--Dwimmerlaik Chaos Invasion!
Jericho helps Eric start Trumping soldiers through.
Silas brings a large group of Undershadow creatures through, but they refuse to attack the Dwimmerlaik and start going after the fleeing Chaosians. He works on forcing them back into Undershadow.
Lowen is using himself as a conduit to channel the unstable Abyss into the Sorcerer King lands through a lesser Sorcerer King there.
Jason contacts Lady Vala to inform her of the situation. She seems to want to jump direct to completely and destructively cut Amber continuum from the Stairs. Lets her know there is a Door nearby, belongs to Bastiano. She says to tell him that he needs to secure and disconnect that Door.
Isabel Trumps Gerhardt to ask for his help, going to move to someplace a little safer before bringing him through. Silas’ ship shows up, she goes there to bring Gerhardt through. He begins to assess the situation.
Dwimmerlaik throw 7 “bombs” into the Abyss, the explosion tears the rift wide, from about 150’ to nearly a mile. There were just 100 Dwimmerlaik there, now it looks more like 20,000. Around 10 groups of 100 apparently teleport to other locations.
Lowen’s efforts were partially successful, managed to pinch the original rift down to around 50’.
Gerhardt realizes that the Dwimmerlaik are almost blowing up a dam, the Abyss was cutting the Void off from Amber/Chaos. Remembering that the Abyss is the blood/body of Alice’s “dead” brother. Trumps Jericho to explain that to him, and that he might want to consider contacting Alice.
Lowen sent a message to the Queens informing them of the situation. He’s informed that the Winter Queen is coming with her army, and the Summer Queen directs him as the Master of the Hunt to destroy the Dwimmerlaik. (This is phrased so that he can use whatever of Summer’s forces he deems necessary.) She also sends the Summer Knight through. He blows the horn to summon the Wild Hunt, then orders the Knight to direct the forces.
Jason spots Bastiano, runs over to check on him. Bastiano is summoning some of his own forces there. Passes on Vala’s directive. Is told Bastiano already has people working on that. Asked if there are any other Doors in the area, says there’s one more that the locals aren’t aware of, in Thelbane.
Jason summons his car and starts driving to Thelbane. He also Trumps Silas to let him know about the Door in Thelbane. Is there anything Silas might be able to do to help him get in? Eric might be able to, need to talk to Jericho to get him to convince, explains why this is important. Contact Eric, explain situation, Eric says he can make it happen.
Lowen receives updated directions from the Summer Queen, he is to hunt down all of the Dwimmerlaik in these worlds, wants as many dead as quickly as possible. This is mainly directed at the ones who disappeared. Lowen is getting requests for help.
Discussion of Isabel channeling the Flames of Creation through the warp cannon. Gerhardt steps in to assist, (boom, beachhead and 2500 Dwimmerlaik destroyed.
More groups of Dwimmerlaik teleport out. The ones waiting continue to attempt to establish a beachhead. Black lightning eels start attacking the ship.
Jericho adapts his sword into a sniper rifle, starts taking out the Dwimmerlaik sorcerers.
Armies coming together, Bastiano says he can send in some people to wreck shop, but it’ll be a suicide mission.
Lowen considering his options, one possibility is sending a wave of Abyss into the Dwimmerlaik. Might not kill, but definitely would disrupt things. Also considers asking Netherwing for help. Contacts him, says he can assist, which will nullify any remaining debt. Files in through the sky, says anybody who wants to can climb on his back. Jericho immediately agrees, and a total of 1000 people either climb on his back or to a section of platform Netherwing grabs. Carries them into the middle of the Dwimmerlaik army, blasting open a landing point and annihilating about 5000 in the process.
Jericho realizes he hasn’t tried to contact Alice yet. Looks around to see if there’s something he can Unmake. No, but the Dwimmerlaik are doing something to change the orientation of the rift, so there might be something he could do there, pushing it down beneath the Abyss again. Notices Gerhardt’s Doppelganger coming towards him through the Dwimmerlaik, casually murdering any that get in his way. Finally gets irritated by the Dwimmerlaik and splits into 5, and methodically mowing through them.
Lowen decides to assist Jericho by throwing him some powerful destructive sword he has. Analyzing the situation, Jericho is still concerned about his odds, but does decide to use its single-mindedness to chase him through the Dwimmerlaik forces. Won’t last long once they realize what he’s doing. Decides to lure it towards Netherwing. One of Netherwings blasts destroys another 3000 Dwimmerlaik, and apparently the Doppelganger as well? Time for a strategic withdrawal.
