> Tales of the Cabal
>  by rantu1324
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> The Twisted Bookkeeper
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If one were to look deep within the endless void of the multiverse floating aimlessly between worlds there lies a strange mass of land known to those few who know of it simply as ' The wanderlands', This strange wandering land is the home of many wonders from across reality from mighty beasts capable of devouring worlds, to mystical plants that could cure any ailment. 
But the greatest and most powerful of them all lived in the massive towerd fortress at the center of the great conanent, for this was the home of the masters of this land 'The Cabal'.

One may wonder Who is this Cabal and how is it that they came to be the masters of a relm of the void, well lean back and join us in our tale as we go into this strange relm and learn the tale of 'The Cabal.'


Deep within the great tower of The Cabal there lies a massive library said to contain knowledge from across the multiverse, from  the simplest of childrens books to aincient tomes of long forgotten races and long dead relms. For this is the dweling of the leader of the cabal a being of knowledge and of pain, a being once mere man who through his thirst for knowledge brought about both his greatest dream and his worst punishment. This is the home of the Twisted Bookkeeper.

Settled amongest the endless Books and tomes is a single large red velvet reading chair, and in that chair sits the Twisted Bookkeeper ,or as he prefers to be called 'Mr. Keeper'. He is a tall thin man with sickly silver grey skin and slicked back black hair, his teeth are sharp and gnarled like knives, his left eye glows a deep crimson red while his right eye is an empty void covered by a black monocle, he wears a black tailed coat suit like one would find on an oldtime english gentleman with a matching tophat.

In his right hand is a large black leather bound book with brass trimings and a large blood red gem in the center, while in his left hand is a pitch black raven feather quill thats top was covered in an ethereal blue flame. This book was called 'Memento eternum' and it was the source of the keepers power and life. For in his quest for knowledge the keeper ripped a piece of his very soul from himself and bound it to his lifes work , a book that could copy the knowledge, memories and thoughts of those around it into its pages calling apon them when needed. But in his haste to finish his masterpiece his sould and mind were corrupted binding him forever to his book as well as twisting his and its purpose, for now i stead of simply coppying the minds if others he and the book now tear these from their targets leaving nothing but mindless husks once they are through.


Now one may think that all they would have to do is seperate him from this book and destroy it to bring about his demise, but they would be wrong, for the book itself is bound with ancient magicks and energies from the void itself making it truely indestructable, and beyond that the book itself is alive and aware of what goes on around it and once held by one other than its master will begin to corrupt those who hold it, whispering ancient knowledve and secrets most dark to convince its new wielder to continue its dark purpose eventualy driving them mad all the while sliwly takeing their mind for its collection as it searches for its true owner.

The keeper and his book have one last trick to ensure that rhey shall always go on, if the keepers body is ever destroyed beyond repair the book will search for a sutable new host and force the stored mind of the keeper into the new body and slowly rebuild it into his original form while keeping any abilaties natural to the bodys original form, through this process he has already gained a minotaurs strength, a griffons flight and cloudwalking, and a unicorns abilaty to wield magic.
> The laughing man
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Within the walls of the cabal fortress there is a wing dedicated to pure madness this is the lair of 'The Laughing Man' , but do not let his name decieve you for he is no lighthearted jester no he is a creature of chaos and madness, of twisted joy and endless sorrow, for while he loves to laugh and play its for himself and no one eltse, he is a man who would just as likly slit your throat as he is to hit you with a pie all the while laughing for he is the enbodyment of madness.

Deep within this wing of twisted joy hunched over his latest pranking device stands the Laughing man ,he was a tall sickly thin man with long spindly arms strapped to his sides in a crimson straightjacket and black pants, his skin much like the Twisted bookkeeper was a sickly grey as to were his teeth razor sharp but that is were the simalaraties end, for his hair was a mangled mess of long silver locks and his eyes a sickly acid green that seemed to melt through you, his face twisted into a manic grin that caused all who saw its very blood run cold as a chill goes up their spine.

While the keeper could steal the very minds from others the Laughing man could steal the emotions of those within his site leaveing them hollow of all feeling or knowing only the emotion(s) he decided to leave them from endless joy to true terror, for he found it to be a great laugh to see how his victoms would react to his 'greatest joke' as he so liked to call it.

But even the laughing man is not immune to darker emotions and it is at times like this when he is at his most dangerous, for when he is eather depressed, angery or bored he will go into a dark state were he hunts down the source if his bad mood ripping the joy and hope from all that get in his way leaveing nothing but sorrow fear and death in his qake until he catches his prey.
> The collector
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Deep within the walls of the cabal tower there is a chamber known as 'The Gallery', it is a place of beuty and of fear, of order and sorrow for it is the home of the third member of the cabal a man simply known as 'The Collector'. Much like his 'brothers' the Bookkeeper and the Laughing man his skin was a silverish grey but unlike theirs it was not as sickly and had a subtle sheen to it, his hair was a modest shortlength black and his eyes were a deep brown, if one was to simple see him in passing they would just think him a slightly pale average man, but that was how he wished to be seen for unlike the others in the cabal he prefured to go unseen as he did his things.

