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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2321415" data-attributes="member: 143">And the epilogue: * * * * * Chapter 412The sky above was a blasted expanse of ugly reds and sickly browns, the landscape below an equally mottled collection of malevolent color and hostile terrain.  Occasionally flashes would shatter the landscape across a far horizon, yet it never seemed to actually rain.  Rain would have been welcome, something to cleanse this horrid scenery.  Foul odors assailed the nostrils of any traveler, and the only music that carried over the wind was the screams of suffering and harsh laughter evoked at the suffering of others.  Signs of organized settlement were few and far between, mostly ugly citadels atop isolated bluffs, and fortresses ringed with high battlements surmounted by spikes and tangles of sharp wire.  This was Carceri, the Prison Plane, a place of suffering and blight. Benzan trudged through a mire that clung to his boots with each step, releasing his foot only reluctantly with a sickly slurping sound.  He still carried the limp figure of Embril Aloustinai in his arms, and he was careful to keep her trailing robe clear of the mud that seemed to coat every exposed surface in this place. After a time, he came to a small rise, and found a fairly flat stretch of ground covered by sharp tufts of red grass.  Spreading his cloak upon the ground, he carefully laid his burden down upon it.  He ran his hands over her body—not lasciviously, but with purpose, finding a gleaming gem nestled carefully in the folds of her garment. He took up the gem, and looked at it.  In the ruddy light it seemed to gleam with a crimson tint like fresh blood.  The light flickered slightly, as if it were a candle’s flame frozen in the mineral lattice of the stone. He smiled. “You shall be the tool that earns the final freedom of my Master,” he said.  “Graz’zt wants you badly, oh, yes, he does…”He laughed, a sinister laugh that wasn’t his own.  Placing the gem in his pouch, he bent down and picked up the woman again, and started out once more across the blasted landscape of Carceri. THE END OF “STRIKE ON SHATTERHORN”COMING SOON: ASYLUM</blockquote>

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