The Demon Council
The Spiral Desert
After resting for a while in Sigil, the Party went to see Rule of
Three once more. The githzerai had little more advice for them but
suggested, proposed, put forward that there may be increased security in
the Demonweb due to the Council and suggested they take an alternate
route via a portal in the Spiral Desert, this was likely to be less
guarded as Lolth's drow had conquered that particular Prime hundreds of
year ago. Fortunately Elred had found the required portal key, a bronze
pyramid on their first visit to the Demonweb.
The Party, after purchasing supplies suitable for a desert world, shortly found themselves in a narrow alley behind Fell's Tattoo Parlour, scattering sand in front of them and they found themselves in a a blasted desert. Following Rule of Three's advice, guidance,counseling, they kept the sun at their back and marched onwards. Two days later the arrived at a bronze pyramid,gleaming in the harsh desert sun. After disposing of the spider guardians there, they passed through the portal and found themselves once more in The Demonweb.
Using the map that they had obtained the set of, heading for the
Black Gate. On the way they ran into an old friend, Dawnat Snap, who
gave them his invite to the Council, which would allow them to pose as
(albeit rather odd) representatives of Orcus! Reaching the Black Gate
and it's dreadful kastighur guardian, Talonux used the scroll of Dread Word as the password that gained them passage through the Black
Gate. Truldan snapped on hearing the pure malevolence of the Dark
Speech and reflexively attacked Talonux, much to the amusement of the
huge demon, who waved them through the Gate with a snort.
Sleeping Beasts and Crystal Towers
The Party managed to sneak past the displacer beasts using a combination of fly and spider climb
spells and took the north western exit from the chamber. The passageway
led to a dead end, black webs criss-crossed their path behind which
Elred could see a strange fog roiling. Cutting through the webs, the fog
began to seep forward and Elred felt the icy cold clawed at this very
soul, calling on the others to fall back, he could see the fog swirling
forward to engulf them before more webs spun forth from the very
fabric of the Demonweb holding the fog at bay. Realising there was no
way forward they headed back to the displacer beast chamber, this time
resolving to fight their way through rather than rely on stealth.
The displacer beasts slain the Party took the south west exit from
the room which led them on a long looping path to an irregular room
who’s walls were covered in a hard white stone. Mist boiled up out of
two pits in the floor, and the web passageways lead out in two
directions. Truldan realized with vague discomfort that they were
standing in an area fashioned from what appeared to be a giant skull.
There was a dry, dusty smell here, with hints of rotting meat. Dropping
down into the crown of the skull they made their way cautiously past
the eye-sockets that opened out onto the deadly fog that shrouded the
exterior of the Demonweb, and with some difficulty clambered up the
other side.
The path beyond led them to an intersection. As they pondered over which way to go, Elred realised suddenly the the map they had been given was at best a rough-guide due to the divinely morphic nature of the Demonweb and any details within would have to be verified by actual experience. Eventually they decided to head in the direction of the "Crystal Fortress".
They moved on for some time when suddenly the tunnel that surrounded them changed from grey and web-lined to transparent and crystalline; the could see only fog and mists, but could hear a distinct, chiming sound, like rubbing the rim of a water glass. The mist cleared, and ahead they could see a looming tower of purple crystal. The tower glowed from within, pale blue, purple, and white,and it extended both above and below the passageway the Party stood in. A flash of light within the crystals lights up the entire tower like a beacon for an instant, then the light pulses, fades, and vanishes. There was no door, just a perfectly smooth opening in the wall of crystal, and Elred led the way forward. Inside, the blue-green light comes from a 10-foot-diameter lens of fused metal and flesh, a contraption still in motion. A female drow stands before it, concentrating. In the centre of the chamber you see a female drow standing on the ceiling above a staircase leading farther down into the fortress. To one side, two long flights of stairs connected an upper landing to the main floor. A scream echoed up from below.
Elred strode forward confidently playing the part of an ambassador of Orcus, unfortunately his bluff failed and he felt a light touch brush against his mind, and the Party were immediately entangled in a web spell. Talonux, unaffected by the web thanks to wearing Spidersilk, moved forward, only for a huge spider to teleport in and bite him. The seeming drow female at the strange device cast charm person on Elred, budding the rogue join her , but Elred was unable to break free of the webs to comply. As Truldan and Lefrassa struggled against the web, the drow on the ceiling teleported to the floor and Lefrassa was surrounded by a strange cloud of stinking gas, but managed to shake off its nauseating effects.
Prison of the Yochlols
As the battle raged across the entrance to the tower, the Party
slowly started getting the upper hand, despite the yochlols shifting
their shapes constantly to try and maximise their advantages. However
the combined assaults of the Party, took their toll, Thass and The Demon
Slaying Sword proving particularly effective against these foes.
Eventually the last of them assumed gaseous forms and tried to flee, but
was stopped in their tracks by a combined assault from the Party.
