Tales of Avernus
Website: www.dsouza.uk
Vigil heads over to the Kenku to see about these elephantless, horseless, oxless plows and work out what they’re all about. Strum has a chitchat with Anri as he fears the ritual will be useless and/or banish them. Marco is brooding about childeaters being everywhere and not being allowed to kill them. Hayate is thinking of ways to reinforce or supersede the ritual, as he is very unsure that the ritual will work and/or doesn’t trust her. So he wanders back into the tent to see what she’s up to.
Guts mentions several warlords - Maggadragga (boar), Bitterbreath (devil whose title has been stripped), Theonor (she doesn’t speak and is a human - a necromancer), Maggie obvs, and Prince Septakovic (sp?), a chain devil from an old legion, last survivor, he’s bucked the devil hierarchy and is a warlord now. Travel isn’t safe, so war machines are needed to traverse the area, and note the wandering emporium is neutral ground. Guts also is good at being on gate or latrine duty in times of war. Eliseo takes a look out - all the way to the river Styx and Elturel with its storm above the city (the Companion’s evil twin rages above it). As Eliseo looks to either side of there, it’s just rugged terrain, rock, hills, mountains and travel really does need war machines to avoid the raiders and warlords. Whilst we’re relatively nimble and experienced it’s still perilous. He shows Guts the route we’ve taken and shares some more pleasantries.
Vigil wanders up to a war machine, and around, perusing it. He sees 4 types of machine, common but not identical. A two-wheeled one-person vehicle, the rest being larger, and the biggest is a 6-wheeler getting progressively large from front to back with a cannonball at the rear and will keep several within. Another has some sort of weird thing at the front to scoop people up. Vigil spots they must be mechanised as there’s no tack to attach beasts. Some are in disrepair, some in battle and bloodstained, some fire damaged. Some are vaguely ready to go! The one being looked over by the Kenku is the massive wrecking ball 6-wheeler. Vigil wanders up and kibitzes. One Kenku (Chukka) seems to be the mechanic, talking to the other, surrounded by bits and pieces. The other is Clonk, bigger and more pilot/driver. Chukka asks Vigil if he could fix this, and Vigil admits to not having seen one before. Clonk is vexed Vigil won’t help but Chukka explains it’s a war machine, and shows Vigil how they move when Vigil notes that animals can’t be attached. Turns out to be fueled by Demon Ichor and Soul Coins, and the Kenku explains clunkily that soul coins are the currency of Avernus. Soul coins being spirits of people ensnared after doing deals with devils. Vigil has a go learning all about what a “throttle” is… He definitely does not understand how this thing works.
Crows!!!! Marco summons an owl familiar in a burst of fire. Imps appear called pins and needles. The imps mention Wazick the madcap plans to kill Anri, shocking behaviour. They point him out, mentioning Wazick will ‘jump’ us, and tell Marco they need to sort this guy out. Marco calls over to Wazick, who asks what he wants, and Marco just says ‘you plan to kill my friends?’ and Wazick yells at Pins and Needles, draw swords and the Madcaps charge at Marco. He starts up bladestorm and prepares to dodge, whilst 2 madcaps charge at the imps, but Wazick seems to want to sickle off Marco’s crotch. The imps fly up, land on Marco’s shoulder and urge him to kill Wazick. Marco looks for someone who outranks these idiot Madcaps, and sprints over to Guts and Eliseo. Needles clings to the shoulder whilst Pins flies along, but the Madcaps are outran whilst they charge after. Marco shins up and explains what’s going on, Pins and Needles protest they didn’t start a fight, and Guts recognises Wazick. Marco asks Guts to deal with it, and as the first madcap crests the ladder, Guts lops the madcap’s head clean off with the sickle. Wazick looks round, glares at Marco and hisses “later!” and they skulk back off. Marco prods Needles with a sword and says “you good get go now”. Needles asks what Marco will do about Wazick, and Marco says ‘if he returns we’ll kill him’. Pins and Needles turn back into crows and fly off, and the owl familiar is asked to keep a watch on them.
Strum sits with Anri, who’s phasing in and out, and explains it’s hard for them to be singular. Strum asks Reina, struggling to manifest and explain her thoughts, and she says it hurts to be this way, and she’d rather not exist than be imprisoned. Strum asks how it happened and Reina mentions a deal made to save us, but a cost that was made too high. Strum mentions they left, but they said ‘not by choice’. Strum points out in the letter that he’d done something wrong, and Reina says the letter isn’t hers/her. Strum is perplexed by this, and Reina looks more and more confused too. Apparently she made a deal and is the payment, but Strum doesn’t know what deal and from whom. Reina says “him” but can’t remember, but suggests if Strum/Reina were together he’d see (but she can’t speak of ‘him’). She remembers being caught in a trap, by someone (rackshasa (sp)), then says she’s disappearing, and Strum says he’s glad he got to talk one last time. With a struggle she tries to manifest enough to put an arm on him.
