Please note that I do not own Dungeons and Dragons,their relevant editions, Pathfinder or Harry Potter. Dungeons and Dragons are owned by Wizards of the Coasts, Pathfinder is owned by Paizo and Harry Potter and its franchises are owned by JK Rowling. The following story is just for my enjoyment and hopefully yours as well.
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Chapter 9: Plots in Motion
Ron stalked silently through the castle at night. While he wasn't like the twins, he could be sneaky when it came right down to it and besides Fred had given him the Marauder's Map, a useful magical item that allowed him to hide from any approaching professors. Odd that he couldn't see any names belonging to some of his old friends like Harry or Hermione. Ron shook his head when he thought of the curly haired girl. He didn't want to think about it anymore but he couldn't stop himself.
After sobering up he realised what he had done and felt awful about it, and not only because of the hangover. What he had done or tried to do was appalling and despite his attempt to apologise, Hermione wouldn't hear it. He sighed and accepted that fact stoically. The ginger made his way quickly out of the castle and with a bit of luck and a charm or two he made his way to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
As he entered the foreboding forest, he hoped there wouldn't be any spiders. There! A small light winked lazily and then guttered out. It appeared again and Ron made his way to it, wary of the roots and branches even as the light dimmed for a second and final time. When he came unto a small clearing he found Seamus, –with his wand out- Dean, Ginny, the twins even arrogant Cormac McLaggen, who Ron disliked and the feeling was mutual.
With those people there was also many others, most of them Gryffindor's though a few Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's were included as well. Ron approached the centre of the clearing, "So I guess we all know why we're here but for those of you who were invited because your friends thought you could be trusted I'll try and make this as simple as possible," Ron's mouth felt like a desert and his stomach was like dragons in spring but he never felt more sure.
He began, "Recently with all that's happening we're pretty much defenceless here in Hogwarts. Umbridge," and some students grimaced or booed softly, "won't teach us to defend ourselves and reports are coming in that people are disappearing and bad stuff is happening. We all know why but we don't dare say it so let me be the first," he took a breath, "You Know Who's back"
The assembled conspirators made hushed mutterings and Cormac sauntered forward. Some of the girls swooned at that and it made Ron feel sick. Cormac addressed all in attendance, "Look we all know the reason why we're here and that's because Umbridge has us all kept on a tight leash. We can't do magic in a magical school and it galls us all but I don't think we should start saying nonsense like You-Know-Who's back! It's ridiculous and honestly completely bonkers!"
Ron gave a smirk as some of the students agreed with him, "You know Cormac I didn't take you for a coward. Voldemort's," there was a sharp intake of breath at that word, "back and we can't sit around on our hands thinking otherwise"
Dean and Seamus approached, "He's right," Seamus said, "much as I hate to admit it there's been a lot of bad things going around. My mother and father won't say much about what happened last time but what's happening now is same as last time. We in for it I tell ya!"
Cormac sneered but some of the other students started to speak up about how they knew someone who disappeared and someone's friend had been killed mysteriously but some of it sounded like hearsay only. Finally Ron called for calm and they quieted. The ginger spoke again, "Alright so even if the Dark Lord is back we can't let Umbridge get away with not teaching us how to defend ourselves. So what I suggest is that we learn and teach each other how to do it"
Now came the hard part. All of them started looking at each other, at Ron with their hooded eyes expecting for a joke to be revealed or some prank to happen. After all Fred and George were there so this could be a joke after all. I mean, who would take the trouble to invite some select students to come to a pre-determined spot in the Forbidden Forest at night just to talk?! And yet, there was no laughing or snickering and finally Ginny spoke up, "I'm in. I want to learn"
The twins stepped up and agreed as well. Cormac quickly assented and when he did many of the girls did as well. The guys caved and followed suit as well. One of the students –in the dark it was difficult to see who exactly- asked, "What about Harry? Or Hermione?"
Some of the others nodded and began muttering at that. Ron grimaced, "I'm sorry to say but I don't know what's going on with them especially Harry. I can't vouch for him or say that he could help us but what I do know is that we have to rely on ourselves for now. Who knows, maybe I can convince them to join us as well" It was an honest statement and that seemed to calm them down and they began discussing names and places to meet, somewhere that was not the Forbidden Forest. That, they all agreed on.
It went on through the night and after two in the morning, they silently left the clearing in groups. They decided on a name, Dumbledore's Army and that made them all smile inwardly. As they made their way through the forest, happy that they were finally doing something worthwhile, they didn't notice something up in the trees that was watching them the entire time.
They really couldn't be blamed for that really. This particular creature was not of this world, not even from this solar system, galaxy or universe. It couldn't be identified by the Marauder's Map because it was simple alien to the magic of this world. It hailed from a universe that was aptly called Hell and it was as cruel as the infernal creatures that resided there despite being an exile.
Pease rubbed his invisible claws together. The wizard would love the information provided. Pease was a good servant as it flapped away. After all, why bother with temptation when Draco was already destined for Hell? Might as well sow some discord and who knew, maybe Pease could net some of the children's souls here?
