Kodrus Jr. and Atticus follow a lead to find the missing chicken. It's rumored to be with King and Queen Turath who are travelling in the hells and were recently seen in the port city of Jealous Heart on the edge of Phlegethos.
The rest of the party reposes in the Crystal Palace by the lake of fire for a few weeks. Talking with Captain Skullblade, a devil who is the highest ranking officer in army after they killed Gazra and his chief lieutenants, the learn the following information:
"Lady Inanna, the ruler of Jealous Heart is the most beautiful enchantress in Baator. All who meet her bend to her will. It is rumored that she was once consort to Levistus, the ruler of Stygia. Levistus assassinated Asmodeus' Queen Bensozia, a crime for which he was merely imprisoned in a great iceberg on Stygia, though he still rules in title. All of the duties of ruler are carried out by Asmodeus' loyal general Geryon the arch-fiend.
Belial is the father of Fierna, the current ruler of Phlegethos. He was once ruler her himself, but after the last reckoning of hell, he surrendered his title to his daughter, believing he would continue to rule behind the throne. While true for some time, Fierna eventually gave up her indifference towards governance and now asserts herself defiantly against Belial's wishes.
Fierna is the ruler of Phlegethos. She is powerful, beautiful, and lascivious. Most in Baator consider her to be one of the highest achievemers in the dual virtues of sin and discipline. She has recently grown defiant towards her father's advice on how to govern Phlegethos, and has even banished him from her dark spire palace.
During the last reckoning of hell, a bloody civil war, two factions warred for power. The first faction was composed of Baalzebub, Belial, and several other devil. The second faction was composed of Mephistopheles, Mammon, Dispater, and Geryon. When Baalzebub's faction seemed close to victory and they prepared to turn their sights on the throne of Asmodeus , the lord of Baator had his loyal pit fiend generals stage a coup against both factions, effectively ending the war. Asmodeus then executed the most treacherous members of Baalzebub and Belial's cabal, though they both survived his purge. Mephistopheles and his faction suffered little more than a slap on the wrist as they pledged themselves to Asmodeus for saving them from Baalzebub's wrath.
Baalzebub was once the lord of Baator and ruled the ninth plane in Nessus. Rumor has it that the original lord of Baator, now long past and forgotten was deposed by Baalzebub. Baalzebub was in turn deposed by Asmodeus when he still commanded the armies of heaven and fought against the first fallen angels. When Asmodeus' pride was slighted by his masters in heaven, he murdered several of them with his sword Hellsong, until he was finally driven out and took up residence in Baator. Baalzebub still seeks to reclaim his lost title.
Graz'zt is the Son of Asmodeus, the lord of Baator, and Pale Night, the mother of demons who resides in Shubgottia. Graz'zt was raised in the courts of Baator, but always showed a rebellious streak. When his mother was deposed by the other demonic factions in the Abyssal civil war, he sought to lead the armies in the Bloodwar to invade the abyss. While on his conquests, he captured several layers, but in time became corrupted and turned to the ways of chaos. Some say that Graz'zt's membership in the dark six is merely a cover, and that he spies on the abyss for his father Asmodeus. Graz'zt is said to have a strong rivalry bordering on hatred with Orcus."
Invitations pour in from the three major devils on Plegethos. They decide to avoid Inanna, who is notorious for charming and dominating visitors and head to Phlegethos' largest city, ruled by Belial. They ride several nightmares across the firey plains and arrive a day later at the city gates. They are welcomed to the city keep and meet with Belial, a tall and impressive devil.
Belial advises that he believes Mammon intends to deceive them and he helps Whosis remember that Mammon actually on said it was within his power to give them the Ziggurat, he never actually promised to give it. Belial suggests that they tell his daughter Fierna that they intend to give Mammon the title of general and to invite him to the ceremony, then when he arrives they will actually name Belial to the title. Belial agrees to write a contract with the following conditions:
1. The party names him general of Phlegethos, as is their right.
2. Belial will help them sieze the Ziggurat from Mammon
3. The party will leave Baator and never return, unless invited by Belial or his superiors. Also, Belial will not return to Gladomain with his army unless invited by a member of the party, or if he is ordered to go there by his superiors.
The party gladly excepts and signs the contract in blood. They set of to speak with Fierna who is always partying in her dark spire. The imp at the front gate remembers whosis who tipped him generously last time and lets them in again (after another large tip). They enter the court and find a bunch of naked devils eating and drinking. Whosis accepts a poisoned chalice from Fierna and chokes to death as the court laughs at him. They later resurrect him.
Fierna says that the ceremony will take place in nine weeks time. Though they plead with her to speed this up, she says there will be no exceptions. They leave the her dark spire palace and travel back to the crystal palace to train with the army. They try to contact Belial but he sends word that it is not safe to speak as Mammon's spies are everywhere.
At the ceremony, Mammon arrives outside the dark spire palace with the jewelled ziggurat. Fierna comes out the front gate and brings a chalice, asking the party to name the person who will be the new general. To her surprise, they name her father Belial who steps from among the ranks of the army and claims the title, drinking from her cup.
