B&T Chapter 0: Draconius' Deal with the Devil

General Summary

Session 1

Draconius Moanius starts off in his basement, after just completing a portal to the underworld. This is his first trip to the underworld after having studied it for ages. He seeks to find a dead colleague an a draconic demon. The portal is terrifyingly cool. Draconius brings his mace and rubber duck (arcane focus). Hops in and goes on a space ride, lands in the Soul Sands of the Underworld.
Talks to the sand and scares it away with Abyssal, feels a chill. Draconius heads towards the storm. Seeks Thalonius the Demodragon, negotiates with an Ice Devil: The devil takes him to Thalonius' lair, and in exchange, he must return with his colleague's soul by the next Undernight
Enters the cave via Spider Crawl, met Thalonius and made a deal: capture a soul within the crystal or be trapped himself
Wandered the Meadow of Departed

Draconius vs. Reaper Wyvern

Initiative

• Reaper Wyvern - 9
• Draconius - 7

Round 1

• Reaper Wyvern - Bite & Claw (flying), bite hits for 12 damage while claw misses.
• Draconius - Draconius misses his Eldrich Blast, then tries to talk it down

Round 2

• Reaper Wyvern - Stinger (missed)
• Draconius - 7 damage with Eldrich Blast, missed with Spirit Shroud since the wyvern wasn't in range

Round 3

• Reaper Wyvern - Bite, but is interrupted by the sudden arrival of a dark mage. Leads him back to his mage cave

Draconius & Falonius decide to head to Thalonius for "reunion of the Dragonborn tribe". Falonius is suspicious, but doesn't know enough about the mortal world nowadays to doubt him. They agree to go on the quest, letting Draconius sleep in the bed for a Long Rest

Session 2

• Good shit, left the Meadow of Departed and found Thalonius, after meeting the Ice Devil outside and extending Draconius' soul debt to three days from now, expected to pay tenfold

Initiative

1. Flamonius: 21 (7/47 HP)
2. Draconius: 20
3. Dretches (4): 1/18 each

Round 1

1. Flamonius: smacks Draconius with Chromatic Orb (1st level spell) for 11 cold damage
2. Draconius: casts Darkness (2nd level spell) and then sneaks behind Flamonius

Round 2

1. Flamonius: Can't find Draconius, then taunts him
2. Draconius: casts Summon Lesser Demons and gets 4 Dretches
3. Dretches: 1 Dretch does 1 piercing, 2nd dretch gets 3 piercing & 5 slashing. 3rd dretch does 7, 4th dretch does 3 slashing (19 total damage to Flamonius)

Round 3

1. Flamonius: Casts Cloud of Daggers (2nd level spell) and deals 17 slashing to Dretch swarm
2. Draconius: cast Eldritch Blast on Flamonius for 21 force damage
3. Dretches: Swarm and consume Flamonius

Aftermath

• The dretches eat Flamonius until he is nothing but bone. His soul materializes
• Draconius & Thalonius uses Flamonius' bones & soul to craft Flamonius' Glaive. Does the regular 1d10 slashing damage, then 2d8 of cold damage, and the opponent must succeed on Wisdom saving throw or take 2d6 necrotic damage. If the attack kills them, their soul is yours. 
• Draconius pledges Warlock-itude to Thalonius, who tasks him to return to Thalonia and collect 10 souls for the ice devil
• Teleported to the village, convinced 15 people to head to the Underworld for patronage of Thalonius
• Sees Nolya & Sharpjaw packing up their boat, heading to Vulsemar. He grins sinisterly

Notes

1. the ice devil that gave up Thalonius the Demodragon’s location was actually conspiring against him, meaning to possess Falonius (or whatever soul Draconius brought to the demon) and take on Thalonius himself. He does this, leading the final confrontation of the Draconius prequel to be Draconius vs Ice Devil Falonius (gives him the Ice Spear attack)
2. Reward from prequel quest: Soulcicle (spear crafted from ice & the bones of Falonius, give him the option to make this his Arcane Focus over the rubber duck)
3. tie into the main story - “in the underworld I somehow find out about my blood relation to the dragon of the main quest. Some demon with foreseeable knowledge can tell if the dragon dies it will have severe impacts on my dragon born tribe. Then I have to seek out sharpjaw to start my journey”
4. Tie into the Underdark - the subplane between the mortal realm and the Underdark
5. Draconius can communicate & deal with devils and Underworld traders. Draconius has spent much of his time in the Underworld & Underdark, hanging out with devils and studying dragons/the undead. Wants to learn how to conjure the dead. He is hesitant to let the rest of the group know because he doesn't want to upset the devils or let them see into his darker side.
6. Limitations to Draconius - any spells that involve summoning demons do not gain the benefits from the demon book Draconius found in Queen Medusa’s Library
7. Ending: My patron is a demon who wants me to collect souls for him in exchange for his powers and knowledge. He collects souls for fun to show off to the other demons, like a nft collection. The rarer the soul the better. He is also very knowledgeable about dragons and their ancestry. He gifts me a staff that collects souls of dead humanoids. He then tells me about the dragon we are protecting and it’s severe condition. He also tells me that this dragon has long ancestral ties to me. He gives me his powers and knowledge in exchange for collecting souls for him.

Report Date

26 Oct 2021

Secondary Location

Dartheim