"It seems to have left. Should I send the Bebilith after it, just to be sure, or should we leave well enough alone?" Ci Ci asks the others.
Mara dodged the falling debris. She replied to Ci Ci, "Personally, Id leave it alone. My be it'l go back to sleep."
She said a prayer and cured the hatter's wounds.
Dervak dodges the debris.
He watches as the creature retreats and shouts a prayer of thanks after defeating such a daunting foe.
He then ends his Rage.
"I think we should leave it alone, Cerise. We have won this battle. Now for the ritual."
You are not harrassed for the remainder of the ritual and complete it almost as a matter of course. After the climax the porcelain Queen of old Carcosa appears before you. In her distant and alien voice she speaks to you, “Friends, you have deactivated the Star Stelae that bind your world to Carcosa, but I fear I bring awful tidings. The spawn of Carcosa, Xhamen-Dor, has completely subsumed a man from your world and so has returned to life, as only the Great Old Ones can! The Inmost Blot has its full power, and the connection to the man from your world lets it reach across time and space and maintain a hold on your home. Soon your home is to be pulled into Carcosa’s maw. You must regain your strength, and I will transport us to where this terrible new Thrushmoor is to be born.”
Theophilus deftly dodges the debris!
Thank you, Mara! Anyone have a mint?
The Hatter then nods to the group, completes the ritual as if it's old hat to him.
Hearing the voice of the porcelain Queen of old Carcosa , Theo watches if the others also hear this one? Smiling reassuringly, he frowns at her words.
So, even though we severed all ports this asshat of a Lowls is still enough? Should of put a fork in him long ago!
At the mention of Thrushmoor, he sighs.
Back to the beginning....
"Return to your own plane, and your own hunt," Ci Ci intones, dismissing the Bebilith.
"Always one more fight, it seems. If this Innermost Blot is on par with that worm-thing, it's going to be a rough one."
Dervak responds to the Queen.
"It seems we have met or fought parts of Lowls. A reflection in the Dreamlands, and another echo here on Carcosa. Hopefully this version of him will be the last. If you think we should rest to regain our strength, I will do so."
A thought occurs to him.
"Do you know if that damnable slaver from Leng is with Lowls again? Or have we finally bested her?"
Cassilda's glowing pupilless eyes turns to Dervak, "The men of Leng do not die unless they are slain within their home. If you have defeated one elsewhere she is not truly defeated. I cannot say which of Lowl's former allies draw near to Xhamen-dor, but he attracts them nevertheless. For now rest as best you can, you have merely half a day before it is too late."
Once you are refreshed and your morning preparations are complete Casilda indicates she will teleport you to the burgeoning Thrushmoor nexus. You arrive near the shore of Avalon Bay.
The skies above this alternate Thrushmoor are dark and stormy, but also hazy in a manner that appears to have little to do with the weather. The clouds roil and race across the two muted black suns. The wharf, nearby warehouses, and fishing boats are all indistinct, like an animated watercolor painting done with faded pigments. Despite the appearance of strong winds that lash at nearby trees and a driving rain, no wind or rain can be felt and the town is eerily quiet.
As soon as you arrive Casilda cries out in pain. Cracks spread across her face in expanding spiderweb patterns. She manages to look one of you in the eyes, before she shatters and crumbles into a pile of porcelain dust. Standing just behind the queen’s remains is the Pallid Mask. His image is translucent and borders on entirely unreal. ”Hello,” he says with no small amount of smugness, ”we meet again.”
The closest Ci Ci can guess is that this is a shadow illusion real yet not. She doubts anything done to the image of the Pallid Mask will have any effect. Looking around the party doesn’t see a source of the spell unlike your prior encounter.
"Clearly not," Ci Ci replies, "since you have sent an image of yourself, rather than having the confidence in your power to face us." She rolls her eyes dismissively.
"I know you don't die like we do. I know... how does it go... 'that is not dead which can eternal lie.'
But we have slain you before. Well, Cerise did."
"And we will slay you again if we need to. Maybe we cannot end your existence in all the realms beyond where you walk, but we will keep you from harming our world."