Hayate tries to wander back into the hut to view Maggie’s preparations, and she’s sit on a black cushion, with her sister skulls sitting apart forming a triangle. She’s gotten a ton of books out, ranging from leatherbound, to string-bound, one which is breathing, another covered in blue slime, weirdness. Languages include Infernal, Abyssal, Draconic, … and she’s comparing, making notes etc. Very scholarly. They have a chat and Hayate remembers something about contacting people in dream realms e.g. comatose states, curing of amnesia etc. So is aware of the stuff Maggie is looking into. It’s obviously dangerous to the one travelling in. Hayate suggests a bit of warding/protecting boost. Maggie has an idea of getting the Elemental away from Nuriel - but has a plan for that involving Sarlacc stones, pulling out a couple. Hayate takes one, and gets a weird sensation like pressing on two magnets repelling each other. That in reverse, tho, where the stones being separated pull back on each other! The stones are black and polished with runes carved on it, more arcane Draconic. Whilst Hayate hasn’t seen the stones used in this way, it could work but would be strenuous, taking toll on the souls and the part of ‘ripping’ would be painful. The intention is for the elemental to get peeled off. The angel apparently spent most force protecting the sword, so we see the residue. The plan therefore is a) remove the elemental, b) go into the angel’s dreamscape and piece back some memory, and c) I guess try to make sure the angel doesn’t dissipate. Maggie asks some stuff about Tente and they swap some arcane knowledge.
Eliseo gives Guts an ill-advised promotion to Warrant Officer and Guts immediately starts wielding this around camp, leaving Eliseo to keep watch, which he does in relative companionable silence. Hayate, in the intervening time, has learned some basics surrounding conjuration stuff. Several hours roll by and our circadian rhythms call it evening, and we gather back at Maggie’s hut as the crows caw us over. We congregate and find Hayate with her as well, and she feels ready for stage 1. We’re beckoned to sit down with them, and we form a fairly large circle, with the two stones in the middle of the circle, starting connected, and Hayate will be taking one - the plan being that the elemental goes into this one, the latter being for Nuriel. Hayate suggests taking Strum outside to explain, but Strum says no secrets in the group! As Hayate gets confused about whether or not he’s told a lie, then explains the rocks to Strum. And explains the nature of temporary vessels, and that Anri may needs Strum’s help.
Reina, picking up on Strum’s confusion and frustration at Maggie, shares her name with Maggie defiantly, but Maggie begins tracing the runes with her finger and incanting, so the spell begins (Hayate is aware) and amongst the incantations we all hear Reina’s name, and the runes carved into the stone start to move from white to blue, and the stones glow blue. The stone goes to the ground, picks up the other stone and ‘Nuriel’ is named on this one and the runes glow gold, the stone laid back down, again side by side. Maggie walks over to the gold one and gestures to Strum to come forward, and he does, gesturing to pick up the blue stone. “Right boy, slowly now, slowly does it, and step back”. She starts backing up, and Strum does the same.
Strum feels the weird pull/push magnetic attraction/repulsion feeling, very odd. Anri is staying still but as the two stones move away, the gold and blue colours are pulling at Anri, with a ‘cloak’ being pulled in each direction: the gold seems to pull easily but the blue hands are grabbing at the gold aura, like they’re afraid to let go, like a guttering gas flame. More steps backwards and the beings look more separate and with one further step, the gold gets pulled into Maggie’s stone and she’s bathed in a corona. The blue sticks for a second more, then blinks/sputters, and then slowly drags towards Strum’s stone, losing its form. Reina is pretty invisible now, just blue light which coalesces round the stone. The others see sparks of lightning amongst the blue light surrounding Strum. The sides of the shanty hut shake and rattle as a wind blows around. Strum hears his own thoughts but realises he’s also sharing his conscious space with Reina as the blue light goes into Strum - and the stone goes back to white. Strum drops the stone and collapses, out cold. Maggie meanwhile drops her stone, white runes as well and Maggie steps back once more, with a huge grin, drooling, and in front of her is an angel, clearer than before.
The angel in front of Maggie is ethereal, androgynous, and stronger in form, not flickering in/out. Nuriel has manifested physically. Not bad. Maggie is pleased it worked! Hayate goes over to Strum, who has come to - at least, breathing regularly. Hayate is looking Strum over, vitals fine, but one eye is red and the other blue. Newly heterochromic. Maggie is most impressed by all this, seeing another thing rattle around in Strum, then asks about phase 2. Apparently we all have to wander into Nuriel…
…that concerns Eliseo since Wazick is out there and wants to kill at least Marco, if not Nuriel too, and others. If we’re all in some dreamland…Vigil points out the need is to work out what the heck happens next, alongside Maggie’s intrigue into the fall of Zariel, the betrayal of the Hellriders and all sorts of other fascinating stuff. Nuriel is struggling to remember this dream but also remembers being forced into the river Styx? Vigil explains the city is being pulled down by Zariel and he needs Nariel’s help to save the people there, which requires remembering a sword. And where it was put. “I didn’t carry it, it wasn’t me, it was Yale (sp), best and most loyal of Zariel’s battle commanders. Zariel entrusted the sword to them for safety and, I can’t remember why, I left Zariel’s side and went with Yale and the sword but we were hunted by something, I can’t remember who, and when we couldn’t escape I did what I could to protect the sword. I think I tried to end my life but it didn’t work”.
