Aftermath

The five left standing look around and see the scene of total devastation around them. The temple is still burning and littered with dead and dying, including several members of the party.

Aneira sees that Yaz' body is laying still and is covered with sores and rot. She immediately drops to his side and starts to chant the words to a healing incantation. As she finishes the chant, she places her hands upon Yaz' rot-ridden body and the rot starts to subside. Yaz opens his eyes at the touch and groans, still feeling worse than he can remember.

Elsewhere in the temple, Faewen'il snaps her fingers and the web starts to dematerialize, freeing Winnacer from its confines.

Kokal looks at the bodies of Bennett, Gronk and Xavier, shaking his head with a gloomy expression as he does so.

Winnacer staggers forward, Old Bohavia hanging from limp fingers, towards the others. He looks at his friends' torn bodies lying still in the slick black pools of their lifeblood, looking at the Padre hopefully. The sorrow written in The Padre's furrowed face quickly answers his question. Kokal kneels over the blood-soaked body of Xavier, while Tadeus sits with the Saxon's head in his lap, the lad sobbing his eyes out as he sees his Master's lifeblood swiftly departing.

Xavier's eyes, dim with the last vestiges of life within them, fight with fierce determination to keep open. His once strong sword arm clutches the air, fingers reaching for the comfort of one able to give him such in his last dying moments. Through a spasm of coughed up blood, he whispers, recognizing the Inverted Sword of Rodengast upon the tabard of the man above him:

"Padre... Padre. .. I fear not what lays beyond," Xavier says weakly, his words interrupted as the blood gurgles from his torn throat. "It is my time… Rodengast's hall is long overdue for this son of Saxony."

He stops and coughs up more blood before continuing:

"All my brothers await me upon the banks of Lake Roga .... the banner of our order flies high in the breeze..... Can you see them, Padre? Can you?...Give us your blessing......Ride with us, let us scatter the heatherns... the blessing of Rodengast shall give us victory..."

"Aye, Xavier," Kokal replies with a stern voice that betrays no emotion. "Your time 'as come an' so prepare yeself t' be welcomed t' th' 'all o' Radegast wit' open arms by Our Lord an' Master. Your time on this realm might be over, but know ye th't ye shall live forever by Radegast's side."

"Ye, Xavier, will die the greatest death o' all, th' death of a true warrior, givin' 'is life so th't others may live. There is no greater sacrifice known to mankind. Go in peace, great warrior, for ye are now free of your mortal form so th't your soul may rise unfettered to join with that of Our Most 'Oly Master so th't ye may join him in His magnificent immortality."

Xavier's fingers slip from the tunic of the Padre, his breath slipping from the steady rhythm of life of the past thirty-four years. His breath more shallow, his eyes close before suddenly shooting open one last time.

"Rodengast's Hall is beautiful Padre, ... so beautiful...."

Xavier fights for consciousness:

"I go but vith one regret... I leave behind one who has my heart. Take care of Faewen'il...Vords fail me, Rodengast help me, it hurts..., see her free of this madness. See the lad Tadeus fulfill his destiny. A knight shall he become… der lost son to follow mein footsteps... .See them happy, dat is my last wish..."

Xavier's eyes then close for the last time...

Two hundred horseman in full armor, riding behind the banner of the Inverted Sword break from a walk into a canter and then into a full gallop. Bugles echo the sound of the charge over the still icy waters of the Lake. A smile crosses the face of a young blond-haired and blue eyed Saxon, his bastard sword aloft, he waves his men forward to their destiny...

Tadeus breaks down and starts wailing, hugging the head of his Master:

"No," he cries. "It cannot be. Don't leave me. Please."

Kokal puts a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder:

"Fear not, lad, 'e is simply fulfillin' Radegast's destiny by dyin' as an 'ero o' th' first order. I pray t' Radegast each an' ev'ry day th't I will find my peace in th' same way th't Xavier 'as, with a sword in my 'and an' an enemy of all th't is Right lyin' dead at m' feet."

"Finish your grievin', lad,for now is th' time for that. Then try an' devote your life t'bein' as great a man as Xavier was."

The Padre then rises. He forms the sign of the inverted cross before him and proceeds to read Xavier the last rites.

