Session #17 - Now I'm Breakin' The Chains
Katla and Almont had used much of their magic and needed a rest to replenish their abilities, but with the possibility of encountering a massive undead tree in front of them and the lingering pain of their near-fatal fight with the banshees still fresh in their minds they decided it would be prudent for Almont to cast one more healing spell before they took their rest. It was risky, as it could leave them without the cleric’s magic when they needed it most, but the greater peril would be to go into another battle without everyone at full strength. So they retreated inside Red Ruth’s malodorous hovel and once again felt the warm glow of healing magic. When it was all over everyone felt fantastic, even Kent, who had come so close to death less than an hour ago.
“We’ll take the first watch,” Kent said, clasping the priest on the shoulder. Donyxn nodded in agreement. Almont let out a long sigh and collapsed onto his bedroll, falling asleep immediately.
“Lola, did I ever tell you about the time that I saved a sleeping Almont from certain death at the claws of an angry bugbear?” Donyxn asked. The hollyphant’s eyes grew wide as she shook her head excitedly. “Come then, you can do this watch with us.” With that the tiefling and his flying companion left the hovel.
Kent followed, looking back over his shoulder as he took a swig from his flask. “Looks like someone has a new best friend, Katla.” He gave the sorceress a wink and stepped outside.
Katla smiled and chucked to herself softly. She gently pulled a blanket over the top of the sleeping Almont, then sat in her meditation position. Before entering the trance-like state that she used instead of sleep, she surveyed the room in all of its grotesqueness, the buzzing of the flies in the far corner overlapping with the sounds of the still crackling fire and bubbling pot. On the other side of the brambled wall she could hear Donyxn’s muffled voice and traces of Kent’s rumbling laughter. She had to admit that there was no place she’d rather be right now than with this group of friends, even though they were quite literally in hell. Smiler had opened the old wound of Sensen’s abduction at the hands of the drem, the smoldering shame of having been unable to help him. She would die before allowing something like that to befall Kent, Almont, or Donyxn. She would never lose someone she cared for without a fight again.
After four hours they changed the watch, Almont groggily waking up and relocating with Katla to the small fire Kent and Donyxn had made right outside the curtain. One nice thing about being holed up in an infernal bramble patch was that there was no shortage of dry material to burn.
It was toward the end of their watch when Lightbringer began to glow, casting a gentle green hue that gradually became brighter. “That’s a new color,” Almont observed absently as he stood and picked up his weapons. Katla sent a spectral mage hand inside the hovel to rouse the others.
“Damn you woman and your magics,” Kent said as he emerged from behind the curtain. “A bit disrespectful to wake a dwarf by slapping him in the face with a floating hand.”
“Well, do you remember that time I tried to wake you at the inn in Neverwinter after you’d been drinking and playing Baldur’s Bones all night?” Katla asked, a sly smile on her face. The dwarf looked at her curiously. “You swung a mug at me and got ale all over my robes.”
A look of recognition came over Kent’s face, as Donyxn laughed while withdrawing a pair of arrows from his quiver. “Aye, now that you mention it, I do. A waste of some fine ale if I may say so.” The mage hand smacked him gently upside the head and then dissipated as he smiled.
“Hey Almont,” Kent said, pointing at Lightbringer. “Did you know your mace is glowing green?” The cleric’s grip tightened on the mace as he scowled at the dwarf. “Oh, I guess that’s why you woke us up then, eh?” With that the rogue drew his scimitar. “OK, where is it. Let’s get on with this. It’s a tree. How hard could it be?”
Because of the canopy of brambles that covered part of the opening they heard the tree before they saw it, the sound of brambles being crushed under the weight of something massive. The wall of brambles in front of them began to vibrate, then shake with each crashing step until the undead tree burst forth through the wall. It was at least eighty feet tall.
“Oh…” Kent said, his voice trailing off as he re-sheathed his scimitar and reached for the wand of magic missiles he kept in a leather holster on his belt.
