Editing Journal - Kellerot's Twisted Realm (section)

==Undead Legion Barracks==

Arad sprinted through the wall after it and me, so the stone was clearly not real! He found a hidden passage with doors on both sides, but saw the fiend moving rapidly down it with me struggling to get free. I finally forced my way out of its grip, dropping to the floor in the corridor. Falcor followed at a run, passing us and attacking the one that had dropped me... we saw that there were even more of them here! He landed a couple of hits and I got to vent my anger and smashed the one that had carried me off. Arad started chanting again as Falcor's armour deflected a spear thrust. Light flashed once more from Arad's star and the new undead backed off, Falcor just watching them retreat.

Then the door at the end of the corridor opened, revealing a fleshier, larger undead legionnaire. About the same time, Arad heard skittering as some skull spiders come around the corner on the ceiling behind us. He was bitten by one from the wall beside him, and another dropped onto his back. Falcor charged through to attack the large foe to our fore, forcing his way through by brute strength to stab it. I smacked the skull spider on the wall by Arad, but not quite forcefully enough to crush it. Arad called on the Creator again, forcing the spiders away into the shadows.

Falcor was fighting alone for the moment, stabbing his foe again. I smashed the skull of a downed skeleton to dust, just to be sure. Falcor was striking true with almost every swing, but again his weapons did not do as much damage as normal. Arad turned again to the Creator in an attempt to drive it off, but this time it failed. Falcor stabs again, and also landed a heavy blow with his sword; such strikes would have felled most foes, but not this one apparently. As I approached I saw the dragon symbol of gold on black marking this foe as one of the first legion twats we had fought before. Two others fell back as Arad moved forward, and I smack my morning star heavily into one as it retreated.

Arad tried to convince me that they were being controlled by another, greater mind, but I'd heard that bullshit before and all he did was stop me from destroying a nest of undead! Arad struck at the big one with his hammer, connecting well, then caught it with the back swing and smashed it to the floor in a mess of flesh and bones. Again he shouted: "hold your actions, they will not attack you; they are controlled by another being, so allow my Creator's power to keep them from us". He turned to open the nearest door, revealing a well appointed room that was old and decrepit like the others. It did seem that some effort had been made to keep this one straight, though. The tapestries were slightly less rotten, and beside the door was a shield with the first legion symbol covering it. There was a bed, an iron bound chest, a desk, and a chair.

Arad called for me to handle the chest, imploring me to leave the undead as he would keep them at bay. I was too busy charging at them to really hear, though, unfortunately being stabbed with a spear as I smashed my morning star into the closest one. Arad shouted "he will not attack you, the power of the Creator will hold him at bay"! Yeah, I get it, just shut up and fight already. I replied: "I don't want it held at bay, I want to smash it to pieces!"  Falcor was interested in the chest, using his boot to try and break the lock, connecting well but not able to force it.

Arad moved towards me, forcing the undead back, so I struck a blow as they retreated. Then he tried to grab me, but I slipped away, pulling my arm free. But then he did something despicable, dominating my mind by force of will and I couldn't move of my own free will. I also felt a probe from another mind, a darker one... Arad commanded me to check the stupid chest for traps, the greedy bastard, like that was more important than destroying the foul undead. I was forced to move towards the room with the chest in, but walked slowly whilst trying to resist the control. After a minute or so a new, more powerful, mind forced its way in and instead compelled me to attack Arad! Fortunately I missed with my swing, and he tried to tackle me to the floor.

My mind recoiled from the new intrusion, and I was just about able to force it out, just in time to get slammed into the floor by Arad and stunned, my head hitting the stone floor. I had a massive headache and started shouting at Arad that he had put us both in danger by exposing our minds. Falcor picked up my morning star, asking Arad to leave me alone. Arad was losing it, though, shouting that he would "stay until he understands". So this was the true nature of a servant of law... obedience over free will, compulsion for those that would not submit. I found the very idea of it repellent.

