Hekeriki: “I… Heh Lalon! What does air quote Tor end air quote translate to an earther tongue?”
The CROSSROADS and the TEMPLE OF THE DARK OHMS (TSGL3 Week 6)
Narrator
#22
Visij picked up a pair of heads up display goggles and mouthed Tor and Olgog and he watched the readout where it translated it as Death.
"Okay so Tor means death in your language. If I had a penny for every time I ran into a hero or criminal who had death in his or her name. Heck two of my most annoying cases involve an Iron Republic Combat Clone named Death, and the mad racist Mortis Leonin who calls himself the Lion of Death.
And that doesn’t even account for Ragnar Death Head, Morgon Death Master, The Death Cadets, the Walking Death, the Death who Walks (no relation), and O’Death from Ireland."
Narrator
#24
Visij seemed intregued, "You know its rare for a mortal like you to know more about a Temporal Criminal’s existence than the Temporal Enforcement Agency. But the TEA has been wrong in the past so Im willing to hear you out. So this Tor Gog had been destroying realities. That raises him/her to the top of our list right up with Leonin, Maverick, Horrorshow and the Usurper.
How is this Tor Gog destroying realities? And how is this Tor Gog hiding its presence from the TEA. That implies significant mental manipulation or technological prowess.
What do we need to know about this Tor Gog?"
Narrator
#25
[Due to the events of Mortis Leonin vs Tor Gog no players are currently here.]
There were flashes of blue light across the bar, as everyone disappeared except Visij and the Innkeeper, and the little boy playing.
Visij stood up and looked around at the now empty bar with growing concern. He ran over to Potha, saying, “No one has ever done a remote timeshred of others before. What the hell is going on?”
Potha sighed (and the sound came from each of the little fleshworms that made up his massive body), “Don’t you know its the fault of one of your kind… a General Hurniker Guerre…”
At that moment a glowing dart of annihilation hit Potha square in the skull, and the skull disintegrated. The body fell to the floor, sizzling away as being consumed by the weapon that killed him.
Visij spun around and saw a grizzled and bitter looking Da’uhnb soldier dressed in a ripped TEA uniform. The rank insignia showed the Da’uhnb as a General, but the medals had been replaced by a garish symbol of the Cult of Warmonger.
“Don’t move, don’t teleport Visij,” said Hurniker, “I came here to talk. Not to kill you…if you don’t make me.”
“What about Potha? He was supposed to be caretaker of this bar until the Ohmites arrive,” said Visij.
“The Dark Ohmites will come instead,” said Hurniker, "And that will be okay.
Did you like those two mortals I manipulated? It didn’t take much to put Mortis Leonin on that path to want to wipe out all Olgogs. I have to say it was quite harder turning Hekeriki into Tor Gog, and then having her try and wipe out all humans. Getting Godart killed in most timelines helped…
I almost thought I had failed when that wiley K’ias Pirate Jak’hal got wind of my escape attempt and timed his own at the same moment. At first I had wondered, had I led him there? Then I learned he released the Usurper too."
“Why are you telling me this? I will just report you to the Da’uhnb Queen and she will eat you,” Visij replied angrily.
“Both you and I know that second I go back to try and turn the tide for Warmonger, she will be there waiting and will consume me, but it is not you who told her,” said Hurniker sitting down at one of the empty tables and grabbing an ale and downing it with a free hand.
“It was Jak’hal,” Hurniker continued, “He bought his own freedom from the Da’uhnb by revealing my plans. He didn’t know that I knew, and I made sure that when he arrived at Refuge to collect the Mirror crystal there was a hiccup. He wanted to prevent the Mirror Crystal fleet from arriving on Refuge, to prevent Warmonger from using the power of that battle to free himself and take a new host. I made sure he landed on the sword of a Gor’ab instead.
But as a temporal enforcement agent, it must bring you some joy to know Jak’hal is finally dead. How ironic, he buys his freedom from you only to be killed immediately afterwards.”
Narrator
#26
“So even If I know I am going to fail as a host of Warmonger, I have already led Stout to become the first Quall-Avatar of Warmonger. Can’t you just feel the galactic balance writhing in pain at that?” mocked Hurniker.
But Visij still couldn’t understand why Hurniker had come here, just to reveal his elaborate plan. Which meant he needed something only Visij could provide…
“So why tell me?” mocked Visij grabbing his own jug of ale, and beginning to drink it. He purposely made it seem like he didn’t even care about the annihilation gun pointed at him.
“Simple, I need someone to be the Da’uhnb that kills and eats Stout,” said Hurniker.
“What?” asked Visij completely baffled.
“I couldn’t allow the Dragon of Fate or Kalok to destroy Warmonger while trapped in a host form,” said Hurniker, “Because Warmonger’s power, demonic armies, and hell dimensions would be split between the Dragon of Unity and Kalok. But the Usurper was so obvious about his plans to kill Warmonger’s hosts I just let him do his thing, and turned on the Ascended Beings to his plot. And now the Usurper is on the run…”
“But if you don’t want the Avatar of Warmonger dead, then why do you want a Da’uhnb to eat him?” pressed Visij, his law enforcement training taking over the panic in his heart.
