Apostles of Doom

“And what makes it dangerous?” Tom asked.

“Well…” Phaestus paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. “There are a couple different configurations of the box, each of which has a couple of different possible solutions. Different boxes, different solutions open up dimensional portals to other realms — the Abyss, Purgatory and Limbo all being popular options. The Counterpoints are the other side of the portals that are opened up.”

“I’m thinking Pinhead must have one of these,” Reggie said excitedly.

“Pinhead?” Estrebrius asked.

“A cenobite,” Reggie said.

“Ah, yes, that would make sense.” Estrebrius nodded, obviously knowing what Reggie was talking about. Phaestus nodded in agreement with Estrebrius.

Tom slowly blinked. Once again, his friends’ random speculations were distracting him from his actual purpose. He did not have time to think about the fact that Estrebrius’s understanding implied that cenobites were real beings. At this point, he could probably safely assume that anything he’d ever heard about in terms of science fiction and fantasy were real, somewhere, sometime. It would be far simpler to enquire what was not real.

However, there was that other line. “You just mentioned Purgatory and Limbo? Are those planes?” Tom asked.

Estrebrius, Boggy, Phaestus and even Antefalken all looked at him in surprise. They seemed shock that he did not know this.

“Of course they are!” Phaestus said.

“Then why have I never heard of them?” Tom asked.

“Well, lad, apparently you have, because you seem to know about them,” Boggy said.

“Obviously, I have heard of them, but no one has mentioned they are real planes. Are they part of the Planes of Orc?” Tom asked.

“No, they are buffer realms between the Planes of Orc and the Abyss, and the Outer Planes and the Planes of Orc,” Phaestus replied.

“Remember, when you asked Tizzy and me where the Abyss was, and he told you that you were basically two planes below Astlan?” Boggy asked.

“Yes — I assumed that was Tizzy being Tizzy,” Tom said.

“Well, it was, because he was playing with words,” Boggy said. “Astlan is a material plane, of which there are infinite. The Outer Planes are also semi-infinite. However, the Abyss, Limbo and Purgatory are all singular planes. The terminology really stinks, but people often use the word “Plane” to mean both a single plane of existence and an infinite set of planes.”

Tom shook his head, trying to follow the logic.

Phaestus smiled. “Let me try to make it simpler. There are the material planes, which in many ways are simply one many-faceted plane with infinite reflections. The Æsir, Vanir and Jötunn refer to all the material planes as Midgard, the middle world. Between the Outer Planes and Midgard lies Limbo, and between Midgard and the Abyss lies Purgatory.”

“So when Tizzy told me that the Abyss was two planes down from Astlan, the one plane down was — or is — Purgatory?” Tom asked.

“Exactly!” Boggy nodded, as did Phaestus.

“Okay…” Tom said slowly. “I think I’m going to leave questions about these two planes until later. We have a few other things to deal with first.”

The group looked at him expectantly. “Karth Death Cheater, one of the greatest orc shamans of the last thousand years on the Isle of Doom, is nearing death. We, the council and Targh Bowelsplitter have decided that Karth would make a great D’Orc shaman,” Tom informed them.

“I would agree,” Phaestus said, nodding. “And we need more D’Orcs as well.”

“Do you know how to, uhm, D’Orc someone?” Antefalken asked.

Tom nodded. “Tamarin, Vaselle and several first-generation D’Orc shamans are working on recreating the ritual.”

“Excellent! This shall be really interesting,” Antefalken exclaimed. “I cannot wait to see this. I am getting a treasure trove of knowledge here!”

“Yes, but there is a small hitch,” Tom said.

“What?” Estrebrius asked.

“We need Tizzy,” Tom said.

Everyone except Phaestus shook their heads or made similar gestures of disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” Boggy said. “I do not think I heard you correctly. He’s my partner, and while there have been many times I have needed him, pretty sure I am the only other person to feel that way.”

“We need demon weed,” Tom said. “And apparently that is what he smokes in his pipe. He is the only person I know that has any.” Tom sighed and looked at Boggy. “Unfortunately, he has been mysteriously absent the last few days. I was hoping you might have some way to contact him? You are his partner, after all.

Boggy grimaced and shook his head slowly. “Sorry. He somehow finds me all the time, but it is only when he chooses. I have no idea how to contact him. To be honest, it has been a problem more than once.”

“Dang.” Tom sighed. “We haven’t got much time. Karth overextended himself using magic, and now he is paying the price, and it is killing him. Tamarin is hoping to buy him some more time, but she cannot buy much.”

Phaestus shook his head. “That is unfortunate. I love Tizzy like a brother, but he is not the most reliable person.”