(CoFE) Session 3-10 - Adventure's End

## Plot

The gang make their final preparations at the safehouse, stocking up on any weapons and equipment they'll need. Ollie, Gen, and Pip meet up with Will, Isaac, and Vanessa at the observatory where they'll travel to Avernium from. Isaac tells them about a contact of his who will help them once they reach the other side, and says that he'll be staying behind to keep an eye on things. While the group prepare the astral gate, Ollie brings Will to the side to speak with him; where they tell him that they're dying due to their own situation with Mephisto and the broken deal, motioning to their white hair. Will's true sight confirms that Ollie is telling him the truth.

The astral gate is completed with the correct coordinates having been inputted into the machine and the portal to Avernium flares to life. Isaac has Vanessa promise to keep Will safe before the group (bar Isaac) hop through the portal and are transported to Mephisto's world. Avernium, as it turns out, seems somewhat similar to Earth, with a stable warm temperature, and in the distance they see an urban area.

They very quickly meet up with Isaac's contact, a relatively human looking demon who introduces himself as Tor'gan. He begins to lead the gang to and through the urban area, which turns out to be a small city, eventually bringing them to a tavern. Inside the tavern are a crowd of other demons, inhabitants of Avernium, who watch the gang with curiosity as they sit at a table with Tor'gan who explains to them that basically everyone in Avernium is averse to Mephisto's rule and have been looking for an opportunity to overthrow him, making the group (especially Pip) aware that he, along with everyone else, is aware of the prophecy.

Tor'gan then proceeds to get everyone in the tavern's attention, announcing that "the chosen one" has arrived while gesturing to Pip. The Averniuns mutter amongst each other for a few minutes, with words like "tiny" and "cute" being quite audible, until a shorter one steps forward and admits that they had been expecting the 'chosen one' to be "more threatening". Pip and Tor'gan share a glance and the latter shrugs, after a moment of thinking Pip astral projects, with Vanessa catching her body. For whatever reason, her astral projection ability frightens the other Averniuns who back away from the group. Tor'gan comments that her ability is "interesting" and moves his hand through Pip's head, to which she frowns at him.

After Pip wakes up in her body again, Tor'gan invites them into a backroom of the tavern in order to discuss plans. Tor'gan tells them that they've been able to gather a number of crystals that could potentially be used to dampen Mephisto's power if focused on him, and doing that gives them a chance to fight back. Before moving out, Pip asks Tor'gan if he'd seen anything 'odd' in the last month, he mentions something fell from the sky around a month ago, she's convinced this was S34N. With the plan formulated the gang and the army of Averniuns move towards Mephisto's tower, with others from the city joining the crowd as they move through the city.

The army reaches Mephisto's tower, a building which towers above all else in the city. A small group of Averniuns including Tor'gan move up the tower, and after a few minutes Mephisto is thrown from the top floor, crashing in the front garden in a newly created crater in the middle of the army. He stands, throwing off Averniuns, demanding to know what's going on before catching sight of Pip closer to the back of the army. Upon seeing her, Mephisto raises his hand at her, presumably to cast a spell, but nothing happens; meaning the crystals being held by the surrounding army are working. However, Mephisto is still physically strong and begins to use this strength to dispose the Averniuns that rush at him as he slowly walks across the garden towards Pip. Ollie, Gen, Vanessa, and others in the army try shooting at him but he remains unphased.

The ground shakes a little, as though a small earthquake had passed through the area, Mephisto assumes Gen caused it with her weather gun and turns to pursue her instead. Pip shouts at Mephisto to leave Gen out of this, he ignores her and hits Gen to the side where she drops her gun and falls into a portal that Mephisto created. He then turns to where Ollie, Tor'gan, and Will are, in a desperate move, Pip tries throwing her knife but misses, with Mephisto snarkily telling her that "the adults are fighting".

The ground shakes again, much stronger this time, and it knocks everyone to the floor aside from Mephisto who only has to take a knee. Behind where Pip is, the air begins to shift and contort, the signs of a portal opening. The sound of tapping can be heard from where the portal is forming. From this portal emerges Lawrence, followed by two suits wielding guns and two cultists holding a barely conscious Isaac; before she can move Lawrence roughly grabs Pip by her arm and pulls her up to her feet. Lawrence essentially now has both Pip and Isaac captive, the latter of which greatly angers Will.

Lawrence steps forward and begins talking to Mephisto, he confidently states his name and what he's here for: Elenore's soul. He and Mephisto mutually agree that the other has something that the other wants and Mephisto agrees to 'discuss this further' with Lawrence. First however, he summons the same portals under Ollie, Vanessa, Will, and Tor'gan as he had for Gen and sends them away; he then waves his hand and the rest of the Avernium army collapses.

