It was one of those times all planewalkers hate. Your jink is almost spent and all available spots to earn money are either deadly boring or plain deadly. It was at that time, when a group of primes turned up and asked me if I could guide them through Carceri. They wanted to avoid the hostile occupants, that is the gehereleths, even knowing the right name. I had almost expected them to call 'em by that silly demodand tag. Maybe they weren't really as clueless as they said they where. It was a group of good hearted folks and they paid good jink in solid jewellery, so I agreed.

Fortunately they where experienced travellers, so they avoided most pitfalls of travelling the lower planes and Carceri in special. Sure, they missed a thing or two, but not more than any average planewalker worth the name would. Actually they where either looking for or for a way to get rid of an artifact. I think they found what they where looking for, but that's part of another tale. Tandra asked me to specifically talk about an creepy encounter we had on the way back.

First I will remind you that I am not easily afraid of anything. I have seen too much and survived too many dangerous encounters in any lower plane to be frightened easily. Still I still shiver sometimes, when I think about the ceremony, and sometimes I awake soaked in sweat, the faces of creatures dancing at the edges of my blurry vision. If I could only find out, what happened to me there and do something about it. Tandra said that talking about it will relieve some of the burden and she might actually know what to do about it. No-one in Sigil seems to know more about fiends than she does.

We were just two orbs away from the gate and wanted to take as much rest as this infernal place allowed us before going on to the place, where I knew an exit gate of which I had the key. When we settled down and had set up double guards, we where distracted by a noise that was the strangest mix of discord and harmony I have ever heard, bar none. We looked at each other and decided to investigate in case it was more dangerous than Carceri on a bad day, that is always. We had to see if we had to go on more quickly than we liked.

The sound came from the direction of a dim crimson light in the distance, almost a quarter of the circumference of the orb, that was one of the smaller of the plane. When we came nearer we realised that the light was not half as weak as we thought it was. It was a sinister crimson radiation, like that of red hot lava, that primes associate with the lower planes for some reason. It was a large globular expansion from an area in the surface that had to be carved deeply into the orb.

We crawled up a steep ledge and one of the other adventurers nearly threw up when seeing the incredibly deep bowl in front of us. It was filled to capacity with creatures, that where chanting something in unison. Well, almost in unison. It was like a bad choir trying to sing in canon, but failing badly and multiplying this impression by several powers of ten. Slowly I was able to see more detail in the foreboding and evil radiation of light.

Involuntarily I stopped breathing when I realised that they where gehereleths ordered by rank. Farastu where the first, followed by kelubars and finally shators overseeing the lesser ranks. Among the ranks larger creatures walked, observing the rest of the group and doing something to a few members. Except for them, all where kneeling or bent and looked into the direction of something hideous and incredibly large...

Apomps...

I had to force my body to continue breathing when I beheld the malicious glory of the entity known as Apomps. It was surrounded by glittering and incredibly cold white light, that slowly seemed to spread into the rest of the globe, changing its colour from red to green without any transition colour. The chanting slowly became more coherent while we were watching and I slowly realised that the Apomps did not move. It had to be a statue, but it was so frightening and life-like, that it fooled even me into believing that the three-faced was there.

The sound of... I will call it prayer for lack of a better word - became more constant and the colour shifted to the yellow that had been missing in the transition before. In the brighter light more details became obvious. Some of the large figures where almost like armoured knights in field plate, except that there where only two malicious red dots beneath their visors, some too close together, others too far apart. Somehow their statues seemed slightly mismatched, but I still cannot say how. Their movements were edgy and jittery, but at the same time smooth.

The other figures where large robes revealing bald heads. It was not visible if they floated or walked, so unnaturally smooth where their movements. They too could almost have been humans, but they where too large, their complexion was too... rosy. There was something odd about their face, but they where too far away to see any details. I fervently hoped that it stayed that way, while the light turned to the bright and at the same time impossibly cold light surrounding Apomps...

...the statue.

