Drow's Dilemma Ep. 102: Hell

Author's Note:

A Drow's Dilemma began as a one-on-one roleplaying project and has been converted into a chapter-by-chapter format for weekly posting with the permission and assistance from my partner. It will contain a considerable amount of sexual themes such as femdom, lesbian, straight, 'reverse' rape, BDSM, group sex, romance, and other themes. The main goal of the story, however, is to tell an epic tale of adventures, gods and goddesses, fae, and nymphomaniacs. This episode and every episode to come will be available for free on Literotica for the foreseeable future. All characters that engage in sexual or suggestive situations are mentally and sexually mature: the human equivalent of 18 for their race.

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Episode 102: Hell

When the party stepped through the portal they found in Hell and into the throat-like tunnel beyond, the scent of their environment evolved into an abomination of sulfur, rotting flesh, and the worst sort of morning breath. Selene almost lost control of the contents of her stomach even with the weak wards she put around her nose. Her garments shifted to give herself a decorative veil that doubled as a mask. It helped. Slightly. Althaia took a deep breath, a long exhale, and put an aura of anti-stench around herself It seemed to be some sort of fusion of a few paladin and druid techniques, but it did help with the smell. Caleldir had attempted his own magical antidote, but failing to do much due to his weak constitution when exposed to this sort of thing instead moved towards the nymph a bit more.

Once everyone was through, Dahlia took the lead again. "Low-level spells are fine out here, but once we get nearer the back we should avoid divine magic as much as possible," she informed them as she began walking down the throat-cavern. The succubus did not resume her jog. Rather, she walked slowly, cautiously. Time was no longer speeding along without them, after all.

"No more divine magic, then." Althaia sighed. Well, that negated most of her abilities. Fun. Notably, Althaia was distressed enough by her surroundings that she did not make any innuendo-laden jokes despite the ample opportunity given their surroundings.

The tunnel went straight down at a moderate incline for several hundred feet before it opened up into the main part of the realm. And it was no less unsettling than its entrance. The chamber was huge; it was just about as large as the cavern in the Underdark where Duskhaven was situated. Except instead of stone and fungus making up the walls, it appeared to be hundreds of mouths and stomachs and intestines from massive creatures stitched together with thousands of tons of fat and lard. The cavern floor was covered in rolling hills that looked more like twisted tongues that twitched and pulsated. Looming at the back of the chamber on top of the tallest fleshy hill was a fortress predictably made of bleached white bone spirals and spikes. Red blood-like ichor poured from places where the bone of the fortress pierced the flesh of the chamber, forming rivers that oozed throughout the space.

Caleldir blanched at the sight. Althaia gritted her teeth. "This place is unpleasant," Caleldir said wryly.

"Absolutely disgusting," Althaia complained. "You see, this is exactly why succubi are the only fiend that I refrain from smiting on sight. At least succubi have some sense of beauty. They try to make things lovely. All the other fiends just make them ugly. This is the worst sort of flesh obsession. Would you not agree, Dahlia?"

"This is the worst sort of flesh obsession," Dahlia repeated in agreement as she tried not to take in the scenery around her. She had seen quite enough of that this first time around. But her seduction had to be saved, so there she was despite her obvious desire to be anywhere else than there.

Althaia sighed and began stomping along. Her outfit was modest again. Maybe a bit overly so. "Lead to where I can smite something, please. I need to punish someone for this crime against the very concepts of beauty in the universe."

"There's nothing that's safe to smite, I'm afraid. The abomination guards seem to have a hivemind, and there are hundreds of them lumbering around here." Dahlia pointed to a fleshy hill where once such creature was emerging. It had to be over twelve feet of crudely stitched-together corpses that really had no right staying together as it did. Awful necromantic magic was clearly at work there. Cleavers were clutched in both - no, all three of its hands, which couldn't have been practical but... "They're quicker than they look," the succubus informed the party. "Caleldir, you especially shouldn't go anywhere near them. They have knockout gas that managed to overcome even my constitution."

