Chapter 19
The Tomb of Zarak Fen

Nightshade begins casing the exits. She likes her head, and suddenly fleeing like a scared bunny seems the smarter part of valor.

Talorc shakes his head as if he was expecting something like this to happen and then does a double take. "You look familiar." He pulls out something from his pack and tosses it to big-nose. "Any relation?"

"I give up on what this inscription means." However, I think it is worth trying to get this drow out of her prison." Lock says. "Any magic items to help us out cutie?" he asks Keridwynne.

"Wait!" exclaims Mero as some of the party starts to look belligerent. "Urdlen, I've seen Flandel Steelskin and the Siamsa god wade through an armed castle and beat the crap out of Sentares. We've recently encountered what was most likely the Minotaur God; shrugging spells like they were rain water. Judging by the popsicle over there I wouldn't be suprised if Ellistrayee were paying attention to us. While I don't expect divine intervention in my life, it no longer suprizes me. "All of the gods I've seen so far could wipe us with both arms and both legs tied behind their backs. For you to even be considered the rival of one of them you have to be as powerful. You certainly have no cause to care for us after losing that shrine. So you have to have a reason to be standing there taunting us instead of cracking our bones for marrow. Why don't you quit trying to scare us and tell us what you want?"

Talorc twirls Kirid the battle-axe in one hand and then takes a swipe at Urdlen. The blow glances harmlessly off. Urdlen snaps a black claw at Talorc and sends him flying into the bones of the dragon.

Keridwynne kneels, bending low behind the block of ice imprisoning the drow priestess and reads the inscription again, striving to understand the meaning. "Freedom comes when you learn to let go, creation comes when you learn to say no. There is no greater power than the power of Goodbye." Muttering a brief yet fervent prayer to The Lady. "Lady, I am 'letting go' of my life possibly, I may be joining you shortly, if it is meant to be, so be it." Keridwynne stands "NO! We will not turn over the Crimson Wolf.," she shouts with a volume rarely heard from her. "Good-bye, Urdlan, I banish you from this world, for without the combined energy of your worshippers, you no longer have power on this plane." Then I attempt to free the drow priestess if I am still alive.

"No," Urdlen says in a very calm voice, "No, you say. I don’t think that in all my immortal life have I heard any mortal tell me that word. You would deny me the Crimson Wolf by sacrificing your lives. I am impressed by your actions, cleric of the Lady. Foolish though it may be, but I promise you this, your death with be swift and painless."

Talorc recovers his feet quickly, though sucking air as if it were the first time he had ever tasted it. A fine dust starts to rain down from the bones above, the chandeliers hanging from the backbone start to sway slightly.

Urdlen swivels his head to look at Mero, "You could be right, Mero. I may have had a reason not turn you dust, but for the life of me, I can’t remember why. So I think that you should be the first to attempt it."

Urdlen starts to step forward toward Mero.

Keridwynne desperately looking for a way to open the ice that encases the drow grabs her staff and smacks it one in frustration. The ice chips slightly but not enough.

"Talorc," Keridwynne screams, "I need your axe, fast!"

Talorc looks over to Keridwynne, seeing Urdlen closing in on Mero blocking his way. He looks down at Kirid in his hand, knowing the weapon seems to be ineffective in this situation, Talorc heaves the axe toward the iced drow. The axe whooshes its way across the room, passing between Mero and Urdlen. Urdlen fired at the same moment and the axe took the full brunt of the spell about to destroy Mero. Kirid starts to glow as it slices through the air. Keridwynne looks up to see a glowing axe cutting a path straight for her. She ducks involuntarily as Kirid slams into the ice block. Ice flies in all directions as the block disintegrates. Treang the drow slides to the ground in a heap. Ice shards falling about her. Keridwynne and Loch rush to her side.

Urdlen pivots on one heel turning toward the shattered ice, " NO!"

"She is of no consequence in this battle, why did you release her?" the calm tone of his voice now returning.

Treang lifts her head and turns to Urdlen, "I think that I am of great consequences, Urdlen. It was you and not Zarakfen that imprisoned me here, though you led him to believe that. I have endured many centuries in that place and every day you came to caress the ice that surrounded me. I have lived as an object of obsession, though I came, so long ago to kill you. You who hoped that by keeping me here on a pedestal, that I would come to love you. I have never loved and never will. I only hate, for you have taken from me, the years that I could have spent with Zarakfen. This battle that should have been fought ages ago, will be fought now. I do not expect to live, but neither should you."

"Hate! You speak of hate, rage and pain. I have endured for thousands of millennia and all I had during that time was my hate. I asked once for love and found only hate there. It is all I have left. It is all that I have ever had. I have never felt anything else. It was hate that made me strong and it was hate that got me the power that I wanted. It was hate that made people worship me. It was hate that made people fear me. I owe everything to hate and rage for there is nothing else."

Nightshade whispers to herself, "and I thought I had a hard childhood."

"What bothers you the most, that they didn’t faint at the sight of you or that they dared to defy you at almost every opportunity that they got. It is easy to do, for you are not worthy to be a god. You are not worthy to be worshipped by anyone."

Treang says defiantly, "You, who slinks in corners and hides at every occasion. I don’t hate you. I can only pity you."

"What the hell are doing, Treang?" Loch says, "Don’t you think that he is pissed off enough?"

"Actually I was stalling for time, for this." Treang points to the skull of a dragon that has dislodged itself from the stone that it was embedded in. The bone head opens its mouth wide and bites down on Urdlen. Black blood spurts from the puncture wounds.

"The dracolich is an old friend. His command to awaken was a defiant woman saying no. Keridwynne supplied that."

The battle continues, blood flying and shards of bone tearing loose from the dracolich.

"I have to go. We have to take Urdlen away from this world. This place is a doorway away from here. Push the stone pedestal forward and you will find the way home. I will probably not survive the battle but neither will he." Treang says

"What about the last line of the riddle?" Mero asks.

Treang grasps a toe bone of the dracolich, "It will become apparent soon enough. Goodbye all."

Treang shrieks, "Dragon! The pit! Take us home!"

The dracolich still clutching Urdlen in his teeth, flaps its great wings and lifts off.

The party watches in the lights of the chandeliers still hanging from his backbone disappear in the darkness.

England, the Pennine mountains

Solang, High priest of Urdlen starts his incantation of flame strike as his enemies the dwarves continue to push forward at his position. Solang was hoping to end this war quick and fast, but the dwarves had been more of a challenge than he or any of his comrades had anticipated, but today the day would be one for Urdlen. Solang had raised called together many of his more powerful friends from the temples of Urdlen. The combined might of them was starting to drain the Dwarves past the point of breaking. Solang’s smile widened as he targeted the commander of the army in front of him with his spell.

"In the name of Urdlen, I destroy you. With vengeance I kill you and send you to the gates of your hell." Solang proclaimed.

Power built into his fingertips and Solang waited for the orgasm of power that was about to destroy his foes, and then it died. Nothing happened, it faded away. All spells even those that had been cast in defense, all faded to nothing.

Solang looked around at his comrades and then at his foes. His fellow clerics, caught in a stupor when all the spells of Urdlen vanished from the world, fell beneath the axes of the dwarves. Solang looked at his fallen friends, stood and attempted to run. He did not run far, caught in a closing vice of dwarves he stopped.

"Why did you leave us Urdlen? Why?" These were the last words that Solang said before his breath left his lungs for the last time.

The party heaves the stone aside to find a darkened hole with flashes of light sparkling in it.

The voice of Zarakfen rings out, "Destination."

(This is a portal that will take you just about any place that you wish to go. Speak the place name and step through.)