Everybody’s getting ready to go fight the Mummy Lord. Nevi and Mary Mouse are working on Manshoon’s arm and other weird stuff. The Big Guy’s getting weapons from the Gauntlet. So, naturally, Red wants to go steal something. It’ll be fun, he said. Well, he said dangerous, but that’s the same thing, really.

It’s that Mandolin from the Bard College that Catbard told him no the last time. It’s super special and protected, so Red has to have it. I pull the shadows around us and we get all the way up to the windows. Red says they’re protected by magic though, and he can’t get passed it. We hide for a bit while he comes up with plan B. Then he says we have to climb, so I drink my potion and we climb up the building and hide under the roof near the doors. I don’t like it up here, but the shadows help. And Red, I can’t let him down.

He opens the doors with magic and a big alarm goes off and the whole inside lights up and guards come rushing from everywhere. Red and I stay very still. He stares very intently at one particular man who stays outside while the guards search, and only goes in when they don’t find anything. He says the man is coming back out with magic and I have to get in his bag. So, I take a deep breath and climb in.

It’s dark and empty, and musty in his bag. Well, at least there aren’t any worms. He pulls me out underneath a counter after all the guards and such have gone away. He says the alarm is off now, so we climb along the walls to get all the way around the room to the mandolin. But it’s enclosed in a force bubble, he says.

He stares at it for awhile. Then digs through his other bag and comes out with a potion, and talks to his ring some. Tells me to get ready to grab the instrument, and then rubs the potion all over the orb of force. The mandolin falls free! I grab it and he stuffs it in his bag. We climb quickly over to the opposite window from where we started. I have to back away, he’s going to set off the lightning trap to get us out. I pull out a healing potion, but he manages to keep standing after two lightning bolts zap through the entire room and quite a ways outside, too. We duck out in the aftermath of the flash and run, as the guards come charging the building again. He tells me to go home, he has to get the mandolin off the street before they come looking. He was right, that was fun, and dangerous!

Since the Doom Raiders are babysitting me anyway, I pester them about the pyramid. One tells me to hire folk to walk ahead of us, cannon fodder. Another tells me about how they fought the undead when they rescued us. Another one tells me a story about his favorite tomb robbing adventure and their poor rogue who died setting off one too many traps.

Finally, everyone is all set. I hand out potions to everyone, and help Catbard buy some extras. We’re going to need all the healing we can get, I’m afraid. Madeline, still stationed at the base of the towers, is bored out of her mind, and wishes us luck. Up in the first tower, we discover that there are still a pink toad or two. This one turns into an ugly Troll and we have to put it down before we can get to the pyramid. Nevi’s tree actually pierced right through the bottom of the building, so we climb right on up.