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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 1215803" data-attributes="member: 41">94—The Divine Champion of Palatin EremathDuring the long respite, Elgin Trezler goes to his god several times asking about Gorquen’s well being, and each time is assured that she is well.  Winter turns to Spring, and Spring to fall.  Nearly a full year after they left, Gorquen, Ilwe and Khuumar return with a fabulous tale:Beginning at the beginning, Gorquen states that Obuld-Many-Arrows does have fire giants in his army.  “Did have,” Ilwe corrects her.  “Did have,” she says.  These fire-giants were led by a foul priest of Tenebrous (the deity known to the Ermathan Pantheon as Scaladar, and to the rest of the multiverse as Orcus), and after killing all of the demon-worshippers among them, she was able to persuade the surviving giants to leave the Silver Marches and trouble civilization no more.As she adventured against these giants, she encountered a strange being—a titan who claimed to have been rescued from a long imprisonment in the penal-plane Carceri by followers of Scaladar.  The giants were raiding the plane to rescue elven souls; souls that had been cast into torment by Corellon Larethian for the crime of remaining loyal to Palatin Eremath, and her “Eternal Champion” Scaladar.  Apparently, the demon-god had been conspiring to free them for many millennia, and used the recent deific upheaval to make his move.What exactly happened to the liberated souls was unclear to her, but she assumes that they are somehow in the service of their fallen lord.She returned to New Ithor with drow refugees that had been abandoned in the cities beneath Sundabar and the Moon Pass.  Lost without the withering guidance of Lolth’s church, these drow had responded to a prophet’s call to make for the surface, where they found themselves trapped by the fire-giants squatting in the caverns above.  Gorquen’s arrival broke the détente, and she led two thousand of the willing to a new life in the new drow-home to the south.After that adventure, she might have thought she was done, but the Ermathan Pantheon was not done with her.  Solonor Thelandir sent a dream to Ilwe instructing him to travel South and East—to old Cormanthyr and Myth Drannor.  There, he and Gorquen were to find a holy artifact:  a wedding present given Solonor by the elven father-god when Solonor married Corellon’s champion Palatin Eremath!  Ilwe was to take this gift, and return it to Corellon Larethian’s high priests on the elven isle of Evermeet.“Holy sh-t,” Taran says, more impressed with someone going willingly to Myth Drannor than with all this talk of gods and their artifacts.Ilwe, Gorquen and Khuumar set out for the fabled city (and Second Worst Place in Faerun) and upon their arrival discover three things of note:  first among them, and most surprising, Gorquen herself lived one of her past-lives here during the era of Myth Drannor’s fall!  In this life, she was eldest sister to Clan Alushair, the very same family of high-elves who kept and tended Corellon Larethian’s wedding gift to Solonor Talendiira and Palatin Eremath—a single, perfect and unique flower, as immortal as its giver.  Along with the bride-gift, they also kept the most crucial knowledge of all; of the existence of Palatin Eremath.  That there should be at least one person alive who could recall her name, Gorquen (in her past life) was sent from the city just prior to its downfall, and lived the rest of that existence ashamed that she had abandoned her loved ones in the time of need.“Well, that really explains a lot about you, Gorqie,” Taran says.Gorquen sniffs disdainfully, and Ilwe picks up the tale.After learning about her past life, the group made for the artifact chamber (which, armed with her knew knowledge, Gorquen could access), but were confronted by a band of Tenebrous followers led by Nathe.  “Yes,” Khuumar says with a sneer, “Your Nathè, Taran.”“We had to fight her, Taran,” Ilwe says, gently placing a comforting arm on Taran’s shoulder.“You killed her, did you?” Taran asks evenly.“I had that honor,” Gorquen replies coolly.  The two warriors stare at one another for a long moment.“Get my jewelry back, then?” Taran asks.-----During her fight with the Tenebrous followers, Gorquen was struck by a prismatic spray, and plane-shifted against her will to the border-town of Plague-Mort, in Concordant opposition.  Her companions were able to join her, and had some predictably violent interactions with the locals.Shortly after their arrival, they were contacted by a craven and cringing necromancer of a uniquely loathsome disposition by the name of Skleeve who claimed that he was “waiting” for Gorquen.  Apparently he had been on something of a sightseeing trip to the corpse of a god floating in the Void when he lingered too long—he was snared by residual deific power, and had since become something of an unwilling prophet.  