The Glyphstone Deciphered, or, Why Evil Wins

[Baron Sir Katzu the Farquestor]

((OOC: If you have a way you *COULD* intervene, feel free to, if you wanna. THe part I wanted to do is done by the end of this.))

Katzu sat in the lowermost rooms of Kyuden Farquestor, surrounded by all of the alchemy and magic his relentless training in the magical arts could muster. Atop a giant stone table lay the Glyphstone he had recovered from the Old City, and he had placed its ancient evils under mighty hexagrammic wards, potent arcane sanctions, and invulnerable divine mandates. No evil would spill out; he had made sure...

'Well I mean the arcane sanctions I might have messed up on a little bit; really rusty with those,' he thought, 'but the others I got no problem. Two out of three ain't bad, right? A for effort?'

The procedure was simple, really. Read the glyphs, determine the true name of the daemon, establish a few more wards against the specific form of this daemon, draw it out of the stone, and obliterate it once and for all.

The Glyphstone was very clear that the stone was the home for a powerful extra-planar being of vicious and wicked cunning. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion worlds. One of the most feared beings in all the planes of existence. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.

Katzu's research on this being drove him to his limit. Here and there aspects of this creature's nature would remind him of enemies he'd fought in the past or one's he had researched, but not a one lined up to his understanding of the description given on the stone. Armor of steel, magics and arms and music and devious abuse of those beneath it to get its way. Exceptional, thoughtless cruelty that would make a master torturer or slaver envious... or nervous. An ageless god who insisted on the face of a twelve-year-old.

The most vexing thing was that the Glyphstone refused to name this creature, even though Katzu understood; names have power, and a name engraved continues to fuel and power the object of the name. Enough power and a creature as devious as this could escape, which Katzu couldn't allow. He could still summon and expel the daemon, but it would take a special degree of skil and competency, and to not be distracted. Going to the door, he bolted it and sealed it with hexagrammic wards to abjure and expel the daemon.

Lighting the candles around the Glyphstone, he began intoning the words that would drive the daemon from its resting place and into the wards established in the material world. Soon sweat came pouring with no movement from the daemon, and Katzu redoubled his efforts. With his full Healer powers not strong enough to draw forth the daemon, Katzu's face turned into a sneer of defiance as he began to seamlessly integrate his arcane knowledge as a sixth-circle Wizard. Instantly the flames of the candles changed, shifting colors as they flickered and growing in intensity. It was working; all he needed to do was invest more of his own power into the ritual.

Channeling the power of the earth through him, Katzu summoned his Druidic talents into the ritual, watching as the candlelights formed a ring around him and the Glyphstone, the flames shifting first from natural colors into impossible variations, but still the stone hadn't released its prisoner. Reaching into his knowledge of the many hidden tricks of his adventuring career, Katzu then mixed in his abjurations and insults as a Bard, which seemed to create an opening in the top of the stone, but only a crack. Katzu needed more power. Calling upon his divine nature as an Angelic Hero, Katzu channeled his chi into the stone, his full Extra-Planar nature revealed. His golden eyes flared into brilliant fire, his wings burst into reality, and power radiated off of him in waves.

The stone opened and a bright white beam encased Katzu, freezing him solid. From the shadows in the farthest corners, three warlocks and an armored knight with a massive blade formed from the Immaterium and walked forward, the warlocks taking over the chanting as the knight went to stare the Paladin-Monk in the eyes.

"You fool; you dumb, blind fool. Do you think we'd put such a potent artifact in the middle of your old city and expect you NOT to go after it? Of course! We CREATED this stone as a prison, true, but we did it to house YOU! Well, not *you*, per se. Your humanity is disposable and ultimately not a threat to my master's plans. Your divinity, on the other hand, has to go. So we created this stone designed to reverse the rite of obliteration, and to use it to trap you once you reached deeply enough with enough of your soul to reach your angelic nature."

Katzu fought for the words, "But the daemon..."

"Daemon? Good sirrah, does this inscription say anything - ANYTHING - about a daemon? No. It does, however, refer to an extra-planar trickster with little regard for the lives it impacts. A creature like that would surely be known for having a rule not to listen to it, yes? What is that cute rule I've been hearing about the duchy? 'Never listen to Katzu.' You condemn yourself with your own words, angel; which reminds me... Creatura mendacii, eieci te in æternum!"

Katzu jerked from the shock, his connection to the White Light being severed as the angelic hero part of himself, and the part that blessed him with virtual immortality, was torn out and imprisoned in the Glyphstone. His body was forced from the light, outside the flame ring, and at the feet of the armored knight. He crawled backwards away from the knight, who seemed to take a pleasure at seeing so noble and powerful a knight humbled.

