Hell's Belles Episode 1

You can watch this show on Twitch right here

This is a new show on the D&D Twitch channel that airs on Sunday nights. They are playing through a classic Planescape adventure, The Great Modron March, converted to 5th edition.

Obviously this is of great interest to me, because I ran the exact same thing a few years back and really enjoy seeing how other people play through it.

On top of that, this show features a bewildering collection of players that I either know, have played with, or admire! Shauna plays in my online games and is the co-host of Waffle Talk with me. Lysa is a frequent guest star on my shows. I've had Kayla, Mazz, and Holly on as guests on Waffle Talk.

This group has 7 players! That's a lot. I was wondering if it would hurt the pacing, but it didn't at all.

The Party

DM Mazz

(Shauna) Levity - Tiefling Monk linked to Glasya
(Chloe Christine) Lyra - Tiefling Paladin
(Hadeel) Miga - Tiefling Rogue an urchin who lives by the sea
(Holly Conrad) Durge - Tiefling Bard college of whispers, member of the Dustmen
(Lysa Chen) Mercy - Tiefling Shadow sorcerer from Ravenloft
(TK Johnson) Gille - Tiefling Paladin
(Kayla)  Pentar - Tiefling linked to Zuggtmoy

The heroes are in the grand bazaar of Sigil.  Shopkeepers are touting their wares, a number of dabus are clipping razorvine.

The group spots Chastity, an ally who has been helping the group get acclimated to the city. Levity buys some cranium rat skewers. Miga eats an entire rat skewer in one bite.

Pentar is picking mushrooms off of her body. She holds one up to Mercy, who swats it away.

Gille taps his foot, looks around, wondering when Levity will bring him his food.

Lyra picks through a food stall and buys apples for everyone. She hands them out to the group.

Durge thinks the cranium rat skewer is under-cooked. She's pretty sure Miga will experience the True Death soon.

The group suddenly begins to feel excruciating pain. For some reason, it is relieved slightly when they walk in a particular direction. Mercy thinks Pentar implanted spores in everyone's brain.

The trail of less pain leads to a shop once owned by Durge's uncle, Jysson. He was a clerk.

Mercy opens the door and asks, "Uncle J"? There's dust everywhere. Papers and notebooks everywhere. Mercy is a bit of a neat freak. She screams and shuts the door.

Miga pulls out the rat skewer, ready for battle. Gille thinks that this is a chance for heroics. The heroes cautiously enter the building.

Levity hears a voice that says, "Oh dear, I had no idea that this would happen."

A cat jumps on a table. It's grey. It talks! The cat cocks its head, and asks, "Durge?"

Miga hides and hisses at the cat. Durge shakes its paw. It's Uncle Jysson, in cat form. He explains that he died and became a petitioner for one of the lords in the beastlands.

Then, a book begins to speak. It's the source of the pain they'd been experiencing. It has drawn the group here to speak to them about Automata, the gate town to Mechanus.

There's a face in the book. It explains that its master, Heiron Lifegiver, has a debt that must be repaid. The Book wants the group to travel to the gate town of Automata.

The portal to Automata is in the clerk's ward. The key to the portal is a piece of paper torn perfectly in half with the letter "e" on each half.

Miga and Pentar can't read, so this "e" thing is more difficult than expected.

As the group leaves and hits the streets of Sigil, Miga does some pickpocketing and nabs a cool 13 silver pieces.

Mercy notices in an alleyway that there is someone organizing pens. It's a round ball - a monodrone. Mercy reorganizes the pens. The monodrone has got red paint on him. S3-4N. Heyyyyyy..... wait a minute.

Mercy watches him put things in order. S3-4N has one normal robot arm and the other has a fork hand.

Mercy has one white clawed arm. Her other arm is like stained glass due to a curse. S3-AN smiles. The tieflings like him.

Miga wants the monodrone. It says "Designation modron from Mechanus." Miga sees that his hand is made of treasure.

Pentar licks him and sticks two mushrooms to him. It asks Miga if she's a modron. Miga says yes, she's "Miga 2". Miga shows the group the monodrone and says that it's shaped like a friend.

