Acquisitions Inc, Baldur's Gate Region

Kaelani nods in agreement with Drabash's recommendation.

Covering ground you now know fairly well you cross the river Styx and then after crossing the Pit of Shummrath you make your way south.  The hairless, green-skinned humanoid wearing shackles on its ankles still sits in an iron cage that dangles from a bent iron crane that leans out over the chasm.  It glares at you as you pass but makes no effort to call out to you.  In the distance you can still see Ubbalux, once again a tall man wearing tattered robes.  He is back to striding between the standing stones, gesticulating wildly and screaming curses into the wind.

As you head south towards the Crypt of the Hellriders you see ahead a radiant light cascades from a rusted metal monument shaped like the upraised mandibles of a giant beetle. A sphere is suspended between the zapper’s spines, 50 feet above the ground. As you get closer you can see that it is a 10-foot-diameter sphere of magical force at the top and within it seems to be unicorn.  

You watch as a Hellwasp flies towards the tower and a beam of radiant light flashes out from the sphere and vaporizes the Hellwasp.

You then hear a voice in your head "Fear not, the sphere only destroys fiends.  I am trapped within, can you set me free?"

Lulu immediately responds "We must help it!  It is a celestial being, not some evil fiend.  We must free it!"

As the creature, or whatever it is calls out and Lulu immediately responds "We must help it!  It is a celestial being, not some evil fiend.  We must free it!" Tibi launches himself into the air calling out to Lulu "keep your wings on little one - I'll go and have a look. Feel free to come with me." Tibi then flies towards the sphere in a line that differs from where they saw the beam fly out and zap the Hellwasp. As he gets closer he speaks and thinks "my friend here says you can be trusted? What can we do?"

Lulu flaps up with Tibi as the unicorn answers him. "Destroy the tower and I will be set free.  You cannot destroy the sphere."

Tibi flies slowly around the tower looking for points of weakness!

 Studying the rusted metal structure it isn't too hard to realize that you could likely just smash it to pieces. Drabash, looking for something to smash anyways, starts hitting it with his axes.  He causes a mighty racket as he does 18 but the sound doesn't draw the attention of anything and a short time later the whole structure falls.

As the structure crumbles the sphere of force slowly sinks to the ground and fades away.

"Oh thank you." says the unicorn.  "I am Mooncolor.  I seek a way out of this plane of existence. Do you know a way?"

"Oh thank you." says the unicorn.  "I am Mooncolor.  I seek a way out of this plane of existence. Do you know a way?"

Tibi looks at the others and shrugs his shoulders "not really but you're welcome to travel with us while we find a way once we finish what we were sent here to do!"

"Yes - we are also looking for a way out, and to save an entire city that was dragged down here while we're at it!"

Mooncolor shakes her mane and whinnies loudly.  "I will then. This place is infested with evil creatures and I don't want to be trapped here any longer.  You are my best bet to get free."

As you load up into the tormentor Drabash has to slow down just a bit to allow Mooncolor to keep up with the infernal machine.  She gallops along beside you as you continue your way to the crypt.

Acrid smog swirls around a barren hill, rising from which like giant tombstones are a pair of leaning monoliths, each soaring more than fifty feet into the smoky red sky. Dozens of armored knights kneel in motionless reverence before the monoliths, between which a set of onyx steps leads down under the hill. Dozens of dead knights kneel before the monoliths, their foreheads resting on the pommels of their swords. Each knight wears the faded regalia of Elturel.

Acrid smog swirls around a barren hill, rising from which like giant tombstones are a pair of leaning monoliths, each soaring more than fifty feet into the smoky red sky. Dozens of armored knights kneel in motionless reverence before the monoliths, between which a set of onyx steps leads down under the hill. Dozens of dead knights kneel before the monoliths, their foreheads resting on the pommels of their swords. Each knight wears the faded regalia of Elturel.

On whisper quiet wings Tibi lands next to the party. He looks around at the statutes (Perception = 8) and assuming he cannot see any immediate threats indicates to the party that his is going to go into the complex he whispers to Lulu "do you want to come in with me little one?"  If possible Tibi flies just off the surface of the floor, but if not he walks (Stealth = 21). At all times he is vigilant for traps and any other source of danger (Perception = 19)

As Tibi cautiously nears the stairs, he begins to hear murmuring coming from below. The further the aarakocra goes, the more the noise becomes audible as speech, though not a language he can understand. As opposed to his own native language with its breathy, leisurely tongue, this one uses a lot of hissing and hard consonants: Draconic. Tibi continues downward, and just inside the opening of the hill, Tibi sees a blue dragonborn dressed in some kind of brown outfit. The dragonborn is pacing back and forth and gesticulating as if giving a speech.

Drabash says "OK, everybody out, let's get this show on the road." He then exits the tormentor, makes sure everyone is out, secures it (however one does that) and follows Tibi into the crypt - about 60 feet back.

Tibi watches the dragonborn for a while and then says "I'm the only one here! Who in Tymora's name are you talking to?"

The dragonborn stops and turns abruptly toward Tibi, the long, rope-like tendrils that mimic hair flying about his scaly head. He studies the dandy birdman for a couple of heartbeats and then appears to relax a little. "If you are a follower of Tymora," he says in Common, "you must not be one of hell's denizens." He steps toward one wall and retrieves a hooked staff leaning there. "My name is Moses. Moses Amramson. Please tell me you know a way out of here. I've been ... banished, for lack of a better word."

Tibi grins at the Dragonborn and bows with a flourish "Cracticus Tibicen - Decisionist of the Baldur's Gate chapter of Acquisitions Incorporated at your service. I suppose one more piece of flotsam and jetsam wont slow us down much. I hope you don't get motion sickness?" He pauses and then turns back "by the way what's down here?'

Looking about you see a pair of basalt doors block the passage ahead, their surfaces engraved with a relief of a knight locked in combat with a devil. Both wield burning swords.

Tibi goes to examine the doors more closely "what's behind these do you think" he asks Moses.

"Baldur's Gate?" Moses asks. "On Faerûn?" He smacks the butt end of his staff against the floor. "Well, I suppose any way out is better than none." He watches Tibi move forward to examine the doors. "I wasn't curious enough to venture further in than right here. I was left just out there and sought some shelter to hide. Do you know a way out of hell or not? I've a task to accomplish." It's at this point that the dragonborn notices the other two coming down the stairs. "Oh ... er, I suppose you're with Cracticus here. I'm Moses. Moses Amramson. Of Skelkor. Or, I guess I should say Laerakond, since you are from Faerûn. At least the feathered one is. Are you as well?" The more he talks, the more you can hear the age in his voice.

Tibi examines the doors more closely while the newcomer, Moses introduces himself to the others.  Tibi sees that the doors do not have visible handles, locks, or bolts.

Tibi pulls out his decionist coin idly tossing it up and down before reaching what seems like a decision "oh well nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose" as he reaches out and pushes on the doors.