"Odaigo? Of course I have heard the rumors of the town being over run by demons but you know how rumors go, I am sure it is just an exaggeration by the time it gets to my ear. If it is information you seek, feel free to ask me first. You will be surprised how much an old lady like myself knows." Naome replies with a smile.
Naome looks concerned at Ash. She backs away towards the counter and says "Witches come and go all the time here. They do enjoy my potions and bring me reagents from their lands. Now I never get their names and I don't know which one you are talking about. Now that is all I will say about that mat..." As she finishes a low faint whisper is heard from the other room behind the counter. Naome turns around quickly as a young woman wearing a black, tattered robe comes walking through the doorway.
The group looks at her. Red hair almost fully covers her pale skinned face. Darting emerald eyes, look upon you, watching intently. She slowly shuffles into full sight, leaning up against the doorway with her shoulder.
Naome says "What are you doing? They are looking for you!" The woman hold up her hand and says "They aren't with the coven. If they were, they would of just used magic on you to extract what they wanted."
The young woman pauses for a moment before asking the group "Well, now that you found me, what 'personal' information could you possibly want from a stranger?"
" We have heard that some witches in this area are responsible for removing the tail from a demon. A demon that we are hoping to go hunting soon. We want to know how they did it, and how else we might combat the demon." Here Laurentia turns to Naome. " It might seem like the usual crazy talk, but we have reliable reasons to believe what is going on in Odaigo is real and very very dangerous." Laurentia turns back to the witch. " Would this have anything to do with you or your coven? I believe it was the tail of one Sozos."
The woman stands up from leaning against the wall and says quickly "Are you implying Sozos has returned to the mortal plane?" She takes a moment of pause before saying "Well I have good news and bad news about the tail. The good news is, yes I know how the tail of Sozos was removed. The bad news is, it was removed by a devil." She then lets out a high pitched snicker before saying "However, there are many ways to destroy a demon. Come join me in the back room, it seems we can discuss many thing and maybe we can make a pact to our mutual benefit."
The group heads through the door way into a short hallway. She leads them to the door at the end of the hallway, passing one other door that is open leading to stairs that go to the floor above. Opening the door at the end of the hallway, the group is led downstairs to the basement. Upon entry, the lady snaps her fingers and candles are lit all throughout the room. Looking around the room, the group sees that this appears to be an old storage cellar, but has been turned halfway into what appears to be a bedroom. A bed lies in the corner, sheets unmade, and a table is in the other corner with some glassware stacked in a wooden box. With a clap of her hands, the table is pulled from the wall, hovering a few inches off the ground until it reaches the center of the room. A group of stools quickly follow and set up accordingly around the table. With a quiet voice, she gestures to the table and says "Well, shall we?" She then takes a seat and awaits the group to follow.
OOC: I am assuming you guys will follow and take a seat with her. At this point, I figured you are going to want to know details about how to destroy demons and Sozos. This has two options: 1. I can do a lengthy write up that explains the lore of her coven, Sozos, etc. (may take a while to write, but would have a lot of background information) 2. I can do a TLDR (would be able to continue posting and playing tonight)
Once the group has settled in, the woman begins the conversation by introducing herself in a soft voice. “Pleasantries first, I am Olana.” She extends her hand in a foreign gesture. The group glances at each other confirming the mutual awkwardness unfolding in the room before introducing themselves one at a time. After the final introduction, Olana begins to speak “Alright, now that the boring stuff is out of the way, let me tell you a story. A story of this land, as told by the coven.” Olana pulls her hand up and twirls it towards a shelf. A glass ball slowly rolls and falls from the front of the shelf towards the floor. After a drop of about a foot, it springs back upwards, floating towards the table. Olana reaches towards Ash and exclaims “Pardon me” as she digs with her other hand in the wooden box in front of him. Removing a wooden contraption, she throws it on the table while still twirling her other hand, reeling the glass ball towards the table.
