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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2411711" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Geode of Chaos8/15/371 O.L.G.Delilah studies the battle depicted in Dzaram’s military sandbox.  The small model soldiers move on their own, representing the battle they wish to see- in this case, a very interesting conflict happening in a far northern region.  The horrors are rising.“This is why,” Dzaram says, “we do not blindly ally ourselves with Law.  Because sometimes the interests we do support are not benefited by it.”“You mean Forinthia,” Nydroth says.  Dzaram nods.  “The clockwork horrors will impose Law wherever they go, but it is a form of Law that is antithetical to Forinthia.  We would oppose them if it were to come to that.”Delilah wants, very badly, to pry out of Dzaram an understanding of his goals and motives, but she knows all too well that he is very guarded about such things.  He will neither answer nor be pleased by such questions.  Why do you support Forinthia in your strange way? she wonders.  How far back does your influence go?“In the broader view,” Nydroth muses, “we are responsible for this entire Great War of Ethics.”  “We are but one of the influences that converged,” Dzaram responds.  “Without us, there would be no Prayzose,” Nydroth states.Dzaram shakes his head.  ”The Great War of Ethics began long before that.  Our breeding of Prayzose was a response to the threat Na’Rat posed to Dexter’s son.”“The assassination attempt,” Delilah breathes.  “Where I met Jerakai.”“Yes,” nods Dzaram.  They watch the lines of the battle in the sandbox in silence for another few minutes.  “We’ve not spoken much of the real causes of the Great War,” Delilah says after a while.  Dzaram’s gaze remains fixed on the sand box.  The miniature warriors representing the elves are being broken and driven back.  The horrors are running rampant over the field.  “Na’Rat, the Chaos-Bringer, woke up.  That’s the real beginning.  Na’Rat is an ancient god, from a prehuman species that lived on Pesh.  What little archeologists and religious scholars know of Na’Rat is limited, but he- or she, or it- was known as the Chaos-Bringer for a reason.  Na’Rat was a very forward, aggressive sort of deity, and over the centuries his cult has been involved in starting wars, destabilizing economies and so on.  Well, he was forgotten for a long time. But right around the year 100 several of his obelisks began to be unearthed.  They seem to produce an unearthly calling that attracts the sort that would follow Na’Rat if they only knew of it.”How old are you, Dzaram? wonders Delilah.“It took a long time before Na’Rat could do anything actively; it had to acquire a certain amount of energy from the worship of its new followers.  Once it could, though, it came to an arrangement with certain other chaotic powers and, through their followers, dispatched the assassins that Delilah foiled.”“But surely it hasn’t been a continuous conflict since then,” Nydroth protests.“Perhaps not one that you have constantly seen manifested on Cydra- but even then, how many Forinthia-Strogass Wars have there been over the last hundred and sixty years?”  Dzaram slowly shakes his head.  “This conflict is not new; it is pervasive.  The thing that is new about this phase of the conflict is the scale.  It has built nearly to the point of being another Alignment Wars.”*“But that was the beginning?  The assassination attempt?”  Delilah chuckles.  “At the time, who would have thought it would turn out to be such a large thing!”12/4/217 O.L.G., at seaPerhaps Jantoo/Delilah had underestimated a couple of her fellow travelers.  Two more stepped up to offer aid to the mermaid, two individuals who had previously not spoken up much during the voyage.  One named himself Dalibrius the Evoker; the other, Azunia the Adventurer.  Jantoo, smiling, introduced himself to them as Jantoo the Adventurer as well. Thus, the party consisted of Miriamelle Lorraine, Jantoo/Delilah, Jerakai Ilmixie, Azunia the Adventurer, Dalibrius the Evoker, Maybell Nontrophia, Dwindle and Nydian (called “the Valiant”).Granted the ability to survive below the waves by Miriamelle Lorraine, the impromptu party swam below, following her to one of the oddest things any of them has ever seen:  a geode some 50’ in diameter, floating in the water.  A hole in either side allowed entrance. Nydian the Valiant took the point, with the others coming in not far behind him.  As they entered, they immediately found themselves beset by a great octopus!  Its tentacles lashed out, grabbing at them, trying to catch and then devour the party, but they managed to fight it off and then slay it.  During the battle, Delilah noted with interest that Dalibrius seemed to have developed at least one new spell, called bolts of Dalibrius.  