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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 3777471" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #406e] Origins V[/PLAIN]"Ayremac, you lightweight!" Huzair snorted disgustedly. "How much have you had to drink?" The holy warrior glowered truculently through the fire at the wizard."What does it matter to you?" he challenged and Huzair rolled his eyes."Oh, I do not know," he shot back. "Maybe that you are getting too light-headed and who knows who will sneak up on us out here!" He spread his arms to indicate the dark forest all around."Don't worry, Huzair," Ayremac slurred. "I'll fight the bad guys off long enough for you to run away." Huzair snapped around quickly, but Karak held up his hands, one of which contained the empty Goblet."Enough!" he barked. "Ayremac, lad. Ye know I do nae side lightly with the wizard, but in this 'e be right! Ye've drank enough!""I'll decide when-" Ayremac began but the dwarf cut him off as he had done to Huzair."No! The Goblet be mine! I'll decide!" Karak snapped. "An' I say ye've all had enough! Ye're all spillin' the gold right 'ere in front of-" He held his tongue, but favored the elf maid with an accusatory look that left nothing in doubt."We'll regret this, to be sure," he muttered, busying himself with stowing the Goblet in his pack. Anania considered him for a few long moments before straightening herself and letting her gaze travel across the others."My own story is not as fraught with death and loss as yours have been," she began. "My parents are both still alive and living in New Mellorell and they have never raised their hands to me in anger. I have never been married nor do I have any children to lose to assassins.""Sounds idyllic, sweet flower," Huzair observed, giving her hand a squeeze. She nodded."It is," she admitted freely. "But it was not always so. The coming of Lord Hofralix improved our lives immensely.""How?" Karak asked, bluntly cutting her off before she could stray too far from the observation."Yes, Anania," Ixin pressed. "We heard the same thing from many other citizens of New Mellorell. But exactly how Lord Hofralix improved your lives was never explained to us." The elf maiden's eyes narrowed, her expression growing more guarded. Her hand went to her throat and touched lightly a green and brown scarf that she wore there."Not long ago by elven reckoning, New Mellorell was known simply as Mellorell," she said finally. She raised her eyes and looked directly at Ixin. "Our settlement was plagued every seven years by the predations of an evil creature born of dreams, a night hag named Malifustal. She would appear and send forth her army of grimlocks and vargouiles to carry off victims to sate her dark hungers.""What are-" Shamalin started to ask and Karak snorted."Grimlocks be folk what live in the deep caves below," he explained. "They only come up from the dark to hunt fresh meat. They've nae eyes an' they hunt by hearin' an' smell. Nasty things!""And vargouilles are things from the lower planes," Morier added. "They look a bit like flying, bat-winged heads. Their kiss is infectious and causes a victim's body to whither away until only the head is left to fly off as another vargouille." Huzair looked impressed."Were you actually paying attention when Uncle Appie went over "The Monstrous Compendium" with us?" the wizard asked and Morier shook his head."No," he said. "But I did have to deal with a pair of the things near Nicilantria a couple of years ago. They're not too hard to kill, but the trouble is how quickly they can reproduce. One can turn easily into a dozen in a couple of days.""And so you understand the dire situation in which we Mellorn found ourselves," Anania explained. "We did not passively accept our fate, of course. We sent parties of skilled warriors into the tunnels beneath the forest to find the source of the recurring evil. The warrens beneath were vast and though my people slew many grimlocks, the evil of the night hag continued unabated.""We developed these antovar," she told them, tugging on the scarf she wore around her neck until it covered the entire lower half of her face. "Treated with special alchemical processes, they grant a small measure of resistance to the vargouilles' kiss. But it mattered not for the attacks continued.""Eventually the wizard, Illinar Innoeth, came to believe that we would never be able to find and destroy the night hag so instead, he suggested an alternate plan," she went on, pulling her antovar down so that her nose and mouth were once more visible. "We charted the upper caverns extensively and with the help of some of our druids, sealed all the entrances with Walls of Stone. It did not help. Malifustal and her allies came as they always did and we began to despair of ever being free of her.""Then Lord Hofralix came?" Huzair opined but Anania shook her head."If only that had been the case. The Mellorn would have been spared from disgrace," she told him. "No. Realizing that we could not stop Malifustal's terrible attacks, our Dorator, Aeleth, came up with a desperate way to save we elves. By hosting a large trading fair during the seven days of the night hag's traditional hunt, Malifustal would have access to hundreds of unsuspecting victims from the barbarian tribes. Few of the Mellorn, if any, would be taken.""The arrangement between our Dorator and the night hag has become known as Aeleth's Pact and it is not spoken of amongst the Mellorn. No one in New Mellorell would willingly share our shame with an outsider," she said. "For 90 years, we held the Festival of Life, trading with the human tribes. And every time, many of the nomads would disappear during the Festival, victims of the night hag and her minions.""Eventually, the barbarians became suspicious and conflicts between out people and them became bloody. A state of war developed," she said, looking embarrassed by her admission. "Then Lord Hofralix came. He slew Malifustal and her allies without aid and we welcomed him as our new leader. Dorator Aeleth abdicated her position without protest and we have lived in peace and security ever since.""Only these antovar remain as a reminder of the depths to which we had sunk before Lord Hofralix came from the night below, to bring us hope and order," she looked from Ixin to Karak. "And that is how Lord Hofralix has improved the lives of the Mellorn."---------------------------OOC- And anyone familiar with Dungeon magazine may recognize the set-up with the night hag and grimlocks I described as one from an adventure found therein. I've hidden the name below under a spoiler tag.[spoiler]Mellorn Hospitality.[/spoiler]</blockquote>

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