We climbed the spiral staircase to the fifth, and hopefully last, floor. It ended at a short, rubble-filled hallway with two more doors. Large pieces of the roof were missing above us, revealing the slate colored sky. We opened the first door and entered the large, brightly lit room. Mical walked toward one of the beds and became stuck in the floor again. As I pulled him out, I glanced up. Hovering above us was a translucent elven female, but warped and evil-looking. The banshee pointed at us. I was filled with fear, and Mical bolted down the stairs, screaming. Lyra had the presence of mind to read the 'Protection from Magic' scroll. I cast color-spray, stunning the evil one. We stuffed wax in our ears, Lyra cast flame blade, and we charged. Lagasse hit it, but it immediately flew around a corner of the room where we couldn't see it.
We ran after it, finding a narrow stairway leading to the roof, which was missing over large portions of the room. On the roof, we carefully navigated around the gaps, sticking to the edges of the battlements. We could see Mical running through the fields toward the circle of trees, his dog just ahead of him. There was no sign of the banshee, however.
We returned to the large bedroom. Under one of the beds was a painting of an Elven king, and a heavy chest. I couldn't really tell if there was a trap on it, so we decided to take it up to the roof and float it down. The full moon hung ripe in the sky, looking like a rotten gooseberry. Luckily, we still had wax in our ears, because we heard a muffled scream. The banshee was flying toward us.
I could not hit it with my arrows. It and Lagasse exchanged blows while Lyra busily prayed for him to be healed. I got out my short sword, and still couldn't hit it. Then I remembered that none of my weapons were magical. At last Lagasse struck the final blow and the banshee dissipated into thin air. Just then, Mical appeared at the stairs, shouting, "Did you guys kill it?" We picked on him for running away and screaming so loudly, although we knew he couldn't help it.
We opened the chest on the roof so we wouldn't have to carry any junk. We pried it open with a piton, avoiding the lock area. It was definitely not filled with junk. There was a fortune in gold, a small locked iron and silver book, a key (to the book), leather boots, elf-sized full field plate, a silver and gold ring with odd writing, some potions, a priest scroll, and a bunch of beautiful gems. Two of the gems were giant emeralds, a matched set. Nine of the other gems were strange. They were each about two inches in diameter, flat, and faceted along the edge. One was a clear crystal, and glowed a little. The other eight were clear, blood red rubies.
Lagasse drank the levitation potion and grabbed the chest. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he stepped off the roof. We gently floated to the ground and waited for the other two. Mical arrived a bit bruised, since he fell through the floor twice more.
Our trip back to the grove was uneventful. I discovered that all nine of the strange gems were magical, as was the field plate, Lyra's splint mail, the ring, the potions, and the small book. I opened the book with the key, but all of the pages were blank. I tried looking through the gems at the pages, but it had no effect. I wish I knew what that book does. I am afraid to write in it for fear of ruining it.
On a whim, I looked through the clear gem at the tower. Surprisingly, it looked as if there was a perfectly round hole punched through the fog. My visibility was perfect. The red ones didn't have the same effect.
