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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8520407" data-attributes="member: 7030144">[Session 85, cont'd]27 Tar-SkardMidway through the afternoon, a messenger approaches Dame Brionna. “A voller has landed, with the daughter of Aleval. They have returned. They have prisoners, and considerable holdings.”Dame Brionna informs the rest of us and goes to meet the Daughter.“The mission is accomplished, commander.” She is wearing a necklace that she wasn’t before that contains teeth. Dame Brionna brings Lord Brightspan.“All of the prisoners are ridden, m’lady. By demons—well, not exactly demons. They’re like demons, but much more lawful. But the strange looking chains around their wrists, it’s like knocking them unconscious.”"Captain. The chains you have on the prisoners’ wrists; where did they come from?""They came from my mother. We used them at home for prisoners who have been overwhelmed by the things sorcerers use. I am no sorceress, but those things within them are responsible for what has happened.""You should clean yourself up and report to the Archduke. He will want your personal report.""And I must present this necklace, with the eye teeth of three of the four primarchs—and bare my throat to him, as the fourth escaped."Dame Constance is summoned.-- "At first, I thought they were devils. They have the same mix of law and evil. But they are not devils. I would crave the boon of questioning one."Dame Brionna asks Dame Constance to prepare the prison cells to hold them properly."There are three containers that are glowing—the fonts with the distilled drops of Heavenly Essence. These are the East, North, and South containers; the last primarch escaped with the fourth of these."Dame Brionna calls for Bishop Waters, who consecrates the voller to protect it (50 xp for Dame Brionna) and assigns new guards. The drow look fine, albeit exhausted, but one of them is pregnant. Dame Brionna calls for Lady Cecilia, who verifies that the child is healthy albeit half-human. The whole thing seems to embarrass the drow warrior a great deal.The Sixth Daughter presents the necklace."The other three primarchs are dead, the ritual is disrupted, and I have retrieved three vessels. Even I can sense that they are contaminated—they added something else in the distillation process, an abomination even by the standards of the Queen of Spiders. My seer tells me that there are possessing spirits in the prisoners."The last primarch was both a mage and a priest, though robed as a priest of the light. He cast a storm of lightning against those who came to seize him."They were all ridden in that chamber—all except the slaves, the prisoners for sacrifice. The greater casters and the guards were all killed, but the lesser casters we could take prisoner. It appeared to the Seer that the great working had an elven feel to it, although there were no elves in the chamber except the prisoners. The level of the magic was similar to elven domain magic."The Council discusses it—very few humans pursue domain magic, because it requires great mastery and there are other forms of magic that are easier and more powerful like color magic. But this could be the result of the spirits guiding the magic to advance their master.Dame Constance offers to separate the spirits from their hosts, with Bishop Waters assisting (since she needs a powerful priest). She will be able to compel them to answer 16 questions.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"What are you?" We are spirits of true light, purified of all the impurities of morality, and hope, and emotion.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Who are you working for?" Blue Star. (The Bishop gasps. "My lady, that is the constant companion of Sytry from before the time he came here from the same world as Gunnora. He’s not a marital companion; he’s described as like a blue sun.")</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"What are your goals?" To return all of the faith of the light to the true light; to allow this system to reach its logical end.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"What was added to the Drops of Heavenly Essence?"—"that is difficult for them your grace, we must apply a reminder"—I will answer, I will answer. We were, one in each, distilled even as they are.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Where would the fourth primarch have gone?" Cortose—the Holy See of Sytry.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Is there a way to remove the addition?" None that we know of; it was not intended to be removed until the drop was used and we entered with the infusion.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Is there a plan with the heir of Tarsh, who was resurrected with Drops of Heavenly Essence?" To overthrow Jazael, who has taken the throne there; but we calculate it will fail; too many are loyal to the lad. Infuriating. You humans breed like flies on this planet.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"What other operations do you have still in progress?" That we are directly involved in… We have infiltrated five dioceses around the world from the weak and impure Church of Glordiadel. The other plans that the great one may have, we do not know. Always scheming, always planning, always hiding.