Free Plague of Spells by Bruce R. Cordell Page B

been tied to the dogma of a progenitor god like the kuo-toa were.
    She blinked away fruitless comparisons and dead memories. The Sea Mother’s creed would crumble soon enough, and she would usher in a new age of greatness.
    Nogah rose from the lounging pool. She retained her hold on the Dreamheart with both hands. For all her familiarity with the relic, it remained an awkward size.
    Rivulets of clear water trailed on the tile behind her as she moved from her quarters to the outermost chamber of her hall.
    There, under a great dome, her growing congregation would hear Nogah speak, as they had done for many previous tendays. Today, Nogah thought, I will show them something so extraordinary their souls will be mine forever.
    An audience was already gathering in the chamber, some murmuring in anticipation, others looking timid and uncertain. Many she recognized, but as with most days, she saw several new faces too, who’d heard rumors of her sermons. There were even a few sullen locathah. Word of Nogah’s creed was spreading. Soon enough, she’d have to find a larger place to conduct these gatherings. She’d already moved three times to accommodate the growing crowds. This spacious hall, half submerged under a mother-of-pearl dome, was located at the very periphery of Olleth.
    Nogah’s popularity grew despite her excommunication. The disruptions following the Year of Blue Fire were ongoing, and theocratic control over the city was still unsteady. On the other hand, things were much better than they had been a decade earlier, when random outbreaks of spellplague might suddenly ignite and burn away a kuo-toa or mutate him into a monster. Nogah’s timing couldn’t have been better.
    When she began preaching her new creed, the church stripped Nogah of her status as a whip of the Sea Mother. Nogah’s ability to utter prayers in the Sea Mother’s name failed. They thought her helpless. They moved to strip her of life and limb too. But the Dreamheart trumped their power. Nogah’s doctrine proved stronger that day. She had killed two whips with the power of the relic and sent the remaining priest fleeing from her hall.
    The Sea Mother’s influence was on the wane, while Nogah’s strength was bolstered by a power more ancient! Her flukes warmed just to think of it. Her growing power emanated from the Dreamheart, or at least, was channeled by the stone from some strange, grim source.
    The corpses of the three additional kuo-toa whips who’d returned later to slay her for blasphemy were proof enough that Nogah’s claim of approaching transcendence was no idle boast.
    These stories and other similar accounts of Nogah’s defiance were galvanizing interest in her sermons. She couldn’t have planned it better if she’d tried.
    The ex-whip walked out onto a dimly lit dais beneath the humid dome, buffeted by hundreds of kuo-toa voices immersed in excited speculation. Only a few saw her.
    “My children,” Nogah said to the gathered crowd. They quieted instantly.
    “My children, you have come to hear the truth. The truth! After a lifetime of lies, you deserve to know.”
    Whispers skirted the chamber’s periphery. Illumination began to leak away, but around Nogah, the light intensified like approaching dawn.
    Nogah continued, “I, like you, also believed the lies. I believed them so much, I entered the service of the Sea Mother. Like many of you, I was willing to sacrifice everything to her, regardless of the cost to myself. It was our way! How could I do otherwise?”
    Eager murmurs rippled through the throng, reflecting off the knee-deep, clear water that filled the chamber. It was almost completely dark, even to kuo-toa senses. But Nogah shone like a star come to earth. Their attention was rapt upon her; she could feel their combined gazes like a caress:
    Despite the sermons being declared taboo by the hierarchy of Olleth, the curious still found her. After all, what other kuo-toa had ever disregarded the commands of the