Bennett, who seemed quite dead, rouses himself, raising his head enough to see somewhat. He gestures weakly to Winnacer, the fire in his eyes only a dim ember now. He stays alive long enough for Winnacer to get to him.

Once the LawBringer arrives, Bennett speaks urgently:

"Two things, Winn, and I'll leave you in peace. I need that Germspreader's scythe, so that I might present it, and a dog at my feet. A burning raft and Retribution to keep the evil spirits away. It is the manner of my people, and I know you'll respect that. Second, I need you to kill the Lord Protector of Kutna Hora. He killed my family, and I swore an oath to finish him. If that oath is not fulfilled, I have no hope of attaining Valhalla. Swear you will do this for me, Winnacer! Swear it to your goddess!"

Bennett weakly clutches at Winn's shirt front, then falls gradually to the ground as life leaves him.

Winnacer simply nods grimly:

"It shall be done," he whispers. "I swear upon the name of Spravedelna."

Then, overtaken with grief and exhaustion, Winnacer falls to his knees and buries his head in his hands, the sounds of his weeping softly escaping the walls of his arms. After a few seconds, Winnacer violently rocks back, pounding his fists into the ground. He finds his feet and looks down at the mangled bodies all around them. He finds his voice, weak with sorrow and pain:

"This is how it ends. Four men of the highest quality lying down their lives to save those that they will never meet. Let us make sure their deaths were not in vain."

Then, the young Lord dries his eyes and picks up 'The Purifier' from where it lies upon the ground next to where it fell from Xavier's hands:

"Let us return this weapon to where it belongs, the Cathedral of Lechit. For the sake of Mirek and the others, we need to ensure the full support of their faith and the return of such a legendary weapon will go along way towards showing them our true natures."

Winnacer then removes the shield taken from the high priest's secret chamber from beneath Xavier's back:

"This shield was never used by Xavier and may have a part to play in protecting us from harm in the future. Let us bury him with 'The Justifier', the weapon that he used so often in order to bring Justice to all those in need of it."

He then takes 'The Justifier' from Xavier's scabbard and lays it inverted upon Xavier's body, using it to form the holy symbol of Radegast.

Kokal nods in agreement with Winnacer's sentiments. Will nods meekly in agreement also:

"I believe that their items would be better delivered to other freedom fighters so as to aid the cause," he adds.

From his position on the other side of the wall, Yaz is oblivious to all of the goings on elsewhere:

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh tired," Yaz groans then, with an effort, rolls to all fours and crawls to where he can see inside the temple. Upon seeing the devastation for himself, he wearily drops his body to the ground again and rests his head upon his forearm. He wheezes painfully, closing his eyes and grimacing with the diseases that infest his body, waiting for the sickness to finally be run out of his body.

Winnacer looks towards the Padre:

"Let us gather our comrades and bring them out into the sunlight. They deserve to be interred under her glorious graces."

"Aye," the Padre agrees. "This cradle o' filth ain't no place for an 'eroe's body t' finish up."

Winnacer nods his head in Yaz's direction:

"They deserve a hero's service on consecrated ground. How can we make that a reality?"

"Prirodna's glorious graces, I assume you mean," Yaz replies quietly.

He smiles slightly, then looks up at Winn:

"We can do that. Maybe in a few days after I've..."

His body convulses into coughing and it is clear that he won't be talking any more anytime soon until the disease has worked its way out of his system.

Winnacer then turns to Faewen'il, bowing his head to her:

"My life was something for you to give or take, Faewen'il. You have my heartfelt thanks, for without your intervention, I would likely be laying down with the others. Thank you, milady."

Fae gives him an odd expression, the coolness of her voice somehow infused with a pride that had not been there before:

"Yar life be far ye. I be na likin ye one whit... but I be likin th' demon thin less... an whethr ye be acknowlegn it or na... I be keepn tha ward I be givn ye all in Mynesto. Me ancestrs ALWAYS be keepn thar ward, an I be livin up ta thar teachns."

With that said, the odd sorceress wrinkles her nose at the stench as she helps to search the bodies with her dagger and boot; not willing to touch minions of disease.

