## Farewells at the Soul Cages The session opened in the aftermath of the combat victory from the previous week, with the party still standing in [[Valdrathar]]'s domain before the soul cages. [[Grumthar]] had already stepped through the portal. Those remaining watched as Bakorda was lowered into the fires of the river — plate clamped over her mouth, only her eyes visible, locking on to [[Grom]] as she descended. [[Valdrathar]] stood nearby, smiling. [[Grom]] approached and knelt before her cage. He told her he was sorry, that he had come for a different purpose and lacked the power to save more than one today — but that a day might come when he would. He put his hand against the cage and said goodbye. [[Valdrathar]] broke in from behind, his voice carrying that characteristic soft pleasure: a friend, he noted, was simply letting her burn. [[Grom]] turned and said plainly that [[Valdrathar]] was only a middleman — that death always wins in the end, and the devil's day would come too. [[Valdrathar]] extended an invitation for future negotiations. [[Grom]] turned away without taking it. As [[Grom]] walked back toward the group, [[Valdrathar]] looked past him at [[Cub]]. He pointed and said he knew exactly who [[Cub]] was — that he recognized his signature, calling him the murderer — and that he looked forward to seeing him in the future. [[Cub]] denied knowing what he was talking about. Narzag quietly loaded a blessed arrow and held it, less as a genuine threat and more as a statement. [[Valdrathar]] smiled at this too, said he enjoyed the game they had played, and acknowledged that the party had taken something very precious from him — and that he would not forget. [[Saszotah Sseth'kaar (Sasz)|Sasz]], just before stepping through, paused, turned back, gave the devil a deliberate gesture, and walked in. [[Valdrathar]]'s smile widened. --- ## Into the Shriver's Domain The portal deposited the party not back where they came from, but into a wider, more open section of [Phlegethos](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Phlegethos) — an earthtone corridor of a place, the sounds of torment suddenly louder and more immediate. Souls were everywhere: some hanging in chains and lowered into the fires, some strapped to metal platforms where infernal saws worked slowly at their bodies. The screams formed a kind of orchestra, pressing into every mind regardless of how hardened. It was not possible to push back on it. The party moved forward because [[Grom]] had a link to [[Syllin]], and that link told him which direction to go. They followed it up a ridge to a higher vantage and found a pit fiend standing with his hands clasped behind him, watching chain devils work the mechanism that lowered [[Syllin]] into the flames. The pit fiend heard them before he saw them — turned, sniffed, and declared trespassers in a tone that suggested this was, for him, a welcome development. --- ## The Negotiation That Failed [[Grom]] held up a hand and attempted to invoke infernal law — they had undergone trial, won their contest, and had come to claim [[Syllin]] as their right. When the pit fiend demanded a contract, [[Grom]] rolled a 21 on Investigation and understood the situation clearly: [[Valdrathar]] had freed [[Syllin]]'s soul under the terms of his word and the infernal laws, but had not delivered her. These pit fiends were not under that contract. They had no obligation to honor [[Valdrathar]]'s agreements and no obligation to stand aside. The party's protection under the right of contest was also now expired. [[Grom]] chose to press forward anyway. Without directly lying, he implied that the party still held some form of standing and protection — that moving against them would be inadvisable after they had, as he put it, defeated [[Valdrathar]]'s champion rather easily. [[Tarnik]] backed the claim by invoking infernal law. The pit fiend's answer was simple: he was here to torment souls, and he was not obligated to eat their flesh — but he was also not obligated not to. He took a step forward. Initiative was rolled. --- ## Combat in the Shriver Chamber The fight was chaotic and punishing. Narzag opened with Hunter's Mark and a volley of arrows. [[Grom]] conjured Mirror Image and passed Bardic Inspiration to [[Grumthar]]. [[Saszotah Sseth'kaar (Sasz)|Sasz]] transformed into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, grappling a chain devil in its jaws while knocking others prone with tail sweeps. [[Volza Redhand|Volza]]'s daggers landed a silence and paralysis on the horned devil at a critical moment and eventually brought it down without the cover of darkness. [[Grumthar]] raged into the pit fiend for 83 points of damage across four hits — one critical — leaving it visibly staggered, then used Whisper Fang to teleport to the mechanism's edge where [[Syllin]] was held. [[Tarnik]] cast Crusader's Mantle, wreathing the party's weapons in radiant energy, before laying into the pit fiend himself. [[Cub]] rode Shiv into position and repeatedly unleashed Sunbeam in a line across multiple targets, blinding one chain devil outright. [[Grom]] taunted the pit fiend — telling it that for all its threats it had barely scratched him, and that the hells weren't what they used to be. The pit fiend told him, with anatomical specificity, exactly how it intended to consume him for eternity. Then it bit him. The bite carried a DC 21 Constitution save against infernal poison. [[Grom]] failed