...But Viirin's Is Worse

Yaz stoops so as better to view the gaping wound in Viirin's flank. Seeing that it does not look at all good, he starts to cast upon it. At the same time that he says the final words to the familiar spell, he puts his fingers inside the wound and pulls out the bloody shard from Diamond Stealth. Viirin lets out an almighty roar of pain as the druid does so.

"Easy now, easy now" he whines to Viirin in the wolf's tongue, not wanting to feel the same retaliation that the wolf reaped upon the elf.

Viirin is calm, however, the spell taking away some of the pain.

Yaz then wades over to Jihan. He holds the shard of metal in his hand and presents it to the elf:

"I believe that this belongs to you, Mr. Prirodnasson' the druid says with an angry look.

Jihan looks up at Yaz with a sad look on his face. As he does so, he sees that Yaz cannot keep up the pretense any longer and the frown has all but been replaced by a smirk.

'On behalf of Viirin I'd like to say that your apology has been accepted, but try not to make a habit of it' Yaz says. 'Also on behalf of Viirin, I'd like to apologize for his freezing you like that.'

He then turns to address the rest of the party:

'However, it should act as a lesson to you all. I know that Viirin has worked with us over the past ten days or so, and he is kind of cute and so I can understand the temptation to treat him as an overgrown dog, but he is also naturally an evil creature who is only acting this way because he is under my influence. I have no idea what his reaction will be when my influence over him ends. However, even before then, you should take what happened to poor Jihan here as a warning to be very careful around him and not do anything to annoy him, as the result could easily be fatal.'

The lecture over, Yaz's attention reverts to the shivering form of Jihan:

'I guess that you could do with a little patching up too' he says before starting to cast another of his precious healing spells upon him. The results of the spell are fair, but Jihan is still feeling very cold, and is still far from healthy.

'I guess that you and Viirin should try and stay out of trouble for the rest of the day at least as I only have another couple of these left. I don't reckon that we'll be able to spend too long in the tower today.'

Bennett ignores the rest of the group, cleaning his weapon lovingly and apologizing to it for his incompetence. You have never seen him speak so to any person.

Once he has assured himself that 'Retribution' is gleaming as much as it was before it had its unforeseen dunking in the scummy waters, Bennett splashes over to investigate the burrowings into the side of the cellar. The holes are very small, no bigger than his fist, although there are several of them. They could have been made by regular sized rats, or voles or something similar. He peers into them, but sees only darkness.

As Winnacer mentions the option of hacking through the door, Bennett shrugs his shoulders, more than willing to perform the action, but also more than willing to hear any other solutions.

All are quiet when it comes to making other suggestions:

'Well I guess that you and Zsolt had better get hacking then' Winnacer says to Bennett.

Without emotion, Bennett reaches behind him and throws Sorrow to Zsolt. The Pannon catches it by the shaft with one hand and the two of them leave the store room to stand in front of the door. The two of them then start hacking away at the door. As they do so, Xavier and Winnacer stand close behind them with swords at the ready in case there is any sign of activity from either within or without.

Despite the rotten state of the door, it is made from sturdy oak. Were it not for the fact that it had been soaked through by the water, the two of them could have spent several hours on the job without any guarantee of success. As it is, it takes over half an hour before the area of the door close to the hinges is almost through. By this time, both Bennett and Zsolt are getting exhausted and their arms are aching from the strain of the hacking.

The noise that they are making in the process is immense. The others' eyes keep darting towards the stairs up to check that they have not alerted any denizens of the tower to their presence, but they are alone.

'We must be nearly through now' says Bennett, taking a short breather while mopping his brow. 'I reckon that if we all put our shoulders to it, then we should get it down.'

The four warriors all lean against the door and grimace as they put their shoulders into it. The others watch on, weapons and spells poised to react to whatever may be inside. As the warriors keep pushing, the door begins to creak, and then groan, and then they start to hear the fibers of the wood begin to break. All of a sudden, the door gives in. All except Bennett topple into the water on top of the door, but are back up on their feet in an instant, not only because the filthy water is not a good place to lie, but also because they do not want to be stabbed in the back by any occupants of the room.

