A/N: The world of Exile (Avernum) remains the property of Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software, not me. I promise to return unharmed to the game the following persons: Mahdavi, Lorraine, Gilda Radner, Curtin, Justin, Eddy, Mayor Genevieve, Commander Lori, Mother Madge, Suzanne, Assotho, and Pathass; and places: Tower of Magi, the Castle, Blosk, Dharmon, Fort Remote, Gnass, unfinished Empire fort, the secret slith location, and general outdoors of Exile/Avernum when I have finished this bit of fun.

Still unsure where they could go next in dealing with the portal, they had decided to return to the Tower of Magi, and visit with Mahdavi again. After some discussion, she told them that she still did not have any clue as to where an onyx scepter might be found.

"We know where the teleporter is, and how to destroy it," said Mahdavi. "If you can but find the onyx scepter, all that remains is to do the deed. A small, dedicated group like you is, at this point, our only hope. If you do attempt it, good luck."

Frustrated, Jenneke suggested they turn over the records they'd retrieved from Elderan's tower and the archives, and as they ascended the incline to the Castle, they met a group of Avernite soldiers—scarred and strong, but currently quite drunk.

"Hey! Adventurers!" they shouted, staggering over. They seemed simultaneously impressed and contemptuous of Jenneke's platoon's special place in the Avernite army.

After trading stories for awhile about the war and how they all ended up trapped in Avernum, several troopers challenged the troop to wrestling matches, offering a bet of a looted bracelet versus a hundred coins.

Jenneke took on the bet, and it was a long, brutal, tiring match—Adrianna alternated between cheering him on and wincing with eyes covered. Getting slammed against the gravelly cave floor was, Jenneke reflected, more than a little painful, but thanks to his strength and some good luck, he defeated all eight. They weren't good losers, but they honored their bets, giving over the bracelet and stalking off.

"I think this looks like a ladies' bracelet," said Jenneke, slipping it on Adrianna's wrist.

"It feels warm," said Adrianna.

"Funny, I didn't notice anything," said Jenneke.

"It might be well to have given it to her," said Feodoric. "Some bracelets enhance arcane abilities. That might be one, especially since she noticed something."

As they walked into the castle, they met Lorraine again, and Jenneke said, "We've been to Harston."

"Have you? That's wonderful," said Lorraine. "Tell me all about it."

Jenneke deferred to Michael to tell about where the place was located, and then told about the place itself.

Lorraine took down what they said feverishly. "Interesting, very interesting. Thank you for this information. We may be able to make use of it," she said. "Sadly, I can't pay you. But I will put in a little word on your behalf with Gilda. Should put you a little closer to an improved security clearance."

"Thanks," said Jenneke.

He went back, but didn't ask Gilda about the clearance, just sold off the records, and they decided to move on westward. As they did so, they again encountered the group of refugees from the Abyss.

"Now we're poor and wandering around," said the man who appeared to be the group's spokesman, "We don't want to depend on you Avernum people's mercy, but we got no choice. You spare a few coins?"

"I can do better than that," said Jenneke, offering a handful of coins for the road. "You know, we found a colony of refugees from the Abyss to the east of here."

The man sounded surprised, and he said, "Our own kind? Together? That sounds ... that sounds a lot better than wandering around. Thanks for telling us."

The refugees looked much less dejected than before as they started off for the east, and Jenneke's platoon headed up to Blosk, where they found Justin.

"Thought you'd like to know," said Jenneke, "we found Grahk's Peninsula, upriver from Fort Dranlon."

"Excellent! Thank you! I can't go there now, of course. I have a daughter to look after. But someday. I can't pay you much for your help, but I can give you some useful travel tips," said Justin, and he launched into discussion of various herbs and potion ingredients.

Jenneke said, "Brother Michael, we'll be at the bar."

After some time they ended up in a food shop, where the proprietress, Eddy, greeted them with a mildly sincere pleasantry.

"What sort of shop is this?" said Feodoric.

Lurching forward, displaying some signs of intoxication, she said, "Look darling, look at all this! I have the most fabulous rations in all of this stinking hole!"

"It's not so bad down here," said Adrianna.

She jumped up in a fury, taking a bottle of ale along to steady herself, and swung the door open. "Look at all of this! Just look at it, darling! Mold and fungus as far as the eye can see! No shops! No culture! Just little gross things every-bloody-where," she said. "And the Empire, they did this to me! Sent me to this Avernum, or whatever you call it."

"Why were you banished?" said Adrianna.

"For frivolity. Can you believe it? They thought I was a parasite! Me! And annoying too, they said. Annoying. What sort of a crime is that, I mean ... I mean really, darling?" said Eddy. "So they sent me and my friend Patsy down here. Bastards, the lot of them."

