They ration their spells, carefully; to use too few is a false economy, for then they need healing which is still more limited. They run low on scrolls, then on potions. 

They've cleared the outer city and are attacking the inner walls when it happens. The fortifications of Drezen have decayed for seventy years, and the demons are too disorganised to put them in even a rushed semblance of a state of defense; otherwise the thing would not be possible at all. But the inner fortress retains two gigantic constructs in working order, rattling spider-contraptions of wood and metal that run nimbly up and down the crumbling walls firing deadly rays from their many eyes.

One of them hits Nenio.

It's rather an interesting experience, actually, turning to stone! Nenio would quite like to observe it further!

...in fact, there are many things Nenio would have liked to observe further.

Flesh to Stone, unfortunately, will prevent the petitioner from observing even the workings of Pharasma's court, the one miracle usually granted to every mortal. 

That's the least of the problems with this, and also, if Pharasma dislikes Flesh to Stone so much she might have designed a Creation without it. And without undead, likewise. In fact, has Pharasma considered that Iomedae would do a much better job?

...yes yes that's rhetorical. Returning to the Worldwound... Iomedae cannot actually justify intervening here. Not for such a slim chance of the large gain that would be the closing of the Wound. She is desperately stanching too many near-certainties of disaster, to take a very long shot at that victory. But oh, how She longs to. She is not goddess of triage, originally; She is goddess of victory over evil.

However... Iomedae is not the only god with interests at stake; and there are those who have their hands less full than she, and positively enjoy small chances of high rewards.

Hey, Nethys, have you noticed?

Nethys, who sees all things, had indeed noticed one of His followers get Flesh-to-Stoned; unfortunate, but these things will happen. Nethys is not a god of safety. But - Iomedae rarely wastes Nethys's time. It might be worth a little more of His attention. To see is not the same as to understand.

And Nethys, who sees all things, sees how the battle will unfold without His follower's magic. Sees the construct fall, too late, to Regill's smashing hammer-blow; sees the gate fall to the ram in spite of the Vrocks that swoop down on the bearers. Sees the party, down a member and limping from the desperate struggle against the balor, enter the dungeons that whisper madness at every corner. Sees them struggle with minotaurs through the mind-twisting corridors, expend their channels against wave after wave of ghouls from the vast stinking flesh-pit. Sees their progress slowed so the Abyssal corruption has time to work; sees Dismissals fail for lack of focused will, and demons left free to rend flesh and bone. Sees them arrive wounded and exhausted to the confrontation with Minagho; sees her nervous desperation turn to shrieks of hysterical triumph when Staunton's hammer-blows finally bring even Seelah to her knees, and Abramo is left without healing to keep her in the fight. Sees, at last, the mythic hero fall, and all the shining bright hope of the Fifth Crusade sputter and fail.

And what is that to me? What do I care for the Fifth Crusade, or the closing of the Worldwound? The demons use magic just the same as the mortals; more so, if anything. And the Wound itself is a great achievement of my art, and Areelu Vorilesh one of my most cherished worshippers.

Quite so. Iomedae knows full well that Nethys cares for nothing that She cares for, and asks for nothing in that respect; nothing that She would have to buy. But even Nethys has been known to aid His followers, if they have great potential cut short by ill luck; and as for the Worldwound, how great an achievement would its closing be? Nethys is well known to be indifferent between great works, and great explosions.

...And Nethys may call Iomedae a fool, if He wishes; indeed He often has. But if Iomedae had a worshipper with mythic ranks, and all their future achievements were reduced to dumb rocks by a mindless construct... She would not sit and ask, "what is that to me".

And Nethys, who sees all things but does not always understand them, looks yet again at the battle; and this time His fragment sees what Iomedae does. Mythic power, indeed; as yet very little of it, but - the potential is there, for works and explosions that will satisfy even Nethys's shattered soul. And, after all, the intervention needed is so tiny; a matter merely of

...nudging...

...this swirling coil of unsettled magic, twisting chaotically in the maelstrom of duelling spells...

...so that the ray hits Nenio at the slightest angle...

...and she makes her Fort save.