As the three of them struggle to get up, Faewen'il shines the lantern into the room. She gives a little gasp as she sees that the room is almost full of sarcophagi, ten of them to be precise.

As he sees the contents, Hrust lets out a cry and brings his holy rod up before him. As the fighters see the huge stone containers, they too quickly vacate the room, expecting to hear the grating sound of the lids sliding open. As they all reach the relative safety of the corridor, they stop to take account of the situation and realize that there is no sign of the stone tombs opening.

They wait outside the room, not daring to look in for a couple more minutes. Still there is no sign of activity from within. A little bolder as a result, they peer back into the room. They see that the sarcophagi are large in the main, but of slightly different sizes. Two of them are substantially smaller than the others. They have been well crafted and, although they are covered in the dust and debris of what could be several centuries, they are all intact. They look to be made of granite. Perhaps they were polished when they were new, but it is hard to say after such a long time. From the thickness of the stone, you imagine that the lids are very heavy. It would be a struggle for any one of them to slide the lids off, should any of them want to do so, and all of them together would be required in order to lift one of the lids off.

They stand in silence, listening to the sound of their hearts beating as they survey the sarcophagi.

'So…what shall we do?' asks Winnacer, as much to himself as the rest of you.

'Let me take a closer look at them' says Will. 'Jihan is in no fit state to go getting himself into any more danger.'

Winnacer looks him in the eye:

'OK then, but be very careful. Move slowly and we won't make a sound. If you hear anything that would suggest that the sarcophagi are going to open, then get out of there as quickly as you can.'

'I understand' Will replies.

The others all look on, the perspiration running down their faces as they watch Will move into the room. He goes in one step at a time, making as little sound as he can. After just a few steps, he is at the first of them, the smallest one. He peers down to look at it more closely.

'There's something inscribed on it' Will says.

He blows on the lid of the stone coffin, sending a cloud of dust into the still air of the room, but still he cannot read the engraved letters. He takes a cloth and gently rubs the dirt away. He then begins to read the inscription on the coffin:

'Katerina Boscobelous 2968-2973 My Beloved Daughter. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

After checking that there is no more writing, he moves to the next one and clears away the inscription which he reads out to them again.

'Irena Boscobelous 2914-2973 My Beloved Aunt. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

He then goes round each of the sarcophagi in turn, cleaning and then reading out the inscriptions:

'Yitka Boscobelous 2960-2973 My Beloved Daughter. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

'Martina Boscobelous 2947-2973 My Beloved Wife. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

'Radek Boscobelous 2942-2973 My Beloved Brother. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

'Eva Boscobelous 2948-2973 My Beloved Sister-In-Law. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

'Lukas Boscobelous 2915-2973 My Beloved Father. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

'Karel Boscobelous 2911-2973 My Beloved Uncle. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

'Petra Boscobelous 2918-2973 My Beloved Mother. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

'Yakub Boscobelous 2963-2973 My Beloved Son. I Shall Not Rest Till Again You Breathe.'

'They all died in the same year' states Will after reading the inscription on the final sarcophagi. '2973? Now, that year rings a bell somewhere. What the hell happened that year?'

Will goes quiet for a second, lost in concentration. Then realization hits him:

'Of course, 2973. That was the year of The First Great Pox.'

Will takes a close examination of the sarcophagi, looking for scrape marks or other evidence that they might have been opened before. However, upon even closer examination than before, he assures the rest of them that the tops of the stone tombs do not seem to have been tampered with since the day that they were first put in place nearly half a millenium ago.

"Tis a shame" Will says as he looks at the sarcophagi. "Perhaps Boscebolous was a man of good intentions at first, trying to learn the means by which to regain his family."

"Good lesson to be learned here about the end justifying the means I'd say."

