Descent Into Avernus
The Bleeding Citadel
It’s aliveThe Holy Terror II emerged from Bel’s teleport at the five hundred feet from two towering black arches that dominated the landscape for miles. Each one rose two hundred feet into the stifling hot air, and every inch was engraved with images of devils waging war against demons.
At the foot of the pillars was a scene that seemed to re-enact those engravings. Pools of demon ichor surrounded piles of freshly killed devils. Sitting slumped atop the highest of those mounds was the Olanthius, leaning on his sword that stood tall by his side, embedded in a horned devil corpse.
He looked up with a bone weary sigh. “I have prepared the way.”
“That is a very dangerous man,” Albert whispered to Torgrun, casting his mind back to the horror of the encounter in the Crypt of the Hellriders.
“Take us on, Morad,” Torgrun directed.
“We have to get him,” Morad said quietly, though it wasn’t clear if he meant to fight or befriend.
“I assume he’s going to let us pass,” Albert said warily.
“Is he going to get on the car?”
“I don’t think so.”
Morad slowly drove and stopped in front of Olanthius. The Death Knight stood slowly, dragging his sword behind him. His eyes glowed red from under his dread helm.
“Are you coming or going,” Torgrun asked.
“I am doing neither. I am waiting,” Olanthius rasped.
“For whom do you wait?”
“For you to return. With the sword.”
“Ohhh,” Morad said, understanding. “Olanthius - have you been in there?” Morad pointed to the Arches.
“I cannot. It is barred. But I have cleared the path. Enter the Arches and finish what you have started.”
Togrun was surprised. He called everyone in close and spoke quietly. “He’s waiting for us to get the sword - and come back. On our side we have a Titan, a Unicorn, maybe a Pit Fiend if Bel is truly hoping to retake his crown. And, it would seem, now a Death Knight. But do we know his purpose with the sword? Does he wish to wield it himself?”
“He has never indicated that,” Albert said.
Morad agreed. “He just wanted us to have another weapon to help achieve his goal - and he will help us with that goal. I think.” Torgrun nodded and turned back to Olanthius. “We shall see you when we return.”
Morad looked at Albert. “Do we go through?”
Albert was studiously ignoring Olanthius. “Yes, let’s.”
“Olanthius, can we drive through here?”
“I see no reason why not.”
“Ok. We go in, we get sword, we come back.”
“Be wary. Before the Citadel was hidden by the Lord of Darkness, Yeenoghu, the Ruler of Ruin, sent his forces to burrow into the Citadel. I know not how many remain.”
“Who now?” Albert asked.
“The Beast of Butchery, Yeenoghu. A demon lord to rival the worst of Hell.”
Albert blinked. Great. “But he’s not in there right? Only his forces?”
“I know not. I doubt he would lower himself to such a task. The sword is a great prize, and Yeenoghu knows that.”
“It won’t be good,” Mak sighed.
“Well let us face this ‘won’t be good’, and lay it to waste,” Torgrun declared.
“Do not tarry,” Olanthius rasped. “I visited Elturel. It has only days before it will suffer the same fate as I.”
“Noted,” Torgrun said. “Go Morad.”
Morad took a deep breath and drove toward the Arches. A resonating hum grew louder until it was the only audible sound. As he drew to within one hundred feet the portal burst into a sheet of flame with a wave of searing heat. Morad wrapped his face, and Spider followed suit, hunkering down in his seat and drawing his cloak over.
“Get behind me,” the shield ordered, and Torgrun obeyed.
“Minimum flame time please!” Mak yelled.
Morad didn’t falter. With a silent prayer he accelerated through the flaming gateway.
If Avernus was Hell, this felt like a concentrated version of it.
The air was stagnant, thick with decay and rot, and the heat pressed down unrelenting and still. It was deathly still, and densely quiet. The landscape was barren and empty. Nothing moved, it was absolutely empty. A short horizon hid anything beyond in a blood-red cloud of fog, enclosing the world in a hellish circle.
In the near distance a huge, gross scab the size of a large hill rose from a stinking swamp of blood. The spires of an alabaster temple jutted from atop the fleshy mass, suffocating under the encroaching rot. Huge chains bound the citadel to the surface.
The Bleeding Citadel
Spider was familiar with the smell of the slaughterhouse, but others retched at the disgusting stink. “I am so over this,” Mak grunted.
