Before we begin with the current chapter, I just noticed something with Chapter 50.
The devils carefully examined the altered document for a long time as a group, carefully annotating it in places while giving Lars evil looking glances before they said, “For a being of chaos you have quite the art for making laws dance to your whim.”
I'm guessing that instad of "they said", you meant for it to be "their leader said". Or something like that anyway.
Now, on to chapter 50!
“General,” Ao noted, not taking his attention off the reports in front of him.
“I have not been called that in a very long time,” a silken, sibilant voice noted.
“You still retain the rank, not matter what the others say. And while I feel you are far too ambitious and treacherous for your own good, you perform your appointed duties as demanded of you. More than can be said of many of the current crop of deities,” Ao replied.
“Thank you, sir,” Asmodeus said graciously, bowing slightly.
Anyone else feel like the Imperial March should be playing - softly - in the background?
(I won't mention the "*Eldar* Evil" bit, since others have mentioned it in their C&C.)
“Do the tasks related to this knowledge and I will heal your wounds,” Ao replied flatly.
Oh. Wow.
For those who don't know, 3.5 DnD's sourcebook on the Nine Hells tells the following tale.
A (relatively speaking) short time after Asmodeus - and those who followed him into exile because they thought the Heavens weren't fighting the forces of the Abyss with everything that they could - came to live in what would become the Nine Hells, an angry group of gods came to visit him on the first (top-most) layer/level of the Nine Hells. These powers from the Heavens demanded that Asmodeus and his followers stop tempting mortals into damning themselves - to, surprise surprise, the Nine Hells. Asmodeus kindly pointed out that the agreement he made with the rulers of the Heavens - which resulted in him, and his, leaving peacefully - gave them the permission of the (good) gods to tempt mortals. In the fine print.
One of the gods didn't care for this. At all. And made this clear to Asmodeus by hitting him so hard that he went all the way through the first (top most) level of the Nine Hells. And then did the same when Asmodeus hit the second level of the Nine Hells. And again when he hit the third level. And the fourth level. And...
Well, to cut the story short, the top eight levels of the Nine Hells all have at least one thing in common. A very large hole that goes all the way from the top of that layer to the bottom. The ninth (bottom most) layer of the Nine hell "just" has what could be described as a *very* big impact crater.
Asmodeus has supposedly never been able to fully heal the wounds he got that day. In fact, some suspect that Asmodeus is always using an avatar (or the equivalent thereof) because his true body is still incapable of moving out the impact crater I mentioned the ninth level has.
In other words, Ao has promised Asmodeus something that's been in the top five of his "Do Want!" list for longer than many gods have existed in the Forgotten Realms.
Ao nodded, knowing that the fiend was now bound by his own nature. Ao then said, “You remember the most ancient ages, when the Abyss was the crack in reality that the Elder Evils poured in from, when the Far Realm was more than just a skin surrounding the Realms like an infection. You know how the demons are the remnants of those invaders, the stain of their destructive ways still part of the Abyss.”
Interesting. So, unlike 3.5 cosmology, the Abyss wasn't the origin of all things that exist in the DnD multiverse. (Unless Ao came into the area through the tear in reality where the Abyss now is.) And, instead, the chaotic and evil nature of the Abyss is due to the fact that - before they were all cast out and/or destroyed - the Elder Evils either spent the most time there, or were able to imprint aspects of their nature more successfully there.
“I am Ao Inkfingers, Naval Clerk in the Logistics, assigned to the 3rd fleet, serving aboard the dreadnought Magnhildr. I am a Third Generation Lord in the House of Space, and one of two remaining members of that House, the other being the Third King of the House, the Second Generation Lord Odin Allfather, also known as the Almighty by his own people. I am perhaps one of a dozen beings in all the multiverse that fought in the Extinction War and one of perhaps two beings that knows even a piece of the history of the Disaster. I am older than you can imagine, older than most of the surviving Void Born, the beings you call the Elder Evils,” Ao explained in fully deific glory.
I'd suggest changing "I am perhaps one of a dozen beings" to "I am perhaps one of a dozen surviving beings".
