Orcus and the Heart of the Abyss

November 12, 2010 14:36

Orcus stood on the bow of the Black Skull watching the infinite layers of the Abyss roar past him. Behind him he felt the engines of the chaos ship, engines fueled with the rending of a thousand souls an hour, roaring beyond their capacity. The ship would not survive the trip but Orcus cared not. It was a one-way trip anyway. They soared through the blood rift, a wound created in every layer of the Abyss by the piercing throw of the Chained God as he threw down the crystal shard of ultimate chaos into the very bottom of the Abyss. There it pierced through very existence itself, creating a breech between the multiverse and the Far Realm. For millions of years it sat there, its pulsing creating all of the twisted evil the Abyss had to offer. It became the Heart of the Abyss. Even Orcus owed his existence to the Heart. Though surged with the greatest strengths of chaos, no creature dared touch it for no creature could survive contact with such a power. Only one substance was ever created that might touch it, a substance built by the primordials five hundred thousand years ago in the peak of the Dawn War, the final war between primordials and the gods. The primordials built a weapon, Timesus the Black Star, the only creature capable of destroying the Heart of the Abyss. With such a weapon in their control, the gods would dare not to continue their war. Who would risk the destruction of everything? But even the primordials feared it. They buried it and ended their war in defeat rather than risk the destruction of all. It laid buried in Deaths Reach until Orcuss agents recovered it and fueled it with the perfect soul capable of fulfilling the Black Stars destiny the infinitely wounded soul of Orcuss high priest, Arantham. Now, in the back of the Chaos Ship roaring to its final destination, Aranthams soul encased in Timesus the Black Star, prepared to enact its destiny.

The Awakening of Timesus

October 16, 2010 23:20

Arantham screamed. He knew pain his whole life but nothing like the pain he had felt since falling into Doresains black orb. Within the black sphere he had been ripped apart and rebuilt a thousand times. He had watched his children starve to death again and again. He had watched his wife raped and murdered over and over while he cowered in fear. Every moment of agony he had known, every moment that defined his turn to darkness, relived itself fresh every moment. Then his eyes opened. The pain was still there but the environment had changed. He felt heavy. His vision had changed, tinted red and with colors he had never seen before. Torchlight radiated a purple hew all around the room. He raised his hand in front of his eyes and saw a black stone fist laced with red. The Prince of Undeath knelt over him. Welcome back, old friend, said Orcus. All around him, black flames seemed to roll off of his body. He was not nearly as large as Arantham had remembered. He also seemed to remember much more than he had before. He remembered being built, constructed by a dozen of the most powerful primordials. He remembered the hundreds of thousands sacrificed over him, drenching him in blood and filling him with souls in terror. He remembered his eternal sleep in the vaults of Deaths Reach. What am I? said Arantham. His voice rumbled through the chamber, reverberating through the stone under his massive body. Within Orcuss hand was Doesains black sphere. Orcus casually threw it over his shoulder and it shattered into dust its energy already spent. You are Arantham, you are Timesus, you are the Black Star. said Orcus. All the pain you have felt. All the anger you have within you. You can end it all. Arantham stood. He towered above Orcuss servants. His body felt strong, filled with a blackness and a hatred he had never known. He felt power roaring through his red veins, a power he had never dreamed of. You will travel to the Heart of the Abyss, the crystal of pure evil that separates our Multi-verse from the void of the Far Realm. Only you can destroy it. Only you can breech the splinter between both worlds and end everything we know. Your pain will be gone. The agony of your life will have never existed. Everything, everywhere, every time, will end. Come with me, it is time.