Mammon shouts and charges down the stairs of the ziggurat onto the stone plains. The shadows of the party and everyone in the army twist and writhe becoming horrible black ooze devils that envelope everyone in their acidic coils. As the party struggles to free themselves from Mammons trap, Belial fires a pillar of flame into the heavens and calls upon his master Baalzebub. Mammon in turn shoots an arrow into the sky, calling upon his lord Mesphitopheles. The two charge into combat with each other.
The party dispatches most of the ooze devils, though whosis and garret have some trouble fighting off Mini-Mammon, who turns out to be a little tougher than anticipated. As the two gods Mammon and Belial fight, their older and more power masters arrive. Mephistopheles and Baalzebub silent charge towards one another.
The party scrambles to get out of the way as the two colossal powers meet. They retreat to the ziggurat and Garrett struggle with the controls. Garrick the mad imprisons mini-mammon in a wall of ice. Mammon knocks Belial to the ground though he is injured by several icy spikes that iggy casts on him.
Everyone looks up and in horror they realize that the tower itself has a large shadowy ooze devil enveloping it and dissolving its foundation. The entire tower is starting to collapse and will fall and crush the battlefield and the ziggurat. Mephistopheles and Baalzebub fight on coldly, but Mammon, Belial, and Fierna scramble out of the way.
Most of the army has been destroyed by mammon's ooze devils as garrett activates one of the controls on the ziggurat which creates a great tornado that holds the tower aloft and begins to spin it around violently, preventing it from falling on them but breaking it into several large pieces with start to fly outward randomly bouncing across the landscape. Everyone hangs on for dear life at the force of the cyclone so close to them.
As Mephistopheles knocks Baalzebub down with a mighty blow, Asmodeus himself arrives and begins throwing massive fireballs at them, knocking his unruly subjects to the ground. He seems unaffected by the tornado.
As the last of the party clamors aboard garrett activates the controls he believes will take them out of there. He disengages the cyclone and they blink out, just as a mighty piece of the tower hurtles towards them. They escape to Gladomain, just seconds before certain destruction.
They appear several hundred feet in the air over the city center of Blackshore. They see the city is under attack by the Norselord's minotaur fleet and a great metal war zeppelin is attacking the city walls and merchant district by the docks. The zeppelin has a great minotaur head on the front of the bottom turret and from the eyes and mouth pour great streams of burning liquid that set the towers, walls and neighborhoods or Blackshore ablaze.
As the zeppelin sees them appear is approaches and launches fireballs at the ziggurat. Garrett returns fire, first with a cyclone the spins them about, then with a poison gas the chokes several of their gunners. A magical barrier protects the pilots and ogre marines aboard the zeppelin from the poison gas. Next Garrett tries to use the earth power on his foe, but instead accidentally rips a great chasm across the fields to the southeast of Blackshore and collapsing the wall near the main gate.
Both try to gain altitude as they approach one another and finally they collide and the ogres begin to board. Garrick the mad tosses a wall of fire down the ziggurat's stairs, blocking their advance. Garret blasts the zeppelin and Baphomet, the dark six lord who is piloting it, with a storm of meteors. The meteors stike the dark lord but don't appear to harm him significantly. Garrett then uses the ziggurat's defenses to blast a wall of air at the ogres, halting their advance and blowing them back toward the edge.
Iggy jumps aboard the zeppelins control turret and casts a vortex of his own to damage the controls and he finds himself confronting Baphomet. Blocking his sight with the cyclone, Iggy teleports out to escape.
A surprise attack from Harthantor, an ancient blue dragon, and the oldest and largest dragon in Gladomain, knocks Garrett to the earth as he crushes him between his wings. A great blast of electricity arcs through Garrett and Garrick, knocking out the priest and sending the mage rolling down the side of the ziggurat to it's edge. Garrick takes flight soaring up above the pyramid.
Whosis grabs Garrett's hand on his dying body and taps the controls, activating the ziggurat's defenses. A blast of cold kills the boarding ogres and badly damages Harthantor, but the great dragon shrugs off the ice attack and redoubles his efforts to kill Garrett. Whosis Kid leaps onto the dragon's back. Garrick the mad tosses a blast of fire at the beast, mocking it and drawing it's wrath.
The great dragon roars in rage, striking fear into all who hear its cry. As Garrick flies away and the great dragon clears the edge of the fortress, whosis kid knocks the monster unconscious and backflips off it's titanic form back onto the ziggurat. He catches hold of the edge and looks down to see Harthantor's limp form hurtle to its death hundreds of feet below at the bottom of the chasm created by Garrett's earthquake attack earlier.
in his battle with Baphomet, Iggy targets the body of the Zeppelin and knocks a large chunk of it off, which falls to the earth and shatters into many pieces. Baphomet begins targeting Iggy and Garrett forcing them to attack one another, before Whosis sneaks up and backstabs him causing a great gush of black ooze to splatter across the halflings face. The dark lord continues to bleed profusely and takes more damage from subsequent attacks as the rest of the party converge their force on their remaining foe.
Garrick lands the killing blow to the demon lord and an arc of energy surges into him, making him a demi-god of fire magic.
They return to Blackshore and survey the damage to the city. They learn that the dark six have come to Gladomain again to take over. They rest a few days then travel to Mistmeadow to liberate it's people from Lolth's tyranny.
