Scouring the Devils

Things were looking grim for the band of adventurers who had crossed the world to try to place one of their own on the throne of an empire. They were deep beneath an island trapped between planes, surrounded by devils. Bella, usually a sure source of death and destruction, was paralyzed by an invisible assassin. Sawyer, with the ancestral sword Suishen, was stunned and helpless. And who had stunned him? Their very own Nicki, who had apparently turned on the party and thrown in with the devils who shared his bloodline. The only positive was that the former Empress Amatatsu Maemi, now the devil’s handmaiden, lay dead on the cavern floor.

But not everything was going against them. Sandoval’s Robe of Scintillating Colors had managed to daze most of the Erinyes who had flown to Maemi’s aid, and he had Slowed many of them as well. One of the slow-moving devils, knowing she could do little else, summoned aid, and a pair of Bearded Devils appeared behind Marie and Shinjiro. Unfortunately, the first thing they saw upon arriving from Hell was Sandoval’s Robe, and its showy display dazed them, too. Another slowed Erinyes drew her bow, and fired an arrow at Sandru. It burst into flame upon leaving the bowstring, and the flaming shaft struck the caravan master in the thigh.

Although the Erinyes’ numbers were an issue, Sandoval knew their biggest threat was the invisible assassin, Shiori Heikakki. He had a general idea where she might be, so he cast Glitterdust on the nearby vicinity. As the sparkling motes drifted to the ground, they settled on the form of the deadly assassin, crouching for another strike at the paralyzed Bella. Marie Teleported across the room, and activated her aura of Freedom’s Call. Bella felt her paralysis lift – and everyone else noticed her carrion stench go away. Seeing the assassin readying a strike, Bella struck first, although Shiori’s Displacement caused one blow to go wide. Before Shiori could retaliate, Zhustin sent a thin green ray shooting from his finger, and the assassin Disintegrated into a pile of dust.

One of Maemi’s handmaidens stood beside Sawyer’s helpless form. But she was surrounded by three huge Air Elementals summoned by Zhustin. Much as she wished to unleash her fury over her mistress’s death on the defenseless fighter, she knew she had to defend herself. She slashed at the nearest elemental with her longsword, sending trails of mist leaking from its body, but all three elementals made her the focus of their attacks, and within seconds she had joined her mistress in death.

Shinjiro unleashed a furious flurry of blows against the closest Erinyes, and his Stunning Fist left it momentarily unconscious on its feet. He seized the opportunity and struck a killing blow on the stunned devil, then spun and continued his attack on one of its dazed sisters, sending her rebounding off the cavern wall, dead. From far below, beyond the cliff, there was a sudden flash of light and loud clap of thunder. Hmmm … no one had seen or heard from Nicki in a while.

Sure enough, Nicki was down in the lower cavern, his invisibility expired. He could hear the fighting from above, but couldn’t see anything but a lone Erinyes flying just off the cliff face. However, a pair of Erinyes lay crumpled on the cavern floor nearby, after Sandoval’s Robe had dazed them in mid-flight. With nothing better to do, Nicki had cast Chain Lightning  on the pair of unconscious devils. The Erinyes flying overhead heard the thunderclap just as the rest of the party did, and now took notice of this new threat below. She summoned a pair of Bearded Devils that flanked the sorcerer, hacking and slashing at him with claws and glaives. One caught him with its rusty glaive, opening a wound that began to bleed copiously. Nicki responded with another Chain Lightning, that caught both Bearded Devils along with the two disabled Erinyes. When the thunder stopped reverberating through the cavern, none of them stood up.

From that point, it was mostly a mopping up operation. All but a handful of their enemies were dazed, stunned, blind, slowed, or some combination of those, and they became easy pickings. One Erinyes managed to cast an Unholy Blight that sickened Shinjiro, and the Erinyes flying above the lower cavern simply vanished; whether teleported away to safety or returned to Hell to report to her master none could say. But soon, there were no devils left alive to threaten the party.

Nicki’s wound was proving troublesome; it simply wouldn’t stop bleeding. Fortunately, he’d watched Marie and Koya enough to pick up some tricks, and he finally managed to stanch the wound. Then he unfurled his bat-like wings and flew back up to rejoin the party. Sawyer had just regained his senses as Nicki landed at the lip of the cliff.

“What the hell was that all about?” Sawyer demanded angrily. He’d clearly recognized Nicki’s voice as the one speaking the Power Word that had stunned him.

Nicki hung his head in embarrassment. “The last I remember was the discussion about Ameiko marrying me. She’d agreed to sign the contract, but then Marie … went off. The next thing I knew, there was a voice in my head, telling me to attack you all. It was Maemi. She kept calling me 'cousin', and saying they had plans for me. I couldn’t help myself.”

Most were skeptical, but all eyes went to Marie. The proposed marriage had proven to be a surprisingly touchy subject for the cleric, and if anyone was going to want to retaliate against Nicki, it would be her.

Ever since she’d entered the Well of Demons, Helgarval had been uncharacteristically silent. Now, however, she was screaming inside Marie’s brain. “Don’t trust him, Mistress! He’s shown his true loyalties! Now you know – now you remember! He’s lying! He’s one of them!” But Marie ignored the voice inside her head, and took a conciliatory stance. “That’s what I thought had probably happened,” she said with a shrug. “Maemi took control of Nicki. It wasn’t him attacking us – it was her.” The others relaxed – they weren’t all sure they believed Nicki as much as Marie appeared to, but they were relieved there wouldn’t be a showdown – yet.

