Act 3 - The Avernian Quest

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Nowhere To Go But Down

With clear direction from Torm -- seek the kenku that Lulu knew, which would hopefully help spark her memory as to the location of the lost Sword of Zariel, which could both sever Elturel's (literal and metaphysical) chains and also was the "key to Zariel's heart" -- the party began planning their next steps. Luckily, the very mention of a kenku did bring back a memory in Lulu, and she scribbled onto one of Ulder's maps the location of a place down in Avernus itself; the fort, known as Fort Knucklebones because its primary structures rested between the 'fingers' of a gigantic rock structure that looked like a hand, had a flock of kenku that had been there as long as the fort had.

The city seemed in good hands now. Ulder Ravengard and his ragtag group of Flaming Fist and Elturian knights held the west half of the city, while the group now rejoined with Klav Ikaia in the east and arranged for the two sides to work together. Then, the group -- with vampire escort, for safety -- found an eastward-facing exit of the Maze and, save for Flight Risk, magically skydived to the eastern bank of the River Styx, fighting off imps as they fell who attempted to break Solarys' concentration on the spells keeping the party safe. (Flight Risk, being a cat, clambered down the chains at roughly the same speed, arriving only shortly after the rest of the group landed in the red sands of hell.)

This Place is a Mess

Probably a good time to review the Map of Avernus.

Friends in Low Places

Seeing the dust of...well, something that had taken notice of their fall and was rapidly approaching, the group hiked eastward to Fort Knucklebones. After some back-and-forth with the fort's redcap gate guards, they were allowed inside, where they met the gang under the auspices of one Mad Maggie, a Warlord of Avernus:

• Natasha, who runs the bar at Fort Knucklebones and insists that she is a clone of the real Iggwilv, a.k.a. Tasha, who stole her identity and her magic spells and began selling spellbooks under her name. She gave the group a location of Iggwilv's vacation home in Avernus and asked that the party bring any unpublished spellbooks there to her for a reward.
• Sarcasia, the imp who runs the bank near the hostel, who offers soul coins at a staggering rate of 1 soul coin to 500 real world gold pieces.
• Mad Maggie herself, a night hag fascinated with the corruption of beautiful things, as well as Mickey, a flesh golem she built from spare fiend parts.
• The kenku flock, who all speak with Lulu's voice when they mention happy concepts like 'love,' including two mechanics in particular, Chukka and Clonk.

The latter two, in particular, do in fact know Lulu, and confirm that she had spent time there; however, while they do not have any particular expertise to help her, they explain that Mad Maggie does. While some of the group went to talk to Maggie, the rest stayed behind and helped fix a particular piece of machinery attached to one of Maggie's fleet of vehicles, earning themselves the use of a demon grinder.

As for Maggie, she explained that she had something that would help -- her dream machine -- but it is missing a few parts.

1. A Nirvanan cogbox, used in a variety of infernal machines but which actually originally come from Mechanus, making them tricky to get ahold of at times. She's heard that a Nirvanan ship crashed on the other side of the Styx, however.
2. A heartstone, used by hags usually to infiltrate the dreams of their victims. The dream machine uses it like a prism to allow multiple people to tune into a single dream. Her suggestion was to find Red Ruth, the second member of her former coven (and killer of the third member of their group, Gaunt Gella). Ruth can sometimes be found at Mahadi's Emporium, which moves around but is usually in western Avernus.
3. A handful of Phlegethosian sand, obsidian sand dredged from the jagged rocky plains of the fourth layer of Avernus. It does occasionally make its way up top, but Maggie didn't have a good lead for it.
4. Astral pistons, an outdated sort of technology but a very useful one. She has noted that they can be found in infernal forges, such as the ones run by Bel (the former Lord of Avernus) or the one that the local warlord Kolasiah runs, or at a shop run out of a gigantic helmet by a shopkeep named Uldrak the Tinker. Uldrak had previously had a stock when Maggie needed them, and might possibly have more.

Shopping list in hand, the group geared up in their demon grinder and set out across the plains of Avernus, heading first towards a nearby bridge that would allow them to cross back across the Styx more easily.

The Spawning Trees

Roaring southward in their demon grinder, the party immediately ran across an unusual landmark: a great lake of bubbling black goo -- demonic ichor -- surrounded by weird, treelike growths from which hung wriggling fruit-like structures. As the party saw, these split open to release awful, squawking monstrosities: abyssal chickens.

