Session 19

The group spent the next hour or so recovering from the battle with Glaive and its band of ambushers. Seknafret used what little healing magic she had left to treat Brabara’s injuries before settling down for a short rest to patch her own wounds.

Ebyn, looking even more pallid than usual, took up his spellbook to study. He sat staring at the pages while replaying the moment the polearm pierced his chest repeatedly in his mind. They’d been in battles before, but Ebyn usually tried to stay on the fringes. He knew he couldn’t stand toe-to-toe against a martial opponent, but such close quarters made it difficult to remain useful while hanging back. He winced as he shifted, trying to find a comfortable place to rest, and hoped he’d never be in that situation again.

Xalen wasn’t quite as hurt as the others, but even he didn’t relish the idea of another encounter with agents of the Lord of Blades. He patched the two nasty arrow wounds the warforged had used to drag him to the ground and groaned as he dressed a long cut on his forearm.

Brabara sat, uncharacteristically quiet. Seknafret had magically healed her injuries, but it still felt as though her skin was on fire. She knew it was all in her mind, but that didn’t make it hurt any less for knowing.

“It didn’t affect them,” Ebyn said at one point. “Why didn’t it affect them?”

“What didn’t affect what?” Xalen said.

Ebyn pointed at the pool of grey sludge. “The transmutation magic of the ooze.”

“Is that important?” Seknafret asked.

Ebyn shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not, but it is interesting.”

“Seems like someone’s feeling better,” Brabara said. “Let’s get moving.”

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Seknafret asked.

Brabara nodded. “I’ll be fine. Better to be moving than sitting around here reflecting on past glories.”

Xalen snorted. “The only thing glorious in that fight was the fact we weren’t all killed.”

“That’s it, Xalen,” Brabara grinned. “You’ve cracked the secret to life.”

Ebyn frowned. “What? Stay alive? That’s your theory on the secret of life.”

“Got a better one?” Brabara said.

After Ebyn had reinstated their telepathic bond, the Succulent Juices travelled along an exit tunnel until it intersected with another part of the colossus embedded in the mountain.

Still dressed in the uniforms of the Cyran Legio Mechanica, though bloodied and burned, they passed through the force barrier with ease. The high-ceilinged chamber beyond was badly damaged, rubble from the interior of the colossus littered the floor along with debris from what furniture might once have been kept here.

They picked their way through the difficult terrain toward the brightly lit central chamber where a wood-and-steel chair sat atop a platform in the centre of the room. A dead humanoid wearing a dented silver helmet slumped on the chair, facing a massive crystal window with a commanding view of the mist shrouded area around the colossus.

The spine shaft continued upward behind the command chair, with the way down blocked by stones. Another room could be seen on the other side of the chamber where uniformed figures stood at attention peering out several narrow windows.

“More ghosts?” Seknafret said over the telepathic bond.

“Let me check it out,” said Brabara who strode confidently to the opening. There were four of them, standing unmoving with their backs to her as they gazed outward.

Brabara cleared her throat. “Anything to report?”

As one, the four figures turned. Their well-made armour and pristine white tabards looked as good as the day they were made but the faces below the helmets were skeletal with eyes that burned with a bright blue fire. They each opened their mouths impossibly wide and let out a scream that spoke of their hatred for all life.

“Not ghosts!” Brabara said, taking a defensive position in the doorway.

The undead soldiers streamed forward moving with military precision, blades drawn. They attacked in a coordinated pattern, clearly having retained some aspect of their former discipline before being changed into … whatever these things were.

Brabara turned their attacks aside with ease, despite their training they were no match for a warrior with her experience.

Ebyn moved up behind the big warrior and launched a bead of light into the centre of the room. It exploded in a flaring conflagration, burning all four of the warriors. Two were felled by the blast and the others suffered terrible burns to what little flesh yet clung to their bodies.

Brabara made short work of the remaining soldiers, and the chamber fell silent once more, the stench of burned bodies filling the air.

Xalen stepped passed Brabara and moved about the chamber looking for anything valuable while Ebyn turned his attention to the dead figure in the dented silver helmet.

Uttering a series of arcane words, Ebyn tuned his vision to let him see patterns of magic in the area and examined the body and helmet.

