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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 3577802" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #399] An Audience[/PLAIN]The members of the order looked at one another with somewhat confused expressions on their faces. After a moment's time, Shamalin stepped forward with her empty hands held out at her sides."I'm afraid you will be disappointed," she said. "We have no knowledge with which to 'negotiate.' We were hoping that you could tell us about the man we encountered." Lord Hofralix seemed annoyed with that response, but it was difficult to tell with any certainty; he was just too alien to accurately read."Premarch Rabanmar, z'ress lilrivvin plynn ply'uss-khel k'lar-ussta," the beholder said in a harsh buzzing whisper. He paused and added, "Kyone."The robed Premach bowed and replied, "Elamshin." Then he turned and hurried away without looking back.Only Morier understood the brief exchange and it had been a long time since he'd heard the language of Har'oloth, the lightless realms of the underdark. But not so long that he didn't understand Lord Hofralix's request to have some humans bring in the corpses of a defeated enemy. Before the albino could ponder the ramifications of this, the beholder went back to addressing the group in the common tongue."The elf who attacked you is a servant of the Dorian Brood," Lord Hofralix explained. Three of his eyestalks swiveled around to focus on Karak. "They are what the stonefolk call skaven. Wererat transmuters who scurry about their warrens their entire pathetic lives developing the most virulent plagues. They are a destabilizing force, troublesome at best on their own. But now I find that they have sought an alliance with the Dominion of Flesh Reborn and that has me concerned. I seek information and perhaps more." "Lord Hofralix, I am Ayremac, Holy Warrior of Umba, and we appreciate you welcoming us into your sovereignty," Ayremac said, stepping up to stand beside Shamalin. "We are open to any of your questions, but I am afraid we do not know much of your foes, or at least not by that name. Might I ask what made you want to invite us here?" "You were seen leaving the Tainted Cave, long a stronghold of the Dorian Brood, although never one that was witness to much traffic," the beholder said, fixing Ayremac with a pair of eyestalks. "You were further pursued by members of that Brood. I am not normally concerned with the affairs of the wererat broods, but with the suspected alliance between the Dorians and the Dominion of Flesh Reborn, I thought it prudent to seek you out - the enemies of my enemy."Shamalin was momentarily taken aback by the similarity of Lord Hofralix's words to the response she'd gotten to her Divination. Huzair rapped her vambrace with his knuckles, startling her away from further consideration of the coincidence. She half-turned and Huzair growled into her ear, "When you get a chance, ask him about Sparky.""How is it that you came to be the enemy of the Dorian Brood?" the beholder asked. "How did you come to enter the Tainted Cave, a structure that was ancient and forgotten by the men of the north when I first arose from the night below?""Certainly you appreciate the gravity of our situation," Shamalin countered. "We must be careful with the knowledge we do have." Lord Hofralix's mouth twisted into a parody of a smile, made all the more grotesque because of the fangs that protruded top and bottom from the maw as it smirked."You fear me," the beholder said. "And you are right to. I could decimate you before you had the time to react. This audience chamber would be your grave, with none to bear witness to your destruction save for my loyal vassals." His eyestalks twisted around until three were aimed at Shamalin. "I could do that. But I choose not to. Does not that speak to my trustworthiness?" The priestess of Flor swallowed nervously, her copper eyes focused on the multi-facetted orbs fixed on her."You'll have to forgive me, Lord Hofralix. We have been advised that one who was once a friend is no longer a friend," she explained. "So we must count our allies carefully." The beholder's expression became annoyed."And this is your basis for trying to manipulate me to your own ends?" the creature buzzed. "I was never your friend in the first place, elfling. So that eliminates my qualification as your betrayer." His eyestalks turned away from Shamalin and instead played across the group as a whole."I have shared with you some of the information at my disposal, expecting you to do the same," Lord Hofralix told them. "If you had hoped to dupe me or to deny me discourse, then you were very foolish indeed to come to New Mellorell." His great mouth drew back into a snarl and Morier stepped forward, taking his turn as group spokesman."We were given two bits of information from a powerful water guardian," the eldritch warrior said. "She spoke first of the atrocities committed against Dridana by Aphyx, telling us of the immense gemstone holding Dridana's essense plunged into a mountaintop set adrift in the skies.""Dridana is a human deity, is she not? Goddess of plants, I believe," Lord Hofralix said. "But Dridana is a dead god. What has this to do with the Dorians?""Maybe nothing, but maybe a lot," Morier went on. "We don't think that Dridana's truly dead, just imprisoned within a gemstone. This water guardian also spoke of four keys that must be brought to bear to free Dridana's trapped essence."The beholder's central eye narrowed. "And this is what you learned in the Tainted Cave?" he asked. "This water guardian's knowledge?""No, that's what lead us to the cave in the first place," Morier explained. "We seek the defeat of the Rot Queen and her followers - including the skaven. Does the Dominion seek this same goal?"Before the beholder could answer, Premarch Rabanmar returned accompanied by four humans. They were all tall with blonde hair the color of corn-silk and dressed in scraps of leather and fur that concealed very little of their muscular anatomies. Each of the men carried a bundle wrapped in blood-stained hides slung across their broad shoulders and at a word from the Premarch they lowered these burdens to the floor. Without a word, they each threw open the bundles, displaying the twisted creatures within.What they were - beyond dead - was impossible to tell, although Huzair's first thought was that they were mongrelmen. Like the mongrelmen, they were each strange amalgams of several different creatures but they all held unmistakable rodent qualities: here a thin pink tail, here a whiskered muzzle, here and there patches of gray-brown fur. They also had another unifying trait: extra eyes spaced randomly across their disfigured bodies."These were once faithful servants of this eyehold until they were taken and twisted. What the Dominion of the Final Forge seeks is the total elimination of whatever power has created monstrosities like these," Lord Hofralix grumbled. "Nothing less will do."</blockquote>

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