5.28

“Why. Won’t. You! DIE!” - The Revenant King, trying to kill the party comic relief.

I did not see it coming.

“What the *BLEEP*?” Matt yelled as he was thrown to the side, his legs struggling to rise, his swear words redacted from the scattered bits of Tilt’s power.

Utoqa stopped a fist with his own, seemingly without reaction, but I saw his fins flinch as he did so.

“Hoho? Well done!” the unknown assailant praised. He was wearing colourful clothing, flowing wildly around him almost like a bird. “And you as well!”

The man snapped his neck, breaking it in an unnatural angle as Tai’s blade missed his ear by a breadth.

“What the hell is that?” Declan exclaimed.

“Wonderful wonderful!” the man exclaimed as his extended fist grabbed onto Utoqa’s arm, then he swung the lizardfolk into Tai in a swift, smooth motion.

Both went tumbling, crashing into the wall of the orphanage.

“Ah, you truly are they who beat the Accumulation of White Lies,” the man congratulated.

“How do you know of that,” I muttered, my staff held forward. My mana was all but used up. I had a few more spells in me. “Where did you come from, why are you here?”

“Such philosophical questions to ask,” he replied with a chuckle. “I came from where all come from. I am here because of no grand purpose.”

“I’m not talking philosophy here,” I replied. My eyes glanced towards the unconscious body still on the ground. Her hair and skin were a pale white now, but Celine was still alive by every measure I had. “I’m talking why you have come here and why you have-”

Corvian stabbed him at that moment. The priest’s invisibility trick serving him well as his dagger sunk deep into the man’s chest.

“Surrender,” the gnome said, “you’re going to need treatment for that wound, it doesn’t matter how much…” he slowly trailed off, as we both noticed a piece of brass and bronze revealed under the man’s elaborate clothing.

A clock that showed the wrong time.

Corvian’s eyes widened, he jumped back, leaving the dagger inside his chest. It took me a moment to recognise the symbol. It was the same thing as Corvian’s card decks and the silver bell that now decorated his belt. It was a Holy Symbol.

A Holy Symbol to Osshiven’Kai, the clockwork god of madness and chaos.

“Oh you are a very kind soul,” the cultist said, “to avoid my heart, no doubt out of the goodness of your own.”

Seemingly without care, he pulled the dagger out of his own chest, “It’s a shame it doesn’t matter in the end.”

And he stabbed his chest, pushing it into his flesh, carving out his own heart before dropping it onto the ground.

“Fortunately, you needn’t worry about my mortal existence,” the cultist said, smiling as he strode forward, “for the simple reason that I don’t have-”

Then a silver bell rang, for he still stood within a shrine to Tilt.

The cultist suddenly stepped on his own heart, which was behind him a moment ago, slipping on it like a banana peel and falling onto the ground. Landing into a puddle of slime, the momentum and the wet ground sent him straight out a window.

And he laughed as it happened, crashing into a bush. “Ah! It seems I’m still not welcome!” he yelled with strange cheer in his voice.

I quickly moved to follow him, Corvian helping Noam as Tai and Utoqa untangled themselves.

The cultist was still laughing when we stepped outside.

“Is he a threat?” Utoqa asked, his voice cold and devoid of the emotions a human might have.

“Most likely,” I answered.

I almost grimaced as I looked at our state, Utoqa’s back was still raw and white, having literally sloughed off during his time inside the belly of the beast. Tai fought tirelessly for hours on end and I could see the beads of sweat on her skin. I was almost out of mana, and it was day.

An axe missing most of his HP, a sword missing most of her stamina, a staff missing most of his mana.

“I’ll act as the main distraction, strike him when he’s focused on me.” Here I was the most expendable piece, and also likely the most durable.

“What do we do?” Tai murmured, “Followers of the Mad God are immortal are they not?”

“We cut him into so many pieces that he’ll take longer to regenerate. Then stick the individual parts into separate sealed boxes,” I answered instantly. A similar strategy to take out a Traveller, namely crippling and trapping, immortality was not impossible to work around after all.

The cultist was smiling as he saw us, “Ah you came to me. I was almost afraid you would hide in the shrine.”

He can’t enter the orphanage, important to remember, “Why did you attack us?”

“To take back what was mine,” he answered matter of factly. His eyes staring directly into mine.

“What was yours?” Both Utoqa and Tai were slowly stepping around. Seeking to encircle him.

