CH. 14: Beyond the Veil

[JadedDM]

"The lab is next door," Kaakos replies. "You'll need this." He then pulls out a key with a diamond shaped head and offers it to the party.

Diamond Key.png (20.56 KiB) Viewed 4991 times

"But here's the thing. It's pretty dangerous in there. About a century ago, the kyton got loose. It can't go home, either, because of the anchor," he explains.

"What the devil is a kyton?" asks Brock.

"Bingo, dwarf. Ya just answered yer own question," Kaatos answers. "Chain devils, they are sometimes called. Although after all those experiments the Wyvern did on it, this one has gone a little batty in the belltower, if you know what I'm sayin'. Can't be reasoned with. Even I, a fellow Baator, would be attacked on sight. The only reason he hasn't broken out of the lab yet is that it's locked up tight, the anchor keeps it here, and it's been having fun torturin' the planetar." The imp shakes his head. "I warned the Wyvern not to bind either of 'em to this plane, but he was never one to listen to me. Since outsiders, both celestials and fiends, can regenerate, he was obsessed with experimentin' on them. Anyway, youse see the problem, yeah? To get the last plug to the vault, youse need to go into the lab. But the lab is occupied by a crazed kyton that youse can't kill unless youse destroy the anchor first. But the anchor is in the vault, and you can't open the vault without the plug, capiche?"

He nods to Ouragana. "Yeah, the Wyvern always was into games, 'specially games of skill over chance. Liked to prove how much smarter he was than everyone else," he says with a chuckle.

==============

(OOC: Hmm, good question, Breila. Imps, devils and fiends in general are the domain of religion, and Ouragana has made her lack of interest in that subject pretty apparent. Plus, she doesn't have any summoning spells and due to her pacifist nature, I'm not sure how much she would have studied such things anyway. I imagine she only has the very basics as part of her training in familiars, so I'll just start with that.

Imps are sometimes sought after as familiars, because they are much more powerful than the mundane animals mages usually get with the ritual. Having an imp as a familiar boosts your own magical power considerably and they are considerably stronger and more durable than say, a squirrel or cat or owl. But there is a downside. As Granite points out, imps are fiends. That means they are essentially pure Evil. You'd never be able to trust an imp familiar completely. Regardless of how fawning or respectful it might act, it's still a devil with its own agenda. And you know what they say about making pacts with devils...)

[HorizonsDream]

"Planetar," Jocelyn says softly as if trying to trigger her own memory. "They are...well angelic," she says. She looks disgusted as she thinks about one of them being tortured over and over again. "How long does it take for the kyton to regenerate? What is a kyton weak against?" she asks. "The way I'm looking at it, we only have a couple of options. We either use our strongest to distract the kyton while we get the plug for the vault, free the planetar, and pray to Octhanus that they survive," she explains."Or we can all beat the crap out of the kyton, and then use the time it takes to regenerate to find the plug, free the planetar, and get the hell out of the lab as fast as possible. Of course, we would have to lock up the room tight again so it won't get out after it regenerates."

[xelphyn]

"About that angel..." Dahn says nervously. "Well, it's... situation. We may want to, ah, verify it's state of mind before releasing it. With this Kyton thing torturing it for all these years, well, it may very well have changed; gone off the deep end, to put it lightly."

[spyguy1503]

"Any demonic creature must be stopped." Gallath says. "We must rescue that angel."

[BishGada]

"My puppy knows how to Teleport!" Baeros ignores all other conversations. "So, now, would you like to change your answer?" he asks the Imp.
When the party discuss tactics Baeros suggests, "We can kill the demon with the angel or without, and then you can go to open the vault and destroy the anchor while I will keep killing it to prevent its regeneration. Unless you think I can be of more use destroying the anchor, that is."

[JadedDM]

"How long does it take for the kyton to regenerate? What is a kyton weak against?"

"They heal pretty fast; all us Baatezu do," Kaakos replies. "And kytons ain't weak against much. I can tell you that fire and ice won't hurt it. And regular steel weapons won't touch it, either. You need something made of silver or something with potent magic in it. And weak magic won't do, it needs to be strong. The master used to keep some silver weapons around, but they all long since tarnished. Oh, yeah, holy power works really fierce." He snaps his fingers. "Wait, that's it! The hammer of disruption! The master acquired it from a priest, just in case. It's infused with some powerful holy energy; if you're really lucky, you could take him out with one hit with that sucka. Badaboom!" He chuckles, then his ears droop and he frowns. "Oh, right. It's in the lab."

"Pastor," Brock says, turning to Jocelyn. "Maybe you can turn it then? Turning is just channeling holy power, right?"

"My puppy knows how to Teleport! So, now, would you like to change your answer?"

"Puppies can teleport?" Kaakos asks, scratching his head. "Boy, the world sure has changed since I got locked up in this dump." He shrugs. "Well, if that's true, then it's probably in the vault. See, the master modified the anchor to keep people from tryin' to teleport in here and steal his stuff. If you try to teleport, you get rerouted to a cage in the vault. The master thought that was funny, having a would-be thief stuck in the same room with all of his best loot, but unable to reach it or escape."

[HorizonsDream]

"I've never heard of turning a devil," Jocelyn admits. "But I could try it." Though, she was working under the assumption that turning him would be close to trying to turn something like a vampire. "If anything, it might give those that can't do anything to find the plug."

She looks towards Dahn. "You're right. He could be insane. Though, he could also be very angry."

Jocelyn looks back to the imp. "Is the hammer in plain sight?" she asks.

[Breila]

"Tell me, Kaakos" Ouragana asks in a sweet voice, talking to the fiend for the first time. "Has it been you who kept this place in such a marvellous shape all these centuries? With no one as company but an insane Kyton and a tortured Planetar? That must have been a very boring and difficult time"

[JadedDM]

Kaakos shrugs unhelpfully to Jocelyn. "I dunno. I haven't been in the lab for a hundred years now. No telling what it looks like in there now, with a crazed kyton roamin' free and wild."

Turning to Ouragana, he replies, "Yeah, that was me. Somebody had to keep this dump from falling apart completely. 'Sides, it's not like I had nothin' else to do! One of the downsides of immortality, I guess."

[HorizonsDream]

Jocelyn glances to Oura for a moment before she shakes her head. "What do the rest of you think?"

[Breila]

"Oh? what else di you have to do, then?" Ouragana continues the conversation with Kaakos, sounding very interested.

[JadedDM]

"What do the rest of you think?"

"It's clear that a brute force approach won't work in this situation," Thaddeus replies. "Even if we throw everything we have at this devil, it still may not be enough to defeat it once, never mind multiple times. It seems what we'll need is an adequate distraction--a way to keep its attention elsewhere, so someone can grab the plug, enter the vault and disable the anchor. Finding that hammer might be a good idea, as well."

"Oh? what else did you have to do, then?"

"Nothin', like I just said," Kaakos answers. "Keep in mind, too, that devils don't sleep. If we did, maybe I'd just go to sleep for a few decades at a time. Seems like it would be a good way to pass the time. But no such luck. Sometimes I would just sit there and stare at a desk until it gathered enough dust to clean it. That's sort of like sleeping, right? I wouldn't know."

[chese780]

(OOC: Would the flametounge longsword count? I mean, it does do bonus vs regenerating creatures, right? )

"Well, I bet the hammer would be our best bet in this case," Drav says.

[HorizonsDream]

"The best way to distract it, it seems like, would be for me to try to turn it," Jocelyn says.

[Breila]

"Do kytons have flame weapons?" Ouragana asks no one in particular. "If they don't, I could trap it with a web like I did that armor, that would give us time."