### 233

You leap onto the iron gate and climb with cat-like speed and grace. Unfortunately, as you leap over, you snag your Backpack on a spike. You pull free, but in doing so you destroy one item in your pack (erase from your Action Chart the item which you have recorded last on your list of Backpack Items).

You drop to the street beyond and follow it to a tree-lined plaza which is bordered by shops that sell rare artefacts and expensive works of art. Their windows and doors are securely barred and shuttered and show no signs of a forced entry. Then your eye is drawn to a grand building on the far side of the plaza: it is a temple. Its great stone door is closed, but a smaller wooden door at the side has been torn off its hinges. You magnify your vision and see that beyond the door is a flight of stone steps which ascend to a bell-tower.

Cautiously you approach the shattered door. You unsheathe your weapon and scan the darkened stairs before silently you move up the steps. You have climbed twenty steps when suddenly you hear a hideous snickering growl and an icy chill runs the length of your spine. There is an ominous creak of stone on stone and a movement in the darkness above, and then a crashing fills your ears. Out of the darkness you see a great marble statue come smashing down the narrow stairway. It rapidly gathers speed as it tumbles end-over-end towards you.

If you possess Kai-alchemy, turn to 85.

If you do not possess this Grand Master Discipline, turn to 98.