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The 13th Hour

Note from 1023 - I found this among my things from two lifetimes ago.

This is an account of the potential end of all things, by Ged of the
Order of the Lantern. Recorded 10/2/1008, pertaining to events on
9/20/1008.

In the days leading up to the quest, Warlord Cimone's "ball" of Deep
Fae magic which she had been given by King Pyr had begun acting
strangely. It seemed to move around of its own accord while she was
sleeping, and one time was found in the morning sitting balanced on
the top of the saddle of her horse, which it apparently saddled by its
own power. When it was put on a string, it immediately leaned in one
direction. The Azure Guard followed where it indicated, and arrived in
the tavern which was to become the Nexus.

The day of the quest, a number of heroes of the Realms were
transported from the tavern we had gathered in to the Nexus. Many
small quests were undertaken, but the main one I will concern myself
with were the ones involving the Bois of Bedlam.

One of the portals in the Nexus opened in to a thick mist. After some
travel, a clock would appear, which could be set to any hour from noon
to midnight. Once a time was chosen, the mists would open to a time
and place. Any given time would always return to the same scene. I
only was present for and retain memories of one quest through this
portal.

The first time the portal opened, the clock was set to
"dinnertime", possibly 5:00. The party of adventurers were met by a
classic "save the damsel" quest. Once they brought the woman back to
her betrothed, he moved to embrace her, and suddenly turned into a Boi
of Bedlam, uttered "I will devour your soul!", and apparently did
so. At this moment the mists closed in and brought the party back to
the Nexus.

The second time the portal opened, the clock was set to the same time
as the first, in an attempt to prevent the Boi from consuming the
woman. However, the party was unable to. An Identify Creature spell
was cast on the man at the beginning, and he was reported as human. I
suspect that he may have been using some form of the Shapeshifting
spell, but cannot be certain. Despite their best efforts, the quest
ended the same as the first.

One time, although I am not certain whether this was the second time
the portal opened or a third time, the heroes on the quest encountered
Freesia. She said that Cuchullain and Nimbus were dead. When this was
reported back to the Nexus, I cast a Fortune Tell spell asking how
many years after the fall of Oberon Cuchullain died. The response was
Insectafae writing in my notebook, saying that it did not matter and
that we had bigger problems to deal with, like the Bois. It was signed
by the Duke of Magic. I know the person whom I believe to be the
current Duke of Magic, and as well as not knowing Insectafae well
enough to write it that quickly, he also does not normally talk to me
in the tone of voice that my answer was in. I believe this to have
been a later Duke of Magic, contacted either because of time being
weird in the Nexus, time being weird in Fae, or both.

I was part of a party which entered the portal and set the clock to
3:00. We met a man fighting off the Bois, who we believe to be a
Wellman. He told us that his people had been fighting off the Bois,
though at the moment he was the only one alive among his party. We
killed the Bois who were around us, and also destroyed a Soul Eater,
which had to be struck with a weapon which had a piece of Hematite in
contact with the handle three times before we could kill it. Each
strike required a new piece of hematite, and caused it to vanish and
reappear later.

I was also part of another party which entered the portal, but my
report of it still must be told from second-hand knowledge, for
reasons that will become apparant. We set the clock to 7:00, and
arrived in a blood-soaked fortress. Outside of the fortress, countless
Bois swirled around, and some attacked through the gate. Our fighters
held them off while others tried to figure out what to do. I know I
used several Fortune Tells, but the answers were apparently that this
was inevitable. Eventually the Bois must have overcome our fighters,
and killed either all or most of us. I was scalped during this time,
and I believe that soon after the mists returned us to the Nexus. My
first memory after walking through the portal to begin the quest is of
being raised in a very large group healing, so I suppose that most or
all of us must have been killed by the Bois, and that someone called
my soul. My thanks to whomever did it, I never found out.