"It's a shame," said Jenneke, with about as much sincerity as Eddy had mustered. "Let's see those rations, then."

"Maybe they heard something in Dharmon," said Jenneke, and so he led his group there, and they were admitted to the mayor's office.

The mayor, little older than Jenneke, was sitting at her desk, fingering her sash of office, with few papers on the top of her desk. "Good day," she said. "I am Mayor Genevieve. What can I do for you, adventurers?"

"Are you working right now?" said Jenneke.

"At this moment? No," said Genevieve. "I'm enjoying a few minutes peace. And thinking about a few of our problems."

"I suppose your job is not often peaceful," said Jenneke.

Gesturing to the relatively empty desk, she said, "One contingent of troops just headed out. The new one hasn't arrived yet. Things are, for the moment, calm. In this business, you learn to stop and take a breath when you can."

"So, what problems are you having?" said Jenneke.

"We've recently been attacked by bands of giants. Not normal giants, but mutated giants, misshapen, stronger, and deadly," said Genevieve. "The Empire is creating them. That is why I am looking for some adventurers to undertake a mission for me."

"Well, we are somewhat on the lookout for missions," said Jenneke. "What do you need?"

"In the caves west of Fort Remote is the fortress Kothtar. There, the Empire carries out bizarre magical experiments, we believe involving giants. Go there, sneak in, find records explaining what they are doing, and bring them here," said Genevieve. "I will reward you."

"We'll see what we can do," said Jenneke.

"I am Lieutenant Agate, of the army of the Empire," said the young, muscular woman wearing prisoner's garb.

"I want to ask you a few questions," said Jenneke.

She looked at him, and said, "You aren't my usual questioners. I was telling them about the southwest quadrant. That's where you got me."

"What about the southwest quadrant?" said Jenneke.

She thought for a moment, calm as though she didn't believe they could hurt her. "West of your Fort Remote. We have three forts there. Three mighty forts. Better than anything you have, that's for sure."

"What are they?" said Nigel.

"Well, I've already told, so I can tell you. There's Kothtar, Angierach, and the lair of Sulfras. I'll tell more, but only to my captors, not you. Sorry," said Agate, sounding not apologetic in the least.

"So, how can we get into one of those forts?" said Jenneke.

She smirked.

Jenneke leaned over close to the window and said, "Don't matter. We'll go to Kothtar, and maybe find this Angierach and Sulfras' lair, and we'll do to them like we did to Dolthar and Pyrog and Elderan's tower. Oh, and we had a good time trashing the place at Ornotha. We'll get in ... and you're lucky you're here, where we won't have ta kill ya."

"You don't expect me to believe that a little group like you ..." she said, and caught herself.

"I don't give a flying fuck what you believe," said Jenneke. "I'm not in this to impress Empire scum—we're in it to win. Have a nice day."

Leaving the city hall, he said, "Well, I guess it's Fort Remote, then."

They continued down the road south from Dharmon, and passed a ruin—one of Avernum's first cities, but abandoned in favor of better sites. Then when the Slith Wars ended Avernites built here, but it was razed in an early Empire raid. Now the site was nothing but rubble along a lakeshore.

"I think it's beautiful," said Adrianna, as the others told her the history.

"Maybe we come here and build," said Jenneke. "Wouldn't hurt as much as Cotra."

Continuing into Fort Remote, they passed one of the remaining bits of rubble from the original fort, a building destroyed by several large, fiery impacts.

"The first Fort Remote," said Michael to Adrianna, "was destroyed by a horde of demons sent by an evil lord Grah-Hoth. Then Grah-Hoth was slain by the same band of legendary heroes who killed the emperor. Once Grah-Hoth was dead, they re-built the fort here."

Moving into the fort, they made their way to the shrine. This shrine showed signs of frequent visitation, but the ankh on the altar was of crude granite, and was downright ugly.

Feodoric took the bronze ankh he had been carrying since the fort that created the undead, long before becoming heroes of Avernum by meeting the vahnatai. He unwrapped it, and moved the ugly granite one out of the way and put the bronze one in place.

"That's much better," said Feodoric.

"You're right," said Jenneke. "Hey did you see that?"

"See what?" said Nigel.

"The ankh flashed," said Adrianna. "I saw it."

"Don't see anything," said Nigel. "Might be imagination."

A holy woman, praying silently, was pacing in an agitated manner, and seeing the newcomers to the fort, said, "I am Mother Madge."

"Is all well with you, my lady?" said Feodoric.