A rather ashen Selene offered her opinion then. "We can take hundreds." Her expression was covered by the veil, but it still looked as if the stench wasn't doing good things to her stomach. "But I would prefer not to until Ashyr is safe in our possession. Then, by all means, we can raze this wretched place."

Althaia's shoulders drooped. "Drat it all," she fumed. "That creature would be just perfect to utterly destroy." Eyes flashing, she looked over the creature. "I could personally tear through hundreds of those things," she groused. "But I understand that our priority is to rescue Ashyr and your succubi. So I will refrain. But If any get in our way, well, Phanuel's esteemed father - who I assume is behind this all - can stand to have his army culled a bit, I think." She fell to silence and stomped on. Lightly, so as not to make too much noise.

Sidhriia nodded in agreement at those last words, her fists clenched and her expression a mixture of disgusted and determined. The last party member, Phanuel, had a very similar reaction to the idea. Except he looked a good deal more murderous.

"My father is most certainly here," Phanuel observed through gritted teeth. "I feel him. Though I wasn't aware of his obsession with flesh." He looked around himself with utter disgust and disdain.

Caleldir nodded. "After we have Ashyr and the succubi, I am all in favor of doing as much damage as possible. Just going wild. Retreat if anything we cannot take comes along. I assume that we cannot defeat a dark god in his own domain, so if he personally shows up we should return to Risa posthaste. If it is in fact possible to port out of here somehow." It probably was not.

"We should get going; we can talk - the abominations don't seem to hear that well - but we can't stand here for too much longer." Her eyes darted around the immediate area, then focused a little farther as her lips moved in thoughtful, silent words to herself. "We should slip past everything if we go this way... Stay close, everyone."

Though Dahlia said that talking was probably pretty safe, it was difficult for any of them to think of something to say that wasn't just complaining about their situation. Besides, if they didn't talk they might be able to hear if there was an unexpected abomination lumbering up to them. Dahlia seemed absolutely confident that she knew the rotation of the scouts, and Selene did point out that things of such meager intelligence probably wouldn't change their paths on their own.

... except it wasn't just up to the abominations. Their master was around somewhere, according to Phanuel. He could very easily reprogram his guards if he thought it would be necessary.

This was why, when they were a little over halfway to the bone citadel, the sort of thumping, squelching sound of the monstrous corpses could be heard far more closely than Dahlia expected. First, the sound assaulted their ears, and then the stench. Even with Selene's veil, the pregnant mage could not stomach the nigh unimaginable awfulness that was the aroma of abomination. She stumbled, retched, and would have fallen over as she lost the contents of her stomach to the side of the path, but Sidhriia - who wasn't looking well herself - caught her older sister and dragged her forward with the rest of the group.

With serious, angry expression, Phanuel grabbed both of the struggling drow and hurried them faster around the corner just as the offending abomination walked out on the path behind them. It seemed to have just missed the sight of them. Dahlia still looked worried, though. What if they saw Selene's vomit? What if it put them on higher alert? Maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her, but did the mood of the ones she saw in the distance shift? Were they walking faster?

All they could do, though, was keep going as quickly and wisely as possible, so the succubus led them forward. Only Caleldir knew how worried she was.

That had been far too close of a shave. Althaia sidled up to Selene, who looked like she was not done being sick. "I think I can risk this much magic," she said in a low voice. "I will cast this as a spell-like natural ability rather than a divine spell." With that, she buffed up Selene's constitution and cast something that dulled her sense of smell to almost nothing. "And add an air-filter," she finished up.

"As grateful as I am for your help, are you sure that was worth the risk? Masking or not, those were divine spells," Caleldir said uneasily even while Selene sighed with enormous relief.

"I was very careful," Althaia replied. "But the cost was worth the benefit. As I am sure Selene would agree."

"If it is worth the risk, then dull everyone else's nostrils and add filters," Caleldir replied.

Althaia hesitated. "I... only really have one of those," she said regretfully. "Let us keep hurrying."

And so, they did. Althaia fell to the back to keep Selene and Sidhriia from stumbling again while Caleldir kept up with Dahlia. They had not been attacked yet, and so things were going as well as could be expected.

