Former Horned Society minions in the Ruins of the Cathedral of Stern Alia (city map letter P)
Several weeks ago, prior to the party's excursions to Darkenrift in the Grandwood and White Plume Mountain, as they were exploring various locations throughout Nulbish, they discovered that the ruined and abandoned Cathedral of Stern Alia was not as abandoned as it appeared. Hiding out among the wreckage within the cathedral were several individuals who claimed to be former residents of Molag when it was still the capital city of the now defunct Horned Society (instead of Iuz's "summer palace", as the Old One laughingly calls Molag these days).
(In hindsight, Orsino of the House of Naelax in particular is somewhat amazed and surprised that anyone would ever admit to being former minions of the "Dread and Awful Presences" of the Horned Society to a group of nosy adventurers they'd just met .... Could it be a deception? A trick? But if so, to what end?)
There were six altogether, listed below, starting with their de facto leader (by dint of her comparative power over the others).
Jocelle (LE female human [Oerid-Flannae] infernal bloodline sorceress 10): A beautiful and highly persuasive woman, Jocelle leads the others because she is the most powerful, as well as the most experienced, having been one of three comely female apprentices of one of the Hierarchs of the Horned Society (that Hierarch, and presumably the other two apprentices, were slain by powerful adventurers about a decade ago). Like her late master, Jocelle is a disciple of Asmodeus, greatest of the archdevils, and Lord of Nessus. When the party met her last month, she had been clad in a crimson robe with a high, flaring collar, cinched at the waist with a belt of gold medallions, and carried a bronze rod topped with a blood-red crystal.
Yeval Notna (LE male human [Suloise-Flannae] unchained rogue 5/assassin 3): A stout, bald, double-chinned man, not quite 5-1/2-ft. tall, with heavy-lidded grey eyes, a forked bead and mustache (light brown), and had been clad completely in black when the party first encountered him back in early Planting (about a month ago). Yeval had not spoken at all at the initial meeting, but he and the others had been introduced by Jocelle, who had done almost all of the talking for them. He had merely stared at the party (especially the "weird-looking jester"), his pudgy hands very close to the hilts of the pair of short swords hung in scabbards at his flabby waist.
Crauleister (NE male tiefling [hellspawn] two-handed fighter 6): A tall and lanky "devil-born" (or "hellspawn") tiefling warrior, with rust-red scaly hide, all-black eyes (no whites or pupils), needle-sharp yellowish teeth bared in a constant grin (or snarl?), shoulder-length mane of black hair that did not conceal the 3-inch yellowish horns protruding from his brow, and a rust-red tail like that of a lion, except longer, ending in a tuft of black fur. Crauleister also kept quiet during that first encounter, letting Jocelle do the talking, but he'd growled and cast an angry look at the bewitching sorceress when she'd introduced him by name to the three "snooping strangers" ....
Parson Jaax (NE male human [Flannae-Oerid] cleric 6 of Nerull): A dark-skinned and dark-eyed, pockmarked man of indeterminate age (he was likely younger than his physique made him appear), his posture twisted and stooped by a severe curvature of his spine, making him seem to be perpetually bowing, and his stringy wisps of sparse black hair clinging damply to his scabrous scalp. He'd been leaning on the black shaft of a scythe that was a crooked as he was, with a crescent blade the color of rust -- or dried blood? His ill-formed frame had been draped in a black robe during the initial encounter. Like the others, he'd deferred to Jocelle, merely nodding indifferently when she'd introduced him.
Blixx "Longfangs" (LE male hobgoblin polearm master fighter 5): One of two hobgoblins with the group, Blixx "Longfangs" wore a black scarf wrapped around the lower half of his blue-and-red mandrill-like visage, and a black cowl pulled over his head to conceal his long and pointed goblinoid ears, leaving only his feral yellow eyes exposed. He wore a black tunic under his scarlet-tinted breastplate, and black-and-red checkered hose, knee-high boots of black leather, black leather gloves, and a waist-length scarlet cloak hung over his broad shoulders. He was armed with a black fauchard-fork polearm, which might have been the origin of his nickname, "Longfangs", for the business end was not unlike a pair of long fangs at the end of a black wooden pole.
