Session 35 — The Convergence

Opens on the four portals cliffhanger from session 34. Four cosmic forces have arrived at the Star Forge. The Rod is on the anvil. The party must navigate diplomacy, combat, and the forging — possibly all at once.

Tone: The weight of the universe in one room. This isn’t a dungeon crawl. This is a negotiation at the centre of reality with four gods represented and seven mortals holding the only thing that matters.

The defining question of this session is not “can they survive?” It is “will they still be themselves when it’s over?”

Endgame scenarios: See drafts/session-35-endgame-scenarios.md for three possible session endings and what each means for the level 14-20 arc.

THE CONTRACT — What the DM Knows

Quick reference for this session. Full detail: lore/the-contract.md

The Clause

Lyra wrote in the Grimoire of Shadows:

“If one of the idiots from Nemesis dies before I do, I’ll drag their death into myself, allowing them to live another day (this is not to be mistaken for affection).”

Kelemvor made three amendments in silver-grey ink:

“before I do” — struck through. Not replaced. The temporal limit removed entirely. The contract works across all time.
“into” → “through” — inserted above the line. Lyra is a conduit, not a container. Deaths pass through her to Kelemvor’s domain.
“(this is not to be mistaken for affection)” → “(this is not to be undone)” — her sarcasm turned into divine law.

What It Means Tactically

Every time Vecna kills a member of Nemesis, the death routes through Lyra into Kelemvor’s domain. He is not just failing — he is feeding the god of death.
Vecna learned this. He stopped trying to kill them.
His entire Star Forge strategy is corruption, not destruction. He needs them alive but hollowed out. Unmade from the inside in ways the contract cannot cover.
The contract protects against death. It does not protect against losing yourself.

What Vecna Fears

He told Lyra: “It is the only thing in this world I have ever feared.” But does he fear what Lyra wrote — or what Kelemvor changed it to? He may not know about the amendments.

The Lyra Split

The contract split Lyra into two halves:

Lyra Shadowthorn — the living half. Body, skills, daggers. A Phantom Rogue because she is literally half a person.
Lyra Mildspear — the dead half. But “Mildspear” is a stolen name — Lyra grew up in orphanages and forged the name into a Silverton family registry. The real Mildspears are Jesse’s family. The dead half carries a name that belongs to someone else. She is standing in portal four.

Neither is the original. Neither is a copy. “(This is not to be undone)” — they can never be fully reunited.

How This Changes Everything

The battle at the Star Forge is not a fight for survival. It is a fight for identity. Vecna needs Nemesis alive but corrupted. Replaced. Made to destroy themselves in ways the contract cannot cover. Every temptation, every bargain, every whisper is designed to unmake a member of Nemesis from the inside.

THE OPENING — Four Portals, Four Forces

The party is on the forge island. Bridge retracted. Lava surrounding. The Rod glows white-gold on the anvil. Four portals blaze through the giant king faces.

Portal Rules — Who Can Cross, Who Will Cross

The four portals are doors, not windows. Anyone on either side can physically walk through. The limitation isn’t the portal — it’s who’s willing or able:

Portal Who’s Visible Can Cross? Will Cross? 1 — Avernus Pit Fiend + Reeny Yes — it’s a battlefield portal, no god holding it shut Yes — Reeny steps through with the Pit Fiend. They take the forge floor. 2 — Asmodeus Glasya + Asmodeus’s presence Glasya: yes (not a god). Asmodeus: yes, but won’t. No — Asmodeus is here to watch. He came for the entertainment. Won’t commit Glasya unless he has to (i.e. never). 3 — Allabar/Vecna Vecna + possibly Jesse Mildspear Vecna: no (the chains ARE the lock). Jesse: yes. Vecna physically cannot. Jesse could walk out at any time. 4 — Kelemvor/Fugue Lyra Mildspear + Sir Whiskington Yes — Lyra already walked in and out of a portal to Vecna’s domain (session 31). Mortals cross freely. Open question — she’s standing in the doorway. Calm. Waiting. On her own terms.

The pattern: Every cosmic power brought a child.

Asmodeus brought Glasya (his literal daughter)
Kelemvor brought Lyra Mildspear (his former Champion)
The Pit Fiend carried Reeny (Vecna’s harbinger)
Vecna brought… Jesse Mildspear — the boy he resurrected as a side effect of destroying Shadowthorn’s Bane. The first soul Lyra judged. The boy who loved Reeny. (See npcs/jesse-mildspear.md)

Session 35 opens with one physical arrival: Reeny + Pit Fiend on the forge floor. Three open doors with figures visible but not yet crossed. The party has one immediate threat and three unknowns.

What Each Force Wants

Portal Force Goal 1 Reeny + Pit Fiend Reeny is Vecna’s harbinger. The Pit Fiend is her bodyguard, assigned through Bane. She was told to ensure the weapon is forged — but she’s caught between Vecna’s plan and her own desire to get out. 2 Asmodeus + Glasya A witness. Asmodeus came to bear witness to Vecna and Kelemvor’s contract — and to let Nosferatu Zodd pass through his domain. He will NOT intervene beyond that. Nine points of black flame, watching. 3 Vecna (+ Jesse) He wants Lyra to step through. Not to kill her — to recruit her. The portal is an invitation, not a threat. Vecna can’t cross (chains), but Jesse Mildspear can — a resurrected boy standing behind a chained god, connected to both Reeny and Lyra. 4 Kelemvor + Lyra Mildspear Death’s stake. The contract. Lyra Mildspear is the enforcement mechanism, drawn to the forge where divine law can be rewritten. But is Kelemvor an ally, or is he just another god using Lyra as a tool?

