The adventure

The corridor sloped upwards for a few turns before opening into a large chamber. Boxes were stacked in the middle, blocking their view of the far end, and to their left a flight of steps led upwards.
As they climbed the stairs Salva spotted things moving behind them.
"What's that?" he asked. Karen and Shu Ting slipped back to confront the creatures, which they saw were a pack of giant rats. The swords swung more confidently now, and the rats met the great rat god in the sky. Margreet had stolen some books from the lower monastery, such as 'Wildlife of Ascension Peak' and 'How to clear your home of slimes and other pests', and was looking up giant rats for tips. Quentin spotted the flecked gums and yellow eyes and warned them all,
"They're diseased. Keep away from them." He pushed the bodies off the stairs with his metal staff.

They continued to the end of the stairs, which ended at a corner; they heard a grunt or two from behind the wall that separated the stairs from the room they led to. They dashed into the room, surprising three two-legged lizards that were basking in the corner. Margreet identified them as seekers, a group of acid-spitting pests that preferred to catch their prey from a distance. She sent them to sleep at the same time as Quentin induced his magical fear in them. Shu Ting, Salva and Karen simply beat them to lumpy red piles.
The room contained a number of computers, but all denied access. The whole of one wall was a glass screen looking out over the far half of the chamber that they had just ascended from. The purpose of the room, without being able to check the computers, was unknowable. They left and walked to the far end of that hallway, which had two exits.
The left took them to a dormitory with two exits: a door and a corridor. They tried to door first, and were surprised to find three men in a finely furnished room trying to cut a tapestry down from the wall. The surprised men grabbed knives, ignoring Quentin's polite 'good afternoon'. In fact, they seemed quite taken with the idea of having a woman each.
Karen was less impressed, the only thrusting in her repertoire being to bury her sword in the side of one man. He had leather armour, and thrust at her with his knife, but the three men were quickly spent by Karen and Shu Ting. The friends kept what they could of the men's possessions and tried the other passage from the dormitory.

This led to a sign, which read 'silence in the library. No Magic Allowed.' As they can up to the sign, which faced them as they came to a left turn, another of the over-sized rats appeared round the corner and attacked. They heard a great scuffling from behind him, as if there were many more.
The fight with the rats proved easy, with magic rendering only a few rats at once capable of attacking. Quentin tangled them in magical webbing and scared them witless, and Margreet used a new trick of blinding them with a flash. Quentin drolly remarked that the rats had no taste, to be blinded by a flash from Margreet.
Shu Ting had clearly found her true calling, adding yet more rats to her mounting tally of kills. As they finally moved past the entrance and into the library Quentin and Margreet felt a dulling of their new-found sense. Magic was not only forbidden here, but somehow actively prevented.
The library contained, as far as they could see, mostly theological and ancient historical works of dubious importance to aliens from different cultures and backgrounds. They found a spellbook, and at the far end of the library a kitchen with fresh water, some supplies, although most of the food had been taken by the rats, and a microwave.
They prepared a scant meal and cooked it, and Salvador insisted on taking some of the inner workings of the microwave with them. You can't separate an engineer and his gadgets. There was also a great locked door in the library, behind which they heard the squeaking of bats. There was no way to pick the lock, so they returned through the dormitory to the first chamber. The other exit took them through another dormitory to a large entrance hall, where they surprised a larger band of raiders. The raiders were equipped with real weapons, in contrast to the pests they'd met further into the monastery, but couldn't stand up to the magical tricks and were sliced down in ones and twos by Karen and Margreet. Even Salva got in a few hacks with a sword he'd salvaged. Quentin had decided to try using a vicious-looking bullwhip they'd found, giving him a longer reach.
"Now try using that spatula!" he had taunted Karen.
"Oh no! I'll not turn my back on you again!" Karen had backed away, only to change her mind when Quentin replied
"Perfect! I like the front much more."
They found a chamber with a rather special-looking toseido in a glass cabinet, and then an indoor garden, where they dispatched a few more seekers before moving into what appeared to be the main meeting hall or chapel.
Standing in front of the raised dais was a finely-robed humanoid, who watched them approach. They heard motors whirring as his head turned unnaturally far, watching them check under the pews and in corners. Margreet found a couple more vials of potion, and eventually they were close enough for the robot to speak. There was a lot of mystical destiny in his story, but he seemed to think that the group of friends were an important piece in a great power struggle that had found its way to the planet. He mentioned T'rang, Umpani, a Dark Savant and finally disappeared, claiming that he returned to the cosmic lords to bring word to them that the final contenders to be new cosmic lords had arrived.
As he left, a monstrous creature with a fearsome-looking weapon like a pickaxe appeared. It sneered at them, and warned them not to interfere with the Dark Savant's plans.
"Go to Arnika and see the tower built there" it urged them "It contains enough exposives to destroy this worthless planet." It pressed a button on its weapon, and it too was gone.

"Well," remarked Margreet, "I always knew I was important. It's nice to have cosmic lords watch what we're doing."
"But do they have a boat?" asked Quentin, bringing up an old joke.
Karen spoke for all of them when she said "Let's get out of here", and they did.

In the last room of the monastery they found a key, which turned out to open the great door in the library, which led to the bell tower. The tower itself was inaccessible; perhaps falling rubble had blocked the door from the inside, but the bell could be rung by a machine in the tower floor.
They turned the dial to one symbol and the bell clanged. A second symbol clanged it in a different pattern. The third symbol created a horrific noise, prolonged by a series of crashes and rings. They heard shattering glass.
"Perhaps our crash weakened the bell tower?" surmised Quentin. Karen, never one to forgo playing around, tried the machine again, but nothing more happened.
All through the monastery glass had smashed. They looted a few more things; the smashed glass in the computer room allowed them to climb onto the boxes below and check a few for goods, the toseido was now available (Shu Ting put it on like a true samurai) and they found a tattered note in a room off the entrance hallway, proclaiming the bearer to be a member of the brotherhood of the ascension, and asking for him to be given all help he asked.
It sounded like a useful thing to have, so they pocketed it and left the monastery for Arnika.