"Either the strain of years of labor over the task drove him insane, or just the pull of evil from necromancy drove him from his goodwill perhaps."

"Talk about knowledge that Konan would be interested in!"

Upon hearing Will's words, Winnacer shakes his head in disbelief:

"I guess it would take such a great tragedy to turn a man's mind to the unspeakable evil of necromancy. The family of Boscobelous died a natural death and we are not grave robbers. Perhaps it would be best to leave them in peace. But what could Boscobelous have meant when he said he would not rest until they again could breathe?"

Winnacer pauses for a while collecting his thoughts as the others talk:

"It seems that Konan is going to hear quite a history about this place when we report back to him. From our brief investigation of the Tower, it seems clear that some type of intelligence keeps its evil eye over the inhabitants. It makes one wonder if perhaps Boscobelous' restless spirit has not been truly exorcised from this place."

Will adds his consent:

"Indeed, I do not care to become a graverobber. I do however want to assure myself that the bones of these people rest in peace. Let us hope that this is truly the case."

Yaz adds his thoughts upon the matter:

"A natural death, yes... but, while we're not graverobbers, we have made it our business to free the imprisoned spirits of these abominations, to let them get on with their next incarnation. I don't understand how spirits can be shackled to their shells.. But if Bosco has been here for as long as it seems, surely he would have animated his own family by now? If this is where they rest by day, we do owe them their lives back, to continue in whatever form Prirodna sees fit to give them. If they are bound in tormented undeath, we must free them."

Yaz wipes his damp face before continuing:

"But what really worries me is not the mockery of life that could be in these boxes... It's the pox I fear. Dare we risk opening a box full of pox? I think we need to find out what's in each coffin... but maybe not until we know our Shaman friend can call upon his storm god for a powerful curing spell, in case one of us catches the pox."

The druid walks up to Hrust and looks him in the eye:

'Hello? Shaman Hrust? Have you got one of those spells that allows you to speak with us today?' He says each word slowly and clearly.

He gets his response as the bugbear starts to cast and then answers Yaz in Bohavian:

'I hope that it is important, as I'm only taking one of these spells per day to use in emergencies' the bugbear starts.

'Errm…yes, it is kind of important' Yaz replies. 'We think that whatever is in those sarcophagi died of the Pox and we're worried that we might catch it if try and open the lids. Would you be able to cure us were we to catch it?'

'I could' replies Hrust, 'but not today. The ability to cure disease is one of the greatest gifts that Blesk has bestowed upon me, but I did not ask him to bless me with it today, as there are very few diseases that are fatal within a day. Instead, I asked him for the ability to remove paralysis from a victim. If you'd like me to, then I can pray for a cure disease spell tomorrow and one of us could open the tombs then, but I wouldn't recommend doing it today. Even one night under the influence of the Pox is not something that would be very pleasant.'

While Yaz is speaking to Hrust, Will continues checking the sarcophagi for traces of hints that undeath has possibly claimed what lies beneath the stone lids. He finds no evidence however, as it seems as if nothing has ever left the tombs, he votes to leave the room as they found it.

"Well it seems as if we shouldn't think about opening up the tombs until Hrust has a spell at his disposal" suggests Winnacer. "As I have said before, they have waited here for five centuries and so another day or two is probably not going to make a difference."

"I am torn between continuing our expedition and allowing for time to lick our wounds. If some over-riding intelligence exists here, it will not be long until it realizes that it is under siege and act accordingly. But at the same time, we need time to heal. I would be willing to poke our heads upstairs and quickly scout out the area, but we really should be leaving soon and waiting until we are in better shape."

"Let's see what Prirodna's power can do before we call it a day" adds Yaz. "If She chooses to heal our friends well, maybe we can continue for a short while."

He casts another couple of healing spells upon Jihan and his final one upon Viirin. Although the results are only fair, they are sufficient to get both elf and wolf through another encounter, providing that Jihan's luck improves a little.

