Tyranny reigns

So what happens when someone is causing trouble in the burg? Someone who is cocky enough to actually try to incite a revolt against the so-called ruler of Ribcage, and assassinates key personnel in order to thwart the baatezu hold of the burg? That is simple: that individual is baited and trapped, at all costs, so that the citizens *never* forget who the real rulers are...

-Passage to Baator-

Only the barmy or the tarmy would dare try to enter Baator. Nevertheless, it has happened before, and will happen again, that a totally sane person needs to descend to the pits for one reason or another. The easiest way to involve the PCs in this adventure is for them to have business to Baator or Ribcage. They are here on their own free will. Of course, there are other ways... They could also have been taken prisoner almost anywhere in the multiverse and brought back as slaves. Perhaps they arrive by accident, because of a faulty teleport spell, it’s all up to the DM. They could even be rescued by Finwé (see below), and then be sought out by her, as she tries to escape Ribcage after the assassination. All that matters is that, at the time the events described below take place, they are in Ribcage.

-Finwé: eladrin, Anarchist and Martyr-

To understand Finwé, you must understand the eladrin mind. Finwé is a ghaele eladrin, an individual of extreme power and wisdom. The ghaele are the knights-errant of the eladrins. Wherever evil and tyranny raise their ugly heads, the ghaele respond. Well, Ribcage is as evil and as tyrannous as you get, without actually going to Baator. Still, Finwé is hardly a typical ghaele. In her true form, Finwé is exceptionally beautiful. She hides her beauty out of necessity, as it would mean her destruction if anyone discovered what she is. The form she wears is that of a rather plain tiefling. Now, most eladrin would recognize the sheer barminess of going to Ribcage to fight off tyranny, but Finwé’s resolve is rather special. Finwé is an Anarchist, a member of the Revolutionary League. She's not afraid to lay down her life in the fight against tyranny, if she can only light the spark of freedom in a single person, it will be worth it. She is, of course, having delusions of grandeur. Ribcage is probably an impossible target for freedom, seemingly much more likely to slide into Baator than anything else. None the less, Finwé was really smitten by the Anarchist manifesto, and she is willing to try. Thing is, she’s been rather successful.... so far...

-Enough is enough-

The dark eight have begun to suspect celestial involvement, and Zimimar, the eighth member, has focused her attention on the burg. Now, only a fool would think that the Dark Eight don’t at least keep a close watch over Ribcage...after all, it pays to guard your front door well. Few realize the full extent of Baatezu control over the burg, though, and the fiends like it that way. Ribcage may remain a “free burg”, but it is still considered the property of Baator.

”A celestial inciting a revolt in Ribcage is totally unacceptable. Remove this threat, and I’ll make it worthwhile for you.” -Zimimar, member of the dark eight, to Lord Paracs.

But as it would hardly serve the mighty pit fiend to chase rogue celestials around Ribcage (besides being beneath her), she has “negotiated” a....solution...with the unofficial ruler of the Burg, Lord Quentill Paracs. Paracs, willing to go to great lengths to keep the Dark Eight out of Ribcage, has set a rather devious trap in motion. He realizes that the individual he is dealing with isn’t stupid, and very careful. However, he also realizes that only a near-barmy idealist would fight against tyranny in Ribcage, he thinks he can bait her with something no radical lover of freedom could ignore: an ambassador of the Dark Eight, and a ruler of a conquered prime world.

-A bishop for a queen-

The man in mention is baron Dorien Ymve, actually a ruler of a minor prime world who has angered his baatezu masters. Baron Ymve is but an intelligent bully, and a coward at heart. When ordered to go to Ribcage as an ambassador to “strengthen the bond between Ribcage and Baator”, he is simply too scared to refuse. He knows that he is about to be sacrificed in Zimimar’s scheme, but hopes she will think him useful enough to revive afterwards. It is his last hope.

