Chapter 9 aka chapter 83
They all drove to Beth's apartment.
She said her husband often spent time - lots of time - away from home. He said he was at his sister's house, and she backed up his claim.
But Beth had her doubts.
Not, she said, that it mattered anymore anyway, since she'd decided to divorce him.
She was sure he'd be at home right now, since his favorite sports team was playing and she had a nice tv set, where he preferred to watch such games.
Beth was reluctant to go anywhere near her husband - he was very abusive - but Milo's explanations and demonstrations convinced her.
Probably, it was the demonstrations that really did it.
Milo was planning to get the guy to leave by pretending to be an angel.
He explained to the group that there really were angels, and he could summon one, but that it might not stay long enough to do the job.
So Milo would do the job instead.
He altered the illusion around himself provided by his armband of his Disguise Self to look like what he thought an angel looked like, and asked the group what they thought and what changes it needed.
Several cycles of changes later, including extending his wings and making them look white instead of multicolored, and Sticking coins shining with Celestial Brilliance to his chest, back, and sides, they declared that he looked convincing.
They pulled up in front of the apartment building where Beth lived, and Milo cast
Invisibility
on himself.
It wouldn't do to be seen early.
Angels are not known for riding in minivans.
The Invisibility hid Milo as well as the light he was giving off.
With the encouragement of the others in the minivan, Beth got out - apparently alone though Milo was with her whispering encouragement - and went in to the large brick building.
She went down a hall, up a set of stairs, then down a short hall and around a corner to a door.
On getting renewed encouragement from Milo, she used her key, turned the knob, and went in.
Milo went in right behind her, extending his wings as he went, since they would be just as invisible as the rest of him.
Beth's husband, in sweatpants and a greasy sleeveless t-shirt that used to be white, was laying on the couch watching tv.
Without looking up, he said, "When the next commercial comes on, you're going to get it."
Milo took that as his cue.
He had already stepped to the side, so he wouldn't be right by the door when he became visible again. Angels are not known for using doors, and he wanted maximum believability.
To Milo's surprise, Beth anticipated him with an unplanned declaration; "I found religion."
Her timing worked out perfectly, and came immediately before Mordy's Ghost Sound spell made a loud fanfare of trumpets.
Milo dismissed his invisibility immediately after that, and the room was instantly full of very bright light. The coins stuck to Milo and giving off Celestial Brilliance were hidden by the illusion disguising him, but the light they emitted was not. So it looked like Milo himself was shining with light.
His illusion made him a lot taller and broader than he really was. It gave him what the women said were "very noble features". And it showed him covered in the whitest of white robes.
Milo flexed his wings - which appeared to be pure white also, and 'accidentally' brushed them against the man on the couch, while announcing,
"Heaven and Hell are real. Act accordingly!"
He used his Anklets of Translocation to Teleport himself 10 feet, so he was now on the other side of the couch, almost next to the man, who whipped his head around to see the Milo-angel.
Milo pointed his sword - also enhanced by illusion, but covered in real flames by one of the minor features of Milo's Helm of Brilliance - at the man, making sure to get it close enough for him to feel the heat from the flames, and declared,
"I give you a taste of Hell, that you may know to choose wisely."
Then he cast
Wrack
It was another of Thamior's spells, and caused intense pain - pain so profound as to leave the victim helpless and blind while it lasted.
Remembering some of the things Beth had said, Milo let the pain go on for the full duration of the spell - in this case 16 minutes.
During that time, Beth went around gathering her husband's possessions, and dumping them out in the hallway - all except for his keys to the apartment, which she kept.
Milo and Mordy assisted by having their Unseen Servants carry out any things she designated.
Beth was concerned that the door lock might not be adequate, so Milo cast
Arcane Lock
into a purple Ioun Stone, gave it to her, and had her cast it on the door.
Now she would be the only one able to open it, and it would resist being broken open by force.
Milo also cast
Bestow Curse
on the man, cursing him to get a headache whenever he got within sight of Beth. The headache would increase in intensity the longer he stayed within sight, and the closer he got.