“More transmutation magic here,” Ebyn said as he moved around the wooden chair. “But it’s not entirely stable.”

“Not surprising considering all the damage,” Seknafret said.

“Indeed.” Ebyn stroked his chin for a moment. “I wonder what would happen if I were to put the helmet on?”

Seknafret eyed him. “Are you joking?”

“No,” Ebyn said. “But I might just consult the portents first.”

Ebyn cast a second ritual, this time seeking guidance regarding the wisdom of attempting to use the helmet. His divination did not predict danger, so he removed the silver helmet from the corpse’s head.

“You’re really going to do this?” Seknafret said.

Ebyn shrugged. “It could provide some useful intelligence.”

“I don’t understand you, Ebyn,” Brabara said. “You’re always telling us not to rush into things, to think and plan and all that. Yet here you are putting on a magical helmet, that as far as we know, killed the last person who wore it.”

Ebyn sighed. “The difference is that I did ‘think and plan and all that’. I’ve cast auguries, I’ve studied the magic, and it’s clear from the crack in the corpse’s skull that it likely died from head trauma during the collapse.”

Brabara opened her mouth then closed it again.

“Right then,” Ebyn said, allowing a small amount of smugness to creep into his tone. “If there’s nothing else?”

He placed the helmet on his head.

At first a creeping numbness seeped through Ebyn’s body. He resisted the feeling, focusing his mind on the control of his limbs and managed to fight off the numbness. Then, once stabilized, his mind filled with a vision from the day the colossus was first deployed.

The scene was similar to that which the ghost, Alamar, had described. Except this vision showed the scene from the perspective of the figure seated in the chair. The circle of mages, the uniformed nobles and officers looking on from a tiered viewing platform, the colossus floating in the air before the magic warped and it landed inside the mountain. Then came the terrible sound of cracking stones and falling rocks. Ebyn found himself trying to dodge the falling debris before he remembered this had all happened years ago. The vision ended when a large chunk of masonry struck the wearer, and the scene went black.

Ebyn removed the helmet. “Remarkable,” he said.

“Did you see anything worthwhile?” Seknafret asked.

“Nothing new,” Ebyn said. “Much the same as what we’d heard from the ghost on the level below. But the clarity of the vision was incredible, almost like I was there when it all happened.”

“There’s nothing useful in the other rooms,” Xalen said approaching the others. “Looks like we need to keep going up.”

They left via the circular spine chamber. Ebyn, Xalen, and Seknafret used their abilities to fly up while Brabara climbed using the metal rungs fixed to the wall.

Grey ooze flowed down on one side of the spine shaft, continuing down past the stone blockage to the lower levels, so they were careful to keep clear of the odd fluid as they climbed.

About sixty feet above them was another open area. The spine shaft continued upward but they stepped out to explore this level of the construct’s interior.

The ceiling here was thirty feet high with a massive stone table dominating the centre of the room, atop which sat scrolls, maps, and other documents as well as numerous different sized tokens that might represent troops.

Openings at either side of the room were partially blocked by enormous ballistae. Racks beside them held several large missiles with others having been knocked to the floor nearby

Xalen wandered across to one of the ballistae. He moved past the enormous siege weapon and stepped onto a landing that was open to the sky.

“Looks like we’re at shoulder height,” Xalen said as he peered out, seeing the arm before him stretched out and pointing at the horizon.

Brabara moved up beside him and looked out. Idly, she picked up a loose stone from the ground and tried to toss it over the edge. The rock bounced back as it struck the invisible barrier. “That’s odd,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Xalen asked.

“How do you think they fired the ballista arrows through the barrier?” Brabara said.

Xalen shrugged. “Maybe the barrier is down during battle.”

“That would be ridiculous,” Brabara said. “Why even have a defence like that if it’s not in place when you’d need it most.”

Ebyn placed a hand on the large weapon. “It’s the ballista,” he said. “Like Xalen’s bow, it confers its enchantment onto the arrows it fires. These ballistae are imbued with a magic that allows their arrows to pass beyond the barrier.”

Brabara raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here? I’d have thought you’d be busy examining the documents on the table.”

Ebyn shrugged. “It’s all maps, and military plans. Useless now given what happened.”

“So, we keep going up?” Brabara said.

