View source for Echo of Queen's Reign (Xarth Mire)

== Synopsis ==
You enter Xarth's Skull to stop Queen Una from sacrificing Tristaine so that Una can gain full control over Ahnket and creating a new world tree. There are several little bits and suggestion in the text.

== Instance Text ==
'''Entrance'''<br />
Tasuil: This bone castle unnerves me.<br />
Tasuil: I have seen that skull in my nightmares.<br />
Anthousa: It is the skull of an Akvan.<br />
Anthousa: At the beginning of creation, there was a great war between these nightmares and the celestial beings who created the planes.<br />
Anthousa: This Xarth fell into the plane of life, where my ancestors were stewards of the land.<br />
Anthousa: One among their kind, Una's father, if I understand correctly, discovered that they could bleed the dying Akvan for power.<br />
Anthousa: This horrified the Kelari and the elves, and we abandoned this plane in disgust.<br />
Anthousa: But Una's people stayed, and grew twisted and evil.<br />
Anthousa: Until they became the monsters you see before us today.<br />
Tasuil: And these are the people the Tower has fallen onto?<br />
Tasuil: Those who are capable of doin such unspeakable things?<br />
Anthousa: It is a curious coincidence isn't it?<br />
Tasuil: I can tell from your voice that you don't think it is.<br />
Anthousa: When the wanton corrupted the sourcewells of Ember Isle, many priests tried to pass it off as chance.<br />
Anthousa: It was our bad luck that the spirits turned on us.<br />
Anthousa: It was just bound to happen.<br />
Tasuil: It wasn't was it?<br />
Anthousa: It was my son. He and his cult awoke that dragon.<br />
Anthousa: They sought power. The power of Maelforge and the Wanton.<br />
Anthousa: The released the evil. They doomed by people in their quest for power.<br />
Anthousa: The Tower my be a malevolent evil, but Una is just as bad.<br />
Anthousa: We must stop her; whatever her plan is.<br />

'''On Royal Guard Combat'''<br />
Royal Guard: More blood for the Queen's Madstone.<br />
Tasuil: Stand aside! Your Queen is about to commit a great evil. We have to stop her!<br />
Anthousa: Tasuil, they live in a giant skull.<br />
Anthousa: They know what side they are on.<br />
Tasuil: How! All that sacrifice? All that pain?<br />
Tasuil: How can you look someone in the eye and commit such evil?<br />
Tasuil: How can you not think about what you are doing?<br />
Anthousa: Power. They value power over all else.<br />
Tasuil: Then I shall show them power...<br />
*Tasuil removes his glamor and shows as his dragon form.*<br />
Tasuil: Tell me, you lost children of the forest, HOW DOES IT FEEL?<br />

'''On Royal Guard Combat End'''<br />
Anthousa: It is done! Tasuil, regain your glamor.<br />
Anthousa: We don't want Una putting you on her madstone.<br />
Tasuil: You aren't upset?<br />
Anthousa: You made a choice of what it takes for you to exercise power.<br />
Anthousa: You are starting to think like a Prince.<br />
Anthousa: I couldn't be more proud.<br />

'''On interaction with Queen Una'''<br />
Queen Una: This is a fitting audience for the ceremony.<br />
Queen Una: The very ones that caused me such sadness.<br />
Queen Una: The ones that stole my Son's love.<br />
Tasuil: She has him on her madstone!<br />
Anthousa: Una, do not do this!<br />
Anthousa: To lose your child in this pursuit would be unbearable.<br />
Anthousa: You talk of your love, but never your loss. Even you could not deal with the guilt.<br />
Queen Una: I have sacrificed children I love more for less.<br />
Queen Una: An animal such as you could never understand the depths of my love.<br />
Queen Una: But it is you that forced this upon me. You removed all other options.<br />
Queen Una: It is I who called for the Tower.<br />
Queen Una: I heard Ahnket's song in the dark beyond the cosmos.<br />
Queen Una: The power and strength was like nothing I had ever sensed.<br />
Queen Una: I could use such a creation, to work my will, to reshape Creation.<br />
Queen Una: Ahnket would become a great world tree.<br />
Queen Una: With the planes as fruit in her branches, and the mortals tangled in her roots.<br />
Queen Una: And I would be Queen eternal.<br />
Tasuil: That is- insane.<br />
Anthousa: She is well past that.<br />
Queen Una: Goodbye my bonnie child. I may have lost your love, but you will never lose mine.<br />
Tristaine: No! Mother, I've changed my mind!<br />
Tasuil: No! Wait!<br />
Anthousa: Stop!<br />
''scream of anguish and pain that transforms into a monstrous form''<br />
Queen Una: I will never forgive you three.<br />
Queen Una: I will never forgive your filthy world of mortals.<br />
Queen Una: You took my son's love.<br />
Queen Una: You forced me to resort to the most painful of sacrifices.<br />
Queen Una: When I plant the tower as the new World Tree, its roots will grow strong through your bones.<br />
Queen Una: Now, my coven, earn my love and bring the foci outside.<br />
Queen Una: Guests will soon be arriving.<br />
Tasuil: No! How could she?<br />
Tasuil: He was her son. He loved her.<br />
Tasuil: Why?<br />
Anthousa: We must get to Tristai- to the Foci!<br />
Anthousa: If we allow it to continue, she will take control of Ahnket!<br />
Anthousa: As deadly as the tower is on its own, we don't want it under the sway of that insane Queen!<br />