Almost unnoticeably the discord had faded from the song and turned into the most haunting and frightening music I had ever heard. "Let us get away here, before they notice us". the spellslinger of the group said. "I want to know more about them", I said. I already started to creep forwards, knowing that my words where only a lame excuse for... something else. "Knowledge is Power." I did not realise that I had spoken these words aloud, when the mage said: "I have seen too much knowledge blowing heads to pieces back at the Dancing University. Some things are too dangerous to know"

Something pulled me away and I blinked, as though awaking from some type of... nightmare. The spellslinger cast a spell of flying on us all and we darted into the direction of the next orb with all our speed. A swarm of gehereleths followed us, but for some reason we were a good deal faster. Strange, I always thought that flying spells where slower than those fiends, but I didn't know much about the type of magic he was using to begin with, so it might have been a more powerful spell.

I was not particularly worried by the 'leths following us. I had dealt with and battled them before. Those creatures we had not seen so far where far more frightening than the other fiends, even though they where already homicidal monsters. We made our way to the other side of the orb and the wizard was already thinking about a means of transport to the next orb, where the portal was placed. There was a hum in the air, like a swarm of hungry poisonous insects descending upon us, as though we did not already have more than enough problems.

With a sparkle of stars one of those robed things appeared in front of us. You think you are getting away that easily. There was no audible speech, yet all of us had heard it. It was a large robed... humanoid. Its arms ended in a set of four writhing tentacles that twisted in ways that should be impossible by pure geometry alone. The face was even worse. The eyes where too narrow and deep. The nose was only a bubble with two holes and the mouth a horizontal slit in the bulbous diseased looking face of the creature. It waved its arms ominous and advanced a step.

At least it advanced. The lower part of the creature had to be made from jelly or something. There was only a fluid motion and the hint of a slurping sound accompanying its step, maybe it was only my mind playing tricks, because some type of slimy sound had to be associated with that type of movement. Frightened I stepped back and stumbled, sprawling on my back. The other adventurers reacted faster than I had believed them capable of. Killing magic flashed, arrows flew and a sword cut though the thing. I thought I could even feel the power of a mental strike.

The thing turned into a sickly purple-green mixture of jelly and tried to follow us into the air. I quickly jumped in the airboat the mage had somehow managed to produce in the heat of the battle. The slime followed the end of the boat and came ever closer. My mind frantically searched for something to dislodge it, because I was dreadfully aware that a single hold would be sufficient for it to destroy us all or worse. I stared an eternity at the unhealthy finger's width that the thing was behind our boat with unhealthy interest.

Fortunately the distance increased and the thing, that had stretched itself incredibly thin started to retract. I forced myself to look at what was ahead of us. Nightmare images danced at the edge of my vision and I was unable to tell, if they where products of the plane or my own imagination. Or both. I closed my eyes to ban the images, but they filled all of my mind, so that I forced my eyes to open themselves. I remembered just in time to hold up the gate key.

I remember a dance of sparkling stars a still nauseating moment of falling where there was no ground, then the airboat collapsed. When I felt the fresh air of the outlands and the grass on my back, I did the same.

When I opened my eyes again, I looked into the eternal light of the plane I was on, comfortably curled in my bedroll. I heard the spellslinger say: "It was damn hard on us. I think being a planar she is far more resonant to the belief energies of the planes than we are. It must have been a nightmare for her." A female voice said: "We should return to Sigil and find a way back home." I slowly peeled myself out of my bed and stretched my muscles to get rid of the annoying stiffness.

"You should have come here earlier. I possess vast knowledge of fiends and their ilk", Tandra said. "I think when you listened to that chant of theirs, you where indeed zapped with something." She paused and called her companion Elandra. They exchanged several words and Tandra turns to face me again. "How exactly do you feel about that encounter now? Is there something missing? Are you sure that you did not forget anything in your story?"

"I think there is something", I said. "There was something among the Gehereleths a strange type of cohesion and community that should not be among fiends. It was almost... addictive. I had this weird feeling, when I watched the final stages of their ritual I..." Something seemed to slice through my mind, a burst of glittering white light filled with coldness and...

Oh No!

"I... felt that I... wanted to be part of the group. It was an incredible overwhelming feeling. Something that should not have happened. I mean the gehereleths are supposed to be chaotic and not have any feeling of community. By all circles of Baator, not even the Baatezu are a community. It is everyone on their own in fiendish society. Ask everyone who knows something about fiends."

