Chapter 5: Tactical Decisions

## Esmerelda's Manor

### Day 6

   The party ventured West in the direction of the graveyard, and had made it perhaps a hundred paces away from the High Hall when they were surrounded by walls of ice. A pair of Ice Devils, and a motley collection of other hangers on, had been waiting in ambush. It was a brutal fight, with Verrick going down, and Sirius again saving the day with a well timed Dino-Gog. One of the Devils attempted to teleport away with Esmerelda, but the just revived Verrick cut through his magic and countered it with a slash of his rapier. Elerra finished off the foe with an arial assault, and they fled to a nearby house to lick their wounds.

Venturing forth, they spotted a gang of humanoids stealing something from a house, but decided not to engage. They managed to dodge a search party, but eventually the path ahead was blocked by a burning pile of bodies. They attempted to pass, but undead began emerging from it to attack. Gog let lose, cutting through one after another, but Elerra's fairy fire illuminated the the entire bonfire was filled with the things. Thinking quickly, she sprinkled it with holy water, ending the undead infestation. The sky started to rain acid, an extremely painful turn of events, but they were ushered indoors by a James Goodfellow. The man claimed to be a Harper, and provided them with a healing tea, as well as reconfirming some of the intel they had previously received from Pherria. Esmerelda described her father, and Ascot deputized her as a Harper.

Elerra scouted ahead, and hearing the screams of a civilian, made a sound tactical decision.

   They made it to the manor where Esmerelda grew up, and Ascot started the party early by breaking a window with a rock. They snuck in, finding a dead noble with a sigil of a sickle carved into his forehead. Further attempts at stealth were ruined by an animated rug, but it burned easily enough, and they moved on. Upstairs, they found an enchanted mirror, which caused a duplicate of Verrick to emerge and attack when the pallid elf gazed upon it. The party seized the two doubles, binding them so they couldn't kill one another, and Elerra made a second tactical decision. The double stayed, and the mirror resisted any attempt to destroy it.

Esmerelda went missing, and when Ascot wandered off to find her she made a pair of bearded friends. They were quickly overcome, knocked out and dragged off by one of the Devils, though Elerra eventually uncovered the otter-napping and alerted the others. Alerted to the danger, Gog and Tock made short work of the fiends, cutting them to pieces and rescuing the otterfolk. Sirius did his best to keep Verrick's familiars from chewing through the ropes, but herding a pair of teleporting cats proved troublesome and one of the two got free. He promptly stabbed the other one twice, bleeding him out on the floor.

Ascot's mechanical familiar Tock found the corpse of an eight year old girl who smelled an awful lot like Esmerelda, though with a few clear differences. Perhaps a sister, or perhaps a clone from the mirror, or perhaps the original and Esmerelda was the clone, but there was no way to be sure. Whoever she was, she was not the Esmerelda who had been traveling with the party before going missing. The original Esmerelda's scent ended in the room that must have been her parents. Within, they found a Teleportation Circle written in Sylvan and Infernal, leading to somewhere unknown. Leaving Emmy to spend half the night deciphering the purpose of the circle, the party rested for the night.

### Day 7

   The party woke, and began searching the manor while Emmy continued to rest. When the scholar awoke, she used a spell of Scrying to look for Esmerleda. She found her in a room with grey walls, chained to a table, mumbling to herself that she was not worthy. Finding out about the enchanted mirror, Emmy could not resist a peek, forcing Elerra to have to make another tactical decision, with Siruis' help this time.

When the party recovered emotionally, they put Emmy back on figuring out the Circle of Teleportation. She did, but not before her books were teleported away, causing her significantly more grief than watching her clone get "tactically descisioned" had. Deciding that the only way is forward, the party followed suit.

They found themselves on the side of a cliff, with massive chains larger than a castle buried in the rock. The chains were attached to the entire city, dragging it into the plane of Avernus below. At their back was a tunnel, and so they ventured into it. Elerra discovered a secret door which led to a massive mausoleum. The walls were stacked with bones from floor to ceiling, etched with religious iconography and filled with powerful looking relics.