Winnacer sees the improved health of the elf and wolf, and speaks:

'Well, I think that we are in a sufficiently restored state to at least take a look at what is upstairs. I think that we should make an investigation and then make another decision based upon that knowledge.'

Before leaving the cellars, Will returns to the cellblock where he searches around for any clues that the poor prisoners might have left behind for anyone else to find that may give the group a heads up on what to expect. He searches the walls for other more obscured scribblings, as well as the floor under the water for anything of aid. He spends more than fifteen minutes on the task, but finds nothing more of any interest there.

While Will is taking a final look at the cellblock, Winnacer and Yaz return to the storeroom as Winnacer is intrigued by the burrowing. He asks Yaz to take a look at it:

'I shouldn't worry about it too much' Yaz shrugs. 'They are natural.'

He looks at the hacked carcasses of the spiders.

'I guess that the spiders fed off whatever entered the room through those burrowings. They couldn't have survived in here without some sort of food.'

'I'd still feel safer if they were filled in' says Winnacer.

'OK' agrees Yaz, and the two of them close the small holes.

They all reassemble in the corridor and leave the cellars as they make their way upstairs. Yaz is deep in thought as he ascends the stairs:

'Will, I need your help to prove or disprove a theory of mine. It looked to me as if there was no sign of anyone entering or exiting into the tower from the entrance for a long time before we came here. Can we go back and see whether that is right or not.'

'Sure' replies Will.

The two of them walk back to the entrance, and Will spends several minutes looking at the tracks in the dust. He then reports his findings:

'It's a little difficult to say after we've traipsed through here back and forth a couple of times, but I'm pretty sure you're right. We're the first persons, living or undead to have passed through the entrance in decades.'

'Well in that case' Yaz replies 'Either Baltzarek or the acolyte was talking shit when he told us about Baltzarek bringing sacrifices here. I wonder why he told us that? In any case, it must mean that there are some thinking bad guys actually within the tower.'

Will returns and examines the area around the doors to the two barracks going towards the stairs.

'There's definitely been more movement here' he says.

He then goes to the stairs and looks at them leading up:

'There has definitely been some movement here since then, as someone or something has been up and down these stairs. There doesn't appear to have been any movement for a while, but there are plenty of tracks, the same person perhaps, over a period of decades, if not centuries.'

Pondering on the ramifications of the findings, they carry on up the staircase, with Jihan scouting ahead, checking for traps as he goes up, one step at a time. There are no traps on the stairs, however, and they find themselves in a short corridor that has a very similar arrangement to that of the cellars in that the corridor is 15 feet wide and 25 feet long. There are three doors off the area, one to the left, one to the right and one straight ahead. The corridor is as derelict as the ground floor was. There are more tapestries on the walls that show undead rising from the graves.

'Let me check that there are no more nasty surprises waiting for us at these doors' Yaz says. 'Jihan is beaten up enough as it is.'

With that the druid starts to cast and scans the whole area, concentrating upon the doors. After a couple of minutes, he stops the spell:

'No problem with traps on this floor' Yaz replies with confidence.

Hearing the news, Jihan takes his brass listening-cone and brings it up to all three of the doors. He listens to each of the doors for several minutes and then reports his findings:

'I can't hear anything behind the door facing us, or behind the door to our right. There is a terrible stench behind the right door, however. It smells like mold, or rotting food.'

'However, there's definitely something behind the left door. I can hear quite a few things shuffling around in there. I could also smell rotting flesh. All three of the doors seem to be unlocked to me."

Winnacer listens to Jihan's findings before commenting:

'Are we ready for the major fight that looks to be waiting for us in the left room, or should we wait until tomorrow for that, checking out one of the two silent rooms before throwing ourselves into more combat?'

Winnacer looks at all three doors, considering the options:

"For us, it seems the unknown is more threatening than anything else. Perhaps we should pick our fight with the shuffling corpses behind the left door. Bennett and Xavier should lead the charge in, after Hrust has a chance to implore Blesk for aid. Zsolt and I will follow on their heels. Let us keep our mind on our mission and our blades in our hands."

