The campaign continues

This is going to be the short and sweet version.  Writing and revising the upcoming Game Mastering book is taking up a lot of my time.  Here is what transpired last session.

• The alchemist living in the caves, Armitage, has decided to work with Sam.  Now they can tinker away and pour strange-colored liquids in each other's beakers to their hearts' content.
• Faint whispering is audible when touching the Talisman of Ultimate Evil, also one receives a momentary vision of a black monolith rising out of the desert.
• Beneath a crude stone altar, they discovered a 10' diameter metallic seal embedded in the ground.  An eye within a triangle within a circle is fashioned into the surface, with a circle, square, and triangle on the seal's side, corresponding to the three points of the greater triangle.  Nothing they did could open or activate it (though they tried dozens of things).
  
• Senna calls upon the PCs at their castle.  Arik wanted to kill her outright as he does with every dark elf, but the rest had a somewhat open mind.  Lilah read her surface thoughts, knowing she told the truth as Senna described her cousin's ascension to the throne and Sephir's marriage to Alzahn.  Their nuptials required familial sacrifice which Senna narrowly escaped.  She probably would have been shown the door, except that she knew something about the symbol upon the seal.
• The PCs sneak back into the dark elf city of Trehallvyn in order to steal a book where Senna remembers seeing that symbol.  Well, most of them sneaked.  Sam decided to fast talk his way into the drow library via the "wizard exchange program".  Arik stole a large, platinum covered tome that was kept under glass.  
  
• On the way out, their path was blocked by a trio of Hook Horrors!
• Reading the book that mentioned the seal, the PCs learned about an ancient form of language that predated everything known today.  The circle represented the letter "O", the square an "N", and the triangle an "A".  Together, the abbreviation pointed towards something called Oneiroid Navigation Assistance... possibly a gateway to the Dream Lands.
• A company of thieves crept into the PCs' castle, attempting to steal Arik's vicious short sword of Xan.  Leaving two of the thieves alive for interrogation, the adventurers learn of a contract between the thieves and "the shadow".  Also, the short sword of Xan is a famous weapon wielded in the war between Azik and Tarneth, two infamous sorcerers who lived and ruled over a century ago.
• The PCs go to meet the shadow because he was offering 70,000 gold pieces for it.  Arik ended up selling his short sword to some kind of demon in exchange for 75,000 gold and a +1 rapier.  
• It wasn't until after the sale that the PCs learned of the sold weapon's true value, that he who returned it would be recognized as King of Xan.
• Looking through Arik's stolen platinum book, Sam noticed a standing stone on the edge of Xan with the seal's circle, triangle, and eye symbol carved into it.  Also, Osker had a dream about walking the streets of Xan, learning of its arcane secrets.
• After Arik slit the surviving thieves' throats, the party made their way to Xan via teleportation.

That's it for now.  This Saturday will be the next game.  I'm looking forward to it.

VS