Jihan Has A Bad Day...

They file out of the room with Viirin limping along at the rear. They reach the top of the staircase and Jihan takes the lead. He carefully taps on each of the steps before standing on it, while checking the roof and walls at the same time. At this rate, progress is slow, but after half an hour he is at the bottom of the stairs.

The stairs end in a pool of stinking, green stagnant water with a thick crust of scum on the top of it. It is obvious that the water has been here in the darkness for years. Just a couple of feet further on is the door that bars their progress. Jihan takes the pole and measures the depth in front of it.

'It's only about 18" deep' Jihan reports. 'It's not going to be very pleasant walking around in there, but it's not going to kill us, although it could be a great hiding place for something.'

He prods the water in front of him until he is confident that there is nothing in front of him, or any deep holes, and then walks down into the water. He then starts to investigate the door. He goes through all of his usual checking routine, but hears nothing behind it and finds no traps. As a result he opens the door, or at least tries to. The force of the water behind the door makes it tough to open. The three warriors come up and give him a hand. With the combined strength of the four of them, they manage to open the door, sending a wave of water around their feet.

The door opens into a short corridor some 25' long. It is filled with the same filthy water as outside the door. The ceiling is arched and there are thick pillars holding the tower up running through the walls. Everything around them feels damp and there is a terrible cold feeling. The walls are black with mold and the walls are crumbling in many places, although they see that there is little danger of the tower collapsing on top of them. All in all, it is a very miserable place to be walking around in and they all decide that they would rather get out of it as quickly as possible.

From the corridor, there are three doors - one to their right, one to their left and one straight ahead.

'We said that we would go clockwise,' Winnacer states, 'so let's try the door on the left.'

Jihan agrees and so goes through his usual checking routine, which takes several more minutes.

'I can't hear anything behind the door' reports the elf, 'but there appears to be some enchantment on the lock. It doesn't appear to be a trap. It looks as if the door is magickally held.'

Bennett peels off a splinter of damp wood from the door:

'The wood looks pretty rotten to me. I bet that 'Retribution' and I could be in there without too much difficulty, especially if my Pannon friend gives me a hand.'

With that, he takes his old battleaxe from his back and hands it to Zsolt.

'Is this wise?' asks Winnacer. 'The noise of smashing the door down will certainly alert anything that may be in the room, and probably the whole of the cellar. Should we ignore it or leave it to last instead. Perhaps there are other ways into it?'

"Is there anything that you can do to get past the magickal lock, Faewen'il?" asks Winnacer.

The lass shakes her head sadly:

"I'm afraid that I've nae spells at ma disposal that would get us past it."

"Those were barracks up there," Jihan says when the locked door is checked, "so I'm guessing that those beasts we fought were but the least of what the tower had to offer, the cannon fodder, as Flint would no doubt say."

He carefully looks around the doorframe again, checking for any signs of easy entry into it, speaking as he does so:

"This door looks pretty solid regardless,and will take the work of more than a few blows from those heavy blades... But the fact that it is magically locked may mean that there is something important behind it, and perhaps something too tough for us to deal with right now guarding it. I think that we should check these other doors first, just to see if we can have an easier time of the rest of the basement before we go on and bash this one down, if we can..."

"I'm still not sure that it's a wise move to try any of the doors" says Will. "Several of us are far from healthy and Shaman Hrust is out of healing spells. I think that it would be safer to return to camp now and carry on tomorrow."

Bennett indicates that he is still very keen on examining just one more room.

Taking the initiative himself, Jihan walks carefully to the next door, a spear from the armory upstairs in one hand to test the water in front of him and Diamond Stealth in the other. He goes through his usual routine on the first door, and the next.

After ten minutes of carefully checking the two doors, Jihan gives his findings concerning the two doors:

"The one at the end of the corridor looks open and I can't find any traps on it. I've had a good listen at the door, but I can't hear anything in there."

"The door on our right is locked, but it's a very old model. I could pick it with my eyes closed. There aren't any traps that I can find. However, there seems to be something in there. I didn't hear any splashing, but I did hear some very quiet chittering. It sounds to me as if there are several large insects of some kind in there."

Winnacer looks down at the flooded waters with a sense of dread:

"This cannot do anything but bode ill."

The young lord takes a spare spear and holds it within his shield hand, using it to poke the ground in front of him and to help keep his balance:

"This is certainly a nasty business."

