Termina Temple — Temple Delve
Temple Delve — A Special Case
Nulgath recalls competing with Sepulchure for power and pride. He once regarded Sir Valen as a husk controlled by the Shadowscythe’s true masters. That changed when the future Empress was born: for a moment, Sepulchure fought as a warrior rather than a Mysterious Stranger’s puppet.
He compares that contempt with Adimonde’s view of him: toys, puppets and tools. Nulgath was mortal but became the Fiend; Sepulchure was mortal but became the face of Darkness rather than of the Stranger. He asks what the Hero is and what they will become.
The Hero coughs and asks what happened. They remember dealing with Oblivion’s possessor, then darkness. Oblivion says a fragment jumped into their throat in the torchlight. Carnage says Nulgath dragged them away and forced it out, presenting the rescue as a rebuke to their weakness. The Hero asks for quiet through a pounding headache.
Nulgath rules out using Carnage, Oblivion or his army to retrieve the clone. The being wearing its corpse shares ownership of the Nation’s contracts and already used his followers to invade. It appears to be one of many Mysterious Strangers, differing in form.
The Hero recalls encounters with a Stranger in Shadowfall and elsewhere. Nulgath recounts another drawing Valen into becoming Emperor, with events eventually leaving Gravelyn in command. The Hero says her whispers stopped after she learned she was the Champion of Light. Nulgath believes the Shadows are conspiring to regain their lost Empire.
The Temple unsettles the Hero more than Shadowfall: its statues, weapons and treatment of followers suggest a secret the invader wants. Nulgath proposes a joint hunt, but Oblivion warns against giving the creature another chance at the Hero. Nulgath whispers a temporary contract made for this special case. The Hero still dislikes its sound; its terms are not yet disclosed.
Nulgath’s subsequent greeting says the agreement is sealed. His followers must keep their distance because the thief can control the Nation through the clone’s contracts. Only he and the Hero will enter.
Temple Delve — The Dark Beneath the Light
Mindless Waste begins among Overdriven Paladins who escaped the earlier fighting. Eight Paladin’s Keepsakes accompany the task. Nulgath says the Light burned away their minds and tells the Hero to question those who ordered the sacrifice. He demands obedience himself but calls the Temple’s leadership wasteful and careless.
Stone Proxy examines two statues and two windows in the changed courtyard while requesting seven Infested Troll Hides. Night has fallen and Shadow has seeped into the bricks. Nulgath interprets the defacement of Lynaria and Celeritas as private spite, unlike the public message of fear he would intend by vandalism. The invader’s larger motive remains unknown.
The Deepness of Shadows... asks for six beasts freed and four torches examined. Nulgath reports that the absence of torchlight makes possessed Darkness spirits easier to free from Doom and Shadow. This supports his theory that the invaders use Darkness without belonging to it. Whether they originated elsewhere or were rejected remains unresolved.
...Begets the Glare of the Light leads toward the clone beneath a pedestal, the remnant of a grand statue. Upper stairs are blocked. Four Fractured Light Shards, four Nation Eliminated and moving the pedestal open the way down. Nulgath reports that controlled Nation members perish on defeat and contrasts the former Temple’s refuge with this new, heavily armed structure.
Death Over Defeat tests whether other stolen followers can be freed as Oblivion was. Nulgath cannot strike compliant contractors under his own terms. Six Nation Remains instead bring a grim result: he says the impostor kills them as defeat approaches. Worm fragments in the corpses suggest it would rather destroy itself than yield what it stole.
For a Brighter Tomorrow distinguishes courtyard Elementals that arrived after the invasion from the Delirious Elementals present at its start. Ten Elemental Runes reveal the same sorcery used by the paladins. Nulgath repeats Carnage’s account that it grants power at the cost of mental faculties and wonders what secret could justify such sacrifice.
Minions Anonymous searches three shelves and a surviving travel log in the burned library. Nulgath accuses the leaders of destroying books and mangling followers’ minds. The journal calls him indecisive and too careful, provoking laughter and anger. He identifies its author as an independent necromancer secretly arrested by the Temple; that writer’s fate remains to be discovered.
