I assure you, I tried several times to make this a spoiler, checking and double-checking the formatting, but it just won't let me, so.... Spoiler! Don't read if you don't have time or desire to...
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Freeday 7th of Wealsun, 600 CY... In the Court of the "Overking's Palace" (known up until very recently by the far less grandiose name of "Lord Drax's Estate"--area #5 of the Garden District on the City Map of Rel Astra)...
Implanted in Drax the Invulnerable's court as a spy for the Horned King Malvolio, First Warduke of Medegia for the past 9 moons (since circa Patchwall of 599 CY), the doppelgänger was known by many names, but its secret true name was known only to it, and no one on Oerth could deny its steely nerves and nigh-suicidal daring. Perhaps it truly was suicidal? Only it could say for sure, and the truth was a vague and ephemeral concept to the doppelgänger. The "truth" was whatever served its purpose best, and the purpose of its liege, the Horned King.
Malvolio knew the doppelgänger simply as "Kafka of Dreaming Esslyon", the name it had given him when he'd encountered it in the catacombs beneath ruined Pontylver while questing after the monstrous Sword of Kas (and in a mad race through the catacombs against the fugitive cambion from Sigil, Ely Cromlich, who would wreak apocalyptic entropy on countless worlds and planes besides Oerth should he find it first). Malvolio, then known only as Warduke of Medegia, had decided to attempt some kind of short-term alliance with "Kafka of Dreaming Esslyon" instead of slaying the doppelgänger, on the off chance it might have knowledge of the catacombs that would help him win the terrible black blade before the cambion could find it. His instincts and restraint were well rewarded.
After several hours of gradually earning its trust (owing in no small part to the fact that Malvolio undoubtedly saved the doppelgänger's life on at least four separate harrowing occasions in that span of time, slaying greater fiends and eldritch abominations that would have torn "Kafka" to shreds in seconds, but also employing his practiced "Old Aerdy chivalry" and courtly eloquence to make the doppelgänger feel genuinely drawn by his magnetic force of personality and easy charm), Malvolio finally secured something analogous to loyalty (at least "Kafka's" approximation thereof), and the doppelgänger revealed a most valuable and crucial secret...
The doppelgänger, during its furtive explorations in search of wealth and magic in one of the deepest levels of the catacombs under Lost Pontylver, had recently discovered a globe of shimmering "rainbow-like" nested layers of light in a heavily-trapped vault, and had seen a "demonic sword with a twisty blade as black as the Shadowfell itself" at the center of the "nested rainbow spheres"... Malvolio promised the doppelgänger both riches and a life of ease and security in exchange for guiding him to this deep vault at once. "Kafka" did just that, and cemented its position as one of Malvolio's most valued minions. For his part, Malvolio was ever true to his word, and significantly enriched his new "Master Spy" in mundane riches, magic treasure, and decadent creature comforts particularly customized to the doppelgänger's odd (even perverse) tastes...
But let us depart from the past and return to the present moment, a moment fraught with especial peril for the Horned King's doppelgänger "Master Spy"... Rel Astra had been ravaged by a virulent plague for over a month now, spread by an ever multiplying horde of rats--rats that had first arrived aboard a ship of unknown origin (it flew no flag of any realm, nor any colors to give so much as a clue) in the first week of Flocktime... This plague was not the Red Death, though it bore similarities, being only somewhat slower (but just as certain) to end in the victim's agonized death, producing black buboes under the ears, armpits, groin, and sometimes other sensitive regions of its doomed victims. Barber-surgeons and the clergy of several local temples knew it by a handful of names: "Black Death", "Buboe Pox", "Incabulos' Kiss", "Sickle Fever", and "Bubonic Plague".
To date, the plague had struck most savagely and to the greatest death-toll in the district of Rel Astra known as "Barbarian City" (the southernmost quarter, separated by a fortified wall from the rest of the city, and reserved for foreigners), where the most accurate census the plague-doctors and antipaladins of Hextor could so far compile estimates that roughly two-thirds of the population of "Barbarian City" have already perished (alternate counts estimate as much as three-quarters). The entire city of Rel Astra is currently under quarantine, but especially the pitiable foreigners of "Barbarian City", boarded up and barricaded en masse within every building in the district, with the ballistae and alchemist's fire projectors of the wall guards trained to impale or incinerate any seen to escape from their imprisonment.
