"Halkeginian "
'Thoughts'
'Telepathy'
'Spells and the like'
"Common/Dwarven/Elven"
"Speech: Draconic"
"Speech: Abyssal"
As the cry of "ELF!" fills the air, Raskreia can't help but think 'What did I do to deserve this.'
Before any spells could potentially fly from the somewhat panicked students she interposes herself between the man and the children offering a hand to him in greeting.
He at first delicately takes her hand in his, but turns it into a firm handshake once he realizes she is indeed not as frail as she appears to be at first glance. "Greetings to you." She says to him in fluent elvish "and no thanks are needed, for you would have surely done the same had our roles been reversed."
He nods in agreement, letting go of her hand in the process "This is true, but never the less I thank you. We should however speak in the common tongue for my companions are not as well versed in the elvish tongue as you or I am." He takes a step backwards before continuing this time in common "My name is Beican, those two are Eldrad and Elena, the Halfling currently unconscious is Idoric."
The mentioned people are currently in a small huddle, with Eldrad bandaging an arrow would he had sustained and Elena casting what appear to be healing spells on Idoric who is now once more waking.
"May we inquire your names?" Beican's words cast her out of her observations.
Raskreia quickly introduces everyone on her side, the students having visibly calmed down quite a bit by now due to the calm nature she had been interacting with the elf.
"I have to wonder however, what was it with their reaction upon seeing me, they still seem quite afraid of me?" Beican is making sure to make no sudden movements and to stay in full view of the children as to not startle or frighten then any further.
"They come from a land which fears elves. We are, as far as I could discern, portrayed in their culture as poorly as devils and demons are in ours." She cant help but let an amused undertone enter her voice.
Judging by the glimmer of mischief that enters his eyes he caught her insinuation but chose to not comment on it. "I see, how peculiar that is indeed." He turns to look towards his now healed compatriots during which time Raskreia casts a 'Tongues' spell on Kirche so that she may translate for the other three what is being said.
"Well, now that we are patched up we should head out once more. Our quest is not one easily abandoned." Beican's voice drifts over to them now accompanied by the rest of his group. "I sincerely hope that there are no more of this strange type of goblin where we are going, for it will make our task much more of a challenge than we hoped it to be."
Felniir, who had until then chosen to stay and inspect the corpses of the dead critters, saunters up to the group of people. "Not to make a bad situation worse, but those are no mere goblins. Not all of them at the very least."
It says volumes about the mentality of the average adventurer that hearing a big cat speak in fluent common counts as little more than a interesting occurrence, if their facial impressions are anything to go by at least.
"If not goblins then what are these?" This was for a change not Beican who spoke, but rather Elena.
"I didn't say they were not goblins, I said they were not merely goblins." The next words that left Felniir's maw caused a shiver of dread to pass the four adventurers "They are Half-fiends."
"Are you certain of this?" Beican is looking more grim than he had since the beginning of this conversation. And at the nod of confirmation from the tiger he continues "This bodes no good."
A few moments of silence pass in which the only sound is that of the students murmuring to one another in their native language after Kirche had finished translating everything that had been said.
A few glances pass between the four adventurers as though in a silent conversation, and Beican once more turns towards Raskreia. "I dislike having to ask you for further aid, but would you consider aiding us in our task, I fear the four of us might not be able to complete it on our own, and it is a time sensitive matter which allows us not to retreat first."
At Raskreia's questioning gaze he elaborates "You see, a few days ago a small farming hamlet has been raided by what was thought to be goblins. The curious thing however was that there were no bodies found in the ruin, and human tracks intertwined with those of goblins. These goblins took prisoners."
"I see." Raskreia then turns towards the children "Alright, I'm assuming you caught all of that. And before any of you say anything, no I am not taking you with me. It is simply to dangerous."
As expected the students start to protest this decision but one line in particular, said with probably not much thought behind it, caught Raskreia's attention in particular. Who said it she doesn't know but she heard it quite clearly. "Is it even safe here?"
After hearing that line Raskreia freezes, and her gaze unfocuses, now no longer seeing what is in front of her but rather sees an even long past.
Ashes, cinders, burned and mutilated corpses everywhere, dozens of them. She cares not for any but one of the bodies, the only one not even slightly singed by the raging inferno that had passed through here.
And during that brief moment all she can see, all she can comprehend is the numerous wounds across the persons body, the blood marring their golden hair, the tear stains down their face and the marks of hands around the throat.
For everyone else they only see Raskreia freeze up for a moment, and it takes them a few seconds to realize she is no longer paying attention to them.
Felniir has a horrible feeling that she knows what has happened just now, but there isn't much she can do about it at the moment.
And then for just a brief second those watching could have sworn the air around them got warmer by a few degrees, and for less than a fraction of a second the once docile, friendly and companionable person that is Raskreia is replaced by a snarling figure, teeth like daggers and eyes alight with rage and grief.