"So what do you want?"
The Pallid Mask finishes Dervak’s statement, ”And with Strange Aeons even death may die. It’s fitting you should quote the Mad Poet.”
“Something bothered me during our last encounter. You were supposed to be dead, I couldn’t quite reconcile how you were here. You see, I have since learned that you died in the Dreamlands. You were the victims of the one who calls himself Lowls, urged on in his actions by the Mad Poet. Yet, here you were in Carcosa and you were the death of me, a distressing paradox, one that the King has now acted to correct. Carcosa, you see, haunts the dreams of mortals throughout the universe, and the Dimension of Dreams transcends time. Simply put, everything you are and everything you have done has been naught but the dreams of dying minds, an alternate timeline where you woke up from your amnesia to fight a cosmic battle against the inevitable.”
“Even now, the Briarstone Witch sends her minion, the Tatterman, through the dreams of Ulver Zandalus to put an end to you and this alternate continuity.” The Pallid Mask laughs dryly. “Ironically you were also phantoms of truth, but now those phantoms are laid to rest.”
The Pallid Mask walks away and disappears, and then you begin to disappear…
…except for a faint voice in your mind, Cassilda offers hope, ”He tells only the truth he wants to believe. I still sense you and something strange near you. Go there. Nowhere else, because you’re running out of time! Make your own truth!” Everyone sees a strange corona of light in the distance.
"Keep walkin'. I killed you once, and I'll happily do it again, and again, and again for all eternity if I have to," Ci Ci mutters to the Pallid Mask's fading image.
"The Briarstone Witch? Not the woman in the cave with the mushroom-wolves, is it? Because I would hate to think we were wrong to spare her.
And as for the Tatterman, he was nearly the death of us all... nearly. Luck and blessings were on our side."
Dervak heeds the words of Cassilda - who seems to be still there in spirit - and heads towards the light.
Orisons (4): Create Water, Detect Magic, Light, Read Magic
1st (7): Cure Light Wounds, Endure Elements, Protection from Evil, Remove Fear, Unbreakable Heart x3. Color Spray (spirit)
2nd (7): Barkskin x2, Calm Emotions, Delay Poison, Resist Energy, Open Slot x2, Hypnotic Pattern (spirit)
3rd (6): Heroism x4, Sleet Storm, Open Slot , Daylight (spirit)
4th (6): Blessing of Fervor, Fear, Slowing Mud, Spiritual Ally x2, Open slot, Rainbow Pattern (spirit)
5th (6): Ancestral Memory, Baleful Polymorth, Breath of Life x2, Open Slot, True Seeing, Overland Flight (spirit)
6th (5): Greater Dispel Magic, Mass Cure Moderate Wounds, Wall of Stone, Owl's Wisdom (Mass), Open Slot, Chain Lightning (spirit)
7th (4): Fairy Ring Retreat, Heal x2, Open Slot , Prismatic Spray (spirit).
8th (3): Firestorm, Stormbolts, Open slot, Sunburst (spirit)
Mara prepared herself for the return to Thrushmoor,
"The future is less certain than you think," Mara told the Pallid Mask."You speak with a certainty born of ignorance."
Sensing that there was simething strange going on here, she took out a special ointment that she had been saving, and anointed her eyes with it.
Ah, Thrushmoor. The smell of brine and brimstone bring back fond memories.
Theo doesn't actually say anything to the Pallid Mask. Theo feels that words have power and that guy definitely doesn't need any more!
He does whisper in a dreadful voice though,
The Briarstone Witch, the Tatterman, The Pallid Mask! Oh, my!
The White Rabbit is seen dressed wearing every totem known to man that wards evil....
The MAd Hatter follows the light like Carrie-ann once did.....
You float along the waters of Avalon bay silently towards the light but as you travel you realize you've somehow lost each other. You don't recall diverging at any point. Just the gradual realization that you're alone.
A soldier is dragging the bodies into the fort, except he isn’t a soldier, his eyes are too glassy and movement too jerky. A closer inspection reveals he’s a zombie dressed as a soldier. You are unable to affect anything here. But the light and a blood trail beckons you downwards to the dungeon, an instinctive urge you can hardly resist.
