Session 35 Endgame Scenarios

STATUS: DRAFT — Three possible endings for session 35 and what each means for the level 14-20 arc.

Referenced from: sessions/prep/session-035.md

Each scenario covers:

1. How session 35 ends
2. What the level 14-20 arc looks like
3. How the contract, the weapon (Lyra), and the Rod connect
4. Tone and campaign flavour
5. What happens at level 20 / the finale

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Scenario A: The Weapon of Hope — Seven-Part Banishment Quest

Jay’s preferred direction.

How Session 35 Ends

The party forges the weapon of hope under Durrak’s direction. They hold the stations. They resist Vecna’s bargains. They pull Lux off the Material Feed in time. The meteor falls.

But the weapon is incomplete.

What Durrak forged is the first part of a seven-part weapon. The Rod was transformed — imbued with banishment energy, reshaped by the star strike — but one forging isn’t enough to banish an entire Far Realm moon. The Rod is now Part One. It hums with power. It’s real. It works. But it’s a seventh of what they need.

Durrak, exhausted, bleeding from his hands:

“It’s started. You feel that? That’s banishment. That’s the frequency that sends things back where they came from. But one note isn’t a song. You need seven. Seven parts, seven forgings, seven strikes. I gave you the first. The rest… the rest you’ll need to find across the worlds.”

The Red Moon goes dark. Not permanently — it flickers. The chains tighten for a moment. Vecna screams — not in their minds, audible through the portal, through the stone, through everything. Then the Eye opens again. Dimmer. Angrier.

He felt it. He knows what they’re building. And now it’s a race.

The party escapes the volcano. Level 14.

The Level 14-20 Arc

Structure: Eve of Ruin adaptation. Seven parts of the banishment weapon. Each part is a quest — a location, a challenge, a forging. The party must travel across the multiverse to find the components, bring them to Durrak (or find other forges), and assemble the weapon.

The ultimate goal: go to Allabar and strike it with the completed weapon, banishing it back to the Far Realm. This strengthens the ley line chains that bind Vecna — not just holding him in orbit, but sealing him in the Far Realm where he can’t reach Toril at all.

Why seven parts? The Rod of Seven Parts was originally seven pieces. The banishment weapon needs the same structure — seven resonant frequencies, seven forged components, each tuned to a different aspect of the banishment. This could be:

• Seven materials from seven planes (matching where Allabar has touched)
• Seven forgings at seven locations of cosmic significance
• Seven parts of the original Rod, each needing to be recovered and reforged
• A combination — some parts are materials, some are forgings, some are trials

Each part (levels 14-20):

Part Level Location / Quest What It Adds 1 13 Star Forge (session 35) The foundation — banishment frequency 2 14 TBD TBD 3 15 TBD TBD 4 16 TBD TBD 5 17 TBD TBD 6 18 TBD TBD 7 19 TBD — possibly ON Allabar itself The final component — must be forged where the weapon will be used

Level 20: The Finale — Allabar

• Nemesis travels to Allabar (the Red Moon) with the completed weapon
• They must strike Allabar in a way that banishes it back to the Far Realm
• Vecna is there. In his prison. Fighting with everything he has.
• The contract (Lyra) is the failsafe — if Vecna breaks free during the assault, she can permanently kill him with the weapon (Shadowthorn’s Bane / herself)
• The banishment sends Allabar AND Vecna back to the Far Realm. The ley line chains seal permanently. The Red Moon vanishes from Toril’s sky.

How the Contract / Weapon / Rod Connect

• The Rod → transformed into Part 1 of the banishment weapon. Targets Vecna’s prison.
• The weapon (Lyra) → the failsafe. Targets Vecna’s contract (his immortality). If banishment fails, Lyra can kill him permanently. But only if she faces him directly.
• The contract → protects Nemesis during the entire arc. They can’t be killed. But they CAN be corrupted — and Vecna will spend levels 14-20 trying to hollow them out.
• Lyra’s contract with Kelemvor → still unread. Its terms may activate during the endgame. Kelemvor has been playing the long game.