But it was over so soon that most passed it off as their imagination. And now again all smiles Raskreia focused once more on reality around her.
"Ah, of course. Naturally you can come with us." Before any of the four can comprehend this complete heel-turn Felniir walks up and starts snarling at Raskreia in Draconic.
"You can't be serious. You CAN'T take them with us on this. They are children for gods sake, they are not made for this." The amount of vigor with which this was said is only enhanced through the snarling and hissing quality of the draconic tongue. And it is honestly quite the intimidating language to listen to, especially when you can't understand a word of what is being said.
"And I cant just leave them alone either, what if someone or something finds them?"
At those words Felniir visibly relaxes quite a bit "This is about THAT, isn't it? And don't try to deny it I saw you space out back there."
"N- It might be. But the fact that I might base my decision on that doesn't change the fact that it is something to watch out for."
Felniir can do naught but sigh "True, but neither is it a good idea to take them with us. You saw those little pests, they are nasty customers. And I somehow doubt we have seen the last of them. Can't you teleport the kids somewhere or gate them back for the time being?"
"I suppose I could, but that would require quite a few high grade spells on my part and who knows what might show up by the end of the day. Half fiends don't just grow out of the ground."
"How about a magnificent mansion then? A seventh tier spell shouldn't hurt you, the only thing you would be loosing is the use out of your vestment."
"I- yes that should work, it can hardly get any safer than an extradimensional space. Lets go with that."
What both of them forgot is that Kirche could perfect understand every single word spoken, but she chose to not say anything.
"Alright, sorry for my indecisiveness, but I decided for you to not accompany us after all. And no I wont hear any argument. I will create you a comfortable place to stay in, it will last for quite a while, but should it for some reason run out before I am back head in that direction and you should get to the city of Druma, once there ask for someone named Kwalin, to do this I will give you my translation item so you may talk to them in the first place."
As she finishes saying that she pulls out a spell formula and presses it to her chest causing it to briefly shimmer with magic whereupon Raskreia briefly chants a spell incantation. After she is done a shimmering, nearly invisible, oval portal opens up mid air.
"Just step through here and you will be safe for the next two days, I shouldn't take nearly that long but you never know. And now I will give you the aforementioned item, once I take this necklace off I wont be able to understand you anymore so there is that." After that sentence she takes off her necklace and hands it to Tabitha, who for her part accepts the item without fuss.
Seeing as it is hard to argue with someone who cannot understand you, and that Tabitha is not very inclined to hand over the necklace, and that Kirche is staying quite the four students silently trudge through the oval portal, followed by their respective familiars. Sylphid fitting just barely, even if the portal adjusts itself for her to fit through.
Raskreia, after everyone went through the portal that was meant to, turns back towards the adventurers "Right, lead the way. We can by the way use the carriage while it sill lasts."
Beican nods and starts to mount the back of the carriage, the other three following suit.
"The place in question should be that way, we estimate it to be no further than two hours walk." Which makes Raskreia smile as she looks over her shoulder at the four people now sitting in the conjured vehicle.
"Well I think we shall make considerably better time than that." Before any of them could say anything to that the carriage once more took off.
Halkeginia, Trading post
Joshua cant say that he expected his new job to be the way it is. For one he considered himself adequate with the use of a spear. The Dwarves blew that line of thinking out of the water.
He thought he knew some good crafts people. The dwarves trumped any of those.
He thought he could hold his liquor. Well… one can guess where this line of thought is going.
Anyways. It was been a few days since this place started forming, first order of business was to build housing for everyone staying here and starting to build an actual gate.
The former was, while not complete by any stretch of the imagination, progressing rather well and they could even sleep in beds now rather than bedrolls. The latter however… well it isn't easy building a gate in any way shape or form, even if the framework is already there thanks to a sentient reptile.
That is another point that took a bit time of getting used to, having a dragon hang around and just start a conversation with you. Josh is certain some of his younger colleagues actually soiled themselves when the thing landed close to them the first few times.
That is not to say he didn't fulfill his own wish to go talk to the thing, Alrion as he learned he was called. And Raskreia was right, the dragon was a very good conversationalist, and his jokes were simply the best. Currently the great beast was away together with two of the dwarves, they are currently "constructing" a road leading to Tristania.
He didn't really have much left to do here, he has already finished creating as many stone constructs as there was a need of. Foundations were in place, walls were erected and so forth.
Josh honestly thought that the dragon was getting bored.
It was peaceful, it was quiet, and like all things wasn't going to last. He realized this last fact as an arrow whizzed just barely past him. Skinner, who had been posted with him on the walls, wasn't quite as lucky as he was shot straight through the throat. Not instantly lethal but in a combat situation it might as well be.
