Descent Into Avernus
Haruman’s Hill
Crucification?After a few uneventful hours driver - patrols of devils, swarms of demons, and rivers of lava now somehow routine - Morad and Mak arrived back at the scene of the triumph over Raggadragga, and headed north into uncharted territory. The Demon Grinder was as fast as the Holy Terror, but far less wieldy. None-the-less Morad was enjoying the power it delivered, and had managed to mentally block the screaming souls.
Before long, a gargantuan volcano started to become visible to the East. Clouds of fire and ash spewed from its caldera, and the air trembled with its angry grumblings. The Styx flowed close by the volcano. Spider pulled the map from his bag, and, after studying it, yelled out it might be something called Bel’s Forge. “Which means we’re heading in the right direction, though the map shows the Styx rather closer than it is.”
As he spoke, he felt a wave of cold terror wash over him, and with a jolt realised it was coming from Samael. Spider had never felt fear from Samael.
“What’s goin' on pal? You’re shittin' yourself.”
Samael paused, then spoke in a quiet voice. “That’s Bel’s Forge. We need to stay away from there, it’s a very dangerous place.”
“What’s there?” Spider asked.
“Well, Bel is there.”
“Who’s Bel when he’s home?”
“Bel is an Archduke of Hell. He’s not to be trifled with.”
“Right. Is he angry?”
“Always.”
“With you in particular? Or you just ran into him in the past?”
Samael sighed. “He’s not angry with me.”
“But you’re scared shitless of him?”
“Yes,” Samael hissed.
Spider nodded. “We need to steer clear of the volcano,” he said to Morad.
“Easy done,” Morad said, looking nervously toward the Forge.
During the next hour the temperature started to rise rapidly, until it became oppressive and overwhelming. The heat became so extreme it was hard to breathe. Morad drove on, Mak shadowing 50 yards away, hoping to get out of the heat zone. He suddenly noticed Torgrun slumping in his seat, head lolling loose.
Morad turned and yelled, “Madam! Torgrun’s gone!”
Madam Potencia saw Torgrun was in trouble, and looked around for some kind of shelter. She spotted a rocky outcrop which provided some shade, and pointed Morad to it. He pulled in under the overhang, but the heat was no less relentless - it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, from the ground, the air, the sky.
Madam Portencia jumped down and pulled out a cocktail umbrella from her wig. She popped it up, spread it, popped it again, spread it, and continued until she had created a large circus tent. She pulled the flap open, and inside was a pleasant and dry room, lined with cushions and rugs, with some gentle lounge music being piped. She ushered everyone inside, and the relief on entering was heavenly.
Torgrun looked in wonder, then turned to MAdam Portencia as he fell into a pile of pillows. “Only now do you show us this?!”
“Until now everything was perfectly satisfactory,” Madam Portencia smiled.
Torgrun groggily came to, having passed out from exhaustion. He once again felt a moment of doubt, a worry that Torm was abandoning him. Was he making too many compromises? The burning souls, the tacit acceptance of the lesser of two evils? He knelt and prayed again as he recovered his strength.
Madam Portencia insisted on waiting out the heat, and after many hours Spider reported the temperature was finally dropping. Spider asked Samael if this heat was normal.
“Heat? Is it hot? It’s likely just the weather. It changes all the time.”
“Right. So you do have weather down here? I assume you don’t have rain at any point - or does it rain crap?”
“Well it doesn’t rain water,” Samael smirked.
“That’s what I said - does it rain crap?”
“Crap is a very good description. I wouldn’t be caught out in it.”
Bili conjured some of his magic berries, but instead of the succulent treats he expected, they appeared like shrivelled sultanas in his hand.
Spider sampled one and spat it out. “They’re no good, Bili - like dust.” He took another and ran his hand over it, hoping to improve things with his chef cantrips. This improved things marginally - instead of dust, it was like a bitter green leaf. They still seemed to provide their healing benefit, so Spider changed the lot and handed them out. “Better grass than dust,” he grimaced.
