105. Bulwark

* After 21 days trudging through the swamps of Minauros, Clwyd, Pyt, and Wilfred, accompanied by Ingvild the temporarily shrunken giant, Zadimus the vampire, and Molly the forest gnome, have arrived at a passageway up to the Second Hell: a liminal fortress occupied by the forces of Bulwark Bael, a duke of Legion known to revel in battle.
* Pushing into the fortress, the party do battle with waves of bearded devils, a pair of bone devils, and a horned devil that arrive piecemeal in response to the noise they're making. Deciding that their best bet in making it through a fortress filled with devils is to appeal to the battle pride they've seen the Bronze Bulls manifest, the group are demanding an audience with Bael as they slay wave after wave of devils. As the fighting in the entrance of the fortress winds down, the horned devil retreats and the party fall back to take a short rest.
* While they're resting, a deep, gruff voice sounds in all their heads via some sort of telepathic means. It's Bael himself, greeting the intruders, whoever they might be, and saying that he'll agree to see them if they can impress him. He adds that his hands are tied regarding the nightmares; he and his aren't allowed to let any of them through, so the party should be prepared for them to be killed if they try to ride them through -- and, indeed, the devils had been attacking the mounts fairly relentlessly in the initial skirmishes. Bael finishes off his message by addressing his men. He tells them to get up and put on a good show, and instructs the kennel master to release the hounds.
* The group decide to release their nightmares into the swamp to fend for themselves rather than kill them in the process of trying to get them through this fortress. Pyt and Wilfred have short, heartfelt farewells as they unsaddle the fiendish beasts and send them on their way. Ingvild's goodbye is more stoic but remains amicable. Zadimus though, who's never got on with his mount and has been forcing it to do as he asked the whole time by way of his preternatural, vampiric strength alone, can barely get the saddle off the thing before it tries to kick and bite him. He hisses at it in response, bearing his fangs, and the nightmare runs off to join the others and disappear into the skies of Minauros.
* The party push through the fortress's lower level, Clwyd's direction sense guiding them unerringly through the corridors and to a large set of stairs. They spill out into a second floor -- not quite aware that they've actually just passed up into the Second Hell -- and are met by Bael's testing forces.
	+ They fight some kind of crazed were-hell hound man, accompanied by four regular hell hounds. All of them breathing fierce gouts of fire, but the lycan's the most potent by far. They pick the hounds off one by one before Pyt lands a hold person spell on the lycanthrope and Ingvild's hammer finishes the job off in quick fashion.
	+ In the wake of that fierce fight, deep, croaking howls fill the hallways, and they're met by the kennel master, a chain devil, who has two howlers on the end of chains held tightly in one of his hands, his other working a whip-like chain. The combo of two howlers who react to the kennel master's whipping, whose bites are more savage when their targets are struck with fear, and the beasts together with the chain devil all being able to inflict fear, proves a devastating force. Ingvild and Zadimus hold the line as best they can, but things look dire for the group at this stage. Then, quite unexpectedly, the moment Ingvild slays one of the howlers, the kennel master yanks the chain of the other and calls its attack off. The chain devil bows his head, says, 'good fight!' and has his still living beast drag the dead one over to the side of the corridor. Then he just lets the group pass.
	+ Next they're met by an imp wearing thick plate armour with massive pauldrons. The imp has an incredibly deep voice, but seems friendly enough. He presents them with a simple infernal contract that Bael has penned: the group have suitably impressed the duke and he'll agree to let them through the fortress molested no more. In exchange, he wants to face them in combat himself. He's willing to let them rest up if that's what they need, and will face two of them alone; should they wish for more than two to fight, Bael will be accompanied by a barbed devil for each additional combatant. For them to win, they need defeat Bael. Do this and they'll be free to go on their way. For him to win, he must have settled it with all the combatants -- either killing them or having them yield. They can yield whenever they want, but they're out of the fight if they do so. If Bael wins the contest, all who sat out the fight and all who yielded during it will choose either death or to join Bael's company.
	+ Considering the circumstances, the conditions were very favourable to the party. As such, they agreed to the terms and the armoured imp walked them through the fortress, past many more guarding devils, and out into the open air of the Legion-side of the liminal fortress -- the atmosphere feeling far less oppressive and draining as the air in Minauros had been.
	+ Outside, the group are greeted by Bael, a straight-talking armoured, bipedal bull-like fiend. He shows them the circular area carved onto the training ground floor where they'll be fighting, then has them shown to some sleeping quarters nearby. He tells them they'll be fighting in 12 hours.
	+ The party are able to sleep without interruption.
* After a good rest, the group decide on their plan for the fight. Molly stands meekly at the ringside, surrounded by Bronze Bulls screaming and shouting in anticipation for a good fight to watch. The rest of them stand in the ring. Bael pushes his way through the crowd, nods to the party standing on the opposite side of the fighting circle, and calls three bearded devils out of the crowd to join him.
	+ Bael tells the group they can have as many rounds to prepare for the fight as they want, so long as they're aware that he'll take the same time to prepare. They opt for two rounds, with Pyt casting some *death wards* and inspiring a few people, while Wilfred put some buffs on himself, and Ingvild began her rage. In turn, Bael casts *crown of meteors* and readies an 8th-level *inflict wounds* spell.
	+ The fight begins in a blur of fury from Bael. He disappears in a gout of fire, teleporting next to Wilfred, then releases his held inflict wounds spell on the gnome for devastating damage. After that, the duke lays about him with his hellish morningstar, hitting two others nearby, before releasing one of the seven little comets screaming about his head to explode near a fourth member of the party further away.
