Session 19

Recap:

- Arrived at Candlekeep that has 2 signs pointing to it for some reason
- Falaster got us in with his book
- Went to a pub called The Hearth. Ate, drnk, met a friendly Ogre named Little One.
- Went to see Sylvira. She warned us of the dangers of the Shield.
- The shield told Skraps to take it to the Hells. Sylvira offered to lock the shield away. But a coin flip decided we take it. Also the coin hurt Reya's head for some reason.
- She took the box and read us Thavius' contract. Became clear that Cassandra and Reya are also bound to it.
- We took some griffons to meet Traxigor, a sick otter wizard who planeshifted us and a hollyphant with memory issues named Lulu to Avernus
- We end as we arrived in Avernus and saw a woman with 2 toddlers being chased by 3 bearded devils.

• Aurelia fires a bow at one of the devils and his eyes begin to bleed and he's slowed. He shouts "Take the mother and kids alive. Kill these interlopers!" to his fellow devils. She then hits another with a second arrow, also slowing him. She yells at the family to RUN!
• Tzon dashes up and takes a few swings. Missing one, hitting with another stunning him.
• Balsam casts sanctuary on the mother and then summons bean, noticing the sigil on her face they yell "What the FUCK did they do? I'll deal with that later" and then they hop on and ride over to the devils, leaping over them triumphantly.
• Skraps slinks through some ruined buildings and throws a psychic knife at one of the devils which misses. He then tucks back behind a building and lights up a cigar.
• One of the devils runs up on Skraps, taking a hit from Balsam's lance. He attempts to hit Skraps twice, missing with his beard, slicing across his stomach with his glaive, which Skraps uncanny dodges. He still receives an infernal wound, however.
• Another Devil swings at balsam also hitting with a glaive into their deltoid suffering an infernal wound.
• Reya is psychologically stunned at seeing her home city in flames.
• The mother thanks us and starts running off, pulling her children with her.
• Lulu goes over to the family to protect them and asks them to stick around for questioning later. She starts emanating a golden light.
• Lily follows Skraps through the buildings, reacting to the burned body in the alley. She remarks on Skraps wound. She casts hex (dex) on the devil on skraps. She fires off 2 eldritch blasts hitting him twice doing major damage.
• Cassandra shakes Reya and says "They are relying on us! Get your shit together." She moves up and bends down, puts her hand on the ground, and an energy goes through the ground moving up through the feet of those targeted by the Bless spell (Everyone but Balsam)

• Aurelia does a sick wall run, grabs some of the roof shingles with telekinetic powers, and uses those to step along landing on the other side of the main devil. She then calls him out for going after women and children. She then swings twice with her rapier, landing with both. Hits with her short sword as well. ACTION SURGE Swings once more with rapier, CRIT, psionic addition. Major damage. She stabs with both swords into his center of mass ripping outwards slicing him open killing him. Finally she swings one more at the other devil close, also hitting.
• Tzon also yells at the devils about the women and children thing. He hits the devil a couple times landing with both. Flurry of blows. Hits with those two as well, attempts but fails a stun.
• Balsam takes some damage from their wound and then directs bean to rush at the devil hitting twice with their lance knocking the devil prone and divine smiting him. He is nearly down. They then rush over leaping over the other devil reaching out to lay on hands on Skraps. We both hear laughter in our ears and remember that Skraps can't be magically healed because of Myrkul.
• Skraps takes big damage from his wound and then shifts around to have a better angle (flank) and then stabs at the devil with his psychic blade twice hitting with both. The devil looks BAD.
• The devil by Skraps puts his hands up and drops his blade. "You need information I can give it to you" Skraps asks, "What the fuck is this?" as he points to his stomach. The devil responds "It's an infernal wound from my glaive."
• The devil by Tzon yells at his squadmate, "What the fuck are you doing?" He then attacks Aurelia with his beard and hits poisoning her. He swings his glaive at Tzon, who luckily avoids an infernal wound.
• Reya stands up, rage filling her eyes and runs next to Cassandra. She raises her crossbow, steadying it, and fires at the devil by Tzon, hitting and killing him.
• The mother and her children cower behind Lulu.
• Lulu holds her ground.
• Lilith demands that the devil take us somewhere safe. "Tell your friends to stand down!" She tells us to do so.
• Cassandra stands down and has a whole thing about being used vs useful. Being used is not her "bag of tea."

• Aurelia walks closer with her weapons raised. She throws up next to Skraps due to the poison. She tells Skraps he looks like shit.
• Tzon walks up fists raised telling the devil not to move a muscle.
• Balsam takes damage before healing themselves to fix the infernal wound. "Come close to me. "
• Skraps takes more damage and then throws up next to Aurelia's feet. "You're gonna want to staunch that," says the devil. He walks over to Balsam who tries but fails to plug the wound.

