As soon as the party reaches the outskirts of Blackburgh, Ensilote speaks up. "I don't much care for the city," he says, "so I reckon I'll be heading back to Straflower Hedge. You folks should be fine, as long as you don't pick any fights with demonkind. Look for Orengofta's coloxus servants. Keep to the shadows... and don't trust no mages!" With that, the ranger flees back in to the hedge maze. The heroes decide to split up, in order to cover more ground. Lor and Nor head in one direction, while Elaryan and Malak head the opposite way. The two sorcerers have been wandering down alleys for almost an hour when the enounter a balor blocking their path. A towering figure of fire and flesh, the demon stands 14 feet tall. In one hand it holds a massive longsword; in the other, a flaming whip. PAY THE TOLL , booms the balor. Elaryan and Malak glance at each other, then both turn and run. They duck around a corner, the enormous demon hot on their heels, then both sorcerers cast invisibility . The balor doesn't seem to be able to detect Elaryan, but with his heightened senses he easily picks out Malak. The mighty, flaming whip strikes out, wrapping around the invisible hero. With a quick yank, the demon pulls Malak back through the alley. Then, with a single stroke of its vorpal blade, the balor decapitates him. Still invisible, Elaryan creeps through the shadows to his friend's body, and attempts to dimension door away with it. Something goes wrong with spell, however, and instead of being teleported a few hundred feet, Elaryan finds himself back in the Ivory Labyrinth. Nonetheless, he is happy to be out of the reach of the balor. After digging through Malak's pockets, he finds enough diamond dust to cast limited wish , raising his companion back to life. After a brief discussion, the two mythic heroes decide to use greater teleport to return to the alley, Thankfully, the balor is nowhere to be seen, so they continue their search of the cramped, maze-like town. This time, they are doubly careful to avoid any demons in the street. A few hours later, Elaryan is approached by a tiny, flying insect. The vermin tugs at his cloak, as though to pull him in a particular direction, but does not respond to the sorcerer's questions. With no better plan, Malak and Elaryan decide to follow the diminutive guide. It leads them through a series of alleys and winding passages. Suddenly, the narrow alleyways end in an open area not quite fifty feet across. The reason for the opening is apparent enough, for what would have been an empty lot is instead nearly consumed by a crumbling sinkhole. The sides drop away steeply into a tangled mound of rubble, filth, and bones some 30 feet below. The insect flies down into the sinkhole, so Malak and Elaryan follow. As they reach the bottom of the pit, the insect is joined by a swarm of its brethren. Millions of sickly green bugs rise from the rubble, forming a massive cloud of buzzing wings and gnashing teeth. The cloud assembles itself into the loose form of a giant insect, and speaks: Listen, meat things, and hear the voice of ages. If you be not fools, then leave this place. Do not return, for to wander into the Labyrinth is to die. Do not seek the prison. Do not approach the mountains. Worship the Horned Lord. Embrace the greater powers that surround you. For to do otherwise means only that your bones will join those of a million others. The mythic swarm speaks in Abyssal, a language that Malak does not understand. So it is left to Elaryan to negotiate. The swarm, which goes by the name Verbovezzor, is curious how the heroes managed to wound Baphomet. When Elaryan admits that the party had Nocticula's help, Verbovezzor seems amused. I might have guessed that the Lady in Shadow was involved , it buzzes. The swarm is unwilling to work directly against Baphomet, but it does offer to answer a few questions. It reveals that Baphomet uses a place known as the Ineluctable Prison to house those he captures, and that none who enter that edifice ever emerge. The Prison is located amidst the Breathless Mountains, and it is very well guarded. After several rounds of questions, Verbovezzor grows impatient and begins to eye the sorcerers hungrily. Taking the hint, the two heroes scramble out of the sinkhole and resume their search of the town. Eventually, Malak grows bored with slinking through alleyways, and begins to bang loudly on the doors that he passes. There is no answer at the first few doors, but finally he has a response. From within one of the squat, featureless buildings, a voice calls out, "Enter, if you dare." Malak dares. Throwing open the door, he strides into the dimly lit room beyond. This is a vrolikai lair; two of the black-skinned, bat-winged demons nest within. Each has four arms; a long, thin tail; and a leering, fanged face with dead, white eyes. As Malak meets the first vrolikai's lifeless stare, he feels his life force being drained away. Seconds later, both demons have produced daggers made of crystallized black flames. Malak stumbles into the lair, desperately trying to keep his gaze averted, as Elaryan once more goes mythically invisible. Malak fights bravely, but it outmatched. Between the two of them, the vrolikai wield a total of eight knives, and each slice with one of the wicked black blades further drains the sorcerer's life force. In less than a minute, Malak has fallen. The vrolikai pounce upon his lifeless corpse to feast. From the safety of the shadows, Elaryan summons a demon of his own. While the vrolikai are distracted by this new intruder, he grabs Malak's body and casts dimension door . Once again, he finds himself in the Ivory Labyrinth, and once gain, he uses limited wish to return his friend to life. Unfortunately, he can do nothing for Malak's lost life force. The two sorcerers heal as best they can, then teleport back to Blackburgh. Almost immediately, they spy a coloxus demon. Elaryan approaches, and explains in Abyssal that they are looking for Orengofta. The coloxus responds telepathically, in a way that both Malak and Elaryan can understand. He introduces himself as Xizek, and explains that he is indeed a servant of Orengofta. Xizek's master has him scouring the city for unusual visitors... so he is more than happy to bring the heroes back to the