Had the creature not been moving one would have walked past it without giving it a second thought, simply seeing it as a rotting tree. It strode on two twenty foot tall legs, each a semi-circle that if brought together would comprise one round trunk, though the inside, flat surface of each was hollowed and rotted. Its outer layer was a dry, dark brown bark, with barkless patches of various sizes dotting the surface, each glistening under a layer of viscous sap-like gunk. Bare branches of differing lengths and thicknesses protruded from it seemingly at random, the largest of which were about thirty feet above the ground. Some of the branches swayed with the movement of the tree while others appeared to make more deliberate motions. One held a man-sized rodent that struggled in the tree’s vice-like grip, smaller branches extended from the main one to engulf it. The branch moved the shrieking rodent towards the trunk. A huge maw opened and the rodent was unceremoniously stuffed into it. As soon as the mouth closed the noise ended and the clearing was left only with the sounds caused by Avernus’ hot winds blowing through the brambles.
Donyxn acted first, completely unfazed by the monstrosity before them. He let fly a pair of arrows that struck the tree in the area where the mouth-like opening had been. The thing was easy to hit – it was massive and moved slowly. However, while the arrows hit their mark they didn’t penetrate, instead striking and tearing off a pair of fist-sized chunks of bark before falling to the ground.
“Huh,” the ranger said. “I guess it’s time for plan B.”
“I sure hope you have a plan B,” Kent said through gritted teeth.
The arrows attracted the tree’s attention and it began moving toward them. Almont stepped forward, his hands low at his sides as he whispered. Heat radiated off the cleric, causing Kent to step to the side and give him a concerned look – he’d never known the cleric to create actual fire before. Almont raised his hands rapidly as he finished the incantation, and a forty-foot high column of flame burst up from the ground, completely surrounding the tree and engulfing its bottom half in fire for a few moments. When the flaming tower disappeared portions of the tree continued to burn, some of the smaller branches cracking and falling off as the creature swayed.
Katla looked at the priest, an eyebrow cocked. “Been learning some new spells I see. You’re just full of surprises. But you’ll never out fire me, priest.” With that the sorceress called forth a crackling orb of fire and cast it forth, striking the tree above the level of Almont’s flame strike and blasting away a large section of the bark, leaving behind a burning patch and a crater about the size of a human head.
Two of the largest branches of the tree came together in a snapping sound, and a green light flashed behind the party. Donyxn turned to look and saw a new tree burst from the brambles. It was smaller than the one in front of them, but it rose to a height of thirty feet before it began to move toward them. “Well that’s unfortunate.”
Kent broke ranks and dashed off to the left, circling a round the larger tree, which paid him no notice. He stopped about thirty feet away and held out the wand. “Here goes nothing.” With that four darts of flame each about the length of a forearm flew forth and put a new slew of burning holes in the tree’s surface.
“Time for plan B,” Donyxn said, giving a quick smile to Lola. He drew back the bow with a single arrow notched. As soon as it left the infernal bow the arrow changed into a bolt of lightning, the blue-white crackling bolt of energy lancing out from the surface of his metal bow to the tree, the line of electrical discharge searing everyone’s retinas and leaving behind a flashing line in their vision. The bolt struck without any kind of thunderclap, the buzzing of the ionic disruption the only sound. When it hit the tree the charge moved upwards, scorching away a twenty-foot gouge and leaving behind a smoldering black scar.
Kent shook his head. “I go to sleep for a couple of hours and wake up and now everyone has delusions of grandeur,” he shouted over the sound of the still-burning tree.
Almont rushed forward to meet the still advancing tree, the green-glowing mace Lightbringer in his right hand and his warhammer in his left. Before he could get close enough to strike at the trunk a pair of the thickest and longest branches reached down, the smaller offshoots raking him and attacking from all sides. The cleric found himself on the defensive, only able to bat away branches but not inflicting any damage on the tree itself.
The smaller tree had now entered the clearing and used its longest branches to swipe at Donyxn. The ranger was quite nimble, fending off most of the blows and getting out of its range, though not without a few scrapes and cuts.
“This is absurd,” Katla said to no one in particular, this time generating two orbs of fire and projecting one at each of the trees. Both struck home, creating new burning craters.
