(Further notes based on interviews with Patrick Fitzpatrick)

 As the party recovered from its fight with the bone devil, Jour fell to the ground, grievously poisoned from repeated strikes of cursed venom.  Patrick assisted Riley in moving the warrior into the room with the Wizard’s spirit, and all four adventurers sat down to an unexpected conversation with the ghost of the wizard tower’s previous owner, Byldar.

The ghost of the now-deceased wizard is surprisingly courteous given the number of his traps the group has had to navigate to get to this point.  He goes on to explain in exhaustive detail, exactly why they are here and what has happened over the last century or more to set these events in motion. (Editor's note: interested readers may wish to contact the editor for an excerpt from Byldar's journal on the subject.)

(Note, Patrick is unclear on many of these details, possibly due to his natural aversion to anything that resembles book learning and lecturing.  What follows is the author’s best reconstruction of the key points in Byldar’s history based on Patrick’s ramblings.)

The lich king of Sheenosek built his empire on the power of his own magic, the enslaved humanoids that formed his armies, the council of mages who formed the ruling council of that land, and the Talons (his personal group of assassins.)  Just prior to the Firas Empire’s second invasion of Sheenosek, the lich king attempted to add another group to that list.  He sought to create a group of Hrifgard (underdark) dwellers to act as his spies and assassins (Editor's note: most sources at least agree that the King Immortal was trying to conscript the Hrifgarders for something, be it into the Talons or his general armies. What is above is based on Patrick's inference, and is interesting enough that it may become an approved theory). When the Empire invaded for the second time (this time successfully) the lich was forced to turn his attention from the Hrifgard to the defense of his homeland.  His would-be deep dwellers broke their ties to Sheenosek and (since most had no love for the lich king or his lands) they formed a dark group of thieves and killers bound together by their hatred of the lich King.  This group was called the Ebon Serpents and has more recently been seen in the form of Darkstride and some of his associates in Haven.

Major points of Byldar’s speech below:
*The waking dream that Marcellus and Golda witnessed was in relation to three mercenaries sent down to investigate the source of the dark magic that Sarothane originally detected in this area.

*The female Drow and her companions seen in the vision were members of the Ebon Serpent.

*The chamber in the vision contains one of the Lich King’s phylacteries!

* The chamber was sealed off previously, it may since have been opened and in addition to the obvious difficulty of getting to it, there may be corrupted earth elementals and deep dwellers around it.

* Byldar believes that this phylactery is either the King Immortal's only soul jar or at least one of the most important.

Byldar offered the group the chance to take on the destruction of the phylactery or the option of being teleported out of this sanctum and having their memories of the encounter erased.  Upon receiving their acceptance, Byldar’s ghost released a great deal of information regarding the location of key amulets and control items for the tower as well as how to best deal with many of its summoned creatures. (Specifics have been omitted for brevity.)

The end of Byldar’s speech was witness to some in-party squabbling over whom in fact would be the nominal Lord of the Manor.  It was determined that the magic that controlled the estate and the wizard’s tower required that there be a manor Lord and a master of the wizard’s tower complex (the first owning the land and maintaining it and the second being a wizard who would control the tower complex). (Editor's note: Research on Merrywell and the Haleward family indicates that a Lord and a Master Wizard is not so much *required*, per se, as that certain contingency spells will recognize a properly designated Lord and Master Wizard, making it easier to access certain areas of the grounds and wizards' tower, respectively.)

The squabble developed when the ghost told the group that whoever was the Lord of the Manor would then get to pick the Master of the tower complex if Byldar’s ghost didn’t do so first.  Axel mentioned to Byldar that he knew of a wizard that he thought would make a good choice for tower master, and when Byldar said he could assign a manor lord to chose the master themselves, Axel nominated himself since he had someone in mind.  Patrick and Riley paid little attention to the beginning of this discussion, themselves discussing between each other whether Marcellus might be a possible candidate, until they heard Axel in the middle of suggesting why he thought Jade would be a good possible master of the tower complex.  Much arguing and ill will followed (individual reasons for this disagreement have since been traced back to miscommunication and differing opinions as to how control of the property should be distributed given that both the tower and the manor had been promised to the group as a whole, if the tower and surrounding environs could be cleared of hostile magics and creatures).  The end result was that Jour (still poisoned, semi-conscious, and unable to speak for himself) was voted the current lord of the Manor, and Byldar set off a magic rune which allowed him to be designated as such.

Byldar also noted that "manor lord" could be changed/acknowledged by more conventional means via a traditional Empire lordship instatement ceremony. Therefore, if Jour did not want to be acknowledged as such, he could pass on the recognition to someone else.

The Editor emphasizes that all this "acknowledgement" does is cause certain contingency spells to react in a certain manner. The party's legal ownership of the manor would not ever be in question.

After resolving this, the group left to deal with some of the summoned creatures guarding parts of the tower.

The group’s first move was to find the basic key which opened all the mundane locks.  Here they would also find the sword of a succubus guarding one of the underground labs, and the scrolls with the sylvan creatures’ names on them.

With no real difficulty (save Axel being hit with some heavily poisoned darts which he has since recovered from) the group found the key and a magic robe with patches on it (Robe of Useful Items).

Upon reaching the room with the chest which held the scrolls and the sword, the group found that the treasure was guarded by a bound devil known as an Erinyes.  She made a pact with Axel, which was found to be air tight after Riley reminded Axel to add the word immediately in a strategic place). Jour objected to the contracting, not wanting to make any deals with devils, but was promptly ensorcelled by the devil’s magic, and he left the room, suddenly finding himself very willing to follow the devil's commands. Axel did warn the devil not to do any further actions such as that, or the deal would be off.

The end result was that Jour was bespelled in a side room, Axel was tied up on the floor in the devil’s rope, Riley was watching both Jour and Axel, and Patrick was dispatched to watch the cat fight of the century (or so he hoped).

Things didn’t go so well for the Erinyes, who had originally held the succubus as her slave, when she-herself was bound to watch the chest.  The Succubus banished the Erinyes, who left her flaming bow and cold iron sword behind).  Patrick got in a few good hits against the already wounded demon, but was ultimately overcome by her enchanting magic.  Only by a huge effort of resistance was he able to keep from having his life force drained away.

Then the rest of the group arrived and was able to free Patrick from the demon’s not altogether unpleasant clutches.

 A short and brutal fight followed, with Patrick banishing the creature with his hammer at the very last.  She, also, left her silver sword behind.

The group then went back to Nymph’s room--her name is Ariadne--and freed all the sylvan creatures. Ariadne longed to return to Tria's Glade in the Deep Green, but promised to return to help after she had made contact with the holy ground.

The adventurers now are resting and preparing to fight their way through the lower levels of the tower (hopefully first getting the shield guardian amulet) and thence on to the lich king’s phylactery.  They have many plans to make, and a few issues to resolve before they can obtain their objective. They know they must pass through the lower level laboratories, which include Elemental chambers and a golem room, and the gateway to the tunnels leading to the chamber is guarded by an Inevitable, a sort of living construct from the plane of Mechanus. Byldar made it clear there would be no way past the Inevitable short of fighting it... it is, indeed, inevitable.

Note:
This author would like to point out that even though Patrick was unclear on the point, Axel was carrying a Sphere of Annihilation--contained within a protective container--given to the group by the ghost, which was to be dropped on the phylactery should the group survive long enough to use the item.