Once the team of Crusaders had recovered from their efforts to destroy the gargoyles and the penanggalen, they decided to follow their original plan to search the stable. Zosta pressed her ear against the door and reported that she heard nothing from inside. When she attempted to push the door open it didn't budge at first, but when Zosta gave it hard shove it popped open, revealing the ruined interior of the stable building. The east wall of the structure had collapsed, leaving a pile of rubble on the floor. The interior smelled of decayed straw and mildew. Rotting barrels full of fungi stood against one wall. As the group entered the building they noticed that there were weapons and equipment mingled with the fallen stones. Jiro noticed drag marks on the floor, and footprints that looked like they might have been made by gargoyles. Asami cast a spell to determine if there was anything magic inside the stable and identified several items among the litter, including a longsword and a longspear.
Meanwhile Runa began hopefully looking for something made of adamantine. Instead she found three daggers which she recognized as being made of a metal other than ordinary steel, though they were not adamantine and she couldn't determine what they were. She showed them to Zosta, who realized that they were cold iron. Asami was able to determine what enchantment the longsword held, but the longspear refused to reveal that information to her or to Jiro. The other members of the group uncovered a fine quality battleaxe which had suffered some slight damage. The quantity of weapons and other items made them realize that the items had been dumped there, but they found no sign of the people who must have carried the weapons.
There were many more weapons in the rubbish heap, but the rest were of ordinary materials and the party members couldn't carry them all. They decided to go on to the chapel itself. Before they did so Jiro reestablished the magic that allowed him to absorb a small part of any wound inflicted on his comrades. Zosta again opened the door. The group members saw that the chapel held four statues, one in each corner, which had originally been angels but were now badly damaged. Broken pews stood haphazardly in the center of the sanctuary. The stained glass windows above the doors had been smashed. At the far end was a dais, on which two creatures clad in priestly vestments stood. The walls of the chapel were covered with scrawled and carved inscriptions, which Asami and Runa realized were dedicated to the demon lord Kabriri, "He Who Gnaws", lord of ghouls. As if to emphasize this, half a dozen ghouls began to shuffle toward the entrance.
The ghouls nearer to the doorway appeared to be ordinary ghouls, but the two on the dais seemed not to be as mindless. Jiro realized that one of them was casting a spell and called out a warning that the ghoul was summoning something. He set down his lantern in preparation. While most of the ghouls were approaching the doorway, one ghoul ran out through another door to the Crusaders' left. Sosiel and Aron ran around the corner of the building to find out where the ghoul had gone.
Zosta knocked down the first ghoul within her reach. Outside the chapel, Nurah cast a spell to make herself harder to see, and Runa extended Iomedae's blessing to her companions. Irabeth stepped forward and struck one of the ghouls. The ghoul priest who was not in the midst of summoning cast a spell on himself, which Jiro identified as designed to protect him from Irabeth's aura of goodness. Then a demon appeared a short distance from the entrance, one of a type the Crusaders had seen before: a babau. A moment later the level of illumination in the desecrated chapel grew dim. A second babau appeared behind the first and immediately vanished.
Jiro encircled himself in an area of protection from evil creatures to keep the babaus from approaching. Zosta attempted to trip one of the ghouls but missed her aim due to the reduced light. Nurah screamed, and when Runa asked her what was wrong she replied that she had bumped into something, though nothing was visible. Runa moved toward that spot and swung her sword, connecting with something fleshy though she could still see nothing. Asami drew her wand and sent three missiles at the ghoul before Irabeth. A moment later Irabeth's blade sent it to true death. A weapon made of force energy appeared in the air behind Irabeth and swung at another ghoul.
Jiro's protective circle vanished after the babau made a gesture. Another ghoul approached Irabeth and clawed at her and she ceased moving, immobilized by its paralytic effect. Because she hadn't been standing squarely on both feet at the moment the paralysis took effect, she fell over. A bell began to ring an alarm from elsewhere within the chapel. A second magical weapon appeared in the same area next to Asami and attacked her. A second babau became visible beside Runa and attacked her with its spear. Asami felt herself healed by her link with Jiro. Jiro picked up his lantern and concentrated, and the lantern's perpetual light grew brighter, pushing back the dimness inside the chapel.
Sosiel and Aron had encountered a wall after rounding the corner of the chapel and had abandoned their effort to find out where the ghoul had gone, returning to the rest of the group just after the bell began to toll. Zosta pummeled a ghoul, then stepped forward and knocked a second ghoul to the ground. As Runa continued fighting the babau demon, Asami directed a trio of missiles at it, but they vanished without making contact. The weapon in the air beside her struck her again. Then a wave of negative energy surged out from one of the ghoul priests, doing her more injury. Runa felt her sword grow heavier and its magic seemed to fade. The ghoul Zosta had knocked down got to its feet again and attacked her. More negative energy filled the area and the babau attacked Runa again. The second babau appeared suddenly behind her.
