The party secures the boat for the coming storm and waits it out. Cian is a bit confused as it is a bit weaker than he figured it would be, however it is strong enough to give him second thoughts as to this boat’s open sea worthiness. It is a mostly flat bottom war galley and out in rough open seas, would most likely take on quite a bit of water. The next morning they round the long reef heading several miles out of their way north to do so. Cian uses his eagle eyes to help the party steer clear of dangerous areas.

After the clear the reef they head south and get back in sight of the northeastern coast of Eyru. Two days travel finds them just offshore of the Palace of the Waves, the ancient Fomorian capitol. Cian surveys from the air. The central tower remains intact, nine stories flanked by three smaller towers, two of which form a gatehouse. A formidable iron statue stands guard directly in front of the main gates. The rest of the city is as expected, decaying ruins.

Cian, Liam, Dierdre and Cinn Oir take a rowboat to the high cliffs the city is perched on and Liam searches the waters. (Lance remains on board to look after the boat, the animals and the statue of Archu…he won’t be relegated to "camp duty" for long however. I’ve struggled with what to do with Damian’s character for over a week now and am close to a decision.) As expected (like the old Fomorian city found in Session 21) he finds an underwater tunnel leading into the cliff. Liam returns and he and Cinn Oir spread out Water Breathing and Endure Elements (northern seas in winter…) spells. The group then dives in to explore.

The tunnels reveal a central "waiting" chamber of sorts, a guard station and two tunnels, one which travels straight up, the other to the west further inland. The party decides to ascend the first tunnel. The tunnel opens into an underwater garden of sorts. They find themselves in the middle of a hedge maze constructed of coral. To their surprise, they are greeted by a female (who Cian believes is Fomorian). She leads them through the maze to a nice little garden area. She then leaves them to wait, shutting a little gate behind her.

Not long after, the group discovers the garden is in fact an illusion concealing the dingy cage they are now in. Several attempts to pick the lock and break out fail so they make a group effort to bend the bars. They succeed and are able to escape. The garden and even the coral hedge maze is all illusion and they begin to search the large circular chamber they are in.

The Fomorian female appears again and the group speaks with her. She apologizes and explains her race is not used to trusting outsiders. They have a long conversation wherein the woman reveals she has lived there for many years. She is awaiting the return of her brethren though most of her people refuse to return to these lands. The race she describes seems a bit xenophobic though she claims to be "different". The party asks if she has been further up the tunnel (which exits this room in the ceiling) and she says no that terrible guardians wait up there. She explains that elders of her people can enter safely and perhaps control the guardians. She states that she will patiently wait for her people to return to these ancestral homelands and hopefully then she can enter the ancient palace. The party also asks about the second tunnel that heads inland and she explains that it should come up through a well in the town center but the tunnel is blocked by debris and a solid gate.

They speak for a bit longer, all the while probing into this woman’s condition and searching for information. In the end, they take her at face value and tell her they need to leave (time is running short on Water Breathing.) She asks them to stay and produces a mucousy goo that she claims is harvested from the underwater flora. She describes that it will let them breath underwater for a long time. The group takes this goo (though doesn’t use it) and tells her they need to leave.

The fomorian female escorts them out of the tunnels. On the way out several strange events occur. A gate drops down to block their progress (a gate that wasn’t there before) and they are attacked by a large number of sharks. Each instance is determined to be an illusion however. Dierdre stares suspiciously at the Fomorian but she seems genuinely surprised (DM’s Note: Lots of skills used this session, well every session, which no one has much skill in. Pick Locks, Sense Motive, Search….seems they’d do well to hire a single class thief….)

In the end, the party leaves despite the Fomorian females fear of these strange new events. They promise to be back as soon as they check on the boat. The group surfaces, talks it over and decides to head back down. To save the water breathing spell, they utilize the mucus stuff. They return to the tunnel entrance to find the Fomorian female gone. Confused, they decide to head up the central shaft and search for her. They enter the large circular chamber and look briefly through it, finding no sign of her. Liam also searches for signs of this goo producing plant and strangely finds none.

