Part 6

Calderion’s Journeys Part 6:

The Tower in the Slithering Deeps

(A Solo Pathfinder game project) 

Scene 29

   So now we come to finally rescuing the Lyrakien Azata from its captivity. From the start I pictured the fairy-like divine messenger as trapped by magic and needing outside help.  The actual act of freeing something from a magic circle is simple- break the circle from the outside. Also, the circle only lasts a single day. In my last entry I got a random result from the GM Emulator that forced the introduction of a new character into the game. At the time I proposed that it could have been one of the Arch-devils, specifically one that the necromancer was negotiating with to trade the Azata to in exchange for infernal power, in lieu of his own soul. I’ve reconsidered this point, since these characters are not really powerful enough to be of any notice to such a being. Fortunately I found a work around in the form of an actual Contract Devil from the Bestiary 3 book. It’s a perfect solution- still too powerful for the characters to tackle directly, & also more in line with the kind of figure that might bargain with the necromancer. However, Argren failed to complete his bargaining, and since he’s now very much already dead, it leaves the devil in a bit a conundrum. Then Cal and his friends arrive…

   Kushear opened the next door. The chamber beyond is clearly an arcanist’s laboratory. Work benches line the walls covered in a clutter of alembics, beakers, tubing and other equipment. A chemical odour wafts in the air, sulphuric and acrid. Charts & notes are scattered about, stuck on the walls, covered in illegible and incoherent scribbling. Dominating the room’s center are two engraved circles of magical script carved into the floor stones, glowing dimly with a hellish red aura. Trapped within sat a tiny, beautiful fairy-like woman, with purple and gold butterfly wings. She sat on the cold stone, hugging her knees and looks at the heroes with tear-streaked eyes. Kushear steppped into the room and says softly to the prisoner “Do not fear. We have been sent to rescue you. Cal, take a look at this and see if you can reckon what we need to do.”

   Calderion steppped in beside the paladin and examined the carvings. Skill check: Knowledge (Arcana) +12 versus difficulty level 21. Dice roll result was 27. Cal nailed this. After a moment the young mage straightened and nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a simple inversed circle of protection, keeping her within the ring, as opposed to the circle’s normal function, designed to protect those inside from creatures trying to get in. To free her we need simply to…”

   “DO NOTHING!” a booming voice reverberated through the chamber. The smell of sulphur flooded the air, making eyes water at its stench. A towering figure appeared, separating the group from access to the circle beyond. With rust-colored skin and a jutting crown of ridge-like horns, this muscular devil is draped in lengthy contracts. At its side, no less massive was another, this one merging the most horrifying features of a carrion-fed insect and withered cadaver. This bony devil moves in unsettling lurches. Taken from the GM Emulator: “Q: Would the devils appear to prevent us from freeing the Azata? YES.” “The Lyrakien is being held as collateral for a contract. You will not interfere with my negotiations or I will end you, mortals!” the parchment-draped hell spawn threatened. The Contract Devil has an innate ability to summon other devils- in this case a Bone Devil. Two devils are definitely over-kill, but fighting is not its goal. Even if it kills the group (an easy thing for it to do) it gets nothing for its trouble. It’s here to make a deal, after all.

   Kushear reached for his sword, saying “She is a servant of the light! You will not claim her, you foul…URK!” He suddenly freezes in place, paralyzed by a gesture from the red-skinned fiend. The  Contract Devil uses its Hold Person power. Kushear must make a will-based saving throw versus a difficulty class of 18. He rolls a 13, and fails.

   From beyond the door, Myrlia cried out as she sees her cousin locked in place. “Kushear! No!”

   The red-skinned devil turned towards the others. “More of these pests?” He gestured an order to his scorpion-tailed servant. “Plug up that rat hole. No more interruptions!” It clicked its fangs in reply, and a wave of cold flooded the chamber. With a loud glacial cracking noise a plug of ice several feet thick suddenly formed and blocked the group outside from the room within. The Bone Devil uses its Wall of Ice ability to block the door. His master nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Now all we need is the principle to arrive and we can conclude this contract.” He turned his fiery gaze upon young Calderion. “Unless you are planning some pointless attempt at heroics as well?” he inquired with a raised brow.

