The Death Of Jihan

8 DECEMBER 3460

Dawn broke sooner than any of them expected and so it was already mid-morning before those not on the last watch finally awoke and began their preparations for the day. The three priests all headed out through the hole, onto the barren banks of the island in order to make their devotions to their gods, not wanting to perform the morning rites in the Temple of a rival god. As they did so, the warriors saw to their weapons and armor, which had been tested to the full the previous day and, in all likelihood, will be tested again during the day.

As the warriors eat breakfast taken from the rations taken from below, the three priests return. Upon his return, the Padre takes a look over the conditions of everyone. As a result of everyone drinking one of the healing salves before they fell asleep, the bodies' natural healing has been accelerated a little, but such are the state of most of the injuries sustained that there is still much work for the priests to be done.

Kokal and Aneira go through each of the party in turn selecting those that are most in need of healing and then casting the familiar healing rituals. Gronk gets the lion's share of the healing, as he is in the worst shape. He receives two moderate blessings from the Padre and one from Aneira, leaving him back in full health. The majority of the others get just one or two blessings each, depending upon the severity of their wounds.

It takes several minutes until Kokal and Aneira have gone through everyone, healing in order of severity. They are looking quite drained by the time that they have finished, casting a total of 11 healing spells between them. Apart from Gronk and Bennett, who survived through the whole of the previous day, no one is fully healed by the time that the priests have finished, although the majority of wounds remaining are only minor. As usual, Aneira refused to see to her own wounds, using her spells only upon the others.

"That'll 'ave to be ye lot for th' moment," Kokal says. "I be 'avin' jus' one minor 'ealin' spell left an' the priestess be 'avin' two more. We need to keep somethin' back in case someone comes off bad durin' th' fight, so we don't want t' be usin 'em all now."

Winnacer thanks the two priests for their attention and then looks at the rest of the party:

"So, are we all ready to finish them off?"

"We need to see to the refugees before we descend once more," says Jihan, in a much better frame of mind after a good night's reverie.

Winnacer nods:

"Yes, I can see that they are going to be a major burden upon us unless we decide what we are going to do about them now. There's no way that we can move them all to safety with just the one wagon."

"Does anyone know how we are for food supplies?"

"There be a fair bit left in the mercs' kitchen," replies Gronk, still stuffing his face with his breakfast. "Ain't gonna last forever, but should be enough for a week or two, I reckon."

Winnacer nods once more:

"That should be enough. We should leave them here and make all haste to Olmutz once we have seen to the demise of its foul inhabitants. The first thing that we should do upon reaching Olmutz is to alert the Cathedral of Lechit there as to the situation and implore them to send a mission in order to finish cleansing the place and take the refugees to safety."

"While we are down there, we should ensure that they are looked after. Perhaps we should bring the squires over in order to care for them. In any case, they must be fearing for our safety, as we have not sent word to them of our position in the past 24 hours."

Bennett sighs:

"Well I'm not waiting any longer," he says grumpily. "I'm going down now. I'm not waiting around to nursemaid some spoiled women."

"Let me ask Marek to do it," interjects Aneira. "Once he has brought the squires and Oldrich over, he can join Mirek at the head of the magickal staircase."

The others nod and so Aneira has a word with Marek and he readily agrees to summon the squires. While she does so, Yaz goes and checks upon his two remaining mosquitoes. Seeing that one of them is still badly beaten up, he starts to cast a healing spell upon the giant insect that goes a fair way to returning the insect to full health. The two mosquitoes follow him as he returns to the party. He also summons Mirek the merc who also joins the party.

"OK," the druid says upon his return, "let's do this thing."

With that, they then set off for what they hope will be their final mission in the Temple. They all assemble at the head of the staircase and remove all of the pews and other furniture with which they secured the main doors down to the main Temple below. Once all of the furniture has been removed, Jihan opens the doors and peers through. All seems to be as they left it and so Jihan opens the doors wide and starts to descend.