Vecna’s Counter-Strategy: Destroy Kelemvor and the Grimoire

If the party forges the weapon of hope at session 35, Vecna fails to break free. His chains tighten. He’s wounded and furious. But he’s a god of secrets — he adapts.

His pivot: If he can’t break the chains by force, he’ll burn the book that says the chains exist. Vecna’s L14-20 objective becomes destroying Kelemvor and the Grimoire of Shadows. Tear down the laws of death themselves. No Grimoire, no laws. No laws, no contract. No contract, no weapon (Lyra), no chains, no resurrection cycle — just raw divine power with no rules governing death.

This creates a parallel race:

• Nemesis: collecting seven parts to build the banishment weapon and seal Vecna permanently
• Vecna: sending agents to weaken, corrupt, or assassinate Kelemvor — and hunting the Grimoire (which Lyra has)

The Grimoire becomes the most dangerous object in the campaign. Lyra is carrying it. Vecna wants it destroyed. Kelemvor needs it intact. And Lyra still hasn’t read most of it.

Each of the seven parts could be threatened by Vecna’s parallel campaign. He’s not just sending agents to stop the party — he’s attacking the divine infrastructure that the party’s entire plan depends on. If he kills Kelemvor before they complete the weapon, everything unravels.

Tone

Epic quest. Fellowship of the Ring structure — but the enemy is also on a quest. Both sides are racing. The party knows what they need to do. They know where it ends. But Vecna is not just defending — he’s attacking on a different axis entirely. Every session, the party must weigh: do we pursue the next part, or do we respond to Vecna’s latest move against Kelemvor?

The identity question persists: Vecna’s corruption strategy doesn’t stop. Every part they collect, every forge they visit, every plane they travel to — Vecna is there, offering deals, testing their resolve. The contract keeps them alive. But will they still be themselves when they reach Allabar?

Strengths

• Clear quest structure — players know the goal and can track progress
• Natural level pacing (one part per level, roughly)
• Adapts well to Eve of Ruin’s multiplanar structure
• The endgame (Allabar assault) is an incredible set piece
• Vecna remains the villain throughout — escalating, adapting, desperate
• The contract and the weapon are separate threads that converge at the finale

Risks

• “Collect seven things” can feel formulaic if each quest isn’t distinct
• Vecna as a constant background threat needs variety to stay fresh
• The party might want to confront Vecna earlier than level 20
• Durrak staying at the forge means a beloved NPC is sidelined

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Scenario B: The Contract Path — Divine Law Rewritten

How Session 35 Ends

During the forging, Lyra Shadowthorn is on the Cooling Vents (near the anvil). As the meteor falls, Lyra Mildspear steps forward from the Kelemvor portal. Whether by choice, instinct, or the contract’s own will — both halves of Lyra are near the anvil when the star fragment hits the Rod.

The Rod doesn’t forge a weapon. It rewrites the contract.

Something happens that nobody planned. Not Durrak. Not Kelemvor. Not Vecna. The Rod of Seven Parts — an artifact capable of rewriting divine law — combined with the meteor’s force, the primordial fire, and both halves of the contract’s living embodiment… rewrites the rules.

What changes: The Grimoire page where both laws are written — Vecna’s resurrection cycle and Lyra’s protection clause — is fundamentally altered. The exact nature of the alteration depends on Lyra’s intent in the moment (DM calls this based on what the player says/does).

Possible rewrites:

• The contract now binds Vecna’s death cycle through Lyra — his deaths route through her too. He is tethered to Kelemvor permanently. No more 100-year exception.
• “(This is not to be undone)” extends to Vecna’s imprisonment — the ley line chains become part of the contract, making them divine law rather than just powerful magic.
• The two halves of Lyra partially merge — not fully (the clause prevents it) but enough that she’s more than half a person. The weapon inside her activates permanently.

