So two of my PCs fell into an unfortunate trap of a specific adventure path and to make a long story short, they have been taken to Hell for torture...
What I would like to do is make the torture feel very real for these two characters, without having to be TOO graphic. I'm also thinking that psychological torture is more effective than physical torture, and would like to focus more on the effects of torture on an observer, who is not themselves being tortured...
Currently, the PCs (C-G female human oracle into harrower and C-N male gnoll rogue/bard arcane trickster) are strapped (in 10 separate places) to Adamantium chairs which are spiked into the rock beneath and are each separately within an antimagic field. They are 30 feet apart, facing each other, and between them are two tables - one with all of their gear and a second with various torture devices. The creature who will be torturing them has the ability to simply steal everything that is within their mind, and he will do so to both of them before beginning the torture. The characters will be completely aware that they have just been mind &%$#ed and that there is nothing more this creature could learn from them, which will make the torture SEEM to have no point other than to cause suffering - but isn't that reason enough for devils?
As I alluded to earlier, I'm only planning to torture one of the PCs - the arcane trickster - while the other just has to sit and watch. In the end, I actually want this to be a terrifying experience for the harrower more so than the poor arcane trickster, as the arcane trickster will have the benefit of being brought back without any of his memories. (There are plots reasons for this, and the player likes the idea.)
Once the torture begins, the oracle will be gagged indefinitely. The arcane trickster will also be gagged, save the time (1 to 3 hours per day) that he is tortured. The torture will stop each day when the arcane trickster goes unconscious, and he will obviously be bleeding out of his many deep cuts, and probably will be missing at least one finger, toe, etc. each and every day... When the torture stops, a wall will go up dividing the harrower and the arcane trickster, leaving the harrower to wonder if the arcane trickster survived this time or not.
Unknown to the harrower, a group of imps will move in to stitch and mend the wounds of the nearly dead gnoll, for the purposes of continuing the torture. What the harrower will see is any body parts that cannot be reattached to the gnoll arcane trickster will be placed on a table 5 feet in front of the harrower. These will pile up fairly quickly, and in their place, human fingers, toes, arms, legs, ears, etc. will be stitched onto the gnoll. Torture of these newly attached pieces will be even more painful than his original body parts...
The wall between the harrower and the arcane trickster will ONLY come down for the mute, shackled, powerless, tireless (Hell is essentially timeless in my world) harrower to watch her comrade be tortured for no apparent reason. So my question is this - is there anything I can do to make it worse psychologically on the poor harrower...?
Notes: The age range of our group goes from 27 to 50, so I can get away with being graphic, I just prefer to use the mental part of it more. Also, I'm not interested in discussing if this is a good idea or not - my players can handle it and the characters put themselves in a bad situation. I have plans that will mitigate most of the damage in the end.
Have whatever is doing the torture morphed into someone the oracle knows? Either a friend or enemy, living or dead.
If dead, it could even be that person.
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For psychological effect, there's something truly horrible about false hope or optimism - the guy who's missing all sorts of parts, and doesn't realize it for whatever reason (enchantment?), and he's telling his friend "hey, I think we can make it out of here if I can just get out of these restraints..."
Is it largely cinematic, them sitting their as you describe what happens, or will there be attack and damage rolls? Could be good to have her toss the dice, that way the Oracle is watching the Gnoll be tortured (IC tension) but the Oracle Player is doing the rolls (OoC anxiety for her, which will translate the the PC having an appropriate mindset).
If she's doing the rolling, you provide the descriptions and interpretation of results,so "The torturer approaches the table and picks up rusted scissors, then moves to the Gnoll's ear. Could you roll a D6 please?" If she rolls a 6, the scissors deal 6+STR damage, cutting the ear off neatly, if she rolls a 4 the scissors have some difficulty on account of the rust, but the ear comes off with some work leaving a jagged wound. If she rolls a 1 she may be thinking "Oh good, it won't be able to take the ear off, that was the best roll possible!" and then you promptly explain how the scissors couldn't cut the ear off and instead the torturer had to yank and tear at the ear, eventually resulting in the ear ripping off completely (bonus points if you have a similar sound effect available). Now the Oracle-player is involved, she's feeling anxiety about it because she is now contributing to the PC's torture, then maybe some of this anxiety will influence how she RPs her character.
During the "Wall-up" periods, have the Oracle player removed from the table either physically or via blindfold and headphones playing bad music. This way, she doesn't know HOW healed up the Gnoll is. Could the imps stop the bleeding, or did they fail to sew up the wound? Now she doesn't know how much the Gnoll can take this time around.
Have something you can put in front of the Oracle player to symbolize the body parts piling up on the table in front of her, these appear while she's blindfolded, to add the dramatic effect.
A different route you can take is a "Groundhog Day" approach. They run a simple obstacle course, but every time she rolls over a 13 something crippling happens to the Gnoll. This can either lead to minor debuffs, gradually building up so that the Gnoll becomes essentially useless after the Oracle is successful. After running the course the torture sessions go on, with his pre-existing damage factored in. Then they get to run the course again the next day, and the torture starts again, and then the next day, again and again, and again. Can you say hopeless?
The other approach to take with the groundhog day obstacle course is for traps and bad events that only target the Gnoll. So the first time, the gnoll steps onto a a pressure plate and gets an axe to the head, resulting in instantly dropping the gnoll to 0. They wake up, Gnoll doesn't remember and goes his initial way (The player has instructions to stick to the same route unless the Oracle redirects him). The oracle, mindful of the pressure plate gets the Gnoll to avoid the pressure plate, but he steps into a concealed pungee pit, and they start over. So the oracle guides him around the pressure plate, bypassed the pungee pit, and then the Gnoll gets set on fire by a falling torch. They start over, the Oracle guides him around the Hazards, they get to two trap doors, they take the left one, which realeases another insta-death. They start over, they get to the trapdoor and take the right one, but the Gnoll sets off a tripwire and gets impaled. They start over, etc.... Eventually the Oracle will get them to the end, which teleports them to the torture chamber where the torture proceeds. By this point, there is frustration, anxiety and and Oracle has watched her friend die a dozen times, feeling powerless to stop it and then that hope that something good lies at the end of the tunnel which is promptly crushed by more torture.
Sorry for the long post, brevity and I don't get along well. Hope it could help.
Lots of good ideas guys. For the record, this is going to be much more cinematic and will not occur during table time. I'm handling it through e-mails back and forth between the two players. Also, my intention is for the oracle to be a helpless victim. As much as the devils would like to corrupt her, that is not their primary purpose. They are torturing her as much as they are torturing the poor gnoll - mentally in her case. This will make it easier for them to break her next.
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I can't look up the specific issue here in my phone, but there is a FANTASTIC Kobold Quarterly article with an amazing torture system. It utilizes cards with a series of consequences, from healable damage to permanent maiming. Shuffle them, and when the PC doesn't talk...have them draw a random card. It is literally torture to pull that card out, and the system a very powerful and visceral tool that really puts the player in the hot seat, forced to perform an action that can seriously and permanently alter their character. I can't suggest it more highly, and I'm sure the PDF is available on Paizo.com or koboldpress.com.
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I can't look up the specific issue here in my phone, but there is a FANTASTIC Kobold Quarterly article with an amazing torture system. It utilizes cards with a series of consequences, from healable damage to permanent maiming. Shuffle them, and when the PC doesn't talk...have them draw a random card. It is literally torture to pull that card out, and the system a very powerful and visceral tool that really puts the player in the hot seat, forced to perform an action that can seriously and permanently alter their character. I can't suggest it more highly, and I'm sure the PDF is available on Paizo.com or koboldpress.com.
KQ 11, article by Hank Woon, I believe though I remember a table rather than cards. But cards as props are a GREAT idea.
IIRC, the torture could deal ability damage (or maybe even drain) rather than just HP loss. It could really ruin a character build (at least temporarily, maybe for good), and THAT causes real angst in any player.
MechE, I think the guilt of having to choose how your mate will be tortured is a nice part of psychological torture. Or having to choose between you and him. Or you must succeed endlessly at some challenge and every time you fail, he suffers for it. Kind of making his suffering your fault, even though it really is not.
Thank you, BR! I was sitting at the airport and the prospect of clicking through the site to find the right issue wasn't my idea of pre-flight relaxation. =-) Kudos to Hank for that great article. I can't recall if the cards were suggested in it or not, but in any case worth the price of admission.
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In order for "torture" to work. It needs to stick. The torturer needs to inflict damage, but each time they do there is a chance of permanent harm. Such as ability drain, permanent level drain, reduction in movement or penalties on saving throws (such as -4 to resist fear, sickened, etc, and it isn't easily healed).
Another option is to have the devils infiltrate their minds and start tracking down their allies and slaughtering them.
Ultimately the best way to torture PC's is to have the NPC's destroy their magic items right in front of them.
You do have a pretty decent set up, but it doesn't sound very fun to play in. Kudos for the descriptiveness, but seriously, throw them a bone and allow them an opportunity to escape.
Or at least, let them thing they are escaping :)
Boy this sounds like fun.
Not.
Ask the Players OOC what is acceptable to them before embarking on this. How detailed do they want, or is this something that will upset them.
KQ11 - that sounds great! I'll have to look into that in case something similar comes up in the future - thanks. For now, I'm going to keep it cinematic and not worry too much about game mechanics, since it's all being handled over e-mail between sessions.
As for the idea of destroying magic items, that's a way to make it feel personal to the players. To me, that sounds dangerous and could make the characters fall behind the rest of the party, which is not at all my goal. The characters should fear more for the state of their eternal soul than a few items then came across in the last few weeks/months/years. Also, why would a Lawful Evil highly intelligent devil destroy items when he could just as easily use them against the party, or at the very least, sell them for profit.
As for whether it will be "fun" for my players or not, I specifically said in the OP this was not something I was concerned about. My players are fine with it - I've already spoken with both of them OOC about possible outcomes and they understand that I would not force them to play something they would not enjoy. I've got a good rapport with my players and I'm looking at this as events that will forever change the characters, not eliminate them. It will give the players some opportunities to role play out a very strong change in their character that they would not have otherwise.
Please let us know how this works out for you and them.
Please let us know how this works out for you and them.
I'm actually putting the whole thing into a microsoft word document, so maybe I'll post the whole thing later with some giant spoiler tags. As for how it's going so far - the gnoll arcane trickster (who will bear the brunt of the actual character impact) is really enjoying it. He has called me twice in the last 3 days to compliment me on it.
The guy playing the Harrower will be a bit of a harder sell, but I'm going to basically leave it up to him on how much the experience impacts his character. I'll of course have an OOC conversation with him about what his character went though and the ways in which that could effect her - role play wise. The player is just not a fan of railroading and often gets frustrated by encounters that seem too challenging, like the one that captured his character, lol. But even he had to admit that going 2v2 against a wizard and a devil when his knowledge check revealed it to be over 10,000 years old was a bad idea. At 14th level, devils take NO risks, so I'm hoping he understand that it's not me (the DM) railroading his character, it's the devils taking the necessary precautions. Either way, I've talked to him twice and he's ok with it so far. I'll undoubtedly talk to him again a few times - We're all adults.
Ages ago dragon magazine had an article on torture that works great for campaigns. It would take some digging to find but it is titled "Torture and Fear on the Tabletop." It works wonders in my opinion at making it feel real for their characters.
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Also, my intention is for the oracle to be a helpless victim. As much as the devils would like to corrupt her, that is not their primary purpose. They are torturing her as much as they are torturing the poor gnoll - mentally in her case. This will make it easier for them to break her next.
This is going to sound rather dark, but one of the more noteworthy things about a Good creature is that it has empathy and a sense of responsibility (it might not lead an orderly life, but it feels responsible for the things it does opt to do). They will feel bad about things that happen as a result of their mistakes, or even bad luck going against them if it gets someone else hurt. Villains love to use this against them in various ways, it's how hostage ploys are so effective in fiction.
So make this situation the Oracle's 'fault.' Find some way that they are interacting with the process, a sort of cruel game designed by the Devils. Let the Oracle be involved, but pretty much every choice is rigged against them and results in the gnoll being hurt more... so long as it is done subtly, the oracle will do the mental damage on their own. They'll blame themselves to some extent for what's going on, for not being able to make the situation better, for everyone going on being sick and wrong and they're just messing it up even worse; some 'hero'!
I can imagine Devils taking a very deep, dark satisfaction in making a Good soul hate itself and blame itself (even if only partially) for the Devils' misdeeds. That sounds like great 'fun' (from their perspective) leading up to fully breaking said creature/soul, after all. This requires some subtlety and pacing since it's preying on their sense of empathy and care for others, but it can work.
Edit: Some examples of how this might go would include the "Room 101" situation in Orwell's 1984. Imagine how that went for Winston Smith, but inverted; the Good creature is unable to invite some of the suffering upon themselves in order to spare another from it. That's not a perfect comparison, but it might give you a decent starting point to think about it from.
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On furthering the guilt trip: Make one of the torturers shapeshift into the oracle. "OMG Suzy what are you going to do with that hot iron? No! NOOOOOOOO!"
A semitransparent image pops up of an argument they once had. "Why don't you go jump in a lake?" says the oracle. Then have the dude get pushed into a pot of boiling acid. They pull him out just in time, but man, what a mess. Heh heh heh heh heh...
Keep having the things that happen to him be from memories of things she's thought about him.
I like the Room 101 idea: Have them keep taunting him that they'll instantly stop, as soon as he says "do it to Julia!" But then have him keep screaming "Torture me! Torture ME! Don't hurt her!" THAT'LL guilt her.
As to the table of body parts, make it a stovetop. You could even have the devils singing various fast food jingles. Nothing's more creepy than inappropriate humor. Then when they've got a full order of finger-fries...it's time to force-feed the oracle. Woooo-hahahahahahaha!!! "DAD!!! You ate the BONES!"
Yuck. I better stop lol
Destroy their magic items in front of them. THAT will make the players scream.
Destroy their magic items in front of them. THAT will make the players scream.
I'll reiterate - this is not something a devil would do... They may use them as leverage, but they're not in it to watch the world burn - they have a plan. Demons, on the other hand, I could see them doing such a thing... But that's a conversation for another time.
