Session 10

It happened at mid-afternoon.

Brabara had been spending the day with a prominent interior decorator, visiting merchants, craftsmen, and other retailers. She stopped in the doorway of their next storefront to scratch an itch at the base of her skull that quickly spread to the rest of her body.

The big warrior staggered against a wall, causing several passers-by to stop and gawp at her. The decorator, a tall thin man, rushed across to help her, but her bulk made that difficult.

“Let’s go inside,” he said, concern written clearly on his face.

Brabara turned to face him. Her vision swam. She opened her mouth to speak but words would not come. “Urgh,” she croaked before slumping to the ground.

---

Across town, Xalen heaved the last of the barrels onto the back of the wagon when the ringing in his ears started. He blinked once and shook his head to try and clear the sound, even going so far as to pinch his nose and puff out his cheeks.

Nothing helped.

The noise grew louder and louder, leaving Xalen hunched over in pain, whimpering with his hands covering his ears.

One of the warehouse attendants frowned as he approached the wagon. He looked up at the driver who sat staring at Xalen with an open mouth.

“What happened?” the attendant said, leaning in to place a hand on Xalen’s arched back.

The driver shook his head. “No idea. Should we call the watch?”

Xalen screamed and dropped boneless to the ground.

---

Ebyn sat at his desk, the one piece of actual furniture he’d purchased for his apartment.

Piles of books were stacked on the floor around him. Common titles for the most part, but a solid start for what he hoped would one day become a fine collection. Ebyn’s quill scratched as he wrote, continuing the work of documenting his visions to uncover the exact nature of the threat Vecna posed.

The feeling started in his gut. A slight pang of sharp pain that shifted to nausea in the space of several heartbeats. The young wizard clutched at his stomach and bent double from the pain, lurching from his seat as he felt the bile rise. He only just made it past the circle of stacked books before vomiting onto the ground.

He stayed there, head down, his breathing heavy, and waited as his stomach heaved a second time. The vomit struck the floor at his feet, yellowed drips splashing onto his shoes, he eyed the scene suspiciously for just a moment before passing out from the pain.

---

“There’s been no change, ma’am,” the thickly bearded trapper said. “We even followed the river in as far as we could, but there’s just no way inside the volcano. At least not yet.”

Seknafret cursed. “Will you keep looking, Jeb?“

Jeb chuckled. “As long as you keep paying, me and my boys will keep watch.”

A sudden chill brought goosebumps to Seknafret’s arms. “That’s good,” she said, rubbing a hand up and down her forearm. “There’s no problem with money. Stick at it as long as you can.” Seknafret clutched her arms to her chest and shivered. “It’s freezing in here. Did someone leave a door open?”

Jeb’s brow furrowed. “Are you alright, ma’am?”

The trapper grabbed the cloak he’d draped over the chair behind him and wrapped Seknafret, who shook uncontrollably, within its thick fur.

Her teeth chattered while her lips turned an unhealthy shade of purple. She reached a trembling hand up toward the hunter, fingers pointing at nothing, before her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed unmoving into her chair.

---

With a flash of multicoloured light, their world winked out of existence.

Nothingness enveloped them, but the thrum of powerful magic rushed like an electric spark through their veins.

They awoke in a plush, candlelit parlour; Seknafret wearing the trapper’s cloak, Xalen’s hands cupped over his ears, Brabara scratching at her arms, and Ebyn with vomit on his lips and shoes.

A stately blonde woman in blue robes leaned toward them, brow furrowed in confusion and concern. In the blurry background stood a dark-haired woman in a flowing black dress, and a bald man tugging in confusion at his goatee.

“This cannot be the answer to our wish,” the dark-haired woman spat.

“Tasha, please,” the blonde one said. “They may be hurt.”

Ebyn recovered first, the nausea that had consumed him gone as quickly as it rose. “What have you done to us?”

Xalen helped Seknafret up, normal colour returning to her ebony skin, while Brabara scrabbled to her feet, eyes wide.

“Where are we?” the warrior woman said.

“Sigil,” replied the bald man, “It appears that the weave has selected you for a grand purpose.”

Brabara frowned. “The Weave? Never heard of them.”

Ebyn placed a reassuring hand on Brabara’s shoulder. “It’s not a person, Brabara. The weave is the fabric of all magic in the multiverse. The very essence of arcane power.”

Brabara shrugged. “Great. How does that mean we end up here.”

The blonde woman looked them over, dark circles under her eyes. “I am sure you have many questions, and we will be happy to answer them all. First, let me assure you that you are in no danger, at least not from us.”

Xalen’s hand dropped to a dagger at his belt. “What is that supposed to mean? Who are you people?”