Yaz urges the mosquitoes forwards in order that they act as advance scouts, just in case the remaining occupants of the place have any more tricks left at their disposal.

They walk through the main temple area without incident, however, seeing everything exactly how they left it. They walk past the altar with everyone, most especially Yaz, keeping well clear of it and then walk through the corridor behind it into the priests' preparation area.

As they turn left to head into the small chapel, Jihan looks back to the High Priests' room with longing eyes:

"Don't forget about those two remaining chests that we haven't opened yet," he says. "We should investigate them before we leave this place."

They carry on into the blackness of the chapel and Aneira once more takes the hammer and strikes the gong. As before, the circle in the center of the room starts to descend and they see the magickal stairs starting to form once more. Winnacer lights up his lantern once again and they start to descend the 100' down into the murky room below.

The mosquitoes willingly fly down the hole, anxious to return 'home' to the filthy waters from which they came. Jihan follows after them, carefully descending the hovering stairs. After a few minutes, they are all safely standing in the filthy waters in the room below. Mirek the merc is, once again, instructed to remain on the bottom step and to await their return, which the merc is happy to do. They then set off once more, wading through the calf-high waters heading onwards to the final level. They pass through the disgusting display of corpses as they continue to head north through to the final staircase.

As they get to the first crossroads, Yaz breaks off from the rest of them and heads up the western staircase, leading to the room from which they can still hear the weeping of more victims:

"We can't leave them here," he says. "I think that we should free them before we finish off the priests."

Bennett mutters something under his breath. It's obvious that his adrenaline is pumping and he's ready to deal with the priests. Now.

They follow the druid up the stairs and see that the situation with the door is unchanged. They can still see that the glyph protecting the heavy iron door is in place.

"First thing that we need to do is spike the chain in the secret room to make sure that the block doesn't fall on us," the druid says, already heading through the secret door in order to access the chain.

"Hey, Winn, you got those nails?" Yaz asks.

Winnacer takes off his backpack and hands the druid a fistful of nails. The druid takes the nails and inserts them carefully into the chain. He places the whole fistful of nails through one of the links in the chain until they are all wedged in tight. He then steps back to admire his handiwork:

"Yeah," he nods, "that should hold it OK."

He then returns with the others who are all staring at the door:

"Right," Yaz says, "all we need to do is get through it now."

"And how are we going to do that?" asks Jihan. "Even if the glyph has been rendered ineffective through spiking the chain, there's still no guarantee that I'll be able to get through the door if it's locked."

"Zima has blessed me with one spell that has the potential of undoing magick," Aneira says. "I was hoping to keep it in reserve ready for the big battle later, but it might help to get rid of the glyph now so that Jihan can check the door. There's no guarantee that it is going to work, however."

Gronk has been back in the secret room while the others have been looking at the door. He returns to report his findings:

"The wall be'ind the chain's only two o' three feet thick there. It must lead into the room. If yer got another o' them stone bendin' spells, druid, then we could avoid the door altogether."

Winnacer looks at Yaz:

"I think that this would be the best method of securing entry to the room, if you're willing, Yaz."

"OK," the druid replies. "If you're sure that you don't want to save it for later on."

Yaz returns to the secret room and produces a small ball of clay, which he starts to mold into a pancake shape while starting to utter an incantation. The others gather round to watch him complete the task. Yaz continues to chant for around a minute, before he finishes the ensorcellment by slapping the pancake of clay against the wall. As he does so, the stone of the wall starts to dematerialize as the stone folds back on itself, forming a hole some four feet in diameter.

They all peer through the hole curiously and look in to see a room some 50' long and 30' wide. The room is totally empty and is dimly lit by one continual light spell in the center of the roof. At the far end of the room is another door. There are no captives within this room, but the sound of crying is louder now and seems to be coming from beyond the door.

