Rasmus ventured through the fog and was amazed at the difference. While before he was engulfed in a choking freezing mist, now it seemed more like a light haze that tingled his ears. Though it was still hard to see, the mage could make out the corridors, hallways, and even more surprising the stairs down. This was a far cry from the bumbling mess he made of things the first time he was 'suggested' into the fog.

Rasmus stopped and thought about that. Vetta's suggestion spell. It seemed like such a violation when she revealed it. Besides beneficial enchantments, placing glamours on your friends and allies is generally considered bad form, and generally signalled an end to the friendship. Even if you forget the months, or perhaps years of deceit, could he forgive this magical attack? The fiendish maid admitted that she placed an enchantment on him to override her mother's spell, but it still felt wrong whatever her reason. Still, that last look in her eyes and that apology felt real to Rasmus, but did he really truly forgive her?

"Hey, is something wrong?" shouted Sylgja from the back of the short rope that connected the trio. "Why aren't we moving?"

"You don't have to shout! I'm right here," grumbled Rasmus.

"What? You've developed gout? Maybe I can cure it!" shouted Sylgja.

"I've found a flight of stairs, so be careful with your footing! " shouted Rasmus as he was caught up with Sylgja's yelling. While she was roughly five feet away, it seemed logical that if she couldn't hear him he probably needed to shout for her to understand.

Though Reinhardt appeared to be affected by the mist more than Rasmus, the Infernal was definitely less hampered than Sylgja. He simply shook his head while squinting with his one good eye at the noisy conversation he was sandwiched between.

"I wished the Lilitu tore out my ears," grumbled the Pale man.

"I can't make out what you two are saying!" shouted the Paladin.

"I said flight of stairs. Watch your feet!"

"There's a wight? With hair? And its attacking with its teeth?"

As Rasmus walked down the stairs, his warning was not heeded. He wasn't sure if it was Reinhardt or Sylgja, but having everyone tightly hang on to the rope seemed like a bad idea now. One of them fell, and it was enough to unbalance the other as the rope yanked them, and soon both piled into him in the back, and the trio was sent tumbling down the stairs.

Falling down the stairs was dangerous and often deadly at the best of times, but falling when half your life was already drained almost wiped out Rasmus. It took him a few seconds to recover from smashing into the hard stone floor and a few more when he came to his senses.

They had fallen into the upper trophy room, the place where Leroung had the great monsters he and his ancestors had slain. Everything from the deadly Bulettes that plagued the Halfling shires, soul stealing Perytons a nightmare elk/eagle crossbreed, a village of twig blights ridiculously posed doing everyday chores, to even a relatively 'small' twenty foot long dragon turtle. If he recalled, which was not a guaranteed thing considering his memory loss, that meant they were on the second floor of the tower and were almost free.

Rasmus had little time to celebrate though as a large foot descended on him. He didn't have time to identify it as one of the exhibits suddenly becoming animated or another guardian as he quickly rolled to the side and scrambled out of the way.

A large humanoid with the head of a bull towered over the winded mage. It had thick mat of heavy black fur on its head and lower body, and massive rippling muscles. It snorted angrily at Rasmus before it lowered its head, stamped its feet a few times and charged.

Rasmus cringed bracing for the blow, but a bolt of dark iron intercepted the monster. Sylgja slammed her shield into the right side of the monster's head, snapping a horn with a very audible crack noise. The cow monster lost its footing, veering off course as it slid face first into the ground.

The great beast slowly got up, shaking its head as it reoriented itself, but Sylgja simply jammed her shield into the back of its neck sending the monster into a frenzy of angry moos.

"Get up! "shouted Sylgja as she rapidly began kicking the monster's side. "It won't stay down for long and he has friends!"

Rasmus scrambled to his feet. "Can't you kill it with your sword?"

"I would if I had one," exclaimed the paladin. "I lost it when I fell down that five hundred foot flight of stairs. It's a miracle I survived."

Rasmus wanted to say it was more like ten feet, but he guessed the fog simply messed up Sylgja's perception of time and space. "Where's Reinhardt?" he asked as he ran to the Paladin's side.

