Bloodaxe Chronicles

[Malak]

It was hot, too hot, even for one of his kind. The sulphuric gases in the air burned his eyes, yet he could not shut them nor move any other part of his body. This was the Abyss, an unforgiving place that was also that last place Malak wanted to be. His captor had cast powerful magic on him, magic that was not meant to harm him physically, but rather to make him watch the horror before him whether he wanted to or not. His captor, which was perhaps the largest tanar’ri he had ever seen laughed manically as he continued to whip the man before him with a vicious cat of nine tails. This man’s long beard gave Malak the impression that he had been a prisoner of this demon for a very long time, that and the fact that the man had very little skin left on his body. Few things seemed to give more pleasure to the tanar’ri than listening to the man scream as more and more of his flesh was ripped off by the awful weapon. Near the two of them was a succubus who was also screaming, not from being tortured but from being in the middle of childbirth. At any point when the succubus’ screams became louder than the humans, the tanar’ris repeated lashings of the haggard man would become more severe.

After several hours of watching the man being tortured, he finally lost consciousness from blood loss. The tanar’ri frowned, then motioned for some of his henchmen to come and heal the human for more “fun” later. Quickly yet carefully the smaller demons worked to keep the man alive and get him back in good health; they knew that if the human died it would be them being beaten by that cat of nine tails the next day. The tanar’ris look of disappointment soon become one of rage once he noticed that succubus’ screams had finally stopped and been replaced by the screams of her child finally being born in the Abyss. The new mother had only a few seconds to hold her baby in her arms before the tanar’ri quickly grabbed it away with one of his giant paws. He then extended his arm out all the way and he turned his body to face Malak. The screaming child was just a few inches away from Malak’s face when the tanar’ri began to speak.

“Do you see this, this abomination!?” the tanar’ri roared. “The mere existence of you half-breeds sickens me more than anything in the multiverse. Nothing will stop me until I see it, you, and all of it’s kind annihilated!” With those words the tanar’ri quickly brought his arm back and bit the body of the child in half, then tossed the remains of the newborn away. Malak tried to look away, to scream, to flee from this awful place, but he could do nothing except watch as the tanar’ri grinned with the blood of the child running out of his mouth. The succubus wept at the loss of another one of her children, yet she only sat there sobbing; she knew attacking her master would only lead her to the same fate as her latest child. The only thing that comforted her was the memory of that day 19 years ago when she escaped and brought her son somewhere safe.

Things got worse for Malak when the tanar’ri roared again and struck Malak hard in the ribs with a mace. The huge demon prepared to strike again as he said even more words, yet this time in a peculiar feminine accent…..
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“Wake up ya addle-cove! We ain’t gonna be makin’ any jinx tonight with ya just lyin’ around all day!” Reyna yelled as she kicked Malak in the ribs a second time. The latest attack had completely awakened Malak, and within seconds he was on his feet with his dagger drawn to put his newest attacker away. Reyna responded by drawing her own dagger, and she was just as ready to defend herself from her “lazy” friend. The two locked stares for a few moments until Reyna spoke again. “Are ya completely out of yer brain-box, berk? I’ll have ya delivered to the dustmen’s doorsteps quicker than ya blink if ya don’t put yer chiv away.”

Malak finally realized who his attacker was. This wasn’t the giant tanar’ri from his dream, just his dear friend Reyna. Reyna was the daughter of a Planewalker, a powerful mortal that traveled through the doors of Sigil to planes of wealth and danger. He always came back stronger than when he left, and with treasure the merchants in the Merchant’s Ward always wanted to pay good money for. Yet of all the treasures found by the Planewalker, he held none more dear than his daughter. They lived in comfortably in a mansion in The Lady’s Ward, a fact that Reyna likes to remind her companions of constantly. One day 6 years earlier however her father went into a door to get treasure from one of the lower planes, and never came back. It wasn’t long before Reyna’s servants quit coming to the mansion, and soon after Reyna found her home occupied by new residents and herself living out on the streets. It was then that she met Malak, and while they came from such different backgrounds, they found a friendship that still remains strong to this day.

Malak shook his head and smiled as he put his weapon away. Reyna laughed as she did the same. “I knew ya wasn’t as barmy as that. A body like ye knew ya didn’t have a powers chance in the Cage crossing blades with me,” Reyna taunted, although she knew while she was quicker than her friend, if her dagger failed to strike first, it would be her at the dustmen’s doorstep. Malak then heard another voice from behind. “Pike it you two. No one is playin’ basher tonight with me around. Ya both know there’s jinx to be made and it’s already an hour past anti-peak.” Malak turned to see another female Tiefling behind him.

Rafa had only been with Malak and Reyna for a few years now. While she was average looking by most Sigilian standards, to Malak there wasn’t a being in multiverse more beautiful. Rafa’s parents are both merchants who work in the Merchant’s Ward, yet neither are very successful at their business. Rafa spent her life sharing a tiny home in the Hive with another family until recently when she was old and smart enough to work as a light boy. Now the three are inseparable, and they all work together escorting visitors of Sigil to their destination, providing light and protection through the smog filled streets of their city.

Malak nodded and asked “Rafa, ya still got that tickler’s stick?” Of course she did. Of the three Rafa was the most responsible and the voice of reason in the group. Before they had worked using regular torches until a few years ago when a Prime mage was so grateful for their help in getting them to their destination that he had cast a continual flame spell on Rafa’s torch. Now instead of working until their torches finally burned out halfway in the night, they could bring residents and visitors of Sigil to wherever they wanted to go until the peak began again.