Drax's distant cousin, the centuries-old death knight archmage Lord Andromansius of House Garasteth, named "Overking's Regent" by Drax before he led an expedition into the Vast Swamp in late Planting (on a mad quest for the Hand of Vecna, revealed by divinations to be in the possession of Vecna's former apprentice and lieutenant, the cambion demilich Acererak), had acted swiftly and with the flawless cunning, ruthless efficiency, and the indifferent brilliance that his undeath and inhumanity afforded him, likely dealing with the catastrophe more effectively than a mortal regent would have, hindered by the "vulnerabilities and weaknesses" of compassion, familial loyalty, and susceptibility to public perception and opinion. Without flinching or hesitating, he'd ordered the quarantines, but also the burning alive of hundreds of plague victims in boarded up buildings within the slums and other already condemned sections of the "Barbarian City", almost certainly saving twice as many lives as were taken in flames, while simultaneously preventing future outbreaks of both plague and accidental fires. He had cowed the clergies of Zilchus, Osprem, and others into accepting "temporary but necessary" martial law under the Church of Hextor, which organized them all into a more efficient force--a veritable army of priests--for fighting the spread of the plague into other districts, saving countless more lives.
Trying one more time, starting where S+&$e Be Getting Extra Real...:
And now... just a day ago (Godsday 6th)... Overking Drax the Invulnerable had returned to Rel Astra, now with the dreaded Hand of Vecna attached in place of his own left hand... With both the Eye and the Hand grafted, his personal power had been multiplied unfathomably. Towering at his side, as ever, was the two-headed Fiend Sage of Rel Astra, whose terrifying demonic aspect was not diminished much at all by its courtly manner and splendid attire. Expecting his increasingly megalomaniacal liege to be enraged to find his capital beset by a quickly-growing horde of plague-riddled rats, and the "Barbarian City" swiftly becoming a necropolis, Lord Andromansius was almost what mortals might term "mildly surprised" by Overking Drax's apparent utter lack of ire or even annoyance, an inhuman indifference matched by his advisor, the Fiend Sage. On the contrary, Drax seemed intrigued... even pleased... The doppelgänger, wondering if Drax's magnified powers included sensing the presence of shape changers who were spies for enemy rulers, nonetheless performed its duty to the Horned King with unwavering tenacity, feigning to be too busy with chronicling the recent plague for the annals of Rel Astra (as he'd been assigned to do by Lord Regent Andromansius--the doppelgänger's cover was that of a learned scribe and sage specializing in DeepOerth lore, chirurgy, and alchemical medicine) to eavesdrop or make encrypted notes about the two undead Garasteth princes' current exchange...
"This is fortuitous, My Faithful Lord Andromansius," declared Drax with uncharacteristic nonchalance. "An unexpected boon, in fact. Now that I possess both the Eye AND the Hand of Vecna, you cannot begin to imagine what I can do with all of those corpses in the "Barbarian City"... AND... what I can do with this army of plague-ridden rats that grows in our streets, allies, and sewers..." Lord Andromansius made no answer, impassively waiting to see if Drax would expound on his cryptic statements... But instead of explaining his plan, Drax did something else that sent a lance of icy fear through the doppelgänger's heart and down its spine... The Overking turned and stared for several seconds at the "Master Spy" of the Horned King, his own right eye burning like a fiery ember of green hellfire in a black hole, while the Eye of Vecna, shriveled, blackened, lifeless and yet horribly sapient... perhaps omniscient... seemed to bore into the doppelgänger's soul like a tendril of swiftly-spreading cancer, or like a purple worm boring through desert sands... and he uttered even more chilling words, words that fell on "Kafka's" ears like a headsman's axe on a condemned criminal's neck: "I shall explain after I have crushed beneath my heel a certain 'little bird'... a 'little bird' that has been tweeting into hostile ears..."
