27: Web's Edge

  

A Map of Web's Edge

An Erinyes

The calm after the battle was shattered by Bessok's warning. A mass of enemies was bearing down on their position, led by a formidable Erinyes emerging from a room to the north (W7). Flanking her were two Ork wizards and an evil female elf assassin. The svirfneblin wizard who had raised the alarm moved into the corridor ahead (W8), seeking a clear shot at Bessok, who was already advancing to meet the new threat head-on.

Grottenelle,
Svirfneblin Wizard

At the northern-most exit from the summoning chamber (W3), Morthwyl rushed in to assist Bessok, who was holding the line against the charge, while Vinthanamel moved to support Joe, who was still at the northern end of the empty entrance hall (W1), casting a spell to hasten Morthwyl's actions as he moved. 

The noise from the previous battle had clearly drawn more enemies. A hobgoblin assassin, rushing in from the south, fired his crossbow at Joe while closing the distance. Behind him, a smaller duergar wizard unleashed a volley of magic missiles, their impact stinging Joe and drawing his ire.

Jolera,
Elf Assassin

The battle in the northeast corner began in earnest, with Morthwyl raining blows upon the Erinyes, who pathetically tried to parry the superior warrior's strikes, barely able to land an attack in return. Knowing the Erinyes was immune to fire and the assassin was fast enough to avoid the blast, the svirfneblin wizard conjured a fireball that exploded behind the two dwarves, catching a fleeing Vinthanamel in the blast. The two Ork wizards followed suit, and more fireballs erupted around the two dwarves, some impacting quite heavily, though Bessok managed to deflect the worst of the damage with his shield. Wanting no part of the fiery onslaught, Vinthanamel fled west, drinking healing potions as he went to join Joe at the door (W1).

With the enemy wizards raining fireballs down upon them, Bessok decided enough was enough. He called upon his god for aid, and a brilliant sunbeam erupted from his shield, a ray of pure light cutting a straight line down the corridor. The powerful beam lit up both the svirfneblin and one of the Ork wizards, who had moved to the far end of the hall. The svirfneblin tried to counter the spell, but the blinding light hit him, causing him to lose control of his magic at the last second.

Bromtok, Ork Wizard

The sunbeam was also too much for the female elf assassin. Already heavily wounded from her inability to avoid the initial fireballs, the divine light brought her to her knees. Her body soon followed, collapsing to the floor in a smoking heap.

Deciding to shift his tactics, perhaps to draw the enemy away from Vinthanamel, Joe switched to his sword. He briefly studied the hobgoblin assassin's fighting style, then moved in, driving his sword home with a series of quick, brutal blows. The assassin retaliated, but his attacks lacked the same finesse, fueled more by a anger than skill.

Shiroktu, Ork Wizard

Moving into the open, Vinthanamel attempted to dominate the mind of the duergar wizard. The wizard, however, was prepared and countered the spell with one of his own. The elf quickly moved back out of sight, hoping to avoid any repercussions. Unfortunately, they arrived soon enough. Another fireball erupted behind Joe, the blast catching Vinthanamel again. This time, the explosion hit him with enough force to drop him to the ground, unconscious.

Spotting his fallen ally, Bessok called out a word of divine power. A wave of healing energy washed over Vinthanamel, knitting his worst wounds back together and allowing him to regain consciousness. Even as he did this, Bessok maintained his focus, continuing to channel his sunbeam into the svirfneblin wizard. The wizard, still blinded, swiftly retreated backward, raising a shield spell in a desperate attempt to protect himself, unsure of what he was even guarding against.

Makubli,
Hobgoblin Assassin

The Ork wizards, realizing Bessok's impressive defensive capabilities, changed tactics. They abandoned their fireballs for a simpler but more effective spell: a continuous barrage of high-powered magic missiles. The magical darts rained down on the dwarf incessantly, an attack he couldn't dodge. Each hit was perfect, and the relentless assault slowly wore him down.

The battle next to him raged on as Morthwyl and the Erinyes traded blows. The fiend failed time and again to land anything of significance, but Morthwyl's attacks were devastating. After a few more seconds, she finished the creature with an almost casual backhanded hammer blow.

