mv src/{DND,dnd}

author: Luke Shumaker <lukeshu@sbcglobal.net> 2017-01-03 18:31:41 -0500
committer: Luke Shumaker <lukeshu@sbcglobal.net> 2017-01-03 18:31:41 -0500
commit: ca844b5b2fc5eec7fb7b02ead72c1b2995b068b3 (patch)
tree: 29dd08e2dba630453c32c7f9317660fea4bf7ced /src/dnd
parent: 657ddd0ff753c3db05fe9efe00ac9b70bbb53c01 (diff)
8 files changed, 4426 insertions, 0 deletions
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+p.verse { margin-left: 3% }
+pre {
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+    font-family: courier, monospace;
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+table { border-collapse: collapse; }
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+div.inlinetask {
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+/* Andrew wrote the following */
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diff --git a/src/dnd/PsionicSchools.org b/src/dnd/PsionicSchools.org
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+#+TITLE: Schools of Psionics
+#+HTML_HEAD_EXTRA: <link rel="stylesheet" href="DND.css">
+#+TAGS: ES HB
+
+From what I've seen, the most recent few 5e Unearthed Arcana dealing
+with "Psionics and the Mystic" have been getting somewhat mixed
+reviews.  I don't think this is because of the mechanics--or rather
+not COMPLETELY because of the mechanics.  Mechanics for psionics have
+always been weird, and the 5e style is good for D&D, so maintaining
+that is good and won't get any gripes from me.
+
+But I think that no matter what purely mechanical tweaks the UA team
+has planned for the Mystic, the general lukewarm reception isn't going
+to change unless we get something else squared away first.  Something
+a little deeper--something that helps us grasp Psionics in the same
+way we grasp Magic: with a complete and intuitive system.
+
+With Weave-based magic there are schools which somewhat delineate
+magical effects (conjuration, divination, etc), but that's not exactly
+what I mean.  Not to bash the magical schools (any system will have
+inconsistencies--mine notwithstanding), but few people really
+understand what it means to be a wizard by what school of magic they
+specialize in.  An enchantment wizard isn't fundamentally different
+from an evocation one.  But a wizard is different than a bard or a
+warlock.  These "Schools of Psionics" are as much about the state of
+mind of the manifester and the method for manifestation as they are
+about the outcome of the manifestation (there are several of my
+Psionic "schools" that may each manifest effects in the transmutation
+school of magic for instance, but each according to its own particular
+rules).
+
+What I mean is this:
+
+|           | Introvertion (a) | Extroversion (b) |
+|-----------+------------------+------------------|
+| Mind (1)  | Cogitation       | Domination       |
+| Body (2)  | Sympathy         | Manifestation    |
+| Time (3)  | Prescience       | Anticipation     |
+| Space (4) | Metapsionics     | Apportation      |
+
+There are eight categories split into two primary focuses and four
+topical domains, and each of the eight describes HOW a power is
+manifested.  It tells us what our character is DOING to get the
+blasted power to work.  As a D&D culture, we know how wizards do it,
+careful study and recitation, memorization, etc.  We know how Bards do
+it, they hear the music of creation and wrap their words in it.  All
+these effects are propagated through Mystra's Weave and are bound by
+it's limitations.  But nobody has a clue how Psionics works.  Or
+rather, we all have half-baked ideas that don't jive.
+
+In order for this to work, we need to know in canon, what it means to
+BE A PSIONIST and manifest powers.  I'm probably no different than
+anybody else in my half-baked understanding, but as a Physicist and an
+editor I feel it is my duty to try to make sense of this mess.
+
+First off, since we don't have a Weave, but all magic needs a medium,
+lets make one.  Lets call it the Psionic Field.  Created spontaneously
+from the first thinking being (or Source), the Psionic Field exists on
+any plane containing thought.  Some sources of psionic power are
+stronger than others, but all thinking things produce some connection
+to the field (some might wonder if magic and the Weave itself is
+naught but an echo of Mystra's or Auppenser's mind--and in that light
+perhaps the Psionic Field is not so foreign after all).
+
+With that medium in place, the world of Psionics slowly falls into
+place as well.  Detailed descriptions of the eight schools follow:
+
+1a) Cogitation - Clarity of thought, memory, action, and connection to
+the Psionic Field.
+
+Cogitation is often one's first exposure to Psionics.  It's a
+clear-mindedness that opens up your own mind to see itself for the
+first time, and beyond that, to sense the edges of the minds of
+others.  It includes the stereotypical bloody-nosed mind reading,
+mimicry, and perfect recall.
+
+Examples of Cogitation include "Detect Thoughts" and "Mind Meld" and
+the ability to learn or borrow skills and proficiencies directly from
+the minds of others.
+
+1b) Domination - Exert dominating willpower over other minds.
+
+Once you've encountered sources outside yourself it is only natural to
+try to influence or even dominate them.  Exerting your will into the
+minds of others isn't the same as reading their thoughts, you might
+not know what your target is thinking, only that it will succumb.
+
+Examples of Domination include "Command", "Suggestion", and "Dominate
+Person".
+
+2a) Sympathy - Exerting influence upon sympathetic objects.
+
+The Psionic Field is produced by thinking creatures, but it can leave
+an imprint on even mundane objects and materials.  Objects may be
+imbued with Psionic energy to produce a variety of effects, and may
+soak up ambient energy by just sitting within the Psionic Field which
+can be later be discerned by a Psionist to know about an object's
+history.  This is done by expanding your sense of self outward from
+your mind and body and into the object.
+
+Examples of Sympathy include "Psychometry", "Animate Objects", and
+"Guards and Wards".
+
+2b) Manifestion - Creating both illusory and physically manipulable
+constructs of pure thought.
+
+By focusing and condensing ideas down to their most concrete forms,
+Psionists can manifest the essence of a thing as either an illusion or
+as a real physical object made of Astral matter (ectoplasm).  Astral
+matter is most commonly associated with the Astral plane (or plane of
+thought) where it occurs naturally, but can exist anywhere with a
+sufficient psionic field for a Psionist to conjure it.
+
+Examples of Manifestation include "Mage Hand", "Conjure Astral
+Construct", and "Programmed Illusion"
+
+3a) Prescience - See and feel other places and times.
+
+Because the actions of thinking things (sources of psionics) are not
+stagnant, their movements create ripples in the Psionic Field.
+Births, deaths, and exchanges of knowledge leave their marks.  By
+studying these echos and patterns, Psionists can discern events that
+occurred in distant parts of the world or even in the past or future.
+
+Examples of Prescience include "Detect Poison and Disease", "Scrying",
+and "Foresight".
+
+3b) Anticipation - Solidify expectation and possibility into reality.
+
+In many ways the Universe itself is just composed of the interactions
+of groups of sources of psionism and the objects being pulled in their
+wake (albeit a rather large number of each).  With an awareness of the
+way ripples propagate in the Psionic Field and by using the techniques
+of Sympathy but directing them outwards, a Psionist can begin to
+subtly manipulate expectation and the laws of Physics themselves.
+
+Examples of Anticipation include "Heat Metal", "Telekinesis", "Reverse
+Gravity", and "Time Stop".
+
+4a) Metapsionics - Manipulating sources of Psionism and their direct
+effects.
+
+The way that thinking creatures interact with the Psionic Field is
+complicated and diverse, just as the creatures which produce it are
+themselves.  By studying how the minds of Psionically-attuned
+creatures create Psionic and even Magical Weave-based effects, a
+Psionist can learn to imitate or manipulate psionic effects as they
+see them (and sometimes use what they've learned to imbue limited
+psionic potential into others).
+
+Examples of Metapsionics include "Detect Magic", "Counterspell", and
+"Awaken"
+
+4b) Apportation - Pulling and pushing on planar boundaries with the
+Psionic Field.
+
+Since the material plane is not the only one with thinking creatures,
+some far-minded Psionists can detect the Psionic Field existing on
+other planes of existence and pull on these remote fields of power.
+Doing so can banish alien creatures, abjure harmful elemental effects,
+or even tear open portals to distant planes and places.
+
+Examples of Apportation include "Dimension Door", "Banishment", and
+"Whitefire Portal"
+
+== Post Script ==
+
+Q: Specifics (where do these fit in?) - A: Answer
+
+What about Soul Knives??? - A soul knife is just an adept who uses a
+combination of Manifestation and Sympathy to conjure a blade and imbue
+it with different Sympathetic effects.  In a similar way, you can use
+these eight to extend specific domains on to different classes.
+Psionic warrior?  Uses Sympathy to strengthen his body and Prescience
+to predict the strikes of his enemy.  Psionic rogue? Apportation to
+teleport around or Cogitation to read minds to cheat at cards (or
+memorize the deck).  Once the system is in place, the variations build
+themselves because you know what's possible and what isn't.
+Restriction breeds Creativity. You gotta know the rules to use them.
+
+What's all this about "Psionist?" Isn't it "Psion" - In my
+understanding a "Psion" is a mystic who uses metapsionics to
+manipulate her own mind into casting spells with the Weave.  It is
+also a term that gets some use for a general practitioner of psionics.
+It is also one of those 4e tattoo addicts...  just a really overloaded
+term really.  Psionist sounds the best to me as a general term like
+"mage."
+
+What's the difference between Sympathy and Anticipation when
+moving/lifting things? - In Sympathy, you convince the object to move
+by extending your sense of self into it and lifting it yourself, in
+Anticipation, it moves because you trick the Universe into thinking
+the object should already be moving and so the Universe does it for
+you. Expanding self is all monk-like vs. essentially casting Luck
+Bending spells.
+
+Apportation includes an allusion to "Whitefire Portal". What's that? -
+Oh, just this cool thing I made:
+
+*Whitefire Portal*: You burn a temporary hole through the Astral Plane
+and into another plane of your choice. Once per long rest, centered on
+a point within 300 ft of you, you summon raw Astral ectoplasm which
+burns with hellish, white-hot fury. Any creature standing within 20
+feet of the whitefire must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 12d10
+fire damage or half on a successful save. Inanimate objects in the
+area also take the damage and flammable objects may catch on fire. A
+portal then opens to the chosen plane as with a Gate spell and remains
+open for 1 minute as the planes slowly knit themselves back
+together. Alternatively, instead of a specific location on a plane of
+your choice, you may choose to have your portal open into a generally
+inhospitable location in one of the elemental planes or the planes of
+positive or negative energy. If you do so, creatures who enter or
+begin their turns within 20 feet of the portal take 6d10 damage of the
+appropriate elemental or energy type.
+
+I'm actually working on an entire Psionist class for eventual
+publication on the Dungeon Master's Guild (or as part of my
+"MagnumOpis-MagicOfTheMultiverse" which covers EVERYTHING magical as I
+understand it).  Of course if somebody #wotcstaff wants to buy it
+and/or hire me, I'd be totally up for #theorycrafting for a living.
diff --git a/src/dnd/Psionist.md b/src/dnd/Psionist.md
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
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@@ -0,0 +1,1504 @@
+---
+title: "Psionist"
+updated: "2016-07-16T21:01-0400"
+html_head_extra: "<link rel=stylesheet href=DND.css>"
+tags: ES HB
+---
+
+<div id="table-of-contents">
+<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
+<div id="text-table-of-contents">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#sec-1">1 Introduction to the Psionist Class [5e]</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2">2 The Psionist</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-1">2.1 Hit Points</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-2">2.2 Proficiencies</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-3">2.3 Equipment</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-4">2.4 Psionist Class Progression Table</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-5">2.5 Mind Powers</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-5-1">2.5.1 Psi Points</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-5-2">2.5.2 Psionic Ability</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-6">2.6 Thought Sensitivity</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-7">2.7 Psionic Blast</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-8">2.8 Spellmind</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-9">2.9 Psionic Disciplines</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-9-1">2.9.1 Inquisitor</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-9-2">2.9.2 Kineticist</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-9-3">2.9.3 Metapsionist</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-9-4">2.9.4 Mind Master</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-9-5">2.9.5 Ascendant</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2-10">2.10 Perfect Mind</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3">3 Mind Powers</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-1">3.1 Basic Mind Powers (Cantrips)</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-2">3.2 First Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-3">3.3 Second Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-4">3.4 Third Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-5">3.5 Fourth Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-6">3.6 Fifth Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-7">3.7 Sixth Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-8">3.8 Seventh Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-9">3.9 Eighth Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3-10">3.10 Ninth Level Mind Powers</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#sec-4">4 Thanks</a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-1" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-1"><span class="section-number-2">1</span> Introduction to the Psionist Class [5e]</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
+<p>
+Because the power of psionics is vast but strange, over the eons many
+have learned to harness its power in wildly different ways. From
+warriors who use it to strengthen their blades to conjurers who pull
+matter from astral plane, psionic characters have always been the
+exception to the rule. As such, it is no surprise that it is difficult
+if not impossible to encompass all possible psionics users in a single
+class.
+</p>
+<p>
+That said, a common archetype for a user of psionics is that of the
+"Mind Mage" or Psionist, a highly skilled and intelligent adept who
+typically engages in combat by evoking psionic powers in a similar way
+that a Weave-based spellcaster would.<sup><a class="footref" name="fnr-.1" href="#fn-.1">1</a></sup>
+</p>
+<p>
+The following is a complete 5th edition class with options for
+creating the most common archetypes of psionic manifesters.<sup><a class="footref" name="fnr-.2" href="#fn-.2">2</a></sup>
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-2"><span class="section-number-2">2</span> The Psionist</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
+<p>
+A robed man watches the bar from a dark corner, carefully reading
+minds and waiting for a certain noble to step past the line of
+treason and arrest him.
+</p>
+<p>
+An invisible thief moves silently through the night. She approaches a
+locked and warded gate, looks around for guards, and then phases
+silently through it and into the estate, floating up to the second
+story window and continuing inside.
+</p>
+<p>
+A gnome sits hunched over a block of stone meditating deeply and
+tracing lines along its surface. Slowly he opens his eyes and marvels
+as the golem rises to its feet, rubs its chin thoughtfully, and bows
+before its master.
+</p>
+<p>
+A blue goblin bends a giant to her will, sending him running into the
+sea bound for faraway lands.
+</p>
+<p>
+An old man clad in white robes and an impish smile dismisses an
+inclement fire ball into the Plane of Fire and escapes into a
+glimmering portal bound for the outer planes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Each of these people are Psionists, a diverse class of psionic
+manifesters, who use their minds to interact with the world around
+them. Some are born with the abilities, some are awakened by strange
+alien forces, and some come to Psionic power after years of exhaustive
+meditation and training. Regardless of how they came into their
+powers, Psionists are generally intelligent and motivated individuals
+whose strange abilities invariably set them upon roads bound for
+adventure.
+</p>
+<p>
+As a Psionist, you gain the following class features.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-1" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-1"><span class="section-number-3">2.1</span> Hit Points</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-1">
+<ul>
+<li><b>Hit Dice</b>: 1d6 per psionist level
+</li>
+<li><b>Hit Points at 1st Level</b>: 6 + your Constitution modifier
+</li>
+<li><b>Hit Points at Higher Levels</b>: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per psionist level after 1st
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-2" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-2"><span class="section-number-3">2.2</span> Proficiencies</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-2">
+<ul>
+<li><b>Armor</b>: Light armor
+</li>
+<li><b>Weapons</b>: Simple Weapons
+</li>
+<li><b>Tools</b>: None
+</li>
+<li><b>Saving Throws</b>: Intelligence
+</li>
+<li><b>Skills</b>: Choose two skills from Arcana, History, Insight,
+     Investigation, Medicine, Perception, or Religion
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-3" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-3"><span class="section-number-3">2.3</span> Equipment</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-3">
+<p>You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment
+granted by your background:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>(a) a spear or (b) a mace
+</li>
+<li>(a) leather armor
+</li>
+<li>(a) light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) any simple weapon
+</li>
+<li>(a) a scholar's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-4" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-4"><span class="section-number-3">2.4</span> Psionist Class Progression Table</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-4">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="right" /><col class="right" /><col class="left" /><col class="right" /><col class="left" /><col class="right" /><col class="right" />
+</colgroup>
+<thead>
+<tr><th scope="col" class="right"></th><th scope="col" class="right">Prof.</th><th scope="col" class="left"></th><th scope="col" class="right"></th><th scope="col" class="left">Max</th><th scope="col" class="right"></th><th scope="col" class="right"></th></tr>
+<tr><th scope="col" class="right">Level</th><th scope="col" class="right">Bonus</th><th scope="col" class="left">Features</th><th scope="col" class="right">Psi</th><th scope="col" class="left">Power</th><th scope="col" class="right">Cantrips</th><th scope="col" class="right">Powers</th></tr>
+<tr><th scope="col" class="right"></th><th scope="col" class="right"></th><th scope="col" class="left"></th><th scope="col" class="right">Points</th><th scope="col" class="left">Level</th><th scope="col" class="right">Known</th><th scope="col" class="right">Known</th></tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="right">1</td><td class="right">+2</td><td class="left"><a href="#sec-2-5">Mind Powers</a>, <a href="#sec-2-6">Thought Sensitivity</a></td><td class="right">4</td><td class="left">1st</td><td class="right">3</td><td class="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">2</td><td class="right">+2</td><td class="left"><a href="#sec-2-7">Psionic Blast</a>, <a href="#sec-2-8">Spellmind</a> 1</td><td class="right">6</td><td class="left">1st</td><td class="right">3</td><td class="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">3</td><td class="right">+2</td><td class="left">Psionic Discipline Feature (1)</td><td class="right">14</td><td class="left">2nd</td><td class="right">3</td><td class="right">4</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">4</td><td class="right">+3</td><td class="left">Ability Score Improvement</td><td class="right">17</td><td class="left">2nd</td><td class="right">3</td><td class="right">4</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">+3</td><td class="left"><a href="#sec-2-8">Spellmind</a> 2</td><td class="right">27</td><td class="left">3rd</td><td class="right">4</td><td class="right">5</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">6</td><td class="right">+3</td><td class="left">Psionic Discipline Feature (2)</td><td class="right">32</td><td class="left">3rd</td><td class="right">4</td><td class="right">6</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">7</td><td class="right">+3</td><td class="left">-</td><td class="right">38</td><td class="left">4th</td><td class="right">4</td><td class="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">8</td><td class="right">+3</td><td class="left">Ability Score Improvement</td><td class="right">44</td><td class="left">4th</td><td class="right">4</td><td class="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">9</td><td class="right">+4</td><td class="left"><a href="#sec-2-8">Spellmind</a> 3</td><td class="right">57</td><td class="left">5th</td><td class="right">4</td><td class="right">8</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">10</td><td class="right">+4</td><td class="left">Psionic Discipline Feature (3)</td><td class="right">64</td><td class="left">5th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">9</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">11</td><td class="right">+4</td><td class="left">-</td><td class="right">73</td><td class="left">6th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">10</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">12</td><td class="right">+5</td><td class="left">Ability Score Improvement</td><td class="right">73</td><td class="left">6th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">10</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">13</td><td class="right">+5</td><td class="left"><a href="#sec-2-8">Spellmind</a> 4</td><td class="right">83</td><td class="left">7th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">11</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">14</td><td class="right">+5</td><td class="left">Psionic Discipline Feature (4)</td><td class="right">83</td><td class="left">7th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">12</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">15</td><td class="right">+5</td><td class="left">-</td><td class="right">94</td><td class="left">8th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">13</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">16</td><td class="right">+5</td><td class="left">Ability Score Improvement</td><td class="right">94</td><td class="left">8th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">13</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">17</td><td class="right">+6</td><td class="left"><a href="#sec-2-8">Spellmind</a> 5</td><td class="right">107</td><td class="left">9th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">14</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">18</td><td class="right">+6</td><td class="left">Psionic Discipline Feature (5)</td><td class="right">114</td><td class="left">9th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">15</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">19</td><td class="right">+6</td><td class="left">Ability Score Improvement</td><td class="right">123</td><td class="left">9th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">16</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">20</td><td class="right">+6</td><td class="left"><a href="#sec-2-10">Perfect Mind</a></td><td class="right">133</td><td class="left">9th</td><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">17</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-5" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-5"><span class="section-number-3">2.5</span> Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-5">
+<p>
+All Psionic abilities except those that cast spells are mind
+powers. Intelligence is your psionic ability for your mind
+powers. Your intellect determines the strength of the psionic effects
+you manifest. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when
+setting the saving throw DC for a mind power or when making an attack
+roll with one. Manifesting mind powers does not require verbal,
+somatic, or material components unless those components have an
+explicit cost associated with them or are consumed.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Psionic Powers of sixth level and higher take a drastic mental toll
+   when manifested. You may only manifest one sixth, one seventh, one
+   eighth, and one ninth level power per day.
