Chapter 23: Sacrifice and Allies
The savage seven returned to Uldrak's grave and gave him the blood of tiamat. As he spilled the blood upon the ground, he transformed back into his natural form (a 9 foot tall giant man). He spilled his blood for them and kathra collected it in her water skin. They tried to ask him to help secure the unicorn, but Uldrak refused. He asked if they had encountered a man named Jarl Unthol before calling out to someone named "Heimdall." A giant beam of light smashed into him and transported him away.
Back at the Demon Zapper, the group gave the Dao the empyrean's blood and she was able to free herself from her bondage with it. She inscribed a letter of introduction to Bel on a slate tablet and pointed out the location of his forge on their map. Before leaving via a portal of quicksand in the ground, she suggested they might free the unicorn by destroying the pincers on the beetle statue. After discussing a plan, the party decided to slay the unicorn so that they could bring it back to life for Arkhan's sacrifice rather than capture it through some other means. Kathra destroyed the pincer, then Pan and Keladrien unleashed their magic upon it. The attack quickly overwhelmed it, but not before it could communicate with Kathra telepathically and send feelings of betrayal and the word "why." It perished and fell into the muck surrounding the demon zapper, where the group collected her corpse and tossed it into the portable hole.
The group traveled back to Arkhan's camp by the monument to Tiamat and presented the creature to him. Though she felt her connection to Haela Brightaxe waver, Kathra was able to bring the creature back to life after an hour-long incantation. Arkhan grasped the unicorn with the hand of vecna, feeding its essence to it. As he did so, the corruption on his arm receded somewhat and he beamed with power. Satisfied, he declared their compact completed. Tiamat then posessed her champion and spoke through him, offering the group aid in their quest against Zariel. She promised to destroy the chains that bind elturel if they could remove or disable the companion floating above the city. She also offered to send Arkhan to help them against Zariel should battle with the archduchess ensue. The posession ended, Arkhan asked Tiamat if that course was wise and seemed to be reprimanded telepathically. He promised to keep an eye on them and join them in battle when and if the time came.
Finished with the dragon queen and her champion, the party departed towards Bel's forge. They summoned a styx ferryman and offered 2 soul coins to take them all the way to the forge. The ferryman took their coin and started the journey. On the way, Kathra tried to repair some of the damage to their demon grinder but was only minutely successful. They found the forge built into the side of a volcano and guarded by massive fire giants armed with tower shields they used as literal gates. After showing them the slate tablet, they were allowed in. Kathra recognized the work of Duergar slaves in the structure, and even saw her people's hated enemies in the slave pens. After descending a spiral staircase, they entered Bel's forge and met with the pit fiend and former ruler of Avernus. After learning of their quest, he offered up the location of the bleeding citadel if they would retrieve something for him. A set of 9 adamantine rods had gone missing from his forge, and he sent he group to speak to a Sibriex (a massive telepathic demon) his people had captured and whom he used as a source of information. The group managed to persuade him to give them weapons, and Keladrien collected a set of hellfire shortswords for his skeletons. Bel also offered up the use of his barge for travel down the styx. They left the forge and traveled to the barge, where they embarked and were led to the Sibriex by an imp named Baraklas.
At the sibriex, they found a massive mound of mutated flesh held by chains and tortured by chain devils and a jackal-headed devil. The devils seemed to expect their coming, and allowed the group to try to ask the Sibriex where the rods were. It refused to answer, but sent Pan a telepathic message offering the information if they freed it. Pan managed to persuade the demon that they would come back to free it when they were done working with Bel. The Sibriex agreed and told Pan the location of the rods (in a crashed flying fortress nearby). They left and returned to the barge, where Baraklas led them to the crashed fortress. They crossed plains of raging firestorms and arrived at the fortress. Six vulture-like devils circled the wreck, which was buried halfway into the ground. Keladrien and Pan used their magic to teleport the group up to the command deck of the fortress, and they entered the wreck through a hole in its side. Inside, they found strange, heavily damaged equipment throughout (Consoles used by devils to operate the fortress, a bel-shaped object used to keep the fortress level, and various communications devices). Near the bridge, Kathra tried to open a metal door that screeched loudly and alerted the circling devils. They battled the creatures, pummeling them with magic and expending much of their precious magical energy. After 3 of the devils were slain, the rest fled and flew off into in the skies. Deep in the fortress, they found a safe made of infernal iron with 3 number dials etched with infernal numerals. Kathra used magic to reshape the door into a simple latch and opened the safe, finding the rods inside. Each was lined with runes reading "solar insidiator lock" followed by a number from 1 to 9. Pan remembered lulu telling them about thavius kreeg and his infernal contract with the city that referred to the companion as the solar insidiator. Soon after, they heard the familiar sound of infernal engines as a group of warlords approached the wreck. They teleported back down to their demon grinder and fled before they arrived.
The journey back to Bel's forge took a day of travel, during which the group rested in the comfort of Keladrien's magical hut (and awoke more exhausted then before). Back in Bel's forge, they returned the rods to Bel who seemed disappointed that they would simply hand them back (without signing a contract!). He played coy with them and heavily suggested they should keep the rods. When asked about the runes etched into them, he suggested they might fit into the companion to "unlock" it. But his contract forbade him from actively working against Zariel, so he looked away as Kathra gathered the rods and proclaimed they had been stolen once more. Bel pointed out the location of the bleeding Citadel on their map, and the group left the forge. Before entering the citadel, the group departs for the wandering emporium to resupply and get more restful sleep at the infernal rapture.
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