Khemed
Of ghosts and mad undead clerics
So. this damn graveyard has more than just skeletons and zombies...
We just turned a bunch of those damn things into plain bones and regular immobile piles of meat when Fearia decided we should probably check the statues at the front of the chapel to see if there was a statue there of some guy named Lanesh Vogel or something? no idea who the guy is, but she seemed to think if he was there then so might this helmet we're looking for.
fine, whatever. So me and the Elf, his name is Erric apparently, sneak out to have a look.
we haven't stepped 10 feet out of the chapel when I just KNOW something isn't right and I duck back just in time to dodge some sort of, I don't know... ghost? apparition?
Turns out the fuckers were hiding in the statues, probably just waiting for someone to wander by like the city's most convenient snack. We barely managed to call for help and alert the others before the blasted things utterly started to swarm us.
Not gonna lie, I'm pretty quick on my feet and can usually avoid anything trying to get to me but there were so damn many of them I thought I was well and truely screwed.
Lucky for me, that absolute unit of a half orc Princess had other plans and she charges the ghosts like some sort of damn lunatic. I was uunder the impression she was supposed to be some sort of paladin? I don't think i've ever seen one them act like this.
Honestly, if it wasn't for her I'd probably not be around writing this now, I don't know why she decided to stick her neck out for me like that. No one's ever done that, gotta be some angle she's trying to work here that i'm not seeing yet.
Anyway, she goes to town on the fuckers with that shiny new blade of hers, does an absolute number on the damn things too, far more than the more mundane items some of the rest of the group was carrying so I guess that's something to keep in mind for the future.
after we get through with getting rid of the damn ghosts it seemed princess wasn't quite done with her bloodlust and she just launches herself off of the raised area next to the church and absolutely obliterates this one lone zombie just standing there minding his own business.
Look, I don't like the undead either, dead things should just... you know, stay dead? but that just seems a bit much. Maybe Fearia can talk some sense into her when we're done here, assuming we live that long anyway.
woman might be naive as shit but she has a way with words and by and large seems to just radiate calmness, can't tell if it's an act or if she's genuinely just always this calm.
So when all the killing? re-deading? is done we check the statues only to realise this Lanesh guy isn't amongst the statues so we retreat back into the chapel and after some discussion its decided to check out the area downstairs.
For some reason Fearia decided it would be best if half the group goes in all but blind down there in the darkness which I still think is absolutely insane. I had and still have a perfectly good shielded lantern, sure. it does increase the risk of our detection somewhat, but I say that far outweighs half of us not being able to see a damn thing down there.
In any case, we go down there and I can't see a damn thing but we eventually get to a set of doors. I forgot who it was that got there first but I think it was Erric and me, we hear someone on the other side of the door and someone gets overly excited and just damn near plows through the lot of us.
I still can't see a damn thing so I strike out with a fist only to hit what I now know was the shoulder plate of princess' armour, that'll leave a mark but it could have ended far worse.
Turns out this gideon fellow was inside the room and Princess is NOT happy to see him. Not sure if this just added to the anger she was already feeling or if everything up to this point was essentially caused by this guy.
I don't like what I'm hearing so I squeeze in past and behind Princess so I can have a look at what's going on and that's roughly when EVERYTHING went to shit.
this guy Gideon, not sure who he was in the past? some priest or cleric based on what he was wearing and what I overheard at his house earlier. I guess Princess knew him pretty well? he tried talking to us about helping him and she was NOT having it. if it wasn't for Fearia, the damn druid and me I'm sure Princess would have ripped his head off of his shoulders before you could ask about what's for breakfast. I thought most of us were roughly on the same page you know, after all, what Gideon had been writing about this Zariel person made sense. The gods are full of shit and there is no telling what they're hiding in their fancy light.
Well, turns out Fearia and Princess most definitely DID NOT agree with any of that. I'm not one for all their theological debates but as I listened to Fearia and Gideon go back and forth for a while it became quite clear that Zariel may have a point when it comes to the god, she herself and by extention this gideon person is absolutely no better, in fact they may be even worse. I don't understand all of what's going on, and there's implications here I don't like. I'm pretty sure the rest of this group know more about why the city is in Avernus than they've let on so far, I can't tell if they're partially responsible for it but it almost sounded like the damn hellriders and companions at least did SOMETHING that may be related to why the city is here.That would make them at least partially responsible by association? I dunno.... Princess did stick her neck out for me so I gotta at least hear them out on this and figure out what the hell is going on.
Regardless, hearing what Zariel and Gideon were actually about just showed me once again none of these damn outsiders can be trusted not to want to absolutely screw over mortals so I let go of Princess, I figured she'd launch herself at him as soon as she could so I took a few steps back and took out my crossbow, this piece of shit needed to die and I'll be damned if I didn't at least get a shot in.
I'm not entirely sure what happened after this because it was a lot in no time flat, I fired my bolt, princess got loose and with that everything just got messy.
Before I had time to even fire a second shot this skull thing and some more ghosts floated in and we all got hit by a fireball or something, it really messed me up good so I take another quick shot at Gideon and bolt out of that room.
I took a few more shots from the shadows outside but mostly tried to stay out of dodge so I didn't see who ended up killing Gideon but in the end it looks like we managed to kill him and get rid of the other undead.
looks like we're taking a quick breather now before pushing on. I think most of the group is getting close to exhaustion at this point, not sure about the others but I HURT. Gotta keep up the pretense though, no sense in letting them see just how badly messed up I am in case they turn on me, just the same. I think I'll hang back a little just in case.
So, teamwork eh?