The larger tree was still preoccupied with Almont and didn’t notice Kent racing around behind it. Much of the tree was covered in small fires, its bark blackened and charred, and that gave the dwarf an idea. He reached into his robe and pulled out an oil flask. He jogged forward and from about fifteen feet away threw the container at the tree, striking it about twenty feet up. The jar burst, the oil within spraying outward and igniting, turning the tree into a conflagration and creating its own funeral pyre. The branches engaging Almont went limp and the cleric raced away as the now engulfed tree swayed unsteadily. A loud snapping sound presaged its demise as the top part came away from the legs and crashed down into the clearing and brambles beyond.
A flash of light behind them told everyone that Donyxn had fired another of his new and mysterious lightning bolts at the other tree. Almont followed that with a bolt of radiant energy as the tree continued to press Donyxn, swiping at the ranger with its branches. As it struck him the tiefling shouted, “Rebuke!”, and with that fire burst up from the ground around the tree shrouding it momentarily in flame and leaving it worse for wear.
Katla turned and casually cast forth another orb of fire to complete the tree’s immolation. It slowly fell to the ground at which point Lola flew up to it and began stomping it into the ground. The hollyphant took no notice of the fire as she plodded up and down the trunk smashing it apart.
The battle over, Katla used her ray of frost to put out the flames in the surrounding brambles. It wouldn’t do to have Red Ruth return home to nothing more than a charred mess.
A few hours later Ruth emerged from the brambles. When she saw the tree carcass she screeched in delight. “You killed it!”
Kent was sitting outside next to their fire, picking his teeth with a toothpick he’d whittled. “T’wasn’t so hard, m’lady.”
Ruth entered the hovel, Kent coming in behind her. She looked slightly less disheveled, though it was hard to tell.
“It looks as though you visited Burney while at the emporium,” Katla said flatteringly.
Ruth smiled, the few teeth that remained in her mouth an array of colors, none of which were white. “I did. I always feel so pretty after she’s done with me.”
Kent, who was standing behind Ruth, shook his head vigorously and silently mouthed, “Not so much.” Katla gave the dwarf a look and he smiled.
Ruth reached down to her belt and pulled the top off one of the shrunken heads that hung there. She reached inside and withdrew two soul coins, handing them to Katla. “Two more coins to finish our contract.” Katla took the coins from the witch delicately, making as little contact with them as possible before passing them over to Almont.
“What of our reward for killing the tree, witch?” Almont asked with his usual complete lack of subtlety.
“Ah yes, I believe I have something that will be of use to the elf,” she replied. Ruth reached around her back and produced an object that looked like a miniature pilum, the shaft portion made out of some kind of light brown wood and the part that would normally be metal instead carved of milky-white crystal. It was roughly a foot long. Katla accepted it with both hands and gave a bow to Ruth.
“Looks like a child’s toy,” said Kent.
“This ‘child’s toy’ is a wand of the war mage,” the sorceress said, her eyes not leaving the wand as she studied its every detail.
“You know your arcana,” Ruth observed. “I can sense that the magic that flows within you is wild. This should help you focus it.”
Katla nodded, hearing the words but not paying them much attention as she continued to study the wand.
“We took care of those pesky banshees as well,” Kent said to no one in particular.
“Ah! While it is sad I will not be able to hear their sweet songs again, they were quite troublesome,” replied Ruth.
“Sweet songs?” Kent asked incredulously. He still had some dried blood caked on his earlobe from the mind-shattering sonic assault of the banshees.
“Yes, I do so hope you got to hear them sing before you destroyed them.” With that Ruth walked over to the trunk near her bed, opened it, and began to rummage around. “Ah, here it is! I can’t offer you much of value in return, but perhaps you can make use of this.” She tossed a skullcap-like hat to the dwarf. “It’s a magical hat of disguises. I don’t have any use for disguises, but perhaps you do.”
“Yeah, perhaps you could disguise yourself as someone handsome,” Donyxn said.
“Yes, yes, that would be wonderful,” Ruth agreed, flashing a gap-toothed smile at the rogue.
