### 340

The door is unlocked. You flick the latch with the toe of your boot and enter a gloomy passage that descends to a cellar. Casks of ale and dusty bottles of vintage wine fill the cubby-holed walls as far as your eye can see. Thick, vaulted columns support the ceiling, and the air is sweet with the smell of burning tallow.

You kneel and rest Paido against the cellar wall while you examine the glass vial you found in the kitchen. Your fears and suspicions are immediately confirmed--it contains poison. The clear, sticky fluid is sap from the gnadurn tree, a substance frequently used by assassins because of its lack of flavour or scent. The monks must have put some of this poison in the stew that Paido unwittingly consumed. The sap is deadly and you must act swiftly if you are to save his life.

If you have the Magnakai Discipline of Curing, turn to 320.

If you do not possess this skill, turn to 261.

Text copyright © 1987 Joe Dever.
Illustrations copyright © 1987 Gary Chalk.