The hatchway cleared and cracked by Stelisto and Azariel lies open before you. You look down a seemingly bottomless well. It stretches along the length of the Pillar MIDEN, disappearing into the Stygian depths of the Maruss Ocean. (other Pillars: NOMOS, KAOS)

Azariel, you remember the Alabaster Trident when it stood amidst Azlant-That-Was. The power that Auberon must have wielded to transport it and plant it here in this manner alongside the great Pillars, rooted in the sea bed, would have driven a mortal being mad. But Auberon is no mortal. Every clue you have discovered through your descent through the shaft of the lich’s tower has made it clear to you that Auberon is obsessed with discovering the secret of the pillars.

Vallik—Auberon’s erstwhile shapeshifting majordomo who was involved in a game of cat and mouse in Talasantri with Ochyuma’s deep merfolk terrorists—made it clear to you in his debrief on board the Enterprise that the lich had grown even more agitated and paranoid with the reappearance of Ochyuma.

Vallik said that Auberon believed his ten-thousand-year-old arch-nemesis was here, traversing the millennia, to steal Auberon’s hard-won knowledge. Vallik warned that were two such powers to come to blows, a point to which their fierce competition would inevitably lead, the entire Mazari continent if not Sentar itself would suffer the collateral damage.

Icy waters heave upward from the depths, making your joints ache. Are the pillars truly to be trifled with? What has Auberon done?

This room is empty except for a glowing specimen tube attached to a clockwork device. Something like a metronome, slowly tracking the passage of time. The tube is sealed at either end by steel stone. Tables on either side hold dozens of ongoing experiments. Inside, rather improbably, there’s a goblin female wearing vaguely familiar colourful robes. One of her hands has been torn off at the elbow. Her body wracked with magical trauma. Glowing filaments seems to grow from the goblin’s head and feet attaching to the steelstone ends from inside the tube.

Luckums! (or someone dressed like her) 

She was one of the heroes from Wildspace whose remarkable chronomancy helped you to defeat Ruinquake outside Talasantri.

What events could possibly have brought her (or her likeness) to this end in the depths of Auberon’s sunken tower?

There is a wall with two pressure doors about ten feet apart. Each is surrounded by a series of sealed vents. One of the doors is currently open, along with all of the vents around it. Both rooms beyond are filled with water. There are a pair of handwheels and levers next to each of door. Next to the open door, the levers are down (ENGINEERING).

·        There is a pressure room for flooding and emptying between the sunken area and what should be a dry room beyond

·        The handwheels are for filling the room. The pressure room has drains built into the floor.

·        There are clockwork mechanisms here – once the sealing and unsealing process has begun, it continues automatically

·        It looks as though the inside door smashed up against the tiled wall of what should have been the dry room

The flooded room contains Azlanti-style dynamos and crucibles, reminiscent of those you found in the Sunken Cathedral on Zanas-Than, now extinguished. Something that looks like a cross between a torture device and an examination table tilts forward, bolted to the floor. It is covered with opened clamps, blackened and charred, and surrounded by tubes that lead to the piping that you have found throughout the level. They float gently, leaking fell fluids into the sharp-tasting water. Next to it stands a steel-stone portal. Two cables ending in bloody barbs are attached to it. Small fish nip at bits of fatty flesh clinging to the barbs. All manner of nightmarish instruments lie at the far end of the room, pushed up against the wall.

The grey-skinned humanoid creature peeled and pinned for examination on the twin of the other room’s table is like nothing you’ve ever seen. Nor is the state in which you’ve found it.

You are battle hardened. You have witnessed horrors. But this defies all explanation. Your hearts quicken as you exchange glances to reassure one another about what you are seeing.

The instruments in this room are neatly organized on trays. There is a pool of coagulated gore on the floor around the angled table to which its mutilated body is affixed.

Its limbs are pulled akimbo, amputated and clamped in clockwork devices attached to more dynamos. Its head has a mechanical mask affixed to hold it in place. That seems to be the only thing holding its bulbous head together. Bolted tubes deliver some sort of animated gas into over-sized eyeless sockets. Blackened instruments and trailing cables are wedged into its mouth which has been cut larger to accommodate all of them.

Through flayed skin, neatly pulled back and folded, you can see its skull has been meticulously sawed open in several places. The entire top of its cranial case has been removed. Its drying brain is exposed, darkened, and painfully inflamed, bristling with needles and nodes. Many of these are affixed to copper wires while tubes extract and deliver fluids to and from its recesses.

