The D&D comics produced by DC came out right at the dawn of 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, so the Time of Troubles which shaped that edition’s Forgotten Realms setting played a major role from the beginning. Characters referred to magic going awry, the gods becoming more distant, and so on. However, as the Forgotten Realms comic draws to a close, the Time of Troubles finally arrives.

What happens to the crew of the Realms Master when the gods are suddenly cast down and magic stops working? Let’s find out.

An Action-Packed Beginning

We start right in the middle of an action scene, with Foxy running away from a horde of monsters while carrying the latest artifact sought by the crew of the Realms Master. Fortunately for him, he has some help from his friends in dealing with the monsters.

The adventurers rush for their ship, and it seems that the monsters won’t follow them into the sunlight. But then, something unexpected happens.

An unexpected eclipse blots out the sun. The monsters see this as a blessing from their gods and rush to attack. Captain Dwalimor Omen, however, remains calm. After all, he has a ship that can teleport him anywhere in the Realms.

As hostiles board the ship, Dwalimor unleashes some magic to fend them off. He tries to call a water elemental, but the spell goes awry and a monsoon suddenly engulfs the area.

Mid-battle, Vartan suddenly collapses while clutching his head. Foxy eventually gets the Astrolabe of Nimbral to work and teleports the ship away, but not to where he expected…

Vartan wakes up and tries to heal himself from his injuries, but his magic doesn’t work.

Unknown to the crew, the Time of Troubles has arrived.

Time Passing in the Blink of an Eye

Vartan has been unconscious for two days, but the teleportation actually jumped the entire crew several weeks into the future…

Moments later, things get stranger as a flock of one-eyed birds attacks the Realms Master. They strike everyone but Vartan.

Vartan tries to defend the crew by casting spiritual hammer and accidentally obliterates the entire flock of attackers.

The ship then moves of its own accord, eventually bringing the crew to Ruathym, an island of shipbuilders. But the Realms Master is the only ship in port, and all the locals are gone.

Well, almost all the locals.

Something fell to earth during a storm, and an elven bard (or probably half-elven, since elves at this time in D&D‘s history couldn’t become bards) saw something glowing at the bottom of the crater. She touched it, as foolish bards do, and half the people in town died within moments. The other half, like our frightened local here and the birds earlier, lost an eye.

Vartan knows where the crater in the town square is and claims that all human towns are built alike. The local becomes even more panicked when he sees an elf among the crew.

As if the death from above isn’t ominous enough, the possessed elven bard recognizes Vartan immediately.

The woman tells Vartan to speak her name. Vartan responds by saying the name of his god, Labelas…

Labelas Enoreth spoke directly to Vartan during “The Dragonreach Saga,” during which he chose Vartan for a special purpose. It seems that he foresaw the Time of Troubles, and Vartan’s time to repay his god is now.

A God in Need

Agrivar strikes a blow against the mysterious (and apparently mad) elven woman, only to see her crumble to dust. When that dust clears, the eyepatch she was wearing is now on Vartan.

Labelas Enoreth, the god of elven longevity, had foreknowledge that the Time of Troubles was coming and prepared Vartan to be his vessel. I don’t know if this means he interpreted some prophecies about the Time of Troubles (Alaundo of Candlekeep did like to write those down a lot), or if he knew what Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul were plotting and chose not to act.

Either way, Captain Omen, suffering from terrible and constant agony as he slowly dies, sees some merit in serving the god of longevity.

Labelas then explains the basic premise of the Time of Troubles: the gods of strife, murder, and undeath stole the Tablets of Fate, causing the Overgod Ao to cast all the gods down. Interestingly, he refers to Ao as “a minor entity.” That’s a bit rich since Ao is basically the god of the gods, although it also touches a little on the novel Waterdeep where the ending reveals that Ao himself is but a servant to an even greater deity.

Enoreth chose Vartan back in “The Dragonreach Saga,” but didn’t immediately go into his body as a vessel. Instead, he found another mortal, and she eventually died because her mortal form wasn’t capable of holding a god’s essence. Vartan, on the other hand, has been properly prepared.

