Mere feet from the party’s destination, with many of the heroes temporarily disabled and Erevain and Alalla standing with weapons raised toward each other, Belhifet stands to oppose them all. With groans and bruises, some of them rise to their weary feet to face the fiend.
Ug is the first to reach the archdevil, barreling forward with no regard to his own safety or wellbeing. Furious strikes slam into Belhifet’s side and chest, each one leaving cracks in the skin that glow with hellish fire. Belhifet roars and bites down on Ug’s thick arm, injecting him with terrible poison (
damage in the details), then tosses the barbarian to one side.
Reothadh stomps forward next, not quite so tall as Belhifet but even thicker in girth. The enlarged dwarf’s frostbrand weapon chops forward, but Belhifet catches it just under the axeblade with one of his falchions.
"You all should have died!" The devil’s other weapon comes forward in a mighty pommel punch to Reothadh’s face (
damage in the details). Then Zenithral gets to his feet, and the arcane archer’s hail of arrows forces Belhifet back a step closer to the portal.
Erevain’s eyes remain fixed on Alalla’s. His lips tremble.
"For you, sharuhk." When she presses with an attack routine meant to disarm the elf, he instead lowers his broadsword and steps forward into her blade (
Al deals 23 dmg to Erevain). Breaths coming in ragged gasps, Erevain pulls back and drops to one knee, hand pressed against his bloody side.
"Get… him!"
When Alalla turns to Belhifet, the archdevil is pulsing with power as he resists a banishment spell from Vincent (
Had to use Legendary Resistance to pass).
"Fight you? Very well, paladin of nothing!" She fights with all her might, landing two solid blows. He takes the hits, and then the twin falchions hum in his hands as he launches a skilled and brutal counter-assault. With ferocious strength he smashes her blade aside and follows up with a mighty swing from his second weapon that is sure to cleave her in half – and with a desperate grunt Erevain throws himself forward with both hands raised and supporting his shield, blood flowing freely from his wounded side. The infernal falchion slams into Erevain’s shield (
reaction to impose disadvantage, like he do), throwing the elf back, and continues on to slice across Alalla’s hip (
damage in the details). A painful blow, but certainly not so terrible as it otherwise would have been.
Belhifet whirls on Erevain, visage twisted in hellish rage.
"Fool! Your soul is mine!" The archdevil’s ridged tail sweeps around to crash into the elf’s chest with the force of a battering ram, crumpling his armor and sending him to the ground next to Everard. Then, skin smoking with the residue of divine weaponry and surrounded by heroes who are not nearly dead enough for his liking, Belhifet roars and slams his falchions together, releasing a torrent of crimson lightning all about him (
damage in the details). And then Ug, pressing on beyond all reasonable endurance, boulders his way through the lightning and lays the fiend flat with a powerful sweep of his axe (
Belhifet knocked prone).
As Belhifet crashes to the ground in a tangle of wings and tail, he sees Erevain stretched out, the last flickers of healing magic tingling from his fingers (
Erevain heals Everard for 12). Before the elf, Everard stumbles into the black sludge of the abyssal portal. With a prayer to Tempus on his lips, the old priest staggers as far out into the cursed pool as he can. Strangely though, he doesn’t sink beneath its surface.
Instead, Everard begins to scream.
As the party watches, the priest’s skin melts from his bones. And then the bones, like putrid jelly, slop down to mix with the muck of the portal.
Belhifet chuckles hoarsely as air returns to his lungs. Rather than offer explanation, the archdevil raises the crystal shard – which immediately releases a burst of blinding light that steals the sight of those closest to him (
check the details for who failed). Then with a crackle of energy the fiend teleports to a point high in the sky.
The black sludge in the portal stirs. Differently this time. It rises, higher and higher, but with no apparent form. Dozens of orifices open in its mass, revealing orbs of red light that blink and swivel like malevolent eyes. For this is not merely the material of the portal, but the arrival of something far, far worse. For this is the Faceless Lord, the Demon Prince of Slimes and Oozes. Juiblex.