The gallery in wich the Collector made his home was a large nearly endless chamber filled with all that he had obtained in the cabals travels of the infinite, all trapped within clear crystal, from mundane objects to giant beasts to severel sentiant beings all if wich at one time caught his attention causing him to add them to his ever growing collection, for all it takes is a single touch from him to trap his target in crystal forever preserving them in as he calls it 'mint condition'. 

The collector was known within the cabal and the places they travel through to be an obsesive hunter always searching for new prizes for his collections and has been known on several ocassions to wipe out entire relms for geting in the way of his goals not caring in the slightest for the damage he causes as long as he gets what he wants.
> Cutter
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Far beneath the Fortress in caverns of darkness and gloom lies the dungeons of the Cabal, a place of endless screams and nightmares, of terror and pain , a place where those who have gained the ire of the Cabal are sent to be tortured for all eternaty by the Cabals most violent and sadistic member 'Cutter'. Now dont let his name confuse you while it is true that he does enjoy cutting his victoms with his collection of knives ,swords, and other sharp objects Cutter is known to use any form of twisted violence in his work, from simple things such as breacking limbs to disembowlment on still awake subjects all for the pure pleasure it brought him, but his favorite method outside of cutting and sliceing is to slowly destroy his preys mind breaking them until all that is left is a twisted misserable broken husk.

Cutter much like the majority of the Cabal had grey skin but unlike the others his eyes were a pale almost white blue that would pierce through those that saw them like a spear, for these were the eyes of a predater that was always stalking its prey, his hair was a pure white that had been stained red in places from his victoms blood, he wore a large black smock to keep blood and bile off his normal wear.

Cutter was the most battle oriented member of the cabal and was the one sent into battle the most for his abilaties let him summon forth any weapon he could imagine as well as repare himself from any damage he took including decapitation and dismemberment. He was most at home on the battlefield or in the dungeons but whenever he wasnt in one of these areas he was bound in a special straightjacket and coller that kept him from needlessly killing those around him.
> Goji the gut
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(please read note at bottom)

Within the towers of the cabal fortress there is a grand chamber used for feasts and banquets said to rival the meals of gods for they are said to have every food one could imagine from common snacks to the most imaculate of fine dinning for this is the relm of the master of all food and the glutton of the Cabal 'Goji the Gut'. Goji was known through out the multiverse as the living black hole for he  had never been seen without some form of food within reach.

Goji unlike the other members of the Cabal
actualy resembled a normal human in apearance he was a young looking man of average hight and was only mildly overweight in appearance with short brown hair of admitadly thining amounts and a scruffy beard and glasses over his green eyes. But while he was admitadly the least threataning member in looks he was by no means weaker or any less dangerous than the other members of the cabal.

While members such as the Bookkeeper and Laughing man could steal pieces of their victoms Goji was able to 'Eat' whatever he so chooses and had been the reason behind entire spieces and relms extinction from finding a food he found to be to his liking, always making sure to add any new flavors to his infinity kitchen so that he may enjoy a food he wiped out from its home dimension.
> Silas Thornwood
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Hidden away deep within the fortress there is a vault wich door is taller than the mighty redwoods of earth and as thick as four elaphants, this door is forged from metals unkown and capable of withstanding a blackhole, this is the vault of ages were the cabal stores all of their riches and loot from across the multiverse , and the name of he who is in charge of this vast wealth is the final member of the Cabal Silas Thornwood.

Silas unlike the other members of the cabal was not a human( if you could even still call the others human) instead he was actually a tall anthropomorphic weasel, a Black Banded mongoose to be exact. He stoood at 6' 9" and wore a suit one would normaly find on a buisness man or banker wich is appropreat as Silas was the bussnessman of the Cabal making sure that everything went were it should and that they didnt waste money, he was also never seen without a mug of coffe or his cane.

Silas unlike the other members of the Cabal didnt have a strange or amazing power other than the immortality that all members of the Cabal had, instead he had a shrewd mind for buisness and was the one incharge of interacting with others when the Cabal was eather called upon by those that had found their token ( be they displaced or other) or for when they came across a relm on their own that they decided to explore themselves.

While Silas may not be as powerful as the others of the Cabal he was by no meens weak or defensless, when in battle his cain would turn into eather an estoc or rapier sword with one tap to the ground, as Silas was a master of duel style swordsmanship, as well as the use of his natural claws.

