To The Devil's End

The Society for Progressive Arcanists keeps a number of rooms where a large amount of people can gather, at least ostensibly for the purpose of advancing some manner or other of arcane study. A large table, fit to serve a dinner for more than a dozen people, occupies the center of the large room, and against both of the long walls is set an impressive array of baked goods, heated kettles, a well-varied selection jars of tea, and cheeses of all sorts. At the head of the table, Magpie fidgets with obvious nervousness, resting a hand on the tome in front of her as if taking comfort from a support animal.

This is the first major meeting she's ever organized, after all, and it would be *crushing* if no one showed up.

Whether by word of mouth or direct letter from the sorceress, all attending have been invited to a meeting of 'The Study Buddies.' Details aren't exactly forthcoming for those who are not already in the know, but the subject seems to be some manner of aggressive Applied Demonology. So at least the lecture should be interesting.

"You're okay helping me out like this, Albus?" Magpie asks the tome under her hand. "I know we've been trying to keep you safe, but, I *really really* need the help of someone who, y'know, *is an actual academic.*"

A man's voice, an older man of some wisdom if his voice is any indication, rises from the thin air and replies to her. "It will be well Magpie. All we can do is the best we can do." If the voice seems to come from the book then it might well seem coincidence, but then... where else could it be coming from?

Verna arrives at the appointed time and enters the reserved room. She was present for the prior lecture and 'reading.' She is rather aware of the topic, perhaps painfully so. She is also familiar with the Society of Progressive Arcanists. Thus she has every inclination to be present and little justification for absence. As she looks about the room, she makes note of the rather grand buffet: table and chairs were to be expected; less so the refreshments. "You have arranged for quite the feast, Magpie," she opines as she moves for the table.

Andelena and Dolan, dressed in full armor and weaponry, stride into the room that Magpie's reserved, ensuring that if at least nobody else shows up, the food's at least going to get eaten, because the sun couple are active people who need the energy that food provides. Andelena offers Magpie a wave. "Hey Magpie," she greets. "Thanks for the food! This is a _lot_ of good-looking shit you got assembled here."

Simony arrives at the SfPA building, and does her best to not dawdle, but at least three pieces of interesting architecture are sketched, with a few notes jotted down about each.

It takes her a few minutes to navigate the building, following instructions she's written down in her notebook. Along the way, The Gobbo does a running inventory check. Notebooks? Check. Sharpened pencils? Check. Pince-nes? Check. Anything else? She winces as her stomach growls noisily and at length. "Knew I forgot something."

Simony arrives a few steps behind Verna, actually using the woman to help her find the last part of the way to the assigned room. Slipping in the door, she looks for a spot near the middle of the table.

Society for Progressive Arcanists.

They're the lovely hosts for the evening, and Jacob is among those to appear. Dressed in his full armor, shield at his back and lance compacted and placed on his back behind it, he smiles softly to all the people who've gathered. "Hello, my friends." He remarks, a kindness in his eyes and a warmth that follows. "This is...quite the feast. I'm excited to try the food." He tells Magpie with a smile on his face, though he clears his throat and makes for an empty seat.

Critias steps into the room, looking around. He nods at Jacob, with a friendly smile. Then his eyes brighten even more at the sight of the foods and snacks, looking over all of the offerings with a smile that grows wider at each. It's almost anticlimactic when he settles for filling a cup with tea. Next he looks for a place to wait, out of the way yet with a good view of any proceedings.

Dolan, much like Andelena, eyes the refreshments laid out with great interest. "Leave it to Magpie to find the best baked stuff in Alexandria," he chuckles, trailing Andelena in despite being of just a little bit shorter stature, hair still damp and smelling of fresh soap. The truth is that Dolan would likely be long since gone to seed, were he not as active and hard-working as he is. "Better get started. I didn't have supper after that training session, baby."

"Yeah, but this is *important,*" Magpie says, patting the book's cover. "Gotta make sure 'best I can do' includes 'don't screw it up,' right?"

As people start filing into the room, enough of the tension leaves Magpie's shoulders that she very nearly goes boneless on her chair. Each person entering in turn is greeted, by name if she knows it, but cheerfully and sincerely, with each person who follows the last seeing a more enlivened and excited gnome at the head of the table.

It may very well be that she's half-convinced herself that she'd end up having to eat all that bread by herself.

