Session 14 Player Notes — Clearing the Castle of Azir

These are the players’ own session notes, preserved from the party’s game document. They capture the table’s perspective — what the players saw, did, and said.

Key Events

• Discovered Red Wizards of Thay infiltrating the Castle of Azir — one disguised as a moth, another escaped through a mirror
• Lyra looked into a mirror and saw a terrifying vision of herself as a child; Guts saw his traumatic origin
• Met Syranna, a rebel posing as a Red Wizard, who needs help attuning a tuning fork to the Doom Vault
• Revealed Azir’s head from the bag of holding — “He hasn’t been talking much lately”
• Ascended the tower into the Shadowfell; witnessed Ralathak kill Azir with a green ray
• Major battle against Red Wizards on the tower roof; Alora and Lux both killed, then revived; Ralathak escaped

Session Notes

The Entry Hall

We’ve walked into a room, walking over a rug. There is necrotic energy everywhere. To Lyra there is a “hollow” feeling area just under the skull symbol embroidered on the rug in the room. It symbolises the beauty of the undead that Azir believes in.

There are four pillars and two staircases — one leading up and one leading down. Lyra notices the feeling under the rug, and rolls the carpet back. Beautiful marble floors. There is a tile that was under the skull on the rug. Lyra gives it a tap, and realises something is not quite right about it. She tries to open it by levering it upwards, while checking for traps. The mortar on the tile seems removable, so Lyra slides her dagger into the mortar. As she starts to lift the tile, Lux grumbles about how expensive the tile is. “It’s from Italy!” Lyra can see the glint of a silvery, tin box. Cautiously, she reaches out to open it, but all she sees inside is a piece of paper that is like a folded up page of a book. She unfolds it, but is unable to read it, so throws it to Lux. Lux cannot read it, but casts Comprehend Languages (a ritual which takes 10 minutes).

The shadows from outside feel like they are trying to claim all of the light in the room. Guts and Reaghl head over to the stairs in the right hand side of the room where the stairs wend downwards. Guts mumbles “If you want to hide anything, you hide it downstairs.” Alora meanders around the room, looking closely at everything.

The Moth and the Red Wizards

There are spiders and webs throughout the room. Alora walks past the coat room and hears the muffled sounds of a sneeze. She subtly glances at Arawn, who drifts towards her. She opens the door and casts Thaumaturgy — firelight races through the room. Arawn speaks to the moths in the room. The moths are very panicked: “Fire, Fire!” Arawn attempts to calm them. The moth sitting in his hands pants, and then starts to flutter away. Arawn decides to shoot it. As the moth flies away, he shoots it, and the light explodes, the moth disintegrating into nothing. A human-sized person wearing red falls on to the ground and starts running towards the front door (1 damage pops him out of moth form, 10 damage).

He has arcane markings on his skin, and one of his eyes is white.

Round 1: Arawn casts Slayer’s Prey on the man, then holds his attack for when he stands or attempts to flee. Guts moves towards the robed man and leans against his man-sized sword. “I think down there is good for you.” Sweat beads from the man’s forehead. Reaghl reaches down to put him in a chokehold. The man feels like he is going to die and resists. He puts him in a full Nelson, drags him to his feet and faces him to Arawn.

Alora walks over with flames flickering at her fingertips. She asks him who he is and what he is doing there. He gnashes his teeth. “I don’t know who you are!” Alora moves towards the door on the other side of the room where the red-robed man was heading towards. She notices the door swing open just a little, and casts Spiritual Weapon, but holds the strike. She casts the hammer through the other side of the door. The man tries to struggle and bite Reaghl’s fingers, but nothing shifts Reaghl. He can feel that the red robe is a full grown man, though his strength doesn’t match Reaghl’s.

Lux continues casting his ritual spell. Kaial holds his action to defend Lux if necessary. He telepathically speaks to Arawn. “What the fuck. You shot a moth. What’s going on?” “You seem to have a handle on the situation.” “There are a lot of moths.” “They are freaking out.” The moths are still screaming “Fire!” As the red-robed man appears they yell “Imposter!”

