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[Arcalian]

The Githyanki were fierce warriors, strong and quick, unleashing ferocious strikes with their blades. But for all their battle fury, their weapons were not magical, and Adrian's party outnumbered them.

But while the monsters themselves were not anything Adrian hadn't dealt with before in terms of power, their summoning abilities were another matter. One of them cried a strange Word and brought forth a floating sword. The sword was faster even than the Githyanki themselves were, and nothing they could do seemed to harm it.

Korgan's battle fury matched that of the first Githyanki easily enough, and with Anomen's help that one fell rather easily. Adrian and Viconia dueled the other for perhaps five minutes before it fell, not harming them much but wearing them out. But the damnable floating sword did not die with it's masters, and continue to press it's attack.

It flashed forward and stabbed Korgan through his armor into his gut; the Battlerager fell, groaning with pain, blood spuring out. Anomen turned to tend to him, as the sword rang again and agian off his plate mail.

"Nothing we can do is hurting it!" Adrian raged.

Jan struck the sword dead center with some of his exploding skull ammunition; it had no effect. Tree tried to grab the blade and steal energy from it; she nearly lost a finger for her trouble, also with no effect. Viconia wrapped the Flail of Ages around the blade, and while there was a sizzling noise as the two enchanted weapons were joined, it didn't seem to harm the sword any, and then Viconia swore in Drow as the sword yanked the flail out of her hand.

Adrian was dumbfounded. He was used to disarming opponents, thus neutralizing the effect of their weapons. He had no experience with, or tactics for, a weapon that fought for itself. Finally he Bhaalscreamed at it. The sword thumped into the wall, and Viconia's flail fell free of it. For a moment the blade lay on the floor, as though stunned; but then it rose, a little shakily, and flashed at them again.

Adrian actually began to wonder if they would survive. It was invulnerable to them, and it was tearing them to pieces. But finally, it vanished back to wherever it had come.

Anomen used most of his healing spells on Korgan, and Tree healed herself. Badly shaken, the party trooped out of the inn and began the long trek back to the Slums.

-----

"Well done, the girl is healed," said the Hidden. "Our business is concluded." He turned to go.

"Wait," said Viconia. "I recognized your enemies; they were Githyanki. Why does a human have a feud with them? Or are you not human at all?"

The Hidden glared over his shoulder. "Clever, Drow, very clever," he said. He? No...... it . For a moment it's eyes seemed to flicker, and for a span of time too short for Adrian to properly reckon, they seemed to be the eyes of some alien, unknown monstrosity. Then it appeared human again. "We have helped eachother this day. But for your sake, I hope we do not cross paths again." The Hidden turned and vanished into the darkness.

"It was an Illlithid." Viconia was both angry and impressed. "It makes sense; they have an ancient blood with the Githyanki."

"What's an illifit?" Asked Adrian.

" Illithid ," Viconia corrected his pronounciation. "Sometimes also called Devourers."

Jan gasped. "Do you mean Mind Flayers?"

Viconia shrugged. "I beleive that is the surface term for them, yes."

Now it was Adrian's turn to be shocked. He had read about the Mind Flayers back in Candlekeep, all right.

The party returned to Jan's home, more uneasy than ever.

-----

Lissa was cooing and crooning over her baby when they returned; the infant seemed to have recovered. Whatever kind of monster the Hidden had been, it had kept it's word.

But Jan and Lissa's celebration together was very brief, before Jan's mother came up the stairs, looking haggard.

"Vaelag is here," she said, sadly.

Jessa sighed, picked up the baby Jaella in her harms, and moved toward the stairs.

"Don't go with him, Lissa," Jan said softly.

"He is my husband, Jan," she said simply.

"That does not give him the right to--" Jan began, but Lissa was already heading down the stairs.

Jan gave Adrian an agonized look, and Adrian nodded. They bolted back down the stairs after her, Anomen hot on their heels. The rest of the party followed more uncertainly.

Jan stopped halfway down the stairs, and Adrian nearly tripped over him. But he saw what was happening; a brutal little criminal, undoubetly Vaelag, had grabbed Lissa by one arm and was dragging her towards the door. It was all Lissa could do to keep Jaella firmly held to her body with her other arm.

There were several other toughs with Vaelag, and one of them was a Dwarf who looked every bit as rough as Korgan. But to Jan, Adrian and Anomen, these were blurred secondary details. Adrian and Jan cocked their crossbows, and Anomen readied his sling.

"Let her go, Vaelag," Jan rumbled in a low, dangerous voice.

Vaelag did in fact let go of Lissa, mostly from surprise. He looked up at Jan and sneered. "She's mine to do with as I will, Jansen, her and the baby both. You're no match with me, even with your 'friends'. The Shadow Theives stand behind me as you can see." He gestured to the toughs with him.

"I think you'll find we've no fear of the Shadow Thieves," Adrian said in a voice so frosty it seemed to have come from Icewind Dale itself.

Vaelag laughed. "Don't waste my time with empty threats, human ." He spoke the word as the lowest insult imaginable. "The Shadow Thieves will win the guild war, and then---"

Lissa screamed as Jan's crossbow ammunition hit Vaelag and exploded, holding him in place. Adrian's own crossbow bolt and Anomen's sling bullet were seconds behind it, tearing Vaelag apart. The remains of his body remained upright, still held.

