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20. Entry Twenty (The Gray Orb 3)
(Game Dates: I lost track)
The Brotherhood's victory over the Gray Orb provided little time to celebrate. Giovanni, rather predictably, decided to turn on his allies-of-convenience in the Fire Kings and the Kindred. Though his men killed the rival gang members, an assassin slipped the net and nearly killed Giovanni in exchange, had the Planeswalkers not intervened to save his life, and then smoke out the assassin with a cunning decoy.
The Planeswalkers then plumbed the depths of the Black Lotus' dungeon beneath the Gray Orb manor, finding the facility had been hastily abandoned, with nearly all notes and equipment removed. A few things remained, however… a group of hideous graft monsters, subjects of experiments who had gone mad from their ordeal, and roamed the corridors. After a brief combat, the Planeswalkers met Sigurd, a graft victim who had somehow retained his sanity. They also rescued Aurach the Fair, who they had been searching for, and the Modrons Dash-Y and Dash-Z.
After cutting the evil graft from his body and healing his wounds, they learned from Sigurd that he had come to Torch in search of his missing brother, evidently a victim of the Black Lotus' kidnapping operation in Sylvania. Sigurd also said that before he came, he had sought the advice of an Oracle in Ysgard, who had foretold of his meeting with Helga Slaughter, and had urged him to pass a message to her: “The Oracle of Ida would speak with you”.
As the Planeswalkers emerged from the dungeon, with a wounded Sigurd in tow, they discovered that the remaining Fire Kings and Kindred forced had made it to the fortress, and were besieging the Brotherhood within. The Planeswalkers approached Giovanni with an offer; in exchange for their help in securing victory, they would earn a modest, but permanent, cut of his business in Torch. Given the circumstances, Giovanni agreed. Between clever deception and force of arms, the Planeswalkers led an assault on the encamped enemy forces surrounding them, killing their leaders and routing their forces.
Their business in Torch complete, they finally returned to Sigil, where they attended to personal matters and prepared for the next leg of their journey… Ysgard, and the Oracle of Ida.
