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June 25, 2023

The Road to Candlekeep

The PCs' route out of Baldur's Gate cuts back through the Basilisk Gate and the refugee camp again; serves as a reminder that a lot of the city is still waiting outside and has no permanent home.

The trip to Candlekeep will take five days.

Falaster Fisk

As they make it to Little Calimshan, they will coincidentally run into Falaster Fisk, who will ask if he can travel with them. He wants to try to get ahold of Vilus Incarnatus for Sylvira's research, but also he really doesn't want to venture alone on the roads and will impress on them the value of safety in numbers. He can provide useful facts and answers if brought along, and will also fight in the knight encounter if it comes to that. He will also want to stop by his home in Little Calimshan and pick up an old book of Calishite recipes to gain entry into Candlekeep.

If the party is taking care to leave undetected, or at a weird hour - e.g. in the middle of the night - this encounter will be skipped, and the party will probably just run into Fisk again in Candlekeep.

Wyrm's Crossing

Two great bridges meet at a tall, rocky island that rises from the middle of the Chionthar River. Buildings and merchant stalls line the sides of both bridges, making it impossible to see the river from the narrow, congested roadway that cuts between those structures.

Wooden drawbridges connect the two bridges to a keep situated atop the island. The flags of Baldur’s Gate and the Flaming Fist wave proudly above this fortress.

As they cross the bridge, a teen kid from the refugee camps named Franz Nolruth tries to hop into the back of the wagon and rummage through Solarys' bag for rations and also the shield of the Hidden Lord. (Whether this is actually where it's at or not.) Franz has been trailing them since they passed through because he's desperate and hungry, and also because the shield is posing as Torm and told him that if he could get it back and return it to its rightful owners he'd be justly rewarded. He doesn't want to fight, he's just a dirty hungry kid, but it illustrates the shield is reaching out to others.

Knights of the Shield

If the PCs have gotten rid of the shield of the Hidden Lord or take care to leave Baldur's Gate in a stealthy manner (e.g. by night) this encounter does not occur.

On the other hand, if moving normally, they will have encountered small clusters of refugees who will recognize the Hellriders/Companion among the party if they're wearing their colors. Eventually a refugee driving a wagon full of hay passes and waves at them. As he does, the shield reaches out to him and commands them to retake it for the Order of the Shield. This will lead to the cambion and his three veterans ambushing the party not long after. They will have additional support from two other veterans hidden in the woods off the side of the road.

If it looks like it's going bad, Reya Mantlemorn can show up to help.

Reya Mantlemorn

Either Reya will meet them during the previous encounter OR she can show up with a group of refugees providing aid. Either way, she will travel with the party for the better part of a day and then share their campfire that night before going her own way. While around the campfire, she will share with the side of the party that doesn't know it the Tale of the Hellriders. Remember, an important part of the Remix is that it is NOT widely known Zariel was the archangel of the Hellride.

"It was several centuries past that the great troubles began. Fiends roamed the lands to the north and west of Elturel. Fields were despoiled, livestock slaughtered, homes razed, and people dragged off to a terrible and unknowable fate. Terror gripped the hearts of all.

"The city’s cavalry rode across the land, striking down fiends wherever they found them and suffering fearful losses. But it was never enough. For every fiend they destroyed, it seemed as though two more appeared elsewhere. The ruler of Elturel, the High Rider, asked his people to pray to the gods for aid. To everyone’s astonishment, a mighty angel entered the city the next day. The prayers of Elturel had been heard, and help had come.

"The angel located the gate through which the fiends were entering the natural world, and declared that she would lead the cavalry to the gate, destroying the infernal host that was amassing there, closing the portal to Hell, and striking a great blow against the forces of darkness.

"The High Rider went out with the riders of Elturel, now numbering many thousands, with the angel at their head riding a great golden mastodon. With a great cry, the amassed army charged the gate, but the trickery of the legions of Avernus knows no bounds, and they kidnapped the High Rider's lady love -- herself a soldier -- and carried her through the gate. As one, the angel and the Riders rode through the gate after her, charging into the heart of Hell itself.

"When they caught the cowardly legion at last, they managed to save the lady knight, but not without dire news -- a second legion was bearing down upon them, and this one would wipe them out surely; the one best hope was for some to delay the legion while the rest escaped. When asked for volunteers, however, to a man the Riders voted to stay and fight. The High Rider thus drew lots with his men to determine who would stay and buy time for the rest, and who would leave to warn of the treachery of Hell's legions.

"With the fates thus cast, a small number of Riders returned to the gate, while the High Rider, his lady love, and the angel bore down upon the blood legion. The battle was mighty, and the legion buckled, but they did not break; the High Rider, the lady, and the angel were defeated and never seen again, but they bought the time needed for a small remainder of the army of Elturel to return to the gate and pass through before it closed behind them.

"They returned to Elturel, singing dirges to their fallen comrades and their bravery, as well as that of the angel who saved them at the cost of her own divine life; great celebrations were made in honor of the fallen, and ever since, the armies of Elturel have been known as the Hellriders."

