bout a month ago, a group of seven clergymen � including me, Deacon Jerik Tael, servant of Haleon, God of Rain and Storms � fought a death-wizard that had set up in an abandoned garrison several miles south of our town, Ellestia. After a long battle (a story in itself), we defeated the necromancer and his small army of undead.
The necromancer was clever, and his spells potent and terrible; one extinguished the life of my good friend, Thomas Mell, as one might snuff a burning candle. Another spell scalded us with bolts of acid. But the worst was that we had to fight living dead created from bodies taken from the town's cemetery. I was forced to hack my beloved Aunt Murina into pieces, still in her light blue funerary dress. Except, instead of a spry old woman who served me roasted dik-dik and combed my hair, Aunt Murina was a decaying monster attempting to tear my throat out with her teeth.
As I mentioned, we suffered one casualty during the fight. Thomas had charged the wizard, who dispatched the brave fool with some sort of death spell. We retrieved Thomas' body from the fortress, and I agonized over how I was going to break the news of his death to his wife Cherina.
However, I hoped that I would not have to. The week prior, I spent much time studying holy texts, and my understanding of Haleon had increased. That morning, in preparation for the battle, I prayed to Haleon for a spell to restore the dead to life. Many times before had I prayed for the ability to perform that miracle, and it had never been granted before. But that morning I felt somehow different, as if I had achieved a greater union with Haleon. I lay my hands upon Thomas, and in Celestial I recited the prayers I had studied earlier that week, asking Haleon to raise the faithful soldier. It was the only time I had ever attempted such a thing, but praise Haleon, Thomas was miraculously restored to life!
Only Minister Christov, the reverend cleric of Haleon and my mentor, had proven capable of such miracles until then; this was the second week of his two-month sabbatical, and he left me in charge of Haleon's end of things during his absence. Christov had been grooming me for the role of minister, though I never truly felt up to the task before. And on that faithful day, I realized I did not raise Thom from the dead, or heal the wounds of my comrades, or even divine the weather before the trip. It was all Haleon. I did not need to improve or grow; I needed only become more attuned to Haleon, and allow his power and will to work through me. To use an analogy, a cleric should not seek to become a better craftsman, but to be a better tool for his god.

My company and I went back to Ellestia to lick our wounds, and in a few days I returned with another group to clean out the wizard's stronghold � there were all manner of dangerous and wicked things that witless looters or adventurous young boys might find in there. Thom and most of the original company were still recovering from the fight with the death-mage. I traveled with Nathan Daniels (a soldier who made the first trip to the fortress and had not suffered any injuries during the fight) and three church sisters � priestesses of Asanna, Goddess of Hearth and Home and wife of Haleon. The worshipers of Haleon and Asanna shared our town's one church.
And, true to our predictions, there were several magical traps in the fortress � which Asanna granted the sisters the ability to detect and do away with � and a few magical devices of infernal nature. We clergymen destroyed some of the items, and burned the necromancer's books and tome of spells. Meanwhile, the sisters performed rituals to consecrate the structure in the name of Haleon and Asanna.
I was throwing spell scrolls into the book bonfire when one of the sisters screamed.
Everyone ran to her, though I got to her first. It was Annette Harpin, a young neonate. She was backing away from something she dropped on the floor. It was a brass sphere, about the size of two fists together, with a black convex lens on one side of it. I could tell she was trying to maintain her composure, but the poor girl was scared witless. I picked the item up and looked into the lens. What I saw nearly caused me to scream.
Something was inside the device, some entity in its dark interior. It was dark in color, barely standing out against the pitch blackness behind it. A horned canine head, attached to a human-like body, was contorted by hate and rage. Its pupil-less eyes glowed with an unholy violet-white light. And it was staring right at me, into me, its gaze piercing my soul and mind. Cocking its head and perking its ears, the monster grinned at me with a mouth of sharp teeth. By an act of will I resisted the urge to throw the thing against the wall and flee the fort.
