Recap - 2026-02-12
As they stood in the middle of this new city, the adventurers slowly took in their surroundings. They watched as a group of Yugoloths of various sizes and shapes spirited away the two large crates and accompanying myrmidons they had spent the last week ferrying across the planes.
Their job now effectively complete, and only the journey home awaiting them, they slowly began walking in the direction of the “creature-appropriate” lodging one of the leaders of the city had pointed them to before Angelus had driven them off with his charming wit.
As they strode along, Chibro noticed that they were being followed. A small imp, carrying an oversized quill and book, was flitting from window to alley, keeping them in sight. As they walked past a small cat-headed yugoloth, which hissed and ran away, the imp scribbled this down. As they turned down a side street, the imp recorded it. Chibro alerted the others, but did not otherwise react.
The group traveled far through the city, seeing odd structures and places. Chibro, tripping as he tried to wedge his large frame through the ever-narrowing alleyways between the obsidian columns that made up the buildings surrounding them, touched one of them. Expecting cool stone, he was instead surprised to find it warm - almost matching the temperature of Chibro’s skin.
Further on, Josiah discovered a large open space, where the outline of a building clearly once stood. The expanse left in its absence was a large off-color ring made of greyish obsidian, instead of the black obsidian that otherwise surrounded them.
As he looked past this clearing, he could see the city continued up into two higher sections, each surrounded by a massive wall. At the center of the highest level, a massive obsidian spire stretched into the air, the top of it dipping inward like the caldera of a volcano.
Continuing on, they were stopped short when they came out into another clearing: This one with a beautifully manicured lawn, around 40 ft square, in front of a mid-sized hut. The lawn was surrounded by a masterfully-shaped silver fence, and the door to the house was seemingly carved out of a single piece of the finest mahogany. Gobbie, for the first time since this trip began, was overwhelmed by the order and care, and walked right up the door to let the owner know.
When he knocked, however, what answered was not a friendly hello, but rather a low and ominous growl. Pushing past the uneasy feeling in his stomach, Gobbie opened the door. The interior was caked in dust, easily a half-inch thick. There was a bar, a few small tables and chairs, and a large tiger-headed humanoid sprawled on the bar.
He growled again, not in anger but in seeming disdain, and welcomes the group in. The imp darts in as well, having shifted into a spider, and skitters up to the ceiling to dangle on a now-disused chandelier chain.
The Rakshasa offered the party, begrudgingly, whatever they needed, implying as he did that it was not out of goodwill he did this. Rather, he seemed beholden to the leaders of the city in some way. The group, eager to test this assertion, began to think of what they could request. Gobbie, caked with the spores of the Wasting Plains, the thorns of the Field of Nettles, the soot and sulfur of Gehenna, and the sweat of the Molten Curtain, expressed a simple desire: For a bath.
The Rakshasa, bemused, teleported him and the rest of the group to the Elemental Plane of Water. He allowed them to splash and clean themselves before doing so, but implied continuously that he did not have much time to be gone from the hut. The group obliged his request to return, and then, once back in the hut, requested a meal. They describes various delicacies of their people to him, and he cast a spell to summon the foods for them.
In the middle of their meal, a shadow-draped yugoloth knocked on the door and let himself in, introducing himself as Quintus, the High Prefect of City Defense. Seeing the party in the middle of their meal, he offers to return the following morning.
The group, full and happy and clean for the first time in what feels like months, retired to their beds. Their reverie was a bit put off by the fact that the rooms were only five foot square, with the cots being on one side, and a small basin of water on the other. Josiah, in inspecting them, discovered that there was a small arcane symbol hidden at the head of each bed. Tag, Angelus and Gobbie opted for the beds, and Chibro, Josiah, and Kor, too large for them, opted to sleep on the ground.
On awaking, those who had slept in the beds discovered they were not as rested as they expected, with some of their energy seemingly sapped by the arcane symbol on their beds. However, they rallied, and went out for another wonderful feast conjured by the Rakshasa, who they now learned was named Timandra. While they were eating, Quintus appeared out of the shadows in the corner, and introduced himself again, inquiring after their accomodations. He inferred that Timandra was beholden to him in particular, and explained the imp was the scribe of the High Prefects, sent to document every action of the “Primes” while they were there, in case they decided they wanted to do some do goodery while they were out and about.
He explained that the contract with Small and Coats extended up to the group being delivered to Nimicry, and that they would not be intentionally harmed until then, and otherwise cared for. He then explained the need for the crossbow they delivered. It was to immobilize the Crawling City above the open mouth of the largest volcano on Khalas (that they were currently climbing) to hopefully cleanse an infection.
