Saz'ja the Priestess of N'zoth

Trapped in the darkness of my own thoughts, I could only think about what had happened. Malzarra played us all like a harp. No, not Malzarra, a shapeshifter. He had been among the Mistress' chosen ones for who knows how many years and none noticed anything amiss. But why would it matter at this point? Everything was over: I failed to defeat the land-dwellers and failed to protect the Mistress. No wonder N'zoth revoked his blessings. I couldn't really feel myself worthy of them anymore.

XXX

I woke up. The gauges left by the beast's claws were burning after snow got into them. Others were torn to shreds at this point.

I gripped the bloodied trident lying nearby and used it as a cane to lift my body. Even if it was my time to die, I would rather be slain while fighting.

The creature licked its bloody lips and made a guttural chittering sound as if laughing at me. Veiny muscles tensed ready for a launch.

Two bolts of green magic broke off large pieces of the monster's carapace. It slowed down. A moment later a sphere of ice also hit my pursuer. It got covered in heavy ice. I did not miss my chance and began to run towards a group of newcomers.

I saw the blue-skinned human-like woman finishing an incantation. She had yellow pupil-less eyes and bug antennae on her forehead. Near her stood a tall figure that looked like a cross between a tall goblin and a sea urchin made out of icicle spikes. It looked miserable with a heavy slave collar on its neck.

Their attack did not stop the monster completely. I heard it charging after me with a renewed fervor. The only thing that saved me from a lethal bite was a white transparent bubble built around my body. It was created by a red-skinned draenei with long demic horns. I could've sworn I heard the ticking clocks and ringing bells while he was doing that.

"Hey you, filthy mutt, come and fight me. I'll make a rug out of your stinking hide!" A spearwoman in dark armor shouted in Common language. With a thunderous voice she woven golden light around the confused beast. Her head looked like the one of a naga sea witch: green scales and serpents in place of hair. But she stood on two legs like a land-dweller and had only two arms.

Her spell was about to dissipate around my assailant until the horned man waved his hand and reinforced it with white cogs attached to the veil of light. The beast left an angry roar as the spell's force compelled it to turn its head towards the half-breed naga. In response, the warriors stood around her ready to meet claws with iron.

None of them expected the bug-woman getting knocked over by an invisible force and being trapped inside a coffin of ice in that very instance. A huge four-armed green demon with black bat wings suddenly appeared from thin air. He pulled a large poleaxe from the ice with a disappointed grunt. Before anyone could retaliate the fiend teleported away from the group and took off into the air.

"Get back here and face me, you ruffian!" A harpy in fancy-looking clothes pointed her rapier at the cowardly demon and took off. Her wings being on fire did not bother her in the slightest. She was leaving a trail of sparks in her wake until she reached another flier. Harpy's prey did not expect a perfect attacker's copy to appear from behind. Attacks from both fake and real fencers pierced the flat-footed demon's hide.

Then a third gray demon with curled up paper in his hand joined the fight. He wasn't aiding its kin, however. Instead, the stone-skinned creature stood among the warriors and launched beams of light at its green cousin.

At the same time, the red mage made a grasping motion with his hand and created a giant transparent metal gauntlet with fingers locked around the flier. Mimicking the gesture of its master, the spell began crushing the demon. Crunching bones could be heard then.

When I dragged my eyes back on the ground I saw a fight that was as vicious. The dog-like monster dragged the armored naga from the rest of the group with a long barbed tongue. The woman became as bright as the Sun. Painful-to-look-at light made the creature whine from pain.

"Icehead, stop standing like Sharn's tower and do something!" A skinny ogre screamed at an icicle urchin from before.

"I'm obliged to only follow her orders, mortal." The Icehead pointed at the woman trapped in half-melted ice. "Don't you dare tell me.."

The ogre did not want to listen to the screeching of the Icehead anymore and ran behind the dog creature with a scimitar. One precise slice landed right in the crack in its carapace. The same crack that was left by bug-woman's magic. The wound seemed to bleed a lot.

The green demon probably realized that things weren't going well for him and his pet. He teleported away from the giant hand's grasp and ordered the beast something in its ugly-sounding tongue. The hound obeyed and attempted to escape as well.

"Sulket, banish the green one on my command!" Blue bug-woman, now free from ice, shot a beam of purplish energy straight to the flier's head. The spell looked similar to the ones I used to ravage the minds of my enemies. The victim predictably screamed in pain. "Tazekhu, attack the hound on the ground."

Hearing the command, the red mage dismissed the giant hand spell and uttered his incantation. With a brief flop sound the flying demon vanished as if he'd never been there. At the same time, the frozen slave began lazily throwing balls of ice at the beast.

Everyone else darted towards the one remaining enemy. Steel and spells withered it down until the armored naga smote the creature with an illuminated spear.

"Did you need to banish the flying fiend?" The harpy complained to the rest of the group. "We won't get any reward for bringing thin air!"

"It would've been too risky to fight both yugoloths at the same time." The red one objected.

"Ahem, it's a very lovely topic to discuss when I'm NOT HERE." The icicle creature interjected. Strangely I noticed that the slave collar it wore was too large to serve its purpose. What was the point of him having it then? It wasn't the wearer's amusement, I was sure of it.

"Yes, of course!" The bug woman enthusiastically dug into her pouch. "There! This book contains notes of a famous Xendric archaeologist… "

"Just give me the book already until I get summoned for another stupid errand!"

When the frozen thing disappeared, the group's ogre decided to break through silence.

"What's this guy's deal?"

"He is Tazekhu the Devil of Compliance from Risia, forever destined to be a servant of stronger fiends. Even though he hates that predicament, he does nothing to salvage it. However, he enjoys tormenting those weaker than him. In fact, he was rather powerful in the past but once slavery stopped being commonplace his strength dwindled as a consequence…" The bug-woman seemed like she could keep on her lecture for hours.

"Sul, there will be time for that later." The spearwoman interrupted her then she turned to me. "Are you alright?" The question was asked in Nazja tongue. Even if the accent was weird, hearing it made me a little less wary of the stranger.

Author's note:

Sul Shelani summoned a slightly homebrewed version of Barbed Devil with Infernal Calling. Fiends and other outsiders in Eberron are different from the Great Wheel ones. Similar to Chainsaw Man devils, these guys are living representations of various concepts of the material world. Risia specifically is a plane of ice, stasis, and stagnation so its inhabitants reflect that.

She also used Mind Sliver to mess up nycaloth's saving throw.

Saz'ja's life was saved by Protection from Evil and Good.

Gazshena used the Compelled Duel spell on the canoloth to distract it.