After spending several minutes considering the hilarity of building a catapult to launch clone corpses at one of the other wings, we continued on to the Halls of Lust. In truth, I had been dreading this. It was gonna be like that one time, back in college, when I went to that one party and everyone was doing ecstasy and I had to leave before that dude came back and tried to hump my leg again.
I did come back to drop off a couple cases of Gatorade – hyponatremia can be just as bad as dehydration, you know – in hopes no one would die. I hear the cops ended up getting called on them a couple hours later. Probably for the best.
The entire wing devoted to lust was one massive chamber. If Pride had built a chapel to self-aggrandizement, Lust had erected a cathedral to debauchery. Massive marble columns carved into the shape of a naked woman who had obviously been a bit cold when she was modeling made a ring around the room, perhaps ten feet away from the walls. Along the walls were various cages. We could not see any cages with someone actively in them, though there were likely many obscured by the massive silk pavilion in the center of the room.
The ceiling was ninety or so feet high and domed. A fresco painting covered the ceiling with images of men and women engaged in all manner of depraved carnal acts. I heard Aurora gasp as she took it all in. “Juiz, would you be a dear and record images of everything in here, making special note of the mural on the ceiling?”
“Affirmative,” Juiz responded.
I gave Aurora a questioning look. Her cheeks were flushed and she was obviously aroused. “Ideas for later,” she whispered in my ear. I love that woman.
A quartet of bat-winged Alu-demons – the half-demonic female offspring of a succubus and a mortal – flew around the room, leering at us. Two of them clung onto pillars above and began commenting on their suspicions of each of our sexual prowesses. When they got to me, their description of what they wanted to do to me set Aurora off. I had to stop her from shooting them then and there.
I had a better idea. “Greetings!” I called out. “We’ve come to trade with your Mistress, Delvahine! We learned from Vraxeris that we need something that she can provide to help us in our fight with the Runelord of Greed!”
Their eyes went wide at the word ‘Vraxeris’. One of them closed her eyes, likely telepathically contacting her mother. A few moments later, I heard a voice in my mind. “Friends of Vraxeris?”
“I wouldn’t call us friends,” I sent back. “But we bear him no ill will, and he has been invaluable in aiding our cause.”
“And you seek to slay the Runelord of Greed?”
“In the most exquisitely painful way we can manage. Perhaps you could offer us tips on how to prolong it so we can enjoy it the most?”
I heard her laugh in my mind. “I *LIKE* you. Come. My daughters will escort you all inside and we shall see what you need – and what you have to offer in exchange.”
“What’s happening?” Aurora asked.
“We’re going inside to trade?”
“Trade?”
“If nothing else, I can make her a copy of my porn collection.”
“Oh, that’d be okay.” I think she had been jealous. Aww.
Aurora and I took the lead as we were led into the massive pavilion. Of course, we ran into trouble as soon as we entered. “Hold!” I called back.
“What is it?” one of the demons asked.
“Those,” I said, indicating a number of stone giants in front of us.
“They’re harmless,” she responded.
“One of our companions might fly into a rage and attack them if he sees them. Think you can draw that curtain before we continue?”
She regarded me carefully. “Will he be a danger to any of us?”
I shook my head. “He can be controlled as long as it’s not giants,” I said. “It’s a bit of a thing for him.”
She rolled her eyes then used her ranseur to reach up and pull the curtain closed. “Can we continue now?”
“Lead on.” As we walked through the pavilion, something bugged me. “Do you people have enough pillows in here, or what?” They were everywhere. It was like someone was a hoarder or something.
“Do you not like it?”
“It just looks like a Bed, Bath and Beyond threw up in here, is all I’m saying.”
We walked into the pavilion’s central chamber and found Delvahine reclining upon another mound of pillows. Before she or any of the rest of us could speak, Lenn beat us to the punch. “YOU LOOK LIKE THE HOOKERS!” he said.
The succubus’ eyebrow twitched dangerously. “Oh?”
