“What’s taking so long?” Strasser barked. Her knuckles were white around the pickaxe in her hands.

“Can you do this?” Donnor snapped back. “Do you know how to read Old High German? Spelling was fast and loose back then, and handwriting wasn’t exactly high on the legibility scale either!”

“Read it as you decipher it, then,” said Strasser, her tone unmollified. “What have you got so far?”

A band of knights on crusade did this way come, separated from their fellows in a strange and hostile land.

They were set upon by enemies until only half the party remained. They took refuge in this cave, where their enemies dared not pursue.

Soon it was learned why, as one by one dark forces took ahold of the once-pious knights and drove them into a frenzy of helpless bloodlust, attacking their fellows until they were slain.

Their leader fell victim, trying to slaughter his men even as he cried at them to beware.

He begged the Templar knight Gelanier to end his life.

Gelanier obliged.