For the players - having your character captured, sent to Hell, and tortured for months on end SHOULD BE horrible enough. If players can't roleplay that out, then assign them a random insanity as a result of their experiences - maybe they're afraid of flames, or crying, or maybe they freak out if they're left alone. Maybe they're super clingy to their allies, or maybe they developed a second, third, or fourth personality in order to cope with the isolation, etc.
Destroying a character's gear feels like "punishing" a player to me - a form of metagame torture, if you will. It is also a sure fire way to make sure that you not only upset the player, but that the character falls behind for at least a few levels.... While I'm not at all opposed to the idea that character actions have consequences, the game is supposed to be fun for all involved - players and the DM alike. Ask yourself - would you rather have all of your magical items destroyed, or be given the opportunity to role play a character who literally went to hell and back and is now struggling with some inner demons as a result? For me, the crazy character sounds like a lot more fun.
Even if you did want to take the items away from the PC for their mistakes, would it not make more sense for the devil to hold onto them? Assuming the party managed to rescue the character, they could return five levels later on a rescue mission for items, and hoping that slaying the captor of their recovered member will ease the suffering and allow for the healing process to start...
Once the torture begins, the oracle will be gagged indefinitely. The arcane trickster will also be gagged, save the time (1 to 3 hours per day) that he is tortured.
Perhaps you should skip this. This will give the PCs something to roleplay during this time (since they cannot do much of anything other than talk, it seems best to give them a way to stay engaged in the roleplay, so that it is not just you talking to yourself).
Plus, talking is the best way for you to flesh out the situation and them a great way to flesh out their characters personalities and reactions to their predicament. Is their jailor a cruelly refined philosopher of pain, a merciless messiah who sincerely believes that Hellish torture will burn away the weakness of their flesh and rebuild them in infernal glory? A crude minion who takes out his frustrations at lack of promotion upon his helpless captives? Does he speak soothingly them even while he is burning out their eyes, telling them that he knows how awful it is, really he does, and he wishes there were something he could do to help... perhaps if they would just sign on the dotted line? A succession of many different torturers, with all of the above and more? Do the PCs react with defiance? Fear? Despair? Do they try to beg or bargain, or do they hold out hope of rescue? Do they stay true to each other, or turn against the other blaming them for their predicament? Do their captives use illusions to make it seem like each has betrayed the other even if they did hold fast? To make it seem like the rescue has come... and failed? Or that their friends rescued one prisoner but left the other behind forever? Etc.
When true rescue does come, will they remember it as the time loyalty triumphed over the worst Hell had to offer, or the time they learned they could only really trust themselves? Or the time they didn't say much and took a bunch of injuries?
It seems to me that dialogue has a lot of roleplaying potential in this situation if your players and you are both willing to run with it.
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The worst torture I have ever read about in D&D is being locked in a room that has nothing in it but a kender.
Once the torture begins, the oracle will be gagged indefinitely. The arcane trickster will also be gagged, save the time (1 to 3 hours per day) that he is tortured.Perhaps you should skip this. This will give the PCs something to roleplay during this time (since they cannot do much of anything other than talk, it seems best to give them a way to stay engaged in the roleplay, so that it is not just you talking to yourself).
Plus, talking is the best way for you to flesh out the situation and them a great way to flesh out their characters personalities and reactions to their predicament. Is their jailor a cruelly refined philosopher of pain, a merciless messiah who sincerely believes that Hellish torture will burn away the weakness of their flesh and rebuild them in infernal glory? A crude minion who takes out his frustrations at lack of promotion upon his helpless captives? Does he speak soothingly them even while he is burning out their eyes, telling them that he knows how awful it is, really he does, and he wishes there were something he could do to help... perhaps if they would just sign on the dotted line? A succession of many different torturers, with all of the above and more? Do the PCs react with defiance? Fear? Despair? Do they try to beg or bargain, or do they hold out hope of rescue? Do they stay true to each other, or turn against the other blaming them for their predicament? Do their captives use illusions to make it seem like each has betrayed the other even if they did hold fast? To make it seem like the rescue has come... and failed? Or that their friends rescued one prisoner but left the other behind forever? Etc.
When true rescue does come, will they remember it as the time loyalty triumphed over the worst Hell had to offer, or the time they learned they could only really trust themselves? Or the time they didn't say much and took a bunch of injuries?
It seems to me that dialogue has a lot of roleplaying potential in this situation if your players and you...
I'm going for sort of an isolation thing here. I do agree that some dialogue is a good thing, but part of my problem is that this is happening off table, through e-mails. So there is only so much dialogue that can be accomplished in the 9 days prior to the next session, and this must end before the next session. Now that I think about it, using magic (silence, etc.) would be a better idea. I can have the magic expire from both of them say 5 minutes before their tormentors return... So for 21 hours, they sit in silence, with the Harrower wondering if her camrade is alive or not. The breaking of the silence gives the Harrower short-lived comfort as she can speak with the arcane trickster for a few minutes, before the torture resumes... So they get the effects of isoloation for most of the day, and then the psychological factor of only finding out if the arcane trickster is still alive minutes before he is tortured to the brink of death yet again...
Destroy their magic items in front of them. THAT will make the players scream.I'll reiterate - this is not something a devil would do... They may use them as leverage, but they're not in it to watch the world burn - they have a plan. Demons, on the other hand, I could see them doing such a thing... But that's a conversation for another time.
And arguably torturing for no benefit is more of a chaotic and again demonic htign to do then a lawful or devilish thing to do.
Now they coudl very well torture for information (but you said they already had that), or to gain the soul of one or both (but you said they were not tryign to dothat). Torture for no reason is chaotic and falls more to the province of demons then devils.
Basically a Devil would need a reason for it (though the player or victim might nto realize what the reason was at least at first).
The devils definitely have their reasons. They intend to use the PCs as a focus for an infernal ritual, which requires that they be "cleansed" - this is the true purpose of the torture. The PCs, however, will be completely clueless on WHY they are being tortured, since the devils have already taken (by means of magic) all the information they could possibly give, and the PCs are compeltely aware of this.
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The devils definitely have their reasons. They intend to use the PCs as a focus for an infernal ritual, which requires that they be "cleansed" - this is the true purpose of the torture. The PCs, however, will be completely clueless on WHY they are being tortured, since the devils have already taken (by means of magic) all the information they could possibly give, and the PCs are compeltely aware of this.
Also, mindrape is all well and nice (at least for the devils) but torture absolutely is the good old, tried and true, way of getting information from prisoners. Any Lawful creature worth its salt would never refuse an opportunity to respect and practice the good old ways.
Here there be necromancy! So I came across this thread by mistake searching some of my own posts and remembered that I said I would report back on this when all was said and done. Nearly a year later, the events listed below are still the thing that the two players directly involved talk the most about from the adventure path, and not in a negative way. (This whole exchange took place over the course of 77 emails in 12 days between sessions. Also, the torture is 30 pages in MSword, single spaced, 12 point font.)
Saul - Neutral Rogue/Bard into Arcane Trickster. He was originally a halfling but was reincarnated as a Gnoll. Having grown up on the streets, he fancies petty theivery and women but has shown fierce loyalty for those he associates with. He is currently half-way through writing a book titled "My life in the pockets of others."
Tatiana - Chaotic Good Oracle into Harrower. She is a Varisian (human) gypsy who gathers information through her nightime profession as a courtesan and sees the future in her Harrow Cards. She has grown attached to Saul over their ventures, seeing the potential in him and the many similarities to herself.
Alaistar - Chaotic Good Gnome Wizard/Fighter 1 into Eldritch Knight. He was originally a human, but also died and came back in the body of a Gnome. He studied at the Korvosan Academy for a while, though they have turned their back on him recently. He thinks very highly of himself.
Thumps - Neutral Good Half-Elf Sable Company Maringe Ranger. He was raised by Gnomes and came to Korvosa searching for his lost Gnomish sister, who he believes died. Though he lacks the powerful personality typical of leaders, he smartly utilizes the resources at his disposal, including his cohort Trinia, and will eventually become the King of Korvosa.
Jigs - Neutral Good Human Cleric. She would eventually become the high priestess of Heresh, a deity the party managed to bring back to prominence in a small town and eventually within Korvosa (a mteropolis) once peace was returned to the city.
Zelda - Neutral Half-Orc Witch. Her superior abilties at crippling enemies were overshadowed only rarely by the bane of her existance, the confusion spell, which she never successfully once saved against. Second in command at the church of Heresh.
Trinia - Cohort to Thumps, she is a human bard who once stumbled upon a cursed item, had her wisdom reduced to 3, and became Saul's new toy (sexually, of course) for a few days before growing attached and eventually being hurt when she regained her Wisdom and realized Saul was not serious.
Togomor - Appointed Senesechel of Castle Korvosa in the absense of the former Sensechal, he is a grotesquely fat wizard who previously taught at the Korvosan Academy and has ties to Cheliax.
Sermignatto - Belier devil, has made a pact with Queen Ileosa allowing him free reign of all mortals in Korvosa once she attains immortality through other means. Togomor is no more than a marionette with Sermignatto as the puppeteer.
Mavrokeras - Horned Devil (Cornugon), loyal to Sergmignatto. A cruel beast, he takes great pleasure in slow, methodical torture.
Queen Ileosa Arabasti - Queen of Korvosa and main antagonist of the CotCT Adventure path
Zellara - Dead Varisian gypsy, she utilized the magics of her Harrow deck to pull the party together originally. Tatiana feels she is a kindered spirit.
Asyra - Devil bound to Shadowcount Sal, a priest of Zon-Kuton the party met previously.
While assaulting the castle, Tatiana traveled to the Ethereal plane to scout the castle. Unbeknownst to her, Sermignatto, a powerful belier devil lay in wait on the Ethereal plane and hit her with dimensional anchor, followed by two dominate person spells to convince her to "find Togomor and lead the party to him, but protect his life at all costs". She continues her scouting, finds Togomor, and returns to the party. Togomore, the wizard of the castle is actually a puppet under Sermignatto's control and is now fully aware of the party's coming intrusion, so he prepares himself. When fighting Togomor, Saul activates his ring of blinking and 2 rounds later, he pops out of existance on the material plane and does not return, struck by a dimensional anchor on the ethereal plane by Sermignatto. A round later, Togomor dimension doors away and Tatiana is accidentally targeted by a greater dispel magic as Zelda attempts to dispel the air elementals Togomor had summoned to battle. Tatiana, aware that Saul did not return from the Ethereal plane and under her own mental control again, tells the party that she must go save Saul, then she casts Ethereal jaunt.
On the Ethereal plane, a battle breaks out, with Saul and Tatiana attempting to take down Sermignatto and making some progress. Unfortunately, once he realizes he has a fight on his hands, Sermignatto summons Togomor to the Ethereal Plane and with his spellpower and the Devil's cunning, Saul and Tatiana both succumb to the evil duo, going unconscious, but not dead, from the same spell...
DM: You awaken, groggy and surprised to be alive - or maybe you're no longer alive... As you open your eyes and lift your head, a pillar of flame rises to your right, only 15 or so feet away from you, but surprisingly, you feel no heat come off it, though the temperature in this area is not cool in the slightest, you note as the sweat runs down your face. Looking out to the right and left, you see a vast, sprawling volcanic landscape augmented with shrieks of pain which seem to originate from no specific direction... You've been taken to Hell...
Turning your attention to yourself, you find that you've been stripped down to the very bottom layer of your clothing and strapped into a shiny metal chair, which appears to be spiked into the rocky earth beneath you. You are shackled at the wrists, elbows, ankles, calves, around the lap, and finally, around the forehead and over the top of the head. You feel relatively unharmed, though you're clearly still weak... On your right hand, on the middle finger is a ring with a symbol on it. A slight tinge of pain runs up your arm from that very finger, as if it's burning into your skin a bit.
Looking up and directly ahead, you see a familiar face in a very familiar predicament, just 30 feet away. Your comrade from the battle on the ethereal plane is still alive as well, though in no better a position than you are. Between the two of you are two tables, the one on Saul's right (Tatianna's left) contains a pile of all your combined possessions - weapons, armors, rings, amulet, etc. Near the top of the pile, Saul's book sits open with Zellarra's harrow deck sitting atop it. The other table contains what you can only guess to be instruments of torture - sharp knives, tongs, whips, additional restraining devices, what appears to be a cattle branding iron, a device that looks like it could be attached to a person's head in order to hold their mouth open, and a covered clay urn.
In the ground of the rocky raised platform between the two of you and between the two tables, is what appears to be a pool of luminous liquid. It is clear like water, but gives off a pale green glow and moves slowly as if it were thick oil. Around you, the faint screams of the damned continue, with pillars of flame shooting up from everywhere other than the small raised rocky platform you sit atop of. There appear to be no other souls within ear shot...
Saul: Tries to cast Freedom of Movement, suspecting it will not work. I visually inspect if Tatiana is awake and then say “It took a trip to hell before I get to see you strapped to a chair and scantily clad."
I would like to study the ring on my finger, the luminous pool, the chair, and try to better understand what's stopping me from casting. Also, for kicks, I will try escaping from the chair.
DM: Unfortunately, Saul's suspicion involving magic is correct, as the spell fails. Inspecting his surroundings, Saul looks down at the ring on his finger, swearing that he's seen it a few places before... Fortunately, he recalls the place he's seen it and recognizes it as the holy symbol of Asmodeus, though it looks slightly different than those he’s seen previously. Saul does not recognize the pool as similar to anything he has heard of in the many stories he's heard on his journeys. As for the effect that is stopping him from casting, he suspects it to be something that would stop all magic in an area, not necessarily targeted on him specifically, since the magic flowed up from within him as normal, and faltered the moment it tried to activate outside his body. How big the area is not clear - maybe it's the whole plane, but maybe not, since that luminous green pool definitely looks magical. As for the metal of the chair, Saul can't be completely certain - he would imagine that given the precautions taken to hold him and Tatiana here, it is not an inferior metal, but it doesn’t look like the adamantium of the sickle your deity gave him, which lies in view on the table. As for the escape artist, Saul can take a 20 on such an attempt, as he has no reason to feel like time is tight at the moment... He quietly twists and contorts, trying every which way to free an arm, a leg, hell, even having your head free would be nice. After a few minutes, he is just barely unable to get one of his legs free... It would seem that these chairs were not designed for Gnolls. Maybe if you could get a hold of some lubricant...