Well rested, everyone climbed back onto their respective vehicles. Before long, the landscape ahead started to rise slowly, rising to a large hill in the distance. A road of some kind ran toward the peak of the hill, and the path was lined on either side by what looked like huge polished bone trees.
As Morad and Mak drew near, Spider heard a muffled voice, seemingly coming from his satchel. He pulled it open and ruxxed around until he determined the source was the map?? Everyone looked on in surprise. Spider yanked it out and unfurled it, and the mumbling became clear:
“BEHOLD! Zariel’s dog crucified those who betrayed his mistress in battle!”
“It’s an Avernus tourist map?” Spider said in wonderment, as the map repeated its mantra over and over.
“Oh dear it is,” Madam Portencia agreed.
“At least we know we’re in the right place - I think this is Haruman’s Hill,” Spider said, rolling the map and stuffing it back, the voice muffling as he stashed it. Morad proceeded toward the tree lined roadway at quarter speed.
Madam Potencia pulled out Morad’s spyglass, which he had never returned. Morad knew this, but he had long decided that Madam Portencia led this expedition. She raised the eyeglass and looked at the tree. From a distance they had looked like bone, but now she could see they were made of metal. There were writhing figures seemingly impaled on the branches of the trees.
She sighed, called to Spider and tossed him the glass. He confirmed what she had seen - bodies pinned to the trees, and swarms of huge mosquito like creatures feeding on the trapped victims.
“Yeah there are guys cruficied up there,” Spider said. “The map was right. Looks quite uncomfortable.”
“Well we go up there and let them down,” Morad said.
“Well…” Spider said, “We gotta drive through there.”
“I don’t think this is that kind of situation,” Madam Portencia said.
“Well they are being tortured by devils and demons, so we should help them,” Morad disagreed.
““It kind of comes with the territory,” Spider said. “And they look more like giant insects rather than devils and demons,” Spider grinned.
“Well who put them on the crucifix?” Morad asked.
“Zariel’s dog, apparently.”
“You’re a religion man, aren’t you Morad,” Madam Portencia asked, to a nod of agreement. “If you are being tortured in Hell, what does that imply about the nature of your soul?”
“Well I used to think it meant bad, but now that I’m down here I’m not so sure,” Morad answered.
“Are you questioning your faith, Morad?”
“The giant insects aren’t attacking us, so everything is fine,” Torgrun decided. “They’re sucking on the souls of bad people.”
Morad stared at Torgrun, but continued ahead. Madam Portencia mentally messaged Bili to tell him and Mak to follow, once again feeling that something was watching or monitoring the conversation. Bili lent down and whispered into Mak’s ear, his human mask meeting Mak’s metal contraption. They looked very weird - Madam Portencia was glad they were on her side.
There were hundreds of trees leading up the hill. Morad slowed to almost a stop as the first crucified figure loomed overhead, being fed on by the giant mosquitos. The human figure looked like a Knight, and Torgrun was shaken to see she wore Hellrider armour. Nailed above the figure, who shuddered in utter agony, was a banner written in infernal:
“Sir Canavan - COWARD”.
Torgrun blinked. He knew Sir Canavan from Hellrider Lore - one of the heroes of the Hellriders, who rode into Hell and returned triumphant to Elturel, centuries ago. Triumphant. Torgrun was horrified. He glanced to the figure crucified on the tree opposite, a male dwarf impailed, faced drawn in agony.
“Hellrider BEARNAN: TURNCOAT”
Torgun signalled to Morad to stop - these fighters need to be saved. But Madam Portencia countermanded that: “Keep moving, don’t stop. They will ignore us if we keep going.”
“Yes Madam,” Morad affirmed, “We follow you.” Torgrun raised an eyebrow at that - who elected her leader? Spider raised an eyebrow back - you’d better believe it. Bili somehow got an inkling of this and raised both his eyebrows - what about me? Madam Portencia merely smiled and waved Morad on.
Torgrun struggled. He wanted to strike out. But he knew there was a greater purpose - and thus he was not going to fight. There were hundreds of Hellriders crucified here. All of them in fits of agony and endless pain.
