Part II: Home on the Hells

Taking a Breather

A disquiet assailed Karlach the moment her boot set down on the marble floor on the other side of the portal. She instantly recognized the great hall of the late devil Raphael's House of Hope, with its ornate walls and soaring high ceiling. The very room in which the devil had met his end.

She pushed the feeling of disquiet away.

There were two other Hellriders on this side of the portal. Both of them with shields and spears pointed right at her.

"Oh shit," said one of them, a blue skinned tiefling woman, as she raised her spear to rest it on the ground, "they found them."

The other Hellrider, a tall, fair skinned elf, was a little slower to move to a less threatening stance.

"Look, I really appreciate the rescue," said Karlach, "But Raphane's hurt. Is either of you a healer?"

"You made it!" Another voice rang out from behind the Hellriders and they parted to make room for Hope. The robed dwarven woman yelled exuberantly, "I was sure you would! I hoped you would, thought you would, knew you would!"

Then she saw the other tiefling Karlach was carrying on her shoulder. "Oh, oh! Bring her here," Hope moved to a set of cots that had been laid out on the floor of the hall.

Karlach laid Raphane down on an empty cot. The druid was unconscious now and even more pale than before. "Can you help her?" Karlach asked Hope.

"What happened to her?" asked Hope, as she looked over her patient.

"Leg wound. On her calf. Osyluth may have gotten her with its stinger as well. She was wild shaped when it got her. I don't know if that matters."

"We shall see, we shall see," said Hope. A blue glow enveloped Hope's hands and spread to Raphane as the dwarven woman set to the task of healing the unconscious druid.

Karlach could see at least that Raphane was breathing steadily, and that calmed her a bit.

"You'll be fine, darling," she whispered as she stroked Raphane's hair.

"Space, space, space! I must have space," said Hope, shooing the red tiefling away. Karlach left Raphane's side reluctantly but stayed close.

Behind Karlach, the portal flared as the Hellriders who had guarded her escape came through. Hope snapped her fingers once the last one was through, never once even taking her eyes off Raphane, and the portal vanished, orange embers falling to the ground before dissipating.

"It is heartening to see you are well," said Zevlor as he came to stand beside Karlach.

Karlach took her eyes off Raphane to look at Zevlor. "Thanks for the rescue, Zevlor-and all the rest of you as well. We owe you."

"One step toward repaying one debt among so very many," said Zevlor. "You rescued yourselves. We merely guarded the door."

Questions were occurring to Karlach: "How did you find us? How did you even meet Hope?"

"The House heard you knocking on the door," Hope answered before Zevlor could, even as she was still healing Raphane, "Then, the House told me that someone was sending you somewhere else. I couldn't fix it so you came here but I could make it so you didn't go where that someone else meant for you to go."

Karlach let out a chuckle, "So that's how we ended up in the middle of nowhere. Helsik wasn't half mad when she finally caught up to us. Cranky bitch. I'll wager the comeuppance she's getting now is exactly what she deserves. How did you finally find us?"

"Well, I couldn't find you after you ended up wherever you did," said Hope, "But I could follow… Helsik you said was her name? Helsik. I could follow Helsik. I've learned more and more and more about the House and what it can do since you and yours freed me. I kept an eye on her. I could see she was searching and I just knew I knew that she would lead me to you-and she did."

"And how did you two meet?" Karlach looked between Hope and Zevlor.

"The gaze of the House's eyes can peer onto the material plane as well," Zevlor answered while Hope was busy unwrapping the improvised bandage from Raphane's calf. "Hope saw us fighting together against the Absolute. When she couldn't find you on the material plane, she sought me out and asked for my help. How could I refuse?"

"It has also given me another chance to find those lost or captured when Elturel sank to the hells," he motioned toward a few of the other Hellriders, "Yssylt, Gorrem and Eneco, we freed from one such dungeon, and a dozen others as well, who have since returned to the material plane." He smiled. "It is good to have a purpose again."

"Look at you lot," Karlach smiled, "Being proper heroes. All while I've done nothing since getting back to Avernus except look out for me and Raphane's own skins," then she looked down to where Raphane lay. Hope was now starting to heal the druid's wounded calf. "And not managed that too well," Karlach added, her smile turning to a grimace.

