--- SIX MONTHS PASS ---
Bellerand gives us gifts. To Pala he gives the Ring of Adventurous Limb; to Percy, the Pipe of Remembrance; to Artur, the Cloak of Dramatic Billowing.
Periodically, we awake from nightmares -- visions of the ritual we interupted, flashes of secret deals, etc. They become more elaborate and grotesque as time passes: people confessing under torture, images of Vecna cultists in robes, strange and horrible creatures.
A flash of light, and the world winks out of existence. We feel a thrum of magic, and when we come to, we are in a stately parlor. Alustriel Silverhand, Mordenkainen, and Tasha introduce themselves. Alustriel tells us that we are in Sigil, and that some magic works differently here. Bellerand reads their surface thoughts: Alustriel is anxious that we might be connected to Vecna; Tasha seems tired; Mordenkainen is confused and wondering about Plan B. Artur explains that we worked together to banish a cult; Pala takes out a lyre and performs a song recalling our deeds. It's enrapturing.
Alustriel tells us that they are deeply converned that Vecna is coming to a power that he hasn't had in centuries. They wished for a stop to him, and we appeared. Artur says that's not what he does and asks to leave; Percy tries to interupt to counter him, saying that we are experienced in such heroics.
Bellerand can see that all three of them are exhausted. He asks, "What's Plan B?" Mordenkainen explains that he thinks Vecna is vulnerable while he weaves his ritual. He shows us a Chime of Exile that would banish him to somewhere, but notes we would need the Rod of Seven Parts, the pieces of which are scattered, to weaken him enough to use it. The first piece of the Rod is in Web's Edge in the Underdark; it should point us to the second piece if we can find it.
Artur demures again; after prodding he reveals that he owes his soul to Helm and is afraid of being sent to the Nine Hells if he ceases to serve the church. He strikes a deal with Tasha and Mordenkainen; they promise to save his soul and his wife's if all goes wrong.
Alustriel offers to let us borrow a magical item for our journey. Percy took a Chime of Opening, Pala took the Horn of Valhalla, Bellerand took a Belt of Hill Giant Strength and gave it to Artur, and Artur took a +1 longsword and non-magical plate armor. Bellerand gives us all one Potion of Fire Breath; he gives Artur a Potion of Polychromy, a Potion of Advantage, and a Potion of Climbing; he gives Pala a Potion of Hill Giant Strength and a Potion of Bottled Breath; he gives Percy a Potion of Advantage. He lathers himself with Oil of Slipperiness.
We step into the dais of Alustriel's parlor and a portal opens. Stepping through it, we emerge into the Underdark. The portal remains behind us, invisible. Pala can see an iron door in front of us but no one else can. On it are eight symbols, subtly carved into the rock above the door. Pala realizes that it would spell "Web's Edge" in Undercommon if one were to rearrange them. He presses them in order and the door unlocks. Bellerand pushes it open.
We see a gleaming thing in the darkness; Percy touches it with Mage Hand and it releases lightning. Four doors lead out of the cavern. Pala Communes with Nature and detects a powerful fiend behind the double door, and senses several giant lizards in the area. We stop for an hour so that Percy can summon a familiar; we are interrupted by a Duergar and a Hobgoblin. Artur, Bellerand, and Pala fight them. We kill the Duergar but the Hobgoblin gets away and calls the fiend. He beats us fairly badly and teleports away when we begin to get the upper hand.
Searching for the fiend in another room, Bellerand encounters a Svirfneblin doing a ritual.
We re-encounter the fiend. Bellerand uses the power of the Neverember secret and we all forget it. We eventually kill him. Percy takes a tusk as a trophy. He has a ring of keys on him.
When we feel the power of the secret that Bellerand spoke, we each feel a sense of dread.
After Pala interrupts the casting Svirfneblin by slashing it, Artur attacks and knocks it unconscious.
Bellerand opens a set of double doors and finds a group of four Giant Lizards. Knowing they are generally dumb creatures, he uses Speak with Animals to offer them food.
