Jovel Harmon was a pretty normal cutter in the streets of the cage, ducking and diving life at every corner, he was a pretty run-of-the-mill thief with knack for charming the ladies and avoiding the husbands.

Jovel often did work for the local hive thieves guild, working for, although never seeing, a high-up tiefling called "Dust".  He was pretty good at what he did, sneaking about and grasping loot from chests and such, normally he would work as the trap man, finding and disabling them so that his companions could finish off the locks and deal with "unexpected" surprises, like harmonium.

After getting out from a small stretch inside sigil's prison - Which was the fault of one Tomi Half-Blood, the look out man who feel asleep - Jovel thanked his thieving friends, who had payed for his, but not Tomi's, escape from the prison, and went about paying up the debt (Not liking to "owe" people things).

After a few weeks, and not even having made enough to pay for the negiotators coffee, Jovel heard tell of a pair of brothers that needed a good burglar, Reave brothers.

The meet was arranged through contacts, and a few days later Jovel found himself sitting before the largest pair of four armed berserkers ever!  Ar'hone and Jark'ium Bloodlet, the twin leaders of a large and well known Reave Mercenary company called "Black Tarrasques".

It was explained to Jovel, that the brothers wanted a celestial gem, called "The Blood Star Halo" - It is the only of it's kind in existence, and is rumored to have created the Celestial race when it first fell from the skies and into the planes, although these rumors hold little credibility - Jovel obviously expressed his concern, since such an item would be held VERY close to the hearts of the celestials, but, with the many many zeros offered to Jovel, and the fact that the Black Tarrasques would cause a "distraction" he reluctantly agreed.

Three days later, a small temple to the upper planes was struck by a meteor swarm... then another... a few blocks away, a small force of hound archons, that were guarding another temple to the upper planes (and the forementioned gem) responded quickly to the attack on another of their temples, leaving another contingent of hound archons outside, from alley ways, and out of invisiblity spells, Black Tarrasques poured into both sets of the split up force.

Crawling slowly through muck, grim and much much worse, Jovel found himself directly below the temple, with a small, yet complex map of the sewer system, which he had bought off a Modron for "environmental health" purposes, he slowly worked his way up, through the sewage exit of the temple, and out of single installed toilet, covered in last nights temple dinner.

Quickly Jovel moved through the temple, not having to worry about stealth, he was at the sight where the gem was being held in seconds, now all he had to do  was find any possible traps and remove them, although, the sounds of battle were slowly getting quieter.

Within half a minute he found a rather simple device, without a problem he removed it, but it was the other one he found that was the problem, it was far too complex and the sounds of battle was getting nervously quieter, if the celestials caught him at this.....

Before Jovel knew it, the door to the temple burst open, a hound archon flying backwards and a four armed barbarian, weidling two great axes, carrying him at great pace, panicing, Jovel grabbed the gem and ran, the trap went off creating a powerful whirling barrier of blades, but defty Jovel rolled past it and back towards the toilets.

He ran in, slammed the door and sprinted to the toilet, only to slip on blood pouring from his left hand and fly straight down the toilet bowl and head first into the sewage below, with an adrenaline rush, Jovel didn't notice the sewage seeping into the gaps where three fingers used to be and ran splashing through the filth and into the night.

Jovel sat in a bar, with the gem in a special box the Bloodlet brothers had given him, drinking large quantities of Baatorian whiskey, and musing over his lost fingers, all hadn't gone too well, but he pulled it off, he'd be fameous!  Although.. he better not tell anyone... so he wouldn't be fameous anyway.

Later that eve, Jovel trotted down to the night market and purchased the tail of a cranium rat, the bloodlet brothers had told him to wear one around his neck, so that their people could identify him, although he wondered why it was so important since they had given him a meeting place, but safe is safe he guessed.

Jovel stood down the dark dead end alley sipping Baatorian whiskey from a brown bag, his nose was redder than the aftermath of a "chat" between a githzerai and githyanki and his left hand was constantly buzzing with pain, needless to say that he didn't feel too great.

An hour past... then another past... then finally a figure emerged from the other end of the alley and started down tolds him, Jovel tucked the brown bagged bottle away, and put his good hand on the box, reassuringly he smiled, he was about to be RICH!

The man, a lightning genasi by the looks of it, and a rather mean one too, examined Jovel and nodded, they spoke briefly and it was confirmed that they were there too meet each other, Jovel produced the box, the genasi produced a small golden symbol.

