Chapter One

A war in hell

After a day and a half of travel, the party arrived at the edge of a large grassy field. On either side of the field, set into the ground, were miles and miles of bone cages, each containing hundreds of suffering souls which powered the magic that kept the field beautiful. At the two far corners were two large locks, locking together the chains that kept the cages closed.

Intent on releasing the tortured souls, Seth skirted around the edge of the field towards one of the locks. Knowing that losing the upcoming battle would mean an eternity of suffering in hell, the rest of the party readied themselves for war, and stepped onto the field.

Immediately, in the centre of the field, Ygorl appeared, flanked by his brothers Darian and Orcus. In every free space, for as far as the eye could see, smaller red demons appeared, wielding a variety of weapons.

And so the battle was met.

Using the speed lent to them by Seth's Haste spell, the party fought bravely. Drionna swung Murgatroid, taking out demon after demon. Bevin killed Darian with a perfect swing of Frost, and was turned into a toad by Orcus in retaliation. Tarsel stood at the edge of the field and shot at Ygorl with his Arrows of Never Miss. Sarik turned into a living shadow and disappeared into the sea of demons.

Thormar went directly for Ygorl himself. Swinging with his two-handed sword, Thormar deftly disarmed Ygorl of his Sword of Entropy, which flew through the air to land among the throng of demons. Thormar followed it to it's landing place, dropping his own sword in order to wield the demon's evil weapon, and then turned and attacked Ygorl with his own sword.

Seth, at one of the corner locks, finally succeeded in picking it open. The chain was pulled through the locks, and a sea of white bodies surged out of the cages. Souls and demons fell upon each other, clawing and biting. Seth sped to the other lock and worked it open, setting the rest of the souls free.

Thormar fought Ygorl, slicing and stabbing the demon, until finally the Sword of Entropy influenced his thinking. Suddenly the fight seemed less important. His evil tendencies began to take over, and he decided the battle was unnecessary. He flew straight up, using his Boots of Flying, and took the Sword with him.

Wanting his weapon back, and realising that the battle was turning against the demons, Ygorl created a large disk fifty feet above the ground, and slashed at the retreating figure of Thormar. Seeing this as a personal challenge, Thormar turned and attacked. Below them, a sea of red and white pulsed as souls and demons killed one another and the war in hell continued.

Sarik reverted from shadow form to solid form, pulled a medallion from his pouch, and hurled it at Orcus. It fell at the feet of the demon, who picked it up, looked at it for a moment, and then put it on.

Bevin, still a toad, teleported to Drionna, hoping she could reverse the spell. She was unable, but Tarsel had the proper power, and Bevin was returned to her original Human-fox form. Tarsel, who had been mortally wounded by the demons, was then killed and resurrected by Drionna. Then Drionna blasted Orcus with her Fire Eyes.

Orcus, being less than pleased with having beams of fire launched at him, leapt up towards the disk on which Ygorl and Thormar battled. He leapt too low, however, and caught the edge, and was blasted with a beam of white light, the disk's protection. Seth teleported to Thormar, and ran for Orcus. He swung with his sword and severed first one hand, then the other. Unable to hold on, Orcus fell from the disk, and quickly disappeared in the sea of battling good and evil below.

The rest of the party quickly made their way to the disk and joined the battle with Ygorl. Thormar, having dropped the Sword of Entropy, was no longer ruled by his evil ways, and so fought side-by-side with his party once again. The Secret Heroes fought with swords and hammers, axes and spells, until finally Ygorl was forced off the edge of the disk and fell. As he fell, he was hit by a beam of white light from his own disk, and when he hit the ground, he was swarmed by the souls of the people he had tortured for so long.

Then everything went blindingly white.

When the party could see again, they were in a huge marketplace. Everything was clean. The creatures around them were all high-ranking adventurers. They could feel their bodies mending at a tremendous rate.

A gold creature appeared before them. He explained that he was an avatar of Waukeen, that they had succeeded in their quest to rescue her, and that there was a room waiting for them so they could rest. Feeling that this was a good place, and that they could trust this man of gold, the party followed him to an enormous room filled with the most comfortable beds and tables laden with food and drink. Bevin, Thormar and Drionna fell asleep almost immediately, while Seth and Tarsel wandered the marketplace for a while before returning to the room for some well-deserved rest.

They were awakened by the gold man and led to a gigantic arena filled with every type of creature. There, they met the goddess Waukeen. She formally thanked them for saving her life, and granted them all gifts and favours. She also explained that they were now known throughout the realms as The Secret Heroes, and if they wanted that to change, they need only speak their new name in unison before they left the Marketplace Eternal.

After meeting Waukeen, Tarsel left on a personal matter. Thormar, Seth, Bevin and Drionna found beings who were willing to teach them weapon skills, and for four months, they trained.

At the end of their training, they met back in the room and decided that what they needed was a good party. Thormar invited his six dwarven trainers, and together the ten of them partied for six days. Bevin drank the dwarven holy water, got sick, passed out, and when she came to, asked for more. Seth drank an enormous mug of holy water and stayed drunk for two days straight.

Finally, the party was teleported back to Faerun.

They appeared, chained at the ankles, in an underground room. Chained in a similar way were eleven first-ranking adventurers. The four heroes broke free, freed their fellow adventurers, and were immediately recognised. They grabbed the first orc they found and questioned him. They had been teleported to become part of an evil army led by two orcs named Kreenspark and Rale. Armed with this knowledge, the Secret Heroes led their new admirers through a small dungeon to find and dispatch their captors.

When Kreenspark and Rale were dealt with, the eleven first-ranking adventurers banded together and became the Loud Heroes, thanking Drionna, Thormar, Bevin and Seth for their help.

Thormar teleported to Silverymoon to speak with Lady Illustriel, Drionna returned to Cloudhigh to oversee the opening of her temple to Gorm, and Seth and Bevin returned to Whitehorn to retrieve a spike and some samples of a strange creature that they had fought before they entered the Infinite Staircase.

THE SAGA CONTINUES ON JUNE 15^th...