Jihan looks carefully at the room and shakes his head as he investigates the floor carefully:

"Well someone definitely does not want us in here," he says. "Look at the floor. It's covered in pressure plates."

The rest of them look carefully at where Jihan is pointing. The pressure plates are hard for most of the party members to make out, but most of them are able to see smaller slabs of slate in amongst the larger slabs.

"I wonder what they do?" he asks himself.

He then calls over to Winnacer:

"I wonder if I could borrow your lance for a moment."

Winnacer immediately passes the lance to him and Jihan takes it and uses the tip of it to press against the nearest of the pressure plates. Immediately that he does so, ten darts fly out from the ceiling from a number of different angles that would easily have caught anyone standing on the plate. One of the darts imbeds itself into the wooden lance. Jihan hauls the lance back in and investigates the dart closely and sees that the small dart is coated with a black substance:

"Poison," he says to himself. "Very nasty."

He looks at the floor once again trying to see all of the pressure points:

"It should be possible to cross it carefully," he says, "but it's still very dangerous for those who are not so fleet of foot."

He looks at them all in turn:

"I think that I should be able to cross it, if I'm very careful. I shall mark my course out with chalk so that the rest of you can follow me in once I get to the other end."

He reaches into his pouch and produces a piece of chalk along with one of the small vials that he obtained from the Guildmistress in Vysoky Myto:

"Hopefully, I won't need it," he says nervously, "but just in case."

He then takes a deep breath and then starts to carefully make his way across the floor of the room, stopping every couple of feet to make a dash on the floor with the chalk. It takes him a couple of minutes to navigate his way across each 10' of the room. He makes the first 35' of the 50' journey safely, carefully avoiding all of the pressure plates, but then, in typical Jihan style, he accidentally touches a particularly well hidden one with his foot and ten darts fly from different points in the ceiling, shooting down towards where the elf is standing. As they are coming towards him from a number of different directions, it is impossible for the elf to dodge them. Three of the darts miss him and his magickal leather armor save him from two more, but five of them still manage to hit him.

Jihan cries out from the pain inflicted upon him from the darts, but he knows that this is not the worst of the damage that the darts are going to cause him. The onset time of the poison is obviously short, as Jihan's face is already starting to turn blue and contort in agony even as he raises the small vial to his mouth and he swallows the contents in one quick gulp. The contents of the vial immediately start to work, as Jihan begins to vomit, retching out a vile mixture of greenish yellow, tinged with blood red. However, it is obviously not enough to save him from the effects of the poison. All of a sudden, Jihan's body goes completely rigid and he keels over to land upon the floor.

There is silence all around as the others look on in horror at the elf's fate. Jihan does not move a muscle as he lies upon the ground. Winnacer looks at Padre Kokal and Aneira in shock as he sees the immobile elf:

"Can't you do anything for him?" he shouts out to them.

Aneira doesn't take her eyes off the elf:

"I'm afraid that it's too late for that," she says, a tinge of emotion entering her voice.

"I think he's already dead."

Xavier's face turns ashen at the news of his friend's fate. His hand turns white upon the hilt of his sword, his teeth clenched against the need to utter a cry of anguish. His body trembles silently, but not a sound issues from his lips.

Gronk stands stunned as he sees Jihan fall. Normally, seeing an elf die would bring no more emotion than a pig being slaughtered, but somehow things are different now. Old prejudices are melting away and a lone tear escapes Gronk's eye and slowly marches down his cheek.

"A martyr's burial for 'im, I'd say."

Gronk looks toward Yaz and Will:

"I'm sorry," he says quietly, apologizing for the sins of an entire race against the elven people.

Winnacer gasps, his features becoming tight as Jihan's form crumbles to the ground. With Aneira's pronouncement, Winnacer's grip on his weapon goes slack, sending the Ripper crashing into the floor. He stands silent, quietly shaking in place for a long pause before saying a word, which all come out raspy:

"We....we need to make sure. We can't just leave him there....."

