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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 4955879" data-attributes="member: 386">"Who dares disturb me?"  The words cut through the air, pregnant with power and despair.  "This is my lair; leave or suffer.""You don't mind the goblins and the spiders?" Aiden asks, knocking his bow.  The banshee looks familiar - much like Dara, the current leader of the Woodsinger elves."What do I care?  The war is over for my people.  Let the others do as they will."  Umar realizes that she is speaking of the Bloodspear War, which ended in defeat for the forces of Nerath.Kiva prepares to blast the banshee.Theron steps forward.  "Thia, my Queen," he says, referring to Dara's mother, the last Queen of the elves, "what has happened to you?  How can I help you?"  He kneels before her.Thia smiles.  "You can share my pain!" she screams.  The sheer power of her words, fuelled by a will tormented by incredible anguish, overwhelms the party.  Each one of them is stricken by one thought only: flee.Shamon, Theron, and Kiva are forced back to the water's edge.  Shamon is able to throw himself to the ground, but the others leap into the pool to get away.  Kiva is able to launch a blast of infernal fire, but in her panic she misses the banshee.  Their limbs frozen in terror, Theron and Kiva begin to sink into the depths.Aiden rushes back up a set of stairs leading to a door.  With his back to the door he fires a pair of arrows; one strikes true, but it passes through Thia, carrying only a small wisp of her ghostly form with it.Umar flees into the alcove containing the skeleton, just out of sight of the banshee.  His heart pounds in his chest and he's unable to force himself to move.  He focuses his will enough to call upon the primal forces of the world to get a better look at the skeleton.  He can see that it's been there for about a hundred years, where it fell after Thia plunged a dagger into her own heart.  He's able to tell that someone moved it months ago and took the dagger.From the ground, Shamon launches dire radiance at the ghost, but his spell does not break through the banshee's defenses.Aiden, with his back to the door, can hear someone moving around in the room beyond.  He notices a faint purple light coming from underneath the door.  He decides to ignore this for now and instead wills himself to address Thia.  "What killed you?" he asks.Thia turns her attention to Aiden.  "Hope," she says."Hope?  I've never heard of hope killing someone.""I had hope that we would win the war.  I had hope that my husband would be at my side forever.  I had hope that Corellon would not ignore my pleas.  I had hope, but in the end all I had was betrayal.""What happened?""Let me show you."  Thia sails towards him, and Aiden is unable to will himself to move.  She touches him on the face; her hand is as cold as death itself, and Aiden experiences an instant of ultimate despair (times two).  His flesh is seared by her touch.Shamon casts a quick spell to embue his words with a magical glamer and asks: "What do you want?"  The spell breaks through Thia's unearthly will, and she shudders."What do I want?  I want my husband to be at peace, to undo the awful horror and torment I put upon him.  I want to undo the pact I made with the Queen of Spiders.  I want to rest and be free of this mortal coil.""If we do this, will you help us get rid of the goblins?""I will let you leave.  Leave now.  Being in the presence of your hope multiplies my anguish.""We're cool with that."The PCs quickly gather their drowning companions (Theron and Kiva); the banshee stirs uneasily at their continued presence and begins to wail quietly.  The PCs attempt to open the door (where the strange purple light is coming from), but find it barred; Shamon lends Aiden his crowbar and he's able to force it open with Umar's help.The PCs enter a bedroom and discover the source of the purple light: an altar to Lolth.  A dark elf in robes stands across the room from them, near the altar, a rod carved into the shape of spiders in one hand and a dagger in the other.  She smiles at them and says, "Lolth will devour your eyeballs."More to come.</blockquote>

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