A dark hallway leads to a row of three doors along the northern wall, each fitted with a small grate in the middle. A single door stands in the southern wall. Sleeping in a corner is a skum, minion of Melisenn during her bid to sacrifice Thrushmoor to the King in Yellow. Peering through the grate on one of the doors you see an old friend. Allegra battered and beaten, and bleeding to death.
A shiver runs down your spine as you hear a voice speak, ”Help your friend dearie. I’ll take care of this one.” It comes from the spectral image of an old woman in a decaying funeral dress. Her face is human but the other has been twisted, gray flesh surrounds a yellow eye with a handle bar pupil. A tentacle juts from the woman’s side and begins to drain the skum of its life.
Any attempt to affect the asylum fails, no one notices you, and if you try to touch anything you pass right through it. The light draws you onward and the urge to follow it grows stronger by the second. It leads you to the furnace room, past the pile of bodies, where you now are able to pick out an old friend; Rowan lies in the pile under the corpse chute. You wouldn’t have noticed him if it weren’t for your familiarity with the man. The light urges you on to the next room where a familiar scene plays out before you.
You observe a tall thin figure in the garb of a doctor. This doppelganger in human form drags and pulls a man from the cells. You recognize the others captured and imprisoned, Julius, Oscar, Mala, and Cerio, all asleep yet tense, fighting for their lives. The fate of some of them are hazy, as if they were only a dream. The light leads you to face yourself, still manacled to the wall, still infested with the Dark Whisper, and cursed with orkish blood.
The doppelganger speaks, ”The Tatterman says you all must die. No survivors. All must die! The witch, she commands it!” The man now strapped to the table screams as the horrific creature begins its ghastly vivisection, you are powerless to help him. The doppelganger mutters softly to her victim, ”They didn’t tell me which ones were the important ones, though. We start with you.”
Any attempt to affect the asylum fails, no one notices you, and if you try to touch anything you pass right through it. The light dawns you onward and the urge to follow it grows stronger by the second. It leads you to the corridor outside where you first woke up in Briarstone. Dervak, still corrupted by the Dark Whisper, speaks to familiar faces, ”Nice work, Mala. You’re good at killing them. What should we do about the door?” The group, some of whom have faded like a dream with uncertain fates, debate on whether it's a good idea to kill whatever is beyond that door, you and Sara.
Within the closet, your younger self is asleep, tense as if running. Your past self mumbles, ”Mommy, Daddy, where are you?” Sara tries to wake you but you do not, she implores, ”Quiet, they’ll hear you!”
Any attempt to affect the asylum fails, no one notices you, and if you try to touch anything you pass right through it. The light draws you onward and the urge to follow it grows stronger by the second. It leads you to the furnace room, past the pile of bodies. The light urges you on to the next room where a familiar scene plays out before you. Something seems off though.
You observe a tall thin figure in the garb of a doctor. This doppelganger in human form drags and pulls a man from the cells. You recognize the others captured and imprisoned, Jayson, Rinn, Vlad, Kenderella, and of course Dervak, all asleep yet tense. You were here, yes of course you were here. The light leads you to face yourself, asleep and fighting for your life.
The doppelganger speaks, ”The Tatterman says you all must die. No survivors. All must die! The witch, she commands it!” The man now strapped to the table screams as the horrific creature begins its ghastly vivisection, you are powerless to help him. The doppelganger mutters softly to her victim, ”They didn’t tell me which ones were the important ones, though. We start with you.”
And there I am. Dervak the Abomination... and I was...
I was dreaming. I fought the Tatterman in the dreamscape, and lost, but I did not give in to the Dark Whisper. Not that time.
And then I woke up...
Maybe I woke myself up?
He starts yelling at his former self, and thinking at him as hard as possible. It is entirely likely that in trying to connect with the mind of his former self Dervak will 'hear' the Dark Whisper once again. It isn't a pleasant thought, but he is prepared.
