Brimstone Heat

"**Brimstone Heat**" is the 77th session of the Legend of the Leaves campaign.

It took place in the Demonic Eruptions questline of Arc 5: Dead Souls Rising.

## Synopsis

The Leaves and their new companions are catapulted into the erupted crater of Mount Hotenow to find out what caused the freeing of the fire giants.

# Story Development

## Part 1

After defeating the red dragon at the giant's keep, the Leaves and their companions Angmar Boulderdown, Jhindis Uhmalvath and Torrent Nemesh are catapulted towards the volcano they are heading towards. Under constant bombardments from the volcanos lava weapon, they manage to reach an outlook at the side of the mountain and make their way inside the hollow volcano.

A bridge guarded by red dragons and azers leaves them to the main entrance hall of Gauntlgrym. During the fight on the bridge, the Leaves try to establish a fighting pattern with the other three companions. However, tensions start to rise as Nemesh is starting to subtly mock Raijin and his way of behaving in the battle.

Together, they make their way through the rubble of the former great entrance of Gauntlgrym, reaching after ten minutes the main hall of the front fort. Xolotacl predicts on hand of his experience with volcanos that the volcano is currently in phase three of the eruption. Phase four would be a sudden rise in the lava level, while phase five will be an explosion, the so-called final eruption.

The party manages to sneak by the magmites, fire snakes and fire giant guarding the hall. Darius uses his spiritual weapon to lure them away, while Lorilon and his pass without trace ability helps the rest of the party reach the other side of the hall, making their way deeper into the mountain.

## Part 2

The heat is becoming unbearable for some party members. While Darius tries to cool himself off with water, the others try not to fall unconscious from the heat.

As they travel down a dark stair-path, they arrive at a crossing that leads towards two mineshaft-exits. Lorilon, as he is contemplating about which way to go, has a vision about a burning angel associated with the southern exit.

At the crossing, they surprise the fire giant dreadnought who guards the bridge. However, they are surprised themselves by a young red dragon that attacks them from behind. During the fight on the bridge, Nemesh is about to use Raijin as a vaulting box to reach the fir giant. Raijin, however, grabs Nemesh by the ankle and throws him into the lava.

At that moment, Angmar's readied action activates and shoots Raijin off of the bridge with her eldritch blast. Lorilon, however, uses his blood bending to keep him from falling.

Thanks to Malcer's walk on water spell, Nemesh stays on the surface of the liquid, but Nemesh falls unconscious. Darius uses his turn to jump down to save Nemesh. Malcer becomes large to pull them out of the lava pit.

Lori Lin screams at Angmar, who is paralyzed by what happened. Jhingis aids Nemesh with a healing potion, while the rest of the party finish the fire giant and the dragon.

After the fight, Xolotacl tries to convince Jhindis not to turn his back on the mission. Jhindis, however, decides to go back since he can't travel and fight with the likes of Raijin, who turn on their companions in the heat of the battle.

Lorilon speaks to Angmar who starts to apologize to Raijin, claiming that her action activate as a reflex. She, too, decides to leave and abandon the mission.

Nemesh gets up and says: "Well, then there were six." as she continues the journey with the leaves.

Lorilon manages to make out a light from the western side of the room, coming from a wall. Darius sees a faint invisible path with his truesight stretching towards the rubble wall. They walk on the path and Raijin inspects the rubble. He manages to deduce that it is the main entrance towards the great forge of Gauntlgrym. Xolotacl manages to create an opening with his brute force and they continue traveling down the newly opened path.

## Part 3

Arriving at the bridge that leave to the city gates, the Leaves notice a red abashai guarding the door; a flail snail patrolling the perimeter of the bridge; azers ready to rush into battle; two fire giant dreadnoughts blocking the way; and three orthons ready to aim their crossbows at potential intruders.

While trying to come up with a plan, Nemesh manages to cap-off one of the orthons on the northern tower. Malcer tries to banish the other orthon, but doesn't succeed, which leads to a long and gruesome battle on the bridge.

Towards the end of the battle, Darius falls uncouncious with the red abashai punding on him. He manages to get him of when Raijin's echo knight slices the throat of the devil and Malcer finishes him with a tap of his quarterstaff.

Before he dies, he telepathically communicates to the party that "the queen of Avernus will revenge every devil they killed today".

Darius finds a locket in the clutched fist of one of the dead dwarves scattered across the bridge. The locket contains two drawings: one of a dwarven woman signed Calama, the other one of a dwarven baby signed Cobana.

As Lorilon and Raijin investigate how to open the city gate, Raijin notices the faint smell of Bambara's signature black powder mixture, with which a hole in the wall of the command room was made. Lorilon activates a lever and the city gates open.

Lorilon suddenly has a vision of the glory days of Gauntlgrym, which is telepathically shared with the rest of the party. However, once the vision fades, they only see rubble and destroyed streets of the once great city, with devils roaming the streets and feeding off the remaining dwarven bodies lying around.

# Featured Characters

## Leaves

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

## Returning

* Torrent Nemesh
* Angmar Boulderdown
* Jhindis Uhmalvath

## Mentioned

* Calama Glasseye
* Cobana
* Bambara Grimmgrin