Session XIX: Silverhallow Knight Lucia

Before entering the mansion, the party went over a plan of action. They decided that Jacqualine should go in first, alone (as to hide their numbers), to parley with the shrouded denizens of the villa whilst Del'Gado scouted out the upper rooms from outside. Flying about the second-floor windows, Del'Gado found nothing particularly significant: the rooms were all derelict and seemingly frozen in time. The one thing that stood out was a singular portrait frame in what was likely the main hallway that he could just barely make out from his position. After this was done, Jacqualine approached the impressive front doors. As the knocked on them, they opened themselves, and movement could be heard from the room with the dark-robed individuals. Three of them welcomed Jacqualine, speaking vaguely in terms of "power," "wisdom," and alluding to some "great mind" who had been active in this mansion. Jacqualine revealed that she was in possession of a map from this great personage and would share it in exchange for information, and at the hooded figures' insistence, wisdom. She left to retrieve the map; in reality leaving to consult with the others, and to prudently make a copy of it.   Now acting on a little more information, the party long discussed on which floor they would enter. Eventually resulting in most of the party, namely Baldur, Imaros, and Jacqualine, entering the ground floor to see what the sinister tenants wished to offer them; Del'Gado and Caerlin would enter from above. However, after using misty step to bypass one of the upper windows, Caerlin quickly realised that the windows were magically sealed, just as the furniture seemed to be, and it was thus impossible to grant access to Del'Gado. Which resulted in everyone, except for Caerlin, joining Jacqualine's ground floor entry. Still, he tried to quickly get down to the others, and on the way there, he saw the portrait that Del'Gado spied earlier: it was of a woman dressed in formal blue clothing with a red stole and wearing a crown of olives. A starry night sky accompanied by silhouettes of spired buildings made up the artwork's background. He spent some time admiring the portrait, during which the others had engaged in talks with the unknown residents down below.   As they entered the room, they could witness signifiers of bad news. Two groups of robed figures, totalling nine, were stood in two clusters: one around an elaborate small pillar which contained a statuette of a knightly figure wielding a glaive, and the other around a half-finished abyssal pentagram. The apparent leader of the group quickly made it clear that sacrifice was on today's agenda, and the party just so happened to have arrived at just the opportune time. The cultists also revealed that they served Abraxas, the Demon Lord of forbidden knowledge, a name both Baldur and Caerlin (who would only learn it later, as he was still portrait-gazing) were familiar with, albeit for vastly different reasons. Seeing little reason to stall any further, Baldur stepped in front of the group and summoned his signature Hellknight armour, which seemed to make one of the cultists reconsider his allegiance, subsequently turning against his former friends. The battle was practically over before it began, as Jacqualine managed to cast hypnotic pattern on the bulk of the cultists, who began staring blankly into the air: Baldur and Del'Gado swiftly dealt with the leader and one of the unaffected cultists. Caerlin did manage to join at the conclusion of the "battle," and immediately tried to kill the last remaining cultist, which Baldur countermanded with his healing. The party then turned to the turncoat, who said that he was an Arcanist who had infiltrated this cult for some time now, and was unsure if he should thank the party for liberating him from the company of the "simpletons" or curse them for disrupting years of work. Although he could not prove his identity to the party, Baldur could surmise from his generally haughty demeanor and wanton elitism that this man almost certainly came directly from one of the capital's Garden-Colleges. Still, amidst the Arcanist's underhanded rebukes he provided some additional information about the cult and their goals: they pursued the secrets of the Apostate, an ancient cultist of Abraxas who previously served Areshkagal the Faceless Sphinx, Demon Lord of riddles. The Apostate's abode had apparently kept the Abraxian cultists occupied for several decades, and they still could not manage to break what they assume to be the seals of the place. The Arcanist told them that there were three pillars with different statuettes in the mansion, which were the only notable objects of interest, aside from the singular portrait upstairs. However, the party became so utterly annoyed by the arrogant Arcanist that no-one tried to talk with him further, and he even left the building after being upstaged in the art of translation. Collectively looking out, they saw the mage eventually being apprehended by squad Ordinal, upon which he raised his left hand, but before he could cast the spell he was preparing, a single shot rang out which sent the Arcanist half-conscious to the ground. Baldur started to approach them, but the Arcanist was shot dead as he began leaving the mansion. Having a brief, one-sided conversation with the squad leader, Baldur returned to the mansion, and could overhear the soldiers mulling over a reinforcement request: close-quarters assault detachment, flamethrower support.   The party found the three different pillars in the mansion. One depicted the glaive knight; one an impressively-built warrior with a large axe; and one a formally-dressed woman holding a staff and book. The upstairs portrait corresponded faithfully to this last depiction. Each statuette pillar also contained a question written in Hyxian. In order, they were  

• From whence does knowledge come?
• What is the central precept of the Brotherhood of the Worm?
• What force has the greatest of appetites?