"I mean, if you're going to throw a study party, it's just *good manners* to provide snacks," she grins when exclamations float up over the food. "Fill a plate, sit on down, get comfy, everyone. I'm *so glad* you're all here, cos if you don't know, we got a problem that needs putting down for good. ...Sec.

A quick gesture and a word, and a cantrip turns the latch to lock the door. "Okay. Right. So to start;"

"There's this demon lord by the name of Jal'goroth, and he's been causing a *lot* of problems lately. Some of you, causing problems *personally.* Dolan can give you the important parts of the story," she says, nodding at the scarred Inquisitor, "but the practical upshot is, he's asked me to take on a job, and that job starts tonight. Guys, we're looking for a way to make a major demon dead. Like, for good. Ceased to be. Expired, gone to meet his maker. A stiff. Bereft of life, resting in pea-- right you get the point."

Verna utilizes the same cantrip as she settles in her seat, though hers is to secure a pastry napkin to the table before herself, rather than secure the door. Yet moving directly to the topic at hand does delay her appetite, if temporarily. "So long as the Jal'goroth, and any others from the Outer Planes, are summoned to this realm, they are effectively immortal. The most concise and direct method to slay one permanently is to do so in its native realm or to another to which it traveled without summons. It is simple to state, yet difficult to execute."

"Well, we're not gonna leave you hanging," Andelena says firmly to Magpie regarding the subject of food. She busies herself with making a plate and picks a couple of seats for herself and Dolan at the table, close to Magpie.

She looks to Magpie. "So. I have to say this right up front: Bry and I have found out some new shit since the last time we spoke. Bry, you got that scroll on you still?"

The Goblin goes completely still when her name is called, suddenly unsure she was allowed at the massive amount of food but looks relieved when it's merely a hello, to which she smiles and waves to the Gnome.

When she returns to her seat, her plate is stacked pretty high, with all manner of food, dinner items and dessert items alike, all mixed together efficiently so as to remain on the plate without falling off. Simony immediately begins to inhale her food, with hardly a chew going on.

As Magpie begins to explain the situation, the Gobbo flips through the pages of her notebook til she finds a blank page, and starts writing down the details in point form. Her free hand continues to drop food into her maw.

"Traveling to whatever Hells JG is from seems like a rather tall ask, so that way is probably closed to us. Any way we could trick him into 'another realm'? Maybe one of those spells that creates temporary places? The mansion one?"

Taking his seat and with some food on his plate, filled to the nines, Jacob happily begins to bite down. He's quite for a moment as he indulges in food and drink, though he hears the name of Jal'goroth and his ilk, a frown on his face. He turns his eyes to Dolan, giving the fellow a nod. "No easy task to kill a major demon." He nods softly at Verna. "So then, how to execute the ability to transport the demon to another plane and slay it?"

Dolan didn't need to be told twice to help himself. He, too, stacks a plate and joins Andelena, although when the scroll is mentioned, his attention is distracted. "Yeah," he nods to Andelena. The plate gets set on the nearest surface - the seat next to him - and he fishes from inside his breastplate a scroll tied with simple twine. "We did a communing with a servant of the Knight on the topic." The scroll gets tossed on the table for general perusal, and Dolan picks up his plate again.

"First thing you've got to know is that Jal'goroth isn't the only game in town. There's at least one other, and probably more. If I had to hazard a guess, they all work for the same boss, and their job is to be a pain in our asses. Threaten our friends and families. Distract us from what their boss is up to. We know that, too." Dolan is explaining between bites of a savory handheld chicken pie. "Mmmph."

Crumbs and drips are handled with much gusto, and he goes on. "There are both demons and devils involved. Their boss is a rare bird - it's got the ability to command both. Jal'goroth's an ice devil, pretty ordinary from what I've been able to learn. Still, in order to get here, he's being summoned. He hasn't got the ability to come here without help. We have a lead on the cult summoning him."

Critias listens. He seems even happier at the reveal of the scroll than he had been at snacks. He unrolls it and holds it smoothed out, so that others can read along with him if they choose. He gets about halfway through when he glances up from the scroll, and begins to look around. "Ah...forgive me, so rude but I never introduced myself. My name is Critias. I hope it's al right that I'm here. Clearly I didn't realize the depth of what was going on here." he takes a slight breath and then forges on. "These questions were well-formed, and the answers very valuable. But am I to understand the first step is still to slay Jal'goroth?"

