The Nemotz Agenda Revealed

Taking a deep breath, the elf starts to investigate the objects inside the room. He starts off with the chest of drawers, believing it to be the most innocuous of the containers. He studies it carefully, but still believes that it is untrapped. Not wanting to take any risks, however, he stands back and slides the blade of Langzhan into the crack between the drawers. By applying a little downward pressure, he is able to open the top drawer a fraction. At no traps being triggered, he gets a little bolder and opens the drawer fully. Inside, he sees that the drawer contains nothing save for some clothing, being the same black and yellow robes that all of the priests that they have seen are wearing. He proceeds to open the other two drawers, but the results are the same, in that the chest contains only clothing. Using the point of Langzhan so as to avoid any chance of infection from the clothes, he rifles through it in case anything is hidden beneath the clothing, but there is nothing.

Jihan then moves on to the writing desk. He looks at the surface to see that it contains several quills, a small vial of ink and a few sheets of blank paper, plus a small dispenser of blotting powder, a candle and some sealing wax. He looks at the front of the desk then and sees that there is one slim drawer built into the table. Using his knife, he tries to open the drawer, but finds that it is locked. He investigates the lock carefully to look for traps, but cannot see any signs of such. He then takes his lockpicking set and starts to work upon it.

He works upon the lock for a couple of minutes and then grins to himself as the lock opens with a soft 'click'. He then uses the long knife once again to pull the slim drawer open. As it does so, he looks inside to see that the small drawer contains a folded piece of paper as well as a metal stamp.

He looks over towards Faewen'il:

"Could you please tell me whether there is anything magickal about this letter, sister?" he asks gingerly.

Faewen'il walks over and flicks her Witchfinder's wand over the paper, but the crystal does not flicker.

"It nae be magickal," she reports and walks back to join the others.

Jihan nods his thanks and investigates the paper more carefully. He sees that it is sealed with the emblem of a rat. He picks up the stamp that was lying next to the letter and looks at it, seeing that it has the same symbol upon it and thus was the implement to create the seal.

Jihan then slides the blade of the knife under the seal and slowly unfolds it. He sees immediately that it is a letter. He starts to read it slowly, his eyes opening wider and wider as he does so.

Winnacer sees his surprise and calls over to him:

"What does it say?"

Jihan shakes his head and then proceeds to read the letter:

"Dear Lord Skritchit," the elf starts, "I am delighted to report to you that the results of our joint ventures continue to bear bounteous fruit, as we have been able to accomplish much over the past few months."

"Firstly, I would like to once again thank you for your continued assistance with our plans. The labor that you were kind enough to provide for us are as diligent in their work and obedient to His orders as they are mine. The substances and materials that you were willing to provide to us have also made all of the difference to our experiments and He and I have been delighted at the progress we have been able to make in this time. The diseases that our researchers have been able to concoct have surpassed even Our greatest expectations in terms of their virulence, contagiousness and deadliness. Once you have successfully completed your current agenda, then I would very much like to invite you here once more in order to show you the latest advances in our research."

"However, I understand that this is of secondary importance to you and you are eager to discover word as to whether we have been able to keep our part of the agreement. As I assured you, despite your hesitations, we have indeed been successful in our actions and are able to deliver all that we promised you."

"It is with great delight that I am able to inform you that we have now been able to perfect the formula for the disease XD-347, more commonly known by us both as the 'zombie slave plague'. I am happy to report that the earlier problems with the liquid's telltale odor and color have now been solved to ensure that the liquid is now completely undetectable by anything other than magickal means. In addition, we have been able to make two other improvements to the formula. The first is that we have increased the virulence of the liquid so that results are complete within seven days' time, and the second is that we have been able to enhance it so that anyone applying the infected liquid to the skin will be effected. Thus, those not drinking infected water can be infected by simply using the waters to bathe in. Knowing the drunken stunted mutants' love of ale, we thought this to be an important feature."

"Dunken stunted mutants!" Gronk yells. "Bloody hell! We be seein' who be stunted when 'ey ain't go no legs under 'em."