The glass ball lays on the wooden contraption. The group eagerly observes the ball, gray smoke swirling inside. Olana moves her hand and the smoke changes color. Various forms begin to take shape in the globe. A deer, a bird… After a brief pause the smoke returns back to its original chaotic form. Olana begins to speak with a direct and forward voice “Gaze into the orb. It will be easier for you to understand if you were there.” The group seems quite uncomfortable with this at first, but Stilgar, using his uncanny ability to detect deceit, deems that her intent seems genuine. After a quick gaze agreement, they lock their eyes into the orb. At first, their sight begins to bend and blur. Their minds are be pulled into the orb. As the world slowly warps around them, they hear Olana speak in a foreign tongue that begins to echo and distort as their environment grows darker around them before eventually dimming to pitch dark. In the darkness they hear Olana say clearly
“What would you do for love? In an attempt to save the ones you cared about the most? What would you sacrifice? And what would you do to those who betrayed your trust? “
The group opens their eyes and finds themselves in a new world.
Nestled behind thick trees of a woodland, the group observes a hamlet that is home to humans. This hamlet wasn't built in this location by accident, the comfortable weather, and the ambience of the environment provides a pleasant living experience. While the hamlet itself looks mediocre with its blackened rooftops and grassy fields, the blooms of the flowers provides a joy to the area that is hard to describe. In the center of the buildings is a monument, old, but built of stone and still holding strong.
A wispy black smoke appears in front of the group before slowly taking the human form of Olana. Despite being in a new world, she speaks to them normally saying “This is an ancient spell. We are just spectators in this world. Nobody here can hear us or see us.” She then lets out a brief chuckle at her obvious hypocrisy before saying “Well except for us of course. Now follow me..” Olana turns and heads directly into the village, and straight through the wall of one of the houses.
From the outside this house looks gorgeous. It has been built with white cedar wood and has granite decorations. Small, half rounded windows add to the overall style of the house and have been added to the house in a mostly symmetric way. The roof is low and triangular and is covered with red roof tiles. One large chimney sits at the side of the house with many smaller windows to naturally illuminate the rooms below.
Upon entry through the wall, the group comes into a small rudimentary kitchen connected to a large living room. Looking around the room, the group quickly spots Olana, pointing at a curled up ball on the floor next to a cradle. It takes a brief moment, but the group is able to discern from the long dark black hair and the soft high pitch cries that the figure is a woman. The curled up figure slowly begins to unfold and stand up in front of them. Her face turns and faces them, showing dark, grief swollen eyes. As the woman looks around the room Olana begins to speak in a soft voice “Mother… Oh mother.” Olana pauses for a moment before saying “It is her son. Born healthy in this beautiful town, he quickly came down with a sickness that even the shamans could not cure. Mother became desperate. Desperate to save her world.”
Olana swings her right arm in a large arc motion. The sun outside quickly sets, bringing in the darkness of the night. The living room, now adorned with an odd assortment of skulls, candles and antlers in a circular pattern with the Mother in the center, bowing up and down in front of a human skull. She was speaking words not understood by the group, and on the verge of sounding like gibberish. This continued for 20 seconds until a squeal in the room, a spark of light, and suddenly the woman is greeted by a modest being of anguish and terror. Two flickering eyes stare at her with a terrifying grimace, and another squeal thunders from its compressed mouth with a tremendous heat. For enormous horns adorns its bowed head, which itself is as dark as the abyss itself. An infernal light escapes the creature's slanted nostrils set within a haggard nose. Its bowed head sits atop a giant, fleshy body. A scythe-like tail wriggles behind it. Two ethereal wings extend themselves fully.
The woman raises her head with seemingly no surprise on her face. She begins speaking to the creature in a foreign tongue. Olana takes this chance and says “A deal was made. A deal with a devil to save her child from this disease. It only cost her soul, but she never hesitated.”
The group observes the creature approaches the woman, and magically unrolls a scroll from thin air. She holds her thumb up to her mouth, and with an intense bite, places her bloodied thumb onto the scroll.
Olana swirls her hand and the time advances, sun shining brightly through the window. The scene in the room is of happiness. The woman is found standing holding a baby, a large smile is seen gleaming on her face. Olana says “And all was well. Well at least for a time…” Olana then snaps her fingers and moves both her hands in a series of gestures. The room quickly fades black, and then reappears. Looking outside the window, the flowers have covered with snow and a familiar scene of skulls and antlers appear in the room. With a flash and a squeal the creature is summoned once more..
