Strange Fruit

"Strange Fruit" is the 87th session of the Legend of the Leaves campaign.

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

## Synopsis

As the Leaves make their way to find Zariel's sword as promised to Lulu, they come across strange iron trees and forgotten heroes from the past of the Sword Coast.

# Story Development

## Part 1

As the party wakes up from their long rest, they are greeted by the smell of freshly grilled fish.

Raijin smells the fish, noticing that the day before he also had a strange feeling about the meal served to them by Mickey. As he bites into it, he finally realizes that the taste of the fish is the same as the one he used to catch for himself and Cobden; fish from Ducklake beneath Icespire Peak.

Raijin suddenly remembers one of his trips to Ducklake to catch the fish there, that Cobden really liked. As he was about to get back to the cabin, he notices a firbolg merchant named Ho-Hi, leading some lower-level pandaren mercenaries around the route up to Steelpike. Raijin waits until they leave so he can make his way back to the cabin.

Arriving there after a few hours, Raijin notices that the cabin door is wide open and that the rope with which Cobden tried to hang himself is missing from the kitchen cabinet. As Raijin storms out of the cabin to see what is happening, Cobden surprises him by showing him a tied-up boar he caught earlier.

Relieved not to see Cobden hang himself, they decide to cook the fish and eat in the fresh spring air. As they do, Cobden tells Raijin a story about his friend's little three-year old son from Waterdeep. Once, while Cobden was sitting with his friend in his garden behind the house, the little boy came out of his room and started to play around a tree. Cobden then saw how the kid picked up a dead baby bird that fell out of the nest. The boy clutched the bird into his hands, trying to bring it back to life, but it failed.

Cobden remembers how the boy seemed disappointed and tells Raijin that it is sad to realize that we are born so pure and instinctively want to help each other, only to be corrupted by the world around us.

As Cobden finishes his story, they hear a sound from the bushes and see a loose horse running by. A few moments later, two Boneshield orcs attack them, and they get into a fight, killing them in the process.

Raijin is brought back into the present by the talk of the rest of the party about how to proceed with their mission.

## Part 2

Mad Magie has overnight evaporated into fine dust and mist.

Chukkah and Clonk explain to Lorilon and Bambara how to handle their new vehicles before they make their way out into Avernus.

Lulu's recovered memories take them across the river Styx, where they escape riders that followed them. Thanks to Bambara's onyx blade given to him by Xolotacl, he manages to recover an ancient bridge submerged in the river.

As they make their way away from the river, they come across strange looking iron trees. As they examine this unnatural looking flora, they notice bodies being pierced upon the trees' branches with inscriptions of the names being carved into the tree trunks. Underneath the names of the pierced bodies is written: "Those who betrayed Zariel".

The Leaves park their vehicles and make their way up a hill to where Lulu is leading them. There they find a big tree with the undead body of a dark elf rouge. The rouge warns them not to disturb the bodies, as this would anger Zariel. Malcer and Darius infer from the name on the tree that this dark elf was one of the Hellriders by the name of Nymraal.

As Malcer and Darius try to take him down from the tree, he starts to vanish into thin air. Lorilon, using his dark psychometry, has a clear vision of the happenings of his location. He sees a tiefling warlock standing between Zariel and Nymral, protecting the dark elf from Zariels smite. The warlock is identified in the vision as Nidfor Sppiduhr, another Hellrider.

As Nidfor shoots his eldritch blast, he hits Zariel, whose Sword falls to the ground. As she turns to get it, the warlock vanishes on behest of Nymraal. Zariel, taken by the moment, realizes that her sword went missing and punishes Nymraal by piercing him onto the tree.

Lorilon's vision ends and Nymraal's last words warn them about Zariel's wrath coming for them in the form of the only Hellrider who stood by her, Perra Anakin. The exit down the hill starts to overgrow, and hellwasps and narzugons arrive, as well as an oathbreaker paladin in black full plate armor riding a nightmare.

## Part 3

Perra attacks them with her divine smites and manages to outflank the party so that the hellwasps can grab Lulu and take her away.

During the battle, Darius is hit by a banishing smite and sent back to Waterdeep into the material plane. Lorilon and Raijin fall, and Perra traps their souls into soul coins, ready to dispose of them in the river Styx.

As one hellwasp grabs Lulu and takes her over the cliff, Bambara casts Bigby's hand and snatches her away from the wasp.

In the meantime, Darius converses with his mother on the material plane and feels a strange time-dialation happening to him. He soon realizes that, given the right instructions, a wizard could teleport him not only back into Avernus, but also to the exact place in time when he was banished from the fight.

>
> *What Darius didn't share with the party:*
>
>
>
> *Darius starts hitting up his old contacts in the city, searching for a wizard. He overhears a few conversations talking about Xanathar and how he disappeared after the Calamity of Memories. He learns about how Xanathar wanted to take Lena's weakened body to be restored by a high elf priest near Sunset Mountains. On the way there, however, the caravan was attacked and Lena, using her abilities, escaped from Xanathar, damaging his body beyond recognition. One rumor states that Xanathar died from the injuries and was buried by the rest of his crew there; while another rumor speaks of a grotesquely disfigured Xanathar roaming the valley just beneath the Sunset Mountains, waiting for Lena to come back.*
>
>

He manages to find a wizard in the Yawning Portal and intimidates him to get paid infernal tackles once he gets back from Avernus. The wizard agrees and Darius is sent back to the fight.

As Perra is about to throw the soul coins containing Lorilon's and Raijin's souls into the river Styx, Darius appears from a portal above Perra and he smites her to the ground.

Darius and Malcer rush to her and take the soul coins in order to bring Lorilon and Raijin back to life. Darius resurrects Lorilon, who takes a deep breath, feeling a great power from the gods coming over him. As Raijin awakens from his body, for a moment he sees the kid from Cobden's story. As his vision becomes more clear, he sees Malcer's face as he is reviving him, realizing that Cobden was speaking about him the whole time.

Lulu realizes that different locations in Avernus trigger different memories she has lost, and tells the party that she remembered two locations. One that births demons and one that kills them.

# Featured Characters

## Leaves

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

## New

* Perra Anakin
* Nymraal

## Returning

* Lulu
* Mickey
* Clonk
* Chukkah
* Cobden Lynk

## Mentioned

* Xanathar the Beholder
* Zariel
* Nidfor Sppiduhr
* Mad Maggie
* Ho-Hi

# Quotes

## Player Characters

* Raijin Shou Ho (prodere se nakon što mu ork zakači udarcem muda): "Ne diraj prinčeva jaja!"