Torkner,
Duergar Wizard

Across the room, Joe and Vinthanamel continued their assault against the assassin and the wizard. Vinthanamel was having a tough time; his spells were either missing or being countered. He changed his plans, ducking out of cover to cast a haste spell on Joe from one of his scrolls. This turned the tide. No longer an easy target and now moving with incredible speed, Joe's attacks rained down on the hobgoblin assassin, who quickly collapsed. Joe then turned his attention to the duergar wizard, who met a quick and sudden ending. Joe's sword of life stealing took the creature's final breath, refreshing his own health in the process.

Unable to withstand the steady assault of the magic missiles, Bessok was forced to retreat and use his most powerful healing spell to recover. Meanwhile, Morthwyl decided to finish the last of the enemies. She stomped into the meeting room (W7), bringing her hammers down heavily on the Orks. They might have been strong with magic, but they were no match for Morthwyl. The battle was over before anyone had even returned to assist her.

With the last of the enemies defeated, the group, wounded and breathing heavily, gathered in the meeting room from which their foes had emerged. The room (W7) was a command centre of sorts, its walls covered in tactical maps and schematics. A table in the middle was buried under a pile of paperwork.

While Bessok performed a ritual to heal the group, the others spent the ten minutes they had to search through the documents. They uncovered plans for an assault against a svirfneblin mining operation located roughly twenty miles from Web's Edge. The Lolth worshipers intended to capture some of the miners and feed them to a creature known as Ker-arach.

With the paperwork and schematics from the meeting room put aside, the group's focus returned to their primary mission. Joe, his keen eyes scanning the area, spotted a secret door at the end of the hall (W8). He gathered everyone, and together they pushed it open, revealing a huge cavern beyond (W12).

The cavern was dominated by a massive network of webs stretching from stalagmite to stalactite. Crawling on the webs was a gigantic reptilian creature with eight legs, a nightmarish blend of a dragon and a spider. Nearby was a smaller, one-eyed creature with a body resembling melting wax. A faint green glow emanated from something wrapped tightly in the webs at the center of the room.

Ker-arach and the Yochlol

Combat began in earnest. The spider-dragon moved with lightning speed to the now-open doorway. It unleashed its horrifying breath weapon, a cloud of thousands of tiny spiders that spewed out across the group. They bit and injected poison as they skittered, and Vinthanamel almost fell once again. He managed to gather a few more healing potions to keep himself steady. With surprising speed, the spider-dragon moved back across the room, leaving the doorway open and allowing the group to follow.

As Joe's arrows flew past her, Morthwyl was the first to charge into the room. Ignoring the clinging spiderwebs, she positioned herself squarely in front of the spider-dragon. Her hammers rose and fell with practiced precision, a relentless assault of steel against scales. The spider-dragon fought back in earnest, but anything that stands in Morthwyl's path is destined to meet its end.

Bessok followed Morthwyl into the cavern, his speed allowing him to get around behind the monstrous creature. He began his own assault, forcing the spider-dragon to split its attention and creating a two-front battle for the beast.

As Morthwyl and Bessok held the spider-dragon's attention, Joe and Vinthanamel turned their assault on the smaller, wax-like creature. Arrows and firebolts flew their way at the monster, a Yochlol. It was the first of the two to fall. The second followed shortly after, its ominous reputation posing little serious threat to a group of this stature. Another volley of arrows from Joe took the life from its eyes, and it collapsed to the ground with a loud thud.

The First Piece of
The Rod of Seven Parts

With the Yochlol defeated and Morthwyl healing, Vinthanamel turned his gaze to the glowing green web-wrapped parcel. He stepped forward to claim the first piece of the Rod of Seven Parts. As his fingers brushed against it, he immediately felt a powerful connection to the Gods, a new ability to commune with them and gain divine insight into his questions. For now, he handed the rod piece to Morthwyl, who safely stored it in her Bag of Holding.

While the others were considering the significance of the rod piece, Joe continued scouting ahead, his keen senses on alert for any hidden dangers. South and west of the spider-dragon's corpse, he discovered a small hallway that led to a series of rooms to the south (W10). The area appeared to be the Web's Edge barracks. He counted five bedrolls, each with a small chest beside it. The room also held a large desk, and further south, a long table with chairs, which was likely the cultists' dining area.

The chests in the barracks naturally drew Joe's attention. He entered the room and began unlocking them, one by one. Inside, he found a collection of ceremonial holy symbols, a few potions, and even a magical gem. The large desk, however, was trapped. As he opened it, a swarm of spiders burst forth, briefly attacking him before fading away. Thanks to a magical item that granted him immunity to poison, he didn't feel a thing. Inside the desk, he found even more plans, along with a nice collection of gems and gold. It was a hefty haul, all things considered.

