The raiders came in the dead of night. There were only a few of them, believing that the small settlement beside the muddy oasis would be easy pickings, they had come to kidnap people to sell into slavery. Though few in number the villagers defended themselves with ferocity, and the sibling herders were at the fore of driving away the raiders, who retreated to look for easier prey. The younger brother was the first to find the old ashik. The old man sat wheezing heavily beside the oasis, at his feet were the bodies of two raiders. One of the kidnappers had a bone dagger protruding from the centre of his chest and the other one's head lay at a very unnatural angle. The old ashik refused to say what had happened and as the villagers settled he once again began to spin his tale.

Seizing the opportunity, Scar and Miloch rush through the open door catching the Human guard by surprise. Miloch swings his iron battleaxe at the guard and catches him a deep wound in his leg forcing him to stumble backwards and fall to the floor. Scar leaps upon the fallen guard and drives the Sword of Kemalok through his chest killing him. Outside the door the Half-giant swings a meaty fist at Arthur and catches him a mighty blow in his gut, Arthur staggers backwards winded but recovers himself quickly and counterattacks with his iron maul. The sledgehammer weapon smashes into the Half-giants knee and the corridor is filled with the sound of the Half-giant collapsing to the floor, dead.

Beyond the doors Miloch and Scar find themselves facing two Humans and a Mul, one of the Humans is clearly a Templar, the two Tyr guards move to engage the freed slaves. Kank rushes through the open door, closely followed by Arthur, Balboa, and Fleck. Scar slashes a vicious swipe at the guard and severs his arm, the guard falls back under the attack. The guard facing Miloch swings with his weapon but misses, Miloch attacks back and buries the head of his iron battleaxe in the guards chest. The guard falls to the floor. Kank darts beyond the combatants and swings wildly at the Templar, but misses.

It becomes obvious that the guards are attempting to gain the stairs, but the once slaves move to block their escape. The Sword of Kemalok flashes once again and the guard in front of Scar drops to the floor, Arthur steps in beside Kank and smashes the Templar in the stomach with his maul. The Templar lays unmoving, and with the fight over Kank moves amid the guards making sure that none of them will rise again. Arthur searches the bodies as Kank drags the Half-giants into the base of the tower and stacks the bodies beneath the stairs. Arthur grabs the Templar’s iron battleaxe and a handful of ceramic and silver coins from the table in the middle of the room where the guards were gambling.

The group collects themselves and Scar attempts to administer first aid to Arthur, but does not succeed and so Balboa calls upon the power of the gnomes of the earth to heal all of Arthur’s injuries. The group heads up the winding staircase that wraps around the inner wall of the tower, they find that the next floor is empty except the group can see ladders rising up into the darkness, each ladder climbs twenty foot to a small section of collapsed floor on the next level before another ladder climbs once again. In this manner the ladders rise over one hundred feet to a trap door.

Kank leads the others up the ladders and finds that they are strong and secure, obviously to cope with the weight of the Half-giants, he listens at the trapdoor and hearing nothing he pushes it open slightly and peers in. He can see what looks like the base of a broken tower, but what is really unusual is that it is contained within a large octagonal room. Kank climbs down to the shelf of floor below the trap door and Fleck scampers up the ladder and into the room, moments later Fleck reappears at the trapdoor and informs everyone that the coast is clear and that they appear to have come up into an armoury.

The group quickly move up the ladder and take up defensive positions around the ruined tower, they follow Fleck through the next doorway into the armoury and then hearing nothing at the next door they quickly open it and find that it opens onto a torch lit corridor. Scar throws the Templar’s robe over her armour and strides out into the corridor, she passes two corridors that are unlit and two smaller doorways. She stops at a set of large double doors that are barred on her side, when she listens she can hear the roar of the crowd within the arena. She next listens at one of the smaller doorways and can hear the low murmur of voices in general conversation, she then crosses the corridor and listens at the other small doorway but hears nothing.

Scar quickly returns back along the corridor and heads in the opposite direction, she passes a large single door and listens but hears nothing, she then continues to the end of the corridor where there is another set of large double doors. Listening at these she can hear the voice of a Human giving instructions, and the low rumble of Half-giants replying. She can also hear an unusual creaking noise, which sounds like some kind of winch. Scar returns to the others and tells them all that she has discovered. They agree to head out together and investigate the darkened corridors.

They discover that the dark corridors contain a number of empty slave pens, but they also find that the last pen is not empty. Kank lights a torch so that they can get a clear view, the light reveals a single slave secured within. He is a filthy individual, but one that if he were fed properly would be a large well muscled man. The light catches his back and it is obvious that he has been flayed within an inch of his life, Scar quickly enters the pen and finds that he is barely alive and so calls Balboa in quickly. Balboa calls upon the power of the gnomes of the earth and heals all of the man’s injuries. A moment later the man comes around and quickly backs away from the group, his fright clearly visible. Balboa offers him some water and tells him that he has healed him. The man asks;

Who are you?

Balboa says in a very calm voice;

We are ex-slaves, you have nothing to fear.

The man looks at Scar in her Templar robe and looks very dubious. Balboa reassures him that it is a disguise and convinces the man to tell them everything that he knows about their surroundings. The man tells them that his name is Gendrik and he draws them a rough map on the dirt floor. Gendrik points out where the Half-giants sleep, behind the big single door, and tells them that there is no other exit from that room, he also tells them that the two rooms either side of the double doors are the guard’s rooms and that the double doors lead out towards the arena. With thanks the group send Gendrik to the bottom of the tower and tell him to eat, drink and arm himself before returning back to them.

As he is leaving them he turns;

I have just remembered that there is always a Templar within the winch room.

With that he heads through the armoury door. Scar listens again at the single door that she had found silent before, and hearing nothing again she opens the door and steps in. She finds herself in an empty single bedroom, she quickly ushers the other in and shuts the door. They search the room and find little of interest, but they are convinced that it belongs to a Templar. They quickly form a plan to attack the occupied room opposite and step out of the Templar’s room.

Scar opens the door and steps into the guard room as if she belongs there, the three guards sitting around a small table betting on dice are startled by her entrance and jump to attention. Scar walks around behind them and says;

What are you doing? Don’t you know that there is a slave uprising?

At that point Arthur and Kank rush into the room roaring and the guards fumble for weapons to defend themselves. Arthur swings a powerful fist at a Mul guard and punches him in the gut, the Mul doubles up with all of the air forced out of his lungs and falls to the floor, Kank punches one of the other guards in the upper arm and there is a cracking sound as the man’s humerus breaks. The third guard moves towards Kank but before he can take a second step the tip of the Sword of Kemalok appears from the front of his chest as Scar stabs him from behind.

The guard fighting Kank swings with his obsidian war hammer and it slams into Kank’s leg, but Kank’s armour takes most of the blow. Kank punches again and hits the guards weapon arm forcing him to drop the war hammer, Kank follows up with a firm blow to the guards chest and the man collapses. Arthur steps over the prone Mul and punches him in the head knocking him unconscious. Kank listens at the inner door and hearing nothing he opens it, beyond are the empty sleeping quarters for four guards. Arthur scoops the coins off of the table and heads back out into the corridor.

The group quietly move up to where they believe that the Half-giants sleep and check the room, they are pleased when they find that it is empty. Agreeing that this is the best place to hold up they place Fleck and Gendrik in the guard room to keep watch through the arrow slit into the corridor beyond the double doors, Kank and Scar hide within the dark slave pen corridors, and the others wait ready within the armoury. The group settles down and awaits the signal.