"Sir, together the results of the research by Your and Our staff, we have been able to develop the deadliest waterborne virus ever seen in this realm," Jihan adds

Xavier snorts with anger..., his hand goes white upon the hilt of his blade.

"As it took us longer than we expected to perfect the formula we have gone ahead with the next step of our agreement," Jihan continues to read. "On 4 December, members of my staff set off for the city, taking all our production of the virus with them. This should give them more than a week inside the city in order to infiltrate the place thoroughly and locate all the sources of water supply within the city. As promised, they will then start to poison all of the wells on St Vaclav's Day, when the city will be enjoying the festivities and their guard will be relaxed. With the onset time of seven days, the city's populace should be completely at your mercy when your gallant servants break through into the city as the clock heralds the dawning of a new year - the year that will see Nemotz restored to His Rightful Place in the realm as the city becomes the first of many to belong to Him."

"As always, I remain your obedient servant, Yours Truly, High Priest Zdenyek Spalek."

The room falls quiet for a moment as Jihan finishes reading the letter.

Xavier then explodes with anger, his emotions no longer controlled by his strength of will:

"F***ING WHORESONS, DAMN THEM TO HELL, even the f***ing Iron Guard had more morality than that! Biological warfare is an outrage. Whoever is responsible for this shall drown in their own blood before the month is out. KILL EVERY DAMN ONE OF THEM, I SAY!!! NONE SHALL ESCAPE MY BLOODY VENGEANCE! Zdenyek Spalek, you can run, you bastard, but as Rodengast is my witness, you shall die by my hand. "

Will scratches his chin in thought and ponders the names and nuances from the letter.

"This... this is horrible!" the elf inserts after Xavier's outburst. "I had thought that Nemotz had dabbled his gnarled, diseased fingers into the Nyemetz front to slay their foes, but this..."

Shaking his head, Jihan quickly peruses the letter one more time, planting the names and details into his mind, and then looks around at the rest.

"These 'drunken stunted mutants'," he continues, "sound suspiciously like what Nyemetz would call dwarves. No offense intended brother," with a look towards Gronk. "Dwarves sound like the only freemen of this sort in Bohavia who would be living in a city and allowed to celebrate St. Vaclav's day... Does anyone know of a Lord Skritchit serving as Protektor to any of the cities of the Sudeten region? The name escapes me..."

"Lord Skritchit?" the Padre says to himself while scratching his chin, "it don't sound like th' name of a dwarf t' me. It don't sound like a Bohavian, an elf nor a Nyemetz either. Doesn't seem t' really fit with any names that I've ever heard uttered in this country afore."

"Even worse would this be, if he is speaking of Kutna Hora," the elf continues. "What better need for a docile enchanted slave labourer but in mining? By the Three, but this calls for attention. We'll really have to try and squeeze these äpärä for more information when we catch up with them. Can this plague be cured? Reversed?"

The Padre shakes his head:

"No, Jihan, Kutna Hora it certainly isn't. I don't know the Sudeten too well, but I know a lot of what's been going on in Central Bohavia. The Lord Protektor o' Kutna Hora's no Lord Skritchit. The Lord Protektor o' Kutna Hora is a vile half-orc who goes by the name o' .. . the name escapes me for the moment, but it certainly isn't a Lord Skritchit."

"In any case, I can't quite see why any Nyemetz Lord Protektor would want to turn all of his citizens into zombies. Just doesn't make sense to me."

"I didn't say he had to be a Lord Protektor, just someone of power within such a city," the elf replies. "You're right in that the name sounds like nothing of Bohavian origin... Strange."

Still pondering the issue, the elf taps his chin with the folded letter, his arms crossed:

"I am not as familiar with the cities of the north as I would like, as my dealings were mostly to the south. I wonder who these 'gallant' servants of this Lord are, and just why a city of dwarves would be chosen as a staging ground for a Nemotz movement. If Skritchit is not of the Nyemetz either, perhaps our 'friends' here have been doing somewhat of a double dealing, using the Nyemetz funding for their own agenda. There are no cities in Bohavia free of the Nyemetz influence, why would they have the need to break down the walls? If the Nemotz scum are working for the Nyemetz foes... People who would not value the citizens as the Nyemetz do for economical reasons... And the letter says 'Your and our staff'. More of the Nemotz 'cells' here that our charmed friend spoke of outside of Myto? This could perhaps be a thing more sinister than we had ever believed."

