Latest revision as of 07:12, 18 September 2017

This is the final chapter of the Trinity: Shattered storyline, and the nine-year metaplot.

...as an aside, it is entirely fitting that it has taken nine years to see this story to its conclusion.

Act I: The Shattering

This is the first act of the Wrath of the Omega event.

Description

At the conclusion of the event known as the Epoch Trigger, the Omega's plan has finally come to fruition. Tetra, having successfully defeated William, has brought together the nine individuals - the Chosen Nine - the Omega has cultivated throughout time and space to a specific location, centered directly between the Three Towers on Adnez, in the year 466 CR.

With a thundering boom that nearly shatters reality, the world reshapes itself into the Omega's image, bringing the Three Towers into close proximity to each other. The Chosen Nine are bound through mysterious and foreign powers to the Towers, their very essences slowly drained into them, and each of the nine incarnations of the Omega emerges from the Towers, converging into a singular spot, though still not whole.

With a motion, Omega grants his boon to Tetra; who promptly transforms into an Omega Dragon, the first and only of his kind. Omega then summons forth a crack in the fabric of the multiverse, and vanishes through it - the point of his exodus becomes the focal point of a set of nine crystals, each glowing with an intense light, reflective of each Force. Tetra rests beneath the rift in meditation, waiting for those who would thwart his master's plan.

After a few moments, the rift seems to widen, pulsing with a great and terrible power, enshrouding the entrance to wherever Omega enacts the final stage of his plan in a shimmering field of energy. The curtain widens until it encompasses the Three Towers, then stops: the Chosen Nine now act both as guardians and keepers of the shield that protects the gateway to the Omega.

If this madman is to be stopped, the first step on the path is clear: destroy the guardians of the Three Towers, before entrance to the gateway can be gained...

Effects

The powers of the Chosen Nine are great and terrible, and further amplified by Omega's boon. While each lives, their essence is tied directly into one of the Three Towers; in return, some aspect of their power holds sway over the fabric of reality that is Trinity.

• Kotrit Wayveri: While Kotrit yet lives, his command of arcane necromancy saps the life out of all living creatures. Any healing effects granted to living creatures has its effectiveness halved, and if a creature dies, its corpse rises as an undead minion of Kotrit shortly thereafter if the soul is not returned to it (while Lux and Umbra live, this effect occurs instantly; if the soul is returned through an Impossible effect, the creature is instantly returned to life and is no longer under Kotrit's control).
• Anabstercorian: While Anabstercorian yet lives, his thirst for power and dominion over the worlds of Trinity weakens their resolve to resist enslavement. All thinking creatures with a brain suffer a -6 penalty to Will saves; all creatures lose immunity to mind-affecting effects and cannot regain it; and creatures that have Mettle (Will) lose it and cannot gain it.
• The Hive Queen: While the Hive Queen yet lives, her presence distorts the fabric of reality, altering it to suit her needs and the needs of her children, and brings fear to the hearts of creatures her kind would consume. Teleportation effects are rendered unusable; living creatures lose immunity and any bonuses to saving throws against Fear effects, and such immunities or bonii cannot be regained.
• Lux and Umbra: While the brothers Lux and Umbra yet live, their connections to the Metaphysic utterly disrupts the flow of souls from the prime to other planes. Creatures with souls that die are unable to be raised from the dead, as their souls are lost upon the currents between the Metaphysic and the Prime; however, an Impossible effect can return such souls from oblivion, though only once. In addition, this clouding of the connection between souls and the Metaphysic reduces the effectiveness of calling upon a creature's Truename; thus, all Truespeech checks are made a -4 penalty.
• Rydia Mistcaller: While Rydia yet lives, her soul's bond with the Primals is sufficient to alter the flow of elemental energy throughout the universe, driving the elements mad. No terrains provide geomancy suites; creatures in a terrain gain 50% energy vulnerability to that terrain's associated element (while Addison yet lives, this is doubled to 100%).
• Addison: While Addison yet lives, her presence encourages the world towards destruction, reinforcing the weaknesses of all. All things that exist, including creatures and objects, lose and cannot gain any energy resistance, and any Damage Reduction or Hardness a creature or object has is halved. If a creature has an energy vulnerability, it is doubled.
• Lavos: While Lavos yet lives, it constantly twists and turns the timeline, intertwining it with alternate timelines and confusing its enemies. Beneficial temporal effects function at only 50% effectiveness (random numerical values are halved; if no numerical values, duration is halved instead; if no duration, the ability only has a 50% chance to function); tracers cannot be placed; and creatures halve their effective Initiative bonus, rounded down.
• The Infomorph: While the Infomorph yet lives, it incessantly interferes with the processing of information, insinuating itself into the very memories of existence. All Intelligence-based checks are made at a -15 penalty, delve into blue checks cannot be made, and loresight memes cannot be used.
• Kevaan: While Kevaan yet lives, he toys with the laws of probability, altering chance by forcing the dice to fall where they may. PEPs and Luck points cannot be used, and effects that would allow rerolls are unusuable.