Snarrff Gobbledowner (LE male hobgoblin unchained rogue 5): The other hobgoblin was introduced by Jocelle as "Snarrff Gobbledowner", and had been clad in a similar manner to Blixx, with hobgoblin features all but hidden behind a black scarf and cowl, but with a black leather cuirass (instead of a red-tinted breastplate), and all-black hose (instead of red-and-black checkered). Snarrff had been armed with a blackened iron morningstar, and a leather bandolier of throwing daggers crossed his torso.
Clergy of the Diabolical and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells:
Just as Baator has Nine Layers of Hell, so the Diabolical and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells has nine presiding priests, each of which venerates all nine of the Lords of Baator in a polytheistic fashion, but each also has pledged their lives and souls to one particular archdevil. These nine priests follow, along with the particular archdevil to which they are eternally bound:
— Archbishop Urizire Maleonidras (LE male tiefling [hellspawn] Asmodean advocate cleric 13 of Asmodeus) is a hellspawn tiefling man of indeterminate age, standing a full seven feet tall, with an athletic physique, devilishly handsome features that clearly mark him as the descendant of a devil — unblemished scarlet skin, small black horns protruding from his brow, straight jet-black hair that falls to just below his broad shoulders, a long prehensile tail ending in a two-tined fork shape, black cloven hooves instead of feet, and eyes as black as a starless void, with blood-red vertical slit-shaped pupils, reminiscent of a fiendish feline or reptile’s pupils. Seeming to possess an almost supernatural charm and guile, Archbishop Urizire Maleonidras’ background is a carefully-guarded secret that he alone fully knows. All that most of the townsfolk of Nulbish really know about him (including his eight subordinate priests and priestesses at the Diabolic and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells) is that he arrived in Nulbish in Fireseek of 597 CY, shortly before the city was captured by the Horned King, and that he rendered significant profane and tactical aid to the Horned King during his siege of Nulbish. In gratitude, the Horned King bestowed upon the powerful Asmodean advocate the title of “Archbishop,” and ordered the construction of the Diabolic and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells during the week of Growfest of 597 CY. The Temple is still being constructed nearly three years later, but great progress has been made, and Horned King Malvolio I bestowed upon Archbishop Urizire the position of commanding high priest, granting him authority over the other clergy of the Diabolic and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells.
— Bishop Kalpheni Delphilech (LE male half-fiend [infernal] human [Oeridian] infernal bloodline sorcerer 6/hidden priest cleric 5 of Mephistopheles) is the spawn of an evil Oeridian infernal bloodline sorceress named Delphilia, who was impregnated by a horned devil (a.k.a. cornugon) named Nulzestal circa 573 CY, giving birth to the half-fiend only 9 nights later. The sorceress Delphilia died an agonizing death birthing the unholy infant, but not before she named him Kalpheni Delphilech (“The Damnation of Delphilia” in Old Oeridian). The hideous orphan was raised by the coven of witches and warlocks Delphilia had been a member of prior to her self-inflicted “damnation,” growing to full maturity within 9 years (circa 582 CY). The coven were devil-worshipers who especially revered Mephistopheles, Lord of Cania “the Eighth,” and they indoctrinated Kalpheni into the occult mysteries of diabolism and the profane rites of Mephistopheles. Ordained as a diabolic priest of Mephistopheles in a hidden cavern-temple dedicated to the Lord of Cania on the next dark phase of Luna (on Midsummer’s Night in 585 CY), “Father” Kalpheni advanced quickly through the occulted hierarchy of the profane church, and was promoted to “Vicar” in Wealsun of 587 CY, and then “Bishop” by Coldeven of 591 CY (after murdering all of his rivals and his predecessor). In 597 CY, hearing of the “glorious” conquests of the Horned King of Medegia, Bishop Kalpheni Delphilech petitioned the Mephistophelean hierarchs for a “transfer” to the new capital city of the Horned Kingdom, Nulbish on the Thelly River, where the Horned King had recently decreed the construction of a new bastion of diabolism — The Diabolic and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells. His request to be transferred there was granted, and Bishop Kalpheni Delphilech has served as the high priest of Mephistopheles at the Temple for nearly three years now, second in power and command only to Archbishop Urizire Maleonidias.