The Key Insight for the DM

Vecna’s strategy is to exploit conflicting loyalties. He doesn’t need to win. He needs the cosmic forces watching the forge floor — Asmodeus’s amusement, Kelemvor’s contract, Ilmater’s compassion — to conflict with each other. The collision breaks his chains through the chaos, regardless of who prevails.

But he also cannot afford to kill any of them. If any member of Nemesis dies, the contract activates and Kelemvor gets fed. Vecna is fighting with one hand tied behind his back — and the party doesn’t know it yet.

The party wins by staying themselves. Unity defeats both the divine collision strategy and the corruption strategy.

ACT 1 — THE STANDOFF

The Moment

Nobody moves. The Pit Fiend is on the forge floor, wings spread, Reeny on its back — armoured in black and gold. Through the second portal: Glasya visible with Asmodeus’s presence behind her — nine points of black flame, watching, not moving. Through the third: Vecna’s burning eye, chains straining. Through the fourth: Lyra Mildspear in silver light. Calm. Waiting.

Only Reeny and the Pit Fiend have physically crossed. The other three portals are open doors with figures visible but not yet stepped through.

The possessed giants above have stopped marching. Even Vecna’s minions are watching. Asmodeus is watching. Everyone is watching.

This is a roleplay scene first. Let the party process. Let them ask questions. Let the NPCs speak.

Reeny Speaks First

She knew the party before. She drank with them in Highpoint. Now she’s armoured, crowned, and flanked by a Pit Fiend. But she’s not attacking. Not yet.

Reeny’s opening:

“I wasn’t sure you’d make it this far.”

She’s Vecna’s harbinger but she’s not here willingly. Dream plane evidence (session 24): “I just wanted to get out.” She’s in over her head — a mortal princess caught in cosmic chess.

What Reeny wants:

She was told to ensure the weapon is forged — but not necessarily for Vecna
Asmodeus wants the weapon as leverage — a tool to negotiate with Vecna, not to free him
Reeny’s personal desire: she’s in over her head. She was a princess who became a queen who became a warrior who became a harbinger. She never signed up for cosmic chess.
If the party can reach the person she used to be, there’s an opening

What the Pit Fiend does:

It doesn’t speak unless spoken to. Military discipline.
It watches Reeny. It watches the party. It watches the Rod.
If anyone threatens Reeny, it acts instantly — no initiative, just violence.
If Reeny tells it to stand down, it obeys. She’s its charge — it was assigned to her through Bane.
It will NOT kill. Vecna cannot afford to trigger the contract. The Pit Fiend will subdue, not slaughter. Grapples. Throws. Slams against walls. But it won’t deliver a killing blow unless Reeny is in mortal danger.

Lyra Mildspear

She hasn’t crossed through the portal yet. She’s standing in the doorway of the Fugue — visible, but on her own terms.

She doesn’t speak first. She waits. She looks at Lyra with an expression that’s hard to read — not hostile, not welcoming. Patient. She knows what she is now.

If Lyra approaches or speaks to her:

“You wrote it. He changed it. I’m what it made.”

If pressed for more:

“You told me I would be ok. I was. For a while. Then the page turned and my name was on it.”

She knows about the contract. She knows about Kelemvor’s amendments. She is here because the contract called her — the dead half, drawn to the forge where divine law can be rewritten.

The stolen name: “Mildspear” is not Lyra’s birth name. Lyra grew up in orphanages — she may never have known her real surname. She forged “Mildspear” into a Silverton family registry to claim land deeds. The dead half carries a name stolen from Jesse Mildspear’s family. Whether she knows this is an open question. Whether it matters to her is another.

What Lyra Mildspear wants:

She IS the contract’s enforcement mechanism. She doesn’t have a personal agenda separate from it.
But she’s also Lyra — the girl from the orphanage, before Shadowthorn, before the contract. She has feelings about being the dead half.
She is the “soul willingly given” — the other half of the equation described in the Grimoire
Together, they ARE the weapon. Not something forged. Something that already exists.
She wants to complete the contract — to become the blade no forge can make.
She will not fight. She is not a combatant. She is a mechanism. But she will act when the contract requires her to.

The Kelemvor Question — Is He Good, Evil, or Neutral?

Kelemvor sent Lyra Mildspear. But why? Out of kindness? Or because the contract requires it?

Consider: Kelemvor let Lyra sign a contract without reading it. He offered the law-writing as a “cool perk” — then amended her sarcasm into divine law. He armed her with a weapon she doesn’t understand. He “released her from service” — possibly a protection play, possibly abandonment. Everything Kelemvor has done can be read two ways:

Good: He’s protecting Lyra. He recruited her because she was the best person for the job. The contract protects Nemesis. The amendments made her law stronger. He released her to hide her from Vecna. Mildspear is here to help.
Neutral: He doesn’t care about Lyra. He cares about the balance of death. She’s a tool — the most effective weapon against Vecna’s perversion of death. He’d sacrifice her happiness, her identity, her wholeness without hesitation if it serves the balance. Mildspear is here because the mechanism requires it.