Torgrun wondered if the chains meant the Citadel had been pulled from another plane. But the Citadel rose out of the plain. “The scab is trying to submerge it, to grab it,” Albert said.
“Remember the vision way back when at Fort Knucklebone. This fortress sprang force, and the pustule grew up from Avernus which tried to reject it or consume it. Maybe the chains are Avernus trying to pull it back into the firmament again.”
“Lulu?” Torgrun asked.
“This is the Citadel. The sword is here - I have no doubt,” Lulu said.
“What else do you recall?”
“Only that Yael created it and that the sword lies in the centre. When I last saw it it wasn’t covered with that.”
“Can you feel its presence?”
“Not yet.”
“Yael created this to protect it,” Albert said, “It’s bound to be locked tight.”
“Well let’s go get it then,” Spider said.
“We’re in the right place, let’s not tarry,” Torgrun agreed.
Morad drove as close to the base of the scab as he could, avoiding bones and rock outcrops as he did. The screams from the Holy Terror II sat thickly rather than dissipating due to the heaviness of the air. Fifty feet from the foot of the Citadel the blood-swamp stopped progress.
Spider was first down, landing on the soft ground. It gave slightly as he took a few tentative steps, like walking on thick skin. Across the moat of blood, a roughly hacked path led five hundred feet up the scab to a gaping wound in the fleshy exterior. The swamp itself was actual blood, he realised with a grimace.
Spider started to wade out through the swamp, which turned out to be several feet deep, before Mak took mercy on him, scooping him up and carrying him the rest of the way. Even Spider was happy to suffer that indignity, casting quick spell to cleanse the foulness once he was deposited. Mak did his best to ignore his revulsion.
Torgrun flew Morad and Albert over, while Bili seemed to almost enjoy the trip through the bloody mess, licking traces from his fingers. Spider cleaned those that wanted it.
Spider had sensed something underfoot while he waited. He looked over to Albert. “I think it’s got a pulse.” The ground felt like it was breathing, laboured and slow.
“Oh that’s not going to be good,” Albert groaned.
“Is it regular, like a heartbeat?” Mak asked.
“Sporadic. But it’s definitely there,” Spider answered. He started up the sketchy path toward the peak above. The higher he climbed, the softer the ground became, until blood oozed around his boots with each step. A wrecked wooden bridge crossed what looked like an enormous spleen, glistening and pulsing slowly. Morad trod very carefully, going to great effort (but failing) to keep on solid, non-organic surfaces.
After slipping and sliding up the path, the wound lay dead ahead. A ten foot high, thirty foot wide circular hole in the fleshy mass led down into darkness. The walls and floor were spongy, slimy, organic, alive, with blood and gore oozing from the surfaces and dripping from the ceiling. Sores and spores clung to the walls emitting a pitiful red glow.
Spider ran his hand over the wall, feeling the fetid life within, noticing claw and teeth marks covering it. “This has been burrowed out,” he said with a mixture of disgust and admiration.
“Lulu - do you recognise this? Do you sense anything?”
“Nothing. But I know this is the Citadel - and that the chamber will be at the base, not the peak.”
“So we go down,” Torgrun directed. Spider settled his shoulder and headed into the darkness.
The tunnel led down for fifty feet before levelling out slightly. It was slippery underfoot, and Spider found that jamming his feet into the soft flesh helped with progress. Others tried to follow with varying levels of success. Those without vision lit lanterns, seeing only their immediate surrounds. The atmosphere was dense and breathing hard. Morad forced his fears away, feeling a wild madness trying to overwhelm his every sense. This was too far, too much.
Spider reached an outcrop that opened into a chamber with a surprising sight: the scab on the high vertical wall had been stripped away partially, revealing a beautiful stained glass window. The opaque blue and yellow panes depicted the contemplative face of a beautiful angel. Lulu flew directly over and fluttered in front of it. “The Citadel!” she cried reverently, “It still stands!”
Torgrun flew over and looked closely at the window. It glowed with an inner light, though he could see nothing through it. Tiny scratch marks around the framework betrayed that others had tried to break through it, without success. Perhaps Spider would have more luck, he thought. He carried Spider over, and the thief went to work with his glass-cutting tool. But the he could make no mark on the ‘glass’ - whatever or whoever made it had designed it to be impenetrable. “Nada,” Spider reported. “Probably a lot of demons or whatever have tried to get through this glass. But whatever it’s made out of is at least as tough as the diamond in my glass-cutter.”
