Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tony (Roland)
DM: Tom (Garlen)
Athux quickly set to work separating the celestial remnants of Occipitus from the rest, creating a pair of half-planes facing each other over the course of about three weeks. Roland christened his half-plane "Posiccuit", and was able to determine that it would drift to the place he'd feel most comfortable - Elysium. Roland also knew that such planar drifting would take Posiccuit through some of the most chaotic planes, and that pieces of it would be eaten away if it wasn't protected by a sufficiently powerful shield of Law. The party spent most of that time reminiscing about old times and shopping for new equipment, knowing they'd have to escort the newly formed plane to its final home, but unsure of how to create such a lawful shield.
Amber cast a divination, which yielded this poem:
"Fearless pursuit of planar relocation requires
Fending off the forces of chaos.
Few dare enter the Dispicable Duke's tower, but
Feats of bravery yield Help from on High."
Roland recognized the repetition of "Fe", the chemical symbol for Iron, combined with other elements of the divination, pointed toward Dispater, the Iron Duke and devil prince of the Iron City of Dis. He also knew Dispater was extremely powerful within his own stronghold, and could rust both weapons and people. The party planned to assault him using weapons Amber had turned to brilliant energy, with cheap wooden weapons as backups just in case.
The party planeshifted to the Nine Hells and stepped up to the gate of the Iron City. Beareded devils stood atop the city walls, and one in the gate blocked the party. Looking at Amber, he said "you don't look like you belong here." Garlen stepped forward and punched the devil in the face, leaving him badly bruised, and saying "I'm her bodyguard. Don't mess with her." Amber grudgingly agreed to wear Rain's cloak of nondetection to avoid unnecessary combat, and the party walked to the Iron Tower without further incident. Several horned devils trained for combat in the tower's courtyard, and an infernal and a pair of pit fiends stood guard at the main gate, reacting aggressively when the party approached.
Garlen hit the infernal with a White Raven Hammer strike, stunning it. Amber flew to the middle of the courtyard and cast a widened Holy Word, killing about a dozen horned devils. Horkina charged up next to Garlen and struck the infernal several more times. One of the pit fiends tried to cast Power Word Stun on Garlen, but failed miserably. He then cast a fireball that both Garlen and Horkina evaded. Finally, he stepped forward, clawing and swinging his tail at Garlen, though Garlen's Freedom of Movement made him too slippery to hold. The other pit fiend stepped forward and pounded on Horkina, wounding her somewhat significantly. Rain charged between Garlen and Horkina, stabbing the stunned infernal several times as he expressed disappointment that the thing wouldn't bleed. Roland dropped a line of arc-sound and a second blast of sound, harming the infernal and one pit fiend. Grokk leaped and smacked that pit fiend with three nice strikes. Garlen attacked and killed one pit fiend, and wounds Rain had opened up finally bled the infernal to death. Horkina smashed her axes into the other pit fiend, who tried to teleport away but got blocked by Amber. Several party members struck the now-disoriented pit fiend, whose death came quickly.
Rain began working on picking the lock on the main tower entrance. Horkina shattered the door with her master key, leaving Rain holding the lock. "This is a nice lock, I think I'll keep it," Rain said. Dozens of imps and the occasional erinys -- devil bookkeepers, receptionists, and the like -- followed their procedures for hiding or evacuating in an orderly manner, and the party decided not to waste time killing such weak enemies. The party flew up the central staircase and stepped into a recently abandoned reception area with a door that clearly led into Dispater's office. Amber cast a few important spells, such as Brilliant Energy Aura, and then Horkina shattered the door leading to Dispater's chamber.
The chamber was ringed with lifelike iron statues of angels and the like, obviously Dispater's past victims. A large desk held a map of the city with evacuation and battle plans drawn on it, and the walls held similarly-marked maps of various other devil strongholds. Dispater, empowered by his stronghold, stood with an infernal bodyguard in front of the desk. The whole party, including Amber and Roland, followed Garlen's instructions to attack Dispater. ("Fine, I won't power attack... except for 5." - Rachel) Amber's mace and Roland's quarterstaff both bounced off of Dispater's thick skin, but the others each landed a solid strike, and Dispater was stunned. Horkina kept striking Dispater, dropping his resistance to magic with each strike. The infernal focused his efforts on Roland, landing several solid hits and grabbing Roland with its tail, but Roland released some magical energy that greatly reduced the damage. Still, Roland found several spells slipped out of his mind. Rain found all of Dispater's vital organs with his next few stabs, and the devil lord was no more. Roland's dimension door got him out of the grasp of the infernal, and he blinded it with glitterdust. Grokk leaped over the infernal and stunned it, and Rain and Horkina finished it off (with Horkina's final strike leaving an ugly gash across its face, adding insult to injury.)
Roland warned Rain about a disintegrate trap a few feet in front of the vault door. Rain was able to bypass a whole series of nasty traps and clear the way for the party to acquire whatever help the divination said they'd be able to reach. The vault held several valuable treasures, with the most valuable being a huge golden ring with celestial runes. The runes read "For those who need help, and for those who can provide it, your needs will be fulfilled, and your abilities will be used by those in need." Touching it, Roland immediately understood: this artifact would allow the group to summon exactly the help it needed, but at the cost of being summoned themselves. Activating it was a matter of holding it and speaking the word "unity" in an appropriate language. The party took the ring back to Posiccuit and activated it.
Suddenly, they found themselves in a perfectly hemispherical room, a hundred feet high and a hundred feet in radius. The white roof and floor emitted soft, pleasant light, and no shadows were visible anywhere. A shrine to the north was covered in silver holy symbols of various greater and lesser gods -- Heironeous, Eholonna, Kord, Pelor, Corellon Larethian, and many others. The walls held various inscriptions, again in glowing silver runes: "For those who fight alongside us", "for those who cannot fight for themselves", "for those who have gone before", "for those who are yet to come", and so on. Concepts of unity, freedom, honor, and continuity dominated the messages. A large sign to the south (marked "D&Dbay") described various magical items and their costs, displaying a new group of items every so often, though it wasn't apparent exactly how often. Time flowed vaguely, seeming to both rush by and stand still. Rain straightened out his hair and clothing, feeling like he had to be on his best behavior in a room like this.
At the center of the room was a large circular table. An image projected above the table showed a perfect map of Posiccuit. There were six empty chairs around the southern end of the table, two sized for halflings. A huge chair to the north was presently occupied by a colossal Radiant Dragon, whose scales glistened like gold. The dragon hummed an upbeat, triumphant song, stopping suddenly when he realized he was no longer alone.
Roland reached level 24 as his connection to Posiccuit grew.
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