.....Rows of demons roared and snarled as they gathered around the spectacle.
Kroaxaas towered over the tiefling brothers his eyes burning a fiery red with rage. "VOON!" his voice boomed down at the smaller but older of the two. Kroaxaas never used either of his sons names he simply used the title "VOON" wich meant first born when he spoke to Dho'zark. He never addressed Khaz'nok at all, he would simply relay his commands through Dho'zark.
"VOON!" He boomed again as he rose from the obsidian throne and stepped down the three stone steps to where the two brothers knelt staring at the floor. His heavy hooves made the stone floor quake with every step as he descended. Dho'zark looked up as his father reached him and was caught by the throat immediately by his massive clawed hand.
The Balor lifted Him into the air effortlessly and held him a short distance from his face before Growling at him again. "VOON" he spoke again this time more calmly yet no less threatening. "You have dissapointed me", he said in the gutteral Abyssal tongue.
Khaz'nok still looked at the floor where he knelt and dared not look up to his brothers punishment. He knew that to do so might turn the punishment towards him and besides he could picture his brothers torment all to well. He would have enjoyed it more if he wasnt sure his torment would come next and most likely be far harsher than his brothers.
Kroaxaas had always favored Dho'zark, if it could be considered favor. Khaz'nok hated Dho'zark for this and enjoyed his brothers torment whenever it came. Dho'zark was always more compliant when it came to following his fathers commands. Khaz'nok had a hard time following any commands his father gave and hated him as much as his brother.
As Dho'zark squirmed and clawed at his fathers iron grip, Kroaxaas reached into Dho'zarks gasping mouth and ripped out his tongue as if he were picking a grape. Dho'zark shrieked as a gout of blood washed over his lips and across his fathers hand before he was tossed to the obsidian steps. "You will speak of names no more", Kroaxaas growled at the tiefling as Dho'zark flailed about painting the steps with his blood.
Khaz'nok could hardly contain his smile as the tongue fell to the stone where he kept his head down. His brother had made a pact with an inhabitant of the prime material plane in exchange for the true names of several of his fathers minions. Khaz'nok had encouraged Dho'zark to do just that, for he thought the chaos that would follow and his brothers punishment would be well worth any he recieved for playing a part.
He was wrong....
As Kroaxaas turned from Dho'zarks writhing form Khaz'nok prepared for his punishment. "Stand!" His fathers voice bellowed. Khaz'nok stood slowly his eyes never leaving the floor. "You are enjoying this?", The Balor said more than asked. Khaz'nok looked up slowly. Kroaxaas now had his black thorn scourge in hand. His giant red eyes narrowed as he stared at Khaz'nok.
It seemed an eternity before he opened his mouth to reply but before He could speak that terrible scourge was in flight. It hit the right side of his face tearing his cheek off and spinning him to collapse next to his brother. The two tieflings writhed in agony as their father drew his enormous sword. Azraels Twilight it was called. Black as the abyss with an evil edge that cleaved through stone, bone, iron, and even mithril as though they were cloth.
Kroaxaas stomped toward the prone tieflings and raised his sword. At that moment Dho'zark watched as his father, his brother and the Air around him seemed to blur. The air seemed to thicken and waver until all the shapes before him had changed to a new environment. There was no sign of Kroaxaas or Khaz'nok but he was in an old dusty stone room with strange writing on every surface. He was still dizzy from the pain but as his eyes began to focus he noticed a man thing looking at him. He tried to move but found that he movements were limited to a few paces in any direction.
"Listen and listen to me well spawn", the figure said to him. "In exchange for your cooperation and servitude I have summoned and enthralled you. You will find I am kind to my servants and therefore you shall be able to walk the streets of Sshamath at my bidding without recourse".
Dho'zark tried to speak but only spat blood. "You need not speak" the figure said. "We shall create a new language between us that no one can decipher". "It will be necessary should we speak in public". "You will find that I am kind". "You need not call me master". "You may simply call me Crudak".
And so it began as Dho'zark became an assassin and messenger for a powerful undead wizard in the underdark city of Sshamath.
As time flows differently in the Abyss, Khaz'nok's fate would be different. Though he experienced the same summons as his brother did at that same moment, it was a full year later and many miles away that He found himself stumbling around and old light house on the Sword Coast of Faerun. His face burned with agony as his blood dripped to the dusty stone floor. He reached for Vael'kynzor at his hip but found his scabbard empty.
His head was cloudy but he remembered he was not allowed to be armed when his father summoned him. Horror took him as he recalled he had left Vael'kynzor in the Abyss. He looked around for a makeshift weapon and eventually settled on a fishing net that he wrapped around a heavy stone.
He eventually made his way to an Inn where he sold his skills to any who could bear to spend time near him. After some time he began to learn the most common language of the people.
He spent alot of time gambling in Roaringshore and then took a loan out from a particular hin that goes by the name of Mossy.
He now spends his days collecting as much gold as he can to pay off the dangerous hin before the next cycle of selune.
Perhaps it was their twin blood or perhaps it was a ripple in the weave but Crudaks spell had summoned both brothers to Faerun seperated by miles of earth and stone. There they will forge a new destiny apart from what their father had planned for them.
But of course Kroaxaas has not forgotten their betrayal........