Minauros: Devils, Ruth, and the Search for Voriski

Expedition

Exiled to Baator for Clive's crimes, the Fractured Pack make their way through the polluted swamps of Minauros. Fighting off devils as they went, the party sought answers from the hag Red Ruth, trekked through the hellish landscape fending off the scavengers, and made their way through the crags of an acidic labyrinth to find their destination.

The Fractured Pack: Exiled to the Nine Hells for the crimes of one of their own, hope to take this chance find their quarry and end the threat to their futures.   Stepping through a Gate created by the Dominus Porta into the polluted swamps of Minauros, they quickly were the subject of fiendish attention. They didn't expect the Fractured Pack's fortitude however and the adventurers quickly dispatched the two flying, barb throwing spinagons and the bearded devil. Spotting what could very well be the gnarled Bone Bramble in the distant fog, the Pack set out in a collapsible rowboat to attempt to find a hag.   After crossing the first stretch of swamp, the Fractured back arrived at the petrified forest. Fighting their way through calcified branch and spectral elf, they eventually found the center before Red Ruth's hut. Doing spectacular in a game of nursery rhyme riddles, they gained Red Ruth's desire to put in effort for their questions. Beyond being able to make trades for information on those present, the Fractured Packk encouraged her to cleanse herself and acquire a new meat dress to be able to divine information on Voriski. To do so though, Red Ruth had to leave her hut which she knew would bring the wrath of the dead forest around her. Our heroes did a decent job preventing the destruction of her hut but were not ready for the Banshee's scream. 80% successful, Red Ruth's return brought two questions instead of three. In turn, they first asked question was too broad and vague to require Ruth to say much. Their second question brought poetic instructions on how to find the place where Voriski was reforming.   Red Ruth's Prophecy
Seeking the False Face cloaked in Smoke
Your path leaves here by laborous Stroke
To fields sparse but blighted still
And from hollows pour, the greater dangers fill
Once more to plank, the bobbing tide
Beyond Hunger's Tower you will stride
To row again until rows do soar
Treacherous choice, take glaive not oar
Within rocky cave under cloak of dark
Endure the strikes to find hunter's mark   Before leaving Red Ruth though, Broxon made a trade with the hag for information on his father. Clive traded both an arcane fuse to gain more information on the entity name Lionel as well as his family's connection to the forsaken god of death Nerul. Where one companions questions are driven to get him to his father all the quicker, the other seems to take every possibility to gain information without returning to where the answers lay.   Resting before their leave, the voyage was harsh. The Fractured Pack have traveled over slosh and slop. They fought blighted trees and swarms of rot grubs. Avoiding conflict with a kobold horde, the Fractured Pack made bargains to get by when they could and fought when they couldn't. Closing in on their destination, the adventures rowed into a maze of crevices, following the paths of the stilt walking Bearded devils deeper in, searching for a tunnel. After a battle that brought blows against both the party and their ship, Xanstaer came to realize that the toxic waters around them had increased from poisonous to downright acidic. With the structure of the boat now knowingly on a timer, their efforts were now all the more strained.   After Xanstaer attempted to dive into the acid to retrieve one of the stilts and realized their folly, Clive created a crystalline gigging-spear to fish out the infernal poles. Broxon began heavily rowing as Xanstaer took the rudder. The boat surged and drifted around bends as Buck used a pole to guide the vessel onward. From the next large chamber, the center of the acid pool surged up. As the companions continued their flight, a great ooze came after them. Slamming into the boat, pseudopods lashing into those who attacked it, the party continued onward in panic. As they turned a final corner within the labyrinth they found a dead end into darkness. Seeing doom crawling up on all sides as the boat sank into the acid lake, Clive's boon-granted vision of death allowed him to see through the darkness to make out a dry ledge into a tunnel. Making the last push forward as the acid poured into the boat, the Fractured Pack leapt from the sinking vessel to the cramped safety of passage.