Downtime

  • Dust and Dick accidentally led a monster back to town. Everyone now blames them for a few people dying in the crossfire. Dick also gets a magical rope that can coil and uncoil at will.
  • Cyrus worked. He got by, but now has an assistant following him around named Kyle. Kyle’s weird, he’s about 16 and already over 6ft tall with flaming tattoos on his calves. But he’s a decent enough assistant, he fetches water from the well and can read.
  • Noid received a vision from a god and is favored by them, gaining free boons. It also gets magic eye drops that give the user darksight.

Cyrus and Dust spend some time together, where Dust teaches Cyrus about occult magic and Cyrus teaches Dust about how to behave normal socially. Cyrus and Dust are now officially something close to friends.

The party debates on going after General Boril or getting more money. They decide to get more money so they can afford holy water and silver weaponry for when they go to Hell. Cyrus works overtime at work, Dick works as a courier with his fast ass wings, Dust works as a healer, and Noid performs with their recorder in bars. After gearing up, they decide to finally go to Hell.

Dust asks why they don’t invite Kyle to go to Hell with them. Cyrus tries to politely decline, but Kyle seems adamant that he can handle it. Dick volunteers to have a friendly sparring match with him - after all, if Kyle can’t handle Dick, he certainly couldn’t handle Hell. Kyle throws a punch - admittedly with spectacular form, but it isn’t enough to touch a hair on the swift gnome’s head. Dick does what he does best and sucker punches Kyle in the dick, knocking him unconscious instantly. The group agrees Kyle should not go and they drop him off at his parent’s house.

Falling Down the Hellevator

They go into the middle of the desert, away from any unsuspecting civilians. They’re not exactly sure what to expect, besides.. well, Hell. Cyrus lifts Doribari above his head, stabbing it deep into the dirt, erupting a ring of fire surrounding the party. The sand at their feet turn black in an uneasy shadow as the earth shifts once, then falls out from under them. They tumble through a pitch black void where they fall for several hours. As they fall, it appears there are several corpse like creatures along the walls. After the 4th hour, they see a small pinprick of light below them. By the 5th hour, the ball of light has grown to the size of the sun and is perpendicular to the party. Upon the 6th hour, it is above them, even larger than the sun.

Dust and Dick are able to gracefully land on their feet, but Cyrus and Noid fall flat on their faces. Noid’s nostrils are immediately filled with the stench of sulfur and iron. Cyrus cuts off scraps from his clothing to fashion a mask for it. Surrounding the group are large “fields” of bone white with the occasional skeletal tree reaching to the sky like decrepit hands. One of these gnarled twisted branches has hanging from it three humanoid bodies with their arms tied behind their back and their heads locked in cages being eaten alive by birds. Preath informs the group that they have fallen into the Ash Sea, where most souls are dropped off. When looking around, the horizon seems to go up rather than down. They are quite literally inside the earth, in a large halo. There are cloud like beings floating around, which Preath explains are Domains, where the minor demon lords live, the nobility of Hell.

Cyrus examines the sword once again, seeing the once useless compass is now pointing in a consistent direction. The group begins following. After walking for several hours, the wind begins picking up, filling their nostrils with the scent of rot and pelting their skin with the scalding hot grains of sand, like tiny bullets grazing their flesh. Having been awake for over 13 hours now, the group decide it would be wise to find somewhere safe to rest. Preath mentions places called “lemures” where souls of people band together in something similar to civilization. They see in the distance pillars of smoke. After cresting a huge dune of smoke, they are able to find a small village made of bone. As they approach, they see the individuals making up the village. They are what once was people with low amounts of corruption waiting for their turn to be tortured into oblivion. They almost look like humans, but their skin is grey and has the consistency of clay. They appear almost blurry, like if you squinted you might be able to mistake them as human. They don’t seem to care for the party, or even notice that they’re there. They seem to be doing things based solely on instinct, imitating the things they would have done in their lives. They have a “market” where they browse the various wares of bone shards and large rocks and trade in pebbles and teeth. Some attempt to do manual labor, mixing their own blood with the ash to create a cursed ashen brick to build with.

In the center of their village is a very specific and intentional empty center that all the paths lead directly to. It’s a perfect circle centered around a flat, black obelisk. It’s thin, almost two dimensional. It seems to move with the viewer, never being able to see the edges. The compass leads directly to it. It’s an odd looking thing, even Preath isn’t sure what it is. They decide to take a rest in an empty shack, setting up a makeshift door with Dick’s new coil of rope to prevent any errant lemures wandering in. After several hours of resting, the lemure take notice of the inaccessible shack. They begin pushing against the rope, breaking the bits around the door, and in a violent outburst they push through, packing themselves in like sardines. Noid wakes Dust, who determines that if they’re not hurting anything, its fine, and falls back asleep. After completing their rest, the rest of the party awakes to see the lemures staring down at them, menacingly. They’re able to shimmy their way out but are distinctly disturbed by their presence. They walk to the odd square shape, and walk through realizing its actually a portal.

The Key to the Key to the Key to the Key

They find themselves in darkness. In front of them is a gate emitting a bluish glow. On the other side is the base of a large ziggurat. The ground is made of a white-red stone, almost a courtyard. The ziggurat is a black stone. Outside the courtyard is a dense jungle. Preath says they’re in one of the many swamps of Hell, but isn’t sure which one in particular they’re in. Cyrus leads the way to the ziggurat following the compass on his sword, up the stairs studded with torches emitting an ultraviolet fire. On each of the 6 platforms of the ziggurat are several statues. The group gets the distinct feeling that they are being watched as the ascend. They ready themselves for combat as they reach the top.

Centralized in the chamber at the height of the ziggurat is a huge, 15ft tall bonfire, with the silhouette of a huge, six horned devil. Cyrus asks if he is a disciple of the black throne. He denies it, and says he is the guard to the black throne. Cyrus asks what the devil wants from the group. He states he wants nothing but to grant us whatever we wish. But he will not allow us to enter the chamber. The group begin debating. Dick wants to fight this devil and ascend to godhood for himself. Everyone else desperately does not want anyone to rise to godhood. The devil makes a deal with them: If the party can fight him and win, he will grant them three wishes. If they fail, however, he will kill the party without a second thought and feast on the corruption he harvests from our corpses. The group agree to this deal and agree to the three wishes they want from him:

  • Know Enox’s true name
  • Get a tablet with the incantation of calling
  • Get teleported back home