As the party moves forward, trying to be as quiet as possible, it is quite noticeable that Winnacer cannot move quietly in the water for his life. Each step the youth takes is accompanied by a sucking sound when not causing splashing. As they approach the doors, Winnacer sets the spear on the wall and readies his new shield against whatever may on the other sides. 'Old Bohavia' finds itself being strangled by Winnacer's nervous energy as Winnacer prepares to open the second door.

They get into their usual positions for going through doors, with Zsolt and Winnacer on the left and right sides and Shaman Hrust in the middle, with his holy symbol in hand ready to try and turn any of the undead that may be skulking in there.

Cautiously, Winnacer turns the handle and…

'WWWWWWOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!'

The frame of the door explodes towards them.

Both Zsolt and Winnacer were saved from the full blast of the door due to the fact that they were not facing the door fully, but the damage is still not inconsequential. The poor bugbear, however, is standing right in front of it and the force of the blast sends him hurtling backwards into the water which, although not a terribly pleasant experience, does manage to extinguish his burning fur.

Painfully, the shaman rises, dripping fetid water from his fur. The shaman doesn't look terribly well any more, nor does he look at all happy:

'PURDEL!' he growls angrily.

You have all learned the Slovene word for 'I'm not very happy'.

'I REALLY hate it when that happens' Winnacer says, glaring at Jihan as he pats at the smoldering splinters on his armor.

'I'm sorry' responds Jihan a little guiltily, 'but those fire traps are notoriously difficult to spot.'

Realizing that it was not the elf's fault, Winnacer instead looks through the blackened doorway into the room within. It appears to be some sort of cell block. From the doorway, two rusted iron barred doors can be seen leading to small chambers on the opposite side of the room. There are walls for another ten feet on either side of the door, which means that there could be at least two more cells to either side. As the smoke clears and the lapping scummy water calms, they can see that there are skeletons in the two cells ahead of them, the bones stained green by the water that they have been laying in for several decades, if not centuries. There appears to be no occupants within the cellblock.

Winnacer turns to face the others:

'Well now we're even more beat up than we were before. Shall we follow Will's advice and leave investigating this area until we have had chance to heal tomorrow, or shall we go with Bennett's wishes and carry on a little further?'

"While I would abide by a majority decision," continues the lightly grilled young lord, following his second singeing in less than an hour, "I must say that this whole area reeks of magery that seeks to turn me into ashes! While we can rotate our lines to protect our wounded, there is little we can do about traps. I also have the feeling that our rest may be disturbed tonight, by either bats or Death Priests or blasts of fire hungry for my embrace. So perhaps we should conserve the rest of our energy and try again in the morning. The inhabitants of this place haven't left for generations, they can wait until we are a bit less injured."

He looks at Hrust and points back the way we came while shrugging, seeing if he and Zsolt are of the same mind as he is. No matter what the group decides, he cannot help but shake his head and attempt a smile:

"At least I'll have some nice color after all this."

As he sees Winnacer pointing towards the exit, Shaman Hrust, who is still not smiling, eagerly nods his head. Zsolt, on the other hand, looks towards Bennett to see whether he can determine what his brother-in-arms feels about the situation. It is obvious that both a bond and a sense of friendly rivalry is forming between the Bohavian and the Pannon.

"I think we're really done for the day, now" adds Jihan. "Perhaps we should start moving on out, or hobbling, as the case may be. I just want to take a peek in these cellblocks in case there's something useful hanging up around here. Perhaps there is a master key for the more commonly opened doors on a ring of keys for the cells somewhere. If anything looks like it starts to want moving around in here, then it's time to tear out as quick as our feet may take us."

He looks around the fringes of the room for any hooks or hangers upon which such a keyring might hang, carefully checking the water in front of himself. 

The others watch on as Jihan moves forwards inside the room, prodding before him with a spear. They then see a puzzled look come across his face.

A split-second later, the water seems to take on a life of its own as it takes on a large snake-like form which rears up and lunges at Jihan. The elf instantly recoils in surprise and the creature misses him by a whisker.

With a flick of each hand, Diamond Stealth and Langzhan are quickly summoned and the elf strikes back at the creature. He hits it, but the creature is fluid and so it seems to cause very little damage to the thing.

