Listening to Isabella's words, Oren is more intrigued than shocked. The warlock did not know the King of the Mountain like some clerics seemed to know their gods. Rather, Oren's patron was a distant presence, a foundation that was solid, but never personal. Could it be that this King was so because he was locked away? Oren entertained that as a possibility. And then again, this information was being offered via Fierna, so to say it was suspect was an understatement.
"He has power enough to enable me to defeat a chain demon. He has power enough for my friends and I to stop a demon invasion in another town, and seal the portal. See Isabella, not every entity in the universe needs to wear their power on their sleeve, or rub it constantly in people's faces. In times of need, I've never had a prayer go unanswered."
Gallindan is troubled, but says nothing. The young woman is clearly not going to be reached by his words. He waits, and watches. Out of curiosity, he reaches out with his divine sense to see if Lux is nearby and ready for action.
Isabella shrugged at Oren's remarks about slaying a demon and stopping an invasion. "Only delaying the inevitable. Killing a demon here only sends them home. Eventually, they come back. Are you so sure your prayer will be answered next time? Do you want to test that?" Isabella's tone again changed, now challenging Oren.
Marcus had the initial urge to jump at the statement of a test, but his focus and goal of this encounter had changed. He walked behind Oren and whispered quietly in his ear. "If she knows anything about the Avatar, we might be able to unravel a mystery centuries old. That would be more valuable than well... anything anyone has done in a long time. Keep her talking, but she is getting close to melting down. If she breaks, that might cause another incursion, with the epicenter right here."
Marcus then turned back to Gillindan, content to ignore Isabella for now, and let Oren do the talking. "I don't know if the alchemist is going to find anything useful, but if he does, we may want to wait to try whatever it is he is going to do. If his method of cleansing this girl separates her from any demonic influence, that might also wipe her memory of things she saw and learned while in their plane. It seems she has some valuable information that would be lost, if that were to happen. I hate to say this, but I would rather fight off an incursion here, to keep the hope of learning those secrets alive."
While Adelaide had warmed up to the wizard, a little, she did not enjoy having to lean in so close just to read the book they had acquired from the old lady. Walking this close together was already tricky, but also trying to read over the wizard’s shoulder was almost impossible given the angles. The man was shorter than most elves, which didn’t help Adelaide’s position at all since he still towered over her.
”Hey, wait, Help to give Kerwin advantage on the Investigation checkI thought I saw something back a page or two,” she said as she glimpsed some of what was written down.
Adelaide Darkdraft | Lawful Good | Human | Paladin 6 (Oath of the Ancients) Armor Class: 19 | Hit Points: 52/52 | Speed: 30 | Proficiency Bonus +3 Ability Scores: Str 16/+3 | Dex 8/-1 | Con 14/+2 | Int 8/-1 | Wis 12/+1 | Cha 16/+3 With +3 from Aura of ProtectionSaving throws: Str +6 | Dex +2 | Con +5 | Int +2 | Wis +7 | Cha +9 Skills: Athletics +6 | Insight +4 | Intimidation +6 | Nature +2 | Persuasion +6 Passive Perception: 11 | Languages: Common, Dwarven, Goblin, Elvish Longsword: +6, 1d8+5 | Javelin: +6, 1d6+5, 30/120 | Splint Armour: AC 17 | Shield: AC +2 |
Dagger x 2
Bullseye Lantern (filled and lit) x 2
Steel Mirror x 2
10 foot pole x 2
Hempen Rope (50 feet, coiled) x 2
Sack x 2
2 Mastiffs x 2
Bag of 100 gp x 1
10 gems worth 100 gp each x 2
Portable Ram x 1
10x10x10 pit x 2
Robe of Useful Items Relevant Skills/Feats: Fighting Style: Dueling | Divine Sense | Divine Health | Divine Smite | Lay on Hands: 30/30 | Channel Divinity: 1/1 | Extra Attack | Aura of Protection (+3, 10’ radius) |
If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to try to shove a creature within 5 feet of you with your shield.
If you aren't incapacitated, you can add your shield's AC bonus to any Dexterity saving throw you make against a spell or other harmful effect that targets only you.
If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.
Increase your Strength or Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Once per turn when you hit a creature with an attack that deals slashing damage, you can reduce the speed of the target by 10 feet until the start of your next turn.
When you score a critical hit that deals slashing damage to a creature, you grievously wound it. Until the start of your next turn, the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls.