Beth had said that should keep the man way from her just fine.
While the man was still blinded by pain, Milo cast
Invisibility
on himself again and put away his wings.
Then they dragged the man out into the hallway with his stuff, left him a note, and locked the door for good measure.
Beth's note explained the headache curse 'the angel' had put on her husband, told him she would be getting a divorce, and bid him goodbye. It implied she could get the angel back again if necessary.
They'd been careful not to do any talking where the man could hear it, and between that and everything else, they judged that the whole thing had worked out well.
Beth was elated and hurried out to tell her new friends in the van all about it. She also wanted to be there to see what happened when they got to Mary's house.
They chattered as they drove - first re-hashing Beth's 'deliverance' and then refining the plans for Mary's.
To stem the endless stream of questions, Mordy made an illusion to show them all a reconstruction of the events at Beth's apartment.
They loved it and asked if they could get "snow globes" showing that like they already had showing Sophie's 'deliverance'.
After hearing an explanation of what they meant by "snow globes", Milo offered to make those for them and deliver them another day, since he was getting low on that type of spells.
They liked the idea. It seemed to give them extra reassurance.
Somewhere along the way, the 3 ladies started calling themselves "the Angel Club".
They planned to stay in touch with each-other.
Soon enough the minivan and two large vans arrived at Mary's house.
Or at least it looked like two large vans were there. They were actually an illusion made and maintained by Mordy.
He'd started the illusion a few blocks back, at a time when there was a large truck to one side and a bare fence to the other, blocking view, since Illusions are more believable if they are not seen popping in out of nowhere.
The real minivan and two large illusory vans pulled into the alley behind Mary's house, by the gate in the back fence.
Mary got out, took out her keys, unlocked the gate and went through.
She was still removing and stowing her keys when a loud angry man came out the sliding glass door in the rear of the house.
He yelled, "So you think to avoid me by sneaking in the back like a thief, you rebellious dog! I see that I must teach you your place again. Women must show proper subservience..."
He trailed off as first one, then another of the Shadow Guardians Milo had summoned walked in through the gate.
Milo had summoned a lot more than two.
So that nobody would see them appearing out of nothing and thus get a chance to Disbelieve them, he'd summoned them inside the illusory vans Mordy was maintaining. He had them getting out of the vans one at a time, like real passengers, to maintain believability.
The Shadow Guardians looked like "Mafia Enforcers", as described by the ladies and refined by making Silent Images according to their descriptions, then altering those as they indicated. A few cycles of alterations had led to what they said was a very believable "goon". They even suggested small ways in which each should differ from each-other, like real people would.
Milo had just wanted to reprise his angel performance, but Mary had said that there was no way her boyfriend would believe it. She said he claimed to be religious, but really he just used religion as an excuse to do whatever he wanted, and that, even if he saw an angel, he wouldn't believe it - unless it told him to do what he wanted to do anyway.
So they'd decided on another approach. She said all he respected was brute force and that, like any bully, he'd back down when faced with more of it than he had.
True to form, as "Mafia Enforcers" started coming in the back gate in obvious support of Mary, the boyfriend first tried blustering about "tresspassing", then tried saying he "didn't want any trouble", and saying it was "all a misunderstanding", then simply fled.
Or he tried fleeing.
Six Shadow Guardians were in the back yard by that time, and the first one was close enough to the man that it had no trouble catching and holding him.
Milo walked in the back gate at this point, wearing a black suit, hat, and necktie like the Shadow Guardians. In addition to the clothes, his Disguise Self spell made him taller, late middle-aged, and gave him "Italian features" as the ladies described it.
"Welcome Don Milo," Mary said respectfully, as they'd planned.
"Is this the creep you told me about?" Milo asked in the whispery-gravelly voice they'd coached him in.
"Yes sir." She responded.
"Are you sure he don't gotta get whacked?" Milo asked, "It'd be simpler."
"I want to at least try the way we talked about first. Otherwise I'd be worried about having blood on my hands." Mary replied.
"Ok my friend, have it your way."