Xavier too much in shock to speak, nods.

Aneira sighs:

"Of COURSE we won't leave him here. We're going to Olmutz, the holiest city in all of Bohavia. We'll simply have to have him resurrected there. In cleansing this place of the Nemotz, we will have performed a great service to the church of Lechit, who are the sworn enemy of the church of Nemotz. Getting one of their members to resurrect one of our numbers that has fallen in the struggle is not to much to ask as compensation, I feel."

Aneira's words draw Gronk's attention.

"Ya mean ya can be bringin' 'im back ta life?" Gronk says in astonishment. "Won't be no zombie will he?"

The ice priestess simply shakes her head in response.

Bennett looks at Aneira, quite confused:

"Such is not possible, is it? I had heard that the spirits of the fey could not be restored in such a manner. Could it be such an easy manner to bring Jihan's spirit back into him?"

He seems deep in thought.

Bennett looks at Jihan quickly, then jumps to action. He seizes the shield that Xavier has taken with him plus the one that Winnacer has given to Gronk, holding shields in either arm up over his head and then starts to head for the hole.

Xavier, although stunned by the apparent death of such a close friend, is spurred into action by the suicidal intent of another comrade. His right arm springs forward, clutching Bennett on the shoulder. His eyes pleading, he struggles to speak:

"Nein, nein, Herr Bennett, kill not thy self as well. Let us think clearly or shall all of us die in this foul place. Ve shall not, I swear, leave him in this foul place. Let us think how ve came retrieve him without dying by his side."

As he sees Bennett about to commit suicide, Yaz glares at him coldly and holds his other arm:

"F***in' wait!" he says, too loudly.

Shocked by Aneira's revelation, Bennett, in most uncharacteristic fashion, obeys Yaz's command.

Then Yaz turns to the unhurt mosquito, which he has recently named Schlurp, and gestures with his hand toward Jihan, and says:

"Fetch."

Schlurp immediately starts to buzz and then excitedly pushes through the hole in the wall and flies a few feet off the ground heading for the prone figure of the elf. The giant insect hovers above the elf and lowers itself slowly over Jihan's position. It then wraps its spindly legs around Jihan's torso and starts to lift him into the air.

The others can tell from the way that the mosquito is frantically beating its wings that even the weight of the slight elf, who is not even weighed down with armor, is hard work for the bug, as their legs are not designed for lifting. However, it manages to lift the elf's body a few inches off the ground and slowly carries him back towards the hole. Once it has covered the 35' distance across the room it squeezes back through the hole and gently places the elf's body upon the ground among the party.

"Careful," Gronk says as Jihan's body is put upon the floor. "We gots ta get 'em darts out o' 'im so as none o' us be keelin' over."

Padre Kokal crouches down and feels Jihan's pulse. He shakes his head as he does so:

"No, I'm 'fraid th't th' priestess be right. He's no more for this world."

He stands up and makes the sign of Radegast as he remains with his head bent.

Fae simply stares at Jihan numbly, standing exactly where Aneira had guided her. She hadn't spoken a word since she had screamed while being burnt alive, nor had she moved from where Aneira had laid her down to rest for the evening until the group returned to depths of the temple. The only reason she had followed the group was that Aneira had brought her with her. Even the least magically adept of the group knew that she hadn't studied any of her spells that morning.

Winnacer kneels down by Jihan's body, eyes closed and hands clasped. His mouth moves quietly for several minutes as he meditates over the body of Jihan. He then slowly bends over to kiss the deceased on the forehead before slowly rising, walking over to his sword and straightening his cap:

"Let us end what we have started here. The Nemotz must pay now."

With that, Winnacer takes the lance and taps the closest of the pressure plates, the one that Jihan pressed first of all, to see whether any more darts fly out when he does so. They do, as a volley of another ten darts flies out towards the lance. Winnacer shakes a couple of the darts that have stuck in the wooden shaft of the lance loose and tries it for a third time. Once again, another volley of darts flies out towards the lance.