Agitated at how far Isabelle had gone, Oren nods quickly when Marcus revealed the new plan: Keep her talking. The simple truth was that he didn't really know what Marcus was saying about the Avatar and the ancient mystery, but he knew enough to play along.
He scoffs, shedding his friendly tone and now adopting one much more brusque. "Why should we believe anything coming from the mouth of one such as you? What could a country girl not twenty years old know of the King on the Mountain? Nothing! All you can spew are vague words about our patron. Nothing real, nothing tangible, nothing..." he pauses, "provable. You can make up what you want. It's all the same unsubstantiated rubbish from Fierna."
With Adelaide annoyingly peering around his shoulder, Kerwin began thumbing through the book they had acquired from Mrs. Applewood and almost immediately began feeling his throat constrict and his chest tighten. While in a different context, the book would have been a wonderful read. Stories of experiments to open the mind to the astral plane, allowing the spirit to separate from the flesh to venture to that far away realm, how the stars were conduits to the multiverse and could provide signs and protections on how to make the transition. However, if purging a demonic entity from a person was one's reason for reading the book, this was not the volume for them. He was getting highly agitated and sweat began dripping into his eyes from his clammy brow. Kerwin was about to slam the book shut and throw it into the dusty street, when Adelaide must have caught a glimpse of something as he had frantically been flipping through pages. "Hey, wait, I thought I saw something back a page or two," she had said.
He stifled an irritated look and reminded himself that she was trying to help him, that he was trying to help someone else. His foul attitude wasn't going to benefit anyone in either task. He took a calming breath and began backtracking through the text
Cantrips Known:Enchantment cantrip Casting Time: 1 action Range: Self Components: S, M (a small amount of makeup applied to the face as this spell is cast) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
For the duration, you have advantage on all Charisma checks directed at one creature of your choice that isn’t hostile toward you. When the spell ends, the creature realizes that you used magic to influence its mood and becomes hostile toward you. A creature prone to violence might attack you. Another creature might seek retribution in other ways (at the DM’s discretion), depending on the nature of your interaction with it.Friends, Transmutation cantrip Casting Time: 1 minute Range: Touch Components: V, S, M (two lodestones) Duration: Instantaneous
This spell repairs a single break or tear in an object you touch, such as a broken chain link, two halves of a broken key, a torn cloak, or a leaking wineskin. As long as the break or tear is no larger than 1 foot in any dimension, you mend it, leaving no trace of the former damage.
This spell can physically repair a magic item or construct, but the spell can’t restore magic to such an object.Mending, Transmutation cantrip Casting Time: 1 action Range: 60 feet Components: S Duration: Instantaneous or 1 hour
You choose nonmagical flame that you can see within range and that fits within a 5-foot cube. You affect it in one of the following ways:
You instantaneously expand the flame 5 feet in one direction, provided that wood or other fuel is present in the new location.
You instantaneously extinguish the flames within the cube.
You double or halve the area of bright light and dim light cast by the flame, change its color, or both. The change lasts for 1 hour.
You cause simple shapes—such as the vague form of a creature, an inanimate object, or a location—to appear within the flames and animate as you like. The shapes last for 1 hour.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.Control Flames, Transmutation cantrip Casting Time: 1 action Range: 10 feet Components: V, S Duration: Up to 1 hour
This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following magical effects within range:
You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor.
You instantaneously light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.
You instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than 1 cubic foot.
You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour.
You make a color, a small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for 1 hour.
You create a nonmagical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.Prestidigitation
1st-Level Spells Known:1st-level conjuration (ritual) Casting Time: 1 action Range: 60 feet Components: V, S, M (a piece of string and a bit of wood) Duration: 1 hour
This spell creates an invisible, mindless, shapeless, Medium force that performs simple tasks at your command until the spell ends. The servant springs into existence in an unoccupied space on the ground within range. It has AC 10, 1 hit point, and a Strength of 2, and it can’t attack. If it drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends.
Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object. The servant can perform simple tasks that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine. Once you give the command, the servant performs the task to the best of its ability until it completes the task, then waits for your next command.
If you command the servant to perform a task that would move it more than 60 feet away from you, the spell ends.Unseen Servant, 1st-level illusion Casting Time: 1 action Range: Self Components: V, S Duration: 1 hour
You make yourself – including your clothing, armor, weapons, and other belongings on your person – look different until the spell ends or until you use your action to dismiss it. You can seem 1 foot shorter or taller and can appear thin, fat, or in between. You can’t change your body type, so you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs. Otherwise, the extent of the illusion is up to you.
