Judgement Day
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Judgement Day
One cold morning, just as the sun begins to crest the edge of the horizon, a lone doppelganger begins to awake from his encapement. As he starts to awaken, he gets this chill, a chill with which he can’t understand. After standing up and stretching, he gives a quick ESP scan around the camp to make sure everything is ok, but he just can’t shake this unusal feeling of discomfort. After doing a varity of scans, and searching around the encapement, and getting no were Wolfgang pulls out his crystal ball and trys to contact Daren, only to get the less than curtious power-dwarf on the other line. As the Wolfgang proceeds to get lectured in why the dwarven race is far superior to the rest of the races inthird edition, Wolfgang begins to notice the crystal ball is beginning to receive a lot of static, fading in and out, for about a minute and then it returns to its usual clarity. After realizing he isn’t going to be able to get a hold of anyone, unless he chooses to listen to the hour long dwarven lecture on superiority, he is just going to have to try later. Once, off the crytsal ball with the power-dwarf he realizes something has changed around him an unusal quite in the forest, immediately Wolfgang performs a ESP scan for the surrounding area, and draws nothing. In furthur investigationhe looks around and the birds, and squirrels that were there, are gone, down to even the insect life, is gone.
Once Wolfgang comes to this keen relization he decides that its time to pack up camp and get the hell away from here,after all running to the better part of valor. And then a scrambling noise enters into his head, it sounds so familar to him, and its get louder and louder. As the noise grows louder, and louder, Wolfgang finds himself strangely looking, oddly looking, at something, a small point in space, maybe 8ft off the ground. And that is when he relizes he can’t move, he’s paralyzed, oddly fixed on the point in space, with a scrambling noise growing in his head, overcoming all of his senses.
Then it happens, what looks like some form of immortal magic, reality almost looks as if its coming unraveled, as it bends,twists, and distorts the surrounding area. As Wolfgang’s sanity barely hang’s on, he then hears someone, someones voice in his head, he can almost make out a shape, the shape of something at the center of this. Thensilence, Wolfgang drops to his knees, far to drained to even get up, trying to pick up whats left of his mental pychic.
This time noticing the trees, and all the vegetation is gone, with the animals, for about a 1000ft. radius. He reluctantlylooks back at the apex of were he heard those voices, he relizes one of those voices sounded familiar, almost like, like, was it Zap, but he heard a name, Warlock, Lorloch? And there was another fella the one closest to the apex, theone I could almost make out, I think I heard Zap call him, Magius. What would Zap, and Lorloch have anything to do with one another? And who is this Magius fella, and thats when I noticed it the apex hadn’t left, it was still there, but stable or at least for the time being, and bigger, before it was a hardly noticeable dot, and know its about the size of a torso. Thats when he was still hearing voices, through the apex, but I can’t understand them, something about Magius is dieing and he’s the only one that can make the trip, Lorloch and Zap are arguing, Zap needs to hold off something, I can’t make out what, while Lorloch needs to prepare to use the remainder of his power to send, to send,Magius something, I can’t make it out. Lorloch, saying something about the apex will only be stable for a little longer,they have to do this know, or never.
Then the apex started to grow, and grow, just when I thought I was done in, a temporal blast goes off blowing me out ofthe range of the reality anomolly. But this one seemed like it didn’t last as long, or maybe it didn’t seem that way because I wasn’t in this one. After the blinding flash I realized, there was a being laying on the ground, some sort of magical creature, it looks humanoid, but its no doppelganger, even somewhat like a power creature, but oddly different. The apex was gone, leaving nothing but a dead 1000ft’ radius patch. The creature finally gets up, he looks weak, like he can barely get up, he produces a staff from his robes as he gets to his feat, it almost looks like as if something is attacking his existance, like when Daren had gotten hit with the power venom, but this looks much worse, and much more permanent. Once on his feet, it looks as if he casts some sort of spell, a spell that doesn’t sound familiar to me.