The Red Moon blinks. The Eye… stutters. For the first time in the campaign, Vecna’s voice is gone from their minds. Total silence. The party stands in the quiet and realises: they’ve done something no one has ever done before. And they don’t fully understand what.

Level 14.

The Level 14-20 Arc

Structure: Consequences campaign. The party rewrote divine law at the Star Forge. Now the multiverse responds.

The Gods notice. Kelemvor’s domain shifts. Jergal’s legacy is disturbed. Asmodeus — who had his own stake in the contracts (Reeny, the Pit Fiend) — is furious or intrigued. The fabric of how death works has been altered, and every divine power with a stake in death (which is all of them) has an opinion.

The campaign becomes about:

1. Understanding what they changed — the Grimoire is altered but Lyra can’t fully read the new text. They need to find interpreters, scholars, divine oracles who can explain what the rewrite means.
2. Defending the rewrite — forces that benefited from Vecna’s contract (infernal powers, undead lords, anyone who had deals tied to the old rules) want the rewrite reversed.
3. Stabilising the rewrite — divine law rewritten by mortals is unstable. The Grimoire is cracking. If the new rules collapse, everything reverts — and Vecna’s original contract comes back at full strength.
4. Dealing with Vecna’s response — he’s been silenced but not destroyed. He’s adapting. The rewrite may have given him new vulnerabilities but also new opportunities. He’s exploring the edges of the new rules.

The prison problem remains. Rewriting the contract didn’t banish Allabar. The Red Moon is still in orbit. Vecna is still up there. The rewrite may have weakened him, but he’s still imprisoned in the same place — and if the rewrite collapses, he’s back at full strength with a grudge.

Level 20: The Finale

• The rewrite must be made permanent. This requires something — a final ritual, a divine audience, a confrontation with Kelemvor himself about what Lyra signed.
• Lyra’s unread contract with Kelemvor becomes central. The contract’s terms may hold the key to making the rewrite permanent.
• Vecna makes his move — he’s found a way to exploit the rewrite, or he’s found a way to collapse it. The finale is about whether the new rules hold.

How the Contract / Weapon / Rod Connect

• The Rod → consumed in the rewrite. It’s gone — used up as the catalyst. No more Rod.
• The weapon (Lyra) → partially activated. She’s more than she was but not fully the weapon yet. The rewrite changed her but the activation is incomplete.
• The contract → the central object of the entire arc. Everything revolves around what was rewritten and whether it holds.
• Lyra’s contract with Kelemvor → this becomes the most important document in the campaign. What did she sign? What are the terms? The unread contract may be the key to everything.

Tone

Political cosmic horror. The party is swimming in waters too deep for mortals. They rewrote the rules that gods wrote. Now they’re dealing with divine bureaucracy, infernal litigation, and the fundamental question: do mortals have the right to change how death works?

More roleplay-heavy. More NPC interactions with divine entities. Less “go to place, fight thing” and more “navigate impossible choices between cosmic powers who all want different things.”

Strengths

• Extremely original — no “collect seven things” structure
• Lyra’s unread contract becomes the campaign’s central mystery
• Heavy RP opportunities with divine entities
• The consequences of session 35 ripple through every subsequent session
• Vecna becomes more interesting as a silenced, adapting enemy

Risks

• Harder to structure — no clear quest chain. Needs strong DM improvisation.
• May feel too abstract for players who want clear goals
• The Rod is consumed — that’s a big artifact to lose. Players might feel robbed.
• Divine politics can become confusing or feel like the party has no agency
• Less “D&D adventure” and more “cosmic drama” — depends on the table

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Scenario C: The Fractured Forging — Corrupted Weapon, Race Against Time

How Session 35 Ends

Lux’s Grip Check #5 partially corrupts the forging. The party pulls him off the Material Feed — but not in time. The Rod was positioned for Vecna’s design for two critical seconds before they wrenched him away. Durrak screamed. The sequence was wrong. But the meteor was already falling.

