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Thesius makes mental notes of a couple of items as he quickly peruses the journal. Then he goes back to try to recall what he may know about them.
Inspiration strikes as he thinks back on Xacarba.
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Merixia listens silently for the most part, tail slowly swishing back and forth as she processes what she's hearing. "An Abyssal heretic... I don't think they would go so far as to call this Arueshelae a heretic if she only sought to serve a different demon lord or Abyssal deity. I think she may actually be seeking a change in alignment; either toward the lawful side or the good side. It's exceptionally rare, but as Ragathiel has demonstrated, it does happen." There's no way Ragathiel was born good with an archdevil and a completely neutral fire goddess as parents. He chose a different path, which is what originally attracted Merixia to his faith. He proved that people can rise above their inborn nature.
"It may be worth tracking her down ourselves and seeing what she has to say. If nothing else, she might be willing to trade information for protection from her pursuers, like Joran." She pauses as a thought occurs to her. "You know, we should bring him in here to see if he has any insights into his brother's journal. Droskar is a god of crafting, right? Maybe Joran was involved with the corruption forge."
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The Knight-Commander sighs. "Understood." She looks back to Verene and Thesius. "I agree. We need to learn more about these crystals and the elixirs, and, if possible, stop their production entirely. But that's a strategic concern for the Queen and her generals, and not something we can immediately deal with. Still, keep an eye out for any signs of more information. In the meantime... is it possible for any of you to send word to any of the high command? If, Iomedae forbid, we fail here, this information needs to get to them."
"I have been thinking about this, actually, ever since we discovered Nurah's spying." Verene's face is calm as usual, but her eyes, human and clear gray once more, shine with contained excitement at the prospect of using magic to solve a hard problem. Midway through a sentence she was translating out loud during the reading of the journal, the scale's transformation had expired, and she had changed back to her human form but finished the paragraph without missing a beat. "We took a scroll of sending from her, which works to send a message to a person known to you over any distance, even between planes. But the message must be short, and you cannot receive replies. To overcome this barrier, I had a thought. Now that I can scry, it would technically be possible to scry Queen Galfrey, wherever she is. Of course, if she didn't want to be scried on, she could very likely throw off the spell. But if we first contacted her with sending, so that she knew in advance the scrying was from us, she could choose to accept it. And once we are scrying her, the whisper spell can work through the sensor. It is tricky to hold both spells at the same time, and I might have to try more than once. But it would theoretically allow for two-way communication between our camps for up to about ten minutes at a time. We could give a fuller report and answer questions as well. Or receive instructions," she adds, clearly as an afterthought.
"At this point, I think Merixia could cast the sending, if she prayed for it in the morning, without needing to use up the scroll. Then I could also learn the spell from that scroll instead, and we would have two people able to cast it in the future. Alternatively, I have read about magical feather tokens that will take the form of a bird to unerringly deliver a short written message to a specific person, and I think I could craft one with little difficulty. The ingredients cost money, but not an exorbitant amount, and I think we could source them from what we have brought in the supply wagons. Any message that could fit on the leg of a messenger pigeon should fit on the feather token, but it shares many of the limitations of sending."
"The Blackfire Adepts?!" Aravashnial's lips twist into a snarl, and his voice is an uncharacteristically venomous growl. "If one of their number is involved in the Templars, it is no wonder the Blackwing was burned down." Anevia looks at him, startled at his raw fury, and the elf takes a calming breath. "The Blackfire Adepts are the greatest enemies of my order. They are a group of... exploiters of planar energy, often aligned with the Abyss. They revel in wounds between the planes, and in causing more. Not surprisingly, there are quite a few of them in the Worldwound."
Verene also startles at the normally even-tempered elf's suddenly furious tone. "It did seem that the demons and their allies knew to target the Blackwing on the day of the invasion of Kenabres. Perhaps the Blackfire Adepts told them that the Riftwardens were headquartered there. It sounds like it is a matter of extreme urgency to learn where the Ivory Sanctum is located, since this mage who leads both the Templars and the Blackfire Adepts in this region is producing the Nahyndrian crystal elixir there. This Xanthir Vang poses an enormous ongoing threat to Drezen and the whole Crusade. And he must be personally distasteful indeed, if even Staunton Vhane was disgusted by him, when Staunton dealt with vile demons and their practices all the time." She wonders briefly how a deceived but well-intentioned crusader, as Staunton had apparently been, could so easily and wholeheartedly go from being over-eager to fight the Abyss to serving it instead, right after witnessing the devastating consequences of his mistake. Sheer despair? It does not make much sense. But she will study the journal in more depth later.
