The First Liquid I Could Think Of

## Synopsis

Waking up chained to a beam, the party is greeted and briefed by Mad Maggie, who tells them Zariel's minions are arriving soon to ferry them to the archdevil's Flying Fortress. This is her only way of keeping her promise, as she made the deal to deliver potential threats to Zariel. The hag promises that, whilst they are ferried up there, she will try to work her HAAAAG MAGIC in an attempt to cure Snailzo of his Bloodstrife. Should she fail, Snailzo will be left unrecognizable.

The party is transported to the Flying Fortress and put into a cell with one skull on the door. Bethanee quickly deduces by reading the infernal texts that the doors state what the captive's *threat level* is. Bushu, disguised as a higher ranking devil, bampfs out of the cell and succesfully deceives the other devils in order to free the party.

The party decides to free the prisoner behind a door of the second-to-highest threat level, hoping to gain some advantage whilst exploring. After a knock knock, the presence identifies herself by the name of 'POWERBUTT'. It turns out to be Kithercy Gellantara; having broken her paladin's oath long ago through the means of an alignment ~~shit~~ shift, she later ventured into hell hoping to embrace this newfound chaos. She instead found bureaucracy and was later imprisoned by Zariel's devils.

The party recovers their items from the cell next to them, discovering the Friendship Necklace was given a threat level of one skull. They consider opening all other doors to create some chaos, but decide against it when Kithercy is hurt by peering through one of the peepholes.

Bushu convinces a devil called Jericho, who spotted him with the prisoners, that he wants to have the prisoners fight. This lie holds (thanks to high rolls) until they reach the cafeteria, where other bearded devils are less convinced. During the fight, Jericho flees and tried to sound the alarm through a device called the *Command Claxon*, but Bushu manages to stop him. The party defeats the devils.

Jericho, after being manacled and then (unnecessarily) gaslighted and ridiculed, explains that the custodian of this great upside down pyramid is called Bellaraxus. He offers directions to an Arcane Gate which can transport the party to a variety of locations within the Fortress. He becomes fed up that the party won't treat him like an actual prisoner, which Kithercy relates to her feeling of being abandoned by a group of adventurers. Bethanee gives Kithercy *"her solemn vow that if we ever find those people, we'll kill them"*. This summons an infernal contract from an unseen devil in the form of a book. Should Bethanee ever state what she wants in return and sign the contract, she'll be able to get a reward out of killing Kithercy's enemies.

Just as the party wants to move, the Fortress shudders. It has left its docks, ascending into the clouds ~~of bones~~...

## People

### Beef Babes

* Bethanee Smiles
* Kit Gingerson
* Bushu
* Kithercy Gellantara (played by Jordan Raskopoulos)

### Non-Player Characters (NPC's)

* Mad Maggie, hag and leader of the Madcaps of Fort Knucklebone
* Barnabas, the flying skull who previously exploded
* Domino, a high ranking devil who calls himself 'The (dirty) devil boy'
* Jericho, a bearded devil tricked and later gaslit by the party in order to get information
* Other bearded devil associates: Damascus, Tel Aviv, Battleheim, Florida Man...
* Bellaraxus, the custodian of Zariel's Flying Fortress
* *Alpha Two*, Kithercy's ram (summon steed), voiced by Alex Lee

## Places

### Avernus

* Fort Knucklebone
* Zariel's Flying Fortress

## Themes, tropes and running jokes

* Dragon Huddle: a *Beef Break* is called to determine what to do with Jericho. This occurs right after the party was constructing a well formulated threat to intimidate the devil (who had already stated multiple times he'd be cooperating)
* Mad Maggie, presumably due to hell having no snails, calls Snailzo's eyes "bums on a string"
* All the bearded devils wear a stoot
* As is tradition, prisoners are not to be tortured in traditional ways. They're argued with and made fun of, especially because this one shat itself

## Trivia

* The party takes great joy in making stuff up because of their high charisma rolls
* Bushu keeps gaslighting Jericho that his cousin's name was Troy, whilst the devil knows its not. In fact, Jericho by this point is wounded, has surrendered and stated he'll cooperate, yet the party still attempts to intimidate him so he'll give up information he's already willing to give them
* Zariel's threat system for the cells is unique to this adventure rather than being part of the *Descent into Avernus* adventure module. They use a 'skull rating' indicator on the doors:
	+ Parafon 💀 (things not very threatening, merely a distraction)
	+ Modal 💀💀 (threats under the right circumstances)
	+ Proxima 💀💀💀 (incredibly dangerous, often fatal)
	+ Hyperproxima 💀💀💀💀 (able to destabilize regimes and/or destroy worlds)

## Quotes

* "HAAAAAAAG MAGIC. Feels good to say."