by Gerald "Gray Erikkson" Chartier
Once
again, in the waning month of summer, the forces of the Realms found themselves
embroiled in conflict in the infernal plane.
I, Gray Erikkson, write this chronicle of the events that transpired as
one who bore witness and took part in the events described.
Like
a slow moving storm, conflict embroiled us slowly at first. The entity known as Guile called upon the
Realms to honor the agreement made to back his ascension as one of the Princes
of Hell. In order to affect this power
play, we had to seek out and break four seals to the Citadel, so that we could
access that location and use the Quill of Judgement to enact Guile’s
ascension.
Demons
began to appear at the borders to Respite, our domain in the nether
realms. We faced them in battle, pushing
forward against initially weak resistance, but gradually we face larger numbers
of the infernal beings, and had to regroup.
I found myself able to keep them at bay with the power of Order, but
only those I could directly face, and the chant that warded them off also
interfered with my ability to cast other spells. I became isolated from the bulk of our forces
trying to recover some of our fallen and was overcome, but recovered and raised
shortly afterwards.
As
we pushed forward, I encountered a sultry demoness offering to trade for
information. I passed along her open
offer to Janus of Chimeron, but had little time myself to dwell upon it,
embroiled as I was in fighting our way forward alongside our warriors and
combat mages. Eventually, we cut our way
through to the location of the first of the four seals, which was within a
volcano. By the entrance was a placard
and a cauldron. We found we could not
just enter when Grebinar strode through the entrance and promptly asphyxiated. We had to recover some sort of volcanic stone
from the demons in the area and place bits of it in the cauldron as an offering
in order to pass safely within the volcano.
The
interior chamber of the mountain was protected by animated rock guardians,
within which were pools of lava and eldritch rings upon the stone floor. The guardians were slow, but proof against
most attacks. They would however reel
back from a magical blow or spell. This
discovery allowed us to herd them into the lava pits, where their attacks
became imbued with hellfire, but they became vulnerable and could be
destroyed.
We
divided our efforts, with some of us fending off the guardians while others
worked to break the seal. When those
efforts succeeded, the mountain shook so violently we were repeatedly knocked
off our feet, and an even more formidable guardian came forth, requiring our
full numbers to defeat. When that
champion guardian fell, the volcano flooded with lava, forcing us to flee and
sealing off the interior.
With
most of Mayerling attending to other matters, I joined with the members of Gau
Dring in investigating rumors of a mine of some sort, in search of resources
with which to empower Respite and enhance our warriors’ weapons so they could
fight the infernal denizens more effectively.
We found the mine, but it was almost entirely worked out, leaving very
little left for us to find. Moving on
through the shifting hellscape, we found a realm where souls needed to be
sorted to their proper final destinations, while reapers sent undead husks
against us to add our souls to their collection. I found the demon-warding powers useless
against these creatures, but my usual combat magic proved effective. Restoring order to the judgment of the dead
broke another of the seals.
More
demons appeared to oppose us as we added successes to our tally, and we were
obligated to fight our way to the next seal, finding it on the shore of a
sulphorous lake. There, statues of
warriors had to be maneuvered into their proper places by applying globes of
energy to them, with each statue responding to only the correct form of
energy. We harvested the energy from the
demons who continued to harass our forces, eventually succeeding in maneuvering
the statues into their correct locations, at which point they animated and
attacked. Defeating them brought down
the third seal.
The
fourth seal was a labyrinth we were only able to access in small groups. Finding ourselves scattered, we first had to
reunite before we could properly explore the maze while fighting off attacks
from demons looking to pick off weak groups and stragglers. We found dismembered entities within looking
to recover their missing parts, which of course were scattered among the demons
within the maze. Restoring the body
parts to the revenants of the maze brought forth another master guardian, whose
defeat broke the fourth seal.
With
the seals broken, we returned to Respite to regroup, while Rell conferred with
Guile on behalf of our combined forces. We
planned our assault on the Citadel, and our defense for the counterattack which
would be inevitable when we began using the Quill
to write Guile’s ascension into reality.
The
Citadel was a strongly defended fortress, with vicious warrior demons holding
the gates and the ramparts, and assassin demons emerging from the darkness to
harry our rear and flanks. I dared not
unleash my power in the packed confines of the fighting front, so I turned my
efforts toward keeping the raiders at bay.
With the assistance of my apprentice Zinc and a few others, we kept our
forces safe from the harassers long enough for the front line warriors to
breach the defenses and clear out the fortress.
We
then arrayed our defenses. We did not
have long to wait for the counterattack.
I watched from the ramparts as wave after wave of demons broke
themselves upon our defenses. Then, Sir
Guilliam of Invictus called for a counterattack. We surged out, cutting down the remaining
attackers, the last falling to my summoned lightning.
During
the fighting, the ritual to sign Guile to princedom of Hell was enacted, and
the Quill disappeared, as it does whenever it is used. Having accomplished our immediate goal, we
withdrew back to Respite, dined on rations, and prepared to face the night’s
onslaught.
Despite
our location in the realms of damnation and perdition, a miraculous event took
place – Sir Guilliam manifested angelic wings.
This certainly made him stand out in the infernal night as we battled
our way through demons, recovering orbs of light we used to dissolve barriers
of darkness and destroy the nocturne champion dogging our heels.
We
fought our way to a darkling plain, where pools of illumination awaited to be
lit and guarded against demons who strove to snuff them. We were obliged to divide our forces to
protect multiple pools from ongoing attack.
What followed was a confusing melee in almost pitch blackness, but the
forces of the Realms prevailed.
We
then returned to Respite, set our watches, and took what sleep we could.
The
next day, we fought our way forth to recover the Quill. We found it in the possession of a
demon-magus, who set powerful wards all around it. The demons in the magus’s employ were not
particularly difficult to destroy, but the magus himself proved harder to
destroy or contain. He could be felled,
but regenerated quickly, even in spite of efforts to impale or mangle the body
to prevent him from doing so. He also
proved able to escape magical confinement when he vanished from the Circle of Protection
I’d set around him. Eventually, he was
defeated permanently, though I know not how this was accomplished.
While
I participated in holding off the magus and his minions, our more bookishly
inclined adventurers strove to recover the Quill from the concentric circles of
wards the magus had set around the artifact.
This proved to be a difficult task, coming close to stymying the
cleverest of our number. I lent what
assistance they could, giving blood sacrifice to my gods in exchange for their
aid. My sacrifice evidently pleased my
gods, for when I was revived, I found that most of the wards had vanished,
leaving only the innermost to be overcome.
When we finally did so, the Quill was returned to the care of Invictus,
whose might is unquestioned and whose honor is impeccable.
Upon
returning to Respite, Sir Guilliam had a few choice words for me for offering
blood sacrifice in Hell. I have to
admit, he has a point. In my defense, I
was improvising.
Having
recovered the Quill, Atticus of Chimeron went forward with a plan to change the
artifact from its current form to something safer for the mortal planes. He was able to prevail upon Arioch to change
the Quill of Judgment to the Quill of Storytelling. In exchange, the Quill is to be used to write
stories for Arioch’s amusement.
An
optimistic man might think the danger of the Quill has been resolved. I am not optimistic enough to believe
it. Regardless, we’re still left with
the small matter of an open portal to Hell, to say nothing of the repercussions
our actions there will have generated.
Gray
Erikkson, Sorcerer of Mayerling
Lord
of Respite
The
ninth month of the year 1016