"Boys, do whatever she tells you."
She told them to beat him up good.
Four Shadow Guardians held the ex-boyfriend while the other two pounded on him.
Milo didn't bring in the rest yet.
Mary had a plan about that.
Before the beating really got going, Milo said, "Zelda, do your thing."
This was the trigger phrase for the Programmed Image he had cast while on the drive over here.
The illusion formed and went through the actions Milo had set for it, such that a fantastically-decorated old woman, dressed as a "gypsie" according to the ladies descriptions, walked up and started loudly chanting while shaking a bone rattle and flinging multi-colored powders in the air.
While the man was distracted by the "gypsie", Milo unobtrusively cast
Bestow Curse
and
Geas
Then he nodded to Mary, and Milo and the Gypsie left.
Mary explained to her boyfriend, "The Gypsie has just laid a twin curse on you. One part is to make you slowly weaken and die. The only way to undo that part of the curse is for you to go to your home country where you learned to treat women so poorly, and live there for a month disguised as a woman. To satisfy the curse, you must not tell anyone of the curse, nor that you are not a woman. You must do your best with the disguise and with convincingly acting as a woman or that part of the curse will not be cancelled. The second part of the curse can not be undone - you will live with it for the rest of your no-longer-violent life. It is that when you cause pain to anyone else, you will feel twice that pain."
Mary called a stop to the beating soon thereafter, since it was bothering her.
She had the "Mafia Enforcers" carry her ex-boyfriend out to the street and dump him.
He picked himself up and scuttled away down the street.
Sophie, followed by the 2 big vans, drove around to the front of the house, where the minivan parked while the 2 vans went into the garage and parked. When the garage door was closed, Mordy dismised the illusion they had been. Since they had been out of sight when they disappeared, they would remain a mystery.
The ladies, children, and Milo all went in the house, where Mary was preparing a snack while they waited for "round two", as she called it.
Sure enough, just as she had predicted, before the snack was over, a car pulled up out front and disgorged her boyfriend and 3 of his friends that lived a couple blocks away.
She said they'd usually break down the door, so she didn't let them get that far.
She commanded her "Mafia Enforcers" and ten of them trooped out the front door, while another 4 went around to the front from each side of the house, as if they'd been guarding the rear.
Seeing their numbers, the 4 men tried to get right back into their car. But the Shadow Guardians caught them first and gave them all a good beating.
Normal illusion spells can't do that - they can't even fool the sense of touch. But the Shadow Guardians spell infused illusion with some essence from the Elemental Plane of Shadow. Consequently, these illusions were partly real even if you knew they were illusions. And they were fully real to those who believed in them.
And the beatings they gave were just as real.
Mary had said her ex-boyfriend didn't believe in the supernatural at all. So he effectively had no choice to believe the Shadow Guardians were real. He couldn't imagine otherwise.
She let the beatings go on longer this time, then pulled the "Mafia Enforcers" back to stand guard all around the house.
By the time the Shadow Guardians spell wore out, her ex-boyfriend would have started feeling the effects of the Geas spell.
By the time he was sure the "enforcers" were no longer guarding the house, he'd be feeling the effects powerfully enough to convince even him he needed to dress as a woman and do as he'd been told.
The women turned the snack into a spontaneous party.
Milo stayed a while, then, concerned about how low he was on spells, he cast
Teleport
and went home to Hogwarts.
There, he immediately sent an owl off to Cog with his next project - boots of Ray Deflection - and to pick up his last project.
While waiting for the owl to return, he and Mordy used the acorns they had previously collected, along with some "gel caps" Hannah had described, and then obtained for them, to make some small nitroglycerin bombs. They would have more effect than the Explosive Runes coins that Mordy had been able to launch before, as well as not costing Milo any spell slots to prepare.
The two halves of the gel cap got filled with Flobberworm mucous, and then pushed together to form one watertight pill.
Hannah said that some folks used them to make their own pills containing herbs or oils.
Then the filled pill went into an acorn filled with Glycerol. With the same trigger mechanism in place as with larger bombs, but much smaller wires in this case, the whole thing was glued together and set aside for later use.