On the other side of the chamber, a twenty foot drop led to two tunnels leading down and right. Another path to the right lay thirty feet above. Torgrun flew down to explore after carrying Spider to the lower right path. Torgrun’s way branched off again deeper, and broke left to a large chamber with a pool of blood covering the ground.
At each juncture there were sections of the walls that had been scraped clear, revealing stonework below, sometimes bricked, sometimes smooth and polished, but all unbroachable.
Spider’s tunnel led down a hundred feet on a sharp angle, before opening to another choice of passages. He retreated and let Torgrun lift him to the upper passage, which also led a hundred feet relatively flat before branching. He heard what sounded like thick running water from further to the right.
“There is no obvious right way, though there is some kind of watery sound from above.” Spider reported. Torgrun concurred. “We just have to choose one.”
“Lulu did say don’t go up, it is below,” Morad reminded everyone, “So perhaps not the upper path?”
“The sword may be kept in the base of the Citadel, that doesn’t mean we can get into the base of the Citadel,” Spider countered. “If it’s at the base that’s going to be the most secure.”
“I’d rather go down nice stairs on the inside rather than meat slides on the outside,” Albert observed.
Eventually it was decided to take Spider’s lower path. Sam was sent ahead to scout, finding the right-hand branch eventually dropped almost vertically down. He flew down the opposite tunnel, stopping when he heard the first signs of life so far - an insistent insectoid buzzing from hordes of hellish flies hovering over a chamber strewn with shredded devil corpses.
After everyone reached the next outcrop, covered in muck and slick with blood and worse, Spider worked his way down Sam’s first tunnel. When he reached the drop, he listened closely and heard scuffling and snarling from below, interspersed with what sounded like scratching on rock. “Dig! Dig!” a dark voice hissed out in abyssal, confirming Spider’s suspicions.
“I assume they’re digging in the most likely place they think to get in,” Spider reported. “So we can sit back and leave them to that and see if we can find something else going the other way. We can always come back here - we only fight the demons if we need to.”
“That’s very strategic,” Morad noted with approval.
“Well if they’re digging there’s no point in us killing them all off and having to dig ourselves, is there?”
“The implication of them digging is they haven’t got a way in at all,” Albert whispered. “So there’s no way in in any of these tunnels.”
“That could be the implication, yes.”
“Fuck’s sake.”
“Maybe we’ll find something they didn’t find, if we go another direction,” Spider suggested.
Another debate was eventually settled with taking the tunnel toward the insect-noise. “We want to avoid drops into the unknown,” Albert agreed.
Torgrun dropped everyone down and Spider led a cautious approach to the fly swarms. The flies were fist-sized and intent on feeding on the devil-corpses, and Spider counted four swarms total. Attacking them with swords and daggers seemed a fools errand, so he melee warriors stepped back to allow the spell-wielders to do their thing - though Spider did offer that Sam, in spider-form, could eat his way through them “No! Spider, no! I will scout for you and climb down flaming chimneys, but I draw the line at flies.”
Bili stepped forward and summoned a beam of moonlight on the first swarm. A third dropped immediately, but the rest responded with insect-fury, flocking together and swarming toward Bili. Albert and Torgrun added their fires and radiance to the mix as the other swarms arrived. The flies dropped quickly, but there were so many that eventually the axe and sword wielders had no choice but to become involved. Mak was most effective, swatting hordes of flies with the side of his massive axe, and even Spider managed to skewer several on his flashing dagger.
Before long all were dead, with only Torgrun having suffered the indignity of being heavily bitten. Spider quickly checked the devil corpses, but all were stripped bare - and most barely recognisable, half eaten (not just by flies) and ripped to pieces.
Emerging from the fly den revealed a precipice above a 30 foot drop. Torgrun ferried everyone down to the lower level. The floor here was firmer than above, the flesh having calcified into a dirt-like texture. The tunnels here led deeper into the scab, one lower, one higher. Spider scouted ahead on the lower branch, the rest of the party following close behind. It dropped steeply but was easy to traverse.
About fifty feet further on, the ground started to shake, the earth is shifting beneath everyone’s feet. Splatters of blood and chunks of loose meat dropped from the ceiling. After a few moments it stopped. Spider ventured further forward then held up his hand - ‘Stop,’ he whispered. From not far ahead he heard snuffling and a scratchy voice speaking in Infernal. He crept forward and quickly found the source.
