The party proved themselves to the good guys and went on a caravan guarding mission.
The group ended up meeting with a small girl they suspect is a dragon, as well as this black dragon yet again. The girl was rescued from a cage, apparently captured by hill giants along a road.
Several days later, the caravan is ambushed by a powerful wizard. The party traipses after the wizard for several days before being picked up by Calmfire. Along these travels however, they learned about the war between elves and dragons.
Out of the rubble they have acquired a staff of draconic power from the caravan, which seems to have taken a liking to Turtle and will not 'let him go.' The staff lacks several draconic orbs, that, on some level, the party seeks.
Eventually Huemac - the ambusher wizard - urges the party to come speak with him in a few days. The party came early and found themselves trapped in Huemac's strange labrynth.
By thwarting Huemac's strange mazes, they manage to rescue the purple royalty, Lord Brighton himself, from his old wizard accomplise.
The party contracted some strange disease (-1 negative level) which seems to be magically (and powerfully) connected to those of dragon blood. The priests of healing were unable to help.
The group learned that Calmfire is Clardith and that he resides on a great mountain which has become known as the Mountains of Fire to some and Dragon Mountain to others. His great citadel looks out impressively over the country side and is unapproachable without flight or magic.
In the end, the group was heading to a grove in the Sali forest
where a dragon had been reported from time to time. To Calmfire, it
seemed likely that this dragon could be tied to the staff. The group
has been forbidden to return to Calmfire's abode, as Calmfire seems
particularly worried about the disease they carry.
They didn't find the Lord Brighton there but an elf with some spell on it was kept in a box. Upon opening the box, the dragon was ported to a prison.
After escaping from the prison, the party managed to
assault the warehouse - freeing a juvenile black dragon and forcing a
medusa to flee. Looting the place, they "will" sell and identify many
of the items when they reconnect with Calmfire.
Also on their ventures they met "Jeff", who was
apparently Calmfire's assistant in ascertaining which fights were
"legitimate."
Calmfire fetched the group from the mansion and gathered them for a fight. They signed a contract with him which suggested they would not fight for anyone else but him or Brighton.
After the fights, they asked Calmfire to return them to town. Once
there, they met up with the slaving group and with the anti-slaving
group. The anti-slaving group sent a small party to attack a girl in a
nearby room. This was apparently some sort of test of the morals of the
party. In any case, the party was deemed to have succeeded.
A short rotund man dressed in a lot of purple with several items of jewelry bought each of them and had them brought to his mansion deep in the wilderness. His name is Lord Brighton. He pronounced that each of them was free. He told them that he had jobs for them if they wished to accept them. Later they would learn that the slavers had killed his son and that he had a person vendetta against them.
For their first job, the party was sent to a cave of the slavers to recover a rod for the Lord. they assaulted the fortress and eventually managed to escape with a dark case (locked but contained the rod) and some items of treasure.
They took a trip to town and began to do a little research on the slavers individually. They have set up schedules to meet there in a week.
Two days later Lord Brighton asked them to participate in a
gladitorial fight deep underground. He told them that participating
and presenting his own slaves in these fights would help raise his
prestige and presence with the slavers. The group dispatched an ogre
and several goblins in this fight.