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Throzahk then shook his head, and spoke [Hmmm… it is irrelevant for now… acolyte, you should try to become accustomed to your new body… I had expected to be a more adverse response from this… procedure… Blessed be Lady Quilrorry…] said Throzahk, instructing the skeletal acolyte [Now… I should prepare the slabs… And you… you should go and explore the temple… it would be good if you find anything that we can use, specially , do try to leave the statues alone, they were vandalized by the traitorous pair… small gliphs were hastily carved in the statues… It no longer matters… that insidious mana will be cleansed… in time…] said Throzahk, who began walking towards the petrified egg.

Seeing Throzhak getting way from him the skeletal acolyte shouted towards him [Hey! Don't leave me here! You haven't undone the spell! yess….] shouted the skeletal acolyte, his voice had now a bearable volume, and it no longer held its maddening tone, it had become a viperine voice, with the odd low pitched growl between sentences.

After listening to the acolyte's plea Throzahk spoke [Right… I had forgotten about the vines…] as he said that the snapped his spectral finger, releasing the spell [Hmm... go to the upper levels, seek the herb room, try to bring everything you can… there's bound to be something of use… that's it if time hasn't turned the herbs to dust, now go!] instructed Throzahk, pointing towards the hallway.

The skeletal acolyte stood up, staggering a bit, unfamiliar to his new size, as he was now more or less three meters in height, his tail made for more than half his body size, and his skull looked somewhat out of place, and then after listening to Throzahk's order the skeletal acolyte begun to speak [I will go… however I want to ask some things… and I can talk now… yesss… so it would be better to get those out of the way… yes yes] he said, looking towards Throzahk, who had arrived to the stone chair next to the egg.

Seeing that the acolyte didn't obey his order immediately surprised Throzahk "Interesting… I thought that it would take more time for this… skeleton to ask anything" thought Throzahk, [Fine then… ask away… it will be good to finally have a conversation] said Throzahk, his voice contained some hints of interest in the acolyte course of action.

[Good… good, first of all, who or rather what is Qadarr? Yes yes!] asked the skeletal acolyte.

[Hmm… quite an open question I must say… Qadarr, Keeper of the Rifts, Father of the Sh'el R'ehn, Lord in the Mists of Kahl'ak, that is who he is, in short he is the "god" of the Sh'el R'ehn, or Swamp Folk, they usually practice non elemental magic, and learned to speak lower draconic] answered Throzahk, disregarding the open nature of the question raised by the acolyte.

Once Throzahk had answered the skeletal acolyte spoke once again [Secon question… what are the runes on the doors in the hallway? I mean the gnarly ugly ones, yes yes!] asked the skeletal acolyte.

[Those probably are part of the curse, they must feed on the tainted mana to enforce some kind of seal, maybe they sealed inside the remaining priests and priestesses, a cruel fate indeed…] answered Throzahk, tone denoted the sadness he felt.

[Ok then… what are you?] asked the skeletal acolyte, doing his utmost to suppress his speaking habit.

This question puzzled Throzahk, as he had already told the acolyte who he was, he put his hand on his chin and pondered for some minutes before speaking, [you ask what am I, not who am i… that is quite a difficult question to answer…however… there should be a way to explain what I am…] said Throzahk, pondering how to answer the query [I should begin with the state that I am right now… I'm what you may call a ghost… an undead, a soul bound to an unhatched egg, however… ghosts usually bear a transparent core in the chest, and I lack said core… in a way I'm similar to you… none the less, I chose this state out of devotion… as I'm bound to the egg, to bear this role is to fulfill the role of a parent to the egg… and if you are asking what race am I… simply put I'm a quarterling, three quarters of my blood belong to the Lizardfolk, and one quarter belongs to a half born… although I don't know who are or rather were my parents, as I was raised in this very temple… that should answer what I am…] finished Throzahk, with a thinking expression on his face.

Seeing Throzahk's expression made the skeletal acolyte raise a final query [Interesting… One final thing Throzahk… is it possible to revi… no that's no it…] stopped the acolyte before he continued talking [Is there a way for me to stop being an undead?] asked the skeletal acolyte suppressing his habit.