Temple Delve — The Duke’s Half Truths
Prephosphorus brings the Hero to the sane Elemental Astero. Six Delirious Elementals must be vanquished, Astero consulted and the pedestal examined. Nulgath expects that listening will expose more of its intentions, even as he anticipates deception.
Astero thanks the Champion of Light’s retainers. The Hero warns against applying that title to Nulgath; he rejects it but lets the Elemental speak. Astero serves Celeritas and, if she wishes, Gravelyn. Asked why Gravelyn knew nothing of this Temple, it says unfinished work should not trouble her.
Astero describes several kinds of Mysterious Stranger: escaped Doom Spirits, mortals seeking something from the Shadows, and others it cannot clearly remember. That effort recalls only a shockwave tearing through its Plane. This invader is not the Stranger who lured Sepulchure; it is the Worm That Walks.
According to Astero, the Worm exists in hundreds of fragments and infests vessels much faster than other Doom Spirits, which may take months or years to attune. Fragments hide inside bodies protected from Lore’s light. Even Titans are vulnerable, making the creature’s limited strength deceptive.
Astero claims the Worm wants to redirect a portal intended to connect mortals with Light toward the Plane of Darkness. It says the pedestal powers the portal by draining people it calls criminals and other ne’er-do-wells. The Hero whispers that the surviving book and pedestal contradict this account: the portal is already nearly attuned to Darkness, which Astero also sought. Nulgath confronts it with the danger of destroying Lore. Astero acknowledges that danger but treats Darkness as the uniquely destructive Plane.
Nulgath questions why Voidstar’s Plane so outmatches the other elements, a secret dating to the Planar Conflict, and notes that access has grown harder. He orders Astero to connect him to the pedestal so he can banish the Worm permanently. The Hero worries about the surrounding bones and the drain on him. He asks for trust in his might and their contract.
The quest reply has Nulgath accuse Astero of half-truths and trying to divide him from Gravelyn. Sunspotty then asks for six Frenzied Essences and six Nation Essences while he secretly orders the creatures brought alive to supplement the pedestal with their bodies. Astero expects his power to attune the portal to Darkness; Nulgath asks what the new contract changes.
Feeding Time requires one Doom Fiend Dewormed from the Doomed Fiend. Nulgath will open the portal while the Hero distracts the Worm. He acknowledges fragile trust but asks them to rely on the contract because both want the impostor gone. The completion reply promises an introduction to an old “friend.”
Temple Delve — Who Signed the Contract
The Hero struggles to keep the stolen body down. The Worm boasts of eating the clone’s brains and learning that the copies are made to believe they are the original, preventing them from devouring each other to become it. The Hero rejects the unwanted detail.
It turns that supposed knowledge against the partnership. Nulgath sees another fool to exploit, it claims, and fears a second Dage. Once the Hero becomes more dangerous than useful, he will destroy them. Those are the accusations of the creature trying to undermine trust.
Nulgath is pictured glowing gold on the pedestal. At the pedestal, Astero praises Nulgath’s power and anticipates opening Darkness to the Light’s followers. Nulgath asks when he ever promised to send the Doom Spirit there. Astero reacts that his achievement should be impossible. He credits the new contract.
The Worm believes it has gained a way back to Darkness to confront its brethren. It says they hope resurrecting Sepulchure will restore their power, but insists neither he nor his child can be controlled. It wants the control offered by Nulgath’s contracts and claims the Hero through ownership of the infested clone. The view places the Hero above the Worm during its claim, then beside it for the reply.
The Hero reveals the reversal: a contract exists, but they own it. Nulgath signed the dotted line. The Worm’s astonishment meets the instruction to think about that on its way out.
Nulgath explains that he may temporarily draw on the Hero’s powers to destroy his impostor, in exchange for forgiving previous offenses. Harming the Hero or using their abilities for another purpose will cost his life. His word is absolute, he says, and he would not punish their strength. The clause answers the Worm’s accusation while setting the price of borrowed power.
