The Interim

Afternoon, Talsil 13th - Evening, Talsil 15th

The hours immediately following Oublivae's defeat, the party was given full access to the Saspish stores and her finest craftsmen. Coupled with the elite skills of both the Queen of the Vampires and the newly risen Lord of the Pit, all items were replenished within a twenty-four hour period (even upgraded to a limit of Level 24).

[Narra]
In a heartwrenching final hour, Astraea chose to relinquish the pains and pleasures of sentient life in favor of completing her destiny and joining with the core of the Hendecahedron. Together they formed "The Astraea", Anubian vessel of the Astral Sea, the universe's preeminent starship designed for unparalleled travel over space and time. With Zerthimon's helm upon her finger, Narra found she could pilot this ship within the confines of her human understanding, and yet sensed so much more beyond even her considerable scope. A god-like machine has entered into the party's hands, capable of immense good and unfathomable evil.

Further still, Narra began to realize the true designs of the other ships, including the Tesseract. Combined with recent Zerthimonian Revelations, it appears hope does exist, even under the shadow of the Devourer.

[Shard]
Kostchtchie's mangled corpse under heel, Shard claimed his Brutal Gorge, containing Tavishan's essence and the souls of 665 of the mightiest warriors in the last dozen centuries. If Purgatory Siege could be lifted and the final crystal fragment recovered, Eilessa could surely restore her favored son and call the remainder of her children to their new home. What a force they would make...

Not long after, Shard was approached by the silken manifestation of the Pureheart, seeking refuge and a new keeper [side pending].

[Thamior]
In the dark, quiet hours after reforging party weapons, as the demonic mantle yet settled upon him, an emissary from Ugoreth approached his new lord and master, known as The Mouth of Oblivion [side pending] 

[Mercy]
In the wake of such incredible display, the besting of three demon lords and the beginning of the end of Anansiel, the Angels of Death are pleased. They offer Mercy the chance to lead them in the great battle against Gabriel if she can secure the support of The Accursed [side pending].

[Isabella]
Realizing in the silence of her chambers that fighting so many fronts would only lead to her defeat and Creation's ruin, the queen opted for more subtle maneuvers. She signed away Hell to Asmodeus and gained a modicum of peace and the last remnants of Hecate, in the process revealing Laan for what she always suspected, hardly a Ythlord at all, just an elaborate facade of the King of Hell's making. His gambit had at last gained him Perdition, but the vampire queen had learned well the game, hatching her own plot in the signing of a binding contract...

Thus Laan was no more, the shadows and subterfuge falling away. Asmodeus ascended at the stroke of midnight on Talsil the 14th as King of Sin, Deception, and Tyranny. He contents himself now with Hell (and apparently Heaven if his intimations were at all accurate). The status of the Choir and its Empyrean is a mystery, but not even a council of archangels can resist a god with intimate knowledge of their inner workings.

Hecate, now goddess of Magic, Night, Witches, and Vampires, is again felt throughout the cosmos. Or, rather, her Shade, for Hecate is still terribly weak and distant, and Isabella's existence alone keeps her from vanishing entirely. It is a start.

Without Laan to vex him, The Green God again gains majority control of the Wyld and turns his attention immediately to assimilating the remainder of the courts under his banners. Not even Summer and Spring can long last against the combined might of Druatha, Autumn, and Winter... at least, not without fresh allies.

[Tyvis]
Ripped across the Void, nearly driven mad in the experience, both Tyvis and Widofa managed to survive through only the smallest of chances. Collected by the Pyramid, certain secrets were made apparent, secrets of the Void, secrets of the Yth. By risking annihilation, Tyvis may have in fact found the means to prevent it.

It wasn't long after the Archdruid made contact with a race he could never have hoped existed, star-elves, Seldarine, good-natured beings with a command of magitech unlike anything he'd ever seen. Invited aboard the Seldarine fathership, "The Corellion Larethian", he meets with the elven Star Child in hopes for not only peaceful coexistence, but new allies in the fight against the empire and the Yth [side pending].

[Terrestrial Developments]
Meanwhile, with Anansiel's drow and demon forces dispersed, Drelzna and the armies of Tsojcanth counter-attacked, breaking the last remnants of the siege on the Mountain of Power. Izolda is liberated! The Vampire Queen awaits news from the ones who saved her queendom, in possession of none other than the Worldheart as reward (if asked).

Driven to desperation, and ever her reach exceeding her grasp, Anansiel pressed for control of Cadavera's Anubian vessel to equal the playing field and continue her meteoric rise throughout the ranks of demonkind, even into godhood. She was ultimately slain by a curious collection of Cadavera's best... and worst, summoned by the legendary Count, and aided by the embodiment of Kalia herself.

With Anansiel's destruction, Othyr, then Barovia, was spared the horrid fate of becoming a new Abyssal Gate, a point which all the infinite hordes could have been spilled, smothering Creation and defeating the Ythlords well before the Devourer could arrive, twisting the last bastion of Life into its most wretched form imaginable.

Such victory wasn't without its price, the shattering of the Wolf Moon, freeing all lycanthropes throughout Cadavera from the horrors of uncontrolled shifting. Could it be the were's find themselves able, at last, to join civilization, perhaps form their own? The breaking of Lykoios also heralded the unleashing of one of the most ruinous Primordials, Miska the Wolf-Spider, a titan called Death's Hunger, whose waking promises blind rampage across the cosmos. Directed, Miska could prove a powerful weapon or the doom of whole planets...

Capable and well-meaning hands managed to secure both Quakeheart and Strangehear, however Blackheart, having abandoned the foolish Queen of Spiders, instead took up allegiance with Toben the Many, a sentient plague seeking for all to join as one within him. The potent pairing will almost certainly cause misery in the near future.

And though the North may yet be saved, given the events set in motion by the Champions, and the heroics of the Cadaverans, nothing save Celinduil could have prevented Yathnoc the Desolator from descending on the first of the Alliance strongholds. The Jewel of the North, New Veluvia, has been blasted from the face of the earth, hundreds of thousands dead, leaving the empire's opposition scrambling to mount some kind of defense. Imperial Dragoons and Nors regiments sweep in after the dragon's wake, killing or imprisoning survivors, confiscating magic and technology, and establishing claims.

They say Yathnoc moves now to the giant's fortress-capital of Niflheim, where his very presence might melt the battlements and his breath write the extinction of the Jotun race. Yathnoc has been unleashed.