They had several done before the owl came back with another magic bedroll.
Heward's Fortifying Bedroll could only be used once every other day. Folks who had bought two had discovered that you could not benefit from the same effect from other magic items within that 48 hour span either.
So Milo wasn't trying to get the same effect. He'd made the second bedroll with a flaw - it didn't heal him a half hitpoint per level when he used it.
That, coincidentally, saved him money.
But mainly, it made the effect no longer the same.
He wasted no time in trying it.
And an hour later woke to discover that it had worked - his spell slots were ready to be reloaded through study as usual every morning.
Except that it was still the early afternoon.
He still had plenty of day left for hunting bad guys.
He got ready and cast
Scrying
and thereby observed Tom Riddle in a cave, with some masked Death Eaters, apparently training new recruits. They demonstrated wand motions and directed the new Death Eaters in how to fire killing curses at a pen full of goats.
Riddle walked around the room observing and saying things Milo could not hear.
The scrying spell ended just as Riddle gave a new Death Eater the Dark Mark.
Milo cast
Ray Deflection
Cloud of Knives
Mirror Image
Displacement
Greater Blink
and then
Teleport
and arrived at the edge of the cavern.
This time, he won initiative.
He cast
Chain Lightning
and seventeen Death Eaters, new and old, dropped dead, electrocuted and burned by the lightning bolts that sought out every person in the room.
Every person except, unfortunately, Tom Riddle, who had happened to have stepped behind someone else just before Milo appeared.
Without line of sight, Milo couldn't hit him with the lightning spell, so he'd settled for hitting everyone he could hit.
He and Mordy each fired knives from the Cloud of Knives hovering around them. Both hit Riddle.
Mordy Greased Riddle's wand, which fell out of his hand.
But Riddle drew another wand, and the wounds in the shoulder and leg didn't stop Riddle from Apparating away.
Mentally, Milo kicked himself for not also having cast Prismatic Eye, or Freezing Glance before coming.
With either of those in place, Milo would have been able to take out Riddle before he could escape.
But he'd already cast 7 spells, counting the Scrying, to prepare for the fight. Spending spells was always a judgement call - you needed to cast enough to be effective, but no more, since you needed to save some for later, and for the unexpected.
Most of his spells had been cast on defense rather than offense. It was a tradeoff, but Milo figured a mistake with having too much defense would leave him alive but with a longer combat, while a mistake in the other direction could leave him dead, which he preferred to avoid.
While his defensive spells lasted, he went around looking for trouble - exploring any likely hiding places, and routes that enemies might approach by.
He had one Unseen Servant put away the scarecrow it had been carrying and loot the bodies.
The other Unseen Servant kept its scarecrow, in case opponents showed up.
But a whole lot of nothing happened.
The cave was apparently just a temporary base. The goat pen was the only structure there - they must have sat on the floor, when and if they sat.
In looking over the dead, Milo noticed that the masks had slipped off several. One of those was Severus Snape.
"Huh. I had expected more fight out of that one." he said, and shrugged.
When he was done with the cave, he Teleported back to Hogwarts.
It was nice that the wards saw Apparating and Teleporting as different things.
The first thing he did was think through his choices for level 15, to which the massive surge of xp in the cave had taken him.
He chose Rainbow Servant level 10, and was dazzled by all the new Cleric spells he suddenly had access to.
Optimizing his choices there would take some time.
He would have to put in most of that time later.
For now, he wanted to choose spells and a feat and get busy adventuring again.
He now had access to 8th level spells and there were some good options available there.
He considered Demand, which would let him implant semi-coercive Suggestions at any distance, and Discern Location, which would let him find familiar objects or creatures at any distance, but went instead with what he felt were better options.
He chose Polymorph Any Object - an amazingly flexible spell that could turn anything into anything, for a duration proportional to how drastic the change was, up to and including permanent. Even for the most drastic changes, like turning a metal spoon into a human, it lasted 20 minutes.
