[Stomoxys]

Suddenly, we were all gathered around a campfire looking down on ourselves. My scales were back and, looking around, I saw Wolfram in bear form and Grogg and Nuur-Karif as themselves. Below, we were moving around excruciatingly slowly, Nuur-Karif, Wolfram and I as our illusion versions, while Grogg was themselves. When looking at Grogg, the room shifted from the drinking house we had entered to a dark, underground chamber. Grogg exclaimed that the water pipe had removed the illusion and they could see and hear us in the light of the lantern, even though we could not see them. I could sense the source of the illusion, as well as the power that had taken us to the campfire emanating from behind the massive stone doors at the end of the room. The wraith was in there, but also something that wanted to aid us. Wolfram growled furiously in the direction of the doors, clearly sensing the same as I. Getting through the doors would have to be the first priority and I told Grogg to bash them down and Wolfram to fend off the spirits gathering around Grogg. Nuur-Karif and I would try to eliminate as many spirits as possible before the doors fell. Trying to get an overview of the situation, I counted at least seven spirits in the room before I found myself back in the jaguar body. There were probably more, as the side chambers had been blurred from our vantage point.

We were still fighting and more spirits were coming out of the walls. Nuur-Karif materialized them with their sword, while I slashed them down with my knife. Near the door, where Grogg had been, spirits were gathering and attacking something, not noticing the braying beast that charged at them from behind. Several of them were tossed away or crushed beneath its hooves. We were winning the battle and the wraith must have realized it, because the voice that had previously ordered the spirits to attack now called a retreat. The spirits turned, moving towards the curved walls at the back of the chamber and several fell before they could reach them, but our pursuit were interrupted by the voice again. Chanting what sounded like the final words of a ritual it sounded like "Vakn Darwan, og ta skuggen min frå meg." Even though the ritual was in a strange language, I could understand what the voice said; "Awaken Darwan, and take my shadow". We should have realized before that this was the prison of Darwan, demon of shadows and illusions.

The doors to the inner chamber suddenly collapsed, revealing only darkness beyond. Grogg had proven stronger than the doors. The beast stormed into the darkness and out of sight and I could not tell what Grogg was doing. In the middle of the room, the smoking device was glittering and we had a clear path, so Nuur-Karif and I ran towards it while the voice continued to chant. "Ta sansane mine, vis meg røyndommen din, øydelegg for meg!" it droned on, but the last syllables were cut short by Wolfram's charge. Translated, it asked Darwan to "Take my senses, show me your reality, ruin me", sounding almost as deranged as a disciple of Tzacol. The golden apparatus was taller than me and gave off the sweet scent of paxampa incense. I have not seen anything looking remotely like a paxampa tree since I left The Homeland, so this was just part of the illusion. As if to drive the point home, the smoking device soon disappeared along with the rest of the room after I inhaled and it was replaced by a large standing mirror. Looking around, Nuur-Karif had turned back into themselves and we were in the dark chamber Grogg had been in, only illuminated by Nuur-Karif's lantern. Fetching the shining coin from my pouch, we ran towards the broken stone doors where we could hear the roars of Grogg and a bear fighting.

Grogg was standing over an open sarcophagus with their club raised and ready to strike, shouting for Kra and Lunari to help them destroy the obscenity. In the background, the bear was clawing and biting at invisible enemies around them. Before I could do or say anything, Grogg's club came thundering down on the contents of the sarcophagus. As the echoes of the crash died out, I heard strange whispering coming from all directions, but slowly decreasing in volume as if the source was escaping. Simultaneously, Grogg's shadow tore itself loose from the troll and formed a second Grogg which stormed towards Wolfram. For a moment, I feared it would attack Wolfram, but instead it slammed into the thing Wolfram was fighting. The wraith was no match for the two hulking spirit warriors and Wolfram crushed it in a final thunderous charge. As the wraith was destroyed, the sound of breaking shackles came from all around us followed by a sudden silence.