Simony squints at the scroll, with several dessert treats pushed into her mouth, til her cheeks are almost full. The whole thing is chewed on for long moments, before she swallows. Taking a breath, she begins to flip through previously written notes in her notebook.

"Dolan, there was an attack at The Lupecyll-Atlon Residence yesterday. By two .. people? that had taken on the faces of one Seldan and Malik. The real Seldan showed up, and there was a tense... discussion. In that discussion, this one name was mentioned, with the two attackers being its minions.

The Goblin tosses her notebook, folded in half, to Dolan's spot on the table. In large letters is the name: ECLAVDRAN. "Is that possibly one of the other two other-planar beings in the city?"

"Oh no it's *perfectly* all right you're here," Magpie says with a grin, "nice t'meet you Critias. I'm Magpie, that's Dolan and Andelena, Simony, Verna, Jacob... Jacob, right? Yeah, Jacob. And to everyone who hasn't met him before, I also brought, um... Let's call him 'expert counsel.' ...Mostly because the Elunans really don't need to know I kind of stole him from Temple lockup to make sure he didn't fall into the wrong hands, but you totally Did Not Hear That From Me. Anyway!" She lifts the book. "This is Albus Kinkade. Wizard, demonologist, author of some of the best circulating sources on infernal psychology we have... and corporeoplegic. Say hi, Albus!"

While the attention of the room at large is focused on the book, Magpie gets up on the table to close on the unrolled scroll, and study its contents. About halfway through she straightens, remembering a lot of questions she'd meant to answer in the intervening time.

"Andie: Thanks *so much,* this is great. Simony, Jacob: Just about anyone who's ever had to deal with the Lower Planes knows the one easy and certain way to make an outsider super-dead. For the rest of you, that's summed up as 'Summon the bastard, then lock out all dimensional travel in the vicinity, then shank until the twitching stops. Un*for*tunately, that's a plan that, uh... Has a lot of points of failure. And when any of them go wrong, you get an anti-summoning ward around the city. So, to borrow a page from Andie's book... We have to say 'Fuck This Guy In Particular.' And we don't know how to do that, yet. But that's why I got you all snacks, because all of you have access to some great libraries, all of you have access to big brains, and we're more likely to find a green needle in a pile of needles if we got a *bunch* of us doing the sorting."

Dolan's contribution is nodded to with fervor. "And everyone, I need you to listen to this guy here when he talks. Because Jal'goroth has made it a *personal mission* to mess up that guy's day in specific, and there's no one who knows more about JG's tactics and angles. Because he's eaten at least half of them himself."

When the book is held up, a man's voice comes forth from it. An elderly gentleman who offers a polite, "Hello!" Then falls silent. It... definitely came from the book. "Magpie gives me too much credit, she's an intelligent and capable lady however, and a true friend of mine; so I do mean to be of as much assistance as I can be. Did one of you write something down? I heard some writing I'm almost certain of it! For those of us who have no eyes, might I ask what it was? I am after all largely familiar with fiends of different variations as Magpie said."

"It is far from the only fiend, much less the only threat, indeed," Verna concurs with Dolan. "Yet it is the one most aggressively and personally active, that we are aware." Looking to Jacob and Simony, she notes, "Traveling to its plane would require locating it there and presumably the fiend would reside in a stronghold. That makes the task all the more difficult. Transporting it across planes against its will may be impossible. As well, many such creatures can travel to other realms at their whim. Thus, even if we were to relocate it, it could simply depart elsewhere."

She takes a moment to consider further as she looks from Dolan to Magpie, then the book and back to Dolan, somewhat inquiringly. "An alternative may be to imprison the ice devil, in a manner not unlike what befell Master Kinkade. Such is not guaranteed a permanent solution, but could be near enough in the scope of our lifetimes.... if not as satisfying as utter destruction. If Jal'goroth is, in fact, the creature's name, our knowledge of it would go far in making such an attempt feasible."

"Okay, wait, hold the fuck up," Andelena says--and then she looks to Simony. "Eclavdran. That's not a name that's been mentioned in any of this, at least not in front of me. Besides--kind of a red herring here. We're here to talk primarily about Jal'goroth, and we know that's different from the demons that are harassing Telamon and his wife because Verna just said he's an ice devil, _not_ a demon, and because our communing document revealed they're different entities."