Only a single ghoul was left, facing Zosta. But one of the babau struck Runa three times with great force and she collapsed. Jiro reformed his magic circle and moved toward her to heal her. Nurah cast a spell on the other babau's spear, causing it to become slippery so the demon could no longer grip it. Then she ran behind a section of courtyard wall and hid. Aron and Sosiel pulled Irabeth's immobile form out of reach of the ghouls. Moments later she recovered from paralysis and got to her feet. Asami directed more missiles at one of the babau and was struck again by the floating weapon, while the babau dispelled Jiro's magic circle again. The last ghoul bit Zosta and she fell victim to paralysis. The two babau flanked Jiro and began clawing and biting him. As he felt himself fading he dropped the link with the others. He somehow managed to avoid being immobilized but he collapsed, barely retaining enough consciousness to use his magic to heal himself.
The door that the ghoul had run through suddenly burst open again and a large white ape came tumbling through as if thrown by something else. Those who could see what was happening realized the ape was Bohgong, for they had seen the monkey assume that form before. Just after Bohgong flew threw the doorway, another creature emerged, looked around at what was happening in the chapel and exited. Only Zosta, who could still see despite her frozen state, got a good look at the creature.
Sosiel and Aron stepped in front of Asami to shield her from the demons. Sosiel attempted to dispel them as they were magically summoned but his effort failed. Runa cast a healing spell on herself. The two magical weapons both disappeared. Runa got to her feet and was immediately bitten by one of the babau. She grabbed at it and tried to grapple it but was unable to do so. Asami sent more missiles from her wand, this time at one of the ghoul priests who had moved much closer to the paralyzed Zosta. Irabeth stepped behind Zosta, picked her up and shifted her out of the way. While she did this the two demons flanked Runa and Runa collapsed a second time. One of the demons then snapped at Jiro, who was still on the ground near where Runa had fallen. Jiro created a shield of stone to protect himself, then scrambled to his feet and pulled Runa away, calling out to Aron to block the demons. Aron pushed Zosta behind him and stepped into the chapel doorway, while Sosiel channeled Shelyn's divine energy to provide healing to his companions. He could not prevent the demons from gaining the advantage of his healing as well, nor could he prevent Irabeth from being paralyzed again by the last ghoul's bite.
One of the demons struck Jiro again with its claws and he fell to the ground once more. Bohgong returned to his normal form, and though he appeared exhausted, he moved to stand behind the ghoul so he could flank it. Sosiel sent out another surge of healing energy. Asami had begun summoning a creature of her own, and when it materialized it was a glowing orb of light surrounded by greenery. One of the priests had been slain by this time, and Asami exhorted the archon to attack the second priest with its light rays, but it was unable to strike the ghoul. The mindless ghoul continued to attack Irabeth. Only Zosta could see the light of life fading from the half-orc paladin's eyes. Though he didn't know how close she was to death, Bohgong channeled some of Jiro's healing power into her. Aron then pulled her out of the ghoul's reach and Sosiel provided more healing. A succubus had appeared from behind the courtyard wall and cast a spell at the babau, but her voice was Nurah's voice. Nurah somewhat reluctantly approached Runa to cast a curative spell on her, which allowed her to move to attack the ghoul and destroy it. Asami aimed her wand at the priest again, and it fled from the chamber through the side door. The two demons had returned to their own realm, the spell that had summoned them now expired.
With all of their enemies gone, the Crusaders could heal themselves further and take stock of their situation. They searched the corpse of the dead ghoul priest, finding a suit of magical leather armor, some gold, and a flail. Jiro questioned Bohgong about what had happened beyond the side door. The monkey revealed to his master that he had been busy distracting another creature, preventing it from going to the chapel earlier. That creature had been the one that had entered the chapel and then left. The monkey had recognized that it was an abomination, a hybrid of human and a type of demon called a nabasu. When Zosta recounted what she had seen this further confirmed the creature's kind. Asami recalled everything she knew about nabasu, though this didn't tell them what a half-nabasu could do. There was no way to know if it had all the powers of a full nabasu. If it did, it could bite and claw as well as use weapons, and would be able to create darkness as the babau had. It could also transform living men into ghouls.
Following this revelation the party moved out into the courtyard to use their healing wands. Though they had no idea what other creatures might be waiting for them in the other parts of the chapel, they felt it was their duty to pursue the half-nabasu. They had realized that the rubbish heap of weapons they had found in the stable were Crusader weapons, which meant the half-nabasu was either transforming prisoners into ghouls or consuming them as food. They couldn't in good conscience leave such a creature free to cause more death.
Next: Part 24, To Cleanse the Chapel
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