The Price of Heroism

General Summary

After defeating the Lichen Lich and it's small army of animated vegetation, the Lich reformed from a nearby tree and grumpily began lambasting them for barging into its home. The lich introduced itself as Quagmire Haggisgrove, a Babylonian arcane botanist and friend to the astromancer Lysander el-Faeri that had been caught up in the same accident that had sent Prifddinas hurtling through space-time. Quagmire, who'd been sent to the Abyss wandered until he lost his sanity and eventually found his way to Yomi where he learned the secrets of lichdom from a sibriex named Viras in exchange for his true name.  The group struck a bargain with Quagmire; in exchange for helping him collect 10,000 corpses from the Flesh Drops Gorge, he would transport them to the Court of All Flesh where they'd seek an audience with Viras for information on Hiruko's whereabouts. The group gathered 100 bodies over the next several hours and promised to finish gathering them after finishing their business. Before transporting them, Quagmire also asked them to find out what his real name had been from Viras.   Descending down into the crater that Quagmire had transported them to, the group battled a small group of "gatekeepers" that attempted to turn them around. When all but one had been defeated, the survivor relented and agreed to guide the group further into the Court of All Flesh. Passing through a layer of toxic gas and horrible, living abyssal corruption, the group forced their way down through a crevasse in the rock and into the nightmarish world of Viras the Vile. A world where demons, corruption, and all manner of ungodly fluids and materials flowed freely. The sight alone influenced Benkei  and he developed a form of madness. When they finally came face to face with the ancient Obyrith they were able to convince it to at least offer them a bargain instead of turning them over to Izanami. Viras gave them two choices: either bring him five innocent souls in place of their own, or bring him the heads of Quagmire and Liu-Xiao . Not wanting to accept either of those options, they turned to Izanagi. In exchange for teaching Viras the secrets of how to create Kami, Viras agreed to provide them information on Hiruko for one innocent soul and Quagmire's head.    Returning back Quagmire's grove, they immediately set it ablaze and began cutting him down even as he protested and questioned why they'd suddenly turned on him. When it was done and the grove was nothing but smoke and ash, they settled down for the night and prepared to return to the army to collect the unfortunate soul that was to be sacrified to Viras. However, as they rested, Conradus and Benkei both noticed that something large was approaching their instant fortress. Rushing outside to investigate, Benkei came face to face with a tall woman resembling Izanami. She was dressed like a geisha and her features were twisted and demonic and chains dragged behind her from her wrists. A jet-black moray eel protruded from the base of her neck. Conradus was able to identify the woman as a Molydeus, a demon second only in power to the Demon Lord it serves. He moved to wake Genji while Benkei attempted to buy time, but Izanami, able to see and hear through the Molydeus' eel-head realized who they were and ordered it to slaughter them all.