Throzahk was surprised by this question, he hadn't thought about becoming a living being, reversing the state that he was in was out of his mind [I… do not know… perhaps there is a way… I remember that sometimes, soulless eggs were brought to the temple, and placed on the altar below this floor, as for what was done… that I do not know… As those rituals were led by high seeress Faldrari herself, after all she was the one with the higher affinity with divine energy… all I know is that the eggs came from there sometimes with souls, others the eggs came back as the have gone in… soulless husks… mayhap you would be able to inhabit this egg… or mayhap not… you already have a body… so I do not know if it would work…] answered Throzahk, answering to the best of his capacity.

[Aha! So there is a way! Yes yes! Good good! I shall go now! Yes yes!] said the skeletal acolyte, who then started moving towards the hallway, still unfamiliar with his new shape he staggered occasionally.

Seeing the skeletal acolyte move forward Throzahk simply resumed his thinking "I wonder… is he going to attempt to be reborn… that… would be good… the egg would hatch… and I would be freed of my service… that would be good" thought Throzahk, sinking into deep thought.

As the skeletal acolyte made his way through the hallway, he looked towards the runic glyphs in the doors, he wondered if he could somehow he could manipulate them to enter the rooms "I wonder… yesss…" he yought as he produced a mana beam from the tip of his finger, he then began to cut the runic formations, once he had cut some runes there was a thunderous boom!

The mana that had been gathered came rushing forward in an unexpected explosion, throwing the massive body of the skeletal acolyte against the wall opposite of the door, he had thought that this was a safe procedure, it would be simple to disrupt the flow of mana in the mystic glyphs by making a fissure on the runes, to allow the mana to escape the mana circuit, or at least that what the skeletal acolyte had said to himself, before realizing that he had done something without thinking of the consequences "SHIT! That gave me a scare, FUCK! This always happens… somehow, I always manage to make a stupid! Maybe it's because I'm still part kobold! Yes Yesss!" thought the skeletal acolyte, who was trying to recover from the mana shockwave that he had subjected himself to as his bones creaked and moved with difficulty.

Nonetheless his foolishness had accomplished his goal, he had opened the door or more likely the door had been reduced to splinters thanks to the blast [Would you look at that! Now this is interesting… this kind of thing may be of use! yesss] said the skeletal acolyte who then stepped inside the room, the blast had risen a cloud of dust and the air was stagnant, inside the room laid several bones, now disarranged and lying around in the room.

Besides the bones in the floor the room was mostly empty, with some upturned and damaged writing desks and chairs, and some shredded clothes laid scattered in the room, not a thing was of use , as even the ink had dried long before the acolyte had entered the room.

[Hmm… a study perhaps, and those bones once belonged to the people that used to live here… quite a gruesome end… yesss… yess…] said the skeletal acolyte, stepping out of the room, leaving it as undisturbed as he could.

He then proceeded to the last door that had the gnarled rune on it, he cautiously approached it, and tried to study the mana circuit, looking for faults on the formation, as he didn't want to completely destroy the door and damage anything that could be inside the room, anything that could be considered treasure.

He soon found some faults on the circuit, so the skeletal acolyte began carving around the faulty runes, in an effort to create something that would help release the tainted mana, and then he carved small fissures that connected the hastily made symbols around the defectively carved runes, then a strong light came rushing from the mana circuit, and finally a small blast destroyed the door, leaving undisturbed the room, [AHA! Good! Yess! Good Good! This time I didn't do something idiotic! Yess yess!] said joyfully the skeletal acolyte.

He waited for the dust to settle in the room, some skeletons laid destroyed, not by the initial blast but by something else, as they had the same runic carvings on the chest area that the torso in the burned room had.

[I think Throzahk may be wrong, maybe Kolztak and Icceamond weren't the only traitors in the temple… I wonder… he said that the curse of undead was reinforced by the use of one own life… but what if it wasn't only one person that used their life but more… this is… potentially more trouble] said the skeletal acolyte, this was indeed strange, as Throzahk had only mentioned the existence of two traitors.

[Welp! Can't do anything right now… So fuck it! Yesss yesss] said carelessly the skeletal acolyte, disregarding the skeletons that laid in the room.