Along with his duties as the public face of the cabal Silas also runs several busnesses in diffrent relms that the cabal have visited along with his personal black market for displaced in wich through the cabals travels and connections he is able to get things from back on earth for the right price.
> Cabal operations
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The Cabal when called upon through their token act in a maner similar to mercanaries under contract, they do the job they are hired for and then leave after payment , the price and payment are diffrent depending on wich members of the cabal are hired for the job. Only one member of the cabal can be on a job at a time as outside of their relm they share a physical body ( this is explained in their origin chapter). If they need to switch out they will morph into the needed member.


Cabal token : a six sided black cube that when tossed turns into a rectangular floating screen that shows silas or one of his underlings ( will be explained in his first story chapter) they will then ask what the situation is and then give a recamendation on wich member would best be suited for the request and then negogiate a price and the turms of the contract.

The Twisted bookkeeper is best hired for reaserch and experamantation jobs both magical and scientific, his payment is usualy knowledge he deems to match the work he has done.

The laughing man is best used for assasinations and sabatoge as he will go into enamy terratory and set off traps ,bombs and steal all positive emotions leading to infighting and self destruction of the enamy, his payment is money payed to Silas as all he ever wants is to cause chaos.

The collector is best used for hunting down artifacts or people (ponies, griffins, exetera)  as he enjoys the thrill of the hunt, his payment is usually eather artifacts ,rare itoms, or someone who has caught his eye.

Cutter MUST only be summoned eather right into battle or into a dungeon to torture someone and be sent right back as soon as eather is finished as all he want to do is kill, his payment is death of his prey and money payed to Silas.

Goji is best summoned to eather make full banquets , be a taste tester, or into battle as he will eat the enamies powers, wepons, or the enamies themselves, his payment is always rare foods from the summoners world and a feast.

Silas is best summoned on matters of buisness be they legal or not , his payment is always the local worlds money as well as buisness contracts to set up shops in the relm.

There are times when they may ask for diffrent forms of payment if the world they are visiting has something unique that they believe could be useful to them.

On worlds they come across on their own they just do whatever they want without regard.
> Origin
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There once was a young man who due to his unique mind grew up alone. He was always diffrent from others his own age and eventualy ended up be homeschooled but as his family had their own lives and work he was left to study and live mostly on his own and over time he grew fasinated with the vast numbers if cultures and myths of the world.

But over this time he was still alone as he found the people of the world themselves to be dull and uninteresting and so he made new friends for himself known as tulpas from parts if his own mind crafting six others based off of diffrent parts if his own personality bringing about what he would then call his 'Cabal'.

Eventually the young man grew bored of the world and wished for something new to slate his bordom and so he threw himself oncemore into his reaserch and devised a way to cast himself and his home from the world he knew into the great unknown. But he was no fool and knew that oneday he may wish to return and so he placed specail markers around the land his home sat to act as anckor points. And so his work done he activated his plan casting himself and his home into the great void intending to travel the endless voud insearch of new experiences.

At first the infinite void and all its power drive the young man insane but to quote a fictional charicter "but after a a few millenia that became boring aswell and so i whent sane VERY VERY SANE." Using the vast power and knowledge granted from the void itself the young man gave his Cabal bodies if their own so that they could experiance true life with him.

Over time the small mass of land that was his home gathered pieces of debre that had become lost in the eternal void and the young man and his others used it to slowly build what would one day become the wanderlands. After countless eons the Cabal had finally finished their great fortress and floating contanent and decided to beging their true journeys, but all of the work had been to much for the young man and so ince all had been done he decided to put himself into a deep slumber and act as the power source for the wanderlands as he was now tied to its life.and the very void, but while he slept he could still see all that happened in his home and bring about new creations as he dreemed so that the Cabal would never be without him.

Eventualy the Wanderlands made it to the branch of the multiverse the young man had been searching for aling the way.the Cabal had gathered countless treasures and lifeforms for their home including many followers who now lived not only withing the fortress but in countless villages and towns across the floating contanant and this is were our story begins.
> Forttown and a day with Silas
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Just outside the great walls of the Cabal's fortress home there lies a small town known as forttown. This is the home of many of those who have over the countless years of the Wanderlands eather stumbled across or been taken in by the cabal for one reason or another.

As the Wanderlands travel beetween worlds it is not uncommon to see several dozen of the same being walking about the town at any given time , such as a small gathering of applejacks selling their produce in the central market , or a herd of pinkie pies baking away in one of the many bakeries, and it isnt even rare to see three or more rainbowdashes trying to outdo each other in some crazy stunting contest. Of course no two of any of them are truly alike as these and many others come in all diffrent shapes and sizes from your basic pony to full on human and everything in between yes anthro , centaur, elven , even alternate gender, tribe and species.

And this is were our story begins..