'That's fine with me' agrees Will, 'although I wouldn't be averse to calling it a day here, what with both Yaz and Hrust being out of healing spells.'

It is obvious, however, that Bennett is very much up for carrying on:

"I agree with Winn that knowing there are zombies or some such behind this door makes it the best first door to open."

He then takes his place up front with Xavier. He looks over his shoulder at the door that Jihan said smelt strongly of rotting food and mold:

"This may be another one to let sit until Hurst gets that cure disease, as old mold, whether sentient or not, is a problem. I don't think we should leave the room unchecked, but we should leave it until we are ready."

Bennett once again volunteers to guinea pig opening this door once the time is right.

Jihan puts in for having at the shuffling corpse door. With his revelation that there are slime and ooze monsters living here, he keeps an extra careful eye glancing towards the ceiling every once in a while, having heard bad things about leaving this avenue unattended. He draws out Todtaenzer, and Recht, and readies himself for the opening of the door.

'So', sums up Winnacer, 'it seems as if we have made our decision. The shuffling corpse room it is.'

They assume the standard position. This time Xavier and Bennett go either side of the door, with Hrust in the middle, holy rod in hand. Winnacer and Zsolt stand immediately behind Xavier and Bennett respectively, so that the four of them can rush in and quickly overpower any of the living dead that may remain after Hrust's turning. The others stand behind the five of them, ready to add their help if needs be.

Bennett makes the countdown and, as he gets to zero, he throws the door open in one fluid movement. It comes as no surprise to them to see that the room is inhabited by zombies, 15 of them to be precise. However, they do not have the look of warriors about them, but rather they are clad in what seems to be the tattered and decaying remains of servants' clothing. The room is obviously their quarters, as it is furnished in a similar way to the barracks, with chairs, tables and filthy pallets. As the door swings open, the zombies slowly start to get up and shuffle towards the intruders.

Hrust, however, wasted no time in starting chanting to the god of thunder and raises his rod before him. As he utters the final word, the thunderclap resounds through the air and the party members look on to see no less than ten of the creatures fall to their knees before keeling over totally. The bugbear barks in triumph as he sees the results of his devotions.

They all dash into the room, but as they do so, the stench of death fills their nostrils, with devastating results for many of them.

Bennett starts to vomit, retching his guts out as the stench overcomes him and he is rooted to the spot. Xavier, Jihan and Will are affected even worse. Immediately, boils, blotches, lesions and seeping abscesses start to flow over their bodies. Yaz feels himself getting weaker, so weak that he can hardly keep hold of his sword. Worst of all, however, is Viirin, who keels over on the spot.

They try and ignore the terrible state that many of them are in so as to rid themselves of the zombies as quickly as possible.

Bennett cannot move, but Xavier tries to ignore the eruptions on his body in order to take out the zombies. Ignoring his blistered hands, he strikes the first of the zombies with his bastard sword, almost toppling the creature. The zombie gets its revenge, however, by smashing the Saxon with its fist. Winnacer, unaffected by the stench of death, strikes at the next, but neither of his blows find their mark. The zombie is more successful, however, and catches Winnacer with a glancing blow, although the damage is slight.

Zsolt heads through the others to take on the toughest looking of the five remaining zombies who is dressed better than the rest. He strikes the zombie with a tremendous blow from his bastard sword that hacks into the zombie's flesh, but it does not fall. The zombie raises its hand towards the Pannon and Zsolt lets out a scream as his face screws up with agony. He starts to fall, but somehow picks himself up to renew the struggle.

Will and Jihan both try to fight off the terrible pain from their diseased bodies in order to help finish the creatures. Heroically, Will carves into the zombie facing him with both longsword and magick dagger. The combination of the two blades is enough to finish the loathsome abomination and it falls to the floor. Jihan is less successful, however, and neither Todtaenzer nor Recht find their marks. The zombie is similarly unsuccessful, luckily, and the elf is easily able to avoid its clumsy swing.

