Durag met Relma along within his office as he had several times before. It was a barren place, with a simple window looking out over the mountains. There were many books on the walls, meticulously organized and it did not look like anyone had read them. He was standing there, looking out that way.

"Relma, I'm told you have a plan for invading hell?" said Durag, voice amused.

"Not a plan so much as a concept," said Relma. "Did your meeting with Wrynncurth go well?" She tried to keep the memory of Durag's horrors from her mind, it affected nothing.

"Yes," said Durag. "Very.

"But please, provide me with the details of your plan."

"Our association with Lucius has caused us to have on our hands a large group of satyrs who want to die in battle," said Relma. "We're concerned we'll have to fight them and are looking for an opportunity to give them someone to fight."

"And why do you want to use the Hellfire Jewel?" asked Durag.

"Well, I was hoping that we might be able to open a portal through the Road of Ancient Stone to the pass of Dragon Bones," said Relma. "If we could do that, we could get them here.

"Or, somewhere else."

"Thus invading hell?" asked Durag.

"Yes," said Relma, feeling a bit self-conscious. But if you were going to invade somewhere, hell seemed a good choice.

"I shouldn't try to invade hell directly," said Durag. "Doing so is a very... personal sort of attack. Traditional means of assault are not efficient for fighting demons. A single man of sufficient will can do immense damage to demons, while an army of fools might not even make a dent.

"Hell is a purely spiritual plane, after all. What you see there, the landscape, is more an interpretation of the mortal psyche."

"Ah, I see," said Relma. "Well, King Tyus has been pushing to launch an invasion of the Sun Soul Empire and I'm trying to talk him out of it."

"That is out of the question," said Durag flatly. "I do have an arrangement with them, after all. And if I were to cut them loose, my own position would be that much weaker."

"Then we have a problem," said Relma. "Shren and his kind will eventually attack someone. The only alternative is murdering them."

"Jolly bad situation this," said Wrynncurth, emerging from the shadows. "Still, if we can't afford to invade any one of these nations, why not help one side against the rebels?"

"What rebels?" asked Durag. "There is no rebellion underway?"

"Then let's find one," said Wrynncurth. "I have in mind an idea that has been turning in my head for some time.

"However, we will have to meet with Bryag first."

"Bryag?" asked Durag. "Is that wise?"

"Of course," said Wrynncurth. "I was like an uncle to him. And he's been badly mistreated by a whole number of the other dragon. I think I've found a means by which we can justify killing the whole lot of his enemies with perfect legality.

"Now we just need the reason."

Durag looked to Relma. "I suggest you explain your own plan to him, Relma."

The plan went over... well Relma didn't know. Wrynncurth kept his same cheerful expression, though she guessed he was calculating things. He certainly seemed to be willing to factor it into his plans, though.

"Well then," said Wryncurth. "Let's jolly well head out at once and find him."

"Right," said Relma, eager to go. "Durag, thank you for for hospirality. However, I do not... well, this place does not suit me. No offense."

"None taken, this is the realm of the dead, after all," said Durag. "In regards to your suggestion for creating a route through the Road of Ancient Stone, I have created many such places. And, should it suit our tactics, I may well create another.

"For now, however, I believe I can open a way for you to reach Bryag very quickly.

"Even so, I should be careful. He is... aggressive."

So it was that the group was arrayed once more, except Ajax of course. Together they stood in the throneroom of Durag, who was kneeling. The Hellfire Jewel within him began to flare with an unpleasant light. Relma tried to keep her eyes on it, while Estela looked away. Jomas gazed down at the floor.

Whispers rose throughout the throneroom, and they were agonizing. Relma felt pain in those voices, and feral hatred. And as the whispers continue a ring of flame appeared in midair. And from the edges of that flame appeared a swirling vortex of blood, before settling into what might have been a hall.

Yet it was a hall paved with bones and of bloodied flesh. The outline of vaguely humanoid figures could be seen writhing on it. Yet it was impossible to tell where they began and the floor ended.

"What is that?" asked Estela.

"Oh, that is the portal my dead walk through," said Durag, motioning. "I draw the souls from their nightmarish agony and offer them service instead. Like so." Out of the flesh mass, decayed and horrifying bodies pulled themselves out and staggered through. "This portal should lead to near Bryag immediately and safely.

"I should be careful moving through here, it is a realm of envy. You may find your minds... tested."

"Have you gone through it?" asked Estela.

"Of course," said Durag. "I have long since become immune, in fact."

"So, who will go?"

Relma paused only for a moment, before walking forward. "I have to, this is my task."

"And I jolly well need to as well," said Wrynncurth as the new undead moved into the hall. "Bryag is in need of some very good advice, and I seem to be the one to do it."

