After resting up in the caves of the bandit king, the party returned to Tugren's tower. Attempting to deal with the large plant creature that had engulfed the ruins of the tower, Faeradd poured over Tugren's spellbook in an attempt to glean what information he could from it.

In the latter entries of the large tome, there were several references to 'Blue', someone who took care of the old man, and was an invaluable aid in Tugren's later years. The handwriting was nearly illegible, and the name could as easily have been Bluc or Blur or some such. The party tried speaking to the massive plant-like creature inside the rubble of the tower, and called it by name, “Blue.”

It hastily vacated the premises.

Free to clean out the basement of the tower, and puzzle over the mystery of Blue, the group set up camp. Over the next several days, they discovered the secret flagstone in a corner of the dug-out basement that would let them down into the old mage's workshop. They found out he had ensorceled a number of steel spikes with 'darkness', 'nondetection', and 'Nystul's undetectable aura' to prevent intruders from entering his workshop. They also discovered that old Tugren had incorporated a number of deterrants to theft and plundering – and then discovered Tugren's remains, still hunched over his desk, creating several scrolls.

After letting Faeradd work and study there for several days, they stripped the workshop and library bare, before sealing it all back up again. The party then set out south, to escape the Mule Mountains, and hopefully find some way to reach the far distant land of Rakore.

They were followed by a massive behir, it's purplish-blue scales dark in the distance. Setting up an ambush with one of their donkeys as bait, they carefully prepared a small box valley to kill the massive creature. After a brief battle, in which the creature walked through Sam's spiked stones, received a critical attack from Faeradd's fiery spheres, a flame strike from Phoenix, and several crippling attacks from Poy and Sam. The massive behir died, probably as much from shock as from anything else.

After cleaning up the carcass and taking some souveniers, they continued on again for several more days.

The sky is clear, the temperature just above freezing, and the wind merely a whisper of its usual self. The party is just south of the western tip of the Mule Mountains, winding their way into the territories of the Toomaran Peoples.

The current date is the 1st of Lan – the first day of the year in 1328 Avard.