  Aurelia tells the devil to patch up Skraps to prove that he is to be trusted. "Yes Ma'am," he says as he goes in with his sharp nails, essentially stapling the wound closed. Lily hands him a nice bottle of wine to help him deal with the pain. The rest of that party and the family all come up to get closer. "No Kill it! Don't make a deal with it!" the mother shouts.

  Aurelia asks what their plan was with the family. He tells her that they were going to sell them. "Well now we have to kill you," Aurelia says immediately clasping her hand to her face. "WAIT NO" the devil exclaims as he reaches for his glaive. Everyone who was prepared for his betrayal all attack. Lily releases an eldritch blast, Aurelia slits his throat, Tzon runs up a wall and backflip kicks the devils head off going through the close window. He's very dead now.

  The mother makes her way up and thanks us for saving us. She tells us that many of the citizens died when the city fell. Many more have fallen since esp due to food and water scarcity. They were hiding in the cellar of a tavern until they ran out. They were discovered when leaving. Her husband died recently. The city has been split in two. This side is worse than the western side. She was trying to head to the High Hall, home to Elturel's leaders. She hopes that Kreeg could help. We tell her of his mistakes and him falling. She tells us Grand Duke Ravenguard might be there too. We offer to escort them to the High Hall.

  Aurelia asks if Cassandra feels any different being here. She is curious about the contract and if she's feeling any effects. Cassandra says she is unsure because no action she's taken necessarily goes against anything she's done. Lily asks if Cass feels anything in her body. Cassandra gets all weird about it saying its due to the cleric of it all. Balsam interjects and says that this is probably not a time Cass would be able to address how she is feeling. We decide to start heading towards High Hall to search for leads.

  Skraps brings attention to his wound again. It feels better but still hurts when he moves. Lily subtly drops a healing potion and kicks it back with her heel towards Skraps. Noone notices including Skraps. She tells him his shoes untied, which he responds with "No they are buckles." Still oblivious to the potion.

  We start heading towards the west. Lily picks the potion up and directly hands it to Skraps, who drinks it. An arc of lighning strikes from the companion hitting the city in a different location. We all feel the city lurch with a massive creaking noise. The family, Balsam, and Bean both fall prone with Bean falling onto my leg hurting me. A building collapses as I calm Bean down as we both get back to our feet. The family tells us we should move on.

  Cassandra sends Der'ik out to scout ahead. I pull her onto Bean to ride with me. We move through the city, we hear a voice shouting for help. Cassandra sends Der'ik towards the shout. Two baphomet looking fuckers with flies have cornered a human man backed into a corner around a shop. We plan to sneak most of the party around one side with the others going around the other side as a distraction. Reya and Lulu stay back to guard the family.

• We rush in and Balsam slams in with their Lance hitting twice.
• Aurelia sneaks up to the other one stabbing him thrice.
• Lilith moves her hex, and then Eldritch Blasts with a CRIT!!!!! Also hits with a second taking him out. The shadows come from the depths and suck all of the life out of it. She recognizes that these aren't devils but instead of demons which is strange.
• Cassandra swings twice with her war hammer (with a true strike) missing wide slamming into the wall each time.
• The human runs back into the shop closing the door.
• Tzon runs between Bean's leg doing a slide punching up into the demon hitting thrice with the aid of Cassandra.
• Skraps slinks through Aurelia and Lilith and jumps on the demons back stabbing into him twice. He shanks him a bunch killing him. "That'll teach you to fuck with the people of this city"

  The demons turn into a black sludge as the die. Aurelia warns us not to touch it. Skraps takes out a dagger and rubs it in the sludge. We realize that Avernus is the main battlefield of the Blood War. The demons ride on the river Styx on the front lines. Lilith moves up to the door to talk to the scared shopkeeper. She knocks politely. She informs him that they are gone and that he is safe for now. He cracks the door open. "Oh good. Thank you. I don't think I'd be here if you hadn't." It appears he is a blacksmith and this is his shop. Lily asks if we can look around. He allows us to. I call the family over. Lulu invites him to come with us to the High Hall if he'd like.

  Lily looks around inside. The forge isn't running. Inside are mundane of any type of melee weapon we could me interested in. He tells us anything we want is ours. He accepts our offer to go to the High Hall. He asks where we are from and asks if BG sent heroes to help. Lily says dunno about heroes but we are here. The man is clearly seduced by Lilith. Everyone else runs in. Balsam and Cassandra stay out to guard the door. Skraps takes a dagger. Lily takes a bunch of random weapons. Skraps comes back outside and dumps out some fine ink and scoops up some demon juice to refill it managing to avoid getting any on his fingers. He now has a small vial of demon ichor.

  The victims or whatever. The people ask if we might have any food. Cassandra gives them one each. (children each get half a ration.)