Continuing their exploration of the island (see ST09. The Cursed Prison), the party were joined by Ying and Tregin, who had decided to risk going onto the island after they saw the rowing boat used by El Graeve, Kuven and Sacha Cresswell sunk by a Chuul. They met up with the others just as they had finished a rest break. After speaking to Maddox about the island, they decided to head to the Drow Ruins, to see if there was an alternative way to avoid the island's affliction than taking the potion from the guards in the stockade.
They reached the ruins just as dusk was setting, and quickly approached the doorway that they saw. They detected runes embedded into the door, and Tregin used a ritual Detect Magic to work out that the door had been sealed with the Arcane Lock spell. Several attempts to pick the lock or force the door were made, but in the end El Graeve had to use Dispel Magic to unlock the door. With that, the party were able to head inside. They quickly realised that the ruins were in fact a tomb to an ancient drow warrior, and the tomb was inhabited by a pair of myconids - strange mushroom creatures that walked like people, and had turned three corpses dressed like guards into their puppets. The puppets attacked, but Ying and Kuven charged past to attack the two myconids. During the battle, it quickly became apparent that the two mushroom creatures were sensitive to light, with a Lightning spell causing them to wince away from the brightness. The corpse-puppets fell into the midst of Sacha Cresswell, El Graeve and Tregin, with the trio struggling to hold off the blows. Meanwhile, both Ying and Kuven faced spores being breathed into their faces, but fortunately they were too tough to succumb to whatever treatment the myconids had in store for them, and they were able to overpower their targets. While Ying used his fists, El Graeve was able to use a Guiding Bolt from afar to blind one of the myconids, allowing Kuven to finish it off. Without the mushroom creatures, the corpses of the guards did not last much longer.
The party then investigated the tomb itself, and opened the stone coffin within. There they found two magical artefacts; the Boots of Elvenkind, and a Sentinel Shield. They also searched the bodies of the three guards, stripping them of their uniforms, and finding a Letter from Corporal Harper, which led them to pull out the purple sacs from inside the myconids, which are used to brew the potion needed to leave the island. They then decided to rest the night, before working out what they would do next. There was a brief argument in favour of investigating the tomb further, and the party did find an alternative route in where the guards must have entered, but ultimately they decided to leave and head to the stockade, though they decided to take a slight detour past the bridge that they could see on the map.
They trekked through the tropical jungle to the bridge, which took them several hours. Staying within the treeline, they could see that the bridge seemed to be the basecamp for a quintet of halfing Boromar Clan thugs. Ying strode out onto the bridge to talk to them, which resulted in the immediate warning to leave, under pain of crossbow bolt. El Graeve stepped forward to speak, which resulted in the crossbows being fired, but Ying was able to deflect the attacks. Tregin followed up with a Fireball which nearly eviscerated the five halflings, and Ying pushed two of them over the side of the bridge; one fell into the water and was swept away, the other fell onto the bank, which snapped his neck. The fight quickly left the remaining three, and they reluctantly agreed to let the party access the bridge in the future. They mentioned that they were looking for somewhere to base themselves, but their colleagues hadn't reported back from the caves to the north.
With this, the party headed to the stockade. They used the three guard uniforms that they had obtained from the Drow Ruins to dress up as three guards, with Kuven, El Graeve and Sacha Cresswell in disguise. Tregin and Ying used the magic-suppressing bracelets to make themselves look like prisoners. They entered the stockade, where they found security quite lax; clearly the guards were not expecting trouble. From within the warden's office, they could hear an argument taking place, where a woman was arguing that the warden had lost control of the island, due to the woman that was taking some of the prisoners. Sacha Cresswell recognised her voice as Myra ir'Clain, the woman whom he had clashed with during his training, and had been his great fear when exposed to a nightmare at Mizago's Manor (see ST05. The Mad Illusionist). Despite his attempt to disguise himself with a helmet from the armoury, she recognised him immediately, and warmer than he expected. She took him to have a drink, and ordered Tregin, who she thought was just another prisoner, to fetch them. Tregin tried to spit in one of them, but was spotted by a guard, who slapped him and poured the drink over his head, prompting him to have to fetch another one.
Meanwhile, El Graeve decided to sneak around to the alchemy laboratory. He knocked, and the door was answered by Harper. El Graeve tried to exchange the purple sacs for the potion, but Harper was suspicious as to why a guard would need them, and El Graeve attacked before the alarm could be raised. He pushed Harper into the room, with the door slamming shut behind them. Harper tried to run, and opened the door, but El Graeve used Command to silence the dwarven alchemist, to prevent the alarm from being raised. Watching from the other side of the compound, Sacha Cresswell tried to make a distraction by falling off his bench and spilling his drink. With the same idea, Ying and Kuven started a brawl. The combination seemed to distract people from the doorway for a split second, but Ying followed up by charging over to Sacha Cresswell and slapping his friend. Sacha Cresswell tried to retaliate with his blade, but swung badly, earning him a contemptuous look from Myra ir'Clain, who had thought that his presence here showed that he had earned his place in The King's Swords after all. Fortunately, this was all enough of a distraction that nobody saw El Graeve pull Harper back into the room, where he avoided the dwarf lobbing bombs at him, and eventually tied him up. El Graeve grabbed some completed potions from the alchemy set in the room, along with the alchemist's notes; he then cut Harper's neck and left, with the door shutting behind him. He met with Ying, and they searched the records room, finding a List of Prisoners, M-R.
As they were leaving the compound, Myra ir'Clain called out to Sacha Cresswell and suggested that perhaps he should prove his skills. She explained that one of the prisoners wasn't who she had appeared to be, though Myra ir'Clain didn't know much. Several prisoners had gone missing near the caves to the north, and she suggested that Sacha Cresswell take a team to investigate, before this became a bigger threat to the prison than it already was. The party suspected that this might be where Reinhart was, and from the list of prisoners that it might be the Eladrin Ophelia that was the one causing problems. So they left to go see what they could find.