Episode 34
"Little Tower in the Tarwood"
(c) Matt Grossman and J. Sage Schreiner

Nigil Palom, noble from a far-distant land -- Kevin Osborn
Tron, a resourcefull elf -- Matt Grossman
Sapphire, a blood thirsty gnome warrior -- Corey Paganucci
Danic, a dwarven warrior-mage -- Eric Kruller
All others -- Sage Schreiner

Nigil: Let's get him!

Tron runs to the house and starts climbing the wall. Soren runs to Goloda.

Goloda: [Hack Cough Gasp]
Soren: I'll watch the front!
Norel: Hic! Hey, thishish pretty wild. Ooo, I don't feel so good...
Soren: I'll, uh, watch the ranger too.

Sapphire charges the front door.

Sapphire: Yaaaaaarrgh! [wham] Ugh.
Danic: Wait! Let me power you up!

Tron reaches the window and sees a sparsely furnished study with various 
papers lying around. As he runs through the room he hears the sound of 
breaking glass.

Tron: He's getting out the back!
Nigil: Follow me! (heads for the back of the house)

Tron runs through the house and out the broken window in the back, just in 
time to see the fugitive climbing on the roof of the house opposite. Tron 
leaps through the window and follows. A daring rooftop chase begins.

Nigil: Hang on! Err... darn, this climbing thing looked so easy when Tron did it...
Danic: Come on, let's just follow him on the ground!

The fugitive soon proves to be an expert at climbing and jumping. He is also 
an expert shot with the crossbow.

Fugitive: [twang]
Tron: Ow! Dammit!

The fugitive runs across a high peaked roof. Tron tries to follow.

Tron: Whoaa... oof! Good thing that chimney was there. [clamber]

The fugitive runs across a clothesline strung between two buildings.

Tron: Whoaa... oof! Lucky that rug was there. [scramble]

The fugitive leaps on the roof of a warehouse and falls through.

Tron: Ha ha.

The elf approaches the hole and sees the fugitive lying, dazed but miraculously 
alive, in the middle of a pile of rubble on the floor. He waits until the rest 
of the party arrives, then jumps down. It seems that the fugitive is a half-elf.

Fugitive: Ooooh... (tries to lift a massive wooden beam off his chest)
Nigil: (sits on the beam)
Sapphire: (sits on the beam)
Fugitive: Oof.
Danic: We've got you now! Confess! Who put you up to this?
Fugitive: Huh? What? Where am I? Who are you people? What happened?

He claims to have total amnesia.

Nigil: I believe him.
Sapphire: Yeah.
Tron: No way. Let's kill him.
Danic: He's obviously lying.

At this point the watch arrive and take the fugitive, still protesting his 
ignorance, up to the castle. Nigil and Sapphire accompany them and verify that 
the half-elf is locked up securely. The party joins up back at Goloda's place.

Soren: Goloda will be ok. He went up to the castle.

They search Goloda's house, but do not find anything out of the ordinary. Then 
they go to sleep. In the morning they decide to head up to the castle to check 
on Goloda.

Nigil: Hey, Tron, you look pretty bad.
Tron: I had a really weird nightmare.
Nigil: What was it about?
Tron: I, uh, don't remember.

They find Goloda lying in bed. The treasurer seems to be in good health, 
considering.

Goloda: Thank you for saving my life!
Nigil: We do this sort of thing all the time.

It turns out that the would-be murderer is known to Goloda.

Goloda: His name is Corlag. I've employed him for years. I considered him 
completely trustworthy. I believe that he was under the influence of evil 
magic.

It seems that a man named Alzoda, claiming to be descended from an old noble 
family of Ratik, had visited Goloda recently and requested that the treasurer 
turn over to him what he claimed was a family heirloom. This was an item that 
was in the keeping of the city treasury, although Goloda had not known of its 
existence until that moment. He had refused to turn it over, and Alzoda had 
left. Goloda hired Corlag to track him, and the half-elf had reported that 
Alzoda appeared to live in the Tarwood, a forest some twenty miles north of 
Marner. The forest was apparently dangerous, and Corlag had returned to Marner, 
hired some mercenaries, and gone back to the forest.

Goloda: ... and that was the last I heard of him for a couple of weeks. Then 
he broke into my house and tried to kill me.
Tron: What was this heirloom?
Goloda: This.

