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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3104898" data-attributes="member: 3448">Lady Constance arrived promptly.  “Good morning, Your Grace.  What do you wish me to do this morning?”“We have a scrying that we need performed,” replied Alistair.  “I’m sorry to disturb your morning, but…”“Nonsense.  Things have been ever so much more interesting since you began calling on my services regularly.  And now that I know of the short route to your chambers, even the travel is not particularly trying.  Plus, your cook makes the finest croissants…  Would anyone like one?”Mahler happily took one of the pastries and they chatted amiably over breakfast, explaining to Lady Constance that they wished to scry on the Brightspan undercity.“I was not aware of an undercity, but let’s see what I can find.”  She carefully laid out her scrying mirror and invoked Lilith and other powers of Hell.  “Indeed… there’s no undercity per se, but there are the catacombs.  The catacombs are enormous, with the huge necropolis where most of the city’s dead were interred for generations.”“Is it still in use?”  asked Dame Brionna.“Oh, no. It’s been hundreds of years since anyone was buried there, at least officially.  The whole place has become a breeding ground for necromancers; the Duke has had to kill them left, right, and center.  A very distasteful business.”  Lady Constance gestured and the view through her scrying moved through the catacombs at a high speed.  “Someone is active there now.  There is a network of wards-- fairly primitive, and they cover too much space to be very effective.  But there’s definitely coming and going within the catacombs.”“Undead?” asked Dame Brionna.“No… whoever they are, they are not dead.”  Lady Constance gestured, and the view followed a corridor deeper into the catacombs and into a large chamber.  A large creature with the head of a wolf dominated the room from a make-shift throne made out of bones, although a cluster of figures in robes moved about the room before it.  “Oh my… a molydeus, possibly advanced.”“A molydeus, Lady Constance?”“Yes, a very powerful demon, one step below a demon lord.  That explains the wards, I think.  It has substantial sorcerous power, but lacks the self-discipline to use it most effectively, and so it prepared its wards in a haphazard way.”“What would it take to summon one?” asked Kit.“To summon one?” Lady Constance seemed slightly incredulous.  “It would be very difficult, indeed.  They are the most ruthless demons below the status of counts.  To summon one would require a gate, and even then, I do not think it could be compelled.”  Lady Constance thought for a moment and then nodded grudgingly.  “At least, it could not be compelled by a mortal.  A Noldar could, now that I think of it.”“So the robed figures are not its summoners, then,” said Alistair.“I should say not.  The cult worships the molydeus.” She gestured again, detecting magic through the scrying.  “And there is a tenuous silver line running to the southeast from the molydeus.  My suspicion is that it is allied with the Abomination.  Why it is under the city escapes me…”“High rent?” suggested Mahler with a smile.Kit pointed at the scrying.  “Look, there’s a skaven in the corner.”  The skaven was recognizable, but strangely out of focus.  “A guard, maybe?”“That thing doesn’t need anything to guard it.  But the skaven may show the key to the alliance.  Can you see the color of the robes?  My eyes are not what they once were.”The Council stared intently.  “Dull green or tan?” said Mahler.  “It needs more focus.”Lady Constance waved her hand and the image recentered on the skaven.  Now Kit nodded.  “Yes, they’re a puke green.  And it’s wearing a holy symbol:  a set of three sticks crossed to form a triangle, but in gold.”Lady Constance nodded.  “As I suspected.  It venerates the Horned Rat in his incarnation as Lord of Pestilence.”  She inhaled sharply as the skaven looked around, and then stared directly at them through the scrying.  Lady Constance dismissed the image.  “I’m afraid that it knows that someone has been scrying upon them, although with luck it does not know who.”“Thank you, Lady Constance.  Do you have any additional thoughts about the molydeus and the conspiracy?”“Little, Your Grace.  My only comment would be, to belabor the obvious, there are three demon lords arrayed against us.  By seeing that chamber we’ve seen their hand.”Abigail stepped into the chamber.  “His Eminence the Archbishop has arrived for an audience.”The diabolist smiled.  “I think that’s my cue to return to my laboratory.”</blockquote>

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