At 6 AM, Yol (and Khumarr), Tebryn, and Igor are on watch.

They all hear somebody grunt in Common, "Hmm, smells funny down there. Go check it out!" Hazen hears it in his sleep and wakes up.

Hazen 25 Igor 25 Brianna 23 Khumarr 22 Veracity 16 Tebryn 16 Kress 15 Yol 9

Hazen stands up, stepping on Kress.
Igor activates his ring of invisibility
Brianna sleeps
Khumarr delays
Tebryn kicks Kress
Kress stands
Ogre 1 walks down the stairs and calls out "Trouble!"
Fire Giant 1 walks past the Ogre. Igor lets him past.
Hezrou delays
Fire Giant 2 delays
Yol mentally orders Khumarr to attack the Fire Giant.
Khumarr touches the Giant with his chilling touch, giving it two negative levels.
Ogre 3 delays
Ogre 4 delays

Hazen draws his weapon and sneak attacks Fire Giant 1 for 36 points.
Igor draws his weapon and strikes Fire Giant 1 for 72 points. Hazen takes the opportunity to hit it for 36 points, felling it.
Brianna hears the sounds of battle and wakes up. She sits up and starts to hastily don her armor.
Tebryn casts baleful polymorphagainst the ogre on the stairs. It turns into a worm.
Kress steps over and knocks on the bedroom door of the two damsels.
The Hezrou comes down the stairs. Igor takes the opportunity to hit it for 66 points. It falls over dead from Igor's mighty blow.
Fire Giant 2 steps in and strikes at Tebryn, handily hitting him for 27 points.
Yol orders Khumarr to attack the Fire Giant.
Khumarr touches Fire Giant 2 and bestows 2 negative levels on it.
Ogre 3 squeezes down the stairs and attacks Igor, missing horribly.

Hazen strikes the Fire Giant for 42, 41 and 41 points.
Igor strikes the Fire Giant for 30. It falls. Igor cleaves through to hit the Ogre 29 points. It falls.
Brianna continues to get dressed.
Veracity continues to get dressed.
Tebryn delays
Kress delays
Yol commands Khumarr to move over to the stairs and attack any Ogre coming down the stairs. Khumarr takes the opportunity to touch it, bestowing two negative levels.
The Ogre is shocked at this and bobbles his attack.

Hazen hits the Ogre for 9 points. Igor takes the opportunity to hit it for 29 points. It falls.

"What do we do with this worm?" asks Hazen.

"Step on it?" suggests Tebryn. "It'll turn back into an Ogre when it dies."

"Or, how about this? Toss it in the mouth of some other foe. When it dies, it will burst the stomach. Yeah!" says Hazen. He carefully sticks the worm into a pouch and ties it shut.

Yol casts cure moderate on Tebryn for 14 points and 19 points.

Soon, the bedroom door opens and the hastily dressed Brianna and Veracity appear.

"Oh, yuck!" says Brianna, looking at the pile of large corpses.

"Breakfast is served," says Igor. "Let's eat and head out."

"I guess we need a new home base," says Kress.

Brianna rubs her eyes. "I had a strange dream last night."

"Me too," says Igor. "I dreamed I was a victor, but, somehow, I was unfulfilled. I yearned to climb those stairs to achieve my goal." He points at the basement stairs.

Brianna stare at him. "My dream was the same, except I was dreaming about the stairs to the plateau!"

Veracity says "Me too! The stairs up to the temple on the plateau!"

Tebryn nods. "I, also had the same dream. Same stairs."

"I, too, dreamed that," said Yol. "But I think I dreamed of the stairs up from the observation room."

"I dreamed of stairs,too," said Kress. "It was either the stairs with the Balor or the big grand stairs winding up around the castle."

"I dreamed of stairs, too," says Hazen. "So, let's not go down any stairs. But this is suspicious. Who is sending us these dreams?"

We discuss the dream.

---

Brianna's new hit die = 6 on a D8.