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" ‘With abacus, by architect, by carpenter, andhis ar his House insignia to enact a spell of levitation and lift himself conveniently and prudently fro:

With all the tools and knowledge of structural design,

"For shelter most beloved, for love of hearth and home

"To build your private castle, to ould you consign?"

Act now, you peacock! Kihts, which only est that all the tools

"The mundane numbers and physical rules

"For the truly brilliant must remain

"No more than province of common fools"

"A castle, and warmth, a true abode,

"For when one truly seeks a horeater souls

"Who wile their days with a nose in a touard on the stairs demanded

"Foolishness?" Jarlaxle echoed as if wounded "My friend, this is no such thing" A yelp frouards had reached the edge of his pit and had glanced in "Nay, this … this is Caer Gromph!"

Caer Gro with a different resonance than the playfulverse, for they spoke not to the audience, but to thethose coic of the cube awakened The ground beneath their feet began to tre Jarlaxle rean to shake as Caer Gromph’s roots reached into the floor, as the cube transformite towers of the drow Houses of Menzoberranzan

Up it rose, and widened, crushing and splintering the floor and substructure of Castle Draygo with its roots, blowing out the wall and prodding up under the balcony as its unyielding walls stretched, its adarand roouards lurched and tuical creation One of the pair peeked over the lip of the portable hole and tumbled in, and the other soon followed as a yochlol-like tentacle reached up and aided hiuard and a hearty "bwahaha" fro of beauty was Caer Gro its length, top-to-bottoed in faerie fire accents of purple, red, and blue, it seemed as much a work of abstract art as a fortress But a fortress it was, coate inside, and the an D’aerthe archers poured through the ical portal inside and to their protected posts Before the many Shadovar had even pinpointed the source of the earthquake, crossbow quarrels flew forth from those arrow slits, coated with that insidious drow poison

One as not cut down by either the shaking or the volley was the guard holding Taulmaril, and indeed, because of the way the balcony had buckled, the male shade found hi his footing, he leveled the powerful bow and took deadly ai just above the floor below and watched the swordsman on the now-tilted stairs

He would never see the enchanted arrow co, the archer knew, and he pulled back and let fly, the arrow flying true to the hollow in Jarlaxle’s breast

Draygo Quick was not amused as he tumbled backward down the circular stairs of his private tower He collected hi open and the frantic calls of his fast-approaching acolytes

"Lord Draygo, what is it?" one cried, co around the bend above hio Quick wondered? What had that wretched drow done to him? Done to his castle?

The old warlock spun around and ran off the way he had coe He had barely gotten off the tower stairs and through the door to the anterooh, when he wasthe other way, his face drained of blood, his eyes ith horror

"A … a tower, o asked and glanced back the way he had come

The acolyte shook his head frantically "A tower!" he corrected, and he hustled back through the rooo to see the black adao Quick breathed "Invasion"

He called his acolytes together, bade them to form as one on and around the stairs, and to defend to the death his tower and quarters Then he sprinted off, back up the tower stair, rushing to his private rooh the door to his inner room, and there he froze, stricken with shock

For flanking the pedestal on which rested the cage of Guenhwyvar were two most unexpected and unannounced visitors, tall huered hands and heads that reseliness of an octopus

One turned his way, those tentacles waggling, ary assaulted the warlock and juh, instinctively enacting his mental defenses--and indeed, the inner willpower of the powerful old warlock proved superior to the attack As he unwound the scene before hi, he found a second shock, and a second accoe break apart and Guenhwyvar, six hundred pounds of feline power, appearing atop the pedestal, which toppled under her weight Draygo Quick surely recognized the visceral hatred in the panther’s stare, and when she sprang, the warlock thought himself doomed

But Guenhwyvar dissipated intothe beleaguered panther to her Astral hoo Quick, and in the hands of the second, he saw the panther figurine Both waved their ugly tentacles his way, and both sio Quick fell back, overwhele

Froonnettes, frooyles, and frohtning bolts, ic missiles, and crossbow bolts