Summary – Part 4

♪ Creo Ignem · sound logo

Hell's Rebels. Summary of the intelligence reports. Part four of four.

♪ Fanfare “Ave Barzillai”

Intelligence report of House Thrune. Classified. Fourth part. I find what follows difficult to record.

The Silver Ravens held three districts. Now they prepared their great offensive. Against the seat of the Paracount himself. We faced the prospect calmly. For now.

I report these events as duty requires. May House Thrune forgive me for what I must report.

The Records Hall

First, a spider demoness wielding the blade Balgorrah slew Setrona, the rebel innkeeper who sheltered the Elements at the Tooth and Nail. Then the Elements stormed the Records Hall in the Greens, disguised as redactors. A swarm of inquisitors, invisible stalkers, and a large host devil opposed them.

Our loyal Tiarize, who had once handled Element V as an informant, presided there alongside Natsiel, mistress of the coven from the sewers. Natsiel fell. This time for good. Tiarize escaped through a vortex, leaving her equipment behind. And her papers. Records of summonings and a ritual said to call forth Mephistopheles himself. Papers that make even us shudder.

Rivozair the Dragon

Then came the dragon. Rivozair, a blue dragon seared with hellfire, a blood-red pentagram on his chest. He burned down the Long Roads Coffeehouse and held the Bleak Bridge. When the Paracount closes a bridge, it stays closed. So he had it proclaimed. Five insurgents against one dragon. Reassuring math.

The first assault failed. Element G did slay Commander Vannases Trex, but Rivozair’s fire drove the gang back. The predatory River Talons changed sides and rescued the encircled rebels. Even Nerrenn, the father of Element V, now stood against us.

In retaliation, we unleashed a storm of vengeance over Old Kintargo. Twenty-seven sympathizers died. It did not stop the insurgents. The second time, they came prepared. With a dragon-bane blade, Element Q’s catapult stones, and a bard’s decisive note, they broke Rivozair’s healing. The dragon fell. The math did not add up. The Bleak Bridge was open. And with it, the way to the castle.

The Assault on Castle Kintargo

They teleported into the keep of Castle Kintargo. They broke through the Order of the Rack’s barricade, defeated six Hellknights, animated suits of armor, and Paralictor Kyrre Ekodyre. In the depths, they confronted a lich, the First Warden, and struck him down. For the time being.

And in cell D-13, they found her. Jackdaw. Leader of the old rebellion. Imprisoned in our keep for seventy years, behind an iron mask, singing the Song of Silver. They freed her and reunited her with her sister, the teacher Mialari Docur. Now they also know what the Song of Silver can do. That should never have happened.

The Song Rings Out

Jackdaw told them the old story. Of the civil war more than seventy years ago, of the first Silver Ravens brought down by a powerful devil, of the Song of Silver that once united the city. And at the opera house, the bard Shensen performed the song before the Ravens’ assembled supporters.

♪ Refrain “Song of Silver”

One could see it steel the insurgents’ hearts. Courage against which we have no proclamation. And more than that. Later, in the temple, a merchant from the Outer Planes could no longer teleport away. The song held him fast.

Meanwhile, His Excellency had a great ritual performed in the Temple of Asmodeus. His priests spoke of an apotheosis. Of a man’s ascension to godhood. The Ravens stormed the temple, the black heart of the city, once a temple of Aroden. They freed a captive azata named Nirikki, and the temple’s central pillar of flame went out.

The Temple of Asmodeus

What happened in the temple was a struggle in the dark, room by room. Vampires in bat form under Aluceda Zhol, high priestess of Zon-Kuthon, who had once turned Jilia Bainilus into a vampire. Priests of Asmodeus, erinyes, bone devils, and a powerful sorceress they called the Sculptor.

Element C cast silence over the halls, so our priests could no longer speak their prayers. In the summoning chamber, her own past caught up with her. Her father had once brought her here to sacrifice her to Asmodeus. When the bells rang, rage seized her. She wanted to send every servant of Asmodeus to Hell on the spot.

The faithful of House Thrune fell, one after another. Our harrower Zella Zidlii among them, who had stalked them since the first weeks. She fell to Grizzly’s blade. They freed a second captive outsider, the rakshasa Vizmaravash, and the temple’s last bonds came undone.

The Fall of Barzillai Thrune

And then, on the one hundred forty-first day, they stood before him. Barzillai Thrune. The Paracount himself. From the gallery, he thundered his contempt at them.

His archpriest Corinstian Grivenner fell first. Then the Paracount himself entered the fray. He struck down one companion after another. The little dragon Vendalfek died in a flame strike and was brought back. Element G and Element L fell and were dragged back to life. Even the bard fell, though she was denied a return at first.

When Grizzly’s blow finally felled him, a healing spell raised him again, fully healed. And then they saw it. Where his heart should have beaten, there was only a gaping hole in his armor. And still he spoke. Their rebellion, he said, had failed before it began. But there were too many of them. And in the end, their blades found him.

Barzillai Thrune lost his head. His last word was a name. Narcelia. From his chest, they recovered a dodecahedron. A Chelish crux, a container difficult to open. Inside, a letter, two contracts, and a talisman. I do not know what it means. I fear I do not wish to know.

Element C brought the bard Shensen back to life with a prayer. They threw the archpriest’s head at the feet of the Hellknights of the Order of the Rack. The order lost all interest in remaining in Kintargo.

The Liberation

It grew worse. Above the temple hung the city’s cursed bells. There dwelled Andax Tasetas, the last high priest of Aroden, who called himself Asmoden and believed himself to be both Asmodeus and Aroden. Beside him, the returning First Warden. Both fell. Element G destroyed the Warden’s phylactery, and he never returned again.

Then the five Elements each took their place at a bell. Each endured the visions of the infernal bells, and each held firm. Thus they completed the cleansing ritual. The curse over the city broke, and the tormented souls in the bells found rest. Kintargo was cleansed to its last corner.

The Bleak Bridge, our bulwark, now bears their statues and henceforth goes by Silver Span. The rightful Lord-Mayor Jilia Bainilus gave the speech in their honor, and the insurgents were presented with the key to the Silver City.

Kintargo is lost.

Outlook

The Paracount has fallen, his servants slain or fled. Our service must now work deeper still in the shadows.

And yet. On the night after their victory, each insurgent had the same dream. Barzillai Thrune, in their heads, with one last message. It is not over yet. I am the land.

A man without a heart, still speaking after death. A ritual meant to raise a man to godhood. I do not know whether this is madness. Or hope. All I know is: it has only just begun.

For the Queen. For the Paracount. For House Thrune.