The Good Within

"The Good Within" is the 82nd session of the Legend of the Leaves campaign.
It took place in the Mystilon Promises questline of Arc 5: Dead Souls Rising.
==Synopsis==
While trying to make their way into Corellon Citadel to find the celestial that is supposed to be hiding in it, the Leaves encounter not just the evil surrounding them, but also the one deep within themselves.
=Story Development =
== Part 1==
The Leaves are arguing how to make their way into the citadel, without being noticed by the pit fiend in front of the gate. Their arguing about how to proceed is interrupted by the gallop of kelpies closing in on them. While thinking about their options, the enemies manage to surround them.
An oinoloth named Volgor leads a pack of kelpies, horned devils and a canoloth into the fight against the Leaves. After a fierce battle, Raijin knocks Volgor out and ties him up, while the rest of the party deals with the rest of the fire-blasting devils.
Bambara, using his rope trick, creates an opportunity to make a short rest in the extradimensional space he creates.
Volgor wakes up after the short rest and is interrogated by Lorilon, while Bambara takes care of making him talk straight by squeezing his throat with his musket. The oinoloth, intimidated by Bambara and persuaded by Lorilon, tells them about Erwell the Pit Fiend that has been guarding the citadel for the past 6 years, and suggests a compromise for the Leaves to spare his (Volgor's) life.
He offers to let them know how to pass by Erwell without a fight. In return, he asks for the Leaves to let him go. After a few minutes of arguing between the party members, a plan is formed by Lorilon and Volgor: Volgor will be surrounded by the Leaves while he readies the teleport spell. He will then tell them the secret to circumvent Erwell. If they are not satisfied with his answer, they can slay him down on the spot using their reactions.
Furthermore, Malcer tells him that they cannot trust him blindly, since he can easily report them to his superiors. Volgor informs them that death awaits him either way and that he has to report them to his general (whose name he will not reveal, only stating that it is not Zariel). Suggesting that by buying them time, both of them will get something out of this deal.
Raijin objects to the plan, while Lorilon manages to persuade the rest of the party to go with it, urging Raijin to trust him on this one. They decide to untie him and proceed as planned. Raijin states that, if this plan goes wrong, this would be Raijin's last mission with the Leaves, to which Malcer answers that in his opinion the last mission was in the volcano when Raijin went against the party. As they argue, Bambara takes out his obsidian dagger to seemingly untie Volgor, only to cut his throat instead.
Lorilon is outraged by that decision and reveals that, during the fight, he branded Volgor, which would have prevented him from teleporting. While reflecting on the outcome, the earth starts to shake, and walls around them start to collapse. They decide to act fast and scale the citadel from the western side in order to avoid the pit fiend.
== Part 2==
Darius and Bambara fly on a pegasus towards the rooftop of the citdale, while Lorilon uses his aether mutagen to follow them. Raijin and Malcer climb the western wall, hile trying to be unseen.
Lorilon and Darius spot a troop of abishai patrolling the western part of Mystilon, making their way towards the citadel. An adult red dragon accompanies them. While Lorilon manages to avoid being seen, Darius and his pegasus are spotted by the dragon. Since the summoned pegasus takes the type of his surrounding and resembles a fiend, Darius manages to maneuver him in a way to deceive the troop into thinking he is an ally. The deception works and the party lands on the roof of the citadel.
As soon as they touch the roof with their feet and notice the yellow celestial aura enveloping the building, Malcer is healed of his wounds.
Lorilon makes out the floor plan of the devastated citadel and recognizes the part where once stood the reading room. A memory of his brother Dolon emerges. Lorilon remembers how his brother once gave him a book in the reading room about spotting poisonous plants in the wild. However, he also clearly remembers the book Dolon was holding at that moment, a book with a silvery lock around it.
Lorilon's memory is triggered by the reflection of that shiny lock among the rubble in the devastated part of the citadel. He decides to go for it, and flies down to the room. There he finds the book his brother, the future politician, was reading: the Tome of Leadership and Influence.
When Lorilon returns to the roof, Raijin and Bambara are examining the material of the roof. At that moment, Bamabara notices that everyone, except Darius, can penetrate the aura. He notices that Darius is floating a few centimeters above it. Realizing this, Raijin decides to remove one roof tile and peek inside the great hall of the citadel.
He sees a mylodeus, a grotesque creature with a rat's and a snake's head, standing calmly in front of the altar, seemingly guarding it.
Raijin tries to come up with a plan of how to descend into the hall without being noticed. Lorilon, however, decides to levitate down and speak to the creature.
The mylodeus approaches Lorilon calmly and lets him speak for a moment, before swinging his giant axe at him. The rest of the party (except Darius who isn't even looking what is happening down there) join the fight.
At the beginning of the fight, the party tries to reason with the monster, pleading to him to be friends of his and his allies. The molydeus, however, cuts through them and at one point manages to cut Malcer's head off, killing him instantly. Bambara throws The Tear of Omihi behind the monster, damaging it significantly.
Darius finally looks down to see what is happening and realizes that his truesight show that the mylodeus is just a shape-shifted female wood-elf.
