Belthraxian / Knights Errant GS 3k 1st July Brief, Shielded Discussions - Belthraxian Options

[Trickyz]

* OOC This is open to anyone who has taken part in the Belthraxian Dungeons or who will be taking part in the Knights Errant Guild Special on 1st July*

Hi,

To those of you I have met before welcome, to those I have not here is a quick update:

My name is Lord Whitemane, or as some call me The Light One. I understand that mercenaries are in general are not too trusting of Demons or those touched by them but I speak the truth. I am a “demon-touched” man of what you call the Pure Light so if that is of concern to you more than the state of the Empire I suggest you leave; if you stay I will assume that you are sane, sensible and wish to see good done.

The threat to Primus is from a legendary vampire called Belthraxian who has been awoken after 600 years of sleep within his tomb beneath the Gold Mines of Rodanne by some dark-hearted young mercenaries. Belthraxian is no normal Vampire, his intelligence, cunning and depravity is unlike anything you will have seen before. He will even now be gathering together new generals, thralls and an undead army to take over Rodanne, then the Empire. If he is not stopped quickly then he will consume all.

To make matters worse Belthraxian is a harvester of souls and trades these with demons in order to ensure his survival. This is what has caught our interest and is the very reason we wish him to be stopped. His bargaining of souls and power is ready to tip the balance of darkness within the demonic realms so that no light remains.

He made pacts with numerous demons including Sierxal, Cherbur, Pazmach, Lurloch, Biorom, Vesahm and Smiuzahre. Some of you have met and dealt with Pazmach, Vesahm and Smiuzahre. Vesahm and Smiuzahre have so far been reasonable in their dealings with you and may deal with you again. I imagine their abilities for transportation and the prevention of being scryed about have been useful so far. You would of course need to visit the Demonic Soul Market and trade souls for help / support and /or pacts should you wish to have their aid again.

The Silver Sword of Vampire Bane has been retrieved from the private vault of Pazmach the Demon of 1000 blades. This Sword will strike Belthraxian with sufficient strength to wound him and it will prevent his wounds from healing. Pazmach is however very angry as mercenaries not only took the sword but cleared his personal vault of all his most favoured swords and cleared out several hundred pacts. Pazmach is likely to hold a grudge and his shock troops are able to appear anywhere and at anytime. Their death vengeance in particular is brutal.

The Aegis of Time was a shield held in a temple dedicated to Seirxal and is located in Seirxal’s own plane. The shield has been recovered will enable you to fight during multiple time periods, which is the only way to permanently ensure the destruction of Belthraxian.

The Armour of the Undead, which will protect you from Belthraxian’s touch and give you some protection against the undead has also been recovered.

The good news is many of the more powerful pacts have been sundered by agents of the Pure Light however there are many more protecting Belthraxian and he is still far too powerful for a direct assault.

You should also be aware that there is another group of mercenaries, young mercenaries that are helping / working with or gaining power for Belthraxian depending on how you look at it. The issue is they are now protected by Belthraxian's power and I can not give you anymore information. What I do know is that they have managed to help Belthraxian obtain an army of ebony and black mana using Fey. Whilst they were journeying last Starsday instead of stopping the Fey and closing the portals leading the Fey to Primus they managed to shall we say convince them to join Belthraxian and leave their plane to fight for him they can not return to their plane as it has been destroyed by Belthraxian. This is certainly a dangerous turn of events.

You should also know that you will also need to destroy his tomb and the many rituals within that protect him and resurrect him in order to finish him permanently.

I think you should consider, destroying the Fey army or at least convince them to leave Primus, destroy a few remaining demonic pacts, visit his tomb in Rodanne and destroy it. I would also suggest seeing if you can set up some counter rituals, or demonic pacts or similar of your own to weaken Belthraxian further before confronting Belthraxian.

I will leave it to you to let me know the course of action you wish to take, I will take it under advisement and in consultation with my masters determine when and where it would be best to go. The sooner you can make a decision the better I will be able to help you prepare.

OOC Your responses will influence how the dungeon will be written.

[Harrumph]

Wotcha Lord Lightman that some others call purest light,

Your order sounds fine.

Fey, then tomb, then counter rituals

We don't wanna do no deals with demons.

We don't wanna harm no young mercenaries, but learning often best when free to make ones own mistakes.

Grizzle

[Trickyz]

Grizzle,

Thanks, let's see what the rest of your companions say.

One more thing to consider is, how will you transport between planes etc in order to sunder the pacts without making deals with the demons?

Do you know of or have another way to achieve this that I can look into for you?

Lord Whitemane

[Harrumph]

Jus to be clear like, mr Lord Lightmane sir , both the tomb and the fey are on Primus right? So an air wizard of certain power should suffice right?

You mention travelling tween planes, what planes exactingly? Some form of mittlesmith i shouldn't be so wondering rightlington?