The group observes as the woman pleads with creature only for it to begin laughing in a deep, echoing voice. A scroll appears again in front of the woman, a bloody thumb mark at the bottom. The woman’s face goes pale as Olana begins to explain “The devil’s deal was complete. He cured the child of the disease once, but the sickly child would succumb again. And this time, the woman possessed nothing the devil wanted.”
Olana swung her right arm again, advancing time further. This time, the group finds the woman sitting alone the same wooden room, but with a severe lack of light. The long black curtains are drawn tight to inhibit the outside light from penetrating. With no cradle to be found, the chair supporting the woman slowly rocks back and forth...
After wondering at the magic and marvel of the scenery for some time Laurentia does her best to keep up and listen to the story." A tragic tale, but besides a beginning for the witches and a devil in attendance, I'm still fuzzy on the connections."
The woman rises from her chair and begins to set up the ritual that the group has seen before, but instead of summoning immediately, she spreads a blood circle and symbols on the walls. After she finishes the last wall in the room, she summons the familiar devil. However, when the devil arrives this time, the woman shows a large grin. She then pulls out a jar containing a dark fluid and smashes it on the ground. The room goes dark, strange symbols appear on the floor and a large demonic creature rises from them. This creature is quite different from the devil that was summoned. Olana confirms their suspicion by saying in a calm voice “This was the first time Sozos was summoned to this mortal realm. In mother’s attempt for revenge against the devil, she summoned this monstrosity and in her arrogance, she thought she could control it.”
Sozos rises in the room, head just barely from the ceiling. He gazed straight into the woman that summoned him. With his yellow eyes locked onto hers he impaled her straight through with his long pointed tail. The woman did not even seem to notice at first, but Sozos began speaking in a low deep voice slowly lifting the woman up and bringing her closer to his face. Sozos's focus had been so intently on the woman, that he did not realize that she was not the only one in the room. The summoned devil raised his arm and dashed instantly at Sozos, slicing straight through the tail. The woman, still impaled by the tail, fell quickly to the floor with a spray of demonic blood and a loud thud. Sozos in a loud, deafening roar then let out a large fiery explosion which engulfed the entirety of the room. As the dust settled, the group looks around to realize that the house is no longer standing as it was. Wooden debris is spread far and wide. The demon and devil are nowhere to be found. As the group looks around, the calm gaze of Olana towards the sky gives them a hint. Looking up, they see the demon and devil, with wings full extended and flapping engaged in an aerial fight.
Olana begins explaining “In most cases, this would have been the end of mother, but never under estimate the power of vengeance and demonic blood.” She then moves her arm again, advancing time to when the village was mostly on fire and destroyed.
A wooden pile of debris begins to shuffle and move. As the wooden pieces slowly fall to the side, the woman stands up, clothes so tattered that she was practically nude, revealing herself fused with the demonic tail of Sozos. She looked down upon herself and in horror, she released a loud ear piercing scream. Frantically grabbing the tail, she attempted to remove it, but to no avail.
Olana begins to speak again “Mother traveled the world attempting to remove this abomination from herself. It was not until she visited the sun elves of the west that she was finally able to find a way to remove it, but it was too late.” Olana point at a large dome on the woman’s flesh. “See demonic blood is parasitic. It cannot help itself, it feeds and destroys. Constantly growing.”
The woman seemed to be moving in an accelerated motion now. Slowly the group began to see her deform. Large fleshy masses began to appear on her back and shoulders, growing bigger and larger til her form was so misshaped that it was hard to determine if it was human anymore.
“Mother did not give up though. She spent her entire life researching the demons and their home of the Abyss. You see the Infinite Layers of the Abyss was the birth place of the demons, a chaotic evil universe unto itself with uncountable layers of infinite variety connected haphazardly. The Abyss's is a violent, malevolent place where the strong survived on the backs of the weak, the weak conspired to overthrow the strong, alliances only lasted while convenient, and the landscape itself tortured the mind and body of all who dared to pass. However, the infinite layers do not exist forever. As a realm fades and is abandoned, the Abyss absorbs in back, annihilating it from existence. Mother knew that the only way to rid herself of this curse, was to annihilate it herself.”
