It’s the End of the Worlds As We Know It: Our Story So Far
We have a new player joining us for our ongoing D&D campaign, and I realized that I haven’t given the full sweep of what’s been going on in our campaign, so I figured I should give a quick outline of where it is and how it’s all going.
Our characters began at 17th level, having completed part of a playtest for [REDACTED] (more on that someday soon). After the conclusion of that playtest, the players wanted to continue on with the story with these high level characters.
The Party
Xanthes, a Half-Elf Wild Magic Sorcerer who died during the playtest, and upon resurrection, randomly was transformed into a blue Dragonborn. This made him very happy, because of his overwhelming hatred of elves. He enjoys deploying his Bag of Tricks, and finding ways to use his Wish spell in interesting and unique ways.
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Ander, a Halfling Rogue of ill-repute. He believes everything in the Forgotten Realms belongs to him and he’s merely lending out out to the world for the time being. His only true love (other than himself) is his pet bull mastiff, Brutus.
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Mistletoe, a Gnome Druid, who really, really hates Ander after that incident with the murdered rhinoceros (it’s a touchy subject). She’s a small, spritely druid who is happier in a tree than messing with these disgusting city-folk. She also regularly uses her Bag of Tricks to summon adorable animals to snuggle.
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Ezmorn, Exarch of Secrets, a Human Transmuting Wizard. Obsessed with extending his life, Ezmorn is over 300 years old. He takes no guff from anyone, and is more than content to sit quietly studying his spellbook, exploring how best to twist the fabric of reality to his command.
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Our party found themselves in the city of Waterdeep, exploring its markets and refreshing themselves after the previous adventure, when a masked figure approached them. This was a messenger from the Lords of Waterdeep. Following the messenger to the Council of Waterdeep, they found themselves in the council hall with three old, whithered figures. They were told these were Torm, Mystra, and Selune, three powerful gods in Abeir-Toril. They explained that something had gone wrong.
The Multiversal Compact, the contract that tied the entire multiverse together at the beginning of time, had been damaged. The Cosmic Wheel, which governed the order of the planes, was coming undone. The Shadowfell was choked with the dead, unable to pass on to their respective afterlives. Bahamut, God of Good Dragons, The Raven Queen, Goddess of Death, and The Lady of Pain, the entity who governed the City of Sigil, had all vanished. If this went on for too long, reality itself would fall apart, leading to the destruction of… everything.
The Open Lord of Waterdeep gave to them a Key of Sigil, which can fit into any door and, when used, open a portal to the City of Sigil. The characters used this key on the doors to the Council, and arrived in the city. They knew they would need to find someone who knew the multiverse, and soon found Elminster, one of the most powerful wizards in the Forgotten Realms, who had been trapped in Sigil as it had fallen into chaos with the disappearance of the Lady of Pain. As they were heading to his study, they watched a massive section of Sigil simply break off and float out into oblivion. The city was collapsing. Elminster rushed them to a stable, where the heroes mounted aboard a flock of Griffons. Elminster would remain behind to help with the city, while sending them out into the Outlands to the gate town which connects the Outlands to Mechanus. Mechanus was known to hold every contract ever written, and should hold the Multiversal Compact, so they could see how it was damaged.
Fleeing the city, they eventually found themselves in the gate town, a place of extreme order, where Modrons carefully marched around. The center of the perfectly circular town held the portal into Mechanus, but as they moved toward the center, they heard massive destruction. Smoke and dust coated the streets. Something massive was moving through the city, destroying everything in its path. A tail was seen in the smoke, when suddenly it emerged. The Tarrasque had been unleashed on the Outlands. Rushing toward the portal, Ander used his Helm of Teleport to, (after a few failed attempts) throw the heroes directly over the portal, falling into Mechanus as the Tarrasque attempted to consume them.
They made their way across the clockwork mountains and islands to the city of Regulus, where they eventually found the Great Archives, an infinitely large library of every contract ever made in the multiverse. Wandering the massive stacks for what felt like days, past slips of IOUs, and empty spaces that whispered “I promise to always love you,” they found the Multiversal Compact, a massive tome written in the languages of antiquity. They discovered that certain names, including the gods mentioned before, had been excised from the book, while three symbols had been hurriedly added to the page containing the signatories: A hand holding an eye, a black rose, and a skeletal face.
Not knowing this portent, the heroes ventured into the city to acquire some spell scrolls that would help them. The entire city was built on a series of gears, so they quickly became lost as the whole city rotated around them. Eventually, they found themselves in an alley, closed on both ends. A phantom appeared before them. Pulling back its hood, it revealed a skeleton with three heads. One head’s one eye flamed blue. “Turn back now,” it warned, “or Vecna will have you.” The heroes leapt into action, battling the creature. Xanthes Wished, “I wish we were all back in the Archives,” which had the effect of teleporting them all, Skull Lord and all, back to the Archives, deep within the stacks. They slew the creature, but not before it nearly murdered Ander with Power Word: Kill. When it died, it disintegrated, leaving behind a single blue gem, still glowing from its eye. Ander quickly snatched it up and pocketed it in one of his many Bags of Holding.
Using the spell scrolls they had acquired, they set about Scrying to see what had happened to the book. Their visions revealed three entities, Vecna, Acererak, and Soth, had all worked together to undo the Compact. But why?
They returned to the Council of Waterdeep to present their findings, where the other party members decided to search Ander for the gemstone he had acquired. Slipped within a lead-lined box and hidden in one of his many hidden pouches, they were unable to locate it.
The Council told them that already the multiverse was collapsing, but by anchoring the Material Plane to the Elemental planes, they should be able to slow its collapse. They would need to collect the keys to anchor points in the Elemental planes from other Material Plane worlds.
Krynn holds the key to the anchor for The Plane of Air.
Athas holds the key to the anchor for The Plane of Fire.
Eberron holds the key to the anchor for The Plane of Earth.
Oerth holds the key to the anchor for The Plane of Water.
The heroes decided they had best venture to Oerth, where they can attempt to meet with the greatest wizards in the Multiverse, including Mordenkainen. Perhaps these Wizards would know what to do. They were given a teleportation circle code to Greyhawk, and stepped through the portal… to find themselves plunged into water. Swimming to the surface, the found themselves in a vast body of water, as a large ship, flying a banner with a black fortress slowly approached them.
That’s where we are! Can’t wait to get back to the game this upcoming Sunday!