Faewen'il sees Zsolt almost succumb to the force of the large zombie and realizes that the Pannon needs help. She raises her hand and fires off a couple of darts of magickal energy at the creature. They both hit the zombie master, inflicting some severe damage.

Both Yaz and Hrust realize that the fighters alone cannot win this fight and so both start to cast spells to give them fireblades. As Yaz begins to cast, however, he sees that Viirin is beginning to rise from the ground. At first he is hopeful that the wolf is OK and that he is rising from the effects of the stench. However, he then sees that the wolf's eyes are dull and empty.

His worst fears are realized when the wolf opens his jaws and lets out a blast of freezing frost upon him and Hrust. The effects of the cold are not so serious upon Hrust, but are pretty devastating upon Yaz, who almost drops as a result of the terrible pain from the freezing pain of Viirin's breath.

Bennett is still vomiting badly and is unable to take part in the combat. Xavier, still weak from the disease spreading through his body is unable to strike the zombie facing him, but manages to avoid the zombie's attack. Winnacer hits the one that he is facing hard, nearly knocking it to the ground. However, it does not go down. It tries to strike back at the young lord, but Winnacer knocks the abomination's fist away with his shield.

Zsolt gets another good hit upon the zombie master, but still not enough to knock it from its feet. The creature strikes him back, punching him hard in the stomach. Will, having felled his zombie, rushes over to give Zsolt a hand, but he is unable to land a blow upon it.

Jihan has slightly better luck in that he is able to strike his zombie with Todtaenzer, although it causes little more than a scratch. He fails to hit it at all with Recht. Once again he manages to dodge the zombie's clumsy retaliatory blow.

The three spellcasters are in shock at the fact that Viirin has been slain by the effects of the stench of death and has turned upon them. Faewen'il realizes that the old Viirin is gone and that she must forget the creature's former loyalty and try to slay it before the zombie wolf slays her and her colleagues. She raises her hands and sends another two bolts of energy towards the wolf. They both impact upon the unfortunate wolf, who shudders from the impact. Hrust does not hesitate, and lifts his flame blade high before bringing it crashing down upon Viirin's huge head just as the zombie wolf launches at him with jaws open. The white-hot fiery blade cleaves into Viirin's skull and the beast falls to the floor once more, finding true death.

Yaz just watches the wolf die, too shocked to react.

Bennett finally manages to get control over his retching stomach. He is now incredibly pissed off. Raising 'Retribution' aloft, he charges towards the zombie lord, intent upon revenge.

He gets it.

Although his first shot is off target, his second hacks through the zombie lord's neck, sending its head rolling across the floor.

Xavier is not so lucky, still suffering from his terrible wounds, he fails to get another strike upon the zombie, but manages to avoid its blow. Winnacer has more luck, finishing off the one that he is facing. Jihan, like Xavier, is still in agony as a result of the disease, but he manages to still strike it with Recht, although still the zombie does not fall. The success of his shot, however, means that he does not see the zombie's fist coming up to strike him, and he reels from a blow to his head.

Zsolt, having seen the zombie lord fall from Bennett's blow, remembers the bet that Bennett made with him. Without emotion on his face, he turns to face the two remaining zombies fighting Xavier and Jihan. In a flash of whirling steel, the Pannon finishes one and then the other. He turns back towards Bennett as the two zombies drop behind him, yet there is no look of satisfaction on his face, just remorse.

Yaz is paying no attention to the fight with the zombies. Letting his fireblade subside, he kneels on the floor stroking the wolf's shattered skull, the wolf's blood pouring over his leather armor, staining it red. Hrust looks down at the fallen wolf, his face a picture of sorrow.

Will, Xavier and Jihan all look at each others' faces, each of them a seething mass of infection. The pain from the disease is almost unbearable.

Quickly, Winnacer takes a look around the room to make sure that there is nothing remaining there of any danger or value. But there is nothing.

Winnacer's first concerns are with his mates, helping them find their feet:

"Let's get out of here while we still can."