Sylgja gave the cow monster a final kick to the snout before grabbing Rasmus's hand and bolting. The paladin practically dragged Rasmus, as he lost his footing a few times in their retreat, but her strong arm and even stronger grip kept him at her side.

Rasmus was about to complain when he saw two more of the great cow beasts stampede into their previous position. One of the monsters barely manage to shift its momentum on the smooth stone floors and charged after them. The other lost its footing and crashed into the first beast as it was slowly getting up, setting off another chorus of angry moos. Rasmus noted that the one that pursued them had a black dagger embedded in its eye, one that looked conspicuously like a side arm a Hellknight would wield.

"Where to?" shouted Sylgja whose path was pretty much straight.

"Why are you asking me? I can barely remember how I got into this tower," shouted Rasmus back.

Sylgja ignored his reply and simply charged straight as their pursing cow beast closed in. Just as they were about to be trampled, she threw Rasmus to the side, bowling the mage into a strange half bear half owl display as she ducked and rolled into a ball.

The cow beast was taken by surprise by this maneuver. It tried to skewer the prone paladin on the ground, but lost its footing on the smooth floor. It basically tripped on top of Sylgja, crushing her before tumbling a few times and then slamming into the nearby wall.

Both the cow beast and the paladin were severely dazed but Sylgja rose first. She clutched her side as she hobbled towards the monster. As she neared, she dove towards the monster's eye, grabbing the dagger and plunged it deeper into its eye socket. Though it was a dagger, it was still a good foot of fine Cheliaxian steel but Rasmus still wasn't sure if it would reach the monster's brain. Regardless, the cow monster reared up and thrashed about in agony. Sylgja stepped out of its first swing, but was clipped by an errant horn before she could fall out of reach. The paladin grunted, but stayed standing as she fell back facing her foe.

While grievously wounded, the one eyed cow monster rose to face its tormentor. Rasmus could see steam blowing angrily out of its nostrils as it squared up to the wounded paladin. Rasmus though she could heal her own wounds, but guessed that she had reached her limit for healing until she rested, prayed or tithed, however paladins worked. Sylgja for her part took this pause in battle and slipped on both her knuckle dusters and seemed ready to fight despite her injuries. Even though she was armed against a severely wounded foe, the odds looked stacked against her as the two other cow beasts finally caught up to them.

"I didn't think I'd be killed by a Minotaur in this Iomedae forsaken tower," said Sylgja as Rasmus limped to her side. They were surrounded now, nowhere to run.

"Minotaurs? Is that what they are called? God's my memory really is shot," said Rasmus as the two were now back to back.

Rasmus wanted to help, but he wasn't sure if he could summon any magic to help her. Then he recalled, he didn't need to use his own magic. He had other magic at his disposal.

While he had travelled light, he did manage to bring some of his mementos with him from his room. Some were mundane items he collected simply because of their unusual shape, others however had what every wizard wanted, power.

Rasmus retrieved a small glowing sphere. It was off a necklace from a Westcrown merchant that came to the tower. He couldn't afford the entire thing, but the merchant was willing to part with a piece of it since each sphere apparently held some fiery power. Since he never used the item before, he wasn't sure if it would actually work, but he prayed he wouldn't have to seek a refund as he lobbed the small sphere at the two Minotaurs.

*KABBOOOM*

Rasmus, Sylgja, and even the one eyed Minotaur were thrown back as a great fiery ball engulfed the recently arrived Minotaurs. After the smoke cleared, one of the great beasts laid still, burning on the ground, while the other ran around madly as its thick fur caught on fire.

The one eyed Minotaur looked in horror at the devastation, but its hesitation proved to be a mistake. Sylgja closed with the beast as it was distracted and delivered a series of powerful jabs into its ribs. Rasmus wasn't sure how effective her knuckledusters could be against such a large monster, but the monster fell to its knees clutching its side from her onslaught. Sylgja then made a grab for her dagger, cruelly yanking it out from its eye as she slipped behind it, before stabbing it fatally in the spine.

