When the Company moves into the next room, each member is unsettled by an unholiness that literally oppresses the air. A sundered altar, spotted with blood, sits in the room�s center and an eerie glow emanates from a hallway at the far end of the room. Moments later, a man in priestly vestments emerges from the dim glow at the room�s edge, with broken holy symbols circling his head like an infected halo. Cirend charges at the man, leaping over the stained altar. When Orongorg approaches the man, he recognizes instantly that he is no man � he is an unholy Creature of the Night similar to the beast the party tried, but failed to, slay in the tiny hamlet of Dva Dub months earlier.
Si�lara, taking the form of a powerful brown bear, lumbers over to the Undead Cleric and grapples him to the ground. All the while, the Cleric whispers unholy and offensive statements about the various faiths of the members of the Company. His desecrations seem intent on proving that the religious truths which the Company hold so dear are, in fact, lies and falsehoods intended to dissuade them from learning the real truths of the world. Cirend�s faith seems to be shaken as he slowly realizes that the divine power which so recently flowed through him appears to have left him. The undead priest at one point repels Si�lara away by the sheer evil force of his personality. The remaining Company members move to surround him, when four feral-looking undead creatures wielding swirling chains and bastard swords emerge from a door behind the Company, as if called to action by the evil undead priest. Jeremi calls upon �ton, and manages to drive one of them away, but the others resist, as if they have somehow gained power just by being in the presence of their leader. Jeremi senses that this entire room is utterly unholy and that �ton�s power to repeal such foul beasts is diminished.
The battle does not go well for the Company. When Cirend delivers what he believes to be a fatal blow to the Cleric, the undead priest coalesces into a gaseous vapor and retreats from the room down the hallway with the unsettling glow. The remaining Company members just barely manage to slay the undead warriors, many falling unconscious themselves until Jeremi is able to call upon �ton to heal them partially. Si�lara overcomes her repulsion of the Cleric, and the Company rushes down the hallway after Cirend, who had bravely charged after their vaporous undead foe.
The hallway is enchanted with further evils, however. Cirend and others are wounded, almost mortally, as they pass down the hallway. Si�lara and Avi simply vanish into the thin air at the far end of the hallway. All seems lost.
The few remaining members of the Company move through the hallway, which spills into a foul room suffused with evil. A low, disturbing chant echoes throughout the rooming, never ceasing, and black candles burn in homage to unnamed gods and devils with ill intentions. Cirend spots a white marble reliquary where he suspects the Evil Cleric now rests, regenerating to fight again. Cirend sunders the box and also snuffs out the candles, on Jeremi�s advice. The chanting stops. From his religious and arcane studies, however, Jeremi recognizes that Cirend�s actions may not permanently destroy the undead Cleric. Something more is needed to hallow this desecrated place. Such magical power is beyond Jeremi�s power. Jeremi has conversed enough with Si�lara to know that, with proper meditation, she could potentially call upon the power of nature to hallow this place, but the jade elf has disappeared, transported to whereabouts unknown.
Jeremi surmises that these rooms were once an ancient temple dedicated to goods of god and righteousness. Since then, the temple has been corrupted. Based on the whispers of the chanting voices, Jeremi concludes that the Undead Cleric was once the guardian of the good temple but was somehow betrayed by his comrades who turned to evil and who tortured and then murdered him on the altar, sacrificing him to appease their evil deities. Although he pleaded and begged for mercy, the guardian priest was destroyed. It is his blood that stained the sundered altar millennia ago. Such was born The Betrayed One, whose shattered faith bridged the gap from death to un-life and imbued him with the secrets to undo the belief of the living.
The Company agrees that it must return to the surface where Jeremi will ask the Church of �ton for the power to hallow the sundered temple and, with hope, destroy the The Betrayed One. The party will also seek out Si�lara and Avi, to reunite the party before resuming its many quests.