"Well, I'm certainly not letting Relma go in there alone," said Estela.

"I'll go," said Jomas.

"Glad to have you with us, Jomas," said Relma. "Come on."

And so they walked forward.

"Just keep walking and don't stop for anything," said Durag as Relma passed him. "Oh, and don't stare too deeply into the abyss."

Even as he said it, Relma passed through the threshold.

And it was then that she realized she was the leader of this group. Even as she set foot within the tunnel of hell, however, it seemed to shifter around them. Relma found herself walking along the path of bones in a twisting path. Estela, Jomas and Wrynncurth walked behind her and she kept a hand on Lightning Trail.

Soon, however, the stability of the flesh passages began to yield away. The walls became translucent and within them, Relma saw what might have been people. Yet though they could be recognized as humanoid, they could not be recognized as anything else. They had no discernable gender or form, no clothes to identify class or hair. Their eyes were the pitchest black.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

And they seemed to be fighting.

They were tearing at one another, pulling eachother down, or away from the walls. Pale hands grasped at them, trying to rip one another away. Some were even gnawing on others like feral animals. And the lower Relma got, the more animalistic and feral they became, until soon they were less than animalistic.

No animal had ever been so pitiable and vicious.

And Relma realized as she walked that the creatures within the walls were descending with her. They were pulling one another down ever further in a mad scramble to get over the others. Even if one managed to pull themselves past the others, the mass as a whole was always descending.

"What..." said Relma. "What are they fighting over? It's like they're gnawing at one another."

"Don't look at it, Relma, there's nothing we can do," said Estela.

The further they went, the more ragged and wounded the creatures were and all the while the realm darkened. Soon, the creatures had no eyes, just torn sockets, and their flesh was wounded and rended by hands and teeth. Relma no longer felt conflicted about Durag drawing these creatures up to serve him. The fate of walking the world as the dead must have been infinitely preferable to this place.

"Why did you trust Durag with this?" asked Estela suddenly.

"He stands to benefit by our success," said Relma. "And he seems to to not be wholly evil at heart. I'll vouch for him."

"Oh yes and you're so worthy of vouching!" snarled Estela in sudden. "What do you know about ruling or negotiations! I was trained in all this, while you just sort of lucked into it all!

"Why should you lead and determine policy!"

Relma stepped back in shock, never having seen her like this. There seemed a manic look in her eye and her hand was on her sword. "Estela I-"

"Shut up, why should you rule Harlenor Reunited!" said Estela, drawing her sword. "It's not your birthright save by luck! Estal should-"

Jomas grabbed Estela's hand. "Why are you drawing your sword, Estela?"

Estela shuddered and sheathed it quickly before moving it. "...Relma, forgive me.

"I...

"I don't know what came over me. This place is..."

"No time old, girl," said Wrynncurth. "We need to keep moving."

On they walked as the passage became ever darker. Soon Relma had to get by with the light of her sword. Yet she found she could not leave her conversation with Estela like this. "You're right, though, Estela. My birthright is pure luck, that's why I'm doing this. I want to prove myself worthy of my heritage."

Estela fell silent for a long moment. "Well, I hope you do.

"At the rate we're going we're liable to all end up dead if you don't."

Then they passed through utter darkness and came into sunlit lands beyond.

The sunlight, as it turned out, was the only thing bright about the surroundings. Further upriver, near the coast, Relma had seen occassional plants on the barren hills. Yet here the hills were all black as soot. Not a sound could be heard, no birds chirping or sound of wind could be perceived.

And there were bodies. Thousands, no, tens of thousands of charred corpses. They were piled in a great trail, leading along the path toward an equally charred bridge. And at the edge of the bridge was a small mountain, covered in ashes. Not a tree or anything could be seen.

"Look at these," said Estela. "Charred bodies. What could have burned the features off them?"

"Fire," said Jomas.

"Even dragonfire..." Estela. "This level of charring is something I've never seen. Remember the bodies in the pass of Dragon Bones? They still had well... there was blood and you could recognize them a bit."

"Bryag certainly could. He always had the best firebrath," said Wrynncurth. "I'm surprise the bridge survived as much. "Still, perhaps there is a village around here we could see. The Sun Soul Empire is a little way to the south.

"Still, we've business to conduct." And he made his way across the bridge over the bodies. As he stepped on them, they broke into ashes. Yet there were even more of them below. And as they walked, Relma felt both awed and sick.

Looking at the river, she saw that the entire shore on her side was covered with bodies, writhing. But not one had made it to the other side and the lands beyond she saw were green and beautiful. All save the ash-strewn mountain.

"Did all these die recently?" asked Estela.