Resigning himself that Skinner was most probably a goner he ducked behind a parapet and blew the signal horn he had been given, cursing himself for not having noticed enemies approaching sooner.
To Joshes credit these people were smart about it, they used the waning sun and the shrubbery they have not yet cleared as cover for their approach. The fact that these were not entirely amateurs didn't help either.
Rapid movement could be heard from both sides of the walls as defenders were getting ready to repel the encroaching attackers.
Cursing his luck Josh starts loading his crossbow he had been handed upon being assigned to the walls. He stood up to shoot at someone, but just as he stood an arrow yet again flew by him, and as his luck would have it misses… severing the string of his crossbow in the process.
"Damn the… luck." Really what else is he to say as he goes to pick up Skinner's unused Crossbow. "By Brimir I swear I will put a bolt into one of those archers faces even if I have to do it by hand."
Golarion
It had taken the group a bit under an hour to reach their destination. It turned out to be a straight drop in the ground with a really rather rickety looking set of wooden stairs leading downward in a spiral.
"This is it" Spoke Beican as the group assessed the hole. "Felniir and I should take point, Elena and Idoric behind us, Raskreia and Eldrad you can take the rear."
"What's our objective here exactly?" This was Felniir as she took position at the front of the group.
"Our primary objective is to find and secure the kidnapped people. Failing that we should at least confirm whether or not they are all dead. Our secondary and tertiary objectives are eliminating the goblins and stopping whatever demonic influence lingers here. Our prime concern at the moment however remains with the captives."
The rest of them nod, moving into their respective positions, to start the descent.
After a good five minutes of trudging down stairs that could give in at any moment they finally reach the bottom, undisturbed so far.
Once they reached the bottom Raskreia casts a light on a small pebble for the benefit of those without darkvision. As they move forward they studiously avoid anything that might hide a trap, however crude it could be. Not to mention the copious amounts of filth that is littering the ground.
None of them are squeamish by any means, but that doesn't mean they like walking through goblin excrement.
"I know they are goblins and we cant expect too much from them, but is it really too much to ask for them not to shit literally everywhere?" Elena comments as she avoids stepping into a particularly large mound.
"I don't know, I think it might be a mating ritual of sorts. That, or they are just retarded, possibly both." Elena's brother responds.
"You think you have it bad? My nose is about five times as well developed as yours! Still not as bad as that Othyug layer we went into years ago though, but not far off. Also I don't have boots." The only non humanoid of the group growls back at the humans behind her, who for their part stop complaining now and instead pity the tiger.
"I see a fork up ahead. Which way should we go, left or right?" Beican gets the group's attention back to the matter at hand.
Felniir moves over to both sides and carefully sniffs both sides of the tunnel, wincing as she does. "I can smell human, or at least what I assume to be human, from either path, but the right path has less smell of goblin, if only by a bit."
"From the left I can hear allot of noise further down." Beican mentions.
"Lets go right then, if only due to there potentially being less goblins down that path." Eldrad says carefully eyeing the two paths.
They are now moving down the right path, and the further they go the wider the path becomes and the higher the ceiling, after a while the ground even smoothens out somewhat, when suddenly the lead pair stops after glancing around a bend.
"Two goblins ahead, look like those more dangerous ones too. They are standing in front of a metal door, it looks like an actual building." Beican whispers to those behind him.
"Goblins don't build, a ruin then? Why would there be a ruin down here?" Raskreia speaks up in a hushed voice. The rest of the party just shrugs.
"I don't know, nor do I care right now. I have a strong feeling at least some of the missing people are inside of that building." Beican whispers back, and glancing out once more. "We should take those two out as silently as we can. Any suggestions?"
They all think for a moment and Elena speaks up first "I can silence them, then you could engage them in melee without making any sound."
"Anything else?" Eldrad asks.
"Well, I was just going to use a disintegrate on one of them." Raskreia admits.
They all look at her for a moment "That would do it, yeah. Alright, Felniir you take the right one, and Raskreia you shoot the left one. I will charge the left one in case it survives somehow. Eldrad and Idoric you assist Felniir. Sound good?" No one has any objections to Beican's plan so they all get ready to put the plan to action.
They take up their respective positions, Elena casts a silence on the space between the two guards at the same time as a green ray shoots out at the left goblin, who turns to ash the moment the green ray hits him. Not a second later Felniir sprints out of cover and pounces the still startled goblin viciously wounding him and knocking him prone, but not killing him due to it managing to avoid being bit through the throat.
The small creature would have celebrated this fact had a dagger not pierced its skull at the temple a moment later thanks to Idoric.
Elena then dispels the silence and the group approaches the door. Noticing that the ground became tiled for the last few feet.
"That went well. Am I glad we got these two with us right about now." Eldrad says motioning towards Raskreia and Felniir, causing both of them to smile at the man.
