Session 28

Recap:

- Resumed setting up the ritual of returning to bring back Duke Ravenguard
- We anchored his body.
- Tzon held him down
- Cass got Lily to remind him who he is
- Balsam Cure Wounds pained him to force him to feel his form
- We started seeing visions of an angel riding across Avernus and other things.
- We focused and gained knowledge from the visions.
- Tzon spots the Duke with alternate versions of himself, all with threads connecting them.
- Aurelia noticed inconsistencies and saw BG with noble houses connected, and her family crest with infernal script (psionic asset unstable, eldest daughter suppressed)
- Lily saw a false ravenguard that launched itself at her. She also saw herself a party gathering secrets. (instrument remains unaware)
- Balsam yelled "Release my friend, or feel pain you've never felt! Release the duke, or feel pain you've never imagined!" at the false dukes. They saw devils torturing the refugees. and said in a voice not their own "Pain is not yours little devils. You only rent it." and the refugees were freed
- We called Ravenguard back to himself
- Skraps insisted Tzon give Ravenguard a massage which he did
- Aurelia reminded him that people depended on him
- Lily flirted with him
- Ravenguard awoke and updated us on some things that he saw. namely Lulu being with a woman and some kenku and such. And that BG is next
- He also spoke of Skraps and Tzons circus and the raksasha ('two escaped, one opened the way and saw the face'") and (fear wasn't the chain but the warning.)
- Spoke of Cassandra and a prayer room with a family crest with prayers that became punishment (Corrective Bond Approved)
- Tzon looks at all of our threads, but doesn't tell us
- Lulu remembered her helping the hellriders plant Zariels sword into the ground and raising a fortress around it. Also going to Fort Knucklebone
- Casssandra's blindness secret is revealed. And Lily and the others learn of the torture Cass went through and why she left Lily
- Skraps confirms that the portal was closed and that Gideon is still alive
- Finally Aurelia and Lily have some damn secrets. Lily's patron is Charon the ferryman of souls (only Aurelia and she know that I think)
- LEVEL UP

  Resumed after a 14 religion check from Aurelia as to what she knows about Charon. He's the ferryman of souls, the boatman of the lower planes. He's of the yugolof (sp?) race (in between devil and demon). domain isn't any one of the specific lower planes, its the river Styx. Mysterious fella. No allegiances to either side of the blood war. Self serving. collects hefty fees from those who wants to use Styx. Deceitful and self-serving. Aurelia has no clear knowledge as to when the pact was formed other than before all the murder stuff happened

  Aurelia scolds Lily for making the warlock pact. Lily downplays the evil of Charon and the risk of such. Aurelia says she doesn't know what to do as she is a terrible liar. Lily asks her to try to keep it in as it's her information to share specifically with Cassandra. It's altogether a touching moment with talks of love and being hard to love and such.

Affable and Likable in the Hells (POTENTIAL SESSION NAME!)

  The two make their way back to the party encampment. It takes them a moment to fall asleep with thoughts racing, but eventually they do. As they fall asleep, WISDOM SAVE. Something clearly happens to Aurelia but our characters probably don't know that. There was just an immediate convo with Dustin and Caroline.

  We all awaken the next morning. It's daunting the idea to leave Elturel and go into Avernus proper. Lulu comes in with so much energy and optimism. Aurelia has already been up for 30 minutes and is all packed up. Lulu tells us that the first problem is how to get down to the river styx which is 500 feet down. There are 4 chains that bind Elturel to Avernus proper as an option. There is still a battle raging beneath us.

  We look beneath to check out the battle. Lots of demons and devils fighting. most of them are lower types. Floating on the river itself are barges with pit fiends and flying dudes. Lily suggests maybe if she disguises herself as a Succubus we can be her captives under her spell. Cassandra offers to make a few people heartier. Everyone but Cassandra, Lulu, Tzon, and Balsam. the Aid spell I think she said. Kind of feels like an opiate.

  Lulu can fly with Skraps, Lily and Aurelia are going to teleport. The rest are going to climb down the chains. Ravenguard comes up and thanks us and tells us the citizens of BG would be lost without us and that we are true patriots. Reya has pledged to keep Elturel safe as long as she can, but the rate that Elturel is descending he fears we only have 30 days before its too late. He tells us to find the sword and trust the hollyphant (Lulu) and we will all have statues erected in BG in our honor. Pherria also comes up and thanks us for everything.

  We say our goodbyes and head out of the cathedral. We head out into the streets trying but mostly failing to be stealthy. We end up finding a charred humanoid corpse in the streets clutching a slivered long sword. Aurelia approaches the body to check it out, a bunch of hellfire erupts from the body just hitting her as she tries to jump out the way. Aurelia realizes its not that suited for her and gives it to Cassandra but crazy awkwardly for some reason. Cassandra picks up something from that but it's all private and stuff. Cassandra notices an intact vial on the corpses belt pouch. It's filled with a transparent liquid with a sliver of fingernail floating in it. Cassandra whisper asks if she's offended Aurelia. Aurelia awkwardly doesn't answer.

