ARANEA: I've gathered a small group of travelers for a meeting.
ARANEA: They are 8riefly passing through this 8u88le. I was hoping we could introduce ourselves to one another, and help orient an old friend of mine to the afterlife.
JAKE: Ok.
JAKE: Who is your friend?
JAKE: Another troll?
ARANEA: She was supposed to 8e the empress of all trolls, actually.
JAKE: Wow.
JAKE: So she died before she could be the empress i guess?
ARANEA: Not exactly, since she pro8a8ly never would have 8een regardless.
ARANEA: She didn't want the jo8.
JAKE: Why not?
ARANEA: Remem8er how I said each class had a duty to take care of the younger and more populous classes lower on the order?
ARANEA: Well, hers was the highest of all.
ARANEA: She was the only one on the planet with such royal 8lood, aside from the sitting empress.
ARANEA: As the heiress, she was meant for a position of incredi8le responsi8ility.
ARANEA: Once she claimed the throne, she would have to serve for many thousands of years, until the next successor was ready.
JAKE: Thats a hell of a long time.
JAKE: I guess she wasnt into that?
ARANEA: She had some pro8lems with authority.
ARANEA: She despised the whole social order, really.
ARANEA: I foolishly tried to convince her to honor her o8ligation, 8ut she wouldn't listen.
ARANEA: She viewed the empress as a glorified slave.
ARANEA: So she a8dicated, and fled to the moon to hide.
ARANEA: I was the only one who knew of her plans. The rest of the world searched 8ut never found her.
ARANEA: At the time, I was furious with her. 8ut I didn't turn her in.
ARANEA: Which in retrospect was a key decision that led us here.
JAKE: You mean it led to you being dead?
ARANEA: Yes, eventually.
ARANEA: While she was there, she discovered an ancient device.
ARANEA: Inside the device was a game.
ARANEA: She 8ecame o8sessed with playing it, 8ut needed our friends to agree to play first.
ARANEA: She was not well liked 8y the others though. Old grudges and rivalries made it hard to convince them.
ARANEA: 8ut she is very devious, and knows how to trick people into doing what she wants.
ARANEA: She even got me to agree, 8y promising she'd return to her place as the heiress when we finished playing.
ARANEA: Needless to say, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.
JAKE: She sounds like a handful.
ARANEA: Yes.
ARANEA: She's not all that 8ad though.
ARANEA: Well........
ARANEA: When you really get to know her.
ARANEA: And when she's unarmed.
ARANEA: Which is........ pretty much never, now that I think a8out it.
JAKE: ...
ARANEA: Ok, she pro8a8ly is all that 8ad.
ARANEA: The point is, you have to know how to handle her.
ARANEA: Regal types can 8e very touchy, even the ones who seem to revel in anarchy.
ARANEA: 8ut if you know all the right things to say and do, she will happily hand over the keys to the kingdom, so to speak.
ARANEA: After all, royalty is royalty.
ARANEA: Just let me do the talking for a while, ok?
DIRK: Did you hear that, Jake? Aranea wants to do the talking.
DIRK: I think your dead girlfriend might be starting to come out of her shell.
JAKE: (Heheheh.)
JAKE: (Ok that was kinda funny.)