The star fragment hits the anvil. The weapon forges. But it’s wrong.

Not fully Vecna’s design — the party stopped it in time for that. Not fully Durrak’s hope — the corruption window was too long. A hybrid. A fractured weapon that hums with banishment energy but bleeds Far Realm corruption from its edges. It’s alive in the wrong way. It whispers.

Durrak, staring at the weapon:

“That’s… not right. That’s not what I made. Something got in. Something from him. It works — I can feel the banishment in it — but it’s cracked. Poisoned. If you use it like this, it might banish the moon. Or it might open a door so wide he walks right through.”

The Red Moon flickers — not dark, not bright. Unstable. The chains held but they’re weaker. Allabar shifts in its orbit. Imperceptibly closer.

Level 14. But the party knows they made a mistake. And the clock is ticking.

The Level 14-20 Arc

Structure: A race. The party has a flawed weapon. Allabar is descending — slowly, but measurably. Every session, the Red Moon is a little closer. Every night, it’s a little bigger in the sky. If they don’t act, the Far Realm comes to Toril.

Meanwhile, Vecna felt the fractured forging. He knows the weapon is flawed. He’s not trying to stop them anymore — he’s trying to encourage them to use the flawed weapon. Because a corrupted banishment might do exactly what he needs: open the door.

The campaign becomes about:

1. Purifying/reforging the weapon — the seven parts become seven purifications. Each corrupted element needs to be cleansed or reforged. Same quest structure as Scenario A, but framed as fixing a mistake rather than building from scratch.
2. Managing the descent — Allabar is getting closer. The Far Realm influence on Toril is growing. Aberrant incursions, corrupted landscapes, possessed populations. The world is getting worse while the party works.
3. Resisting Vecna’s new strategy — He WANTS them to use the weapon as-is. His agents now try to accelerate their timeline rather than slow it. “Use it now. Before it’s too late. Don’t you see the moon getting closer?” The corruption play reversed — urgency instead of despair.
4. Lux’s guilt — Grip Check #5 failed because of the giant body. The corruption is Lux’s fault (mechanically, not morally — but guilt doesn’t care about mechanics). This is a character arc bomb. Does Lux abandon the giant body? Does he try to fix what he broke?

Level 20: The Finale — Allabar (Same as Scenario A)

• Travel to Allabar with the purified weapon
• Strike it, banish it, seal the chains
• But the fractured weapon means there’s doubt — will it work? Even purified, was the original corruption fully cleansed? The party carries that uncertainty to the final moment.
• The contract (Lyra) is the failsafe, same as Scenario A

How the Contract / Weapon / Rod Connect

• The Rod → fractured into the corrupted weapon. Needs purification across seven stages. Targets the prison.
• The weapon (Lyra) → more important than ever. If the banishment weapon is flawed, Lyra is the backup plan. The failsafe might become the primary weapon.
• The contract → still protects Nemesis. But the corrupted weapon whispers to them — does the corruption count as “losing yourself”? Does the contract protect against a weapon that’s slowly maddening its carrier?
• Lux → the Grip Check failure is the emotional engine. His arc drives the purification quest.

Tone

Desperate urgency. Ticking clock. Racing against the moon. The world is visibly deteriorating. The Red Moon is bigger every session. Aberrant weather, corrupted wildlife, Far Realm breaches in populated areas. The party didn’t fail — they partially succeeded. And that’s almost worse, because now they have to fix it while the world burns.

This is the Empire Strikes Back scenario. Session 35 ends on a defeat (partial) that drives the entire next arc. The party isn’t collecting parts to build something new — they’re racing to fix something they broke.

