Talarius made a harrumphing noise.
Zelda shook her head. “Knight, why do you doubt the word of Lord Tommus? Surely you know that in his previous existence, Lord Orcus was known as the God of Oaths and the Punisher of Perjurers. There was no greater crime that one could commit before Lord Orcus than to break one’s oath or to be foresworn.”
Hmm, do not remember that from the Monster Manual, Tom thought to himself. Not a bad thing; he really did get sort of bent out of shape when people broke their word. He shook his head. He needed to keep his own head pulled back into reality, or whatever passed for reality around here. He was not Orcus reincarnated.
“Speaking of oaths,” Antefalken said, breaking into the conversation, “as you might imagine, I managed to freak Damien out a little with our adventures. It might not be a bad idea for you to pay him a visit and reassure him that nothing has changed.”
Antefalken chuckled. “I think Vaselle and I, between the two of us, may have been a bit much.”
“So the two of you double teamed him? Great!” Tom shook his head.
“Yeah, and by the way...” Antefalken paused; Tom nodded. “... one thing I suggested to reassure him was that perhaps he could come for a visit. Gastropé and Jenn have both been to the Abyss and lived. Talarius is here now, and seeing the knight safe might reassure him.”
Tom shrugged. “I have no real problem with that. He would need to know how to do the Cool spell that Gastropé and Jenn use. I am sure they could teach him.” Tom paused. “Or Jenn could — Gastropé is flying around killing liches.”
Antefalken grimaced. “Jenn is with Gastropé.”
Tom looked at the bard, puzzled. “Really? That seems odd. I didn’t think she cared that much for him.”
Antefalken shrugged. “The short answer is that the Council needed everyone who was being hunted by the Rod or Oorstemoth to be gone from the city, so they sent them on a quest. I am guessing that’s how they ended up flying around in the clouds fighting liches on dragonback.”
“A quest? A quest to rid the world of liches?” Tom asked.
“Well, the Council and many others have now seen a crystal ball recording of your battle, and apparently the Council noticed the flying carpet that we spotted before the battle. And they pretty much reached the same conclusion we did.”
Tom nodded, remembering the flying carpet with Bess, Exador and Ramses on it. Tom, Antefalken and Tizzy had assumed they were the three archdemons.
“By the way, I was thinking about Exador being an archdemon. It just seems bizarre. He’s a wizard known for enslaving demons,” Tom said.
“Slave, minimum wage employee — hard to tell the difference.” Tizzy shrugged.
“So you are saying he wasn’t conjuring and enslaving demons, but paying them money?” Tom asked incredulously.
Tizzy and Boggy both shrugged. “Yeah, most of the soldier demons are employed by higher-level demons,” Boggy said. “Not a life I would want, but to each his own. It pays for the Denubian Choco-CoffeeTM.”
Tom twisted his mouth and tilted his head with a small shrug. “I guess that makes sense; seems a lot easier than pure compulsion.” He shook his head. “But back to what you were saying: how is this related to a quest?” he asked Antefalken.
“Well, it seems that Trevin D’Vils...” Antefalken began.
“Pagan whore!” Talarius interrupted. Tom rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying not to poke his eyes out with his claws. As much as he wanted to ask about this Trevin D’Vils and why she was a pagan whore, he needed to keep this conversation on track.
“Continue,” Tom told Antefalken, raising his hand to hold Talarius off.
“Anyway, Trevin recognized her as possibly being Bastet or Bestat, Defender of House and Home,” Antefalken continued.
“That’s a rather odd title for an archdemon,” Boggy noted.
Antefalken shook his head. “No, Trevin says that Bastet was a goddess of the Nyjyr Ennead, a pantheon of deities previously worshiped in Natoor and Najaar.”
“Heretics, false deities, thankfully long gone!” Talarius stated proudly.
“Wiped out by the Etonians,” Antefalken said, nodding to Talarius.
“Heretics?” Reggie asked. “You mean like my accursed mistress?”
Antefalken turned to stare at Reggie, as did Talarius. Tom looked back and forth between the three, not having any idea of what they are talking about.
“Same heretics. Memphis was one of their holiest cities. Fortunately, your heretic mistress worships gods that are long dead,” Talarius said, nodding emphatically.
“Or maybe not.” Antefalken countered.
The knight swiveled to look at the bard. Again, it was really hard to read the knight’s expressions inside his giant helmet. Tom thought about lowering the temperature of the entire mountain, except it might interfere with mana generation. There was too much he still did not understand about this fortress.
“The Council, and in particular Trevin, think that the third archdemon might not have been an archdemon at all, but the goddess Bastet. They are on a quest to discover the truth,” Antefalken said.
Tom shook his head. “I’m rather new to Astlan, but isn’t goddess hunting a bit dangerous?”
“Sounds like it to me,” Boggy said.
Antefalken raised his hands. “Don’t ask me, I’m just relaying what I was told. I am not sure they seriously expect to find a goddess.”
“But why would a goddess be slumming as an archdemon?” Reggie asked.
Tizzy released a large cloud of smoke. “I’ve been asking myself that same question ever since she and her avatars popped up in the Abyss about a hundred and fifty years ago. Built themselves a scary fortress and all started pretending to be demons.” Tizzy shook his head. “Always seemed a bit déclassé to me.”
“Well, I should think the real estate down here would be cheaper,” Boggy noted.
“Tizzy, are you saying that this Bess, the archdemon ally of Exador and Ramses, really is a goddess?” Tom asked.
Tizzy shrugged. “Well, that has been my assumption. I smelled them when they first showed up here, all at the same time, which is very odd.” He took a quick puff on his pipe. “The odder thing, though, was the smell; they didn’t smell so much like buttah as marzipan.” He pronounced buttah in his yenta voice but otherwise spoke normally.
“Marzipan?” Talarius asked, puzzled.
“Yeah, it’s an almond paste, smells a lot like cherries,” Tizzy told the knight.
“I know what it is; I’m asking why they smelled like marzipan,” Talarius said, annoyed.
Tizzy shrugged. “Why do others smell like buttah?” Again, the demon used his yenta voice for buttah.
“You are the only person I know who can smell new arrivals,” Boggy said. “I don’t smell anything.”
“What did Talarius smell like?” Reggie asked.
“Like blood, sweat and piss,” Tizzy said. Talarius glared at him.
Tizzy grinned. “I should know, I carried him all the way back to the cave, got quite a whiff.” He shuddered slightly. “But the smell only comes when someone manifests a new body. Talarius came through a hole, a portal; he didn’t incarnate a new body as is what happens with new arrivals.”
“So the goddess and her avatars created new demon bodies for themselves?” Antefalken asked.
Tizzy shrugged again. “So it would seem, but like I said, it didn’t smell right and they all showed up at the same time. Fortress popped up very shortly thereafter, too soon to have been built normally. That smelled weird too, like iron and sulfur. I got there with some cookies just after the fortress was completed. They’d just shut the door behind them, so I had to knock.”