At this point, we spent several weeks developing our individual abilities and pursuing independent objectives. We gathered again about 5 weeks later, about 12 weeks into the seige of Cârnford. There was still no sign of Prince Gari, the prince of Cârnford, or Lord Mykael, the magician in black (formerly the chief magical advisor to the throne). The city was still being run by Princess Elizabeth, wife of the prince and regent for her daughter, Princess Anna, who was only 5 years old..
We considered trying to locate the prince by joining our minds and seeking him psychically. Handel, Christina and Shiolàn immediately decided to participate, as did Chester Fortune. Drake D'Argent next agreed to join the effort. Michele, Jyfféer, and Trebor eventually agreed to join also, making it unanimous among the presently gathered group. We decided to try for two hours, after which we had not achieved contact. After two more hours, we still had not made contact, and Handel and Trebor decided to drop out. The rest decided to continue for an additional two hours. At some point, we realized that someone was blocking our contact, and we were being driven around in mental circles. After we broke contact, we noticed that Chester had a faraway look in his eyes. He fell over in a heap, then, before we could react, his body was unnaturally distorted as if he was being hyperdimensionally crumpled and he disappeared. We decided that it might be prudent to pursue some more conventional means of contacting the prince.
Christina began talking to the military officers of Cârnford. First, she talked to the Marshall of the Northern Ramparts. Then, she talked to the head of the military, the Lady Chimene de Vivar, Earl Marshall of Cârnford. From her discussions, we learned that the number of enemy forces numbered in the tens of thousands. And the battles weren't limited to Cârnford, by any means. Among others, the dwarves of Morthen Halls were also under attack. Most of the party decided to teleport north of the city, where the enemy had situated catapults, which were assaulting the city.
Michele assumed her combat form and attacked one of the catapults, single handedly destroying it. Then, she appeared to turn into fire and torched another catapult. The other members of the party joined the attack, with more limited success. The opposing forces counterattacked. While Handel was busy shooting soldiers with his bow, Christina went ethereal, only to notice an octopus figure in the Ethereal Plane with her. Handel had managed to disguise himself in an enemy uniform and was playing dead when Christina reappeared and attempted to take him away. He resisted, and she said, "There's an octopus up..." and vanished again. The rest of the group also left.
Meanwhile, Jyfféer had disappeared while Christina was talking with the Earl Marshall. He had gone to seek out an enemy camp, to see if he could get some information about the opposing forces from the forces themselves. Although he had a slight run-in with a half-dozen or so soldiers, he was somehow able to determine who their superiors were and where they were located. Then, with help from Christina, he transported to Quigley, where their captain was headquartered. He was able to learn from the captain that his superiors were headquartered in The Lodge. The captain was part of the Dark Lord's forces--as were about half of those involved in the war, the other half being forces of the Empire of Aquatane (also controlled by the Dark Lord).
As Jyfféer was doing that, Handel was using his own methods to infiltrate the enemy forces. Their medics discovered that Handel was alive on the battlefield, and took him back to the medical tent. He manipulated the doctor's mind to convince him that Handel's injury was not that serious (concealing the fact that he wasn't actually injured at all), and he "returned to duty." Which is to say that he went straight to the command tent. When he entered, the proconsul and general were in discussions. He managed to turn the proconsul against the general, and a melee ensued. The general had some mental abilities himself, so he realized that Handel was not who he claimed to be, and was probably responsible for the proconsul's strange behavior. A combination mental and physical battle between Handel and the general followed. The general lost. The rest of the details are unclear, but Handel somehow managed to bluff his way out of the camp, learning in the process that the Emperor was also in camp, as well as a skeletal figure calling itself the Kurgan.