Session XXV: Warden's Liturgy

Now facing the Warden and his picked bodyguards, the party witnesses even more evidence of utterly vile magic in play by him. After raising the slain gaolers, his eyes started glowing green, and Imaros felt weaker by just standing in his vicinity. Baldur countered this with a prayer, which conjured a golden field around the party. During the course of the battle, the Night Executors, as they were known, proved troublesome foes: the Warden's sorcery in combination with their harassing methods led to Baldur being felled. The two Cipher soldiers were surrounded by an impenetrable field caused by the Warden, and had to dig a way out. Imaros and Caerlin caused significant damage to the Warden, who temporarily teleported backwards, after which the party managed to slay the last Night Executor. Jacqualine approached the Warden and tried to dispel the green-hued shield that protected him, but was unable to. However, after a few seconds, he stood up, raised his staff, and released a wave of energy: then the staff broke in half, and he threw the pieces on the ground in front of Jacqualine, as a way to surrender. He also liberated his spellbook from his person and threw it at the broken staff. Mira was nowhere to be seen. The battle was over, but the fighting was not. There was still sporadic gunfire going on outside the Nightgaol, and the party quickly found themselves at loggerheads regarding the Warden's fate: Caerlin sought to kill him immediately, which the rest did not agree with. Baldur knocked him out cold after he tried to kill the Warden, ignoring Cipher-6's call to maintain discipline. The outer gunfire had now ended, and elements of Marauder squad approached through the destroyed gates, wielding larger metal weapons than Cipher. Seeing Baldur trashing Caerlin into an early nap, they demanded to know which side he was on: the Hellknight replied that Caerlin stood on his own. Meanwhile Del'Gado acquires the distinct duelling swords that the Night Executors wore. Later, Cipher-8 takes out a first aid kit to assess Caerlin's condition, and finds that he is indeed stable.   Later, Cipher-1, the apparent unit leader, told the party that they were reporting in and required some details from them. She wanted their names and answers from Baldur and Jacqualine regarding their knowledge about their language. Cipher-6 highlighted that it was going to be a favourable mention, as they were under no obligation to partake in this. All but Baldur gave their real names (Caerlin was still unconscious Baldur told them that magic allowed him to understand them whilst Jacqualine said that she had seen impossible and incomprehensible visions, leading to her being able to speak their language. Del'Gado also hinted that they were already in some kind of vaguely-defined trouble with the military authorities of Kaedra. Before the signaller reported the success of their mission, Cipher-1 instructed him that Code Preceptor Zero-One was active and recommended actions per Directive TKN-KM/V. Varkallin whispered to Jacqualine that Preceptor Zero-One was the key for compromised language. After the signaller called this in, both Cipher and Marauder adjusted their communications devices. When speaking aloud, their voices were now scrambled: intimidating noises that could not be made sense of. After some more time passed, Cipher-1 approached the party and asked if injunction nr. 010TA/HT55ID was connected to them, which it was. She also pressed Baldur on his false identity; however, Caerlin, who was in the process of regaining consciousness, addressed Baldur by his real name, which led to him resorting to personality disorder as the chief explanation to this curious phenomenon. Though, the officer seemed to stealthily chuckle after this came to light, and told them that the injunction had long since been rescinded after an appeal was made against it. Del'Gado suspected that it was sergeant Dorian Rykenval, their legal counsel during the tribunal, and told Cipher-1 to extend their thanks if they met him. The party now planned to have a look around the central tower (and interrogate the Warden), since the soldiers planned to demolish it after the facility had been cleared.   Jacqualine and Varkallin had a conversation at the base of the tower whilst the rest combed through the remaining floors. She was a little more aware now, and recognised that some of her words may have stung in their first conversation, and apologised. She then offered to give a more detailed explanation of her relation to the military outsiders, which Jacqualine listened to. As part of a freelancing company in her hometown of Parlucidens, she was sent to eliminate a number of stray demons who had come from the Deathlands. When they found them, she said that the demons were trying to mend their armour, which had sustained significant damage. They were also wounded, and were no match to take down for the company. It was then that Varkallin and her company made first contact with the outsiders, who arrived late. Evidently the demons had fought against them and fled, taking damage in the process. The two sides assessed that neither were each other's enemies and began interacting. Varkallin, as an interpreter, played an important role in this. During the course of a few months the differing parties built trust, and eventually the outsiders could either speak Common at an acceptable level or were learning it; and it was then that the foundation for their future cooperation was made. Varkallin saw this as an opportunity of hope: to finally end the Akkonian regime in her home and beyond. It was not a hard choice for her to involve herself in the months-long operations targeting the Greyhyxian administrations and the local Alliance Army forces. She learned a great deal from the outsiders and ended up in Akk-Ur, in which a most fortuitous opening presented itself in the palace. Courtesy of Jacqualine, she reported her findings to both the party and the outsiders with the help of an Arcanist friend. Varkallin promised to keep in touch with the party with the help of her Arcanist contact.   The rest of the party were searching for loot to plunder. Del'Gado found an interesting book in the Warden's collection: The Southern Cults of Chaos by Alamen Hazredus, one of the unpublished works that were mentioned in Scholar-Bureaucrat Secunda's instructions. They brought the Warden to his room and began asking him questions. Sharyukin, which was his name, expressed neither remorse nor empathy in regards to the things he had been responsible for. Instead, he was proud over the achievements he had made in esoteric magic, being able to wield spells that few ever have (according to him). Hazred's book later clarified that these were the Liturgies of Undeath, spells that were connected to lichhood. The emotionless warden only began showing signs of fear when Baldur began talking menacingly, and it was Jacqualine who executed him with the Silver Glaive. There was some debate over what their next move should be, and they eventually agreed to move towards one of Hazred's map markings, which was around four days' travel from here.   During camp on the first day of travel, a golden shade appeared. It presented itself as Akkon, and had serious reservations against Baldur wearing his armour. In fact, he forbade him from wearing it until he had renounced his Hellknight status and performed a "worthy deed" to prove his character. Baldur defended his actions by remarking that Akkon's successors were clearly corrupt and unbecoming, but Akkon's shade retorted that this was a personal matter, as the armour and cloak were the result of careful craftsmanship and sorcery. And as a dwarven noble from Malakad, he would understand the attachment that a smith has towards his handiwork. The golden shade left Baldur with time to deliberate.