Legends of Old Urthe - Hell on Urthe  (D&D v3.5)
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Fourth Age - Old Urthe: In the Halls of the Dead

Ahead, on the ice, people stood in a line that stretched into the distance towards a large opening in the side of the ice peak, an opening that was blocked by a large iron-bound door, the evil of which was almost palpable, as the party heard it open with the creak of broken bones, and close with the finality of a coffin lid, the sound echoing all around that forsaken place.

The line shuffled forward, its miserable members spurred on by the forks and goads of the devils that pinched and punched, bullying and mocking their shivering victims.

Hell.

Barely did the party leave the boat than the boatman cast off and continued down the channel of ice to the gods alone knew what next port of call. The party hurried over to the end of the slowly moving line, careful not to attract the attentions of the many Devils that strutted around nearby.

The line shuffled slowly forward, other boats pulling up and depositing their passengers who joined the queue behind the party. None of them looked particularly evil, just ordinary men and women, but all trembled in fear.

Seeking to combat the bone chilling cold, Melzakre gathered the party around him, and raised a magical fire, barely escaping the attentions of the Devils as he did so, but when as he and Slayer, realising that the party did not possess the numbered tickets held by the others in the queue, attempted to rectify the matter, the Devils finally noticed, and, upon discovering that the party's names are not in the Book of the Dead, cast them into the Pit.

The Pit. The coldest, most dreadful place in Hell. A place where the dead slave away, tunnelling through rock and ice.

And where the party once more encounter Gelen, their old foe from the Haunted Inn in Trotford. But it transpires that Gelen himself was a victim of the Inn, 12 long years before the party met him, slain, his body possessed by some foul creature, his soul consigned to Hell.

Consulting the parchment given to them by Inurien, the party discovered a way into a secret cavern, and set about finding the three keys that would open the door that they hoped would lead them to the Orb.

Alasha'an and her kitten, by this point, were weak to the point of death, and so Calanor volunteered to remain behind with them, hoping that they would recover, but fearing that they would not, and staying in touch with the party via a linked pair of magic rings.

Victorious from a battle with a Hound of Hell, the party descended into the cavern, climbing their way down a shaft from which monstrous arms of decayed flesh tore and grabbed at those passing by them, into a room with four doors - one of which had three locks.

Passing through the first door, the party puzzled their way through a series of shifting rooms and corridors to face a Devil that threatened to slay all of them until Melzakre gave Nanoc a potion which caused the big Barbarian to grow to an immense height and allowed him to easily overcome the fiend. Gathering up the hundreds of golden keys they found, and astrange item not unlike the Rods of Melzakre's vision, yet smaller, the party located a second path that led them, to recover a single, round-hafted key, though some enchantment that robbed them of their memories caused much confusion for a time.

Back in the room of doors, the party were relieved to find Calanor and a much recovered, though still weak, Alasha'an ... and her kitten who had undergone a similar transformation to Melzakre, and now possessed a pair of feathered wings.

Discovering that the door with three locks swung open easily, the bulk of the party entered the corridor behind it that led to a archway beyond which lay a darkness that no light could penetrate. Melzakre and Nanoc stepped through, falling into a pit filled with biting madmen, and it was only Melzakre's sudden transformation into an enormous beclawed creature that saved them.

The pit, however, turned out to be a dead end, and so Alasha'an turned her attention to the door, noting the strange shapes of the locks, and, disgarding the hundreds of useless keys, fitted the round-hafted key to the door, causing the door itself to glow.

Entering the final door, in search of the other keys, the party at first believed themselves to be back in the shifting corridors they earlier encountered, until Saffaris saw though the illusion.

Slayer, Melzakre, Nanoc and Venelia climbed up a shaft, whereupon they discovered a body upon which there was one of the keys, and a series of arches in which invisible barriers formed behind the person passing through. Melzakre magically transported himself through one barrier to stand before a set of double doors, but when Nanoc tried to cross through an archway after him, he fell to the floor, unconscious.

Slayer passed through another arch unharmed, as Melzakre came to Nanoc's assistance, but the big Barbarian seemed to have recovered, rising to his feet, but with the persona of the Dark Elf, Teb'dril. The four remaining party members, impatient with the delay, joined those above, just in time for Venelia to stop an ensorcelled Slayer from attacking Melzakre.

Finally opening the doors, Melzakre sought to free an Elven Maid from her chains, only to find himself attacked by a Devil. However, Saffaris teleported to his rescue and snatched the remaining key from the Devil before chasing it away.

Returning to the triple locked door, the keys were fitted to their respective locks, and a portal opened, leading to a long corridor at the far end of which the light of the Orb beckoned.

But the Orb was guarded by three of the four-armed Devils, and the battle that ensued was long and bloody, and it was perhaps only Slayer's use of the strange rod that he had found that enabled the party to win. But the price was steep - Nanoc lost his life going one-on-one with a Devil, even as Saffaris, fighting her own mental battle, barely managed to save Calanor from a similar fate. And all would bear the scars of the fight for a long time to come.

But win the party did, and, even as Arawn, the Lord of the Dead, himself approached, were able to use the Orb to finally escape from Hell.

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