Kent shot a hard look at Donyxn. “At least I have a head to put it on. What would you do, hang it off one of your infernal horns?”
As Kent and Donyxn continued to trade insults and bicker, Ruth made it clear it was time for everyone to leave. “Now if you don’t mind, I have my work to return to.”
Not wanting to overstay their welcome, as well as a general desire to get as far away from the stench of Ruth’s hovel as possible, they said their goodbyes. As they prepared to take the path Ruth emerged one last time. “By the way, the emporium is headed south. I suspect by now it has already passed the hellrider’s crypt.” She then went back inside.
Their vehicles were where they’d left them, seemingly unnoticed and undisturbed. As before Donyxn and Lola rode the sidecar-equipped Devil’s Ride while the others traveled on the Tormentor. They considered catching up with Madhi and the emporium to claim the bounty on Smiler, but ultimately decided that journey wouldn’t take them closer to any of their objectives. So they drove northeast and headed toward the Arches of Dolach and the prison of the demon Kostchtchie.
They skirted the bonebramble forest, eventually leaving it receding in the distance. The plain ahead was littered with rocks of various sizes, from the smallest pebbles to boulders the size of cathedrals, the rust red dirt spotted with black like some kind of massive ladybug. The terrain wasn’t terribly difficult to navigate, but it did require the drivers, Donyxn and Kent, to maintain focus.
After a time, a yellow glow showed on the horizon. As they approached a black arch came into view, followed shortly thereafter by a second, smaller one. When they were about half a mile a way it was clear the larger arch was the closer of the two, though the yellow light seemed to originate from the smaller one.
They pulled up and parked a few hundred feet away. From this distance they could get a sense of the scale. The larger arch was a half-oval, probably a hundred feet high at its peak and maybe seventy feet wide. It appeared to be made out of a seamless piece of infernal iron, something that was logically impossible, but yet here it was. The smaller arch looked to be a hundred yards or so further back with the same shape as its larger brother but a smaller footprint, its peak maybe fifty feet above the ground. Sitting on a stone next to the left leg of the larger arch was an imp.
The four adventures spread out, approaching the arch in a line four across. As they got closer they could see engravings on the arch, scenes of armies of devils fighting hordes of demons. In fact the entire surface appeared to be covered with figures, some the size of a finger, others three or four times the size of a man. Almont scowled as he gazed upon it. Kent walked up to it and looked closely at the metal work. It was only then that he realized that the wounds on some of the figures looked to be bleeding actual black ichor, which contributed to the glass-like look if the arch.
“Damn thing is bleeding,” he said matter-of-factly. They’d only been in Avernus for a few weeks at most and things that would have terrified them previously were now regarded as simply unusual.
“Why do you seek Kostchtchie?” asked the imp.
The creature looked terrible, even for an imp, its emaciated form giving its dull red skin a stretched quality, the frame of its skeleton pressing against the flesh from the inside. Its wings were patchwork, holes of various sizes torn into the membranes. A chain engraved with runes wrapped around the arch and terminated at a metal clasp around the creature’s ankles.
“Its wings have been clipped,” Donyxn whispered to Kent. “I’ll bet it couldn’t use them for more than a little extra loft when jumping.”
“We would have words with the demon,” Almont said to the imp.
“Why do you seek Kostchtchie?”
“That is our business, imp.”
“Why do you seek Kostchtchie?”
Katla took a step forward, lightly touching Almont’s left arm before he could speak again, or worse yet before he simple crushed the hapless thing with his warhammer.
“We believe Kostchtchie knows the whereabouts of a powerful artifact,” Katla said. “An artifact that Zariel desires.” This was on the face of it a true statement. What the sorceress left out was that they planned on using the artifact against Zariel.
“She’s good,” whispered Kent, never taking his eyes off the imp. Donyxn nodded.
“Drive through the arch. When you go through the second one, you will arrive at your destination,” said the imp.
“We will arrive at the place where Kostchtchie is imprisoned?” asked Katla.
“You will arrive at your destination. Whatever place you visualize, you will arrive there.”
