Jinx in Hell, Part 1
An AD&D Campaign Report
Taking yet another break from
Ragamuffin, I thought I’d inflict upon
you all the goings-on of a single-player
AD&D campaign which I’m currently
running. As to be expected, the back-
story here is quite long and convoluted,
and only rarely and accidentally does it
actually make any sense. Suffice it to
say that this sucker has been running for
years. These days we hit it about once or
twice a month, dropping into PBeM
mode between the face-to-face sessions.
The main character is Jinx, the
daughter of Malarea1, and a mannish
hero of great renown who once traipsed
through the Hells, sword in hand,
butchering a great many devils and
generally causing terrible anarchy in his
wake. Jinx was born on a little-known
prime material world, secreted there by
her mother, where she quietly developed
her talents as a warrior and later as a
necromancer, only to save the primary
mannish kingdom from near-certain
destruction before she left. As of late,
she’s been plane-hopping, getting into
the sort of trouble her daddy used to get
into, although in a slightly more subtle
manner, often trying to work from
within societies and their laws rather
than completely outside them. This is a
bit odd, in a way, for though she views
herself as half-devil, she really isn’t, as
Malarea was never quite what she
seemed to be... something that Jinx has
only recently come to understand.
It’s really impossible for me to get into
her whole back-story without droning on
for several dozen pages, so without
further ado, we’ll simply pick up the
action with her recent entrance into
Nessus, the 9th Plane of Hell.
Upon crossing through the planar vortex
into Nessus, Jinx feels as though she’s at
the center of a clap of thunder, the
1 5
See Dragon #91, p23.
Jim Vassilakos (jimvassila@aol.com)
deafening noise echoing into the
distance, leaving her ears ringing. As she
looks around, she sees that she and her
Nightmare steed, Laertes, are at the
mouth of a mountain cave which is
ringed by an eerie blue luminescence.
That must be the portal back to Caina
from which she just emerged. Amidst a
crimson red skyline which is blanketed
with mists, several other mountains rise
upward from the cloud layer, some of
them spewing magma, others standing
dormant like black cinders rising from a
sea of white haze. Despite the ringing in
her ears, she can hear the flapping of
several sets of wings off to the right, just
beyond the cliff face. Whatever they are,
they seem to be getting closer.
“Welcoming committee,” Jinx directs
Laertes to take to the air, glancing over
her shoulder as they put in some
distance. There are about a dozen Pit
Fiends behind her now. She brings
Laertes about, pulling back her hood.
“Do you pursue me with the desire to
kill a princess,” she inquires in the
tongue of devils2, “or to escort
Octiverus’3 messenger to
Mephistopheles?”4
There is one who appears larger than
the others, and he bows slightly in mid-
air. “Our apologies... we were not
informed that Octiverus had a new
messenger. We will escort you to the
gate.”
He makes a signal with his claw, and
the others fan around Jinx in a protective
circle.
“Follow me,” he says, flying
downward to the mists below. The cloud
2
Also known as Mabrahoring. In my game
this also doubles as the lawful-evil tongue in
those instances where I’m playing with
alignment languages.
3
Octiverus was once the gold dragon sage
of Bahamut before he sacrificed his soul
during the Dragon Wars to the clutches of
devilkind in an episode of high adventure
which would probably make you groan out
loud if you ever had the misfortune of
hearing about it.
4 Let me if you liked this little
Asmodeus was slain during a chapter of
the DemonWars known as the Quest of
Achellios, leading to a series of events
where Mephisto finally attained the
crimson throne.
layer is thick and strewn with the dust of
volcanic ash. Below it, Jinx sees deep
canyons cutting across the landscape,
smoke billowing up here and there.
Several minutes later, they are over a
burning forest, the trees themselves
seemingly composed of a mixture of
wood and elemental fire. She can’t help
but wonder how their branches are able
to keep burning ceaselessly without
being consumed. Then, as she looks
closer, she can see that humanoid beings
appear to be impailed upon many of the
branches, forever burning as punishment
for past deeds.
Then there’s a range of mountains,
rising like black pillars up through the
clouds. On the way up, she can see that
they are dotted with caves, one in the
facade of the skull vomiting forth a
stream of lava which falls down through
the cloud layer and into the canyons
below. Oddly enough, from the lava
seems to emanate the noise of voices
screaming. She looks closer only to see
that there are bones amidst the lava,
scorched by its heat, and living skulls,
crying out in hideous pain as they fall,
burning, down through the clouds.
At this point, they circle around to the
other side of the mountain, and enter
through one of the caves, an ornate
opening made to look like the mouth of
a laughing devil. There are sentries there
in the eye-sockets, and as they land on
the tongue (effectively the welcome
mat), Jinx can see a huge set of double
doors composed of a strange black iron
and enscrawled with magical glyphs.
They open for the Pit Fiend leader
without him so much as uttering a word,
and Jinx is escorted into a large chamber
which is basically empty save for
doorways and torch sconces in which
are placed some of the everburning
branches of the forest below.
“This is the keep of my lord, Duke
Morax5. You will need his leave to gate
to the palace of the Overlord. How shall
I introduce you?”
installment, and perhaps I’ll scrape up
a few more. -Jim
See Dragon #76, p38.