The First Level of Carceri: The Oathbreaker Badlands
The first level of Carceri looked like a wide-open badlands with little but rock and dust as far as the eye could see, with a sourceless ambient light creating a glow in the sky. There was also an antimagic wave constantly circling the plane, causing magic items and spells to itermittently fail. The Ringbound hopped in their car and took off driving until they found a very, very small town.
They walked into the Dirt Nap Tavern and spoke to the propetier about how to descend to the next level of the Carceri. The tavern keeper had no idea, but pointed the party along a route to a city that might have someone who knows more. The route he gave them was obviously a set up to get ambushed by some bandits, but sans ideas, the party went anyways. They drove around one potential problem but then got routed into a canyon. Towards the begining of the canyon, the party stopped to try just digging a hole straight down. They didn't reach the next level of Carceri, but did break into a cavern where far below they spotted a massive sandworm sleeping.
The Ringbound decided that maybe digging down wasn't the way to go.
Continuing down the canyon, they got stuck in a hold-em-up run by Jeffery Blackhand. Jeffery offered to let the party past in return for some supplies. Not wanted to get into a fight where they were very clearly outnumbered and on bad terrian, the party handed over some of their rations, which seemed to be the currency of choice in the Badlands.
After hitting a dead end in the canyon, the party spotting some shadows darting around and stopped to investigate. They found what appeared to be a souless feral dwarf child who was slowly turning into, or had partially transformed, into a sandworm. He seemed friendly enough, and communicating via a series of pictures, he eventually drew them a map of where to find the city. He then proceeded to trail behind the party as they traveled on, seeming seeking protection from the strangers who had fed him, although he stayed back as the party approached the city.
Eventually the party rounded a blind corner in the canyon and saw some manned fortifications blocking off the way forward. The wall was being patrolled and had a Gatling Nifty on top. The party got into a coversation with Stormhorn who was manning the wall. He and the other guards asked the party their business, and when told the party was seeking a way down, shrugged and said that sounded like a conversation to have with the boss, Arde'nell Firemourn. He and the other guards also explained the rules of Clay Cuts:
- No magic in the city (For reasons of limiting random explosions as the antimagic field sweeps through)
- You have to say what oath you broke to wind up in the Badlands
- No members of the Rowdy Riders allowed (Jeffery Blackhand's crew)
- No wormkin allowed
After a little more walking, the party reached Clay Cuts proper. During the walk, Cribbins also realized he recognized the name Arde'nell- she was a half-elf that had led a rebellion against the Mad King that Larkspur had helped raise. Larkspur decided that it would probably be for the best if they just stayed out of the incoming conversation. So they waited outside as the rest of the party entered the equivalent of city hall to talk to Arde'nell.
Arde'nell was receptive to the party, explaining that she herself didn't know the way down to the next level of Carceri, but the matriarch of the Stonestepper dwarf clan, Hilga, might be able to help. She offered information and an escort to the Stonesteppers if the party either retrieved a supply wagon that had been stolen by the Rowdy Riders or if they made up a portion of that wagon with their own supplies. Throughout the conversation, Cribbins and the rest of the party also realized her idea of how much time had passed on the material plane was off- so much so, that they figured out that time passes twice as fast in Carceri compared to the material plane.
After some debate, the party decided to try retrieving the supplies.
Their first stop was a tavern where they caught a glimpse of a druid- Wilbur- purifying some water for sale. There was also some mushroom juice that Gira tried and promptly got drunk off of. After trying to buy some water from Wilbur, the party discovered that the currency of the Clay Cuts was called Mayor Money, and would be requried if they wanted to purchase anything. The druid pointed them to a house owned by a tabaxi named Tabitha who could make the exchange. Larkspur stayed at the tavern to keep half an eye on Gira who had gone to sleep due to the mushroom juice.
Argent bargained a healers kit for Mayor Money after discovered that gold wasn't worth much in Clay Cuts. Money in hand, they stopped by a gear shop to pick up some equipment better suited to traversing the Badlands. While there, Eden and Cribbins got into an argument with the shopkeep who was running a scam involving a magic broach that made the hat it was pinned to seem extremely desirable. After some back and forth and some mild extortion, the two walked out of the exchange with more money then they started with. The funds were used back at the tavern to purchase some more rations.
At this point the party picked up more information on the location of the missing supplies, which was likely at the Rowdy Rider's base at the top of a hill in a wide section of the canyon. Realizing that there wasn't a good stealth approach, Larkspur decided to pick up the wormkin kid from earlier to see if he could burrow his way in. While they did that, the rest of the party exchanged some more supplies at Tabitha's to get more Mayor Money and used it to purchase some explosives.
Finally ready to set out, the party began to navigate their way through the canyons. On their way, they caught a glimpse of someone falling out of the sky. Deciding that didn't look like their problem they continued on until they found that person being dragged away by a collection of Wurm Monks who apparently intended to feed her to the focus of their worship. The party objected and killed off the Wurm Monks, freeing the woman and pointing her in the direction of Clay Cuts- she was a new arrival from a small city in Ahm whose broken oath had evidently been to remain faithful to her wife.