"This door isn't trapped. Sure looks heavy though." Idoric mentions from where he had inspected the door.
Raskreia looks around the place inspecting the tiles they are currently standing on, as broken as they are due to likely time and the goblins tender attention. But even through the wear and tear she can see that there on the ground are lines carved into the stone, and they might have once at some point made a circular shape. Shrugging it off as something of little importance she turns back towards the group who were in the process of taking a defensive position for opening the door.
Taking her place behind Eldrad, just in time for Beican to push open the door. After he does so they can hear low chattering and sobbing from beyond, which abruptly stops as the door starts to open.
Just as Beican and Elena are about to move into the room to check on what is likely the people they came in here for, a horn blast is heard from the way they came from. And there standing where they came from were two more goblins, same as the ones they had just killed. Both of them holding horns to their lips.
"Damn." Rask hisses out and was about to cast a spell at the two goblins. But before she can do so her eyes widen and she lets out a sound that is somewhere between a scream and a whimper.
The next thing anyone sees is Raskreia quite literally flying backwards through the door with a mighty beat of her wings, and she only stops when she hits the far wall. Uncaring of her surroundings now.
While the rest of their impromptu party is confused about her action, Felniir has a feeling she knows what caused this. And sure enough as she turns to look at the tunnel a good dozen giant spiders mounted by goblins come skittering at them along the floor, walls and ceiling, followed by the bellowing of what one can assume to be the rest of the goblins.
Felniir then hears Eldrad shout "Into the room." Something she gladly obliges. And just a moment after she passes through the door slams shut behind her, but not wanting it to be opened again she slams herself against the door from the other side aided by Beican and Eldrad.
As the sound of multiple bodies slamming against the door from the other side of the door reaches them Beican turns towards Felniir and grits out "What was that all about?"
"Raskreia has a rather extreme case of Arachnophobia. Like REALLY bad." Felniir says back for the rest of them to hear. They might still look miffed at Rask's action just now but now they at least have a look of understanding on their faces.
Felniir now takes a quick look around the room and sees that there is just over a dozen humans in the room, tied to the walls. Most of them are female but there is a few men as well. They all look like they haven't eaten properly in for a few days, probably since being caught, she can't see more due to the lack of light in the large room.
Her inspection of the room is then interrupted by a voice from the back of the room. "Duguþ ænig sylfum unc oncnáwan mé?" and while Felniir most certainly could not understand what is being said she did recognize the language for what it was. Abyssal, the language of demons.
Whipping her head around once more she spots a pair of floating orbs at what is presumably the far wall of the room, close to where Raskreia had run off to. "There is a demon in here with us." She says to the two men who are holding the door with her.
While that did got the desired attention from the two men they were in no state to let go of the door at the moment.
The demon for its part, or at least its eyes, looked contemplative for a moment. This didn't last long however as it heard something it honestly didn't expect, someone to speak Abyssal.
The woman just to the right of it seems to have gotten over whatever fear it had been under and looks up at it. "I can understand you, if only barely, you are speaking in a very old form of Abyssal."
'I didn't catch much of that but I think my dialect must be the issue here.' Though the demon. "Can you understand this then? You look like one of the draconic sort." The tone of voice used was almost hopeful.
When first Raskreia ran into the room she just wanted to get away from the spiders as fast as possible. That it could lead her to more danger she didn't even contemplate. That she would almost literally run into the demon they suspected of being here in the process she most certainly didn't expect, but it was still better than those eight legged menaces.
What she also didn't expect was that the demon in question to be a stunningly beautiful woman chained to the wall by her arms, legs and neck. She had ash grey skin, thick black horns extending from the sides of her head pointing forward at a downward angle, her hair is a wild mane of bright orange and reaches all the way to her lower back, being parted by a set of bat-like wings which seem to have been broken and not yet healed. Furthermore laying on the ground lazily is a long fleshy tail. The most catching thing about her though are the glowing, orange, reptilian eyes. A succubus most likely. It doesn't help Rask's concentration in the slightest either that the demoness is stark naked.
It takes Raskreia a moment to realize that she had been asked a question, and her moment of hesitation actually caused the demoness to look disappointed.
"Yes, yes I can understand this much more clearly." Normally she would be much more guarded about speaking to a demon but the fact that she was chained up to a wall, hasn't attacked yet, and that all the humans in the room are still alive makes her relax the slightest bit. Also the sheer amount of excitement on the woman's face is quite funny.
"Good. Now, if you press that skull in the center of the door, wait for it to click three times, and the press it again that will lock the door. And before you say anything, yes I am a demon, and you would be a fool to trust me for no reason. But you can trust me on this as I want those filthy creatures in this room as little as you do."
