In the well appointed game room on the Celestial Plane, Chimera was pulled from the globe of energy. The God of Gambling and Chaos was furious. He stood his full twelve feet of relative height on both sets of legs. His anger was softened when looked around the room to find Mantarok, Astrael, Bael, Amon, and Không Khí all present in the room. This was unprecedented. Six deities of the existing pantheon in one containment chamber above a realm sphere. It’s the kind of havoc Chimera dreamed about hundreds of years ago.

“What is the meaning of this?” Chimera bellowed.

“Call the fates, brother.” Amon said flatly.

“Why? Are you plotting to take my move? I’ve done nothing to warrant such scrutiny. It’s simply my turn.” Chimera said in a huff.

“Call the fates, please?” Astrael asked. Looking around he could see his siblings were all serious. Why would they be asking him to call them? They all possessed the same godly power to do so. Something must be wrong.

“Fates, I summon you to this sphere. Attend the Gods.” Chimera spoke forcing power through his Deific Mantle. Nothing happened. Their presence could not be felt on this plane, nor were they present in the sphere before him. Has it finally happened? Have they made their move? How much should he confide in his siblings at this point? Chimera decided to keep his cards close to his chest.

“I knew it. Even on his turn they fail to answer.” Amon said visibly growing angry.

“That shouldn’t be possible.” Replied Astrael.

“They are still doing their jobs; slates are still being updated on the Mortal Plane.” Chimera commented.

“I will sound the horn. This is obviously a sign of things to come. We have been too busy playing with Chimera’s champion. We got distracted. No more. Amon, you are with me. Astrael, I need to shore up the boundaries between the Mortal Plane and the Earthbound Plane. That is where we have the least amount of power. Không Khí, I need you to check the other spheres. Chimera, we are going to leave you with this sphere while we look into this. Let’s get moving.” Mantarok barked out orders flaring his deific presence in preparation for war.

“Wait. I can see the boundary now. By the ten hells. There are cracks all over it. How is that possible?” Astrael asked.

“Something is eroding Ryan’s hold on the world. We need to find him now!” Mantarok shouted and all the Gods burst into action.

“I, I didn’t know what to do. I received the prompt and accepted it. My anger was overflowing, and I felt like I might burst.” Amanda said in response to Deacon’s question. Ralph scarred and bruised rushed over to the conversation. Noting Amanda was visibly upset he looked around at the gathered adventurers for a sign of what was wrong. Deacon immediately added him to his party. Hopefully, Triage would ease the worst of what was left from Ralph’s battle with the demon. He received a tight nod from Ralph as he accepted the request.

“It’s ok. I had one a while back. In fact, you got that knife from the same guy I smashed to clear mine. I was given a year to catch him. How much time do you have?” Deacon asked.

“Six months.” Amanda responded.

“Oh shit.” Deacon said.

“That’s not a lot of time. We need concrete specifics about where she is, and we need them now. It’s clear they have a Planar mage. That means portal travel, Tier four Arcanum at least. What do we do now? She killed the prisoner who’d have all the answers.” Tantus asked.

“Not as bad as you think. Remember the Summoner?” Typhus asked side eyeing Deacon.

“On it.” Deacon said as he walked over to the body and placed a hand on it. Green energy passed from the body of Henry into Deacon’s arm. Then he stood back and prepared to use Sayance. Before he could start, Lord Pentecost stumbled into view.

“We have injured. Any magical help would be appreciated.” Lord Pentecost gestured toward Elle and Tantus who promptly broke away from the circle of guild members to help. Elle stopped in her tracks and put a hand on Tantus’s shoulder.

“Deacon, could you add them to the party. That way Tantus and I can better manage our mana levels?” Elle asked kicking herself for not making him do that when they showed up.

“Done.” Said Deacon. All of the injured within Deacon’s field of vision were sent party invites. Deacon then noticed his max health had jumped up by twenty four percent. That must be the impact of Squad Command on his health since he added twelve people. With that out of the way Elle and Tantus went to treat the more seriously injured.

“Ok this time, I need everyone to be prepared. Don’t know if this spirt will try to break free but I’m pretty sure we’ve all had enough fighting for one night. Agreed?” Deacon asked getting nods from everyone still their including Lord Pentecost.

“What is it you plan to do?” Asked the Minister obviously too exhausted from the fight to be rude. That made Deacon wonder how much effort the Minister puts into angering those around him.

“I’m going to bring his spirit out and ask it questions. Sometimes the spirits wriggle out of my control. Let’s focus on the questions we need answered and that’s it. Ok everyone?” Deacon asked getting another round of head nods. He summoned the requisite soul and poured it into the world using his aura. The outline of the huge Mulvarian appeared in Nether green before everyone. It just stood there staring at Deacon with transparent eyes.

“Where is Elder Ruby?” Deacon asked.

“The high priestess is in the temple.” Henry replied.