“Captain GIDEON: BETRAYER”
Torgrun fell to his knees and begged Torm for guidance. There were too many. He had to stay the course, redeem Zariel, save Elturel, did he not? Haruman was one of Zariel’s generals, turning the battle in Zariel and Yael’s favour, before Jander Sunstar’s betrayal. Haruman offered hope, or so Torgrun prayed.
At the top of the hill there was an single enormous tree. The road had narrowed so that now only a walkable path led to the summit. Morad and Mak shut down their engines, and Torgrun disabled the Demon Grinder’s engine by disconnecting the fuel feed. Or at least he hoped that’s what he did.
Torgrun led the group slowly to the summit. The Hellriders on the trees here were clearly of higher rank, wearing formal and fancy armour. Some slowly opened their eyes as Torgrun passed, pleading for release. He kept his eyes down after meeting the first few.
“We go to meet Haruman,” he said to Lulu, trying to convince himself this was the right thing.
“This is not what I expected,” Lulu answered. “Haruman was a hero. He wouldn’t have done this.”
“You say he wouldn’t have done this,” Madam Portencia said. “But look at us. Look at Bili. Wearing someone else’s face. This place changes people.”
Bili saw that some of the mosquitos would feed and then fly to the large tree on the hilltop. He tried talking to them, but didn’t have much luck. They did mention Haruman, but when Bili suggested that Haruman had ordered them away, they only repeated “No, no, no”.
The tree at the summit held a single pale figure, impaled on multiple spikes. A giant mosquito flew up to it and instead of piercing the body, seemed to be feeding it. Keeping it alive, delivering blood.
Torgrun studied the elven Hellrider, who hung 50 feet above. “Lulu - is that Haruman?”
Lulu looked down sadly and shook her head. “No - it’s Jander. Jander Sunstar.”
“The one who ran,” Torgrun said angrily. He looked up at the traitor in fury. How many had died thanks to this one. And how many had believed the fable of the Hellriders, had given their lives to a cause that was an accursed lie. To a legend built on cowardice and betrayal. He pulled out his mace and pounded it into the ground, then moved to the base of the tree and started climbing. Jander must be struck down.
Spider sighed. “He’s a dwarf, what’s he doing? I can’t watch this.”
Madam Portencia watched with interest. “So they’re keeping him alive through eternity, by feeding him the blood of his fellow traitors. That seems legit to me, I’m comfortable with that.”
Sunstar opened his eyes as she spoke. His blood-soaked eyes looked down at the group and he spoke. “Release me.”
“Why?” Madam Portencia said.
“To save Zariel.” Torgrun hesitated for a moment when he heard that, then kept climbing.
“Please elaborate,” Madam Portencia prompted.
“Haruman has punished us all for the betrayal.”
“We kind of got that.”
“I know I was wrong. I know the mistake I made, and I deserve this.” He turned his eyes to the field of crucified knights around him. “They don’t. Free me, and they will be free.”
“Would not death free you?” Torgrun cried as he climbed, leaping from one branch to another as if he was a treeman not an earth dweller, possessed with the conviction of his mission. Even Spider was impressed.
“I will die if you release me,” Sunstar said.
“How is you comin' down and dying at the bottom of this tree saving Zariel, pal?” Spider asked archly.
“I will tell you how to find her sword.”
Everyone paused hearing this. Zariel’s sword was the key to all of this, according to Torm’s vision.
“I have lived with my guilt all these centuries, and have tried to redeem myself and those I betrayed. I sought her sword here for many a year before Haruman captured me. I searched the Nine Hells, but never found it. But there is a place, a place called The Bleeding Citadel. That is where the sword lies. And only one Knight remains who might know how to get there: Olanthius.”
Bili’s ears pricked up hearing that name - Olanthius. That was the person Mad Maggie said could lead him to the Ice Witch. Surely this was the same person. Lulu fluttered beside Torgrun, who climbed on. “Another great hero - and one who never returned.”
