An Excursion to the Hells
Heading for New Shores
How nice Darfin must have it right now, sitting comfortably and quiet in the library. I imagine him drinking some tea, probably with that brackish goblin water. - Oratos
Darfin learns about how the Stoneaxes clan ruled over this valley, the gold they found and the great cataclysm that happened 1000 years ago. Unlike the other Dwarven Kingdoms the Stoneaxes did not participate in the republic and held their isolation policies until the fall of the kingdom 200 years ago, when it was overwhelmed by the force of the goblins and the destructive power of a dragon.
Heavily breathing Strennun, Miss Nelson and I return to the cave where we scheduled to meet up with the rebels. After returning to the large room, we find some of the rebels fighting the devils who have now defeated the hobgoblins. After things turn sour for the rebels, Miss Nelson and Strennun help the remaining slaves with cover fire to escape the cave. Not many make it, but as a last resort Miss Nelson collapses the cave with a loud thunder. At the basecamp Darfin finds Rigalis flying while his two brutes hold the rope that secures him to the ground.
We meet up with Darfin to take the shorter route through the mountain, where we find kobolds carrying the remains of what Darfin describes as the remains of the spider queen. After trading the Kobolds some of our rations for a part of the spider queen we continue our way through the mountain. We take a short rest while Darfin inspects the spider queen’s limb. Sitting atop his chest Darfin makes several observations: There was a magical liquid inside the limb that seems to be responsible for the transformation forced by transmutation magic, but the magic was vanishing quickly.
Meanwhile Strennun has a mythical experience in which he is submerged, following a twinkle at the bottom of the sea. The twinkle is coming from a glass panel that protects a grave from the water, a dwarven tombstone that has weird crystallizations around it.
After resting we are informed that the kobolds want to claim the dragon’s gold because we found it in their mountain. Miss Nelson challenges the leader of the Kobolds to a duel and the Kobolds accept. After missing the first punch I try to demoralize the Kobold’s leader but weave more magic than expected into my insult and instantly knock out the Kobold. The Kobolds call me out for foul game and start tossing stones at me. It was not my smooth tongue getting me out of this situation but Miss Nelsons pragmatic thinking. A lighting-ball later we run out of the cave. The Kobolds are shadowing us but we arrive at the Devilsfall without further incidents.
Jack welcomes us. There was a mutiny because of food shortages and the halflings called Baldar lost his hand for it. Jack was also able to make major reconstructions to the ship's interior. The captains quarters now have a wooden vitrine filled with booze and even a distillery, Strennuns room now has a pool and an exit through the ships wall, Darfins room has several shelves, a dissecting table and his mysterious chest. And mine has a desk and a whetstone. After setting sail, I commission wooden trainings weapons from Jack and announce a tournament for the hole that Wiscas left. We also learn from Darfins bird that Strennuns vision was real and the dwarven grave really has crystallized.
The tournament proceeds and we have several contenders:
- A tiny fat gnome with patchy hair wearing a sailor suit.
- A hairy dwarf wearing shorts, a shield and having half of this beard missing.
- A red dragonborn showing off a goatee wearing a chest belt.
- A human with curly hair, moustache, well dressed and "French".
The Dragonborn wins and we have our new combat officer: Ninmar.
The next morning, we reach the river triangle and fog makes it hard to navigate. A female voice ensnares anyone hearing it, and people start jumping the ship. After seeing miss Nelson jump into the water, Strennun calls me and Darfin. We resist the call and Strennun saves the people while I steer the ship. Darfin flies towards the voice and returns after silencing it for good.
Following the river, we see corpses walking on the east coast. Shortly after we arrive in Durnkuldir.
A new friend??
Overnight, Darfin asks Jack to throw his ominous closed crate overboard he has kept a secret from the whole crew.