"I am Ser Marduke the Hollow. Now that you are no longer protected by your divinty, you are but a man. A man that can be killed, which I will do now to save myself the trouble of dealing with you in the future." Ser Marduke drew back to strike just as Katzu backed into a pillar candelabra. Ser Marduke swung his blade down a mighty swing just as Katzu turned, grabbed the pillar, and caught the blade inches from his face.

Katzu smirked, "I'm no angel, true, but I do still remember a thing or two!" Kicking violently into the groin of Ser Marduke, Katzu rolled backwards and disengaged. Holding the pillar like a spear, Katzu reached out to his arcane power to...

... gone. His Wizardry was gone. Calling on his Druidic and Bardic talents, they, too, were gone... Sensing Katzu's confusion, Ser Marduke pressed his advantage and charged, batted the pillar away and out of Katzu's hands like it was nothing, and grabbed Katzu by the throat, his cold, mail-covered gauntlet squeezing the life from the Paladin-Monk.

"And THIS," he hissed, "is how the great Katzushima Farquestor... DIES!"

[Baron Sir Katzu the Farquestor]

Breathing was coming in fits and starts, and the world was beginning to slip from focus. The earlier strength he had in his hands and arms was beginning to waiver, and he felt the Earth pulling him down like a lover to her bed. In the distance, as if underwater, Katzu could hear a dull 'thump' from off to his right.

'Maybe this is for the best,' the Paladin-monk thought, 'Everyone gone, Farquestor sunk, nobility and honor no longer held as chief virtues to be aspired to... This is no longer the world I grew up in. Perhaps this world is finally done with me, and I can rest...'

* * * * *

Ser Marduke released the body of the Paladin-monk and let it fall lifeless to the ground like a rag doll. The joy of his victory was cold and bitter ash in his mouth, just as all such victories had become. He often consoled himself with the notion that victory for victory's sake was prize enough, and that how one defeated one's foes was secondary to the fact that they were defeated.

The knocking on the door continued, and it aggrivated him to no end. Walking over to it, he felt Katzu's hexagrammic wards that prevented evil planars from touching it. Marduke observed the nature and formula used to enact the wards, then concocted a quick little counterspell to nullify them. Time amongst the Arch-Lich had not been spent idly, as one day he would have to destroy the priest of the Lying Darkness and he had needed a plan in place to counteract his magics.

After dispelling the wards, Ser Marduke readied his sword and opened the door, only to find a thin woman with pixie-like facial features clad in a simple straight-lined green dress with a silver belly chain and a leather sword belt clasped about her waist. On the sword belt rode an impossibly thin longsword that seemed to be made of starlight and silver. Her power was understated but obvious, and Marduke took three steps away from her out of instinct.

"Ser Marduke, your weapon is really not required here; I've come for the Farquestor. My Lady has been looking for him, and he's a tricky little thing." A soft smile played across her lips, half in appreciation and half at the thought of what her Lady had in store for the Farquestor.

Ser Marduke trembled a second, aware of this damsel's Lady and what she was capable of, but the Paladin-monk was HIS, and the Lying Darkness would not allow failure nor tolerate it, even from someone so accomplished as he. Raising his massive sword of hell-steel to her eye level, Ser Marduke put himself between Katzu and the damsel, who looked at him with a mix of sadness and curiousity. "I'm afraid my Master needs him more. Leave before I have to kill you."

She stared at him for a second more before sighing. "I am truly sorry, Ser Marduke, but my Lady's words are inviolable." Drawing her thin blade and settling into a stance, the damsel said, "In the name of the Lady, Queen of the Fey and Liege over Sir Katzu Farquestor, I command you to step aside. This is your final warning..."

[Baron Sir Katzu the Farquestor]

Marduke circled the damsel and shifted to a high stance, his massive hell-blade whispering the location of every opening and every psychological trick he could exploit. His armor gave him the advantage of protection and his years of training would serve him as well. His opponent was smaller and unarmored, making her faster and more able to react even in her simple dress, plus he assumed in the battle of magics a damsel who served as emissary of the Lady would be able to out-cast him. Trying to read her was like trying to read the emotion of a porcelain statue, for as soon as she drew the mirth was gone from her face and had taken on a lethal mein, but inscrutable. He estimated that while a good mast-axe would normally break her thin little sword, it was no doubt enchanted to be resistant to such direct attacks.

Marduke said, "Might I have your name? If we are to fight I would like to know who the bards need to mock for their folly." She then began to circle, keeping herself in front of him, but oddly enough sizing him up as if she was instead trying to size up a thing he was blocking her sight to.