He takes out from under his clothes a hand-sized bronze disk. One side is carved 
with the image of a snake bodied woman with six arms, holding a weapon in each arm.

Soren: Moraddin preserve us from demons!
Danic: Hmm... I would guess that this is a component in some magical ritual, 
though it does not appear to be magical.
Goloda: With it I found this letter. It refers to a dark time in the history of 
Ratik, when a despot, a fallen paladin called Yenejg Togan, ruled over Marner 
with an iron hand. Many people were murdered by his thugs, or vanished into his 
dungeon. It was said that he was but the puppet of a powerful demoness called 
Penfavasta. His rule is called the rule of the Seventh Arm, because it was said 
that he was just another arm of hers.
Danic: [Casts a spell] Ok, guys. Here's what the letter says:

Goodmonth, CY 521
Marner, the Duchery of Ratik

So I now, a priest of the Lord Saint Cuthbert, smiter of wrong, set down these 
letters so that this may not be forgot. This is how we, faithful upholders of the 
law, destroyed the tyrant of this town, Yenejg Togan, thus ending the abominable 
Rule of the Seventh Arm.

At daybreak we moved to free the city with a small army, led by the loyal knights 
of the Lord Saint Cuthbert. We were few, but our cause was just. A great uprising 
of the populace supported us. It is fair and just to rebel against the rule of 
chaos.

We swept into Marner like a storm-tide, bringing Justice to the soldiers of evil. 
After half-a-day, the entire town was free, and the fallen paladin, summoner of 
demons and sorcerer Yenejg Togan hid in his castle on the hill. With the face of 
Pelor low against the mountains, we broke down the doors. Every chamber was dark 
and filled with hideous screams and the howls of demons. Only the bravest followed 
me to the great hall where the tyrant waited for us.

You shall not rule here, I cried with the voice of the Just god. Repent that you 
may find Justice as a man.

I have found another way, he said to me. Through a fair lady of another place. 
I have seen the wrongness of my old ways. She has shown me kindness and 
forgiveness.

It saddened me to hear this, for I remembered him as he had been decades before 
he had been taken by the demon Erishkagl: a brave paladin of Heironeous and 
upholder of law and honor. There was little time to think on this, for then the 
sorcerer�s horrible ally slithered from the darkness, a six-armed she-demon with 
a serpent tail. The demon cried her name, Penfavasta, and attacked us. All my 
companions fell before the demon-bitch was annihilated by the Lord Saint Cuthbert. 

With the fierce joy of righteousness, I crushed the skull of the traitor. Clutched 
in his fingers I found a small talisman of evil, a bronze disk that depicted 
Penfavasta.. The talisman radiated the force of chaos and evil.

In the morning the body of Yenejg Togan was burned below the castle. A statue of the 
Lord Saint Cuthbert was erected close to the spot in thanks for Justice and the 
end of the rule of the Seventh Arm.

Glory and Honor.
Brother in War, Falerjan

Goloda: You can see why I did not hand the medallion over to this "Alzoda". I am 
sure that whatever his intentions are, they cannot mean any good for this city. 
After what happened to Corlag, I think it is important that we find out what Alzoda 
is up to. I am willing to offer a reward...
Nigil: We'll find him and kick his ass.
Goloda: Um, ok. Consider this an advance.

He hands over a small bag of gold coins. The party leaves and heads down to 
the dungeons, where they talk to Corlag. His mind appears to have been almost 
completely destroyed, and he can only babble about an ambush, a tower, an 
imprisoned girl, and the deaths of his companions.

The party spends the next few days finishing up their training. Danic does some 
research in the local library. He discovers that the Tarwood is so called because 
tar seeps from the ground there. However, he does not discover much more information.

Danic: I know who might have more info! That half-elf mage!

He tries to make an appointment with Kyrou the Magnificent, but for some reason the 
servants keep turning him away. Finally, he is able to get into the mage's stately mansion.
Kyrou is an over-dressed half-elf with two different colored eyes.

Danic: Hey, nice place. I like the, uh, thirty foot long gilded couch. Very swank.
Kyru: What do you want, dwarf?
Danic: I want to look for any references to the rule of the Seventh Arm in your library.
Kyru: There are none, dwarf.
Danic: Are you sure? I could...
Kyru: Get out. Dwarf.
Danic: Fine. Halfbreed.

