Well, that was the plan, at least. It turns out, though, that the big explosion from the rod has created some sort of astral rift, and Errol just HAS to play with it (to the detriment of a poor mouse, at the very least). He also snags a cockroach out of the rift, which I'm betting will lead to a worldwide plague of the yucky things.

Once we've torn the boy scientist away, we go to Tallo. Jay gives us a diplomatic mission to the minotaurs (for a measly 500GP, but we need the money!). Fortunately, it turns out that the minotaur "king" we killed was really a usurper; they give us 7000GP as a reward. Turns out regicide, if properly managed, can be profitable. Hmmm...

Back to the silly (and dangerous, I suspect) rift, which is undeniably there, but which no one else can see. Our very own rift! And it's getting bigger and bigger! It turns out we can go through and live, except for the bothersome matter of not having any air. Look, another opportunity to spend money on magic items for the party.

I convince everyone that we should first try to finish up on our last scheme, to find the neutral city in the Underdark (it's great how teleportation (thanks Malif!) lets us veer from one random plan to the next). We go in, and Kestrel diverts us to looking for the big tunneling worm (it has his item, he quoth). Sigh. Instead, we find a pair of green magic-eating things (the hostile ones). I lead a move to run away, but that doesn't work very well because they can d-door. So I get to watch Malif, Errol, and Vernon kill them with magic (they're immune physical damage) while I serve as a pincushion for various nasty spells.