10 AM: " Hold a moment." spoke Teflar suddenly remembering something. The fellowship sat in a circle casually eating their cold breakfast and sharing light conversation concerning the women's livleihood. The ranger stood slowly and walked away from the team while reaching for a sack in his possession. The hobbits broke from their incessant, childlike chatter to watch the woodsman upend a leather bags contents upon the slate.
" I found this within the wall ruins. Let's see what it contains before we continue." As they looked on in silence, out poured a gell material that splattered upon the ground in a goolike manner.
Gailwind rose instantly in curiousity and this allowed the rest to react as well. They swarmed around the strange substance eyeing it with great suspicion.

" Works of the enemy." growled the dwarf with distaste. " Not smart to be carrying a dangerous poison amongst us so long, Teflar!"

The ranger remained silent and watched Krisaya lean forward and poke at the gel with a tiny stick. It glided through the slime with easy traces of the wood. " I am very schooled in alchemy and I think I have the answer." she said while crouching over the clear material. " From firsthand experience in my uncle's lab, this looks and acts much like a binding agent. A sort of glue if you will." She tried to withdrew the stick until a crystal-like strand held the twig firmly in its grip; the gel had hardened enough to trap its content.
" Not necessarily a quality poison, dwarf....unless ingested....and that would prove fatal."

Roslyn was amazed by this chemical reaction and pebbled her girlfriend with many queries concerning the translucent ooze and even stood by Teflar's elbow as he tried scraping it back into its bag. This attempt was in vain as most of the gel had solidified into a concrete solid as quickly as two minutes. Krisaya remarked with a smirk " It hardens when exposed to air. That explains it remaining as a liquid the whole time. Suppose this was some kind of a weapon?"

11 AM: Aramil and Loten, looking fresh from the night's rest, redirected the team's focus by discussing progress into the tower.
Teflar shook his head in thought " Actually, I think we should search the courtyard again. I found that bag partially buried within the rubble on the southside. There could be other items or clues in here that we missed in the dark. I think we should start the whole process over and make sure we miss nothing."

" You are being very insensitive! All of you!!" barked the cleric as he stood by the bard's prone body as it lay exposed to the rising light. " Do you only think of yourselves?!" Oktavianus's temper seemed to take on a different demeanor then before; much like he had been personally insulted. " Supposing you were the dead one, ranger, huh? How about you Aramil?! You both should know better after what we had gone through!! Why not let the woodsman roast in the sun as we serve ourselves with more goodies!!"

The admonished pair took pause to register the cleric's harsh words. Aramil was very apologetic for his momentary lapse while Teflar was more defensive.
The ranger faced the dwarf with seeth " You short wind-bag!! You think you have all the answers and all the compassion residing in that pompus and useless body!!! Where is Leah? Where are the others!!? What about the thousands that will fall if we fail? Do you think the bard cares what happens to his body now that he is dead? I remember the man that Salimen was!" he turned around to the others for emphasis. It was obvious stress started to take its toll. " If I die let me rot and nurture the ground where I lay, but continue on and find the damned shard!!!!"

The dwarf cursed emphatically and hoisted the dead body of his friend over his shoulder. He walked west alone into the clearing to bury the body himself. His last mumblings were more personal " The council must have been insane...." Erelis, excused himself and followed after the priest as the fellowship were helpless in stance. Had they forgotten the basic human dignities of their brethren over the pressure of the quest or was the dwarf obsessed with his clergy?

The seven spent a hard hour in thorough search and came up with nothing more in the courtyard. Gailwind's acute ears caught something odd from the eastern, inner court. He reported hearing some rapid, successive movements, but they stopped almost as soon as they had started. Were the walls still collapsing?

NOON: Erelis returned to report that everything went smooth with the burial and that Oktavianus was sitting the whole fortress exploration out in protest.
" Pinedroi cannot allow any separation without monitoring all parties." spoke Krisaya with dignity " Let me companion the cleric while the rest continue on." With this understanding, they were to continue as seven for the remainder of the search.

Loten led the way inside the lower tower room, and to everyone's satisfaction, it was free from the urine stench. A new torch showed the room's bare floor, but the ambience seemed just as unsettling as before.