Campaign Journal

Note: This is not an actual journali, this is just a space to help develop characters and summarize sessions

Session 6: Its a trap!
By Tycho

The silver raven returned to me and told me to meet at a little run-down pub in the Devil’s Nursery, Inaoni was waiting for me at one of the table. An undine woman, probably from the shackles; I wonder if she has been to the Eye of Abendego. She was very suspicious of me, which is probably good practice for a rebel, I could easily have been part of a trap set for them. It took some time and effort for me to convince her of my good intentions, but eventually she called over the other leaders of the Silver Ravens, and introduced me to them. We got to talking, and it turns out Inaoni and Nale were both very interested in the devil’s bells, I look forward to sharing my notes with them, and seeing if they have any insight. I wonder if they will agree with my theory that the bells correspond to the orbits of the outer planes.

Our discussion of the bells was cut short when we were ordered to attend a hanging in Qotz Square. We went to see what it was all about, and one of the leaders of the ravens was there to be hanged- Arius Tenessen. If only we knew what we were walking into, if we had time to prepare properly, we could have gotten him out of there. As it was, Nale opened fire recklessly on Nox, but infernal power from some contract with a devil healed her wounds and gave her enough unholy strength to strike Nale down. There was nothing we could do but flee, though I did notice a tiefling woman helping us out in our rescue attempt.

After fleeing, I met up with this tiefling, Oria, a chosen warrior of Milani, we spoke about her joining the Ravens, and while I am not one of their leaders, I decided to invite her along anyway. We met with the rest of the Ravens at another pub, The Tooth and Nail. I might have been too blunt when I told Rexus and Mikhal what happened to Nale, it appeared to leave them quite shaken up. Nonetheless, death is a cold truth of a rebellion, and Nale ending his own life rather than being captured and forced to disclose information about the Ravens was an honorable act.

The proprietor of the establishment, Setrona Sebinus, agreed to let us use it as a safehouse, and told us about the Liktor of the order of the torrent, Octavio. She told us that he is at the shrine of Saint Sinax. Hopefully we can convince him to bring the order of the torrent to aid the rebellion. Nearby the hideout, there is a laundromat that I will be using as a lab, in exchange for some alchemical cleaning supplies. I hope Lilli’s spirit rests easily knowing that I am helping the Ravens now, but I suspect her spirit will not rest until we can open the eyes of her sisters and free them from the church’s influence. For now though, I will speak with Inaoni and see if we can share any knowledge about the bells, if they are related to Aroden as I suspect, we may be able to restore that church to worship of a respectable god.

Session 5: A letter to Lilli on the eve of her death
Written on the next blank page of Lilli’s sketchbook in shakey but otherwise well-practiced handwriting:

Lilli,

I hope you can forgive me, wherever you are, for looking through this sketchbook. You died today, and all that we have of you is what you left behind at the hideout.

We were only looking for Rex’s parents, and as unsettling as it was, we found what we were looking for. We should have turned away the second I recognized that devil-woman. Futile words, I know, since you charged right in. Arius and I couldn’t let you take her or her demon on alone- In fact Arius struck her hard enough she should have gone down, but she didn’t. Lilli please believe me, I tried to deflect her attack. She hit me hard, yes, but her blade kept going, and with force I thought only Arius was capable of she struck you as well.

I know you’d hate me for this, but I lost my nerve. When I decided to stay here it was to to help this town, not die in it having accomplished nothing. I tried to call Arius off but he would have none of it. He struck for her weapon, Inaoni tried to help but this Nox woman is inhuman. I saw Esmeraude and Inaoni out safe, but Arius, brave fool, stayed put until we were far enough back. I watched him fall. I could not be sure if he was truly dead but I could not go back without meeting the same fate. We fled, and here I am, covered in my blood and yours, trying pathetically to ease my guilt and fear with pen and paper. ''“The best battle is a battle I win. If I die, I can no longer fight.” I keep repeating it, but it feels hollow.

Lilli, after looking through this book, I regret that I didn’t fully believe you when you said you were haunted by spirits. I don’t think I truly understood you, and maybe I never will, but it’s clear to me now you were trying your best to rise above what you were before. I hope that you are judged accordingly, and find peace in the afterlife. ~Mikhal

Session 4: An IMPortant contract
Nale got mugged by the Red Jills. We had to hit them back; if word got out that we couldn’t even handle a gang of street thugs, nobody would respect us anymore. Our revolution may be small, but we have developed a reputation of strength; we needed to show that if anybody crosses us, they will suffer for it. Like the church, we need to make our enemies fear us - from The Asmodean Disciplines: “make the weak fear you, fear breeds respect”. The church may have done some horrible things, but there is still wisdom in the words of Asmodeus. 