“Indeed, indeed! That is the question, isn’t it? What makes something mine, what makes something have ownership? One could argue that such a concept does not exist, only the enforcement of it.”

“You are talking in circles,” I answered, “answer me like a normal person or we’ll have to use force.”

The cultist looked at me with a strange, almost childlike curiosity. “Indeed Oracle, I have been acting far too much like a normal person.”

“What are you…”

“I came here because one of yours stole a bottle of mine, I intended to take a pound of flesh as payment but… that is too orderly isn’t it?” he asked. “Of loss and reparation, of theft and justice. It’s far too directed, it makes far too much sense.”

We had him trapped between all three of us now, but I was still uneasy. “We aren’t at our best, and the enemy is an unknown variable,” Declan assessed.

“Ah!” the cultist yelled, a finger raised in revelation, “great idea Oracle!”

And he grinned a madman’s grin, “Let’s add an unknown variable.”

I felt both our eyes widen, “Did he just…”

He reached into his sleeve, but Utoqa had seen enough, his tomahawk cleanly sliced off the cultist’s neck, but not before he threw something.

A small object, cubic, dotted. A die.

Two dots.

“And we have a two!” the severed head of the cultist yelled. His body threw up an arm with two fingers in a V, completely separate from its own head. “And thus negotiations have broken down!”

Tai’s blade flashed, cutting off the raised hand.

“Guess I’ll have to hurt you now!”

As the severed arm dropped, it grabbed onto Tai’s neck. She fell back, wrestling with the arm choking her as the rest of the cultist’s body struck Utoqa with its remaining arm, throwing him back, before jumping to follow the lizardfolk.

I glanced between the two, then stepped towards-

“Wait,” Declan murmured. “The head.”

My attention fell to the severed head, which smiled at me. “Greetings Oracle.”

“You call me that as if it means something,” I murmured as I grabbed the head by its hair. “Oracle this and that.”

“Oh, you can’t tell me you didn’t notice the change?” he asked, “You defeated an agent of obscurity, so you are now an agent of revelation.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Is that how it works? If so, then Analyse.”

He stood in a place much like a personal study. Everything here was in the right place, disorganised in appearance yet ordered in his mind. He simply needed to look for it.

Three figures stood here, Declan, Dustin and the third.

First, they glanced at their character sheet, noting the change that had come.

True Character Sheet

Name: Dustin

Racials: Magic Myconid Level 1

Classes: Fungalmancer Level 4, Second of Three Oracle Level 2,

Body

Strength: 8

Agility: 7

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 18

Stamina: 10

Vitality: 12

Mind

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 20

Charisma: 6

Soul

Will: 10

Psyche: 10

Perception: 10

Racials:

Manavision, Fungal Body, Sun Sickness, Mana Dependency, Pacifying Spores, Strong Innate Magic, Age-Type Heteromorph

Class Skills:

Fungalmancer:

Path: Symbiosis

Grow Sporage (Visual) Grow Sporage (Proximity) Sporage Wisp Symbiosis Bracken Polypores

The Second of Three Oracle:

Path: Observe, Analyse, Predict

Observe: You may touch an Eye capable of sight, upon usage you may see out of the eye regardless of your distance or proximity to it. Observation Link: You are linked to a user of Observe. Your minds are linked and they may share all that they see through Observe. Through you, they may also mark other willing creatures to have their vision be seen through Observe as well. Analyse: You passively absorb the information you gather. Learning the exact parameters of that which you observe and translating them to a form understandable to you. This information will exist in a database and could be called on at any time. This acts almost like a second mind for you, incapable of decision but so much more accurate in its Analysis. Analysation of the Soul: Thrice per day, you may bring a target you can see to the realm of Souls to glimpse their true nature and discern information. Predict: You may, using information that you understood, have Observed and Analysed, create a portent of the near future or of other information related. Eyes of God: With the Eye of Discovery, you have the following visions: Normal Vision Superior Darkvision Et Non-Discent: This class was not sourced from the system, thus it does not benefit from the system either. Progress in this class does not rely on Traveller XP, but on your own proficiency. You may not invest levels in this class. This class and its progress will not be displayed on your Traveller character sheet.

Magic Myconid Spells:

T0: Sneezing Spores, Acid Spit, Watching Eye

Fungalmancer Spells:

T0: Balm Spores, Light Spores, Shillelagh (1 Free)

T1: Mushroom Meal, Poison Spores, Euphoria Spray, (1 Free)

T2: Bark Skin, Fix-Up Fungus, Rot Spores

Languages:

Common

Undercommon

They were now level seven, and stronger than before, and here within the realm of souls would they glimpse the enemy’s true-

“Fascinating, to be able to bring me here,” the cultist said, glancing around. He smiled at them, “go on, look into me, I have only the Truth.”

