While the rest of the group is trying to find an alternative escape route, Ada decides to expand her flower collection with roses from the nearby garden. However, an instant after touching the bushes, she falls flat on her face. Albrecht and Fenna come to her rescue but a black shadow dragon springs out of the rooftop, opens its mouth and nearly kills the three of them with its necrotic breath. The dragon then introduces itself as Rahmulaag.

Louis, the fugitive that the group just captured, decides that this is not his fight and runs off towards the nearest palace door still shouldering his comatose friend Braga. Mara-kai turns invisible and follows him. The door they reach has the wreathed skull of the Undying Court bolted to it and a sign next to it revealing that ‘The password is “backdoor”.’ The skull starts talking about food and questioning Louis about the legendary dwarven worstebrotjes it has heard so much about. Mara-kai, still invisible but impatient, tries to force the door open accidentally triggering a trap under her feet. The trap sucks her in but misses Louis who steps aside in the nick of time.

Back at the rose garden the fight with the dragon continues. Fenna tries to appease Rahmulaag by singing “Ma Baker” but the big reptile has apparently faked its interest in music and renders Fenna unconscious with an attack of its vicious claws. Albrecht buffs himself up and prepares for the dragon’s next attack.

Louis, still at the door, realizes that his chances of escaping from a black dragon while lugging a full grown man around are pretty slim. After sort of calling a truce with Albrecht through shouts Louis leaves Braga hidden and joins the paladin. Albrecht brings Fenna back to consciousness but right after that Rahmulaag fires another beam of necrotic energy at Albrecht. The beam of darkness pulverizes his armor and kills the paladin straight away. A deadly shadow rises immediately from his corpse and starts to attack the group. A shocked Fenna and a considerably relieved Louis strike back furiously.

After sliding over a long tube Mara-kai ends up in a small cell with a barred window on the ceiling. After several attempts she breaks free and rises several feet into the sky. Once outside she finds herself over the palace main courtyard where a couple of zombie triceratops are roaming around. In the distance behind the east wing she spots Rahmulaag preparing to fire his necrotic breath again. Mara-kai draws her long bow and fires two consecutive arrows at the dragon sending it to dragon hell. With the big threat out of the way Fenna and Louis have an easy time putting Albrecht’s killer shadow to rest. Minutes later Ada wakes up from her magic sleep, confused but still on time for the loot.

The shocked but pragmatic heroes put Albrecht’s corpse inside their bag of holding, a magic container they own that is bigger on the inside, and head towards the aqueduct on the other side of the palace. Half-way through the aqueduct a group of vines come alive and attacks them throwing Louis and Braga into the lake. The heroes deal with the vines swiftly but two hungry large serpents made of water jump on Louis and his unconscious friend. The snakes continuously try to drown Louis but the rest of the group keeps peppering them and soon the threat is over.

Without further interruptions the heroes reach the entrance to the tower at the end of the aqueduct where two pitiful undead monkeys idly walk around.

Memorable Events

• “Freeze! I’m Ma Baker,” Fenna singing to a young shadow black dragon.
• “You’re just an overgrown chicken!”, Albrecht talking to Rahmulaag.