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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1405585" data-attributes="member: 1210">Into the Tower of Test!Horbin’s arms ache as he lugs the strong, heavily-armored Thrush through the air.  Below is only the churning blackness where the bases of the towers of Moil plunge into... nothingness?  What is down there? Horbin wonders for a moment, but then puts it out of his mind.Forget about below; worry about behind.The Vestige moves lazily after him, cutting through the dark atmosphere of the City That Waits.  Horbin finds the closest cover he can, the nearest tower to hide behind- and there he finds Drelvin cowering beside Patyn.“Horbin!” the hunter of the dead exclaims in hushed tones.  “Thank the Light you’re still alive!  I was worried, after that thing scattered us with fear, that you’d fall victim to it too.  It seems very powerful.”  He pauses.  “Is Thrush...?”“He’s alive,” Horbin answers grimly, “but I don’t think he’s home anymore.”  Horror edging into his voice, the cleric adds, “I think the cloud absorbed his soul.”  Setting his fellow human down against the outside wall of the tower, Horbin pensively regards him.“Good Galador!  What do you think we should do now?”“We’ve got to reassemble as best we can, try to regroup and get under cover.  Maybe Orbius can find out what that thing’s weaknesses are.  Something... for now...”“Look!” interrupts Patyn, gesturing into the sky.  A dark form seems to be blotting out the stars, coming closer- much smaller than the Vestige.  Soon it resolves into a worried-looking Angelfire.“Where’s everyone else?” she asks, concern heavy in her voice.  Voice tight, Horbin replies, “Good question.  For now let’s get under cover, maybe see if I can do anything for Thrush, and just generally try not to run into that thing again.”The group is on a thin trestle of a bridge that arches off to another tower in the distance.  An opening leads into the tower.  Angelfire lifts Thrush almost effortlessly, and our heroes, somewhat reluctantly, ease themselves inside the dark tower.  Angel glances at the symbols on the lintel above the arch; a sword, an axe, a gauntleted fist and a crossbow.  With a shrug she disappears into the tower with her companions.The hall seems to wind its way along the outer wall of the tower; it curves to match the wall.  Grisly, frost-covered human head trophies hang to either side at intervals of about ten feet.  Beneath their feet, the party can make out tiles painted with scenes of warfare.  Horbin tries to bring Thrush around, but it seems that whatever ails him is far beyond the mere physical.“Well,” Patyn says, “we might as well make sure this tower is secure.”Both directions looking about the same, our heroes head left.  Soon they reach a rounded “T” intersection.  Another mounted head is there- but unlike the others, this one writhes and groans as if it had a body behind the board and was seeking to break free.  Its eyes roll in its sockets as it grunts and moans, trying to escape from the mount to which it is attached.As out heroes stop in horror, regarding the struggling head with a mixed pathos of emotions, the pitiful thing catches sight of them and utters an inarticulate cry.  Then it cries out desperately, speaking clearly in a lisping language our heroes don’t understand.In an instant that is rectified; Horbin uses a tongues spell and calls out, “Hold on, there- now I can understand you!  What-““The door!  Take the door to the south, that is what you must do!” the head cries desperately.  “But first, you must help me!  You must release me from the wall!  You see?  I am most cruelly stuck here!  Pry me loose, please- so that I can once again flex my fingers, and feel the breeze on my toes!”“Uh- I think you- well.”  Horbin pauses, relating what the head said.  “He wants us to release him?”  Angelfire looks warily at the board to which the head is mounted.  “He thinks he still has a body?”*Horbin nods.  Turning back to the head, he asks, “What’s your name?”“Gus,” the head replies.  “But please, you must free me!”“Calm down, calm down,” Horbin soothes.  “How long have you been here?”“It really just looks like he’s nailed onto that board,” Angelfire muses.  She leans Thrush’s drooling form against the wall.“I don’t know, an interminable time,” Gus moans.  “But please, help me get free!”“It’s undead,” Patyn announces, his voice disgusted.“Still, we might be able to get some information from it,” Horbin muses.  “He really wants to get out of there- think we should tell him he’s not all there?  He really seems harmless.”“You have no body,” Angelfire says to the head, and reaches out and pulls the board on which Gus is mounted from the wall.  “See?”  She turns the board around, showing Gus the blank wall.Gus screams, and screams, and screams.“Dexter, Angel, did you have to do that?” Horbin winces and sighs.  “Gus- I guess it’s my duty to do what I can to heal you.”  And Horbin casts a heal spell, obliterating the head with the influx of positive energy.“He said we need to go through the door to the south,” Horbin comments.  “I guess that’s as good a place to start as any.” The party heads down the leg of the T intersection, towards the interior of the tower.  To the right, almost immediately, is a door.  They pass on by, following the corridor to its end: a donut-shaped passage surrounding a thick central support of metal and stone.  “That must have been the door he meant,” Horbin says.“Before we go through any doors,” Angel says, “I’m putting Thrush down.”  The party returns to the area of the door and Angelfire sets the warrior down again.“Let’s see what we’ve got,” Drelvin says, nocking an arrow, and Patyn pushes the door open.Next Time: The Tests begin!*Note that throughout this conversation Gus and Angelfire couldn’t understand each other.  Only Horbin could understand and speak to Gus.</blockquote>

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