“Let’s check out the arm first,” said Xalen. “Might be something interesting there.”

Traversing the construct’s outstretched arm, they passed one chamber that might have been intended as a kind of holding area. The cells were empty, of course, as the massive war machine never saw any action.

Beyond that was a circular chamber. An impressive example of Cyran engineering as the room was constructed to allow movement on several axes.

“The elbow,” Ebyn said. “Remarkable.”

Seknafret nodded. “It is ingenious. If such skill were put to more productive pursuits instead of war this world would be prosperous beyond imagining.”

Brabara nodded. “I just hope nobody back home decides to replicate this type of innovation.”

Moving further down the arm they passed a second empty holding cell and then came to a door. Xalen checked the door for traps and upon finding none he pulled it open to reveal a rectangular chamber with a metal trapdoor in the floor and a lever on the wall beside it.

Brabara walked over to the lever and pulled it down. The trap door opened outward, and they could feel the wind from the outside air gust on their faces.

“That’s odd,” Ebyn said as he approached the trapdoor. “This opening seems to bypass the force barrier.”

“Must be a way to get prisoners or supplies into the construct during combat,” Brabara said. “The designers really did think of everything.”

They returned to the map chamber and crossed to the other shoulder. The open walkway here was damaged where it touched the stone of the mountain, cutting off passage into the upper arm below them.

“We need to keep going up,” Brabara said.

The party continued their climb. Brabara in the lead using the ladder, with Seknafret levitating just below, Xalen, and Ebyn flying after.

They climbed about forty feet when Brabara noticed a teardrop shaped contraption hanging down into the tunnel above them.

“What do you reckon that is?” Brabara said, pointing at the strange object.

Seknafret moved up a little so she could see what Brabara was referring to. “It almost looks like a uvula, but why include that in a construct like this?”

Before they could speculate further, the bottom of the teardrop opened and an intense burst of high-pressure water flooded the chamber. Brabara clutched tightly to the metal rungs but even her great strength couldn’t overcome the force of the sudden flow, and she was torn free to tumble back down the shaft, taking everyone else with her.

Ebyn and Xalen managed to fly out at the level below, but Brabara and Seknafret could not. They instead crashed into the jagged rocks blocking the spine shaft at its waist. Thankfully Brabara managed to grab hold of Seknafret as they fell, and she used her body to soften Seknafret’s landing leaving Brabara to take the worst of it.

The flow of water stopped, and Brabara lay battered and bruised in a tangle of limbs with Seknafret on top of her.

“Are you okay?” Xalen called out from the level above.

Brabara raised an arm weakly then tapped Seknafret. “Hey, Sekna, what about you?”

Seknafret groaned. “Everything hurts, but I’m not too bad, thanks to you.”

“You’re welcome,” Brabara said. She tried to sit up but her vision swam, and she could feel bile rise. “I might just lay here for a bit.”

Seknafret levitated off Brabara’s body and waited for her companion to catch her breath.

“That’s a long way up,” Brabara said, breathing easier now that Seknafret had gone. “Did we really fall all that way?”

“We did,” Seknafret said. “Why not let me give you flying so you don’t have to climb it again.”

Brabara’s face paled. “No thanks. Climbing is fine.”

On the level above, Xalen and Ebyn peered up to where the device still hung over the shaft above them.

“Do you think it will do the same again?” Xalen asked.

“Unsure,” Ebyn said. “I’ll send Hoot up there to look around.”

Ebyn transferred his vision to his familiar and asked Hoot to fly up the shaft. The fey owl flew past the point where the spray had hit them without incident and reached the teardrop shaped device itself. The bottom of the teardrop remained in the open position and Ebyn could see a hose extending from the top of the device.

He instructed Hoot to fly up to the hose and traced its path to a large clear cylinder hanging from the ceiling of the chamber above them. The cylinder looked empty now, but small droplets still clung to its interior.

“Looks like the tank is empty,” Ebyn said returning his vision to himself and calling Hoot back. “I don’t believe we will be flushed out like that a second time.”

He conveyed what he’d seen to Brabara and Seknafret below them via the telepathic bond and could see the pair starting to make their way back up the shaft from below.

Brabara grunted as she passed them, slowly moving up the shaft one rung at a time. She paused just below the point where the water struck her and grimaced.