Once the spell was cast, I knew what it was for, because he looked right at me, and started walking feebly over to me, I swear every aspect of his being seemed to dimenish in the little energy he expended just to walkover to me. Finally he looked at Wolfgang, and shook his hand, and said “Hello, Wolfgang, I don’t have long before, I’llbe dead, beyond even the gods hands, so I don’t have time to explain.” I need you to go and retreive a scroll, and I need you to kill the sorcerourous. Once you have the scroll, destroy it, and make sure the sorcerourous stays dead to the best of you ability. The future relies on you, he hands you a scroll describing what needs to be done. On the scrollwritten in a unusual Elven Magnasti language, is detailed instructions telling you were the scroll is believed to begiving coordinates, with temporal reference. Below is a detailed description of the sorcerourous, and were sheis believed to be in this time frame.
Below is a temporal warning, you should never talk with anyone as to what happened to you, or as to why you are doing this, the temporal paradoxes that could occur, or even the outcome of what might or possibly occur, could destory all that we are trying to prevent.
At the bottom of the scroll, you notice, three signitures.Zap, Brain Cell need I say more.Lorloch, Evil Prince of MagicMagius, PowerMaster King, Son of Daren.
Once you look up from the scroll after reading this, you notice Magius has died. -
hmm… whilst looking for thine other tale, i stumbled upon one that i have ZERO FUGGING MEMORY of… damn orc-tribe
a pre-judgement day tale of before Ethos got spawned, from the looks of it (and bob-englitch)…Late one evening, as a full moon fills the sky over Daerma…screams fill the darkness and shadows dance around the sky, as blood red clouds flood the sky. Late one evening covering the light of
the moon, somethings has gone very wrong.
Mean while back in V’Ral, Yaleria starts packing here backpack grabs here teddy bear, agravated at her parents for not believing in her abilities, and being laughed at by the other mages of the
city, she has the ability to cast spells without a spell book, reagents, or even vocal or somatic components, she just concentrates on the magic flowing threw her and it takes form, but no onewill take the time to listen or even see her for what she is but late one night over a week ago she felt something, a unusual presenece in the magic, something strong, it felt bizarre, but it
understood her, she found comfort in it, and lately it has started to talk to her, and she has decided that only it can accept her, or understand her so she is going to set out to find this
presence.
Meanwhile outside V’Ral…Running through the woods, being hunted, Calithran (Knight of Virtue), I must make it to V’Ral blast I can’t find it in the enfernal cover, I have to keep moving or its going to find me. Calithran
had been previously tracking a Ayla abomination, this new creature had killed some of his tribe, and he has sworn vengence, however somhow the creature has adapted since its arrival to daerma and
now the hunter has become the hunted. Previously Calithran had tracked the creature to the savage lands of Daerma, and the abomination had wounded him on arrival like the creature new something
Calithran didn’t. If he can make it to V’Ral he might have a chance to survive, the lady of the wood and also his queen once had talked of the various obelisk points around the sphere, and he
believe’s there to be one in V’Ral if he’s to survive if V’Ral is to survive there had better be one.
(( lernean hydra with mindflayer heads instead of serpentine ones ?))
Several months earlier…In a land drentched in terror and continual dusk, the forsaken one is entrenched in a experiment on a athasian beholder specimen, screams…“Javantar!!!, bring me my ballor horns…”, quickly a pale blue (normally magic blue) ogre titan comes running into the torture(experiment) chamber to bring Ayla her ballor horns. Javantar a
evolved ogre titan from a tortured battle ogre had long learned to just do as Ayla says because if you don’t won’t here to feed you to the tower, bad things happen then. After Javantar hands Ayla
the horns, in comes Xaun a floating demi lich head, Javantar has never liked Xaun however its like everything in his life he just puts up with it, escepecially Xaun happens to be a bit of a tattletale, he’s constintily getting Javantar in trouble. But today Xaun is ratting out Mesastopholese, Javantar never liked Mesastopholese much either, well mostly because Mesastopholese used to
torture/experiment on Javantar before he became a ogre titan for ayla. Xaun goes running in "Ayla, Mesastopholese isn’t doing your bidding, Ayla to entrenched in the experiment to notice Javantar,
or Xaun begins to get a alchemical look of confusion as she continues to work on the table, with beams of magic shooting from the beholder periodically, griping about some brain incompatabilities
between the undead motherbrain and beholders, she doesn’t seem to notice anyone or anything around her as she continues to work. Far off on a shelf a head in a jar labeled sampson the red sigh’s, sampson long ago became a bad experiment gone awry with mind flayers.Since the mind flayers had embedded the quasi-magical/psionic circuitry into his skull life had just gone down hill for sampson, Ayla has been using him and experimenting on him for all kinds of
experimentations he expecially hates it when she makes him work with Nyderramma a undead Mind Flayer MotherBrain that sits in the basement of the Living Tower of Alchemy.He stills hopes that one day he’ll be able to escape he has discovered he can control his psionic circuitry and has gained a few wild psionics because of prolonged exposure to the circuitryand he has been plotting for an escape he just needs a sufficient distraction for not only Ayla, but the tower, and the mother brain. So he sits on the shelf and waits for his chance at for
freedom.