We then, all of us, had a long and heated conversation, well argument I guess, about the undead and our goal, as well as their belief that they were trying to protect me. I begrudgingly agreed not to chase down every undead creature we met that was not able to fight us - but only if we hunted down and destroyed the mind that was controlling them, the one that had intruded on us already I supposed. I would not leave the island until it was destroyed, whether they stayed or not. Arad was at least contrite enough to ask the Creator to heal some of my wounds, especially as he caused some of them!

Falcor, as he stepped forward towards us, juddered as if we blinked but without actually blinking. Something definitely happened to him that seemed wrong. He almost stumbled forward as he finished his step, but managed to stop himself. He dropped the weapons in his hands and put his arm out, dropping it to my shoulder and said "you are one of the six". Then he put the other hand on Arad's shoulder, saying: "we are three, we are bonded. We have to move together. For the sake of Karmana, for the sake of the Gods on high we must stay together". He seemed to be in some kind of religious fervour now, going on: "I understand some of the suffering of your folk, having seen it, but that strengthens us so we will fight together for your cause. But you cannot forsake yourself and leave our bonds. That way is lost. There are six, we are three, we are bonded. We must restore the forge, must overcome all six. As much as your heart desires the death of those around you, you cannot leave us and we must fight together. I am told this by Milada". At that he bowed his head as if the name brought back a memory. Well that was weird.

But I felt Karmana's spirit willing me to follow him, feeling energised as I had thought her unable to reach into this place. I went pale for a moment, realising that there truely was a greater goal that we should pursue here - that foul mind that had forced me to attack Arad, and that it should be Kellerot that was our focus here, not these petty minions.  Then I felt flushed with health as Karmana's warmth flowed into me, encouraging and welcoming my thought. I apologised to Falcor, in shame, vowing to stay together whilst the undead were not a threat to us. Arad also embraced us, also apologising for going too far.

Arad offered to kill some of the undead together with me, together rather than apart, as a sort of peace offer I think. I agreed readily of course, so I charged with him towards the nearest pair of legionnaires. Arad missed with his first strike, but as the target moved across my own swing crashed into its side. Arad shouted back to Falcor that the others would advance on him, but that they should not attack unless he first attacked them. I crashed a strong blow into our target's shoulder, and Arad struck its chest. It sagged under the force of the blows, but somehow stayed standing. Both of the foul things tried to retaliate, but they seemed weak and didn't come close.

Falcor attacked behind us, stabbing one twice with his dagger and slashing the other twice with his sword. The blades had less impact, though, so he was still struggling to put them down. The things started to fight back properly then, Arad's armour stopping a blow, but Falcor and I getting stabbed, although they were only glancing blows. Arad swung one final time at our foe, this time dropping it, and Falcor smashed his sword into a rib cage, dropping one too. Arad stomped on the skull of the one we'd downed, cracking it under foot, and hearing the splintering sound Falcor also smashed a skull under his boot.

We turned our attention to the last foes. Falcor landed two strong strikes and his foe went down. Arad hammered our foe and I moved to its flank, stabbing and smashing with both my weapons, but it kept its feet. Another stab scraped off its bones, but my morning star struck clean and it collapsed. Falcor smashed one skull and I the other, and we were done for a moment.

Falcor advanced towards the end of the side corridor, finding what looked like an abandoned room with a curved wall, crap and cobwebs everywhere. A weapons rack was just in front of him with a single long sword resting on it. A short corridor led to a barred door on his right. He approached the weapons rack, but as he came closer it morphed and grew teeth and a long tongue, lunging at him! Instinctively he thrust his dagger into the thing, but then it seemed to stick fast and he couldn't pull it back. The mouth lashed out with its tongue, hitting him in the chest, but his armour absorbed the worst of it. He struck out with his mind, and that seemed to help as the creature lolled passively, tongue hanging down. He followed up with his sword, a heavy swing that connected well, but then left the sword held solidly in place as well!

