Gary Gygax - Dance of Demons

"Lord Entropy!" the archfiend called telepathically with a force that sped through planes and spheres as a shout echoes along a deep canyon. "Come and share my sport!"

An indeterminate amount of time passed, then the deepening darkness indicated the coalescence of the entity. "You imagine the contest as mere sport now?" Entropy said in its slow, mechanical voice.

"Is it anything other?"

After the laughter from the being died away, Entropy spoke again. "Two near-fatal rounds indicate otherwise, Tharizdun. Even had you been the almost-victor in both."

That stung the haughty Master of Malevolence. "You dare to speak to me thus? I'll …"

"I speak to any and all as I choose. You will do nothing; you cannot harm me, that's why." It wasn't entirely so, but the entity thought it best to always retain an edge by obfuscation and mental domination. There was yet much to accomplish, and the lord of Evil was a tool which had to be plied with force and much direction. "There are fundamental errors in your assumptions. It is wise of you to ask for my assistance."

Tharizdun was not fooled, nor would he allow the words of the entity to drift away into realms of forgetfulness. Whether or not there was truth in Entropy's assertions, the archfiend knew what it sought. If he used his powers to continue life, creativity, activity and the formation of new things. Lord Entropy was weakened and his power abridged. Tharizdun could certainly harm the boastful entity. The trouble was, such actions were very much against the archfiend's own desires and undercut his own domination as well. That, too, annoyed Tharizdun.

Because of that, he spoke to the other matter. "Your assessment of the duels is what is full of bull-dung, leaden lump," Tharizdun countered, forcing a deep laugh to underscore his contempt for Entropy's words. "The first engagement was set up to take me without my strength gathered. In the second, the three rings were used to lever away all the forces I could bring to bear. No more can either situation apply. Sport it will be, soon, just as I stated."

Ignoring the illogic of the claims, Entropy addressed only that which was of interest to itself. "You are so certain of easy victory in a third contest?"

"Of course!"

"The foes still have the bands forged by the greatest masters of Weal."

Tharizdun was not impressed. "The power of those rings is waning as I wax, and soon the whole of the spheres of illumination will he closed to the so-called champion and his helpers."

"Perhaps, but until that occurs they do draw new energy into the rings, and that gives them strength. There is the sword, too. Do you forget that it is forged of both dark and light? Any sphere can be used to energize its dweomers, Tharizdun. The three are again growing stronger, and the longer you dally here, the larger looms the chance for defeat — your downfall! You think it meet to use epithets such as 'leaden' in addressing me, yet it is Tharizdun who epitomizes inertia."

"Untrue! I have been most active in my work. All that lies below the Plane of Hades now feeds my power. Each netherrealm now wears the collar of slavery I have fashioned. I do not tarry uselessly. wliy do you seek to incite my rage, you slow and ponderous bungler?"

Entropy was unaffected by such words. "If I bungle, I also seek to prevent you from doing the same, Tharizdun. You must lay waste all potential fonts of energy, clamp tight the springs which could send power flowing to your foes. Ravage all, hunt them down! Finish the champion soon, Tharizdun, or the third match might go as the first went."

In truth, there could never be a fourth confrontation between him and Gord. Tharizdun knew full well that the next duel would be the final engagement between them. The archfiend frowned briefly, then stood and smiled his evil smile. "But why do you prate so, Lord of Entropy? All you rant of may or may not be so, but the reason you are here doing that seems to have been forgotten — by you!" Tharizdun drew himself up in hauteur, his face an arrogant mask of pride and malice. "It was I who summoned you to me. I do not languidly sit while the foe gains strength. You were called to witness my last campaign. The yeth are about to be released. I will lead them across the planes and bring my quarry to bay."

"And the despoiling, archfiend? Will you deny your enemy aid from all sources?"

"You seek to do no more than further your own ends, Entropy," Tharizdun sneered. "I know your desires. For this occasion I concur, though. you tell me nothing I do not already know, but you may have whatever satisfaction you might from this: I will lay waste to any sphere which has harbored the champion, and I will raze all which lends strength to him!"

"That is exactly correct," Entropy droned loudly.

"Please commence your work."

The exact number of hounds in the pack was impossible to tell. New ones joined the howling throng constantly, others departed for one reason or another. Perhaps a hundred of the things howled and slavered there at one instant, then three times that number were present, giving voice to their hatred and insanity as they sought to destroy all that was not like them — fully alive, clean, sane, unfettered. Whether a hundred strong or a thousand, however, there were always three monstrous members of the pack at its head. Laughing hideous mirth, Tharizdun was always there too, whipping those three on from the center of the howling, snapping press as it ran across the spheres in spectral fashion.

It was the yeth named Mephisto which the archfiend chose to head the howling pack as it ravened through the realm of shadows. "this is for your failure!" Tharizdun said afterward, thrashing the hound-thing with excrutiating tendrils of barbed-toothed energies because the hunt had not brought Gord and his companions to bay. Somehow, just before the master and yeth came, the three had slipped away, vanishing into the vast and convoluted basin of time.

Entropy could not enter, and the archfiend refused to follow, for it was becoming apparent to Tharizdun that the being who was called Chronos had only enmity for him. And because of the wild confusion of this version of the cosmos now precluded orderly tracing of energies, It was not possible to scry or use similar means to locate his prey. Having loosed the hounds, the archfiend had no other recourse. It suited the entity very nicely, of course, for in the savage fury of destruction that Tharizdun and his yeth hounds visited upon a sphere, the coming of Entropy was hastened.

Tharizdun railed and cursed and was exultant all at once. He would raze the multiverse and rule over a rum rather than go down into destruction. Leaving Shadowland a dark desert, the greatest expression of Evil drove his pack onward. "You will lead into the domain of the master of Cats, thrax," the archfiend commanded. Yammering with special hatred for the feline species, whimpering in undertone too at the prospect of having to face such foes, the yeth bounded into that sphere. Perhaps their quarry was there when hunter and hounds came. There was such a battle fought, though, that even Tharizdun couldn't be certain. After great losses and much fighting, the realm was left a lifeless desert. Archfiend and pack, diminished in strength and much worn, flew off to seek the champion elsewhere.

"The portals to other probabilitles may be sealed." Entropy scolded, "but those three are somehow leeching power from those other universes nonetheless. Perhaps they need only a small space to do that; I cannot determine how it is accomplished. If we — you, principally — are to triumph, that must be stopped."

Tharizdun was also aware of the succor that Gord, Gellor and Leda somehow managed to gain. The rings enabled the flow and served as recipients and storehouses of the force drawn by the three. "You will bring tour weight to bear upon the gateways, leaden thing," the archfiend ordered the Lord of Entropy. "Portals can be barred from two sides, I think! If the lords of otherwhens think to seal me off, so too shall I shut them out of my demesnes. Once all here is truly in my grasp, then i will batter down those barriers. Now you and I will see that the gates are held sealed from this side."