While they wait for the hag to prepare her ritual the party splits up to investigate the fort
Vigil heads over to the kenku to take a look at the strange machines they’re working on
- There are 4 types of machine here varying in size from 2 to 6 wheels, mounting a variety of weapons
- Some seem intact, whilst others are in states of disrepair
- The kenku are poring over a large 6-wheeler sporting a huge wrecking ball
- One of them introduces themself as Chukka, he is surrounded by bits and pieces of machinery
- The other kenku is Clonk
- Chukka asks Vigil if he could fix this, and Vigil admits to not having seen one before
- Chukka explains it’s a war machine and explains the basics of its operation
- The war machines are fueled by Demon Ichor and Soul Coins (the currency of Avernus, containing the souls of those who made pacts with devils)
Eliseo goes to talk to Guts the redcap
- Guts is all too happy to talk about the situation here in Avernus and mentions several warlords Raggadragga (a wereboar), Bitterbreath (a once pitfiend, demoted to horned devil), Feonor (human necromancer), Princeps Kovik (chain devil) and of course Mad Maggie
- Travel in the wastes isn’t safe, so warmachines are needed to traverse the area
- Guts boasts about how he has survived by always being on gate or latrine duty in times of war
- Looking out from the gate, Eliseo can see all the way to the Styx and Elturel
Strum sits with Anri who is flicking between their forms
- Strum asks Reina, who is struggling to manifest, whether she wants to take the risk of the ritual
- She says it hurts to be this way and that she’d rather not exist than be imprisoned
- Strum asks how it happened and Reina mentions a deal made to save them, but a cost that was made too high
- Strum asks why they left and Reina says it was not by choice
- Strum is perplexed and Reina explains that she made a deal and she is the payment, but doesn’t know the details of the deal or who it was made with
- She remembers being caught in a trap by someone (possibly this Rakshasa)
Marco is approached by Maggie’s crows, who reveal themselves to be imps called Pins and Needles
- They claim that a madcap called Wazick plans to kill Anri
- They point the madcap out and tell Marco he needs to do something
- Marco calls over the Wazick and accuses him of planning to kill his friends
- Wazick yells at the imps and draws his sickle and a group of madcaps charge Marco and the imps
- The imps fly up, land on Marco’s shoulder and urge him to kill Wazick
- Marco looks for someone who outranks these idiot Madcaps, and sprints over to Guts and Eliseo
- Marco shins up and explains what’s going on, Pins and Needles protest they didn’t start a fight
- Guts recognises Wazick and as the first madcap crests the ladder, Guts lops the madcap’s head clean off with the sickle
- Wazick looks round, glares at Marco and hisses, “Later!” and they skulk back off
- Pins and Needles turn back into crows and fly off
- Eliseo gives Guts an ill-advised promotion to Warrant Officer and Guts immediately starts wielding this around camp
Hayate tries to wander back into the hut to view Maggie’s preparations where she’s sat on a black cushion, with her sister’s skulls sitting apart forming a triangle
- She’s gotten a ton of books out, bound in leather and string, one seems to be breathing and another is covered in blue slime
- She is open to conversation as she makes notes, and Hayate is able to determine what Maggie is looking into
- He remembers something about contacting people in dream realms and determines that it is dangerous to those traveling into the dream
- He suggests some extra warding
- Maggie’s plan for separating Reina and Nuriel involves some stones
- Hayate takes one and gets a weird sensation like pressing on two magnets repelling each other
- The stones are black and polished with Draconic runes carved on them
- He thinks it could work but the ripping apart of the two souls would be painful
The party gathers back at Maggie’s tent in preparation for the ritual
- They’re beckoned to sit down and form a fairly large circle, with the two stones in the middle of the circle, starting connected
- Hayate will be taking one – the plan being that the elemental goes into this one, the latter being for Nuriel
- Hayate explains the rocks to an increasingly stressed Strum
Reina, picking up on Strum’s confusion and frustration at Maggie, shares her name with Maggie defiantly and Maggie begins tracing the runes with on the first stone her finger and incanting, we hear Reina’s name amongst the spell
- The runes carved into the first stone start to move from white to blue, and the stones glow blue
- Maggie puts the stone down and picks up the other, ‘Nuriel’ is named on this one and the runes glow gold before the stone is laid back down, again side by side
- Maggie walks over to the gold one and gestures to Strum to come forward, and he does, gesturing for him to pick up the blue stone
- “Right boy, slowly now, slowly does it, and step back”
