102. The Flooded City: Pilgrimage

* The flooded city of Minauros rises up from the muck in shining alabaster splendour. Clwyd senses that the group's goal is at the temple that overlooks the city from atop a large hill in its upper third. The group finds a place to camp at a safe distance from the city and takes their time preparing for their assault. For the remainder of that day and the next, they wait while Wilfred masters his nightmare steed. When at last the gnome has finished this lengthy task, ensuring the mount will now do as he instructs it without issue, Wilfred names the horse Auburn. On the morning of day 19 in the swamp, they mount up and ride for the city.
* The first stop:
** They ride through a grand archway at the bottom of the city, their nightmares coasting in the air over splendid streets trapped in time and flooded with crystal clear water. A wide boulevard stretches out before them as they enter the city, and directly ahead and up the hill waits the large temple they seek. 
** Before heading there though, Clwyd leads them to a smaller temple in a flooded square near the city entrance, telling them that there appear to be eight other places they must visit before they go to the final temple atop the hill, together forming a path that spirals around the city, slowly curling inwards until it ends at that last, large temple. 
** This first temple they've arrived at is fully below the waterline. They alight on the roof and begin some recon. 
** Peering below it to a plague placed on the ground before the temple's entrance, Ingvild reads to the group the following: "Ye who would step forth to answer thine lord's decree, that you might honour His nine realms and those he instils to serve them, know this: be apt in your reverence, lest your ignorance prove you unworthy of further travails, and show commitment in your journey, lest the King Below find your piety lacking."
** After some tentative testing, they learn that the water isn't stupefying Styx water. 
** Wilfred sends his Arcane Eye in to look around the place while they remain outside. On the next slab of stone after the plaque the word 'Avernus' has been wrought in fine letters. The inside appears to be a small but lavishly decorated, single-room temple. The columns about the place are filled with finely chiselled scripture speaking of the virtues of the Nine Hells and of wicked mortals earning their redemption through battles, blood, and sacrifice in the Blood War, while the walls of the room sport an incredibly detailed mural depicting a grand battle between demons and devils in the icy wastes of Avernus, the First Hell. 
** Clwyd and Wilfred go down into the water and swim into the temple. The poke around a bit more, eventually noticing that the alter on the far side of the room to the entrance has small bowl-like depressions in it. Clwyd cuts her palm and places her hand in one of the divots. As the blood seeps out the wound and begins to dance in the water, Clwyd's genie-gifted direction sense moves on from this location. What she had done had apparently been sufficient. 
* The second stop:
** A ten minute ride on the nightmares brings them to the next temple on their journey. It's slightly bigger than the last one and its front reads Legion, but otherwise the exterior is much the same as the first temple. It too is fully flooded.
** Clwyd and Wilfred go inside again. This time the mural on the walls depicts the vast infernal war effort and the industry that goes into arming and armouring its legions, as well as the training of those soldiers themselves. In the centre of the piece, depicted atop a throne of skulls, is Bel, formally the archduke of the Second Hell, now merely a duke beneath archduke Zariel. 
** Before they can investigate much more, the pair of small folk are attacked by a Styx Toad that had concealed itself in the waters. Wilfred Dimension Doors the two of them away, taking them up to the roof where the others are waiting. 
** Pyt, Clwyd, Wilfred, and Ingvild then head down into the water together to deal with the troublesome aquatic fiend. With some focused offense, they eventually scare the Styx Toad away but don't manage to kill it. 
** Clwyd goes to the alter -- also slightly bigger now, just as the temple is compared with the last one -- and again offers some of her blood. This time nothing happens; the direction sense in her head continues to indicate she has business in this temple. 
** Clwyd ponders this for a time, thinking back to the first temple and the writing out front of it. Eventually, an idea comes to her and she lays down one of the zigzagging lightning bolts she'd purchased from the Hundred-Handed One in the Umbral Market onto the alter -- a fierce weapon indeed. 