Meanwhile, unaware of Falcor's predicament, I had opened a door back in the first corridor, revealing what was possibly an old bedroom. A rusty iron chest was sat in a corner, but otherwise it was all deteriorated beyond use. I opened the chest, and as I did so fire burst all around me! Thankfully the crown protected me from any harm, and Arad's hammer kept him safe even though he tended to stand back whenever chests were being opened. I found two glass bottles with cork stoppers and wax inside, one a viscous dark blue liquid, and one completely clear. There were also two rubies, and two scrolls tied with silk ribbons. We moved back into the corridor, and Arad opened a door on the other side, revealing what looked like an old library.

Falcor was still trying to wrest his weapons free, managing to pull his sword away, jerking backwards as he did so such was the force required. He was still struggling with his dagger when we reached the library. I shouted for him, suspecting that he would be interested in the library, but there was no response. A little concerned, Arad went to look, seeing him wrestling with his dagger stuck in the weird sagging weapons rack creature as Arad turned the corner. He was not impressed that it had hold of his favourite dagger! Arad charged up to help, swinging with his hammer... and getting that stuck too. Sigh.

I joined them, and they explained the strange problem they were facing. I retrieved some spears, at least willing to try getting someone else's weapon stuck in it, but Arad booted it in frustration and got his foot stuck! I stabbed one spear into it, offering the other to Falcor, and sure enough that got stuck too. At least I didn't care about it, although I wondered if Arad had to pick between his hammer and his foot which he would go for... Strange that it affected a foot as well as the metal weapons; maybe it was a glue of some kind? If it were then perhaps a solvent would work? Water, alcohol, oil, or something more exotic?

We tried water first, but it just ran straight off, although Arad tried a drop of holy water and it bubbled a little and then seemed to solidify, fixing his boot even more firmly in place! Arad tried wine next, as he was the only one with any alcohol. As soon as it splashed onto the surface it bubbled violently and a pungent smell filled the air... more importantly his boot came free almost immediately! He hurried to apply some to his hammer and Falcor's weapon, freeing them just as easily. Falcor also managed to free the long sword he saw there originally, which seemed nicely balanced.

I turned my attention to the metal vertical bars forming a gate to the right of where we had entered this circular room. It was secured with a very rusty iron padlock and behind it was a short corridor ending in a closed door. I decided that there was no point trying the lock itself as it would have seized with rust, and instead smashed the padlock off with the hilt of my sword, pulling the gate open with a loud and piercing screeching sound. We all winced, but Arad walked over to help force it wide enough to enter comfortably, asking me to check the door.

As I went about checking the floor for any traps, I remembered to tell Falcor about the library we had found, and this caught his interest. He and Arad set off to the south as I completed my search. I didn't find any traps but I had worked out that the floor was very weak, being planks of wood unlike the stone around it. Falcor went straight to look at the library, but Arad stopped at the room the chunky legionnaire had emerged from, calling for me to help with the chest. I headed back, but at the same time Falcor heard an ominous click as he moved towards a bookcase, the floor sinking slightly under him. The door to the library slammed shut and there was an audible clunk.

He reached out with his mind to say that he was trapped, so I ran to the door and found that a bar had dropped into place to seal it from this side. I was able to lift it off easily and throw it to the side, pulling the door open... thankfully to find Falcor looking hale and without any other movement in the room. He was reluctant to move, though, in case doing so might trigger something else. As I stepped into the room to check, a mouth appeared above the fireplace (part of the stone) and started shouting loudly "the soul stealers are here, the soul stealers are here, summon the guard!" - obviously some kind of magical alarm system.

Arad came in at that point, saying that he thought he knew what it was and to leave it to him. Phew, what would his clever solution be, a prayer, a magical artifact, some clever trick... oh, no, he just smashed it with his hammer! It took a couple of blows but it cracked and then crumbled, leaving an eerie silence after the cacophony before. Falcor had spotted part of the bookcase that outlined a door, and pointed it out to us, still not moving. I couldn't find any obvious mechanism on the floor, besides the one already activated, and meanwhile Falcor pulled at the books he could reach, sweeping them off the shelves until he found one that was attached to a mechanism. We heard a click and the door popped slightly open into the room.