"You might," she said with vague disinterest, "But names have power, and you are filthy with dark magics, so you can call me Rose." As she neared the body of Katzu, she knelt down and felt for a pulse at his neck, her blade at the ready and her eyes never leaving Marduke. It took her a moment, but when she felt his blood pumping through his veins she rose and resumed a middle stance. "It would've been bad for you if he had died, Ser."

Marduke smiled his 'freezing smile,' which seemed to have no effect on the woman. "If I wanted him dead he would be dead. We couldn't chance him reincarnating elsewhere." Noticing she had not attacked, Marduke stood in stance for a minute with the room in silence. Finally, he said, "So... Where does this leave us?"

Rose waggled the tip of her sword like a dismissive hand. "You were leaving. You and your warlocks, before I command them dead." At this she raised her fingers as if to snap and cocked an eyebrow. She resumed her stance, her bare back foot trying to find skin contact on Katzu. Feeling flesh to flesh, she began her incant "Katzu, Teleport, Teleport, Tele..."

Instantly Marduke cleared the room in two mighty steps and swung, his sword howling rage and hate to the heavens. "DISHONORABLE b**ch! I SHOULD SEND YOU SCREAMING TO THE HELLS FOR THAT!" Rose instinctively flinched backwards, breaking the casting as her blade caught his and the impact drove her even further back. Marduke looked to his Warlocks and yelled, "GET THE GLYPHSTONE OUT OF HERE, I'LL BRING THE PALADIN-MONK PRESENTLY!" As he turned back to Rose, he saw her snap her fingers and instantly three wickedly-elongated goblins in black masks appeared and - producing long, wavy-bladed knives - drove them hilt-deep in each warlock before breaking the blade at the haft and teleporting away as the warlocks fell to the ground dead.

Sidestepping Marduke's next blow, Rose stepped inside his guard and drove her blade into the gap under his arm. Howling in pain, Marduke chose to just drop his pommel on her skull, but she stepped away and spun, slashing with the tip of her blade before it was fully out of his body. His arm lowered from the pommel strike, Marduke dropped the tip and stabbed. While she managed to get most of her body out of the way, the edge of the hell-blade sliced the swordbelt off and cut into her hip, its daemonic ichor seeping into the wound. Instinctively he rolled his wrist, his blade seeming for a second to be a circular wall of steel. Rose barely escaped the scything blade by deflecting it into the floor, the blade-on-blade and blade-to-stone showered the area with sparks.

Rose spotted a weed coming up between the stones of the floor and smirked. The Farquestor had locked himself in a cage of stone, but life always makes a way. Whispering a quick prayer to the Lady, the weed grew and coiled and wrapped itself around Marduke's legs. As the vines continued to climb, Rose closed in, parried a swing from the confused knight, and stabbed, her blade managing to find its target in Marduke's neck thanks to his lack of gorget or helm. As she smirked and went for her next attack, she was repaid her work with a mailed and gauntleted fist around her throat. It suddenly got cold as Marduke's body began to become deathly cold and the vines about his legs withered and died.

Marduke's voice began to resonate and his eyes flared into cold blue orbs. His chuckle was hollow and menacing and Rose let go of her blade to try to pry Marduke's hand open with both hands while struggling desparately for air. "Pathetic wretch! You do not face some zealous Unholy Warrior or a mewling Anti-Paladin! You face Ser Marduke the Hollow, Dreadknight of the Lying Darkness, General of its armies, and Bringer of Woe. Put simply; you gaze upon your death, woman."

[Baron Sir Katzu the Farquestor]

Marduke had grown tired of Paladins and Priestesses and was moments from tearing this entire castle down as he felt the life ebb from this snarky little damsel. Laying his hell-blade on the forearm holding Rose, Marduke said, "I won't risk the Paladin's life by sparing yours, and I'll keep your blade and your skull as trophy of your defeat." Instinctively Rose grabbed her sword by the handle as Marduke started sliding the blade down his vambrace towards her neck. Suddenly heard a familiar voice behind him and spun to be greeted by a radiant and restored Katzu, bathed in a golden halo and pointing directly at the Dreadknight.

"SER MARDUKE, BY THE RADIANT POWER OF PURE WHITE LIGHT I STUN THEE! BY THE RADIANT POWER OF PURE WHITE LIGHT I STUN THEE!" Instantly, Marduke froze, his invulnerable power being sapped... by the sword in his neck! As if in tandem, Rose and Katzu smirked.

Opening his outstretched hand, a sword made of starlight and silver appeared as if teleported to him. Rose withdrew her blade from Marduke and teleported behind Katzu, standing statuesque and regal; her gown restored, her wounds healed, and herself bathed in a terrible silver radiance. As the power of the blade faded from Ser Marduke's body and he regained himself, he readied.

