Party a little battered after battle with Orcs left the tower for the courtyard. Sounds of vicious fighting could be heard from the guard tower. Bors paused to bandage himself while Bravd returned to the Orc tower to finish off the unconscious Orcs. One of Taramar's men called for Bors to get into the guard tower to help out with the fight there. When Bravd had finished the Orcs himself and Bors headed for guard tower to help out.

The guard tower was strewn with the bodies of the dead and dying. No combatants remained on the ground floor so Bors and Bravd headed up the stairs. There they saw Taramar and one of his men fighting the remaining two defenders. With help from the two party members the defenders were soon subdued. They collapsed to the floor too tired and injured to continue fighting. Both Taramar and the man with him were quite injured. Thorin was called into the tower to help with the wounded. Another of Taramar's men awoke from unconsciousness, he had taken to blow to the head while fighting on the stairs. This left Taramar with 3 men on wounded and the party complete except for Elonil who seemed to have run away.

Bors and Bravd turned their attention to the two prisoners. Bravd provided basic medical aid to prevent their deaths while Bors questioned them. Bors learned that Fardwith was indeed their commander, however he had died when they arrived at the keep. The second prisoner showed Bravd a mark bearing Fardwiths heraldry. Calorn showed up at the tower bearing a brew pot. He offered the contents to the injured. Bors, Thorin and Taramar drank from the pot. Taramar in particular objected to the taste, but the ground up Thurl seemed to do them good. Thorin was still in bad shape so Calorn applied Aralan to his wounds. This seemed to do him quite a bit of good.

Bors headed upstairs to check out the top floor of the tower. The room contained bedding and equipment. He headed down and with the other party members started looting the bodies of the defenders. After claiming some gold which was split with Taramar's men the party set aside any quality weapons they could find. A discussion began on what to do next. It was decided to stay the night and then investigate the keep once everybody had had a nights rest. Also was decided to bury Taramar's men once everybody had a chance to rest. So their bodies would be put in the Orc tower until people had recovered enough to bury them. The Orcs and the bodies of the defenders were thrown out into the courtyard for the birds to eat.

Calorn headed into the courtyard with Bravd. It was decided to leave the bird tower alone. However Calorn wanted to check out the final tower. It had been ruined and filled with water when Thorin had been in the keep last Autumn. Calorn wanted to ensure that no repairs had been made. With Bravd covering him he snuck up to the tower. Careful sticking his head inside, he was relieved to learn that it was still ruined and water logged. The external walls were intact but the floors had all fallen in including the ground level. The basement of the tower was full of water. In the depths Calorn could see a chest full of coins and jewellery. Calorn returned to the rest of the party and it was decided to attempt to liberate the coins once the party were settled in the courtyard. The horses were brought into the courtyard and all the party's equipment was placed in the tower.

The party made preparations to loot the gold from the flooded basement. Calorn would have to swim down with a satchel and manually transfer the gold from the chest into the satchel. It would have to be Calorn as he was the only party member able to swim. Thorin tied a rope around Calorn's waist just in case an emergency arose. Another rope was tied to the satchel so that Bravd would be able to haul it out of the water. The satchel would be two heavy for Calorn once full. Calorn stripped down to his pants and slipped into the water. He swam down to the chest and managed to get about 96sp worth of coin into the satchel before running out of breath. He returned to the surface. While Bravd emptied the money into another sack, Calorn noticed a mild rash on his arms. Reckoning it was just due to the cold of the water he retrieved the satchel and dived down again. This time he got 86sp. He also saw little silver fish stinging him. He returned to the surface panicking that the fish had poisoned him. After getting out of the water he got Thorin to have a look at the rash but the Dwarf could offer no assistance. The party headed back to the tower pleased with the large bag of coin, except for Calorn who hurried upstairs to rest still thinking that he would die of a terrible poison at any moment.