The scene changes itself drastically to a dusty forgotten landscape. Worn and collapsing stone pillars, mostly covered with sand, littered the landscape. The sky was dark, covered in large black dust clouds. The only sense of anything in this place stood right in front of them. A large stone kiln, 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide battled the brutal environment. The world around them began to shake violently. A darkness, never witnessed before, began slowly devouring the world around them. A disfigured person, hunched and deformed slowly walked out from the entrance of the kiln. She began casting as the darkness approached. The woman violently threw something towards the darkness in the front, exploding with a flash of light. This light halted the darkness advance, but slowly it began to creep forward again. She then repeated this to her right, left, above and below. Quickly, she turn back towards the kiln and hobbled her way inside
Olana began to speak in a delightful voice “Oh this is always my favorite part.” And she quickly runs inside following the misshapen woman.
The group joins in pursuit and observes the disfigured Mother waving her hands violently at the back of the kiln. Slowly she approached the back wall, placing just a finger on it. Backing away with her finger still extended, a hole slowly appears on the wall where her finger once was. As she inched towards the center of the room, a dark, wispy substance follows her finger, staying 3 inches away. Once she reached the center of the room, the woman crouched down, touching the floor, and leaving a small but slowly growing black flame.
Olana broke the silence in the room saying “The flame of annihilation.”
The group watched as the woman slowly took a piece of the flame, applying it directly to a deformed mass, forcing it to shrink slightly. She then stopped abruptly. Olana began speaking again “Mother had spent so long cursing the devil and the demon for cursing her so. Taking away her child and cursing her to this existence, that she never realized that her curse was actually her blessing.” Mother reached her hand into the mass, removing a fleshy mass. Fluid slowly dripped from the creature as she cradled it in her arms.
The scene changed abruptly again, this time revealing the familiar scene of the bog from which they came. A small broken house stood next to a wooden frame that was covered in shallow black water. Olana began to speak saying “This is what happened to the once beautiful forest in which she once lived. In order to defeat Sozos, the devils opened a portal directly to Minauros in Hell, turning this place to a bog of death.” Mother slowly approached the house, a creature still cradled in her arms and knocked on the door. “Mother was determined to not let this sadness be the fate of her people. And thus our coven was made. But as with all things, nothing comes without a price..” Olana slowly lowers the grab on her shoulder, revealing a fleshy mass growing and twitching...
The group closes their eyes, and as the reopen them, they find themselves back in the cellar, sitting around an old wooden table.
Ash comes to his senses after being sucked into an alternate universe, as if waking from a dream. Looking to his companions who seem to be just as taken aback, he manages to eventually say: "Um.....so where to next?"
" So there is this flame of Anhiliation that seems capable of destroying the demonic essence along with a certain devil. Still not a lot of good options for us certainly. " Laurentia pales slightly at the wriggling mass. "That does seem quite the unnatural price."
Olana looks at Laurentia and says "Not as unnatural as you might think. While the flame of annihilation does exist in a realm buried somewhere deep in the abyss, the coven has developed magics to summon pieces of the flame into this realm for use in purification." She takes a deep breath and states "Unfortunately, these are the highest teachings of the coven and are only taught to a select few. The spells are detailed in the coven's ancient tome called The Noctis Libram, but unfortunately I do not have it." Olana looks down to the small bump on her shoulder and says in an angry tone "Mother deems these as children, but they are beast. Evil and corrupt. My instructor was devoured alive by her demonic cyst. I pleaded with the high witches to help her, but these things are more important to them and Mother than we are. While Mother says we are her children too, she truly only cares for these disgusting creatures."
Laurentia's lip curls, " A truly despicable act for a mother to ask such of her children. What is your price? What help do you need to help us get the book?" Internally Laurentia is ecstatic at the idea of lost and forbidden magical knowledge.
Olana states firmly "I am not sure if the book will be of much use to you. The language in it is cryptic in order to guard the flame as best as possible. I know the code but I need the book. It is the only way for me to save my sisters from the madness that this. If you help me retrieve it, I can teach one of you the spell of summoning the dark flame."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
"Odaigo? Of course I have heard the rumors of the town being over run by demons but you know how rumors go, I am sure it is just an exaggeration by the time it gets to my ear. If it is information you seek, feel free to ask me first. You will be surprised how much an old lady like myself knows." Naome replies with a smile.
