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="Lazybones" data-source="post: 434825" data-attributes="member: 143">Hey, that's a good idea.  Time for some reader participation!  Instead of giving it away here in the thread, why don't we have a little contest...If you know (or think you know) who 1) Delem's new demonic patron is, and 2) who the mysterious "Master" of Undermountain is, send me an email at <a href="mailto:kmcdonal@cde.ca.gov">kmcdonal@cde.ca.gov</a> with your answers.  Those who are correct on both counts will receive, in their email inbox, an advanced copy of the conclusion of book 6, before everyone else gets to read it on this page!  Now everyone can be like Horacio, reading ahead of the group!Here's one hint for question 1: it is someone who is also featured right now in another popular story hour here at ENWorld.  And now we return to your regularly scheduled program...* * * * * Book VI, Part 25Dana knelt before the crescent-shaped font in the small, private chapel that adjoined the temple.  The water in the font, which was fashioned of silver-inlaid iron, was blessed, holy water sanctified by Seral himself.  The room was quiet, with only the soft sound of the night breeze to disturb the stillness of her meditation.  Seral had remained in the main temple, giving her privacy for her devotions.  She had completed her prayers, and Selûne had granted her the power that she required.  Now she called upon that divine power, focusing her attention on the water in the font.  It took time, and great concentration, but Dana was used to summoning discipline and focus to tackle a task.  The ritual associated with this particular spell took a full hour to complete, and she went through each step calmly, drawing the energy that she would need to complete her goal.Finally, when she looked down at the waters, she saw not a pale reflection of her own face in the dim evening light, but rather a deep well of shadows that seemed to go on forever.  Answers waited in those depths, she hoped. “Show me Benzan, mother,” she said.  “Show him to me.”The patterns in the water shifted and coalesced, but instead of solidifying into the familiar image of his face, they broke apart again and continued to roil uncontrollably in the matrix of her spell.  She tried again, with a similar result, and then drew back, troubled.  A sick feeling rose up in the pit of her stomach.  If something had happened to him...No, she told herself, dismissing that thought.  She’d felt... something, but it was as if there was a barrier between them, blocking the functioning of her spell.  She’d never actually used the scrying magic before, but she’d learned a fair amount about its operation, enough for her to believe her interpretation. If she wasn’t deceiving herself, a tiny voice in the back of her head whispered.She returned to the main temple.  Seral read her face immediately, and came to her. “You did not see him?”“The spell worked, but there was a... barrier of some sort, blocking the spell.  I could not get his image to form in the water.”“Hmm...” the old cleric said.  “It could be a number of things—a spell of screening, either on his person or on the place where he is located.  And there are some places where scrying will not function, areas of dead magic...”She stamped her foot against the stone, a frustrated look upon her face.  “Don’t worry,” he told her.  “There is one more thing that we can try.”He left here there and went to his quarters.  When he returned a minute later, he was carrying a scroll.  “I wrote this a year ago, but never had need of it, until now.”He showed her the scroll, and she looked up at him in surprise.  “I... I mean, I don’t know what to say, such a potent gift...”“You do not need to say anything, Dana.  I can see the light of the Mother shining in you; by helping you, I am helping her cause as well.”They returned to the chapel, and the elf sat across from her on one of the low benches that ran along the lengths of the walls.  “I will need something that belonged to him, to cast the spell.  Or you could try it yourself, although it is a very difficult spell.”Dana nodded—Seral was being tactful; in reality she knew that the spell on the scroll was way beyond her abilities.  So she reached under the collar of her tunic, and drew out a small, almost delicate silver amulet on a slender chain.“He insisted that I take it, when we parted.  It bears a minor protective enchantment... he had it for about a year, I think, before he gave it to me.”“It will suffice.”  He took the amulet and held it in his hands for several moments, then unrolled the scroll.  His elven vision was sharp enough so that even the poor light was enough to read by, and he started to speak the words of power that he had recorded upon its surface.  The spell took time, although not as long as Dana’s scrying.  Dana felt herself drifting at the reassuring sound of her former mentor’s words; she hadn’t slept regularly over the last few days and exhaustion was beginning to catch up to her.  With a start, she returned to full awareness as she realized that the spell was finished.  Seral had straightened, his eyes staring deep into someplace other than here. “Where... where is he?” she asked, unwilling to break his concentration but needing to know.Seral’s eyes cleared, and he looked fully upon her.  When he spoke, he said only one word, but it landed upon her like a heavy weight.  “Undermountain.”</blockquote>

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