Verene gets out her well-thumbed copy of Burkle's Compendia and the massive Book of Things Holy and Unholy to consult, as the references in Staunton's journal are occasionally opaque, but she flips through them only to confirm her memory of specifics, since Thesius is able to explain them well.
"It may be worth tracking her down ourselves and seeing what she has to say. If nothing else, she might be willing to trade information for protection from her pursuers, like Joran." She pauses as a thought occurs to her. "You know, we should bring him in here to see if he has any insights into his brother's journal. Droskar is a god of crafting, right? Maybe Joran was involved with the corruption forge."
"We should certainly ask Joran about the corruption forge. Though he may not wish to help us with it. Being an enemy or heretic to the demons does not mean a creature is necessarily an ally to us. This passage does make me curious about what could make a succubus lose her powers, though finding one strange non-teleporting succubus at large somewhere in the Worldwound seems like a difficult problem for a later time. "
"Thankfully we have seemed to have dispatched any that successfully made the transformation brought on by these elixirs. I worry what threat a dragon may have posed after such a change. If given the chance, it may be worth trying to investigate these crystals and how we might counteract them."
"Yes, the chimera was bad enough; imagine what it might have made of an adult dragon or a xacarba! They were clearly trying to empower the creatures that were already their strongest shock troops. Starting with them when the process is so dangerous seems unwise, but I suppose if the supply of the elixir is very limited, and one is a Worldwound commander with no concern for the lives of one's subordinates, one might do it that way. A 'Nahyndrian crystal of the proper purity,' with the implication that such a thing is very rare, was also what Areelu Vorlesh needed to source in order to carry out her plan to corrupt the Wardstone, according to that note we found from the lilitu Minagho to Faxon of the Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth. So we know that as a substance, it is both corruptive and somehow empowering. And, if the vision we had from the Wardstone is any guide, it is a literal, physical type of crystal, deep purple in color..." Verene isn't sure if all of the command staff, especially Aron and Sosiel, have been fully apprised of the details of what happened in Kenabres before they arrived.
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Merixia nods at Verene's suggestion. "Sure, I can cast sending tomorrow. You using the scroll to learn the spell rather than using it to cast the spell is a more efficient use of our resources."
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"A demon seeking redemption?" Anevia looks seriously dubious. "I... is that even possible? No offense to you or Ragathiel, Merixia, it just seems... he's a demigod, isn't he? Are the rules different?"
"The average demon is the soul of an evil mortal - or a collection thereof - who has been made into a creature formed from the chaos and evil of the Abyss." Aravashnial muses. "It seems incredibly unlikely that one would want to seek a way out, even assuming it is possible."
Sosiel looks shrewdly at Merixia. "Ragathiel is an extreme exception, Merixia." He says gently. "Nevertheless, I can't imagine what else a 'heretic' might refer to in this context. One that serves an archdevil or daemon harbinger?"
Irabeth shakes her head. "Whatever this Arueshalae is, she's not our problem at the moment. Talking with Joran is a good idea, especially with regards to this corruption forge, but we should discuss all of the potentially sensitive information before we send for him." Verene's description of her plans prompts the half-orc to nod. "No, wait. Reach out to Irahai, instead. Her Majesty is likely protected by a number of enchantments and is busy besides. Let's not bypass all the proper channels."
Anevia suppresses a chuckle, and Irabeth cocks a brow at her, but whatever their private joke is, they don't share it.
"Our order's interest in the Blackwing wasn't commonly known, but neither was it a secret." Aravashnial nods at Verene. "But while we can't be sure that this leader is directly involved with the processing of this elixir, it is essential that we find and destroy the Ivory Sanctum - if not personally, then certainly via other crusaders." He looks seriously at Irabeth. "I cannot stress enough the dangers that the Adepts pose even on their own. If they are able to induce power such as our friends wield in themselves, other demonic slaves, and possibly even demons, it could change the course of the war even further against us."
