The Kyzian Empire

Truebloods do not regard anyone as their equals. To them, we are just animals, barely worthy of living. And to them, killing an animal is no crime. I was in Kyziania in 4999, when they sacrificed more than 30.000 slaves in a week. It has been 34 years, and I can still hear the constant screaming every time I close my eyes.

While the Kyzian Empire has existed since what seems to be forever, it only began expansion beyond  the desert of it's birth about 2000 years ago. Until then, the Trueblood rulers had seemed happy and content with what they had.

It is not common knowledge what prompted the former dragon servitors' aggressive stance, but it happened. Around the year 3900, the dragonborn went to war.

Fairly quickly, although without rush, they subjugated all kingdoms and citystates on the northern part of the continent. For years, the Kyzian empire was unopposed in it's conquest, until it's armies ran into the lands and armies of Varnor and Ortygal, down to the south and the armies of what is now the Cursed Lands, to the north.

In the north, the dragonborn were stopped, but the Kyzian empire took a lot of land from Varnor and especially from Ortygal through many years of war, although the costs ran very high. Eventually the dragonborn stopped their expansion and reached a tentative peace with their neighbors.

Of course, said peace didn't last long. Now, so many years later, much has changed, yet some things remain the same. While there has been no real war between the empires for many years, small and large skirmishes between the Kyzian empire, Varnor and Ortygal are fairly common. Most generations of soldiers get to see some action. Some more than other.

Just like with their wars, the dragonborn of the Kyzian empire seem stuck in a perpetual state that never changes. For millennia, the empire has been run by the Truebloods, those dragonborn who can trace their ancestry directly back to Kyz, the first dragonborn created by the dragons. If you are not a Trueblood, you can never have a position of real power in Kyzian society.

But the caste system doesn't stop there.

Following the Truebloods are the rest of the dragonborn in tier two. The dragonborn are free "men" and allowed to pursue any vocation in life, but most are used in the army, as soldiers. If they are exceptional, they might receive a position of trust, but never of power.

Below the dragonborn, in tier three, you will find the Sunites. Sunites born in the Kyzian empire are slaves, but mostly treated well, and a few are given their freedom. Obviously, as a slave, you can end up anywhere, but in the Kyzian empire, most Sunites are given positions that suit them. They are often used as teachers or for other light (indoor) work, if they have any aptitude for it. Visiting Sunites are not automatically slaves, and will most of the time be able to walk the streets without fear of being thrown in jail or accosted by dragonborns.

The fourth caste is made up by all the other races. Elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. There aren't many left nowadays, as the Truebloods are not overly fond of them, and have been trying to eradicate them for many, many years. All are slaves, with no possibility of ever being free. If you are of one of the other races and visit the Kyzian empire, you better have a signed statement from a Trueblood that you are to be left alone, unless you want to spend the rest of your life as a slave, working the many fields of the empire.

At the bottom of it all, in the last tier are the Moonites. Barely perceived as more than animals, all Moonites are slaves, slaves that spend their time in chains. A moonite walking around alone, without a slave necklace, is killed on sight. Even the necklace does not always protect a slave out on his own.

As you might surmised, slavery a part of daily life in the Kyzian empire, and there are a lot of them. In fact, almost one third of all inhabitants of the empire is a slave. It is said that more than 1 million slaves enter the capital Kyziania every year. Many are just sold there and shipped elsewhere, but a great many are used there to make the city run smoothly, although a not insignificant portion lose their life on top of the Truebloods' pyramids in their ancient and bloody worship of Nira.

Calendar

The calendar on Gemnos amongst most civilized races is as follows.

Over the years there have been other ways of keeping track of time, but this is the one that has stuck.

A year is 365 days, which are divided into 10 cycles of 36 days and with some holy days in between

1st cycle (winter)
2nd cycle (winter)

Day of Combat

3rd cycle (spring)
4th cycle (spring)

Day of the Sun

5th cycle (summer)

Day of Mating

6th cycle (summer)
7th cycle (summer)

Harvest Day

8th cycle (autumn)
9th cycle (autumn)

Day of the Moon

10th cycle (winter)

Gemnos

The world of Gemnos

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Session 19

Day 79 (1st cycle of summer, 6th day)
As they are about to engage the cyclops, Arath and Nevron suddenly collapse. Chavron and Urnyx try to wake them, and after about 20 seconds, they wake up, claiming they had been stuck in a ice-cold and dreadful dungeon fighting demons for hours and hours. But they are unharmed, despite being severely wounded in the dungeon.