So before we head into the dreamscape, Eliseo asks Warrant Officer to stand guard and kill Wazick if he comes near, then spots the huge goliath thingy who was guarding anyway, lol sigh, so we settle in for a snooze. As we drop off, we hear each others thoughts - Vigil unimpressed by the angels, Marco grumpy to be in the keeping of the witch who eats babies; Hayate is 100% dedicated to Tente. Eliseo is considering demoting Guts; Strum and Reina are both thinking “withholding the truth is a form of lying”. None of us hear Maggie but she mentions it takes a while to get used to…then we spot her lips aren’t moving…and she shares the fact we can communicate with one another this way, and away we go - our eyelids droop as we go under. A bright flash of white light, fade to dark…
We see warm sunlight filling the area, and within that space Nuriel is flying lazily above a lush meadow, at the shoulder of a blindfolded angel, bigger than Nuriel, female, and as they stroll through the grass Maggie’s voice fills our mind - “push through this vision, it only represents what Nuriel wishes were true. This is the facade he’s holding in his mind of his companion. We need to push through this first layer of delusion”. Strum and Marco materialise next to one another, realising this isn’t the real place, and look at one another, but looking at Vigil, Hayate and Eliseo, they have dumb gurns on their face and are clearly not realising it’s a fiction. Strum slaps them as Marco notes how happy they look, and it’s a shame they slumber. We all come to as well, realising the meadow is unreal. Maggie isn’t with us. We then find ourselves in a barren hellscape in a circle of fire. In the centre lie, prone, unconscious and horribly bleeding, lie Nuriel and the other angel. We see ourselves defending these figures, forming a protective ring around them. Vigil looks at his companions, but each of them is wearing some sort of flag standard out their backs with the Hellrider pennants. When we look at Vigil, he’s wearing incredibly ornate battle armour, which looks amazing, plated and well made. He doesn’t seem to have his horns, in this dream state.
We see 7-8ft tall chain devils, who strike Hayate twice then another grapples Eliseo, wrapping him in barbed chains, and Eliseo fails to escape from the grapple. Marco seeks to turn invisible but before that spots the eyes of the chain devil turn into the eyes of a loved one, and he can’t shake the view and is frightened by this look. Marco gets bladesinging, goes invisible and seeks to avoid his source of fright. Vigil also catches the eye but shakes it off and smites the hell out of the big boy. Hayate takes some more chainy damage to his brain, then he summons forth his spiritual weapon and pierces the chain devil. He then attempts to turn the chain devil grappling him. Big boy goes spear, spear, tail on Vigil but only strikes a single blow. Strum targets big guy with shatter, causing the flames to briefly blow out, and Strum sees across the landscape, there are just corpses as far as the eye can see - Hellriders and devils. We’re on a hill overlooking the sea of bodies.
The chain devils continue attacks on Hayate/Eliseo, and Eliseo once again fails to break his grapple, starting to panic now. Vigil gets his branding smite on, bashing away at the big boy. Hayate gets chonked again by chains and his lance just misses on the chain devil encircling him. Vigil once again only get clipped once thanks to plate, shield and his style. Strum gusts the chain devil grappling Eliseo, blowing him away and into the flame. The Chain devil stomps past Eliseo going for Strum, and Eliseo hits him on the way past before the devil hits Strum for his impertinence. Eliseo hits the chain devil again then stands over the bodies of the angels. Marco sets about the chain devil who’s been troubling Hayate. Vigil has a go at big boy before Hayate scares the heck out of the chain devil. The big boy now hits back on Vigil, landing a couple of blows. Sadly as the damage is psychic, Vigil’s health looks rather perilous. Strum lets loose another thunderwave from the ground where he hits his Hellrider banner in.
The Chain devil runs from Marco, freeing Hayate from the grapple, and he explodes in boom-boom booming blades. The other one advances again on Strum, and Eliseo steps up to fight big boy but absolutely misses, whooooooooops. Marco skips over, still invisible, and smashes big boy, but also misses. Sheesh. He then hits with the second shot. Phew! Big boy is starting to look a bit dinged up, and Vigil, choosing between defence and attack, chooses attack. It lands, and then Hayate joins the big boy fray too, inflicting wounds and the like, mixes up his blood with the wounds, dragging the big angel down and howling in pain, and the chain devil advancing on Strum dissipates, and the fire encircling the hilltop fades out. The demon, now incapacitated on the floor, offers its servitude to the group.
Vigil won’t have any of that crap even though we all got a choice - and chops it off at the neck. Maggie is impressed by this line of attack and compliments Vigils work. The landscape changes again as we are in an area surrounding black sludge, which grips our ankles and overwhelms us with a psychic sense of loss and despair. Maggie tells us that the sludge mustn’t consume us and we must push through his defences (Nuriel), who doesn’t want to remember. Strum jumps out, Marco misty steps away, Vigil and Hayate pull themselves free but poor old Eliseo gets mired in this and feels pretttttty glum. Marco tosses over some silk rope and Eliseo flicks his way out of the sludge, breathing heavily. We all start walking up the barren hill, shaking off the black sludge. We reach the summit and it’s cratered on the opposite face, a hollow mound, and looking down into it we see Nuriel, sitting cross-legged on the floor. As we descend the hill towards him we see Nuriel’s head is fractured, and the skull in several pieces, it’s like his head/skull exploded but paused mid-shatter, and the expression on his face is devastation and loss. The most overwhelming emotion is loneliness - an age of being alone. He opens his eyes and sees the five of us with him and the skull fragments settle back as his head mends. Although his face still looks haggard and wary, the tiniest hint of a smile flicks the corners of his mouth.
With that, we all come to - in Maggie’s hut. She’s sat on the cushion but conscious and glazed over, with a look of pure ecstasy and spaced-outness. Grinning, gurning, drooling and smacking her lips, we look at each other and we are all unwounded. Nuriel in the middle wakes up, eyes open and he says ‘the sword, the sword: I know where it is’.
