[map]
	[npc]
		name="Spawn of Arcanex"
		display_name=_( "Spawn of Arcanex" )
		position="5,5"
		level=25
		type="sage"
	[/npc]
	[conversation]
		name="Spawn of Arcanex"
		keyphrase.0="_INTRO_"
		answer.0=_( "I have not felt that scent for nearly a thousand years... ||How did you come to hold a deep-elven artifact $human? ||Its ancient presence holds the breath of centuries..." )
		keyphrase.1="_UNKNOWN_"
		answer.1=_( "Long are the eons of growth... My roots stretch across galaxies the size of a hair's width." )
		answer.1.1=_( "Untold secrets unfold. My vista evolves with the sigh of the cosmos." )
		keyphrase.2=_( "human" )
		answer.2=_( "I see, you learned of its location from $Melathor of Allovium... Hmmm... Another name I have not pondered upon for a while. When you see him again, please tell him 'the bet is still on.'|| Now about the artifact: do you know $what it is you hold in your hands?" )
		keyphrase.3=_( "what,Cronostar" )
		answer.3=_( "Yes, it is called the Cronostar. Created by the deep elves many centuries ago, but not as $Melathor suggests, an aide to gather delicacies for the dinner table.|| The Cronostar does have the ability to pause $time. More importantly however, it is a $key." )
		keyphrase.4=_( "SQ_KARZUL,Karzul,demon" )
		answer.4=_( "Karzul is a power-hungry minor demon lord of the Abyss. During my $imprisonment in the $Abyss I learned much of this fiend.||For many centuries Karzul was just another demon lord, happy to amuse himself by participating in the endless turf-wars with other demons. These minor confrontations are sort of a day-to-day exercise; a manifestation of the chaos of the evil realm they call their home. Wanton violence, sensless brutality and general ruthlesness are considered virtues there.||However, about two decades while on a reconissance mission against one of his foes, Karzul discovered a dying Effrinu. These creatures were thought to be completely extinct, as they were the living aspects of an Elder God. No longer worshipped, Elder gods were the evil incarnate in divine forms. In fact, their realm was of such violence that even Abyss rejected their rule.||Nevertheless as Karzul slowly nursed the dying Effrinu back to health, in return he gained some of the wisdom of Erhedru the Elder. With this divine evil power in his arsenal, he was able to produce enough magical energy to create the Necropod, the prison-seed in which he $entrapped me.||I believe his plan has always been to somehow enter the Material Realm and - once again using the gifts of Erhedru the Elder - enthrall humankind to fuel his need for souls, thereby making him into some kind of uber-demon.||If you want to avoid spending an eternity slaving to his every wish while being tormented by his minions, I'd say: look for help! You cannot defeat him alone. Although he will be relatively weak for a while in the Material plane, once here, he will quickly establish a way to supply himself with diabolic energy. You must defeat him before that occurs with help from the $Guardians of the Realm. Only they have the experience needed to better this foe." )
		keyphrase.5=_( "Mothrazu" )
		answer.5=_( "Ah the crazed druid... Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate what she was trying to do! You humans take nature for granted all too often. It would do you well to be afraid of those you oppress once in a while...||It is a pity though that she herself was also the victim of a larger plot. The demon $Karzul used her for his nefarious purposes by giving her the Necropod: the seed of my $imprisonment.||Whatever happened to her anyway? Not that it matters, she wouldn't have gone far anyhow. We must now turn our attentions to stopping $Karzul instead." )
		keyphrase.6=_( "Guardians,Guardian,Guards,Guard,Realm" )
		answer.6=_( "Yes, the $Cronostar is the key to re-awaken the Guardians.|| As you probably know, the Guardians of the Realm were the a scholar-knight order who dedicated themselves to the preservation of all worldly knowledge. They created a series of libraries throught the land wherein they enshirened a vast number of codecies that described all that transpired and were known to humankind. Even more, these sacred texts contained predictions for the future. Many half-described profecies since have come to pass. Many others still await their fulfillment.