The ice devil is Ventoso, a mercenary who often takes residence in Beja between jobs. He has developed a great reputation as a reliable soldier and officer for hire.
The warrior is Aramanda. A local orphan who does a series of jobs including being a part-time mercenary that often prefers to work solo, and several times rival to Ventoso. She specializes in combining fencing with magic, which she developed fighting in the streets for survival since her youth.
Ventoso usually stays away from politics and other infernals, instead he’s been known to consort with fairies quite a bit in Beja. He can be quite charming to mortals and always cares to behave properly in public.
Aramanda seems to have a degree of natural talent in dealing with infernals of all kind and is often hired for any local jobs directly dealing with them. That’s not only limited to warrior stuff, she’s been a maid for devils, courier for yugoloths and worked at bars during demonic parties.
Ventoso is still a devil at heart and a devious manipulator. If allowed to write a contract, he’ll often sneak in nasty clauses, and even if not, he can and will find loopholes to abuse, always for his personal profit. He does care to cover his tracks so not to tarnish his reputation, often finding somebody else to work as scapegoat. Regardless his might is the real deal and as long as you accept you’ll probably end up paying more than the initial price, Ventoso will get the job done.
Aramanda is honest to a fault, and quite simple minded. Although she knows how to be sneaky, it’s only to get close enough to her target and start stabbing, and often walks right into traps and ambushes. Still Aramanda has survived so far because she’s pretty good at what she does and thus manages to fight her way out of seemingly hopeless situations, which greatly boosted her reputation.
Ventoso is able to turn into an humanoid shape, which he uses as a second identity, calling himself Tanlis in that shape. The handsome devil often uses it for great manipulation stunts, sometimes managing to be paid by two sides of a conflict at the same time.
Although she doesn’t have any ill intentions per se, Aramada does love a good fight, the main reason she stays in the mercenary business. Being a guard or soldier and having to wait for violence just wouldn’t do it for her.
Strong, tough and charismatic, Ice Devils, also known as Gelugons, were some of the highest ranking officers in the armies of Hell. Since Bonnie’s reveal, many have taken the role of mercenaries, working for the forces of evil and law who are willing to pay their prices, and many are. As most Devils, Gelugons are highly resistant to fire and poison, plus some resistance to Acid and Cold, and possess basic telepathy besides being able to perfectly see in any darkness, even magical one. Their shells are thick, both resistant to magic and any weapons that aren’t both silver and good, and even if one does manage to pierce through and wound them, their flesh will start rekniting itself instantly unless the attack was aligned with Good energy. Even if seemingly alone, Gelugons can quickly call lesser devils as reinforcements. It’s not clear whetever those are other devils from the material plane, or if Ice Devils somehow keep connections with Hell itself.
Quite tough and strong, the huge demonic spider is clearly a Bebilith, a somewhat unique demon in that its favorite prey are other demons. Like most demons, they’re highly resistant to electricity and poison plus some resistance to fire, acid and cold besides possessing basic telepathy. Bebiliths also have a keen sense of smell, and their claws can rend both the flesh and armor of their targets. Like spiders, they can produce webs, except theirs have 75% chance of ignoring fire, plus their bite delivers a vicious poison that damages Con and fully affects demons. Their hide is resistant to weapons that aren’t empowered by Good energies. Despite their size, they can be quite stealthy when they want to. They benefit from a constant Magic Circle Against Good that can be swiftly changed to Magic Circle against Evil and is even more effective against chaotic opponents. Bebiliths scorn any attempts to charm or dominate them, and will attack even more viciously any who try to use such trickery against them.
Although most Ice Devils prefer to work for lawful and/or evil lords and ladies, recently lots have started taking their business to whoever pays them. Although ice devils fighting for good remain little more than a rumor (seems like when it does happen the “heroic” Ice Devil will prefer to keep a low profile on the matter), plenty have thrown their lot with the forces of chaos, be them demons or even the fey. Although most other high-ranking devils can summon lesser beings of their kind, Gelugons are truly master tacticians in getting the most out of them, taking cover behind their troops, pushing them over their limits so that they’re immune to fear, exhaustion and will even regenerate wounds as the Ice Devil itself, sacrificing them for opportunities to make new attacks while “inspiring” its other minions as well as other tactical advantages. The spear usually carried by each Gelugon is actually a manifestation of its cold heart and only good for it, with the Ghost Touch and Frost property plus being able to imitate special materials. Right now it seems to be replicating Cold Iron. Both the Cold Spear and Ice Devil’s tail can also slow victims on a hit. Besides all that, the Ice Devil also possesses a variety of natural magic, like Fly, Ice Wall, Ice storm, Cone of Cold, Greater Teleport and Unholy Aura.