Right, so... Followed the whole lot into the other parts of the city. Was surprisingly easy to do. I guess they weren't expecting to be followed.
Bastards went straight to the big fancy cathedral fortress of the city bigwigs. not great but I suppose thats what I should have expected given what I was already told.
followed them down to some sort of sublevel where they were having a conversation with some priest lady. tried getting closer but accidentally stepped on some loose stones and gave myself away, absolutely embarassing mistake that was.
Needless to say I got jumped by the biggest goddamn halforc i've ever seen, the one I was talking about earlier. All muscle and tall as a damn mountain, apparently her name is Princess? I don't know who named her that but damn that must have been some sort of cruel joke, who does that?!
Regardless, she aint so bad. What's worse was the damn Elf skulking arouund in her shadows. At least I think it's an Elf? seen a few of the regular woodsy types with their haughty manners, but this one is different.
first thing she does is start prying her filthy damn fingers in my very mind, the nerve of that lady, think her name is Hayley or some shit. If I ever get the chance I'll have to go through her private shit and see how she likes it when people go rifling through her most precious belongings.
Anyway, after the rest of the group show up, some elf with a bow who's name I haven't caught or maybe I forgot and some sort of dude dressed in blacks with a weird looking sword.
Seems they were joined by some new lady, Fearia or something? not sure if the name is supposed to be an attempt at intimidation or not, either way she tried to calm things down and got all touchy feely. Didn't understand half of what she was talking about but she had the airs of one of them fancy upper class folks.
Didn't like how she was all like "pitty the poor little man, we should take care of him" but hey, food is food.
Well, turns out these guys do seem to be working on something that may or may not get the city out of Avernus. Thought it was better than nothing and it sounded like they had some sort of plan.
Something involving a helmet from the gods maybe? seems a little naive if you ask me but I don't have any better ideas yet. Will have to keep the bosses idea in mind but they seemed a little hesitant about the whole "underground groups" working together with them.
you'd think they never saw just how usefull a well run thieves guild can be, perhaps I can bring it up at a more opertune time.
After a nights sleep and some more food we headed off to the graveyard, because where else would you put a magic helmet? the damn graveyard. And wouldn't you know it? its infested with the walking dead. good times.
took us a while to get there because the damn elf seems to have some sort of pastry obsession and wanted to get second breakfast or something? I think even that lady Fearia was getting a bit fed up with it but she was too polite to say something about it.
Turns out the guy with the bow knows some neat tricks to help move around a city without being seen, should see if I can either learn how to do that or otherwise recruit him. would be a useful asset, especially if the damn orb in the sky goes back to doing what it's supposed to do.
anyway, graveyard. yeah so turns out these guys know someone who lives there? Seriously, even in the best of times, why would you want to live there? City is full of the weirdest folk if you ask me.
turns out their friend? buddy? acquintance? is missing, his place was a mess from what I could see. I stayed outside to keep watch while the rest of the guys had a look around.
Fearie found some letter or journal or whatever left by the guy. didn't hear everything but there was something about a Zariel? Zahariel? I guess she turned away from the gods because she was concerned about what the gods were hiding in the light. Makes sense to me. Gods are no better after all and you can't trust those fuckers not to want to pull a fast one on you. No idea what became of this Zariel person but I think she had the right idea about not trusting the gods at least.
We snuck into the church after everyone was satisfied their buddy wasn't there. Everything was bloody broken with the exception of 1 single piece of stained glass, unusual, and everyone seemed to want to have a look at it, I figured i'd have a quick look around and make sure we were alone while everyone was doing that.
found a mirror that seemed to have been deliberately smashed, not sure why someone would want to do that considering the cost of those damn things but oh well.
Oh yeah, before I forget, we found something else that made princess and fearia all excited and they started mumbling about their religious nonsense followed by princess pulling a great big honking fancy sword out of a window? weird shit, you'd think if you could do that you would try for gold instead, you can always buy a sword after all.
Getting the hell out of Avernus
So, it's been a few days since everything went to hell. Literally from what I understand.
I've never been much for gods, demons, devils and any other type of "outsider". After all, where were the gods when mom had to escape her slavery down south? where were the gods when she fell ill after giving birth to me? where were the gods when she died and I was left alone to fend for myself in Athkatla?
useless bastards the lot of them, and aint nobody gonna convince me that you have to be worthy for them to give a crap about you. no, screw that, how's a small child or an escaped slave supposed to do that?
and from what little I know, demons, devils and others don't even pretend to be all nice and good about their intentions, unless they think they can get something out of you by offering something in return.
In the end, if you want to get anything done, you have to do it yourself, these so called immortals will either try to manipulate you or simply ignore you.
With that in mind, this whole damn city now being in what i'm told is called Avernus, not great. not great at all.
I had been stuck in the docks district since we got here, and these damn devils had the place locked up good and tight from what I could tell, no way would I have been able to get past the bridge guards by myself. The high and mighty hell riders seemed to be too busy with their own concerns and their fancy fortress to worry about the little folk, so they're about as useful as a sack of sand in the desert.
The big lady said our group wouldn't be able to get us out of here by themselves neither, but she had heard word of a group of people that seemed to be doing..... something and it might be worth checking in with them, perhaps a mutually beneficial arrangement could be reached.
Wouldn't you know it? they even managed to clear the guards off of the bridge, even if its only temporarily so I figured I'd go and follow them, see where they end up going and perhaps I can be of a little help to get us all out of here.
Bit concerning that the big scary looking lady in the group seems to be wearing hell rider insignia though, especially since i've started noticing it on some of the devils. gotta keep an eye on that.