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Ira cursed a third time as the spell fizzled uselessly. That was the third scrying he had attempted in the lavish chamber that was his scrying room. Mirrors, crystals and richly decorated metals of all shapes and sizes were covered with cloth to keep anyone who tried to use his scrying tools blind.
He looked over the image of himself reflected in the round, solid gold mirror. His hair was dishevelled and his clothes were a mess. He spoke a charm and felt much better as everything rearranged itself into perfection. His sable robes were lustrous and his hair almost slick with magic as it became neat and tidy once again.
He sighed as he covered the mirror with the blanket and teleported away to the lake. Peach trees ringed the pristine waters that shimmered with a fey blue. The growth of the trees was impossible, even bearing ripe and juicy fruit but magic made everything possible. He plucked one with magic and took a bite from the very sweet fruit, looking at the towers and small keeps of basalt and iron working late into the false night.
Sia-Treskri was larger now than it had ever been and Ira's control over it was absolute. The Dark Menagerie were his most able servants, as flights of proto-devils patrolled one end of the demi-plane to the other. The proto-fiends were loyal and very capable and some of them even retained some vestige of skills they knew in life.
Smiths, craftsmen even architects were highly valued as they added angelic insight tinged with proto-fiendish ingenuity into the works of the exiled devils and undead workers here in the demi-plane. With the creation of Darva, he had made three more Dark Angels to serve as his bodyguards.
The four of them resided in his shadow, their unique connection with the powers of darkness and shadow allowing them to fully transform themselves into living shadows. When battle came, they would leap out and carve any foes into bloody chunks with their shadow weeping great-swords.
Ira turned around, letting it all sink in. The qlippoth was probably warded as it made his way here and despite his best prognostications he couldn't find out why it wanted him. The necromancer could have questioned deities using certain divinations but scoffed at the thought. While he had nothing against the gods, he wasn't going to go that far. He had principles and he wasn't going to involve another player on the planes.
Being here in Sia-Treskri though made him realise how much he had to lose and he didn't want to give everything up. If necessary, he would burn down the Hogwarts world to its foundations if that meant his personal world could be saved from the depredations of the abomination. And he would have to leave soon, as the creature was making its way quickly to Hogwarts or more specifically the Ministry of Magic. Apparently some node of power was drawing it there like a beacon and despite his skills Ira couldn't pinpoint what exactly. It resided deep within the Ministry or somewhere underneath it. He couldn't pinpoint exactly where but it could probably be attributed to lead veins, Ira thought wryly to himself.
He shook the thoughts aside and tried to feel confident. After all he had many servants, could bind others to service and was transvalent. He could deal with a qlippoth lord. He silently grimaced, he hoped at least. He spoke a spell of flying and took to the air giving him a better view of his realm. The centre was grassland that was already built on by infernal servants, after that the buildings tapered out.
A large swamp had been created to serve as a demesne for Ursula and some of the more debased undead that called him master. Some of the land was also empty with the basic materials of stone and metal left there to serve as marks for future buildings. These were gifts to his Right Hand. If they chose to stay here with him, then they could build whatever they liked here in his realm.
He saw Syril flying at him and waited, chuckling as the incubus gripped him like a sloth bringing him close for a kiss. Lust demons were able to control their life-sucking smooches and Syril was no different as he juggled the control of his kiss, grappling his wizard lover and trying to not drag them both down, as Ira's spell of flight could not accommodate the extra weight. That gave the necromancer an idea to create a variation of a flying spell.
"What are you doing?" Ira asked when they pulled out of the kiss. Syril gave him such a look as if he had asked why was the sky blue, You, he cheekily replied telepathically and the necromancer just shrugged as he teleported himself and the incubus to his luxurious bedroom. Hogwarts could wait a while longer.
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Elessa had created a telekinetic shell around herself that afforded her protection when she psionically catapulted her body through the air, akin to a spell of flight. Only this shell travelled faster than a great wyrm and she made her way to mountain in good time. Below her an ocean of fire and lava surrounded the blackened mountain that served as the domain of Rogerus, a balor of some power and immense stupidity according to many other demons.
She made her way to the entrance of the mountain and blasted the two hulking goristro guards. They fell to the floor, twitching as their heads continued to melt while she flew on into the mountain. Within was a simple obsidian throne with skulls heaped around and the balor sitting on it, amusing himself with a captured soul, Lanna.
Elessa didn't say anything as Rogerus stood, shouting threats and curses as he brought his flaming whip to bear. She focused her energies and fuelled it with enough psychic strength, blasting the balor with a single shot. The demon exploded into bloody, flaming chunks. Lanna fell to the floor, her soul-form badly singed and she cried out weakly.
The elf psionicist approached the prone, crying form. Lanna wanted to say something to her, maybe mercy or trying to beg for forgiveness or something like that. Elessa didn't bother and a small bolt of psychic energy made the bloodmage rip apart into oblivion. She stalked to the throne and sat on the steaming, melted slag that was the throne, her body protected from the heat and debris by her power. She was thoroughly exhausted after that display of psionic power.