Ao frowned, obviously dredging up painful memories, before he said, “My people, the Lords of the House of Space, were the descendents of a truly elder race with full command of their reality. I only know a tiny piece of the full history as the Almighty is the only one still alive who knew anyone from that age. I have no idea exactly what happened, but there was a Disaster, something so horrible that it forced the construction of a wall about a collection of billions of realities just to protect the rest of infinity. Many of the survivors fled to the still stable outside multiverse to establish their successor states. My people were left behind to attempt to clean up, or at least contain, the mess. There were unforeseen complications.”
I may be cynical here, but this seems to suggest - to me at least - that either members of the House of Space were at least partially responsible (in reality, or due to a cover-up) for the Disaster. Either that, or they had enemies that wanted them *gone*, and had the pull to get the House of Space assigned to a very dangerous duty.
BTW, given Ao's comments so far - and the map - is the Forgotten Realms the only DnD world/universe that exists in your cosmology? Or is it a case of each world - like Faerun and Greyhawk - just being a different solar system of the same universe? Also, if the later is the case, how did Odin know to tell Ao to focus his searches for Skuld on Faerun?
“This is a map of the multiverse as we know it, although it hasn’t been updated in… well you know how tricky time is to measure for beings such as us. But even then, it has not been updated in a long time, not since before the Realms were founded. There are seven points of interest. There are the four Gates, the Eye, and the two Houses. As you can see, we are quite close to one of those Houses, my birth universe, the House of Space. On the opposite side of this construct is the House of Time,” two points at the top and bottom of the sphere lit up to punctuate Ao’s words.
My comments about the House of Space also apply to the House of Time.
“The Gates control access in and out of this great construct and into the realms consumed in the great storm caused by the Disaster. For safety purposes we made them unable to connect directly to each other or to the Eye or the Houses. A rather fortunate thing considering what happened next. You see, our ancestors did not fully understand what they had unleashed and the turbulence of the cosmic storm triggered two protrusions of energy above and below the Eye. Destructive, destabilizing energies swirled up to crash into the Houses and cause massive devastation. The magic of the Far Realm is but a taste of what we faced. The Houses were insulated, but not to the same degree as the much more heavily fortified Gates. We lost complete contact with the Lord of the House of Time. No idea what happened to them. If they survived they probably wonder the same about us. Around the same time the Void Born struck,” Ao explained.
So the Eye is the central control center of - and/or power generator for - the barrier that englobes the universes making up "Chaotic Space" to the TSAB? And "Wild Space" is made up the universes - like SG-1's universe - that are so close to this barrier that, even with all four Gates closed, are affected by "bleed-over" from "Chaotic Space"?
“It gets worse. The Void Born were… things that emerged from the Disaster, semi-sentient engines of destruction, birthed in the Eye Wall, the universes inundated with energy. We sterilized them all as a last act, but their attacks on the Gates were particularly troublesome. The Houses were being damaged by the energies kicked up by the storm and our responsibilities involved controlling our prospective domains. Space and time were breaking down without our input and the Gates were being attacked by horrific monstrosities. One by one they all shut down before we could even get to them. The first to go was completely invaded by the Void Born and only managed to prevent an outbreak to the rest of the multiverse by sealing them all inside. The controller went insane last we heard. One of the Gates next to it went similarly mad at the loss of its companion and shut the doors. The other two shut down shortly after, isolating their control programs into artefacts with no will of their own, locking away the majority of their power,” Ao detailed out.
Just out of curiosity, why is it called the "Eye Wall" instead of the "Eye Walls". Unless the affected universe - both above and below the Eye - are linked into one mass/object...
I take it that the "corrupted" Gate is the Lovecraftian/Cthulthutech universe? And that the "insane" Gate is Haruhi-verse?
So, does this make Buffy-verse one of the other two Gates, or the Eye? Given the existance of the Hellmouths (at least on Buffy-verse's Earth), and the fact that even the PTBs are - at best - more neutral than good, I'm leaning for it to be the Eye.
Either way, attracking WH40K's Eldar, Orks, Imperium of Mankind and (especially!) Chaos to this universe/mini-multiverse might not have been a good idea....
