Salutations, I would be most delighted to participate in shaping the fate of Brancalonia once again. I sincerely hope a further sword for the cause shall be deemed a permissable addition 
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I will have to bail tonight, sorry. But I hope you all have a fantastic evening!
I wont be able to make it today, and have to drop from the Brancalonia table.
Hey I’ll be like 10-15 mins late. Sorry
Am delayed by approximately 10min.
Thanks to Boethius - @Bearberry, Hyde - @neon.tetra , Roger - @Tiero , Marnarius @eeni34 and Basil @Col_Mustard_Ret for playing through the Necropolis of the Enchanted Depths
A familiar face, Alermo of Roccaspra who fought with the party against dragons in Treasure of the Bigat and Bride of the Bigat, arrives at the Golden Cockerel to seek the aid of our heroes. They have word that a brotherhood of would-be monster hunters - the Steel Drakes - find the world to civilised and seek to conduct a ritual to unleash monsters so that they might find glory in slaying them as in times of old. Alermo figures this is likely a dreadful idea but is no subtle magician and begs aid from the party to help stop this.
Marshalling their resources the party consult a local sage, finding that there are many, many possible monster summoning rituals varying from leaving out treasure, to Orbs of Dragon Command through to releasing monsters from sealed away vals. Realising the partial copy of the Great Red Book they ‘rescued’ on a previous adventure might hold the answer, they set to trying to locate the old dwarven vaults in the current day. To speed their travel to where Alermo had been invited for the ritual they once more call upon the Miss Fit and also enlist them to help interpret the maps.
Venturing down the coast to Forza aboard the Miss Fit, our heroes arrive into Forza and decide to overnight at the Circular Spine before venturing on to Darkwater, the village where the ritual is to be held. When Hyde shoots the brawler in the fighting pit, a mass melee kicks off which turns into the visitors from the Golden Cockerel taking on the two dozen other patrons. Giant hermit crabs are dual wielded, ceilings collapsed, barrels used to steam-roll patrons and multiple party members downed before they with through to victory.
The next day, venturing out along the road to Darkwater, they come to a shrunken town in the ruins of an old dwarven necropolis, a gaping rift leading down to the depths. Sneaking expertly around down they realise that what life remains here thrives on fishing relics out of the dwarven ruins below. They send Alermo on with instructions to play along with the Steel Drakes. Eavesdropping on the Steel Drakes camp of second sons, cadet-branch nobles and other noble no-accounts they hear of a scheme to open a dwarven vault below and release the monsters within.
Creeping into the ruins ahead of the Steel Drakes grand ritual the alchemists within the party marvel at the dwarven wisdom and capabilities etched on the great bronze walls. They find still functioning alchemical workshops, arcano-technical storage where extinct plants still grow and a great vault full of monsters imprisoned in crystal pillars filled with honey. Hatching a plan, the party cook up an explosive agent using the dwarves own ingredients and equipment, set it to detonate in the vault of crystal-encased monsters and rig the doors to be unopenable for the inside - and then wait.
When the Steel Drakes finally venture down to enact their ritual the party is waiting, warning Alermo to wait behind before trapping the rest of the Steel Drakes in the vault they long sought with a fizzing-fused explosive that shortly detonates, shatters many of the crystal prisons and grants them the monster slaying chance they sought. Once the screams died down the party tripped the ancient purge system to eliminate the monsters. This was only partially effective they found on peering back inside the vault, but decided to seal the doors and leave.
With Alermo to vouch for the plot, supported by the excavation notes and plans from the Steel Drakes, the parties send word to the powers-that-be of their service to the realm and request their just reward.
Everyone gets 150gp reward, after running costs for the Golden Cockerel and feeding of Fluffy, a common potion of your choice from what was found in the dwarven alchemical lab and a +1 weapon of your choice from what was with the horses ‘requisitioned’ from the Steel Drakes. You also have some of your bounties pardoned (50gp worth). The families of some of the Steel Drakes seek to discuss exactly what happened to their relatives, these conversations are probably best avoided.