And they saw.

Utoqa had never hunted a thing that did not die.

It was difficult.

A swipe by his claws severed the creature’s hamstrings, dropping it onto the ground, but the thing continued to move. Scrabbling like a insect or one of the shelled ones as it crawled onto a wall with naught but the strength of its fingers and toes.

It was missing its head and left arm, which usually meant the hunt was over, but the thing continued to move. Leaping off and smacking him into another house. The sheer force of it broke the wall and Utoqa felt another pang of pain as his still raw back was slashed bloody by torn wood.

He got up instantly however, for his kind did not feel pain in the same way others did. He thought of burning his last bundle of healing, but it was not yet lethal.

Leaping out, he found his opponent holding up its own head, Dustin was lying on the ground, unconscious, but perhaps still alive.

“Hehehe, don’t worry empty one, he’s just seeing the light,” the severed head spoke, the body brought the head to its neck, rejoining the two pieces.

Utoqa’s priority was to retrieve Dustin, he held his tomahawk in guard, slowly and carefully advancing.

But the creature’s attention wasn’t on him, instead, it took two steps away and picked up a carved stone. A die, he believed the word was. An unnatural curiosity, it had too many straight lines and right angles, seemingly to serve no practical purpose.

The creature threw the die, his eyes watching it as it descended.

Utoqa’s instinct was to strike at him while he was distracted, but he knew full well he couldn’t harm it. Trapping was what Dustin had asked and he saw the logic behind that statement.

The die fell onto the ground with a few clicks and the creature laughed, “A one!”

Utoqa was above Dustin now, gently he grabbed the light body by the arm and began slowly backing away.

“Guess you die now!”

Suddenly his vision wasn’t focused on the immortal creature, but instead flying in the sky. Spinning around before he glimpsed the form of his own decapitated body.

Utoqa’s head fell on the ground with a thud.

Tai busted back into the orphanage, the gnome Corvian tending to Celine as she waked.

“Wha… where am I?” the woman murmured. Her hair was white, as was her skin. All an unnatural pale, but the clothing, the mannerism was enough for Tai to know she was Celine.

“Celine!”

The witch yelped at the call of her name, but Tai didn’t have time, she slammed the scrabbling and struggling arm of the mad cultist onto the ground. “Your magic can curse people right?”

“Yes but I don’t like-”

“Then do something with this arm!” she yelled before she leapt out of the orphanage once more.

Outside, she saw Dustin on the ground unconscious and Utoqa’s headless body fall onto it. The cultist was picking something up from the ground. Something small. There was a shocked draw of breath behind her, but Tai was already moving. As the die fell onto the ground again, the cultist was severed into two bloody pieces. Her blade cleaving clean into his torso, from right shoulder to the left waist. The head and arm fell off with the severed torso, but it wasn’t enough, she needed to separate them.

Then she felt magic invigorate her, as if her body had rested fully for a day. “Celine!?”

“That wasn’t me!” the witch yelled, pointing at the cultist’s falling arm, its hand curled into a somatic gesture.

“Four! What a lucky roll lady!” the head laughed as it fell.

The madman had healed her, the act was sickening, the lack of respect… “Fight me truly you madman!”

“Blame your luck!” he yelled, the severed torso grabbed the die on the ground, throwing it again.

“Two,” he said with a smile, “and now you will hurt.”

She was rushing at him again, but the legs kicked up the torso like a ball and they rejoined mid air. Tai went low as the cultist’s fist flew wildly above her head, slashing off a leg.

This time she grabbed the severed portion, running off with it as the cultist stared at her with a bemused look.

“Guess you’re legging it!” he yelled.

She rolled her eyes as she made distance, “Oh come on that’s just bad!”

“Hehe,” the monster chuckled, “but I will be taking that back now.”

“No!” Celine suddenly yelled. She raised the cultist’s arm which Tai had left her. Now bound almost completely in stitches and string.

“No young lady?” the cultist spoke as he began hopping towards Tai, “That is quite rude to say to-”

“I break the Finger of Direction.”

And the index finger of the severed arm broke off, falling onto the ground and dissipating.

Suddenly the cultist turned a right. “Huh?”

Then he began moving backwards, away from Tai. The leg she grabbed was also moving erratically now as if it didn’t know what way to move.

