The bodies of the zombie Hellriders fade and fizzle into ash, and the party finds themselves alone atop the hill
- Marco is dead
Marco hears a voice, and light begins to return to his vision, and touch, and he is lying, looking up at his bed frame in his quarters in Rossano Calabria, it’s warm, he is off to see Allaria, life is good, he skips down the corridor to see her
- She is in the reception room and gestures for him to sit in an armchair across from her, facing a humble fire as she drinks a coffee
- When she smiles at him, Marco realises her eyes aren’t there, just empty sockets, and when she smiles her mouth is an empty void and says, “Hello Marco, you can tell this isn’t real. You’ve died, haven’t you, Marco?” and Marco acknowledges this
- He’s asked what his master will think of him…
- “She’d be disappointed”
- “I wonder what’s going to happen to your city, and if the party will continue without you”
- Marco says, “Well, some of them are capable”, “Without you?!” “I was just part of the group”
- There’s debate about whether ‘the mercenary’ will bring glory to the city
- Marco says, “I can only hope, but what more can I do?” and the Alaria person says, “That’s where I come in!”
- Marco refuses to take part in this scheme, but this person says, “We want the same thing, we want Zariel to fail”
- The thing continues asking about if Marco knows what happens to souls that die in Avernus – they become property of Zariel
- This being intervened just in the nick of time and has ‘saved’ Marco, ‘intercepted his soul’ and is offering it back on loan
- Marco doesn’t get their name, but establishes Zariel took something off them – and that the power to own the souls in Avernus ‘used to be ours’
- No take backs on dying in Avernus, apparently, but once the deal is done Marco’s soul can never leave Avernus – until the mission is completed
- Marco asks for a year and a day on many planes post-mission before he willingly returns his soul to Avernus and be ‘their’ property
- He’s to be returned to his broken body, and keeps track of his days with an elaborate sand timer
- Although she’s turned it upside down, the sands don’t move, and the deal is struck
- The sands begin to move and she says, “Get ready, as this is really going to hurt”
Marco splutters to life, throat torn out, Strum packing the wound, Vigil laying on hands, and Eliseo tosses down his spellbook he was sketching Marco’s lifeless corpse in (the sketch is apparently pretty decent)
- Marco is feeling all this and shares his story
- Vigil is wondering if there was any small print or clauses and Marco says, “I hope not”
- Hayate wonders if this is the real Marco
- Vigil is pleased Marco is back, despite what this means
In the time that’s elapsed the bodies are gone, but they notice egg-sacs growing on the spikes of the trees, that begin to peel, falling to the ground, and the beings which had pulled themselves off have re-spawned on the trees, including the elf
- The one Marco removed who turned to ash has not come back
Marco asks if anyone knows who owned Avernus prior to Zariel (and admits to Vigil it’s because it’s with them the deal was struck)
- Was an Archdevil known as Bel
The party hopes to get a lead from the elf
- Hayate suggests we’re his ‘salvation’
- The elf blinks in recognition and reaches for Eliseo’s shoulder, and says, “Please… Please”
Nuriel is looking over Haruman’s body and has removed his hood and is looking at the spoiled face, dark red skin and sunken yellowed eyes, and is distraught by all this
- Hayate suggests Nuriel can pitch another place to go now
- Vigil, “He led us here”
- Hayate, “Can he lead us on?” and Vigil shrugs and suggests the question is directed to Nuriel
- Hayate wanders over to Nuriel, and they discuss Haruman (loyal to Zariel to the end)
- Nuriel notes some Hellriders remained with Olanthius while he went with Yael to bury the sword
- Vigil’s heard of these three commanders but we’re unsure where they ended up
- Nuriel asks for the map (Eliseo proffers it)
- Many of the places are not recognisable as they were not in Avernus for long
- She notes that much of the map came after the recent battles but the Crypt of the Hellriders may be a place to go – either to talk to the dead, or those who watch over them
- Hayate points at Haruman and asks whether we can wring some more information out of him and Nuriel says, “He wasn’t himself”
Vigil goes up to the tree elf, who looks hopefully over at him and Vigil asks for his name: Jander
- Vigil notes he was here when everything went “to hell… but that came beforehand”
- Jander does not laugh, and Vigil asks when he fled – the end
- When Zariel went down, she lost her sword, “It was all over”
- Jander apologises again, but Vigil says not only does he not owe an apology, he can’t be forgiven by him
- Where did the sword go with General Yael?
- “As we were fighting a retreat, there was talk, Yael was seen leaving with the sword – “Flew off”!
- People talked about Nuriel going with them
- Haruman had spoken of finding Yael before, wandering the hill screaming and cursing the traitors, and said Yael was one of them, and Nuriel
- Eliseo beckons Nuriel over (to get his map back and surprise Jander with this fact)
- Jander is flabbergasted, and says, “Nuriel, please forgive me” and leans forward, tearing himself on the tree again, and sobs more
- Nuriel is rather unsure of all this, and looks to Vigil, saying, “What do you think, have you learned what you need to know?” and Vigil seems content
- Nuriel also asks if he can be forgiven, and Vigil says it’s mostly up to Nuriel – they were there
- “They shouldn’t damn a person forever, I think”
- Vigil intends to take them all down; Nuriel goes to the base of the tree, and Jander looks down, and Nuriel forgives him – Jander stops crying and lets out a sigh of relief, and his soul seems to depart
- Nuriel goes repeats this with the other trapped souls
- Haruman’s head is removed to prevent him reviving like Marco
Decide that they are done here and plan to head to the Crypt
- Eliseo hoping to retrace exactly the steps before to see if they magically cross the river again
- Can see Bel’s Forge ahead, seems to be a settlement around the volcano
- Head south towards the Stygian Dock navigating a path through the terrain, and the weather shifts towards the icy
- Wind blows thick smoke from Bel’s forge over the route
- The journey seems to take quite some time, and as they round a corner Elturel is above them, the companion still arcing lightning and darkness, and chains now reach down both sides of the river
- Elturel has clearly been pulled lower and lower, towards the Styx
- The battle which raged as they descended seems to be at a current lull, with the east bank relatively clear bar some scouts, to whom they give a wide berth along with Elturel
- A detachment of devils appear to be marching north towards Bel’s Forge and they continue south
- Decide to stop for a rest in a tiny hut
Marco flaps some dirt out of his shirt, checks his neck wound and talks to Hayate about Bel, the deal, etc. and they check his neck wound, which apparently is never going to fully heal
- He has a bleeding rune on his chest
- Hayate believes it is a brand that marks his deal with Bel
They sleep
- Marco has some terrible dreams (including Eliseo as a despotic ruler of their city)
- Hayate is dreaming of Tente, his bells and his message, and has a moment of clarity about what his job is and in the dream a bubble of Tiamat’s blood is coming towards him, and realises Tente wants the blood of Tiamat, and up till now noone has been able to find her or her blood, following banishment by Tente aeons ago, but she’s perhaps beginning to break her bonds
- Hayate asks about Kiku after thinking about the rest of his squad and where they are, but doesn’t know what she’s up to, but returns to his dreams of tinkling bells
They awake in the morning, the vehicles are there and the imp is fine