   “Umm…”Cal stammered. Thinking quickly, he added “No…but…there is a possible issue with the paperwork. You might say the devil is in the details…”

   The fiend’s lips quirked in slight smile. “I might say that, yes. I suppose you have something specific in mind?” it asks, its interest piqued at Calderion’s willingness to engage it in its own battlefield.

   “Well, the contract is unfillable. Argren is dead. Getting him to sign on the agreement could be problematic.” Cal pointed out.

   “Oh, is he really? I hadn’t noticed. All you mortals tend to blur into certain sameness after a few eons.” Cal noticed the devil didn’t seem all that surprised at the news. “Well then. I’ll just take my collateral and be on my way.” He turned, reaching to scoop up the fragile fairy woman in a clawed hand. From the  GM Emulator: “Q: Does the Contract Devil know the necromancer is dead? YES Q: Is it willing to simply let the Lyrakein matter drop with Argren's death? NO.”

Hm. I wonder if I can get the thing to bargain. I go back to the Emulator, where I ask “Q: Would the devil accept a fraction of Cal's intellect in exchange for the Lyrakein? NO.” Okay. Not going to bargain. Or maybe the pot isn’t big enough yet? Let’s try adding to it. “Q: Would it accept Cal's most valuable magic item as well as a piece of his mind? YES.” HAH! And Cal sets and baits his trap…

   “Wait! You can’t!” Cal raised his voice in consternation.

   The devil turned back to the young mage with amusement. “Can’t I? Are YOU going to stop me, mortal?” His parchment robes rustled as he moved.

   “No- I mean, how could I? But the Lyrakein isn’t being held as collateral. It was meant to be the full payment. She is being imprisoned only as Argren’s proof as to what would have been his ability to pay. Contractually you don’t have a right to seize her. She still belongs to the goddess Yuelral.” Cal explained quickly, rushing to prevent the poor Lyrakien Azata’s proposed fate.

   “You think I have any fear of some flighty elf goddess?” he shook his horn-crowned head in disbelief. “There are conventions even the gods adhere to. Such direct meddling invites others to do the same. Then it escalates. Direct conflicts. Worlds burn. Universes shatter. Everything gets blasted all the way back to the beginning. And then everything has to start all over again. Trillions of eons, wasted. Whole pantheons destroyed. No little mortal. If you expect her to stretch forth her hand and strike me you’ll be waiting an eternity.”

  “Um. Actually eternity is what I was thinking about. She might not take direct action. As you say- there are conventions. But it’s those conventions that might be an issue…” Cal shrugged. “I’m sure there must be a diplomatic process of some type to keep things from exploding like you say. But then She’s a goddess. She can keep filing paperwork appeals over your seizure…forever. What kind of backlog would that bureaucratic avalanche put upon you administering your current contracts? Never mind its effect on your ability to get more signed? How would that look on your efficiency rating?” Cal examined his nails for dirt for a moment, then looked up into the devil’s burning gaze. “When exactly is your next audit due?” he asks pointedly.

   The fiend ground its teeth in anger as Calderion’s facts hit home. Then he paused. “I could simply destroy her. Much less paperwork that way.” he mused. “I can’t return with nothing to show. A dead Lyrakien, while not as valuable as a captive one, can at least be numbered on the tally sheets. Unless you have a better offer?”

   “If you expect me to offer my soul for her freedom, no way. First off, she wouldn’t allow me to make that sacrifice. Secondly, why would I offer that much just to get you out of a bind of your own making? Absolutely not. But perhaps...instead…” Calderion’s voice trailed off thoughtfully.

   “You have a counter-offer?  Think carefully, little wizard. All your lives hang in the balance.” With a whisper of parchment an open scroll appeared in one hand, with a giant-sized quill pen gripped in the other.