Nuriel looks around and says “I think I know, no, I know where it is”. Eliseo stands Guts down, then pops back into the tent and Nuriel says “I think I remember, Yale was with me, and so was another of Zariel’s general, Haruman, and the sword, we put it into the ground, we gave everything to it, I gave…” looking down at a fracture in him “I put a little bit of myself in it and a great fortress appeared but something went wrong, something corrupted it and the fortress was surrounded in corruption. Something encased the sword, even though I’d already done that with the fortress. I don’t remember what happened to Yale, although Haruman was with me. I think I remember the mound the fortress was in - a huge hill on the bank of the River Styx. A huge structure. That’s where it is.”
Vigil remembers these people from Hellrider legend. Straina may recall a story or two, too. Vigil reiterates it’s a hill by a very long river. Vigil asks Nuriel if there’s anything else we can advise to help us. We do note a Haruman’s Hill on our map, but struggle to recall where we are. Vigil presents the map to her and asks her where we are. She looks at it crosseyed, and laughs at the attempt to map Avernus, but notes we’re on the wrong side of the bank, and we’d have to cross it - there used to be bridges and ferrymen, and as Marco had never heard of the Styx - Maggie reminds us that memories are lost by those who sink it it, and the abyss eventually takes them. Maggie says intel sent back from Haruman’s hill would be valuable. Hayate and her share some words whilst Marco sketches her.
We hear a clanging noise - a metal bang - an alarm! Maggie curses “newtsticks and nettlebones, what now, what now?”, bumps into Mickey and we head out to see what’s occurring. The alarm is coming from the gatehouse, Guts emerges from a hut - he’s been trying to fashion a badge on his redcap, he sets it aside and runs to join the fray. Eliseo runs after and shins up the ladder to the gate house; meanwhile Maggie just shins up the wall and lands atop. Eliseo gets atop and sees the madcap raising the alarm and points out the same way Eliseo scanned earlier. In the near distance a red cloud is coming from the ground at us, and whilst we can’t make shapes it looks like a herd stampede. Hayate is with us too and asks Maggie if she’s expecting guests. “It’s one of the rival warlords, I expect”. Guts asks who it might be, we say maybe Raggadragga but the forms coming out of the cloud are war machines. Maggie mutters “haven’t had a fresh batch since the last attack we repelled. Look, I’m not sure I have the strength to repel another attack, I’d appreciate your aid in fending these off. Payment: tell you what: you successfully defend the fort, you can take that with you to the river and beyond, however far it’ll take you - and all the fuel you need”. Marco also asks her to promise never to eat another baby too, and she agrees (only because she hasn’t seen a baby since she came to Avernus [and also she’ll just eat toddlers]).
Deal: she sorts the troops out and prepares to get ready. It is Raggadragga! Eliseo and Guts head to a nearby ballista and fires a bolt at a 2wheeler in the vanguard, and we hear a squealing within but the vehicle continues. Marco heads to the other ballista hastily, and alas it doesn’t sail true. The vanguard move forwards and drop what look like metal ramps along the front of the walls, and the 2wheelers use this to zoom over the walls and land in the camp. The command area drives up a bit, pops open a hatch and launches something at the gatehouse - a sort of small barrel. We see it flip over and smash into the gatehouse, and as it hits some purple fire emerges from the broken barrel and it spreads across the gate. Vigil skips out the way of the purple fire and eyeing up the fast-moving vehicles attempts to land on one, but misses by distance and speed. He thrusts an axe into its axle, and causes it to wobble a bit. Strayna kicks up an interesting aurora, which to us is colourful and a bit mesmerising, but to those inside it’s kaleidoscopic, causing a stupor in most of the convoy beyond the wall. Hayate turns to inside the wall, and looking at the invaders, fires a flame at a rat bike, and then spiritual weapon to boot. Guts leaps off the burning gate and lands nimbly, but 2 madcaps burn up, punting ichor out as well threatening Marco. The redcaps in the walls set about the rat bikers.
Eliseo leaps off the burning gate, outside the gatehouse, and throws his boomerang at the vehicle within, causing the car to fall apart. It reveals the dazzled driver within, starry eyed and full of red neon, and the vehicle is falling apart around them, exposing the creatures. Marco leaps off the gates too and stabs the hell out of the exposed pigbeasts. There’s now a huge collision and the vehicle smashes and the passenger is flung out of the windscreen, lands prone and is pretty mashed up. The command vehicle crashes into the gatehouse, they get stuck in and are slightly cooking. Hayate observes the rats to be were-rats (happy to be in moonless Avernus) as they set around the redcaps. Vigil now attempts to mount the command vehicle to get within striking distance of Raggadragga. Shaking off the fire, he scales the vehicle and slashes at Raggadragga, hitting cleanly. Straina now shatters upon the heads of command vehicle. They all take the ringing shrillness as well as the vehicle, which is now in pieces. Hayate hops off the wall, strides over to were-rats and says “Vile abominations, don’t you know this area is under Tente’s protection?” and calls forth spirit guardians to protect them. The spirit weapon comes over and lands a shot too. The defending madcaps and redcaps strike back whilst Guts calls out for Lieutenant Eliseo. The madcaps don’t do a lot but Mickey absolutely lumps one.
