Agrippa

I exited the well to find myself in a small room, surrounded by four doors. One of them held only rubble, and another was locked. The third contained a small chamber with some more lantern oil (yippie!) and some strange levers. Or interest in the room was a note with small details of the "Warding Ritual". This is, the method by which Alexander helped Daniel keep The Shadow at bay up until now. The ritual was held in the dungeon and itself involved one thing -

Spilling the blood of another.

The Shadow would be kept at bay as long as Daniel continued offering up regular sacrifices. Alexander brought men and women from the prison for Daniel to slay, claiming all of them were worthless criminals. Despite his initial reservations, Daniel's fear of death overcame his moral compass.

With this new information in mind I went through the fourth door; this led me to a large spiral staircase, taking me further and further into the horrible depths of the castle. With every step I inched closer to find the Inner Sanctum and Alexander; I knew I was close. At the bottom of the stairs I found a boarded up laboratory - none of my items could force it open, so I left it.

At the other end of the hall I found myself above a strange shape, something that looked human.

This looks promising.

I descended the stairs on my left and found myself looking at some form of tortured man, though its face looked more akin to The Gatherers than this. It slowly looked up at me with its horrible visage and spoke from a machine on the left. Its voice didn't match its body, being lighthearted with a British accent.

The man's name was Agrippa (remember the note from the morgue?). Though not mentioned I believe this is Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (an ancient alchemist, magician, and occultism of some renown). He introduced himself and stated he was a former friend and partner of Alexander. He'd helped the Baron long ago discover the nature of the orbs and how to use them. However, Alexander has betrayed Agrippa and used the orb to bind his soul to a dead husk, forcing him to stay alive in order to continue using him for information. Agrippa theorized that he'd been like this for hundreds of years, meaning of course Alexander himself was at least as old.

Agrippa informed Daniel that Alexander was using his orbs to open up a gate "beyond the stars". He stated that he had a student once, Johann Weyer, who had done the same thing. Agrippa stated that in order to advance to the Inner Sanctum, Daniel would need an orb to power down its defenses. Apparently, an orb had been shattered into various pieces and left around The Choir and The Transcept. He also pleaded with me that I bring him any works created by Weyer - though this was totally optional.

After opening a couple of gates I proceeded out of the area to The Choir. My mission had been set - find the pieces of The Orb, reassemble it, and use it to penetrate the Inner Sanctum. If I could also find a way, I'd help Agrippa - though how I could help a dead man was beyond me at this point.