The grim assortment of people in the mortitioner's office (which was
located in the subcellar) were all hunched over the same stone dais, upon
which rested a heavy leatherbound catalog listing coffins of all makes
and sizes, and their varying prices. Dozens of caskets lined the walls,
some half-opened to reveal corpses in various states of decay. Flies
buzzed about in the hundreds, and everywhere maggots seemed to be
creeping and crawling. The room was lit by a couple of torches, but it
was hardly adequate. Astra took a deep draught of the stale, death- tainted air and let out a disgusted sigh. "Why should an inn needs it's own mortitian!?" she pressed Will, then turned to the mortitioner himself, a pale and gangled little kobold dressed in dusty finery. "Havn't you ever heard of opening a vent or a window! The foul reek of death is strong down here!" "Indeed," the mortitioner responded gleefully, breathing in the air as if he was in a prestine alpine meadow. "Juzt the way I likez it!"Will seemed flustered by Astra's simple question. "Well, uh..." he turned away from her. "I've been damned. I really can't answer any questions just yet. Ask me again in a week or so." Astra thought he looked none the worse for having uttered those words of self-damnation, and figured he was a victim of his own mind's imagination. She decided to not press the issue any further, but this subcellar was a highly suspicous area. Might be a fun little side-trek to actually explore a little later on, she mused. But back to the present..."Is there no way to give him a proper burial at sea?" Fogeno asked the others, concern etched on his crusty face. No one seemed to care either way, so it was decided to indulge Fogeno's request for a sea-burial. They soon realized the simple beauty of the idea. All they would need to do was hack Fred's pancacked corpse into tiny pieces and flush him down the toilet. It would lessen the cost of the funeral as well, seeing as no coffin was involved. Fogeno was esteemed by all of those gathered in that shadowy den of death as a bright fellow who deserved a round of drinks on the house.
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5/26/2003 10:56:28 PM
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