After the thing with the ugly mermaids and the other creepy undeds we made our way up the river Bland. I went out for a morning swim and saw that they are building a big bridge over the river. That river is at least three shiplengs wide and it looks like dey want to make it at least one shiphight high! Captain Nelson blows her horn to make the ship go faster and the dwarven city blows their horn to say that dey hear us. Shortly after de bridge, two smaller boats are coming abord our ship. Dey say deyre of clan Oak-Flayer and ask if deres anything on the ship that's not supposed to get into the city. I dunno if ded people who are not ded fall under dat category, so I just say nothing. After de dwarves leave, we go to the port of de dwarven city wit the complicated name (Durnkuldir) and de portmaster tries to scam money out of us like dey always do. I thought that was only with pirates but apparently dats also wit normal ships. Oratos tries to reason wit the portmaster but in the end he still pays 80 GP for four days. That means.... a lot of gold per day!
The city of Durnkuldir consists of three rings:
- Outermost ring: Markets and trading
- Middle ring: Industry and manufacturing
- Innermost ring: Residential area of the nobles
(Additionally, there's the port and the slums for the non-nobility 'residential area')
In dese four days we stay here, Kylin tells Jack to stock up de ship and deyre also trying to get more people to join the crew. But also, we need to get a package for som important dwarf we met in the city under de mountain (Greybeard).
Firstly, we go to the 'Lusty Maiden' to get a drink and mebbe find some men to join de crew. There we find somebody we didn't expect: The pale elf who wanted us to steal de red sunstone! ([Belari Tolval|Belari]]). He sits in a table with a dwarf who's about as wide as he or she?? is tall! Apparently, it's a woman and she introduces herself as Kella the Square. Turns out Belari and Kella are up to join de crew, but Oratos wants to fight Kella to see how good she can fight. Dat should be fun! I find some people to bet because deres no way dis dwarf can beat our Oratos! ...
Okey so dis dwarf beat the shit out of Oratos and I lost 15 silver coins! She didn't even need de wooden sord Oratos gave to her! just straight up slapped the hell out of him!
Kylin didn't even get to see dis fight because she was outside wit the barmaid who sliped him a note when we were ordering out drinks. De note was in dwarven so I had to read it to her and it said 'are you the one Greybeard sent? meet me outside in 15min'. Outside she gives him anoter note - of course in dwarven again! - wit an address and to go there at 8pm. I cannot really read the address because reading is not my strongest thing - but swimming is!. Luckily Kella wants to join de crew so she can read the note and tell Kylin the address.
It was only lunchtime then, so we went shopping. Darfin tries to get a good robe but it's too expensive for him, so he gets the second-best one that's only about half the price. I get helth potions and captain Nelson too. Kella gets a hammer and Oratos gets some nice shortswords because he somehow doesn't want to use his rely big sword he always carries around with him.
In de evening we go to the address and Kylin knocks, but nobody opens. We read de note again and Kella sais that you have to knock in a special pattern for them to open. Kylin knocks in that pattern, and someone looks out to look at you and den opens a lot of locks before letting us in.
We get lead into a common room with some chairs and one big chair with a probably important dwarf in it. He tells us something about a lost package from the brother of Greybeard that we should get back. Dude with the package is in the inner circle and we get payd for bringing it back. To get us in more easier, Darfin gets some fancy democrats robe with the Democracys insignias on em. Probably fake but it might get us in the inner circle so who cares.
Apparently, the guy is called Wernan Axethain and is some high up in the northern army. Also, there are fifteen guards posted around the house so sneking in could be difficult. But anyway, details are a bit woozi because someone gave me a mug and I thought it was beer and necked it. But it was Whisky and I got wasted instead.
Back on the ship, Darfin wants us to tell something about some weird experiment he has done. Apparently if you die while on the ship, you die (big surprise...) but if you die on the ship, you get unded. He tried that with some animals or so and now wants to do the same with persons to see if they com back to life.
Kella and I go to the local thieves guild to maybe find someone to take this hard job off us (Editor's Note: Misunderstanding, they were sent out to gather information on the house and Wernan that might make the job easier). We find them in some underground cave and thers a shady half-elf that says he do it for 900GP. Thats a lot of money. We say that we meet at the rugged inn later to discuss details. We go back to the crew and tell the news. Apparently I have not understod that correctly and we only needed to get information. We meet up at the inn and tell the guy we are not interested. Kylin gives me 20GP to give to him 'for his troubles'. Guy wants more and I have to pay him another 20GP from my own money. Asshole.
