The adventure

Scores so far:
'daisho master' Shu Ting: 236 kills, 4 deaths, attack rating 38
'gladiator' Karen: 305 kills, 0 deaths, AR 38
'chevalier' Vi: 77 kills, 0 deaths, AR 34
'magistrate' Quentin: 78 kills, 0 deaths, AR 34
Shaman Margreet: 71 kills, 1 death, AR 27
'toolmaster' Salva: 65 kills, 1 death, AR 37

The unhappy band of friends returned to the only place that they had previously seen those blue flowers, and found Crock, who was rather agitated. He needed, it seemed, a favour, and was willing to help them find their friend in exchange. He was scared by the arrival in the swamp of a creature named Brekek, a frog as large as a house and 'killer of scores of men better'n ye'.
They trooped out into the swamp, soon encountering a large golem called an oozite. The creature should have presented a challenge, but the friends were not in a good mood, and it didn't even have a chance to run away. Thinking about their earlier explorations of the swamp, they recalled a secluded pool that might well be a nice lair for a giant frog, and there they did indeed find a creature as large as a house. Admittedly that house would have to be something more like a small bungalow than a real home, but the description was too accurate for this to be anything other than Brekek.
His misty breath was powerfully poisonous, and Quentin and Salva took the brunt of it; they spent the fight pouring potions over their rapdily bubbling skin. Having exhaled this vaporous poison, however, Brekek seemed to present little danger, and RFS, Vi and Karen chopped him up, it taking some time to wound him enough to end the fight. They brought one of his giant legs back with them, encountering on the way some bipedal, webbed-limbed creatures that looked a lot like the Rynjin that they had heard inhabited the island of Bayjin off shore. They were remarkably dangerous for their small size, their speed, agility and long legs allowing them to kick like a mule without getting too close.
Nonetheless, they were dispatched, and Crock gratefully received the giant leg, dragging it to his kitchen for later. He said that he'd just go and make some enquiries, and a couple of minutes later returned trailling a sleepy Shu Ting, who he claimed he was startled to find tied up in his bedroom. The old man tried to explain that the T'Rang must be trying to pin a kidnapping on him, and exhorted them not to forsake their friendship just because of this. It must be a very sad life when one believes it necessary to use kidnapping to get help, rather than just ask.
They bought another amulet of healing from him; where he acquired these wonderful artefacts they wished they knew, for they wouldn't need to keep him alive if they did, and also bought an ankh of speed and another mana stone.
"He fancies you!" teased Quentin. Shu Ting snorted.
"I bet he's taken very few ladies to his bedroom in the last 50 years. You must be very special."
Shu Ting, still recovering from her outrage at being abducted, was left at a loss, so Margreet replied for her
"Of course she's special! We knew that already."

They returned to Marten's Bluff, passing by a waterlogged cave, in which they met two vicious four-armed (tentacled), large-mouthed predators. Thankfully the creatures had no training in fighting, and their little horde of travellers items was looted. In Marten's Bluff the friends encountered some more spirits, who once again had trouble with RFS, and then used a pulse pick they had found to scramble the electromagnetic locks on some doors in the T'Rang areas. However, these led to control rooms for the mothership, rather than interesting loot, and the friends rather dejectedly left again.

On their way to Trynton through the swamp they found a thick black mass of tar which had erupted to the surface, and Quentin and Salva filled some of their empty jars with the stuff, adding little fuses to make Molotov cocktails.

In Trynton they used the mystery potion from Fuzzfas, and the zuzu petals that they had eventually picked, to enter the illusion that all the Trynnies to whom they had spoken had recommended they try: The Seventh Bough. The Shaman appeared to them and explained that they were the fabled 3rd messengers, as the robot Aletheides had told them in the monastery, and that it was their destony to find the Destinae Dominus. He told them to find Marten's idol and his words, and to meet him again. He faded from view and the friends eventually realised that the illusion was over.
They stumbled out of the meditation room into Trynton again, and went up to the sealed room they had found before, with the plinth in front of it. Here they placed Marten's idol, which had cost them Shu Ting's abduction to obtain, and the door opened. They spoke to the real shaman, who asked them what Marten's words were. Remembering the ancient diary, they repeated the message 'eternal trust survives the soul'.
The shaman entered into a rant about Marten and the trust given to the shamen of Trynton to hold the helm of serenity until his messengers came to collect it. The shaman gave them a key, and seemed somewhat deflated when he remarked that the whole purpose of his life was over. They left the aged furball, whose bright-eyed belief in their destiny was somewhat disturbing, and Margreet teleported them to the T'Rang teleported, from which they went to the Umpani base, the piece of T'Rang hand seeming sufficiently '100% T'Rang to satisfy sergeant Balbrak.

