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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1062655" data-attributes="member: 1210">Becoming a TargetHorbin the Holy takes the corpse of Telemundo, the old sorcerer, to his temple for resurrection.  Soon the sorcerer jerks back to life, anger in his eyes, and stomps off on his own.  He spends some time trying to put a hit out on Angelfire, but he doesn't really know who to talk to or where to go.  Spukoni, meanwhile, has assumed a more humanoid shape- silvery, feathered, with a whip for an arm- but more humanoid nonetheless.  "So what do you guys need this thing for, anyway?" Spukoni asks brightly.  "We're going to use it to overthrow a great enemy of ours, who leads the forces of the Temple of Elemental Evil," Lester tells the strange creature."The Temple of Elemental Evil?" Spukoni exclaims.  "I worked for them briefly!""What?""Yeah, we carried rocks for beholders.  Now, normally I wouldn't carry rocks, but when a beholder tells you to do something you really ought to.  You don't want to get a beholder mad, you know.""Wow... so maybe you could help us sneak in there or something?""My divinations have told me that our best course is to strike at the nodes," Orbius proclaims.  "I don't know about any nodes," Spukoni says, "but I'll tell you what, beholders are mean!  And they had all sorts of powerful clerics and stuff too, plus some half-elf murfur or something..."But our heroes are unconcerned, or at least not overly concerned; they've fought beholders before- entire nests of them, in fact.*Angelfire sets out to track down a helm of teleportation after Lester mentions that Arion the Archmage made once for his old buddy Thimbleton once.  "Do you think he has another one?  Would he be disposed to sell it, or make one?"Drelvin laughs.  "He's disposed to drink and fire off lightning bolts, that's about it."Angelfire determines to try, anyhow, and drops by Arion's tower with the party.  They knock but receive no reply; Orbius leaves a message.  The group does some shopping around, then goes to Horbin's temple.  Angelfire, Thrush, Sybele and Jezebel stay outside in the gardens while the others go inside to talk to one of Horbin's clerical associates, the local high priest (his official title in the church is 'Rector') Metron, who sees things that don't appear to be there in any conventional sense."How are things?" Horbin asks him.Metron looks haunted, and he says, "There are lots of them.  You can't see them, but they spill over from somewhere outside..."  He gulps, staring around him in fear.  "I can't stand it."Concerned, Horbin talks to him for a few moments, hoping to draw out information and offer some comfort.  Simultaneously, Thrush, Sybele and Jezebel are talking in the garden.  "We're in a dangerous period," Sybele is saying.  "Maybe too dangerous for you.  I'm not sure that it's wise for you to be with us right now, so I thought I'd offer to send you to be with Marius for a little while."Jezebel's face conveys mixed emotions- a guilty pleasure among them.  "I-I'll think about it," she says hesitantly.Angelfire, a few dozen feet away, is idly arranging rocks in the garden into the shape of Coila's symbol, when suddenly he spies something swimming through the folded dimensions at him, an immensely fat thing with a gaping mouth.  Before the red-skinned Coilite can even move its materialized right on him, a blubbery corpse-thing tearing at his arm with a huge mouth!  Angelfire hears the screams of Sybele and Jezebel as the bloated monster rips at him.With a grunt of effort, Angel brings out his falchion and slashes it across the chest, inflict a punishing blow.  There's no blood; instead, a thick brown sludge starts leaking slowly from the monster, smelling of rot and feces.  It gnashes its teeth and roars, "So hungry!"  Screaming, it rushes him again, its little hands scrabbling for the book in Angel's backpack.  Its lower jaw unhingers and it bites the Coilite along the breast and ribs, tearing a great chunk of flesh from him.  Angelfire stands his ground, slicing at the thing, hacking into its neck."Get the priests!" Sybele shouts to Jezebel, her bow in her hands.  Simultaneously, her psicrystal telepathically alerts her allies within the church, issuing a rallying cry directly into their minds.  Then Sybele's firing arrows at the monster.Within the church office, the rest of the party stiffens as the psicrystal's message reaches them, and Lester and Horbin leap to the wall leading to the gardens.  The L casts pass through earth and stone and steps through the wall; Horbin the Holy stone shapes an exit for all of them.  And Metron, the cleric who sees things, gives a great wavering scream and flees deeper into the church.Meanwhile, the duel between the snapping monster and Angelfire's sharp blade is rudely interrupted by Thrush, who steps up and finishes matters with a series of immensely damaging blows from his blade.  