(December 2019)

The Planeswalkers spent a week in Sigil, catching up on business. Martigan hung around the Hobgoblin area of town making friends and recruiting people to help his homeland. Helga stayed at the Army camp, helping with training and morale while the refugees from The Gray Wastes got settled. She also sent a contingent of the army to deal with the Gennasi and the Water Elemental (based on reports from the earlier scouting party she had sent (31) ) The Bishop was busy establishing services for Birth of Hope (a bar, a brothel, and a food wholesale market) among other things.

One day when Helga was back in Sigil on business, a cloaked figure approached her and said that Enial wanted to talk to her. As the Bishop was nearby, she asked that he be brought along, and the two also stopped by to pick up Jeb's head from Reinhalt, who was getting a magical tattoo done.

They were led into a small room covered with magical glyphs, which cut off all telepathic bonds to the outside world. Enial had bad news; Perry the Halfling bard had been the target of an assassination attempt near the Library of Thoth. This was due to Helga asking him to look into the Shadow Lord. After Enial had made her promise not to say anything about Choronzon to anyone else outside of that room, the robed figure (Daniel) spoke up. He was the same Rogue Astral Deva that the Party had handed the letter to in Ysgard some time ago.

He told a story about Chronozon and his battle brothers Michael and Casiel (also referenced in the Hymns of Heronious). When Helga asked if he had any leads on the Shadow Lord, he said that the Planeswalkers should go to Pandemonium and find out what the mysterious key they had found unlocked there. The Bishop then surreptitiously cast Arcane Sight, which caused his eyes to glow bright blue, in order to check that Enial was really who he said he was. He saw that it was Enial, and that both the man and the room glowed bright with magical power. After a moment of panic and some discussion, Enial relaxed, but asked that the Bishop not cast spells without permission again. He was very happy to receive the documents we had found at Jeb's camp in the Gray Wastes, along with Jeb's head.

After leaving, the Bishop mentioned that he had a note from Gwydion, saying he had a job the party might be interested in. He and Helga visited the Automata Underground, met up with Gwydion and Aurach the Fair, and learned from a Baurier named Etterhorn that a horde of Devils had attacked his village, named Three Bridges, a couple of days travel out of Automata, and enslaved the people there. Etterhorn alone had escaped, but had reason to believe that the villagers might still be alive and at the camp. The Eirnyes spoke up and said that she had deduced that an old rival of hers, Vola, was the leader of the Demons who assaulted them. Vola had failed a mission in the past, and had been punished by being reformed into a Malebrunch, a brutish and stupid type of Devil. Aurach asked that we be certain that Vola was slain. They also mentioned that there was a large amount of treasure for the taking in the village.

Helga gathered the rest of the party that night; Reinhalt learned of the appearance of one of the villagers from Etterhorn, and scried on him repeatedly during the afternoon. He saw him being forced to build barricades at some bridges, along with other heavy manual labour, and then being locked into a barn with other prisoners.

The next day, the Planeswalkers headed off on horseback with 7 soldiers from the Army in tow. After a day travelling through the forest, they got to a plain overlooking a place where to rivers converged. Three Bridges was at the center of the convergence, on an island. They could see a large Devil in the centre of the city, and a large boat about half a day's travel away from the town.

Several of the Party members Teleported over Invisibly to get a closer look at the boat, and found it manned by numerous large Demons. They teleported back without being detected by the Armanites passing by on the shore. They decided to plan their arrival at the city at about the same time as the Demon boat. Cal, Reinhalt and the Bishop would wait in the forest, while the rest of the group would approach the city on horseback. If it looked like the main party needed help, the spell-casters in the forest would teleport in to give aid; otherwise, they would attempt to teleport into the barn and free the prisoners. After warning Helga to turn back, some Devils got ready for the Party's approach at the nearest bridge. Luckily, the majority of the Devils were distracted by the Demon Ship's approach.

They were met by several Barbazu, who summoned Nupperibo to use as meat shields, and also two knights on evil looking horses. Helga drank her potion of fly and charged one of the knights at the back of the ranks. Martigan and Toby also charged in and starting attacking the Nupperibo at the front. Martigan got a nasty cut from one of the Barbezu, which continued to bleed throughout the battle. One of the Knights, disengaging from Helga, charged back and attempted to scare away the Ysgardian Army Warriors by raising his visor and revealing his horrific visage. Though a couple of them were shaken, they held their ground, and charged in to attack.

Although they managed to wound the horse, most of their attacks, being non-magical in nature, did no damage, or missed completely. Toby, seeing that they needed help, tripped up the Barbezu he was fighting, ran over, and dispatched the knight (who had already been wounded by Helga).

After that, the Party was able to finish the fight quickly, except for one Nupperibo. Martigan, shouting “Swim you later”, hefted the Devil over his head, and attempted to throw it off the bridge. However, it merely landed at his feet and struggled feebly. After another couple of rounds, the fight was finally over.

The group hiding in the woods then teleported into the barn. They talked to the villagers briefly, until Cal said that he heard someone approaching. The Bishop cast Silence and Invisibility Sphere to hide the Villagers (about one hundred of them, who managed to squeeze into the spell's area). Cal turned into a Polar Bear, and Reinhalt into a Dragon. They waited until the door was open, and Cal destroyed the two Lemure guards in a surprise attack. He and Reinhalt engaged some more Barbezu and a mounted Knight while the Bishop attempted to herd the villagers secretly out of the building.

Meanwhile, after Martigan's bleeding wound was healed, Helga and Martigan decided to attack the hovering Malebranche while its back was turned, in order to distract it while the villagers were escaping (Martigan also drinking his potion of Fly). The Devil noticed their approach, but they charged anyway, doing some damage. The creature laid into them, tearing through their armour as if it were tissue paper and gravely wounding both of them. After one more round, both of the Planeswalkers were near death; they decided to make a run for it, retreating in different directions so that the monster couldn't catch both of them easily. Helga flew down and ducked out of sight behind some buildings, while Martigan flew further up into the sky and off to one side. Luckily for them, at that moment a huge Demon appeared, distracting the Malebranche.

Meanwhile, Reinhalt and Cal had managed to clear the doorway, and the Bishop got the villagers outside and headed towards the bridge, where the Army troops, Silverpaw and Toby were waiting. Cal flew out and onto the roof in Eagle form. There he got the lay of the land, and found out where they were in relation to the bridge. He also spotted two Armanites patrolling overhead. Reinhalt flew out and attacked the Armanites with Sonic Scorching Rays, keeping ahead of them with his faster speed and drawing them away from the villagers. Cal turned back into an Elf to report his findings, and everyone headed to the bridge, and over it. Nobody stopped the group from fleeing back into the forest.

The Planeswalkers reported back to Gwydion and Aurach, the later of whom was disappointed that the Malabrunch had not verifiably been killed. The thankful villagers were set up in Birth of Hope in Ysgard, with some of them opting for military training to fight against slavery.

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