A Princess is rerescued, Harald fails to lose a limb (haha, suckers!), and Saiiq gets lucky with some Fiery Angels
Our heroes decide that the only decent thing to do is go rescue Miriam from the clutches of the very stinky trogodytes, and they set off through the jungle. An encounter with a trogodyte hunting party shows us that trogodytes smell worse on the outside than on the inside. They can also put on bursts of super-speed. We kill the band in toto, with Harald running hard to catch the last of them. Agav tracks them back to their lair, a cave network in a nearby mountain. There are two cave entrances, so we very sneakily kill one sentry and then Wall of Ice the other entrance, trapping that sentry outside. We wack him, too. Entering the caves we manage to surprise and wipe out one trogodyte group, but after that they are on to us and the fight goes hard. There are many close encounters and narrow victories, ending in a large assembly hall battle with the chieftans and witch-doctors. Miriam hangs suspended in a wicker cage over a deep pit with dinosaurs below. Harald battles the chieftan with his back to the pit, dodging every slicing blow of the fabled Whip sword of Yemen. Victory is ours, as is the sword and the princess. We clean up the remainder of the caves, killing several dinosaurs but not quite managing to genocide the trogodytes. Saiiq takes two trogodytes prisoner, and Afaf charms one. Saiiq says he must deliver them to the Fatimid Caliph, perhaps because he has a lizard baby and wants it to have company. After that we go back to Axum, booty in tow.
In Axum it doesn't take long for Yodit to learn we have Miriam. She says we may keep her if Harald can beat her champion, Karmi as well as Asterion in a battle royale. The vampire vizier charmed the rest of the party into not helping Harald out if he asked, but he didn't ask so all went well. He also dispelled Harald's Mirror Images twice, the jerk. Still, no levels were drained, so perhaps he is OK, for a vampire. The battle started off dramatically, with Karmi jumping down of his watchtower and throwing off his cloak to reveal that he is a kaggen, or mantis-man. That means a bunch of attacks with all those arms, and some crazy bonuses to hit his favorite food, elves. Karmi and Harald tore each other up pretty well, but Harald surrendered at the last moment, deciding that even a small chance of death is too much for a battle one can avoid. Asterion, who was completely unhurt, took out Karmi, earning the right to bring Saiiq to view the Ark of the Covenant.
Adaraz, who may well be the most nervous cleric in the whole world, takes Asterion and Saiiq down to the special undergorund chamber where the Ark is held. He sweats a lot and ties ropes to their feet, since the Ark has a habit of striking people dead and it really wouldn't do to let the bodies stink the place up. Asterion is confident that a muslim priest can approach the Ark wth impunity, so he and Saiiq open the doors while [{Adaraz]] slinks far back. They eneter a room with a white curtain at the end. There is light, "provided by two fires in the center of the room. The fires are attached to swords held by angels that stand ten feet tall. Roll initiative." One angel Holy Words [{Saiiq]] into unconciousness before anything else happens, and then the other one chops off Asterion's head with "lots of attacks to spare". The bodies are pulled out, but Adaraz decides to leave the head behind. Saiiq, upon waking, wants to go right back in, but Harald persuades him that this is madness.
Harald talks with Yodit, and convinces her that if the party can undertake a quest to destroy an idol in the City of Silence then they are strong enough to protect Miriam from any danger, especially that coming from Jan Seyoum. The party accepts, and preparations are made for a long journey through the jungle, led by two daku who are indebted to Harald for the return of El-agalay's body.
