The party met with Alastair, a contractor from the Emerald Enclave, outside the walls of Hawthorne. As they spoke to him, and Oberyn ruthlessly taunted him, he began explaining that the Enclave had concerns about the Efreeti presence in the temple that was discovered in the previous mission. The Enclave wanted the party to travel to the City of Brass in the Elemental Plane of Fire, making their way via route of the Astral Sea, in order to identify why the two enslaved Efreeti, Vix and Vox, came under the control of a long-forgotten Zakharan god of undeath, Thasmudyan. The party gave Alastair their names on parchment, which he asked for, but something went terribly wrong. It seemed that instead of simply casting sending, he had followed a spell recipe from some unknown text given to him by his contact in the City of Brass. The party found flames curling around their bodies, and very soon they found themselves on a hot stone floor. As they looked around, they realized they were in a coliseum, as an enormous Efreeti stared down at them from a high up pedestal, laughing and encouraging them to fight one another. The party put on a show, and with the combined efforts of Valerie, Ozrin, and Richter, the party was able to break the magic that was binding them, which in many ways was not too dissimilar from spells that they regularly use, such as Conjure Animals. When the spell was broken, the party found themselves stranded somewhere deep in the streets of the City of Brass, realizing that at least they were sort of in the right place. They found that they had managed to recover a map from Alastair before they had been whisked away. The only problem was, they had no idea which direction was North. This frustrated Oberyn the most. The intense heat was blistering, and the party sought shelter inside a tavern run by a Genasi named Fildred. They ordered some food, which was not very good, and the chef took a keen interest in Ozrin and Lucille’s cooking abilities. He asked them for a demonstration and gave them access to the pantry and kitchen. Oberyn supervised with his keen eyes. Ozrin used dragonleaf, which proved quite hot, to make his dish, which contained pressed meats and brussel sprout paste. Lucille’s was better, a flank steak simmered and grilled with spices, including paprika and saffron. The chef tried each and decided they had created impressive concoctions. Fildred, the owner, offered them each a job, but they declined. Richter tried the dish made by Ozrin, and he found that consuming Dragonleaf proved to be too much to bear, as he combusted for about 30 seconds. He managed to quench the flames, but suffered a massive headache. Ozrin pocketed 7 dragonleaf pieces. The party was banned from the establishment after an altercation between Ozrin, Oberyn, and the owner, who believed them to be spies from a competing establishment. They are banned for life from the Phoenix Fare Tavern in the City of Brass. The party travelled through a merchant district, and Valerie overheard a few nobles discussing the recent demotion of a wealthy individual on 7th avenue, who had a commotion that morning with a spell that was intended to conjure lesser mortals. She noted this in her head, as she prepared to tell the party later. The party witnessed a group of the Royal Guard of Sultan Marrake al-Sidan al-Hariq ben Lazan, high ruler of the City of Brass and of the Elemental Plane of Fire. The guard accused a local merchant of tax fraud, then burned down his shop and killed him. One of the efreeti glared at the party, but they kept moving on their patrol. The party learned that the elite force of the City of Brass’ military is known as the Illuminated. They considered that their best lead for Vix and Vox lie in the slave market, past the flaming canals at the edge of town. They headed there, and Oberyn noticed that several Genasi of good heart were being sold. He, on behalf of Richter, invited the Efreeti slaver to a duel. If the Efreeti won, Richter would become a slave for the market. If Richter won, the seven Genasi would be released to Oberyn and the party. The Efreeti was proud and confident, and he agreed to the duel. They began. Richter spun his blades and slashed three times, catching the Efreeti off-guard. Richter sliced directly across the Efreeti’s chest, staggering him. The Efreeti looked surprised at the skill of Richter’s combat prowess, but spun his scimitar as it ignited in red flame. He lunged at Richter with two strikes, and connected both times. The fire cauterized the wounds created by the blade, and Richter acknowledged a small amount of pain. Richter turned and swung three more times. With each strike, Richter drained his own life