The night after returning to Kalaman, the party is escorting Kragan and the other mutants to the hospital of Mishakal under cloak and cover of darkness. As they reach a square off the major trade streets, an armored woman wielding a silver trident steps out of a building and orders the party to relinquish their charges and leave. Some posturing on her part reveals she has snipers stationed on nearby rooftops. Naturally, the party refuses to yield, and the battle is on.
The woman is identified as a cleric of Zeboim, and this is quickly confirmed when she tries to cast hold person on Galdar (unsuccessfully). With her are six archers, as many men with tower shields to block off the streets out of the square, and six more men armed with shortspears. A dwarf with a strange, gem-studded shortsword emerges from a blind alley to engage Robert. Brightfire, the Kagonesti barbarian the group encountered in the Land Shark safehouse rushes out and attacks Melvina, while her lover Marco covers her back with his crossbow. Finally, after summoning several dire rats to further congest the battlefield, a druid is spotted on one of the rooftops. All told, there are six major combatants and 18 minions on the field, in addition to the five members of the party, Kragan, and six mutant munchkins.
The battle is fierce, and at first the future does not look bright for our heroes. The archers pepper everyone with crossbow bolts. Robert cannot seem to hit the dwarf, but the cleric's armor takes the sting out of most of the return attacks. At first, the munchkins panic before regrouping and attempting to help the heroes. Kragan springs into action, his incredibly tough skin helping him fend off the entire squad of spearmen. Seeing the tentacled, sightless monk thrashing their fellows prompts the spearmen to surrender and run.
Deiria moves to engage Brightfire, but a well placed spear thrust sends the nimble fighter to the ground. Galdar tempts fate and rushes inside the elf's reach; luckily, his gambit pays off and he is able to slip past her guard. A sleep spell from Melvina soon makes this moot, though, as Marco slumps to the ground, unconscious. Brightfire controls her rage and retreats with Marco over her shoulder.
A lucky shot from a munchkin wielding the crossbow of a fallen archer sends the dwarf scampering for safety, but a charge from Galdar takes the stumpy rogue's head clean off. Allie and the druid are exchanging shots while a munchkin scales the outside of a building to reach her. Sadly, an archer shoots the munchkin when he reaches the roof, killing him.
After much effort, Kragan manages to punch a whole in the shield wall, clearing a path to the cleric. She wastes a number of spells trying to take the mutant out of the fight, but eventually she is forced into melee with him. A tumble leaves Kragan flanking her with Deiria, and Deiria puts her rapier through the woman's throat, killing her. At this, the remaining archers and shieldmen flee, save for one that Deiria intimidates into removing his tower shield. Deiria and Kragan scale the building to reach the druid, who tries to escape under cover of obscuring mist, to no avail. Finally, the battle is won.
The group collects their spoils with the help of the remaining munchkins, and Kragan carries the gagged druid, the only surviving prisoner. On the way to the hospital, the group discovers they are being followed by a gully dwarf, who offers his service to Deiria for killing the cleric, his "old master." He also reveals that he can take her to the group's secret lair, where there are many nice things for her to take. He warns that it is dangerous, however.
The group parts ways with the mutants at the hospital and decide to proceed immediately to the hideout, which is apparently under a warehouse near the water. The gully dwarf, who calls himself Prince, tells them that the warehouse contains many dangerous traps, and that it's safer to go in the back way -- through an outlet pipe under the nearby boardwalk. Into the water they go, and the most heavily armored heroes struggle to get inside.
Inside, they find themselves in a flooded chamber that slopes slowly upward, leaving a small breathing space on the far end. Unfortunately, the room is occupied by a trio of lacedons, aquatic ghouls who turn to face them hungrily. Quickly, Robert grasps his medallion of faith and invokes the light of Majere. The blast of positive energy disintegrates the ghouls, leaving nothing behind but ash in the water.
The group is again halted, this time by a heavy iron grate blocking the exit. Galdar struggles to lift it enough for the rest of the party to swim under, and then Deiria and Robert hold it up while he struggles through. They all emerge into a larger chamber where the water ends at a small ledge with a door. In the water are a swarm of bloodbloater oozes and a strange, undead fish that Robert identifies as a mere, the undead remains of bodies left to decompose in water. The cleric holds the mere off with another turning, but the ooze swarm proceeds to drain the blood of anyone it envelops. The party scrambles to reach the exit before the swarm can drain them dry, and after much sloshing through the water and a brave, if slightly foolhardy, distraction by Galdar, they make it into a narrow hallway.
The hallway is trapped with a tripping chain trap that manages to hurt a few of the heroes before Prince can reach the bypass switch to deactivate it. The hallway leads to four bedrooms, one each for the druid, the cleric, and the dwarf, and one shared by Brightfire and Marco. The druid's room contains a snake protecting a clutch of eggs, so they simply avoid it. Some further exploration uncovers a large, partially flooded chamber with a stone dais in the center and chains hanging from the ceiling. A hand-pulled elevator hangs above, with a chain that can be reached from the dais. Robert recognizes a semi-traditional temple to Zeboim, and Galdar's detect evil seems to confirm its dedication to a dark god. The party recovered keys for these chambers from the bodies of their attackers (except for the couple's room), and they decide to bunk here to recover their strength.
In a chest in the cleric's room (trapped with a fire trap spell from the druid), the group finds a few scrolls and a wand. One of the scrolls details a ritual to direct the coming storm of Zeboim. Allie manages to translate the Solamnic scroll, which appears to have been scribed in a trance and later illuminated. The ritual takes 16 hours to perform and requires the blood of a black dragon and the sacrifice of a "pure-hearted woman between the ages of 19 and 25."
In the night, while Robert is on watch, he hears a hissing and splashing coming from the temple chamber. He wakes the others as quietly as possible, and Allie and Galdar pull on their armor before investigating. In the temple, Allie sees a small black dragon playing in the water, and she recognizes Draconic. The dragon seems to be singing to itself about how hungry it is. Allie talks to the dragon, whose name is Etch in the common tongue. Etch lives down here because she feels important to be part of the ritual to direct the storm, and because the "sea woman" feeds her tasty peasants every few days. Also, the cult has Etch's hoard in sacks hanging above them from the chains.
Galdar realizes that they have one of the components of the ritual sitting right in front of them. He wants to keep the dragon where they can find it. Allie offers Etch a deal. They'll bring the dragon's hoard down to her so she can better appreciate it, and they'll bring her sheep to eat as often as she wants, if she just stays here until they can perform the ritual with her blood. Etch doesn't think sheep will taste as good as people, but the deal sounds pretty good, so she agrees.
The group then ascends on the elevator. Once in the warehouse above, they discover that a path has been blazed through the traps into the building. It would seem that Brightfire and Marco returned and cleared out their room before the party arrived. The party is too tired and battered to note that the warehouse had become the safer path. They simply left to find their respective beds.
