---

The company emerged into a domed chamber with walls of rough obsidian.

Ahead, a wall of translucent, purple crystal divided the cavern in two, blocking the way. You feel a faint but deeply unpleasant hum coming from the tunnel. Set in the middle of the crystal wall was a large door, a slab of lustrous white diamond. A glowing ruby was set into the diamond’s centre, looks uncannily like an eyeball with a blood red iris atop a hand.

---

Marko scooted to the wall and jerked back immediately. “I can see through when I get close,” he whispered. He leant in again and this time jumped back. “Sorry! I…I saw myself reflected…but with a twisted sneer?”

The company joined him at the wall, each seeing the same. The prewarning meant it was no surprise, but still disturbing. Ahead of the wall was a chamber of crystal split by more similar walls.

“So how do we get through the doorway?” Eli whispered.

Marko set about trying to answer that, but came up empty handed. “The crystal is unbreakable. There are no traps but no way through that I can find.” He pushed on the door to demonstrate it’s unmovable nature.

“I could try touching the Rod to the sigil?” Idris suggested.

Three shook his head. “I suspect, though I am loath to say it, that I probably have to take the Hand and put it against the symbol.”

“Let’s try the Rod first,” Eli said quickly.

“And the sword,” Sifer joked, “Anything before the Hand.”

Idris stepped forward, attempting to channel the will and mojo of the Rod. He touched the Rod to the door, then flinched back when a voice dredged from the darkest places spoke with solemn finality: “So few have dared speak my name…”

“Vecna,” Marko piped up to horrified looks.

But the voice continued, calm and deep. “With every whisper I am listening, over every secret I am watching.”

“Do we say it again?” Three guessed.

“Like saying amen at the end of a prayer,” Eli nodded.

“Vecna,” Sifer tried.

“I cannot die, for how can an idea perish?”

“Vecna,” Marko muttered.

“I am weaving light and shadow.”

“Again,” Sifer whispered, beginning to worry.

Marko, on the other hand, was getting bored. “Vecna,” he yawned.

“I am weaving and will turn the stars turn to ash.”

“Vecna!”

“I am weaving so your gods forget their names.”

“Oh that’s bad,” Idris said, glancing at his holy companions who loomed pale in the crystal light.

“Veccccna,” Marko said slowly.

“When the multiverse draws its final breath, I will be there to hear it.”

“Ok,” Three said. Another monologue.

“Are you going to try that thing?” Eli asked him seeing nothing was changing.

“I don’t want to.”

“Give it a crack,” Eli shrugged.

Three frowned, but nodded. He lifted the bag and gingerly removed the hand from the embalming cloth. The fetid claw was clenched and shrivelled, and Three touched it to the sigil.

He was immediately teleported to the other side of the door. Alone. The psychic hum intensified, shaking him to the core. He spun to face the door, seeing an identical symbol on this side.

“How will she judge you when you fail?” the voice spoke.

“She?” Eli wondered.

Before anyone could answer Marko touched the symbol himself and he too was transported. “Oh! So you didn’t need the Hand,” Three breathed, pleased for the distraction. He quickly rewrapped the hand as the company teleported, dropping it back in the bag.

“This is all moot at this point in time,” Idris said softly, “But it occurs to me the very reason this works for us and not for anyone else is because he knows us and has for years.”

“You don’t think it’s because we have the Rod?” Three said.

“No—it’s because we’re expected,” Eli agreed with Idris.

“He’s waiting for us,” Idris nodded.

Marko touched the sigil on this side and was transported back. He returned, showing it was no one way passage.

---

The company crept forward into a large cavern divided by floor-to-ceiling walls of purple crystal. The walls cast thousands of disorienting reflections throughout. More of the solid diamond doors were set into various walls, each with a large ruby, or sometimes sapphire, embedded in it.

The hum was now overwhelming, a thousand voices whispering a cacophony of secrets, harassing and making concentration difficult.

The wall directly ahead formed a barrier around the centre of the cavern, and a sapphire glinted from the door. Marko stepped carefully over to the wall—and gasped. “Vecna!” he hissed. The company joined him quickly to peer through the crystal.

Levitating in the centre of the central crystal chamber was indeed Vecna, robed in kingly vestments. His desiccated head was thrown back in concentration, wrinkled eyelid closed. His shrivelled lips muttered an inaudible incantation over rotted teeth. He held his arms over a lightless orb that swirled in front of his chest, growing bigger by the moment.

“The vision was real,” Idris breathed softly. “You know…even though it’s Vecna, do you think there might be a psychological effect on him if we pull out the sword of Kas?”