it and went down. At the mechanism, [[Grumthar]] hauled [[Syllin]]'s chain out of the fire and found her wrists locked in infernal iron. He rolled a Natural 20 on Athletics and tore them apart bare-handed. [[Syllin]] landed on Shiv's back. The pit fiend, seeing this, ordered the remaining chain devil to take the girl. [[Grumthar]]'s voice cut across the chamber: _Get the hell out of here._ [[Tarnik]] called Shiv to him alone. He grabbed [[Grom]], purged the poison condition through laying on hands, then cast cure wounds to bring him back to consciousness. He sent Shiv into the Ethereal Plane with both of them, his paladin aura helping push [[Grom]]'s death saves to a success along the way. The remaining devils fell. The pit fiend was killed by Narzag's hell hound, Nemesis, which drove through to its throat — the fiend's essence dispersing permanently in its own domain. The last chain devil tried to flee and was run down before it cleared the ridge. --- ## Getting Out Out of combat with more devils certainly on the way, the party consolidated fast. [[Tarnik]] pulled [[Grom]] out of the Ethereal Plane. As [[Grom]] looked up at him from the ground, he gripped [[Tarnik]]'s offered hand and said quietly: "Thank you, little friend. I grow tired of hells." [[Volza Redhand|Volza]] shadow-stepped to grab Narzag. [[Cub]] wild-shaped into a giant eagle to help move [[Syllin]]. When the group came together at the ridge's edge, [[Syllin]] finally registered who she was looking at. She clutched [[Grom]] and kept repeating that she was sorry — that she hadn't known. [[Grom]] held her and tried to speak. [[Grumthar]] cut across it: _We don't have time for this. Move._ [[Grom]] drew Aria's Tear, activated the portal home, and told [[Syllin]] it was done. It was time to go. The portal opened at the edge of the ridge, framed by cracked stone and fire. As the last party member stepped through, [[Valdrathar]]'s voice echoed from somewhere distant: _Don't worry. I will always know where you are._ --- ## Return to Polaria The portal opened in front of the Naked Maidens Tavern. The party stepped back into the early morning light of Polaria — barely six minutes had passed on Solare despite what had felt like a day and a half of grueling infernal time. [[Saszotah Sseth'kaar (Sasz)|Sasz]], still in T-Rex form, roared once across the city before reverting, sending pedestrians scattering in every direction. The town guard was presumably on its way. Inside, [[Seraphina]] noticed them immediately, sniffed the hells off of them, and without ceremony wrapped a blanket around [[Syllin]] and led [[Grom]] upstairs. As he laid her in the bed, her soul — returned after 123 years of torment — began visibly settling into her: color seeping back into her skin, her face releasing the tension it had held against agony. She faded into an exhausted sleep. Downstairs, [[Grumthar]] sat with white-knuckled hands on the table. [[Volza Redhand|Volza]] dropped into the chair beside him and waved for a drink. She admitted this had been far outside what she had signed on for. [[Grumthar]] said plainly that going to the hells had never been his preference — he had trusted the group's judgment and hoped they had not lost too much time. He laid out what still waited: the corrupted Serpari circles at the mountain caves threatening Polaria, and the prismatic forest's corrupted ley line node. Tomorrow they would assess what remained viable. [[Saszotah Sseth'kaar (Sasz)|Sasz]] agreed that both missions had held greater weight from the start, though he admitted particular interest in the [[Serpari]] situation. [[Volza Redhand|Volza]] finished her drink, said she had elf in her blood and still didn't understand what they had just done, and left to find a shadow to sleep in. [[Grumthar]] asked [[Seraphina]] before turning in whether [[Ayshra]] was available. He had been through something harrowing and needed the same company as before. --- ## [[Tarnik]] at the Temple of Aria [[Tarnik]] did not go to the tavern. He rode directly to the Temple of [[Aria, Goddess of Birth and Death|Aria]] near the Sad Dog Tavern — arriving in the quiet of a full-moon night, the lanterns casting long shadows across Aria's statues. He was angry and tired and did not fully understand why. He appealed to [[Veilra, Mistress of Illusions|Veilra]], and she came. She asked him what he would want if no one needed him at all. His answer was immediate: to end [[Anam]]. She received it and then drew the parallel. [[Anam]] had once been a divine cleric of genuine faith. His family's destruction broke him not for lack of strength but for lack of faith in what had been preserved beyond his sight. The parallel to [[Tarnik]] was not subtle. [[Veilra, Mistress of Illusions|Veilra]] told him that everything from here forward would be a test — for him, for every member of the Bazgoth. Anam's method was confusion and separation, working through anger and personal wounds. [[Tarnik]]'s fury, [[Grumthar]]'s grief, [[Saszotah Sseth'kaar (Sasz)|Sasz]]'s pride, [[Volza Redhand|Volza]]'s self-hatred — all of it would be weaponized if the group could not learn to see through each other's eyes. She was direct: _You cannot be alone in this. You will lose alone. That is a certainty._ She pressed her forehead to his, and her form dissolved into the candlelight. [[Tarnik]] remained in the chamber in silence, then rode to the Sad Dog Tavern and took a room for the night.