Surya Home

After negotiating a couple of Portal Keys from Xerxes (which cost a couple of quite powerful magic items from Varkar's hoard), Surya stepped through a suitable archway in Emrys, crossed Sigil, picked up some intelligence from some of Xerxes' contacts, and descended into Hell.

An information tout in Sigil called Nudger Malik had told him that a devil-held fortress called Belemacil, on the plane of Minauros, was about to be attacked by a demonic strike force led by the Marilith Zabyrayth. A force of mortal mercenaries, the Fist of Jeradith, led by one Jeradith of the Kin, had enlisted with the Abyssal force, and Surya planned to tack himself onto their number to avoid attracting attention.

This worked fine, and before long Surya found himself with a motley assortment of mortals, staring up at the walls of Belemacil.

The King of New Tellare had seen the great fortresses of Known Alair. Vorsand. Lantalaure. Skaven. Dun Tolk, primitive but nearly impregnable. Thornal, mightiest work of all human fortification. Belemacil made them all look like sandcastles.

Row after row of concentric walls, rising from the endless foetid swamps of Minauros. Tier after tier of turrets. Myriads of diabolic fiends lining the walls ready to defend them.

Zabyrayth was not the first demon to attack Belemacil. It had been under siege for decades. Zabyrayth, however, had a new plan; escalade. All of the mortal mercenaries in the Fist of Jeradith were trained rogues or skilled mountaineers. Her plan was to assault the walls near one of the gates, relying on speed to get over and get the gates open. Casualties among the mortals were expected to be high, but the fiends were unbothered by that. The survivors were assured of a share of the loot of the castle, and for that they were prepared to risk it all.

In the endless night of Minauros, the stealth-trained mortal mercenaries were easily concealed; by the standards of the battlefields of the Blood War, they did not radiate much magic. Although not trained the same way as the others, Surya had access to the Spider Climb spell, and had no difficulties making the climb.

The first stages of the assault went well. The mercenaries topped the wall, and made it nearly all the way to the gatehouse before they were spotted. A small patrol of devils blundered into one of the humans, and killed him before his comrades could rescue him. The rest of the unit piled in a few seconds later and slaughtered them, but the damage was done; lawful fiends were converging from all directions. The Fist of Jeradith began to melt away like snow on hot metal. Only one chance of survival remained; they had to get the gates open.

Gathering as many of the remaining warriors as he could, Suyra led a berserk charge towards the gates themselves. They were all skilled fighters, many with previous experience fighting fiends, but more and more devils were piling on all the time. Men began to fall, faster and faster, in a shrinking arc around their leader. Inch by inch the mercenaries cut their way through the enemy, until finally the King of New Tellare laid his hands onto the gate.

By this point, he was practically alone; only seven other men remained upright. The complex bolts and locks would have required far more time to unfasten than they would have. There were not enough men to break the gates by conventional violence. It seemed they would fail after all, and die, simply a few more bodies in the unimaginable slaughter that was the Blood War, their souls claimed by the fiends of the Nine Hells forever.

But Surya had other resources at his command. The magic of Bull's Strength, added to his own mighty muscles, was more than enough to smash through the gates. Three blows, and the gate was breached. Help was waiting; the demons of Zabyrayth's force were already beating on the gates when the first hole appeared. Seconds later, the gates were smashed open and the forces of Chaos were flooding into the fortress.

The few survivors of the Fist of Jeradith had had enough, and were more than content to take their pay and go home. Surya's blood was up, however, and he joined the howling demons as they tore through the castle. Recognizing this bold mortal as a formidable warrior - and lucky, something valued by the chaotic demons - many of the invaders attached themselves to him, and so it was while leading a sizable number of assorted demons that he reached the cellars of Belmacil, and discovered that there was more to the place than had been disclosed.

Above, the marilith Zabyrayth was exulting, pitching slain - and better, wounded - devils off the ramparts of the castle and gleefully watching them splatter into the marshes below. Her dark joy turned to horror in a flash, however, as her vision was drawn to a flash in the mist, unmistakably the opening of a Gate. A few moments later, pale glitters of white through the fog showed the approach of diablolic reinforcements, bone devils from Stygia, and in enormous numbers. She had clearly miscalculated; for some reason, Belmacil was far more important to the powers of Hell than it had appeared. If they were prepared to go to these lengths to prevent it falling, there was more here than strategic location.