When Lorilon realizes this, he calls the mylodeus by the name Urixis Vazelon, to which the monster falls into an even greater rage. Darius manages to convey to the rest of the party that it is not an illusion, but a shape-shifted entity. Lorilon picks up his sword after hearing this and finally decides to strike down the monster, using his blood hunter ability to make it return to its true form.
The monster tranffroms into a female wood-elf in a white gown falling into Lorilon's hands, thanking him for saving her.
From behind the statue of Corellon, a shimmering yellow light emerges, and a celestial silhouette shows up, a female hollyphant named Lulu.
== Part 3==
When Lulu appears, she immediately rushes towards Malcer, crying the words "the man of god" and embraces him with her ears. Bambara brings Malcer's head to her, and she manages to revive him, loosing her powers and fainting away.
Malcer returns from the dead, feeling his warlock powers to be enhanced once more. Bambara cries out Omihi's name and hugs him. Malcer immediately rushes to Lulu and restores her power with a healing spell.
As Lulu's powers are brought back, the aura surrounding the citadel is restored. However, the pit fiend Erwell managed to use the opportunity and enter the great hall.
He attacks them after stating that he knew that waiting for this opportunity will pay off one day. During the fight, Malcer destroys a part of the cathedral with a shatter spell, making the pit fiend fall down on the floor where the party starts to bash him relentlessly. He manages, however, to escape back into the air, only to be shot down out of nowhere by a bullet from Bambara's musket.
Lulu and Urixis, who hid in a pocket dimension created by Lulu during the fight, reappear and thank the party for saving them.
While talking to Lulu, the Leaves find out that Lulu is a celestial who came to Avernus accompanying Zariel in her quest to end the war in this part of the Nine Hells once and for all. She tells them that Zariel recruited a party of mortals in the material plane to aid in her quest. However, something went wrong and Zariel was corrupted by something in Avernus, leading her down a path she couldn't return from.
Lulu's memories are blurred and fogged, as she tells them her recollection about Zariel. The last thing she remembers was a how Zariel gave Lulu her sword and asked her to hide it away. Lulu did so, but later came across "two birds" who captured her and threw her in the river Styx. Lulu's memories of the whereabouts of the sword were lost then, and she started wandering Avernus for hundreds of years.
When the city of Mystilon appeared one day in the sky of Avernus, Lulu saw a chance to find souls who are not corrupted by the evilness of Avernus; souls that could help her in her quest to find Zariel's sword and save her friend.
Lulu manged to arrive in Mystilon six years ago. However, she only found people who were already entrenched into the fight for survival and deeply corrupted by Avernus. Wondering the streets of Mystilon after her arrival, she notices a small group of children accompanied by a few adults running from a devil troop.
Lulu decided to help them and told them to find shelter in the great hall of the citadel, where she will sacrifice her remaining power to create a barrier. This barrier has been up for six years now, and Lulu waited for someone ho is not corrupted to show up and rescue the people inside the citadel.
When Malcer asked her why she put down the barrier to save him, Lulu tells him that Malcer has lost more than enough from the devilish powers from Avernus.
She then touches his forehead with her snout and makes him see a vision of his hometown while it as raided by fie elementals and devils. During this raid, Malcer, who was only four years old, was saved by a female dark elf who was plundering their home. She rescued Malcer, leaving the last memory of Cobden to be him yelling his son's name while looking for him around the house.
The vision ends and Lulu explains that a few months ago, a blue-skinned warrior came from the material plane and managed to go through the barrier inside the great hall. He was hired by a female high-elf from Silverymoon searching for an artifact in Avernus. Lulu says that he mentioned his employer to be the sister of a very important status, who hid this artifact in hell.
The Leaves conclude the artifact to be the Hand of Vecna, to which Lulu responds that this was the name of the artifact he mentioned. 
Lulu tells them that she doesn't know where this blue warrior now is. She assumes he went to the Great Cemetery in the western part of Mystilon, to deal with the devil-commander Bael. She also reveals that the name of the warrior is Trantor.
The hollyphant then explains that by defeating Bael, Mystilon would be safe for a while, and that she could then continue her quest to find Zariel's sword and rescue her friend. She also tells them that the sword is able to cut the chains that hold Mystilon in Avernus, and that, by doing so, the city could be returned to the material world.
The session ends by Lulu and Urixis making their way towards a trapdoor leading to the underground safe room beneath the great hall. Malcer manages to hear the divine intervention from his god, telling him that he can get rid of the warlock curse by killing Lakrima.
As the party makes their way downstairs to rest, Lorilon is preparing the toys he got from Moroz to give to the kids.
=Featured Characters=
== Leaves==
*Lorilon Duskwalker
*Darius Lonewalker
*Malcer Lynk Hornraven
*Raijin Shou Ho
*Bambara Grimmgrin
==New==
*Volgor
*Erwell the Pit Fiend
*Urixis Vazelon
*Lulu
==Returning==
*-
==Mentioned==
*Dida Moroz
*Cobden Lynk
*Zariel
*Trantor
*Lakrima
*Omihi Kakurenbo
*Bael