Eliseo tells Guts to stay back, slashes the boar in front of him, and lets Guts know things are going great. Marco misty steps back through the gate to Guts, and surveys the field, and decides to back Hayate up, seeking to play splat the rat. He lands a blow and the rat reacts with an attack, causing Marco to riposte and duly splats rat. He also moves and strikes another. The wererats then take some damage before moving to strike Marco, but in his hasty, sword whirling, multiweaponry mad dexterityness, he’s utterly unhittable. One of the wererats hits back on Hayate’s spiritual weapon and guardians. The command vehicle boars try to step out of the car; one gets away but the other Vigil clocks and hooks back into the car. Raggadragga is in a paroxysm of rage, stays put, stands and clubs twice, hitting Vigil once before trying to gore with his tusks, which also hit, and gives Vigil a sort of ‘blackness’ in the wound where gored. Hayate also gets bitten by a were-rat, which gives Hayate a distinctly ‘un-Tente-like’ sensation. In turn, Vigil strikes back at Raggadragga, hitting with a bit of radiant light, before Straina gusts the flames away from Vigil and doubles down on Raggadragga. The flames do blow away from Vigil but only a short reprieve. Hayate, meanwhile, doesn’t feel good. Weak, and in quite some pain, and has a rat attached to his neck. Hayate’s weapon does the job, another were rat dies, and Guts shins up the wall, calls for Eliseo, and dashes over.
Eliseo eviscerates one of the boars, Guts cheering on, and Marco also kills a wererat. The two boars attack Eliseo and only bite once, prior to that Raggadragga has a go at Vigil but misses. Vigil now strikes back on him, landing a fairly weak blow but enough to end him. Guts and Eliseo take out the remaining two boars, and the battle is won.
Mad Maggie exits, clapping enthusiastically, cheers us, mutters about having to go to the feywilds for more redcaps, asks how wounded we are (Hayate: ‘I’ve felt better’), and Maggie presents us with a fantastic war machine to traverse the countryside. Hellside? Hellscape?
“The Devil’s Ride” (motorbikes, can take 2 max): A 2wheeled infernal war machine, spiked wheels, cowl shaped like a devil’s visage with horns for handlebars. It makes up in speed and maneuverability what it lacks in weapons”
“The Scavenger” - handles like a minibus, to sift through detritus for salvage. The back has a swinging crane and a grappling claw, chain and winch.
“The Demon Grinder” - a bulky armoured coach which rumbles as it crushes enemies in its path, with jaws on the front of it and it handles like a garbage truck.
“The Tormentor” - handles like a dune buggy, designed for raiding and scouting. Bladed iron wheels drive the vehicle forward.
We get some engineering hints - soul coins power it 24hrs per charge, and demon ichor allows nitro-boosts with the risk of mishaps. We set our sights on the Demon Grinder to hold as much of our entourage as well so bargain to throw in a Tormentor - but, needles comes with us as Maggie’s eyes and ears, and Maggie extends her baby eating embargo to toddlers too. A bundle of soul coins is thrown in (4 total, 2 per vehicle) each with 3 charges, plus 2 vials of demon ichor. We ask why not throw demons in, whether we can use Styx water, etc., and the Kenku look alarmed.
We also go back to check over Raggadragga, looking at the gold adornment and a warhammer - a maul (+1, 2d6 bludgeoning, deals an extra 1d6 force damage, humming with energy). Marco and Eliseo stroll off to a quiet corner where Marco suggests we try and steal some more soul coins overnight. Straina looks over at Hayate and sees weird black lines wriggling in Hayate, the wound is strange and clearly not looking great. Marco prepares a tiny hut for sleep time.
Session of 1/12/22
Eliseo leaves the hut to see if Maggie is asleep, but she doesn’t seem to rest as repairs to the fort, the gates, etc. are ongoing. Hayate seeks to alleviate his curse, but has no luck. Guts bids Eliseo adieu and makes a note about the battle, and Vigil the Warlord (tagline: “he’s always watching”), and gets a shortsword for later. Needles is on the car waiting our departure and Maggie sees us off. The wreckage from the gates has been cleared but left open for our goings, and we begin to board the vehicles to head. Eliseo hops behind the wheel of the Tormentor, the rest climbing aboard the Demon Grinder, and we feed a soul coin into our vehicles; from the Tormentor, a blue fog tasting of hydrogen sulphide encompasses the vehicle and the Demon Grinder has a brown haze with a hint of mustard.
We head out and the gates are closed off, Eliseo waving Guts goodbye. We head out onto the plains and head “east?” towards the river. We think we’re near the ‘hellwasp nest’ on our map, and Eliseo looks around for landmarks to measure speed, distance, territory etc., but things don’t seem right, the markers he is using don’t seem correct, the terrain all wrong, then in front of us the land rises up sharply with a steam coming from in front, realising we’re approaching the river, but appear to be on the wrong side, i.e. we are somehow on the east bank? We can’t see Elturel above us, and in the rear there’s a huge mountain (active volcano) behind us. Consulting the map of Avernus we think we’re approaching Haruman’s Hill, on the bank we wanted to get to.
We slow down and consult the map: Hayate is pleased (“Tente has guided us”), Vigil annoyed (“I hate Hell”), and Marco just goal oriented (“are we on the right side”). We decide to press on, heading up the hill, but Eliseo no longer on the horizon in eyeshot of the other car. The hill is getting steeper and steeper and as we scale it there’s a copse with a route marked ‘Coward’s Way’. We kill the engines (although the soul coin keeps burning) as Vigil hops out and takes a walk. With the engine subdued a low droning hum which we cannot place (natural or otherwise). The path we are taking up seems to curve quickly up the hill on the ‘river’ side, although as it’s steep there are a lot of switchbacks to get the height. As we get near the cliff edge the river Styx is below us, and the camber of the path tilts us towards it alarmingly, and it’s the colour of blood, with strong currents, and the humming grows as we climb and the track cuts back around the east side to climb.