Meanwhile, Darfin lets his familiar case the house. It's a nice house with five stories and surrounded by a garden, which is regularly patrolled by guards. The second and third floor also have balconies, which have their own posted guard. The garden provides a lot of cover due to a multitude of shrubberies in the gardens.
Afterwards, the rest of the group checks out the inner circle themselves. Naturally they get held up at the gate and Oratos tries to defuse the situation by asking for restaurant recommendations and then excusing himself to eat there. In the end, Darfin uses his fake robes to get the guards to let them in under the pretence that the others of the group would really love to take a look at the citadel. There's a lot of guards from the city-guard patrolling the entirety of the inner circle and you could get additionally, private security for your house if you think you need it, but it's mostly net needed anyway. Darfin talks to some people in a little park and finds out theat the Orcs are currently marching again, so the northern army has moved out to meet them. As our guy is the general of said northern army, he's out as well - as are most of the residents in the inner circle. Either to get to safety pre-emptively or because they're marching with the northern army. Mokhed Mindbuckler, a very eager dwarf and scribe for the nobility of the city, also invites Darfin to a gala-dinner at the citadel at the end of this week.
Meanwhile, Oratos is enjoying a nice dinner and looking for a new chef for the ship. Sadly, all the 'good' chefs don't want to work in a ship-kitchen, but he gets a recommendation to look for Rashesh, as he might be interested in the Gig.
After we meet on the ship again, the others tell of what they saw in the inner circle. We decide to try and get in through the sewers. Belari and I will go and try and find a way. We go into the sewers and almost get lost sometimes but find a way and an exit that exits right next to the house. Then we go back and almost get lost again but Belari uses Breadcrumbs or something to help us keep track. Smart idea.
And who are you?
The second morning in Durnkuldir we wake up to Strennun leaving for important business. He did no tell us where he went, nor why and for how long. As we plan on spending the next days in crowded areas around the city I believe it is best to come up with a safe word for occasional confusions with Rakshasas and other impostors. As a group we come up with a question and answer system, pretty clever thing: The first person asks: "How is the dwarf?" and the second person answers with "round". This is a reference to Kella, who is pretty square. On the other note I really hope the captain and the other crewmembers are right with their judgment to trust them into the inner circle.
We enjoy our breakfast which our new chef Rashesh cooked for us with the spiciest spices in the known world. I remind the crew that we talked about bringing dead people on the ship, and some low life humanoid to kill aboard. The still seem to agree with those ideas, so hopefully we can arrange something during the break in.
Suddenly we hear a loud commotion on the upper decks. The captain asks Ninmar, the new combat officer, to bring her the loudest two. They talk about monsters in the sewers and if they exist or not. Hopefully there is something magical going on, I will be pretty disappointed if not. By the advice of Orof the captain punishes them by taking them with us on our mission into the mansion of general Wernan Axethain. I loudly exclaim that I find it to be a bad Idea, but get ignored nonetheless.
Sometime later we enter the sewers lead by Belari, who more or less remembers the way he took with Strennun the day before to exit directly into the generals estate. I magically make the noses of the punished guys smell like flowers so I don’t have to hear them complain all the time. Guided by Kylins and my light we make it through the long and twisted channels of the sewers.
Halfway through we encounter some tentacles in the walls, which attack us straight away. Out of the walls comes a monster made out entirely of biodegradable material. Something like a plant, but not really. Sadly it gets blasted away before I can really have a look at it. The remains however do not seem to be magical or mutated at all, so if this creature was magical at all its magic died with it. I guess we should be on the lookout for similar creatures further into the sewers.