As soon as the rest of them are aware of what's going on, they charge into the room in order to try and take it out as quickly as possible. The thing attempts to strike at Jihan again, but the nimble elf manages to dodge it once more. He strikes out again with both weapons. He manages to strike it again with Diamond Stealth, but Langzhan goes straight through the creature and Jihan stabs himself in the leg with the dagger.

The rest of them are upon the creature then, however. The creature is so large that it is very easy to get a hit on it and Winnacer, Xavier, Bennett and Zsolt all manage to hit it, but each time they do, it seems to do hardly any damage to the thing at all.

Jihan tries to dodge again, but this time his luck runs out and the creature hits him full square. As it does so, Jihan becomes covered in an ooze like substance and freezes in place, paralyzed with a look of horror frozen on his face.

As he sees the elf go rigid, Hrust immediately starts casting a spell while gesticulating towards Jihan.

The warriors renew their efforts to finish this creature, not really knowing what it is, but imagining that Jihan's future looks bleak if it cannot be dispatched quickly.

In the panic and confusion, it is hard for any of them to get a hit on the thing without hitting Jihan with the same blow. However, Will manages to nick the creature with his magickal dagger, and Zsolt lops off its tail with his sword. As the Pannon does so, the texture of the creature falls apart and the ooze like substance slides off Jihan into the murky waters.

At the same time, Hrust finishes his casting and Jihan shakes himself as he regains his senses.

'Huh? What happened?' asks the elf, totally confused by the events which happened so quickly.

Jihan then looks on aghast as the remains of the ooze starts to dissolve into his equipment. As he realizes what is happening, he desperately tries to scrape the ooze off. In the process, he manages to save a great deal of equipment, but he looks forlorn at his losses which are; his spidersilk rope, his journal and diary plus all of his papers and parchments, his boots, pouch of testing powders, pouch of dog pepper, black hooded cloak and, saddest of all, his scabbard of poison.

He was lucky indeed to have saved the rest of his equipment, including his magickal leather armor. All of Jihan's non-metallic possessions now show signs of corrosion, although they are still usable.

Winnacer eyes go wide as Jihan gets enveloped by the ooze as he hastily brings his sword to bear. The futile swings of himself and his companions makes him realize that they may need more than just steel to make it through this death-trap. When the ooze is finished, Winnacer turns to the others and says:

"Well, if Spravedelna ever gave us a sign to leave, I think that was it. Let us leave while we still can."

Groaning in pain, Jihan is glad that his losses were so small, though he can't help but curse his luck at the loss of his magical scabbard, which he tries, in vain, to scrape off for a few seconds after it is apparent that it has been destroyed by the touch of the slime beast. Eventually, he sighs and holds it out in front of him, looking at the severe corrosion and then tossing it out into the water:

"I'll have to see about some replacements when we get back to the city..." he says, "but then again, there's no use crying over spilt honeywine. All falls back to the cycle from which it arose."

Once he's calmed down, he stubbornly looks around the fringes for a keyring again, then realizes just how badly he's been hurt. He clutches his bruised ribs and shudders.

'Over there' he says weakly, pointing to the wall behind him.

The others look around and see, as Jihan expected, a hook embedded into the wall, hanging from which is a large iron ring and four large keys.

Will sloshes through the water and takes them off the wall before giving them to Jihan. The elf has a look of some satisfaction that his hunch was correct before the pain overwhelms him again.

As he sees Jihan grimace, Yaz starts to cast a healing spell upon the elf.

'I've been saving my last two for a rainy day' smiles Yaz weakly. 'I guess that you are it.'

The spell's effects are only average, but make quite a bit of difference to the badly wounded elf.

'While, I'm at it' continues the druid, 'I may as well use the last one on Shaman Hrust as he doesn't look in much better shape than you are.'

He casts his final spell upon the bugbear, but the results of his magick are very weak. The bugbear growls his appreciation in any case.

Winnacer looks at the keys in Jihan's hand:

'Well I think that we can forget about using the keys today. Who knows if that ooze or slime has any friends or relatives lurking in the cells?'

They all nod in agreement and even Bennett agrees that it would be wise to return later and so they turn to leave. Will throws an arm around Jihan and starts toward the exit. Leaving the door to the cellblock ajar, they splash through the murky water and then walk back up the stairs to the ground floor of the tower.

