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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 2813536" data-attributes="member: 143">Chapter 534INTERLUDEEdiir drew a considerable draught from his pipe, held it a moment, and then let it out in a soft plume of sweet white smoke.  He didn’t need to look to his side to see the disapproving look from his second.  Avellos, like most celestials, took a pretty strict line on what could be considered a vice. The leonal guffawed slightly, and took another puff of smoke before tapping out his pipe and tucking it back into a pocket of his war-cloak.  It was almost time to move out again.  He only had to nod to Avellos—think what he would, the fellow was a good leader—and the hound archon started gathering up the patrol for a resumed march. Preparation was almost reflex now, for Ediir.  He checked his weapons, although they were never far from his hands, riding easily at his hips.  The two maces were very different, one small and gleaming silver, the other large and crudely hewn of cold iron.  They had seen a fair amount of use during this extended patrol, but inwardly the leonal was thinking that their role had begun to transition to mopping up the remnants of the fiendish creatures that still resided here.  Of course, he wouldn’t say as much to his men—no sense in having them let their guard down!  Ediir could see the changes wrought even in just the short time since he’d come here, transitioning across planes to join the fight against Evil on yet another front.  From what he’d heard from some of the archons, the ones that had been here before the failed attempt from the former master of this place to reassert his authority, those had been some hairy times, back then. Not that his tally on this extended patrol was anything to scoff at.  The fiendish bison weren’t that much of a threat, but they’d also flushed out a knot of dretch that had taken shelter in one of the mounds of rubble dotting the landscape, and a fiendish dire lion that had torn one of his archons to pieces before they’d finished it.  It had been a pity to slay that last one, Ediir thought, recognizing a distant kinship with the beast, but in the end, it had been Evil, and his maces had splayed its brains quiet convincingly out over the turf. He looked up as one of his scouts came buzzing into their camp.  Even before the lantern archon spoke, its words sounding like they were spoken from within a long hollow tube, Ediir knew that its news was trouble.  His maces sprung into his hands, and his patrol gathered around, alert for any threat. The lantern archon’s report confirmed his feeling, although as usual the celestial’s words were thin on the details that he would have liked.  The little ones weren’t known for their intellect, but they were fearless and dedicated. “Lead us there,” he ordered.  They followed the pulsing lantern archon deeper into the forest of withered strands that they’d been skirting before their break.  A faint hint of rot hung over the place, which grew stronger the deeper they progressed.  It was all just a part of change, Ediir noted; as Occipitus evolved, the old faded away, to be replaced with the new.  He wasn’t sure what exactly would replace this fibrous forest, but it had to be better than the grisly strands that made him feel like a flea walking upon the back of some massive hound.  The archon flashed, and they could see something up ahead, a reddish glow that had a decidedly unfriendly look to it.  “Buff up,” he told his forces.  The hound and lantern archons paused briefly and prepared aid spells.  It wasn’t much of a boost, but Ediir had been in enough campaigns to know that every little bit helped.  One of the lantern archons touched him, infusing him with the same protection, and he nodded to the celestial in gratitude.  “All right, let’s go,” he said.  He didn’t need to issue further orders; if nothing else, the archons were organized and knew their roles. As they drew closer to the source of the glow, Ediir could see that it originated at some sort of distortion-field that floated in the midst of a clearing in the forest of dying fibers.  The sagging strands grew particularly dense here around the perimeter of the clearing, as if the ones inside the open space had been pushed back to the rim.  But they gave way easily before Ediir’s mace, and the leonal stepped forward into the clearing. The distortion appeared to be a completely flat plane, an oblong roughly six feet high and four feet wide at its broadest point.  It floated about a foot off the ground, and although the surface wavered, like a pond that had been disturbed by a thrown stone, Ediir could just make out something else beyond, a landscape of brilliant colors that was somehow jarringly wrong. His suspicions about the nature of this oddity was confirmed a moment later, as it shimmered and something stepped through.  It resembled a tall human at first glance, but that resemblance was quickly dispelled.  Its body was lean, almost emaciated, and its hide was a mottled gray, as though all of the life and vitality had been sucked out of it.  