"It's easy to be brave when you have a stronghold like this to fall back on," Zevlor motioned around himself to the House of Hope. "But you and Raphane, you survived Avernus itself by yourselves for months. Don't diminish your own accomplishments."

"There," said Hope, "The poison is purged and the wound is healed. Though it may be a mite tender for some days. You two can stay here in the House for as long as you like."

"Thank you, Hope," said Karlach, taking in a breath through her teeth as the House of Hope loomed oppressively above her. "Thank you, so much."

Raphane woke and blinked at the aggressively bright shafts of red light coming in through the tall, arched window. She shifted under the covers and felt the silken sheets caress her body, at which point she realized she was stark naked under those sheets. Her eyes shot wide as she sat up in the bed, straight as a bolt. Those eyes darted around the room as she tried to figure out where she was but her anxiety at waking up naked in a strange bed in a strange room vanished when she saw Karlach dozing in a chair opposite the bed.

The green tiefling gathered the sheet around herself and crossed the short distance over to Karlach before tapping her shoulder.

"Pst. Soldier, are you asleep?" she whispered.

Karlach stirred. Blinked a few times. She looked at Raphane before she at last muttered, "Mmrrmmrrghh. Finally awake, I see."

"Likewise," said Raphane with a smirk before sitting down in the chair on the other end of the side table from the chair Karlach sat in. There was a platter on the side table with some food on it, and also some drumsticks eaten down to the bone as well as a stem that was notably bare of any grapes.

Raphane grabbed a cluster that still had some grapes on it, plucked one and popped it in her mouth, then savored the sweet flavor as she leaned back in her chair and moaned. "Oh, thank the gods. Something that isn't fire fungus."

"Oh. Sorry, darling," said Karlach, "I brought the plate for you but you were out for a while and I got peckish. I can get you another one?"

"No, this will do me for now," said Raphane. "It's going to take a while to get my appetite back given how little we were eating out there."

"Really?" asked Karlach. "I've had a half dozen full plates since we got here and I could still eat."

"How long was I asleep?" Raphane asked while plucking another grape from the cluster.

Karlach looked at the clock that also occupied the side table. "Twelve hours."

Raphane blinked. "I must have needed it. Still feel like I could sleep for a week. Catch me up. What did I miss?"

It didn't take long for Karlach to tell Raphane everything that had happened and everything she had learned.

"There's one thing I still don't understand," said Raphane once Karlach was done recounting the tale.

"What's that?" the red tiefling asked.

"What happened to my clothes?"

"Oh. Hope took them to clean them. She's turned into a regular mother hen, that one."

Raphane made a face. "Filthy, weren't they?"

"Just a bit," Karlach answered. "There's fresh clothes in the wardrobe. They looked about your size to me. Raphael had a big collection."

"I'll try not to think about how he got it," said Raphane. She grabbed another bite to eat before leaving the sheet draped on the chair and crossing over to the wardrobe.

"I could really use a bath," Raphane said as she searched the wardrobe.

"It's just down to the hall," said Karlach, "Why bother getting dressed?"

"I'm not strutting around in naught but my skin." Raphane paused to direct a suspicious look over her shoulder at Karlach. The berserker's red skin was several shades brighter than it had been on the surface of Avernus. She had clearly bathed. "You already did exactly that, didn't you?" Raphane asked Karlach.

"They said 'make yourself at home,' and I took them at their word," said Karlach defensively, "If anyone saw anything they didn't like that's their own problem. "

Raphane shook her head and laughed.

"When did you get uptight about nudity anyway? You never had a problem bathing in the river in the early days. Not to mention you being a druid. Isn't being naked more natural than wearing clothes in the first place?"

"I wasn't born to druids. I guess being back in civilization-or near enough-brings that Beregost middle class upbringing back out."

"Well don't expect me to keep my elbows off the table," said Karlach.

Raphane smirked. "You'd better come with me. There's a decent chance I'll fall asleep in the bath and melt."

"So you're not mad at me," Karlach started nervously, "About dropping you to finish off Helsik?"

Raphane spun around from the wardrobe to face Karlach. "Have you been fretting about that the whole time I've been dozing?"

"Maybe not the whole time," Karlach admitted.