Meanwhile off in the distance a great rift army of dwarves prepare for the march on the Shar… to rid the region of the Forsaken one and her abominations…
Off in the far lands of the south, a elf by the name of Paleth a Kight of Virtue, runs into a cave yelling…“Smedley!!! were under attack”, something spooked the beholders, there organized I don’t know what happened but three beholder hives have just started attacking the outer perimeter of
defenses, presently we aren’t being besieged by the west near the sea, just being attacked by the north, east, and south. Smedely, reaches for his emense spiked club, and what of the lady of the
forest, she has headed to the front lines Smedley to engage the brunt of the force coming from the east. “Ohhh no…,” sighs Smedley…we’ll, go reinforce the south Paleth, I’ll head off andsupport me Lady. Paleth salutes and teleports south.
Sometime later, a single orc named Ril dressed in black strolls into Argopolis, completely unnoticed by residence and obelisk alike, forgotten as quickly as glanced upon. Quickly looking for the one he calls Wolfgang the Backpack, after spending most of the day looking in vain, he comes to find wolfgang, sitting down to begin a good nights drinking at the gold
scales saloon. The orc approaches wolfgang and says are you the doppelganger known as wolfgang the backpack? And the Orc lifts his hood off his cloak to show his face, and wolfgang looks funnily
at the orc and says well no I’m wolfgang shadowjack, sit down and have a beer, the orc sits down, and says wolfgang believe it or not I know you and you knew me, a few years ago we met, andbecause of my racial powers/abilites you can’t record anything or remember anything of my exsistance for very long as a matter of fact as soon as I leave this saloon you will forget everything I
have told you. Dark events have been set in motion and you are all in grave danger!
Deep below the mess…, in a cloacked room, deep under bedrock, a handleful of dwarven rift priests plot the attack on the Shar, with whispers of battle plans, and sips of beer.
Careful not to mention the name of the forsaken one, for fear they might get her attention. Mumblings of stone sharks, kias purple worms, lycanthropy infecting stone misquestoes, lava dragon flys,
vampiric admantium tunnel spiders, and other abominations the Dwarves of the Great Rift have had to deal with great trouble. We can’t keep this up, there must be payback, we must drive this abmoniation straight to hell. Ruran a dwarven priest of Moradin well past his expected lifetime, and a white beard that touches the
floor looks straight into the eyes of what he would still consider a new beard, and causes Gulan to just freeze, Gulan a capable warrior of 150 years, and respected by just about every dwarf he has
ever met, has always had the fullist of confidence of the king, however no one has ever been able to make him stop for pause as Ruran has been able to, Ruran was always been like a father toGulan ever since Gulan was born Ruran had looked out for him, but everytime that elder, hell ancient, dwarven priest slams his fist down and casts his stare upon him or anyone for that matter they
pause for thought. Ruran has been able to quite even dwarven kings with that stare, and who knows how many kings Ruran has advised over the years, Gulan really never thought about it but Ruran had
a white beard for as long as even he can remember, and when asking the great white beard his age, he always responds with …“old enough”. Finally after Ruran sees that Gulan is ready to talkabout the seige upon the Shar, Ruran asks Gulan about the smiths and how Kagnus the master smith is coming on the seige weapon. Gulan responds to Ruran that the seige weapon will be ready the
smiths are forging the last of the armor plating, and then a couple of weeks for the priests to enchant it and the …“great admantium rift jaggaurnaut” will be ready for the seige on the
Shaar… Gulan smiles I can’t wait to kill this curse upon us, and throws back his beer. Ruran strokes his beard, and looks deep in thought as if he is considering some sort of universal
truth, under a shallow breath passes through his lips… “that may not be enough.”