The others went and checked out the Jill’s hideout while Arius and I lunched together. He wanted to see my drawings again. Luckily it was me drawing this time, and not Typhon. I was trying to capture the beauty of this city, a sunset over the Yolubilis as seen from Bleakbridge. Part of me wished that Arius had flipped through my sketchbook and saw some of Typhon’s work, I can’t keep this secret forever. Every time we kill someone, he draws them being tortured in the pit. Are these drawings his wishes, or truth? Those we kill are mostly loyal Asmodeans; why would the devils torture them? I’ll need to read through the Asmodean Disciplines again, maybe I can find some hidden meaning in Asmodeus’s promise of eternal reward to his loyal followers. 

After lunch, we went to go kill whatever Jills were in that hideout, about a dozen of them, including a winged man who burned the entire hideout to the ground. We killed them all, and it seems like that did the trick, the Jills have not been nearly as active since we killed their winged leader. At least I think he was their leader, he had most of their wealth and was more powerful than the rest. 

After that we were pretty pleased with ourselves- that is until we returned to our hideout. Jep Jeffery was dead, crushed under a section of collapsed wall. We would later find out that he was killed by an imp, but before we could deal with that, those assholes in the Chellish Citizens Brigade took it upon themselves to kidnap Zia and doghouse her. Fortunately for me, I look like my sister. Pretending to be a paladin was actually kind of nice; people respected me again. Walking through the streets, people parted as I walked past. We got to the square where Zia was being doghoused, and even the Citizens Brigade showed me due respect. They often captured sacrifices for the church, so I posing as Doloras I was able to make them hand Zia over to me. She was a little worse for wear, but she was okay. We are going to set up a second safehouse for her to conduct cloven hoof society business from.

Now back to that imp. Mikhal was the first to spot it, chiseling away at our walls. We had inadvertently picked up its contract of servitude to house Serini, and it was trying to escape. It begged us to tear up its contract so it could return to hell, and the others actually did it. I was so mad- the first thing they teach you about dealing with devils is that if they want you to do something, that is the one thing you absolutely should not do. Their trickery knows no bounds, but the fools fell for it. No harm has come from this yet, perhaps none will come, to us anyway, but that imp got what it wanted, and that is never a good thing.

Session 3: A throne of teeth
The others laughed at me, but the mask worked. Those damn fairies didn’t get any of my teeth. We found their hideout in the Devil’s Nursery. Inaoni distracted them with a pile of teeth while the rest of us dealt with them. Mikhal went into their hideout and found thousands of teeth, they must have been doing this for years, and the body of a child in the center. I showed it to Nale, and he freaked the fuck out, the others did too. Its just a dead body, I’ve seen them kill people before.

We returned to the hideout to find those useless fucking Tengu loafing about having accomplished absolutely nothing. They were so smug about it too, “Yeah, we went down to the docks, just like you said. There were people there, we can’t do anything right.” I don’t know what the others see in them, but hopefully they will realize soon that the sisters are only a liability.

Oh yeah, Typhon’s been drawing again, I think he is trying to tell me to stop believing in the church, but I can’t do that. If I can’t reform the church, then my family, my sisters, are lost. I do worry what the others will think if they see his drawings, Arius and Esmardue particularly seem interested in my drawings. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them while Typhon does his drawings, maybe I’ll fill my sketchbook with some nice drawings too.

Having gotten no help from the bird-brain squad, we went to the docks ourselves. My lead was correct, a couple of incompetent guards holding overflow from the prisons. We might have snuck past the guards and freed the prisoners without loss of life, but they insisted on coming after us. What could we do? There was even a Dottari among them - not the well honed fighters I had been led to believe, fighting him was child’s play. We killed the guards, and freed the prisoners. I left with a nice steel shield, huge pentagram on it. I’m thinking of putting together a costume to pose as Doloras if I ever need to pass as a paladin of Asmodeus. I’ll need to see about getting a wig...

Session Twooth: A steaming pile of shit
'''I don’t think I will ever feel clean again; what I wouldn’t give for a warm bath, some soap and perfume, and a real bed to sleep in. After getting my arms covered in fleas when I was trying to help Mikhal, we came to the shit room. THE SHIT ROOM, just a POOL OF SHIT in the center of a room. And to make matters worse, Typhon made me walk right up into that pool of shit in order to take out his anger on a couple of Lemurs. I guess he remembers them from the pit, and he is not a fan. I couldn’t take it any longer, I left that basement to wait for my companions upstairs. They found some mysterious documents and some neat messenger ravens and then we left. If I never see that place again, it will be too soon.'''

