Intermission 2 Page 19

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“We’ll open the barricades for you and let you in. I gotta warn you, though, when people go inside the skeletons get even crazier than normal. If too many of ’em start coming out, I gotta seal it back up again, even if you’re still in there. You’ll have to find another way out.”

“I get that you have to do what’s best for your neighbourhood. If it comes to that, it looks like we might be able to escape through that open yard in the back.”

“Yeah, maybe. That’s what I’d try, anyway.”

“See if ya can figure out what’s making all the skeletons crazy in the first place, I say. There didn’t used to be so many of them until the last three years or so. That’s the sort of things my da says adventurers could fix.”

“Do you have any idea what could be causing it?”

“Nope. But this used to be a chapel dedicated to the old God of the Sun, you know, back before the Emperor replaced him. There’s a Sun Bell in there that used to ring every day at noon, just like the ones in the Imperial Cathedrals nowadays, but it ain’t rung in a long time.”

“Maybe the bell’s something to do with it?”

“I guess we should head in then.”

“Yeah, hurry up before any of the buggers in there gets loose.”

“UH! UH!”

“What’s the ape saying? Does anyone know handsigns?”

“Not very well.”

“He says he wants to bet you can’t finish your work in there without letting any skeletons out. If you do, he says there’s ten coins in it for you.”

“Ha, easy! You’re on!”

“Oh boy. This is rat tails all over again, just you wait.”