You are floating through oblivion. Everything is quiet in the never ending darkness. Brief images appear to you in the void and quickly fade away. Obscure images they are, of warm hearth fires & fresh baked bread and beautiful landscapes of trees and rivers. Some scenes include the specific individuals but you don’t know if they are friend or foe. Some of these beings seem vaguely familiar, others completely unknown. A few of the scenes include shining crystals and otherworldly landscapes.
Soon the fires of the hearth grow cold and the bread begins to mold and rot. The forests burst into flames and hordes of demonic soldiers begin marching to war. You see the individuals suffer and die horrific deaths. Blood and torture follow all of the twisting scenes but you have no feeling or concern of that here in the dark emptiness. Accompanying some of them are faint whispers but you can’t make out what they say. Are they memory or visions? You cannot be sure.
Somewhere beyond the images in the depths of darkness are two yellow ovals. Perhaps they are eyes watching. You care not. No feelings, desires or pain exist here.
Eternity passes and you continue in quiet existence. Then the whispers begin to get louder. Images of fiends battling become more frequent. The whispers become talking, then loud screams of pain. The blasts from explosions make the dark void shake! Something is happening around you!
With a gasp you reach consciousness and your eyes flare open to a blinding red light followed by a thunderous boom! While you try to blink away your light blindness, you can hear a battle raging and inhuman screams echoing very close. Another flash of light sends a wave of scorching air over your body making it hard to breathe. With horror you realize that you are strapped down and cannot move your arms or legs.
As your eyes begin to adjust, you begin to realize that you are in some sort of dank, torch lit, grey stone chamber. A scan of the area shows that this is some sort of bizarre laboratory filled with a clutter of alchemical equipment. Other beings, some unmoving, are strapped to the same type of bloodstained stone tables that you now realize you lie on. Everyone is clothed in only dirty, torn breeches and have nasty scars, stitches and bruises on their bodies. Your brain aches trying to make sense of it all but you cannot remember who you are or how this came to pass.
Another loud crash and gurgling screams issue forth from behind a huge solid iron door in the far wall of the room. A series of metal bending thunks echo through the room and the shape of large, clawed fingers begin to form and push their way through the door! Two black, razor sharp claws pierce the iron and begin to bend and rip it back to form a jagged hole.
More horrid screams echo along with the clang of steel. The huge claw retreats from the door and the sound of ripping flesh and breaking bones follows. With a final blood curdling shriek, you hear a squishing slap followed by a deep, throaty roar that reverberates through your skull. In an instant another fiery eruption releases beyond the door with such a force that the center of it folds inward, nearly breaking off its hinges and jets of white hot flame pour into the room through the gaps in the frame and clawed holes! The force blasts over tables, destroying equipment and the room becomes a furnace while you feel your skin begin to burn and blister. The taste and smell of brimstone invades your mouth and nose and you begin to suffocate as your lungs burn.
Thankfully, the heat quickly subsides and so do the sounds of battle. All is eerily quiet except for crackling fires now burning items on the tables nearest the door. Shadows dance around the room from the flames, but otherwise no movement can be seen.
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This was the scene that four lost souls awoke to with no memory of their past. This group quickly smashed through their bonds and freed themselves from their tables. As they regained their feet, they began to take in their own appearances as well as each others. To their horror, some of them found they had been “modified” through surgery and magic.
The largest of the four was a male child born from an annis hag known as a hagspawn. This brawny brute had been dissected and rebuilt using body parts from a mish mash of other creatures. Whoever did this to him also used mechanical bindings to supplement the joined bits of different flesh and bone. Bruises, welts and stitches cover his body making his appearance frightening but these changes have also given him supernatural strength and stability. A final unique feature of this already unique being was discovered in his stomach. A gaping hole resides in his gut that is from no wound. As the four quickly discovered, this hole is actually a magical bag of holding, capable of containing much more than its size should allow. This half golem hagspawn monstrosity goes by the name of Braglorig and is a barbarian of ill temperament.
The second being is a half human, half tanar’ri known as a tiefling. This muscular and agile creature cannot hide his diabolic heritage with blue-black skin, short blue hair and small, stubby horns. The slight scent of brimstone seems to materialize when he is near and his yellow eyes gleam with genius intelligence. Strangely, light seems to shy away from him and shadows gather around him thicker than they should. The shadowy tiefling is known as Nocnylowca and is a duskblade, a skilled warrior with the ability to channel arcane magics through his weaponry.
The third is another blue skinned creature known as an air genasi. This being’s heritage stems from the elemental plane of air and is apparent in his ability to not require the breathing of air and also the ability to float effortlessly at will. He is known as Vaile and is a very powerful and intelligent member of his race. His heritage makes him appear wispy or blurred and his long black hair seems to constantly wave of its own accord. Being a hexblade, he is a skilled warrior with a talent for placing curses on his foes as well as channeling arcane powers.