Elred led the way down the stairway into the glowing hollow core of the crystal fortress - a hellish chamber. Blood was spattered on every crystal surface; gases coiled and bubbled through crystalline pipes, and steam and other vapours puffed out of the walls. Familiar tools made this room’s purpose clear: a filthy rack stretched a pale dwarf with a bloodstained beard, and a wate-rboard and a barrel of sewage were being used on an aasimar who is vomiting up water. Elsewhere they could see too many instruments of cruelty to count, including a spiked club in the hands of a female drow with broad shoulders and a full metal helmet. Her two assistants stand near leather straps, heavy clubs, and a series of knives, tongs, brands, and other implements of torture, all shiny and well used.
Elred spotted three elves hammering against the crystal walls on one
side of the room, and a human in a similar cell on the far side.
Battle was swiftly joined as his friends descended the stairway behind
him. Although these yochlols seemed somehow tougher than the ones
above, the result was the same, the Party ultimately triumphing.
Freeing the prisoners and giving what healing they could spare, the
Party decided to rest here before moving on.
The Demon Council
After resting, Elred gave the freed prisoners, who had equipped themselves with what armour and weapons they could from the yochlols, and gave them directions to the portal to the Spiral Desert and then the portal from there to Sigil which would take them out of the Demonweb and back to safety.
The Party themselves headed onwards deeper into Loth's web, eventually arriving at a huge archway 10 feet wide and 20 feet tall; gigantic mirrors flanked the archway on either side, and a stone figure of a spider covered the entryway itself, its eight legs grabbing all sides of the arch. The statue, obviously a golem of some kind, shifted a leg, and a small demon, a dretch, came out of the arch and skittered away. Elred tried to peer around the edges of the statue, but behind it could glimpse only fog and mist.
A few minutes later the dretch returned and as it went through the
gateway, Elred collared it, asking it a few questions while the pathetic
creature sniveled at his feet, before diving into the mist.
Eventually Elred tried presenting their
invitation to the gateway and
bluffing their way through. Unfortunately the gate's true guardian, a
Corruptor of Fate yugoloth was unconvinced, mainly as the Party had
made no real attempt to look anything like what ambassadors of Orcus
might be expected to, and instructed the stone golem to attack, resting a
nasty little combat. Fortunately Lefrassa had a scarab of golem-bane
which helped enormously and the golem destroyed, the badly wounded
yugoloth decided that his contract to Loth wasn't worth his life and
fled.
Stepping through the fog they found themselves in avast chamber thronging with demons and aspects of demon princes .
Immediately in front of them three vrocks, standing over some drow corpses were beginning to dance. The Party began cautiously navigating past them, when suddenly a flare of crackling energy flashed outward in a 100-foot radius, ripping through them. They barely had time to recover when a nearby many-eyed demon spotted what Elred was carrying and cried out in Abyssal. “This one is no friend of ours!” n. “It’s carrying a demon-killer!” Dark grey bolts of power leap from its eyes and flew through the air, striking Elred, who crumpled to the ground. The demons around it all stepped back, and it spoke again in the harsh tones of Abyssal, saying, “This fight is between the mortals and myself! Let no one interfere!” The battle was furious, but The Demon Slaying Sword proved very effective against the oculus demon, while Lefrassa managed to save Elred with a revivify spell.
There victory drew the attention of the nearby Aspect of Obox-Ob, who offered them the chance to serve him. Their refusal and declaration of loyalty to Orcus seemed to offend him and he slapped Lefrassa with a venomous stinger, before stalking of to listen to the Aspect of Demogorgon ranting from a pulpit in the centre of the room.
The use of
the Demon Slaying Sword had also attracted the attention of the
ambassador of Kostchtchie, who called out Truldan's use of it by
chucking a rock at him and combat was once more joined, the Party
ultimately prevailing.
The Envoy of Lolth
The Party were approached by one of the drow standing nearby, Eccozt,
who complemented them on their victory and then asked to see their
invitation. As Elred gave it to Lefrassa who passed it over, she
noticed that the beautiful demon Lady of the Succubi is now leaning over
the balcony. She addressed the Council. “Listen to me, O Aspects of Our
Greatness!” But something’s wrong; it was not the Lady of the Succubi
after all. Her voice and her shape suddenly changed; the figure in front
of them was male, not female, a black-skinned demon with fine features,
rich black robes, and six-fingered hands. He continued speaking, his
voice echoing through the council hall. “These mortals are servants of
Orcus, brought here among us to turn us against one another. Lolth says
we must not fight each other—but surely that does not mean we cannot
destroy a few worthless mortals.” A murmur went up around them from the
assembled demons. A few of the demon lords hesitated, perhaps
considering whether it is worse to annoy Lolth or to annoy Graz’zt, the
Dark Prince. For a moment it seemed like the whole room was poised to
attack them, and then another voice answered him with a sneer. “If these
mortals are as ‘worthless’ as you say, surely you can deal with them
yourself.” Demogorgon looked as pleased as a demon lord possibly can . .
. an immensely disturbing expression.
