Locating The Plague Box

No sooner has the ghoul been dealt with than Winnacer starts to move, the paralyzation having now worn off. He looks around him and sees that the remaining undead have been caught in Fae's web:

"How long is that going to last for?" he asks.

"Two hours," Fae replies.

"That's good," Winnacer replies. "We should be well out of the place before then."

Porter looks over and sees that Faewen'il has managed to trap the undead in the far west of the room, leaving the double doors to the south free of the sticky strands.

Just then, the Bastioness is released from the paralysis. She walks back through the hole and joins the rest of the party in the guardroom. She starts to chant while looking towards the door to the rest of the level, but nothing happens:

"It's not trapped," she says.

"I should think not," she adds, looking towards the webbed ghouls. "Those creatures are bad enough on their own."

Upon learning that there are no risks from traps, Porter heads over to the door, trying to keep away from the growling ghouls just inches away from him. He squats down and investigates it carefully. He turns round to the others, shaking his head:

"It's locked, and it's quite a tough one by the look of it. It might take me a while to get through," he says.

"If I can get through it at all," he adds.

"You can take your time," Winnacer replies. "We have to wait for Gristan and the MasterSmith to be released from their paralysis as it is."

Porter sets to work on the door with his tools. As he continues to work on the lock, Gristan comes out of the paralysis and then, a couple of minutes later, MasterSmith IronHammer does so too. The MasterSmith got fairly badly beaten up during the fight and so the Bastioness casts a moderate healing spell upon him, bringing him back close to full health. The Bastioness then comes over to Porter, who also got quite injured in the fight. She casts a minor spell upon him as he continues to struggle with the lock. The results of the healing spell are nothing special, however.

Winnacer looks over at the growling undead hordes trapped in the web:

"Those need to be taken out some how. I think that dousing them with some more holy water should do the trick."

Porter looks up from his task of trying to get through the door and asks:

"Dude, don't we have a wraith or some crap to deal with as well? I ain't outfitted to be fighting that type of creature, so if you're just going to waste it like that, how about giving me the vial, 'cause I'm out?"

Winnacer nods:

"Here, take one of mine. I still have three left."

Faewen'il then turned and brought her own vial of holy water out and dangled it out in front of her:

"Ye can have mine too iffen ye like."

Porter takes the offered holy water, saying:

"Stuff seems to work pretty good, so don't mind if I do."

"I much prefer magick ta tossin around glass vials o water," Fae says in an indifferent tone.

The black clad sorceress then looks down at some of the hacked apart undead, wondering idly if the paralytic powers of their claws could somehow be harnessed into a weapon. Not that she had any free time to ponder such things in a well-stocked lab.

With a sigh, she makes a mental note to study such things in the future; not desirous of carrying around a piece of rotting carcass with her. She did, however, chuckle at the thought of the look on Winnacer's face if she actually did such a thing.

The rest of them continue to look on as Porter continues to struggle with the lock. Beads of perspiration are appearing on his brow now as he works upon the mechanism, getting more and more frustrated as he does so. Just as he is getting to the end of his tether and is thinking of giving up, he hears a satisfying click and the bolt moves backwards.

The others all quietly to stand behind the bounty hunter as he quietly and slowly opens the doors and peers through. He spends a few moments looking through the door before he quietly closes it and reports back to the others:

"It's pretty much as Fae's map shows," he reports. "It's lit by torches, the same as everywhere else, and all the doors are closed. There's no one in the corridors."

The MasterSmith nods:

"I think that it's time to use my other silencing spell," he says. "But we'll need to be quick though. It only lasts for a little over ten minutes, remember."

Winnacer nods at the MasterSmith's words and then speaks to the others:

"Let's head over to the High Priest's quarters. He should have all the answers we want."

Porter adds:

"I think we should go after the Nemotz first. Second door on the left, correct? We use the silence spell, hit the door, and take out the three scumbags we're here for. I take it you have no objection to THAT, Yaz?"

Yaz smiles widely, showing the evenly rowed teeth of a vegetarian.

"Anyway, I'll concentrate on taking one alive if you want while the rest of you carve up the other two," the bounty hunter continues. "I doubt they'll give up their plan or the location of the virus, but it might be worth a try. Then again, I suppose witch-queen can always try to invade their minds."

Yaz shrugs:

"Whatever. Both the High Priest and the Nemotz need killing."

Winnacer sighs:

"Yaz's right, they all need taking out and so it really doesn't matter in which order we take it."

He looks at Porter:

"If you would rather we take on the Nemotz first, then I won't argue the fact."

"Let's go."

The MasterSmith takes his copper piece and once again starts to utter the words to the silencing ensorcellment. After a little over a minute, the spell takes effect and all around the party goes quiet.

