Visit to the City of Light

Much has been achieved today


- You visited Methos’ treasure trove and learnt it had been plundered by adventurers. Then you managed to breach the inner chamber to find the real treasure trove (I will give out treasure just before next game, but if you want to send me five percentile rolls I can let you in on your big prize for the haul!) minus a staff of the psion. Will Methos hunt it down and wrest it from the hands of the God who thought it would better serve him? Perhaps he will invest in better defence and concealment of his cult artefacts… or perhaps… he did… perhaps… there is more in Methos tower than has currently been revealed…

- You visited the time shine and saved it from the assassin. Then you used the time chamber to get a vision of the arrival of the Tris (scholars for millennia will debate your account of this): a bright light like a shattering crystal streaks across a deserted land, and thousands of Tris arrive, battling aberrations. They quickly are victorious and set about building a civilisation. They have advanced crystallomancy (Methos was taking heavy notes here)

- You slew the assassin. Twice. But he’s not going to give up yet, and he seems to have a near endless supply of abyssal umberhulks, doesn’t he…

- You sent an embassy off to the beastmen, skylings and warlords to warn them off the future events, but have not yet had the chance to see them in person.

- Gerry finds out her pirates are bunkering down while the rest of the pirate lords begin a giant civil war. Things could get very much out of hand in a matter of only weeks.

- You met three of Lukats ‘daughters’ who offered her the first of seven pieces of a powerful artefact of the Mystic theurge. She may like to hunt it down or focus her attention on other options, it is up to her - such as a device to force the enemy to waste his attacks so you have a chance to cut him up. On the other hand, she may like to research the headband of the mystic theurge to see what it can do. ON the other hand, it may do just that…

- You, the first of your people EVER, have travelled and survived in the realm of light and seen the great City of Light when it once stood. Now you are legend.

- You met the current Emperor of the Tris as a young boy of extraordinary sorcerer talents.

- You learnt that if you can get a shrine of light set up somewhere in the time of the Tris, you can probably get Ikendri powered up to artefact level and pick him up 1000 years later in the present.

- You all receive one time smite attack (+cha to hit, +level to damage) as a blessing from being in the realm of light.

- There you met a being revered as a hero God – the mind flayer sorcerer Ka Sha Kahaknah. He blessed you with certain powers: Oma learnt how to speak with mind flayer larva, Methos gained the ability to imbdue weapons with psion bane ability (+2 hit, 2d6 extra damage) for a number of rounds equal to his charisma (these weapons can be taken from Methos and used against him). Others have yet to announce whether they have accepted the his gift – Ebon to have +2d6 v’s aberrations, Lukat to gain limited telepathy (can eavesdrop telepathic conversations, but cannot send or receive messages), and Gerry to become immune to mind blast. Karuch was not given any options, neither was the tiger or Scooby or C’ari. She’s still around.

- In three years time, Ka Sha Kahaknah will rise to lesser divinity by slaying the gods (and still no one tells you their names!) Yet he seems like a pretty good guy for now. (of course, that’s three years time in the far past, to you, it all happened a little under 10,000 years ago from your present time).

- Did I miss anything… what will you do now?



The place you enter in is perfectly bright, and yet your eyes can take in every detail with comfort. It seems you are in some kind of platform, surrounded by blue Sodalite pillars perfect for welcoming plane shifting travellers.


The majestic towers of gold and white light seem to stretch off infinitely into the distance. But at the centre of the city a pure while column of light pieces the city and extends unending above and below the city of light. It is the veil, through which only Gods may pass, and to pass though is to become a God - as did Great Enemy once, and may perhaps do again. The veil is as gossamer as a thin sheet of fabric, and feels just the same. Within, beings appear to be moving softly about, and occasionally their voices can be heard. It is a sacred place, an eternal place where all the past, present, and future is present as one eternal now. To dwell there would be to be able to travel to any moment in time in the universe, and thus to hold unimaginable power…


All around you in the City of light an overwhelming presence of peace, majesty and love overwhelms you. Never before have you felt more like you are in a place you belong – you are home. Whatever else happens to you, you know you will never be the same again…

The aincient Tris join the fight

It didn't take much convincing, not much at all. In essence, you simply told them the Enemy was comming from the future, not the Sultancy, and they said "Sit down while we check it out."