   “As you say, I am a wizard. One of the things my ilk values, almost above our very souls, is our intellect. Our intelligence is the source of our power. Only by expanding our understanding of reality through knowledge do we gain our power to use magic to bend that reality. I offer a fraction of that, as the price for our freedom.” Cal proposed.

   “Interesting. A sacrifice of your own power, as it were. Very interesting. But not enough. It’s a little too…ephemeral. Your power is not all that great to begin with. I need something more concrete to go with it.” He began to roll up the scroll. “This has been amusing but I’m afraid I’ll just settle with your destruction.”

“Wait! You want a sacrifice of power? What if, in addition I offer my most powerful item of magic. It’s worth in gold will take me years to recover, and I might never find another item like it. It allows me to increase the number of spells I can use, granting me what amounts to a whole other layer of power at my disposal. Giving it to you removes that, lessening me severely. A crippling blow to myself- and all you must do to achieve it is simply leave, taking with you the knowledge you have legally increased the suffering in this world. Destroying us grants you none of that.” Calderion prattled.

   The devil leaned forward and opened his scroll once more. “You would sign to that effect?” he asks.

   Cal took a deep breath. He held it a moment then exhaled. “Yes.” he said quietly.

   “DONE!” the devil declared. Written words burn into the parchment as his pen flew across it. A second copy droppped at Cal’s feet, with a pen next to it. “Sign and our business is complete.” A quick test on the GM Emulator: “Q: Are there any hidden clauses in the devil's contract? YES.” Well that figures. Why would this be simple? I’ll try some follow up questions. “Q: Can Calderion cross them off and still make the contract binding? YES. Q: Does Cal notice the added clauses? EXCEPTIONAL YES.”  Oooh. I wonder if I can grab a bit of glory out of that ‘exceptional yes’ result. Checking back to the Emulator I ask “Q: Can Cal claim some kind of penalty against the devil for his attempt at chicanery, since he got an EXCEPTIONAL yes for spotting it? NO.” Ah, well. Can’t win’em all, I guess. Still, that result means he is supposed to gain some kind of advantage.  I’ll try something more low-key. “Q: Does the ‘exceptional yes’ mean that Cal spotted ALL the written traps in the contract? YES.”  Okay, that’s not as flashy, but definitely a safer answer. Time to return back to our heroes.

   The youth picked up the scroll and carefully unwound it. He began to painstakingly read the contract, pouring over every nuance. The devil waited impatiently, his tail twitching as Cal worked. Upon his 3^rd pass over the words, Calderion suddenly perceived some simple but dangerous wording in the fine print. Where at first glance it appeared to confirm what they had discussed, he noticed instead of describing his sacrifice as ‘his mind’ it actually read as ‘his mind and soul’. He crossed off the ‘soul’ reference and re-read it again. Something still bothered him about the wording of the contract. Then he spotted the point that was nagging him. It said he sacrificed his MIND, not his intelligence. He changed that as well. The last thing he wanted was the fiend slicing into his skull to rip out a piece of his brain.

   “Are you quite finished yet?” the red-skinned shyster growled as one by one Cal demolished his attempts at chicanery.  Cal simply began to read the document again, for the 8^th time. Just as he thought he was finished, another potential word trap flashed to his awareness. There was no stated limit about how much of his intellect the devil could claim. If he had signed, the monster could have left him a drooling vegetable, instead of merely lessened. He changed it to read ‘a small fraction of intellect’ in place of that point. A final pass left Cal satisfied that he had found all the tricks hidden in the print. Then, as a last flourish, he added a clause of his own to the bottom, that stated ‘In the event of any discrepancy between the Diabolic copy and the Mortal copy of this document, the Mortal copy shall take precedence and be deemed the final source for any disputes.’ before he signed his name to the bottom.

   “There were a few technical points I felt needed changing, but the salient issues are there.” Cal spoke, as he handed his copy back to the Contract Devil. “I initialed the changes, so all it needs is your signature to settle things. Nothing too pressing- I understand how mistakes can happen.”   

