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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2111248" data-attributes="member: 143">The Shackled CityBook IX: “Thirteen Cages”Chapter 350A dark, slender figure walked in a cyst deep beneath the earth.  He strode with a deliberate, purposeful gait, a man who held the fate of worlds in his hands.  Behind him came a shadow, a second figure who walked hunched over slightly and off-balance, as though struggling with a heavy and awkward burden. The man in the lead was Shebeleth Regidin.  That name was known to few who lived; to some in the world of light above he’d been known as Esbar Tolerathkas, mystic theurge of Azuth, a name layered with several lies. It required effort to come to this place; more, now that the Tree was exerting its power, sending tendrils of energies through the mountain and across the boundaries between worlds.  Coming here was a risk, as this distant bubble in the mountain was technically outside of the perimeter of the dark lair of the Thirteen, outside of the layered protections that sheltered the fell citadel from detection and assault.  But Shebeleth Regidin was not one to leave even the smallest matter to chance, and for this rendezvous it was necessary to pass beyond the borders of the place where the sinister designs of he and his cabal of villains had matured into fruition. Behind him, Baiul giggled inappropriately at some secret thought.  Regidin paid him no heed; his acolyte’s descent into insanity had been gradual but inexorable, and in any case the wizened mastermind of the Thirteen had long wondered if any of them were truly sane, now. The two passed through a broad opening shaped eerily like a huge maw, framed by ancient stalactites and stalagmites that had formed into the resemblance of uneven teeth.  But neither traveler concerned themselves with imagined threats.  There were dangers enough in the real world. The opening passed them from one cavern into another; the second contained several layers of broad terraces that made the floor a maze of tiers and levels ranging from a few feet across to as wide as twenty paces.  The place seemed vast and hollow, an empty womb deep beneath the earth.  There was the faintest light, more a promise of illumination than a real brightness, provided by phosphorescent lichens that clung high along the walls, in the crannies where moisture gathered in the cold air. Regidin took three paces into the room and stopped, waiting.  Those he had come to meet were already here, he knew.  Behind him, Baiul fidgeted with his burden.  Two dark shadows materialized from different levels of the chamber, coming forward to where the men waited.  One was approximately man-sized and shaped, although a dark robe shrouded any details of his features.  The second, however, was clearly a monstrosity, looming over all of them, its demonic visage obvious even in the near-darkness, its eyes bright red orbs that fixed upon Regidin and his follower with a fierce intensity. “Speak your words, manling,” the glabrezu said impatiently.  “I do not have time for idle chatter.”The other, the cloaked figure, did not comment. Regidin raised an eyebrow; a slight gesture that would not go unnoticed by the others.  Behind him Baiul giggled again. “Do not worry, my lord Nabthatoron.  Or you, Kaurophon.  When I contacted you, I promised information that you would consider quite valuable, and I will not waste your time with mere gossip.”The glabrezu drew its inner arms together to fold them across its chest in an unsettling human-like gesture.  No doubt its intent was to unnerve them, but the motion also drew emphasis to the fact that its huge upper arm on the left terminated just below the elbow, in a jagged stump.  “Get to it then,” the demon said.  “I quite nearly slew this other wretch when I arrived; you should have been more specific that others would be invited to this... gathering.”“I have bound greater fiends than you, glabrezu!” Kaurophon hissed in challenge.  Nabthatoron snarled, the demon’s natural proclivity to aggression filling it with rage, and it appeared even more imposing as it drew itself up to its full height, its remaining pincer snapping angrily at the air a few paces back from the sorcerer’s throat in a menacing gesture. “A few drops of demonic blood in your veins does not make you my equal, little man.”Baiul had tensed, the links of his potent spiked chain clinking slightly as he grasped the weapon, but Regidin had not moved, his expression still schooled to careful neutrality, betraying nothing.  “Gentlemen,” he said, the single soft word inserting itself into the tension like a knife.  “We all have reason to be... upset... but let us direct our ire at its deserving target, not at each other.”