Strengths

• Incredibly high stakes from the start — the party FELT the failure
• Lux’s guilt arc is a character goldmine (Jay used to play Kaial — he knows personal stakes land)
• The “Vecna wants them to use it” reversal is a brilliant corruption play
• Allabar descending creates escalating environmental storytelling — the world gets worse every session
• The doubt (“will the purified weapon even work?”) creates tension at the finale
• The failure is MECHANICAL — it happened because of a dice roll, not a story beat. That’s authentic.

Risks

• The party might feel punished by a bad dice roll driving the entire arc
• “Fix the thing you broke” is less inspiring than “build the thing that saves the world”
• Lux’s player might not want 7 levels of guilt — check in OOC
• The descending moon needs careful management — too fast and it feels forced, too slow and it’s forgettable
• Vecna encouraging them to use the weapon is counterintuitive — needs careful setup so players understand

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Scenario D: Vecna Gets His Weapon — The Chains Break

How Session 35 Ends

The party fails. Maybe Lux’s Grip Check #5 corrupts the forging completely and they can’t pull him off. Maybe someone accepts Vecna’s deal and the intent fractures. Maybe the giants overwhelm the stations and the Rod is positioned for Vecna’s alignment before anyone can intervene. Maybe Vecna’s whispers fracture the party at the critical moment — Kaial hesitates, thinking of his mother.

The meteor falls on the wrong weapon. The Hammer That Breaks the World is forged.

The ley line chains around Allabar shatter like glass. The Red Moon’s Eye opens — wider than it’s ever been. The sky splits crimson. Through the third portal, Vecna’s skeletal hands grip the edges of the tear. He pulls. The chains are gone. A figure steps through — too thin, too tall, one burning eye, one empty socket. The god of secrets stands on the forge floor.

And he looks directly at Lyra.

Vecna’s True Endgame: Make Lyra His Champion

Vecna is free but he’s not stupid. He knows:

• The weapon that can permanently kill him IS Lyra
• The contract means killing her feeds Kelemvor
• He can’t destroy the weapon. He can’t ignore it.

So he does the only thing left: recruit it.

Vecna’s ultimate goal is to corrupt Lyra into becoming his Champion. Turn the weapon that can destroy him into his most trusted ally. Keep the knife that can cut his throat in his own hand. If Lyra serves Vecna willingly — if she CHOOSES him — the weapon inside her can never be used against him. Not because it’s destroyed, but because the wielder won’t swing.

This has been his plan all along. Every whisper. Every corruption play. Every bargain. He wasn’t trying to break Nemesis — he was trying to isolate Lyra. Make her feel alone. Make her feel like a weapon, not a person. Make her resent the contract that turned her sarcasm into divine law without her consent. Make her resent Kelemvor for using her. And then offer her the one thing Kelemvor never did: a choice.

“Everyone else decided what you are. Kelemvor made you a weapon. The contract made you a conduit. Your friends made you a shield. I’m the only one asking what YOU want.”

The Level 14-20 Arc

Structure: Resistance campaign. Vecna is free and consolidating power. The world is falling. But Nemesis can’t be killed — and Vecna can’t be permanently destroyed until the weapon (Lyra) is activated. It’s a standoff at cosmic scale.

The campaign becomes about:

1. Surviving in a Vecna-ruled world — he moves fast. Cities fall. Institutions are corrupted. Secrets become weapons. The god of secrets reshapes the world in his image.
2. Vecna hunting Lyra specifically — not to kill her. To turn her. His agents approach her. His whispers find her in dreams. He offers things she genuinely wants: reunion with Mildspear, freedom from the contract, a life that isn’t defined by being someone else’s weapon. The corruption is patient, personal, and terrifyingly reasonable.
3. The party protecting Lyra — from Vecna AND from herself — the identity question becomes literal. Is Lyra the weapon? Is she the contract? Or is she just a rogue who wrote something sarcastic in a book and got caught up in divine politics? If she starts to believe Vecna’s version… the party has to reach her.
4. Finding a way to activate the weapon — Lyra’s unread contract with Kelemvor holds the key. What did she sign? What are the terms? How does the weapon activate? The party must figure this out while Vecna is actively trying to turn the weapon to his side.
5. Confronting Kelemvor’s role — Kelemvor used Lyra. He let her sign without reading. He amended her law without asking. He armed her with a weapon she doesn’t understand. Is he better than Vecna? He’s certainly not worse — but from Lyra’s perspective, both gods treated her as a tool. This moral ambiguity is the emotional engine.

