Chapter 14: Ears, Truffles and Zombies

From the Chronicles of Brother Jacques.

1/6 Night / early morning. Resumé:
We are all deaf... at first, with burst eardrums. Keruna / Carmine may have regenerated as she SHAPESHIFTED. Sir Zacharias and I can lipread.
In addition, my broken arm was splinted and I took a HEALING potion.
We organised ourselves so that most could rest, whilst others kept watch.

I prayed, and held a brief ceremony of thanks within the spiral of debris, but received no vision or guidance.

What to do with the box containing the Dagger? When Sir Zacharias brought the Box of Truffles (the containment vessel supposedly containing the real Dagger) within the spiral, it started smoking. This was undesirable because; although the physical aspect of the Dagger permits the Demon to survive in our world, and at the same time the Demon within the Dagger makes the Dagger itself physically stronger, destruction of the physical Dagger (except according to a number of recipes) will not neccessarily destroy the physical nature of the Demon (although, it might). In other words, the Demon-Dagger being within the holy spiral risked some half-arsed effect that could free the Demon, or at least to destroy it's containment. Neither Keruna nor I could permit this, and after I whacked the box out of the spiral, Keruna (as Lady Carmine) poured wine over the box, to extinguish it. This seemed to succeed.
Sir Zacharias finally realised that she who appeared to be Carmine, was really Baroness Keruna.

The rest of the night passed uneasily.

We are still not sure what we want to do next. Obviously I want to destroy the Dagger (ideally by taking it back to a cathedral in Valon), or failing that to take it before an Ancient Dragon. Keruna also wants to destroy the Dagger (also, ideally on her terms). She can probably take it from us when she wants to, although she may not be certain of this herself.
Meanwhile we both want to be sure that Kiellevain was obliterated.
We also want to investigate and clean up his local powerbase.

1/6 Dawn. We rode to the Han, with Soro scouting ahead, having SHAPESHIFTED to the form of a small bird. I haven't attempted to show him the error of his ways as yet, partly because my order is not an evangelical one, but mostly because he was blessed with his own miracle; the GOD, or at least an Archangel seems to have aided him against the Earth Demon. Nevertheless, his Soul is in danger from all this magic, as I do not believe that it is sanctioned (as my own is).
Soro saw Han's town hall as a minor centre of evil, and the vast pentagram on the ground before it, as a major centre of great evil.
The pentagram was ringed and marked by crucified (dead or dying) victims, and lit candles. There were 8 Imps guarding it.
We had to:

§ Safely end the ritual (that had been used to raise 1 or many Demons); in other words to seal a temporary PORTAL to Hell.
§ Despatch any lingering agents (such as the Imps), ideally without allowing them to report.
§ Plunder the place for information and other resources (obviously Keruna and I, and possibly Soro are competitors).
§ Rescue victims, or more likely send their Souls in the right direction.

I worked out how to end the ritual (I suspect that Keruna could have done so as well); I clockwise spiral, snuffing each candle in turn with Holy Wine. I have just enough Holy Wine left to do this, leaving only a drop or so to spare. I cannot sanctify Holy Wine (at least, not away from a church).
I started the ritual, taking extreme care not to get any part of myself inside the pentagram.

Meanwhile, I'd cast reduced BLESS on Sir Z and J-M / E, sufficient that they could hit the Imps. Soro took care of himself, and Keruna took care of her own guards and mercenaries.
Arrows and bolts proved fairly ineffective (as the Imps' thick skin acted like armour), but lances worked. Horses' hooves could not interact with the Imps.
We lost at least one mercenary.
J-M / E hit himself on the head with a mace.
Keruna did something effective, but I missed quite what it was (paranoia!).

As I drew level with the front of Han town hall, a grey hand reached for me from a window. It was a Zombie, subject to a SPEED spell (so that it moved like a normal man).
I had no choice but to continue the ritual.
Fortunately Sir Z noticed and wheeled his horse about (and momentarily lost control) to destroy the Zombie.
Sir Z tossed me the box containing the (real) Dagger. Despite having a single working arm, and being caught up in a ritual that cannot be broken, I caught it and placed it within my robe.
I passed the front of the hall, and another Zombie emerged. Keruna and/or her guards destroyed it (there were 5 in all).
Eventually I completed the ritual and moved towards the hall.

These Zombies are very like the Undead that attacked the knights on the way to Igor. They had been dead for a while, so probably ANIMATED some time before the previous night. At the time I had assumed that they were something to do with Keruna, but I now think that they were from the Temple of Death / Sir Seulethan Demorte.
It is significant that this is the second Demon / Necromancy connection (the first being Nicodemus / Salagon - Kiellevain).
I am sure that Keruna finds this significant as well.
To my mind Kiellevain had used a suspiciously large quantity of resources to secure his retreat, whilst at the same time making an all out attack on the manor house last night. Possibly he is just very conservative / paranoid, but we may be missing something here (such as his using someone else's secure base, either by agreement or because he had taken it over).

Keruna entered the hall from the side as soon as she could. I followed through the same window. She used some sort of magical SENSE ENHANCEMENT / SEE MAGIC / SEE SPIRITS.
Soro entered the front after clearing the atrium with a CLOUD OF FIRE (he had sensed something, another Zombie, within).
Inside was another altar (the main one being the huge pentagram outside). Likely this had been used to gather sufficient power to establish the main one.