Sometime late one evening Erok, comes stumbling out of the tavern, in V’Ral, completely and utterly drunk from his own special brew, singing/slaughtering some bardic song he had heard in one of his
travels, Erok takes notice of the sky as he proceeds to pee on the bushes of the estate of Algrannon, scratching his head, trying to remember if the sky is suppose to look that way, finally after
he finishes peeing he decides he can’t remember, and its a question best left for morning. So the drunk half/ogre proceeds to zip up, and head across town to visit another tavern, before going off
to bed. When all the sudden Erok smells something not quite right, he smells a hint of bad in the air, griping his shovel he starts to track down the scent, spending almost a better half of an
hour Erok tracking this smell, Erok ends up and the outer perimeter of the V’Ral defenses with a bewildered little girl talking to her teddy bear, Erok knows this little girl really well, because
the obelisk in V’Ral had told Erok to take special watch of her, she had an unusual gift for the art, different from the others that were blessed something surrounds her. This little girl was
Yaleria Algrannon, who’s scent Erok had picked up on from back at the estate, but why was he smelling something bad off of her, she was just a little girl. Besides Erok had spent time with the
little girl, and he knows there family they aren’t bad, but something funnky is coming off of her. Yaleria, looks at Erok, stay away Erok I’m running away I need to go find something, Erok
scratches his head well Yaleria what do you want to find? Yaleria something that talks to me in my head, I can feel him, he’s calling me or its calling me, I’m not for sure Erok. Erok with a
confused look on his face trying to make since of what she’s telling him, asks does it or person you feel have a name? She responds well I have had it refer to itself as ‘The Serpent’, but I must
go seek this out it will lead me to it. Erok, still scratching his head thinking to himself, serpent, maybe a dragon, what the hell. Erok looks up well do you want company we can run away
together, Yaleria looks up at Erok, and something really doesn’t look right now, her eyes of changed, she almost looks to have changed in front of him, within an instant. She responds to Erok, no I
must do this on my own, now I’m going to have to leave, you would do best to forget all of this, and in a flash Yaleria is gone.
Moments later…Calithran wounded, and taken refuge in a small cave several miles from V’Ral hears a voice, the voice of a girl. Calithran mumbles to himself who would be out on a night
like this, other than a forsaken abmoniation, and then he catches a glimpes of who is making this noise, scratching his head, what is a little girl doing all the way out here. How did she get out
here? well before she gets a chance to attract any unwanted attention, Calithran goes out to talk to her, and bring her into the cave for shelter Yaleria is actually much compliant because of the
cold and scary nature of the night, after eating some of Calithran’s food, and warming by the fire, she drifts off to sleep on Calithran’s bed roll, but to Calithran, it’s not of much consequences
that he doesn’t have a place to sleep, because for right know he has to worry not only for himself, but know for her, he just doesn’t know what she’s doing out here, and she ate and barely talked
at dinner, hopefully he can make it to V’Ral with her in morning, they might know more.By morning Calithran had awoke to three suprises, a empty bed roll, and a new magically glowing tattoo, and a Erok cooking breakfast. Erok, bangs the pot time to get up, breakfast is ready!!!
Erok blinking at Calithran, says I see you had a visitor, do you know were she is, Calithran said she had gone to sleep last night, and when Calithran woke up she was gone, was she here when you
showed up Erok, Erok looks at Calithran…“well, i’ve only been here for about an hour, but she wasn’t here when I found you.”. Calithran gets up and looks outside, the weather seems unnatural,
the clouds have darkened the sky, and lighting is exploding like a war of the gods is going on above the cloud line. Erok smiles, yeah the sky is funny looking, but I need to fine Yaleria first.
Calithran looks at Erok, am I near V’Ral Erok blinks yeah, its about 62 miles in that direction, Calithran looks in that direction, well we need to find her and fast. I had tracked one of Ayla’s(Erok begins to stop eating - and quickly turns pale) ‘The Forsaken One’, Eroks yells… “Stop saying her name!!!, I know of her!!!”, well anyway Erok I tracked one of her abominations to
these lands, but when I arrived it had gotten the better of me, it started to track me, and I had managed to hide from it within this cave. I’m thinking Yaleria was really tired last night, so at
most she’s got a 2-3 hour lead on us, we need to find her and quick, I would hate to think of what will happen if she encounters that forsaken creature that killed some of my brothern.
