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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 2851594" data-attributes="member: 1210">There is a lot of area that our heroes have not yet searched through on this level of the dungeon.  Thus, they begin a methodical check of the entire area, looking for treasure, secret doors or lost opportunities.  Before too long, they have uncovered a sloping pit full of debris, tattered webs and old bodies sucked dry of their fluids.  There are a number of intact magical items to be found there, including what appears to be a bag of holding (which our heroes cannot access within the confines of Bile Mountain), a magic shield and sword and a few potions.  It is as they search the chamber that still holds the carcasses of the shadow beetles that they defeated here long ago that they are attack from out of thin air.  There is nothing there one moment; the next, four mighty-looking, breastplate-wearing, sword-wielding trolls with dark grey-green skin and blurred, shadowy outlines rush in amongst our heroes!  They lay about them violently, and one of the trolls knocks Alcar from his feet.  With a grunt, the angel shakes his head to regain his wits.Thrush cries out, “Trolls!”  His sword seems almost to appear in his hand from nowhere.  He hacks violently out and hews one of the trolls across the arm.  His blade slices deep into the creature’s flesh.  It growls and snarls, moving with the fluid grace of experienced fighters.  It’s hard for our heroes to make out exactly where the trolls are, with their blurring, shifting outlines.  The trolls, on the other hand, have no problem hacking into our heroes.  Moreover, the trolls have formidable regenerative abilities, and their wounds start to close almost as soon as they open.This does not deter our heroes.  Sonja assumes fire elemental form and rushes forward like an out-of-control blaze driven by a gale wind.  Her flaming limbs scorch her target’s face and chest and it roars in anger and pain.  This damage does not seem to regenerate.“Where did they come from?” cries Orbius.  “They weren’t here a moment ago- I can see the invisible!  And one cannot teleport within Bile Mountain!”The question must be put aside for the moment, for the warrior trolls are pressing their attack.  But this lasts for a few brief seconds only.  No matter how skilled they are, the trolls are no match for our heroes; and, between the skill of Thrush, Horbin and Wankerman, Gerontius’ lingering damage, a final fire storm from Sonja , harm from Bishop Horbin and holy smite from Alcar, the trolls fall in mere moments.  After taking a minute to catch their breath and tend to their wounds, the group decides to find the answer to Orbius’ question.  Where did the trolls come from?  Soon, investigating with their combined skills, magic and psionics, they discern a natural planar portal in the room.“So,” Orbius muses, “you can’t teleport around in here, but there are loopholes.”“At least this one,” nods Baron Lillamere.“There’s also the one up above, at the top of the mountain,” Horbin points out.  “The one Angelfire went through.”  The others nod.“Do you think we can teleport within one of the levels of the mountain?” Inoke wonders.  “For instance, just within the room?”“Let’s try it,” suggests Orbius, and dimension doors a few feet successfully.  He nods thoughtfully.  “That seems to suggest that we can,” he says.“Where do you think the portal goes?” asks Sybele.“It doesn’t matter,” Inoke states firmly.  He pulls on his gloves of seal portal.  “Wherever it goes, it can’t be good to leave it open.  Either the Bile Lords are getting aid from beyond it, or they’re causing harm.”  His gloves begin to glow a brilliant blue color as he touches the portal.  There is a momentary flash of sapphire brilliance.  Grimly, Inoke steps away.  “I’ve sealed it,” he announces.For good measure, the group seals it off with a wall of stone, making the area of the portal very difficult to reach.  As they leave the chamber, Horbin mutters, “We should all carry a vial of bile, too.  Just in case.”“Oh yeah,” mutters Sybele, and shudders.  She remembers, from the party’s second foray into the mountain- the portal at the top.  The cleric guy and the fire time templar* went in, and the rest of us got killed, she thinks grimly.  And then they did too.***HellSlowly the line moves forward.  More and more devils are queuing up to swear fealty to Lucifer.  By now only a heroic effort from a combination of the major powers could stop him from his victory, though there are few- if any- that realize just how inevitable it is, as yet.  At the head of the line is the Throne of Hell, a ruddy red in color and glowing red-hot.  Sulphuric smoke pours off of it, congealing on the ceiling and dripping down in sizzling blobs.  A choir of wailing souls, their sounds directed by their torturers’ skill in eliciting different screams and cries, is to the throne’s right; to the left are those who worked secretly for Lucifer all these last epochs of time, when Asmodeus reigned and to be known as an agent of the One Who Came Before was to risk far worse than simple death.  There are even some of those- some who were to be tormented for all time, on the very edge of death, but never to die- who are free now.  Terribly scarred both physically and mentally, these courageous devils live to serve Lucifer- and now that he is in charge, they are able to do so again.  Though broken in body or mind or both, they all have their uses- and he will honor them all for their sacrifice to him.  Seated on the smoking throne, Lucifer takes the obeisances of those approaching him as his due.  