The volcano was erupting. People were panicking in the streets. We ran towards the sea. We didn't know how we'd get away, but we were going to do our best. When we got to the port, we spotted the Fish Containa sailing towards the island. It was Elspeth and Draco's men coming to rescue us!
Before we could sail back towards Steinhall, Draco's men insisted we determine if the ball actually was Draco. So, Sanjay used his crystal ball to scry for Draco. When he had him, I shook the ball. Sure enough, the image of Draco in the ball bounced up and down. So, the mages set to freeing him. They poked and prodded the Draco-ball; finally they made an incantation. It sounded like, "Draco-chu, I choose you!" Then, Bam! Draco was there, standing in the bright sunshine. He thanked us for saving him and Lucy. (Lucy, by the way, was in the stern of the boat, getting stoned with Keef.)
Draco insisted that he had to get back to his land as quickly as possible. We assured him that we had no intention of doing further sight-seeing.
Lisbon and Erose flirted outrageously the entire trip. I often noticed Draco looking a little jealous, but he seemed rather standoffish. Since Erose has obviously needed to get laid for as long as I've known her, I encouraged her to go for it with Lisbon. Clearly, she agreed with me, because as soon as we got off the boat in Bremen, they "casually" went off to the inn.
(Sex, hicky, Lisbon has Eye of Odin medallion...)
Sanjay tried to spy on them with the crystal ball, and even offered to let people watch for a fee. However, when he tried to tune in, he couldn't get the ball to work.
Lisbon spent the next day assiduously kissing Draco's ass.
We set off towards Steinhall City. On the road, Vrba found himself a familiar-- a raven he named Montresor. We learned that Draco wanted to get back to Unterberg in order to help out some "friends" of his. They were a mercenary group known as "The Thousand who would not Die." Many of them were enlisted in Draco's Black Guard, Lisbon included.
When we arrived in Steinhall City, there was a big fanfare. King Heinrich the 14th, an old man, gave a long, dull speech. He concluded by calling on Draco to honor his duty to the kingdom by sending troops to battle the Sea Folk, who were attaking the kingdom from the south. Draco objected, claiming that the kingdom's "duty to Odin" meant that they should go fight the Drow attacking from the north. The king insisted that the Sea Folk were a greater threat, and that Draco must honor the oaths he made when he became baron. Erose, sitting next to Lisbon, heard him mutter, "Our one chance to get into Valhalla and that old coot's going to blow it." Erose asked Lisbon, "Exactly when were you born." After hmming and hawing for a few minutes, he eventually answered, "about 250 years before the founding of Steinhall." (That makes him around 500 y old.)
Erose spent time trying to get Lisbon's story out of him. Here's what he told her: about 700 years ago, the western elves and humans defeated the Drow, driving them east. A remnant of the Drow forces took over the area which would eventually become Steinhall, enslaving the human populace. After hundreds of years, Odin and the other Norse gods came to the aid of the humans, by blessing 1000 warriors and sending them to kick the Drow out. The demon queen "cursed" the warriors to eternal life, meaning that their souls would not be able to go to Valhalla. Lisbon and the rest of these "thousand who would not die" are those same heroes. He also told her that the curse was transmittable, and that he "accidentally" passed it on to Draco, and it made him evil. Draco, is of course, the old Draco; he's about 190 years old.
(He's a vampire! Get the garlic and holy water!)
Bit of conversation overheard between Lisbon and Erose:
Erose: "Do you just bite, or do you have to suck, too?"
Lisbon: (murmered reply)
Erose: "So you just gnawed on Draco for a few hundred years?"
Lisbon: "It was an accident!"
During the party, we played some music. The women were all over us. The king's granddaughter, Princess Brunhilde, turned out to be quite a Rolling Stones fan...
Next day, Draco got our lot together and tried to convince us all to join him in rebelling against the king, and creating his own kingdom. I refused to have anything to do with it, and the others seemed reluctant, too. So, he proposed something else. It seems that the mages have come up with a way to break the curse on the Thousand, but they need the Holy Amp to do it. The Holy Amp is in Alfheim, at the Rock. And, here is the little tidbit which they waited so long to inform me of-- Alfheim has been invaded by the Drow, and they have surrounded Imryrr itself!
They wanted to send us to Alfheim to fetch the Amp. Since this would bring us there, I agreed to go with. Maybe we could use the Amp to defeat the Drow in Alfheim. A few of Draco's dudes went with us.
The mages had built a huge ring which would supposedly transport us to Alfheim. We went through, and found ourselves in the Royal Palace. We were met by one of the foremost Elven mages, Lord Percival. We found out that the Drow had had such success because they had a god (not Lloth) helping them out. After Lord Percy described the god, Erose, Hal, BRB, and Sanjay suggested that it was probably Tezcatlipoca, the Mexican god who had posessed a friend of theirs shortly before I met them.