Winnacer shakes his head:

"However many of these darts have they got loaded up there?" he mutters to himself.

The answer soon comes, as he tries the pressure plate for the fourth time and no darts come out this time. He scans the surface of the room and extends the lance a little further to try the next closest of the plates. Once again, a volley of ten darts flies out of the ceiling. He tries it another three times until the darts seem to be exhausted once again.

Winnacer shakes his head:

"This is going to take us all day at this rate. There are loads of pressure plates on the floor and Jihan has already shown us that it's almost impossible to spot them all."

"I'll fly over and try the door," says Yaz, trying hard not to let Jihan's state affect him just yet.

With that, he drops his sack and scimitar, lies down on the ground with his arms splayed out and his feet together, and orders Slaver:

"Carry."

Slaver the giant mosquito obediently flies over in order to carry the druid.

Winnacer still is quite pale when he asks Yaz:

"Can they just scout out the area and report back to you? I have a feeling that the whole thing may be an elaborate trap, and that all the captives have already been saved. A normal cry shouldn't carry beyond heavy doors and long trap filled rooms. There may be heinous magicks at work here."

Yaz shakes his head in response:

"I don't see what there is that they can tell us that we don't already know. They're not the brightest of creatures, I've got to admit. We need to open that door and there's no way that they can do that."

"I'm going."

Slaver curls its spindly legs around the spindly torso of the spindly druid and starts flapping its wings furiously in order to get the druid airborne. The giant insect just about manages it and sets off through the hole carrying the druid with him, just inches above the pressure plate covered floor. The druid is obviously quite petrified as he flies across the room, knowing only too well that, if Slaver were to drop him, then he would most certainly go the same way as Jihan.

It is not to be, however, as the mosquito, with a great deal of effort, manages to transport the half-elf across the room. Yaz looks beneath him as he reaches the door and sees, to his relief, that there are no pressure plates right before the door.

"Drop," he commands the big bug and Slaver obediently comes to land upon the ground and gently releases the druid from its grip.

"Thank you," Yaz says as he stands up and takes a look at the door.

The door appears to be exactly the same as the previous one in that it is made of iron and seems to be very thick. There is no sign of any glyph, however, much to the druid's relief. The sound of wailing and sobbing from behind the door is now quite loud.

He studies the door carefully for a couple of minutes, kicking himself for not watching Jihan's door checking routine more closely.

He lets out a long sigh, gives a shrug and then says:

"Oh well, f*** it," and then presses down upon the handle before peering through the door.

As is usually the case just before a disaster, everything suddenly goes into slow motion for the druid and those watching him.

Upon peering through the crack in the door, he immediately sees that there is no room behind the door, but rather just another wall. As opposed to the rough gray stone forming the walls throughout the complex, the wall behind the door is smooth and whitewashed. Daubed upon the wall in a crimson substance that looks suspiciously like blood to him are two words:

"YOU DIE"

At exactly the same time, the sound of wailing and sobbing that alerted the party to the room in the first place changes to the sound of maniacal laughter. A fraction of a second later, the continual light spell in the center of the ceiling is extinguished, throwing the room into complete darkness for all save those with infravision, which luckily includes Yaz.

Yaz then feels his legs giving way beneath him. He suddenly realizes that the floor has given way by parting in the center and Yaz has the familiar feeling of falling down. He tries to grab out at the wall, but he is too late and he feels himself continuing to fall.

The rest of the party hears a grating noise close by them and the chain above them suddenly starts to creak before going taut. Luckily the spikes that Yaz put through a link of the chain hold and the sound of stone rubbing against stone in the corridor to the party's left stops suddenly.