With that Graz'zt leaped over the bannister, drawing his greatsword and dropping twenty feet below effortlessly, and battle was joined. Lefrassa and Truldan closed into to combat while Elred headed for the stairs to gain some height advantage and began firing Thass at the Demon Prince, only to find himself under attack by the three succubi attendants. Talonux, cast a major image of himself as a distraction and then cast invisibility and spider climbed up the walls and began casting lightning bolt spells. Lefrassa paused from her assault on the Dark Prince long enough to help Elred out by casting a blade barrier, instantly slaying the three succubi. Enraged, Graz'zt redoubled his attacks but the assembled demon-slaying prowess of the Party proved too much and there was a hushed silence as the Aspect fell, slain, to the ground.
In the hushed silence, Eccozt approached them again and spoke “The
Envoy of Lolth is beyond the far doors, ambassadors of Orcus.” He looked
at Lefrassa warily again. “Be ready when the porter calls you. The
Envoy does not enjoy waiting.” He handed her the pass back and waved the
Party up the stairs. The stairs led past the Throne of Lolth, which was
guarded by two drow females. As they passed Elred's keen elven senses
spotted a secret door behind it. One of the drow, a cleric, led them to
the foot of a nearby set of stairs and pointed upwards where a set of
huge ornate doors were guarded by a spider demon - a bebilith. The
creature was enormous, the size of a small house, but shaped
like a demonic spider, spiky-limbed and with legs spanning more than 14
feet. It must have weighed at least a ton, maybe two. Sitting on top of
its misshapen head was a small yellow hat. It also wore a large key
around its neck, though it was so stylized that it must be
symbolic—there was no keyhole in the Audience Chamber door. There were
no seats or benches for you to wait on, but a large, beautifully woven
tapestry hung on the wall behind the creature. It shows a series of drow
hatching from spider eggs and spreading throughout many worlds along web-like paths and portals.
The spider-demon seemed to be gnashing its enormous mandibles in
rage—or maybe that’s just its normal look. The Party heard its voice
echo in their head. “I am Gethshuq the porter. Show me your invitation
to an audience with the
divine aspect of the Spider Queen. Or I will eat
your head.” Its legs twitched and skittered on the marble floor,
gouging small chunks of stone from the paving. Once Elred presented their
invitation, the bebilith spoke once more “Come in, step forward. Lolth
is delighted to see mortals of the Material Plane come to pay their
respects and give their fealty to her.” Behind it the doors swung open
silently.
The doors shut by themselves behind them, and the darkness of the Audience Chamber slowly lifted, like someone raising a curtain. The room before them was a sphere about 120 feet in diameter; except for the platform they stood on near the door, the room’s floor was the now-familiar web of spider strands instead of a solid floor. The interior walls were a glossy black, and small spiders darted across the dark surface. At the centre of the sphere, 60 feet in front of them, suspended by strands of silk and gazing down on them as if they were tiny insects, was the Envoy aspect of Lolth, the demon goddess. She was in the form of a 10-foot-tall drow dressed all in white. From across the webbing, you hear the chittering of Lolth’s mandibles or carapace, chitin rubbing against chitin in anticipation. “Come closer, ambassadors,” says the voice of ten thousand spiders. “Hear the words of Lolth’s aspect, and be amazed.” Elred's immediate response was to fire a single arrow from Thass and battle was joined!
The Envoy retaliated casting a confusion spell that affected everyone except Lefrassa who retaliated with a Bolt of Glory, badly injuring the Envoy. While the rest of the Party mostly babbled incoherently or, attacked each other, the Envoy's guardian, a Hammer of Lolth dropped out of the darkness and attacked Lefrassa, but not before she had time to cast another Bolt of Glory, slaying the envoy instantly. The battle against the Hammer of Lolth was complicated by most of the Party still being under the effects of the confusion spell under whose influence Truldan very nearly killed Elred, but once it wore off they were able to rally round and combine against their foe.
As the Hammer of Lolth died the doors swung open, and they felt a great disturbance in the fabric of the web as the god herself turned her full attention on what was happening here and prepared to manifest in person. The Party turned to flee, but unfortunately their path was blocked by the huge bebilith on front of them and there had been no time for healing! Lefrassa saved the day by casting a wall of stone creating ramp that allowed them to flee past it and down to the mezzanine.
The Bebilith pursued them, but a couple of flame strike and fireball spells soon put paid to the demon's pursuit, leaving only the drow guarding the throne to cut their way through. As they did this, Truldan noticed the various assembled demons, sensing the approach of Lolth herself, fleeing out of the chamber unwilling to face the doubtless wrathful presence of a god!
As the drow attacked they were swiftly slain by a combination of brute force and Talonux's lightning bolt spells and Elred led the way to the secret door behind the throne and dashing down the corridor beyond! Ahead they could hear hear chimes or bells ahead, and they saw a light that almost scorched their eyes after the dimness all around them - the Celestial Cyst they had been told about!
Dashing forward at top speed, they threw themselves into the light - and safety!
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