Vecna’s argument to Lyra will be that Kelemvor is the SECOND option. That she’s a tool to both of them. That the only difference between the god of death and the god of secrets is that one was honest about wanting something from her.

DM Note: Don’t answer this question yet. Let the players wonder. Let Lyra’s player sit with the ambiguity. Is Kelemvor an ally or another manipulator? The answer might not come until the finale — and it might depend on what Lyra does.

Sir Whiskington the Third:

A distinguished mouse from Mt. Celestia in a miniature suit, monocle, and bowtie. See npcs/sir-whiskington.md.
He traversed the entire multiverse — including the Fugue Plane — to find Nosferatu Zodd for Guts. He’s returning via the Kelemvor portal because that’s where his trail took him.
Zodd enters through Portal 2 (Asmodeus) — this is why Asmodeus showed up. Not cosmic politics (or rather, cosmic politics AND a mouse’s errand — same mechanism).
Sir Whiskington announces Zodd’s arrival from the Kelemvor portal: “I say! As promised, good sir — a worthy opponent! Tally-ho!”

Vecna and Jesse Mildspear

Vecna is behind the third portal — pressing against his chains, one burning eye, one empty socket. He can speak into minds but cannot physically cross. The chains ARE the lock. But the portal is open. And someone else is behind him.

Jesse Mildspear — a small figure, standing in the shadow of a chained god. Vecna resurrected him as a mechanical requirement of destroying Shadowthorn’s Bane (the destruction rules require the first judged soul to be resurrected). Vecna may not have even cared who Jesse was — a line item in a ritual. But Jesse is alive, and he’s standing behind the only portal where the god can’t follow him through.

Jesse loved Reeny. Reeny is on the forge floor. Lyra — the woman who judged Jesse’s soul, the woman who stole his family name — is on the forge floor. Every thread connects here.

Whether and when Jesse steps through is an open question. He CAN cross — Vecna can’t. The portal is a door, not a cage. But what does Jesse want? Does he even know where he is? He was dead. Now he’s not. He’s standing behind a god of secrets in a volcano on a different plane from where he died.

Vecna’s ultimate goal: Make Lyra his Champion.

Everything else — the bargains, the corruption, the giants — is secondary. The weapon that can permanently destroy Vecna IS Lyra. He can’t kill her (the contract). He can’t ignore her (the weapon). So he’ll recruit her. Turn the knife that can cut his throat into his most trusted 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.

Portal 3 is not just Vecna pressing against chains. It’s a door he wants Lyra to walk through.

Vecna’s play during the standoff — the corruption strategy:

He is not threatening death. He is offering bargains. Each whisper is a temptation designed to unmake identity, not end life. But Lyra’s whisper is different from the others — it’s not a bargain. It’s an argument:

To Lux: “Forge my weapon and I will give you back your body. The real one. The one with wings. You remember wings, don’t you?” The temptation to abandon the giant form — but at the cost of forging ruin.
To Kaial: “Your mother screams your name every night. Forge my weapon and I will release her. She could be free before this day ends.” The impossible bargain — a paladin’s duty to the innocent vs. his duty to the world.
To Lyra (different tone — not a bargain, an argument): “Everyone decided what you are. Kelemvor made you a weapon. The contract made you a conduit. Your friends made you a shield. Did anyone ask what YOU want? That thing in the portal — your dead half — Kelemvor sent it. Not for you. For the contract. You’re a tool to him. You were always a tool to him. You signed a contract you didn’t read and he turned your joke into divine law. I’m the only one in this room who’s asking.” A pause. “Step through. I’ll show you what he wrote.” The portal pulses. He’s inviting her to Allabar.
To Alora: “Your god sends you to suffering. I could end all of it. No more pain. No more healing what breaks again tomorrow.” Ilmater’s cruelty reframed.
To Reaghl: “You hold everything so tightly. The walls, the silence, the discipline. What happens if you let go?” Targeting his psionic control.
To Guts: “You’ve been angry your whole life. I could take it away. Peace. Real peace.” The one thing rage can’t achieve.
To Arawn: “You see everything and understand nothing. I could open your eyes. Really open them.” Knowledge as corruption — the ranger who always watches but never sees.

He is desperate. The Rod is on the anvil. If they forge the weapon of hope, his chains strengthen. He has minutes, not hours. But he cannot kill them. So he offers the only thing he has left: deals.

If the party forges the weapon of hope and Vecna fails here: His strategy pivots. 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 — tear down the laws of death themselves. No Grimoire, no laws. No laws, no contract. No contract, no weapon, no chains, no resurrection cycle — just raw divine power with no rules. The party builds a weapon to seal him; he tries to kill a god to void the laws that imprison him. A race with cosmic stakes.

Critical DM note: Vecna will NOT order the possessed giants to kill. They will descend to disrupt the forging — pull operators off stations, corrupt the sequence, create chaos. But no killing blows. If a PC drops to 0 HP during combat, the giants step over them to the next station. Vecna needs living hands on those levers.

ACT 2 — THE DECISION (Identity, Not Survival)

The Party Chooses

After the standoff, the party must decide what to do. Frame every option in terms of who they are, not whether they live.

Option A: Forge the weapon of hope (Durrak’s path)

Man the stations. 6 operators, 5 rounds, Durrak directing.
The forging encounter from encounters/star-forge-activation.md
Enemies will disrupt during the forging — but not kill
The meteor falls. The weapon is made. Vecna’s chains strengthen.
The identity test: Can they hold the stations while Vecna whispers bargains in their ears? Can Lux work the forge without the giant body taking over?