Saul: Tatiana, are you wearing a ring of Asmodeus?
Tatiana: I looks around at my surroundings, note the landscape and choose to ignore it as best possible hoping its more illusions. I finally focus on Saul as he speaks; quietly relieved to see he's still very much alive. In answer to his comment:
"I've no doubt this," she says attempting to shrug, "gives you ideas for the bedroom, but you really didn't need to go through all this trouble just for me. Your gold is still good."
I sigh heavily as I again survey the situation, taking note of the pain in my hand letting me know that I’m definitely alive.
"And for future reference, I prefer the traditional gold ring with diamonds."
I want to study the chair, determine what sort of magic might be blocking our magics and if it's connected to any of the implements binding us, as well as the nature of the green-glowing pool. I want to determine the symbol on the ring and determine what in Hell were we even fighting (pun intended). I’d also like to determine if we're surrounded by a powerful illusion, or if indeed we are "somewhere else", and to attempt to free my head at least if not anything else.
Do my little haunts still surround me, and if so, do they have any sort of influence on anything binding me or lying anywhere near me?
I want to determine what mine and Saul's physical conditions are like, such as can I tell if either of us might be poisoned, drugged, or otherwise inhibited other than being bound, and do either of us appear to have any serious injuries that might prevent o hamper physical movement if we somehow manage to escape our bonds.
DM: Saul, You slip your finger to the side of the chair, and try sliding the ring down your hairy finger. The moment it begins to move, a strong surge of pain shoots up that finger... You realize that the ring is bound to your finger, not by magic, but by mundane means, as a thin trickle of blood runs down the hair on that finger. On closer inspection, you realize that the holy symbol in the front of the ring is actually inset into the ring, likely with a shaft that runs all the way through it, through your finger, and into the backside of the ring, though from the backside, the ring appears seamless.
You search your mind and recall the time that Trinia got a hold of the whip found in the Acropolis with the giant immortal slumbering Havarno - of which, only his tentacles attacked the party. That item had some undesirable magical powers over her - a curse, so to speak that sapped her ability to use her better judgment. (The results of which, Saul recalls with a chuckles.) It would certainly be possible to imbed negative magics into a ring to accomplish many, many means...
DM: Tatiana, you believe the chairs to be made of Adamantium, though it is slightly different than the Adamantium you've seen before. Your best guess is that it was forged in fires much hotter than normal, which gives it a duller color than normal. Also, it's probably stronger than normal Adamantium since it was forged at a higher temperature. The nature of the luminous green pool is unclear to you as well Tatiana. You will have to attempt casting a spell in order to get a better idea for what's blocking your magics. Assuming Tatiana does so, you will believe that what is blocking your magics is an effect similar to that made by an Antimagic field - usually these have a relatively low area of effect, but are nearly impossible to eliminate, especially from within. The symbol on the ring is indeed a holy symbol of Asmodeus, but it's not exactly the one used in most churches today - it is the holy symbol used by the church of Asmodeus from approximately 4,000 years ago - you recognize its description from some stories the Varisian people tell - your mom was particularly fond of one such particular story.
Now that you pause to think of it, it's very clear to you that the creature was a belier devil.... Masterful possessors and foul manipulators, belier devils are among the most feared masterminds of Hell. Known as bdellavritras to devilkind, these worm-like fiends avoid physical confrontation. Instead, they target influential individuals for possession, using them to manipulate events by proxy. If their schemes are uncovered, the devils retaliate with all the power at their disposal. Believer devils favor use of their possession ability, and using dominate person. As most other devils, they are immune to fire and poison, and as one of the more powerful devils, they have significant resistance to spells and require more than just a holy weapon to overcome their abnormal resistances, but you can't quite remember what other component was necessary...
You do not believe the plumes of flame and terrain to be an illusion, though it is still odd to you that the closer plumes of flame don't produce heat - maybe they're an evocation magic and the anti-magic field is blocking the heat element of the magic, you think to yourself... As for the escape artist attempt, you quietly and slowly twist your arms and legs for a few minutes, but to no avail... Looking across at Saul, you see him trying the same thing, with the same degree of success...
You notice that for the first time in many, many years, your haunts seem to have ceased... Your hair is still and you do not feel the slight winds that you've become accustomed to. As for your physical condition, you are currently very weak (at 8 hit points), and you do not sense any poisons, drugs, or curses trickling through your body - save the obvious fact that you are currently IN hell. You are obviously still beaten and battered, with dried blood caked into your hair and down one arm. The blood seems to have completely dried… “How long was I out for”, you wonder... You even notice one of your scratches have begun to heal up a bit...
Tatiana: "it would appear as if we are in some sort of anti-magic field. Even the spirits that have whispered to me since I came of age have grown still."
I study Saul for a bit to see how his own wounds fair.
"And unless I miss my guess, I would say we have been here for at least a few days, although such time matters little in Hell. I do not know if time has passed equally at home or even if at all. For all I know, we've only been missing for a few minutes as far as our allies are concerned. Alistair would know better, and may be able to figure out what happened, assuming he survives the attack on the Maidens."
"What I CAN tell you is the stories my people tell speak of many devils that the Cheliax serve and who serve them, first and foremost being their "god" Asmodeus, although I would be very impressed if you and I actually managed to get HIS attention," I say with a smile. "Wouldn't that be something, though; we can get his attention, but apparently not that of our own god..."
I sigh heavily and continues, "Unfortunately, we DID manage to stumble across a terribly old and terribly powerful devil, one my people call a Belier, which apparently has the power to bend us to its will and make us its puppets much as it did Toadmore (I deliberately misspeak his name). As for why we're still alive..."
I lift my head up as best I can and call out to the area in general...
"I assume eventually SOMEONE will tell us the answer to that, yes?"
DM: From your vantage point, Saul appears to be in the same shape as yourself - bruised with some dried blood, and weak (low hitpoints), but otherwise alive.
As you and Saul converse back and forth, the plumes of flame suddenly burst up violently for a few seconds, then die down for what would seem to be almost a minute before resuming a more normal random frequency...
You finish calling out to the emptiness around you... The screams of the damned are the only response you get, emanating from no discernible direction...
Saul: After the flame dies down Saul appears pensive, for once he doesn't readily respond to Tatiana.
"When I died before, I heard things from passed souls about this place. Terrible things. Things that nobody should experience, ever. If what I heard is true, our souls will be shaken to their very core."
I pause again for a minute -- Looking stoically at the instruments of torture lying on the table close to us.
"Ready yourself Tatiana, crawl inside yourself and stay sharp no matter what. I know what I would do to people in our position, and I fear that does not match what is about to unfold."
DM: A few minutes after Saul falls silent, the luminous green pool begins to bubble slightly and a few short seconds later, its color shifts quickly to red, and it's grows to a rolling boil. Within a minute, you see the head of Togomor rising out of the pool, as if he were coming up an elevator. Once his grotesque figure has risen completely through the boiling red luminous pool, he stands atop it as if it were solid, rolling ground, and then steps off the pool towards the table containing all your gear. When he does so, the pool slows to a slight boil, and then returns to its slow moving luminous green state.
Tatiana: “You have quite the flair for the dramatic, no? Are you the queen's jester as well as court mage?" I say, smiling ever so sweetly.
Saul: (whispers to self) "That's a neat trick"
DM: Togomor stands in front of the table, seemingly oblivious to your presence and any words you may speak. He begins picking up individual items and rolling them over in his hands slowly - starting with Zellarra's Harrow deck, which he quickly discards, then moving through a few of the pieces of magical gear, onto the crystal ball, before picking up Saul's book, which seems to hold his interest for a few minutes...
As he stands holding the book, the pool turns red and increases to a rolling boil once more. Rising up through the luminous pool is the ancient devil you've seen previously - His wormlike figure extends nearly 15 feet long, with a fanged mouth and 3 skulls attached to his tail. A few seconds after he arrives, you see a translucent strand materializing from the end of the middle mouth. Moment later, you realize it is a tongue extending from the middle skull mouth all the way to back of Togomor's neck. Togomor continues reading through Saul's book, flipping from page to page, and a few times, you swear you see the worm react...
Tatiana: Seeing the devil appear, I quiet and watches until it fully arrives, attempting to gauge its current mood. Seeing its unusual reaction to Togomor's reading of Saul's book, she glances to Saul to see if he noticed as well, then turns back to the thing...
"At least I was right about the wizard being a simple puppet. Rather refreshing to know, but what does the puppet master intend to do with us? Make us dance on little strings of our own? You already tried that once and that didn't work out quite as you hoped, did it?"
Bold words when deep down I know the thing has already snared me once and fear it might easily do so again. I hope a little light banter might goad it into spilling its secrets.
"I'm surprised you haven't tried taking the queen yourself, given how weak the minds of warriors are."
DM: Tatiana, It is difficult to gauge the worm's current mood. The slight muscle movements near the mouth of the worm are what you might imagine to be a smile, but you can't be certain...
Without looking up from the book, Togomor says fairly in a level, calm voice "Yes, dancing..." he pauses for a few seconds before continuing "that's exactly what that apparatus you are strapped into is for..." Minutes later, he looks up from the book and straight at Tatiana "As for your queen... You mortals have no ability to think beyond your own daily interests. Then again, in your cases, it won't be necessary to think anymore..." Togomor then returns his attention to the book...
After a few more minutes of reading the book, you see Togomor set it down, and turn towards Tatiana first. "Yes, you should make the perfect subjects" he says, turning to look at Saul as he says "perfect indeed..."
Togomor turns back towards the table and looks down. Just then, you see the translucent strand withdraw from the back of his head and Togomor turns his head towards Saul (Saul, you see Togomor blink twice) and then towards Tatiana, an odd look on his face... Before anything further can happen, you see the worm make a few slight jerking motions, and Togomor suddenly looks back down, pushes some of the items on the table away from him. He reaches for his belt, and sticks his arm deep down into it a small bag, eventually pulling forth a rectangular shaped clay pot with a lid. He removes the lid, pulls out an entire cake, topped with a sugary frosting, from the smell of it, and begins digging into it without hesitation.
The worm pulls himself up, so that only about half his body lays flat, much like a snake. His fanged mouth is directed towards Tatiana when a voice emanates, in common, from inside the worm "Now where were we.... Ahh, yes, we were just about to get some answers, weren't we...? Shall I start with you" the worm says, still facing Tatiana, "or maybe you..." he says, turning towards Saul.
Saul: "You can start by f~*#ing off."
Tatiana: "How about a trade? Since it won't matter much soon what we do or do not know, how about you answer some questions for us, and I will willingly tell you what you wish to know. It's a win-win for you, since I would have to resist any attempts to force the information from me. As soon you expect to have us under your control anyways, it's not as if we can act on anything you tell us, no?"
DM: Facing Saul, the worm-like devil speaks from within, “I assume that was a chivalrous attempt to goad me into starting with you. Alas, I cannot allow you the comfort of getting that which you desire.”
Turning to face Tatiana, the worm speaks. “You will be first. You can thank your comrade for that. As for your suggestion, there is no need for a questions and answers session. All will soon be revealed. However, if you wish to delay your suffering, I will allow you time to tell me a story of your short existence. Be warned - If you should lie to me, I will know, and I will slay all those you cared for and all who cared for them."
Tatiana: I nod to the Worm with an, "As you wish”. Assuming the Worm doesn't stop me; I choose to take it literally and begin to tell a story…
"I was born the third child and only daughter to a poor but loving couple residing in the city of Riddleport. My father struggled to make ends meet, my mother telling fortunes to housewives and noblewomen for extra coin, and we made do with what little we had. Fortunately, my mother had the gift of foresight and had a fair number of regular customers who would often seek her out. Sadly, her gift came with a terrible price, and her health took a turn for the worse. “
"When I was ten, my mother became deathly ill, and my father feared he would lose her. He sought a way to save her, and was told by a friend of the family we called Uncle of a relic possessed by the church believed to be able to cure any ailment and possibly the only thing that could save mother. My father sought out the priesthood's help, but they turned him away as he had no coin to give them. My father became determined to save my mother, and in the dark of night, broke into the church with the intent of stealing the relic. He was caught by one of the elder priests, and while I do not know the details, only what I have been told, there was a struggle, and the old priest fell and was mortally injured, and my father arrested as a murderer. “
"Uncle told us of what happened, and my brothers tried to plead for my father's release while I tended to my mother as she grew more ill, but it was to no avail. He was tried for murder and found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging. Within but a few days, his sentence was carried out while my brothers could do nothing but watch. We wept long into the night for him, and as morning came, my mother called me to her and took my hands, into which she placed her cards and told me a story. She told me that the women of our family have always had a gift for fortune, blessed by the Powers, but that with each gift, there came a terrible price, and that the time had finally come for her to pay hers. I knew then that my mother was dying, but she taught me to believe in the cards, that the cards never lie, and that I too would possess this gift. She told me how she had seen in the cards that I would do great things that someday I would be tested beyond anything I could ever imagine, but that if I could just believe in myself and be true to my heart, I would be able to bring about great changes for the betterment of all. This, she told me, is in the cards, and the cards, they do not lie.”
"My mother died that morning, and we children were taken in by Uncle. We soon learned that Uncle had various connections around the city and amongst the Szarni, and he taught us how to survive by taking advantage of others. My brother Marek saw Uncle for the evil man he was and chose to flee the city to try to find other family that would take us, promising to return for us some day when he could. He still has yet to return. When I came of age, Uncle sold me to a brothel where I learned how to get a man, or the occasional woman, to tell me all his secrets just for a few minutes of pleasure. And when I was entertaining someone, I would do readings with my mother's cards to some of the other whores. It was amusing sometimes what the cards would say, until the day I heard the whispers.”
"I was sixteen the first time it happened. I had been laying out the cards, practicing what my mother taught me, when I felt something different. I heard a voice whispering to me as turned the cards, then others that would echo the sound, nothing clear, nothing I could understand, but I could feel their presence, the presence of spirits around me. I could feel their gentle caress as they brushed along my arms, their touch upon my hair, stirring my clothes setting coins and papers and anything about me dancing across the table and floor. Part of me knew I should be frightened, but strangely I was not. I felt comforted, as if my mother and her mother before her, and her before her, and every generation that came before was there with me, guiding me, and setting me on a path that would take me away from there and away from Uncle and Riddleport and all the darkness.”
