Baator Hell, Sixth Floor.
This plane was an endless rocky slope, where cascades of stone were common, crushing everything in their path. The sky churned in scale-like patterns, and the devils of this floor sheltered in copper-plated fortresses designed to channel and deflect the frequent rockslides. Yet nothing could withstand the worst landslides, so the features of this plane were constantly changing, albeit slowly. Unless Asmodeus intervened, those changes could take thousands of years or more.
The pit fiend Flauros appeared on this plane.
Baator Hell had many harsh environments, and Flauros had long since grown accustomed to them.
As greater devils, pit fiends could adapt to most environments. Some time had passed since Flauros had advanced into a pit fiend, and he had visited most of Baator Hell's floors. Still, he operated mainly on the First Floor and the second floor, because those two offered more opportunities, while the lower planes of Baator Hell lacked sufficient chances for advancement. He had come here to complete an important task assigned by Soren. Though he was deeply reluctant to deal with the individual he was about to meet, the matter was no longer in his hands.
The original lord of Baator Hell's Sixth Floor had been an old hag.
The Hag Countess was not an archdevil, but an immensely powerful night hag from the Netherworld. The former Lord of Hell Moloch had once ruled this floor, but he was later overthrown. During a great rebellion that swept across the Nine Hells at some point in the past, he openly defied the Lord of Hell, Smortis. Most authorities agreed that this hag, one of Moloch's most trusted advisers, had urged him to rebel. Naturally, the rebellion failed, and when the reckoning came, the hag was installed in Moloch's place.
However, a hag