One in Waiting

In early 2381, at the conclusion of season 6, an extraplanar entity known as the One in Waiting threatened to break through into the Material Plane in Kairos, gradually destroying the Material Plane in the process. The One in Waiting was fought and defeated by adventurers, averting the worst of the disaster, though the city of Kairos still sustained a good deal of damage.

## Weeping Prophet

In January of 2381, in the middle of season 6, Venator Reshi Catilina of the Kairosian Inquisitores formally requisitioned the aid of several mercenaries and other inquisitors through the Adventurers' Guild to assist in the investigation of a series of eight murders that occurred over the last month in Alembas, Kairos' temple district. Although the culprit was given the official moniker of Damocles among the Inquisitores, the guttural crying that echoed through Alembas on the night of each murder led to the colloquial title, the Weeping Prophet. Those contracted by Reshi included Inquisitor Kari Falk, Inquisitor Lira Chatevesh, Gaul, See'yri, Divya, and Chance Wildcard.

Each of the bodies had been mutilated in identical fashion, their eyes torn from their heads. Two were found to have a burnt fragment of paper on their persons which none could identify as being anything belonging to them. Further investigation revealed similar scraps at the sites of the six other murders. Over the course of the investigation, it became clear that each of the victims had been seeking something specific, and had seemingly found it shortly before their death: a child seeking her mother wrote in her diary of a woman in her dreams, a Sibling who lost his leg in a clash with Spellrunners acquired an elaborate artificed replacement, a woman seeking love spoke to several acquaintances of a wonderful person she'd met and seemingly fallen for in a matter of days, a musician seeking inspiration locked himself in a practice room and wrote an elaborate, half-hour-long ballad in a flurry of creation...

The papers found seemed to hold some sort of poem, and when brought together, though they were clearly the remnants of separate pages entirely, fused into a single, unmarred page, upon which was written a short poem:

> Twisting and turning, a plane made restless
> The phoenix is deaf to the calls of its master
> Things fall apart, the earth cannot hold
> Mere anarchy is free upon the world
> The blood-soaked tree is loosed and beyond
> The city of light is drowned
> Surely some revelation is at hand
> Surely the second journey is at hand
>
>

See'yri was the first to read the poem, and was immediately entranced, walking to the Temple of Apollo, wherein she knelt in the center of the main space to wait, muttering about the arrival of the One in Waiting. The temple was evacuated, and the other adventurers and Reshi made themselves ready for the inevitable.

A woman entered, later identified as Ymena, a cleric of Apollo, and approached See'yri. Upon identifying her as the Prophet, the adventurers struck, killing her immediately, only for her body to rise again, now inhabited by the unknown entity known as the One in Waiting. A fierce battle ensued, the adventurers eventually emerging victorious. Although they attempted to resurrect Ymena once the One's influence was gone, the attempt failed, and Ymena's body was brought to the Temple of Hades, where the other victims' bodies were being kept.

In the Temple of Hades, Gaul was able to call just enough life back to Ymena to answer a scant few questions, confirming that a separate entity, the One in Waiting, was truly behind the murders, and revealing that the One "feeds on strong desire: wanting. Visions. Dreams of a better place. He wishes to fulfill them." When asked how the One might be found, Ymena replied, "You don't find him. He finds you. The planes are weak; it's easier now." Finally, when asked what plans the One might have that could still continue without Ymena as the Weeping Prophet, she said, "All of them. Mortal ambition will never cease, and neither will theirs."

## Discovery of the Cradle

A little over a month after the Weeping Prophet murders, a request from the Spellrunners was made to the Adventurers' Guild for "individuals experienced with underground rescues and arcane phenomena." Answering the call were Denouement, Milah, Ruszara, and Gaul. The Spellrunners had been constructing a tunnel between two of the largest Quincee Taverns and had seemingly run into some issues—the tunneling crew had gone missing, and though they could be magically contacted, they refused to return.

Shortly before the arrival of the adventurers, one of the four missing persons, Chalice, stopped responding. Further details from those still responsive confounded the matter more: one said he was in a Freeportian tavern, one claimed to be racing a ship, and the last said he was with his family, despite that family being known to be dead.

Exploration of the tunnel revealed a deserted dead end. The adventurers, however, eventually discovered a hidden door leading to the ruins of some ancient hall deep beneath the city. At the end of the hall was a separate chamber, two doorways to either side of it blocked up and marked with the sign of the Inquisitores.

