The party journeys to Jangling Hiter to descend on the elevator of despair down to the next layer of Baator, Phlegethos.
As they enter the city, they see ditches filled with black oil. A slimy pool with mist coming out of it has shadowy forms moving around in it. They cross a bridge and three chain devils emerge from the pool to attack them. A huge chain golem rises out of the moat of oil and drags Garrick and Garret into in, crushing them until they teleport themselves out.
Two stone golems rise from the moat as well and attack iggy and atticus (a fighter the party met after their prision escape on the first layer of Baator), who they encountered on Minauros. Atticus is on a quest to find a chicken lost by his neighbor's daughter in Lighthedge Point. It's a prizewinning bird that lays the best eggs in the region and possibly the world. He suspects that the King and Queen of Turath stole it and are now somewhere in Baator with it. As Atticus engages the golems his shield arm is crushed and hangs limp for the rest of the battle.
Kodrus and Whosis deal with the chain devils. Garrick the Mad sets the moat on fire, eventually melting the chain golem. Atticus and Garret work with Iggy to destroy the stone golems and they proceed to the elevator of despair. It lowers them down slowly for several hours until they finally reach the flaming landscape of phlegethos. They stop briefly at the tower of Fierna, the ruler of this layer and chat with an imp guarding the door, then move along.
The do recon on the crystal palace next to the lake of fire where Gazra lives and do not see him, but several of his generals, two fire giants and an efreet are training their soliders. They determine that Gazra is in the barracks and wait several hours resting before they aproach and attack the outpost.
In the opening surprise attack many of the footsoldiers are killed. Garrett chokes one to death with the hand of vecna and turns another with his other hand. The others cast spells that cut down the lines and they charge into the barracks to engage the leaders.
As they fight, Whosis challenges Gazra openly though he is nowhere in sight. A moment later two huge fire elemental titans rise from pools of lava outside the building along with three rockfire dreadnoughts who charge in casting waves of fire and throwing magma.
Gazra himself appears a moment later to answer Whosis kid's challenge, dispelling his invisibility. He calls in several legion devils and begins stricking with his flametongue mace and poisoned tail attack.
Whosis knocks out one of the fire giant generals and atticus steps in to hold of the other. The efreet is taken out by the rest of the party who rallies outside to hold off the charging elementals. Iggy splits into several mirror images of himself and distracts the elementals who chase him about.
Under the onslought of Atticus' furious attacks and Whosis kid's backstabbing, Gazra falls back, teleporting out of the center of the battle and moving two of his elemental guardians into position to protect him. Garrett falls as the fire titan's flames consume him. Whosis tries to dive through the elementals protective lines and falls as well, making one last strike against Gazra as he is consumed by the ring of fire that protects the general. Kodrus is near death as he charges in to gore the general.
Finally, Atticus wades through the remaining soldiers and slays the pit fiend with a series of vicious strokes from his sword. When the general is slain, the surviving elementals cease their attacks and return to the lava pools nearby.
The party is camps out at Gazra's crystal palace. There are hundreds of legion devils stationed in the barracks nearby but they are not drilling or doing anything productive until a new leader is selected. It takes a few weeks for them to sort through all of the red tape and paperwork to determine how succession will be handled, but inevitably they advise it will all need to be approved by Lady Fierna.
In the meantime, messengers have been sent from the three courts of Phlegethos granting the party an audience and requesting their presence as soon as possible.
The first invitation comes from Inanna, from port city called Jealous Heart on the edge of this layer of Baator. She congratulates you on your victory over Gazra and says she looks forward to meeting those strong enough to best Hell's finest general.
The second invitation comes from Belial (the father of Fierna, who rules this plane), who lives in the largest city a days journey away. He urgently requests you meet with him to discuss the details choosing Gazra's successor.
The last invitation comes from Fierna, the ruler of Phlegethos, who reigns from the dark spire near the crystal palace (where you spoke with the imp earlier). She invites you to taste the pleasures of her court.
No comments:
Post a Comment