Elated to have achieved their goal the party gets a new rush of adrenaline as they start for the magical stairs. Bilkar looks back wearing the (metal) helm and everyone notices his face is in shadow and his eyes glow a deep blood red. Taken back only slightly the group hefts their packs and heads out of the odd wizard lair Irongrad.
The steps prove harder to navigate going up as they dip and rise at the most non-opportune times. On the way down you had momentum to help you get through quickly, but now you have to try and climb the steps. The adrenaline is almost gone immediately as the group emerges from the dungeon. Winded and with sprained wrists, banged up shins, and Bilkar who got his foot caught between two steps, the party limps away from the giant black statue towards the forest a few miles away.
The fire crackles and after a small meal the group sits around it, the loot from their first adventure spread out on a blanket. Alberich holds up item after item and chants a dwarven hymn while he holds it. Before long everyone knows the hymn by heart and chant along as they wait to learn what magic they discovered. Before bed they have everything divided and each goes to bed with big plans for his share of the loot.
Morning dawns cool and grey and an hour into their trek it starts to rain. The weather and the knowledge that Merrin has had a night to rest keeps everyone on edge as they make their way back to Arabel. Will the old mad wizard return? What happens if he gains the benefit of the
bestow remembrance spell? His power would triple in a moment and then he would be able to destroy whoever stood in his path. It is with these thoughts the group returns to Ghilarite's home and finds the magistrate there as well.
It is several hours before the old wizard is ready to cast the spell that will take the curse away from all effected by it. After he has transcribed the scroll and then committed the spell to memory, he has the group stand in a semi-circle before him. The effect is almost identical to the curse that Merrin cast in the markeplace. The group is hit by an amber light, their vision blurs, and then as a few moments later the knowledge they forgot was back or the glow that affected them was gone.
It is early evening when the group once more (and for the last time), meet at a tavern a few blocks from the square where the adventure of the past two days started. Each has their own lives to return to, things they were setting out to do before a mad wizard turned their worlds upside down. But now they eat, drink, and reflect. Jokes are made, friendships forged, all do to the common bond of the adventuring life. They sit quietly each lost in their own thoughts when they hear...
"Did you hear Mad Merrin came to the marketplace again today." A guard was saying to a merchant at a table nearby.
"Disappeared just as quick the old coot. Before he left he was howling on about 'someone desecrated Irongrad, and the black statue will hunt.' Ha! Mad to the core that one is."
The party quietly sips their drinks, hoping the guard is right and that Mad Merrin is an old coot. An old coot they hope will never bother them again.
THE END?