"..."
"..."
"..."
After hearing Annie's words—and after some of them truly recognized Annie's real identity as the "Winter Queen"—the several hundred priests of the Lord of Dawn stirred and murmured among themselves for a brief moment. Then they resolutely stepped forward and surrounded Sammaster, who stood motionless.
Almost all of them wore the same look of desperate determination, as if they had firmly resolved to take on the apparently famous Sammaster.
And it was hardly surprising that they would do so!
The evil Cult of the Dragon had long wreaked havoc across the continent of Faerûn, commanding monsters that were mostly horrors unheard of on the face of the earth. The dragon lich just destroyed by the Winter Queen was one such creature, as were other dragon liches and three-headed drakes.
Thus, destroying Sammaster, the Brain and Founder of the Cult of the Dragon, was the sacred duty of these priests. They strove to aid others, held fast to hope and dreams, worked for the prosperity of all humanity and its allies, and labored for renewal and rebirth.
They had been searching for Sammaster for a long time, but had never had the opportunity.
Today, after receiving all kinds of intelligence and making preparations in advance, they had finally seized this once-in-a-thousand-years chance to catch him while he was away. They would not change their minds for any reason.
Besides, they could not bear the terrible consequences of Sammaster escaping again—consequences as catastrophic as the "Rage of Dragons."
"..."
Seeing that the priests of the Lord of Dawn had not backed down, Sammaster did not react. He simply stood unmoved in the center of their encirclement, wearing a cold sneer and saying nothing.
He was somewhat displeased by the upsetting little girl in the distance and her declaration that