To slay a demon

Thanks for the input - many good ideas here. I'll probably end up mixing up everything into a big mesh . . . I particularly like the idea of putting a loved one in danger. I do not do that nearly often enough. :twisted:

Though I'd let you know what became of all of this. To start with, I wanted an interesting side encounter, but the result was a possibly game-altering event. I'm pretty pleased.

I made the set-up rather random - suddenly, the group sees the torch-bearer they hired at the start of the campaign before bringing him to Sigil and then plain forgot about him, leaving him to wander the streets of a very weird place all alone. He is obviously in a bad shape.

So, the cleric of Hextor approaches him, chastising him for looking like a mess. However, before the poor torch-bearer can respond, a hulking shape appears behind him and grabs him. Before the creature, which is a hezrou, can open a portal and disappear with the torch-bearer, the group is able to notice that the demon carries several other people in a net.

Soon, the group is able to follow, buffing themselves with spells before entering the portal. The portal takes them straight to a mountain top in the Abyss, connected to a second mountain top only by a narrow bridge.

As the PCs approach, they soon find out what they have gotten themselves into. The hezrou is sacrificing the humans on a dark altar, taking their souls for later use. As if this was not enough, an angel has been captured by so far unknown demonic powers, and chained with nearly unbreakable bonds to a special, artifact-level monolith which strips it of its powers. As each life is lost to the vile demon's hand, the angel weeps, and the tears hit the monolith, where they solidifies and turn into Angel's Tears (from the Book of Vile Darkness). The Tears are grabbed by the hezrou's quasit minions, who employ the Tears as weapons against the group.

For a map I made for this set-up, see here:
http://www.dundjinni.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=10228&PN=2

The battle wasn't as tricky as I had thought, but the group got some serious worries after a couple of them were stripped of all strength after being hit by the Tears. Any way, with the demons defeated, the group starts to concentrate on the angel, trying to communicate with it. Finally, the angel begs them to either free him, or destroy him.

This is when the cleric of Hextor gets the fine idea that he can sacrifice the angel to his dark god, in order to gain powers. The group wizard tries what he can to free the angel, but not being prepared for such a task, there is little he can do. The cleric gets ready to do the sacrifice . . . and, realising that the sacrifice of an angel is a bad thing, the wizard casts a quick spell at the angel before the cleric can bring down the knife, killing the angel before the cleric can.

The cleric then leaves in anger, plans of revenge already forming in his mind, and the LN on his character sheet soon turning into a LE. It is also have other results for the wizard, who secretly worships Wee-Jas, but I haven't yet decided if this will be good or bad. At the very least, he risks being sacrificed at to Hextor at any time now . . .

And before any of you ask - yes, I am fine with a little infighting. There are some very good roleplayers in my group, and they know each other quite well. So I expect that they can handle it like adults (or at least so I hope!).