Kaileer fired two arrows at one of the zombies. One arrow struck the thing, while the second flew wild, knocking a glass jar from one of the tables. It shattered on the floor and filled the room with the sharp aroma of a preserving chemical, almost enough to make everyone's eyes water.
Aloysius took a lantern from Rennirolas and headed for Rumer to try to light it. Rumer, of course, was more occupied with the zombie that she was helping Blacky fight. The gypsy lass managed to vent some of her recent frustrations on the zombie, striking hard and true with her new short sword. Blacky missed with his axe. The zombie took a swipe at Rumer, but missed as well. With another swing, Blacky cut the monster down.
Meanwhile, Jana, Falgout, and Lasiar dealt with the second zombie. Jana dealt the undead creature a fearsome blow swinging her bastard sword two-handed, but the zombie remained standing. Lasiar went to finish it off with his moon's hand, but he missed badly, stumbling and nearly falling. Falgout swung his long sword awkwardly, but the man was unused to fighting with his left hand and missed. The zombie raked its claws down Jana's face and neck, leaving her with a long bloody set of gashes. Falgout connected with the zombie on his next swing and took it down.
Falgout looked around the shrine again now that the zombies were taken care of. He did not seemed at all surprised by its condition. He cleaned off the blade of his sword, placed it in its sheath, and, shaking his head, looked at the rest of the group. "This is where Ranchefus tortured and maimed innocents and performed his vile deeds to make the walking dead. As you have no doubt figured out, I refuse to leave it like this. It would be foolish though, I think, to start the cleansing before I know that no more dead walk in this keep. And I don't know how long it will take to...fix...it," he mumbled, looking expectantly at Lasiar and Rennirolas.
Aloysius eyed the corpses carefully to make sure that they were done moving. Once again, he extended the lantern for Rumer to light. "Er, my apologies, Rumer. I meant not to get in thy way," he said quietly. "Methinks we should go and rejoin Arachne and Etienne in Ranchefus's rooms. Likely it seems that answers may await us in there."
Rumer waited to hear what Renn and Lasiar would say about cleansing, "Looks like it might take a while. Maybe we should go on and check out those other two doors Kaileer pointed out as well as Ranchefus's room and then clean this place."
Noticing Aloysius standing there, Rumer handed him the torch to light his lantern with then took it back when he was through.
"Ow, shit!" Jana took a step back, one hand going to her face. It came away covered in blood. When she saw that both zombies had been defeated, she dropped her sword and started fumbling in her pack. "Dammit, dammit, dammit," she muttered. She found an old shirt and started gingerly dabbing at her face. "Shit, now I'm going to look as bad as those zombies." Her voice carried an obvious note of distress.
Lasiar looked around at the mutilation and blood on the floor. "This is quite a horror, much more than I would have expected even from a priest of Cyric." He started perusing the bottles and looking at their contaminants. "Well, I guess the first thing to do is to start cleaning the floors, and make it look like a respective temple first. Not that I really want to get more bloody." He sneared lightly in disdain, and then sighed. Lasiar turned back to Jana, "Do you require assistance?"
"That would be nice," Jana said in a flat voice. She stopped dabbing long enough to retrieve, clean and sheathe her sword. She waited for Laisar to do what he could for her wounds.
Kaileer nodded, "If we find zombie, we kill, if we find other clue, maybe it tell where be orcs. We find orcs, we find Echo, maybe find Jelenneth..." The ranger did not sound hopeful as he gazed at the twitching remains of the zombie.
"Yeah, and maybe we can find some more torches to light up this place. This place is dismal enough in the light, much less in deep shadow." Blacky said, cleaning off his axe. "Those rooms aren't far. Why don't Jana, Renn, Falgout, and Lasier start cleaning up in here. Aloysius, Kaileer, and Rumer, you guys come with me. Leave the torch with Jana. We'll only check those two rooms and then come back. Anything jumps out, yell for help. Sound like a plan?" he asked.
"Ok, Blacky," replied Rumer with a glance at Falgout.
Kaileer walked across the room, stepped over the contents of the shattered jar and retrieved his arrow. As he walked back towards the door he stopped by the zombie's corpse, put one foot on the thing's leg and pulled his other arrow out of a rotting thigh, leaving what might have been considered a grizzly wound if the creature had not already been decaying when it was inflicted.
"It be good, maybe we find Ettin before he be dead..." the ranger muttered as he inspected the arrow covered in zombie gore and decided against returning it to his quiver.
Aloysius nodded his agreement. "Rumer, wouldst thou carry the lantern? I may need my hands free for my magics."
