(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

was difficult to keep the snap out of his voice.
The next morning, Remn's body was found in his bed, half-devoured by
cranium rats.
~~~~~
He had stumbled through the catacombs, tripping over ancient corpses and
passing looted tombs. Such concerns were behind him now. He had fled the
Mortuary and the Dustman ways. With each step Soego descended further
into the maze of tunnels. He wanted to die here, but he knew it was
impossible.
The Dead Truce protected him from the ghouls, zombies, and vargouilles
that prowled. Unless he attacked one of them first, no undead would lay a
talon on him. Soego may have had a death wish, one greater than he had
when he was still a true Dustman at heart, but he was no fool.
He had thought, perhaps, that there was a chance the cranium rats would
kill him. Indeed, he had stumbled onto several good-sized groups of the
creatures, but they merely scattered in his presence.
Even though he meandered blindly through the tunnels, not knowing where
he was heading, Soego knew that something guided him. There was an
instinct to take one path rather than the other, and always he thought he
heard a chorus echoing noiselessly as he came ever closer.
And when the wererats greeted him, he was not at all surprised when the
sorry creatures guided him to their god.
It was a circular chamber, a nest of twigs and bones, with cranium rats
perching atop the concentric circles they built. There were thousands of
them, and where there lacked seats in this council of vermin the rats piled
atop one another, whiskers twitching. Countless eyes glinted at him from
the darkness, as if they were twin stars shimmering through the night.
Its voice sounded like the anguished pain of thousands, echoing through his
skull, "WE HAVE BEEN EXPECTING YOU FOR A LONG TIME, BIPED. SPEAK
SWIFTLY AND TRUE. YOU ARE IN THE HALLS OF MANY-AS-ONE. YOU WILL
NOT LEAVE BUT BY OUR GRACE, AND THAT YOU MUST EARN THROUGH
SERVITUDE."
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