Labelas lets Vartan speak on his own behalf, and the cleric very clearly wants to help his god. Thus, the Realms Master has a new passenger…of sorts.

As a sign of goodwill, Labelas touches Dwalimor…

Similarly, he cures Foxy of his addiction to cheeese. He offers to remove Agrivar’s alcoholism as well, but the paladin declines.

Agrivar also speaks up for Ishi when Vartan hints at her desire for “some moment of pleasure,” which may be a mistake. On the other hand, since she wants that moment of pleasure with Agrivar, the paladin probably saved himself from some pretty icky consent issues.

The god then turns to Minder, offering to give her a human form…only to burst out laughing when he discovers that her true form is dwarvish.

Labelas shows off his elven arrogance and a good deal of racism, offending Minder while also talking trash about the dwarven gods. For his sake, he’d better hope that none of the dwarven pantheon overhears him…

God Fight!

Naturally, one of the dwarven gods is in fact nearby. Clanggendin, the dwarven god of battle, takes umbrage over Labelas’ insult.

I dig Clanggendin’s inhuman appearance. One of the (many) issues with the Avatar Crisis is that, in a story where the gods could have shown off their weirdness and immortal nature, almost all of them chose some variety of humanoid with blasty magic as their avatar form.

Labelas joins the battle with zeal despite Minder, already badly insulted by the god, being a worshiper of Clanggendin.

The gods treat this fight like it’s a pro wrestling event, taking the time to trash talk each other before they start trading blows.

It’s pretty funny to me that Labelas is talking about dwarves overdesigning things, since his people are the kings of putting unnecessary ornamentation everywhere.

The gods also have no regard for collateral damage. Dwalimor only survives thanks to Agrivar’s heroism, since his dimension door spell fails when he’s about to get stepped on by Clanggendin.

Labelas ultimately emerges victorious, destroying Clanggendin’s avatar form but not killing the god. I’d love to know how the rules on this work, since Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul all go boom when they die. The god Torm also dies during the Time of Troubles, but gets resurrected by Ao for…some reason.

Ishi is wounded in battle, but Labelas is only too happy to heal her. Showing that his mortal form has skewed his judgment quite a bit, he decides to revive her with a kiss.

This gets him smacked by Ishi, and Agrivar is about to throw hands. Dwalimor, loyal to Labelas now that he’s been cured, tries to defuse the situation and is only marginally successful.

Finally, Labelas reveals his plan for the group: they’re going to use the Realms Master to return to the Outer Planes so Labelas can overpower Helm, the one god who wasn’t cast down and who now guards the portals to the Outer Planes.

Sounds simple, right?

An Uncaring God

As Labelas oversees the repair of the Realms Master, along with the replacement of the figurehead with an enchanted battering ram, Foxy starts to show the first signs of doubt as to the god’s goodwill. And no wonder, since Labelas was kind enough to remove his addiction but not kind enough to do more than leave it in an ominous jar to leer at him.

A dropped beam by a ship-builder almost hits Labelas, and he almost kills the unfortunate man over the mistake before Agrivar intervenes. Labelas apologizes for losing his temper, but his actions immediately afterward suggest that maybe he’s not the lawful good god he claims to be after all.

Plant creatures attack the people of Ruathym. Labelas first makes sure the ship is safe, then tries to deal with them. However, he finds that his wanton use of magical power is wearing out Vartan’s mortal form.

Foxy winds up trapped by the plant creatures, and Labelas refuses to help because he can’t spare any magical energies. Agrivar jumps overboard to help the halfling, leading to two crew members in danger.

Dwalimor tries to fly to the rescue, but magic is still too unstable for him to be of any use. Luckily, Ishi manages to break through not to Labelas, but rather to the god’s host…

Labelas saves Agrivar and Foxy, then decides his reward should be a romantic dalliance with Ishi. This is, after all, a comic from the 1990s, and sexual assault tended to be a go-to for showing off how bad somebody was without a full realization of the gravity that such trauma should be treated with. Luckily, Labelas doesn’t get too far in his advances.

Dwalimor intervenes and tells Labelas that he doesn’t atctually desire Ishi; that’s just Vartan’s interest showing through and being corrupted by the god’s power. Labelas responds by threatening to give Omen his illness back, and Agrivar refuses to back down from the matter of honor.

