NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1574595" data-attributes="member: 1210">CONCLUSION (pt. 1)Sybele moans around the stitches keeping her lips together.  She jerks once, in horrible agony, but is so exhausted that that is all she can muster.If only her eyes were not sewn shut, she would see the sudden slash of silver-blue light that appears in the air next to her, then tears open to form a gate.  On the other side, she would see the warm sun over the atrium in Lester’s new girlfriend’s house.  As it is, she scents a fresh breeze and she hears Thrush’s choked voice.“Sybele,” he groans, his heart as heavy as lead.“Come on,” Orbius says softly, laying a hand on the fighter’s arm.  “We can’t do anything for her here.  Our best hope is to destroy the demilich.”Thrush knows the Eye is right, but he lingers a moment longer, regarding his woman with aching heart.  He hasn’t felt so helpless since his former party and he were trapped inside Bile Mountain, with no escape.She saved me, I’ll save her, he tells himself firmly, and hurries after the others.Angelfire glances at Patyn bemusedly.  This may be their last fight on the same side; she wonders whether, when all is said and done, Patyn will stay with them or leave, or whether he will demand she face him in a challenge.  Well, if it comes to that, so be it- but she’ll kill him without any remorse.After they do for Felenga and Acererak.  Until then, Patyn’s vital.  I don’t want to face them again after this, Angel thinks.  This will be the last time.Quickly, the group makes their way back down to the chamber from which the demons emerged.  “There’s a lot of art here,” Orbius muses.  “This might be the place we can teleport to the phylactery from.”“What if you’re wrong?” Ulla asks.“Let’s find out.”  Orbius smiles and casts a divination.Moments later, they all gather round as Orbius employs the helm of knowing movement he obtained long ago from Felenga in order to greater teleport.*  He’s seen the place in a vision, and though it might not be quite accurate in terms of the environment and features, it’s enough.Suddenly they’re there.The room is a 50’ hemisphere.  Dominating it, glowing with a scarlet radiance like blood, is a huge crystal, multifaceted and gleaming with sullen incarnadine radiance.  The facets pulse and shimmer, but clearly within almost all of the facets are features- faces, contorted in silent agony.  All the souls that Acererak has sucked into it.  All those that have gotten this far before our heroes.A great tripod of black iron holds the chamber above the floor.  Below it- no floor at all, but merely a hole in the floor that opens to absolute blackness.  The Void.  The Negative Energy Plane.  There is no sign of the demilich.“That’s it!” cries Orbius.  “That’s the phylactery!”  The party moves into action instantly.The simulacrum of Orbius points the wand of days at the great red crystal and cries out, “Kindle!”  There is a tremendous flare of light, like the rising sun, and the crystal is bathed in a glare of solar energy unlike anything our heroes have seen before.  Lester fires a sunray at it, and the two blasts of energy leave the crystal marred and cracked.  Scorch marks trail over it.Thrush attacks, screaming in his rage and frustration.  He hacks mightily at the phylactery, gritting his teeth as slivers of crystal shatter off and explode about him.  He sees Angelfire casting a spell from the corner of his eye, but whatever she’s doing doesn’t seem to work (and she frowns).The real Orbius slinks back into the shadows and pulls out a trump.  Almost immediately, however, he realizes that something’s wrong.  The contact won’t come; it’s like trying to see clearly through a cloudy glass window four feet thick.  I can’t make contact.  If I have time, I might be able to do so...  And then, as our heroes begin their assault, a terrible mocking laughter comes echoing down from above, and they realize that there is some sort of ledge above them.  And floating down comes a terrible sight: the skull of the demilich.“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!”Our heroes pause in their assault as the dreadful knowledge that they face Acererak himself comes crashing in on them.  Acererak, the ancient demilich so terrible that even the hunters of the dead denied his existence.  Acererak, builder of the Tomb of Horrors and center of the Black Academy.  Acererak, the Devourer.“Through hazard and danger you have made your way here,” crows the bejeweled skull, “surpassing challenges both martial and cerebral!  The journey was a hard one, but with each test you bested, your souls were further purified, until you stand before me now with empowered, shining souls visible to those with the eyes to see.”  The rasping voice of the demilich pauses for an instant, then goes on gloatingly.  “I have use for such souls.  You will provide the final catalyst for my union with the Negative Energy Plane itself!  Let the Apotheosis begin!!!”Next Time: I think I’ll take a few months off from story hour writing.  Seeya around, guys.*This is a lot like the 1e/2e version of a helm of teleportation- instead of letting you teleport a couple times a day, it lets you cast all your prepared teleportation spells an extra three times.</blockquote>

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