"No, I don't think so," said Wrynncurth, motioning to one. "Many of these are eroding with the wind. See, the skull has been worn away, that would have taken some time.

"Bryag must have caked the ashes onto the flagstones over years of breathing flame."

Then Wrynncurth moved toward the ash-strewn mountain and tapped the rock. There was a chink like metal and an eye at large as Relma was tall opened before them. "Ah, there's the fellow of the hour.

"Bryag! Bryag old chap, great to see you at last!"

"Uncle Wrynncurth?" asked Bryag and his voice shook the bridge. "It's been years."

"Yes it has," said Wrynncurth. "I thought I might drop in for a visit and see how you are. With me is Estela Vortegex, a Princess of Escor, her fiancee Jomas Endorean, and her squire, Relma Artorious. How have you been?"

Bryag shifted, gradually propping himself up to sit on his haunches. His head rose so high that the shadow it cast covered the bridge. Jomas took several, intimidated steps back.

"...Not well," said Bryag morosely. "My hoard is gone. I wanted to be a lender, like you. I loaned my hoard for interest, but there were never any returns."

"Why not?" asked Wrynncurth, not intimidated.

"They defaulted," said Bryag.

"Defaulted?" asked Estela. "What did they spend it on?"

Bryag seemed to think about it for a moment. "...Improvement."

"What improvements?" asked Wrynncurth.

"...I don't know," said Bryag after a moment. "They didn't say."

"But shouldn't you know?" asked Estela. "Don't you have records?"

"Yes, I do," said Bryag, moving his bulk to reveal an immense number of stolen tablets. Relma wondered how it did not crush them. All of them had large amounts of writing on them and Wrynncurth looked at them. "I have... I had them all made here. But they've all defaulted, so it doesn't matter. They can't pay it back."

"Hold on, the hoard I saw in Lord Evren's lair was massive," said Relma. "How is it possible that he couldn't pay off his debt?"

"He's a cheat," said Jomas.

Bryag shook his head. "Not enough money.

"Interest."

"Interest, what do you mean interest?" asked Estela.

"A Sornian concept. When I make a loan, they pay it back with a little extra," said Wrynncurth. "Usually a small percentage return that grows with the time it takes for the debt to be repaid.

"What percentage did you have on these, Bryag?"

Bryag passed one of the stone tablets to Wrynncurth. "Twenty percent."

Wrynncurth went dead still. "Twenty percent interest?! Bryag, how did you ever expect to make a loan with those kinds of terms?!"

"It was supposed to be a starting position," said Bryag. "But they all took it,"

"Let me see the contracts," said Wrynncurth, reading through one of them. Then, when finished, he moved on to another. Each time, Relma noticed there was a beautiful red scale engraved on the tablet.

"...Well, these are all completely legal," said Wrynncurth after a moment. "At least from what I can determine here. And judging from the date, the Red Dragons owe twenty percent interest to Bryag.

"Bryag old chap, this isn't what you could call a reasonable contract."

"You're supposed to make money," said Bryag, not comprehending.

"Wait, where is the signature?" asked Estela, looking over one of the contracts.

Bryag reached down and pointed at the contract. However, his claw was so huge that Estela almost fell over, reaching for her sword. Jomas, however, caught her.

"There, see, a scale engraved into the stone," said Bryag.

Wrynncurth nodded. "Well, if all this is true, then the Red Dragons who took this deal all, individually, owe my nephew a lot of money. A lot.

"In fact, I'm not sure there is enough silver, gold and copper in the world to pay off one of them. Twenty percent interest, combined with hundreds of years worth of failure to pay off the debt and..."

"Why would anyone be stupid enough to make that kind of contract?" asked Relma.

"Because they never intended to honor it," said Estela. "They just wanted to rob Bryag blind with a tacit show of legality. When you get a deal that is too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

"Nobody offers you this kind of chance if they really mean to give it to you."

"Vanessa said it was a good idea," said Bryag. "I talked with her."

"What?" said Wrynncurth, looking up. "Why would she-

"Bryag, you don't have a hoard anymore. You've been robbed blind, why hasn't she done anything about this?"

"Says the debt helps her control them," said Bryag.

"Of course," said Wrynncurth, sound suddenly angry. His voice was a low snarl. "You being penniless discredits your status as an alternative. And keeping you in check lets her hold this over the Lords."

"They probably didn't think that Bryag would ever be able to force the issue," said Relma.

"I don't want to force it," said Bryag.

"Why not?" asked Wrynncurth, looking up sharply.

"Money is worthless," said Bryag with a shrug.

"No it's not," said Wrynncurth.

"Gold not good for making anything," said Bryag. "Heavy, weak, useless.

"Only valuable because people say it's valuable. The real value is people."