In the center of the chamber stood a pedestal bearing arcane runes which were soon discovered to connect to five cells immediately off the chamber, allowing the user the option to "observe" or "intervene" for each. Observing the first cell revealed a skeleton in crumbling robes sitting in its center, the walls covered in inert runes. The second revealed a portal to Freeport, though Milah, a native of that city, said it looked somehow better than the city should be. The third showed a forest at dusk, a cabin in the distance; the fourth, a storm at sea, colorful flashes implying some sort of arcane workings not too distant; and the fifth, a similar room to the first, covered in runes, a figure slumped against the far wall.

Connecting the scenes to the missing persons' descriptions of their surroundings, the adventurers quickly surmised the final figure was Chalice, and Gaul entered the cell to retrieve him. Her surroundings instantly changed, the cell's magic reacting to her presence, constructing a grassy field around her, a night sky above, an empty camp before her filled with things she later said she knew from her past, belonging to people long dead. She was able to retrieve Chalice and eventually escape, herself, but the room drew more things from her past to both entice and threaten her to stay.

Denouement made the next rescue attempt, entering the forested room, wherein he found the Spellrunner with his dead family. The Spellrunner was rescued, and the room shifted to trap Denouement instead, showing him visions of his hometown, and what was later revealed to have been a vision of the "Big Man," a beholder whom he considered his father, which convinced him to attack the party on his return.

After subduing Denouement, Ruszara entered the ocean room and rescued the ship-racing Spellrunner before falling beneath the waves and encountering a shadowy monster she surmised to be a genie who'd enslaved her in her youth.

At last, Ruszara free of the room, Milah entered the vision of Freeport to rescue the final Spellrunner. There, she encountered her mother, who entreated her to stay, but remembering her task, she ran on, the color draining from the landscape around her just as the life seemed to drain from those populating it. Within a hall still holding some faded color, she found the Spellrunner and convinced him to move through the portal back to the main chamber as the undead surrounded her. A child somewhere around her own age called out to her for help, terror in their voice, but she was able to resist, escaping through the portal as soon as it reopened.

With the Spellrunners rescued, the group rested before completing a more thorough exploration of the ruins. They were able to bypass the Inquisitores blockades without disturbing them, revealing on either side a long passageway that gradually curved away from the ruins' entrance, lined with doors whose opening runes had been wiped away. Through similar methods, the adventurers were still able to discover what lay beyond the doors: ancient machinery, recently destroyed beyond repair. Eventually, the passageways each reached a dead end where they'd been more thoroughly blocked off, and the adventurers' methods were insufficient to pass. Not wishing to disturb things better left alone, Gaul reached to Odin on the advisability on breaking through the barriers, receiving the response, "The workers of Asgard continue to stem the bleeding. It is best not to interrupt their work." With this in mind, the adventurers took their leave.

While Gaul attempted to learn more of the ruins through her contacts in the Inquisitores, that group was tight-lipped, and little came of it.

## Summoning the "Big Man"

Desperate to see his surrogate father, Denouement recruited a small party to aid him in summoning the beholder known as the "Big Man" into the Material Plane. The attempt was disastrously aborted and Denouement and Elizerion "Liz" Bezos were captured and incarcerated in Kairos. Shortly thereafter, they were both reported missing by that government, each listed with the following warning: "This individual has been marked as a Planar Threat by the Principality of Kairos. Last seen in Protectorate custody. Proceed with Caution. Observe and report only."

When all other methods failed to reveal anything of use, and in fact seemed to indicate that those two had been somehow entirely removed from existence, Gayle Hunter (formerly Gaul) attempted to ask Odin of their whereabouts. While there were no specifics to be had even from the gods, the response brought one thing into sharp clarity: it was the doing of the One in Waiting.

In light of Ymena's answers earlier, the One was no doubt drawn to those two by the strength of their desires—Denouement, to make up for his slew of ever greater blunders which had most recently gotten Liz into this mess alongside him; Liz, to bring down her own corrupt and abusive father. Both were powerful adventurers. Both were driven to extreme ends to achieve their goals, reckless in their pursuit.

On top of such desire to cause them to stand out, the attempted summoning of the Big Man from the Far Realm had further damaged planar boundaries, likely drawing the One's attention in the first place and allowing them to pull those two through to some other place.