Bulezau
Hezrou
“Two or three goat-demons, like we saw back in Elturel - easy-beats - and something big like that Slaad from the Flying Fortress,” Spider reported. “There’s a safe spot just ahead: ranged attack from there, followed by the big boy.”
Morad turned to Spider. “You take out goat, I go on same goat, then Mak and Bili on other goat, then goats dead. After that, big one.”
Everyone crept ahead until they could see Spider’s demons. Two were ripping flesh from the body of a devil, the big one, with its back to the tunnel, blocked access to the goaty creatures, forcing a change in plan. “Big one first,” Morad whispered.
Spider nodded and fired a bolt into the huddled demon which roared with surprise. Bili managed to summon a moonbeam even this deep in the scab, illuminating the area in light and burning the large cockroach-demon. Albert used the sudden brightness to target an acid-ball down the tunnel, splashing all three demons as it exploded.
Morad charged forward and dug his sword deep into the demon’s carapace. A hideous stench overwhelmed him as he struck, causing his stomach to turn in revulsion, but he swallowed it down. Mak growled and thundered into battle, swinging freely and sinking his axe into the beast. As he struck he felt his flesh was rotting, sloughing off his arms. He cried out in revulsion and fury as he struck again, digging in deep. He pulled his axe free just as a shadow dropping from above revealed another of the cockroach demons dropping from a ledge overhead. The beast he attacked swung its claws toward Mak, but he dodged out of the way, and narrowly avoided its massive jaws as it tried to snap him in half.
Albert fired a chromatic thunderbolt down the fleshy tunnel, melting the closest goat into a pool of ichor. Spider was less successful with his follow-up shots, trying too hard to hit the thing in the eye and missing entirely.
The remaining goat-devil crouched between the bigger demon’s legs and shot out its forked tail, snapping it into Morad, who barely felt it despite it piercing his defences - but he suddenly realised poison was seeping into his arm, quickly wiping it away before it could get below the skin. Morad focussed and attacked the large demon again, causing shards of body-armour to shed. Bili moved his beam onto the goat, melting it into nothingness.
Mak finished off the big demon, and his follow-up crashed into the late arrival. Mak felt good, venting his frustration by killing demons was very therapeutic. As was Albert’s second acid explosion, causing the demon to roar with pain and bestial anger. It slashed Mak with a claw, ripping a nasty wound into his chest. Spider didn’t miss this time, nor Morad, the beast battered with each blow and falling beneath Morad’s blade.
The tunnel ahead led directly up, and Spider quickly scampered up the vertical surface. The passage opened into a vast open chamber, from which he heard the distinct sound of fast whirring wings. He looked up over the outcrop and saw three droning flies as big as horses. They were hovering around the body of a man-sized devil with sharp spines covering its thin body, swooping in and jabbing it with their long proboscises. The devil was chained from the ceiling, its body lifeless. Several huge blocked windows were half visible through the creeping flesh on the walls.
Chasme
“Three horse sized stirges, sucking on a devil pinned to the wall,” Spider messaged Albert. “I can’t see any entrances up here, and this is a pretty large chamber.”
“This will be the last thing I do before I sit down and have a cup of tea,” Albert replied.
“We don’t have time to do that anymore, Madam,” Spider hissed.
“Well do we pick this fight or not?”
“I would probably say no.”
Spider scouted quickly over to the other side of the chamber, the flies distracted by their meal. The chamber ended with another fleshy wall rising high above. He dropped back down the entrance-tube and landed at Albert’s feet.
“It’s a huge chamber, nothing up there, and we shouldn’t pick the fight.”
“If we can avoid the room, I like your plan,” Mak said.
“We’re running out of options here,” Albert warned.
“There were two places further up we didn’t go,” Spider suggested. “Back up then we can drop down again.”
As everyone climbed wearily back up the tunnels, the ground shifted again, rumbling underfoot. This time it was followed by a low moan that floated through the tunnels, coming from seemingly everywhere. Torgrun shook his head - time was running out.
The first passage Spider tried narrowed into a barely two-foot high crawl-way. Spider shuffled through, finding himself in a twenty-foot wide chamber. The floor was strewn with bones and the dotted with weeping sores. Shallow niches gouged into the scabby walls held an assortment of stoppered flasks, polished black orbs, tiny humanoid skulls, and other curios.
