The Devil's Work

**The Devil's Work** is the 24th episode of *The Chain*. It aired on August 7th, 2019.

The Chain of Acheron come to terms with Lady Orozivaar.  Although their accord doesn’t last long. Boots reports back to The Sapphire Sky, while King makes plans with Angel on The Chain’s next steps in Capital.  All of this culminates in The Chain returning to Ringwell where conflict comes from an unexpected place.

## Summary

### Confrontation at the Shop

Lady Orozivaar says, “You know, for a moment, I was ashamed that I didn’t trust you. But I was right not to trust you, wasn’t I?”

King says, “Have you no honor, Lady Orozivaar? You’re going leave that woman to starve in a trap? She may be an enemy, but nobody deserves that. We carry the Prince’s seal and we intend to bring the Black Iron Pact to justice and that woman is our best chance at intel for that. Speaking of this place will only cause chaos in the city and strife for the common folk. A discovery like this will draw the eye of Ajax and causes the Houses and Guilds to further escalate the war that is brewing. Are you willing to be the individual who causes that suffering to the people of Capital?”

In her left hand, Lady Orozivaar holds a shield made of fallen star metal and her other hand is on the hilt of her sword. She considers King’s words for a moment and replies, “I do not accept lectures on honor from mercenaries. What is the woman behind the prismatic wall to you?”

King explains that as far as they know, that woman is their best source of information about Ringwell. She says she’ll tell her superiors in the Church what’s going on there and that her Bishop will free the woman.

Judge wants to know what kind of knight she is and she says, “I am a Knight of the Falling Star, a Knight of Saint Ysabella. I think you have mistaken me for one of your mercenaries.”

Despite their best efforts at persuasion, she refuses their arguments and leaves.

### Contingency Plans

#### Debriefing Scipio

King orders Boots to find Angel and report to Marcellus Scipio, in particular to tell him about Lady Orozivaar and her stated intentions, so they can deal with her as they see fit. Boots casts a spell to disguise himself so he can walk more freely through the street.

They also make plans to guard the butcher shop more closely, since the news of Ringwell is about to get into the city.

Boots goes to the Dancing Minstrel in search of Scipio. It’s nearing the end of the day and the tavern is quite busy. After a brief pause to assess the room, Boots spies Scipio at a table near the stage where a bard is performing. Boots asks Scipio if he can join him and sits down. Scipio seems a bit taken aback, until Boots returns his family sword. “Are you done with this?”

Boots says, “Yes. I found a better one.”

“Ah, Ringwell already yields its secrets.”

Boots catches him up on what they found down there, including their run-in with the Blackiron Pact and that there were reports that one of the Blackiron Pact may have been deeper in Ringwell even than they were able to access. Scipio says that this is a situation above his pay grade and asks Boots to come with him. On the street, Boots tells Scipio about Lady Orozivaar and her confrontation with another Blackiron Pact party, and also about the imprisoned woman who they believe may have been an agent for someone within the Blackiron Pact.

He asks if they identified themselves as members of the Sky, and Boots says they didn’t. Scipio wonders if that woman might be one of their agents. As Scipio tries to make sense of all of this, he spins his ring and he and Boots are transported to the sapphire realm.

#### Plotting Next Moves

Angel arrives at the candle shop just a couple of minutes after Boots left. He says, “What are we doing in here, Boss?”

King says, “Not drawing attention to The Chain being in the butcher’s shop.”

Angel says, “Why aren’t you at the Dancing Minstrel?”

King tells him they need to return as soon as possible and catches Angel up on recent developments. They discuss that Mudd and the Green Boots might be able to rearrange things below ground to confound Lady Orozivaar if she returns. Angel also offers to go capture Lady Orozivaar. He suggests that if there’s a room in Ringwell that the gods can’t see, they can dispose of her there with no one the wiser.

#### Debriefing the Sapphire Sky

Back in the Sapphire Tower, Scipio takes Boots to the Vile Silencer. After waiting a few moments, Vile Silencer comes into the room, putting the finishing touches on putting on his armor. Once again, Boots relays their experiences in Ringwell and that they encountered the Blackiron Pact there. Vile Silencer asks Boots to be his eyes and ears and brings out a quill and paper and begins taking notes. Boots draws them a sketch of where they found the entrance and what they found.

