System Agnostic/Episode Six: The Temple of Reality

X Add worldbuilding credits now!

The final chapter picks up once again in the library, where Celeste is searching for the last film to complete the saga of the five adventurers from prehistory. Coming up empty, she eventually finds a garden blooming with familiar-looking flowers—the kind that once adorned Aranwe’s hair. Entwined in the flowers is the reel she’d been seeking.

Filling the “magic bucket” with popcorn once again, she places the reel in the projector and flips it on. The camera once again centers on the group recuperating in the graveyard. Indomitus kneels next to Brodin’s grave, offering thanks and the hope that his fellow soldier is now at peace.

Puud Een thanks Sae for resurrecting her, acknowledging the cost but claiming she’s seen great things ahead for the (former) cleric. Sae quietly patches up the rakshasa, using a poultice in place of a spell. More subdued than ever, she moves away from the party to gather her thoughts.  Citizen Doctor Merhermbler continues to sob, curled into a two-foot ball.

Eventually the group collects themselves and, with Ainok, make it to the temple. There they rejoin Aranwe, who had been teleported to the door when Indomitus was brought to the nymph’s grove. He pretends to be unconscious; Indomitus draws an apple from the Bag of Holding and hurls it at him, smacking him in the face.

Aranwe says he’s been waiting for the others to arrive. The fighter asks if he has the blessing of a god, to which Aranwe ponders if his hawk Ronan might be one. Ronan points out the magic bucket in Indomitus’ possession to Aranwe, and how the roiling mass of colors is spinning ever more frantically in the temple door’s presence.

At the same time, Puud Een feels the volcano’s heart pulsing and pulls it out of her pocket. It starts to drift towards the door; Indomitus attempts to grab it but is burned, so he releases it.

The stone from the Brightling moon also floats out of Sae’s hands, its light enveloping the heart. In the cosmos the Brightling moon flares to life, as all the light emanating from it is siphoned into the stone until the moon itself grows dark. The magic bursts forth from the bucket on Indomitus’ back. When all three ingredients connect, a bright light envelops the entire party, including Ainok.

Aranwe finds himself in a dimly lit area: the cave back in Outrys, with the dryad Vilya’s tree. He discovers her crying, where she admits she knows this is the end and her time is almost up. She says her tree and she were both saved long ago by “one who would not call herself a goddess” even though Vilya’s convinced otherwise. The dryad passes the entity’s blessing onto Aranwe, though she doesn’t know the deity’s name. She tells him to “find the center”, but he doesn’t know what she means as he’s pulled away from the vision.

Sae is brought to the beach where she first left her home to spread Rian’s message to the rest of the world. There she meets with Rian himself, who simply observes that she severed their connection to save someone who not only doesn’t believe in gods, but actively seeks ways to circumvent them. Sae tries to apologize, but he tells her his purpose for her is to heal and protect—to see that her party is safe. She broke their connection rather than let her friend die, and for that, he’s proud of her. He re-establishes their connection, and offers her his own blessing before saying that, when it’s her turn to die, she has a place at his table. She too is pulled back to reality.

Indomitus finds himself back in the graveyard, and turns to find Brodin—the real one, not the spectral facsimile from before. The fighter asks if his friend is at peace, to which Brodin responds he’ll be at peace when he knows Indomitus has found it. He and the other soldiers are already dead, but they have what they need in the afterlife; it’s Indomitus who has sacrificed, forced to move on after the rest were gone. Brodin tells him the party is coming to a very important moment in history, a turning point that will be watched by all. He passes on a blessing from Obad-Hai, the deity who created the Centaur race. Brodin salutes Indomitus, his once and forever general, before the fighter also returns to the temple.

Citizen Merhermbler is one again traversing a desert alone, only this time with her gear—including her eye-shaped holy medallion. She turns to find a figure floating before her, shrouded in a cloak that conceals its identity. They address her as Eloise; she tries to correct them by including the Citizen Doctor honorific, but they reply “the mistress”—her deity—doesn’t care about titles. They ask if she believes she’s served their god faithfully, but she replies she doesn’t know. She thinks she should start targeting the ankles of her opponents instead of their knees. The creature before her bluntly replies: “It is not where you hit, it is whether the thing you are facing deserves to be hit in the first place.” They’re unimpressed with the paladin, but says the mistress will grant her blessing to enter the temple. However, after the deed is done, Merhermbler will lose the mistress’ favor and gifts.

