I left off with us returning from the Cracked Keep, having just raided the Sunken Tower. The next morning, we had more or less recovered from our exertions and decided to head back to find Darkhelm and do some unpleasant things to him. This was, of course, easier said than done!

The problem, you see, was that stupid chasm running through the middle of the castle; it was just too wide to get across, and of course, any fool could plainly see that Darkhelm would try to hole up as far from the entrance as possible. It's just the way these evil people operate. So anyway, we started to explore the castle, hoping to find a way across. And it wasn't quick, let me tell you! After wandering around for a goodly time, we eventually came across a way underground, and since this seemed promising, down we went, straight into what seems to have been the old keep's basement..

Of course, we didn't find a lot there. It was a real mess, what with the great big rift running across the middle, and all we were really able to do was to find the torture chamber (I don't really understand why a paladin would need a torture chamber, but as I've said so many times before, humans are completely incomprehensible sometimes!), the armory (naturally, everything in it was decayed beyond any usefulness), and what must have been the place that these people kept their records. Haley tried to read some of them, but the books were so old that the instant she touched a page, it crumbled. Oh well, I doubt there would have been anything useful anyways! Haley was a bit upset about it (she kept on mumbling something about "valuable pieces of history," or some such), but since there wasn't a lot we could do, we left the basement, recrossed the rift (did I mention this? We found the spot in the basement where the chasm ended, so at least we know it can be crossed!), and went back upstairs.

To be honest, I was starting to get a little bored. Not being a dwarf or a paladin (and I thank the gods on both counts!), I'm not really all that excited about the architecture of these old castles (give me a good forest any day!), and the exploration was rapidly getting old. Sadly, the others couldn't have cared less about what I thought and wanted to continue the exploration, so in order to help keep them out of trouble, I grudgingly agreed to go with them. For some reason, it always works that way in this group!

Since it was obvious that we'd headed the wrong direction in our search for a way across the chasm, we backtracked a goodish bit (my keen sense of direction no doubt aided the others enormously!), and since we now knew about where that stupid rift ended, we headed in that general direction. I suppose I shouldn't have been entirely surprised, but it was at what turned out to be the chapel that the sign of Torm's wrath suddenly petered out. Typical!

Unfortunately, in the centuries since Darkhelm had turned against Torm, the chapel had fallen into understandable disuse, and I guess Torm eventually forgot about it (also typical, might I add!), since there was a pack of assorted undead waiting for us there. Prihelm, being rather upset at the presence of undead in what was supposed to be a holy place, led the charge, brought his sword up to neatly eviscerate the nearest zombie and.. promptly tripped, almost falling into the chasm. I really really worry about that guy; he's nice enough and all, but even for a human, he sure is clumsy!

Seeing our noble protector in rather dire straits, Haley and Alamon turned to help him while the rest of us held off the undead as best we could. Prihelm rejoined the fray, Haley and Alamon turned their attentions to the undead, and things were looking up for us when Prihelm, incredibly enough, tripped again and fell right back towards the chasm! Only a quick dive on Sam's part kept the paladin from actually falling into the chasm. Paladins. Puh!

Eventually after a bit more sound and fury (neat turn of a phrase, huh? We elves are good at that!), we were able to put the undead out of our misery, explain to Prihelm that diving headfirst into bottomless pits is not generally considered a wise decision, bind up our wounds, and move across the rift. At first, it seemed that we'd run into a dead end, but soon enough, my keen elven senses allowed me to find a hidden passageway; I'm not sure where this group would be without me!

Well, at one end of the hidden passageway was something that, judging by the fire blocking the end, must have been the Burning Tower (i.e. not a place for us to go), and at the other end was the chapel. Some of the others wanted to just give up and go somewhere else in the castle, but I wouldn't let them, because I was sure that there must be something else around. Of course, I was right, as usual. Sam and I searched along the passageway, and just as he was finding a secret door into what proved to be a rather garishly decorated throne room, I found another hidden passage that led down into the treasury! The others claim to see something symbolic about that; I wonder what they're talking about?

Inside the treasury, there were several chests of gold (enough to keep even me in comfort for most of my life), and an odd statue of a hand. Prihelm had one of those occasional flashes of inspiration that he gets and slid the ring we'd found on the undead sorceress over one of the fingers, and a section of wall slid away, revealing a room with all sorts of interesting stuff! There were several items on their individual pedestals: a silvery set of chainmail and some boots, a cracked skull, a ghoul's skull, another skull (the people of this castle were evidently very much into skulls. Humans are so odd!), some mistletoe, another skull (at this point, I was starting to think that these people had some serious problems) which had a dagger driven through it (at least they go in for variety!), a long green staff, a rock (oooh), a golden arrow, a small rod, and a set of gauntlets. This was great, as far as it went, but there was only one small problem: after we went in and started to look at these things, the stone wall came slamming back into place! We were trapped!