Almost ten years ago, I ran a campaign in which the PCs began as larvae in Hades.
"The journey had been ill-conceived from its beginning.
Having grown weary, over the years, of mundane battles, quests, and explorations, a band of seasoned adventurers sought a worthy challenge of their talents. Among their numbers, a powerful sorcerer had procured the means to travel to the mysterious Outer Planes. Reaching a consensus, the party set their sights upon the Lower Planes, to face such powerful fiends as demons and their kind. Another of their members, a dwarven warrior of great strength and courage, suggested they begin in Hades, for he had heard rumors of vast treasures; hoards of shimmering golden coins and an artifact of great power guarded within the hidden vault of Charon, the ferryman.
Once the journey had ended, the party soon came to regret their decision. Although experienced in the ways of both magic and battle, the adventurers found themselves unmatched against the numerous denizens of Oinos, the first Gloom of Hades. A mighty nycadaemon known as K’lard descended upon the hapless party, effortlessly abducting the sorcerer. Without the wizard, the magics that had been prepared to return home were lost.
Searching for the means to flee Oinos, the adventurers spent day upon day fighting for their very survival. Yet, as each day passed, they found their free will waning. Color drained from their bodies as if faded by disease, leaving their skin pallid and gray. Succumbing to the dread despair of Hades, the stranded adventures continued to degenerate, until, after a month's time, all that remained were malformed larval souls.
Their presence was noticed immediately by Iryaek, a portly night hag of dire reputation, who descended upon the newly formed snake-like larvae, capturing then within a black wicker basket and carrying them back to a hidden refuge. The refuge had been constructed by the hags long ago, for it served to secret a magical portal which led to Pluton, the Third Gloom of Hades. Within that realm, Iryaek carried the basket and its contents to her bower, known as Beldamoor. There, Iryaek belonged to a coven of three hags, all witches of great power and ill repute. While the night hag Xaetra dallied in the affairs of humans, her sister in sorcery Iryaek was less inclined to leave her home.
Released within a vast cavern, the larvae mingled with others of their kind. Nearly one thousand larvae waited there, writing in darkness until the hags came for them. Paying special care to the newest of their numbers, Iryaek would return several times each day, to capture a larva to carry to her quarters.
Within a dimly lit chamber, the hag would decorate the larvae with tattoos of arcane symbols, arranged in colorful ring-like patterns. The colors reminded the larvae of their previous lives, before the fading of Hades had robbed them of the trappings of humanity. It was during these visits, that the larvae observed the ways of the hag and her sisters.
It was not unusual to witness a less powerful demon or devil, summoned by the hags for unknown purposes. The larvae also grew accustomed to the presence of a spectral demoness. Her body having been slain in the worlds above the Lower Planes, the alu-demon, daughter of a succubus and human, awaited the day when she would be summoned to duty once more.
The day soon came, when the tattooed larvae were gathered into a familiar wicker basket and carried to a small cottage near Beldamoor. Beside the cottage, several beasts of burden shifted upon their restraints, within an open stable. Once safely within the small structure, Iryaek greeted its lone occupant, a bird-like man known as Ahren the Alchemist. Taking his leave of the hag and her charges, Ahren stepped quietly toward the stables.
"The time has come," she begins, her voice dry and coarse "to tell you of your purpose. I have chosen you to be the wards of Kubus, a lich who dwells upon Oinos, across the Styx from my refuge there. I know not what need he has for larvae, save to sate his appetite for continued immortality. Yet he instructed my sisters to select a handful of larvae for a task he had need of completion." taking care to assure her privacy, Iryaek leaned closer to the larvae who listened from within the wicker basket "Kubus has used the magics at his command to create a creature in his image. It is this creation which interests me and my sisters in darkness, for it is foretold that, from the working of Kubus, the Grey Sorceress will arise. I can tell you little else, save that I have chosen you to undertake a quest. You must locate the lost soul of the Grey Sorceress. You must then prepare her corporeal form for the great magics which await. Lastly, you must protect the Grey Sorceress from harm. I shall reveal more of this, when it is time."
Returning to Beldamoor, Iryaek collected a second basket of blackened wicker. Without pause, the hag continued to the shimmering mists kept hidden behind a locked closet. The portal between the Glooms of Hades was unhampered by sensations of time or movement. The hag and the contents of her two baskets emerged within the refuge.
Slowly walking upon an unseen path, Iryaek traversed the dismal land, until arriving at a river of great expanse. There, a simple wooden barge and its keeper, a silent daemon cloaked in robes of black, awaited. Unceremoniously passing a weathered golden coin to the ferryman, Iryaek and her charges were allowed to board the craft and journey to the far side of the Styx. Once the shore reached, Iryaek silently disembarked, nodding once to the daemon ferryman. After traveling for the remainder of the day, Iryaek at last arrived at the home of the lich Kubus.
Constructed around the skeletal remains of a massive dragon, the lair of the lich was both foreboding and awe-inspiring. Its entrance, erected around the fanged skull of the dragon, was guarded by a being composed of translucent soot. As if expecting visitors, the creature motioned for the hag to enter.
Within the hollowed skull, Iryaek set the two baskets down beside her unclad feet and collected her prize, a shimmering talisman forged of electrum. Without warning, the hag turned to face the entrance of the lair and walked silently away.
Unsure of the events to follow, the larvae shifted uneasily within the wicker baskets. Within a matter of moments, the baskets were lifted once more, carried deeper into the remains of the dragon, then opened.