Shrugging his shoulders helplessly, Jihan frowns and continues:

"This is a matter that definitely requires more information and less speculation..."

"As for whether it'd be possible to cure everyone o' such a disease," the Padre continues, shaking his head, "it's possible th't a few might be cured, but only a handful o' priests in each Church have th' power o' curin' disease, and then only once or twice per day. If th' disease is not cured before it is fully implemented, then 't will be too late."

'If 't was spotted immediately, then I reckon a hundred or so folk might be cured, but that'd jus' be a drop in the ocean out o' th' many thousands that live in any o' th' dwarven cities."

Nodding his head grimly, Jihan sighs, pocketing the letter in question as it becomes apparent no one else wishes the task of carrying it.

His eyes filling up with worry, the elf stares about the room, hands showing the letter to any who would read it themselves, then folding it up carefully:

"Zombie slaves... I pray that this is not the fate of Mirek and his poor Zuzana. Dealing with these priests may prove a more daunting task then we believed, if they have enslaved the minds of innocents to battle for them. We may find that we have to subdue a whole village's population of unfortunates in their filthy sanctum. We should be especially careful to avoid all and any liquids we come across, though the seven day time window is some small assurance."

Winnacer sucks a deep breath in between his teeth as he shakes his head slowly back and forth:

"Three days. We missed them by three days."

Winnacer reflexively grinds his teeth:

"Such an evil, if uncontained, could spread further than the borders of one city. Such a nefarious plot I've never heard of before, so outrageously in defiance of what is Just."

"We must press on at once and lay low whomever laid the ink upon this parchment. This Zdenyek Spalek has many questions to answer, and by Spravedelna, I shall have the truth from him."

Winnacer quiets down for a few minutes, thinking to himself. Soon, he starts to wonder out loud:

"From how it sounds, the city they plan on releasing this foul plague should be a two week ride from here, give or take a couple of days. It also will be notably populated with dwarvenkind. Some of you are quite well-traveled, what cities would fit that profile?"

The Padre interjects as he listens to Winnacer's words:

"Although I might not know tha' much about t' Sudeten, I know's 'nough t' put us in t' right direction. Although Sudeten stretches from t' western borders o' Bohavia t' th' east, nearly all th' dwarfs live either in th' north west of th' region or th' north east. Th' stretch in between, around by Hradetz and Dvur, ye'll only find a few villages."

"No minerals, y'see," he adds by way of explanation. "All th' coal, iron ore, gold an' gems are either in th' east or west, so there ain't much to interest 'em in th' middle."

"Now, if ye's sayin' th't they would need t' be in place jus' two weeks or so from 'ere, which makes sense t'me, ye can forget about th' west o' th' country, which is where most o' th' dwarves live, as they couldn't get there in th't time. So it looks as if 't mus' be th' eastern areas, which 'ould take 'em a couple o' weeks by cart."

"From wh't I remember, there's jus' three cities in th't area wit' a big dwarven population. Opava's th' smallest, p'raps 3-4,000 people, an' they's all dwarfs - completely underground th't city. Th' biggest city in th' region is Ostrava, wit' about 15,000 folks there in total. That's about two thirds dwarfs, coal miners the most o' them, although there's a fair few humans living above ground on the river bank. Then there's Fridek-Mistek, if ye can count that. Used to be all dwarven, but th' humans have pretty much taken over th' place over the past 'undred years, an' now there's about 3,000 humans there compared t' only about 1,000 dwarves. Good beer they brew there."