So in the meantime Gerry runs off with Horns to contine the Beastmen independance movement (or something), making herself a legend in the process, even speaking to the Emporer on their behalf. In the meantime, you manage to intercept a plot to seduce a young mother to demonic sorcery, and destroy the leader of the cult. With his charismatic leadership gone, sources say his lutenants will fight it out for years, possibly destroying themselves and their cult in the process. Another potential threat to the great Tris empire has been thwarted.

So after a week the Tris officals return with "Oh, yes, seems you were right. We'll sit down here while we get our armies nice and warmed up!" By try as you might, there seems to be no way the Tris can be saved - if not the Sultancy, or the sorcerers, or a Beastmen uprising, then by who? In three years they will no longer be a people. The Emporer knows this. Their Wizards know this. The people, however, do not, and though there are rumours, it is only mad men and prophets who speak of the impossibility of any force bringing the Tris low - they are mocked, and scorned. The Tris, who slew their own Gods! Destroyed? Bah!


Where will the Hero's travel to now?

The Sultancy joins the cause

Sunali is a changed man. The Sultancy went into great mourning for three weeks, their Sultan slain, their legendary general turned to madness, the supposed heir a three year old boy none would swear fealty to. The Sultancy, it seemed teetered on the brink of collapse.


Then, in a day, Sunali rises from the ashes like a phoenix to reclaim both throne and sword as the next Sultan. A repentant heart, he begs forgiveness of all he has wronged, refusing to wear the fine silks of the Sultan and instead becoming a King of leather and sackcloth.

In a day, faith in the empire is renewed. The mighty ballista’s are removed from the time portal at lights edge, but the work on the fleet of sky ships continues unabated. There are whispers that an unknown enemy, cunning in the extreme, awaits over the edge of the horizon – its diabolical tentacles reaching almost to the heart of the Sultans heir, till at last, a mysterious group of hero’s helped Sunali rediscover his purpose: to defend the Sultancy and it’s people to the last. If such rumours are true – that a new enemy is approaching – then it is surely time for all to wield a greater weight of responsibly in the New Sultancy, a time to put aside old grudges to concentrate on a greater threat… only time will tell…

The black gate opens

Never, not in your whole entire life, did you ever expect to see the inpenetrable black gate open.  Yet only now, for the first time since the city of light was destroyed thousands of year ago, does the black gate open.  Now, that you are the last of the shards of light (according to the words of the assassin), now that the Exile choose to make a last stand for their defence, now, with only two year until the Great Enemy arrives, does the Black gate open.

People can leave, and they do.  At first in timid groups shyly cringing between the black barbicians, now in great throngs.  They go to find allies, to find freedom, to find peace.

But it will all mean nothing if they don't prepare for the Great Enemy.  Three things must be done:

1- the warring nations must be convinced to join together for their own safety
2- powerful wepons must be found to defeat a God.
3- you, yourselves, myst be read to weild those weapons against a God.

Yet as you ponder your future, one thought fleets accross you mind.  It was not Palayon, the chair of the High council, that opened the gate.  It was not the ambitious Saphire lady, whose desire for that chair is well known.  But it was the voice of a single hero, one much younger than any who rule on the council.  The voice of Lukat, sorceress and priestess.

What has the city become?

The fallen city of light

Entering the room, it is filled with the most palpable sense of sadness you have ever encountered.  The room itself is desolate except for two things. First, a lone humanoid skeleton, clearly the last line of defence against the enemy, lies shattered on the floor, a small piece of parchment clasped in its hands.  And second, a once bright gem imprisoned in a dark miasma, floating high up in the ceiling.  The room here is split in half by the most oppressive dark curtain you have ever beheld.

