards as another ankheg seeks to cut off their retreat and gets off a spray of acid before it is also reduced to a pile of oozeing chitin. They have to use healing potions to counteract the effects of the ankegs spittle.

Reaching Borderdale the next day they stop for the night at the Cockwell Inn. At the table they continue to plan and make lists. Olga offers information that many of the sheep herders are in need of work due to the loss of their flocks recently.

In the morning they continue south to Shadton…