Greetings! 
     
        The final installment of the turn follows.  If you are going to be 
     gone over the Summer, please let me know the best address to reach you 
     at.  Internet is the best, but I'm more than willing to use snail mail 
     if that is the best way of reaching you.
     
        Enjoy,
     
        Rich
        
        PS  A 40K turn for free!  You can't beat a deal like that with a stick!  
        ;-)
     
     ======================================================================
     
     Turn 5 [Part III --- Common Experience]
     
        Eventually you feel yourself drawn back to your body in the Control 
     Complex.  Zhalindor is not faring well.  The Old Ones and their 
     converts are chewing up the landscape along with the hordes of Chaos; 
     the gods and goddesses are destroying the world in their attempts to 
     save it.
     
        You are walking along the corridor, still in a combat marching 
     order.  The walls begin to glow with an inner light, and the panels 
     become crystalline in appearance.  They effuse a sapphire blue.  The 
     party enters a huge cavern which seems to grow as they enter.  A fog 
     covers the center of the room, and a shaft of multicolored light 
     shimmers from the center of the fog to the lost recesses of the 
     ceiling above.  The chamber appears to be about 200 meters across at 
     first, and then it expands to approximately 500 meters in diameter.  
     The sides of the chamber, composed of the same jewel like material as 
     the walls of the corridor, are carved with the gods, goddesses, 
     heroines and heroes of Zhalindor's long history.
     
        Cragspider stands ahead of the party, hesitating at the out reaches 
     of the fog.  She mutters ``too late.  I tarried too long, and now it 
     is too late.''  Cragspider sheds her guise of the centuries and looks 
     to be a woman in her late thirties and of sturdy, but moderate build.  
     She has dark hair, and the colors of the lights play across her light 
     features.  The look of utter dejection muddies her  eyes.
     
        The Dragon Emperor steps forward, and he too changes.  Now, 
     somewhat less majestic, but still, in his hands, he forms a sword.  
     The Runes of Dragon, Infinity, Death, Magic and Mastery thunder into 
     existence above the fog, and they begin to dance around the colored 
     light.  Faster and faster they whirl until they blur into a ring of 
     white light and crash with a jolt into the sword.  It glows with the 
     power of the deities.  He strides boldly toward Cragspider who merely 
     shakes her head slowly in a negative fashion.
     
        ``You never understood.  Zhalindor is a peaceful place.  We've 
     returned to the beginning here.  Time cannot enter this domain.  It is 
     beyond the power of even the Old Ones to enter although surely they 
     could destroy this place'' says Cragspider.  The Dragon Emperor's 
     response is swift and unsubtle.  He brings the sword of power crashing 
     into Cragspider.  The sword crashes into a million shards of white hot 
     energy, knocking the party off of their collective feet, but 
     protective globes flash into existence around Branham, Miriya, and 
     Granth saving the party from being rendered.
     
        The Dragon Emperor's shoulders slump as he stares in disbelief at 
     his smoldering hands.  The last shards of the weapon fall with light 
     clinks to the floor of the chamber.  The party members look at each 
     other with questioning eyes.  Cragspider says ``I thought he was dead, 
     but the mad one has returned.''
     
        The walls of the chamber now flare unevenly with red, and the great 
     maws of an Old One can be seen to be nibbling at the perimeter.  The 
     chamber holds.  A voice booms from within the fog ``Not so mad 
     sister.'' The fog dissipates, and the top of the chamber becomes 
     visible.  The column of multicolored light turns red then orange and 
     on through the spectrum of the rainbow till it is a jarring purple.  
     The top of the column spreads out, and it washes across the entire 
     surface of the chamber.  In its wake the column of light leaves a 
     vision of a night time sky, but there are far more stars visible than 
     ever were seen from fields and forests of Zhalindor.  ``Deep space?'' 
     queries Phineas.  ``Like in the `other' universe'' replies Tremir.    
     When the light has completed its washing, the column disappears.  
     Around the periphery of the chamber an endless metallic plane can be 
     seen.  ``A dyson sphere'' mutters Branham.  
     
        At the center of the chamber is the mysterious figure seen earlier, 
     still dressed in a powdery blue.  He stands before a raised matrix of 
     colored crystals.  ``It is time for this to end, but gracefully and 
     properly.''  His gaze moves across Cragspider and the Dragon Emperor and 
     then slowly to the party.  ``What part in all this do you play?'' he asks.
     
        Leoshi mentions ``we have some company,'' and she gestures at the 
     form of Guy stealthily moving up the hallway behind the group.  Trahk Chi 
     adds ``the air here has become full of creatures,'' but they are 
     invisible to the rest of the group.  Branham notes ``we are being probed 
     by immensely powerful psionics outside the Control Complex.  Some appear 
     similar to emanations I've felt from servitors for the Old Ones, and 
     others seem to be human.  Odd.  Luckily the Control Complex appears to be 
     shielding us somehow.''
     
        ``The game is truly afoot.  What do you recommend?'' the blue robed 
     man asks the party.
     
        [Let the games begin!]