Of Darkness Wrought
Seventeenth Day of the First Month 293 AC
"That seems to have done it," you say, cautiously stretching out your left wing to test your chest muscles. The chamber is still filled with the smell of smoke, though more from you dispelling the flame in one thick curtain than the unsettling melange that had filled the chamber previously.
You heal all Damage
Vee had quickly found a small pile of pale 'ghost-grass' as well as a handful of other offerings which had not yet been consumed by the ritual, but otherwise you had stayed carefully clear of any age-old treasures the chamber might hold. No sense carrying your foe's task out for her after all. As for the second of Tiamat's servants herself, she has been safely reduced to a shape which you imagine she finds as undignified as you do convenient... or at least so she might if a turtle's mind could hold such thoughts.
Among the treasures you could claim, however, were the demon's stained and smoking blade, its dragon-scale armor, ironic though it may be for a servant of the Mother of Wyrms to bear.
Gained Babau Champion Armor and Sword
"I think that's the last of it," you glance up at Waymar from where your fire had just cleansed the last of the black sludge. Though lessened by how deeply you had drawn from your wellspring of power of late, it still kindled obediently to your will.
The Valeman's sword held not a glimmer of pale white... a good sign, perhaps, for the chance of the fiend's possessions being of some true worth.
"So that's why she was so damn hard to kill..." Ser Richard's voice draws your attention to where the others were sorting though the priestess' things. You see that rather than a dress patterned crimson and black, the knight holds a set of armor wrought of supple leather reinforced with dragonsteel...
glamoured.
"One wonders where she could have found a set of fiend-skin leathers," Malarys muses. "Not here almost certainly. While I would not say it would have been wholly
impossible for such accouterments to be illicitly traded with the Sarnori, that such a rare thing then survived the ages here would strain belief."
Gained Demon-Skin and Valyrian Steel Armor
"Fiend-skin leathers?" Waymar asks, sounding more than a little disgusted. "You summoned demons to flay them and make..."
"Yes?" Malarys asks with a raised eyebrow. "How is that any different from flaying the fey-touched drake of which princess Daenerys' former armor was made of? I daresay it was even of a less wretched temperament than most demons, even if it was not roughly human-shaped."
Waymar falls silent for a moment, then replies forthrightly, "You are right, we should not have done that
either."
Malarys merely sighs and turns away to look at the dagger still lying on the floor of the chamber, droplets of congealing blood still upon it. "It might merely be the remains of the ritual, but that seems cursed. I would argue against even picking it up, least that be counted enough to become the host of said malignancy."
Fortunately Vee's spirits once more prove their worth in wrapping and handing off the blade.
Gained Cursed Athame
Alas that the pleasant, or at the very least not unpleasant news could not continue forever. While Dany and Lya are fine and presumably still at their task, there is no further trace of Illyrio Mopatis. He is not upon this world anymore, or else hidden behind potent wards.
As you walk back into the main chamber, cursing under your breath, a no doubt unintentional shuffle draws your attention to your four prisoners: a handful of common crossbowmen, and the officer who lead you here.
In a way it might have been more convenient to have found unrepentant demon worshipers such as you had seen in Mantarys. However, these sellswords seem little different from the men you had hired years ago at Wind House and your erstwhile guide even seemed clever... a useful man perhaps. You are inclined in no small measure to spare at east some of the men you find here, a thought that opens the doors on uncomfortable memories:
Why could some of these live who had worked besides demon-callers and their servants and not the men who perished at Essaria, who were fooled into serving Tiamat?
What do you do about the sellswords who remain in Sallosh?
[] Try to reestablish some semblance of order and try them according to their involvement in the plot
[] Put them all to the sword
[] Kill the common men, sacrifice the officers
[] Write in
OOC: Some idea on how you intend to enact the plan you come to would be appreciated as well, though not necessary.
