I knew in advance I was going to have some players away for a session of our Swords & Wizardry campaign so it was time to spring an adventure on the remaining players designed for just this type of situation. A short task tied to the campaign that the players could play. I also designed it so that there would be no NPCs. This made for a more relaxing evening for me.
Months ago one of the players signed a demon's contract to get out of a no-win situation. The demon arrived to collect. It also allowed me to wrap up another open thread.
Session 137: The Bargain
Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aldus (human cavalier).
On a clear, cool spring morning members of the Company of the Black Dragon sit down for breakfast in their Manor House. The manservant Huntley enters and tells Lakima that his expected guest has arrived and is in the library.
“Expected?” Lakima says.
Lakima walks over to the library and sees a well-dressed merchant sitting at the head of the table in the center of the room. The nature of the man is immediately apparent as Lakima notices a pair of goat horns growing out of the man’s forehead. The demon welcomes Lakima and says that he has come to lay claim to their contract. Lakima realizes this “man” is the same demon who aided him a month ago in return for a favor.
Lakima asks about the favor and the demon, who says Lakima can call him Gordon, tells him that he needs him to kill an enslaved mage owned by a rival demon in the abyss.
“Time to go, you can bring some of your friends if you wish,” Gordon says.
Lakima excuses himself and goes and speaks to Eathwund, asking him to join him. He quickly fills him in on the task at hand. As they head back to the library, Aldus trails behind them. In the library, Gordon opens a portal to his home level of the abyss. Gordon steps through followed by Lakima and Eathwund.
“Hold up,” Aldus says and leaps through the portal before it closes.
The three adventurers arrive in the abyss. The landscape is barren black rock punctuated by pools of filthy green water. Gordon has transformed into his true form of a Nalfeshnee demon. They stand near a closed gate. Other demons of lesser rank wander about.
Gordon explains the task he has contracted Lakima. He has a rival named Viggok who inhabits a Hellfort on the other side of the Ash mountains in the Plains of Soot. Viggok has come into possession of a human wizard who still has his own soul. Probably, a wizard who teleported into the abyss by accident. Gordon expects Lakima to kill or capture the wizard. To aid in the task, Gordon summons a Rat demon named Biter. The diminutive demon will be their guide to the Hellfort.
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| Gordon explains the deal |
The four set out across the rocky wasteland. Biter constantly urges them on telling them they are safe until they cross the magma flow at the edge of Gordon’s realm. It takes 2 hours for them to reach the magma flow. Biter teleports across and looks back expectantly. Lakima complains of the waste of a spell but he casts Luminous Bridge so everyone can cross the magma easily. Now that they have crossed into Viggok’s realm, Biter becomes careful and urges quiet. He leads them up into the low mountains switching back and forth between paths. They soon realize that without Biter guiding them they would have struggled to find the path over the mountains. Once they cross the mountains they see the plains of soot and a ruined hell fort made of black stone in the distance.
Biter leads the right up to within a few hundred feet of the ruined fort. Then he tells them they are on their own. Lakima asks where the mage would reside and Biter just shrugs and then vanishes. The trio decide to make their way up to a partially intact building. Lakima casts passwall opening a passage into the building. Inside they find a cell fit for a human captive. Realizing that this is probably the wizard’s cell, Lakima tells everyone to get comfortable, they will wait for the wizard to return. Aldus looks at a cabinet and asks if they shouldn’t search the place. Lakima shakes his head worried about traps.
After a two-hour wait, they hear the lock of the door being turned. The door opens and two lemure demons enter followed by four more. Aldus and Eathwund both slash at the demons in front. Lakima then casts Charm Monster. Most of the demons are charmed (because of the properties of his pendant of demon summoning) but the two that were already attacked resist the spell. Eathwund and Aldus quickly kill the lesser demons.
Lakima then orders the lemure demons to lead them to the wizard. The demons lead the adventurers into the largest building. Inside they see a large chamber that looks and smells like a kitchen. Another six lemure demons reside here and move to attack. Lakima casts Protection from Evil 10’ radius and the demons are kept away from the group. The lemure demons do make a horrible screeching noise which summons help. Two double doors open and they are confronted by a 12-foot-tall frog demon (hezrou). Aldus and Eathwund move to attack the new danger. Aldus is injured but Eathwund slashes open the demon with his Frostbrand sword. Lakima instructs the charmed lemure demons to join the fight on their side and the demon is vanquished.
This chamber is a hallway with demon banners on the walls. At the far end of the hall are ornate double doors. Eathwund goes to the doors and checks with his comrades. Once everyone is ready, Eathwund shoves open the doors. Inside is a throne room. There is a large table and a golden throne. Seated on the throne is a demon they assume is Viggok and standing by the table is a human wizard. Lakima and Eathwund immediately recognize the wizard as Sazor Stratus (the wizard of the Cloud Castle). He looks thinner and older but it is definitely the wizard whom Lakima sold to a demon months ago.
“YOU!” Sazor yells angrily and then casts a hold person spell at Lakima. But Lakima easily resists the spell.
“Wait, worm,” Viggok says in a loud voice. Viggok introduces himself as Victor and offers to take over the contract that binds Lakima. He suggests they join to defeat a demon he calls Gorgonus. Lakima rejects the offer.
