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killed in a classroom demonstrati

ofSyrzan swung its arm and hurled a dozen

on, and started to conjure.

f course by their target's  protective enchantments. Pharaun completed his flaming arrows. They missed, bumped incantation and so inflicted a  hundred stabbing pains upon hi

mself.

His body grew as large as an ogre's, and  his hide thickened  into scaly armor.His teeth lengthened into tusks, and his

horns erupted from his brow. A hairless tail nails into talons, while long, curved and a whip appeared in his hand.      sprouted from the base of his spine,

The transformation only took a moment, and the discomfort was gone. With a beat of his leathery new wings, Pharaun hurled him

self at his foe.

The wizard raised his monstrous arms

Pharaun felt a sur             high and bellowed an incantation. ge of churning vertigo.  The scene before him  seem

and twist, and despite him                   ed to spin self, he veered off course. He smashed down on thedais, and time skipped. When he came to his senses, h

e'd reverted to his natural

form  and felt as weak and sick as Smylla Nathos.

The lich was staring down at him."What an idiot you were to return," Syrzan said. "You knew you were no

match for me."

Pharaun realized he could hear again,  albeit through a jangling in his ears.He wouldn'

"Stop preening," said the Master of Sot die deaf, for whatever that was worth.rcere. "You look ridiculous. This isn'tyour pathetic dream  world. This is reality, where I'

m  a prince of a great cit

and you're just a sort of m                        yoAs he taunted the creature, he groped follusk, and a dead, putrid one at that."r the strength to cast a final s

pell. Nodoubt the attack would fail like all the others.

So why,  he thought, bother to attack? Try someeffort, he cast a spell off the side of the platform. Blue scintilla of power glittered thing else instead. Shaking with

briefly in the air."You call

me
 
pathetic?" Syrzan sneered. "W

If you were wearing the ring you stole, Pharaun thought, you'hat was that supposed to be?"d knowdoubt it would fit on your bloated fingers.              , but I

The alhoon hoisted him  of

around his head.      f the ground, then wrapped dry,  flaking tentacles

You re  still going to serve me,
 
Syrzan said directly into the mage's  mi

holding up one gnarled finger to reveal the silver ring.
 
When I devour your
 
brain,
nd,
I'll learn all your secr

ets.

"Perhaps the  infusion would even  cure  your stupidity," Pharaun wheezed "b,  ut

I fear we'll never know. Look around."

The lich turned, and he felt it jerk with surprise.The lens of illusion he'd  formed in front  of the dais m

ade Syrzan look exactly

like a certain witty Master of Sorcere, and Pharaun himself resemble yet another humble ore. Once the Mizzrym  created it, he'd  willed the hand of ice to

release the illithid's head, and there came originator               the construct, swooping straight at its

.

Syrzan threw Pharaun down and faced  its creation. No doubt if left

unmolested, it could have averted the  construct somehow

strength for one m                 , but Pharaun found the ore spell. His labored  incantation shattered the floor of the dais, staggering the alhoon and breaking its concentration.

The huge tentacles scooped Syrzan up and conveyed it to the maw behind them, whereupon the strangely shaped

mouth began to suck and chew. The

Richard Lee Byers

221

War Of The Spider Queen

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Dissolution

alhoon's own magic ma

moment, then became opaque and solid again. It was trying t

ngled him  as Pharaun's never had. The lich faded for a

o  shift  to  another

plane of existence but couldn'After a time, the enormous head blinket focus past the agony.

inert chunks of m           d out of existence. Its passing dumped ummified mind flayer on the floor.

Pharaun's strength began to trickle back. He rummaged through the alhoon's

stinking remains until he found his silver ring, then turned his magic on the

renegades, though it  wasn't  really  necessary. Ryld, Welverin, and  their  cohorts

already had the upper hand.

down cross-legged on the floorWhen the last rogue lay dead, the entr. His chin anced Master of Melee-Magthere sat drooped down onto his chest, and hestarted to snore. Silver leg rattling as  if a blow had loosened the com

W                               ponents, elverin limped over to check him  and, Pharaun supposed, tend him  as needed.

The Mizzrym  thought he ought to take a  look as well but when he tried to stand, his head spun, and he had to flop back down.