Instead, I tossed it into the fire, and muttered prayers to Haleon to protect us. After some time, we could tell the fire was not going to do the device any harm. We heard quiet chuckling from the infernal device occasionally, and when we turned the device over with a poker we could see the thing still leering out at us. Someone suggested dispelling the magic in the device, but I argued against it � whatever magic that was in that device might be what kept that thing trapped in there, instead of running amok out here. Several times, Nathan hit the thing with his large hammer (which I had seen crumble brick walls), but he did not even dent it. Finally, I removed the device from the fire and cooled it with some conjured rainwater. Once cool enough to handle, I put it into a cloth bag I brought with me. I felt the brass device was far too dangerous to simply leave here, or throw into a ravine or lake somewhere. I explained that someone needed to keep it until we found some way of dealing with it. Everyone stared at me expectantly, and no one else volunteered to keep it. Understandable, really: as acting church leader in Minister Christov's absence, this was my responsibility. So it fell to me to baby-sit it... whatever it was.

Once I returned to the church, I forced myself to study the creature in the device, which I had dubbed the "Brass Eye", attempting to identify it. I had initially thought the monster was some sort of werewolf, but quickly thought better of it. It was completely hairless, with a scarred black-purple hide. The creature had four arms, two of which were normal-sized and had hands, and the other two much larger and adorned with pincers; these were certainly not normal characteristics for werewolves. It had two pairs of breasts on its massive chest � one smaller pair below another � so I deduced it was female.
The chilling thing was that the monster simply sat there and let me examine it � or her, I should say. No roaring, or snarling, or cursing. She just stared at me... leering, grinning.
I poured over various texts in our meager church library, trying to find references to what manner of beast I had, to no avail. There were sketches of various monsters, none of which resembled the thing inside the Brass Eye. I stored the Eye at the church in a locked storage room, and went to Savel, two days� travel to the east. Savel was not much bigger than Ellestia, but the library there was much larger than the one at my church. I studied there, and after half a day�s research, I managed to find an old tome on planar creatures titled From Beyond. The book was not much more than a sketch book with the names of the creatures written underneath and brief notes on them. Flipping through a section on Devils, I found a simple drawing of a dog-headed, four-armed creature. The artist had little sense of proportion � the monster�s head was as large as its body, for one, and all four of its arms looked to be the same size. It also appeared male. But, the resemblance of it to the Brass Eye's resident was too great to ignore.
Under the drawing, a name was penned: Glabrezu. Beside that, in smaller script: The Glabrezu is a cunning Devil of especially foul disposition. Its magicks include the ability to Beguile, to Summon Darkness, to Dispel Active Magicks, and to Ignore Fire. As can all Devils, it can Teleport and Summon more of its ilk from the Abyssal Plane. I whispered the word aloud: "Glabrezu..." A chill ran down my spine, as if I had spoke a word that contained foul power. I flipped back through the book, and looked at the introduction to the chapter on Devils. Devil is the name given to those creatures from the Abyssal Plane. They are creatures of pure Evil, who wish only to destroy and corrupt. But to know the True Name of a Devil gives you power over it.

Armed with this knowledge, I returned to Ellestia. I had taken notes, and studied them during the journey. It was early in the day when I returned. I was weary from travel, and I felt a fresh mind would better deal with the devil, so I decided to deal with the Brass Eye devil the next day. And in truth, I dreaded that responsibility and had no qualms about putting it off. So I performed light church duty that day, blessing water, counting tithes and speaking to parishioners. I tried to divert my thoughts from the evil Brass Eye that I had stored in the church�s back storage room, but it crept into my tired mind just the same. The next day, after a fitful night�s sleep, I could find no good excuse to continue procrastinating. I returned to the room and gently removed the Brass Eye from a blessed cloth I had wrapped around it � a precaution against any corrupting contamination from leaking out. As I unwrapped it, I looked straight ahead and avoided looking at the Eye, not wanting to face the gaze of that fell creature any sooner than I had to.
