Triel's Furnace

[Anastasia]

OOC: This is why having time at work to write is scary.

Strength of Light presents Alicia with a slender tome. In it besides illustrations is the following.

Eons ago, there was an angel named Triel. His beauty, grace and goodness were said to be perfection made into immortal flesh.  Such words burned into his psyche over eternity, as he chased greater and greater perfection. In this he began to see himself above all others, the perfect being living in a cosmos with flawed fools. In time this path lead him to the Pit of Baator, to where he is now know as Baazlebub, Lord of the Seventh. But before that, before his Fall from grace?

In his times he left behind many keepsakes, as Powers and Gods are inclined to do.  Many of them relate to his pursuit of perfection, as such was the power of his growing obsession.  One trip to vanquish the disgustingly flawed forces of evil lead Triel to Ysgard. In Ysgard he found constant pursuit of endless battle and improvement heartening, a chase to reach perfection that resonated within him. Wishing to encourage the imperfect to reach perfection, he took a stone from Ysgard and called on his power, creating Triel's Furnace. Within it he placed a great prize, a reward to one who is perfect enough to claim victory within.

Triel's Furnace is a sealed demiplane. Entrance is impossible, save for a single portal within Ysgard. The portal is a perfect circle embedded within a mountainside cave. A line of runes forms a second perfect circle around the portal, with various Celestial words relating to angelic perfection. The entrance to the cave is sealed with a permanent wall of force; a special key is required to allow passage. The stone around the portal is reinforced by the hands of the strongest war eladrin, having seven times the normal hardness and endurance of stone.

Many throughout the eons have tried their strength at Triel's Furnace. To date, none have succeeded. Solars have gone within and come out, spirits broken in defeat. The mightiest mortal heroes have failed, as have white and black slaad, eladrin and fey. Within the past few eons it has become a hidden legend, the forces of Ysgard hiding the portal away and stamping out knowledge of it. It has become a holy challenge to attempt, offered to the greatest heroes of all Ysgard and beyond.

While none have succeeded, they can pass on valuable information to give the next challenger a slightly better chance to triumph. That is if it's possible to reach perfection in Triel's judgment.

---

The first thing one notices on stepping into Triel's Furnace is that they are naked. All possessions,  items of wonder and even artifacts are gone. They are known to reappear when  the the person undergoing the trial is removed from the Furnace. This makes classical wizards and clerics who rely on material components and focuses worthless within. The proper training to cast without material components negates this need, and even expensive magics can be done if one possesses the greatest gifts of ignoring the need for material components. However, even then, a wizard will lack a spell book to re-memorize spells from.

Once that is accepted, the accounts of those that have attempted and failed Triel's Furnace enlightens us to the conditions within.  No matter the time outside, you appear at high noon. Around you is a desert vast and all consuming. Great sand dunes stretch as far as the eye can see.  The exact location you appear in seems to vary, or perhaps the desert sands shift fast. Above you a merciless sun beats down, broiling hot. It is here you begin to suffer the unique rules of Triel's Furnace.

Every creature within is mortal, insofar as the need for food, water and sleep is concerned. An angel needs as much water as a human within, as does even a golem or other construct. Food is also required, as is eight hours of sleep. This includes races that normally trance, such as elves, that must sleep instead within Triel's Furnace.  Further, elemental resistances to heat and cold are entirely negated within. A fire elemental can and will burn under the sun, an angel can freeze to death during the chill nights. This makes travel within the Furnace agonizing. Within an hour you are sunburned all over, the only respite the sub-zero temperatures of night. Again, such extends to even immune creatures. This may be the only place where a golem died of sunburn in all of Creation.

Inside Triel's Furnace gravity is heavy. While this does not provide over much burden while on the ground, it makes flight impossible. Both magical and mundane flight is forced to the ground. This does seem to apply universally, as even creatures encountered within with wings do not fly, such as dragons.  Overall it may be a bit of a misnomer to those that are familiar with the heavier gravity of realms such as the Plane of Earth, this gravity still has a serious impact on progressing into Triel's Furnace.

Further, certain types of magic are suppressed.  Healing magic or effects of any type fail to work. The super-sped healing that some superior creatures possess is negated, as well as the hardier version known as regeneration, such as what trolls are born with. All damage within Triel's fortress is able to kill a regenerating creature.  Healing through natural means such as rest still works, but doing so requires finding shelter from the heat and cold. Teleportation, dimensional doors and plane-traveling magic all fail within the Furnace. Spells that grant flight do work, but are constrained by the heavy gravity noted above.  Spells that grant hastened movement, such as haste or expeditious retreat, fail. Creation magic, including the creation of food or water, is likewise impeded, as is magic to resist elemental ravages.

As you struggle across the desert, you must endure the days and nights. Each is 11 hours and 45 minutes each, with 15 minute sunrises and sunsets. During the days, baking heat sears all over your body. Sunburn, sunstroke and dehydration are constant concerns. During the night, the temperature drops well below freezing and the wind picks up. It is scant relief for your sunburns to go numb, only for your fingers and toes to succumb to frostbite overnight. The highest priority to survival is to find ways to resist these conditions.

As you wander, there are many dangers. There are creatures who 'live' within Triel's Furnace. It is suspected they are nothing more than an advanced part of the plane's magic and not sentient, thought this is not confirmed. More on these creatures can be found later in this text in the Bestiary chapter.