Percy checks out the remains of the ritual that the Svirfneblin was casting and sees that it was a Summoning ritual for a fiend, specifically a Glabrezu. He begins to lecture Artur about it, and Artur suprises him by responding that Glabrezu are known to feed of off humans' desire for power. He walks away and leaves Percy quietly seething. Left behind in the room, Percy finds a Scroll of Circle of Death and a magical dagger. He hears voices speaking in Common from around the corner. He takes the items, tying up and gagging the Svirfneblin before he goes.
Artur Summons Food and Water for the Giant Lizards. Passing into the next room, Artur and Bellerand find a room covered in web and a giant Spider Dragon. Another creature nearby looks like it is made from melting wax. Artur speaks to the Spider Dragon in Abyssal and it responds, saying it will eat us if we offer it nothing else. Artur casts Create Food and Water and it is insulted. We fight and kill them.
Artur cuts open a cocoon in the middle of the room and finds the first piece of the Rod of Seven Parts. He tosses it to Percy, who puts it into his bag. He tells the party about the voices that he heard and unties the Svirfneblin in the other room, in preparation to leave.
Percy casts Tiny Hut and Identifies the rod. It allows us to cast Commune once per day. After resting for an hour, we explore the caverns a bit more. Percy finds two Potions of Healing (Superior, 8d4+8) and one Gem of Seeing.
In another room we find jail cells, holding a dead elf, a dead bug bear, a grey skinned figure in Llolth cult robes, and a cyclops. Percy taunts them with the keys he got from the fiend and asks, "Who wants out?" The figure in the robes begs for help. Percy asks what he did to end up in jail. He explains that he was jailed for insulting Ylellith, the Yochlol companion of the Spider Dragon. Artur asks him who would be in the northeast room, and he tells us that's the meeting room where people make plans. Percy asks the cyclops why she is here and she says that she was the lone survivor of the attack on a supply caravan. Percy lets them both out and the cyclops tells us that her name is Gertrude and she will help us fight if we wish. The cultist says his name is Sril and leaves quickly; Percy tells him we'll kill him like we killed the dragon if he tells anyone we were here.
Checking the cells and chests, we find a + 1 dagger, + 1 longsword as well as a Potion of Fire Resistance.
Gertrude tells us her friend Rockzanna was a Svirfneblin who uncovered a cultist plot to attack miners; we take her to go see the Svirfneblin that we knocked out but it is not her. Learning of the attack, we gain another Secret.
The original name of the Rod of Seven Parts was the Rod of Law. It was made eons ago to imprison Miska, the wolf spider, to the plane of Pandemonium. It was shattered into seven parts and scattered across the multiverse.
Bellerand and Artur discuss returning through the portal so as to not have all of the parts of the Rod in the same place at once later. Percy suggests just using the Rod to know where to go next. Pala takes it and Communes with the Raven Queen.
Pala asks 3 questions in Auran: Should we return to the people who sent us, will the portal still work, and should we keep exploring the caves to find things? She answers yes, yes, and "it's not their time yet." Pala reports to the party that we should return.
We return to the portal, which Pala can still see. We return to the sanctum. Pala gives the Rod to Mordenkainen. Bellerand asks what is next and Alustriel says she can "fine tune" the dais to take us to wherever the next piece is, but it will take a few hours. Percy asks for tea.
Malaina van Talstiv, Alustriel's wife, comes down to chat with us.
Bellerand casts Speak with Plants to ask whether the people here are good. They tell him that they are very grateful to Lady Alustriel for her excellent care. He reports this to Alustriel and then goes to bed.
Percy chats with the assembled group for a while, then retires. He places some belongings in a chest (Neverwinter snowglobe, Nalfeshnee tusk, Nalfeshnee earring, + 1 Longsword) and writes down the remaining secrets that he can remember, placing them in the chest as well.
The next morning, we assemble on the dais. Bellerand asks if they have any secrets they can share with us. Malaina laughs and says "none to share." Bellerand takes the Rod and a portal opens before us.