“So, if I visualized a tavern…” Kent’s voice trailed off as the elf gave him a hard look. “Sorry.”
“You will arrive at your destination. Or the eighth level of hell.”
“Wait, what?” asked Kent.
The imp regarded the dwarf. “The arches can take you to many places. You can go to any point on Avernus. One of the others is Cania, hell’s frozen eighth level. It’s quite lovely. Would you like me to describe it for you?”
“No!” Kent shouted, sticking his fingers in his ears. “No no no!”
The imp shrugged its shoulders. “Suit yourself.” It turned back to Katla. “I suggest you travel together so that you do not become separated and arrive at different destinations.”
They left the imp and returned to the vehicles. Almont turned to Donyxn. “Sorry brother, but we’ll probably have to leave that Devil’s Ride here.”
“Agreed. It was fun while it lasted, but we still have the other lashed to the back of the Tormentor.” The tiefling walked over to the bike and removed the partially used soul coin, tossing it to Almont to keep with the others.
The four adventurers and hollyphant climbed aboard the Tormentor. Kent was standing behind the driver seat, scowling. Almont approached him. “What’s the problem?”
“I can’t get the idea of a frozen wasteland out of my mind,” he replied. The dwarf turned to look at the cleric, a somewhat desperate look in his eyes. “What if I can’t focus and I take us deeper into hell?” He appeared genuinely terrified that it might happen.
Almont considered this. Kent was canny, but he wasn’t particularly smart. If they needed someone with mental focus to drive the short distance between the arches and maintain concentration on their desired destination, it would probably come down to him or Katla. And given her short stature and lack of strength, that left it up to Almont. “I’ll drive the infernal machine, but only until we reach our destination.”
Kent’s shoulders dropped with relief as he looked down. Then his head popped up and a grin crossed his face. “In that case, I’ll man the harpoon gun,” he said with obvious joy as he bounded away.
Almont drove the Tormentor around in a few circles and figure eights to get the feel for the machine before coming back around and stopping about fifty feet from the large arch, facing it. He looked back over his shoulder. “Ready?”
Everyone nodded.
“Almont, don’t think about the eighth level of hell,” said Lola with what she thought was a helpful piece of advice. Everyone turned and scowled at the hollyphant, even Katla. Almont shook his head with a sigh, turned back around, and hit the throttle.
The Tormentor headed straight through the first arch. As it approached the second things blurred around them as if they were entering some kind of tunnel, at the end of which was the smaller arch and its shimmering yellow light. When they reached the second arch and entered the light it felt as if space and time stretched for a moment, followed by a bright flash.
They emerged from the flash and to everyone’s relief they were still on Avernus. If it seemed strange to be glad to still be on hell’s first level, well, compared to the Cania it was a paradise.
The horizon in front of them was lined with an impossibly high mountain range. To the south a volcano grew out of the plain spewing yellow sulfurous smoke. In front of them was the southern end of crevasse that extended north for miles and miles.
“Wait, I know this place,” Katla said. She clamored forward and retrieved the Avernus map from Almont’s bag of holding, spreading it out before her. “We’re back on the other side of the Styx.” She turned to the left and pointed toward the horizon. “There’s Elturel.” Katla was correct. The portal had sent them back to the other side of the river. The volcano to the south was home to Bel’s forge. To the north were Elturel and Fort Knucklebones.
They drove along the edge of the crevasse and came upon a metal pole planted in the ground. They parked the Tormentor and walked over to it. It was slightly askew, leaning toward the Styx. If standing straight it would have been about ten feet high. Dangling from a pair of chains attached to the top was a metal plaque. The writing on it burned Kent and Almont’s eyes and they had to look away, but to Katla and Donyxn it marked their destination. Kostchtchie’s Maw.
From within the gouge in the ground came a voice, low and full of malice. The language was one that none of them could understand. Then it stopped and the same voice rumbled again, but this time in abyssal. Katla translated. “It’s saying ‘free me… bring me my hammer’ over and over again.”