“Absolutely,” Sifer hissed, surprised it had taken this long for Idris to come around to his argument.

Marko started examining the sapphire gemmed door.

“What about the other doors,” Three whispered.

Eli almost laughed. “I don’t think they’re relevant now!”

“I’m not so sure. For years we have never left a door behind!”

Idris agreed frantically.

“But we might meet all sorts of monsters and bleed ourselves dry,” Eli frowned.

“That is a good point,” Three conceded.

Mark waved for attention. “Do you think this,” he said pointing to the sapphire, “Teleports us over to that ruby?” he pointed to a red lit door to the north. He hustled over to it and peered through: a blue crystal on the other side, along with a small corridor.

“To get there you need to teleport through the correct doors,” Uthar said, worried. This was going to be hard.

“Or we need to disrupt them to weaken something,” Idris wondered.

Marko shook his head. “It’s a door puzzle.”

The hum intensified. “We’re on a timer people,” Sifer warned.

“Reconnaissance the cave,” Marko ordered, “See if you can find a pattern.” The company fanned out, quickly covering the entire cave. “Blues are inside the Reds,” Eli observed, “And all the central doors are blue on the outside.”

Vecna continued his ritual unperturbed by the ants scurrying around him.

“I want to try this one first,” Eli pointed. “There are two blues inside this one, which breaks the pattern somewhat.”

“My rule is I will follow you, Eli,” Uthar said. “You will be the first to touch, and that way we all stay together. Maybe—we don’t know if we will all get transported to the same spot. Hopefully we do.”

“Maybe the trick is no matter which one we go through we end up with Vecna,” Eli said nervously.

“Well that’s why we’re here,” Sifer said rubbing his hands.

Eli placed his hand on the blue sapphire…

---

…and appeared in the central chamber, face-to-face with Vecna!

The company appeared in short order, each shocked. “Oh my god it worked first time?!” Uthar gasped.

“Fate!” Idris cried, feeling strangely lucky despite the archlich hovering only metres away.

Vecna slowly turned to face the gathered heroes.

“He’s only got one eye,” Idris growled. “I bet Morden-fucken-keinan has the other!”

“He probably does, the prick,” Eli concurred.

With a brilliant spark Vecna drew the orb into his chest cavity, sending waves of energy into the crystal walls. A horrifying smile spread over the rictus of his face. “I am Vecna. The Whispered One. And who can stop a God?”

---

Three dropped to a knee and cried his gods name: “Kelemvor!!” A holy aura started to fill the cavern, blessing his companions, before Vecna uttered a dread word of rebuttal. Three grunted as he felt Kelemvor’s power suddenly drained…then a small ray of hope as Idris shunted Vecna’s word back upon him, harnessing fate to change it.

But Vecna was too strong. Kelemvor was gone, and only Vecna’s fate was delivered. “You assume my powers have limits. They do not.” Three staggered under the psychic backlash.

“Have we forgotten about the Rod?” Sifer stressed.

“I’m not feeling it is time, yet,” Idris said. “I could try and snap it…”

“No! Use it as a focus for your spell!”

“How about the Wish,” Eli whispered to Idris.

“That’s for if it all goes completely tits up,” Idris hissed.

“Let’s assume it has. The tits are up.” Eli’s slugged down his potions of pugilism and stone giant strength, feeling the strength flood his veins, lending him power beyond power. He added more power still with his innate abilities, emptying his body to vanish and become resistant to all damage but force. He crouched, ready to pounce, fully powered up.

Idris took up Sifer’s earlier suggestion, trying to channel his disintegration beam through the Rod. The beam shot across the chamber toward Vecna, but he paffed it casually aside as if it were a fly. It appeared the Rod hadn’t helped.

“That’s ok,” Idris grunted to the looks of horror on his companions faces, all of whom recalled the effectiveness of the beam in the Far Realm. “We’ve got to soften him up, use up his bag of tricks.”

Marko bampfed behind Vecna and attempted to jam his dagger into the lich’s exposed spine. But again Vecna was ready. He simply turned his head and shook it. “You cannot hide from a god.”

“These one liners are a road to hubris hell,” Eli whispered from his stealth.

Marko stabbed anyway, but it felt futile under the dark gaze. In answer to the pinprick, Vecna muttered a vile word and vanished.

“You scared of me!?” Marko cried, more in hope than belief as a necrotic wave washed over him.

“Oh no,” Three groaned. “Do we have to follow him? Is that the puzzle?”

“Oof,” Sifer grunted.

