New Inferno section on Oorstemoth justificaiton

Here is a new section that goes on the end of Chapter 126 (after Reggie dream stalks his mistress)

[quote]
The Inferno

Sir Samwell was passing by the officer’s mess on the way to his cabin and noted that Wing Arms Master Heron was going over numerous documents spread before him on the table. This might be a good information gathering opportunity, Sammael thought to himself.

“You are working late.” Sir Samwell noted.

“Late? I have no idea how one determines time in this place.” Heron replied looking up as Samwell entered the small room.

“A good point. However, even after all this time—and given the fact that we do not need to sleep here—I still find myself thinking in terms of night and day.” Sir Samwell grinned before frowning. “Actually, now that I think of it many demons do the same. The Courts of Chaos even have magically simulated night and day.” Samwell said shaking his head.

“I suspect it is ingrained in everyone.” Heron shrugged.

“But why in demons?” Sir Samwell asked. “There is no fierd in the Abyss, why would beings from a world without a fierd have any sort of inherent desire to organize time as mortals would?”
Heron blinked in surprise having not thought of that before. “That is unusual, are you certain of this?”

“Well, if one is in the Courts of Chaos, it’s pretty hard to miss the fact that it gets very dark and lamps are turned on for half the day.” Samwell shrugged.

“That is odd.” Heron noted. “It is almost as if demons were not actually native to the Abyss.”
Sir Samwell chuckled, “I would not mention that to your religious comrades; I suspect that is heresy.”

Heron grinned at the knight.

Samwell sat down across the table from the Wing Arms Master. “So I am a bit curious.”

Heron tilted his head questioningly.

“I get the impression that locating and rescuing me, may not have been your primary goal on this venture. Am I correct?” Sir Samwell asked.
Heron suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable. “I will admit, finding you, and doing so quickly was a bit of a surprise, after all the Abyss is a big place.”

“Indeed.” Sir Samwell agreed, nodding. “So, since it was not your knight that was kidnapped by this greater demon, what exactly is your, or rather, our, Oorstemoth’s, goal in this venture. What does Oorstemoth get out of it?”

Heron sighed, sitting back. “Well, it’s a bit complicated.”

Sir Samwell nodded for him to continue.

“The Church and Rod of Tiernon became involved with the greater demon when one of their priests accidentally summoned the greater demon and a party of mortals in Gizzor Del.” Heron said.

“Gizzor Del?” Sir Samwell asked in surprise. “Is that tiny hell hole of a city still around?”

“It is.” Heron nodded while Sir Samwell shook his head in disbelief.

“In any event, this party booked passage with a known felon, a smuggler wanted on multiple warrants.” Heron told him. “We had word that he was in Gizzor Del and were waiting for him to leave so that we might execute the warrants against him.”

“A demon booked passage on a smuggler’s ship?” Sir Samwell asked, puzzled.

“Well, no.” Heron said. “The demon came through with a second demon and three mortals. At some point in Gizzor Del, the greater demon disappeared and a fourth mortal, one Lord Edwyrd appeared. It was Lord Edwyrd that booked passage.”

“Ah-hah.” Sir Samwell said.

“To make a long story short, this Lord Edwyrd not only prevented the execution of the warrants, he sunk our vessel, killing most of the crew.” Heron said shaking his head.

“Thus getting warrants against himself.” Sir Samwell said. Heron nodded.

“Thus, we were pursuing this Lord Edwyrd and his crew, which is how we ended up in Freehold where Talarius, Knight Rampant of Tiernon was eventually captured in a giant battle after a thousand demons were expelled from Freehold.” Heron explained.
Sir Samwell blinked and shook his head. “I think you need to back up and go into more detail, there were a thousand demons in someplace called Freehold?”

“It’s a city of wizards, and the demons belonged, we believe, to this Lord Edwyrd. Although, to be fair, it’s a bit murky as to where they came from.” Heron said.

“What sort of wizard controls thousands of demons?” Sir Samwell asked sitting back as if stunned.

“Lord Edwyrd is, supposedly, an animage.” Heron correct.

“Even more insane! An animage cannot bind a thousand demons!” Sir Samwell declared.

“Precisely.” Heron nodded, “When Talarius was kidnapped, the greater demon was in the form of a human.”

“A human? Then how did you know he was the greater demon?” Sir Samwell asked.

“The greater demon fought as himself, but shape changed before our eyes after defeating Talarius.” Heron told the knight.

“Shape changed?” Sir Samwell asked. “I was not aware that greater demons could do that.”

“Nor were we.” Heron nodded.

“In any event, we believe that Lord Edwyrd is, in fact, the greater demon. It is the only explanation we can come up with that fits all the pieces of the puzzle.” Heron said.

“Hmm. It does. Except for one thing.” Sir Samwell said.

“What one thing?” Heron asked, suddenly alarmed.

“If he was controlling a thousand demons, he would almost have to be an archdemon if not a demon prince.” Sir Samwell said.

Heron frowned. “You think so? Everyone we’ve spoken with has insisted he is a greater demon.”

Sir Samwell shrugged. “Based on my experience, it is quite unlikely that a greater demon would command the allegiance of a thousand demons, let alone force them into hiding in a wizard city.”

Heron sighed. “That will certainly make executing the warrants against him more difficult.”

“Indeed.” Sir Samwell nodded. “Now, let’s go back a bit more and tell me about this Freehold and wizards in it.”

Heron shrugged. “Very well.”

[/quote]

This is a first pass. It seems a bit rough/too quick.

Do I need to freshen up the language to be more Oorstemothian?

Heron isn’t a big courtly speak advocate, but even so…

Thoughts?

The O’s and T’s did talk, That’s how Heron knows the story of Verigas.

So that’s how the O’s came to this conclusion that Lord Edwyrd was likely to be the demon.

And if not, he was a very powerful warlock of the demon’s or something, like that. However, Verigas never saw Lord Edwyrd, he somehow just popped up while Verigas was knocked out and the demon disappeared. So, perhaps, Lord Edwyrd was summoned by the demon to aid the party, but given that the demon could shape change (which they discovered in the battle) it is most likely that Lord Edwyrd and the demon were the same person.

Iskerus was in on that discussion, and he has now seen “Orcus” he had not seen Lord Edwyrd, but he does fit the description, his human form was a young man of about 18 to 20 with long curly black hair and wearing animage robes. The only difference between that and the descriptions they have of Lord Edwyrd is the robes.

Iskerus also knows that the demons belonged to Exador (however, the I’s do not because they left before Exador was exposed), he was negotiating the “move” into Freehold of the T’s for the coming Exador battle. So they would have filled him in on what they know.

And Iskerus may soon find out about Orcus and the Five Siblings.

So I am thinking the first part of this may need some clearing up in their discussions,