They stop to pick up the weapons that they retrieved from the two armories and walk towards the door. Will pokes his head around the door before they walk out, just in case Baltzarek has organized a welcoming committee, or the demon bats have returned. However, all outside is as they left it just a few hours earlier, and the smashed stone figures of the gargoyles still lie on the ground.

Slowly, they descend the hill and make their way back towards the location where Robert was sent. Every off step evokes a low moan of pain from Jihan, and the elf's slender muscles are tense and strained:

"So much for guard duty," he says as they make their way back towards the camp.

The sun is high in the sky as they leave the tower and make their way down to the small lake. Yaz and Viirin track ahead of the rest of them, keeping an eye out for any nasty surprises. There are none, however and after a couple of hours they arrive at the spot arranged for the meeting.

After the horrors of the tower, it is a welcoming sight that greets them upon their return. The post is far enough from the tower for it to be back in Prirodna's realm and the grass is green. Robert has set up camp and has a fire going. The horses are standing on the shore of the small lake and drinking. As they come closer, Min starts to wag his tail and barks before running up to greet Will, who opens up his arms to allow the little dog to leap into them.

There is a huge grin on Robert's face as he sees that they have all survived and are coming towards him:

'Orright?' he asks. 'Didn't expect you back so soon. Better get the kettle on and make you all a cup of tea. You looks a bit chilly to me.'

When finally at the camp, Jihan collapses in pain, spreading out all of his vast inventory of small items and trying his best to clean off the worst of the corrosion

After making you some hot tea, Robert then proceeds to ruin a meal for them. However, all that slaughtering has meant that they've worked an appetite and they hardly notice how dreadful it all tastes.

After lunch, they all go back to their regular activities. Faewen'il goes around each of them and gives you new bandages with Yaz helping her. Yaz carries on his canine lessons with Viirin, although the wolf is hurting badly from his wounds and so his heart is not really in it. Bennett spends hours with his whetstone and cloth polishing 'Retribution'. By the end of the afternoon, the weapon, which was badly tarnished when he found it, is shining as if it were forged yesterday. He then proceeds to stare at it for a while, a large grin fixed on his face as he does so.

Winn recommends a double watch, allowing the group to 'sleep in' so they are well-rested. He's in no rush to go early the following day, considering that it is doubtful they'll be spending full days in the tower. He also recommends that they either go without a fire or find some other place well hidden to light one - no point in alerting anyone to the fact they're still around. The evening is a fairly mild one, and so they choose the option of going without a fire, as every one is aching too badly to want to undertake any additional journey.

After that decision has been reached, Winnacer says his prayers to Spravedelna, asking for guidance on how to eradicate this travesty and keep himself from another broiling. He also cleans his weapon from the slime that is coating it and takes a good look at the shield for heraldry and so forth. When he received the shield, it was very dirty and the young lord did not have the time to clean it properly. Once he has taken a damp cloth to it, however, the design on it becomes apparent. It shows what is obviously a representation of a mountain peak rising from the earth, with a golden ball of the sun shining upon it.

Will comes over as he sees the full design revealed:

'Nice shield. I've seen that symbol before. It's dwarven - their symbol for Zemnye, the earth god. Strange that it's sized for a human though.'

Will has been investigating his own weapon during the break, the magickal dagger:

"It is good to have a blade that is enchanted," he says, looking at his new dagger again. "I could not damage that being with my sword, but this blade met it's mark."

Having Winnacer's ear, he voices the desire again to spy on the village for repercussions from the tower. He finds little support from the others, however as all seem now determined to finish the job that they have started upon the tower before checking on the going-ons in Dobroushka again.

As they carry on their activities, night begins to fall and, one by one, they retire to their tents to sleep off their injuries while always keeping two people on watch

 

10 OKTOBER 3460

The watch that they organized was not needed, as the night was quiet. At around 8.00 a.m., they start to emerge from their tents and go through their regular morning routines. Hrust spends an hour chanting to the skies and then starts to perform more healing upon each of them.

He casts spells upon Jihan, Winnacer, Viirin and himself. The results are fairly good upon all but Viirin, who is still fairly beat up from the previous day. Yaz decides to keep all of his healing spells in reserve so as to cast 'first aid' upon those that need it most.