Torgrun flexed a branch down, and used it to fly through the air to the branch above. He was just below Sunstar now. Three giant mosquitos drew away from Sunstar and hovered close to Torgrun.
As Sunstar spoke, the knights around him started to slowly wail and moan in terror and fear. Sunstar looked up to the red skies. “Haruman comes.”
The red clouds started to sworl and condense above the hill.
“Time draws short,” Sunstar said wearily. “Seek Red Ruth in the Bone Brambles. She is a diviner, and will help - for a price. Or find the Mirror of Mephistar. Either - or both.”
There was a huge clap of thunder, as the clouds above split and rent, and through the hole torn in the sky emerged a flaming figure riding a jet black horse. Haruman. He pointed his flaming lance and charged.
Haruman
Haruman was about 300 feet away when he appeared, allowing Morad and Mak to quickly move to cover under the great metal tree. Madam Portencia sheltered behind them. Bili fired an ice knife into one of the Stirges hovering over Torgrun, killing it instantly - but another quickly took its place. Spider vanished behind the smaller tree to the South, hiding in the shadows of its trunk. Two stirges saw him coming, but couldn’t find him one he was there.
Torgrun tried to command the Stirges away, but they clearly didn’t understand a word. Torgrun shrugged that off and climbed further to be next to Jander Sunstar - he felt driven by divine fervour, such was the success of his climb. He reached out and touched the elf’s shoulder, immediately feeling his undead nature. There was no redemption here - perhaps only freedom from this torture. Even a traitor like Sunstar didn’t deserve this.
Torgrun wedged his arm in the nearest branch, braced himself, and lifted Sunstar free of the thorns that pinned him. The elf cried out in pain as he his pallid flesh was torn away, but his eyes shone with hope. Torgrun met them, nodded, lifted his frail body and cast him down to the cursed earth of Avernus. “I release you! In Torm’s name!”
Sunstar fell, and when he struck the ground he disintegrated into a cloud of dust. Jander Sunstar was no more.
“Behold, it is the Redeemer!” Madam Portencia cried out, somewhat sarcastically, noting that the none of the other knights were released, despite Sunstar’s promise.
Spider supressed a cough as the dust from Sunstar’s disintegrating corpse blew across to his hiding place. “Great! This day’s getting just keeps getting better. Surrounded by giant blood-sucking mosquitoes, about to have death rained on us from some devil honcho of Zariel’s, and now trying not choke on the dust of some traitorous dead elf” he thought.
“Well at least you’ve still got your health,” replied Samael.
“Yeah laugh it up pal, maybe I’ll chuck you out as a decoy to distract the blood-suckers”. In a lightning movement, Spider sprang up, slashed one of the hovering Stirges, and just as quickly returned to his hide.
“Come on Spider, lighten up! Haruman’s probably going to kill you soon, if those Hellwasps don’t first.”
“Hellwasps, what?!” Then he saw them - two giant wasps with sword-like claws and a viscous sting flying in from the east.
Hellwasp
“Oh for fucks sa–” Spider’s thought was cut off. “Somethings wrong, I don’t feel right,” Spider coughed again, feeling the elf ashes lodged in his throat.
“Yeah,” said Samael, “I don’t think that was pixie dust. Worry about it later.”
“Later! Pixie dust!? What are you talking about?!”
“Haruman’s here!”
Haruman drew closer by the second, now only two-hundred feet away. He hauled on his reigns and cast his flaming eyes over the scene below. “You dare free the Traitor? The Betrayer?” he boomed out in a gravelly sonorous voice that demanded attention.
Torgrun drew a breath. “We have granted him redemption. I, as a representative, living, of the Hellriders!”
“The Hellriders?” Haruman laughed. “The Hellriders are a myth. They are less than nothing. A fable created to assuage the guilt of those that ran.”
“We have redeemed him.”
“You have freed him from a fate that he deserved, for a betrayal that can never be forgiven. For that you shall be punished. As I have punished the disloyal dogs that turned their back on Zariel at her moment of triumph,” Haruman swept his arms over the field of crucified knights, “And now you come to free them?”
