The Devil You know - Illovkar Session Report

General Summary

The group awoke in hell, specifically in the fortress of Bel. They were addressed by Bel, a Duke of hell. He informed them that they had been 'recruited' for war with the demons. To test their mettle, they would be put in the coliseum to fight demons.
After about an hour of prep time, they were released into the arena. Illovkar, with some area effects eliminated the most demons, as tracked by a score board above them.
After the fight, the group was put back into some cells, and stripped of their gear. Bob and the dragonborn sorcerer struck up a card game with the imps that were guarding them through the bars of the large cell. Mean while, in the back, Illovkar removed one of his mount's horse shoes. When the mount got dismissed, it would disappear, but for the time being, they had some metal. Gearsly was able to transform the metal into lock picks.
With the ability to pick locks at a distance, and turn the picks invisible, the arcane trickster picked the lock holding the portcullis closed. She succeeded at doing so with out being noticed, as the imps were distracted by the card game. During the changing of the guard, the Illovkar and his horse managed to lift the portcullis a bit, to allow Treenie, who had transformed into a rat, to escape.
Shortly thereafter, they were also able to let Bob out as well. Bob made his way to the equipment room. Treenie managed to trigger the winch to open the portcullis, but that woke the Mind flayer who had been sleeping in that room.
The rest of the group surged out of the room, and Bob slew one of the new imps that had come to be the guards. Illovkar struck fear into the hearts of the other imps, both the new guards, and the old ones who had come back to see what the commotion was about. In exchange for not executing them, the imps agreed to serve Illovkar.
Meanwhile, Treenie mauled the Mind Flayer, in a flurry of fang and fur.
With their equipment regained, the group proceeded cautiously forward. They were able to use the dust of disappearance to sneak past the bone devil stationed on the first floor, and make it to the second floor. They found two studies. One appeared unused, and the other contained writings referencing the Codex Incabulum (see notes section).
This study had a window, which was as far as the group knew, the only exit without doing a dimension door or the like. After some discussion, Illovkar dismissed his mount as it would be too difficult to lower it out the window.
Off the group headed. After a bit, they realized they were being pursued. The Bone devil was tracking them. Rather than try to escape, the decided to face the Devil. After a brief skirmish, including the defeat of several lemures, the Bone Devil unconditionally surrendered, and joined the group.
During the evening rest, the Illovkar discussed with the Bone Devil, if he had any enemies or allies the group should be aware of, or potentially utilize (see Characters Interacted with for descriptions). The group discussed their options, and decided that the warehouse owner was a perfect setup, as it would allow them to get some additional magical gear, they could frame the raid on the nearby followers of Tiamat, and then eliminate the rival of one of their allies.
After a couple of days travel, and after stealing some arrows from the followers of tiamat, the group prepared for a raid on the warehouse. They had the imps set up a perimeter, and had the arcane trickster sneak around inside the building. They decided that there could be no witnesses, so they had to be swift. After bursting in, the party was able to kill all the devils, though there were a couple close calls with an imp that almost got away, and the Barbed devil almost was able to cast sending. He only got the word 'attack' out, so the group figured that was good enough.
The group looted the warehouse, and picked up several casks of fine wine, as well as a number of magic items. With this in tow, they decided it was time to go to Dis. More days of travel, and the group arrived at the river Styx. They deployed their folding boat, but navigating the Styx proved to be trickier than expected, and they ended up in a trading camp in Gehenna.
Taking the opportunity, to do some deals, the group sold off their excess goods including the wine, though Bob decided he wanted some alcohol himself. The Arcanaloth who ran the alcohol store hooked him up with some top shelf, as he was such a connoisseur.
With that settled, the group loaded back up in the boat, and traveled the opposite direction, and this time made it to Dis.
Now that they were in the city, securing a way home was highest priority. The best known ability to travel around would be the notorious soul collector. Not a fan of soul collection, Illovkar was of the opinion that they should eliminate him. Bob decided to do some bar hopping to gather some information, and Illovkar decided to drop in on the owner of the Brothel.
The brothel turned out to be a dead lead, but he did get a card that provided a slight charisma buff. However, Bob was exceptionally successful, as they found out that the soul collector was known for liking his drink. So the group hatched the plan for Bob to schmooze him, and get him drunk, and Illovkar would provide support. Then they would 'make sure he got home safe', and kill him in his tower. Since the tower was on multiple planes, they could then find a way to get home from there.
They had to set up a meet though. Knowing that the coach master had wanted to be the warehouse manager, the group realized that if they gave him some pertinent information about the raid, before it became public knowledge, he might be able to position for a promotion. In exchange he'd set up a get together at one of the 'fancy' drinking joints.
Bob began talking with this wizard. As the conversation wore on, and the guy became tipsy, he revealed to Bob that he didn't want to be a soul collector, he was just under contract. Illovkar showed up, and was invited to join them. Illovkar was like 'we could take a look at it, and see if there is any way out of the contract' and the Wizard was like 'Yeah, that would be great. When devil's look at it, they assure me that it's air tight, but I feel like there is a loop hole.'
So the trio went back to the wizard's tower, and Illovkar reviewed the document. He too felt like there was something there, he just couldn't figure out what it was. The Wizard agreed, and he pointed out that despite how smart he was, he couldn't figure it out.
But Illovkar had connections. He retreated a bit from the group, and petitioned his goddess to send him an agent of law to review he contract, and potentially free this man from the need to collect souls.
And she answered.
The Inexorable of Change arrived, and as per request, reviewed the contract. Sure enough, all the wizard had to do was simply decide not to collect souls, and he would be fine, assuming he never again returned to hell. With the fact that he was lawful evil, this would be his final destination, and so if he didn't want his soul cast adrift upon his death, he would also have to be more aligned to a different plane. After explain this to him, he agreed that that was for the best.
The rest of the group was invited to help him move his gear from the rooms of his tower that were in hell to other locations, and then he would help them go to the material plane.
At this point, Illovkar allowed the imps and the bone devil to decide if they wanted to stay or go. The imps opted for staying in hell, but the bone devil, realizing that the group had likely just frustrated Bel, the holder of the wizard's contract, he was probably better off being scarce for a while, and decided to come to the material plane with them.
The group was then able to make it back to water deep.

Character(s) interacted with

Faetin - Warehouse Manager

A horned devil that ran a warehouse. He had double crossed our bone devil friend, and resulted in the bone devil being demoted from horned devil. The warehouse contained magical items, and some other supplies.

Miss Zelorn- Brothel Owner

The dirty devil's brothel in hell is run by this purple tiefling. Apparently was friendly with our bone devil, but she likely spread misinformation which assisted in his demotion from horned devil status. She also claimed that the soul collector had tried to steal the soul of one of her girls. The soul collector claims that she had asked for him to do so. Claims not to know Faetin, though this is unlikely.

Coach Master

Rival of our bone devil friend, though their paths have largely diverged.

- Former Soul Collector

Powerful Wizard who got stuck in a contract with Bel. Currently trying to change his ways.

Notes

Report Date

01 Feb 2019