Hayate cuts Satomi free and introduces the rest of the party
- He fills her in on the situation
- Asks about Azuka
- Satomi mentions that the abashai were talking about Azuka, seems she might still be alive but captured
- The abashai mentioned a prophet of Tiamat, Arkhan
- Believed to be here in Avernus and trying to release Tiamat
- Hayate suspects that this might be the reason the ishi was sent to Elturel
Hayate recovers Azuka’s stole
Satomi fills them in on the frozen lightning bolt
- It wasn’t there when they first arrived in Avernus, appeared about 4 days ago
- She’s been here about a day investigating it
- There is a person inside it, suspended about 6ft up
- They are in a constant state of flux, changing between a masculine, winged form with blue eyes and a female form with no wings and a ring on her left middle finger
The party goes up to investigate the bolt
- The magic here is a mixture of radiant and elemental air
- Eliseo chucks a coin into the bolt, it gets zapped
- Marco starts drawing the bolt, Satomi catches sight of the book and asks to take a look
- She is a bit shocked by all the drawings
- Vigil suggests that Strum might be able to gust the body out
- Strum skirts around to one side and starts playing his lute, conjuring up a wind
- The bolt seems to be resisting the movement of the body but he is able to overcome it and push it out
- The body falls weirdly but Vigil is able to catch them
- The lightning bolt reanimates and explodes
- Marco is knocked unconscious by the blast
- Vigil, preoccupied by catching the body is hit by the full force of the explosion
- Everyone else manages to avoid the worst of it
- Hayate attempts to shock Marco awake but its unsuccessful and he is forced to cast a healing spell to save him
The body is ethereal and hard for Vigil to hold on to
- There is a constant breeze blowing out from the body
- He channels lay on hands into the body and there is a sudden blinding flash of golden light
When the party reopen their eyes the being is standing up, floating above the ground
- It speaks in a strange voice that seems to be made up of two separate voices, one male, one female
- Hayate greets it and it rotates in the air to face him
- The form fizzes and flickers into the female one and its face fixes on Strum
- Strum recognises them and drops to his knees
- The form turns back, it seems confused
- Muttering about finding a sword and saving Elturel
- Noticing that some party members are injured it apologises for their injuries and starts to glow with a radiant light that heals
- They ask why Elturel is in hell
- Vigil mentions Zariel – It seems this person was a friend of hers at some point
- They can’t remember their own name
- The form is constantly fluctuating as it talks
It was a fighter? A performer? It used to sing?
- Been in Avernus both a very long time and only a short while
- Home is Artumbria
- It remembers Zariel and the sword but not where it is
- It remembers a hill, shaped like knucklebones where a bird and a cat did something to it
- They fix machines
They declare that they know Strum
- Strum replies in Primordial
- They have a conversation
- Apparently he knows who this is, he used to play music and they would sing
- Strum broke a promise with them?
- They made a promise with someone else, it went badly
- Strum shows them a piece of paper, but they don’t remember it, they don’t remember why they know him
- They think they are a prisoner, not here by choice, tricked by someone
- In a cage but can’t see around hem
- The thing that betrayed them had ‘wrong hands’
- Vigil and Marco remember some info about Rakshasa. Humanoid tiger like fiends with inverted hands
Eliseo spots the flaming horseman incoming and rushes everyone inside
- They hear a roaring, crackling, flame noise, hovering/roaring over the top of the tower, quietens a little but then a boot lands on the flagstone above
- The party fails to sneak away and there is a bellowing voice from above
“That’s right, mortals, flee like the cowards you are! Flee, sheep!”
- They hear taunts, laughter, boot scraping metal noise, a table get upended, before he gets back on his flaming horse, circling round the tower, taunting them
- Marco casts the tiny hut and the party takes a short rest
- After a while the noise of wings fades and Marco sends out his owl to investigate
- No sign of the horseman
- Spots the tressym on a roof
- Vigil heads upstairs
- Can’t see the horseman
- Looking out towards the chasm/below of the wall, there’s nothing beyond the wall
- He spots a hill that looks like knucklebones about 10 miles away, with the huge battle raging between it and the city
The party makes their way back to the cathedral unmolested
- The spirit asks Vigil about the hill and agrees they should try and get there
- In the cathedral the ishi all meet up and chat
- They decide to present Hayate with Azuka’s stole
- As far as Hayate is concerned he is only borrowing it
- Satomi offers to come with Hayate, who says he will check with the rest of the party
Vigil is called over to talk with the captain
- He fills her in on their plan to go to the surface and checks that they will be ok hiding here
- She says they’ve put together some scavenging teams
- He is again asked about Reya and argues with the captain about his new found rank
- She is not impressed by his reluctance to order Reya along on the mission
- Vigil and Hayate visit the smith to get their armour fixed up
- Then Vigil and Eliseo head to the balcony to look the map and try to match it to what they can see of Avernus
- Farron the firbolg is up there and jumps at their arrival
- The map is strange – it actually hurts to interpret it and it seems to defy the rules of navigation
- Elturel is in the NE corner of the map, south of the Mirror and north of Bel’s Forge
- The hill on the ‘west’ side of the river
Marco suddenly feels his diplomat’s pouch fill and he gets a letter
- His friend is offering to provide library research if needed