I could see faint runes above the fireplace, but Arad claimed not to be able to see any. I ducked into the fireplace anyway, as Falcor opened the door he had found, revealing a cupboard sized nook with four iron-bound chests inside. He called on me for assistance again, so I stepped back out as nothing seemed to have exploded. Arad, though, asked us to wait while he called on the Creator to help him find any traps around him. He noticed the spent trap on the mantlepiece, then confirmed that there were no active traps around Falcor, and then warned that there was something just in front of the chests - a glyph of some kind. He also confirmed that the chests themselves were fine, it was just the floor in front of them.

We had no knowledge of how to disable a magical glyph of this nature. We tried throwing a book into it, but that had no effect. We moved one of the former legionnaire's bodies closer and Falcor chucked it onto the glyph... the floor exploded as it landed and a wave of heat and flame washed out followed by a cloud of grey green smoke. Falcor choked a little, but recovered enough to move back and away from it. We waited until the smoke eventually cleared, and Arad decided to check the chest in the other room as we did so. He shattered the lock with his hammer, but found nothing of value inside.

Falcor approached the chests when he judged it safe to do so, flipping the lids open to see what was there. He found silver, gold, a rotten pouch, an ivory scroll case, a small cigar shaped gold case with the star within a circle containing Ulrik's mark set upon it, a gold handled comb and brush, a silver mirror, gold earrings in the shape of hearts, a clasp of bone in the shape of the tree of life, and a pale blue gem. The scrolls were not legible to Falcor, so he called for Arad and he gratefully took them. Then Faclor tossed me the cigar case because there was a tenuous link between the mark on it and Ulrik, and therefore my crown (I suspected that it was evil, though, because of the circle). 

I started searching the other bookcases... until one book fell open and a spider that was inside expanded into a fucking massive hairy nightmare beast that attacked me! It tried to climb on top of me and I saw venom dripping from its fangs, but I managed to duck away from the initial lunge and scramble backwards. Arad got behind it and walloped it with both hammer and sword. This didn't make things much better, though, as an acrid liquid spurted out of its stab wound, which Arad just about dodged, and fizzed angrily when it hit the floor.

I was still backing away, and somehow managed to keep it from biting me as Arad kept hammering it hard, splitting it open in places. We both had to dodge the spurting acid blood, but eventually I managed to thrust my sword into its eye cluster, killing it... at least for now. I still had to dodge back quickly to escape its twitching body as it went into its death throes. After that excitement Arad and Falcor were interested in collecting the gold and looking at books, but I was more interested in getting the fuck out before the spider came back to life! I shouted a warning as I reached the door, ready to slam it shut, and Falcor look round to see that the spider had started twitching. Thankfully my friends made it to the door first, and I slammed the bar into place just in time behind them. There was a loud thump as the beast threw itself into the door, but it held.

There was one other door almost opposite the library that we hadn't opened. When we did so there was a strange whiff of the sea that seemed completely out of place here. It looked like yet another decrepit old bedroom, with nothing obvious that we could see associated with the ocean or saltwater. Whilst we were puzzling on this, Arad realised that he had left his backpack in the spider room! Nooooo! Worse, it had his prayer book in it so we couldn't just leave and replace it later. Sigh. I tried to call on Karmana for help, but found no connection to her in this place. Wherever we were it was not a part of our Mother any more. Instead I just threw the bar off and jumped to the right as it swung rapidly open, the spider emerging legs first and heading straight for Arad. Fast. It bit him before we could react, but thankfully the venom didn't seem to affect him. Arad did put an arrow into it at the last second, and that was enough to drop it again.

Falcor's shot ripped through its body in a burst of acid blood that sprayed over Arad's legs! He lost a pouch and his trousers suffered burn holes below the knee, with the acid starting to burn his skin. I ran in to grab Arad's backpack, bringing it back to the corridor, only to have Arad rush up, grab his wineskin and pour wine all over his legs to stop the burning. I could have given him some water if he'd asked! Instead I went over and started to drag the spider back to the room, but found that it separated into two pieces! I was fairly happy with this, so I dropped it and headed back.