Understanding none of it, the party continued upstairs.

On the second floor, the found an Abyssal and Infernal free for all, with the two sides of the Blood War duking it out. They gave it a few minutes to let to contestants tucker themselves out, but eventually got impatient and threw themselves into the fray. The party did well, that was until a horde of incorporeal undead attacked. Suddenly, a voice boomed out through the unhallowed halls of the temple.

> **"STOP!"**
>
>

The voice belonged to Gideon Lightward, a high priest of Lathander, who had been corrupted by the Devils of the plane. He agreed to grant the party safe passage, but only so long as they agreed to assist him in clearing out the Demonic influence from his Temple. Of the Infernal and Undead presence, he seemed rather unconcerned. He mentioned that he had seen a party of Flaming Fist in the bottom floor a few days previously, but had not seen Esmerelda, nor Emmy's books. The party agreed to his terms, descending downstairs to finish what they had started.

Finding a chamber they had not discovered before, they discovered a statue of Lanish Foggle, a paladin of Torm who had first uncovered the Helm. Upon the statue, surrounded by marks of of the Gods Torm and Lathander, was the Helm itself. Gog removed it, but was instantly assailed by a rapid fire patter of visions.

###### The 1st Vision:

A brilliant sunbeam growing to a dry hot light upon a battlefield strewn with the corpses of countless Devils. Suddenly, an Angel appears, and the surviving Devils bow low. One Devil asks her:

> *"Where is the sword?"*
>
>

###### The 2nd Vision:

A ceremony attended by a dark haired woman, a dwarf, and the same Angel riding upon a golden winged mammoth. The Angel dismounted, shaking hands with the mortals, and offered her sword to the woman. She refused, but relented when the Angel asked her to "dream bigger." Then, she turned to her mammoth companion, and asked her to protect the woman and the sword.

###### The 3rd Vision:

Everyone was pulled into the third vision, a battlefield led by the Angel against a horde of gnolls. Before being overwhelmed, Gog heard the voice of Torm ring out.

> *"Seek the Angel's blade, with it the chains can be severed. Only one knows where the blade is, and she knows not. She must seek the kenku, in their memory she may speak"*
>
>

The visions began repeating, and everyone else had to figure out how to end the cycle. Eventually Emmy was able to remove the curse with a bless spell, freeing Gog from the Helm. Upon being informed of the visions, and Torm's words, Lulu remebered that Lady Yael plunged the sword into the rock within a fortress built to withstand evil, Fort Knucklebones. She even remembers the name of the Kenku who were present, Chucka and Klonk.
Continuing the search, they eventually stumble upon a pool of water illuminated by a purple portal covered with Abyssal symbols. Ascot decides to jump into the water, and the party was immediately attacked by tentacled Demons. A strange voice rang out, proclaiming...

> *"May the road rise up to meet you."*
>
>

...and was blessed with divine favor. A demonic Knight emerged from the pool, attacking Ascot and quickly downing her. Elerra responded by summoning an elemental of water from one of the gemstones retrieved from the Mummy's Urns. Bolstered by the summoned entity, they quickly dispatched the Demonic Knight. Upon his armor were inscribed two symbols, a strange amalgamation of Demonic Symbols, and the symbol of the Trifold. They quickly ascertain that the symbols represented some sort of Demonic Alliance.

Ascot investigated the portal itself, and found a box chained to the ground. Within the box was a sleeping infant, the Demonic Alliance symbol inscribed upon their forehead. Investigating further uncovered that the baby was a failsafe, and that murdering them would close the portal. Gog kept the box for himself, without Elerra or Verrick learning of the existence of the infant.

Their contract with Gideon fulfilled, they returned to the Teleportation Circle that had brought them there. Emmy, still depressed, was convinced to keep trying to decipher it after being bribed with all of Verrick's papers and inks. Unlocking the fey components of the portal, she teleported the group to a new tower, and was delighted to find all of her books sitting upon the ground. Of Esmerelda, there was no sign.