Vecna’s corruption timeline:

• L14-15: Indirect. Agents. Whispers. Gifts left where Lyra will find them. Information about her contract that Kelemvor never shared.
• L16-17: Direct contact. Vecna appears to Lyra in person (or through mirrors, dreams, shadows). Conversations, not threats. He’s charming, intelligent, and he understands her — because the god of secrets knows everyone’s secrets.
• L18-19: The offer. Something specific that Lyra genuinely wants. This is where the player’s choices across 20+ sessions determine the offer. What has Lyra’s player revealed about what she cares about? That’s what Vecna offers.
• L20: The confrontation. Lyra chooses.

Level 20: The Finale

• Nemesis confronts Vecna directly. He’s at full divine power. The world is his.
• The contract protects them from death — but Vecna has had 7 levels to find workarounds. His forces don’t try to kill; they try to separate, isolate, corrupt.
• The final moment is Lyra’s choice: activate the weapon (permanently killing Vecna, but accepting that she IS the weapon — that Kelemvor was right to use her) or accept Vecna’s offer (keeping her autonomy but dooming the world).
• If Lyra activates: Shadowthorn’s Bane manifests. Not summoned — grown from her hand, from the contract, from the girl who wrote something sarcastic and changed the laws of death. She strikes. Vecna’s resurrection cycle shatters. The god of secrets dies permanently. And Lyra has to live with being exactly what everyone told her she was.
• If Lyra refuses: the party must find another way. Possibly the seven-part banishment weapon as a backup (Scenario A becomes the emergency plan). Or the party must reach Lyra and remind her who she is — the identity question answered by her friends, not by gods.

How the Contract / Weapon / Rod Connect

• The Rod → forged as the Hammer That Breaks the World. It served its purpose (broke the chains). It may still exist as an artifact, now in Vecna’s possession or shattered by the strike.
• The weapon (Lyra) → THE central object of the campaign. Everything revolves around whether Lyra activates it or is turned.
• The contract → still protects Nemesis. But Vecna is looking for loopholes. Can he corrupt someone so thoroughly that they’re “not themselves” — does the contract protect a person who’s been fundamentally changed? Does it protect someone who willingly leaves Nemesis?
• Lyra’s contract with Kelemvor → the key to activation. But also the source of Lyra’s resentment. She signed without reading. What did she agree to? If the terms are cruel — if Kelemvor’s deal was as exploitative as Vecna’s offer — does Lyra even WANT to be Kelemvor’s weapon?

Tone

Dark. Personal. Character-driven. This is not an epic quest — it’s a character study of Lyra wrapped in a campaign where the world is ending. The party fights battles and saves cities, but the real war is for one person’s soul. Vecna is the most compelling villain because he’s RIGHT about some things: Kelemvor did use Lyra. The contract did take her choices away. She IS a weapon. The question is whether being a weapon is all she is.

This is the Breaking Bad scenario. The audience (table) watches Lyra get pulled toward the dark side and has to decide: do we intervene? Can we? Is it our choice to make?

