Now lend an ear to a happening of Edgekeep, not too long ago and not too far 
away.

Sir Golistan of Analand.  No one knows this person very well, but he is
not one that someone forgets... he is the only person in all of Edgekeep
that wears purple.  Purple, and only purple.

Duke Stephen... Keeper of the Barnacle Pub, all around nice guy, and someone 
who hates nasty types.

Laslo Tremaine.  Tremaine's Investigations... that's all someone knows about 
this entity of Edgekeep.

This is a memory of a dark day in Edgekeep when the priests of La Ten visited 
the gateway and tried to gain entrance.  These three people just happened to be 
in the area.....

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	Who would have known something was amiss?  Certainly not the
guardsmen, mostly dullards (though exceptional fighters) and young
hotheads, or the town watch that is usually busily keeping miscreants in
order.  The priests rode on black and gray stallions.  A mottled color
it was, with no order to be seen.  Though the chaos of the horses hides
showed easily enough, the hides of the riders did not.  Black robes
occasionally accentuated by a brown cord hung over the riders bodies like
sheets on a mirror.  Six of them rode, side by side, from the north and
stopped at the gate.  "We request entrance to this city, guardsman!  You
will let us enter now."  His mind benumbed, the guardsman opens the gate.
Six horses and six riders enter the city and stop in the gateway area.
	Off to the side of the area, not yet interested in what is
happening at the gate, sits Golistan in the middle of a group of children.
He is speaking of an old in the history of the world, and the children sit
quite attentively.  But then one of them turns ashen white because of
seeing something. Golistan turns around to see one of the priests
disemboweling his stallion, flinging intestinal tissues and other body
matter all over the area.  Golistan jumps to his feet and in and runs over
to the priest demanding to know what is going on.   The priests says, "Heh
heh.. we are here to help this city regain favor with the elder gods!!  A
sacrifice must be made at once to achieve this goal.  Is it your wish to
partake in our rituals?" he asks Golistan.
	Golistan stands quite angry at the slaughter of the horse and says,
"I care not for your elder gods, priest, and I doubt very few people in
Edgekeep care for them as well.  I suggest you take your carnage elsewhere
or perhaps there are those of us here who will make your stay less than
habitable."  The priest looks at Golistan with wary eyes.  "You would make
trouble for us, then, resident of Edgekeep?"  Golistan replies, "Only if
you cause it, priest.  Edgekeep is a stable city.  It does not need you or
your ancient beliefs."  The priest nods to his companions, and as one
they dismount from their horses, and using long curled daggers, disembowel
them in the same manner as the first priest.
	There are sounds of revulsion from bystanders.  Duke Stephen, on of
the bystanders, walks up beside Golistan.  "It would be wise for you to
listen to my friend.  Edgekeep wants nothing of your carnage and rituals.
Leave at once and I'm sure we can promise not to make your lives
uncomfortable."  The first priest smiles and makes an arcane gesture. A
small child, one of those Golistan had been speaking to, suddenly screams
as worms crawl out of her now gory eye sockets.  Golistan erupts with anger
and makes a flinging motion towards the priest who collapses with many
small holes in his body, and then dissolves in a pool of mottled murk.
"Chaos... " mutters Golistan.
	The other priests quickly form a circle and a pilar of grey rises
up in the middle of them.  As one they speak.  "You are more than we
thought... you shall perish now, much more painfully than the horses did,
for it was only out wish to show you the rites of chaos.  Had you chosen to
accept us you would have been spared... but now all is lost for you." The
pillar then starts glowing.
	However, there is a scream that occurs.  One of the priests falls
with an arrow in an eyesocket.  Laslo Tremaine moves quickly to a group of
bushes in the courtyard and scrouches behind them.  He yells over to
Golistan and Duke Stephen, "I hate guys like that..." Duke Stephen smiles
and taps his staff to the ground.  A crystalized cone emenates from one end
and enters the large pillar of grey, causing the color to darken and the