The changes wrought by this spell fail to hold up to physical inspection. For example, if you use this spell to add a hat to your outfit, objects pass through the hat, and anyone who touches it would feel nothing or would feel your head and hair. If you use this spell to appear thinner than you are, the hand of someone who reaches out to touch you would bump into you while it was seemingly still in midair. To discern that you are disguised, a creature can use its action to inspect your appearance and must succeed on an Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC.Disguise Self, 1st-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action Range: 120 feet Components: V, S Duration: Instantaneous
You create three glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range. A dart deals 1d4 + 1 force damage to its target. The darts all strike simultaneously and you can direct them to hit one creature or several.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the spell creates one more dart for each slot level above 1st.Magic Missile, 1st-level enchantment Casting Time: 1 action Range: 90 feet Components: V, S, M (a pinch of fine sand, rose petals, or a cricket) Duration: 1 minute
This spell sends creatures into a magical slumber. Roll 5d8, the total is how many hit points of creatures this spell can affect. Creatures within 20 feet of a point you choose within range are affected in ascending order of their current hit points (ignoring unconscious creatures).
Starting with the creature that has the lowest current hit points, each creature affected by this spell falls unconscious until the spell ends, the sleeper takes damage, or someone uses an action to shake or slap the sleeper awake. Subtract each creature’s hit points from the total before moving on to the creature with the next lowest hit points. A creature’s hit points must be equal to or less than the remaining total for that creature to be affected. Undead and creatures immune to being charmed aren’t affected by this spell.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, roll an additional 2d8 for each slot level above 1st.Sleep, 1st-level abjuration (ritual) Casting Time: 1 action Range: 30 feet Components: V, S, M (a tiny bell and a piece of fine silver wire) Duration: 8 hours
You set an alarm against unwanted intrusion. Choose a door, a window, or an area within range that is no larger than a 20-foot cube. Until the spell ends, an alarm alerts you whenever a tiny or larger creature touches or enters the warded area. When you cast the spell, you can designate creatures that won’t set off the alarm. You also choose whether the alarm is mental or audible.
A mental alarm alerts you with a ping in your mind if you are within 1 mile of the warded area. This ping awakens you if you are sleeping. An audible alarm produces the sound of a hand bell for 10 seconds within 60 feet.Alarm, 1st-level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action Range: 60 feet Components: S Duration: Instantaneous
Choose one object weighing 1 to 5 pounds within range that isn’t being worn or carried. The object flies in a straight line up to 90 feet in a direction you choose before falling to the ground, stopping early if it impacts against a solid surface. If the object would strike a creature, that creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the object strikes the target and stops moving. When the object strikes something, the object and what it strikes each take 3d8 bludgeoning damage.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the maximum weight of objects that you can target with this spell increases by 5 pounds, and the damage increases by 1d8, for each slot level above 1st.Catapult, 1st-level abjuration Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you are hit by an attack or targeted by the magic missile spell Range: Self Components: V, S Duration: 1 round
An invisible barrier of magical force appears and protects you. Until the start of your next turn, you have a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and you take no damage from magic missile.Shield, 1st-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action Range: Self (30-foot line) Components: V, S, M (a bit of rotten food) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
A stream of acid emanates from you in a line 30 feet long and 5 feet wide in a direction you choose. Each creature in the line must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or be covered in acid for the spell’s duration or until a creature uses its action to scrape or wash the acid off itself or another creature. A creature covered in the acid takes 2d4 acid damage at start of each of its turns.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 2d4 for each slot level above 1st.Tasha's Caustic Brew
2nd-Level Spell Known:2nd-level divination Casting Time: 1 action Range: Self Components: V, S, M (a copper piece) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
For the duration, you can read the thoughts of certain creatures. When you cast the spell and as your action on each turn until the spell ends, you can focus your mind on any one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creature you choose has an Intelligence of 3 or lower or doesn’t speak any language, the creature is unaffected.
You initially learn the surface thoughts of the creature—what is most on its mind in that moment. As an action, you can either shift your attention to another creature’s thoughts or attempt to probe deeper into the same creature’s mind. If you probe deeper, the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, you gain insight into its reasoning (if any), its emotional state, and something that loom s large in its mind (such as something it worries over, loves, or hates). If it succeeds, the spell ends. Either way, the target knows that you are probing into its mind, and unless you shift your attention to another creature’s thoughts, the creature can use its action on its turn to make an Intelligence check contested by your Intelligence check; if it succeeds, the spell ends.
