Session 25: The 9 Lives of Rad Polo

General Summary

The Dragonlord's Proposal

Diirhaas continued to make his case, leaning into glory and conquest. He spoke of the whole world beyond the Boundary, ripe for the taking. Mecha-Tiamat was the means, not the master, a way to open the Empire to a world the dragons could conquer and call their own. Nyxek deflected to the practical question. How many warriors from beyond the Boundary had it taken to bring down Coldwing? Diirhaas admitted: four. But they had fought like demi-gods.

Nyxek asked for his son's honest assessment of an invasion's success. The Dragonlord conceded losses would come, but the victory would be glorious, especially if the Empire joined the Talon of Tiamat. They could not afford to cower behind the Boundary at the whims of an insane Emperor. Nyxek asked how Diirhaas knew so much about the conditions inside the Empire. Diirhaas claimed sources and intelligence that found its way out.

Vutha was snarling, ready to kill Nyxek's son for the blasphemy. Kal held him back. Nyxek proposed a duel: Vutha against Diirhaas. If his son showed his strength, Nyxek would join, and Vutha would take Diirhaas's head back to the Emperor either way. Diirhaas liked the odds. He took a moment to consider.

Rad's Ruby Eruption

Rad Polo had stepped away from the Claw's huddle, his magical accoutrements ringing with growing urgency. He returned holding a large ruby that glowed with dangerous heat. "You cannot do this. The timelines are collapsing."

Nyxek demanded clarity. "What? What do you mean? What can't we do?"

Rad was already panicking. "The possible futures, they are vanishing rapidly. We can't let this happen." He smashed the ruby into the ice.

The Claw was thrown into the future.

The Time Tower

They arrived in a strange, magical world. On the horizon stood a ruined Chagroth's Tower, dominating the skyline as it has dominated every skyline. But where it should have been a monument it was something less stable, many things in this future still thrummed with magic, but more were collapsing, phasing in and out, wavering like the temporal magic interfering with Rad himself.

Standing there in the broken future was none other than Tad Polo. He called out to the Claw, needing their help. Rad acknowledged his progenitor, but Tad had instructions first: "Rad, hold open the portal to their timeline."

Rad turned and faced a swirling portal between a circle of ruby shards already beginning to mend themselves together. He worked his magic to halt the ring's closing.

Nyxek demanded an explanation. Tad answered that the Claw would understand when they saw what Nyxek had pushed him into. This was the future hell Tad had been trapped in since entering the spawning pool with the chosen of his dula-dulas. Nyxek protested, dula-dulas vanish after mating. Tad was incredulous. "I vanished HERE."

He gestured into the heart of the tower.

The Time Gluttons

Looking into the tower's heart was like looking into a warped vision of the future. A powerful, elevated Paragon Prophet bore the emblem of the Emperor's Claw and conferred with a giant, towering Emperor Nyxek. They spoke of the devouring of all time, the lesser timelines being consumed through a different portal by MechaVuthaNawa, a false-meat Bakunawa that Vutha had evolved into after feasting on Mecha-Tiamat. He had become a pizza singularity. All pizza, anywhere, in every timeline, fell into his event horizon. His eternal mate Baethra had become the most amazing pizza chef across all timelines, feeding the singularity she had married.

Skorjira's bones were oddly preserved in the corner of the chamber, a sacrifice that had made this reality possible at the cost of his life. Beside them stood a haunted, mind-hollowed Kal, posted next to the portal of a Fifteen-Headed Mother whose heads were in constant schizophrenic debate.

The four in the room turned to the Claw as they entered. Emperor Nyxek was excited that Rad had brought them another meal in his foolish quest to stop them and their Truth. They had created a new First World with the Red Dome of Heaven. It needed only that they eat every other possible timeline to maintain it, though they did not appear to be doing a very good job of it.

Dragon Emperor Nyxek informed the Claw that they would be delicious, as every other version of them had been. Dread Kal had fought across timelines and died and come back to do it again over a thousand times. This was the ninth time Rad had tried to foil their time devouring. They suggested it would also be the last. They would close off the timeline he was trying to save and be done with him.

Battle at the Heart of the Tower

The conversation was hard for the Claw to follow, but it was clear the Time-Eater Claw meant to kill them.

An arrow flew from Tad as fast as the Claw had forgotten his arrows could fly. It embedded deep into Dread Kal, though Other Paragon was able to eat some of its danger. Dread Kal answered by floating in and out much like the Kal they knew, putting hurt on Vutha and Tad. Baker Baethra summoned a wall of poisonous pizza fumes between them, then released a wave of pizza sauce that knocked the Claw over. The bones of Skorjira rushed through the poison wall, immune in the absence of lungs, and exploded into spikes among them.

Vutha bit back at Skorjira's bones. Kal fought his dread self. Nyxek unsheathed his blade and flashed like the wind between his enemies. The blade cut deep, but only Dread Kal fell. As Other Paragon rushed forward to infuse him with more life, his speech about falling and rising a thousand times grew a little longer.

Kal asked if he should knock Other Paragon out. Both Nyxeks expressed disapproval. Tad turned his arrows on Skorjira's bones, but the remains exploded once more, and Vutha passed out in pain. Kal took Dread Kal out cleanly, then flew over and stunned Other Paragon before she could revive him again. Nyxek brought Vutha back up, and the lizardfolk put the bones of Skorjira down for good. Tad finished Other Paragon. Baker Baethra accepted surrender under a measure of physical coercion.

Goodbye to Daddy Dula-dulas

The portals containing MechaVuthaNawa and Dragon Emperor Nyxek flexed as the two future dreadnaughts began coming through to finish what their lesser Claw had failed to. Nyxek's Claw fled the tower as Tad called them back to Rad.

"Take them back," Tad told his son. "We've halted the collapse of their timeline. But I have to go back to being the progenitor of dula-dula-kind."

The Claw and Baker Baethra leapt through the portal Rad held open. They fell back into the moment before the ruby shattered and watched the gem reverse itself into flawless magical mineral. Rad breathed a sigh of release. "The timeline is stabilized significantly. You should be able to make any decision you like."

A Duel Deferred

Diirhaas stood there, slightly confused at why the Claw was suddenly bloody and injured, but happy to duel Vutha now if Nyxek was ready.

Nyxek asked for a moment. Things had changed.

They spoke further with Rad and confirmed the truth of what they had seen: killing Nyxek's son brought the Time-Eaters' timeline closer to fruition. Closer to false-meat Vutha. Closer to an insane Fifteen-Headed Mother. Closer to a Nyxek who ruled an empire of collapsing time.

Nyxek pivoted. He told Diirhaas to leave the Talon under Coldwing's command and come with the Claw back to the Empire, where they could learn together how to stop Mecha-Tiamat, protect the Empire, and put Vutha on a diet.

Sora teleported them back to the Wyrm's Oven. The Imperial Sentinels would find a path to a flourishing future for all scalykind, over some pizza, of course.