Bennett nods:

"That sounds very practical to me. However, how we get there in time to stop it is problematic. Looks like a forced ride once we find out the wheres and whats of it all from the high priest. That's if we can take him alive, which won't be fun, I'm sure. We also will need to figure out what to do if we don't take him alive. I think the only option in that case is to go to the big city, Ostrava, as that's probably the most attractive target, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

The Padre then falls silent and gives a little shrug:

"It be one 'o them three from the evidence we got from th' letter."

Upon Jihan's reading, Bennett offers up his opinion of things:

"Well, it appears that the Nyemetz and the Nemotz share more than similar names, huh? It seems their relationship works for both of them. I would venture to say that this plot against the dwarves is something that would be very beneficial to the cause if it was stopped, yes? We haven't managed to garner their support in our revolution as of yet, but if we managed to keep a whole city of them from being enslaved, I'd wager that might get them up and fighting, and a dwarf is typically worth about two or three humans. Yes, I think we have to stop this for our benefit and theirs. However, we'll need more information, like who this Skritchit fellow is, what city they are going after, and who and what is involved. Therefore we need to take the High Priest alive, I think."

Jihan then turns his attention to the chest at the foot of the High Priest's bed. He checks it over for traps, but still sees no trace of any. Carefully, he tries the lock, but finds that it is locked. Once again he pulls forth his trusty set of tools and sets to work upon the lock. This time, however, he has no luck, even after spending more than five minutes attempting the task.

The elf looks a little sad at this:

"I'm sorry, but this lock is quite a bit more sophisticated than the one on the writing table."

He then pulls forth his crowbar:

"However, I'm sure that Old Bessy won't have a problem in getting through. The chest doesn't look that well constructed."

He turns the chest around and then places the crowbar underneath the edge of the first of the hinges. With just a little exertion, he starts to hear the fibers of the wood tearing before the hinge peels away. He then starts upon the second hinge, and finds that it comes away just as easily. With both hinges now gone, Jihan places the edge of the crowbar under the lid and pushes down upon it for a moment.

He then starts to hear a gentle hissing sound emerging from the box just as he starts to smell a faint odor.

"GAS!" he screams out before starting to run for the door, screaming his head off.

The rest of them look at the rapidly departing elf in surprise and alarm, before starting to head for the door. The gas is faster, however, and they can all smell the sickly odor emanating from the chest. The majority of the party start to panic before following Jihan's lead and run out of the room screaming, running back through the darkness back into the temple, before continuing to run up the stairs away from the temple.

"Run away! Run away!" Jihan cries, clutching at his throat and coughing as he stumbles in his terror, pumping his slender elven legs as fast as they can go.

Xavier bolts for the door as fast as his legs can carry him, covering his nose and mouth with a fold of his cloak. Muffled cries come from his lips as he shouts:

"Get out, Faewen'il!"

Winnacer, Gronk and Aneira, however, simply watch the others running away in astonishment. They can smell the gas the same as the others can, but have no idea as to why it has caused the reaction amongst the others that it has done.

After watching the others depart, Winnacer turns to face Aniera:

"It's a good thing that wasn't a poisonous gas. Useless risk. The only things we truly need to defeat any evil is the courage in our hearts and our faith in our Gods. Not trinkets locked away in a box."

Aneira looks carefully at the man and in a very quiet tone of voice she says:

"Winnacer, you did not know what was in that box any more than I did. And what was in it did not harm any of us. If you truly believe your words, remove any magic you have from your person, any armor and shield you carry, any weapon you bear, and use only the goodness in your heart to defeat the priests of the plague. For all you knew, the antidote to the plague could have been in here, or some weapon we could use to LESSEN our danger in this fight. Your whining that this COULD have been a danger is no more useful than me pointing out it could have been a boon. And, until you walk naked with only the goodness in your heart as your defense into battle, I will name you hypocrite, for trying to shame me and any others in this group into not wanting anything that can end the corruption of these priests more quickly and even to protect ourselves while so doing. I personally don't think that is unreasonable. This interlude did not harm anyone. And we can talk in what might have beens for days and accomplish nothing. As you said, arguing about this is pointless--though you continued to remonstrate with me. However, I would expect you to at least respect the beliefs of the others in this group, just as we are expected to respect yours. I don't feel that is too much to ask. If you want mindless automatons at your service, you should get hirelings."

