Olsen readies his bow as we ascend the stairs up to the tower. He releases an arrow…it hits a rat. It squeaks and runs back into the tower. We hurry up the stairs, two steps at a time. Six rats leap out at Nailen and Olsen. Nailen slices into one and it flies over the wall. Four others leap at him and bite.

Nailen and Olsen are pretty heroic and kill some rats, however more and more stream down the steps. Nailen calls for a retreat. The rats don’t follow us down. Nailen dons one of the bracers of healing. His wounds magically heal, but the magic power seems to drain something out of him – the colour drains from his face and he falls to the floor in a heroic faint.

Mahan stops fannying about at the back and shoots a flaming arrow into the tower. It vanishes and does chuff all. He fires another. Olsen tends to the fallen hero.

Mahan imagines the voice of Nailen saying not to bother going up to the tower, maybe focus on the gaol instead.

The party pass beneath a rickety balcony and enter through a pair of doors, which hang off the frames. A semi-circular room – doors opposite with alcoves to either side. They contain rotten furniture. It’s a foyer. The doors are stiff, but Mahan kicks them open. A hall is beyond with several doors inc. 2 sets of double.

The door to the left open onto a long, darkish corridor. Several doors line the right, a single window on the left.

Suddenly, the other doors in the hall burst open, 8 or so disembodied heads fly out, circle the room and then exit. The doors slam shut behind them. It now turns out that Olsen and the unconscious Nailen are still in the hall and Mahan and Rufus are in the foyer. The double doors seems solidly closed. Rufus hits on the idea of hacking a hole in the wall instead! Olsen and Nailen exit and Rufus enters. He quickly opens another door and closes it again. He gets a chance to see a large room with a row of iron bars. Soon after the doors all burst open and the heads reappear. They exhibit signs of burns and are spectral rather than corporeal.

Everyone exits the building and brews up in the grounds. While waiting for the kettle to boil, Rufus tries to look in through the windows. There’s some more fannying around. Nailen has been left outside while Mahan and Olsen go back into the hall and open the door that Rufus looked through earlier. They hold it open this time and take a closer look. The room seems to have benches and a stage. Then the other doors open, the heads reappear and whirl round, then leave and all the doors slam shut again.

Rufus searches the house for a large piece of wood. While he is doing so, Nailen wakes up. Hurrah, they all cry! The new plan is for Rufus to open the door that causes the ghostly heads to appear. When the doors open, Mahan and Olsen slip through into the first corridor discovered. The first room seems to be an office. All the other rooms seem to be offices too. There don’t seem to be any spell scrolls or gold pieces present. What a let down!

Nailen asks Rufus to give him back the bracer of healing, and he puts it back on.

The room at the end of the corridor has a lighter feeling, less oppressive, more light. It has a safe, but we are unable to pick the lock. We return to the hall. After some testing, we have sussed the door locking issue – need to wait a couple of minutes, and the doors will always open to allow us back into the hall.

We enter the ‘Audience’ room – Olsen comments that the middle of the room is notably colder – painfully so. We pass through the double doors on the other side into a large room. It’s bright due to a large hole in the roof on the far side. We can see the ‘pond’. There is also a big hole in the floor…