He leaves.

Kyrou: Damn, that guy stinks worse than a orc in a dung heap.

That day, the party hears of a battle in the south. Apparently a force of orcs attacked 
the pass, but was defeated. The hero of the battle was a mysterious knight called "Gabriel", 
who routed the monsters almost singlehandedly.

Nigil: That bastard! We're going south!
Tron: Was it actually south, or more kind of south east?
Danic: It's down the coast and inland. Or along the hills, at any rate.
Norel: No, we've got to figure out what his plans are first.
Tron: That's easy. He's going to become hero of the land, have the king killed, and then 
become king. Easier than conquering the place, I guess.
Sapphire: I bet he has something to do with this Alzoda guy. There's got to be a connection.

On the 16th of Wealsun they set forth and in early afternoon they arrive in the hamlet of 
Shapic, a human settlement on the fringes of the Tarwood. This seems to be an unusually 
prosperous and stable settlement. They speak to Brea, an old woman of the hamlet:

Brea: Eh, yes, there's a tower in the woods, or so they say. We don't go very far into the 
woods. Too dangerous. You'll have to talk to Piasan. He's a ranger.

As the sun is beginning to set, the rangers return to the hamlet, leading a number of children
clad in white.

Piasan: The thorn has been bawmed! Ehlonna will smile on you tomorrow, when we celebrate the
turning! All of you children make sure you get a good nights sleep.
Norel: [Sniff] It makes me nostaligic.
Tron: Bah. Heathans.

They talk with Piasan more about the forest, but he does not have much information than Brea.

Piasan: Yeah, I've heard that the tower used to be taller, but there was an earthquake or 
something a while ago and it fell down. I've never seen it. Be careful in those woods, there's 
a tribe of big goblins in there who are really crafty.
Sapphire: Maybe that's what ambushed Corlag?

The people of the hamlet feed the party and let them sleep in an outbuilding.

Danic: What was that about bombing the thorn, or whatever that guy said?
Norel: These people follow the old ways, the ways of Ehlonna. Tomorrow is the Ceremony of the 
Turning. Seven year old children are led blindfold and barefoot into the woods, and must find 
their way back to the village by midnight. Along the way, they find their own nature and must 
choose their secret name.
Tron: Don't monsters get all the kids?
Norel: Rangers and druids will be hidden in the woods to protect them.
Nigil: We don't do anything like that in Keoland.
Soren: I thought there was a Flannic influence in Keoland.
Nigil: Flannic? Nonsense. Keoland was founded by the Suel heroine Saena, who fled the ruin of 
the city of Yotr. It's all written down in the Saenaiad.

The next day they see several children being led into the woods. The party leaves their horses 
behind and heads into the woods as well. They see a child wandering in the woods.

Danic: The town's that way. (points in the wrong direction)
Kid: Um, ok. (heads off in the wrong direction)

They also see Piasan, keeping watch over the children. After a few hours, however, they are well
past the part of the woods frequented by humans.

Tron: What's that smell? Danic?
Nigil: Hey, check this out!

The rotting body of a huge goblin is lying in a clearing. It looks as though his head was smashed
by some sort of club.

Norel: Hmm... it looks like he was killed somewhere else, then dragged here. The tracks are too 
old to follow reliably.
Tron: That's the biggest, hairiest goblin I've ever seen.
Norel: I think that it's actually a bugbear. Very dangerous.

They continue in the direction where they have been told the tower lies. They are taking turns 
walking point. Suddenly Danic stumbles over a thong stretched across the path.

Danic: Huh?

A spiked tree limb swings down and clobbers the dwarf on the head.

Danic: Ow! Ohh, it burns.
Soren: Poison! Unfortunately I do not have the spell to cure it. You will just have to bear it, cousin.
Danic: I feel sick, but I guess I'll survive.
Tron: Maybe I should walk point.

They walk on for some more.

Bugbear: [twang]
Tron: Sniper! Up in that tree!

Tron and Norel return fire.

Bugbear: Ouch.
Tron: Stupid shortbow!
Bugbear: [twang]
Danic: Vaandrager! (charges the tree)
Soren: Oh yeah. (casts Hold Person on the bugbear)
Bugbear: (balanced precariously in the tree, it falls and hits the ground, dying instantly)
Sapphire: Hee hee. That was funny.