“Shiny stuff,” Spider thought to himself. He was sorely tempted, despite the obvious risk. He picked up a nearby bone and tossed it into the far wall. Nothing moved. He took a deep breath and crept further into the chamber.
He quickly scanned the niches, grabbing anything that caught his well-trained eye. He snaffled six small, stoppered tubes made from human finger bones, a couple of polished obsidian orbs, and a black gem shaped like a human baby’s fist. He shuddered as he picked up a shrivelled claw on the end of a black cord, thinking of Madam P. He ignored the coffer holding large sharpened teeth, a copper cowbell, and various other oddities - he picked up a small sack made of human skin which he quickly returned when he felt it was full of something soft. The last things he took were a solitary soul-coin, and an iron flask that was curiously heavy.
Spider emerged, tucking his bag away. “I found some…stuff. We’ll look at it later.”
Torgrun’s dungeon sense had led him to conclude the higher tunnels were stacked atop these lower levels, and likely dead-ends. The only remaining lower tunnel was the one that led to the digging demons - Spider led the way. The sound of claws stratching on the harder ground below echoed up the tube, with occasional encouragement from a scratchy demonic voice.
Spider directed Sam to scuttle down and find out what was going on. On the ground below, seven Dretches were scratching and digging furiously in a cavity they had cleared.
“Where are they on the demonic food chain?” Spider asked.
“The lowest of the low. Sacrificial worker bees. And the creature that is directing them is a Shadow Demon.”
“And that’s not the bottom of the food chain, is it,” Spider asked rhetorically.
“Not the bottom, no,” Sam confirmed. “And it’s fading in and out. There’s a pit they’re digging down into, and they seem pretty enthusiastic about it.”
Dretch
Shadow Demon
Spider relayed this information as Sam returned. “That’s the situation, so what’s the plan?”
“Sounds like something we should stop,” Mak whispered.
“Or should we wait until they finish?” Morad countered.
“Whatever we do we can’t dally,” Torgrun reminded everyone, remembering the shuddering ground.
“How do we get down there without dallying?” Albert said.
“I think the answer is we don’t go down there, we stay up here and attract their attention.”
“Dally them from up here,” Albert quipped wryly.
“Well you guys can use spells to hit the things at the bottom, I can snipe a couple,” Spider said. “The thing we’re gonna have to worry about is the Shadow Demon. It’s probably going to come up here.”
“I’d like a spell called ten-thousand gallons of explosive, that we could drop on them,” Albert said.
Bili quietly stepped forward with a suggestion. “How about ten-thousand gallons of water?” Albert nodded enthusiastically. “Never seen that before,” Morad said.
“The only thing I would say is if we get down to the bottom, we don’t and won’t have time to set up tents and such. So if you can keep some of your powder dry, use the smaller stuff, it might be an idea. There could be some really nasty stuff below - or in the Citadel.”
“It’s too late for that,” Albert said. “I’m down to cantrips. Bili - I think your wave of water sounds great.”
Bili shuffled forward to the edge of the drop and started his incantation. Torgrun wrapped a rope around Bili’s midriff as a precaution. After a few moments, an enormous wave of water exploded from above, flooding the pit the demons were digging and surging through them. They gurgled and howled with terror, being submerged perhaps their worst nightmare. The Shadown Demon vanished, and when the water cleared the Dretches were all still alive. To everyone’s surprise they immediately started digging again.
Spider shifted forward until he found an angle and fired a killing bolt into the closest Dretch. Its ichor drained down into the ditch, bubbling and hissing as the acid-blood started to eat through the fleshy rock.
Bili was unhappy the tidal wave hadn’t drowned the demon-diggers. He frowned - something bigger was required to finish them. He called on the nature gods again, filling the chamber below with a storm of hail. It thundered and crashed, veiling the area in a barrage of ice. This time it worked.
Spider watched as the Dretches all fell under the assault. As each fell their bodies dissolved into ichor, and the pit started to steam and boil as the acid pooled. As he watched, the Shadow Demon suddenly materialised directly in front of him. It raked a jagged claw over Spider’s chest. Spider reeled back as it felt like the claw had reached deep inside his head, burning him from the inside.
Spider swore in pain, then instinctively buried his dagger into the Demon’s ethereal form. Morad yanked out his whip and lassoed the shadow-creature before it could blink away, dragging it back into the midst of Mak and Torgrun. The warriors didn’t hesitate, attacking the flickering shadow with gusto. It was dead before it knew what had happened.
