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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 3213336" data-attributes="member: 143">I'm happy that you guys enjoyed the perspective of the bad guys. I try to put at least some of that into every one of my stories. Coming up with a way to handle the cult of Orcus was a challenge; there really isn't much about internal politics between the various temples in the module, unlike, say, in the Shackled City series. I've been trying to take little hooks that are in the module, like the powerful evil book located in a random priest's chest, and work them into the larger plot arc. I'm glad it was effective in this case. I agree that it's much easier to handle LE villains than CE, at least in terms of establishing an effective internal consistency, but then again, CE opens up some interesting possibilities as well. More on that later.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Glad I can keep a few surprises coming... my readers are notorious for figuring out my plot twists in advance, but I can usually slip a few OMG moments in.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Nice that you found us at last, NWK! I'm very pleased with the reception that this story has gotten thus far. Let's find out!* * * * * Chapter 54AN UNPLEASANT DIALOGUE“The Great Lord will feast upon your souls,” Aelos said.  Or rather, slurred, for it was difficult for the cleric to speak clearly with his jaw broken and blood spraying from his lips with every syllable.  They were in the room where they’d battled the wights earlier, gathered on the far side of the cavern with their lights carefully shaded in an effort to reduce the chance of discovery.“The Great Lord can kiss my hairy white ass,” Dar said.  “Tell us what you know, priest!”Aelos managed to laugh, a grisly sight given his mangled appearance.  “To the Abyss with you... you’ll be there soon enough.”The fighter lifted a mailed fist, but Varo stopped him.  “Enough.  He is not going to talk.”“Maybe if I start taking fingers...”“No... stop,” Allera said.  She’d gone across the room, but could not stay away; the suffering of a living, sentient creature kept bringing her back.  “We cannot do this... Talen, you have to stop them.”The captain only stood there, his face a mask of stone. Varo held up his hand.  “No, she’s right,” he said.  “Pain, or even the threat of death, will not avail you against one such as him.  I could break him, given time and patience, but those are things that we do not have in quantities at the moment.” “What do you suggest?” Dar asked. “His crimes merit a sentence of death,” Varo said.  He looked over his shoulder.  “Am I within the law, captain?”Talen nodded.  Allera turned away.  “All right, now you’re talking,” Dar said, reaching for the priest.  With his legs bound uncomfortably beneath him, and his arms stretched tight behind his back, there was nothing Aelos could do to resist.   “My master will welcome me with open arms,” the priest said. “Yeah, well, tell him I’m coming to kick his fat ass,” Dar said.  The priest spit a gob of bloody spittle into the fighter’s face.  Dar smashed him across the face, and he collapsed, unconscious again.  “He may as well be of some use to us, even in death,” Varo said. “What are you saying?” Talen said, but it was clear in his eyes that he had a good idea. “Feed him to the otyugh,” Varo said.  “It ensures that he will not be raised, and perhaps Max will have something else to offer us in exchange.  In any case, I’d feel better with that creature between us and the temple.  We can rest and plan our next move from the ogre chamber.”Talen looked at Varo for a long minute.  “You are a cold man, priest.”“I do what needs to be done.  You have been here long enough to know what is at stake, soldier of Camar.”Talen, troubled, turned away and did not respond. Varo nodded to Dar.  “Take him up.”  He took the cleric’s staff; they’d already looted his other possessions, including a ring that Varo said had likely masked his true aura from magical detection.“You here that, you evil bastard?” Dar said, shaking the cleric.  “You’re going to be breakfast!”  Aelos, still unconscious, did not respond.Allera, her eyes wide, watched as the two men dragged their bound captive toward the rat tunnel that led back to the otyugh’s cavern. Talen started after them, but Allera stopped him with a hand on his arm.  “Talen, what’s happening to us?”The captain sighed.  “We are becoming what we are fighting against,” he said.  Then he turned away from her, and continued after the others.  Allera stood there for a moment as the darkness started to close around her.  Then, wiping her face clean of tears, she followed after them.</blockquote>

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