Its face… its face was a monstrosity, a warped feral thing with jaws too large for its face, and eyes that gleamed with a hungry yellow glow.  It moved with an awkward, shuffling gait, carrying a massive double-ended axe almost as large as it was.  Ediir could sense the sudden surge of anger from his celestials, as they recognized the fiend.  A rutterkin demon, one of the lesser tanari, but no less infused with taint for that.The archons did not hesitate, immediately assailing the demon.  Beams of pure white light lanced down from above as the lantern archons hovered overhead, the rays searing the demon’s hide, ripping away swaths of corrupted flesh.  The thing snarled and lifted its weapon as a quartet of hound archons rushed at it, spreading out to flank it and block retreat back through the portal. They needn’t have worried; the demon had no thought of escape.  It managed to inflict a minor wound upon one of its adversaries before their greatswords brought it down, thrashing as black ichor splashed out upon the spongy turf.  Ediir was typically one to lead from the front, even against such a minor threat, but he had hesitated.  The portal was clearly some sort of planar gate, but he knew that such an effort was far beyond the capabilities of a mere rutterkin.  He heard a bark from one of his archons and saw that another rutterkin, this one armed with a jagged-edged longsword, had pushed through into the clearing, and was already coming under heavy attack.  Why would someone bother to open a gate to send rutterkin here?The answer came to him in a flash, filling his gut with a sensation of dread.  “They’re already here!” he said aloud, even as the air flashed around him, and the clearing filled with demons. They appeared all around, teleporting in, surging immediately at the archons with slavering hunger for carnage.  Most were babaus, their emaciated black hides glistening with the acidic red gel that coated their bodies, but Ediir saw a pair of vrocks materialize overhead, and as he head a loud croak behind him he turned to see a squat, massive hezrou crouched behind him.  The leonal did not wait for the inevitable charge.  Recognizing the toad-demon as the greatest threat—a single blasphemy would have cut through his entire force—he opened his jaws wide and unleashed a powerful roar.  The sound washed over the demon and knocked it back, reeling, stunned.  A babau that had been too close shrieked and collapsed, likewise rendered insensate, but that did not in any way dissuade three others from leaping at the leonal from his flanks, their claws eagerly seeking his flesh.  Ignoring them for the moment, the leonal turned back toward the portal.  Another demon had pushed through, a squat jovoc.  One of the hound archons, too inexperienced to recognize the threat, chopped it with its greatsword, only to roar in pain as its aura of retribution returned the pain of the wound to its inflictor, and its allies.  Ediir created a wall of force across the gateway.  It wouldn’t keep out the fiends that could teleport, but it would hold back the weaker ones…But more demons were continuing to appear.  Babaus were everywhere, at least two dozen now swarming in and around the clearing, and Ediir could feel the cries of his lantern archons as the vrocks eagerly tore into them, extinguishing their shining radiance.  The babaus snarled as they slashed at him with their claws.  His damage resistance protected him for the most part, but the babaus were masters of sneak attacks, and he felt pain as their piercing talons sought out weak spots in his defenses.  Turning, he aligned himself so that the maximum number of demons were in front of him, and then let out a second mighty roar.  Nearly a dozen babaus crumpled, their bodies ravaged by the mighty blast.  His own forces were not affected, but the lantern archons were all gone, destroyed, and only four of the hounds were left standing, having formed a defensive ring in the center of the clearing.  Their swords hacked and cleaved into demonic flesh, the canine celestials caught up in the glory of slaying their traditional enemies.  Ediir saw Avellos lift his flaming sword high as a vrock screeched and dove at him.  The archon did not falter, holding his strike until the vulture demon’s claws had reached his fur, then driving the blade deep into its body.  The vrock let out a piercing cry of agony and lashed out with all four of its taloned limbs at its enemy, and for a moment the two combatants were lost in a wreckage of violence.  The other three hound archons hewed at babaus that leapt over their stunned comrades to tear at the archons with their long claws.  One shining sword broke, weakened by the caustic ooze secreted by the babaus, and its owner rapidly fell, its jaws still locked around a babau’s throat.   Ediir felt a surge of glorious pride at the courage of his soldiers, but it was clear that the battle was not going in their favor.  The leonal tore free of the babaus that were trying unsuccessfully to drag him down, and charged forward toward the embattled archons.  He unleashed his third and final roar, and again demons fell, overcome by the holy power of that blast of sound.  