My eyes wander the cell I have seen so often. The dank chamber of the Prison was gray and dank. I was told that this area is a part of Carceri, and as evil and dark as this place is, I could believe it. They call my kind Slaadi, but I have long since been like any of my kind. Long ago, I was a scheming gray slaadi, trying to fulfill my chaotic schemes, create dissent in my own race. I found the ceremonies to make myself immortal, and they worked! I am now a Death Slaadi. With all my power, there is no escape for me here. Maybe this is punishment for not being the chaotic berk I'm supposed to be. I was created from the body of a great ranger, Kovorak, one of my kind infected him. I was the product of that result. Strangely I didn't feel his presence until I performed the ceremony. The deaths of those I killed in the Abyss to create me into who I am backfired in a way. That ranger was still present in the back of my mind. The ceremony and the deaths spurred him into flooding my mind. I wept, or actually made sounds that my kind might recognize as weeping. We lack the actual means to cry. I issued sounds dark and deep. In return for immortality, I lost most of my innate powers most slaadi of my stature have. All I received in return was the guilt and the knowledge. I am known as Xeeth, the death slaad. Prisoner in Carceri, stripped of all, looking through man's eyes.

One of the few powers I retained was the ability to turn back to human form. This was the form I was in now. It was not the form I was placed in here. The Slaadi Lords were upset with my new humanity. They framed me in Sigil, one of them posing as me killed a high up in the Mercykillers. Strangely they didn't kill me on the spot, but my death is assured. All the lives lost to gain my humanity, only to die because I am no longer who I am. I have a new cellmate, who's been unconscious since he has been here. He is a small, but strongly built warrior. The only reason I could see them putting him in here is if he is also destined to die, or they expect me to kill him, or torture him. I won't. I heard from some other prisoners that there is a way to escape, except the escape is into Carceri. If I had my powers, I wouldn't be so fearful, but without them, I am as scared as the rest. The prisoner isn't bruised, just wearing the padded armor one might wear under heavier mail.

Ten hours after his imprisonment, the prisoner awakens. He rubs his green eyes and peers at me. He doesn't see the Slaadi, because I am in human form. So I look like a man with dark hair and bright blue eyes, six feet two in height. I am wearing mostly rags, and a loincloth. "Greetings cellmate. I am Kovorak, fellow prisoner in this cell." The man stood up achingly and stretched. "Where am I?" I replied "The Prison of the Mercykillers. A pocket in the plane of Carceri." His eyes widened in fear. "Where is my shield, where's my sword, my armor?" I answer that, "I'd imagine it's in the Armory. So human, what did you do to get in here?" He looked at me sadly. "I don't know. I escaped Gehenna, just defeated a number of fiends to get into Sigil, and then I passed out." Hmm there has to be more than that, but he seems sincere. "They must want you here for a reason. They probably thought maybe I would kill you or eat you by now. He didn't seem too surprised, but he asked, "What are you, some sort of cannibal?" I revert to my Slaadi form and I croak out "No, cannibals eat their own kind, I am Slaadi." The warrior got into a fighting stance and prepared for a fight. In Slaadi form I am impervious to non-magical attacks. "I'm not going to fight you or eat you. I am much different than the Slaadi you have heard of." He relaxed his stance. "Why am I here?" he asked. I replied "Well you must have done something that the Mercykillers didn't like." He rubbed his brow and said "I remember fighting the fiends, and winning." Winning against fiends, either he's a great warrior, or a terrible liar. "Then they flew away, and then these guys in red armor came up and yelled 'halt!' and then I passed out. I hadn't slept in 2 days and I guess I ran out of strength. Is that your natural form?" I replied "Yes, I have always been Slaadi, but my host was human."

The mortal tensed up again. "It wasn't my fault. The red slaadi who infected my host, and my host was unable to heal it. He was a powerful cutter, so instead of turning into a Blue Slaad, he turned into a Green Slaad." The mortal's tension eased a little. "You don't look green. You look like a dark gray." I nodded "When a Slaad lives a number of years, we turn gray, and the sight of death nears us. Like most Slaadi, I attempted a ritual that would prolong my life. It succeeded in more ways than I expected." The human peered at me with his little human-sized eyes. "What do you mean?" I replied "My host's memories and soul combined with mine. I turned to a Death Slaadi, like most who perform the ritual, but I lost all my Slaadi powers, except to shapeshift from Slaadi to human form." The mortal looked in disbelief. "In return, I gained all the former abilities of my host, a powerful ranger. The Slaadi Lords betrayed me to the Red Death while I was in Sigil. I ended up here after that." The mortal has some sympathy in his eyes, but I could still see that he didn't trust me. Before he could say anything, the march of heavy boots caused us both to turn towards the door. The door opened and three members of the Red Death entered. They came to see him, because we were the only prisoners on this block and the Death came here to fed/torment me at certain times, and this wasn't one of those times. Lawful berks.