Although in their natural habitat of the Abyss Bebiliths live in a steady diet of demon flesh, those in the material plane have developed more varied tastes, since demons just aren’t so widely available if nothing else. Animals, humanoids, giants, crabs, devils, even undead, there’s quite a bit of “gourmet” Bebiliths that have taken a liking to one or more of those. Half-demons in particular seem to be quite pleasing to the Bebilith’s palate, mixing both old classic and new exotic flavor. Bebiliths can take a bit more time to produce a wider area web or a particularly long range one. Either way all their webs ignore freedom of movement and inflict a Dimensional Anchor effect. The Bebilith itself can plane shift, and try to to drag an enemy in melee range along, plus being able to smell where others used planar travel from/to. Victims injected by the Bebilith’s poison will find it significantly harder to resist this shift. Creatures slain by a Bebilith whitin 1 minute of being poisoned will explode in a profane blast.
Gelugons summons depend in contracts and favors, both old and new. Sometimes they take their payment precisely in the form of a pledge to answer their summons later. Some Ice Devils in the material thus still have old contacts with hell to collect even if they’ve otherwise cut all contact, but most are summoning other devils from the material that owe them favors. Their summons can be lemures, bearded devils, bone devils, or even another ice devil as a desperate measure. Or if they’re plain strong enough, for not all Ice Devils are equal and those with greater talent and experience lord over more “normal” ice devils like they were lesser devils. Still Gelugons will not waste away perfectly fine minions if they think they can get the job done through other means. The Gelugon can also project a Fear aura against those that get too close, but those of strong will can shrugg it off automatically for a day after resisting it once. Veteran Ice Devils will have refined their SLAs to greater heights, such as Ice Storm dealing more damage, Cone of Cold inflicting entangle and a negative level, being able to convert half the cold damage to negative energy, its Unholy Aura damaging the strength of anybody who attacks them, and anybody seeing through their illusions suffering a cold feedback.
Bebiliths are far from mindless beasts and can be talked to and reasoned with to an extent. In particular while they have their bellies full, they can be quite nice chaps since they lack the usual demonic ambitions of ruling over others and gathering lots of material wealth, instead practising web spinning and exploring the world and even taking odds jobs. Their chaotic nature makes them ill-suited for anything long-term like guards, but some have found success as mercenaries. Adult Bebiliths are actually fully immune to non-magic weapon that aren’t properly refined pure metal, may suddenly attack with a bite or web at any time and their claws can rend even through Force effects. A Bebilith at their natural prime is a vicious, cunning and resilient monster, their poison able to wasting away the essence of even vampires and robots, never surprised as if they were under a Foresight effect, having 50% odds of plain shrugging any magics or psionics from smaller enemies, and their attacks becoming stronger and more acuratte the longer they fight a foe. Still even your average fully developed Bebilith would be significantly weaker than your average fully developed Gelugon, strongly suggesting this is a particularly dangerous specimen, having grown considerably in power from devouring enough demonic essence or something else.
Speaking of demons, that warrior has some subtle but sure traits of demonic ancestry. At least a couple generations ago, probably more, but still enough that would attract the attention of beings such as Bebilith.
As Kazimir starts preparing his magics, the warrior takes notice and reacts even faster, closing in in the blink of an eye!
:"Woah, you really aiming at all of us? That's, like, really rude. Enervação!"
Her blade crackles with negative energy and slices at Kazimir's flesh, who feels not only the draining power but also the touch of blessed metal. In retrospective, an humanoid hunting infernals would probably be packing a holy weapon.
Kazimir's next utterances slow down all the combatants, the following fog from Kazimir is able to pin the demon down however as well as the devil, both shouting infernal profanities, although the warrior has moved away from the area.
The Bebilith starts slowly but surely emerging from the solid fog, which was barely big enough to hold its huge bulk and that of the large Ice Devil at the same time.
: "I see, you are food as well."
Then the Ice Devil pops up behind Kazimir.
:
"Boo."You feel a gelid aura of pure terror washing over you.
Everybody make a Will save with DC 20 Will save or be panicked for 14 rounds, or Shaken for 1 round even if you save. Even if you're immune, you must roll the save but gain a +5 bonus.
It's ok for Ghu'Del to transform and still act this round. Feel free to roll for the charge and grappling.
Kazimir takes 23 damage (magic, good, slashing, adamantine) and takes 2 negative levels, SR penetration 23. I'm assuming that didn't significantly hinder his following magics, but if they did let me know. If you can affect CR 17 enemies, you can affect them no problem.
Initiative Order so far:
35-Aramanda
25-Kazimir
18-Bebilith
16-Ice Devil (higher modifier so wins tie)
16-Ghu'Del (acting now)
Anybody who didn't roll initiative yet counts as acting after Ghu'Del.