||The Guardians also defended this enlightened way of life from those that would oppose it. Historically this meant battling the fiendish inhabitants of the $Abyss. The confrontations with that realm intensified over the centuries, when at last the head of the Guardians foresaw the defeat and destruction of his order.||Few there are now who remember what happened next. To popular knowledge the knights passed from the material realm, following their last disasterous battle at the fords of the river Manar. And while it is true, that this final battle between the Guardians the hordes of demons was a singular event that changed history forever, the Guardians were not defeated. Knowing that the day would not be theirs, the knights instead willingly entered hibernation in the tombs of a nearby monastery of Minirmuir. Thus entombed they were resolved to wait and lie asleep for eons, until such time as they foresaw, when new heroes entered the land, capable to once again vanquish the forces of evil and throw off the tyranny of darkness.||What an immense gamble this was! For as you surely comprehend, were they wrong, and these heroes never arrived, or came too late, the material realm would surely have fallen to shadow forever.||I sense that time is now. The finding of the Cronostar signals to me that the world has reached a moment of crisis. A darkness ascends from below, and the fate of the realms is balanced on a cruel edge. ||In fact, have I told you of my $imprisonment in the $Abyss? I believe it to also be such a sign. Never, in my extraplanar travels has any being managed to ensnare me against my will." )
		keyphrase.7=_( "scourge,Uzudil,clients" )
		answer.7=_( "Uzudil - your boss - is the leader of S.c.o.u.r.g.e. Inc. A fine company!||He has a long list of mysterious clients; you should ask him to tell you about them sometime." )
		keyphrase.8=_( "Arcanex" )
		answer.8=_( "As you probably guessed, I am a descendent of Arcanex, the original plane dweller, spawned from the waters of the thought of Amod-Rheinur. ||We are the tendrils that connect the $planes. It is seldom that mortals see, much less converse with one of my kind. I hope you understand that... It is by choice I decide to notice you, and the choice moves my mind with purpose to speak.|| Over the centuries I traveled far. I've seen the frozen ice planes of Varmal, the timeless wastes of Kal, even the despairing souls doomed to exist in the $Abyss." )
		keyphrase.9=_( "time" )
		answer.9=_( "We don't so much travel through time, as time flows past us. Us tree-beings, children of the mighty $Arcanex don't view the passage of time as you mortals do.||What passes for a century for humanity has no more weight to us than the sigh of the wind in my branches. I must take special care - for example when talking to you - to demarkate my thoughts within consequetive temporal sections. Otherwise, all that I have to say would appear to sound randomly jumbled together to your ears.||This is why the fact that you managed to find the $Cronostar is of such interest to me. That device is capabale of rising above the constrains of time, like me." )
		keyphrase.10=_( "Abyss" )
		answer.10=_( "I suppose the place must feel dreadful to those in possession of a soul... ||For me, it was a waypoint, a stopover on my journey. As I stood stretching my roots for a while, a most awful thing happend: I was $imprisoned!" )
		keyphrase.11=_( "key" )
		answer.11=_( "Few know the true purpose of the $Cronostar. Only the innermost sanctums of the deep elven temples keep the sacred writings that describe how to $unlock the tombs of the $Guardians of the Realm using this artifact.|| It is a wonder the object survived... the agents of the $Abyss were thorough in the destruction of all related evidence." )
		keyphrase.12=_( "imprisoned,imprisonment,entrapped" )
		answer.12=_( "While stopping over in the $Abyss, I fell into a baleful vortex of a magical storm. Normally such events shake off but a few dying leaves, in this case however, the demon lord $Karzul took advantage of my situation and imprisoned me in a metallic seed he prepared for just such an occasion.||Why he would do such a thing, I don't know. In fact, little do I understand of the struggling ways of mortals or demons, though I have witnessed much strife throughout the years. ||Infuriated I was for the severe curbing of my freedoms to roam! What is a planetraveler who is subject to remain in one place? $Karzul promised me that the situation was temporary. In fact he said, very soon, a druid named $Mothrazu would release me... That she did and that is how you and I now stand here conversing." )