Tron takes the bugbear's powerful longbow.

Tron: Not as good as my old bow, but not bad either.

They keep going into the forest. Suddenly Tron is caught in a net and lifted into the air.

Tron: Ow ow ow! There's hooks in this thing!

The elf cuts himself free and tumbles agilely down.

Tron: I think I'm poisoned too.

They hear a horn sound in the distance.

Sapphire: There's the tower!

A few hundred yards away they see a hill. On the top of the hill is a small, approximately 3
storey tall tower with a wooden roof. Tron scouts the place out.

Tron: There's a courtyard around the tower with some grates in it for drainage or something.
The outbuildings are all wrecked. There's no windows on the ground floor, and just one on each
of the other floors. There's a broom outside the door.
Danic: I don't like those grates.
Nigil: Let's do it!

They approach the tower and spread out in front of the door. Suddenly they hear a woman's voice
from one of the grates.

Woman: Help me, please! In Ehlonna's name, help!

A slender arm sticks up out of one of the grates and waves around pathetically.

Norel: Hang on, we'll get you out!
Soren: Don't worry!
Tron: Um, guys...
Danic: Better look for evil, cousin. It could be a trap.
Soren: You're far too suspicious. All right, just to show... by Moraddin! The wench is evil!
Back, back!
Sapphire: Heh.

The door into the tower is wooden. A wolf's head is carved in the stone over the door.

Nigil: That's obviously a trap of some kind.
Norel: (knocks on the door) Open up in there!

After a short time, a weird-looking guy with tattoos all over his face opens a small hatch
in the door.

Guy: What do you want? Go away.
Soren: He's evil too! Oops.
Danic: Nice one. (to the guy) We're looking for someone named Alzoda. Have you seen him around
here?
Guy: Nope.
Tron: How about letting us in to search the place.
Guy: Nope. I can't do that.
Nigil: Who's tower is this?
Guy: This tower is Yenejg Togan's tower. He went away a while ago though.
Sapphire: Who's the girl under the grate?
Guy: You mean Gleir? She's bad. I don't like her.
Nigil: Did Togan put her there?
Guy: Nope. She came here after he left. Young Gabie was here too, but he left. Now I'm all
alone.

The party goes off and huddles.

Tron: Danic! Look out!

An arm has reached out of the grate and is about to grab the dwarf. He quickly steps aside.

Danic: Ahem. Anyway, I think maybe we can trick this guy. He doesn't seem so bright.
Nigil: He doesn't even realize that Togan's been away for seventy-odd years.
Tron: I've got a plan.

The elf approaches the door.

Tron: Congratulations! You pass the first test!
Guy: I do?
Tron: Yes! We were sent here by Toejam himself...
Guy: Togan.
Tron: Yeah, that's what I said. Anyway, he sent us here specifically to test how well you were
carrying out your orders, and you did well not letting us into the tower. Now let us in, so we
can inspect the place, and make a full report to Toej... er, Togan.
Guy: Uhh... ok.

He opens the door and lets the party in. They crowd into a small dining room/kitchen area. Tron
inspects the door lintel for dust, while Danic examines the stove. There is a strange box near
the door with a tube leading up to over the door. A spiral stair leads up the tower, and there
is a barred trapdoor in the floor.

Danic: I don't like the look of this floor.
Tron: Better make a note of it.
Danic: But I like the chair.
Guy: You do?!
Danic: I think we can take that into consideration. I think Togan will be pleased with our report.
He might even come here himself.
Guy: Togan? Come here himself? Oh wow.
Nigil: Now we have to see the rest of the tower.

The guy shows them his plain but clean living quarters on the second floor, and the crudely roofed attic
on the third floor. The walls of the attic have been painted with horrid depictions of disembowlings,
torture, and other unpleasant acts in a crude manner.

Guy: I decorated this room myself! I had to replace the roof after the earth shrugged a while ago.

The caretaker is clearly overjoyed to have someone to talk to, and keeps up a constant babble about his
life, which seems to consist mainly of cleaning the tower and occasionally catching and eating a deer
or bugbear. He says that there are a number of bugbears living in a cave under the hill, and that
there is another cave that is partly blocked up. The party is repulsed by him, but not even Tron tries
to kill him after Danic says that the tattoos on the caretaker's body are powerful magic.