"What trickery is this? You were instants from death!" Looking passed the Paladin, he saw the Glyphstone was broken, a shattered remnant of the magics and powers it once held.

Katzu strode forward, his wings flickering in and out of phase with the plane, proof that his angelic aspect was barely contained in his body. As Katzu readied his own blade, he said, "Ser Marduke, you trusted your plan to my knowledge of magic and my willingness to take shortcuts. What you failed to remember, ser knight, was that there are no shortcuts in the case of true power, and so my sloth ended up being your one flaw in the gem of my imprisonment."

Ser Marduke muttered, "The arcane sanctions..."

Katzu merely nodded, "The arcane sanctions. Now, stand to or flee, but know that if you run I will chase you and I will kill you; this is my Oath before my Lady."

Rose then said, "And your Lady hears your Oath, and sanctifies the pledge, Sir Paladin."

Marduke hesitated for a moment before rising to his full height and saying, "I have larger plans that require my attention, and if you are smart you will stay out of my way. However, I know you won't, so I'll see you again soon, Sir Katzu." With that blue flame erupted around him, and as Katzu advanced, Ser Marduke vanished.

Katzu backed down, his aura fading and his wings slipping completely out of phase as 'Rose' simultaneously allowed her divine radiance to subside. They both sheathed their blades and 'Rose' touched the remnants of the Glyphstone. As she did, it shimmered as the illusion failed, revealing the partially-charged stone. Turning to the Paladin, 'Rose' said, "You do understand that's two vows you swore before the lady this day, Paladin, and she does not forget pledges made to her."

Katzu walked over to the stone and touched it once. "Monk, Healer, Warrior, or Paladin alone. Only reveal my divinty in the most dire circumstances. Uphold the right. I understand my vow, Damsel Victoria." Turning to look at her, Katzu continued, "Take it to her as my gift, and with my thanks."

The Damsel Victoria nodded her head and smiled a tiny smile, "No, Sir Paladin. Others will come for it; I am to stand by your side and bring the Lady's words to you."

"Very well, Damsel. As the Lady commands."

((OOC: What happened will be explained when I get home from work.))

[Baron Sir Katzu the Farquestor]

((OOC: This happens as the two are circling just before the fight...))

As the two murmered voices carried on a conversation, Katzu was in a fitful state, part of him rejecting the life he clung to and the rest of him holding on desparately. The part that longed for death pointed out the dishonors, the defeats, the losses he had sustained up to and including the loss of his power just moments ago. The part that clung to life reminded him about the new duchy, the allies he had there, and hopes he had uncovered recently that brought him back out of his meditations and into the world again.

Suddenly there were two fingers on his neck and a warmth in his mind.

"Sir Katzu, are you alive?"

"I am, despite my wishes."

"Oh, tosh. I am the Damsel Victoria, priestess of The Lady, who sends her love and warmest regards to you, her noble Paladin."

"Your timing leaves much to be desired, Damsel."

"The Lady understands her timing in ways no mortal can know, Paladin. She needs you; your example and your light. Swear yourself to her once more and our task can begin."

Katzu considered it for a second before replying, "Why me? All I have is gone."

"Only those with nothing encumbering them may soar above all others. The old you is dead, Sir Paladin, embrace that and move beyond it. Then take upon yourself the mantle of the Lady's Champion. Seal yourself and make your vow before the Lady and in her grace be reborn."

Katzu considered his choices. Death was very final, and longed for a new hope and a new life to form as his foundation. "Very well, I will reswear my vow, Damsel."

"I am pleased, and the Lady is pleased. However you are bound to obey her dictates, and those of Damsels of the Lady who approach you, the first of which is this: You shall follow no path beyond the Monk, the Healer, the Warrior, and the Paladin, and you shall only call upon the strength of your angelic nature in the most dire of circumstances. If you will accept, Sir Farquestor, then speak your vow."

An unreasonable lightness took over his body and Katzu said, "When the clarion call is sounded, I will ride out and fight in the name of liege and Lady. Whilst I draw breath the lands bequeathed unto me will remain untainted by evil. That which is sacrosanct I shall preserve. That which is sublime I will protect. That which threatens, I will destroy, for my holy wrath will know no bounds. Honour is all. Chivalry is all."

Katzu felt Victoria's joy as she said, "And your Lady hears your vow, and sanctifies the pledge, Sir Farquestor. Now we must engage Ser Marduke. My Assassins are ready to place an illusion over the stone, but you must stay down until he has the upper hand, then allow your radiance and the radiance of the Lady to flow through you; you will know what you need to do after that."