The adventure

The friends took the lift from Z'Ant's hall to the surface of Marten's Bluff. Around the side of the fortress they wound back the catapult before releasing it, which sprung the great wooden throwing arm forwards, where it came to rest on the top of the wall. They climbed up and onto the crenellations, and from there explored the inside of the above-surface levels of Marten's Bluff. They found a few ants, and a dead T'Rang lying against a wall. As they approached an arrow plunged into Shu Ting's arm, explaining the reason for its death. They chopped its hand off for the Umpani and gutted the trap by pulling some wires out of the wall. Salva kept the wires.
They found a few items littering the place, including a stone idol. However, placed as it was on a plinth Quentin had memories of Indiana Jones and suggested that they sort this assassin before triggering a trap that might be noisy and debilitating.
They got to the other side of the chamber with the transparent doors, and found some controls to lower the Rapax dummy and activate the giant pistons on either side of the room. They opened the back door and poured all their perfume over the dummy. A scream echoed through the air soon afterwards, one that they could only assume was one of lust.
They didn't have to wait long; soon Raven Rapax was clawing at the other door, trying to get in to the room with the dummy.
They opened the door and he rushed in, letting them shut the door behind him and then activate the moving walls. He didn't notice until the walls were almost touching him, but there wasn't anything he could have done anyway. The grinding of the walls was too loud for any squashing noises to be heard, but the view was curious enough. Margreet and Karen decided not to watch, taunted by Quentin and Shu Ting's descriptions.
Once the walls had been reset they used the lift inside to carry Raven's gooey remains down to Z'Ant's hall. Once again he was thrilled, and paid them well for the task before entrusting another mission to them. He wanted them to take his letter to the Mook, which would get them in to see the device. From there it was up to them, he said, to obtain it however they saw fit.

At Salva's behest they returned to the teleport room below Marten's Bluff, where he soldered his new wires into the circuitry of the machine, which stopped flipping between places. They didn't recognise the pictures on the screen of two of the four options, the other two being the wilderness near Mt. Gigas and a little deserted, or so they had thought, house near Arnika. Since they wanted to visit Arnika next, Margreet set her own magical portal at in the room, so that she could teleport anyone near her to this room again, and then they stepped into the T'Rang device.

It was a short walk to Arnika, where they sold more renewal potions to He'Li and Quentin used his magic for identifying magics on all the items he and Margreet had been unable to puzzle out. They went for a walk to the Town Hall, where the Mook were holed up, and at the entrance a scanner examined them all. It identified Salva as a Mook, mistaking his size and hairiness for one of their own, and he was summoned in to join the others. Seizing the opportunity to find things out, he walked in alone.
Margreet and Quentin needed rest after the magical exertions of setting a portal and identifying artefacts, so the group spent the rest of the day at He'Li's, after delivering some special items to Antone, and selling on much of the rest of their loot.
Salva returned to them very pleased with himself. He had little to say about the Chaos Moliri, the Mook's device that was similar to the Destinae Dominus and Astral Dominae, but did set about fixing some of the devices he had scrounged together, creating a number of strange objects.
They returned to the Town Hall, and showed the scanner Z'Ant's letter. They were received cordially by Screg, who introduced himself as the leader of the Mook's scientific expedition. He showed them the Chaos Moliri, which was set in a trapped room protected by an anti-magic field.
They looked around, meeting elsewhere in the building the senior biological and cultural researcher, named Urq. He was thrilled to meet such rare aliens, describing them as 'fantastic specimens', which did nothing good for Margreet's ego. Karen and Shu Ting's egos were beyond help, and instead his comments served to gain their distrust. As he was fawning on them, and taking surreptitious readings, Salva, who had again been mistaken for one of his own, and therefore deserved praise for bringing them there but not attention, wandered off and swiped a scanner for himself. They did manage to get some useful information out of Urq, who, it seemed, knew Burz, the scrounger at the monastery. Burz assured him that there had been a crash over Bayjin; the friends assumed that this was what had supplied the metal hull pieces that had littered the sea shore of the swamp.

Having rested in Arnika, Margreet returned them all to Marten's Bluff. They returned to the chamber with Marten's idol, all alert for hidden arrows or rolling boulders. What they got, as they swiped the stone carving, was a hissing sound, and they all passed out...

They awoke with nothing missing from their packs. Heads reeling, they wondered what the purpose of the trap had been. Karen, Vi, RFS, Quentin, Margreet and Salva slowly got up, picking up their packs from under a scattered of pale blue flowers. But of Shu Ting there was no sign; just her full rucksack, lying next to where she ought to have been.