The next sound that the party hears is a loud splash from the end of the room, signifying the fact that Yaz' fall has been broken by water. A couple of moments later, you hear the sound of coughing and spluttering and the unmistakable cry of a druid in trouble:

"FUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The others can then hear the sound of Yaz getting to his feet, which tells them all that the water that Yaz fell into is not too deep. They hear him splashing about a bit, along with more coughing and spluttering.

Then they hear more sounds. The sounds are coming from the water just beneath the party's position and are the sounds of someone, or something, splashing through the water heading in Yaz' direction at a fairly slow but steady rate. Before Will and Gronk, who are the only members of the party to be able to see clearly in the darkness, are able to get a look at what it is, Yaz let's you know exactly what it is:

"FUUUUCCKKK!" he cries once more. "F***ing zombies. Seven of them. Get me the f*** out of here!"

Bennett wordlessly grabs up his axe and shield and strides up to the edge of the pit, gauging the distance for a heroic leap. Looking down at the water below, however, he sees that there is a drop of almost 40' to the bottom. Although Bennett is fairly crazy, he's not THAT crazy and so decides against the plan.

Winnacer looks at Will:

"Throw him a rope, quick."

Winnacer's prompting is not needed, as the Bard's hands have already found his rope and lasso and are in the process of sending them sailing toward Yaz.

As Will hurriedly takes his rope and throws one end of it down into the water, Winnacer takes the lance once more and attempts to skewer one of the zombies with it. Unfortunately, his efforts are literally a stab in the dark, as the LawBringer cannot see anything in the darkness of the room.

"Forget it," Gronk says, watching the scene below him unfold with the aid of his infravision. "The water's nearly 40' down so ya ain't got a chance to stab 'em. In any case, ya too late. They's well on their way towards the druid now."

On the opposite side of the waterlogged hole, Yaz's immediate reaction is to go for his scimitar, but he doesn't find it, as he left it above. Instead, he looks up to see Slaver hovering excitedly in the air above him:

"Come!" he shouts.

Slaver immediately responds, buzzing loudly and flying low, only too happy at being able to frolic once more in the fetid waters.

While he's waiting for the mosquito to pick him up and carry him back to the others, he takes a hasty look around the room he's in. There is little to be seen inside the room, however, as it is simply a dank rectangular hole of the same dimensions as the room above, namely 50' long and 30' wide. As Yaz stands, he finds that the water comes up to his chest, meaning that it must be some 3' deep. The zombies are well on his way towards him now and they have come into the room through a waterfilled corridor that leads to the east, following the line of the corridor on the level above. As the zombies continue onwards, Yaz sees that these seem to be different from the zombies that he encountered back in Boscobelous' Tower. While the zombies in the Tower hardly looked a picture of health, the ones that are steadily wading through the water towards him now are particularly disgusting looking specimens, whose animated corpses seem to be alive with rot and disease. Yaz quickly grabs a dagger from his boot and prepares to defend himself if he needs to.

However, the zombies are not moving too fast compared to the swift mosquito and, just before the zombies are about to strike, Slaver gets to the druid. Not having any time to waste, Yaz immediately grabs the skinny torso of the mosquito and hangs on for dear life. The mosquito curls its skinny legs around its beloved master in order to secure him and then starts to ascend.

As it heads upwards, the seven diseased zombies attempt to strike out at the giant insect and its passenger. One of the zombies manages to misjudge its blow totally and falls flat on his face into the water. Two of the zombies manage to hit Slaver, however, and one strikes out at Yaz. Fortunately, however, the blows in each case are little more than glancing and neither mosquito nor druid takes much damage from the blows.

Before the zombies have a chance to make another strike, Slaver rises well above the level of the water and flies back through the hole in the wall to deposit a wet and shaken druid alongside the body of Jihan.

Yaz coughs and splutters as he gets to his feet:

"I don't feel very well," he announces to the rest of the party. "I think that I caught something from that zombie when it hit me."

Will and Gronk see that the zombies have moved back towards the closer end of the room and are now simply staring up at the party members who are staring back at them.