Temple Delve — An Old Friend’s Stomach
The Worm arrives somewhere other than Darkness. A huge, orange-lit face with glowing eyes and a maw of teeth fills the view. An unknown speaker recognizes a Doom Spirit, calls the Shadowscythe race diminished and introduces himself as Adimonde, the Fiend God. The demand to know its captor has become the promised introduction.
Adimonde says the Worm knows him at its core, despite memories lost through the Dragon’s death. He also credits the Dragon’s power for this arrival: Nulgath could not have reopened a portal to his realm without it. His account links the borrowed abilities to their destination without independently establishing its mechanics.
When the Worm invokes its Master, Adimonde interrupts that the being is long gone. He says he once fought that Master and the Shadowscythe, then declares that ‘the scourge of the stars are no more.’ He describes the Master as lost to time, nowhere to be found, with only faint whispers. Lore is his to devour, followed by the Worm. The exchange names no Master and does not independently settle its fate.
The Worm’s body is pictured as a dark, distorted silhouette while it cries that it is melting and disappearing. Adimonde explains that it was thrown into his stomach. Its last protest trails off after being close to possessing a “dra…” He complains that Doom Spirits make terrible meals and orders Nulgath, whom he knows is watching, never to send another. The observer has learned more than the Fiend God intended to say.
Back with his followers, Nulgath distinguishes himself from the Shadowscythe’s former masters: they look down on mortals and use them as tools despite his own human origins. Oblivion rejects being a puppet; Carnage describes true loyalty to the Archfiend as respect for power and teaching. Their declarations answer the Worm’s account of control.
The Hero demands that Astero inform Gravelyn and Victoria and reveal everything being done in the Temple. Nulgath suggests including its true form. Astero treats this as a joke, promises to notify them and says Celeritas awaits Gravelyn. The Hero reminds the tense group that the alliance holds; Nulgath excludes the old Shadowscythe masters, announcing a separation from Doom and Shadow and a struggle in which the greater Evil will devour the other.
Temple Delve — What the Temple Keeps
Nulgath’s later greeting says the clone and its thief were destroyed and the Hero’s offense against him settled. The temporary contract has ended, leaving him without access to their abilities, although his promise remains. He acknowledges its drastic failsafe and says the brief borrowing taught him about both Adimonde and the Hero.
He identifies the Worm and the Stranger who manipulated Sepulchure as servants of the same Master. Adimonde did not name a victor in their old conflict, Nulgath notes, and he doubts the Master truly vanished. Rather than accept the Fiend God’s dismissal, he expects a weakened rival to act again and prepares.
Astero presents itself as serving Celeritas and Gravelyn, recalling fear that the Shadows would destroy it as they did its predecessor Luma. It separately says Celeritas was inconsolable over the previous Champion’s horrific death and presents Gravelyn’s birth as new hope for the Light. It praises Gravelyn above previous Champions and dismisses dissent within the Plane of Light. Later thanks regret the ruined portal but promise rebuilding and notice to Victoria. Those assurances remain colored by its earlier flattery and concealed aims.
The pedestal remains a danger. The travel log warned that victims could not be raised from the dead; Nulgath says he felt close to obliteration while connected and claims a lesser being would not have survived. Its relation to a Drowning Machine makes it worth further investigation to him.
The optional Sparkling Deception leaves the Temple in Nulgath’s custody until sunrise and the paladins’ return. Six Elemental Study, six Infestation Study and one Fiend Worm are requested for a Doomed Extract. He wants to drain creatures through the ruined pedestal to study it, presenting the work as a favor to the Temple’s followers.
Its completion account calls the pedestal an imperfect copy of the Drowning Machine theorized in the journal. The copy cannot be maintained long-term; both it and the original remain unfinished. Nulgath imagines the original awaiting a smith able to realize its malicious purpose. This is an investigative lead, not a demonstration that either mechanism reached its final design.