A work crew of five bearded devils had been dispatched here to clean this up, as Zariel was not especially fond of the blood of a fallen demon infecting Avernus and spreading its chaotic corruption. Four of the devils were teasing the fifth when they noticed the oncoming war machine and decided to do something very stupid and attack it, leading to their destruction. The fifth, Krikendolt, was... interesting.

Having sustained head trauma in the Blood War, Krikendolt found his entire outlook on life had changed, and he mostly desired to stay and raise the infernal chickens, including one he had befriended and hidden in his bags that he'd named Earwax. Krikendolt gave the party several good leads as a result of defeating his tormenters, including a tower that the wizard Mordenkainen occasionally teleported into Hell for various reasons (if anyone would have a lead on some parts, it's him) as well as a tower further south of the heavily-guarded bridge that might be an alternate way across the Styx. Krikendolt seemed rather unsure whether it was in or on the Styx; then again, Krikendolt seemed unsure of a lot of things.

But at least he's got his chicken.

Shadowswimmer Tower & Plagueshield Point

Leaving Krikendolt with a tip to head north to Fort Knucklebones, the party roared off in their battle wagon towards the tower to the south, finding the three-story building on their side of the Styx rather easily. After entering, and making small talk with an imp secretary copying papers from scribbled notes into a more neat notebook, the master of the tower -- one Respen Shadowswimmer, the self-declared foremost scholar of the waters of the River Styx -- made himself known.

After inquiring about parts for the Dream Machine, as well as any knowledge he had of the surrounding region, they discovered the source of Krikendolt's confusion -- Shadowswimmer used to command a second location, Plagueshield Point, which was formerly in the Underdark but due to a mishap had been transported to the bottom of the River Styx almost directly under the bridge. In exchange for finding his wayward apprentice and either destroying him or returning him safely from that location, Respen promised the party they could keep the hag heartstone that was also stored in Plagueshield Point; he also loaned them a bowl of commanding water elementals attuned to the River Styx which would create a Styx water elemental that held a bubble of air for safe transport in its middle.

Taking Respen and the bowl with them, the party headed northwest to within an hour's dive of Plagueshield Point. Along the way, they had a couple of interesting encounters overnight while camping in an impenetrable bubble. First, a mysterious box fell from the sky, presumably carried by the chattering imps overhead; when Varen was sent out to investigate it, the necrotic magic rune on its lid vaporized him, but the box opened to reveal a single soul coin. Profit?

Secondly, an orthon, Zulozus the Tracker, arrived and announced that within 30 hours, it would begin hunting them in the name of the Archduchess. They were given a head start because it only seemed sporting. It then teleported away, presumably to begin preparing for the hunt.

Arriving at the designated dive point, they left the demon crusher in the care of Respen and headed down into the murky waters, then into Plagueshield Point through a point in the east side that deposited them in a fissure that cut through the entire structure. Inside, they found a badly exhausted drow slave who had escaped the devils; they left her with some food and continued exploring the pitch-black and leaky stalagmite-fortress.

Heading south into the tower that once housed the foremost demonologist of Plagueshield Point -- Respen's apprentice -- they found him, Viltharn Teken'duis, transformed into a chain devil who ambushed them with a bevy of living chains at his command and fully turned to Zariel's service. Upon killing him, the party found one of the two keystones that would allow them transport into the central Geode of Imprisonment in the heart of Plagueshield Point, where the hag heartstone could presumably be located.

With their work completed, and thus Respen's, the party returned to Shadowspinner Tower, where -- after handing over anything they wanted to them, including the tower and the imp receptionist -- Respen allowed Solarys to banish him back to the Material Plane where he belonged.

The Day the River Moved; or, the Trip to the Tower of Urm

An image of what the galleon might have looked like on its homeworld

Heading west-northwest along the banks of the River Styx, the party did some long-ranged scouting along the way on what was rumored to possibly be a Nirvanan ship of some kind. However, it turned out it was instead some kind of unusual galleon, albeit one with a giant ring around the body in place of sails, and some activity was visible on board -- but it was decidedly non-modron in nature. Deciding that this was not a place to find a Nirvanan cogbox, the party climbed back into the demon grinder and went back on the way to their next destination, the heavily-guarded bridge they had passed on the way south, flanked by two Styx watchtowers.