Ollie, Vanessa, and Gen wake up in a pretty dark area, with cells lining the walls and a river with an odd glow running through the middle, and no sign of Will or Tor'gan. The three of them decide to move right, against the flow of the river, and walk until they spot a cell that (in comparison to all the others around it) isn't open. Peeking inside they see Jorik, chained to the back wall and missing his prosthetic legs.

Ollie and Gen first try communicating with him, but he seems uninterested in talking. Gen enters the cell and sits down in front of him, their conversation that follows is not very pleasant or friendly, with Jorik refusing to refer to Gen by her name, instead choosing to only call her "7" while lamenting her being a "failed experiment". Gen retorts against his comments, especially those where he insinuates that she's not human, saying that she's human enough. Ollie steps into the conversation, asking Jorik if he knows where an exit is; to which he says he does know but refuses to tell them. Instead, Jorik tries to convince the group to free him, saying that leaving him behind would be a massive mistake and a loss to every science. Eventually however, he does tell Ollie that he saw Wikram walk past earlier, going left.

With this information, Ollie starts to make their way down the river, with Vanessa and Gen staying behind nearby Jorik's cell. Eventually, Ollie finds a door which opens to a serene and peaceful garden, inside of which is Wikram sitting on a bench enjoying the view. Ollie joins him on the bench and they enjoy the peace and quiet together, when Ollie asks him to come with them back through the door he says he can't see the door, meaning he's passed on to the afterlife. After a few more moments of enjoying each other's company, Ollie begins to leave to join up with the others again, Wikram asks that if they see Malcolm to tell him that he forgives him, Ollie asks him to save them a spot on the bench. With that, Ollie returns to the cells and the river and returns to Vanessa and Gen.

The trio continue moving left, eventually coming across another locked cell with a scratching noise coming from inside, Gen peeks inside to find Lilly. Vanessa turns away from Lilly while Ollie walks up to the bars so that the two can talk, where Lilly begs to know if Exo was dealt with and Ollie confirms that they were able to defeat him. Lilly then, unfortunately, shows how she's unable to leave her cell by demonstrating with her hand, showing that when her hand crosses the threshold of her cell it begins to disappear and thus she wouldn't be able to come with Ollie and the others. The two siblings say their goodbyes and the group continues moving along.

They come across another locked cell further along the river. Once again, Gen peeks inside to find Malcolm absentmindedly throwing rocks against the wall of his cell. At the sight of Ollie he gets to his feet and comes right up to the bars of the cell where the two of them talk for a bit. Malcolm asks how Penelope is, to which Ollie somewhat reluctantly admits to him that Lawrence has hold of her - Malcolm hits his head against the door of the cell in anger. Ollie continues, telling him that Lawrence wants to hand her over to Mephisto as part of a trade. At the mention of Mephisto, Malcolm tells Ollie of 'something' in the basement of the observatory that could help if they're planning on going against Mephisto. Ollie finishes their conversation by passing on Wikram's message.

The group continues on, coming across one last locked cell. They peek inside and see Elenore, although she's unresponsive. The group continue moving left, coming across a smaller corridor, Gen peeks around the corner and sees a figure some ways off moving towards them. The group decide to hide from view just in case, until they hear Will's voice; looking again they see Will walking down the corridor supporting Tor'gan who appears to be somewhat hurt. The duo and trio reunite with one another and continue moving left until they come across a rusty door, bringing them back to Mephisto's garden.

While this was happening, back in the garden, once the rest of the group are gone Mephisto has a table appear with two chairs on either side, and gestures for Lawrence to take a seat so that they can discuss things. At this invitation, Lawrence hands Pip over to the two suits, who hold both of her arms and keep her secure between them. Lawrence takes his seat at the table and almost immediately begins listing his demands, telling Mephisto that he's willing to hand over Pip in return for Elenore's soul. Mephisto, at first, seems happy with this trade, but Lawrence begins to pile on the demands, asking for 'power' and 'the usual' things that people get from making deals.

Mephisto is angered by this, and grabs Lawrence by his shirt and holds him up. Immediately the two cultists, dropping Isaac, and the suit holding Pip's right arm move towards Mephisto, seemingly trying to protect Lawrence. Mephisto asks Lawrence who he thinks he is coming into 'his realm' and making demands and threatens to burn him, to which Lawrence simply chuckles and smugly says that Mephisto isn't really in a position to harm him, and the second suit then holds a gun to Pip's head.

## Featured Characters

* Penelope 'Pip' Vauun
* Oliver 'Ollie' Crowne
* Gen
* S34N
* Tor'gan
* Vanessa Tang
* William Faraday
* Isaac Winter
* Mephisto
* Lawrence Wilson
* Elenore Wilson
* Lilly Crowne
* Malcolm Vauun
* Wikram Abasi
* Jorik DeBeygla
* Cultists
* Suits
* Avernian Citizens
* Exo (Mentioned)

## Major Events

* Mephisto dies
* Lawrence dies
* Ollie is no longer a dealmaker
* S34N is reunited with the group