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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 4065318" data-attributes="member: 9546">The crew of the Sea Wyvern was indeed agitated and confused, but Daelric’s diplomatic reassurances gave them confidence that their services were once more vital to the cause, and that the Legion would stand ready to protect them as they had done before.  The young priest was just warming to his audience and preparing to deliver a truly inspiring soliloquy, when Tower Cleaver tapped him on the shoulder.  Irritated at the interruption, he turned sharply.“What?”“Who that?” the minotaur asked, pointing to the cliffside path.  When Daelric and the others looked in that direction, they all saw a wolf-headed humanoid figure approaching the pier, waving them off.  A moment later, the waters along the shore churned and frothed as two immense monsters, snakelike dragons with gray scales and long, thin snouts, surged up onto the shores to roar angrily, although it was unclear if they had taken offense at the intrusion of the Sea Wyvern or the wolf-headed man.  The creature himself wore fine robes and his ears were adorned with expensive rings.  “You aren’t expected by Her Excellency,” he said loftily.  “If you value life, you will debark from here now, before her pets grow braver.  You are not wanted here!”He didn’t wait for a response, instead signaling to the dragons with a flip of his hand before he vanished into thin air.“Those creatures are linnorms,” Mandi said cautiously as she stepped towards the stern of the ship.  “I would advise any non-essential personnel to take cover…now!”The crew didn’t need to be told twice.  Like rats, they scattered towards the gangways and into the bowels of the ship.  Daelric, seeming to think that Mandi meant him as well, spread his wings and took to the air, darting for cover behind the ship’s wheel deck.  “Where’s everybody running to?”  Marius cried, laughing.  “The fun’s right here!”  With a flourish of his hand, the warmage conjured a large, roiling cloud of smoke and fire, and sent it rolling towards the linnorms.  One of the dragons screeched as the searing embers landed on its hide, but the second seemed completely unaffected as it launched itself into the air, closely followed by its brother.  Ignoring the exposed figures on the ship’s deck, each of them circled behind the ship from either side, until both hovered above a suddenly terrified, cowering Daelric.  Then, as one, both of the behemoths drew in great breaths, and exhaled gusts of acidic water, showering the priest with the caustic sprays.As Daelric screamed, Octurus launched himself towards the ships starboard side, where he could just reach one of the linnorms.  His scimitar whickered by, almost faster than the eye could follow, and drew a deep gash across the dragon’s brow, sending a great gout of blood gushing into its eyes, temporarily blinding the beast.  Meanwhile,  Mandi hurled magic at the second behemoth, tearing out its vasculature with a horrendous ripping sound.  With nothing to anchor it, the mass of blood vessels simply dropped into the river below with a sickening plop.  The linnorm howled in agony, twisting and turning in mid-air like a landed trout.  Then, in a flash, Mandi’s form morphed and shifted until she had assumed the shape of another linnorm.  With a deafening roar, she launched herself at the wounded dragon, ripping and tearing at it with her teeth and claws before delivering a devastating slap with her thick tail, snapping the brute’s neck with one blow.  It crashed to the water and was slowly carried away by the current.The remaining linnorm, still pawing at its eyes, was an easy mark for Tower Cleaver and Octurus.  The pair hacked and slashed at it until, in desperation, it winked away in a flash of bright light, retreating to nurse its wounds.“Some welcome,” Daelric said, still shaken as he tended his own wounds.  “Are we sure this is where we want to be?”“We don’t have much choice,” Mandi replied.  “We need Iggwilv’s help in this if we want to have any hope of success.  This is not Elminster we’re visiting.  The Witch Queen may be testing us to see if we’re worthy to come before her presence.  While I think we’re up to the task, we’re not going any further without our full compliment.  All of you remain on the ship.  You’ll be safe here.  If you noticed, the linnorms didn’t actually attack anyone on board.  They only went for Daelric after he’d left the deck.  I think Charon’s protection is real, but we can count on the denizens of these planes to honor it to the exact letter and take advantage of any loophole they can find.  I’ll return shortly.”_________________________________________________________________Without further adieu, Mandi then opened a rift between Hades and the Prime, shunting herself back to her home plane with gut-churning suddenness.  When her vision cleared, she found herself in Tashluta, outside the Seeker’s hall.  Quickly, she entered, barging past the clerk at the front desk who gawked openly at her.  She made her way to the map room and riffled through the numerous bound parchments there until she found what she was looking for…a detailed cartography of Icewind Dale and Ten Towns.  Concentrating, she fixed the location in her mind, and vanished once more, this time reappearing in the frigid, biting air of Icewind Dale.  She stood outside a tavern called the Halfling’s Gem.  She entered, her sharp eyes scanning the room until she picked out the hulking form of the goliath in a corner booth nursing a large tankard of ale.  “Enjoying ourselves, are we?” she said as she strode to the table and leaned over it.  Sepoto nearly choked on his beer when he saw her, his eyes growing wide.“I…wasn’t expecting you so soon,” he said.“Yes, well, tempus fugit and all that,” she snapped, grabbing him by the wrist.  At a snap of her fingers a large, spatial rift opened in the middle of the bar, sending patrons running in all directions.  A ship was clearly visible on the far side, docked at an ancient pier amid thick fog clouds.  Mandi quickly stepped through, dragging Sepoto behind her…</blockquote>

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