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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 4294520" data-attributes="member: 1210">“I have no idea where we are,” admits Baron Lillamere.The Staff of the Emerald Mage continues to point the way. When he balances it on a fingertip and spins it, it always comes to rest with one end clearly directing them. But this place is nothing like the Darkhold that they have encountered before. There is no deadly grass turning to fire in a courtyard, followed by the illusory bridge and the acid moat, followed by a strange porcelain toilet down which they have previously been flushed. Instead, a series of natural caves, followed by hewn stone, has proved to be their path. Finally, after another long hallway, the staff leads them to a comfortable sitting room- and Zelman. The emerald-skinned god of illusions glances up from a book as they enter and cocks an eyebrow. “Oh, hello,” he says nonchalantly. “Hello!” JJ exclaims.“Wow, I’m glad we found you,” Lillamere declares. “Where are we, anyway? This isn’t Darkhold- is it?”“Of course it is.” Zelman seems surprised by the question.“But there was no courtyard, or giant toilet,” Lillamere starts, and Zelman chuckles.“There are many entrances to Darkhold. It is... malleable. Under the touch of the Master, anyway. You probably just came in an entrance that you didn’t recognize. But- why are you here? Clearly you were seeking me...”“Yes,” Alcar replies. “We were hoping that you might be able to offer us aid against, or knowledge of, the Angels of the Apocalypse that are here.”“Also,” Chakar adds, “we encountered a strange figure in yellow outside-before we even entered Darkhold, I think- who seemed to have control over a blackball. Do you know anything about him?”Zelman looks stricken. “Yellow, you say? Trygar’s Hell!” “Who is he?” asks Wankerman.“He probably follows Sariach Entropy, whoever he is,” Zelman says glumly, and proceeds to explain some truly ancient history to our heroes. In the previous multiverse, the one that has been devoured almost completely by its dark, primordial entity called Tharizdun, the one that Zelman had originated in, in his youth (before he was a god) Zelman’s worse enemy had been Sariach Entropy- Highlord of Yellow Dragonsa and Master of Dissolution. His rivalry with Zelman was unending. They hated each other. Zelman was a hero, a defender of the innocent, a champion of fairness. Entropy was a villain of the worst sort, enslaving the minds of his victims, chaining them inside illusions and distorting their realities until they bent to his every whim. They fought, again and again, and killed each other, again and again.But Entropy was more than he seemed- much more. His Legion of Entropy consisted of people able to tap into the raw chaos that underlay the multiverse and tamper with it, creating blackening winds, chaotic blasts and even storms of chaos. “He said his name,” Alcar says suddenly. “The man in yellow- Kale!”“Kale,” whispers Zelman, stricken again.“You know him,” Chakar states.“He was an old friend in the original timeline,” Zelman says. “When Lester and his companions went back into our old multiverse a few decades ago to get what they needed to defeat Fuligin, they created a divergent timeline- one where things happened differently than I remember.”“But aren’t you from that timeline?” asks JJ.“No,” Zelman replies. “Look, it gets very complicated, between the divergent timeline, Scytale and the three of us that are Darkhold gods, so don’t worry about it too much.”“Sounds for the best,” admits Blaze. The long and the short of it, Zelman tells our heroes, is that Kale was an old ally and friend and a powerful archmage.* But Entropy was known for corrupting those that he got his hands on. If Kale has been turned to the side of Entropy...“But I don’t understand how he could be here,” Alcar says. “From what I understand, the old multiverse is just dying embers, and there is no connection between there and here.”“That’s true, as far as I know it,” Zelman answers. “But it’s possible that we have overlooked a very simple- a deadly simple- way around that, all this time.”“What?” asks Chakar, puzzled.Zelman taps a rectangular case at his belt. “Trumps,” he says. They continue to talk for a time, turning the implications of that possibility over and over. Trumps would allow someone with the right card the ability to communicate from one multiverse to another- perhaps even to travel from one to another.Of course, Zelman doesn’t tell them everything. He mentioned Scytale’s name once, but he does not repeat it or elaborate upon it. If his growing suspicions are true, though, Scytale- a representative of yet another timeline, one that preceded Zelman’s- may have caused more trouble than ever before.He and his people came back in time to my original time to prevent their advanced Armageddon, the god of illusions thinks. They watched as another one, this time the apocalypse of Tharizdun, swallowed up the world. I think he has gone back to try again- and Boccob only knows what madness he could cause!But these are not troubles for the party- they have plenty of other things to concern them. For the moment.***The party elects, at Zelman’s suggestion, to spend a little time poking around in Darkhold. There are few places that are actually dangerous for people of our heroes’ caliber to explore, but Darkhold is one of them. Indeed, there are mighty monsters within, but nothing that overwhelms the party, by any means. There is a brief petrification at the hands of a blackstone gigant, but that is easily fixed. Finally, the party exits Darkhold. They make what they expect will be a quick stop at the cave where Kale emerged and poke around a little. Gerontius easily finds a hidden alcove with a gallery of paintings in it- including one of Zelman, as well as a figure in yellow similar to, but somehow distinctly different from, Kale. The paintings are cold to the touch.“Don’t look at them for too long,” warns Alcar. “If they are trump paintings, you might contact someone we shouldn’t.”“Well, we certainly shouldn’t leave them here,” Lillamere argues. “What if the subjects can look out of the paintings?” asks Chakar. “Possible,” concedes Alcar, “but I don’t really know enough about them.”After some debate, the party decides to attempt to use the painting of Zelman- and they succeed, much to everyone’s surprise (including the Emerald Mage’s!). When they explain what they have found, the god immediately requests that they turn the paintings over to him, and after a small amount of debate, they agree. Zelman breathes more easily- he certainly didn’t want something like that in the wrong hands!Our heroes, meanwhile, start to discuss their next step- only to be interrupted by a sending that abruptly reaches Alcar.Help! Bile Lords expanding grip, doing something terrible to the sea. I am Shethra the evoker, the town of Angelfire is already gone. At Hillfar.He stiffens. “Let’s go.”Next Time: Beyond Bile Mountain!*In the 1st edition sense, not the 3rd edition or 4th edition sense.</blockquote>

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