against Finder.
The ground gave one last tiny rumble, as if Tymora's realm was shuddering from the name the goddess had just uttered.
'Who's Beshaba?' Emilo asked curiously.
'Her sister,' Finder replied.
'Her enemy,' Winnie answered.
BEHIND THE SCENES
'I am having a problem harnessing Tymora's power,' the looming figure growled. 'She is too generous with it. It leaks away whenever her followers call upon her. Worse, when she casts a spell, my power conduits cannot contain the energy bursts, and they overload and spew the power back out. It has attracted the attention of her allies.'
'So what is to be done?' the summoner asked with concern.
'She is greatly weakened. If we can capture her and bring her here, her allies will not be able to investigate the power drain and trace it back to us. Should she regain consciousness and cast another spell, we will not have to rely on the energy conduits-the fusion chamber can absorb the power. Then it will not be wasted. More importantly, if she is within the circle of darkness, she will not sense her followers calling upon her, and her power will not leak away when she shares it with them. Can your forces capture her?'
'I will make it so,' the summoner said.
'Good,' the looming figure replied. Then, the figure thought, no more of her power will be squandered on her foolish followers. It will all be mine.
ACT TWO SCENE 3
In the earthquake-ravaged garden, Finder had cast all the spells he could think of to help revive Tymora, but the goddess remained in a swoon. Joel had never seen Finder so pale and grave, not even when the god had returned to mortality to enter Sigil and his own life was threatened.
Joel realized his god was not just reacting in fear of anything that could so injure a power as great as Tymora. When Joel had first met Finder, Finder had assumed the identity of an old priest named Jedidiah and told Joel about Finder's life and transformation into a god. Jedidiah had told Joel how much Finder owed to Tymora, how grateful the god was to the goddess for her help. He'd also spoken of Tymora's grace and charm with so much passion that Joel had wondered if Jedidiah were speaking of his own feelings or those of Finder. Later, when Finder revealed that Jedidiah was only a ruse, Joel realized that his god had revealed his heart. Finder was smitten with Lady Luck.
Now Finder found himself powerless to help the patroness he cared for. As a mortal Finder had always been a man of action. As a god, he would feel no less frustrated by his helplessness.
Tymora's priestess, Winnie, faced a critical dilemma. As Finder had pointed out to her, any spells she cast on her mistress would ultimately draw from her mistress's power, so it was perhaps best for her to take a different role in the crisis. At the god's advice, the halfling priestess had hurried off to arrange security for the area and to request the aid of Tymora's oldest ally, the goddess Selune. Finder, Joel, Jas, and Emilo had formed a circle about Tymora, anticipating an attack, perhaps from Beshaba, perhaps from some unknown enemy.
'How is it,' Emilo asked, 'that Tymora and her sister are enemies?'
'Joel,' Finder said, 'tell Emilo the story of Tyche.'
'Tyche?' Joel asked, his mind fixated on danger, not old tales.
'Yes, Tyche. They still teach her tale at that fancy barding college in Berdusk, don't they?' the god snapped at his priest.
'Yes,' Joel said, realizing that his god was far more worried than he let on. The bard paused for a moment, trying to remember the traditional beginning to the tale of Tyche.
'Feel free to improvise,' Finder said with a more even humor.
'Right. A long time ago,' Joel began, 'even before the fall of Myth Drannor, there was a great war between the gods of Toril over who would be their leader. It was known as the Dawn Cataclysm because it was started by Lathander when he decided that he should be that leader. Lathander is the god of beginnings,' Joel added for Emilo's benefit. 'Births, spring, and dawn are all his purview. Also called the Morninglord, he's a god of good. At the time of the Dawn Cataclysm, Lathander was favored with the love of Tyche, the goddess of all luck, good and bad, but Tyche wanted no part in the conflict Lathander had begun. She kissed Lathander with misfortune and left him to his war.
'Tyche wandered about the Realms for some time. As she rested on a snow-capped mountain surveying the land all about her, a rosebud burst through the snow at her feet. The bud showed no sign of damage from the harsh setting in which it had grown. It was just on the verge of opening its petals and promised to be perfect in every way. Because of the circumstances of the rose's appearance, Tyche took it to be an overture of peace from Lathander.
'The goddess of luck reached down to pluck the rose, but the stem wouldn't break. Tyche yanked harder, only to be rewarded by thorns in her fingers. She cursed the young blossom with bad luck, and the stem snapped right off. Annoyed that the gift had proved so difficult, Tyche decided to keep Lathander waiting a while longer. She continued wandering about the Realms, with the rose fastened in her hair above her ear.
'The rose, however, was not an offering from Lathander but a trap set by Moander the Darkbringer, god of decay. The rose blossomed, and its pollen drifted into her ear, where it began to rot her from the inside out. Thus the Darkbringer hoped to gain for himself Tyche's power over luck.
'When Tyche returned to her home in the outer planes, Selune, goddess of the moon, was there waiting to speak with her. Selune was instantly aware of the corruption eating away at her friend. Without a moment's hesitation-'
'— she lashed out,' said another voice, 'with a bolt of purifying light that split Tyche down the center of her rotting core. All that was good and kind in Tyche coalesced into a single form and stepped out from Tyche's rotting corpse. That was Tymora. I brought her forth from the tragedy of Tyche's corruption, and she possessed power over good fortune.' The speaker appeared to be an elderly matron with long, black hair streaked with silver. There was something extraordinarily regal about her. Joel was filled with a sense of awe. Although he realized her elderly appearance was probably a godly illusion, the bard was certain he was in the presence of someone far older than either Finder or Tymora, and far more powerful, With Winnie trailing along behind her, the speaker approached Finder.
'Lady Selune,' Finder greeted her. His demeanor was grave as he bowed low. His mortal companions did likewise.
'Finder,' Selune said, recognizing the god with a cursory nod. She knelt beside Tymora's unconscious form and set her hand over Lady Luck's heart. A white light far brighter than that which Tymora had summoned flowed from the older goddess's hand and covered Tymora's body. The light appeared to seep into the unconscious goddess. Finder gasped.
'Did you see that?' Selune asked Finder. 'I think so,' the younger god said.
'Let's try it again, shall we?' Selune asked. Once again the white light flowed from her hand over Tymora, then disappeared.
'Something's drawing it off,' Finder whispered.
'What are you talking about?' Jas demanded. 'The energy's going into her.'
'No,' Selune said. 'It appears that way to your mortal eyes because you do not sense all that we do. Something is drawing off the power surrounding Tymora in such a way that it only appears to be sinking into her form. But that's only part of the problem. Close your eyes, Finder, and concentrate on Tymora. What do you sense?'