  We move along towards the nearest chains. We make a plan and start making our way down. It's not too hard to move down them. The barbs on them make good handholds. Balsam carries Cassandra. Lulu flies Skraps down. Lily and Aurelia just watch on. The heat of the metal makes it hard to hold onto. It happens twice and the second time Balsam fails and takes extra damage, and then loses their grip. Tzon reacts but is unable to catch us. Balsam tries and fails to slip a ring onto Cassandra's finger. We start to plummet and Lily and Aurelia dimension door to the bottom. As they appear we splash into the water directly beside a demonic barge. Cassandra takes an extra major amount of psychic damage knocking her unconscious. Balsam can't swim. Tzon knows this. Also we had the psychic link up with skraps, tzon, balsam, and aurelia so they all now also know.

INITIATIVE

• There are lots of spined devils. Names: Elevated Tit, Fuck, Dickless Dave, Caustic Cunt, Baguette, Gay :), Hell's Hottest Milf, I sent Foot Pics, Assless Chaps, Jog On, Looksmaxxing Loser, and Kinda Mogging
• Also a Pitfiend named Lucille
• Tzon swan dives down and takes that psychic damage. he also goes unconscious.
• Aurelia sees Balsam sinking and Tzon and Cassandra floating face down in the water. She tells Lily that they have to save the others and starts running towards the water. Over the psychic link she tells Balsam to get it together and save the others and to manage the "pain" of the fear and that the others will die if they don't try to kick their legs. She throws a rope towards Balsam.
• Lily points at one of the Spined Devils (hells hottest milf) and tells them to go get the others out of the river. It goes all "but but but" and looks to the pit fiend and to Lily back and forth and is like "I'm busy fighting for Lucille" and then finally it agrees after a successful "do it anyway" persuasion check
• Lucille doesn't seem to notice us and tells her devils to move west and get the demons off their battlefield.
• Skraps tells Lulu they have to get down there. She action dashes her way to 80 feet above the water. Skraps tells her to swing him to land on the land right next to Aurelia and take some damage. He creates a lasso to try to fish Tzon out of the water.
• the Spined Devils are engaged in combat. I Sent Foot Pics, and Jog on seem to notice that we are present. Hells Hottest Milf flies towards us to try to get us, specifically Cassandra to pull her out of the river, dropping her heavily onto the shore.
• Cassandra death save. In her unconscious mind "It would be so easy. Let me help you" the masculine voice from earlier says. She still tells him she'd rather die.
• Balsam grabs the rope and attempts to reach out with their Lance to catch onto his clothing, They are just able to grab him, and pull him close enough to dump every bit of Lay on Hands into him. (secret secrets between Dustin and Ben) Then they start climbing their way out. Dropping their lance on the way out which sinks down. They are just able to make it to shore but still in the water.
• Tzon gasps for breath and starts running towards Hell's Hottest Milf yelling something incoherent. He tries to attack them, but misses. Wholeness of body heals himself. It looks to Lily and tells her to get her prisoner in line.
• Aurelia goes to Cassandra and pours a potion of healing in her mouth, and then drags her away from HHM.
• Lily yells out "Follow me Prisoners!" and starts walking away. It doesn't seem to bother anyone.
• Lucille looks over and doesn't pay us any mind
• Lulu flies her way down and makes a mean face and shoos us along

BREAK INITIATIVE

  Cassandra immediately starts sobbing loudly, and then Tzon starts babbling and tries to touch her where she flinches away. Lily crouches down to Cassandras level and says she will be our eyes and ears for now and tells us to follow. Cassandra flinches again and curls into a ball. Lily is able to tell that Cassandra and Tzon have lost their minds to the river Styx vis a vis the 2014 version of the Feeble Mind spell.

  Balsam picks up Cassandra and apologizes profusely, and then she curls up tightly terrified. Lily digs out her manacles and puts one side onto Tzon and carries the other side. We all take up our roles of being under Lily's spell and we make our way inland. Lulu leads us towards Fort Knucklebone. We start trying to find a place to rest.

  Lily leads us. She sees Avernus clearly and is able to see that there isn't battle everywhere. She sees broken down war machines littered about. They look like mad max cars broken down. Bodies and pools of black ichor and general devastation. She finds a massive war machine thats been looted and destroyed and can supply some cover for us. It looks like a Dune spice harvester.

  Aurelia asks Lily how long the insanity lasts. It'll last for 30 days until they can make another check unless powerful magics can fix it. Lily investigates the shield that Cassandra has. She speaks to it and asks it to assist us. It says we would need to find someone to free him Mordenkainen the archminister is around and he could do it. He says someone at Fort Knucklebone might know where he is. Lily says we will go along with this for now.

  Lily brushes herself off and attaches Tzon to a beam. Balsam has just been stroking Cassandra's hair and trying to calm her down unsuccessfully. Aurelia asks if Lily can ask her patron. Lily says she asked the shield. Aurelia gets excited at meeting the archminister. Balsam lashes out about it. Lily says she doesn't want to ask her patron because it gets messy. I stand up and tower of Lily and say "whatever we must do to fix them, we do". I then summon Bean, and sit down back with Cassandra. We take a short rest. Aurelia plays a song that comes out a little sour. The notes feel all wrong to her. It doesn't convey the emotion she means to convey. It sounds less comforting and less hopeful.

  Tzon hears in his head "I can make this stop." Tzon asks who the voice is, which he doesn't get an answer to. Tzon wants details. It asks him to kill Mad Maggie. He doesn't know who that is. It tells her when she dies, the madness ends. Tzon can't tell anyone this. Tzon is now under the effects of the Gaes spell. (Modified to being not being able to take the damage more than once per minute as opposed to each day) It means that he meets her and tries to help her or leave he will take that damage.