Falcor said that he could sense the broadsword and chainmail of the big legionnaire had dweomer about them. Arad volunteered to carry them, now that he had his pack back, although it did mean he could not carry much more if he wanted to move freely. As Arad was sorting out his kit Falcor investigated the smell that we had discovered, picking through the contents of the room and discovering a six-foot square tapestry that was remarkably intact, and definitely the source of the smell. He lifted it up and brought it to the door to show us, and we agreed that it was no normal tapestry. I could sense a strong connection to Karmana, and as I reached out to touch it that sense became more powerful and even began to pull me in; I was able to resist and draw back, but warned the others not to touch the face of it. Perhaps, though, it might prove to be a way out of this realm if we needed it? Falcor rolled it up and folded it once, securing it to his pack so that we could take it with us.

With no spider threat any more, we also went back to the chests behind the library in order to retrieve the blue stone and look inside the decayed pouch. Arad picked up the pouch, but the powder inside burst out of the holes and Arad started coughing uncontrollably, even dry retching. There was nothing we could do to help him, as he couldn't even stop to swig some water, so we just had to wait for several minutes until he started to recover. The offer of water was then gratefully taken as he had quite a sore throat.

Done with this floor, we headed back to the iron gate and dodgy floor. I asked for a rope to be tied around me and then edged along the wall to the door. It opened easily enough to reveal stairs leading down. Arad jumped across to join me, followed by Falcor, and after a moment to rearrange our kit and the rope we made our way down. The stairs turned to the right and ended in a hallway with doors on all sides, an opening to the right, and stairs in the far corner. When we reached the bottom and looked to the right we could see two undead legionnaires moving to attack! Falcor stabbed one as they closed on us and we managed to block or dodge their attacks before Falcor followed up with a heavy sword blow. Arad used the Creator's power to force them back, but two more burst out of a door to our left.

One stabbed me in my shoulder, so I cracked it with my morning star in return, but it was a short-lived conflict as Arad called on the Creator to force the new arrivals back as well. I edged towards the door they had come through, watching the foe warily. I was itching to attack, but I was trying to stay true to Karmana's will as well. The room they had come from was just as trashed as the others we had seen. Before we could look properly Falcor shouted that he was being attacked! We both ran to aid him. Falcor was defending himself well, landing blows with both dagger and sword, and Arad swung his hammer in its larger form, landing a good blow and causing the undead filth to visibly sag.

Falcor was stabbed by both of the creatures... Ouch! He retaliated with a sword blow, and Arad's hammer finally put one down, smashing it to the floor. I did the same with the other one, although my morning start didn't quite splinter the bones in the same way. I tried to smash the skull as well, cracking it, and Falcor jumped on it to finish the job, crumpling it under his weight. Arad smashed the other skull with his hammer, giving us a moment of rest. Falcor looked badly wounded, and he said to Arad: "I thought they weren't going to attack us"? Arad wasn't sure why they did unless it was because he went too far away, and there was a powerful force driving them in this place. He feared that there might be more. Well... yeah!

As if to emphasise the point another door opened in the corridor behind us and more zombie legionnaires poured out, coming around the corner to attack us. Falcor was closest, and only saved from the first strikes by his armour. Falcor struck back with his sword and I pushed in front of Arad to strike a blow with my dagger. Arad had lifted his holy star and was chanting again, and shortly the familiar flashes of blinding light strobed out from behind us and the Creator's power forced the evil things back once more.

I moved forward, itching to attack but wary of Karmana's guidance; I knew that if I got too close they would certainly try to kill me. I called back to Arad that he would need to stay with us or we would be forced to fight, wondering whether I might "accidentally" get to destroy some of the foul abominations. Arad was tending to Falcor's wounds, calling on the Creator to heal him and knitting the cuts neatly in front of our eyes. In just a minute Falcor looked hale and bright again. He bowed to Arad, thanking him and the Creator for the aid. As I waited I noticed that one undead legionnaire near me was wearing a strange brooch, like a winged beetle with a gem set in the body. None of the others had it, so I called my friends' attention to it.

