"Succinctly put, yes." The general answers you all. "You are to aid in the retrieveal of the Heart of Ar Sisha, the artifact being used by the High Circle of Kremishar to ward Cel Candon against the undead and bolster the fortress defenses against magical ingress. You will accomplish that task by breaking the Circle, believed to hide here." The general marks the map before him with a blackened claw.
Two cloaked skeletal forms appear trough a side-door at an unvoiced cue from the Balor, one of them carrying a case of scrolls and vials. "To overcome the High Circle and the Queen of Autumn Her Ladyship has decided to give you some magical assistance", one of the liches hisses deferrentially, handing the case to Canthan.* "Use it wisely." The other lich rolls up the map on the table and hands it to William, a sinister glint in its eye when its fingers brush up against his.
ooc: If there's nothing more to say...
The two liches move to flank the General as he pulls open a portable hole and brings out a crystalline sphere swimming with a thousand tiny motes of white light. Holding the sphere in his massive hands he wordlessly bends his will towards it as the liches begin to chant. Suddenly the room seems to twist and bend around you as you are enveloped in a miasma of overwhelming evil, paralyzing you with intense nausea, soon turning to fear and pain and agony. Unable to scream and even to move you can only look on as the spell begins to warp your bodies and horridly also your minds. The sphere begins to crack in the Generals claws as the lights speed their frenzied dance, flare up and ever faster begin to vanish. The power builds, and you can no longer sense the passage of time, your surroundings or even your own selves. One moment you're standing frozen before the general the next you're in another chamber deep beneath the earth.
As you begin to regain your composure you take in the burned and cracked elven stone-works, lit from the inside with a bleak flickering fluorescent light. Mouldered furniture litter the room and in a corner lies something that may once have been a cat. On one end of the room a door of beaten copper stands slightly ajar and in the floor and ceiling above it a dark fissure (a couple of feet wide) dissapears into unknown depths. It seems you have finally reached Cel-Candon.
*
[sblock=Canthan]ooc: The Case contains three scrolls of Altered Disjunction (does not destroy items, only suppresses them for 1d6 rounds, otherwise identical to Mords Disjunction), two scrolls of Anti Magic Zone and two scrolls of Spell Turning. It also contains crystal vials containing the equivalent of 25 average souls.* [/sblock]
*One average soul, or soul-unit, can be used as a component in spell casting or item-construction equivelent to 500 XP or to allow a caster to spontaneously use any known Metamagic feat at no additional charge.
[sblock=Big at night]
The female laughs, a light pearly laugh that sends shivers down your spine. "I do not expect you to trust me, warrior, I only ask you to consider my words and act as your conscience dictates. Yangava would not give you the same freedom, I assure you of that." She walks closer, pressing her body close towards yours heedless of the way her flesh yields wetly around your axe. "Mokninchel would bind you to Her cause with magic, failing to see the weakness of such means, but his magic is nothing compared to mine. My power will not bind you, but set you free, and with the right choice made I offer you a better sanctuary." She stops to cough up a bubble of blood, and you're suddenly struck by her unnatural beauty. "She will not be able to visit you in the night while you are under my protection." Removing the amulet around her neck she puts it in your hand. "Wear this in the General's precense and your mind will be safe. Remember me, and remember: The Heart of Ar Sisha must be destroyed or a war will sweep this world that makes the Godswar seem like children fighting in the sand-box. No mortal will survive that war, not even the dead." With one last caress of your face the spirit leaves her body. Her lips move mutely as she looks at you in horror, then falls dead into the spreading stain of blood on the floor.[/sblock]