The final member of this group was most likely a human of pure evil. At the life’s end his soul began its journey to hell. So sorry and repentant for his crimes was he that hell refused him. With no place to go, his soul arose anew as a hellspawn and is cursed to walk the line between redemption and damnation. Red eyes, dark red skin and curved horns will forever mark him as diabolic. To add to his frightening appearance, he has been augmented to be able to remove one of his eyeballs as well as his hand. Both of these parts are still useable when separated. Finally two large open wounds exist on his back that do not seem to heal. Only his demeanor and presence can prove that he is not truly evil. His tortured soul has provided him with powers that are invoked from his essence. He is Zarathos the warlock.
The four quickly conferred and agreed to work together to escape whatever sadistic prison they were in. Only clothed in breeches and being weaponless they tore apart the already ruined lab gathering what little equipment they could find. Zarathos inserted his removed eye and attached his missing hand after removing them from jars sitting on a workbench. Brag grabbed the largest useable chunk of stone to wield as a club. A couple of rusty daggers and a bone handaxe were also discovered and wielded by Vaile and Nocnylowca. Finally, two small vials of a strange dark blue liquid were snatched up.
Equipped as much as they could be the approached the only exit. The ruined iron door was quickly removed by an angry Brag.
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After exiting the room, you enter into a large chamber with a rounded wall to your right and double doors exiting straight ahead and to your left. The doors ahead appear to have swung shut after being broken through. The area was recently an extension of the laboratory you woke up in but now lies in ruin. Tables and alchemical equipment lie smashed and overturned everywhere. Gut piles along with draining corpses of horned, winged and clawed creatures are scattered about and shades of red, blue and black blood splatters cover everything making the floor slick and messy. From the scattered formation of the areas contents, the final explosion you felt, emanated near to the door exiting the lab.
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Cautiously the four began to search this new area, being wary of the closed doors. Within they discovered a medium sized steel shield sitting near to a large bag full of halfling skulls. Believing the broken doors may lead to additional danger they decided to go through the doors to the left. These doors were again quickly “opened” by the hagspawn.
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Opening the doors shows this area to be a summoning chamber of sorts. A set of doors exit the room straight across from you and another, iron braced set is to your left side and has a large bolt lock keeping it shut. Across the room, to your right, the chamber rounds. The floor here is painted with a bloody, circled pentagram. A green, scaly leg severed above the knee lies within the circle and a still bubbling pile of oozing black flesh sizzles and pops just on the circles edge. It appears that whatever mayhem happened in other areas of this place also happened here. A few broken gargoyle status lie shattered on each side of the double doors and blood slowly dries in the cracks of the floor. On the far side of the room, three dog sized rats with coarse, spiky fur snarl and charge.
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Recognizing the creatures to be dire rats born of fiendish blood, the four drew weapons to defend themselves. The rats charged in and were met by Braglorig and Vaile. One of the creatures immediately bit deep into the leg of the air genasi, leaving a deep gash. Still being a little groggy, the group had difficulty striking the oncoming rodents. Zarathos, using his eldritch blast managed to damage one of the creatures during the initial charge.
Finally the stone club of the hagspawn struck home, cracking ribs and tearing open the skin of the nearest rat, however the mighty blow was not enough to fell the creature. Vaile and Noc managed to get in a few stabs and slashes that opened minor wounds. Zarathos continued to fire eldritch blasts, some striking, some flared past. With another monstrous blow, Brag shattered the spine of his rat. The creature attacking Vaile sunk his teeth into the hexblade’s stomach causing Vaile to fall to the ground unconscious.
Brag moved forward and smashed a second rat while Noc furiously chopped away with his handaxe. Zarathos fired off another dark blast and within a few moments, the three beasts lay dead. The companions did a quick search of the room and discovered a steel dagger among the fiendish bodies. Noc tucked the weapon away and the three of them bound Vaile’s wounds. They hurriedly carried him back to the laboratory to hold up. Laying his body on one of the stone slabs they began to inspect the two small liquid vials in hopes that they were some form of healing elixir. Brag took a sip of one and confirmed their suspicions. The contents of one of the potions were poured down Vaile’s throat, bringing him to consciousness and enabling the group to continue their exploration.
They next determined that they would check out the double doors across from the laboratory exit.
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To their left:
The halls open into a grand chamber at this point. This was once some sort of gathering area as the bloody debris left from a recent battle consists of large tables, chairs, couches and other relaxing types of seating. Blood and gore splatter everything and the steaming remains of scaly, horned and winged creatures litter the floor.