I sighed. “Vraxeris had six simulacra of you hanging out in his bedroom.”
“WHAT?! I’ll kill him!” She looked like she was ready to rush off and do it then and there.
“Well, I have good news,” I said.
“Speak!”
“Like, the brah forgot to renew his clones or something, so he suffered some gnarly death,” Paulie, having changed again when we weren’t looking, said.
She gave him a strange look and then began laughing. “That idiot! No wonder I haven’t seen him in so long! Oh my, mortals, you have brought me such amusement today! But tell me, if he’s dead, how did you learn about me?”
“He was, like, too dead to object to us reading his diary,” Paulie replied.
“Fair enough,” she said, still grinning, one wicked fang peeking out from under her lips. “Tell me, what is it you need from me?”
“If we’re understanding the notes correctly, we need one of your “naughty toys” to infuse a weapon with the ability to pierce through Karzoug’s Occlusion Field,” I replied.
She considered it. “I think I can part with one, but in exchange, I want one of you to join me in my boudoir for, say, ten minutes of fun?”
I grinned. I knew she would say that. “I think we can arrange that.”
“Kyle,” Aurora protested.
“Not me, love.” That wasn’t what she was protesting. You had to be a moron to sleep with a succubus. But I had an idea. “Geo’s been wanting some alone time with a beautiful woman.”
I saw realization dawn, but she hid it immediately. “Oh, that’s okay then. I just didn’t want to share.”
The succubus laughed. “Fair enough.” She appraised Geo, taking a good long time looking at his tentacles. “I think I like this one better anyway. Come, Geo.” She led him through the door to the boudoir, tapping the wall and magically closing the curtain behind her.
So we found ourselves waiting with four scantily-clad alu-demons. I needed to distract them before things started. “How about I sing while we wait?”
“Sounds good,” Aurora replied.
“Juiz, track four thirty six, please.” I took up my position.
“Understood.”
“It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You’re paralyzed”
As I danced and sang, I heard Geo tap the radio to on. “Please, beautiful. Let me get behind you so I can have a good look at those beautiful wings as we go for it.”
“’Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike
You know it’s thriller, thriller night
You’re fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight!”
“Ooh,” the succubus cooed. “I love the feeling of your tentacles on my skin. And those little claws, such exquisite pain to go with pleasure.”
“Then you’re going to love this,” Geo said.
That was the signal. “NOW!” I commanded, ending the song abruptly. Aurora and Lenntu struck, taking the closest two alu-demons down before they could retrieve their ranseurs. Lenn looked confused at first, but trusted us, so he drew his axe and attacked a moment later. His target tried to deflect the swing with her weapon, but his powerful blow went straight through.
I could hear the sounds of the giants from the next room making their way in. But I had other things on my mind. “Go!” Aurora told me. “We’ll take care of the giants!”
“GIANTS!” Lenn roared.
I cast a spell to protect me from evil and then tried to open the door into the boudoir. You wouldn’t think silk curtains would be that difficult to breach, but these weren’t made of ordinary silk – some kind of spider silk, if I had to guess – and were pulled taut by magic. There was no time to fiddle with the latch. For all I knew, it was keyed to Delvahine. But I didn’t need to activate the latch. I just needed to get through somehow.
I set a breaching charge. The directed explosion shredded the silk and created an opening. I rushed in and was shocked by what I saw.
Geo was strewn across the room, yet somehow I think he got the better end of the deal. Two shining children – semi-humanoid creatures of solidified light from an unknown evil plane – lay dead near the largest parts of Geo’s corpse and Delvahine wasn’t in much better shape.
In his surprise attack, Geo had managed to cut both of her Achilles’ tendons. He had also managed to break both of her wings. One of his spiked tentacles had raked across her throat, tearing her larynx. She had backed into a corner, cowering.
