Monday, February 1, 2021

The Devil Made Me Do It

Tomas spun to confront the pair of Gray Maiden palace guards who’d just run in to join the battle in the throne room. He ducked under the first one’s sword and, holding his bow sideways, fired a pair of arrows up under her breastplate. As she collapsed, he kept turning, pivoting on one knee. The second guard was drawing back her sword as he continued firing; the first arrow caught her in the thigh and the second slipped under the visor of her helmet. He heard the muffled clank of the arrowhead striking the top of her helmet as she slowly fell backwards.

Nat was used to Tomas’s dazzling bow work, and paid it little attention; he was more concerned about the spellcaster he knew was lurking somewhere on the far side of the Stinking Cloud that obscured most of the throne room. Taking a deep breath, he zipped forward into the cloud, flying as near the ceiling as he could while staying low enough to spot anything hiding within. Sure enough, crouched in the far corner of the room, just outside the limit of the Cloud, he spotted the robed woman he’d seen in his scrying. He was still invisible, and she gave no indication that she was aware of his presence. He reversed direction, gasping as he let out his held breath once he was out of the Stinking Cloud. Then he turned, and fired off a stream of piercing icicles back in the direction where she was. “She’s right around the corner from you!” he hissed to Jax, who was waiting in the reception room just off the throne room.

Jax didn’t have a chance to act on that information as the door on the far side of his room flew open and more Gray Maidens began streaming out. Erin was fighting her way into the throne room; she’d just cut down one of the Nessian Warhounds (who, to be fair, had done nothing but vomit since the Stinking Cloud descended). The Gray Maiden behind the hound stepped up and delivered a mighty swing that should have removed Erin’s head, but she deftly deflected it with her shield. Now the newcomers descended on her, surrounding her as much as they could without venturing into the Cloud’s horrible vapors. The fourth, seeing no room around Erin, diverted into the antechamber where she all but collided with Tomas (who blended into the background due to his Chameleon Stride). The last in line was set to follow her – until Jax stabbed her violently in the back as she passed. She spun, sword at the ready, but could see no foe to attack.

Shadow, who’d been hanging back to provide cover for the others, now advanced far enough to be able to see several of the new attackers, and unleashed a branching bolt of Chain Lightning that leaped from Maiden to Maiden, leaving smoke rising from the seams of their armor. Jax slashed at the confused Gray Maiden in front of him again, leaving her swaying on her feet, but she blindly swung back at the seemingly empty space in front of her, and was rewarded with a spray of blood.

Wren wanted to contribute to the fight, so she flew into the throne room, staying tight against the ceiling to be well out of reach. She pulled a bundle of small sticks of wood out of her pack, and tossed them down onto the floor below, then cast Snake Staff to transform the sticks into venomous snakes. Unfortunately most of the snakes appeared inside the Stinking Cloud, and did nothing but convulse; those that were unaffected followed Wren’s directions to attack, but had little luck against the heavily-armored Maidens or the hound from Hell.

Tomas continued firing at everything in plate armor, and two more Gray Maidens fell to his arrows. Erin concentrated on her devotion to Iomedae, and a burst of brilliant white light blazed forth from her body. The surviving Maidens staggered from its impact, and the hellhound let out a yelp, but her friends all felt inspired by her presence, and their wounds begin to heal.

Nat was beginning to worry: he hadn’t heard anything from the hidden spellcaster in a while. What was she up to? He buzzed back over the Cloud, only to find that she was no longer there. Hoping she’d decided to abandon the fight, he flew back out of the Cloud again, and fired off a Lightning Bolt that electrified a couple of Gray Maidens, the Warhound, and several of Wren’s snakes. Shadow moved farther into the room, and conjured a Lightning Arc that leapt between a pair of Gray Maidens, and both fell to the floor, convulsing. The Warhound finally shook off the nauseating effects of the Stinking Cloud. Surrounded by venomous snakes, it breathed out a blast of fire that incinerated several; unfortunately, one of the Gray Maidens who’d stumbled out of the Cloud was still retching beside the throne, and she was also scorched. Jax finished off the hapless Maiden he’d ambushed, but stayed where he was: Nat had told him the caster was hiding just around the corner from him, and he expected her to try to sneak out of the Cloud at any moment.

Tomas was looking for his next target when he heard a woman’s voice ringing in his head: ‘You must kill these filthy rebels!’ His mind was still fuzzy from the effects of the Mind Fog, and the power of the command was overwhelming; he was filled with a sudden determination to rid Castle Korvosa of all who opposed the Queen. He turned, took careful aim, and fired a volley of deadly arrows directly into Erin’s back! The paladin screamed in pain as the shafts pierced her celestial armor, and she spun to see who had attacked her. She met Tomas’s eyes, and they were filled with incomprehensible anger. Erin hesitated – why was her friend trying to kill her? Nat had seen the whole thing from his perch near the ceiling, but unlike Erin, he had a pretty good idea what had happened to Tomas. Crossing his fingers that he was right, he cast Break Enchantment on the ranger. Tomas’s head spun; he could still hear the imperative of his master’s voice, demanding death for the intruders. But this was Erin! They had fought together, been through so much together. By the gods! What had he done? Tears sprang to his eyes, and he held up his bow, arms outstretched. “I’m sorry!” he cried.

