She gave DW a look as if to say, ‘That seemed to have worked.’  She entered without fear.  For how could a burial site of her people be corrupted?  Even here, it would be protected from contamination.

Elsbeth paused and the funerary chamber.  Her eyes moistened are the sight, but she took a deep breath and calmed herself so the emotions didn’t take over.  So many had given their lives.  Here they were honored.  Here they could rest.

After a moment to take in the significance of their sacrifice, she responded to Ren.  “Yes.”
This message was last edited by the player at 17:50, Tue 10 Nov 2020.

The heavy doors rumbled open, and Lady Caprice smiled uneasily, "Splendid."  She snapped her fingers and conjured a magical light, but even its colorful glow seemed little match for the forbidding gloom of the Crypt of the Hellriders.

They descended into the chilly crypt, and Caprice whispered, "Haruman spoke of General Yael, who hid the sword.  Perhaps he or she is interred herein, along with the answers we seek."  She shined arcane light into the dark corners and glinting off the polished arms lining the walls.  Lady Caprice then said, "I daresay a general is not to be found in this vestibule.  We must venture onward..."  She seemed just a touch less brazenly dauntless than usual in this place.

---

Light cantrip: 20 feet of bright light + 20 more feet of dim light.

As they entered the chamber, DW paused and searched for any tracks or other indications of other movement or disturbances within these chambers.

13:22, Today: Darkwing rolled 14 using 1d20+8 with rolls of 6.  Investigation.

Beyond the chamber with the urns lay a corridor lined with iron burial caskets set into recesses in the wall. Each casket had a single, healthy red rose resting on its lid. All was still in crypt, and Lady Caprice's light revealed nothing amiss save the strange, cold mist that continued to writhe around the ankles.

She did, however, detect the presence of abjuration magic on the lids of the caskets. And Darkwing noticed the mist by the south wall disturbed by a slight breeze that seemed to emanate from an unrecessed portion of the wall between two caskets...

Ren waded through the mists that came rather further up his ankles than anyone else's though he didn't seem especially perturbed. "Well now what?" he asked, looking around. There was still seemingly no one here to speak to and he didn't much care to disturb the slumber of the peaceful dead.

She paused and looked at the rose on each lid.  It brought a smile to her face for them to be remembered and cared for like this.

Elsbeth pointed ahead down the corridor as the obvious next move in answer to Ren's question.

DW held up his hand. "Hold up. There is a slight breeze here where the mist is swirling by the wall. Possibly a secret door. Please bring the light closer." Once the wall is better lit, Darkwing begins to examine it closely.


08:31, Today: Darkwing rolled 21 using 1d20+8 with rolls of 13.  Look for Secret Door.

Darkwing did indeed find a secret door built into the south wall of the chamber, and as it swung open, the party could see by the light of Caprice's magic a ritual circle daubed in blood on the floor. Hundreds of slivers of parchment were arranged within it, each tiny strip bearing a name written neatly in blood. The small chamber was otherwise empty.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:55, Wed 11 Nov 2020.

Elsbeth frowned.  This didn’t look like it belonged in a crypt dedicated to her order.  She turned to Lady Caprice to see what she could make of it.

Lady Caprice sauntered to the secret door and shone her radiant light into the interior.  “How intriguing!  You’ve a sharp eye, Darkwing, darling.”  She lowered herself gracefully to have a closer look at the papers, then declared, “A ritual circle, and there’s a touch of necromancy on the slips of parchment.  I would surmise these to be the names of the interred.”  She picked up a random slip of paper and gave it a look, front and back.  As Caprice examined it she asked to her stalwart Hellrider companion, “Do you spy any familiar names, Elsbeth darling?”

---

Rolling Arcana to figure out what this is meant to do:

• 09:20, Today: Caprice Nathaire rolled 10 using 1d20+4.  Arcana.

Caprice's conjecture seemed reasonable, but it was hard to know for sure.

Elsbeth, if you'd like to try to answer Caprice's question, please give me a history check.

Rolled History 13

“Not really.  If what I’ve heard is accurate, the order I’m familiar with was established by the group that retreated from Avernus and sealed the portal.  I’m not well versed with those names that followed Zariel here.”  She replied.

"Is Yael's name there, perhaps?" Ren offered helpfully. "Or Olanthius?"

"There's got to be hundreds of names there." DW responded. "Would take far too long to read through them all. The real question is what purpose does this all serve?" He contemplated his own question for a moment. "Is this some sort of summoning circle? Could we call out the General's name and summon him here?"