Kent peered over the edge, as did Donynx, who gave the dwarf a slight nudge on the back causing him to stumble forward a bit. Kent turned and backhanded Donyxn in the chest. The tiefling just smiled then he too looked over the edge using his magic goggles. “It’s awfully dark. I can see down maybe a few hundred feet, but I can’t see the bottom.”
“Well, there’s only one way to get down there,” Katla said, pulling her spider staff from its sheath on her back. Everyone nodded in agreement and Katla used the staff to imbue each of them with magic that would allow them to walk on any surface, even vertical ones, with no trouble. “Remember, this only lasts an hour. The staff has enough power for me to cast this one more time today, which should get us back to the surface if need be.”
With that they walked over the edge, which was always a disorienting experience, and began walking down the vertical rock wall face. What would have required hours with ropes and grappling hooks only took minutes thanks to the staff’s magic, and even then the journey was only that long because they progressed slowly both to stay as quiet as possible and because Almont lacked the night and dark vision of the others. He allowed Lightbringer to emit the dimmest possible light, just enough for him to ensure his footing and be able to see Donyxn in front of him.
The walls of the crevasse were incredibly smooth – not perfectly so, but close enough that some kind of infernal magic must have been at play in creating it. It also allowed them to move in near silence, any sounds they made being drowned out by the incessant bellowing of Kostchtchie. “Free me! Bring me my hammer!” Over and over and over again. How it didn’t drive the devils guarding the demon insane was anyone’s guess. Unless, of course, they were already insane to begin with, which is highly probable.
After traveling a few hundred feet a dim red light began to emerge from the inky blackness, first as a fuzzy spot then slowly expanding. A few dozen more paces and shapes began to form, the cacophony getting louder and louder with each step. It was bright enough now that Almont could turn off Lightbringer’s light to make sure they didn’t draw any unneeded attention.
They stopped about twenty feet above the cavern floor to take in the full scene. The area was about eighty feet in diameter before the blackness reasserted itself and walled in the dim light. The red glow was centered on a rune circle, likely a portal of some kind. To one side of the portal stood a bored looking chain devil and a panting hellhound. On the other side was a twenty-foot diameter pool of what looked and smelled like black tar. And inside that pool was the source of the unending stream of words in abyssal. “Free me! Bring me my hammer!”
Chain Devil
The party communicated silently using the helm of telepathy and devised a plan. They moved another ten feet higher on the wall, and from there Almont used a scroll he’d been carrying for months to cast a spell of darkness around them. One of the drawbacks of magical darkness was that the black patch it created often stuck out as being unnatural, but here at the bottom of the crevasse it would be almost impossible to distinguish from the overall blackness. Donyxn and Kent then walked quietly to the edge of the blackened space and the ranger cast another spell of darkness, in effect doubling the size of the black space. Kent continued to walk to the furthest edge of the pure blackness, which brought him to a point slightly above and behind Kostchtchie’s left arm.
With everyone in place Almont used the helm to reach out to the demon. “Kostchtchie,” he thought in common, “we are here to free you from the pit.”
After a pause a thought formed in the cleric’s head. “Free me! Bring me my hammer!”
Almont tried to explain to the demon that they were enemies of Zariel and that they’d been sent by Olanthius, but the response was always the same. “Free me! Bring me my hammer!”
Almont needed to concentrate to maintain the connection with the demon and the others had agreed upon complete silence, so he failed to realize that while he heard Kostchtchie’s voice booming in his head, the demon had stopped speaking aloud. The chain devil and hellhound were both now much more alert, and as they studied their prisoner another chain devil and hellhound emerged from the blackness to join them.
Katla was shaking Almont’s arm, but since he couldn’t see her she couldn’t point out what was happening. So she resorted to grabbing his head and turning it toward the scene unfolding below. “Oh,” he whispered. “That’s not good.”
The chained devils were scanning the area around them while the hellhounds sniffed at the air. The two slobbering beasts eventually turned their attention to the general direction of the magical darkness.
Almont, Katla, and Donynx attacked simultaneously. The chain devil they had first seen was closest and it took the brunt of the damage, blasted backwards by a guided bolt of radiant energy from Almont, a frozen orb from Katla, and a pair of arrows from Donyxn, knocking it off its feet. Katla had twinned her spell, and a second orb of frozen energy struck the other chain devil as well.