Ash glances briefly at his companions before continuing.
"Well, was there a witch here? What is she buying? Do you know of her whereabouts?"
Naome looks concerned at Ash. She backs away towards the counter and says "Witches come and go all the time here. They do enjoy my potions and bring me reagents from their lands. Now I never get their names and I don't know which one you are talking about. Now that is all I will say about that mat..." As she finishes a low faint whisper is heard from the other room behind the counter. Naome turns around quickly as a young woman wearing a black, tattered robe comes walking through the doorway.
The group looks at her. Red hair almost fully covers her pale skinned face. Darting emerald eyes, look upon you, watching intently. She slowly shuffles into full sight, leaning up against the doorway with her shoulder.
Naome says "What are you doing? They are looking for you!" The woman hold up her hand and says "They aren't with the coven. If they were, they would of just used magic on you to extract what they wanted."
The young woman pauses for a moment before asking the group "Well, now that you found me, what 'personal' information could you possibly want from a stranger?"
" We have heard that some witches in this area are responsible for removing the tail from a demon. A demon that we are hoping to go hunting soon. We want to know how they did it, and how else we might combat the demon." Here Laurentia turns to Naome. " It might seem like the usual crazy talk, but we have reliable reasons to believe what is going on in Odaigo is real and very very dangerous." Laurentia turns back to the witch. " Would this have anything to do with you or your coven? I believe it was the tail of one Sozos."
The woman stands up from leaning against the wall and says quickly "Are you implying Sozos has returned to the mortal plane?" She takes a moment of pause before saying "Well I have good news and bad news about the tail. The good news is, yes I know how the tail of Sozos was removed. The bad news is, it was removed by a devil." She then lets out a high pitched snicker before saying "However, there are many ways to destroy a demon. Come join me in the back room, it seems we can discuss many thing and maybe we can make a pact to our mutual benefit."
stilgar follows the party into the back room keeping an eye for anything of value which may be taken without notice.
The group heads through the door way into a short hallway. She leads them to the door at the end of the hallway, passing one other door that is open leading to stairs that go to the floor above. Opening the door at the end of the hallway, the group is led downstairs to the basement. Upon entry, the lady snaps her fingers and candles are lit all throughout the room. Looking around the room, the group sees that this appears to be an old storage cellar, but has been turned halfway into what appears to be a bedroom. A bed lies in the corner, sheets unmade, and a table is in the other corner with some glassware stacked in a wooden box. With a clap of her hands, the table is pulled from the wall, hovering a few inches off the ground until it reaches the center of the room. A group of stools quickly follow and set up accordingly around the table. With a quiet voice, she gestures to the table and says "Well, shall we?" She then takes a seat and awaits the group to follow.
OOC: I am assuming you guys will follow and take a seat with her. At this point, I figured you are going to want to know details about how to destroy demons and Sozos. This has two options:
1. I can do a lengthy write up that explains the lore of her coven, Sozos, etc. (may take a while to write, but would have a lot of background information)
2. I can do a TLDR (would be able to continue posting and playing tonight)
Laurentia has no qualms about also sitting at the table.
Ash, intimidated by the witch's ability to easily manipulate objects with magic, readily sits down at the table to listen.
Darrimus has hesitations about making any deals with Devils but he sits at the table.
Once the group has settled in, the woman begins the conversation by introducing herself in a soft voice. “Pleasantries first, I am Olana.” She extends her hand in a foreign gesture. The group glances at each other confirming the mutual awkwardness unfolding in the room before introducing themselves one at a time. After the final introduction, Olana begins to speak “Alright, now that the boring stuff is out of the way, let me tell you a story. A story of this land, as told by the coven.” Olana pulls her hand up and twirls it towards a shelf. A glass ball slowly rolls and falls from the front of the shelf towards the floor. After a drop of about a foot, it springs back upwards, floating towards the table. Olana reaches towards Ash and exclaims “Pardon me” as she digs with her other hand in the wooden box in front of him. Removing a wooden contraption, she throws it on the table while still twirling her other hand, reeling the glass ball towards the table.