(Quick flashback: When Isabel tried to make a Trump of Alice, she blacked out. When she came to she was stabbing the Trump with a knife. Took her a couple of days to get herself back together.)
Apparently just thinking about her was enough, because Isabel notices Alice standing next to her. “The Dwimmerlaik are desperate. They see their end coming.”
“Can you help?” “Can I help? Of course I can help. Dear, I love helping. Why do you think I called the Warrmane?” “The what?” The thing that looks like Gerhardt.” More talking. “You don’t have much time. It’s all about to go wrong. It’s all about to blow.” Ooh, good time to panic. Sends slightly incoherent message through the rings that we all need to leave now. Silas and Lowen hear it. He decides the best way to support Jericho’s withdrawal is to pull out the cannon he’d stolen from the Death World to use against the Dwimmerlaik.
Eric sends Jason a Chaos Lord named Rugal, who clears the path to the Door. Which is in the throne room right behind the throne. Jason goes through the Door and disconnects it. Then contacts Vala, who is able to get him back to her forces there.
Things! Gerhardt determines that he can use the Eidolon to force the rift to sink underneath the Abyss. Trumps Jericho who moves to a concealed location to bring him down there, explains what he’s going to do. Goes down and starts doing that. At last second Isabelle joins them.
Lowen’s weapon goes off. Fires a beam deep into the battlefield, starts warping space. Basically creating a black hole. People start falling towards it. Getting rid of the weapon stops the black hole from getting bigger at least. Netherwing appears to be strong enough to get away. Around a thousand people (Dwimmerlaik?) get sucked into it. Time to leave.
Jason sees the blast, recognizes what the effect was. One of Vala’s soldiers also recognizes it. They need to confiscate the weapon. For what it’s worth, the treaty between Amber and the Gossamer Lords forbids the use of these weapons, they create more problems than they fix. Lowen doesn’t think that applies to him. Summer Knight shows up, lets him know that they really need to work on stopping the escaping Dwimmerlaik. As Jason and the soldiers show up to arrest them, The Summer Knight teleports away with Lowen.
Sinking the rift is going well. It takes the Dwimmerlaik too long to realize what’s happening, Abyss pouring in smacks them down when they try to interfere. Gerhardt stays as long as possible before Isabelle pulls them out.
People start splitting up. Silas taking his ship back to Dragonsport for repairs. Netherwing sees Lowen is gone and leaves. Jericho Trumps Lowen, asks about the weapon. Tells him that there are people looking for it, he really needs to hide it.
The Stairs forces have killed about half of the Dwimmerlaik that had escaped into the city.
Oh yeah, someone killed Amber’s Ambassador to Chaos. Probably should do something about that.
Isabelle notices Alice is still there. “Why are you still here? Isn’t it all over?” “Oh, no. But it’s about to be.”
Massive tremors. Enormously large being approaching from across Chaos. Oh, it’s the dead brother.
As the ship moves towards Dragonsport, Alice vanishes. Someone sees her standing on the edge of the Abyss, looking down into it. Backing up. Jericho asks Alice what’s happening. She points out towards her approaching brother. No, she’s not sure what’s going to happen.
Brother just walks right into the Abyss and goes down. Waves of Abyss wash over the rim destroying all the Ways that are too close. Screaming, mass deaths. Doesn’t take long before the Abyss calms down, appears to be back to what passes for normal.
Eric and Bastiano are coordinating relief efforts.
Jason checks with the on site leader of the Chaos forces, shows picture of Arcane Horror Lowen asks if he recognizes them. Nope. Why are you looking for him? Explains about the forbidden weapon. Doesn’t appear to be terribly excited about helping out. “So? You want your weapon back? Yeah, we’ll let you know if we see him.”
Thinking back, Jason remembers that Lowen left with the Faerie forces. Looks around, sees a lady who appears to be directing the remaining Faerie. She recognizes him immediately. Entertaining exchange between Jason and the Winter Queen.
“You work for Vala, right? If you ever see her, ask her what Mab told her about her authority.” Among the lessons on politics she gives him, she does mention that she helped Vala and the Gossamer Lords with that war.
Conversation wraps up. As he’s walking away, she says “say hi to your mom for me.”
EPILOGUE: Long after everything is cleaned up from the battle at the Abyss, a little girl comes up to the edge. She smiles wistfully then tilts her head as though listening to music although the scene is deathly quiet. After some time, a little boy crawls out from the inky blackness of the Abyss. Hand-in-hand they walk off together occasionally skipping playfully