“That is Alustriel Silverhand,” Seknafret said, indicating the tall blonde. “The dark-haired one is Tasha, and he is Mordenkainen. Renowned wizards of great power.”

Ebyn’s jaw dropped.

Alustriel nodded. “You are correct, and I apologise for my rudeness. Since you appear to know our names, may we please know yours?”

“I am Seknafret,” she said. “This is Xalen, Brabara, and Ebyn.”

“Known as the Succulent Juices,” Brabara announced proudly.

Ebyn cleared his throat, wiped the last remnants of vomit from his chin, and stepped in front of Brabara. “Why did you bring us here?”

“We didn’t,” Mordenkainen began, “at least not directly. You see, we combined our magic to cast a powerful spell, with the goal of finding a way to prevent a threat to the multiverse. It appears, my friends, that you four are that way.”

Brabara spat. “A threat to the multiverse? Us? This is bullshit. Send us back to Neverwinter immediately.”

Ebyn glared at her. “Don’t you see, Brabara? This is what I have been telling you about for the past year. Vecna is real, and this proves it.”

Tasha’s eyes narrowed. “What do you know of Vecna?”

Ebyn straightened. Finally, after a lifetime of frustration, ridicule, and delay, this was the chance he’d been waiting for. “All my life I have been plagued by visions,” he said. “Visions of doom, some future calamity that would plunge the world into darkness. I left the Shadowfell in search of a way to stop this horrible future from becoming reality but, until now, my efforts have been for nought.”

Tasha rolled her eyes. “And Vecna?”

Alustriel gave her a look. “Tasha, please, I know we’re all exhausted from the weaving, but there is no reason to be rude.”

Xalen snorted, sharing a knowing glance with the others.

Alustriel ignored them and looked kindly back at Ebyn. “I apologize, on behalf of my companion. Please, do go on.”

Ebyn reddened slightly and swallowed. “A little more than a year ago, my companions and I found the corpse of a colleague holding a magical eye. The eye led us to a chamber beneath the streets of Neverwinter where a cultist performed a ritual on a pair of unfortunate victims. We arrived too late to prevent their terrible transformation into foul shadows, but we killed the cultist and stopped whatever was to happen next. When the magic of that ritual broke, a desiccated figure appeared missing both its left eye and hand. This was our first encounter with the so-called Whispered One.”

One of Mordenkainen’s eyebrows raised. “Your first encounter?”

Ebyn nodded. “Just a few days ago, we prevented a similar ritual. This one seemingly wrought to steal secrets from its victims.”

Alustriel gasped. “Secrets, you say?”

“Indeed,” Ebyn said. “We dismantled the cult in Neverwinter but as the ritual collapsed, we – along with one of its victims – were transported to Evernight and had to fight our way back home.”

The three wizards exchanged meaningful glances.

Tasha smiled. “It seems the weave understands subtlety.”

Brabara snorted. “What does any of that have to do with why we’re here?”

Alustriel looked at her. “I realise this must be confronting, Brabara. But from what Ebyn has told us, the four of you are no strangers to the unexpected and given how you managed to survive a place like Evernight, you all handle yourselves well.”

“So what?” Brabara said.

Alustriel smiled. “Well, the three of us have been working on something important, and I believe that you have been brought here to help us achieve that goal.”

“In what way?” Xalen said.

“Several months ago,” Alustriel began. “I detected a sinister wave of magic, unlike anything I’d sensed before, rippling through the multiverse. I reached out to my companions for help in finding the source of this strange magic, and we were able to trace it back to Vecna.”

“Trace it how?” Ebyn asked.

“Each caster has a unique connection to the weave,” Tasha explained. “A way their personal power interacts with its threads that can allow anyone with sufficient experience to determine the arcanist.”

“The more powerful the caster,” Mordenkainen added. “The more unique the signature.”

Ebyn nodded. “I see. It’s like the way a detect magic spell allows us to learn the school of magic.”

Alustriel smiled. “Exactly, just more specific. We learned that Vecna’s cults across multiple realms have siphoned incredible amounts of power from individuals throughout the multiverse and have been doing so for months.”

Xalen snorted. “So why wait until now to act?”

Alustriel sighed. “A few days ago, the ripples I had been sensing stopped. I feared perhaps we had run out of time but then I noted a shift. His cults had stopped ripping secrets and were now enacting something else, something darker. I hoped we’d have more time. But now…”

Ebyn gasped. “You believe Vecna is close to his endgame?”

“Exactly.”

“Do you know what his goal might be?” Seknafret said.

Tasha took a deep breath and rubbed at her temples with both hands. “The energy from the secrets he has stolen can be very powerful. With that amount of power, a mage with Vecna’s skill could do almost anything. Even to go so far as to unravel the multiverse.”