"None of that now." Irabeth says decisively. "I won't hold it against you here, but we don't need the morale dropping from our own command staff expressing doubts." Aravashnial pauses, then nods apologetically.
Verene's description of her plans prompts the half-orc to nod. "No, wait. Reach out to Irahai, instead. Her Majesty is likely protected by a number of enchantments and is busy besides. Let's not bypass all the proper channels."
"Very well, the sending will go to Councillor Irahai then. We must make sure Queen Galfrey is present and connected to us through the message when we actually perform the scrying, though. I do not fully trust anyone in Her Majesty's government but her. The Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth have clearly infiltrated her advisors at the highest levels. I would dearly love to know who looked into Nurah's background and pronounced her trustworthy, for instance."
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Azira stands quietly throughout the debriefing, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes fixed on some point in space well beyond the thin walls of the command tent.
A forge that could corrupt even the Sword of Valor? I shudder to think what might have happened to Radiance if she'd been subjected to that... is it possible that the vile glaive could have once been a powerful weapon for good... or that it could be redeemed? And, what of this succubus... how could we possibly trust a seducer and deceiver well enough to believe she truly sought redemption and to serve the powers of good? Meri is right though, Ragathiel did just that, and demonstrated his goodness clearly enough to be accepted among the Empyreal Lords...
Her attention returns to her immediate surroundings at the mention of the queen's advisors being infiltrated. "That is a legitimate concern," the paladin offers gravely, "one I share, in fact... but I think we need to tread very carefully when it comes to discussing such things. The third crusade become an utter failure because it fell into little more than witch hunts... and that overzealous inquisition never truly ended, despite people like my parents working to turn our attention back to the true enemies. Wherever spies have maneuvered themselves into positions of power and influence, we should do what we can to deal with them, but we must take care not to give fuel to the flames of inquisition while we do."
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"I am so, so relieved Verene is on our side rather than the demons," Elliot thinks as the planning phase continues. "Iomedae, what could you have possibly been thinking when you considered her unworthy...? I once thought it was because you needed her as a wizard. But... what if her hate turned her to evil? Were you really so desperate to want to take that chance?"
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"A demon seeking redemption?" Anevia looks seriously dubious. "I... is that even possible? No offense to you or Ragathiel, Merixia, it just seems... he's a demigod, isn't he? Are the rules different?"
"The average demon is the soul of an evil mortal - or a collection thereof - who has been made into a creature formed from the chaos and evil of the Abyss." Aravashnial muses. "It seems incredibly unlikely that one would want to seek a way out, even assuming it is possible."
Sosiel looks shrewdly at Merixia. "Ragathiel is an extreme exception, Merixia." He says gently. "Nevertheless, I can't imagine what else a 'heretic' might refer to in this context. One that serves an archdevil or daemon harbinger?"
Merixia gives the resident skeptics a wry smile. "Yeah, I would have said the same thing before the wardstone blew up in my face. It's impossible for a cleric to cast spells without preparing them first. It's impossible for a practically brand new crusader like me to face Staunton Vhane in combat and not just survive, but win. And it's really impossible for a chimera to move that damned fast. Seriously, I've never even heard of a creature with that kind of speed." She shrugs with a creak of armor. "The five of us and our more powerful enemies are all doing six impossible things before breakfast these days. At this point, I'm not willing to discount any possibility, however unlikely." A succubus seeking redemption? Why the hell not, it makes more sense than a lot of what's happened lately.
Her attention returns to her immediate surroundings at the mention of the queen's advisors being infiltrated. "That is a legitimate concern," the paladin offers gravely, "one I share, in fact... but I think we need to tread very carefully when it comes to discussing such things. The third crusade become an utter failure because it fell into little more than witch hunts... and that overzealous inquisition never truly ended, despite people like my parents working to turn our attention back to the true enemies. Wherever spies have maneuvered themselves into positions of power and influence, we should do what we can to deal with them, but we must take care not to give fuel to the flames of inquisition while we do."
"If the Queen's right hand was compromised, we'd all be dead already. I figure Irahai is pretty safe as far as passing on intelligence goes."