Having finally caught up, but still discussing their future options, the group stopped in the corridor (W11) while Joe, again, took the lead in the disguise of one of the Drow from the meeting room. Into the next room and he found an enormous winged biped with a boar's head, pacing back and fore in front of a barred prison door. The thing immediately snapped to attention, Joe trying to talk it into believing he was who he now appeared to be, but when the creature, known as a Nalfeshnee, asked for the pass phrase, Joe failed and the creature immediately moved to attack.

A Nalfeshnee

Broken from their discussion, the rest of the group moved in to assist, but the nalfeshnee had a target and it wasn't letting up, chasing Joe around the room with his massive tusks and claws putting Joe, perhaps for the first time, under constant attack, his tactics usually having him stand back away from creatures like this.

With Morthwyl and Bessok rushing in to assist, however, the creature didn't last much longer, though it was long enough to leave a lasting mark on the now wounded Joe. Gathering up the keys that hung from the nalfeshnee's belt, Joe opened the prison doors to find four cells inside and a large chest, which was the first thing he moved to, where he gleefully started pulling out magical weapons.

Gertrude, Female Cyclops

Inside the cells were a large female cyclops, who introduced herself as Gertrude, a seemingly pleasant one of her kind, considering their reputation. A bugbear seemed to be sleeping in the next cell, and in the last cell, a grimlock that Gertrude warned the group against dealing with.

Taking their time in here, the group started up a conversation with Gertrude, who informed them that she was the lone survivor of an attack on a supply caravan near the ruins of Ched Nasad. She had been here for weeks, the drow had been trying to tease information out of her, but she kept silent as she knew what would happen if she spoke. The group took a liking to her and so they let her out of the cell, intent on letting her go, but Gertrude's excitement of being released was soured by a thought. Joe picked up on it instantly, and she revealed that her friend was involved in a mining operation who heard that the Lolth cultists were planning an attack on the area, but her friend was too scared to tell anyone except Gertrude. So when she was taken captive.. well, now she fears for the fate of the miners.

A Grimlock

The group let Gertrude know that the attack was thwarted, the papers they had found in the meeting room showed that it was still due to take place, but after the group had been through, it certainly wouldn't be happening. After letting Gertrude make her way out of Web's Edge, they examined the others in the cells. The bugbear wasn't sleeping, neglect, starvation and dehydration had taken it. The grimlock was allowed to leave, but with some serious warnings following behind its fleeing form.

With Web's Edge seemingly cleared, the group discussed some more on their plans. Vinthanamel didn't put a lot of trust in the Wizard's Three. Considering that Tasha certainly has an evil streak, and Mordenkainen isn't known for his open dealings, it could be possible that the Rod parts could be taken from them for their own strange purposes. The conversation went back and fore, the many possibilities, and it was decided that for now they would keep the item away from the Wizard's until they absolutely needed to.

Mordenkainen had informed them that the rod piece would be able to 'tell' them where the next piece is located, but even after trying to Identify it, they had no further knowledge - the power required to reveal the location from a primordial item was seemingly beyond Vinthanamel, it would require a ritual of some kind, perhaps. Even so, they knew it would at least pull towards the piece if they were on the same plane, and so they shifted to the few planes they knew they had access to. The first was successful, Bessok used his robe to shift into the Astral Sea and immediately felt the pull. Though he knew the plane, it could be thousands of miles away through the remains of dead gods and deadly creatures, they would need a better plan to reach it.

For now, their plans were made up, and Vinthanamel took the rod piece and teleported across the Sword Coast, back to Bargewright, where they knew of a portal to Sigil. He would meet the group in one of the bars, their telepathic connection allowing them to communicate their position without concern.

Tasha

Bessok, Joe and Morthwyl returned to the portal and reappeared back in Alustriel's Sanctum, where Alustriel and Tasha were seemingly waiting, the pair explaining that Mordenkainen had to leave to work on some 'plans'. Asking about the first rod piece, the pair were hit with a wave of disappointment when they heard that the item was being kept from them. The lack of distrust was obvious to the pair and Tasha started to mock Alustriel, telling her how she knew this was going to happen, placing the fate of the multiverse in the hands of people they didn't even know just because of some flawed wish.

While Alustriel tried to make her case, her irritation with Tasha growing, Tasha motioned the group to the opposite end of the Sanctum, explaining that the exit to Sigil, that they were asking for, was over there. Alustriel let out an exasperated huff as the group made their way out into the city of Sigil to meet up again with Vinthanamel.

