Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3028880" data-attributes="member: 3448">Lady Constance entered, “You sent for me, your grace?”  She stared at the strange corpse on the ground.  “Yes, I can see why you would have…”“Do you know what it is?” asked Dame Brionna.“It’s a rat-lord.  It must be a creature of Clan Muldar and connected to the Horned Rat.  This creature was bound by magics-- I can still see the residue.”  She knelt for a moment, looking first at its claws and then lifting its head with her staff before letting it fall back to the ground with a dull thud.  “But not a pure blood.  It is a mix of rat-lord and vrock.”“Vrock?” asked Kit.“Vulture demon,” replied Alistair.  “Very nasty.”As they all examined the body, Kit nodded at the claws.  “Eight or nine inches long; this could easily have been the creature that killed Bishop Williams.”Lady Constance looked up sharply.  “Bishop Williams is dead?”“Assassinated.  Probably killed before he could react.”Lady Constance shook her head slightly.  The bishop wasn’t a friend, exactly, but they had had a cordial relationship.  And too many of her colleagues in Amelia’s inner circle were dead or would be within a few weeks.  “Yes, this could easily have done that.”  She slipped a heavy gold ring off its finger.  “This should go to the Treasury, for use when it’s needed.  A Ring of the Assassin.”Kit looked up in intense interest.  “A Ring of the Assassin?  What does that do?”“It allows one who is not trained as an assassin to learn how to kill instantly and reliably from stealth, as they do.”Kit nodded.  That could be a useful thing to have available to her or her people.  She then asked, “Lady Constance?  Can you receive mental images?”“Of course.  Why?”“I wonder if you can tell us anything about the strange effect on this mental image.”  Kit concentrated and sent the image of Lady Zenia’s cousin, with its cat-like underlay, across to the archmaga.“How unusual… If it were not impossible, I would almost think that it was the Abomination of Shur.  But the Abomination’s apotheosis failed, and it was destroyed in the aftermath.”“We have reasons to believe, Lady Constance, that its destruction was not as complete as we would have hoped,” replied Alistair.  “Other intelligence suggests that it still plots to complete its elevation.”“Foul news, indeed.  But even if some remnant of it survived, it should have been dispersed and crippled.  It should have been more than a century before it could act again.”“Could it have moved into a different form?  Possessed the Brightspan son, for example?”“Not against his will.  If a ritual had been prepared, however, and he willingly allowed it to come in through a summoning at the moment of its discorporation… perhaps.  It would have required great skill and preparation.  But I could have accomplished something similar if it were a devil that had been discorporated.”Dame Brionna’s distaste towards Lady Constance’s diabolism hardened.  Out of all of the Archduchess’s close associates, why had she been the one to choose not to suicide?  “Lady Zenia has been impregnated with its spawn.  That’s how this demon was able to penetrate the wards.”“Yes, I see… Very cleverly done.  They have also magically slowed the pregnancy’s progression, allowing them to use the fetus’s magical effects for as long as possible.”“Can you help her through this?  Perhaps allow the child to escape the evil influence of its father?”“I’ll do what I can,”  replied Lady Constance.  “I should be able to at least protect her from it.  Whether the child can be saved… less clear.”Alistair stroked his chin thoughtfully.  “If there is a magical connection between the child and its father… would you be able to use that to launch an attack on its father?”Lady Constance nodded.  “I could.  It would discomfit the father’s host… if the host were particularly weak, or had been weakened, the attack might kill.  But under ordinary circumstances it would probably just incapacitate it briefly and sicken the host.”“Good.  We’ll save that as a possible attack if the Abomination attempts another ritual.”“If I may take her to my lab?  The sooner I have access to my full capabilities the better Lady Zenia’s chances will be.”“Of course,” replied Alistair.  “Take care of her.  She has suffered greatly through no fault of her own and simply because she was a loyal servant of the Archduchy.  I would not wish to see her harmed further for that.”Lady Constance nodded gravely and summoned an invisible form that carried Lady Zenia off to the chambers of the coven.</blockquote>

Verification