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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1718031" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 203“Hurry, he needs healing, or the venom in his bloodstream may yet kill him,” Zenna said.She laid another healing spell upon him, while Dannel and Arun held his arms, adding their own power to the seriously injured knight.  His wounds closed, but Morgan’s body trembled, fighting off the deadly spider poison.  Zenna had held a spell of restoration in reserve, and that had been the first spell she’d cast, but she suspected that the healing power she possessed was like a droplet in the face of the raging flood of the bebilith’s powerful poison. This place... it’s one nightmare after another, she thought. Morgan began to stir.  Weakly, he opened his eyes.  He saw Zenna, bending over him. “Again... again you pull me back,” he said, blood flaking his lips.  He was weak, very weak, but he insisted on drawing himself up, to a seated position.  “Well, that’s one suit of armor that won’t see much more use,” he said, fingering a bent plate.  “I may be able to repair it,” Arun said.  “Difficult, though, without a proper forge.” “We can pack it in Mole’s bag, bring it back with us,” Zenna said.  “But right now, I think we’d better move forward.  Can you walk?”Morgan nodded, but he required Arun’s assistance to stand, and wavered even with Alakast to steady himself. “You know, priest, you’re one crazy warrior,” Arun said.  But his voice was warm, and he clasped the knight on his shoulder. Morgan, uncharacteristically, grinned.  “You know, dwarf, I think you may be right.”  Summoning his strength, he drew apart from Arun’s supporting arm, and walked away under his own power, leaning heavily on his staff. “I can help you more tomorrow,” Zenna said.  “Don’t worry,” Morgan said.  “I’m fine, I can keep up.”“Still, maybe you’d better leave the insane frontal assaults to Arun for a day or two,” Dannel suggested.With the bebilith destroyed, it was a fairly simple matter to make their way across one of the bridges, Mole going ahead to check for traps.  On the far platform they found another door, and passed into another chamber beyond.  There was another door to their right, presumably to the other chamber of the Test, but again they saw the mummy, waiting for them as it had promised.  Once more Morgan tensed upon seeing it, but again the undead creature made no hostile move toward them.  Looking around, Zenna saw that the chamber was decorated with frescoes showing a black-feathered angel doing battle with hordes of demons and devils.  Where the wall met the ceiling of the chamber, a single sentence was carved in a repeating pattern around the entire perimeter of the room.  The words were clearly legible to Zenna, although they did not look like the common speech: KNOW WHO MADE YOU.  A dais was visible on the far side of the room, upon which lay a lantern attached to a four-foot pole by a short chain.  Glowing red sigils floated in mid-air about the dais, although Zenna could not decipher their meaning without closer examination. The mummy strode up to the dais, stepping through the glowing runes, and took up the lantern.  Crossing the room toward them, it addressed them.  “Heed the words of Adimarchus,” it said.  “You have passed the Test of Judgment.  Attend to the wisdom of Adimarchus!  Always deal with rivals first, and enemies second.  This lantern shall guide you to the second test: the Test of Resolve.” It extended its arms to Zenna, who took the lantern.  It was heavy, and its narrow beam of light pointed north, back toward the chamber of the bebilith.  And with that, the mummy vanished, in a flash of light. “Well,” Dannel said.  “It seems we made the right choice, but for the wrong reasons.”Zenna was having difficulty juggling the spear and the heavy lantern.  “Would you like me to carry one of those?” Dannel asked her. At first she shook her head, but then she realized that they most likely had more days of walking ahead of them.  “Thank you,” she said, offering him the spear.  Mole had poked around the dais a bit, but other than the glowing runes, which didn’t seem to do anything, there didn’t seem to be anything else of note in the place.  “Well, we’d better get back up to Kaurophon, I guess,” she suggested.“Be ready for anything,” Morgan added.  “Now that we have this lantern, he may decide that we are no longer necessary.”“Let ‘im try something,” Hodge growled, the threat apparent in the way he gripped his spear.  “Perhaps it would be better if we left him behind us, at this point?” the cleric said. “I don’t think so,” Zenna said.  “He knows this place well, well enough to follow us wherever we go, I suspect.  Don’t forget that he has the power to scry, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was carrying a focus on him; all you’d really need is a good-quality mirror.  And his knowledge may prove useful to us yet.  Better to keep him with us, where we can keep an eye on him.”Morgan clearly didn’t like it, but ultimately he nodded.  Just the effort of standing here, talking, was obviously wearying him.  “Let’s get back up to the cathedral,” Zenna said, not unkindly.  “We could all use more rest.”“Not yet,” Arun said.  “There’s one more thing that we need to do first.”Zenna turned toward the dwarf, curious.</blockquote>

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