"I left that very night, unsure of where I would go, but knowing I needed to be somewhere else. For years I traveled throughout the cities of Varisia, learning the ways and languages of many people, until the day when a new voice spoke to me through the cards, one that would tell me of a terrible evil that had risen in the land, and to seek out a group of strangers who even then had chosen to stand against this evil. The cards told me they needed me, as much as I needed them, and promised to guide me to them. As the cards never lie, I set out on the path before me and soon found myself here in Korvosa. That was when things began to get interesting..."
I stop at that point, trying to gauge the Worm's reaction to my story. After a lengthy pause, I say simply, "I can continue if you wish, but all that we have been through along with our surroundings has left me a bit tired and most parched. Perhaps I could get some water? Just a small bit, at least?"
DM: “Ahh yes, water… Unfortunately, that’s something we have not. Likewise for food – save the fat man and his grotesque delights. Fortunately, you’ll not be needing such things here as time does not exist, at least not as your mortals understand it.” As much as I would like to hear stories in your own words, it is in inadequate substitute for the full sensory experience. Aside from that, I find myself a bit excited. I’ve a special surprise in store for you…” Still facing Tatiana, the devil bends his worm-like body slightly, pulls his tail up, and the mouth of the middle skull opens to reveal the translucent strand once again. With great speed, the translucent strand grows outward from the tail, wraps itself around Tatiana’s neck, and attaches itself into the back of her neck…
Tatiana, there is an instant where your entire life flashes before your very eyes, from birth to your current situation, with only minimal mundane details left out. You relive your entire life in an instant, and then everything goes completely dark. Moments after the darkness sets in, silence falls on your ears, the smell of brimstone and sugar frosting disappears, and you then slip into unconsciousness, as your senses of taste and touch leave you…
You suddenly find yourself in a dream. You are still in hell, but you are free from your bonds. The dream suddenly goes into fast motion, skipping as if by some sort of dysfunctional magic. The magic slows as you fight a winged man wearing glowing metal armor. He makes a foolish move, and you strike – devouring the man’s face with your many teeth. He falls, lifeless before you, and you look up to see waves of your kin, felling many celestial beings as they retreat from the fields of battle.
Moments later, you are in a massive city on the coast. The décor tells you this is not a city of Tatiana’s time. Large monoliths decorate the city skyline as the sun sets and you are meeting a powerful wizard who you entice into bed with your beauty, and then slit his throat while he is sleeping. Skipping ahead, you are in a second city, by the looks of it, divided down the center by a river, and just a few hundred feet from a waterfall by the sounds of it. You are making a deal with a noble, by the looks of him. He is paying you a significant fee of gold. Fast forwarding a few more times, you skip from city to city, often meeting with those who appear important, either paying them, being paid by them, or tricking them into their own demise.
Finally, the dream slows a bit and you are back in the original city. Ahead of you looms a pyramid, standing over 250 feet tall. Beyond it, the harbor smells of fish. Walking up the stairs, you meet an attractive male human in his mid twenties by the appearance of him. You are able to catch bits of the conversation and believe that you hear the man address you as “Sermignatto” as well as the words “she is expecting you.” Walking up the many steps, you enter the top of the pyramid and begin a long trek down its many levels. You exit onto what you think to be the last level and approach a large hole in the floor. A woman more attractive than any you’ve ever seen walks into the room behind you. She commands the presence of the room in a way that seems not of this world. The moment she opens her mouth to speak, the dream jumps into fast motion again.
Accelerating, you watch city after city swiftly fall into ruin, the result of unclear warring factions. After this, the dream accelerates even further, with mere flashes of murders for hire and other obviously evil acts. Suddenly, the dream slows and you, a fat grotesque man smelling of BO, stand in a room with Queen Ileosa Arabasti, a many horned devil with long scrolls of paper hanging from each of the horns, and a corpse of a human, face down in the corner with the skin peeled off his back from shoulder to arse. The horned devil produces a long strand of what appears at first glance to be paper and hands it to the queen. The queen reads the long scroll and signs near the bottom, handing it back to the horned devil. The devil waves his hands, and a second scroll appears atop the first, this new scroll a brighter white in color. It is at this point that you realize the color of the scroll upon which the queen signed matches the skin tone of the corpse in the corner… The many horned devil rolls up the white scroll and tucks it into the folds of his robe, then turns on the spot and disappears, the obvious effect of teleportation magic.
The dream then jumps into fast forward and you see Tatiana throwing spells at you on the ethereal plane, before finally succumbing to your charms. You then see Saul attacking you on the Material plane. You vision switches to the ethereal plane and suddenly, Saul turns towards you on the ethereal plane. You vision switches back to the Material plane as Tatiana turns on you. You teleport away and focus your attention on the Ethereal plane. Tatiana joins Saul on the material plane and moments later, your vision is jumping back and forth between the grotesque fat man and the devil worm, as you battle Saul and Tatiana in a swift, one-sided fight. The end finally comes as Saul & Tatiana both pass out. You fly over to them, wrap them both with your tail and Togomor reaches out his hand to you – Plane Shift… You arrive at a location with two adamantium chairs and two tables. You call upon some imps to thoroughly search the two humanoids and pile all their gear on a table…
As swiftly as the dream came to Tatiana, it ends, and your senses are suddenly restored. You open your eyes just in time to see the translucent strand from the worm’s skull affixed to its tail recoiling… Looking across, you see a look of horror on Saul’s face… Without a word, the devil turns from Tatiana, slithers a few feet towards Saul…
Saul: “When my friends kill you... you think of us, ok?"
DM: At that, the devil looses the translucent strand from his tail on Saul. In similar fashion, Saul’s life flashes before his eyes, his senses go dark, and he dreams the same century’s long dream as Tatiana.
Saul comes to as the devil speaks, “now that we’re acquainted, you undoubtedly have questions. Why are you still alive? Why did I bring you here? What will become of you now that I have what I need? You mortals have no imagination… Oh well, Mavrokeras will take great enjoyment from you none-the-less.” At that, the devil’s translucent tongue extends from the skull on his tail and wraps itself around Togomor’s neck. He goes slightly rigid for a second and then drops the last bite of the dark colored cake onto the floor. Togomor and the worm-like devil you now know as Sermignatto walk onto the luminous green pool which turns red and boils with haste.
As they slip slowly out of sight, you hear Togomor call out, “You two stay still while I gather him,” followed by a deep repetitive grunting sound, possibly resembling a laugh that grows quiet in a few seconds. With your captors gone, the cries of the damned are all that remains. The plumes of fire continue to burst forth randomly at any given moment…
Saul: I wonder what about the ancient extra planar battle, what do I recall about these wars? I try to focus on the first and last city, believing them to be the same city – can I recognize which city it might be, or where it was? Also, who was the powerful wizard that was assassinated? Who is the most attractive woman? The corpse with queen Ileosa, was that the corpse of her dead husband, the king? What kind of power did the people paying the devil gain?
“So this devil has made a deal with the queen, sanctioned over the corpse of another, just as he has done countless times before. Not only that, Kazavon's soul lives within her body.” (Saul pauses and stares at the ground, deep in thought)
This battle is a battle that has seen infinite iterations, raging since the dawn of our world. Entertain no illusions Tatiana, as we are friends and care for our companions, neither of us is making it out of this place. Creatures such as this devil are the entities darkness itself fears.
We have no control over what happens to us or if this devil already knows everything we know. But what we do control is whether or not we willfully betray those we care about, and this is something we will not do."
Tatiana: After the Worm and its pet have left, Tatiana attempts to compose herself.
"That was...interesting", she says, then looks over to Saul. "Are you okay?"
Once assured his mind is okay for now, she compares notes with him over what they just witnessed:
I would like to identify the winged man as an angel and what kind to try and understand what power level of devil we're dealing with, and possibly to realize where the battle took place, and to identify the devil Queen Ileosa apparently was dealing with. I’d also like to identify any of the cities we saw, or any of the people the devil had paid special attention to, such as the man in the coastal city or the woman in the pyramid. Finally, can I determine if any part of Togomor might remain, or if he is fully the worm's puppet and little more than just an extension of the thing. Can we possibly sever their bond and perhaps gain an ally out of this, even if it's just long enough to get us free? Is any of his own intelligence left to Togomor, anything that we might be able to reach?
"I'm only guessing, but I assume the pool is some sort of portal that might get us out of here if we can find a way to free ourselves, or possibly even move these chairs. I'm willing to bet blood is what activates it, but where it goes, well...”
“I'm guessing any place would be better than here."
She looks down at Saul's hand. "As for that ring, well, you ARE currently a Gnoll with rather sharp teeth, and tales speak of how wolves would gnaw their own feet off to escape a trap. As gruesome as it might be, you may wish to consider you might have to do such to your own finger if it meant getting free."
Saul: "Unfortunately, I cannot, my arms are restrained at the wrist and elbow – I’ve already tried to escape the bonds and I cannot... My head is also restrained."
DM: Saul, you recall that there were many wars between devils and angels over the centuries. Focusing in on the setting, a few things do stick out - the war was occurring on the material plane, or another plane very similar to it, the beings fighting the devils were indeed angels - the denizens of heaven, and finally, the suits of armor stood out as being ancient - likely in excess of 10,000 years old. The various cities seen in the flashback are all difficult to discern. The decor is again, ancient and you'd imagine that none of them look even remotely like they do today. The pyramid city MAY be Korvosa, as the pyramid shown resembles the Grand Mastaba, atop which Castle Korvosa sits. The woman, on the other hand is a mystery to you, though you'd definitely like to meet her. As for the corpse in the corner with queen Ileosa, it would be impossible to identify, as it lay face down in the vision, but based on the dirty, bloody garb the corpse wore, he was likely a man of the streets. There was clearly a deal made with a devil, but the nature of the deal, or what power the horned devil could bestow, are both beyond your experience.
Tatiana, the winged man retreating was indeed an angel, and not just any angel, either - he was the immortal herald of Sarenrae herself - Holy Sunlord Thalachos - who is reborn each morning. He was the last angel to retreat, with many more ahead of him. He seemed to be covering their retreat as best possible. The battle certainly took place on the material plane - it happened in a vast, nondescript dessert. The devil is one known as a contract devil, also called a Phistophilius. The Phistophilius has the ability to grant one of three great boons when a mortal willingly signs their name on the drawn up contract - The mortal can have three evil wishes, can gain an infernal slave, or the mortal can have a devil bound to them body and soul. These contracts cannot be broken, and as a part of the terms of the contract, the Phistophilius can use Greater Scrying at will on any person with whom he has an active contract and the target always fails this will save.
As for the places, you can identify Korvosa as both the first and last city, beyond a shadow of a doubt in your mind. The pyramid, which you know as the Grand Mastaba, atop which is perched Castle Korvosa being the most obvious landmark. You believe the city with the river running through it near the waterfall is Kaer Maga, which you passed through on the way into the Cinderlands a few months back. The wizard who was killed, or rather the many wizards who were killed were all ran through pretty quickly and therefore difficult to identify as specific individuals.
The woman was definitely of importance and you are not certain where from, but you've seen her likeness somewhere before… As you ponder it for a moment, it hits you - she was one of the Runelords of the ancient Thassilon Empire, which fell in excess of 10,000 years ago. There were 8 Runelords at the fall of the Thassilon Empire, but which one was she, you wonder…
Based on Togomor's reaction to the translucent tongue being withdrawn from his neck and recalling your total blackout while the translucent tongue was attached to your neck, you can certainly believe that there may be a different Togomor concealed underneath the facade of Sermignatto's control. Even then though, you recall that Sermignatto was able to gain control of your mind while you yet lay in a field that blocks all magics. If you were to attempt to free Togomor from the control of Sermignatto, it would have to be done to Sermignatto, not Togomor, you believe.
Tatiana: "Well, let's see if fate can move something other than mountains."
With that, Tatiana tries to focus on Saul's bindings, mostly on his head and attempts to find a weak spot (we'll laugh at the irony of THAT later) while sending out a plea to her god. She will continue to focus and continue to concentrate until it leaves her weak, trying to get something, ANYTHING to happen, some stirring of the spirits, something to show that our god can even still hear us. No matter how futile it may seem, she will not give up. If she's going to die here, she's determined to go down fighting all the way.
DM: You focus on the bindings for a few minutes and your head begins to hurt a bit. Similar to when you tried casting a spell, you can feel the Antimagic field squelching any attempt at innate magic… After a few more minutes, you tire a bit further…
Saul: "Save your strength my dear. In situations such as these, we must be prepared to accept "fighting back" as something other than physical means.
In the meantime think of something you enjoy, an idea, a place, something you can go to. Because when the world is coming down around us, sometimes an idea is enough to provide light in the darkest of places."
Tatiana: "Ah, but I AM thinking of something I enjoy. I'm enjoying the thought of ripping that worm's spine out and using it to strangle him. And then I'll focus on what to do about his master. Did he really think he could control a devil so ancient and powerful? That ignorant slob! And here I thought Alistair was headstrong, irrational, impulsive, self-centered, arrogant...I'm beginning to recognize all wizards seem to share these traits. It seems the only thing that makes our little wizard stand out is that he actually CARES what happens to people. He just doesn't show it that often, and I'm beginning to understand why. Spending all that time looking for more and more power, they care so little for who gets hurt along the way. Well, *I* care, and I have no intention of just sitting here waiting for what comes next.
"I need a focus, something to keep out the sounds of the screams and the fires… …”
“Tell me about yourself, Saul. What were you like before we met? You've never mentioned a wife, but I saw the ring you wear sometimes. Were you married once? What happened to her? Do you have any children? Please, tell me a story so I can clear my mind and drown out our surroundings."
Saul: (Chuckles once to self) "I stole that wedding ring” (he says with a smile)
I have always been as I am now. I grew up on the streets of Korvosa with nobody but my own thoughts for company, adopting the philosophy that the law is only a defense for those who agree to be bound by it, which I do not. I picked up my skills doing petty crimes, working dead drops for the mob, doing surveillance for the sable company marines, and wet work. I do have what people would call a "moral compass", but it is my own; the measure of an individual can be difficult to discern by actions alone.
The only loyalties I have are to those who have bled with me. I pursue my interests in such things as women, money, drinking because they bring me pleasure. More importantly, in the recesses of my mind I understand that few people get what they deserve, good or bad."
Tatiana: "Hmm...Get what they deserve..." Tatiana looks around at the surroundings...
"Well, I certainly didn't expect Nirvana, but Hell might just a tad bit extreme for us..." With that, she lets out a chuckle that breaks into laughter. After a bit she calms and looks to Saul.
"No, I haven't lost my mind just yet. I'm just appreciating the irony of what you said."
She closes her eyes for a moment, letting her mind wander and trying to get a feel for things beyond what she sees. Sinking back against the chair, she shifts slightly attempting to feel the weight of her bonds and the chair beneath her. Is it fixed to the ground? If not, how heavy is it? More than she can move, no doubt. Can it even be shifted in the slightest? How well crafted is it? Any seams anywhere? What about her surroundings? Can she sense anyone watching or possibly listening to them? Is there any feeling, other than the distant screams, of anything or anyone nearby?
After a few moments, she opens her eyes and locks gazes with Saul.
"Tell me something Saul, if we're indeed in Hell, why has nothing else come upon us? The only other creatures we've seen besides ourselves is our captors, and if we've been here as long as the Worm has implied, then shouldn't we have seen something else by now? And I don't mean the screams; anyone with any skill in the arts could create such sounds. But that's all there is, just those screams, something to be heard only, but nothing to be seen. Don't you find that the least bit odd?"
DM: Tatiana closely inspects the chair, finding it to be of impeccable quality. There are no seams or cracks to be seen, as if the chair was forged as a single piece. The chair has a total of 6 spikes into the ground, three on the left side in the front, middle, and back, and three more on the left side. Your feet do touch the ground, but unfortunately attempting to lift the chair from the ground by pressing the front of your foot down yields no results.
After that, she expands her senses and takes some time to closely perceive her surrounds… You do not sense any presences beyond what you can see. In every direction you can see, the plains of fire extend for approximately 300 to 500 feet before rising fairly quickly to sharp peaks.
Tatiana: “Saul, all I see beyond you is plains for a few hundred feet, and then peaks, what do you see beyond me?”
Saul: “Same thing here – it looks like we’re in a crater of sorts with this raised platform conveniently placed near the center.”
"Everything about this place is odd, I don't understand it myself. As for other people, let me put it this way - if I were walking across a desert that stretched for infinity, I could either encounter every soul that has ever lived or nobody - neither would surprise me."
He pauses for another moment, looking upward.
"On the other hand, I am doubtful that we will get out of here. But if there is a small chance we can, even a minute one, that chance drawn out over infinity it is bound to occur at least once. So if it does happen, be ready."
DM: Countless hours pass, with the non-directional symphony of the damned and plumes of flame your only infernal comforts... It's hard to gauge time here, but between conversations and quite moments between the two of you, it seems to have been a full 24 hours - maybe longer. You feel no different than before - no stronger, no weaker, no more or less hungry or thirsty, and still incapable of resting, despite the ordeal... The whole time, not a single other soul passes, mortal or otherwise... You surroundings are likely starting to take their mental toll by now...
Tatiana: Suddenly Tatiana's head snaps up and her eyes lock with Saul's, a look of pure revelation, amazement, and wonder on her face.
"I just thought of something! We KNOW someone here! The question is, do we dare call upon her to help us? Would she answer? And if she actually did, what price would she exact for her aid?"
She tries to concentrate a moment..."What was her name? That chain devil witch traveling with what's-his-name Shadowcount Sail…?
She focuses her attention on Saul. "It's a long shot, but maybe if we tried calling out to her, she might possibly hear or sense her name being spoken and come to us. Yes, there would be a price to pay, but I'm thinking anything might be better than just sitting here, yes? No? Maybe?"
Saul: Asyra was her name – The chain devil fighter that accompanied Shadowcount Sail. But why would she be here…?
DM: Tatiana, you sense a slight presence. It is not near you, but rather near the cards on the table. Just then, the top card from Zellara's harrow deck slides off with no visual stimulus. It lands face up on the ground between the table and the luminous green pool... Tatiana, your eyesight can’t tell quite what the card is…
Saul: “Hmm… That card has an image of an armored man, sitting in a large, throne-like chair, with a sword and shield laying at his feet, and a large treasure chest. The man is heavily bandaged, with many green spirits tending to his wounds.
Tatiana: (sounding confused) "I don't think I understand. The Temptress, I would understand, but the Survivor doesn't seem to fit for her. That card is better suited for a lost champion, one who has gone through a terrible ordeal, possibly even lost those he loved, but managed to live through it all and possibly even made stronger for it. Actually, it seems better suited to one of us, given the circumstances..."
She pauses to think a bit...
"Is there anyone you can think of, Saul, whom you might have had dealings with, a possible ally, who has since passed from our world? Or one who may have passed but returned, not in the sense that you or Alistair or Jigs or Thumps or Zelda or even myself...come to think of it, it could mean any one of us."
She takes a minute to clear her thoughts...
"Anyways, can you think of anyone other than us that might suit the card? Could it possibly be a sign from our god, maybe? Or perhaps it IS Asyra taunting us..."
Saul: “Too bad it’s not ‘the survivors’…”
DM: After what seems like another 16 hours or more, the slowly rolling luminous green pool signals an impending arrival, turning blood red and boiling madly. It is not long before Togomor stands atop the pool, facing Saul. He steps off the portal and towards the table holding your gear. The pool’s continued boiling provides an early alert of Sermignatto’s arrival. He likewise moves off the pool, stepping towards the table holding various instruments of torture. The pool continues to boil, signaling the coming arrival of a new player.
As you watch, the head and shoulders of a creature at least large in size rises from the boiling portal. The head of the creature is blood red in color, with no lips covering a total of 24 razor sharp teeth 3 inches in length and two horns that extend at least 18 inches in length hooking upwards and forward. As the beast continues to rise, you see it holding onto a spiked chain that measures 25 feet in length and notice its body and 12 foot long tail are a mix of black and grey tones. The beast’s talon-like hands and feet are the same blood red as the beasts head. Once the beast has risen completely out of the pool, which quickly calms to a luminous green boil, it stretches it’s arms outward as it to announce its presence, and the small wings you had barely noticed as it rose fly outward and upward to a span in excess of 40 feet. The beast, which now stands 12 feet tall to the horns with wings extending to 20 feet tall, lets out a great roar which you can hear echo off the distant cavern walls at least twice…
Saul: "You're the ugliest date i've ever had."
DM: The beast steps off the portal towards Saul, seemingly oblivious to Saul’s comment, and turns towards the table containing torture devices. He picks up a shiny dagger, which looks like a small toy in his large hands. Without a word, he drapes his spiked chain around his neck so each end lightly scrapes the floor as we walks towards Saul. With one talon like hand, he pins Saul’s right arm at the elbow so that the palm of Saul’s hand faces downward. Taking the dagger, he makes a nearly surgical incision along the outside of your arm, starting a few inches below your elbow and moving all the way down to your wrist. Slight tinges of pain shoot down your arm. Releasing your arm, he grabs your face and digs two of his talons into each of your cheeks – piercing them with his razor sharp claws and then forcibly prying your mouth open, if necessary. He lifts your head to face upward and holds the dagger over your mouth allows three drops of your own blood to fall into your mouth while letting out a deep, low growl that may be his form of a laugh…
When this is complete, he pins Saul’s right arm again and moves the dagger down to the inside edge of Saul’s arm, making a second incision stretching from elbow to wrist. Without pausing, he makes a third incision across the top of the elbow, connection the two parallel incisions before making a similar incision along Saul’s wrist, connecting the incision in a long rectangular pattern spanning the entire top of Saul’s right arm.
Togomor snaps his fingers, and the devil turns his head towards Sermignatto, taking a step away from Saul. He appears to be listening to a non-verbal command for a few seconds. Tatiana notices his face shift, but it is difficult to interpret the expressions of his abnormal facial features. With rapid speed, he turns suddenly, throwing the dagger in his hand towards Saul which strikes him in the left arm with extreme force. The dagger pierces the skin and tissue easily, planting itself firmly in the bone sending a moderate surge of pain through your left arm…
The devil then heads for the table and picks up a second dagger in one hand and the instrument which appears to be used for holding one’s mouth open. Walking over the Saul, he takes the second dagger and with a quick thrust, plants it firmly into Saul’s left upper arm, again piercing the skin and soft tissue with ease and planting it deep into the bone, which cracks this time, releasing a stronger surge of pain… Without hesitation, the devil again forces Saul’s mouth open, intentionally piercing the left cheek with his razor sharp claws, if he has not done so already. Taking the apparatus, he places one end into your mouth, behind your teeth and cranks your mouth open beyond its normal limits. You feel the bones of your jaw stretching and you are immediately in constant pain.
Togomor snaps his fingers again, and the same as last time, the devil steps back, faces Sermignatto, and after a few seconds time has passed, he nods and turns towards the table. He picks up the clay urn off the table and a small metallic club and walks over to Togomor, removing the lid from the clay urn and handing him the club. Togomor sticks the end of the small club into the urn and casts a spell and the pot jumps alive with the sound of clicking. The large horned devil places the lid on the urn and takes it back from Togomor along with the club. He places the club on the table and moves towards Saul with the urn, opening it as he gets close. He slowly turns the urn over Saul’s head, and while only a small percentage of the spiders land in Saul’s mouth, there are hundreds of them total and you can feel a few of the spiders moving down your throat as you fight to crush them. Togomor lets out a sinister laugh and turns towards Tatiana to gauge her reaction with a smile brandished proudly across his grotesque face…
The spiders climb down Saul’s neck and neck, up his head, across his face, and undoubtedly down his throat, biting at every step. You can feel their venom start to seep into you as you fight off the effects. The spiders climb and crunch for what feels like 15 minutes while the large horned devil stands back, a look of anger or content on his face, you are unsure… As the spiders bite, you can feel your strength being sapped away Saul – you take 1 point of strength damage per minute - this strength damage can only lower you to a minimum of 1 point of strength. As quickly as the spiders appeared into the urn, they disappear. Immediately after the spiders disappear, the large horned devil grabs Saul’s right arm again and using his razor sharp claws, peels up an inch of skin near Saul’s wrist. The look of pain on Saul’s face is unmistakable and Saul lets out a loud cry, rivaling for a second the screams of the other damned… The devil pauses as if to enjoy the scream before continuing to peel back the skin in a slow, painful motion. Saul screams three times more before the skin is nearly removed, and the devil pauses each time. When the skin is 90% removed, the devil pulls the dagger out of Saul’s right humerus and slices about half of the skin off, leaving 4 inches of skin dangling off Saul, held on by an inch…
The large horned devil holds the skin proudly and then tosses it onto the table. He does not immediately move, as if surveying the situation. After a few seconds, he rips the dagger out of Saul’s left humerus, then jabs it once, quickly into the top of Saul’s right calf, penetrating no less than 3 inches of hairy flesh. He gives it a quick one eighth twist before removing it and blood flows freely from the wound. Saul, you begin to feel yourself slowly slipping towards unconsciousness… As you look down at your leg, struggling to keep yourself conscious, the devil reaches for your head, and with an fluid motion, grabs the apparatus holding your mouth open, and lifts upward with a surprisingly great amount of force. You can feel yourself being picked up, strained against the head strap and lap band of the chair restraining you, but alas, your teeth and jaw yield first, as your jaw cracks loudly and no less than 5 of your teeth fly freely from your mouth. Saul lets out a scream of pain yet again and slumps in the chair just a bit…
As the horned devil moves towards the table Togomor lets out a wheezing laugh, smiling. Arriving at the wooden table, the devil stakes both daggers into it relatively close to one another and then standing up straight for a few minutes, surveying the contents of the table. When the devil moves again, he picks up a large sized hand axe and runs his sharp claw along it’s blade, admiring it for a few minutes before setting it back down. His next tool of interest is a 24” long saw, which appears a toy in his large hands. He admires this one for a few minutes, running his claw over a few of the teeth as if to ensure it is up to any task assigned to it. Finally, he picks up an oversized pair of shears, again testing them for sharpness. This time, he takes the shears and holds them up to his head, opening them and running each side down one of his horns for no less than 5 minutes. He then sets the shears back down on the table, appearing to position them in a specific location.
Togomor, who has continued to watch Tatiana since the spiders were placed in Saul’s mouth, snaps his fingers and turns to Saul to cast a spell… Saul, the cries of the damned and bursts of flame immediately go silent. You can no longer hear the breathing of the large devil or Togomors constant wheezing, but you can still hear your own breathing and you now hear the dripping of blood, primarily from you right arm… Unconsciousness is close and it will be a welcome relief to the sharp pains coursing through three of you four appendages…
Togomor then speaks, “Tatiana, my dear… Saul is going to lose a finger, a toe, or an ear this very hour. You must tell me within 5 minutes which of these he will lose, and with which of the three instruments he shall lose it. If you fail to do this, I WILL (he emphasizes this word) see to it that both his left arm and left leg are removed using far less clean methods… I cannot be certain he would survive such an ordeal, and I don’t think you want me to have to move on that quickly, now do you?... I await your reply.”
Tatiana: Tatiana is both horrified and enraged by all she sees, barely choking back the bile she feels rising in her throat, but unable to tear her eyes away as Saul is tortured before them…
When Togomor speaks to her, she locks eyes with him as if trying to stare into his mind and into the eyes of his master. Through clenched teeth she snarls, "When we are free of this, I will personally take your head."
Her face softens as she looks to Saul, but she knows Togomor's words are true. Fearing time is running out, she says as calmly as she can, "A toe then," and turns to look at Sermigatto, "Unless you would take two of mine instead."
DM: Togomor erupts into wheezing laughter… “It is good to see that you understand the gravity of your situation. As for the weapon of choice, I’ll allow you that one oversight. I believe every soul should be given a second chance to serve its one true purpose” he says as his face turns stern. “As for your offer to take two of your own, unfortunately, it is Saul’s turn. I assure you though that your turn will come in due time…” he says, tailing off. “Maybe we can strike a side deal at a later date – I should think there are many things you’d be willing to offer for some minor comforts, no?” he says, his face turning to a sinister smile once more.
