My dear citizens of Sanctuary,

I have grown complacent. I am no longer fit for public office in this town. We are trapped here not by monsters and caves, but by our own decadence. We don't belong in the Underdark, and we certainly shouldn't be getting so comfortable in this ruined machine.

I am too old now to go gallivanting with adventurers in search of the Way, but freedom will not be won with rigid laws made from a warm office in the center of a secure town. A government only makes us dig in. We become attached to this rest stop and call it a home. -I- have called it a home.

But Sanctuary is a prison, and I've been both a warden and an inmate for too long. I have been content to argue fractions of a budget for the Seekers, to send mercenaries on missions of exploration. It's time I turned in my "badge".

I will devote myself to the collection of lore, hopefully finding some hint at a path, a Way, to the surface so that our next generation may know the warmth of sunlight so many of us may never feel again. I do not believe that a Council of typically self-interested persons can achieve this.

As I retire to intellectual pursuit for escape, I urge each of you here today to devote yourselves to something, be it exploration or defense or trying to keep the peace between your neighbors, or freeing others who suffer the bonds of slavery.

Good day, Sanctuary.

Adelia steps down and hurries off to the library, trying to avoid the storm of questions about the future of the Council.