“Ah fuck,” Eli cursed. “He’s gone!”

“He’s not in this room or nearby,” Uthar said using his Vecna-grant3ed invisibility skill.

“Take another door, Uthar, go!” Eli urged.

“Everyone follow Uthar—and remember the pattern,” Sifer stressed.

Uthar stepped into the east door, appearing to south-east by a blue crystal door. “I can see him!” he cried, again astonished at his luck. He placed a hunter’s mark on Vecna, pleased when it worked.

Sifer followed hot on Uthar’s heels, bellowing as he ran toward the door. His body morphed and reshaped, transforming into a five-headed avatar of Tiamat!

“What is happening?!” Three gasped. “He just turned into Tiamat!”

Marko had no time to react as Sifer rose up on leathery wings and vanished through the door. He appeared by Uthar’s side, drawing a startled gasp. Sifer thrust his central head forward, opened his many-fanged mouth, and unleashed a cone of draconic force toward Vecna…

Who vanished. Again.

An instant later a torrent of flying, spectral entities flooded the chamber, emerging from the southwest corner. The necrosis they spread struck the company hard, the damned creatures drawing life as they passed. So terrifying was their flight that Three and Marko found themselves uncontrollably afraid. Both started running for their lives, terrified and heading north.

Eli could see the confusion on Uthar’s face outside and made a decision not to follow his route. Instead he ran for the eastern door closest to the entrance—and to his great surprise (and delight) he appeared inside the room in which Vecna now stood. The luck seemed improbable, but Eli took it gladly.

Eli glanced around to confirm none of his companions were here. No-one else was near. It was just Vecna.

He drew Kas’s sword.

“Yessssssss,” the sword hissed with pleasure.

Outside, and despite his terror, Three jerked his head. No, Eli…

Vecna locked eyes with Eli, despite his invisibility. “No number of novelties will save you from me!” he muttered, but Eli caught the slight flinch as the archlich glanced at his missing hand.

“He remembers, he knows what I can do!” the sword screamed in Eli’s head.

Eli screamed wordlessly in reply, leaping to Vecna. The hunger, the need to kill, was multiplied in the face of Vecna. As he swung Vecna flinched again, so slight it was barely there, but it was there. He was stunned, and as Eli and the sword begun the return strike Vecna spoke a dread curse. “Not again…” he muttered, echoing Kas’s earlier cry, and vanishing.

Eli shrugged of the psychic backlash, spinning to see Vecna just outside the door to the north. “VECNA!!!” he cried and charged.

“We need to be talking people!” Sifer yelled as he spun looking for the lich.

“I see him!” Three shrieked through his terror as he backed away.

Idris heard the call and moved through the door toward Uthar and sprinted toward Three. He shuddered to a halt when Vecna came into sight, and tried his ray for a second time.

Once again Vecna waved it off.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Idris cursed. “Sometime soon his luck is going to run out. We have to keep dicing!”

Marko meanwhile was still quaking in his boots. His strike had forced Vecna to move, but the terror he felt now seemed impossible to overcome. Even his luck failed. He kept running.

“Marko’s run through the top door!” Sifer called, “I can’t see him!”

Uthar knew that without Three’s heals, and Marko’s leadership, Vecna was likely going to triumph. He had to get them back in the fight. He lowered his head and prayed. Giant, angelic wings sprouted out of his back and a golden light surrounded him. He leapt into the air and flew toward first Marko, and then Three. Both felt the blessing of Uthar’s glow and the fear left them as quickly as it had appeared. As Uthar passed Three he saw Vecna standing at the foot of the corridor ahead. With a roar he landed in front of the vile lich who stood impassively, raising an bony eyebrow in denied surprise. “Without your gods you will be nothing,” he whispered.

From around the corner Sifer appeared in all his draconic majesty, flying at pace and launching at Vecna. This time he used his impressive new bow, the first strike landing fast and true—causing Vecna to mutter and vanish.

“He doesn’t like the physical stuff,” Idris cried.

Sifer moved fast, peering through first the south, and then the central walls. “He’s inside the middle chamber again!” He watched him turn to face the corner where Eli stood.

Eli staggered as a necrotic wash filled his body, the pain exploding every nerve. But Eli knew his body. He closed his eyes and concentrated on cleansing every cell, bearing the pain to shunt it away. He swallowed, knowing another blow like that would be much harder to resist.

The incessant psychic hum continued to ramp up, becoming harder to fight against with every moment.