Puud Een blinks, and suddenly sees nothing but darkness. She hears laughter around her, and a voice asking who she is. She introduces herself and asks who the voice is as well. It responds that the name it’s normally known by is Chaos. It claims to be willing to help provide the final key for entrance to the temple, but when Puud Een presses for the reason it remains evasive, saying only that it “has its reasons.”

Everyone returns to themselves just as the temple doors open. Ainok is excited, but when the others asked if someone gave him a blessing, he wouldn’t elaborate other than not learning the entity’s name. They all briefly discuss who should go in first before Indomitus takes the lead, followed by Puud Een, Aranwe and Ainok. Sae and Citizen Merhermbler bring up the rear.

They enter the massive temple, with rows of stone benches facing an altar. A brightly colored painting on the far wall is a focal point, featuring a horned, red-skinned creature adorned in golden robes, embracing a golden-haired woman who bears a resemblance to an elf—except her ears are rounded, not pointed.

Ainok immediately inspects the stone benches, noting that the area isn’t covered in dust as one would expect a sealed chamber to collect. In the meantime, Puud Een is overwhelmed by the magic thrumming throughout the structure. She casts True Sight, hoping to get a better idea of what’s going on.

Aranwe and Merhermbler take a closer look at the painting, and it slowly dawns on the ranger that the woman depicted is likely the deity that bestowed her blessing upon him to enter the temple in the first place.  

Sae searches the perimeter of the interior, finding ancient tools and weapons that have been maintained and cleaned using methods that would’ve been impossible in the era they were fashioned. The artifacts exist alongside much newer pieces, which are kept with the same meticulous care that make the entire collection appear ageless.

Indomitus inspects the stone altar, which bears the inscription:

“The chamber’s sealed, its knowledge locked away. Should you need it, the blood of chaos unlocks the way.”

He passes this message to the others, whereupon Puud Een reveals she met a being known as chaos. Believing herself to be its agent now, she spills a few drops of her blood onto the altar—to no effect. Everyone conjectures what the message could mean, while Ainok begins raiding the chamber for treasure. Indomitus, with the explanation that his spear has seen much blood shed in a chaotic fashion, places it on the altar. It, too, is ineffective.

Puud Een attempts to reach out to the chaos entity she’d met. She asks how she can “get” its blood, to which it responds she already has it—much to her confusion. She then asks where the blood is, only for it to enigmatically tell her it’s “in the temple.”

Indomitus pulls out the spotlight mushroom from the amphitheater they’d explored earlier, squeezing it onto the altar. The room is brighter, but that’s all that happens. As the others ponder their next move, Ainok discovers a patch of dirt in the chamber that seems the perfect size to plant something. Aranwe comes to understand the flower he wears is known as senthira chaosium—Elvish for “blood of chaos.” He plants the flower in the dirt; almost immediately, it grows rapidly as the stone around it breaks apart to reveal a set of stairs leading further down into the temple.

In the library, Celeste is out of popcorn but is too reluctant to stop the film for more. The temple confuses her: by all accounts it shouldn’t exist, and she can’t find any information on it beyond the events she’s witnessing. A single book remains on the table, as she’s cleared the others away to get a better view of the film.

Back at the temple, the party descends the stairs. All but Indomitus feel a heightened sense of anticipation. They belatedly realize most of it isn’t coming from them, but from some unseen power that pulses throughout the stairwell.

They reach a stone chamber, dimly lit by crystals embedded in the walls. A single stone tablet stands aloft in the center, and the far wall bears a portrait of a nebulous, shadowy figure. Indomitus tries to make sense of what he’s seeing, and is overcome with even stronger anticipation than the others—and a brief, inescapable need to read the tablet.

With her true sight active, Puud Een looks at Ainok. Whatever she sees, she doesn’t share with the rest of the party.

Sae asks Rian for one last moment of revelation, to help her determine what to do. He tells her the tablet is a trigger; when read, “something” will be released, but *not* reading the tablet may doom their world anyway—and will definitely cause the ruin of others she’ll never meet. She passes the information to the others, and Aranwe steps up to read the tablet:

“When chaos abdicates the throne and the sundered citadel lies scattered and still, then Xentallia’s wrath may be unleashed to erase the multiverse she helped to build.”

