Apostles of Doom

Vaselle shook his head. He really should not let himself get so distracted in such an unsavory environment. He had no way of identifying them, but he was certain the back corners of the tavern held ethically challenged patrons seeking to exploit the less ruthless drunken patrons.

Vaselle chuckled. Such individuals would be in for a big surprise if he was forced to summon his master to protect him. That would be a joyous thing to see, and probably a very smelly bowel-emptying event. He shook his head slightly, however, realizing that that would be a frivolous reason to summon his master. In fact, it might possibly anger the master. Vaselle frowned. No, as enjoyable as it might be, it would be unworthy of a good servant to summon his dark lord to a bar fight.

Crap! He had done it again. He realized the barkeep was back and wanting to be paid.

“No tabs. Cash on the barrel,” the barkeep said.

“How much?” Vaselle asked. He must not have heard the barkeep say a price.

“A secundus.”

Vaselle frowned, not quite sure what a secundus was. He assumed it was a second-class bronze coin, which implied a decent beer. The venue contradicted that, but oh, well. He dug into his purse and pulled out the equivalent Council States coin and handed it to the barkeep.

The man stared at it and flipped it over a couple times. “No change,” he said, pocketed the coin and headed towards the other end of the counter.

Vaselle shook his head and took a sip of the ale. He promptly coughed at the nasty concoction.

The priest of Tiernon looked over at him and said, “You from out of town?”

Vaselle blinked, looked over to the ugly priest, and realized that it wasn’t so much that the priest was ugly, he was half orc. He blinked again. “Uhm, yes…”

The priest nodded.

“I’m sorry, but you are a priest of Tiernon, yes?” Vaselle asked.

The priest sighed wearily, as if he’d heard the question a few too many times. “I am.”

“And you have orcish blood?”

“I do.”

“Sorry,” Vaselle said. “I am sure you get that all the time. It’s just that when I was a youth, I was schooled first by the Brothers of Hendel, and then later I spent some time at the seminary of Tiernon before deciding on wizardry.” It was a real stretch, but close enough without getting into humiliating details. “And, well, it was a rather human-centric organization, so I am a bit surprised.”

The priest blinked and suddenly smiled. “You are a follower of Tiernon? Or of Hendel?”

Vaselle froze for a moment, not knowing what to say. Technically he supposed he had been a lapsed follower of Tiernon before giving his soul to the master. However, that detail would probably not be appreciated.

He put on a self-effacing grin. “A bit lapsed, but yes. I grew up on Eton and I now live in Freehold, and to be honest, haven’t been that regular at the chapel.” Actually, “never been to chapel in Freehold” would be more accurate, Vaselle thought.

“Excellent, my son!” The priest patted him on the shoulder. “We get so very few followers of Tiernon here, at least up until the other day, that it’s a true pleasure.”

Vaselle grinned. “I can imagine. I suspect there are fewer chapels down here than in the Council States.”

The priest nodded. “I would think so, although I’ve never been that far north.”

Vaselle asked, “You’ve lived in this region your entire life?”

“I have; I was raised by an itinerant priest of Tiernon and chose to follow in his footsteps. I’ve spent my life and my mission in Murgandy and the United Federation.”

“You and your mentor must enjoy a challenge if what I’ve read about the region is true,” Vaselle said.

The priest chuckled. “Indeed. But it is rewarding.”

“I can imagine.” Vaselle really could; it had been his lifelong dream to do exactly that. Of course, now he was in an even better position to serve. “I am Vaselle, by the way.” He stuck out his hand.

The priest took it, smiling. “Teragdor.”

Oubliette

“So it appears we have a restless resident,” Phaestus said after several minutes of the Ops Team scanning the system.

Delg Narmoloth nodded. “Aqua-Chamber K.”

Völund also nodded and added, “Aqua-Chamber K is one of those closest to Mount Doom. It appears, but will need to be confirmed, that the temperature of the aquatic suspension has shifted significantly, most likely due to the great deep freeze Tommus used to defeat the Maelstrom.”

Roth Tar Gorefest nodded. “Well, Doom’s ambient temperature did approach absolute zero, so that would probably have been felt down here.”

“So what does this mean?” Tom asked.

“It means Sleeping Beauty felt a chill and got restless in its sleep,” Tizzy interpreted.

“That pretty much sums it up. It’s in a transition state between sleep and waking,” Völund agreed.

“So what do we do?” Tom asked.

“Well, the automatic systems are working to restore equilibrium temperature smoothly, the hope being that the prisoner goes fully back to sleep,” Phaestus answered.