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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greybar" data-source="post: 798101" data-attributes="member: 4938">The Terror of LuinlassaYou walk through the streets of Luinlassa, the last light of the sun glints along rooftops, but the streets are already buried in shadow. Never could you have dreamed of a scene like this. Some of the houses are burned out, their clay and stone walls blackened. Others have all of their windows and doors barricaded. One has its defenses ripped open, and dried blood cakes the threshold. Something moves deep in the shadows, moving low across the ground. A shadowy veil passes over your senses... You find yourself entering the foyer of main House of Llassa. The great doors, of dark iron inlaid with brilliant gold, now lie on the floor amidst the shattered wood of what once must have been a barricade. The lone shield of a Llassan cadre captain lies on the ground, the upper half of its circular sun-form crushed down and back from some mighty blow. The remains of a shattered helm and another shield are dashed into the corner. But no bodies remain here, only blood and destroyed implements of a final defense. And again you fade... As you enter the main hall, you see that paintings of the past Matriarchs that once lined the wall now lie in tatters on the floor. At the end of the hall stands a great statue of Llassa, Daughter of Light. Sunborn corpses are piled around Her feet, stripped of their armor and clothes. You recognize some of the members of the Matriarch's personal guard, their powerful bodies now broken and bloodied. The Captain's head has been ripped from her shoulders by some powerful claws, and is impaled on the shattered femur of some unrecognizable sunborn form. Blood and some dark excrement has been splashed upon the pure white stone of Her statue. Some of the gold has been hacked away, and the Chalice of the Undying Flame has been removed from her hand. ... Now upon stairs, dimly lit and very familiar. A door hangs on a lower hinge, a tremendous blow of a great mace or similar weapon having smashed through its latches. The light from the room beyond flickers, a though by a single flame. You step in to see Malassa HiesaLassa's private study. It was here that you first met her, and that she told you that she knew your soul-dream. Here that she invited you after your combat practice, to cool your blood, relax your swordarm, and enlighten your mind. Across one of her comfortable chairs is sprawled a strange beast. Human-like, but with green skin and rough scales, and a crest running from crown the upper back. Long talons have torn at the chair, apparently in death convulsions, for there is a hole burned through its torso from front to back. Another strange beast, more like a red-skinned hound, lies a few feet further. Then the body of a moon-born warrior, a bow just beyond his fallen hand. His skin seems dyed in riotous twists of green, red, and black. Around him the floorboards are burnt and broken.And just beyond the warrior's body sits Malassa, collapsed in her favorite white painted leather chair. Her robes are torn with great tracks of bestial claws, through to blood-covered skin. Her right hand holds a golden wand, wound with fine gold and silver wire. Her fingers are slack, and the wand has almost slipped to the floor. Her left hand is clenched around an arrow that has pierced her just above the right collarbone. The golden links of her necklace shine through the still wet blood. The wand tumbles to the ground, and Malassa's body twitches. Her eyelids open, and her gaze rolls about the room, but does not seem to focus. Her eyes roll into the back of her head, and in a pain-filled voice she speaks:"I always throught that you two, young as you are, would be able to shine through this. I am sorry that I had no more time before you could arrive. Her light brings me visions, and we have secret allies. Listen while I have strength, lest my message not make it through its long journey." Her body jumps suddenly, and blood trickles from the corner of her mouth. Then she begins to chant, at first in slow quiet whispers, "Many are the ways in which evil is quenched,But many are the wardings that power can raise,Paths I have begged for, hints to the way,Yet I know many listen to what I can say:""She shall rule for three hundred years,And then she will rule for three thousand more,If she is not faced anew by those who are old,Reborn by sacrifice of one of the lost,"Her eyes roll down again and her body heaves, and she coughs more blood upon her robes, now more red than white. You feel her focus her eyes on you for a moment, and you almost see recognition on her face. Then pain visibly wracks her, and her voice is broken as she spits blood, saying: "From the water shall be called the oldest stones,From the earth shall be raised the oldest bones,Dark paths and those of light,Similar journeys, different destinations,""From the fire can be claimed the fallen blade,From the air can be heard the secret of no words,Secrets from deep waters,Speaks the mother of the lost ... "There is a gurgling sound from her throat, and her body tumbles out of the chair. You reflexively try to leap to her, and your point of view shifts slightly, as if you started to move and then halted. The wand bounces and drops into a blackened gap in the floor. She lifts her head, and you can just barely make our her voice... "Seek the souls of those she doomed,Those drowned in stone and drowned in sea,...."Her voice trails off, and her body is still.</blockquote>

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