We decided to try working our way through the loop. At Tom's suggestion, Cantrel cast Flight spells on the stronger members of the party (since he doesn't have enough magical power to cast on everybody). The stronger members then flew over the mist, CARRYING the lighter members in their arms. Thus we all got to the strange magically looping path.

We pinpointed the location of the door to within inches, by having the first person in line (Tom) walk a few steps forward, then a few back. When he failed to come back from around a corner, Chris advanced two steps and came back two. Eventually, he vanished (and found Tom in the vicinity).

Once we had the place pinpointed, Alag suggested we try dragging a rope through. This, it turns out forces the door open, so to speak, and breaks the loop. Unfortunately, it left the person who pulled the rope stuck in the loop, unable to rejoin the others OR get out. So Tom used a cross-bow and a candle and some other scraps to arrange a delayed-action mini-catapult to lob a string through the door. Thus we got everyone through the loop.

Beyond the loop, the gully walls got steeper and the gully floor got wider. Also, we noticed we were being followed. It turned out we were being followed by five stone wolves. We were unhappy but made no aggressive moves since they were probably the property of the Black Mage. From time to time, the gully branched. At these junctures, Chris would toss a coin and use his Dicing skill, willing it to fall indicating the "right way." We have yet to find if this worked, but the Golden Archmage said Dicing would probably be good for divination, so it's worth trying.

Eventually, the gully widened out enough to accommodate a small wood of scruffy, gnarly trees. The stone wolves charged us at this point. Tom yelled out our peaceful intentions and Wu threw Sleep spells, both to no avail. So we fought. Chris and Alag shinnied up trees and shot with arrows, which worked fairly well. Pfusand brawled in her inimitable fashion, and the rest of us plied our weapons. Tom used Victoria's spear and his Tools knack, but one head broke off inside one of the stone wolves. We discovered that if you beat on these stone wolves long enough, they crumble into gravel. We end with three wolves thus shattered and two others apparently knocked out. And just then Cantrel spotted a tall, thin old man with a staff flitting from tree to tree in the distance ahead of us...

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