…Sometime later back in the gold scales saloon in Argopolis…A very drunk Wolfgang Shadowjack looks upon Ril with blurry eyes, now (hickup) let me get this straight I know you but I
can’t remember you, and we are all in grave danger. What kind of danger, in case you haven’t noticed your in a city full of giant-kin, & powermasters…(a long pause) hey your an orc how did
you even get here without getting killed. Ril looks at Wolfgang hard and seriously the fact that I am here should be proof enough Wolfgang to prove to you that this city or any city isn’t prepared
for what is coming not by a long shot. Ril reaches into his pocket and pulls out a odd scroll case that contains a funny looking gold & platinum scroll, then Ril insists upon Wolfgang not to read
here in the tavern, to take it to a more secure location.Ril says this is all I can do Wolfgang, fate is now in your hands, with that Ril hands Wolfgang a amulet, and tells Wolfgang that the scroll, or the amulet won’t help him remember him, or hisclan or even this conversation, but the scroll details will remain. One more thing as Ril downs his beer, and begins to leave the tavern, the amulet will mark you as a friend of our clan, none of
our thieves will ever steal from you.Moments later Wolfgang waves by to Ril, and watches him leave the bar, and then Wolfgang begins to wonder were he had gotten this funny looking scroll case and this strange amulet he is know
wearing, and who had been at the table with him, because there sits a empty mug, and a chair pulled out from the table. After a little time passes, and a few passive scans go off verifying that
none of the patrons of the bar no anything, Wolfgang decides to see whats in the scroll case, after ordering another beer, Wolfgang opens the scroll case and slides out a gold & platinum scroll, Wolfgang instantly blinded by his wizard
site, scales back his vision so that he can examine the scroll with clearer vision. When Wolfgang’s vision clears he notices 2 Powermaster ogre’s staring at him, these ogres had been in the bar all
day and not said word one to Wolfgang until know. One of the ogres points at the scroll, WERE did you find that!!!. Wolfgang beginning to realize he shouldn’t have opened the scroll case in the
bar, decides to roll the scroll back up, and slide it into the scroll case. The ogres lean in on the table, we said WERE did you find that scroll doppelganger. Wolfgang, kind of looking worried,
starts in on a ramble… "Yeah well its kind of a odd story see, well I was over in the Shar and getting attacked by these strange creatures that I haven’t seen before, when AYLA THE FORSAKEN
(says it loudly) pops in and starts…", guys were you going I haven’t finished the story yet, guys. Wolfgang shrugs his shoulders, and pops away to find a nice quite place to study his new found
wealth. If the powerogres are interested then hard telling what this baby is worth.
With a loud whosh of air, Wolfgang appears outside the Argopolis library…, and exiting down the steps is Lady Kylessa (Daren’s wife) and she is carrying with her third child(Ethos), so beforeKylessa gets within converational range, Wolfgang straighten’s up and begins to put on his polished look and runs up to her…“Lady Kylessa, you shouldn’t be out and about, aren’t youexpecting any day know?”…“Yes, Wolfgang I am expecting sometime this week, but Zap had told me that it is important to read to my childern expecially when they are in the womb, so I had decided to go brush up on my studies of magic.” Why what are you up to Wolfgang… Lady Kylessa asks… Wolfgang mutters…“Ummm Uhh, I’m here to research a new spell, yeah thats why I’m here.”,
Well I better get to it, you don’t need any help getting home do you, Kylessa waves Wolfgang bye, and says “no I’ll be fine, I think I’m going to go for a walk around the city”.
A little while later…Wolfgang begins cross referencing types of magic and any related information on gold & platinum scrolls, after a quick search through the library crystal, it comes upwith two words that send a shutter through Wolfgang’s body ‘Nethril Scroll’, further reading shows that only 36 were thought to have existed, and he remembers vividly that he saw a 37written on the scroll case he had been given or found or however he had acquired such a gift.With news of this knowledge, he knows in order for him to get some peace to read the scroll he had better not do it in the city, he’s going to have to read it from a place were no one will scry
him, or take notice of the scroll once its out of its case. He thought maybe Ayla’s but the tower would eat him for that scroll, and then if the undead mind flayer mother brain found out she would
just melt his brain, and take the scroll, no Ayla’s wouldn’t be a good place.