Raphane crossed over to where Karlach sat, squatted down in front of her and put her hands on the red tiefling's knees, smiling up at her. "I am too relieved and too happy to possibly be mad. We get to breathe a sigh of relief for the first time in months. Good food. Clean clothes. A bath. I wouldn't have dared hope for any of those things when I woke up yesterday."

Raphane didn't see the relief on Karlach's face that she had expected. "What is it, sweetheart? What's wrong?"

Karlach let out a long exhale as she glanced around. "It's this place. Makes my skin crawl. Even worse than the wastelands of Avernus. Hope can pretty it up all she likes but it's still thick with Raphael's evil. All the twisted shit he did. It'll never come clean."

Raphane's face creased as she frowned.

"But this is it, isn't it?" asked Karlach. "The best I can possibly hope for out of the rest of my fucking life." She laughed bitterly and the vents on her shoulders let out a burst of heat. "Can only go down from here and I am already so far down. Shit. I'm sorry darling. You were in such a radiant mood and I've gone and shat on it."

Raphane shook her head. "No. You're right. We are still in Avernus. And maybe it's wrong of me to act like this is a safe place. But I don't want you to give up hope on getting out of here. I'm not."

Karlach furrowed her brow at Raphane, "You're scheming something, aren't you?"

"'Scheming' may be too strong a way of putting it. I want to use the portal for a trip back to Baldur's Gate. I can check in with Dammon; see if he's figured out a way to fix your engine."

"You really think he's still working on it?"

"He cares about you, Karlach. A lot of people do. Before the last battle against the Absolute, I asked Dammon to talk to the Gondians. After all, they're the ones who designed and equipped the Steel Watch with infernal engines able to work on the material plane. We also freed them and their families from Gortash's machinations. I don't normally insist on debts but they owe us. They owe you."

"I remember," said Karlach, "I also remember that Steel Watcher telling me I was fucked beyond repair and to go to the Foundry for disassembly."

"But if Dammon and the Gondians put their heads together, maybe they can come up with something to help you."

"And you think they've been working on this the whole time we've been gone?"

"If they haven't, I'll see to it they get back on track." said Raphane, before giving Karlach a quick peck on the lips and beaming a smile up at her.

"You're right," said Karlach, before making a face that was somewhere between a smile and a grimace, "You really do need a bath."

Raphane punched Karlach's shoulder playfully. "Ever the charmer."

Karlach licked her lips. "Tastes like salted pork."

"Fuck off!" Raphane yelled over her shoulder as she walked out the door.

"Kind of tasty actually. Wait, come back! You're not even going the right way!"

Being back in Baldur's Gate, back on the material plane in general, was a thousand fold relief, but it was perhaps the smells of Faerûn that Raphane was most joyous to return to: flowers on windowsills, the seabreeze wafting up from the harbor, even the less pleasant smells inevitable from so many people densely packed together were a relief compared to what her nose endured in Avernus. Even in the House of Hope, it was impossible to escape Avernus's acrid, sulfurous odor, and Raphane was sure some of that scent must have followed her back to Faerûn, judging from some of the wrinkled noses she observed on people she passed.

The gateway from Avernus had taken her to the Lower City, which had given Raphane the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing as she wound her way to Dammon's forge.

The druid had never particularly liked the Gate in the past, busy, dirty and crowded as it was. Being here with Karlach though, even in the midst of confronting the threat of the Absolute, had made her see it through new eyes, and she had come to love it.

As much of a delight and a relief as it was to see the city again, it hurt that Karlach wasn't there to see it with her, and that spurred Raphane to move faster.

But once she finally arrived at Dammon's forge, she found it abandoned.

No one answered when Raphane knocked on the door. She was going over the all but completely empty shelves and work tables, looking for any hint of where the blacksmith might have gone, when a distant voice steadily grew louder: " Friendfriend friendfriendFRIENDFRIEND FRIEND!" At the last exclamation, a white-furred dog bounded from the streets, into the abandoned forge and tackled Raphane, as she was turning around, onto her back.

The druid found herself letting out a delighted yelp as she hugged her arms around the dog while it licked her face. "Scratch! It's wonderful to see you again."