The party then crept up on the Rowdy Ruffians camp, Larkspur carefully creeping ahead to scout. Cribbins settled into a sniper's nest as the rest of the group decided to try pulling off a scam on the Ruffians for the rations: Larkspur would pretend to be a non-sentient construct that Eden and Argent were looking to trade in exchange for some rations. To sweeten the deal, they would also offer Argent's decanter of endless water. Then, once the party had made their escape, Larkspur would sneak back out and try to steal the decanter as they went. For backup, Gira wildshaped into a scarab and hid in Larkspur's mouth.
After some near-misses, the trade happened, only for Eden and Argent to discover they had been counterscammed- the barrels "full" of rations had false bottoms. At that a fight broke out with Cribbins raining hell from on high. After a round or two of combat, Cribbins realized he recognized one of the Ruffians as an old friend named Joey Malone. He managed to call a ceasefire, hastily patching up the one person that had gone down. The two old friends caught up and Joey agreed to return some of the rations. He also told the party that the gate down to the next level was called the Mechanical Gate, and apparently was at the bottom of a pit of Wurms. Theoretically the Stonestepper clan knew the way to it, and Joey also knew the way to the Stonesteppers. When Cribbins offered to to take Joey with the group as they descended through the layers of Carceri and eventually returned to the Material Plane. Joey accepted and so the party picked up a new member as they travelled back to Clay Cuts to drop off the supplies.
On the way a couple of the more battered party members got some short rests and Larkspur taught the Wormkin kid a few hand signs so he could communicate better.
The party unloaded their supplies, declining a guide from Arde'nell. Arde'nell spotted Larkspur, but so far neither of them have made an issue of it yet. The party took a few Mayor Money coins as payment and used them to purchase another explosive.
They then started on the way to the Stonestepper clan.
There were two routes to the clan; a longer one that would've taken the party back out into the open desert to curve around into another canyon. Then there was the shorter but more treachorous route where the party descended into a cave system and muddled their way through until they reached the other side. After mutliple encounters with some fairy flies, several dips into water that Larkspur had to be hauled out of, and a few encounters with a celestial from Mechanus called an Inevitable, and some avoidance of some perception-slowing ferns, the party made their way through and out.
From there it was a short jaunt to the underground cavern were the Stonestepper clan made their home. The place itself was built on the back of a moving platform made of a mix of reanimated Wurm tissue and mechanics, a methodology that was repeated through the dwarves that were born in the Badlands. Most of the dwarves had had corrective surgery done with a mix of selective tissue reanimation and mechanics to help deal with the worst of the Wurm features that came with being born in the first level of Carceri.
First the party talked to Delta a younger dwarf, before she redirected them to Torenz. Torenz explained that his son had been kidnapped by some Wurm monks and was likely going to be sacrificed to a Wurm pit unless rescued- if the party saved him, then they would be taken to the Mechanical Gates. He also agreed to foster the Wormkin kid after a discussion with Larkspur.
Eden then partially collapsed and it came out that Eden was technically an undead- she walked thanks to a deal with Vecna, whose power couldn't reach her to sustain her in Carceri. Torenz immediately fell to his knees and begged Eden to all them to make an offering to her to take to Vecna- apparently the Stonesteppers worshipped the god of secrets, and the oath they broke to wind up in the Badlands involved him. The party agreed to carry the offering forward after they retrieved the boy.
The party too off back into the desert, eventually finding the location where the caravan with the dwarf kid was attacked. Larkspur used their fifth eye to catch a glimpse into the past and see what happened. Cribbins assisted in this effort by adding a piece of the Inevitable he'd taken as an extra processor and plugging in a fantasy HDMI cable to catch a glimpse of what was going on. Larkspur caught flashes of the dwarf caravan being attacked, the Inevitable tracking the party (although, strangely, unable to see Cribbins), and Tony talking with his wife.
At the end of the vision the piece of the Inevitable had fused with Larkspur and couldn't be removed. Exasparated, but newly aware of the Inevitable still hunting them, the Ringbound followed the direction of the worm attacks to the first of the potential camps where they were keeping the kid only to find it abandoned. The party headed west to the next camp, and there found the Wurm cult with some kind of sacrificial ritual in full swing. Eden reacted poorly to seeing a hapless civilian being dragged towards an acid pit and chucked a massive bomb to get the party started. The Ringbound very quickly realized that this was perhaps not a party they wanted to get started as members started dropping. But while the group dealt with the various cultists and dodged around the massive Wurm they'd summoned, Joey Malone got in, got the kid, and got out. Cribbins revved up the gamer cart and picked everyone up as the party got the heck out of dodge. On their way back to the Stonestepper clan Cribbins gave everyone an earful about priorties and weighing the consequences of their actions considering the fate of the world literally rested on our shoulders. But the group made it back and went to sleep, most of the members completely spent. Cribbins upgraded the gamer cart to be able to fly and Eden talked the Stonesteppers into following through the doors behind the party. Then the party all got in the cart, the Stonesteppers vaporized the waiting Inevitable, and the Ringbound flew off and through the Mechanical Gate to the next level of Carceri.