Epilogue

An Explanation of What Happened

The person primarily at fault for the events that transposed was the Succubus under the guise of Illiustrae, an Elven Bard, in addition to several other people.

The Beginning

Zj'jinliuddsahexaheckapalzaxunoflanusiorinu (we'll call her Helza for short) was a Succubus who dwelt in the 63rd layer of the Abyss. She was nearly powerless in comparison to many other demons, surviving on charm alone. Because of this, she was usually kept as a plaything (see: bitch, slave, torture test subject, etc.) for more powerful demons, who cared nothing for her or her situation, as is typical of them. Not that she was deserving of any better, since her only goal in existence was to suck out the vital, spiritual life energy of mortal beings and take it into herself, gaining a temporary respite from the eternal hatred, spite, violence, and lust that is the very soul of a demon.

One day her luck changed. She was gated to Oerth by a human mage, Sikle, who needed to extract information from her. After some bargaining they came to an agreement, and Sikle got what he wanted. Helza, being expert at manipulation, managed to get Sikle to voluntary free her from his controlling magic. Helza now had something she never thought she'd have: an indefinite amount of time to spend on Oerth, aka the Material Plane.

Needless to say, Helza soon escaped and began journeying through the world. Her first task was to murder several innocent people, drain their memories, and assume their identity, all rather easy for her to do. One of these happened to be Illiustrae, an Elven Bard with her own share of bitterness at the general cruelty of the world.

Helza then went about on her next self-appointed mission: research. During her research period she began to notice something strange: that she was gaining power much more quickly than an average demon would have. Pleased with her own progress, she spent much time collecting information on how things worked, and soon realized she needed someone powerful under her finger to do her bidding. She targeted Sikle. Long story short, she rained down tragedies on Sikle until his mind became soft and pliable, at which point she slipped under his skin and went to work.

The Plan

Sikle soon cut all his connections to all people he knew under "Illiustrae's" suggestion, deciding instead to focus on his magical research. In the meantime Illiustrae served as his information gatherer, informer, and adviser, manipulating him in the process to her own ends.

The process was successful beyond her wildest imaginations. Sikle soon discovered a way to sever all planar connections. Helza realized just how phenomenal this was for her: no longer would Gods or Demon lords control her fate; she would be free to do whatever she wanted to the soft little mortals dwelling here. Not only that, but the (now) most powerful person in the whole world would be under her direct control.

She assisted Sikle in executing his plan. Part of the research which she had intimate help on was the creation of a magical artifact which could use people's souls as fuel to create a theoretically limitless source of magical energy and spell power, since she had fiendish knowledge of such affairs. The item was constructed and Helza loosed it on the world and guided its path, all the while with Sikle more and more under her own control. The statue finally returned to Sikle's grasp, and he was able to execute his plan.

The Plan - Part II

However, it had a strange side-effect. Sikle himself was destroyed, or rather torn to pieces, in the event. This left his physical body with immense power, but his mind was a shadow of what it had once been. Another strange side-effect was that his personality had also splintered, creating shattered fragments of the man himself, each one confused and, to an extent, stuck in the pain of its own memories. The primary center of his power and self-awareness became a glowing personification of magical might, which shortly became known as "Elkis."

Helza took care with this, but noticed during it that the power of the statue itself was still extant. She thusly made the following chain of conclusions:

• Demons have the ability to devour souls. Souls contain a LOT of energy, and complete souls are considered the utmost of delicacies on the lower planes by Demons, Devils, and Yugoloths alike.
• I am a Demon.
• I possess a supply of literally thousands of souls, each kept in constant pain and amnesia, making them especially easy to "eat."
• The one person who is truly capable of using this item is Sikle, who is under my grasp, and even then my command of magic usage has become formidable.

If you haven't guessed already, she soon came to the decision to attempt to consume all of these souls and absorb their power, making her a God of sorts. She would then depart across Oerth, consuming every soul in existence, since none were strong enough to oppose her. Once every other living being had been absorbed into her, she would turn on Elkis and devour him, becoming the one all-powerful being in the universe.

Truly a crooked plot. To help "grease the wheels," she began presenting Elkis as a miracle-making demigod of sorts, and even created a church. Given that no other deities had power during this period, the populations of Oerth soon began worshipping Elkis, some sacrificing themselves, adding to the power.

A Kink in the Plan

Unfortunately, there was a group of people aware of the problem and who, potentially, had the strength to stop it. Elkis himself was too unaware of things, and Illiustrae was too greedy to notice the small threat as they worked their way towards her. One of these people was able to infiltrate the castle itself and sabotage its scrying systems, allowing the others to easily approach and gain entrance. Together these folks disabled the defensive magic protecting the central keep, enter the tower, and restore Sikle's awareness of his own memories.

With Elkis faded, Helza was left with one choice: absorb the power of the statue and quickly become the One. Though her plan was delayed slightly by the arrival of Scarlet and her friends, she persisted and managed to absorb the thing into her body. Victory was in her grasp, but through a lapse of mental abilities, she let slip the significance of her "true name," which the party soon discovered and used against her.

During this time the regular planar connections were restored, but for some reason the castle became completely cut off from the rest of the universe. Sikle soon showed up, alive and well, upon which he turned his full magical power on Helza, completely destroying her and wiping every shred of her existence off the map. To atone for his sins, he swapped his own soul with all those inside the statue (apparently his craftsmanship was such that the artifact could never "give"). His brother, Soren, used the statue to Wish all the characters home, which for some reason broke the demiplane the castle existed on. It collapsed, as did all the characters on it.

However, Deus Ex Machina occurred and the characters met their Gods, who gave them what they wanted for practically saving their asses. They also restored the characters to life/outsiderhood, though most characters chose life. Anyway yeah.

Then Olio showed up, and Rayn too.

Characters

Flora Urthwyte

After having her faith tested though a year of being incapable of accepting the power of her deity, Flora remained her usual stubborn self and kept taking care of her orphanage, as best as she could. Needless to say, there were many who were in need of her assistance, since nearly one-third of the population of the world had been wiped out in the catastrophe. She did her best to work her way through it, and was thankful when all was well in the end.

The World

Oh yeah, so the world is back to normal. However, an observant person may notice that the Gods, mostly the good ones, are involving themselves a little more in the affairs of mortals, being more observant, and perhaps stricter as well. Before they preferred to passively observe from above and grant power to those who have the insight and the faith to attain it. However, the idea that mortals should be responsible for their own fate seems to be a little out of fashion, seeing that mortals are often stupid and err, and sometimes their erring is enough to undo the order of all things.

Also, the weather is still in shit, but is slowly returning to normal.

Juno is back together. Solstheim is gaining influence in the area as people stop taking their luxurious lifestyle for granted and realize that kindness is necessary to gain good things.

Finish later.