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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2774845" data-attributes="member: 143">More than you know...* * * * * Chapter 508“What!” Beorna said, shaking off Arun’s restraining arm to come forward to the space before the Inquisitor’s table.  “After what you’ve heard, what you saw below the city… you would still spit upon this man’s honor in this way?”Umbar fixed her with a hard stare.  “This matter is not within your jurisdiction, Templar of Helm.  The warrior may refuse to comply with the sentence; he is already exiled, and as my authority outside of the Rift is limited by the bounds of the human laws of this region, the result would merely be decretum extundo."   “A decree of expulsion?” Beorna asked. “Severing is a more accurate translation.  The warrior would choose to fully sever himself from the dwarven people.  He would be free to live his life as he pleased here among the surface world, but no dwarf of the Rift would even recognize him, for he would have foresworn them.”Beorna turned to Arun, already knowing what she would find.  Arun stood behind her.  He met her eyes, and while she did not agree, could not agree, with what she found there, she respected the man too much to defy his will further.  She stepped back.  “I accept the judgment of the tribunal,” Arun said.  He carried his holy avenger, scabbarded in his hand.  As Umbar came around his table the paladin knelt, and drew the sword, placing it point down upon the bare stone of the chapel. “Are you certain you would not prefer a warhammer?” Umbar said, very softly, glancing down at the etched symbol of Lathander prominently featured upon the blade near where it joined the hilt.  “As a weapon, such is not covered by the dictum.”Arun shook his head fractionally.  “It is part of who I am, another choice, perhaps.”Umbar nodded.  He intoned the words of the spell, a complex ritual that stretched on for severeal minutes.  Arun knelt, immobile, while Beorna watched.  A tear formed in the corner of the Templar’s eye, but the dwarf angrily blinked it away. Finally, the priest of Moradin’s holy symbol began to glow.  Arun did not blink as he lowered it to the paladin’s forehead, speaking the final word of his invocation to lay the mark of justice upon him. A brilliant flare of golden light erupted from the iron symbol as it touched Arun’s forehead.  Umbar staggered back, the symbol flying from his hand to land across the room, where it lay smoking in the corner.  Arun’s body arched back, his mouth erupting in a silent scream as he stared up at the bare ceiling.  A golden aura surrounded him like a bright halo, focused upon the bright star of pure energy that blazed upon his brow. Beorna came instantly to him, but was driven back by the intensity of the aura, which surrounded him like a tangible wall.  “What did you do!” she shouted, turning on Umbar. “It… it was not I!” the cleric managed, his own eyes wide as he stared at the paladin. The golden glow intensified until the two of them could no longer look, lest they be blinded by the intensity.  The windows in the chapel, along with every other glass surface within the rectory, shattered.  The ground and walls trembled, and a distant sound filled their heads, like the pounding of iron upon a forge.  Then the noise and light and confusion died.  Arun was left, still kneeling, his head bowed, his hands still wrapped around the hilt of…“By the gods…” Beorna breathed.  For the paladin’s sword, his holy avenger, had been replaced by a golden warhammer.  Even with the fading of the holy radiance that had engulfed the paladin, it seemed afire, shining with an inner light.  “What in the hells is goin’ on…” Hodge yelled, bursting into the room.  But as he saw what Beorna and Umbar had seen, he trailed off, for once at a loss for words.  Arun turned to gaze at them.  The sigil branded into his forehead still glowed, a pale golden radiance that seemed almost alive.  The hammer and anvil.  The sign of Moradin. While Beorna and Hodge looked on, still too stunned to respond, Umbar fell to his knees before Arun.  “Forgive me,” he said, his earlier feelings overwhelmed by an intensity of adulation in his eyes.  “I did not know… I did not see.”“Forgive me, Chosen of Moradin.”</blockquote>

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