“While bombarding the Eye Wall at long range, and I mean really long range, we were attacked by one of the more powerful Void Born and our fleet was wiped out. I got to an escape pod and was the only survivor. I drifted about until I managed to make contact with the new ruler of the House, Odin. He was the last remaining Lord there, although I suppose if you count his wife at the time that would make three of us, but Hild was not born to the House but was an ambitious vassal so she doesn’t exactly count. Out of pity and a sense of loneliness, he started sending me the information I needed to start building my own bubble of stability. Then the gods started popping up and a few lesser Void Born started attacking and you know the rest,” Ao said.
Interesting. Especially Ao basically saying that Hild isn't important enough to bother talking about. I wonder if Odin has been holding enough information back for Ao to honestly believe this, or if this is just his own prejudices talking? Or, possibly, he just doesn't want to give Asmodeus any (more) ideas.
Ao frowned for a second before he said, “The Almighty did some research into the oldest files and he thinks it is the product of an experiment by the Lords of the House of Time into the creation of Void Born. They jammed two universes close together such that they would leak into each other and the beings they seeded each realm with would come into conflict. The last report states that they produced some rather interesting results before the Extinction War went into full swing and we lost contact. The creature is by all accounts quite rational and intelligent for being capable of travelling in the Void unprotected and the Almighty wants to thank him for his actions… in saving the Almighty’s daughter. Who is also here.”
First off, given the other comments on this chapter, I have to say that starting up the WH40K "line" of universe has to be one of the more dickish things that I can think the Time Lords (or their ancestors, to be more precise) to have done. And that's quite the statement given some of their other actions.
Second, I'd suggest changing "intelligent for being capable" to "intelligent for a being capable".
I'm sure, btw, that the fact that Lars' contract with the Erinyes allows them to try to tempt/corrupt any diety Lars is allied with and/or serves just happened to slip Asmodeus' mind.
(Personally, if he plays his cards right, I can see Asmodeus becoming a greater god at the end of this. Given the rest of this chapter, there's certainly going to enough openings in Faerun's pantheon(s) in the near future!)
Lolth had been at the heart of her army of drow when the explosion and collapse wiped out her most faithful followers. She had spent the past week trapped under a mountain of rock, her skin burnt off and slowly regenerating by the terrible forces unleashed. The damage had been painful, but at least it had healed, unlike the maiming that had occurred to her when she had been struck in the breast. That had been a divine weapon to do that, and as Gruumsh could explain, such wounds never healed. Lolth would remain with but a single breast for the rest of her existence.
Well, that answers one of my questions after reading the last chapter.
And Lars (and Skuld) can probably count on getting free alcohol in just about any of the planes that make up the Forgotten Realms' mini-multiverse. (Even the Abyss.) Because the list of powerful (by local terms, anyway) entites that Lolth - or her worshippers - *haven't* pissed off at some point is much shorter than the one made up the ones who have been pissed off.
(Say what you want about Shar but - with the exception of Selune - she's good at appearing to be at least semi-friendly until she can stab you. In the back. With a two-handed sword. Coated with the strongest and most fast-acting poisons known.)
Her priestess’ had not exactly enjoyed the demands of emulation, but after the first couple of executions the ritual maiming had begun in earnest. Unfortunately all of those so marked had died, so it would take a bit more time to spread the word. Once Lolth got out of this situation. That could take until the gods were allowed back into their domains, as while she could keep the tons of rock above her from crushing her for an indefinite period, she could not actually escape.
What a great way to increase your market share, make your priestesses - who make up your entire priesthood because you won't let males join - mutilate themselves! Especially when pride/vanity is a common drow trait.
There was a slight hiss before Shar said, “Yes, she was. She stole it from me. Hence why I am here. Now, on the one hand, I could have my minions shift these rocks and crush you, claiming your portfolio for my own and taking the Underdark completely uncontested from this point on. On the other hand I find that my rivalry for the races of darkness with you seems currently outweighed by my seething hatred for the bitch who stole from me and who presumably also maimed you. Thus I find myself at a crossroads. Kill you now and accept a little more power later, or let you out so that the two of us can hunt her down and then share in the revenge. Combining all the avatars of our pantheon together, we should be able to kill her quite nicely.”
I can think of several gods that would still be in Shar's way of claiming the Underdark as her domain. Although, I will admit that aborbing Lolth's portfolio would help increase her market share.
