Back to Fritzholm's notes for sessions 1-5
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At breakfast I unveiled the scroll to the party. It was a map of the city which showed distinctly a passage underground which would lead us inside the tower gate. This corresponded with my dream. I informed the party that we would need to make this journey at night. This gives us at least one more day in town to go about our business. Rex and I left after breakfast to return to the curiosity shop.

The young lady who had been there the day before was once again minding the shop. I told her that the gods had filled me with the knowledge neccessary to open the box this fine morning and she went to the back room to fetch it. I set the box on edge on the floor and carefully sized up the situation. In one quick, practiced move I drew Justice Bringer and lopped the end off the box. I shouted a "Huzzah!" for surely Magic-upon-Magic had opened the box easily when no other force on earth would have. Rex pulled a black velet bag from the box and pulled none other than a wand from the bag. It was a discordian mix of wood and bone tipped on one end with silver and the other with gold. Before I could even marvel at it the young lady was presenting it to me. She told me it was a Wand of Wonder. I have heard of such things from my once beloved Alicia. From what I remember Wands of Wonder are the products of enchantments gone wrong. Their creation often either leaves its creator with some sort of madness or a liberating feeling of freedom. These wands have minds of their own (or a little piece of the creator's mind). The spells they spew forth can be truely anything and it is neither advised nor fruitful to attempt to control them. Wave a Wand of Wonder and the most improbable events occur. As she handed me the wand I asked her name. She replied that her name was Rose. I was shocked! Was it fate that I had given her a rose yesterday? I told her "Rose, this might just be one of the greatest moments of my life." She agree that she shared the same feeling, which took me aback slightly. Was she merely being polite, or was she too overwhelmed by such a magical sequence of events? I asked her to join me for dinner. I cannot set off for the tower yet and would enjoy her company. She agreed. I left the shop in search of a fine eatery while Rex went to the scribner in search of ink. I made reservations at Silverton's and bought a ladder on my way back to the Inn.

I met Rose at her shop. She introduced me to her cousin Farrick, who would be working the shop for the evening. He was a small man, who didn't make eye contact when he talked. I doubted he'd end up as much of a merchant. Rose asked if I would mind if she stopped at her house to change. So we went, and I waited outside. When she emerged she wore a lovely dress which was either black or a very dark red. Heads turned as we made our way to Silverton's. She later told me how much she loved the attention. She'd be the subject of more than a few idle conversations for this dinner. After all strangers were rare here, and few more memorable than myself. I hate to say it but that statement made me blush a bit.

Dinner was very edible and the service was a bit too eager. We talked about a bredth of topics, but kept working our way back to magic. I told her what I knew, but never claimed to be an expert. The real magic always seems to lie in the hands of strangers that I meet only in passing. These mysterous types like the alchemist, The Traveler, and Ogden the minstral are always elusive and speak in riddles. I suggested to Rose that it takes a certain kind of mind to weave spells in a truely fluid fashion and that this type of mind had troubles with some of the more typical aspect of life. To that she replied
"The soul of a great mage must watch the mind but not interfere."
I'm not sure I know what she meant by that. She also said something profound about my quest, but that was later in the night and I don't remember it clearly, probably thanks to the quantity of wine I'd absorbed by then.

Thorsday, Avril 19th

Today Rex put the final touches on our party's recovery. Pip and I are finally at full strength. I asked that we meet back here at the inn at dark and the party once again split up. I browsed some of the shops, watched the guards at shift change, and stopped in to visit and bring lunch to Rose. She was in good spirits dispite suffering from overdrinking the night before. I can't remember her having more than a few drinks, but I suppose some are more used to it than others.

In the afternoon I patronized a local pub. I told a few stories about my travels and arm wrestled the men who thought maybe they had a chance to win. The time sped by and soon we were ready to assualt to tower.