We now see the rise to the summit of the hill. However, catching our eye is a tree-shape near the edge of the track, but it’s metallic, yet still a tree - without leaves, but has a trunk and branches and twigs. The twigs come to a metallic point and impaled on one of the branches is a body, pierced through the chest and arms reaching toward the pikes, and the body appears to be twitching - legs and all. As we approach what look like large mosquito-creatures are clinging to parts of the body, and they are pulsing - not breath, but sucking blood from the impaled person. We inch up, round a bend and see the final path up to the summit 100ft away. Either side of the path is v steep, loose scree and we realise these 100ft, 20-30 trees are in the rock either side and on each and every one is a body, with creatures feeding off them. The body nearest us is a human male with non-descript clothes, closed eyed but animate. They are ‘traitors’ apparently, of something. Hayate wonders who they betrayed, and after some discussion Strum feels he doesn’t have an answer for this, but Hayate’s spirit guardians kick up to beat these insects into oblivion. They rip at the insects, who screech, detach themselves from the body, blood spilling out and move away, but some are bumbling and get torn to shreds. Vigil asks if we can get this one off the pointy tree, and Marco shimmies up a little to see if he can lift the body off. He hates the tree, and says it’s horrible. Marco lifts the body off the tree and featherfalls down to earth, but when he hits the ground, the body turns to ash and floats away. Marco heard the body saying ‘end it’ as he fell, so I guess they got their wish.
Vigil asks if they’ll take another down, and Marco can ask questions on the way down this time. We also see at our angle another 2-3 trees at the summit, so we decide to head up there. The droning noise is obviously the insects, buzzing over to new bodies. The bodies have various condemnations (mutineer, coward, insubordinate). We spot one elf with dirty blond hair amongst them. Marco is offering to euthanise many of them but they don’t talk back - and without consent he’s too proper to do anything but offer. Vigil goes up to the elf, and Vigil sees eye contact with the party and one arm raised as if reaching for us. His mouth is moving to loosen the jaw and form words. We can’t hear from the distance we’re at. “Please, I’m sorry…” as he reaches towards Vigil, and explains Haruman ‘has turned executioner’, and apologises again a few times. Marco gains consent to euthanise, but Vigil wants information first! Behind us there’s a confused ‘nononono’ and Nuriel is holding his head like he has an excedrin headache. Nuriel feels this isn’t a Harumanian thing (“he wouldn’t”). Vigil presses this and Nuriel says “he’s an honourable man, a Paladin, not this grim retributive…he wouldn’t”. Vigil asks the elf about the sword, and the Elf says ‘I don’t know, I died’ - and Vigil establishes the elf died in Elturel after fleeing, lived a full life then woke up impaled on this tree. Vigil suppresses an urge to grab the angel by the shoulders and shake him silly. Vigil asks the angel ‘are we in the right place, is this the hill?’ and Nuriel thought Haruman meant he’d be protecting the hill. ‘When i put myself in the sword a palace grew, a beautiful palace but it was quickly swallowed by this land. I thought if Haruman was here he’d be protecting it and it’d be this hill, but I may have thought wrong’. ‘If Zariel has fallen maybe Haruman has too’. We hear the voice of something, a huge armoured monstrosity, wielding a big sword, pointing at Vigil and saying “Deserters!”. It’s Haruman!
Combaaaaaat
Eliseo charges towards this giant beast, throws his boomerang…and misses wide of the mark, calling the sword back and feeling a tad exposed. Reya trots up, gives Eliseo a look like he shouldn’t wander away from the party, and stares down the giant enemy. The enemy says “earn your redemption” and the bodies from the trees try removing themselves from spikes and the mosquitos fly up angrily. Strum tries to give Haruman the sense of enemies about but Haruman seems resistant to magical charm, so the spell doesn’t land. Vigil channels divinity on his axe and his axe begins to glow. He steps up to Eliseo and Reya before the mosquitos swarm these 3! Attacks abound, and one lands on Reya and Eliseo, the latter getting his leg attacked and attached. Marco sizes up an almighty fireball engulfing enemies and friends alike but instead goes after a nearby zombie with swords. Satomi has no such compunction and gets a fireball brewin’ up, and a couple of scourges fall, the rest looking a bit ropey - as ropey as bloody mosquitoes and zombies can look. The zombies now shuffle up but as they enter they struggle a little more. Some of them strike Eliseo, Satomi et al.
Eliseo rips off his mosquito scourge, disengages and retreats. Marco gets horrifically frightened by Haruman, who conjures visions of horrible stuff (defeated in battle, choking to death eating a baby fed to him by a hag), and Strum then seeks to heal him up. Vigil gets smitey and then Hayate’s spirit guardians go to town. Eliseo then gets another latch-on from a scourge, as does Vigil and Hayate, eek. Marco seeks to escape between the zombies but gets dinged around and brought to the ground. Hayate looks over at Marco and his spiritual weapons warm up, before an attack comes in from Satomi too and the scourge attached to Eliseo dies. The zombie hellriders flock towards Marco’s body, and two tear in, eviscerating Marco. He expires, his worst fears becoming real! No eating babies in this hell for Marco, only death.
The zombies move on the rest of us, hitting Strum and Reya, missing Eliseo and Vigil.
