Session 21: Quarantine Report
General Summary
After traveling from the Prime Material Plane into the Nine Hells, you quickly discovered that the city of Elturel was suspended above the river Styx in Avernus. Your first few hours in the first of the Nine were wrought with chaos as you encountered numerous devils and other fiends, until you were found by a squad of Hellriders from Shiarra's Market - the city's largest marketplace where an enclave of survivors had been erected over the course of the two months that the city had been in Avernus.
You joined the troupe of Hellriders who were led by a human male in his early thirties; a battle-scarred but handsome man named Rochus Pons. He explained that the High Rider, Klav Ikaia, had established this post as a safe space for survivors of Elturel's fall, and that about 700 people and 40 Hellriders had seen fit to join his camp. As you approached the ramshackle gate of the haphazardly constructed palisade wall, Rochus explained that a number of Hellriders, including his former comrades, had turned, or rather, exploded, into fiends at seemingly random times, and that a mandatory quarantine had been put in place in order to prevent new arrivals from bursting into flame. Your party reluctantly agreed to the quarantine after a few rounds of hard debate, and you were locked up for 48 hours, but treated like honored guests otherwise.
After establishing a basis of trust with the jailor in place and learning a bit about the camp's organisation (Ikaia has a second-in-command and three lieutenants, one each in charge of the garrison force, an exploration and resupply team, and a troupe of arbiters), you spent your first night under the uncomfortably warm Avernian skies, and some of you were plagues by dreams or other visions...
Waking up the next morning, you had your breakfast before a change of the guard, and Caja immediately recognized her sister Nori, who was not as happy to see her sister as the other way around... Nori seemed reluctant to talk about the current situation, and blamed Caja for not being around - she revealed several key moments that had happened in the past few weeks, including the death of their parents, the eruption of her sergeant, and the killing of many of her Hellrider companions. After an altercation with Ron, Nori left the group and a new guard named Albert took over the last part of your quarantine - Albert seemed a lot more agreeable, and even had a small jam session with the party as they wailed away on their musical instruments.
Following Albert's advice, the party reported back to Rochus after their quarantine, hoping to assist in a resupply and possibly, rescue mission. Another acquaintance of Caja had led an exploration run into one of the marked warehouses in the Dock district, but he had not yet returned, and the camp started to worry. While you resupplied with great help from the camp's quartermaster; a half-elven male with a Cormyrian accent, you had a quick run-in with Volothamp Geddarm and Garyx, who had already found their place in the camp. Volo had prepared a folio of fiends, as he called it, depicting some of the devils and demons which you had already met, and some that he recalled from his earlier travels.
Returning to Rochus Pons, you were left without a direction to go in - to which the sergeant suggested you to have a word with Ikaia's second-in-command, a red-skinned tiefling with enormous horns called Urbain Justin. He pointed you in the right direction, and bade you to take care upon your approach. The way towards the warehouse was mapped for a mounted party with carts, and there may be a quicker route available to a group on foot.
Finally taking your leave, you managed to make your way to the warehouse by sticking to the narrow canters and alleyways of the Dock district, limiting your visibility to possible Hell Knights and other enemies, but treading through dangerous back alleys on the verge of collapse. One building almost fell directly on top of you, only managing to dodge it at the last second. Not long after, however, you arrived in the vicinity of the marked location, which was immediately confirmed by the presence of a tethered but parched horse outside the warehouse. Fenrir made his way inside after Ronaldus Swanstone had his familiar Tammy explore the inside for a bit, but the paladin's armor nearly melted into his flesh from the heat of the nearby lava river, flowing past the nearby docks. After some quick thinking by Bertha, you were able to make your way to the top of the building, collapsing the crumbling roof in order to get yourself an entry point away from the lava.
Descending into the warehouse and finding yourself on the second story of a two-story place of storage, you found no evidence of recent disturbance other than the already open door and the nearby horse. The warehouse seemed laden with supplies - with crates and barrels lining the floors to torches and sacks of flour piled high atop a number of tables. Leo made a big mistake, however, when he tried to snatch up a small barrel - it was a mimic posing as a barrel and it immediately latched onto the druid's arm, nearly severing the limb and eating it whole. Luckily, Caja and Fenrir were able to kill the monster before it ate anyone.
With a fully stocked warehouse and no trace of the lost party, you have some mileage in this adventure yet!
Fenrir Firecam
Ronaldus Swanstone
Caja
Report Date
13 Apr 2023
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