All squares that contain a small triangle in the bottom right hand corner are marked as difficult terrain and cost two squares worth of movement to enter.

Illumination: Darkness, with light provided by torchlight. Visibility shown on map.

Zero reacted first and thinking quickly decided to try to slow down one of the constructs to give the group time to get ready. His mind hadn't yet contemplated the fact that stone statues were coming to life!

He took a bead on the statue to his left and aimed for its legs.

Acting almost as quickly, Kireth threw his hands together and the sparks began to fly. "My turn," he said through gritted teeth. "Templa Koron!"

Tradden's eyes had only widened marginally when the statues started to move - such occurrences were starting to become common place for him now.

He ushered the boys towards the door. "Go - behind Kireth and Zero!"

He then drew his blades. "Right then..." tested their weighting and feel as if it were necessary and charged towards the side of the already damaged statue, not wanting to block line of sight from the doorway. As he crossed the short distance between them it did dawn on him that that the thing had already taken two significant blows from his comrades but showed no obvious signs of being at all bothered. He just hoped his blades would be effective against it.

Trying to take advantage of the compromised speed of the effigy he quickly jabbed up with his longsword and then brought his shortsword under its defences as it looked to block.

"Ah," he said, flexing his arm to try and bring some feeling back into it after the force of the blow.

"Statues? What next! GAARR!!" Khalin whirled towards the first statue with a howl of fury, trying to block its path towards the youths.

He swung his warhammer at the stone behemoth...

The young fighter had seen it coming a mile off, and had plenty of time to gracefully lean back out of the way of the solid stone arm. He was feeling pretty assured about this fight until movement caught in the corner of his eye gave him cause to risk a glance behind him. His confidence started to drain as he saw the other statue had barged past Khalin and was now brushing aside the two boys and heading straight for him. In their way, its sightless eyes being transfixed upon him was just as scary as any be-tentacled nightmare he had experienced recently.

There must be a reason that the statue was crossing the floor, ignoring all others in favour of him?

A cold wave of paralysing fear passed over him - he wanted to shout to Kireth to demand an explanation as to why the circle was not completely disarmed as suggested - he wanted to shout for the boys to hightail it out of there - he wanted to shout a rousing warcry to rally his companions to his side.

As his head flicked from side to side, from statue to statue, all he actually managed was: "Erm..."

Celestia moved quickly into the centre of the chamber within the area that the circle used to be, covering the children as best she could.

Raising her morningstar she struck the nearest statue for all she was worth.

Zero moved himself closer to the circle, getting a better line at the statue he had previously attacked.

He lined himself up, hoping to hide behind a crowd to get an advantage.

Kireth quickly calculated the various options and, for once, they seemed more limited than usual. These were constructs, they had focus and they had purpose but they had no thought of their own. Considering this, it seemed likely that the power he was burning to unleash would have limited effect on them.

Sometimes there is no substitute for reliability. Pointing his finger at the construct, the familiar purple bolt flared and on his command, "Gurtha da Sinome", struck his opponent.

Tradden shielded his eyes as he saw the now familiar magic missile spring from Kireth's hands, and so avoided any glare as the reddy/silver light slammed into the statue he was closest to.

The thing was now starting to look a bit worse for wear, but clearly it was not finished yet - the young fighter knew he had to do his bit to incapacitate it. He whirled his shortsword around wildly with one arm, windmill-fashion, hoping to distract it and find some advantage. He then heaved with all his might with his long sword.

"I have a bad feeling about this!" muttered Khalin as he hurried after the first statue. The dwarf was somewhat bemused the hulk of stone had ignored his ferocious attack. Both statues were clearly making a beeline for Tradden.

Despite his diminuitive stature, the stout warlord outflanked the first statue and took up a defensive position between it and Tradden. "I've got your back!" he called to his companion.

Celestia quickly uttered a word of prayer for Tradden as she moved to flank the first statue.

She then smashed her morningstar down onto the first statue, calling out Khalin's name to strike it.

