Quoted By:
After giving the men-at-arms your orders, clearing the tower proceeds smoothly.
In fact, it proceeds so smoothly that you have to wonder if the prize hasn't already slipped through your grasp. Damien drove off the Witch of Depravity's specter, but who knows what orders she gave her minions after you slew the Greater Demon. So while your men-at-arms neatly and efficiently put the last holdouts of the cult to the sword, the feeling that you will <span class="mu-i">miss</span> something continues to tickle the back of your mind.
"<span class="mu-i">Breach!</span>" Alex calls when he kicks open the next door.
As Alex rushes into the room with his tower shield forward, Jacques flings the light of a <span class="mu-i">solthunder</span> spell into the center of the room. The ear protection in your helms reduce its deafening crack of thunder to a loud bang, its blinding radiance to a bright flash that illuminates the candlelit chamber as if it were open to the noonday sun. The rest of your men-at-arms pour in behind Alex, and deal with the cultists with far more honor than they deserve.
Those who draw weapons learn the taste of thirty inches of good keen steel as the men run them through with their swords. The hafts of the sword lances reduced to hilts, your men-at-arms fight in these tight quarters more like the legionaires of Hortum than the modern tercio. Shields forward, they sweep through the room with their blades and leave only corpses in their wake.
Well, save for the rare few who throw away their weapons and surrender. They get pushed to the side by the stampede of armored men for the back line to process. Their arms and legs are shackled, their mouths are gagged, and burlap sacks are placed over their heads. Each of the sacks are marked with an old symbol in the runic script of Hortum that means "sinner".
"You made the right choice," you tell the cultists who surrender. They look at you with fear in their eyes before you slip the sacks over their heads yourself. "Consider this the first step upon your road to redemption. You will be given the chance to cleanse yourself of the sins you have committed. Should you approach that chance with an honest heart, the Lord of Light may offer his forgiveness."
The Lord of Light demands his servants make a reasonable effort to redeem all sinners, no matter how lost they be. You doubt any of them will take the chance the church shall give them, but if even one of them does... that is a good thing, is it not?
You're not so sure.
After all, they <span class="mu-i">chose</span> to enslave themselves to the darkness. Unlike the slaves they took, these cultists branded themselves with the Black Primrose willingly. The women among them made the decision to debase themselves with the seed of hellspawn and bear the vile progeny of demonkind into the world. Why should they be allowed a second chance, when their actions have ruined so many lives.
You already know the answer, of course. It is written into the fifth book of the Lectio Lucis, the Blue Tome of Justice.
