The Obsidian Fisticators plan their infiltration of Thunderbrand III. After much back and forth between Reggie and Anchor, the party decided to go with Anchor's plan of never technically lying. The group approached the gates and were met with questions. Anchor informed the clerk he had the body of a Xantion soldier to turn in and that they wouldn't say no to an honest day's work while they were there. The clerk called over a few guards to escort the party, allowing them inside under several conditions. First, their pets, Roy the Wyvern and Ed the Hyena, would have to stay outside. Mada was permitted to stay with his prized pet as the party continued. Secondly, the weapons of each member would be tagged with a bright red paint, used to suppress magical effects. Finally, they would be accompanied by guards the whole time. The party agreed and Smiter, a guard who knew Reggie and was wary of him, sent word to Colonel Krag, who was meeting with Generals Hoo'rahn and Sharpe, as well as Victor Ripley's cousin Freidrich Za'ripley about a new invention the camp had created. The party was marched around the well lit and highly guarded R&D camp to the storage facility, where they exchanged the Xantion body for 70 gold pieces and saw an enormous, slightly green, metal vault. They were then led to the Administration building, where they saw an ornate large courtroom and met Krag's secretary, who informed them she was in a meeting. The party left and hung out with their guards for a few hours in the residential part of the camp. Titus flew up to the top of a rickety 120' tall watchtower and conversed with an Aaracokra ranger while the rest of the party stayed below. Garth proclaimed himself to all as the Left Hand of Primus and joined a few sports games. Anchor watched the latrines, where Victor had said the entrance to the camp's secret laboratory was, noticing several more people leaving than entering. Reggie, meanwhile, entered the latrines for an oil bath. Experimenting with the buttons and dials, he eventually cranked the flow control all the way up, at which point the bath began to sink into the ground, another coming down from the ceiling to replace it. Terrified of being caught infiltrating the camp, he jumped out and rejoined the group. Several hours later, Smiter went and relieved Mada of his post, as all party members looking for work would need to be in the meeting with Krag. The party was then led to Krag's office, after each was relieved of their main weapon.
The meeting was tense, the party entered and sat across the large wooden desk. Krag, sitting in her high backed chair set her feet on the table and seemed cold and angry at Reggie's presence. Krag explained what happened- why Reggie had been mind wiped as punishment for selling information to Xantion soldiers. She also revealed herself as a follower of Primus, describing his domains of rulership and his reign over Arborea. Garth excitedly took notes on the conversation while Anchor had a small existential crisis, thinking everything he'd ever learned was wrong. Eventually, Anchor used the spell Zone of Truth, which was cancelled mysteriously. He then tried detect magic, at which point Krag jumped to her feet, countering the spell and demanded that they tell her why they were there. Anchor explained what his spell would do and she seemed perfectly open to the idea of a more honest conversation, and explained that he'd been casting spells she couldn't recognize with a convicted war criminal at his side. The talk progressed. She revealed she had been screwing with Garth about the Primus talk. Garth in anger tore up his notes. Krag's Shield Guardian moved from behind her to behind the party and picked up the notes. Anchor's questions got more pointed as his suspicion grew. Eventually, he pinned Krag down: "Yes or no, do you know if Reggie was framed". Then he was punched hard in the back of the head by the Shield Guardian named Todd. Krag, winning initiative, grabbed her gun off her desk and ran to the corner of the room, loosing a quickened cone of cold on the party before following it up with three shots from her pistol. The party was badly wounded and terrified. Garth burst through the wall to where the secretary was to grab his weapon while Mada stunned the guardian and joined Reggie in cornering Krag. Meanwhile, Anchor, on 1 hp jumped out the low window, swallowed his Ring of Obscuring and Sending Stone, held his hands up, shouted for Titus to get the generals and demanded that the crowd of approaching soldiers give him a trial in the Court of the Forged. Inside, a sleep spell and several more shots from Krag's gun managed to incapacitate the party, who were all taken down to an underground facility, the lab Victor had described before they left. Waking up several hours later, a voice told them they'd be "very useful in a few hours now, goodbye". The party quickly escaped their chains and deactivated a Prismatic Door using a Keen Dagger discovered by Anchor. Reggie, on the other hand, was investigating the walls and discovered the one opposite the door to be illusory, stumbling into a large communal workshop piled high with new and volatile magical inventions. While looting this room, a small shrub sprang to life before Garth, cracking and destroying the vase it was in, and started asking for Krag in Giant. Garth has named it Bushy II.
Meanwhile, above-ground, Titus caught up with the Sharpe, Hoo'rahn, and Za'ripley and convinced the generals to return to Thunderbrand III for a trial. He and the generals took one of the Zaripley's guards, a half-elven magic user named Zylben, as an escort. Arriving at camp Titus learned that Ed had been destroyed and Roy had been incapacitated and was being shipped to the front to raise morale for the troops. Krag seemed shell-shocked from the encounter, but agreed to discuss the events with the generals in preparation for the now necessary trial to take place in the morning, once she was well rested. Titus and Zylben then spent some time together, Smiter guarding them, discussing their respective groups. They eventually suggested a trade, as Titus would fit in much better with the Bahamen and Zylben would find others with arcane inclinations among the Obsidian Fisticators.