Questions verbally directed at the target creature naturally shape the course of its thoughts, so this spell is particularly effective as part of an interrogation.
You can also use this spell to detect the presence of thinking creatures you can’t see. When you cast the spell or as your action during the duration, you can search for thoughts within 30 feet of you. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 2 feet of rock, 2 inches of any metal other than lead, or a thin sheet of lead blocks you. You can’t detect a creature with an Intelligence of 3 or lower or one that doesn’t speak any language.
Once you detect the presence of a creature in this way, you can read its thoughts for the rest of the duration as described above, even if you can’t see it, but it must still be within range.Detect Thoughts, 2nd-level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch Components: V, S, M (powdered corn extract and a twisted loop of parchment) Duration: 1 hour
You touch a length of rope that is up to 60 feet long. One end of the rope then rises into the air until the whole rope hangs perpendicular to the ground. At the upper end of the rope, an invisible entrance opens to an extradimensional space that lasts until the spell ends.
The extradimensional space can be reached by climbing to the top of the rope. The space can hold as many as eight Medium or smaller creatures. The rope can be pulled into the space, making the rope disappear from view outside the space.
Attacks and spells can’t cross through the entrance into or out of the extradimensional space, but those inside can see out of it as if through a 3-foot-by-5-foot window centered on the rope.
Anything inside the extradimensional space drops out when the spell ends.Rope Trick, 2nd-level illusion Casting Time: 1 action Range: Self Components: V, S Duration: 1 minute
Three illusory duplicates of yourself appear in your space. Until the spell ends, the duplicates move with you and mimic your actions, shifting position so it’s impossible to track which image is real. You can use your action to dismiss the illusory duplicates.
Each time a creature targets you with an attack during the spell’s duration, roll a d20 to determine whether the attack instead targets one of your duplicates.
If you have three duplicates, you must roll a 6 or higher to change the attack’s target to a duplicate. With two duplicates, you must roll an 8 or higher. With one duplicate, you must roll an 11 or higher.
A duplicate’s AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier. If an attack hits a duplicate, the duplicate is destroyed. A duplicate can be destroyed only by an attack that hits it. It ignores all other damage and effects. The spell ends when all three duplicates are destroyed.
A creature is unaffected by this spell if it can’t see, if it relies on senses other than sight, such as blindsight, or if it can perceive illusions as false, as with truesight.Mirror Image, 2nd-level abjuration Casting Time: 1 action Range: Touch Components: V, S, M (gold dust worth at least 25 gp, which the spell consumes) Duration: Until dispelled
You touch a closed door, window, gate, chest, or other entryway, and it becomes locked for the duration.
You and the creatures you designate when you cast this spell can open the object normally. You can also set a password that, when spoken within 5 feet of the object, suppresses this spell for 1 minute. Otherwise, it is impassable until it is broken or the spell is dispelled or suppressed. Casting knock on the object suppresses arcane lock for 10 minutes.
While affected by this spell, the object is more difficult to break or force open; the DC to break it or pick any locks on it increases by 10.Arcane Lock
3rd-Level Spells Known:3rd-level evocation (ritual) Casting Time: 1 minute Range: Self (10-foot-radius hemisphere) Components: V, S, M (a small crystal bead) Duration: 8 hours
A 10-foot-radius immobile dome of force springs into existence around and above you and remains stationary for the duration. The spell ends if you leave its area.
Nine creatures of Medium size or smaller can fit inside the dome with you. The spell fails if its area includes a larger creature or more than nine creatures. Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast this spell can move through it freely. All other creatures and objects are barred from passing through it. Spells and other magical effects can’t extend through the dome or be cast through it. The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside.
