Angel of Empyreus

“I am that which can cleanse temptation from the
land and restore it once more to divinity. What a weak
creature of flesh you are, blessed with free will and fickle
fancy. I will reveal your weakness, wretched mortal.”

A Celestial Commander. These valorous angels were
created to punish the wicked and ensure the sincerity of
the penitent. When Maligant called his heavenly hosts
in the war of the Four Divines, the angels marshalled
out with the other upper echelons under the command
of the Arch Seraph Empyreus. When Aurelia sacrificed
herself and revealed the madness of the war, the Angels
fought on, refusing to admit that they were part of a
calamitous tragedy, seeing surrender as tantamount to
blasphemy. With the zeal of a censorious bureaucratic
tyrant, they now wage a guerilla war with a piecemeal
retinue of veteran battle angels, zealots, fanatic paladins,
cohorts of penitent levies, and volunteer convert militia
auxiliaries as part of an anti-corruption peasant revolt in
the hinterland of Altenheim.

Fiendish Temptation. Each Angel keeps a copper
cage under a velveteen cover inside a lead box encased
in blessed orichalcum on a thick chain around its neck.
In the cage is a pathetic, impish fiend of Malikir, withered
like a raisin. The creature has an uncanny knack for teasing
out corruption, and compelling wicked behavior in
mortals. It only takes moments to get a confession once
a weak-willed mortal has revealed their true self in the
presence of the fiend.

A Corrupted Temperance. An Angel of Empyreus
uses its original orders as a pretext for further violence.
It will never surrender. Surrender is a trick of the enemy.
It must fulfill its purpose: to root out corruption and
sin, and it will do anything to find sin in mortal hearts.
The imp claims to put mortals to the test, and the Angel
knows what it is doing. It won’t kill the imp, as using the
imp reveals the innate corruption in mortal souls.

Lore

DC 10 Intelligence (Religion): The Arch Seraphs are
attended by mighty angels who act as their lieutenants
and execute the divine remnants’ orders.
DC 15 Intelligence (History): Empyreus went into
battle surrounded by an honor guard of fearsome
celestials honed by aeons of divine war. Many of them
remained at Empyreus’ side at the end of the Four
Divines’ War, but not all remained loyal.
DC 20 Intelligence (History): Peasant revolts and reli-
gious zealotry are on the rise in the Altenheim hinterland.
Most say it’s the usual grievances, but some whisper that
a commander of the celestial hosts leads the revolt, and
its ranks swell by the day.

Salvage

The Angel of Empyreus wields a holy avenger. Upon its
death, its intelligence inhabits the sword. To attune to
it, a paladin character must agree to carry on the angel’s
mission to cleanse the land of immorality.
A cup of its blood can be made into a potion of supreme
healing with a DC 10 Intelligence (Religion) check from
someone proficient with alchemist’s supplies. Six cups of
blood can be taken from the Angel of Empyreus.
Its bones can be used in place of diamonds for use
in raise dead and similar magic, up to the equivalent of
10,000 gp worth.

---Grim Hollow Monster Grimoire---