Pinpricks of starlight appear in silver fog around us. We begin to fall through silvery clouds towards a colossal, misshapen mass. We slowly become aware that we can control our movement. We are within the Astal Sea. Bellerand tells us that the Rod appears to be pointing us towards the mass. We move toward it and it begins to appear as if it might be humanoid. Amid the clouds we see two large globes of light moving towards us. Artur and Pala realize that the blobs are actually giant angler fish-type creatures. We attack and kill them.
As we near the mass, we realize it is a shipwreck of a large galleon, embedded in the decaying corpse of a giant humanoid. Magic seems to crackle around us. We enter the prow, where the mast has pierced the heart. The heart is still beating, part stone and part flesh. Percy takes a small shaving off and wraps it in his human skin pouch.
Percy hears sounds from a door in the ship and informs the party. Artur tries the door and the sound stops. A voice asks us why we are here and Percy and Artur answer at the same time, saying we're here for research and we're here to stop Vecna. We hear her weapon unsheath and she tells us that we have one chance to tell us the truth before she takes our heads. Bellerand blurts out that we are seeking the Rod of Seven Parts to stop a great evil, and Percy adds that a fight will do just as well.
She is a Deva with one large wing, tanned skin, red hair, and ice blue eyes. She has a prosthetic right leg. She tells us her name is Inda and this is her ship, the Lambent Zenith, explaining that spelljamming ships allow people to cross the astral plane, and that something messed with the magic propelling her ship, causing them to crash. She believes her crew to be dead, having been here for a month. Bellerand asks her if she had any particular cargo in her ship, and she admits that she was carrying nothing but the piece of the Rod. She asks for help repairing her prosthetic wing. We investigate the wing and after some time we figure out how to mostly fix it. Percy manages to put it back together and she is grateful.
She tells us that the Rod is stored beneath the floor but the room is protected by wards that triggered when the ship crashed. One is in the stateroom in the stern and the other is in the study in the starboard section. She tells us that they can be dispelled but the passphrase is, "The moon sings a song for the lost." She warns us of a large, serpentine monster. Percy asks out of curiousity how she got the Rod part, but she refuses to answer. Artur asks if she thinks her ship could be fixed and she says no. Artur and Percy have another accusatory exchange.
As we make our way to the study, we are ambushed by two spotted sharks and kill them.
When we arrive at the ship, the wreckage of a lifeboat is on top. Atop it is a tree with vibrant blossoms. Roots cover everything. Bellerand speaks to the tree, realizing that it is sentient. It warns us that the place is dangerous when he speaks Druidic. It tells us that it is fine, but that it is afraid that the monsters below will kill its friend if it moves its roots. Bellerand promises to kill the monsters and save the friend, and the tree lets us through.
Six brain-shaped creatures with beaks and tentacles are below. After we kill them, the roots of the tree relax so that we can see a dog-like creature curled up and looking sad. The dog speaks to us in Common, saying that Redbud is a good tree, and his name is Ikasa. He does not know Inda. He wonders if Daveras is alive and Bellerand says we will try to reunite them if we see him.
Percy and Pala enter the study. Percy finds a copy of Dissertations of the Abstruse Mind which shows traces of Illusion magic while Pala dispels the ward. After Identifying the book, Percy realizes it is a strongbox, but he breathes in noxious gas trying to open it. He is poisoned for an hour. After using the Chime of Opening, he gets a Potion of Mind Reading and Inda's Captain's Journal.
Bellerand asks Redbud to move its roots again to protect us while we rest, and it obliges. Artur asks Ikasa when the last time he saw Daveras was. He replies that it was during the crash. Percy asks what Daveras looks like -- he has long, pointy ears and nice hair; he sounds mean but is nice.
Bellerand questions Artur about owing his soul to Helm. Artur vaguely replies that there is a difference between owing a god and owing the parishioners and that regarding his wife, he made some poor decisions when he was younger.