To their right:
This area’s walls are covered in 15 foot tall, black rock shelves holding hundreds of bizarre and unusual, if not disgusting items. On the floor in the room’s center lies the splattered corpse of some sort of four legged fiend.
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Almost immediately after stepping into the area, the four began to see movement among the many corpses in the room to the left. Small wings began to twitch, then flutter and seven cat sized insects flitted into the air. The creatures looked to be a cross between bats and giant mosquitoes with membranous wings, short furry bodies, eight jointed pincer legs and a needlelike proboscis. With a hum of flapping wings, the creatures dive bombed the group.
Weapons were immediately drawn to meet the flying charge. As with the rats, the approaching creatures came on too fast for the four and their initial round of swings struck only empty air. The fiendish stirge fared better. One of the creatures struck home on Noc and another on Vaile. Proboscis sunk into flesh, pincers clamped on tight and blood began to pump from the wounds.
Zarathos struck the first blow with a well aimed eldritch blast, followed by a bone crunching smash from Braglorig’s stone club. Noc quickly dispatched another with a chop from his axe, as did Vaile with jabs from his daggers. Even as the first few fell, another latched onto Vaile and one sunk into Brag. The stone club quickly splattered another while daggers, a bone axe and eldritch blasts went to work on others. Before the last of the things could be removed from Vaile’s flesh, the blood drain overtook the air genasi and he fell unconscious. Noc, grabbed onto the squirming stirge just as it released from Vaile’s blue flesh. The tiefling grappled the creature, bending and breaking its small body until its thrashing stopped.
In all, Brag, Noc and Vaile suffered heavy blood loss while Zarathos remained unscathed. Again they would be forced to return to the broken lab to rest and heal but before leaving the area, they searched both rooms for any clues as to what was going on.
Within the grand chamber to their left, scattered among bodies and blood, they found a gore caked backpack strapped to some sort of fiendish, disemboweled elf. Within they found a magical, everburning torch along with some silver coins. The carnage in the room also provided Zarathos with a useable shortspear and Vaile with a light flail.
The shelved room to the right contained a plethora of weird and outright bizarre items but only a handful would provide any use or be of any interest. These items included a whip, a strange hourglass of glowing green sand, a steel shovel, an unlabeled bottle of wine, a heavy wooden shield, a smoke case of abyssal tobacco, a good cloth black colored cloak, a small steel mirror, a dozen days worth of edible rations, five full water flasks, a two handed sword and a useable suit of leather armor. Noc donned the armor while Brag eagerly picked up the large sword. During their rummaging they noticed a strange, faded eye-like symbol on the wall behind the shelves. Not wanting to risk further injury they returned to the lab.
Spending hours within the morbid lab, the four didn’t get much rest worrying about what could come through the door at any time. Fortunately, they were undisturbed. Brag awoke nearly fully recovered from his wounds while the more wounded Vaile barely maintained consciousness. Though still injured, they were determined to continue on.
Deciding against returning to the larger chambers where the stirge had been, they again turned left outside of the lab towards the summoning room. Once there, they decided against the larger doors to the left and went through the doors straight ahead.
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This area was once some sort of guard chamber but like other areas within the complex, now lies in shambles. Blood and bile is splattered over the walls and floors giving the room a rancid smell. Here some sort of chitinous, crab like creatures were ripped apart. One severed pincer arm still crushes a large bat like wing in its grip. The room once contained a few tables, chairs, weapon and armor racks. Now all of these things lie in smoldering ruin.
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Brag, accompanied by his new two handed sword led the way in to the “L” shaped area. The shorter branch of the room was immediately to their right and ended with another set of double stone doors. The longer area that went ahead had one small wooden door in the right wall. Near the end of the space, a small alcove in the left side hid another iron braced door. At the far end a second alcove disappeared off to the right.
The four moved to the smaller door in the right hand wall and cautiously opened it.
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The door opens to a small room containing a blood stained stone slab that has various flesh crusted chains attached to it. In one corner of the room rests an iron cauldron with glowing embers in its bottom. Sticking out of the embers is a variety of heated, bladed items that can only be described as torture devices. In another corner, a small stand holding alchemical tubes and beakers slowly produces acid drips into a small jar.
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One of the heated weapons was a finely crafted masterwork shortsword that Vaile found to his liking. Three daggers, a kama and jagged bits of metal comprised the rest of the arsenal. Deciding that there wasn’t enough acid to make use of and because they had no good way of transporting it, they left it be.
Deciding to check out the small alcove at the end before the iron braced door, the four moved ahead. The alcove at the end also contained a door but this one was much worse for wear due to age and lack of upkeep. Again Brag let the way through followed closely by Noc and Vaile. Zarathos, being the least capable warrior type followed.