Following the scroll the alchemist gave us, we made our way to the corner of town. Evidently there was a secret passage from there which would lead us safely inside the tower's death field. I can't figure out why such a underground passage would exist, but we owed it to the nameless alchemist to go check it out. I was as heavily loaded down with equipment as I have been all year. I don't mind. I have always found that it is essential to be well equipt when you don't know what to expect. As for the rest of the party they tend to be sadly unequipt to handle even mundane situations. The soul exception being Jonas who we had to leave back at the Inn.

We came upon a shack and roused the occupant. He was wary of us at first, unsure of our intentions. I soothed his apprensions by purchasing his shack for 5 gold and started to work tearing up the floor. Sure enough it was some sort of passage. Thankfully the passage was full height. I lowered my ladder and we climb into the tunnel, bringing the ladder with us. After a ways we encounted a section of the tunnel which was framed with unnatural beams of light. Dymn examine the beams with my mirror (see? Well equipt) and found that it would not reflect the light. We tested the doorway in many fashions. Rex tried to dig around it, but his spell failed. Ivy shot and arrow harmlessly down the hall. Eventually, Dvym dispelled the magic and the light winked out. Further down the hall we encountered another such frame of magical light. We fretted for a long time before Ivy jumped through the frame, careful not to break the light. She was unharmed, so the rest of us followed. We encountered many more of these frames, none of them giving us any trouble, before finally arriving in a small room.

There was a round hatch in the ceiling of the room. Pip and Dvym steadied the ladder as I tried to open the trap door. Alas it was held shut. I whacked at it with a hatchet and poked at it with Justice Bringer to know effect. Just then a voice spoke to us. It asked for the password, which it concluded we did not know. The voice then proceeded to go on about another choice of ours. He blathered on about some so called "Doors of Chance" behind which lay either fantastic gains or terrible fate. He offered us the "Doors of Choice" which were most likely the same door. Then as the voice seemed about to break into another monologue about gambling on doors he faultered and just let us through the trap door. We climbed up and hauled up the ladder.

We stood face to face with the man behind the voice, the all-powerful, but a bit mad Tower Master(tm). When I hunched down stealthy and spoke to him in hushed tones he cast some sort of spell which would obscure us all from other viewers. I talked with him, pressing him for some straight answers. As with nearly everyone else we have met he was elusive and prone to speaking in riddles. Was this the Traveler I had met outside of Jarad? It could well have been, but his act was just different enough to make me doubt it. The Tower Master(tm) soon grew weary of our qestions and he poofed away with the toss of a single bead. It was at this moment I hatched a plan for our next encounter. I've seen how useful a magic bead can be.

Back to the dream in had two nights earlier. Orienting myself to the exact location I stood in the dream, I gazed upon the tower. Sure enough, there, 10 feet off the ground was a door than only I could see. I planted the ladder one last time, climbed up, and opened the door.

The tower was very spacious and held little. Some sort of magical light filled the place - strong enough to read by but not noticeably bright. The first floor, which lay 10 feet below the doorway I was in, was completely empty save for a well-like hole in the center of the floor. A spiral staircase began a good distance upon me and to my left. The construction of the stairway was incomplete. It did not reach down to the floor, instead some sort of support rods jutted out where stairs should have been. These rods wound their way around to where I was standing, so I climbed hand-over-hand along them to reach the lowest stair and trailed a rope behind me to allow the other party members to cross in a safer fashion. Dvym chose to used to rope, but Ivy took to stepping from rod to rod. Ivy has always proven herself to be the most nimble and agile among us, so it came as a great shock to me when she lost her balance and fell to the floor below. The event must have also caught Dvym by surprise since he was as unable to act in time to stop Ivy from falling. Undetered, the resilient little elf brushed herself off and went to examine the hole in the floor. Rex crossed the rope and joined us on the stairs.