Fanking you ever so kindly
Grizzle

[dnsmantra]

The Pure Light are basically a bunch of fascist *£&*$%'s. I'd advise making a deal with the fey to leave; speaking from experience most fey (if they aren't the whiny pathetic faerie types) are more than open to making deals rather than just needless fighting (just make them a better one than they already have). Then, deal with this Belthraxian and also the Pure Light nutter(s) as well. They've done plenty of wrongs over the last year or so (like attacking people because they don't wear white, or don't agree with killing everyone who isn't them). As we all know when a wrong has been done there can be no peace!

They've attempted to ritual strike several Imperial cities and are broadly 'bad eggs'. I would ask people to think long and hard about working for someone like this individual.

Blend
Knights Errant
Fey Lord of Weeping Thorns

(OOC: I'm not doing the dungeons, but given it is a knights errant 'brief' and I did almost all of the original knights errant campaign, I figured it was ok to comment - if not, I can happily remove the post - not trying to cause trouble, Lee's just set the Pure Light as total d**k's a lot over the last few years - Huw).

[Harrumph]

*OOC - no worries Huw, it's all good. There has been a fair old amount of angst over working for what is sort of a demon, we've generally gone with the flow and that it's become knights errant is largely organic. Happy to add some more angst and moral ambiguity knowing they are fascistic whiter than whiters*

[dnsmantra]

OOC: Awesome - sounds like it should be fun, whatever happens

[Harrumph]

Lord Whitemane, i realise the time is late and we hurtle towards our reckoning with Belthraxian, however i have recently returned from Rodanne and began working with a Mittlesmith named Hermes Stiffbeard, a Mittlesmith of no small power.

You may speak or send word to Ulfias Ufgood a priest of Cenric and resident of The fine city of Rodanne for references, he provided the tools and knowledge to help us rescue the imprisoned god Cenric himself.

We would rather use his services if we need to travel to other planes, having just assaulted and been assaulted by many many waves of demonsi am in no mind to bargain with their kind.

I will inform him of your impending contact
Grizzle

(Ooc: i expect brett, alan and matt are having few well earned days off after the 3 day but will mention that i'd like to see if hermes can transport us where we need to go)

[Trickyz]

Well, you have all given me something to think about.

I don't think the purging of all evil from Primus to be a bad thing. That being said some of my brothers are more fanatical than I.

I simply want to ensure the Light endures and that darkness is destroyed. Belthraxian is a danger to us all and it is Primus that will suffer.

I understand that you do not wish to make more pacts with demons or deal in souls anymore than you have to so I have thought upon the problem.

If you would prefer to travel the Mittlenacht rather than use the transport provided by Vesahm (instantaneous transport) that is fine but more dangerous.

I will probably not need the services of Ulfias Ufgood and I will find someone suitable to grant you passage through the Mittlenacht.

As for the Fey, I don't think there is much bargaining to be done. Belthraxian has destroyed their entire home plane and forced them to Primus as an army of slaves.

My understanding is that Belthraxian is amassing an army under Rodanne, currently this army is made up of enslaved humans, undead, Demons and the enslaved Fey. I also have information that suggests that Pazmach continues to honour his pact with Belthraxian given his anger at having his vault emptied. Pazmach's troops are very dangerous given their ability to port in as shock troops.

We have managed to deal with a vast number of Belthraxian's pacts since the last outing and there are only 2 pacts left that need dealing with. One is a pact with Pythrus the Demon Painter. Pythrus's pacts are usually in the form of paintings. Retrieving and destroying the painting will make it significantly easier to harm Belthraxian. The second is to find Gethran the Gardener. Gethran is a peculiar demon in that he has mastery over all non-sentient living things, he grows beautiful yet deadly plants, some are poisonous, some are man-eaters. some are living and move. At any rate Gethran has an odd sense of humour and his pacts are built into plants. He has grown a type of garlic that whilst in his garden grants Belthraxian power however should this be stolen and brought within close proximity to Belthraxian it will have the opposite effect and severely weaken him as I said Gethran has a peculiar sense of humour.

Therefore I propose the following course of action on Starsday, retrieve the painting, retrieve the garlic, set up counter rituals, enter the Gold Mines of Rodanne, destroy Belthraxian's tomb and kill Belthraxian. You will need to bring some ritual items etc to set up your own counter rituals and I will leave it to you to source items that might be suited to the task. I imagine relics of your chosen gods would be best suited to the task.

If I don't hear from you I will see you on Starsday.

[MattJ]

Given that Pazmach will likely send in his shock troops I would strongly advise that everyone ensure that they are warded against vengeful spirits and against red or black magics (it doesn't matter which). If you aren't warded in this way expect to die if you kill one of Pazmach's minions.

Teldor

[Trickyz]

Teldor,

That is very sage advice. I would also strongly advise this. They are rumours abound at just how angry Pazmach is at having his entire private vault emptied. Whilst I personally think it is fantastic to know that such an evil and dark hearted demon has lost all his favourite possessions I sincerely doubt that he is just going to accept the loss. It is unfortunate also that it is widely known that his shock troops are arguably the best swordsman in the business and that there death vengeance is particularly vicious.

Lord Whitmane