{To be done: this is were wolfgang finds a place to read the scroll}
Wolfgang, slides open the scroll case, and slides out the 'Nethril Scroll", and begins reading with his eyes widening greatly, and with his teeth ratteling, he reads the title.
{this needs to be written up, better maybe something like a prophecy}‘The Coming of the Apocolypse’, events will start to be set in motion on this dated <year>, were the coming of the children of the Apocolypse, will be born, upon this day the skys will blacken,
lightning will rain forth, a child of nobility & power shall be born, and a abmoniation of hate and fear will be created, at a simultaneous moment in the cosmos, and these beings will be known as
Apocolypse children, the beast will set into motion the destruction of the sphere, and the child’s path is his own, but what is apparent is the Apocolypse can succeed, or fail at the hands of this
child. The rest of the scroll is blurry and unreadable like it can’t be made out, or its in some unknown language. But the rest of the prophecy can wait, Wolfgang needs to think about what he’s
managed to digest thus far.
{Kylessa goes into labor - the birth of the Apocolpse Mage}
{The dwarves attack the Shar - the birth of the Apocolpyse Beholder}
{Ethos growing up - reference Ethos descripton doc}
{Ethos turning to evil - Yaleria killed}
{ethos/beholder plans set into motion - creation of other Apocolpse children}
{apocolpse attack on waterdeep}
{Wolfgang learns of what the rest of the ‘Nethril Scroll’ prophecy means and goes to zap with a detailing of how to temporarily mask magic from the apocolpse children to travel back in time as a
last ditch effort}
{Battle of Silverymoon - previously detailed - reference magius doc.}
{Zap/Larloch/Magius - Magius travels back in time - reference magius doc.}
{Wolfgang is fates pawn once again - the aquiring of the message from magius - magius doc.}
{Wolfgang’s destiny to stop the Apocolypse by insuring Ethos doesn’t turn evil, and/or keep Ethos from killing Yaleria}
-
wow - that formatting is hosed
my version of bob’s judgement day story is a little more detailed… tho it still needs polished in a few areasVision the First (aka bobber had a dream…)
There was a “final” battle at silverymoon, in which all the chosen, the darens, the args, the powerdragon, the powermasters, the ancients, and the harpers all fell. Several evil groups
(the wisest) also fought, to no avail. The magnesti cities didn’t fight, they were destroyed city by city several days before. The battle took 12 days, and the 5 darens were amongst the
first to die (probably with a big, big bang…) in this “last stand” of the realms.dream starts with a scene of Wolfgang Shadowjack sleeping peacefully in the woods by a fire.
dream moves to larloch and zap arguing with each other in a dead ruin, a city of black, ruined buildings. no life or unlife stirs in larloch’s last bastion. nearby, holding himself up with his staff, is the half-dead Magius (son of daren) who was infected while fleeing the battle of Silverymoon (the Venovirus acts like langoliers on his reality). Magius appears to be scribbling madly on a scroll of parchment. Larloch is trying to create a temporal rift, a a portal through time, and zap is being his usual busybody self trying to tell him how to do it.
“You’re not doin…”
“you forgot …”
“AARRGGHH…you’re gonna blow us to kingdom come before the darkness even arrives”Larloch’s eyes flash, as he turns to the magnesti.
“LOOK!!! you do magic your way, i do it mine…we both know how, so shut the hell up and let me work…”
Magius sighs “Larloch! Zap! We don’t have time for this! Zap, leave him alone and worry about the cloaking sphere!”Muttering to themselves about impudent youngsters, the two old enemies grudgingly returned to their tasks.
dream moves back to wolfgang, who wakes suddenly at a strange tearing sound. he looks around and spots a dime-sized glowing portal 8 feet up in the air. he hears strange voices, arguing
and bickering with each other. he slowly sits up and stares at the glowing spot.“kingdom…darkness…hell’s dead…cities…magic…gone”
wolfgang listens harder… “that sounded like Zap…what the hell !!!”“larloch…geode…sorceress…overgod…doomed”
wolfgang’s face scrunches up with concentration…“warlock? marlok? what did he say ???”“shhh!! guys, COME ON!!!” then the voices faded to murmuring.
