So, apparently, I don’t know everything. Yeah, I’m shocked too. I would have thought that after ten years, I’d have a finger on the pulse of Golarion. But it seems there’s at least one entire faith I’d never heard of.
Paulie and Aurora filled me in on Milani’s deal. Apparently she was a minor goddess who had previously been a saint in the now dead god Aroden’s faith. Now, she’s the patron deity of those who seek freedom from oppression. As the Rangers were founded specifically to prevent the return of the oppression by the Runelords, she fit fairly well.
So, that only left one question. Why was that in my dream? Had I tapped into knowledge I didn’t realize I had, perhaps something gleaned while I wasn’t paying attention? Or had someone sent me a vision? Either way, it was interesting, though the latter only opened more questions.
<Maybe we’re famous, fam!>
<If Erastil shows up to ask us our favorite biscuit recipe, I’m out, k?>
<Before or after you tell him how to make Granny O’Halloran’s cheddar soda biscuits?>
<Before. Some things have to be kept family secrets.>
We considered the remaining wings and decided that the denizens of Wrath were the most likely to take a proactive approach and hit us while we were distracted. So that’s where we’d go first. Then on to Gluttony and finally to Sloth. We hoped we could count on Sloth to procrastinate doing anything to attack us until we came on our own terms.
The entrance to the Halls of Wrath was actually fairly tastefully elegant, with polished black marble floors and walls sheathed in white marble. This continued on into the first room, a rather large chamber whose primary feature was a mural that covered the walls, depicting a red headed woman on the back of an enormous red dragon, holding a flaming ranseur above her head.
On the far side of the room was a thirty foot tall platform that led to a hallway further into the compound. In front of the hallway stood a ten foot tall statue made of iron depicting a woman holding a bow. Yeah, sure. “Aurora, switch your gun to steel-jacketed adamantine rounds. Paulie, Geo, use adamantine arrows. Lenn, hit it if it gets close. Lenntu, sorry, but I forgot to load you a drum of adamantine bullets.” Meanwhile, the statue reached up and pulled a rope, setting off bells ringing through the room, and likely through the complex.
The iron golem flew above our heads, firing bolts of energy from its bow. It was not really ready to deal with adamantine bullets. Nor was it prepared for me to launch a lightning bolt at it, which slowed its movements and attacks to a crawl. It had to rest on the platform to fire, making it easier for us to shoot at.
Most direct magic is useless on a golem, but each has a set of weaknesses. An iron golem is weak to lightning, which slows it. Luckily for me, I like keeping a lightning bolt spell prepared for situations where I just really need to hurt something.
Truth is, most adventurers would have needed to resort to flight magic to hit this enemy. But we had guns and the right ammo for the job. All in all, it wasn’t too hard of a fight. Lenn did seem to be getting a bit frustrated by his inability to hit it, though.
Aurora and Paulie flew up – Paulie was really getting the hang of his armor’s flight capabilities – and lowered a rope for the rest of us. Not to be outdone, I played with my power armor’s Van der Waals generator and spider climbed right on up. An unnecessary use of battery charge, to be sure, but fun. Everyone else climbed up the rope with little issue.
Down the hallway, we found a smaller room with a pair of runic circles inscribed on the floor. I studied them and was able to determine that they were magical transports paired with similar circles in another room elsewhere, one as a ‘to’ and the other as a ‘from’. They would be able to take four of us at once.
Aurora, Lenntu, Geo and I went first. We appeared in a similar room connected to what appeared to be some kind of training hall. We could see movement within. They were forming up to fight us. Geo stealthed and crept into the room. I hit their back line with a burst of radiant light while Aurora and Lenntu rushed forward.
Lenntu struck the first enemy with the butt of his shotgun, knocking what appeared to be a sinspawn prone, then shooting it in the face. Aurora whirled in and cut another sinspawn down. Behind me, Lenn and Paulie ported in. Lenn charged and struck a sinspawn down and Paulie peppered another with arrows.