“There is a group of adventurers, who have taken on the sobriquet of ‘heroes’, at least so far as the hapless folk of the ruined city above us were concerned.  Ah, I see you remember them, then,” he went on, observing the subtle reactions of both listeners.  “Likewise they have caused myself and my companions some... inconvenience.  I have called you here to suggest a temporary alliance of convenience, to wreak the final destruction of these meddlers.”“I need no aid from you to gain my vengeance,” the glabrezu rumbled, but Regidin, accustomed to the mannerisms of fiends, could tell that the demon’s bluster betrayed a significant interest.  Kaurophon’s silence offered no similar confirmation, but the cleric had studied both with great intensity before he’d first established contact, and his instinct told him that the sorcerer, too, was more than casually interested in gaining revenge over those who had confounded his own plans of glory and power. Regidin waved a hand dismissively.  “Naturally I would not wish to preempt your privilege.  But I may be able to give you an opportunity to exercise your right of revenge, in a situation that is favorably inclined toward success.”The half-man and demon did not immediately reply, and in that momentary lull Regidin pressed his advantage.  “And, of course, the body that I represent would be pleased to offer you a gratuity in exchange for your assistance in this matter.”He stepped aside, revealing his associate.  Baiul, came forward, pulling pack the tarp that concealed the bulky object that he carried.  It had the look of a weapon about it, big and amorphous in the darkness of the chamber.  But none of those present needed augmentation to penetrate the shadow, and thus when Baiul came forward, they could clearly see it for what it was.  The object was a massive pincer-claw forged in metal blacker than the surrounding darkness.  Its significance was immediately clear in the context of Nabthatoron’s presence, with the demon’s missing member highlighted by the presence of the construct. “Bah,” the demon said, but it was clearly a forced comment that fooled none of them.  The metal claw was made of adamantine, one of the strongest substances forged upon—or under—the surface of Faerûn. “A small token,” Regidin offered, waving his hand dismissively as if the gift he offered was not equal in value to a good-sized town. The demon’s hesitation lasted only a moment.  “I accept your proposal,” it said, coming forward with a sudden rush and taking up the artificial claw in its remaining pincer and snapping it into place against its stump.  The prosthesis, infused of course with magic, attached itself seamlessly to the injured member, and the demon’s fiendish jaws barked a cruel laughter as it lifted the limb, testing its newly whole arm. Regidin watched silently, although the cleric was more alert in that long moment than at any point in the interview.  There was nothing stopping the demon from just teleporting away right now, taking its prize... nothing that it knew of, anyway.  Regidin had naturally prepared a contingency for that possibility, but after all of the effort he’d put into gaining the glabrezu’s aid, he preferred not to have to resort to such measures. Fortunately—for Nabthatoron—the demon’s desire for revenge outweighed its selfishness, and it remained. “What boon for me, then?” Kaurophon asked. Regidin drew a small book from his tunic, about the size of a small ledger, thin enough so that it could not have held more than a dozen pages.  He inclined the book toward the sorcerer, so that he could clearly identify the markings on the stretched-leather cover, now cracked with age. Kaurophon finally betrayed his emotions, as he sucked in a startled breath.  “That is...” he breathed, trailing off. Regidin nodded.  “K’rastin’s Codex,” he said.  “The last copy extant, as far as I am aware.  A grimoire of more than passing historical significance.  I think you will find the True Names of the five devils mentioned specifically within to be... useful, in your researches.”Kaurophon dry-washed his hands within the sleeves of his robes, unconscious of the gesture or anything else except for the book.  “Indeed.  Might I peruse it?”The book vanished back into the cleric’s tunic so quickly that he might have been a rogue.  “Later,” Regidin said.  “If you come with me, both of you, we can discuss the upcoming fate of our mutual foes.”Kaurophon’s face tightened, but he was clever enough to recognize that the apparent insult—the glabrezu granted his reward before the service, his being kept for after—was actually a backhanded compliment.  The two outsiders followed the lord of the Thirteen and his adjunct as they retraced their steps, leaving the cavern empty again behind them.</blockquote>

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