The way Ivy examined the hole in the floor lead me to think she had found something curious. Since Pip was showing no interest in leaving the entranceway I tossed about 100 feet of rope slack to Ivy. She quickly climbed to end of the slack and Dvym and I lowered her further down the chute. Eventually we came to the end of the rope. Dvym climbed down to the edge of the hole and I let out my end of the rope to him. This freed up just enough extra length to allow Ivy to reach the end of the chute. She reported later that she had come to a door labelled with Krill's LK symbol and chose not to try openning it. As Dvym was reeling Ivy back in, Rex went up the stair to explore the second level. My curiousity was too great - I had to join him in exploring the tower.

The next level was as spacious as the ground floor and had only slightly more in the way of detail. Before me was a waist high pedestal with a half sphere of crystal or glass with a several foot long pin running through the dome, some kind of a finger ring, and into the pedestal. It reminded me of the Sword in the Stone myth in which Artorious Riothamus drew the sword Excalibur from the stone when much stronger men had failed. For this they made him king. I figured the mysterious Tower Master(tm) fancied the poetic fate of popular myths such as this one. Was it not one of his ilk who had crafted the very box that fate had guided only my sword to split? This was probably not a puzzle to be solved with wit or brawn. The key most likely lay in the hand of the puppeteer that had been yanking our strings this last week. Since this puzzle held no interest to me I suggest that Rex check it out and proceeded to climb the stairs to the next level.

It came as no surprise to me that the 3rd floor would also be one large room. However, this level had very detailed runes and circle carved in the floor. Against the wall on the far side was a large half-length mirror with a finely crafted wooden frame. The mirror looked to be silver with gold inlay. It was probably worth a fortune. Something struck as not quite right about the reflection of the mirror, so I did not gaze at it. There could have been some type of hypnotic spell cast on it, or worse it could be a mirror like the one that was rumored to have trapped the great explorer Windamiir within it. Between mystical runes on the floor and a potentially magical mirror I saw fit to explore more before tackling the danger of this level. I continued upwards.

The next floor was covered in rags and scraps of expensive looking fabric. I heard a noise and caught a bit of motion out of the corner of my eye. I took my bow from the outside of my pack and strained for a moment to string it. The motion continued and I couldn't tell if it was approaching or not. I opened my quiver and withdrew an arrow. "Who goes there?" I called out. My voice returned to me as a strange echo as if the room was bending sound. I immediately suspected there was an invisible person or creature in the room with me. "Show yourself." Again the sound of my voice was twisted slightly. The sound hugged the wall and a noise came back to me from further along the wall to the right than it has last time. I aimed at the noise and saw a shuffling in the rags far to that side of the room. I set the bow down and poked around in the rags with my longsword to test the depth of the scraps of fabric. I could not locate a floor, so I reached in and dug through the rags with my hand. Soon I felt the floor about 3 feet down. Curiously, it was deeper than the floor was thick was should be impossible. I reminded myself that spaces acted strangely inside this tower as I gathered up my bow and went to check the next level.

The spiral staircase ended on the 6th floor at a locked door. I decided to return to the party with my findings.

I wandered down to the floor with the mirror puzzle. There I found Ivy examining a scroll case that hung below the mirror, which I hadn't noticed before. I told her that I had found some sort of creature a few floors up and asked her to come check it out. I hatched a plan to roust out the elusive thing. While Ivy readied her bow I lit a torch. That's when I dawned on me the Rex wasn't about. I asked Ivy if Rex had passed her, but he hadn't. Curious. We climbed the stairs to the level of rags. Few natural animals indeed are not scared of fire. I figured we could easily flush out such an animal by lighting the rags at which point I could calm the animal with the magical ring I was given by the Duchess' Viseer. Possibly, Ivy's magical instrument would be of help too. The fire would work a double or even triple purpose. Not only would it force out the occupant of this level, but the smoke might let my see the creature if it was some sort of magical creation. The smoke would and heat would also build up, forcing whoever or whatever had locked itself in the next level to come to us. Ivy thought my plan was of dubious merit, but I think that's only because I failled to detail it to her fully.