Some time past, the party rested in the tower while Taramar's men poked around the courtyard. Deiter also noticed the chest and reported this to Taramar. Taramar questioned Bors, who explained how the party had managed to retrieve some of its contents. On learning that Calorn had gotten a nasty rash Deiter lost enthusiasm for trying to swim down there. However they checked on Calorn and since he was still fairly ok, Deiter decided to give it a go. Before getting into the water Deiter covered himself in mud from the stream for some protection from the stinging fish. He then managed 4 dives bring up, 46sp, 9sp, 65sp and 37sp worth of coin. At that point he had received many stings and did not want to continue. The party tried to convince Taramar's other healthy man to have a go but he refused point blank.

Back in the tower Calorn was starting to relax a little. Even to his eyes the rash seemed to be clearing up. He saw Taramar come up second floor. The captain headed for the prisoners and started to question them. He beat them until they started to talk. The rest of the party also come up to the second and stood watching Taramar's technique. He learnt that when the men originally showed up they started to fight the Orcs. Fardwith got too near the keep and was killed by something. When it became obvious that the men would win the battle a man called Turlin showed up. The somehow stopped the fight and told the men they could stay in the tower if they helped to guard the castle. The men accepted the offer and had lived there since. Calorn was nervous that Turlin would be too dangerous to mess with. He suggested that the party should head south, content with the news of Fardwiths death. Taramar on the other hand was determined to stay. He reckoned that they had killed enough defenders to have a good chance of taking the keep. He brought everybody around to his way of thinking.

The party prepared to settle down for the night. Thorin had repaired the door to the tower earlier. It was agreed to have two guards on duty all night. One at the door and one on the roof. The prisoners were tied and gagged securely and the group settled on the second floor for the night. At about 1am Calorn and Bravd were on guard duty. Taramar was also still awake and was on the roof with Calorn. Suddenly one of the prisoners started screaming 'Ohhhh fuck oh my god help me'. Calorn turned to look into down the second floor into chaos.

A door had opened in the wall near where Thorin and Bors were sleeping. Next to the door was a huge burning Orc. It held a burning sword and did not seem to be taking damage from the flames. One of Taramar's men could be seen staggering backwards his clothes on fire. Two more Orcs were following the giant burning one into the room. Thorin, Bors and Deiter were standing have clearly just grabbed their weapons. Strangely no sound could be heard from the room despite the screams of one of the prisoners and the wounded burning man.

Calorn balked before steadying himself and started to prepare his Sleep Spell. The burning Orc stroke Thorin who stumbled back in pain. Orc#1 missed Bors and Orc#2 hit Deiter. Deiter managed to strike Orc#2 for a lot of damage. Taramar started to head down the stairs to join the battle. Calorn then cast sleep at the burning Orc. To his complete surprise the Orc collapsed to the floor. Thorin took the opportunity to strike the collapsed Orc breaking its leg. Suddenly the fight started to look hopefully.

Orc#1 went to attack Bors but fumbled and dazed himself. Orc#2 hit Deiter for a little damage. Calorn started to prepare his vibrate spell. Thorin attacked the now waking burning Orc, with a mighty blow he drove his warhammer through the monsters ribcage. Bors missed Orc#1. Orc#2 slashed Deiter's weapon arm cutting tendon and muscle. Deiter's arm flopped down uselessly and he stumbled back in agony. Taramar dived into the gap left by Deiter and engaged Orc#2. Calorn cast vibrations on Orc#1 sword causing him to fumble again. Thorin joined with Bors attacking Orc#1 but could not land a blow. Taramar and Bors both managed to hit the respective foes as Calorn quick cast vibrations on the sword of Orc#2. Again his spell was successful and now both Orcs were continuously fumbling. Thorin and Bors killed Orc#1 Orc#2 dashed back into the secret passage. Taramar went to follow but stopped himself not knowing what he would encounter.

The battle over people gave a start as sound suddenly returned. Calorn called for Bravd, who due to the silence was completely unaware that anything had occurred. Taramar started to bellow orders. Bors bandaged a small wound he had received. Calorn fetched water and used it to douse the burning Orc. He then pulled one of its teeth to keep as a trophy. The party examined the secret door. The room started to get very cold. There seemed to be a mist in the passage. After finding the mechanism the door was shut. It closed quickly become almost invisible. Taramar walked up to the prisoners and purposely gutted them. Nobody objected.