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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7596765" data-attributes="member: 79141">Session 223, Part Four - The Hammer and the HookWelcome back. Here's a bit more for you to catch up on: The Hammer and the HookOnce again, they came to the chamber of Ashima-Shimtu, and passed through the broken entrance hall with her sinister voice ringing in their heads:“This island is to be cleansed, but is that salvation or oblivion? Ashima-Shimtu forswears her past, but is still so vain as to desire her last words. She speaks of the hammer and the hook.“This final moment matters not in the life of the one known as Seneschal of the Demonocracy, the Last of the High Fiends. She has reflected, and believes a tale bereft of choice is unworthy of the telling.“She asks, is a hammer that crafts a cathedral good? Is a hammer that shatters a skull evil? Ashima-Shimtu was not wielded. She chose her path, a long story that she might never have opportunity to tell. If she is to be shattered, she shall accept this long-postponed punishment.“But this execution is not the act of evil men, nor good angels. It judges nothing, for the hand that hefted this hammer has vanished. It falls unguided. Where it strikes is no more a choice than where a pebble rolls in a stream.“A choice did matter once to the Lady of the Forked Tongue. Like a fish in a stream she was snared by a hook, plucked from the world she was born to trawl. Perhaps the fisherman desired a wish in exchange for Ashima-Shimtu’s life, but she thinks not. He spoke these words, ‘Challenge yourself.’ “For an age and more, Ashima-Shimtu has hung, chained, voiceless. She had none to corrupt or tempt. What challenge was there, then, but herself? She is not as she was when condemned to this vault.“If there is to be an end to her story, let it be that as once a fisherman granted her a gift of change, so has she given a choice to the faith he inspired. Their tongues have become as forked as hers, but they might challenge themselves. Such as she can, she prays that the hand that swings the hammer chooses wisely.”With that, she fell silent, and relinquished all compulsion upon them.When they came before her, she hung limply from her chains.  First Leon, then Uriel, tried to question her further, but she did not respond. So she had given the sacrament of apotheosis to Vitus Sigismund?  If so, then she was the architect of the chaos in Crisillyir.  Although she did not tell Vitus what to do with the sacrament, so was that charge entirely fair?Clearly they were weighing up the pros and cons of freeing her, and this enraged Uru.  He argued against such a move most strenuously, putting up the kind  of determined opposition that the others had never heard from him before.Uriel admitted to being somewhat confused.  He wished Ashima-Shimtu would stop speaking of herself in the third person!  Did she want them to free her?  Leon said she did, and that he was of a mind to do so.  He understood the power of redemption.  But he was content to put the matter to a vote, if they did so quickly, for the heavenly host could not be far behind.Uru increased the vehemence and pitch of his denunciations, as each of the votes came in:Gupta said that it could not harm to have another powerful ally – so far they had two fey titans and a vsadni on their side. “Besides, we came here to save the gods not to kill them.”Uriel said he was moved by her repentance, but did not cast his vote until after Quratulain spoke.  She was Uru’s best hope of an ally, and he asked her directly what she thought of this insane idea.  Quratulain thought for a moment longer and then said, “I am trying to think what Korrigan would do.”She remembered their last visit here, when the demoness had first spoken of remorse, and how Korrigan had reacted at the time.  She thought of all the second chances seen had seen him give their friends and foes.  And then she said, “We should free her.”At once, Uriel nodded his assent, and together he and Leon removed the hooks from her flesh and took her down.Uru was apoplectic. Never before had he felt so at odds with the rest of the group.Uriel asked Ashima-Shimtu if she had the power to transport them back to Alais Primos.  Her eyes fluttered open. She was very weak. “Not enough blood,” she said.  That could be dealt with: Quratulain could form blood bullets, empowered by her own physical might.  Bolstered by the healing balm of the wayfarer’s lamp, she drew out both pistols and fired round after round into the water.Uru said he would not go.  He would make his way back through the vault alone.  The others tried to dissuade him.  When the angels discovered what they had done, it would make no difference to them that he had voted no.  That gave him pause.  He was angry, but not suicidal.By now the water was red with Quratulain’s blood. Ashima-Shimtu worked her magic and one by one they leapt into the water. Just before she jumped, Quratulain turned to Ashima-Shimtu, held as she was in Uriel’s arms, and said: “I am the hand of the King, and I no longer act out of vengeance. This is one demon who changed. Maybe you can as well.”End of Session</blockquote>

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