I arrive at The Chasm, another seemingly bottomless cavern in this Vault of Madness filled with hundreds of inexplicably floating platforms. But unlike the earlier chamber where I was able to leap the platforms to cross the void, here it is impossible if one has no wings. So the only way forward is down, and not for the first time in this accursed realm I need to make a literal leap of faith.

I am relieved to land in a deep pool of thick azure plasm, and from here ascend to the capricious chancel of this macabre cathedral, where I finally come face to face with the Lich known as the Mad Architect.

In life he was a brilliant architect, but jealous rivals ruined him and in his death he made bitter pacts with agents of these twilight realms, his genius in return for vengeance. I have no personnel score to settle with this undead necromancer, if anything the lament of one of the three spirits still weighs heavily upon me, ‘Haven’t we done enough to him?’ Yet he is now the only bar to my escape, and necessity outweighs empathy.

Never have I met with this type of magic, whether of not he was a genius in life, in undeath his necromantic flair is unparalleled. Capable of summoning scores of undead minions to his aid, whilst at the same time blasting at me with bolts of magical energy shaped like smirking skulls. The Lich summoned spirits from the ground around him in a spectacular yet pernicious flourish that one could do little but seek shelter from. Constant magical explosions rocked the chancel, one particularly forceful blast obliterated the windows into a thousand shards that would have cut to ribbons any caught in the barbed storm. It proved to be my most arduous battle.

However the Lich is overcome and I am finally able to make my escape from these Vaults of Madness, but not the three spirits. Despite the Lich’s destruction they remain trapped in the Architect’s prison, and whilst they begin to reason that they could perhaps master these vaults as the Mad Architect once did, they seem not to realize that in this accursed realm vengeance is immortal and he will inevitably rise again.

S.K