The Assault on Avernus

[Ebiris]

"I like pyroclasm anyway, it sounds very destructive and forceful," Alicia insists. "All we can really do is wait until we hear word from Seira, so better to keep our minds busy than run around in circles. At least our part's easy, we just need to be extremely loud and destructive."

[Corwin]

'Lixer contacted me, and can apparently follow where I'm going,' Seira sends back to her friends still waiting on Astral. 'Taking a glance at his gift.'

[Anastasia]

"Pyroclasm Grasp," Donald says, "I can work with that."

"Anything that helps," Latha remarks.

As all that happens, a particular prayer catches your attention. 'Alicia,' Hell Striker prays. 'Hear my prayer and reply, if it is your will, for I bear news of my wielder.'

[Ebiris]

A prayer from her old sword? How novel! Also alarming, Alicia listens intently, an altered reality sending letting her reply to Hell Striker. 'I'm listening.'

Of course she's busy, but her avatar is free!

[Anastasia]

'Alicia, paladin Benyen chases Shadale, a ultroloth information broker. Right now he is pursuing one of his agents, a succubus named Jintorax who has fled to a kingdom named Langersun.' Hell Striker sends, 'Yet I fear he walks into a trap, for I have heard murmurings of darker forces at work here. Suggestions of Imix being involved, for reasons I know not. Something bigger than expected seems in the looming here.'

[Corwin]

Seira thinks to the others, 'Recording in a crystal shows Lixer annihilating Bel with Daddy's powers and approval. I'm inclined to buy this.'

[Ebiris]

Langersun? Alicia recalls from Ebony's reports that one of Aurora's officers was a princess from there, but that's about it, she doesn't have any other following there. Still though, what does this even have to do with her? She wracks her brain for anything useful to tell Hell Striker.

I'll take 10 for 73 on planes with divine insight applied to know more about Shadale and Jintorax.

[Ebiris]

She also replies to Seira, 'Are you compromised? Is the plan still viable?'

[Anastasia]

Shadale is a utroloth information broker. A nasty piece of work who has done a lot of evil by selling the wrong information to the wrong people. His agents also viciously deal with loose ends, usually through blackmail or mass murder. If he wasn't a 'loth and extremely good at hiding, he'd probably have been smited countless times until dead. You know one thing - when his name comes up, horrible things happen and innocent people die. It's only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, Jintorax is a succubus who specializes in sorcery and soul pacts. She's a free agent, working for whomever has the coin. A rising name in Abyssal circles, she's collected more than a fair share of souls as well as done all manners of dirty business for pay. It's said Malcanthet herself has her eye on her these days.

[Ebiris]

Alicia's still pretty confused. Hell Striker never acted like this when he was her sword, he just... stabbed things. Set them on fire. None of this chattiness about conspiracies or going over his wielder's head to pray for... help? Does he want help? Why isn't Benyen dealing with it then?

She decides to try and get more info out of her old sword while he's being so talkative. 'Have you shared your concerns with Benyen? What is he planning?'

[Anastasia]

'He believes he can handle it.' A pause, a longer pause, '...I have a bad feeling, Alicia. Something is wrong here. My mind keeps coming back to Shar, but I know not why.'

[Ebiris]

'Inform him that support is on the way, then. That should keep him from doing anything rash,' Alicia sends.

Meanwhile back in Sylica? Alicia's avatar fills Marie in on the details and sends her off to Aurora so she can draft Ebony and see if Ebony can recruit Dana to go with her to Langersun and help deal with this yugoloth conspiracy.

[Corwin]

'Plan isn't viable,' Seira thinks to her companions. 'Lixer is showing off. My only shot of getting inside is relying on stealth if you violently catch his attention.'

[Anastasia]

Done and done. That'll show up in Tryll's thread later, obviously.

[Ebiris]

Replying to Seira, 'Can you evade his notice enough to sneak in now that subterfuge is broken?'