The door on the other side of the room opens fully. He wears a red robe, and he is shielding his mouth with his arm. He screams out “Looks like you’re fucked Aarick! Good luck!” His form shrinks into a green tree frog. As he is about to jump down the toilet he glances back — “Hasta la vista motherfuckers.” The Spiritual Weapon smashes into him, breaking the toilet and turning him back into a man. “Fuck!” He reaches into the mirror and pushes through, disappearing.

Lyra notices the ceiling is 50 feet high. She jumps over Reaghl, cartwheeling with a kiss on his head before landing near the stairs heading down. She trains her crossbow on the first red-robed man.

Round 2: Arawn tells him to settle down. “If you answer our questions you’ll be free.” For the most part he seems willing to comply. Alora doesn’t believe this. She raises her warhammer to his neck, and says — “Think very carefully before you do what you do next.” He drops his arcane focus and drops his hands to his sides.

The Mirror — Lyra’s Vision

Lyra runs into the other room. There is water gushing from the toilet. The mirror looks like gloom. There is a girl in the mirror who looks like Lyra when she was a little girl. She is screaming for her mum and dad. Lyra starts screaming, then runs out of the room towards Kaial. He grabs her and comforts her. She runs past Arawn, who casts Protection from Good and Evil. Slowly the fear starts to subside, and Kaial and Arawn still appear undead.

“You all appear undead, except for Lux and Alora.” She runs over towards Alora, who is bathed in light. Lux has celestial wings. “Don’t look into the fucking mirror.”

Guts is bored. He wants to head over to the mirror. Alora puts out a hand to him and pulls him back. “Hey big fella — not today.” Reaghl looks over.

“I will tackle you.”

“I can handle the mirror.” He walks over to the door but the Spiritual Weapon drifts into the doorway to prevent him from entering.

Alora warns — “Don’t do it.” Guts’ sword murmurs.

“Come on mate. It’s like the old days.” This room is really speaking to me.

Arawn casts Zone of Truth on red robe.

The Mirror — Guts’ Vision

Guts sees a hand come out of the mirror. A face appears and sees Guts. “Fuck.”

“Correct.” Guts swings down with his sword to the back of his neck. His sword hits the neck, but hits a shield. He tries again with two hands on the sword. (14 damage.) Reaghl casts Magic User’s Nemesis. This time the sword cuts through the shield. A female voice screams out “Stop!”

Lyra scoffs. “Kill the bitch.”

The sword continues to pierce her body (42 damage). Guts notices that she appears to have taken damage from going through the mirror.

Arawn casts Ensnaring Strike and then attempts to shoot her. A burning light hits her in the chin, and then glinting vines wrap around her. Little golden leaves that are razor sharp entangle her and she is pushed up towards the ceiling. With one free arm she waves a hand and cuts off Guts from the room in a shimmering light. “Please no more, I beg of you.”

“Seems reasonable.” The glimmering lights shimmer and blink out, and Guts cuts the vines trapping her. She falls down to the ground, leans back against the wall and puts her hands on her knees. Guts tries to stem the bleeding and motions over at the group, dragging her out of the room, and looking at the mirror as he does. He sees a tree with bodies hanging from it, and a small child below a disembowelled mother. The father comes up. He snaps at a woman — “Just because you can’t have a baby doesn’t mean you have to pick up this shit!” He backhands her. She picks up the baby and cradles him. “Ah, picking up the Guts off the road you stupid bitch.”

Guts smashes the sword at the mirror, and runs out of the room. 12 points of psychic damage. Everyone looks dead except for Lux and Alora.

Syranna — The Rebel

Arawn warns the girl to move out of the room with the mirror. She has a bald head, and a tattoo across her head. Lux identifies them as the Red Wizards of Thay. Lux communicates that to everyone. They don’t belong to this school and Lux has never seen them here before.

She puts her hands up and walks out into the room. Arawn warns her to comply and invites her into the Zone of Truth.

“What are you all doing here?”

Arawn responds: “What are you doing here? Why are the Red Wizards here?”