"You too, friend!" said Scratch, giving Raphane space enough to sit upright, even as his tail continued to beat back and forth energetically. He then immediately curled up in Raphane's lap and craned his neck back to lick her face again.

Raphane laughed while drying her face of Scratch's slobber as well as she could with the back of her hand. "How have you been?" she asked.

"Most well! I made a new best friend. Her name's Mindy and she says I'm her best friend too! You smell like you did when I first met you. Where have you been?"

"Away," Raphane chose her answer.

"Is your big friend here?" Scratch asked. His head snapped in multiple directions before he sniffed at Raphane's trousers. "I can smell her on you but I didn't smell her trail with yours."

"No," said Raphane, scritching at Scratch's neck, "She's… away. She's not well and needs help before she can come back."

"She's sick?" asked Scratch.

"Something like that."

"Has she tried chewing grass?"

"I'll… suggest that," said Raphane in a kindly voice. "But I think Dammon can help her. It's why I was here looking for him but it looks like I missed him."

"The nice man?" Scratch asked. "I smelled his scent just the other day."

Raphane's eyes brightened. "Did you? Do you think you could lead me to him?"

"I'm sure I could, friend! Follow me!"

Scratch took off at a run. He would spin around every once in a while to make sure Raphane was still following him. Sometimes he would get distracted, running off to either chase a rodent, play with a child or investigate a new and interesting smell. Raphane would allow Scratch the occasional short diversion before reminding him who he was looking for.

The trail led to the Upper City, which concerned Raphane at first. In the past she had heard this place did not allow animals, not that she had ever visited herself, excepting when it was under siege, but, if there was still such a rule, the Watch didn't seem interested in enforcing it, paying little attention as Raphane and Scratch passed by them.

Raphane was surprised when the trail led to a side entrance of the High Hall, the enormous keep that served as the Gate's center of government and overlooked the Upper City. Raphane could still see in her mind's eye how the place had been laid to waste during the battle against the Absolute. Much like the rest of the Upper City, there was quite a bit of scaffolding up as the place was being restored to its former stately glory.

The side entrance to which Scratch had led Raphane was flanked by a pair of blue liveried Watch guards who crossed their halberds to bar Raphane's way when she approached.

One of them stared at her coldly. The other's nose was wrinkled in disgust.

"What's your business here?" asked the cold one.

"Does a blacksmith called Dammon work here?" asked Raphane.

"And what business would that be of yours?" challenged the guard.

"We're old friends," said Raphane.

"Well if he's in there, he's here to work, not jibber jabber. So why don't you wait until he isn't?"

"Hmm. Thank you so much for your time. Come on, Scratch."

"And take a bath next time before you come round to the Upper City!" called out the other guard.

Raphane walked around a street corner outside the guards' eyeline before crouching down in front of Scratch. "You'd better go find Mindy."

"What will you do?" Scratch asked.

"Oh, I'm just going to find another way inside. It was wonderful to see you again, Scratch." Raphane reached forward to scritch her claws behind Scratch's ears. His tail wagged happily as she did so. "Now go on. You don't want Mindy to miss you, do you?"

"Okay! See you again soon, friend!" Scratch called as he ran off.

Wyll sat behind a broad desk in his office in the High Hall, looking over remarks his aides had prepared for him in advance of the upcoming conference with the delegation from Athkatla. The office was tastefully understated but distinguished nonetheless, with its dark wood paneling, vaulted ceiling, numerous bookshelves and a marble bust of the late Grand Duke Ulder Ravengard.

As he worked, Wyll noticed a raven perched on his windowsill, watching him studiously. He returned his attention to the remarks for a minute or so before looking back to his window only to see the raven still perched there, still watching him with what seemed to be something more than passing interest.

Wyll sighed, leaned back in his chair and said to the raven, "You can show yourself now, whoever you are."

The stately raven hopped down off the windowsill with a flap of its wings before growing and warping into the shape of a familiar green skinned tiefling woman.

"Raphane!" Wyll exclaimed, rising and moving out from behind his desk to embrace her.

"It's good to see you too," she said, hugging him back. "I'm trying not to be disappointed you didn't recognize me."

"I try not to make assumptions," said Wyll. "Particularly of birds who fly in through my window. Don't take this the wrong way, but you smell like you've come straight from the hells."