As this is going on Elena has cut the bindings of the men and women who are trapped here many of whom, as many as can fit, help with holding the door. While Felniir is translating what is being said between Raskreia and the as of yet unnamed Demon. Occasionally the door would spring open a tiny bit, enough for a hand to reach through, but those get swiftly cut off by Idoric or get completely crushed between wall and door.
One woman speaks up timidly over the sound of screaming coming from the other side of the door. "I don't know if it helps sires, but that woman, demon, has reason enough to hate those goblins. They did things to her, things no woman should have to endure. I think she even purposefully kept their attention away from us by provoking them."
Eldrad chuckles lightly "I say at this point we might as well go for it. The situation cant get 110% fucked."
Beican nods at his friend, looks back at Raskreia who nods at him as well and he does as the demon had suggested. The moment he presses the button a second time all the pressure that had been coming from the goblins on the other side stops, but not the hollering. The door is now firmly shut.
"Huh, what do you know, a demon that said the truth." Idoric comments to the group.
Raskreia turns back to the demon after having confirmed that they are relatively safe for the moment. "I thank you, but I know that demons never do anything for free. What do you gain out of this?"
"Merely a chance at freedom." Was the reply, and the serious look on her face said that she meant it.
"You can't honestly expect us to free you for helping us close a door. For all we know you will just try to kill us yourself."
"I am not speaking of you unbinding me, although it would be appreciated. I am speaking of freedom at a more metaphysical level. What I mean to say is that you killing me would be freedom enough." That Honestly threw Raskreia for a loop, a demon that wants to die. No wait a when one kills a demon they often return to the abyss and reform.
"What stops us from just leaving you here then?"
"Nothing but the goblins outside, though I should probably warn you that you wont be able to use magic to combat them as long as you are inside here." The demons voice has gone into a complete monotone now.
"What? Are we inside of a anti-magic zone!? My magic items all still work though." And true to the demons word when Raskreia tried to cast cantrip nothing happened.
"Not precisely, that door over there is no mere door, this here is a small demi-plane, made to allow only one kind of magic. Magic involving the true name of an outsider."
"That is a rather specific thing to allow, I am going to bet there is a story behind it." While Raskreia was talking with the as of yet unnamed demon the rest of the people were listening aptly to Felniir translating what is being said.
"Oh yes, yes there is. Do you want the short version or the long one?" "Short version for now please." The demon nodded.
"You see this place was created specifically to imprison me and me alone. Even these chains were hand crafted to bind me, going so far as to use my own blood in the process of their creation. Long ago a fellow demon lusted after me. He wanted me to be his, yet he did not simply want a mindless or otherwise broken toy. He wanted me fully, mind body and soul, to be a loyal slave in all things. To spare you the details he succeeded in capturing me and placed me here bound by these chains. And the only way for me to leave here is to either die, which I cant naturally due to my demonic nature. Or for me to swear eternal servitude by my true name. He would show up every fifty to a hundred years, or at least that is what he claimed, to check if I had given in yet. As you can see I have not." This was mostly said in a blank monotone, only for some her words to be laced with such hatred that it made Rask glad it was not directed at her.
"T-that is awful. I mean I kind off expect such things from your kind, but to see it actually happen is another thing entirely. Just how long have you been in here." The demon shrugged as best as her position allowed.
"Hard to keep track of time down here, it has been a really long time since that bastard showed up. I think he might have either lost interest in me or he might have died. I am hoping for the former so I might at some point be able to beat him to death with his own spine."
"Any event you might remember that I might also know about?" While the amount of time the woman had been stuck here did not truly matter all that much she was curios about it either way.
"Hmmm, well there was this meteor that fell and destroyed some human kingdom or some such a decade before I got put in here. And the last time I saw my 'warden' he said something about a new god having risen, Aroben? I believe he said."
This legitimately caused Raskreia to freeze, as well as everyone else who had heard the translation and understood even the slightest bit of history. This being had been stuck here in isolation for close to ten thousand years.
"That… is a long time." Raskreia finally said "A really long time in fact."
"I guessed that much." The demon shifts a bit, presumably to make herself slightly more comfortable. "So, now what?"
"I don't know." Raskreia then turns back towards the rest of the people "Alright people, what do we do now? There is a horde of goblins outside, we cant use magic while in here, and I am going to get a panic attack the moment I see a spider."
Idoric chuckles mirthlessly "Of course you had to have arachnophobia, didn't you? Oh well, we all have that one thing we are afraid of. You couldn't cast spells while in here anyways, so there isn't really a point in discussing this anyways."
"Well, yes, but I still feel bad about it. It basically makes me close to useless."
"Don't worry about it, now let us just think about how to get out of here." Elena said with a small smile directed at Raskreia.
"Well there is five of us that are combat capable in here not counting Raskreia. And out there is between two-dozen and a hundred goblins. Add to that the fact we cant cast magic while in here and you get the current picture" Beican sums up for them just how bad their situation really is looking right now.