Option B: Reach Reeny

Reeny is the only hostile force physically on the forge floor. The Pit Fiend follows her orders.
If the party reaches the person she used to be — Lyra’s friend, the princess who just wanted to get out — Reeny could stand down. Or even help.
Jesse Mildspear is behind the Vecna portal. He loved Reeny. If Jesse steps through and Reeny sees him… that might crack her armour faster than any Persuasion check.
This could mean Reeny helps operate a station — freeing up a party member to defend.
Asmodeus is watching. He won’t intervene unless the outcome threatens his interests directly. The party can’t negotiate with someone who came for entertainment.
The identity test: Can you save a friend who’s been turned into a weapon? Or is Reeny too far gone?

Option C: The contract IS the weapon

The Grimoire passage: “a soul willingly given, tethered to others, becoming a blade no forge can make”
Lyra Mildspear is the soul willingly given. Lyra Shadowthorn carries the contract.
Together they ARE the weapon — but “(this is not to be undone)” means they can never fully reunite.
The Rod of Seven Parts is on the anvil. The Rod is an artifact capable of rewriting divine law. What if the forge doesn’t make a weapon — what if it rewrites the contract?
Could the contract be forged INTO the weapon? The Rod + the contract + the meteor = something neither Vecna nor Kelemvor anticipated?
DM Decision needed: Does the contract need the forge to activate? Or does the forge need the contract? Or both?
The identity test: Lyra choosing to activate the contract means accepting what she is — half a person, a conduit for death, the weapon Kelemvor made from her sarcasm. Can she accept that?

Option D: Something the players think of

These are rules lawyers with 3+ years of experience. They WILL think of something unexpected.
Be ready to improvise. The framework above gives you the pieces — they’ll rearrange them.

Option E: Accept Vecna’s deal

Vecna is offering real things: Lux’s body, Kaial’s mother, Lyra’s freedom from the contract
If a PC genuinely considers accepting — let them. This is the corruption play. Let the table feel the weight.
If a PC accepts: the contract still protects against death. But they’ve changed who they are. The weapon of hope becomes harder to forge because the intent is compromised. Durrak might refuse to forge if the party is fractured.
The identity test: This IS the test. The moment someone says “what if we just give him what he wants…” the table learns what kind of heroes they are.

ACT 3 — THE BATTLE FOR THE MACHINE

The Core Mechanic: Territory Control

This is NOT a wave defence. This is a battle for control of the forge. Both sides need the machine running. Both sides need the weapon forged. The fight is over WHO is on the stations when the forging completes — because the operators’ intent determines what the weapon becomes.

Nemesis on the stations = Durrak’s design (hope).
Devils on the stations = Vecna’s design (ruin).
Mixed control = compromised intent. The weapon is flawed.

Why Vecna Doesn’t Know What’s Coming

Vecna thinks the forging needs the meteorite. His entire architecture — the giants, the ritual, the Rod on the anvil — was built for one moment: star hits Rod, Rod channels energy into the ley line chains, chains shatter. He’s waiting for the meteor.

Durrak isn’t. The forge runs on primordial fire. It’s a lava lake inside a volcano. It’s already hot enough to reshape an artifact. Durrak’s counter-plan uses the forge’s own fire to reshape the Rod BEFORE the meteor arrives. Forge the ring, take it off the anvil, get out. When the meteor hits, it hits an empty anvil. Just a rock hitting metal.

Vecna doesn’t know Durrak has a different plan. He thinks whoever controls the stations when the star falls controls the outcome. This is his blind spot.

The Two Layers

Below (the forge floor) — The station battle:

Kaial + Durrak on the control platform. Kaial breaks Vecna’s hold on Durrak. Durrak has been resisting all week — refused to forge, ran the steam vents to cover Lux. He’s been fighting. Kaial finishes what Durrak started. Paladin aura, faith, force of will.
6 party members (Reaghl, Alora, Lyra, Guts, Arawn, Lux) on the 6 stations.
The Pit Fiend calls reinforcements through the Avernus portal. Devils pour onto the forge floor — not to kill, but to take the stations. Grapple, shove, displace. Get Nemesis off, get devils on.
Nemesis fights to kill. The asymmetry: devils can’t kill the party (Vecna’s orders / the contract makes killing counterproductive). The party absolutely can kill the devils. The fight is Nemesis holding territory while cutting down anything that tries to take their position.

Above (the caldera rim) — The meteor timer:

Fire giants ascending the volcano, performing a primordial ritual to call the meteor down from Allabar’s orbit.
This is the clock. The party can’t stop it from below. The meteor is coming.
The party needs to finish the forging and escape BEFORE the star hits.

Station Assignments (Party of 6 + Kaial with Durrak)

Kaial is NOT on a station. He’s with Durrak, breaking Vecna’s hold and protecting the smith. The remaining 6 man the stations:

Station DC Best Fit Notes Lava Gates STR 14 Guts (STR +7) 1d6 fire/round. Guts resists in rage. Chain Wheels STR 16 Reaghl (Athletics +12) Hardest DC. Reaghl is the strongest pure athlete. Hammer Arms STR/DEX 14 Arawn (DEX +6) DEX works for precision. Bellows STR 13 Alora (support position) Lowest DC. Alora can heal nearby allies between station checks. Material Feed INT 15 or STR Lux (INT +6, Arcana) The Rod position. Lux in the giant body at the station that controls the Rod’s alignment is the most dangerous position in the encounter. If his body overrides him, his hands position the Rod for Vecna’s design. Cooling Vents WIS/DEX 14 Lyra (DEX +6) Perception for timing. Lyra’s speed lets her reposition if a neighbouring station is taken.