"So I've been told," said Raphane ruefully. "Your guards turned me away at the east gate. Hence my choice of alternate entrance."

"Did they now?" Wyll narrowed his eyes. "I'll have a chat with the Watch captain. I promise that you won't be turned away again while I'm grand duke."

"If I am, I can always find another window to fly in through. But it's official now? Congratulations, Grand Duke Ravengard."

"Just Wyll. You're the last person I would have stand on ceremony," he said, "But Karlach. Is she..?"

"She's alive, yes. In the House of Hope."

"Gods be praised. She gave us all a fright. You more than any of us I'm sure. Frankly, I got worried when you didn't come back sooner. I actually tried to pay you a visit only to find Helsik gone and the Devil's Fee emptied out."

"Helsik double-crossed us," said Raphane. "Instead of the House of Hope, Karlach and I found ourselves out in the wastes of Avernus."

Wyll blinked, "And you were there the whole time?"

"We finally found our way to the House just recently. I… may have been a little worse for wear. I came back to the material plane as soon as I could though."

"This isn't just a social call is it?" asked Wyll.

Raphane shook her head. "I came looking for Dammon; to see if he had made any progress figuring out a fix for Karlach's engine but, while I'm here," Raphane retrieved a wrapped sword from a baldric that hung from her back and handed it to Wyll.

He pulled back the wrapping to look, and didn't even need to remove the weapon from its sheath to recognize it. "Balduran's sword?"

"Karlach insisted I return it to the city," said Raphane. "In fact, wouldn't let me go until I promised to return it to you. She said it was an 'heirloom' of the city and belonged in Baldur's Gate."

"This sword has a tarnished legacy," said Wyll, looking back at Raphane. "And in Karlach's hands it has already done much to repair that legacy."

"I told her just as much," said Raphane, "Although, truth be told, I didn't press the argument too hard. The thing is aberrant and bloody disgusting to boot and I'd just as soon not have to look at it," Raphane added, grimacing at the toothlike projections and pulsating buboes that adorned the weapon.

"I see," said Wyll. He gave Raphane a smile before restoring the weapon's covering. "I'll hold onto it for now. But, onto more important matters, it's fortunate for you that Dammon happens to be the ducal forgemaster now. Come, I'll take you to him."

"Thank you, Wyll. Oh. Have you seen Lae'zel?"

"Not since after the battle when she rode off on that dragon."

"I'm so sorry. You two were good together."

Wyll's smile turned commiserating, "Thank you, Raphane. There aren't many people who could understand how I could fall in love with a gith. But Lae'zel has her destiny and I have mine. If the fates are kind, those destinies will align again in time."

Karlach hadn't ventured far from the gate hall while Raphane had been gone to Baldur's Gate. She found herself sitting on one of the tiered steps surrounding the room's sunken floor, holding her greataxe upright with two fingers and periodically spinning it by tapping the blade.

The hall contained gateways leading to lots of different cities, each of those gateways resembling tall mirrors through which one could see those different cities. When he had lorded over this place, Raphael used the gateways to keep tabs on his patrons and clients scattered all over Faerûn. Although originally keyed only to work for Raphael himself, and certain select servants, Hope had since discovered how to loosen those locks.

The berserker had peered through each gateway once but the exercise of looking at places she couldn't visit herself without bursting into flames became tiresome almost instantly.

Karlach jumped to her feet when the portal to Baldur's Gate flared and Raphane stepped through, looking somewhat overburdened, with a large satchel hanging from each shoulder.

"You didn't have to wait up for me," said Raphane when she saw Karlach.

"Little else to do," said Karlach, returning her greataxe to its baldric as she crossed over to Raphane, "Let me help with those bags. You do some shopping while you were topside?"

"I brought someone for you," said Raphane. She reached into one of the satchels and retrieved a stuffed bear, marked with several dark scorch marks, before holding it out toward Karlach.

"Clive!" Karlach called out before reflexively snatching the stuffed bear from Raphane and hugging it tightly.

"The satchels have mostly got our things from camp. Wyll had it all put into storage after we had to make our sudden exit," said Raphane. "Lae'zel and Astarion's things too. If we happen to run into them, we'll have to let them know."

