The Blair Dragon Project

Although Exotica somehow knew the magic words to restore Velus and the other townspeople-turned-animals back into humans, her voice had been replaced by a duck's. However, she managed to scratch out the magic words on the floor of the cave. While these magic words restored the townspeople (including Velus), they had the side effect of turning Exotica into a duck!

Velus attempted to break the spell by kissing Exotica, which did in fact turn her back into a human. Unfortunately, it turned poor Velus back into a dog! Now, Exotica revealed, the only way for Velus to be restored is if the Dragon is slain!

And so, the three wandered off into the cave, and were never seen again.

A year later, a scroll was found chronicling the events that led to their disappearance.

Fred's Journal, Day 1:

We have been wandering through this cave all day! We now find ourselves in a maze of twisty passages, all alike. I fear grues may lurk around any corner.

Tempers are running high, and I have just discovered that my map is missing! I confronted the others, and Velus revealed, laughing, that he threw it out! The little jerk tells us that "it wasn't doing us any good anyway!"

Anyway, that's when we decided to...

1. ...kill Velus for his insolence (besides, we needed the food).
2. ...continue south, figuring that would lead us somewhere!
3. ...cast a magic homing spell.