After another terrible breakfast prepared by Robert, they decide that it is time to embark upon their second assault upon the tower. The hour and a half long journey to the tower goes without incident and there are no signs of anyone in the area. Soon, they are standing at the foot of the tower once more.

Pausing for just an instant, they then enter the tower. they spend a while checking the first floor to make sure that nothing has returned to the rooms that they cleared out, but all are empty and exactly as they left them. They carry on downwards back into the fetid waters in the cellar.

Before entering the water, Winnacer lights a torch and holds it in his shield hand, in case they encounter something recalcitrant to blades down in the basement. He suggests that they start where they left off.

They return to the cellblock. Jihan is a little nervous about entering the room, but tries his hardest to conquer his fear. The warriors stand behind him, ready to protect him with their shields in case another of the oozes decides to have a go at him, while the others test the floor ahead with their spears. As they move fully into the room, however, they encounter no more of the vile amoebas. Once fully in, they see that there are four cells off the block, with two doors to their left and right and two doors ahead of them.

Cautiously, they peer through the grille to see what each of the rooms contain. They can see nothing but green scum encrusted skeletons half-submerged in the murky water. There are two in the left cell, one in the right, three in the cell ahead of them to their right and five in the cell ahead of them to the left.

They watch the skeletons carefully to see if there are any signs of animation in the bones. It does not appear to be so, however, and they notice that the bones do not all seem to be connected. Not wanting to take any chances, however, Hrust stands before the door with holy rod in hand as Jihan tries the key in the first of the doors.

Although the keys fit, the locks have rusted and so it is a real effort in order to get the doors to open, but eventually each of them do. They start off with the two smaller cells and spend a long time carefully prodding below the water with spears to see whether there may be anything hidden under the water, but the two cells contain nothing but the skeletons, which are nothing more than old bones.

Investigating the two larger cells produces the same results, nothing but old bones. They spend the best part of an hour searching the cells, but prefer the slow approach of prodding with spears and swords rather than the dangerous alternative of using their hands. Their careful search produces nothing, however.

They are just about to call it a day when Will spies something. There is something etched into the wall of the cell. The writing has been all but obscured by the lichens and mold covering the filthy black walls, but as he scrapes away the fungus with his dagger, the text becomes clear.

Will reads out the writing that he has uncovered:

'Petr Amarandir

Yaroslav Skalichka

Stanislav Kokoshka

Rolas Tinandir

Radim Svoboda

Pardubitze Temple of Kozlo Crusade Against The Tower 3386

We Failed. Avenge Us in Her Name'

Winnacer mouths the names of the dead etched into the wall slowly to himself in a solemn voice:

"Before we leave, let us remove these skeletons and give them a proper burial. That's the least we can do."

"I agree with you whole-heartedly" states Will. "We should take their bones from this foul place and put them to rest. What say the rest of you?" he asks, looking around at the group.

The others all nod their agreement to giving the brave, but unfortunate, adventurers a decent burial.

Will considers the scrawl once more and mumbles to himself, considering the date:

"3386, that was only 74 years ago. When was it that Yaromir defeated Boscobelous here?"

'Kesryk said that it was 500 years ago that Yaromir sent Boscobelous to his doom' replies Winnacer. 'Why do you look so puzzled?'

'I was just wondering if these brave souls were put here before or after the fall of Boscebelous' Will replies. 'This must mean that there has been something in the tower since Boscebelous' death of sufficient intelligence to bind them here in the dungeon.'

Winnacer nods as he realizes the truth of Will's deduction:

'You're right, I fear. This must mean that there is, or has been, something inside the tower that is capable of conscious thought, and I have a horrible feeling that we're going to meet it as we get higher in the tower. We should pay extra vigilance as we make our way through, however, in case it tries to ambush us.'

He pauses deep in thought for a moment, and then returns to the current problems ,

'Well it would appear that this is all that there is of interest in this room,' states Winnacer after hearing Will speak. 'That means that there are just two rooms remaining in the cellars, the one that is magickally locked and has no other way of accessing it, and the one that Jihan heard has some insect like inhabitants. So where do you think that we should go next?'

All are in agreement that the room from where the insectoid noises emanated from should be their next destination.

"Come, let us pick a fight with these bugs" Winnacer agrees.

He hefts 'Old Bohavia' menacingly.

"I think I have something they want to meet."

