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9 Rhonus 1120
Hellbreak
On the morning of 5 Rhonus Garrick presented the group with a highly authentic-looking letter of transit signed (or so it appeared) by Malvoleus, a high-ranking devil in the Stygian power structure. The letter even stated that the party had the devil's permission to make use of the Hall of the Vanquished for training purposes. It was exactly what they needed to gain access to the Hall and look for Aria's father. It surprised the heroes, however, to note that Garrick had written his own name into the documents as well as theirs. The gnome explained that he assumed the party would want him present since he had created the forged documents in the first place, and because he was probably the only one in the group who spoke Infernal. Good points, both, as was the unspoken but likely true observation that the bounty hunter had been fought off but not truly dealt with -- Garrick was clearly safer with the party, even in Hell, than on his own. Since Mrs. Wilkins was still away and Melian had taken off on a personal errand the party's numbers and stealth capability were seriously diminished anyway, so they welcomed Garrick for the mission. Strontium worked the amulet of the planes and the party appeared in the icy realm of Stygia. Not knowing the exact location of the Hall of the Vanquished, the group had to get their bearings and determine the right direction to go. Garrick's fake credentials proved their value, however, when a pair of ice devils accosted the group and were persuaded by the papers to leave the party be. Four days later the heroes mounted the grand stairs of the Hall of the Vanquished. Strontium was pleased to note that the walls were made of stone rather than ice -- the passwall spell he'd learned for the occasion should be usable here. A pair of bone devils examined the party's papers and allowed them into the Hall. An amnizu met them in the main hall, also looked over their papers, and invited them to peruse the exhibits at their leisure. The exhibit area of the Hall proved to be a huge, winding expanse filled with what looked to be ice sculptures of various creatures. Each sculpture stood on a pedestal labeled with the creature's name, general capabilities, and in some cases a list of famous deeds attributed to it. The first group of figures were of chaos entities, creatures from Limbo and powerful forces against law. Beyond those were a collection of lesser demons: arrow demons, succubi, babau and the like. Celestials -- powerful creatures of good including leonals, lammasu, and even a celestial charger unicorn -- came next, followed by greater demons. The party was impressed to find, frozen in ice, a balor demon. Archons, the protectors of Celestia, made up the next group. Beyond them lay the largest collection, that of mortal heroes. Like the other creatures on display, each figure had its plaque on the pedestal listing name, profession, capabilities, and noteworthy deeds. There were easily a hundred such statues, possibly more, crowded into a long, wide corridor at the back of the Hall. Prominently featured toward the front were three men in armor. An inquiry with a nearby bone devil guide identified them as the Great Heroes of Belain (said with a decidedly sarcastic tone). A pair of paladins had recently invaded the Hall to free their friend, a cleric of Belain who had been consigned there by a cleric of Levistus. The paladins were quite dangerous, the guide told them, but had been sadly outnumbered and were slain by guards, thus causing their souls to be imprisoned with their friend. Since news of the attempted rescue had gotten out the trio had become the most popular choice for sparring by Hall patrons, facing combat nearly every day. While most of the group listened to the guide, Aria took a quiet look around at the rest of the statues. There, tucked away into a corner as if deliberately hidden from view, she found the frozen figure of her father, Lord Tagren. Strontium, as leader of the group, asked the guide about the creature in the corner. After a little embarrassed hemming and hawing the guide admitted that they had no information on that specimen -- it had appeared in the Hall some time ago, but the required paperwork had not arrived yet. Without it, the Hall staff had no idea who the creature was, what its abilities were, who had sent it to them, or even how to thaw it out for training. The group expressed their irritation that such a promising-looking specimen was unavailable and withdrew from the guide to discuss their options. Their original plan, to have Tagren thawed out for combat and then escape with him using the amulet of the planes, was clearly not going to work. Not only were they unable to thaw him, but having seen so many extraplanar creatures, who would be inherently able to plane shift themselves if thawed, among the captives strongly argued that the amulet would not work inside the Hall. They were going to have to carry Aria's father out as a statue. That meant arranging a suitable distraction, and perhaps some willing allies. Strontium addressed the guide again. The Heroes of Belain sounded tempting, he said, but only three against his party of six seemed a bit lopsided. Could the guide recommend a mage of some sort to make the Belain group more of a challenge? The guide perused the collection and his own memory then suggested Elaine, an elven sorceress who's party had run afoul of an archdevil a few centuries ago. Strontium looked over her capabilities and agreed that she would make a fitting companion to the paladins and cleric. The heroes were given their choice of training rooms. They selected the largest of them because it shared a common wall with the area where Tagren's figure stood. By asking the guide about the training rooms from a perspective of safety and security, the party learned that while the exterior walls of the structure had formidable magical protections against breech the interior walls were simply ordinary stone. This would be most helpful. The exhibits were taken to the training room and arranged according to the party's directions. The heroes were given the control words to thaw the figures, and then the guards withdrew to a discreet distance where they could contain any who tried to escape but not interfere in the combat. It was time to begin. Garrick and Audas turned invisible and positioned themselves among the captives and Strontium spoke the control words to thaw them. Immediately the younger paladin, Enon, lunged at Caenus but was still a little disoriented and missed badly. The older paladin, Ethalion, sensed something was different about this combat and held firm. That gave Garrick the chance to hastily whisper that the party was there to rescue the paladins and one other person -- they should gather close and have Elaine transport them to the next room, where the statues were. As the heroes shouted