Below, Surya was on the point of discovering why. Deep in the cellars, a huge vault had been constructed, clearly long after the castle was built, and laced with protective wards and other magics. It was obvious that something of paramount value was sealed inside, and for a moment the Tellaran wished the Hand of Kord was with him. Second best would have to do, however. He sent a runner for Zabyrayth.

The marilith had other worries, and it was some while before she was able to leave the defences, having collapsed the gatehouse to block the gap left by Surya's smashing of the gates. When she arrived in the cellars, she was in a towering rage, and obviously considering simply killing this impudent human; but her curiosity and cupidity were piqued by the vault, just as his had been. Gathering her powers, she smashed the seals on the doors - they appeared to be focussed inwards rather than outwards, as if they were intended to imprison something - and were comparatively weaker to outside attack.

The doors of the vault exploded into rubble, and for a moment the dust and flying debris hid what was inside, although an the two outside felt a strong impression of size and power. Finally, the dust settled, and a huge form unfolded itself and stood up. Batlike wings unfurled from around a bloated, shaggy body, fifteen feet tall, which took two steps forwards on cloven hooves and lifted a terrible head, crowned with curling, ramlike horns. Next to Surya, Zabyrayth hurled herself prostrate with a cry, her snakelike body writhing with ecstasy. "Lord Orcus!" she gasped.

Orcus, Demon Prince, Lord of the Undead, one-time ruler of Thanatos, the 113th plane of the Abyss; supposedly betrayed and murdered by his fellow princes Demogorgon and Gra'zat. The facts, it now seemed, were otherwise; the pair had actually sold the Master of the Undead to the enemy, who had held him imprisoned in Minauros - until now.

Stalking slowly forward, the demon prince gazed down at his unlikely pair of rescuers. "I am free." he rumbled in a voice like stone slabs falling, "and my vengeance shall be terrible." He looked at Zabyrayth. "You shall be first among my generals when I return to retake what is mine. You will lead my armies into Thanatos, and feast on the souls of the usurper's petitioners." Zabyrayth, glowing with dark, exultant triumph. bowed deeply. Orcus turned to Surya.

"So, little King, you wanted to dabble in the War Eternal, to come and play a while with the fiends of battle? Have you enjoyed your visit? You have seen the power of the lower planes, now, you know that the mortals of the Primes live free only on sufferance. When I have crushed my treacherous kin, and conquered the Hells, can you imagine your mortal kin resisting my power for an instant?"

Surya, although struggling against the overwhelming threat of Orcus' mere presence, straightened his back. "And yet no-one here today could stand before me and live. I am not alone in such power. We mortals are tougher and more resourceful than you understand." he said. "At the least, we will cost you dearly should you try it." He meant it, but it was bravado as well; Orcus was a foe well beyond him at present.

The demon laughed. "Courage you lack not. Very well. You have done me great service this day, andI should reward you, should I not?" Surya felt a shiver down his spine; did he really want suchrewards as Orcus might mete out? "I see you fancy yourself a Lord of the Undead," continued the Master of Thanatos, in a tone one might use to a child who declared himself King. "So be it. Muster my servants of Unlife to your cause with my blessing, and my help." Surya felt a cold wash of power sluice through his body. What had the monster done to him?. "One day you may want to open the door to real power, learn real mastery of magic and the dead. On that day I will accept you into my service; you will have to abandon your aliegance to that weak waster Kord, but I will gift you with powers greater than those he grudgingly doles out to you - not least eternal life. Consider it as the years roll by; as age creeps over you. You will know where to find me."

The giant form turned back to Zabyrayth. "I discern we have a battle to fight, my sweet general," he said, a horrible anticipation in his voice at the prospect of bloodshed. "Let us teach these fiends of Law the folly of daring to imprison the Lord of the Undead!"

A gesture smashed a gaping rent into the castle keep, blasting through into the open air. The three wafted upwards, levitated by Orcus' power to the ramparts. Battle raged all around, demon fighting devil, but the invaders from the Abyss were clearly getting the worst of it. All that changed in an instant. A wave of Orcus' hand brought all the dead from both sides lurching to their feet, to charge to the attack on the demons' side. A few moments later, the ground erupted, as all the countless dead who had fallen here, demon, devil, mortal, yugoloth, through the ages, heaved themselves out of their graves to fight once more. Within five minutes, the battle was over, the devils submerged in a rolling torrent of dead foes, and Orcus stood triumphant at the head of his new army.

Then there was a flash, and they were gone. Surya stood alone on the walls of the half-ruined castle, surrounded by mounds of slain fiends, coated from head to foot in black fiend blood and no little of his own red blood. Time to go. He activated his portal key and returned home via Sigil.