They all move back into the corridor and stand outside the door. Thinking that there are natural rather than supernatural beings inside the room, Hrust stands towards the back. In his place, Bennett demands to be in the front rank.

Jihan moves to the door. He takes his picks and starts work upon the lock. As he expected, the lock is far from a challenge for him, and he hears the satisfying click of the lock turning after less than a minute.

With 'Old Bohavia' in hand, Winnacer counts down and throws the door open, praying that it doesn't explode in his face (again).

It doesn't, but as the door opens, he sees that the room is filled with giant cobwebs. The light from the lantern that Faewen'il is holding illuminates the room a little and they see several huge spiders scurrying amongst the webs. Upon seeing the webs, Zsolt immediately grabs the door handle and closes it again. He then shouts something in Slovene to Hrust.

Hrust moves forwards from the rear of the party and points at Winnacer's torch, beckoning for the young lord to give it to him. Winnacer gives it to him. The bugbear then comes up to the door and mutters something to Zsolt. The Pannon grabs the door handle and opens it just a few inches. Immediately, Hrust takes the torch and sticks his arm into the room and ignites a strand of the nearest web with the torch. He then quickly removes his hand and Zsolt closes the door again.

Hrust lets out a loud gutteral laugh as all hear the sound of the spiders dropping to the watery floor of the room with a splash.

He points to his own singed fur and to the area on Winnacer's face where his eyebrows used to be located. He then wriggles his fingers as a representation of a spider before letting out another belly laugh.

'Pomsta' he laughs. 'Swadka Pomsta!'

They wait for several minutes until they think that the webs have finished burning. Jihan is listening to the door:

'I hear a lot of splashing about in there. I think that we've damaged them pretty bad, but they're still alive.'

'In that case' responds Winnacer drawing 'Old Bohavia' again, 'I guess that we have no alternative but to finish them off the old-fashioned way.'

With that, he throws open the door again and charges in, with the rest of them following closely on his heels.

The room is full of smoke, but the huge forms of the sodden spiders are still fairly easy to pick out. As they rush in, the spiders are slow to react to their presence. Jihan was right about the numbers. Although they all look fairly well singed, the fire didn't kill any of them. As they start to lay into them, they count ten spiders in total.

Winnacer charges in and easily hacks the first of them to pieces, sending legs flying in all directions. Zsolt is right by his side and two more of the sorry looking arachnids are carved into bite sized chunks by his bastard sword. Bennett cleaves a fourth neatly in two with one almighty swing from 'Retribution'.

The warriors' run of luck is broken by Xavier. The spider that he was aiming for scuttles out the way just as he was about to cleave it in two with his bastard sword. There is a terrible 'CLANG' as the Saxon's blade impacts upon the floor hard. Xavier grimaces in pain as the shockwaves from the sword run up his swordarm as he feels it go numb.

Will is next into the fray and he cuts into another of the spiders with his longsword, although the spider does not fall. He just misses finishing it with his magickal dagger.

Jihan looks to hack at another of the creatures, but absolute disaster strikes him. In a similar situation to Xavier, the spider that he was aiming for scuttles out of the way just as he is about to give it an almighty death blow. The force of the blow shatters Diamond Stealth and the largest part of the blade goes flying through the air. He looks on in horror as he sees it bounce off the wall in front of him before it ricochets and imbeds itself deep in poor Viirin's flank. The winter wolf lets out a tremendous howl of pain and rage and then, in a knee jerk reaction, unleashes an icy blast from his mouth towards the unfortunate elf. The water around Jihan immediately freezes and so does Jihan, almost, as he starts to turn an interesting pale blue color and simply sits stock still in the frozen water.

Yaz, seeing the tragedy, immediately charges after the wolf and grabs him by the scruff of the neck in order to try and wrestle some sense into the enraged creature.

Faewen'il and Hrust simply stand and stare at the incredible events open-mouthed.

The warriors, however, somehow manage to concentrate on the task at hand and try their hardest to finish off the spiders before they start to come to their senses and retaliate.

Winnacer hits another, but it does not fall. It tries to bite the warrior with its glistening fangs, but the young lord's mail protects him. Zsolt misses the one that he was trying to combat, but the spider has similar luck in biting him. Bennett's run of luck continues as 'Retribution' cleaves through another of the creatures. Xavier somehow manages to ignore the pain shooting up and down his arm in order to bring his sword down upon another of the creatures. He too manages to hack another of the spiders to pieces.

