Fort Knucklebones (session 24 or 37)

Dear Nori,
We’ve travelled a lot and are finally in Fort Knucklebone. We made some powerful friends on the way. Like I told you in my last letter, we slew a red dragon. When we woke up the next morning, a fiendish figure dressed in all black approached us. He didn’t want to tell us his name, saying he was just a humble servant of Tiamat (you know, the evil dragon goddess, apparently living in Avernus at the moment). Tiamat had sent him to us with the promise of rewards if we kept up the good work. Which means killing her unloyal servants. Like we’ve done twice already. We were kinda confused about the twice, but apparently one of the fiends we fought in High Hall used to be a Tiamat follower as well. Not sure what Grimtooth did to make Tiamat angry though.
Anyway, after it stopped raining we continued our way to Fort Knucklebone. The first day of travel, not a lot happened. We saw the (beautiful) ruins of a building once built by Gargoth (or so he claims). At night during my watch I tried to make friends with Fenrirs horse (Fenrir hadn't told us his horse can talk telepathically) but he really isn't nice at all. I'm pretty sure he gave me nightmares. Next day we continued our path. At a certain point the landscape changed from fingernails to ash. Which is less gross, but a lot more dangerous since there are ash pits. We learned this the hard way, with Bertha and Fenrir falling in it. Ron threw a rope to Fenrir while I dived in after Bertha. I managed to get to her, but by then we were down quite deep. Leo had turned into a horse and did all he could to get us out, but pulling 4 people is hard, even for a horse (a very majestic horse, by the way. Not a nightmare like Fenrirs steed, but very dark black). When Bertha and I came back up she had drowned, so I took the rope Ron used to secure himself when he jumped towards Fenrir and pulled them back up while Leo turned back into his elf-self to revive Bertha. It was a disaster, but Leo brought Bertha back successfully so there weren't any permanent casualties. After this incident we tied everyone together with rope and no more disasters happened (although we did find a few more pits). At night we saw a dragon flying around, but they didn't see us (or didn't care about us enough to approach). The next day, after a few more hours of walking, we finally reached Fort Knucklebone.
I understand why it’s called Fort Knucklebone, since it's built against a hill which looks like a hand. In front of it is a wall of some sorts. The gate was guarded by some weird gnomes with a cruel and bad sense of humour (Mad Maggie calls them Redcaps). When they weren’t too busy insulting us or each other they asked for a password to get in. And a joke. And a riddle. And so on. After 10 minutes of getting really annoyed I realised they were just fucking with us. There was no password. So I just barged in. Luckily I was right and didn’t get shot (although that would have been more pleasant than listening to the gnomes).
Fort Knucklebones is very interesting. It has a bar named the Well which has the only clean fresh water well in Avernus (for only 4 gold a glass) and there is a marketplace with a lot of different stands. I think the stuff they sell comes from all over the planes, not just Avernus. We went into the bar first, hoping to find the Kenku. In the bar were a lot of interesting people, like a tiefling playing the flute while an imp played a different song alongside her on the drums, purposefully trying to turn her off. Bertha was immediately interested, and started playing with them. Somehow she managed to make them sound good together. There were a couple of imps playing cards. Lulu was very interested and after she got some money from Fenrir she joined them. I’m not sure if it is beginners luck or if she is a great player, but apparently she won quite some money. There were 3 people sitting at the bar: Barnabas, a flying skull covered in green flame with the funniest backstory I have ever heard (he was a lich who fell in his own trap in his own lair. No strong adventurers who killed him, not being unmade by uncontrollable magic. Just a trap. That he had set himself. In his own lair). Then there was Mad Maggie, who is a human woman (although I got weird vibes from her. Not sure how, what or why, but something’s off). She is the owner of Fort Knucklebones, and was quite nice and helpful, especially for someone living in Hell for this long. Then there is Mickey. I’m not sure what Mickey is. Mad Maggie said she made him herself, so maybe he is a golem? I don’t think he can talk since there is a pipe coming out of where his mouth should be. He is Mad Maggies guard, because the redcaps aren't doing a great job. Lastly there was the barmaid, who’s name is Natasha. Leo says Fenrir is into her, but I kinda doubt it. Gideon said Fenrir is a ladies man, but I haven’t seen anything of the like.
Anyway, despite the remarkable company in the Well, the Kenku weren’t there. Mad Maggie told us they are her top engineers, and out in Avernus. She doesn’t expect them to be back for another 3 days or so. Fenrir decided to play some dragonchess with Barnabas while Leo and I decided to check out the shops. One of the shops was run by an imp banker. He has safety deposit boxes and told us a soul coin is worth about 400 gold. Anyone can set up shop, if you pay a fee to Mad Maggie. I toyed with the idea of playing shop for a while, but I don’t have a lot to sell. And there aren’t many buyers around, so I would probably be bored pretty fast.
Leo and I had a weird conversation. He wants me to sleep with Fenrir. Something about an experiment. It probably has something to do with how many kids Leo thinks Fenrir has. I don’t understand why he thinks Fenrir would be into me. It's the second time Leo tries to set me up with someone. At least Fenrir is attractive. But still, I don’t like Leo interfering with my personal life. I should think of something to get back at him….
When we met the others again we weren’t too sure what to do. Then we saw a huge machine coming to Fort Knucklebone. It has a billboard on it which says ‘The real Jim Darkmagic.’ I’m not sure what this is, but I’m kinda expecting a show.
I hope you’re also doing ok, you know, despite being in Hell and everything. I hope you got to move to High hall. I still think it’s safer there than on the marketplace. Then again, you’ve been there for so long it must feel like home.
Stay safe, stay strong,
Your loving sister,
Caja