As Marie began doling out wave after wave of healing magic, Bella got out her flint and steel, and crumpled the marriage contract into a pile. However she was surprised to find that, despite her best efforts, the dry paper simply would not burn. It didn’t seem to have a problem with being torn into little pieces, however, and she tossed the pieces off the cliff, watching them float down into the darkness below.

Upon Maemi’s death, the Mirage Arcana that had created the appearance of an opulent boudoir evaporated, and the party now found themselves in a standard-issue damp-and-dark cavern. As they made a fire and prepared a meal, they reviewed their goals. By dispatching Amatatsu Maemi, they hoped that the other Amatatsu ancestral spirits, led by Amatatsu Onoko, would grant Ameiko their blessing. And the ghost of Emperor Shigure had promised them the Higashiyama family’s blessing if they found and returned his body to him. No sign of that yet, though. The Shogun and offered the Teikoku family blessing if they would agree to destroy the torii gate over the stream leading into the Well of Demons; they’d left that offer under consideration. But that still left the Shojinawa and Sugimatu families unaccounted for. As far as they could tell, they’d explored every area they’d found so far in the Well of Demons. That just left one place to go – down.

The spellcasters took inventory, and all agreed that they were dangerously low on spells. Although it had not been that many hours since they’d descended into the Well of Demons, everyone agreed it was a good time to make camp and rest. They awoke feeling rested and refreshed. Except for Sandoval. The bard was burning with fever, his body racked with chills. He was so weak he could barely sit up as Marie examined him with a worried expression. “It looks like an exceptionally virulent form of Demon Fever,” she said. “He must have contracted it from that filthy lake water when he fell in.” She spent a moment in prayer to Desna, then cast Remove Disease. The fever broke, but Sandoval still had the constitution of a kitten, so she followed that with a Restoration, and soon the bard felt strong enough to proceed.

The group filed down to where the devils’ cavern opened into a high overlook. Below them, the waters of the fiendish pool tumbled into another great chasm in the earth. Its bottom, if there was one, was lost in unfathomable darkness. “Nicki should fly down and reconnoiter,” Bella said as they all gazed down at the roaring waterfall, and no one posed an objection.

And so, minutes later, Nicki found himself floating down through a soaking mist, surrounded by the deafening roar of falling water. He wasn’t sure how he’d become the group’s de facto scout, but he didn’t really mind; he got bored waiting for someone else to come back and say what was ahead. He descended into darkness for over 100 feet, using his Boots of Levitation to control his descent, and his wings to keep him centered in the shaft. Then the shaft opened up into yet another vast cavern, as the waters emptied into another subterranean lake. This end of the cavern was a bowl, but he could spy an opening high in the wall to the east. To the south, he could just make out a sandy island in the darkness, and possibly some beaches and openings on either side of the cavern. Below, tethered to the stone wall of the cavern, a small skiff floated incongruously in the lake, just outside the ring of falling water.

Nicki flew back up the shaft and filled everyone in on what he’d found. They agreed that the nearby ledge was the most likely place to start their explorations, and the ferrying process began. Soon, everyone was safely down, and perched in a cave mouth some forty feet above the surface of the lake.

The tunnel soon opened up into a larger cave, pitch black. A few Light spells revealed a large cavern, running roughly north-south. A maze of stalactites hung from the ceiling, and the floor was littered with stalagmites and rubble of fallen stalactities. Bella took point, moving cautiously into the cavern with the others following well behind.

Suddenly, what Bella had taken for another pile of rubble stood up. Before her stood a desiccated corpse wearing bloodstained o-yoroi armor of ancient make, his piercing eyes glowing red from within the shadows of his kabuto helm. It wielded an ancient katana that seethed with unholy energy, and it lashed out at the rogue. The blade bit deep, and Bella’s flesh burned with the acidic power of its wielder. Just as she was sure he had finished his attack, the undead creature’s blade flashed yet again, taking her by surprise. Blood sprayed from this fresh wound, and Bella gasped in pain.

The others stumbled into action. Shinjiro tried using his Gem of Brightness to blind the creature, but had his usual (lack of) results. Nicki cast Command Undead and ordered the creature to surrender, but was ignored. Ameiko began waving her flag as Sandoval began to sing.

Marie flew forward, wings outstretched. As she neared the creature, she felt an unholy chill come over her. She’d experienced areas of Desecration before, and this was similar, but of mythic power. She recognized the thing before her. It was a Graveknight, an eternal champion created from the corpse of some nefarious warlord or disgraced hero. She Channeled the power of Desna, trying to smite the undead hero, but her connection to her goddess was so obstructed that the thing barely noticed.

Zhustin fired off a Scorching Ray, but the spell fizzled as it reached the Graveknight, foiled by its innate spell resistance. Sawyer, still too far away to engage, drew his bow and fired arrows, but they rebounded off the Graveknight’s armor. Sandru followed suit, and had slightly better luck.

Bella drew her Nine-Fold Spirit Sword and activated its Undead Bane ability. She put all of her skill into her swings, but her foe dodged all but one, and that one glanced off its armor, barely injuring it. She knew she could not survive long if she continued taking damage like the last attack, but she dared not flee, either.

The PCs earned 20,115 XP for dispatching Maemi and her minions, putting them at 491,891 XP with 635,000 required for level 15. We’ll be at Leo’s next Sunday.