They then proceed up the shaft through this room. Liam is the first to surface and he finds himself in a well open to a fog filled room. He climbs out carefully and as he starts to look around, a large volley of crossbow bolts flies his way. Liam dives back into the well and tells the other party members. Dierdre surfaces to look around and finds she can’t breath! Cian and Cinn Oir have the same problem…all of them used the mucus.

They swim back down and as they are about to enter the circular chamber. As they are on the threshold of the room and voice booms out "There are guardians here! You will stay and remain my slaves for all eternity!" Liam decides to charge into the room sword drawn (dragging Cian behind him on a rope…eagles aren’t known for their ability to swim underwater…) He finds himself face to face with an enormous fishlike creature. From around its mouth extend several slime coated tentacles.

A battle ensues and due in large part to Liam’s freakish Fortitude save and boatloads of hit points, the creature is slaughtered. Cian is however not so fortunate as when he was struck by a tentacle, a sickening transformation took place. Slowly he began to transform into something reminiscent of the mucus itself. A timely Cure Disease stops this dangerous transformation and the group returns to the boat.

The next day, they return to the tunnels and Bebe goes with them. The party returns to the ground floor, the courtyard of the tower and decides to rest for the day. They carefully explore and after Liam volunteers as a human pin-cushin, they manage to disable the crossbows,  all of which are animated to fire and fed by a magic bolt producing item suspended above them from the ceiling. So far in their explorations they have discovered that the courtyard is fully enclosed with the bulk of the 9 story tower serving as the roof. The three exterior towers are all connected by a thick wall which has an enclosed walkway. This walkway has plenty of arrow slits on either side (facing into the courtyard and to the outside) with  crossbows mounted on swiveling arms. They also discover a heavy wooden double door leading out from the courtyard through a space situated between two of the smaller towers. The walkway along the courtyard walls extends over this space as well and they find two murder holes, each with copper rods projecting from the ceiling above them. (See the pic to help figure this out…..) They also find a trap door set into the ceiling directly above the well. It is latched tight and magically locked.

They find a well apportioned, though ancient interior. They search through several floors and discover that it is indeed empty. The levels include an entry chamber, great hall with vaulted ceilings, "guardian room" (protected by illusory creatures and traps), an abandoned laboratory and the royal chambers at the very top of the tower, which are magically filled with water. They discover little of value save two interesting smoke filled bottles (which they don’t open) and 500 gp ruby dust in the lab.

They decide to have Bebe chop down the double doors (they are Arcane Locked and no one can seem to open them). She works for the better part of a day and creates a large gap in the extremely thick doors. The doors lead to a short enclosed hallway that ends at the front gates of the structure. Standing just outside of which is the iron statue.

Liam decides to walk walk cautiously over to the front gate to see if he can open it. He sends Cian up to the two murder holes situated directly above this area to warn him of any incoming danger. As Liam enters the gatehouse, he notes that his steps have an unsettling ring to them and he sees the floor is actually a metal grate. Proceeding more cautiously, he gets roughly to the center of the room when there is a flash (followed by a "squawk" from Cian). Liam jumps to the side and misses a direct hit from Lightning Bolt through the murder hole. The floor however proves unsafe and as he hits the ground from his leap, he gets zapped. Liam then exits the room as quickly as possible. Cian meanwhile is relieved Liam survived (who shouts a "Thanks for the warning!" from below) but is more interested in this Lightning Bolt shooting trap. He flies up and tries to grasp the copper rod with a claw and ends up getting a nice "zap" himself which he identifies as Shocking Grasp.

After that, the group decides it isn’t worth trying to exit out the front door and they spell up with Water Breathing and Endure Elements and swim back through the tunnels to the boat. They spend the evening recuperating and Cian does some scouting. He discovers a group of about 20 ogres breaking camp further inland along the Old King’s Road. He returns to the boat and the party decides to try to intercept the group and fire another volley into the human giant wars that are beginning to brew……