The leap into Avernus

Mount Aperdē

[AN: So I have elected that making stuff up in favour of deep dive research is better (Not that I don't love deep dive research but this is faster) Mount Aperdē is fictional not connected to mythology or history (as far as I know). Also I may be getting a walking stick soon as I fall over 10-30 times a day and have decided that is concerning and I'm probs making my joints worse by falling on them. It gonna be a boring cane but I'll decorate.                                                                            Side note it's so fun reading back your writing after a week cause its either 'not as bad as I remember maybe I'm not a hack' or 'I don't remember being near alcohol poisoning when I wrote this so why do it look like that'.  As always thankyou for being here and if you enjoyed feel free to leave a comment :) GG] 

Mount Aperdē. A formidable place. Miles of reflective black stone that was said to resemble the shattered fragments of a sword. That comparison may have been drawn from the piles of broken ones that lay at the foot of the mountain. The weapons almost acting as headstones for those foolish enough to approach. It is made abundantly clear by the gravesite that people did not head warnings and many are foolish. 

The mountain by itself is impressive. With a great stature that could be seen from cities away. It is riddled with caves and sharp grooves that create intricate patterns running all around. The top of the peak pierces through the clouds allowing you to imagine its infinite height. The few stragglers that were allowed to return spread that it was oddly cold. Passing the lake to its shore the temperature drops. Perhaps they misremembered or perhaps the chill came from the fear of greeting the monster and those that lived in it. The accounts were few and even those had setbacks. It seemed a certain distance from the lake proved fatal. No one had ever detailed the interior of the mountain. 

Once you reached the threshold you were no longer amongst the living.

Why would so many make the journey? Mount Aperdē for all its faults is said to be home to an array of things with supernatural qualities. If you were to scale the side and reach the caves (where all the demonic creatures live) you would discover something. That while the outside is dark and dreary the inside is an array of  glowing coloured plants.

 For example one that is highly sought after is the Flos caecus- sometimes lovingly referred to as Cecil. Many speak of it as being small with a straight brown stem and bell shaped flower that droops down. The colour varies from person to person but most agree its either a cream white or azure blue with light spots speckled across it. But most of its fame comes from the bulb. A light grassy green with serrations and white lines around; as well four teeth like indentations. If you stew this bulb the one who drinks it will be cured of their blindness or if one is not blind their eye sight will be improved tenfold giving them demigod like vision. No-one is quite sure why the plant was named like a person-maybe to personify the hope of a plant that could grant sight- but whatever the reason it has stuck. Now when one is suffering from vision loss many have taken to saying 'May Cecil cure you'. 

Those brave (and foolish) enough flocked to the mountain to obtain Cecil and other objects endowed with the power to cure disease, make you gain strange and useful assets or have any kind of property that could be exploited to sell to the rich. 

However, none of that was why June was interested in it.

Mount Aperdē is hailed as the home of Avernus. Or to put it into simpler terms the entrance to the underworld. Where Dani is trapped.                                                                                                                  At the base of Aperdē there are the doors. Carved by Thanatos. Behind it are the steps that lead you into the darkness. And once she finds the house of souls she can bring Dani home.