Eliseo sneaks away from one zombie, tries to strike but misses, alas. Perhaps we’ll all die on this hill. Reya kills the scourge on Vigil, then Haruman feels he’s seen enough and strides up to Vigil, shouting ‘Betrayer!’ and swinging. Both attacks miss. Strum steps away and sends a healing word to Hayate, before Vigil cheers him on and gives him Sanctuary, then thins the zombie ranks a little, but not a ton. Hayate seeks to turn the undead from him, and runs to Marco, albeit too late, as he looks back with cold, dead eyes. The spirit guardians do their thing, and the turned zombies flee. Those unturned by being hit by the spirit guardians now flock to Hayate.
Eliseo shifts away again but continues to lose his bearings, and loses his way again, missing yet another attack. Reya recites a prayer, and her and Vigil rush Haruman. Strum heals up Hayate again, and then Vigil’s divine smite on Haruman cause him to rock back and snarl, and a metal spike pierces the ground near the scree and a new spikey metal tree bursts through the ground - at its base is a placard saying “striking a commanding officer” and Vigil realises this tree is marked for him, but he’s fine with this, and goes in for another hit. It lands smartly. Hayate’s spirit guardians continue to strike, then the zombie strikes back.
Hayate tells Eliseo he’s got this last one, so Eliseo heads to Haruman and flings the boomerang, landing a strike. Reya tries too but just misses. Haruman loses his mojo, misses a swing and fittingly, with Vigil’s final stroke, he fells the 9ft armoured monstrosity, ducking the initial sword swing and uses the axe to topple Haruman, and Reya and Vigil dive on his chest and head, smooshing one of the former great lieutenants of the Hellriders.
Combat ends…
In Marco’s darkness, there’s nothing…then there isn’t. He hears a sniffing. Although Marco is nothing he feels something nuzzling his soul and a voice says “I have a use for you!”.
Next week:
Will Marco come back as a badger familiar to the party?
Is Hayate still bereft of spirit by Tente?
Is Vigil now a Hellrider Lieutenant as well as a Warlord if he’s now killed Haruman and Raggajagga? (Already a captain!)
Is Straina getting comfier being two people in one?
Will we get off the top of the hill and convert our experience watching our pal Marco expire, or will we end up on a tree?
Session of 15th December 2022
The bodies of the zombie Hellriders just fade and fizzle out into further ash, and we find ourself atop the hill. Marco, meanwhile, is dead - bodiless, formless, asensory, but somehow conscious - which feels wrong right? Marco hears the voice, and light begins to return to his vision, and touch, and he is lying up, looking up at his bedframe in his quarters in Rossano Calabria, it’s warm, he is off to see Allaria, life is good, he skips down the corridor to see her. He is in the reception room and gestures for him to sit in an armchair across from her, facing a humble fire and she drinks a coffee. When she smiles at him, Marco realises her eyes aren’t there, just empty sockets, and when she smiles her mouth is an empty void and says “Hello Marco, you can tell this isn’t real. You’ve died, haven’t you, Marco?” and Marco acknowledges this. He’s asked what his master will think of him…”she’d be disappointed”. “I wonder what’s going to happen to your city, and if the party will continue without you”. Marco says…”well, some of them are capable” “without you?!” “I was just part of the group”. There’s debate about whether ‘the mercenary’ will bring glory to the city. Marco says “I can only hope, but what more can i do?” and the Allaria person says “that’s where I come in!” Marco refuses to take part in this scheme, but this person says “we want the same thing, we want Zariel to fail” - (if the cities survive as a result, whoopee). The thing continues asking about if Marco knows what souls that die in Avernus happens - they become property of Zariel. This being intervened just in the nick of time and has ‘saved’ Marco, ‘intercepted his soul’ and is offering it back on loan. Marco doesn’t get their name, but establishes Zariel took something off them - and that the power to own the souls in Avernus “used to be ours”. No takebacks on dying in Avernus, apparently, but once the deal is done Marco’s soul can never leave Avernus - until the mission is completed. Marco asks for a year and a day on many planes post-mission before he willingly returns his soul to Avernus and be ‘their’ property (whoever these not-Zariels are). He won’t say what he’ll do with his year and a day. He’s to be returned to his broken body, and keeps track of his days with an elaborate sand timer. Although she’s turned it upside down, the sands don’t move, and the deal is struck. The sands begin to move and she says “get ready, as this is really going to hurt”.
Marco splutters to life, throat torn out, Strum packing the wound, Vigil laying on hands, and Eliseo tosses down his spellbook he was sketching Marco’s lifeless corpse in (the sketch is apparently pretty decent). Marco is feeling all this and shares his story. Vigil is wondering if there was any small print or clauses and Marco says ‘I hope not’. Hayate wonders if this is the real Marco, but he refuses to eat a baby, which is a good sign. Vigil is pleased Marco back, despite what this means.
In the time that’s elapsed the bodies are gone, but we notice more egg-sacs growing on the spikes of the trees, and begin to peel, falling to the ground, and the beings which had pulled themselves off have re-spawned on the trees, including the elf. We note the one Marco removed who turned to ash has not come back. Marco didn’t scream like this when he returned. The rest fall into a pitiful whimper, and Marco asks if anyone knows who owned Avernus prior to Zariel (and admits to Vigil it’s because it’s with them the deal was struck). Was an Archdevil known as Bel. The suggestion to find a new lead is to trot over to the elf on the tree, as Hayate suggests we’re his ‘salvation’. The elf blinks in recognition and reaches for Eliseo’s shoulder, and says “please…please”. Eliseo has heard people beg before so just looks blandly at the elf on the shelf. Since we need a lead, Hayate notes there’s clearly no sword here, but there is a Haruman corpse; Nuriel is looking over this body, removed Haruman’s hood and is looking at the spoiled face, dark red skin and sunken yellowed eyes, and is distraught by all this. Hayate suggests Nuriel can pitch another place to go now - “Vigil: he led us here”. “Hayate: Can he lead us on?” and Vigil shrugs and suggests the question is directed to Nuriel.
