((READ THE END OF PART 3
BEFORE READING THIS ONE))
Spinning through the recently vacated Bralspace, among the few objects left are: Halfaz’ crystal ship, still miniature, which is blindingly ablaze with absorbed energy; Darayat’s sword, which has stopped glowing blue; Ror’s axe, which is brightly glowing green; Star’s kaleidoscopic staff; and the bright yellow-green windblossom Wings of Chartreuse, warship of the Elven Armada, floating serenely in a ship-size force bubble.
There is a moment of discontinuity, and then a number of figures appear in the scene. Each swims through the void with powerful gyrations of their sinuous, snake-like lower halves, and then reaches out with several of her many arms (for they are blatantly, stunningly female) to gather up the items. They avoid the ship, but collect the rest, as well as many other bits of floating flotsam, and then congregate before disappearing again.
Meanwhile, in a world distant across space and Time, an alarm starts ringing insistently. A spindly arm reaches over and thumps the switch with a narrow fist, while the old man (complete with long white beard and bushy eyebrows) examines a clipboard, muttering. Eventually, he sighs.
"Not again..." He speaks into an intercom, and a flurry of activity begins inside a building whose size is measured in parsecs.
The next in a series of familiar-looking asteroids,
just as Ptolemaeus saw, rolls into position on the assembly line.
Magrathea goes to work.
The strongest hold of the ancient Dwarven artifurnace and temple that was Bral, a hold lined with indestructible proto-Emerald sacred to Dumathoin much like Ror’s axe, drifts away into the depths of Wildspace as perhaps the largest remaining chunk of what was just a thriving spaceport. Unscorched, it is not devoid of life like the rest of the debris. On the contrary, long laid plans, failed, and failed, and laid again, have finally come to fruition as another Player comes into view, perhaps a minor player in the overall scheme but a Master Schemer nonetheless, with His many layered plans to subvert Bral’s Spelljamming purposes to His own.
While Star’s team comes out of
pleasant dreams, Arkesh’s team comes up out of nightmare where even the Margravine is held helpless; with equal shock to all as the nightmare continues into waking...
…Awareness and thought return abruptly, but they do little good as all impetus is removed from your body. An anvil of Deific scrutiny pins everyone like butterflies pressed down by glass, under the inexorable eye… too many eyes… of a horrific two headed creature. Grinning, forked tongues lolling over sharp, reptilian teeth, He stares mercilessly at each of you in turn, stripping bare every detail as you are measured for value to His purposes. The twin smiles deepen.
Sibiliant thought hisses and rips into your mind by sheer proximity to such a Presence.
Deliciouss. At lasst a usseful catch in the nett. We couldn’tt have found bettter if we had ttrolled the Sstyxx nettting Hydrodaemonss, could we, My prettty daughterss?
These creaturess will do nicssely; the Illithidss were ssuchh unwitting helpers tto My Will, in creating a classhh of heroess of ssufficssient power… and then My newesstt daughter, My pett, gave Me their litttle Link tto amusse Me.
My sspiess in Lolth’ss courtt, and the sso-greatt Dumathoin’ss neglectt of hiss hallss and priessttss, were all I needed tto profitt from the Illithidss’ pettty planss. Bral hass been ssuchh a good ssourcsse of trialss for My ssearchh.
I meassure more than enough life energy of ssoulss here tto power the Lifejammer tto greatt sspeed, and perhapss thiss time we will crack the Phlogissston with ssoulss tto power our way when even the power of very Creation, thiss accurssed Dwarven artifurnacsse, failed Me… and then I...
I!!!
…shall be the firsstt among Princes tto bring My planss there in persson, and penettratte at lasstt the barrier tto the placsse no Plane touchhess.Lifejammers. The most dreaded power source for Spelljammers: they burn life energy, reducing a creature’s mind and abilities to naught as their bodies are consumed in the raging storm of power within, power to propel ships at fantastic speeds across Wildspace and the Phlogiston, forbidden but still used where life is meaningless. Beholders. The Neogi. And now, the Abyss. Yes, Demogorgon hopes to break into the Phlogiston at last by using SOULS for Spiritual energy where other power sources failed to carry Him, using YOUR souls to power His ship; your future is only this: soon a rush of power sears you away, then nothing.
Women pass across your frozen view, naked from the waist, no, not women; seven feet tall, strong, sinuous coils of snake tails, eight arms, eight hands holding greatswords like toys, each sword more wicked than the last; Mariliths! And if you could feel anything, there is the shock of familiarity for one of them as she struts with the others, but her eyes seem glazed, empty, hopeless, near-soulless. A Marilith
with the face of Sheerak.
The Mariliths are shepherding Dwarves in filthy emerald and brown robes from creature to creature chained to the walls of the cavern, or what is left of these creatures. The Dwarves chant woodenly, movements stiff and dull, and the creatures form into wholeness, stretch to fill their chains, and then appear to lock in place, pinned by His gaze as He measures the next Truly Resurrected victims.
Besides all of you stapled to the cavern walls, including Gleron’s troll, in another section of the cavern nearby there are nearly a dozen Uruk-Hai also stapled, including the Shaman who was repairing the arch an instant or Eternity ago.
And well over a dozen Witchlight Marauders... eighteen, in fact.
And Thrash.
The Prince of Horror continues.
Ah, good. I ssee their toyss are gathered and reconsstitutted. It iss sso much more delisciouss tto burn them dresssed in the thingss they cherisshh.Sure enough, a big pile of familiar-looking equipment is jumbled along the wall nearby, next to tall stacks of broad, flat hexagonal emerald plates taken down from the walls where the staples have been placed.
I will play with thesse baless of goblinss tto warm the Lifejammer, and then return for the resstt of the fuel, ssuchh lovely creaturess! All shhall owe Me favors, even Dumathoin, for burning thesse Witchhlightt Marauderss, the very besstt of fuel. Keep them on the wallss, My pretttiess.He picks up two corded bundles of shrieking goblins, and strides out of the cavern.
After several hours, or minutes, the pressure fades, and Thrash is among the first to recover. He barks a guttural command, and the Witchlights begin gobbling at the rock holding their staples; in moments they have freed themselves, Thrash, and the Uruk-Hai – including Gleron, inside a Uruk-Hai body. The startled Mariliths rush toward them as Thrash leers, raising his hand to act.
Suddenly Arkesh and Star fall into the chamber in a gust of blue gray smoky mist with the whip trailing along behind them clinging to one of Star’s legs; the momentum of the tackle bounces the three of them off a wall. Arkesh seems to have regained her missing arm, and she bellows a drow war cry into the huge stone chamber. The Mariliths whirl, and there is an instant of clear path between Star and Thrash.
Star’s voice rings out, cold with fury.
I’ll not send your spirit back to One-Eye this Time, nor shall the Prince have you. Never again, Witchlight dealer, in any Future!As Thrash screams, Star’s hands spread out, and a bar of Light comes into existence between her and Thrash, bright beyond white, sear beyond heat. It punches through Thrash as he vanishes, and burns him out of Time itself. Ptolemaeus can see the cleanly burnt nub of the thread of Thrash’s Timeline, gone from the Pattern from this Moment on. Miraculously, nothing is disturbed around it.
Balefire.In the momentary blindness, stunning recollections of
Balefire from Time Guardians archives swirl through Ptolemaeus’ head. Thrash’s wail of terror cuts off, its echoes vanishing as if most of them had never been. Stricken, Arkesh chokes out:
Forbidden madness! Would you unravel the Age to save it?Star replies coldly,
I know precisely what I’m doing. He is gone to the Instant, with no damage backward – else I might have created a brief Timeloop with him in it – nor damage to a single other thread.The eighteen Witchlight Marauders, suddenly berserk with Thrash’s control gone, begin bellowing in a mad chorus. And then sight returns for all, and utter chaos breaks out.
Initiative!!!
Now you know why it was not just convenient but actually good that the previous fight wrapped up so quickly. You’d have killed them – if you had – and then have to do it all over again. Instead, now you can finish them once and for all, with the three-cornered fight, Mariliths VS Uruk-Hai and Witchlights VS all of us. And you’d best win before Demogorgon gets back!!!
