So Tolled The Bell For Doom

[*Krayt]

Sometimes they return and when they do they thirst for revenge, a thirst only deepened by the graves.

Mauric was not alone to regard the visitor with distrust. Her clothes moulded and her armour rusted. Her demeanour searching and impatiant. Eloe and Q was apparently just as suspicious of the returning Doomlord from centuries past. The trio received slanders of how weakned the Doomguards position had become, but they remained passive ad listned intently.

The tale she brought with her from the forgetfullness of the tomb however was intriguing to any a being with the yearning to see the fall of the multiverse. So they were told that the bell tolled each time a fundamental disaster or significant step towards the end had occured. All had died in the attempt to aqcuire it according to the Doomlord's tale. Locked within a realm of god partially destroyed or so she said. A blend of misfortune and insanity, a seam which could tear up on itself even without their aid Mauric argued. Playing on the insanity and a possible slef-destructive mind was disgussed at lenght as well.

Trying to learn more of this destroyed temple on Oerth at the library Mauric tried to glean out what the location might have been and above all any Writings on the deity itself. He did not trust books, words form lies and a writer had more time to sttipulate his snares of them than a speaker. But at times you have more use for a lie than a truth. He went through book after book.

[*3l03]

- Comfortable? - A whisper from nowhere broke the library's silence. The masked elf walked out from behind bookshelves. As usual, she had spent a good while around in hiding before revealing herself. She approached closer, and muttered just above Mauric's head.

- With regard to miraculous reunions... I was going to warn you Morris.. but when did you ever listen? ..you wanted to know my thoughts? ..I can see only one sensible option.. we don't know what we're standing on... many questions around this, fortunately, one person in particular seems to be holding most of the answers.... - she paused, moving her head to face Mauric's from the front, giving him a gravely silent stare.

[*Krayt]

"Always I felt so much more at ease with Knives covering my back." His voice low and his tone hollow and metallic behind his helm.

"If we will not be lured into our deaths in the cause of her presumed champaign of vengence we'll be used as pawns in her game you are right. If she isn't a extention of anothers will as so many times before. You are no fool Kinives and I agree with you it had been more sensible to simply let her play her game without us.

First now he lifted his gaze from the book he had before him to look black sockets of her mask.

"That bell has several uses to our cause if retrieved. It's knell will awaken the slumberers and they'll storm forth to be the cause of a single toll even if they perish along with it. Hounds of glory need their meat. We cannot let this opportunity slip through our fingers. The risk is great but I deem it worthy of taking."

Eloe knew he hadn't been himself since the loss of Azor and the acquisition of the ship. He only reluctantly left it. It made no sense to suddenly embark on this endeavour that seemed as a obvious death trap

[*3l03]

- Hounds of glory? .... - Her tone, and the pause that followed expressed her disbelief - What hounds? Because I can only see sheep, and there is nothing glorious about mindlessly following any word to meet one's slaughter. Have recent successes blinded you enough to think you can- She paused in a middle of a sentence. She tilted her head sharply to the shoulder, leaning forward, the stare of her inanimate mask fixed on Mauric

- Unless... being slaughtered is what you are after.. I could accommodate that at much lower expense, you know? Then again it will not be as dignified as dying from a hand of a power. Either way there is only going to be one hound of glory in this. - She looked about, then added quieter - Cromlich.

[*Krayt]

The blue lamp's light flickered across their masks. He leaned towards his left putting his right hand on the left rester.

"I should refuse then? Tell her to get her damnable bells herself? Is that what you wish? It would be wiser I agree with you. But it is not as if we would barge into this realm unprepared or without means of escape. That is the reason we research this. If the risks are to great we will simply abandon it. the deity itself we shall shun."

He reclined in his chair with his right hand dangling loosly at his side and sank down well in his seat.

"As for successes.. I am not entirely certain. It was a great failure of me to have misjudged that the spirit had such a dominion over the vessle as it had. Through a mortals eyes the ship is a monster. But to a god? To the creation itself? We just barely made our escape. At a great cost. Although all efforts should be spend on making it that potent. We should return to it once all is learned here."

He sat his elbow down on the right rester and leaned his helm against his knuckled hand.

"Flesh can be marred. A soul can be extinguished. However the the components which make me that cannot be with ease be erased completly. To die will solve nothing. That is what we endeavour to break so I suppose in a sense you are right even if at our own hands. But not without bringing the great sundering of the creation. You know me that well."

