The basement of the library (the building with the lions flanking the entrance) consisted of at least five floors, each covered to varying degrees in living c rystal, and an area below those that blocked by a wall of the crystal. We foun d a dwarf skeleton, dead for a couple of centuries, and a decapitated rock-spir it. E'leia cast a "Shape Earth" spell on the living crystal. It reacted rathe r strongly to it, and bits of the crystal began shaping themselves into little pyramids. This effect spread quickly throughout the entire building, and it wa s eventually flooded with crystal and shaped into a pyramid itself. After a while, another change occurred. A series of crystals formed on either s ide of a path leading up to the entrance. When we tossed a few objects inside, the building promptly tossed them outside again. Someone suggested that it re jected all inanimate objects thrown inside, but since I don't know exactly what was accepted and what was thrown out, I don't know whether that's true. Thwac k and K'shrik decided to go enter the structure. The building reformed its in terior [it now looks like a bank lobby], and signs appeared declaring it to be the "Overland Trading Company." The dead dwarf skeleton we found was reanimate d, and declared itself to be some sort of representative for the company. Inte restingly, the living crystal had begun to intertwine itself around the skeleto n [at least when we found it in the basement]. It threatened the two, saying t hat the company was closed until the rest of the staff could arrive, and they r etreated. A few minutes later, it exited the building and walked to the mayor's office in the Town Hall. H'zard answered the door, and the skeleton introduced himself t o him. K'shrik and I were also in the room, but H'zard did most of the talking . It seems that the skeleton believed the dwarf to be the mayor, and offered h im a contract between the city and Overland. Basically, they want 20% of the c ity's gross domestic product per annum in perpetuity (though they are "generous ly" allowing us to pay nothing on the first year) in exchange for some protecti on or clue-giving services. In other words, for every five things we produce, we get four and they get one. Gilad raised the point that they might include o rklings in this equation. There's a somewhat vague notion that the company wil l be here regardless of what we decide, and that one of the forces from which t hey're offering to defend us is themselves. The skeleton hung a banner outside the crystal building that declared that it w ould be re-opening, with a full staff, in four days. We're screwed. We told Rag Vorn about the situation, and he seems to agree with the general co nsensus of the party that the building and its inhabitants are horrors, or at l east heavily horror-marked. We're keeping random passers-by out of the area fo r the time being and are posting sentries around it. The contract is now in th e offering bowl to the appropriate statue in the domed building. I should point out the situation seems reminiscent of our return to the caer in the dreams. I don't know whether the crystal thing is a horror, but it's defi nitely something very, very bad. Points to consider: 1. While the usual course of action in this type of situation is to confuse th e horror by brravely running away, I think we should fight. We've succeeded in making the city inhabitable again, and the 3,000 orks with us have nowhere els e to go. In addition, we (well, some of us) caused the situation, and we ther efore should be the ones to correct it. This incident falls squarely into the category of "adept stuff," and we shouldn't leave the thousands of orks at the mercy of the horror. Although the building itself is strong (but not indestruc table), the dozen of us can certainly take care of a single skeleton. Besides, killing a horror is incredibly heroic and legendary. 2. There are defenses in the city, and we should make them functional again. Firing the city's cannons and crossbows at the crystal horror gives us a good c hance of destroying it. 3. Don't sign the contract. Making deals with horrors (or at least predatory companies) is _bad_. 4. Be careful with magic. Gilad suggested a moratorium on casting magic, but I fully intended to cast a couple of defensive spells on myself. For the time being, don't cast any spells on the crystal structure or the skeleton, and try to limit casting spells around that building. Casting spells on weird-shit is dangerous, and casting spells on weird-shit just to see what happens is stupid- - which brings me to my next point: 5. Each of has spheres of stupidity, areas in which we're particularly suscept ible to doing imprudent, idiotic things. If you know that you have, say, a pre dilection for summoning horrors, don't skulk around and cast the summoning spel ls silently. Announce to the rest of the party what you're doing, and we'll te ll you when you're doing something dangerous or stupid. If you've done somethi ng stupid (like summoning a horror), tell the rest of us, instead of trying to cover it up or deal with it yourself; we'll take steps to handle the crisis acc ordingly. Sulking, threatening other party members, or wandering off alone doe sn't help. Thus, I think our plan of action should be as follows: 1. Continue guarding and watching the crystal structure. 2. Get the orks to repair the cannons and crossbows. 3. Beat the shit out of the crystal building before the skeleton's friends arr ive. 4. Beat the shit out of the skeleton.