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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1799955" data-attributes="member: 1210">7/4/370 O.L.G., 9 a.m., within the Palace of Scrolls, SpellWatch them, as the last returns from beyond the veil.  See them assembled, a mighty force to be reckoned with, a band of adventurers strong and stalwart, a group of heroes who have not flinched in the face of the Far Realms themselves.And who stands among them?  Who has Horbin returned from beyond the veil?  Has he failed to bring any of companions back?  The number is right, yet... who is this?  This tall, elfin-looking angelic figure?  With wings a-spread, we have seen him before- but not for a long, long time.  Alcar, former Angel of Food, has returned from beyond the pale.  Yet- if the number of figures is correct, yet one of the staunch personages standing before us is Alcar, there must be someone from the party that entered Bile Mountain missing.  Who is it?  And why?  Let us listen in, and perhaps a clue will come to our ears.“I’m sorry,” Horbin is saying, as we bend close to catch his words, “but I couldn’t bring her back.  I don’t know why- I-I don’t think she chose to stay dead.  I’m just not sure.  I’m sorry, Londo.”“I have to get her back,” the blackguard of Coila says without hesitation.  “She is everything to me.  I have to find out... What could keep her?”“Soul binding, something that snuffed out her soul, a new incarnation, animating her corpse as undead...”  Horbin struggles briefly for an answer, then shrugs.  “I don’t know for certain what it was.”“I have to find her,” Londo repeats.  “We have to go back to Bile Mountain.”“I don’t know,” Sybele replies hesitantly.  “We got our butts kicked.  I don’t think we should just march back in there, especially without any equipment.”“I agree,” Thrush puts in.  His face is drawn with fear- a rare event.  “The Bile Lords and their King totally overpowered us.  I don’t think we should attack them again until we’re good and ready.”I’ll have to change that opinion, pal, Horbin thinks.  We need to destroy those evil bastards as soon as we can.“With or without you, I must go after here,” Londo says firmly.***They have nothing- no equipment, except for those who had spare stuff stashed away somewhere.  Sybele mulls over the armor she had commissioned from Fandral, the dwarven mage-smith, and realizes that it is probably ready when she can go to obtain it.  Well, she thinks, that’s something.The Delphinate happily provides the most basic magical equipment to our heroes, and the wizards indicate that they are likely to try to send more aid the newly revivified adventurers’ way.  They are strikingly unspecific as to what kind of aid and when it will arrive, but they are clearly interested in aiding our heroes- part of their program to persuade the party to join the battle against Law. In the highest circles of government, things are changing rapidly.The Delphinate’s ruler is called the Delphin.  The Delphin must be a wizard who is able to teleport, but once a Delphin is chosen his old name is forgotten.  He (or she, but the current one is a man) dons a mask, which forevermore conceals his features.  When the Delphin dies, becomes undead or transcends his material form, a new Delphin is chosen.  Horbin has unknowingly brought back to life six prior Delphins.  Now all of them work together, trying to protect the state they all had a hand in creating.  Is the current Delphin fully in charge?  Yes.  There can be no doubt.All tests of spellcasting strength aside, he wears the Mask of the Delphin.  He wields the Staff of the Delphin.  The Bracers of the Delphin are on his wrists.  There can be no denying it; he is the rightful and present Delphin.  The former rulers of the land of wizards have put aside whatever differences they might have for the moment, in order to better work for their country.  This is a form of patriotism unknown elsewhere in Cydra, save perhaps Dorla: the willingness to give up personal ambition for an idea for a state.  The Delphinate came about in order to protect wizards from a period of persecution, and where else can one go where his experiments are not, in some way or another, infringed upon?  Only here can an aspiring conjurer work with lower planar particles.  Only here can an aspiring necromancer study anatomy as the subject demands- through cutting up cadavers.  These freedoms are so treasured, universally among those restored to life, that they all agree without an hour’s delay to work together against the Delphinate’s enemy- Law.  Several of the raised former Delphins find the whole concept a little too abstract; several find it distasteful.  “Organization has served us well,” protests one, but he contributes eagerly to the research that the group is doing.  For nothing suits a powerful mage like a problem demanding arcane research.  Slowly the warforged are tuned, prepared, programmed and made ready.  One in particular is being tested to aid our heroes.  It will fail, as will its successor; but two generations beyond will come success.  And it isn’t so far off, oh no it isn’t.***7/4/370 O.L.G., 7 p.m., within the Palace of Scrolls, SpellOur heroes thank their hosts most graciously.  Without the Delphinate’s help- well.  Without their help, excepting Horbin, our heroes would still be dead.They agree to consider seeking the Bastion of Law.  In return, they will receive more aid from the Delphinate.And our heroes teleport, with the Delphinate’s aid, to Drelvin’s realm.  He figures it’s time to collect some taxes.  Next Time: Tax collecting for Drelvin!</blockquote>

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