I took the strange device to my sanctuary, a small, spartan room in the back of the church. I closed the door behind me. I chose this room for myself when I was ordained, because it was quiet and in the back of the building. I would not be disturbed this morning; I let everyone know I was going to deal with the Brass Eye, and they knew to give me space. The distance would also help them get away if anything, gods forbid, went wrong.
I sat down before a plain wooden table, gripped my holy medallion with my right hand, and set the Brass Eye upon the table before me; I supported it with my free hand so it would not roll off the table. The item was well crafted and solidly built. It was a brass sphere bound with thick, raised bands, with a similar band surrounding the large lens. Finely detailed runes were molded into the bands, and the larger runes around the lens the runes seemed to glow faintly, in spite of the daylight flooding the room from the large window behind me.
Finally, I looked into the lens itself and locked gazes with the perpetually grinning devil. I swallowed and tried to summon the courage to speak to her. I found my heart when I remembered that Haleon saw fit to raise the dead through me, to restore the murdered Thomas to the land of the living. Certainly, no mere devil could stand against the power of my god! I cleared my throat and said with clarity and confidence, channeling my faith into my words, "I command you to address me, devil." Her ears perked up. She cocked her head in that odd manner of hers and sneered. I had gotten her attention.
"I bid you to speak to me, and to answer my questions truthfully, in the name of Haleon the God of Rain and Storms. I, Deacon Jerik Tael, so bind you by your name, which is Glabrezu." I had no idea that my dictation was correct, but I was confident that my faith was true.
The devil did not shrink from my gaze, but inquired in a deep and chilling (yet oddly melodic) voice, "What would you ask of me, mortal?"
I started to speak, but stopped short. I had never thought this far through the ritual. I had rehearsed what I had just said over and over during the trip home from Savel, and even considered the possibility of a battle between the escaped devil's evil sorceries against the power of my faith. But I had never really thought about what exactly I would ask the devil once I had bound her to my will. I admit to fumbling rather spectacularly here for a few seconds, managing an uncertain "uhhh...", before the entity calmly spoke.
"You have it wrong."
I blinked for a few seconds, losing what remained of my composure. I blurted, "Excuse me?"
Patiently, patronizingly, she replied, "You have it wrong. First of all, I am certainly no devil."
Certain I had caught her in a lie, I relaxed a little. "Then what manner of creature are you? An orc? Or a misshapen planetar?"
Her condescending smirk became a sneer. "I am tanar'ri, the name given to a proud lineage of beings that you mortals call 'demons'. Devils and demons are all fiends, true, but any kinship ends there. Confuse another demon for the power-mad, tyrannical, free will-suppressing baatezu devils, and he will likely eat your entrails as you scream. I will overlook your bumbling ignorance, human, but you would do well to study your planar taxonomy before dealing with more of my kind."
I had never considered the possibility that there was any difference between devils and demons. From Beyond never bother to mention that, and it actually stated that the Glabrezu was a devil! "No matter," I said, straightening up and maintaining eye contact. "I am sure any difference between such entities is merely semantic. And you are still bound to address me truthfully."
"Am I?" She smiled and chuckled, and with razor sarcasm she continued, "So allow me to be honest with you, then, since I am thus bound. From what I understand of mortal-planar protocol � though I may be mistaken on this � the would-be controller must know the True Name of whatever it is he is to command. According to whatever source you have consulted, am I correct?"
I cleared my throat again. "Yes. But�"
"But," she interrupted, smiling, "my name is not 'glabrezu' any more than your name is 'human'." She leaned forward, her diminutive face seeming to press against the lens of the Brass Eye. "'Glabrezu' is the name of my race, one of the many proud tanar'ri races that hail from the Abyss." Irritation had crept into her voice, but she remained composed. A dread chill ran down my body. "If you were of better manners, I would explain all this to you. But I have been insulted enough for one day, and I do not wish to speak to you any longer. Farewell."
Then she faded from the Eye, and was gone.

Go to Chapter Two