Arad walked forward, aiming to split the one nearest me from the others. He forced most of them down the corridor, but one returned through the door they had come from and beetle boy was forced into the room to my left, which is just what we wanted. As soon as it was clear that he was going inside I followed and attacked him. Falcor blocked the side of the corridor to stop any others getting around Arad and ended up fighting one that had tried to. Arad now acted as a shield, forcing the others away so that only the two were able to attack.

The fight was initially frustrating; I was nicked by its sword as I closed on it, but it only just drew blood. I connected with both dagger and morning star, but its armour deflected the worst of it so it had no real impact. Falcor did smack the other one with his sword, but as always the edged weapon had less of an impact than usual on these things. Falcor called to Arad to take a pace back to make sure the one in the side room didn't flank him, then struck the foe in front of him again. Its return strike rang loudly on Falcor's armour where it struck but could not penetrate. Falcor hit a heavy blow again, and his foe collapsed to the floor. Then he jumped on its head, shattering it into pieces.

I finally landed a crunching blow on the one I was fighting with my morning star, but was stabbed again more heavily for my efforts. That gave me an opening, though, and I landed another blow, forcing it back. Falcor comes to help, and we went either side of the foe and both stabbed with our daggers, and it finally fell motionless. Falcor swung his sword at the skull, smashing it into fragments. I let Falcor do his thing with the brooch, and he did sense some dweomer about it; he put it in a pouch to study later.

We advanced to the next room on the right, which looked like an old barrack room with rusty weapons and armour at the sides, and a fireplace at the far end. Remains of manky decrepit furniture littered the centre of the room, and there was one of the undead legionnaires that had been forced in here by Arad clearly straining against the Creator's power in a futile attempt to attack us. Once Falcor had got past it, I rushed it from the front scraping off its armour with my dagger as Falcor attacked from its other side with two well-placed blows. I aimed a powerful blow to its chest, and it collapsed to the ground instantly at the impact. Falcor followed up with a heavy swing at its skull, smashing it easily.

Arad moved down the corridor further, shuffling the other creatures onto the stairs. He noticed that the stairs seemed to have partially collapsed so the creatures were trapped. Falcor returned to the corridor and crossed to a door on the far side, opening it to find an old living quarters for two but as was normal here, it was trashed with bits of furniture and rotting clothing everywhere. Arad was clearly getting bored because he started moving back and forth to watch the undead do a little zombie dance on the stairs. At least we weren't there to see him toying with them; I was searching the fireplace in the barracks room, but found nothing. Falcor came back into the corridor, but moved straight to the last door. He noticed that it had once been barred from the outside, although nothing was holding it shut now.

Falcor opened the door to find three once female but now undead creatures, their fingers ending in claws and teeth sharp and oversized. They were both shocked by the other, and for a few moments nobody moved. Falcor recovered first, and quickly conjured a pattern of light in the room, mesmerising a couple of the creatures. The lights also filled the top of the stairs and the room Falcor had just come from, even protruding slightly into the corridor. He warned Arad not to come too close. One of the creatures was not affected by Falcor's spell, and charged straight at him; it clawed at his neck, drawing blood, and then bit him there too! Falcor stabbed it with his dagger, at least forcing it to loosen its grip, and somehow managed to keep up the pattern of lights, waving a burning piece of incense around.

Arad called on the Creator again to force back the new foe, but this time his prayer was unanswered. Perhaps the Creator didn't like his gift being used to make zombies dance? Gods, eh? No sense of humour. Falcor managed to dodge back away from the creatures attacks for a moment, and hearing the commotion I ran back into the corridor to help. Seeing that Falcor was under attack I dropped the morning star and drew my sword instead, rushing up and stabbing it in the side. It definitely penetrated, but there was no blood from the wound at all. Arad also came to help, on the other side, and slammed his hammer down into its head. It collapsed under the powerful blow, and I stabbed into its neck, trying to separate its head from its body. I created a gaping hole on one side of its neck, but it was not quite separated. Arad shouted "stand back" and hefted his hammer, but didn't give us time to get clear as he swung it down. The creature's head exploded and a stinking mess splattered all over Falcor and I. The stink was incredible, and we both dry retched, struggling to keep our stomach contents.