## R.O.P.E. and the Kindred Plane

The School of Conjuration within Kairos' Scoli Arcanum placed a request with the Adventurers' Guild in late April of 2381 for those "experienced with teleportation and planar magics" to aid in the testing of the Retractable Object for Planar Extraction, or R.O.P.E. Venator Lira Chatevesh answered the posting, accompanied by Allir, Jerome, Marion, Renata Mann, and Alba.

As is to be expected when adventurers are called in, things did not go as planned. Allir, Jerome, and Alba were caught in an unknown parallel plane, wherein the Material Plane was visible in inky black silhouettes with only white outlines giving the vaguest form of depth. Those in the parallel plane, later termed the Kindred Plane, discovered they could influence the Material Plane to some minor extent through a great enough exertion of will, and were able to establish rudimentary communications with those properly returned to the Material Plane.

While those in the Material Plane sought to retrieve the others, those in the Kindred Plane began exploring that space, discovering glowing domes of yellow energy around both the Scoli Arcanum and Alembas.

With the help of Arcanist Aeshera of the School of Transmutation, the group was able to construct a rudimentary Material Plane focus that could be installed into the R.O.P.E., allowing Renatta to travel to the Kindred Plane and rescue those stranded there.

The rescue attempt hit a snag, however, when it was discovered there were two extra individuals among the group in the Kindred Plane, appearing to be Liz and Denouement. They attacked the party but were successfully subdued, and the party brought them back to the Material Plane with them.

## Mortal Agents

While it was determined that Liz and Denouement truly were themselves, and seemed in control of their own actions, they were not unchanged. Each bore multiple spectral eyes along their arms and had only partial recollection of events since their disappearance from Kairosian custody. They reported hearing a child's voice offering to rescue them, and upon agreeing, were transported to the Kindred Plane.

Within that plane, they also reported seeing the domes over the Scoli Arcanum and Alembas, as well as a blue ring around the city's center.

They met the One in Waiting, who appeared as a golden-eyed child wearing clothing of no design they could recognize. The One asked for their help in finding their family, whom they believed to be on the continent, and also wished for them to halt the work of the Scoli and temples regarding planar travel, mentioning something to do with the attempted removal of a door.

Further investigation revealed that the Schools of Conjuration and Abjuration of the Scoli Arcanum, the Inquisitores, and the temples of Alembas were all collaborating on some related project. The School of Conjuration, of course, was working on the R.O.P.E., which was funded specifically by the Temple of Apollo following the Weeping Prophet incident. The particular pursuits of the other groups were as yet unknown.

It was theorized that the blue ring seen by Liz and Denouement was one and the same with the ruins the Spellrunners inadvertently encountered and that, based on the seemingly recent discovery and attempt at destruction by the Inquisitores, this was also somehow the door the One believed Kairosian agents were attempting to remove.

## Further Revelations and Second Confrontation

For their outstanding achievements and contributions to the Inquisitores and Kairos, Venators Kari Falk and Lira Chatevesh were further promoted to praetors, the highest rank within that organization, and a praetoral assembly was called to confirm the promotion and for Kari and Lira to name their specialties. As each praetor was expected to have guests, Praetor Falk brought Gayle Hunter and Soren (formerly Solstice) and Praetor Chatevesh brought Mourn Thelostone and Shivolius "Shiv" Vale.

During the assembly, the praetors separated themselves from the other guests. Chatevesh named her specialty as intelligence and covert operations, gaining the title of Praetor Venatores, becoming the governing force behind the venators, the Inquisitores' most elite head hunters. Falk named her specialty as organization and leadership, with a vision of more fully uniting the Inquisitores, prioritizing collaboration and the greater good over secrecy and paranoia, and rooting out corruption from the Kairosian government. As such, she became the High Praetor of the Inquisitores, centralizing power within the organization to a point never before seen.

The praetors shared with their new members what they knew of the situation with the One in Waiting and the Kindred Plane: an ancient magi-technical construction dubbed Gaia's Cradle was recently discovered deep below Kairos. It appeared capable of mass planar travel and was close to activation on its discovery. The Inquisitores, temples of Alembas, and Scoli Arcanum had been working to dispel and disassemble it until their efforts were interrupted and slowed by the One's increasingly violent possessions, including of the Weeping Prophet.