Shielded by the shadow of red sand dunes and scrubland, Solarys used control water to cause the River Styx -- or 100 feet of it, anyway -- to break its boundaries, defy gravity, and sweep up and over the side of the open-topped tower on the eastern shore and generally blank the minds of the devil population inside. Only one survived to escape -- the commander, who quickly flew to the other tower -- but pursuing in the demon grinder, they swiftly repeated the same trick on the other side, thus opening up this bridge for traffic for a day or two, at least. Along the way, they witnessed images carved into the side of the bridge that represented Zariel's fight and fall; this bridge was both travel aid and monument in one.

Heading northwest towards the Tower of Urm where the wizard Mordenkainen allegedly kept court, they also saw some more delightful Avernian scenery, including a gigantic festering scab of some kind rising out of the land, as well as a 100-foot-tall spear to the south that seemed to still have the bony hand of whatever had wielded it attached to its gigantic leather-bound hilt.

Reaching the Tower, they found that Mordenkainen was in fact in that way, so they crossed the lake of actual boiling blood that surrounded the Tower's base and made a deal with the wizard: while he did not have any hard leads on new items, he did have a bag of Phlegethosian sand that he would trade away for 30 soul coins -- bargained down to 15, the party left with their second quest objective in tow.

Meeting Smiler

After finishing their business at the Tower of Urm, the party resolved to next head to Uldrak the Tinker, as he seemed their most likely source for a set of astral pistons at this point (while they had heard a couple times that devil forges often used them, they were in no hurry to get on the wrong side of either Bel, the former Archduke, or the Lost Golgari warlord gang). Heading in a southward direction, they first came to what seemed like a combination of natural feature and unnatural warlord playground: a gigantic crescent-shaped rock, on which a single solitary figure was doing sweet bike tricks on his Devil's Ride, using the rock as a half-pipe.

He waved as they passed and, deeming him friendly, they allowed the strange green smiling man to catch up to them, whereby he told them his tale. His name was Smiler, and he used to be one of the local Warlords of Avernus, until his gang of infernal hobgoblins sold out to a rival named Bitter Breath. In the process they took his stash of soul coins along with most everything else he had, and were holed up in a valley to the west. If the party would help him recover his things, he said, he'd be glad to split the soul coins with them -- plus they're welcome to whatever Bitter Breath has.

Discerning that he was mostly telling the truth (he doesn't actually want to reform his gang or get his stuff back so much as he wants bloody revenge), the party decided this was good enough and Smiler joined up for the time being on the road to Uldrak's. He even offered to keep watch, as he does not require sleep; while seemingly harmless and trustworthy, he was found at one point creating phantasmal terrain around the wagon -- greenery and soft leaves -- with a wistful look on his face.

Uldrak the Tinker

Moving south into the vicinity of Uldrak the Tinker's store, the party found that it was in fact what it was rumored to be: a gigantic helmet. Moreover, it was paired with a colossal sword, stuck point-first into the sands of Avernus, a glowing orb atop it.

Reaching the helmet, the party spoke with the occupant, Uldrak, a spined devil who claims that he used to be an empyrean, and that the helmet and sword were once his. For the glory of his lord Surtur, he quested into Avernus and attempted to slay Tiamat, but not only did he fail he was cursed twice-over -- once by being transformed from a mighty titan into a mere spined devil, and secondly by the ironic conditions of his curse: he is freed from it once he personally spills the blood of Tiamat onto the sands of Avernus. At this point Uldrak is almost a broken thing; while he remembers his empyrean heritage (notably, he occasionally lapses into speaking Giant), he also often argues with himself and runs a little tinker shop out of a helmet.

However, having learned a very important piece of information, Uldrak offered the party a bargain. He is in possession of a pair of astral pistons, and will trade them for anyone who does him a favor. Far to the north of here, in the mountains that ring Avernus, is a tower belonging to Arkhan the Cruel, the Chosen of Tiamat, and around his neck Arkhan wears a reliquary of Tiamat's blood. The orb at the top of Uldrak's sword is a still-functioning orb of dragonkind, an artifact that both Arkhan and Tiamat would be interested in -- if for no other reason than to destroy it, since they often are used to control evil dragons. Uldrak's request was simple: take the orb to Arkhan, and convince him to trade it for the reliquary of Tiamat's blood, then bring the reliquary to Uldrak and he would trade it for the astral pistons. Easy-peasy!

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