OFFSTAGE
In the Prime Material Plane on the world known as Toril in Realmspace, Amber Wyvernspur cried out with surprise and then delight at the sudden appearance of her great-granduncle, Drone Wyvernspur, who carried a lantern and a picnic basket. He arrived by dimensional doorway some time after the children's torches had burned out, but before panic had set in. Amber and the children had been in the dark long enough to sing fourteen rounds of a silly halfling song Gory had taught them.
'You found us!' Amber cried out in relief. 'I knew you would.'
'I didn't know I had lost you,' the shaggy old wizard retorted. He looked around at the collapsed ceiling disapprovingly. 'What a mess you children have made,' he muttered. 'You'll be cleaning this up until you're old enough to leave home. Of course, you could get out of the work if you want to leave home now,' he added with a dark look at Tavan, Toran, and Cory. Uncle Drone had an uncanny understanding of who was responsible for any mishaps that occurred in the family.
'Are you going to take us home now, Uncle Drone?' Olivia asked.
'Do I look like a pack mule?' the old wizard retorted. 'I brought you something to eat,' he said, handing the basket to Cory.
As her younger kin began to devour the sandwiches and fruit in the basket, Amber sat patiently while Uncle Drone examined her wounds. He spread some healing salve on them and then made her down a potion that tasted like peppermint.
'Are our parents worried?' Tavan asked as he sipped a cup of tea.
'Not really,' Drone said. 'We've known something like this would happen for days now.'
'What do you mean?' Toran asked, looking puzzled.
'Mother Lleddew came to check on you a few days ago,' the old wizard explained. 'Apparently she had a vision that you were trapped in a cave. Since you were all snug in your beds at the time, we guessed it was some sort of future vision brought on by Tymora's troubles. We've just been waiting for the shoe to drop, so to speak. Should have known you'd pick a day when we were all away, leaving your poor Aunt Dorath to fret about you.'
'Aunt Dorath likes to fret,' Heather said.
'Yes, well, your Uncle Steele likes to drink, but that doesn't mean we should indulge him. Speaking of Steele, let's have that key.'
Heather pulled out the key to the crypt that she had taken from Uncle Steele's sock drawer.
Carrying Heather on his back and Olivia and Pars in his arms, the wizard left by another dimensional door, groaning all the way about how much weight they'd all put on. The other children had to wait until morning for the old wizard to replenish his spells. Amber often wondered if that wasn't just an excuse to make them stay the night to teach them a lesson. She didn't mind, however. She had a good time chatting with the guardian. The next day Uncle Drone, with Aunt Cat's help, managed to bring everyone out from the crypt.
Then the whole family began digging out the collapsed crypt and repairing the stonework. True to his threat, Drone saw that the children all helped to dig out the mess.
Years later the Wyvernspur cousins would always refer to any sort of hard labor, like digging, as the fruits of Tymora's Luck, but it never kept any of them from calling on Lady Luck from time to time in the course of their adventures.
ACT FOUR SCENE 7
In the realm of Morning Glory, the two goddesses faced their tormentors. Lathander released his hold on Xvim, though whether he meant to hand him over to Tyche's daughters, or was simply preparing to defend himself from attack Joel could not be certain.
Iyachtu Xvim cackled fiendishly in the face of the wrath of Beshaba and Tymora. 'The paladin's foolish act has come too late to save you,' he gloated. 'You cannot stop the fusion once it has begun. See how the chaos matter comes to bind you!'
Xvim's words appeared to be true. A wisp of the chaos matter drifted out of the fusion chamber and wrapped itself around both goddesses. As the others watched, transfixed, more chaos matter swirled out into the tent and began to weave a cocoon around Beshaba and Tymora.
The goddesses' bodies grew translucent and fluid like melting wax. Their torsos joined, then merged, until there was only one torso between the two of them. They had become a misshapen creature with four arms and legs struggling against the bonds of the chaos matter and two heads screaming in rage and pain.
Tymora's head cried out, 'Lathander, help me, please!'
'Lathander, do something!' Finder shouted. 'Can't you see they're in agony?' he demanded.
'Xvim is right,' Lathander said. 'Once the spell has begun, there is no stopping it.'
'There must be something you can do, my lord,' Holly said with a tone of desperation.
'No,' Lathander answered. 'The fusion chamber will not stop until it has united something that had previously been separated,' he insisted.
'What if we threw a whole bunch of broken eggs into it?' Emilo asked.
Lathander shook his head. 'It must be something of power,' the god explained.
'The finder's stone?' Joel asked Finder excitedly.
'It's worth a try,' Finder agreed. He pulled his half of the stone from his boot, and Joel pulled his out from his shirt.
'Ready… set… go!' Finder shouted.
Together both halves of the finder's stone arced through the air and into the portal. The portal flashed with a brilliant light. Immediately the chaos matter around Tymora and Beshaba fell away and streamed back into the fusion chamber like a river running into the sea.
The partially merged Tymora and Beshaba squirmed and wriggled until they lost their balance and toppled onto the ground. The torso ripped in two, dripping chaos matter like ichor until Tymora and Beshaba emerged as two separate individuals.
Beshaba stood and shook herself like a dog. From Joel's hand, she grabbed the pink rose that held her power and disappeared.
Tymora sat up and shook her head sadly at Lathander. Jas knelt beside the goddess and handed her the ancient coin from Myth Drannor. Tymora slid the coin down her shirt and sighed.
'You know, I think there's something wrong with the fusion chamber,' Emilo said. 'I'm not sure, mind you, but I don't think it's supposed to look like that.'
The others looked back at the portal to the fusion chamber. It had begun to glow with a brilliant white light.
'It's not properly calibrated to join the stone,' Xvim screamed. 'It's going to explode! Run!'
'Grab Emilo!' Finder ordered Jas as he scooped up Joel.
Tymora disappeared. Jas flew from the tent, with Finder close behind her.
Last of all, Lathander snatched up Holly and fled.
The blast from the fusion chamber expanded outward like a blossoming flower of solid light. The shock wave caught the fleeing Morninglord and his disobedient paladin and tossed them about like corks on a raging sea, propelling them across the god's realm. Then a blast of sound shook their bodies. As Joel looked back, Lathander and Holly appeared to Joel as two black specks. Then the specks were gone.
Slowly, but inexorably, the brilliant light faded. When the dust finally settled, a crater the size of a small town had appeared where there once had been a meadow.
I don't like opera at all. All that deception just rubs me the wrong way. It's too much like real life.