“Simple, to store him, and in so doing break the bond between Stout and Warmonger. Inside a Da’uhnb stomach, Warmonger will be distilled down to his purest form,” said Hurniker, “And then he is going to possess the Doomwyrm, End of Worlds.”
“So Warmonger in a form where no being can stand against him, and any that try simply disappears from existence,” said Visij, “Good plot. But I don’t see what you gain for doing it?”
“Don’t you see, my old old comrade in arms,” said Hurniker, “The greatest servants of Warmonger have been granted an even greater gift. Life beyond death, immortality in form, and endless power.”
“Greatest servants…you don’t mean…” said Visij now growing very worried.
“Yes the Qliphoth of Warmonger,” replied Hurniker.
“So Warmonger will make you one of his Qliphoth if you make this happen,” said Visij backing up until his rear was pressed against the bar.
“He has already used his powers to make the Devil-Bishop Kasanth a Qliphoth, and the Four Elemental Warlords of the Elemental Holy Wars all Qliphoths,” said Hurniker.
Narrator
#27
Visij rolled back over the bar, diving low as annihilation bolts struck the wall above him. He grabbed a large crystalline cannon that Potha always kept behind the bar, and then on instinct rolled to the side. Annihilation bolts made the bar and much of the wall disappear where Visij had been hiding. Leaping up over the bar, he hurled his jar of ale with a free hand, and shouldered the cannon.
The Jar stuck Hurniker’s gun hand, knocking the weapon aside. The cannon fired, and Hurniker was lifted up and hurled against the far wall with enough force that Visij could hear the other Da’uhnb’s back snap.
He rushed over and was surprised to see Hurniker’s hand come up, but the claws were not aimed at Visij. Instead they stabbed deftly upward severing Hurniker’s throat. As blue blood dripped out from the slit throat, he whispered, “You are not the only Da’uhnb who can manipulated Visij, do you remember Xec Cex?”
“Xec Cex is dead, the Da’uhnb Queen consumed him for crimes against the Quall N’drone,” said Visij watching Hurniker’s body drift away into dust slowly at first from the feet up.
“Dead, maybe, but he is in the belly of the Da’uhnb Queen, the same place my own body is going to go in but a few moments,” said Hurniker, “And once there I will revive Xec Cex, and I will tell him of a Dragon, a Dragon whose breath will wipe out all the Quall N’drone. And all he has to do, is eat a Quall N’drone to make it happen…”
And with that Hurniker’s body disappeared. Looking at the pile of dust, Visij knew one of Hurniker’s agents must have resurrected the general eslewhere.
Alone in the bar, Visij turned to the shocked and quiet child, Melvin, who had witnessed everything.
“So Potha was raising you?” asked Visij.
“Yes, sir,” replied the child quietly.
Narrator
#28
“I will take you to some friends, they live in a city called Port Neutrality,” said Visij, “They will make sure you never have to see anything like this again.”
The boychild, not human, but resembling a human at the moment, replied, “But I am supposed to wait here. I have to wait here until my brother returns.”
“We will leave your brother a note,” said Visij, knowing he couldn’t leave this alien child at the Crossroads between dimensions.
Helping the child put together a note, he pinned it with a dagger to the bar. And Visij and Melvin disappeared.
The bar was quiet for a long long time.
Then suddenly there was a flash of blue light as an older bearded Da’uhnb arrived, dressed in the uniform of a Grand Admiral in the Temporal Enforcement Agency, there were also unit insignias for something called G.A.S.T.
The older Da’uhnb was Grand Admiral Thei’gann, and he grabbed the note read it and ripped it up with a sigh.
Not a moment too soon, because the doors to the bar and a being of pure energy stepped through.
The being of pure energy looked at the Grand Admiral and said, “You, Da’uhnb, I am looking for a child, he answers to the name Melvin.”
“No child of that name here,” replied Thei’gann, “You best be moving along. The Warmonger Cult has ruined this place.”
The energy being drifted out the door and Thei’gann began searching between the toppled tables. Under a fallen chair, and a broken jug of ale, he found a discarded pistol. Lifting it up, he began pointing it at objects at the bar. One by one he made them disappear. Hours later, Grand Admiral Thei’gann, stepped from the now empty building.
He looked back at the bar for a few moments, and sighed. It had been a beautiful place while it lasted.
He would make Tor gog suffer for dragging everyone from the bar. But more importantly, Hurniker Guerre was going to feel some real pain, before Thei’gann annihilated the traitor once and for all.
Narrator
#30
The Ghost of Armenius flowed forward from the now empty building with deep sadness. Watching the temporal war spin out of control was even harder when he couldn’t act.
He knew he had to do something.