Then the enemy counter attacked. Behind the line of sinspawn was a group of mage-knights. They launched a volley of explosive fireballs. That hurt like hell. But it had other effects than just injuring us.
I heard high pitched giggling a bit behind me and to the left. I turned in horror. I knew that sound. “YYEEE!! FIRE!” Paulie shouted with glee. And then he launched his own fireball, much more powerful than theirs.
“Oh shi~!” I half said. “GEO, LOOK OUT!” My warning came too late. Geo was more than a little singed by it, but he ignored the direct hit and struck one of the mage knights from behind. Several of his attacks whiffed, despite looking like they had connected. “They’re using an illusion to appear a couple feet from where they are!” I warned the others.
Angry at the fire, Lenn rushed a mage-knight, and whiffed. “RARGH!” he roared, swinging once more and whiffing again. Aurora dealt with the magic by making wide swings, sacrificing some hits to ensure others would connect. Geo did the same, striking with his dagger in one direction and his tentacles almost like a shotgun.
Lenntu did what I suggested and flipped the switch on his gun, going from slugs to scattering shot, then firing in the general direction of foes. Paulie launched cones of flame, not caring who he hit. I carefully selected a zone of fire that would exclude my allies, then just held down the trigger and went full auto into an area that should contain three foes.
When it was over, aside from the two sinspawn, Lenn hadn’t hit anything. He was getting really ticked off about that. It took Geo several moments to calm him. Meanwhile, we looked around. There was a dining chamber of a sort and a number of small, Spartan bunk rooms just off the training rooms. Additionally, there were two additional chambers, one on either side, with pairs of teleportation circles.
I was surprised to see how young the mage knights were. They looked to be no more than seventeen or so. There had to be something strange going on here. Where were the adults? The real adults? Had they all perished during the whole thing when the Lords of Envy had tried to take control of the Runeforge?
We weren’t sure which way to go, so, after healing up, we picked one set of teleportation circles and stepped in. This time Geo and Lenntu came in during the second port.
We found ourselves in a room with nine more mage-knights. They seemed to be involved in some kind of research, intensely studying a cauldron of some kind of bubbling mass that smelled horrific. “Spread out!” I told the others, figuring we could expect more fireballs. “Don’t make yourselves a good target!”
Once more, Lenn was having serious trouble with these people. The rest of us managed well enough, though I burned through so very many bullets doing so. I still had several magazines, but I knew I would definitely need to make more soon.
It didn’t help that I couldn’t risk using grenades and had to check my fire to avoid hitting the shelves filled with alchemical supplies. There was no telling how bad that could get if we hit the wrong two bottles at once. All in all, it was a fairly standard fight except for one thing. Well, two if you count the fact that Lenn whiffed every single one of his hits.
Several of the ‘researchers’ used their swords to toss globs of whatever the heck was in the cauldron at us. Later inspection revealed it to be a type of proto-flesh, kind of a magical and/or alchemical vat of stem cells on lysergic acid diethylamide, if you know what I mean. We mostly managed to dodge it, but Geo and Lenntu both got hit.
Geo grew a completely useless eye on the tentacle that got hit. Lenntu grew a tiny, emaciated arm from the spot on his shoulder that was struck. After the fight, we managed to remove both, though Geo wanted us to keep the place intact for later study. Seeing how much he wanted it, we reluctantly agreed.
<Nothing bad could possibly come of this.>
<Look, I was outvoted again.>
Research notes all around the room suggested that they had been working on dealing with the problem of lowered population. It seems that they do a kind of ‘Logan’s Run’ thing around this place. Once someone reaches a certain age, they’re allowed to breed, then are converted into sinspawn for use as defenders and, well, target practice. That explains the lack of older folks around.
But too many were lost in the fight with the Lords of Envy, so they needed more people to maintain a viable reproductive population. So they needed to find a way to revert the sinspawn to people. All things considered, it was an interesting solution. Certainly better than going to the halls of Lust to find some breeding options.