A door pops open in its side. It has a little... flavor packet... it spices the mushroom and starts chewing on it. Wut. It hands Mercy the rest. It's shiftspice. In a flavor packet. Mercy puts the flavor packet in there.

OK. Wow! Let me explain this. A few weeks back, I ran an adventure called Rrakkma online. I put shiftspice in it, which is a cool item from Planescape: Torment. Basically, you put it on your food, imagine the flavor - and that's the flavor of the spice.

I went on and on about the shiftspice, and the group dared to suggest that it comes in little flavor packets, like mustard at a fast food place. I dramatically informed them that shiftspice only comes in containers like salt shakers - it's too cool and magical to be found in a flimsy little flavor packet.

Since that time, my players have been attempting to do all sorts of stuff with their flavor packets, and every time I have to correct them.

During a recent dinosaur race, the group tried to entice their triceratops mount by dangling food  in front of it - trying to put shiftspice from a flavor packet on the food to core sweet advantage on the check! I was outraged.

So, on this show, apparently there is a modron whose name is suspiciously similar to mine that is dispensing shiftspice flavor packets.

Clearly, I will have to retaliate in some manner on one of my shows, at the very least to clear the air about why the githzerai would never put shiftspice in a flavor packet. I mean, it's just not feasible.

She picks up S3-4N and holds it over Miga. It uses its fork hand to comb Miga's hair. Miga tells it to rest and it shuts down.

The group steps through the portal and appears in Automata, sometimes referred to as "Old Tomato" by the adventurers. All the buildings are the same size. The people walk in neat lines and rows. Most of them are wearing identical grey robes. The group hears a voice declare that "newcomers must register."

Jysson is with the group. He recommends that the group ditch the guards or they'll be in lines for hours. They take his advice.

Miga pickpockets.. rolls a d100. Gets a 69. She yoinks a dog-eared pamphlet containing... modron porn. Oh no.. S3-4N sees it. Its eye goes wide. Can not unsee.

Gille snatches it away. Levity wants it. Lyra advises that Gille hides it in his haversack. The chat has many a title for this pron booklet:

• "Love Knows No HD Limits."
• "How to Oil Your Gears."
• "Two Modrons - One Coupler"

The group nears Fandal's smoked meats. The book says that this is definitely where its makers used to live. The master's name was Heiron Lifegiver.

Miga goes in with some money. She asks, "Is there a wizard? Can I have meat?" The shop was once owned by Heron, but it has been sold. She is told that Heron has been seen at a halfling tavern not too far from here. The Book knows where the tavern is.

The heroes head to the halfling bar, which is sized for small creatures. Levity spots someone she knows - Chastity. Durge performs for the patrons and hands out pamphlets on the True Death.

Chastity quietly advises the group that Heiron is in hiding. The Council of Anarchy is after him. This council tries to keep Automata from getting too lawful so that it doesn't slide into Mechanus.

Chastity tells the group that Heiron is in a closet in a building nearby. It's guarded at night.

The group buys forged papers and heads to the Council of Order building. They make their way inside and find the closet. Heiron opens the door - he's a half-elf.

Suddenly, the door vanishes and he tumbles to the floor. A high elf woman and 8 hired goons are here. The high elf wants to put the heroes in the dead book. Durge says she is so ready to go in the dead book.

Durge casts crown of madness on the high elf and forces her to attack one of her allies.

Miga rushes a guy and and stabs him with the skewer. The guy's eyeball comes out. Good gawd.

The adventurers pummel the guards. Then.. chaos ensues. The people of the city are running around. someone shouts out that the modrons are marching.

S3-AN asks, "What is happening?"

The portal in Automata is open and modrons are pouring through. Hundreds of them. One of the goons snatches the book from the heroes and escapes into the crowd.

Jysson tells Durge that the clerk building in Sigil belongs to her now.

Overall

Great show!! Mazz got 7 players through an entire chapter in a single session. That's not easy! Great group, really fun to watch.