As Winnacer sees Faewen'il start the unpleasant task of searching the bodies, he tiredly and doggedly sets to work also, piling and stripping the dead bodies of the priests. Faewen'il starts off by scanning the bodies with her Witchfinder's Rod. Just as she finishes scanning the last of the bodies, the gem at the head of the rod fizzles and dies.

Faewen'il lets out a sigh:

"I be avin jus tha one lef now."

While scanning, however, the rod shows that three of the priests and the GermSpreader all have magickal items on them. The GermSpreader's armor and scythe both show taints of magick:

"We should burn the armor along with the body of the GermSpreader so that the taint of disease is cleansed."

Two of the priests are found to be wearing magickal chainmail:

"If no one else wants both of these, then I'd like to take one," Aneira says. "My magickal chainmail was taken when we were captured in Pardubitze."

Winnacer looks toward the Padre:

"What about you, Padre, would you like the other set?"

Kokal shakes his head:

"Thank ye, but I still be 'avin' my chainmail which 'as been blessed in Rodegast's name."

The Padre looks over at Will:

"Will, ye be wearin' some regular chain now? P'raps ye could find a use for it?"

The bard shakes his head:

"Probably not, I still have a set of platemail on the cart that I have yet to test. If one of these is more protective, then I will trade, but I rarely wear armor, so it is not of great concern to me."

Winnacer next turns his attention to the third of the priests, the one that gave Bennett such problems before he finally managed to decapitate him. The LawBringer picks up the helmet and the priest's head drops out of it. Although the priest shows a fair amount of disease, it is certainly not of the level of the GermSpreader's atrophy.

The young Lord wipes the helmet clean on the inside, not wanting to take any chance of infection. He then uses Spravedelna's sight to investigate the object, but gets no negative feeling from it. Removing his own helmet, he gingerly places it on his head.

As he looks around the room, he sees to his surprise that the gloomy temple appears to be as bright as daylight. Winnacer takes the helmet off and nods his head knowingly:

"So that explains why they liked to fight in darkness so much."

While Winnacer has been tinkering with the helmet, Faewen'il is investigating the ring that the head priest was wearing. It is made of silver and features a representation of three smiling human faces carved into the ring. She casually puts it on her finger, but there is no reaction.

Winnacer looks at the lass as she takes the ring off:

"Perhaps it might be best to wait until we can properly identify it before we decide who is best suited for the item," he says with a look towards Yaz.

Lying next to the dead priest is a flail. Winnacer picks it up and investigates it. He gets a bad feeling about the item.

"I'm not sure about this. I really think that we should get it identified before we decide what to do with it."

This just leaves the platemail worn by the head priest. Winnacer removes the breastplate and holds it against him for size comparison. The priest was a big, bulky figure and so the armor is a little too large for him. He calls Kokal over:

"Hey, Padre, this looks as if it is around your size."

Kokal comes over and tries the breastplate against him. It looks as if it was handcrafted for him, fitting him like a glove:

"May I?" he asks hopefully.

Winnacer nods, then coughs and realizes that the only thing keeping the disease from taking full effect upon him.

"'Ere," Kokal says as he sees the young Lord's predicament. "Let me be seein' to tha'. I still be 'avin' one curin' spell left t'day an' it looks like I won't be needin' it now."

The Padre then starts to cast and lays his glowing hand upon Winnacer's brow. As the healing force starts to dissolve through his body, the LawBringer starts to feel the disease within him to subside.

"Ye still look pretty beat up too," the Padre continues.

He then casts a healing ensorcellment upon him, but the results are nothing special and the LawBringer is still badly beaten up.

Aneira comes up to Winnacer:

"I also have a little healing left," she says without emotion.

"That would be very kind of you, Aneira," Winnacer responds.

Aneira simply nods in response and starts to cast another healing spell upon the young Lord. The results are fair, but Winnacer took a great deal of damage from the GermSpreader and is in a bad way. She casts another one and Winnacer is starting to get better now, but is still far from fully recovered.

"That is all that I have for today," the ice priestess says and leaves Winnacer to attend to the others.

Yaz is starting to feel a lot better now that the many diseases that he was inflicted with are working their way out of his system and the wheals, warts, spots, rot and rashes are all clearing up. They took their toll on him, however, and so he helps himself to a healing spell, the results of which are excellent.