After we gather ourself again we send the scared to death, already punished enough crewmembers back and continue further into the sewers. Finally we arrive at some ropes which Strennun and Belari left behind the day before, to climb up into the estate. We exit through an entrance in the gardens, and do our best to sneak into the estate without being noticed. As I exist as the last one I cannot make out anyone else, they seem to be hiding well enough for not even me noticing them. As a distraction I cast the illusion of a greased pig running around through the gardens.
I see the others sneaking towards the door, and decide to do the same. We all get inside, and Kella kills the first guard we meet without hesitation. Orof seems to be disguised as a gardener of the estate. We make our way downstairs into the cellars. The other crewmates kill another three guards with excessive force, and Belari picks open a massive stone door in our way. Behind it is a staircase which we descend quickly as it sounds like more guards are arriving behind us.
We arrive in a small chamber full of books, with a dwarf in a wheelchair named Ozmock in the center. Seems like the package we are taking back with us is another living being. He asks us to take as many of the books as we can with us, which I can totally understand. I try to search the books for the ones which seem to be the most important of them all, as Kylin get Orof which stayed behind to hold the door as long as he can. We leave with Ozmock and some of his books through a secret door, which leads us through a different part of the sewers than we went through just some minutes before. Orof leaves the rake he used to disguise himself with behind, and funnily enough we hear one of the guards stepping on it.
In the outer circle we leave the sewers again, and split up to finish the mission. Orof and I push Ozmock back to the ship, as the rest fetches the punished crewmembers from the other entrance to meet back at the ship. Sadly during the whole mission, we forgot to follow our experiment with the ship, which means we need to find some other humanoids to bring back to the ship to experiment with.
A devilish surprise
After bringing back the ekhem... "package" to the ship we gathered on the top deck to discuss the next steps. All of a sudden, a silhouette emerged from the water and jumped onboard. It was Strennun! Wet and fishy as always. When we were busy with them dwarves, he went (swam?) around taking care of turtle hunters. I wonder where he found them as I have not seen any turtles around. While Oratos went to prepare some "statements", we went under the deck together with Ozmock to see our new rooms. Khela got a very nice room she seemed to like and then we went to my new room where absolutely nothing happened and I was not scared of a monkey.
Some time later, Darfin continued rambling about his experiments and finding low level humanoids to experiment on. While finding low humanoids shouldn't be a problem - what with all the dwarves in the city - we were distracted by a misterious figure that introduced itself as Shomal. He wished to join our crew so we let him tag along. We went through a round of introductions on our way to a tavern. Since we grew tired of the Lusty Maid, we decided to give another one a try and ended up approaching the Mermaid's Flair. The new tavern however seemed to be in the middle of a brawl as indicated by all the furniture being thrown out of the window, so Captain advised we continue our search. The only person happy with the outcome was Strennun, who intercepted a fine chair and promptly took it with him.
During our journey through the port we passed places with names such as the Naughty Nymph, the Captain's Daughter, the Busty Barmaid or the Hole Drillers (must be a mining supplies shop) and ended up in the Rustic Meat - an ordinary-looking port tavern, which, unlike the others, stood up to its name. After a round of ale - or, in Darfin's case, a cup of tea - Shomal and Khela engaged in a friendly fight that ended up in a decisive win for her. We asked the barmaid about the rumours and the news about the brake-in to the Axethane's house were indeed the talk of the town. We convinced the barmaid that the burglars were actually humans and gave her fake descriptions. Before we went back to the ship, Shomal explained that he is chased by a Fiend, which adds another enemy following our crew with malicious intents. At least the what's-left-of-the-drow-guild that swore to find me seem to have lost my trail...
Next morning on the ship, yet another new visitor arrived. He wore a purple dress, had a long tail and introduced himself as an acquirer of certain goods - later I was told his name is Salarus. He also offered Darfin a scroll of waterbreathing demanding an outraging sum of two-and-a-half thousand gold pieces for it! And the Captain agreed! After a rather uneventful day spent on shopping and wandering around the city, we finally set sail.
