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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2108874" data-attributes="member: 1210">The Complete History of the Multiverse in a Nutshell9/7/370 O.L.G., 5 p.m., the castle in Var“Thank you for coming so quickly, my friends,” Ten Buck Tom says soberly.  “I have something to show you.”The party follows him to a workshop deep in the castle.  A gnome in rich robes, with an impressive staff at his side, stands up to greet them.  “I believe you may have met Thimbleton at Drelvin’s funeral,” Tom says.  Pleasantries are exchanged.“This is our concern,” Thimbleton announces, gesturing at the work table he had been seated at when the group entered.  Something very complex, made of clockwork machinery, has been carefully disassembled on the table.  If it were put back together it might resemble an insect.“I’ve seen those before,” Horbin says slowly.*“Not like this.”  Thimbleton shakes his head.  “We’ve fought the horrors before- lots of them- but this one was different.  We found it in the castle, and we think it was waiting for an opportunity to assassinate the King.”“Where is King Malford?” asks Lillamere.  “I’ve needed to contact him for some time- what do you suggest?”“Well, Malford’s presently away on a secret mission.  I’m not really at liberty to say more than that.  The Queen is close at hand, but in hiding.”  Indeed I am, thinks the Queen ironically, unseen.Thimbleton continues, “We’re concerned that there might be attempts on her life as well.  We think the horrors are acting up- and Belmondo’s missing.”“Who’s Belmondo?” asks Veil.“Belmondo the Enhanced is another of the King’s old adventuring buddies.  He’s the head of the Rough Riders.  He’s a master prostheticist, among other things.”“A what?” asks Inoke.“He makes artificial limbs.  His Rough Riders are all maimed people with prosthetics.”“What does he have to do with these things?”  Horbin gestures at the dissected horror on the table.Thimbleton sighs.  “It’s a long story.  Among other things, Belmondo has the arm of E-Krektor, a lich who was involved as well.  He was also held prisoner by the horrors once and harvested for ideas to improve their designs.”“And you’re afraid something like that has happened again?” inquires Lillamere.  Thimbleton shrugs.  “I don’t know, but we haven’t been able to find him at all recently.”Our heroes relate their tales and concerns in turn.  The part most interesting to Thimbleton is the ancient Miloxi ruins that the group had been exploring in the Parrot Isles.  “Be careful,” he warns.  “The radiation is dangerous- ask Lester about it some time if you get the chance.”  He frowns.  “And Master Control and the clockwork horrors all came from that time, from the Miloxi era.”  He shakes his head.  “It’s actually rather complicated.“A good ten, fifteen years ago now- wow, time flies- the King, Lester, myself, Drelvin, Hobbes, Chobain, Stone- there were a bunch of us- were adventuring around and we started to run up against the clockwork horrors.  They are like metal insects.  They are very much a communal insect-like hive-mind kind of hierarchy.  From what we saw, copper horrors are the weakest.  They’re basically worker drones.  Silver ones are next- they seemed to serve as guards and to lead groups of coppers.  Then there were electrum, gold and platinum, which seemed to be more specialized combat horrors.  They all initially had these gems in their heads. The gem was the horror’s power source.  If you destroyed that, you disabled the horror. “Anyway, after a while they started changing, getting very creative with their construction.  We eventually found out why: because they had kidnapped Belmondo and strapped him into a giant horror.  We had to break inside of it, fight our way through the horrors within it and extract him.”  Shaking his head at the memory, Thimbleton adds, “It wasn’t easy.  It did fit a pattern that Master Control used more than once- grabbing other individuals for the sake of their creativity.“Later, we backtracked to the Isle of Horrors, which was really a giant mechanical isle that the clockwork horrors could use to travel around.  We had a, a...”  He stops, frowns, and scratches his beard.  “I don’t know how to describe it.  A weapon, I guess, or an item, which we could use to engage Master Control... on... another plane, I guess, is the best way to describe it.”  He frowns.  “Belmondo was the one to use it.  He engaged Master Control in, I guess you could say psychic combat, and managed to trap it with the weapon... or... maybe think of it as a magical effect...”  He pauses again, clearly frustrtated at his inability to describe these things.  But Forinthian has no words for these things.“What’s this ‘Master Control’ you keep talking about?” asks Lillamere.“Oh, man, this is all so complex.”  Thimbleton sighs again.  “Has Lester ever told you about Darkhold?  About how Boccob, and Carella, and the other so-called ‘new gods’ got to Cydra?”“A little...”“All right, so in a very oversimplified nutshell, this is the story.  There was a previous universe- actually, a previous multiverse- but it was destroyed by a dark entity called Tharizdun.  