"Trust me, I well understand the destructive power of baseless suspicion. I do not say Councillor Irahai should be particularly suspect, and you will not see me pointing fingers at any specific person as a cultist without a solid reason, much less based on race or religion or magical tradition, or any of the similar trivialities that were treated as 'evidence' by the Iomedaean Inquisition long after the Third Crusade ended! But when we do have good reasons to suspect more than one mole within a specific organization, at least a little caution is warranted — just reducing possible failure points, if you will. Moreover, however wise her advisors, they might not ask the same questions or have the same instructions in response. So I still want to make sure Queen Galfrey has this extremely sensitive information directly from us, and a chance to respond to it personally. She took the time to send us on this expedition personally, after all." Verene considers. "It is less dire, but perhaps we should also consider spreading the word to look out for a lone succubus that has deserted the demons, and to capture and not kill her if they find her. That much — she has deserted, and they consider her an enemy — we know to be true. Otherwise, if the main army happens to run across her in the Worldwound with her options for escape limited, they might kill her out of hand, and then we would never know the full truth, whatever it is."
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"If the Councilor is a spy, then our efforts are likely already doomed." Anevia agrees with Merixia. "I don't disagree with your mistrust of the high ranks, Verene, but I also agree that we shouldn't allow mistrust to poison our efforts."
Irabeth nods. "I hate how deeply Kenabres was compromised, but I think Nurah was the exception rather than the rule... though we should probably ask her in more detail. Unless we already have?" She looks at her wife, who winces.
"I'd... honestly forgotten to ask about that too much. I figured that the names wouldn't be very important at the moment, given that we've been, well..."
"That is quite understandable." Aravashnial says gently. "But I think now would be a good time to ask."
The Knight-Commander nods gravely. "Do so before the sending tomorrow." She commands, and Anevia salutes, still abashed.
Sosiel chuckles, nodding at Merixia's explanation. "True. I suppose anything is possible nowadays."
"Certainly more than it has been since before the death of Aroden." Aravashnial agrees, and there's a moment of silence as the comment reminds the entire command staff that he alone among them remembers the Age of Enthronement. He continues. "That being said, I am not certain we should send out the message about this Arueshalae. The main armies are not this far north, and given that she cannot teleport, it seems likely that she'll remain within however many days' flight range of Drezen as it takes us to capture the Citadel."
"It could cause confusion, and I'd really rather not give any non-heretical succubi that advantage." Aron points out.
Sosiel looks thoughtful. "If she has, indeed, somehow turned against the Abyss, we should do everything we can to preserve her safety." The Shelynite says slowly. "But as Aravashnial and Aron say, I don't think we want to spread word of her too far just yet."
Irabeth looks thoughtful. "We'll table that thought until after we take Drezen." She decides. "But keep in mind, Verene, that the Queen is in the field at the moment. She may not have a lot of time to discuss what information we've discovered."
Verene looks down at the map and mentally plots the last known position of the Queen's army against their own location of Drezen.
"Point taken. The spell will last only about eight minutes, and Her Majesty's time is also limited. And this Arueshalae would have to have flown several hundred miles south to be in any reasonable range of the army's main forces. We should stick to the most crucial topics. Nurah, the progress of the siege, and the Nahyndrian crystal elixir brought from the Ivory Sanctum." She takes up the Compendia Historiae Naturalis Abyssi and flips through it to a specific page bookmarked with a scrap of saddle leather.
"Speaking of which: while going through my copy of the Compendia again the other night to see if there was any description of demonic chimeras, I found a curious abbreviated reference citing Faren's Codex of Manifestations Most Vile. I do not possess the original text to check — most copies were burned during the Third Crusade, and the remainder are now very rare — and Burkle does not use the word 'Nahyndrian' at all, but according to him, the Codex claims that when a demon lord is murdered, its life force continues to exist in the solidified form of a crystal. I do not know why it should be phrased as 'murdered' and not 'killed,' but Burkle is usually scrupulously precise in his quotations and paraphrases of other authors. If it is true, I can imagine that this concentrated life energy could be a source of exceptional power, and equally great corruption. One vague reference is not definitive, of course. But that is my best guess, at the moment, about what 'Nahyndrian crystal' actually is."
