Chapter 2: An Invitation Extended - Infernal Machine Rebuild

Chapter 2: An Invitation Extended. After the characters return from the woods (or at any appropriate time depending on which adventure hooks you've used), the party is sought out by two competing agents. Lynx Creatlach and Sir Ursas are both searching for any missing components from the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad, and their spies have returned with news of the characters' knowledge or possession of the components from the clock tower. The agents look to meet with the characters, acquire the components they've found, and engage them to help find more. If you did not run chapter 1, or if the party bypassed the clock tower entirely, you can have the agents simply contact the characters based on their reputation. Recovering the missing components is not a task for the faint of heart, and Lynx and Sir Ursas are looking for capable adventurers to help them. Background Two archdevils-Zariel and Bel-have longed battled for control over Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. To advance their cause, both archdevils plan to rebuild the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad, then incorporate that artifact into a powerful infernal war machine. To this end, both devils have placed competing agents into the world, tasking them with collecting as many of the missing components of the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad as possible. These agents, Lynx Creatlach and Sir Ursas, know of one another and of their competing agendas. They each desire to meet the characters separately, hoping to engage them to collect more of the needed missing components. Through their own research of legends, ancient texts, journals, and the like (as well as spying on one another), both agents have located additional missing components. However, recent expeditions to the locations described in these texts has proven fruitless, with the missing components revealed as lost, destroyed, or locked away beyond mortal reach. Each agent now desires to launch a new expedition to these locations-but to a differe...