Just after nightfall on Starday 22nd of Flocktime, during a torrential downpour that causes the overflowing bogs of the Vast Swamp to run over, and threaten to flood even the maze of narrow streets and alleys within Skull City, despite its elevation atop the great mound containing Acererak's infamous Tomb of Horrors ....
Drax the Invulnerable leads his elite companions on a second foray into that perilous labyrinth of lethal deathtraps and bewildering magical wards. They are one fewer in number and strength this time, for early on in the initial foray into the Tomb of Horrors, the delusional animus archmage, Jireen (previously foremost of the Five of Roland), was utterly annihilated when he flew on his carpet of flying into the circular black mouth of the infamous green devil face (at Drax's and Vornekern's urging).
Nonetheless, the band still consists of a veritable rogues' gallery of mighty and unscrupulous adventurers; besides Drax himself, the expedition's members are: the Fiend Sage of Rel Astra, a molydeus tanar'ri of great power and extensive occult knowledge; the archmage Vernnend, former master of the original Rel Astra Mage's Guild; two Dweomermasters of Rel Astra's reformed mage's guild, now called the Sorcerers' Nexus; the master thief Vornekern, one of the Five of Roland (and Drax's co-conspirator in Jireen's destruction); the legendary and enigmatic master thief known only as Goldwhite; and the formidable swordsman and leader of the Bannermen (a renowned mercenary band of the eastern Flanaess), Ranxxen Strangender.
They moved more swiftly and with greater assurance this time, having learned the best ways to proceed through the obstacles and hazards of the dungeon during their previous foray, and penetrated through to the crypt of Acererak in less than an hour (roughly a third of the time of their previous foray). After Drax had plucks the ancient jawbone of the demilich from the dusty floor of the crypt and secures it inside one of his belt pouches, they turn back and make their way back to the yawning, jet-black, circular void of the green devil face's open maw. Drawing the jawbone of Acererak from his belt pouch, Drax commands his company in sepulchral tones: "Fear not, my companions! The remnants of Acererak serve as the key to unlock the gateway to Moil--"The City that Waits".... We shall not be devoured by the mouth of the green devil, as was the mad fool, Jireen! The Hand of Vecna awaits! It shall be MINE!!"
Drax passes first through the black portal. The Fiend Sage, showing no outward sign of the trepidation even he could not entirely banish from his mind, follows his liege with only the briefest hesitation. After a much longer delay, during which the remaining companions muster their resolve, and silently wonder if they are plunging headlong into irreversible annihilation .... the rest of Drax's intrepid expeditionary company passes through the black mouth of the green devil face and into the dimension where Moil awaits ....
Drax is temporarily perplexed and mightily vexed by the absence in Acererak's tomb of the Hand of Vecna, so he withdraws his company from the Tomb of Horrors and spends some time among the "professors" of Necromantic lore and arcana at Skull City, the school of necromancy that has sprung up around the mound containing Acererak's Tomb.
His conspiracy with master thief Vornekern of the Five of Roland had at least come to the desired fruition--in the course of their initial foray into the Tomb of Horrors, the increasingly delusional animus mage Jireen (whom Vornekern had plotted with Drax to eliminate, as Jireen had also been one of Roland's ruling Five, and had become an increasingly troublesome liability among the Five of Roland) had been encouraged to recklessly fly on his carpet of flying straight into the black, circular void within a green devil's face carved in relief at the end of a corridor wall early in their explorations. He never came back out of that infamous black void, which Drax had learned through study and divination was equal to a stationary sphere of annihilation. So at the very least, master thief Vornekern was now bound by their agreement to preserver until Drax had obtained the Hand ....