For a moment, Erin debated whether she could believe him. But only for a moment. Without a word, she turned her back on him again and flew (courtesy of her Celestial Armor) to attack the last surviving Gray Maiden, who’d finally stopped puking on the Crimson Throne. But her sword thrust had barely landed when a Fireball suddenly exploded out of the Stinking Cloud, catching Erin and Wren (and several more snakes).

Nat had caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and had turned just in time to see the source of the spell: the woman in Vudrani robes was sneaking through the antechamber, from pillar to pillar, and had cast the spell that had just scorched his comrades. “Behind us!” he cried, then cast his own Fireball, twisted into electrical energy, right back at her. Tomas whirled and spotted her, too. Her form was blurry, and there seemed to be at least half a dozen of her, but he was certain this was who had forced him to turn on his friends. His heart blazed with fury, and he leveled his bow. Its Seeking enchantment bypassed the protection of her Displacement spell, but he still had multiple targets to choose from. His first arrow simply caused one of her Mirror Images to disappear, but his second struck her straight in the heart, and she fell in a growing pool of blood.

The battle was all but over. The Warhound snatched one of the snakes in its jaws, then gulped it down, but Nat conjured an Elemental Wall of ice that ran from the Warhound to the last Gray Maiden. It finished off the Maiden, and the hellhound yowled in agony as the ice encased it. Erin slid along the Wall and stabbed the Warhound in the throat, and the fight was over.

As everyone tried to recover, Nat approached the Crimson Throne. Nothing remained of Queen Ileosa but a pool of blood and her possessions, including a gem-encrusted gold crown adorned with a ring of huge ivory fangs. But Nat kicked it disdainfully. “That’s not the Crown of Fangs – it’s a fake. It’s not even magical.” He examined the pool of blood thoughtfully. “I think she must have been a Simulacrum – a magical copy of the Queen. But I’ve never heard of a Simulacrum made from blood.” His expression grew dark. “I wonder … all that blood that the Queen’s Physicians collected for Ileosa during the plague – we never did figure out what they were using it for. Could she have used it for this thing?” No one had any answers.

Jax had confirmed that the room that the extra Maidens had emerged from was just part of the gatehouse overlooking the main entrance to Castle Korvosa. They returned to the anteroom to find Shadow kneeling beside the dead spellcaster’s body. “I think I know why she looks so familiar,” he said. The others also had a nagging feeling that they’d seen her features before. “Don’t you see it?” Shadow asked. “Her nose, her mouth, those eyebrows – she looks just like Ishani Dhatri!” Once he’d pointed it out, the resemblance was hard to miss.

“Cressida told us Ishani had gone missing,” Wren said worriedly. “Do you think this is really him? Did he turn into this woman?”

Shadow shook his head. “No, that’s not it. I think it’s much simpler. I think they’re related – maybe she’s his sister.”

“Shit!” Tomas said suddenly. “Shit! Why didn’t I see it before?” The others turned to him. “Remember all those records we found in Deathhead Vault, about the Gray Maidens’ recruitment and indoctrination rituals? They mentioned someone who was their 'Arbiter of Allegiance’, the person responsible for the training and torment of new Gray Maidens – and her name was Vavana Dhatri. I didn’t make the connection at the time, and we haven’t seen Ishani since.”

“Do you think here’s still here in the Castle?” Wren asked. “Cressida said he was last seen heading this direction. Maybe his sister lured him here for some reason.” But again, these were questions no one could answer.

There was a door ajar at the far end of the anteroom, in the direction the caster had been creeping from, and they checked it next. It was a bedroom, and they immediately recognized the geometric designs on the tapestries and the exotic, foreign-looking carpet on the floor: these furnishings had been in one of the empty rooms they’d found in Deathhead Vault. A desk was covered with papers and spellbooks, confirming that the dead woman was in fact Vavana Dhatri. But they left no clue as to her brother’s fate.

“Where next?” Tomas asked as Jax upended Vavana’s mattress looking for hidden loot. “Do we stay here in the Castle, or head back?”

“If that wasn’t really her, then where the hell is the Queen?” Jax asked gruffly. “I’m betting she’s holed up somewhere with her troops, ready to defend herself.

“She could be in Domina’s Tower,” Erin offered. “That seems like a pretty secure spot, from the way Neolandus described it.”

“I think we should check out Sabina Merrin’s room,” Nat suggested. “Neolandus said there was a secret passage from it to the Queen’s bedroom. We might be able to surprise her.”

