Volume 6, The Darkest Timeline 0 - Pre-Gamble

Overview

During the adventure of the Thanes, the Darkest Timeline refers to an alternate year in which Gamble ceased to exist, and never met the Thanes. The following describes the events of this altered timeline prior to the re-emergence of Gamble.

Act 1: Ebrion

• Gamble, upon leaving Coldport Prison, disappears for a year.
• In Ornblake, the Thanes uncover Vendari's plot, secure the Ring of Illumination and save Nieve.
• The people of Ornblake suffer at the hands of the Orcs, Nieve's father dies, Nieve commits suicide.
• The Thanes defeat Kanderert and secure the Ring of Obfuscation, but Helda falls to a trap.
• The Thanes, deemed responsible for the woes of Daenor, are exiled.
• Lavanel is sentenced to death by execution.
• At the last moment, Lavanel's mother Nienna helps Lavanel fake her own death.
• Lavanel cuts her hair, starts wearing a hooded cloak and changes her name to Nieve Nellandora.
• At the Sorceror's Tower, Jed is defeated by a Water Weird and is stolen, along with the Ring of Obfuscation.
• Jed is found in Dolon. He's been tortured and left scarred; the ring is gone.
• Sandero remains undiscovered.
• Jed discovers that he can use new mutations.

Act 2: The Northern Kingdoms

• In Belegond, Jed attacks a slave trader who he accuses of scarring him. The Thanes are arrested.
• Petryan helps secure the Thanes' freedom and enlists their aid.
• The Thanes head northwards and witness an explosion that merges the Fey Wild and Ara.
• Wild magic and fey begin to overrun the countryside.
• The Thanes redirect to Lothair and meet the Grand Mother of the Storm Crones.
• The Thanes head to Kalvak and fight their way to through a slave rebellion to the Wind Gate.
• As they arrive at the Wind Temple, the Storm Crystal is destoryed. Storms rage, the seas rise, 75% of the marine population is immediately destroyed as the Storm Wall collapses, discharing through the oceans.
• At the summit of the Wind Temple, the Thanes find Sinan Thune, Arietta, the unresponsive body of Vendari and a clockwork dragon.
• The Ring of Obfuscation is retrieved and the dragon destroyed; Arpeggio is killed by Arietta, they fall over the edge of the cliff; Sinan escapes with the body of Vendari; Karnak's rage becomes empowered by storm energy; the Thanes find the Ring of the Storm which was powering the dragon.
• While heading back to Ebrion, Jed falls ill, a slaad tadpole explodes out of his chest killing him.

Act 3: Mitzu

• In Ebrion, the Thanes meet Aethillian and Shinsuke, who pay to have Jed restored from the ring.
• Shin's prophecies have stopped being accurate. Elorin and Aethillian believe this is worth investigating.
• Shin has had a vision of the Horn of Captain Thorne, he travels with the Thanes to Mitzu.
• Aethillian heads to Milagon aboard the Umberlee's Howl.
• In Mitzu, the Thanes find Szhen-Dgou in mourning, the Emperor assasinated, his family missing.
• The Council of Isikaya has named Vaka Sani as the Empress Regent.
• The Thanes gain entry to the Upper City of Szhen-Dgou, Isika Matsa Tomio suspects the Empress Regent.
• The School of the Spider aid the party's hunt for the Horn of Captain Thorne but the party is split:
• Shin, Rhobur and Petryan stay in Szhen-Dgou helping the underground loyalist movement and discover Sani's plot to enclose Mitzu in the safety of a demiplane.
• Lavanel, Jed and Karnak go undercover on the Obliviati ship carrying the horn. They help secure the Eye of Mercannon and stage a mutiyny as the ship returns to port.
• Reuniting in Szhen-Dgou, the Thanes infiltrate the Imperial Palace and find the dead bodies of the Emperor's family locked within their own panic room.
• Shin works out how to find the Sacrium of Water. The Thanes race against the Obliviati in a bid to reach the Ring of the Maelstrom first.
• The Thanes briefly gain the Ring of the Maelstrom, but the ring, Rhobur and Shin are captured.
• The non-captive Thanes find their captured allies and are surprised to see Vendari giving orders to high ranking Slaad.
• Most of the captured Thanes are freed. However Rhobur is immolated by the Ring of the Inferno; it is wielded by Vendari, who now also has the Ring of the Maelstrom.
• The Thanes flee Mitzu by ship and watch as the entire continent is surrounded by a magical bubble and disappears into a demiplane.
• The Thanes are shipwrecked by the resulting oceanic disturbance.