** Immediately, the waypoint in her mind moves on and Clwyd's hypothesis was confirmed: she had to travel to each of these temples in turn, with each one devoted to one of the Hells and them presented in descending order, and offer something that spoke to the nature and purpose of that Hell. Blood for the Blood War's front lines, and arms or armour for the industrial crucible of Legion, the Second Hell. 
* The third stop:
** Another ride on their nightmares to the next temple brings them to the 3 o'clock position in the city, relative to their entrance. The temple was again in the same style and again slightly bigger than the last. It read Minauros on its front. And this temple wasn't fully flooded; as they'd spiralled around the city, they'd slowly been ascending and the water was flowing with a bit more pace here in response to that gradient. The waterline only reached halfway up to the temple's ceiling.
** Looking inside from atop their mounts, they see that the mural depicts decadence and hedonistic revelry in the old version of Minauros before it fell to the furthest the demon hordes ever advanced into the Hells and was rendered into the swampy wasteland it still remains. Depicted in the middle of the piece is a splendid-looking humanoid-shaped devil -- presumably Beelzebub in his pre-slug shape -- but the face in the mural has been completely destroyed. 
** This sort of Infernal pleasure is now the purview of the Sixth Hell, Fierna's realm, Phlegethos. That meant that the makeup of the Hells as Clwyd knows them now is in some ways significantly different to the Hells from the time when this pilgrimage was in full practice. For whatever reason, it was still interfering with Clwyd's wayfinding magic despite being out-of-date, and it meant that they might have to figure out the original purpose of some of the Hells if they were to leave appropriate offerings. 
** Thankfully, this one had been fairly obvious though. Wilfred took out the magnum-sized bottle of the incredibly fine drink known as Dao's Claret. He poured off some of it into a separate bottle, still intending on giving the remainder to Poop as a gift. Wilfred then gives the small bottle to Clwyd to make her offering. 
** Ingvild accompanies Clwyd inside the building, taking the armlet of swimming and waterbreathing mask from Wilfred. 
** As the pair, giant and goblin-turned-tiefling, make their way across the space of the third temple, they trigger a powerful Symbol spell that deals enormous amounts of necrotic damage to the pair of them. Ingvild grits her teeth and weathers it, but Clwyd is rendered unconscious immediately, and the area of the spell still surrounds them, meaning if left as she is it will keep killing Clwyd! 
** Thankfully Ingvild is able to swim away, dragging the unconscious Clwyd behind her. Pyt heals Clwyd, Wilfred Dispels the Symbol spell, and the group short rest on the roof and heal up a bit. 
** The group change tactics. Wilfred and Ingvild are heading into the temple this time, and Wilfred passes the witch totem over to Ingvild. Looking carefully for any signs of the powerful abjurative magic, Wilfred does indeed spot a second Symbol glyph waiting for them to trip it. He successfully Dispels that one too and the way is clear. 
** Wilfred goes back to the roof and says the room is cleared out. Ingvild heads to the alter and then Clwyd uses the magic of her totem to crumble into soil and dirt and teleport herself right next to Ingvild. Clwyd places the bottle of fine alcohol on the counter, the conditions of the temple are met, and Clwyd's direction sense moves on. 
* The fourth stop:
** They ride on to the next temple, again bigger, again less flooded as they've ascended even higher. The name on the front isn't Dis as they expected though, it reads 'Mammoch'. The mural within depicts the now-duke ranked Mammon, the great banker of the Hells, amidst many depictions of money, wealth, and avarice. 
** Clwyd advances to the alter without molestation and puts some of the soul coins she has down on it. Apparently not enough, she adds a few more. Then some more. Then some more. Until finally she's forced to turn her pockets out and put all the soul coins she has on the alter -- some 43 in total -- and at last the temple is satisfied with the offering. 
