The situation in Chaos was continuing to devolve so our heroes bravely decided to infiltrate the Ways of Jesby in an attempt to rescue Merlin so that Corwin would not be forced to support house Jesby’s attempt to capture the Logrus.

The expedition consisted of Ezekiel, Nalath, Wren, Zyth, Sophia, Yasmine, Coral and Dashell. The first attempt to shadow walk into the ways ended in a shadow of destiny set up as a trap by Corwin. Through the quick use of sorcery and shadow walking the adventurers escaped the trap and reassessed. They traveled to the Great Spire that was the physical representation of the Ways of Jesby upon the edge of Abyss. While ascending the thin spiral stairs, Yasmine located a secret entrance.

After passing by several traps with relative safety (Ezekiel’s back received deep slashes after looking through a trapped peep hole), Yasmine became overconfident and after avoiding an apparently simple trap was nearly killed by slashing blades and a deep pit leading to white flames.

The tunnel eventually lead out into the Ways of Jesby. Ezehkiel began behaving strangely, his wounds apparently poisoned with some sort of hallucinogen. Nalath wrapped him in sorcerous chains and headed off, quickly joined by the rest of the group with the exception of Zyth who was unwilling to abandon Ezekiel to his fate.

Zyth and Ezekiel were both identified as invaders by the mystical protections of the ways, and were chased by both mundane soldiers and explosive orbs of sorcery. Zyth used the pattern to eliminate the alarm, however Ezekiel was unable to do so. In a wolf guarded garden Ezekiel narrowly avoided the orbs until finally being trapped and fleeing via trump to Ironwood.

Zyth thinking that Ezekiel had perished grew quite angry and headed off into the Ways, presumably to assist with the rescue of Merlin. He encountered a mysterious sorcerer claiming to be from a place known as Nethermore who attempted to slay Zyth with dark powers. Through unexplained mystic means Zyth combated the dark powers and was victorious.

As this was happening the rest of the expedition headed deeper into the ways, using a mystic sonar to attempt to locate Merlin. There was a tension fraught encounter with Corwin, who recognized Werewindle after Sophia bumped into him in the hall. After learning they were attempting to rescue Merlin, Corwin who was apparently under some sort of surveillance allowed Wren to stab him and the expedition to escape.

Heading into a warren of cave like tunnels Coral and Wren’s spell lead them to a spherical chamber with a metallic orb in the center. Gravity behaved oddly, allowing the entire chambers floor which was riddled in tunnels to be traversed. As odd Scorpions began to come out of the passages Sophia tossed Yasmine onto the black metal orb, and then through a spell by Wren and Coral the rest of the group floated upwards.

Through great bravery and some stupidity Merlin was rescued from the inside of the orb, the scorpions were evaded and the expedition returned home to Ironwood.