The Black Star and the Heart of the Abyss

November 12, 2010 14:37

Scene 1: Through the Blood Rift Layers of the abyss roar past you as Captain Vlaxx plummets the Sheviathon through the Blood Rift deeper and deeper into the Abyss. A world of black snow covers you in a cold sooty ash. You feel your own will begin to break as you pass through the Woeful Escarand. Dust flows past the Rainless Waste. Galun-Khur, the Noisome Vale, The Steeping Isle, The Marsh of the Pierced Men. Each layer is more horrible than the next. The forest of Living Tongues, the Flesh Forges, The Endless Maze. Soon they begin to blur past as time and space begins to stretch and twist. Horrible storms begin to crash against the hull of the Sheviathon. The Sheviathon was never built to handle these stresses. Shouts Captain Vlaxx, her eyes burning with psionic energy as she steers the chaos ship. Shes not designed to go much further than the upper layers of the Abyss. While I was repairing the ship I dug down under Plains of Hunger and found a lot of ruins of old cities, old worlds. I found some large sheets of strange metal and beams of hardened wood that I stored down below. If you think it will help, you might shore up the Sheviathons frame. Otherwise you might give the psionic engines a boost. Beyond that, you might pray to whatever god you believe in to give us a hand. Otherwise, I fear this might be a oneway trip. Scene 2: The Landing There it is! shouts Captain Vlaxx. As you look out over the bow of the ship you see a swirling storm of red and black. In its center is a multi-colored multi-fasceted crystal of enormous size. You see Orcuss Chaos Ship, the Black Skull banking around it. Ruined platforms of stone and twisted metal swirl around the crystal. Upon a larger one of these platforms you see a red pentagram pulsing and flaring. Numerous figures surround this circle. One of them is unmistakable. Orcus. As you watch, bolts of black lightning smash into the hull of the Black Skull. Powerful forces seem to twist the ship and then it breaks apart spilling out the twisting white plumes of its spiritual engines. The pieces of Orcuss ship seem to twist around the crystal in some form of terrible orbit. Near the crystal, a huge being of black stone laced with red pummels the crystal with its black iron fists. Each hit results in blasts of chaotic energy that would rip the existence out of any being yet this being remains unharmed.

The storm is too strong to land near the platform. Ill have to drop you off over there. Vlaxx points to a larger platform orbiting further out. Flames erupt around it and parts of it break away yet it seems to be the most stable area in the heart. Vlaxx steers the ship near the platform and you leap onto the strange stone and metal surface of the platform. You feel the entire platform shift under your feet. Overhead, the storm roars with chaotic life. In front of you the stonework breaks upward as X two-headed worms break out from the ground below. Chaotic beasts forged in the very heart of the Abyss, they scream at you with blind rage. The party fights the Ancient Abyssal Worms and kills them. Scene 3: The Heart of the Abyss Leaping closer to the Heart, you see Timesus smash again into its surface. Thin cracks form along the crystals edge. You can imagine the rending of worlds every time that crystal breaks. How many millions has he already destroyed? How many worlds have broken apart with each hammer of his fist? The very thought is staggering. To your right you see Orcus with a host of demons around him. One of them you recognize, the Marilith Shonruvvu, Orcuss Keybearer. Her hands swirl with red energy holding open a large portal. You see a large host of demons has already gone through into the gray world that lays beyond. (Religion DC 30, its Letherna, the homeworld of the Raven Queen; Perception DC 30, you see war has already broken out beyond the portal). The forging of a God is no easy thing, shouts Orcus over the roar of the storm. We must all sacrifice much and take many risks. Stop Timesus, save the multiverse, and watch the creation of a new God! Orcus holds his black hand to the swirling sky. In it you see a single long shard of the Heart of the Abyss in his hand. Any other mortal hand that dared touch it would result in complete annihilation but in a hand forged from the stone of Timesus, even Orcus might handle the most deadly weapon ever created. When you finish here, when you stop him, come to Letherna and mourn the death of the Raven Queen. Then kneel before I, your creation, the new God of Death! Orcus steps through the portal, Shonruvvu follows, and the portal snaps shut behind him. With another smash of Timesuss hammering hand, the crystal cracks again. On Timesuss Death: One hundred and seventy years ago, an old farmer wept over the body of his last child, his eldest son, who had succumbed to a fever. The farmer hugged his son and as he let go, he left behind all of the love for humanity he had left. He watched his wife die under then hands of brigands. He watched his youngest son starve to death after he made the choice to feed his oldest. Now he cared for no one. For one hundred and seventy years, Arantham sought to wipe clean the sins of his past. One hundred and seventy years later he nearly had his wish. But now he watches as his hands crumble to dust and his spirit flows into the crystal forever destroyed.

Scene 4: The portal to Letherna As the gateway to Letherna opens to you, the smell of angellic blood and burned flesh flows past you. You see the Raven Queens homeworld ablaze. Demons fly past chasing winged sorrowsworn. As you watch, one throws barbed trident through the back of one of the Raven Queens servants. Bands of the demons smash against the Lethernas defenders leaving hundreds of trailing bodies in its wake. Though dormant for tens of thousands of years, the Blood War has found the doorstep of the Raven Queen.

