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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3903004" data-attributes="member: 3448">At that point, I realized a last detail that I had not attended to with the binding.  I hope that Lord Paranswarm will forgive me for being lax on this point, but I sought to make amends as soon as I realized it.I turned back to Alveera.  “Are you bound to the service of Lord Paranswarm, either directly or through your infernal hierarchy?”“No, master, except as I serve him through you.”  As she said that, she thought, <>“Yet now you serve me, and I loyally serve the Lord of Orderly Darkness.  You must serve Him directly as well.  Kneel.  His excellence will perform the ceremony to endarken you.  I command you to cooperate.”Alveera was obviously afraid of this command and remained standing.  “But… my superiors will be most wroth with me for this.”  As she said that, she thought, <<I’ll never be able to go home.  They will take my lands and power…>> “I ordered you to kneel, slave!”  I held forth the binding ring, and she reluctantly dropped to her knees.  I could hear her thoughts running desperately as she tried to think of some way to avoid being bound to Lord Paranswarm.  “You are bound to me.  Why should your superiors object to an additional binding?”“Bindings to mortals are expected.  It is the nature of things.  But to agree to serve a power within the infernal hierarchy who is not part of my hierarchy… they will view that as a betrayal of the worst kind.”“Be that as it may, to serve me, you must also serve Paranswarm.”  I prepared to go through with the next binding ritual but then stopped.  “And yet… it may not be worthwhile to draw the anger of the archdevil that you serve in Hell.  I will have to think of this.  Remain here.”“How could I leave, master?” she asked, gesturing at the binding circle.“Nonetheless, I command you not to leave even if the circle is broken.”His excellence and I went for a walk--imagine that, me getting the honor of accompanying a bishop!  I arranged for our route to take us onto the ground he had sanctified for the Mass.  I explained that I did not want to discuss it where her superiors might have been scrying on us, but that I had recalled a way in which we could bind the erinyes to serve Paranswarm without any others knowing.  The bishop agreed and authorized a subterfuge.  And so I returned, informed Alveera that I would not require her to swear loyalty to Lord Paranswarm, and then released her from the circle, all for the benefit of any scrying superiors of hers.After the next mass, I called her to me while I remained on holy ground.  His excellence rapidly ran through the ritual, anointing her with oil and holy water and then healing the resulting wounds so there would be no physical sign, and I sent her on a meaningless errand-- the ostensible reason for calling her.  She was still somewhat horrified by being bound to Lord Paranswarm, but His will is much more important than ours, let alone hers.  Moreover, the binding was secret-- none would know of it but me, her, and the Church, so she should not lose power in the Hells, nor draw the anger of her superiors towards me.  I cannot be certain that we successfully kept it secret, but I believe so.With that accomplished, I returned to my studies and found that my power was greatly increased.  Truly, binding my first devil was a watershed moment for me.  For the first time, I had access to spells of the third circle, no doubt because of her magical aid.  [Konrad thus demonstrates the classic logical fallacy of post hoc, ergo propter hoc--because A happens after B, it must have happened because of B.  In fact, he received no bonus XP for binding a demon--he just happened to bind it immediately before hitting fifth level anyway.][End Session 3]</blockquote>

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