The Goddess of the Underworld

Chapter 1: The Backstory

Years ago I heard about the deep rumblings of change within the underworld, even 'under the underworld' as it were. Always one for making poor decisions I set out see what might have changed since I last found myself slaughtering those denizens of evil in my earlier days.

I paid my fee to the greedy gatekeeper and the hallway to hell greeted me as it had long ago. I sat and had a lovely chat with the rather backwards firegod, and slowly explored those old chambers of demons trying to remark where any signs of change had stirred. Though I little remembered the structure of caverns from my youth, I could discern that the entirety of the chambers had expanded greatly, sprawling out from its center in all directions, however no matter how much I searched and dug in the brimstone rubble could I find the entrance to its lower depths as I knew had once existed. I met many demons and about a billion bats and every other hellspawn and degenerate soul seeking out the assured master of this realm, Satan, but I could find absolutely no sign of her inevitable lower house.

I set instincts to explore aside, and instead turned toward ridding the cavern of all such evils in a divine rage. Seeking what clues I could gather in the remains of the slain, I found a variety of odd things. Chiefly, keys. But alas, I could find no lock.

I set off back into the world of light, in search of another entrance, a backdoor perhaps, and querying some nefarious sorts began to suspect a connection of a more magical sort, through the rift of evil, and the onslaught of Sesuad'ra.

There I found, as expected, demons and imps that made the underworld of my youth seem tame and frivolous. After much despair traipsing about in the horrible seeping red mists expelled by every surface in that place I did eventually stumble into a bit of a rut, a steady path, and at its end... a hole. Climbing down, I found myself in a small chamber about the size of a single room, with only one exit. Peering inside, a giant demon sat brooding, and behind his frame I could just barely spy what I sought, a gate.

Chapter 2: The First Trial

At this point, being no fool, I returned once again to the land of the living to seek assistance in gaining entry to that guarded gate.

With a giant man fond of battle and armor, and a brutish crew of savage fighters, we returned and having prepared ourselves for the worst rushed the demon unawares. His response was immediate, but we quickly overcame him. In his pocket we found a key to the mysterious guarded gate, and opening it before us found the first of what would become many tribulations in this god forsaken land of mist and confusion.

Our best scouts and navigators set out into the unknown realm of fire beyond, with careful and expert navigation they eventually avoided all of the cunning backtracks and false trails to arrive at a place that boded well, in my opinion, for our goal of reaching every down, down, into the deepest depths - yet another hole in the ground.

Within this pit we found the locks we sought, gateways into the realms of named evils: of hate, and destruction, and fire, and the hellborne. Beyond lay more madness, and sprawling confusion of territory. Our motivations were challenged, and our spirits sullen, and we staggered long in that place before we found the secret of its navigation. The keys and the gates and the maze beyond are of course all of the same design, and the key was in fact more than it seemed at first. A clumsy accident lead the happy discover of the way forward, and yet just as our spirits had raised at our progression they were quickly quelled once more when we arrived at a stark dead end.

Paths were retrod and other gateways explored, and yet while we progressed along with the outworldly spirits guiding our way each ultimately ended at another blunt end to the cavern.

We found our method of navigation offered an unexpected and peculiar result in those places, and again we sat long in consideration of our next move. At long last, we forsake that which we had relied upon to that point, and in the doing found ourselves suddenly shifted into yet another cavern, long and dark, but surely 'forward' in the least, and so we pressed on.

Chapter 3: Satan, the Ruler of Hell

A sudden ambush overtook us in the narrow chamber, and caught somewhat unawares we rushed forward into the lucky happenstance of an unforeseen escape. Yet in the escape from the frying pan we indeed found the fire, and before us rose the grand lord of the dark, the harbinger of murder, anger, and jealously: Satan, ruler of Hell.

She spied us calmly, as if waiting for us to submit before her, the ego of evil, but of course having no intentions toward anything of the sort we instead hastily prepared ourselves and beset her in an onslaught of fist and sword, whip and ax.

Her hellstorm rained upon us, and the crafty devil resisted our weapons this way and that, and yet we maintained, and eventually overcame her wrath with little to remark upon.

...to be continued