The party spends the night in the caretaker's room. Many of the party members are very sick from the Bugbear
poison, which causes a horrible, bubbling rash and nausea. After dark they can hear a great deal of horn
blowing. The horns move in a large sweeping circle.

Sapphire: Those bugbears must be following our trail.
Tron: They seem to be mainly nocturnal.
Nigil: I say we take them out tomorrow.

The next day they set out bright and early. Soren is able to heal those party members who were poisoned
the day before. They approach the cave where the bugbears are.

Tron: There's one sentry, standing in the cave mouth. He hasn't noticed us.
Danic: Ok, just let me cast some spells. Sapphire, Morradin grants you... Bull's Strength! Mooo!!!!
Tron: Maybe you can cast the spell quietly next time.

They hear a horn sound from inside the cave.

Nigil: So much for tactics. (charges the cave)
Danic: I didn't think he could hear it! (charges the cave)
Tron: It looks like we're falling back to our core
competency. (charges the cave)
Sapphire: Wait for me!

They burst into the cave and kill the guards in the first chamber. However, a number of other monsters are
inside the cave and these come rushing down a narrow passage towards the cave entrance. Nigil and Sapphire 
stand in the way.

Nigil: Ha ha! Take that! [hack]
Sapphire: Come get some! [stab]

Soon, the bugbears are fighting over the bodies of their comrades in the narrow passage. Danic tries to use
his wand of acid arrows, but has some trouble hitting the target.

Danic: Eat this! [splort]
Bugbear: Huh?
Sapphire: Watch where you point that thing!

Meanwhile, four bugbears who were outside the cave rush towards it. Tron, Soren, and Norel are outside the
cave.

Norel: I hate goblins! [chop]
Soren: VaanDrager!
Tron: Uh-oh.
Bugbear: Rarrgh! [smash]
Tron: Ouch. Danic, switch!

Danic runs up out of the cave and takes Tron's place, while Tron runs inside the cave and takes up a
position behind the gnome, where he shoots arrows into the charging bugbears. After three bugbears
have fallen, the rest withdraw into the cave. Meanwhile, outside the cave...

Danic: VaanDrager! [hack]
Bugbear: Rarrgh! [smash]
Danic: Argh, it burns! Poison! Take that, you fiend! [cleave]
Bugbear: Urk. [thud]
Norel: [cleave hack slay]

The ranger and the dwarves soon dispatch the monsters outside the cave. The characters try to figure
out how to close with the bugbears inside the cave without being peppered with poisoned arrows.

Sapphire: (grabs a shield and starts low crawling down the tunnel towards the cave where the bugbears
have rallied)
Bugbears: (shoot at the gnome, but only hit the shield she is hiding
behind)
Sapphire: (in goblin) Ow, I'm really badly wounded!
Bugbear#1: (in goblin) Did you hear that?
Bugbear#2: (in goblin) Get an axe, it's a trick.
Sapphire: Bah.

Danic: Maybe we could use fire to flush them out.
Tron: Fire! Heh heh. (starts preparing his oil flasks)
Nigil: I'm not rushing them. I don't want to get poisoned.
Danic: I don't blame you, these guys really suck.
Norel: That's why we're here.
Sapphire: I could do with some support up here!
Soren: Oh, duh!

The cleric casts Obscuring Mist, veiling the cave the party is in and most of the cave that the bugbears
are in in a cloud of dense vapor.

Sapphire: Yaargh! (charges a bugbear and guts him like a fish)
Nigil: Let's get 'em!
Tron: (grabs a shield) Time to kick some!

They charge the bugbears under cover of the fog and kill them all after a savage skirmish. They search
the rest of the cave complex and find only bugbear women. These are standing in one room brandishing
various sharp objects dripping with poison. There is a bubbling pot of poison on the fire and a
crude idol.

Bugbear woman#1: (in goblin) You not kill us, we not fight you. You take everything, we go.
Sapphire: They say that if we let them go they won't fight us.
Bugbear woman#2: (in goblin) You can ravage us.
Bugbear woman#1: (leers at Nigil)
Tron: What'd she say?
Sapphire: You don't want to know.
Nigil: I will not soil my blade with the blood of... er... women.
Soren: Killing them would be against Moraddin's rules of war.
Sapphire: (in goblin) Ok, just stand in the corner there and we won't kill you.