Yaz then sees Will coughing and spluttering a little in the corner. He too was infected by the GermSpreader's scythe. Yaz hobbles up to him and lays his hand upon the bard and the infection starts to subside, leaving all of the remaining party members free of disease. For good measure, Yaz casts a healing spell upon Will. The effects are nothing special, but Will was not too badly injured compared to Yaz and Winnacer. Will thanks Yaz for all his assistance. Yaz has one healing spell remaining for the day. Seeing that Winnacer is still worse off than he is, Yaz gallantly uses it on the LawBringer, although the results are almost negligible.

With all of the clerics' healing powers having been exhausted and the magickal items having been established, there is little left to do but pack up and go home. There is a lot of work to do and everyone, including Milan and Tadeus, Mirek and Marek, pitches in and helps with the task.

The first job is to carefully transport the bodies of the deceased up to the top level of the complex, where they are carefully laid upon the floor of the entrance chamber until a suitable resting-place for them has been created. Will silently helps transport his fallen comrades to the surface. He is shamed for fleeing from the enemy while his friends laid down their lives, and speaks little. Then, the party and their helpers descend once more in order to carry out all of the items that have been located during the delve. There is a lot to carry, what with the three large chests of coin found in the hidden room, the crate of poison globes, the two chests from the high priest's room that they decide not to open for the moment, plus the opened one, the gun and ammunition and the sundry magickal items recovered from the occupants of the temple. Will begins transporting books from the library to the cart for delivery to the temple of Lechit for study.

Winnacer sees him doing so and has a word with him:

"I'm not sure that is the wises thing to do. I recommend leaving them behind for the Priests that we will tell about this place, as there is not that much room on the cart how it is and we need to move quickly, for the sake of the dwarves and the afflicted we came with."

Will nods in agreement and then replies:

"Let me see how many will fit upon the wagon without burdening it. The remainder I will leave for the Lechit priests to bring back after their visit."

In total, it takes them two trips from the far end of the complex back up to the top before all of the items are safely brought up and the chests stacked up into the entrance hall to the complex. With the vast amount of books contained in the Nemotz' library, it takes Will trip after trip in order to transport them to the wagon. He continues with the task alone for several hours.

Yaz' two mosquitoes, Schlurp and Slaver, managed to survive the combat, having feasted upon the demon's blood until they drank their fill and then flittered around the corridor, patiently waiting for Yaz to get up and play with them again. They dutifully follow him up the stairs to the surface. Yaz then guides them through the hole in the wall and sends them out to play on the filthy lake, which they obviously enjoy immensely.

On his last trip, Winnacer carefully takes the sealed vial containing doses of the 'zombie plague disease' and wraps it up securely so as to avoid its accidental breakage. He then takes the FaithHealer's notebook, intending to read it later in the day.

Once all of the items have been brought up, Milan and Tadeus use the ferry in order the river and bring the wagon up to the jetty. They then spend the rest of the afternoon loading the items onto the wagon. Will also sees that the books from the library get loaded. While they do so, the party descends into the complex one last time in order to cleanse the place of its former inhabitants.

Piling up the bodies against the huge corpse of the demon is a far from pleasant experience, but it is a necessary one. Eventually, the task is completed and the bodies form a large pile within the temple. Once it is done, the Padre straps the barrel of the flame-thrower to his back and Winnacer takes the nozzle.

Not wishing to be reminded of the effects of the device, Fae refuses to stay and watch the burning, making for the entrance of the temple as fast as she can without running. Once she gets there, she spends the rest of the day going back to the task of poring over her spellbooks.

"In Spravedelna's name do I cleanse this place of all that is evil within," the LawBringer says to himself as he presses the trigger of the flame-thrower, showering the Nemotz corpses with the white hot substance that the flame-thrower casts forth. They all wince from the brightness of the flames and then stand back and watch the fire take hold of the bodies of those that caused them so much pain. They look on until the flames die out, leaving just blackened husks and scorched bone where the priests' bodies had been.

Taking one last look at the temple, they walk out and perform the same operation on the ratmen bodies lying outside in the corridor. Once again, the vermin burn intensely under the incredible heat of the substance and there is little left of them once the flames have died away.