priase to Belain -- partly to communicate their intentions to the captives, and partly (Strontium's idea) to mislead the devils into thinking the paladins were the true targets of the rescue. Clement, the cleric of Belain, grabbed both paladins' cloaks and Elaine cast dimension door as asked. She was not able to transport the entire group, though -- Garrick, Ethalian, Audas, Clement and herself were the only ones to shift place, leaving the rest of the group still in the training hall. It was enough for a start, though. Audas attempted to devour magic on the protected wall but was given a splitting headache for his trouble. Garrick's dispel magic met with the same result. Getting out through the back wall was not going to be easy. In the training hall, it was clear that the ruse was now exposed. The bone devil guide, who had remained in the room, cast dimensional anchor on Strontium and moved in to fight. Quinn cast aura of vitaility to boost all of her allies' physical abilities at once and Strontium dispelled the anchor to keep his freedom of movement intact. Enon moved to intercept the bone devil and buy time for the plan to further develop. In the exhibit area pain devils were teleporting in to block the party's escape. Ethalian and Clement formed a line to protect the spellcasters and slew the first pain devil with a combination of brutal sword-swinging and a harm spell. Garrick laid another out unconscious with an overwhelm. The devils were replaced as quickly as they were slain, however, as reinforcements arrived via dimension door each round. As pain devils entered the battle on both sides of the wall Elaine returned to her original position to pick up the rest of the group. A quick count, however, revealed a problem: Elain could take only four others with her in a dimension door use, but there were five remaining to transport. Someone -- Enon, most likely, as he was furthest from her -- would be left behind to face the mounting force of devils alone. Audas and Garrick turned their attention from the wall to the enemy, backing up the work of Ethalian and Clement with eldritch chains and deceptive spells. The paladin and cleric advanced to give them room, fighting together to keep the devils at bay. In the training hall, the heroes hastily worked out an alternate plan. Quinn used wild shape to take the form of a rhinocerus, giving her not only impressive bulk but a brutal charging horn attack she could employ against the devils. Strontium let loose a lesser missile storm and had Elaine cast dimension door again, but this time just for the two of them. Once on the far side, he then cast passwall on the unprotected interior wall, opening a breach through which the rest of the party could cross and regroup in the exhibit area. Enon invoked his smite evil and his holy sword to turn a pain devil into a big, meaty splat and ran for the new opening. Aria, Caenus and Quinn followed quickly. Elaine sent a lightning bolt through the opening to slow down the bone devil and the party was reunited in the exhibit area. The devils followed, of course, their numbers holding steady as new guards appeared regularly to supplement or replace casualties. The party took on a solid formation with Aria and the paladins forming a formidable front line. Quinn used her rhino form to great effect, pushing devils back with her powerful charge and trampling their bodies as they fell. Garrick caused mayhem with friend to foe and Audas used his eldritch chain ability to supplement the fighters' weapons. Clement used his Glorious Weapons feat to align everyone's weapons to overcome the devils' damage reduction. Slowly but steadily the heroes marched toward the front of the museum area leaving dead devils in their wake. Caenus, the strongest of the Chimera group, used that strength to grab the frozen figure of Lord Tagren and carry it with them as they moved. Rather than fight their way through the maze of museum corridors, the group attacked the wall leading to the main lobby. Quinn smashed into it with her rhino form, first by bull rushing a devil into it and then crashing against it herself. Audas added an eldritch blast, and their efforts weakened the wall enough that Strontium was able to breach it with a blast of force. Ethalian struck at the opening to enlarge it enough for the party to use. There, on the other side, the devils had regrouped for a last stand. The party found themselves facing a line of pain devils backed by pair of bone devils. At the rear, blocking the front door, stood a huge ice devil: Zaguror, the legendary chief of the guard. Strontium opened with a greater missile storm against the entire front line to weaken them and Audas followed suit with an eldritch chain. Quinn used call lightning storm to attack the middle ranks and Elaine used reverse gravity to send Zaguror crashing into the ceiling. Garrick pulled confusion out of his bag of tricks and cast that on the entire opposition, causing some very un-Hell-like chaos in the lobby area as the devils began to attack each other or babble incoherently. Zaguror proved unimpressed by Elaine's gravity trick, using his fly ability to regain control of his position and posture and engaging the paladins in melee. Caenus handed Tagren's body to Quinn and entered the melee as well. Clement kept up the Glorious Weapons, helping everyone to fight more effectively, and the enemy continued to damage each other more than the party with the exception of Zaguror. With most of the heroes focused on the ice devil, however, even his formidable strength could not stand. A greater missile storm, a combination of smiting attacks, and a final eldritch blast from Audas were enough to end the battle. With the Hall's guards destroyed there was nothing to stop the party from taking Tagren and walking out the front door. Their allies, however, had other ideas. The paladins Enon and Ethalian argued that this was an unprecedented opportunity to free more souls while the Hall remained defenseless. Also, having died in the Hall, the brothers' souls would be free but their possessions would remain in the Hall unless taken out physically by living people. They asked the party to recover their weapons and armor and return them to Belain. The party debated. They were tired and bloody, and the fight had exhausted most of their best spells and resources. If more devils came in any kind of numbers things could turn ugly indeed. Yet Strontium had to admit the idea of fomenting a mass prison break appealed to him, especially if the Church of Belain would end up being held responsible -- let the fury of Hell focus on them rather than on his party. Then they wondered what other valuables might be held in the offices of the Hall. In the end, the temptation to mayhem was just too strong. The party headed back into the Hall to release as many souls as possible and plunder what they could.
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