It's kind of strange. Sometimes, perfectly reasonable people do stupid things. And sometimes, luck is mistaken for great insight.
We had Obegard scry into the monastery and he revealed that inside were two Nothrogs standing at the arrow slits and four of the kidnappers sitting around a table. We formulated a battle plan. As always, I suggested the simplest plan which also turned out to be the best. We would hide back while Borrow sneaked forward under invisibility to open the door to the monastery. Once that happened, Obegard would take the opening to send a fireball through.
The plan worked perfectly. After the fireball, both Son of Clouds and Ili rushed forward as I tried to follow as quickly as I could. I was a bit disappointed that I was so encumbered by armor because by the time I caught up, the battle was mostly over. We quickly moved to the door to the side of the monastery and surprised another one of the kidnappers as he was putting on his armor. He surrendered without incident and revealed that he was hired by the Nothrogs to kidnap a dwarf and bring him here. He explained that they had taken the dwarf downstairs. We tied him up and continued to the stairs.
As we opened another door, we were greeted by a pair of angry Nothrogs. One of them activated an item and suddenly grew huge in size and began swinging his now giant axe toward my head. It was an intimidating sight, but we pressed forth. While they attacked savagely, thanks to their poor armor and lack of regard for personal safely, we were able to defeat the pair handily.
We ran down the stairs into a room with a brazier in the middle and a series of grotesques that lined the walls. Obegard said that he sensed evocation magic in the fire, and illusiary magic on the walls. We didn't have time to stop and discuss, so we pressed to the next room, where we found what appeared to be the leaders--the woman who was leading the mercenaries and a Nothrog shaman. The dwarven captive was also here, but was hanging from chains and appeared to be unconscious.
The shaman drank a potion and disappeared under the cracks of a door leading out the room. The woman promptly surrendered, but not before Son of Clouds gave her a good whack with his blade. I healed the dwarf back to his feet, and he explained that his name was Barron. He said that he was captured because he knew how to get to an artifact that was stored away at this temple. He also gave us the password that would allow us to pass a pair of Gargoyles that protected the artifact.
We searched room where the Nothrog escaped to, but he was nowhere to be found. The only thing of note there was a large prayer book that began with the words, "Kavara fears not the Flames". It all seemed pretty normal to me, but for some reason, Ili took the words to mean that she should go and leap into the brazier back in the other room. She was so brazen as to proclaim that Albrecht would protect her, and even accused my disinclination to leap into a roaring fire as a sign of lack of faith! She went ahead and did it, and it took all my willpower to stile my laughter as she came out the other side looking severely burned and approached me for healing. I guess some lessons are only learned the hard way.
We eventually did find the way into the catacombs that led to the artifact, but not before Son of Clouds triggered a trap that nearly cost him his arm. At the end of the tunnel, he encountered the Nothrog that had escaped us earlier. He was clutching a staff in one hand, and a gem of some sort in another. He cursed at us and immediately cast a spell that caused the dry and brittle vines around us to grow immensely, trapping us in a field of prickly thorns. We charged through the painful thorns anyways. Son of Clouds chopped down with his greatsword at the shaman, but was dismayed to find that though he caused a deep would, his sword had dissolved upon touching the shaman. That seemed to really upset him, and he hurled himself upon the Nothrog despite taking several hits as he tried to do so. I took the opportunity to disarm the Nothrog of the artifact. As I did so, I noticed that my own sword started melting, but I was able to pull back before too much damage was caused. Ili took this opportunity to step forward and punch the Nothrog with such force that the orc's ribcage was smashed to his spine, killing him instantly.
We carefully wrapped the artifact in cloth and took it back with us. But as we exited, a large fire elemental leapt from the brazier and attacked. It smashed me with a heavy blow that both crushed and burned. I called for everyone to run out as I tried to distract the elemental. For unknown reasons, Obegard, despite normally being very intelligent and self-preserving, decided that he would instead use the artifact to command the elemental, even though he had no idea how the artifact worked or even if it had any power over the elemental. He got for his trouble a blow from the elemental ignited his clothes on fire and knocked him unconscious. Fortunately, as the artifact hit the ground, the elemental retreated back to the brazier in the middle of the room. I was able to heal him and Burrow smothered the fire.
We discussed what to do next, and someone said off-hand that perhaps the phrase "Kavara fears not the Flames" had something to do with it all. That caused the elemental to instantly disappear from the room, and we were able to pick up the gem without further incident. We helped Barron up and discussed what to do with the artifact next.
As an aside, I am growing concerned with the state of Obegard's reasoning abilities. Perhaps his run-in with the elemental has damaged his senses deeper than I thought. Or perhaps Obegard has become so enamoured with Borrow's uncanny luck that he thinks that Borrow is an agent of the gods. For some reason, Obegard credits Borrow with the risky feat of disarming the crystal from the Nothrog. Obegard also credits Borrow for saving his life. Because surely, using magic to heal his profusely bleeding head-wound was less important than leaving Borrow (who incidentally does not have healing magic) to put out the fire. Finally, Obegard seems to think that Borrow is some sort of sage because he accidentally uttered the correct passphrase for deactivating the elemental (and it might have even been someone else who said it!).