It is still quite an interesting experience, having one's Flesh very nearly turned to Stone! Nenio is glad to have experienced it! And also to be able to experience other interesting things, such as casting Phantasmal Killer on that wretched acolyte. 

...and is that a Balor?! Truly, there is nothing better than being alive; what could a statue possibly experience, that would be one-half so interesting, nay one-tenth so interesting, as feeling its Unholy Aura ripping at one's very sanity? 

Quite so; the kitsune has the spirit to go with the mythic ranks. Nethys will... continue to see this one, as He sees all things; but now He will be paying attention.

It would be amazing how much easier everything is, when Nenio is there to back them up with Haste, Grease, and Phantasmal Killer; except that Abramo, of course, has never experienced the Nenio-less counterfactual and thus has no reason to think of his one and only real life as "easier". To him, the monstrous Balor appears quite deadly as it is, and he is drastically relieved when Greybor jumps in with the teleporting dagger. He shivers at the close call when the ghouls paralyze him, and does not at all stop to think how much worse it would be if both he and Sosiel went down under a wave of filthy cannibal claws until armour-clad Regill and Seelah could finally hammer and slash their way through the horde. He winces when Nenio's Phantasmal Killer fizzles in her tired paws and he has to Dimension-Step away from the enormous minotaur's frenzied charge, for he doesn't know how much worse it would be if her Grease hadn't neutralised the archers right behind the beast. 

He is tired, when he finally unrolls the Sword of Valor over the courtyard and the troops cheer their throats hoarse, but he is not reeling on his feet from Abyssal corruption and the unending stench of ghouls and demons and blood, blood, blood. Which is just as well, as he needs his wits about him to speak to Areelu Vorlesh.

Eh, it wouldn't matter that much, actually. Areelu is sufficiently enhanced that the difference between INT 9 and INT 18 is much of a muchness to her; she's already dumbing down her dialogue about as much as is feasible, just to be intelligible to a baseline human. Anyway: Mysterious hints about the purpose of the Worldwound and whether Areelu is entirely on the demons' side, quantity half a dozen, serve well stirred with a pinch of salt. You're welcome.

Mythic rank 3!

It looks like my options are Angel and Demon, which is a little disappointing as I was looking to do Legend, but ok. Angel it is.

Abramo: Ascendant Summons - summons have been very weak against demons but if they can ignore damage resistance then everything changes!

Lann: Cleaving Shot because area-effect damage is awesome and he is frequently the killshot.

Seelah: Mythical Beast because Irony is an awesome horse and it would be nice if he could actually contribute in combat against demons. Probably not very optimal tbh.

Nenio: Ascendant Element (Fire), which is a little boring and also Nenio does more battlefield control than direct damage, but I'm just not that impressed by the other mythic feats available to a wizard. 

Regill: Hmm... I'm torn between Magic Nullification which seems thematic, Thundering Blows because area-effect damage is awesome and I hate when Regill misses anything, and Last Stand which also seems appropriate for the iron-willed Hellknight who will not die until he has finished the mission. Unstoppable fits too, but there are just not that many paralyzing, nauseating, or frightening threats that Regill doesn't have a pretty good save against. In the end I come down on Magic Nullification because I like the image of Regill just no-selling any magic that would interfere with getting things done.

Sosiel: Domain Zealot because his "Luck" domain abilities are really rather good and having them as standard actions is the main limiting factor; moving that up to swift actions will be surprisingly powerful, I think.

Daeran, Ember, and Camellia: Improved Abundant Casting remains a no-brainer for primary casters, sadly.

And after a quick detour to zap a vampire, level 9!

Abramo: Cleric 9, and fifth-circle spells, ha. Feat is Spell Penetration because spell resistance is really annoying.

Lann: Demonslayer Ranger 2, because the Combat Style looks cooler than the remaining Ki powers. Improved Critical (Longbow) because a Lann critical often ends even a tough fight. Combat style is obviously Archery and first feat is Toughness, although I don't understand why Rapid Shot is disrecommended.

Seelah: Paladin 9, of course. Improved Critical (Longsword), same reasoning as Lann. Exhausted for the Mercy because that's really crippling when gotten from an enemy spell and I super need a counter for it; ask me how I know. 