She wasn’t sure she wanted to disturb a Hellriders eternal slumber, but they did need information.  “Or at least allow us to speak with the dead?”  She followed DW’s statement.  Necromancer’s could talk to the dead.  Maybe it was a beneficial prop left in case one needed to contact them.

Nothing special happened when Ren said aloud the names of Yael or Olanthius.

Lady Caprice sighed theatrically, “This is rather tedious, but I refuse to leave this dismal tomb without answers.  We will pore through these accursed slips until we find the names we seek.  If we all work at it, it will not take so long.”  She magically dusted clean an area of floor of suitable size and then sat primly upon it.  Lady Caprice set to work plucking up individual slips of paper, checking the names for any matching the three generals mentioned by Haruman, then carefully setting aside any that did not match.  Anybody who didn’t help with this effort would receive a sustained, withering glare until they joined her in the effort.

---

Does anyone have better than my +1 Investigation?  Let’s roll that with advantage for Help!

Are there any other visible doors/passages/rooms that we haven’t looked at yet?

With a sigh, DW started sifting through a handful of the paper slips. "What do you propose we do if we do find the names we are looking for?" the vigilante asked Caprice. "Clearly, calling their name does nothing on its own. Perhaps rather than a summoning circle this is some sort of ward or circle of circle of protection against the spirits of these fallen knights?"

Investigation is +8, guessing that best we have, so rolled w/ Advantage

19:42, Today: Darkwing rolled 26 using 2d20+8, dropping the lowest dice only with rolls of 7,18.  Start sorting through the paper slips w/ Help.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:45, Thu 12 Nov 2020.

Darkwing developed a painstaking method for reading every single slip of paper. It was heartbreaking to think of so many dead, for that was surely what the names represented, but none read "Olanthius" or anything similar to it. It might be, he determined, that the meaning of the papers would reveal itself once they'd seen more of the crypt.

Exiting the chamber in temporary defeat, the party continued through more casket-lined hallways and urn-filled chambers before arriving finally in a great hall. Four memorial steles stood in this hall, each engraved with hundreds of names. Many were familiar from the slips of paper in the bloody circle, but many others were not.

A legend etched at the top of each stele read, in Common: "Here lie the fallen. May their souls echo here until the end of time."

Adorning the wall across from the steles was a carved relief showing a solemn, blindfolded angel on the back of a mammoth with feathered wings. The mammoth was reared up on its hind legs, and the angel held her sword high while all around them lay the broken bodies of fallen knights and devils.

With this new information, Darkwing concluded the papers bound the named warriors' souls to the steles and compelled them to serve Zariel in undeath by the terms of their original oath to her.

The last revelation brought a quick response by Elsbeth.  “What?!?  If Zariel has sworn for Asmodeus, then we need to free the knights!”

She wasn’t sure how easy that might be.  Burning those papers or destroying the circle with hammer and chisel were within her means.  She had no idea if either of those would work though.

The Hell rider then studied the carved relief.  Sometimes keys were hidden in such details.  Or a sword made to look part of the art.

Elsbeth found neither hidden key nor hidden sword on the steles. She did, however, discover that pressing Zariel's sword in the relief opened a secret door behind the steles. Opening it revealed a cramped chamber containing little more than a writing table with a stack of eight leather-bound journals resting atop it.

Ren clapped his hands together in delight. "Oh, good show, Elsbeth! Well spotted!" he commended. "Truly this crypt is a mystery upon mystery!"

Stepping towards the desk, Ren reached for the top tome and brought it down to his level where he could look upon the first page.

Studying the journals (beyond the first page!) revealed the following information:

• Olanthius never recovered from Zariel's capitulation to Asmodeus and subsequent transformation into a devil. He blames himself for not seeing warning signs of Zariel's fall from grace early on- her single-minded determination to slay demons at all costs.

• Olanthius took his life rather than face damnation, but he was transformed into an undead monster by Zariel to serve her forevermore.

• Olanthius describes Haruman, his one-time comrade in arms, as a heartless man bereft of compassionnow a devil bent on punishing anyone who stands in Zariel's way.

• Olanthius mourns the deaths of his fallen warriors and feels powerless to help them.

• Olanthius speaks well of General Yael, whom he clearly respects and secretly adores. In one journal, Olanthius hints that he knows where Yael hid the Sword of Zariel but fails to note the location.

"Well now, this is very helpful," Ren said, pointing to the entry concerning Olanthius's knowledge of the sword's location. "Now we just need to find this Olanthius!"

Darkwing set down the book he was looking through and raised his hand.
"Shhhh!" When all was quiet, he cocked his head slightly and concentrated on listening. "We have visitors," he said finally. "There were riders approaching above. I thought maybe they would pass by, but I just heard the crypt doors open. Prepare yourselves."