...

First, there were no hero’s to champion our cause, we could not take the fight to his areas of crucial weaknesses. You left, you left not two years to the day before he arrived.

Second, even if we did have such heroes they would have no weapons that could slay a god. We would need to find weapons that can slay a god and typically, that requires artefact level magics.

Third, the nations were all divided. The sultancy and tris had spent their strength in war with each other, the beastmen were engulfed in civil strife, the skylings had just tried to ignore it and the pirates had fled cowardly. There were none to stand with us, and after he’d destroyed us, he destroyed them all as well, just out of spite it would seem. It was horrible…
...

Child, I am but a shadow of my soul, the last remaining memory that has clung to this tortured realm to give you this message! But I cannot last here… there is only one way to save me. Go back in time, make sure this never happened. Allow me to slip back into the time stream. Make me what I should be, by your success! That is all you can do to help me!

With that, the skeleton releases its grip on the parchment, and dark tendrils of evil reach out and draw the spirit shrieking away into the benighted realm.

Alternate reality and the near future

You had barely left the time chamber, when you are greeting by a mysterious gold and white floating light, which turns out to be a very confusing fairy of some sorts. She greets you all affectionately as though you were all best friends and she’s really impressed with something you just did – refusing to explain it because she cannot understand that you don’t already know, and seems to think your confusion is just part of an old joke on your part, again.


However, gladly and gratefully, she gives you a small silk bag containing six power stones. Your own are missing and appear now to be in the bag she holds - It is fortunate that the one creature entering your time with all six stones appears to have done so with the sole purpose of giving them to you.

With an affectionate hug and little explanation, she disappears gratefully into wherever she just came from, presumably, never to be seen again.

...

The future bears the unhealing scars of a plane wide apocalypse of unmeasurable proportions.  Nothing lives here now, not even in the soil, and every city is broken and destroyed.  Even the sun pillar, once a mountain, is broken to the ground.  The only inhabitants are the undead, mostly ghosts and a few skeletons, but even the ghosts are mere shades of their souls, splintered remains of their former existence.  They cannot abide the light of the lantern, and are broken apart by any attempt to turn them.  They crowd around you in the endless twilight, always on the edges of your consciousness, gazing at you piteously to end a miserable existence they no longer understand, brought on by a death they no longer remember.

Nothing, however, could prepare you for the devastation that surrounds what was once Lauresia. Her great wall is brought low, her children scattered around the ground. The trees are broken and burnt, and offer no protection any more.


But as you enter, an unexpected sight reaches your eyes. There is a light, an impossibly small beacon of hope, and it seems to be calling out to you from the top of the heavily damaged tower of white.

I have found you...

They are coming, from all directions… there will be no escape…


Suddenly, there is a loud crack. It sounds like a mighty stone splitting but it echoes in your soul like time itself was being rent asunder. You have never heard a sound like it before…

Suddenly there is a presence. A profoundly evil presence. A profoundly familiar presence. The area falls eerily silent, and the creatures stop as if confused…

A soft voice speaks, but not to your ears, and in that moment, there is pain. Pain like you have only known once before. The pain of a mortal brought into the presence of its immortal enemy.

“So, Exiles, you are here.” It states in quite, simple, and wholly evil voice.

Suddenly there is an explosion of fire that incinerates the creatures and leaves the edges of your clothes smouldering.

He is approaching…

A ribbon of red light twists in the air, and begins to uncurl as a portal is forged between two dimensions. People scream, and there is pandemonium in the area. Slowly, two massive clawed hands part the red ribbon and begin to tare a hole in space, a bloated creature of diabolical evil begins to emerge.

“I have found you!” The Enemy speaks, as his truly horrid umberhulk emerges into your world.

“Finally I have found you...”