Hayate wanders over to Nuriel, and they discuss Haruman (loyal to Zariel to the end), and Nuriel notes some Hellriders remained (Nuriel went with Yale(sp) to bury the sword) and Orlantheus (sp?) Nuriel isn’t sure about but feels that they would be honourable and not change into what Haruman ended up like. Apparently Vigil’s heard of these three commanders but we’re unsure where they ended up (Hayate asks) and Nuriel asks for the map (Eliseo proffers it). Many of the places are not recognisable as they were not in Avernus for long. She notes that much of the map came after the recent battles but the Crypt of the Hellriders may be a place to go - either to talk to the dead, or those who watch over them. Hayate points at Haruman and asks whether we can wring some more information out of him and Nuriel says “he wasn’t himself”.
Vigil goes up to tree elf, who looks hopefully over at him and Vigil asks for his name: “Jander”. Vigil notes he was here when everything went “to hell…but that came beforehand”. Jander does not laugh, and Vigil asks when he fled - the end? When Zariel went down, she lost her sword, “it was all over”. Jander apologises again, but Vigil says not only does he not owe an apology, he can’t be forgiven. Back on to business, where did the sword go with General Yale? “As we were fighting a retreat, there was talk, Yale was seen leaving with the sword - “flew off”! - people talked about Nuriel going with them. Haruman had spoken of finding Yale before, wandering the hill screaming and cursing the traitors, and said Yale was one of them, and Nuriel. (Jander hasn’t seen Nuriel’s up the hill with us as he has tunnel vision). Eliseo beckons Nuriel over (to get his map back and surprise Jander with this fact). Jander is flabbergasted, and says “Nuriel, please forgive me” and leans forward, tearing himself on the tree again, and sobs more. Nuriel is rather unsure of all this, and looks to Vigil, saying “what do you think, have you learned what you need to know?” and Vigil seems content. Nuriel also asks if he can be forgiven, and Vigil says it’s mostly up to Nuriel - they were there. Apparently Nuriel does have it in their heart to forgive them all, cowardice or no, “they shouldn’t damn a person forever, I think”. Vigil intends to take them all down; Nuriel goes to the base of the tree, and Jander looks down, and Nuriel forgives him - Jander stops crying and lets out a sigh of relief, and his soul seems to depart. Nuriel goes round doling out a lot of forgiveness and silence begins to descend.
Vigil suggests we’re done atop the hill, so where next - the Crypt? Hayate muses over the wandering emporium (Maggie’s Markey), but that will only find us when we need it. Hayate notes that in a day he could talk to Haruman, but he might ‘come back’ as Marco has? Vigil hews off the head of Haruman, with a bunch of axe blows to hew through the sinew of the neck.
We get back to our vehicles and start driving, Eliseo hoping to retrace exactly the steps before to see if we magically cross the river again, and Eliseo picks up before travelling far that the huge volcano standing in front on the horizon that we are approaching, and the fumes start belching out, and we spot a structure built into the volcano. A settlement around it? And we are where we said we are, heading towards Bel’s forge. We backtrack instead, turning away from the hill and the forge, heading south towards the Stygian Dock, navigating a path through the terrain, and the weather shifts towards the icy. As the wind picks up, Bel Forge’s smog drifts across and chokes us up. The journey seems to take quite some time, and as we round a corner Elturel is above us, the companion still arcing lightning and darkness, and chains now reach down both sides of the river. Elturel has clearly been pulled lower and lower, towards the Styx. The battle which raged as we descended seems to be at a current lull, with the east bank relatively clear bar some scouts, to whom we give a wide berth along with Elturel. A detachment of devils appear to be marching north towards bel’s forge and we continue south, but a day has passed and we’re looking for terrain for cover and we find a lee, park up and Vigil suggests we’re ready for a rest. The imp stays outside Marco’s tiny hut but we tidy up and get ready for a rest.
Marco flaps some dirt out of his shirt, checks his neck wound and talks to Hayate about Bel, the deal, etc. and they check his neck wound, which apparently is never going to fully heal
He has a bleeding rune on his chest. Hayate believes it is a brand that marks his deal with Bel. We get in the hut, and nod off, and Marco has some terrrrible dreams (including Eliseo as a despotic ruler of their city). Hayate is dreaming of Tente, his bells and his message, and has a moment of clarity about what his job is and in the dream a bubble of Tiamat’s blood is coming towards him, and realises Tente wants the blood of Tiamat, and up till now noone has been able to find her or her blood, following banishment by Tente aeons ago, but she’s perhaps beginning to break her bonds (and is, to an extent, in Avernus? Which would be impermissible). Hayate asks about Kiku(sp) after thinking about the rest of his squad and where they are, but doesn’t know what she’s up to, but returns to his dreams of tinkling bells.
We awake in the morning, the vehicles are there and the imp is fine, and Marco looks over at Eliseo with suspicion, but he always looks like that. We all feel a little better after that night sleep tho and look very robust.
Party Items - Don’t forget to use them!
Marco
Eliseo
Hayate
Strum
Vigil