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Apr 24, 2024 3:01 PM

until the dark lord lifts his hand

there's really only one way to pull this off

Lastwall

watchers-on-the-wall

Numendil

Lastwall has a problem.

Well, really, it has several problems. Its spymaster and most powerful wizard is dead and in Hell, many of its covert operations throughout Avistan have correspondingly been burned, and its attempt at alliance with Avistan’s most powerful wizard has collapsed in spectacular fashion, leaving it with a supply route to the Worldwound that it’s not going to be able to defend, and slightly less of Ustalav ruled by undead but more of it ruled by Cheliax, and, frankly, egg on its face in the sight of the international community, which is not something any of Lastwall’s decision-makers are personally inclined to track but is, in fact, strategically relevant.

Most of the strategic cost of Jean Riudaure’s death was presumed lost within minutes of his death, and from a strictly utilitarian point of view, saving him from Hell’s wrath is just not worth the enormous cost of recovering a sold soul, which might, otherwise spent, increase their chances of victory for everyone, but there were other considerations besides his own suffering which led Lastwall to provide Felandriel Morgethai with a Wish diamond and ask her to wrench him from Hell’s grasp. Riudaure was the most well-known soul-sold defector in the world, with a bounty on his soul equal to that on Queen Galfrey’s, and he joined Lastwall’s service with their explicit promise of protection from Hell. To leave him there, no matter the cost, would not only ensure Lastwall never received another high-level defector from Cheliax, it would also strain their ability to call themselves Lawful Good.

—except that, for Jean Riudaure, even a Wish will not be enough. One can revive most soul-sold people that way, even when no lesser force will suffice, but only because a ninth-circle caster can typically beat the Will save of an ordinary contract devil. Riuduare is not most people, and his new owner has a substantially better Will save than an ordinary contract devil.

At this point, even they are inclined to give up. Spending vast resources on the successful rescue of an ally would be one thing. Spending those resources, when all they can bring to bear will not even be enough, would be simply foolish, and Iomedae is not the goddess of Stupid Good.

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Jean Riudaure

all-is-not-lost

Numendil

But Jean Riduaure, in fact, has secrets not even he knows, guarded against the day that he might fall to Hell.

There is a letter, written by him and sealed with instructions to open in the event of his irreparable death, which is opened and read by Lastwall’s most senior officers after Morgethai’s Wish fails. It reads:

There is a way to break the grip of Hell upon Cheliax, which I commit now to this page, and will erase from my memory after, lest I fall to Hell and they learn of it.

The loyalty of Cheliax’s high-level wizards is, as is well known, almost entirely dependent on the ownership of their souls by Hell, and this is, as my own case demonstrates, often not even enough. If the sale of their souls would be reversed, Cheliax would fall within a day.

It is told in Cheliax, that there is no way to reverse the sale of a soul, but this is not true. It is written in the Book of the Damned that if both physical copies of an Infernal contract are destroyed, that contract is null and void. I have confirmed this with others who have tracked down and destroyed their contract devils, some of whom are prideful enough to carry their contracts on their own person.

(You should not, yourselves, attempt to read from the Book of the Damned; it is said that any who do so are themselves damned to keep the information from Heaven’s hands. As I am already certainly damned, or would be but for the information in that book, I considered it an acceptable risk; I hope only that this summary is not already sufficient to trigger that provision.)

Those contracts made by devils not stupid enough to carry them around are kept, according to the Book, in Caïna, the eighth circle of Hell, in the domain of Mephistopheles, called the Merchant of Souls. It might be possible, though Hell certainly guards against the possibility, for a powerful enough adventuring party to enter Hell, reach the hall where the contracts are kept, and, with a Wish or similarly powerful weapon, destroy them all. I mean to do this as my dying act, when I am as powerful as I will ever be; if you are reading this, I am dead and beyond the ability of mortals to raise, and someone else will have to carry out the plan in my stead.

If you, on your adventure into the Pit, should come across my soul, I would appreciate the rescue, but you will have, frankly, more important things to do.

Lastwall

watchers-on-the-wall

Numendil

Uh.

Wow.

They can't do that.

watchers-on-the-wall

—can they?

watchers-on-the-wall

It's not that Lastwall doesn't have considerable resources. From here to Tian Xia, nobles and powerful merchants concerned about their alignments pay their tithes to the Church of Iomedae, long since established as the most efficient vehicle in Golarion for converting gold to Good, and Iomedae may hate it—it feels like benefiting from the existence of Hell—but Her church has always been among the wealthiest in Golarion, and things that money can buy have never been the operative constraint on Lastwall's strength.

What Lastwall lacks, however, is genuinely high-level casters in its service. Iomedae is a young goddess, and has no true cleric higher than the seventh circle, and one paladin of a slightly higher level than that. Of wizards, they had Riudaure, and they have one other eighth-circle besides him, and a handful at seventh; none of this, of course, is enough to survive even the first circle of Hell, were they to enter it directly.

A very rich faction can, to some extent, cheat, with scrolls and items and Wishes bought of the City of Brass, but doing this at a level high enough to stand against Hell requires, frankly, even more money than Lastwall has.

Lastwall

watchers-on-the-wall

Numendil

In short, Lastwall does not have the capacity to pull this off. Not while they also have to stop the world from being eaten by demons.

Unless, in fact—

The Whispering Tyrant

stars-should-die

Numendil

Did someone say "high-level casters"?

Jomah Gildais

night's-count

Numendil

In the chaos which accompanied Riudaure's death and the fall of the Razmiran empire, the authorities in Lastwall might not, perhaps, have paid sufficient attention to a lone winterwight walking unimpeded out of Gallowspire and surrendering to the nearest (very junior, given circumstances) paladin patrol, shouting his repentance in the Taldane of nine hundred years ago.

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