“I am the Redeemer!” Torgrun cried.
“You are nothing. Zariel is the Redeemer. She has sacrificed all - her angelic soul, her place in the pantheon - in order to take her fight to the demon horde. And you would betray her!”
“If Zariel is who you say she is, then what is this endless suffering to her?”
“Zariel pays any price to stop the demons - what price will you pay?”
“We are here to recover the honour of the Hellriders!”
“What price will you pay?!”
“I make no deals with you, demon,” Torgrun snarled.
Haruman laughed at the slight, lowered his lance and charged forward, trailing flames and fury.
The wasps were still out of range, but the Stirges swarmed to attack Torgrun, wrapping their wings around his body and stabbing their proboscis into him. Two succeeded and started drawing blood, as did another on Mak standing below. The feeling was horrific. Morad tried made quick of the one on Mak, but wedged his sword in the metallic branches of the tree instead. Madam Portencia saw this and fired a bolt of flame into Mak’s Stirge with rather more success.
Bili spoke to the remaining Stirges, using their own language. “Leave! Or we will have to kill you - please don’t stay!” This worked much better than Torgrun’s earlier effort, and those that weren’t attached to Torgrun fled.
Madam Portencia then looked up to Torgrun. “Jump you fool!” she yelled, and Torgrun, figuring being on the ground was better than being stranded up here fifty-feet closer to Haruman, followed the instruction. He was surprised to find he floated instead of fell, then remembered the leap off Hellturel and silently thank Madam P. He killed one of his Stirges on the way down, then landed with a gentle thud, crushing the remaining Stirge beneath his weight.
Haruman drew ever closer, now only 100 feet away, pontificating as he raced downward. “Cowards! You will rue the day you came to my domain! If you will not join Zariel you will join these wretches who I have collected!”
Madam Portencia scoffed nervously at the showmanship. She summoned a surge of electric light in her hands, then flung it into the sky directly into Haruman. The bolt of lightning exploded into the approaching devil, drawing a roar of fury. Haruman drew a bead on Madam Portencia, thundered forward… and vanished.
Bili look around frantically trying to locate Haruman but he was gone - the giant wasps however were very close. He quickly summoned a beam of pure moonlight - though it was coloured an uncomfortable orange rather than cooling white - which surrounded himself and those near him. Those that stepped into the light would pay a price. Torgrun liked Bili’s idea, and called on Torm to cover the ground with a holy blessing, empowering those within. His glow too was miscoloured, sickly and pale, but still effective.
Madam Portencia dropped a ball of fire into the midst of the incoming wasps, which exploded amongst them - only for them to emerge a moment later, glowing with trails of fire but obviously none-the-worse. Madam Portencia swore, realising her mistake. Bili saw this, and changed his planned bolt of flame for a knife of ice instead. It shattered into the carapace of the wasp and is spun out of control for a moment, the cold obviously not to its liking.
Spider emerged from the shadows to fire a crossbow bolt into the wounded wasp, which hissed in pain as it struck true. Torgrun followed suit with a bolt of radiance, but the wasps flew on. One tried attacking Morad, but failed, the other targetted Madam Portencia. The sword talons sliced her nastily, but luckily for her the sting missed. Both wasps reeled as they entered Bili’s pool of radiance.
Mak summoned rage from deep in his soul, and swung his new hammer into Morad’s wasp, recklessly connecting twice with huge blows that cracked its carapace and wings.
Madam Portencia looked on approvingly, when suddenly Haruman appeared out of thin ear - directly in front of her. “Hear my words mortals! You shall die here!” he thundered out. The words felt like they turned blood to flame, and a preternatural wave of fear flooded the souls of Spider, Madam Portencia, and Bili. The idea of attacking or approaching Haruman seemed impossible, and fleeing a far better option. Only Mak, Morad, and Torgrun were able to shake the terror off.
Haruman pulled his lance back and struck thrice into Madam Portencia, targetting her with all his might. And despite having Madam Portencia dead-to-rights, and despite Madam Portencia’s mortal fear, his first two swings diverted from their true path and missed, badly. Madam Portencia had called upon the carnie spirits once again to thwart his opening attacks, and the third swung wide too such was his shock. Haruman grunted and cursed in surprise and frustration.