— Pater Muscavolitrio (LE accuser devil [zebub] vexing dodger unchained rogue 5/hidden priest cleric 5 of Baalzebul) is an accuser devil (a.k.a. zebub), a hideous, childlike blasphemy that conjoins the features of a plump human infant and a gigantic, gore-fattened fly. Childlike souls tormented and scoured of innocence by the flames of Hell and then reshaped by the mad whims of the archdevil Baalzebul, accuser devils embody the foul, merciless, and pervasive corruptions of the infernal host. Accuser devils are almost exclusively formed amid the cesspits of frozen Cocytus, the seventh layer of Hell. Within the Pit they serve countless infernal lords as messengers and spies, with droves being unleashed upon myriad mortal worlds with a mandate to seek out souls ripe for corruption or those whose sins might lead to greater damnations. These lesser devils stand just over 2 feet tall and rarely weigh more than 25 pounds. Pater Muscavolitrio appears to be a typical accuser devil, but in fact, the little fiend is exceptional among its kind, having been selected by Baalzebul (the “Slug Archduke” and “Lord of Lies/Flies”) to serve in a special capacity on the Prime Material Plane world of Oerth. “Gifted” by the Lord of the Seventh with even more cunning than is usual for its kind, and with a heightened sense of self-preservation and ambition, Pater Muscavolitrio has been sent to serve as Baalzebul’s “little spy” in Nulbish. Aside from the zebub vexing dodger/hidden priest’s fellow priests and priestesses at the Diabolic and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells, and a small number of faithful worshipers of Baalzebul that regularly visit the Temple, Pater Muscavolitrio’s existence in Nulbish is virtually unknown, for it employs its greater teleport and invisibility spell-like abilities, as well as its natural stealthiness and cunning, to move about the city unseen, and otherwise remains cloistered within its lair in the Temple.
— Mother Cazzandria (LE female tiefling [hellspawn] infernal bloodline sorceress 6/possessed tongues flame oracle 4 of Zariel) is a hellspawn tiefling descended from a minor aristocratic Oeridian family with ties to House Darmen and an erinyes devil ancestor named Debacchatia (one of the furies serving as shield maidens in the court of Zariel, Archduchess of Avernus and Lord of the First). Mother Cazzandria (she has abandoned her surname, having severed all ties with her former family in Zelradton) stands 6-feet-6-inches tall, with an austere and fiery beauty that tends to intimidate rather than attract. Her unblemished complexion is a rusty red color, her eyes are an amber yellow without pupils, and her eyelashes and eyebrows are the color of burnished brass, but she is completely bald, with no other hair anywhere else on her body. Her ears are pointed like an elf’s, but longer and more severe, with multiple gold and hematite earrings and ornamental piercings, including studs in her long, aquiline nose, high cheeks, and her plump black lips and forked black tongue. Mother Cazzandria is stern and humorless, with a volcanic temper.
