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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6267066" data-attributes="member: 6669384">I had a PM from a friend on the forum asking what had happened with some of the characters in our campaign.When we last left our heroes, they were inside the cone of Mt. Tula in Frygia (Turkey), trying to stop the volcano from erupting.The party Scout/Shadowdancer/Hexblade/Ranger/Problem Child had separated from the party to look the area over.  He was using a Wand of Alter Self to become an Avariel Elf (winged), so he could fly around the perimeter.The party had spotted some runes cared into the stone, all around the inside of the crater, above a three foot wide ledge that circled the entire lava lake.  They decided to start defacing these.Enter Marilith, who popped onto the only section of ledge large enough to hold the group, and the fun began.At the same time the one who had wandered off discovered that there were two Babua demons out there, and they had levels in Assassin.  They were still only CR 14 and he was a 16, but their "Say hello" was a straight Assassin's death blow.  He made his Save, but was hurt.He decided to fly out into the column of smoke and hide from them.  (He has a really good Hide check).  They pursued, largely because he forgot to mention or roll for any "Move Silent" check.  He eventually came out of the smoke and headed for the rim, figuring that his Alter Self was close to expiring (he'd used it to fly up intot he crater, so yeah, it was.)  He landed, renewed it from the wand, and quickly found himself flanked by the same two demons.  He went off the edge, and they used Dispel Magic to just ruin his day.  He had quite a few spells on him, over all, from the Heroes Feast that was granting him the poison immunity that let him function in here to various long term buffs to a shield spell (from a wand), etc.  All the higher level spells were from higher level casters though, and the wings were from a 3rd level effect off the wand.We played bobbing for PCs in the lava for a bit.Back on the ledge the party was taking a beating from the Marilith.  One of them had cast a Force Cage around her, to protect themselves from her melee power.  She obliged by switching to spell effects.  She has Blade Barrier at will, so she started to slice-and-dice, subdividing the ledge into smaller and smaller areas.  She has as many of those as she likes, after all.The PC in the lava used a telepathic link to call for help, but nobody could get to where he was.  He tried to out-fly his opponents (who had had to Alter Self themselves to be able to fly.  Not a Babua ability), but since they could Teleport at will they could always cut him off.  He was hiding down in the layer of smoke and flame, right off the lava surface, and he was taking 5d6 a round.  He finally called on a Chain Devil of the party's acquaintance, and asked for help.  The Devil drove a hard bargain.  The PC's alignment is now Evil, because of the counter-offers he made in the negotiation (offered his own child in payment), and he owes the Devil half of his soul, plus a service.  Oh, and he sacrificed his Shadowdancer Shadow in one failed attempt to slip the trap.The PCs above managed to defeat the Marilith.  The Golden One cleric, who dropped a dime on the party regarding their "business relationship" with that Devil, managed to survive.  His issue was with them giving a holy relic, the Dagger of Helios, to the Devil in payment of a debt.  The church he contacted instructed him to secure the dagger and prevent the trade.The trade is now between five and six months in the future.  There will probably be at least one adventuring party on hand to try and stop it from going down.The party has a plan to kill the Devil before the appointed hour.  They know that that won't cancel the contract:  Hell never lets anyone off that easily.  They plan, once the Devil is dead, to show up for the exchange anyway.  They figure that his failure to appear will void the contract, even if his death itself won't.The party is planning an overland march from Illium (near the site of ancient Troy, which was in Frygia) down through the Persian Empire (where they're considered enemies of the state), and into Egypt, to visit the great Library of Alexandria, to learn everything they can about the Devil in question.  Oh, and they know that there may be a bounty on their heads from the church of Zeus, over the dagger, and that there's an Imp who's playing "Guardian Devil" over them.  He even offered to fink on the Chain Devil.  All he wanted was that the kill be dedicated to him, so he'd have power over the Larva the Devil would become, down in Hell.  They declined that deal.I just finished my turn at DMing, and the chair now belongs to that member of our company we call the Blind Bard.  (The man is legally blind, which makes laying out a battle scene an interesting exercise.)I see part of my role, as a DM in this type of campaign, as including a duty to provide plot hooks for other DMs to exploit.  I honestly don't know which, if any of them will turn into anything.  But the possibilities, the doors we leave open make for a more interesting game.</blockquote>

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