“Then I will kill you,” Viggok says and opens a magical gate to allow a 14-foot-tall crocodile demon (Khavorr) to step into the chamber. Viggok also snaps his claws and the charm holding the lemure demons is dispelled. Lakima responds by casting a fireball. The ball of flame blasts over the two demons but they are unaffected, the wizard on the other hand screams in agony and collapses. The wizard’s smoldering corpse is all that remains. This angers Viggok even more and he moves to attack Aldus. Eathwund moves to block the crocodile demon. Lakima casts reincarnation on Sazor and a bright white light surrounds the corpse. Then a huge demon bug emerges from the corpse and scuttles up the steps in the corner of the chamber. The demons slash away at Eathwund and Aldus and both are hit by claws. The lemure demons also advance. Things are looking very bad for the adventurers.
“Step back!” Lakima yells and he casts Wall of iron in front of his companions. All of the demons are trapped on the other side, for a few seconds. Viggok and the crocodile demon teleport to appear in the hallway behind the adventurers. Once Eathwund and Aldus have formed a protective shield in front Lakima summons an Earth Elemental. The huge elemental begins smashing Viggok. The door to the cooking chamber opens and lemure demons run in and grab the elemental about its legs immobilizing it. The earth elemental is still able to keep Viggok’s attention and Eathwund uses this to his advantage stabbing the demon in the chest. Viggok is killed and the other demon immediately opens a gate and vanishes. The lemure demons are easily dispatched by the earth elemental by throwing them against the stone walls. Lakima then dismisses the elemental.
Lakima uses the vessel of potions to create a healing potion and gives it to Aldus. While drinking the potion Aldus notices a silver bound treasure chest and a pile of tattered spellbooks. Lakima has Aldus pick up everything and drop them into the bag of holding. They leave and head out across the plains toward the mountains. A few hundred feet from the hell fort they are joined by Biter. Biter listens to Lakima recount the events of the fight with Viggok and he questions whether they have completed the contract.
It takes most of the day to get back to Gordon’s realm with Biter leading the way. Lakima tells Gordon that he has fulfilled the contract and wishes to leave. Gordon tells Lakima he disagrees. Taking out the contract he reads it and points out that they have not killed Sazor or captured him. Lakima argues that they killed Sazor and only later brought him back to life. He demands to see the contract. Gordon sends the contract to Lakima who reads it carefully. The two continue to argue. Lakima even threatens to kill Gordon telling him that Viggok told them it would void the contract. Gordon tells him that Viggok lied. The contract would fall to his master Caizel.
“You do not want to owe Caizel a favor!”
Lakima angrily relents and tells his friends he needs to rest to recover spells. They take out their tent and pitch it on the rocky terrain. Lakima peruses the spellbooks they found. He finds that they belonged to human magic users across different time periods and regions. A lot of the pages have been torn out. He does not find anything useful.
After about an eight-hour rest, Lakima memorizes new spells.
“Let’s go!” Lakima says.
The three adventurers set out again across the hellscape. Biter appears and offers to guide them again, for a price. Lakima angrily rejects the demon but Biter persists. Eventually, they agree that in return for guiding them, Biter can have Sazor’s soul.
On the way to the Hellfort, they are surprised by two Hezrou (frog demons). One is killed by Eathwund and the other demon flees when it looks like Aldus is going to kill it. Even Biter aids in the combat.
Biter leads them back to the Hellfort. As they make their way to the main building, they see a giant demon that spots them but they run inside before it can reach them. Inside they confront the bug demon Sazor and a large number of lemure demons. Lakima gets the jump on Sazor and casts disintegrate but the demon resists the spell. Eathwund and Aldus find they cannot reach Sazor because of the Lemure demons so Lakima casts charm monster on them. All but two of the lemure demons are charmed. The ones that are charmed are instructed to grapple Sazor. Eathwund and Aldus kill the uncharmed ones. The Lemure demons grab hold of the many legs of the demon and immobilize it. Eathwund and Aldus attack it and kill it. Biter arrives and quickly absorbs the soul of Sazor Stratus. Biter then appears to grow larger.
“You can call me Cruncher from now on,” the demon says in a deeper voice.
At this moment they hear laughter from the hallway and see the huge demon they saw earlier. The demon laughs at Cruncher, who runs up the stairs to the next level. The adventurers quickly follow Cruncher. They discover that the stairs lead up to a flat roof. Below they feel the walls shaking. They cross the roof climb down to the ground and run off into the plains of soot. The return to Gordon’s region is uneventful but they are confronted with a problem when they reach the magma flow. Lakima does not have the luminous bridge spell memorized. He thinks it over for a while and then casts a wall of iron in the pool of magma creating a five-foot-wide bridge of iron. The group moves across carefully.
Once they reach the gate Lakima insists Gordon send them back. Gordon is happy to do it telling Lakima he is on the path to joining him in the abyss. Lakima tells Gordon he has a plan and then steps through the portal. Despite being in the abyss for 2 days they find only a few hours have passed. Domago asks where they have been. Lakima takes the chest out of the bag of holding and calls for Brovin. The thief spends some time checking the chest and triggers a poison needle trap. Protected from poison he only winces in pain and expresses surprise that the periapt proof against poison actually works. Aldus picks up the chest and repeatedly smashes it with his mace thunderstike until it is bashed open. Fortunately, nothing fragile was inside. They find eight rubies, four diamonds, three pieces of jewelry, and a book bound in a strange leathery skin. The skin completely encompasses the book. The endpapers can be seen but it cannot be opened. Lakima casts an identify spell on it and a demon face forms on the cover.
“Speak the password,” the face hisses in abyssal.
“Ahh, Victor” Lakima says. The face vanishes and the book remains closed.
“This will take some thinking,” Lakima says.
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