Saul’s range of hearing is suddenly restored and you hear Togomor say to Tatiana, “Very well, a single toe with the shears it is.” A few seconds after the words are out of his mouth, the devil turns towards the table and picks up the shears. He walks over to Saul, places the shears on either side of the big toe on Saul’s right foot and immediately squeezes the shears enough to pierce the soft tissue. He holds them here for a few seconds, watching the blood flow from Saul’s toe before continuing. What seems to Saul like 5 minutes later, the toe is finally removed and the devil steps back.
Unconsciousness is near moments away Saul – maybe you will be free of this place in your dreams.. Looking down at your body, you think it’s not so bad for torture – you definitely could have done worse to a man, though likely at the expense of his life… That last bit is the frightening part, as you no doubt have already ascertained the fact that these devils do not wish you dead – at least not yet. This is the first day of many days of torture…
Saul: "And he doesn't even buy me a drink…"
DM: Blinking a few times, Saul’s eyes are drawing heavy. You see the devil draw his spiked chain off his neck and approach the table. From 15 feet away from you, he pulls back and with a single motion, cracks the spiked chain sharply across your chest, and the world fades to darkness...
Tatiana, Saul’s eyes immediately droop shut at the crack of the chain and blood runs off the end of the spiked chain, a results of the 7 inch gash in Saul’s chest. While Saul’s eyes close, the rest of him clenches up tightly for almost 30 seconds, before finally relaxing into a state of bloody unconsciousness…
After Saul goes limp, Togomor casts a spell and a wall erupts upward from the ground between Togomor, the devils, and Saul. The wall stands 40 feet tall and 40 feet wide, is very thin, and has a glass-like finish. Togomor then steps onto the transport pool, which quickly turns red and boils. As he begins to descend, he casts another spell, and an identical wall of the same size appears between Togomor, both devils, and you. Thirty seconds later you hear a deep repetitive grunting sound which fades to silence.
Tatiana, you now sit staring at yourself in a mirror, the symphony of the damned and bursts of ignition your only comfort…
Tatiana: I stare at the wall before me, into the eyes of my own reflection, one thought prevalent upon her mind, echoed in her whisper...
"He cast a spell! That fat, filthy bastard cast a spell! But how? We're in an anti-magic field. Or are we...?"
Frantically, she tries casting her senses out; trying to feel for the slightest echo of magic, calling forth the simplest of cantrips, checking if she can feel anything. If not the presence of magic, then maybe she can try to determine the source of its absence. Perhaps the chairs themselves? There must be a reason to use adamantium when common steel would have been sufficient to hold them…
Her eyes fall on the card on the ground. "Please, whoever you are, if there is any way you can help us, anything you can do that would give us a chance to get through this, then I beg you, save him. I will do whatever it takes if you just save him from this."
DM: Saul, you find yourself standing in the middle of one of the streets of Korvosa, standing in front of a building. The building is mid blaze, not yet fully engulfed, but surely not far from it. You see two children looking out of the third story window, looking down at you and screaming at the top of their lungs – “HELP!!!” As you look towards the front door, you notice the sign, “New Town Orphanage”, and realize that you had stayed here for a few weeks in your childhood… Taking in the scene, you realize that the front door has a steel pipe through the door handles and you can see the door jostling, as if someone were trying to open them from the inside…
Saul: I remove the pipe from the outside of the door. What am I wearing?
DM: Tatiana, you continue trying to ascertain what exactly is blocking your magics. With the knowledge that Togomor was able to cast a few spells, you reevaluate the situation, focusing on your knowledge of Spellcraft for more than just a few minutes. You first thought is that it may be an Antimagic field, though that spell normally must be placed on the caster of the spell itself… Recalling the properties of that particular spell, it only affects a radius of 10 feet, centered on the caster. Magics outside of that 10 foot radius are unaffected, and the wall spell Togomor cast was at least 10 feet away from Saul, and likewise the second was at least 10 feet away from yourself. Fortunately, the antimagic field spell only lasts in the range of two or three hours, depending on the strength of the caster. If that spell were modified in some way to affect any creature, or potentially an object, then it could be placed within the chair, or maybe within the ring staked to your finger. The source of the magic is unclear, but you are relatively certain that it mimics, in many ways, the antimagic field spell you’re familiar with.
Sometime during the course of the first few hours since the wall went up, you try to focus your mind on the capabilities of the new devil – did Sermignatto call him “Mavrokeras”…? Unfortunately, Varisian stories speak not of this new devil, and as such its abilities and powers are unknown to you.
Saul, looking down at yourself, you realize that in this dream, you are back to your original form – that of a Halfling. You are wearing your noble’s robes, but do not have any magical equipment on you. You run up and remove the pipe from the door. Upon doing so, a dozen or more orphans rush out of the burning building, followed closely by 3 adult humans. You direct them to the children on the third floor, and one of them runs back into the building, emerging 60 seconds later with a child tucked under each arm just moments before the main doorway bursts into fire. The children are terrified, and many are coughing from the smoke, but they all appear unharmed as the adults go around hugging one another, apparently content with the head count. Minutes later, the bucket brigade shows up and a few of the soldiers begin tending to the coughing children, while the others toss water onto the adjacent buildings, apparently having decided the orphanage was a lost cause…
You stand watching the scene as darkness falls on your eyes… You come to and find yourself strapped to the cold, harsh adamantium chair, your wounds crudely stitched shut. Your strength is still sapped as you feel like you’d barely be able to stand, but you don’t believe you’re in any immediate danger of dying…
Tatiana, you sit staring at your own reflection, wondering if your comrade is fighting off death, or if he has passed on by now. You pause a bit at the thought of Saul being judged by Pharsma. You wonder exactly where Saul would end up – Elysium, you quietly hope to yourself… What seems like a few days has passed, and you’ve heard no sounds beyond those you’ve come to associate with the plane of Hell…
Saul: Saul will gingerly test the chair again, particularly his left leg. Perhaps having been stabbed will allow him to contort his body in ways that were not possible before.
(Sounding a little delirious) " I passed out. I was back in Korvosa, the old orphanage was on fire, my childhood was on fire. Children trapped inside, someone locked them in. But it was me who unlocked the door but did not unlock the secret, who started the fire? Saved many. Many children will grow up. It was about unlocking the door and running back into the fire."
DM: Saul, You can only see a silver reflection of yourself in the mirror-like wall that extends upwards 40 feet and is 40 feet wide, centered in front of you. If you are speaking out loud, Tatiana can hear you as nothing is currently blocking sound. As for the chair, you feel as restrained as before, though your dilemma has you thinking hard about ways out… If you snapped your own femur, it may be possible to get your leg out, but that would take some serious nerve and may not be as easy as it would seem.
DM: What seems like only a few minutes after you come to Saul the wall you are staring at falls, seeming to slide effortlessly into the ground. Looking ahead, you see the red, grey, and black devil with large horns holding a dagger which is dripping with blood. Looking across, you see Tatiana whose look tells you that she is seeing this for the first time as well. There is no sign of Togomor or the worm-like devil Sermignatto.
The horned devil moves towards you holding just the dagger. He begins with your left arm, working rather slowly. In a matter of 5 minutes, he has flaying the skin on that arm exactly as the other arm was the last time you were tortured, leaving half of it hanging off and the other half cut away. He then moves over to your other arm, where the half of your skin that was left hanging has been sewn back on. He uses the knife to loose an inch of your skin and begins peeling it off slowly. You are surprised at the pain this generates, hurting significantly more than the first time it was removed – but how is that possible…?
As the devil turns his back and steps towards the table, you notice a few of your teeth, your hairy Gnoll toe, and the patch of skin off your right arm already lay atop the table among the various torture instruments – trophies of your torturer, no doubt. He sets the second and third patches of skin down on the table near the others. And finds another instrument of choice…
The torture continues for what feels like twice as long the last session. Saul’s torturous cries echo off the cavern walls, temporarily drowning out the usual sound track… In addition to the skin removal from both arms, Saul is missing the smallest finger on his left hand, his right ear lobe, and his left nipple has been removed, along with the skin in a 1 inch circle around it. He has a long cut down the shin of his right leg and blood in his right eye from a sharp cut along his forehead. The devil again ends the session of torture with a single crack of his spiked chain, and Saul’s eyes immediately shut and his body goes rigid for 30 seconds and then goes limp… He can handle no more. About 30 seconds thereafter, the devil steps between the two tables and begins laying his new trophies out on the table as the walls slide up…
Tatiana, you are left alone to stare at your own reflection, once again…
Tatiana: "Saul? Can you hear me…? Please, tell me you’re ok…”
*After the first time, when she hears Saul stirring:
"Saul? Can you hear me? What are you saying about a fire?"
(his response, presumably about the dream)
"That doesn't make sense. Why have a dream like that in a place like this? If it's a test, then who is testing you? And why?"
She looks to the cards again.
"Zellara, if you're there, if you can hear me, please, find a way to let them know where we are. Don't let him die here."
**During the second torture:
"Why are you doing this?!? What do you want from us?!? This doesn't make any sense!!
The stories say that demons and daemons torture for fun, but devils beguile and entrap. There must be something you want from us. Just tell me what it is!!!"
As Saul collapses into unconsciousness, before the walls go up again, she tries to look the devil in the eyes and demands, "Why?"
Afterwards, as she sits staring at her own reflection
DM: Saul’s torture continues for another 5 sessions. At the end of it, Saul is missing a total of 4 toes and 3 fingers, both of his thumbs, and both nipples have been cut out. He is missing the skin on the top and bottom side of his right arm, from wrist to elbow, the skin on the top side his left arm from wrist to elbow, and about 1/3 of the skin on his chest from the increasing number of spiked chain lashes that end each torture session. Saul has less teeth remaining than missing, and has even swallowed one or two of them as the devil forced them down his mouth. There has been no sign of Togomor or Sermignatto since the day of Saul’s first torture. Amazingly, each day, Saul’s wounds are crudely stitched back together, and Saul actually feels more vigorous each successive morning. Unfortunately, this translates to longer and longer torture sessions as Saul seems to be able to handle more punishment with each day. Additionally, Saul has noticed that at the beginning of each session of torture, the instruments drip with fresh blood, despite the fact that Tatiana says a long number of hours have passed between sessions – between 12 and 24, by her best guesses. Some foul magic must be afoot, because this deceives all logic – Tatiana has yet to recover one scrap of her strength.
More concerning than this is that Saul’s dreams and visions have grown strange of late. One such recent dream was that of his dead body, lying alongside Tatiana’s body in a warehouse. Saul watched as a spirit from the rafters. After what seemed like hours in the dream, Alaistar, Jigs, Thumps, Zelda, and Trinia entered the warehouse, presumably on a rescue mission. It was a trap though as they were attacked by a particularly nasty pair of pit fiends, Lucifer’s personal heralds. Within mere seconds, Saul watched his closest friends, who he came back from the dead to assist, slain at the hands of the pure evil, their souls dragged down to hell to endure eternal torment alongside his own…
The dream before that one was troubling on a different scale. You sat right where you are right now, with Sermignatto in front of you holding a mirror in front of a table he had custom build by a bunch of imps with a pool of water in it. You watched through the familiar scrying mechanisms as Queen Ileosa stood in a barely lit room that appeared to be underground – maybe the Thassilonian level of the castle – performing a ritual involving a large pool of red fluid. You can sense the ritual is coming to a close, but before it does, the image in the pool changes. From 30 feet above the streets, you look down upon the temple of Asmodeus in Korvosa. The doors are open, and just inside, you see priests of Asmodeus drawing blood from individuals using an odd and obviously magical device with a ballast for blood that fills with each draw, and empties itself immediately thereafter. Each time the ballast empties, the priest speaks a few words in infernal. Close by stands two different patrols of grey maidens, each numbering 4. Suddenly, you hear cries and shrieks as all 8 grey maidens, many people close to the temple of Asmodeus, a few of whom just had their blood taken, and about 40% of the common folk on the street go rigid and fall dead where they stand. Moments after they fall, their eyes, ears, and mouth run red with blood, but the streets stay dry as the blood runs out of them and immediately vaporizes. The pool turns and looks down a few more streets, moving in fast motion away from the temple – this is not an isolated incident. Across all of Korvosa, grey maidens, commoners, and nobles alike lay dead in the street…
Most concerning though was the recent dream – it was that of Saul and Tatiana being taken by Togomor and Sermignatto, exactly as it happened. What was troubling about this dream is that up until then, you’d written off these dreams as images meant to instill fear into you. But this one was no mere lie, this was fact, this was the past. What if the other dreams represented present events or future events? What if your comrades were already dead, slain at the hands of pit fiends? What if half the citizens of Korvosa were laid low and nobody was able to stop them… Had your capture caused all this, or was the recent image of actual past events intended to cloud your judgment in this very way…?
(For the record – Saul, please let Tatiana and I know how many of these dreams you would share with her – would you share them at all or not?)
Tatiana, your memories have recently become slightly tainted. You struggle to clearly recall stressful events of the past, and find yourself unwillingly laying blame upon certain individuals for things that while they may have had a hand in, were not intentional slights. Oddly enough, Saul has not been the subject of any of these such memory lapses.
(Tatiana, Would you share the tainting of your memories with Saul?)
DM: Seven torture sessions after your first, the walls drop and the horned devil does not move to begin his work as normal. What could be the reason, you wonder? He stands still for a few minutes and then the portal begins to boil, indicating the arrival of others. Togomor arrives first, followed by Sermignatto; his tongue is still firmly planted into the back of his puppet’s neck. Sermignatto speaks upon his arrival, a deep growling voice from within the worm, “I’ve brought you each a present.” It is then that you notice that the portal is still blood red in color. “For Saul,” Sermignatto speaks, “I’ve brought a new body – I figured his would be feeling incomplete by now.” Sermignatto lets out a growling deep laugh and then turns towards the portal. “For you, my dear Tatiana, the opportunity for a deal” says Sermignatto, as he motions to the portal – rising up from which, is the medium sized multi horned devil with paper hanging from his many horns that you’ve seen previously in Sermignatto’s vision involving Queen Ileosa.