Bennett glares down:

"I'd just as soon lay some of that nasty fire oil on those things, if nobody has any objections? It certainly would be a good gesture, especially if this trap resets itself after a certain amount of time."

Winnacer hefts the barrel of the flame-thrower onto his back, offering the nozzle to Bennett:

"Let's see how this thing works, at least, before we decide to bring it to bear against the priests."

Bennett takes hold of the flame-thrower nozzle very carefully, treating it as if it were some kind of a snake:

"Are you sure that this thing is safe?" he asks Winnacer.

"I think so," Winnacer replies, not sounding completely confident.

While Winnacer stands behind him holding the barrel, Bennett points the nozzle at the zombies below and pulls the large trigger. Nothing happens.

Bennett investigates the flame-thrower more carefully and then nods his head:

"See this wick here? Looks like it's some sort of a pilot light."

He takes Winnacer's lantern and lights the wick from it:

"Let's try it again now."

With that, Bennett aims the weapon once more at the zombies, which are still loitering below and squeezes the trigger:

"WHHHHOOOOOOOSSSSHHHHHHH"

A jet of white-hot material erupts from the mouth of the flame-thrower and sprays over the zombies below, lighting up the room as it does so. It is a pleasurable experience for Winnacer to watch something else on the receiving end of the flame other than Faewen'il and him as the burning solution spills over the seven zombies, immediately setting them alight as well as the water around them.

The zombies make no effort to try and put out the flame that lights them up like non-human torches. They stand motionless as the flames lick all around them, charring their bodies in a terrible way. The water all around them quickly starts to boil and steam starts to form around them, masking the party's view a little. The flames continue to burn for three minutes until the resinous solution finally burns itself out. As the flames die down, the party sees that the zombies now resemble charcoal and are not recognizable as former humans any more. The party watches the charred forms for any sign of movement for a few moments, but it soon becomes apparent that the zombies are not going to get a third chance of life.

Winnacer takes the barrel from his back, noticing that it is a fair bit lighter than it was previously. He moves it around a little and hears the solution inside slopping from side to side.

"That burst used a fair amount of fuel," he says. "I'd say that there are just three or four bursts left now, and so we should try and use it sparingly."

With the zombies no longer an issue, Bennett kneels at the side of Jihan's corpse. He mutters a few words in an unfamiliar dialect, one that he does not appear to be confident with himself. He then fetches one of the poisoned darts, cleaning it thoroughly, and places it at Jihan's breast between his hands. Ignoring the others, he then walks out of the small secret room and continues down the corridor until he comes to the site of the first battle against the ratmen underneath the platform above the gate. There are several ratmen floating in the water here, in the same position that you left them the previous day. Bennett takes one of the ratmen corpses, hoists it up, and pulls it through the waters back to Jihan's body, laying him at his feet:

"If things go badly, little brother, I will assure you have a warrior's funeral before these vermin would claim you."

He then rises:

"Will, could you have your guard come down here and watch Jihan's body while we finish this horrible exploration? I will not have him left alone, not in this place."

Will comes to the still form of Jihan and kneels down:

"I will do better than that, my friend."

The bard then gently lifts the elf's body from the floor and begins to walk toward the surface, carrying his fallen comrade with him.

"I will return as soon as Jihan's body is safe with the squires."

"Perhaps it is also best if you leave Faewen'il upstairs as well, as she is certainly in no state to fight," Winnacer suggests as Will sets off with Jihan's corpse. "No reason to endanger those who cannot protect themselves."

"I'll go with her," suggests Aneira throwing a scowl in Will's direction. "Once I am sure that she will be safe, then I will come back down to join you."

With that, she sets off after Will guiding the still emotionless figure of Faewen'il with her.

Winnacer watches them go and then turns to the others:

"Let us carry on. We can check out the remaining rooms while we wait for Will and Aneira to return."