abruptly, the dime-sized portal expanded to the size of a human head, and a forcewave rippled outwards from it (aka airquake), and wolfgang felt like he was in a hurricane. it took all of his efforts to remain on his knees and not get blown away. the reality storm was causing strange things to occur around wolfgang, overloading his senses. he stared at the gate with the last effort he could muster.
dream moves back to the ruins…larloch’s strained countenance hisses “The gate has stabilized, i have just enough energy to try one more time, but then i’m done…” negative energy leaked out of larloch’s body, being sucked into the rift…he’s visibly weakening as we watch.
Magius speaks “Zap, we’ve only got about three rounds once the full gate is established…it’s time!”
Zap face hardens, his eyes narrow. He looks to his two companions, nods once, and silently walks out of the city, energy gathering around him as he leaves to meet the enemy head-on.
Magius looks sad and old, Larloch whispers “Farewell old foe…fight well !!!”dream shifts once more to wolfgang…abruptly the gate widens once more, this time becoming the large oval shape that constitutes a “normal” looking gateway. another airquake blasts thru the area, blowing wolfgang backwards into a tree trunk (ouch!).
shift to the dead city…larloch straining everything he has…“hurry, son…get a move on !!”
behind the two, the dreary light in the sky begins to be swallowed up by darkness along a definitive line. Larloch is obviously dying, huge amounts of negative energy are arcing from his body and surrounding the slipgate. Magius painfully stumbles over to the slipgate and falls through it.<<insert cool graphical tunnel effect>>
shift to wolfgang’s ruined campsite…magius pulls himself upright with the aid of his staff, and walks over to where wolfgang is sitting at the foot of a tree (that has his facial imprint in the bark), staring stupidly at the man walking towards him. Magius holds out his hand and drops 5 ancient Ioun stones into wolfgangs lap, then sits down on a tree-stump nearby. “Heed the scroll…i have a few moments left me in this world, so ask any questions you may have,” as Magius throws a scroll tied with an ornate ribbon at wolfgang’s stupefied form.
Wolfgang unrolls the scroll and begins reading================scroll================
Know that you who reads this, ye are the last hope of our dying world. We must have been successful in opening the portal across time to get you this message, or this world is doomed to final death.
Nobody knows how this all started, but we’ve been able to patch together all the information available to us in this dead world and gladly pass it to you. May it give you the strength of will to see this mission through to it’s conclusion.
Somewhere, down the annals of time, a scroll found it’s way into the Forgotten Mess. We’re unsure of it’s origins, whether brought in or scribed here, we haven’t any idea. What we do have is a description of the damned object. From the outside, the scroll radiates no magic even under spell examination. Scribed around the edges of the paper is archaic runes not of this world. They are written very small and in a silvery-blue ink. The writing is no more than a half inch wide on each edge.
This damnable thing is known as the Scroll of Dooms, and it entails information about a dimension of insanity, the likes of which would drive any who reads it utterly mad. Their only desire becomes the fulfillment of the conditions to awaken the scroll’s magic and unleash the forces of that hellish universe upon reality itself.
Of the scroll itself, we have determined several of the key events that unlocked it’s power.
The first and most important, is that there must be no Overgod in the sphere when the scroll activates. Any Overgod would know immediately that the scroll had been found and take immediate
(and presumably, drastic) action against the peruser.Secondly, the initial summoning will only work in a sphere that has been previously cracked. Afterwards, the forces it calls can branch to every other sphere that touches it.
We also know that the plague of corruption started in eastern Thay. The capital city of Thay was the first to fall, and many of the mages across Faerun heralded their destruction as a magical experiment gone awry. Thaymount was infamous about using magics to alter their weather and other things that ought not to have been twiddled with, so most figured it was justice being served. Grand parties were thrown in Algarond and Rasheman as they watched the towers of Thaymount crumble and fall via scry mirrors. Young warriors cheered as they watched wizards fly up, cast a swarm of meteors, then vanish into nothingness. The unfortunate truth of the view was that nothing could be seen of Thay’s conquerors.