Speaking of which, she looks to the book that contains Albus. "We'd asked a number of questions from a communing with a servant of Daeus. I think we are primarily here for Jal'goroth, though. Bry? Tell the man what he wants to know."

"Imprisoned, in a tome..." Critias says wonderingly. "How fitting. Many would even consider it an honorable end." He inclines his head towards the book Magpie is holding. "I certainly would. But in the case of an ice devil, I would say it sounds like justice regardless of how the fiend feels about books."

The first thing Dolan does is stand bolt upright, only just remembering to set his plate of goodies aside on the chair next to him. "Something attacked Lana?" he blurts out, alarmed. "Shit, is she all right?" The last bite of his pie is popped into his mouth and he licks his fingers. "I'll drop by on the way out of here and make sure she's okay." Scowling now, he strides over towards the table where the scroll is being held. "Sorry, Albus, I'll need to read this out loud for you, and it's pretty dry reading."

He does so, reading the contents of the document aloud to Albus, and when he is done, he sets it down. "So _is_ Jal'goroth its real name?" he asks Albus, turning his entire face to stare at the book. "Problem is, we can't really keep it where we want it if there's someone else summoning it. First thing we have to do is find the people doing it and throw their sorry asses before the law. Yes, baby, that includes your mother. If she wiggles out, she wiggles out. That will take her long enough that we'll be able to ruin his boss' life and make that one piss off elsewhere before she gets out of trouble, and it'll set her social standing afire no matter what the Tribunal does."

Verna blinks. Twice. First at the name uttered from the notepad and promptly scowls. "No." The single syllable is uttered with emphasis of finality. "The Archfiend Eclavdran is no more. I can attest to this personally and unequivocally. Yet, due to his vile deeds, his name may forever be associated with fiends of any sort in the minds of many within this city."

Only after that does she fully parse mention of the Lupecyl-Atlon residence; rather, to which of the two it referred. Dolan's clarification corrects this and her scowl deepens. Though there is no provided indication that this is Jal'goroth's doing, it may well be another servant of V. She reaches a hand up to pinch at the bridge of her nose. "The cult certainly needs halted, as they may call multiple fiend of various types upon multiple occasions beyond Jal'goroth. Yet, were the named one imprisoned, it could not be freed by a summoning, so far as I am aware."

Simony looks to Dolan, "She was minorly injured, from what I could tell. I was not there for the whole fight. It was beyond my capabilities. Seldan was at her side, however, the last I saw."

To Andelena, she nods, "Alright, I had thought it important, but I see I am mistaken. We shall focus on JG then." The Goblin shrugs at Verna's statement, "I'm letting the matter drop."

Jacob waves at Magpie. "Nice to meet you too." He smiles softly. He tilts his head. "Expert counsel?" He turns his eyes towards Albus Kinkade. "...yeah, you had to do with the books that we were looking for, the kind that trapped people inside because of a runaway infernal, right?" Jacob recognizes the name. Otherwise, he's quiet. He turns his eyes to Dolan. "Okay...but /this/ team?"

He gestures to everyone. "Can get it done easy." Otherwise, he falls quiet.

"Eclavdran? Bad business that one, though quite dead from what I understand. Though I think that was a rather difficult trick. I would love to interview those that did it to find out the method." The book hums. "Jal'gorath? His name? Oh...."

Kinkade's voice trails off for a long moment. "Well you see... I..." He trails off again and then sighs. "I have a confession to make dear Magpie, Dolan, and you others gathered here... You see, due to the risks I was taking in having all this information about fiends gathered up, I took up the practice of erasing my own memories on certain things. I know that the information is in my book, but I couldn't tell you what it is. I'm sorry. I've been going along this whole time trying my best to be helpful, but the truth is that I don't know as much as I've been pretending to. I hope you'll forgive me." He sounds quite contrite.

"As to the idea of trapping a fiend into a book... That I might be able to help with! I could certainly teach Magpie here how to do what I did, but trying to get such a thing into a fiends possession without them knowing would be a challenge indeed. Without them knowing that it would trap them all the more difficult. But it's a possibility!"

