Lake of Fire
RoomDCC DAYA2 · p.7
Open source p.7Area 1-6 – Lake of Fire
Rounded stone steps rise into a narrow fissure, scarcely 2 feet in width.
Through the fissure you can make out a black, oily lake. Intermittent flames flit across the surface, dancing up stalactites and spilling over the ceiling.
Something stirs in the lake. A slender, mailed hand emerges from the waters, holding aloft a soot-black sword wreathed in ebon flames.
If any PC reaches for the sword or kneels within the fissure, the armored hand gently taps the PC on both shoulders with the flaming blade. The PC is instantly wreathed in flames, and must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or be immolated. (Characters failing the save are instantly slain and cannot be recovered.)
On a successful save the character takes no damage and has been dubbed a Knight of Hell. A second mailed hand rises from the flames and proffers the sword to the PC. If the sword is refused, the hands and the blade slip back beneath the flaming waters, never to return.
The longsword cannot be broken, and grants an attack bonus equal to the PC’s level but no damage bonus. However, the wielder can elect to burn a point of Stamina, causing the blade to be wreathed in black flames: for a single round, character’s critical hit range with the sword is broadened by 3, and the blade deals an extra flame damage on a successful strike. Stamina spent this way can be regained at the rate of 1 point per day, or healed by a Duke of Hell (or a greater power), but never by a cleric.
If anyone other than the Knight of Hell attempts to take up the blade, the new wielder must attempt a Fort save (DC 15 + current knight’s class level) or be immolated. While multiple PCs can attempt (and possibly survive) the knighting ceremony, only one sword is ever gifted.
Knights of Hell receive regular commands from their infernal masters through the sword. Characters are left in freedom whether to take up the orders or not. Early in the campaign the commands are oblique, and it might not be immediately obvious just how a certain action results in advancing the devils’ plots. As the PC grows in power, the devils’ long game becomes terrifyingly clear.
Wicked PCs delighting in their role as diabolical agents are amply rewarded. Good-aligned PCs find themselves caught in a diabolical quandary: the cunning devils begin to invert their commands, so that possibly refusing an order works to further their goals – or does it? Worse, the devils make it apparent that if the PC surrenders or abandons the blade it will only be taken up by another, less willful soul. Once dubbed, it is difficult to escape the devils’ clutches.