Act 2 - Hellturel
← Act 1.5 - Intermission & The Road to Candlekeep
Back on Familiar Ground... Sort Of
Slowly, the pleasant spring sky faded to an ominous crimson red; the breeze became a hot, dry, stinging wind. The grassy hill outside Candlekeep was replaced with the cracked city streets of the dock district Elturel, once familiar but now broken by small quakes, one of which immediately struck. Buildings around the party were crumbling and breaking, if they hadn't already fallen in; large parts of the city seemed to be on fire, though the High Hall -- visible on the horizon atop a high ridge -- seemed to have weathered the majority of it just fine. Above it all hung the Companion -- still blackened and still radiating lightning, but now much lower in the sky and hanging level with the top of the High Hall, ominously closer than it had ever been.
And as if on cue, in order to remind everyone where they were, three bearded devils arrived, chasing down a woman and her infant, fleeing in panic. After being saved, she led them to a nearby clock tower that was still standing, perhaps a remnant of a church, and the party got their first good luck at the full situation: Elturel was in fact in Avernus, floating high in midair over top of the River Styx, connected by enormous chains to some sort of structure on each bank of the river.
History Comes (Un)alive
Following/accompanying the woman back to her home to the south, the party heard all about how someone had organized a sort of perpetual soup kitchen/supply run, as well as a variety of armed guards, and was essentially controlling the area around Shiarra's Market as a sort of protected enclave. It turns out that was correct; it also turns out the person running things was an old High Rider, formerly assumed to be dead, Klav Ikaia. The party found Ikaia confusing but nobly-intentioned: he was not raising an army of unwilling vampire spawn, he was not using the people as living cattle, he seemed mostly interested in keeping the people safe.
He gave the party some information about the surrounding areas -- including the former Dragoneye Trading Coster building, now occupied by demons who somehow snuck into the city, as well as the former dockmaster's residence -- and related some disturbing info about Hellriders transforming into hell knights as the city transitioned into Avernus. The party headed out to do some scouting, as well as to check out the dockmaster's residence and see if she was still present in the city.