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@katnyx, @Lenzi-boy, @Takanari, @truecrawl, @Vishous & @Xyathn
Thank you for a memorable ending to our journey through Avernus.
When you got back to the material plain Dara and her celestial entourage find you. They thank you for helping Dara and keeping her save through her travels. Yurriel tells you that the portal is still open and it’s Zariels redemption to stay there and keep the demons from invading Avernus from that location. During your last travel to the portal Dara (with Ilmaters help) and the priests of the Bloody Hooves awakened all the remaining soldiers and found the leaders of the regiment. They decided to stay there and help there Lord protection the portal.
Yurriel was very impressed and a little confused how you managed to get the demons fighting each other when you called upon him to join your fight.
You receive the following things
- 3200 GP
and one of the following magical items:
- Ring of Amity
- Prehistoric Figurine of Wondrous Power (Carnelian Triceratops)
- Ring of Regeneration
- Rod of Security
- Bloodshed Blade
- Fate Dealer’s Deck (very rare)
hope you had as much fun as myself in Avernus. I never thought I would see a successful divine intervention 
addendum for characters who want to stay T2: You receive the following things
- 480 GP
and one of the following magical items:
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Are there any rewards for the ones that want to stay in T2?
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Thanks for the adventure! 
Mardred is going to (temporarily) retire with GrumpyDumpy, her gold and her loot. She’s looking forward to lots of naps.
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Thank you for DMing! It was a lot of fun!
Nym feels a dark influence in him and is also very concerned about the repercussions from wearing Ilmater’s shackles of suffering… Also Grace’s concerns about evil shape shifters have spread to Nym. A bit of paranoia is accompanying him from now on.
Nym will go meditating in his newly acquired pocket paradise. It will take him a while to (mentally) recover from this adventure. He still did not fully comprehend what exactly happened in the portal room.
I never thought a party with average level ~10 would survive a fight against Molydeus AND Baphomet…
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For the record, Grace was right about the threat of an extraplanar invasion!!
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That’s why Nym believes her and is now also concerned…
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While I obviously wasn’t there, I have fought Baphomet in other games already, and his statblocks very, very weak for its CR - especially when you consider the fact that the Goristro exists at CR 17, which has a very similar amount of HP and deals a lot more damage with its Gore.
Still an impressive feat to defeat two such powerful enemies at T2/low T3 
I added some T2 loot
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Yes… also got gored by that thing for ~80 damage… apparently we were fighting the finest selection of the Abyss 
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Thank you once again for conducting this most memorable session. Regarding the eloquently composed summary of events, I have two questions:
- Please do remind me, what and or who is Fluffy? Given the adorableness of the name, I would love to know.
- Casting himself as the “leader” of the brave band of commoners humbly assisting the most heroic Alermo in doing the realm such a commendable service does not erase or reduce the bounty placed on Rogère due to his involvement in liberating ill-begotten gold likely belonging to ordinary, hard working tax payers? Rogère’s view: Naturally, different factions portray the incident in most differing lights, but how could this apparent paragon of virtue, who has just recently so dutifully served in the protection of king and realm, have had any dishonorable motives? Tiero’s view: I suppose that power politics are power politics and retaining the support of a prominent noble family is worth retaining a likely very much deserved bounty on a supposed commoner. Furthermore, it is quite the badge of honor - should Rogère not disappear under uncertain circumstances, this will serve as an excellent opportunity to potentially win favor with the common folk, the underworld and certain parts of the nobility.
- Fluffy - mutated viperwolf cub (extra head), happy while well fed. Food budget exceeds rest of Golden Cockerel
- Rogère putting himself forward as the face of the support Alermo received from the common-folk will get his bounty reduced by 90% - a man with such grievous plunder charges would surely have fled the realm therefore it must have been mistaken identity. It does come with the cost of becoming known to the houses of the Steel Drakes.
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So happy to hear about the viper wolves
most adorable (while well fed). Shall certainly be attempted to be obtained as a mount when fully matured - though this would seem to require an extremely lengthy and dangerous process.- A most astute observation, such a vile miscreant would never have dared remain in the realms.
