S11E08 - A Soul Owed to the Nine Hells

We start the session as the heroes are about to go to sleep in the forest.

Once Lyra is on her elven sleep meditation, Ike uses mage hand to rummage through Lyra’s belongings, searching for the drug vial that Azaernara had given her, but he doesn’t find it because Nemo has it now.

As Ike’s search comes up empty, a deep booming sound rolls in from Ironwound.

During the night, Jinu wakes Nemo and asks him to help find Uncle Bob, one of the farmer zombies who escaped the farm when Sister Gloria and her guards razed it. Nemo agrees and they go together while Ike keeps watch. On the way there, Jinu apologizes on behalf of the group for causing him to lose his farm and his zombies, and the two stay keenly alert to the guard search parties scouring the forest.

Jinu and Nemo reach the ravine where Uncle Bob hides when he wants to be alone. On a ledge several meters below, three guards are investigating the moans. Nemo conjures an illusory voice on the west side, mimicking Jared, a guard they had met and killed earlier. The guards recognize their friend and go after it. Meanwhile, Jinu clambers down the steep slope, injuring himself on the way. As the guards begin to return, Nemo throws more voices to lure them off, and the two safely rescue the troubled zombie.

On their way back to the camp, the heroes find a stray pony belonging to a halfling, tied to a nearby tree and half-eaten by wolves. Nemo names it Little Sebastian and brings it to the camp.

During her night meditation, Lyra has a vision of a barren land progressively falling into decay and destruction. And after Ike finishes his watch and goes to rest, he hears again the demonic voice in his head inviting him to free himself from all restraints.

After packing, the heroes, including Jinu, Uncle Bob, and Little Sebastian, head north towards the Wicked Whiskey Wharf in search of information about the draconic activities the party has learned about in previous sessions, and also in search of XV-7, the leader of the local Severance Protocol, whom Soto is searching for and who likely has a permanent base around there. Along the way, Ike shares more about XV-7, and Lyra opens up about her wealthy family’s past.

During the first day of travel, the heroes find Brand, a human male with an enormous warhammer who recently became a paladin and is still learning the ropes. They find him casually cleaning his weapon while he stands over the corpses of three goblins, and invite him to join the group since he’s heading in the same direction, towards the Wicked Whiskey Wharf, because he has something to do further north.

A few days of travel later, the heroes sleep at the farm of Thormund, a male human who explains the lands in this kingdom have been progressively dying over the last two or three years. Uncle Bob starts farming, Brand helps the farmer with the chores that need doing, Jinu shows Ike some field observations about poisonous substances that are growing naturally in the area while the rest of the party rests.

Before sunset of the next day, a cultist arrives at the farm and politely invites Nemo, through Lyra, to talk outside. The cultist informs Nemo that the soul now inhabiting him belongs, by contract, to Asmodeus, lord of the Nine Hells, and that he must either come now voluntarily and be killed through a very painful ritual to extract the guest soul, or come by force, causing his friends to die needlessly and then suffer the same painful ritual that will lead him to his death. Nemo decides to send a message back to Asmodeus by killing the cultist and looting his body with a psychic spell.

A couple of days later, the heroes come across a married goblin couple with eleven kids. The wife, furious that her husband slept with another goblin, is screaming abuse at him, and the moment she spots the party she storms over and dumps two of the youngest kids at Lyra’s feet. She returns them twice to their parents and then they leave, but only many minutes later do they realize the two goblin kids have followed them, hidden behind Uncle Bob and Little Sebastian. Soto agrees to take care of them, names them Klik and Klak, and starts training them in his monk ways, starting with teaching them the common language.

Two days of travel later, the heroes meet a traveling merchant also heading to the Wicked Whiskey Wharf, whom they allow to join the party. He swindles Ike, then Brand, with a dice game, but proves somewhat helpful by giving the heroes information about the pirate town they’re heading into. Ike also gets the merchant to promise him that he will help him buy a wife at the town’s market.

A day later, past a worsening landscape, a razed hamlet, and a distant group they choose not to approach, the heroes reach the pirate town, as lawless and eccentric as they expected. The zombie on a pony, the goblin kids, and even Ike draw barely a glance, but Brand, who still looks like a knight, draws unwanted eyes, so he hurries to muddy his already tattered cape and clothes.

The party heads first to the Laughing Keel, the town’s main tavern and inn, and orders a round of very interesting drinks while they decide their next move. Then an orc, freshly angered by Klik and Klak, raises his axe, and at that very moment the tavern door swings open: XV-7 and his party stand in the doorway.