Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2237236" data-attributes="member: 1210">Gambling in Hell3/25/371 O.L.G., 9 a.m., outside the Temple of Elemental GoodWith a tinkling sound the glass of the pocketwatch breaks.  There is a moment of swelling silence, and then Glaisig is there, tall and thin, his diabolic features, as always, composed in a featureless enigma.  The bargain is quickly struck.  It is strictly self-preservation for our heroes; if they can’t strike him down, Asmodeus will hunt them until he kills them.  They will not have children (or more children, in the case of Sybele and any others that might have unknown progeny out there somewhere).  They will not see their dotage.  They will probably not even see whatever celestial reward they have earned.  More likely, Asmodeus- or his forces- will slay their bodies, steal their souls and condemn them to total annihilation or, worse still, eternal, neverending torment in the realms of the damned.  No, it is far better to ally with one devil to oppose another, especially when concessions can be wrung from the ally now to prevent more trouble later. Our heroes do present a demand to Glaisig, to present to his master, Lucifer: the forces of Hell must guarantee to withdraw from the Great War of Ethics.“Of course, I cannot speak for those of other factions,” Glaisig responds smoothly.  “As we have discussed, my master will be far too busy pacifying Hell to worry about your plane.  He will have his energies bent to that task until it is complete.”  He smiles thinly.  “We will certainly agree to remain without your plane, unless summoned or called, for a thousand years.”A certain amount of legalistic haggling ensues, during which Sybele can’t help wishing her old gnomish lawyer friend, the wizard/sorcerer guy, you know, what’s his name?*- can’t help wishing he was here to help iron out the formalities.  Nonetheless, soon enough our heroes have made their deal with the devil.  Only time will say whether they regret it.  Then Glaisig takes them to Hell.***Noon, Pesh CityMarius the Chronomancer grimaces.  Damn worms, he thinks.The mess all on the flagstones of the great central marketplace is gruesome.  Between the shattered debris of the market stalls, the bloody fragments of bodies and the massive bulk of the destroyed chaos worms, it will take a considerable clean-up effort to restore the market to useability.  Either that, or personal attention, Marius sighs inwardly.  He has so many demands on his time... how ironic, that a chronomancer should be so worried about time.  But there is so much to do, and so much of it cannot be done from the sanctuary of his demiplanes or the Citadel of Eternity!Marius disintegrates a large blob of worm-flesh, then summons a temporal nihlist.  Instructing the strange outsider to dispose of as much of the mess as it can, Marius greater teleports back to the temple of Coila.  My Goddess, he prays fervently, I have made sacrifices to your altar of magic and dust.  I have given you the spells I have developed, that bring your followers closer to time.  And I have achieved greatness, moreso than any other of your followers.  Now you must heed me!  Please, my Goddess, desist in your folly.  You must see reason.  If you do not, you will have to be destroyed.  You must join the side of Law.  Will she hear his prayers?  Certainly; Marius is sure of that.  Will she heed them?  Unlikely.  But the thought of Coila being cast down from the lofty heights of godhood makes Marius shudder. She won’t be the only one, thinks the Chronomancer.  The Judge of Worlds has been very busy.***Glaisig, disguised as a devil called “Red Scab,” escorts our heroes to a place to stay, staffed by tieflings.The city is astonishing.  It must host millions of individuals.  Most of it built in honor of Tiamat’s games, it is crammed full of all sorts of creatures.  Though dominated by infernal denizens, there are a thriving number of mortals, other planar creatures, and stranger things still.  There isn’t much sign of chaotic forces, save the quivering six-fingered hand impaled on Veil’s shield (which the doppelganger carefully keeps out of sight).  “It should be pretty easy for you to keep a low profile, but try not to act like Hicks,” Glaisig advises.“What’s a Hick?” asks Inoke.The party’s diabolic adviser sighs.  “A hick is a very backwater individual.  There’s a land called Hickistan, the most backwater territory on a plane full of backwaters.  Basically, a Hick is someone who is... well... clueless.”  Glaisig smiles grimly.  “Try to keep your mouths shut as much as possible.  And whatever you do, remember- watch out for the sign of the fist clutching the ruby rod.”“What do we do if we encounter them here?” asks Sybele.“Try to avoid being seen, but once they see you, strike hard and strike fast.  They are the most elite of Asmodeus’ servants.  Once they have seen you it is too late to evade them; they must be slain before they can call on even stronger reinforcements.”Shortly, Glaisig leaves our heroes, and they spend a few moments applying disguise magic.  As they are leaving to look around the diabolic city, Hellgate, Lillamere comments, “You wanna know what worries me the most about these ruby rod guys?”“What’s that?” Gerontius replies.“These are Asmodeus’ elite killers, and they’re mortals.  Think about that.  He’s got probably millions of pit fiends, yet these guys are better then the best of his pit fiends.”Inoke starest at the Baron.  “That is a very good point,” he admits.***Over the next few hours our heroes abuse divinations like they have rarely been abused before, heedless of the consequences.  After all, why would Hell have any motivation to watch for people using divination magic to cheat at gambling, especially when massive festivities on the level of these celebrations are going on?Right.Anyhow, Orbius’ divinations lead our heroes to some stellar success betting on the nightmare races (the winner, with a 4:1 payoff, is Hooves of Magma).  A succession of other bets suddenly sees most of our heroes in possession of large sums of money.And what a place to have some disposable income!  What a great place to go shopping!  In a place like this, much like Sigil, you can find almost anything for sale if you look hard.  Thus it is that a few of our heroes buy some rather nice pieces of equipment.  After winning around 300,000 gp, Gerontius buys a manual of quickness of action +5.  The chance to make some scratch by cheating Hell at gambling plays on Horbin’s conscience, but he thinks of the good things he could do with the gold. The Halls of Healing need a paint job and it always needs supplies. The poor of Var and Thule all need food and clothes.  Conscience assuaged, Horbin too takes part.  Lillamere’s ‘investment’ nets him around 300,000 gp as well; an outlandish shopping spree ensues, with the Baron buying items including a bunch of Infernal wine, cloth from the Elemental Plane of Fire, "Dragon's Breath" hot sauce and other goodies. He also picks up several magic items, including a mantle of mind blank and a ring of spell penetration +4.  Lester and Orbius also bet heavily, naturally, and come out of it with nearly one million gold pieces.  They practically go crazy, buying several metamagic rods, manuals, ioun stones, and scrolls with a variety of powerful spells such as limited wish, prismatic wall, sphere of ultimate destruction, and a few others.Inoke doesn’t gamble at all, frowning at such things.  Between the nature of gambling, the fact that they’re on Hell, and the fact that they’re cheating... well.  He just doesn’t feel it would be right.  The Mace of St. John would no doubt chastise our heroes as well, were it not now secured in a glove of storing.  Inoke tries to persuade Sir Maxwell to likewise refrain, but Max finds the potential joy of cheating Hell too good to resist.The big winner, though, is Sybele, who bets all her money and wins, then rolls it over and does it again twice more.  She ends up with an unbelievable sum, which she promptly spends on an extraordinary bow called Cracker.**  When all is said and done, she is very happy with her purchase.It’s as our heroes are wandering the markets, pretty much done but looking for anything else worth buying, that they are accosted.  Next Time: Cheating in Hell?  Send in the ejukhauts!  *Remember, Sybele (thanks to Chaos effects) cannot remember proper names.  She is, of course, thinking of her old friend and adventuring companion Zeebo Swaysack, ‘the Mayor,’ who featured prominently in <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=34554" target="_blank">Agents of Chaos</a> and <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=58056" target="_blank">the Politics of Tirchond.</a>**Pronounced CRAK uh.  Cracker is a +6 collision seeking exit wound thundering mighty [+8 str bonus] composite longbow.  If I’m not mistaken, this was the first time our heroes had found anyone capable of making epic weapons, with the possible exception of Fandral the Mage-Smith (who knows what he can do?).</blockquote>

Verification