"Perhaps one day. Right now I am preparing myself," said Mother Madge. "People here need my protection."

"How do you prepare yourself?" said Michael.

"I am storing my energies to cast spells should we be attacked," she replied.

"What sort of attack do you anticipate?" said Adrianna.

"We don't know what manner of bizarre creatures will come from the west next. Demons? Undead? Mutant giants? We don't know, and we prepare the best we can."

"We placed a new ankh on your altar," said Feodoric.

"You did?" said Mother Madge, grinning. "Marvelous! We of Fort Remote thank you. It is a small comfort, but only small comforts are available to us now."

"We're glad to help," said Jenneke.

In the other room, they met a middle aged woman with long, very curly scarlet hair.

"I am Commander Lori, daughter of Rourke. Welcome."

"Most commanders we've met were looking to hire adventurers," said Jenneke. "How about you?"

"The Empire can get small groups past us. We don't know how. We in turn want to send spies west. To do this, I need to see a blue pass so I can make forgeries. Bring one to me, and I will try to earn you a promotion at the castle."

"Do you get many Empire raids?" asked Nigel.

"They haven't attacked in a while, which is strange since, while the Empire doesn't have many troops to the west, if they broke past us, they could run wild through the Great Cave. So I'm preparing our defenses, and looking for opportunities to attack," replied Lori.

"What happened to your father?" said Adrianna.

"My father was slain when a horde of demons destroyed the old Fort Remote. You can still find the old fort's ruins just to the east. When he died, I joined the army and rose up to this position in order to take his place," she looked down at her non-regulation garb and smiled. "As you can see, I've made my way in my own style."

"Take it you don't care for uniforms," said Jenneke.

"I don't like uniforms and I don't like uniform thinking. The Empire's forces in this area are unusual, and this fort needs to be unusual to deal with them," said Lori.

"How are they unusual?" said Adrianna.

"There are two large Empire outposts to the west, Kothtar and Angierach," replied Lori. "They are unusual places, each in their own way."

"What is Kothtar like?" said Jenneke.

"Kothtar is a site of magic and magical experimentation. Strange creatures come from there, including huge, amazingly strong mutant giants," said Lori. "Not the sort of thing an ordinary soldier has to deal with."

"We do have a blue pass," said Jenneke, showing it to her.

"Wait, is this your only one?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Jenneke.

"Oh, well, I'm sure you need it more than we do. Maybe you can find another. I heard that they might be building a new fort in the scree pits."

"We'll give that a looksee," said Jenneke.

Moving along, heading back east, they ran into a patrol of Avernites.

The captain seemed to recognize them, and said, "Hello, friends. Nice to see you in this area."

"Yeah, we been wandering a bunch," said Jenneke.

"Well, if you're going to be in this area for awhile, I'd appreciate it if you'd keep your eyes open," said the captain. "There's some Empire spies wandering around. Hear they're pretty careless, so you might be able to spot them. Doesn't bother me none which of us gets 'em."

"Understood," said Jenneke. "We'll keep our eyes open."

Once they had parted ways, Jenneke said, "I'd like to stop in Gnass on our way to the Scree pits."

"I would like that," said Thissa.

"I thought you would," said Jenneke.

They finally entered Gnass, and were greeted by a tall, dignified slith, who bowed to them, and said, "I am Assotho. Welcome to Gnass."

"You busy?" said Jenneke.

She slowly shook her head, and said, "I have been looking after and aiding the refugeesss that have been fleeing here."

"Refugees from where?" said Nigel.

"Empire isss moving from slith village to slith village, killing all of our people they find," said Assotho. "A few of them, the lucky onesss, make their way here. The ressst end up in masssss gravesss."

"That's horrendous!" said Adrianna.

"Yessss, asss hard assss sssome humansss find it to believe, the Empire issss killing all of ussss, every lassst one. One day we will be able to prove it to you, although we hope it happenssss before we are all gone," said Assotho.

"What if we could find that evidence for you?" said Jenneke, remembering what they had seen and done in slith territory.

"That would help me argue for jusssticcce and help for the slith peoplessss," said Assotho. "I would wish you to tell me of a placcce where the slithssss were masssacred."

"We found one massacred slith village," said Jenneke. "It's due northeast of here. There weren't any survivors."

Assotho looked furious. "Oh, I knew it! Oh, the grief! They masssssacre us, they kill us ever, thisss Empire their evil issss without limitssss. Oh, if only I could fight them. If only I could join ssssome adventurersss, I could give everything, do everything to battle the Empire. My ssskillssss are great. I wish but to ussse them to fight the sssurfaccce worlderssss."