— Canon Jando (LE male human [Oeridian] cardinal cleric 8 of Dispater) is a middle-aged Oeridian man of average stature and build, with close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair, a neatly-groomed forked beard and mustache that have gone more gray than the hair on his head, upswept eyebrows that give him a wicked appearance, and steel-grey eyes. Canon Jando rarely wears armor, preferring a long black robe with a high collar, emblazoned on the chest and back with the unholy symbol of Dispater — an iron spike driven into a golden ring with a red and purple crown. He sometimes dons a silver skullcap, and a gold ring of many carats with a ruby setting adorns the middle finger of his left hand. If Canon Jando is expecting combat, he dons blood-red studded leather armor with bronze studs, straps a light steel shield emblazoned with the unholy symbol of Dispater onto his right arm (he is left-handed), and wields a blackened steel morningstar in his left hand. However, he much prefers guile and cunning manipulations over direct confrontation, being a shrewd politician and a skilled orator. Canon Jando is also a savvy businessman, with multiple ventures throughout Nulbish and elsewhere generating income and influence for the worldly cleric.
— Vicar Lucrumas Avaritius (LE male human [Oeridian] cutpurse unchained rogue 4/evangelist cleric 4 of Mammon) is a portly Oeridian man of middle age, with shoulder-length wavy light-brown hair, a well-groomed mustache and goatee of the same color, a slightly ruddy complexion, and heavy-lidded hazel-green eyes that give him an appearance of constant boredom or lethargy. Vicar Lucrumas eschews priestly robes and vestments for tailored finery in the latest courtly fashions, and is always bedecked with jewelry of fine gold or silver inlaid with precious gemstones. He usually carries a scepter of ornately-wrought scarlet-tinted iron with onyxes and jets inlaid along its length, topped with the gold-plated skull of an imp with a pair of glittering rubies set into the hollow eye sockets. The vain and pompous vicar often wears a cloak of black velvet trimmed with sable or ermine, or the fells of a fox, wolf, or bear draped over his neck and shoulders. His apparel is completed by red satin slippers or fine leather boots, and a vicar’s cap of black velvet, to which is pinned the oily black feather of a raven. Vicar Lucrumas Avaritius has traded his immortal soul to Mammon, Viscount of Minauros and Lord of the Third, in exchange for worldly wealth and prestige. Indeed, he is one of the wealthiest individuals in Nulbish, both in assets and monetary treasure, but he keeps this fact a carefully-guarded secret, lest he fall prey to robbers and thieves (or tempt the Horned King himself to “relieve” him of some of his excessive wealth).
— Domina Ardensia Flammifer (LE female ifrit cult leader warpriestess 7 of Belial and Fernia) is an ifrit woman of smoldering beauty and mercurial charm that serves to conceal her secret fanaticism. Standing 5-feet-4-inches tall, with the slim and nubile appearance of a young maiden, Domina Ardensia Flammifer is anything but a maiden, possessing a fiery passion and sensual nature not unlike Archduchess Fernia of Phlegethos herself, Lady of the Fourth, whom the warpriestess reveres in equal measure to her reverence for the Archdevil Belial (Lady Fernia’s father and the former Archduke of Phlegethos, who still rules from behind her throne). She is bisexual, with an insatiable appetite for carnal pleasures, and always has multiple infatuated lovers vying for her affections at any given time. Domina Ardensia is a capable battlefield healer, a clever tactician, and a formidable warrior, wielding a magical +1 flaming falchion named “Hellstar” in battle. If she expects combat, Domina Ardensia dons a chain shirt under her scarlet-and-yellow tunic and priestly vestments, and a winged bronze helmet with a visor shaped like a hawk’s beak.