I hit her with a magical spell to dimensionally anchor her, preventing her from teleporting away. I held out my arms and Juiz separated the armor from me. “You’re wondering why? Tell me truly, you were planning to kill Geo, weren’t you? Oh, right, you can’t speak. Well, let me guess. You tried to drain Geo’s life force, but something was wrong, wasn’t it?” I grinned. “It was almost as if you were trying to drain the life of an undead, yes?” I could tell from the look of horror on her face that realization was dawning. I’m not even sure if she realized that Geo would pull himself together shortly.
She attempted to swing her whip at me, but Juiz intercepted it and yanked the weapon from her hand. “Permission to put this creature out of her misery?” Juiz asked.
She was probably right. I had gloated enough already. “Sorry, it’s nothing personal, really. You were a danger to us and we don’t make deal with demons, is all.” I turned my back to her. “Juiz, activate wand crystal. Force bolts, continuous volley until target is dead. Aim for the soft tissue. I don’t think Geo will be happy with us if we damage her skeleton.”
“Understood.” Since Juiz was taking care of that and it seemed like the others had the other room well in hand, I decided to finish my performance.
“Darkness falls across the land
The midnite hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y’awl’s neighbourhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse’s shell
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller.”
Once I was certain that Delvahine was dead, I popped my head back into the other room and saw that they had just finished the last giant. “Hey, guys, we’re gonna have to wait an hour while Geo pulls himself together again.”
“Bummer dude,” Paulie said. “But at least we have time to explore this place.”
“What happened?” Aurora asked as she walked into the boudoir. “Oh.”
Lenn walked in behind her, took one look at the room, and then punched me as hard as he could. “What the hell?!” I asked. From the floor. Eight feet back from where I had been.
“DON’T BLOW UP GEO!”
“That WASN’T ME! It was the Shining Children!”
He looked at the corpses. “Oh. That’s okay then. Fighting those by himself was stupid, but Geo does stupid things sometimes.”
What.
I decided to let it pass and we began searching for anything useful. Most importantly, we found a number of jeweled sex toys. We put them in a bag we found, carefully using my forge tongs to avoid touching them. Because eww.
Outside of the pavilion, we found a number of cubes that held rotting corpses. That was strange. The magic of the Runeforge should be preventing that. Unless there was a differing localized effect here that overrode the general effect of the Runeforge? I studied the magical auras with my magic sight and came to a horrified realization.
This magic did not maintain ontological inertia. Whereas the magic of the Runeforge simply suspended the ravages of time, the magic here simultaneously blocked that effect and placed a new one on the inhabitants that stopped aging when someone reached sexual maturity, because of course it did. But the magic was sloppy. Anyone who walked out of this wing would suddenly feel all the weight of the time they had spent within, aging in an instant.
That might not be a problem for something that can be preserved through the ages. Metals kept under the right conditions, for instance, would be fine. An immortal demon like Delvahine would also be free to come and go as she pleased. But a person? That would get real gross real fast. Of course, we would find someone in there after I’d thought of all of that.
He was trapped in a force cage lined with gold and silver in a far corner of the cathedral. I ended up using my power armor’s wand crystal to slowly bust through the walls and free him. After that, he tried to attack us, but Aurora and Lenntu subdued him.
He was pretty far gone. The succubus and her daughters had drained much of his life force, and the abuse had left him insane. If we had been back home, all that would have been left for him is to live the rest of his life sedated in a padded room so he couldn’t hurt himself or others.
But we weren’t on Earth. Paulie used a couple spells to cure both maladies as simply as if he were magicking away a nick from shaving. Well, not so easily. The amount of raw magic required was much higher. But you know what I mean.
The man introduced himself as Nelevetu Voan. He had apparently been a commander in Sorshen’s army, but had run afoul of one of the caretakers of this wing of the Runeforge shortly before the fall of Thassilon. He had spent centuries here, enduring the worst sexual tortures imaginable, before it finally broke his mind. They would heal him and start it all over again.
While we waited for Geo, he told us stories of ancient Thassilon, of the brutalities the Runelords, all of the Runelords, had visited upon their people. He begged us to stop them from returning. I promised him that we would find a way to stop Karzoug but that I wasn’t sure what we could do to stop the others.