Just when I was about to touch the torch to the rags a man appeared out of thin air. Reflexively, I drew the longsword left handed and prepared to swap it for the torch. "Don't Move." I ordered him. He made no offensive action and simply told me that it would not be a good idea to burn the rags. This man did not appear to be the Tower Master(tm) since he was taller and much younger, but these things too can be deceiving. To belay his fears and to free up my hands I tossed the torch down the stairs. I pressed him with a barrage of hard questions. He was at once elusive and slightly helpful. He had the secretive and witholding style of the mysterious ones that have plagued us with riddles and half answers all along, but his nature was different. As I let up a bit on my questioning Ivy was able to get a few of her own questions in edgewise.

We soon realized that this young man, whose name was Clythe (at first I thought he had said Clyde), was none other than the fabled child who was so pure that he crossed the field of death surrounding the tower with no ill effects. I was impressed. Still he had spent 6 years studying under the Tower Master(tm) and had picked up his annoying habits. Curse these mages and their doubletalk! Poetic Justice would be served if I turned my Wand of Wonder on the next riddle spewing withholder of vital information we encounter and let the cards fall where they may. Only after relentless verbal pressing were we able to learn that the rags were inhabited by a hydra. A hydra... The Tower Master(tm) is clearly only the brink of sanity, if not well off the edge, for keeping such a mindless and dangerous creature of myth here. His secrets aside I found myself liking Clythe. He was a very admirable and genuine person.

At this time we heard a racket below. Inspired by some unknown spirit Dvym and Pip began playing an poorly planned song with a gong and whistle. It made me chuckle and Ivy cringe. It was terrible, but almost nothing could amuse me more than the overly self-controlled Dvym breaking out into such a spontaniously awful assault on music. We went down to the first floor, introduced everyone, and Clythe led us to the top floor of the tower. This level was evidently his living quarters. He went into another room (yes this floor actually made good use of space) and fetched Rex, who had unwittingly set off some trap on the mirror.

Rex was drunk. He had been downing his bottle of fine wine and had the spirit about half conquered. He offered me some and I took part. It was quite good. What's more Clythe produced a scroll which, once read, created a huge feast for our consumption. How wonderful! I dug into the fine food and drink with a fervor. Dvym offered me some Faye wine which he touted as the most potent of the elvish wines. I tried some and it was fantastic. I felt its effects almost immediately. I finished the glass, which seemed to surprise Dvym a little. He maintained a condescending attitude about my drinking, but I think he was impressed. My head swam delightfully. I knew to eat something starch filled so as not to get too drunk, so I began to indulge in a loaf of 9 grain bread. It was at this point that Ivy began questioning me about my dinner with Rose. I answered her first few questions as a matter of conversation, but it began to dawn on me that she was getting at something. I tried to clear my head so I could cut through to her point. She was insinuating that I had slept with Rose (which I hadn't), and insisted that my heart was easily won in a single day by any common, but beautiful human female. I tried to belay her fears. After all I was not in love with Rose. She was charming, lovely, and very pleasant company. Still, I had only known Rose for a few days, which is not nearly enough time for a relationship to bloom. Despite that, Ivy was miffed at something. She hid under the table and sulked. This struck me as very funny. I laughed aloud and tried to get her to come out from under the table by tickling her, but she wouldn't budge. It was fun anyhow. The drinks had improved my mood, so Ivy's insinuations did not bother me. I went back to enjoying the feast before us.

Our dinner lasted one hour before the food and drink magically disappeared. I was feeling relaxed and high on drink. This would have been a wonderful time to stretch out and nap on the nice long couch they had here in this room. I started removing my armor , but before I got one quarter of it off Ivy had convinced the party to return to examining the puzzle rooms. Much as I wanted to rest, I instead splashed water on my face to clear my mind and put my armor back on to accompany them downstairs.