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Through these doors the smell of burnt flesh is strong and smoke hangs heavy in the air. Heat wafts from the room ahead where you can see a large pit with a smoldering fire burning within. Blackened bones and unidentifiable objects are piled within this burning pit.
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Braving the discomfort of the heat, they moved in. They soon realized this was a refuse area where garbage and other unwanted items were placed and consumed. The group returned to the “L” shaped room and moved to the iron bound door within the other alcove.
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The door opens to a long dark hallway with a multitude of cage doors on each side. This is obviously a prison area and reeks of dung and unwashed bodies. The far end of this hallway appears to be black and soot covered.
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The hagspawn moved forward with his two handed sword out in front. The tiefling followed closely. With a sudden click, the floor collapsed beneath the barbarian. Brag dropped twenty feet into a stone pit. Quickly shaking away the momentary concussion, he saw that he had a jagged iron spike protruding through part of his side causing blood to burble out. Angrily he tore himself free of it and noticed that he had luckily missed the other dozen that made up the floor.
The barbarian began to climb the wall back up to his companions. Noc and Zarathos stood guard at the edge of the pit while their companion climbed. Vaile began searching the “L” room for a lever or mechanism that may reset the trap so they may cross.
From out of nowhere the four heard an echoing sound of flatulence and the area where they stood was filled with a visible brown gas. The vapors burned their eyes and nostrils and caused them to violently gag when breathing. The source of the rotten fog appeared out of the air in front of Noc. Two small flying imps cackled wickedly and began slashing at him and the still climbing Brag with short, filthy claws.
Noc hacked into one of the beasts with his axe. He drew blood on the creature but did not cause damage as he expected to do. The thing struck back, ripping open his skin in several places. Brag also suffered slashes across his back just as the top of the pit was reached. Zarathos struck the imp attacking Noc with an eldritch blast while Vaile, still too wounded for combat, frantically looked for some way to cover or cross the pit.
The now standing Brag struck his attacker with a vicious gash from his sword but to his surprise the imp survived the attack and lashed back with its claws, slicing into the barbarian’s neck. With a gurgle, Brag fell to back to the ground unconscious. Noc suffered another round of slashes and new he could not hold out against both of the imps. The Duskblade backed out of the door which was quickly slammed shut by the sneering imps.
Working quickly, the three standing companions managed to stop the blood flowing from the fallen hagspawn. Having no where else to go, the three drug the large barbarian into the fiery garbage room. They braced the door and setup a place to rest. They determined that they could not continue in their wounded condition. They would stay here until they were as healed as possible before their rations ran out.
Roughly three days had passed. The hagspawn barbarian has miraculously healed all of his wounds within the first 24 hours. Noc and Vaile unfortunately had to continue resting. As the third day approached, both Braglorig and Vaile began to feel a sickness overtake them. Vaile noticed that the scars from the rat bites had become infected as were the imp’s claw slashes on Brags neck. Both of the warriors had the constitution and anger to fight off the disease by the end of the day.
With their rations and water gone, the four companions prepared to move on. Only Vaile remained slightly injured but on the whole, they were again ready to face whatever challenges this dungeon threw at them.
Deciding to leave the Imps be for now, they moved to the final unexplored set of doors in the “L” shaped room. The doors opened to a hallway that had one branch connected up with the grand chamber still full of dead fiends and stirge. The other branch led to another set of double doors. Before the doors was an open room on the left side of the hall.
Cautiously, the four approached the open room.
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This area is a barracks of sorts. Bunks of black stone take up the majority of the room and a 5 foot diameter round table with chairs take up the rest of the space. With the amount of filth and ooze covering the floors and bunks, you can be certain that no non-fiendish creatures made this their home. Suddenly the rubble begins to move and molten, fleshy claws begin reaching out!
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Three creatures that Nocnylowca recognized as Lemures, grotesque oozing devils, surged forward out of the mess. Brag met the charge head on with Noc and Vaile standing at his side. Zarathos summoned his energy and began launching his eldritch blasts.
Brag’s blade immediately cut deep into the first lemure while Vaile’s shortsword and Noc’s axe did the same. Though they were one of the weakest of their devilish race, the molten flesh creatures were a formidable group. They slashed back with their misshapen claws creating bloody gashes on all three of the warriors.
The battle raged on for another few rounds until finally Brag, cut his opponent so deeply, it fell to the floor motionless. Both Noc and Vaile suffered additional wounds while inflicting their own on the creatures. It wasn’t long before a second lemure fell followed by the third.
Victory was theirs but they had no time for celebration. The three warriors would again need immediate rest and held onto consciousness only through force of will. The devil wounds, though small, were numerous. No thoughts of moving on were had by any of them and though they had no food or water, they returned to the heated trash room to recover.
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