		keyphrase.13=_( "unlock" )
		answer.13=_( "Riding on the metaphysical waves of the lore of Xelphate, human history repeats itself endlessly. Some say, such thoughts are negative, or even evil. That the human condition is bound to find new ways to break out of its mortal boundaries and roam the multiverse in unexpected new ways.||If I may season this theory with a near-infinite lifetime of observing history and traveling the planes, I'd say, that is not so. Humanity does indeed tend to repeat its mistakes.||However, the multiverse, nay even the material realm is more than just humankind. There are places your kind has never heard of. The world still holds many wonders and sustains life-forms you could not even imagine. Few indeed are the beings who can comprehend the vast multitude of the cosmos. Unfortunately for you, the powers of the $Abyss can. However, so can the $Guardians of the Realm. After all, it was their business to preserve the order of the world, and all knowledge of it.||Therefore, though things may look bleak, I do believe, it is time to resurrect the knights of old; to call upon the $Guardians once again and with their help, move the material plane away from the brink of slavery and darkness.|| Use the Cronostar. Travel to the monastery of Minirmuir, unlock the tombs and call upon the defenders of life!||You see to me, it matters not who rules the multiverse, be it good or evil. My kind is far above such trivialities. We see the cosmos as an endless maze of pathways, logic and knowledge intertwined create a complex network of possibilities. The current fragment of this web, is what your kind calls 'reality.'||Having said that, I'm glad to help. I do feel that too much power, centered in the hands of one like $Karzul would steer this fragile web towards its destruction, eventually shutting down all alternates until all that remains is similar to endless wastes of the $Abyss itself." )
		keyphrase.14=_( "travels,travel,trip" )
		answer.14=_( "You humans call us the spawn of $Arcanex... We are planar travelers. We exist outside of time, really as an experiement by the god Minirmuir, walker of the golden path. Our aim is to serve as computational engines to crack the lifecode of reality.||You see, reality as you mortals experience it is an altogether different thing from what we see. Imagine, if you were able to side-step the limitation of time, and view the web of all possible futures from the outside.||The problem we try to solve by crawling the planes is the grand mystery: what is the discrete embodiment, the god-like consciousness that produces these variations? Is there a way to focus the potentials stored in this multifaceted matrix and comprehend all that is, was or shall be?||Needless to say, not one of us has ever managed to solve the riddle. Some, disintegrated under the burden of the challenge. Some slowly faded into a meta-dimension, never to emerge as a distinct entity ever again...||Well, I'm still here, by the grace of Minirmuir, toiling ever on. Although, I must say, my last reappearance had more to do with the druid $Mothrazu than my divine benefactor." )
		keyphrase.15=_( "Lucedil" )
		answer.15=_( "Ah the Lucedil stones... You really have not lived until you have beheld one of these beauties! The light of eons sparkle in their shiny facets. It is said, the gems are Minirmuir's tears, when she watched the destruction of humanity during the first demon wars.||At any rate, the stones are very valuable and very rare. If in your mortal life-span you find but one, you are considered a Phatu, or, blessed one by the priests of Minirmuir.||I have found ten of them so far... $Melathor I believe has nine." )
		keyphrase.16=_( "Melathor" )
		answer.16=_( "The elven wizard and I crossed paths during many of my $travels. Though he may appear as a witless drunkard at times, there is more to that elf than meets the eye!||In fact, he and I have a running bet for... well, over a century now to see which one of us collects the most gemstones of $Lucedil. I think with my last $trip to the Reefs of Rhungar, I may just have secured the lead." )
	[/conversation] 
	[conversation]
		name="general"
		keyphrase.0="_INTRO_"
		answer.0=_( "You should never see this greeting." )
		keyphrase.1="_UNKNOWN_"
		answer.1=_( "You should never see this message." )		
	[/conversation]
[/map]

