A Hellish Reunion

"A Hellish Reunion" is the 79th session of the Legend of the Leaves campaign.
It took place in the Demonic Eruptions questline of Arc 5: Dead Souls Rising.
==Synopsis==
After getting an update on everything that happend to Gauntlgrym from Moroz, the Leaves decide to take his offer to find the core of the volcano and shut the portal to Avernus.
= Story Development=
==Part 1==
Moroz welcomes the party to what he calls his workshop in the heart of Gauntlgrym. After he demonstrates his good will towards them and the power he holds over the fire giants who work for him, he tells them about what happened to the city.
He then apologizes for how Raijin was treated at Tasha's, and he explains that he parted ways with her more than two years ago when he came up with his ultimate plan for the material plane. He explains that he just wanted to free the fire giants, who were trapped in a demiplane for 1,500 years. However, his plan went awry once he accidentally opened the portal to Avernus as well.
Moroz explains through an IllusionPoint presentation (in which he was depicted as a cartoon character) his plan. The slides of the presentation went as follows:
#Find the city of Gauntlgrym. In which Moroz explains how he researched and found the legendary city two years ago.
#Inflitrate the city. In which Moroz showed how he shape-shifted into a dwarf and infiltrated the city, becoming a citizen.
#Gain the trust of the population. In which Moroz shows how he got a job as a cleaner at the forge and even married a dwarven woman and had children with her as part of his disguise.
#Get promoted. In which Moroz demonstrated how he got promoted to shift leader at the forge and gained the trust of the leaders of Gauntlgrym.
#Stick to the plan. Showed Moroz how he was acting as a father and hard-worker during the day, while studying in his secret chamber during the night, trying to figure out where the portal was located in the volcano.
#Sneaking to the portal. In which Moroz showed how he finally found the portal room and how he managed to get to the portal and freed the fire giants.
#Taking over the city. In which Moroz showed how he, thanks to the fire giants, laid mayhem to Gauntlgrym and the population, even showing how he showed no mercy to his own children.
#The production. Where Moroz showed how he immediately started on production of the magic items he needed.
# Devils arrive. In which Moroz showed how his fire giants were defeated by the devils which came from Avernus, and he had to retreat to the workshop.
#Delivering the presents. In which Moroz showed his final step of delivering magic items to every grownup and child in the material plane, so they can have the power of gods and cause destruction.
When asked why by Raijin and Darius
, Moroz told them that it is fun to see what happens. They realized that he completely lost his mind.
After explaining that he needs to finish his production in time, he tells the party that they can help him by closing the portal to Avernus.
Darius asks him if he could teleport them to the invisible bridge in order to get to where he told them they should go. Darius then describes the location in great detail, and Moroz is able to visualize it.
Before they go, however, the party makes a short rest and Moroz serves them a hero's feast. He tells them that once they arrive at the portal, they should put a medallion he gave Darius on the ground, so he can focus on it to teleport to them. He also gives them a chest with goodies, and to Malcer he hands a particular interesting toy boat that can float on lava.
The party finishes their short rest and Moroz teleports them. However, just before they fade away, Moroz laughs and says: "Ho ho ho, this was too easy."
As the party materializes at the location they expected, they realize that all of their magic items (expect consumables), were exchanged with mundane versions of the items.
==Part 2==
The Leaves make their way to the southern exit from the invisible bridge and arrive at a river of lava leading deeper into the volcano. Malcer uses the vessel given to him by Moroz to navigate the river.
On their way, they come across bone devils and hellwasps, which they have to fight off.
Continuing their journey on the river, the vessel picks up great speed and hurls down a lava waterfall. With cunning reflexes they manage, however, to slow the descent down and stop the boat before falling off the cliff.
They arrive at a somewhat majestic looking, yet devastated part of the lower parts of Gauntlgrym. Raijin and Lorilon try to use invisibility potions to sneak past the hellwasp roaming this area. However, a fight breaks out and the party swiftly deals with the monsters.
Examining the architecture of the room, they notice that the floor beneath them has fallen into the depths of the volcano, only leaving a broken staircase. The chasm beneath this floor is some 1000 feet deep before arriving at a sea of lava and broken off parts of masonry from the floor that crashed into it.
At the western part of the room, they notice a small room with a humnoid locked inside it behind a grid-door. Talking to the person reveals her to be Calama Glasseye, who curses them for mentioning Bambara's name.
Lorilon has a vision of the room and sees how countless intruders into Gauntlgrym were taken to the floor beneath it, where they were thrown to a well in the center of it, down into the lava pit.
After Xolotacl shows Calama the daggers, he carried with him for Bambara, she tells him that he was taken down to the pit.
Darius decides to use the immovable rod Calama gives them to descent down into the pit.
==Part 3==
Arriving at the bottom, the party finds themselves surrounded by a sea of lava and rubble of stone floating in it. Darius, with his truesight ability, notices an invisible pit fiend standing close by, ready to attack them once they turn their back to him.
Darius manages to communicate this to Malcer, without alerting the pit fiend. After a few moments of planing their next move, Raijin decides to cross the bridge and sees an inscription from Bamabra on the edge of it. He also notices a fuse of Bamabra's making along the bridge.
The Leaves decide to make a run for it. Raijin realizes that some of the scatter from the dwarven architecture that fell down was building a roadmap to the exit. He realizes that Bambara left these as breadcrumbs for them.
Rushing from one stone to another, the Leaves manage to arrive to the exit of the room on the mountain side. With the pit fiends close behind them, they light a fuse in the cavern they entered, and an explosion cuts off the way they came through.
Descending further down into the volcano, they are led to a bridge that doesn't resemble any known architecture. The path leads them to a hellfire engine standing in the middle of the bridge, near the next exit. However, they notice that someone is behind the hellfire engine, tinkering with it.
As the engine glows up in blue flames, Bambara's head peaks out from behind it, yelling to the leaves: "Ready to go to hell?"
=Featured Characters=
==Leaves==
*Lorilon Duskwalker
*Darius Lonewalker
*Malcer Lynk Hornraven
*Raijin Shou Ho
*Xolotacl
==New==
*
==Returning==
*Bambara Grimmgrin
*Calama Glasseye
==Mentioned==
*
=Quotes=
==Player Characters==
*Lorilon (nakon što ih je Moroz teleportovo i oteo im magic items): "Tako to rade. Prvo te nahrane, pa te jebu!"
Category:Sessions