It offered some exciting possibilities. But so did his other choice - Superior Invisibility - an invisibility spell so potent that almost nothing could defeat it, even most spells devoted to defeating invisibility.
If the locals could not see him, they could not target him with their spells.
Lastly, he chose the Craft Construct feat, so he could make another Dedicated Wright or two. He had several ideas for useful magic items to create.
When he was done levelling up, he went and cast
Scrying
again.
He saw Riddle in a small clearing in a forest, meeting with a few hags, vampires, werewolves, a giant, and a couple Death Eaters.
He didn't suppose that Tom Riddle would expect to be attacked twice in the same day.
He would soon find out.
He cast
Ray Deflection
Superior Invisibility
Freezing Glance
and
Teleport.
and arrived in the forest clearing he had seen.
The werewolves instantly noticed a change, and looked around rapidly and intently.
The puff of air as Milo arrived alerted them that something was going on, but they couldn't tell what.
Superior Invisibility also hid any sounds or smells emanating from Milo.
Apparently there was not much trust among Riddle's group, since the werewolves, while obviously on their guard, did not share their information with the hags, vampires, humans, or giant.
Milo froze Riddle with a Freezing Glance.
Then, without them even hearing him do it, Milo cast
Wages of Sin
and selected everyone present as targets.
The spell only affected creatures with an Evil alignment. It made them attack the nearest evil creature and use their most effective attack to do so, as long as the spell lasted.
Pandemonium erupted, with biting, clawing, smashing, and killing all around.
The giant grabbed a tree, broke it in half, and impaled a vampire with each half, as if they were enormous stakes.
A vampire bit deep into a hag's neck and sucked while mesmerizing his victim.
Another hag caved in a werewolf's skull with a mighty blow.
A werewolf tore the throat out of a Death Eater, right as that Death Eater sent off a killing curse which took down a vampire.
And so it went.
The creatures Riddle had been meeting with destroyed each other with great abandon.
Before Milo got to act again, a hag aimed a kick at the frozen Tom Riddle.
The kick, which should have torn his leg clean off, spent some of its force shattering the ice encasing Riddle, and was further blunted by the armor his stolen robes magically emulated.
So his leg stayed attached, though it clearly had a bad compound fracture.
Riddle, though clearly in pain, Apparated away.
Milo found that very disappointing. The longer Riddle stayed alive the more trouble he would cause.
Milo refrained from freezing any more creatures - they were doing his work for him, and freezing some, or distracting them with illusions or scarecrows would just slow them down.
He did let Mordy use Create Trap a number of times, to add to the devastation
He also tossed out a couple coins shining with Celestial Brilliance to help take down the vampires.
Milo stayed out of the way, so none of the combatants would bump into him.
And without bumping into him, they could not detect Milo.
So Milo supervised in safety.
Finally, the fight ended when the last two werewolves leapt on the giant and set about shredding him. He tore one in half before he went down.
Milo blasted the other with one
Storm Bolt
after another, just to be sure.
Then he went around making sure everything stayed dead.
Werewolves were resistant to damage, except from silver weapons. But they were resistant - not immune.
Still, just in case, Milo used a silver crossbow bolt to poke them and make sure.
He had the Unseen Servants sweep up the black ash which was all the Celestial Brilliance had left of the vampires, and dump it on a towel Milo brought out of a pouch and placed in a sunny part of the clearing, away from the shadows and unnatural darkness where they'd fought.
There, under direct sunlight, the ash turned to a smaller amount of white ash.
At the other end of the clearing, far from the ash so it wouldn't be disturbed, Milo extended his wings and flew straight up to see if there was a stream or river nearby.
To his surprise, he recognized some landmarks.
He was in the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts.
He flew back down, put away his wings, stowed the loot the Unseen Servants had collected from the dead, and then carefully gathered the corners of the towel, making sure not to spill any ash.
Then he went on a short walk to a nearby stream, and immersed the ash there.
He wasn't certain that was necessary to guarantee the vampires stayed dead - the direct sunlight alone ought to have been enough - but it cost him little to make sure.