A pair of passages led out of the first chamber, the walls all of crystal.  The party chose one and swam down it through the octopus bits floating in the water, swimming through a chamber and past a strange looking spike of violet crystal.  Nervously, our heroes avoided it.  When they passed into the next chamber, they found that it must be the opposite entrance into the geode.  Unfortunately, they also found a band of angry locathah.A blur of combat ensued.  The locathah were much tougher than the typical specimen of their type;** the battle was fierce, but Jerakai slew one of them outright from behind and the other two soon fell as well, despite the spellcasting of two of them.  One tried to escape with the aid of a sanctuary spell near the end of the battle, but Delilah blasted him to oblivion.  Soon the party found another passage, but this one led down.  It was guarded by a red slaad, but our heroes rapidly overcame it.  Delilah found this very interesting, as did Jerakai, and they compared notes over the slaad’s corpse.  More and more, this lad impresses me, she thought, and he’s beautiful.  He would make a fine addition to my collection of bodies to wear.The party swam down into the bowels of the geode.  Crystals were everywhere.  As they entered the lower chamber, they gasped.Imprisoned, stuck within the growing crystals, was an angel.  His arms were stretched out above and to the sides of his head, and his hands were encased in crystals that grew from the ceiling.  From the waist down he was also completely encased in crystals that were growing from the floor.  Surrounding him were a half dozen drowned ones- evil, waterlogged sea zombies.  The party burst into action, Dwindle and Jerakai trying to sneak into backstab position*** and then falling back on spells.  Maybell and Nydian struck with thrusting weapons, and soon the water was full of a greasy mass of disgusting particles.  The drowned ones struck back at our heroes, swinging with a variety of weapons (a hook, a belaying pin, a harpoon, etc).  Princess Miriamelle Lorraine dropped with a cry, blood flowing from a nasty wound to the head, but before long the drowned ones were destroyed. With a moan, the angel fluttered open his eyes.  He gasped, “Please, can you free me?  I am on a mission of grave importance.”“Who are you?” demanded Jerakai.  “I think you need to answer a few questions before-“Dalibrius gestured and spoke a few mystical syllables.  There was a high-pitched squeal and the crystal imprisoning the angel shattered. Jerakai shot him a venomous look.  That moment was the beginning of a life-long enmity.“Thank you, my friend!” the angel exclaimed.  He took a deep breath and tried to swim, but staggered.  He shook his head.  “I am too weak,” he groaned.“Who are you?  What is your mission?  Maybe we can help,” Maybell said.“I am called Nuvien, and I am an angel of Galador.  There is something terrible coming- something terrible!  An assassin is coming for one of the passengers on the ship. I was dispatched to intercept it, but I was trapped by certain... intervention.”  The angel sagged against the wall of the geode.  “My imprisonment has drained me badly,” he lamented.“Assassins, hmm?”  Jerakai smiled.  He was an assassin.  If someone tried to do some ‘work’ and he wasn’t a Grey Brother, Jerakai was obligated to step in and explain the way things work to them.  If someone showed up who was a Grey Brother, Jerakai might end up wanting to stop anyone from interfering with the attempt.“Then let us return to the ship,” Dalibrius declared.  He tends to speak in dramatic tones.  Jerakai found it grating; Jantoo found it entertaining.“Who are they coming to assassinate?” asked Nydian the Valiant.The angel peered at them as if reading their souls, then sighed.  It was obvious that he had no choice; if they were to take the threat seriously he must tell them the truth.“The son of Dexter.”Next Time: The Son of Dexter!*The Alignment Wars, which happened long, long ago, is when the evil subraces of dwarves and elves were driven beneath the earth.  It was a terrible conflict between good and evil, and in the end good was triumphant.  Evil was driven forth, and for a time good lived in harmony with neutral creatures.  Eventually, of course, evil returned, sly and subtle, worming its way back into the hearts of folk of all types.**This was second edition, and I was already advancing my monsters. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Two of the four locathah were special- one was a 5th-level priest with a net, and one was a 2nd-level fighter with a 17 str.  Another was a two-weapon fighting double-dagger fighter 2, and the last was a cleric 2/fighter 3 with a spear. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />***In second edition you could backstab undead.</blockquote>

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