  With these riddles presented before them, Imaros spent seven hours reading the book on Hyxian politics that they had recovered from the scholar-bureaucrat's retreat, to try and find an answer. He discovered that the old Imperium had some order of distinguished mage-knights and that the Inquisition's scholar-bureaucrats dressed in blue, academic-invoking robes, which seemed to match the woman in the portrait. Finally, on one of the first pages was a phrase written entirely in Hyxian, which Baldur could translate: knowledge comes from the stars (ex astris scientia). Although the group initially went for a literal interpretation of the riddle, trying to move the statuette pillar outside to place under the stars themselves, they eventually resorted to the same method that worked on the scholar's pedestal: repeating the phrase in Hyxian in its close proximity. Del'Gado initiated this, and once the phrase was uttered, everything went black for a split second, after which the adventurers found themselves in a grand chamber sporting clear Hyxian architecture. But unlike the Apostate's mansion, this chamber was richly decorated: heraldic banners on the walls, pillars flanked by real-sized statues of knights, dignitaries, and other personages, and large pots containing diverse plant selections marked the most immediate visual standouts here. Also, as they found themselves in this strange location, four figures were in the process of walking through a set of massive double doors. Two left, whilst the other two noticed the party's arrival. Dressed in intricately detailed plated armour over red clothing and a hood, in addition to wearing steel masks, the figures started to approach the new arrivals with drawn sabres and hand crossbows. As they crept closer the party could see a distinct emblem on their chestpieces: a skull with worms emerging from its eye sockets. Although Baldur tried to talk to them, his words were met with a poisoned bolt being shot at him by one of the armoured assailants, after which a brief combat emerged. Whilst somewhat formidable opponents from a distance, they were cut down in close quarters by the efficient gauntlet of the adventurers. As the assailants fell however, their bodies simply vanished. They also did not produce any speech whatsoever, even when being struck with blades. When the chamber was secure, the party had a brief look around. Imaros looked at the statues to see if they contained any text of relevance whilst Del'Gado investigated the doors. The statues did not have any inscriptions, and the doors did not budge at all: as if they were a fixed part of the environment. Except for the main doors, which opened and closed as you would expect doors to do. He peeked in and saw a magnificent throne room, and at the base of the noble throne a duel was taking place between one of the assailants and a knight in brilliant silver armour. The knight seemed to fight with severe injuries: the right arm was limp, and they used the glaive as a crutch for a broken leg. Even now, the knight managed to kick the assailant prone with their intact leg, and then swiftly crushed their throat with the glaive's end. Del'Gado took note and informed the others, and the group entered the throne room through the doors.   Although the silver knight didn't attack the party on sight, it became apparent that she would not let them leave without one. Jacqualine used a spell to communicate with her in Hyxian, and the knight, with great effort, managed to recognise her as a kinswoman before saying  

Interventores, vises mi miserere aeterna.

  Roughly meaning "visitors, look upon me and grant me everlasting mercy." The party then took positions and prepared themselves for battle with the dilapidated knight. It was only after Baldur delivered a striking blow from the Gods themselves that the knight seemed to recoil somewhat, uttered something about experiencing the rush of battle, and managed to perform a number of incantations. A blue glow, similar to the conjuring field in the scholar-bureaucrat's abode, emerged around her broken leg and arm, which hastily reversed the damage done to the armour and the knight seemed to regain some of her mental acuity. However, a bright blue glare enveloped her, a low-grade supernova, which sent most of the party flying backwards into the throne room's many pillars. The rest of the battle was much more intense, and teetered on the edge; the knight, who also grew a pair of ethereal, sharp-contoured wings, frequently summoned glowing blue weapons which inflicted pure force damage, destroying Caerlin's monstrous summons from the Beyond as if they were bugs. In the last phase of the combat, she invoked three illusory copies of herself that charged in at the dispersed members of the party, and Baldur, Jacqualine, and Imaros engaged her at close range. Both the Hellknight and the cleric were struck down by the silver knight, but Baldur's efforts led to Imaros managing to bring her down. As his first swing hit her, the blue glow was dispelled, instantly crushing her arm and leg again; however, in her last gasps, Silverhallow Knight Lucia expressed thankfulness over finally ending the nightmare. The throne room began to fall apart, but before the party could react they found themselves back in the room with the statuette pillar.