Deep in the lowest level of the vaults, the party cracked open the prison block guarding the enemy's forge. They cut through a pack of needle-spraying bearded demons and a woman-hating Zebub, looting a war-cache of explosives and — more importantly — a second silver pentagram shard plus a key. Inside the Hellforge itself they killed a winged, bald devil forge-master (and his bored Barbazu) and claimed his unique Hellforge glaive, a +1 striking war hammer, raw adamantine/silver, and a third shard. They now hold three of the five silver pieces needed to open the pentagram door to "Revian/Avion." Beyond the forge they found a Wall-of-Force-sealed elevator down to a Darklands cavern, and behind a "DO NOT DISTURB" door, an Oscelus — a riddling bone-scorpion inquisitor devil — that they ground down despite its mental-damage aura, poison stinger, and refusal to take vitality damage. They stopped there to wait for the full party.
The party has been pushing into the deepest level of the vaults. They fought a bearded demon drilling a troop of exploding creatures, disarmed a blue-bomb trap in a red-light room using Mage Hand, freed someone called "Tsunami," cleared a screaming room with will-o-wisps, and ended the previous session deciding which path to take near a forge.
| 00:00:01 | Pregame, tech setup, and GM recap The table boots up (broadcast/stream, Foundry, one player's 'Tailspire'/Foundry client crashing) and the GM recaps the campaign so far: the party has been pushing into the deepest level of the vaults, fought a bearded demon drilling a troop of exploding 'thinggies', dealt with a red-light trap room (jamming a blue-bomb trap with Mage Hand), freed someone called 'Tsunami', cleared a screaming room with will-o-wisps, and ended last session deciding which path to take near a forge. Player C asks for the recap in the GM's 'voice'. [S61 · 00:01:01 · turn 0013 · scene 001] |
| 00:08:21 | The pentagram door and the silver shard As the party nears the forge, they examine a fourth door emblazoned with a huge glowing pentagram. A small shard of silver they obtained 'from the Diddler' is recognized as slotting into a hand-sized circular indentation (with five deeper sub-indentations) on the door. The pentagram is magical, gives off light rather than heat, and won't burn them, but its full properties are unknown. Venris listens at the forge door and hears mechanical metal-tapping, crackling electricity, and a distant fluttering of wings; a recall-knowledge check suggests a 'zebub' (winged fly-demon). The party debates going into the forge versus interacting with the pentagram door, and decides to enter the forge area, possibly invisibly. [S61 · 00:10:43 · turn 0090 · scene 002] |
| 00:26:33 | Prison-cell fight: Dreshkans, the Zebub, and the monkey swarm Opening the doors reveals a hall of open prison cells capped by a large double door; four 'Dreshkans' (needle-spraying bearded-demon types) and a flying Zebub turn on the party. The Dreshkans brace on all fours to spray cones/lines of piercing-and-electric needles; the party answers with Cid's blade and aura, Venris's sneak attacks, and Veve's bow headshots and offensive song. The Zebub casts a swarm of monkeys that ransack Venris's pockets (going for his bag of holding) and blasts a deafening cacophony, then flies above Veve and licks/mandible-attacks her face, inflicting spirit damage and lasting facial scarring (sickened). Venris and Cid grind the Dreshkans down; Cid skewers the Zebub on his Rosa Argentis rapier. On hitting the Zebub the party notices she wears a necklace with a pendant resembling their own silver shard, plus a key. [S61 · 00:29:14 · turn 0205 · scene 003] |
| 01:27:23 | Looting the cells: a second shard, a key, and an armory After a short break (and Foundry/region troubleshooting), the party searches the prison cells, finding them stocked with destructive war supplies (pitch, lantern oil, fuse cord, flint and steel, hundreds of arrows) staged for an inevitable assault on Otari. They loot the dead Zebub's key and a second silver fragment identical to their own (the two fit seamlessly into a 'V'). Venris uses the key to open a locked storage room holding valuable explosives: an explosive arrow, three 3rd-level spell-strike arrows, three young-red-dragon-breath potions, and ten moderate alchemist's fires. Venris also has a 'Drover's band' (from a previous session) to sell or give away. The party hears a slow, deep anvil-ring past the double doors and distributes alchemist's fires (two each). [S61 · 01:42:31 · turn 0838 · scene 004] |