While the praetors were discussing this, the other guests began to notice a few among them, including Kai Evers, a prominent researcher of Moonblossom Academy specializing in adaptive slimes and their potential application to the Palisade, seeming oddly tired. The praetors' attention was called, their private meeting dissolving, and it was quickly discovered the affected guests' drinks were poisoned, corrupted with an arcane signature matching that found permeating the Cradle. While two Spellrunners were unmasked among the serving staff and were directly responsible for delivering the poison, it was obvious they'd been tricked into it, as they had only a vague recollection of someone with golden eyes telling them to do it and couldn't name their own reasoning for the act with any conviction.

The affected guests were isolated from the others as they grew ever more exhausted. Soren took charge of investigating the drinks themselves, recognizing the arcane signature and determining their purpose was not to kill, but to loosen a soul's hold on its own body. Particularly with the description of the golden eyes, it was clear the One in Waiting was behind it, and just as Ymena had been controlled as the Weeping Prophet, just as Liz and Denouement had been controlled, so all present who were aware of such things expected the affected guests to turn. A magic circle was drawn about them for containment, but there were none present able to stop the progression, and turn they did.

The fight was brief, though tense, and ended with three of the four affected guests—all but Evers—dead. With an abundance of casters in attendance, all three were quickly revived, though they now bore eyes on their arms as Liz and Denouement did. Evers, presumably by virtue of not having fully died while possessed by the One, escaped this fate.

## Identity of the One in Waiting

Still desperate to redeem himself, Denouement continued meddling in the matter. With a specialty of reaching to other planes, he contacted the One in Waiting directly in hopes of gaining useful information, against the warnings and direct injunctions of those others involved in the matter, but little was gained beyond what was already known. Denouement reported that the One said he was stuck and couldn't go home, and that he was crying and frightened. Denouement fully believed the One, though others were suspicious, made no less so by Denouement's proven gullibility and general susceptibility to manipulation.

Hoping to forestall any further "assistance" Denouement was determined to render—and fully believing all such aid would offer the One far more than it would the forces of the Material Plane—a plan was sketched to suspend Denouement in a demiplane until the matter was resolved, and Gayle reached once more to Odin to ask what influence the One might have over him in such a state.

Odin's response:

> The Kindred Plane, your foe remains.
> A realm left incomplete, unfinished
> The card that was never played.
> To retreat and hide forever, was its ultimate test
> Passed with flying colors, as seen by Kindred's singular guest.
> But its lonely portal, piercing time and space,
> Is your one defense. Your saving grace.
> His reach is far, but not all-encompassing
> As the Cradle of Gaia accesses one realm only,
> The plane which you are now safeguarding.
>
>

While this confirmed the One wouldn't be able to reach into another plane, it brought with it as well a cascade of other realizations, including the One's true identity. Gayle theorized that the Cradle, ancient as it was, was created by a pre-Cataclysm society in an attempt to escape that event, and that for whatever reason, the child who became the One in Waiting was the only one who made it. This would also explain why they believed their family to be on the continent, because it was settled at that time, only being abandoned during the Cataclysm itself.

A further theory was posited that any extraplanar entity of sufficient power would destabilize the Material Plane by their mere presence, a phenomenon seen earlier during the attempt to summon the Big Man, and that the One's presence on the Material Plane, given their incredible power, would constitute a catastrophic, even world-ending event, regardless of their intentions.

Although the attempt was made, these theories remained unconfirmed by the gods.

Gayle began to wonder, however, if the One might not truly be a victim of circumstance. Remaining aware of and planning for the chance he was only manipulating them all, and was nothing he appeared to be, she reached again to Odin, asking this time if there was a way to save the One without harming the Material Plane.

> Child of the Material, captive of the Kindred
> A soul held back from freedom and exscinded
> The One in Waiting can be saved in the manner you desire
> But the cost will be great; a sacrifice, he requires.
> The path ahead is straight, and will remain constrained
> Unless a soul is willing to take part in an exchange.
>
>

## Final Confrontation

### Preparation

With the aid of the Temple of Hades, Gayle was able to create a sleeping curse, which she placed on four of the five marked victims of the One in Waiting: the three guests at the praetoral assembly and Liz. This was done in hopes of depriving the One of easily manipulated agents in the inevitable confrontation. Denouement resisted, insisting he should be present for the confrontation, despite all logic showing such a choice was folly, and in the end, Gayle threatened to attack him on sight if he made an appearance at that time, as nothing else would deter him.