We continue on the next board,
Not the Afterlife You Were Looking ForIt’s been private; SirP and I have to either add all of you or change it to public now, which is in progress. Either way you will be able to access it soon, to continue all IC posting there.
You also probably now realize why it had to be private initially: in case some of you went there earlier than others – if the fight at the Portal had gone differently – but you all have conveniently arranged it to join that thread as a group, all at the same time
Meanwhile, you can all roll initiative on the
Dice Rolls thread for Jewel, which we can continue to use.
And here are answers to questions we anticipate (we’re sure you will think of more questions we didn’t anticipate):
You are still in a small part of the Bral compound, fighting interlopers… even though these are not the interlopers you were looking for – so you are still inside The Plan
TM, +2 Luck from Janis applies to almost all rolls, including Initiative.
There is no Link at the moment; the Scrybubble effect is gone, therefore no Mind Blank and no combat map, but for simplicity we’re going to assume everyone is – and continues to be, unless announced otherwise – within 30 feet of Star, so +2 Time bonus to Initiative applies.
However, on Arkesh’s initiative, which will be very early, she will re-establish a link to everyone – but Arkesh can’t handle a relay of the torrent of map info to both teams, twice as many creatures as she did before, while she is fighting, so the combat map will not apply – but you will again be able to talk back and forth at thought speed as unlimited free actions. We will assume that all info continues to be shared on the link, so everyone knows via shared info what Mariliths are, who Demogorgon is, and what Balefire is, for example.
Polymorph Self on Star’s team from Halfaz is still in effect till he releases it.
Elemental Form, Earth (the source of Earthglide) has expired and is no longer in effect. The effects on Throisar and the Margravine from the Uruk-Hais’ recent attacks have also expired, no save rolls needed.
True Resurrection, courtesy of the enthralled clerics of Dumathoin: You’re at full HP, and have your prepared spells/whatever you prepare. Special cases: Tanatou, you have an equivalent, that re-created you just as you were… courtesy of Demogorgon Himself. Ugh. Vir: You are a Magic Item, but you’re not in the pile of stuff, you’re stapled to the wall with full HP like everyone else; apparently they think you’ll burn just fine, or at least are willing to try. And apparently they knew how to activate you… I wonder how they knew? Throisar: You’re in dragon form, they just have bigger staples. This cavern is plenty big enough, at least 80 feet high, 60 wide, 120 long, approximately, with you all near the middle. Darayat’s Photomental: It’s a creature, not an item, and it’s bound to you, so it’s alive and with you rather than in the pile of stuff.
However, Star’s team does NOT have their doubled HP from the Positive Energy bath – that has been used up by the 400,000 HP of damage.
Anything any of you have, use, or do, that has a daily or encounter limit, pool of points, etc., is starting fresh as if it’s the beginning of the day.
Other party buffs: As a reminder, there is a long
list of buffs and abilities you can get by fighting close to Star, in concentric circles at various radii centered on her – as you will see, the list is sorted by the exact distances.
All of your stuff – including what you were given or borrowed for this mission – is in a jumbled pile along the near wall, about 30 feet away. Special cases: Gleron: If Gleron can’t be inside the Uruk-Hai without the ring, the Uruk-Hai is wearing the ring, because the Mariliths would have had to put it on the creature to recreate what they found. If the ring is not absolutely required for Gleron to occupy the Uruk-Hai, then the ring is jumbled in the pile along with everyone else’s stuff. Vir: Your stuff is in the pile too, all items except you yourself, again just like everybody else. Any other intelligent items generally, not yet mentioned: Are just fine, and are in the pile.
Whew. I appreciate the job that continuity checkers have to do on movie sets. I’m sure I missed some things, but I’m also sure you’ll remind me, if they’re important.
PS. SirP and I passed these two posts back and forth quite a few times in the hiatus, for literary coolness and to make sure we were getting the overall Story line and all the details right. And now they are done! – MM, for MM and SirP