From his crouched position Zero took careful aim at the second statue.

Frustration boiled on the surface of Kireth's face. In this situation, the foes being what they are, he was extremely limited. Whatever the outcome, he would be better prepared for the next similar situation.

Not that it would make any difference to the outcome but "Gurtha da Sinome" was thrown with quite some venom this time.

Again waiting for the flare of Kireth's magic to fade, Tradden, feeling a little pummeled despite Celestia's healing powers, renewed his assault against the statue in front of him, wary of being caught between the two stone juggernaughts.

The combined assaults against the statue right in front of him were now telling - the construct was looking worse for wear, literally, and the young fighter realised that it simply may not be able to take much more.

Trying to hasten its demise he looked to trade power for precision, hoping that this would be the blow to see it crumple into harmless bits of masonry!

"Ha!" cried Tradden, whirling to face the other stone figure.

Khalin could see the two boys out of the corner of his eye. The poor youngsters were still cowering, frozen with fear.

"Take heart, young bucks of Blackengorge - the first golem has fallen!"

As his rallying call echoed he swung his warhammer at the remaining statue - hoping to finally shatter it once for all...

The remaining statue put both fists together and smashed them down onto Tradden with great might.

Celestia crashed her morningstar against the statue's cracking body.

Zero kept low down, trying to gain as much advantage as he could.

Kireth jogged to the side to get a better view of the remaining target. "Gurtha da Sinome!" he called as the missile flared into existence and sailed into the intended victim. It might not be much at this stage but at least it was something, something that hit.

The fight was starting to take its toll on Tradden - sweat was visibly pouring from his brow with the effort of continuing attacks against the stony targets combined with the ducking and diving involved with avoiding their deadly blows.

Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and carried on, deftly spinning with the hope of catching the statue with a backhand swipe.

Tradden managed a tired grin as the combined assault of the group really began to tell. However, the grin faded as the statue pulled back its fist ready for another strike...

Khalin fired off a tight smile at the flagging Tradden before his mouth curled into a snarl once more as he swung his hammer at the golem again.

Celestia smashed her morningstar down onto the first statue, calling out Tradden's name to strike it.

[...Combat Encounter Completed...]

[...SHORT REST...]

"Kireth?" asked Tradden, standing up from the bent-double position where he had been catching his breath. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the mage. The tone of his voice clearly conveyed his feeling over the circle being "safe" the last time...

Kireth held his arms out before him, clenching and unclenching his fists as though crushing two small balls. He watched intently as small blue strands of energy danced over his fingers.

Something had clicked during that last encounter, he felt stronger for it, he felt... he smiled a secret smile beneath his cowl.

"Kireth?" the fop's voice pulled his thoughts back.

"Yes? Oh, yes, I believe so."

Tradden looked far from convinced, but on balance still trusted the mage.

"If Kireth says it is safe, it must be. Look..."

With that, Tradden walked into the circle, jumped up and down unnecessarily, and then proceeded to walk back and forth over the barrier.

"See?"

Tradden looked back at the doorway.

"Right. Seems to me there are two ways to go - either deeper into this complex through that passageway we saw to the north-west, or back the way we came. As we came here with the sole purpose of finding the young fellas here, I suggest we do the latter and head back."

He beamed at the boys, trying and failing to be 'in with the kids'.

"I don't know about you, but I could do with a really good meal!", he winked at them.

"An elf?" Khalin raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. He moved over towards the others, subtley taking himself out of earshot of the youngsters.

"Seems to me that getting the boys safely back to the town should be our main goal here. That's what we pledged to do, and so honour demands. We can be back here within the hour to hunt for the... kidnapper," he cracked his knuckles in frustration as he almost spat out the word. "Much as I'd love to give the rascal what for as soon as possible!"

The dwarf's confidence had grown almost exponentially this past couple of days, and he could feel the lust for vengeance burning in his belly.

"Still," he continued in conspiratorial fashion, "we could have a wee peek round the corner before we go."