The corpse falls to the ground, immobile now, and starts rotting.  Within a few minutes all that remains is an oily blubber, and in an hour even that is gone; only a greasy stain shows where the thing fell.  Orbius legend lores the monster and obtains a snippet of verse:Eater of heroesBringer of famineEnder of citiesBiter of heads"Hm," the Eye says thoughtfully."Why did you run?" Horbin asks Metron meanwhile."They're surrounding the red one," Metron tells him with fear in his eyes.  Horbin can only assume that Metron is referring to Angelfire, whose skin is indeed the red of a deep sunburn.  Thoughtfully, our heroes leave.They return to the castle, whereupon they give the Deleter up to Malford for safekeeping.  "Until we decide what to do with it, I think you're the best one to hold it," Horbin states, and the gnome-king nods thoughtfully.  That evening, he sends his mind to a distant plane to try to ascertain a few things about the weapon.How does the Deleter work?  Touch.Can it only be used once? No.How do we destroy it? Glass.Who among our group would be best suited to using it? Sybele.What's our biggest unseen problem when facing Felenga?Stain.Where is our best opportunity to strike Felenga? Nodes.Oddly, even after Malford's recommendation, Sybele seems reluctant to put the Deleter on."Perhaps it's time to ask Boccob some questions," Orbius muses, and casts a commune spell.I open my mind to you, Boccob- take what knowledge I have to provide!Who sent the monster at us? Nobody.Is there a way to trigger the sorely beset curse the Bile Lords have placed upon us without hurting ourselves bodily? Yes.What is the best way? Incapacitate.Is there a way to dispel the curse? Yes.Who do I know that could dispel it? No one.Give me the name of someone who could and might be willing to dispel it, if we met their demands. Marius the Frozen-Hearted.A simulacrum, Orbius thinks instantly.Give me the name of someone who can and might do it, who isn't a likely enemy of ours. Vuivui.Who me a place where we can safely teleport into the chamber of the elder brain leading the mind flayers threatening the svirfneblin we meet under the mountain recently. None.Where can we find or go to summon Vuivui? Squirmhall.Does the Diamond Sword of Raldese exist on Cydra? No.What is the stain Malford learned of? Lie.What is Felenga's biggest current problem? Darkhold.What is the name of the Prince of Elemental Good Air? Chan.What is the name of the Prince of Elemental Good Earth? Sunnis.What is the name of the Prince of Elemental Good Fire? Zaaman Rul.What is the name of the Prince of Elemental Good Water? Ben-Hadar.What is the name of the most powerful hunter of the dead who might help us? Patyn.What is one of the Deleter's powers? Unknown."Well," says Lester after Orbius reports his information, "I propose we first find a way to deal with the Bile Lords' curse and then assault Felenga.  It's time to take the fight to him!""You guys are cursed?" Malford inquires."Sort of," says Angelfire."Yes," Lester answers, "we've been cursed by the Bile Lords so that when we're sorely beset they'll come kick our butts.""I didn't know that it was a curse," Sybele says, but the rest ignore her.  "I'll help you break the curse," Malford offers.  "I am required by Galador to do that sort of thing.  Heh heh.""Once the adventuring bug got back into you, you just can't stop, eh, Malford?" Lester slaps the king on the back, who looks a little sheepish but certainly can't deny his friend's words."Your Majesty, may I speak to you alone for a moment?" Thrush asks, and the two go aside and speak in quiet tones for a moment.  Meanwhile, Orbius casts sendings to Garnet, Zelman and Patyn, receives a reply only from Patyn (I oppose the Black Academy- it is surely the greater danger; join me).  He also dispatches a sending to Marius, offering to let him take Jezebel as his apprentice.  His heart feels oddly tight as he does so.  A reply indicates acceptance; and the Eye prepares to cast a gate to the Citadel of Eternity.  Jezebel casts him a longing look, and he opens the portal.Jezebel hesitates for a long moment; then she throws her arms around Orbius and kisses him full on the lips.  The kiss draws itself out for a long moment, then breaks; and the Sybele's half-dragon lovechild steps through the gate.Orbius sighs and lets the gate close.  He does indeed hope to see her again in the future."All right," says Lester decisively.  "Squirmhall."*<a href="http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=655726#post655726" target="_blank">Back in Bile Mountain.</a>Next Time: Squirmhall!</blockquote>

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