Welcome to Gaia! ::

The shardmind lets out the equivalent of a telepathic sigh and responds wearily, "Caution indeed. So be it though, I am ready when you are."

Handling her basket back to Irene. "Everyone gets angry when they are hungry, and the reverse is true too. Ghouls aren't special in that regard, Irene." Ruin would smile, that would quickly fade to concern. "Are you saying that is why you attacked her? You seemed alright when we left. If we had known we could've done something for you. I should prepare for the fight, but Will you be alright, now?"

After allowing, her to answer. He would walk over to Kouri's sister. "Being everyone is only here to do as you wish, can you tell Pierette to listen so I can ask her to forgive my earlier actions. I tend to forget that Aria's government is an onion leek cob salad within a tuna on the best of days. And I don't have to work for them... I saw her naive nature as another problem and wanted her to know the good and bad. I am sorry..." He would state to Pierette, but looking at Maukeen.

"Whelp..." Ruin would shrug, and drew his rod. "I apologized, now I can die for your tribe."

Turning to everyone else. "Probably a no duh factor. But... The portal will stay in place as long as the chalk lines are undisturbed, or the pocket becomes nothing. If you care for Maukeen, or the Crystal guy, they need to be protected."

With that said, the short tiefling would let out a sigh "Time to meet the devil. On his home turf" He added before walking into the portal.

"I don't like the idea of working with any Arian's..." Sighed Valac as he hefted his sword onto his shoulder, "...But, the time is now and we are here..."

Then winking at anyone who was looking he would say, "Let's do something heroic."

Maukeen would turn to her companions, “Lionel, Brodus, Pierette, guard the portal while we take care of the Archdevil. If anything happens to these lines, we all could be trapped inside forever. Mr. Ashtuku, your part of the contract is fulfilled, but, if you indeed wish to assist us, I will not turn you down.” Lionel, Brodus and Pierette all nod at Maukeen and take defensive positions while the Goliath strides through the portal into the pocket dimension beyond.

((I am assuming Ash walks through with everyone else.))

As the party walks through the portal they find themselves standing upon an enormous stone pedestal suspended in darkness dotted by bright points of light, similar to a night sky. Upon closer inspection they see each point of light is actually a glowing Goliath tethered by a thin, almost invisible line of light leading towards a giant thrown in the middle of the stone pedestal. One of the points of lights is larger then the others, an alien creature over ten feet tall, both demonic and celestial in appearance at the same time. The female creature boasts to sets of giant feathery wings and alabaster skin, yet two enormous horns also sprout from her head as well as a spiky tail from her back. Her mouth is filled with wide flat serrated teeth like a shark.

Sitting on the thrown is a pit fiend of enormous proportions. He seems to immediately take notice of the group as it enters his realm. Something that could be akin to a smile appears on his fiendish face as he gazes on the party with greedy little eyes, but otherwise he takes no other action.

After studying the points of light, Ruin is fairly certain they represent the souls of the goliaths trapped in limbo back in the material plane. They seem to be stuck in the same state of limbo in this realm as well. After studying the magical tethers Ruin feels that they could be disrupted with a magical attack, perhaps freeing the individual tethered, but he is not sure exactly what would happen or which plane they would return to.

As Ruin studies the fiendish celestial creature, he realizes she seems strangely familiar to him, her wild mane of jet black hair, the defiant glint in her purple eyes, he had seen them all before, but in a much more diminutive form. Ruin is certain he has found his employee, but in a form he has never seen before. Why Vivi looked like this now in this realm he cant be sure but one thing he does notice is she is no longer covered by the myriad of purple tattoos that he would occasionally glimpse on her from under her dirty cowl.

"Let's start with his." Novi says, leveling their weapon at the Pit Fiend.

Kuori on the other hand took a moment to study the area, not eager to fight a Pit Fiend if it could be avoided. And certainly interested in why Vivi was here.


13+9+2= 24 "What does Kuori know about Pit Fiends?"
18+9= 28 "Any idea what happens to loose souls?
15+10= 25 Anything else of interest?

Kuori take in in her soundings and learns roughly the same information Ruin does, though the reason why he is unsure of where the souls will end up is because the magic from the half-finished ritual is unstable. Kuori predicts if they break the magic link there is a 50/50 chance the person's soul will either return the the physical plane, or there physical body will instead be summoned here. Nonetheless, the link would be broken from the devil, freeing them. However, there are over a 1000, points of light. Individually breaking all the links does not seem like a feasible strategy.

Kouri could tell this was no ordinary Pit Fiend just in size alone, he seemed more like an ascending archdevil. However, his power also seemed greatly diminished, no doubt to him only being partly formed by the half complete ritual. If they were to destroy him, everyone would be released and their souls returned to the material plane. Nonetheless, Kuori was left with unease. Even with the fiend just possessing a fraction of its power, she was not sure the combined strength of her group would be enough to defeat it. A tough fight laid ahead of them.

Kuori remembers Ruin sent Vivi to help try and free Goliaths from the cages with her invisibility so she can surmised that she must have been caught in one of the cages when the ritual began. Why she looks the way she does now, Kuori cannot be sure. She definitely is the same Vivian, but something about this place has changed her form. Despite appearing physically older and her size much greater, she also feels immensely more powerful. There is something unhinged about her appearance, something...dangerous. You feel she could be freed like the rest of the Golaiths by breaking her magical thread. What would happen after that, she is not sure.

Ashtuku examined the devil on the stone throne before him. He seemed to be much more than your average pit fiend, which was already an impressive foe. Though its power seemed greatly diminished. From his general knowledge of devils he knew poison and fire would not be that affective and the devil would know doubt utilize fire in its own attacks.

Ashtuku gages the expression on the devil. He doesn't seem at all concerned about the appearance of the adventures in his plane. In fact, he almost seems pleased. He seems to be waiting for the party to make the first move.