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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 257921" data-attributes="member: 4936">Update!That night the six mismatched refugees made camp without a fire, and exchanged stories. First, as promised, Mark was regaled with the tale of Semaki and Quadim escaping from the terrors of the dark cave. He absorbed it silently, nodding in places but never commenting. Shayuri went next, telling Mark of she and Shar and Piklum's brush with death, and subsequent encounter with the haunted dagger. Mark eyed the dagger where it lay innocently on the ground, and edged away from it. Piklum then launched into an enthusiastic and wandering telling of a noble and gallant halfling, unjustly persecuted by a criminal syndicate and who was now seeking blood-spattered vengeance against the leaders of the syndicate for its terrible crimes against him. Shar added nothing to the collection of tales, and Quadim was in no condition to do more. Mark, perhaps still not quite ready, declared that he would take the first watch, and that was that.The night passed without incident.It wasn't until the following afternoon, when they paused to rest and eat a midday meal, that Mark grudgingly began speaking of himself, sitting stiffly and speaking with a cultured, somewhat contemptuous, air."The del'Sol family is," he paused and grimaced painfully, "was...a family of noble bearing, well spoken of and respected. I am the fourth of my line, and was squired to Sir Farlon, a knight of House Reichard." Another pause as he took in the others with a meaningful nod. "I was training to become a knight myself, and would have been close to completing it had it not been for this catastrophe." Somehow he managed to convey the impression that the invasion of the illithid was a personal affront to him, in denying him knighthood. That faded quickly though as he continued with genuine grief. "Sir Farlon...he did not survive the initial attacks." Mark shook his head slowly and looked down. "There was nothing I could do. The court mages, the Thirteen Magisters...they were running amok. I saw towers exploding in fire and rock, whole units swallowed in green clouds of death as they battled their brothers...it was chaos. Madness. Then something struck me from behind, and as I fell I knew death had found me..."For a long moment Mark sat silent, collecting himself. When he continued, his voice was steady again and had a sharp crack to it as if angry at having let his demeanor slip. "I awoke underground, on a soft bed. There were many others. At first I was afraid, thinking I'd been taken prisoner. But I soon learned that I was the opposite. One of the few free men left in Caron. When I was sent north to meet Pique, I accepted the assignment gladly, despite its danger. And now he is dead...but for your aid, we might both be." His eyes, normally blue but now shrouded in the dark of night weighed each of the others. "I have heard your stories, and I do not believe you to be thralls. I will trust you, if only because I must. Pique was bearing a message to my commander, and now only I remain to deliver it. We must turn northward and east, to find the enclave of the Caron resistance."Shar burst into derisive laughter, and Piklum just looked confused. Shayuri, eyes wide and glittering silver in the moonlight demanded in a shocked voice, "Are you mad? That will take us back into illithid-controlled territory!"Mark's eyes narrowed. "The message is important to my cause.""But not to ours," Shayuri returned, just as coldly. "If your message is so important, then you can deliver it without our help. We are bound for Dieresis.""What do you hope to accomplish there?" the warrior demanded. "The elves know what's happening, but they do nothing! Only the Resistance is in a position to ACT."Shayuri lifted her chin slightly and affected a mysterious air. "We have our reasons, Mark, and they are not subject to debate."Mark's eyes jumped from person to person, and found no sympathy to his plight. "So be it," he growled finally. "I have little chance of making it alone, and the message must not die with me. I will go with you. Maybe when you see for yourselves how futile your goal is, you will come to your senses.""Um," Piklum injected quickly, "You could tell us the message. You know, in case you're horribly killed or something."Mark gave the halfling a withering look, and rose to his feet. "The day is passing us by. Let's go."No one could argue with that, so the group once again set forth. The remainder of the day passed slowly, uncomfortably, but with no untoward events. In a way that made the tension worse. An attack would have provided some outward focus for their frustration. Instead, it simply festered. Night came none too soon, and camp was struck once more. This time the peace was broken before the intrepid adventureres even had time to begin splitting the watches.A low burbling hiss could be heard in the distance from the direction the group had been traveling from. Like a kettle boiling over, vaguely.Immediately everyone leaped to their feet."What is that?" Mark asked, drawing his black, rune-encrusted sword."I'm not sure," replied Shayuri as she frantically looked around. "It sounds almost like steam though. It could be another construct. Semaki, do you see anything?"The elf shook her head calmly, having already prepared her bow. "No. But it is coming directly towards us by the sound." Quadim whimpered, but moved to Semaki's forward flank, as if to interpose himself between whatever it was and her.Shar readied her scythe with an impressive flourish and snarled, "We've been followed by far too many things for my liking. Hasn't the elf been covering our trail?""There," Semaki said suddenly, pointing. She ignored Shar's outburst. "I see something."The hideous noise grew louder, and everyone strained to see. A tall, dark figure lurched unsteadily towards them through the tall grass and twilight gloom. The strange hissing whistle unquestionably came from it. As the group stood transfixed by this apparition, the scudding clouds finally let moonlight down and revealed more detail. Pale, glistening skin. White, marbled eyes. Four tentacles waving from a terrible beak-like mouth.The illithid had found them at last.Horror paralyzed them all. It was too late to run, and fighting was futile, wasn't