The new arrival steps off the portal and approaches Tatiana. The red devil standing at 6 ½ feet tall appears handsome and confident, its chiseled features housing a perpetually smug grin. He speaks with an air of importance, looking Tatiana in the eye, “Grettings Tatiana, my name is Pandrasus, clerk of the second order of Cocytus, servant of Baaphal. I have come to broker a deal to lessen the torment of yourself or your comrade through a number of different means. The first thing you must know, however, is that as a servant of Hell, I am bound to do nothing to interfere with the affairs of my devil-kin, so any request which undermines the work of Sermignatto or any other devils is not possible.”
While the devil speaks with Tatiana, Togomor reaches down into his bag of holding and pulls out some pieces of wood, dropping them on the ground. He continues to pull pieces of wood out for a minute or two, before stopping. While the wood lay on the ground, he casts a spell and half of the wood quickly forms into a table, standing about 4 feet tall and no longer or wider than 4 feet. He then casts the same spell a second time and a second table, identical in size forms. The large horned devil picks up one of these tables and places it five feet in front of Saul. He then picks up the second and places it 5 feet in front of Tatiana. Togomor then reaches down into his bag and pulls out what appears to be a small figurine. He hands it to the large horded devil, who walks towards the table in front of Saul, holding the figurine as if it were a delicate flower, refusing to clench it tightly. As he steps up to the table, he thrusts the figuring towards the table, and it immediately grows to the size of a small humanoid. He sets it down on the table and Saul quickly recognizes it a dead Gnome, freshly killed by the looks of the fresh slash across the neck from ear to ear. The large horned devil turns back to the table with his instruments and grabs his axe. Returning to the Gnome corpse, he begins to chop parts off as if the corpse was a chicken. Saul, it is not apparently obvious what his criteria for selecting pieces to remove is, until the devil pulls out a knife and begins carving a ring shape around both of the Gnome’s nipples. This devil is removing the pieces of the Gnome to match the pieces he has removed from you.
The contract devil continues speaking with Tatiana, “Now for what I can offer – I have come today prepared to offer you one of the following choices: First, I could deliver a final message to a blood relative, living or dead. Second, I could alleviate Saul’s pain for a single day. Third, I could silence the screams of your comrade to your ears. Finally, I could provide you with a position of relative power in the 7th circle of Hell when you die. In exchange for a contract guaranteeing one of the above, I would require one of the following – all of your memories regarding your mother or all of your memories regarding Saul. So which will it be?” He finishes with a slight smile, looking on Tatiana as a parent, anxiously awaiting the first step of their first born child.
Tatiana: As the devil makes its offer, Tatiana bows her head and says in a low voice, "Forgive me, Saul, but I don't think I can bear to watch them do this to you anymore."
She raises her head again and glares at the devils, "But I will do so lest your suffering be in vain."
Looking to the contract devil, she says, "Pain-in-Ass, take your infernal contracts and shove them up your infernal ass."
DM: The devil takes your rejection with a sinister smile - "Very well", he says, turning to the portal without another word. As the contract devil leaves through the portal, Sermignatto speaks in his growling deep voice, “and I trust you’ve seen your prize by now, Saul - we’ve brought you replacement parts. They may not be a perfect fit, but they should do the trick nicely.”
Tatiana: "Kill me if you will, make me dance if that's your desire, but I will never willingly do your bidding. You may break my body and my spirit, but you will not have my soul."
As he finishes speaking, the large horned devil moves towards the table and picks up his axe. “We’ll keep today’s session short” says Sermignatto, “I’ve other business I must tend to.” The large horned devil approaches the chair and with a single sweeping blow, he chops both of Saul’s legs off just above the knee.
Saul, you see blood pour from your legs as your eyes widen. Death is certain this time – no amount of stitches will stop the blood flow… Your eyes quickly go heavy and you pass out within seconds.
Tatiana, you watch as Saul loses both of his legs in a single chop, the blood sure to kill him… The large horned devil holding his axe the blood squirting out of Saul’s legs drenches its blade. No more than 15 seconds have passed before the wall in front of you swiftly slides up. Twenty seconds later, you hear Sermignatto’s growling laugh growing fainter as he likely descends the portal.
Saul, you are in a dream once more. This time, you are younger and dressed in the garb of an orphan. You have been taken prisoner by Gaedren Lamm, a horrid excuse for a man, a criminal far beyond his prime. You sit atop a bed which you have been chained to. It is dark in the room, but you know what is coming regardless. Gaedren will come up from his lair soon, and when he does, he will ask for the day’s haul of stolen goods from the market. Usually, he does not expect much, but as of late, he’s been using Sunday nights to test a new method of motivating the orphans – Whoever brings back the smallest catch for the day is taken below the abandoned fishery. Nobody knows what’s down there, but everybody knows that once a child has been taken below, they are never seen again…
A human child missing his left hand that you’re not particularly fond of is begging you for a few small wares. “Saul, I know you managed to filth a few nice things at the market today – you’ve a hand for that sort of thing. Just pass me one small thing, I only managed to pick a few copper pieces off a solider and I’m sure Gaedren is going to pick me” he says, trying to sound unconcerned, but you can sense the grave concern in his voice. “Please,” he says, his voice cracking as he speaks. You consider his request for a few seconds, but a few seconds was longer than he had – the lights flip on and before the lot of you stand the filthy old man and his crazy Gnome body guard. He collects wares from each of you, and you hand over all of your wares minus one, deciding it best to hold one in reserve should you come upon a dry spell.
Arriving at the one-handed human child, Gaedren cusses and spits when he extends only a few copper pieces – slapping them out of the body’s single hand. He does not even continue onward with the rest of the orphans, “Hookshanks, this one will be our entertainment tonight” he says, looking towards the Gnome. The boy screams and cries, as the Gnome unlocks his cuffs and drags him below. In his eyes you can see the terror of impending death… A death you could have prevented, if only to bring it upon another unfortunate soul…
Tatiana, about 5 minutes after the wall was raised, you notice an odd sight - floating downward from over the top of the wall is one of Saul’s legs. You haven’t had much time to imagine why this would be happening before it becomes clear. As the leg reaches a height of about 8 feet off the top of the table, it drops onto the table with a thud. A few minutes later, some of the smaller pieces of Saul’s Gnoll body drop onto the table from the same spot, landing with a bit of a squishing noise. Before too long, it appears as if every piece of Saul’s body other than what is left is laying on the table in front of you, save one leg. The last leg is then brought over the top of the wall, floating as if by magic and dropped onto the table. It hits the other leg on the table and rolls off onto the floor. You immediately hear a single sound, a squeaky voice speaking another language, you think.
Before long, you see an Imp, one of the many lesser devils in the ranks of the hell’s denizens, walking towards the table from along the side of the wall. The Imp grabs the Gnoll leg, which is nearly as big as it is and begins to climb the leg of the table, dropping it 2 times before finally managing to reach the top of the table with the hairy leg. Plopping it down on the table, the Imp looks towards Tatiana with a cruel, crooked smile and squeaks a few sounds as he arranges the grisly trophies on the table. After a bit, he hops off the table and runs along the wall. Once he is about 8 feet away from the table, he turns invisible as if he’d just passed into a cloaking field.
Tatiana, you are now left with the choice of staring at yourself, or the six toed disfigured legs of your close comrade along with various other peripheral pieces of him, the orchestra of the damned your only comfort…
Saul, you come to strapped into the same cold chair, surprised to be alive. Looking down, you see a pair of Gnome’s legs stitched to your knees. They are much shorter than your own, and do not fit into the ankle and knee holds as your own legs did. It seems that the large horned devil has taken this into consideration; as he has crushed the knee holds down to snugly confine your Gnome sized legs. In addition to new legs, you also have 3 new fingers, each significantly shorter than your own, as well as smaller patches of skin covering your arms and nipples where no skin existed hours earlier…
Tatiana: When the devil takes Saul's legs, she is stunned and almost regrets her decision, but these memories will be added to the rest, and silently she swears that she will avenge Saul for every blow he suffers, some how, some way. She does find it curious, though, that they would wish to take her memories of Saul as well as those of her mother from her. Why should her memories be so important?
She turns away from the Imp and doesn't even acknowledge its existence. After it leaves, she turns back to the table and doesn't even try to suppress a shudder as she forces the bile back down her throat. "Be strong," he said, and she would do so for him, even when it came to be her turn. At least she would try, and failing that, pray for death to take her.
DM:
Sermignatto unleashes a grunting laugh that lasts for 3 minutes when you finish speaking. Togomor then clears his throat as if trying to get your attention before giving you a gaze to pierce souls - one that is defininitely inhuman. "When you" he motions to both Saul and yourself, "die here, your souls becomes mine. Soon, I will have an entire town town of souls to harvest and I must perfect my craft." Togomor lets out a wheezing laugh, which fades off quickly as the grunting laugh of Sermignatto fades in...
It is curious indeed as to why the devil should desire Tatiana's memories when Sermignatto already has them...
DM: Another week of torture passes. Saul loses his left arm and 1 testicle, along with the skin on his chest, and all the fingers on his right hand, save the middle finger. More troublesome than that is the torture Saul is enduring on his recently attached Gnome sized appendages is even more excruciating than the pain of his own. Often Saul will scream in pain for minutes after the devil stops torturing him, which seems sufficient for the devil who waits patiently for the pain to end before he begins torturing Saul again. The result is that the torture sessions are running longer than the previous week by a factor of two, averaging what Tatiana would guess to be 4 hours…
The Gnome legs lack much of the skin they started with, and most of the toes are missing on the left foot. The right foot is completely missing. After each torture session, when Saul passes out, the walls stay up for about 15 minutes. Tatiana can see the imps beginning to stitch Saul up crudely, as their constant invisibility is cancelled out by the Antimagic field, you quietly conclude Tatiana. For the time the wall is down, the devil arranges his gory trophies on the table in front of Tatiana, the Gnoll pieces are closest to her, with the few pieces of Gnome that have been removed closer to the middle of the table. Of great concern to Tatiana is the fact that he seems to be leaving a lot of room at the top of the table for future trophies…
Saul’s dreams have become darker of late – all of them out of body experiences. Not only does he watch his allies taken, or killed, Saul watches them tortured, enduring horrendous things, very similar to those he is suffering through. Though the contract devil alluded to it, Saul is led through these dreams to strongly believe that the souls of those slain in Hell are not released for judgment by Pharasma, but rather remain in Hell for eternity…
After six torture sessions, Sermignatto and Togomor arrive through the portal. Togomor reaches into his bag and pulls out a miniature humanoid, as before – this one green in color, you believe. The large horned devil gingerly picks it up and takes it to the table in front of Saul. As it gets close, the miniature corpse grows to full size – it is that of an Orc and it is recently slain as well by the looks of it. The large horned devil pushes the remnants of the Gnome corpse to the side of the table and sets the Orc corpse, which hangs off both ends, down next to it. Eyeing the corpse, the large horned devil chops off the right leg at nearly the hip, then chops it off at the knee as well. After a few hours of torture, he chops Saul’s right leg off at the knee, removing the Gnome leg. Saul screams loudly and continues screaming in complete agony for 3 minutes. As Saul’s eyes droop, the devil chops Saul’s right leg off at the hip. Saul falls unconscious as Sermignatto lets out a deep growling laugh.
Tatiana, Togomor and Sermignatto stand around for a few minutes, watching the large horned devil arrange his trophies before departing. When Togomor and Sermignatto depart, the walls slide up again.
Saul, you are brought another dream. In this one, you are slightly older than the last and wearing the clothes of a peasant. You recall these times from your late childhood, after escaping the grasp of Gaedren Lamm, you fended for yourself for many years. The first few years after, you stuck to mostly pick-pocketing while your taste for women developed. In this dream, the sun has long since set, and you are hanging out in a seedy part of town, sticking to the shadows. You’re not worried for yourself – you’ve long learned that the thugs of the area cannot attack that which they cannot see. Tonight you are camping outside of the home of a local bookie, hoping to find a fat Joe’s pockets to pick. Hanging out close to the home, you hope to hear something to help you find a good mark. Finally, after a few hours, you hear him yelling at a man, “If you don’t bring me what you owe me tonight, I’ll make sure I treat your wife worse than you ever could after I put you in the ground!” A few minutes later, the man runs out of the house at full speed. You follow him, sticking to the shadows and see him go into a home. You can hear him talking with his wife, who sounds like she’s crying. He says “honey, it’s the only way… I promise not to gamble anymore and I’ll make it up to you!” A few minutes and some crying later he walks back out of his house and heads off. You get setup in an alley and as he comes down, you pull a quick trip wire and the man falls down, dropping a small paper bag on the ground. As you grab it and run through the shadows, you hear the man call out from behind you “NO!!! He’ll kill my daughter!!!”… A few minutes later, you stop around a corner and find 25 gold pieces in the bag, along with two gold rings, each worth maybe 25 gold pieces each. A nice haul for the night…
DM: Saul’s torture continues for 6 days, then one the seventh day, Sermignatto shows up with his puppet in tow, delivering a new freshly killed corpse – a human this time. With a fresh corpse, the horned devil wastes no time in removing entire appendages of Saul. The exception to this is Saul’s right arm – where all of his fingers have been taken off except for the middle finger – it seems the devil is not going to remove the ring that accompanies that finger.
Torture sessions continue for 5 more weeks, with corpses of a Trogloydye, another Human, an Elf, a Halfling, and a Dwarf being dropped off by Togomor on the seventh day. Pieces of these new corpses are added to Saul freely. The table of grisly trophies in front of Tatiana has filled to the point that the horned devil is now piling them atop one another, still spending time arranging them after each torture session. Saul no longer looks like Saul in any way… His lips have been cut out and replaced with those of the Troglodyte, his right ear is that of an Elf, and his left that of a Halfling. The skin on the left side of his face has been replaced with hairy Dwarf skin, while the skin on the other half of his face is missing completely. Each appendage other than his right arm has pieces of at least two races, with both arms having extra fingers attached in places they should not be. Despite the location, placement, or condition of the transplanted and added pieces, torture of them hurts Saul more than could be imagined.
Saul has noticed four other troubling patterns. First, his dreams and visions are running darker and deeper with each passing day – dreams of death and destruction of his closest friends in cruel and unusual ways scattered amongst dreams of complete chaos. In one dream, Rovagug is released upon the world to wreak havoc along with the Tarrasque and his many other heralds. Over a number of months, the entire mortal world is plunged into chaos and the Gods war with one another over the planes beyond, with Asmodeus and Zon-Kuthon allying and winning the war. The mortal world is reduced to death and destruction and the planes are realms of pain and torment. Second, and disturbing for a different reason, Saul has noticed that with each lost body part and each passing day, he is regaining more strength each morning and as a result of that, torture sessions are lasting longer and longer each day.