— Prelate Daemien Cryophilaxtor (LE male tiefling [hellspawn] tyrant antipaladin 6 of Levistus) is a hellspawn tiefling man in his mid-twenties, scion of a nearly extinct minor Oeridian noble family with ties to House Naelax in Bellport, and an ancient gelugon (ice devil) ancestor named Cryophiliax (a.k.a. the “Glacial Reaper of Stygia”), who serves Levistus, Prince of Stygia and Lord of the Fifth, as an enforcer and executioner. Prelate Daemien towers to a height of nearly 7 feet tall, with a hulking, heavily-muscled physique, skin the color of a cloudless blue sky, midnight-blue multifaceted eyes like those of a praying mantis or a fly, serrated mantid-like mandibles flanking his otherwise humanoid mouth, slit-like nostrils in lieu of anything like a humanoid nose, and a wild shock of snow-white hair-like tendrils worn up in a topknot atop his otherwise humanoid head. His powerful arms end in six-fingered claw-like hands, and his tree-trunk-thick legs are triple-jointed like those of a giant praying mantis. Due to these deviations from “typical” humanoid anatomy, Prelate Daemien Cryophilaxtor was obliged to commission a master armorer to forge his customized suit of half-plate armor, including a fearsome-looking helmet with a visor that accommodates his mandibles. In battle, he wields a +1 frost scythe named “Rime-Razor” that glows with an eerie blue-green luminescence (like the “witch-fires” that dance across the heavens in the northernmost regions of the continent of Oerik).
— Dame Sarfirith “the Converted” (LE female noble drow heretic inquisitor 6 of Glasya) is a darkly beautiful noble drow woman, formerly an inquisitor of Lolth, and Third Daughter of the noble drow House of Kilsek in the Vault of the Drow beneath the Hellfurnaces. In the aftermath of the Priestess Wars that raged through Erelhei-Cinlu around the same time that the surface lands were ravaged by the Greyhawk Wars (circa 582—584 CY), House Eilservs reestablished dominance within the Vault of the Drow, and House Kilsek was exiled. Matron Venrit led the outcast noble house of Kilsek on a long and perilous exodus westward through the vast and uncharted depths of DeepOerth (a.k.a. the “Underdark” or “UnderOerth”), finally settling in the subterranean city of Kalan-G’eld (formerly a city of the illithids) and became embroiled in the Godwar against various other factions and realms of western Oerik, which commenced circa 586 CY. However, Sarfrith, embittered by Kilsek’s defeat and banishment at the hands of Matron Eclavdra of House Eilservs, and feeling betrayed by their capricious and ungrateful demoness-goddess, renounced Lolth and House Kilsek forever thereafter, fleeing eastward through unknown regions of DeepOerth. Although she traveled alone, she sensed that some powerful unseen entity was guiding and protecting her from the countless horrors and hazards of DeepOerth. By the time she emerged onto the surface at the southern border of the Adri Forest, she had become aware that her mysterious benefactor was none other than Glasya, Princess of the Nine Hells of Baator, Daughter of Asmodeus, and Lady of Malbolge “the Sixth.” She underwent a drastic change of ethos at that moment, denouncing Chaos in favor of Law, and converted at once to the worship of Glasya, becoming one of the Archdevil’s inquisitors thereafter. Her diabolical patroness led her to Nulbish, where she joined the clergy at the Diabolic and Profane Temple of the Nine Hells (taking the title “Dame,” and the nickname “the Converted”), circa Fireseek of 598 CY. Over the past two-and-a-half years, Dame Sarfirith “the Converted” has adapted to life on the surface of Oerth. During the hours of daylight, she dons a pair of specially-crafted magical penumbral goggles that surround her in shadow so that she isn’t blinded or seared by the light of Oerth’s sun. She also possesses a cloak of arachnida, an adamantine short sword, a masterwork scourge, and a masterwork hand crossbow.
"Well met, Stranger. Um. Nice liripipe. Makes me want to play chess."
"But my dear Stranger," returns Mephistopheles, "you ARE playing chess at this very moment. Alas, you are but a pawn, moving step-by-step across a board crowded with enemy pieces .... Yet, if you somehow manage to make it to the furthest row behind enemy lines, you may transform yourself into a sovereign .... Only Lady Istus knows, and she is quintessentially tight-lipped. Best of luck to you, 'Pitspawn' playactor. Be careful which stages you play that role upon." Before the archdevil finishes smiling wickedly at Herzog Tanar'ri, he is gone, leaving the investigator/wizard alone in the warehouse.
