### 23

The very instant that your fingers take hold of the silver crown, you are gripped by a terrible pain that burns through your mind. Blinding flashes of light become entangled with nightmarish images of death and torture that leave you gasping for breath.

The object you have touched is a cursed crown, an implement of torture crafted by Darklord Chlanzor’s Nadziranim—his evil magicians. This cursed crown was used by the Nadziranim to extract information from the Talestrians shortly before their deaths. The images you see and the pain that you feel are fragments of the terrible ordeal that the Talestrians were made to suffer before their demise: lose 5 ENDURANCE points.

Desperately you draw upon your Magnakai Discipline of Psi-screen to counter the evil effects of this cursed crown. As your mental defences knit together, you are able to drop the crown and put an end to the crushing pain that fills your head. When you have fully recovered, you step away from the pyramid and offer up a short prayer to Ishir to watch over the souls of the three prisoners who died here. Then you leave the pyramid and turn towards the iron steps.

To continue, turn to 135.