Kay’s Journal, 9/4
We’re in Hell. Or a hell, at least. The mushroom queen’s
incubus henchman came along with us as a guide? Minder? I dunno. He went back
to his bugbear shape for the trip. We walked past the lava field that was on
the other side of the doorway and ended up on a flat plain with mountains in
the distance.
CornCob told us this plane is a place of torture, and
Gooseneck added that the Demon Lord of this plane is the daughter of Asmodeus.
I happen to know that this is considered a prison layer of hell, and Asmodeus
sent his daughter here after she got a little ambitious. He requires her to do
the hard work of collecting souls by talking mortals into signing contracts.
For the torture, the mountains come in to play…they tend to fall on people.
Do not ask me why I know so much about this hell.
So we think our target probably tried selling his soul twice
– first to the mushroom queen, and then here. That would have made the second
contract void, as at that point the soul was no longer his to bargain with.
Demons are fussy about those kinds of rules.
Don’t ask me how I know that, either.
The bugbear/incubus teleported us to what looked like a
military camp, populated by various guards and spirits. There were glowing
crystals around the camp that seemed to have some kind of magical effect. We
weren’t real sure what it was for until a rock slide came down the side of the
mountain above us….and the rocks bounced off the invisible shield that
surrounded the camp. CornCob picked up a few small shards of the crystal.
Our guide told us that in a few hours, we’d have a window
when the fewest number of guards would be around our target. Based on that, we
decided to rest, and set out in the morning. The dagger pointed us toward some
of the mountains.
We still kept watches. I mean, yes, we were in a ‘friendly’ camp,
and there was the protection of the shield, but….Hell.
Abran and Pujol took the first watch. A wagon without any
animals pulling it went past, and more rocks fell from the mountain above us.
Pujol noticed a distinctive sound before each rock fall.
Fathom and Gooseneck took second watch. There were more rock
slides. Gooseneck watched the guards, and thinks they’re terrible –
disorganized and undisciplined.
I took third watch with CornCob. The spirits seemed restless
or something, as I kept hearing some weird, discordant music that made me think
of ghosts with unfinished business.
We took off in the morning. I assume it was actually
morning, at least. Our guide advised us to ‘be quick’, and told us he was going
to stay behind at the camp to keep the shield going. He had no advice for us on
getting back to the camp. Super helpful.
Pujol has some chalk, so he decided to try to make our path
with chalk marks along the way. I had my doubts, but it was worth a try.
Some of the demons performed some sort of ritual, directing
its magic at the mountain. A portal opened up in the mountain side leading to a
trail, and a large ziggurat in the distance. The dagger, of course, was
pointing us in that direction.
So on we went, heading down the trail with Pujol making his
chalk marks periodically. Abran found what he thought was an animal trail, but
as he was investigating, a large rock fell from the mountain and we all had to
scramble to get out of the way. A few of us took some rock shrapnel, but
nothing too bad. The largest boulder in the rock fall fell into a chasm in
front of us. We’re going to have to cross the chasm to get to the ziggurat.
Also, spooky sounds were coming up out of the chasm.
Worst vacation ever.
We tied a rope to a rock on our side, and Abran threw the
rope across to the other side. Pujol cast a spell that summoned some kind of
invisible something that tied the rope off to a rock on the other side of the
chasm. We tied a second rope to Abran and sent him across. He checked the knot,
and then Pujol went across.
Pujol fell, but the rope we had tied to him saved him. He
climbed out of the chasm and went across OK, no problem that time. Fathom went
next. I went after Fathom, but ran into some problems about half way across
when ghostly shapes rose out of the chasm, making a keening sound. I fell,
swinging back to the staring side of the chasm and smacking against the rock
wall. I climbed up out of the chasm as quickly as I could.
Six tortured souls rose out of the chasm, three heading to
one side, and three to the other. On our side, CornCob brandished the power of
his god, driving them away. On the other side, Fathom, Abran, and Pujol managed
to fight them off, with CornCob casting a spell from our side of the chasm that
dissipated the last spirit.
We finished crossing the chasm, leaving one of the ropes
behind for our return. On the other side of the chasm, we ended up in another
lava field. Whatever blessing the mushroom queen gave us for the heat was still
working, as it didn’t bother us at all.
We finally got close enough to get a look at the ziggurat.
There were two cages, one to the left of the entrance and one to the right. There
were a few demons acting as guards, some with dogs, and some larger ones up on
top of the ziggurat. Some of those had bows. The dagger was pointing us to the
left cage.
We debated what to do – it looked like it’d be an ugly
fight. Our first thought was to try to sneak over to the cage, find the target,
and hope to be sneaky enough about it to avoid a fight. We also thought about
setting up a distraction on the right, maybe freeing the people in the right
cage or something, to try to draw the guards over there and then sneak left and
find our target. Last, we thought about just going up to the guards and talking
our way out of it. After all, they were holding that soul here illegally per
their own rules. If we told them that, perhaps we could get what we needed
without having to fight.
We discussed briefly, and decided to try the negotiation
approach. Fathom, CornCob, Gooseneck, and I went forward to talk to the guards,
while Pujol and Abran snuck around to the left cage to be ready as a
distraction, backup, or whatever else was going to be needed.
Fathom spoke to the guards in a language I didn’t
understand. There was some back and forth, and the guard waved one of his
fellows over. That guy brought dogs. Yay. Fathom showed the dagger and how it
was pointing to a cage, then she tried petting one of the dogs. That seemed to
go OK, and buy her some bit of respect from the guards. Dog Boy asked to be
shown which soul was ours…or at least, which one we were there to collect. We
went over to the cage and had the dagger point it out. The demon went to talk
to his manager.
When the guard returned, he agreed to give us the prisoner.
He took his dogs and left, and the guard that had been by the cage door
unlocked it. The people in the cage – all but the one we were there for – looked
ready to rush the door. When the door opened, we just stepped aside and let
them make a run for it.
Pujol cast a spell on the target that made him trust Pujol,
and kept him from running like the rest. The target, a guy in a dark robe, did
exit the cage, but went back to Pujol instead of running away. Fathom lead the
rest of us back to where Pujol and Abran waited with the target. She walked
right up behind him and stabbed him with the dagger. It was either a really
good strike or else he was particularly vulnerable to that dagger, as it was
clear the one hit was enough to take him out. CornCob asked what he’s made his
bargain for, and as he died he told us he’d used the demon power to raid a
fishing village.
OK, so the mushroom lady was right. Not a good guy at all.
Once he died, we were pulled back into the mushroom cavern.
Apparently at least one of the demons was too close to use, and got pulled
through with us.
Hey, we don’t have to worry about finding our way
back across that chasm!
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