The Great Crevasse and the Twin Rocks

During the Second Demon War, when the area of Gemnos which is now called the Cursed Lands was overrun by demons, the last battle was fought near a small village some hundred miles east of the Seven Army Nations.

The village no longer exists, but back in the day, in 5679, there was a symmetrically shaped boulder more than 50' tall and 40' wide, just standing in the middle of the plains, outside the village. One day the boulder split into two rocks of equal size and a portal opened. Out of that portal came the Red Triad and their army of demons.

Years passed, and the demons rampaged through the lands of men, all while substantial forces guarded the portal and the rocks.

When the Brave Wyverns sacrificed their lives and closed the portal, a great force shook the earth and ripped it apart, creating the Great Crevasse, a great canyon without bottom, a oneway portal to Hell. Or so it is said. Demons from all over the continent were sucked into the eternal darkness therein. Aurac the Great Wyrm followed them into the darkness and kept them from coming back.

As mentioned, the Great Crevasse is bottomless. It is also between 2 and 5 miles wide in most places, so it is a fairly large hole in the ground of Gemnos. It is possible to scale the side, but going down, you will find nothing but death. Few who persist in climbing down ever return. About 1.000 feet down, an impregnable darkness covers the entirety of the Crevasse.

After the war, due it it's particular shape, the Twin Rocks quickly became a holy place to priests and worshipers of the Twins. It still is today. In fact, many of the most devout priests of the Twins spend significant time and money traveling to the Twin Rocks, at least once in their lifetime, to pray for guidance in life or other important matters.

Due to it's importance, a small fortress has been built next to the Twin Rocks. It is run by a high priest of the Twins, whose job is solely to assure that the Twin Rocks remain unharmed and unchanged. Around the fortress a small village has sprung up, mainly to service the many visitors that come to see the rock and seek guidance from the Twins. The village is aptly named Twin Rock village, while the fortress is called the Watchtower.

Session 18

Day 76
After debating some whether they have a chance of finding Petyr, the Sons decide to move a tad away from the mine and get some much needed shut-eye, since they have been up all night.

Day 77
After a good night's rest, they take the dirt road, or perhaps rather dirt trail, and head towards Passmore, the nearest village, according to the liberated prisoners. After six hours of walking they arrive, and find exactly what the demon had promised. All the men dead, babies eaten and the women, who are burying the dead, very angry at someones called the Sons of the Phoenix. However some fasttalking by Nevron deflects their suspicion from the group and in general have them wonder if a demon who did something this horrible can be trusted to tell the truth. The Sons help out with the dead, but decline to stay the night.

Day 78
During the night, Nevron is surprised on his watch by a Chimera, so the rest are awoken by it's flaming breath. Arath is torn a new one, before the tide turns and the Sons kill the beast. Nevron takes a token, a tooth.

Once up, the Sons continue their trip towards the Swamp of Death, and pass through Gyyae. The village is completely empty, the graves have burst open from below, there are multiple signs of battle and while investigating, the Sons of the Phoenix are attacked by 8 wights. They manage to deal with the foul undead, but feel the sting of their drain.

After the fight, Nevron decides to scout Harp, which is about 2 hours away on foot. His flyby as a pegasus shows a town just as empty as Gyyae. On his way back, he spots a man dragging two mules coming out of the hills and continuing by the dirt trail. Nevron flies back ahead of him, and the Sons leave Gyyae to meet the man.

As it turns out, the man is named Hullard, and he is a traveling merchant coming from Porrac and passing through to Lochhurst. He avoided Harp, as they were aware that something foul had happened there. He sells potions, and Urnyx finds some gems in his pockets and buys some healing potions and a potion that can "cure poison".

Day 79
The next morning, the Sons bid farewell to Hullard, and travel towards Harp. Harp is much like Gyyae, empty, with signs of graves having burst open and lots of tracks leading out of town. Urnyx also finds some horse-tracks coupled with someone in metal boots, but loses the trail again. As they pass through Harp, they note the huge wooden statue of a dragon located down by the edge of the swamp.