The multiverse that Cydra is part of began as a sort of magical simulation done by a guy called the Master of Darkhold, who had escaped the destruction because he existed outside of the normal multiverse.  Fuligin, who I’m sure you have all heard of, was a servant of Tharizdun who had been trapped inside Darkhold when the previous multiverse was destroyed.  When we were in there the first time, Lester accidentally released him on the world.  He then proceeded to lay waste to Dorhaus, and we couldn’t stop him and his armies of fiends.  We had to go back in time to the previous multiverse to gather the proper components to birth a new Nature to make our own multiverse real so that we would have a way to bind Tharizdun and thus make it possible to defeat Fuligin.“Anyway, one of the constructs that existed in the previous multiverse was called Adam.  It was a magical, psionic, technological, intelligent suit of dwarven full plate with many powers and abilities of all sorts built into it, originally created by a dwarven hero called Iron Dwarf.**  It was one of the very few things that the Master of Darkhold took from the previous universe before escaping its utter destruction.  When he began simulating a new universe- Cydra before we birthed a new Nature, in fact probably millions or billions of years ago- Adam was allowed to enter it.  Adam had a profoundly growing mind, you see, and wished to see all there was to see.  He wished to study a distorted reflection of what might have been in his old universe.“Unfortunately, he was apparently infected by an informational entity from his original universe- a powerful enemy of Iron Dwarf and his companions called Master Control.  I guess it had control over the machines of its entire world... I don’t know much about that part, only the bit Adam told us.”“You met this Adam?” exclaims Veil.Thimbleton nods.  “Yes, when we were on the Isle of Horrors.  Because Adam, too, was a prisoner of them.  I think- this is all put together from hints and bits and pieces now- I think that Adam helped the Miloxi Empire develop at least some of its powers.  They were the ones who originally built the horrors, but I don’t know why exactly- them, and a Drow lich we now know as E-Krektor.  Anyway, at some point Master Control struck from surprise, disabling Adam and taking over all the horrors.  Until we came along and took it out nothing could threaten it, because it doesn’t have a body or anything.  It exists as pure information, and it can jump from one host to another like a possessing ghost.”  “Interesting,” muses Horbin.  “And potentially very useful!  So what happened to this lich?”“Well, we destroyed him, but we never destroyed his phylactery,” Thimbleton admits.  “So he’s probably out there somewhere.”“Let’s just consider him an enemy by proxy,” suggests Gerontius.***Horbin communes.Has Pandos the traitor truly atoned? Yes.Was the pit fiend his lord? Yes.Does the pit fiend’s lord know he’s dead? Yes.Does he know who killed him? Yes.Is he actively plotting revenge? No.Interesting, thinks Horbin.  Why not?Is he at all angry? Yes.Is King Malford held somewhere against his will? No.Is Queen Moira held somewhere against her will? No.Are there any radiation weapons we can find in Inoke’s ruins that we’ve started exploring? Unknown.Are there any living creatures in Cydra with knowledge of the radiation technology the Miloxi used? Yes.Will this individual help us if we approach him or her? Unknown.Is he or she human or one of the other races of the fair folk? Some.Is Hashrek truly an elf? No.Is he humanoid? No.Is he an outsider? No.Will we find the way deeper into the ruins through following the waterway that Inoke has suggested? Yes and no.Are there more of the hard suits with the dials in the chest in the complex? Unknown.Do any of the Queen’s enemies know where she is? Probably not.Is Thrush doing his best to administer true justice to the people as Sheriff of Brelana? No.Horbin frowns.Is he just having a good time with it? No.Better than nothing, he judges.Is all well in the marriage of the Emperor and the Tiger Empress? Yes.Will we be able to persuade the Tiger Empress to swear loyalty to the continent of Dorhaus? Yes.When he comes out of his holy trance, Horbin stretches.  “We should rest the night,” he says, “and head back to the tabaxi ruins.”Inoke nods.  “I’m very concerned about it.  What if it’s poisoning my island even now?”“Good point,” Veil acknowledges.  “We don’t know what that radiation stuff will do, or how far it will spread.”“I think it’s a bad idea,” opines Lillamere.  “If it’s poisoning anything, it’s bound to poison us.”“We have to help my people,” insists Inoke.“You’re right, we do.  I’m just saying, it’s not the smartest thing I’ve ever heard of.”The rest of our heroes are forced to agree.Next Time: Our heroes meet- the Ur-Fish!*Referring way back to his adventures in my old story hour, starting about <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=316427#post316427" target="_blank">here.</a>**I kid you not.  He was a pc.  We’re looking back before this campaign world now.</blockquote>

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