Avellos was quick to take advantage, driving his sword through the vrock one final time as the demon fluttered dazed at his feet.  He turned immediately to aid his comrades, taking the head off a babau as it rushed past, but before he could strike again Ediir forestalled him. “Return to headquarters… report what is happening!”  Another vrock dove down at him, but he lifted his cold iron mace, and drove it up into the demon’s body.  The blow released a sudden cacophonous blast of sound, the full power of the thundering weapon knocking the beastly creature roughly aside. “I will not abandon you!” the hound archon yelled, stabbing another babau.  Already, his sword smoked as the toxic acid ate at the weapon.  A foot away, another hound went down under a pair of babaus, leaving only one other celestial standing besides the two leaders, blood oozing from a half-dozen gashes in his fur.  Both of the celestials knew that there was no easy escape for the leonal, who lacked the archon’s ability to teleport.“That is an order!” Ediir roared, crushing a babau’s skull with his backswing.  The vrock, recovering, let out a terrible shriek; the hound archon soldier staggered and fell into the eager arms of a babau, and Avellos only barely resisted being similarly affected.  Ediir’s fortitude was such that he easily shook off the stunning effects of the shriek, and he brought both of his weapons down onto the vrock’s shoulders, drawing a reassuring crack as fiendish bone gave way before the assault.  Avellos nodded, drew up his sword, and vanished.  The demons, furious at the escape of one of their adversaries, only intensified their attack.  The vrock, still struggling, seized one of Ediir’s arms.  The leonal broke free, losing one of his maces.  He laughed and tossed the other away; he needed no weapons to hurt demons.  His claws found the vrock’s throat and tore, and the demon collapsed, gurgling out the last of its life in a bloody mess. For a moment, as babaus swarmed around him, the leonal considered flight.  It was possible that Avellos would be able to return with reinforcements; distances were of no concern to a celestial with the ability to teleport at will.  He could lead these fiends on a merry chase, and rally his forces… But as he looked up, and saw more demons descending toward the melee—chasmes, he recognized, and a palrethee—he knew that his initial suspicion about the demonic assault was correct.  This wasn’t a raid; this was an invasion, a campaign of conquest.  Avellos would not be returning soon; if the great spire was not already under attack, it would be soon.  The hound archon was loyal, and would seek to return, but Saureya was practical, above all, and he would not allow a veteran leader to throw its life away.  He could run.  But while he was faster than these demons, they too could teleport.  The leonal let out a growl from deep in his throat, shaking his head to clear it of the buzz that was already beginning to lull his senses.  He was bleeding now from a half-dozen deep gashes that had gotten through his defenses; everywhere he turned a babau was tearing at him.  Ediir paused a moment to heal himself, then he reached out and grabbed a babau by the skull, slamming it into his knee with enough force to crack its skull like a ripe melon.  The action hurt his knee somewhat, and would likely cost him some mobility.  In effect, a decision made. The leonal laid about him with abandon, cutting and tearing and crushing.  Demons died, and more came forward to take the places of the slain. It went on. No celestial reinforcements came. Chapter 535Dana steeled herself as the thick door recessed into the wall slowly opened.  The receeding portal did not make a sound, but its ponderous swing nevertheless clearly conveyed the feeling of great thickness and weight even before it had withdrawn enough for her to see the space beyond. The space beyond looked dark, at first, but as her eyes adjusted she could make out the features on the walls inside, highlighted by a deep violet glow that seemed to seep from small globes that were set into the crown molding where the ceiling met the wall at regular intervals. The dark portal finally came to a stop, leaving a gap only just large enough to allow her passage.  Taking another deep breath, she stepped forward.  She felt a tingle as she entered the threshold, and for a moment felt a brief thrill of panic that she ruthlessly squashed.  For just an instant she thought she heard a voice, calling her name.  LL? she thought, but there was only silence.  Oddly, she almost thought that the voice had been a woman’s, slightly familiar but too fleeting to identify. She steadied herself and stepped forward, commiting herself.  She had forseen this, and in fact would have been surprised if there had been no defense here.  A ward against scrying, or extradimensional travel, or both.  In any case, she was not going to turn back.  Once fully through the doorway, she immediately caught sight of the door warder, shielded behind the portal.  She had to look up to meet its eyes; it was nearly eight feet tall, and its long angular wings brushed the ceiling.  