Vile Silencer is impressed when he learns that they fought six of the Blackiron Pact and only one escaped. They’re also intrigued to hear about the woman trapped in Ringwell who appeared to be a member of the Blackiron Pact and about Lady Orozivaar’s encounter with the advance team of the Blackiron Pact. He explains she intends to go back to her church and tell them all about her fight with the Blackiron Pact and the location where it happened.

Vile Silencer says he wished he knew more about the Falling Star. He says they’re an obscure order. He says he’s not sure what is more important, the woman they trapped or the one they failed to trap. Vile Silencer wants to know if they ever referred to their location as Ringwell around Lady Orozivaar. Boots says to the best of his memory, they didn’t.

Vile Silencer asks Boots to lead him through the area they explored, room by room, and begins taking notes.

Vile Silencer asks about the trapped woman and Boots explains that they did try to free her, but were not successful. The people in the Sapphire Tower say that the wall appears to be made of mental magic. There’s a knight there who says that all of the gemstone dragonborn are many generations removed from their the time under, but that with enough gemstone dragonborn, they might be able to bring the wall down.

#### Reservations

Back in the chandler’s, Judge casts an augury to try to determine the outcome for The Chain if they bring Lady Orozivaar back to the magicless chamber in Ringwell and kill her there. Asmodeus’s response is a sense of a wordless shrug.

Angel asks for his orders. There’s some concern that if they send Angel to whack Lady Orozivaar and something happens to him, they’ll have wasted a resource.  Angel reassures them that he’s been an assassin longer than Slim has been in The Chain and that he won’t do the job himself; he’ll hire someone else to do it. They discuss the pros and cons of trying to stop Lady Orozivaar themselves versus the Sapphire Sky doing so.

#### Circumventing Walls and Wards

Back in the Sapphire Tower, Boots is trying to determine how many gemstone dragonborn might be needed to free Violentia. The dragonborn says he thinks it would take four of them, but he doesn’t know three other Daughters of Time.

Vile Silencer and Boots discuss the Blackiron Pact who were in Ringwell and how they got in. They decide that the Blackiron Pact must have used wishes to get in. Boots tells them that Lady Orozivaar is the one who chased one member of the Blackiron Pact into Ringwell and sealed them in. Hearing this, Vile Silencer becomes more interested in Lady Orozivaar. Scipio offers to find her.

Vile Silencer asks more about the door they were unable to pass, the one that the Blackiron Pact used wishes to get past and Boots tells him what he knows.

Vile Silencer says he wants to talk to Lady Orozivaar and to the woman trapped in the godblind. He tells Boots that the wall is mentalics, the only kind of magic that will work in a godblind. They need an object of psionic power strong enough to bring down the wall.

Vile Silencer says the Church of the Fallen Star will want to gather more intelligence before sending anyone into Ringwell and that may give them another opportunity to intercept her before they go to Navarr.

#### Planning a Kidnapping

Back in the chandler’s shop, Angel asks for orders and King says they can’t worry about Lady Orozivaar right now. They need to change up the tunnels leading into Ringwell to keep anyone from tracking them back.  Angel asks how much money they want to spend to hide Ringwell and starts making plans to change up the area, buy some of the shops, and close up the original entrance. They authorize Two-Shoes to give Angel as much money as he needs from the treasury. Angel walks out into the street and notices a sewer grate in the middle of the street. He opens the grate and goes down into the sewer, then a few moments later pops up back in the shop. He says, “It’s even easier than that. I think  I just saved us several thousand gold. We can get into Ringwell from the sewers.”

Angel offers, again, to go collect Lady Orozivaar for them so they can dump her in the anti-magic room in Ringwell. After some discussion, King tells him to use the network to grab her.

