### 262

The Arrow strikes the rune with devastating effect. There is a tremendous explosion and a splash of fiery green sparks erupts as your shaft cleaves the evil stone in two. The crystal chamber is torn apart and a terrible shriek assails your ears as the air is filled with crackling bolts of green fire. Instinctively you turn away from the explosion and cover your head with your left arm as shards of broken crystal cascade around you, like a rain of deadly daggers.

When this deluge ceases, you turn back and look with fearful expectation upon the devastated remains of the chamber. Flickering trails of green fire sputter and die among the scattered crystal shards, and the column of dark mist that inhabited its core now swirls around the remains like a small tornado. From its core there comes a hideous shriek and a lance of cold fear stabs at your heart when suddenly you recall having heard this terrible sound once before. This dark shadow is Zorkaan the Soultaker, the entity that you encountered at the clearing in the Grochod Forest, the evil presence that you disturbed as it fed upon the psychic remains of the innocent Slovian prisoners slain and buried there. The whirling shadow of Zorkaan gathers speed and, with a parting wail, it shoots upwards and disappears through the aperture in the hall’s domed ceiling, into the very eye of the raging storm.

The noise of the exploding bell-chamber and the hellish shriek of Zorkaan alerts Vandyan to your presence in the hall below. You see his face twisted with rage. He raises a glowing silver disc that is clasped tightly in the palm of his right hand, and then he spits out a vile curse that chills your blood.

Turn to 340.