She closes the precious books and tucks them away. "I will include you and the others in the message spell, of course, Lady Irabeth, and repeat what is said back to everyone present if needed. If you or anyone have a summary or brief message you would like to get through to the main forces, please prepare it in advance. With that said, I am ready at any time to try examining the magical effects on and perhaps speaking to the freed Keystones of Lozeri."
”If you think that just talking to the Keystones, without using any magic, might bear some fruit,” Azira offers, “I’d be glad to help with that.”
Verene nods gratefully. "That would be wonderful. I think we should try that first, after bringing them around with healing magic. If ordinary methods of persuasion fail, and it seems to me that the compulsion on them is still in effect, I do have a few scrolls of dispel magic, and perhaps Merixia, Master Aravashnial or Master Vaenic might have similar spells available to them as well." She looks hopefully at the three named.
"So... we continue our assault on the castle... when exactly? Are we putting it on hold for until after we do the sendings? Opposition in the castle was fierce. We would be going in with either reduced spells or less wardstone power to make this magically possible. Unless we rest multiple days." Elliot says, thinking that, by the goddess, he could sure use that right about now. Maybe when he woke up, he would be more alert to follow the strategizing - and maybe more able to digestief the shoking implications of non-evil succubi.
"Tomorrow morning after trying to make contact with the Queen's camp, I thought. Merixia and I will each start out with one less of our most powerful spells, but on the other hand, perhaps we could use the broken wall to enter and need not start by expending a spell on a dimension door to get in as we did today, so for me it would be a wash. I would still keep one dimension door in reserve in case we needed a quick exit, of course."
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Verene nods gratefully. "That would be wonderful. I think we should try that first, after bringing them around with healing magic. If ordinary methods of persuasion fail, and it seems to me that the compulsion on them is still in effect, I do have a few scrolls of dispel magic, and perhaps Merixia, Master Aravashnial or Master Vaenic might have similar spells available to them as well." She looks hopefully at the three named.
Merixia nods. "I'm not the spellcaster you are, but I would be happy to give it a try with the wardstone power I have left for the day."
"Tomorrow morning after trying to make contact with the Queen's camp, I thought. Merixia and I will each start out with one less of our most powerful spells, but on the other hand, perhaps we could use the broken wall to enter and need not start by expending a spell on a dimension door to get in as we did today, so for me it would be a wash. I would still keep one dimension door in reserve in case we needed a quick exit, of course."
"One less spell isn't a dealbreaker for me. If worst comes to worst, we can always leave early like we did today. I would very much like to investigate the armor Verene saw with the false Sword of Valor. Maybe there's a suit that would fit me, or magically resize to fit me! This banded mail just isn't getting the job done." She's pretty sure that that last Keystone wouldn't have landed a hit on her if she had better armor.
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"I also assumed we'd go back in tomorrow after attempting to communicate with the queen's camp," Azira agrees. "I--begrudgingly--admit that pressing further with our spell casters' resources depleted is not tactically sound, but we do need to stay as aggressive as we can afford to be. We can't give them any more time than necessary to organize and bolster their defenses, or for that succubus to cause mischief..."
A scowl creeps across the aasimar's face and her hand reflexively moves to Radiance's hilt. "Sh!t... the succubus--the one that we know is bad. We've taken away her play things. She'll surely want revenge, and new play things. We should spread word through the camp immediately for everyone to be on guard against her wiles: wary of any unfamiliar face, looking for confirmation of the identity even of familiar faces, those sorts of things. Perhaps we could have those able to detect magic patrolling the camp, checking for illusions and enchantments? We probably can't set up a giant protection from evil spell over the whole camp for a couple days, right?"
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Thesius' attention is pulled between the journal and the conversation at hand. As they talk, he offers what he can of his findings from the journal and to the conversation at large, but finds much of what he might offered is unsurprisingly being covered by Verene. He had always appreciated her insights and they continued to prove of great value to not only him, but the crusade at large.
"I can help talk to Nurah. She may feel more comfortable with me there," he notes when it's clear Anevia would be making inquiries of her.
At the suggestion of increased vigilance, he nods. "I need only a couple of hours to rest thanks to my ring. With that in mind, I was planning to keep watch over Nurah and Joran. They both have the potential to be key assets in our future moves."