Eldrad then pipes up "Well we could enlist the demon. She seemed to be rather partial to killing some goblins." Which earned him a slap to the shoulder from his sister.
"You want to deal with a demon?"
"Want to? No, not particularly. But it does seem like a decent option right now, compared to every other option at least."
One of the villager men speaks up now "Excuse me for butting in sirs, but are demons not always irredeemably evil and cannot be trusted?"
They all turn towards him and Beican speaks "A safe assumption for the most part. But there is exceptions to every rule, some demons follow a personal code of honor I hear. And there had even been rumours of a redeemed demon up north."
"Oh you mean, what was her name… Arueshalae?" Everyone turned towards her questioningly "A friend of mine, a paladin, met her briefly a while ago. She is apparently a succubus striving to become a paladin, don't know much about her beyond that."
"And this paladin friend of yours did not kill her on sight?" someone asked.
"He was talked out of it apparently, I wasn't there." Rask says with a shrug.
"I am a cleric of Sarenrae, and she does preach forgiveness, that everyone deserves a second chance." Elena says "But she also speaks that there are those who are beyond redeeming, such as demons and undead."
Raskreia nods at that "Again there are exception to everything. The succubus mentioned earlier being an exception to the demons, and I know for a fact that undead such as Revenants are not strictly evil, or at least they don't have to be. And I have once met a vampire that was not evil, she was turned unwillingly and just had to 'live' with it from then on, if you can excuse the choice of words."
"I suppose you are right in a way, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." The cleric shakes her head a bit "Besides, say it does help us, how much of a help do you think it would really be?"
Rask scratches her chin a bit in thought before answering "Well, assuming what she had said is even partially true, she must have been a demon of some import. Demons often value power over anything else, so I doubt any of them would go out of their way to trap a mere grunt the way this one has. So my guess is that she is a rather powerful individual of her species, which would be rather helpful right now id say."
"Fine then. I suppose at the very least dying to a powerful demon would have more dignity to it than dying to a horde of goblins or due to starvation." While she did agree Elena looked anything but pleased about this.
Beican for his part stared at the demon in the back for the past few minutes, who for her part merely gazed back unblinking, after a while he had to break eye contact and shook his head. "I honestly think she might be desperate to leave. But I want you to ask her one thing, why didn't she swear loyalty to the goblin chief. After all its lifespan is by far shorter than that of any of us, so she would have to only serve for a decade or two, and then be truly free."
None of them had thought of that, but now that they thought about It, it did seem a bit weird.
"That's a good point, let me ask." Raskreia then turned towards the demon once more "We have a question. If you desire freedom so much, why did you not just swear loyalty to the goblin to break free yourself of those chains, it would have meant a relatively short period of servitude considering the lifespan of a goblin."
The demon snarled back at her, a sound of pure hatred and anger, and it was actually one of the most terrifying sounds Raskreia has ever heard, and she has heard the death-wail of an Astradaemon.
"You ask why I chose not to serve that little vermin!? That little pest deserves nothing less than being torn limb from bloody limb. If I ever so much as get my hands on him I will turn him into a bauble to be hung of a tree." She has to visibly clam herself down once more before continuing to speak now once more a neutral face. "My loathing for the little rat aside there is a another reason for it, even were I to spit on the last remnants of my pride as a living creature, the oath has to be confirmed by the one I swear it to. Unfortunately goblins speak neither Abyssal, neither new nor old dialects, and no other language I know was understood either. And these blasted chains keep me from using telepathy."
Raskreia Turned back towards the people who had already heard what was being said due to Felniir translating for them.
"There you have it." The dragoness said.
Beican nods to himself for a moment, then once more locks eyes with the demon "I suppose that is good enough for me. I say go for it Raskreia."
"Eh, Why me?" She was honestly surprised, in her old group there would be at least a ten minute discussion on who would do something like this, with everyone giving arguments and counter arguments as to who should be the one to carry the burden as it were.
She could actually imagine it quite clearly.
Zarhon would be extremely cautious in what he was doing but ultimately he would want to be the one to have this demon be sworn to. She would make a case for either Kwalin or Thorgal to be the one to do it depending on their individual willingness, but hint at the fact that she would like to do it herself. Kwalin and Thorgal would both most likely Neutral in the matter silently judging who is best suited for the task out of all of them. And Felniir would probably do the exact same as she is doing right now, patiently waiting for something to happen.
This is of course after them having spent half an eternity deciding what to do in this situation in the first place. And also the likelihood of coming to the decision of freeing a demon would have been rather slim to begin with. What with two of them being holy warriors. Not impossible, just unlikely at this stage.
"Well you are the only one besides the cat that can talk to her, and Felniir seems rather uninterested in the whole thing. Trust me I would like to have a hot demoness at my beck and call if I could." Idoric answered, though the last remark earned him glares from a good portion of them women in the room, and a punch to the shoulder by Elena.