“It’s clear,” Ebyn reassured her from below. “There’s no water left in the tank up there.”

“I know,” Brabara said. “Just give me a minute, okay?”

She moved up to the next rung, forcing herself to keep moving. She understood that this time she’d be safe, but even still it took an effort to push past the irrational fear of falling a second time.

One, two, three, stop. One, two, three, stop.

Next time she looked around she found that she was at the level of the opening and stepped thankfully out of the shaft.

“I see what happened,” Xalen said with a chuckle, still in the shaft below her. “Someone rigged this rung here so that when it took weight it would trigger the spurt above.”

Seknafret frowned. “Why would anyone do that? And when?”

They all made it to the level where they spotted the large empty container as well as other bits of piping and equipment. Two humanoid figures, clearly dead, wearing the uniform of the Legio Mechanica, leaned against the side of the chamber with a small backpack between them.

Xalen inched forward and poked the nearest of the two bodies with the tip of his rapier. Nothing happened, so he poked a little harder which caused one body to topple over into the other.

He paused a moment to make sure a ghost, or some other type of undead, wasn’t about to jump out of the ether and attack him before kneeling to look at the backpack. Inside there were some rations and basic supplies.

“Looks like these two took refuge up here when it all went to shit,” Xalen said, standing up again.

Two massive cogs were fixed to the walls on either side of the chamber attached to an enormous hinge of some kind. A panel was set up at the rear of the chamber beside a narrow spiral staircase leading up.

The centre of the room was empty, though it looked like some kind of equipment had once been set up here judging by the bolts and brackets on the floor there.

“Could that be the mouth?” Seknafret said pointing at the hinge.

“Oh, and that must be a water cannon,” Brabara said, pointing at the teardrop hanging above the shaft. “That would have been fixed here, and they would open the mouth to spray high pressure water at the enemy in battle.”

Xalen nodded. “And these guys must have set it up in the shaft and rigged the trap after Landro got stuck in the mountain. Not that it seemed to do them much good.”

“Only one way to go,” Seknafret said, pointing at the stairs.

Brabara nodded and started working her way up the narrow staircase. She reached the top without incident and stood open mouthed in the room there.

“You’re not going to believe this,” she said.

The centre of this oddly shaped chamber was dominated by an incredible looking ceramic brain. A crack in the brain’s shell leaked the disturbing grey ooze, which Ebyn gingerly avoided. There, floating above the brain was the third rod piece.

“I could use a mage hand to grab it,” Xalen suggested.

“Wait, wait,” Ebyn said. “Let me check the auguries first.”

“We’re going to take the rod anyway,” said Xalen. “Why bother with this divination nonsense?”

Ebyn sighed. “Because we don’t know what will happen after we take it. If we take the time to understand the portents, we can be prepared for what will happen. Just taking it blind might result in us being attacked or injured.”

“Fine,” Xalen said. “So, what carefully worded question do you suggest?”

Ebyn thought for a moment. “How about; what will happen once the rod is removed from its place above the brain?”

Brabara nodded. “Sounds good, get casting.”

Ebyn looked at her flatly and turned to Seknafret. “What do you think?”

Seknafret curled a finger in her hair as she thought. “I have no complaints.”

“Um, guys,” Xalen said urgently, pointing to a ripple forming in the grey ooze leaking from the brain. “Do you see that?”

The ripple sprang upward and coalesced into a vague humanoid form. “Why don’t you just ask me that question?” it said in a sweetly feminine voice.

The party stepped back, Brabara hefting her glaive in a defensive posture. “What are you?”

“I am Lima Rho,” the figure replied, “and I have so enjoyed watching you as you made your way here to me. It has been so long since I have had anything interesting to occupy me.”

“Lima Rho?” Seknafret said. “Is that a name?”

The figure nodded. “Of a sort. They are letters in the language of Cyre, my designation in the military inventory. L and Rho, or Landro as the builders called me.”

“The warforged who attacked us,” Brabara said. “Do you know them?”

“Oh no,” Landro replied. “They arrived in the tunnels a few weeks ago but never found a way to breach the force wall. I am impressed by the way you were able to figure that out. Very… resourceful… an admirable quality.”

“So, what then?” Xalen said. “What will happen when we take the rod from above the brain?”