pillar to shrink.  Golistan then claps his hands, and one of the priests
falls to the ground, writhing in agony with hands over his ears.  He soons
stops moving as Laslo fires another arrow.
	Looking quite annoyed, the priests force Duke Stephens cone out of
their greyness, and shoot it back at him.  He is knocked some distance back
and looks to be stunned.  An instant later, a bolt of white strikes
the bushes Laslo hides behind, and they burst into a white flame.  Barely
escaping, Laslo jumps to the side and rolls, keeping just ahead of a
barrage of white bolts shooting from the pillar. Golistan yells, and the
ground around the priests begins rising, forming an earthen prison wall.
The bolts of light shot at Laslo stop.
	Duke Stephen, quite shaken by the hit from his own magic, uses his
staff to help him to his feet and whirls the staff above his head.  He
looks quite angry.  From the end of the staff a red tongue of light whips
out almost as if it had substance.  Each whirl of the staff the light gets
longer and longer until it begins hitting the grey pillar.  At each touch
of the red "light" there is a black scar in the pillar, and soon the pillar
begins to darken and shrink some more.  However, in an explosion the ever
growing wall of earth explodes, sending rock and dirt all around at lethal
velocities, creating two bloody pools out of two innocent bystanders who
had gotten too close.
	Finally coming to their senses, a small group of guards men charges
the priests, now unobscured by the devestated earthen wall, and are dropped
like flies... as they turn into human sized insects of the same name.
Golistan sees this and screams.  Not in rage, but in disgust and revulsion.
Instead of watching the grey pillar, he runs quickly from the
guardsmen/flies and crashes into one of the small trees in the courtyard,
knocking himself down.
	One of the priests steps out of their circle and throws a
handfull of gravel at Duke Stephen which turns into small globs of flying
slime, eating holes in his clothes and skin where they land.  He is too
preoccupied with surviving that to watch the priest as he makes his way to
the fallen Golistan.  The priest nears Golistan, and draws out a curved
dagger and says, "We need more sacrifice for our power is waning thanks to
you, so you can be the sacrifice!"  Then a dagger plunges in, and blood
is showered everywhere as the priest falls thanks to the dagger throwing of
Laslo Tremaine.  Golistan groggily gets to his feet and waves to Laslo who
is simultaneously throwing a dagger at a priest in the circle of priests.
The priest laughs and creates a thick grey wall that the dagger bounces off
of, and Laslo laughs as Duke Stephen shoots a large ball of flame into the
priests at that very moment, frying two of them quite nicely in their own
cloaks.
	The grey pillar then dissapears, and the remaining two priests pull
swords from inside their robes.  The swords glow with a neutral glow as
they run towards Laslo.  Laslo looks at the priests for a sec, then seems
to disappear.
	The priests stop in confusion only to have their last thought that
of wondering why they didn't go for the magicians instead as Golistan and
Duke Stephen combine energies and let a bolt of green loose at the priests.
The bolt enters one, exits, and enters the other, leaving large gaping
holes in their chests.  They fall, dead, to the ground.
	A moment later Laslo appears.  "Sorry guys, I get the chills when
two mad priests come charging at me with glowing swords...I was pretty
sureyou could handle it, so...no hard feelings?"
	Golistan says, "No hard feelings.  We did what we had to to save
our and other lives.... hmmm... it seems that our companions were not all that 
poor...."  Golistan, Laslo, and Duke Stephen walk over to the area where the 
priests belongings were put.  Six sacks of gems, gold, and other precious 
metals are found and divided up. Laslo recieves 5000 equivalent gold, Duke 
Stephen recieves 2500 gold equivalent, and Golistan recieves 17500 gold 
equivalent (roughly 1/2*500 of how inspired each of their contributions made 
me)
	Golistan then walks away slowly, tired, and a bit sad.
	Duke Stephen walks up to Laslo and says, "Say, what about a drink
on the house at the Barnacle Pub?  All this fighting gets a man thirsty..."
Laslo sighs and says, "I know what you mean..."
	The two of them then walk out the south gate to partake in what
only the Barnacle Pub can offer.