Remaining within their basket, the tattooed larvae watched in horror as the dark-skinned lich pulled an unbranded larva from the second basket. Upon a nearby table fashioned of oak, Kubus suspended the larva within an apparatus of metal and glass. beneath the mechanism, the lich placed a goblet carved of scarlet crystal. Whispering quietly to himself, Kubus commands the metal and glass to awaken.
Bathed in a light of mustard hue, the larvae loose sight of their constrained companion. Seconds after an unsettling scream, the illumination within the chamber dims, revealing a hollowed husk now strapped within the apparatus. Within the crystal goblet, a viscous fluid of yellowish white awaits the attention of Kubus.
The process continues, until three larvae have been drained of their living essences. Yet, instead of consuming the larval remains outright, the lich was driven by darker motives. He proposed a deal to the larvae. One they dared not refuse.
The lich had heard tales of the Gloomstones. Placing faith in the rumors, he prepared to locate and collect them. Yet he dared not touch the stones himself, for they were in essence shards of concentrated evil. Only the larvae would be able to gather the Gloomstones, for a larval soul was a malleable thing. And thus the role of the branded larvae came into play. Should the larvae be exposed to the Gloomstones, they would undergo a metamorphosis. Demons and devils relied on such transformations, for they replenished their ranks of imps and quasits in such a manner.
And yet, by embracing the darkened powers of the stones, redemption could be theirs. Kubus also knew the legends of the Lares. A Lar was a creature not unlike a larva, yet of a benevolent nature. The means to evolve from that of a tainted larva, to a free-spirited lar, was a process known by Kubus. Such knowledge he was willing to trade in turn, for the Gloomstones.
To aid them on their journey, Kubus prepared a special broth and bade the larvae to drink, even as he carried the scarlet goblet filled with the liquid essences of the unbranded larvae. He then led the larvae into the hollowed ribcage of the skeletal dragon, to his stables.
There, they beheld the nightmare. Black as pitch and of foul disposition, the nightmares were the steeds of night hags and other dwellers of the darker lands. Secured to the steed, the larvae beheld ornate leather barding, a saddle, two large wicker baskets, and two saddle bags. Kubus explained that the stallion was to serve as their steed, as they rose within the baskets of wicker. The saddlebags contained flakes of platinum; sustenance for the otherworldly steed. In time, the saddlebags would prove adequate receptacles for the Gloomstones.
Having left the larvae to watch over their new transport, Kubus soon returned, leading a young human girl by the hand. The girl, clad in a dress of bluish-gray, stared blankly forward. Around her waist she worn an ornate leather belt of reptilian hide. From the belt hung a leather scabbard and a crystal flask secure by leather straps. Within the scabbard rested a dagger of tarnished metal. the lich explained that the dagger had belonged to a winged female devil; an erinyes. It would serve to locate the Gloomstones.
The girl, he explained, was called Canopea. She had not been born by mundane means, but had been grown of his own flesh, within an alchemist's laboratory. Simulacrum, they were called; replicas of living souls grown from the smallest remnant of flesh. This one had begun as a duplicate of Kubus himself, from the days long before he had embraced lichdom. Yet the unliving lich had reversed the creatures gender, to further foul the chances that the simulacrum would be recognized.
Canopea was to ride upon the nightmare, to set at ease the suspicions of those whom they larvae might encounter in their journeys. She would not interfere with their expedition, for Kubus explained that the simulacrum was unfinished. Canopea had not been given a soul. She lacked the vital essence possessed by other thinking creatures. She would respond, in times of need, to the commands of the larvae and to the whims of the erinyes dagger, for the blade contained a sentience of its own.
Lastly, the lich Kubus showed the gathering of larvae a golden dragonfly fashioned into a brooch and a weathered scrap of parchment, a map reportedly showing the route to one of the Gloomstones. He points to several additional sites, revealing that in such places grew nourishment palatable to the nightmare. The insect, he explains, is an animate construct he had created from a fallen retriever, the messengers of the more powerful demonkind. He instructs the larvae to relate their findings each day to the dragonfly, which would, in turn, return to the home of Kubus. The insect also held a supply of a magical elixir, within its hollowed form. Administered through the insect's mandibles, the elixir would afford a degree of protection and restored health, to the injured. Should additional larvae arrive to join them, Kubus commanded that they be bitten by the golden dragonfly. Once he had learned of their discoveries, the lich would command the insect to return to Canopea.
Bidding the larvae to enter the wicker baskets, he prepares to send the unlikely adventurers upon their way. Raising the scarlet goblet to his lips, Kubus drank deeply of its contents.
It was then that the lich discovered the treachery of hags. Having previously allowed the unbranded larvae to feast upon a poisonous repast, Iryaek emerged from beneath a cloak of invisibility and watched as her potion took hold.
With unseeming swiftness, the portly hag approached the nightmare, feeding the steed a handful of platinum oats as she secured an emerald-hued scarab to the barding atop its forehead. Placing Canopea's pallid palm within her own of darkest black, Iryaek looked upon the simulacrum and smiled, revealing a mouth of decayed and jagged teeth.
"The jeweled beetle will act as my eyes." she explains "Through it I may follow your progress. Should your numbers grow," Iryaek commanded "you will allow the emerald scarab to detach from the leather barding and walk upon the surface of the newcomer's skin. In such a manner, they too will be branded."
Vanishing once more beneath her magical cloak, Iryaek watched as Kubus recovered from his trance. The lich seems unaware of the events which recently transpired, since partaking of the poisoned mixture.
One by one, he placed the larvae within the wicker baskets. Then, looking upon his wards, he posed a final question.
"Are you clear, as to your quest?" he queries "The time of travel is at hand." "
