A barrage of energy bolts erupt from holes in the far walls of the room, shooting the group from various angles as first Zendril, Theranion, Nataya, and Silver are each knocked down by separate blasts from the bolts' impacts. The group manages to get back on their feet, but Zendril is still lying on the floor, badly burned and coughing up blood. Nataya rushes beside him, and administers healing spells for his injuries and an herbal salve for his burns.

The group pulls Zendril from the room, and lets him get some rest. Meanwhile, Theranion carefully probes the room for any more trap triggers, then signals the "all clear" to the rest of the group. The room is a hidden treasure room, but with only a fraction of the treasure it might have held in its prime. There are pieces of old artwork scattered about the shelves, and two large locked chests. Theranion uses a Knock spell to force open the chests (and trigger any traps) from a safe distance.

There are enough coins and bits of treasure in the chests to buy an army, literally. After taking stock of all the treasure, the group is several thousand gold pieces richer, and has 2 new magical items to identify. Theranion eagerly sets about the task of identifying the items, using his lore skills and spells. Meanwhile, the group gets some much-needed rest.

After resting, the group heads back up to the library, and finishes cleaning out the remaining rooms on the second floor. Most of the "intelligent" gnolls and flinds still in the castle harass the party with hit-and-run tactics, but otherwise pose little problem. Silver makes a special trip to the first floor of the warehouse section to finish off those pesky spiders that got away earlier. Along the way, they clean out the servants' areas of rats and other small pests.

At long last, the group heads back to the front of the keep, and prepares to enter the last (and largest) tower. As they open the doors to the tower, they find an angry mage waiting for them. The mage has set up this tower as his temporary base of operations while he has his underlings search for the castle's hidden treasure cache. He is surrounded by 6 doppelgangers, who engage the party with a mere gesture from the mage.

As if the doppelgangers weren't bad enough, the mage unleashes his own "treasure" on the group, using a Wand of Magic Missiles to soften up the party without hurting his underlings. The group is driven back at first, but with Zendril and Nataya running interference on the mage, Silver and Theranion unleash a barrage of freshly-memorized spells against the doppelgangers.

Once the doppelgangers fall, Silver then charges straight at the mage, grappling with him and pinning him to the wall so he cannot cast any spells. However, the mage proves incredibly strong, far stronger than his build would suggest. The mage gives him a mighty shove, and as Silver regains his balance, he notices that the mage's face distorts unnaturally under the strain.

Again, Silver grapples with him while the rest of the group watches, with their weapons at the ready. Silver pins him for a moment, but this time, the mage grabs him, and throws him clear across the room! This time, the distorted face is more noticeable, and the group realizes that this "mage" is actually another shape-shifter, but one much more powerful than the doppelgangers they faced earlier.

They unleash a full assault of missile weapons against it, and it drops its mage disguise entirely, revealing its true form - a greater doppelganger. These creatures can not only duplicate the appearance and identities of other creatures, they can assume the knowledge and skills of their victims by ingesting the brains. As the group finds out, this includes the spellcasting abilities of wizards.

In its true form, however, it engages the group in melee, tearing savagely at the group members with its claws. It cares little for the magical finesse it showed earlier, preferring instead to rip its opponents apart. As fierce a fighter as it is, the superior numbers of the group soon overwhelm it, but not before it does some serious damage in return.

With the main areas of the castle cleared of creatures and the ringleader appearantly destroyed, the group decides to return to town for some much-needed rest and supplies before tackling the dungeon area under the keep...