A new hill

[Anastasia]

Were you a mortal, you can feel the force behind them would not yield. Yet you are not, and at the same time Queen and Sulia join your will. Together the winds drop down as desired.

"Moan your sorrows to another," Sulia says with gentle firmness.

[Ebiris]

"Keep an eye out for anyone else in case we want to make it look like we're struggling more," Alicia says, although she can easily see the farthest of the three deities here. Still, now less troubled by the damned wind they can advance anew.

[Anastasia]

> roll 1d100
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 37 > [d100=37]

Onward. It's not far until you see an opening at last. A vast, open cavern - and here hang thousands and thousands. Demons of all kinds are hung here, flailing and moving in vain. A great sea of them, all struggling to save themselves to no avail.

Queen looks at them intently, hand on the blade of her sword, but she does not draw it.

[Ebiris]

"So that's where the name comes from," Alicia says dispiritedly. "Unless we wish to challenge the Broken Serpent we'll leave them well alone. Down we go," she looks for further passages down from this cavern they can take while avoiding all those hanging demons.

[Anastasia]

"We could challenge him," Queen suggests, "Let him come slithering over and beat him then and now." Her gaze is on them, blade unsheathed ever so slightly.

'Let me down,' A voice in your mind, a woman's. 'I have treasure to reward you with.'

"It does tempt, but revenge comes in many forms. It's not the initial bite I worry for, but for the poisoned sickness in the years ahead," Empress Sulia says as she looks around herself, at anything but the demons, "We aren't Antenora. We don't have to offer them a second chance right now."

Another voice, this one of a growling man. 'Free me and I'll make you a king!'

Meanwhile Alicia looks about and sees three passages going down. One is a sharp slope but roomy. One is a gentle incline but narrow. The third is a crawl tunnel you'll have to crawl in, but goes down at a good clip.

A third voice, a groan that is utterly inhuman, 'Let me go or suffer my curse for a millenia!'

[Ebiris]

Alicia can easily shrink to move easily in the crawl tunnel, though Sulia and Queen will have a harder time. Still it's doable with some magic so she'll aim for that one.

"Not today anyway. Remember that we came here for a purpose," she says quietly, leading the way and shuttering out the voices of the damned.

[Anastasia]

Magic shrinks you all enough to go and down you go. Down this slope, down this place as demonic voices wail in your minds.

> roll 1d100
<Penuche> Kotono invokes Penuche's magic: < 5 > [d100=5]

You travel down for a time. This leads to a large chamber - one scorched badly with flame, blackened and charred. Not an inch of stone here is free of burns, and in places you can see where the stone sagged, deformed by partially melting.

There's a few passages from here, including one sloping down as well.

[Ebiris]

"We're looking for where the walls cry acidic tears of dread. We're not there yet though," Alicia says, continuing down.

But she does check if recent magic caused this.

Have arcane sight up to see any lingering auras if applicable.

[Anastasia]

There is indeed a lingering aura.

Feel free to do whatever shenanigans/spellcrafting you like in response to that.

[Ebiris]

Spellcraft take 10 for 103 with divine insight/guidance of the avatar to identify the spell and hit the DC 85 to discern the caster.

[Anastasia]

The spell was Fire Storm and the caster was Bel. How he got the area of effect for Fire Storm so high is an open question.

[Ebiris]

Not even greater fire storm too. "Problem," Alicia says curtly. "Bel was here, and that means Gathgorian likely isn't far either. They know as much as I do about what we seek." The good news however is that a fire storm's aura wouldn't linger for that long. "We're not far behind though, and there's no telling how they'd fare with the guardian. Lets step up our pace."

They might still have the illusion up but now they'll be moving at their full deific speed and Alicia will be compressing space ahead of them to shorten their journey as well.

[Anastasia]

Empress Sulia readies her staff as she strides forward, while Queen's blade is out. "Perhaps we can confront them directly," she says, "They can meet justice today."

[Ebiris]

She'd feel better facing them with Antenora nearby but her allies are strong regardless. "Lets hurry and hope they took the wrong path somewhere here," she says as they pick up the pace.

[Anastasia]

Onward. More fire, more ruin - and soon enough you begin to hear a wailing. The walls begin to grow wet, sizzling and charred and ruined.