holy symbol, and in commanding tones^aid, "Banner! Spirit of Banner. I ask you again and, by the power of Deneir, demand an answer. Who started the fire?"
The undead thing stopped his frantic movements, froze perfectly still and stared at Cadderly, or, more particularly, at Cadderly's holy symbol.
Banner seemed to wince several times. "By the power of who?" he asked innocently, and then it was Cadderly who winced. What had happened to this place to push his god, so very far, away?
Cadderly lowered his arm, lowered the symbol of Deneir, knowing then that he would gain no useful information.
"Are ye wanting to keep talking to this thing?" Ivan asked.
"No," Cadderly said simply, and before the word had fully fallen from his lips, Ivan's axe went into a tremendous overhead arc, slicing down and taking Banner's left arm from his shoulder.
The undead thing looked curiously at that lost arm, as if wondering how he was supposed to reattach it. "Oh, have to fix that," his almost lipless mouth said matter-of-factly.
Even more devastating was Pikel's attack, the tree-trunk club slamming hard atop Banner's exposed skull, dropping the undead thing into a crumpled, broken pile of flesh and bones.
Both eyes popped from their sockets and rolled about on long, thin strands. "Now that hurt," Banner said, and all three companions jumped at the unexpected response. They realized then, to their horror, that the eyeballs were not rolling randomly, but seemed to be inspecting the damage!
"So much to do!" Banner whined.
The three slowly backed away, Pikel last, whimpering a bit and shaking his head in denial. Five feet from the broken monster, they found the courage to turn away, and started off, legs pumping to gain them full speed.
"Oh, Rufo will make me fix it alone!" Banner cried.
Cadderly skidded to a stop; Ivan crashed into him, and Pikel crashed into Ivan.
"Rufo?" Cadderly asked, turning back.
"Rufo?" Ivan echoed.
"Oo oi!" Pikel agreed.
"You remember Rufo, of course," said a calm and familiar voice from behind them.
Slowly and in unison the three turned back toward the exit of the chapel to see Kierkan Rufo standing at his usual angle, not quite perpendicular to the floor.
Cadderly noticed immediately that the brand he had given Rufo had been marred, clawed away.
"You do not belong in this place!" the young priest roared, finding his courage, reminding himself that this was his home, Deneir's home.
Rufo's laughter mocked him.
Cadderly moved inevitably closer, drawing the dwarves in his wake. "What are you?" he demanded, understanding that something was terribly amiss, that something stronger than Kierkan Rufo now faced him.
Rufo smiled widely, opened his mouth in a feral hiss, proudly showing his fangs.
Cadderly nearly swooned, then caught himself. He yanked his holy symbol free of the wide-brimmed hat, and plopped the hat awkwardly on his head in the same movement "By the name of Deneir, I banish - " he began.
"Not here!" Rufo roared back, his eyes flashing like red dots of fire. "Not here."
"Uh-oh," muttered Pikel.
"He's not a vampire, is he?" Ivan asked, and, like everything Ivan seemed to ask in here, it was obvious what answer he wanted - needed - to hear.
"If you could only understand the meaning of that word," Rufo answered. "Vampire? I am Tuanta Quiro Miancay, the Most Fatal Horror! I am the embodiment of the mixture, and in here, I rule!"
Cadderly's mind whirled along the terrible possibilities. He knew that name, Tuanta Quiro Miancay. He, above anyone else, understood the power of the chaos curse, for he had been the one to defeat it, the one who had put it in the bowl, immersed in holy water.
But he had not destroyed it; Rufo was proof of that. The chaos curse had returned, in a new and apparently more deadly form. Cadderly felt a warmth along his leg, emanating from his pocket It took him only a moment to remember that he had a pin in there, an amulet that Druzil had placed on Rufo in Shilmista. The amulet was tuned to the imp, so that its possessor and Druzil could be easily joined telepathically. It was warm now, and Cadderly feared what that might mean.
"Your god is gone from this place, Cadderly," Rufo chided, and Cadderly could not deny the truth of that statement "Your order is no more, and so many have come over willingly to my side."
Cadderly wanted to argue that, wanted to not believe it He knew of the cancer that had crept into the order of Deneir, and of Oghma, even before this newest incarnation