Artur inquires with the group whether we should take the dog back to Inda. Ikasa says he would happily go if we could find Daveras. Artur off-handedly asked if he has any secrets and Ikasa begins to whine. He admits that he saw Palenna Tindertoe float away from the wreckage, but that he didn't tell Daveras. Ikasa says Palenna was little with straw-colored hair.
Percy begins to cast Message every few minutes, trying to target Palenna or Daveras. A voice replies but we are attacked by a star angler. After we kill it, Percy Messages Daveras again and tells him that Ikasa has sent us to find him.
We come across the stern. Two armored githyanki patrol. They call themselves Lysan and Zastra and mention Inda's name, saying that they are part of the crew of her ship, but they don't know about the rune. They mention a shipmate named Figaro who has not been acting himself, and another named Ilren, who has been acting as the new captain. Ilren is a gregarious Giff who shakes our hands; he seems jolly but perhaps slightly suspicious.
Daveras tells Percy that he is in the dining room. Percy joins him there and finds that he's not being held captive but can't leave because of the monsters in the Sea. Percy begins to thumb through Inda's Captain's Journal.
Artur, Bellerand, and Pala move around the ship. Kycera is in the ship's kitchen; she is an orc with a gold tattoo around her eye. On the lower decks, they find old sails and rigging in storage, and Pala and Bellerand hear muffled shouting below. Some of the floorboards jut upwards beneath canvas. The sound stops.
In a barracks, Pala finds rememberances for lost members of the ship written on the walls in different languages.
The door to the stateroom is locked. From inside, a shrill voice saying to get out is heard. The voice is paranoid and refuses to open the door. Bellerand cannot enter with Gaseous Form, Pala cannot Dispel Magic, and Percy cannot command Figaro with Suggestion. Percy figures that he is using a Cube of Force to keep all magic out of the room. Artur tells Figaro that Inda sent us but Figaro insists that we bring her to the door. Pala imitates Inda's voice, and Figaro unlocks the door. Percy strides in and insults him, then disspells the ward and leaves. Bellerand and Pala recognize the signs of magical memory tampering in Figaro. Bellerand informs Artur and Artur uses Dispel Magic. Figaro gets angry and begins to rant about how he knew that Ilren was a fake.
Figaro goes upstairs to confront Ilren. He claims that Ilren is a Deathslaad and we fight and kill it.
After the fight, Percy begins to thumb through Inda's log looking for information on why she was carrying a part of the Rod. The log says that they were performing experiments with it; they were hoping to use the piece's Conjuration powers to allow them to create portals to traverse the multiverse with ease.
Artur asks about the noises under the floorboard; the crew seems confused but tell us that we can go look if we want. Artur offers to escort Daveras back to Ikasa and he accepts. Artur and Bellerand return to the spot by the rigging where they heard the noises before. Artur pulls up one of the floorboards and finds a small room that seems to be the brig. They climb down and find a Halfling priest crying for help in one of the cells. She says she was put there by Ilren because she saw through his disguise. Bellerand thinks that she is not telling the whole truth. He questions her in Halfling and she responds that she's not hiding anything that would make a difference. They free her and she says that her name is Cirit.
We escort Daveras back to Ikasa and Redbud and they are happily reunited.
We return to Inda. Percy rudely tosses her the Captain's Log and says that we're ready to collect our goods. We go downstairs and are hit by an overwhelmingly foul stench. Where the prow should be, a gaping hole leads into the beast's putrid heart. Percy takes samples of it; he and Bellerand are intensely interested.
Inside the heart are floating orbs that appear to emit a bioluminescent pink glow; parts of the heart are soft and spongy and parts are solidified into crystal. Occasionally, the heart beats erratically. We get the feeling that we will be poisoned by the foul air if we spend too long inside.
Hanging from the ceiling is a large lizard-like creature. Using the Gem of Seeing and Detect Magic, Percy sees something magical in its stomach. We attack. Percy and Pala are swallowed but we eventually kill it and get the piece of the Rod.
Bellerand transforms into a Giant Ape and we remove the ship's prow from the heart.