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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 8035421" data-attributes="member: 6816692">Dark OmensSo it seems as if it is time to pay the Crypta one more visit. We remember that our last visit required the weight of both Ottavia and her summoned celestial, so taking Margit and none else with us wouldn't be sufficient. And as Flying Spark is leaning towards the featherweight class as well, we agree that we'd better ask for someone else's help. Someone who's really heavy and tall. So it might be the right time to ask out Andrei von Recklinghausen again.We take Margit and return to Flint via teleport and then pay Auryn's old home a visit. But when we ask Isobel about Andrei's whereabouts, the young Eladrin seems both worried and scared as she hasn't seen him for a while. She explains that while it is not too uncommon for Andrei to work overtime and sometimes even for a couple of days without coming back home, he never outright disappeared without any notice.We comfort Isobel and say that this might just be a case of miscommunication which we may easily solve by sending Andrei a sending spell to check up on him. But to our surprise, we don't get an answer on our friendly greeting. Carlyle reassures Isobel that Andrei might simply be sleeping or blocked off by something, so he uses a short ritual to discern our friends' location. But once he has finished his ritual, Carlyle strokes his beard in confusion as he cannot locate Andrei at all.Needless to say that this worries Isobel even more and the thought of not knowing where her love might be brings tears to her eyes. Auryn wraps her arms around her young friend and tries to comfort her by guessing that Andrei might have just been involved in a secret project. After all, he made quite the impression in Ber and we'd mentioned him positively in our report.We still head to the next police office to report Andrei von Recklinghausen as missing. And while Carlyle does his best to reassure Auryn that Andrei will most likely have caught the attention of Risuri officials who might use him as a highly proficient worker, Auryn replies that she really has a bad feeling about that as Andrei values Isobel and being close to her more that he'd value any prospect of payment.(Oh how right she was... Andrei missing without a trace was the perfect foreshadowing for what would happen at the ObsCon)Still we don't have time to conduce a proper search for Andrei right now, as the Obscurati gathering will happen very soon and we still haven't made too much progress regarding the nameless Lich. We empty our Absurdist's web at the RHC and release Baldur, as well as the two researchers to the care of our fellow agents. Regarding Baldur, we hand them a report on his cooperativeness and release him from the domination spell.So we travel to Odiem without Andrei and take Margit with us instead. When we enter the Crypta, we find out that this place has changed quite drastically. As soon as the main gate closes behind us, we are in a large hall with seven small alcoves containing seven chalices which represent the deadly sins. We discuss how this change might have occurred and assume that this, being a structure meant to contain the most powerful and wicked of corrupted souls and even demons, could just be another level of security. After all, the version we visited last time had some dimensional tricks as well.So we guess that we have to play by the Clergy's logic once again and examine the hall more closely. We find more alcoves and several magical items secured by force fields: a golden chain, a sword, a demonic judicial codex and an ivory helmet. As we didn't come for the shinies and these are obviously no elfaivaran artifacts, we let the items be and proceed with our investigation. We find a beautiful mosaic of the Crisillyiri crest and symbols of the Clergy on a ledge, and also spot a suspicious, strange globe of darkness at the ceiling in the back of the room.Auryn decides that this crypt has had enough darkness already and summons the holy light of Srasama to banish the globe. Only to be shocked to see what had been hidden behind these dark veils: An angel, tormented beyond recognition, hanging from chains and screaming in anguish. After the initial scream, she starts muttering mostly incomprehensible words, but we get that she's trying to warn us to not believe a word from Ashima-Shimtu's mouth and should rather listen to the voices inside our hearts.Carlyle tries to relieve the angel of her pain by casting a levitation spell and asks her for her name. After a while, she seems to understand that question and we get that she's called Linia. Carlyle remembers that name vaguely as he once read about an angel by this name who helped Triegenes found the Clergy and combat the demonocracy. She also advocated the priests to follow a path of humility and forsaking splendor, but disappeared some time after Triegenes' death.As we don't know whether Linia is being kept her due to her being corrupted, Carlyle calls for the memory of the chains that bind her. First, he watches a scene where Testamenta enters the room, looks at Linia and then casts the darkness at her and the chains as if she's trying to hide the angel. Then he sees Miller and Kasvarina as they unsuccessfully try to break Linia's chains with all their powers. The next scene very much breaks his heart as he witnesses the torture of Linia at the hands of the Clergy Hierarch who had the Crypta built and then sees how she was chained up and hung on the ceiling. The last and oldest vision shows him how the chains were forged and ritually empowered to become the powerful artifacts we see now.