Act 4: Milagon

• After being rescued, the Thanes are deposited on the north-western shores of Milagon and go to Paragan.
• The Thanes recuperate and meet up with Aethillian.
• The Queen of Paragn is assassinated and the council declares war with Ebrion.
• Jed is expelled from the Crimson Order for his erratic behaviour and begins an investigations into Arnaldo Guilliero in the hope of finding both the Ring of the Quake and a way back in.
• Petryan is shocked when his new inventor friend is murdered. He invents a magical contraption.
• Lavanel and Karnak investigate the Obliviati, which leads them to a showdown in a volcano.
• The party defeats Sgradito and Amaro the Tinkerer; a new and improved clockwork dragon escapes and destroys large parts of the neighbouring districts.
• The Umberlee's Howl is seized by the crown due to its links to the Acuerdos. Odessa makes an agreement to hand over her ship and herself in exchange for the freedom of her crew. Some stay, most leave.
• The Thanes convince Duke de la Mar to claim the ship for the Spicers' Guild by taking on their existing open contract with Odessa.
• The ship is renamed "the Howl" and the Duke's nephew Zefiro Nellavella is made it's new Capitano.
• Artoz the Unstoppable's army attacks the northern walls of the city, the Thanes join the city's defence.
• The first assault is seen off, but Karnak loses much of her left arm (and the Ring of the Storm with it).
• The army prepares for a second wave, but is surprised by a swarm of undead spilling forth from within the city. The army declare areas of the city lost and demolish bridges to slow the tide.
• In the next wave of attacks, a one-armed Karnak defeats Atroz, but not before being gored through.
• The defenders are pushed back as the invaders are bolstered by an army of demons, led by Clavis Interitus.
• The Thanes retreat to the Howl and, along with many refugees, flee to the Spice Islands.

Act 5: The Spice Islands

• As they travel, Shin has a vision of Vendari killing Clavis and taking the Ring of the Storm.
• Later, the Thanes attend a meeting of the Frithgard, and witness the assassination of Elorin and several other members.
• Petryan crafts Karnak an electrified prosthesis, calling it the Thodor Guantlet.
• In Port Sabor the Thanes find themselves embroiled in the friction between the locals and the refugees.
• A shortage of Spice Tea sees several of them succumb briefly to Screaming Sickness.
• The Thanes begin following the trail of Arnaldo Guilliero and the Rempeh Rempeh.
• Aethillian becomes a recluse following the death of his friend Elorin and is lost to his studies.
• Part way through their journey, the Thanes' plans are disrupted when the Hidden Lands suddenly materialise from under the water.
• The Thanes discover this land has appeared upside down, they embark on a long and difficult journey to the Tomb of Kui's inner chambers - only to find that the Ring of the Quake is already gone.
• Aethillian claims that Shin's prophecies were right and that the world is wrong.
• The answer he says will be revealed in a temporal conflux event off the coast of Ebrion in a few weeks...

State of the World

By the time Gamble joined the Darkest Timeline:

• Southern Ebrion is in a state of trifold war between the forces of Ebrion, Milagon and Daenor.
• Without the High Magus, the city of Dolon has fallen to Obliviati agents, led by Sandaro.
• Belegond is beset by the effects of the fey breach event and its people huddle within the relative safety of their city walls. Fearing the fey and any opportunist foreign powers, they enact a policy of isolation.
• Kalvak has fallen to anarchy. The existing order has been overthrown with help from the Obliviati, but once the newly free slaves started to feel secure, they found their mechanoid allies suddenly turned against them. The Obliviati keep an eye on the situation and make sure to instil enough disorder through subterfuge that no system of governance has been able to replace the existing order.
• The people of Vindt find themselves fighting the harshest winter in generations, with no end in sight. Some say the everwinter is moving further south every day.
• Mitzu now falls under the rule of the Empress Vaka Sani, locked away in a bubble dimension, adrift in the astral plane. Vaka Sani still does not realise how many Obliviati and Slaad have infiltrated her ranks, awaiting an opportunity to undermine her plans.
• Miligon is in abject chaos. A Marilith sits upon the throne and hordes of demons, orcs, gnolls and undead spread across the lands, chasing the remaining survivors and refugees.
• The Spice Islands find themselves in conflict with the Spicers Guild and tensions are rife with the influx of refugees from Milagon. The sudden appearance of the Forgotten Lands only adds to their woes as its displaced peoples start looking for places to live.
• Alagria is largely untouched by the troubles afflicting the world. It has had some volcanic activity to the south and has closed its borders and ports as a precaution given the troubles affecting its neighbour to the west. So far the Alagrian army has succeeded in keeping out the worst of the monsters that plague Milagon, but the heavy influx of refugees is creating tension in all of the country’s cities.
• To the south Coatl holds its secrets, but smoke clouds on the horizon tell of a wild fire unlike any other that has raged across the continent steadily for months.
• With the storm wall destroyed, the weather has become increasingly erratic and storms are common. A huge proportion of the marine biosphere was destroyed and what remains struggles to survive. Volatile seas awash with the bloated corpses of sea animals are common.
• Once considered a rarity, reports of hurricane level storms, sudden wild fires, earth quakes and tsunamis have become common. A number of unexpected meteor showers and eclipses have also puzzled astronomers the world over.