   Unable to dispute Cal’s changes without admitting to his attempted deceit, the red giant simply scowled angrily at the mortal mage. Without replying, he signed the bottom of the scroll, and rolled it shut. “Now all that remains is the agreement’s fulfilment.” The devil extended his clawed hands towards the wizard. “No delays. You’ve wasted enough of my time.”

   “Of course. A deal is a deal, after all.” Calderion removed his headband, and tossed it to the hellish villain. “It’s finished!” A sudden flair of magic locks the contract as finalized the moment the adversary’s claws closed upon the metal headband. The devil looked down at the wizard in shock.

   “But how?! This is only the item part of the contract! I have not claimed your mind yet!” he cried.

   “You got both. The headband increased my intelligence. By giving it to you I sacrificed the required portion of my intellect. And since the band was also my most valuable item of magic, it fulfilled all the requirements we negotiated. I completed my part.” Cal folded his arms across his chest, and looked up calmly at the raging monster before him. “Why are you still here?” And Cal closes his trap. CLANG! This also completes the left-over detail from part 5 of this game, where the GM Emulator said the headband would be lost while attempting to free the Lyrakien Azata.  

   “Tricked! By a mere mortal! You’ll suffer for this, wizard! I’ll be watching and when the chance arrives, you can expect to meet me again!” the devil rumbled with fury. He clenched his fist, and crushed the headband into a ball of soft metal. A wave of power flowed from the crushed magic. It dropped Cal to his knees as it rushed past him, flipping his hood down over his head. Then with a sudden flare of hellfire and cloud of brimstone smoke the evil one vanished back to his own domain, taking his minion with him. I wonder if the destruction of the headband affected Cal. I’ll ask a few questions in the GM Emulator: “Q: Did the power rushing from the crushed headband affect Calderion in anyway? YES”. Hm. That is unexpected. I guess I had better follow up on this. “Q: Was it a positive effect? EXCEPTIONAL YES”. At least this event is looking beneficial. I’ll get some more details. “Q: Did it affect Cal physically? EXCEPTIONAL YES”. That’s TWO ‘exceptional’ results in a row. Whatever happened is looking to be something extreme. Some kind of physical transformation, maybe? Could dealing with a devil have tainted Cal in some way? Maybe Cal should be remade into a tiefling instead of a human, as they are inherently stained by fiendish power. Checking the GM Emulator confirms this: “Q: Was Calderion tainted with hellish magic and changed into a tiefling? YES”. Okay then. When I go to Cal’s Hero Lab file and change his race to tiefling, I get a bunch of new toys added. Randomly rolling for his physical traits he get a change to his eyes (rolled 25, “eyes: other”) so I decided to assign him a strange eye color. I found a web page that creates random lists of color. I created a list of 10, and it produced 5 variations on purple, 3 different greens, 1 blue, & 1 orange. Based on the majority average from this, I assigned the character violet eye color as his new one. In the “cool” stuff he got the ability to levitate when I rolled for his variant tiefling ability. On the downside Cal lost the extra feat he gets for being human. I removed his Uncanny Concentration feat from his character file. He also lost some skill points and had to remove some spells from his collection to comply with the new change. Calderion released a breath, and ran his sleeve over his brow. “A lesson learned & taken to heart. Deals with devils are never to be trusted. At least I am only reduced. My soul is still my own.” Cal murmured to himself. A sound behind him made the youth spin around with his staff held ready, only to find himself faced with his paladin companion, now freed from the devil’s power.

   “Kushear! Are you all right?” Cal stepped forward to steady his tall friend.  The half-elf straightened up and stretched to relieve his stiffness.

   “I’m fine. I was only held paralyzed by whatever that devil did. Still… it was a horrible feeling to be so easily rendered helpless. All I could do was stand there, unable to even speak. I watched you risk your very soul against that monster. Incredible. If we had tried to tackle the devil head on it would had killed us- our mission would have failed after everything we had gone through, even after the necromancer’s defeat.” Kushear shook his head in awe.