You're right, after I posted that ridiculous wall of text, I thought to myself, "You should've put all that in spoiler so it wouldn't take up a space both far and wide (as far as the eye can see) ..."
I'm calling it your just deserts for using your maxed out skill in "to blathe" to convince a CR 10 ghost to hand over his barrel of booty with a smile and go to his eternal rest. Orsino is a Naelax through and through, naturally gifted with cunning and guile.
"One more thing you definitely should know about Darkenrift," adds the venerable druid Dunwellyn, "is that in one of its many caves lairs the rift drake Glaumrog, a foul-tempered and bloodthirsty apex predator, with a hunting territory that extends some ten leagues out from Darkenrift in every direction, reaching from almost the southern border of the Grandwood to just short of Garborren's Rift to the north, and from the easternmost ford of the Mikar River to almost as far west as the dens of Burrmuzzle and his kin. Glaumrog might be the most dangerous monster inhabiting the caves of Darkenrift, to be sure, but as for causing rural folk to fall under a weird spell and wander off into the forest and down into Darkenrift, never to be seen again .... that's no craft of old Glaumrog's -- of that, I am certain. Glaumrog may be cunning in his own brutish way, but he's no beguiler or worker of subtle plots. No, his way is to snatch up those unfortunate enough to catch his eye and gobble them on the spot before flying back to his lair in the rift to sleep off his meal. And what's more, the earliest sightings of the rift drake only date back to perhaps two decades ago, give or take a year or two, whereas queer tales of spellbound rural folk disappearing into the Darkenrift go back several hundred years, as I've said. No, I'm quite sure Glaumrog has nothing to do with the strange behaviors and vanishings of folk hereabouts. That must be the work of some other, more insidious and far more subtle force .... Something that more likely than not has no place in the natural order -- an abomination .... an aberration .... Something ancient, wicked, and ineffable to the minds of mortal folk ...." Having said all of this, the old druid says no more, but casts an apprehensive gaze northward toward the Grandwood Forest and Darkenrift, as if contemplating the unknown perils that must lurk therein.
Dunwellyn also mentions that a friendly treant named Knobbyboughs has recently taken to watching over the Darkenrift, occasionally driving chaotic raiders that emerge from the caverns of the chasm walls back into their subterranean lairs, or at least chasing them away from the Grandwood's southern borders and deeper into the forest, rather than allowing them to raid the farms and hunters' lodges of northern Medegia. "It would behoove ye to make friends with Knobbyboughs," suggests Dunwellyn. "Approach him with respect and diplomacy, and tell him that I recommended him to ye .... He makes a good friend, but a terrible and dangerous enemy."
Orsino looks sideways at one of the Grandwood Druids-- "The Druids have known about this for six centuries and never investigated?"
Then looks to his allies, let's go."
Old Dunwellyn chuckles at Orsino and says, "It isn't that we haven't investigated these disappearances over the centuries.... The problem, young man, is that those who go investigating in person have never returned, until it became a problem we thought best to leave alone. You see, in nature, there are apex predators who cull the populations of other species. This is just the way it has been from the very beginning."
Orsino does some research after sporting with Gray Marsha regarding what specific kinds of rituals -- "during a new Moon of Luna"; with "nine chaotic sapient creatures" ; and in the theme or style of 'Belial' and 'desire' -- could be made. What can she do with such? (Keeping in mind that the results of which would likewise have to be more valuable than 90 gold.)
I'll tell her that after banging her my mind is cloudy and I have to think aout it. Then research it.
Using Malvolio's library -- and the new library of canon Jander of Dispator -- please feel free to add Circumstance Bonuses to my Roll.
** spoiler omitted **
It will definitely get the favorable attention of the archdevil Belial, manifesting as a temporary boon that can be spent like a hero point, expiring after 28 days if not spent before then.