She explains that she has just received word that eight of the most trusted Red Wizards had been dispatched to the tower to capture Azir and escape with him. She confesses to being a rebel, not a Red Wizard.

“I have already disposed of Aarick. This guy is a piece of shit. Do with him what you will. Whatever he has been doing here…”

Lyra walks behind to slit his throat. Syranna says “He may have information.” Lyra does 63 points of damage with her dagger. She sees her shadow (which had disappeared since their time in the desert) flickering. “What have you done to me?” she says to Syranna. “Everyone looks dead to me.”

“I don’t know what you speak of.”

Guts isn’t afraid anymore, though people still look dead except for Lux and Alora. Syranna goes on to explain that she has information that might help. She explains that the Red Wizards have a place called the Doom Vault which is a plane where they store phylacteries of the undead. We know that liches tend to put their soul in a safe place. The phylactery is where they can store a soul. In Thay, which has a hierarchy of liches, they have a Doom Vault.

Syranna passes a letter to Alora. She found it on the body of a Wizard of Thay. From as much as she could ascertain, this letter was delivered and the wizards have received that information. They have come not for the demonstration, but for the sacking of the tower.

Shalendra Floshin — another rebel but is travelling with the Red Wizards. She has white hair, grey eyes and sharp features. She is an elf of the Underdark.

“I am no match for these wizards. We are unaware of where the Doom Vault is, but if they open the portal to the vault today I have but a moment to attune this —” she pulls out an item that looks like a tuning fork — “to the vault. I need your help. The Red Wizards are here, but we have not heard from Azir for a long time.”

Reaghl hummed. “We might know something about that.”

Guts pulled out Azir’s head from the bag of holding. “He hasn’t been talking much lately.”

Syranna huffs with laughter. “The head of a wizard. Bold.”

Interrogating Aarick

They turn to Aarick and pepper him with questions. Aarick chuckles under his breath, and Reaghl digs his thumb into the cut on his neck. He cries out in pain, then laughs and refuses to answer the questions. Arawn takes a shot with his bow. 15 damage (3 for Reaghl as he gets shot in the arm). On the second shot (21 damage) he tries to unleash an incantation but Reaghl holds his hand over his mouth. Reaghl then snaps his neck on the way to the ground. Arawn wants to do Speak with Dead, and starts cutting his head off. Alora can’t do Speak with Dead, so they put his head in the bag of holding.

“Will you help me?” asks Syranna. We agree. She explains that through the mirror is an under mountain and an enclave of Red Wizards. This is a strategic point for them to Highpoint. They don’t need Azir for this. This place is tuned to the Shadow Plane. “I can help you clear this place, bring in reinforcements. All I need to do is get through that portal and attune the fork. If you can sanctify this place it will greatly help.”

The Hidden Spell

Lux has finally finished his ritual. The page that he can see shows a spell (9th level necromancy) that allows you to disconnect a soul from a body so that it takes on undead without becoming undead. Alora now remembers that this was the thing Azir took from the book in the arcane tower from the book he was reading. It seems that the spell has been left here for someone to find. We share this information with the group and Syranna. We don’t know who he left the spell for.

Kaial lays hands on Syranna and Alora uses the Staff of Healing to add 32 hit points of healing. She then uses a potion of healing.

The Mirror of the Past — Kaial Enters

Kaial wants to look at the mirror. As he walks towards the room, Alora puts her hand on his shoulder and casts Guidance. He looks into the mirror. Syranna explains that in Waterdeep there is a crazy wizard group who has found a way to get to here and there is a Staff of the Magi. Kaial is looking at the mirror. He looks stunned and is looking deeper and deeper. Kaial huffs a laugh. “What secrets do you hold?” He puts his hand against the mirror, pushes forward and then enters the mirror. The mind chatter on our bracelets stops.

Syranna shrugs. “It looks like a door. I guess he’ll be back.”

The leader of the Red Wizards is called Ralathak. We ask the Mirror of the Past some key questions about him to help us locate him. For the next minute we see Ralathak receiving messages from Szass Tam, people digging trenches, using magic to create teleportation devices through the mirror into this castle. We see Ralathak come into the castle, meet Azir who is performing experiments. There is tension and moments of intimidation, and Azir almost begging. We see Ralathak forcing the hand of Azir for information, and then the mirror stops. The last scene is the headmaster’s office.