Before leaving them, Kokal picks up the blackened skull of one of the ratmen:

"I be thinkin' tha' there be some folks in Olmutz which be int'rested in what we 'ave to say 'bout these creatures," he says by way of explanation.

After taking one last look at the area, they descend the steps to the waterlogged level and see more ratmen bodies still floating in the water where they expired. The flame-thrower is almost out of fuel now. Rather than carry the cumbersome device with them, they decide to use the last of the fuel upon the beasts, burning the last of their carcasses and sending the murky waters surrounding them boiling with the last blast from the flame-thrower. With the reservoir of fuel now empty, Winnacer and Kokal dump the device onto the platform above the water and all make their final trip back up to the surface. Mirek and Marek are still where the party left them on the steps in order to keep the magickal stairs from disappearing. The mercs walk with the party up through the upper temple and up to the surface.

By the time that all of the tasks have been accomplished, they can tell from the fact that the sun is low in the skies that it is already late afternoon.

"There is little point in starting our journey away from this place today," says Winnacer. "We are all tired from our exertions and would not put much ground between here and Olmutz today in any case. Let us use what remains of the day in order to prepare a tomb for the deceased so that we can bury them at dawn tomorrow and set off at first light."

Yaz nods in agreement:

"If you want me to use Prirodna's blessing, then you will also need to gather rocks for me to use. Unless we find an already-rocky spot. I will look for one if you wish."

"That would be kind of you," Winnacer replies.

They all walk out of the hole in the wall, past the horses which have been patiently waiting for their masters to finish their tasks and take the ferry over to the other side of the river. They walk a few hundred yards into the forest so as to be away from the stench of the swamp, and find a small clearing, almost clear of the snows that coated the ground upon the party's arrival at the temple:

"This should do, I think," says Yaz, taking a look around at the clearing. "There are several boulders around here that you can use, y'see?"

"I'll bless the ground for them, to aid in their gaining Prirodna's favor in receiving their reincarnate forms," Yaz continues slowly, thinking on each word for a change. "And tomorrow I will shape stones to create a group tomb for their bodies, because I know it's important to you guys. But anything more than that I will not do, as Nature will remember their spirits in the next live far better than any stone container will do."

Winnacer nods and then they all set to work on digging a deep hole in the ground, with each of the party manning a shovel or pick in order to dig deep into the cold earth. Once they have dug six feet down, Winnacer starts to work on the tomb, asking all of those interested to help. The Padre and the squires are only too willing to assist in the creation. Will too lends his back and his voice to the chores, working to complete the tasks needed and singing journey songs in various tongues as he works. Even though everyone is quite clearly exhausted from the day's exertions, they all work upon it until the last dying rays of sun finally disappear over the horizon. Winnacer keeps the design of the tomb simple, creating a circle of stones with four larger standing stones. He then takes a metal pick and carves in the word 'Liberty' into each standing stone in the language of each of the fallen:

"This should be a monument to the heroes that fell here, as well as the ones that have fallen, and will fall, after them," Winnacer says gravely.

While the others are working on hauling the rocks into place, Yaz takes a largish piece of wet clay he found nearby on his morning prayer walk out of his pouch:

"Help me shape this to what you want, Winnacer. The more detailed you make it, the more detailed the tomb will be. And for words, you can chisel them from its face once the thing is made."

Yaz hands the lump to Winn and appears to bless it with his hands.

"Thank you," Winnacer responds. "I shall work on it this evening. I fear that I am not going to be able to sleep too easily tonight."

With no light remaining, and Yaz not being able to complete the cover on the tomb until the following day, they decide to leave it here, waiting until the dawn to complete the sad task. They all take the ferry back across the river and return to the complex in order to have shelter for their final night before making the journey.

Yaz, Kokal and Aneira see to the refugees before they retire for the evening. Aneira sees that the condition of Mirek's friends has worsened a little, although Mirek himself seems to have not gotten any worse through the day.

"The curing spell that I cast upon him yesterday seems to have halted the spread of the disease, but is not doing anything to reverse his condition. I hope that the priests of Lechit are able to come up with a cure for their condition. I promised Mirek's wife, Blanka, that I would deliver him safely back to her."