"You could go to Camp Ssssamuelsss," said Thissa. "They train many to take up armsss againssst the Empire there."

"Perhapsss," said Assotho.

"Thanks for greeting us," said Jenneke. "We're just passing through on the way to some of our own fight against Empire."

With a final bow, he led the way on into the village of Gnass, where they met Pathass, who looked extraordinarily weary.

"I am Pathass," he said. "I am the priessst for thissss village. It isss a great labor."

"Why is it such a labor?" said Michael.

"We worship our godssss, kind godsss, asss bessst we can. Many of our brethren in thessse cavesss worship dark godssss, of war and blood. We do not," said Pathass. It sssaddensss ussss, for they posssessss our holy charm."

"Your holy charm was stolen?" said Feodoric. "Any leads?"

"Our people in thessse cavessss have a holy artifact. It wasss an amber charm of a lizzzard, ancient and very valuable to uss," said Pathass. "We are sure sssome of our people in thessse cavesss have it. Return it, and we will reward you. There issss a ritual I can give you to help you."

"We do a lot of traveling," said Jenneke. "Could you teach us this ritual?"

Pathass muttered a brief chant, repeating it until Thissa had it memorized. "When you find a placcce where the charm may be hidden, mutter thisss chant, and it will hum in resssponssse to you. The charm isss the only chanting sstone in thessse cavesss."

"What is a chanting stone?" said Adrianna.

"A wondroussss item," replied Pathass. "It takesss our chantsss into itssself and echoesss them back to ussss. It purifiessss and sssstrengthensss our prayersss."

"We'll do our best," said Jenneke.

They continued north from Gnass. The Scree Pits were now a no-man's land between Avernum and Empire territory. Empire had recently built a wall in an effort to hold more of the caves—as yet reinforced, a good siege engine could tear it apart.

"However," said Jenneke, eyeing it, "we'll have to go through the door."

They approached the gate of the massive wall, manned by a small force of Empire soldiers.

A commander walked up to the ramparts, and called out, "Ho, Avernite worms. We'll have no trouble with your kind today. Unless you're working for us, that is. Have you a red pass? That's the clearance here."

Jenneke muttered under his breath, but produced the red pass, the commander emerged and inspected the pass and then waved the group through.

As they walked farther into the Scree Pits, there was a deep chill. Part of the reason neither side held this cavern was the strength of the undead presence here. No one was quite sure why, but those laid to rest in this cavern had a tendency to start walking around.

Making their way into the fort, they went into the unfinished tunnels, fighting off many undead before coming around to the back side of the fort, and after putting the troops to the sword, they rifled through the commander's bedroom. In the desk, they found a journal describing the building of the fort and the troubles that ensued when they broke into some new tunnels.

"Undead appearing everywhere," said Jenneke, "and the commander thinks they'll never finish. Isn't that just an awful shame."

"Well, the undead could be a problem for Avernum after the war is over," said Michael.

"Deal with that when it happens," said Jenneke. "For now, I'll be glad that something else is killing Empire."

"He certainly wasn't very neat," said Adrianna, as she searched the dresser. "Here's another blue pass."

"Excellent," said Jenneke. "We'll show that at Fort Remote, next time we're there."

Deciding to return to the Castle to turn in the Empire records they'd liberated from the unfinished fort, Adrianna asked about going into the area that had required Mage clearance, and thus hadn't been worth examining before. Jenneke shrugged, and she and Feodoric headed over there while he was handing over records to Gilda.

In a room for meditation, there were thick rugs in a circle around a brazier burning incense. A woman with long, dark hair and severe features sat staring at the brazier.

Seeing them, she smiled and motioned for them to join her.

"I'm Adrianna, this is Feodoric," said Adrianna. "What's your name?"

"I am called Curtin," she replied.

"So, what is it you are doing here?" said Feodoric, shaking his head.

"Well, this is where I come to rest. The rest of the time, I perform research on teleportation," replied Curtin.

"Learn anything interesting?" asked Adrianna.

"It's a difficult, but powerful field. Some of my work is on the shelves in the banquet hall. What's more," said Curtin, beaming with pride, "I helped work on the portal in the Tower of Magi. It enables one to flash to anywhere in Avernum, if they but know the right coordinates."

"How does this coordinate system work?" asked Feodoric.

"Before entering the portal, you say three three-letter words, which tell the portal where to send you. They are difficult to find, but very useful," said Curtin. "I have found two interesting sets of them, for the Castle and Erika's tower!"

"Would you mind telling them to us?" said Adrianna.