The journey started off with a storm. Half of the crew fell overboard and the raging sea almost claimed me and Khela! Luckily Strennun rushed to save us. After another foggy day, we noticed a ship ahead of us. Its flag showed the human empire colours and it started slowly changing the course to avoid us. Strennun grabbed an axe and jumped overboard to scout the ship and, after a considerable amount of time, returned without the axe. The ship proceeded to sink and our Captain agreed to shelter its crew - we even got Strennun to go back to the soon-to-be wreck and salvage some barrels. Two more days passed without much happening - although the Captain seemed a bit more weary than usual.
On the ninth night, just as I was expecting that nothing bad would happen, we were woken up by a huge racket coming from the Captain's room. As it turned out, the devils appeared on the deck and the Captain was stabbed with a dagger in her sleep! I wonder how they made it past the keen eyes of our night watch. Khela was first on the deck and, before the bearded devils knew it, started slapping. As I made it to the deck, I saw the Captain flying high above, casting her spells. Others also kept their distance and hurled magic projectiles at the intruders - with the obvious exception of our slapping monk, who was hard at work in the front line. "Who are you?! What do you want from us?!" the crew members shouted in many languages, some of them I never heard before, yet no answer came. We quickly dispatched the foes but as the last one dropped on the wooden deck, they rose again! It must have been the ship's curse keeping them alive!
We started the battle anew, soon seeing how the devils loose their strength. I kept shooting arrows, I saw Strennun and Shomal casting their projectiles. One of the devils was incapacitated by the Captain. "Drown them!" shouted Darfin as he cast the water breathing spell on us. He grabbed the immobilized beast and dragged it underwater. Khela caught the remaining two - by now either dead again or dying - and jumped into the water, holding them tight, shrieking "fish me out!". Strennun jumped after them to drag the beasts to the seabed. As the deck emptied out, I followed the Captain to he room to calm my nerves - she took a bottle of fine whisky and offered me a glass. A moment later, Shalom and Khela joined. Khela needed healing very badly and I was amazed how the Captain simply poured a healing potion into her drink and got her into shape.
A moment later, the rest of the crewmembers joined us, telling us that the devils are gone for good. We decided to get some rest but I could not get much sleep the entire night. The sun is rising so hopefully we investigate the unexpected visit during the day...
The ass-kicking from Hell
Okay listen up losers because shit went down.
As we were cleaning ourselves up after the battle and figuring out what THE HELL just happened, something new had to come up of course. I was lying on the floor of the Captain’s office and holding on to my healing whiskey for dear life as I heard Oratos calling everyone from the lower deck that Ozmock disappeared. Super weird. Belari and Kylin went to the lower deck to help him out and I barely crawled behind them (not my proudest moment, I admit). Darfin’s room, where Ozmock should be, was messy, full of books fallen off shelves. In the middle, there was Ozmock’s empty wheelchair.
Darfin also showed up, all wet from drowning the devils and covered in seaweed, and he got immediately pissed about the books being messy. He’s supposed to be so smart and all but somehow, he couldn’t explain how Ozmock could have disappeared from his room. Apparently, Steve and Jason (aka The Two Idiots) were responsible for him but turns out they were napping. Like I said – idiots. While going through the mess in Darfin’s room, we found a mysterious scroll in a language that none of us knew or even ever saw. Some books were also missing – the ones that Darfin and Ozmock went through last while doing their research. Belari also noticed weird burnt markings on the walls and the ceiling, forming a huge ring. Darfin didn’t detect any magic left in the room, but at least from the notes scattered around the floor he found out that Ozmock’s research was mostly focused on jumping to other planes. All in all, there were more questions than answers, so we summoned Salarus – maybe he could help us decode the scroll at least. Based on the night’s events, we also decided to reorganize the crew. From now on there will be teams specialized in different tasks: sails, shifts, helping in the kitchen and cleaning. The last one will go to The Two Idiots with hope that they’ll do the least damage there. We also finally noticed that Shomal and Strennun were nowhere to be found. Whoops.
