Apostles of Doom

“Necromancer? Is this tied to Nysegard?” Tom asked.

Arg-nargoloth shook his head. “No. Not at all, actually. Some of the Doomalogues were subverted and essentially stolen by a wizard we thought was an ally, but turned out to be a necromancer. Or rather, that is what he was calling himself in some realms. We eventually realized he wasn’t even a mortal — he, or she, was a corrupted arvokar.”

“Damn flea-bitten corpse never did pay me for those seven rings I forged for him!” Völund cursed.

“It was an epic betrayal,” Tizzy observed.

“That’s when we centralized control of the Doomalogues,” Darg-Krallnom told Tom. “Prior to that, they and their elemental portals were controlled locally. After that incident we centralized control here, so when we went down, the Doomalogues also shut down. If we hadn’t done that, they could probably have stayed up and helped power us.”

“So they have their own mana generators?” Tom asked.

“They did,” Völund said. “The generators would have shut down without the Wand of Orcus and Mount Doom’s central control.”

Tom shook his head. “Back to this necromancer… I can’t imagine Orcus sat still for this?”

Tizzy chuckled evilly.

“He did not. However, because so many of the orcs involved had been loyal to him before they were corrupted by the Unlife of this necromancer, he chose to take a different path than outright war with our former soldiers,” Darg-Krallnom said.

“I thought it was an insane idea!” Arg-nargoloth interjected.

“But it worked better than most anything else we’ve done. It got rid of the damn alvar!” Völund said.

“True. It worked, and we didn’t think it would,” Arg-nargoloth conceded.

“What did he do?” Tom asked.

“He took a page from the playbook of Sammael and several gods; he used subterfuge and misdirection to manipulate mortal agents into defeating the necromancer,” Darg-Krallnom told Tom.

“Very un-orc-like.” Arg-nargoloth said, sounding rather disapproving.

“But it worked so good, the alvar thought the world was safe and got on their stupid ships and sailed off to a different plane!” Tizzy chortled.

“First damn time we’ve ever been able to rid a plane of those vermin!” Darg-Krallnom said with a grin.

Tom was left pondering. This story sounded oddly familiar to him. However, he was pretty certain they couldn’t mean what it sounded like they were saying.

“I learned new respect for heartheans,” Arg-nargoloth said, chuckling. “Turns they are not just furry-footed vermin that eat all day long!”

“Eh,” Tizzy said.

“Eh?”

“Well, I don’t know. Still not that fond of them. They ended up getting a friend of mine killed,” Tizzy said.

“You had a friend there?” Arg-nargoloth asked suspiciously. “More importantly, you had a friend anywhere?”

Tizzy sneered at him. “Yes, I had a friend! He was former hearthean, lived in this cave. We used to spend hours trying to out-riddle each other! Really pleasant conversationalist. Sure, he was a tad paranoid, but then who isn’t?”

Tom closed his eyes. Was it too late to change his mind on whether this whole thing was real? He had been going on that assumption, but at times he really needed to question that decision. How could this possibly be his new reality? He shook his head and looked at the others. “Let’s head to the Oubliette.”

Courts of Chaos, Exador’s Penthouse

“So, you have news?” Bess asked Exador as she and Ramses sat down in chairs around Exador’s outdoor dining table on the patio of his Courts penthouse. Exador was pouring them Denubian Choco-Coffee^TM.

“I do,” Exador said. He finished pouring and gestured to the fruit assortment sitting on a chilling tray.

“From the Storm Lords?” Ramses asked.

“Storm Lords?” Bess asked, puzzled. “You mean the ruling Unlife in Nysegard?”

“Exactly,” Ramses nodded.

“Indeed, they have agreed to provide us with the forces we need to take Freehold, and thus the book,” Exador said, setting the Choco-Coffee^TM pot down on the table.

“How soon can they marshal the forces we need?” Ramses asked. Bess was looking back and forth between the two, seeming quite concerned.

“That, I fear, is the rub.” Exador sighed, sitting back to take a drink from his own cup. “They are currently preparing a cleanup exercise against one of the larger outposts of the Forces of Light in Nysegard. Once that is finished, they will be able to re-deploy on our behalf.”

“So we wait for them to clean it up?” Ramses asked. “Any idea how long this will take?”

“No, and it’s not exactly waiting; they’ve requested my assistance on the wizardly front,” Exador said.

“They have hundreds, if not thousands, of wizards. The liches are wizards; why do they need you?” Ramses asked.