Anxious that there is quite a bit to do before the enchantment ends, they immediately head off, with Porter leading the way through the door and into the corridor. It takes no time at all to cover the 20' to the door to the Nemotz priest's room and they all huddle around the door. Porter quickly takes a look at the lock to the door. His smile and the thumbs up sign that he makes tells the others that the door is unlocked.

Winnacer and Gristan stand in front of the door, ready to head through first and then the young Lord starts to count down on his fingers:

Five-four-three-two-one.

With that, Porter pulls the door open and Winnacer and Gristan burst through the door ...

... to find it empty of the priests.

They all walk in cautiously to check that this really is the case, but there are definitely no priests there. The horrendous stench that is coming from the room is evidence enough that they have been here until recently, however. They start to search through the room and, upon turning back the bedclothes with their swords and seeing the sheets soaked in pus and dried blood, with several maggots crawling around, scuttling from the light, they know very well that the priests have been there.

Not wanting to use up too much of the duration of the silenced coin, they take a quick look around the room to see whether the metal box might be there. Looking through the cabinets, however, they see that there is nowhere where such an item might be hidden. They quickly take a look through the cabinets to see if there is anything else of interest that they can find. They locate some spare items of clothing and a pouch containing 96 gold pieces, but there is nothing else of interest within the room.

Once the room has been fully explored, a task that has taken them four minutes, Winnacer indicates that everyone should move out now and check out the High Priest's room. They quickly file out and get into attack positions outside the High Priest's office. Porter checks out the door again and finds that, again, it is unlocked.

Winnacer counts down again and then he and Gristan rush through the door into the office. Once again, it appears as if the High Priest is not there. They quickly take a look around the office to make sure that he is not hiding behind his desk or somewhere else, but the coast seems to be clear.

Before checking the office fully, they decide to check out the Head Priest's private quarters to make sure that he doesn't burst in on them. After another countdown, they barge in and quickly look around. Once again, there is no sign of the Head Priest. They check around the room quickly to make sure that he is not hiding behind the curtain to his bathroom, but he is not there either.

It has now been six minutes since the silencing spell was activated and the party members realize that they have not got long left before it expires. Leaving a thorough check of the Head Priest's rooms for the moment, they decide to check on the last room that Faewen'il informed them contained the senior priests.

They go through the same routine for a fourth time, with Porter checking the door and finding it unlocked, then Winnacer counting down before they all charge into the room. This time, they are not at all surprised to discover that the room is vacant, even after a cursory glance around.

There are just four minutes to go of the silence spell now. Leaving checking out the room for the moment, they head back into the corridor. The MasterSmith walks to the north end of the corridor to allow them to decide quickly upon their next course of action. As he does so, Porter takes a quick look at the door at the southern end of the short corridor, the one separating the corridor from the area patrolled by the wraith:

"It's unlocked, luckily," he reports.

The Bastioness gestures towards the door while chanting quickly. She then turns to the rest of them:

"It's untrapped as well."

Porter glances at everyone, saying:

"Get ready, let's take this son of a bitch out fast. Winnacer, are we going to be able to see this thing? Perhaps you should be ready to detect evil or something else to locate it so it doesn't surprise us all."

The bounty hunter himself pulls out two vials of the holy water given to him by Fae and Winnacer and prepares to open the door when everyone is set.

"If Faewen'il was able to see it before, I would imagine we will be able to as well," the LawBringer replies.

Winnacer then readies the mace that he took from the body of the Priest of Kozlo from the final fight with Boscobelous:

"Let's do it," he says.

Yaz readies his sling, and makes sure his scimitar is close at hand. He looks to the dwarven priests.

"Are you guys gonna do your religious 'Get Back Foul Creature' thing?"

Both the MasterSmith and the Bastioness nod:

"I shall try," she says, "but wraiths are a very strong form of undead indeed. I can't guarantee that I am going to be able to turn it."

"Same here," agrees the MasterSmith."

"Then maybe we should leave the coin out of range," Yaz continues. "But I guess if this thing can go through walls like Maire' can, then we shouldn't scare it away, it'll just come back and bite us by surprise later..."

Yaz looks to the others for help in this.

"That's a good point," the MasterSmith says. "I'll keep the coin away from us while we fight the wraith."

"Tha wraith nae be able ta fly through walls," Fae says, "but it can be goin under doors."

The MasterSmith nods:

"If either the Bastioness or myself are able to turn it once, then we should have no problem in keeping it at bay at any time after that," he replies. "Providing that we're not paralyzed or dead, that is."

Gristan readies his axe while the Bastioness and MasterSmith ready their last remaining vials of Holy Water in case their attempts at turning the wraith are unsuccessful. Porter looks at everyone to make sure that they are ready and then throws the doors open for the others.

They all start to pile through the door, with Winnacer and Gristan in the lead, followed by Yaz and the two priests, with Porter and Fae bringing up the rear.