In the morning, Belari came up to the deck and saw our ship looking like a casino full of tieflings playing games and gambling. He woke up Kylin and everyone assembled on deck to meet Salarus. Creepy as he was, he turned out quite helpful. The scroll was an order to kidnap Ozmock, not a ransom note like we suspected. The order came from Sinbar – an ambitious warlord from the first layer of the Nine Hells. He apparently somehow survived 20 years in the Nine Hells already, so that’s hella impressive (HELLa - get it?). Salarus offered to help us get to Sinbar (that is, to ACTUAL HELL) and, more importantly, back to the ship in one piece. The deal was: we pay 900 GP per person and for that we get a 3-day-long trip to hell. After 3 days exactly, we either show up in the predetermined spot to be taken back to our ship, or we’re on our own. Sounded super dangerous, I was hyped.
First though, we did some extra research and asked a million questions. Turns out that time in the Nine Hells passes differently than here – having stayed in Nine Hells for 3 days, we’d be back to the ship only 3 hours after we had left. Sinbar had a team of about 60 people. Why he kidnapped Ozmock was unclear – it may have been a trap. In the meantime, we also discovered that Shomal was there all along – he can shapeshift and right now he looked exactly like Jack! Really cool, I gotta admit. If I could shapeshift, I would make myself a little bit more evenly square. Strennun was still missing but we all assumed he was just still in the water - once he gets in, he’s impossible to drag out.
And so, we got ready and formed a plan. We had to choose to either find and attack the transport moving Ozmock to Sinbar’s camp, or to ambush the camp directly. We went with the second option and boy, were we wrong.
We arrived in a field of knee-high grass, totally not what I imagined the Nine Hells to be. In the distance we could see 2 massive groups charging at each other to battle, which was awesome. We started walking away from the sun, in the direction of Sinbar’s camp. Getting there took us the rest of the day and when we arrived by the camp, it was night and we started investigating. The camp was build right next to a huge stone wall. The other 3 sides of the camp were protected by a palisade. We decided to burn out a hole in the palisade, right by the stone wall and sneak through it. Inside, there was a row of small buildings going all around the camp by the palisade. In the middle of the camp we saw 3 huge Blue Dudes that were keeping watch. On the stone wall there was an opening into a cave of some sort.
Darfin and Shomal became invisible and started investigating the houses but didn’t find Ozmock in any of them. Just some of Sinbar’s people, unaware of our presence. At first, we tried to be all sneaky about this ambush and carefully headed along the stone wall towards the cave opening. Unfortunately, one of the Blue Dudes noticed us, so I obviously started slappin’ like there's no tomorrow. Darfin immediately joined with his spells, and I heard Belari’s arrows flying by my ear. I heard some teleport cracks and I saw Shomal and Kylin appearing in the cave opening. I think I also saw Oratos still trying to sneak into the cave thanks to the commotion. The Blue Dudes were proper opponents and I won’t lie, we were getting our asses kicked big time. They were hitting us with those massive rays of cold and were wounding many of us at once. We managed to kill one Blue Dude but that wasn’t enough. As much shooting, slapping and casting as we did, we couldn’t stand a chance. We were slowly backing into the cave opening, only to be wiped unconscious by one last cold blow.
Just before I blacked out, I saw Oratos, Belari and Shomal lying on the ground beside me. They were so beat up I don’t think they’ll come out of this alive. Kylin was wounded and lying just behind me, I think.
I saw a blurry shape of Darfin still standing and screaming “Come at meeeee” but I think the remaining Blue Dudes vanished?
Maybe I’m hallucinating.
I just gotta close my eyes for just one second.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF:
Oratos, my favorite sparing buddy
Belari, who was not at all afraid of the monkey
Shomal, who was very handsome, no matter what shape he took
Blue Devils, Bushes and Ambushes
Strennun while trying to enter the Devilsfall from below, sees the keel of another ship close by. Leaving a trail of puddles, he walks up to the main deck where he is greeted by a nervous crew and one of the great captains (Teolgrog) steering the ship. Skipping any unnecessary detail, Teolgrog explains what is about to happen.
The others are in hell and we will get them out of there.
