Tercessuinotlim inhabitants: bargains and memories of the Abyss
Tercessuinotlim: forms chosen in the Abyss
Yang said that she and Yin had emerged from the Abyss long before Nulgath became the Archfiend, though they had taken their present forms after his arrival. They represented eternal opposing forces, but Yang preferred to use her talents for appearance and trade. Her shop accepted favors as well as gold, and she invited the Hero to investigate the bright things that interested her.
The associations did not prescribe every part of their appearance or relationship. Yang connected her name with brightness, the sun, relief, directions, and men, while explaining that her blond hair was dyed and her form was a choice. Yin spoke of the netherworld, secrets, the negative, the moon, and women. The sisters rarely fought, Yin said. Nulgath regarded their continuing balance as a sign that his Nation would endure eternally; that was his interpretation as she reported it.
Tercessuinotlim: the contenders before Nulgath
Yang described Nulgath’s ambition as one reason for choosing a form that matched his ideals of presenting his best self. Being selfishly oneself was her lesson. She also offered a harsher account of his ascent: he had not been the first contender to confront the Fiend God. Others had been consumed or discarded, while his ambition, intelligence, and long view distinguished him. Those she called Protectors of Good had not been willing to abandon their humanity as he did.
Yin likewise described an ancient Archfiend who had once been mortal and had changed after facing Adimonde. She credited his ambition and intelligence, but also his readiness for consequences. Other members of Evil could be arrogant without accepting what followed. The sisters’ recollections added their own admiration and explanation to Nulgath’s rise, rather than making their praise an impartial judgment of everyone who had faced the Fiend God.
Tercessuinotlim: favors and the uses of justice
Yang’s commissions showed what could fascinate a manifestation of brightness in an Evil nation. One sent the Hero toward Poisonforest for medals of zealous justice. Yang argued that justice taken to extremes could become an excuse for brutality. Its completion account described extremists alienated from their own leaders and claimed that Nulgath offered them what they really wanted: violence for its own sake.
Another favor requested attractive, ill-tempered cats from Doomkitten and Nibbleon. Yang admired the freedom their appearance seemed to buy them and connected that charm with the pride she thought Evil required. She even complained that too many members of the Nation were openly honest about their cruelty. Her claim that people resented a lying good person more than an honest evildoer was an argument about appearances, not a vindication of those evildoers.
Tercessuinotlim: different kinds of light
Yang also sent the Hero to Blackholesun for unusual light, questioning the Nation’s habit of scorning the element as though every form of it belonged to its virtuous enemies. The completion account delighted in black light and imagined what Nulgath might do if he studied Light closely. A separate visit to Trygve concerned those claiming the name Dawn. Yang interpreted their conflict with other forces of Good as an opening through which the Nation could work unhindered.
The strangest favor began with reports of people vanishing through the ground. Yang said she had glimpsed one such opening even in Tercessuinotlim, leading to a Garden filled with appealing rabbit-like creatures. After requesting a collection of them, she described an ancient scent that recalled Nulgath’s deepest vaults, old ruins, and places she and Yin had traveled before arriving here. Her comparison ended unfinished, referring to vast abysses or voids where Adimonde once… The account supplied neither the end of that recollection nor a settled explanation of the Garden.
Tercessuinotlim: the jester’s precautions
Casparilla welcomed the Hero to a game of errands and rewards. The Twisted Court Jester claimed no harmful intent, but described a less comfortable situation behind the games: Nulgath was away on a business trip, fiends were watching one another, and possessions suited to the master’s tastes might be useful if something happened. Casparilla’s disturbing admiration for the Archfiend coexisted with a practical warning that everyone had to look after themselves.
The first riddles concealed ordinary demands beneath taunts. Casparilla wanted a copy of a weapon’s designs rather than the weapon itself, a creature’s head for a disguise against rogue voids, and durable armor from a green warrior in a filthy place the jester refused to visit. The disguise’s completion hinted that someone would not suspect what was coming, then refused to explain. No later plot identifying that intended deception was supplied in the exchange.
Tercessuinotlim: a game made of other people’s work
The errands continued through clothes stolen from a resort’s dresser, an eating utensil associated with felines, and a princess supposedly awaiting rescue in a confusing dungeon. Casparilla mocked the Hero’s appearance while requesting a similar style, proposed a meal without supplying the tools, and treated the rescue as another part of the entertainment. The completion remarks measured the results in the jester’s satisfaction and impatience, rather than gratitude for a heroic campaign.
A demand to relax at a beach still required bringing back a colorful plaything. Other riddles sent the Hero after a large web-dwelling creature, a white dog from a cold region, and a weapon associated with a dragon Casparilla complained was spoiled by the people behind the fourth wall. The dog’s completion account named the hostile new pet Tris. The dragon complaint was a joke about favored rewards; it did not identify a secret patron within Lore.
Tercessuinotlim: things that are there
Two later requests moved from mockery toward curiosity. Casparilla wanted energy associated with a powerful sorcerer’s staff, describing a conscious being of pure mana with its own feelings and goals. The jester was fascinated by the fact of its existence and wanted that energy to study. The completion praised the glow of the material obtained; the account did not identify that conscious mana being as a person already encountered elsewhere in this story.
