Claybeg paused exhausted, he was trying to find shelter from the wolves. For the last few hours he had been following tracks heading north. Night had fallen some time ago and he had yet to reach whoever made the tracks. Ahead of him in the gloom, the outline of a castle grew from the night sky. In one of the guard towers he could see light. Prehaps these people would protect him from the wolf packs. He crept towards the Castle and entered the courtyard.

Bravd standing guard outside the tower noticed a figure entering the courtyard. He raised his crossbow and called a challenge. Bravd then questioned Claybeg for a time, before calling down Bors. Bors also questioned and bullied the tired Dunlending. Bors told Claybeg he could stay the night but if he required shelter beyond that he would have to do work for the party. Bors also made sure that Claybeg would refer to him as Sir. Claybeg was left guarding the tower with Bravd. Bravd told Claybeg to ignore Bors and to watch out for the cowardly Elf in the party. He also told the Dunlending that if he helped with further investigations of the keep he would receive an equal share of any profits.

The rest of the night past peacefully. In the morning Thorin examined the seriously wounded member of Taramar's group. It appeared that the man would survive but would need many days to recover. Bors spoke to Claybeg again. The Dunlendling agreed to stay with the party. He said he was most skilled at scouting, so it was decided that he would be responsible for scouting out the keep before the full scale assult.

To the party's knownledge there were two definate ways and a third possible entry point. The main doors and the secret passage offered definate entry location. However if somebody were to climb to the roof of the keep they might be able to gain access from there. Claybeg was initial keen to test his climbing skills but upon examining the sheer walls of the keep decided it was not such a good idea. Claybeg, Bravd and Bors headed over to the front door of the building. The doors were in good repair and a heavy lock had been added. Claybag attempt to pick the door lock but failed. Bors ordered Bravd to knock in the lock. Bravd took exception to this and point blank refused. The Dwarf and the Beorning then had a heated argument.

Hearing the raised voices Calorn wandered over. To hos amusement Bors was failing to convince Bravd to open the door and it looked like the two might quickly come to blows. Bors started making yawn gestures at Calorn, this is the usual indication that Calorn should cast sleep on someone. Calorn reckoned that taking sides in the arguement would be bad for his lond term health so brought Claybeg off to look for herbs. This would take a few hours and hopefully when he returned everything would be sorted out.

Bors gave up trying to make Bravd knock in the door but asked for his hammer so he could do it himself. Bravd also refused to hand over his weapon. Bors stalked off to the guard tower to seek assistance from Thorin. Thorin also intially refused to break in the door and would not lend Bors his hammer. Bors started the chain of command again. Taramr entered the tower and over hearing the conversation start to enquire of Bors why he could not keep order in his camp. Before Bors could answer Thorin gave in and agreed to try to knock in the door. Bors followed him out.

Thorin examined the lock and then started to pound it with his weapon. Once the lock started to come loose it levered it off the door using an old sword. Bors and himself then shoved open the door. The inside of the keep was much as Thorin had described. Nothing interesting could be seen. Nobody entered into the keep deciding to wait until everybody was back up to full strenght. After a few hours Calorn ad Claybeg returned with fresh herbs. They had found 5 doses of Thurl and three doses of Arlan. Calorn immediately brewed up 4 doses of Thurl for Thorin and whoever else needed it.

The party and Taramar gathered in the second floor of the guard tower. Taramr wanted to plan the next stage of the attack on the tower. He said that due to the casualtied his men had suffered he believed the the two groups should stop attacking seperately. They should combine their remaining strenght. It was decided to leave the attack until the next moring so that Thorin and the other injured would have time to heal. At that point it occured to Calorn that the enemy could be listening to the party's plans through the secret door. He motioned people to ignore him and he wandered over to open the door.

The door slid open quickly releasing a draft of cold air into the tower. Nobody was lstening at the door. Calorn growing curious decided to head into the passage. Bravd followed him with a crossbow. Calorn travelled along as quitely as possible. It quickly grew dark so he headed back into the tower to fetch a torch. He then followed the twisting passage as it travelled in the general direction of the keep. The passage sloped down occassionally. Bravd reckoned that they had dropped below ground level. Eventually they reched what appeared to be the wall of the keep. They travelled along the wall until a door became visible.

The smell coming from the room was appalling. Trying to prevent himself from gagging Calorn paused to listen. Hearing nothing he slipped into the room with Bravd following. The room looked like an old wine cellar, broken bottles littered the floor. There were 3 exits. Calorn checked to the north and saw another empty room, to the east was a huge room. It was full of small mounds. He could not make out what made the mounds. To the south-east lay a passage way. Calorn and Bravd followed along the passage. It contained racks and racks of weapons. Some appeared to be of a very high quality. The passage contained two doors into the large room.

They entered the large room from a door at the end of the passage. Going inside they could see many coins littering the floor. First Calorn then Bravd spotted what appeared to be a hobbit towards the centre of the room. Calorn approached it calling out. Suddenly they heard a roar and only a few feet from Calorn one of the mounds started to move. Calorn ran for the door he had just left, Bravd headed towards the other end of the room. The beast followed Calorn, the elf must have smelt better. Calorn made it through the door only just ahead of the beast, the was a clang like the sounds of a chain pulling taut. The beast roared but did not follow Calorn any more.

Calorn went back to the original wine cellar joing up with Bravd. They stayed looking into the large room for quite some time. The beast could just be seen wandering around inside, it appeared to be a large bear. Bravd thought of trying to kill it with his crossbow but the shout would be two hard in the darkness. They left the room for the other wine cellar. A passage led north to a stairs from that room and there was another door to the bear chamber. Stairs led both up and down, they ignored the them for now and continued along the passage. The walls were lined with faded but rich tapestries and a statue was at the end of the passage. It looked like it was a tribuate to past ancestors. Calorn checked behind a tapestry, to his delight many gems were visible. With Bravd's help he started to remove them. They heard what sounded like a falling stone coming from the end of the passage. Ignoring it they continued fishing for gems. Sounds of movement became more obvious, looking dowm the passage they saw that the statue was starting to move towards them. Grabbing a handful of gems they fled, the golem charged after them increasing speed gradualy.

Calorn and Bravd grabbed what gems they could and ran as quickly as possible, the golem did not move very quickly and ceased its pursuit once they past the stairs. Relieved the Elf and Dwarf paused for breath in the wine cellar and pondered what to do next. Calorn walked back to the stairs, noting that the golem had headed back down the corridor. He paused to listen for any sounds then slowly climbed the stairs. This left him in a huge empty hall with natural light pouring in from an open door.

Calorn and considered leaving through the main door but instead headed back down to the basement. They went to the weapon racks to search for anything worth taking. Bravd found a battle-axe and a morning star and Calorn found some interesting arrows. They also each took a two-handed sword to keep Bors happy. They then returned to the tower via the secret passage.