Investigate the laundry

The feast can wait. If some vermin is loose in the abbey, it is your duty as an aspiring paladin to hunt it down. You descend the stone stairs into the basement. The laundry is quiet and only a single lantern is casting smoky light through onto the laundry pools. The smell of gray water and soap are strong, but not quite strong enough to overpower the odd scent of something burning.

"What is that?" you mutter.

It is a familiar scent. One that is annoyingly close to mind. You shake it off and creep between the smooth pools of opaque water. The washboards and tubs are set out to dry and the linens for tomorrow hang from the rafters like animal pelts. They are heavy with water and move slowly as the air circulates through the chimney.

There it is! A click-click-click of nails on stone. It is coming from within the chimney. Nothing more than a stone pipe for air to circulate into the basement, just wide enough for a person to stand. It is sealed with an iron grate to allow the air to flow. Occasionally birds take up nests in the chimney and a neophyte is sent in with a broom to clear them out. This does not sound like birds.

You wish you had your sword or your battle hammer. Your boot will have to do. You creep close to the grate, trying to peer through it to whatever might be lurking inside. You see a flash of reflective eyes and you grab hold of the grate and tear it open with a clatter of iron.

"Got you!" you cry as you lunge at the thing lurking within.

You see smooth flesh that is leathery red and warm beneath your fingers. There is a frightful flapping that scratches your arms and tears at your gown. You spill backwards, out of the chimney and very nearly into one of the pools, as you try to get the better of the creature you have in your hands. It twists and shows surprising strength.

"Let me go!" it shrieks.

The words catch you by surprise and the creature slips from your grasp. It flaps its wings and takes to the air, hovering near the ceiling as it turns and regards you with tiny, yellow eyes that burn with anger.

"A damned imp!" you curse and retreat from the creature.

The creature is man-shaped and very small, perhaps a foot and a half in height, with devilish features and skin of red. It is obscenely naked and its cock is far too large for a creature so small. The imp, like almost all monsters, is driven by a perverse desire to mate with human women. That explains why it might be drawn to the abbey and its dozens of pure-bodied women. It does not explain how the beastie passed through the wards against evil surrounding the ancient abbey. No daemon should be able to enter, unless...

"Who summoned you, fiend?" You use the tone of compulsion and infuse your words with the strength of the Burning Heart.

"Not tell you, church bitch!" The imp cackles and circles in above your head. "Why don't you come here and have some fun. You like this?"

It grabs its cock in one hand and its dangling bollocks in the other and fondles them both as it flaps around out of reach. Your fury grows with each moment and you search for something to throw at the creature. Your gaze falls upon the wet blankets hanging up to dry. Soaked with water, one should be heavy enough to drag the creature down to the ground. You could also call upon the power of the Burning Heart and attempt to destroy it with your magic. Your power does not manifest in spells as with wizards, but as the pure benevolent fury of the Burning Heart. It is capable of healing or destruction, though you are only beginning to learn to wield it.

Whatever you choose, you have never faced a real monster before, though you have trained for years to battle them. An imp is relatively weak as monsters go. That does not stop you from being afraid.