Until the spell ends, you can command the interior to become dimly lit or dark. The dome is opaque from the outside, of any color you choose, but it is transparent from the inside.Leomund's Tiny Hut, 3rd-level enchantment Casting Time: 1 action Range: 120 feet Components: V, S Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You reach into the mind of one creature you can see and force it to make an Intelligence saving throw. A creature automatically succeeds if it is immune to being frightened. On a failed save, the target loses the ability to distinguish friend from foe, regarding all creatures it can see as enemies until the spell ends. Each time the target takes damage, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Whenever the affected creature chooses another creature as a target, it must choose the target at random from among the creatures it can see within range of the attack, spell, or other ability it’s using. If an enemy provokes an opportunity attack from the affected creature, the creature must make that attack if it is able to.Enemies Abound, 3rd-level abjuration Casting Time: 1 reaction, which you take when you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell Range: 60 feet Components: S Duration: Instantaneous
You attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell. If the creature is casting a spell of 3rd level or lower, its spell fails and has no effect. If it is casting a spell of 4th level or higher, make an ability check using your spellcasting ability. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a success, the creature’s spell fails and has no effect.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the interrupted spell has no effect if its level is less than or equal to the level of the spell slot you used.Counterspell, 3rd-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action Range: 30 feet Components: V, S, M (a shaving of licorice root) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
Choose a willing creature that you can see within range. Until the spell ends, the target’s speed is doubled, it gains a +2 bonus to AC, it has advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and it gains an additional action on each of its turns. That action can be used only to take the Attack (one weapon attack only), Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Use an Object action.
When the spell ends, the target can’t move or take actions until after its next turn, as a wave of lethargy sweeps over it.Haste, 3rd-lvl abjuration Casting Time: 1 minute Range: 10 feet Target: A 10-foot-radius, 20-foot-tall cylinder centered on a point on the ground that you can see within range Components: V S M (Holy water or powdered silver and iron worth at least 100 gp, which the spell consumes) Duration: 1 hour
You create a 10-foot-radius, 20-foot-tall cylinder of magical energy centered on a point on the ground that you can see within range. Glowing runes appear wherever the cylinder intersects with the floor or other surface. Choose one or more of the following types of creatures: celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, or undead. The circle affects a creature of the chosen type in the following ways: The creature can’t willingly enter the cylinder by nonmagical means. If the creature tries to use teleportation or interplanar travel to do so, it must first succeed on a Charisma saving throw. The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets within the cylinder. Targets within the cylinder can’t be charmed, frightened, or possessed by the creature. When you cast this spell, you can elect to cause its magic to operate in the reverse direction, preventing a creature of the specified type from leaving the cylinder and protecting targets outside it. At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the Duration increases by 1 hour for each slot level above 3rd.Magic Circle
Features:Always on the lookout for danger, you gain the following benefits:
You can’t be surprised while you are conscious.
You gain a +5 bonus to initiative.
Other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you.
Alert, Beginning when you select this school at 2nd level, the gold and time you must spend to copy a Transmutation spell into your spellbook is halved.Transmutation Savant, Starting at 2nd level when you select this school, you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, changing it from one substance into another. You perform a special alchemical procedure on one object composed entirely of wood, stone (but not a gemstone), iron, copper, or silver, transforming it into a different one of those materials. For each 10 minutes you spend performing the procedure, you can transform up to 1 cubic foot of material. After 1 hour, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), the material reverts to its original substance.Minor Alchemy, Starting at 6th level, you can spend 8 hours creating a transmuter's stone that stores transmutation magic. You can benefit from the stone yourself or give it to another creature. A creature gains a benefit of your choice as long as the stone is in the creature's possession. When you create the stone, choose the benefit from the following options:
Darkvision out to a range of 60 feet
An increase to speed of 10 feet while the creature is unencumbered
Proficiency in Constitution saving throws
Resistance to acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage (your choice whenever you choose this benefit)
Each time you cast a transmutation spell of 1st level or higher, you can change the effect of your stone if the stone is on your person.
If you create a new transmuter's stone, the previous one ceases to function.Transmuter's Stone, You have learned to regain some of your magical energy by studying your spellbook. Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your wizard level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher.
For example, if you're a 4th-level wizard, you can recover up to two levels worth of spell slots. You can recover either a 2nd-level spell slot or two 1st-level spell slots.Arcane Recovery
Each time that Marcus speaks, Gallindan grows less convinced that this man follows the same faith as he does. Is this the way of humans? In the Feywild, the way of the ancients is a way of wonder at the existence of life, at the forces holding off entropy and decay. The eladrin's training on this plane has been more practical, no doubt influenced by the dwarven nature of his mentor. But even Hakkouth had focused on the tenets that had drawn Gallindan to this creed: being the flame that drives away the darkness. Marcus is no flame. Or if he is, he is a wildfire, sweeping aside all that gets in his way, consequences and civilian lives be damned. Gallindan cannot reconcile this with the teachings of the King of the Mountain. Perhaps this is how the Path manifests for humans, whose light must burn so brightly for such a short time? But no. It can't be as simple as race. Oren may have learned of the Path through strange ways, but he shines brightly in the night. Adelaide, for all her temper, has joined the cause to defend the innocent, not sacrifice them for some greater mysteries. Marcus speaks, and Summer calls. A righteous fire burns, ready to erupt. But still the time is not now. Now would endanger Isabella and Oren both. Oh, how the eladrin longs to release this long Winter! But patience and planning remain of the essence. Stoic and still, he ignores Marcus as much as he can.