Yaz wanders out through the hole once more and spends a little time with the horses, speaking soothing words to them, relieved at being amongst Prirodna's children once more. He then goes over to watch Schlurp and Slaver frolicking on the lake. He tells them to keep an eye on the wagon during the night and then goes back inside the temple in order to get some rest.

Will spends some time with Oldrich, who has spent the past 24 hours entertaining the spoiled women with songs from his repertoire. Due to the lack of alcohol in the temple, Oldrich is quite lucid at the moment and is able to teach the bard a little more of his craft. Will tries to concentrate in order to benefit from the tutelage, but more than once, Oldrich has to snap the bard back into attentiveness when his eyes go downcast or glaze over replaying the horrors and losses of the day.

Winnacer leaves the others and sits alone with his thoughts in the entrance hall. He takes the FaithHealer's notebook with him to read as he does so.

Winnacer is gone for just half an hour before returning with a look of some excitement upon his face, with all signs of his previous tiredness having disappeared. He is brandishing the FaithHealer's notebook:

"This is it," he says. "This must be it."

Without any more explanation, he sits on a bed amongst the rest of the party and starts to read:

"29 October 3460," Winnacer starts reciting. "I have finally learned the nature of my latest assignment from Surgeon General Pasternak. He told me that reports have been coming in from the Opava area that an unusually high amount of illnesses have been occurring over the past couple of years. At first there were but a few, but over the past half year, more and more illnesses are being reported, including incidences of leukemia, cancer and a high ratio of stillborn children. Of those children that are liveborn, an alarming number of them are being born with mutations of some kind and there have even been reports of young children developing mutations of one kind or another."

"Some six weeks ago, Surgeon General Pasternak told me that he dispatched a team of four clerics to investigate the situation. Since the time that they left, the Cathedral has heard no word from them, and the Surgeon General fears that they may have run into difficulties. I am to head for Opava at first light in order to investigate the disappearance of the clerics."

"5 November 3460. I arrived in Opava some 48 hours ago. I must admit that I have already found the dwarves that inhabit the city to be particularly unhelpful to my inquiries. They seem to still hold a great deal of resentment against humankind and believe that matters relating to dwarves should be solely the concern of dwarves. I have witnessed a number of examples of the illnesses and mutations referred to, but in no case have I been allowed access to those effected as they prefer to deal with clerics of their own kind, despite the fact that they are less qualified in such matters as one of my faith. I have a feeling that this exercise is going to be more difficult than I originally anticipated."

"8 November 3460. I finally found someone who begrudgingly admitted that they saw four humans dressed in the white robes of Lechit in the city three or four weeks' ago. This is the only positive information that I have received to date."

"10 November 3460. I have continued to scour the city looking for more information regarding the fate of the priests. Last night I had a very bizarre encounter. I was heading back to my room just before curfew when I heard the sound of what appeared to be a powder weapon being fired. Immediately afterwards, I was passed in the street by a juvenile dwarf being pursued by a squad of goblin archers. I could see that the dwarf was already losing blood as a result of being wounded by an arrow. I decided to follow the dwarf and goblins and pursued them to one of the remoter quarters of the city. I saw the goblins corner the dwarf and they seemed to be about to kill him. As the dwarf was unarmed, I felt that it was my duty to intervene and so I told the goblins to disperse. Unfortunately, the goblins took no heed of my words and so, may Lechit forgive me, I was forced to despatch two of the goblins in self-defense, at which point the other three fled. I could see that the dwarf was very badly injured and so I naturally used Lechit's blessings to return him to full health. The dwarf was very grateful for my aid and proceeded to speak to me in a strange patois that I have not come across before. I was able to make out, however, that his name was Emsee Hammer and he wished to reward me for the service that I had provided to him. I told him that he could consider the service I had provided him with to be repaid if he were able to provide information as to the whereabouts of my missing colleagues. Although I cannot be certain, I get the impression that the young dwarf is well connected, and he promised to meet me at the Black Rock Tavern tomorrow evening in order to give me any information that he may be able to find out. I pray to Lechit that the young dwarf is able to find out some useful information for me."

"11 November 3460. Lechit truly listened to my prayers last night. The young dwarf was true to his word. He appeared at the tavern, as promised, and told me that they had been seen heading for the village of Litultovitze three weeks ago. He then promptly left before I could obtain any further information from him. Tomorrow I leave for Litultovitze in the hope that I can meet my colleagues there."

