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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sagiro" data-source="post: 165802" data-attributes="member: 726">Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 142c Dranko takes a deep breath, wonders for a minute why he’s the one opening all these doors, and pulls the handle.  It opens, and a wave of such malevolent and overpowering evil comes out of the room that Dranko drops unconscious on the spot.  The others, standing back from the door, not only can feel the evil pouring from the room, but cannot even look straight at the doorway, as if the evil is a blinding light shining out from the opening.  Alarmed, they drag Dranko’s body away from the door and slam it shut.  The evil hangs in the air like an after-image for a few seconds.  Perhaps that door can wait until tomorrow.Dranko comes around soon enough, and describes what he saw in the room before he was knocked out.  He remembers seeing walls lined with bookshelves, all heaped with books and scrolls.  In the center of the room was a large, thick wooden table.  And around the corner to the left, where he couldn’t see, there was…  something.  Just the memory causes him pain.The last of the five doors turns out to be much less dire.  It reveals a tiny room, hardly more than a closet, with a large crank-handle protruding from the wall.  On the floor near the wall with the handle is a pile of crumbled obsidian.  Dranko surmises that the broken rock was some sort of construct that turned the crank, and that the crank opened the retractable roof above the Black Circle’s ritual pit.  The construct must have fallen apart when the Black Circle "power supply" shut off.   Aravis polymorphs himself into an ogre, and turns the heavy crank until the roof draws closed.The party sends Cobb (now feeling downright spry after being healed and learning the details of the Black Circle’s downfall) to report what has happened to Rhiavonne, and to let her know that there is still some unfinished business that will have to wait until tomorrow.   The priestesses of Ell who were dispatched to check the estates come back to report general confusion on the surface.  Servants and some guards are milling around, not entirely sure of what they’ve been doing recently, or why.  A few servants, finding their lords not at home and sensing that they aren’t coming back, are having an impromptu feast using some of the best silver to eat some of the best stuff from the larders.  Three of the Lords – Lord Cosnor, Lady Canterrin and Lord Southinghorn -- have definitely gone missing, and come to think of it, haven’t been seen for days.The party prepares to spend the night sleeping in the safety of rope trick spells.  Morningstar casts a sending to Eddings, giving him a short message to give to Ozilinsh regarding current events.  Eddings, who hasn’t been the recipient of a sending in all this time, wastes a few of his 25 words being puzzled, before promising Morningstar that he’ll try reaching their patron archmage on the crystal ball.Then Morningstar prepares to enter Ava Dormo.  Two nights ago she dreamt that she should go to the temple of the Illuminated Sisters in Ava Dormo two nights hence, and now that’s tonight.  Aravis decides to watch Morningstar using the Crosser’s Maze, to see if he can learn anything about Ava Dormo.  His mind slides into the Maze, and he draws his attention inward toward Morningstar, trying to find her in the dreaming plane.Morningstar appears outside the temple buildings.  Unlike last time, there is not a large crowd of sisters training for dream-battle, but Previa is there having a discussion with half a dozen other Dreamwalkers.  She spies Morningstar, excuses herself from the others, and walks across the field to meet her."So you are here, after all," Previa says.  Her demeanor is calm and steady as always, but Morningstar can tell that something unusual has happened recently that she is itching to tell."I had a dream that I should come here tonight, but I don’t know the source," Morningstar says.  "Do you know something about it?""Yes, I think so.  You have a visitor.  She is… a priestess of Ell, I think.  She is old.  And there is something strange about her.  She is waiting for you inside the chapel."Morningstar walks inside the darkened building and straight through to the chapel.  At its far end, looking up at a statue of Ell below an inverted black triangle, is an old woman, short, in her 50’s or 60’s at least.   Her short hair is a pale white color, which makes her different from all other Ellish priestesses, save for Morningstar herself.The woman turns around.  "It’s all so… overwhelming.  And maddening, to think that you’ve been here all this time, and She never told me.   But it’s wonderful, too.  You must be Morningstar.   It is an honor to meet you.   My name is Evenstar."…to be continued…</blockquote>

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