The continue north along the swamp towards Pedge, and as they arrive, they see magical energies from beyond the walled village. They decide to climb up top of the 180' ridge running behind the village, in order to circumvent the village. As it turns out, it was a smart move, because the village is crawling with undead, or so it appears. Beyond the village they see a naked cyclops in the middle of a ritual involving a gigantic cauldron. The magical energies come from the cauldron. The cyclops is in the company of a black-armored knight on a black horse. As the Sons debate what to do, the Black-armored knight flies away on his horse with hooves on fire, right through some sort of magical rift or portal.

The Sons decide that time has come and Nevron prepares to switch to a pegasus in order to carry the two others down...

Swamp of Death

The Saints of Heaven

If any mortals had actually met an arch-angel while they were still alive, and spent some time with him, they wouldn't be so quick to bow down and idolize them. The angels might represent the virtues, all the goody stuff, but embody them, they sure don't. Cold and distant characterize them much better than kind and helpful.

 -Asmodeus, allegedly

The common perception is that the Saints of Heaven are the arch-angels that run Heaven for Bahamut. Each is associated with some virtues, each have a specific role in Heaven.

Saint Michael the Arch-angel
Chastity, knowledge, honesty and wisdom
Also called Heaven's General. Commonly seen as the most powerful of the angels, and the right hand of Bahamut. In some areas of Gemnos, he is more widely worshipped than the gods. According to lore, Michael is the leader of the armies of angels. While angels rarely ever fight battles as us humans understand it, he is the strategist behind every move and plan they hatch.

Saint Gabriel the Arch-angel
Temperance, justice, honor, self control
Commonly named the Judge but also the Merchant - Gabriel is the one in charge of bargaining for the souls that go to Heaven. He is the final arbiter whether Heaven will haggle for your soul or not. Quite a few pay at least lip service to him just for that. Gabriel is therefore mostly found in the Underworld,  although he leaves most of the haggling with the infernal opposites to angelic delegates.

Saint Raphael the Arch-angel:
Humility, bravery, modesty
Saint Raphael the Protector, as the name implies, is the angel in charge of the security of Heaven, or in other words, he protects the gates of Heaven. It is said he knows everything that goes on everywhere in Heaven. No one can sneak in, no one can do anything without Raphael knowing about it. Whether he acts on it, only Bahamut knows.

Saint Azrael the Arch-angel
Peace, mercy, suffering
Nicknamed the Angel of Death, Azrael's job description is much less sinister than the name would imply. Once Gabriel has won a soul, Azrael is the one to come get it, or at least he is in charge of the someone coming to get it. Seeing Azrael while alive is considered one of the greatest things for worshippers of Bahamut, as it indicates that their faith has been so strong that they are skipping the Underworld part of their transcendence and move directly to being reborn in Heaven. Some souls are just not worth haggling over.

Saint Uriel the Arch-angel
Charity, benevolence, generosity, sacrifice
After Michael and Gabriel, Uriel is the arch-angel with the largest following. Called the Teacher, because, according to the Writings of Bahamut, he walks the earth, at the behest of Bahamut, teaching mortals the word of Bahamut, the only sure way to end up in Heaven. There are literally thousands of stories about the travels of Saint Uriel, and he alone is the reason why very few Bahamut worshipers will turn away a wayward soul in need of shelter or food. Because it just might be Saint Uriel in disguise.

Saint Lucifer the Arch-angel
Kindness, satisfaction, loyalty, compassion
Saint Lucifer is the Caretaker. Once souls arrive in Heaven, they need some looking after, someone to  show them the ropes of immortality and eternity. That's Lucifer. Seen as the embodiment of all that is good, Lucifer is none the less surrounded by a lot of controversy. Some lore seems to suggest that Saint Lucifer hasn't always been angel, but instead he was born a devil. However, thousands of years ago, something happened after a chance encounter between Lucifer and Bahamut, and the devil changed his ways so much, that Bahamut elevated him to arch-angel. Of course, that is probably neither accurate nor the whole story, but that is what some mortals claim.