We ported back to the other room and took the alternate set of circles to a different chamber. This one looked like some kind of personal training room, likely for the leader of the wing. Heck, instead of torches, even magical torches, the room was lit by a bunch of ornate magical weapons. Was. Lenn thought they were pretty and yanked them out of the wall.
Some light remained, coming from glyphs on the wall that I recognized as being associated with magic weapon creation and evocation, specifically with the evocation of fire. They were more than enough to illuminate the wall of smoke that blocked view of what was beyond the door on the far side of the room.
The smoke wasn’t real. It turned out to be nothing more than an ornate illusion, like the wall I’d created to block the magic mirror in the Halls of Pride. We were able to walk right through it, and found ourselves in a room full of crazy. The first thing I noticed was that the ceiling was on fire. Or specifically, there was a wall of fire on the top of the room. It bathed the room in a warm red light and left the temperature about fifteen degrees higher than I would have liked. Not that I really noticed, enveloped in my magic bubble of cool air. I just saw Aurora sweating a bit and felt bad about it.
On the ground, there was a massive silver sihedron pressed into the floor. There was also another crazy mural, once more of a red haired woman who I’ve come to believe to be Runelord Alaznist. Her face was contorted in rage. Kinda like the face of the white haired woman flying up near the wall of fire. Well, the nine faces of the woman flying near the wall of fire. She was using mirror images to make it harder to hit her.
“I am Athroxis! I know not who you serve, but your invasion ends here! For Fury and Hellfire!” She shouted it in Thassilonian, so only Paulie and I fully understood her words. But I’m pretty sure her tone conveyed the important parts to the rest. Still, that would have been a great time to have a Hellfire missile at my disposal. The irony would have produced such hilarity.
She wasn’t alone. There was a Glabrezu flying up near her, which was weird. I didn’t think they had the ability to fly. But Athroxis was likely a wizard, so she probably did that.
“I’ll take the demon!” Aurora said, unsheathing her wings. “Kyle, support me!” I love it when she takes charge. Rowr.
“On it! Paulie, conjure your spiritual bow and focus on firing arrows to purge the mirror images!”
“I wanted to light her on fire!”
“The ceiling’s already on fire!”
“FINE!” he pouted.
Lenntu and Paulie peppered her with gunfire, everyone staying spread out to avoid likely fireball retaliations. So, of course, she opted for bigger hits. Icy cold winds and shards of ice erupted from her hand, buffeting us and causing some serious damage.
Aurora and I didn’t have too much trouble with the Glabrezu. He tried to use a spell to reverse gravity and throw some of us into the wall of flames, but I managed to counterspell him before it was too late. Aurora then kept on him so he would be unable to cast. The holy power of her rage tore through his defenses, causing massive damage.
In one of her passes, Athroxis got close enough for Lenn to swing at her, but he missed. The frustration reached its boiling point. “WHY IS EVERYTHING SO HARD TO HIT?!” he roared. He focused and began screaming in rage. His halo appeared, which was normal, but then the wall of fire above started swirling, which decidedly wasn’t.
A massive gout of flame, a whirlwind of fire, reached out from the wall, as though Lenn was pulling it in. His halo began turning from blue to red, then burst into flame. From his back erupted tendrils of flame, like Aurora’s wings, but made entirely of fire.
Aside from Aurora and the demon, the fight had stopped, all of us watching in shock as Lenn did what once again seemed impossible. His axe burst into flame and he charged straight at Athroxis. His mighty blow sent her flying into the ceiling. She passed through the fire and struck the stone above with a powerful crack.
“We’re doing that?!” Paulie screeched. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?! YEEE!” His body became enveloped in flame and his flesh was replaced with living fire. Fire Elemental Paulie then shot out of his armor, into the air and slammed into the stunned Athroxis as she passed once more through the fire, slamming her upward again.
Lenn launched upward again, catching the falling wizard with another blow and once more slamming her through the fire and into the ceiling. Then Paulie hit her again. And Lenn. It was a brutal, no holds barred beatdown.
