What happens if you die in Hell?

[RyanW]

So the players in my Monster Hunters are on a raid into Hell to investigate a series of disappearances. Immediately on entering, they killed the barrier guardian (i.e. Hell's doorman).

Then they searched around a bit and killed two demons (the image of a werebear shoulder-checking a demon into a lake made up of degenerate souls* is pretty awesome). Then it occurred to them to ask three important questions:

1) Where are we going?
2) Is there any reason we need to kill everything we find?
3) What happens if we die in Hell? (They came to the conclusion that they would go to Super Hell)

Oh, it is fun running a game in which all the characters have Impulsiveness.

* Soul Water, now with 20% more souls!

[Anthony]

Based on various depictions of hell, you either cannot die in hell at all, or you get resurrected more or less immediately. It is probably also impossible to fall unconscious in hell, as that would imply a cessation of pain, though you can always interpret a failed consciousness roll as incapacitation caused by pain.

[Jerander]

What happens when someone dies on Earth? What is the nature of Hell?

Answering these questions will help answer yours as your question needs to sit in a larger cosmology/metaphysics.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Based on various depictions of hell, you either cannot die in hell at all, or you get resurrected more or less immediately. It is probably also impossible to fall unconscious in hell, as that would imply a cessation of pain, though you can always interpret a failed consciousness roll as incapacitation caused by pain.

In the Heroes in Hell series of books you get resurrected through a painful process of stitching a body together for you by The Bone Man.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Based on various depictions of hell, you either cannot die in hell at all, or you get resurrected more or less immediately. It is probably also impossible to fall unconscious in hell, as that would imply a cessation of pain, though you can always interpret a failed consciousness roll as incapacitation caused by pain.

I've already established that a demon killed on Earth goes back to Hell, but a demon killed in Hell is killed for good (whether there really is a Super Hell or not remains unanswered). I'm leaning towards "you irretrievably die". Perhaps quickly destroying a soul (or killing a bodily intruder) is like rushing through a meal, it gives the same number of calories, but isn't as satisfying.

The lake is made up of "degenerate souls" that I see as what is left after centuries of torment. Basically, a soul is eventually broken, to the point that mere existence is torment enough. At that point It Has No Mouth and It Must Scream. It/they did not take pity on the demon that fell off the platform.

In general, though, this is the kind of campaign that can easily have the rules and logic altered to a degree to fit the Rule of Cool and/or Funny, so I'm not too concerned with the metaphysics backing this. It's already been established that demons take coffee breaks and leave their personal belongings in lockers while on torment duty.

Also: The phrase "What the here?"

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by RyanW

So the players in my Monster Hunters are on a raid into Hell...

Just curious: what is "Hell" in this setting, how open are you to suggestions? I don't know Monster Hunter's setting but the thread title caught my eye, and it sounds like you aren't married to the default (if there is one).

Edit: Answered (at least partially) while I was posting.

What is a human being (or whatever the PCs are) made of? Different traditions can break things down into many variations: sometimes overlapping, sometimes distinct. Lately I have begun to favor Spirit/Soul/Body myself.

If you can bodily visit Hell, I would assume dying there either makes no difference or results in automatically being sent there. If there are "special sections", I might try for some dark (or not so dark) humor, because auto-condemnation from dying while in Hell would be one stupid way to pick that as your eternal destination (or even a not-so-eternal one if the setting permits).

[Not]

When Dante visited hell, he was constantly imploring Virgil not to leave him in this or that circle of punishment. Figures in hell were sometimes slaughtered over and over as part of their punishment, others tore themselves apart again and again.

The demons who chase them about ape military discipline as they poke at the shades with metal hooks. One of them salutes with a raspberry, and another "makes a trumpet of his ass."

Hell is dangerous, but the danger isn't that you'll be killed and reappear somewhere else, it's that you'll get stuck somewhere and experience the same torment as the damned. Dante's hell is full of swamps and boggy rivers. There are areas of fire, but the lowest levels are frozen lakes.

[Anders]

‘Trojan son of Anchises,
sprung from the blood of the gods, the path to hell is easy:
black Dis’s door is open night and day:
but to retrace your steps, and go out to the air above,
that is work, that is the task. Some sons of the gods have done it,
whom favouring Jupiter loved, or whom burning virtue
lifted to heaven.["]

I'd say if you die there, you get stuck in Hell, even if you were virtuous. So going down there is a much greater risk for good people than for evil.

[korbeau]

Originally Posted by Anders

I'd say if you die there, you get stuck in Hell, even if you were virtuous. So going down there is a much greater risk for good people than for evil.

Agree. If the corporeal vessel of the human go to hell, if you die i said you reappear in the prison Hell. Did you see the Hellraisers movie? That's worst then dead itself!

Gurps Fantasy can help you. It have a chapter about the world of the dead and they talk about heaven and hell.

In my campaign, Hell is more like a dimension than a world and cannot be enter with you corporeal body. I manage hell as the In Nomine setting where your soul is rip off you body and loose some "Celestial Force".

Good Luck

[ULFGARD]

It was just a dream?

You're in a hell, and you're gonna die in a hell, just like the rest of 'em!
-Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver)