The lord of Sandhaven thanked us for getting rid of the Sea Folk, and had his priest heal our wounds. We got a boat with a five-man crew, called Fish Containa, and sailed towards the Slavers' Island. Erose swam around in the water a lot, with her Manta-Ray getup. When we got to the area of the island, Elspeth told us that she'd been near here before. Next to the Slavers' Island was a large island, which she said was Sparta.
We spied out the Slavers' Island, noting that it had a volcano, and a small walled town. Sparta was only about one and a half miles away. We decided to land on Sparta, and get information about the Slavers' island.
We found a nice tavern and settled in to gather rumors and intelligence. Keef, Erose, and I tried out the local liquor called "ouzo." We got completely blotto on the stuff. While we were at that, the others learned about the Slavers. They trade with the Spartans, mostly by means of a tunnel under the sea which connects the two islands. Billy Ray had an idea to sneak over on a wagon delivering booze to the other island-- the next delivery was on Friday, two days hence. Keef had an idea to get himself captured by the slavers. This was unanimously declared a Bad Idea. Keef kept insisting that he was going to try it, until Vrba cast a sleep spell on him to keep him from doing something stupid. I came up with an idea to set cheese on fire by dousing it in ouzo and setting a match to it. We did that, and then Erose came up with an idea to put the fire out by pouring more alcohol on it. It actually was quite tastey.
The next day, while we were sleeping off the effects of the ouzo, Billy Ray and Hal went to explore the tunnel between the islands. They walked all the way across, and met some guards at the other end. The guards spoke Steinhallish, and BRB chatted with them. They were, in fact, from Steinhall. The slavers' town was called Zundhaven-- apparently they have a large Steinhall contingent. The guards asked BRB and Hal if they were looking for work. They said yes, and the guards directed them to several employers in Zundhaven.
They went into the town, and found it to be quite busy. They learned that the Slavers' Guild had a big stronghold in Zundhaven, where "the best slaves" were kept. The less good slaves were held in a keep outside the city. In the center of the town was a huge colloseum-- the slave market.
They returned from Zundhaven and, once the rest of us woke up, told us what they'd discovered. We decided to jettison the booze-wagon plan, and just walk over there and say we were looking for work, since BRB and Hal had such an easy time getting in. Then, we'd turn invisible and sneak into the "Citadel of the Slavelords," where we presumed Draco was being held.
We had no problem getting into Zundhaven. We got rooms in an inn called "Pub-n-Drub" which was near the Slavers' citadel. Once in our rooms, we turned invisible, courtesy of Sanjay and Vrba. We snuck out, and waited near the gateway of the citadel, in the hope that they'd open it to change the guards at some point. They didn't. After waiting a long, long, time, we just decided to go over the wall. I flew, and the others climbed over unbeknownst to the rest of us, Keef ate some of the spider-shroom. Inside, there was a tower in a central courtyard, and a series of stairs leading down. Some guards were seen coming out of the stairs, so we decided to go down there.
We found ourselves in a large room lit with torches. Nine thrones faced the stairs, five of which were occupied. The occupants were all human men, one of whom was the infamous Dread Pirate Roberts. He was dressed rather stylishly for a brutish pirate. The others were: some sort of mage, a guy dressed all in black, an Evil Monk of the Scarlet Brotherhood, and a human in the armor of a priest of Lloth. The men appeared to be laughing, but there was no sound. The DPR gestured, and the door at the top of the stairway slammed shut. The mage did something which was obviously casting a "dispell magic" spell, since the silence was lifted and we all became visible. This is when we noticed that we'd lost Keef. Roberts said, "We've been watching you people for some time; you've interfered in too many of our plans. Now, you die!"
Right, so it was a trap. I pointed out to my comrades that we shouldn't think of this as a trap, but as an opportunity. "That's right," BRB said, "They're trapped in here with us!"
The fight started. The guy in black drank a potion and disappeared. I noticed that the ring of thrones was about 30 feet in radius, so I stepped forward and of "Butt Hill." Violet flames engulfed the four visible slavelords. Somebody hit Erose with two daggers. She pulled one out of herself and threw it back at Roberts. BRB used the Horn of Valhalla to summon some extra fighters, half of whom were immediately killed by the fireball the mage cast on us before he succumbed to somebody's attack. Vrba yelled, "My Kung Fu is better than yours!" and fried the monk with a lightning bolt. The priest shouted out, "Save me, Lloth!" and disappeared. BRB cast "dispell magic" to bring the assassin into view, but before I saw him, he stabbed me in the back. I passed out.
Hal attacked the assassin, and hurt him enough that he had to escape by means of some magic ring. Erose battled Roberts. They fought until they were both near death, but Erose got in a killing blow before he could. BRB healed me back from the brink of death.
When the battle was done, we looted the bodies of the remaining slavelords, finding: 1) some magic-looking chainmail, 2) a magic-looking cutlass, 3) a magic-looking shield, 4) a magic-looking dagger, 5) a magic-looking cloak, 6) a magic-looking ring, 7) a magic-looking cloak, 8) a spellbook, and 9) a weird metallic ball thingy, which looked like a kind of puzzle-box. I surmised that the ball might be the Draco ball. We piled everything onto the cloak, and escaped by using Vrba's "dimension door" spell to get back to our inn.
While I was passed out from blood loss, I had a dream that I was a giant spider climbing up a tower, looking for bugs to eat. I climbed through a window, and saw two tastey-looking bugs. I webbed one of them up for dinner later. The other one talked to me, and I seemed to remember that there were two kinds of eating, so I gave that bug something to eat, and it turned into a spider, too. We ran around the room making webs. Then I woke up, and was back in the room with the battle.
Later, I learned what Keef had been up to. He'd eaten the spider-shroom, and decided to climb the central tower of the citadel, to look for tastey bugs. He found Lucy and the Baron of Lubeck, but thought they were bugs, so he imagined he was webbing them up. Lucy recognised Keef and demanded he give her some of whatever it was he was on. He did, and they both thought they were spiders for about four hours.
When they came to their senses, Keef said that he was there to rescue them. The baron finally recognised Keef, and said, "Hey, you're that guy! Why were you touching me?"
"I was a spider, and I thought you were good to eat."
"Well, I've been telling all the spider-people--the Sea Folk with the spider armor-- that I'm not good to eat."
"Where's the door?"
There was a loud rumbling, and the tower shook--it was an earthquake. Looking north, they saw that the volcano was starting to erupt. Keef broke down the door, and they ran down the stairs. They weren't held up by guards, because all the guards were fleeing in terror. Keef asked Lucy, "Hey, where's Draco?"
"Oh, you mean, 'dad'? I saw him on the boat, but not since."
They got out of the citadel, and met us at the Pub-n-Drub, as we were running out the door. "Hey, I've got Lucy and the Baron, but Draco wasn't there," Keef called out. "I think we've got him," I replied, "but we better get out of here fast!"