-----Krord's eyes gleam in the torchlight as they catch the glint off the gold and platinum goods. The two mercenaries set about clearing away the dead bodies and searching among the litter for any object that can be reused.
-----Seth returns to the business at hand! The first challenge for the half-elven artist is where to begin! Before him, Seth sees enough loot to start several art galleries in towns from here to the capital city!
-----Clearing the enspelled area, the Dread Pirate draws his cutlass and chases after the man. Into the dark Gimplefwick practically flies with his speeding boots and quickly he makes out a form in the long tunnel ahead of him. No doubt it is the pale bald skull man, his armor clanking as he moves hurriedly.
-----The evil one suddenly turns toward the advancing halfling preparing some kind of incantation.
-----The Dread Pirate then stabs straight in and up at the bald man's guts, sliding niftily between some loose plates. As more blood pours and the man screams, the foe drops to his knees critically wounded!
-----The Dread Pirate, menacing the fallen foe with his cutlass, decries, "Alright, ye scurvy dog. Ye'll be keelhauled if'n ye don't do exactly as I says. Now don't say another word, or I'll split that ass-ugly thing ye call a head. Just drop down on the ground with yer hands stickin straight out. Ye can lay there til me friends come along, then we'll have some questions fer ye. If'n we like what we hear, ye might even get to live. It all depends on how helpful ye feel like being. Now don't say a word or make a gesture or ye'll be dead afore ye can complete it." True to his word, the Dread Pirate carefully watches the bald man to see if he deviates in any way from Dread's instructions.
-----The skull man wavers a bit on his knees almost on the same eye level with Gimplefwick. The Dread Pirate also gets his first close up look at his enemy. The face has a pale sickly pallor to it from where dark eyes glare at the halfling. Scars cross the head in different places with an unusual amount of scar tissue about the nose. The straight thin lips are badly blistered as well as the burnt skin on the shallow cheeks.
-----At first the skull man's expression is unreadable, as his breathing appears labored. Then the facial features seem to turn cold and a look of hate is given to the Dread Pirate.
-----Suddenly, the evil one puts his hands up shoulder width apart but he lowers his head and closes his eyes. He then begins chanting in a low tone with that irritating raspy voice.
-----Runik and Kazel come running up from behind as the Dread Pirate stabs in at the skull man. The pirate's cutlass pierces the man's neck sending blood splattering out in different directions. The evil man grabs at his throat as blood fills his mouth. He then falls down on his elbows as he gasps for breath.
-----Watching the man choke on his blood, the Dread Pirate sighs and says, "Some people just don't know when to give up. What part of don't say another word didn't ye grasp the meanin of? Now ye went and proved yerself stupid and completely untrustworthy. That's a dangerous combination. I think I'd best just kill ye right now and save everybody a great deal of trouble."
-----"I won't stop you if you want," Kazel says as she circles behind the skull man. "But it might be nice to get some info out of this man. We seemed to have killed everyone so far except that Woder. Or we can just move on. I'm sure we'll run into more of these people including Abbar." She shrugs as she places her sword at the man's back.
-----Hearing no protest, the Dread Pirate moves closer to the skull man. The Pirate lifts his sword to bring it down on the evil one's neck. Suddenly the man jerks upright as Gimplefwick brings his blade down. The cutlass clangs as it strikes the floor of the tunnel and suddenly the skull man is beside the Dread Pirate on his knees with a dagger in his hand.
-----"You carry plague . . . ," the appalling ugly man spits out as he thrust his dagger into the halfling's gut. Runik and Kazel both strike the evil one luckily before the dagger cuts too deeply. The skull man falls back dead.
-----Runik quickly grabs the Dread Pirate to steady him as he bleeds from an angry looking wound in his belly. As Kazel stands over the skull man's body, she looks down and sees a smile etched across the disgustingly ugly bloody face.
-----Kazel performs the now customary beheading of the man to make sure he's dead and stays dead, and sends the head blasting into the darkness of the passageway with a kick.
-----She starts to searches the man, and then decides to put on her leather gloves before touching anything including the man's dagger, which she covers up as soon as she finds the sheath for it. She then starts back towards the chamber to meet Seth and collect her weapons. "C'mon, we don't have any time to waste if there's some death curse on the blade," she says to Runik and Dread.
-----The Dread Pirate looks uneasily at his belly wound, obviously thinking about the deadly plague raging above in the city. He then looks back at the passageway leading back to the sewers, "Ummm, I think I'll just check out where this passage leads. I'm thinkin it must lead out. We can avoid the sewer route, which'll be nice. Maybe if'n we're lucky Marast will get back with those priests afore I puff up and turn into a bloated member of the undead. Although I've never actually been undead, I don't think I'd care fer it."