Back at the Sapphire Tower, Vile Silencer and  Boots decide that they’ll go back into Ringwell and see what they can learn from the imprisoned woman and try to figure out another way into the rest of Ringwell.  Vile Silencer asks what the rest of the team our doing and Boots says he figures they’ve been talking to the head of their spy network to figure out a way to intercept Lady Orozivaar.

Vile Silencer asks about the rod they found and Boots explains it came from a centuries old vampire lord. Vile Silencer asks if it’s evil and Boots says, “Almost certainly.” Vile Silencer says, “Then we want it.” Scipio and Vile Silencer have a debate about whether the Sapphire Sky wants the rod or if they should leave it to The Chain to employ if it’s needed.

Vile Silencer says they’ll do what they can to intercept the Knights of the Falling Star, but says that The Chain might be more successful. Boots asks if there’s a way for him to contact them when he’s outside of their pocket realm. Scipio offers himself as their messengar. Vile Silencer remarks on Boots’s new rapier and asks to see it, then says, “You use this now?” Boots confirms that he does.

Boots tells them that upon his return to The Chain, they’ll be resting and going right back to Ringwell. Scipio spins his ring and they’re back in the alley. Boots disguises himself again and turns to leave. Scipio says, “Boots, be careful what you tell Vile Silencer. The more he knows, the more he has to act on. Sometimes ignorance is better.”

Scipio says, “I don’t know if it was obvious, but the Vile Silencer was impressed.”

Boots accepts the compliment and returns to the rest of the senior officers. When he arrives, Angel leaves to attempt the interception of Lady Orozivaar, and to pass on the orders to the Advancers to make changes to the tunnels that provide entrance to Ringwell.

They set up watches and prepare to spend the night. About a half an hour after they set their watches, Mudd arrives with her advancers to start their renovations of the tunnels. The night passes uneventfully, other than the sounds of digging.

### Delivery of a Dragon

In the middle of the night, three people -- two of whom they don’t recognize -- enter the chandler’s shop. Lady Orozivaar is passed out between the two people who carry her in. They say they were told she lives here and, after Boots thanks them for bringing her home, leave her there and leave. Lady Orozivaar has obviously been drugged. After some discussion, they decide to take Lady Orozivaar to the Sapphire Sky and let them deal with her. As long as she doesn’t wake up, she won’t know they were even involved. They send Copper to get Scipio to help him return stealthily.

It’s barely dawn as Copper travels to the Dancing Minstrel and Scipio isn’t there. There’s no one in the common room except for employees, who are getting ready for breakfast. Copper approaches the innkeeper and asks after Scipio. After verifying that Copper is from The Chain, the innkeeper tells him which room to find Scipio in on the third floor. Copper knocks, but there’s no response. The door is unlocked and Copper opens it to the heavy smell of alcohol. Scipio is passed out in bed. Copper draws the drapes to wake Scipio up. He groans and says, “I gave specific instructions to…. Oh. The goblin. Copper. What are you doing here?” He stands up and starts getting dressed. “I just talked to Boots last night. Is everything okay?

Copper says, “Yes. We need you...to come with me.”

“Ah,” he says, “I get it.” Scipio is taking time to try to coordinate his outfit and Copper tries to convince him that everything looks great, but Scipio -- taking in Copper’s outfit -- disregards his advice and finishes dressing.

Scipio and Copper return to the chandlers shortly after 6:00 a.m. to find Lady Orozivaar tied up and blindfolded. They tell Scipio that they heard Vile Silencer wanted to talk to her, so he needs to take her off their hands so they can get back to Ringwell. He gets ready to take her with him, then stops, turns, and says, “You could have killed her. Why didn’t you?”

Everyone gives different reasons, from “We need more dragonborn to bring down the wall,” to “Messy,” to “Vile Silencer said he wanted to talk to her.” Scipio peeks under the hood and says, “You can be good sometimes. I’d hate to see you when you’re bad.” He spins his ring and both of them disappear.

They discuss the rod they found in Ringwell and decide not to allow Judge to attune to it -- it would be too dangerous if Judge’s sword gains control. Boots and Buts also offer to hold the rod, but King chooses to keep it at this time.

