After defeating the skeletons, the group heads through a black marble archway. It is smooth and etched with reflective runes. The room ahead could be seen, with flames flickering around the edge of the room. In the middle of the room stood a six foot tall figure in silver robes, with a circle of black rose petals around its feet. Bronwen brashly says “she has called to me” meaning the Empress they’d seen on the majestic tapestries. He goes into the room and Branek reluctantly follows.

”Who dares to disturb the rest of the Empress, Elsbeth?” asked a thin whispery voice. Bronwen tried to speak but nothing would come out. He decided to kneel. “Speak, fool!” he was harshly commanded. The guardian of the Empress demanded to know Bronwen’s name and why he’d come. A thin skeletal hand reached out from under the flowing robes and grabbed Bronwen’s jaw, lifting him off the ground. Bronwen said fate brought us there, that we needed the sword and we’d return it safely. The guardian nodded and pulled back a huge curtain to reveal a passageway. “Go see my Queen.”

Bronwen motioned for the others to come and then all four went through the archway into a grand room with high vaulted ceilings and a floor of polished black marble. At the far end of the room, exalted high on a wooden throne, sat the Empress, a formidable figure in black robes, with silvery flowing hair, bronze armor, and the bronze broadsword on her skeletal lap.

The Empress stood up with the sword on her shoulder and asked who we sought to slay with her sword? We explained about Dewi, cursed to live as a giant snake, now known by the name Slypeghast. She scoffed “Slypeghast is a WORM. I slayed the great god Gar.”

She agreed to lend us her sword and her staff. She said killing Slypeghast was imperative as he seeks to resurrect Gar. She reached into her robe pocket and pulled out a fist sized ruby, saying “This is the heart of Gar.” She said she would keep it hidden there. Aeodan was told to fetch the staff from the corner, which he found ridiculously heavy. We would need both the staff, and the sword, to defeat Slypeghast. She stressed that both must be returned once we were successful…and failure was NOT an option.