Ascending the Tower

We head upstairs. There are plates, food and cutlery across the tables, with servants walking around bringing food to the tables. They are in different stages of “Luxenstein.” Reaghl casts Fireball at the Luxensteins. We can see that they are stitched together and are ungodly, but aren’t giving off an undead vibe. A suit of armour in the corner raises a bell and rings an alarm.

We bolt up to the office at the top of the tower. There is a shaft of green light through the middle of the room. It looks like a permanent levitation spell. One by one we all jump into the light, and we float up through the levels of Azir’s tower. There is an arcane sigil on the door which looks like a trigger spell.

Lux casts a 6th level spell on the door and the sigil cracks apart and opens. Guts and Reaghl burst through. They can hear thunder and a storm surging in the room. There is a hatch in the ceiling but no stairs. We can hear the muffled yelling of people through the hatch. We can see that there is a teleportation circle sitting on the roof of the room.

Guts pulls the lever. We are all walking on the ceiling as gravity inverts. We enter through the teleportation circle.

The Shadowfell — Battle on the Tower

We are in the Shadowfell right now. We can hear voices screaming back and forth between the storm surge. Alora casts Bless on Reaghl, Lyra and Guts. We start walking up the stairs stealthily. There are voices that are closer and some that are further away.

We hear: “Velatar, the power we are dealing with is beyond our control.”

“You can’t back down now just because you are afraid, Isadora.”

“We need to stop the ritual before it’s too late.”

“We can’t stop now.”

A new voice — “Opening this portal is the most important thing you have to do.”

We hear the voice of Azir. “Wait, I have information for you. The void stone is here in the castle.”

“I have no use of that. I need the Doom Vault.”

“But wait, there is more. I have discovered a way to unlock the magic… I beg of you to spare my life.”

“I’ve had enough, it’s time for you to die.”

“Wait wait I think I hear something…”

“Thanks Guts you useless fuck…” Reaghl hissed. Guts shrugs.

“Remember we have to get the portal open, we can’t let them stop.”

Ralathak (red — main bad guy) kills Azir with a green ray straight through the head.

Minion of Ralathak goes to investigate the sound at the teleportation portal. Lyra skitters up the spire with a 32 stealth. Nemesis disappear to the other room through the portal.

Shalendra — drow, the elf rebel mentioned before.

Round 1: Lux casts Dominate Person, but it fails. Syranna moves forward towards the top of the stairs, just behind Reaghl and Lyra. Lyra flips over through the air and lands on “green dude” with Venom and Green Flame Blade. 95 points of damage. Syranna holds her action. Guts and Reaghl strike out at red man. Lots of damage. Loads. Huge. Alora: Spiritual Weapon miss. Spirit Guardians 24 damage. Syranna runs into the portal.

Round 2: Lux casts Lightning Bolt at green and red at 4th level. 35 damage for one, half damage for green. Green casts Wall of Fire through Lux, Alora and Arawn. Lux casts Counterspell, as does red. Lux casts at 4th level and wins the Counterspell. Lyra hits out at green but misses. Attacks with rapier. 11 damage. Shalendra the other rebel runs towards the portal and casts Time Stop. Arawn steps a little bit down the stairs then shoots at green guy. Shoots and hits — 7 damage. Hits — 17 damage.

Ralathak says “Enough. You dare to disrupt the Wizards of Thay. You’ve made powerful enemies today.” We see the clouds part and balls of fire erupt out of the sky. (Meteor Storm) Alora takes 80 damage, then holds 42 damage from Lux to keep him alive. Blue girl moves to Reaghl and Guts. She casts Cone of Cold. Lux and Alora die.

Guts attacks blue lady. 26 damage and 18 damage. Reaghl attacks blue lady. 12 + 8 + 8 + 10 damage. Red casts Dominate Person on Lyra — “Do the dirty work for us.” She refuses, having the mental fortitude to resist. The continuation of the Meteor Storm continues to erupt over Alora. Two death saves are lost as the divine power she had held in her body continues to rage.