It was all coming soon and she stopped one small part of it. Had Rogerus been allowed to act, it would have complicated matters already and she couldn't have that. Lanna would have made things worse as well when she escaped. And she would have, Elessa had seen it. The calculations of the cosmos were precise and the psionic movements of the worlds could be trusted. She couldn't let anything interfere with her, Ira and the qlippoth.
Because the qlippoth was necessary or rather the information it bore was needed. The elf grimaced, wondering which reality would happen if she told Ira about her true mission. She wasn't going to kill the qlippoth for some realisation of greater truth. At least that part was a lie but she did need the abomination. Because it held a secret that was necessary, a secret that her masters in Nirvana wanted buried or found and then would bury themselves.
A secret that couldn't be trusted with an arch-wizard, even if he were one of Elessa's oldest compatriots. For what wizard could withstand the chance to find out about the Needle, an artefact and engine from another atavism that should have been destroyed ages ago but was hidden by the qlippoths. Only a few of the demon-progenitors knew about it and fewer still knew what the supposed magical engine could do.
But Elessa knew because her superiors found out the scraps of truth. A magical weapon capable of piercing time itself and allowing movements of large numbers of people –legions even!- from the present to the future to the past and everything in between. Such a weapon could never be entrusted to anyone but Nirvana and she had orders to destroy it, no matter what sacrifices she had to make. But first she needed to know where it was and Kath-Sah-Nagg held that information or a piece of it anyway. That was why she lured the thing to the Prime world. If the abomination wielded the Needle then life as she and everyone, even the Tanar'ri knew it would end, as the abomination would surely try and change time to suit its own liking. Or worse she could bring the obyriths/qlippoths of the past into the present. The elf grimaced as she left the Abyss, intent on making sure such a thing never happened.
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Kath-Sah-Nagg flew without flying passing the stars of the multiverse and the myriad worlds that encompassed it. Sometimes the qlippoth lord would leap through folds in space or shift itself through whorls that allowed swift movement across the cosmos, intent on reaching its destination with a single mindedness that could put the walking dead to shame. Though it could have translated itself instantly, Kath-Sah-Nagg was no fool. No obyrith/qlippoth was. Teleporting to some location with no idea of the dangers was suicide, since even its own divinations gave it nonsensical information but the abomination chalked that up to cosmic interference. This deep in space, there was bound to be stray energies and powers that shielded themselves and such protections could 'bleed' themselves onto other realities.
It sensed the psionic call again, faint and wispy but it was there, like a hook with juicy bait dangling for it and Kath-Sah-Nagg could not deny that it wanted to reach the particular Prime world. There was something with that call, a promise of power that was slightly too tempting to pass up.
It shifted once more across vast distances of empty space and cursed in dead languages at just how far it had fallen. After being released by sickening demons, the qlippoth had repaid the kindness by killing all present. Not only was it satisfying to be finally free after aeons but feeling the rush of blood, gore and the thrill of the kill gave Kath-Sah-Nagg such an ecstatic feeling that it dampened the sense of foreboding and danger, even if it dampened the mood only a little.
Being free after so long, Kath-Sah-Nagg realised that it was alone. Not in the sense that it was the only creature in the multiverse but that it had no allies or minions to call upon. Oh, there were those who would flock to its banner, if only because there was no one else to turn to and such sycophants were next to useless and could hardly be counted upon. Not to mention that the Tanar'ri, from what the abomination had ripped out from the demons present in its jail breaking moment, were now the dominant species of the Abyss.
It had raged and cursed at that. The filthy animals had usurped the rightful place of the true lords of the Abyss and that was something Kath-Sah-Nagg had truly despised even as it ripped opened the demon's head to feast on the sweetmeats within. Of course had the abomination been more powerful it certainly could have taken the fight to the demons but that option couldn't be taken, not just yet.
Tanar'ri like Demogorgon, Orcus, Graz'zt and the like were greater than Kath-Sah-Nagg's power. Moreover the once powerful qlippoths/obyriths had fled into the deeper layers of the Abyss and had not been seen since the Queen of Chaos's failed war. It was not only outnumbered but vastly outpowered by some of the very demons it had once commanded. But that was going to change very soon.
It had knowledge of a weapon, one that was stolen by its kind in the Age before Ages, when the creatures known as illithids had been on an industrial mission to produce armies and weapons. That was a time before the mind flayers struck out for the rest of the multiverse and in those days the qlippoths had been many and the eaters of minds dared not try the Abyss. From what Kath-Sah-Nagg had learned, the vaunted brain eaters had lost and their empire fractured to the point where they could never rebuild again. Luckily they had either lost track of the weapon known as the Needle or in the chaos of their fall, had not cared for one more relic. Too many possibilities but they didn't bother the abomination because the prize was at hand.
It knew bits of pieces of where the weapon should be as well as how to operate the engine but such a weapon needed fuel. Unfortunately or in Kath-Sah-Nagg's case, fortunately, it would be able to acquire the fuel needed. The life-force and power of an archwizard would activate the engine and allow Kath-Sah-Nagg to undo all that had been done to it, its kind and who knew what else. Once that was done, it would use the weapon to all the timelines and ruin the multiverse. The mortal races would die screaming even as demon-kind was erased from existence. Then there would only be the Abyss and the peace of chaos.
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