Wild card: If Reeny is reached and stands down, the Pit Fiend stops calling reinforcements. If Reeny actively helps, she could hold a station — freeing someone to roam and defend.

Devil Tactics — Take, Don’t Kill

Devils pour through the Avernus portal (Face 1). Their objectives:

Take stations — Grapple an operator (contested Athletics), drag them off, and a devil takes their place. A devil on a station runs it with Vecna’s intent, not hope.
Hold stations — Once a devil has a station, it fights to keep it. The party must kill the devil to reclaim the position.
Target Material Feed — Highest priority. If a devil reaches the Rod, it repositions it on the anvil with Vecna’s alignment. Even one round of wrong alignment compromises the forging.
DO NOT KILL. Devils will grapple, shove, restrain, knock prone. They will NOT deliver killing blows. If a PC drops to 0 HP, the devil steps over them to the station. This should feel WRONG to the players — the moment they notice, the contract’s implications click.
Reinforce continuously — As long as the Avernus portal is open and the Pit Fiend is active, more devils arrive. The party can’t win by attrition alone. They need to either close the portal, stop the Pit Fiend, or reach Reeny.

Devil types (TBD): Bearded Devils, Chain Devils, or similar mid-CR devils appropriate for the Pit Fiend’s command. Need to be strong enough to threaten station control but killable by level 13 PCs.

DM Note: The Pit Fiend itself is CR 20 and doesn’t need to enter the fight. It commands from the Avernus portal — a general sending troops. If the party attacks the Pit Fiend directly, that’s a BIG fight that pulls them off stations. The Pit Fiend is the strategic problem: stop the reinforcements at their source, or keep killing waves?

Vecna’s Grip — The Identity Crisis

Lux’s Grip checks still apply. The giant body’s muscle memory knows the forging sequence — Vecna’s sequence. Each failed check is the body acting on Vecna’s design.

# Trigger DC What Happens on Failure 1 Forging begins (tether backlash) 12 Body twitches. Lux’s hands reach for the station lever before he can stop them. He pulls back. Minor — a warning. 2 First devil takes a station (network surges) 14 The body responds to Vecna’s operators nearby. Lux feels a compulsion to work WITH them, in sync. Costs his action for one round. 3 Vecna speaks through the tether network 16 Lux speaks words that aren’t his. A forging command in Giant — Vecna’s sequence, not Durrak’s. Durrak’s head snaps around. “That’s not my sequence. That’s HIS.” 4 Multiple devils on stations (network strengthening) 18 The body tries to leave its station and join the devil-controlled ones. It wants to be part of the herd again. Lux gets a second save (WIS DC 16) to hold position. 5 Giants begin chanting to call the meteorite 20 The body forges. The chanting resonates through the tether network — the giant body recognises the call. Lux’s hands move on their own at Material Feed. He repositions the Rod — Vecna’s alignment. Durrak screams: “NO! THE ALIGNMENT IS WRONG! PULL HIM OFF!” The party has one round to physically remove Lux (contested Athletics vs STR +7 of the giant body) or the weapon forges as the Hammer That Breaks the World. This is the crisis moment of the session.

Lux’s CHA save: +0 (giant body). With Kaial’s Aura of Protection (10ft): +5. But Kaial is on the control platform with Durrak, not next to Lux. Someone would need to pull Kaial away from Durrak to get the aura near Lux. The impossible choice: protect the smith or protect the station.

Durrak’s Sacrifice

When the forging completes — 5 rounds of the party holding the stations with Durrak’s intent — Durrak sacrifices himself INTO the ring. He IS Part 1. His life force seals the weapon. His symbol is on the artifact. The last of Dergeddin’s line, forged into history.

Durrak does NOT reveal his sacrifice until it is too late. The party only realises what’s happening when the forging completes and Durrak is already being consumed into the ring. Kaial is standing right next to him. The paladin who protects everyone — and he couldn’t protect the smith. Because Durrak didn’t let him.

Lyra Mildspear During the Forging — THE BIG MOMENT

She stands at the edge of the Kelemvor portal, watching. She doesn’t interfere — until someone dies.

THE DEATH BEAT:

Someone WILL die during the forging. When they do:

Lyra Mildspear steps through the portal. Calm. Purposeful. She walks to the fallen PC.
She retrieves their soul. Not resurrection — retrieval. She takes the soul and carries it back through the Kelemvor portal. The body remains on the forge floor.
She returns them to the material plane through the portal. The PC wakes up. Full HP? Stabilised? DM call. But they’re alive. The contract worked.

THREE THINGS HAPPEN SIMULTANEOUSLY:

Vecna realises Kelemvor is actively fighting against him. This isn’t a passive contract — Kelemvor has an agent on the field, retrieving souls before Vecna can claim them. The god of death is not neutral. He’s at war. Vecna’s entire assumption — that the contract is spent, that Lyra’s prior death satisfied the clause — was wrong. The amendments made it permanent. And Kelemvor has been enforcing it through Lyra Mildspear this whole time.
Lyra Shadowthorn realises Kelemvor revoked the Champion clause to PROTECT her. She thought she was released from service — abandoned, maybe. But Kelemvor removed her title so Vecna couldn’t track her through it. She was never abandoned. She was hidden. The god of death shielded his weapon by pretending to discard it.
The table realises the contract is real, active, and enforced. Not a story beat — a mechanical reality. Someone died and came back because of words Lyra wrote as a joke in a stolen book. Words a god turned into law.