With a sigh Raskreia turns towards Felniir "You sure you don't want to do this instead?"
"I am a cat, leave me out of this, I mean 'Meow'. In all seriousness though this is more your shtick than mine."
"Man am I glad. Now I can get another lecture about sensible decisions from Kwalin and Thorgal. I can hear them already 'something something demons are bad'." She then walks over to the still unnamed demon.
"We came to the conclusion that it would be beneficial if we could enlist you to help us get out of here. If you are willing of course."
The moment those words left her mouth the demons face went from surprise to an expression of pure excitement. A stark contrast to the anger she had shown on her face earlier. "I- Are you certain?" At Raskreia's nod she goes on to look even more excited before realizing what she was doing and going completely neutral once more. If Rask was honest with herself it is somewhat cute to watch.
"Very well. I believe it would not be so bad to serve the spawn of a dragon. There is certainly worse options out there. Very well Lady dragon come forward so I can give myself to you." Somewhat hesitantly Raskreia moves closer to the demoness but throws away her doubt to lean in closely to the woman.
"You still do not trust me I see, good. That is good, trust must be earned, not granted. All you have to do now is accept my oath by stating you do so." She then leans hear head towards Raskreia as best as she could to whisper in her ear.
"I -" The sound that came out of her mouth, which could only be her true name, was close to indescribable. It was a mixture of a lustful moan at the heights of passion, the yawn of a sleep deprived person and the warcry of an enraged berserker. The sound felt silky to the ears yet incredibly grating at the same time, it left a feeling of incredible satisfaction yet took the same feeling away once more. "Do so swear you eternal loyalty, I shall be yours to command mind body and soul, from here on and forever more."
Raskreia felt a foreign kind of magic creep its way towards her very being, yet it simply stayed there, waiting. After having recovered from the shiver that ran down her spine after hearing this beings true name she quickly composes herself to answer. "I Raskreia, daughter of the golden wyrm Arzirius, accept your oath."
The moment the words left her the chains binding the demon disintegrated into nothing, letting the woman fall to the ground for the first time in millennia, leaving small motes of magic to float about for a moment before vanishing inside of the demon.
She stays there on the ground for a good minute, trying to stand up once more. When being offered help by Raskreia she refuses on the grounds of "If I cannot even stand on my own two legs how do you expect me to help you? Just give me a few moments to remember how to use my body."
"I am honestly surprised you can move at all. Being an outsider must be nice. By the way, here you can use this to cover yourself." Rask takes off her sleeves which causes her clothes to turn once more into their original forms. "They are sleeves of many garments."
The demon accepts the sleeves with a nod "Thank you." Once she put the sleeves on they instantly turned into a set of practical clothes that looked rather comfortable and easy to move in.
"After I figure out once more how to move I should be the same as I had been before being stuck here. So there is that." True to her word after being able to stand once more she quickly proceeded to walk, first unsteadily but then slowly transitioning into a graceful gait and then jogging and running.
Five minutes later she had gone through most basic muscle exercises and once she was done one wouldn't believe she had not been able to move for any extended amount of time.
Everyone was just to the side looking on either impressed or in apprehension as the demon began to quickly regain her motor functions.
Once she was done she slowly walks over to where everyone has grouped up, never truly averting her eyes away from Raskreia, and once she does everyone can at once hear a voice in their head.
'Greetings to you. I thank you all for coming to the decision of freeing me. You have my thanks for this.'
She was at once assaulted by the voices of dozens of humans projecting their thoughts through the telepathy. She cuts away all of the former captives leaving only the adventurers in the link. As everything once more goes quiet, as the adventurers know how to properly handle telepathy, Cathilia sends a small glare at the confused civilians.
'So you can use telepathy now once more? Good makes communication much more easy. Though what do we call you?' Beican asks, unperturbed by the fact that he is talking to a now very much unbound demon.
She briefly looks over at him 'You may call me Cathilia for that is the name I took for myself.' Before once again locking her eyes on Raskreia. 'It is weird, I do not feel any different than I did before. I have no particular compulsion to serve you, nor do I feel as though I will be punished for disobedience.' This makes everyone who could hear that nervous, maybe they did make a mistake after all. 'No matter. I gave you an oath of loyalty and I shall obey it even if it is not enforced the way I expected. Or perhaps this way of thinking is due to the oath? I know not.'
Rask breathes out a sigh of relief, for a moment she was worried. 'That little heart attack aside, what can you do that can help us out of here?'
'Open the door and close it behind me, you may come out once the screams stop.'
'There is so many things I want to comment on in that sentence alone I don't know where to start.' Idoric comments 'For starters, aren't succubae usually opposed to the idea of melee?'