'''On interaction outside Xarth's Skull'''<br />
Tasuil: No wonder the cosmos is so messed up.<br />
Tasuil: No wonder we fight.<br />
Anthousa: I can hear them out there. Something is coming.<br />
Anthousa: These walls are stronger than stone!<br />
Anthousa: She will most likely be turning the shards and sentinels over to her power.<br />
Anthousa: But if we don't get out there soon, her control will spread to the main tower.<br />
Queen Una: Come to me Ahnket! Come to your eternal Queen!<br />
Queen Una: Give me your obedience! Give me all of your love!<br />
Ahnket: This was the call I heard in the space between universes.<br />
Ahnket: It was you that told me of the Plane of Life.<br />
Ahnket: It was you that directed me towards the Plane of Fire.<br />
Ahnket: I cannot seem to resist your will.<br />
Queen Una: You are now the land, which I had long ago been given dominion over.<br />
Queen Una: Now transform for me Ahnket!<br />
Queen Una: Become the world tree!<br />
Queen Una: Soon I will plant you upon the rock of Telara!<br />
Queen Una: Soon I will remake this unloved Cosmos!<br />
Tasuil: Ascended! We must save Tristaine!<br />
Tasuil: Destroy the sentinels! These shards of the tower must never make it out of here!<br />

'''On killing a sentinel'''<br />
Tasuil: That one down!<br />
Anthousa: I do not think it will be this easy to defeat the Queen.<br />
Tasuil: What? The Shards of Ahnket came back! How?<br />
Queen Una: Faithless dragon, Ahnket is the land. She is the comet that we ride.<br />
Queen Una: You could destoy all the land beneath our feet and there would still be more Ahnket!<br />
Anthousa: Ascended, Tasuil, it's not Ahnket that we need to destroy here.<br />
Anthousa: It's the Foci!<br />
Anthousa: If we destroy the Foci, she loses her control.<br />
Tasuil: No, that is Tristaine! We can't kill him. We need to turn him back!<br />
Tasuil: He's innocent in this.<br />
Anthousa: He may be a victim, but he is gone.<br />
Anthousa: His mother's spell has transformed him.<br />
Anthousa: He is lost. He is just her Foci now.<br />
Anthousa: His live means our destruction.<br />
Tasuil: Forgive us Tristaine.<br />
Tasuil: I failed you<br />

'''On Combat End'''<br />
Queen Una: Noooo!<br />
Queen Una: My foci! My power! All gone!<br />
Queen Una: I sacrificed my beautiful boy for it.<br />
Queen Una: And you destroyed it. It was all for nothing!<br />
Tasuil: Now you must face justice for your crimes, Una!<br />
Queen Una: Crimes? I am the Witch Queen. I may do as I please.<br />
Queen Una: But I am in mourning. My son has been slain.<br />
Queen Una: My plan has failed. The old magics slip through my fingers.<br />
Anthousa: You will submit to the Ascended, Una.<br />
Anthousa: Or we will destroy you.<br />
Queen Una: No, no, no, no, no, NO!<br />
Queen Una: I must weep for my boy.<br />
Queen Una: I have lost Tristaine, and his father Fionn.<br />
Queen Una: All that I have sacrificed. It is for nothing.<br />
Queen Una: I will not forgive this.<br />
Queen Una: Begone with you.<br />
''Queen Una teleports everyone back to the entrance''<br />
Tasui: How did we get back here?<br />
Anthousa: Queen Una's magic.<br />
Anthousa: She was using her power to work her spell of control.<br />
Anthousa: When we destroyed the foci- killed Tristaine, she could work her witchcraft on us.<br />
Anthousa: It is fortunate that she was so mad with grief as to send us away rather than to destroy us.<br />
Tasuil: Anthousa... Do you think about your son, Jace, much?<br />
Anthousa: Every day.<br />
Tasuil: Would you have ever sacrificed him?<br />
Anthousa: Idid, Tasuil. I sacrificed him to save my people.<br />
Anthousa: I try to tell myself that this is different than what Una just did.<br />
Anthousa: But perhaps this is only true because I succeeded.<br />
Tasuil: Ascended, Anthousa, lets go back to Bailghol.<br />
Tasuil: We will mourn those that we lost, and plan for the next crisis we must face.<br />
Tasuil: But also, lets celebrate living another day.<br />
Tasuil: We saved Telara, the planes, the entire cosmos from the evil of Una, from destruction by Ahnket.<br />
Tasuil: Let us find joy with those who love us.<br />
Anthousa: You have become wise as well as strong, Tasuil. Soon, I will not be able to teach you anything.<br />