I rummaged in my backpack for a waterskin, and used it all to wash myself down as much as possible, and what was left went on Falcor's legs. The smell was still there, but we could at least move away from the worst of it.  I went back for my morning star and rearranged by backpack ready to continue. Falcor wanted to seal the door before the other two could recover from his enchantment, and told Arad that he had spikes in his backpack that he could use on the door. Falcor kept weaving his incense around as Arad hammered the spikes in, only stopping when Arad was happy it would not open.

Falcor searched the body on our side, finding that whatever it was had been wearing a shirt with a star embroidered over its heart that contained a hammer symbol in the centre, all in gold thread. It looked just like Arad's hammer and must have related to it in some way when they were still living. Falcor started moving towards the legionnaires on the stairs, and Arad and I both shouted a warning that they might attack when we saw him go. I scrambled for my morning star again, knowing it was better against the skeletal undead, and Arad moved up to force the foe back. As he was doing this, though, they suddenly sprang forward and attacked!

Falcor stabbed and cut with his swords, chipping away at the bones, and his armour turned aside the blows aimed at him. Arad swung his hammer heavily into another, and my own blow connected but its armour kept it from doing much. Arad's second swing smashed one to the floor, and Falcor's next two blows dropped another. I stabbed one between its armour with my dagger, but almost fell over a body as I swung my morning star! Falcor moved to the flank of the two attacking Arad, landing sword and dagger blows but it wasn't enough to stop Arad from getting stabbed in his gut. At least it left it open to attack, and I finished it off leaving just the one standing. Arad thumped it with another powerful blow, I stabbed it from behind, then Arad hit it again and I finished the job; it had no chance with both of us pounding on it. Falcor smashed most of the skulls, although I did for one, allowing us to take stock once more.

The stairs had collapsed after about five feet, so Arad passed a rope over and Falcor lowered me to the floor, followed by Arad. Then he used a mental power fall slowly down beside us. However, after doing so he warned of a threat to our minds similar to the one in the Elvradhil halls. I did actually tell everyone this earlier but they were too busy shouting at me for actually wanting to destroy the undead. They'd probably complain if I had to stab them when they lost their mind as well. Sigh. He did say something new and interesting, though, apparently he had a "smell of the sea" in his mind. That was strange, although it didn't tell us much.

There was a door beside where we landed, which the stairs would have led to if they were still intact, but the corridor went back behind us, like the one above, and turns to the right. Arad called on the Creator and used some ointment to heal the worst of his wounds before we did anything else. I opened the door after checking for traps, finding an old dining area, with the remains of a large table and ruined benches. There was a door to the left halfway down the wall that almost certainly rejoined the corridor. The only notable thing, really, was that a chandelier was still hanging from the ceiling... but the chain looked in a bad way and I wouldn't have wanted to disturb it.

Arad checked around the corner in the corridor, finding that it turned to the left further on with a door facing him in the wall. Falcor moved to the next corner, and the corridor twisted again to the right with a door in the left wall. I moved through the dining room into the corridor between them and then checked the next door, indicating that I was ready to open it. Arad moved past Falcor to check the next corner and found that it ended shortly afterwards, with another door on the right. Falcor went to the door on his left, opening it to find what was once a kitchen, although in a really bad state, with another door to his right.

I opened the door on my side to find an old entrance way, so at least we had reached what used to be the "ground" here. It was strewn with mud and rubble, but bizarrely opened into what looked like a pleasant, sun-dappled deciduous forest. I could smell the spring breeze on the air and it reminded me of home. I was sure it could not be real, especially considering what I had seen from the windows above, but it also seemed very real. Reluctantly I moved away, telling my friends what I had seen. Of course they said it was an illusion, but if it was then it must have been a very powerful one to seem so vivid to all my senses. I went up to the door that Arad had found and checked it for traps, finding nothing. I opened it to find two undead legionnaire guards, who had been watching the entrance way and were very surprised by us coming up behind them.