One of the Goaliths surrounding Teolgrog grabs Jason, holds him against the helm and slits his throat. Teolgrog grabs the bloody wheel and spins it left and right, causing the ship to roll from side to side.
after one last roll Strennuns lungs fill with water one pleasant feeling
Darfin, resting in the forest near the devil camp hears a loud crackling followed by thunder.
The Devilsfall shoots out of the water in the small pond next to the Devil's camp. Jack and some undead crewmates jump off the ship and Teolgrog with his guards follow by boat. Strennun, faster than anyone jumps off the boat and runs towards the Devil camp's gate.
In The forrest, the survivors recovered at a rate only possible in this place, and the decision is made to check out the thunder. Coming out of the woods the party spots the devilsfall which is taking up almost the whole pond. They also spot Strennun near the gate who is now running towards the group. Ozmock's whereabouts are still unknown so leaving is not an option. Votes are cast and raiding the camp (Jack, Strennun, Kylinn) wins over setting up an ambush (Square, Darfin)
Before any buildings are burnt down, Strennung turns invisible and scouts out the camp. Using all his fingers he counts 30 devils and zero Ozmocks. With this knowledge Strennun changes his vote to ambush.
During my last hunt I broke the shaft of my spear so all I got left is my trusty shield. The road outside the forest is leading to a camp so maybe I can catch some lone wanderer and get a new weapon. I tie the shield to my back, push the wolf hide down my face and look for a good ambush spot.
A long time goes by until I see something moving in the distance, I silently swear as I spot multiple creatures. Just one of them getting away might mean trouble so I slow down my breath, and try to let them pass. The group is lead by a blue devil, quiet short compared to those I've seen before and lacking the horns. Following the devil are a humand and a dwarf. They stop and the devil throws something at my bush, has it spotted me? I resist throwing it back, maybe it was just a fluke. IMRID AMRAD URSUL, the devil is approaching me. As the devil grabs into my bush I pull it in and try to disable it. It's weak but just when I feel like I can subdue it, something bright pierces my skin, and the tall human attacks me with magic. After I lost hold of the devil the human seems willing to talk, but the devil still keeps hitting me. I'm not good with words but not having seen anything non-demonic and even willing to talk, I try my best. Apparently they know a way out of here, but for an insane price. Nevertheless I offer my service expecting to work for a long time. The dwarf is still skeptical of my skills. At least I will get to see my home again.
*bullying occurs, additional waterskin is aquired*
My first assignment will be to help in an ambush on some devil slavers, nice. We ended the battle without major resistance and having saved a young dwarf and an orcish woman called Brovara. The group has some scary fighter and even the orc killed some devils. Afte the fight I lead them to the battlegrounds where they claim their "exit" is located. It's far so we spend one more night in the forrest, hopefully my last night in these lands. The hill near the battlegrounds indeed has changed, there is now a colorful tent looking like it doesn't belong here. A Devil awaits us and pleasantries are exchanged, I try to keep to myself.
Debt to Salarus: 2700 GP
When we leave the tent we arrive on a ship. After being introduced to the important people, Jack and Square organise a tournament and with tournament I mean, a fight between Brovara and me. The winner gets to fight Square. We both get wooden weapons and a circle forms around us. Comfortably dodging all attacks of Brovara who is unsuccessfully hiding behind her shield. I get in some hits, but then she tells me to surrender, and so I do. I'm confused but won't protest. Square instead of fighting just Brovara, tries to punch both of us but with some weird open handed attacks but fails miserably. Later I'm lead to a room and the elf asks me to participate in some magical ritual. Brovara and I will be asked questions to prove that we are not some devil followers.
Some gained insight ..
Brovara: Hates Orcs for theirs frequent raids on her homelands. Protected her people from evil and local orc raiders had tales about her. She was part of an order that she left over disagreements of it being to passive. She also got a book from the monastery.
Roftag: Seeing off my parents after leaving my village. Delivering packages for the academy. The crater where the academy is located. Loud explosions in the background.
