The Infernal Syndrome Columns of Fire They returned to Westcrown with the freed prisoners and spent the next few weeks shopping and catching up on events. There were rumours that there had been an assassination attempt on the mayors life and he had not been seen since – this did not seem to concern the citizens too much, however. Then, at 15.47 one afternoon, there was a massive explosion in the south of the city. Five columns of fire rose into the sky, their smoke seeming to leer demonically as it rose into the sky, the fire forming five pillars rising high into the air and remaining unnaturally, rather than dying down. The party set out from the various places across the city they were in toward the fire, fighting their way through citizens as the realisation hit them that the explosion was centred on the mayoral residence. Gorac, who had started a little further north than the others, noticed a furtive figure in a side alley as she ran past – it was the mayor! He beckoned her over and gave her an info dump – apparently, someone has sent him a cursed letter and a bone devil had forced him to flee the residence prior to the explosion. He explained that the Thrune had installed a powerful devil at the heart of a great machine to power the mansion and he believes the bonds on the devil have weakened in the decades since installation. Begging her to turn the machine off, he fled, believing the bone devil still to be chasing him. They met at a hastily built barricade manned by town guards, blocking entry to the ruins of the once great mansion. After a slightly strange interview with the captain of the guard, they were allowed in and advised to investigate sightings of devils  in the Rasdovain Gatehouse. Heading in that direction, they found a heavy metal gate blocking their way. After some time, a battering ram constructed from a roof timber by Janek enabled them to get in, whereupon they came under assault from several large lemures, which proved more of a distraction than dangerous. Exploring further, the were attacked by a bone devil – possibly the very one the mayor had spoken of. This proved a much more dangerous foe but was eventually driven off. The Mayor's Manor They moved on to the remains of the manor and, after some time, overcame the deadly locked door by hitting it a lot. They moved in to be met by a hail of crossbow bolts and a running battle with a group of rogues ensued, ending with a magic user draining several levels from Gorac and Ruby by use of enervation. As the dust settled, Janek opened a door to discover a room with a shadow in it. Damon used the Morrowfall to cast sunburst, destroying the shadows and they moved in to the room, just in time for  the summoned lemures to attack – as they faced the demons, some invisible force started to open all of the doors of the room and, as the last of the lemures fell, they faced the new opponent – an unseen servant, which had completed its mistresses wishes, allowing her to escape. The Path Beneath They rested overnight and returned to the exterior of the building, looking at the huge stone door – their greatest enemy, the locked door glowered back at them. Eventually, pooling resources, they managed to procure a scroll of Knock and the door opened, defeated. In the room beyond, they were ambushed by rogues and a running battle ensued, with the rogues hopelessly outclassed until their cleric master joined in, striking the party with flame strikes of hellfire before retreating further into the complex behind a wall of stone.   With that path blocked, they began to search the rest of the complex with Damon finding two Cerberi (three headed hideous dog like creatures) which caused some difficulty before they were vanquished – in the middle of the battle, three lemures joined the assault from behind, causing Ruby a moment of panic before Janek moved to aid her. The cerberi had been guarding two large iron chests and these proved too great an enemy for out heroes to overcome. Janek decided to head into town to get a means of opening them and set off through the ravaged remains of the mayors residence. As he did so, two bearded devils attacked him seemingly out of nowhere and he beat a hasty retreat to his comrades to allow them to share in the joy of battle. The devils defeated, they paused to consider their options. Ghosts in the Machine After healing, Janek set out again, this time accompanied by Gorac. As they made their way into and out of town, they were harried by an irritating winged figure, shooting at them with a fiery bow. Having got their scrolls and survived the arrows of outrageous fortune, they returned to find Damon guarding uncomfortably, with Ruby doing her best to cause him embarrassment. Opening the chests using knock, they found many things, none of them what they were looking for. They headed forwards, using stone shape to bypass the wall of stone. Beyond was a large hall, with several cells down one side containing a large number of bodies. Passing through quickly, they came to a long room lined with some form of lightning devices, sparking randomly. Running through, they took some damage but managed to get through the lightning and reach a chamber with some form of giant machine in it. Made nervous by the previous chamber, they opened the door on the far wall and left the area as quickly as possible.   The corridor beyond led to a room resembling a silo, with a pool of liquid far below. Moving on, through a door on the far wall, they followed the passage until they reached two doors on the right side. One of these lead to a store room, the other to a seam filled chamber. As Gorac stood looking into the room, a steam mephit appeared out of the murk and complained the open door was letting the steam out – Gorac immediately closed it and a muffled thanks came from inside. The passage brought them to another silo, this one with slightly more violent steam mephits – who posed a threat briefly, if only because they were flying. Damon lead them on, finding a room with complex designs upon the walls – they appeared to be an attempt to understand the nature of the device that the party found themselves inside of. The Secrets Below As Gorac and Ruby studied the device, with Damon looking on, Janek became aware of a figure walking towards him down the corridor. It looked long dead, human and really quite disgusting. He called out a warning as the thing moved to attack and everyone's favourite, a good old-fashioned corridor fight started. As the others joined, Janek stepped into a side corridor to enable Gorac to join the fray and they soon dealt with the lich shade, with Damon calling encouragement from the back. As the lich fell, the air was filled with choking dust but the party managed to avoid its hazards. Having done so, they decided to rest in the room of weird writings, despite Damon's enthusiasm for returning to town to sleep in their own beds. The next