• Chapter 18**

Reunited again in Zunshit (where an engineer suggests that if the path of the road were cleared, the woodform spell would go a lot further), the mages decide to do some high-altitude scouting of their domain. they notice not only the foundations of a Bilal colony and the remains of villages and roads built during the time of their predecessor but also a keep near the mighty river that separates the fief of Des'pond from the Orc lands to the West.

Shunning a military escort, Hamar, Nazeem and Raschid head out alone accompanied by the warriors Jann and Rabaht as well as the charmed former-bandit Valikar.

The group arrive and find a small keep in a good state of repair but covered in what appear to be areas of darkness that are not pitch-black but rather an approximation of night. The group suggest that these could be Orcish magics. Making Valikar invisible, the group send him off to scout the terrain surrounding the keep and attempt to find an entry-point. Valikar swiftly returns but speaks of Orc sentries and larger slumbering beasts. Lacking a knock spell, the group decide that the only way to enter the tower is through stealth and quickly and silently, they climb a rope lowered down by Valikar using a blend of trickery and brute force, the group dispatch two lots of sentries before they can raise the alarm but two rush down into the bowels of the keep. Hamar and Nazeem decide to chase after them and are soon face to face with a squad of orcs. Hamar casts sleep and the race begins to butcher as many orcs as possible before the remaining orcs wake the others up, the battle is bloody and short but the mages defeat the orcs without need of their companions. truly they are favoured by Ilmanar.

One building cleansed of orcs, the group step out into the courtyard and see two orcs loitering in dark spots, these two are quickly dealth with and Valikar is dispatched to seek out more sentries while the group burst into the larger of the two buildings. They find themselves nose to nose with an ogre but after swift strikes by the priest and the two warriors, the Ogre looks less threatening, prompting the mages to barrel through into the back room where they encounter not only a second ogre but another squad or orcs. Sleep spells are again deployed and though Jann takes a nasty hit from the brute's battle-axe, the heroes are triumphant. Raschid, feeling his god's fury flowing through him decapitates one of the ogres and runs upstairs, tossing it at the feet of the final squad of orcs. Jann is told to hold the stairway leading downwards and the group use spells and force to kill the orcs upstairs, but not before one manages to flee to the roof.

Meanwhile Jann The All-Killer faces down a large brutish orc on the stairs. The pair exchange blows and the wounded Jann drops to the ground unconscious. Just as the orc is about to deliver a killing blow, Valikar appears and distracts him just long enough for Rabaht to spring on the orc and dispatch him.

Up on the roof, the group only have time to see an orc disappearing on what appears to be a giant bat.

The heroes of Ilmanar have taken a keep on the borderlands and in celebration Raschid fixes the two ogre heads to the gate posts. A request is sent for men to man the fortress but already, the Magi express their fears that the humans might find it difficult to hold this keep against the encroaching abhuman hoardes.

• Chapter Nineteen

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