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-5-1" class="outline-4">
+<h4 id="sec-2-5-1"><span class="section-number-4">2.5.1</span> Psi Points</h4>
+<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-5-1">
+<p>
+Psi points represent a Psionist's pool of mental energy. It expands as
+she gains levels in the Psionist class and becomes more powerful. When
+manifesting powers, she uses a number of psi points according to the
+table below.
+</p>
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="right" /><col class="right" />
+</colgroup>
+<thead>
+<tr><th scope="col" class="right">Power Level</th><th scope="col" class="right">Point Cost</th></tr>
+</thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="right">1</td><td class="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">2</td><td class="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">3</td><td class="right">5</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">4</td><td class="right">6</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">5</td><td class="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">6</td><td class="right">9</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">7</td><td class="right">10</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">8</td><td class="right">11</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="right">9</td><td class="right">13</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p>
+All spent psi points are recovered after a long rest.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-5-2" class="outline-4">
+<h4 id="sec-2-5-2"><span class="section-number-4">2.5.2</span> Psionic Ability</h4>
+<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-5-2">
+<p>
+<b>Mind Powers Save DC</b> = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence
+modifier
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Mind Power Attack Modifier</b> = your proficiency bonus + your
+Intelligence modifier
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-6" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-6"><span class="section-number-3">2.6</span> Thought Sensitivity</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-6">
+<p>
+As a Psionist, you are attuned to the thoughts and feelings of
+others, as well as the concentration of psionic energy in an area.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>You have disadvantage on Concentration checks and Intelligence
+     saving throws if the number of thinking creatures within 10 feet
+     of you is greater than or equal to three times your Psionist
+     level.
+</li>
+<li>It is more difficult for a group of people to surprise you. If
+     you enter an area with a group of five or more hidden creatures,
+     you feel their presence and cannot be surprised by them. You can
+     not determine their location relative to you or where they are
+     hiding.
+</li>
+<li>Also, as an action you can examine an object or creature within
+     10 feet of you to psionically determine whether or not it has a
+     mind. You cannot determine this if it is shielded or immune to
+     having its mind read.
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-7" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-7"><span class="section-number-3">2.7</span> Psionic Blast</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-7">
+<p>
+As an action, you may attempt to use your mastery of psionics to deal
+psychic damage to a living target you can see within 60 feet of you.
+</p>
+<p>
+If you do so, your target must make an Intelligence saving throw or
+take psychic damage as determined by the Psionic Blast column of the
+Psionist table. In addition, if your target rolls less than your Mind
+Power Attack Modifier on this saving throw they are stunned until your
+next round.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-8" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-8"><span class="section-number-3">2.8</span> Spellmind</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-8">
+<p>
+By interacting with magic in the world, and the knowledge of those who
+manipulate it, you learn to alter your state of mind to allow yourself
+to cast spells through the Weave.
+</p>
+<p>
+Whenever earn a rank of Spellmind (levels 2, 5, 10, 14, and 17) you
+may choose a spell from another class' spell list of a level equal to
+the number of times you have this feature (for example, at level 10
+you choose a third level spell in addition to the first and second
+level spells you have already chosen). Once per long rest, you may
+cast this spell as if you were of the appropriate spellcasting class
+except that it does not require vocal or somatic components (material
+components are still required unless using an appropriate
+focus. Material components requiring a cost are always required) and
+it uses your Mind Power Save DC and Intelligence modifier for
+determining saving throws or spell attack rolls. Casting spells with
+the feature uses the Weave and can be countered or dispelled. Each
+time you level up, you may choose to replace a spell you learned with
+Spellmind with another spell of the same level (it doesn't have to be
+from the same class spell list).
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-9" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-9"><span class="section-number-3">2.9</span> Psionic Disciplines</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-9">
+<p>
+Psionic Disciplines represent the ways in which Psionists interact
+with the Psionic Field and manifest their powers. You select a
+discipline at 3rd level and it grants sequential access tiers of
+abilities at 3rd, 6th, 9th, 14th, and 18th levels.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-9-1" class="outline-4">
+<h4 id="sec-2-9-1"><span class="section-number-4">2.9.1</span> Inquisitor</h4>
+<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-9-1">
+<p>
+Inquisitors read thoughts and auras, learn skills, and draw power from
+the minds of others. A master Inquisitor in a crowd of people is
+capable of spectacular feats of power, will, and skill.
+</p>
+<p>
+At 3rd level when taking the Inquisitor Discipline, you gain access to
+all abilities under the Detective Tier. You likewise gain abilities in
+Melder, Mimic, Tactician, and Imperator Tiers upon reaching
+6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels respectively.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Bonus Proficiencies</b>: Insight, Investigation, double your proficiency
+bonus for Intelligence saving throws.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-1-1"><b>Detective</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Improved Thought Sensitivity</b>: You no longer are disadvantaged by
+swarming crowds of people, in fact, you have grown to excel in such
+areas of high density Psionic Field. The first part of your Thought
+Sensitivity ability now reads "You have advantage on concentration
+checks and intelligence saving throws while within 10 feet of 2 or
+more thinking creatures."
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Detect Strike</b>: You sense when an opponent decides to strike you and
+can mentally prepare yourself. When you are attacked by a creature you
+can see, you may use your reaction to get a +2 bonus to armor class
+against that creature until your next turn. At 14th level, this
+increases to a +4 bonus.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-1-2"><b>Melder</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Mind Meld</b>: As an action, you may touch a creature with an
+Intelligence of 5 or greater and attempt to meld your consciousnesses
+together. Doing so can be dangerous. If you attempt to meld with an
+unwilling creature, it makes a Wisdom saving throw to block the mental
+intrusion, otherwise a link is established. While the link is active,
+thoughts, emotions, and memories are shared freely between yourself
+and the creature. During a mind meld, since your minds are linked, it
+is more difficult to lie or to hide information. To do so requires a
+Concentration (Intelligence) contest for each lie or omission. Either
+party may attempt to leave the mind meld by repeating the wisdom
+saving throw (if you attempt to leave, you must also make a wisdom
+saving throw against your Mind Power save DC). If the link is broken
+in this way, or in any other way (such as the death of one of its
+participants or being physically torn from touching one another)
+before both parties explicitly agree to do so, both parties take 10d6
+psychic damage. You may only use this feature once per long rest.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Touch of Tongues</b>: If a creature speaks at least one language, as an
+action you may concentrate to translate their intentions, though not
+their exact wording, into a language you know. This uses your
+concentration for manifesting mind powers or casting spells and the
+effect ends when you cease concentrating on it.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-1-3"><b>Mimic</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Mimic Skill</b>: You tap into the minds of those around you to
+temporarily learn skills and proficiencies. You may target a creature
+within 30 feet of you. An unwilling creature makes an wisdom saving
+throw or is affected. You may learn a skill, armor, weapon, or tool
+proficiency from the targeted creature for 1 hour. Additionally, you
+may use this feature during a Mind Meld. When doing so, you retain the
+proficiency for up to one week. You may use this feature once per
+short rest.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-1-4"><b>Tactician</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Tactician</b>: You learn to relay sensory information and plans to and
+from those around you. When determining if you can see a creature or
+object, whether for a spell, mind power, or other ability, or
+otherwise, you may use the senses of any creatures within 60 feet of
+you instead of your own. You may extend this ability to willing
+creatures in range by expending a psi point for each creature you
+target. In addition, you may freely exchange thoughts or images with
+any creatures to which you have extended this ability for the
+duration. The shared effect ends if you are incapacitated or after one
+hour.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-1-5"><b>Imperator</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>One With All</b>: You thrive in areas of high density psionic
+energy. Once per long rest, if you are within 60 feet of 20 or more
+people you gain proficiency in all skills, languages, and saving
+throws, automatically succeed concentration checks, and any psionic
+abilities that you manifest or spells you cast are considered to be
+manifested or cast from one level higher. This effect lasts a number
+of minutes equal to the number of people within 60 feet of you when
+you manifest it (maximum 1 hour).
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-9-2" class="outline-4">
+<h4 id="sec-2-9-2"><span class="section-number-4">2.9.2</span> Kineticist</h4>
+<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-9-2">
+<p>
+Kineticists alter the physical world by extending the conception of
+self to encompass their surroundings. A master Kineticist can lift a
+weapon without touching it and walk up the side of a building by
+simply willing it so.
+</p>
+<p>
+At 3rd level when taking the Kineticist Discipline, you gain access to
+all abilities under the Enhanced Self Tier. You likewise gain
+abilities in Extended Self, Kineticist, Master Kineticist, and Kinetic
+Avatar Tiers upon reaching 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels
+respectively.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Bonus Proficiencies</b>: Acrobatics, Dexterity saving throws.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-2-1"><b>Enhanced Self</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Wall Walk</b>: You may travel up vertical surfaces as if they were
+difficult terrain.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Force Repulsion</b>: As an action you may have target creature within 60
+feet of you makes a Strength saving throw. If it fails, it is pushed
+up to 30 feet away from you and requires spending twice its movement
+to approach you until your next turn.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-2-2"><b>Extended Self</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Kinematics</b>: You learn the Minor Kinematics Cantrip with the slight
+differences noted below. It does not count against the number of
+Cantrips known. The number of objects or creatures that can be
+levitated is doubled. The maximum weight of an object or creature that
+can be levitated is doubled. When lifting objects with the Minor
+Kinematics psionic cantrip, you may attempt to attack a creature in
+range that you can see with those objects. An attack can be made as
+either an action or a bonus action or both using your Int modifier +
+your proficiency bonus to hit. You are considered proficient with
+these attacks and their damage is determined by the statistics of the
+objects being levitated (e.g. a longsword would deal 1d8 + your
+Intelligence modifier slashing damage and a levitated boot would deal
+1 + Intelligence). Floating objects can be attacked or pulled
+downwards, which causes the cantrip's effect holding them aloft to
+fail. If you attempt to make a ranged attack with a floating object,
+it must have the loading property and be loaded and such an attack may
+not be performed as a bonus action. You cannot load a weapon or
+activate a magic item using the Minor Kinematics cantrip.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-2-3"><b>Kineticist</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Improved Levitation</b>: You may manifest the second level psionic power
+Levitation at will without expending psi points.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Psychoportation</b>: Your movement speed is doubled.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-2-4"><b>Master Kineticist</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Phasing</b>: Once per short rest, as an action on your turn, you may
+spend a psi point to become intangible until your next turn. You may
+pass through solid objects and are invulnerable to nonmagical
+bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage, but not structures,
+boundaries, or weapons created by magical force. Your gear may become
+intangible with you. On subsequent turns, you may spend a psi point at
+the beginning of your turn to remain intangible. If you start your
+turn inside an object and cannot spend a psi point to remain
+intangible, you are merged bodily with that object. If your body
+cannot continue to function or your brain is destroyed, you die.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-2-5"><b>Kinetic Avatar</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Kinetic Avatar</b>: You extend your sense of self into the world around
+you, animating and controlling objects and structures in your
+vicinity, then pulling them around you in a swirling cocoon of
+armor. The effect lasts for 1 minute.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>You gain a flying speed equal to your normal speed for the
+   duration.
+</li>
+<li>Your armor class increases by 10 for the duration, though this
+   bonus decays as parts of your Avatar armor are destroyed.
+</li>
+<li>You gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your Psionist
+   level for the duration. Whenever you take damage your bonus armor
+   class decreases by 1 as part of the armor is sheared away.
+</li>
+<li>At any point you may shed 5 points of bonus AC to manifest the 5th
+   level psionic power Animate Objects without spending psi
+   points. The animated objects can fly.
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-9-3" class="outline-4">
+<h4 id="sec-2-9-3"><span class="section-number-4">2.9.3</span> Metapsionist</h4>
+<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-9-3">
+<p>
+Metapsionists can alter minds and bodies to concentrate or disperse
+psionic energy and effects. A master Metapsionist can shapeshift,
+grant spellcasting and psionics, and disrupt the spellcasting and
+psionics of others.
+</p>
+<p>
+At 3rd level when taking the Metapsionist Discipline, you gain access
+to all abilities under the Awakened Tier. You likewise gain abilities
+in Empowered, Metapsionist, Living Mind, and Psionic Soul Tiers upon
+reaching 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels respectively.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Bonus Proficiencies</b>: Medicine, Constitution saving throws.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-3-1"><b>Awakened</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Psionic Blade Ward</b>: You learn to ready your body to withstand
+damaging strikes. As a bonus action, you may spend a psi point to
+manifest the psionic cantrip Blade Ward (you don't have to be able to
+manifest that cantrip normally).
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Psionic Recovery</b>: Once per day when you finish a short rest you may
+regain a number of psi points equal to your Psionist level (up to 9).
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-3-2"><b>Empowered</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Psionic Restoration</b>: Once per long rest at the start of your turn,
+you may remove a mind-altering condition from yourself. Alternatively,
+you may use an action to end a mind-altering condition from a creature
+you touch. These may be Charmed or Frightened.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-3-3"><b>Metapsionist</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Grant Psionics</b>: Once per long rest as an action you plant a seed of
+psionic ability in a willing creature you touch. For 24 hours they
+gain the ability to manifest a psionic power of your choice of 2nd
+level or lower and gain 6 psi points. If you manifest this ability on
+the same target every day for a month (30 days), the change becomes
+permanent and the creature is considered to be able to innately
+manifest that ability. You may not grant more than one ability to a
+creature, nor can you target a creature that already can manifest
+psionic abilities.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-3-4"><b>Living Mind</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Spell Mimicry</b> When you observe an arcane spell being cast by an
+individual within 10 feet of you, you may use your reaction to attempt
+to read the mind of its caster and create a psionic imprint of the
+spellcasting in your mind. To do so, make a spellcraft Intelligence
+(Arcana) check against 10 + the spell's level. You may not make this
+check against a spellcaster who is shielded from psychic intrusion
+(such as under the effect of a Mind Blank spell). Additionally, the
+psychic intrusion is not subtle. An unwilling caster may make a wisdom
+saving throw against your Mind Powers Save DC to prevent you from
+reading the details of the spell and determine your location. You may
+store up to two spells in this way, none of which are above fifth
+level. You may not imprint more than two spells in a day. Casting an
+imprinted spell requires the use of whatever components, including
+material, are normally required in its casting or an appropriate
+arcane focus, however, spells cast in this way use your Psionic
+Ability, Save DC, and Attack Modifier when relevant. They also require
+you to expend a number of psi points as if you were manifesting a Mind
+Power of that level. You must cast the spell at its lowest
+level. Spells cast in this way are magical and can be countered and
+dispelled. Once you have cast an imprinted spell in this way, you lose
+the imprint.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-3-5"><b>Psionic Soul</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Diminish/Enhance Psionics</b>: You have learned the deep secrets of the
+Hidden Art. When you or a creature you can see manifests a psionic
+power or you encounter an existing psionic effect, you may choose to
+apply one of the following effects to modify it as a reaction.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Fork/Merge</span>: You may increase or decrease the number of effected
+   creatures by 1.
+</li>
+<li><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Expand/Contract</span>: You may enlarge or reduce the area of effect by 5
+   feet.
+</li>
+<li><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Extend/Curtail</span>: You may increase or decrease the duration by 1
+   minute.
+</li>
+<li><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Shape</span>: You may change the shape of the area of effect (but not
+   the direction).
+</li>
+<li><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Counter</span>: You may make an Intelligence (Psionics) check against 10 +
+   the power's level to end the effect.
+</li>
+<li><span style="text-decoration:underline;">Splice</span>: You may choose a psionic power of 2nd level or lower and
+   add its effects (choosing targets separately if applicable) to the
+   manifestation (this only applies to powers you manifest or see
+   being manifested).
+</li>
+</ul>
+<p>
+You may use this ability once per short rest.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-9-4" class="outline-4">
+<h4 id="sec-2-9-4"><span class="section-number-4">2.9.4</span> Mind Master</h4>
+<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-9-4">
+<p>
+Mind Masters exert their will directly upon the minds of others. A
+master Mind Master can dominate and imprison the minds of others and
+even move their consciousness from mind to mind at will. Mind Masters
+tend to be neutral or evil in alignment.