On days when Sermignatto is present the torture runs very short and is the most destructive, but it is the dreams that follows such sessions that really has Saul worried. These dreams feel more real – more like memories, as they are either memories of events exactly as they unfolded or only slightly modified, maybe... These dreams seem to follow Saul’s life as he grew, highlighting the darker portions of it. In many of these dreams, events unfold that don’t seem to be completely correct, but the growing delirium prevents Saul from being certain if his dreams are wrong, or if his memories of his actual life are wrong… His most recent dream began with him finding a single Harrow card under his pillow in the morning – written on the back of the card is the following: “I know what Gaedren has done to you. He has wronged me as well. I know where he dwells yet cannot strike at him. Come to my home at 3 Lancet street at sundet. Others like you will be there. Gaedren must face his fate, and justice must be done.” Saul looks at the card a second time, and tosses it aside – Gaedren was a problem of the past and today he has a meeting with the Thieve’s guild about membership. If things go well, lots of possibilities in Korvosa’s seedy underground will open themselves to Saul… The dream ends with Saul completing his initiation mission into the Thieve’s guild, a rather important one at that, the assassination of a high level aristocrat in the ranks of the Korvosan government – field marshal Cressida Croft…
DM: Oddly enough, though Tatiana is unable to sleep, she often finds her mind wandering into dreams of late… These dreams have ranged from unpleasant memories and visions of horrendous events that have not come to pass, yet? The dream which concerns you the worst is also one that sounds very similar to one of the few dreams Saul shared with you early in his torture. Tatiana, you sat right where you are right now, with Sermignatto in front of you holding your crystal ball. You watched as Queen Ileosa stood in a barely lit room that appeared to be underground – maybe the Thassilonian level of the castle – she is nearing completion of a ritual involving a large pool of red fluid. Then, the image in the pool changes... From 30 feet above the streets, you look down upon the temple of Asmodeus in Korvosa. The doors are open, and just inside, you see black cloaked men drawing blood from citizens of Korvosa using an odd and obviously magical device with a ballast for blood that fills with each draw, and empties itself. Close by are a few patrols of grey maidens. Suddenly, you feel a disturbance in the spirits near you and hear shrieks throughout the city. Before you lies many Korvosans, grey maidens, commoners and nobles alike - about 40% of the population on the streets, by your best guess. Before the shrieks and cries have reached their peak, the eyes, ears, and mouth of the fallen run red with blood, which vaporizes at it evacuated the body, leaving the streets dry. The vision in the crystal ball turns and looks down a few more streets, moving in fast motion away from the temple – this is not an isolated incident. Across all of Korvosa, many, many, many people lay dead…
Another week of torture passes in the blink of an eye to Saul, who’s gone mentally numb and is no longer a man by many standards… Sermignatto’s arrival with a fresh corpse, this one a third human, signals the end of yet another week of torture. The day session ends quickly with the same crack of the spiked chain that causes Saul’s body to go stiff, though his eyes drop immediately with him body falling limp 30 seconds later…
After this torture session, Saul finds himself in an oddly familiar dream. Saul is standing in front of a building, with a sign reading “New Town Orphanage” – the building is calm, with no candle light coming out from the windows. By the looks of the streets, it is well beyond midnight as not a person is seen. Saul is dressed in his best noble robes. Recalling your previous dream involving this location, you look around, wondering what caused the first – are you going to see the perpetrator in this dream? You see yourself walk around the side of the building, down a dark alleyway, presumably to look for said perpetrator. You feel a surge of excitement as you approach the back of the building – similar to the feeling you have before you pick the pockets of a fat Joe. This excitement moves to anxiety and fear quickly, as you pull out a bottle of oil and some flint and steel…
Before long the building is ablaze and you stand out front, watching the chaos. The front door is held shut by a pipe – your doing and two children are looking out the third floor window yelling for help. You stand there for a minute before acting. Moving towards the window, you call up to the orphan, telling him that you will catch him. As he jumps, you quickly move to the side and the orphan lands on the ground with a bone shattering crunch. The orphan lies on the ground, whimpering like a dog in his final moments. You step up to him and pulling forth your dagger, you swiftly end him with a swipe across the throat, muttering to yourself “I’ll never allow another to suffer as I have…” Saul then slinks around the side of the building, crossbow in hand, ready to fire on anyone who should come to the aid of the screaming orphans inside…
Tatiana, before Sermignatto leaves, he erupts in growling laughter before turning to you and saying “you are in for a treat tomorrow, Saul shall rise anew” before disappearing through the boiling portal.
DM: Tatiana has a restless few hours, calling out to Saul a few times, but getting no response. After an unusually short time, the walls fall and you see an unconscious Saul, with a few imps stitching him back up. Closer to you, stands Togomor, Sermignatto, and the large horned devil. Togomor has a small pile of wood next to him and is currently unloading more from his bag of holding. You see the imps stitching up Saul move away from him, and then the wood at Togomor’s feet begins floating towards the chair around Saul, being carried by imps, obviously. The imps place the lumber around the chair. Sermignatto speaks “Tatiana, you must understand by now that I WILL break you. The only question is how long it will take, and as I’m sure you’ve noticed, time is less relevant here than in the world you come from. Even so, I have other preparations to make – within the week, Korvosa will belong to Asmodeus and I must be ready to harvest souls in his name. For the last 7 weeks, you’ve watched me break Saul’s body, but do you know that I’ve broken his mind as well? Well it matters not, I will show you.”
With that, Sermignatto releases Togomor, who blinks a few times, and raises his hands just seconds before his eyes glaze over. He continues picking wood out of his bag of holding and tossing it at his feet. Sermignatto moves a few feet towards Tatiana and unleashes the tongue from his tail which wraps itself around Tatiana and latches into the back of her neck.
Tatiana, your life flashes before your eyes and you fall unconscious… As you come to, you see the life of Sermignatto a second time. It slows down at a few points and speeds up, as before. Just when you think the dream is drawing to a close, it continues onward, revealing some of the events of the past 7 weeks. You see Saul’s very first dream through the eyes of Saul himself, watching him save orphans by opening the door. As that dream ends, the dream speeds up, but before it can kick into overdrive, you see Sermignatto hop onto the portal and appear in a new location – It is similar to your current location in Hell in landscape, but tormented souls exist in all directions and are outnumbered only by tormentors. The screams and wails of the damned are familiar…
The dream slows down again and you see Saul in a second dream, declining to help a one-handed human under the captive of Gaedren Lamm, who eventually kills the child, you must imagine. The dream jumps forward and slows again to show Saul camping outside a building. After overhearing a conversation involving money owed, he stalks the man and steals his valuables, leaving him unable to pay the debt he owes, and likely facing death. Jumping into fast motion and slowing down a few more times, the dream shows Saul’s thoughts growing darker with each passing week, until finally, you see what you believe to be the final dream… Saul starting the fire at the orphanage, watching the building burn, and slitting the throat of an orphan… Are these true, you wonder to yourself, or is Sermignatto trying to trick you again?...
You come to as the worm finishes reattaching his tongue into Togomor “so now you understand what will happen to you next”, he says. Looking up from Sermignatto, you notice that the imps have build a box underneath Saul’s chair, with flaps rising upward and outward as if to catch any blood that were to fall from him.
The large horned devil picks something up from the table of torture instruments, moves towards the still unconscious Saul, and using a key, releases all of his bonds. The devil places the keys back onto the table with instruments and then picks up an axe. Walking over to Saul, he raises the axe high and decapitates Saul promptly. Saul’s severed head falls against one of the flaps and rolls into the box… The devil takes the same axe and cuts the right hand off Saul’s corpse, taking the hand and picking it up, he fiddles with it for a second before dropping it into the box beneath the adamantium restraining chair. The devil then picks up Saul’s patchwork corpse from the chair and holds it upside down by the right leg for a few minutes, letting the blood drain into the box.
Without warning, Togomor fires off a disintegrate, striking Saul’s corpse, which glows green, and then crumbles to dust, starting with the shoulders and working it’s way up to the arms and torso, before finally Saul’s left leg drops and the right leg crumbles to dust all the way up to the angle. Most of the dust from Saul’s corpse falls into the box as well. Next, the devil walks over to the table in front of Tatiana and picks it up gently, balancing the gruesome trophies. Carrying it over to the box, a few bits and pieces fall and are quickly gathered up by the imps. Saul’s head, blood, dust, and body remnants fill the box nearly to the top. Togomor pulls out a small flask of fluid and walks over to the box, which has been pulled out from under the adamantium chair. Turning the flask upside down, fluid begins to pour out, the volume of which well exceeds the tiny flask. Before long, the box is full of a clear oily fluid, on top of which floats Saul’s head along with him other bits and pieces of various humanoids, all attached to Saul and removed at one point or another over the past 7 weeks…
Togomor then opens a large book and begins reading in the infernal tongue, while the other attendants anxiously watch the box. After 15 minutes, the fluid in the box begins to slosh around a bit, and then suddenly Saul’s head sinks to the bottom along with the other bits and pieces. A few minutes later, screams of agony echo forth from within the box, beyond the level of sight of Tatiana. Sermignatto approaches the box and then moves back.
Moments later Tatiana, a Halfling rises up from the box, completely naked. Though it’s been a while, you immediately recognize the Halfling as Saul, in the form you knew all those months ago… The naked Halfling looks to Sermignatto and speaks in common “What would my master have me do?” Sermignatto responds, “Collect your belongings, you are to attend to the queen for the next 5 days and see to the success of her plan. I shall take you to her immediately”
This new Saul hops up onto the table containing all your items, without so much as a glance in your direction. After a bit, he pulls forth a few items and dons them, though many of them are too large for his smaller form. Walking to Sermignatto, he gathers close with Togomor. “I’ll be back shortly Tatiana, and we’ll begin your reconditioning” the worm says with a single grunting laugh. He turns on the spot and immediately disappears with Togomor and Saul, as the walls slide up, leaving you to stare at your own reflection and contemplate your own eventual fate…
Tatiana: Having watched in helpless horror all that befell Saul for these last weeks, Tatiana nearly breathes a sigh of relief for Saul as his torture seems to come to an end. Tears flow freely from her eyes as she watches his death, partly from shame that she couldn't do more, but mostly of relief that he will suffer no more. Silently, she promises that somehow, some way, she will avenge him and find some way to save his soul from eternal damnation.
Curiosity more than anything else holds her attention as the devils perform their gruesome ceremony, and she can barely choke back a whispered, "No!", as the Halfling that now stands before her addresses his master. "Oh, Saul, please don't let it end this way," she begs. As he dresses, she watches to see some semblance of the man she knew and fell in love with before turning away in apparent shame, but in truth, she is secretly studying the pool from which he emerged attempting to fathom the magics involved and whether or not Saul can still be saved.
Finally, she is left alone, and as she stares at her reflection, she can't help but smile grimly as she speaks her thoughts aloud; "That was your mistake, Worm. I might have given over if I could be certain it would save him, but now I have no reason to surrender, If you want to break me, you'll have to do it the hard way."
With that, she closes her eyes, slows her breathing and attempts to calm herself, and thinking of Zellara and how she managed to contact the others beyond her own death, Tatiana wills herself to die.
Before the devils were able to return and begin their torture of Tatiana, the party came to her rescue, killing Mavrokeras the Horned Devil in the process. Tatiana was more than shaken and continued onward in the immediate future, driven by a desire for revenge and nothing more. Days later, the party would fun afoul of the Evil Saul while seeking out the queen. All present were surprised, however, when a Halfling clad in full plate-mail appeared on a beam of light. The party would later realize that the evil ritual which had "cleansed" Saul of all that was good within him had splintered his soul, leaving enough left for divine magics (at the hands of a deity) to resurrect a "pure" version of Saul, the antithesis to the one the Devil's had created. A magnificent battle erupted and the good Saul prevailed with the party's help. Tatiana ran over and hugged Saul as soon as combat was over, vowing never to let him be harmed again. Weeks later, through direct divine intervention via the Miracle spell, Saul was returned to his whole self, though he lacked all memories of his ordeal in Hell and tended towards good more than he previously had. Months later with all grave threats to the city eliminated, Saul & Tatiana would abscond happily ever after...
Torture: the game.
Kthulhu, you could dredge up the mechanics from the book of vile darkness. You got bonuses to your intimidate based on the tools, and some were more likely to kill that others.
I would cover it very lightly, but leave hints of what is happening hanging in the air. You can do a lot with your voice without running through the Theon torture scene in game.
Who wants sausage!
** spoiler omitted **...
Isn't this a little, over the top and long?
I mean their torture could last multiple sessions.
Tune in next week, lol.
** spoiler omitted **...Isn't this a little, over the top and long?
I mean their torture could last multiple sessions.
Tune in next week, lol.
It was long and probably over the top - but what's wrong with that? Also, I think maybe you missed that this whole thing already happened through e-mail...
This whole exchange took place over the course of 77 emails in 12 days between sessions. Also, the whole thing is 30 pages in MSword, single spaced, 12 point font.
The torture was by far the most memorable part of the campaign for myself and the two players involved. It was a great example of how bad things (two characters being taken by devils) don't HAVE to mean the end of characters. Instead, there were twists and turns in the character's story and in a way that the players both enjoyed. The players never planned/expected these things to happen to their characters, but they rolled with the punches and both felt like their characters came out more unique and memorable as a result of it.
Also, I got a lot of "EVIL DM" points for this - which are always good. =)
Force them to watch the Twilight movie. on a loop. for 48 hours. then tell them "Dude, your character has it even worse."
Watch them break.
Get kicked out as GM.
???
Profit?
I'd go Star Wars style.
That scene in the first movie where Darth Vader is interrogating Leia. He asks a few questions, she gives him snark, he makes a menacing comment and then that big black torture bot covered in needles and stuff closes in until it blots out the screen.
You don't need to see what happened to her, your imagination fills in the blanks.
Be good with the set up and then fade to black and let their imagination fill in the details.