'''After that, we met up with Laria Lovegood at a coffee house that we are now using as a safehouse. She gave us use of her basement as a base of operations for our little revolution, bot only if we could clear out some spooks down there. We made quick work of the gator and giant bird, though MIkhal was a little worse for wear, and we met the tengu sisters, Korva, Jay, Maggie, and Treep, escaped slaves from Varisia. I don’t know about Nale’s decision to invite them into our organization. They led to the death of the last man who helped them, and they are weak willed cowards. If they are captured, we will need to relocate in a hurry lest they turn us in. OH! I did finally get a bath, and we found a box of silks. I know its silly, but I like to wear them around the hideout to remember what it was like to be a member of high society. I think Mikhal is starting to like me, might be because I saved him from that gator. He’s been talking to me about Sarenrae, goddess of forgiveness, I think he has forgiven me for my past actions. I’ve been reading his copy of The Birth of Light and Truth; it makes me wonder if I can spare Typhon an eternity in the pit and send him to a nicer afterlife. If we are going to get this revolution running, we need to build support. We sent the tengu sisters out to get some reconnaissance on the overflow jail in the port, while we went to deal with what we thought was the Red Jills killing tieflings. We set a trap and baited it with Esmardue and Nale, they claim they were attacked by tooth fairies… well, they were missing teeth and covered in glitter, so I guess I believe them. What reason would they have to lie? Killing some fairies isn’t likely to garner the support that stopping the Jills would have, but maybe stopping the killings can get us in close with Zia, and once we have support from the cloven hoof, the other tieflings will follow.'''

Session 1: A Grimple in Time by Lilli Lorca
'''Cutting my hair short was an utter waste. Within thirty minutes of my arrival at Aria Square, I got recognized by one of the kids from the church. Arius Tansen came up to me, and two of his friends started giving me the third degree, as though I didn’t have the right to protest. They misunderstand Asmodeus as much as the church, but this will all be set right when we remove Grivenner from power. We will rebuild the church from the ground up. I also met Inaoni, a fey woman who is very protective of her true form. I don’t know much about the fey, but I fear that I upset her by telling everybody what she is.'''

'''I rallied the crowd into a frenzy, and when Thrune came out to address us, I threw a rock at him. I shouldn’t have done that, but it is harder to keep Typhon under control when I am angry. He announced some bullshit torture for ships’ captains - not much trade going to come through here now - and then had his Dottari attack the crowd. I threw up a fog cloud to hopefully save some of the resistance, and bolted. My plan of going back to the church to take it down from within went to shit, when I showed my face to the Dottari guard.'''

'''Running from the protest, I ran into Arius and his friends, they had another tiefling with them, Esmeraude, and Inaoni came with us as well. I stuck with them, they knew something about reforming the rebellion, and we rescued a friend of Mikhal’s from a gang of thugs. I saw Arius split a guy in half, from throat to crotch with one swing of his axe, and Nale - Arius’s tiefling friend - shot a hole clean through another guy’s head.'''

'''We followed Rexus to one of the last remaining rose seafhouses, a bookstore. The spirits were relatively calm, surprising for a bookstore - whenever I went to the church library, they would always knock books off shelves, rearrange things, close books people were reading. I think they approve of my joining the rebellion. Anyway, Rexus wants to reform the Silver Ravens. Whatever we do, we need to avoid the mistakes of the Rose - the stories Doloras told me of their wholesale slaughter on the Night of Ash - I can’t believe I am even considering joining a rebel group, but I have nowhere else to go. Besides, this is the only way to reform the church.'''

'''I stayed the night on a hard cot in a shitty inn in the devil’s nursery. One day in, and already I miss my home, I hope Maddie and Ess are doing okay without me. In the morning Rexus led us to an old silver ravens hideout, a decrepit old building full of rats and shit and horrible little things called grimples. At first I thought they were just playful, I tried to join in their pranks to show that we were friendly, but to no avail. 0ne of them threw up on me! I nearly let Typhon have his way after that, I nearly smashed their heads in, but I have enough spirits haunting me, and I do NOT need to add grimples to that. I had even tried to make peace with the creatures, I joined in on their pranking. Arius still thinks that hammer is magical; anyway the others were more than capable of killing the things, but I think they got fleas on them. I will try to treat that before we delve deeper into this hideout.'''