Getting Out With the Glaive
We have the Chelish Crux, now we have to get out of the Asmodean Knot. We could go back the way we came, although that means passing through the heart and its randomly opening and closing doors, across a gap to a rickety bridge, and somehow working our way up a water slide. I think the slide by itself makes our return that way rather tricky.
Instead, we could press on through one of the three doors we found in an antechamber immediately before the Outcast King's hall. The problem was that the doors led to a room with the same three doors, which led to the same room with the same three doors, and so on. Brennan went through four iterations without getting anywhere, and turning back brought him immediately before the antechamber again.
A clue to a possible exit is given by symbols on the doors. One has a book, one a holy symbol of Asmodeus, and the third a glaive. We have picked up a bunch of books in here, but none that looks like a key. We've not found a holy symbol of Asmodeus. But we have found a glaive, which we gained by releasing a bearded devil from his imprisonment. Then the paladin threw a strop just because we bargained with a devil and got an evil-aligned intelligent weapon as a result. What a crybaby.
Now I have a perfect excuse to get my hands back on the glaive. 'It's the only key-like object we own that looks like it stands a chance of opening one of these doors', I say, pointing out that it is either getting the glaive out of the handy haversack (unbranded) or going back the long way. Up the water slide. With some consternation, the paladin agrees to let me use the glaive. Oh yeah.
I grasp my friend the glaive and walk up to the door with the glaive symbol on it. As I touch the handle I get a sensation of understanding. I concentrate on heading home and, as I open the door, it opens in to my home. Sweet. I step through the door and am in my bedroom. Holding the glaive. The glaive that is our party's key to exiting the Asmodean Knot. Slamming the door behind me would probably be the Wrong Decision to make, but it's oh-so tempting.
'Throw me the Crux and I'll throw you the glaive!'