Written by Ben Groenen (Raushan)

The following month, after Monaco and Rafi had gone on their outing to see the unicorns, our Sire informed us of our next undertaking. Lillane told us that the Emissary from Arcadia, Charon the Ferryman, had asked for her help, again in exchange for some unspecified favor. It seems that there is a war for possession of the Lands of the Dead, so Lillane sends us on our way. But before we are led of to the Circle in the Cellar, Lucio gives me a weapon of last resort; it is a perfume bottle containing something that must be wafted at whomever to take effect. Without any further ado, bar thanks, we go to the Circle in the Cellar, and we are sent straight to Hell – one at a time.

The Lord Charon and a large, dead, Viking leader named Lars greet our party atop a high plateau. Below us is a battle that stretches along a big wall, further than we can see. Defending atop the wall are humans (well, as much as the dead can be human), and attacking them are masses of big black creatures that Lars tell us are orcs. The orcs are swarming up against the walls, and scaling them using ladders, and the defenders are swarming them as they get there. Siege engines can be seen spread throughout the ranks of the orcs.

Truly, I have never seen any sight more abhorrent to me than this senseless slaughter. After being led down, our party splits up according to our talents. Gwyn, Rafi and Wolfstead go to the wall (and then over it) to help in the fight against the orcs. Monaco focuses on trying to see if he can help with the defences. Meanwhile, I try and help heal the wounded. The only effective way is to use some of my own energy to do so, but they are healed … but then they go straight back to the wall. Oh the pointless waste! When I notice that those who are killed just disintegrate, including some who I have just healed, the frustration becomes too much for me and I join the fighting.

As I was going over the wall, even I noticed that on the hills beyond the Orc hordes there was a strange, cloaked, dark and brooding figure just standing still. I also was able to see paths of carnage moving towards an Orc general who appeared to be directing the minions here. I believe it was Wolfstead who got to him first and killed him, but whoever did the deed, the result was that the attack soon slowed its flow before ebbing away, faster and faster. In the tumult that arose when the Orc general died, the strange distant figure had disappeared.

After having beaten off one of the attacks from hell, we have to decide what we can do to help. Monaco and I are for rebuilding the walls better than they were, but the rest of the party is for a foray into hell. I guess that the fact that wall is endless does seem to weigh in favour of the foray. Oh, well.

In the many discussions we have had with Lars and others on the walls, we have heard that a great black Wyrm has attacked in the past. For whatever reason (personally, I believe it’s some knightly character flaw) Gwyn is keen to find out about this Wyrm. So she changes into owl-form to scout out beyond the wall. After her return, we found out that she had flown for a while over broken country until she saw a black crystal city. However, before she could approach any further, the Wyrm had seen her and began to chase her. The first we knew of all this was when the Wyrm chased her back to the wall.

While most of us could only stand and watch, Rafi began firing his arrows and Wolfstead threw spears at the Dragon. Unfortunately, it is breathing flames that seem so much more effective than small pieces of wood. But to my grateful surprise, Rafi manages to hit it in the eye while Wolfstead hits it in the wing. The Wyrm plummets to the ground on our side of the wall, where Gwyn has already landed and is garbing herself in her armour. With this prodigious fiend still belligerent, I knew I had to use my Life-Sense on it to “disassemble” its heart. The anguish that was causing me was that something that I would have to live with. I could feel it as I … broke its heart, and I felt great relief, as it had been a construct of dead flesh.

As we were standing over our vanquished Dragon, Gwyn points out that can see another me sitting on a barrel away a bit. As I stare in astonishment, the others begin to notice that each of us has a duplicate. In our stunned state, we hold a strange discussion and decide that these must be ghosts who can’t pass on to hell or heaven until whatever problem is resolved. I guess being a vampire means we’re not really fully dead, which could be considered an unresolved problem. Although I don’t find this discomforting (it’s more interesting and possibly worth investigating), the others are very discomforted and move us all away.