The glass ball lays on the wooden contraption. The group eagerly observes the ball, gray smoke swirling inside. Olana moves her hand and the smoke changes color. Various forms begin to take shape in the globe. A deer, a bird… After a brief pause the smoke returns back to its original chaotic form. Olana begins to speak with a direct and forward voice “Gaze into the orb. It will be easier for you to understand if you were there.” The group seems quite uncomfortable with this at first, but Stilgar, using his uncanny ability to detect deceit, deems that her intent seems genuine. After a quick gaze agreement, they lock their eyes into the orb. At first, their sight begins to bend and blur. Their minds are be pulled into the orb. As the world slowly warps around them, they hear Olana speak in a foreign tongue that begins to echo and distort as their environment grows darker around them before eventually dimming to pitch dark. In the darkness they hear Olana say clearly
“What would you do for love? In an attempt to save the ones you cared about the most? What would you sacrifice? And what would you do to those who betrayed your trust? “
The group opens their eyes and finds themselves in a new world.
Nestled behind thick trees of a woodland, the group observes a hamlet that is home to humans. This hamlet wasn't built in this location by accident, the comfortable weather, and the ambience of the environment provides a pleasant living experience. While the hamlet itself looks mediocre with its blackened rooftops and grassy fields, the blooms of the flowers provides a joy to the area that is hard to describe. In the center of the buildings is a monument, old, but built of stone and still holding strong.
A wispy black smoke appears in front of the group before slowly taking the human form of Olana. Despite being in a new world, she speaks to them normally saying “This is an ancient spell. We are just spectators in this world. Nobody here can hear us or see us.” She then lets out a brief chuckle at her obvious hypocrisy before saying “Well except for us of course. Now follow me..” Olana turns and heads directly into the village, and straight through the wall of one of the houses.
From the outside this house looks gorgeous. It has been built with white cedar wood and has granite decorations. Small, half rounded windows add to the overall style of the house and have been added to the house in a mostly symmetric way. The roof is low and triangular and is covered with red roof tiles. One large chimney sits at the side of the house with many smaller windows to naturally illuminate the rooms below.
Upon entry through the wall, the group comes into a small rudimentary kitchen connected to a large living room. Looking around the room, the group quickly spots Olana, pointing at a curled up ball on the floor next to a cradle. It takes a brief moment, but the group is able to discern from the long dark black hair and the soft high pitch cries that the figure is a woman. The curled up figure slowly begins to unfold and stand up in front of them. Her face turns and faces them, showing dark, grief swollen eyes. As the woman looks around the room Olana begins to speak in a soft voice “Mother… Oh mother.” Olana pauses for a moment before saying “It is her son. Born healthy in this beautiful town, he quickly came down with a sickness that even the shamans could not cure. Mother became desperate. Desperate to save her world.”
Olana swings her right arm in a large arc motion. The sun outside quickly sets, bringing in the darkness of the night. The living room, now adorned with an odd assortment of skulls, candles and antlers in a circular pattern with the Mother in the center, bowing up and down in front of a human skull. She was speaking words not understood by the group, and on the verge of sounding like gibberish. This continued for 20 seconds until a squeal in the room, a spark of light, and suddenly the woman is greeted by a modest being of anguish and terror. Two flickering eyes stare at her with a terrifying grimace, and another squeal thunders from its compressed mouth with a tremendous heat. For enormous horns adorns its bowed head, which itself is as dark as the abyss itself. An infernal light escapes the creature's slanted nostrils set within a haggard nose. Its bowed head sits atop a giant, fleshy body. A scythe-like tail wriggles behind it. Two ethereal wings extend themselves fully.
The woman raises her head with seemingly no surprise on her face. She begins speaking to the creature in a foreign tongue. Olana takes this chance and says “A deal was made. A deal with a devil to save her child from this disease. It only cost her soul, but she never hesitated.”
The group observes the creature approaches the woman, and magically unrolls a scroll from thin air. She holds her thumb up to her mouth, and with an intense bite, places her bloodied thumb onto the scroll.
Olana swirls her hand and the time advances, sun shining brightly through the window. The scene in the room is of happiness. The woman is found standing holding a baby, a large smile is seen gleaming on her face. Olana says “And all was well. Well at least for a time…” Olana then snaps her fingers and moves both her hands in a series of gestures. The room quickly fades black, and then reappears. Looking outside the window, the flowers have covered with snow and a familiar scene of skulls and antlers appear in the room. With a flash and a squeal the creature is summoned once more..
The group observes as the woman pleads with creature only for it to begin laughing in a deep, echoing voice. A scroll appears again in front of the woman, a bloody thumb mark at the bottom. The woman’s face goes pale as Olana begins to explain “The devil’s deal was complete. He cured the child of the disease once, but the sickly child would succumb again. And this time, the woman possessed nothing the devil wanted.”
Olana swung her right arm again, advancing time further. This time, the group finds the woman sitting alone the same wooden room, but with a severe lack of light. The long black curtains are drawn tight to inhibit the outside light from penetrating. With no cradle to be found, the chair supporting the woman slowly rocks back and forth...
After wondering at the magic and marvel of the scenery for some time Laurentia does her best to keep up and listen to the story." A tragic tale, but besides a beginning for the witches and a devil in attendance, I'm still fuzzy on the connections."
The woman rises from her chair and begins to set up the ritual that the group has seen before, but instead of summoning immediately, she spreads a blood circle and symbols on the walls. After she finishes the last wall in the room, she summons the familiar devil. However, when the devil arrives this time, the woman shows a large grin. She then pulls out a jar containing a dark fluid and smashes it on the ground. The room goes dark, strange symbols appear on the floor and a large demonic creature rises from them. This creature is quite different from the devil that was summoned. Olana confirms their suspicion by saying in a calm voice “This was the first time Sozos was summoned to this mortal realm. In mother’s attempt for revenge against the devil, she summoned this monstrosity and in her arrogance, she thought she could control it.”
Sozos rises in the room, head just barely from the ceiling. He gazed straight into the woman that summoned him. With his yellow eyes locked onto hers he impaled her straight through with his long pointed tail. The woman did not even seem to notice at first, but Sozos began speaking in a low deep voice slowly lifting the woman up and bringing her closer to his face. Sozos's focus had been so intently on the woman, that he did not realize that she was not the only one in the room. The summoned devil raised his arm and dashed instantly at Sozos, slicing straight through the tail. The woman, still impaled by the tail, fell quickly to the floor with a spray of demonic blood and a loud thud. Sozos in a loud, deafening roar then let out a large fiery explosion which engulfed the entirety of the room. As the dust settled, the group looks around to realize that the house is no longer standing as it was. Wooden debris is spread far and wide. The demon and devil are nowhere to be found. As the group looks around, the calm gaze of Olana towards the sky gives them a hint. Looking up, they see the demon and devil, with wings full extended and flapping engaged in an aerial fight.
Olana begins explaining “In most cases, this would have been the end of mother, but never under estimate the power of vengeance and demonic blood.” She then moves her arm again, advancing time to when the village was mostly on fire and destroyed.
A wooden pile of debris begins to shuffle and move. As the wooden pieces slowly fall to the side, the woman stands up, clothes so tattered that she was practically nude, revealing herself fused with the demonic tail of Sozos. She looked down upon herself and in horror, she released a loud ear piercing scream. Frantically grabbing the tail, she attempted to remove it, but to no avail.
Olana begins to speak again “Mother traveled the world attempting to remove this abomination from herself. It was not until she visited the sun elves of the west that she was finally able to find a way to remove it, but it was too late.” Olana point at a large dome on the woman’s flesh. “See demonic blood is parasitic. It cannot help itself, it feeds and destroys. Constantly growing.”
The woman seemed to be moving in an accelerated motion now. Slowly the group began to see her deform. Large fleshy masses began to appear on her back and shoulders, growing bigger and larger til her form was so misshaped that it was hard to determine if it was human anymore.
“Mother did not give up though. She spent her entire life researching the demons and their home of the Abyss. You see the Infinite Layers of the Abyss was the birth place of the demons, a chaotic evil universe unto itself with uncountable layers of infinite variety connected haphazardly. The Abyss's is a violent, malevolent place where the strong survived on the backs of the weak, the weak conspired to overthrow the strong, alliances only lasted while convenient, and the landscape itself tortured the mind and body of all who dared to pass. However, the infinite layers do not exist forever. As a realm fades and is abandoned, the Abyss absorbs in back, annihilating it from existence. Mother knew that the only way to rid herself of this curse, was to annihilate it herself.”