The debate continued for a while, with the group spilling back into the antechamber so as to ensure that at the very least no one was entering or leaving from the way they had come.

The discussion became quite heated in places, but essentially the party was split - Tradden and Zero were more of the view that they should take the boys back immediately, whereas Khalin and Celestia leant towards a bit of further exploration on the basis that it was better for the mysterious elf to be found.

That left only the mage, who had stood to one side throughout.

"Ok, Kireth, what is your counsel?" asked Tradden.

Kireth paused before answering. He knew his mind but had to be careful not to upset the companions' delicate morals.

"To kill these poor children would have been easy for this 'elf' and his underlings but he chose not to, needing them for a ritual." He walked towards the boys feigning grave concern on his face. "Rituals involving the sacrifice of innocents I think we can all agree can never be a good thing and, in my experience, are some of the most powerful evils." He stood with the boys on either side of him. "As much as we must return these young ones, we must press on and locate this evil without delay or risk it slipping away."

He placed a friendly hand on each of the boys shoulders. "Besides, what an adventure you will have to tell tales off, eh?"

Tradden nodded. His instinct was to get the boys back to the town, but the mage spoke sense that the young fighter could not dispute the logic of.

Coming to a decision, he stalked over to Zero, whispering in his ear. What followed was a short, but again heated discussion between the two, inaudible to any of the others. Tradden's body language seemed to indicate he was asking the rogue to do something, whereas his fellow human displayed more provocative signage, ranging from "why?", to "not bothered" to "no way" to "on my own?" to "well, yes, I am great", to one action which the others could only speculate was an over the top impression of a ghost.

Eventually however he skulked off back towards the room with the sarcophagi, grumbling at first but then going very silent indeed as he rounded the corner.

"Right," said Tradden as Zero quietly made his way back the way they had came.

He fished around in his pack for some of the food the town folk had provided them with prior to setting out. "You must be hungry no matter what!" He tossed the two boys his canteen and some of the food - it was no better than basic rations really, but it would do.

As the boys chomped away, after a short while the group heard faint scrapes and bangs from down the corridor, and were just about to go and investigate when a strange sight appeared back around the corner.

Presently a strange sight appeared - it had Zero's legs, but was otherwise a ball of metal, leather and chain and other oddities. Before anyone could comment, the junk fell to the floor, revealing a very red faced and perspiring Zero, who took the opportunity to put his hands on his knees and take some deep breaths.

"That will be two gold, delivery charge, sir," he managed to cough sarcastically in Tradden's direction.

"Excellent!" beamed Tradden. "Thank you Zero - right, let's see what we can do..."

Tradden then spent a few minutes fitting Offa with what he could from the armour collected from the creatures that had defended the sarcophagi. Seeing what he was doing Khalin started on Bailey, and by the time the two warriors had finished the two boys were lightly armoured - they had been forced to discard the heavier pieces, but had managed to put together a passable set of defences, including the helmets, which the boys struggled to keep from slipping over their eyes.

Tradden stood back, inspecting their handiwork. Now he saw them, their helmets continually slipping over their eyes, we was not so sure his idea was that great. Armour was one thing, but there seemed little point giving them one of the wicked, heavy blades used by the creatures - if the boys actually came toe-to-toe with an enemy it wouldn't make any difference to the outcome. That said, he didn't want to leave them completely defenceless, and if for no other reason he wanted them to have something in their hands to give them some level of confidence - he knew he would rather have a weapon than not. He looked again at the pile at his feet, noting two wooden points sticking out at odd angles.

"Hmm, can either of you use a bow, and if you can do you think you are up to firing them?"

"Hmm, good enough for me. Try to stay back, close to Zero and Kireth if there is any fighting, and do what they tell you. If things get really nasty, hightail it out of here and back to the town as fast as you can. Otherwise, stay close!"

With that, the group moved onwards. If there was anyone else further into the complex that did not know they were there, the clanking of the boys' makeshift armour was now a certain giveaway.

[...Continued in Book #01, Chapter #01, Scene #05...]