Mostly he had been prophesying this meeting, he told her, clearly glad to be finally free of his charge.Skleeve explains to Gorquen that he belongs to a great and wide-reaching organization; one that holds the gods themselves to be frauds and charlatans.  So is it any wonder, that of all the vacation sites in the universe, Skleeve wanted to visit the corpse of the goddess who agrees with him?He led Gorquen to the corpse of Palatin Eremath, and there within the goddess’ body was the blade Soludrun, the legendary weapon of Corellon Larethian—the very blade that refused his hand once he struck down his kin.  Gorquen communicated with this blade, and was able to remove it from Palatin Eremath’s corpse.  The bastard sword is magnificent—a powerfully enchanted weapon in its own right, but even more impressively Solodrun is intelligent!  Solodrun agrees with Skleeve on only one topic;  it too has been waiting for Gorquen’s arrival.Ilwe and Khuumar arrive via plane shift fairly shortly after Gorquen does, and the three adventurers spend several days grilling Skleeve and meditating on the meaning of recent events.  Rested, and somewhat overwhelmed, they returne to house Alushair in Myth Drannor only to find that their experience with the body of Palatin Eremath cost them almost a year of Prime-Material time!They were able to recover the artifact, despite the best attempts of several foul servants of Tenebrous who stood in their way.  Artifact in hand, they journeyed to the Elven Retreat of Evermeet to return the gift to the priesthood of the elven father-god.“And you should’ve seen those day-elves giving me the up and down,” Khuumar laughs.  “But hey, at least I wasn’t the only drow on the isle.”  Khuumar smirks.  “Just the second.”Nearly the entire community was on hand to receive the three adventurers, and despite their misgivings they were warmly embraced by the elves of Evermeet.  The flower was taken into the care of Corellon Larethian’s high priests, and Queen Almuriel gave the following address:“Welcome, brothers and sisters.  I have waited long for this meeting.  I honor your quest, as does my master.  You may believe differently, but we are not enemies--your cause is not so distant from our own.  We elves know of grief unlike any other; but our suffering is a shallow and transient thing compared to the pain of those who give us life.  My Master’s sorrow is deep.  I have communed with him and have seen the history that was withheld from us.  How I wish that we need not feel the loss of our mother.  A hollow place in our soul has been made, to honor her memory; in her name we mean to plant this flower in the center of our greatest shrine where it will mark our grief and our hope.  May her memory live there always.”During the group’s stay, Almuriel approached Gorquen alone, and told her that she had “seen a great battle that will tear apart everything you have built.  The heavens will part and the anger of the gods drive their celestial hordes forth.  She will die again, and you will be left godless, abandoned.”  Almuriel begged Gorquen to rethink her cause, and “stay with your people, leaving the humans and dark ones to their own paths.”Gorquen bristled at this proclamation, but Almuriel took pains to assure Gorquen that while she has been given visions of this great conflict to come, “no elf who loves Corellon Larethian or his kin will draw blood in this battle.”The queen made it clear to Gorquen that while she accepted the reality that Palatin Eremath was the mother-goddess of the elven race, and was killed by Corellon Larethian’s hand no less, she holds the act to be just, if tragic.  She told Gorquen that despite the hidden history of the elven race, the goddess Ishlok is no longer a true elven goddess.  Ishlok’s pasoun, she contended, robs the elves of those things that make them a people—their culture, identity and racial integrity.  Almuriel encouraged Gorquen to leave the service of Ishlok and “the base races”, to “rejoin her family,” and remain on the isle.Gorquen refused, but nonetheless, Almuriel gave the winged elf her blessings, and presented Gorquen with a family heirloom, a magical scabbard “worthy of Soludrun.”-----“It is a grand gift,” Gorquen says, slightly embarrassed.“My family has left the isle,” Ilwe adds.  “They accepted the pasoun, I am proud to say, and have done me the honor of accepting Gorquen.”  He is blushing with pride, and he takes Gorquen’s hand.“And then we came here,” Khuumar says.  “We went to Evermeet to slap a god, but got a hero’s welcome!”  He is obviously pleased with himself.  In fact, gone is his former hang-dog bearing—the mark of Arunshee is fully on him now, and he no longer has the vaguely terrified and cowed look that he’d possessed while adventuring with Taran and Thelbar.Gorquen and Ilwe are likewise strengthened by their recent exploits—Gorquen in particular looks majestic.  Truly, Soludrun is a legendary weapon, and Gorquen appears every inch the swordswoman worthy of it.“Gave you a magical scabbard, huh,” Taran says suspiciously.  “Did you tell them who gave you your wings?”</blockquote>

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