A few days pass and a livable existence seems like more and more of a possibility in New Pelios.

Soloman returns from dealing with the militia. Iajaa has even become expected around town. Things, as crazy as they were, are starting to settle down .

At this point Searo tells the party that he has discovered some new magic (Astral Projection) that will make, what should be, extremely dangerous travel and exploration (and looking for Gale and Valkyrie) much less dangerous. The only issue is that their bodies would be extremely vulnerable.

Soloman brings up the fact that his ring is still in "the claws" of a dead ancient dragon whose last known whereabouts was "THE Wizards" tower. Searo Decides to try discern location on the body of the dragon again and this time gets nothing, that tells Searo that either there is very strong magic at work here or that the dragon is no longer dead and is hidden by Mind Blank.

This makes "THE Wizard's" tower a priority and the party immediately sets off for the tower.

The party arrives at the top of the tower Via Searo's teleport and begins to head downstairs.

They arrive at the room where they first encountered "THE Wizard" weeks ago, before they learned that he was a villain, only to find that his magical traps had been reactivated and that some of his "clones" (lesser copies of himself done through epic magic) were around waiting for us. After "tussling" with the "clones" for a few moments the party realizes that one of the "clones" is in fact not a "clone" but a decoy attached to the tail of a dragon, and not just any dragon. The specific red dragon that has Solomon's ring (Ring of Fire Elemental Command, not to mention the 2 others,Ring of Air Elemental Command and Ring of Water Elemental Command, also in his possession) and the party begins to battle him vigorously.

The dragon, almost beaten and trapped in a stairwell and Dimensionally Anchored (thanks to Ambrose), decides to flee, breaking through the outer wall of the stairwell and breaking in to full bore flight away (really, the only thing he could do since Soloman was tearing him a new one, and removing his tail).

At this point Searo thinks across the groups telepathic bond that he could catch him and the rest of the group communicates back that he should if he can.

Searo Shapechanges into another colossal red dragon and Enlarges Soloman who rides upon his head and gives chase.

After gaining ground for a moment Searo sees the dragon stop and hover as it casts a couple of spells the last of which is Gate. Seeing this Searo responds with[http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/timeStop.htm]Timestop[/URL] to catch up to the dragon and puts a Prismatic Wall directly in front of the Gate which the dragon is about to barrell through.

Time resumes and the dragon unable to stop his momentum flies drictly throught the Prismatic Wall and into the Gate. With little in the way of options Searo dismisses the Prismatic Wall and he and Soloman follow the evil dragon into the still open Gate.

To be continued ....