A person can last roughly 24 to 36 hours without water before severe dehydration begins to cause the body to shut down. Finding potable water is essential to survival and success. One skilled in nature lore can find tiny pockets of water here and there. One greatly skilled in nature lore can detect if it's poisonous or not, as can magic to that effect. Much of the water in Triel's Furnace is poisonous, destroying the vitality and health of any that drink it. Beings that are immune to poison are not affected, able to benefit from the water. Most regrettably, this is a trait primarily found in fiends from the Realms Below. Rarely, there are reports of oasis, surrounded by lush trees bearing exotic fruit. Such water has never been found to be impure if one is lucky enough to find one.

Within three days, a lack of food is unpleasant but not overly deleterious. After, severe hunger pains set in. Eating at least two good meals a day is preferable, requiring finding food in the Furnace. Various creatures encountered can be eaten raw at your risk, or cooked if you possess fire.  Should food not be obtained, weakness and eventually death will come.

Sandstorms are known to occur on occasion. Creatures with unprotected flesh without magical or supernatural toughness may succumb to them. Even then, the sandstorms are known to delay and pin down those who are not subdued by them. Dying of thirst while stuck in a sandstorm has been known to happen.

---

At this point, the writing changes. Written in the pages now is this:

Alicia, I'm writing this part myself. Cowards say that discretion is the better part of valor, but they have a point in this instance. You will be in pain for most of this trip. You will suffer. You will be put through Hell with almost no chance of reward. But hey, you passed what I put you through so you're used to that. So here's the useful part of things: How the hells you survive.

First of all, find water. If you don't find water regularly, you're dead. You can't wiggle your nose and have it appear, but Syala can help find some. If you k now the trick of detecting poison, it'll help find the poison water from the fresh water. Food's also a concern, but with luck, you'll have enough battles against things you can eat. The book didn't mention this, but be careful of what you eat raw. If you can spare the time, cook it. While it's rarely what does someone in or is lost in dehydration/hunger/sunburn/frostbite and a dozen other things, but you can get ill in there. If you start gushing out of either end, you'll be dead in a day from dehydration.

Clothing and weapons are next. It's extremely grotesque, but skinning certain fallen foes is the best way to make clothes. The less skin that can be burned, the better. As for weapons...well, you can figure out why you need them yourself. Anything you can find can work in a pinch. If you're lucky enough to find an oasis, you can make leaf-clothing and use branches as weapons. With clothing and weapons, you have a chance to find some shade and warmth, enough to rest. The only way you'll get better is with time when you aren't baking or freezing.  If you don't do that, it's just a matter of time until you fail.  The most successful attempts have managed to have the resources to spend days healing up. This isn't a race but an endurance slog.

The monsters? Desert-men who say nothing but fight with scythe-arms are common. Burrowing sandworms, sand and blue dragons, insect plagues and a lot of other nasties are known of. There are even reports that the night stars have come down to fight in the form of constellation-monsters, but the four times it's happened it's resulted in a massacre of the attempt. There's no point in trying to talk to any of them. They don't listen and just fight to the death. Very straightforward.

You're going with Syala. This is good if you can say yes to one thing:  After days or weeks of pain and trial, can you put Syala's body down to the sands and keep going without her? Now don't worry, when you die in there, you just appear back out here.  Nothing permanent. But even men of wisdom and spirits of mercy can crack after the agonies of Triel's Furnace. I think it's designed that way. I don't know if Triel was ever truly good based on this. It's a sadist's puzzle in the spirit of perfection. Sure, it's fun to try, but it's agony every step of the way. An archangel could have done this far differently if he wanted to.

Good luck. If you succeed, I'm going to throw you and Syala the biggest Warrior's festival in the history of Ysgard.

---

Bestiary:

Scythe-men: These man sized creatures have scythes for arm and tanned brown skin. They rise from the sand about 100 to 10 feet away from you in pacts of 3 to 12. While each one isn't much, they can land lucky shots that can do grievous damage with their arms.

Blue dragons: They swim under the sand, erupting out in fearsome surprise attacks. They never cast magic like their kin in normal Creation, but they have all other draconic traits.  

Sand dragons: Dragons made of sand. They breathe superheated sand. Very straightforward, forming out of sand drifts within a few moments. You have a little bit of a warning if you're perceptive.

Insect swarms: Locusts, beetles, fire ants.  While they do not fly, they crawl out from the sand and attempt to overwhelm you. Weapons are not effective, but wide effect magic and fire is.

Sun-men, also known as sun elementals: Beans of fierce sunlight that form into man-like shapes. This happens around high noon. Anywhere from 1 to 7 is common, with sizes ranging from dwarf sized to giant sized. Getting close to one causes burns as do their fists, as well as the chance of bright light temporarily blinding you.  They are not too dissimilar from fire elementals overall.

Sandworms: Giant worms that erupt from the sand and swallow you whole. Not hard to detect coming due to tremors, but very hard to avoid or kill.

---

No one's every reached anything that looks like an end. Knowing this, there's something even worse if you get that far. Good luck, Alicia.

I've known a few people who have tried to brute force the limitations here. A few succeeded in circumventing some of them, but there seems to be a fail safe in place. On doing so, hordes of all the various monsters convene on you like a warriors to battlefields.  

I'm not sure Triel meant for anyone to be able to win it. I've never heard a story about him having any love for Chaos as Triel or as Beezlebub. The legend is just that, a legend. Be careful in there.