The scene changes itself drastically to a dusty forgotten landscape. Worn and collapsing stone pillars, mostly covered with sand, littered the landscape. The sky was dark, covered in large black dust clouds. The only sense of anything in this place stood right in front of them. A large stone kiln, 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide battled the brutal environment. The world around them began to shake violently. A darkness, never witnessed before, began slowly devouring the world around them. A disfigured person, hunched and deformed slowly walked out from the entrance of the kiln. She began casting as the darkness approached. The woman violently threw something towards the darkness in the front, exploding with a flash of light. This light halted the darkness advance, but slowly it began to creep forward again. She then repeated this to her right, left, above and below. Quickly, she turn back towards the kiln and hobbled her way inside
Olana began to speak in a delightful voice “Oh this is always my favorite part.” And she quickly runs inside following the misshapen woman.
The group joins in pursuit and observes the disfigured Mother waving her hands violently at the back of the kiln. Slowly she approached the back wall, placing just a finger on it. Backing away with her finger still extended, a hole slowly appears on the wall where her finger once was. As she inched towards the center of the room, a dark, wispy substance follows her finger, staying 3 inches away. Once she reached the center of the room, the woman crouched down, touching the floor, and leaving a small but slowly growing black flame.
Olana broke the silence in the room saying “The flame of annihilation.”
The group watched as the woman slowly took a piece of the flame, applying it directly to a deformed mass, forcing it to shrink slightly. She then stopped abruptly. Olana began speaking again “Mother had spent so long cursing the devil and the demon for cursing her so. Taking away her child and cursing her to this existence, that she never realized that her curse was actually her blessing.” Mother reached her hand into the mass, removing a fleshy mass. Fluid slowly dripped from the creature as she cradled it in her arms.
The scene changed abruptly again, this time revealing the familiar scene of the bog from which they came. A small broken house stood next to a wooden frame that was covered in shallow black water. Olana began to speak saying “This is what happened to the once beautiful forest in which she once lived. In order to defeat Sozos, the devils opened a portal directly to Minauros in Hell, turning this place to a bog of death.” Mother slowly approached the house, a creature still cradled in her arms and knocked on the door. “Mother was determined to not let this sadness be the fate of her people. And thus our coven was made. But as with all things, nothing comes without a price..” Olana slowly lowers the grab on her shoulder, revealing a fleshy mass growing and twitching...
The group closes their eyes, and as the reopen them, they find themselves back in the cellar, sitting around an old wooden table.
Darrimus sits blinking completely void of words.
Ash comes to his senses after being sucked into an alternate universe, as if waking from a dream. Looking to his companions who seem to be just as taken aback, he manages to eventually say:
"Um.....so where to next?"
" So there is this flame of Anhiliation that seems capable of destroying the demonic essence along with a certain devil. Still not a lot of good options for us certainly. " Laurentia pales slightly at the wriggling mass. "That does seem quite the unnatural price."
Olana looks at Laurentia and says "Not as unnatural as you might think. While the flame of annihilation does exist in a realm buried somewhere deep in the abyss, the coven has developed magics to summon pieces of the flame into this realm for use in purification." She takes a deep breath and states "Unfortunately, these are the highest teachings of the coven and are only taught to a select few. The spells are detailed in the coven's ancient tome called The Noctis Libram, but unfortunately I do not have it." Olana looks down to the small bump on her shoulder and says in an angry tone "Mother deems these as children, but they are beast. Evil and corrupt. My instructor was devoured alive by her demonic cyst. I pleaded with the high witches to help her, but these things are more important to them and Mother than we are. While Mother says we are her children too, she truly only cares for these disgusting creatures."
Laurentia's lip curls, " A truly despicable act for a mother to ask such of her children. What is your price? What help do you need to help us get the book?" Internally Laurentia is ecstatic at the idea of lost and forbidden magical knowledge.
Olana states firmly "I am not sure if the book will be of much use to you. The language in it is cryptic in order to guard the flame as best as possible. I know the code but I need the book. It is the only way for me to save my sisters from the madness that this. If you help me retrieve it, I can teach one of you the spell of summoning the dark flame."