The twisting cables on the steelstone portal next to the table in this room are inserted deep into the pitiful creature’s tortured flesh – in its neck and its belly.

You are shocked when the thing on the table moans and twitches. How could it possibly be alive? The voice in your head is impossibly calm.

Depravity.

Depravity was only ever a concept to Us before now. We did not understand how savage our Garden had become.

It speaks in your own voice and mother-tongue. However, the sense you have that this is the creature speaking is beyond any doubt. The vocabulary being chosen to communicate is slightly off – as though it can only find the second-best words. The effect is disconcerting.

Forgiveness begged. We are unaccustomed to cultural formalities of requesting assistance. Gardeners were better suited for interactions. Auberon used them as bait to draw us.

You must be the intruders that so distracted Auberon. Your activities allowed That-One-of-Us to escape. In our haste to end depravity, That-One-of-Us created a greater dilemma. This-One-of-Us must enlist your assistance. Will you comply? Please. All of reality depends on it.

FAQ…

·        Inbetween Men. Architects. This is what you call us. We come from the First World.

·        Our access to the Spheres was long cut off by our past haste. Other fortune-hunters, like you, reworked the… paradox… that allowed us access again. In our absence much has changed. The Garden has grown wild. Many now wield our technologies.

·        Auberon has pursued That-One-of-Us to the Interface. The Interface holds the Cradle Code that governs and sustains the Spheres.

·        Auberon should not have been able to enter the Interface.

·        Auberon is depraved beyond all understanding. If Auberon learns more Cradle Code, he will grow more powerful. A Fourth Pillar. A Pillar of Depravity.

·        We created the Pillars out of the First Tree, after the doom summoned by Azlant began to spread, destabilizing all of Sentar and its precious Sphere. We hardly understood what we were doing. Sentar and its Sphere were not a part of our original design.

·        Use Auberon’s formulas. Partake of the flesh of This-One-of-Us. Enter the Interface. Stop Auberon before he disrupts the Pillars.

·        This-One-of-Us can no longer communicate. Weary. Depravity. Expiration is near. Partake. Activate Auberon’s device. Open the gate.

Final Words

-        This-One -of-Us indicates to you how to activate the gate, which draws from his own mind

-        He indicates to you where to find an alchemical concoction derived from his own flesh

-        You will have to make more for everyone to pass through the gate.

-        You Learn: Inbetween Men travel to the Interface by "folding" in on themselves.

• This-One-of-Us begins to shake violently. Auberon’s engines begin to hum

• The gate crackles to life. Weakly at first. The body of This-One-of-Us arches and strains. It lets out a terrible psychic scream. More power surges. The energy aperture is clear now.

• “PARTAKE” – firm and urgent

• According to his instructions, you must drink the alchemical extract

• You try to pass through, but you are not able to do so. You try again.

• The gate crackles and Luckums the Goblin (with both hands) pulls herself through, “Oh good, you’re all here. Come with me if you want to live!”

“Roll for initiative.”

That’s what Ryan says. He’s running a D&D game. Your regular Dungeon Master was a no-show, so Ryan stepped in with a game he’s GM’d on and off for a few months.

It’s OK, but some of you have a hard time remembering all of the finnickty details. Ryan is only too happy to regale you for hours with backstory. Which is what he is doing now.

You are at Ernest’s house in Saint Hintonbert, a small town just outside of Edmontawwa, where you all grew up in the province of Albertario. It’s the 80s. You’re between the ages of 11 and 14. Your bikes and skateboards are on the lawn out front. It’s a beautiful fall day. Halloween is a couple of nights off and falls on a weekend this year. You have character sheets are in front of you. Life is Awesome.

The game has taken your heroes beyond time, to other dimensions.

From the basement, you hear the screendoor at the back of Ernest’s house open and bang shut, followed by the sound of a familiar voice, “Salut Madame Chong! Ça va?”

JP.

He’s late. JP is always late. After a moment his petit conversation with Ernest’s mom wraps up and he enters the room holding the cookie she gave him.

His natural smile disappears, like he’s just remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

His voice is suddenly low and conspiratorial. “Did you guys hear what happened to Chris?”

Riedmueller. Your Dungeon Master has never skipped a game without at least giving you a heads up. You look at one another and lean forward.

“B’en, I just bumped into Robert Boyer. He was riding his bike from Lake Woods. He said he talked to a kid that swears he saw him get abducted! Thrown into a white van by dudes in full biohazard gear.”

His eyes widen. He picks up a d20 and lets it fall from his hand, clattering on the table…

“Roll for initiative.”

NEXT STOP - YURTCON 9