"You are right about the baatzu", Tandra said. "They are far too individualistic for the plane they dwell on, because they do not really belong there." She paused a moment and continued: "Your tale confirms my suspicions about the gehereleths. They are internally a tightly knit theocracy, but attack about anything else on sight. Take your typical homicidal religious fanatic and filter it through the harshness of Gehenna and you get the idea."

"I think you are victim of a malady, that I call belief addiction. You experience an overwhelming sense of community and belonging. When it is suddenly gone, you feel empty, but the tiny strands of possession are already placed into your soul. We can attempt to remove them, but there is more to it, than just that."

This couldn't be true. They could not really mean that...

Tandra again had an exchange with her companion and this time it was more disputed. I heard her say: "Do not talk about fate or you not being allowed to interfere and go on." The other female looked at the Fiendslayer for several moments and then turned to me. "Relax", she said gently. Her voice was soft and beautiful, almost like that of an celestial. She folded her massive black wings and managed to sit down on a normal chair.

"You are still too tense", she said. I said: "I think I need a drink to get the tension out of me." Tandra gave a sign and a moment later there was a glass in front of me. The drink had an odd vibrant green colour. "What is that?", I asked. The Fiendslayer said: "It is just a good drink of intermediate strength. It is easily potable by mortals." She turned to me and asked: "Do you trust me?" I nodded and swallowed the drink in a single drought.

For a moment the room spun around me and my vision blurred, but moments later my vision focussed. I think someone said: "She swallowed it too fast." I saw only a pair of almost too soft hazel eyes boring into mine. Something seemed to go past my eyes and take hold of something deeper and followed it around for sometime. My head started to swim from something. My vision lost focus again, but I was sure it was not from the drink this time.

Sweat trickled down the ivory skin of the psionicist and I slowly felt the touch recede. Her usually clean and lustrous hair was tangled and matted. She sunk back against her chair and muttered something. I think it was: "More difficult than I thought" Tandra made a sign and a large minotaur walked over to us. The Fiendslayer said gently: "Rest, my friend, you have earned it." Elandra nodded weakly and tried to get up, but her muscles seemed to be made of jelly.

With a gentleness no-one had ever expected from a creature as large and powerfully built as this more than nine feet tall minotaur, he picked up the protesting psionicist and carried her out of a door I had somehow missed before. "This is done", Tandra said, "but there is more to it than that. I mixed a psionic catalyst into the drink and it still took all of her skill and power to remove the strands from your mind and soul and I have seen her take out illithids in the dozen."

"I think I need another drink", I said. Tandra shook her head and said: "You don't get another drink here. You should not leave either. The psionic catalyst will most likely still be effective for several hours." Suddenly she leaned forward and her face was only inches away from mine. "There is more to it than that. Think about it. Did you make some stupid mistake, when you where less experienced. Some deal that might have something to do with the 'leths? Have you already been in their clutches?"

The gaze of her green eyes was every part as intense as that of her companion. For a moment I thought I saw the human skin flicker to reveal the ebony colour of her cambion nature. The face was gone as soon as it appeared. Tandra said: "You do not have to answer any of these questions to me, but you have to answer them for yourself, or all your life, all you have ever done and believed in will be for naught. Then you will have to find a way to get out of all of that. At that point you might ask me again. To do so you need a clear mind most of all."

I sighed, but currently I didn't want to reflect upon the ramifications of what she had said. Once you had your pockets full of jink you had to go and see that your personality was not shattered. Live as a planewalker is so great...

Tandra walked to her newest companion, the dwarven battlerager Dirkinigar, who was worried, because the minotaur had not returned from Elandra's quarters. He had seen him do some things... "He will guard her all night," Tandra said gently. "She is one of the few friends he has and he does not want that anything happens to her, not even from him." The dwarf nodded and sipped his ale. Tandra slapped him on the back and said gently: "Will you ever get rid of that addiction?" He did not reply.

He had made a good deal of progress since Tandra had picked him up. All of the companions had changed since they met each other. They where a tightly knit group now. Their attitude was also drifting to the upper planes slowly. Tandra could not say, she was displeased about it. She had understood that the best way to fight fiends was turning away from their ways and actually do good things. It had been a long and hard way until she had come to realise that. She was not at its end either.

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