VECNA does not know about Kelemvor’s amendments. He knows killing Nemesis is counterproductive (he figured that out and stopped trying). But he doesn’t know the contract is permanent, timeless, and actively enforced by a divine agent. He thinks it’s a passive mechanism — an inconvenient law, not a weapon.

The death triggers the revelation. When someone dies — probably Guts from the Zodd fight (or anyone caught as collateral in that duel) — Lyra Mildspear retrieves the soul, and Vecna sees Kelemvor’s mechanism in action for the first time. That’s when he realises:

The contract isn’t passive. Kelemvor has an AGENT enforcing it.
The “before I do” clause was removed. It’s timeless. Lyra’s prior death didn’t spend it.
He hasn’t been fighting a dead contract. He’s been fighting a loaded weapon pointed at him.

Vecna’s reaction: Fury. Then fear. The overconfidence evaporates. He thought he’d already won this battle. He destroyed the dagger. He killed Lyra. He did everything right. And the god of death rewrote the rules behind his back.

Vecna directly addresses the contract — If Vecna tries to corrupt the contract through Lux or through Lyra, Mildspear speaks. She is the enforcement mechanism. Calmly: “This is not to be undone.”

The Dragon — Alora’s Moment

The ancient white dragon is on the forge floor. Broken. Bound by fleshy Far Realm tethers.

Alora WILL heal it. She’s stated this intent. When she does:

The tethers can be severed (STR DC 18 or radiant damage)
Alora’s healing removes the Far Realm corruption’s grip — the dragon is freed but weakened (half HP, no legendary resistances remaining)
Persuasion check (DC 15) to get the dragon to fight alongside the party. Alora has advantage (she healed it). If the party mentions the twins from session 32, the DC increases to 20 — the dragon’s grief is fresh.
On success: The dragon fights devils. An ancient white dragon — even weakened — changes the station battle entirely. Its Cold Breath clears waves. Its presence terrifies lesser devils. It buys the party 2-3 rounds of breathing room.
On failure: The dragon flies up and out through the caldera. It’s free but won’t fight for the people who killed its children. Bittersweet. Alora saved a life but gained nothing tactical.
On nat 1 or catastrophic failure: The dragon turns on the party. Brief — it’s too broken for a sustained fight — but a round or two of ancient dragon attacks while trying to hold forge stations is chaos.

ACT 4 — THE ESCAPE

Durrak’s Plan: Forge and Run

The forging doesn’t need the meteorite. Durrak uses the primordial fire — the forge’s own heat — to reshape the Rod into the ring. 5 rounds of operation. Durrak’s sacrifice seals it.

Then: grab the ring and get out. The giants above are calling the meteor down. It’s coming whether Nemesis is ready or not. If the party is still on the forge floor when the star hits the empty anvil, the impact could be catastrophic — earthquake, eruption, the mountain coming down around them.

The escape sequence:

Forging completes. Durrak is gone — consumed into the ring. The ring sits on the anvil, glowing.
Someone grabs the ring. The meteor is visible. The clock is real.
Exit options:
- Lux casts Teleport — gets the whole group out. Instant. Destination needs to be somewhere familiar (Illithium? Highpoint?). Teleport is a 7th-level spell — Lux has one shot. If the table decides this, the escape is clean but they forfeit looting.
- Alora’s Word of Recall — 6th-level spell. Teleports Alora and up to 5 willing creatures to a previously designated sanctuary (her church in Illithium). Instant. No check. The backup plan if Teleport fails or isn’t available. Note: Word of Recall only takes 5 others — the party is 7. Someone gets left behind unless they split across Teleport + Word of Recall.
- Run physically — up through the volcano via Wawwen’s tunnels or the cooling vent shaft. Environmental hazards: collapsing tunnels, lava surges, panicked/dying possessed giants as Vecna’s tether network destabilises. The slow option but the dramatic one.
The loot question — the material room.

The party saw the material room at the base of the giant king faces during session 34: “remnants of old magical weapons, some destroyed, but others that aren’t.” Guts and Lyra gasped “Loot!” They haven’t touched it yet.

The material room is off the direct escape path — not on the way to the exit, not on the way to Lux’s Teleport circle. Getting there and back requires a detour. At least a dash there and a dash back.

Lyra is the obvious choice for a loot run. 40ft speed + Cunning Action dash = 120ft movement per turn. Mobility feat means no opportunity attacks from anything she’s attacked. She can sprint to the room, grab what she can carry, and sprint back while everyone else holds position or prepares the exit.

But it costs her time. Every round Lyra spends looting is a round she’s not on the Cooling Vents, not helping fight, not available for whatever happens with Lyra Mildspear at the portal. The meteor timer doesn’t care about loot.