force in order to hasten the defeat of the Efreeti. The Efreeti at this point was bleeding and nearly defeated, but came in for another set of strikes. Richter parried the second one, and landed his second blade under the Efreeti’s left ribcage. The Efreeti went to bring his blade up again, but crumpled unconscious to the ground, defeated. After a few moments, the party noticed the excited crowd of Efreeti and Genasi onlookers begin to pay off bets they had made about the duel, as the seven Genasi were released to the party’s custody. Oberyn had Ozrin speak to each one in private, and gathered the following information: 1) Vix and Vox had been sold through a strange Efreeti in the outskirts, far outside of town. 2) The name of the wealthy individual that Valerie had overheard talk about, and likely the one who summoned them for entertainment earlier, was Havio Ofnifo. 3) The only way out of the city is with a teleportation circle at the front gate. It costs 100gp to leave, per creature. With this information, Oberyn gave them each 10gp and told them to stay safe. They were very grateful, and gifted the party some healing tools. The Efreeti who had lost the duel to Richter had been chained and sold into the slave market, as the party made their exit. They decided that they would first try to track down Havio, as they wanted to deal with him first. Oberyn had recognized earlier that Havio’s so-called “daughter” was in fact a slave of his, and wanted to free her. They searched the residential districts, and Valerie shared what she had learned about him earlier, and that he likely lived on 7th Avenue. The party traced that to a small road, filled with more aristocratic decor. They narrowed it down to two houses. Valerie tried to have her familiar, Bo, scout, but he was shot out of the sky. It was at this point that they remembered that flight was not legal for anyone except the Sultan in the City of Brass. This made Valerie very sad. They tried the first house, which had a massive bronze and iron door. A fire mephit in a butler’s outfit answered, and told them that no Havio lived here. They went down the street to the other house, and Oberyn knocked quite loudly. The same mephit answered, and explained that Havio was at work. They asked for the daughter, who they learned was named Genevieve. They asked her how they could free her, and she explained she would have to be freely given away or purchased. They asked the mephit to relay a message to Havio, inviting him to a duel on the fields of battle outside the city. If they lost, he would own them as eternal playthings. If they won, they would take custody of Genevieve. He agreed to the duel, so long as he could bring some of his guards. The party was teleported to a combat ground, 5 miles outside the city. Havio grew rapidly in size which towered over the party. Oberyn noticed that a strange energy radiated from him, as if he was not fully Efreeti, but some sort of fiendish hybrid as well. The party fought with him and six greater fire elementals, as they braced against the outpour of flame and lava from each strike. Oberyn weakened him quickly, dealing massive amounts of trauma to his lower body and torso. He screamed at Oberyn and unleashed a blast of white hot flame, scorching the entire party and turning rock to ash. It was at this moment that Xanthus reached into his pouch, he brought out a Brass horn and blew it, as the sound echoed across the landscape. Havio looked pleased for a moment, announcing that no war cry would save them, but then 14 armored, hulking berserkers from the land of Ysgard, warriors of the finest caliber, appeared before Xanthus. They raised javelins that pulsed with electricity, and as Havio realized this, they fired. Havio was blasted with a torrent of lightning and metal, as he fell to one knee. The blast disintegrated two fire elementals who were unfortunate enough to be in its path. Havio called down a ball of fire, but he could not finish the spell, for Oberyn jabbed him in the throat with his weapon, and cut off his ability to finish his casting. Oberyn leaped into the air and sliced through Havio’s upper body, as he crumbled to ash, which blew away in the hot breeze. His belt collapsed to the floor, the buckle, which was round and made of hot stone and metal, stopped glowing, as the fire elementals dissipated. Ozrin teleported the party and the belt back to the City, and Richter told Geneveive what had happened. He has adopted her as his own. The party decided they were too worn out to pursue their lead on Vix and Vox this day, so they made for the teleportation circle at the gate, and hurried home.
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