After a night's rest, the Company prepare to finish exploring this particular section of the Banevault. Orongorg, troubled by unrestful sleep, leaves the Company temporarily to meditate but promises to return soon. While continuing their explorations, Sebastian and Rafe notice a small domesticated cat following them through the Banevault. Jeremi attempts to bond with the cat but is unsuccessful.
Rafe and Sebastian come to a locked door and after several minutes trying to pick the lock, the open it, apparently not warned away by the loud, monstrous sound inside. Inside, the room is is near complete darkness. Jeremi uses his staff to shed daylight into the room but nothing is visible. Sebastian calls upon the magick embedded in his special tattoo to be able to see invisible creatures and is almost overwhelmed by the sheer number of invisible creatures inside the room. Before he is able to tell the rest of the Company the location of the creatures in the large circular room, a blast of cold strikes several members of the Company, nearly knocking them unconscious. A huge battle commences between the Company and several creatures, including a large snake-man, a blue-green giant with a massive sword, an ugly humanoid with spider-like features accompanied by a huge monstrous spider, and several small lizardlike rat men. Also during the battle, the small domesticated cat suddenly turns into a female Jade Elf who joins the fight on the side of the Company and uses strange nature magick to help the Company win the day.
After the battle, she introduces herself as Si'lara, a pureblood Jade Elf sent on a mission by the superiors of her Druid Circle to keep watch over the Company. She seems to have her own particular reasons for asking to join the Company but she keeps them to herself. The Company are all too happy to have another spellcaster in their group, especially one who wields a different type of magick than they are used to. Philosophical questions about the nature of magick and the specifics as to Si'lara's mission are set aside as the Company bar the door to the circular room and rest for the remainder of the day.
The Feast of Hallowed Laessal (Festival of the Harvest)
On the last day of the Autumnal Festivals of �tonism, the Company explore around the circular room. It has a metal track set into the floot and ceiling and a large iron plate over a quarter of the floor that is a attached to a huge iron pillar in the center of the room. The pillar has four switches on it, arranged from top to bottom. There is a set of stairs on the iron plate that lead to a small opening in the ceiling. With little forethought, Cirend pushes the second of the four switches, which toggles off the top switch and causes the iron plate to rotate to the east by a quarter turn. The stairs now lead to a new opening in the ceiling. The Company realize that there are probably four openings in the ceiling, but without further investigation they leave the room and continue south down the long hallway.
Roughly halfway down the hallway, Sebastian comes across a door that he cannot open, and so he continues to the end of the hallway to try his luck on the door at the end. He succeeds in opening the door and a huge, monstrous iron scorpion constructs comes out of the door to attack him. Simultaneously, the other door in the hallway opens and four smaller scorpion constructs come out of that door to attack the other members of the Company.
This battle, while shorter and less intense than the previous day's fight, is more deadly. Rafe is pinched in both claws of the larger construct and the life is squeezed out of him. The Company are unable to revive him.
Although saddened by the loss of yet another friend and comrade, the Company eventually destroy the scorpion constructs and are left to wonder:
* Who are all of these creatures with the bone rings? Are they all working together? Did they know that the Company was in the Banevault because Cirend has a bone ring on now which he cannot remove?
* Who else is in the Banevault with them and what "side" are they on?
* Who opened the door with the mummified hand key? Was it the Sepoy Kpeshiya, Thanali, or someone else?
* Were the scorpion constructs actual "banes" or were they guardians?
Weary from their fight, the Company debates their next plan of action. Their main concern becomes the preservation of Rafe's body in the hopes that the kindly members of the �tonist faith will be able to resurrect him. Another problem exists with figuring out how to safely exit the Banevault. The Company was severely damaged by a spear trap which, to their knowledge, blocks the way out. They decide to continue exploring a little bit more, but eventually go back to the circular room with the iron tracks and go through the doors on the West of the room. On the other side, they discover a broken trap that looks as though it was destroyed in an earthquake. Past the broken trap, they find a set of stairs leading up that eventually take them back to the place where they entered this section of the Banevault.