Winnacer then walks over to gather the terrified members of the party and calm their nerves. Aneira then fell silent, pensively watching the man go to comfort the others just as he set out to discomfort her.

While Winnacer walks off in order to find out where the others are going, Gronk takes a look inside the chest that Jihan abandoned so quickly. He sees that the box contains an unholy symbol of a large rat, similar to the ones which all of the other priests were wearing. This appears to be a far more ornate version, however. Upon looking closely at it, he sees that it appears to be made of platinum rather than the pewter versions that the regular priests seem to use. It also has two small rubies that represent the rat's eyes. The rat symbol is resting upon a 'bed' of some incredibly high quality black silk.

Gronk looks over to Aneira:

"D'ya think it's gonna be OK to take it?" Gronk asks the ice priestess, nervous of ending up the same way as Yaz did earlier.

"If anything were to happen to you, then I will cure you immediately," Aneira replies.

Gronk nods and cautiously picks up the rat symbol. To his relief, the action seems to have no adverse effects upon him.

He then takes up the folds of silk that fill most of the chest. Upon doing so, he sees that the bottom of the chest is lined with an assortment of tiny gemstones, some 30 in total. Gronk's eyes gleam a little at the sight and he scoops them up and puts them in his pouch.

Seeing that the chest is now empty, Gronk turns to Aneira once more:

"So whatcha think we should do now?"

Aneira shrugs and sighs:

"I suppose that we should go and see what has happened to them."

With that, the dwarf and the priestess head out of the room, only to find the rest of the party returning through the darkened area, all of them still looking rather spooked, along with Winnacer.

As is usual, Fae stays as far from Winnacer as she can. She can be seen to be assuring Xavier that no harm has come to her.

Xavier's eyes meet those of Faewen'il, and his look of concern fades. He smiles, content that she is unaffected by the potential altercation.

"Th-th-the g-g-gas?" Jihan stutters. "I-I-is it still in there?"

Gronk has a good sniff:

"'Fraid so," he reports.

"W-w-w-well I'm not going back in there again," Jihan replies. "Are you three all right? How could you hold your breath that long? You took the brunt of it, it appears..."

Shaking as if chilled, the elf holds a corner of his cloak over his nose, peering at the room in suspicion and fear:

"Were you able to drag the rest of the stuff out?"

From the expressions on everyone's faces, none of them are terribly keen on re-entering the room either.

"I 'ad a look inside the box," Gronk says to Jihan. "I found all this stuff."

He shows his findings around. Jihan, calming down slightly, examines them closely:

"The rat symbol is worth quite a bit, simply because of its platinum content," he says as he casts his eye over the piece. "I would imagine that it would fetch 500 gold pieces were we to sell it."

"This silk, he continues, "is also very valuable. Silk of this quality must have come all the way from the Orient, so I would imagine that it would fetch 200 gold pieces at least."

He then looks at the gemstones:

"These are all very small and the quality is poor," he says with a sigh as he holds several of them up to the light. Still, there are a lot of them. I'd put their value as 750 gold pieces altogether."

After Jihan's evaluation of the loot, there is a pause, which is eventually broken by Winnacer.

"There must be another secret door somewhere. Let us look for it."

He then falls silent for a few seconds before looking at Yaz:

"Would it be feasible for a group of priests to open up a wall and close it behind them? That would ensure that we could not easily follow them. We should check the walls for depth of stone as well as for secret passages."

Yaz shrugs, with a grimace of pain as he does so:

"I dunno really," he says. "If their spell came from Prirodna it'd take a full minute for them to make a hole, and another minute to seal it. But they worship Nemotz... I bet there's a faster escape anyway."

"Hmmm..." Jihan adds, peering around the room. "If the door wasn't in the High Priest's quarters, then I'm almost positive the real door's got to be somewhere in the other room, the private chapel. Let's all head over there and take a look at it."