great and mighty nalfenshee. He leads the two adventures to a large door in a particularly dense part of Blackburg. Within this dense tangle of buildings is a smaller maze, one set off from Blackburg proper. In the center of this maze-within-a-maze is Orengofta's throne room. The ceiling of this white marble throne room rises sixty feet above, and is supported by numerous thick ivory pillars. Doors are set in the walls here and there, and at the far end rises a pair of balconies. One of these hosts two large statues of a goat-headed demon, while the other supports an immense ivory throne. Lounging upon the throne is a towering, corpulent beast with the hideous head of a boar and arms ending in fatty, four-fingered hands. Several coloxuses wait upon the the immense demon, who speaks gruffly around his tusks as the PCs arrive. “Ahh... so you are the Inheritor’s lapdogs. You seem a little out of place in this town. Normally, I wouldn’t bother with the likes of you, but the reason you’re here disturbs me. I do not condone any act that endangers Mother Abyss, and the abduction of a goddess’s favorite pet does just this. You are here to correct this situation, and I would see you do it, for the alternative is not something I wish to contemplate. I do not condone Baphomet’s actions, but neither do I wish to work directly against them. For me, the faster you finish this quest, the better. I take it the same would be true for you, yes?” Orengofta goes on to explain that, as a nalfenshee, he does not serve Baphomet. Instead, he sees himself as one of the keepers and tenders to this particular corner of the Abyss—- a groundskeeper, of sorts. When Baphomet abducted the Herald of Iomedae, he trod dangerously close to breaking several divine mandates, for the idea of angering a deity enough that she might launch a crusade against the Abyss is a scenario that Orengofta has long anticipated and feared. He wants the herald out of the Abyss, and has been keeping an eye out for Iomedae’s response. The mythic nalfeshnee’s plan is bold and daring— he proposes to send the PCs to the Ineluctable Prison as prisoners so they can invade the place from within. Malak and Elaryan are willing, but Malak points out can barely hold his sword up due to the fact that almost all of his life force was drained by the vrolikai. Orengofta has a solution in mind, but it will take a few hours to arrange. He sends one of his coloxuses out of the room, then invites the heroes to relax while they wait. He even arranges a feast of Abyssal larvae for Malak. A few hours later, the coloxus returns, leading a beautiful elven woman. Elryan recognizes her as Jerribeth, the servant of Baphomet who aided the party against Xanthir Vang at the Ivory Sanctum. The party failed to defeat the Worm that Walks at the Sanctum, and he became suspicious of Jerribeth's complicity in their attack on him. Although he could not prove her disobedience, he nonetheless banished her to a hundred lifetimes of service in this corner of the Abyss. Once a month, Jerribeth can grant a mortal a wish. As she did with Lor in the Ivory Sanctum, she offers to use this gift to return all of Malak's life energy to him. Malak agrees, and moments later he is whole again. Before they teleport to the Ineluctable Prison, Orengofta suggests that the heroes place all of their belonging somewhere for safekeeping. The sorcerers have a better idea-- they will both use polymorph to hide their gear, so that they appear as captive prisoners. The nalfenshee seems reluctant to adopt this strategy, but in the end relents. Malak and Elaryan transmute into nondescript humanoids, and join hands with the demon. An instant later, they are on the threshold of the Ineluctable Prison. As there eyes adjust to the light, the heroes are treated to a breathtaking sight. The prison is a massive sphere of countless bones, all fused as if made partially molten and then smashed together. Huge bonespurs lance out in all directions from the central sphere, which measures over 3,000 feet in width. The entire thing is held aloft over a churning caldera of black water by immense chains that connect the prison to the ring of the surrounding mountains. A single 20-foot-wide rope bridge connects one of the mountain ledges near the pit to the prison— this rickety bridge measures well over a mile in length. Cascades of black water churn from the surrounding mountains to plummet into the lake some two miles below. The companions stand on the side of the bridge closest to the prison. The ivory wall of the prison rises high above a large landing at the end of the bridge. Two pools of reflective water sit to either side of a pair of immense, red, twenty-foot-tall doors— the only apparent entrance into the strange structure. The doors are made of what looks almost like frozen blood. Tormented faces, seemingly carved into the surface, slowly shift and move, issuing soft groans and cries of pain. Bands of shimmering red metal frame the doors, crossing over in the middle to form an immense and ornate lock in the shape of Baphomet’s pentagram. An instant after the heroes appear, two half-fiend great cyclopes rise from the waters and step forth to bar entry. As planned, Orengofta explains that he has brought two prisoners. The cyclopes respond, finishing each other's sentences: "Very well, we will summon an escort." A moment later, a shaggy demodand appears, wielding a large ring of keys. The demodand takes one look at the heroes, and her eyes narrow. "Treachery!" she yells. Malak springs into action, charging forward to attack the demodand. With a single mighty blow, he mortally wounds her. Meanwhile, Elaryan takes the form of a huge brass dragon and attacks the cyclopes. Orengofta, for his part, teleports away. The cyclopes are powerful foes. They wield huge glaives with extraordinary reach, and work as a single unit, moving quickly to flank their enemy. Elaryan uses his breath weapon, wounding one of the titanic beasts, but he falls moments later to a series of punishing blows. Malak rushes in to aid him, but he is also overpowered. Seconds later, it is over. Both mythic heroes have fallen, and their plan to infiltrate the Ineluctable Prison takes a sinister turn, as their limp forms are dragged inside. Everyone who played gains 60,000 XP.