Monday 27th December 356 AC - continued

Leaving the foul, disease-ridden rooms behind we made our way back to the side passage we had passed by earlier. The tunnel led gradually down and a soft light could be seen ever more clearly as we moved along. Given the likelihood that light could mean a present enemy, left behind perhaps to guard an item of import but difficult to move, we shuttered our lanterns and continued with due caution, led by those in our party gifted with better-than-human sight. Nedlog took position at the head of the line and while she was unable to expose any mundane traps, the lady Ulani did sense and disarm a magical one.

After what felt like an age of fumbling quietly through the dark corridor we came at last to the cavern at its end. There are more vats of strange liquid here along with a great many treasures including a spell book – noted by an excited Ulani. In the centre of the hall, near the high ceiling, hung a large glowing orb – the source of the light. It hung there unmoving without the aid of ropes or cables, almost seeming to 'bob' slightly as if it were floating on a gentle sea. Sir Dominic tossed a pebble at the orb and it simply bounced off with a glassy 'clink' sound and sent its glowing mass drifting slightly away. Nedlog, her curiosity too great, set about trying to catch the orb under a blanket.

While we pondered the nature of the radiant ball the Qualinesti elf, Azshauna, gathered up the trinkets scattered about and attempted to use her magicks to identify any that might be of special interest. Sadly magic proved to be as reliable as most of my brother knights believe it to be and we turned at Azshauna's rather unladylike to see a small cloud of purple smoke. The cloud 'fizzed' slightly before whizzing randomly around the room and finishing its flight by crashing into poor Starsong's face. The Plainswoman seemed to be unharmed if somewhat bewildered, indeed she promptly sat down in a puddle of unknown liquid and began eating one of her pouches, but the mages assured assured us the effect was temporary.

Suddenly two of the vats were thrown aside, spraying their contents all about, and from behind them leapt six oversized, skeletal men. When I say skeletal I do not mean to give the impression that they had been underfed or malnourished – no, these were indeed men who had been reduced to mere bones and then reanimated by heinous rites. Each stood at least seven feet tall and brandished a wicked looking weapon, I am certain that had they possessed lips, they would have been curled in a snarl.

Undaunted, Sir Dominic stepped forward boldly and shone the Light of Paladine upon them, sending them fleeing back to whatever hole they had appeared from. The Kender scampered after them to find all six cowering in a small, previously hidden room filled with arms and armour.

As Nedlog 'helpfully' pushed her recently captured orb at us, we moved forward to slay the abominations. The first kills went to the Silvan mage as to missiles of white-hot energy flew by our heads, exploding in the chest cavities of two of the foes. Brother Ithariel succeeded in slaying another two with blows of his mace while Sir Dominic and I failed to land a single useful hit. Ulani eventually saved us from our shameful encounter and slew the final two horrors. This was the first time I had fought the unliving and indeed, a sword is a poor weapon to choose when your foe has no flesh to pierce. It is, however, a sad day when two Knights of the Sword are outdone on the battlefield by a priest and a wizard only recently rescued from imprisonment. Remembering the words of my old tutor, Sir Hallam, I searched the collected weapons for a good mace, lest we face another skeletal foe and we prepared to leave.

Nedlog, of course, refused to leave her new orb behind and Starsong was still seated lazily in a pool of the milky, fishy 'soup' that had been spilled out of the vats. We gathered her up and proceeded back to the lift.

The enemy complex fully explored we were ready to leave but Sir Dominic insisted that one task remained. While the rest of us returned to the surface he made his way to the lowest level to put an end to the troll's miserable existence. We were all quite curious to know how he would escape the lift shaft once he had slain and burned its power source so he instructed us to take a length of rope and secure one end to a heavy weight, casting the other end over a beam and down to him. Sir Dominic is a brave and noble warrior but his strategies do have a habit of turning against him. We did as he asked, finding a pile of logs to use as a counterweight and once he had tied the rope about his waist we heaved the heap into the shaft.

And so the story of Sir Dominic di Caela; defender of the defenceless; slayer of ogre, troll and undead beast, was very nearly brought to an end as he crashed into the stack of logs halfway up the shaft. Mercifully he had tied the rope quite securely about him and he arrived at the top, battered and bruised but alive.

We left our friend to tend to his wounds and nurse his bruised ego and went to the grizzly task of burning the bodies on the upper level before moving out of the tunnel to make camp for the night.

A long day behind us, we set a watch and slept around Nedlog's orb – enjoying its soothing warmth.