I rushed in to attack one; my dagger was turned away by its armour but the morning star struck true. Arad joined combat with the other one, landing a forceful blow with his hammer. They turned to fight, but were slow and their initial attacks were ineffectual. I stabbed again, dodged the return swing and connected again with my morning star, knocking one of them back. Then Arad and I both swung together, and both foes went down. Admittedly Arad's opponent was in more pieces than mine, but we destroyed their skulls so neither would be getting up any time soon.

Falcor was watching our rear, moving back to the kitchen... and was confronted by undead mockeries of former rats! These were aggressive, but no match for Falcor's swift blows and he soon dispatched them. He ground them into the floor to make sure they didn't just get straight back up again. While this was going on, I was encouraging Arad to look through the slits in the southern wall that the former legionnaires had been using to cover the entry way. I could still see the forest, but he only saw an opening into a dark empty space beyond. That's what I had expected to see after looking out of the window above, but I just couldn't see it.

We returned back to the kitchen, noticing the remains of the rats smeared across the floor, and we gathered around the door. We expected a larder or something like that, and we weren't far off; the door revealed a wine store, with maybe a few bottles still intact. The floor was muddy, more so than anywhere else we'd been so far... and of course it was muggins that got to explore first. Typical. I tied a rope around me in case of emergency and made my way around the edge of the room to the right, reaching the old racks on the far side. I grabbed a bottle, but when I did another bottle came sailing through the air from the far end of the room, narrowly missing my head! I yelled: "Poltergeist - get me out of here"! I was yanked back by Arad, barely keeping my feet, and got out just as another bottle smashed against the door frame.

Falcor tried using the rod he used on the surface to move the mud, but nothing happened; he thought it was something to do with the realm we were in and the dweomer not working here. Arad started a chant to call on the Creator, and I took a moment to clean the worst of the mud off my boots. As Arad finished his chant a familiar bright beam of light struck the far corner of the room and, even though we didn't see anything there, he had a sense that something had departed. I peered around the corner at Arad, but he seemed fine and he went on to search the corner that the apparition had been in. He didn't find anything of value, or any hidden doors, so we headed back to the corridor.

Falcor went up to the guard room we had cleared, and noticed an illusion across the wall next to it which concealed a hidden door. He traced his hand over it and as he did so I was able to force myself to see it as well. There was an exceptionally well concealed switch that took a while to find, but I was able to pop the door open my slipping the point of my dagger into the gap. As soon as I did so, a clawed scrawny figure burst out and leapt onto me. I saw a snarling mess of mud, slime and teeth that was trying to bite me. Thankfully my armour held, but the rancid stink coming from the thing made me choke and retch slightly, fighting to keep my stomach.

Arad struck it, and I felt the impact of his hammer even as it was absorbed by the thing's body. I was glad for the help, though, and Falcor also attacked - stabbing it with his dagger. I forced the tip of my short sword into it, but it was hard to do much with it so close. It finally found purchase with its teeth, sinking them in just as I was able to force my short sword deeper and kill it. I rolled it off and gagged at the stink, but at least I was alive. The space it had jumped out of looked like the bottom of another tower, with just an earthy floor scattered with chewed bones and circular stone walls. Looking up there was a wooden floor a couple of stories above, and perhaps a trapdoor in the centre.

Arad stepped inside to take a good look, finding the body of an Elvrahum that was headless and interestingly not as old as the rest of the tower contents. It seemed that wherever the Sarn had cast their evil shroud my people had tried to get inside to lift it. At that point the thing on the floor started twitching, so I swiftly beheaded it and kicked its head down the corridor. Arad returned with a few things he had found on the body: some money, a diamond, a nice dagger (which I took), and a ring with a feather etched on it (Falcor took that).

Falcor said he would check behind us and disappeared down the corridor past the kitchen, looking to check other corners for illusions or hidden doors. Then he took a look out of the entrance, seeing the same forest that I saw. Only Arad saw it as a cavern, although I knew that's what it should be from having looked outside from above. Arad offered to go forward first to show that the trees weren't real. But he stopped in the entrance, having seen undead goblins and more legionnaires ahead! A shame we couldn't see the same thing...