Triel stood on the balcony gazing down at the city below.  It was virtually the same  view she'd surveyed on the night ofthat showed her all Menzoberranzan was in turm the slave uprising, the burning spectacle oil.streets and hindered trafThe fires were gone. In their place, cofic. The rain  had flooded cellars ald pools of standing water dotted the and it would take time to get rid of it. No one had an    nd dungeons as well, miles of rock between the City of Spiders and the open sticipated a downpourk       , not with y, abuilder had m                     nd in consequence, no ade much provision for drainage.

Someone coughed a discreet  little cough. Triel turned. Standing in the doorway,

Grom

"Matron."
ph inclined his head.

She felt a thrill of pleasure—relief, actually—at the sight of her brother,  who'd come to her so quickly once she'd given him leave. She took care to mask  the feeling."Archmage," she said. "Join me."

"Of course."

Gromph walked somewhat stifIn one corner of the terrace, Jeggredfly toward the balustrade. slouched on a chair too small for him but Tand gnawed a raw haunch of rothe. He  looked entirely engrossed in his snack, riel was confident he was watching  her sibling's progress. That was histask, after all, to ward her from all  potential enemies, in
Especially
 
her own kin.               cluding her own kin.

Gromph looked out at the city'sluminescence, as if his rain had washed it away domes and spires. Some had lost their twisted in the fire'            , and many had flowed and sshapes or effacing them entirely embrace, warping  the spider carvings into crippled .  The wizard's mouth twisted."It could have been worse," Triel said. "The stoneworkers can repair the damage.""They have their work cut out for them, especially without slaves to help."

"We have some. A few undercreatures declined to revolt or were captured

Richard Lee Byers

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War Of The Spider Queen

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Dissolution

instead of slain. We'll drive them hard and buy and capture more."

looked? Can anyone recreate Menzoberranzan exactly as it was? No. W"Still, does anyone remember precisely how every rampart and sculpture e're changed, scarred, and—"

He winced and rubbed his chest.

"Forgive me," the archmage continued.  "I didn't come to lament but to

perform my function as your advisor,  to share my thoughts on how to meetthe challenges to come."

Tr

"How do you see those challenges?"iel rested her hand atop the cool, polished stone of the rail and asked, "It's obvious, isn't it? W

e've just

a series of calamities. By dint of observing you in combat, every experienced what promises to be the first in Menzoberranyr with half a brain now  knows you priestesses have lost your

power. Rest assured, no matter what measures the Council takes, the wordwill spread beyond our borders. Perhaps some escaped thrall is proclaiming it

even now. Soon, one or another enemy will march on us,or

really bad, they might all unite in a grand alliance."      , if our luck is T

riel swallowed. "None of our foes  dares even to dream

Menzoberranzan."                        of taking

"This Syrzan did. When its kin, and others, find out we've lost our divine

magic, a significant fraction of our drow  warriors, and virtually all our  slave

troops, it may inspire them  to optimism.  And they're not even the greatestthreat."

"We ourselves are," Tr

"Exactly. W     iel sighed.e  always have our share of feuds and assassinations. Occasionallyone House exterminates another outright, and that'

s  as it should be. It's  our

way,  it makes us strong. But we can'twould be too m           endure constant, flagrant warfare. That

uch . . . chaos. It would tear Menzoberranzan to shreds. Up to

now, fear of the Spider Queen and her  clergy has kept the lid on, but it won't

anymore." He spat. "It's a pity our new heroes didn't die heroic deaths in their homeland's defense."

"You refer to Quenthel and the outcast Mizzrym?"

"Who else? Do you imagine them  any less ambitious than the rest of us?They cham

knowledge that mpioned the established order yesterday,  but, inspired by the any would rally to their banners, may themselves seek to topple it tom

orrow.  Quenthel ma

years but now. Pharaun m    y try to seize your throne, not in a hundred aHundred and Sixty-six Layers, he all but did, having spent no efy strike for the Robes of the Arch-mage—by the Six fort in finding

me  before scurrying to your side. What  a disaster that would be! Aside from

any  personal  inconvenience  to  you  and  me,  the  city  in  its  weakened  state  can'twithstand that sort of disruption."