“Not exactly higher level after all,” Torgrun said.
Torgrun dropped everyone below. The pool of ichor continued to sizzle and hiss, working its way deeper into the cavity. As everyone watched, the ground shuddered, hard. Then again: wham. Something huge was striking the thinned flesh-rock from below, pausing before crashing into it again. Boom.
“We need to stand away from where that ichor is,” Spider said warily. “Something might burst through.”
“I assume these Dretches were expendable. And just a medium level Demon watching by. I think it won’t be anything much,” Torgrun said confidently.
Albert wasn’t so sure. “You’re saying it’s perfectly safe, don’t worry about it?”
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Spider said. Albert took a few steps back.
Crunch. The ground cracked slightly.
Wham. The groan heard earlier echoed out from below.
“What could possibly go wrong,” Torgrun said, perhaps with slightly less confidence.
“I think you’ve lost some perspective, we need options” Albert said.
Two passages led to the right and left, both dropping deeper into the scab. Torgrun headed left. The tunnel dropped at 45 degrees before opening to another small area with a downward and upward passage. From the lower tunnel he heard movement. He quickly returned to the group to report his findings.
Spider meanwhile had headed right, dropping vertically into a steep passage that opened into an vast open area. So vast that seeing to the bottom was impossible - though he could see a faint glow from somewhere in the centre of the chamber. “Sam - get in there and find out what that is.”
Sam flapped down into the emptiness. He gasped at what he saw. Standing exposed in the wall of the scab were two enormous brass double doors. A relief image on the door depicted a blindfolded angel wielding a glowing sword. Carved into the door frame were beautiful, gold-inlaid runes. “Spider - this must be it! There’s also three of the goat-demons trying to get through the doors, and an ape-like fiend with tusks and tiny wings that seems to be commanding them.”
Spider and Sam rushed back to the group. “We’ve found the doors!” Spider said breathlessly.
Lulu fluttered excitedly. “That’s the sword chamber!”
“Bingo,” Spider smiled. “It’s a massive chamber, the doors are guarded. It’s a huge drop down, but there was another entrance below to the west.”
Torgrun listened closely. “My path folded back in that direction - it may be that passage.”
Crash. The earth quaked, harder this time, and the floor of the pit shattered again, opening a crack into what lay below. A 10-foot long, thick, matted knot of hair was visible through the opening. It sunk out of sight before crashing again into the widening crack. Booom.
“Let’s go people, before we have to fight whatever that is,” Albert yelled. “Torgrun - go!”
There was no hesitation, despite the sharp drop. From behind the crashing and cracking was becoming more frequent. Torgrun flew down the deeper passage, finding it narrowed to only several feet high. He flew up to the other passage, which led upward - but then encouragingly down again. There was no sound that he could detect. He flew back to the waiting group. “The lower one is likely the one we want, but I fear we may end up trapped with no way back.”
“I’m small, let me check it,” Spider said. Torgrun dropped him down, and Spider crawled through the narrow opening. As he ventured forward he heard chanting from below. He crept further forward until he could see the source. The room below contained three Vrocks who were perched on the wall above a nine-foot tall statue of a hulking biped with clawed hands and feet. Half a dozen Gnolls cackled as they danced around the statue, chanting and clapping madly.
Spider crawled back. “Vrocks and Gnolls. But the tunnel led the right way.”
Torgrun shook his head. “Time is of the essence, we don’t want to fight if we don’t have to. The other passage also led down, and if my dungeon-sense is correct, it may also lead to the sword chamber. It should wrap around a similar distance.”
It was quickly agreed to try Torgrun alternate path. And he was proved correct. The passage opened into the same huge chamber. The other entrance Spider had seen lay fifty feet away, closer to the ground. The floor - and the doors, and the demons - lay forty feet below.
BOOOOOOOOM
A hulking half-boar, half-ape demon with squat wings harried three goat-demons who were throwing themselves at the doors with gusto, scratching and clawing and having absolutely no impact on the massive barrier. The boar-demon floated into the air, continuing to ‘encourage’ the others in untranslatable Abyssal whilst it traced the runes on the doors, seeking a solution.
Nalfeshnee
“Have you got one of those slow-fall spells, Madam P?” Spider whispered.
“Sure. I’m actually thinking about how to murder them all rather than how to get down there.”