We went down to the mirror room. I watched as Ivy carefully removed the scroll for the scrollcase which hung from the mirror. She did this without allowing the case, which hovered less than an inch from the floor, to touch the floor. She read the scroll to us. It discussed our odds at the doors of chance. Something about 2/3 for one door and 1/3 for another. My memory wasn't at its sharpest. I did note to myself to be sure to re-read that scroll carefully before entering the doors. I let my mind wander for a bit. What was beyond those doors? I was so sure that after the propper planing I and the other party members would receive some fine gifts. Would I become a more skilled swordsman? Would I gain another wonderful magic item? Would I finally learn to cast spells? I longed for that power and thought back to my studies with Alicia. The memories were so sweet and yet so sour. I had come so close - falling in love both with Alicia and magic itself, but duty called from all sides. I was so needed in that time of crisis that I set aside happiness to serve the land and when I was done it was all gone. Sober, I could have just put the thoughts out of my mind, but in my current state emotion welled up inside me. Just as I felt a single tear forming, Dvym snapped me out of it by asking for a hammer.

I always use the back end of my hatched to pound in tent spikes and for cracking open hard objects. I asked him if this would serve his purpose. He thought so, and borrowed the hatchet to smash the mirror. His first blow cracked the mirror flawlessly from the upper right corner to the lower left corner. I'd never seen a mirror crack in that unusual manner. His second blow cracked in along the other diagonal, but the third and every blow thereafter had no effect. I stepped up and used my utility knife to help him work the perfect mirror quarters out of the mirror frame. There was a small box shaped alcove in the wall behind the mirror. Dvym reached in and withdrew another scrollcase. Clythe cast a spell on the case and openned it. The scroll read that we would receive one free pass through the doors of chance. I marvelled at such a guarantee.

Next we went to solve the puzzle of the pole room. Upon close inspection we found that the pole spun downward and a strange fluid motion. Every so often the colors of the pole and the floor would invert and the poll would spin the opposite direction and become very hot. I wasn't sure what to make of it. The next time the pole turned black Ivy grabbed it and was whooshed off to the ceiling. I blinked. Had I seen a trap door open up and let her into a small room? The others had merely seen her disappear. I told them what I had seen, but they discounted it, thinking me to still be somewhat drunk, and come to think of it I was. We waited for about a minute after which Ivy came falling from the ceiling I tried to catch her, but I wasn't quick enough. Luckily, she has learned to land well.

Here I found myself in another small room. This one was featureless accept for a scroll case on the floor. I reached down to take the case, but some kind of blast seared through my guantlet. I yanked my hand back and threw off the guantlet which was still growing hotter. Luckily for me I keep my water supply in an easily accessible pocket of my pack. I opened open my waterskin and plunged my hand in. The burning stopped.

Shortly thereafter, Dvym fell into the room. I told him what had happened and he suggested this was all just an illusion. Knowing the Tower Master's(tm) tricks it seemed plausable. After all, we were standing in one of two rooms hidden from us by illusion. I drew my hand from the water and doubted heavily what had occured to injure it. All at once my hand was fine. I put my glove on just as Clythe joined us in the now cramped room. He told us there should be an exit in the ceiling, but an exhaustive search turned up no such exit. Clythe was baffled. He had seen the exit in his spying portal. We suggested he try to learn his dispel magic spell, but he said he'd need to sleep first. Clythe curled up in the corner and was soon asleep. I wanted to sleep too, but I was wide awake now. I fiddled with the scroll case until I finally realized that the section of floor it was connected to was not completely attached to the rest of the floor. I hoisted it up by the scroll case and peered through. The rest of the party was outside the floor, but they were all upside down. It took me just a moment to realize it was really us who were upside down. This must've been the exit Clythe was talking about. Ivy took the scroll from the case and we all hopped out of the upside-down room. This scroll read off an incomplete list of possible results from the doors of chance, and there was some sort of language at the bottom I could not read. I had hoped it would be another free pass, but it was starting to look like we would not find another such pass.