morning, they decided to search for secret doors, using a new spell Ruby had had pop into her head recently. This turned up several secret doors that they had missed and, selecting one, they set off down a four foot high tunnel, which opened into a large, low-ceilinged cave. As they all emerged, they were hit by a Unholy Smite and Janek thought he saw something briefly in the dark recesses of the cavern. A battle of attrition started, with Ruby clearing paths through the debris with bolts of lightning, Janek closing to combat, Gorac trying to find the little whatsit and Damon playing with his crossbow. Eventually, they managed to corner a small fox-like creature and finally killed it. The Stygian Keyrod After healing up, they continued to the last of the secret doors. This lead to a filthy room full of Tiefling rogues, who did not offer much resistance. A door at the far end lead into a sumptuously decorated chamber, where they were greeted by a beautiful woman, who basically sold them the Stygian keyrod. Although they realised she was probably a Succubus or Erinyes (the wings were a hint), this struck them as a happy circumstance and they left her with both parties happy.   They moved on, finding more of the cooling chambers, one with a particularly dangerous water elemental in it which caused some considerable inconvenience. In a cave accessede through damage in the side of the chamber, they found a Lyre of Building in a deep pool of water. From the final cooling chamber they moved into a large room with a feast being enacted at a table in mid air. The Gargoyles seated at the table invited them to join them but seeing the ‘food’ the party refused. Such a neinous insult annoyed the gargoyles and they attacked, giving a reasonable account of themselves for several rounds before they fell. Beyond the table was a wall of fire blocking progress – after some study, the party discovered it to be illusory and stepped through. Mirrors of Hell They found themselves in a mirror-lined hall. Janek looked into one of them, seeing a vision hell, with himself being tortured at its centre. As he shook off the horror of the scene, the mirror disappeared and he found an alcove with a piece of equipment of some sort behind it. One by one, they viewed the other mirrors, gradually acquiring a collection of minor magic items. Moving on, they found themselves seemingly on a plane of hell itself and came under attack by Achaierais. They soon defeated the giant birds and, after exploring further, realised they were in an illusory landscape, finding a door at the far end. Passing through, they found a gigantic chamber with many toiling slaves overseen by giant fire-breathing lizards – Behirs. As they took in the scene, one of the lizards ordered them back to work, so they did what any self-respecting party of adventurers would do and smote it with fire and fury – this proved very successful and, once again, they realised the scene was illusory. The next room contained a large statue standing in pits of fire which animated as they moved across he room. This proved to be an opponent worthy of them and they were sorely pressed before finally triumphing. As the others healed, Damon moved to look into the next room, finding a large cowled figure seated behind a desk. The figure asked for the contract and, on being told he did not have it, instructed Damon to leave, using Command to back up the request. Damon did so but Gorac decided to ignore the request and Damon's repeated appeals to leave, drawing the Kolyarut into combat. This proved a very bad decision, nearly costing Gorac his life as Damon kept trying to get everyone to leave. Eventually, they managed to kill the mayors attorney and spent a while healing the damage it had done. Shutdown Damon grew tired of healing and moved into the next room, where he was politely greeted by a young lady wearing a veil. After introductions, she removed the veil and Damon was a little surprised to see she had snakes for hair – a medusa.. Shaking off the petrification effect, he closed to combat and was swiftly joined by the others, who also avoided her stony gaze and helped to quickly remove the threat. Moving on, they passed through a frustrating series of riddle doors and finally got to the central chamber, a hell of fire and brimstone with a Pit Fiend in a cage at its centre. One look convinced them that they needed to back off to prepare and Ruby lead the way, finally using the Stygian keyrod to shut off all of the cooling chambers. They then decided to go into town to prepare further and set off across the blasted wasteland of the mayors old home. As they were walking, they were not totally surprised to be ambushed by a pair of Bearded Devils and a flying archer. The bearded devils proved little threat and they went after the archer with magic. Ruby cast fly on Damon as Janek threw insults and axes at the Erinyes – as the battle turned against her, she retreated into a pillar of fire but it did little to protect her from the onslaught and she soon fell. The Twin They carried on into town and used Augury (or Divination) to try to locate the mayor, finding him hiding in Delvehaven. With some effort, they managed to locate him deep in the old Pathfinder lodge and, with some persuasion, got him to give them the contract.  They also cashed in their treasure so far and bought what they could to aid them in the battle ahead before returning once more to the Pit Fiend. Damon, Gorac and Janek approached the cage cautiously but were still surprised when the cage animated, lashing at them with long red hot chains. Once they recovered from the shock, the battle to break the cage became one of attrition, the cages hardness proving difficult to overcome. At last, the cage finally lost and began to lose its hot glow, fading to look like glass. Damon struck it again and it shattered, releasing the fiend. In the early stages of the combat, the fiend vented its anger on Gorac, knocking her unconscious very quickly. Ruby joined in with spells and brandished the contract, in the hope that this would help in the battle. Damon and Janek rained blows on the fiend as it battled against them, their armour protecting them from its rage again and again. Finally, it fell before them, only to rise again! Again, they managed to kill it, this time continuing to hit it until they were certain it would stay down, as Ruby helped Gorac. They left the complex and held a party in their pavilion provided by the rod of splendour, before heading back into town to announce the threat to Westcrown had been defeated, to some acclaim from the citizens who were still there. A few days later, they were visited by a man called Jarvis Alebrecht, who asked for their help in finding out what had happened to an informant of his called Goren One Ear, who had offered information linking the Drovenge family to the leadership of the shadowy Council of Thieves.

Annals