"Outwit, outplan, outifght, out-do in terms of cruelty, torture, violence and the like.<br/><br/>I figure; once she's beaten, that flaying her alive, amputating her,<em>Regenerating</em>her removed parts. Would be an adequate prelude to real torture.<br/><br/>A mix of physical torture, magical healing, magical damage, and mental attacks should be more than enough. Breaking the fingers of a hand is bad, doing it more than once in a row is usually more than most creatures can stand. The same applies to most physical torture.<br/><br/>The creatures that enjoy physical pain inflicted on them are few; and even then, are much easier to deal with. For those, you merely turn their<em>Flesh to Stone</em>, then reverse the situation, and repeat. Over and over, forcing them to feel their bodies grow numb and deaden over, and over; teased with the sensation of being alive, and denied the experience each time. Drowing slowly also works. The amount of willpower needed to drown yourself is very high."<br/><br/>Fiends really were<em>easy</em>to torture when it came right down to it. Specifically because there<em>were</em>no moral qualms about doing so.<br/><br/>They were the living embodiments the souls of creatures who had been both evil, and successfully evil enough to be elevated to the status of Immortal, instead of being a mere Petitioner, or worse yet,<em>food</em>for true Fiends. They had been souls who had committed enough evil by Fiendish standards to be admitted to that level of power.<br/><br/>When your victim has no redeeming qualities at all, and you know that them<em>existing</em>means that somewhere, at some time, others had suffered greatly; made it almost easy to have deaf ears to the cries and pleas of a suffering Fiend. It wasn't about how much you wanted to hurt an other creature, but how killing and making examples of Fiends, encouraged mortals to avoid commiting evil acts.<br/><br/>Letting a fiend off 'easy' was only a sign for other creatures to believe that the route of Evil was just as good as the route of Neutrality, or Good. Merhault wasn't 'good'; or didn't feel he was anyway, but he certainly had seen the non-stop horrors commited by mortal creatures wishing to gain favour with Evil powers to secure themselves a pleasant afterlife.<br/><br/>Sahaugin would capture, ravage, torture to death, and even eat other Aquatic races in the name of their Demon-Shark patron. Mass-Murderers were rewarded by Death Gods with an eternity of 'forced' retirement, served food and drink by nude deamonettes and louged on ghoulish reclining couches made of humanoid bones, and still-living petitioners.<br/><br/>Recalling those sights made him narrow his eyes into slits. Killing hundreds such 'rewarded' souls was satisfying; but didn't solve the problem. Bringing down the most prominent members of the Lower Planes was the way to go. A way that had kept him in a very shadowey and grey area in terms of Morality.<br/><br/>"You need to be really creative with Fiends. I mean, they torture, and watch torture, for eternity. Sometimes just good, honest, clean, hatred and ill-will is what you need. If you have to remove their memories of who they are with<em>Amnesia</em>and<em>Mind Rape</em>it also helps. I might be too lazy to deal with the Sahuagins that have conquered almost every world, from Oerth to Toril, to Eberron and Cygnus. However, with Fiends; I like to be thorough.<br/><br/>They've had forever to perfect torture, I've only had  a few dozen millenia to hone my version to use on them. It's a real challenge actually.<br/><br/>I think that showing her that there's no escape, that 'mortals' can defeat her over and over, ought to hammer in the fact that she can't do anything to<em>this</em>Mortal that will stop her from suffering should break her. That's what's really the embarrasing thing for any Immortal. Being defeated by "<em>mere mortals</em>."<br/><br/>I think I know what you think there Piper, but honestly, I can't do that. I would never do that with a person, unless I'm willing to raise their children. A Fiend will just want to wrench your heart and use would use any child as a torture-pawn to harm or control you. I don't very much fancy having my offspring collared by a Fiend.<br/><br/>I've seen<em>that</em>happen before, and the parent using the child as a pawn wasn't even a Fiend, just a very cruel, intelligent, constructed creature that had conquered whole planes. Her heartlessness was impressive, as was her armada of Sky-Orbs. A true Fiend would do worse than just kill their child to spite their former lover.<br/><br/>Something like making the torture unapparent, only to reveal it after decades of damage were already done to your child. Something that would break more than flesh or bone. Something that would break your heart."<br/><br/>Part sermon, part history, part revelation, part rambling. By the end of his words, his eyes looked groundward, and he was still; as if remembering something he had forgotten. Metal ground, and sparks came out of his mouth.<br/><br/>"Alright Lie-master. Let's do the deeds for your devilish tests, and then we'll whip your wayward whelp. If a handful of heroes can prevent five centuries of fighting on a Material Plane, then so be it. I'm sure none of us will break under the yoke we'll have to wear."<br/><br/>He stood up tall. Checking his blades, bags, baubles and belts. Everything seemed to be in place.<br/><br/>He reached into the small pack strapped to his back and pulled out a scroll, and mumbled the words on it, activating it [0*]. Shadowy lines flew off the page and flew at his flesh, making him go pale and translucent for a moment, his bones briefely becoming visible; then the flush of pink returning to his skin [1]. He used the scroll again; shells of crackling lighting, lurid green liquid, flame and white frost surrounded him for a moment, then sank into his skin and disappeared [2]. He used the scroll once more and a ghostly circle of chainlinks haloed his head, then was distented and the circle of links shattered before vanishing [3].<br/><br/>"Alright. I'm ready for the next few hours. Does anyone here need any sort of magical wards or boons?"<br/><br/>He looked at the other people in the group, they'd all be relying on each other for the next little while. He just wasn't sure if he should be looking forward to having an<em>exciting</em>or<em>boring</em>time.<br/><br/>===========<br/>Actions:<br/>[0*]-UMD checks (All are 53) and Bluff Checks to Hide Spells cast<br/>[1]-Veil of Undead (Gain UD immunities, resistances, etc.) [Bluff 58]<br/>[2]-Omni Elemental Resistance (Just like the lower level version, only all four elements at once) [Bluff 55]<br/>[3]-Freedom of Movement [Bluff 64]<br/><br/>Also, yeah, most of the "background" stuff that I'm describing is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the Planar Circle in D&D is like. If anything, it's probably worse, and better. Since we're dealing with ultimate good, and ultimate evil; and their rewards and punishments.