[Kroll's Temple]
(As clouds gather overhead, the drums beat,
and Rohm-Dutt and Romana have already been tied to a pallet with creepers.)
DOCTOR: I don't remember that last night. Early Samoan influence?
(He lies down on the pallet to be tied up.)
DOCTOR: Interesting how traces of Old Cultures survive, isn't it?
ROMANA: I'm rather more interested in surviving myself.
DOCTOR: Well, that's understandable at Your Age.
Still, I prefer it to Gothic Perpendicular.
ROHM-DUTT: Varlik. Varlik? What is this seventh ritual?
VARLIK: It is the slowest of all.
ROMANA: I knew it.
VARLIK: I tried to persuade Ranquin that only Rohm-Dutt
deserved to be punished by The Seventh ritual and that
you others should die by The First. That's very easy.
They just Throw You down The Pit and Drop rocks on You.
ROMANA: Oh, thank you. It's nice to know who your friends are.
VARLIK: Ranquin says that Your Crimes are Too Serious.
Kroll will only be appeased by extending Your Death-agonies.
DOCTOR: You know, that window's quite out of place. It's not in character at all.
ROMANA: Will you stop babbling about The Architecture?
We're having a serious conversation about Death.
DOCTOR: Well, Architecture's quite a serious subject.
Skart, Where did that window come from?
SKART: What window?
(That big round glazed thing in the roof.)
DOCTOR: What? That window up there.
VARLIK: It was brought from Delta Magna when The Temple was first built.
DOCTOR: I'd have sacked him.
ROMANA: Who?
DOCTOR: The architect.
ROMANA: Look, are You trying to take My Mind off
something, because you're almost succeeding.
DOCTOR: Did I tell you about the time I was a child?
ROMANA: I don't want to hear it.
DOCTOR: It was A Question about —
ROMANA: I don't want to hear! How long does this take?
VARLIK: To Die? Depends on The Sun.
ROHM-DUTT: Skart? Skart, what has The Sun Got to Do with it?
SKART: As The Creepers dry, it shortens them. It pulls The Plank —
DOCTOR: Ah! And snaps our spines! How ingenious.
Now I know The Purpose of The Window.
ROMANA: You'll be able to Die happy, won't you.
DOCTOR: What is, what?
VARLIK: I'm sorry this Has to Happen,
but if Kroll's not appeased He will not
Help The People of The Lakes.
DOCTOR: Well, He didn't Do much for You last time, Did He?
Killing The High Priest and swallowing The Symbol of Power.
RANQUIN: Is all prepared?
VARLIK: All is prepared.
RANQUIN: Great Kroll. Great Kroll, Defender and Saviour,
these despoilers and profaners of The Temple are condemned to die
according to The Seventh Holy Ritual of the Old Book. May their torments
avert Thy wrath from The People of the Lakes, Thy only True Followers and Believers,
O Most Powerful One. So Let it Be.
(Ranquin lights two torches.)
RANQUIN: Before Your Deaths,
if You have anything to say
to The Servant of Kroll, let it be said.
DOCTOR: Why don't you just let the whole
thing drop, Ranquin? You've made Your Point.
RANQUIN: Foolish levity. Leave.
DOCTOR: Oh, you're not leaving —
Aren't you going to stay and watch?
RANQUIN: We're not Savages.
Suffering is unpleasant to Witness.
DOCTOR: It's even more unpleasant to experience.
Ranquin, What was The Secret of Kroll's Power?
(Ranquin dismisses Varlik and goes over to the Doctor.)
RANQUIN:
What do you know of that, Dryfoot?
DOCTOR: I've read about it somewhere.
RANQUIN:
Kroll had The Power
of The Symbol. He sees all.
DOCTOR: Yes, I know Kroll has it now, but what was it?
RANQUIN:
The Symbol was a Holy Relic
brought here by Our Ancestors
at The Time of The Settlement.
DOCTOR: Yes, but what was The Power?
RANQUIN: He who holds
The Symbol can see The Future.
The Power revealed how The Dryfoots
would Destroy Delta Magna with
their fighting and their greed and
the evil of their great cities.
That is why My People
came to settle here.
DOCTOR:
Your People were evicted
from Their Homeland, Ranquin.
You had No Choice.
RANQUIN: What Do these Questions
matter to you who are already dying?
DOCTOR:
I like to get things straightened out.
ROMANA:
Must you use expressions like that?
RANQUIN:
Your Mind is bent, Dryfoot.
It's Well that You Die.
DOCTOR:
He's got narrow little eyes. You can't
hypnotise people with narrow little eyes.
(Ranquin leaves.)
ROMANA: Oh, that's
what you were trying to do.
DOCTOR: Yes, trying to persuade
him to untie us. Our only chance.
ROHM-DUTT: How long have we got?
DOCTOR: I don't know the contraction rates of creeper,
or the breaking point of bones and ligament.
ROHM-DUTT: I can feel it dragging already.
DOCTOR: Sorry you didn't stay on Delta Magna now, eh?