There was a shocked pause. Then, for a moment, it looked as though Vaelag's bodyguards might try to strike back. But by then the rest of Adrian's party was either on the stairwell or on the floor itself. Jan and Adrian re-cocked their crossbows, and they lost their nerve, save for the Dwarf. And that one turned to look at Korgan, moving slowly towards him, axe raised in one hand, gesturing "come hither" with the other, a ferocious smile like fangs on his bearded face.

The Dwarf bolted.

"Stay with us, Lissa," Jan pleaded. "The baby will be safe here, I promise you."

Lissa had grown up in the slums; this was not the first killing she had been witness to, and then of course there was her own treatment at the hands of Vaelag. So she was not as shaken as she might otherwuse have been. Nevertheless she sniffed sadly and said, "I need a secure future for Jaella, you know that."

"Leaving aside the fact that there was nothing secure with him," he indicated the still standing corpse, "I think you'll find that my current party will provide all the financial security you might need."

"You could say that," Adrian nodded.

"Aye!" said Korgan.

"I love you, Lissa," Jan said, looking into her eyes.

She swallowed. "I love you too Jan. You know that, but..."

He just hugged her. "Stay here. This time, we'll make it work. And besides, once I'm done with Adrian, I'll be richer than Benny Goldturnip, never mind Vaelag."

Lissa nodded and hugged him agian.

-----

After a few moments, Jan came over to Adrian. "We'll need to see about putting a guard on the house. This isn't over."

"I daresay we can arrange something," Adrian agreed.

"How can I repay you?"

"Well first of all, you can finally get started on those equipment improvements we talked about. Then you can tell me the true story of your Uncle Gerhardt. The true story, mind...."

[Arcalian]

Theyre locked, teh Cellar forums, in teh sense that only the game moderators can update them. This is done by us big story authors emailing chapter parts to Leo or Q.

*Almost* all of the first Adrian novel is up, and I just sent the last 10 parts of it to Leo a couple days ago.

Tales of the Sword coast will follow on from that.

[Laufey]

It flashed forward and stabbed Korgan through his armor into his gut; the Battlerager fell, groaning with pain, blood spuring out. Anomen turned to tend to him, as the sword rang again and agian off his plate mail.

"Nothing we can do is hurting it!" Adrian raged.

Oh yes, they are *nasty*. You did a fine job of portraying that. Now they really could have used Eddie's help with a few Magic Missiles...

The Hidden glared over his shoulder. "Clever, Drow, very clever," he said. He? No...... it . For a moment it's eyes seemed to flicker, and for a span of time too short for Adrian to properly reckon, they seemed to be the eyes of some alien, unknown monstrosity. Then it appeared human again. "We have helped eachother this day. But for your sake, I hope we do not cross paths again." The Hidden turned and vanished into the darkness.

"It was an Illlithid." Viconia was both angry and impressed. "It makes sense; they have an ancient blood with the Githyanki."

Think you meant 'blood feud' here?

"I think you'll find we've no fear of the Shadow Thieves," Adrian said in a voice so frosty it seemed to have come from Icewind Dale itself.

Vaelag laughed. "Don't waste my time with empty threats, human ." He spoke the word as the lowest insult imaginable. "The Shadow Thieves will win the guild war, and then---"

Lissa screamed as Jan's crossbow ammunition hit Vaelag and exploded, holding him in place. Adrian's own crossbow bolt and Anomen's sling bullet were seconds behind it, tearing Vaelag apart. The remains of his body remained upright, still held.

Good riddance, I say.

[Arcalian]

*staggers in from several days of severe illness and no net connection to speak of*

...but I'm an opportunistic user?

Wow, that went over like a lead balloon, didn't it? I guess I need to do some more chapters about her that are more sympathetic, since she is, after all, only doing what's best for her child.

I hope next time I give you something positive to react to. It saddens me that the first time you respond to Adrian in recent memory is over something negative.

[Arcalian]

She was going back to Vaelag. And would have done so, had Vaelag not been killed. If you want to make her more sympathetic than the game one, I do indeed think you need to elaborate more.

Well yeah, because brutality is better than poverty. A sad reaction, but entirely understandable. That's one of the reasons I killed the bastard Vaelag, too, so she didn't have to go back to that. I will elaborate, you can count on it. You've made it a moral imperaative for me.

Lord E, you are one of the people that when I arrived here, I counted as a friend. Then you withdrew, and I can't help but think that I was one of the people responsible. I *want* to give you something to *enjoy*. And maybe, just maybe, see you someday post some Sarry/Peri stuff someday.

[Arcalian]

Not for Jaella, as he is violent, even violent enough to kill the child. That's my opinion, but I have no wish to have a longish argument about it.

One thing I've finally learned is, argument is almost always useless. As a convincer is worthless. An additional reason to show, rather tahn tell. Plus which, argument would not help in any way for you to read/respond to Adrian, either.

Hey... you don't have to answer to me about anything. It is just my view.

But the fact that you got that impression, rather than the one I was trying to convey, means I didn't do my job as a writer. Yes, you have your own view of the character, but I didn't even transmit my idea clearly enough for you to go "Well, I don't agree with your intepretation," without further discussion.

Well, I did what I came here to do. Write Sarevok's story. Nowadays I try to write my original novel so I simply have no reason or time to try to come here as often as I used to. Don't worry, there are people who have made me feel extremely unwelcome but you are not one of them.

That is good to know.

Oh, and there's one Sarry/Peri story right up (Kazanrai, Serials board).

*goes immediately*