Aranwe is confused, as nothing is happening. Ainok encourages him to look on the back of the tablet, earning suspicion from Sae; why is he so eager for the tablet to be read? Amidst Ainok’s protestations of innocence, Puud Een moves behind the tablet to read the other side aloud:

“Dear pawns,

You’ll have to forgive the game we played. You don’t even comprehend what you’ve just begun, the machinations that will be unleashed because of your actions here.

If you’re reading this—and we know you are—then your task is complete. You’ve been so helpful. Maybe you’ll have a reward for it in the hereafter—or maybe fate is fickle. But know we mean you no ill will; everything done, none of it out of malice—only necessity.

She must be unleashed. Thank you for taking the steps necessary to free her.”

A tremor shakes the chamber, sending cracks along the wall like spiderwebs. Indomitus immediately tries to gather the party and leave as a nearby wall explodes, as gigantic limbs of crystal and wood begin to break through. The group rapidly ascends the stairs, only to be stopped by a rock wall blocking the exit. Indomitus manages to burst through it and the group tries to make their escape.

Once outside the temple, they look up to see the figure that escaped the lower chamber now towering far above them—and very angry. Most of the party gets thrown backward against the temple wall, save for Indomitus and Citizen Merhermbler, but the centaur is stabbed in the back by the magic bucket that’s now sporting limbs…and a knife.

Sae heals Ainok while Aranwe releases Ronan, telling him to flee to safety. Puud Een races through the area, trying to disenchant every item available so she can cast a portal for everyone to escape.

Citizen Merhermbler is thrown against Indomitus by the titan’s arm. She attempts to stab it, but a spike from the earth juts up to impale her, and the titan sends her dead body flying.The paladin sees the gates of death, but a wraithlike figure stops her from entering just yet—telling her she’s to bear witness to what comes next.

The ground around half the party vanishes, sending Puud Een and Ainok plummeting into the nothingness below alongside Merhermbler’s body. The rakshasa open a portal on the way down to a universe that *isn’t* currently imploding on itself, disappearing from existence. She appears elsewhere, in another universe, and is immediately knocked unconscious.

Realizing things aren’t looking good, Sae casts invisibility on herself and makes her way to Indomitus, getting into position to help him. Aranwe readies an arrow and tries to understand what he’s seeing; the temple lends a bit of knowledge to him in response. Legend says that, long ago, only nothingness existed. Then came The Five: The Chaos, whose essence was used in the formation of “everything”; Magic, AKA The One Who Shapes Everything; Earth, or The One Who Solidifies everything into their correct shape; The Voidling, who sets the boundaries of every world in the multiverse; and the One Who Sees how everything fits together. These entities formed Quelmar’s original six gods, tasking them with creating the world according to their own vision. Aranwe realizes they’re facing off against an avatar of Earth, the One Who Solidifies.

Indomitus tries to attack the bucket, but ends up being severely injured by it instead. The titan causes more ground to fall away, but Sae clings desperately to a crack in the wall to keep from falling. Indomitus and Aranwe aren’t as fortunate, and fall into the earth as it seals over them.

Indomitus calmly puts his belongings into the bag as he falls through the darkness, including the antagonistic bucket, before throwing it upwards right before the ground closes above. His body is crushed by the earth, but as he approaches the gates of death he’s met by Brodin. The wraith keeping Citizen Merhermbler at bay attempts to stop him as well, but he walks past to rejoin his army. He offers the kender the opportunity to join him, but she declines.

Aranwe blinks as he falls, and watches as the titan begins flattening the entire world. His vision goes dark, but he hears Vilya’s voice in his mind, entreating him to join her and saying he doesn’t have to witness what comes next. He agrees, and his consciousness joins hers while his preserved body rests forever within the chaos bloom flowers he once wore in his hair.

The last one standing, Sae watches helplessly as the entire word is completely transformed, the earth tearing itself apart. When it settles, the titan has vanished. What she and Aranwe don’t see is how the world briefly flickers and glitches before “correcting” itself.

The film stops, but no one turns the projector off. The camera pans to Celeste, sitting in her chair with her throat slit—her face frozen in horror during her final moments. Her murderer stands behind her, bearing the same type of eye symbol that Citizen Doctor Merhermbler once wore.