But there was one thing we could do at that very moment. “Help me?” I asked the others, jumping to my feet. “I’m smashing all of these cages.” It was symbolic at best, but it was an important step. Nelevetu gave me a strange look. “What?”
“I’ve seen this before, in a vision. All of you, this moment.”
Interesting. “Wouldn’t be the first prophetic vision about us,” Aurora noted. True enough.
Geo returned a bit later, after we had destroyed about half the cages. “Cleaned up the succubus’ skeleton?”
“Why would I do that?” he asked, genuinely puzzled.
“For your collection?” Lenntu asked.
“I don’t have a skeleton collection.” He seemed to have returned to normal. Well, as normal as Geo gets.
“That you know of,” I quipped before letting him know what we had learned from Nelevetu and why we were smashing the cages. He joined in and we finished about an hour later.
Once the cages were destroyed, we all sat down to decide what to do next. Paulie had burned through a majority of his high level spells, and I wasn’t far behind. Pushing forward without replenishing was folly. No, we had taken care of Envy, Greed, Pride and Lust. We could rest before tackling Sloth, Gluttony and Wrath – not necessarily in that order, of course.
In truth, thanks to the Runeforge’s magics, we didn’t need sleep. But we did need to wait until the magical pathways in my mind refreshed, which was about twenty two or so hours after the last time I woke up. Which meant we needed to rest.
There was no point in creating the magic mansion. We didn’t need food or sleep. But since I had time, it behooved me to create the workshop and get cracking on breaking down and reconstructing some of the loot we’d gained. That robe alone would take up most of the time the assistants in charge of breakdowns would have.
We went back to the Halls of Envy first and had the adventurers there join us in the Lust wing. It was more comfortable there, and we would be able to work together if someone from one of the other wings came out to attack us.
After crafting something glorious for Lenntu, a massive electromagnetic riot shotgun whose design I called ‘Requiem’, I found Aurora seated on a cushion against a wall, relaxing. She patted her lap, beckoning me over.
I laid there for an hour, talking with her as she gently ran her fingers through my hair. Then, buoyed by the feeling of comfort, I fell asleep.
I had another dream. This one wasn’t like the others. I don’t think it was a vision of things that had happened. Nor did it seem like a hint of things to come. Instead, I think my unconscious mind was sorting through the things I had learned about ancient Thassilon, trying to figure out how to prevent the world from living under that tyranny ever again.
It was the American Revolution that I saw. I was fighting in it. Instead of Redcoats, it was soldiers of Thassilon. I took a hit from musket fire. Lying on the ground, I could see the streets were filled with blood, but out of the blood grew a single red rose.
Then, as life faded, I found myself once more floating among the stars. I heard first one voice, then many. They spoke words that I knew, and I quickly found myself speaking with them. “The universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice. It speaks in the language of hope.
“It speaks in the language of trust. It speaks in the language of strength and the language of compassion. It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul. But always it is the same voice. It is the voice of our ancestors speaking through us and the voice of our inheritors waiting to be born. The small, still voice that says: ‘We are one. No matter the blood, no matter the skin, no matter the world, no matter the star. .. We are one. No matter the pain, no matter the darkness, no matter the loss, no matter the fear. .. We are one.’ Here, gathered together in common cause, we begin to realize this singular truth and this singular rule that we must be kind to one another. Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us and each voice lost diminishes us. We are the voice of the universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light our way to a better future. We are one.
“We are one.”
I found my consciousness racing through the stars, and I could hear other voices. The whole universe, perhaps. I rushed forward, star by star, until I came to a planet. I traveled down to the world, and into a mountain, through a portal. Then I found myself floating over my own sleeping form. Lenntu, Nelevetu and several of the adventurers had come to speak with Aurora. They were whispering, so as not to wake me.
“I understand what you mean,” Aurora was saying. “But how can so few stand against the return of an empire like you describe?”
“I do not know,” Nelevetu responded. “I only know that I feel like a great darkness is coming, and I feel powerless to stop it. I find that I do not like this feeling.”