Before we go on our foray into hell, we must decide on a path to take. We climb back up the plateau and discuss what Gwyn saw on her scouting mission. After planning a route towards where Gwyn saw the crystalline city, we descend and cross the wall into hell. We walk on until we encounter a gorge that stretches across our path as far as we can see (and probably further to forever). Crossing this gorge is a bridge, and waiting on the far side of the bridge is the Hell-dog Cerberus. Not wanting to face him just yet, we decide to further investigate the area.

Unfortunately this investigation finds another bridge, but Cerberus is also there. This causes quite some consternation between us, but while we are discussing what to do, we notice a woman who is crossing the bridge gives Cerberus a honey-cake and she is allowed to pass. So Gwyn walks onto the bridge while dragging her harp out of her pack. She tries to play her harp to soothe it, but I am greatly surprised when her cacophony seems to still soothe the beast. We all cross the bridge as a group and continue on.

As we progress away from the bridge, we encounter a boy who is crying for help. (He’s the most innocent thing (barring a baby) that we could possibly find, so he’s bound to be the most un-innocent thing in hell!) Gwyn wants to help him, but we call her crazy, as he is already damned and he can’t be saved.

We continue on to a mesa and see the obsidian city in the distance. As we were approaching the mesa we had been making plans to enter the Wyrm’s lair, but when we reach it we find another red Wyvern there and before the city is a countless and vast Orc army being drilled by some commander, a Field Marshal maybe. To attack the walls of Limbo, they will have to pass below this mesa. So our goal is changed to ambushing the Field Marshal who is drilling the army when he comes by this mesa. But while we are making our plans, a big Orc is climbing past the plateau dragging the boy who had asked for our help before. The boy knows of us, so he must be rescued because the alternate choice is unthinkable.

Gwyn and then Wolfstead charges down to attack, yelling her challenge. When the Orc turns to look around, Rafi hits it with 3 arrows but only does enough to attract its notice. Gwyn and Wolfstead are fighting it as I follow and take the boy from the area of danger. The Orc is soon killed and now I have a boy trailing behind me, holding onto my cloak. Well, what do we do now? So the argument continues. While we’re arguing, a roar comes from a not-so-distant cavern and the red Wyvern flies into the air. As we are not that far away, we all stand still in an attempt not to attract its attention. This attempt works, and it flies off to the city.

The Field Marshal may have ordered them to march, but the Orcs are now ambling towards us, so we climb back up the mesa. As the army marches around both sides of the mesa, the Field Marshal quite deliberately halts at the base of the mesa to talk to some of his generals. When the army has passed, the generals leave their Field Marshal, who they have named as Nebiros, and travel after the army. As the dust settles, Nebiros is still down there, waiting for something. Whatever wondering we were doing is soon answered when he calmly asks whether we’re going to come down to him, or whether he’s going to have to come to us.

While the rest of us are still stunned, Rafi shouts a reply that he’s going to have come to us. At that point, I am stunned that Rafi answered. Nebiros, however, does some mental Dominate thing on us so that Gwyn and I are convinced to walk down to him and talk about this. Rafi shoots at him, but he too is then dominated to come down. But he is compelled to obey, but he has some say in how. Rafi draws his sword and jumps down on Nebiros. He manages to strike twice with Celerity before he is dominated to be still. Monaco rolls some medium size rocks down on Nebiros while Wolfstead Obfuscates himself to get near Nebiros before he attacks him. They exchange a number of blows before Nebiros obviously decides enough is enough.

Nebiros retreats a little and casts a ball of fire around himself. Wolfstead and Rafi go down badly charred, while Gwyn and I are only slightly burnt. Owain and Monaco are now going to attack, when Nebiros makes Gwyn and I frenzy. Although I tried really hard to restrain myself, I felt something slip within me from the strain and I couldn’t help but go into frenzy. Nebiros must have intended that we destroy our own friends, but I used my willpower to direct my attack at Nebiros. I jump on Nebiros with a clawed strike and kill him, just as Gwyn has attacked me from behind.

