*drains glass of spirits*
That's...better...I think...
*thinks*
No, doesn't help. Not nearly enough. Sod it all!
*drains rest of the bottle*
Better. A little. Not a whole lot, but at least it's going to numb the worst of the nerves for a while.
Late summer was going just fine until a few moments ago. I had just discovered and taken over an abandoned farm. And then my apprentice contacted me to convey the results of a scrying he undertook on his own initiative. Couldn't get a word out of him and he was mentally white as chalk.
Hold on... You there, hand me a second bottle! Yes, I know what I'm doing! It's not going to hit me for a few moments yet. And yes, we're done for today, set the camp up right here!
Where was I? Oh yes, the scrying. Well, see for yourself:
I had no bloody idea that my citadel was this close to the former Capitol, the land has changed so much in the few years since the Fall. No wonder this place was deserted and abandoned.
And now I also know what happened after Calthus loosed the Arch Devil. The one thing I always wondered was why the thing didn't go on a rampage after it wiped out the Imperial forces, but that mystery has been solved. There isn't an Arch Devil. Oh, there was, but it isn't there anymore. The rumors were true that something worse happened there.
The couple of wights and the banshee in there are like ticks clinging to a giant when one considers the thing that has taken residence in the buildings of the Senate and Emperor.
I have no idea what that is, but if I had to guess, something that Bellania's allies are responsible for.
And it's not even the worst part. There is a...
Something!...in the slums.
Just looking at it from afar is almost enough to send me gibbering over the edge of sanity and I've seen some rather unpleasant things in my time. The only way to describe that thing is that it is...
WRONG!
THAT is the reason why there is no Arch Devil there anymore. It's because the Arch Devil, its demon minions and whatever remnants of the Imperial military and citizens might have survived the demons now reside in that thing's belly.
*shudder*
I have no idea what I'm going to do next, but I REALLY need to find some serious income, resources or a few battlefields fast and fortify my citadel, because if THOSE things are lairing that close, there is no telling what may be ranging farther out for fear of going too close!