At some point during the day, the magus Bright used his powers to
directly communicate with the Nexus. He receieved a vision of thin,
branching black lines. At the split from one line to two, he saw two
images. One of a dagger stabbing someone in the back, and the other of
the dagger being parried. It was assumed that this was showing the
branching timeline. Although there was no central line for most of the
vision, at the top all of the lines came together into a very thick
black line. Then it abruptly ended, but a silver thread appeared to
start from just above the end to back behind the start of the thickest
part of the line.

Most of us took a break from questing to eat in the early
evening. Soon after that, we began preparing for whatever the night
would throw at us. In addition to the portal with the clock and the
Bois, we had determined that the regional magics were for fighting
against Bedlam. For this reason, we began preparing for encounters
with Bedlam. I did my best to spread knowledge about it to the heroes
who hadn't heard as much about it as me.

Just after we were more or less ready, the tavern started collapsing,
and the portal which had lead us to the quests with the Bois
opened. We hurried through, into complete darkness, and were
immediately attacked by Bois. We fought them along the path, until we
passed the clock from before. It was lying on the ground, and the
hands were curled up. Across the face was a large "13".

Immediately after the clock, we saw a man some distance away. He
appeared to be glowing, and as we approached we saw that he was the
mage Cecil. He looked almost inhuman, and was missing one of his
eyes. On seeing us, he said something similar to "No! This can't be
real! You're all dead! I AM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE, AND IT ENDS
WHEN I END IT! TOTAL REALITY FAILURE!" Before reality could fully end,
however, Bright responded with the most powerful regional spell, "I am
the center of the universe, and it doesn't end until I end it! Reality
Restored!" Cecil looked at him, and the rest of us, with amazement,
realizing we were real. He wondered how this could be possible,
because, according to him, "Reality ended five minutes ago." The only
reality left was in a small bubble which he was maintaining, and had
almost ended. Cecil also told us that he had taken the final step with
the Turok sphere, which seems to mean he had become a god. He asked if
Cimone had the "Final Gift" with her. When she answered that she had
the Deep Fae magic, Cecil told us that this meant we had a chance this
time. We had to get to Tarnisha's Gate, as Tarnisha was the only one
who made it back last time. Cecil set off and we followed closely.

The first obstacle we encountered was a field entirely filled with
Bedlam. King Pyr was there, with his own Gate. As a Knight of Eagle's
Rook, he would be able to open the gate and allow us 30 seconds to
cross the field safely, although he would have to remain behind. He
opened the gate and we sprinted across. Everyone was able to reach the
far treeline safely.

We began travelling along a long, winding path which surrounded on all
sides by Bedlam. Bois swung out of the sides at us, and had to be
fought off of the path in front of us as well. Several people payed
particular attention to protecting the spellcasters with regional
magic, Janus, Bright, and one other, because we knew they would be
needed if reality or any aspects of it began to fail.

The path narrowed and became more difficult to fight on. Then, the
Bois stopped attacking us normally, and began physically grabbing us
and attempting to pull us into Bedlam itself. I myself was nearly
lost, but Janus and Kovaks were able to rescue me. Rekees came
extremely close to being pulled in, but a chain of several people were
able to pull her back out. One of the regional spells could
temporarily force the Bois to release us.

We approached another Gate, and found Sir Iawen. She told us that
everything we were seeing was Cecil's fault, and that he had killed
the all of the gods and taken their power, except for Aurora and
Xaos. She offered us the choice to come with her to the one remaining
spot of light, to repopulate and defend against the endless assult of
Bedlam. Cecil argued with her that the only choice we had was to
continue on to Tarnisha's Gate to try to undo this. Iawen shouted that
Cecil was worse than the Fairies, and we realized that she somehow was
controlling two of the Furies, the only two left at this point in the
future. Cimone gathered the other Fae among us, Gryf and one other,
younger adventurer, and the three of them were quickly surrounded by
mortal bodyguards.