Saint Amesha the Arch-angel
Diligence, Persistence, effort, ethics
Saint Amesha, the only angel portrayed as a female, is most often called the Messenger. Not much is known about her place, other than she seems to run communications between Bahamut and the other arch-angels, and even sometimes, between Bahamut and the mortals. Some sages believe her to be nothing more than a glorified messenger-girl, others call her the true right hand of Bahamut, since everything he wills go through her, whether it be instructions to the angels or guidelines to his church.

The Underworld

The Shadowfell is no picnic, let me tell you. While it might not match Hell in brutality and horror, the creepiness and silence of those enormous pine forests is daunting to say the least. Everywhere you go, there is just that. Silence. No wind, no animals, no living people. Just darkness and the god-forsaken fog. Then, best as you think you are alone, spirits come out of the fog screaming and tear your soul apart.  

-Rolaf Dragonrider, during the writing of his memoirs

As you might have gathered by now, Gemnos is a world of opposites, of symmetry. The Underworld is no exception to the rule. Where the Faerie is vibrant, colorful, with strong smells, passions, the Underworld is dark, bleak, subdued and muted.

Said to be a copy of Gemnos in days past, the Underworld is a place with no sun, constantly cloudy, foggy and the only light appears to be from a dim moon, hiding behind the eternal clouds.

All souls but those who have stricken a deal with Hell come here, and while some move on when the haggling is done, by far the most stay.

In the Underworld, a soul will roam for a 100 years, until his fate is settled. During this time, he will, depending on alignment, state of mind when death occurred and a billion other factors, materialize as a ghost, wraith, dread, spectre or shadow. Most of these will never cross over and haunt Gemnos, nor will they ever bother other creatures in the Underworld. But many, mostly those evil in life and destined for the fiery pits of Hell, will roam the bleak landscape of jagged plains, dark pine forests and crumbled ruins of ancient cities and attack anything that crosses their path. In other words, if you head to the Underworld, bring a bucket-load of clerics.

In other worlds, Cyric's home is a dark and desolate place, filled with angry and bored souls and spirits. There is no sun, no food, no living people, except for the death elves, aka the Shadar-kai. Called Cyric's chosen, the death elves live their lives in bleakness, holding off their quasi-suicidal tendencies by constantly pushing themselves beyond their own limits. Pain and pleasure are taken to the extreme in order to fell anything. As such, they are, as a race extremely capable. There are no weak Shadar-kai, as they very quickly die.

Now, all of the Shadowfell is not desolate. There are a few places inhabited by other than spirits and souls. The Shadar-kai have some flying cities, but for most people, they are very inaccessible and unseen. They are also, all things considered, few and far between. There are also the odd stronghold here and there, some held by renegade Shadar-kai, others by intelligent undead. And of course, there is Cyric's Temple of Bones, from where he sits and runs things.

If you happen to be a worshipper of the Fourteen (the aspects of the Twins), there is also at least three other places of note: The Mausoleum of Death surrounded by an endless graveyard, where the Raven Queen resides, controlling the fate of man and judging the dead. The Guildhall of Deceit, from which Mask guides and records every lie and secret in the world, and last but not least, the Pit of Darkness, the place from which all darkness in the world springs, where Shar rules.

Obviously, the last four places are not easy to find, even by those few who may wish to...

Session 17

Day 76
Arath immediately wakes up the others, and they head into the hills, to find the mine.

Making their way through the hills, the Sons are jumped by a huge blue monsters, all teeth and claws.  The Behir swallows Urnyx, but he manages to inflict enough damage with his dagger to it's gullet, so it pukes his back up. The fight is brutal but in the end, the Sons kill the beast.

Progressing further through the dark, with Urnyx leading them, they find the place it seems to be happening. A copper mine guarded by 6 ogres. The Sons jump the ogres and dispatch them fairly quickly, although Urnyx learns that when they gang up, they can still pack a punch.

After whipping their swords, the Sons of the Phoenix move to the makeshift elevator and go down the 80' shaft. About halfway down, an ogre, who must have been on a bathroom break or out for a walk, jumps down from above, hitting the elevator at full speed, sending Petyr and Chavron crashing towards the floor, while Arath and Urnyx manage to hang on. Urnyx rocks the boat to try to get the ogre to loose it's grip on the elevator, but manages to shake Arath instead, who falls down. Then Urnyx cuts the cord, sending the ogre with the elevator down on top of Petyr and Arath. But at least the ogre dies....

