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Elsewhere - In the sunless places beneath the mountains ....
Terrakis
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
It is a terrible sound and these dark caverns echo with its notes for miles. It is a desperate and pain-racked cry, the wailing of a broken and despairing heart. That it is made by a voice whose confident power once put opponents to flight by its very sound makes the screaming all the more tragic. No compassion answers the cry, there is only a sneering and hate-filled laughter.
“So this is mighty Adalon! Feared guardian of the passages to the dark realms beneath the surface! The great dragon!” The booming laughter of Terrakis and his fellows grows with each word. “That one who thought to bar our progress and expected us to flee like frightened children!” With a sneer, Terrakis sweeps his arm. “Look! Within your very lair we have met you and we have broken you and not one of us has fallen. Your horde is ours. Your life is ours.” The eyes of the giant gleam with malice as he continues, “And your eggs, your precious eggs! These are ours as well!”
The broken dragon lifts her silver head once more and screams in protest, “Noooooooooooooo!” And after the scream she begins to plead.
Terrakis feigns sympathy simply to savor the sound of the ancient wyrm’s abasement. Then with a contemptuous slap he silences the badly wounded creature. “PITIFUL PRETENTIOUS WRETCH!” he bellows. “You should have stayed within the safety of the BG2 underdark with its weak villains and over-powered heroes. And now you shall know what all others shall come to learn. By right these dark places belong to us and none shall contest our claim.” With a nod from Terrakis the heavy boots of the giants slam down one by one upon the eggs of the dragon. Once more the pain-wracked scream of a shattered heart fills the caverns of this dark region only to be suddenly and brutally silenced. And as the broken Adalon falls into death upon the floor of her lair the silence that follows is perhaps more painful to the ears than her screaming. Within the dark tunnels, the brutal lesson has been learned – Terrakis and the giants of shadow stand supreme and none will contest their claim.
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For Morguerat and Ruby
It is a terrible and pitiable thing this sudden and desperate call of an anguished heart and it is a thing that stirs echoes within those that have known such despair and those whose minds are sensitive to the psychic activity of other creatures. Something good and noble whose life was once mighty and confident has been broken and with the final draining of hope from an ancient and powerful life, despair receeds into death. Someplace within this scarred land darkness has destroyed light.
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