+</p>
+<p>
+At 3rd level when taking the Mind Master Discipline, you gain access
+to all abilities under the Powerful Mind Tier. You likewise gain
+abilities in Dominating Mind, Transcendent Mind, Mind-Slaver, and
+Imprisoner tiers upon reaching 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels
+respectively.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Bonus Proficiencies</b>: Persuasion, Wisdom saving throws.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-4-1"><b>Powerful Mind</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Deep Suggestion</b>: You may manifest the second level mind power
+Suggestion once per long rest without expending any psi points. When
+you do, the creature you target has disadvantage on the saving throw.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-4-2"><b>Dominating Mind</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Impose Will</b>: Once per short rest, you may cause a creature making a
+saving throw against one of your mind powers, abilities, or your
+psionic blast to have disadvantage on that saving throw. You must do
+so before the roll is made. Once you've used this feature on a
+creature, you may not do so again on that same creature until you
+finish a long rest.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-4-3"><b>Transcendent Mind</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Psychic Potency</b>: When you deal psychic damage to a target that is
+stunned, you deal an additional amount of damage equal to twice your
+Intelligence modifier.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Psychic Entity</b>: When you die, you may attempt to force your way into
+another creature's body to continue living. To do so, a target
+creature within 30 feet of you makes a Charisma saving throw. On a
+success, you die, otherwise, you take control of the target's body and
+force their consciousness into dormancy. You gain their physical
+features (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution) but retain all of your
+other traits. Once every 24 hours, or whenever you take damage greater
+than 50% of your max hit points, the dormant consciousness may attempt
+to resume control of the body by making a Charisma saving throw. On a
+success, you are forced out of the body and must either attempt to use
+this feature again on a different target or die.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-4-4"><b>Mind-Slaver</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Enslave</b>: Once per long rest as an action you may target a creature
+you can see within 30 feet of you. The target must succeed on a Wisdom
+saving throw or be charmed by you until you die or are on a different
+plane of existence from it. The charmed target is under your control
+and can't take reactions, and you and the target can communicate
+telepathically with each other over any distance. Whenever the charmed
+target takes damage, it can repeat its saving throw. On a success, the
+effect ends. No more than once every 24 hours, the target can also
+repeat the saving throw when it is at least one mile away from you.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-4-5"><b>Imprisoner</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Imprisonment</b>: You learn the 9th level Wizard spell Imprisonment as a
+ninth level mind power. It does not count against the number of powers
+known, but costs the normal number of psi points to manifest. As a
+Mind Master, Imprisonment gains an additional option: Mind Prison. You
+may choose to Imprison the creature directly in your mind. There is no
+material component needed for this option. If you die or your
+consciousness leaves your body for a period longer than 8 hours (as
+with an Astral Projection spell), the prisoner is released. While
+imprisoned in your mind, the creature may sense what you allow it to
+sense and you may read the creature's surface thoughts as with a
+Detect Thoughts spell. No more than one creature may be imprisoned
+this way at a time.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-9-5" class="outline-4">
+<h4 id="sec-2-9-5"><span class="section-number-4">2.9.5</span> Ascendant</h4>
+<div class="outline-text-4" id="text-2-9-5">
+<p>
+Ascendants feel the pull of psionic energy from other planes and
+dimensions and can learn to manipulate the fabric of reality. A master
+Ascendant can open portals and doorways to distant places, summon
+inanimate objects and creatures from their home planes, and banish
+creatures from other planes back to whence they came.
+</p>
+<p>
+At 3rd level when taking the Ascendant Discipline, you gain access to
+all abilities under the Astral Apporter tier. You likewise gain
+abilities in Planar Adept, Ascendant, Shaper, and Master of the Planes
+Tiers upon reaching 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels respectively.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Bonus Proficiencies</b>: Arcana, Charisma Saving Throws.
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-5-1"><b>Astral Apporter</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Astral Armor</b>: As an action, you may conjure a coating of astral
+matter which covers the skin. This coating lasts for 1 hour and
+radiates dim light. Your AC becomes 13 + your Dexterity modifier for
+the duration. As a reaction, you may explicitly harden the coating,
+which temporarily increases your AC to 15 + Dex, but destroys the
+armor in a flash of bright light. Creatures within 5 feet of you when
+the armor is destroyed must make a Constitution saving throw or be
+blinded until your next turn.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-5-2"><b>Planar Adept</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Call Energy</b>: You feel the cosmic pull of the planes of Positive and
+Negative Energy. Once per long rest, as an action you may cover an
+20-ft radius sphere centered at a point you can see in planar
+energy. Choose either a) the Positive Energy Plane or b) the Negative
+Energy Plane. The covered area is either a) bathed in a dull glow or
+b) shrouded in a misty shadow which a) heals each living creature in
+range by 1 hp at the end of each creature's turn or b) deals 1 damage
+per turn to all living things in range and the end of each creature's
+turn. Maintaining this effect requires concentration and may last no
+longer than a minute.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-5-3"><b>Ascendant</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Planar Abjuration</b>: As a reaction to a spell or effect within 30 ft
+of you that would deal fire, cold, lightning, thunder, radiant, or
+necrotic damage, you channel the powers of the elemental and outer
+planes to reduce the damage dealt by that spell by an amount equal to
+your Intelligence modifier + your Psionist level. If the spell or
+effect has an area of effect, the damage each affected creature takes
+is reduced by this much. Damage reduction is applied before applying
+resistances.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Banishing Blast</b>: When a creature native to a different plane of
+existence than the one it is on fails its saving throw against your
+Psionic Blast it makes a Charisma saving throw. If it fails this
+saving throw, it is banished to its plane of origin with a faint
+popping sound for 1 minute. While there, the target is
+incapacitated. When the minute is finished, it returns to the nearest
+unoccupied space from where it left.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-5-4"><b>Shaper</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Conjure Astral Construct</b>: Once per long rest, as an action, you may
+create an Astral construct from Astral matter pulled from the Astral
+Plane.
+</p>
+<p>
+Though you may customize the exact form of the construct to your
+liking, the statistics for the Astral Construct are the same as that
+of the Helmed Horror (page 183 in the Monster Manual) with the
+following exceptions:
+</p>
+<p>
+It gains up to three additional options from the list below (you may
+choose the same option more than once):
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Extra Attack
+</li>
+<li>See Invisibility
+</li>
+<li>Flash and Bellow Attack (Creatures within 30 ft make DC 15 Con
+   saves or are blinded and deafened for 1 minute. They may repeat the
+   saving throw at the end of each of their turns. Once a creature
+   succeeds, it cannot be affected again.)
+</li>
+<li>5d8 (22) Extra Hit Points
+</li>
+<li>Extra Spell Immunity (Two additional spells)
+</li>
+<li>+3 Damage on Hit
+</li>
+<li>+1 AC
+</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li id="sec-2-9-5-5"><b>Master of the Planes</b><br/>
+<p>
+<b>Whitefire Portal</b>: You burn a temporary hole through the Astral Plane
+and into another plane of your choice. Once per long rest, centered on
+a point within 300 ft of you, you summon raw Astral ectoplasm which
+burns with hellish, white-hot fury. Any creature standing within 20
+feet of the whitefire must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 12d10
+fire damage or half on a successful save. Inanimate objects in the
+area also take the damage and flammable objects may catch on fire. A
+portal then opens to a plane of your choice as with a Gate spell and
+remains open for 1 minute as the planes slowly knit themselves back
+together. Alternatively, instead of a specific location on a plane of
+your choice, you may choose to have your portal open into a general
+location in one of the elemental planes or the planes of positive or
+negative energy. If you do so, creatures who enter or begin their
+turns within 20 feet of the portal take 6d10 damage of the appropriate
+elemental or energy type.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-2-10" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-2-10"><span class="section-number-3">2.10</span> Perfect Mind</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-2-10">
+<p>
+Over years of study and experience in the Hidden Art, you have
+mastered the use of your most powerful psionic powers. The restriction
+on manifesting high level powers no longer applies to sixth and
+seventh level powers.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-3"><span class="section-number-2">3</span> Mind Powers</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-1" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-1"><span class="section-number-3">3.1</span> Basic Mind Powers (Cantrips)</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-1">
+<p>
+At first level, you learn three basic mind powers (cantrips) of your
+choice from the following list. If a mind power shares the name of a
+spell then it produces a psionic effect is identical to that spell,
+otherwise, an asterisk follows the power's name and it creates a new
+or different psionic effect that is described in greater detail below
+the list.
+</p>
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Blade Ward</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Dancing Lights</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Friends</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Light</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Mending</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Message</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Minor Illusion</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Minor Kinematics*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Prestidigitation</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Resistance</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">True Strike</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Vicious Mockery</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p>
+<b>Minor Kinematics</b> - <i>Psionic Evocation Cantrip</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: 30 ft
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: 1 minute
+</p>
+<p>
+As an action, you may levitate an object or creature within 30 feet of
+you weighing less than 10 pounds. On each of your turns, you may use
+an action or a bonus action to mentally command it to move up to 30 ft
+in any direction. The effect ends if the object or creature is ever
+more than 30 feet away from you, falling to the ground. An unwilling
+creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your Mind
+Powers Save DC or be affected. It may repeat this saving throw at the
+end of each of its turns. You may levitate multiple objects or
+creatures in this way by manifesting this power again, but no more
+than a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier. If you
+attempt to manifest it more times than that, then all items regain
+their normal weight and fall to the ground.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-2" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-2"><span class="section-number-3">3.2</span> First Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-2">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Aura Reading*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Charm Person</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Command</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Compelled Duel</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Comprehend Languages</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Detect Magic</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Detect Poison and Disease</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Disguise Self</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Dissonant Whispers</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Expeditious Retreat</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Faerie Fire</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Feather Fall</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Find Familiar</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Heroism</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Identify</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Illusory Script</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Jump</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Longstrider</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Lock Mind*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Mage Armor</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Shield</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Silent Image</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Sleep</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Tasha's Hideous Laughter</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Unseen Servant</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p>
+<b>Aura Reading</b> - <i>2nd Level Psionic Divination</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: 10 feet.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: Instantaneous
+</p>
+<p>
+You may target a thinking creature you can see within range, reading
+its psionic aura, and you may manifest one of the following options:
+(a) <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Detect Falsehood</span>: you may determine whether the target believes
+that its most recent statement is true, (b) <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Detect Alignment</span>: you
+may determine the target's alignment, (c) <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Detect Disguise</span>: you may
+determine if the target is wearing a magical or physical disguise.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Lock Mind</b> - <i>1st Level Psionic Enchantment</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: Self
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: 1 hour
+</p>
+<p>
+For the duration, your mind cannot be read without your permission and
+you have resistance to psychic damage. At higher levels: when cast
+from a higher level, the duration increases as follows. 2nd level: 2
+hours, 3rd level: 4 hours, 4th level: 8 hours, 5th or higher: 24
+hours.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-3" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-3"><span class="section-number-3">3.3</span> Second Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-3">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Alter Self</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Arcane Lock</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Blindness / Deafness</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Blur</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Calm Emotions</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Crown of Madness</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Darkvision</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Detect Thoughts</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Enhance Ability</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Enlarge / Reduce</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Enthrall</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Heat Metal</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Hold Person</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Find Traps</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Invisibility</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Knock</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Lesser Restoration</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Levitate</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Locate Object</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Mirror Image</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Misty Step</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Phantasmal Force</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Psychometry*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Rope Trick</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">See Invisibility</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Silence</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Spider Climb</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Suggestion</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Warding Bond</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Zone of Truth</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p>
+<b>Psychometry</b> - <i>2nd Level Psionic Divination</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 10 minutes
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: Touch
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: Instantaneous
+</p>
+<p>
+When thinking beings touch the world around them, they leave a psionic
+imprint of their actions behind. You attune to an object you can
+touch. Doing so allows you to see the last person to hold the object,
+no matter how long ago, and its immediate surroundings while being
+held, including sounds. You may follow and replay the events occurring
+near the object but cannot move away from the point of view of the
+object.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-4" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-4"><span class="section-number-3">3.4</span> Third Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-4">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Bestow Curse</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Blink</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Clairvoyance</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Daylight</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Fear</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Feign Death</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Fly</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Gaseous Form</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Haste</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Hypnotic Pattern</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Leomund's Tiny Hut</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Major Image</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Meld Into Stone</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Mind Bolt*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Nondetection</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Sending</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Slow</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Tongues</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Water Walk</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p>
+<b>Mind Bolt</b> - <i>3rd Level Psionic Evocation</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: 300 ft
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: Instantaneous
+</p>
+<p>
+You manifest psionic energy as an invisible bolt that deals damage and
+can stun a target. Target creature you can see in range makes an
+Intelligence saving throw or takes 6d8 psychic damage and is stunned
+for 1 minute. This creature takes half damage on a successful save and
+is not stunned. A stunned creature may repeat the saving throw at the
+end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>At Higher Levels</i>: For each level above 3rd, the damage increases by
+1d8.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-5" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-5"><span class="section-number-3">3.5</span> Fourth Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-5">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Arcane Eye</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Banishment</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Compulsion</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Confusion</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Conjure Minor Elementals</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Dimension Door</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Dominate Beast</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Empower Object*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Evard's Black Tentacles</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Fabricate</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Freedom of Movement</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Greater Invisibility</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Hallucinatory Terrain</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Locate Creature</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Phantasmal Killer</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Polymorph</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Stoneskin</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p>
+<b>Empower Object</b>: <i>Fourth Level Psionic Transmutation</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: Touch.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: 1 minute. Concentration.
+</p>
+<p>
+You may imbue an object you touch with psionic energy. It glimmers
+faintly with stored power. At any point during the duration you may
+harmlessly release the energy which ends the effect. When you cease
+concentrating on this mind power, whether by choice or by a failed
+concentration check, the stored energy is released suddenly. Any
+creature within 10 feet of the object makes a Dexterity saving throw
+or takes 8d8 force damage or half as much on a successful one. A
+creature carrying the object has disadvantage on this saving throw.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-6" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-6"><span class="section-number-3">3.6</span> Fifth Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-6">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Animate Objects</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Awaken</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Conjure Elemental</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Contagion</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Contact Other Plane</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Creation</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Dominate Person</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Dream</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Geas</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Hold Monster</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Mislead</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Modify Memory</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Passwall</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Planar Binding</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Rary's Telepathic Bond</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Scrying</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Seeming</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Telekinesis</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Teleportation Circle</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Wall of Force</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-7" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-7"><span class="section-number-3">3.7</span> Sixth Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-7">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Arcane Gate</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Blade Barrier</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Contingency</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Flesh to Stone</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Guards and Wards</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Magic Jar</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Mass Suggestion</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Otto's Irresistible Dance</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Programmed Illusion</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">True Seeing</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Wind Walk</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-8" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-8"><span class="section-number-3">3.8</span> Seventh Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-8">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Etherealness</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Forcecage</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Mirage Arcane</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Plane Shift</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Project Image</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Regenerate</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Reverse Gravity</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Simulacrum</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Teleport</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-9" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-9"><span class="section-number-3">3.9</span> Eighth Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-9">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Antipathy/Sympathy</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Clone</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Demiplane</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Dominate Monster</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Feeblemind</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Ghostform*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Glibness</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Kinetic Barrier*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Mind Blank</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Telepathy</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p>
+<b>Ghost Form</b> - <i>8th Level Psionic Transmutation</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 Action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: Self
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: 1 hour
+</p>
+<p>
+You become a ghost for the duration of the spell. Your DM can supply
+you with the statistics of the ghost and you take on all of these
+statistics, forsaking your own for the duration except Wisdom,
+Intelligence, and Charisma. When your ghost form is reduced to 0 hit
+points or the duration ends, you return to your normal form. Items
+you carry enter ghost form with you, though none of their magical
+properties will function for the duration as if suppressed by an
+Antimagic Field. You may exit the ghost form as an action.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Kinetic Barrier</b> - <i>8th Level Psionic Evocation</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 Action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: Self
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: 1 minute
+</p>
+<p>
+Concentration.
+</p>
+<p>
+You enact a shimmering Kinetic Barrier around yourself for 1 minute
+with a number of temporary hit points equal to your maximum hit
+points. If you would take bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, or force
+damage while the Barrier exists, the barrier takes the damage
+instead. If the barrier is broken by taking damage equal to or greater
+than its hit points or its duration ends, then it implodes dealing the
+entire damage to you. While half of the Barrier's hit points or more
+are gone, you may make an unarmed attack at a creature or object
+within range to cause the barrier to explode and deal the stored
+damage to that creature or object. While the Barrier surrounds you,
+you may not take any other actions, but can move normally.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-3-10" class="outline-3">
+<h3 id="sec-3-10"><span class="section-number-3">3.10</span> Ninth Level Mind Powers</h3>
+<div class="outline-text-3" id="text-3-10">
+<table border="2" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" rules="groups" frame="hsides">
+<colgroup><col class="left" />
+</colgroup>
+<tbody>
+<tr><td class="left">Astral Projection</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Foresight</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Gate</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Shapechange</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Time Stop</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Transfer Wounds*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Unstoppable*</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Weird</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="left">Wish</td></tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+<p>
+<b>Transfer Wounds</b> - <i>9th Level Evocation</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 Action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: Touch
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: Instantaneous
+</p>
+<p>
+You have learned to use other's life force as a conduit for your
+psionic powers.  You and one creature you are touching are restrained
+until the end of your turn. The creature takes necrotic damage equal
+to your number of missing hit points. You gain hit points equal the
+damage dealt, but no more than the creature's hit point maximum.
+</p>
+<p>
+<b>Unstoppable</b> - <i>9th Level Psionic Transmutation</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Casting Time</i>: 1 action
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Range</i>: Self
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Duration</i>: 1 minute.
+</p>
+<p>
+Concentration.
+</p>
+<p>
+You harness the raw power of Kinetics to enter an Unstoppable state
+for 1 minute. While in this state you have advantage on strength
+checks to break through doors or other barriers. Also your movement
+speed cannot be reduced below your maximum speed, you may only move in
+straight lines, and you reflect from barriers you cannot break in a
+direction of your choice. Creatures or objects in your path must make
+dexterity saving throws (if applicable) or be crushed for 10d6 points
+of force damage. You are immune to nonmagical bludgeoning damage while
+Unstoppable, but running into traps or dangerous areas may still hurt
+you.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-4" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-4"><span class="section-number-2">4</span> Thanks</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-4">
+<p>
+I'd like to thank all of the creators of proper D&amp;D Psionics from
+every edition, as well as contributors to other systems like
+Pathfinder and (GURPS) Traveler.
+</p>
+<p>
+I'd like to thank N. Foy, Alex L., Sam S., and Joey A. for playtesting
+all of the crazy incarnations of this.
+</p>
+<p>
+Also thanks to Nathan R., Luke S., Jacob C., Marcus S., Jay B. and
+many many others for listening to me rant about psionics for certainly
+longer than what is socially acceptable.