The Sons quickly recover and start moving through what seems to be natural caverns. Soon they can hear screams and chanting, and soon find themselves starring at 5 cultists who look to be in the process of a sacrificial process involving some captives and a monster of wings, horns and claws, hidden by a fog.

As soon as the Sons are spotted by the cultists, one shouts:

Interfere and you die. Walk away now.

The Sons naturally ignore the warning, and attack the cultists. A fight ensues, with the leading cultist breaking off the fight at some point, picking up the heart of the woman on the altar, and trying to finish the ritual. But the Sons manage to kill him before he can complete the spell. As he dies, clutching his broken throat:

You fools, we were trying to lock it away for good, not to free him. This is on you.

As the magical barrier holding in the huge demon-like creature comes crashing down, the Sons killed the last cultist.

FREE AT LAST. 200 years almost. While hardly a lifetime, it is certainly boring as hell. Now, since you were so nice and freed me, I will spare you this time around. Besides, your flesh will taste so much sweeter knowing you have caused untold deaths. In fact, right after I leave here, I will find a little village and kill all the men and then have the women watch as I eat their children. Then I will tell them your names, and tell them that you locked me out of my prison. That should be fun. I wonder how your church will look upon that, Arath. Haha.. Yes, I know who you are, who do you think sent you that dream? Hahahaha.

The demonic creature takes a few steps forward while he summons some kind of invisible creature, a demon hound.

Oh, and Chavron, your father sends his regards. He is cooking in a bowl of acid down below at the moment. If you focus, you might be able to taste his fear. I sure can.

And turns into black smoke that enters Petyr:

You are no match for me, but just in case. I have your friend now. If I ever see you again, he will be the first to die.

The creature then walks away, while the demon hound attacks the Sons. Arath tries to stop the creature, but only manages to slow it down. Urnyx runs for the exit and tries to remove the elevator cord, but unfortunately, the creature just teleports up and throws down the rest of the elevator. 

Meanwhile, Arath and Chavron kill the demon hound, after a long and hard battle. They free the last of the prisoners and with the help of Urnyx, everybody gets out of the mine. They look for Petyr's tracks, but none are found. 

The Lords of Hell

It's amusing how all mortals assume the gods were here first. They weren't. Hell is much, much older than the gods. They might be the most powerful beings at the moment, but nothing but Hell is eternal. Then again, maybe they aren't the most powerful beings around. Maybe that it just something they need to believe....

- Asmodeus, somewhere in Hell

Hell, while ruled by Bane, is run by the seven Lords of Hell and their infinite hordes of demons and devils. For thousands of years, they have warred on the angels of Heaven and against each other. The seven Lords are:

Baphomet
Symbol: Bull's head with flaming red eyes

Portfolio: Savagery

Also called the Prince of Beasts, Baphomet is a demon with the the appearance of a huge humanoid with a bull's head, a bovine tail, and broad, stubby hands and feet. Baphomet's rippled body is covered with coarse charcoal black hair. His horns curves downward and outward and are at all times surrounded by hellfire. He wields a giant spiked warhammer called the Worldcrusher. It is said that his spit and drool is unholy water. Amongst the Lords of Hell, Baphomet is often considered the dumbest, the most simplistic. The brute with no subtlety. He is also the guardian of Hell, both entrance and exit. Baphomet's Hell is a huge maze full of roaming demons of all kind.

Asmodeus

Symbol: A red-black upside-down pentagram
Portfolio: Lies

Asmodeus is descibed as the strongest, most cunning, and most beautiful of all devils. He usually appears as a huge human. He has lustrous dark skin and black hair, handsome yet deadly. His crimson eyes gleam with infernal power, a pair of small sharp horns crown his forehead. He dresses in regal finery of red and black robes studded with black diamonds and fiery rubies of incalculable expense.  Beneath his clothing, Asmodeus's body is covered in bloody wounds. His wounds oozes blood daily, and the drops of his blood which touch the ground in Hell is said to grow new powerful devils and demons. Whether in battle or on his throne, Asmodeus is rarely far from his famed Ruby Rod, said to hold the souls of an arch-angel. If Asmodeus is not the leader of the Lords of Hell, but he is certainly the first amongst equals and most assuredly the brains behind most of the greater schemes the Lords come up with. Asmodeus’s machinations are long in the making, and they might take centuries, if not millennia, to see resolution. He works on a grand scale, carefully constructing insidious and inexplicable intrigues, maneuvering the forces of wickedness like chess pieces on a board that encompasses all of Gemnos and the rest of the planes. Asmodeus' Hell is an infinite castle where backroom dealings and backstabbings are on the order of business.