She would have called it a succubus but for that size, and the fact that its skin consisted of dense scales colored in a blend of gray and olive that was muted in the odd lighting.  Its eyes, set deep within their sockets, were black orbs that regarded her without any emotion that she could discern. “No weapons,” it said, its voice deep and androgynous. “I carry none,” she said, spreading her cloak.  She forced herself to meet that black stare as she spoke, and the meanings behind the words carried clearly.  I do not need them.  Her demeanor also carried the clear intimation that she would not subject herself to a search. But the reptilian thing did not press her.  It closed the door, leaning into it until it sank cleanly into its socket.  She could now see that it was a full foot thick, and if it was solid metal as it appeared, it had to be insanely heavy.  As it settled into place, an audible series of clicks sounded that were disproportionately loud in the confines of the corridor. The door warden glanced down at her.  Its mouth twisted into what might have been a grin, as if confirming that she was now without options.  She did respond.  She had already worked out the implications of this visit, which she had gone through such trouble to arrange, and was beyond second-guessing herself.  The creature gestured for her to proceed it down the hallway.  She walked down the corridor, her boots silent on the thickly carpeted floor.  The hall wasn’t very long, perhaps twenty paces before it ended in a wide arch that curved dramatically in a fashion reminiscent of Calimshite architecture.  The shadows deepened within, and it took her a moment to recognize that there was a pair of enameled wooden doors opposite her.  The doors opened easily at her touch.  The space beyond was significantly brighter than the oddly lit corridor, and it took a few seconds of blinking to adjust enough to make out details of the chamber. The floor was somewhat lower than the corridor, with a short but wide staircase leading down to the broad space below.  Several additional arches around the perimeter—lushly warded by silk drapings or curtains of colored beads—led into shallow alcoves or to other rooms within the complex.  A faint sound of water trickling into a basin was audible, but she could not identify its source.  There was an air of luxury here, but also an undercurrent of horror that became clearer as she looked around.  Faded tapestries that appeared to show scenes of frolic were actually depictions of torture, while small objects that looked like innocent knickknacks at first glance turned out to be quite otherwise when they suddenly moved, resolving into bulbous vermin or small fiends that skittered away into hidden corners.  A pair of quasits sitting on a high ledge watched her movements, whispering comments in Abyssal that didn’t quite reach her ears.  One held something in its hand that it occasionally tweaked with a sharp fingernail, drawing a tremulous squeak of discomfort from whatever it was. She looked back at the door warder, who merely indicated another arch on the far side of the room.  This one had a more substantial opaque hanging obscuring it, but as she approached it—careful to avoid a slithering something that slid past her boot as she crossed the room—it drew back seemingly of its own volition, revealing a complex circular iron door that resembled an iris.  She stepped up to the door, which twisted open before her, revealing another chamber.  The room was shaped like a hemisphere, although there were enough bulges, ledges, and alcoves to ruin the pure outline of the form.  The dome was crafted from blocks of red stone that bulged slightly, their edges rounded, giving the place the appearance of being part of the shell of some monstrous giant insect.  A pair of hooded lanterns dangling from the apex of the dome provided at least a semblance of illumination.  Dark shadows along the walls might have concealed exits, or they might have just been part of the unnatural curve of the dome.  A pair of massive forms flanked her as she entered.  She recognized them from elsewhere in Sigil; mogs or something similar, LL had called them.  Each carried an axe larger than she was.  How they got in here she didn’t know; they seemed too large to navigate the entry.Dismissing them as mercenary guards, she directed her attention to the others in the room.  She felt a momentary quiver as she recognized a medusa, its skin a deep shade of blue, its eyes obscured by a pair of black eye cusps that reflected the light in the room.  It stood adjacent to a black divan that pointed toward the door.  Opposite it stood another creature that Dana thought she recognized.  It took her a moment to place it; the naked, sexless humanoid was of the same race—if not the same individual—as the creature that had betrayed her and her friends to Graz’zt when they were in Zelatar, almost twenty years ago.  Its body was hairless, its bone-white flesh pulled tight over its frame, its features pinched and alien with narrow slits for a nose and mouth, and no visible ears at all.  