Lenntu nodded. “We have fought great odds before, but this feels like too much. Like trying to hold a single bridge against a massive army, our fate merely to be ground down to dust before them, no matter how many we can stop before we fall.”
“I wish there was some way we could help you stop Karzoug,” a female adventurer said. “But the truth is that this seems too big for so few of us.”
“Stopping Karzoug will buy us a longer time of peace. Indeed, it is our best hope to retain the peace,” Aurora said. “But if even one slips through, it may be for nothing. We need to be victorious over all of them. And that is an even larger task.” That was it! I knew what we had to do. I willed myself forward, once more into my own body.
I sat up abruptly, startling the others. “Help me gather the gold and silver of the cages into a pile,” I said. Aurora gave me a concerned look. “I think you’ll like this.” I gave her a mysterious grin.
It took about ten minutes for us to carry over everything. I spent the last two minutes preparing two spells, my first for the day. Curious, everyone had gathered around to see what I was doing. I cut my hand and used my blood to fuel the parts of the second spell that wouldn’t use gold or silver. Then I began shaping the material before me.
It took only moments. When I was done, there stood before me a sculpture of a single rose – rosa chinensis, if you’re wondering. Its stem and leaves were woven of intertwined gold and silver, its petals red glass. Above the rose was a single star, held in place by two figures, one of gold and one of silver. Their races were hidden by their armor. Below the rose was a ‘pool’ of stained glass, blood red.
Resting upon the pool was a number of small emblems, each the same. One gold and one silver figure, looking at each other across a blue planet, Golarion as seen from space in my dream. There were dozens of the emblems.
Aurora’s fingers interlaced with mine. “It’s beautiful, but what is it?”
“A declaration. This place, the Runeforge itself, will become the home of those who would oppose the return of the Runelords. From here, those who follow us will continue looking for signs of their return and will prepare to prevent it, or oppose them if that fails, at all costs.”
“But how?” Nelevetu asked.
“By recruiting adventurers and more. We will create an entire guild for adventurers. Mercenaries, of a sort, that earn their living by hunting down threats to the people, or exploring old ruins. We will teach the new members, and they shall teach others in turn. Those who show promise, both in skill and in commitment, shall be given the option to join the inner circle in this place, here, where they will learn the true mission.
“These we shall call ‘Rangers’. It will be their calling to hunt down leads, and find ways to counter the Runelords and their agents, as well as other, equal threats.”
“But why this place?” Geo asked.
“The Runelords cannot come here, nor can their most powerful agents.”
“I wish to join,” one of the adventurers said, standing forward.
“As do I,” another agreed.
“Me too,” the third said.
“I think my adventuring days are done,” their wizard said. “But I’d still like to help if I can.” They would need scholars. He would be the start of that segment of the group.
“If what you told me earlier is right, I do not think I can leave this place,” Nelevetu said. “But count me in. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
I grinned. “I was planning to put you in charge of the Rangers,” I told the ancient warrior.
“Me?”
“Well, I’m not sure I can do it, so I figure I need someone with free time on his hands.”
“I will do my best.”
“Good. Now let me explain something to you, all of you…” I repeated the words from my dream. It was context they would need. I then scooped up five of the emblems on the ground. “Now repeat after me…”
They spoke all together, in one voice, repeating my words. “I am a Ranger. We walk in the dark places no others will enter. We stand on the bridge, and no one may pass. We are One. We live for the One, we die for the One.”
When it was done, I pinned their new crests upon them and thanked them. They would be the beginning, those that would follow us. We would take care of Karzoug, and they would do their best to prepare against the others. We would help where we could, but there was no way we could do this by ourselves.
“It’s probably a good idea,” Paulie told me, as we prepared to head out for the next wing. “But tell me, what’s with the Milani imagery?”
“I was wondering that too,” Aurora said. “Though she’s not a bad choice of a patron goddess for the Rangers, mind you.”
“Wait,” I said. “Who’s Milani?”
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