He straightned up and scratched her mask with his gauntleted thumb in what resembled a carassing. The piece was sharp as the rest of his armourpieces.

"At times I want to crack open that mask and learn all you hide from me. Just to know. Once I was a niggard of truths as well. I kept them just for the sake of keeping them. How that Grey Demon twisted me."

His tone changed slightly she may remeber it as the one he used to talk in when he smiled. Returning to the subject at hand. "Know what her last words were before I parted?"

[*3l03]

She did not shy away from the gauntlet's proximity, made no move as it pressed against her mask, looking back, listening. She chuckled out loud suddenly, it was a laugh of cold, sardonic amusement.

- hm hm hHahaHahAHahahahahhh... You were once a niggard of truths? And now you are what? An open book, as transparent as crystal orb, as true as deva's smile? The dark is dark for a reason, whether a good one or a bad one, whether one has the wisdom to realise its merit or not.

She leaned closer, toning her voice down. As for the bell I doubt you will ever give up on it. But there is no rush... All I am saying is you should not be giving one who uses you the upper hand. Don't listen to words... listen to the facts. Why not recall some of them now?

She started counting on her fingers, incrementing one for each of her sentence as she went along. - The only validation on her even belonging to Doomguard was performing, correct me if I'm wrong, a spell of temporary enhancement of a weapon, which we hardly have a monopoly on no matter how destructive. When asked for how she came back into being, we received no single answer. There is no single piece of evidence suggesting the knowledge she has is factual either. - She put her hand down for down for a moment.

- These are the inconsitencies... now for the consistent facts. She resumed counting on her fingers demonstratively once again. - There are four Doomguard citadels and the Armoury. Each citadel has its own Doomlord. But Armoury, second to our revered Factol, now has two prominent Doomlords. One of them rose to power recently upon acquiring of the most horrific vessel of war, this rise posing a threat to the second one's power. The same first one will be significantly endangered in this venture. And the second one was rather easily convinced of the figurant's 'validation'.

She paused lengthily, allowing to assimilate what she just said, then continued.

- The way this looks, I say it's a coup. On you. How to go about it, hmm... I leave to your strength and cunning. My advice, ignore that woman's babbling. We need to get the truth out of her. Torture her until we get all of it. There is no time pressure on this. Don't get involved in a long game of trying to force her to commit mistake. Settle it at the earliest stage.

She straightened up, her tone back to normal. She looked at Mauric, watching his reaction as she added - But it appears the Doomlord has given in. Then let me ask that. When did you forget your own beliefs? When did you start believing Entropy might not take something away? Most ironically... part of you wants to just give in to Entropy itself, as the easiest way of handling this dissonance...

[*Krayt]

"A soothsayer dispersing the veil of lies and deceit from he unfortunate minds that chooses to becloud themselves with it. Occationally of course the verse forces me to decive ot of necesity were ruin is bound to follow. The book you could always read well and true."

He crackled a maddened laugther with her. The cold claw-like fingers circumventing her mask and slank in underneath her hair along her neck where they remained. Cold and rough the metal. Canting his head as he leaned towards her watching the fingers add up before his eyes.

When she was done he attempted catch her counting hand. Of course he could not if we whould withdraw it as she was much faster and dexterious than him.

"Eager to demonstrate just how much sufferance this delicate thing can wrought?"

"A good recount. Very good. Yet you left one fact." His gauntled hand glode furhter from her hand towards him untill it was remaining only one finger in it.

"She first demanded both weaponry and her title back. Apparently our Factol granted her a high position while not having her tower back as she demanded. What use do you have for armaments if you have no army to arm?"

He pulled her hand tapping his own helmet that echoed hollowly as her finger struked it.

"Further more she had her face. That is proof she is no true Greater Doomlord. Mayhap it was restored in her ressurection and her mask destroyed. Mayhap the practise was diffrent in her age. But the chances are slim. My thoughts are as yours."

His gaze fell to the desk. With his elbow put on it he reliquished her finger clasping his hand.

"We cannot torture her as it is now that she is one of us and appointed anew by Pentar. We could have siezed the moment before she spoke with Pentar but now it is too late. They will rally against us and execute us for treason would I sanction it. You see Pentar and myself we had our games I fear this is just another one. She could merely speak with me saying keep pushing or else. Yet I suppose this is mor intrigueing."

"Her last Words to me were these - The masked one. Listen to her. She does not trust easily. You'll need her."

He singgered but as of late it was a cold almost souless laugher. Like the laughter of a ghost that was once a mans.