"So, you learned it all, wrote it down, and then forgot it all because the knowledge was so dangerous?" Dolan's gaze goes towards the book. "So it's all in the book," he sighs. "Magpie, you know I can't look at that book," he sighs. "Yeah, so - I'll track down the cultists. You track down the information on this fiend. Deal?"

Andelena looks at Dolan at his concern regarding Cor'lana. She leans into his ear and whispers into it for a moment, before she nods to Dolan's words. "In the meantime," she says, "be on the lookout for any rumor of a demon cult. I want anyone here to come find me, Bry, Magpie, or Verna if you do. Preferably all of the above but sometimes you only get an incomplete set."

She looks at the book and adopts a more thoughtful expression. "Honestly--we might be better off destroying rather than trapping," she says. "I don't put it past a fiend to find a way out eventually."

"All in the book...that you can't tell us about." Jacob frowns at Albus for a moment before he lifts his hands to rub his face. "Okay...we'll just have to figure it out." He nods at Andelena. "Agreed on all counts." it was better to destroy rather than trap.

The Goblin collects up her notebook, finds a blank spot somewhere around the middle, and continues taking notes of what is being said. She eyes Dolan, and then Magpie. "Judging from what I have just heard, I will not write down anything we talk about taken from that book, if that's alright? Unless it is safe to do so?" Simony glances to Andelena then. "So we should find a way to destroy JG, and use the book only if we have to delay or hold him for a time? Would that be acceptable?"

Verna looks up at the book, a few shades of grey lighter at the thought of erasing one's own knowledge so directly. After a moment of further reflection, she must admit, with a sympathetic tone that bleeds into her expression, "A drastic measure, yet prudent. It could be less difficult to hide and protect a book from fiends than to guard one's own mind against them." A thought that has her rub a finger at her own temple. She nods to Andelena. "Should I learn anything, you shall be informed immediately."

"Indeed." Says Albus to Verna's words, offering a soft sigh. "I did not trust that should I be captured that by some method they might be able to make me give up the very information that I had gathered to inform and defeat them. I had hoped that by doing this I would convince them that I was harmless, but as you can see from my current state... I was lucky to make it out as alive as I am."

The book doesn't move of course, but sits there sedately and sighs again. Though it clearly doesn't have lungs or any need to breathe. "But tell me Dolan, or... whomever of you was there; this fiend that walked about wearing the face of another, did it harm this person it was after? Were you able to discern why it was after them?"

Dolan's attention is drawn momentarily away from Magpie's answer to his question by Albus' question. "I wasn't there, Albus. What I do know is that Jal'goroth used the face of Andie's little brother to stage an attack on her and on the Knight's temple. Seems to be a tactic V's minions favor," he scowls. "That's why we need to move quickly."

Critias turns his head to look at various speakers, and often glances at the book even when Kincade is silent. Somewhere in between he remembers his tea, takes a sip, makes a slightly sad face, then brightens and goes over to the snacks table he got it from, this time to refill his cup. The cup steams gently once more, and the next time Critias takes a sip he sighs in contentment. "Moving quickly I can understand. If we're back to slaying Jal'goroth rather than imprisoning him, I'm willing to accompany any such effort. In the meantime I can be another pair of eyes - and a nose - to look for the cult we think is summoning him."

"That's actually a good point," Magpie says as the option of imprisoning the demon comes up. "I'd rather not kick the rock that far down the road, but well... It's a *heck* of a lot easier to lose a statue rather than an active demon, especially if... hm. Worth pursuing."

While the rest of the assembled scholarly-inclined adventurers mull details and gather information, Magpie takes the opportunity to fill her own plate, then go back for pre-emptive seconds and a cup of tea. Once significant damage has been done to her bounty, she stands back up, about to clap her hands for attention... Then Albus makes his confession, and she can't help but gather the book up and give it a hug. "Oh, hey, no, c'mon," she says. "I *know* how hard you've been worrying about security and the information being used right! It's perfectly understandable! But I'd *love* to learn that, if you can teach me, seriously Professor. Even if you don't remember everything you wrote, you're the reason we have this *chance* at all.

Looking up at Dolan, Magpie nods. "We can do that, yeah. Deal! So... okay!"

