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*You are strange beings who seem to come from two planets simultaneously. Still, evil is the same throughout the infinite starsea. That is why this place exists.*
Savanna Soux attempts to employ her mental power against the StarSpirit, yet she does so to no avail. Its mental ability to probe your minds, however, continues unabated.
*1991: It began. Within a forest of eternal emerald swathed in new-fallen snow, the first Wanderer-to-be awoke upon an ancient dawn. It was a serpent at the time of the Serpent Strife. Yet this was a winter morn, and the light I shed is warm. So then let us examine....the summers.*
Life Force raises his Long Sword as aloft as the labyrinth will allow and yells: "We are not the enemies of Labyrinthus! We are travelers that were drawn to this place against our will! I do not wish to fight you, but I will to protect the others!..... Of course, we could speed things along if you could tell us of a way back to the Prime.....?"
The StarSpirit, however, it too concerned with traveling the fields of infinite memory to pay any attention to the Champion Paladin.
*1992: Infant humynoids bathed in azure. A girl unlocks the power of the dream. The Quest of The Spyre. Ah yes, 'twas an age of emerging enchantment.*
Paladin Slayer feels a force incredible well up within him. It feels as if a star is being birthed in his soul; with all the light necessary to nurture an entire world, or blast it into a barren wasteland.
*1993: Magic's crystalline climax. The Quest of the Infinite Sky continues from where it began the previous summer. Ideals of true chivalry upheld. Serpents satisfied. It was beneath this cerulean and upon this emerald that a mighty defense was made against a great evil from the StarSea. It is the stuff of which legends are made.*
Abadon the Despoiler raises his right index finger and points it at the StarSpirit, uttering the mystical phrase "Starok" and adding, "Suffer and perish." A dazzling burst of energy shoots forth from the extended digit, becoming a small missile wreathed in an aura of flame. As it darts toward its target, you see a glint of metal, which strikes you as strange. It is a *magic* missile. Why then does it appear so....technological?
It inflicts 4 hit points of damage to the StarSpirit.
*1994: Centuries shiver past, and decades fall away as hollow mortar. The Quest of the Infinite Sky has long since passed away into distant legend. There is no Valarkian Wanderer activity, and the world continues on in silence. Devils work in the shadows. The universe is waiting....for....something....*
The power within Paladin Slayer is taking a form, a shape - it has teeth, claws, scales, a serpentine head and neck, wings, and a great barbed tail. Yet the Paladin Slayer is the only one who sees this. The rest of the party sees only the unholy warrior, quivering.
*1995: Re-emergence. Valarkian Wanderers once again are permitted to enter the world of serpents and sorcery, and to enjoy a brief taste of high magic one final time. Yet times are changing....*
"Great, just what we need another...thing out to kill us." comments Tim the Enchanter. "Perhaps the frost brand will counteract its heated advance." He heads down the left passage and loads his sling for use.
*1996: Azure above; gray below. Witness the dawn and despair. An industrial revolution. The Magic-User/Tech-User War begins.*
Paladin Slayer's soul power envelops him in a white light which obscures his features from the other party members. Within its layers the Anti-Paladin can feel it taking shape; it is encasing his form of flesh with armour and weapons capable of reaching across and rending the rifts of space and time.
*1997: Time continues to flow at a normal rate during this war-ridden summer. The past is carefully chronicled, as the future is so uncertain. Perhaps there can be one more epic romance....*
Why does the mind's voice of the StarSpirit now seem to come from a serpent? A great, looming dragon with glints of golden goodness, yet mostly a titanic malevolent beast? Anuril attempts to move away from the entity, yet the skirt of her dress catches on Life Force's plate armour. The Sorceress swiftly frees herself and sidles down the right corridor. As is the case with Tim, she can see nothing down her passage save darkness.
*1998: Hope realized. Briefly. Even as the Magic-User/Tech-User War continues to rage, victories are had. Still, the Magic/Tech War intensifies, and within the most vile darkness a new breed of unholy warrior is born. One more fiendish than any which has come before.*
The light of Paladin Slayer's soul power aura darkens to a murky brown.
