Finding Nulgath’s Secret: Tercessuinotlim
Tercessuinotlim: the price of a path
Oblivion greeted the approaching mortal with a warning rather than hospitality. Easy treasure and deserved rewards had no place in this maze, he said; the realm could consume a traveler or drive one mad. Yet his other greeting admitted that Nulgath was expecting the Hero farther inside. His mockery made finding the master another part of the challenge.
Nulgath dismissed the Inquisition as an easy trial and the Hero as still weak. He offered a path to the strength needed for future dangers, but insisted that it had to be earned at a price. His contract would open his wares and the commissions of the realm’s inhabitants. When asked about its terms, he answered by questioning whether the Hero cared about anything except power.
Tercessuinotlim: an unread contract
The offered Contract With the Abyss was written in a language the Hero did not understand. Its question was whether to sign anyway; its completion welcomed the signer into Nulgath’s Nation. The invitation was therefore no explanation of what had been agreed. Nulgath’s later greeting called the Hero a minion and threatened anyone who complained about his prices.
The power he offered had a material form. Nulgath said he had placed minute fragments of himself in his gemstones and relics, which could be earned through commissions and forged into stronger items. He directed aspiring ArchFiends to Oblivion’s punishing training, and aspiring Void Highlords to the original Highlord in the caves. Those were further offers of service and initiation, rather than proof that the Hero accepted every rank.
Tercessuinotlim: rewards that keep a servant working
The archived community commission accounts show how the bargains prolonged themselves: reagents purchased chances at rewards, valuable equipment required more materials, and even further weapon techniques came at another price. Nulgath’s Leery Contract welcomed any alignment while again refusing to explain the agreement. His threats and theatrical generosity made dependence part of the exchange.
One commission made Taro’s predicament especially clear. Nulgath asked for essence from the Makai and Taro’s Manslayer, then welcomed the news that the Blademaster’s soul had grown stronger. He said he would return the weapon so Taro could gather still more essence, comparing that labor with the Hero’s own work. The promise of reward could sustain the master’s cycle as well as strengthen the servant.
Tercessuinotlim: Light beside the darkness
Skew, an Enchanter of Darkness and Fiend of Manipulation, initially ordered the Hero away and predicted a fatal mistake under Nulgath’s eye. His later offer was narrower: he could empower items, but only those he chose. Polish stood in opposition to such work, offering to purify tainted equipment and imbue selected items with Light.
Polish’s commissions explicitly sought counters to Skew’s curses and aid against Nulgath: a claymore, an ordinary helm, Spinal Tap, and the Claw of Nulgath could receive his enchantments. He warned that Nulgath’s quietness might conceal a sinister plan. His separate concern was Murry, whose mind was deteriorating as the mountains seemed to slip between times and the Citadel appeared in ruins. Polish offered passage to that time.
Tercessuinotlim: Oblivion’s invitations
Oblivion described ArchFiends as drawing strength from eternal darkness and asked for permanent loyalty to the Abyss. His promotion commission offered a shortcut past twenty to thirty centuries of military service: gather the reagents for a new contract and force a commander’s retirement. The completion’s reminder was blunt—conscription was compulsory and permanent.
Other offers treated the Hero as a supplier of power. Feed the Fiend Tokens demanded dragon gems, bones, a Screamfeeder heart, and a diamond before deciding what reward, if any, was deserved. The DoomLord commissions attributed a more consequential precedent to Nulgath: using Gravelyn as a conduit when the unstable connection between Lore and the Underworld limited the power he could manifest.
Tercessuinotlim: the temptation to banish Light
In the DoomLord work, Malignant Essence was to be shaped with Nulgath’s reagents. Oblivion described the power Gravelyn obtained from the Nation as something the worker’s will could bend, with an especially rare essence possible as a by-product. Further essences would earn the armor, and a separate badge commission recognized the accomplishment. These were available commissions and their promised outcomes, not a second retelling of Gravelyn’s history.
Oblivion also offered a darker path for a would-be paladin. Its completion dialogue acknowledged a signed contract and a taste of the Void; the next stages tempted the minion deeper, until keeping that power required a sacrifice and banishing the Light. Two versions of the Sacrifice commission supplied the same spoken bargain. A later cybernetic equipment exchange was another reward option, rather than a separate conversion of the Hero.
Tercessuinotlim: Carnage’s cruel curriculum
Carnage introduced himself as a Blood Void who trusted none and spared fewer. Nulgath had tasked him with teaching the Hero about the Dark Makai. These former grunts had begun to flee and rebel; the first lesson demanded proof from twenty-five of them. Its completion praised destruction without questions, making Carnage’s attitude toward the rebellion plain.
His next lesson demanded parts for a frightening face mask, then turned from killing to origins. Carnage said Swindle’s stolen intelligence included ancient Makai scrolls. Finding a scroll earned a key to study it under Carnage’s watch. An optional bribe bought Swindle’s recollection of its location on the Lich of the Stone in Darkovia; it did not replace retrieving the document.
Tercessuinotlim: the broken Moglin record
The scroll described Mako, a Moglin who sought a higher existence and gathered followers unwilling to be dismissed as harmless furballs. Warlords and kings laughed at their appearance. According to the account, Kurok Gravefang’s great-grandfather agreed to transform their bodies to match the evil he recognized within them.
Lightning struck as the final incantations were being cast. The partially transformed Moglins were left disfigured and near death, abandoned as useless, and forced into hiding to heal. They became more deranged before meeting someone the faded scroll no longer identified. The account’s wording shifts from Gravefang’s ancestor to Kurok Gravefang himself; it does not settle that inconsistency or name the later encounter.
