Session 10: Escape the Abyss

We begin on the boat of the River Stix just in front of Charon's castle. We continue on our journey. We learn from Ipt that Glycia sent him after us. She is the daughter of Asmodus and rules the 6th of hell called Malbalge.
 
As we are travelling, we hear a humming sound, and a portal opens up out of nowhere. Through the portal, we see a sea elf begging someone not to leave. There is a group of adventurers there. A mysterious person and a moon elf come through the portal. The mystery person is tall and dressed in a long flowing black trenchcoat.
 
Ipt greets this man as Jeuno? but the strange man says, "No, it's Lycos"
 
this cause Ipt to immediately draw his weapon and warn us of the danger we are in.
 
Lycos pays the ferry man 2GP and gets on the boat. We try to maintain the peace, but there is a lot of tension and apprehension coming from Ipt. However, this Lycos guy and the moon elf with him seems super relaxed and doesn't care.
 
Ash inquires about the portal that Lycos and the moon elf came out of. She learns it's the other side of the rift in the middle of the ocean. There is a Leviathan there that sucks people into the plane of water, and there isn't really any land. If we go in there, then we would likely perish.
 
We also learn that if Lycos thinks of something while a portal is open, the portal will change to what he is thinking. For instance, his oroginal portal started pouring out water, and an elf poured out of it.
 
He's very confused and disoriented, we tell him has landed in Gehenna. This is on the way to the 9 hells. It's very slanted, and Yugoloths are typically from here. They are neutral fiends. A long time ago, the ferry men were being assaulted by other factions. They couldn't get help from anyone. Some Night Hags helped them, and they created Selrick who is now known as Charon. The ultimate Ferryman. That is how they were able to save themselves.
 
Anyway, the man that fell out of the sky is carrying a glowing blue sword. This man gets on the boat. He sees the moon elf with Lycos and recognizes him as Callun. A moon elf from where he is from who was travelling with his daughter.
 
Callun tells him that his daughter is on her way to the water plan to save him. He's a bit upset, but handles this news well. His name is.....
 
Meanwhile, Franz asks Lycos if he can just make a portal for us, but Ipt says NO. We must go see Dermish's dad, Asmodeus first. Ipt says that we can find Volo who may be able to help get us back to the material plane. Asmodeus is on the way to see Volo, so we are going there first.
 
Joe convinces Lycos to maybe open a portal for us, but Ipt gets really pissed and wants to fight. As Ipt is getting all bothered, Elias silently asks if we all want to do this. We all agree.
 
Elias sends a silent message to the ferry man, and he looks quite annoyed, but agrees to stop. Ipt starts to recognize that we are getting closer to shore.
 
We jump out of the boat, and this really pisses off Ipt. As he goes to attack us, the Ferryman takes a knee and puts his head down. All of the other Ferrymen do the same thing. Ashe follows as well. This causes Ipt to stop his attack and fly down.
 
We are approached by Charon. Ipt bows out his chest and squares up against Charon. This does not affect Charon at all. This irritates Ipt. Charon starts to stir the river with his boat driver. He surrounds Ipt in this water and then he disappears and is no where to be found.
 
We kneel to Charon and tell him that we are just trying to get home and mean no trouble. Joe says we need to get to Larulamar. He can take us for $5k gold each. OR we can do a favor for him. He wants us to collect a diamond of Daylou and bring it to him, OR we can kill Daylou on his behalf, and then he will take us to Larulamar.
 
Dermish offers him a mystery pouch in exchange. He shakes it and it makes a gurgling wet sounds. Charon declines the offer. We learn that we can go get the diamond from the person who has it, which is someone named Arud, who captains a pirate ship. We decide to go after the water elemental.

Lycos no longer wants to cast a portal for us, because this is more fun. Angst asks Charon for some Armor because Charon totally fucked up when he allowed Avalora to steal his soul and put it back in his body. Charon, rather than give armor to Angst says he has to make this right, so he is going to take us to the Fuge plane. We have Lycos, Callun, and Galadrian Mistbringer with us.
 
Galadrian and Franz talk about the great war that happened on his side of the continent. He talks about Greatspear, which Franz is familiar with. Galadrian tells us about the Runeforged dwarves of that time whom were able to make really powerful weapons in a hidden citadel with a forge enchanted by elves.
 
Joe remembers this place and says that she had heard that one single person knew where it was at, but died before he could tell anyone. Galadrian says he was the guy who got that secret, but he doesn't not know where it is at and cannot find it. He thinks it's best if the forge is lost anyway. It's too dangerous in the wrong hands.
 
Galadrian says if the forge fell into the wrong hands, it could give the bad guys powerful weapons beyond comprehension. He tells us that he knows Arud and he can help us get the diamond for her. Since we saved his life, he feels in debt. He is on his way to Beaumar. He will help us first and then head back to Beaumar.
 
We start talking about the black diamond that shattered a long time ago. We are reminded that it had a shard of evil in it. Lycos tells us that we actually already have one of these shards. It's in the demonnomicon volume 4 that Franz has.
 
Lycos says that when the time comes, Franz will need to go into the book. we learn there are 6 volumes, and those 6 volumes each contain 1 shard.
 
He knows of an adventuring group that already has a shard. It's actually the group that Callun, the moon elf came from. Galadrian learns that Leland the dwarf of that group has it.
 
Meanwhile, Charon notes that there are a lot of petitioners waiting to be picked up by their gods. Some of these folks are in chains, so they likely didn't worship good gods.
 
