Wow!  "What  a twist!"<br/><br/>Very cool, I quite like how you handled that, FragarachZ.  And "happy end" indeed!  It's all a matter of perspective.  Though I suppose Bree's own perspective shifted sufficiently that this may be true for her, too.<br/><br/>I had to go back and skim a few of our middle pages - we're back at the third pool then?  And depending on the timing of things, Aleria may have already summoned the baatezu or whatever it was called.  Which is still a pretty difficult place to be for our semi-intrepid heroines!<br/><br/>schookums, that's not dense at all, since I didn't know myself what I meant, when I wrote that last post.  Not applying for the other, definitely.  But I had assumed this one was about to wrap up, and wasn't sure if the general intent was to go on here or not.  Since we have this "second chance", I'm definitely inclined to continue, even if I'm a bit slower for a while.  Dogged persistence, that's me.<br/><br/>Though were we to continue, I think Bree's suggestion at this point would be "run away!".  With the knowledge of what's happened/will happen above, and knowing that Hagan is an impossible challenge at this point, she is not inclined to go through what she's seen, for nothing.  Technically, however, that's not so simple.  If Aleria's "pal" is around, and she's charmed, I doubt we'll be able to free her, or get to the Path without being taken ourselves.  And going up, we might guess that the exit is through the warded door, but the key to unlock it is in the chamber with Yustissa & Hagan.  So... what, play it all out exactly as before, but make the choice to abandon Aleria and go out the warded door?  That doesn't seem satisfactory, least of all for Miroque!  I must confess that after all this time I haven't come up with a cunning way to get Aleria out of the outsider's grasp.  Unless he's somehow unwilling to fight, and we can just bop her on the head and drag her out... no, Hunter was also charmed.  Bremorel can't carry both, even if Hunter stood still to be bopped.<br/><br/>Did I say "dogged persistence"?  I meant "gloomy pessimism", that's me!<br/><br/>Perhaps our hope is that - since the timing was loose with us separated - Aleria hasn't summoned Big Red yet.  Then we can interrupt her and run away, assuming the undead have gone back home.  And then we can live quiet lives as farmers.  :-)<br/>