“That’s ok but some of us can only fight on the ground, so…”
“If we do the big guy, the concern is they go back down that other passage and call more,” Torgrun cautioned.
“If we all pile everything we can onto the big guy first, take him down quick, then we only have to worry about the three goats,” Spider said.
“I could kill all the goats at once,” Albert said casually.
The ceiling and walls shook again as whatever was trying to get free tried again. Chunks of flesh dropped from the ceiling, blood trickling down from the fresh wounds. The flying demon looked up for a moment before renewing its commands with extra vigour.
“So he’s worried as well,” Torgrun observed.
“Unless someone has a smart plan, let’s go,” Mak grunted.
Spider didn’t hesitate. He fired a dead-eye bolt into the leader, flinging its shoulder back. It looked down with surprise, then spun to face Spider. Torgrun immediately directed a guiding bolt into its chest as a welcome. The demon howled, only to be surprised again by an huge explosion of acid as Albert cast his modified fireball, which covered the goats too. Some splashed against the doors, sliding off like oil on water.
Bili, unpredictable as always, summoned an Elemental who appeared in the air beside the flying demon and battered it with its huge fists. With a yell of determination, Morad, Mak, Spider and Torgrun leapt to the floor, floating on Albert’s feathers then charging toward the screaming demons. Spider fired bolts as he ran, but the elemental’s surprise appearance ruined his aim.
The goat-demons closed the gap and flung their razor-sharp tails into Morad and Mak, who also felt poison seep into their veins. Morad shook the poison off, but both warriors felt their skin crawl from the rotting stench of the demons. Torgrun fired another bolt into the big demon, drawing a howl of fury, and directed his spiritual weapons into Mak’s goat.
The flying demon swept down to Morad and dug its claw deeply into Morad’s back, then leant in ripped a huge chunk of flesh with its teeth and tusks. Morad felt a wave of terror but he forced that away too, thanking Al’akbar for the blessing. Mak shifted some of the damage away, but Morad was staggered by the two vicious blows.
Albert wasn’t having any of this. He sent another acid bolt toward the demon, but he cursed as he felt it shifting off-axis as it flew. Torgrun reacted quickly, sending Albert a Wargod’s Blessing, which allowed the wizard to correct the coarse of the attack. The bolt crashed directly into the demon’s back, searing its wings and eating into its flesh. Albert gave Torgrun a nod of thanks.
Morad spun away from the goats to face the big-thing, which was dripping with acid and Morad’s blood. Morad grunted, pulled his sword back, and sliced the demon’s belly open. Horrible, indescribable innards slipped out onto the ground, the demon trying to shovel it back in as it collapsed, cursing in Abyssal. Morad grimaced, then grinned and blessed it as it fell, bringing Al’Akbar into the demon’s last moments.
The eyes of the three goats widened as their leader fell, but they didn’t stop attacking. Mak retaliated, bludgeoning one into a pool of acid. Mak yelled with the joy of combat and charged across the arena to the next nearest goat, using the momentum of his whirling swings to crush a second demon into near-pulp.
Spider lined up the same goat and exploded its head with a precisely aimed black-bolt. The last goat started to panic, bleating as it swung pathetically at Morad.
Torgrun was preparing to finish it off when he suddenly heard noise from the other passage. Shrieking and cawing echoed down the tunnel, getting rapidly closer. He looked back to Albert, still perched overhead, before turning back to the last goat and torching it with a bolt of sacred flame. Bili’s elemental finished it off for good.
Albert was about to move when he felt the cavern shudder again - this time followed by an enormous explosion, like the ground above had been rent asunder. Large chunks started raining down from the ceiling, boils bursting in the walls as the entire chamber started to feel very unstable. Whatever was trapped above was trapped no longer.
“Time to go,” Albert thought, stepping off the ledge, popping his umbrella and floating to the floor. As he did he saw the shadows emerging from the tunnel: three vrocks and five gnolls hurtled out of the tunnel. Spider spun to face them and was surprised to see the eyes of the gnolls were lit up with sheer terror, like rabid dogs being hunted in Baldur’s Gate. That terror quickly changed to naked blood-lust on seeing the gathered party and they whooped with enthusiasm.
“You can’t be terrified and want to kill us, you fucks!” Albert yelled. “Spider - I’m going to die here!”
Gnoll
Bili’s directed his elemental to attack one of the vrocks, beating its carapace with its fists, which Albert followed with a bolt, the vrock shrieking under the assault.