Strengths

• The most emotionally powerful scenario by far
• Vecna becomes a fully realised character — charming, intelligent, terrifyingly reasonable
• Lyra’s player gets the spotlight — the entire endgame is her choice
• Forces the table to engage with moral complexity (Kelemvor vs Vecna — neither is clean)
• The contract protecting Nemesis while Vecna hunts Lyra creates constant dramatic tension
• The finale (Lyra’s choice) is the kind of moment tables talk about for years
• “You are the weapon” pays off across 20 levels

Risks

• Lyra’s player must be on board — this is a LOT of spotlight. Check in OOC.
• Other players might feel sidelined if the campaign revolves around Lyra’s choice
• If Lyra’s player doesn’t engage with the corruption arc, the whole structure collapses
• Vecna being “charming and reasonable” is hard to DM — one wrong note and he’s just a villain monologuing
• The “freed god” scenario is the hardest to balance mechanically — how do you fight a god at level 14?
• If Lyra accepts Vecna’s offer, the campaign needs a backup endgame (which IS Scenario A — build the banishment weapon as plan B)

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Comparison

  A: Banishment Quest B: Contract Rewrite C: Fractured Weapon D: Vecna Freed Session 35 ending Victory. Incomplete but clean. Transcendence. Something unprecedented. Partial failure. Corrupted but functional. Total failure. Vecna is free. Arc structure Collect 7 parts. Clear goals. Consequences. Fluid, emergent. Fix 7 flaws. Race against time. Resistance + Lyra’s corruption arc. Primary threat Vecna’s agents pursuing them Divine politics, contract instability Allabar descending, world deteriorating Vecna in person. Hunting Lyra. Vecna’s role Pursuing, corrupting, escalating Silenced, adapting, finding loopholes Encouraging, manipulating urgency Free. Charming. Recruiting Lyra. Lyra’s role Failsafe weapon. Backup plan. Central figure. The contract is everything. Failsafe weapon. More critical if banishment fails. THE campaign. Her choice = the finale. Lux’s role Normal party member Normal party member Guilt arc. Emotional engine. Normal party member The Rod Transformed into Part 1 Consumed in the rewrite Fractured into corrupted weapon Forged as Vecna’s hammer. Gone. Tone Epic quest. Lord of the Rings. Cosmic drama. Political horror. Desperate race. Empire Strikes Back. Dark character study. Breaking Bad. DM complexity Moderate — structured quest chain High — needs strong improvisation Moderate — structured + environmental escalation High — needs Vecna as a character, not a monster Player satisfaction High — clear progress markers Variable — depends on table’s RP appetite High but painful — earned through adversity Highest if Lyra’s player engages. Risky if not. Endgame Allabar assault with completed weapon Making the rewrite permanent Allabar assault with purified weapon Lyra’s choice: activate or turn.

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DM Recommendation

Scenario A is the safest, strongest choice for this table. Seven rules lawyers with 3 years of experience want clear goals, trackable progress, and mechanical crunch. The seven-part quest gives them that. The contract (Lyra) and the weapon provide the emotional depth. The Allabar finale is the most visually and mechanically spectacular ending.

Scenario D is the most emotionally powerful but the riskiest. If Lyra’s player engages with the corruption arc, this is the version people talk about for years. Vecna as a charming, reasonable villain who’s RIGHT about some things — Kelemvor did use Lyra, the contract did take her choices away. But it lives or dies on one player’s engagement, and other players might feel sidelined.

Scenario C is the best “failure” scenario if you trust the table to handle a partial failure as a story beat rather than a punishment. Lux’s guilt, the descending moon, the desperate race — this generates the most table talk between sessions.

Scenario B is the most original but the hardest to run. Heavy RP, divine politics, no clear quest chain. Given that this table is rules lawyers who love combat, B might not be the best primary structure — but elements of B strengthen any other scenario.

Hybrid possibility: Start with Scenario A as the structure, but weave in D’s corruption thread. Vecna doesn’t need to be FREE to try recruiting Lyra — he can do it from Allabar through agents, dreams, and whispers across all seven parts. The Lyra corruption arc runs as an undercurrent while the party collects the banishment weapon parts. Part 7 could be on Allabar itself, where Vecna makes his final offer face to face. The banishment quest gives the table structure; the Lyra arc gives it soul.