He's not too keen on looking thoroughly through the room, knowing that they can always come back later. While the others make their way to the door, Winnacer torches all of the diseased corpses with disregard to the room's contents. He offers help to Yaz in carrying out the body of Viirin for a proper burial and tells the other able bodied members to grab the adventurer's bones on the way out.

Jihan looks down at himself in horror, his disease-wracked body pathetically twitching, as his reflexes do not respond as he would they did. He clumsily sheaths Todtaenzer in its sheath on his back, and stows Recht up his sleeve. Then he looks towards Viirin's fallen form, and two tears make their way down his face, mingling with the yellowish fluid slowly oozing from the erupted pustules dotting his countenance. He makes his way over to the form of the fallen wolf, collapsing on it, a muted sob making its way through his clenched teeth.

"And yet another true brother of the heart who I could not make amends with... when will it end..."

He squeezes his eyes shut in pain and sorrow, slowly staggering to his feet with the help of the doorframe. He looks at Will and Xavier, seeing them both in the same sorry state he is in. Holding out his arm to them, he mutters:

"Better that we afflicted help each other out of here, rather than compromise the health of our other companions..."

Will leans upon Jihan after helping the elf to his feet, then the two of them go to stand by Xavier.

"Winnacer, please lead us out of this place."

With each other's assistance, the three of them make their way out of the room, Jihan letting a lingering hand lie on Viirin's blood-soaked fur before exiting the corridor. The wolf's blood mingles with his own in a trail left by his feet, which are being dragged more than moving of their own ability.

It is all that the three of them can do to walk down the stairs as the weeping sores on the soles of their feet make every step an agonizing experience. Every inch of their bodies is aching as they try to stop each other from stumbling down the narrow staircase.

Bennett and Zsolt head down the stairs to the cellar where they start the grisly task of retrieving the bones of the slain adventurers in the cell. Zsolt hands Bennett a large sack, keeping another for himself. Silently, the two of them begin to pick up all of the bones that they can find into the sacks. The skeletons of the unfortunate crusaders have fallen apart and so it is impossible to keep the bones of each of them separate. Zsolt and Bennett quickly put the bones in the sacks as they find them, wanting to spend as short a time as possible on the grisly task.

Yaz is still crouched over the fallen form of Viirin. He feels his lost strength start to return to him, but it brings him little consolation.

'Come, Yaz' says Winnacer, putting a hand on the druid's shoulder. 'Let us return him to Prirodna's realm. This is not his place.'

Yaz finally starts to awaken from his almost trance-like state of grief. Together, he and Winnacer start to drag Viirin's corpse from the corridor. In Yaz's still weakened state, the task of dragging the large creature's corpse down the stairs is a tough one. Seeing the two of them struggling, Hrust comes over to lend his powerful arms to the task.

They all assemble at the foot of the stairs, ready to walk down the corridor that will take them out of the tower. As they pause for a second, catching their breath after the arduous task of bringing Viirin's body down the staircase, they hear a sound from above. It is the sound of footsteps.

They hear them slowly coming down the stairs from one of the higher levels. They are obviously the footsteps of just one being and they are slow and regular, descending the stairs.

'We are in no condition to face any more of the tower's inhabitants at this stage' says Winnacer. 'Let's use the last of our strengths to get out of here as quickly as we can. The signs are that the inhabitants do not leave the tower.'

The three diseased fight back the pain coursing through their bodies as they assist each other to hurry out of the tower. Bennett and Zsolt are still carrying the sacks of bones. They stand at the rear of the party with their weapons in hand, ready to cover the retreat of the others if necessary. Winnacer, Yaz and Hrust drag Viirin's corpse along the corridor, the task easier on the smooth floor than it was to get the bloody carcass down the stairs. They are all out of the door before anything emerges from the staircase. Winnacer pauses at the door, peeping through it to try and see what creature may have descended the stairs. However, nothing appears. It must have stopped at one of the other floors.