Paralictor Tabita la Tigra de la Diabola
This woman is Tabita la Tigre de la Diabla:
She is a High Paralictor of the Order of the Rack, a Hellknight of prodigious reputation. She has seen war, blood, flame, entrails in the maws of creatures so horrifying that tested soldiers ran screaming from the sight, demons and devils in mass combat, the Nine Hells spilling out of cracks in the Planes, and black lightning from the earth stealing up to leach the souls of men from their bodies. They fell like marionettes with their strings cut.
She has killed dozens – hundreds – of swordsmen who thought her shining hair and lean, spare stature meant she was weak, or slow, or fragile. She has overseen the extraction of a thousand confessions; she has clambered up the ladder of power and authority of the Order with strength, intelligence and political savvy. She has been tempered by battle, duty and shed blood.
“la Tigre” means “the Tigress” in Chelaxian. She was given this nickname by Queen Abrogail herself, hence the linked sobriquet, “de la Diabla” or “of the She Devil.” Or to put it more succinctly, Queen Abrogail, the great Asmodean Ruler of all Cheliax, the Devil Queen of the Inland Seas, dubbed Tabita “My Tigress.”
This is the woman you face tomorrow night. She is in a fortress surrounded by Hellknights. She knows that you are coming. She knows what you have done, both this afternoon and for the last two years. She knows you.
And she believes that you are coming to murder her.
“If you are alive, make it known!” Tabita la Tigra de la Diabla gained her feet, one twist of blonde hair detached from the tight wrap of hair at the back of her skull. She cast a repulsed look at Marius, and the half-orc grinned sheepishly. “Milady, my apologies, I’m but a simple extortionist and not used to heroics.”
Her disgust turned to a frown. “Here, Lictor!” came a voice from the main floor. A Hellknight, levering himself up on his pike, signaled to Tabita. “Here,” said another. “Here.”
A door to the left of the now missing gate opened and an armored head emerged. “Lictor, are you all right? The explosion knocked us to the ground but we are uninjured – we can yet fight.” Another head, this one bare and stern-faced, joined the first.
“Odisil, Tirped, Yargath,” Tabita said, her air of command returning instantly. “Gather what Knights are elsewhere in the House.” She hefted her halberd and gestured with it. “Hesdale, Banlum: quickly as you can, fetch the sorcerers and bring them into the House – we need to those anti-magic shells and we can’t afford to lose them. Go!”
The two men nodded to her, drew their swords and ran out the smoldering portal. “Crislos, Fanare: we need to block that door. Find anything you can – tables, chests, whatever we can use to create a bulwark. I want a barrier outside the door, two inside, with as much room as we can spare for enfilade by crossbows. When Odisil returns, use some of the Knights he brings to assist you.”
Men continued to enter the room through several doorways. Tabita snarled orders at them as they came in. “Larvan, Stalera, Kelmor: to the armory, now, and bring all the pikes, spears and crossbows as you can.”
Hellknights bent to their tasks. Tabita’s orders brooked no room for questions or interpretations; the men heard, nodded once, and then hurried away.
The one called Banlum scuttled in, a man in robes bearing the sigil of the Order of the Rack at his back. His sword was out and he looked frightened. “Lictor! The plaza is crawling with the behemoths of shadow! Hesdale fell to one.”
Tabita’s frown grew more pronounced. “Get more Knights; retrieve any of ours that are left on the plaza. Do not engage the creatures, the priority is to gather ours.”
“What if they attack us,Lictor?”
“Then you run, Knight,” Tabita said simply. “Defense of the House is more important – and contributory to – your personal honor.”
“Understood, Lictor,” the knight agreed. “You, come with me!” He grabbed the spaulder of a fellow knight’s mail and physically dragged him toward the door, which was now filling with detritus. Piles of wood, furniture, statuary, were being thrown into makeshift barricades. They looked, very small compared to the gaping maw of the blown out doors, and the mordant whispers of the shademassifs converging on Tanarik House.
Her men now instructed, Tabita turned her attention to Vfogg. “So,” she began, throwing the haft of her halberd onto her shoulder with practiced ease. “It seems that at least some of what you say is the truth, albeit it is difficult to believe. Had not my own men…”
Tabita broke off, looking at the blasted corpses of the three suicides. Her eyes, upon reaching them, narrowed with surprise. “What is going on?”
All heads turned to the out-of-the-way corner where the traitorous Hellknights had been stacked. Slowly, their bodies became increasingly insubstantial, as if they were dissolving into the evening air. Their scorched and smoking flesh seemed to sublimate, silently evaporating into nothingness. A few seconds passed, and all three were gone.
Samwell, stepped over to where the bodies had lain. Nearby was a longsword, the steel warped by the heat of the fireballs and rendered useless. But where the three Council knights had been moved, nothing remained but some stains on the floor, smelling of hot copper, and three small lozenges of grey-green stone, each bearing a single rune, and nestled into a thin leather strap. One of these was still warm to the touch, either from the lingering effects of the fireballs, or from the blackened, smoldering skin on which is had been recently tied.
Sam flung one of the stones to Mub, who caught it deftly in one mailed hand. He examined it, shook his head, and passed it to Vermithrel. “What do you make of it?”
The elven mage squinted down at the stone, turning it over in his long, thin fingers. He mumbled a few short words, closed his eyes briefly, then opened them once more. “I don’t know this rune,” he said at last. “But this stone nearly sings with spent conjurative magic. Unless I miss my guess, this stone could serve as a single-instance teleport hook, whereby someone remotely could call the bearer to some other place.” Vermithrel turned the stone over in his hand. “There would probably need to be a second stone, of similar type and ensorcellment, at the other location, that could serve as a return-node.” He noticed Tabita staring at him intently. “I’m speculating, obviously,” he continued. “But it does seem likely.”
“We can speculate later – right now, we have more pressing problems,” Tabita said grimly.”Khollarix: assuming for now that all of what you have told me is true, we find ourselves to be sudden, unlikely allies. So what is it, exactly, that we are facing?” She raised one eyebrow. “And I do mean exactly. What is coming for us, and how can we fight it?”