*1999: The world is not destroyed, for it is building toward a Hellish crescendo even more devastating than an average Apocalypse. Business continues as usual, save that the fire and light of a Seraphim is seen in the distance.*
The man in black takes refuge behind the corner closest to Logan and fires off three shots from his twin Desert Eagle firearms. The first two bullets miss, and the third the StarSpirit melts before it can inflict any damage.
*2000: During this nebulous eye-of-the-storm turn-of-the-millennium year's summer, time relative to Valark has slowed to almost a standstill. Even as one returns to a mission of noontime past, it is apparent that things can never be as they were.*
You have only noticed just now that the Paladin Slayer has risen somewhat off the catacomb floor. Now he levitates still higher.
*2001: Now it comes....and with it, your chance to escape.*
The StarSpirit begins to generate a wave of heat, and it seems that you will very soon feel the intense pain of being horribly burned.
*2002: Your chance to escape.... How deliciously ironic. Very well, then: escape you shall. But you will only descend deeper into Hell.*
A wave of light and energy sends you hurtling against the catacomb walls. You strike the stone of Labyrinthus with such force that you feel very weak, battered, and helpless, and are unable to do anything but lie crumpled on the floor, watching the events here unfurl before you.
Yet the burst did not come from the StarSpirit. In the split instant before it struck, you saw the aura surrounding Paladin Slayer take a definite shape. The burning brown light looked like an archetypical dragon -a great winged serpent with two powerful legs- save that it was armless and that its tail ended in a stormy barbed sting. It was the aura of....
...a Wyvern!
A mighty flaming Wyvern that with a single stroke of its wings knocked you all into the prone positions you now find yourselves in.
After a split instant has passed, the wyvern aura fades into a fiery outline of its original shape, framing the Paladin Slayer within. As this happens, the Anti-Paladin thinks to himself:
*We're Paladins, too. We share the same tastes as Paladins. But we know how to use them to our advantage!*
He is now clad in a suit of steel brown armour. Parts of his muscular form are left exposed, but Paladin Slayer has been placed in plate with a definite wyvern motif. His greaves and gauntlets end in grim sharp claws, and great horns extend from his helmet. From the back of Paladin Slayer's breastplate protrude a pair of steel dragon wings, and at the back of the Anti-Paladin's skirt is a long steel wyvern's tail.
"Primal Stroke!"
After saying this, the Anti-Paladin Paladin Slayer hovers in midair for an instant, then darts at the StarSpirit. He slashes first with his right clawed gauntlet, then with his left, and he finishes his assault by plunging his barbed steel tail into the core of the StarSpirit's luminescence. All of the unholy warrior's attacks hit, and together they inflict 28 hit points of damage!!!!!
"Lights out."
Each of you receive 215 Experience Points.
The StarSpirit emits a telepathic scream so shattering that it deafens your minds. As the catacomb fades into darkness, the last thing you see is Paladin Slayer standing triumphantly, still clad in his mystical armour. He says only:
Scarlet dust. The colour of ancient blood. Such is the sand that fills your sight when you first open your eyes. As you heft yourself gradually into a sitting position, you find that the red is interrupted occasionally by swirls of black. The silence of this place screams a dirge to your soul.
It is broken by a simple question which makes you realize you are not alone here. "Was it all a dream?"
Lifting your head, you find that you are surrounded by your party just as it was in Labyrinthus, save that Paladin Slayer now wears only his normal armour. The one who questioned the reality of your recent adventures was the elven Thief Zephyr. Yet if it was a dream, it was quite a realistic one: Marissa and Valhalla are no longer with you, and the Holy Frost Brand is now with Logan.
"Would that I had awoken earlier." states the Paladin Eno. "For this is no world of faery tales. But still, let us quest ever onward." He draws his sword.
You are in a desert, surrounded on all sides by high canyons. The entire landscape, however, is a deep red in colour, making it appear very alien to you. In the center of it, standing before you in the distance beneath a sky of Hellish darkness, is a Tech-User city. Yet it is the strangest one you have ever seen. It appears ancient; as though it has been steadily crumbling for centuries. Some of its towers have already fallen, and lie as vast and trunkless legs of stone....and steel. Controlling the skyline is the most ominous thing here to be found: atop and looming over a colossal complex is the aged and rusted steel shape of a titanic dragon.
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