“But why?”

“To elevate himself above all,” Mordenkainen boomed, his voice deep and strong. “Vecna is from my home world of Oerth. He has long sought to place himself at the pinnacle of power. As his power grew so did his ambition, and now he sees the entire multiverse as his plaything.”

“He must be stopped,” Ebyn said.

“Vecna, schmecna,” Brabara scoffed. “This has nothing to do with me. If you lot want to spend your days chasing the monsters from Ebyn’s dreams, then that’s up to you. Me, I just want to go home and wait for Tiny.”

Ebyn turned and gripped Brabara by the arms. “Think, Brabara. If Vecna succeeds in his goals, then there will be no Tiny. Nowhere for any of us to live. The entire multiverse will be destroyed and all of us along with it.”

“Brabara has a point,” Seknafret said. “A threat like this impacts everything. Why aren’t the gods themselves working toward stopping Vecna?”

Alustriel nodded. “A fine question, Seknafret, but one with a complex answer. The short answer is that some of them are helping. Mystra, The Lady of Pain, Zyblina, three divine beings that we know for certain are aiding us.”

Xalen scratched his chin. “And the long answer?”

“The gods, for all their power, are a fragmented and fickle bunch,” Tasha said with a sigh. “Most are tied to specific planes or worlds, embroiled in their own conflicts. Bound by their parochial concerns and hindered by rivalries that have lasted millennia makes a coordinated response from the gods impossible. A fact that no doubt emboldens Vecna.”

Brabara chuckled. “So, the gods are useless, and what? It falls to us to save everything? Screw that. These are supposed to be three of the most powerful wizards out there and even they’ve failed. How do you expect us to make a difference?”

“It’s true, Brabara,” Mordenkainen said. “The three of us have so far been unable to stop Vecna. But we are no longer three, we are seven now. An auspicious number in some realms. We had hoped that our wish would end the threat, instead it has brought you to us. That is not failure, that is merely a step on the road to success.”

Brabara looked at him flatly. “You’re joking, right? Send me back now.”

“Brabara, please,” Ebyn said. “Don’t do this, we need you. I need you.”

Brabara eyed the others. “You’re not seriously going to fall for any of this, are you?”

Seknafret shrugged. “Ebyn has been talking about Vecna and the end of the world, and now here we are. That seems like more than just a coincidence, don’t you think?”

Brabara looked to Xalen. “Come on, Xalen. Don’t tell me you’re buying any of this shit.”

“I agree with Seknafret,” he said.

“We can’t do this without you, Brabara,” Ebyn pleaded.

Brabara sighed. “Fine, I’ll stay. Tiny won’t be back in Neverwinter for a couple of weeks, so I’ll stay and help until then.”

Ebyn squeezed her arm. “Thank you, Brabara. That means a lot.”

Xalen cleared his throat. “I am curious though. Why us?”

“My visions,” Ebyn began.

“We are all familiar with your visions,” Seknafret said, cutting Ebyn off. “That may account for your presence here, but it does not explain the rest of us. There must be a reason your magic picked us from the multitudes.”

Tasha’s eyes narrowed. “A valid question. I suspect it is related to the two rituals you four interrupted. On two occasions the four of you placed yourself between Vecna and his cult where complex magic collapsed around you. Sometimes, during moments of wild magic, a connection can be made between those present and the target of the ritual. Vecna in this case.”

“We can’t have been the only group who have stopped Vecna’s cult over the years,” Xalen pointed out,

Tasha shrugged. “Likely not, but you may have been the only group who have interrupted two such rituals. You mentioned that on the second occasion there was another who was sent to Evernight.”

Ebyn nodded. “Yes, Eldon Keyward, a Priest of Denier.”

“Yet, he is not here,” Tasha continued. “Only the four of you. There must be something in that combination of rituals that has marked you out in some way.”

Ebyn snapped his fingers. “The secrets.”

Alustriel looked up. “What do you mean?”

Ebyn took his box from the pouch at his waist. “When we were in Evernight, one of the ghosts we met there told us a secret she hadn’t shared with anyone before. After she’d spoken the words a slip of paper appeared in this box with her words scrawled upon them.”

Tasha straightened, wincing visibly as she moved. “Has this occurred since then?”

Ebyn nodded. “A few times. For each of us.”

Alustriel stepped forward, hand extended. “May I?”

Ebyn gave Alustriel the box.

She turned the ornate wooden box over, studying it intently. “How did you come by this?”

“A tutor in Candlekeep gave it to me,” Ebyn said. “He didn’t say why, nor what purpose the box served, only that it might aid me one day.”

Alustriel’s brows furrowed. “Hmm, interesting. I have seen wood like this before, it has the appearance of one of the Quess’Ar’Teranthva, but it cannot be.”

