Doom

General Summary

Introduction

After the fish fry, Cassandra, Sirkel , and Farren sat and chatted together for a while. Their pleasant conversation was interrupted by the noise of a caravan arriving at the entrance to Beyonder's Blades. The three adventures decided to go welcome the caravan to their settlement.

They saw a group of several merchants and about a dozen aneens. The big pack animals had a white lather of sweat around their pack straps and they were breathing hard. The merchants shoulders were slumped down and their tread was heavy with fatigue. Cassandra approached and welcomed the new arrivals. The merchants perked up a bit and returned her greeting.

One of them asked if Tidran was at the settlement. Cassandra explained that he was busy but she was his sister. The merchant seemed relieved to hear this. He explained that they were the first merchant caravan from Nebalich. They had a full caravan of trade goods, lumber, and fish for Tidran.

As the merchants began to unpack, one of their comments caught Sirkel's attention "I hope the aneens are ok after running that hard. Its not like we had any choice though, I'm just glad to be safely back in civilization again." Sirkel frowned. The purpose of Beyonder's Blades was to ensure the safety of merchant caravans along the roads. He asked the merchants if they had encountered any trouble along the road.

The merchant explained that they were getting ready to camp for the night when something spooked the aneens. Something unseen attacked their camp! It downed one of their aneens, and the merchants had fled. They had pushed the animals hard and finally managed to make it to the settlement. He added that if they had to hire guards for their caravans they would not be able to offer such low prices.

Protecting the Trade Routes

Cassandra had overheard and asked where the attack had occurred. The man gave them directions to a place a few hours journey south. Cassandra squinted at the later afternoon sun. If they moved quickly, they just might be able to reach the area indicated before night fully set in. Sirkel and Farren agreed that they should attempt to investigate the new threat to the vital trade route. The three quickly set off to backtrack the merchant's trail.

After a few hours of brisk hiking the group left the burned down forest and entered the verdant greens and silvers of living trees. They found the merchant's abandoned campsite shortly thereafter. Cassandra's keen eyes noticed that one of the bushes looked odd somehow. She focused intently on it for a moment and finally saw the camouflaged outline of a balikna looking back at her. She quietly alerted her two friends to the threat.

The three adventurers pulled their weapons and set upon the beast! Farren's sword sank into the beast's flank while Cassandra's searing light beams burned deeply into the monster. In return, it lunged with razor sharp teeth and claws, and swung its heavy spiked tail in vicious arcs. The three were quite experienced however and after a short and intense fight the monster lay slain on the ground.

Sirkel was able to harvest meat and hide from the balikna. Looking around, the trio found several cyphers nearby; they were all that was left of the merchant's aneen. They collected the cyphers into their packs. Farren opened a portal back to Beyonder's Blades, and they slipped back into the settlement just as twilight was giving way to night.

They found the merchant at the inn, and explained that the trade route should now be safe again. The merchant thanked them heartily for their assistance. After a brief bit of banter with each other, the adventurers all headed off to bed.

Convergence of the Worlds

As they drifted off to sleep an unsettlingly familiar feeling of biting cold came over them. They saw a narrow bridge in front of them ending in an abyss. Shadows began to slip across. Each adventurer seemed to be floating alone in an immense dark void. To their right they spied their bed a long ways off through the darkness. Behind them was a crowd of people in unfamiliar clothing. The people were huddled at the base of an immense cliff. The adventurers saw old and worn men and women and a few children. There were no young men or anyone who looked capable of really defending themselves. The people stared in horror at the bridge as it grows ever darker. Methuselah called to the adventurers from their left.

Reality seemed to shift and suddenly the heroes stood talking with the old man, Methuselah. He said that only a few seconds had passed for him since he had encountered them last (it had been a whole day for the adventurers). He asked if they had completed his big box? When they all answered yes he frowned for a moment. "I seem to be talking to multiple people at once, are you in a group?" he asked. He pulled something out of his pocket and fiddled with it briefly.

Once again, reality shifted somehow. Suddenly, the heroes could all see each other! They were all finally together in their surreal trip across time. Farren pushed the large, almost weightless boxlike thing to Methuselah. He thanked her profusely and pulled the big box to where the people where huddled. He opened a ramp on its side, and the people began to quickly get inside.