   “It was close. A few words different, and he would have had me. But enough of that. Quickly, now Kushear. Free the prisoner so we can finish this at last.”

   “What needs to be done?” the half-elf paladin asked, as he stepped past Cal to the inscribed circle and its captive within.

   “Break the circle. Scratch out the marks to disrupt the magic. It’s really that fragile. I guess that’s why it was so well guarded.” Cal leaned heavily upon his staff, as the recent events caught up to him. He felt strange, almost like he didn’t know his own body. A feeling like he was covered in a thin film of filth, but under his skin. It was very peculiar, and vaguely uncomfortable. Cal rubbed at his hands but the feeling persisted. Frowning, he ignored it for the moment. 

   Kushear drew his blade and placed it on the floor before the arcane inscriptions on the floor, then used the tip to scratch out part of the drawing. The color of the lines faded and dulled suddenly as if the sun had bleached the whole inscription. The crusader stepped back in concern, only to have the diminutive winged woman trapped within fly up to his head and enthusiastically plant a kiss on the tip of his nose. He blinked awkwardly at her as she laughed in a high musical voice at his expression.

   “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she burbled. “I was so scared! When that devil actually appeared for Argren I thought I was doomed forever! How can I repay your bravery? Please let me reward you for the risks you took! You deserve something for your efforts!”

   Kushear shook his head, and waved away her offer. “Your safety, and the chance to stymie the forces of hell here in the mortal world was our goal. We need no more than your thanks to call the scales even.” I put a question to the GM Emulator: “Q: Will the Lyrakien's gratitude make her decide to follow Kushear to help him for awhile? YES.” Hmm. I guess I have a new NPC to add to the game. I’ll create a Hero Lab file for her to make things easier for me. I added Lyzia the Lyrakien to the character list. She’s now a named character instead of just a generic creature. I’ll ask a few more questions to move things along…or not. A random event just popped up on the GM Emulator: “E: Negative for Kushear (pal 4): a Haggle over Advice”. I translate that into a new thread involving the new character: “Lyzia becomes fixated on Kushear for saving her.” She is arguing that she needs to follow & help Kushear to repay him for rescuing her. Heh. A Chaotic Good fairy girl falls for a Lawful Good paladin. I can foresee much hijinks in the future.

  Hm. After I added Lyzia to the character list I got a “Scene Altered (Positive)” alert. I go back to the GM Emulator for more details. “Q: Is the positive scene alteration a reward from the goddess Yuelral? YES”. Okay…

   I’ve already determined that the gods can’t intervene in mortal affairs directly in the game. That was one of the points raised by the Contract Devil when he was talking to Cal. But they can act through their followers, as well as indirectly via omens and miracles. That is one of the central ideas throughout this adventure. So I enter this follow-up and get the answer: “Q: Can the characters call upon her temple for aid if needed sometime in the future? YES”. So that’s the reward I’ll settle on then- the favor of Yuelral’s disciples. That works better for the narrative anyway.  But just to settle the matter: “Q: Is this goodwill from the goddess' followers the reward she grants? YES”. There we go. That locks down that thread fairly definitively, I’d say.

   The Lyrakien back-winged a bit & hovered far enough back from Kushear that she could look the half-elf in the eye. In her high soprano she said in a formal tone “Your humble modesty does you credit. But please accept the good will of Yuelral’s temple as thanks. If at anytime you have need for aid or shelter you can find it within her walls. Your names will be spread to every temple and shrine dedicated to her worship, so that all her disciples will know to give you help if you request it.” She then floated back to the tip of Kushear’s nose, causing him to almost cross his eyes to look at her. “And in addition, I, Lyzia, pledge to help you for a year and a day as my personal thanks for saving me!”

   “Wait..what?!” Kushear stuttered. “Now just a moment! The aid of your goddess is welcome, but you slaving yourself to me is…”

   “…not for you to decide. My personal honor is just that- mine! Choosing to serve is not slavery!” Lyzia huffed, crossing her arms across her naked, ample (if miniature) breasts.