Rumer, holding up the lit torch in one hand and her sword in the other said, "I don't have a spare hand. Sorry."
"Ah...yes. Hmmmm. Well, how about if I leave the lantern here with the others so they have a source of light, since thou art coming with us? I thought that thou wert going to give the, uh, torch, uh....oh never mind." The mage set the lantern on the floor just inside the door of the shrine and waited for Blacky to lead the previously-described group down to where Ranchefus was last seen.
Lasiar cleaned the wounds on Jana's face and neck quickly and cast a curative spell, closing the gashes slightly.
"I defer to you in this Laisar," Rennirolas said as the group separated. "Were this an elven shrine I would summon a fey circle after we did cleanse the place thoroughly," Renn explained. "But we have not that option here, and I do not know that it would help with Tyr's shrine anyway."
Rennirolas moved the lantern so that it lit up the greater part of the chamber, left his pack nearby, and his longbow propped against the wall beside the pack. Rennirolas looked slightly overwhelmed at the size of the task ahead of the group, but recovered a swatch of cloth and began to scrub down the tables.
Feeling very slightly better after the healing, Jana began helping clean the room. The gashes on her face were no long bleeding, but they were still visible. Jana did as she was directed with as little conversation as possible, looking very unhappy.
Seeing that his first attempt at healing did not fair so well, Lasiar motioned for Jana to stop for a minute. "Let me ask for the Lady's blessing again. Since we have the time, and you may need the strength later."
"Now as to this mess, Renn, I wish I knew exactly what needs to be done. We will just have to do the best we can." Lasiar looked at Falgout. "Is there anything that you wish to do here other than restore the temple. I would venture to guess that your hand and eye may be sealed within those containers." Lasiar pointed to the gruesome canisters. "I suggest that if we bury these remains if we find some dirt that will make that possible. Until we get the altar and floor cleaned, let us place these jars outside the room."
Lasiar started transporting each of the jars, one by one, outside of the room. He then removed rags, soap, and using some water out of his canteen, started scrubbing the altar.
"Thanks," Jana said, with somewhat embarrassed gratitude. "I know it's still to be worried about scarring, but I can't help it."
Other than some banging around and the sound of something glass shattering on the floor, Arachne and Etienne didn't hear much in the way of noise from the shrine room as they tried to deal with the door.
Blacky, Aloysius, Kaileer, and Rumer, who still carried the torch, came down the hall to where Arachne and Etienne stood talking to one another. They passed another closed door on their left as they went. The door that Ranchefus had disappeared into was visible in the wall, but it was only opened about two inches.
Rumer whispered to Kaileer, "I guess they were waiting for us. Or maybe trying to talk Ranchefus into surrendering."
The ranger's only response came as a shrug.
"What you find?" he asked Etienne as he glanced around to get a feel for the area.
Etienne looked to Kaileer, "We found the switch that opens the door, but it appears to have been blocked from within. So either he's still in there or there's another way out. What did you find? We were just getting ready to come check on you all."
"I _could_ get us past the blockage," Arachne offered. "If you want." Looking at Kaileer, she added, "I'm rested now, so I could also get us back out, if you decide that you don't like it in there. If we're ready to go on, then say so, but I guess some of us are still cleaning the altar?"
"Well if you can just get someone in there, then that person could remove the blockage most likely, right?" asked Rumer.
"Yes," said Aloysius in response to Arachne's question. "The others are attempting to clean that horrid place." He looked over at the partially-open door. "Didst either of thee attempt to determine if any sounds emanated from beyond yon portal?"
Etienne replied to Aloysius, "I didn't hear anything. If there is anything in there, they probably know we're out here. How long before they are done cleaning? Has anyone checked the temple walls for secret passages? If not, let us return there and do so."
"Indeed," replied Aloysius. "An excellent suggestion. There may well be another door from the shrine that leads eastward. If such a door exists, it shouldn't take us long to find it."
He glanced at Blacky. "Unless thou wouldst have us do something different, Eric?"
Without waiting for the fighter's comment, Aloysius shuffled back towards the shrine. "I DID so want to look at some of those bottles," he muttered. "If a secret door there be, the more lookers we have, the better." He walked towards the light of the lantern.
"I NOT like in here." Kaileer said bluntly, "But we not can leave yet."
"I'm with you," muttered Rumer to Kaileer.
The gnome gave him a puzzled look. "Not _here_," she said, pointing at Kaileer's feet. "_There_." She pointed at the wall where the no-longer-secret door was. "I don't like it here either, but that's just aesthetics. _There_, there might be something not to like that's also life-threatening."