"The coordinates for the Castle are Ain Eff Wyx. That was a week of work. Finding the way to Erika's tower was an accident. We were trying to find a route near Solberg's tower. The coordinates were on a pylon there," said Curtin. "Be careful not to tell people these coordinates. The portal would be dangerous in the wrong hands!"

"You don't happen to remember what the Erika coordinates were, do you?" said Adrianna.

"They've slipped my mind, sadly, but Solberg's tower is not far from Formello," said Curtin. "It is really near there. You'll need a boat to get there, though."

"Thank you," said Adrianna. "That will help a great deal."

Leaving the room, Adrianna told Feodoric, "We've got to tell Jenneke—maybe Erika can point us somewhere in the right direction."

"The vahnatai did say that she might help," said Feodoric. "We'll have to go there."

Jenneke, together with Thissa, Nigel, and Michael were coming up the hallway, and they met in the cross-hall.

"We need to go to Formello," said Adrianna. "We just got a lead on how to find Erika."

"Formello?" said Jenneke. "That's ... far."

"It will be worth it," said Feodoric. "If she knows something about the location of the last Soul—all our other leads have dried up."

"There are those three fortresses out there," said Jenneke.

"Yeah, and you want to just run through them in hopes?" said Nigel. "Let's go find out what we can."

"OK, I guess we can go north," said Jenneke. "Remember those darklings we dealt with for Duvno? Let's see if they have that charm they want in Gnass."

"Isss a good plan," said Thissa.

Returning to the hidden place of the darkling sliths, they searched carefully, and finding three pools of stagnant water, Thissa explained that they must wash in each pool, and that they should then be able to pass the magical barrier that had stymied them before.

Doing so, they found a boat and made their way to an island in the center of the place. The island was dominated by the statue of a huge male slith. His two-tined spear was raised above his head in a pose of triumph. An inscription at the base named him as Sss-Thsss, while statues of smaller sliths surrounded him. At the statue's feet were huge piles of skulls from all sorts of creatures.

"Thissss would be good placcce to look," said Thissa, and he began the chant.

"I hear it," said Jenneke, and he began to search the pile. "Keep it up, Thissa."

Eventually, they found a small amber charm inside the skull of a dead nephilim, the charm shaped like a small lizard.

"That'ssss it," said Thissa.

"We should go up to Fort Draco, see if anyone there's seen that Locke fellow," said Nigel.

"Fine," said Jenneke. "And get a boat for the looking around Dree wants to do."

From there, it wasn't quite so long to arrive in Fort Draco, still a sooty place. They came into the ore depository, and flipped through the book there. It proved to be a delivery log, listing the miners who had brought shipments of ore to the fort. It was a long, dull list, and touching it blackened the fingertips. But there, about a month in the past, Locke had been listed as bringing a cart of ore.

Taking a boat south from Fort Draco, they went downriver until they came to a lava filled area, and west of that, a moldy pylon had engraved upon it the words "Kav Ait Bon". Michael recorded that, as Adrianna and Feodoric said that this was exactly where they were told to look for coordinates to Erika's tower.

"And now," said Jenneke, "I think it's time to try out this coordinate at the Tower of Magi."

In the Tower of Magi, they met one of the mages, who looked displeased that she was being bothered.

"I'm Suzanne," she said. "What do you want?"

"Well, what's your job here?" said Jenneke.

She sighed and said, "I'm supposed to be teaching people to do magical research. Tracking down ingredients. Alchemy. That sort of thing. I'm very busy. You can help me if you want. Or you could leave and let me think about my experiment."

"What are you experimenting on?" said Feodoric.

"Nothing you could understand. Something involving fire lizard eggs, which nobody seems to be able to find," said Suzanne, irritably. "I really need one. That's all."

"Would you like us to find you a fire lizard egg?" said Jenneke, remembering Nigel had stored a few in his pack.

"You think you can find one? Well, if you bring me a fire lizard egg, I will make it worth your while. Bring it to me," said Suzanne. "And don't let it break!"

"We found the egg for you," said Nigel, handing it over.

She looked it over, checking for cracks, and smiled, then muttered a spell. "All right, then. There's a powerful magic spell I can teach you—it's called mindduel. If you want to learn it, just ask me about a bargain."

"Well, how about that bargain?" said Adrianna.

"Oh, all right," said Suzanne. "You did help me a great deal. Now this spell is something that all us spellcasters are vulnerable to, as you can duel and take strength from another. But beware, for it can hurt you as easy as help you. It's a bit like a tug of war, but all mental."

Adrianna and Feodoric absorbed the knowledge Suzanne was able to teach, and then Jenneke drew them aside, and said, "Shall we go test that coordinate out then?"