As soon as they get through into the corridor, they all see a vaguely dwarf-shaped black cloud with red glowing eyes heading toward them at a fair speed.

Everyone immediately swings into action. The two priests clutch their holy symbols before them and start chanting furiously. Their chants do nothing to slow the wraith's approach, however.

As Winnacer and Gristan get ready to attack the creature, Porter lobs a vial of holy water at the apparition. It hits it and the water spills over the wraith, damaging it. Yaz whirls his sling around his head and lets a bullet fly towards it. Yaz' shot is also on target and a plume of black vapor boils away from the wraith.

Then it is upon Winnacer and Gristan. The young Lord brings the magickal mace down upon the wraith, sending a huge plume of vapors rising from it. Gristan tries to swing at it with his axe, but misjudges the distance and so his heavy blade fails to connect. The wraith tries to lash out at the dwarf with its insubstantial claws, but Gristan sees it coming and avoids the abomination's strike.

Winnacer strikes at the wraith again and manages to hit it, boiling the vapors once again. The wraith lashes out at Gristan again and this time manages to find a way through his half-plate. The dwarf cries out as his soul is sucked into the wraith.

Not at all happy with having his soul sucked, Gristan's eyes blaze with vengeance and he hacks into the form before him with all of his might. As the battleaxe cleaves through the clouds, the wraith erupts in a cloud of black vapors that immediately disperse.

They spend a moment panting with fear after their close escape from the wraith. As they do so and all is quiet, they can hear that there is the sound of chanting coming from the door to the south of them. They can detect that there are a few voices there, no more than a dozen and that they are chanting in dwarven. The sounds are very faint, which gives the party members confidence that their combat with the wraith has not alerted the chanters to the party's presence.

Porter carefully and quietly heads to the door and takes a look at it and then comes back to report:

"The door isn't locked," he says.

The Bastioness faces the door and quietly starts chanting while gesturing toward it. Nothing happens.

"It's not trapped either," she reports.

The Bastioness then heads over and takes a look at Gristan. Seeing that he was harmed quite badly by the wraith, she casts a moderate healing spell upon him. The spell has little effect upon him, however.

The MasterSmith heads back to the other room in order to reclaim the coin. He comes back shaking his head, however:

"I'm afraid that the silencing ensorcellment has already worn off," he says.

Porter offers his opinion in a low voice:

"We gotta hit them with something big from the get go. All I've got is one of these flasks of Greek fire."

"Also," he continues, tossing a small metal ball in the air, "with a good shot, I can incapacitate one of the guys. After tossing the Greek fire, I'll try to determine the big guy and take him out."

"I got a spell," Yaz says quietly, "that will keep one of the priests from casting... but that's only one. I think I should aim it at the big guy too, just to make sure.

"After that, we just go 'rah' and charge?" the druid asks. "I dunno, maybe Maire' has something to say about that."

"How long should we stay back, Maire'?" he asks the girl, apprehensively.

Winnacer interjects:

"I'm going to lead off with Spravedelna' s Fear. If they are close enough together, it should incapacitate a number of the priests. Both of our dwarven priest allies have the ensorcellment that holds a man in place. They should use them on those unaffected by the Fear."

Winnacer looks at Yaz and Porter:

"You guys should choose your targets from the unaffected as well. Probably will be the upper echelon clergy."

Winnacer then taps Gristan in a friendly way:

"Once our trap is sprung, it looks like we will need to clean up the mess. Let's try to take the High Priest and one of the Nemotz alive for questioning. The rest will soon meet their gods."

"Too damn right, you are," Gristan replies. "I'm after some payback for that soul-sucking."

The young Lord turns to look at Faewen'il, his eyes shining with anticipation:

"Anything to add?"

"Gods forbid I should have a plan for tha lot o ye..." Fae says, pausing a bit before continuing.

"How about I start castin, then one o ye open tha door an I let them enjoy a bit o forked lightnin farst a'fore ye all go stompin in thar?" Fae says in a ho-hum sort of voice.

Yaz looks at the girl as if she were from the outer planes, then forces a grin:

"Okay," he says.

Porter's eyes light up:

"Hell, I'd like to see that, if nothing else. Let's do it."

Winnacer agrees:

"Yes, let's do it."

Everybody reaches into their pouches and pulls forth the equipment needed for the surprise assault. Faewen'il takes her amber rod and a small piece of fur, the MasterSmith takes a small, straight piece of iron, the Bastioness grabs her holy rock and Yaz pulls forth a small twig.

Porter takes up position by the door, with Winnacer and Gristan getting ready on the opposite side.

Once everyone is in position, Faewen'il starts to rub the fur over the amber rod while uttering an incantation. As she gets close to the spell's culmination, she nods to Porter, who pulls the door open and then they all pile through the door.