	+ And that's pretty much how the fight continues. Bael is impossible to pin down, constantly teleporting about the arena and smashing different people with his morningstar. What wounds they do inflict on him periodically heal as well.
	+ Wilfred gets rid of the *crown of comets* with a well-cast *dispel magic* and so Bael moves on to augmenting his strikes with various *smite* spells instead.
	+ A few *counterspell* wars ensue, but with both Clwyd and Wilfred able to cast it, they typically end up the winners -- until Clwyd runs out of spells at least.
	+ Ingvild and Zadimus clean up the bearded devils, none of whom yield from the fight, choosing death instead!
	+ But even as all attention falls of Bael, he continues to spread out his attacks among the group rather than beginning to pick them off. And the longer the fight goes on, the more his grin grows and the more hunger they see in his eyes.
	+ Wilfred, Pyt, Clwyd, and even Zadimus are put down at various points through the fight -- though Bael never attacks them when they're down and a couple of them get up more than once, only to be put down again.
	+ At the last, nearly everyone is on the ground and bleeding out. Bael and Ingvild face off against each other. The infernal duke is roaring for her to 'come on and finish it,' smashing his meaty palm against his breastplate. When Bael attacks her, he opts for another casting of *inflict wounds* at 8th-level rather than the morningstar, which Ingvild has proven herself capable of taking well.
	+ Ingvild is on her last legs, but she rushes forth and swings her great hammer for Bael's head. And it was going to hit, going to finish him off. . . but then he casts *shield*, his grin truly mad with battle lust now. . . and then Wilfred, barely conscious, *counterspells* him. Ingvild's hammer hits home with a boom, but the Bulwark doesn't go flying from the blow. He stays stood right where he was for a long moment. The crowd is silent now. Then, finally, slowly, Bael falls to the ground. The crowd roars. The party had won.
* In the wake of the fighting, the crowd are going wild. Molly too is screaming her head off now. Wilfred uses life transference to heal the dying Zadimus, knocking himself unconscious in the process. Zadimus catches the gnome's body before he falls into the dirt, then Pyt heals Wilfred a little and they all share exhausted, exalted smiles. Meanwhile, Bael's wounds have already knitted closed. He gets back to his feet, dusts himself off a bit, and tells the group it's a real shame to not have them in his legion. Bael tells them to rest up again if they want to and then he'll see them off when they wake up.
* The party do just that, nursing their wounds, enjoying the relative safety of their private room in the barracks, and then, when the time came, sleeping soundly. In the morning Bael shows them to the wall of the fortress, inside which is an garage for infernal war machines. He points to a hulking, ugly mess of iron and spikes on wheels, with a massive wrecking ball attached to the back of it on a rig. 'It's called a demon grinder,' Bael says. 'An apology for the horses.' Then he leaves them be to get on their way.
	+ After many years entertaining herself in the weird and wonderful world of the Umbral Market, Molly picked up how to drive these infernal war machines from the various times the hobgoblin mechanics would take up residence.
	+ Molly jumps into the drivers seat, the others pile in, they place a soul coin in the slot connected to the engine furnace, and pull away. Clwyd's head is pointing them in the direction of the Plagueman they're to meet to rid themselves of the terrible diseases they agreed to develop for him in exchange for some potent magic items -- and a couple more they picked up in Minauros along the way.
	+ The party drive through the blasted lands of Legion for 6 days. Though this layer of the Hells was obviously fortified in the extreme, a lot of that was concentrated around the many banks of the Styx -- all of which are lined with fortresses, walls, and garrisons. So long as they steered clear of those sorts of areas and any obvious settlements, the group weren't met by anything that could seriously threaten the five fighters among them and the might of the demon grinder itself.
	+ Early after rising on the 9th day in Legion (including the two nights they slept in the liminal fortress), they arrive at the frontier town of Liar's Wait. The place has cropped up next to an Iron Bridge connecting Legion with Dis -- and they see the thing, an enormous archway hanging in a black void in the distance, with a black iron road emerging from the nothingness within, spanning the gap, and then running along the ground of Legion for a mile or so. Both sides of the iron roadway were lined with buildings and saloons, while a cosmopolitan mix of people, of the sort the party saw around Dis, all milled about and busied themselves.
	+ The party go to a saloon and find the Plagueman in one of the rooms upstairs. He greets them all amicably, chats for a bit, and then happily takes all the diseases they have on them -- doing so with a simple touch and a moment's concentration. In return, the Plagueman pulls out a locked chest from under the bed and presents the party with the items they requested for their services:
		- Wilfred takes one of the urns that he can grow a Clone inside, as well as a Scroll of Contingency and a charming, jewelled statuette in his likeness so that he can cast the spell. Finally, for the additional disease he'd picked up in Minauros, Wilfred takes 5 supreme healing potions.
		- Clwyd takes the Killing Word the Plagueman has in a little wooden box and a Scroll of Tether Essence.
		- Pyt takes a set of sovereign glue and universal solvent, with enough for two applications of each.
	+ When they asked him about routes up to the First Hell, the Plagueman says that he knows the Frozen Steps will emerge close to the Flaming Gate where they want to go.
* The group say their farewells to the Plagueman, most of them perhaps more relieved to be free of those horrible diseases even than they were happy to have gained some potent magical items. They all get in their demon grinder, Molly fires up the engine again, and they make for the Frozen Steps.
* A few hours after leaving Liar's Wait, they see clouds of dust being billowed up on the horizon behind them. Then they soon see that the Huntsman was at the head of it, the bounty hunter from Dis having got back on their trail already. He was sat atop a massive, chopper-style, infernal war machine motor bike, flanked by four animated suits of armour, each atop their own, smaller infernal bikes.