Spider, recalling the often distasteful tales he’d heard from the dogcatchers back home, ripped a fire bauble from his necklace. It flew through the air in a perfect arc, landing in the midst of the gnolls and exploding into an inferno. The gnolls, eyes already wide, widened further as they all caught fire simultaneously. They lasted a few seconds before dropping into a charred mess on the ground. The foul smell of roast hair and dog-flesh filled the chamber.
Torgrun rushed over to the badly wounded Morad and blessed him with some healing power, then looked to Lulu. He realised that whatever had spooked the gnolls was likely on its way here. Torgrun could see Lulu had changed. Her eyes shone with vigour, wisdom, and knowledge. There was purpose in her every movement. “The doors, Lulu, we need to open the doors!”
“Yes, we must get them open,” Lulu nodded.
“What do you know, what can you see - go!” Lulu flew to the doors and started studying every inch, seeking a way in.
The ground continued to shudder and shake, and the walls and ceiling were collapsing faster now, blood oozing from multiple wounds and gaps.
One of the vrocks flew over to the clustered ground troops and deposited a cloud of toxic spores. After the flying fortress everyone was used to this and mouths were quickly covered, only Mak, still breathing hard, took a lungful of the poison. A second vrock took advantage of Mak’s convulsions, letting out a stunning screech before plunging its beak and talon into Mak’s torso. Mak growled in pain and chunked his axe into the demon. Bili managed to deflect an incoming bite but also felt the talon sink deep into his thigh - which Mak used his powers to absorb. Bili retaliated in kind, swiping hard with his own weapon and the elemental.
Morad slashed his sword into the closest bird-demon, and Spider plunged his shadow-blade into its rotting flesh, grounding it for good. Torgrun stepped up and dropped a circle of dawn in the centre of the melee. The entire chamber lit up with the brilliant light of dawn, drawing shrieks of intense radiant pain from the demon vrocks. As they writhed, Torgrun ripped the wings off the nearest vrock before choking it down to the ground, dead.
Albert spun to the last Vrock and tolled the demon’s death, the bell ringing out in the light. The creature shuddered under the judgement, then withered to a puddle of nothing under the light of the dawn.
Bili and Mak heard the stampede of more gnolls approaching, this time from the original tunnel, and the cackling was even more panicked. The gnolls came tumbling into the chamber, lit by Torgun’s light. From behind the gnolls a groaning, slavering rumble echoed forth.
Instead of stopping, they flung themselves off the ledge like lemmings and crashed into the ground below, their fear of injury overridden by the fear of whatever was pursuing them. Bones cracked as they landed, but they crawled to their feet and staggered forward.
Mak looked up to where the gnolls had jumped and saw something enormous starting to emerge from the tunnel, its size ripping the walls apart as it approached. “TO THE DOORS!” Mak yelled as he sprinted across the blood and ichor stained floor. Bili followed Mak across the chamber to the sound of the tunnel behind splintering.
Albert and Spider ran to the door. “I need Help,” Lulu said, “But not from you, Spider!”.
“I know Lulu,” Spider winked. Lulu spun around to face the chamber. Her tiny eyes widened as she saw what was emerging from the tunnel. “Crokek’toeck!” she cried, then yelled, “Morad! Torgrun! Here! Now!!”
An enormous dragon-sized worm was bursting into the chamber - the creature from Lulu’s dream of when the Bleeding Citadel had been created. Its skin was mottled red and brown, covered in sores and scars, the matted hair fur and fur the colour of the hyenas it was pursuing. It roared with hunger, opening its cavernous maw to absorb the feeling dog-creatures.
Crokek’toeck
“MORAD! TORGRUN!!” Lulu yelled. The two holy-warriors sprinted over to the brass doors. “Take my hands!” Lulu cried, then turned to face the doors. “Yael! It is me, Lulu! I have returned - let us pass!!”
The grand doors flung themselves open and a brilliant white light poured out, flooding every surface with holy radiance. The few gnolls that had escaped Crokek’toeck’s jaws were incinerated by the light, and even the giant worm was hurled backwards, crunching into the far wall. The light seared its flesh, steaming like it was being melted by the light, and the demon redirected its path to retreat down the last remaining tunnel.
“Inside!” Lulu yelled and everyone turned and ran into the light.
Crokek’toeck scale
Map of The Bleeding Citadel
Session played: 03, 11, 16 Nov 2021