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| The original design of the Lair of Lord Inferno circa 2023 |
Introduction
Between sessions #52 and #53, the Talibandit leader Usama Loot Laden, having at last recognised the true identity of his captive, chose not to fight for her but to trade her away — a calculated move designed to ensure the heroes of Machodor could not recover her even if they bested him in open battle, which came to pass in session #54. The recipient of that trade was the Dragon Cult Leader, who had been seeking Echellet on behalf of his draconic patron all along. What followed was one of the most consequential solo patron actions in the Machodor half of the campaign, adjudicated over Discord, its full implications concealed from the player characters for dozens of sessions.
Downtime Report
Mounted on his red dragon Clarice, the Dragon Cult Leader descended into the volcanic depths in the north of the Bandit Mountains to honour his bargain with the dragon he knew as Lord Inferno, Vyrathax the Embercrowned, who believed Echellet's soul to carry the reincarnated essence of his slain mate, Vyrisara the Ashen Queen.
"I swear, if this is the wrong woman," he muttered under his breath.
The transit was notable: not merely flight into a caldera, but something felt as a translation in space, as though the lair occupied a location at some remove from the volcano itself. On his first visit, clutched in the mighty claw of Lord Inferno, he had been too preoccupied to notice such things.
The chamber they entered shared the architectural plan of the rest of the lair: outer wall and floor of cooled lava, inner wall of running lava, the whole structure curved as one section of a larger circular complex. At its centre was a great disembodied heart pulsing within a column of that mysterious living fire, flanked by a sleeping female dragon of enormous size, also wreathed in her own separate fire. Between them, on a crystal stand, lay a roughly heart-shaped lapis lazuli. Echellet was placed gently on a small bed near the gem; she lost consciousness immediately, and the sleeping dragon stirred — just slightly.
"THE PROCESS WILL TAKE TIME," Vyrathax boomed. "NOW FOR YOUR REWARD."
The Dragon Cult Leader was ushered through a curtain of living fire into a second chamber, somewhat smaller but built to the same plan. A great throne stood at its centre, and seated upon it was a figure over twenty feet tall — an Efreeti of immense power.
The dragon knelt and proclaimed, softly for him: "Za'rathul, I am proud to carry on your name in the miserable plane of existence known as Trollopulous."
The Dragon Cult Leader, skilled in the arts of illusion, recognised the deception almost at once: the enthroned figure was a very powerful illusion.
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| Za'rathul the Efreeti Prince |
The moment the Dragon Cult Leader donned the mask, flame surged from the brazier and a score of manlike figures took form before it. These were Firenewts, and they knelt at once, exclaiming in their own tongue:
"Hail Lord Inferno!" — the precise addressee of that greeting was a mystery. Vyrathax turned to the Dragon Cult Leader and declared, for all to hear:
"YOU ARE NOW KING OF THE FIRENEWTS, TO RULE IN MY NAME. WHEN I AM READY, I WILL CALL UPON YOU TO COMMAND THESE TO SALLY FORTH AND CONQUER THE SURFACE WORLD IN THE NAME OF LORD INFERNO!"
The Firenewts responded with enthusiasm, "Huzzah! Banzai! Long live the King!"
The Dragon Cult Leader, who had arrived to deliver a hostage, departed as crowned sovereign of Cthugarak, elevated in a single ceremony from cult leader to king.
With the ceremony concluded, the King of Cthugarak put his new subjects to immediate use. He questioned the Firenewts regarding their most recent contacts with the surface world: troublesome adventurers, ongoing relations with mountain towns, and the general strategic picture as seen from below. They had much to say.
The outer world was still foremost in the Dragon Cult Leader's thinking. To provide cover for Echellet's true fate and serve as a sustained distraction for his enemies, he devised a campaign of illusion. First, an image of the Countess fleeing into the mountains, placed where it would be witnessed and remarked upon. Then, on every full moon, illusions of Echellet glimpsed fleetingly in her most famous dress, drifting through the streets of various highland towns.
As chance would have it, that very week was already a full moon — an opportunity he did not let pass. The gambit was elegant in its cruelty: it kept the Countess technically alive and at large in the minds of those hunting for her, while the truth — her soul merging with the slumbering body of Vyrisara within an extra-planar lair — remained known to him alone.
Epilogue
This single downtime action seeded months of campaign complexity. The Dragon Cult Leader had won big and obtained a substantial boost in power; at the time I mused that he had secretly won the campaign. But what he did not know was that the full moon he was exploiting for illusions was the same window in which the real Echellet, in the one moment of clarity the draconic soul transfer permitted each month, was gradually attempting to make contact with outside help. A hidden thread of dramatic irony was set in place: false sightings of a woman whose true location only one patron knew, while that same woman was struggling to get word to the one paladin who might save her.
The Dragon Cult Leader's actions and elevation to King of the Firenewts would not become apparent to the player characters until he mobilised the Firenewts to attack Castle Irish — and even then, the details remained shrouded in secrecy. Until now.
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