If Vecna fails at the Star Forge: His strategy pivots. If the party forges the weapon of hope, Vecna can’t break free by force. So he shifts his attention to destroying Kelemvor and the Grimoire itself — tear down the laws of death that bind him. If he can’t break the chains, he’ll burn the book that says the chains exist. This gives Vecna a clear L14-20 objective that runs parallel to the party’s quest: they’re building a weapon to seal him; he’s trying to kill a god to void the laws that imprison him. A race with cosmic stakes.

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Open Questions — Answered (2026-02-22)

1. The Seven Parts — What’s the Structure?

Answer: Durrak gives the party a master plan. The meteorite IS the hammer strike — the forge’s final blow. Part 1 becomes a ring. The seven parts together form a hammer or gavel — the shape of judgement enforced. Not seven separate weapons; seven pieces of one instrument.

2. Does Durrak Stay at the Star Forge?

Answer: Durrak sacrifices himself INTO the ring during the meteor strike. He IS Part 1. He saves the mountain by becoming the artifact. His symbol is on the weapon. Dergeddin’s line — the last duergar smith — is forged into history. He doesn’t travel with the party because he IS the weapon.

3. Allabar’s Descent — Is There a Ticking Clock?

Answer: Allabar stays in orbit. It does not descend. Only meteorites come down. If 5 rounds isn’t enough time for the forging sequence, Vecna can timestop the falling meteorite — buying the party extra rounds but also giving Vecna’s forces more time to disrupt the forging. The clock is the meteor, not the moon.

4. Vecna’s Endgame — Full Power or Weakened?

Answer: If the party forges the weapon of hope, Vecna is weakened. The chains tighten. The Eye dims. He’s hurt but not destroyed. Post-session 35 direction depends on which scenario plays out — discuss after the session.

5. The Contract at the Finale — Does Lyra Activate?

Answer: At the endgame (level 20, Allabar), Lyra summons Shadowthorn’s Bane for a killing blow into Vecna’s heart. The dagger is destroyed — but the contract inside Lyra is the true weapon. The exact mechanics of the summoning and the kill to be teased out post-session 35. This is the culmination of “You are the weapon.”

6. Lux’s Body — Does It Persist?

Answer: Lux leaves the fire giant body after session 35. Vecna wants him to stay in the giant — that’s the corruption play. But the experience of the forge, the body overriding his mind, the horror of Vecna seeing through him — all of it pushes Lux OUT. The corruption feeling is what drives him to abandon the body, not stay in it. Session 35 resolves the Magic Jar arc.

7. Reeny — Antagonist or Redemption?

Answer: Reeny is NOT Asmodeus’s daughter (corrected — Glasya is). Reeny is a mortal princess who fought in the Blood War on Avernus and was recruited by Vecna through Bane. At her core, Reeny is Lyra’s friend. Their relationship is the emotional truth. Her story is tragic, not villainous. Whether she’s redeemed depends on what happens at the forge and beyond — but she’s not a willing servant. Dream plane evidence (session 24): “I just wanted to get out.”

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New Questions Raised

1. The gavel shape — what does each of the seven parts represent? Are they tied to the seven party members?
2. Durrak’s sacrifice — does the party know in advance that the forging will consume him? Does he tell them, or do they only realise when it happens?
3. Vecna’s timestop — if he freezes the meteor, what happens mechanically? Extra rounds of combat while the meteor hangs in the air?
4. Lyra summoning the destroyed dagger — Shadowthorn’s Bane was destroyed by Vecna. The Soulbound property says it reappears in the wielder’s hand. But it was disintegrated. Does the contract’s migration into Lyra mean she summons the CONTRACT as a weapon, not the physical dagger?
5. Lux leaving the body — what happens to the fire giant body? Does it collapse? Does the possessed network reclaim it?
6. Reeny at the forge — does she fight the party, or does Lyra reach her? What does Reeny do when the four portals are open?