Who paid you to bring The Natives guns?
ROHM-DUTT: Thawn.
He wanted an excuse to wipe them out.
DOCTOR: And who do
they think brought them?
ROHM-DUTT: I told them The Guns
were sent by The Sons of Earth. Oh,
I got a signed receipt, too, for Thawn
to use to discredit them.
DOCTOR: Why The Sons of Earth?
ROHM-DUTT: Do you have to keep
asking Questions at a time like this now?
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no, shush.
Why did Thawn want to
discredit The Sons of Earth?
ROHM-DUTT: They're
a crank organisation. They support
These Primitives. They want
Thawn's Company to pull out.
ROMANA:
Why Do They call themselves
‘The Sons of Earth’? Not that
I care very much…..
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no,
that's a very Good Question —
After all, none of Them can ever
have seen The Earth….
ROHM-DUTT:
‘Mother Earth’, They call it -
They believe
Colonising The Planets
is A Mistake.
They want Us all to return
to The Earth and starve.
Oh! Oh! My ankles are breaking!
DOCTOR: Imagination.
(The creepers are drying out, and the planks holding their ankles is moving away slightly.)
ROMANA: I can't breathe.
DOCTOR: Don't give up. Don't give up. How are you doing, Rohm-Dutt?
ROHM-DUTT: Oh! Oh, my back's breaking.
DOCTOR: Stretching's good for the spine. Well, up to a point.
ROMANA: I think I'm past the point.
(Thunder rumbles.)
DOCTOR: I think we're in for a storm.
ROMANA: Oh, no.
DOCTOR: No, no, no, no. Electrical storms on planetary satellites can be quite spectacular.
ROMANA: What a pity we can't sit up and watch it.
DOCTOR: Ha, ha. Just relax your muscles.
ROMANA: It's not my muscles I can't relax, it's my vertebrae. They feel like beads on a piece of, ow, elastic.
[Settlement]
VARLIK: They are not
from The Refinery, Ranquin.
RANQUIN: They are Dryfoots.
VARLIK: Well, so are
The Sons of Earth, and
We need their support on Delta Magna.
RANQUIN: We no longer need
their support, Varlik. We have Kroll.
VARLIK: Do We? I begin to wonder.
(Lightning right on cue,
then The Rain pours down.)
RANQUIN: Have A Care, Varlik.
Kroll is Our God and Protector.
VARLIK: Kroll killed Mensch.
Is that protection? If He's Our God,
why has he attacked us in The Past?
RANQUIN: He punishes Us
when We displease Him,
and He punishes those who
Displease His Servants, Varlik.
[Kroll's temple]
DOCTOR: What we need are hailstones big as bricks.
(The window is leaking. Doctor tries a scream at a specific pitch.)
ROMANA: It's not that bad yet.
DOCTOR: I'll try a pitch higher.
ROMANA: What?
(He does, and The Glass shatters.)
DOCTOR: Nellie Melba's party piece, though she could only do it with wine glasses.
ROMANA: The tension! It's easing already.
DOCTOR: Come on. Pull, Rohm-Dutt, pull! We've got to stretch these creepers while they're still wet. Come on, pull! Pull! Another foot. Come on! Come on. You too, Romana, pull. Pull! Pull!
(They get the creepers stretched enough to bend their knees. The Doctor has enough slack to unfasten his hands.)
DOCTOR: There you are. Now you all know what it's like to be within an inch of death.
ROMANA: Doctor.
DOCTOR: Patience, patience. Another minute won't hurt.
(He pulls out the pin and opens the stock.)
DOCTOR: Feet out!
(He takes a penknife from his boot and cuts Romana and Rohm-Dutt free.)
DOCTOR: Come on.
ROMANA: That's funny, my nose has stopped itching. All the time I was tied up —
DOCTOR: This is no time to start talking about noses.
ROMANA: Yes, I know, but it's just that it's a textbook example of Displacement Anxiety.
DOCTOR: Listen, if it's an anxiety you want, look. The storm will be easing shortly and the Swampies will be coming out from under their umbrellas. Let's get out of here. Come on!
[Kroll's Temple]
SKART: They've gone!
The Sacrifices have gone! Come quickly!
VARLIK: Kroll has been here.
SKART: No, it's not possible.
There would have been more damage.
RANQUIN: Someone must have
helped them. They could not have
freed themselves.
VARLIK: Yes, well,
nobody here would Help them.
RANQUIN: Are you sure of that, Varlik?
VARLIK: What?
RANQUIN: You argued
they should be freed. You were the one
who wanted to stop The Ritual of Kroll.
VARLIK: I asked you to stop The Ritual,
Ranquin. That's all I did, I swear that.
RANQUIN:
By The Powers that I Hold,
I shall learn The Truth —
But if The Dryfoots are
not found and sacrificed
according to The Holy Ritual,
then all My People will
suffer The Anger of Kroll!
SKART:
They cannot have gone far, Ranquin.
No Dryfoot knows The Secret Paths through The Swamps.
RANQUIN: Go after them and find them!
