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Elsewhere – The Holy Temple of Aerie
Like so many broken teeth the jagged stone remnants of the temple walls smile upward at the approaching dawn. The great statue of the wingless goddess was toppled some hours earlier and bludgeoned to pieces as those few who had not been killed outright during the assault of the giants watched. Once this was a place of beauty and a refuge for those of broken and fragile spirits. This night however has seen the end of those things, for all that had been beautiful here has been trampled underfoot and that which had been fragile has been smashed by arms that are strangers to the movements of pity. Great barrels are brought forward and opened and a thick acidic liquid is poured liberally over the ruined temple and the surrounding landscape and into the streams that run outward from what had formerly been the sanctuary.
“And so it falls, this wretched memory of other days, days when self-proclaimed heroes wandered these forums like so many ants, carrying the over powered trinkets of the bhaalspawn games.” With a sweep of his arm the giant forces his prisoners to survey once more the destruction of what they held so dear. “No more! No more!” He bellows. “Those days are finished. And where was your pitiful wingless bitch when a hand of genuine might was raised against you?” He nods his head and without warning dusky arms of great strength swing their swords and the prisoners are slain. “The time of the clans is over. The days of the bhaalspawn game are finished – as dead as the ancient blue boards. Even as the sun rises the might of Shadow grows.”
His voice swells, thrusting aside all lesser sounds. “We are his sons. The brothers of Terrakis......”
As one they cry out, the assembled host of giants, and this now desolate place shakes under the strength of their cry:
“AND NONE SHALL CONTEST OUR CLAIM!”
Only one more of the ancient clans remains and that last remaining clan is the most ancient of all. And it is in the direction of that clan and its sacred fires that the Giants of Shadow now move. All is silent once they leave. There are not even the groanings of the wounded to lament what has happened here for all have been slain.
[ 05-28-2006, 02:00 AM: Message edited by: Cyril Darkcloud ]
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