A flameless explosion from the now-dead Nebiros envelops us all, which thankfully doesn’t hurt us any further and we’re all in control of ourselves again. I found out later from Gwyn that she had been using her willpower to not attack Owain. After I heal Wolfstead and Rafi enough so they can move, we start to stagger back to one of the bridges.

But before we can leave, I find that I cannot leave the boy behind. I must save this boy. Saving him from this hellhole, and it would give meaning to all this death around us. I would save him through hell or high water. At the bridge, Monaco sooths the savage brute and succeeds where Gwyn fails to play. We go the walls and try to pass through but the boy, who is named Seth, is crying that he can’t, so I pick him up and carry him through. Seth who had been holding onto my cloak some of the time, now never lets go of it.

We return to the Circle on the plateau, and I say that I must go first with Seth. The rest let me, and Seth and I appear in Sadaba, followed by the rest of the party, but the castle is strangely empty when we look around. We return to the Circle and try to call Charon, but he fails to appear. Monaco blames Seth, and me but I don’t feel upset, as I have saved the boy from hell.

I take Seth out to the yard, while Gwyn stays at the Circle and thinks of going to Lillane. She said to us afterwards that she saw the others fade out and she was alone, but she could now sense a very, very angry Lillane somewhere beyond the door. When she tried to go through it, she was almost run through by Rollon and Tomas and the guards and Rafi’s troop and then Lucio and Lillane (a lot of people in a very small area). Gwyn pushed through and knelt before Lillane and confessed all. To the rest of the party, Gwyn had just vanished.

Shortly afterwards, Owain tried the same thing and also vanished. Then Monaco also does the same. Of course, Lillane had instructed that no one was going back through the Circle. Her description was that we had been diverted to the false Sadaba as a defence for the Circle when something very dangerous is trying to pass through it – Seth!

On our end, I decide that since I can’t take Seth to the real world I will cut the middle out and take him to be redeemed. I may not know much but the opposite of hell is heaven, so I begin to prepare things to attempt to summon the Archangel Mikhail.

Part of me knows that Lillane shielded us when Mikhail was last summoned, and his True Faith is likely to sear me to death, but the obsession drives me on.

I step in the vampire ring of the Circle with Seth clinging tightly to my side. Since I had raised up my idea of summoning Mikhail, Rafi and Wolfstead began discussing how to disable me, but they delayed too long for I succeed in summoning Mikhail.

At that same instant a soundless clap, a thunderless explosion, a blinding force, a noise gone before it was heard. Rafi and Wolfstead were hurled very painfully against the walls, while I am still standing, but blinded and feeling strangely joyful. Seth is gone.

But there is now something new in the Circle, a huge bottomless crack stretches across the Circle halfway between the Archangels ring and the Queen of Shadows ring. We can also sense a very angry Lillane. Rafi, Wolfstead and I reel through the doorway to Lucio, who takes me aside and advises me to stay clear of Lillane for a while.

The Circle is now ruined and must be repaired by the one who made it. Lucio tells us that it was Merlyn who made the Circle. And when I ask who Seth was, he replies a little charily that it was Sama’el. Other names he might be known as are Shaitan, Iblis, or even grandfather! Apparently Seth had stepped in, gotten Charon to ask Lillane to send us to kill his Field Marshal, Nebiros, who had been Adramalech (the president of the high council of demons). We eliminate Nebiros for him and give him some viewing pleasure.

But in my derangement, I give him a little more than he bargained for and forced a very painful meeting with the Archangel Mikhail that also destroyed our Circle for a while. Our next task will be to find the items that Merlyn will need to repair the Circle. And then we will have to find Merlyn, but Owain thinks that he might be in Spain as there have been some strange events, which sound like things Merlyn would do.