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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1008627" data-attributes="member: 1210">In the Halls of the UnboundOur heroes clamber through the rocky opening into a 35' square room.  There's a strange globe of scarlet light that seems to emanate from the center of the place.  It's about six feet in diameter.As they enter, many of the group feel their hair start rising on end, almost as if they were in an electric field.  There's a strange tang in the air.  Other than the sphere, the room seems empty."Gah!" cries a voice from Lester's scabbard.  "Felix!" he shouts, and draws his sword partway free.  "You can talk again!""This must be the way out," exclaims Drelvin."Let's not waste any time," the L says, excited, and reaches forward to touch the sphere...Of course it might have been someone else who actually touched it first, but Lester will, as always, end up taking the fall for it.  Even as Orbius calls, "Hold a moment," it's too late.  There's no welcome flash of light to take them home or anything quite so simple.  Instead, a strange sphere of glimmering colorless... something... slides off the globe of scarlet light and bobs before them.  Orbius gives an inarticulate cry and backpedals away from it, not quite sure what to make of it, as swords are drawn.  But... it isn't clearly a threat, not even clearly alive, so no one moves to strike it.It floats towards Malford, trying to touch him, and he flips away from it, then hurls a phantasmal killer towards it.  Unfortunately, he finds himself subject to his own spell!  Even so, Thrush, Zonzor and Angelfire move in, slashing with swords and Lord Ruin's axe.  There's a spray of wobbly colorless stuff- is it liquid?- that flies out from it, and it seems to recoil to a certain extent.  Sybele manifests displacement- extended- and starts firing arrows at the weird sphere.Lester, taking his cue from Felix Optima Maxima's voice, blasts the sphere with a quickened flame arrow, but the creature (if it is a creature) doesn't seem harmed at all.  Frowning, he shuffles out his trump of Var and starts concentrating.  "Get ready to leave!" he shouts.More arrows zip from Drelvin and Sybele, and the sword- and axe-wielders strike again and again.  Angelfire slashes his falchion in a huge, savage arc and cuts the thing in two, and the globby stuff splashes to the ground, only to fade like ectoplasm."Weird," says Malford, dispelling his phantasmal killer.  "Never seen anything like that before.  And-" with a glare towards Lester- "don't touch anything!""It wasn't me!" Lester exclaims, but nobody listens, and the group turns their attention back to the scarlet light.  The elementalist puts his trump away for the time being- it's cold, a good sign that it works- but he wants a last look around first. "Magic seems to work here," Orbius reports happily, and the group searches for an obvious exit.  There are none, and no secret doors turn up- in fact, given the haphazard construction of the place, it seems unlikely that there could be any."Maybe we have to provide our own way back," Horbin suggests, and the group slowly comes to agree.Before they trump out, the party does a few things.  Orbius casts a legend lore concerning the scarlet light, wanting to be certain they aren't overlooking anything vital, and receives this:Melifu's last refuge of eldritch mightWorld's last magic held in scarlet lightHis bones must be scattered to release the tieThat holds scarlet power condensed from the skyMagic distilled, a danger to touchPower of magic that damaged too much.Meanwhile, Felix Optima Maxima and Shastruth, Lester and Drelvin's intelligent swords, have a discussion about how horrible it was to be in Arba, where they were reduced to almost nothing, barely alive.  Lester even feels Felix Optima shudder in his hand."Well," says Chairo cheerfully in Draconic, "time to go!""What about him?" asks Lester, jerking his thumb at Zonzor.  "Do we take him with us?"Horbin points out that, with Polo of the Storms already on his way home, if they don't take Zonzor to Cydra he'll be stuck here, condemned to starvation.  Although some of the party is reluctant, they agree to bring him with them.And they all trump home... except Zonzor, who trumps to somewhere he's never even imagined.Next Time: Return to Var!  Simulacrum paranoia!  Lester calls a meeting!</blockquote>

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