There are few who he will not accept, and forgive any transgressions; but he never forgets.  Though they might be forgiven, the transgressions of the past affect the devils’ hopes for advancement in the future.  One that is known as a traitor will never be trusted.  One that simply chose the wrong side, on the other hand, might be able to rise higher if they behave appropriately once on the correct side.  But some, thought Lucifer, can never be trusted.Before him came an ancient pit fiend named Velzhethgaunt, shifty-eyed and with tail twitching.  Velzhethgaunt, millennia ago, helped Asmodeus’ revolution against Lucifer, opening a key gate in the palace of the Tenth Hell and allowing ingress to a major element of the cunning feint that undid Lucifer. “My ancient and powerful lord,” Velzhethgaunt whined, “I come before you to pledge myself to you.  I offer you my allegiance, and will swear to uphold you and destroy your enemies.”There was a brief silence.  It stretched for a moment, then to thirty seconds, then a minute.  Velzhethgaunt coughed and shifted; his tail lashed nervously behind him.Just as the pit fiend opened his mouth to speak, Lucifer said, “That is all, Velzhethgaunt?  No apology for the crimes of the past?  No begging for mercy after your betrayal?”“My lord, I... that is, it has been so long... I...”“I think not.  Even if you begged.  Even if you swore to me on your true name.”  Lucifer’s eyes flashed cold.  Two of his favored guards seized the pit fiend by his arms.  Velzhethgaunt did not even struggle.  He quailed.“No...”“You,” the Lord of Hell spat, “shall be annihilated.”There was a blinding flash of crimson.  A roar of static, and hidden in it something like a scream.  For an instant, Velzhethgaunt writhed in agony.  Lucifer proclaimed, “I am not the fool of my pupil, Asmodeus.  I shall not leave a single enemy alive.  I destroy you now; I snuff the flame of your existence for all time.  “But though you will die now, your mind shall feel the fires of your torment for a thousand years in this short time.  And you shall know it, and know helpless agony for a thousand years; and then you will be snuffed out, with no hope of revival or reprieve.”The guards dropped the screaming pit fiend to the ground.  By the time he hit, he was already dead.  His head lolled, upside-down, to face the line of petitioners come to swear to Asmodeus.“The next vassal may step forth,” it croaked.***4 p.m., Bile MountainOur heroes leave the mountain again.  They are almost done with the level of the dungeons within the mountain.  (Technically it is the second level, but the first level is simply that open cavern with the great pool within it.)  However, they want to go outside while Horbin prays and regains his spells.  Again he pulls out the portable store, and our heroes buy and sell a few things.  While he is in the store, Inoke pulls out a massive ruby almost as big as his hand and asks, “What is this ruby worth?”  The others stare at it in shock.The store keeper takes one look and snaps, “Get that thing out of here!  That’s no ruby!”Inoke immediately puts it back into his backpack and walks out of the store. Peering into the store from without, he calls back in, “What is it?”“Where did that thing come from?” asks Sonja, amazed.  “That’s the biggest ruby I’ve ever seen!”“Get it away from here!” the storekeeper exclaims.  Horbin sighs and, after it becomes clear that the storekeeper is not going to divulge anything useful, he closes the store for the time being.Meanwhile, Inoke answers the druid.  “I got it from- um, a wizard.” “Who?” demands Horbin.“Churr.”“Who?” the cleric asks again, then snaps his fingers.  “The gnoll!”“From the conference of spellcasters,” nods Inoke.  “He gave it to me.” Our heroes discuss the implications of this for a few moments.  Churr was the gnoll who had been a Delphin in the past, and Horbin had true resurrected him for the Delphinate as part of a deal he made by which he also brought back the party after their deaths in Bile Mountain.  They had only truly met at the spellcasters’ conference roughly a month before, though.  Inoke explains that he had talked to Churr when the gnoll tried to buy his helmet (which he naturally refused to sell, especially since it hadn’t trusted the gnoll).  Churr had given him the ruby anyhow.  An examination by the various knowledgeable folk in the party soon leads them to the conclusion that it might be a stone called the Bloody Eye of Krull.  Krull had been a demon prince, but he had been slain eons ago.  Certain body parts of his, including an eye, were said to possess certain powerful magic properties involving divination.  “So you’ve got the eye of a demon prince in your backpack,” Orbius concludes.“I bet Churr’s using it to watch us somehow,” opines Lillamere.“We should destroy it!” Alcar declares.“I don’t think so,” Inoke retorts.  “First of all, we’re not even sure that this is the eye that you think it is.  It’s not evil, right?”“It’s the eye of a demon prince,” Alcar says insistently.“So what?  What next, are we going to destroy Veil’s shield of Graz’zt?”  (Although, in truth, Inoke thinks, Which we should do one of these days...)  But Alcar only scowls.  The argument continues, but in the end everyone agrees to Inoke’s proposal that he stuff it in his Heward’s handy haversack and take it into the mountain with them.  That way it won’t really ‘be with’ the party any more, at least while they are within the mountain.And they go back in.Next Time: Back inside!*Horbin and Angelfire, to those of us that recall names.  Sybele, thanks to Chaos, does not.</blockquote>

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