"Dervak! Wake up! Break free and slay that 'nurse' - it is a fiend!
Break your manacles from the wall! Use them as weapons!"
Should he hear the Dark Whisper, either annoyed at his interference or promising power to his former self, he adds,
"Don't give in! Mulgar's faith in you was true! You need not be a monster!"
He thinks of adding By the way, when you meet her, keep Kat safe but fears confusing the dim warrior.
Although it seems he cannot influence the physical realm here, he will nevertheless try; channeling his willpower as well as his physical strength he pulls on the chains, trying to loosen the manacles from the wall.
She decided to consult her ancestors, to see if any of them could offer her any insights into what was going on.
Theophilus smiles while holding the White Rabbit's hand. The two seemingly lost in the good old days when they were politely introduced to their now good friends.
Dervak was a bit more angry then. The handsome devil has gotten a haircut since those days.
Mara was a bit more flirty back in those days. The 1/2 orc has really gotten serious since the run in with all this evil madness.
Who can figure.
Cerise was not there at that particular moment in time, but, with all the time f!+%ing and space hoping; well, let's just say Theo has an open mind!
Suddenly, Theo actually pays attention to his surroundings. Seeing the doppelganger in human form drags and pulls a man from the cells. You recognize the others captured and imprisoned, Jayson, Rinn, Vlad, Kenderella, and of course Dervak, all asleep yet tense.
It's a reunion! Break out the wine! Get the party favors! And Rabbit! Bring down the f$+!ing roof with that funky music White Rabbit!
The White Rabbit is seen paused in dressing like a rapper, stares at the light leads you to face yourself, asleep and fighting for your life.
Ci Ci calls upon her power to channel healing energy is a burst around her. She hopes the healing radiance will stop Allegra's bleeding and save her. If anything else nearby is bound to Negative Energy, this should reveal it as well.
"Hang on, Allegra. I've got you!"
Time seems to shudder and slows to a crawl, from behind you a voice speaks. Devoid of emotion and precise like a clock, ”Temporal anomaly detected. Purgation required.”
In your moment of reflection you see Sara look directly at you, not your former self, with eyes that seem to say, Do something, help.
Time seems to shudder and slows to a crawl, from behind you a voice speaks. Devoid of emotion and precise like a clock, ”Temporal anomaly detected. Purgation required.”
Time seems to shudder and slows to a crawl, from behind you a voice speaks. Devoid of emotion and precise like a clock, ”Temporal anomaly detected. Purgation required.”
Mara Knelt down and whispered," Sara, you can see me? No-one else seems to notice me. I've returned here from Carcossa; I don't suppose you know where that is. Someone is trying to stop our group from preventing the destruction of Golarion, by killing us in our past. Do you know what is going on here? I'm not sure if everything we've done is just a dream."
Cassilda's rebuke of the Pallid Mask floats through your mind, "..you're running out of time! Make your own truth!."
Sara's eyes begin to water and she sniffles speaking softly barely even a whisper, "Yes. But I'm not supposed to. You're dying and if you don't wake up, who will set me free?"
There's a loud banging on the door and then a younger and inexperienced Dervak yells, "Last warning! On the ground against the wall! If you are up we will think you a monster!"
Mara shook her younger self to try to wake her up.
Time seems to shudder and slows to a crawl, from behind you a voice speaks. Devoid of emotion and precise like a clock, ”Temporal anomaly detected. Mara bint al-Katheeri you are known among my kind, your sins against reality and time are great, you will be purged.”
Behind you a strange creature materializes, it is a shimmering mass which at first it appears to be made of some or vapor but moves strangely. It forms four arm and has what looks like a small tornado within its chest.
Mara stood up and backed away from the door, gripping her axe. She prayed, calling on Charlabu to protect her. The golden hound archon appeared and swung his scimitar repeatedly at the strange creature threatening her.
Dervak is not sure where his friends are, and that is most disconcerting. He knows nothing of this creature in front of him.
"Where are they! Bring them back!"
He contemplates stalling for time, or going off to look for his friends.
But what if this thing kills Younger Me?