'You think me a succubus?' She looks once more at Raskreia 'You as well?'
'Well, I thought it was likely, though I was uncertain.' The dragoness is shifting a bit in discomfort at her ignorance of the true species of the person who swore her life to her.
To their surprise Cathilia starts to chuckle lightly 'Oh by the pits. To be mistaken for one of those wretches, it has truly been a long time since that has happened. Worry not there had been a time where I was often mistaken for one of their kind, after all most of my kind choose a more masculine form. Larger and more intimidating too, I for my part prefer a female form and enjoy the compactness this size offers.'
'What are you then?' Elena asks as she makes room for the demon as it passes her.
Cathilia touches the door which emits a faint clicking sound much to the panic of everyone else in the room.
The door bursts open moments later to reveal a very surprised looking, singular, goblin flying in. The rest of the horde had apparently given up for the moment to break down the door.
Cathilia grabs the thing by its skull mid flight and smiles in a very feral sort of 'I will kill you and enjoy doing so' sort of way. She starts projecting her telepathy to everyone in range at that moment. She completely ignores the dagger sized blade that rams itself into her chest courtesy of the flailing goblin in her hand. But not taking a attack on herself lightly she lets her hand ignite in deep orange flames, causing the goblin to increase its shrieks ten-fold before dropping still.
'My name is Cathilia Skullgrinder. Balor, Lord of my kind.' She then stops projecting those thoughts towards the people in the room behind her and instead only projects them towards the goblins 'And you have all come here… to die.' She punctuates this statement by ramming the dead goblin she was still holding head first into the doorframe, sending chunks of skull and brain everywhere.
Cathilia then uses her tail to close the door behind her. After doing so she, with a single beat of her wings catapults herself to the other side of the small horde of close to a hundred green skinned pests and a few dozen spiders blocking their only way of escape.
She pulls out the dagger still lodged inside of her chest in a single pull, the 'wound' sealing itself shut the moment the obstruction is removed never truly being a bother in the first place. As she holds the shoddy dagger, which gains a wicked gleam the moment her hand had grasped it, a long whip of flames forms in her other hand.
'And I shall be the one to carry out the sentence'
Inside the prison room the people had wisely locked the door once more, as after a few moments the banging on the door had become rather frantic and panicked, punctuated by cries of pain and wet sounds of flesh, and the constant roar of a fire.
"Please tell me I only just imagined it saying it was a balor." Elena whispered out loud enough for people next to her to hear "Please tell me we didn't just free a greater demon."
"No, you didn't free her. I did." Said Raskreia, who was now leaning on Felniir who also looked rather spooked "Gods do I hope that oath works."
"You and me both" says Eldrad.
Cathilia in the meantime was jumping all over the place breaking bones with kicks, tearing flesh with her hands, burning whole swaths of goblins with her whip and incinerating any who had the bright idea to grapple with her.
She made a point of making the deaths of those who tried to flee through the tunnel especially brutal, though it WAS impossible for her to body block a hundred beings. Instead she simply broke the stairs that led to the surface, trapping the goblins inside this cave for the time being. The spiders been killed right at the beginning.
After a while she made this into a sort of sport. She would tear a goblin in half with her hands, beat them to death with one another using one of them as an improvised club. She even dominated the mind of one of her unwanted children commanding it to attack everything but her in sight to see how long it could survive.
This went on for half an hour and by the end there was only one living goblin left in the cave, the rest being reduced to corpses strewn about everywhere.
This one was the former chief of the goblins, who was currently in the process of trying to climb out of the hole. Deciding to humour the little tyke she waits silently out of sight for him to reach the top.
Just before he does reach the top she teleports herself up to the surface right where he is starting to emerge over the edge.
She then leans down and picks the thing up by its neck. 'Here let me help you up' the thing freezes completely in her grasp and the strong smell of ammonia reaches her nose. 'As pathetic as ever I see.'
No more words are projected to him by her as she slams the thing into a nearby boulder with enough force to harm but not kill. She places a single finger on its forehead and does a quick chant causing the finger to exude a menacing black glow 'Implosion'. After having finished the chant the Goblin only has time to utter a single shriek of pain before its body folds in on itself and all that is left of it is a fist sized ball the weight of a goblin.
She lets out a sigh of satisfaction before teleporting into the cavern before her prison. Once there she sees the people from inside carefully walking outside and gaining confidence in their stride once they see that everything in sight is dead.
Well, the adventurers do, the civilians look to be having trouble keeping the contents of their stomachs inside.
Raskreia moves over to her, pointedly ignoring the mangled spider corpses strewn about.
"You are still here?" Her voice was curious and a bit relieved at once.
"I am." Was the curt reply.
All Raskreia could think then was 'This is going to be a bitch to explain to anyone.'
AN: Longest chapter yet, sorry for the wait.