The next riddle asked about creatures that were there and not there, reportedly housed aboard a strange ship, and requested evidence of them. A final challenge demanded armor from a formidable enemy deep among dragons blessed by Nulgath, ending in another complaint about the Hero’s speed. Casparilla’s later greetings invited more games and more difficult riddles while mocking anyone who returned. These offered repetitions did not resolve the jester’s earlier suspicions about the Nation.
Tercessuinotlim: Swindle’s wheel
Swindle Bilk praised Nulgath for allowing his business, then steered the conversation toward unusual resources and the wheel he claimed to have invented. His offers accepted a cursed Relic of Chaos or war-torn memorabilia in exchange for a spin. The return policy bought back disappointing prizes to replenish stock for future adventurers. Chance and dissatisfaction could both bring a customer back into the same trade.
Other commissions served more specific demands: gathering materials to study Chaos and make Blood Gems, supplying cubes for the boxconomy, and learning to dig from creatures across Lore. The last completion admitted the work was busywork and called exposure to the elements a payment. Another Swindle menu offered a Toxic Fiend helm for pieces gathered from fifteen Toxic Fiends. His claimed inside knowledge of Nulgath’s rewards made information one more part of his business.
Tercessuinotlim: what Crag could eat
Bamboozle explained that Crag’s appetite for rocks concealed a source of power. Special gemstones could strengthen him, and providing them would put him in the supplier’s debt and let him craft equipment in return. The sequence began with the Star of the Sandsea and Ice Diamond, then continued through Dark Bloodstone, Doomstone, and Void Opal. Bamboozle’s descriptions mixed appetite with warnings about strange origins and unstable power.
The individual descriptions remained Bamboozle’s claims and clues. Dark Bloodstones were said to be made rather than mined; Doomstone could cause pain despite being sought outside the shadows; Void Opal came with a riddle about time and unending possibilities. The completion remarks welcomed the stones and commented on taste, chills, and instability. They did not establish a new universal law about where darkness, pain, or time could exist.
Tercessuinotlim: the stones at the end of the hunt
Further errands sought Mana Crystal, Songstone, Butterfly Sapphire, Understone, and Rainbow Moonstone. The hints ranged from deep searching and help from a bard to magical transformations and the petrified remains of the undead. Bamboozle suggested a paladin might help craft Understone, while the Rainbow Moonstone description treated its supposed origin in dragon fire as a question. These were a broker’s stories about reagents, not observed transformations performed before the Hero.
Time Quartz completed the sequence. Bamboozle described it as a gemstone that had witnessed the planet’s entire life, imagined an equally immortal keeper, and suggested a time potion from the Inn if it proved elusive. The completion congratulated the worker without explaining that history. Crag’s promised equipment gave the hunt its practical purpose; the riddles left their more extravagant cosmological claims unverified.
Tercessuinotlim: the price Lae preferred
Lae offered the Hero rest, advice, training, and enchanted equipment at a price. Gold and diamonds were useful, but fresh souls were more attractive. The first deal asked for ten souls from guards or Inquisitors at the Citadel, taken in Lae’s name so they would come directly to him. The genial welcome thus led to a contract and a demand that made another person’s soul a means of payment.
The proposed weapon work combined summoning, paradox, and manipulation of space with further ingredients and payment. Lae warned that the figure he called the Archfriend might disapprove. Owners of a single Oblivion Blade or dual blades received alternative trading offers that began with equipment already in their possession. These were different supply arrangements for the same promised work, rather than three successive creations that every visitor had to commission.
Tercessuinotlim: an egg and an old friend
Lae also recognized an ArchFiend Dragon egg. He repeated a description of those dragons as savage, loyal, and unstoppable, then questioned the reputation because he believed none remained. Without an adult ArchFiend Dragon to hatch it, the egg would need another powerful being’s help. Lae offered himself as the obvious answer, along with ingredients and assistance from an old friend.
The requested materials included the egg, a Breath of Life, a Fire Guardian Dragon Soul, Fiendish Brimstone, and more fresh souls. The completion announced that it was time to get started. It did not narrate the hatching or identify the old friend. Lae’s bargain remained another offer to purchase a powerful companion through materials whose names carried a cost beyond ordinary gold.
Tercessuinotlim: ranks and forgotten warriors
The Void Highlord greeted a prospective recruit with a challenge and a promise that worthy effort could earn a place in the ranks. The commission’s completion welcomed the worker and announced that the real difficulty was beginning. A separate badge offer recognized surviving the trials with a Fiend Seal. These recruitment and recognition offers did not turn every visitor to the caves into a Highlord.
Zee, a Blood Paladin and self-described maker of Evil equipment, presented a different martial temptation. The greeting proposed corrupting a paladin into a soldier for Nulgath. The Void Spartan commission instead spoke of a forgotten civilization whose individual warriors could defeat elite assassins, offering that power for reagents including Red Jasper from Embersea. Its completion pronounced the power granted. The commission did not describe a particular paladin’s corruption, even though Zee’s introduction proposed that work.