(Yeah, Testamenta is just that kind of ruthless b****)He tells Auryn and Margit everything he saw in his visions and they are as disturbed by his tales as he is. Even more so as he adds that Linia's disappearance might have been the justification for the first great war against the Elfaivaran empire.“After hearing all that, I don't know if the Clergy has any redeeming qualities left. So much for defeating the demonocracy... only to replace its reign of terror with something similarly wicked.” Auryn comments with utter disgust and Carlyle doesn't see any reason to object.Despite the fact that we just saw Kasvarina and Miller (both whom we know to be really powerful people) try to break the chains with no success we still try again and again with everything we have: from trying to cure Linia with a heal spell to breaking the chains with magic to using antimagic and brute force. Meanwhile, Linia begs us to end her torment and kill her already.After what feels like endless tries, Carlyle takes a deep breath and says “Maybe this is our only option if we want to show her mercy. To end her tormented existence. Even if I know that you won't like it.”Auryn shakes her head in return. “No, I understand and I agree. Even if every fiber of me wishes there was another way.”So Carlyle focuses on the divine spark of Srasama inside him and begs her to channel her essence through him and take everything she needs to end Linia's suffering. And, like a divine miracle, the mother seems to answer his call. Energies swell up inside Carlyle, enveloping him in divine fire. This creates a resonance in Auryn, thus evoking the maiden aspect, allowing her to channel her own power through him. The conjunction of both maiden and mother create a powerful flow of divine energy through Carlyle, a flow that manifests in one ray of holy fire that utterly consumes Linia and leaves no trace of her existence.Carlyle falls onto his knees, ready to collapse every second. But instead he hears a familiar whisper in his mind: “Thank you for letting me free her”Auryn helps him back on his feet, but this act of mercy cost him quite a lot.“I'm sorry, I won't be of much help for a while. I gave her all I had. But I couldn't just let Linia... hang there. To be honest, I've never seen such a horrifying act in my entire life.”Auryn then wraps her arm around Carlyle's shoulder and states that this was the right thing to do and that she's thankful that Srasama lent both of them her power. Still she disagrees with that Carlyle being of no help idea as he's so much more than his magic or his connection to her goddess.(So as you can see, Tiz found an excuse to bring us to the adventure 4 version of the Crypta Heraeticorum <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Ah yes, Linia... the final straw we needed to see the Clergy for the despicable machinery controlled by power-hungry hierarchs that it is. Auryn and Carlyle both knew too well that they saw every “other” people not like them as potential demons, but taking one of their own heroes, the companion of Triegenes himself and torture her over centuries until there was nothing left of her is on a wholly different level. Blaming her disappearance on the Eladrin to start a war was only the icing on the cake.Which.. also led at least Auryn to the belief that maybe the whole “summoning of Srasama” had merely been a trick of the Clergy to eradicate their hated neighbors once and for all.All in all, we agreed that this Clergy wasn't really different from the demonocracy Triegenes had given his life to abolish. Which might also mean that the Hierarchs and high-ranking Clergy turning into Tieflings could very well be the death curse of their goddess.Also, wasn't it quite ironic that those Crisillyiri who seemed to know honor and morale were also considered criminals?Regarding Linia specifically, we did everything we could to try and save her. Auryn especially wanted her to survive at any cost as she'd be a potential powerful witness for the Clergy's atrocities past and present. Still showing Linia mercy had been more important than any long-term political strategy. And they were both thankful that Srasama listened to their pleas.Oh, and there are the parallels between Miller/Kas and Carlyle/Auryn again. Even if their individual roles and traits are somewhat mixed up, but this will become way clearer after the ObsCon. Right now, it is pretty straightforward with Carlyle → Miller due to his Crisillyiri background and his connection to spirits and Auryn → Kasvarina with everything regarding Elfaivar, the Vekeshi/revenge theme and the loss of a family member as motivator. But I think you can guess who's going to end up with a certain artifact)</blockquote>

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