### 278

‘Fools!’ screams Cadak at his fleeing acolytes. ‘Must I do everything myself?’

With these words he bangs the tip of his staff three times against the floor of the dais and a gout of crackling energy arcs through the rain-laden air towards you. Instinctively, you raise the Deathstaff and catch the arcing bolt on its haft. There is a flash of sparks; then the crackling energy flickers and disappears.

Cadak curses loudly and promises that you are about to die, but for all his bravado you sense that he is scared. He recognizes the Deathstaff for what it is and he fears that, in your hands, it could lay waste to all his meticulous plans. The aged druid looks to the stormy clouds and screams a command to the circling Vortexi to help him finish you once and for all.

Turn to 162.