The bashers came to our cell. "Ah Bane, doesn't the big toadie scare you?" The basher started laughing. This was only the beginning of the taunts the mercykillers placed on me when I was first brought here. Bane rushed at the bars, and snatched his breastplate. The keys of the basher fell off into the cell. Bane's fist crushed the basher's face. He fell over unconscious. I've wanted to do that for months! Bane deftly scooped up the keys and had the cell open. One of the Mercykillers was moving to the door. "You'll pay for messing with the Red Death, committing crimes in Sigil." The other Mercykiller, a large half-orc had his sword focused on Bane. "Get back in cell." Bane lunged forward, pushing back the flat of the blade and smashing his fist into the much taller half-orc. The orc tumbled over. The other basher was rushing out the door to get reinforcements. I leapt over the fighters to chase after the other berk. In my Slaadi form, I was slower, so I changed back to mortal form and was easily able to outrun the berk. I changed back into Slaad and sliced the evil berk who was one of many mercykillers who tormented me here. I hammered him with my fists. I should have torn him apart, but my sensibilities are changing. I just beat him into submission. As I finished, Bane had pushed the orc down the hallway, holding the orc's sword. He is a great fighter! The orc was of course restrained as well to prevent the orc from attempting what Bane did.

Bane forced the orc to take them to the armory where Bane was able to get his impressive weapons, and items. His armor was expressly made for him in green steel chain mail, interesting! His other items consisted of a wavy bastard sword, which just from how it looked had to be magical. The shield with the black rose on it was his as well. He took none of the other equipment, except for a belt, which had some pouches. "Do you have any items in here?" I replied "no. I hadn't aquired anything here. I do have some things in Limbo, if I ever get back there." Bane saw that I was formidable in my Slaad form so he didn't pick up some weapon for me to fight with. We locked the two guards in the armory, gagged and tied. Bane started to run for the front gates. "Wait," I said, "there are at least a dozen mercykillers up there. I know a way out, except, it leads into Carceri." Bane didn't blink twice when he replied "ok, let's go."

I had heard there was an entrance to Carceri here, it would probably be safer for both of us there. Some of the fiends fear Slaadi. I don't know where I'll go. Back to Limbo? Pandemonium? Ysgard? Maybe the Outlands towards the inner rings, where the innate powers fade away anyways. We found the opening into Carceri, it was too small for my slaadi form, so I reverted back to human form. Bane led the way. I got dirty and wet, and it doesn't feel that good in human form. Water and mud never bothered my slaad form, how do these humans deal with it? The passage we crawled for what seemed like miles. Little bugs and beasts bit me, and it hurt. Bane seemed unfazed by it, maybe he is a powerful enough to ignore it. Suddenly the path sloped down, and we slid down the murky depths. After what seem to be like forever., we splashed into a swamp.

This was the famous swamp of Carceri. The human stood up and wiped some of the grime away from his armor. "Where do we go from here?" I didn't know, I shook my head sadly. We escaped, but we just escaped to a much larger prison. They may not even come after us because we are in a place even the Red Death wouldn't want to go. I revert to my Slaad form, and I didn't feel so cold. I pointed to a river off in the distance, it was the Styx. If this cutter had some jink, we may get a ride. We may die before we get there. A few shadowy creatures surrounded us. Shadow Fiends! They are fairly common on Carceri. “Meat” The creatures bellowed. Bane pulled out his bastard sword and struck the first fiend, and he perished with one blow! This is a powerful cutter! The other shadow fiends backed off. They are natural cowards, they attack in packs and if they face a cutter who could do what Bane did, they flee.

Bane and I continued to walk down towards the styx. I don’t like this place, it’s not like limbo. There you can shape the landscape, this landscape is so set, it’s also evil. Things like that didn’t used to bother me. I wanted to be a Death Slaadi, killing a dozen victims to reach this pathetic state, now things such as that bother me and evil bothers me. I feel so un-Slaadi like. Maybe that is why my kind wants me dead. No longer do I have the urge to feed on any berk that comes my way. I eat food humans eat! It doesn’t even disgust me anymore, openly that is.

We reached the Styx, it’s murky water had green growth poking out. Perhaps it doesn’t worry about losing it’s memory. Perhaps I could forget......I rush into the water...and I... I.....lost...............