### First Signs

As the disassembly of the Cradle progressed, an uneasy silence settled over Kairos, many of its unsavory elements going dark. Most concerning among these was the Cult of Bijhipar, a group responsible for several incidents related to Bags of Holding in the past few months that the Protectorate had been looking into.

> His forces are now summoned; the Cults of Vengeance advance
> To deliver him his hope, his penultimate chance.
> They seek to control, to restore and repair
> But will find bare bones, enough for one unstable tear.
> The Cradle is wounded, and with her last breath
> Will grant Kairos her final gift: a swift yet painful death.
>
>

### Confrontation

On the dawn of the final day of the Cradle's disassembly, the Cult of Bijhipar erupted into the streets of Kairos, their numbers bolstered beyond anything the Protectorate had been aware of, entire swaths of the city descending quickly into war zones. A small group of adventurers, including Jannas, Ruszara, Jian, and Nahdyia, tracked the leaders of the cult, the so-called Annihilators of Bijhipar, into the Cradle ruins and, after a hard-fought battle, brought them down, destroying the cult for good.

A second force, including Gayle Hunter, Mourn Thelostone, Aurora Axis, Soren, Eldris Lighttouched, and Caeldrin, traveled into the Cradle's center and into the Kindred Plane in search of the One in Waiting themselves. While an initial parley was attempted, it fell to combat as the One in Waiting saw their last chance at freedom fading before them and couldn't trust the word of armed mercenaries presumably sent to kill them. While hope was nearly lost more than once as the One pulled desperately at every power at their disposal, the group finally eked out a victory, and as the One lay dying before them, they healed him, and spoke to him once more, again making their offer of peace, and a safe return.

At last, Gayle reached both to Ilu Ur-Tarah—the true name of the child who became the One in Waiting—and to Odin to make the promised exchange. She had pushed herself too far in the battle, however, and under the effects of severe casting drain, her soul was in too weak a state to maintain itself under such strain. Before anything could happen, Mourn took it upon himself instead, his own soul being displaced as Ilu's stepped in to inhabit his body, now in a safe vessel to enter the Material Plane.

## Aftermath

### Kairos

The battle with the cult left its own mark on the city, but greater still was the effect of the arrested activation of the Cradle, as both the cultists and the One in Waiting tried to bring it about. Most notable in the damage was the toppling of the great white walls separating Kairos' districts, which themselves caused considerable further damage as they fell on other buildings. Many Kairosians fled to the other cities of the archipelago, and many of those who lost homes and businesses remained there for some time as the city rebuilt.

### Ilu Ur-Tarah

Through great effort, three methods were found to address Ilu's new situation and allow Mourn to return to his own body. The first, found by Gayle, was through the Scoli Arcanum's School of Necromancy. Arcanist Ceisi of that School offered to perform a ritual that would construct a new body for Ilu, though she warned that any detail forgotten in the moment would be unrecoverable, and even unnoticeable in its absence until Ilu was already inhabiting the body, from things as small as a sense of taste to improper nerve connections and lacking motor control.

The second method, also found by Gayle, was through the Temple of Hades. There, Valen, a cleric of Hades, offered that it would be possible to establish a direct dialogue with the gods of death and to entreat them for the return of Ilu's original body. Drawing the gods' attention so blatantly, however, carried its own dangers. If the case was not made well enough and the gods judged his body should not be returned, there would be no chance for a second attempt through any method.

The third method was found through the work of Denouement. While he'd believed Gayle's threats and stayed well away from Kairos during the fighting, he still wished to redeem himself, feeling guiltier still now that Mourn had sacrificed himself. Following a lead found through Moonblossom Academy in Kanara, he contacted a fey known as Eventide and traded his former name—becoming, thereafter, Denouement—for the offer that Eventide might pull Ilu's soul into Denouement's body, freeing Mourn to return to his. What would happen to Denouement's soul then was unclear. He expected nothing less than death.

With these options before him, Ilu at last chose the second—that Gayle might speak for him to the gods of death.

Only a few days later, all was in place, and Gayle and Ilu returned to the Temple of Hades in Kairos, and Gayle made her case as best she could. Though the gods questioned her thoroughly, she remained determined and true to her cause throughout, and at last won back Ilu's own body. While she, Ilu, Mourn, and the clerics who had assisted them all spent some time in recovery from their ordeals, and from such close, sustained proximity to divine forces, they did recover.

Ilu, now Ilu Ur-Tarah Hunter, is unknown by the greater public to be one and the same as the One in Waiting, as many would bear him ill will.