EVERYONE

The entire surviving party and associates are teleported from the deck of the ship in a single movement, plus Leland Gaunt from the ground far below.

They arrive in the courtyard to find it looking substantially different to when they left. While it had been coated in plants before, now the vines have expanded into thick wooden roots and encrust the courtyard like the floor of a rainforest. More notable though, the tree at the centre of the area has gone, and the stone that that had lain the body of Doomforall upon all that time ago is now bare. The space between the roots is filled with thousands of fallen acorns.

Caspasian turns to Aurelia - the work of my warriors is now done, they will leave now, though I will remain for a while should you need my advice for what comes next. Aurelia clutches Meander's books in her hands as she watches them go, and feels accurtely aware that a little less than half of the warriors who had arrived will be returning to the Sun.

But for the rest of the group, the most notable thing is the figure now sitting conversing with the Botanist. Wearing casual plain clothes with no hint of any symbol on them, and carrying just a slender staff of knotted oak. He stands about 6 foot tall, has thick eyebrows and grey eyes and is recognisable to most of the beings standing there...

Doomforall.

Yet... not quite... While he has the same features, this being carries himself in a different way to every image they have seen. Gone is the black and the trenchcoat, gone are the rift-black eyes that some of the earlier pictures of him had back in the church, but even more so, gone is the brooding vaguely frustrated feeling that all records of him seemed to show. This figure is not really Doomforall at all. As the magic users in the party can attest, and even from the flecks of golden light that permeate the courtyard, he is overflowing with Old Magic.

He turns away from the Botanist, who starts to inspect the roots through various lenses, and faces the party.

"Ah, you're here. I'm afraid you have now reached the point where we must discuss this final piece of preventing the end of the Multiverse".