Verigas, High Priest to the god Tiernon, in the city of Gizzor Del walked surreptitiously down the long corridor of his own temple. It was late at night, and while no one would really stop to question the high priest, in the unlikely event he encountered anyone, he really didn’t want to raise even the possibility of questions about where he was going. At last he stopped at the correct spot along the ornately carved wall of the corridor. He scanned quickly to make sure no one else was in the corridor; there was no one. The wall depicted various blessings of the god Tiernon being bestowed upon loyal followers. Verigas placed his hands in two specific locations, mumbled a short phrase and pushed. The indentations on which he pushed, receded into the wall.
There was a soft click, and a panel separated itself from the wall. The carvings were so finely wrought that no one would notice the outline of the panel when it was sealed. Verigas pushed on the panel, revealing a small room with a ladder leading down through a hole in the floor. Verigas, looked once again to make sure no one was present and stepped inside. He quickly shut the panel behind him. Down the ladder he climbed, down into a tunnel running below the temple.
It was truly a shame, Verigas reflected, that he, the High Priest, had to skulk about in his own temple. Unfortunately, while what he was doing was for the greater glory of Tiernon, if his superiors in the Supreme Temple of Tiernon were to find out, they’d have him excommunicated. They were a little bit conservative. It wasn’t precisely that Tiernon had, himself, ever forbidden the summoning of demons, he’d simply advised against it, except in the most dire of situations.
It had been complete coincidence that Verigas had discovered the Book of Reskelion four years ago. He’d been digging through old boxes in the temple library’s storage room, when he’d found it sealed in a wooden box with guard spells on it. Curious, he’d spent many hours to safely open the box, and found the only treatise on demonology ever written by a priest of Tiernon. The book even had recipes for summoning demons!
He’d known that the church superiors had forbidden such spells, but how could he resist. Think of the good that could be done by the right individual. A priest of high moral fiber, in complete control of a minion of evil could make the foul creature do deeds to serve all mankind. The temptation had been too much. After much searching and studying, he’d been able to decode the name of a lower demon, which had been carefully hidden in the text of the book. He’d been scared to death the first time he’d summoned the demon, but he’d taken all the proper precautions and Tiernon had protected him.
At first he’d had little use for the demon he’d bound, but eventually he found small things the demon could do to further the aims of the church. Punishing the wicked for example. The demon was also extremely useful to influence those who were intransigent to the desires of the local temple. A little demonic visit, and they’d soon be banging on the temple door for help. Naturally, the god Tiernon always came through, after a small donation or favor was done, and the demonic plague would end.
Verigas made his way down the tunnel; eventually it left the grounds of the temple and went out underneath the city proper. It ended soon in another ladder, this one led up into another small room. After opening a secret door in this room and stepping through, Verigas was in a small chapel he’d built in what used to be a private residence in the city. There were only two ways into the room, one the secret passageway he’d just taken and the second a door to a back ally that was completely barred from this side. The only other door in the room led to a small living area.
The chapel room was Verigas’ demon summoning room. Over the years he’d gathered all the necessary paraphernalia to conjure his particular demon, as well as the tools to summon others if he ever so chose. With a little judicious prodding, Krysfalkenon, the demon he’d first summoned, had been able to acquire for him some other texts on demonology. These later books, from wizards, were not quite so useful for spell casting as the first book, but their general information level was most useful. Having read the books, he knew that these wizards were exactly what many had suspected, vast perpetrators of sin and evil. Any group of people so well versed in the demonic arts couldn’t be good. For one thing, they didn’t have the moral guidance of religion to help them, nor, Verigas was sure, the overall moral fiber that one such as he had to resist the call of evil.