it? Then a roar of horribly mingled panic and rage erupted near Semaki...and Quadim launched himself at the hateful thing! Semaki was jolted from her numb state, and immediately fired an arrow that pierced the heart of the dread creature...and while it's hiss shifted to a keen, it did not drop. Not to be outdone, Shar reared her scythe back to a striking position, and broke into a run to reach it as well."Well," Piklum said with apparent nonchalance as he brought his shortbow to bear, "It's been nice knowing you, Shay."Mark grimaced. "I won't go down without a fight!" He too charged to the fray."There's something strange about it," Shayuri mused. "I wonder..." She began moving her hands and incanting, summoning a spike of magical energy. There was ordinarily no way she could pierce the antimagical slime that coated these creatures, but...there was something wrong here. The bright shard of force erupted from her hands and wove a dizzying path as it zigzagged around Mark, Shar, and Quadim, then impacted the mind flayer...which recoiled and hissed in pain! In the bright flash of impact, Shayuri noticed something, and gasped."Don't go near it!" she yelled. "It's not an illithid! It's undead!"Too late though. Quadim, unhearing in his madness, reached the pale, decayed form of his foe and begain lashing out at it with his bare hands. Incredibly, those hands blurred with speed, landing punch after punch with devastating force. The "illithid" reeled back again, then lashed out with one gnarled, flipper-like hand. Quadim tried to duck, but was taken by surprise by the thing's unearthly speed. There was a dark burst of power as it connected, and Quadim wailed in agony, and crumpled to the ground."QUADIM!" Semaki roared, and shot again. The arrow took the mind-flayer thing in the forehead and penetrated deeply. Undead or no, the undead corpse had taken too much damage for its animating forces to continue to inhabit. With a hollow gurgle, it collapsed as well.Shayuri ran towards the two fallen bodies, though was handily outrun by Semaki. She called out, "Shar! It's the one we killed! We were ghosts at the time, and..."The priestess needed no more than that though to realize, "...and things slain by undead often rise again as undead. Blast!""Quadim," Semaki said as she reached him and knelt down. "Quadim, can you hear me? Quadim!"The sorceress swallowed thickly. "Semaki...undead can sap life force. If it did that to him, then...he may come back as another one. We have to destroy his body, quickly."Semaki looked at Shayuri coldly. "No."Shar readied her scythe. "It's the only way, elf. Move aside."Semaki rose to her feet and snatched her longbow off the ground. "No!"As the two faced off tensely, Shayuri reached Quadim and carefully felt his cold pale flesh in the crook of his throat, searching for a pulse. "Wait...let's make sure first..."Mark watched the fray, nonplussed. His sword was still out, but he wasn't sure what to make of it all. Before he had time to decide, things were decided for him.It all seemed to happen at once.Shar growled and stepped forward, raising her scythe as if to attack. Semaki loosed her arrow. Shayuri gasped and yelled, "He's alive!" Chaos ensued.Several minutes of bitter arguing and recriminations followed. Shar had ripped the arrow out of her and healed the terrible wound. Piklum, who'd readied his own bow and prepared to help, went over and sat by her. Semaki sat alone off to one side, cradling Quadim's inert, barely-living form as Shayuri desperately apologized both for her own misguided assumption, and for the behavior of Shar. Mark simply watched in befuddled amazement.As fragile as the ties that bound the group together were, they were never more frayed than at that moment.Finally, hoping to distract the others from the strife, Shayuri asked Mark to produce the magic items again. "The abjuration magic these have make me think they're probably protective in nature," she explained. "It's silly to have these, and not use them."Piklum instantly materialized by her side, nodding emphatically.Mark frowned, but couldn't argue the point. He dug around and finally brought out the goods."Let me try the necklace," Shayuri said, knowing that its aura was the strongest of the three."The ring!" Piklum shouted, hopping up and down. "I want it."Mark rolled his eyes but gave them the requested items. "I'll not put my trust in magic, thank you."The necklace was wide and segmented. Shayuri fit it around her neck, then set the clasp shut. There was a distinct *click*. She waited a moment and looked herself over. Nothing seemed to change. "Hmm. Well, some experimentation should prove..." She broke off as a hot sizzling sensation washed over her neck where the metal touched her. Not painful though. She swallowed nervously. "...educational."Piklum jammed the ring on his finger. "It's not working. Why not? Do I have to say something? BIZZDANG! Nope. Um...LOORBADDY!"Mark stared as Piklum's skin began to turn greyish and grew shiny as it exuded a slimy ooze. "Oh boy.""All right, well, I think that's enough experimenting for one night," Shayuri said hastily. She reached back to the clasp behind her neck and undid it. There was another *click*. Suddenly Shayuri was falling! With a surprised yelp she hit the ground and stared dazedly up at Mark. "Oops...that didn't seem to work right. I need to..." She quickly realized two things. Although she could still feel her hands scrabbling at the clasp, she couldn't seem to control which way her head was pointing. No matter how she tried, it just sat and looked up at Mark. Her arms flailed, seeking the ground, but just whistled through the air!Two, Mark was looking down at her with an expression of abject horror and screaming his head off.Even then, it wasn't until she saw herself standing near him, waving her arms around that she realized. SHE was the one who'd lost her head. It was now lying on the ground at her feet. And the necklace wasn't coming off!"Oh gods," she whispered.--------------------------To Be Continued!Next time!: Revelations of the Spineless Order! A dragon's cry for help! Danger in an illithid lair and TWO new additions to the party, including the almighty XAG!! Plus, Quadim's Awakening...will he ever be the same?? Find out next time in DOOM from Below!</blockquote>

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