In the split-second after opening the door, they take in their surroundings. They have entered a small chapel, which is some 50' square. The walls of the temple are all painted black and there are runes daubed on all four of them in what looks like blood.

In the center of the room is a line of dead dwarven bodies, around a dozen in total. There is a chute that comes down from the ceiling in the south of the room towards its center. In a circle around the bodies is a ring of five dwarven priests, dressed in the black robes of Smurt. On the far side of the room, are three gaunt and scabby looking humans dressed in the yellow and black robes of Nemotz. They are looking on while the dwarven priests chant over the bodies.

Faewen'il sees that one of the priests has a ceremonial chain of gold around his neck and quickly guesses that he is the NecroMaster. Coming in from this angle, she sees that she has a chance of hitting one of the Nemotz priests as well. As she says the final word of the ensorcellment, there is a terrific crash of thunder and then the dimness of the Temple is lit up as a lightning bolt flies from Faewen'il's out-stretched hand. The bolt hits the NecroMaster full force and practically incinerates him, although he still clings to life. The bolt forks on, blasting another of the dwarves to pieces before continuing to where it hits one of the Nemotz priests, leaving him too as just a charred husk.

There is no time to congratulate Faewen'il on her superb performance, however, as the others surge forwards.

Winnacer is the next to go forward, his eyes already glowing the Holy Wrath of Spravedelna. He shouts out at the dwarven priests:

"YOU HAVE ALL BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF CRIMES AGAINST ALL THAT IS GOOD," he bellows. "FLEE NOW OR MEET YOUR FOUL GOD."

All but one of the priests, including the NecroMaster, start to tremble in fear and then quickly charge off out of the room, leaving just one rather surprised priest remaining. There is a door in the east side of the room that they all head towards.

The MasterSmith is next to act. Holding the straight piece of iron in his hand he gestures towards the two remaining Nemotz priests. One of them immediately goes rigid, unable to move a muscle.

The Bastioness too is casting, holding her holy rock in her hand. She gestures towards the last of the dwarven priests to remain standing, but nothing seems to happen.

Yaz casts as well. He holds the small twig in his hand and gestures toward the one unheld, surviving Nemotz priest. As he finishes uttering the incantation, the priest screams out in horror and Yaz starts to chuckle with glee as the priest's right arm suddenly starts to turn into a branch.

Porter sees that the NecroMaster and the two priests are getting close to the door now. Not wanting the injured High Priest to escape, Porter takes the iron ball and hurls it after the fleeing NecroMaster. For once, it seems as if no one can put a foot wrong, as the iron ball hits the NecroMaster on the back and immediately transform into iron bands, which wrap around the horribly burnt priest. As they wrap around his legs, the priest topples over and he falls to the floor.

Gristan charges at the last remaining dwarven priest and starts to lash out at him with his battleaxe. With two mighty blows from the axe, the manic dwarf easily manages to hack the priest to pieces, laughing as he does so.

The two dwarven priests head through the door and are away. The only other survivor, the Nemotz priest whose arm has turned into a branch, decides that running away is by far the best idea at this moment and so he too charges for the door.

Winnacer surges forward to end the lives of all the fleeing priests as quickly as possible. He calls out to the others:

"Watch the door! That blast was none too quiet. We may have some company soon!"

"Oh, and Yaz," he adds, "do you think that you can take care of those ghouls that are webbed by the door?"

"Mm, sure," Yaz replies, but continues to stand and watch with fascination as Porter ties up the priests.

Before Yaz has a chance to reply, Winnacer and Gristan charge after the fleeing priests. As they do so, Porter secures the two immobile survivors in the room. First he takes care of the NecroMaster, taking his length of rope and tying the dwarf securely. He can see that, although the dwarf was badly burned by the lightning, there is no danger of his expiring from his wounds. Once he is sure that the NecroMaster is secure, he releases him from the iron bands, stowing the iron ball back in his pouch. He then cuts the rope in two with his sword and uses the rest of the rope on the held Nemotz priest. It takes him less than a minute before the priest is completely secured by the rope.

Meanwhile, Winnacer and Gristan head through the door in hot pursuit of the fleeing priests while the others get ready for any possible counter attack in the Temple. Upon running through the door, Winnacer and Gristan find themselves to be in some kind of a mortuary. The room is of similar dimensions to the temple in that it is 5' square. They see that the room is filled with open coffins and stone slabs containing dwarven bodies in varying states of decomposition. The stench coming from the room is terrible, and the LawBringer and the dwarf have to fight off the urge to vomit.

They pass through the tombs and slabs after the two fleeing dwarves and the Nemotz priests. The two dwarves are still very much panicked by the Fear and keep running until they reach the eastern wall of the room and find themselves at a dead end. At realizing that they have nowhere to run, they simply turn around and throw their hands up in the air in surrender.