Will tries to finish the spider that he injured previously, but neither his sword nor his dagger find their way to the spider. The spider rears up in order to strike back at the bard, but Will is quick and parries the spider's assault. Another of the spider attempts to sink its fangs into Winnacer's leg, but he sees it coming and just manages to sidestep away from it.

Yaz is still wrestling with Viirin, trying to stop it taking the elf's head off with its massive jaws. Jihan is still too shocked from the events to react.

Trying to fight off two of the spiders becomes too much for Winnacer. One of them rears up and plunges its fangs into his arm. As the venom is injected into his arm, Winnacer goes stock-still, paralyzed. Seeing the opportunity, the other spider bites into him too, although the damage is not great. Seeing the young lord go rigid, Zsolt renews his efforts to be rid of the spider facing him. Although he lays into the beast with fury, the spider that he is facing is the biggest of the bunch and, although the Pannon manages to cut off three of its legs, the spider lives on.

Bennett rushes to Winnacer's aid and easily manages to carve up one of the creatures facing the lord. However, as he raises 'Retribution' high to bring it down upon the other spider menacing Winnacer, the battleaxe flies out of his sweaty hand and goes over his back.

Will lets out a scream as he sees the axe heading straight for him and dives out of the way just in time to avoid being hit on the head by it. 'Retribution' sinks into the murky depths of the room with a loud splash.

Xavier makes up for his previous bad luck with a tremendous blow upon the other spider menacing Winnacer, sending half of it flying through the air where it impacts upon the wall of the room.

Will, after his narrow escape from 'Retribution', also gains a degree of luck. Although he misses the spider with his longsword, he plunges the dagger deep into the head of the spider, finishing it.

Just one spider remains, the one that Zsolt is facing. Not for long, however, as the Pannon brings up his sword and finishes it off in one almighty swing. Now all of the spiders are dead.

As the combat finishes, Hrust begins to cast. As he finishes the words of the spell and points towards Winnacer, the young lord comes back to life, the paralysis over.

Yaz, by now, has got Viirin under control again. The silver-furred giant still looks towards Jihan with a not so friendly countenance. Jihan slowly starts to come round, although he is still pretty shocked from the unbelievable events at the start of the combat. Shivering from the intense cold, he gets up from where he is sat in the filthy water, cracking the ice that has formed around him. Bennett takes 'Regret' and begins prodding around in search of the missing 'Retribution'. He soon finds it and wipes it clean of the slime covering it. Xavier rubs his aching arm in order to calm the tingling sensation that still runs up and down it.

They all look at each other with embarrassment written large on their faces, not really knowing what to say about the fiasco.

They take a look around the room to see that there is very little of interest in there. It was obviously some kind of storeroom before the flooding took place. Scattered around the room are several large rotten boxes and barrels. Some incredibly moldy sacks lay in another corner of the room. It is obvious that there is absolutely nothing of interest in the room whatsoever. In the corner of the room it can be seen that part of the wall has crumbled away and a small burrow can be seen.

'Well…errm…' Winnacer stumbles, his lips still somewhat numb as a result of the paralyzation, 'It looks as if the cellars are just about clear apart from that room that is magickally locked. Has anyone got any bright ideas as to how to get into it, or is it just the unsubtle approach of hacking it to pieces that we must take?'

Jihan cannot say a word... at all. Pain closes up his throat and he clutches himself tightly, trying to rub some life back into his frigid limbs. He looks at the ruined Diamond Stealth and cannot suppress a scowl:

"That m..might have b..been useful ups..stairs..." he mumbles, his teeth clacking together frigidly.

"M..maybe we c..can sell it... or p..put it in a museum... ... oh, f..f**k it," he says with an uncharacteristic curse, hurling the broken hilt of the weapon across the room, sending it clattering off the back wall and into the fetid waters.

He looks towards Viirin with a countenance of absolute apology, and if he could speak to him to make amends, he certainly would. As such, all he can do is shiver and clatter his teeth together, so numb from the cold that he does not notice the extreme pain violently coursing through his battered body.

"B..bash that b..blasted door down and let's get out of here..." the elf mutters quickly through blue twinged lips.

"I'm d..done for today..."

Any altruism or hope for further action has quickly evaporated from the elf's countenance.