Fickle Fettle

### Results

The Brigade members make an agreement with Ooliodro, who would later be summoned inside Nadir's Zenith in order to perform the reverse exorcism.

## IRL Data

### PCs

**Brigade PCs**Fanri Dunemour

Zetaruul

Flynn

**New PCs**

Luna Hopscotch

**Fickle Fettle** was a Brigade oneshot following four guild members on a journey to figure out how to fix the corruption spread in Nadir's Zenith after the assault from a Dragonsbane-infected Dinante. After convincing Damascus Nifeton to assist them in their endeavor, they find themselves on the outskirts of Stuntsburg, where they discover a portal to the Nine Hells. Upon entering, they are able to arrange an audience with a devil named Ooliodro, who agrees to assist the guild with their dilemma.

## Prompt

“I’ve finished my diagnosis, and it isn’t good. If we don’t act soon, the tower’s magical ‘backbone' will collapse.”

A hush rolls over the Brigade meeting as Darwin addresses the small crowd. It’s been over two months since Dinante’s assault on Nadir’s Zenith, and though the guild has done good in preparing out-of-tower housing and rations there’s still a lot of unease about it’s increasing disrepair.

“Though I’m a master of magic ~~and incredibly humble~~ none of my arcane knowledge seems to fix the issue. Does anyone else have any sort of working theories or leads on what we could do to fix this?”

There’s some murmuring, and then slowly all heads turn to face Damascus Nifeton. A highly unsociable figure since Rhyn left with the Knights... but at the same time, many have seen his strange building-based magic in action.

“What?” The Nifeton’s nostrils flare as he glares back at the mass of peering eyes.

Ruth speaks up, muttering though the pepper she’s chewing on, “This seems to be your line of work, Damascus. Do you know anythi-“

“I don’t care and don’t have any obligation to help, so bye.” Damascus flips the bird at the guild members he strolls off, ignoring their glares.

#### ==

Zetaruul, who has some experience dealing with Nifetons thanks to his time spent with Kris, is the first chosen to deal with this Damascus issue. Fanri and Flynn are chosen soon after, being two individuals that he probably has the least formulated opinion about as newer members.

“Haha, sorry in advance that you small children and also giant ant person have to deal with this predicament,” Mr. Curse’s wiggly intonation sounds less bouncy than usual, “but Damascus is all we have, and you all seem to fit the bill to deal with him best! I hope you understand.”

The suit-and-overall-wearing vampire hands Zet a hefty cash box. The top is labeled, “Bribe Funds”

“I have to go to help Bonko clean the pool, but I’m sure you brave powerful heroes can take care of convincing one grumpy old coot, right? Good luck!"

## Character Developments

* First appearances for:
	+ Player Characters
		- Luna Hopscotch
	+ The frog later joins the Brigade, after the oneshot's conclusion.
* Fanri gives up a year of her life in order for Ooliodro to help fix the Zenith.

## Summary

Meeting up outside the Zenith itself, the group first began to discuss just how to approach Damascus about handling this issue. Even though he had been initially handed the box of funds for the older Nifeton, Zet did not think he would be the best person to begin trying to convince deferring to one of the other brigade members to approach Damascus. After some discussion Fanri chose to do so, stepping forward and offering the Nifeton the funds provided by the Brigade. Initially Damascus turned his nose up at the prospect, but noticed a letter stashed within the precious metals addressed to him from Rhyn which asked him to help the Brigade out while she was gone. With an exasperated sigh, Damascus agreed to help the group and began to lead them towards Stuntsburg, stating that he knew an entrance that they could use to perform this "reverse exorcism".

It took about a day's worth of travel for the group to reach the town, and when they did they were greeted by an odd sight: two guards from the town appeared to be accosting a frog floating on a pillow. The pair were questioning the frog, asking if she had any sort of licenses for being a frog, to which Luna was incredibly confused. The party intervened on her behalf to ask what was going on, and after Zet lowered his hood to reveal his bug-like appearance, the two scattered and left the party alone with Luna. The group began to converse with their new companion, who agreed to come along with them so long as they took her back to the Zenith, where it was promised that she could open her own shop, a dream of hers that she had been trying to accomplish in Stunsburg.

After resting for the evening, the group traveled up to a cave in one of the mountains that Damascus guided them to, stating that this was the place where they would enter Hell to seek assistance. A chimera had made its home within that particular cave, but it was dispatched with relative ease from the group and Damascus performed a ritual that opened a door to Hell in the wall of the cave. As he advised the group, the portal would only last for a few hours before closing once more, so time was of the essence. As the party traveled down into the depths, though, they realized it was going to take a while.

The group entered into what looked like a waiting room, and almost immediately were told to take a numbered ticket and wait for it to be called. A glance down at their number as the receptionist called the next ticket-holder forward told them that they didn't have enough time to just sit and wait to be called, and so more underhanded tactics were used. A few attempts were made by Zet and Flynn to locate and swap the party's ticket for others whose tickets were closer to the next one being called, but Fanri turned out to be the one who was able to convince an older patron in the room to trade her ticket for theirs, moving the group to be the next one to be called. After what felt like an hour but couldn't have been more than ten minutes, the group was called forward and Damascus informed the receptionist that they were here to see Ooliodro. After some attempts to con several party members out of months and years of their lifetimes, the receptionist agreed and let the party speak to the devil for exactly one hour, opening a door for them directly to Ooliodro's domain.

The path to Ooliodro's domain was covered in webbing and looked similar to the home of a large bug rather than a devil. Pressing deeper within, the group encountered no resistance until they reached a large set of double doors set in a massive opaque sphere. Slipping through the doors, the party was immediately assailed by several web-based traps that stuck them to the ceiling of the sphere, well above the fractured floor below them. Fanri, Junie, and Flynn all managed to avoid the traps and were balancing precariously on a few pieces of the floor that were floating in some unknown liquid, but Zet, Damascus and Luna were all trapped against the ceiling of the sphere. As the group began to take in their surroundings, Zet used his teleportation abilities to free himself, Damascus, and Luna from the wall and set them each on different spots as the massive shape of Ooliodro unfurled her wings and slowly began to hover before them.

Standing well over triple the height of even the tallest brigade member there, Ooliodro questioned the party as to why they had entered her sanctum, and the party explained how they needed her assistance with a reverse exorcism. The group managed to get her to agree to the proposition, though she initially tried to bargain with the party and have them summon her to the material plane fully for just one day. When the party declined that offer, she resorted to several further bargains to be allowed to manifest upon the material plane, until finally it was agreed that one of the party members (besides Damascus, who had sworn his entire life to a different devil) would have to give up a year of their life to Ooliodro for her to assist the Zenith. Fanri was the one who stepped forward and accepted this offer, giving up a year of her life just as the group's allotted hour with Ooliodro ended and they began to be dragged back to the reception area. Damascus was given the knowledge of how to bring the devil into the material plane temporarily, and they all left Hell and went back to the Zenith successful.

Several days later, Damascus performed the ritual to summon Ooliodro, who made good on her contract and cleanse the Zenith of the holy energy that had been infecting it. Once her duty was completed, the devil flew off into the mountains and eventually returned back to Hell, waiting to claim her price.

## Gallery

Drawings done during Fickle Fettle. (source: lilgreenfox)Ooliodro's full form. (source: lilgreenfox)