Apostles of Doom

“Teragdor!” Vaselle raised a hand in greeting, gesturing for the two men to approach. By their clothes, they appeared to have just finished a horse ride.

The two came over and Vaselle stood to shake hands with the priest. “Good to see you again!” Vaselle told him.

“And you!” Teragdor agreed with a rather intimidating smile.

“This is Stevos, who also serves Tiernon, albeit in a different capacity.” Vaselle reached out to shake Stevos’s hand.

“Let me introduce you to Damien,” Vaselle said, gesturing to Damien, who gave him a small glare. Vaselle suddenly realized he’d used Damien’s real name. They had not actually agreed on a fake name for him, but in hindsight, given that the wizard was hiding from others from Freehold, they should have.

Damien stood, smiling politely, and shook the hands of both men. Vaselle noted that as he stood, he had twisted his hands and moved his mouth ever so slightly to invoke his wizard sight.

The three exchanged greetings before all four sat down again. As they did so, the serving wench came back with two mugs of stout. After setting them down, she stared impassively at Teragdor and Stevos. Teragdor didn’t seem to notice her poor manners, but Stevos seemed slightly taken aback.

“What’s Thadwall tossing on the platters tonight, Darla?” Teragdor asked.

“Yak rib and turnips, mutton and bread or the sausage, cheese and bread platter,” Darla replied with marginally more enthusiasm towards Teragdor than she had shown to Vaselle.

“Oooh. Yak?” Teragdor nodded happily before glancing to Stevos. “The yak ribs are actually quite good. I’ve had them several times.” He grinned at Darla. “I’ll have those and the dark beer.” Darla nodded.

“Hmm, well then.” Stevos said with a smile. “I shall do the same.”

Darla shrugged and headed back towards the bar.

“She is lively,” Stevos noted.

Teragdor blinked and then smiled, realizing that Stevos was being ironic. “She’s just grumpy because Tessa, the other server who should be working tonight, gave birth two days ago and won’t be back to work until tomorrow. And of course, leading up to that, Darla had had to pick up some slack. So she is doing twice her normal work.”

“Ah.” Stevos nodded.

Damien was looking a bit wide-eyed at Teragdor. “The other serving maid gave birth two days ago and will be returning to work tomorrow?” The wizard sounded rather shocked, which Vaselle could understand.

Apparently Teragdor misinterpreted the shock. “Yes, I know, an unusually long time, but Thadwall’s the father, and the baby is a boy, so he’s feeling pretty generous.”

Stevos raised an eyebrow at this. Vaselle got the impression that the older man felt similar to Damien and himself in terms of how quickly the girl should be returning.

“So, as I understand it, you work for this Lord Edwyrd, Vaselle?” Stevos asked, making conversation.

“Yes, that’s true.” Vaselle nodded in agreement.

“As I understand it, Lord Edwyrd is hunting down demons that escaped from Freehold?” Stevos asked.

“Uhm, yes.” Vaselle nodded again. That was the story that Damien was using.

“He must be a very powerful animage if he is able to rein in demons,” Teragdor said. “As I understand it, summoning is quite dangerous compared to conjuring.”

“That is generally true,” Vaselle said. “Which is why wizardry is the preferred mechanism for dealing with demons. However, Lord Edwyrd does employ Rune Magic, which technically predates modern wizardry.” All true, Vaselle thought to himself, although, obviously, that was not how his master controlled demons.

Stevos sniffed a few times. “Speaking of demons, is that sulfur I smell?”

Damien grimaced. Vaselle suddenly realized they were still wearing the same clothes they’d been wearing at Mount Doom, where there was quite a bit of sulfur in the air.

“My apologies,” Damien said. “While Edwyrd is an animage, I am a conjuror and earlier today I’d been measuring out and packing small bags of sulfur for use in spellcraft.”

Stevos smiled politely. “Well, this is quite interesting for us. Given our line of work within the Church of Tiernon, we don’t often get to talk with those who work with demonic forces.”

Vaselle smiled tightly. He was fairly certain that was a slight rebuke. He knew full well that Etonian priests did not approve of conjury. Which was why he would have loved to bring up the High Priest Verigas, who had summoned his master. However, that would probably not be a good idea.

Damien smiled. “The same is true for us. I would say we have an excellent opportunity for stimulating conversation.”

Outside Freehold: DOA + 4, Late First Period