Tuesday, December 26, 2006

The Orgoth Mystery Unfolds - soul cage the first

After gaining the additional funding for the dig, Grigori and his escort returned to the archaeological site, to find that something had gone wrong. Men who'd gone down into the newly opened ruins had not come back out. Our intrepid adventurers rose to the challenge, entering the long-abandoned complex to confront its mouldering horrors. They found the missing men chained to sacrificial tables where they'd been tortured to death, and later, the monstrosity that had done the deed--a Cephalyx, a repulsive beastie able to twist wills and turn people into mind-slaves.

Not only that, but they discovered the thing to be allied with the Infernal they had met once before. When the heroes entered the room, the two fiends were occupied with a strange black lattice which spewed an aura so evil that Ian felt shaken by it. Braydon recognized the artifact as a soul cage, one of those creations used by Cryx to trap and cannibalize souls for power. What's more, it was occupied.

Noticing the new arrivals, the Infernal turned to face them. When it spotted Grigori, it mockingly welcomed him as its 'savior.' They had a history, it said, though of course Grigori couldn't remember. The Orgoth had trapped Infernals in devices such as this soul cage, it explained; devices which enabled the Orgoth to make sacrifice to the Infernals within and then wield the resultant power as they pleased. After the Orgoth fled, the Infernal's cage had lain undisturbed in the dark for hundreds of years. It would lie there still, if it weren't for a larcenous band of thieves raiding a particular Orgoth ruin some years ago. Hadn't Grigori always wondered what had happened to him? Why he had awakened outside the entrance to those ruins wearing his companions' blood, unable to remember anything? When he had touched the cage, the Infernal told him, it had been able to "borrow" his body for a time, using him to kill the others and shatter its prison. And now, the elegant demon crowed, it would find its siblings...

But not if Islene had anything to say about it! With the Infernal distracted, she destroyed the soul cage with a single well-placed shot. But she didn't get the reaction she had bargained for. The Infernal laughingly thanked her as a second Infernal resolved out of the smoke of the cage's destruction. Bracing themselves for an uneven fight, the heroes were shocked when, instead, the first Infernal turned on his dazed, newly-freed sister. While she pleaded for her life, he absorbed her into himself. And then, in a black burst of magic, he vanished.

The Cephalyx didn't last long after that. It became a gift for Professor Pendrake, when they returned to Corvis.

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