He decides to kill it first.
A f#@+ing Bythos Aeon! Great! Like we didn't have enough problems without the Time police on our butts!
Theophilus grins innocently at the Bythos Aeon.
Would you be here for me or me?
The White Rabbit cringes as he fades.....
The Witch decides that this throng needs more participants!
Three merry looking shadow demons suddenly materialize in front of Theo (who 5' steps back).
They all 3 then decides to play a party trick on the Bythos Aeon!
Care to join our troope?
Charlabu bravely stands against Mara's Aeon, it seems that Sarenrae hasn't forsaken Mara yet. It slices into the twice, the third strike passes through it without any effect.
Dervak fairs a little better against his Aeon cutting into its strange flesh with inevitable strikes.
Theo begins to summon demons to his side but it will take some time yet.
The eyes in the center of the Aeons begin to rotate in a hypnotic pattern, sapping your will and presence of mind.
Each of the Aeons reach out and bodily bash their respective foes. The aim on these attacks are perfectly aimed and timed, as if it knew exactly where you would be and how you would move.
Nemira Lowls slaps a spectral tentacle before Ci Ci at just the right moment, protecting the sorceress. "Betcha didn't see that coming?" before freezing back into her own timeline.
When the aeon touches you the area around it begins to wrinkle and dry, it ages rapidly.
"Diasporatum!" Ci Ci intones, as she unleashes a beam of emerald light at the alien thing.
Oh no you didn't!
Theophilus seems a bit more Confused than his usual state of confusion!
Theo smacks the s+~% out of himself!
Somewhere the White Rabbit is also laughing!
The herald of Sarenrae continues to defend Mara injuring the Aeon once more.
The shadow demons do as they please since their summoner is not in his right senses.
The aeon's mind screams as it's form is destroyed by a trio of shadow demons summoned beyond time, destroying each of its duplicates as well.
The Pallid Mask appears before you once again and staggers backwards. He shrieks, "No! Stop! This is not possible!" In a roar and incandescent explosion of bright light, the entire scene disappears. You find yourselves back in the same spot at the docks where Cassilda first teleported you to the Thrushmoor nexus. The skies are still stormy, the rain begins to soak your cloths and waves roll across the lake.
Beyond the docks, large sections of the town appear to be missing. Empty ground exists where buildings once stood. Yet slowly the outlines of homes and business start to appear and gradually become more and more solid. The streets of this phantom town are deserted, but the cries of its panicked populace can be heard in the distance. Those cries grow steadily louder with every passing heartbeat. To the north and in the direction of Iris Hill, storm clouds circle where the manor should stand and a beam of yellow light rises from the ground and stabs into the night.
"Why do I have the horrible feeling that we have to go to that light, and face whatever's generating it?" Ci Ci asks no one in particular.
It took a moment for Mara to take in everything that had happened. She replied to Ci Ci, "Yes, I do think we should investigate. That definitely doesn't look right!"
When The Pallid Mask appears before you once again and staggers backwards. He shrieks,
And at the exact same time Theo yells!
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I'm still right here
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
The White Rabbit is seen passing out clean handkerchiefs.
He also is seen passing out home recorded cassette tapes.
Dervak has Teralindar's Honor reared back for another swing when the strange outsider screams and dissipates.
He has no idea how it was defeated, but some intuitive sense that, overall, he has made things happen as they were supposed to.
And then he is reunited with his comrades and feels much better.
"I agree, Cerise. But we should prepare first."
Dervak will cast Shield and See Invisibility.
He looks to Theophilus. "Are you okay? What happened? Did you have a vision as well?"
He turns to the others. "I had a vision of when I first woke up in Briarstone Asylum. Before I met any of you. You see, I had to wake up and fight a nurse that was really a monster and was killing a man. I had no weapons so I broke my chains and fought with those - and I had tusks back then too. It was actually the second time I fought it, but the first time might have been a dream. I barely defeated it. Then I escaped, and maybe there were others with me or maybe not, but eventually I met up with Mara and then Theophilus, who I dreamed I had met before, and much later Cerise."