(IR) IR Interlude Turn 5 - Turn 6 (thread 4)

[Edena_of_Neith]

Mina sighs sadly, and responds to Dagger:

You are a noble, kingly dwarf, who wants what most people want.

However, change has come, and you cannot stop the change.
Anymore than I can stop the change.

Your people are a noble and good people.
Help them to ride out this change.
Help them to ride the crest of it, and emerge safely on dry land.

Join with the Union of the Worlds.
There is safety in numbers.
There is safety in collective strength.

We ask a price, for our protection, yes.
It is a heavy price, a price your people will have a hard time bearing.

Yet we offer the Kingdom of Ulek safety and security amidst the grave danger that threatens us all.

When the Army of Darkness attacks, we will protect you.
When the Shade Army, which Melkor cannot control, attacks, we - and the Shade who are allied with us - will protect you.
The Knights of Neraka will protect you.

Nobody should stand alone against the storm.

Submit to the One God and the Pantheon.
Throw away your pride and your stubborn ways, and adapt, and change, and prevail.

I urge you to do this.
Do it for your people.
For them. They deserve everything from you, for you are their King.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

The Shade Army responds to Melkor:

WE DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR OVERLORDSHIP ANYMORE, MELKOR.

You bumbling, inept idiot, you have led the Shade to ruin on Toril.
You yourself walked into a Torilian trap!
You have allied with the stinking humans and their Union of the Worlds.

You will be thrown down.
You will be replaced!
You will be flung into the Astral, for the Dreadnaughts to feast upon your dead flesh!

We will have a new God of the Shade.
And we shall destroy Oerth, Krynn, and especially Toril.
Nobody will survive ... the last sludge upon the ocean floor shall be killed.

You are a false God!
Begone!
We will have none of you.
We deny you.
We turn our backs upon you!

Go back and consort with your human friends in the Union of the Worlds, while you can!

You will watch as we destroy it, and a slow and painful end is put to all mortal life in Greyspace!

(And, remember, Melkor cannot strike at the Shade. As a God, all he can do is speak.)

 

[LordMelkor{Talos}]

Edena, I am going offline now, could either you or Serpenteye negotiate with fleet in my name?

 

[Forrester]

The Shade Army responds to Melkor:

WE DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR OVERLORDSHIP ANYMORE, MELKOR.

You bumbling, inept idiot, you have led the Shade to ruin on Toril.
You yourself walked into a Torilian trap!
You have allied with the stinking humans and their Union of the Worlds.

You will be thrown down.
You will be replaced!
You will be flung into the Astral, for the Dreadnaughts to feast upon your dead flesh!

You gotta admit, they make several good points. Can I join them?

Any enemy of Melkor's is a potential friend of mine.

So how about it, Mr. Shade Army? Truce? It's not like you're getting into Toril anytime soon.


Forrester

 

[Anabstercorian]

Soliloquy

Anabstercorian hovers slowly to the deck of the spelljamming ship, surrounded by Illithid and drow in unison.

<< I am Anabstercorian, as you have guessed. Let me tell you something. You want to annhilate Oerth? You want to crush it beneath your tentacles and heels? >>

He slams his staff against the floor.

<< I am the CHOSEN OF ILSENSINE!! You will listen to me when I speak. Oerth has been chosen for a purpose by Ilsensine. You shall not destroy it! Oerth has been chosen to be the new seat of Penumbra! >>

Those nearby look tense and angry at these words, ready to attack. Anabstercorian manifests Psychofeedback and pumps his Charisma modifier skyhigh for a moment, repeating his demand for attention.

<< I am the CHOSEN OF ILSENSINE!! You will listen to me when I speak. I have been attempting to do something new. Listen to me, oh Illithid! We have long been defined by our greatest weaknesses - Our fear of the sun, our reliance on brains as diet, and YOUR cowardice. Ilsensine has spoken that these weaknesses will be cast aside, and we will rise to utter domination over all other things. >>

The drow nearby look ready to kill him. He seems to stare them all in the eye simultaneously.

<< You think you would lose your freedom, your livelihood, your free will? Think again, oh surface cattle! I have begun the process of creating a new form of ceremorphosis, in which the mind of the host and the tadpole merge in to a new, greater form. I have ambitions, my friends, vast ambitions. We will exterminate the lesser species, not by killing them but by giving them new life. No more must they suffer endless reincarnations before finally seeing the truth and becoming of the One Race! With my new creation they will immediately become one of us. One of the One Race. >>

<< Who will we consume, you ask? I'm working on that too. On Toril, our blasphemous ex-brethren became creatures completely unlike that of we, no longer requiring the consumption of sentient brains for nutrition. I believe that such a transition would be within our grasp. Yes, we would be different. We would leave behind a defining part of ourselves. But I do not wish to be defined by a weakness! Do you? >>

He awaits their response.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Will do, Melkor.

Hey there, Forrester.

Folks, Serpenteye is feeling very ill.
I request everyone give their well wishes to him.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

The Army of Darkness regards Anabstercorian coldly.
The illithid messenger speaks:

We will have our vengeance on Oerth for the theft of the True Staff of Ancient Penumbra.
We will have our vengeance on Oerth for the betrayal of Lolth.

Oerth will be pacified, and it's lower life forms shall be corralled in the new farms we will set up.
Thus, they shall feed us, which is their only useful purpose.

The world of Oerth shall be purified of the traitorous drow who turned their backs on Lolth.
The elves will be exterminated.
The other surface races will be given to the illithid.
The Underdark, shall go to the drow, and all therein shall be their slaves.

When we are finished with Oerth, we will build up our strength until we are strong enough to attack Toril.
That world will be purified, and reduced, like Oerth.

That is our answer.

Anabstercorian, you are a famous leader who is renown for his efforts to do what we now intend.
We know you fought for New Umbra.
We know you fought against Forrester.

We offer you a place at our helm, to lead us, to lead us to victory over our enemies.
To bring illithid and drow to supremacy upon Oerth, Toril, and Krynn.

We offer this. What say you, Anabstercorian?

 

[Forrester]

Incidentally, I am no longer feeling "very ill" -- or ill at all! Woohoo! I'm gaming the next two nights, though, so I won't be posting as much.

And I'm only a peripheral player in this anyway. I'm sure you Oerthians can handle the Doom Fleet/Mina.

Here's a question for you: Why would Mina come to "save you" at precisely the moment that a huge fleet, intent on the extinction of Oerth, was about to show up?

I would question her motives if I were you . . . she could be setting you all up for something very, very nasty.


Forrester

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

The Army of Darkness regards Anabstercorian:

Well?

Will you lead us, Anabstercorian?

(Anabstercorian, if you say yes, you gain the 4,000 PL Army of Darkness, but lose the 220 PL Solistarim.)

- - -

(Cheers, Forrester! I'm glad you are feeling better.
However, Serpenteye is feeling very ill. My best wishes to him on getting better soon.)

 

[Serpenteye]

Thanks Edena but it's really no big deal. I'm logging out now, but I'll be back tomorrow.
-
The Union of Oerth sends a delegation to the approaching fleets to talk them out of their attack against Oerth. We explain to them the nature of the Red Death, and why war would be a very bad thing.