Expedition to the Silver Mountain-09

My Lords, what comes next should not surprise you; that you have this letter, and are reading it, should be proof enough to support what I presently state (for I know well your wrath, and am no fool) as being a true and faithful report: we did reach our goal. We expected that demon to attack us once more before we approached the goal, but that did not happen. In retrospect, it was clear as to why, but I did not know for certain until we got there.

We passed the destroyed corpses of several slain predecessors, victims of traps meant to guard the center of the cult’s power from unwanted users. Soon thereafter, we reached the door to our goal; we wasted no time ascertaining that its own wards and traps had long since been exhausted. Apart from the corpses, what remained of them, the walls approaching the door showed signs of charring by fire years before and we all know that the cult’s capacities in the Arts and Sciences were not ours. I suspected, and verified by divination, that this was the case.

Eloc opened the door, with his bodyguard prepared for trouble, only to find something not to our (in retrospect, errant) expectations. This central chamber was a brilliantly-lit chamber, with quite sophisticated architecture meant to channel natural light deep into the mountain- something that we know to be impossible for them. The chamber walls had not the treasures that the others expected—gold, silver, gems, etc.—but instead the treasures that we enlightened ones risk life and limb for: knowledge! On all walls are tomes, scrolls and other volumes filled with what knowledge that they possessed. I confess to a quite audible gasp of amazement as my eyes beheld the sight, untouched, of our enemies’ secrets.

Then came forth the final guardian, and the reason for why the chamber never felt the demon’s presence: an angel, manifest before us as a glorious winged man armed and armored as a warrior. We all were shocked, but I quickly got my wits about me as it quickly explained everything about the cult- its command over the hordes of the Abyss, its knowledge of otherworldly entities and its ability to create so many breeds of monsters out of natural life.

Ray, fearless, called it what it was: a fallen angel. The angel did not deny that accusation. It revealed that it was the cult’s true master, and now it understood why its minions ceased contact with it- and I, being an agent of those responsible for its minions’ destruction, now bore its wrath. Even after all our adventures, Eloc and I did not think ourselves the match of this great and powerful being; Ray did agree, after a fashion, for he cried out in supplication to whatever god his order claims as their patron.

My Lords, Ray’s cries were answered and in a most obvious manner. Crashing through the ceiling came another, similar angel. They fought, and ours won.