Karlach sighed. "I wonder how they're doing. Wait, did you see Wyll? How is he?"

"Settling into his role as Grand Duke Wyll Ravengard, and very, very busy to boot. He could only spare a few minutes for me before he said he had to run off to a meeting with some dignitaries from Athkatla."

Karlach laughed, "So hard to ima-" she was cut off mid-sentence when the Baldur's Gate portal flared again and through it stepped a male tiefling, light-skinned and blue-eyed. "Dammon!" Karlach exclaimed, before giving the mechanic a big hug, as she was still holding Clive, he was part of the moment as well. Simultaneously, Karlach glared at Raphane. "You brought Dammon to Avernus?"

"I insisted," said Dammon as Karlach let him go, "Bit of a house call, if you will."

"He needs to see what kind of state your engine is in," said Raphane.

"Ok," said Karlach hesitantly, "But let's do this fast. I don't want my favorite mechanic in this literal hellhole any longer than necessary."

They had gone to the room in the House that Karlach and Raphane were sharing for a bit of privacy.

Karlach was pulling her shirt back down after Dammon had finished his examination. She was trying to read his face to see if there was likely to be good or bad news in her near future but the infernal mechanic's face was a mask of concentration.

"Well the engine is running normally," said Dammon as he put his tools away.

"As if anything about the tin can could be called 'normal,'" said Karlach.

"The coolant chamber we added is stressed to its limit though. Like you waited until the very last second to come back to Avernus."

"Very nearly pushed it past its limit," admitted Karlach, and exchanged a meaningful look with Raphane.

"Well, I'm glad you changed your mind. I'd like a quick word with Raphane, if you don't mind," he said to Karlach.

Raphane blinked and started, "What could you possibly have to say to me that you couldn't-"

"It's alright, darling," Karlach interrupted, "go ahead."

"Just out in the hall," said Dammon. "Should only take a minute."

Raphane sighed and looked at Karlach. The berserker sat down on the edge of the bed, staring ahead at the wall. "We won't be long," she promised.

Karlach was left alone with her doubts. She could hear the indistinct mumble of Dammon and Raphane's conversation coming from the other side of the door. She felt no temptation to eavesdrop. The news would come soon enough, and if the news was bad, these might be the best last moments of the rest of her life. Experience had taught Karlach that no matter how bleak, painful and hopeless things were, they could get worse.

The door opened and the other two tieflings returned. Raphane had an encouraged look on her face that shone like a beacon to Karlach in that moment.

"So, uhm," started Dammon, making it rather clear this wasn't rehearsed. He spread his hands, "would you like the good news or the bad news first?"

Karlach groaned. "Let's start with the bad. Mix it up a bit."

"I can't fix your engine. Not permanently."

Karlach dropped her gaze at the bluntness of the admission. Raphane sat down beside her on the bed and put a steadying hand on her shoulder.

"I spent a lot of time working with Gondians," Dammon explained, "once they agreed to meet with me. Anyhow, the construction of your engine is just fundamentally different-"

"I think," Raphane interrupted as Karlach's eyes were starting to glaze, "that she's probably ready for the good news now."

"Right," Dammon continued, "So we did figure out a cooling mix that, once we make some repairs to the insulating chamber, should allow you to return to the material plane."

"But not permanently?" asked Karlach.

"No," said Dammon, "we're estimating two weeks to as long as a month at a time."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," said Karlach, "But I'm not sure that's worth it. If I go back to Faerûn, I just… I don't think I could bring myself to come back to Avernus a fourth time. It was hard enough to make the trip this time. And even if I'm stuck down here… the fact is, I don't want to die."

"You'll change your mind once you listen to the rest of what Dammon has to say," said Raphane with a smirk. Karlach looked at Raphane, confused. "Go on," Raphane said to Dammon.

*The temporary fix to your engine is just to stabilize it," explained Dammon, "so that it can be safely removed without danger of catastrophic failure destroying your body and killing whoever performs the removal… probably myself," he explained, finishing with a sheepish grin.

"Can I assume part of this plan is going to help me cope with having neither heart nor engine?" Karlach asked.