Tercessuinotlim: an experiment makes the revolt worse
Carnage used the supposed Moglin descent as grounds for experiments. He requested ten captive Makai and an Evil Moglin from BattleOff, then chains for comparing Makai with the familiar species’ healing hugs, sugar crazes, and cuteness. His completion dialogue revealed the disaster: one captive he had killed during testing was their leader. The revolt now sought the destruction of Nulgath’s empire rather than release from his oppression.
Unwilling to face the resulting horde, Carnage sent the Hero to Nulgath’s double agent Verick in the sewers. The task produced Verick’s identification card, and Carnage’s later greeting explicitly called it stolen. He wanted the Hero to use it to secure Verick’s cooperation. Verick mourned the lost Makai leader even while placing Nulgath above him, showing a loyalty more troubled than Carnage’s contempt.
Tercessuinotlim: a bluff in place of allies
Verick’s attempt to turn the Makai toward finding a new leader failed. Restraining five faction leaders did not reconcile them to peace; the completion account said only Nulgath’s blood would satisfy them. With too little force to subdue the uprising directly, Verick proposed a deception: steal personal possessions associated with Lore’s leaders and pretend those groups had allied against the Makai.
The bluff worked in the quest account, and Verick sent the Hero back to Carnage to finish the suppression. The final commission described key blows after the deception as crushing the rebellion; another repeat commission offered rewards for deterring further uprisings. Verick’s post-bluff greeting nevertheless admitted that unrest remained and hoped for a new leader. Carnage’s congratulation and invitation to keep cutting down Makai did not resolve that discontent.
Tercessuinotlim: Jadzia’s science of a stronger Nation
Jadzia introduced herself as head of the Nation’s Loremasters. Her order were scientists and researchers as well as scribes, prepared to sacrifice lives while removing the imperfections in Nulgath’s domain. Strengthening the Makai would force those above them to improve too; otherwise, yesterday’s strong would become tomorrow’s weak.
Her first study used Makai specimens and mutations from Moglins and swamp creatures. Its completion reported stronger, deadlier, crueler Makai, accompanied by screams whose victims she treated with indifference. Another assignment studied the soldiers of Nulgath’s lost war with his protégé. Jadzia blamed the weakness of his followers and hoped to avoid repeating that failure; this was her explanation of the defeat.
Tercessuinotlim: power worth studying
Even the Nation’s humiliating chibification supplied research material. Jadzia’s completion account praised the pink energy’s effects on strength, speed, and obedience while admitting that few could tolerate its appearance long enough to use it fully. Sparring against established followers served a harsher educational purpose: she expected shame and hatred to drive them toward greater strength.
The Fiend Shard offered a more frightening possibility. Jadzia said it held Adimonde’s power and wondered why Nulgath withheld access. Her commission therefore asked for shavings obtained by other means from Nulgath’s and Dirtlicker’s shards and Roguefiend crystals. Its completion praised the daring feat and welcomed the chance to begin studying those fragments, rather than announcing mastery of the crystal.
Tercessuinotlim: a journal the Loremasters could not obtain
Taro Blademaster puzzled Jadzia: a powerful Horc following the samurai path, living in Nulgath’s domain without the loyalty or debt she expected. He would not speak to the Nation’s Loremasters. She therefore asked the Hero to bring him sake and blade oil, spar with him, and earn his trust. The task’s completion acknowledged a journal and admitted that his motives still raised questions.
Her later greeting let the Hero keep and read the diary and opened the Loremasters’ armory. A separate bonus commission proposed recording Nulgath’s errors in battle; its completion turned admiration for the surviving Hero into a request to study the Hero’s body. The invitations to continue research did not erase the uncertainties in Taro’s account.
Tercessuinotlim: Taro follows a voice
Taro’s diary begins with a deliberate ordeal. He believed that facing darkness could sharpen an otherwise tranquil spirit. In the caves, however, echoes called him forward and the passages seemed to change with his position or perception. At a malicious portal he chose to continue, trusting that whatever lay beyond would refine his mind and spirit.
Beyond the portal, he found familiar-looking caves but felt he had left Lore. He suspected manipulation of his senses. Ferocious creatures resembled Moglins while carrying an unfamiliar dark aura. A cloaked being would not speak to him; Carnage was more agreeable, describing a strange space-time used by the Archfiend Nulgath. Taro recognized the name from old scriptures and sought its owner.
Tercessuinotlim: the eyes in the diary
Taro recorded defeating an armored warrior whose body resembled Carnage’s. Once disarmed, the stranger attacked his mind, but Taro believed the foe had fatally underestimated him. Afterward he felt watched. A subsequent page repeated “Endless eyes” until the writing broke off, making the diary itself part of the account’s disturbance.
The following entry questioned whether he had written those words. Taro insisted that he possessed clarity and doubted the fallen warrior was responsible; something more dangerous must be filling his mind with darkness. He wanted to leave, but felt compelled to find its source and fulfill his purpose. Those were his fears and deductions, not an identified attacker supplied by the diary.
Tercessuinotlim: a spirit to harvest
The diary eventually records the meeting Taro had sought. Nulgath outmatched him and treated his raised blade as entertainment. In Taro’s account, the Archfiend spared him but sealed him inside the realm, forcing him to fight disciples for amusement. Nulgath’s praise of his strong spirit came with a threat: it would make a more satisfying harvest.
Taro continued to resist, while wondering whether the struggle was changing him. Other travelers died; he questioned whether helping them would save them or merely give them his fate. The prospect of freedom frightened him because he might abandon his convictions to obtain it. His final hope rested on the arrival of someone different, someone with promise. The diary ends waiting for that possibility, without showing an escape.