Both drow were able to move a bit faster after that, which suited the succubus. Dahlia was nervous about the change in guard almost to the point of panic. She had been swallowed by one of those things. It had been the single most unpleasant thing she had experienced in her long life. And she lived in Hell.

"Glad I am not barefoot," Caleldir said with disgust as he walked around what looked like a pool of mucus.

No other abominations lumbered as close to them after that, though there were a few moments of hasty route change when Dahlia hear the squelching footsteps of one getting too close (though, really, being in the same realm with them was too close). Althaia remained silent, although she seemed to want to fight whenever they heard another abomination. Her hand would grip the pommel of her blade and her eyes dart around. They did not end up confronting one, though. It ended up taking them a little longer than it should have to traverse the fleshy expanse of the horrifying cavern. Dahlia took them around to the side of the bleached bone fortress, her eyes darting around the walls, searching for something.

"There," she said as she pointed to a small succubus-sized hole that had been pitted and damaged from the ichor-blood river that used to flow there but was blocked up and re-routed. "This is where I came in the first time. It probably hasn't been revealed." Her lips thinned with slight worry. A lot could have happened while they were gone. "We could also climb and get into one of the windows, which might have a slight chance of being less predictable, but we'd be awfully visible from the outside. Either way, I...suppose it's up to me to scout it out, eh? I most fit the description of 'thief' in this party."

"Well I'm not going in anywhere first," Selene said. "And the big guy" -she pointed to Phanuel- "Is not subtle enough. Riia certainly isn't going until we're absolutely sure that nothing horrible waits on the other side."

Dahlia looked over to Caleldir, waiting for his final decision.

Caleldir hesitated, then shrugged. "Probably it is best if you go first..."

"I will go first," Althaia said simply. "If there is nothing, there is nothing. If there is something horrible, I will kill it."

Caleldir shrugged. "That sounds good. Althaia, Dahlia, me, Selene, Sidhriia, then Phanuel."

Dahlia glanced over to Althaia with a dubious expression. Her kind was not noted for being particularly stealthy. Quite the opposite, in fact. The succubus didn't trust Althaia to not kill the first thing she saw walking down the hall when they heard the massive clatter of armor trying to fit through that smallish hole. Then again, Dahlia wasn't going to complain if someone else went first instead of her. Better the paladin encounter whatever was on the other side if there was any sort of risk. So the familiar stayed silent and allowed Althaia to do as she wished despite some reservations.

Despite Dahlia's worries, Althaia was a nymph in addition to being a paladin. Extraordinary stealthiness was a natural feature of her racial grace and subtlety. And her armor was not of the clanking type. She moved almost as noiselessly as the succubus. And was a bit tougher.

Luck was on the party's side, they soon found out. The hole seemed to have remained a secret; it didn't look as if anyone bigger than a single succubus-sized person had gone through there in quite some time. The whole party came through one by one (there was a moment when everyone thought Phanuel might not fit, but he managed it in the end after removing some of his armor) and found themselves in a hallway made of the same bleached bone that the outside of the citadel had been made of. The stench of the outside was mercifully lessened - at least in that part of the building.

"Alright," Dahlia said in a hushed tone. "The dungeons that I was put in are this way, and that's where I saw who I think was your Ashyr. I assume the rest of my seduction is there too, but I didn't see them," she said as she began walking as quickly and quietly as possible.

"Understood. Lead the way." Caleldir replied in the same tone. Althaia fell back behind Dahlia, but the group otherwise kept their formation.

At every corner, she had the party stop so that she could peer around it. They seemed to be in a good part of the rotation, though, for the skeleton guards that filled this part of the realm were always walking away from them.

The dungeon area was actually on that first floor, just in the center of the fortress. It seemed to be the only thing that wasn't made of some sort of flesh or bone. Instead, stone and metal enclosed whoever was trapped there. At its one entrance, though, were two of the stitched-together abominations. They were a bit smaller, more muscled, more agile-looking. But their stench was pretty much the same. Both stood like statues shoulder-to-shoulder in the arched entryway, filling the entire opening, and showing no signs of movement.

