"How about a walk around the ship? I know about you can't go below deck without the captain present but at least I can show the rest of the main deck." Spencer got up from his chair and offered a hand.

"Sure!" Serna took Spencer's hand, "That'll be neat!"

Spencer took point and lead Serna out to the left side of the ship and up to the helm. It was a typical steering wheel for a ship but there were other gadgets and levers there that resembled the inner workings of a steam ship. The steam whistle blew suddenly forcing both Spencer and the Shield Maiden to cover their ears. "Dag-nabbit!"

Sir Gonagle came out laughing hysterically. For an old alchemist he had a crude sense of humor.

"That's not at all loud!" Serna shook her head and did her best to try and stop the ringing in her ears.

Sir Gonagle was double over with laughter now when Maxim came out with an annoyed look on his face. A piece of thin cloth stuffed in each ear stating his suddenly discomfort.

The first officer reached down and grabbed the alchemist by the waist, "Seriously little man! That's it, that's really it! I've got you dead to rights this time, Sir Gonagle!"

The alchemist slipped out of his jacket and kicked Maxim in the chins, "Hahaha!"

Spencer pulled Serna off to the side, "Ah, about that tour. Let's go before we get into a fight. I knew it was only a matter of time before Maxim caught Sir Gonagle red-handed."

"What is going on?" Serna asked Spencer, "Is there a rivalry between the two of them? What's the matter? Don't they like each other or something?"

"Rivalry is one way of saying it. Ever since Sir Gonagle came aboard the ship, he's gone out of his way to cause a little bit of mischief." Spencer told her, "of course, he's got enough brains not to do when the captain is on the ship. He came real close to getting the boot."

"Well, Sir Gonagle is a Tinker Gnome," Serna confessed to Spencer, "And they can be quite mischievous from time to time. I don't think he mean't any real harm from it."

*****

"One Victous Candle, sire." Quake handed him the black candle with the green flame. She paused and looked back at the drowling, "No wonder it took me a hard time, all that wax practically fused it with her skin."

"I know!" War Scribe took a single finger, stirred it between her breasts, then popped her finger into her mouth and licked her lips, "Candle wax! Finger licking good!"

The inner chamber glowed in eerie reddish light and the streams of blood seeped up and over the bank into a puddle. Slowly it rose into a humanoid form of both sexes that was quite beautiful and deadly at the same time. The blood mage's face protruded through viscous liquid, "And to think I would have to wait another hundred years...it matters notttssss."

"OOOOOooooo! The main bad guy has put in an appearance!" War Scribe seized her tome and quill pen, "I MUST record this encounter for posterity!"

"Yeah, you do that!" Irzen confronted the Blood Mage, "You're a long way from home, pal. Why don't you go back from where you came from, never come back and we'll call it even. What do say?"

Dozens of bloody tendrils shot out from the blood mage seizing all of them and thrashed them about like dirty laundry. War Scribe's arms and legs were wrapped up so tight that she could feel her bones cracking under the pressure. Finally she was flung backwards down the tunnel. The tendrils around Madeous singed and burned from the radiant aura he was radiating from him. The blood mage snarled, "Cursed, platinum knight!"

"Not the answer I was hoping for!" Irzen grimaced as he was attacked.

"OOOOOooooo! I LOVE A GRABBY MAN!" War Scribe cooed as some of her bones cracked, "COMPLETE WITH BEARHUGS OF LOVE!!!"

"This guy is really handsy!" Irzen managed to gasp as he tried to get his sword arm free, "Does anybody have anything for this guy beside quirky one-liners?!"

Madeous slashed his way through the tendrils around the others and charged. He jumped up with his vorporal great sword held high and brought it down like Voltron in a finishing move, splitting the blood mage in two. The smite severed the connection with the soul he just freed. Seeing this he yelled, "Sever the souls that are bound to him. The blood mage has several inside him still."

Captain Lion pulled out his rifle, cocked it and fired off a holy round that freed a soul in the lower torso and chipped away at another soul caught in the left leg of the blood mage.

Irzen got his sword hand free and sliced the tendril that held him in twain. The Swordsman landed upon his feet and raced over to Prince Birch. "BIRCH, NO!"

Seeing the prince still in shock of the rebirth of the chronicler and his assault, the blood mage shot out several tendrils that drilled through Birch's armor and began to suck the life force from him.

The Elven Prince gasped as he felt both the air and the life began to leave his body.

"PRINCE BIRCH!! LOOK OUT--!" Quake went to intercept and found herself being pulled into the bloody ground beneath her. She felt like Hell Boy when he was fighting the eldritch monster, "Oh crap, this is gonna hurt!"

Irzen charged forward and in one great downward cut sliced through the tendrils that attached itself to the prince. Catching Birch before he could drop to the floor, the Swordsman slung the prince over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and turned towards Quake, "Hold on!"

Madeous swung the great sword around in a full arc just he had done earlier with the chronicler and freed three more souls. He followed through with a Branding Smite preventing the Blood Mage from being able to hide now.

Captain Lion cocked the rifle again firing off not one but two rounds, one after the other into the torso of the fiend. The first bullet made the hole, the second followed through and exploded from the inside.