| 01:51:00 | The Hellforge: the bearded smith and the winged devil-master Sneaking the heavy double doors open breaks a red pentagram seal and starts initiative. Inside the charred forge: a bored Barbazu (bearded devil) with a black, red-glowing glaive, and a winged, bald, angelic-looking devil forge-master who hates being 'put on such trifles.' The master's horrifying voice frightens Venris even on a successful save; he wields the unblemished glaive, casts Evil Divine Wrath, hurls flaming light hammers, and whips an animated rope of his own hair (Ernest hair) that entangles, slows, and restrains Venris's weapon-arm. Veve spends turns reading and then invoking the devil's true name as a debuff setup, even throwing the half-forged weapon at him. Cid crit-kills the Barbazu in essentially one strike with the Rosa Argentis, then the party stuns and whittles the master down; Cid lands the killing critical, triggering a retributive-pain burst. The forge-master leaves persistent fire on the party as he dies. [S61 · 02:00:43 · turn 1002 · scene 005] |
| 02:57:39 | Forge spoils: the hellforge glaive, a third shard, and the smith's journal With both devils dead the party loots and explores. From the bodies: a third silver fragment (now three of five for the pentagram), a +1 striking war hammer, four mundane light hammers, a (left-behind) breastplate, and ~100 feet of the master's 'Ernest hair' rope. The master's black-red glaive is recovered and craft-identified as a unique +1 flaming striking 'Hellforge' weapon (evil, fire, forceful); the forge itself radiates dark demonic energy. The smith's journal complains about being forced to mass-produce mundane iron weapons (swords/spears) instead of another 'Giga Hellforge glaive.' Searching turns up raw materials: five iron chunks, two silver chunks, and an adamantine chunk. Abbas (now champion-leaning religious) refuses to use the evil gear; the party plans to identify and craft later at Carman/Rajani's workshop. [S61 · 03:05:42 · turn 1666 · scene 006] |
| 03:18:46 | The hellforge anvil and the Wall-of-Force elevator to the Darklands Abbas recalls that hellforge anvils have a great weakness to holy water — even a drop would split the forge and release a large blast of evil energy (or make the forge explode). With no holy water on hand and the priest unwilling to leave such a forge for the enemy's armies, the party tables destroying it until they can return from Otari with holy water. Inspecting the pendants confirms they form a pentagram lock for the door (normally five pieces, but Abbas suspects he could fool the magic with as few as three or four via religious magic). They cross the foul muck and reach a drill chamber whose elevator is sealed by a high-level Wall of Force (orange, requires ~disintegrate or brute force to remove); it overlooks a massive dark cavern/dome the party suspects is an access to the Darklands. They link this to a temple of Nimbaloth referenced in Bulcora's journal and resolve to bring a disintegrate spell and holy water next time. [S61 · 03:15:32 · turn 1759 · scene 007] |
| 03:37:36 | Three doors and the Oscelus 'watcher' fight Past the muck the party finds three doors: scratching-on-stone (left), heavy non-human breathing behind warning signs ('DO NOT DISTURB IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIMBS'), and softer feathery fluttering. They pick the scratching door and breach it. Inside, a large winged bone-scorpion devil (an Oscelus) stands carving the walls, watching, and speaks telepathically in riddling questions ('Who are you?', 'You have eyes but do you truly see?'). It deals AoE mental damage to anyone who tries to parse its words/walls and inflicts phantom-pain mental damage, sickness, stinger poison (enfeebled), and trips. Veve invokes its true name; Abbas lands a Fear; Venris and Cid grind it with Sonic Blow and the holy Rosa Argentis (extra damage to undead/fiends). It cannot take vitality damage but is bloodied and finally bashed apart. Recall knowledge identifies it as an Oscelus — an inquisitor devil of Stygia that hunts heresy and tortures lesser fiends. [S61 · 03:49:28 · turn 2047 · scene 008] |
| 04:44:32 | Session wind-down and character-art planning The party stops after the Oscelus, choosing to hold and not progress through the watcher chamber's far door without Veve's player fully present. The GM proposes a between-sessions project to redo everyone's character art/minis now that the AI models have improved, asking each player to DM what gear they want visible. Players sort out scheduling for the next session before signing off. [S61 · 04:44:24 · turn 2540 · scene 009] |