Chapter 21: A Fork in the Road
After dealing with the redcaps and retrieving Barnabas' tooth, Keladrien returned it to the flameskull who was grateful for the help. Keladrien tried to ask him about traveling through Avernus, but only learned that navigating the wasteland was difficult for most creatures and that the only creature to have attempted to map it was driven mad (likely the same creature that inked their sentient map).
From a pile of refuse came a swarm of rats that revealed an even dirtier and smellier Baen, who had apparently escaped from his confinement earlier than the rest of the group and mysteriously gained the ability to command a spiritual swarm of rats. He joined the group again as they wandered fort knucklebone.
While Katha continued to learn what she could from the kenku mechanics, Pan visited the fiendish flesh golem Mickey and found himself watched by unseen creatures as he did so. He found the golem sadly limping about, cleaning up the place as much as he could. The madcaps followed him around, mocking his limp and cackling as they mimicked him. Pan tried to find the source of his limp, and with the help of Keladrien discovered it to be a piece of bone lodged into his foot. The two elves managed to pry the bone loose without damaging the golem, and he was instantly relieved. The madcaps, deprived of their fun, stomped off in a rage. Mickey then hugged Pan in a surprisingly gentle bear hug before returning to his work.
After helping the golem, a pair of imps made themselves visible to Pan and warned him about a redcap named Wazzik who apparently sought to kill Lulu. They took the warning to heart and, after a long day, retired to the comfort of Keladrien's magical hut. In the morning, they found that the hut had been covered in paint by the redcaps. The painting displayed crude but gruesome images of the group's demise, including Lulu. Kathra prepared the spell needed to cleanse the kenkus' infernal machine of demonic energy and cast it upon the problematic part, fixing the machine. The ecstatic kenku proved most grateful. The group then found Mad Maggie, who was ready for the ritual. They gathered in her tent, where they each sat upon pillows around a fiendish circle in the center. She placed the skulls of her sisters in the middle, and started the ritual that sent the group into a shared dream state.
In the dreams, the group relived a final battle between the angel Zariel, Lulu and the devils of Avernus. They fought back the devils before passing into another dream where they were mired in inky, black ooze, whereupon the devils they chose to spare helped them free themselves. Finally, Lulu was presented with a spyglass that revealed to her the location of the Bleeding Citadel where she believes the sword of Zariel lies.
Before leaving, Mad maggie gave the group 3 soul coins, an infernal war machine, and two weeks' rations before sending them on their way. Pan convinced the hag to lay with him before departing, and Baen used newfound magic to tie a noose around one of the redcaps before blasting off in the war machine (dragging the redcap behind the vehicle, scraping cross the wasteland). Pan drove the vehicle while Kathra used the map to navigate towards haruman's hill (where lulu believed the citadel to be).
Arriving at the hill, the map spoke out to them and said "Behold! Zariel’s dog crucified those who betrayed his mistress in battle." Here, they found rows of knights impaled on metallic trees. Flocks of stirges drained them of blood and fed a vampire similarly impaled atop the hill. After speaking with him, they discovered that he was Jander Sunstar and the knights were the hellriders who abandoned Zariel in Avernus. He escaped through the portal and returned to Elturel, where they never spoke of their betrayal and were heralded as heroes for stopping the fiendish invasion. He lived with his shame, eventually submitting himself to the sun hoping to be redeemed in the eyes of Lathander. But instead he found himself in Avernus, tortured for eternity for his betrayal of Zariel. Lulu pitied him, and sadly announced that she was mistaken. She asked that they leave this place and let her think back on her dreams to find the location of the citadel. The group decided against releasing any of the knights from their torment.
The Savage Seven decided to drive around to find a safe place to camp and for Lulu to think about her dreams. A few hours after leaving, they were attacked by a band of wereboars and wererats driving a demongrinder war machine. Battled ensued, and they found themselves fighting the lycanthropes across their war machines at high speeds. Pan focused on driving, while Kathra and Keladrien unleashed their magic on the enemy and Baen manned the harpoon launcher with minimal efficacy. Kathra unleashed a column of fire upon the enemy vehicle and lycanthropes, damaging the demon grinder and nearly killing the wererats. Keladrien in turn blasted them with a cone of frost, freezing the wererats to death and nearly killing the wereboars save their leader. The blast also froze their wrecking ball in place before they could use it. Baen and Keladrien's skeletons continued firing from the vehicle and slew the remaining wereboars, but not before the gang leader swerved away and slammed into their war machine. The crash damaged both vehicles, but the demongrinder proved much sturdier. Kathra worked to fix their vehicle, while Pan kept his eyes on the road and the rest of the group tried to take down the massive wereboar warlord. He swerved into them again, this time rendering their vehicle inoperatable. As the vehicle began to slow, Pan leapt from the driver's seat swords drawn and drove his blades into the wereboar's head. With the gang slain, Kathra was able to cannibalize their vehicle to repair the enemy demongrinder. Keladrien found 3 more soul coins and a circlet of blasting on the dead warlord. During that time, lulu was able to think back on her memories and presented them with a choice of two places to go: A Place where demons manifest, or a place where demons are destroyed. They chose to go to the place where demons are destroyed, leading them to the "demon zapper."
On the way to the demon zapper, the group passed near a dock for Zariel's flying fortresses. They witnessed one of the fortresses absorbing souls from the river styx before departing. Rather than find a way around the river Styx, they chose to cross it. Not knowing how, they called upon the soul within one of their soul coins and asked for advice. The soul told them of Merrenoloths--Ferrimen of the River Styx--and they called upon one using the soul coin. They paid the fiendish ferriman one soul coin and he carried them and their infernal engine across the styx on a barge. Some hours later (and after needing to feed the machine another soul coin), they arrived at the demon zapper. A huge rusted metallic monument in the shape of a beetle stuck out from a pool of muddy sludge. In the middle of its pincers floated a unicorn within a sphere of blue energy. Keladrien sent his imp to investigate, and an arc of lightning shot from the sphere and obliterated it. Pan and Kathra chose to get nearer, and eventually decided to try to destroy the pincers. When they attacked it, a massive stone creature erupted from the sludge and asked them why they had come. She revealed that she was bound by Zariel to guard the zapper, but offered a deal. In return for helping free her from her bond, she would show them the location of Bel's Forge and write a letter of introduction. Bel, a pit fiend and former ruler of Avernus, was now working under Zariel but secretly seeking to supplant her and take back Avernus. The creature, known as a Dao, suggested he may know how to reach Zariel or the location of the bleeding citadel. The group agreed, and set out to find an oracle named Red Ruth within a corrupted forest nearby. The dao swore she would know how to free her.
After finding the forest, the group entered and Baen guided them through the maze of warped trees and bonelike vines. Calcified corpses merged with the trees, covered in fungal pods that fed on the blood oozing through the undergrowth. After getting lost and finding a dead drow (carrying what looked like a bag of holding), they found their way to Red Ruth's lair. She proved to be a night hag like Mad Maggie, and after learning of their reason for visiting she offered them a deal. If they would but visit the wandering emporium (a traveling market of infernal engines) and schedule a bath for her at the infernal rapture then guard her grove while she was away, she would tell them how to free the Dao. The group agreed to yet another deal, and she sliced her arms open--spilling blood all over her stone table and studying the patterns before divining the location of the emporium. She sent them on their way with the current location of the traveling market, and they left her grove with a new destination.
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