Epic Realms Recap: 4/17

A quick(ish) summary of the last three sessions, excerpts from the notes of Aerys, Rusk's pet Harper. (Or is Rusk the Harpers' pet war cleric?)

"...the party then followed the phaerimm through the portal into Sigil, City of Doors. After wandering around a bit, they realized that Kwalu had gone missing. He'd been trailing behind the group and now was nowhere to be seen. Shrugging it off, the party hired a young orc child as a guide and made for the marketplace, where they traded a ton of adamantine for enough cash to buy rather a lot of stuff. Afterwards, they were robbed: an ethereal filcher stole the emerald skull in which Aeric was still trapped, and fled.

On the bright side, Kwalu reappeared and told the party he'd had a vision of impending doom: glowing yellow eyes in the dark, a black river filled with pale, bloated corpses, a great tree rotting from its roots, a mountain wreathed in flame, a huge and ancient iron door. The party didn't press Kwalu on where exactly he'd been, though, and he didn't offer any details. This was kind of too bad for the party, since it wasn't actually Kwalu who returned, but a devil wearing Kwalu's skin. More on this later.

The group went to meet with Tham'zin, leader of the Old Order, and he filled them in on many things, including: the existence in Mulhorand of the ancient blue wyrm Gestaniius; more details on the epic psion Sammaster, founder of the Cult of the Dragon and his erstwhile lich disciple Wulgreth; and the history of the phaerimm race. He asked Silas to stop the escape of the phaerimm from Anauroch, and gave him some tea which apparently will let Silas contact Tham'zin at a later date.

After a nice supper at Quiet's (a mindflayer gourmet), the party used Discern Location magic to find the stolen emerald skull, and learned it was located in the left hand of Bel, Lord of the First (layer of Hell, "Avernus"). So they went to visit Alluvius Ruskin, portal- and secret-vendor of Sigil, and traded her a Talisman of the Sphere for the location and activation method of a portal to Avernus.

The group did a bit more shopping in preparation for their descent into Hell, unfolded a magical boat in a Hive alleyway, and shifted onto the River Styx in Avernus. Devil "Kwalu" took advantage of the distraction of several attacking river devils to grab Aeric and abscond with him, laughing. It's a good thing the devil enjoyed the prank, because it/he would turn out to be short-lived.

During the battle, Soren and Rusk are both thrown into the River Styx, and lose all of their memories. This would prove to play a key role later in the day. Aeric returned, dripping with goo from the late "Kwalu devil", just in time to blot an entire attacking draconic/devil aerial platoon out of the sky. He then told the group about his experience being trapped inside the emerald skull, conversing with a mad intellect calling itself "Sammaster," who among other things told him that Wulgreth could be found "at the place where the Netherese fell."

The party next teleported directly into the middle of the Bronze Citadel, Bel's fortress home. Facing down what appeared to be all of the devils in the world, the group made a deal with Bel: he'd send them back to Faerûn and restore the memories of Soren and Rusk, and they'd get the emerald skull back after tracking down and killing Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunson. The contract duly signed and witnessed, Bel sent the party back into the Western Heartlands. He also conveniently failed to mention that memory loss from immersion in the River Styx is temporary, but hey, what do you expect from the Lord of Hell?

Soren blanched as memory returned to him in a rush and he realized he'd just signed a blood oath to Bel to kill his own master. So he took up his Luckblade and teleported to Blackstaff's side. Back in the Heartlands, the rest of the party (still minus Kwalu) talked over Soren's disappearance until Soren returned with his explanation: Blackstaff does not currently find it convenient to die, thank you. After a good bit of thinking and strategizing, a plan began to emerge: trick Bel into taking a soul that did not belong to him out of the Fugue Plane by disguising it as Blackstaff's, thus getting him (Bel) in trouble with Kelemvor. Other important things realized by the group: whoever their enemy is, s/he/they: (1) like to use others as cat's paws in their own schemes; (2) wield very powerful magic; and (3) knew about the three escaped Phaerimm. Oh, and by the way Rusk your lieutenant chick is a Harper, surprise.

The party plane shifted from there into the Fugue Plane to talk their plan over with Kelemvor Himself. While He explained that Death does not negotiate, He did provide some useful support to his worshipper Aeric: (1) the phaerimm imprisonment is nearing its end, and (2) the Cult of the Dragon is His gravest concern. And since He didn't say that He *wouldn't* participate in the plan to trick Bel, exactly, Aeric took that as tacit approval and the party put the plan into action. First all of them but Soren teleported to Candlekeep, to be sure they followed the letter of the contract they'd signed. Meanwhile Soren travelled back to Blackstaff (who was not, in fact, in Candlekeep at all), and told him to go ahead with his mock death. Finally, they used Word of Recall to meet back at Rusk's desert stronghold in Anauroch.

It's a pretty clever plan that allows you to both trick the Devil into doing your bidding and simultaneously doesn't require you to do any real dirty work. Bel certainly appreciated it; after being caught in the Fugue Plane, he invaded Rusk's stronghold leading a small shock force of pit fiends and ice devils. Unfortunately for the Lord of Darkness, he got his forked tail handed to him, though unfortunately for Rusk, in the process he managed to kill dozens of Rusk's soldiers.

Finally, after Bel's aspect was slain, but before he could return to his domain, Kelemvor appeared and took possession of Bel's soul/animus. Sucks to be Bel. I wonder who the new Lord of Avernus will be during the thousand years that Bel will spend serving Kelemvor in the Fugue Plane."