+</p>
+<p>
+For example, the mind flayer as presented in the Monster Manual has
+the Innate Spellcasting (Psionics) feature. This feature allow the
+mind flayer to cast a set of spells using psionic energy. These spells
+can be countered with counterspell or dispelled with dispel magic and
+similar effects.
+</p>
+<p>
+First, we brainstormed the available options, then divided them into
+distinct categories, built the spell/power lists, divided the features
+vertically by level awarded, compared similar features across classes,
+revised, revised, revised, and finally playtested it. Now we bring it
+to the public for large-scale testing.
+</p>
+<div id="footnotes">
+<h2 class="footnotes">Footnotes: </h2>
+<div id="text-footnotes">
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a class="footnum" name="fn-.1" href="#fnr-.1">1</a></sup> Mechanically, what is worth noting is that psionics and Weave-based
+magic are two distinct forces. In general, an effect that alters or
+affects a spell has no effect on a psionic effect and vice
+versa. There is one important exception to this rule. A psionic effect
+may allow a creature to cast a spell by teaching them to manipulate
+the Weave.
+</p>
+<p class="footnote"><sup><a class="footnum" name="fn-.2" href="#fnr-.2">2</a></sup> In designing this class, the key design ideals were 1)
+Flavor, 2) Fun, 3) 5e Rules and Design Consistency, and 4) Balance.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
diff --git a/src/dnd/SpellGauntlet.org b/src/dnd/SpellGauntlet.org
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/src/dnd/SpellGauntlet.org
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+#+TITLE: Spell Gauntlet: Practical Spellcasting
+#+HTML_HEAD_EXTRA: <link rel="stylesheet" href="DND.css">
+#+TAGS: FF SS WP
+
+* Teleport
+
+** Wizard - ft. Ula Mindis
+The young Wizard Ula Mindis awoke to the smell of steeping tea.
+
+She sighed, opened her sleep-encrusted eyes, and yawned.  Another day.
+Another attempt.  She rolled out of bed and drifted over to the
+window.  It was cracked open, but she threw it wide to welcome the
+morning air and golden sunrise into her bedroom, or study rather.
+She'd recently moved her most used bookcases in here for easy access.
+Her spellbook sat open at its usual spot, turned to the page she'd
+most recently been studying.  This particular spell she'd attempted
+half a dozen times to no avail, but this morning felt somehow
+auspicious for it.
+
+Ula looked over the first line.  The elven letters were written in her
+own hand.  She had copied the carefully penned italic espruar letters
+from an old scroll recovered from a captured pirate ship no more than
+a tenday ago and had tried to cast the spell immediately.  When she
+failed, she had rechecked the writing a dozen times against every
+source she could find, so she was sure that the letters weren't the
+problem, she was.
+
+The tea arrived, cup wobbling in midair, held by a construct of pure
+magical force, whom she thanked politely.  The morning breeze caught
+the bay spray and filled the room with the smell of salt and sorcery.
+
+Perhaps she could not cast the spell, Ula mused, because she was
+perfectly happy exactly where she was.
+
+Emboldened by the tea, she shook away the thought and dove again into
+the spell.  Just imagine what was possible!  No longer would she have
+to send away for expensive spell components.  She could just say the
+words and pick them up herself.  She could visit her family back in
+Mulmaster or take a vacation on the shores of some exotic beach
+island.
+
+She finished the first line, an anchoring, and began on the second.
+While the first had been filled with words of permanence and
+stability, the second was quite the opposite, using words of whimsy
+and transcendence. She had gone over this before, even looking up
+words and pronunciation from the deepest parts of her library.
+
+This time though, the spell began to make sense.  Like a distant blur
+on the horizon solidifying into a ship, but that didn't mean that she
+could sail upon it.  No, the spell would likely take another tenday to
+work through at this rate.
+
+She moved to the next line, back to permanence, repetition, solidity,
+before turning again to shifting sand and billowing wind.  The salty
+sea-spray began to blow against her spellbook, almost flipping the
+page mid-sentence.  She nearly cursed, but a mage learns to be careful
+with errant words early in her education, and she remained silent.
+She reached for her tea, but it had grown cold.  She absent-mindedly
+heated it with a cantrip and brought the near-boiling mug to her lips.
+
+Ow!
+
+She set it down again and sent her unseen servant for an ice-block for
+the tea.
+
+She thought about ice, about water, then again about the spell.
+
+Permanence. Transience. Solidity. Liquidity.
+
+That was it!
+
+By the time the ice-cube arrived the tea was long forgotten.
+
+"Of course!  The key isn't thinking about location at all, it's about
+matter!  I'm solid right now.  I need to be liquid!  A solid cannot
+move, but a liquid flows, through time, through space, it doesn't
+matter!"
+
+Ula poured herself into the spell and the teacup clattered to the
+floor as she used her full concentration on the spell at hand.  She
+focused on the market down below her.  Fish-mongers barked their
+catches to the passersby and coin flowed freely.
+
+The words came one after another perfectly, Ula could almost predict
+them.  Permanence.  Transience.  Solidity.  Liquidity.
+
+And suddenly she was in the marketplace.
+
+The surprised merchants around her started then blushed as she cheered
+"I did it! I did it!" and jumped up and down.
+
+Only after nearly a minute of excited and likely bewildering
+explanation to the surprised fellows did Ula realize she had not
+changed from her slip and nightgown yet.
+
+Oh well.  She needn't be that embarrassed.  She could always move; now
+the world was at her fingertips.
+
+** Sorcerer - ft. Saffron Dayl'asaar
+
+Saffron looked at the picture of the remote village.
+
+"You've got to be kidding me." she stated in deadpan.
+
+"No, I assure you that is the location of the disturbance!" said the
+thin old actuary.  He stooped over the table with a lens held to one
+eye peering at her as if he expected her to pop out of existence at
+any second.
+
+Which, admittedly, she was likely to do, assuming of course that she
+could locate the stlarned place to disappear to.
+
+"No, I mean, this is the best information you have?"
+
+"Oh yes.  Absolutely positively the best.  The mine is just right by
+the village you see.  That is where Betrice, our informant that is,
+recovered the clues.  It's just luck that she thought the mine pretty
+and drew it for us in such exquisite detail."
+
+/Exquisite detail my arse./ thought Saffron.
+
+The eldest child of the now-esteemed Dayl'asaar family of Aglarond,
+Saffron had always been the adventurous one, even more so than her
+trio of older brothers.  So when the Institute came knocking three
+years ago, Saffron was the one to take up the call, not her father,
+not her brothers, but little Saffron spell-touched. Plus, she was the
+only one of them capable of the kind of magics that the Institute
+really lacked, even though the spells didn't always go off exactly as
+she planned.
+
+"Okay.  It will have to do."  She snatched up the paper and her
+traveling gear and concentrated on the picture and on her breathing.
+
+The mine was rather typical, but the old actuary, the elder one of the
+Minster Brothers who ran the Institute for the Recovery of Rare and
+Dangerous Artifacts, had supplied her with an atlas of remarkable
+detail and enough stories to feel as if she knew the place intimately.
+Or perhaps at least enough to try to translocate to it.
+
+Saffron felt her breath go out into the world and spread out
+impossibly far.  The world shift beneath her.  She felt connected to
+the strands of the Weave around her, following them like a cart along
+a track, but moving impossibly fast.  Her mind raced across the land,
+across the sea, to where the atlas had shown her.  She hesitated above
+the island for a moment gauging the possibilities.  Then suddenly she
+was plummeting into the jungles.  This was no divination, so she could
+not actually see any details, only what she imagined the jungles to
+look like based on the dark greens and browns of the atlas.  Suddenly
+a mine was in front of her.  There was no saying if it was the right
+one, or if it really was a mine or not, but Saffron was tired of
+waiting.  She drew up the power within her and stepped through the
+world itself.
+
+She stepped through the Weave and out into a monsoon.  She snagged a
+strand of loose magic on the way out and an explosion of cold air
+burst forth from where she was standing, instantly freezing raindrops
+into mini-hailstones which pounded her mercilessly.
+
+"Ugh, Mystra you're working with Talos now to make my life violent and
+unpredictable?  Is it too much to ask for--I don't know--a normal
+casting every once in a while?"
+
+Her curses as she trudged through the rain would have made her
+ancestors, the Day'lasaar pirates of the Sea of Fallen Stars, proud.
+
+** Bard - ft. Orryn Raulnor
+
+"You mean you're the third Raulnor with that name?!" the sellsword
+asked incredulously.
+
+"No, no. Where I'm from that means that I'm the third oldest son." a
+gnome in gilded leathers replied.
+
+"I see.  Still too long for my tastes, I'm not for knowing what yer
+parents was for thinking, but nobody needs a name that damn long.  And
+what about that 'sonoviches' part?"
+
+"Well, that's a bit complicated: it roughly translates to something
+somewhere between 'indefatigable one who spits on witches' and
+'largely punctual' ... it's a family name."
+
+The table erupted in laughter.
+
+Soon thereafter, the group seated around the table parted company and
+the gnome made his way into the street.
+
+He wasn't nearly as drunk as his companions had been, but he only
+barely noticed the shapes in the alley before he'd walked into them.
+
+Orryn licked his lips and looked over at the subtle shapes of his
+soon-to-be assailants.
+
+There were perhaps eight of them now, arrayed in a semicircle around
+him in the darkness.  He should have known better than to flaunt his
+gold around the tavern as he'd done.  But them again, it wasn't all
+bad.  It had been far too long since he had a chance to live a good
+story instead of simply tell one.
+
+"Excuse me gentlesirs, how can I help you this fine night?" the
+gnomish bard, twirling a strand of his green beard around his finger
+in a gesture of mock-nervousness, asked the group of local toughs.
+
+One of the larger of the group stepped forward into the alleyway and
+quickly botched whatever ready line he'd been prepared to say.  They
+evidently hadn't realized the gnome has seen them before he'd spoken.
+
+"Halt there, uh, sirrah.  It looks like you've, uh, forgot to pay the
+toll."
+
+"Hmm, I hadn't taken ye to be trolls, but now in the light I do see
+the resemblance."
+
+The group was not particularly disciplined, most likely coming
+together recently at the smell of gold and lacking for a real leader.
+About half of them were silent and nearly shaking with anticipation.
+The other half were blustering fools.
+
+"Did'ja he just call Cratch t'be a troll?" one asked.
+
+"He is a troll!" another joked.
+
+"Your mother's a troll."  Cratch replied.  "Now little one, hand over
+your money or you'll wish I's a troll."
+
+"All right, all right.  No need to be hasty.  I'm sure you're all
+upstanding gents and just want to use the money to pay off your debts
+and buy your mothers veiled carriages.  Here, take the money."
+
+Orryn pulled at a pouch on his waist, snapping the straps, and tossed
+it on the ground in front of Cratch and the others.  It fell open and
+several dozen large gold coins rolled from the sack.
+
+The octet dived for the spilled coins and struggled with one another
+to snatch them up.
+
+"Of course, this sum is just a trifle compared to what I keep at
+home."
+
+The novitiate robbers looked up with various states of doubt,
+incomprehension, and greed.  This had been the plan, but somehow it
+was far too easy.  The smart thing to do would be to grab the gold and
+flee.  But these were not particularly smart men, less so when blinded
+by the fortunes of gold held in their hands.
+
+"Take us there."
+
+"As you wish..."  The rest of Orryn's sing-song sentence danced in the
+wind to distant places and forgotten ages.  The eight bullies found
+their thoughts taken far away as the strange music lifted them up and
+carried them upon a journey.  The true names of places are powerful
+things, most strange and unpronounceable, most lost to time immortal.
+But the bard's magic remembered them.  His words were not an
+incantation as much as a call-and-response.  His voice echoed through
+the world, and the world responded.
+
+Orryn and the eight were suddenly elsewhere.  A very far away
+elsewhere.  Snow billowed through the air and covered the icy ground
+in heaps.
+
+Orryn's captives reeled and screamed in terror.
+
+"Where are we?? Curse you wizard!"
+
+"Fear not.  Everything is under control.  We are in the middle of a
+northern glacier, where a small expedition settlement once existed.  I
+hadn't planned on the blizzard, but I suppose you're familiar with the
+adage 'we take what we are given.'"
+
+Cratch lunged at the diminutive bard, but Orryn was already in the
+midst of another spell.  He spoke words that felt like rushing air and
+drifted lazily into the sky, just out of reach of the huddled mob.  He
+extended his arms, recited the lightly tingly words that covered his
+body with bright red faerie fire, and then spoke with a voice that
+boomed through the icy plain.
+
+"Hear me well, I am Orryn Maye Sylvester Miles Felix Hectacre Notin
+Jiles Bulron Sysil-Sisler Klif-Wistler Anasto'tofande Sonoviches
+Overton Sennison Johnnyson Raulnor the Third, Bard of Faerun, Walker
+of Worlds, Smiter of Evildoers and Annoying Backwater Pricks, and
+I. AM. NOT. A. WIZARD."
+
+The group cowered and shivered before a spectacle of magical prowess
+unlike any they had ever seen or were ever likely to see again.
+
+"And if you would give me back my coin, I would appreciate it."
+
+A few hours later, the eight would-be robbers staggered into a
+tavern, each holding a single gold piece and a story.
+
+None of them would ever rob again.
+
+
+* Prestidigitation
+
+** Magic Initiate Feat - Wizard - ft. Harvey Hoban Harpell
+"Whadd'ya mean cutof?"
+
+"I mean, cut off.  You, Mr. Harpell, are cut off.  No more drinks
+tonight.  Sit, enjoy the fire, rest.  Do nothing to rouse the ire of
+my other patrons.  Especially none of that odoriferous weed of yours!"
+
+"Whadd'ya mean rows the ira!"  Here, turning to a hooded man nursing a
+half-pint of dark liquor beside him.  "Do I rows ya ira?!"  The man
+turned to face him, grim faced, and in a motion dumped the glass'
+contents over the young man's dirty matted head of hair and set the
+empty glass upon the counter before the frowning bartender.
+
+"That's a waste of good liquor, Malcom."
+
+"Just wanted to give'im one last drink is all.  I'll pay."
+
+The bartender sighed and reluctantly poured the man another glass.
+
+"How come 'e gets some!?"
+
+"Go. Sit...  Now."
+
+The dripping cleric, robes which had successfully avoided the downpour
+now dripping with a darker rain, wobbled over to the fire and landed
+upon a cushion with some measure of practiced grace, or luck.
+
+"Oh, Mal-com gets another drink.  Sure."  He looked to give the man an
+evil-eye but noticed for the first time that he was not alone.  "Oh,
+ladies, my apprologries."  He attempted to stand but finding
+extracting himself from his seat more difficult than anticipated,
+simply half-bowed to the pair of dripping maids.  Straining for words,
+he offered, "I see you're wet! I can help you with that!"
+
+As he struggled with gaining control of his faculties to remember the
+blasted name of that cantrip, the sound of broken glass from across
+the room cut through the lively atmosphere.
+
+The Selune's Smile was rather crowded with weary travelers looking for
+rest or for revel.  Twin fireplaces bookended the common area, giving
+a warm glow to the ancient decor.  Gristly trophies bequeathed to the
+tavern adorned the walls: dragon scales, naga fangs, and owlbear heads
+among them.  A few quiet tapestries hang from the rafters, heralding
+the ancient Lords of Waterdeep who frequented the tavern in times long
+since past.
+
+It is said that every adventurer of the Sword Coast eventually finds
+her way to the City of Splendors, but rarely do so many of them come
+to a particular tavern all at once.
+
+Seated across from the most recent blackfish of the Harpell family,
+sat a pair of ladies wearing drenched leathers and scowls. 
+
+Harvey seemed not to notice the latter as he inventoried his magical
+repertoire.
+
+/Prefeguritat?/
+
+/Pregnanitato?/
+
+/Presdogranado?/
+
+/No. That'd jus worse./
+
+The room grew instantly silent at the spilling glass and subsequent
+trading of blows.
+
+/No, youse keep talkin, gotta thing./ he silently berated the floor.
+
+/Prestangerition?/
+
+One of the combatants fell to the floor and then laboriously dragged
+himself back up and slumped into a nearby chair.  Harvey thought he
+heard one of the two women, the shorter one, say something, "Need
+some... mumble mumble Moose?"
+
+/Moose?/
+
+/His mind joined his liver, slowly churning through the facts of the day./
+
+/Animal.  Forest.  Green.  She's kinda greenish.  I wonder if she's
+from a forest?  Ew, she's probaly dirty if she came from a forest. Eh,
+nothin a little Prestidigitation couldn't fix./
+
+/.../
+
+"Prestidigitation!" He shouted over the now-returned din.  Magic leapt
+from his fingers, but not exactly with the effect he had originally
+intended.  Reminded of the magical pranks from his childhood, his most
+common retaliatory strike was that of the "foul wind."  This came
+unbidden to him now, and the magic unleashed the foul smelling breeze
+from his fingertips.
+
+
+* Cure Wounds
+
+** Bard
+** Cleric - ft. Harvey Hoban Harpell
+
+The minor scuffle in the tavern had turned to outright chaos.  Harvey
+struggled to look unassuming beside the fireplace.  The two furious
+women had stomped off for some reason and then suddenly returned,
+except... one of them had a thick moose pelt thrown up over her arm
+like a shield and had grappled away a sword from an unfortunate fellow
+behind her, and...
+
+Oh no, now there were three of them.  The wet woman, the moose woman,
+and a new woman... who could probably lift a moose.  And despite his
+best efforts, his "gusts" had spread to even the outer tables.  People
+were taking notice.  Through it all, came the deep contralto of what
+he could only assume was a giantess, standing now, teeth clenched and
+nearly trembling with rage.
+
+"What is the meaning of this?"
+
+Even drunk, even stupid, there was no mistaking that tone.
+
+Stumbling with words, with mental images, and especially the literal
+stumbling involved when attempting to slink backwards from fear of a
+large angry Goliath woman, at first Harvey could do little more than
+whimper.
+
+Stopping just short of the fire, it's tongues licking the edges of his
+trailing sleeves, he composed himself as well as he could in the face
+of possible crushing death, closed his eyes, and sputtered "Excuse my
+casting m'lady.  My name is Harvey Hoban Harpell, 'eric'a Eldath.  I
+only meant to help."  Then peeking carefully from one eye he added,
+"Please don' crush me."