The rest of them nod in agreement as few are keen on re-entering the room with the gas and so they follow the elf through the storage room in the center, through into the private chapel opposite. They all look around them, seeing the altar on the opposite wall before the tapestry. They also look at the 8' diameter white circle of inlaid stones in the center of the room, wondering what its function may be.

Jihan looks around with the rest of them before starting to give his thoughts:

"The key may lie in the altar... I figure that the priests don't feel half as repulsed as we do to approach it. That might be a safeguard from the mercs getting down under to disturb their work. That circle on the floor... It doesn't look like one dweomeister's use for summonings, like I saw in some of Boscobelous' books back in his tower all those weeks ago. Perhaps the secret lies with both of them together, somehow or another."

Looking carefully at the inlaid circle in question, Jihan carefully scans the roof for any suspicious looking falling bricks, but sees none, then returns his attention to the floor. From there squinting in an attempt to examine the altar more closely, he pauses as a thought strikes him:

"Fae," he asks, "do you still have those spectacles of magnifying that we found on the Witchfinder outside of Heimlin's grotto? If we can't get too close to the altar, they might be just what we need to examine it more closely from a little further away, and the floor as well."

He spends a while investigating the circle, finding nothing of interest and then proceeds to investigate the altar closer. Yaz too sets about looking for a secret door in the east room, trying hard to stay out of embarrassing trouble. As Jihan comes closer to the altar, he tries to fight off the intense feeling of nausea that it gives him, unfortunately, without success. He tries to look for as long as he can before the nauseous feelings become too much for him, but he misjudges the effects and is unable to avoid vomiting up the contents of his stomach, which splatter onto the dull, flat black floor of the chapel in front of the altar.

The Padre looks on at this in alarm and strides up towards him:

"Let me be 'avin' a look't ye, Jihan. We don't wan' ye struck down wit' a disease that ye don't be knowin' of."

He investigates the now extremely pale looking elf for a moment, but then nods his head in relief:

"'Tis alright. Ye 'aven't been struck down wit' anythin'."

While Jihan is searching, Bennett speaks with Xavier:

"Xav, old buddy, I'm sure I could rework that shield in the other room so you could use it same as I did with the other one. All I'll need is access to a forge in Olmutz and a day or so. You interested?"

"Yah, mein freund the loss of your work saddens me. This damn hand of mein," Xavier continues shaking the three fingers of his left hand under Bennett's face, "makes shield work difficult. I have not the damn grip to wield one properly. Your leathercraft and smith vork vas of great benefit. If you could put your skills to work again, I would be most appreciated."

Bennett nods:

"I would be happy to do that for you, Xavier, first chance we get. Until we get your armor back you need all the protection you can get."

Bennett grabs the shield and gives it to Xavier, paying attention to how he holds it and what modifications are necessary.

Jihan sighs with relief at being told that there are no long-term effects from the altar, but then shakes his head:

"If the door's not in here, then it's got to be in the preparation room with the wash basins, maybe behind or underneath those boxes of candles. I can't imagine the high priest would want people tromping through his personal quarters. Either that or it's somewhere on the walls of the passage behind the large altar in the chapel of filth. Let's take a look at things a little more closely. They had to have gone SOMEWHERE in here, unless they could use pure dweomers to move about, though I doubt that any barring the high priest would be wielding enough power for that to be accomplished. I'd guess that this passage would have to be fairly large, if they're transporting all sorts of people down it."

"Hmmm..." the elf mutters, continuing with the search.

"Unless..." he says, perking up a little, "it's somewhere within the magickal darkness they cast out there. We just went through it without being able to look at things closely. I wonder how long it will take for the enchantment to wind down..."

Winnacer, like the rest of the group, begins to pour over the features of the church. He watches as certain members of the group comment upon the circle, wearing a little frown, obviously having no idea what to really make of the arcane ring.

Moving away from the group, Winnacer starts to look at the building as one object rather than scrutinizing each individual piece. His eyes fall upon the entryway connecting the church proper to the back chambers. He calls out to Jihan:

"Perhaps the secret passage does lies within the bridge at the rear of the church. With the darkness covering their escape, they could have easily passed through a hidden door there."