I can also see that Lars - and Skuld - are still going to be living in interesting times.
BTW, did Shar get a chance to kill Ibrandul before Skuld stole the Shadow Weave from her?
“Go Lolth, gather your Dark Seldarine and your demonic allies and I shall rally my allies Loviatar and Talona and any allies they might bring. We will make war upon this usurper and take revenge for the wrongs she has inflicted upon us,” Shar said in a seething voice.
I thought that Lovitar and Talona only started to fall under Shar's sway after the Time of Troubles? Not that it would be much of a stretch for Shar to have started to work on reeling them in decades - if not centuries - earlier. Just by itself, the Shadow Weave shows how good Shar is at long-term planning, and keeping secrets.
It'll be interesting to see who exactly Lolth calls up. And how loyal they are to her. In fact, I think I'll make some guesses.
First off, you have the other drow gods. Eilistraee (patron of good drow) would turn her mother down flat. In fact, unless she feels that their evil, I see her joining up with Lars and Skuld just *because* of what they've done to her mother. Ghaunadaur (ancient lord of slimes, oozes and outcasts) is probably going to join the hunt, but I wouldn't call him loyal to Lolth. Kiaransalee (goddess of vengence and the undead) is too scared of Lolth to betray her, unless she truly believes she could succeed. Selvetarm (patron of drow warriors, and Lolth's grandson) is the only drow god Lolth can trust, because of all the control-type spells she has layered on him. Vhaeraun (patron of male drow) will join because it will give him a chance to take another god's portfolio, and because it might give him a chance to assassinate his dear mother (Lolth).
Lolth was the one who started up the elf/orc feud by convincing Gruumsh to attack Corellon Larethian; an attack that ended with Gruumsh loosing an eye. Supposedly each regards the other as an enemy these days, so Lolth might not be able to get Gruumsh to join this crusade. If she did, however, he'd almost certainly bring the other members of the orc pantheon - Bahgtru (strength), Ilneval (strategy), Luthic (ork females), Shargaas (stealth), and Yurtrus (death).
Lolth was also instrumental in starting up feuds between at least two of the (human) Dieties of Fury (Auril and Malar) and the elven pantheon. Again, it's an open question as to whether Lolth could get any member of this evil group to go after Lars and Skuld. Auril is goddess of winter. Malar is the lord of bloodlust and hunting. Talos the god of storms and destruction. And Umberlee is the goddess of the sea.
I can't think of any other god or goddess that Lolth could recruit.
As for which Demon Lord or Demon Lords she might approach? I'd guess Demogorgon would be the only member of the "big three". Orcus - prince of undeath - isn't one of Kiaransalee favorite beings; so why invite *more* in-fighting? And Graz'zt is busy with his "guest" Waukeen. And who knows which minor demon lords se might approach.
One place, in the North no less, where they might look for demonic allies is Hellgate Keep. Just undo those pesky seals/wards, and you have an army of demons, half-demons, and demon-blooded beings (including demon-blooded orcs).
The Riders of Nesmé watched quietly from the bushes as the creatures approached their town from the road to Silverymoon. They had landed a few minutes ago, having spotted the town from the air before landing and cloaking themselves in illusions. But the Riders had seen what they were. They were devils. Abominable creatures only deserving the sword and the axe.
And the creature that the wicked goddess described as her consort was with them. They had known that any being that could command such abominable creatures as was in her following must be evil, but this sealed the cake.
Slowly and quietly bringing back his bow, the leader said, “Shoot to kill and don’t let them get back to their dark goddess.”
You know, for town who's main temple (as of the beginning of the Time of Troubles) is to the neutral goddess of trade and wealth - Waukeen - Nesme seems to turn out a significant number of people who's black and white point of view would impress some of the more anal segments of the priesthoods of gods like Helm and Tyr.
The sad part is that 90 to 99 percent of the time, they would be right in regards to trolls, drow, and devils. Unfortunately, the Rides of Nesme seem incapable - even after what happend with Drizzt - of admitting (or even realizing) that even 99% is not the same thing as 100%. They're the type who would honestly tell you to just kill them all and let the gods decide if any of them *weren't* evil.
Thank you for another great chapter. I'll be eagerly awaiting the next one!
