Umber

Demogorgon plots his revenge. (sab)

I hate them
   I hate them

they shall pay
   with pain
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Purcell and Jake receive honors for valor. (sab)

In the center of a room of stone lit only by four torches stand three dwarves in intricate, shining plate mail, and one figure in a simple gray robe. Next to him is Purcell. At the periphery, hundreds of dwarves stand in the uneven and uneasy silence that only dwarves, trying to be quiet in full ceremonial armor, can generate.
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The best death slaad friend an adventurer could ever have says goodbye. (sab)

I wish I had had time to say goodbye. But above and beyond the fact that I hate farewells, I truly had no choice. When I pulled the symbol out of its magical hideaway in my cloak, it burned more than I could have imagined. Snapping it eased that pain but also brought a new one. As the tendrils of force, released by my action, reached out to ensnare Ammet they also reached deep into my soul and yanked me back to whence I came. It is good that Magnus was not standing too nearby. I believe that his soul too would have found these lines to be anathema.
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Demogorgon arrives to take command. (sab)

The afterimage of the Balors’ detonation stains your vision, but after a moment, you realize that what you are seeing is actually flashes of power from the battle that continues to rage outside the Bastion. Through the crystal, you can tell that there are many small skirmishes in progress, but that the Ta’nari are largely on the defensive.
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Battle is joined at the gates of the Bastion. (sab)

You stare at the crystalline door before you. “There’s something daunting about this gate, isn’t there? This key… perhaps Desaeus was right. What if we’re not strong enough?” says Nurn.
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Psydney contemplates the fate of exiled deities and the loss of Jake.

Dear T’lar,

I write this from my perch on a retriever corpse in the brief moments I have before we enter the Bastion and begin the search for Ashardalon. In the course of the hunt I hope to encounter our kinfolk, although I have little hope that we will find them alive. But do not despair – Kuhlefaran is powerful, and can do much with little, so the lost sheep of the enclave may yet be returned safely. By the time you receive this, if you ever receive it, all of these matters will of course have been settled. There is small doubt in my mind that at the conclusion of this, either we or Ashardalon will be dead. I hope that luck will be with us, but fear that the damnable claw of Iggwilv may reach out even here, preying on us in our weakest moments as she has already done twice before. When it will end, I cannot imagine.
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Jake chooses death – not for the first time, and perhaps not for the last? (sab)

You stand upon a massive crystal structure that represents one of the fonts of souls that feed the universe, now under siege by an enemy you have followed from apparent myth to incarnate being for nearly your entire adventuring careers. Before you lies the glowing portal that appears to be the only entrance. Will the Soul Totem open this gate? What awaits within, where gods themselves fear to tread?
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