+
+He was inadvertently saved by another man. The drunken merchant lost
+his footing as he approached the bar for another bottle of stsass and
+stumbled into the goliath maid's firm buttocks.  He might as well have
+walked into a wall for all the good it did him.  Actually, he most
+certainly would have preferred to walk into a wall, as walls don't
+seize you by the collar, hoist you over their heads and fling you at
+their true sources of rage.
+
+Layers of fat flapped in the wind, terrified by their unnatural
+acceleration.  Equally terrified, the eye Harvey had dared to open
+flinched shut.  He could hear the sounds of the fireplace mantle above
+him abruptly stopping the man-boulder's flight.  And a moment later he
+could feel the crushing weight of the man-boulder's fall, the hard
+coolness of the wooden floor against his face, and the uncomfortable
+warmth and wetness of a terrified unconscious man letting go after a
+long night of drinking.
+
+In that moment, he felt that the only proper thing to do was to join
+him.
+
+Minutes passed and Harvey was more than satisfied with resting
+stupidly beneath his boulderous brother, surrounded by the incontinent
+smells and the tumultuous clatter of battle... wait.  Battle?
+
+/Oh no. What have I done?/
+
+Harvey tried to stand, to lift his face from the hard pearwood
+floorboards, to see what was going on.  Red blood splattered down
+beside his cheek.  It was warm and fresh.  He managed to lift his
+shoulders and turn.  A bloody maw lolled above him, the jaw obviously
+broken, tongue bit, nearly severed.  Bruising was already beginning to
+settle in between the voluminous folds of fat around the face and neck
+-- black and blue and red.
+
+Suddenly what was the proper thing moments ago seemed foolish.  This
+whole night seemed foolish.  Eldath, what have I done?  This man is
+hurt because of me.  I started a brawl.  I'm not worthy of serving
+you.
+
+In Harvey's frantic heart, beside the furious pounding and self-pity,
+came a shiver.  It raced along his chest, along his limbs, his spine a
+roadway, his bumbling extremities the destination.  A familiar sense
+of peace, contentment, and quiet perfection, washed over him like a
+gentle flowing stream.  The sensation reached his head, starting from
+the base of the skull and rushing forward to envelop him, to hold him,
+to wrap him tightly in a warm stillness.  All was silent.
+
+And yet from in that perfect silence, Harvey could almost hear a quiet
+voice, a whisper of a whisper upon the wind breathe to him.
+
+/I know.../
+
+The silence abated and the bustling lights and sounds of the taverns
+returned.
+
+Thank you, m'Lady.  Harvey mouthed deferentially.  Then squeezing a
+hand beneath his torso and the floor and taking up his holy symbol
+from around his neck, he gently turned his body into a sitting
+position against the wall, the large man laying across his lap, and
+allowed the Peace of Eldath to flow through him and into the man.
+
+He spoke words, though he knew them not, and the symbol of the rushing
+waterfall and the still pool gleamed with a quiet silver and blue
+light.  The unconscious man's wounds were bathed in the light, and his
+clotting blood staunched, his bruises soothed, his avulsed tongue knit
+together, and jaw gently returned to place.  He opened his eyes,
+wonderstruck, then promptly grimaced at the smell in the air and in
+his trousers.
+
+"Oh, right!"  Harvey waved away the effect of the cantrip and helped
+the man to his feet.
+
+** Druid
+** Paladin - ft. 
+** Ranger
+
+   
+* Power Word Kill
+
+** Wizard
+** Warlock
+
+
+* The Fugue
+
+The orcs pulled you down.
+
+They beat you.  You could feel the blood in your mouth, and leaking
+beneath your skin.  You could feel their clubs break you.  You felt
+your spine snap, one, two, three places.  Frantic, try to focus on the
+spells your patron left you. But you know there is nothing there.  So
+you flex the fingers on your right hand, where your brand is--the
+deep, red burn which you know will never heal.  You feel the bitter
+the connection to Nine Hells, in some ways it feels like a fishing
+line pulling you back there, and in other it just feels like a part of
+your body, like a gland.  Pulling on the connection feels like crying,
+but tears of sulfur and of smoke.  Soon hot, sticky, bruised-looking
+energy responds to your call and leaks from the brand like pus.  An
+orc stands over you, a battleaxe held high above his head, and you
+fling it at him with a roar of defiance.  He takes it full in the face
+and his brain explodes out the back of his head.
+
+But he wasn't the only orc, and the hits keep coming, You know that
+you are going to die.
+
+Soon the blows stop hurting.  The world stops spinning and everything
+is very very quiet.
+
+...
+
+You don't open your eyes.  There's no moment of focusing, blurred
+vision, bright light.  You just see.  You just are.
+
+You're standing on a desolate plain.  The sky is a dull shade of dark
+gray, the same color as the thick dirt which covers the ground like
+dusty snow.  You can see ahead for hundreds of miles, but it doesn't
+seem to strike you as odd.
+
+You aren't alone.
+
+Others, mostly humans, but a half-orc here, a half-elf there, move
+through the dirt, knocking up clouds of dust in their wakes.  They
+move so slowly.
+
+You are standing.
+
+You look down at your hand, there is no brand.  You flex the fingers,
+but there is no burning sensation.  In fact, there's barely any
+sensation at all.  It doesn't seem to strike you as odd.
+
+As you turn the hand over to put it back at your side, you notice that
+where the brand was, on the back is a small red patch of dried ink.
+Perhaps some rune or letter?  It doesn't seem important.
+
+You drop the arm to your side, slowly, quietly, and begin to walk.
+
+Nearby is a small hill.  Several men and women are gathered on it.
+They seem to be singing.
+
+A light opens above them and a creature with wings of fire and a
+shield emblazoned with the symbol of an upright gauntlet appears.
+With a circular motion of his arm and a smile, the light becomes a
+whirlwind and the faithful are lifted up into the shining gateway and
+disappear in an anti-climactic non-flash of light.  For as suddenly as
+the herald appeared, he is gone and the plain is returned to stoic
+grayness.  You notice that even the hill is gone.  But it doesn't seem
+important.
+
+You spot a woman along your path, old, wrinkled, dirty, as grey as the
+dust and sky.  She is sobbing softly, clutching at her knees.  She
+wears the low-cut rags of a Luskan whore.  Her eyes grow wide with
+fear as you approach.  But you hear a voice call out "do not be
+afraid."  Your eyes follow the voice, to a woman standing nearby.  She
+radiates beauty.  Calling her beautiful is like calling the sky
+overcast.  It is like calling the air stale or the dirt dirty.  She
+reaches out a hand to the woman, her long red hair flowing in a wind
+that isn't there.  The old woman bounds to her feet.  She falls, but
+stands and tries again, every step growing stronger until she grasps
+the hand of her goddess and is clothed in the beauty and vitality of
+her youth.  She cries with joy, collapsing into the breast of the
+goddess, and the pair step through the planes together leaving behind
+the scent of strawberries and freshly cut grass.
+
+The scent dissipates quickly and you continue walking.
+
+You see others wandering aimlessly like yourself.
+
+You all seem to be walking in the same direction.
+
+In the distance is a circle of lights around an impossibly thin silver
+line disappearing into the sky.
+
+Your approach takes many hours, perhaps days or months or years, but
+eventually the lights become a city.  A huge city.  The walls rise
+over a mile high, and moan softly, though you can't tell how or why.
+
+From a large gate, hooded figures approach the aimless walkers,
+including yourself.  One stops before you and removes her hood with a
+look of vague, forced, curiosity.  She isn't exactly human, she has
+scales across her face and bright yellow eyes which are difficult to
+follow.
+
+She speaks, but the words are distant, muffled, "Guarded Faithless or
+Bargained Soul?"
+
+A deep, resonating, but scratchy voice answers from somewhere behind
+and above you.
+
+"The first.  Perhaps next time... the second."
+
+After a moment of consideration she nods deferentially, raises her
+hood, and turns towards the city, ushering you forward.
+
+The walls continue to grow as you get closer.  They must be ten miles
+high.  This city must house millions.  Around you is a crowd, closely
+packed among each other, though most give you a wide berth.  Now
+devils mingle among the humans, whispering, promising.  They lead away
+many.
+
+As you approach the wall, the whimpering grows louder.  The wall has
+faces.  Bodies are stuck together with rotting mortar, which dissolves
+them like a giant stomach.
+
+Suddenly jagged rifts open beside and before you, along the wall.
+Creatures with the faces and tusks of pigs, but the bodies of great
+apes rush through, crushing or tossing aside both wandering Faithless
+and cloaked guides.
+
+Horns blare clearly through the otherwise muted scene of violence.
+
+The guides throw aside their cloaks and brandish sickles and shields.
+Devils howl war cries and abandon their bargaining to do battle with
+their hated foes.
+
+The demons flow through the rifts in a great horde and begin to tear
+at the wall, dragging huge chunks back through with them into the
+Abyss.  Some moaning souls cry out as many are ripped asunder, torn
+from a slow non-existence of centuries to one of instants.  The rest
+disappear into the Abyss, their forms already being twisted into those
+of the demons that abducted them.
+
+A giant six-armed demon with fangs like a viper rushes at you.  You
+raise your hand to call down fire upon it, but you have no power on
+which to call.
+
+A bony whip-like barbed tail shoots out from behind you, striking the
+creature and sending it writhing to the ground.  A massive bone devil
+steps over you, it's skeletal spider-like limbs moving to propel it
+impossibly fast through the slow-motion battlefield.  It hefts a
+greatclub that was probably once the femurs of one of those huge
+pig-ape-devils and smashes the six-armed serpent into a blackish
+pulp.  The blood splashes up into your face, leaving a line of acidic
+muck running down your nose, between your eyes.
+
+Then the fighting stops as suddenly as it started.  An angel, clad in
+flames the color of the sky shuts the portals with a pointed word and
+outstretched finger and surveys the damage to the wall before flying
+off towards the great spire of Kelemvor, the god of the dead.
+
+The bone devil turns and looks you over.  "It is time.  The vessel has
+arrived."  He then leaves you and cuts a thin line in the air with his
+tail.  He steps through it and disappears, leaving behind the familiar
+scent of sulfur and brimstone.  You hear the distant sound of a faint
+chime.  It's probably not important.
+
+--
+
+You open your eyes.  There's a moment of focusing, blurred vision, and
+bright light.  You take a breath and feel the cold morning air fill
+your lungs.  A horned tiefling with a pitch black bell and a scroll is
+standing over you.  Your whole body burns, but especially your hand
+and a strip running from your forehead down between your eyes.
+
+Everything is blurry, especially your memory.  Standing around you are
+your adventuring companions.  It feels like you just saw them moments
+ago?  Was there a battle?  What's going on?  You can't remember
+anything... it's all just indistinct and gray.
+
+Faust and the Fugue Plane
+-Andrew Murrell
diff --git a/src/dnd/Tastavi.md b/src/dnd/Tastavi.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f7eb12
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/dnd/Tastavi.md
@@ -0,0 +1,1965 @@
+---
+title: "Tastavi D'Maelnor of Llolethane"
+updated: "2016-08-30 Tue 23:56"
+html_head_extra: "<link rel=stylesheet href=DND.css>"
+tags: SS
+---
+
+<p>
+When I DM, I try to allow players to have as many options for
+character creation as I can. Usually, this manifests in pretty
+interesting, but stable, characters. And other times&#x2026; you get
+Tastavi.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi D'Maelnor of Lolathane-Mael'na'rath is not what I'd call a
+stable character: a CN half-(drow)-elf half-(black)-dragon ftr/rog/war
+hybrid sworn to an evil demigod who wants to swallow your dreams (and
+possibly the sun and all life) and fleeing one hell of a custody
+dispute.
+</p>
+<p>
+But I fell in love with the idea. I had to write it up. It
+started out as a three paragraph synopsis, but quickly devolved into
+the micro-epic below. He was only played for three sessions before
+dying to the most viscious and demanding opponent of all: sports
+season. Enjoy!
+</p>
+<div id="table-of-contents">
+<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
+<div id="text-table-of-contents">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#sec-1">1. Ik'lithslaelith</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-2">2. The Drowess</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-3">3. The Tunnel</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-4">4. High Priestess Destiny</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-5">5. Soup for Dinner</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-6">6. Hunger and Possibilities</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-7">7. [CENSORED]</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-8">8. Visions</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-9">9. Visitations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-10">10. Voices</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-11">11. jal'Bror-noloth</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-12">12. The Hold</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-13">13. The Pits</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-14">14. The Return</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-15">15. Tastavi</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-16">16. Trials</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-17">17. Transformations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-18">18. Training</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-19">19. The Leader</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-20">20. The Contest</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-21">21. The Cell</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-22">22. Motherly Love</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-23">23. The Will of Lolth</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-24">24. Doom</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-25">25. Destruction</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-26">26. Dreams</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-27">27. The Surface</a></li>
+<li><a href="#sec-28">28. Credits</a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-1" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-1"><span class="section-number-2">1</span> Ik'lithslaelith</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-1">
+<p>
+A dark form slithered though the deep, black against black in the
+sunless place. The form pulled its girth across the smooth stone of
+its cavern, uncoiling itself and scraping eons of accumulated filth
+from its obsidian hide. Too long had it slumbered here, content with
+its wealth and glories of days long past. A yellow eye appeared inside
+the chamber, burning with a delicate and powerful inner light.
+</p>
+<p>
+The dragon Ik'lithslaelith was awake. And he was hungry.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-2" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-2"><span class="section-number-2">2</span> The Drowess</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-2">
+<p>
+She walked nude across the parapet. Her onyx skin still glistened from her
+bath and her long white hair hung loose about her shoulders. She eyed
+the servants gathered along the tower's edge, daring them to look.
+</p>
+<p>
+Most simply bowed humbly before her, inches from oblivion, knowing
+full well the punishment. She reached the stair and snatched a
+loose-fitting robe from the extended hand of her favorite butler. His
+empty and scarred eye sockets heaved involuntarily at her
+proximity. It has been too long since she'd had a real excuse to user
+her power. Too long.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-3" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-3"><span class="section-number-2">3</span> The Tunnel</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-3">
+<p>
+<i>This was not here when last I was.</i> mused the dragon.
+</p>
+<p>
+He peered at the worked stone. Beneath his lair, along one of his
+favorite underground flying paths, a circular tunnel disappeared into
+the cliff face. Below him, the chasm loomed, threatening to consume
+any that strayed too far from the path's narrow ledge&#x2013;and could not
+fly&#x2013;to be burned to fiery cinders upon a lake of boiling stone
+below.
+</p>
+<p>
+He had always found the cavern poetic: no matter how hard the little
+climbers tried to rise, this was not their place. Their place was
+among the ashes.
+</p>
+<p>
+The newly hewn tunnel was far too small for him to squeeze into of
+course. But one does not reach advanced age as a dragon without
+learning a few tricks along the way.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>And one does not keep it by being over-curious either</i> he thought to
+himself.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>But I suppose it cannot be helped.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Ik'lithslaelith breathed a deep echoing sigh, closed his eyes, and
+began to shrink.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-4" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-4"><span class="section-number-2">4</span> High Priestess Destiny</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-4">
+<p>
+The family estate was vast, and by all accounts, grand. Nestled in a
+isolated corner of the massive complex of linked caves that comprised
+the southern drow 'city' of Mael'na'rath, the layered structure
+resembled a spiked claw rising from on oozing wound.
+</p>
+<p>
+Grand, but hideous.
+</p>
+<p>
+Grotesquely complicated, but functional.
+</p>
+<p>
+In a word: Chaotic.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the single gate at the base of the claw to the tips of the
+fingers, every staircase was a spiral. Most with an open center so
+that the priestesses and noble family could levitate from floor to
+floor, but commoners or household slaves would have to climb the steep
+steps to get anywhere, and so guards could fire upon intruders the
+entire way up. Intruders who, would first need to bypass the acid
+pools which surrounded the fortress.
+</p>
+<p>
+High Priestess Ul'Ilindith D'Maelnor of the Second House of
+Llolethane-Mael'na'rath decended through the main stair upon a cloud
+of authority. Any walking the stairs prostrated themselves before her,
+and any family members floating up quickly stepped aside and bowed as
+she passed. Her name meant "destiny" and she knew it. She reached the
+floor she wanted and halted her descent. It was almost time. She was
+expecting someone.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-5" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-5"><span class="section-number-2">5</span> Soup for Dinner</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-5">
+<p>
+From the darkness, expectant eyes scanned the palace walls. The acidic
+no-man's land glowed an eerie green from the pools which dotted the
+cavern floor. But the eyes were not concerned with the
+defenses. Instead they clutched at one distant parapet and
+waited. Minutes passed, but there was no activity from the palace. The
+eyes closed. Impatiently, a dark form slid from its hiding place in
+the mouth of the abandoned tunnel to nowhere, and approached the
+nearest pool of acid. The bubbling glow cast flickering splotches of
+light over its distinctly feminine form, and she bent over the pool,
+moving one hand in intricate spellcasting and clutching something
+hanging from around her neck with the other. She felt at ease with it
+near her, a rare feeling for a drow, but she had been experiencing all
+kinds of rare feelings recently. Her divination spell failed, as they
+were oft to do since she had fallen in love. Terrified of her own
+feelings, she knelt in fervent prayer to the Spider Queen.
+</p>
+<p>
+Behind her from the tunnel, another dark figure crept close,
+unnoticed, a silent hand of death in the land of silent death.
+</p>
+<p>
+Perhaps her prayers were answered, or perhaps the Queen of Spiders
+simply thought it amusing, but with a gasp and a rush of power, the
+beautiful drow woman felt the impending danger. She spun around,
+calling upon years of training and the will of her goddess to meet the
+threat. A whip appeared in her hands almost instantly, its twin
+heads, each a living snake, hissed and spat. Smiling coolly, she struck
+out against her assailant, the snake heads reaching, mouths wide to
+bite deep into its flesh. A loud crack and hiss echoed through the
+chamber, but when she pulled back the whip for another strike, both
+heads lay limp and dead in her hands. A scaled form, black as onyx,
+stood before her wearing only a billowing cloak and a practiced look
+of grim amusement. The fangs had only barely scratched the surface of
+his scales, and though sticky splotches of thick acidic pus covered
+the point of impact, he seemed entirely unconcerned.
+</p>
+<p>
+He responded in kind, spitting a line of black acid into her eyes and
+face. She reeled backwards, clutching at her dissolving eyes, and fell
+backwards into the bubbling pool.