Indeed it was, although he was also rather disgusted, and hurried them off with an indoors pass to do further training with sergeant Rubble upstairs. Inside Mt. Gigas a lift took them to a cave complex, which they explored thoroughly, even finding a secret door and a blocked-in cave that the Umpani had managed to overlook. The goodies were few, but the friends were happy to think that they were more observant than a whole army of a galactic trading cartel.
They also came to a passage that was marked 'Danger. Unexplored territories!' This excited the mercenary band of explorers, and they wandered each of the links in the maze of interconnected tunnels, Quentin mapping the place as they walked. Salva's scanner, which he had rejigged slightly himself, was very helpful, showing where enemy life-forms were, even through the rocks, and allowing them to ambush and avoid the caverns' wildlife. Things such as bat vampires, vampire bats, numerous slimes and chameleon rats all suffered at their hands. It was also his scanner that showed life below them, and eventually they found a hidden hole which led, once they had strung a rope down, to a giant cavern. Down here they didn't find spectacular loot, much to their disappointment, but they did find themselves trapped by four black slimes.
They hid behind a boulder, wondering how they'd kill the slimes before they could spray their blinding clouds of gases and digest them at leisure. When Salva's scanner said that the slimes were close, the friends leapt out at the creatures. Shu Ting moved with the speed of lightning, striking one so quickly that her movements could hardly be seen. Karen and RFS killed another. Margreet managed to disrupt whatever passed for sensory apparatus of a third, which fled, and the last only managed to spray its blinding goo into Quentin's rucksack before the thing was smothered and soon killed.
They hunted down the last one in revenge for being chased into a corner.

Eventually they returned to explored areas, and the lift further up the mountain to the training areas. Once Salva had fixed the card reader to let them in, Sergeant Rubble gave them a rocket launcher and set them to kill three training dummies on the target range. The dummies were held together well, and they used all the rockets he had given them, and a fair number of arrows, before the things fell over.
Rubble wasn't happy with weapons training, however. He wanted covert tactics training too. This, he explained, involved a darkened course with 5 flags in it. There were also 5 critters. Once in, they'd have to find all the flags and the way out, fighting what they found on the way. The training sounded more like testing to Quentin, but disagreeing with the sergeant was hardly an option, so they wandered in. Very soon they were ambushed by a morax, an undead spirit-like creature, but with a spine and rotting flesh. Being undead probably explained why Salva's scanner hadn't picked it up. Its powerful magic was no match for Bloodlust, and when everyone else had recovered, Karen showed them the flag the morax had been guarding.
The next three creatures were easier, not harder, and the friends wondered who had created this test. The last creature showed up clearly on Salva's scanner, and they ambushed it, sprinting around a corner. They had not expected to find a giant, one-eyed snake, wielding a huge scimitar in its arms. However, the Djinn seemed peculiarly susceptible to demonsband, Shu Ting's sword, and was unable to concentrate on doing anything other than scream in agony as she thrust into it.
They kept the flag, the djinn eye, which they knew to be regarded as a lucky charm on Dominus, and left the operations caves, via Rubble, who was put out at their easy success in his training mission. He sent them back to Balbrak, who had, he said, mentioned that he wanted this team for something special.