Confusion stuck Jovel at first, but then it all became clear, as the small probes of electrisity from the genasi struck the golden symbol, it began to glow, and with that, six large, and well armed (limbs and weapons) faded into view, "Fack" he said as the first club came crashing down.

A couple of minutes later, Jovel lay on the floor bleeding to death, broken ribs, a snapped arm, a closed eye, a broken jaw, teeth missing and even an ear chewed off by a hypoactive Reave, Jovel begged them to kill him, as the lightning genasi laughed, Jovel was strong armed up and towards the back of the alley, struggling was pointless, so he just let it happen...

As he neared the back of the alley, and unconsciousness, the cranium rat tail around his neck began to vibrate. quicker and quicker it got, until it suddenly exploded and a bright red light from behind him filled the alley, Jovel felt a sucking backwards, pulling his bones, flesh and blood from him and away, this was enough to finally convince his brain to shut down for a while.

Dizzying pain and burning heat, he cracked an eye open to be welcome to a blood red sky, no clouds, no smog, just a blood red sky.. oh, and those spikey looking flying things circling above.

Jovel suddenly shot up, pain, left arm, his ribs creaked and re-cracked, although he didn't feel this pain, his left arm, over it from the elbow down was hundreds of ants eating away at his flesh, he jumped up the best a crippled man can and smacked them carelessly off his arm... exposing the bone that they had been covering, his hand nearly feel straight off.

He stumbled, his lips were dry and cracked, only one eye was working and his arm was beyond repair, he was just about to step into the dead book, and he knew it - What's worse than a body entering the dead book?  One that knows he is going to enter the dead book, but has to suffer torment first.

Surprisingly, Jovel stumbled on for nearly an hour, ahead, perhaps a five minute walk, he could see a gaping hole in the ground, he'd heard of these, the portals from the Abyss, perhaps he could yet save himself somehow, and what a tale that would be!  But no, the creatures that were circling before saw it as well and began to swoop down.

The first one easily caught Jovel by surprise and tore a large string of flesh and hair from his head, once again screaming in pain, Jovel began to move as fast as he could, which wasn't too fast.

The creatures swooped down at him, raking pieces of flesh off before flying back up, eating, then returning for more.  Jovel stumbled onwards, slowly being torn apart, one even landed on his back and began to eat away at his good shoulder, slamming it's evily hooked beak in and eating him away from the inside.

Jovel, tears flooding down his face from the sheer agony, would not give up, onwards he stumbled, and with the blood falling from him, more swooped, and more pain, and more blood.  After several minutes three or four of the beasts were on him, digging into him with their wicked talons, driving the barbed beaks into his flesh.  He was no longer walking, but being beaten along by the buffet of the carnivious beasts.

Suddenly there was silence, nothing, no pain, no birds, just silence, he was in a tunnel, walking, ahead was a pit, a gaping hole that dove deeper into the abyss than any mortal or immortal was meant to go, blinded he walked, he made no sound at all, just moved at a monotone pace towards the black pit.

The beasts suddenly became frantic, they began to tear at him carelessly, dropping flesh over the floor, they tore at him like this was their last meal and it was about to vanish.  Seconds later, all the winged creatures flew off him, and the others began to fly away, like.. something was calling them somewhere.. or, perhaps it was something ahead that was talking to them.

Jovel, hanging in pieces, his left arm now completely gone, his ears removed, most of the flesh from his body having been torn away, one eye hanging from it's socket, multiple ribs poking through his flesh or having been ripped out, walked, he walked like he had a destination, like, there was somewhere he wanted to be... all thoughts had escaped his mind, there was nothing but a goal, the tunnel, an exit from here, an exit from the pain... but then he got to the tunnel.

Jovel stood at the edge of the pit and stared down into it's blackness, his mind was fuzzy, he could see a strange light, his mind began to slowly drift, and with that, he toppled over the edge and down, down into the dark depths of the Abyss.

As he fell, Jovel gained the sense of pain back again, slowly, his skin was torn away from his body, then as the pain from that started to numb, his flesh was slowly torn away, his bones ripped themselves out of him, leaving just his skull and a huge sag of flesh, his eyes, his tongue, his organs were all slowly torn from his body, yet he could scream and yet he could feel.

Jovel fell, he fell until he could scream no longer, until he sank into some fleshy like substance, a substance that set his flesh on flame, yet did not burn it, agony, complete and utter agony, he burned and he burned and he burned...

Time became a blur, burning, endless burning.