"Well, yes, but surely you don't want to be cheated like this do you?" asked Estela.

"I don't care," said Bryag. "I'm helping Vanessa."

"But you don't have a hoard!" said Wrynncurth. "You're spending your time burning undead to keep their lands safe while they laugh at you? Surely you must want to get what you are owed."

"I'd much rather go back to sleep," said Bryag with a shrug, before lying down.

"But Evren is winning!" said Wrynncurth.

"No he's not," said Bryag, voice suddenly holding anger in it. "Evren is a smallminded, weak, miser. He sits on his hoard, watching worthless bits of metal pile up and congratulates himself. But his spirit is like the metal he treasures and he cannot be happy.

"His 'triumph' is nothing. And he gnaws on the ends of it to distract from his own misery.

"I can't imagine any worse fate than to leave him as he is. I could crush his skull, but that would hurt the Dragon Empire. So I let him decay all the more."

This wasn't working at all. They were appealing to Bryag's desire for vengeance, power and money, but he clearly didn't have any.

"But what about the people?" asked Jomas.

"People?" asked Bryag.

"Dragons like Lord Evren, they're abusing their power," said Jomas. "They've been sacrificing more and more people."

"Jomas is right," said Relma, surprised. "The people of this land look up to you, want to become like you, a dragon in your image. Evren is just devouring them in larger numbers.

"The land is suffering."

Wrynncurth nodded. "The girl is right, Bryag, Evren might be creating his own misery or he might not. But what we can't deny is the fact that he is causing immense problems for the people he rules. And making everyone nearly as miserable as he is.

"With these outstanding debts, you are in a perfect position to force him and those like him to change. This is a real opportunity."

"...And what do you want me to do, Uncle Wrynncurth?" asked Bryag.

"We should go to the Temple of Vrengar, that is still operating, isn't it?" asked Wrynncurth.

"Yes, Vanessa is based there," said Bryag. "She moved there after Durag seized the capital."

"Right, well, we'll go there and meet with your sister," said Wrynncurth. "Once there, we can find a way that you and she can use this to consolidate both your holdings."

Bryag sat up and looked around. "...Very well then. I was a bit bored.

"But I can't leave the river for long."

"Well, as it turns out, I may be able to help you there," said Wrynncurth.

At that moment, the portal opened and the satyrs poured forth from it. They came marching in numbers and with them was a core of Harlenorian warriors.

"Blood shall flow in rivers! The rotting dead shall feel the wrath of our scimitars! The war, my brethren! All shall die!" cried Shren.

"Should I kill them?" asked Bryag.

"No, Bryag, old chap," said Wrynncurth. "They'll be taking your place on the bridge and ensuring that no one crosses it. It should give us time to act." Durag had already been making plans to send a new army of the dead.

"It's nice to see you, Shren," said Relma, moving to the leader of the satyrs.

"Ah, Queen Relma," said Shren. "We have been told that there are unending tides of undead who come from the bowels of the earth to attack this place! We shall die well against them!"

"Yes, well, they're actually the tortured souls of the damned given a mockery of life after being torn from hell," said Relma. "So, you'll probably be doing them a favor.

"Just be sure not to leave the bridge unguarded. If any get over this region, it will fail Lucius."

At that moment, a blonde man in polished armor moved forward, flanked by guards. Estela met him. "Princess Estela," he said.

"Varsus, what are you doing here?" asked Estela.

"Providing a core for the army," said Varsus. "We've been assigned by King Tyus to ensure the satyrs stay in line and to maximize undead casualties. Lucius provided us a way through the Road of Ancient stone after communicating with Durag.

"It was... unpleasant."

"We saw something of it ourselves," said Estela. "It is probably wise to have a Harlenorian in command of this place."

"In any case, I don't feel very good about setting Shren on our own allies," said Varsus.

"All of them want to die," said Estela. "And the walking dead in this place would if they were capable of thought. "We're giving them what they want, and releasing their souls from their torment."

"Yes, well, it is the principle of the thing," said Varsus.

"Now come, we must meet with Queen Vanessa," said Wrynncurth.

"...I'm staying on the bridge," said Jomas after a moment.

"What? Why?" asked Estela.

"They need help," said Estela. "Durag might try to betray us and someone needs to destroy the undead."

"It would be wise to have someone here to observe the situation," noted Estela. "Durag might turn on us.

"And having Jomas on hand will help with the fighting."

"I agree," said Relma.

Everyone looked at her strangely and Relma found their attitude offensive. "What? Just because I want a peaceful solution doesn't mean I trust Durag."

"Fair enough," said Wrynncurth. "But some of you would have had to stay behind in either case. I can't carry all of you anyway."

And so the last stage was set. Now they just had to make their play.