Balbrak had indeed something special: he had an alliance letter from general Yamir to the Mook, and wanted it delivered and the response returned. The friends were a little worried by this, as they walked outside, since they had already delivered a message from the T'Rang, but Quentin explained that they could simply declare themselves messengers on Dominus, fetching and carrying important messages that (other) non-natives might struggle to deliver, what with the hostile wildlife attacking everyone.
They decided not to open that box of problems quite yet, and instead headed over to a point on a tall cliff that joined the grassy northern wilderness to a mountain ledge, from which stretched a treacherous path into the mountain wilderness beyond.
To get to the mountain ledge they needed to cross a very long rope bridge, and as they started they saw a marble golem hunkered down in the middle of the bridge. They prepared for a tricky fight, but the swaying of the bridge seemed to trouble the golem more than them, and eventually Shu Ting managed to duck a swing of its giant fist, and Vi prodded it off the bridge with her spear. It ripped the bridge so that they had to step along a mere two strands of rope for some distance, but eventually they found the mountain path and ventured out into the mountain wilderness.
4 leaf sprites later, as they climbed the mountainside, they came to a camp-fire and a horrific Dragon-man. Like a cross between a demon and a dragon, as large as Brekek and shooting fireworks from his fingers for, it seemed, amusement, he startled the friends by welcoming them with
"At last! I thought you'd never arrive"
Shocked into letting him continue, they learned from Bela that he wanted their acquiescence in a plan of his. He explained that he was interested in the cosmic circle for 'personal reasons' and the Dark Savant because of the Savant's interest in the cosmic circle. He had a theory about the Dark Savant that he wanted to test, but would require not killing the Savant until all three artefacts were rightfully placed in Ascension Peak, the ruined archway behind him being the prescribed entrance to the holy site.
Given the possibilities of refusing, they agreed, to Bela's delight. "I knew you would: that is why I chose you over the others. Why did I not choose the Umpani or T'Rang, who have many more men? Because they also have much more greed."
Although this explanation was hardly satisfactory, and they couldn't worm much out of Bela about this theory of his, they did find that he was willing to sell some exceptional magic items. They had, by this time, quite a stash of gold and jewels, and paid some 200,000 gold pieces, or the equivalent (2/3 of their horde), for a powerfully magic-resistant cloak called a cloak of many colours, some more potion ingredients and some enchanted stones to use with the wrist rocket and sling.

At the base of the mountain they saw a granite golem, and were sneaking up on it when Salva saw behind them a pack of (giant, unsurprisingly) lizards, cutting off their escape. The golem had noticed their bait, so they had to fight it. They killed it as quickly as they could, by which time the scorchers had closed on them. The lizards could breathe an arc of fire which singed everyone in the group. Margreet cast a great toxic cloud at them, and Quentin managed to paralyse a few, but when, after killing one, they realised that they were going to get cooked too soon, they had to run back up the mountain, using the rocks as cover from the flames. Eventually they had enough respite to heal, after which they successfully ambushed the stalking scorchers, who had followed their prey up the hillside. When not taken from behind, the friends found killing the creatures much easier, but still, with Quentin, Margreet and Vi's magic exhausted, and with more injuries to heal, they needed rest.
They camped by Bela, and were woken twice by sprites, who they managed to fight off, no thanks to Bela, who seemed uninterested in mundane matters like others' deaths. Perhaps he didn't realise that sprites could possibly pose a threat to anyone. It was hard to understand, but since he had more magic items to purchase, and looked too much to fight themselves, they let him be.

Fully rested and healed, they walked back down the mountain, killing on their way three flying snakes called acid wings. As they followed the passsable terrain at the base of the mountain they came to a waterfall, behind which they found a remarkable stash of items. Shu Ting took and enchanted wakizashi as her off-hand weapon, to replace the dull unmagical blade she had, and Margreet took a magical wand to use for spellcasting and fighting, rather than the boring quarterstaff which had, until now, been her support.
They had finished admiring the treasures when through the splashing of the waterfall, peering into the cave, they saw the gaping maw of another scorcher. They were trapped in a perfect place for roasting!
Quentin pulled off a saving spell, paralysing five of the six creatures; the last, which was the one that had started to roast them inside, Karen knocked out with a powerful slash to its head. The paralysis didn't last long, but by the time it was wearing off they'd killed three already, and had splashed into the waterfall basin, where the vapour protected them from the worst of the flames.

They continued exploring the region, and hearing sounds of fighting ahead, hurried to examine what was happening. They startled some Rapax, who had backed some Higardi monks into a corner of a cave. The Rapax died quickly, Quentin's immobilising spell once again proving invaluable not only for helping Karen and Shu Ting (and now RFS and Vi) to hack enemies apart, but also in saving the monks from their fate.