(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

"Perhaps this downtime would be good for me to study up on the Circle of
Zerthimon."
Dak'kon stared at me a moment and, with a simple utilitarian nod, slid the
plates into the proper configuration for me. I accepted it with my functional
hand, and Dak'kon leaned back with his Zerth blade laid across his lap.
Looking down at it he entered a focused, meditative trance. The black-edged
blade became smoky, rippling until it became clear as polished glass and
keen as thought itself. Again it rippled, and the blade took on an obsidian
hue with fierce, serrated fangs lining the edge.
Leaving Dak'kon to his mental excercises, I began to read.
"Zerthimon labored many turnings for the illithid Arlathii Twice-Deceased
and his partnership in the cavernous heavens of the False Worlds. His duties
would have broken the backs of many others, but Zerthimon labored on,
suffering torment and exhaustion."
"It came to pass that the illithid Arlathii Twice-Deceased ordered Zerthimon
before him in his many-veined galleria. He claimed that Zerthimon had
committed slights of obstinance and cowardice against his partnership. The
claim had no weight of truth, for Arlathii only wished to know if flames
raged within Zerthimon's heart. He wished to know if Zerthimon's heart was
one of a slave or of a rebel."
"Zerthimon surrendered to the illithid punishment rather than reveal his
new-found strength. He knew that were he to show the hatred in his heart,
it would serve nothing, and it would harm others that felt as he. He chose to
endure the punishment and was placed within the Pillars of Silence so he
might suffer for a turning."
"Lashed upon the Pillars, Zerthimon moved his mind to a place where pain
could not reach, leaving his body behind. He lasted a turning, and when he
was brought before Arlathii Twice-Deceased, he gave gratitude for his
punishment to the illithid as was custom. In so doing, he proved himself a
slave in the illithid eyes while his heart remained free."
"By enduring and quenching the fires of his hatred, he allowed Arlathii
Twice-Deceased to think him weak. When the time of the Rising came,
Arlathii was the first of the illithid to *know* death by Zerthimon's hand and
die a third death."
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