By this time I was exhausted so I went upstairs, removed my armor and went to sleep, but I didn't sleep for much more than maybe an hour or two. It was a much needed nap. When I awoke the others were getting ready to call it a night. Clythe told me that Dvym had accused Ivy of hiding a clue from us. For some reason I was also suspicious of her, so I hatched a plan to feign sleep. Ivy slept on the couch near me, so I felt that I could easily sense her movement if I were to 'sleep with one eye open'. She didn't immediately sneak off as I thought she might, but I noticed something none the less. The Tower Master(tm) himself snuck through the room. He must've thought we were all asleep because he did not have his cloak up. I took a good long look to memorize the true face of the mysterious Tower Master(tm). Less than half an hour later he returned. this time he was not carrying his staff. Odd. Had he left it for us someplace? I think I must've drifted off lightly after that, but I was still able to awaken when Ivy stirred. She snuck off stealthily downstairs. I saw Dvym was also awake and ready to follow her, by virtue of my skill at silent movement I saw fit to wave him off and went to spy on Ivy myself.

Ivy had gone down to the mirror level and was studying a spell. I hid unnoticed for what seem like an hour before she drew a scroll case from her shash and cast a spell on it. She openned the case and a beam of light shot forth accompanied by a scream. I lept to my feet. At first I thought it had been Ivy who had screamed, but the pitch was wrong. As Ivy shook the case the scroll fell out into the beam of light. I figured the beam was dangerous and didn't want Ivy to come to harm while I hid, so a came downstairs and used one of the mirror shards to redirect the light. That did the trick. the scroll fell to the ground and the beam flickered and went out. Ivy picked up the scroll and I read over her shoulder, but it was just more unreadable writing. By now the rest of the party was arriving and asking questions. I just went upstairs and climbed back onto the couch to get some real sleep.

While I put on my armor Rex and Pip filled me in on recent events. Ivy and Clythe had attempted to solve the first puzzle. Evidently only Clythe could lift the pin, but dispite this they had both been zapped by some kind of magical safeguard they hadn't disarmed. Ivy was in bad shape and Clythe had exhausted his essense or some such. I checked on them both and they seemed to be in no danger now. Dvym was gone. He had stepped through a magical portal. This left the three of us, who in my opinion, would be a match for a hydra if worse came to worse. Thus Rex and I departed for the floor below. Pip lagged behind. I am not sure what has gotten into her lately. She seems depressed and lethargic. I'll have to explain to her soon that she has the potential to do so much more than just body-guard.

We didn't really know where to start, so I suggested to Rex that we remove all the rags. It seemed as good a course of action as any. For a few hours we shovelled cloth onto the stairway and kicked it down to the next level. Once we got a big enough pile it might be fun to go bounding down the stairs and dive into the pile. I found that the movements in the rags stopped once a stepped down onto the floor propper. I also noticed that the movents seemed to stay as far from us as possible. It looked like the hydra, if that's what was actually down there, followed a strict set of rules. This would follow from my knowledge of hydras. In myths they have been mostly mindless. This one seemed to be operating under some kind of contract (no doubt a magical contract with the Tower Master(tm)). Such contracts are usually reserved for demons. Had the Tower Master(tm) bound a demon to the hydra? If so, we dare not destroy the hydra for fear of releasing the demon. Maybe this is why Clythe suggested that I shouldn't burn the rags.

I eventually found that there was a wide shelf at least 12 feet wide that appeared to encircle the room. Beyond this shelf the rags dropped off to a much greater depth. The hydra seemed to be staying to the interior. I decided it was time for a bold move. I waded thorugh the rags around to the other side of the room. There I found a small indention. I touched it, but nothing happened, so I drew out my ice pick. No, that wasn't the right tool for this job. I put the pick back at my belt and got the hatchet out of my pack. I used the haft of the hatchet to take a whack at the indentation. It produced immediate results. A pillar shot up from the center of the room with none other than a very impressive hydra standing on it.