Aurora also wasn’t what the demon was expecting. I don’t think he planned on fighting a child of celestials. He tried to retreat, but there was nowhere to run. He dropped to the ground and attempted to strike her with multiple attacks.
That was a mistake. Geo had been waiting. When Aurora dropped down and attacked the demon from the front, Geo came at it from behind. It cried out at her flurry of blows as they bit into its flesh. It couldn’t even cry as Geo drove his dagger into a soft part of its carapace and jammed his tentacles inside. They rooted around and withdrew holding something that looked important.
Aurora delivered the final blow, rising into the air, through the wall of flame and kicking off the ceiling into a dive, driving one end of her double bladed sword through the demon’s skull at full speed.
Once you parse out Lenn’s sudden growth of flame wings, I’m not sure which part of the fight was more insane. And how the hell had he done that? I mean, I know I’ve seen him do some things, but this was crazy even for him. And it got me wondering about the halo in the first place.
So, in the aftermath of the battle, I asked him. “Lenn, buddy, how did you do that?”
“Don’t know. But Aurora has a halo and wings, and she’s normal like me, so I knew I could do it.” I don’t even know where to begin with logic like that. But it confirmed for me that he didn’t know. But there was one other question.
“Lenn, what’s up with that mark on your head?” He had a new glyph on his forehead, right in the indentation where the giant had hit him so long ago.
“I might be able to answer that,” Juiz chimed in.
“Go ahead.”
“Several of the notes about the Runeforge note a ‘Mark of Wrath’ gifted to the leader of the servants of Wrath here. It increases their strength and aggression in combat.” Great. That was just what we needed. A stronger, more aggressive Lenn.
The body of Athroxis was charred and barely recognizable. Only through the magic imbued in them did her gear survive. We grabbed that and some of the ashes around her. I had the feeling that those would serve as fuel for the Runeforge, though I wasn’t entirely sure.
I studied the sihedron circle on the floor with magic sight and confirmed what I suspected. This was the ‘Master Circle’, spoken of in Vraxeris’ journals. Any teleportation magic cast here would open a portal outside, probably back to the place we entered the Runeforge.
As we made our way back to the teleportation circles, I stopped Geo, asking him to help me adjust a strap on my bag that had gotten loose and ensuring that he and I would be the ones left to teleport after the others. While he was distracted, I cast a spell. “What did you do to Lenn?” I asked once the others had teleported.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, but I think you do. You implanted something into Lenn, didn’t you? So, again, I ask, what did you do to Lenn?”
His face contorted, once more becoming twisted and cruel – his alter ego, who I have started calling Jack after ‘Jack the Ripper’. He grabbed me by the collar and slammed me into the wall. “Something glorious!” he shouted.
But that’s not all I heard. My spell allowed me to hear his thoughts. “Tell me,” I said, doing my best to feign calm. “Where exactly did you get the heart of a Peri?”
It was a valid question. There was no ‘Body Parts R Us’ where you could walk in and go, “Hey, where’s Peri?” and walk out with the fiery heart of a celestial being thought to be descended from fallen angels.
His eyes blinked and he reverted to normal. “H-How did you know that?”
I smirked. “Lucky guess. Mind setting me down now?”
He suddenly realized our position. “How did that happen?”
I shrugged. I don’t think telling him about his crazy alter ego was a good idea right then. “So, where did you get it?” I asked as he let me go.
“I needed it, so my friends got it for me.” Still reading his mind, I had to hide my shock. The worshippers of Nethys from before had gotten it for him. He needed it to ensure Lenn survived the brain surgery. There was more to them than I had realized.
“Fine. Fair enough. But, you haven’t implanted anyone else with anything, have you?”
“Of course not. I have had no need to do so.”
Then, from the recesses of his mind, I heard the voice of Jack. “Not yet, anyway.” Then he gave a sinister laugh.
I barely managed to avoid running full speed to the teleportation circle.
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