His head sank further amost listlessly and the lower part of his helm stopped when it was pressed against his breastplate. She had been with him and witness his insanity for to long. He could not shun away from her gaze. Now could any word deny hers as untrue. More so since Azors fate. She could feel his weakness.

"In the end entropy takes all." They both remember what was heard as they had stood at the dust that was all that remained of Azors body and Mauric had uttered the same. She got the feeling that reproachful taunts was what he needed the most now.

[*Hydra]

The information that could be gathered on the insane god Ralishaz proved to be extremely sparse and asking for clarifications that only led to a trail of insanities. Ralishaz, power of chance, ill-luck, and unexpected misfortunes. Everything about this god screamed madness and absolute nonsense, his ever switching appearance under the mask of a beggar, to complete bipolar attitude of his clergy switching back and forth between sternness and hysteria.

Yet the power did have its followers and prayers filled his godly insanity. Victims of misfortune and those in peril made sacrifices to appease him, gamblers invoked his name before one last roll of the dices when no hopes where left. The ceremonies had no specific days or time to be conducted and mostly consisted in random rumblings followed by the casting of augury spells and plays and a wild interplay of light and darkness, heat and light, accompanied by the noise of discordant instruments soon followed by silence.

In their researches the Doomguards where able to find an extract of what seemed to be a Dogma :

Order does not exist, only randomness and chance, and the odds are stacked against you. While you may have a good run against the odds, eventually the universe will balance itself out against you. Randomness and insanity go hand in hand, and sometimes those who are the most insane are the ones who are closest to the true nature of the universe. Kindness and prosperity are illusions, as misfortune comes to all sooner or later.

They also found out that Ralishaz's realm, was actually located in Limbo in a place called the Kiss of Luck and that the god had there accumulated many prizes from in his gambling with other powers, many artefacts thieves tried to steal over the ages. A few did come back almost insane, the same few succeeded and another few never came back. The records mention a Doomguard expedition that happened hundreds of years ago that ended up in a disaster for the faction, that lost one of its Greater Doomlord that day along with many of their best elements. Other tales recounted that in the center of Ralishaz's realm lied several temples, or maybe just one constantly moving even reporting that it may had drifted into Pandemonium, away from the god's reach for some time, probably as a part of the misfortune Ralishaz inflicted upon himself.

As he continued to browse through the records for more knowledge of the artefact he indeed found that the bell had once been the propriety of Nerull the Oerthian god of death for a while before he lost him, no records mentioning it ever.[/i]

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In the meantime a red haired lady with a gaze made of pure fire was sitting with Ely Cromlich at the Golden Barriaur, offending most of its usual clients by their crude words to the delight of the half fiend. They recalled good old times, battles, expeditions and laughed quite a lot, then it is said they whispered about more serious business until very late in the night.

[*Krayt]

He turned the book around allowing Eloe to read more easily. Putting a finger on the passage where the broken realm was.

"She mentioned this to. An assumption of hers convieneint as it seems is a fact according to this book. The pure chance of finding such a drifting realm are insane just in cords of the gods own creed. Serching for it blindly in Pandemonium is hardly an option. It may simply be an illusion a promise of safty to lure us into his realm through his red-haired doll he sent us. But why us.. what you said about me perhaps it is true for him as well just as Sheana told us."

He reclined back in his seat rubbing his masked forehead with his metal encased fingers producing a low grating sound.

"While we may not torture the truths out of her perhaps we could trick them to spill from her lips."

[*3l03]

The elf stood still as the metallic cold passed through the back of her neck, perhaps she was too used to Mauric's toying, perhaps she was already too frigid herself to wince away from the gauntlet's touch. She withdrew her hand by an inch just to swiftly return it and pat Mauric's reaching fingers. - Hmm? - She muttered teasingly, but then allowed for it to be caught watching and listening what Mauric had to say.

But when he tried to release his hand, she grabbed his wrist decisively. Her tone was no longer one of amusement. - You were once an indomitable man, Morris. Of course, of course.. the entropy will take away all. But it is the first time I see your willingness to passively give in to it. Tell me! Is a doomlord the coachman or but a passenger in the carriage of Entropy?

She pulled his hand closer firmly, and continued quieter - You are right in thinking we should start with forcing her to commit a mistake. But to play foolish only makes sense in a position of power - you, you want to enter this game with your head inclined and knees bent. I say Pentar cannot be there to shield her at all times, nor she has to find out you were involved. Better still.. play it well and you will also be able to paint yourself as her rescuer.