The hydra aimed one of its heads at me, one at the party (which by now consisted of Rex, Pip, and Dvym who had just returned) and one head off to the side. I stood in place and whacked away at the button a few more times in hopes of dispensing of the hydra. Instead a chute openned up and a scroll case shot out. I took the case, but noticed I could not remove it completely without pulling it free of some kind of trigger. I called for the group to fetch Clythe, but they just sat there, so I shouted at them again. Still nothing. I focussed on Pip. I told her to go get Clythe, but she stubbornly refused time and time again. What's was wrong with these people?!? I thought maybe a few well placed arrows might put a little sense into them, but the hydra took offense when I drew my bow, so I put it away. I vowwed to have a stern talk with them post-haste upon escaping this situation. Rex finally caved in and went to fetch Clythe. Dvym took this opprotunity the lecture me on getting myself into trouble. The lecture fell on deaf ears. Had I not been awoken from a sound sleep for the express reason that no one else would DO anything? I tried all the soothing techniques I knew for putting the hydra at ease, but none seemed to have even the slightest effect, which didn't surprise me much. Eventually the head that faced away from both me and the group breathed a blast of fire into the side wall. Ivy came down to see what that noise had been. I started examining my options.

I could try to run past the hydra. That wasn't my first choice, since the hydra would most likely get at least three shots at me. I could try to sneak out by crawling through the rags. I noticed that the hydra had been careful not to get its blast too close to the rags, so maybe I'd be safe untill I got to the edge of the rags. This method might or might not save me some trouble. My best option seemed to be trying the Tower Master's(tm) magic bead. First I'd have to find some way to get the scroll. Clythe arrived on the scene and proceeded to explain how careless I'd been. "Have you got any useful information to share?" I asked. Of course he didn't volunteer any, so I began questionning him on anything I could think of - feeding habits, hydra vulnerabilities, secret passwords, etc. Sadly, he was no help. At least he had switched to a genuine attempt to be helpful. He adjourned upstair to study spells.

I began testing how much slack the hydra would give me. I could go about 5 steps to my right before the hydra's third head would shift to block my path. I decided to work in getting the scroll now. I tried punching a hole in the end of the case with my utility knife. When that failed I tried a silver dagger and finally my new found magical longsword, which did the trick. I removed my right guantlet, licked my smallest finger and caught to tip of the scroll with it. After much effort I was able to pull a corner through the hole. I twisted it again and again, eventually winding the scroll around a thin quill. This accomplished I was able to pull the scroll through the hole without openning the case. I examined it. The scroll was unreadable. I informed the party of this and tried to think of a way to transport it to them. My first thought was to fire it across the room on an arrow, but that option would cause the hydra to attack. As I pondered further, the third head fired off another blast. I figured I was running out of time. I tried to dig a hole in the rags so I could toss down the bead and escape, but my digging attracted the attention of the third head. I had to distract the hydra somehow. I tried to yell to the party but strangely everything went quiet. I dove into the rags.

How much time passed in silence, I do not know. I tried to keep time with my tapping, but grew impatient after several minutes. I hatched a plan to distract the heads. I stood and held the light coin in front of me. The hydra took no notice of this, so I pulled out my distance lenses and formed a beam of light. I shined this in the eyes of one head. This bothered it somewhat. Now if I could keep its attention on the beam, maybe I could escape. I set up a very elaborate combination on mirrors, but I could still only distract one head. The other kept tabs on my every move. Suddenly sound returned. From what I could tell Dvym had tried something and was trying to hatch a plan involving my equiptment. I tried once more to clear away some rags with my leg, but I couldn't do it in a subtle manner, so I gave up on that idea again. Maybe I could distract the second head with a harmless fire trap. While keeping the third head busy, periodically, with my light beam, I set out a length of brandy doused cord to my pint of brandy. It wouldn't burn hot, and probably wouldn't ignite the rags, but it might distract the hydra. Before I tried this desperate trick I tried stubbornly one last time to clear away some rags. Amazingly, I saw a bit of floor and tossed down the bead. *POOF*