Methuselah turned back to the heroes. He seemed to steel up his nerves for a moment. "I need someone to stand on that bridge" he stated quietly "I used the last of our anti-gravitron store to create this haven. There is only one way in which is what you perceive as a bridge." The adventurers looked closer, and they could see an energy barrier of some sort on holding back the darkness. The barrier appeared stressed and about to fail; angry sparks showered from it and were devoured by the void.

"I am pushing my anti-gravitron generater to failure to make more anti-gravitrons to power the time weapon" Methuselah explained "but I need a few moments time to generate enough." The old man hesitated, and then continued even more quietly than before. "I also cannot guarantee your safety on that bridge. You would be facing the full fury of the void, and I do not know if my modified weapon can pull out anyone not inside the box."

A Light in the Darkness

The adventurers hesitated. It was a suicide mission to stand on that bridge. Home and safety seemed far away, the cold and the darkness pressed in around them and they seemed very small indeed compared to the dark abyss seeking to snuff out all life. For a moment, it seemed that the last light of hope flickered out of the universe. Then, a tiny spark of hope flared into existence. Tidran strode forward. "I will stand in the gap so that others might have a chance at life" he proclaimed.

His spark of light and defiance of death inspired Cassandra. Another spark flared bright in the void as Cassandra stepped up besides her brother. Farren pulled out her sword and stepped up besides her friends. Hope blazed brighter! Sirkel deliberated internally. He was not much use in combat. Decision made, he stepped up with his friends. Hope now burned brightly for even the smallest of candles will throw back the blackness. An ember seemed to catch in Lilith's heart. She stepped forward and joined her friends. The companions would brave certain death together in order that their candle of hope might spare the death of all mankind.

 

Last Stand

  The heroes marched grimly to the bridge. The barrier flickered and fizzled as the cold void on the other side ate away at it. Tidran raised his arm and a force shield emanated from his brace. His energy barrier stood strong between his friends and the abyss. Cassandra's forehead blazed brightly and she added a wall of hard light to her brother's shield wall. Sirkel and Lilith prepped powerful cyphers. Farren took a firm stance and pointed her sword at death.

They were none too soon. Methuselah's barrier finally gave way in a final angry burst of energy. Immediately, the darkness pushed through and pressed up against Tidran's shield. The arkus looked at his shield and winced. His barrier would not last for more than a minute under the immense strain being put on it. Sure enough, it quickly disappeared in a bright flare as it was overloaded. Cassandra's light barrier was next. It too held for only the briefest of minutes before shattering under the tremendous pressure emanating from the void.

As the frigid blackness swirled toward the adventurers a cypher was thrown to greet it. The cypher shattered on the bridge releasing a gas. The vapors affected the heroes eyes, allowing them to pierce the utter dark. The sight that greeted their eyes was no less comforting than the nothingness they had seen before. Legions of shiverns pressed forward. It was from them that the darkness was generated.

Floating above their heads were eldmor, vicious sentient war machines. Each eldmor was around two hundred feet long and capable of flattening a city in an instant. There were dozens of the colossal abominations within eyesight, and immense vague shapes stirred further back beyond that.

Tidran was determined to protect his friends as best he could. He used his shield like a battering ram, swinging vicious blows into the oncoming shiverns. Several of the death machines fell before his powerful and furious blows. Whenever he could spare the energy, Tidran sent a healing pulse from his shield which restored badly needed health to the group. His muscles trembled as he pushed his body to its limits to hold back the advancing onslaught.

Cassandra stood steadfastly beside her brother. The crystal in her forehead radiated heat as one white hot beam after another shot from it incinerating her foes. Her brain ached from the intense effort she was putting into not only slaying the evil things but also generating protective walls of hard light. She teetered on the edge of blacking out from the mental strain. Somehow, she found a way to grimly keep going.

Farren had spent a long time and a lot of money preparing for a day such as this. She pulled several cyphers from her belt and used them to deadly effect. Her energy enhanced sword burned brightly in the gloom as she swung it with practiced ease. Over and over again she carved great searing gashes striking shivern and eldmor alike. She put all her effort into her formidable skills, not caring if she collapsed from overexertion.

Sirkel realized that the group was hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched. But, he had a few nasty surprises of his own. From his pack he pulled out powerful explosive cyphers and hurled them at the enemies marching towards him. Shiverns fell and Eldmor armor cracked from the blasts. The delve threw himself unreservedly into the fight, putting all his effort into creating the largest possible pile of dead foes.