** Clwyd looks up at Mammon's smug, smiling face before leaving with all her wealth left behind. 
* The fifth stop:
** The water is moving with a reasonably decent amount of pace now, the slop of the hill they're ascending getting sharper as they continue. On the plateau where the temple waits the water is pooling at about ankle height on a human.
** The temple's façade reads 'Mephistar' as they'd expect, and the mural shows Mephistopheles, an archdevil they've met in the flesh, amidst his many experiments and diagrams. 
** Wilfred and Clwyd both end up offering forth a 5th-level spell slot while placing their hands on the temple's alter. Clwyd senses that it was enough once she's done so and the group can move on. 
* The sixth stop:
** Since infernal pleasure was the purview of the Third Hell back during this pilgrimage's time, that meant the Sixth was for something else too. The temple still read 'Phlegethos', but the mural within didn't show the feminine form of Fierna -- instead some other humanoid fiend was displayed there amidst symbols of blind justice and law. And the room itself was different to the others, for the alter was flanked on each side by statues with blindfolded eyes, swords in one hand, and a large set of scales in the other. 
** Clwyd approaches the alter and the statues both twisted their wrists so the swords that had been pointed at the ground spun around and pointed upwards, suddenly looking much more ready for use. 
** The group consider for a long while what they might offer in such a place to represent law or justice. Nothing they try seems to work until Clwyd begins confessing for past wrongdoings. As she lists off her ill deeds, the scales the statues are holding react.
** After a half dozen confessions, one of the sides of one of the scales touches the ground and as soon as it does Clwyd senses that they can move on. 
** They extradite themselves, with Clwyd backing away carefully from the statues. She sees them twist wrist and sword so the blades point at the ground once more, but they make no other moves.
* The seventh stop: 
** The temple's front reads 'Tartarus', the name the Great Gaol still holds. As far as Clwyd and any of the others are aware, the greatest prison in the realms has always been. And sure enough, when they look inside the temple, it clearly honours a realm of incarceration. A blazing mural of Belphegor the Jailer, wreathed in flame with a thousand burning chains in his hands, would demand their attention in most other circumstances than the one they found themselves in. For between them and the mural, lashed in many thick chains a couple metres off the ground, hung a hideous, tumorous ball of eyes, teeth, and Abyssal wrongness: a sibriex, the architects of the Endless Abyss and some of the greatest and more persistent enemies the Hells had ever known.
** The mighty demon grinned with too many mouths as it saw them, and began speaking telepathically in their minds one by one. Each time it did it offered them power, wealth, knowledge beyond that of mortal ken. And in exchange it asks them to free it. It promises them that it can show them the way through the Hells, then ensures it can show them the way out when they correct it on their intentions and the direction they travel. But again and again, the party refuse its offers. 
** It starts to threaten Clwyd then, and she seeks to call its bluff, telling it to do something. Her mind is quickly wracked by psychic damage. The floating, sentient mass of tumours laughs a wet laugh then, and ensures them they won't find the way out the Hells, even with the wayfinding magic Clwyd has boasted to possess, until they get beyond the sibriex itself and to the temple behind.
** It turns its eyes to Pyt and it wills his flesh to warp. Suddenly one of Pyt's eyes pops out his head, extending on a long, insect-like stalk away from the socket. The bard screams, clutches the eye, and runs around the corner, away from the foul demon. 
** Ingvild charges into the room, intent to run under the sibriex and reach the temple's alter. As she draws close, what should have been solid stone beneath her feet began to warp and give with her steps, as if it was dough or soft rubber. She pressed on, her legs working hard with the weird ground around the sibriex impeding her, and as the giant ran under the demon, it turned its attention on her fully and cast a Feeblemind spell on her. 
** Ingvild was stupefied, Pyt's flesh continued to warp, and the others had ducked around the corners away from the horrible fiend. And they still needed to get to the alter behind it and give their offering to the Seventh Hell before they could move on. Things were looking dire indeed.
Category:Part Six