All players Receive 1 bennie for awesome Role-play!
Part One
- Its now or never. The Gloomers have figured out a way to spread the hell pillars out in a cryptic design and location, in such away that when one activates the pillars, by using Giest's gold ring, it would teleport all life in a five by five mile area to the dimension Giest was holed up in. The teleport will be powerful enough to teleport everyone! Stunning power, thankfully not being used to teleport demons to Earth, but heroes to stop Giest!
Platoon leaders report that they are ready, the hum of the JAL Sky Cycles being ridden by amp'ed up excited Juicers fills the air. Sky Knight (some say Sky Pirates) flotillas of sky, burn after burners and touch down to the ground for the transport. Two men, one an Atlantean, and the other a badly hurt cyber knight, who bears a striking resemblance to Lord Coake, come out of the Lava tubes from beneath Gloom. The Cyber Knight is leaning heavily on Sister Penelope, one of the leaders of the Mystics that are lending great aid from New Alamo to Gloom. The three famous heroes talk briefly to Flint and Cantrell, before the Cyber Knight moves closer to a member of teh Black Company, Caravello.
- Lord Coake speaks to Caravello in private for a moment.
- After Lord Coake leaves, rumors abound that he is still here, in disguise and going into battle with everyone! Other, sad news circles around the camp too. It seems one of the members of the 13th SET (Zieja) and one of the members of the Black Company (Gargamel) both perished during their efforts to recover the ring and hell pillars. Sad, the Black Company also lost their team leader, Thrudh here in Gloom. Now, over 20,000 heroes raise their glasses high, in their remembrance. Two great warriors who loved Gloom and freedom enough to die for their beliefs!
- As the final preparations are under way, standing in the ruins of the great Gloom music hall, Diamond Clad addresses the leaders and the gathered members of the Black company and the 13th SET. He seems rocked and sullen still coming to grips with the fact that he is without Ben the Octoman. But the timely arrival of his daughter Crystal, whom is healthy and hale, changes all of that. Joy erupts on his face at the sight of her. His beaming pride and joy is infectious by those around him.
Diamond Clad looks about the ruins of the music hall, taking in the BC, 13th, and leaders of the large army amassed in Gloom. He smiles, possibly for the first time in a long time, since his daughters soul was trapped. Perhaps it is ironic that he addresses the collection of heroes in this happy manner on the eve of such an important battle. Not even during the Siege of Tolkeen has such disparate groups come together in defense of a common goal. The Allied Nation of Gloomers: A great host of Glitter Boys, Magi and automatons from the City of Brass, Mystics and Cyber Knights of New Alamo, the Fallen Cyber Knights, Gloom's own city defenders, Dewomer's defense force, Sky Pirates, Juicer Army of Liberation members, the remnants of the Arcane Company, a rouge CS squadron: the roughnecks, and Frost Giants of another dimension all assembled and ready to stand as one! All told 28,000 or so strong! One might be overwhelmed addressing the leaders of such a collection, but Diamond Clad has faced far more in his time and he had hope and joy in his heart.
"Friends, Allies and free folk. Against Tyranny there can only be one answer. When faced with absolute annihilation there can be only one answer." He pauses collecting his words, "When I was young, I suffered from an affliction that robbed me from the ability to walk, and even stand up. It was Geist herself that found a way for me to regain the strength in my legs." He waits a moment, "She was not wholly the evil that we set out against, there was a time she would be considered my friend." His voice is full of emotion as he continues, all happiness forgotten, "There was a time, Ben would have considered her a friend. Why do I tell you this? I tell you so that you know how far she has fallen, I tell you so that when you are face to face with abject horror you will not falter in your task. She must be stopped by any and all means possible that we here posses. She once told me while I was bed ridden that the only way to stand, to face what the world held head on, was to find the courage within to get the job done. The city of Gloom, and the world itself asks this of you now! Left unchecked she will rupture our reality and everything we love will crumble down and die at our enslaved feet."
As soon as the speech is finished the legions of allies prepare for the trip to where Giest may be. With the ring in hand the alternate-world Victoria Geist and Flint activate the main pillar and a deep red field surrounds those that are heading to the massive battle. Then with a whoosh they are gone.
The pillars teleport the mass of heroes from Gloom to ...
- Chicago, circa 1920 or so. Tall sky scraping buildings are buffeted by a never ending swirl of darkness that hangs over the city. There is cold, and then there is the windy city, the ice capital of this other-world. Chicago has the monopoly on frozen, yet no one is willing to buy. The hillside the heroes are deposited upon, over looks the city. Blinding snow is every where, a thick white sheet instantly covers anything. You better hope your thermal underwear is packed because the bone chilling mind numbing cold can almost be felt through environmentally sound armor. The hill you are on is a rocky crag of a hill, thick sheets of granite spike up here and there. Down the hill is a frozen lake with many automobiles trapped in the snow. It is a huge lake and there seems to have been some kind of recent exodus out of the city as several thousand cars and people appear to be trapped and about to be turned into otter pops.
- Just beyond them at the outskirts of the city proper are newly built factories, each radiating magic, the kind of magic that can annihilate stuff. Giest's over confidence at the ineptitude of the Heroes of Gloom cannot be made more apparent as literately a sign hangs above a two story home nestled between the factories that says "Giest Rules". Its almost as if she is daring some war strapped brute to take her on. Movement from the facilities can be made out as if over 10,000 purple torches are on the march, the CEALs are coming for the heroes. The so called purple torches must be their annihilator infused weapons. The members of the Black Company notice that besides the flood of cars and people trapped just down the hill in teh deathly cold snow, an amphitheater can be seen off to one side from where the heroes are. Not much stands between the Army of Gloom and Giest's army. Just a few snow banks and helpless people freezing from the cold. As the heroes gather their inner strength and resolve, suddenly those assembled here realize: all the members of the 13th are gone! Not a single member of the 13th SET is here.
- The Battle Begins in more than one way. The sounds of rocking music coming from the amphitheater folks from the Gloom defense force claim it must be Drei Marbles Left come to inspire them to great heights. Some kind of space craft, A.K.A Martians, come in from the west laying siege to Gloom's Army.
- The thousands of Ceals come storming in headlong brandishing weapons both melee and ranged powered by the destructive for force of the annihilator spell. Something is creeping up from the rear, and a chilling death awaits the trapped civilians caught out in the lake, it would seem feasible the troops from the Megaversal Legion could be waiting among these helpless civilians with a devastating trap in mind. The blacked sky above erupts in flame and fire as a horrible face looks down from the heavens onto the city: the face of a great giant demon lord!