Lilith's instincts told her to run as fast as she could. She ignored those impulses. Healing energy sprang from the jaded jack bolstering her friends. Her new companions were not going to die just yet if she had anything to say in the matter. She set her jaw determinedly. The nightmarish eldmor and the diabolically dark shiverns would not touch her before she was totally spent and exhausted.

Overwhelming force

  From the box behind them, and old nano emerged. Smoke rose from his hands as they emitted dazzling white lighting into the mass of shiverns. He had been hiding in the box with the others but when he saw the bravery of the doomed heroes he somehow found the courage to join them. However, his body was old and frail. He put the last of his life force into his attacks. His lightning cracked with power as he overloaded his tired old body.

Despite losing dozens of shiverns, the force of evil was relentless. On and on it pressed. The shiverns' cruelly sharp claws tore through shield and armor in their relentless assault. The eldmor blasted the heroes over and over again with great rending dimensional waves. These waves went through their amour like it didn't exist. Each attack hit extremely hard. The debilitating waves of dimensional energy burned with cold as they carved off huge hunks of health from the adventurers.

Sirkel was caught up in the dangling pincers of an eldmor as it swooped down over his head. The pincers pulsed with strange energy and he felt a surge of energy from his grav-belt. Suddenly, he was no longer with his friends but surrounded by swirling temporal energy! He soon realized he was watching the history of the Ninth World on high speed fast forward. He fiddled with his tingling grav-belt and realized he could drop out of the time stream at any point in space and time that he desired!

He chose to exit the time stream a couple of days before their fight on the bridge. He used the next two days to obtain several very powerful war cyphers. One of them was a cypher replicator. He had this replicator produce dozens of explosive incendiary cyphers. After two days had expired, he once again found himself back on the bridge with his companions.

They weren't doing well. Muscles screamed in pain as fatigue toxins built up. Mental responses slowed as synapses overloaded trying to keep up with the impossible pace of the fight. Several heroes stumbled and fell beneath the relentless assault. Sweat froze in the bitter cold. The situation was grim indeed. "I'm at 60% charge, hang in there!" came a distant call from Methuselah.

Sirkel activated his cyphers and flew into the air, unleashing a torrent of fiery explosions onto the battle. He allowed himself a grim smile at the sight of dozens of dead shiverns piling up. He willed the old man to hurry with his infuriatingly slow generator.

Farren pulled out a device she had been working on for a long time. It created a pocket dimension through which she and her friends could escape to safety. She activated the doorway right next to the group. The end looked near, and she intended to prevent certain death if at all possible.

Somehow the group rallied and fought. They fought harder than they had ever thought was possible. They battled through blurred vision and exhausted muscles. The gritted their teeth through crippling injuries. Blood and sweat flowed from them and froze into beautiful crystals that floated off into the abyss. They hoarsely yelled at Methuselah to hurry as their limbs shattered underneath a combined wave from several eldmor at once.

Stumbling and fumbling they held their ground. Falling and crawling as their legs gave way. Grabbing and stabbing blindly as they used their broken bodies to stop their foes. The void loomed over them and the abyss yawned beneath them. The light of hope flickered and the darkness surged to obliterate them.

The End

  Suddenly, their grav-belts all pulsed with energy. "Done!" came the cry from Methuselah. Instantly, the bridge and the darkness disappeared. They found themselves in the swirling time stream which Sirkel had already experienced. They quickly realized they could move at will and exit wherever and whenever they desired!

Sirkel chose to leave the timestream and become a mentor to his younger self. He was able to coach himself to avoid many pitfalls along his life. He still carried a sense of regret for his old mentor, but this time he was able to prevent his mentor from falling to his death. His mentor lived another year before passing away peacefully of old age in his sleep. The rest of the group chose to go forward to the next morning and pick up their lives where they had left off.

They all awoke as the light of the morning sun burned away the darkness. The air had a slight chill that quickly warmed up. It seemed normal to them that there were two Sirkels, they had always known it to be that way. They all felt as though something important had happened in a dream, but they could not recall exactly what. The heroes rose from their beds in the safety of their settlement and prepared to face whatever lay ahead.