Landro turned to face him. “This construct will self-destruct.”

The colour drained from Ebyn’s face. “And what will that mean for us? How long will we have to get out?”

“Assuming none of the failsafe defenses stop you, you will have one minute to escape.”

“Can you stop those defenses from activating?” Brabara asked.

Landro shook its head. “The damage to my systems means I can no longer control the physical aspects of the construct.” The creature paused for a moment before continuing. “When you do leave,” it said, eyes pleading. “Please take me with you.”

“How can we do that?” Xalen asked.

“I can transfer my consciousness to an id crystal, if you have one.” Landro explained.

“What is an id crystal?” asked Ebyn.

“An unremarkable cut stone, translucent and mostly grey in colour. There should be a few in the workshop in my abdomen. The same area where you kindly freed the two ghosts.”

Xalen nodded. “I remember. We didn’t really search that area well.”

“If you bring an id crystal to me here, I can transfer my consciousness to it, and you can take me with you.”

“What will happen once you are no longer in the construct’s brain?” Ebyn asked.

“This construct will self-destruct,” Landro said.

Brabara’s eyes narrowed. “How do we know we can trust you?”

“I have no reason to lie to you,” Landro replied. “If you take the artifact from above the brain the construct will self-destruct, and I will be destroyed along with it. All I ask is that you give me the chance to survive outside this shell.”

Brabara scrutinized the ooze creature’s face for any sign that it might be holding something back. “I just don’t know if I trust you.”

Landro shrugged. “I will not compel you, and I cannot stop you either way. But from what I have observed, you are capable of compassion, and I merely request that you show me the same.”

“Okay,” Xalen said. “We’ll find an id crystal and bring it back for you.”

Landro smiled. “Thank you.”

They returned to the rubble-strewn workshop and searched the area thoroughly. Knowing what to look for helped, and they found a couple of objects that might be id crystals.

“I never would have thought these valuable,” Xalen said as he stuffed the two items in his backpack. “They look like common quartz to me.”

Ebyn shrugged. “Could be that quartz has special properties here.”

“Maybe,” Xalen said and headed back out the tunnel.

On the way back they passed the pool of ooze with the multi-coloured gems poking out of it and Xalen paused.

“Are we really going to just leave those gems here?” he said as the others walked by.

“We have a multiverse to save, and a long walk back to the portal,” Ebyn said.

“Exactly,” Xalen said. “So, a few more minutes here won’t make a difference.”

Ebyn sighed. “If you must, but I wouldn’t advise messing with that stuff.”

“I’ll just be a minute,” Xalen said, and he ran back up to the colossus to retrieve a handful of discarded weapons from the floor of the armoury and came back.

He pushed the haft of a spear into the ooze to try and nudge one of the gems free, but as soon as he applied any pressure the spear bent like rubber and practically folded in half. Xalen frowned and tossed that spear away before taking a second and trying again.

This time the weapon disintegrated immediately upon contact with the grey ooze.

“Oh crap!” Xalen said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Can we go now?” Seknafret asked.

Xalen crouched by the edge of the pool. “Just let me try one last time.”

He reached out with his hand and very carefully took hold of the tip of one of the least sunken gems. He slowly lifted his arm up and the gem slid free of the pool with a slight plop.

“This is just like those games in the Neverwinter arcade,” he said. “You know where you have to use a claw to win your prize.”

Ebyn snorted. “Except here you risk transforming into a twisted abomination if you slip up.”

Xalen flashed Ebyn a grin. “Relax, I got this.”

He managed to free two more gems before deciding the rest were either too covered or too far away to reach.

He used his waterskin to wash the gems clean of the grey ooze and placed them in a pouch at his side.

“We can go now,” Xalen said.

They started walking away, when a persistent high-pitched hum began to sound. It grew louder and more intense as he left the pool behind, and Xalen took the three gems out and held them up.

Xalen turned and walked back toward the pool causing the sound to weaken. “Damn it!”

Brabara chuckled. “I bet that hurts.”

“But what hurts more?” Seknafret mused. “Having to give up the gems, or that Ebyn was right?”

“Both! Equally!” Xalen yelled over his shoulder as he dropped the gems back into the ooze.