Orcus

Symbol: Mace with human skull as head
Portfolio: Decay

Orcus is typically described as having the head and legs of a goat, although with ram-like horns, a bloated body, bat-like wings, and a long tail. Orcus cares for nothing save himself - not even his devotees and undead servants - and focuses only on spreading misery and evil. One of his most identifiable symbols is the artifact, the wand of Orcus, a skull-topped mace with the power to slay any living being. Orcus' Hell is a giant graveyard filled with ruined temples and broken mausoleums.

Demogorgon

Symbol: A serpentine forked tail, wrapped around a skull.
Portfolio: Insanity

The huge demon towers above everyone else. His body at once sinuous like that of a snake and powerful like that of a great ape. Two baleful baboon heads leer from atop his lumbering shoulders, from which writhe two long tentacles. His lower torso is saurian, like some great reptile with an immense forked tail.

Demogorgon not only spreads insanity, he is insane. He is said to believe that he is destined to rule all of Gemnos, due to the twin connection
Demogorgon's hell is a vast tropical jungle that exists under a constant cacophony of sounds from animals that do not exist and a fog so thick that you can cut it. In the depth is his twin towers of madness.

Grazz't 

Symbol: A black six-fingered hand
Portfolio: Lust

One of the smallest of the Lords of Hell, Graz'zt appears as a lithe, muscular humanoid, although still much larger than normal humans. His skin shines like polished obsidian, and his eyes glitter with malevolent green light. He has yellowed fangs, pointed ears, and six slender fingers decorating each hand. He is sometimes described as having six small black horns half-hidden amid his thick black hair. As Asmodeus, he can almost be considered beautiful. and he also dresses in some of the most expensive and elegant finery on the entire plane.

Wielding an acid-drenched greatsword in one hand and a profane shield in the other, Graz'zt, also called the Dark Prince is a veritable killing machine, but also a true and extremely intelligent war commander. When Graz'zt isn't fighting the angels, he spends time in his own personal hell. Graz'zt's hell is a harem of never-ending pleasure and pain.

Lolth

Symbol: An eight-pointed metal star, with the points connected by intricate webbing
Portfolio: Murder

In drow form, Lolth, sometimes called the Spider Queen, appears as an "exquisitely beautiful" female dark elf, sometimes covered in clinging spiders. In her arachnid form, Lolth takes the appearance of a giant black widow spider with the head of a female drow or human peering from between the eight spider-eyes. Sometimes, the two foremost pair of her spider-legs are actually humanoid arms.

Lolth is the assassin of the Lords, the one that dwells and strikes in the darkness. Her hell is a plain of rocks with chasms and rocky gorges. It is full of many pits and craters. The land appears dead and covered in pitchblack darkness. If you could see in the darkness, you would see that there are giant petrified spiders with webbing found everywhere..

Yeenoghu 

Symbol: A triple-headed flail
Portfolio: Torture

Yeenoghu combines the worst features of a gnoll and demon in one immense form. His body is huge, gaunt and lanky, and patches of yellow fur stained with brown spots cover him. Leprous gray skin and suppurating wounds mar his body, revealing the corruption of his flesh and spirit. His head is a large, anthropomorphic hyena’s, with glowing red eyes and a toothy maw from which spills strings of drool. He is often depicted wielding a three-headed flail.

Once souls arrive in Hell, they are tortured. While any devil or demon can torture, most that do answer to Yeenoghu.

Bel

Symbol: A chest of bloody coins.
Portfolio: Greed

Crimson scales cover this large fiend, from its bestial head to its clawed toes. From its back spread great bat-like wings. Foul green venom drips from its teeth, sending up streams of smoke wherever it falls. Cinched around its waist is a belt of a dozen shrieking angel heads, their necks neatly severed by the massive flaming sword the creature holds in his clawed fist. Not much else is known about this Lord of Hell. Some sages speculate that he has only gotten his title recently, while other surmise that he is just that good at keeping mortals in the dark about his machinations.