“Why is that?” Ebyn asked.

“The Quess’Ar’Teranthva is an ancient grove of trees formed millennia ago from a set of Nether Scrolls. Wood taken from such trees becomes metal soon after being cut. How long have you had it with you?”

Ebyn thought for a moment. “Almost two years.”

She handed the box back to Ebyn. “And it never did anything prior to that ghost’s secret.”

Ebyn shook his head. “No. I wasn’t even able to open it before then.”

Tasha scoffed. “And you kept it?”

“Provost Loris was the first person who took my visions seriously,” Ebyn explained. “A man who showed me respect and who I respected in return. Of course I kept it.”

Alustriel nodded. “I believe we have our answer. The four of you have a connection to Vecna, a link that perhaps the lich-god is unaware of and something that might give us an edge in defeating him.” She chuckled. “You are right, Tasha, the weave can indeed be subtle.”

“Okay,” Brabara said looking back toward the three wizards. “What do you need us to do?”

Alustriel and Tasha shifted uncomfortably.

“Honestly,” Alustriel said. “I’m not sure.”

Mordenkainen stepped forward. “Fortunately, I did consider an alternative in case our wish resulted in, um, let’s call it an indirect path to victory.”

“Go on, then,” Brabara said.

“There is an artifact,” he began, “that, I believe, is the best way to weaken Vecna. Known as the Rod of Seven Parts, its component pieces are scattered across existence. While my esteemed colleagues researched the magic needed to cast the wish spell which summoned you, I investigated finding the rod’s pieces should we need them. The first piece is deep in the Underdark.”

Xalen whistled. “The Underdark is a huge place, I hope you have narrowed it down more than that.”

Mordenkainen smiled. “Of course. It is Web’s Edge. A hidden safe-house of the demon-god Lolth.”

Brabara scoffed. “How are we supposed to get there? Plus, we don’t even have our equipment.”

“I can get you there,” Alustriel said. “My sanctum has a portal which I can configure to provide transport to anywhere in the multiverse.”

Xalen looked up at that. “Anywhere? Even Barovia?”

Alustriel frowned. “The dread realms are a bit tricky, but yes, I believe so.”

“What is your interest in that place?” Mordenkainen asked.

Xalen shrugged. “Nothing much. I heard the name on my travels, and it sounded interesting.”

Mordenkainen’s brow furrowed. “I can assure you it is anything but interesting. A dark place filled with sorrow and regret.”

“You’ve been there?” Xalen asked.

“I am sad to say I have,” Mordenkainen replied. “And it was not an experience I am eager to repeat.”

“What about our equipment?” Brabara said.

Tasha waved a hand. “You are in Sigil. There is nothing here you cannot get. Provide a list and we can have Malaina source the items for you.”

“Malaina?” Seknafret asked.

“My wife,” Alustriel explained. “I will introduce you once we’re done here.”

Ebyn lifted a hand. “And my spell book? You won’t be able to purchase that here.”

Alustriel chuckled. “I can help you with that, Ebyn. My library is well stocked with spells. I can provide you with a replacement and you can transcribe whatever spells you wish.”

Brabara frowned. “Why not just send us to Neverwinter so we can gather the stuff we already have?”

Alustriel sighed. “I could. But it takes several hours to configure the portal. Returning you to Neverwinter and then configuring the portal to the Underdark will cost us time.”

“Is it really that urgent?” Ebyn asked, his throat suddenly dry.

“We don’t know, for sure,” said Mordenkainen. “But its best we proceed on the assumption that it is, don’t you think?”

Ebyn nodded. “Indeed.”

“And what about you three?” Brabara said. “Will you be coming with us to search for the Rod?”

Alustriel sighed. “Would that we could, Brabara. The magic of the wish that summoned you has taxed us. It will be days before we can do very much.”

“Right then,” Brabara said. “I suppose we’d best get that list together.”

---

Alustriel put the four of them up in one of the guest quarters. A spacious room with two comfortable beds and a window overlooking the sprawling city of Sigil. Despite the offer of another room, Brabara insisted they remain together. So, two additional beds were dragged in, making what would have been a comfortable bedroom, cluttered and difficult to move around.

Xalen was keen to explore the famed city at the centre of the multiverse. So, he, despite Brabara’s objections, left with Malaina to procure the items they would need for the quest.

Ebyn worked in Alustriel’s library, marvelling at her extensive collection as he transferred spells into the empty book the archmage had provided. A little part of him giddy at having met three of the most powerful and famous spell casters in history.

In truth, Ebyn felt more hopeful now than he could recall feeling before. To have their aid in this quest couldn’t be anything but a guarantee of success. Could it?