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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1768151" data-attributes="member: 1210">Continuing to look in on npcs and others related to our (deceased) heroes... In the city of Var, at Horbin’s Halls of Healings, Ten Buck Tom paces back and forth.He is finally starting to worry about Horbin.I knew he’d probably be cut off from me in Bile Mountain, the dead cleric’s loyal cohort thinks to himself.  But I didn’t expect him to be away so long without any word.  I hope he’s all right.Ten Buck Tom has already tried all his divinations, tried everything he can think of.  He can learn nothing about the party’s fate.  Of course, it must be because of Bile Mountain’s terrible enchantments.  They can neither teleport into nor summon within nor divine anything about the uppermost levels of Bile Mountain.It’s been so long, Ten Buck Tom muses, and bites his lip.  He could...He stops the thought.  Not yet.  Not unless he’s absolutely certain that Horbin’s dead.Over the weeks Ten Buck Tom agonizes.  Sometimes he starts searching through Horbin’s empty chambers as if he is looking for something, but he always stops himself immediately, telling himself that he isn’t sure yet.  A terrible fear that his friend is dead falls upon Tom, and he drinks himself into a stupor trying to drive the idea from his head. Surely not. Looking in on him from afar when it can’t scry the other members of the party (sadly, they’re all dead), one of the simulacra of Marius sees Ten Buck Tom alone, pacing and obviously worried.  Shape changing into a half-elf, this particular Marius teleports to just outside of Var and then proceeds within the town, seeking information.  His discrete inquiries rapidly yield success, and the simulacrum ascertains that Ten Buck Tom has been attempting to gather any information that he can about the fate of his friends.  A few choice divinations later the simulacrum is filled in on as much as Ten Buck Tom is, and he considers his options.Clearly, the adventurers are out of reach for now, whether dead or so far beyond our plane that they are impossible to contact.  Perhaps this is a golden opportunity.The Marius pauses, contemplating.  It is more ambitious than its originator, more full of arrogance than even the real Marius could ever hope to be.  And it wants to be the real one- it wants to ride at the head of the Armies of Law.  It wants regiments of devils, backed up by temporal dimensionals and other creatures of Time, at its beck and call.  The real Marius- Marius the Chronomancer- stands in its way.It is time to choose its course, the simulacrum knows. “I,” it breathes, “am Marius the Worthy.”Over the next few months it sets Ten Buck Tom up and guides him like a weapon.  It drops hints and clues, a trail of bread crumbs that seem at first to offer hope that the party is alive.  By plucking an analogue of Horbin from another time frame, Marius the Worthy manages to leave even magical traces of the party.  And all the while, the trail leads inexorably to the real Marius.  And Ten Buck Tom’s anger grows, as winter turns to spring turns to summer.Meanwhile, a powerful giant cleric begins a quest.  He is twisted and malformed; his arms are not right, and he is far uglier than an average otyugh.  His name is Fnogghi Chaos-Hand, and he has found a few scraps of prophecy that he quivers in joy about.Worms, he thinks with a spasm of dull joy.At least one good thing comes from the death of our heroes.  When Pasha Amhari Ifroobil, would-be new Archomental of Elemental Evil Fire, seeks to hunt them down- he cannot.  His planned hunting expedition to the Material Plane is called off for lack of a worthy quarry, and the potential damage that a rampaging hunting party of powerful fire creatures could deal is avoided.  The Pasha decides, reluctantly, that his best interests are served by continuing his battle for the title of Elemental Prince of Evil on the plane of Fire.By early in the year 370 of Our Lord Galador, certain things about the course of the Great War of Ethics have become obvious.  While several of our heroes have, in the past, claimed that it is a conflict fundamentally about nothing, Law shows its desire to conquer and overcome the lands held by Chaos.  Ironically, by spring, only a few places remain in the hands of Chaos (or out of the hands of Law): Malford’s efforts on Dorhaus have created a rapidly-reforested realm that is almost an expansion of Greater Ketzia, or Faerieland.  His hair has developed a faint green tint, and his already-brown skin has grown more woody-looking.  He spends less and less time in Var and more and more time wandering in search of some eldritch secret with which to guard his realm.  Is it even really his any more?  How much of it does the Elf-King of Ketzia now own?Forinthia itself, the center of all things, roils in civil war.  Until the blade of the last king of the South Kingdom is restored, Chaos will continue to effectively render Forinthia proper useless to Law.  They cannot keep troops there without a breakdown of discipline, hundreds of desertions adding forces to the armies of the Three Kings of Forinthia.Pesh City is overwhelmed with Forinthian and orcish Valonian troops, keeping a firm hand on the mechanisms of trade, but outside of the city open, chaotic rebellions keep springing up.  Lawful forces find themselves scavenging and living off the land as much as they find themselves eating fresh grown produce and fresh caught fish.  Nobody wants to sell them food, and often the stores close when the troops head towards them.  Just as often those stores end up broken into and looted or even burned, but the Peshan state has always been Chaotic; to expect that to change now would be ridiculous. “Install a governor,” Prayzose orders.By the middle of spring Ten Buck Tom has forged a coalition of several willing and powerful allies to oppose Marius the Chronomancer, and the simulacrum that directed him is always grinning in the shadows.  This all changes, however, when the real Marius sends a (standard) simulacrum before Ten Buck Tom and his allies.“You’ve been had,” the simulacrum says.  “Marius has nothing to do with your friends’ misfortune, whatever happened to them.  He doesn’t know either.”“Why should we believe you?” Ten Buck Tom demands.“Because it would be stupid of Marius to raise a hand against your friends.  We- that is, Marius and your friends- came to an understanding long ago.  And Marius is a man of his word.”No matter what else, Tom reflects, that much is true.  He spends two sleepless nights debating his planned assault on Marius’ Citadel of Eternity, but calls it off.  He has been had, he admits bitterly; and because of it, more than a year has gone by.  He returns to the Halls of Healing with the aid of Arion the Archmage.“Well,” Arion says, sipping at his flask, “let me know if you need anything, Tom.”  And he departs.Ten Buck Tom goes up to Horbin’s room and takes a deep breath.This time, he thinks, I’m doing it.Next Time: Yes, there’s still at least one more update left in this thread.  Get ready for a big surprise!</blockquote>

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