Lady Alustriel Silverhand

The group decided to rest up at an inn for the night and return to the Sanctum the next day, the rod piece now passed back to Morthwyl to keep safe in her bag of holding. Returning to the Sanctum, Alustriel and Tasha were still there, and they tried their best to sway the groups feelings toward them, telling them that the entire multiverse was on their shoulders and it wasn't just about a single group finding a rod piece. They were running things behind the scenes so that the group could be safe, and they also weren't the only group working on stopping Vecna and his cultists.

Sadly, it mostly fell on deaf ears, and so Alustriel explained the best way to traverse the Astral Sea. Travel to a place that, surprisingly, Bessok already knew, a place called the Rock of Bral. A notorious site on the edge of Wildspace, it was a meeting ground for all sorts of Spelljamming ships and adventurers, and would be the perfect place to hire travel to wherever the rod piece was currently hiding. Alustriel supplied them with a small gold coin which held her magical signature, telling them to show it to the wizards at the tower they were about to teleport into, and then she opened the portal.

The Rock of Bral

The world blurred into a vortex of colour and light as the teleportation portal snapped shut behind them. The adventurers found themselves standing on a well-maintained stone platform, the air cool and crisp, but with no wind to stir it. This was the Rock of Bral, a place Bessok knew well. It was a massive, asteroid-like city drifting through Wildspace, a bustling hub for spelljammers and adventurers from across the multiverse. Below them, a chaotic bazaar teemed with beings of every imaginable shape and size, while above, ships that resembled fantastical galleons with giant wings or sails of solar light floated silently, docking to the rock's surface.

Looking around to see how they could get down from here, the only exit seemed to be a trap door built into the floor. Bessok gave it a knock and it swung open shortly after, revealing a wise old face asking who they were and what they were doing there. After showing the coin Alustriel had handed them, they were invited in to, what they found to be, the Wizard's Guild. Bookcases circled the walls, some rooms they passed had apprentices training in magic, and so enthused by the location and its offerings, Vinthanamel even signed up to join the Guild. Shortly after, they were shown the exit and entered the city of Bral.

The city was unlike any other. Though a lot of buildings were what they had come to expect, others were more alien in design, incorporated materials they had never seen before. Walking the streets they saw strange creatures, everything from Mind Flayers doing business with strange Insectoid creatures, to small cloaked and hooded figures that looked like penguins.

Bessok, having been here in his travels, led the group to an Inn called The Happy Beholder where, upon entrance, he was met by the proprietor and namesake, a happy Beholder! It cheerfully shouted Bessok's name from across the bar and hovered its way over to greet him, inviting him and his friends into his establishment. Joe, with his ever alert eyes, spotted a few strange folk sitting around the tavern, one of which looked like a humanoid hippopotamus, a parrot perched on his shoulder that was trying its best to squawk words of encouragement at the downtrodden man.

Large Luigi, Beholder Innkeeper

Commodore Krux

After settling in, Bessok was pointed to that same individual, his race known as Giff, his name Commodore Krux. He was the only one currently in the bar who had access to a ship and would charter trips off the rock, but - according to Large Luigi the Beholder - he wasn't having a good run of luck and could use the cheering up. While initially reluctant, the more of a story Krux pulled from the group about saving the multiverse and a genuine adventure, the more eager he became. Eventually he agreed, and they would leave in the morning.

Living it up in Wildspace, the group decided to relax and party for the rest of the night, with Bessok even jumping up on stage with a small band to get everyone dancing. It's no wonder Large Luigi remembered him!

Fel Ardra

The morning came and Commodore Krux led the group down to the docks, where a ship known as a Living Ship was docked, though it was only barely living. The sails had been shot through and repaired multiple times, the hull was held together by rope and the roots of a large tree that had claimed a home on the stern. Leading them onto the ship, however, a female Tiefling, Fel Ardra, came rushing out of the cabin to declare the ship was hers! She had leased it from the Commodore and she had a job she was going to do. Most of it was lies, Joe could see straight through her, but she did indeed still have the lease. Bessok kindly paid this off and after some other minor negotiations, the woman went back below deck to settle into the Spelljamming Helm, an old chair that was barely holding itself together.

After pulling away from the dock, the ship turned in place, drifted for a few hundred yards, then with a stomach turning lurch, accelerated to over four million miles an hour, straight into deep space.