The three made a final check of their gear, then left to head to the Merchant’s Ward to find their first customer of the night.
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The three hadn’t been in the Merchant’s Ward for more than five minutes when they spotted a nervous looking Githyanki waving for their services. “Ewww, you mean we’re gonna be workin’ for an egg-layer tonight?” Reyna objected.
“C’mon princess, we aren’t going to be getting some bub during the peak if we don’t help this gith out. Jinx doesn’t just grow on the vines ya know?” replied Malak. Reyna turned her nose and walked straight to the gith while Rafa and Malak chuckled in the background.

“Youz, youz take mez to home in Clerk’s Ward, yes?” asked the gith.

“Clerk’s Ward? We’ll have to bob up the jinx to go there. Those hardheads there give us the shakes,” replied Rafa.

“Youz triez to overcharge the Githyanki!?” howled the Gith.

“Look sod, we like walking into that place about as much as we wanna go to Carceri. I think you can understand our situation and afford another 10 jinx, yes?” spoke Malak. The gith sighed then finally agreed, and so the four began making their way to this home in the Clerk’s Ward.

The trip was rather uneventful until they first stepped into the Clerk’s Ward. Reyna had noticed a fairly large sized emerald in the gith’s pouch, and quickly made it her own. While Rafa walked in the front with her torch held up, Reyna leaned over to Malak to show him her latest find. “Shiny isn’t it?” whispered Reyna, though a moment later she realized she hadn’t whispered quietly enough. “Youz take from the Githyanki!? Die!!!” scream the gith, and a longsword magically appeared in his hand out of nowhere. In little time his sword came crashing down Reyna’s way, but the nimble Tiefling managed to tumble out of its way. Malak jumped back and used his innate power to shroud the gith in a magical darkness, and as soon as it was cast Rafa was able to draw her blade and stick it deeply into the angered gith’s hip. The gith howled in pain while the three did the only logical thing they could against such an opponent…run like hell.

“Now ye’ve gone and done it Reyna!” scowled Rafa as the three made their way through the streets of the Merchant’s Ward. “Of all of the places to take something, ya had ta go and do it here!?”

Reyna knew she had definitely gone too far this time, but still refused to admit it. “But it’s so shiny!” was all she could reply with.

The gith was on their tail, accompanied now by a member of the Harmonium Patrol. Malak pointed to a small alleyway where he thought they would be safe at. He gave a signal for Rafa to use her powers and shroud that entrance in darkness as well so that their chasers wouldn’t know if they went into the alleyway or continued down the main road. They continued down until they came to a dead end with only two doors, and these weren’t the kind of doors that they wanted to go into.

“Great, stuck between two planes and a really angry Githyanki. What now Malak?” asked Reyna, obviously very scared now.

Malak and Rafa just looked at each other. Malak opened one door and Rafa opened the other, but the two just stood there for a moment.

“Malak!!!” screamed Reyna, more afraid than ever. The gith was getting really close now.

“Let’s take Rafa’s door. Reyna, use your darkness, hopefully he won’t follow us because he won’t know which way we went, “ said Malak.

Rafa shook her head “I wouldn’t follow us into either, but ok.” The gith could only watch as everything turned black. When it was over he saw two opened planar pathways and no Tieflings. The gith just howled then made his way out of the alleyway. Rafa had been correct.
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The three watched in amazement as the astral conduit sucked them up. The swirling mists and strange colors of the Astral Plane were unlike anything they had ever seen. Part of them wanted to just stay there and take in the awe of the place. Unfortunately the conduit was eventually going to take them to another plane of existence where they would ultimately meet their fate. Just the thought of being anywhere but back on the streets of Sigil had the three young Tieflings very afraid. Then all of the sudden their momentum increased greatly as the colors around changed from bright purple and blue into darkness. A moment later all that was heard was a resounding *thud* followed by the sounds of the three spitting sand out of their mouths. They looked at each other then all at once looked up to see a bright object in a dark alien sky. They knew that it was nighttime in a desert, but that wasn’t the worst part. Reyna realized it first…

“You addle-cove, we’re in the bloody Prime!” yelled Reyna.

“You’d rather be in the dead-book back in the Cage?” Malak retorted.

“Shut your bone boxes, both of you!” screamed Rafa. “We’re gonna be here for a while now, so let’s just deal with it.”

The three knew this wasn’t good. They had met Primes back in Sigil who needed their services, and they knew that their kind wouldn’t be welcomed here with their…features. Even worse they knew that the sun would come out soon. The heat wouldn’t be a problem for them, not with their ancestry, but they would need water and shelter from the weather, two things that were not readily available where they had just “landed”.

“Alright, let’s doughty up so we can at least try and look like the Clueless we’ll encounter here. Then we should head out and look for some kind of shelter. Maybe we’ll find an anthill if we head that way,” said Rafa, who had always been the voice of reason in the group. The other two nodded and began cutting up their clothing with their daggers to cover up some of their features.

“Rafa, Reyna, leave the gem and the tickler’s stick here. If we’re ta get back to the Cage, we’ll have to do it from here, so we’ll have to be able to find this place again. They’re shiny enough for us to be able to spot later,” said Malak.

“But it’s so shiny, I wanna keep it,” Reyna rebutted.

“That is the whole reason we’re in this mess. I don’t want it near me,” scolded Malak. Reyna let out a long pout then agreed.

The three left shortly before dawn, awaiting the adventures that would find them in this new world…