What’s in the material room (DM prep needed):
- Remnants of old magical weapons — forged at the Star Forge over centuries
- Some destroyed (by Vecna’s corruption? by time?), some intact
- Could include fire giant-scale weapons (oversized for the party), duergar masterwork pieces, or artifacts from previous forgings
- One or two genuinely useful items among the rubble — make it worth the risk but not guaranteed
- The room could also contain forging materials, schematics, or lore about the Star Forge’s history
DM decision: How far is the material room from the forge floor? If it’s 120ft (one round of Lyra dashing), she can get there and back in 2 rounds. If it’s further, she needs 3+ rounds. The tighter the window, the more it costs.
The meteor hits. Whether they’re out or still inside determines the stakes.

What the Meteor Hits

If the anvil is empty (Nemesis succeeded): The star fragment hits bare metal. Massive impact. The mountain shakes. Rock falls. Lava surges. But no artifact to channel through — the energy disperses. Destructive but purposeless. Vecna’s plan fails. The giants’ ritual called a hammer with nothing to strike.

If the Rod is still on the anvil (forging failed or the party couldn’t remove it): The meteor channels through the Rod as Vecna designed. The ley line chains shatter. The Eye opens. Vecna is freed. This is the catastrophic failure state.

If devils held enough stations to compromise the intent: The ring was forged, but flawed. Part 1 exists but carries corruption. See Scenario C from drafts/session-35-endgame-scenarios.md.

The Red Moon Responds

As the party escapes (or the meteor hits):

Hope path (ring forged, anvil empty): The Eye dims. Flickers. The chains tighten — but don’t fully seal. Vecna felt the forging. He knows something was made. He screams — audible through the mountain, not just in their minds. But he can’t see what they made, because it’s not on the anvil anymore. It’s in someone’s hand, running up a collapsing volcano.
Ruin path (Rod on anvil, meteor channels): The Eye opens. The sky splits red. The chains shatter. A hand reaches through.
Compromised path: The Eye stutters. Something changed, but not cleanly. The weapon exists but Vecna can feel the flaw in it.

They forged the weapon. Durrak is gone. The mountain is coming down. And the meteor is thirty seconds away.

Run.

ENCOUNTER ROSTER — SESSION 35

On the Forge Floor (Physically Crossed)

Pit Fiend — CR 20. See SRD stat block. Assigned to Reeny through Bane. Will NOT kill unless Reeny is in mortal danger. Subdues, grapples, throws.
Princess Reeny — CR 10. See stat block in npcs/princess-reeny.md. Dark mirror of Lyra. Vecna’s harbinger. Reachable through RP (Persuasion DC 18, DC 12 with Jesse, DC 10 with Lyra + Jesse).
Ancient White Dragon — Bound, broken. Half HP, no legendary resistances. Alora heals it. Persuasion DC 15 to fight alongside party (advantage for Alora). DC 20 if twins are mentioned.
Durrak Stoneforge — Non-combatant. Control platform.
Wawwen — Non-combatant. Hiding.

Visible in Portals (Not Yet Crossed)

Lyra Mildspear — Portal 4 (Fugue). The dead half of the contract. Standing in the doorway. Can cross at any time — on her own terms. Not a combatant. The contract’s enforcement mechanism.
Sir Whiskington the Third — Portal 4 (Fugue). A mouse in a monocle. Announces Zodd’s arrival. See npcs/sir-whiskington.md.
Glasya — Portal 2 (Asmodeus). Can cross but won’t unless Asmodeus sends her — which he won’t. She’s here with her father to watch.
Asmodeus — Portal 2. A presence, not a body. Nine points of black flame. Spectator. Came for the entertainment.
Jesse Mildspear — Portal 3 (Vecna). CR 9 Corrupted Vengeance Paladin. Steps through during forging to target Kaial and disrupt his protection of Durrak. Aura of Hate buffs nearby devils. Reachable through RP (Persuasion DC 14). See full stat block and lines in npcs/jesse-mildspear.md.
Vecna — Portal 3. Cannot cross (chained). Speaks into minds. Offers bargains.

Arriving During the Forging — Devils from Avernus

Blood War Waves — Full composition in encounters/blood-war-waves.md. R1: 4 Bearded Devils. R2: 2 Chain Devils + Zodd (portal 2). R3: 2 Barbed + 2 Bearded. R4: 1 Bone Devil + 2 Bearded. R5: Pit Fiend enters directly.
Nosferatu Zodd — CR 15. Enters portal 2 round 2-3. Targets Guts exclusively. See creatures/nosferatu-zodd.md.

Above the Forge — Fire Giants

Possessed Fire Giants — Ascending to the caldera rim. Performing a primordial ritual to call the meteor. They are the TIMER, not the opposition on the forge floor. The party can hear them chanting above. The mountain starts to shake.

The Corrupted Volcano — The Living Mountain

The volcano IS a Far Realm entity. Infected by the same corruption that makes Allabar what it is. Vecna channels through it to control the giants and bind the dragon. See full stat block: creatures/corrupted-volcano.md.
Lair Actions (init 20): Grasping Tethers (grapple + drag toward wall), Corruption Pulse (necrotic + disadvantage on station checks), Tether Surge (yank operator off station), Far Realm Whisper (confusion on one target).
Legendary Actions (2/round): Lash, Drag, Tremor.
Individual tethers: AC 12, 30 HP, vulnerable to radiant. Severable but regenerate 5 HP/round. New ones emerge from different walls.
Freeing the dragon weakens the volcano. Each of 3 dragon tethers severed = -1 to lair action attack bonus.
Alora’s radiant damage causes tethers within 15 ft. to retract for 1 round. She controls the environment.
The meteorite kills it. The mountain dies. Tether network collapses. Every possessed giant drops. Then the volcano starts to fall apart.