The Nemotz priest turns and realizes that, with his right arm having been turned into a branch, he is powerless to fight and so he too decides that his only possible chance of survival is to surrender. He raises his left arm and the branch and nervously waits for the reaction of the dwarf and the LawBringer.

Winnacer turns to Gristan:

"Take care of the Smurtians as you feel fit. It is their creations that have leeched your soul."

Gristan grins, obviously delighted at being allowed to get his payback. The Smurt priests start to scream in terror as the dwarf advances upon them with axe in hand. It takes Gristan less than a minute to hack the two priests to pieces, laughing maniacally as he does so.

While Gristan takes care of the Smurtians, Winnacer pushes the Nemotz priest to the floor, standing over him with his eyes blazing with Spravedelna's Fury:

"Your plot has been unraveled, plague worshipper. Tell us where the vials are now!"

The scabby looking priest is petrified. He points to the north wall:

"Th-th-they're in the storeroom," he stutters. "P-p-please spare me."

The LawBringer simply shakes his head:

"Your guilt is overwhelming and your punishment predetermined. Prepare to meet your plague lord."

Winnacer then proceeds to behead the Nemotz worshipper. The priest starts to howl and beg for mercy, but it does not shake the young Lord's resolve and, with one almighty blow from 'Old Bohavia', Winnacer sends the priest's pock-marked face tumbling across the floor, leaving a trail of blood and pus in its wake.

Winnacer looks down on the body with a sneer. "Bastard" he exclaims before turning around to leave.

Not truly caring about where Winnacer ran off to, Faewen'il heads over to the bound NecroMaster and began prying at his thoughts, a sweet smile on her face as she did so. Knowing what she did from Bosco's book, it would be truly interesting to see what lay in his mind, and this opportunity didn't exactly present itself every day. Yaz watches as she does so, interested in finding out what the NecroMaster has to say.

The NecroMaster is trying to think clearly, but the terrible wounds from the lightning bolt have him in agony. He appears to know that he's doomed, but does not feel too much in the way of fear. It's more like he feels disappointment. He's cursing his rotten luck at being taken by surprise and not being able to summon the assistance of the zombies that they were in the process of creating before he was taken down.

Porter inquires of the Bastioness:

"Your ability to detect traps still going? If it is, can you help me sweep the room?"

She nods:

"Yes, it is still going, but not for much longer. If there are any more areas that we need to check, then I will need to do it quickly."

With that, she starts to chant once more and slowly begins to rotate. After a couple of minutes of nothing happening, she turns to face Porter:

"It seems to be clear of any traps in here."

Porter nods and proceeds to examine the room carefully. He starts with the dead dwarves in the center. They all appear to be fairly fresh corpses, with none of them having been dead much longer than a couple of weeks. The majority of them are quite young and appear to have died from either gunshot or stab wounds. They are dressed in normal clothes that show no particular signs of decomposition. Porter checks through their pockets to see if there is anything on them, but it appears that all valuables and the suchlike have been removed.

Once he has finished with the corpses, he investigates the dead priests. They each have the holy symbol of silver-coated shrunken skulls, but do not have anything else of value. The NecroMaster, however, is wearing a golden ceremonial chain from which dangles a number of golden carvings of miniature skulls. The chain was quite badly tarnished from the lightning bolt, but Porter can see that it must still be worth 300 gold pieces from the gold value alone. He also has a set of keys hanging from his belt, which Porter liberates from him.

He then proceeds to check upon the two remaining Nemotz priests, not wanting to touch them too much as he does so. He sees that they are only wearing their robes, with nothing of interest upon their persons.

Once all of the bodies have been searched, he starts to look around the temple and Yaz comes over and gives him a hand. There is very little of interest in there, however, and he finds no trace of any hidden compartments or secret doors.

At that point, Winnacer and Gristan return:

"The Nemotz priest told us that the vials of disease are in the storeroom, to the north of that room."

Porter nods:

"OK, then, let's go and check it out then."

They walk into the corridor and see the door at the eastern end that leads to the final room of the level. Porter takes a look at it:

"Well it's locked, but I guess that one of these keys on the NecroMaster's belt should open it."

The Bastioness chants as she faces the door. A glowing zigzag symbol shows up:

"It's trapped," she says, stating the obvious.

Porter replies:

"I'll be back in a moment."

The bounty hunter heads back into the main chamber and heads to the High Priest where he speaks to Fae:

"I gotta borrow him."

Porter then unties one of the High Priest's arms and loosens the ropes around his legs so that he can walk, but then gags the man. He grabs the priest by the neck in a rather painful grip and heads out of the room, saying to Gristan on his way out:

"Hey, Gristan, would you mind watching the corridor so we don't get jumped by any of the schmucks from the first floor?"

"Sure," Gristan replies. "If the bastards try, then I'm going to be ready for them."

Winnacer nods with approval:

"Good idea," he says.

