Choices
Freya & company are warned by their contact within the Chelish Intelligence apparatus that they will in one weeks time be promoted to “Trusted Agents of Thrune.” They resolve to spend this week of vacation on researching & advancing their artifacts by way of a journey up the Southwestern coast.
Some friends are made, enemies dispatched, and the defensive stability of the city of Pezzack is severely weakened before they return home.
Immediately upon promotion, the team is given a job they desperately don’t want to do. They are asked to befriend and gain the trust of two nobles vying for the queens favor here in Egorian, the capital of Cheliax.
Archcountess Levisvia Vasvion is a multiple-widow who owns a few hospitality businesses in the city, some of which are formerly owned by the other concerned party: Paracount Thalgano Sethic.
Several extremely odd jobs are performed with mixed results. Some money but little trust is earned. Word reaches the team that the queen is no longer amused by these two nobles squabbling what with the Glorious Reclamation marching on Westcrown and all. The team accelerates their plans.
They side with Vasvion and immediately begin squeezing Sethic’s businesses. They destroy his devil-hog farm, expose and indict several judges Sethic has on his payroll, attempt but fail to steal a large sum Sethic has borrowed from a foreign bank, and they even prevent an assassination attempt on Vasvion’s fiance, Nicolo Alazario (aka Michelob Ultra) - son of Egorian’s Lord Mayor Alazario. Nicolo impresses the team with his combat prowess against very dangerous gray men of Norgorber.
Sethic feels the heat and goes underground, so the team moves on to other objectives. Corrine has requested that they crush the Bellflower Network’s operations in the capital, which have escalated in the chaos of the times.
They plan an elaborate trap by way of renting a river-barge and decorating it for a large “all-nighter” party. They invite the worst people they can think of from across the city and surrounding countryside, advertise that they will have a halfling fighting ring present at the event and wait.
With Draymus posing as the host, their ambush goes awry. A crack-team of halfling combatants indeed shows up to liberate the “participants” at the barge. Nearly destroying Draymus upon arrival, the group is forced to repel the boarders before they are fully prepared. After an explosive battle where they are constantly on their backfeet, Jason utters their word of recall “Kendrick Lamar” and they escape to their Migos St hideaway. Many halflings are liberated.
Continuing the investigation, they are lead to a safehouse for the Bellflowers and pulling no punches, they summon gigantic earth elementals and level the entire building and surrounding structures. Calling that done, they prepare for their next objective.
The nobles are calmed and her enemies are on the run, the queen is pleased. She rewards her agents with more important work, and the authority to make an important choice. One “friend of the queen” must be sacrificed to Asmodeus as part of the 100 year old bond between the Thrune family and their god. A pilgrimage must be undertaken in a form exactly like Abrogail I’s initial deal.
They must travel by land to a set of 14 standing stones that are in the Barrowood, West of Egorian. At each stone they must shed a drop of blood of their would-be sacrifice and at the final stone the subject must be given to Asmodeus.
They choose Sethic, as they have strong intelligence that indicates he has gone to ground at his best-defended mansion. The team infiltrates his home, secures the guards and discovers a grisly secret. More than a week prior, Sethic kidnapped Bob Applewood and tortured him for days and days. Bob is alive but unresponsive. A seething team of killers waits for Sethic’s inevitable return home.
Showing more skill than they expect, upon Sethic’s return a desperate battle erupts. It seems the old man is an Arcane Trickster of considerable skill and he nearly kills all of them before being laid low by Freya and Reese. Jason promptly stabilizes the old man and Draymus feebleminds him, for their own safety.
They fashion a sort of backpack to carry him in, and set off on the pilgrimage. Along the way they are accosted by the Glorious Reclamation’s advanced scouts, who are much farther past the Chelish Army lines than is generally known. They are nearly halted by a team-up of the paladins and a powerful druid who protects the Barrrowood.
Surviving this, at the final stone they are confronted by a rogue faction of the Church of Asmodeus. This radical cell of clerics grows weary of Thrune rule and would see Cheliax in absolute control of the church. Jason must make a heavy choice, but one that he finds easy. He sides with his Queen because he knows Asmodeus also sides with her.
An explosive and deadly battle ensues and the leader of the Asmodeans, Archmage Luthon Malix alone escapes after killing Jason. A decimated crew drags Sethic’s still-feebleminded self to the stone and freya slits his throat on the altar.
A portal opens, and Gorthoklekk himself appears in his human guise at first, but quickly assumes his true form of a giant pit fiend, towering over them. He casts “heal” on Sethic’s dying form to remove his feeblemind, even returning him to consciousness long enough to see his “friends” staring at him. Bob makes finger-guns at him just before the pit fiend eats him alive.
The devil chews but does not swallow Sethic’s flesh and bone, instead turning to vomit his remains and eternal-soul into the portal to Hell.
Shortly after, another portal opens and Contessa steps out, surveying the area for danger just before Abrogail II, Queen of Cheliax herself appears. She thanks the team and asks Gorthoklekk to resurrect Jason, which he does (he uses raise-dead instead but the queen does not appear to notice).
Freya & co are promoted to Bound Agents of Thrune. Above the law in all matters while serving the queen in Cheliax. They are also rewarded with some new equipment including a ring from the queen’s own finger she gives to Jason.
Corrine later informs the team that while they have renewed Thrune’s pact with Hell, the Glorious Reclamation has taken Westcrown and a group called the Silver Ravens has killed the Lord Mayor, Barzillai Thrune in Kintargo and taken control of the city. They are expected to declare their independence from Cheliax any day. The queen has demanded that a letter be sent declaring this action unlawful and requiring all involved parties to be turned over to her agents. The team prepares to meet the Silver Ravens.