The great beast shuddered and convulsed from the last blow, before it grew still and fell lifelessly onto the stone floor with a mighty thud. Sylgja and Rasmus then turned their attention on the last Minotaur but it too had fallen. It seemed to have crashed into a giant spider display, got tangled up in its legs before it burned lifelessly on the ground.

"Thanks," said Sylgja as she bent forwards, holding her knees as she panted heavily. "I didn't want you to use any magic, but we needed that. How are you holding up?"

"It's fine," replied Rasmus with a weak smile. "I used an item, so I didn't activate the curse."

Sylgja nodded as she sheathed her dagger into her boot. Rasmus hadn't noticed the boot dagger before but was glad she had it. Even without her sword, she had a myriad of weapons at her disposal which didn't surprise him since use to be a Hellknight. Memory or not, Rasmus knew you didn't want to mess with that group.

"Any sign of Reinhardt?" asked Sylgja after she recovered. The paladin picked through the blasted ruined displays before finally choosing a large makeshift club, not the most heroic weapon but Rasmus knew it would be effective in her hands after witnessing the damage she did with much smaller weapons.

"No, but he seems capable of handling himself. The fog seems to affect him less than it did you or I," said Rasmus. He didn't mention that he was getting over his fog handicap. While it was overall a good thing, he suspected that it just meant he was succumbing to his curse, and for whatever reason he didn't want Sylgja to worry. She had enough to deal with as it was.

"Shall we proceed or wait?" asked the paladin.

"We're close to the exit, but I would rather wait for him. Who knows what dangers lie ahead."

"About that, " said the paladin who found a nice taxidermied mushroom man to sit on. "Have you noticed how weak the monsters are?"

"They seem pretty tough to me. Those Minotaurs almost ate us."

"True, but I had no sword and you have no regular magic. If we had a proper group, we could have easily dispatched them, the gargoyles, the animated swords and shields, and even those Halflings thugs Reinhardt was talking about."

"So what's your point. We're undermanned and I'm holding you back?" smiled Rasmus.

Sylgja reached towards the mage and unexpectedly hugged him. "You saved me at least twice by my count, you're not holding me back."

"Three times, but who's counting."

"Anyways, as I was saying. I'm reliable as a Paladin, but I wouldn't say I'm considered high ranked. These guardians we've encountered are relatively easy, but there are things in this tower that are….well horrifying. That Vandia of yours, she could have torn my head off if it were not for Reinhardt, and even then it was a hard fight. If your master could subjugate such a creature to his will, then why have these other guardians. Why not just place her at the main gate to deal with any intruders? I mean even this fog, it's more of a parlour trick than anything. It slows and delay, but besides its ability to stop travel magic, it's like a big annoyance. If we had a powerful enough true sight spell at our disposal we can easily get through it."

Rasmus considered her words, there was a ring of truth to them. While scary, Rasmus was pretty sure that Vandia could kill everything they've encountered, even if the Halflings were not actual guardians, but Captain Dwen and his men were. Also, while Reinhardt didn't put much weight on the Cacodaemon spell, it did summon him and he was pretty powerful as well. Who knew what other magics that Leroung had access to? If his master was that powerful, why stock this tower with relatively minor threats?

"Maybe its camouflage," said Rasmus. "Maybe Leroung wants to deceive his foes in thinking there is no threat here."

"I don't know. This is Cheliax after all. If he's so powerful to summon that Lilitu, then he could probably summon a dozen fiends to guard this place. The Reclamation would probably avoid this place and go after something smaller we could deal with."

"Maybe he has something that a rival wizard desires. There's a lot of powerful mages in this Empire you know. If he puts on the façade that he's weak, he could avoid their attention."

"That's an interesting theory, however….," said Sylgja before her eyes grew wide. "No…Kasmir stop!"

Rasmus wasn't sure what happened next, but he saw stars as a heavy object crashed into his skull. As he blacked out the last thing he could hear was Sylgja shouting. "Rasmus!"