He then turns to the MasterSmith:

"Perhaps you could go with him too," he adds.

"Fine," the MasterSmith replies.

As the two of them head towards the entrance, Winnacer calls after Gristan:

"Feel free to make some noise with that gunne if you see anything."

Gristan grins:

"Don't you worry, mate," he replies. "Making lots of noise is something I'm very good at."

Heading back to the trapped door, Porter draws his sword, placing it at the High Priest's back. He thrusts the keys into the dwarf's free hand, saying:

"Open the door."

"Why should I bother," the NecroMaster sneers. "You're just going to send me to my God right afterwards in any case. I heard the screams of the others."

Winnacer comes up to the pair of them:

"Hold on a minute," he says to the bounty hunter. "I'd like to ask him a few questions first of all or, more accurately, I'd rather that Faewen'il did."

"In any case," the young Lord continues, "such solutions are too risky. We do not know the nature or the range of the trap, and giving the priest the opportunity to claim one of us for Smurt with his own sacrifice may be too tempting for him to pass up. Also, somebody is going to have to stay with him, lest he manages some type of resistance, posing even more risk."

"Let us bypass the trap with magicks of our own rather than give the NecroMaster one last chance to please his god. Or perhaps we can toss one of the deceased priest's bodies at the door instead."

Porter replies:

"Well, let's get on with it then. We ain't got all night."

Winnacer then looks over at Faewen'il and she comes forward with amulet in hand.

"Could you ask the NecroMaster what other obstacles lay in our way," Winnacer asks her. "Whether there are other priests or monsters below; traps and so forth?"

Before Faewen'il can ask him, the NecroMaster starts to chant, closing his eyes as he does so. It does not seem to be a spell that he is casting, however.

Faewen'il translates Winnacer's questions into dwarven and attempts to put them to the NecroMaster. The dwarf pays no attention, however.

Faewen'il grasps the amulet and then shakes her head:

"He nae be listenin," she replies. "He jus be thinkin about dyin; what it will be like to finally meet his god."

The magess then looks at Winnacer and shrugs:

"Ye should kill him...he be o no help ta us now." she says, indicating the chanting dwarf with a delicate black silk gloved finger.

Winnacer looks deeply at the NecroMaster, allowing Spravedelna to Judge his soul. A look of disgust quickly overtakes his face:

"Be curious no longer, betrayer of your own people. Know that Spravedelna's Justice shall foil your desires, even beyond the grave."

Winnacer puts his foot to his back, pushing the Necromaster forward, exposing his neck:

"Spravedelna, hear my plea. Let not this dwarf find the embrace of his Dark Lord, but be scoffed and left to ponder his villainous mistakes for an eternity. Let him find no solace in Your Justice."

With eyes ablaze and teeth clenched, Winnacer brings the noble blade of 'Old Bohavia' down upon the priest's outstretched neck. The NecroMaster continued to chant throughout until he is silenced by Winnacer's noble blade that neatly hacks his head off, adding to Winnacer's growing tally of decapitated priests for the evening.

While Winnacer and Faewen'il attempt to question the NecroMaster, Porter gets tired of waiting and heads into the Mortuary. He comes back a moment later dragging the headless body of the Nemotz priest with the branch for an arm with him.

"Stand back, everyone," Porter says and then he hurls the body towards the door as hard as he can.

He is rewarded by seeing a great flash of light as the dead priest's body is fried by a tremendous blast of electricity. The priest's headless corpse falls to the ground where it smolders, filling the corridor with the stench of burning, putrid flesh.

Porter's face breaks into a smile as he says:

"That was cool. You actually had a good idea there, paladin-boy. By the way, if you wanted answers out of that High Priest, I could have gotten them for ya."

Winnacer, still looking a bit riled up, nods his head in approval:

"That seemed to work nicely. Let's go."

Fae turns away from the dead NecroMaster briefly and looks at Porter with a somewhat pleasant smile on her face:

"Nice touch."

It was probably the first words of praise any in the group had ever heard from Fae that smacked of anything close to being sincere.

The Bastioness does not seem to be as delighted as the rest of them, however:

"Now that you have finished congratulating each other, I'm afraid that I'm going to spoil things for you a little. The exercise with the dead priest hasn't removed the trap. It's still there, I'm afraid."

Porter smiles:

"You mean I can do it again?"

The Bastioness sighs:

"You can do it as many time as you like, but it's not going to get through the door."

"Oh very well..." Fae says in a somewhat disgusted tone of voice as she digs within the satchel that hangs from her shoulders. Her digging produces a simple wooden scroll tube from which she removes several rolled up pieces of parchment.

It takes her only a moment to isolate the one she wants before putting the others back inside the tube and placing that back in her satchel.

"Stand back," Fae says, though the warning is probably not needed.

Fae then begins to read off of the scroll.