"I think that the time for stealth is over," Caleldir fussed. "So... we will have to take those two out."

Althaia's eyes blazed, glowing blue. She drew her sword. "Excellent. You all get the one on the left. I will destroy the one on the left. Or maybe I can get both of them!" Immediately, she wreathed her blade in holy flames and lept at the abomination. No more going by instinct, she now had the movements of a trained swordswoman.

None of the party wanted to argue with the female paladin. She wanted to kill things, and it looked as if killing those horrible things was the only option they had. There was a glimmer of regret telegraphed through the connection between Caleldir and Dahlia; she wished there could have been an alternate route inside the dungeons. But she hadn't found one when she was escaping. She had had to bolt through the abomination's legs and run like only a demon could away from the entire fortress that she had alerted, and only then had she gotten out by the proverbial skin of her teeth. She feared that, even with all these high-powered people around her, there was still going to be a 'skin of her teeth' situation after they initiated a full-out battle.

As soon as the two stitched-together guards saw Althaia, they both opened their mouths in an angry, garbled roar that filled the room with a concentrated version of the stench from outside. Their call was echoed by the grinding of bones and other similar cries and reverberated across the citadel. More were coming.

"Stay back," Phanuel ordered the non-paladins as Althaia was jumping into the first abomination. "Hide. We can take these beasts and draw away anything that comes after." He didn't have time to say anything more, however, or see if they were actually going to listen to him. He couldn't let Althaia dive into battle alone. So, with a look of righteous fury, he gripped his sword, turned the corner, and sliced a large, oozing gash across the leftmost abomination's forearm just as it was swinging at Althaia. The attack caused the creature to miss and to turn its attention to Phanuel.

The Paladins were able to take down the two guards well enough. It took far too much hacking into their bodies than anything had a right to withstand, and there were a couple of close calls where their horrible machete-like blades almost severed limbs. Between Althaia and Phanuel's minor healing abilities, however, they could keep each other in good fighting shape during the minute-long engagement. By that time, however, footsteps of many other things drew dangerously close. So close that several massive skeletons passed by the rest of the party, seeming to completely miss everything except the paladins.

Phanuel worked with Althaia in a restrained, business-like manner. No murderous glint in his eyes. But that was his way: outwardly calm and in-control (except for that brief stint of being possessed and driven insane by the lord of the realm they were currently in.) And he was an excellent swordmaster now that he was used to his body again. Much better than Althaia. Which was not to say that he killed his abomination any quicker than she killed hers. Her enthusiasm and comparative recklessness worked so that they dispatched their first adversaries at roughly the same time. As soon as they fell, however, the hulking skeleton-guards took their place. Then the battle was joined by an increasing number of combatants, but the paladin pair (and their summons) were handling it well enough for the moment.

Althaia was clearly glorying in the violence, her eyes burning brilliant red as her blade shone white. As the enemies started to pour in, she grinned madly. "So much for stealth!" she exulted. "Time to unleash!" And so, she did, starting to go all out on spells too.

With her first holy-infused lightning bolt, Caleldir started to stop her, warning that there was no need to make too big of a profile, but the nymph did not care. She was having a blast and had started summoning angels and elementals as back up.

"Pace yourself Althaia!" Phanuel's baritone, commanding voice ordered.

"Feh, I am pacing myself," Althaia replied. "I have plenty of energy to fight for the next few days." It helped that she was damn near untouchable when fighting these sorts of enemies, her paladin's grace combining with her nymphen grace to deflect just about everything the big enemies could throw at her. Hence, unlike Phanuel, she spared little if any thought for defense.

The aasimar's lips thinned. Even if she was able to keep her over-the-top attitude towards this battle for days, there was a good chance that they would have to fight something that they needed every ounce of their strength for. Restraint was a bit of a struggle for the nymph. Phanuel did not want to distract himself enough to argue with her, though. Instead, he continued on as before, only using just enough energy to fell his foes in a timely manner. He had to continually remind himself that it was a miracle Althaia had as much forbearance as she did, considering what she was.