Apostles of Doom

“Yes,” Teragdor said. “We, Tiernon’s people, have the most avatars and thus the best capacity, as you can see, whereas when there are only two avatars, they are fully occupied by handling the illumination streams.”

“And this blockade started a few hours before atunrise?” Stainsberry asked.

“Yes. We were taken completely by surprise. I had no clue that such a thing could even be done,” Beragamos said from his chair.

Tom snorted, causing everyone to look at him in surprise. He shook his head and looked at Beragamos. “Perhaps you should consider checking with Sentir Fallon, in that case.”

Bergamos’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

Tom waved his arms around, indicating the interdiction around them. “I have seen this before. It is nearly identical to what Sentir Fallon did to — me — on Etterdam.” Tom had nearly said Orcus. He needed to remember that he was pretending to actually be Orcus. “I and my people were suddenly completely cut off from not only the Abyss and Mount Doom, but to other planes as well. Tom raised the Rod of Tommus as an example. “I lost our connection to Mount Doom. It should have auto-rerouted through the Etterdam Doom, but I was unable to keep that connection up.” He frowned, hating to go over this memory again. “We now know this was because Lilith’s forces, along with Nét’s, had seized the Doom of Etterdam and broken its link to Mount Doom in the Abyss. I then tried to reach other Dooms in Midgard, but was not able to make any off-plane connections. I and my forces were trapped on the battlefield on Etterdam with no outside mana streams and no way to return to the Abyss upon death.”

“Sound familiar?” Darg-Krallnom asked.

Everyone around the table was looking stunned. This would, of course, be the first time any of them had heard of what had actually happened. Of course, Tom himself had only learned of it this morning, so it was truly new information.

“And you think that was Sentir Fallon’s doing?” Beragamos asked.

“He was leading the attack against me, at Aodh’s side. He, Aodh and Lilith worked as a team to defeat me,” Tom said.

Darg-Krallnom nodded in agreement; they had spent quite a bit of time discussing this as part of their plans on how to avoid a repeat.

“These are serious charges,” Beragamos said sternly.

“We are in a truce, Beragamos. These are not charges; they are facts that are immediately relevant to the situation at hand,” Darg-Krallnom said. “Orcus has dealt with this sort of thing before. We intend to fight it differently this time.”

“But saying that Sentir Fallon was in league with Lilith?” Beragamos asked skeptically.

“Well, you admit that he was working with Nét’s minion, Aodh, and you know what happened,” Darg-Krallnom said, and Beragamos nodded. “We, the D’Orcs at Doom, have always known that Lilith took down Orcus’s connection to the Abyss. We know this because her troops came marching into Doom from Etterdam. You think this was a coincidence?”

Beragamos was silent for a moment. “I will admit it is suspicious timing.”

Darg-Krallnom shook his head. “We have known each other for nearly forty thousand years, worked together many times. You know my opinion of coincidence.”

Beragamos got a sour look on his face. “Clearly, once this is over, this must be investigated.” The archon looked at Tom. “Understand, it was never Tiernon’s intention that Sentir Fallon kill you or your people permanently. He only wanted Sentir Fallon to preserve Etterdam. Your war with Nét was destroying the planet.”

Darg-Krallnom looked at Beragamos very oddly. “Then perhaps he should have tasked Sentir Fallon with driving Nét from the plane instead?”

Tom said, “Again, we will deal with this after the Storm Lords are defeated.”

Beragamos and Darg-Krallnom both nodded.

Tom noted that Grob Darkness Slayer seemed relieved by his pronouncement. He could certainly understand why. One didn’t want one’s two strongest allies at each other’s throats. He turned to Beragamos again. “What have you set up to get your people to the Outer Planes should they be killed?” he asked. That had been his number one concern about coming to the Citadel.

“We have nothing. We have no idea what to do about that,” Rasmeth said.

“When your people die, what links do they follow?” Tom asked.

“Their souls can take any link they have that will get them to their respective Outer Plane,” Beragamos answered. “But, obviously, there are no links at the moment.”

“So why haven’t you sent avatars outside the interdiction and made sure everyone has links that pass through those avatars?” Tom asked.

All the avatars not concentrating on processing mana stared at Tom in surprise. He looked back at them, puzzled why they were shocked by this. “Yes, you could use those same avatars to channel mana streams from the god pools to priests within the interdiction,” Tom said.

“A relay avatar!” Beragamos said.