While these are all considered Force effects of their relevant Force, they are enhanced by the power of the Omega that has been imbued into them - as such, no one, not even a Wanderer, is immune to these effects. They are treated as properties of the plane itself, having been woven into the fabric of reality, and thus cannot be altered by mortal means, save through the death of the individual(s) to which the effect is tied.

Because the Chosen Nine are blessed with Omega's boon to create these effects, they themselves do not suffer them.

While this event is occurring in-game, the effects each entity is responsible for will be struck-through, to better enable players to determine which effects are still active. When - or if - all of the Chosen Nine are defeated, the text will be returned to normal.

The Story Thus Far...

The Faithful Faithless from Beyond the Fracture, as they have been identified by the True God Tethys, descended onto the shattered world with the assistance of Dominic from the End of Time. What had once been a haven at the far reaches of the timeline had been forced into synchronization with the world from whence it was ripped through the interference of the entity known as Lavos, and thus the base of operations for the resistance against the Omega was now open to attack. Not only that, but so long as Lavos lived, Dom's ability to interact with alternate timelines and tap into their resources was greatly restricted: there would be no ability to bring in more powerful supplies or find information near-instantly so long as the great beast lived.

Fortunately, the band of adventurers were not alone. Dominic had sent out a call to his draconic brethren, and they answered: for the first time in Trinity's history since the Draconic Armageddon, multiple dragons gathered together in the same place, putting aside the enmities and mistrust of the past. Among those gathered were Izkithraxilys and Kashardaxilys, the Dragons Iron, whom the group had encountered in the past. Along with the dragons, the Dark Wanderer Lilith had accompanied the group on their transit to the present from their temporal isolation in the Kiltian Era of the Third Epoch, bringing with her the adventurers Tetra had brought to his aid, who were now - as far as anyone could tell - working directly for her, as well as the enigmatic warrior Gilgamesh, from worlds unknown.

Dominic explained the situation, and presented the group with the only map that now mattered: the geography of the world around the rift the Omega had opened into a world unknown, now shielded by a curtain of shimmering energy possessed of the Nine Forces. Below the rift now waited Tetra, and Dominic explained his newly-attained draconic nature; he also outlined the presence of the Chosen Nine, and explained that so long as the Infomorph lived, they would be unable to ascertain any information about what they would encounter - only their names, and the impact their presence had on the fabric of the universe itself.

Faced with an impossible choice as to which of the Chosen Nine to take down first, the group decided to take on the divine brothers Lux and Umbra. Meanwhile, the dragons and Lilith's team would attempt to keep the Sleeping One at bay, who had awoken in the present and the past simultaneously, an action made possible through the interference of Lavos.

The paladin and antipaladin engaged the party wordlessly, and though some of their number were nearly laid low, the adventurers finally succeeded against the pair. As their very essences were subsumed into the Tower to which they were tied, the curtain's shimmering diminished slightly, and no longer shone white; at the same time, the souls of the dead were no longer cast adrift in the spaces between planes. Though they did not know it, this struck a great blow against the minions of the remainder of the Chosen Nine, as no longer would the dead be immediately pressed into service. What remained of the races of Trinity now stood at least a fighting chance against the forces arrayed against them: but even so, should the remaining eight stand, it will all be for naught, as the Omega's plan continues unabated...

