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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 689230" data-attributes="member: 41">63—A new form, a new way. Newly healed by the goddess’ will, the group moves into action.  Thelbar takes strips from the clothing of the fallen enemies, and forms a crude sash, to carry the divine infant, while keeping his arms free for spell-casting.Taran considers suggesting that an invulnerable baby might make better protection for someone likely to be involved in melee, then reconsiders before uttering the blasphemous notion.  He busies himself with throwing the corpses of the fallen into the portable hole for later looting, and hopes that the child cannot read his mind.The group travels down through the opening in the floor, discovering that the structure they are in is a weird, twisting tower that seems to exist both in the etheric as well as the material planes.  Whatever forces occupied this place must have already made their way to the killing ground above, as the tower is empty of enemies.  They pass through a gate into the material plane, and venturing toward the heart of the place come across a massive orb of pulsing, hungry blackness that floats high above the floor of a large misshapen chamber.Kyreel places her hand upon the forehead of the infant, and with a quick prayer, invokes a positive energy burst into the orb.  Her guess proves correct as the orb writhes in a manner suggesting pain, and vomits forth a cloud of writhing shapes—scores of wraiths grouped together into a hideous mass.  The wraiths surround Thelbar, sucking at his soul, seemingly drawn to him by the presence of Sharlequannan.  He retaliates with magic missiles, and Taran rushes to his side, cleaving into the nightmarish mass with Arunshee’s Kiss and his sun blade.Kyreel focuses on the orb, radiating positive energy in a continual invocation of her goddess.  The orb responds with a ray of inky darkness, that dims the cleric’s radiance, and leeches away part of her soul.  Kyreel cries out in pain, but refuses to back away.As Taran and Thelbar wear down the cloud of wraiths, Kyreel and the orb exchange bursts, positive for negative, and both slowly diminish.  Soon, the wraiths are dispelled, but Kyreel is greatly weakened, and while her faith remains strong, her spirit is overwhelmed; Kyreel falls to the floor, her soul wrenched bit by agonizing bit into the void of nothingness.Thus does she die.Taran swings his sun blade above his head and fills the chamber with a sun burst, and Thelbar uses a spectral hand to cast curing spells into the orb.  Weakened by Kyreel’s onslaught, the orb cannot withstand this new attack, and after a moment, the thing collapses upon itself and implodes with a massive concussive force that pulls the adventurers off their feet.As they stand on wobbly legs and regain their bearings, Thelbar clutches his chest.  “The child!” he shouts.  “Where is the child?”  He and Taran search about frantically, but find themselves completely alone in the room.  There is no sign of Sharlequannan or their fallen companion.“Um, Thel,” Taran begins warily as he turns in circles.  “Where did everybody go?”-----An instant later, Kyreel reappears from thin air, hovering slightly above the ground, and radiating a powerful aura that seems to give light to the room without illuminating anything at all.  Taran and Thelbar fall to their knees, struck by a powerful awe, unable to meet the gaze of their former adventuring companion.  They glance at one another, marveling in the strangeness of it all, and noticing that each of them bears a strange new visage—familiar, yet changed.  They both shed a soft, pale light, and their features show signs of celestial heritage.  They prostrate themselves and kiss the goddess’ robe, stained at the hem with her enemies’ blood.“All opponents shall flee before us, Tar-Ilou, and I thus shall I reveal myself to my people here.” Kyreel’s familiar voice is resonant with a divine presence, somehow familiar and entirely strange at the same time.  “They shall be led to a new home; guide them to the sun and the moon that calls still to their elven blood.  They shall enter the pasoun, and take the grace of the mother, or they shall die—forever in servitude to fell powers and wicked spirits.”Sharlequannan levitates forward, and leads the two bewildered adventurers through the former stronghold of Irae T’ssarion.  Along the way, glimpses of terrible monsters are gained, then instantly obliterated.  Undead, beholders, golems and ghosts are all destroyed suddenly and without mercy.At the gates to the castle, they come upon a startled male drow, dressed head to toe in demonic plate armor, and armed with a huge greatsword.“Khuumar Banishedspawn, Divine Champion to Kiransalee, kneel before me or go to your goddess in pain and fire,” Sharlequannan intones.  The blackguard immediately falls to the ground, casting aside his sword.“Spare me, great one,” he whimpers.  “I will serve you!”Sharlequannan approaches the drow, and places her open palm above his head.  “You are less than nothing to me until you have atoned for the stain upon your soul.  Serve me and show your worth, fail me and despair; for Lolth is risen and Arunshee is reborn.  Join these, my champions.  You will follow them and learn their ways, for they are pleasing to me.”  And with that, the reborn Sharlequannan, called Arunshee by the drow, disappears and all is still.The blackguard looks up and regards the brothers Tar-Ilou, then makes a soft choking sound.  “What have I done?” he mutters.  “Kiransalee, my dark queen—I have betrayed you.”“Shut the f-ck up and quit whining,” Taran says.  “We just upgraded your sorry ass.”  Taran kicks the blackguard’s vile unholy weapon away from him, and points to the drow’s other armament, a small dagger strapped to his side that glows with a foul greenish light.  “What the f-ck is that?” he says.“I . . . I am a specialist with the dagger,” the drow says apologetically.  Taran snatches the blade from its sheath, and laughs.“What are you, a sailor?”  He flings the blade away.  “Get real.  And take that armor off while you’re at it.”-----After Khuumar complies with Taran’s demands, Taran pulls him close.  “Get this.  You’re with us now.  Cross me, and I’ll kill you.  Give me a reason, and I’ll kill you.  If you think Arunshee gives a damn about you, this is me laughing at you, got it?  Please her, and you’ll be all right.  Fail her, and you can take your chances in the afterlife.”  Taran looks at Thelbar, and shares a smile before turning back to the humbled drow.  “Personally, I think Kiransalee will f-ck you sideways for what you just did.”At that moment, the group hears the voice of Arunshee from beyond the castle’s gates.  Rushing outside, they see the divine form of the goddess, familiar and unknowable, hovering above the city.  Despite the smoke, every inhabitant of the place can see her clearly.“I am Lolth, and I am Arunshee.  I bring a new way to my people, and all those who embrace it shall live forever in my graces, blessed to embrace the right of their holy birth.  Those who reject it are cast out, never to walk the surface; left to misery and squalor below the earth.  My champions are among you, obey them as you would obey me.  Obedience is life, and my due.  Reject me and suffer an eternity of torment at the hands of those who love you not.  So has it been spoken, so let it be.”And with that, the goddess Arunshee vanishes, never again to be seen by the inhabitants of Maermydra, save for within their fevered dreams.Taran and Thelbar hear the unspoken voice of Arunshee in their heads, “Take my children to the surface, they are in your hands.  Do not fail me.”</blockquote>

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