“I kind of doubt if she’s just laying around in bed,” Jax countered, but really didn’t have a better idea. So they filed off to the bodyguard’s room. It was austere, barely furnished. With Neolandus’s maps to help, Jax had no trouble locating the secret door concealed in the wall’s paneling. A narrow passage through the stone walls led to the back side of another secret door. Making sure everyone was ready, Jax eased it open.

The royal bedroom was paneled with darkwood planks and decorated with elaborate tapestries and hanging silks. A huge canopied bed was on the right hand wall, opposite stained-glass windows featuring complex patterns of swirling reds, fiery oranges, and bright yellows. The only door into the room was opposite the secret panel they’d opened, and Jax and Tomas hurried to listen at it, as the others filed into the bedroom.

The air in front of the bed seemed to waver, like a mirage, and something materialized, as if it had been there all along, but somehow just out of reach of this plane of existence. It was an enormous leech-like creature, with a humanoid torso at one end, topped by three heads with impossibly long, lashing tongues. It’s very existence in this world was a Blasphemy, and everyone felt their strength flag in its presence.

“Look out!” Tomas shouted, and he invoked his Hunter’s Bond to extend his hatred of evil outsiders to his comrades. He fired at the thing, but despite it’s immense size and close range, only one arrow struck home, and it barely seemed to pierce the thing’s defenses. The creature spoke, its voice a grating chorus from three throats. “Six against one is hardly fair – I think you should only fight me one at a time.” Most of the party looked at each other in amazement at the ridiculous idea, but Erin and Tomas thought it was a very reasonable Suggestion.

Nat knew what this was – he’d seen sketches of it all over Togomor’s papers and spellbooks. It was a belier devil, and the sooner they dispatched it, the better. He flung an Orb of Light at it, singing it with photons, and then immediately followed up with a Quickened, Empowered, Maximized Orb of Light, expecting an early finish to the combat. But the devil seemed to somehow anticipate his move, and immediately counterspelled Nat’s magic. Nat found himself standing open-mouthed – how the hell had he done that?

Shadow didn’t waste time wondering about questions he couldn’t answer. He wanted to weaken this thing as much as possible, so he cast Enervation. The devil howled in rage as it felt its very essence being sapped away from it. “Hey! Guys!” Tomas yelled indignantly. “One at a time!”

Erin stepped forward, Serithtial gripped tightly and glowing with holy light. Calling upon Iomedae to Smite this evil, she swung. The blade bit, but even Serithtial’s holy might didn’t seem to be able to fully penetrate the creature’s protections. “You’re not following the rules!” Tomas shouted again, but Erin was having none of it. “Yes I am! I was here first, and I’ll go first!”

Jax thought Shadow might have the right idea, and pulled out his Wand of Enervation. But as he activated the wand, the devil moved almost quicker than thought, and countered that spell as well, leaving Nat even more dumbfounded.

Wren knew they were in the presence of the most unholy being they’d yet encountered, and knew she had to level the playing field. “Shine your light upon us, Pharasma!” she cried, and every member of the party began to shine with a brilliant, divine radiance. The devil squinted against the holy glare, and the Holy Aura burned away the enchantment clouding Erin and Tomas’s minds. Realizing there was no need to hold back, Tomas pulled out a sheaf of adamantine arrows from his quiver and began firing at the devil. One arrow sank deep into its hellish flesh, but even the adamantine arrows seemed unable to inflict full damage.

The belier devil bellowed in rage, and its tongues lashed out at Erin, Wren, and Nat. Wren managed to duck under hers, but Nat and Erin felt the horrid appendages wrap around their throats and begin to constrict. But then they heard Zellara’s voice, singing, and the whisper of spirits around them, and suddenly, somehow, the tongues had missed, and were hanging loose from the devil’s jaws. Furious, it snapped at Erin with the tooth-filled mouth on its tail, but again Zellara’s mystical protections somehow, impossibly, prevented Erin from taking damage.

He can’t counter all my spells, right?” Nat thought to himself. He fired off an Empowered Cold Ice Strike and discovered he was apparently wrong, as the devil countered the spell easily. He followed up with a Cone of Cold, but it, too, failed; it wasn’t countered, but the magic simply seemed to fail in the presence of the devil.

Shadow saw Nat’s frustration, and stuck with what had worked so far. The devil had been hit by holy swords and arrows, and at least one of Nat’s spells had gotten through. Maybe if he just nudged him a little bit more. Shadow cast one more Enervation, and breathed a sigh of relief when the devil didn’t Counterspell it. The devil roared in pain and fury. Nearly half of its lifeforce had been sapped by Shadow’s spells, and combined with the physical damage it had taken, it was too much. The devil’s cry weakened to a strangled gasp, and then it collapsed into a lifeless, blubbery heap.


The PCs earned a whopping 35,733 XP, putting them at 492,835 XP, with 600,000 required for Level 16.

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