After less than thirty seconds, Faewen'il finishes reading off the scroll and gestures towards the door. Not a lot seems to happen.

The Bastioness starts chanting once again and gestures towards the door and then she nods:

"Fine," she says. "That has got rid of the trap."

Porter heads toward the door with the NecroMaster's ring of keys in hand. He tries four of the keys in total before he finally finds the right one and the bolt is undone. He swings the door open and you all peer inside.

They don't see anything at first because it is totally dark inside. Porter takes one of the torches from outside in the corridor and leads them inside. Those of them who are expecting to find great riches inside are sorely disappointed, as the room seems to contain junk in the main. The room is some 30' square and fairly empty. There are shelves all around the side of the room that contain an assortment of items. Some of the items are mundane in nature and you see that there is a collection of tools, some rope and other general items. There are also some items for the temple including a large amount of torches, several large black candles as well as a pile of coal. They also see that there are several well-cut slab-stones plus some large glass jars filled with a greenish colored liquid of some kind. There are also some very fine pieces of wood there, a number of handles that look as if they would belong on a coffin and also some folds of fine black silk.

Fae takes note of the black silk, intent upon taking a bolt of it on her way out. It would make at least one nice gown and perhaps a nice blouse or two; and she certainly had need of more black clothing.

However, it is the item in the corner of the room that takes their attention. It is a black iron chest, which is some 4' long, 3' tall and 3' high. They all approach the box and stand around it.

The Bastioness starts her chant yet again before gesturing toward the box. Once again it starts to light up:

"Well, that's hardly a surprise," she says. "It's trapped."

Winnacer looks at the box with suspicion:

"Can you discern what kind of trap it is Porter? We still have those iron bars to pry it open, if the trap is in the lock."

Fae smirks and looks back at Porter.

"Care ta throw yar 'trap remover' at it?" she says sarcastically.

Porter ignores the magess' quip and carefully investigates the chest, being careful not to touch it in the process. He shakes his head:

"It looks totally magickal to me," he replies. "It hasn't even got a lock, you see? I'd imagine that they have is set so that it opens with a password. Any kind of forced entry could easily set off the trap."

He takes his bastard sword and touches it with it. Nothing happens and so he applies some greater force to it and sees it move a little under the pressure:

"It's actually not a heavy as I thought it would be. The contents inside must be quite light. It should be fairly easy to move it if we wanted to, as long as that didn't set the trap off."

"The chest is solid iron though," he continues. "Perhaps a blacksmith could get through the bottom or side of it, but I sure as hell can't."

"Perhaps we may wish to have a few words with our last prisoner," suggests Winnacer. "He may know the way to circumvent whatever booby trap they have in store for us."

Porter adds:

"Don't kill him right off this time; give me a bit of time to work."

They leave the storeroom for the moment and head back to the temple. They see that the effects of the MasterSmith's holding spell have now worn off, but that the Nemotz priest is firmly bound by Porter's rope.

Winnacer walks up to the priest with the rest of them following on:

"Tell us how to get into the chest," the LawBringer orders sternly.

"Only I can get you into the chest," the Nemotz replies a little cockily in a raspy voice filled with malice. "I'll make a deal with you. If you spare me, then I shall open it for you."

Faewen'il drops the amulet that she was holding:

"He be lyin," she whispers to you. "He be wantin ta set the trap off. It be releasing a cloud of gas tha causes a terrible rottin disease."

A look of irritation upon his face, Porter whips out his dagger and jams into the Nemotz priest's ear, twisting it back and forth while saying:

"I bet this hurts like hell, don't it? I can't even imagine the agony you must be going through. We can end this right off the bat with a straight answer."

The Nemotz priest starts to scream with agony as the blade of the dagger penetrates his ear and blood starts to ooze from it.

Winnacer's mouth drops slack as his eyes go shock wide. He steps forward, moving between Porter and the priest.

"We need not be animals here. There is no Justice in unnecessary cruelty, and I will not stand by and watch it. Torture is not needed here, at least not yet."

Winnacer lowers his voice to a whisper:

"We also may need some more, living, evidence to get the full support of Opava. We may need to keep one of the Nemotz alive."

Looking at Porter, Winnacer places his foot on the priest's back exposing his neck with ease from practice. He places 'Old Bohavia' on the nape of his neck, pushing ever-so-slightly down so the priest's face is kissing the floor:

"We know what thoughts run through your mind, plague worshipper. We also know all about the zombie plague, your ratmen allies, and the gas trap on the box. Do not try to deceive us again. For my patience with your kind is running thin, and I'm tempted to just leave you with my friend here. My blade would be merciful in comparison. Speak truly, and perhaps we can arrange for you to live to see tomorrow."

Porter watches as the paladin applies his own torture to the prisoner after interrupting Porter's work:

"Oh f*** this," is all the rogue says as he gathers his equipment. He reenters the storeroom, taking the rope off the shelf to replace the one used on the priests and the jars of green liquid out of curiosity.

