Five and a half hours ago, the druidic shield protecting the Ivrean region from the Troll King failed, and the Troll Gate opened. Just under three hours ago, the first reports reached Rotan of a massive trollish invasion of the city of Simipia. Ninety minutes ago, Owen the Watcher spotted trollish forces massing east of Rotan City, giving the city's defenders valuable time to strengthen their defenses. Just two minutes ago, as 800 trolls reached a point two hundred feet from the city walls, the battle began in earnest...

Catapults launched barrels of pitch and kegs of alchemist's fire at the ranks of trolls, while archers fired burning arrows and the city's wizards blasted the trolls with fireballs. As the trolls got closer to the walls, the catapults hurled rocks and the wizards launched acid arrows and magic missiles at their opponents.

An ill-fated cavalry attack on the trolls was decimated first by a blinding white light and then by the troll's greatswords. The remaining horsemen retreated.

The white trolls gathered in groups of eight (and sometimes four) and fired rays at the city walls. At first, these rays didn't do any serious damage, but despite facing a barrage of magic missiles from the city's wizards and pillars of holy flame, entangling plants and spiritual weapons from the city's priests, the white trolls managed to carve three large gaps into the walls.

Three of the city's wizards conjured up a wall of fire between the advancing trolls and the walls, slowing them down as they were forced to move around the searing heat. Other wizards summoned fire elementals and shadows to attack the trolls. Souriin focused all of his strength on a spell he had never cast before and added ten more
(illusionary) fire elementals to the pack.

The trolls fought back, first by gruesomely exploding scores of the defenders and then by firing a wave of bolts at figures on the wall. Their next attack was in the form of grenades containing lethal brown mold, a deadly fungus which absorbs all heat from the surrounding area.

The city's clerics have been a great boon to the city. Mother Nari closed one of the breaches with a wall of stone spell, and Lurik Mien another (although only after dozens of trolls had made their way through the gap). The junior clerics have also used their spells throughout the battle, both to aid the other defenders and to attack the trolls. Sepyt Niam is in the infirmary, where he has been using his powers to heal the wounded.

Damalanthas, always one for lateral thinking, travelled to the Rotan Museum, and used the black dragon painting to call forth the Lords' one time foe, Ayak. The bard was forced to make an open-ended deal with the dragon to persuade him to come to the city's aid.

Mindscape
In the midst of the raging battle, Euvgeni, Souriin and Flash had their minds abducted by Damalanthas, who was revealed to be a construct of a psionic entity called the Overmind. The three Lords joined the real Damalanthas in the mindscape, a strange creation of the Overmind filled with never-ending fibrous strands. In the mindscape they met Areena (Athalar's missing wife) and she guided them to memory nodules in the strands.

By accessing the memory nodules, the Lords re-lived many of the Overmind's memories, and learned that it is an artificial construction of the Empire's ruling Council. They witnessed the assassination of the island's ruling Emperor by the increasingly corrupt Council. The Emperor was in favour of freeing the island's thri-kreen inhabitants from slavery, which the Council opposed.

Later memories revealed a ruthless purge of all of the Empire's non-psionic human inhabitants and efforts by the Council to stamp out a growing resistance movement based in the city of Penrith in the north of the island. This movement opposes the Council's rule but is not powerful enough to overthrow it.

The Lords experienced the first time the Overmind sensed the Troll King far to the north, and later, heard the Council discussing their failed missions to destroy the trollish leader. They witnessed the Council's deliberations on making a pact with 'the slime creatures' and talk of building some sort of 'lattice'. During these discussions, they also sensed the Overmind's increasing loneliness.

When the Lords accessed the final memory nodule, they saw Councillor Sifreena accused of being an agent for the Penrith resistance and watched as she was sentenced to absorbtion by the Overmind. Returning to the strange place that is the mindscape, Souriin, Flash, Euvgeni, Damalanthas and Areena were joined by Sifreena. She explained that she is indeed an agent for the resistance, but that she wanted to be absorbed. The resistance has discovered that the Overmind has developed an awareness and personality of its own, independent of the Council,
and they wish to turn it into their ally.

The Lords also learned that the Disk of the Far-sight, which Damus has been experimenting with, once belonged to Sifreena. She revealed that both Damalanthas and Areena have, like her, been completely absorbed by the Overmind, and that it does not know a way of freeing them from the mindscape. The Damus currently in Rotan is a construct manufactured and controlled by the Overmind. While it has all of the bard's memories and his personality, it cannot exist without the Overmind's support.

Before the Overmind returned Souriin, Flash and Euvgeni's minds to their prone bodies, it communicated directly with them. It shared with them its fear of the so-called slime creatures and emitted a desperate plea for their help.

Even with all of this new information to absorb, Flash, Euvgeni and Souriin had no time to spare once they returned to their bodies. At the still open breach, Flash joined the druid Owen in defending the city. With the aid of Owen's two earth elementals they partially filled the breach with rubble. Owen called up flaming spheres to use against the trolls. Clerics softened the earth between the trolls and the gap and wizards and archers positioned themselves on nearby roof-tops to attack with missiles. The trolls formed a living bridge over the softened earth and poured into the city. Intense fighting has broken out and casualties near the breach are mounting rapidly.

Near the command centre, Euvgeni's teams have been holding their own against the dozens of trolls who made it through the second breach. They have been joined by Damalanthas (the fake one!) who used his bardic abilities to inspire greatness in Lord Fortell and to slow some of the trolls down.

Despite the efforts of Euvgeni's teams, a handful of trolls made it past their lines into the rest of the city, where they are running into the wizard/footsoldier quartets and the programmed illusion defense. Artak and his team of six 'body snatchers' have captured one of the stray trolls, and are transporting its body back to their specially prepared interrogation chamber.

Belimirar created a wall of force to protect the command centre from further missile fire. Nearby, Thalakos used his Lyre of Building to repel several further attempts by the trolls to create breaches in the walls. Defenders positioned on the walls have poured oil and pitch onto the trolls below. Ayak the dragon used his acid breath to good effect on the trolls outside the walls, but the trolls responded by attacking the dragon's wings with scorching rays of light, causing the mighty beast to crash-land in the middle of the trollish army. On the far side of the battlefield outside the wall, the remaining cavalry units have begun to sweep forward, burning the bodies of all of the falled trolls.

The white trolls have all become invisible, and the green trolls have morphed into the smaller brown trolls. Mother Nari cast a trueseeing spell and has pointed out two green trolls disguised as browns in the battle near the command centre. The trolls have created a glistening ectoplasmic ramp between the ground and the top of the city walls, providing them with an easy path inside.

Tekuna, concerned for the safety of King Anwell, persuaded him to leave the front lines and return to the Palace. At first they proceeded on foot, but after Souriin, Flash and Euvgeni were abducted, Tekuna transported them the rest of the way using her Chain of Transport. Once the King sat on his throne, the Rings of Rotan activated, allowing the Lords and some of the other important citizens of Rotan to communicate with each other, and to share each other's thoughts and senses...