Throughout Ribcage, the ambassador's visit is made public (although the ambassador’s prime origin is stressed and the baatezu connection downplayed), and plans for a great propagandic parade through the heart of the burg is announced. Seemingly, security will be lax, to “allow the people of Ribcage unhindered access to the ambassador”. In fact, an entire legion of Paracs’ Blackguard is covering the entire area in secret, waiting to block the retreat of the expected assassin. Suspecting the revolutionary celestial to be incredibly powerful, a number of high-level mercenaries have been hired especially for this occasion, and four cornugons, gracefully ‘lent’ from Zimimar’s personal escort, are standing by to teleport in when the assassin has been spotted.

If the PCs have already made contact with Finwé, they might even be a part of the assassination attempt, although Finwé insists on attacking the ambassador herself. The PCs would be assigned the tasks of distraction and getaway. This should be really challenging, unless they somehow manage to find out about the ambush. Finwé won’t back out of the attempt, even if it would mean her death, no matter what arguments the PCs might come up with. She will understand if they do not wish to be a part of it, though. If the PCs aren’t a part of the assassination attempt, then they are simply watching the parade when Finwé strikes (they might recognize her even if she didn’t trust them enough to include them in her plans). The attack seems near flawless, the baron waving the crowd in a patronizing way one moment, and dead the next. Suddenly, the unseen attacker’s veiling magic is dispelled, and a huge non-teleportation zone appears out of nowhere. Blackguard troopers horde out of every alley, and bowmen appear on every rooftop. They are all armed with cold steel weapons. The assassin leaps into ferocious motion and tears into the ranks of the Blackguard, who seem thrown out of balance by the sheer power of the creature they face. Four shadows pass overhead, in rapid succession. The cornugon attack is dispassionate and precise, but Finwé manages to wound one of them badly and rush back into the crowd, escaping capture.

If the PCs haven’t met Finwé yet, they will hear only of the incredible force lord Paracs is pouring onto the streets to capture this single person. Then, as the blockades are finally opened to allow the exhausted parade watchers home, they come upon the mortally wounded ghaele, too exhausted to fight even mortals, begging them for help. Their mission then, would be to get her the hell out of Ribcage, before Paracs mercenaries find her or his wizards can divine her position. All portals known to Paracs or the Cornugons (probably most of them) will be sealed, and the city gates closed. And the entire time, the non-teleportation zone will be kept up, with Paracs’ most poweful (and most expensive) mages forming a circle to make it big enough to cover the entire city. It will be no easy task.

Of course, if they *have* met her before, they will probably want to help her as soon as Paracs’ trap is sprung. It could get very interesting, with the Eladrin running from the fiends and Blackguard and the PCs trying to find her before they do. If they succeed, chances are she won’t be as wounded as if she had to avoid her pusuers all day, and then it will be easier to escape Ribcage.

There is one more way that the PCs could be involved with Finwé – on the other side, as mercenaries trying to bring her in, dead or alive. This should seriously bother all but the most evil characters, but could be challenging none the less, if the PCs are to combat the powerful ghaele. No doubt another group, more heroic than the PCs, will be aiding the Eladrin revolutionary, and it will be up the PCs to foil their plans.

-Aftermath-

If the PCs manage to save Finwé, she will be thankful but sad. She knows she cannot return to Ribcage, now that she knows lord Paracs (and possibly some other, more powerful foe) is hunting her. Also, the jeers and insults the citizens of Ribcage threw at her during the hectic chase in the burg’s heart, has affected her idealism. If people don’t want to be freed, then who is she to free them?

It is more than possible that the PCs were seen during the rescue, and if so, they have made a powerful enemy indeed. The Dark Eight don’t forgive failure, and chances are that lord Paracs will try to get even. Even they haven’t made themselves important enough to be acted on now, they are most assuredly marked by the Dark Eight as troublemakers and allies of the revolutionary league or the eladrin. That is not a good thing to be when the Dark Eight have your description.

Finally, if the PCs were actually working for Paracs, they will also be marked by the Dark Eight, but this time as useful mercenaries, which might be good to be able to call upon again. Involvement with the Dark Eight, whether you knew of it or not, damns you, whether you work for them or against them.