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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2319256" data-attributes="member: 1210">Negotiations with a DemonThe scene is surreal.  Our heroes, including an angel, stand on the rocky ground of the Abyss, jagged violet lightning playing with a hiss in the sky.  Opposite them are a small horde of demons, and leading them is the demoness our heroes have been seeking.  At last: Seclaidra, known as the Perplexing Bitch. And she has come to talk.”What is it you want?” she asks politely.“The only thing we want from you,” Alcar barks, and then he visibly asserts control over himself, “is for you to come back to the Light.”  He smiles and adds, “Here- have some pie.  Perhaps it will help you to find you way.”  With a prayer, he creates food and drink, holding a slice of delicious berry pie out to Seclaidra.”Why thank you,” she replies, and takes the pie.  “I do not think I will walk in the Light, alas; but I appreciate the offer.”  She takes a bite.  “And the pie,” she adds with a twinkle.  She chews, sighs, swallows.  “Delicious,” she comments, and then: “Perhaps I can offer you something in return, Angel of Food.”  She gestures and one of her succubi attendants walks forward and takes his arm.  “This is Zythla,” she announces.  “She is yours.”“What!” cries Alcar.  “I do not want a demon!  Let loose of me!” he adds, as she begins running her fingers over his chest.  He turns away sternly.  “I refuse your gift!”“Come now, Alcar,” Seclaidra purrs.  “How better to turn her back to the Light?  Is anyone really beyond hope, even a demon?”  Zythla gives her best pout to Alcar.  “I don’t know about this,” cautions Lillamere.  “I don’t know if we need-”“All right,” Alcar states firmly.  “I will try to turn her to the Light!  And I will succeed!”“You do have all the time you need, after all,” Seclaidra says gently.  Can we just please get this over with? Inoke pleads over the link.  I don’t want to be a party to any deal with a demon.“What do you want?” demands Chakar.“What do you want?” counters the demoness.  “It is because of you that I came here.  You came to attack me.  Why is that?”“You have been tampering with Cydra,” Horbin states firmly.  “You deceived Dexter himself.  You have deceived us, if I’m not mistaken.  You must be stopped.”She considers him.  “What if I offer to stay physically out of your region of Cydra for 200 years?”“What do you mean by ‘region’?” demands Sybele.“The Near-Forinthian Region,” Seclaidra meanwhile replies.  “From Dorhaus to Bordis and from Dorla to Tirchond.”“No.  That’s not enough.”  Inoke has let himself be drawn into the conversation against his better judgment.  “She’ll just act through agents.  Besides, whatever deal we make, she’s just going to break as soon as it’s expedient.  She’s a demon.  We can’t trust her.”  He wants, very badly, to charge; but the party offered their guarantee of safety to the demon.  We’re going to have to fight her anyway sooner or later, he predicts dourly through the telepathic bond.  Let’s just get this over with and leave, or make your damn deal and let’s go.“You must have no contact, direct or indirect, with anyone on Cydra,” demands Horbin.Seclaidra snorts.  “I will not abandon my followers,” she retorts.  “Is not fidelity a virtue?”  She studies the cleric’s face.  “Would you force me to sin even more?  How about this: I will not personally visit Cydra for 500 years; nor will I send any demons or agents to Dorhaus for that time.”“That’s nothing,” scoffs Baron Lillamere.  “How old are you, thousands of years?  More?”“Much more.”  Seclaidra smiles and studies the angel Alcar.  “I predate your Galador,” she says softly. “What!” Alcar cries disbelievingly.She chuckles.  “Yes- I come from before.  I know the Master of Darkhold.”The reference is lost on none of our heroes.  Though not all of them have been to Darkhold, they have all heard Lester’s tales of it.  Though Lester’s telling is always somewhat inchoate, apparently Darkhold is its own plane (?) or demi-plane (?) or something, but it contains (or contained?) all of Cydra.  Apparently the entirety of the multiverse was created as a sort of simulation by a powerful entity that had fled a previous universe that had been devoured by a dark and powerful entity called Tharizdun.  It was this entity that empowered Felenga, the Dark One, and Fuligin, who destroyed all civilization and nearly all non-evil life on Dorhaus.Lester has regaled the party many times with the story of going back in time via Darkhold, back to the ashes of the previous universe, and thence back further to acquire the necessary components to create a new Nature to replace the one devoured by Tharizdun and make Cydra real.  It all seems bizarre and sort of ontological to our heroes, but they know enough to put a few things together. For one, they have to wonder if she might be another agent of Tharizdun.  This suddenly puts the negotiations in a different light.“Is the Master of Darkhold your enemy?” asks Horbin, knowing the Master is opposed to the agents of the dark god that ate the previous multiverse.*“No,” she replies.  She seems genuinely surprised at the question.“An ally, then?”“At times.”The party debates among themselves for a time, then renews the debate over terms with Seclaidra.  They go back and forth, seeking terms agreeable to all of them.  The whole time, Inoke is increasingly unhappy.  Gerontius even suggests they sleep on it.Finally, Seclaidra sighs.  “It seems we cannot come to an agreement.”  She raises a hand and indicates one direction.  “My castle is called the Hall of the Back Silk.  It is twelve miles in that direction.”  She vanishes, and her entourage follows her a moment later.“Does that mean that the deal is off?” Inoke grimaces.  The party debates an immediate assault on Seclaidra’s castle, but they have already expended a considerable number of spells.  If they’re to fight a demon lord, it would be best to start off fresh.  The party determines to rest a night first, the next day, the party has an intervention for the succubus.  All day long they exhort goodness and morality at her, reciting passages from the Galadron and other holy writings.  Alcar and Horbin argue theology with her, trying to demonstrate that it is in her best interest to turn to the Light, to soar above into the Heavens instead of plummeting back into the Abyss.She is a demon, of course; but in a way that works to their advantage.  Her innate sense of self-interest is pricked by the points the angel and the cleric make concerning her eventual fate.  She laughs inwardly at first at their morality tales, but the tales ring true.  In the end, being good is best for one’s own self.Zythla the succubus has an epiphany.  She sees the Light.  She remains in Gorel, praying and meditating while the others move on.Before they leave, the party discusses their next course of action.  “We need to go attack her now,” insists Horbin.  “I have to deal with her, one way or the other.”“What about that undead god?”  Inoke looks at the others steadily.  “I think we have to do something about that thing.”“Maybe we should go back to the Eyebrary and see what we can learn about places to imprison things,” suggests Gerontius.“We should try Carceri,” suggests Wankerman.“What?” Gerontius looks to his cohort.”Carceri,” Wankerman repeats.  “It’s a plane of imprisonment.  It’s hard to find a way out of there- it doesn’t let go, it holds on to you pretty much forever.”“Well, we wouldn’t want to go there, then,” Horbin replies.  “No, but maybe we could open a gate in and push the sarcophagus through,” suggests Inoke. First they wind walk to the town of Shorult in order that Alcar can donate to the orphanage in town.  Then they plane shift to Olympus where they superior teleport to the nearest portal to Sigil, seeking a new and different way in.  They find themselves in the midst of a party of partying folk called the bacchae.  It turns out that in order to go through the portal, they must first debauch themselves, as befits Olympus, and so by the time the portal will activate for them they are drunk.Then they stagger through the portal to Sigil, Inoke leading the way.Next Time: One of one angel vs. devil match!*As a side note, this is how my old campaign world ended, after a good 10-12 years of intense gaming in it that covered thousands of years of game time.  Never let it be said that I’m afraid to let things progress to their logical conclusion...</blockquote>

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