>>5159732>>5159831>>5159895>>5160096>>5160159You look to Irinnile, eyes narrowed and face set in grim determination. The expression isn’t lost on her, nor is the implication of your question:
>How bad would it be, to travel deeper into Hell? What would we face?“Lispy…”
“Just answer the question, Irinnile.”
The succubus sighs, and shakes her head.
“I know you, of all mortals, know somethin’ about hell. You’ve read about it in your books and… Heard about it from your Snake-Pope or whatever! It’s not GOOD, Lispy. If you think you’re sweating in your skinnies now, this is one of the COOLEST parts of the demon realsm, what with the big windy expanses and bein’ so far away from the core. The closer you get to centre, the harsher it is on the buzz. Hotter, more densely populated—with, ya’ know, DEMONS that wanna’ eat you up…”
She pauses, and adds: “and not in the fun way.”
When you don’t crack a smile, she withers, and continues more usefully: “the deeper realms of Hell are hotter, but brighter, and the shit you’ll see will make ya’ see why I hate it around here. Oh, yeah, ya’ got your open-air orgy pits and your human flesh buffets, but demons get traded like coin ‘round here too. IF your soul can even survive travelin’ through some a’ these places, ou’ll be assaulted and enslaved EVEN FASTER than me, if any greater demon decides they like the look of us, and I won’t be far behind you.”
“That sounds… Perhaps difficult, but well within my abilities,” you say optimistically.
“Those are the nice neighbourhoods. In the areas here a Demon Prince rules supreme… Shit gets wild.”
“They are as their own realms in this place,” Death adds, almost helpfully. “An afterlife unto themselves, a cloying attempt to mimic the paradises and hidden wonders of a true god’s private domain. There, a sufficiently-powerful demon may pretend at supremacy, and not unconvincingly so, to one such as yourself.”
“…And at the end of all this, you get eaten and trapped forever!” Irinnile exclaims, throwing her arms up. “That’s your place here: food! I’m the not-so-hired help to be traded and used and abused and experimented on… And you, Hotstuff, you’re the entrée! You’re a snack for a quick boost of power, never to be seen or heard from again!”
>Ask if you can pay in advance to have your soul moved from here to the divine realm of the dark gods if/when you do dieYour next question is addressed to Death, who obliges you with an answer:
“You can certainly try,” he says, “but the psychopomps who guard the spaces between realms, and between life and death, they are not gods or demons. They are not bound by oath or pact. If you give them a coin now, they may aid you later, but they also may not.”
“Who guards the afterlife against trespass?” you ask.