Seeing the energy bursting out of the darkness, Kent ran out of the far edge of the spell’s effect and then down to floor level. As he headed toward Kostchtchie’s back he could see the demon’s wrists were shackled and an infernal iron chain anchored it to a massive eyebolt in the cavern floor. Each link in the chain was bigger than the dwarf.
The standing chain devil pointed at the general direction of the darkness effect and flung one of its blades, which disappeared into the blackness and struck the cavern wall less than a foot away from Donyxn. The blade snapped back to the devil, who began swinging its pair of chained blades in intricate patterns as its partner got back to its feet.
Meanwhile the hellhounds had the party’s scent and raced to the wall, putting their front paws up on it as they bellowed at the blackness above. One sucked in a huge breath and exhaled a gout of flame up the wall. Fortunately the party had decided to move a bit higher up before executing their plan. Had they been any lower they surely would have been bathed in fire.
“Free me! Bring me my hammer!”
Katla threw two more frozen orbs, this time at the hellhouds, striking them both and knocking them back from the wall. Almont switched to his crossbow, but both of his bolts were deflected away by the swinging chains of the devils. In return they both cast their chained blades out into the darkness again, but they couldn’t see their targets and once again the blades touched nothing but stone before returning back to their masters.
By this point Kent had reached the chains binding Kostchtchie. While Kent was not a forging expert, he was still a dwarf and knew a thing or two about metal. It was now clear to him that instead of two chains, the demon was actually restrained with one long chain that went from one wrist, through the eyebolt, and then to the other. That was good news – it meant if he could just break or even weaken one link, the beast could break both arms free at the same time. The obvious choice was one of the links that rubbed against the eyebolt and Kent quickly found exactly what he was looking for, a link with a hairline imperfection that was being eroded by the constant grinding of metal on metal. With that he removed a pry bar, a flask of oil, and the immovable rod from his pack and went to work on further weakening that link.
“Free me! Bring me my hammer!”
On the other side of the pit the battle raged on. Kent looked up for a moment to see how his friends were faring. Things looked to be going pretty well. One of the chain devils was sprawled out on its back, a pair of Donyxn’s arrows planted in its chest and two more protruding from its head, one in each eye socket. The other was reeling under the onslaught of Almont’s guided bolts and Katla’s frozen blue balls of energy, while the pair of hellhounds leapt at the wall impotently, unable to jump high enough to reach anyone.
He looked back down at his work. The immovable rod was set to provide a fulcrum and give him leverage as he worked at the growing fracture with his pry bar. It was slow going – at this rate the battle would be long over before he could free this beast. But then he had an idea. He reached into his pack and withdrew another flask, this one filled with the holy water they collected back in Elturel. He poured a little onto the fracture point and it began to sizzle. Kent grinned then poured the rest onto it as he worked the pry bar.
The link broke free with a loud popping sound at the same time the second chain devil fell to Almont and Katla’s magic. Kent fell backwards as the link gave way.
“Zariel!” Kostchtchie’s voice boomed. “I’m coming for my hammer!” With that the demon turned into a reddish-purple mist and began to float up toward the surface.
Almont reached out with the helm to try one last time to communicate with it, but to no avail.
The party easily dispatched the hellhounds and then walked down to the surface to search the area, carefully avoiding the portal on the floor. Unfortunately there was nothing of value. Kent sauntered over to the group. “Well that was anticlimactic. We went to Kostchtchie’s Maw and all we got was some stupid chains.”
Their search complete, the party returned to the surface, their spider climb abilities still active. Back on the plain they found their vehicle right where they left it, though something appeared to be scrawled on its right side in some kind of black tar-like substance. It hurt the eyes to look at.
“What does it say?” Kent asked no one in particular.
“It’s abyssal,” said Katla.
The others looked at here as she continued to stare at the writing. After ten seconds or so Kent broke the silence. “And?”
“It says, ‘Kostchtchie was here’.”
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