To Catch a Demon

Of the Layers of the Infinite Abyss, level sixty-five is home to a couple of evil gods. Most important to our dear readers is the New Dark God and his realm of the Fiendholme; a twisted mansion to the macabre. And dear readers in the Fiendholme the Herald of the New Dark God, the vampire/cleric, sorts through the treasures the Church of All and the High Cleric Kareem have paid in tribute to the New Dark God. The vampire/cleric needs to sort through the magical weapons, items, and gold that the Church of All has paid in tribute but dear readers there several pieces of loot that are going to get special attention. And that dear reader is when the Arch-Lich Planeswalker known as Sephiroth enters our story.

Of the loot give up as tribute by the High Cleric Kareem, one of them requires the attention and special talents that belong to the Master of the Past and Present, Sephiroth. The Herald of the New Dark God hands over a scrap of parchment that has the true name of a demon prince; namely Ebulon a former chief general of Graz’zt that was slain by the Demogorgon and tossed in a Well of Darkness on layer seventy-three of the Abyss, Sephiroth is given the quest to secure the release of Ebulon and to bring the demon prince back to the Fiendholme so the New Dark God can corrupt and transform Ebulon in the image of the New Dark God. While this might be a quest suited for an army of adventures, Sephiroth the Lich will handle this personally.

Sephiroth starts by teleporting himself to a plane of existence that he had not traveled to in ages, maybe in another life, definitely in time long past. The world of Abeir-Toril is home to some of the most fantastic cities and has spawned some of the multiverses greatest champions. But Sephiroth seeks not grand cities or epic adventures. No the Arch-Lich seeks one of his own kind: another lich.

And that dear reader brings us to Larloch, once sorcerer-king of Netheril, who created a powerful artifact that allowed him to summon and control beings from other worlds. This evil power eventually led Larloch down the path to lichdom and survived the fall the Netheril Empire to this day in the dungeon levels below the now ruined Warlock’s Tower. The story goes that hundreds of adventures have sought glory under the Warlock’s Tower to never return. They say dear reader that only Szass Tam was able to survive a trip under the Warlock’s Tower to emerge with an item known as Death Moon Orb. But they, and as you know dear reader you should never trust a they, but they say that Szass Tam while the mightiest of the Red Wizards of Thay cut a deal with Larloch that would result in Szass Tam becoming a lich under Larloch’s control.

Szass Tam tried to use Death Moon Orb to steal all the power of the tanari’ri Eltab, Lord of the Hidden Layer but was defeated by some of those epic adventures of Toril that I mentioned before dear reader. While Szass Tam was defeated, the Death Moon Orb was not recovered and believed to be back in the possession of Larloch. And that dear reader is where our hero Sephiroth comes in.

Though few will know the true dark bargain made the story that another survived a trip below the Warlock’s Tower will slip out. And most importantly dear reader that the second “person” was another lich and that for the second time Death Moon Orb was given out to use. What deal did Sephiroth cut to gain access to Death Moon Orb? What long term consequences will arise from dealing with a lich? And not to say what happens when Graz’zt finds out that his friend Ebulon has been freed only to be imprisoned again by the New Dark God?

Well dear reader these are questions for a higher power, concerns for those of have the stomach for it. Is that to say dear reader that you cannot handle the grim adventures of Sephiroth? And the answer is a simple yes, yes the adventures of Sephiroth and the New Dark God are going places that no mortal man care dare imagine.