The cultist tried to turn his head towards Tai but ended up looking at the ground. He tried to raise his arm but tucked it into his abdomen. He wanted to hop but instead knelt.

“Wonderous!” he yelled as he finally grasped the nature of the curse. Every single action of his lost its direction, moving randomly without pattern or meaning. “Now I am truly random!”

And Tai dropped the leg, heading in to attack once again.

And somehow, the cultist turned straight towards her. “I’m getting the hang of this now!” he said, throwing a fist out to attack.

Tai already had too much momentum, she couldn’t stop in time, she couldn’t dodge.

But a tomahawk buried itself into the cultists back, knocking him off balance. Utoqa’s headless body rose behind the cultist, his arm out mid-throw, green strands of energy weaving itself around the decapitated neck, until it formed the shape of a head. “Survive,” the lizardfolk whispered as he defied death.

“Interesting!” the cultist yelled, just as Tai’s blade decapitated the immortal.

They saw the Truth.

A dark day, a circle of mages in a tower. Scholars, studying and trying to understand. Tomes of magic and forbidden lore lay around them.

“I think we have it,” one of them uttered, a leader, clad in better robes than the others. “A way to the Seventh Circle. The Seventh Hell.”

Dustin raised an eyebrow, ‘The seventh circle is supposed to be uncontacted isn’t it?’

His question asked, only heard by himself. Declan nodded but did not reply.

They saw the mages work, gather material, draw the beginnings of a portal.

They were not evil, Dustin saw, for they sought the Hell to understand more of demon lore. To understand how better to fight them, how to best slay them, how to best banish them. For the denizens of hell were numerous and infinitely varied. Computer viruses made sentient, killing and destruction their only purpose.

And he saw them open a portal with the help of a Wayshard, yelps of surprise and cheers as they opened a gate. Peering in was a cold and dark world, where snow rained forevermore.

They sent first a small golem, its body fitted with a transmission crystal that sent them imagery of the unknown Hell.

And as they explored, they found that nothing lived here.

No errant plant, no insect, no animals, no devils or demons.

Surprise, curiosity, a desire to understand swept through the circle. And they kept exploring until they found it.

At first, they thought it was a massive mountain, but then they saw the scales. Oh, great and horrible scales, taller than towers, wider than mansions and thicker than hills. They found the corpse of an ancient serpent, frozen and dead in a wasteland of ice.

They brought forth diviners. Seeing into the past and they glimpsed what had happened. A calamity of such great scale, that it was forever burned into the memory of the world.

There was once a Demon of Hunger. Its form was that of a serpent, and it was hungry, forever hungry. It ate insects, it ate plants, it ate animals, it ate devils, it ate demons.

It ate all that lived in the Hell to satisfy a hunger that’ll never end, and when the world was bare for all life save the Demon, it turned to the skies and ate the stars. But even when it ate all the stars in the sky, it was still hungry. So it ate the sun.

And when portals to other worlds opened, it bore its mouth through and ate continents. It ate other worlds, it ate everything.

The serpent kept on eating and eating until there was nothing left to eat, and the Demon starved in a cold and dead world, its desire forever unsatisfied.

And it was horror that graced the circle, for they saw how great a single Demon can become. Enough to consume worlds, enough to eat everything that existed.

But horror was measured with greed and desire. For inside the Demon’s stomach, they found the wealth of a thousand worlds. Unguarded, unattended, simply gathering dust in the Demon’s stomach. Treasures of the ages, everything that could be imagined was there.

And they looted, they looted and looted until one day they brought back a curious clock.

A clock that seemed to lead to another world. A world that survived a Demon of this calibre. A world that repelled a World Eater.

The circles were drawn once again, an attempt to contact the strange world where the clock came.

And they succeeded.

“What’s in there?” the head mage asked as his friend peered into the portal.

“Buildings, people, some kind of strange metal carriage that moves without a horse…” he described. “And- Oh Shi-”

The man jerked back, his mind silenced as he uttered a name with a voice not his own, “Fenkai.”

They peered into the portal, and this time something in the portal peered back.

The vision cut here, leaving Declan and Dustin suddenly looking at the head mage. His face haunted as he watched the mage tower they were just in burn. Burn to the ground with the portal to the Seventh Hell and the strange world they contacted. Burn with all the other mages and treasures and knowledge they accumulate.

Everything burned, except for a single clock in the head mage’s hand.

A clock that showed the time 6:23.