"Resurrection," said Raphane, orange within black eyes dancing with excitement. "With the engine safely out of the way, a resurrection spell will return you to life and replace any missing body parts. The engine has got to be removed first though. Otherwise you would just resurrect with the engine still in you and we'd be back where we started." She squeezed Karlach's shoulder, "But this is it, Karlach. You can have a real heart again."

Karlach's eyes flitted back and forth rapidly between Raphane and Dammon. "Is this true?" she asked Dammon, uncertainly. When he nodded she let out a triumphant laugh and tapped a claw against her engine. "Hear that, little fucker? Your days are numbered." She let out another laugh then looked at Dammon again, "And what would that number be, exactly?"

"It's hard to say," Dammon admitted, "Procuring the materials will take time."

Karlach's eyes took on a fiercely eager gleam as she stood up. "Well I'll go out right now and turn a Demon Grinder to scrap if-"

"No, no, no," Dammon interjected. "Thanks to the decommissioning of the Steel Watch, I have more than enough infernal metal to fix the insulating chamber. It's the ingredients to the coolant that are tricky. Some of them are expensive, rare, and difficult to transport. They'll have to be sourced from all over Faerûn. It could take as long as a year."

"A year!?" Karlach exclaimed. "You see, that was the bad news."

"I think you're forgetting something, Dammon," said Raphane.

A short walk down the hall later, the three tieflings were back in the gateway hall.

"This could speed things up," Dammon admitted, looking through the gateways to the different cities. He turned to look at the other two tieflings. "I have the notes for exactly what I need back at my forge. If Hope doesn't mind me using this place as a shortcut… I'll start with Waterdeep. It's a major trade hub. I may even be able to find most of the ingredients there."

"You mean we will," Raphane told Dammon, "You're Karlach's best chance of getting out of Avernus permanently and alive. I'm not letting you go anywhere by yourself."

Dammon chuckled, "Pride would have me say that I can take care of myself but when a legendary adventurer demands to be my bodyguard, who am I to say no?"

"Legendary?" said Karlach. "People actually know about us up there, now?"

"Oh, absolutely," said Dammon. "Our Duke Ravengard has been singing your praises for months. Even commissioned statues of both of you and the rest of your party."

"So much for anonymity," laughed Karlach.

"If I get my list, do you want to start shopping today?" Dammon asked Raphane.

"Why wait? There's still a good amount of daylight left." Raphane said, beaming a smile at Karlach.

"I'll do just that then," said Dammon, before heading through the gate back to Baldur's Gate.

"Between us," Raphane said to Karlach once Dammon had gone, "I don't think we have to worry about our anonymity. Hardly anyone recognized me when I was back in the city and the statues barely look anything like us. They got my horns all wrong, made my breasts about twice the size and they made you look like a, uhm, man."

Karlach blinked, "What?" Then another thought occurred to her while the two of them were walking back to their room. "So are you going to be doing the resurrection?"

"No," Raphane shook her head. "That spell is a bit beyond me."

"One of your druid friends then? Am I finally going to see your grove?"

"A bit beyond them as well," Raphane admitted with a slight chuckle. Back in their room, she was now getting a travel pack ready for the trip to Waterdeep. "Larswood Grove isn't exactly one of the big ones; would make the Emerald Grove look like a metropolis by comparison. I was thinking of the Temple of Selûne. We have an in with them, after all. Two of them, in fact."

"Aylin and Isobel," remarked Karlach, "Love them. We should do a double date with them sometime when we're all on the same plane of existence. You think Isobel can do it?"

"If she can't, one of them will be able to help us contact someone in their temple who can," said Raphane, "We freed a daughter of Selûne herself from the Shar's domain, after all. That has to count for something. Isobel told me about the Selûnite enclave outside Baldur's Gate. I'll pay them a visit once I've seen Dammon around Waterdeep."

"My world traveler," said Karlach, proudly.

Raphane gave a commiserating half smile to Karlach, "Seeing the world would mean more to me if you could come with. I'll try not to see too much without you."

"Don't feel sorry for me," said Karlach, smiling back. "This is the best day I have had in a long while. The best news I've heard in a long while. To just think I could be free of this damned thing in my chest!"

"I know," said Raphane, stepping forward to wrap her arms around Karlach, then joyfully soaking up the warm embrace when the larger tiefling hugged her back.