Hell Riders

"Hell Riders" is the 81st session of the Legend of the Leaves campaign.

It took place in the Mystilon Promises questline of Arc 5: Dead Souls Rising.

## Synopsis

The Leaves decide to take it upon themselves to help the population of Mystilon to escape the depths of Avernus after being captured there for more than 70 years.

# Story Development

## Part 1

After their arrival in Mystilon, the leaves immediately fall asleep in Lorilon's house.

Lorilon finishes his meditation in the middle of the night, and starts wandering Mystilon. While catching up with the citizens, and getting a clearer picture of the faith of his hometown, he is meant by his mother Eleonora.

He is made aware of the time dilation in Avernus and that one day that passes in the material world means that almost one month passes in Avernus. In these 70 years, he learns, the warriors of Mystilon have fought-off demon and devil armies which are eager to take the souls of the population to boost their armies.

Eleonora and Lorilon strike up a conversation about the faith of their family, the city, and every one of them individually. The conversation is tedious and swiftly escalates into a shouting and blaming match between mother and son.

Eleonora gives Lorilon in the end, a spell scroll with the plane shift, spell telling him that, as always, he has the possibility to leave because he is not bound to hell like the rest of the city.

The other members of the Leaves wake up in the meantime, and proceed to have breakfast. They talk about what to do next: Whether to help Lorilon to save his hometown, or to just find a way out of Avernus.

Their conversation is interrupted by Qinren Dewshine a charismatic moon-elf who joins them at the table. He tells them that he is an old acquaintance of Lorilon's father. After discussing, whether Gods can be killed, and then joking around, mostly with Bambara, about the possibility of wearing a god's balls around one's neck, he asks them to inform Lorilon that his father always wanted to give him the leadership over the city?

Lorilon finishes his conversation with his mother and wants to head back inside, when he notices a small shed near the house. He hears tinkering sounds and his brother Kovilon cursing at something from inside. After entering the somewhat messy workshop, he sees a plethora of tools and mechanical gadgets (mostly resembling childlike toys) scattered all around. Kovilon is standing on a stool and tinkers something at the workbench.

When Kovilon notices Lorilon, he takes off his goggles and starts presenting Lorilon all of his inventions. He then tells him that he has been teaching himself how to build things over the last 30 years and asks Lorilon to ask Bambara to show him a trick or two.

Kovilon shares with Lorilon that he missed the bickering he heard from outside with their mother, and that Lorilon should not be too judgmental of her. Lorilon tells him that he has become an uncle, to which Kovilon produces from under his desk a flask and they both drink to that.

Before Lorilon leaves, Kovilon shows him a picture Lorilon draw when they were kids. It was a picture of Owlboy, a fictional character Lorilon told Kovilon stories about. As Lorilon reminisces about the story, Kovilon shows him a gadget he built; a Paraglider that resembles Lorilon's drawing.

## Part 2

Lorilon joins the Leaves at the breakfast table and relates to them everything he learned. He tells them, however, that he cannot ask of them to help him and gives the plane shift spell scroll to Malcer. He tells him that they will not need it (and that probably it could take them to an even more fucked up place if they were to use it).

Their conversation is interrupted by Rowarin Flanna, a female wood-elf ranger and one of Lorilon's former instructors. She tells them that she is instructed to equip them with Infernal Items and lead them outside the city if they accept their mission. They agree and follow her to the Sacred Oak Tree. There she pours the water from the river Styx, which she gathers every day from underneath the city, into the fountain. They figure out that Mystilon uses the water to erase memories of their warriors, so they can stay mentally capable of fighting indefinitely.

The Leaves give her the mundane items they want to turn into Infernal Items:

* **Meter Mender**⁣ – an artificer glove used as a spell focus by Bambara Grimmgrin.
* **Sekka Alexich**⁣ – a golden long sword worn by Darius Lonewalker.
* **Leaflet**⁣ – a robe with the Leaves emblem worn by Darius Lonewalker.
* **Drunken Gauntlets**⁣ – alcohol infused gauntlets worn by Raijin Shou Ho.
* **Coilin⁣** – a three-quarter staff worn by Raijin Shou Ho.
* **A Friend⁣** – a robe with the Leaves emblem worn by Lorilon Duskwalker.
* **Sound of a Leaf** – a wooden katana (long sword) worn by Lorilon Duskwalker.
* **Crying Lightning** – a stone glaive worn by Malcer Lynk Hornraven.
* **Flask of Tricks** – a glass bottle worn by Malcer Lynk Hornraven.
* **Lynk**⁣ – an emblem used as a spell focus by Malcer Lynk Hornraven.

