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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 736655" data-attributes="member: 1674">An audience with the archfiend- part 2In the evening, they reached Durm, where Lagenian noblemen paraded the cobbled streets with their halfling-slaves in tow and where gas-lanterns where keeping the streets light and safe well into the night. Soldiers were patrolling the streets, and here, along the main road, all they could see were signs of prosperity and strength.They slept in an inn, and then climbed the hill to Castle Durm, where they had to wait in a queue well into the afternoon. Then, after stating that they wanted to see the archfiend, they were ushered to a building within the fortress’s wall, which seemed indistinguishable for the other buildings within the concept except for the graving of the warsceptre of Chardun engraved in it’s doors.As they approached the gate, they were ushered in by young priests of Chardun, who told them that the service was just about to begin. Inside, there was one massice chamber, with hard stone benches and a raised altar with a fireplace burning behind it. Weapons of all sorts and tapestries depicting Chardun battling all kinds of foes were hanging from the front wall, and there were about 150 people in the church, leaving about one third of the seats empty.Feeling slightly uncomfortable among the devout followers of the Great Slaver, they sat down in the back of the hall, as a man stepped up to the altar. He was a broad shouldered, scarred man in his forties with a wild read beard and the top-knot of a warrior. This, wearing the black platemail of the dragoons with a white vestment that was stained bloodred at the bottom, was Archfiend Fiarun, the man they had come to see.After one long look at his congregation, one hand resting on his huge battlemace which was hanging on his side, he raised his other hand and began his sermon:“Greetings!Again we have gathered here to praise our lord and show him that our hearts are pure and that we, his faithful, will happily continue to serve him, no matter what shall happen!Chardun is our lord, and King Virduk and Archduke Traviak are his most loved servants on our world. Chardun is the one who gives us power and instills our hearts and arms with the force we need to smite our foes.And truly: Now, more then ever, we are in need of his strength! Now that we are beset by the selfish and unbelieving from all sides! Even now, as I speak to you, they plan our downfall and try to strangle us with their plots and viciousness!Without the strength of Chardun, and the strength of heart to fight relentlessly against our enemy we will give them the breathing-space to throw a web of intrigue and hatred over us, in which we would be caught like helpless salmons caught by a fisherman. Sure: We may not fall today. Maybe not even next year. But eventually, we will: And the ones who will suffer the most are those who can't defend themselves: Our children!I am telling you: those who don’t want to be merciless against our foes now, those, who speak of peace, those, who think that we can live on friendly terms with the people of Durrover, Burok Torn, and our many other enemies, those are the ones who ultimately want our downfall. After all, there is only one thing that makes the dwarves and their half-human cousins carry on their futile and stubborn battle against us: it is their deep and ingrained hatred of us! They hate everything we stand for and everything we believe in. For them, peace and respect is not an option! They don’t even have a word for „respect“ in their languages!Instead, they continue to fight, and while they could have long ago given peace to the world by surrendering to our terms, they are wasting the lives of many good soldiers and innocents with their stupid pride and destructive stubbornness! And because their mindless hatred of our superior ways and superior beliefs has cost so many lives already, we shall not falter and let up until they are defeated and the unneccesary bloodshed will end! After all, we are serving him who had defeated many titans with his own very own hand, and we shall continue his struggle against chaos and disorder.For what is this freedom our enemies seek? It is the freedom to live up any twisted and perverted act their sick minds would fancy! It is the freedom to let the threat of the titanspawn spread again! It is the freedom to abuse and even persecute the faithful of Chardun! It is the freedom to destroy and subvert everything Calastia and Lageni had built up and defended vigilantly until this very day and in all eternity.I ask you: Is this the freedom that we want?“He paused for a moment, and the crowd, already agitated and excited, roared back at their leader, their master, and their voices were melting together into one deafening roar that left no space for second thoughts or doubts:“ NOOOO!“The speech continued like that for another two hours. Archfiend Fiarun mostly concentrated on the need to grow strong in order to rule over the weak and the duty that the strong had to rule over those who were below him. He was a gifted orator, but still the friends saw that Fiarun was twisting every concept of what was good, right and true. What he was teaching was embracing evil and violence with the goal to fight evil and violence. He was skilled enough to make those who wanted peace look evil while the ones who pushed for war at any price were heroic.Listening to him, you could almost believe that it was really Calastia and Lageni who were pushing for peace and order, while nations like Vesh, Burok Torn and the Knights of Mithril were basically throwing Ghelspad into chaos. Fortunately, the worshippers were too caught up with the speech to notice the friends’ lack of enthusiasm.When it was over, they were granted an audience by the archfiend. Seeing no alternative, they told him the truth, that they were sent to find the ritual to destroy an artifact that had the essence of Mormo in it.Fiarun told them about a wizard and priest who had indeed developed such a ritual, and upon his death he had risen from the grave and enslaved the people of several nearby villages to engrave this ritual and others into the walls of his tomb. As the archfiend told this grisly story he got excited by his admiration for this kind of strength of will, but suddenly stopped: „No. No! No, I will not have the tomb of one of our greatest sages and most learned saints defiled by a band of nonbelievers! Not even to destroy one of the Bitch Queen’s relics. I am sorry, but you will have to find another way.“.Torn tried to convince the archfiend of the urgency of their mission, but the Archfiend interrupted him with a wave of his hand: „Enough. Unless you swear fealty to Chardun and learn his ways, it can’t be gone.“.Staring at each of them menacingly for a moment, he continued: „That doesn’t seem to be the case. Be gone now.“.All of them heard the threats in the evil priest’s voice, and so they left the temple. Outside as they were briskly walking to the gate of the fortress Torn said: „You guys noticed it too, didn’t you?““Yes, he slipped up and mentioned the name of one of the villages“, Jan answered „did you catch it.“.„I got it“, Niklas said after they had silently went through the gate and out of earshot of the guards: „Vauldell.“.</blockquote>

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