Three, now free, walked calmly to the door that led back to the central chamber and stepped through. He took three steps toward Vecna and dropped to one knee. He closed his eyes, and sweat poured from his every pore as he prayed as he had never prayed before. He slashed a cut across his hand, drawing a flood of blood.

For a moment a figure flickered into sight, a shadow of a shadow. “Come to me,” Three begged, supplicating himself before his god.

The flicker faded.

“What did I tell you about gods,” Vecna hissed.

Three slowly lifted his head and smiled, an awful smile, a smile that none who saw it would ever forget.

By his side an apparition appeared. A beautiful woman with raven black hair in an obsidian black dress. Her eyes were large and haunting, solid purple with pupils as black as coal that reflected not the crystal cave, but the void at the end of time. Any that saw her despaired upon her beauty.

Shar.

“Intervene on that interloper that claims to be a god,” Three spat, “He is but a fraction of your divine beauty. Hurt him, in my name.”

Shar lifted a pallid hand to Three’s ruined face. “I Knew I Chose You Well,” she smiled with the cold of night, then turned to Vecna and twisted her hand in a choking grip.

The lesser god reached for his throat, struggling to draw breath, gasping and staggering as he tried to reach Three.

“Something is happening! Get back into the centre!” Sifer cried.

Eli wasted no time. He burst into the chamber to find Vecna falling to his knees. He shot a glance to Three, who was on his knees but exuding an dark energy. A black-shrouded woman stood by his side, hand on his shoulder, grinning wildly at the fallen lich.

Three matched her grin when he saw what Eli wielded. “Murder him,” he snarled with delight.

There was no time for Eli understand what was happening. He leapt to the Archlich and swung Kas’s blade with lightning speed. The sword howled ecstatically, drinking deeply of the foe it had previously only sipped. Bloodlust flooded Eli with every brutal swing. The joy was so great it threatened to subsume Eli: this was the answer to his doubt and the purpose for which he had so long sought.

With a great effort he forced the blade into his offhand and instead use that which he know best: his fists.

And unlike every other attack, Vecna did not teleport away.

Sifer, peering through the wall, saw the change. “This is the way,” he said softly, “This is the way.”

As Eli pummelled Vecna, Idris bampfed into the chamber. He found Vecna almost cowering under Eli’s assault, Three kneeling and almost laughing, a woman by his side. A woman…Shar?!

Don’t think, Idris told himself. Don’t think! He had failed twice, but he would not fail again. He pointed at Vecna and for the third time the green beam shot forth, the crystal walls reflecting it’s sure path. It cracked into Vecna, sloughing off his robes to expose his emaciated, shrivelled body, which began to disintegrate.

But Vecna is not done. Vecna is never done. He dropped his head and slammed his hands into the floor, keeping himself upright. With a great effort he threw his head back and raised his hands. “You cannot kill that which is already dead,” he whispered, his voice echoing through the caves. “When you strike me down you bring on the inevitable!”

He reached into his chest cavity and tore his ribcage open even as it collapsed. The sphere of dark energy buried within was released, rapidly expanding and ready to explode. “The Ritual is complete!,” he hissed triumphantly. “And there is no way to stop this!”

With a jolt Eli realised they had failed. He threw one last glance at Three.

A second jolt: Three met his gaze with both eyes. What had been a shrivelled cavity was now a red-tinged eyeball. And…his hand…

Something flashed in his periphery and he wrenched his gaze from Three.

Idris stood tall with the Rod pulled back in his ethereal hand. He put his living hand in his pocket and gripped the lucky coin, then released the Rod, empowered now with a spell but with the force and power of the everything he and his friends had achieved. It shot across the chamber toward the Archlich.

“It is done—” Vecna started before reflexively opening his eye in horror as the Rod pierced the void sphere emerging from his chest.

Instead of exploding as Vecna intended, the sphere imploded upon itself with a thundering whooomph. It shrunk to a pinpoint of nothingness, drawing Vecna with it, as the cave shattered into thousands of shards.

The Rod too shattered, separating once more into seven parts, its brief moment of completeness over.

---

The company found themselves floating free in the Astral Sea, discombobulated but alive.

Three drifted over to a shellshocked Eli, kissed him on the cheek, and released the bag at his waist. It fell open to reveal Three’s hand, not Vecna’s.

Eli reached for his sword, ready to drive it home.

“My name is Six,” Six winked with Vecna’s Eye, then vanished.

Eli’s shock deepened as, to everyone’s astonishment, the Lambent Zenith floated into sight. It was making a lazy course toward the company, the angelic Inda at the helm.

“Need a ride?” she called with a grin.

---

Session played October 25, 2026

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