104b: In Hell

Patarm 11th - 12th
Abandon all hope ye who enter here...

Experience: 3400 xp (115,881 total)

Worldly Resources
Isabella has taken command of the Chapel of Wrath, the armies of Abaddon in Saspien, and purged the heretics from Hecate's hateful sect. Several outstanding leaders have risen from the horde, among them Drosteles, Yellow/Red, Regin and Shiv al'Zareef. And in the final purification of Asmodeus' temple in Hell, the wounded erinyes Megaera also joined the cause.

The Prophet has also garnered a respectable force completely loyal to her, including...

14 Order of the Wrathful Self (clerics and invokers)
20 Swords of Abaddon (blackguards)
6 Wrathite Pyromancers (mages of the pyromancy school)
18 Blood Reavers (avengers and barbarians)
36 Disciples of Wrath (nondescript fighters and barbarians)

The Wrathite coffers contain 100,000 gp, largely dedicated to daily life, upkeep and repairs, but also weapons and fresh slave stock (they certainly don't use sparring dummies when practicing).

Personal Resources
treasure: Magnificent Tsor's Punishing Retort (level 20 Uncommon boon; as is the nature of the deacons, the surviving creature can impart to one person this technique known to one of its damned souls, presumably Tsor); Deacons' Dagger (amidst the grizzly surgical tools is a magical dagger:

Non Perdona (Elemental Twist Dagger; level 20 Uncommon) or 'Unforgiving' in Infernal: This jambiya has a stout, golden handle enameled in marbled onyx and studded with sunset citrines. Its yellowish steel forms a hooked 'J', upon which is scrolled, "O creatures foolish, how great is that ignorance that harms you!" which ignites upon use.

coin: 8,000 gp among the heretics' penance
loot: one deacon (prisoner), Rimmon Damas' charred head, the memoirs of the deacons (the jumbled ravings of a hundred damned souls), elaborate pentagram symbol of Asmodeus (made of the infernal gold alloy, Avernium; worth 5000 gp)

Lore
Gleaned from the ravings...

• Deacons are patchwork vessels that contain a number of damned souls. It's what makes them seem so crazy. And they've suffered so much collectively that pain is a joke to them.
• They are hand-crafted to 'soak' in Hell and absorb damned souls, the various flesh kind of like a conduit, elf flesh for elf souls, human flesh for human souls, etc. They were once a singular individual, but once the mask goes on, that person is lost and the damned take over. All for the better, really, for once the mask is broken or removed, the individual goes mad from the pain and the voices.
• The souls these deacons catch are stolen from Hecate and upset the cosmic balance, but much more directly allow for their knowledge and potential to be ‘squeezed’ from them, destroying the souls but leaving the one who assimilates them all the stronger.
  
• The deacons are meant for direct assimilation by Asmodeus once they are full. There are dozens of them, maybe hundreds, scattered throughout Hell and its rings, protected in hidden temples below the surfaces.
• The three deacons encountered were of Othyrian descent, former arcanists of respectable skills, the human wizard Basco the Wise, the elven sorceress Limri Cadurness and the surviving half-elf warlock Strakken Talmun.
  

New NPCs
Shiv al'Zareef: al'Zareef pyromancer and follower of Wrath who joined the Prophet once he realized he was on the wrong side of the goddess. He helped the Dark Three enter Hell and sustained wards to protect them from the horrendous heat and poisons.

Returning NPCs
Drosteles: The reaver alpha, preferring the form of a volcanic giant, returned from his tour of a personal Hell a changed man, apologizing to the Prophet and pledging his loyalty in seeing her and Hecate's wills done. He plunged into Hell with the Dark Three, impervious to the heat and poison, but worn thin by the oppressive atmosphere.

Red: The duplicitous tiefling, still in her wrathful red form, insisted on returning to Hell, the place she was born, in efforts to help the Prophet. She, of all the party, seemed invigorated by Hell's aura, while the others felt strained.

Regin: The unsuspecting reaver was left in charge of the chapel while the Prophet and her party went to Hell. However it only amounted to about a minute Othyrian time, despite all the tentative exploring and battling beneath Ixion.

Rimmon Damas (dead): The Vicar of Wrath turned out to be none other than the royal fiend and former supplicant of Flamen Pontifica. He was bent on proving himself worthy to Asmodeus, and the false god saw fit to offer him some aid, but for all his begging and hatred, he could not mount any sort of proper threat, and the god abandoned him. He died cursing the party and questioning the purpose in allowing the Dark Three to live.

Megaera: Tortured by the Deacons at the behest of vengeful Rimmon, to be dissected amidst her slain sisters, the erinyes was rescued by Renato while the others occupied the Asmodeans. She's since accompanied the party back to the chapel.

Plot Developments

• The Dark Three pursued the vicar to Hell itself, the true Pit, and found it a place of merciless heat, screams of the most gut-wrenching kind, and worst of all an impossible oppression, a hope-crushing, soul-wearying weight that would have flattened Shiv, Drosteles, Renato and even Diana had they lingered long enough.
• Three deacons have been destroyed, but no telling just how many hide elsewhere, or who exactly made them. Their stitched nature is highly reminiscent of the exploding rats and walking bombs attributed to Tenebrous. Is there a connection between the false gods?
• High Priestess Widofa Lorein remains an unknown, having covered up Belesana's death by attributing it to Asmodean assassins. Is she saving face by denying how deep his followers have ingrained themselves into the established church, or is she actually one of them? Overturning the authority of the Vicar of Wrath will surely garner her notice, and the notice of the other vicars...
• The Dark Three have an impending dinner date with King Dante Il'spana. It's uncertain if the marquess will also be present, but it will give the Dark Three a good chance to 'catch up' on Saspish, and even world, events.
  

Next Session
105b: After a much-needed torpor, the Dark Three see about converting more of the Church of Delights back to Hecate, gaining another crucial foothold in the capital.