Quintus explained that the city had come under siege some time ago by creatures made of “dripping worms” who had “entered where the city’s effluent was excreted” and “infected it”. He asked the group for assistance. While relatively confident that the intense heat of Khalas would clear the infection, similar to how a fever destroys viruses within the body of frail mortal creatures, they needed to remove a particularly large and nasty worm from the depths of the city. If they would kill this creature, Quintus would offer whatever the group desired.
He did not give many other details, but when pressed as to why such a powerful city full of impressive yugoloths would need help from such as them, he implied that many of the city had already perished in the initial invasion, and more trying to clear the innards of the city. Even the General of Gehenna, the leader of the Yugoloths, was implied to have perished in the assault.
The party took a moment and Josiah recalled that they did not see many other creatures while they were travelling through the immense city.
When Chibro asked if they could discuss the offer privately, Quintus refused. It was not uncommon for him to pause the scribblings of the imp to the other prefects while conducting his own business (as yugoloths are fiends, after all), were he to leave and the imp not begin recording it all again, the other prefects would become incensed. The imp’s book, the group inferred, was a live feed back to the prefects.
Quintus told them the other prefects did not know of his offer, and would not be pleased if they did. So, the group discussed in front of Quintus.
Gobbie shared his misgivings about helping the yugoloths. Josiah and Chibro also shared similar concerns, and Josiah in particular was not keen to help save a city of fiends.
Hearing this discussion, Quintus put another card on the table. He shared the prophecy that, were the Crawling City to ever fall, the Blood War would end, and the victors would move out over the planes, trained in mindless combat and vicious beyond mortal reason, and overwhelm the lower planes. While they might not make much incursion into the upper planes, they, whether the demons of the abyss or the devils of baator, would surely swarm through the material plane, wiping it clean of all things good and slaughtering people by the thousands.
This somber warning ringing in their ears, the group began to deliberate again. Chibro pointed out that a prophecy is just that: a prophecy, not a guarantee. He also asked if they could talk to Scribbler, as Scribbler had told Chibro while they discussed the terms of a deal, that were the city to be immobilized in the way the High Prefects were planning, it would be destroyed. “So, someone’s lying.”
Scribbler, through the power of the Rakshasa, was summoned, and informed Chibro that his words were sent as part of the deal, by the Hands of Havoc. The group continued to deliberate. Chibro pointed out that he did not feel the group should be the ones deciding whether something potentially universe-ending should rest on their shoulders. If they agreed to go along with the plan, and the city was successfully anchored, but the crossbow failed, would it be destroyed anyway? The yugoloths, Quintus shared, were largely planning to evacuate once it was in place as even they could not withstand the heat longer than a brief time. A handful would remain, protected by potent spells, to man the city and disengage the crossbow when it was time, but the city would be largely undefended, which was what Scribbler warned about.
There seemed to be three outcomes:
- The crossbow worked, the city was healed, and things continued on as expected.
- The crossbow failed, the city failed to be healed or fell into the lava, and was ultimately destroyed.
- The crossbow failed, the city was healed somehow, and it was taken while abandoned by the yugoloths.
None of these seemed like good options, and they continued to ponder what the ultimate plan was. Why would the Hands of Havoc sabotage the crossbow (something they had hidden from Quintus) but also warn Chibro through Scribbler about the dangers of letting the city be immobilized? Was that merely a ruse to convince Chibro to take action? Were they in league with these Star Spawn who had infested the city? Chibro remembered that the Hands of Havoc were set on bringing the universe to its ultimate state of entropy, but this seemed grander than their normal plans. They were, ultimately, about balance. A perfect state of entropy, after all, is equilibrium.
No matter what the outcome, Quintus assured the group they would not be there to see it. They were to be dropped off at Nimicry after two more days travel, a full day before the Crawling City would arrive at the peak of Khalas and implement their plan.
Unsettled, but determined, the group finally decided: They would help the city, but not without a significant payment. Gobbie put forward the request that the whole city convert to Tyr.
Quintus balked at this, and said even if he was willing, it was not possible. The city would be expelled from Gehenna, and would be surely destroyed the moment it arrived wherever it ended up.
Chibro offered up, instead, a request for a personal plane. Not a demiplane, but something that would persist. A literal piece of a literal plane. He gave three strict requirements:
- It must not be taken by force from sentient beings.
- It must not be a demiplane, vanishing after Chibro’s death.
- It must be able to grow lush vegetation.
After some hesitation, Quintus agreed. The group gathered their things, strapped on their equipment, and headed with Quintus down to the outskirts of the city. He led them down a large ramp, down and around the walls, down past the flat surface and along the outer edge, to a large hole, which led up to an equally large sphincter. He opened it to allow them through, and the group entered into a foul-smelling interior, hearing the chittering of…something…close by.
Song of the Session
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