He leads us through the shadowrealm. He's taking us to see the Ravenqueen, because she channels the souls and where they need to go. When we arrive, he has us wait in the temple while he goes to meet with her.
 
While we wait, Angst opens up about some of the things that Isolde did to him. As he speaks, he feels himself become clouded in a shadow and hears a whisper. A single raven feather falls in front of him.
 
A bald Shadarkai elf approaches. He tells Angst that "She must like him" because she gave Angst a feather. We also then notice that Joe and Maggie's corruption has crept significantly and is now up to their elbows.
 
Lycos is able to tell her this happened when she came in touch with the black pool that took Angst from us. Nothing that goes through the pool survives, so Lycos is shocked that Angst is alive.
 
Lycos tells Joe to make a small cut in her upper arm, and she does. She finds that her blood is bleeding black. He suggests, if we amputate to cut it off at the shoulder.
 
We then remember that Angst was able to help that guy with the flies demon. Maybe he can help now. Angst is kind of angry with his god, and believes his power doesn't even come from anyone, because his god didn't even try to save him.
 
This curse starts spreading really fast, and Angst starts to remove Curse on Maggie. Angst cannot feel his god at all anymore. Maggie tells him to go take care of Joe. He doesn't need a god, as his power has always been his own. He listens and goes to save Joe's arm. However, he just can't find that power and fails. At this moment Joe and Maggie start to have seizures.
 
Angst then chooses to cut off JOe's arm over Maggies. just to save Joe. At this moment, he hears a voice that says "I offer you 2 souls for one" The Ravenqueen wants Angst to become her follower. As he is hearing this, the rest of see his eyes become very cloudy. He starts to reach out to both Maggie and Joe's arm. Elias tries to stop him, but is not successful.
 
As he touches Joe and Maggie's arms, he absorbs the curse into his own arms removing it completely from theirs. It starts to spread very quickly up his own arms.
 
WE tell Galadriel to cut off his arms. However, when he hits, there is a clanking sound. Galadriel cannot cut off his arms. Angst is now covered in a beautiful black armor and the curse leaves his arms. He's ok, and he is proud to be serving a REAL goddess. This armor is literally a part of his body now. He can will it to disappear or appear in a moment.
 
Charon walks back down stairs as he learns what happened. Isolde pulled Angst through a black pool in the Abyss. Somehow she obfuscated it. Because this happened, Charon says he will owe Angst a boone if he brings him Isolde, or even just her head.
 
Angst is filled with a look of vengeance and he swears to the Ravenqueen and Charon to bring back Isolde's head.
 
Maggie checks on him and tries to convince him to come home so she can take care of her. He demands she go back home and he will never being going anywhere with her that he is now in service of the Ravenqueen and only the Ravenqueen.
 
While this is happening, Galadrien pulls Charon to the side. He tells Charon that he will take our debt and get him the diamond, that we need to be taken home.
 
Elias talks to Charon and asks if he remembers the name of every soul that passes his river. He asks if he remembers Eraticas Harcleve, and Charon does remember it. Elias says, he wonders if the same thing that happened to Angst happened to his dad, but there is no way to know.
 
Charon hands Elias a piece of paper written in a language he doesn't recognize. Elias puts it in his pocket.
 
Joe talks to Galadrien and tells him they understand why he wouldn't share any information about the Rune Forge. He tells Joe to come to Calimbar one day and then they can talk.
 
Lycos joins the party. Only Joe knows that Galadrien has taken on our debt. As we travel we get to a river that is familiar to us. Lycos has just been staring at Callun the moon elf the whole time. Callun has shadows coming out of him now. Lycos gets a big smile on his face and he greets CAllun again and says, "We're gonna have a lot of fun now"
 
Callun stands up. He's completely shrouded in shadows and looks very demonic now. Charon turns and slams his staff down. Gladrian turns around and looks at Callun. He starts to draw his weapon. Callun then jumps on top Galadrian. Charon tosses us off of the boat and we land in the forest.
 
Callun, Galadrian, and Charon are fighting and then they just disappear and the portal closes up. Lycos tells us that Callun is possessed by a demon that feeds off of Callun. He's pretty excited about how everything is going down.
 
We are in Hammerfall which is really exciting for Joe. This is Joe's hometown. We have a 4 hour trek up a mountain to get there.
We are about a week's travel to Larulamore.
 
Maggie wants to leave on her own. We try to convince her to just travel with us to the road at least. She declines. Lycos walks up to her and puts his arm around Maggie and offers to escort her. Angst tries to apologize for the way he told her to fuck off, as he doesn't want her going off with Lycos.
 
We convince her to begrudgingly stay with us
 
Elias tries to decipher the note that Charon gave him. He can tell that it's written in a combination of Infernal and Abyssal. Franz and the Tieflings help him create a cypher so he can interpret it.
 
It says "Seek out this specified location in Eldoria" (the directions are listed.) There is also a poem underneath. "Usually you'll find me on the 2nd floor. Although you won't find me there. Instead I'm in multiple places at various heights."
 
We make it up the mountain and get to a 50ft tall stone door. The rock is made of beautiful polished marble with statues of 2 kingly sized dwarves. They were made after King Domardin, the first king of Hammerfall before the land was split. They have cousins on the other continent directly across from them called Mythril Hold.
 
A long time ago the Mountain Dwarves were taken as slaves by the Githyanki riding red dragons, but they were able to break free of them eventually. The Githyanki used to store their eggs in the mountain. Gith are from the astral plane, and they have to put the eggs here, because they'll never hatch on the astral plane due to there being no time there.
 
This is where we end- Outside of the the Hammerfall Hold.