### Return to the Godblind

They return to the godblind in Ringwell, where Violentia is still trapped. They discuss trying Slim’s gem stone to cast amplify on his sword and to break the wall. Violentia, hearing them, wakes and stands up. She sees his sword and says, “Good luck.” Slim takes a swing with his sword, dancing forward and hacking into the wall. They see the wall shimmer and grow brighter where Slim hits the wall. Slim feels as if he’s hit a solid wall and nothing else happens.

King tells Lady Violentia that they’ll come back and try to get her out. She wants to know what The Chain is doing here and offers again to negotiate. King says they’re here to keep the Blackiron Pact from gaining access to the artifacts held here and giving them to Ajax.  She wants to know what their concern is with Ajax and they tell her that they intend to stop him.

She offers the information that Ajax’s wizard studied here at the Royal College of Sorcery. Boots asks if she’ll tell them anything about her agents and she declines. With some discussion, she admits that she was interested in what the Blackiron Pact were up to and that she infiltrated them about four days ago, taking the form of Lady Violentia. Judge asks if she gets out of here if she’d return to the Blackiron Pact as Lady Violentia. She says she doesn’t think they’d trust Lady Violentia again and that she’d have to suborn someone else to resume her infiltration.

Boots says if they could get in touch with her organization to help her escape, it seems that they have overlapping interests and perhaps they could cooperate with each other. Judge asks if she can communicate with her organization. She says she has to rely on her organization’s resources. She says her organization specializes in information and that she’s certain they could learn something that would benefit The Chain. Judge asks if she knows of any gemstone dragonborns that they could call on to help get her out. She says, “If needs must.”

Boots asked if she knows how to get through the door with the gilded runes. She says she does and that the Blackiron Pact does not. She says the Blackiron Pact used a wish to get through, but she knows how to open the door. She says she thinks that they can bring down the wall trapping her there with more power and she offers to purchase Slim’s stone. They say they’re worried about destroying the gem stone. She says given time she should be able to acquire another and that she’s highly motivated to get out of this trap. Slim, however, is not very willing to give up his gem.

She says, “Perhaps not money. Perhaps there’s something else you desire -- women, power, whatever it is Gith yearn for… Solace?”

“Mm, I’ll have to think about that.”

She goes back to sit down again against the wall, “While you’re thinking about it, make sure your stone is charged.”

They send a letter to Angel to see if he can find another gem stone. He writes back, “Boss. Oof. Angel.”

### The MindKiller

They check out another hallway in this area of Ringwell. They find a large room with seven silver doors leading out of it. Some of the doors are closed; others stand open. The door to the south has a melted puddle of gold in front of it, similar to what they’ve seen before. The door to the north is missing, but there is a pile of jade crystals in the doorway. The room seems to be some sort of archive or jail. As they’re looking around, Copper starts looking around a little shiftily. Judge notices him mouth something, but can’t tell what he says, then Copper attacks Slim.

Copper shoots Slim twice, then orders Bigcat to attack as well. Bigcat seems confused by Copper’s orders to attack Slim and, while she moves towards him, she doesn’t attack. Judge casts dispel magic on Copper, thinking he must be under some kind of magical effect and places a seal on him as well. Copper, convinced Slim needs to die, shoots him again. The first shot misses. The next arrow he grabs is the fireball arrow, which hits. A fireball erupts in the room, singeing everyone, but Leech in particular. Leech casts faerie fire, which lights up Copper’s armor, but doesn’t show any other figures in the room.

Slim realizes he’s familiar with something like this, but can’t recall exactly what they do. He advances on Copper and grumbles, “Argh, mindkiller,” then attacks Copper with a menacing attack, which causes Copper to be frightened. In response, they see a vaguely Gith-shaped figure exiting Copper and it moves out of the area affected by faerie fire. Using his hellsight, Judge finds the mindkiller standing near the doorway and places a seal on it, then points it out to the rest of the team and casts magic missile at it.

The mindkiller chooses a new target. Judge sees it move into the center of the room and suddenly it disappears, having taken possession of someone in the room again.