Agrivar avails himself well in the duel, but Labelas ultimately wins, punishing Agrivar by returning the alcoholism that he has so fought to overcome. Minder intervenes, grabbing the god by the wrist, but that doesn’t go well for her.

So now the Realms Master crew is down its three strongest fighters, with Captain Omen unable to reliably use his magic. Surely this plan to defeat Helm will succeed!

A Cruel Master

Agrivar and Ishi are chained below decks. We don’t know exactly how long they’re left to languish there, but it’s long enough to Agrivar to grow a stubble beard. Then again, I think those come as part of the standard uniform for drunkards in comics.

Foxy tries to break the pair out, but Labelas is always watching.

Dwalimor demands that Labelas repair Minder, but he seems easily cowed by the threat of the god returning his illness to him.

The moment of apparent cowardice, however, is actually Omen getting close enough to Labelas to pick his pocket. This is a cheat in game terms, since in AD&D only thieves could even attempt to pick pockets. Nowadays, it’s a simple Dexterity check that anybody can do. But in game terms, I guess Dwalimor must have started his career as a thief before dual-classing to become a mage.

Once alone, Labelas struggles with Vartan, who is not happy with the situation. This angers the god, as the more he has to fight Vartan the more energy he consumes, making their body weaker.

In a lot of ways, the Forgotten Realms is pretty much a Hellworld. While we’ll discover later that Labelas is not in his right mind due to being trapped in a mortal body, the gods in general don’t seem to adhere to the same morality as mortals. However, they consume prayers like food, and those who don’t worship a god become imprisoned in the Wall of the Faithless, a fast structure made of souls that get slowly consumed until there is nothing left. The gods are basically spoiled children, and the entirely of Toril has to cater to them under threat of a fate worse than death.

The Sailboat to Heaven

Foxy goes below decks to free Agrivar and Ishi, only to discover that Ishi has already slipped out of her bonds. I guess she took the Escape proficiency from The Complete Ninja’s Handbook (and, like Dwalimor, must have dual-classed somewhere along the way).

Meanwhile, Labelas sends the ship hurtling toward Helm without fully knowing the consequences.

The ship speeds through the skies, basically an arrow designed to kill a god.

As to the crew? As Labelas puts it, “You are humans! Used to death!” As always, the god fails to read the room.

Since Agrivar’s been going around half-naked for most of this adventure, it must have been a hoot for his drunken self to put on his armor. I bet half the buckles are undone and the breastplate is on backwards.

Agrivar and Ishi won’t be able to beat Labelas on their own, so Dwalimor tries to level the playing field by opening up the portal to the Demiplane of Fear.

He seems to have got his timing just right, as Mystra dies at Helm’s hand during the Time of Troubles. Either invoking the goddess’ name is just a password or he got very lucky that Mystra hasn’t been killed yet.

The plan almost backfires, as Labelas seems poised to throw Agrivar into the demiplane. But Omen has an ace up his sleeve…

The jars break on impact, hurting Labelas for a moment but returning the afflictions to Dwalimor and Foxy. This gives Ishi an opportunity to push Labelas through the portal.

We never do learn what is in the Demiplane of Fear that would frighten even a god. I don’t think it’s ever been revealed in Forgotten Realms lore, either. Whatever it is, it causes Labelas to leave Vartan’s body so he can escape.

Drunk or not, Agrivar is a paladin and does what paladins do best…

Unfortunately, all this time the Realms Master has been speeding toward Helm.

Helm strikes the ship as it jumps, and the Realms Master is smashed to pieces. As to the crew? Well…

We’ll have to find out what happens to them next time, when the Time of Troubles wraps up.

This would be a really hard adventure to knock out at the table, because I can only imagine that most players would be immensely frustrated at fighting something so beyond their level. People want their games to feel fair, and while the Realms Master crew does eventually emerge victorious, they had to scrap for every inch they got.

In fiction, however, it’s common to put the heroes through the wringer and make them face impossible odds. Will the crew come out of those stronger than before? Not likely. Next time, all the rules have changed…literally.

_{Images: DC Comics}