...the adventurers then determined that their next target would the Infomorph, who had spent its time as an ally to the Omega insinuating itself into the very fabric of memory, altering and deleting information its foes would use against those it now considered its friends. As the party approached where they believed it to stand against the curtain, before them rose a structure of steel and crystal, within which they sensed was housed the physical apparatus in which the ethereal form of the Infomorph was housed. It challenged them, believing that they and the Wanderers they allied themselves with would only seek to destroy it, as it felt it was too similar to the True Gods of old; and after a long struggle in which their very selves were imperiled, the party broke through the entity's defenses housing it and destroyed the orrery within which it was stored. In that moment, their memories - locked away upon their entry into the present - now came flooding back, and the denizens of the world could once again find answers to their questions hidden within the past. But at what cost? - for the Infomorph had been, to anyone's knowledge, a unique entity, born solely of information, and its nature was now inscrutable, forever beyond mortal ken. But as the curtain's shimmer lost its azure hue, they knew they had done what was necessary, and steeled themselves for their next encounter...

...after many difficult battles, the adventurers finally put to rest the various entities surrounding the curtain. As Lavos' form dissolved into the timeline and its essence absorbed into the Tower to which it was tied, the shimmering field of energy surrounding the rift to elsewhere slowly faded.

Act II: Of Puppets and Masters

This is the second act of the Wrath of the Omega event.

Description

With the defeat of the Chosen Nine and the disruption of the Curtain surrounding the rift, the Omega Dragon awoke from his meditations. Knowing what was to come, he prepared himself, the many-hued feathers of his draconic wings scintillating in the sunlight of a world he sought to free from the meddlings of the Wanderers.

The strongest of the Omega's servants, and among the most dangerous entities in all of Trinity, now calmly awaits those who would subvert his - and his master's - plans. None can say what this man-turned-dragon is now capable of, but one thing is certain: it is a struggle that will be written about in all the eons to come.

Epilogue

Thron's fist, augmented through the ring that was originally intended for the Omega, broke through the faceplate of the Omega's helm, and struck home. Empowered by the strength of the Wandering Force flowing from the ornate band, what had once been mere flesh and blood became more, and rended the sinew and bone of the Omega's mortal form. The force of the blow was greater than Thron had intended or even thought possible, and with a terrible crunching sound, the head of Azalor Maltheridas was removed from the rest of his form.

At once, the air around them - those six brave souls who had ventured into the heart of the Omega's realm itself - stilled, but only for a moment. After that moment passed, the glass and steel of the island within this tiny plane crafted through means unknowable began to crumble, even as the Omega's blade fell from his now-lifeless hand, striking the ground and laying still, with a single crash resounding of finality.

In the distance of "out there," the innumerable bubbles - each containing a world, a prime material of its own, with all their accompanying metaphysical realms - began to close towards the pocket world of the Omega. The nine beams of the Forces, burning bright beneath their feet, began to shudder and shake.

The group took a few moments to reorient themselves, letting the adrenaline of the fight fade. Engro, a dwarf whose soul knew no connection to any of the nine beams that surrounded the group and had empowered a number of them for their final confrontation, walked to where the body of Azalor had fallen, and lifted the blade that laid there. It felt heavy in his hands, its metaphysical weight so great that it somehow made its transient physical form that much denser. If ever there were an object whose physical construction was composed of the concept of "destiny," it was this weapon.

Time grew short, however, as it became apparent to all that the tiny island on which they stood in the space between planes was going to be crushed by the encroaching planes. Their way back home had disappeared, the bridge having faded upon their arrival - what had seemed to be merely symbolic of their arrival at their journey's end now indicated that they knew not the path to return. Even as a Wanderer, the route to the plane one wished to return must be known, and their way had been charted for them through the rift the Omega had opened on Trinity: here, in the dark, there were no maps, and the planes at this distance all seemed too similar to one another.

With only one recourse left to them, Thron gathered the group around the body of the Omega. Gazing into the myriad worlds arrayed before them, rapidly closing one, he picked one at random - better a world that was not on the verge of imminent destruction than the one in which they now stood. He closed his eyes, focusing his energies - tied to the Wandering force itself - and concentrated.

The ring glowed an impossible color, and the group disappeared in a flash of that indescribable hue, leaving only the broken and battered body of the man who would have destroyed all of reality in their wake.

Thron and those five souls who accompany him now Wander the many worlds, seeking their way back home to the world of Trinity.

Thus does the tale of the Omega end.