Crypta Hereticarum Intermission

The mission is to take Father Balthazar, who bought Isobel as a wife, through the Crypt. The crypt is home to a trial to purify the soul and erase vices according to Clergy values, and the hopes are that it will make Father Balthazar repent and free Isobel.

The cast is:

* Alais - A Vekeshi mystic constable from Adventure 5
* Ermete Tornincasa - a deva mystic within the Clergy, three years old and the latest of several lives dedicated to the mystics
* Prospero di Donato - from the Family/Clergy crowd, because Balthazar has done a lot of other misdeeds and they'd like to see him dealt with

We lure Balthazar in with the claim that Ermete is taking Alais - a possessed eladrin now captive and restrained - to be imprisoned in the vault, and Balthazar is his chaperone. Ermete leads the way, using his apparent youth and inexperience to convince Balthazar he is a naive young cleric attempting to take the trials at the same time. Alais is wordlessly unamused by the proceedings, while Prospero observes tersely.

In the first room, Prospero is teleported to a pyre and only somewhat roasted thanks to his fire protection. Above him are the words *“I recant my heresy, I ask forgiveness. Let me burn in this life so that I will not burn in the hereafter.”* The rest of the group is occupied fighting minor demons, who eventually flee the room after some whiffed combat on both sides.

In succeeding rooms, the group meets Giovanni, a hedonistic figure who lives in his own paintings/demiplanes who wants us to free his friend Somnia; as well as Belcamp and his legion, a bunch of devils who have captured and tortured Somnia. In the process the group is able to peer pressure or otherwise convince Balthazar to perform the rituals at the purifying fountains with them, up until they encounter a rust demon.

Ermete frees Alais during the battle, fearing they need the additional manpower, and afterwards Balthazar turns on him over the foolishness of giving a prisoner weapons. The rest of the group drop their pretenses: Ermete stops smiling, Prospero *begins* smiling, Alais begins talking. They reveal the truth of their mission, and because Prospero has stolen Balthazar's method of escape from the crypt, all of them must complete the trials or never leave the crypt. A meek Balthazar eventually agrees.

In the trial of mercy, the group encounters the very architect of the crypt burning on a pyre, forcibly made an ice devil's host and imprisoned within the vault by the Clergy as a means to silence him. After some discussion and some bad acting on the devil's part the group realizes that they don't have the capability to both free the architect and neutralize the devil, so as an act of mercy Prospero gives him holy water for a moment's reprieve (while giving the middle finger to the devil). Still uneasy. Ermete prays he'll be strong enough to return someday and free the man.

Afterward, Balthazar's experience with the rituals seems to have made him repent enough for his aggression towards the party - but nothing else so far. Prospero questions him several times, reminding him that it would be better to burn in this life than to burn in the next. However, Balthazar continues to refuse contrition for any other of his past deeds.

So when the party comes back to the legion of Belcamp, Prospero basically proposes a trade: they give us Somnia, and we give Belcamp Balthazar to torture eternally instead. Belcamp agrees because it amuses him, especially after Balthazar begs for his freedom. This is...not Alais and Ermete's preferred solution, but they're able to live with it.

So Somnia goes free to return to Giovanni, and Alais gets a bonus Sword of Srasama. With the escape mechanism Prospero stole from Balthazar, the three PCs are about to leave...when Alais hears the voice of Ashima Shimtu, Lady of the Forked Tongue, The Last of the High Fiends, Steward of the Demonocracy, Keeper of the Secret Which Must Not Be Lost. Ashima Shimtu wants to talk to Alais' cleric friend, and is willing to tell him the secrets of the eladrin history in return for the favor of bringing Ermete to her.

Prospero, a faithful Clergy believer, is extremely against listening to a high demon's temptations because they deal in deception and There Will Be Consequences. Alais and Ermete are NOT believers; Alais wants to know the truth Ashima Shimtu offers, and Ermete defers to Alais on eladrin matters. In the end Prospero leaves the two of them expecting they'll never escape the vault, but promising that the Family will take over Balthazar's estate and deliver Isobel to the Mystics' care.

Alais and Ermete go to see Ashima Shimtu, who asks Ermete for something very simple: the Sacrament of Forgiveness, simple religious confession. In the Clergy it's forbidden to give this to a demon, but conveniently Ermete is a Clergy cleric who...doesn't believe in the Clergy's religion, but rather Vekeshi teachings. He performs the sacrament.

Ashima Shimtu then tells both of them the truth about the Vekeshi Mystics (that they were co-opted by Kasavarina for the Ob's ends), and then gives Alais a warning for his deva friend in the RHC: she has a piece of Srasama within herself, and a small bit of it has spread to Alais as well. Once upon a time she'd asked Ashima Shimtu if Srasama could live again and Ashima Shimtu responded that Srasama may not live, but what she represents might.

Someday that friend will have a choice between the past, the present, and the future. If she chooses the future, Srasama's domain may live again - but whatever she chooses, she must give up the other two.

With that warning given, Ashima Shimtu offers her fountain to Alais and Ermete to return home.