Turning on the table, Albus in hands, Magpie drops her foot ont he table to get the attention of the room. "So it sounds like we've got a few good leads we can track down! Guys, I want the Study Buddies to pick what they want to track down, and get on it. Here's the options we've got;

Ice Demon -- We need specifics on that, including any leverage we can get to counteract his power.

Jal'goroth is being summoned -- Is there anything we can do about trapping him at the moment of summoning? Containing or binding into something, either way.

Trapping his being into an object. Albus is willing to teach me, but it never hurts to dig up tweaks and tricks to that.

Killing Jal'goroth -- Can't be done in the city limits, but dimensional pockets *outside* the ward might be safe-ish-er. Hunt up known interactions between pocket dimensions and dimension-locking magic, that'll be important to survive it.

The Book Dolan Talked About -- When we have more information, I'll gather up anyone interested, and we can consult it. Simony, that's a perfect thought about not writing it down, we can summarize later.

Disguised attack demons; we also need a defense we can hand around the Temples. Arcane engineer's dilemma applies, but we at least want 'fast' to be one of the three we go for.

"And I get that there's probably a lot of roads that aren't in that list, so please use your judgment when an idea pops up. I got all of you together for your brains -- well that and *someone* has to eat all these snacks -- so if you think of something, chase it until you know it's not gonna help. I'll get you access to the Arcanist library as much as I can, but you're best off using the archives you're most familiar with."

The Goblin has only paused eating when she has made to speak. Though she has started to slow down, but the amount of food on her plate has steadily been dropping.

"If we want to get him at the point of summoning, then we have to find out where he is being summoned to. I assume that we are not going to attempt summoning him. Please say that this is not in the cards at all. Someone mentioned he possibly has a cult? Could they be summoning him, then? If we found out where they are gathering, then multiple birds could be gotten at once, yes?"

Dolan turns his entire face to Critias for the first time, surveying the man thoughtfully. "I s'pose we don't yet know which way is going to be the best way to get rid of him. Let's keep all our seeds in the ground and see what sprouts, yeah? As long as he's not harassing my family and my intended and her family, and those of my friends and other innocents, I'm content. He's got friends, though, so we can't stop there, but getting rid of this one is a damned fine place to start."

Andelena contemplates this provided list. "Quite frankly," she says, "I'm of the opinion we need to focus on killing Jal'goroth, like Bry said."

She looks at Dolan's plate. "Speaking of which, Bry? Eat or I'm telling your mother you let a plate of food sit. She'll be _astonished_ by the notion." There's a tiny little smirk on her face.

Verna nods at the division of duties and assignment of efforts. "I have a thought concerning both entrapment and destruction where the two are not mutually-exclusive. I will advise once I am more certain." Her head and eyes shift to Simony. "I presume that, no, none here shall be personally summoning Jal'gorath, nor any others."

The book makes a gruff but not displeased noise when hugged. Of course, being a book, Kinkade can only guess at what Magpie is doing, but the words and sounds give him a reasonable assessment. "You are too kind Magpie. You have this well in hand, and I am happy to do what I can. Teaching you is a pleasure." He makes a noise as if to clear a throat he does not have and continues. "I do suggest that you look into the matter of my book. It will surely have some information in it that will be useful to you; you know the manner of it now."

Dolan looks up in surprise as Andelena admonishes him, and looks like nothing so much as an _aw shucks_ kid. "Yeah. Mama would give me a hiding," he admits sheepishly, immediately leaving the table and resuming his seat and his plate. Picking up his plate, and another pastry, he bites deeply into one, food having most of his attention for the moment.

Simony nods to Verna. "People in desperate moments have done worse. I am being kind by saying desperate moments and not 'completely lost their way'." She looks Andelena's way. "Let's decide upon the course of action, then, after that we can work out how to go about it. Else we'll just end up talking in circles."

"Indeed," Verna concurs with Simony, before choosing to now to bite from her previously-ignored pastry. Summoning fiends comes highly not recommended, indeed.

"Awesome, we're thinking," Magpie says, giving the book a final squeeze before moving back to her chair. "So let's finish off these snacks, and get started on the real work. Meantime... Hey Albus, if you've been missing the taste of apple pocket-pies and tea, just ask!"

Yes, Magpie is officially allowing her self to be briefly overwritten so a dead wizard can have a snack.

Yes, she *does* think it's a good idea.

-End