+</p>
+<p>
+The form approached the shallow pool.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Looks like I'm having soup for dinner" mused Ik'lithslaelith.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-6" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-6"><span class="section-number-2">6</span> Hunger and Possibilities</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-6">
+<p>
+She couldn't believe it! A dragon! And a powerful one from the looks
+of it. High Priestess Ul'Ilindith smiled coolly from her invisible
+floating vantage point, and watched him feast. Though the
+'opportunities' she had been pursuing with the High Priestess of House
+Undros were most definitely ended, perhaps even greater power than
+simply controlling a minor house was in her reach. She nearly shook
+with excitement at the thought of an ancient black dragon raining
+death upon her enemies. But as always, she was to be careful in
+this. A dragon, even a male dragon, was dangerous and difficult to
+control. She mused for a moment on the dangers, she could see them
+clearly before her even, the fate in store if she made a wrong move,
+or if he still hungered. But the possibilities&#x2026;
+</p>
+<p>
+And perhaps, she mused, he hungered for drow in a way that could
+benefit them both&#x2026;
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-7" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-7"><span class="section-number-2">7</span> [CENSORED]</h2>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-8" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-8"><span class="section-number-2">8</span> Visions</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-8">
+<p>
+She saw a city burning.
+</p>
+<p>
+She saw people screaming in pain and rolling upon the ground, trying
+to wipe away the tar that ate at their fingers, at their faces.
+</p>
+<p>
+She saw clerics casting frantic spells, only to have them fail in
+their time of greatest need, abandoned by their goddess, and likewise
+be consumed.
+</p>
+<p>
+She saw her son.
+</p>
+<p>
+Standing in the midst of it, unharmed, and smiling, wiping blood from
+his blades. When the fires died, his yellow eyes were all that
+remained in the darkness.
+</p>
+<p>
+The vision departed and the brazier bore once again the droopy-eyed
+oozing visage of a Handmaiden of Lolth. The priestess bowed and the
+messenger disappeared into the flames of the Demonweb Pits.
+</p>
+<p>
+She looked down upon her pregnant belly. He would become her
+weapon. It was the will of Lolth.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-9" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-9"><span class="section-number-2">9</span> Visitations</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-9">
+<p>
+<b>Ik'lithslaelith</b>
+</p>
+<p>
+The name woke him from his renewed slumber. He lay upon his
+newly-heaped hordes of gold and pools of melted bones. The echo of the
+name roared in his mind like a tempest. Like a wildfire. Like the roar
+of ten thousand dragons.
+</p>
+<p>
+The ancient Ik'lithslaelith, the proud Ik'lithslaelith, the noble
+Ik'lithslaelith, the silent hand of death in the merciless Underdark,
+Winnower of Worlds, and many more names long forgotten, cowered in
+fear before his goddess.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-10" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-10"><span class="section-number-2">10</span> Voices</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-10">
+<p>
+An ancient laughter hissed in the Abyss.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>The night is filled with voicess, so it seemss.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+She mused.
+</p>
+<p>
+Time stretched out naked, and the darkness prophesied:
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Two minds.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Two goddesses</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>of mixed intent</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>and muddled vows.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Scheming over one</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>neither shall have.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>The Nightmare smiled.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>For even gods must sleep.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>And neither see the</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>choices made when</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>nightmares reign.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Or hear the calls</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>of the forgotten</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>or the bound.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Dendar smiled at the ironic cost of freedom.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-11" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-11"><span class="section-number-2">11</span> jal'Bror-noloth</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-11">
+<p>
+The pregnancy was a wicked affair. Any news of it among the common
+folk was quickly discredited, and to speak of it openly, even among
+the family, was dangerous. Lady Ul'Ilindith spent her days under the
+care of her most trusted subordinates in the priestesshood: the ones
+with no ambition to speak of, whom she ruled with fear. She craved
+meat, and so she feasted upon the flesh of exotic animals, taken from
+both deep within the Underdark and from far above it, scoured from the
+surface. Every day, the burden in her belly grew more intense, the
+child growing much larger than any drow child. Every night the pain in
+her abdomen became almost unbearable. But she bore it. She bore it to
+term by force of will and the whispers of Lolth, promising her power
+beyond her wildest imaginings.
+</p>
+<p>
+Her time arrived quickly and with little warning. Appropriating a
+hidden chamber deep beneath the complex&#x2013;aptly, one often used for
+summoning creatures from lower planes, and shielded against unwanted
+magical intrusion&#x2013;Ul'Ilindith labored for six days and nights. Every
+second, the unborn child tore at her. She used up every spell of
+healing from every priestess within the complex and more besides,
+calling upon the aid of magical items and elixirs to keep the child
+from tearing her apart. And the pain only heightened her
+determination.
+</p>
+<p>
+When the child was finally born, it was amid a spray of blood. The
+child poured forth wrapped in stinking muck, an acidic darkness that
+mirrored the hearts of its parents. His parents. Even with all of her
+powers of healing, it was weeks before Ul'Ilindith recovered. She
+named the boy jal'Bror-noloth, the Sudden All-Encompassing Darkness,
+and kept him hidden from the world.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-12" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-12"><span class="section-number-2">12</span> The Hold</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-12">
+<p>
+A sudden rush of fresh air and the sounds of grinding stone attracted
+a small huddled group of kobolds to the cavern entrance. Large eyes,
+well-adjusted to the darkness, peered towards the unblocked hatchway
+and waited. From the other side of the hole in the cavern ceiling red
+and purple faerie fire cast an eerie glow into the chamber. Usually,
+if someone had rolled away the blocking stone and ventured into the
+cavern, the kobolds would know if it, but these were dark elves, in
+their domain, and fully prepared for stealth. All the kobolds saw was
+a vague hint of motion and the sudden glint of steel at their throats.
+</p>
+<p>
+They prostrated themselves before their cruel masters and whimpered
+despite their better sense. Or rather all but one of them whimpered. A
+young female, untested, but strong, remained unbowed. This was her
+first encounter with the dark elves, and through either willpower or
+through ignorance she stood and stared into the eyes of the drow
+soldier that held her captive, brandishing a knife and scowling at the
+ambush.
+</p>
+<p>
+The soldier's face became a mask of rage. She was ibluth, a worthless
+slave, a worthless kobold. He had certainly killed avenging lesser
+slights. He moved quickly and knocked away her blade, pressing his own
+in the space between her legs, preparing to cut her from stem to
+stern, but a commanding voice held him at bay. From behind, a
+weathered face, drained, but dangerous and beautiful, approached the
+soldier and the kobold maiden. She carried a small bundle in her arms,
+breastfeeding.
+</p>
+<p>
+She stared down at the scaled creature, regarding her cooly. Then she
+carefully lifted the baby from her breast. He began to cry.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You. Raise this iblith."
+</p>
+<p>
+She roughly handed the child to the now-wide-eyed kobold and stalked
+away, the rest of her guard following her.
+</p>
+<p>
+The boulder ground back into place and the cavern returned to
+darkness&#x2026; but not silence.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sound of a baby's cry echoed through the halls.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-13" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-13"><span class="section-number-2">13</span> The Pits</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-13">
+<p>
+The smack of sweaty flesh upon hard rock, and the crack of breaking
+bones, and shattered maws, and the echoing bloodthirsty cheer brought
+kobolds from all parts of the hold to witness the spectacle in the
+pits. A pair of fighters were sprawled upon the ground, clubbing and
+beating on each other with their claws or hands or whatever tools were
+available. It was over quickly, the opening salvo of the contest. The
+winner was cheered, the loser tossed aside to make way for the next
+fight. This was the way of kobolds: fast brutal victory or slow
+agonizing defeat.
+</p>
+<p>
+A large kobold, round, his puffy skin bulging from around his scales
+like fishnet tights, sat atop a large boulder overlooking the pit. He
+called out for the next pair to enter the pit. Cheers erupted at the
+first volunteer, a tall specimen, muscular, and well-endowed. His
+reddish scales flickered brutally in the dim torchlight. He stood
+proudly waving a spear to the adoring crowd, so he did not note his
+challenger until the cheers turned to anxious whispers. A small boy
+stood squarely in the center of the ring, head downcast. Few could say
+the moment that he had arrived, but none could deny his presence now,
+nor what it signified. The challenge had been issued. The boy's scales
+contrasted greatly with the proud fighter that stood before him. Where
+the champion's scales gleamed in the torchlight, the boy's seemed to
+swallow it completely. Black. As the darkest night or deepest cave.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the crowd, an adopted mother gasped as she saw her son standing
+in the ring and not at her side. It was no secret that she had been
+commissioned to raise the boy by the drow themselves, and the sudden
+silence in the stands all but confirmed it. None knew for sure which
+would win out, their customs: the right of challenge in the pits, or
+their fear of the drow should anything happen to the boy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Their internal war was ended by the sudden motion of the
+challenger. He lifted his spear and lunged at the champion. The strike
+was short, but the damage was done, the fight had already begun. The
+champion returned the strike, only to have his spear deftly deflected
+as it came down. The young half-dragon took this opportunity to charge
+at the kobold before him, getting within the range of the spear and
+clawing at the hands holding the weapon. Long thick lines of blood
+appeared on the champion's forearms and he released the weapon in
+order to block the continued onslaught and return the favor. He led
+with a left hook that connected right under the boy's eye and sent him
+sprawling backwards, and quickly followed it with a kick to the boy's
+side, right beneath the shoulder-blade. The youth hit the ground and
+dove into a roll to come back to his feat. He had no more completed
+it, when another powerful kick knocked him back again, this time
+against the cavern wall. More punches followed and the boy fell back
+again and again against the wall and the floor, for support. His eyes
+were swollen, his hands and knees bloody, his body aching from the
+thrashing, but he did not signal his surrender. Instead he peered into
+the champion's eyes with determination and smiled, a bloody broken
+thing amid a silent crowd. The champion shook his head, but stalked in
+one more time to finish it.
+</p>
+<p>
+He never got a chance.
+</p>
+<p>
+The only sound that could be heard for miles was his scream. Not a
+person gathered breathed, nor heart beat for several moments, as their
+champion writhed pitifully upon the ground clutching the wreck that
+was once his face. Acid melted down into his skull and soon he could
+no longer draw the breath to scream and just shivered upon the ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal'Bror'Noloth wiped the spittle from his mouth and looked up to
+regard the assembled, but from his vantage point, could see but one,
+the puffy chieftain upon the rock, as all bowed down to worship the
+dragon-blessed.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-14" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-14"><span class="section-number-2">14</span> The Return</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-14">
+<p>
+The hatchway was open and once again, the proud kobold mother stood
+before dark elves. Though this time, she did not stand alone. Her
+adopted son, nearly her height, stood, hands balled into fists, at her
+side. He glanced protectively from his mother and the kobolds
+cowering on the ground to the strange dark-skinned woman standing
+before him, who began to speak. She spoke slowly, as if to a very
+young child, and with an unfamiliar and decadent accent.
+</p>
+<p>
+"You appear to have raised him well. Does he speak Undercommon?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Aks him yerself." his mother spat back.
+</p>
+<p>
+The drow priestess held out a hand to halt one of her guards who had
+stepped out of the darkness brandishing a knife. He stopped with a
+quizzical look, and slipping his dagger back into his piwafwi cloak,
+disappeared again.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Do you know your name, little one?"
+</p>
+<p>
+The boy looked to her suspiciously, but answered proudly "The others
+call me Nightshade."
+</p>
+<p>
+She smiled coolly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"A fitting name I'm sure, but a child's name, a disguise at best." She
+stalked closer to the boy, peering deeply into his eyes, and reached
+out with a hand to trace the pattern of his scales.
+</p>
+<p>
+His mother attempted to interpose herself, to shield her child from
+the foreign touch, but instead found herself frozen in place
+mid-step. Wide-eyed she tried to cry out, but found no words. The
+paralyzing poison of the trio of small darts protruding from her back,
+neck, and leg had done its task.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I see it in your eyes little Nightshade. This place has made you a
+killer, as I knew it would, but you shall become so much more. Follow
+me, and rise to conquer nations! And you shall earn your true name!
+Jal'Bror'Noloth!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal stood dumbfounded at the revelation. He looked to the
+ground. Silence fell upon the empty chamber and all eyes upon the
+young half-dragon. He closed his eyes. Though he could almost feel a
+thousand heartbeats all around him, the one in his chest was the
+faintest. Here among the kobolds, he was revered, some kind of god to
+the dragon-loving fanatics. Could the same be true of wherever this
+woman would take him?
+</p>
+<p>
+No, he decided, his place was in the caverns. And he didn't like this
+stranger and her band. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I already have a mother." he stated flatly. "I have no need for
+another one, nor your names for me."
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith smiled, unperturbed by his response. She leaned down to
+his ear and whispered "You do indeed already have a mother. But soon,
+you'll have a goddess."
+</p>
+<p>
+A hundred drow warriors appeared from the shadows, blades
+spinning. Kobold blood splattered the ceilings, the floors, it
+splattered the pair standing undisturbed in the midst of it. Jal found
+he could not move his body, he could not open his mouth again to send
+acid into the faces of the attackers.
+</p>
+<p>
+It was over quickly. The cowering kobolds were all dead, cut into morbid
+ribbons that covered the walls and floors. As were all the kobolds
+that stayed in the darkness and thought themselves safe from the
+spectacle. Any that saw the return of the drow or the fate of their
+beloved dragon-blessed were left to feed whatever monsters that would
+inevitably take up residence in the food-rich cavern. The Underdark
+is not a place of wastefulness.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal watched as the only other survivor, his adopted mother, was put
+into chains and levitated up through the drow hatchway. Still groggy
+from the poison, he barely noticed when his own fetters were locked
+into place. Ul'Ilindith leaned over his shoulder and whispered once
+again,
+</p>
+<p>
+"You shall know your destiny my little iblith. And you shall know the
+futility of defying me."
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-15" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-15"><span class="section-number-2">15</span> Tastavi</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-15">
+<p>
+The aging Master of Arms, Elderboy Tastadraa D'Maelnor, looked over
+the boy's head to his sister Ul'Ilindith.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This? This is the one you bring to me?"
+</p>
+<p>
+The boy appeared unremarkable in every way. Average height, build,
+skin tone, hair style, musculature, almost a mockery of normalcy.
+</p>
+<p>
+"He is."
+</p>
+<p>
+"I take it then, he is some prodigy with a blade?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I doubt he's ever touched one."
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastadraa sighed and slicked back his receding hairline. Despite his
+position in the family, one can never take a demand from a High
+Priestess lightly. He nodded his head,
+</p>
+<p>
+"I will train him&#x2026;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very good."
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith turned to leave.
+</p>
+<p>
+"&#x2026;assuming he passes the trials of course."
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith stopped. Slowly turning around, venom oozing
+from her gaze, she asked
+</p>
+<p>
+"Trials?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Just a formality I assure you, since he does not appear to be
+of&#x2026; noble birth. I shall train him if he proves himself superior to
+my most recent student."
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith smiled. She looked across the room to the gangly youth
+attempting to lift a glave twice his size and nearly chopping himself
+in twain as the weapon fell to the ground with a clatter&#x2013;her sister's
+son would prove no challenge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"All right. He shall fight then."
+</p>
+<p>
+But to her surprise the weapon master called out, "Tastavi! Come hither."
+</p>
+<p>
+From behind a weapons rack, a lithe youth looked up and walked
+over. His gait was one of practiced grace and noble refinement.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is my son Tastavi, he came of age just yesterday to start
+training with the group. Tastavi, you will be fighting this one to
+determine if he is fit to train against you."
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi glanced at the new boy and smirked.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-16" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-16"><span class="section-number-2">16</span> Trials</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-16">
+<p>
+Both fighters panted for breath. They dripped with sweat. From
+opposite sides of the perfect circle drawn upon the floor, they stared
+into each other's eyes, waiting. Tastavi licked blood from his
+battered lip.
+</p>
+<p>
+He had expected to finish the match quickly. He held his sword
+delicately but firmly, gently gliding it into thrusts and parries, as
+opposed to this stranger who held his sword like a club, and used it
+like one. But he quickly discovered that what the newcomer lacked in
+technique he made up for with ferocity. He looked so small and
+unspectacular, but possessed the raw strength of someone much larger,
+and the split-second reflexes of a master. The force and savage speed
+of his swings was jolting. Tastavi was able to stay ahead of each of
+them, but barely.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi had then moved to the center of the ring, expending as little
+effort as he could, dodging as much as deflecting, to tire out his
+opponent. Eventually the frustrated and slowing newcomer simply
+started swinging out as a distraction and using his body to push
+Tastavi towards the edge of the ring. Several times only his training
+in gymnastics had kept him from being bowled over out of the ring, and
+the last rush had been the closest yet.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi had to adjust, and began to counter the charges with precise
+blade thrusts, forcing his aggressor back, but took a few flying elbows
+to the face while perfecting it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Now mutual respect and more than a little exhaustion had the pair
+circling. Almost an hour had passed, with neither side backing
+down. His father, the Weapon's Master, stood by the wayside trying to
+look disinterested to Ul'Ilindith, while nonetheless remaining intent
+on every second of the fighting. The other students held no such
+reservation and watched the display with open wonder.
+</p>
+<p>
+As the two dragged themselves around they ring they knew that whatever
+happened here, it would be the last clash between the two. Tastavi
+hefted his blade and focused on his breathing and his feet, on his
+years of training with his father, and on his enemy: nearly collapsed
+on the ground, hands clenched upon the hilt of his broadsword, knuckles
+as white as the hair upon his head.
+</p>
+<p>
+And suddenly upon him.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi stepped to the side, barely avoiding the downwards strike and
+stabbed out, piercing flesh and striking against bone. The newcomer
+fell past him landing with a dull thud against the floor, jutting out
+halfway from the ring and retching in pain. His blood bubbled from the
+wound on his side. Tastavi heard a strange sizzling sound and looked
+to his blade, the blood was slowly eating away the metal!
+</p>
+<p>
+The crowd cheered, but Master Tastadraa silenced them with a harsh
+reprimand and they reluctantly began to disperse. Tastavi nearly
+collapsed, but held his feat and his honor. Then nearly collapsed
+again as Ul'Ilindith surprised him by personally moving forward to
+tend to the boy. Tastavi found himself dumbfounded before Ul'Ilindith,
+who reached down and touched the boy, instantly healing him and
+vaporizing the bubbling blood before it burned into the ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+The conversation between his aunt and father echoed far away.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shall teach him."
+</p>
+<p>
+"But, didn't he lose your little challenge?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shall teach him."