Once back at the top of the huge war machine, the group waited for Landro to reappear. As before, it emerged from the grey fluid and seemed pleased to see Xalen holding an id crystal.

“If you place the crystal on the floor before me, I will transfer my consciousness inside,” it said in that same sweet voice.

“Before we do that,” interjected Ebyn. “You said something about failsafe defences, what did you mean by that?”

Landro pointed at four walled areas in the corner of the room. “Once the self-destruct sequence is initiated the four walls will shatter to release the guardians. They were created to prevent anyone from stealing the blend of technology and magic that powered Lima Rho.”

Brabara eyed each one. “Is there any way to stop them?”

“As I explained earlier,” Landro said. “I no longer control the physical aspects of this construct.”

“Hmm, ok maybe I can do something.” Ebyn looked around the room, his mind working as he calculated volumes and distances. “I should be able to create a wall of force around these guardians that might slow them down once the sequence starts.”

“Okay,” Brabara said. “That’s good. I’m not really in my best fighting shape right now.”

“Brabara, and Seknafret,” Ebyn continued. “I suggest you two make your way down and out of the colossus now. Tell us when you’re clear via the link.”

Brabara frowned. “You want us to split up? How will you get out?”

“Xalen and I can both fly,” Ebyn said. “Once I’m sure you two are clear, we will kick things off and get away from the right shoulder.”

Brabara nodded. “That makes sense. It’s a good plan, I like it.”

The pair left and made their way down to the colossus’ foot and then out of the tunnels to a place where they were able to see the shoulder clearly.

“We’re in place,” Seknafret shared over the telepathic bond. “We’ll let you know if the shoulder becomes unusable for you to escape.”

Ebyn took a pinch of crushed gemstone from his component pouch and spoke a series of arcane words while tracing a path with his hand around the room. He released the magic and a shimmer of energy flickered around the room blocking off certain sections before vanishing from view.

“The way to the staircase there is clear,” Ebyn said to Xalen. “I have positioned barriers elsewhere so go directly there when it’s time.”

Xalen placed the id crystal down and cast mage hand in readiness to grab the rod piece once Landro transferred itself.

“We’re ready, Landro,” Xalen said.

“Thank you for this, friends,” it said, then reached down to touch the crystal.

The moment the ooze of the hand met the unremarkable grey stone, the liquid form of the body lost cohesion and fell like rain into the slow flow of ooze that leaked from the ceramic brain.

The magic holding the rod piece aloft ended and Xalen snatched it from the air with his mage hand before it fell.

A serene female voice sounded throughout the colossus. “Self-destruct sequence activated.”

Masonry shattered in each corner of the room to reveal four metal figures. Red glows flickered in their eyes as they turned to regard the pair of them.

“Let’s go!” Xalen called and activated his winged boots.

Ebyn collected the id crystal and followed using his own magical boots.

They soared down the spiral staircase, then down the spine shaft to the shoulders and out into the air above the mountain to land next to Brabara and Seknafret who waited about a hundred feet away from the massive war machine.

At first, there were no obvious signs of anything happening within the colossus except for the occasional low rumble. Then about a minute later, the force barrier surrounding Landro became visible as lines of electricity arced around it. It was soon impossible to see the colossus beneath the solid blue of the force barrier. For a moment everything was silent, then the barrier collapsed in on itself crushing everything inside.

A massive plume of dust rose from the space where Landro once stood. A gaping hole in the mountain was all that remained of that incredible marvel of engineering and monument to war. They looked on for a few seconds in silence, acknowledging what they endured this past week or so in getting this most recent rod piece.

“Right, then,” Brabara said. “Let’s get back to the portal.”

“Hold on,” Xalen said. “Shouldn’t we take Landro back to the sanctuary where Harmony and her people are protecting the docents?”

Brabara rolled her eyes. “That’s an extra day of travel; we’ve got what we came for. Let’s go.”

“I assumed we were going to keep Landro with us?” Ebyn said.

“Xalen’s right,” Seknafret said. “But at the very least we should ask Landro what it would prefer.”

Ebyn nodded and removed the id crystal from his pouch. “Landro, are you there?”

“Yes,” it said, the crystal glowing in time with the words.