Kerwin flipped back a few pages as Adelaide pointed to something she had spotted. The title of the page seemed oddly specific to a scenario that the two hoped they would never encounter. 'A Process to Detach Astral Leeches after Traveling the Astral Planes'. What could astral leeches have in common with demonic influence over someone? What the heck even was an astral leech? But, reading further into the description, Kerwin saw something he recognized. A process was described that was commonly used in his alchemy, or even in brewing. It was in essence a process of water distilling. But, in this case, it used a combination of holy water and a simple containment spell. An 'astral traveler' should stand on a grate over a boiling pot of holy water. Anything that was 'an astral leech', or more generally, not of the material plane, would be caught in the 'holy steam', and be lifted up off the traveler. The containment spell was then cast directly above the traveler to permanently separate the contaminants and the traveler. It wasn't quite clear what happened to those trapped contaminants after the separation. They would probably need to be dealt with in one way or another, not described in the book's pages. Kerwin realized that the method could really be used on just about anything not from the material plane, with a small alteration. Fey, Feind, Undead, Celestial, Elementals. These star worshipers had a specialized use for the process, but it could certainly be generalized. They would just need some holy water, somewhere to boil it, and a grate to have someone stand on above it. After that, it was a simple matter of Kerwin learning the spell on the pages, with a slight alteration for the type of 'creature' he wished to remove.
This is basically a specialized version of the 'Magic Circle spell. Kerwin can learn it, as you would from any other book, as a 3rd level spell. In this case, I won't worry about the gold cost normally associated with doing so.
Just as it seemed there was going to be a breakthrough, Adelaide felt something in the pit of her stomach that immediately drew her attention. While she was normally attuned to the senses and could detect the presence of evil, such as the tainted vegetables, what hit her now was more like an eclipse, a vacuum that sucked everything in around it, leaving a void. The draw of that darkness was coming from the Church.
Oren lectured Isabella, in an attempt to keep her talking. "Proof? Made up? Are you pretending you don't know what happened, what I've been through? You were there Oren! How could you say something like that?" It was disjointed, rage at things Oren hadn't even claimed. But, logic had little place in emotional outbursts, and that was clearly what Isabella was going through. She started to look more frantic and worked up, angry at Oren as she kept talking. "You think that just because I am young, that I should keep my mouth shut, and not speak my mind? That I should just ignore every abuse that comes my ..." suddenly Isabella jerked, stopped cold, and her expression changed to one of being terrified as if someone had just slapped her across the face. She stared off into the distance as if looking through Oren. At almost a whisper, as if too afraid to speak, she whimpered out, "were in trouble..."
Marcus and Gillindan suddenly felt the presence of something, or rather the lack thereof, that must have caught Isabella's attention. It was a bit peculiar that Isabella felt and reacted to it before the Palladin's did. Suddenly, the evil aura that had been building around Isabella was suddenly snuffed out, and overshadowed. It was like a candle trying to add to the light of the Sun, except for the exact opposite effect. Marcus and Gillindan turned to peer out the church windows. Even Oren could hear the sound now of hooves galloping towards the chapel. "She is right," Marcus said, confirming what the others instinctively knew. "We are in trouble."
A dozen knights rode towards Oakcrest, their mission was simple. Follow the orders of their demon lords. This Cult existed as a mockery of the Hooded Lantern. Opposition in all things. Even most of the Hooded Lantern Agents themselves were not aware of the existence of the 'Cloak of Aramok', but now they were here, thundering down the streets towards a chapel, where a few members of the Hooded Lantern were now taking cover, and trying to steal one of their lord's assets.
As the macabre scene of knights, armor decorated in horrific tokens of their evil deeds, the leader pulled out a staff and started banging it on a red lantern that hung at the end of a hook. Eerie red light shone from the lantern, and each strike of it with a rod echoed like a church bell. Then, the Knight in the lead called out, in a high-pitched voice, "Marcus.... come out and playayayay!"
I kind of like the 'bicycle horses' in some of these, but they didn't quite fit. Nore the oversized 'lantern carts'