The blood mage shrieked from the onslaught staggering backwards. Although he had the elemental in it's grip, it found that a creature made of liquid rock was a bad idea and shrieked again.

"Heart burn! Gods I love being too hot to handle!" Quake's humanoid form glowed with a burning intensity and polymorphed back into the dragon again. She looked like Godzilla when he was reaching critical mass.

"I bet!" Irzen looked up at the Earth Elemental, "Quake, torch him! Madeous, get over here and help me with Birch. You're the Paladin here, so Paladin-up a heal for him or something!"

Madeous swung his great sword around again and again cleaving more souls loose for Quake to finish the blood mage. He then ran back to Irzen and helped him with Birch. "Take cover!"

Irzen did so as he covered Prince Birch's body with his own.

Captain Lion burst into a swarm of bats and retreated around the doorway. He brought up his rifle and blasted the stalactites on the ceiling causing them to break off.

Quake's entire dragon form was pulsating with pure molten fire and the heat index was literally beginning to melt the very rock on which she walked. ****ROOOAAARRRRR!!!****

A jet of super heated lava slammed into the blood mage evaporating the very liquid that gave the fiend its movement. The blood mage couldn't move fast enough as Quake continued to burn away all the corruption within a thirty foot radius until it was ash.

"NO ONE HURTS THE LADY! NO ONE!"

Irzen looked up to see Quake's handiwork, "SMOKE THAT SUCKER! YEAH!"

Just as the last of the blood mage's remains turned to ash from Quake's attack, three more puzzle keys dropped to the floor. The ashen remains blew away as if they never were there.

Madeous dropped his entire pool of healing hands into the bardic prince reviving him enough for a short rest.

"Prince Birch! You're alive!" Irzen smiled in relief, "How are you feeling, your Highness?"

"Like a giant mosquito just suddenly appeared, stuck its needle in my chest and tried to suck the life right out of me!" Prince Birch groaned as he shook his head, "I feel awful!"

"Good! That means you're alive!" The Swordsman boldly declared as he offered him his hand, "Can you stand up?"

The Bardic Prince took Irzen's hand and slowly got to his feet, "Yes! I think I can. Who healed me?"

++++

Alyson opened her eyes and rolled over to one side, "So...thirsty..."

Lazheros placed a hand on her skin. It was cold to the touch. He glanced towards the princess, "Do you have some wine, red wine, your highness? It will help her stave off the thirst that is growing within her. One of the affects of being bitten by a true vampire."

"I have as much red wine as you will need, Grand Cleric," The Princess left the room, found a servant and commanded, "Go and fetch a cask of our finest red wine and bring it to us without delay!"

A servant did as the princess wished and came back with a bottle of red wine called 'Marvee, a red-red wine noted throughout East Port.

"Thank you!" The Princess seized the bottle of wine and returned to Lazheros, "I have what is needed, Grand Cleric, although I recommend you bless it. I would not put it past these fiends we face to poison it."

He pulled out a chalice and poured some of the red wine into it for Alyson handing it to her carefully. She sipped the liquid slowly at first then drank it down in one gulp.

The elementalist sat up with the help of the bronze man and looked at the princess, "Your highness, the fight has begun with the blood mage. It...he/she...them...will claim more souls if the Black Gate remains open."

"Then it must be closed!" The Princess replied with determination in her voice.

"The Victous Candle masks the presence of the living to the dead but it has a hidden power to summon Death itself, or for someone to become Death to close the Black Gate but the person must be willing. Once one becomes or merges with Death he/she will never be the same but they will have the ability to see Undead or the dead at will." Lazheros steadied Alyson as he informed Cauladra of the artifact.

"How do know of this, Lazheros?" Alyson turned back to him.

"I met a cleric of the Raven Queen, a Grave cleric. Caretakers of the dead, for the Raven Queen despises the undead. They are a travesty to her domain." He replied.

The princess said nothing but listened with grave intent.

Alyson fanned herself suddenly, "Is it hot in here or is it just me? Oh, no. It's Quake...she's gonna blow."

The Bronze Man got an image of the elemental from Alyson, "Hmmm, more like a meltdown."

"Is a melt-down a bad thing or a good thing?" Princess Cauladra inquired to both of them.

"Bad if you're the enemy or not fire proof. Good, if you're an ally and my uncle's ability to withstand a dragon's breath weapon and survive." Alyson said as her complexion improved and looked at the bronze man, "I think it's safe to cure me now."

Lazheros placed both hands on her shoulders and muttered words in draconic. Any and all traces of the blood mage's influence was gone and the vampirism from Captain Lion's bite gone.

"Blessed be the wonders of Enoreth!" Princess Cauladra declared, "You look much better, Lady Alyson. How do you feel?"

"How do I feel? I feel like I got ran over by a mack truck a couple of times." The elementalist sat up all the way and finally noticed the bronze man's armor, "Oh and I thought Armendes was shiny."

He gazed at her, "Perhaps I was too hasty calling upon my legendary armor, Alyson but your life was teetering on the edge of death itself. Something I was not willing to gamble."

"A Mack truck?" Princess Cauladra asked no one in particular, "Is that a herd of animals or a very heavy cart?"