For the life of her, she could not recall the name of the creature they’d encountered that last time; in any case this one evidenced no hint of recognition, or any other emotion in its alien eyes. But the one she had come to see what lying upon the divan, facing her.  That Barrat Ghur was a fiend was discernable at an instant’s glance.  Even if the black horns jutting from his temples and the sinister red tinge to his flesh did not give it away, the depth of spiritual corruption that radiated from him could never be fully masked.  But from that base, all other assumptions collapsed.  For one, he looked… old, his hair and beard thinning and gray, his skin wrinkled and sagging, gathered in clumps around his neck.  His limbs jutted from his body like sticks, and were marked by spiny ridges that protruded up to several inches out from his elbows and knees.  He was clad in a tunic and breeches that glimmered with the sheen of metal, cut specifically to the unique contours of his form.  There was a long moment of silence as the human woman regarded the fiend, who met her look with a cold stare. “Barrat Ghur,” she finally said. “Dana Ilgarten,” Ghur said.  For his aged appearance, his voice was deep and full, booming from his chest.  “You have gone through a great deal of effort to ferret me out.  You have bullied your way across the torus of Sigil, slain my associates, and inconvenienced me by sundering operations carefully assembled.  Now you come into my sanctum, alone, with all the arrogance of an infernal magnate.”“Tell me, my dear… why is it that I should not simply slay you where you stand?”The door twisted shut behind her, and the creak of the maugs as they lifted their weapons sounded unpleasantly loud in the sealed confines of the chamber. Chapter 536“Tell me, my dear… why is it that I should not simply slay you where you stand?”Dana did not react, did not turn as the obvious noise of the door closing and the maugs shifting into a ready position echoed behind her.  Instead, she kept her attention focused on Ghur.  “I am not someone you would wish to make an enemy.”“Ah, yes,” the fiend replied.  “Perhaps you refer to your fabled thaumaturgic powers.  In case you have not noticed, human, this citadel is fortified with a dimensional lock.  You will be not be gating in any angels to your cause this day, nor can you shunt yourself off to a place of safety.” Dana did not respond. “Or perhaps you refer to your friend.  I was not altogether surprised to hear that you’d attracted Laertes Leonidas to serve as your planar cohort.  The werelion has something of a reputation here in Sigil, and has always had something of a soft spot for lost causes.  Either way, he cannot assist you here.”“LL is not involved in this,” Dana said.  “He offered to join me in meeting you, but I asked him not to intervene.”“A selfless gesture,” Ghur said, his tone such that Dana could not distinguish whether it was mocking or sincere.  “So given these limitations, why should I be leery of inflicting my… desires… upon you?”Dana came a step deeper into the room, still a good three paces from the end of the divan.  She sighed.  “If you feel it necessary to wade through these preliminaries… Very well, then, here’s a reason for you: I have powerful friends who would not take it well if I were to be inconvenienced.”“And yet you seem quite cavalier about placing these friends of yours into a circumstance of potential danger, through your actions.”“I am driven by a motivation beyond my control.”“Ah.  Love… or hatred, perhaps?  Connected like a mobius, they are.”“I would not expect a being of your kind to be able to comprehend the former.  But let us speak of hate.  That, I suspect, is something that you understand quite intimately.”“You presume much.”“A necessity, born of the circumstances I alluded to before.”“Let us speak of that, then.  For you would not have come here, would not have undergone the obviously significant effort that you have, without a profound need.”“Would it be too jarring if we simply skipped over the little dance?  You know who I am, and why I am here.  If not, then I have miscalculated, and you will not likely be of aid to me in any event.”The fiend inclined his head slightly in a nod of acknowledgement.  “So be it.  Let us assume for a moment that all of your grand presumptions are essentially accurate.  Tell me, then, why I should help you.”“You sat high in the councils of the demon prince Graz’zt; were one of his advisors for quite some time.  Perhaps even one of his inner circle, for a time.  You represented his interests on numerous planes, ultimately settling here on Sigil.  Forgive my delving into conjecture at this point my narrative… but perhaps you grew to prefer this place to the stark harshness of the Abyss.  When the Prince’s fortunes underwent a period of decline, you used the opportunity to sever yourself from him, and establish yourself as an independent agent.”“You have accumulated a lot of data in a short period of time.  But your narrative rests upon a tortuous web of assumptions and suppositions, the most tenuous—and risky—of which is the presumption that my ‘severing’ from the prince was not amiable, and that I bear some resentment of him that is sufficient to motivate me to be of assistance to you.  