Gharik shook his shoulder. “Albric,” he said, “we’re being robbed.”
The three figures—an elf woman, a dragonborn man, and a one-eyed human man—shared a chuckle. “That’s right, Albric,” the one-eyed man said. “Somebody not paying attention?”
Albric laughed with them, then produced the golden symbol of the Elder Eye from within the folds of his robe. The elf saw it and gasped. “You are the ones not paying attention,” Albric said. “The Elder Elemental Eye commands your obedience!”
Behind him, the one-eyed man started to protest. “Look here, I don’t know who told you—”
Albric spun to face the man and raised his arms. Dark lightning pulsed around the golden symbol like an extension of his heartbeat, and his voice filled with booming menace. “The Eye commands you! Heed his voice or die where you stand!”
The dragonborn fell to his knees without a word, and Albric heard the elf behind him do the same. The one-eyed man hesitated, and Albric started drawing in power for the invocation that would strike the faithless one down. But the man sank to his knees as well, an ecstatic smile twisting his face, his single eye wide with awe.
Albric smiled. Here was one who saw. The others followed blindly, but this man was a dreamer like himself.
“What is your name?” he asked the man.
The voice that came from the one-eyed man’s mouth was different. It rang out as deep as thunder in a vast chasm, and the whispers of the mad and the damned echoed in the empty air. “I am the Elder Elemental Eye,” he said. “I am the Chained God.”
Now Albric fell to his knees, staring in awe at the apparition of his god.
“My name is Tharizdun.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Wyatt is the Creative Manager for D&D R&D at Wizards of the Coast. He was one of the lead designers for 4th Edition D&D and the primary author of the 4th Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. He also contributed to the EBERRON Campaign Setting, and is the author of several DUNGEONS & DRAGONS novels set in the world of Eberron.
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