The party splits up to search the caves. Tron, Danic, and Sapphire search the room that the bugbear
women are in.

Tron: (kicks over the pot of poison and stomps it into the ground) Pholtus is against poison.
Danic: So how come you were using poisoned arrows just now? Those arrows you are using are the
ones you took from that bugbear. They're poisoned.
Tron: Yeah, but this is an emergency. As soon as a I find non-poisoned arrows I have to stop
using these.
Nigil: (in the distance) Hoody-hoo! An armory! With lots of arrows!
Tron: Bah. I mean, goody. (knocks over the idol and smashes it) Take that, false god!
Bugbear woman#2: (lunges at Tron)
Bugbear woman#1: (holds her back)
Tron: What, you want some? Come on. Come on. You think you're pretty tough, huh? This is what
I think of your god. [stomp stomp] You gonna do something about it? Huh?
Bugbear women: (charge Tron, brandishing their poisoned weapons)
Tron: Help! Help!

Soon Tron, Danic, and Sapphire are fighting shoulder to shoulder against the bugbear women.
Tron and Danic are hit and poisoned repeatedly.

Danic: This doesn't look good. [clang] Ouch!
Nigil: (stands outside the room and laughs)
Sapphire: Come on, this isn't funny! [cleave]
Nigil: Oh, all right.

The fighter wades into the fray and soon all of the bugbear women are dead.

Sapphire: Tron, I think that you deliberately provoked them.
Tron: Hey, they attacked me. You saw it. It was a treacherous attack, after we agreed to spare
their lives. They got what was coming to them. Pholtus is down on treason.

They search the rest of the cave complex and find a well stocked armory (with lots of arrows)
and a chest filled with silver and copper coins.

Nigil: This is more like it.

In the back of the armory is an iron door, barred on this side.

Danic: Guys, I think that door probably leads to the area under the tower where Gleir is. I
don't think we want to mess with her, I bet she was the one who possessed that dude.

Norel takes a bow from the armory, and the party leaves the caves. They bathe in a stream,
then head up to the tower. The door is locked, and it seems that the guy is away. Tron picks
the lock, and they search the inside of the tower. They find a small stash of money, which
they leave. They determine that the metal box by the door is some sort of cold weapon; when
water is poured into it, the wolf's head carving above the door breathes out a cloud of
biting cold.

Norel: Hmm, just like a winter wolf.
Sapphire: Ya know, I'm feeling kind of bad about having to kill this guy.
Danic: Why do we have to kill him? This would make a perfect base.
Tron: Hey, he's coming back. Looks like he killed a deer somehow.
Danic: Ok, just follow my lead.

The guy carries the deer into the tower. He seems glad to see the party, and soon has a venison
stew cooking with a little salt and a few forest tubers. He even brings up two old bottles of
wine from the cellar, and the evening is spent in a merry mood.

Danic: I am fascinated by your tattoos! How did you get them?
Guy: You want to see all of them? (drops trou.) They protect me.
Danic: I'm, uh, sure they do. (whispers) His tattoos are some kind of powerful protection magic.
Tron: Hmm. (reconsiders backstabbing the guy)

In truth, it seems that the guy is perfectly comfortable with the party's presence. He has no
objection to them staying in the tower for another day to heal from the poison. In fact, he is
pathetically glad to actually have someone around whom he can serve.

Danic: Say, how would you like us to address you?
Guy: Well, uh, Togan just called me "Toadstool", so I guess that would be ok.
Tron: Toadstool, what did you do before you lived here?
Toadstool: Before... um... uh... I... umm... before?
Tron: Never mind.
Danic: That doesn't matter, anyway, now that we're here in our tower. Right?
Toadstool: Yeah! Our tower!
Danic: Our tower!
Toadstool: Our tower!
Nigil: Well, it's not ours yet. We've got something in the basement, and we haven't checked out
the other cave.
Toadstool: Oh, and the bugbears came back.
Party: Huh?

It turns out that the bugbears they killed yesterday were just a hunting outpost from the main tribe. A
few of the bugbear hunters that were out when their hunting outpost was slaughtered have returned, and,
presumably, gone for help from the main tribe deeper in the woods. In a few days they may return with
"help".

Norel: Well, if we want to call this place home, we're going to have to get busy.

The next day, the party prepares to set out...

TO BE CONTINUED...