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Do you have influence in Gates?" Fading.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Who outside the City of Life within the Church of Glordiadel is part of your network?" Here a priest, there a priest, but five bishops.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Which are the five bishops?" (This leads to a twenty minute struggle) This finally leads to five names, including the Bishop of Tarkenia, which is particularly worrisome because it’s one of the borderlands on Zest’qua; none are on this continent.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Is Sytry Himself part of this?" No… Sytry… No, Sytry Himself is not involved, knowingly. "Are you sure of this?" Yes, we’re sure, we’re sure, He’s just a patsy.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Do you have any current plots against Canberry or the Archduke of Canberry?" We cannot plot against the Archduke, he’s bound to the land, the land rejects us. Only by his willing joining with the true light can we affect him. We tried everything, and stupid, stupid allies are still trying.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Do you have any dealings with the forces of Arthranax or the other ancient evils?" Define “dealings.” "Mutual assistance, joint plans, trade, attempted manipulation." Yes</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"Describe those dealings so we can cause them to fail?" All our bound together, in the way that the one who sent Arthranax binds together. When things are remade, nothing will be gone forever. When they return—as they always do—the world will be remade. And our master will gain power quietly until the useful idiots can be discarded. Arthranax is a cat’s paw. Even the other three are cat’s paws. It is only a matter of time before the master can be revealed, and can discard the one that it uses.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">"What’s the nature of the City of Life’s dynastic and bloodline plans?" Our plans. They have been our servants for generations, but mostly for the last 100 or 200 years. We can be carried in blood, just as we can be carried in drops. As we spread, our master’s influence spreads. Its simple, really. You are the first to ever suspect. You are the first to question. Had the ritual succeeded, you would have been the first to see death. We couldn’t have touched you, but we could have touched many around you. We could have transferred much energy to our master’s friends. It doesn’t matter if she comes or not. Even if she and her consort fail utterly, he will come. And our master will feed on the energy that slides away from her consumption, or his consumption, or their consumption. He slipped away from them so long ago, they don’t even know who he is. Did you know that we were once true servants of your lord of light, before we discovered the true lord of light. Do you know what it is to hide on a dozen worlds for a thousand millennia? The master knows what it is. Where he goes he gathers servants quietly and those who can aid him in their conquest, taking what he can. But one day they will be the ones consumed, and he will rule supreme. Your temples will not stop him here. You threaten to block her and her consort, but that will only leave the other one. That will take much longer. He is trapped here as long as this place endures. We will not permit this. (But how are we to stop this? We are fuming impotently.) We will not fume impotently forever. What’s another ten thousand years. They are too stupid to use our words against our master</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"><s>Have you implemented any of those plans in Canberry?</s> (Insufficient questions)</li> </ol>They ask Dame Constance and Bishop Waters to develop both a test and a cure.They didn’t find out why the enemy attempted to erase Alistair's family history. They speculate that Alistair’s mother may have carried out crucial information—perhaps recorded in her journals or his father’s journals.Alistair's father’s journal is an enormous book; a mix of remarkably pedestrian things, his personal conquests, and some other writing that might be fiction.His mother’s journals are four slim leather bound journals, with a shimmer that suggests elven make, and there is writing in them. Alistair takes a first pass through.“To be free and safe is an amazing thing. I have attempted to speak to a priest here, but it is as if they do not hear on this topic. I have turned to a wise woman in the Old City, as I dare not bring it up with the Archbishop, and I have managed to find an exorcist to free me of my unwelcome guest.”A while later:“I am free of it. To hear it curse, one would imagine it a devil of hell, and not an angel of life. But it was a being of light—it makes me question the faith as a whole. But that is all right. I go often to the hill; they comfort me, when my beloved is away, as he often is.”And pieces that are still fading in as they read.It becomes obvious that, after the exorcism was performed, she gave up on finding a priest.This also implies that the Duke of Tusslefield (Alistair’s uncle) is also presumptively contaminated, unless he has also been exorcised.[End session 85]</blockquote>

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