Enduring hours of litanies and lectures on the nature of the plane of negative energy, Drax and his companions finally learned about Moil--"The City that Waits"--and about Acererak's presence there in the Fortress of Conclusion. It did not take the crafty animus archmage long to discover the means by which one could travel to Moil and the Fortress of Conclusion, where the gradual reformation of the demilich Acererak was being facilitated by his proximity to the Hand of Vecna .... He learned that the portal to "The City that Waits" was the very same perilous black mouth of the green devil's face that had annihilated Jireen and other hapless adventurers before him, unlocked with a most peculiar key--a bone from the remnants of Acererak, which laid within the final vault of the Tomb of Horrors! The Hand was now within his grasp!
Drax the Invulnerable proceeded with his plan to assemble a company of highly-capable adventurers and lead them on an expedition into the infamous Tomb of Horrors, where divinations (cast by Drax’s royal seer, the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra) had revealed that the Hand of Vecna had resurfaced in the legendary trove of the ancient and fiendish demilich Acererak. Over the latter half of Planting, with the magical and mundane assistance of the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra, Drax had made contact with several promising candidates, and had even managed to secure the services of some few of these.
By the first day of Flocktime, Drax had already recruited the Archmage Vernnend (former guild master of Rel Astra’s disbanded Guild of Mages), two “Dweomermasters” from the Sorcerer’s Nexus (Rel Astra’s recently reformed mages’ guild), the formidable swordsman Ranxxen Strangender (captain of the Bannermen mercenary company), and the cunning master thief Vornekern (one of the Five of Roland). By the 7th day of Flocktime, Drax had secured the participation of the increasingly delusional animus mage Jireen (another of the Five of Roland); and by the middle of the month, he’d convinced the notorious master thief Goldwhite to join the expedition.
On 17th Flocktime, Drax led his newly-formed company of adventurers on a perilous expedition deep into the Vast Swamp. Within the last week of the month, they’d tracked down Acererak’s ancient Tomb of Horrors, discovering the Black Academy (or Bleak Academy) and Skull City, a school of necromancy within a walled community that had sprung up on the hillside containing the tomb over the past few decades.
Posing as applicants seeking to study necromancy, Drax and his companions infiltrated Skull City and Bleak Academy, located the entrance to the Tomb of Horrors, and made their first foray into the infamously deadly dungeon on or around 23rd Flocktime, liberally casting divinations to forewarn them of the myriad perils on all sides. Proceeding with extreme caution, they at last penetrated into the former crypt and lair of Acererak, finding only a pile of charred bone and ash left over from the demilich’s destruction circa 577 CY, and no sign of the Hand of Vecna.
Drax the Invulnerable proceeded with his plan to assemble a company of highly-capable adventurers and lead them on an expedition into the infamous Tomb of Horrors, where divinations (cast by Drax’s royal seer, the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra) had revealed that the Hand of Vecna had resurfaced in the legendary trove of the ancient and fiendish demilich Acererak. Over the latter half of Planting, with the magical and mundane assistance of the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra, Drax had made contact with several promising candidates, and had even managed to secure the services of some few of these.
By the first day of Flocktime, Drax had already recruited the Archmage Vernnend (former guild master of Rel Astra’s disbanded Guild of Mages), two “Dweomermasters” from the Sorcerer’s Nexus (Rel Astra’s recently reformed mages’ guild), the formidable swordsman Ranxxen Strangender (captain of the Bannermen mercenary company), and the cunning master thief Vornekern (one of the Five of Roland). By the 7th day of Flocktime, Drax had secured the participation of the increasingly delusional animus mage Jireen (another of the Five of Roland); and by the middle of the month, he’d convinced the notorious master thief Goldwhite to join the expedition.
In Rel Astra ("City of the Heavens"), from Planting 18th up to Starday the 1st of Flocktime, 600 CY (during the party's return voyage down the Mikar and Thelly Rivers aboard the Triton to Nulbish) ....