"13 November 3460. Sadly, my colleagues are not in the village, yet they most definitely were here up until two weeks ago. The villagers here are very helpful compared to those in the city for the sole reason that they are afraid. There appears to be an epidemic of some kind here, in that all of the children have been stillborn or are born with hideous deformities for reasons that I have yet been able to determine. In addition, an alarmingly high proportion of the population is ill with leukemia or cancer. More worrying still is the fact that several of the villagers have disappeared without a trace over the past few months. It appears that my colleagues appear to have gone the same way as some of the villagers, as no one has seen them for two weeks."

"14 November 3460. I was awoken from my bed last night by the innkeeper, who informed me that there had been a scuffle in the village last night and that two villagers were taken by someone or something. I immediately went out to investigate. Although I am no tracker, Lechit blessed me with the fact that it had been raining throughout the day, with the result that the ground was wet. I was able to locate several beast-like paw-prints in the soft ground that I was able to follow for a distance in a westerly direction. The trail led for around half a mile and finished at a fissure in the rocks. Unprepared for an underground excursion, I returned to my room at this point in order to prepare myself for investigating the fissure tomorrow."

Winnacer closes the notebook at this point:

"And that is the last entry," he finishes.

Will spends a while looking through the items that the party recovered from the occupants in the temple. He wracks his brain trying to see if he can remember any tale, or any snippet of information regarding the ring, the high priest's flail, platemail, or the chainmail of the other two senior priests, but he cannot remember anything that would enable him to tell the history and nature of the items.

By now, it is getting quite late and all realize that this will be the last night with a solid roof of their heads for a while and that four long days of travel lie before them. As a result, the party members start to fall asleep, with one remaining on watch at all times, just in case anything should happen during the night.

Winnacer takes the first watch. He spends his time molding the soft clay that Yaz gave him earlier in the afternoon with his hands and then spends several hours inscribing it with minute inscriptions so as to form the cover of the tomb. Once he is finished, he wakes the Padre for him to begin his watch and Winnacer finally retires for the evening. Kokal's watch is without incident and so, in the early hours of the morning, he raises Yaz from his slumber to take the next watch and then heads to sleep himself.

Not wanting to hang around within the temple for the whole of his watch, Yaz walks through the hole in the wall and has a chat with the horses. While he's doing so, he reaches into his pouch and produces a packet of the tobacco wrapped in paper, which he was able to relieve from the storeroom earlier in the day. The druid peers through the hole to check that Kokal is sleeping, and lights up one of the small cylinders before taking a mighty drag:

"Hmmmmm, smooth," he says to himself as he takes his first toke. "Kokal doesn't know what he's talking about."

The druid then decides to sit on the back of one of the horses to continue smoking, enjoying the richness of the tobacco:

"Nemotz country," he mutters to himself between drags. "It's where the flavor is."

He finishes the tobacco and decides that he definitely wants a few more of these. He walks back through the room where the others are sleeping carefully, so as not to wake the others up, and raises Mirek the merc from his slumber:

"Hey, Mirek, I need you to do me a favor. Come with me and help me carry some boxes."

Mirek readily agrees and so the two of them then descend back into the lower levels of the temple. Mirek sits on the bottom step of the magickal staircase, while Yaz continues on to the storeroom.

He takes one of the crates off the shelves and finds that they are not too heavy. He piles three of them up, one on top of the other, and then places a pile of the papers on top of them.

"Better than wet leaves, but not quite better than a pipe," he determines.

With a grimace, he then lifts the boxes and starts to carry them back to where Mirek is waiting for him on the stairs. Yaz then returns to the storeroom and grabs himself another three crates and hauls them back to where the mercenary is waiting for him. Mirek and Yaz then take the crates up the rest of the way and quietly carry the boxes through the room where the others are sleeping before heading through the hole in the wall. They use the ferry to cross over the river to where the wagon is waiting on the jetty on the opposite side. The two of them then load the crates onto the already quite full wagon, covering them with a quantity of the books that Will rescued so that they are not immediately apparent.

The two of them cross back over the river and Yaz returns to his watch post.