For example… consider for a moment the dynamic if it turned out that the estrangement was initiated by he, and not I… and the potential for restoration of amiable relations, if I were to present him with one of his enemies?”“That is of course a possibility,” Dana replied.  “I make no claim to knowing the truth of circumstances, only educated guesses based upon the information that I have been able to access.  The problem with an investigation of this sort, is that only some of the facts are in evidence, and the motivations of the protagonists is clouded.  For example, one might learn that you have thus far been approached by representatives of several Powers of the lower realms, including but not limited to the Abyss.  And that you have carefully avoided any entanglements, playing off one against the other in an exercise that demonstrates a fair quantity of diplomatic skill, and guile.”“Raw flattery, while appreciated, will not sway me to your cause.”“Noted.  It is also evident,” she continued, indicating their surroundings with a wave of her hand, “That you have undergone considerable effort and expense to cloak your operation here in a veil of… privacy.”“If you had spent a longer time in Sigil, you would come to understand that such precautions are not uncommon.  The fundamental rules upon the planes are quite different from those on your corporeal globe, not the least of which is that most of the rules themselves are mutable to some degree.  But let us continue; your narrative grows interesting, even as the web strains against the weight of your assumptions.”“Then let me offer my most tenuous statement before the web snaps altogether.  You know where he is.”Barrat Ghur chuckled.  “Ah, here at last, your clever story runs into a wall formed of logic.  Presume that your statement is correct.  This presents several fallacies.  First, if that were the case, and if your earlier statement about the mutual antipathy between myself and my former employer is likewise true, would not He be motivated to ensure my silence?  Second, if I did possess this knowledge, would it not be insanely valuable?  Surely one of my fundamental nature would sell or trade such information, in exchange for fabulous wealth and power.  He has many enemies, as you no doubt know quite well.”“Now you make assumptions,” Dana said.  “You presumed, perhaps logically, that the ‘he’ I referred to was the Prince.  I know that his location and movements are masked, by a potency greater even than a mind blank.  In fact, finding out anything at all about the Lord of Shadows is all but impossible, even through direct divine agency.”“Many things are made nebulous by the Heart,” Ghur said, mysteriously.  Dana raised an eyebrow, but the fiend offered no clarification. “Fortunately, his associates—current and former—are not so diligently shrouded.”“And so you have set upon me,” Ghur said.“Part of it is a question of access—you are here, after all, and not the Abyss, where a casual visit would be… inconvenient.  But it is also true that you, perhaps more than any other individual of the Prince’s acquaintance, are familiar with his interests that are located outside of the Abyss.  One such as he would have many bolt-holes that were not casually known, I am sure.”“And you would be correct.  It would take a lifetime to search them all, in fact.”“I do not have a lifetime, and I think that you are being deliberately obfuscatory, in this case.”The fiend’s eyes narrowed just slightly.  “You still have not addressed my original critique about your construct of postulations.  If, as you are obviously suggesting, I have some insight as to where to look, why would I not sell this information to one of His rivals?”“That puzzled me as well,” Dana said.  “But then I had to reorient my assumptions, as you might say.  I grant that it would be impossible to even begin to put myself into the shoes of one who had been spawned and raised in the Abyss.  But since coming to Sigil I have spent time with individuals who have been… instructive, in many ways.  So my best guess is that you recognize that to share—sell, trade, whatever—this information with an Abyssal magnate would be to commit yourself to a faction, and thus forfeit the independence that you have obviously fought hard to preserve here.”There was a long moment of silence.  Finally, Ghur spoke.  “Your insight is considerable, for a mortal so new to the Outer Realms.  But your fault lies in your limited perspective.  You do not truly understand that nature of your enemy.”“Then enlighten me.”Ghur shifted his gaze slightly to the humanoid to his left.  The pale figure seemed to come closer, although it had not moved its feet.  It shifted subtly, its hands coming up into a complicated pattern, its fingers—it only had four on each hand—twisting in a way that she could not have matched without breaking them.The Silent, it was called the Silent, she thought.  And indeed, the creature made no sound.  “What are you doi—“ she began, but then everything around her began to grow insubstantial, and she lost consciousness.</blockquote>

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