Several people went over to Iawen's side, including Faelynn. She
attempted to contact Aurora, but just as we had been told would happen
with any other gods, she contacted Cecil instead. I believe this is
the point that Iawen's spirit broke, because her last source of light
was gone. She commanded the Furies to attack, and we killed them while
keeping the Fae back. Cecil continued along the path, and we all
followed, although some wanted to stay behind. Iawen cried in anguish
that we were killing her by leaving, but she was unwilling to follow
Cecil and so wouldn't come with us. The discord about whether we
should have stayed with her remained for the rest of the quest.

We travelled along another thin path between Bedlam, and reached
another Gate. This one had a bright of light over nothingness. Instead
of Bedlam on the sides, it was complete oblivion. We began fighting
the Bois on the bridge, gaining ground very slowly. We were low enough
on spells that a Circle of Healing and a Mystic Forge were cast. Cecil
began to give up hope, saying "Oh, what's the use? We have no hope of
surviving. I AM THE ROCK OF THE UNIVERSE, AND IT BREAKS WHEN I BREAK
IT! INTEGRITY FAILURE!" Our weapons and armor all became extremely
fragile, and several swords shattered on their next blows. Janus
responded with the regional spell which restored integrity, returning
our equipment to its formor strength. Cecil thanked us for not giving
up and we continued to fight.

At the end of the bridge, we realized that Bois were coming from
behind us. The Gate's owner, whose name I missed, sacrificed himself
to allow us to continue, and we fled with Cecil. By now we were almost
out of all limited spells.

We reached Freesia's gate. She and Cecil exchanged loving greetings,
but then Cecil said "Do you remember what you promised me?" and when
she responded yes he asked what it was. She answered, "I promised you
my heart." Cecil told her "I need it now," and to our horror, reached
into her chest and pulled out her heart.

As Freesia collapsed, we felt a rush of magical power. Several people
swung weapons at Cecil, and when we stopped them, told us that her
blood was on our hands for watching and not stopping Cecil. Despite
this, we continued, entering a ruined tavern.

The tavern was filled with cobwebs, and the tables were overturned and
stacked at odd angles. We began settling down for a rest, when it
suddenly when completely black, and we realized that the ceiling was
Bedlam. Bois dropped out of it and we fought them off until we were
able to escape through the door on the other side.

We regrouped, and prepared to push forwards, although Cecil had
another moment of despair and attempted to end reality for a second
time. Janus Kiltra stopped him, and after he recovered, we continued.
We began to fight Bois which swung with a corrupting, black
sickness. Duchess Ophelia was struck with this. Nevertheless, we
pressed on. We fought one type of Bois which had to be surrounded by
light before it could be defeated.

Cecil told us that we were approaching Tarnisha's Gate, and we spread
out in to a small field. Suddenly he realized that we had been lead
into a trap, by the Bois copy of Zula which was created during Feast
of Chimeron 1008. Cecil summoned the true Zula, and his battle with
his copy covered our escape. I lead, and heard an enourmous explosion
from behind me.

We hurried, and finally

This is where Ged's account ends. I think I got distracted, like with many things, and so never finished writing it. Sadly, at this point, I cannot remember any other details, until we finally reached a deep pit of Bedlam surrounding Tarnisha's Gate. Cimone broke one of the few rules of the Azure Guard, which was "Cimone can never go into Bedlam," and stepped in to plung her arm through the thickest part of Bedlam and into the Gate, while allies around her protected her from bois which swung dangerously close to her head. When she reached through the gate, we all shouted the incantation we had been taught. Unbeknownst to us for another five years, she had reached into the future where we met Mad Tom's heads, creating a pocket of Realms that saved us all. Back in the time of this 13th hour, we backed up from the pit of Bedlam, and, understanding that we had finished our task, Cecil spoke the words to end Reality one more time, sending us back to the Nexus.

This vision of how Bedlam could end the world was basically what set Ged on the path of seeking how to stop it, eventually discovering his connection to Rosetta along the way. Funny how it all connects together.
Tags: Personal Account, Primary Source, Player Character
Created by Rosetta (Eric Willisson) at 10-28-23 01:20 AM
Last Modified by Rosetta (Eric Willisson) at 10-28-23 01:20 AM