Drax the Invulnerable proceeded with his plan to assemble a company of highly-capable adventurers and lead them on an expedition into the infamous Tomb of Horrors, where divinations (cast by Drax’s royal seer, the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra) had revealed that the Hand of Vecna had resurfaced in the legendary trove of the ancient cambion demilich Acererak. Over the latter half of Planting, with the magical and mundane assistance of the Fiend-Sage of Rel Astra, Drax had made contact with several promising candidates, and had even managed to secure the services of some few of these:
By the first day of Flocktime, Drax had already recruited the Archmage Vernnend (former guild master of Rel Astra’s disbanded Guild of Mages), two “Dweomermasters” from the Sorcerer’s Nexus (Rel Astra’s recently reformed mages’ guild), the formidable swordsman Ranxxen Strangender (captain of the Bannermen mercenary company), and the cunning master thief Vornekern (one of the Five of Roland).
Archmage Vernnend already resided in a tower within Rel Astra, and was a long-time associate and advisor to Drax; and the two Dweomermasters were likewise residents of Rel Astra, abiding within the Sorcerer's Nexus (Rel Astra's reformed Guild of Mages). Ranxxen Strangender put his chief lieutenant (Chungo Yaaj) in temporary command of the Bannermen and rode down from their secret cave-hideout in the Gull Cliffs, arriving at Drax's palace in Rel Astra on the 27th of Planting. Vornekern informed the other Five of Roland's ruling council that he would be away on "private business" for an indefinite term and bought passage aboard a merchant coaster down the Solnor coast, arriving at Rel Astra on the morning of Starday the 1st.
Godsday, 18th of Planting, 600 CY; interior of the Fiend-Sage's library within the Grand Palace of Rel Astra:
Drax The Invulnerable, animus tyrant of Rel Astra and current host of the legendary Eye of Vecna, mechanically paces clockwise around his chief advisor, the powerful greater demon known as the Fiend-Sage, which towers over Drax at more than twice the undead archmage's standing height. The Fiend-Sage stands motionless at the center of its great library within the Grand Palace, silently observing the lurching gait of the obsessive monarch as Drax completed another circuit around the great molydeus demon.
"The Eye grows ever more insistent," observes Drax, muttering more to himself than to the Fiend-Sage. "It will not wait much longer .... It compels me, entreating me with ever greater urgency, whispering in a fell voice that I alone can hear .... It desperately longs to be reunited with the Hand, but also with the lesser relics -- the so-called Fragments .... It pleads with and cajoles me one minute, and threatens me with dire warnings the next .... We can delay no longer! Drax halts in front of the Fiend-Sage, glaring up at the monstrous wolf-headed greater demon.
Drax's own right eye, no more than a tiny tongue of ghastly greenish flame flickering in the black hollow of its socket, was sharply contrasted by the dreadful Eye of Vecna implanted in his left eye socket, which was dull, black, and seemingly lifeless, like a tiny and shriveled orb of necrotic flesh or coagulated blood. The Fiend-Sage met the undead tyrant's unholy gaze with its own blazing amber demon's eyes, and the black lips of its muzzle peeled back in a silent snarl, revealing pearly canine teeth like curved daggers. "What does Your Immortal Majesty propose?" inquired the molydeus in its deep, demonic, snarling voice.
"I will assemble an elite company for a most perilous expedition into the Vast Swamp, to seek the fabled Tomb of Horrors, wherein the mighty Hand awaits, lying among other priceless treasures in the crypt of the demilich Acererak!" answers Drax, his gaunt and pallid features twisted into a monstrous expression of insatiable avarice and terrible ambition. "I will assemble and lead the expedition myself, with your unrivaled guidance, of course ...."
The Fiend-Sage snorted incredulously, rolling its fiery yellow eyes, and then growled in reply, "That accursed Eye has surely driven you to madness, my liege! Who on the face of the Oerth would be so foolhardy, so eager to face a fate worse than death, that they would agree to join you in so perilous a quest!?"
Drax leered maniacally at the huge demon and answered, "YOU, of course, my most excellent Fiend-Sage! YOU will join me in this bold quest .... and together, aided by the most capable companions we can recruit, we shall overcome every peril, and win the most precious of prizes -- the Hand of Vecna!" Drax ignored the Fiend-Sage's rumbling snarl of agitation and wolfish expression of doubtful bewilderment, and before any further objection could be raised by his demonic advisor, he began to consider various potential candidates to join them in a quest for the Hand of Vecna ....