The LawBringer watches the bounty hunter depart without commenting and then looks back down at the scabby looking priest:

"So what is your answer, unclean one? Are you to receive Spravedelna's Justice now as I end your miserable existence, or will you live to see another day by giving me the password?"

"V-v-very well," the priest replies, his ear still bleeding profusely. "If you swear on your goddess' name that you will spare me."

Yaz rolls his eyes:

"Guys, don't bother, it ain't worth it, not for the password anyway. I'll go rip open the chest. If I catch a disease I'll just cure it again. Nothing I ain't done before."

Winnacer shakes his head to the negative:

"No point in getting you sick again. We can do that if our prisoner refuses to cooperate."

Yaz sighs:

"Fine, if you want to do it your way, then do it your way. Just don't come running to me to cure you if it all goes wrong."

The druid crosses his arms and watches as Winnacer continues to address the Nemotz priest.

"One must survive to bear witness," Winnacer continues. "With your cooperation in all things asked, it shall be you. I promise upon the Just name of Spravedelna that your life will be spared by me, in return for your unconditional cooperation."

"However, even a thought of betrayal shall spell your doom. Your life hinges upon your honesty."

The Nemotz priest nods:

"Very well," he sighs. "If you can't trust a LawBringer then I suppose you can't trust anybody."

"I shall do it."

Faewen'il is still holding the amulet. She looks at Winnacer and nods as she detects that the priest appears to be telling the truth.

Winnacer checks to make sure that the priest is well tied around his arms, allowing his legs to be free for walking. He also ties a noose around his neck to serve as a leash, keeping a gag ready at all times.

"Now let's see about this chest."

The Nemotz priest has little choice but to follow the LawBringer out of the Temple, heading towards the storeroom.

As Winnacer, Faewen'il and Yaz walk into the corridor, Porter, having taken the rope and the containers of greenish colored liquid passes them saying:

"See ya."

"Hey, wait," Yaz calls after the fast-departing bounty hunter. "I was planning on checking out the Head Priest's room but I'm no good with traps and shit. You wanna come with me?"

Porter, still in a foul mood, agrees:

"OK, that's what I was planning on doing any way."

He then looks to the Bastioness:

"Do you fancy coming with me to see if there are any traps?"

The Bastioness shakes her head:

"I'm afraid that my trap-finding spell has expired now," she replies. "However, I am still willing to come with you. I have the ability to detect magick and so I could be of use to you there."

Yaz nods:

"I can do that trap finding spell too," the druid replies. "I asked Prirodna for it this morning."

The three of them head off leaving Winnacer and Faewen'il alone with the Nemotz priest.

Winnacer continues to lead the Nemotz priest to the storeroom, forcing him to stand before the iron chest. The LawBringer stands with 'Old Bohavia' pressed against the priest's back:

"I'm warning you," the young Lord says sternly to the priest, "any tricks and you die immediately."

The Nemotz priest sighs once again:

"Oh ye of little faith."

He then turns to the chest and speaks the word:

"Putrefaction."

Immediately there is a click, which startles both Winnacer and Faewen'il momentarily, as the lid of the chest opens. It then begins to slowly open magically until it is standing vertically.

A little hesitantly, Winnacer peers into the box. He sees that it is mostly filled with straw. However, underneath the top layer of straw, he can make out the fact that there are a number of plain looking transparent bottles containing a colorless liquid. The containers look very ordinary indeed, and could be mistaken for wine bottles. The only clue as to the real identity of the liquid inside comes from the fact that they have been packed incredibly carefully within the chest and are also sealed very securely.

The Nemotz priest shakes his head:

"Right, you've got what you came for now, so can I go now please?"

Winnacer cannot help but look surprised at the priest's nerve:

"How do we close the chest?"

The Nemotz looks towards the chest and utters the word:

"Gangrenous."

The lid of the chest obediently starts to descend before closing with a click.

The Nemotz priest looks at Winnacer and smirks:

"So have you got that, LawBringer?" he asks. "'Putrefaction' to open and 'Gangrenous' to close it. I just wanted to make sure because I've heard that Spravedelnans aren't the sharpest scalpels on the dissecting table."

Fae can't help but smile at the Nemotz priests comment.

Having heard enough of the priest's lip, Winnacer puts the gag back in place around the Nemotz priest's mouth:

"We are not finished with you quite yet, plague bearer. You have a lot of questions and a lot of people to answer to. I promised that death shall not claim you tonight, and thus I shall keep you alive as long as you cooperate. Now come along."

The Nemotz tries to make a response, but it is inaudible because of the gag.

Winnacer gives a tug on the noose-leash, and then leading the Nemotz priest behind him, he and Faewen'il walk out in order to find out what the others are up to.