Deep within the Cabal tower in an area that oddly enough looks like a normal office building full of cubicles off to the side in what would be the managers office sits the head of the Cabals buisniess branches including marketing ,accounting, intel gathering, customer interaction and several other things ,Silas Thornwood.

Silas sat at his desk looking over the paperwork on one of the cabals most recent jobs, his usual mug of coffie in his right hand as he looked over the numbers on how much they had made when he reaches over to a nearby intercom buzzer and speaks into it. "Gilda FE237 please report to my office and bring the file on relm EQG126.".

.......POV Gilda FE237.......
I stop my work as soon as my name and ID is called and look around at the others in their areas as they all stop for a moment to look at me, a small chill running through my wings as i grab the requested file and slowly head towards Mr. Silas's office.

With a small knock on his door I enter and close the door behind myself. "He..ere is the file you askked for sir." I nervously placed the file in his desk never taking my eyes off of him as i did so, it isnt that he is a bad boss or even all that scary looking himself despite him being a giant Mongoose in a suit that would make you think of a cross between a banker and an oldtime gangster, but he is one of the six masters of this whole relm and has been known to be quite brutal to those who disapoint him.

He looks through the file for a moment and then looks back at me. "Ah good work FE237. Now tell me how long have you been working for me in the file keepers department?"
I sat back and thought for a moment time doesnt work the same way in the wanderlands as it doesnt in a full relm so it is easy to loose track of time. " about eight cycles i think sir, the Wanderlands time system is still a little confusing to me." I give an emmbaressed smile as i rub the back of my head with my right talon.

He smirks that smirk of his that makes you feel like a little  mouse infront of a very big cat and takes a sip of coffie from that mug he is almost never without. "If my memory is correct you came to us from one of the dimension that have been dubbed the Fallout Equestria worlds am i right?"
I nod and point to the ID collor around my neck with the name Gilda FE237 on it. "Yes sir i was a surviver of the megaspells and ended up scrounging in the wilds to survive until one of your Cabal scouting teams arived near were I had setup my nesting camp. I thought they were bandits at first and attacked thinking I would get them before they got me, but they took me down so fast i didnt even see them and by the time it was over i thought i was going to die. But then the pony incharge if the group took out one those black cubes you sendout into the void and called you to report in , one thing led to another I became their guid in my world and when it came time for them to leave i asked if i could come along and now here i am."
He grins and leans forward " Ah yes mission FE237 other than you coming to the Wanderlands a rather routiene scouting mission. That is all for now you may return to your usual duties."
I give a small nod and exit his office and return to my work leting out a large sigh i didnt know i had been holding in.
> Silas 2
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Deep in the halls of the Cabal's fortress Silas sat at his desk going over the reports of the cabals most recent surveys of the nearest relms within the void searching for dimensions that would be of some use to the cabal , wether it be through raw resources or through inhabatents they could do buisness with.

Unlike the other members of the cabal Silas wasnt created from one of Sources obsessions but rather he was created to be the voice of reason and comerce within their group making him technicaly the sainest member and thus why he was in charge of finding new relms for the cabal to interact with through his network of spies and drones .

Silas sighs as he swipes throught the video logs for the most recent relms most of wich were just simple cannon class relms, but every so often a unique relm would pop up. So far he had come across two relms with displaced roronoro zoros as well as a relm with a mysterio, when he final got to the last video file for the day and a large grin apears across his face as he watches. "Well now what do we have here?" He smiles as he watches the video of what appears to be a dwarf battling changlings. "Well sir dwarf lets see what eltse you can do." Siting forward his mug of coffee firmly in hand Silas pulls up the rest of the video logs and files for this relm and gets ready for some entertainment.

.....several hours later......

Silas grins as the last video ends with Orgran the dwarf setting of his darkmagic anthro bomb and his mock of a trial. "Well sir Orgran I do believe that we may soon be doing buisness together." He reaches into his file drawer and pulls out a large black cube and sets it down on his desk, a large holographic screen apearing above it as he does.  Straitining himself he looks into the screen and begins to speak. "Greeting sir Orgran of the dwarves I am Silas Thornwood of the Cabal, I  would like to invite you and up to three of your companions to come to our headquarters to discuss a potential buissness arangement to possably help you in your upcomeing war, I beleave we may be able to asist one another." He takes a sip of his coffe and then continues. "If you agree to come then simply press the agree button that will apear at the end of this messege. There is just one rule for any companions you bring, none of the elemants of harmony may come we have enough of them here already we dont need any more of them running around." He stops the recording and sends the cube off into the void towards its intended target.

Silas grins and presses the button in his intercom to his personal assistant. "Ms. Harmony please go down to lab 47 and tell them to start decanting six of the fenri and three if the slepni. I do believe we finally have somewere to test them." He grins as he takes his finger off the intercom.
"Now its your move sir Orgran."