After turning their items into Infernal Items, Bambara shows off his newest invention, a musket he uses to shoot some imps from the Sacred Oak Tree. Rowarin tells them how they feared the imps in the past, since they were there to spy on the people of Mystilon. However, with time they realized that none of the information gets to the demon and devil lords anyway, since the imps asked them to be paid for the info and get crushed instead by their masters.

She then produces a Soul Coin from her pocket and tells them that, besides gold, this is the only currency that is worth something in Avernus. The Soul Coin shimmers with violet light and a faint voice can be heard from it, that of her fiancé Fennon (as Lorilon recognizes it).

The Leaves then make a short rest and attune to their new equipment before meeting Rowarin by the Emerald Bridge, from where she will lead them outside the safe zone of the city.

## Part 3

They meet Illon Tusk at the bridge, an eleven engineer and architect who helped construct the main defense of Mystilon: the Green Wall. He opens the wards on the bridge, and Rowarin tells them to follow her lead across it into the tampon zone. Bambara, however, conjures up too much dust while running over the bridge to the first hide out, making the creatures in the zone aware of the party's presence.

Rowarin informs them that their mission involves the only lead they had in years about a celestial that is apparently trapped in the great hall of the High Hall Cathedral. As she makes her way to the chains leading her down to the river Styx to get more water, the party makes their way south towards the cathedral.

On their way, they surprise three abishai, taking them out with zero to no effort. They discard of the bodies and continue south towards the cathedral, when they notice a pit fiend standing guard in front of the main entrance into the great hall. Lorilon remembers the floor plan of the cathedral, from when he as a child playing in the vicinity of it. He concludes that the office chambers of the cathedral on the hill seem to be destroyed, while the main hall seems to him to be untouched.

As the party is trying to figure out a plan whether to climb the steep mountain side towards the destroyed part of the cathedral or to go to the main gate head-first towards the pit fiend, they hear the bickering of two devils approaching. The party hides in the nearby ruined houses, except for Raijin who crouches on the top of a roof, hoping not to be noticed.

Malcer leaves his infernal vessel on the street, which is immediately noticed by the two merregons who apporach it. The two devils are carrying with them a half-dead human, which the party immediately recognizes as Angmar Boulderdown.

The two devils run towards the infernal item, but are stopped by a narzugon on a nightmare, telling them off. As he approaches the infernal vessel, he notices Raijin on the roof and a fight breaks out.

The Leaves defeat the devils and Lorilon runs to Angmar, saving her life in the last second. As she wakes up, she is confused as to where she is, calling for Hondruk Thunderslash. Lorilon manages to calm her down and ask her what happened. She recollects her memories and describes how Hondruk and she were sucked into the portal to Avernus after Dida Moroz left the cave in Gauntlgrym.

She doesn't know, however, where they took Hondruk, since she fell unconscious when they were attacked by devils. Lorilon asked her why she betrayed them, to which she confesses that it was for power. He pushes her further and asks her what she knows about Kronin, to which she also confesses that he wasn't her mentor, but she knew he means a lot to Lorilon.

Darius, eager to cut her head off for betraying them in the volcano, is stopped by Bambara doing so. However, in a fragment of a second, Darius notices Angmar trying to cast a spell, he pushes Bambara aside and cuts her head off clean with his long sword. Her blood coagulates as soon as it touches the earth of Avernus.

Malcer takes her body and throws it into an abandoned building nearby, while Lorilon reads a prayer upon her. As Lorilon reads his prayer, Darius feels a burning sensation coming among his gold coins. As he takes them out, he notices how Angmar's soul inhabits one of the coins, turning it into a Soul Coin. A faint whisper of Angmar's voice is heard as she says: "As for all my life, I will spend eternity in being something to be bargained with".

Darius feels that his alignment changes to evil, while the rest of the party notice an abishai to the north, flying some 500 feet above the ground and pointing towards them. The abishai then casts catapult on himself and throws a flare towards them, indicating their position. The Leaves hear the gallop of at least half a dozen nightmares approaching towards them as the perpetual dawn of the Avernus sky brushes over their faces.

# Featured Characters

## Leaves

* Lorilon Duskwalker
* Darius Lonewalker
* Malcer Lynk Hornraven
* Raijin Shou Ho
* Bambara Grimmgrin

## New

* Qinren Dewshine
* Rowarin Flanna
* Illon Tusk

## Returning

* Eleonora Duskwalker
* Angmar Boulderdown
* Hondruk Thunderslash

## Mentioned

* Dida Moroz
* Kronin
* Fennon
* Hondruk Thunderslash