Nenio: Wizard 9, lest Nethys be pissed. And Deft Hands for the feat, along with putting all the skill points into Trickery, because I really need to replace Woljif for locks.

Irony: Endurance because I'm leaning into Irony being tough as nails - his horseshoes have to be attached using adamantium or mithril - and also he's my go-to for Athletics checks which is otherwise a weakness of the party.

Regill: I don't understand why the game keeps recommending Armiger over Hellknight? Perhaps it's because the lower levels of Hellknight don't have that much Cool Stuff, but then, they are prerequisites for getting to the Cool Stuff, so... Ok, fine, I'll take Armiger 8 and the bonus combat feat. Which is Improved Critical (Gnome Hooked Hammer), and then Critical Focus because why not stack bonus on top of bonus?

Sosiel: Another Cleric 9. Feat is Spell Penetration because Dismissal is really powerful against demons.

Daeran: Oracle 9, why not. Spell Penetration.

Ember: Witch 9, Greater Spell Penetration.

Camellia: Shaman 9, Elven Spirit.

He still needs a battle cry, something to unite the army - a motto, a slogan. The local "gods", whatever their nature, cannot help here; there are too many of them - he cannot well offend the Hellknights, his only source of good heavy cavalry, by choosing a motto from Iomedae, and he equally cannot offend the paladins and anyone who has any sort of sense and, frankly, himself by choosing one from Asmodeus, and any other god has similar problems.

...actually that might not be true of Abadar, but with Rathimus gone and Dyra back in Kenabres he's probably the only one who would find "Gains From Trade" to be inspiring?

He does not consider "Praise God and Costco", but only because that would break the fourth wall, and Abramo is very respectful of other people's property. Someone put time and effort into building that wall! 

Well, he can put off the problem for a little longer; to confront Minagho and Staunton in the citadel doesn't need the whole army, or anything more complex than "I will accept your unconditional surrender". He doesn't even need to say anything about moving immediately on their works since he'd be saying it in the middle of their works and it would be rather redundant.

Staunton is not in the mood to surrender. Look, he's not saying he made no mistakes. He just... doesn't have it in him any more. He can't fight for people who despise him for a traitor any more, that's the grim bedrock fact; whether he actually is a traitor - and he still holds that he wasn't until very recently - is beside the point. Here he stands and can do no other; and... any god that will help him, is a god whose help he doesn't want. 

That's... yeah. Abramo doesn't see any trade they can make now, and he is the man who once offered a trade to the literal mind-controlling alien who had caused the Eurasian War and its fifty million deaths. But to be fair, the Jackal for all its crimes had never, actually, broken its given word.

Mostly because it would never have occurred to it that "subhumans" were the sort of things you might give your word to; but still. You have to start somewhere.

Then we can have some Heavily Offscreen-Buffed Smite Evils, and be done surprisingly quickly actually. His brother put up a much better fight and he didn't even have a high-level demon backing him up.

His brother wanted to live.

Ok so Minagho can sort of see how the story goes here, right? She's prevented from fleeing by teleport, so she stays in place for darling Staunton's really quite manly threats - that armored fist on her silky-smooth throat is practically Abyssal, it makes her feel right at home - and then she discovers that actually it wasn't really the threats, after all the poor dear is still only twelfth level and couldn't actually crush her like a bug if she defied him, no she genuinely loves him and the sight of him on his knees and bleeding brings out her hidden reserves of resourcefulness and she wins the fight and his love? Right? That's the clearly-foreshadowed script for Minagho, the only person here with Obvious Protagonist Energy, right?

Because if that's the case then she guesses she kinda-sorta appreciates the thought, but actually she is a faithless Abyssal demon who wouldn't have risen this high if she wasn't capable of betraying people she genuinely loves at the drop of a +3 adamantine glaive. That's a pretty significant thing about her. Like she understands where they're coming from here but she very much does not take any sort of genuine risk in a fight, not even in the single-digit percents, that's not how you get to survive a millennium in the Abyss.

And hey, is that a nice big picture window with a mere 6d6 of falling damage to get her away from the mythic-rank adventurers? She'll take it, kthxbyeeeee!