“Where is the temple?” Deacon asked.

“In the Deep Well.” Henry replied.

“Dear gods, no!” Typhus shouted before running off towards the caravan.

“The Deep Well has many paths. What is the best way to get to the temple?” Lord Pentecost asked surprising the gathered party members.

“The path of green leads to the portal. The portal leads to the temple.” Henry answered lifting his right hand to point at his body. Amanda and Ralph rolled it over searching it.

“Are there any traps on the path?” Asked Lord Pentecost.

“Traps? We have trapped all paths without my gate stone you can not enter.” Henry said grabbing his head and flashing white.

“We are out of time. I’ve seen this enough to know what comes next. I’m sacrificing him now.” Deacon said thrusting his hand out and closing his palm. Green energy spilled from between his fingers and Henry disappeared.

New Ability Learned: Elemental Armor- You can call hardened elemental armor of earth to cover your joints and torso. As this Ability was learned from Sayance it is temporary…Rule Breaker has activated.

New Racial Ability Learned: Dragon Scales- For the cost of one hundred and fifty soul energy you can summon a set of dragon scale armor from your ancestors. This armor reduces incoming damage from mundane and enchanted weapons by twenty percent. The armor will only last until you are out of combat. Then it will need to be resummoned again.

The world shook and everyone fell to the ground. The rumbling was so loud that everyone covered their ears. Birds flew from the treetops to escape what was sure to be an impending disaster. Just as suddenly as it began it stopped. If Deacon hadn’t added the more gravely injured to his party, they would have surely died from vibrations.

“Is everyone ok?” Deacon asked getting to his feet.

“What in the Ten Hells was that?” Asked Lord Pentecost.

“An earthquake.” Answered Deacon sheepishly. Everyone got back up to their feet and rejoined the caravan proper. Oddly enough the makeshift bridge seemed to hold up through all of that. As Deacon approached his carriage looking forward to a good rest before the dawn, Lord Pentecost stopped him.

“I would like you to ride with me. I have an apology to make and some things to inform you about before we reach the capital. We shouldn’t be more than six hours from the capital once we are over Clayton Ravine. The report I got from the Knight’s troubles me. After witnessing your interrogation, even more so.” Said Lord Pentecost gesturing to his more lavish carriage. Deacon, not wanting to make any more waves, let his party know what was happening. He couldn’t find Typhus and was worried about why he ran off.

Inside the Ministers carriage was a well appointed bar with several bottles of the same brand wine, a sleeping compartment above the seating and what looked like a fold out table. Wotan was preparing a meal in a pot just to the side of the table. He nodded at Deacon as he and the Minister stepped into the carriage.

“I apologize for my behavior when we first met. It was at that point I thought you were the cause of these issues within the Kingdom. I now see you may just be the solution.” Said the Minister as he settled into his seat. The carriage started moving but unlike his, this one appeared to show no signs of bumpy road travel. The ride was smooth as silk. So much so a glass of wine on the table didn’t appear to slosh or jostle at all.

“I’m listening.” Deacon said sitting on the driver’s side with Wotan.

“With that said, I have received word of a plot against you in the capital. His Majesty would like to keep this information hush hush. We must project absolute control in these uncertain times, and it would be bad if a public incident should happen. Don’t get me wrong, plotting and scheming amongst the nobility is commonplace but it is covert and behind the scenes. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Lord Pentecost asked.

“Partially. You are trying to warn me about a plot, but your main point is you don’t want it spilling into the streets? Not that some one with resources is out to get me. Just public perception?” Deacon asked his rage simmering.

“Do you know how many times a demon has hunted people on the King’s Road? Or how many times an entire city was overrun by a single muscle bound mole man with a shiny mace? None of this ever happens. Something is terribly wrong. In one instance you gave me more answers than years of work in my position. His majesty would like us to keep casualties to a minimum. I’ve been instructed to offer you as much help as possible. While I’m obviously not worried about you, you seem capable at this point. Think of your party. If I overheard correctly one of them accepted a Vendetta. If Ralph weren’t still with the Caravan when that demon attacked, let’s just say we’d have more casualties.” Lord Pentecost finished by drinking some wine.

“Why did one creature give the knights and dwellers so much trouble?” Deacon asked accepting a bowl of stew from Wotan.

“They were all equipped with mundane weaponry. Some demons require enchanted weaponry to be damaged. This was one of them. I could hold it off with my psi-shield and force it to miss attacks, but my offensive capabilities are minimal. Especially with a creature of that size. But you haven’t accepted my apology yet.” Said Lord Pentecost.

“I’ll accept for now. If we can get through this plot in the capital, we’ll call it square.” Deacon said.

“Not the worst outcome of this conversation now was it, Wotan?” Asked Lord Pentecost.

“He still hasn’t apologized for the boot laces.” Wotan replied.

“Snitch!” Shouted Deacon.