The minions are down but they're not actually important, they're only there to witness Darrazand's prowess as he crushes the mortals -

Bolstered Magic Missile.

Seriously? 5d4+5, and Darrazand will likely spell-resist two or three of those?

Well, ackshully, between Bolster and that Mark of Justice backed by Seelah's Splendor, each missile is 1d4+16. Or in other words, 5d4+80 - from a spell that hits unerringly and doesn't allow a save. As the gnome pointed out the other day, if you stack up enough modifiers the base die stops mattering. As does Darrazand's admittedly impressive Fort save which does block old reliables like Phantasmal Killer and Disintegrate.

And Destruction. Which is why Sosiel is sticking to buffs. Mass Cure Critical Wounds.

Which is what allows Abramo to stand against the slashing whip and the boulder-sized fist, absorb the hits and dig in his heels and bare his teeth in defiance against strikes that would crush a tank (*).

Storm. Of. Justice.

(*) Well. One of those French tankettes that might or might not outweigh Seelah's armour, anyway. A Venetian Carro Armata is a fairly solid chunk of face-hardened steel and Abramo is (since the point is unlikely to ever have any sort of tactical relevance) patriotically certain of their ability to withstand even a balor's fists.

That makes this an excellent time for Galfrey, fresh from the holding action in the antechamber, to rush in and Smite

...Darrazand's smoking, blackened corpse.

"Welcome, Queen Galfrey."

Abramo carefully does not say "you're welcome", but Galfrey has an even higher Splendor than he does and it's possible she hears it anyway.

"Thank you, Knight-Commander." Galfrey's slightly-archaic, aristocratic accent doesn't have a consonant out of place, though her hair is in fact slightly mussed by fireballs and ichor. "As this completes the reconquest of Drezen, it is a good time to review your work."

Abramo listens in increasing disbelief as Galfrey lays out what she chooses to regard as his failures - no, by the time she reaches "interfered with the Sword of Valor" it's clear that these are excuses rather than reasons; the "performance review" is purely political. That actually relaxes him. If Galfrey really thought this trivia was a firing offense for a successful army commander he would have to drop her as an employer; such a micromanaging fault-finder would be impossible to work with. (In any case she's not his real employer, whose most recent performance review consisted of giving him eighth-circle spells; but she is, admittedly, paying his salary and providing his troops.) A purely political hatchet job he can live with, it's not an actual critique of his work and they both know it.

"...which is why I find it necessary to relieve you as Knight-Commander."

Abramo doesn't bother to argue; plainly the real reason is some sort of Nerosyan-internal intrigue which he can't even address, much less fix at this point. The question is rather whether he chooses to raise the Sword of Valor in rebellion over the point. Galfrey has clearly chosen her moment rather carefully, when he is low on spells from fighting through the Midnight Fane on her behalf and then going toe-to-toe with a Balor; she isn't visibly backed up by multiple high-level paladins but that means nothing, she won't have started this without high confidence she can finish it.

...although tomorrow is another day with a fresh spell allocation and much easier access to his large army of moderately-personally-loyal troops, and she'll have thought of that too; it follows that she won't let him walk out of here unless she's convinced he intends to stand down.

"I see. Did you, possibly, have another task in mind for me? Or should I rather seek to advance Abadar's interests outside Mendev?" Abramo is not actually certain he will back down and leave Mendev, but he wants to see how she responds to the implicit offer of Lawful dealing.

Yes, there is absolutely a task that gets the dangerously-popular-and-successful general well away from his army, without having him hanging about places with large markets in mercenaries and capital. To wit, Galfrey would like him to enter the Abyss, track down the source of Nahyndrian crystals, and destroy it. This will prevent any further mythically-powered demons from attacking the Crusade; it's of vital strategic importance! Nerosyan-internal politics have nothing to do with it!

Well.

Actually, that is of vital strategic importance. And it plausibly does require Abramo and his special-forces team; this kind of war, with some individuals having roughly the combat power of an armoured division, is occasionally strange like that. It's not that different from what Abramo has been doing anyway, seek-and-destroy missions against particular concentrations of demonic power.

...except for the part where Galfrey stripped him of his rank first.

"The mission is plainly important. Less plain is why it requires the Commander to give up his rank before undertaking it. Changes in leadership are bad for discipline."

"Quite so, which is why there is no change in leadership: I remain Queen of Mendev, as I have been for longer than even gnomes can easily recall. I expect the Abyssal expedition to take considerable time, longer than one ought to run an army on delegated authority from an absent commander-in-chief. Thus I will myself take over the day-to-day affairs of the Crusade; the Fiducia" - it is the first time she has referred to Abramo by a title other than Knight-Commander - "is an extraordinary talent, but a hundred years of experience ought to count for something."

"Indeed it should," Regill agrees. There isn't a hint of irony in his voice or his yellow eyes; he is the very model of a Lawful Hellknight general.

Arguably it is actually a better division of labor. Better still, perhaps, if Galfrey joined Abramo, and left the day-to-day logistics to one of her many perfectly competent officers who aren't capable of standing up to a Balor in personal combat. That would allow some real gains from comparative advantage. But - politics is the art of the possible. 

...it is of course possible that this is a Uriah-posting, that the Abyss is intended to swallow the strike team like, well, what it's named for. But Abramo doesn't actually think so; if nothing else, Galfrey remains an empowered paladin of Iomedae. He does not have as good a sense of Her as he does for Abadar, but She is no backstabber. If Galfrey had decided to kill him she would not do so by subterfuge.

Still, Lawfulness does not require one to supinely accept every possible deal one is offered, even in good faith. He will at least gesture at his best alternative.

"If I am no longer Knight-Commander, then it would appear that you cannot well order me to go - indeed, in that case I am no longer in your chain of command at all, nor are most of my companions." Seelah and Sosiel being the main exceptions. "Why then should I undertake this difficult and perhaps deadly task?"

Galfrey is the highest-level paladin the world has seen since Iomedae was mortal, or at least that was true until Seelah started gaining mythic powers. The DC on her Guilt-Inducing Eyebrow is extremely high.

Abramo is an eighth-circle cleric of Abadar, and entirely immune to a paladin's power to make people guilty for not doing things for free. He raises his eyebrows right back.

Abadarans. Can't live without them, can't get them to do the most obviously necessary things without money...

"I have no objection to giving you some other knightly title, and you may continue to draw the same salary."

That is not, actually, anywhere remotely close to fair compensation for Abramo's contributions to this war. But then, neither is the title Knight-Commander. 

...the uncomfortable fact of the matter is, Abramo's not actually doing this for any sort of compensation, he's doing it because he believes in the cause. He is never ever going to admit this to anyone except himself and possibly Abadar - presumably the Name knows already but the Name is not saying anything and should continue to do so in this one context at least, please and thank you. Nonetheless it turns out that, yes, Abramo believes demons are bad actually and should be kept away from cities full of people trying to truck and barter and look to their own interest. 

There remains the point that Abramo is a merchant of Venice, and he has his self-respect and would like to keep it.

"Three times the salary," he says, knowing perfectly well that Galfrey could pay thrice that again and find it cheap. "And a landed estate to go with the knighthood." It's no pound of flesh, but then nobody around here would get the reference anyway.

Abadarans. Galfrey does not roll her eyes, because between her headband and a century of practice she is entirely in conscious control of her expressions, but she thinks it very loudly.

"Agreed," she says instantly.

"Then I'll go to the Abyss." He turns to the companions. "I don't believe our contract obliges anyone to go with me; does anyone prefer to stay?"