“We want to know if you’d like to come with us,” Xalen began. “We’re leaving this place and will continue our quest to save the multiverse, or if you would prefer to remain here in the custody of an enclave of warforged who respect and revere your kind.”

“Let me consider this,” Landro said and fell silent. The glow pulsed rhythmically as Landro thought. “I wish to stay here, with my kind.”

Seknafret nodded. “We will respect your wishes, Landro.”

“Thank you,” the crystal pulsed again and went dark.

Ebyn replaced Landro in the pouch and accompanied by Brabara’s grumbling, they headed back east to Ialos.

That night they suffered through another nightmare.

Vecna is an old man, he sits in his laboratory with a dozen unconscious people, humans, elves, dwarfs, connected to arcane devices with tubes extracting fluids and other elements from their bodies. He moves about the laboratory adjusting the equipment and making notes in his book of vile darkness as he experiments on the nature of life in his quest for immortality.

He checks the results of this latest experiment and realizes that he has been looking at the problem in the wrong way.

All existence is balance. One life force cannot be extended without a corresponding reduction to the life force of another.

He shifts the focus of the experiments toward finding a way to harvest life force from multiple living beings at once and then to channel that energy into himself. His research suggests that doing this would overwhelm his own life force thereby erasing his existence.

Frustrated, Vecna seeks a way to keep his unique life force safe while benefiting from the power harvested from others.

Thus, he develops the phylactery, a safe and secure location to store his own essence somewhere that would never be destroyed. He chooses his most valued possession to host his spirit, the book of vile darkness.

Now, with everything in place, he journeys to a remote place in the Adri Forest. A place chosen for its distance from human lands, a place where news of his actions will stay hidden for centuries. The City of Summer Stars, a large elven city intent on seclusion.

He begins the ritual, causing a black cloud of death to roll over the city.

Whenever the cloud touches a living being, their soul is ripped from their body and into Vecna’s. A thousand elves killed with a thousand years or more of life each ahead of them, their futures stolen to feed Vecna’s greed.

As those souls fly into Vecna’s body his own soul remains secure in the phylactery, safe from the sudden influx of new energy that would otherwise have obliterated Vecna’s consciousness.

His ritual is complete, and the City of Summer Stars is now a haunted place of death, Vecna rises as the first Lich. Immortal and unrivalled in arcane power.

---

They awoke feeling deeply discomfited.

None of them suffered any adverse physical effects of the nightmare, but the scope of Vecna’s ambition, the scale of the evil he had done in pursuit of his goals, all of this left them feeling low.

“Promise me you’ll kill me if I ever look like doing something like that,” Brabara said.

“No problem. I’m prepared to kill you if you don’t do something about your snoring, Brabara,” Xalen said with a chuckle, though they could all tell his humour was forced.

Ebyn finished noting the dream in his journal and they resumed the journey to Ialos.

They reached the sanctuary by mid-morning. Mercy and Wisdom greeted them as they neared the ruined windmill and were happy to take Landro’s id crystal into their care. With that done, they turned their minds to the two-day journey back to the portal.

They travelled as fast as they could, traversing the blighted farmland quickly before reaching the broken terrain they’d first experienced.

They set up camp as the sun set, not wanting to risk travelling through gullies and across ridges in the dark.

“Any idea how we’re going to find the portal again,” Xalen asked as they rested.

“My auguries will get us close, and we can use Hoot to scout around us after that,” Ebyn said. “With the way the landscape changed we can’t rely on landmarks to guide us.”

Tossing and turning they all slept fitfully – and the inevitable nightmare came again.

Vecna, now a lich, sits on his throne when Kas – freshly returned from another successful campaign – enters the audience chamber. He sees Vecna’s altered form before him for the first time and draws his sword.

Kas’s eyes narrowed. “What are you? What have you done with Vecna.”

Vecna raised a skeletal hand. “Fear not, my friend,” he said, voice as dry as a desert tomb. “It is I who sits before you.”

“My lord?” Kas said, his voice betraying a note of alarm. “Are you well? Who has done this to you. Only say the name and I will bring swift justice down upon them.”

“There is no need, Kas,” Vecna said. “This is all part of my plan.”

“But you’re…” Kas trailed off as he stepped forward to drop to his knees, taking Vecna’s left hand in his own. “That is to say, you look like one of your thralls.”