   Calderion grinned at the paladin’s discomfiture. “How does that old saying go, Kushear? ‘No good deed goes unpunished’?  If you’re going to do good in this world you’ll need to accept the consequences, both negative & positive.” He pulled back his hood as he spoke, to better see his friend.

   Kushear gasped. “Cal! Your eyes! What happened to your eyes?!”

   “What do you mean?  There’s nothing wrong with my eyes.” Calderion reached up to his face and rubbed his knuckles across his eyes. “If anything, my eyesight is better than ever.” True, since as a tiefling he gained the Darkvision special ability inherently. He put his hands down & looked at paladin with a puzzled expression.

   Kushear flinched from Cal’s gaze. He took a moment of thought, then spoke slowly to the mage as if to proclaim a great and awful event. In a tone used by a person announcing a death to a beloved relation, he explained what he saw. “You’ve signed a contract, Calderion, with the powers of Hell. It does not  matter that you did so to save another. It also does not matter that your soul is still your own. You have been tainted by the touch of evil. Every man who looks upon your face will know from your eyes- often called ‘the windows into your soul’- that you’ve the taint of devils upon you.” Kushear shook his head in worry. “Your eyes, Cal, are now an inhuman, unnatural violet. You may have saved us, but you’ve stained your own soul to do it. I fear for you, my friend. This shadow darkens your future.”

  “Violet? My eyes are blue! Nobody has eyes that are violet!” Cal said in disbelief. Yet he reflected on the strange feeling of oily darkness lurking under his skin, and rubbed his hands in an uneasy gesture.

   “The taint is clear. You have only to gaze into mirror to see it for yourself.” Kushear answered sadly.

   “The champion speaks the truth, mortal.” the Lyrakien interjected. “You thought to trick Hell into a deal, and succeeded in sparing your soul. But no mortal can bargain with the infernal powers and not pay a price.” The winged beauty glided up to him, and waved a warning gesture at his face. “You took a chance to walk the shores of the Lake of Fire, and you were lucky enough to only be singed. Take heed of this as a warning. If you take such a chance a second time you may well fall from the shore. Thwarted once, the evil ones will make a target of you now, & have a feel of claim over you. Touched by Hell, your own kind will censure you instinctively. You may have thought your contract was fulfilled. But you will end paying a cost anyway, just not the one you bargained. Be strong and don’t give into the darkness. The gods know your heart, even if the mortals will now fear you.”

When I entered Cal’s change to a tiefling into the Emulator (Again. For some reason my last session wasn’t saved and I had to re-type it.) I got a ‘Scene Change: Negative’ alert. I thought at first that it would be a negative reaction to his new face from one or more of the other team members, but after a couple of questions answered with a ‘No’ that idea was thrown out. None of the group has a hang-up over Cal’s switch. I thought then maybe the change had affected Calderion’s personal views. But “Q: Is the negative change the loss of Calderion's innocence & naiveté?  NO” put that idea out the window too. Cal remains as idealistic as ever. 

So I sought out a negative event outside the group. Maybe the others are attacked by something while they are stuck outside of the workroom? (That icewall hasn’t been cleared yet, after all.) “Q: Is the negative scene change something bad for the other group members stuck outside the necromancer's workroom? NO.” So whatever it is, the party isn’t split when it happens. Good to know.  Maybe the werewolves return with re-enforcements? “Q: Is the negative scene a return of a foe already run off once? NO”. So no werewolves, and no boggards.

So something new, instead, perhaps seeking payback for our little slaughter fest. Checking…”Q: Is it involve something seeking payback for one of the dead foes the group had left? YES”. Okay now I’m getting a clearer idea. Maybe this: “Q: Is it the Ogre's mate returning, and looking for vengeance? YES” So Tommy’s girlfriend shows up. Maybe with the whelps? “Q: Is she alone? YES”. Nope. Just her. Okay that means I have a another fight coming up. A new fight means a new scene.

A new scene seems like a good spot to pause. Stay tuned for more!