Mephistopheles

Symbol: A cross(road)
Portfolio: Corruption

This diabolical fiend is huge, has crimson skin, with handsome yet diabolical features that include a set of massive red leathery wings, curling horns, his eyes are white with red irises and pupils, and long, straight black hair. He has huge muscles that befit his great strength, and his speech is whispering wind. His wings, horns, and talons are deep red and his scales are sooty black. Swathed in a flowing black cape, he is the vision of evil. While all the Lords benefit to some degree from the souls that end up in Hell, Mephistopheles is the one that control the demons and devils that do nothing but corrupt the mortals of Gemnos. Some say that while most deals are struck through intermediates, sometimes Mephistopheles himself show up to close the deal.

Temple Law

Temple Law (also called Divine Law) is a universal law stating that temples, or churches if you will, are sovereign ground, and can afford sanctuary to fugitives from the law, if the highest ranking priest of the church wishes so.

In other words. If you are a criminal and being pursued by the authorities, once you are on temple grounds, you can not be forced to leave by anyone but the highest ranking priest. Guards, soldiers or others will not breach the sanctity and drag you out from the church grounds.

And the law, because it is perceived as divine, extends to more than the authorities. Typically no members of civilized races and nations will break Temple Law, simply because everyone knows that the gods are real, and only a fool will piss off a god or a goddess.

The law also states that drawing blood (as in using violence, whether it be with sword, hammer or magic) inside a consecrated church is really a bad idea. You might not get stricken by a thunderbolt from Heaven, but it is universally believed that, you will suffer from the decision. Depending on which church it is, the retaliation can come in a wide variety of forms, but usually it relates to the one of the spheres of influence of the god in question.

Session 16

Day 74

After beating the water elemental-trap, the Sons of the Phoenix pressed on, and encountered five rock-throwing gargoyles, attacking from the safety of a ledge high above the corridor. The gargoyles' plan was however spoiled after Urnyx' rapidly climbed up, killed one and when they others had taken off, jumped on another one in midair, dragged it down to earth at high velocity.

After killing the gargoyles, Urnyx found a rather non-descriptif copper dagger and Chavron found 5 clay bowls. The Sons quickly figured out that they could use those for the ritual they had found on the corpse at the bolt-trap.

At the end of the hall, there was a big door with a fire symbol. In order to pass through the door, they had to answer 3 questions about dwarves. Through teamwork, good knowledge and sheer dumb luck, they managed to answer the questions without being hurt too badly.

Inside they found the royal tomb, and quickly set up the weakening symbol, although they did have some concerns. What if it was a trap, and instead of weakening the "fire demon", instead they summoned it.

The "Fire Demon" turned out to be an Efreeti.

Well met, mortals. You can call me Zu'raxl. I am bound by magic to defend the coffin and it's content, so unless you can free me from the spell, I am afraid you will be my dinner.

I see you have set up a ward, to weaken me. (smiles) Too bad I ommitted a few things when I planted the info on the corpse. Call it my guilty pleasure. Giving hope where there is none.

Let's get on with it? I am so hungry

A long battle followed, with the Sons finally killing the beast of basalt and bronze. Unfortunately, it had no intentions of staying dead...

It's funny with you mortals. You really do  not get the concept of immortality.

Chavron figured it was linked to something in the room, and quickly him and Nevron started to destroy all vases, paintings and other regalia in the room. When the Efreeti finally died (again) he stayed dead.

The Sons collected some loot (a magical gem, some magical boots and the earth key) and left the room to rest.

Day 75
After a good night's sleep, the Sons made their way out through the dungeon, beating the water-trap and the bolt-trap once again. Once out, they decided to take a closer look at their newfound items, the magical gem (no idea), the backpack (can hold more than it appears to be able to) and the boots (made by elves and enables you to walk very very silently). Most of the day went with that. There was also 3 potions, but everyone forgot about those...

Day 76
Arath wakes up, he has had a dream, a vision. He saw a mine, he saw cultists, he saw sacrifices. He knows it is happening now and nearby. He quickly wakes the rest and Urnyx, based on the description of the place, makes an educated guess as to in which direction the Sons can find the place.