Vecna nodded. “The price of immortality. I may appear frail, my friend, but I assure you I have never been stronger.”

“Immortality?” Kas spat. “You promised me the world. I have served you loyally all these years. Together we built an empire the likes of which has never been seen.” Kas gripped Vecna’s hand tightly and his voice hardened. “How could you take away what’s mine? How could you betray me like this?!”

Before Vecna could respond, Kas whipped out his sword and sliced neatly through Vecna’s forearm, cutting his left hand away at the wrist, its desiccated flesh dropping to the floor between them.

Vecna screamed in shock and pain, flying back with the stump of his arm clutched to his chest. “How dare you?!” he bellowed. “You will pay for this treachery with your life, worm.”

“At least I still have that price to pay!” Kas smiled and gripped his sword tighter. “Die abomination!”

The battle that followed was a blur of eldritch power. Vecna’s supreme arcane power and undead nature pitted against Kas’s unmatched martial skill bolstered by powerful magic weapons and armour. Their attacks rocked the very foundation of the building in which they fought, and debris fell all around them with every clash of energy and steel.

Arcane fire seared Kas’s flesh while his blade carved pieces from Vecna’s undead body, adding an eye to the hand he’d cut off earlier. The ferocity and destruction escalated, and the battle ended in a blinding flash of crackling energy that consumed them both.

As the dust settled all that remained of Vecna was a severed hand and eye.

---

The dream was, as always, exhausting, but this time it ended with a sense of finality, as if a book had closed and this horrific story had reached a conclusion.

Ebyn wrote in his journal while Seknafret used her magic to undo Brabara’s exhaustion before they resumed their trek to the portal.

They found it by mid-afternoon, sitting atop a raised hill beside what looked like a dried riverbed.

“I don’t remember this being here when we came out,” Xalen said looking around the area.

“It wasn’t,” Ebyn said. “I’m glad I didn’t try and teleport us back here. There’s no telling where we might have ended up.”

“Well, I can’t say I’ll miss the place,” Brabara said. “Still, I reckon we did some good here.”

“I agree,” Seknafret said. “A few souls returned to their eternal rest, and another intelligence freed from a prison of metal and stone.”

Alustriel and Mordenkainen greeted them as they arrived.

“It is good to see you’ve returned,” Alustriel said. “It’s been several days, and we began to fear the worst.”

Mordenkainen stepped up to Ebyn. “The rod pieces?” he said and held out a hand.

“They are here,” Ebyn said, handing the two rod pieces over to the archmage. “I see Tasha is not here. Is she still on Athas?”

The two spellcasters exchanged a meaningful glance.

Seknafret gasped. “Did something happen to Tasha?”

“Tasha is back,” Alustriel said. “She was successful in dealing with the Vecnan cult there, but the experience has taken a toll on her. She returned severely drained by the debilitating effects of Athas on all arcane spellcasters.”

Mordenkainen nodded. “It’s not great, but a few days rest should see her come good.”

“That’s all great and everything,” Brabara said all but cutting Mordenkainen short. “But, what about Tiny? Is he here?”

Alustriel smiled at Brabara’s outburst. “Fear not, Brabara, your husband is safe. There is no room for him to stay here with us. Malaina arranged accommodation for him at a boarding house nearby. She will take you to him when you are ready.”

“I’m ready now,” Brabara said, looking around for Alustriel’s wife.

“You don’t want to take a shower?” Ebyn said. “We’ve been wondering around a wasteland for almost ten days. I’m sure we are all quite disgusting.”

Mordenkainen chuckled and held a hand to his nose. “And fragrant.”

“No!” Brabara insisted. “Where’s Malaina? We’re going now”

Alustriel laughed in that musical singsong way of hers and called her wife’s name. Malaina arrived a few seconds later.

“Brabara is keen to reunite with Tiny,” Alustriel said.

Malaina looked over at the four of them and wrinkled her nose. “Right now?”

“Yes! Now!” Brabara said.

“Alright then, follow me.” Malaina turned and led Brabara out of the sanctuary into Sigil, the city of doors.

“Be back by tomorrow,” Ebyn called after her.

Brabara didn’t turn around as she walked, she merely lifted a fist up over her head with her middle finger raised high.