At Candlekeep

The five Avowed at the gate will greet them and take their entrance gifts. They wear purple robes and holy symbols of Deneir, god of writing (a lit candle above an open eye); they are a leopard-spotted tabaxi, two humans, a shield dwarf, and a sun elf. The elf does the speaking.

"Welcome to Candlekeep. A gift is requires from those seeking admittance. You must each donate a book or scroll that isn't already in the library's archives. Please present your gift for inspection."

After inspecting each book:

"Be welcome here, seekers, so long as you treat books with the reverence they deserve, eschewing fire, damp, the torn page, and the removal of lore from the eyes of others. Cross the yard ahead of you to the green-hued door, and give your name to the Keeper of the Emerald Door. You’ll be provided with food, a bath, quarters in which to sleep, and a meeting with the monk who will escort you on your first visit to the rooms of the tomes."

The Keeper of the Emerald Door will be able to grant runner monks to take them to their rooms, the stables, the Hearth, and both Sylvira and Escanor. If Fisk is with them, he can also guide them to Sylvira's tower.

Downtime

They have access to the castle for ten days, so use the Downtime in Candlekeep part of Elminster's Candlekeep Companion for anyone who wishes to make a research roll.

Visiting Escanor Meridies

From the Emerald Door, the party (likely just Solarys) will go:

• Up a stone staircase into a courtyard
• Around the outside of Exaltation, the oldest and largest tower
• Down a second staircase on the opposite side of the courtyard to the Great Library
• Over a covered bridge that traverses an enormous, swamp-like fountain. A group of pixies part the overgrowth to ask if they know any good jokes.
• Through a museum of nonmagical armor and weapons from all over Faerun.
• Across a second bridge with waving pennants of heroes; the pennants are enchanted and alive and will ask crossers-over about their latest heroic deeds.
• Into Escanor's current location, a small study with adjoining bedroom in Balduran's Steeple.

Josh has indicated a desire to catch up with Meridies, who is now a member of the Avowed and an master evocation reader. I don't know what he wants or expects out of this. I suspect it's a spell. Meridies will let his old apprentice copy one 3rd-level spell of his choice into his spellbook, but any further requests will have him encourage Solarys to seek things out on his own via research and adventure.

Visiting Sylvira Savikas & Traxigor

From the Emerald Door, the party will go:

• Up a stone staircase into a courtyard
• Around the outside of Exaltation, the oldest and largest tower
• Down a second staircase on the opposite side of the courtyard to the Great Library
• Down a long hallway displaying various art objects, lit by floating glowglobes
• Around the outer reaches of a grand colosseum with a bronze domed roof; inside, a loremaster wizard of the Avowed is instructing 2 renowned scholars in the use of barbed construct. (They hurl a little knot of inscribed barbed wire and it springs to life as a shield guardian; maybe the scholars' constructs fight each other like magical battlebots.)
• Through a music hall with an orchestra composed of near-transparent magical virtuosos. A book shelf nearby contains songs by various composers. The orchestra plays any sheet of music that is placed in front of the conductor.
• Across a sloping outdoor walkway with a man in a permanent time loop attempting to flee while reciting something from a book. The man was attempting to steal a chronomancy tome while hastily reciting one of its spells and trapped himself in an endless time loop.
• And finally, into the tower where Sylvira and Traxigor have their lab. This is the one that the Jewel of the Styx sits on top of; it's visible from the bridge.

This part of the encounter can be run directly out of the Remix.

1. PCs meet Sylvira and Traxigor.
2. PCs show them the infernal artifact(s) they have. They share what they know about these.
3. Lulu arrives during this; she's staying with Sylvira and Traxigor and sharing her knowledge with them.
4. Sylvira opens the puzzlebox.
5. Sylvira briefs the party of infernal contracts and reads it out loud; when she does, Lulu recalls that Zariel was the name of her angel.
6. The PCs help Traxigor look for his lost tuning fork. Whoever rolls the highest Perception score finds the tuning fork Traxigor needs. Whoever rolls the lowest finds the neverburning torch.
7. They go to Hell when ready.

The Infernal Pact

On this, the fifteenth day of Flamerule, in the one thousandth, four hundredth, and forty-fourth year of the Dale Reckoning, I, Naja Bellandi, by my authority as the High Watcher of Helm and the highest surviving mortal authority in the city of Elturel, do swear this Oath to pledge my soul and the entire city of Elturel unto the Archduchess Zariel, to be so passed into her custody at the end of fifty years, the latter to be transported to Avernus and the former to be taken into her service.

In exchange for which, Zariel, the Archduchess of Avernus and faithful representative of Asmodeus, the Archfiend, Lord of the Ninth and Nessus, Supreme Master of the Nine Hells, bestows the Gift of the Companion, a Solar Insidiator which shall be placed in the sky above Elturel for at least the term of this agreement and whose light will scourge the undead from the city. She further swears to render whatever aid may be necessary to end High Rider Klav Ikaia's reign if the Gift of the Companion prove insufficient to this task.

In consideration and honor of these mutual covenants, we sign in blood upon the day and year first written above,

Zariel, Archduchess of Avernus

High Watcher Naja Bellandi of Elturel

Help them make the connection between this and the Creed Resolute.

Welcome to Hell

Run as a streetcrawl in Elturel.