Dantroe

For a moment, after having saved the life of one who was an enemy, I pause. The aboleth is just below in the water, the portal is rippling with what we can only assume are reinforcements called by the wizard, and something appears to be knocking down the other door into this room. But for a brief moment, I am elsewhere.

I am back in the monastery, it is a week or so after the paladins have visited, attacked, apologized, and left. I am in a room meditating with many of the others, as happens most days, but today will prove to be different. Through half-closed eyes I see that I am sitting facing what can only be a celestial being. She did not so much appear in front of me as merely come into existence, with the sense that she had been there all day and I just hadn't noticed. It occurs to me that none of my brother monks are aware of her.

She speaks without moving her lips, making it clear that she is Pistis Sophia, caretaker of Solania, the fourth level of Celestia. She knows of the group that just visited, and how I was impressed by their quest, by the hearts of Arcadius and Ragnarr, shining as brightly as the light of Pelor, and by Fflam, an unconventional but great warrior of Moradin. She says that some day soon, I will be called to join them. Moreover, I can learn some of the methods they use to fight evil.

Then she is gone. The elation I feel at this news almost breaks my meditation. Some time later, I feel the call to leave the monastery and journey into the valley nearby, eventually leading me...

Right here. I know not what is beyond the portal, or breaking down the door, but I know that the Aboleth itself below is trouble enough. I am ready.