- She starts backing up, and Strum does the same
Strum feels the weird pull/push magnetic attraction/repulsion feeling
- Anri is staying still but as the two stones move away, the gold and blue colours pull at Anri in different directions: The gold seems to pull easily but the blue hands are grabbing at the gold aura, like they’re afraid to let go, like a guttering gas flame
- More steps backwards and the beings look more separate and with one further step, the gold gets pulled into Maggie’s stone and she’s bathed in a corona
- The blue sticks for a second more, then blinks/sputters, and then slowly drags towards Strum’s stone, losing its form
- Reina is pretty invisible now, just blue light which coalesces round the stone
- The others see sparks of lightning amongst the blue light surrounding Strum
- The sides of the shanty hut shake and rattle as a wind blows around
- Strum hears his own thoughts but realises he’s also sharing his conscious space with Reina as the blue light goes into Strum – and the stone goes back to white
- Strum drops the stone and collapses, out cold
- Maggie meanwhile drops her stone, white runes as well and Maggie steps back once more, with a huge grin, drooling, and in front of her is an angel, clearer than before
- The angel in front of Maggie is ethereal, androgynous, and stronger in form, not flickering in/out
- Nuriel has manifested physically
- Maggie is pleased it worked
- Hayate goes over to Strum and looks him over
- His vitals are fine, but one eye is red and the other blue
They plan to head into the angel’s dreams as Nuriel’s memories are still a mess
- Vigil explains to Nuriel that Elturel is being pulled down by Zariel and he needs Nuriel’s help to save the people there, which requires remembering where Zariel’s sword has gone
- Nuriel mutters that it was Yael who carried the sword
- They were hunted and could not escape
As the party are linked by the ritual to enter the dreamscape they hear each other’s thoughts
- Vigil is unimpressed by the angels, Marco is not happy about cooperating with the hag, Hayate offers prayers to Tente, Eliseo is considering demoting Guts whilst Strum and Reina are both thinking, “Withholding the truth is a form of lying”
There is a bright flash of white light that fades to dark
- They see warm sunlight filling the area, and within that space Nuriel is flying lazily above a lush meadow, at the shoulder of a blindfolded female angel, bigger than Nuriel
- As they stroll through the grass Maggie’s voice fills their minds
- “Push through this vision, it only represents what Nuriel wishes were true. This is the facade he’s holding in his mind of his companion. We need to push through this first layer of delusion”
Strum and Marco materialise next to one another, realising this isn’t the real place, and look at one another
- The others are trapped in the fiction and Strum slaps them awake
- The party is transported to a barren hellscape in a circle of fire
- In the centre lie, prone, unconscious and horribly bleeding, Nuriel and the other angel
- As Vigil looks at his companions he sees they are all wearing hellrider armour and pennants
- When the rest look at Vigil, he’s wearing incredibly ornate battle armour and doesn’t seem to have his horns
- The party are attacked by a force of chain devils and move to protect the injured angels
- As the fight progresses part of the flaming circle is broken and Strum looks out across the landscape
- They are on a hill overlooking a sea of bodies from a massive battlefield
- The party defeats the chain devils and the last one offers its servitude to the group
- The party votes and Vigil beheads the devil
The landscape changes again, transporting them to a thick swamp of black sludge that grips their ankles and overwhelms them with a psychic sense of loss and despair
- Maggie tells them that the sludge mustn’t consume them and that they must push through his defences (Nuriel), who doesn’t want to remember
- Strum jumps out, Marco misty steps away, Vigil and Hayate pull themselves free
- A rope is tossed to Eliseo and he is pulled out before he can sink into the sludge
They all start walking up a barren hill, shaking off the black sludge
- At the summit there is a crater, inside is Nuriel sitting cross-legged on the floor
- As they descend the hill towards him they see Nuriel’s head is fractured, and the skull is in several pieces, like it skull exploded but paused mid-shatter, and the expression on his face is one of devastation and loss
- The most overwhelming emotion is loneliness – an age of being alone
- He opens his eyes and sees the party and the skull fragments settle back as his head mends
- Although his face still looks haggard and wary, the tiniest hint of a smile flicks the corners of his mouth
With that, the party comes to – in Maggie’s hut
- She’s sat on the cushion but conscious and glazed over, with a look of pure ecstasy on her face
- Nuriel in the middle wakes up, eyes open and he says, “The sword, the sword: I know where it is”