Mission 12 - The Crypt Of The Hellriders

[!abstract] The Job
Find where demons are born, and the Hellriders' crypt, and earn Olanthius's help.

Raptured

We put a few miles between us and the hornets and camp. I take first watch. As my watch ends, I catch Salah Secumber - Hal speaking with some sort of divine being. He turns, nods to me, follows it, and is sucked into the sky on a giant beam of light. I have no reference for what I just saw, so I wake Baktha Tassup - Ryan and tell him. He's convinced Salah was raptured by Torm. I'm too tired to argue and go to sleep.

When I wake, someone unexpected is in our camp. I bolt to my feet. It's Zaleria Grimwood - Hannah. We interrogate her, then agree she can join, now that we have a cleric-sized hole in the party. She accepts, and we set off again, following Lulu.

Where Demons Are Made

We spot a dragon in the distance and duck for cover until it's gone.

A bit further, the map speaks to me. "Where demon filth lands, more filth is begat," or some shit like that. Treelike growths cluster along a lake shore, each formed from the ichor of a tree-sac. Five bearded devils heap coal around a trunk. Four tease the fifth. One of the sacs falls, bursts, and gives birth to a Demogorgon. We approach the devils and talk our way past.

Mordenkainen

An iron tower on an island in a lake of boiling red. No windows, one door high on a balcony. Red lightning arcs between two horns on the roof. At its base: nine or so purple crab-like demons and three winged, horned ones. They're not hostile. We hear their thoughts: they wonder if we're here for work.

As I cross the bridge, a bald human walks out on the balcony. Mordenkainen is his name. He tells us of a mage of no renown called Ubbalux, whom we'll find in the direction we're heading: past an obelisk, two hills over, inside a circle of standing stones. About the sword, he says to seek the crypt of the Hellriders, east, two hills past an opening to a valley.

The Crypt of the Hellriders

Dozens of kneeling hellknights surround obelisks at the entrance, lifeless. A narrow hall leads to a pair of sealed basalt doors carved with a knight fighting a devil, both wielding burning swords.

We spend a few hours resting, dimension dooring and misty stepping, over and over, to get everyone in. At the first junction, we go right into a room of burial urns. Baktha prays before one and spectral apparitions appear: fallen Hellriders. They fought and died alongside Zariel and failed. Zariel and her followers turned to evil and became fiends. Olanthius killed himself rather than turn, and Zariel raised him as a death knight. They beg Baktha to help them rest. We should find Olanthius's quarters and look for evidence of his humanity to remind him of it. They offer to guard the entrance while we search, and are grateful when we tell them about freeing Jander Sunstar and the fight with Haruman. The secret to the front door: For Glory.

We explore and come to a room with a carved fresco. While we inspect it, mummies attack and nearly kill Zaleria, who flees. Mike and Thomas burn them to ash with a modicum of help from Baktha and me.

After a rest, we find a strangely shaped room with stone slabs covered in names and frescoes. A secret door on the east wall leads to a small chamber with eight leather tomes on a writing desk: Olanthius's journals. He never recovered from his subjugation to Zariel and his transformation. He took his life rather than face damnation, only to be raised as an undead monster to serve her forever. He calls Haruman heartless, a man hellbent on punishing anyone in his way. He mourns his fallen warriors, feeling powerless. He speaks well of Yael, whom he respects and secretly adores. He hints that he knows where Yael hid the sword, but never writes where.

Olanthius

As we finish reading, Lulu shouts in our heads: "We've got company!" She shares her vision. A chariot drawn by two gorgons lands outside carrying a single armored rider. He disappears, and appears in the room among us.

He asks what we're doing. Thomas says we're on a quest for Zariel's sword. Mike says we destroyed Haruman and want to set his men free. The rider, Olanthius, says he would like his men freed, and that the sword is in The Bleeding Citadel, though he doesn't know where. If we do a favor for him, he'll know by the time we return. He needs us to create a diversion so Zariel doesn't feel him searching. The only way: find the demon Lord Kostchtchie, imprisoned in Avernus. Zariel stole his hammer, the source of his power, and he's a weakened slave in a pit. His maw can be reached from the arches of Ulloch, and Olanthius explains how the arches work.

Previous: Mission 11 - Haruman's Hill · Next: Mission 13 - Kostchtchie's Maw

#session #mission