After the battle at the bridge the party escorts the small group of refugees into the west side of the city and looks for a place to rest
- Find a shop to hunker down in and patch their wounds
Vigil pushes for them to keep moving towards High Hall
- Travelling south the party aims to avoid the large, open main boulevard and travel along smaller side streets and alleys
- The route to the hall ascends up a long gradual slope
- Passing out of the trade district they reach a cultural district around the boulevard
- Vigil describes the layout of the city and Eliseo takes the lead scouting the way through the ruins
On the way Eliseo hears a buzzing sound down a side street, investigating he finds a disc of darkness surrounded by a blue electrical energy
- Hayate suggests it might be a portal or gate
- They decide to leave it alone
As they climb the slope they can see further out across the city
- Sections of the outer wall have collapsed
- There seems to be a short stretch of land beyond the wall before the abyss
- Can spot the flaming rider flying a seemingly random search over the city
Further along Eliseo hears a high pitched conversation, possibly children
- He asks Vigil about smaller races in the city
- Vigil mentions that there is a gnome population
- Following the voices they find a male halfling talking to an imp perched on a door frame holding out a long piece of paper
- The halfling is reading the paper
- Observing, Strum relays that he is reading a contract
- It seems that the imp is offering rations for his soul
- Upon hearing this Marco breaks cover and interrupts, telling the halfling not to sign the contact and offering him rations from his bag of holding
- The imp is offering 28 days rations for the halfling and his family and the halfling seems unsure whether or not to sign the contract
- Vigil has had enough and instructs Eliseo to shoot the imp, the arrow catches the small creature in the side
- The halfling is shocked by this but Marco picks up the imp on the arrow and brings it over to the group
- Marco tries to find out where the imp is keeping these rations in exchange for its life
- The imp tries to get him to sign a contract
- The halfling continues to read the contract and suddenly cries out in outrage when he realises that the imp was tricking him into signing over all his family’s souls
- Eliseo holds out the imp for Vigil to finish off
Marco invites the halfling family to join the other refugees
- The halfling rushes off and returns with his wife and three kids
- Introduces the family as the Roundbottoms
Continuing up the hill the party reaches the end of the boulevard and finds an open plaza between them and the hall
- There has been a battle here, outside the hall
- There are bodies everywhere
- The main gates have been smashed in
- Behind the hall there is a large fire
- Several of the towers have collapsed and one blasted apart, the stones held in stasis, mid explosion
- On the battlefield there is an imp, looting the bodies
- Eliseo sneaks up on it and shoots it but is unable to stop it flying away
- Vigil tells the civilians to hole up and await their return
- They pick a nearby chapel to Byror
- It is relatively undamaged
- Has two white horses on the gates
- Hayate determines that it may still have protective magic
The party cross the plaza to the main gates
- There are many dead, hellriders, city guard, and armed civilians
- Vigil spots the captain of his chapter, ripped apart and impaled with a spear
- Beyond the main gates there is more wreckage and corpses
On the steps up to the cathedral itself are 4 large hounds, black with flaming maws
- Eliseo charges up the steps throwing his sword at one of the hounds
- The pairs of hellhounds launch themselves at Vigil and Eliseo
- Hayate blesses the group as the combat splits into two smaller melees
- Marco, Eliseo, and Hayate engage two of the hounds whilst Vigil, Reya, and Strum take the others
- The hellhounds manoeuvre around the groups, opening their burning jaws to breathe gouts of flame over the party
- Strum and Vigil find their innate resistance keeps the worst off them but Eliseo is caught in a blast and goes down
- Hayate rushes over to his side and casts cure wounds
- Catching one hound as it goes for Strum, Vigil finishes it off before turning back and obliterating another with a single smite
- Back on his feet Eliseo assists Marco and Hayate in finishing off the remaining hounds
At the top of the steps the party can see several huge statues
- Vigil knows that these once depicted previous rulers and hellrider captains but now they are twisted and warped into the shape of a female devil with angel wings
- There is bloody graffiti on the doors and the desecrated remains of several hellriders who held the doors to the last
- Inside the corruption continues, with frescos changed to show scenes of devils torturing people and Zariel being worshipped
- There is a vaulted roof and spiral staircases leading up to a stone balcony (and pipe organ)
- Vigil leads them deeper into the cathedral, past a set of huge dividing curtains
- Here there is a huge altar to Heol in the shape of a hand
- Beyond are more curtains dividing off private chapels, including one that was Vespucci’s altar
- The great altar is immaculate and Vigil approaches it, offering up a prayer
- The party are bathed in a sense of calm that radiates out from Vigil, their tiredness and pain washed away
Strum and Marco hear voices beyond the far curtains speaking infernal
- Looking through they see a white humanoid dragon like creature before an altar surrounded by kneeling cultists
Hayate knows that the dragon is an abishai
- Human that has made a deal with Tiamat so that when they die they are resurrected in hell as a dragon like fiend
Eliseo sneaks around the side and snipes a cultist, initiating the fight
- The rest of the party rush in and butcher most of the cultists before they can react
- The abishai turns around and roars in rage, charging into the party and focusing its attacks on Hayate
- The party gangs up on it and brings it down without too much trouble
Marco sketches the private altar, once for Heol, clearly now desecrated
- Torn flesh has been stitched together with guts to further mock the altar
- Hayate takes a look over abishai, finding pieces of the same stitched intestines in its jaws
- The cultists have symbols of Zariel
There are two staircases in the room – one is collapsed inwards and unscalable, the other has collapsed in further up
- Vigil knows that the destroyed part of the hall was the government section and that access to the cathedral catacombs was through that section, although there may be other entrances
They spread out to look for anyway down into the catacombs
- Marco goes to looks at one of the private altars and spots a large hunched hairy figure behind the altar
- It is robed, with a huge blueish hand holding the back of a head as if cowering
- He shouts at it to reveal itself and a head pops up
It’s a firbolg called Faran
- He confirms that the catacombs are where the survivors are hiding
- He was down there but ventured out to look for food and water
- There’s a secret entrance via the hand on the altar but he doesn’t know how to open it from this side
- Marco looks all around it but can’t seem to find an activation mechanism
- Marco offers Faran some rations
- The firbolg has some druidic powers, causing a seed to grow in his hand but the new plant withers and dies
- He says that his powers have waned in the evil
- Marco gives him his magic bean
- Hayate casts detect magic as a ritual
They reach the consensus that the passageway is sealed with magic
- Strum tries to open it with holy water but nothing happens
The party decides to check upstairs