Do Mugu's mood faded into melancholia with the spirit's dying light. When the passage opened up ahead, he felt an overwhelming rush of despair rise up—it was an energy only those appropriately attuned could feel—and so he steadied his balance with a palm against the cavern's wall. Having felt the eerie surge of dread escape from the tunnel ahead, the shaman began to murmur anxiously under his breath.

"The lost are below. The lost are below. Hundreds of them are haunting the earth."
Sighing solemnly, the shaman returned the earthworm he had found back in the moist dirt below and moved into the opening. Gum stepped forward, ahead of Cromwell, and stooped his back to stare into the blackness afoot. As terrified as the trapped spirits were, Gum knew their malice was not directed at the shaman, the paladin, nor the warrior.

"Anybody got a light?" Cromwell asked. To which Gum responded with a seldom, subtle smile, "we will not suffer without illumination." The shaman lurched into the darkness and watched as lights, just like the first, brightened the passageway with a familiar amber glow. "These dead, they are our allies."

While taking those first few steps down and into the unknown, Gum glanced back over his shoulder to request assistance from Lorenor. "Paladin, use your power to strengthen these poor souls as we pass by. We will need their light to fight the demons in the darkness." While the shaman himself had abilities to interact with the spirit world, it was evident that Lorenor possessed different, but highly effective powers. "I am pleased to be in the presence of an astute paladin."

The shaman turned his attention to Cromwell next and enthused, "Sir John, we will need your famed strength." Amazed to see it first-hand, the Xangu native pressed his wrinkled fingertips over the magical titanium and remarked, "this metal might be strong, but your spirit is stronger." Whether it would temper the mighty warrior's heart or not, Gum made a promise to Cromwell. "If we die here, your soul will find its way out of here." The shaman was not prone to offering false promises, but there was no way he could be certain any of them could escape this place... whether they be living or dead.