+</p>
+<p>
+The tip of his blade fell to the ground with a loud clatter as the
+acid ate cleanly through the steel.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-17" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-17"><span class="section-number-2">17</span> Transformations</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-17">
+<p>
+He awoke to a Sending message in his mind.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Jal, it is time to train with Master Tastadraa.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Yes Mother.</i> he replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal lay upon a thin bisected cot, the center of which was cut away
+so that he could lay on his back without the ridge on his spine
+cutting at the fabric.
+</p>
+<p>
+He looked to the three other belongings his mother allowed him: a pair
+of clothes for training at blades and bows, a small key, and a thin
+mask of white velvet.
+</p>
+<p>
+He reached for the key, but changed his mind at the last second and
+went for the mask instead.
+</p>
+<p>
+He carefully set it place upon his face and grimaced beneath it as
+its magic began subtly changing him. He shrank, his thick arms and
+legs shriveling into the spindly appendages of the drow. The ridges on
+his spine disappearing into his back. His hair remained roughly the
+same, resulting in an almost comical effect if anyone were
+watching. However, if anyone were watching, they would almost
+certainly be dead by now. His room was one of the best guarded places
+in the complex.
+</p>
+<p>
+He left his chamber fully drow&#x2013;there was no illusion, his entire body
+was changed&#x2013;and made for the training complex.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-18" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-18"><span class="section-number-2">18</span> Training</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-18">
+<p>
+Tastadraa leaned against a trident and watched Jal and Tastavi
+spar. He marveled at the progress they made in such short time. Given
+years, these two would surely become the best fighters in House
+D'Maelnor, if not the best fighters in Llolethane-Mael'na'rath. But
+which would predominate?
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi represented perfection in discipline and form. He learned
+every technique: line, parry, block, feint, it didn't matter, after a
+few repetitions he would master them, and he followed orders to the
+very punctuation.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal on the other hand, represented pure natural talent and
+improvisation. He could find his way in any situation with no
+preparation whatsoever. He always tested his opponents, challenging
+their careful techniques and reactions, throwing them into
+unpredictable patterns and unfamiliar lines. He was dangerous and
+cared nothing for orders.
+</p>
+<p>
+Only time would tell.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-19" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-19"><span class="section-number-2">19</span> The Leader</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-19">
+<p>
+Flames billowed into the sky.
+</p>
+<p>
+The sky.
+</p>
+<p>
+Bright and blue, horrid and happy.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith shuddered.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Why do you show me this?"
+</p>
+<p>
+A caped rogue peered from the crystal ball to the priestess.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We all serve the Queen according to her will."
+</p>
+<p>
+He motioned for her to continue watching the silent scene unfold below
+in the glassy sphere. The sky came into view once again and then
+shifted to a quiet village in the middle of a great yellow plain.
+</p>
+<p>
+From the south a sweeping army of darkness crept upon the unsuspecting
+village, at its head an imposing warrior. Arrayed in thick armor, not
+much could be seen of his face, or much beyond the massive broadsword he
+carried upon his back. With an unheard bellow he hefted the sword with
+two hands and led the the charging army to battle.
+</p>
+<p>
+A charge that faded from her view as the scene changed
+subtly. Suddenly the army was on the road, traveling by the new
+moon. Then they were at the gates of a great city, then inside it,
+slaying indiscriminately. Then there was a throne, obsidian and
+bearing the mark of the Spider Queen, and an ancient drow upon it,
+casting traitors into the flames.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith struggled with the vision.
+</p>
+<p>
+"We shall take to the surface? An army?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Not we, but see the mark upon the leader?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"D'Maelnor!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, he carries your crest. And another, of the first house."
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith smiled. "Then it's true, the union shall take place?"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Yes, but keep in mind" said the rogue, "there is but one leader
+prophesied&#x2026; not two."
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-20" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-20"><span class="section-number-2">20</span> The Contest</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-20">
+<p>
+Tastavi held his bow carefully and exhaling suddenly, sent a perfect
+shot into the deep-rothe's eye.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Twenty-three" Jal sighed dramatically, his face emotionless.
+</p>
+<p>
+"If you hadn't wasted your shot on the bull you would be tied with
+me. Next time." Tastavi patted Jal on the shoulder mockingly.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I've got one shot left." Jal pulled the arrow from his dimensional
+bag.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Even if you somehow managed to kill two of them with that, you'd only
+match me." Tastavi gave him a superior look and started packing his things.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal stared out across the cavern floor at the grazing rothe. Slowly a
+half-smile spread across his face.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I've got one shot left." he reiterated. 
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi stopped and just watched. He knew that look well enough after
+all. It usually preceded something worth watching.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal lifted his bow, nocked the arrow and held out his hand encasing a
+rothe in purple flames.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi gave him a disapproving look, "Now that's cheating!"
+</p>
+<p>
+"No, that's not the target, watch." Jal replied.
+</p>
+<p>
+At first the rothe seemed not to notice, and Jal lifted three fingers.
+</p>
+<p>
+Two fingers.
+</p>
+<p>
+One.
+</p>
+<p>
+The rothe looked up and seeing the illusory flames encasing it, began
+to panic. It let out a mooish-roar and bolted for the water.
+</p>
+<p>
+It would have made it too, except for the very agitated bull rothe
+standing directly in its path with an arrow protruding from its
+hindquarters. The bull had almost come to accept the nagging itch in
+its backside, but being bowled over by a frantic, and apparently
+burning, female on her way to the water was not a good way to arrive
+at acceptance.
+</p>
+<p>
+He reared up and charged, looking to gore anything in its path. A
+couple of plump females stood nearby and he charged at them
+blindly. They looked up in time to see the horns, and bolted to the
+side.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal fired.
+</p>
+<p>
+His arrow whisked past the enraged bull, peeling flesh from his face
+and changing his course to plow, horns-first into the escaping females,
+skewering both of them before himself, crumpling to the ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Ok, well that's just Twenty-three then. We're tied." Tastavi managed
+to stammer. But Jal turned to him and smiled.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Look again." 
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi traced the arrow's flight from where it had been
+deflected&#x2026; into the water. The startled rothe, no longer in faerie
+fire, floated on her side, bleeding dark blood into the water from an
+arrow between the ribs and into the heart.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-21" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-21"><span class="section-number-2">21</span> The Cell</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-21">
+<p>
+Jal opened his eyes and realized that for the first time in several
+years, his mother had not called him to training. His room was dark,
+but there was no mistaking the time. She should have called by now.
+</p>
+<p>
+He donned his mask and hesitantly took up the tiny golden key.
+</p>
+<p>
+If she called, he would answer, but it was not often he had the time
+he needed, and he decided that he would not waste it.
+</p>
+<p>
+He dressed quickly and left his chamber, racing through the levels of
+the palace to the great stair. He usually descended the stairs on
+foot, but who knew how long he had to spare. He activated his house
+insignia and levitated down the center.
+</p>
+<p>
+Near the bottom, he jumped to the side and followed a narrow corridor
+to the cell block. He counted his steps and arrived at the correct
+door. He slid in his key and opened the lock.
+</p>
+<p>
+Inside the room was a small cell, only a few inches taller than he and
+only a few feet wider. It was empty.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No." He said.
+</p>
+<p>
+He had to have made a mistake. Where was she? He looked around, but
+found no signs of escape, nor of capture.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No!" He exited the room and looked both ways down the narrow
+hallway.
+</p>
+<p>
+He tried the adjacent doors, but could not open them.
+</p>
+<p>
+"NO!" he screamed, the sound echoing in the long metallic corridor. A
+second passed, then thirty. His head ached and his gut clenched and
+burned. A sending arrived from his mother.
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Jal, come to the throne room immediately.</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal's rage flared inside him. The truth he suspected burned his lungs
+and throat. He tried to be calm, to tread carefully, but couldn't help
+but scream back <i>Where is she?! What have you done with her?!</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+No response was forthcoming.
+</p>
+<p>
+He screamed. An echoing anguish mixed among the cell-block moans. He
+ran, dashing through the archway to the stair. He took no heed of
+those around him as he raced fate to the throne room at the top of the
+complex.
+</p>
+<p>
+He arrived at the doors out of breath, and furious. Guards attempted
+to bar his way to announce him, but Jal rushed deftly past them and
+stormed into the throne room without announcement.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-22" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-22"><span class="section-number-2">22</span> Motherly Love</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-22">
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith reclined upon the throne. A drooling zombie stood guard
+beside it, once a powerful priestess, she was now cursed to forever
+stand as a reminder of what may happen to those who lose the favor of
+the Spider Queen.
+</p>
+<p>
+Guards lined the walls armed with hand crossbows. Tastadraa and his
+son stood before the dais, waiting for the final addition to their
+ranks.
+</p>
+<p>
+It burst into the throne room.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where is she?! What have you done with her?!" Jal screamed.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith remained seated and unaffected.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal screamed again, "WHERE IS SHE?!" The volume and the timbre
+contrasted dramatically with the unimpressive image of the drow
+youth. An aura of fear radiated from him, slowly affecting the nearest
+guards who stiffened and stood frozen beside the open door, mouths
+agape.
+</p>
+<p>
+"My my, Mother, what am impudent little pup I've raised." Ul'Ilindith
+lamented to the zombie beside her. It responded to the attention by
+lolling its head slightly towards the sound.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal looked to the pair standing before the throne with suspicion.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Where is my mother." he stated.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Jal, Jal, do calm down. I have liked your 'mother' from the moment I
+saw her. I believe that we share a certain&#x2026; bond. But display an
+attitude again in my presence, and I promise, she'll soon resemble
+<i>my</i> mother more than yours." Ul'Ilindith casually gestured to the
+guard zombie.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal deflated. The fire in his throat cut off any further words, and
+tears threatened to well behind his eyes. But his anger wisely turned
+to caution. He looked around the room and took in the situation, then
+wandered to his spot beside the other two males.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith was not sure about what she'd seen foretold, and thought
+about the rogue's warning. She had worried about the course set before
+her, but Jal's continuing insubordination left no room for doubt.
+</p>
+<p>
+She put aside her contemplation and said with a plastered smile,
+</p>
+<p>
+"A special opportunity has come to my attention. The first house has
+shown to me a great vision of the future. A great warrior, a son of
+D'Maelnor, shall join with the first house and lead an army of
+darkness across the surface world."
+</p>
+<p>
+Master Tastadraa's mouth fell agape, Tastavi focused on calming his
+excitement, Jal just strained against his rage, though there was dull
+curiosity there too. Tastavi was the only "son of D'Maelnor" he knew
+who could possibly wear the description of 'great warrior.'
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith just watched their reactions to be sure. Yes, the choice
+was obvious, but perhaps it should still be best left in Lolth's
+hands.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Brother, you're a bit too old to be our warrior. Step away from the
+dais. I will address the boys."
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastadraa bowed and stepped back into a line of guards at the side.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal felt isolated upon the dais. He looked to Tastavi uncertainly, but
+Tastavi looked at his aunt with expectancy, ambition gleaming in his
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith addressed the room. "Before me stand two great sons of
+D'Maelnor:"
+</p>
+<p>
+A dull question thumped in the back of Jal's mind. <i>What?</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tastavi, son of Tastadraa D'Maelnor."
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Two great sons? Tastadraa isn't up here, just Tastavi and&#x2026;</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+"and Jal'Bror'Noloth, my firstborn son,"
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal almost fell from the dais. No, she had been his 'Matron Mother',
+but he'd never believed that&#x2026;
+</p>
+<p>
+"whom I carried and delivered."
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal's rage flared, but his voice was nowhere to be found it in. He
+stood stone-faced and looked to the ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi looked to his newfound cousin with surprise, and sudden
+jealousy. All this time, and Jal had never told him? There he stood,
+embarrassed to have his secret revealed. Were they ever friends, or
+only rivals?
+</p>
+<p>
+"Both of you have surpassed my expectations with regard to fighting
+prowess. But&#x2026; There is but one great warrior." Ul'Ilindith stated
+clearly.
+</p>
+<p>
+She let the statement sink in.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi turned.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal broke from his focused denial and turned to look at his friend. He
+shook his head, slowly in disbelief.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi reached his hands slowly to the hilts of his swords.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal made no move to match him. He looked to Ul'Ilindith. She smiled
+wickedly. He looked to Tastadraa. He looked lost, a mixture of caring
+father, and greedy coward.
+</p>
+<p>
+He threw off his sword belt. It fell with a clatter to the ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Tastavi can go. He can be your warrior."
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi looked quickly back and forth between Jal and Ul'Ilindith.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith's smile became a sneer.
+</p>
+<p>
+A muffled screaming came from somewhere behind the throne and an aging
+kobold, bound and gagged, naked and bleeding, was brought before
+it. The zombie drooled at her and strained at its magical restraints.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No. You shall fight, my little iblith." She held out her hand before
+her with an open palm. In it lay a small scrap of white velvet. Slowly
+fire rose from her fingers and ignited it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Immediately Jal was wracked with pain as if his face was being torn
+off. He screamed, a primal roar, a dragon's roar. Guards around the
+room stiffened. Tastavi's eyes grew wide.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith turned her hand over into a fist and crushed the ashes.
+</p>
+<p>
+The polymorph spell of the mask was ended. Jal knelt on the
+ground. He breathed heavily and shivered. His clothes were tatters. He
+held the thin mask in his hands&#x2013;his clawed hands. He looked up, his
+white hair falling over his yellow eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi looked upon him with a mixture of disgust, betrayal, and fear.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal shook his head, dropped the mask, and held his hands up
+defensively, waving away the accusation in Tastavi's eyes.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Kill him." Ul'Ilindith commanded Tastavi.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi drew his swords.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-23" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-23"><span class="section-number-2">23</span> The Will of Lolth</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-23">
+<p>
+Though years had passed since their first fight, Jal found the whole
+scene familiar. Tastavi would stalk forward blades drawn and execute a
+perfect series of textbook thrusts and faints. He'd win. He usually
+did, but this time he wouldn't stop. This was no practice spar; this
+was life and death.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal snatched up his weapon belt, pulling his blades from it&#x2013;a rapier
+and a dagger&#x2013;kicked it into Tastavi's face, and retreated.  But
+Tastavi responded by slashing down in a brutal 'X' with his scimitars,
+cutting the tossed belt and bag into four even pieces. Jal tried to
+reason with him, but couldn't get out more than a word against the
+determination in Tastavi's eyes, and speed of his routine.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi came on in full. Emotions flooded his mind, betrayal was
+nothing new or exotic to a drow, but this was something more than
+that. Jal was a half-breed, a disgrace. He would put an end to this
+traitor, this ibluth masquerading as a D'Maelnor. Only a true D'Maelnor
+could lead an army of drow to bring justice to the surface world. Not
+this abomination. Tastavi thought back to every fight against the
+traitor, to the times he had beaten him. His training had always won
+out in the end. He couldn't help but think of the good times as
+well. But he violently rejected them. Lies, they were all lies.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi lunged forward, his whole body extending, uncoiling like a
+viper. Jal managed a half-hearted parry, sending Tastavi's thrust out
+wide, but lost space, as Tastavi dropped his blade below, tapped the
+tip of Jal's rapier harmlessly upwards with the strong of his blade
+and re-engaged. Jal managed to parry the first few blows of every
+line, but barely held on as the sequences progressed. He was never as
+good as Tastavi at feeling the parries and teaching his arms to
+remember them. Jal relied on the space afforded by his greater
+height, backing away, disengaging, dodging, and doing anything to
+break Tastavi's muscle memory. Several times he tried to flee, but
+whenever he came close to the guards, their crossbows forced him back
+into the fight against his friend.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal looked into Tastavi's eyes, but saw nothing but pain there. Deep
+welling emotion. Not regret, but pure righteous hatred. The look
+festered like a wound on his conscience. He felt the bile welling in
+his throat, preparing to send forth a blast of acid to burn away that
+look. But he choked it back and continued to parry.
+</p>
+<p>
+There had to be another way.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal felt strong. Free from the polymorph, he was able to stand to his
+full height, the chamber, the columns, even the other drow all seemed
+so much smaller now. The passing thought gave him an idea. But he had
+to act quickly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal flexed his thick legs, turned, back to the enemy, and rushed
+headlong into a pair of guards. He felt the wind of Tastavi's blade
+barely miss impaling him. The guards paled at the sight of a large
+black half-dragon barreling at them, and dodged behind a pillar, firing
+crossbow bolts at him as they fell. But they were poorly aimed and
+glanced off of his hard black scales. He followed them around the
+pillar, screaming. Then silence filled the chamber.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi soon followed, breathing heavily from his furious assault, but
+found nothing around the pillar but the pair of guards unconscious on
+the ground. He darted around the other side of the pillar to find
+nothing there either. He looked around behind him in frustration and
+caught a glance at another guard from the other side of the room
+staring dumbfounded at the ceiling. He turned to the pillar and found
+deep scratches on the intricately carved relief. His eyes followed
+them up, to find Jal climbing, tearing chunks of the porous stone free
+with his claws to use as handholds.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith held out a hand to keep the archers at bay, amused by the
+tactic.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi put away his swords and carefully followed him up.
+</p>
+<p>
+The chamber's ceiling was crisscrossed with the webs of thousands of
+spiders. Moths and flies, bats and even larger specimens struggled in
+freshly wrapped cocoons or lay very still. Drow-made archways that
+provided places for the webs to attach jut from odd angles.
+Crisscrossing struts connected them in intricate patterns. Jal leaped
+from the top of the pillar to one of these, sending its occupants
+scurrying away.
+</p>
+<p>
+He moved from strut to strut, displacing as few spiders as
+possible&#x2013;it was bad luck after all&#x2013;running where he could, climbing
+where he could not, and constantly dodging the think and sticky
+strands. He reached the end of one strut and turned to see Tastavi
+racing after him, swords drawn, hacking at whatever strands got too
+close. Jal looked around and dove into the thickest part of the
+webbing, directly over the throne.
+</p>
+<p>
+In the confined space it would be much more difficult to dodge, and
+impossible to run, but Jal took comfort in knowing that if he could
+find the right spot, it would also be impossible to lunge. His greater
+range combined with the sticky walls could then keep any advance at
+bay. He found a large strut, disconnected from the one he was on,
+probably two feet think, and curving from the ceiling like a
+hook. Tastavi was nearly on him. This would have to do.
+</p>
+<p>
+He took a deep breath, coiled like a spring and jumped. He tossed his
+rapier into the air, spun around, back parallel to the ground, and
+threw his dagger out behind him. He continued his rotation and found
+the strut at the same time the rapier bounced against it. The blade
+followed the curve upwards and then fell off to the side. Jal reached
+out with his legs and caught it with his foot.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi turned the corner quickly, moving to follow him, but had stop
+to knock aside the dagger inches from his face. He glared across the
+gap.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal pulled himself up with a deep groan and the heavy rumbling breaths
+of a dragon. More than forty feet below him from the throne chamber,
+Ul'Ilindith smiled wickedly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal watched as Tastavi's furious glare turned into a look of panic.
