The party's next mission is to investigate a monastery,
Eregost, in the south of the Dominions which is secretly
a community of lycanthropes. A secondary objective is to possibly rescue the daughter of a local shepherd who was
kidnapped by lycanthropes. Crow's notes on the monastery show she considered the monks a considerable threat but
she thought they should be left alone unless they actually started indulging in their primal instincts. The mission is somewhat complicated by the fact that a party had already been hired by the girl's father but had run foul of
the
Desert Screamers on their way to the scene of the crime.
On the third night of their journey south the party here the bloodcurdling calls of the Screamers in the night
and soon Milo finds himself resembling a pin cushion. While he takes cover behing Circe's faithful tentacle the rest of the party try and work out where their foes are firing from. A game of cat and mouse ensues with the party
finally managing to engage some of their foes in melee. Four of the Screamers are killed with another two escaping
to their horses and riding off. Milo sends his owl after them but in the end the party decide they should not be distracted from their main mission.
Arriving at the site of the monastery the party decide to fly up to the mountain ledge on which it is situated
and land in the adjoining garden. From there Circe polymorphs into a bat and scouts out the ground floor.
In the prison area there are two male prisoners in monks robes and Circe can find no trace of the missing girl
on this floor. Milo uses his Augury spell to work out that snatching one of the prisoners is the best course of action and Beorhtric Dimension Doors the prisoner from the cell back to the party.
The prisoner says that the Master of the Monastery, Ne-Eslem, has become besotted with the captured girl
and plans to marry her in a few days time. She has been taken from her cell and is being held somewhere else.
The party decides to investigate the basement of the building and Circe's picks the lock of the secret door
much to her relief as failure would have set off an alarm. All intelligence has indicated that the basement is
riddled with traps but they all seem to assume intruders will be walking on the floor. Circe flies in bat
form until she identifies a strongroom that seems to contain the two prisoners. The other prisoner is a former Master of the monastery and very infirm. A careful rescue plan is hatched using the
party's Dimension Door capabilities and, after contacting Crow, the party use
Teleportation Circle to return home (via the circle in Carasalas University.
After a debriefing with Crow, she decides that Ne-Eslem should be deposed. Crow herself leads the party
into the South of the Dominions again and they spend some time intercepting the monks who leave the
monastery to fetch supplies and briefing them against the Master. After two weeks Crow judges it is time to strike
and the party Dimension Door directly into the Master's room on the second storey. So brutal is their
assault that the Master uses magic to flee and gather support. By the time the party catch up with him on the floor below he has gathered many of the senior monks to his side.
There follows a tough encounter for the party as another group of monks arrive to support their Master and Milo is struck down by the brutal strength of Ne-Eslem. The party are only outnumbered two to one, however, as most of the monks fail to support the Master. Gradually the monks are worn down and
the Master, having been targeted by the party is one of the first to fall.
The party then bring in the former master to oversee the change to a new regime at
the monastery. Papers in the Master's study indicate he was considering an alliance
with the Desert Screamers which would have spelt trouble for the Seven Dominions.