Round 3: Lux performs a death saving roll — saves! Lyra uses a bonus action to give the Superior Healing Potion to Alora. Lyra casts Conjure Fire Elemental. 17 damage. Arawn gives 18 healing points to Lux. He then hides. Guts and Reaghl attack Cone of Cold lady. Alora uses Channel Divinity and Mass Healing Word to share 13 points then 19 HP. Syranna and Shalendra emerge from the portal.

Ralathak turns to the others. “The risk is too great. Return to the vault. We must make amends for this mistake.” He leaves.

Guts cleaves the Cone of Cold lady in two. He lines up the hand cannon — 14 damage. Reaghl jumps over the portal to land near red man. He casts Fireball! 29 damage, old mate saves for half. He snarls at Reaghl. “Nemesis hey? All of Faerun will remember that name.” He jumps off the edge of the tower. On his way out he throws a Lightning Bolt at Guts and Reaghl. Alora takes 11 HP from Guts’ damage. Reaghl delivers 14 points of psionic reprisal damage. It smashes him in the eye and blows the eye out the side of his face.

Guts grunts: “Yeah, be seeing you.” Red guy falls into the darkness of shadow.

Aftermath

The mages now have the rod. We need to find out what information was given to the mage by Azir before he was killed. Now with the rod we can teleport directly to the Doom Vault. Syranna and Shalendra request our help to destroy the Doom Vault.

At the gates of Highpoint there is a circus rolling into town.

Choices presented:

• Clear the castle
• 20-level dungeon at Waterdeep
• Fey carnival

Items & Loot

• Hidden page with a 9th level necromancy spell (disconnects soul from body — undead without becoming undead)
• Aarick’s head (put in the bag of holding for Speak with Dead)
• Information about the Doom Vault — Red Wizards’ plane for storing phylacteries
• Syranna’s tuning fork (attuned to the Doom Vault portal)

NPCs Encountered

• Syranna — rebel posing as a Red Wizard of Thay. Bald head with tattoo. Needs help attuning a tuning fork to the Doom Vault. Allied with the party.
• Shalendra Floshin — another rebel, travelling with the Red Wizards. Drow elf with white hair, grey eyes, sharp features. Cast Time Stop to reach the portal.
• Aarick — Red Wizard of Thay, disguised as a moth. Captured, interrogated, neck snapped by Reaghl, then decapitated.
• Frog Wizard — second Red Wizard. Escaped through the mirror with “Hasta la vista motherfuckers.”
• Ralathak — leader of the Red Wizards expedition. Receiving orders from Szass Tam. Killed Azir. Cast Meteor Storm. Retreated when the cost got too high.
• Azir (shadow/echo) — killed by Ralathak’s green ray. “I beg of you to spare my life.”
• Blue girl — Red Wizard. Cast Cone of Cold, killing Lux and Alora. Cleaved in two by Guts.
• Red man — Red Wizard. “All of Faerun will remember that name.” Lost an eye to Reaghl’s psionic reprisal before falling off the tower.

Notable Quotes

• Lux (on the marble tile): “It’s from Italy!”
• Frog Wizard: “Looks like you’re fucked Aarick! Good luck!” and “Hasta la vista motherfuckers.”
• Lyra: “Don’t look into the fucking mirror.”
• Lyra (on the woman from the mirror): “Kill the bitch.”
• Guts’ sword: “Come on mate. It’s like the old days.”
• Alora (to Guts): “Hey big fella — not today.”
• Guts, pulling Azir’s head from the bag of holding: “He hasn’t been talking much lately.”
• Syranna: “The head of a wizard. Bold.”
• Reaghl, after Guts makes noise: “Thanks Guts you useless fuck…”
• Red Wizard: “Nemesis hey? All of Faerun will remember that name.”
• Guts: “Yeah, be seeing you.”
• Kaial (telepathy to Arawn): “What the fuck. You shot a moth. What’s going on?”