Madam Portencia tried to kill the closest wasp with an orb of thunder, but it floated wide (killing three unlucky Stirges who happened to investigate it as it floated past.) Bili tried too with another ice-knife, but also missed. Spider, despite his fear, tried to shoot a dark blade into the same wasp, and he too missed. The fear of Haruman was affecting everyone’s attacks. Torgrun had seen enough, and guided a bolt into Madam Portencia’s wasp, finally killing it - much to her relief.
Morad had to get rid of his wasp before he could approach Haruman, but could only manage a single hit. The wasp retaliated, and this time its sword talons struck true and the piercing sting buried itself in his chest. The pain was completely overwhelming, feeling like alchemist’s fire had been injected directly into Morad’s veins. He reeled away as he felt the poison flooding his bloodstream and freezing his limbs and movement. Almost immobilised, he whispered “Al’Akbar” and felt the poison start to neutralise, but still toppled to the ground before it could be completely removed.
Mak growled with rage, finishing the wasp off with his first swing. He felt the power of the hammer flow through him, and pivoted to Haruman to follow through with the same attack. But despite his momentum, Haruman avoided the blow with ease. “You shall not!” Haruman yelled. Mak disagreed, and with his final swing he managed to crunch his hammer into the devil knight’s chest. Haruman scowled at the affront, and as he did a tree suddenly sprouted directly behind him, bearing a single plaque: “Taramak Riverfist Egena-Vutha: BETRAYER”. Mak blinked twice, not believing his eyes, then cowered away in fear as he realised with horror that Haruman was preparing a special place for him in Hell.
Haruman smiled grimly and thrust his lance at Mak as the barbarian retreated, the first going wide, but the second and third striking true. Mak reeled under the blows, blood flowing from the wounds and his flesh burning from the flames that burst from the devilish weapon. Haruman’s Nightmare mount reared up and tried to catch Mak under with its massive hooves, just missing as it crashed down.
“We’re all going to die,” Madam Portencia swore under her breath. Trying to ignore her fear, and only side-eyeing Haruman, she crackled another bolt of lightning through the melee and into the both Nightmare and rider. They lit up in the shocking brilliance of the electric beam. “You may try, but you shall die!” Haruman yelled through the chaos, sparks shooting off his armour. Madam Portencia heard this but also realised the words fell flat - the terror had abated. “Maybe not today,” she replied.
Bili, still terrified, stepped backward away from Haruman, which created a clear path between them. He moved the pool of moonlight on top of Haruman, and followed up with a wave of thunder that hurtled across the ground and erupted under Haruman and the Nightmare. “Target his mount!” he yelled.
Spider immediately saw the wisdom in this, and flung another shadow dagger into the beast, which reared up in pain, flame dripping from its chest. Spider grinned, and he too realised the fear was gone - showtime. Torgrun followed suit, exploding a guiding bolt of radiance into the rearing beast. The Nightmare let out an unholy scream as it collapsed into a void of nothingness.
Haruman dropped to the ground and yelled in fury and surprise, clobbered by Torgrun’s spiritual weapons as he did. He was being out-manoeuvred, and it suddenly dawned on everyone that he had just lost the upper hand. With no mount, and a lance in hand, he was suddenly much, much more vulnerable. Not that he would admit that. “You will pay for that!” he yelled.
Mak disagreed. It was time to make Haruman pay for all he had inflicted on the Hellriders. It was hammer time. He hauled his hammer back, whirled it around his head several times, and brought it down with the fury of the gods: once, twice, the massive weapon smashed into Haruman, smashed through his defences, smashed through the fear and terror and arrogance. Haruman’s blazing eyes flared, faltered, and went dark, as Mak finished of Zariel’s dog once and for all.
Haruman’s reign of terror was over. A crash of Avernian thunder marked his passing.
Haruman
Session played: 13 and 20 April 2021