Echo Wood: Accursed Halls Completed… sort of.. TL;DR edition

Okay, this TL;DR is working well for how much time I have…

• Cyrus organized help for the Frastons to get the apple harvest in. It took a lot of convincing, these are not community minded people.
• Cyrus, Bam and Tarkus returned to the Accursed Halls once they were all kitted out with… Magic Weapon spells? I forget now exactly how they did that. It must have been Cyrus, because Alchemists can’t do anything that would have done that. They went back with temporarily magic weapons and killed the Shadow, the previous untouchable last inhabitant of the dungeon.
• After killing the Shadow they saw it turn into a small violet stone. Which got them thinking about the other semi-precious stones… the green peridots and what not. They went back to the Door of Seven Stars and examined it closely. Each of the seven holes was deep enough and wide enough to hold a stone. Yet every time they placed a stone in the hole, an electrical discharge zapped them and blew the stone out the hole. When they finally found a colour stone that didn’t zap them when placed in a particular hole they ran some more experiments. At that point it became clear that they had collected six different semi-precious stones throughout their journey.. and then sold them in town.
• They went back to town and wheedled the stones back out of the vendor who had bought them. They also went to go look for a seventh (and presumably final stone to place in the door). They retraced their steps to the rooms that hadn’t been searched and found the room with the melty-faced statue. The statue had a) rubies for eyes in its blobby head and b) a secret compartment that they could not open by brute force for pretty much ages. Tarkus was furious at it. Bam considered blowing it open. Eventually, the limp-wristed trio were able to batter it open in an impotent whirlwind of rage. Inside they found… the Sword of Zog. They didn’t know that at the time but… the Sword of Zog.
• They resumed experimentation with the rubies, forgot a basic acronym, corrected themselves and the Door of Seven Stars rumbled upwards.
• This caused a mild earthquake in the town above.
• Beyond the Door they found a dusty hallway leading down to a faintly glowing room. The hallway had a single set of footprints in the dust, leading down.
• The glowing room contains an unexplored exit and a raised pool of crystal clear water in a polished silver bowl. What caused Bam to recoil in fright when he tasted the water to ascertain its purpose, I will not say.
• Content that the door could be opened they left and the door slid down again. The stones were not used up in any way, so the party retains access to the levels below the Accursed Halls.
• They went next to the Goldenfire Order’s tower in town and met Timbor, the Order’s Secretary. He confirmed that the head of their order was out of town, probably at Fort Inevitable searching for Jharun and Tiawask. He offered them a reward to find the missing wizards.
• The Sword of Zog was identified, with some reverence and awe by Timbor. He also signed Bam up for the Order, giving Bam a nice red velvet hood that is the trappings of his order. Timbor also said that if they weren’t interested in toeing the line with the Hellknights, they should seek the help of the Seven Foxes, a sort of resistance movement against the inflexible laws of the Hellknights.
• I can’t remember if anyone signed up with the Blue Basilisks.
• Anyway, they rested up and left for Fort Inevitable, despite their misgivings about going to the Hellknight run town.