Winnacer walks over himself to that area, and peers at the walls with an obviously clueless look. Mimicking Jihan and Gronk, Winnacer starts to tap on the walls, floor, and ceiling not exactly sure what he's doing. As a result, it is hardly surprising that his efforts amount to nothing.

Gronk stifles a quiet chuckle at seeing Winnacer trying to find another secret door. He joins Winnacer in checking out the area. After a few taps he speaks as he continues to check:

"All in da ears, it is. Ya gots ta know what ta be listenin' for. Sometimes it not be much o' a change ya be tryin' ta find."

Meanwhile, however, seeing that there seems to be no hidden doors in the room, Yaz inspects the candelabra briefly before the feeling of nausea threatens to overwhelm him in the same way it did Jihan. He sees that there is little unusual about the candelabra, and that they are not particularly valuable, being made of iron rather than any precious metals.

The druid then moves over to investigate the circle on the floor. He gently touches the edge of the white circle with his now fully recovered fingers:

"This could be the door," he says. "A magical one. Circles are powerful things..."

Yaz then returns to the altar where he takes the candelabra and places it in the center of the circle to see what happens.

Although he is somewhat relieved at the action not vaporizing him or any similar type of disaster, he is disappointed to see that nothing terribly exciting happens either.

He turns away from the circle with a look of disappointment on his face:

"Well, worth a try, I guess."

Gronk is staring at the circle with a thoughtful look upon his face, however:

"'Ang on a minute," he says.

The dwarf then picks up the candelabra and starts to tap it in the center of the circle, listening carefully at the tone. He taps it in several places within the circle, the sound remaining constant. He then starts to tap in several places outside the circle, still listening to the sound it makes. To the majority of you, the sound is exactly the same as it was inside the circle, but those with elven blood can just make out the fact that it sounds just a fraction deeper in tone.

Gronk taps inside the circle again another couple of times and then nods his head:

"Aye, it's definitely 'ollow inside the circle. There's still four or five foot o' rock to get through, but it's less than anywhere else on the floor."

"I knew the circle had something to do with it..." Jihan says, squatting down on the ground. "The Nemotz filth must have been well funded indeed to construct such delicate mechanisms all about their temple, especially stoneworks like this. Can you see any seams along the edges of the circle, brother?" he asks of Gronk.

"It seems to me that they did not use magical transportation, as they must have their experimental victims down here somewhere," adds Bennett. "Therefore a manual entryway must exist. There must be a way through that circle. Gronk, can you figure out how to get through it?"

Gronk nods and kneels down and takes a look at the edge of the circle. He spends a couple of minutes looking all around the rim, shaking his head as he does so. He then rises and reports to Jihan:

"No, nothin'," he says with a little disappointment. "Mind you, there weren't no cracks what none of us could see on that secret door in the other room neither. No, this one's magickal o' some kind, like the other, I reckon, Bent. I've 'eard about these sneaky magickal doors. Sneaky bastards cover 'em by magickal means, make yer do stupid things to open 'em."

"Looks like we might need to do another trigger mechanism search, folks," Jihan adds with a sigh as Gronk falls silent.

All are quiet for a moment and then Jihan speaks to Fae:

"If Gronk's right and the portal is magickal, then perhaps we might get a clue if anything in the room radiates magic. Would you mind using your Witchfinder's rod once again in order to see if anything in here is magickal, Fae?"

Faewen'il simply nods, flicks the rune on the rod and starts to scan the room. She starts off by scanning the circle before them all. Sure enough, the crystal starts to glow to show that it is indeed magickal. She then starts to rotate, pointing the wand around her as she does so. As it rests upon the altar, it glows once more, hardly surprising considering the effect that it had upon Jihan's breakfast earlier. Then, somewhat more surprisingly, the crystal starts to glow brightly as she points toward one of the small bronze gongs which hangs from a small rack to the right of the altar.

Aneira walks carefully up to the small gong:

"Shall I?" she asks softly.