The God of Death

November 18, 2010 18:52

Arrival in Letherna You step through the portal into a world of war. Fires burn all across the plataus of Letherna, scorching the gray skies in black clouds of sooty ash. The corpses of both demons and the servants of the Raven Queen litter the ground in front of you. Overhead, two dark angels of the Raven Queen rip into three winged balors. Lightning cracks and the head of one of the angels tumbles to the ground splattering blood of liquid silver. Then the group is lost in the dark clouds overhead. As you travel up the hills of Letherna to the Raven Queens citadel of Zvomarana, you walk past dozens, hundreds of dead angels and demons. You step over severed arms still clutching hilts of gold and platinum. Ahead of you, you see smoke rising from the upper reaches of the Raven Queens most holy of temples. The Demonic Host As you reach the courtyard you see large pools, once filled with the cool soothing waters of the afterlife, now filled with the black tainted blood of demons mixed with immortals. The gateway to Zvomarana lies ahead. From its shadows slithers Shonruvvu, the Keybearer, six arms wielding sharpened runed scimitars. High up on the gateway, two fat blue demons grin and giggle at you, bellies writhing with screaming faces and clawing hands. X large and powerful demons, massive clawed hands from their broad shoulders and smaller claws growing from their chests step from the east and west. The God of Death The splintered doors of Zvomarana open before you to a scene from your worst nightmare. Upon the dias in front of you kneels Orcus over the body of the Raven Queen. His shard of the Abyss lies plunged into her breast. You see only the faintest breath on her lips. Orcus looks up from her prone body to you. Four servants of the Raven Queen have been impaled on huge barbed spikes. Splashes of blood draw out dark sigils on the floor underneath them. Each of the four seems enveloped in strange elemental auras. One is encased in ice, one has skin like stone, one is enveloped in fire, and one is swirling in gusts of air. Welcome to the rebirth of the God of Death, Shieldbashers. The threads of a half million years come down to this single moment. Soon you too shall be reborn into the most powerful of my servants. Come.

Pulling the Crystal Note: Rosa chose to draw the crystal from the Raven Queens breast.

As your hand touches the crystal, you feel your very existence begin to crumble. It takes every ounce of your will to hold on and draw the crystal from the breast of the Raven Queen. You feel your heart disintegrate and your internal organs turn to dust. As the poisoned shard leaves her body, you see her take in a great gasp of air. Her eyes meet yours. It is the last thing you ever see. The Death of Orcus Time to end this, says Orcus. The green eyes of his wand glow brightly, signalling the death of the next creature touched. He touches the wand to Envy. Envy falls to the ground but something deep within her stirs, the Harbinger of Doom within her will not fall so easily. Orcus turns to face his next victim when Envy stands, draws her vorpal glaive back, and beheads Orcus, the Prince of Undeath. The pyramid of shadows Deep in the emptiness of the Far Realm, a torn and tormented soul screams across all space and time. Once it knew mortality, once it had touched immortality. Once it had been something but now it was nothing. Yet it still held on, still touched that distant pinpoint of light that once it had called light. For untold millions of years it stretched across time. Until she pulled it in. In the vastness of the Far Realm floats a pyramid of pure blackness, a pyramid with no seams and no entryway. Within it, an entity reaches out and touches the screaming soul. It grasps it and pulls it in. Though insane with the boundlessness of infinity, it formed once again into the mortal being it once was. It opened its eyes and beheld the beautiful Eladrin. Welcome back, Rosa. My name is Vyrellis and you and your companions saved my life. She smiles at you. Now were even. The Demon Queen With the calm of battle behind you, you step out from the noxious air of the Raven Queens temple to the steps leading to her courtyard. You feel the weight of years of battle on your shoulders. You dream of the beds that call to you in your safehouse below the Three Wishes, floating in the Elemental Chaos. You dream of further adventures, dream of retirement, dream of serving the Gods directly that you once served in mortality. Yet none of these will find you this day. With the wounding (death?) of the Raven Queen, a great opportunity has made itself clear and the first of many beings steps forward to claim it. Off on the horizon, at the base of Letherna, a massive metal spike pierces the holy ground. Another pierces the ground further up the hills, smashing an ancient mausoleum to bits. Another and another. The first one pulls up, arches over, and

pierces the ground once again. Your eyes follow it up to the great metal body of the Chaos Ship of the Queen of Spiders. Your vision pulls out, the distance rushes past, and you see the beautiful and powerful body of Lolth herself standing on the upper deck of her massive spider-shaped ship. It would seem the Demon Queen has left her web, and her target is the throne of Death. Your weariness begins to twist and boil turning into a great surge as your hand falls to the hilt of your weapon and you once again leap into war.