Other Environmental

Forge hazards (steam jets, lava surges, hammer arms, unstable platforms) — dangerous but survivable
Vecna’s psychic bargains throughout — not threats, offers
The meteor timer — visible in the sky, getting closer. The giants’ chanting intensifies.

Tactical Note: Why Aren’t They Trying to Kill Us?

At some point during the session, someone will notice that the devils aren’t finishing downed PCs. They step over unconscious bodies to take stations. Vecna offers deals instead of death.

This is the reveal. The moment someone asks “why?” — that’s when the contract’s implications become real at the table. You can let the party figure it out, or you can have Lyra Mildspear speak:

“He can’t kill you. He tried. Every death you suffer feeds the contract. Feeds Kelemvor. He learned. Now he just needs you to stop being yourselves.”

Or let Vecna himself confirm it, in a moment of frustrated honesty:

“Do you think I WANT you alive? You are cockroaches. But every time I crush one of you, Death gets a little stronger. And I… get a little weaker.”

OPEN QUESTIONS FOR JAY

Answered

~~Does Vecna know about Kelemvor’s amendments?~~ No. He knows Lyra’s law. He does NOT know about the three amendments. He’s overconfident — believes the law is spent because Lyra already died and the dagger is destroyed.
~~Asmodeus’s angle?~~ Spectator. He came to watch. Won’t commit Glasya unless he needs to. Entertainment.

Answered (This Session)

Sir Whiskington — A distinguished mouse from Mt. Celestia. Traversed the multiverse to find Zodd for Guts. Returns via the Kelemvor portal. See npcs/sir-whiskington.md.
Reeny’s stat block — CR 10, dark mirror of Lyra. Combatant but reachable through RP. See stat block in npcs/princess-reeny.md.
Nosferatu Zodd — CR 15, enters through Asmodeus portal. Guts duel. See creatures/nosferatu-zodd.md.
Asmodeus — Witness to Vecna/Kelemvor’s contract + lets Zodd through. Does NOT intervene beyond that.
Durrak’s sacrifice — He does NOT speak of it until it’s too late. The party only realises when it’s happening.
Alora’s retreat — Word of Recall (6th level). Teleports her + 5 willing creatures to her church in Illithium.
Blood War waves — Full composition in encounters/blood-war-waves.md.
Loot room — Populated. See encounters/star-forge-loot-room.md.
The death beat — Someone dies during the forging. Lyra Mildspear retrieves their soul through the Kelemvor portal. This is the moment Vecna realises Kelemvor is actively fighting him, and Lyra realises the Champion clause was revoked to protect her.
Dragon — Alora heals it. Persuasion check to get it to fight alongside the party. See dragon section in Act 3.

Still Open

~~Kelemvor’s knowledge gap~~ RESOLVED: It’s VECNA who doesn’t know about Kelemvor’s amendments. Vecna knows Nemesis shouldn’t be killed (he learned that before). But he doesn’t know WHY until someone actually dies and the contract activates — probably Guts (or anyone caught in the Zodd fight). That death triggers Lyra Mildspear’s retrieval, and THAT is when Vecna realises Kelemvor has been actively fighting him.
The contract path — Can the Rod rewrite the contract? Is this a real Option C?
Planar displacement — Does the contract trigger if a PC is displaced, not killed?
Grip Check #5 — If Lux fails and the party can’t pull him off, does Durrak have a countermove?
Level 14 timing — After forging? After escaping?
~~Who dies?~~ RESOLVED: Guts — from the Zodd fight (or anyone caught as collateral). This triggers the Mildspear retrieval and Vecna’s realisation.
~~Jesse Mildspear~~ RESOLVED: Steps through portal 3 during forging. Corrupted Vengeance Paladin (CR 9). Targets Kaial to disrupt Durrak’s protection. See npcs/jesse-mildspear.md.
Lyra’s real name — Does it come up this session or is it a thread for later?

SESSION 35 SUMMARY — THE SHAPE

Open: Four portals. Reeny + Pit Fiend on the floor. Three open doors with figures visible. Standoff.
Roleplay: Talk to Reeny. Talk to Lyra Mildspear. Resist Vecna’s bargains. Process the portals.
Decide: Forge? Reach Reeny? Accept a deal? Something the players think of?
Kaial + Durrak: The paladin breaks Vecna’s hold on the smith. Durrak reveals his plan — forge with primordial fire, take the ring off the anvil, get out before the meteor.
Battle for the Machine: 6 party members on stations. Devils pour through the Avernus portal. Territory control — hold the stations, kill the devils, keep the intent pure. Lux’s Grip Check #5 is the crisis. The meteor timer ticks above.
Durrak’s Sacrifice: The forging completes. Durrak becomes Part 1. The ring is made.
The Escape: Grab the ring. Run. Up through the collapsing volcano. The meteor is falling. The mountain is coming down.
Close: The Red Moon responds. Vecna screams. The party is out — carrying Part 1 of a weapon that Vecna didn’t know was being forged.

This session should be the climax of the Star Forge arc — the moment everything converges. If it needs two sessions (35 and 36), that’s fine. Don’t rush it.

The question for every member of Nemesis at the Star Forge: the contract will keep you alive. But will you still be YOU?

Session 35 Prep