+</p>
+<p>
+Several web strands twinged near Jal's head and a slight clicking
+sound came from somewhere disturbingly close by.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's a spider isn't it?"
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi's silence was telling.
+</p>
+<p>
+"It's right behind me isn't it?&#x2026;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"&#x2026;"
+</p>
+<p>
+"Right."
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal dropped to the strut just in time for the spider's jowls to snap
+shut where he stood. He turned and sliced out with his rapier, tearing
+away a thick strand of webbing. He wrapped it around his leg, then
+jerked left and right, barely dodged the spider's next two rapid
+attempts to capture him. He kicked out against it, not to hurt it, but
+to use it as a springboard. He jumped back across the gap, sword
+leading his way.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi saw the move coming and instead of falling back, he leaped
+from the ledge as well in order to push Jal back into the line of attack
+from the giant spider. They collided in midair and struggled over a
+tiny ledge before both losing their footing and plummeting towards the
+ground.
+</p>
+<p>
+A sickening crunch echoed in the chamber.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi groaned upon the ground. Jal hung from the thick strand of
+webbing just above him. They had fallen towards the center of the
+room, nearby the spot where the fight had begun, before the throne.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi opened his blurry eyes to find Jal standing over him, or
+rather, hanging over him, rapier at his throat.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Very good, Jal. Now end it!" Ul'Ilindith cheered.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastadraa looked at her with disbelief.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal lifted his rapier, pressing it deep, drawing blood. Tastavi pulled
+away, but winced at his multiple broken bones, some of which protruded
+grotesquely and spouted little fountains of blood. He closed his eyes,
+ready to accept his defeat if that was the will of the Spider Queen.
+</p>
+<p>
+But instead, Jal shifted his weight to swing himself towards the
+throne, brought his sword around, cutting the line holding him aloft,
+and flipped over towards the dais. He landed with a roll, dodging the
+lazy lunge of the zombie guarding the throne and sprang forward with
+the grace of a cat and the speed of a scorpion.
+</p>
+<p>
+A deep thunk and sudden rushing of air shattered the sudden
+silence. Jal's rapier dug deeply into Ul'Ilindith's chest and blood
+spurted from the wound. A second later, two dozen crossbow bolts hit
+Jal in the chest and paralysis seeped into his muscles from each tiny
+pinprick.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith's voice came through ragged slurping breaths, a spell of
+some kind, and Jal found himself sprawling backwards, teeth chattering
+and sword shattered into shrapnel in his hands. He landed roughly upon
+the dais steps a few feet from the broken Tastavi who looked at him
+aghast.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith's eyes changed to a deep black, and raven flames engulfed
+her. She chanted with otherworldly power. Her wound closed. She began
+to levitate and ripped off her stained clothes with revulsion.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Once again you disappoint me my son. Watch what is borne of your
+failings!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith turned ruefully towards the bound kobold and sent forth
+waves of necrotic energy that quickly tore her apart. Jal tried to
+scream, but his mouth refused to open and his voice left him silent in
+his agony.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith was not finished though.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'll show you the cost of your weakness! Watch as I cut it out."
+</p>
+<p>
+Instead of turning her wrath on Jal, she turned on Tastavi, pointing a
+rueful finger and chanting. Soon lightning arced between her fingers,
+gathering for discharge.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Noo!!" Tastadraa screamed, breaking ranks and standing between his
+son and his sister. He held aloft a glowing shield emblazoned with
+the lightning symbol of the surface god Talos, and in his other hand a
+broadsword wreathed in black flames.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I shall not allow this!" He called to her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"This is not yours to decide, Elderboy." she spat back.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith let fly her spell, and lightning shot from her finger to
+the waiting Tastadraa. Electricity sparked and crackled as the shield
+focused and contained it. What little hair remained on Tastadraa's
+balding head stood straight but his look of determination and
+concentration disrupted whatever mirth could be garnered from the
+sight. He brought around his sword and rapped it against the crackling
+shield and then with a wave of his arm, released the energy at the
+ground beside him. Lightning arced into the stone and it exploded with
+a deafening blast.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastadraa stalked slowly forward towards Ul'Ilindith.
+</p>
+<p>
+"I'm sorry, Sister, but this is not how the D'Maelnor line shall
+end&#x2013;with an abomination."
+</p>
+<p>
+Guards swarmed from beside the throne and drew swords&#x2013;drow that
+Tastadraa had taught. But he had not taught them everything. Two moved
+forward to engage him. Their heads fell to the floor and corpses
+turned to ash beneath his wicked blade.
+</p>
+<p>
+The rest of the guards looked to the powerful siblings and decided to
+refrain from allowing their duty decide their deaths.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith sneered. She began to chant again, her eyes rolling up
+into her head. The air grew dense inside the throne room, thick and
+stifling, beads of sweat began to form and run down Ul'Ilindith's
+naked body.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastadraa stalked forward with the shield of Talos held high.
+</p>
+<p>
+Beside the throne, the twisted and battered form of Jal's adopted
+mother began to twitch.
+</p>
+<p>
+She finished her incantation, but waited to unleash the spell to
+gloat, "Lets see your blasphemous surface god save you from this one."
+</p>
+<p>
+Her hand jerked spasmodically and green bile erupted from the air
+around it in a stream and blasted Tastadraa to the ground. Contagion
+spread across his body wherever the stuff touched and ate away his
+skin. At the same time the kobold skeleton began to slowly shift into
+place, ligaments forming, muscle growing upon the shifting bones.
+</p>
+<p>
+But Tastadraa was not finished, he pushed with his rotting limbs and
+triggered the levitation on his amulet. He rose, blade poised to end
+the conflict with a single vorpal strike. Then his body fell limp and
+he hung awkwardly in the air, his head crushed from behind by the maw
+of a giant spider.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi cried out in anguish.
+</p>
+<p>
+Paralyzed by more than just the drow poison, Jal watched the scene
+progress in horror. Tastadraa was nothing more than a decaying pile of
+flesh, Tastavi lay broken by his fall, his adopted mother under the
+throes of some insidious magic.
+</p>
+<p>
+Only Ul'Ilindith seemed unharmed, floating above them all cherishing
+the moment.
+</p>
+<p>
+The ground began to shake.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Fool, don't you see? A traitor and his son are revealed and Lolth has
+shown me favor! The dead rise. Even Toril trembles! This is the will
+of Lolth!"
+</p>
+<p>
+She continued, addressing the guards, "Now. Do as I commanded."
+</p>
+<p>
+A crossbow bolt zipped past Jal's frozen face. The whole world seemed
+to stop. But the bolt was not indented for him. Beside him, Tastavi's
+scream became a gurgle as the crossbow bolt in his throat quickly
+drained him of both the air and the blood needed to circulate it.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal retched involuntarily, and could taste the poison on his lips.
+</p>
+<p>
+The shaking intensified in the chamber. A column came down in dozens
+of jagged pieces. Guards ran about, dodging falling debris and
+spiders.
+</p>
+<p>
+Tastavi breathed his last, slumping against the broken stone.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith, levitating, but stationary in the air was pelted with
+rock fragments and quickly began her descent.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal's anger flared within him, but fear helped him keep his head and
+push away the worst effects of the poison. What was going on?
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith reached the ground and began to hurry towards Jal, still
+paralyzed upon the dais steps, but a curious laugh stopped her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Hahaha, 'da will a Lolth you say?" The scratchy voice became clearer
+by the second. Ul'Ilindith turned to the living kobold slowly standing
+up where her corpse should have rested. Her scales grew back in
+patches, and she peered at the Matron Mother with one regenerated eye.
+</p>
+<p>
+"No my dear, this&#x2026;" she gestured to the chaos around her.
+</p>
+<p>
+"&#x2026;is the will of Tiamat."
+</p>
+<p>
+The ceiling collapsed.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-24" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-24"><span class="section-number-2">24</span> Doom</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-24">
+<p>
+Often a dragon's roar precedes its breath, but Ik'lithslaelith was too
+cautious and too clever for that. When he roared over the shattered
+second house of Llolethane-Mael'na'rath, it was a roar of victory. He
+watched the wreckage from the shadows for a time, but his instructions
+had been clear: leave nothing behind&#x2013;and then leave. He disappeared
+into the forgotten tunnel and was gone.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-25" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-25"><span class="section-number-2">25</span> Destruction</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-25">
+<p>
+The palace fell.
+</p>
+<p>
+A lone drowess rose from the ashes at the edge of the desolation. The
+acid dripped from her hands, from her hair, and fell sizzling to the
+ground leaving her unharmed. Lady Lolth had long ago given her a
+defense against such poison, when she carried it in her womb.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ul'Ilindith stood alone in the rubble and followed the only other pair
+of footprints leaving the shattered homestead: her son's.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal limped through the wreckage, dragging Tastavi's body behind
+him. It had to be around here somewhere. He hefted a door-sized piece
+of slate from a shimmering object sticking out from underneath it. A
+drained and blistered hand held fast to a broken sword, but what
+attracted Jal's eye was a thin piece of white velvet. Jal took the
+mask and dropped the slate back into place, reverently.
+</p>
+<p>
+He turned to the body and rasped, "It doesn't look like either of us
+will be leading any armies today. Please forgive me." He placed the
+velvet mask on Tastavi's face and began the attunement ritual. He left
+the cavern once again fully drow, wearing the face of his friend, and
+carrying his inheritance, a silver shield of a strange surface god,
+upon his back.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-26" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-26"><span class="section-number-2">26</span> Dreams</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-26">
+<p>
+Three Years Later&#x2026;
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal lay on his back on a roof overlooking a bustling marketplace and
+stared dreamily at the cavern ceiling. It had been years since his
+flight from the shattered D'Maelnor estate, and he had managed to find
+some semblance of normalcy in Llolethane, the central cavern of the
+drow city of Llolethane-Mael'na'rath. He rested his head on his
+shield, now mostly painted black to blend in with the shadows, and
+wondered what life would be like without a thousand tons of rock above
+your head. He wondered what it would be like to fly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Below him he heard the telltale laughter of the fat merchant leader he
+had followed to this inn. He picked up his bow and his shield and
+stalked to the edge of the roof above a window. He carefully dipped
+the inner edge of the shield below the overhang and watched the party
+descending the staircase in the cool golden reflection. Then he pulled
+it back up, turned with his back to the alleyway, and counted
+dramatically, with a familiar half-smile.
+</p>
+<p>
+Three.
+</p>
+<p>
+Two.
+</p>
+<p>
+One.
+</p>
+<p>
+Then he flipped from the roof, dropping below the lip and firing an
+arrow through the window. He landed on the cavern floor with a roll
+and disappeared into the shadows&#x2013;just another renegade drow in a city
+of renegades. He did not stay to confirm his success or failure, but
+fled to where he could most easily disappear: the bustling
+marketplace.
+</p>
+<p>
+He strolled easily through the crowded streets. Though his appearance
+was quite a bit more handsome than that he had grown up with, he could
+still blend in with a crowd if he so desired. But then again, where
+was the fun in that? He was dressed in fine silks and jewels, not
+rags. And with a small lump beneath his throat, unquestionably
+covering a house insignia, he was obviously a noble and was given a
+wide birth by the lesser folk. He casually examined the merchandise of
+a few carts, but exuded little outward care for the whole venture,
+particularly when several guards burst from the inn and sent rogues
+into back alleys to seek an assassin.
+</p>
+<p>
+He eventually made his way into this same inn, and dodging guards
+carting some new lordling's inherited possessions from an upper room,
+was addressed cordially by a concierge, "Ah, welcome back Sir! It
+appears that you are in luck, a room has just opened up for you."
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal smiled to himself and turned to dismiss the man with a "Thank You."
+</p>
+<p>
+He never finished that thought.
+</p>
+<p>
+The man was dead.
+</p>
+<p>
+He stood, smiling pleasantly in demure house leathers with half of his
+face melted off to the bone, dripping tar-like blood upon his fine
+padded vest. A spider crawled out from where his ear should have been
+and snickered at him.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal backed away slowly aghast, but everyone else went stoically about
+their business, unperturbed. The room grew dark and Jal turned to the
+window. A thick spiderweb had covered it with a hand-sized spider
+hurriedly wrapping a struggling shape. A tiny dragon's wing jut from
+the bundle.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal ran.
+</p>
+<p>
+He sprinted from the inn and disregarding caution, fled through the
+black alleys and twisted honeycomb and spiderweb streets. It was like
+the passages were built to be confounding, and yet somehow mercilessly
+efficient. In a matter of moments he was back amid the ruins of the
+old city, broken homes and discarded people. Screams from behind him
+followed, the sounds of the guards seeking an assassin. But much
+worse, the sounds of shattering stone and a deafening roar echoed
+through the cavern.  Jal scurried through the final alleyway and dove
+into his hideout in an abandoned sewer tunnel. He dropped his rich
+clothes in the muck and crawled away on hands and knees.
+</p>
+<p>
+He remembered the frantic cries of his mother being torn apart and
+then her defiant laugh as the walls fell. Her last words echoed
+through his mind, "the will of Tiamat!" Another vicious roar sent
+ripples through the water and shivers through the very stone. He heard
+the clicking of spiders in the distance, drawing nearer. Closing in.
+</p>
+<p>
+He was being hunted. Franticly he drew the shield from his back and
+over his head and grasped a small dagger in his hand. He was once
+again a child, in loose-fitting kobold rags and with weapons he could
+barely use. He huddled terrified in a dark corner. He closed his eyes
+and begged whatever gods could hear him to escape.
+</p>
+<p>
+A faint hiss cut through the clamor. Not a god, but a tiny snake, the
+size of a little worm, crawled from the loose stones and looked up at
+Jal, flicking its tongue inquisitively. The hiss grew louder, drowning
+out the skittering of the approaching swarm and rumble of the
+searching dragon. The serpent grew, coiling and stretching, always
+watching. Jal found that he was no longer afraid, but curious. The
+serpent grew to immense proportions filling the tiny sewer tunnel,
+which became a great cavern, yet it still barely contained the
+powerful creature.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dendar, the Night Serpent, the Eater of the World, loomed over the
+boy. She laughed with the might of thunder and the promise of
+disaster. Jal found he could not move.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Jal'Bror'Noloth, your dreamss are deliciouss."
+</p>
+<p>
+Her huge tongue flicked in and out of her mouth, creating wind eddies
+that buffeted Jal against the stone. Greasy spittle and half-devoured
+bones&#x2013;remnants of nightmares long forgotten&#x2013;dripped from her
+cavernous maw. Jal could not speak, not even think, as the stench of
+nightmare overwhelmed him.
+</p>
+<p>
+"Your nightmare though&#x2026; tastess unique. Because it is true. And
+closer than you think. Evil godss have planss for you it seemss." The
+serpent hissed.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal shuddered.
+</p>
+<p>
+Dendar laughed&#x2013;a terrible rasping hiss.
+</p>
+<p>
+"And yet&#x2026; perhapss their planss are merely dreamss. Join me, little
+drow-gon and while the godss fret for your fate, we shall feassst!"
+</p>
+<p>
+Suddenly the world returned and Jal awoke from his reverie. What a
+dream! What a nightmare! The details faded, chewed away from his mind,
+but the image of the serpent and her strange offer lingered.
+</p>
+<p>
+The quiet dripping of sewer water and occasional scurrying of rodent
+or insect were the only sounds to be heard besides the dull pounding
+of his heart.
+</p>
+<p>
+He sat in the muck for hours.
+</p>
+<p>
+They were never far behind. Staying in one place for too long was
+dangerous, but something held Jal in place. Could he actually escape
+it all?
+</p>
+<p>
+Soon a distant splash alerted him to company. Heavy footsteps,
+confident and strong, echoed through the tunnel. Throngs of rodents
+scurried away from the sound, fleeing in terror they trampled on one
+another. A light breeze blew through the stinking place from the
+opposite end of the tunnel and the insects stopped their chattering,
+frozen and reverent. Jal couldn't think. They'd found him. They'd both
+found him. It was too late.
+</p>
+<p>
+A lightning bolt streaked through the tunnel past him and a barbaric
+roar answered it.
+</p>
+<p>
+The wind began to howl through the tunnel like a cyclone and the
+sounds of crumbling rock assailed him from both sides.
+</p>
+<p>
+Jal grimaced and hesitated. But as the twin forms came into view, he
+shouted into the clamor, "ENOUGH! Dendar! We are bound, now free me
+from this place!"
+</p>
+<p>
+<i>Wissse Choissce&#x2026;</i>
+</p>
+<p>
+Instantly a portal opened before him like a tear in reality and
+brilliant light beamed through. Jal rushed into it and was transported
+many miles away in an instant. A startled yell and the renewed sounds
+of battle followed him through, but then there was nothing but
+silence, the gentle breeze, and the burning light of the midday sun.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-27" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-27"><span class="section-number-2">27</span> The Surface</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-27">
+<p>
+The blinding light of the Shaar's Summer Sun left Jal helpless.
+</p>
+<p>
+He lay upon the ground thinking it maybe better he have died quickly
+in the tunnels or upon his own blade. But such musings held no real
+power, and with the setting of the Sun, and the rising of the lesser
+evils of the moon and of the stars, he wept freely. For though he was
+bound&#x2013;and nightmares would indeed become routine while in service to
+their master&#x2013;for the first time in his life, he was free.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="outline-container-sec-28" class="outline-2">
+<h2 id="sec-28"><span class="section-number-2">28</span> Credits</h2>
+<div class="outline-text-2" id="text-28">
+<p>
+[Thank you for Reading! I'm Andrew Murrell, an aspiring D&amp;D author and
+dedicated DM. Check out my blog at <a href="http://AndrewDM.me/">http://AndrewDM.me/</a> [WIP] for
+updates or if you'd like to see more stuff like this!]
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
author	Luke Shumaker <lukeshu@sbcglobal.net>	2017-01-03 18:31:41 -0500
committer	Luke Shumaker <lukeshu@sbcglobal.net>	2017-01-03 18:31:41 -0500
commit	ca844b5b2fc5eec7fb7b02ead72c1b2995b068b3 (patch)
tree	29dd08e2dba630453c32c7f9317660fea4bf7ced /src/dnd
parent	657ddd0ff753c3db05fe9efe00ac9b70bbb53c01 (diff)