Far away in the dusty land of Calimshan, a dessicated corpse glared murderously at a row of elaborate gemstones occupying a shelf in his lab. “Szass !!! You twit !!! What have your
imbecilic peers done now ?” Jerkily gaining his feet, old bones and sinew creaked as Larloch strode over to the phylactery of Szass Tam, Zulkir of Necromancy in Thay. Reaching out, the
undead monstrosity stopped, his hand just inches away, and peered at the skull-inset gemstone.
Formerly, the blood-red ruby glowed with a soft crimson radiance unless its creator was within. Now the gemstone was a dark muddy brown, with tiny red flecks floating within and glowed not a
whit. “Hmmmm…My spidey-sense is tingling,” spoke the ancient Netherese lich. Motioning with his shrunken fingers, he released a telekinesis spell and lifted the skull from it’s perch,
shifting it across the room. Pointing a finger at a juju-zombie guard, he motioned for it to precede him. Following the skull and phylactery, he padded down the hallway into a bizarre
chamber filled with tiny blinking lights, metallic switches, and buttons of some lightweight material. Flicking a tiny switch, he spoke “Deathspider nine” and hustled the zombie, the
skull and himself into a 20’ alcove. Inside the chamber behind the alcove, a tinny voice spoke from a criscrossing wire mesh “Confirm Deathspider Nine”. “Yes, yes, you damned thing. Send
us to DS9.”Dark mist swirled around the ancient lich, thickening into a curtain of absolute blackness - then vanishing into a tiny pinprick of red light that twinkled for a moment before disappearing. Anchored to a small two-mile asteroid near Toril’s moon, the captured Neogi Deathspider ship glittered darkly in what little moonlight penetrated the dark mythal shrouding the floating rock. Inside the spelljammer’s cargobay, a 100’ wide circular 6-inch thick plate of green alien metal rumbled eternally - its destructive emanations breaking down the molecules of anything that managed to teleport into the sole location unwarded against such an intrusion.
As Larloch coalesced onto the platform, the rune-inscribed Esmerium arm bone that’d replaced his ulna suddenly caught the frequency from its much larger brethren underfoot - making the giant plate go momentarily silent as the ancient netherese lich strode over to the spherical chamber’s exit. Touching a series of sigil stones in a precisely timed sequence caused the irising doorway to hiss open - long enough for its master and the servant which preceded him to pass thru unharmed, at which point it closed and the circular plate resumed humming out its destructive tones.
Passing by a number of alternating doorways and hall junctures, Larloch didn’t bother to pause as he was scanned over by the undead Abyssal Knights he’d crafted from the dead and dying bodies of paladins harvested from a dozen different worlds - until one dared to bar his way. “Morda porfadah ?” it growled.
The lich lord sighed. “wej DaHjaj tugh” he replied to the eternally angry knight with a ridged cranium, pushing past to keep walking. “Stupid technoverse,” Larloch muttered irritably(( the scroll contains a written story about the fall of the realms, and how a sorceress named Kir’stra The Sorceress, found a scroll of powerful summonings, which started the evil tide that washed away all life in the realms. wolfgang’s job is to imprison the sorceress with/in the 5 ancient ioun stones to prevent her from finding the scroll, and to find the scroll of forbidden magic and
destroy it to prevent the “scroll of dooms” from being used by another.
it further warns of temporal paradoxes which will develop if he alerts anyone to his “mission”. it is signed -
Zap - the one and only braincell (as if i need to say more)
Larloch - the prince of undeath
Magius, son of Daren
))The creatures themselves appear as man-sized insectoids with eight tentacles protruding from the sides of its chest. Anything they touch is instantly corrupted, festering and mouldering away
in but a single round. Wriggling black maggots drop from them as they walk, and these turn the landscape to a lifeless silt as they spread outward from the creatures wake. Magic which touches
them is altered to a form alien to this universe, and it is sent back along the trail to its source. I myself watched Mystra’s silver-fire grow black and return to slay Khelben Blackstaff
at the last stand of Silverymoon.=====
wolfgang looks up to ask a question, then sees Magius has already died and is dissolving slowly into nothingness.
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@dwarf said in Judgement Day:
wow - that formatting is hosed
I cleaned up some of the odd carriage return stuff, but there are returns in the source that cannot be find/replaced out with a regex.
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Whew Nice job. I am going to pass you my immortals story as soon as i wrap up a few things…and let you do your thing.
