Session 23 Player Notes — The Rod of Seven Parts

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

Nemesis fought a brutal multi-round battle against slaad (“battle toads”), giant apes, a fire giant, and disguised slaad posing as commoners
Vordana appeared, gave Alora an Emerald Enclave emblem, then shapeshifted into an elk and disappeared
The party freed orc and humanoid prisoners, discovering the slaad were implanting tadpoles into captives
Lyra, Arawn and Lux scouted the forge and discovered fire giants working on the Rod of Seven Parts
Lux used Magic Jar to possess a fire giant’s body, staying behind with the Rod while his real body was carried out
The party retreated to the Tower of Light to recover, with Lyra and Kaladin both feeling a link to Vecna

Session Notes

The Slaad Battle Begins

We hear the hissing of the slaad. The slaad at the back takes out a wand and shoots a fireball. Lux casts Counterspell, and the fire dissipates before it annihilates us all. Lyra can hear the clanking of armour in the distance and warns the group. She also hears muffled screaming of people yelling for help.

Lyra crawls up onto the walls and jumps down onto one of the battle toads, striking with her rapier. She hits cleanly, dealing 44 points of damage. The battle toad is looking worse for wear, but is still on his feet.

Arawn casts Fear at a battle toad down the corridor (B1). The toad runs down the corridor as far from Arawn as it can.

Kaladin hits with his maul. 18 damage to a battle toad. He receives a telepathic communication that he doesn’t understand, with screaming in his head. He doesn’t think he will try communicating with the battle toads. He swings again, but one of the toads turns invisible. He hits it, and sees the blood trails hopping down the corridor away from him. Two of the frogs turned invisible, but when he hits one it turns visible again.

B2 the ape rips out a part of the wall. The orcs are demanding to be let out of their cages. Guts does some parkour, rolls up on his feet and then draws his sword on B2. Nat 20!

W1 (the toad that Lyra attacked) tries to bite and swipe at Lyra. Uncanny Dodge – only takes 10 damage on the swipe. He bites again, but feels Kaladin reach out with Protection. She feels good being in his aura. But then she is being chewed on like a gum ball. 18 damage. Because of the tether we all feel the pain of Lyra.

Vordana’s Appearance

Alora feels a tug on her sleeve. Vordana is standing there holding an emblem with a ghostly look in her eyes. She says “I swear I just heard my sister. If you ever need help from the Emerald Enclave show them this emblem” and she gives her a golden leaf emblem. She then dashes off down the corridor, popping her hood up. Her antlers extend and she morphs into an elk and disappears around the corner.

Alora casts Sacred Flame on W1 (12 damage). It burns up, and the Sacred Flame feels extra powerful to Alora. The toad lets out a screech and falls to the ground dead. The toad that Kaladin attacked casts Fireball, and Arawn casts Counterspell. He hears a croaky language he has never heard before inside his head.

Round 2

Lux casts Scorching Ray on W2 battle toad. All three rays hit the toad: 14, 17, 16 damage (47 damage). Lyra strikes out at W4 the magic toad, but misses. She disengages from the encounter. W2 turns invisible.

Alora sees three common people bound together and gagged. There is a fourth commoner holding a metal rod that is pushing them down the corridor. Each person has rope bindings on their hand and a flimsy looking cloth around their mouths. They look pretty defeated. They see us down the corridor and pause.

Arawn puts Slayer’s Mark on W3 and fires two arrows towards him. The first misses, but the second hits. 20 damage! The orcs start again: “Come on mate, let us out. If they can put someone like me in a cage then a little guy like you is going to fuck you up.” Arawn asks – will you help? The orcs respond “Of course.” Arawn looks for a key on the keeper and grabs them off of him. The orcs are happy with this. “Let us at them. Boys, get on your feet. Meat’s back on the menu!” They start warming up, doing a few squats.

Kaladin hits toad boy in front of him for 16 damage. He’s looking rough. He rolls another 16 damage, killing him cold as Kaladin says “Simple math, brother.” As Kaladin kills one of the toads, he looks forward and sees the other toad about to run. Stepping up into the toad’s space he prepares for an opportunity attack and readies his shield.

Guts hits out at giant ape 2, doing 15 damage. He drops the rock. 28 and 19 damage.

Alora gets a message from Vordana in her head. She says “I was probably safer with you guys. I’m hiding. Things aren’t what they seem. People aren’t people. I think there are some shapeshifters around.”

Alora reaches out and takes 19 damage from Guts and holds it. Alora casts Channel Divinity on Guts (60 hit points restored), dealing 37 damage. Alora strikes out at the blue bound commoner who seems dodgy, but Ilmater reaches out and it hits the yellow person, turning into a battle toad. It holds its arms apart. It takes the commoner and holds it in front of it as a shield.

W5 & W6 come around the corner near Kaladin.

Round 3 – The Fire Giant Arrives

We see so many fireballs coming down the corridor, but Lux and Arawn cast Counterspells, protecting everyone. A fire giant appears around the corner, with red eyes and a sword almost as big as Guts’. He is the size of the entire corridor, and it feels unnatural for the size of the room. He is plated in armour.

The humanoid prisoners have been working on an escape tunnel. The Rita Hayworth poster is flapping in the breeze.

Lux casts Hypnotic Pattern on the ape and the fire giant. They both seem very confused. Lux shouts “Cull the numbers!”

Lyra kills one of the toads threatening Kaladin, but it scratches her and it stings, starting to bubble. She crawls up onto the roof.

Arawn opens the cage to the orcs. Alora gets shunted against the wall as the orcs run through the corridor. They are intent on exiting the building. Alora, Lux and Arawn have total cover from ranged attacks. Arawn puts Slayer’s Prey on the yellow toad.

Kaladin hits out at a toad, 19 damage. A fireball hits Kaladin and Lyra. Alora reaches out and stores 14 points of damage, fire rippling down her arms as she stores the damage.

Guts moves towards yellow person. He hits yellow, then misses, and on the third strike hits the hostage. As Guts’ sword cleaves through the hostage Ilmater deflects the damage onto Alora, and she takes 18 damage. She is now carrying 32 damage.

Kaladin’s Divine Smite

Kaladin sees the battle toad step backwards into a shimmering portal. It is plane shifting. Kaladin uses Divine Smite on the toad, 17 points of damage. He rolls to smite and adds 22 points of damage. DM requests D100. Divine power channels through Kaladin, cracking through the toad. He looks smashed, and as the portal closes it gives him a glare as the portal shuts.

Arawn sees another hand similar to the fire giant reach around the corner and shake the giant out of its stupor.

Alora strikes yellow man with Spiritual Weapon – 44 damage, killing him. She strikes out with Sacred Flame towards the fire giant, 23 damage. The damage feels underwhelming against the giant. The fire giants retreat a little. There are ten orcs running around the hallways.

Round 4 – Cleaning Up

Lux casts Fire Bolt on the toad near Kaladin. Lyra drops from the roof, striking out at the toad near Kaladin with her rapier. 44 points of damage! It’s a kill!

Arawn moulds earth to create spiky terrain for the enemy. He puts Slayer’s Prey on the white guy. Another “human” steps into the corridor and casts Fireball. Lux casts Counterspell. As the fireball barrels down the corridor Lux shields everyone, and the fireball disperses. The ape is still hypnotised.

Kaladin sees the toad that he smashed earlier. Dirty 20 with a few olives. 13 damage.

Guts moves up to the white guy. “I’m just a father!” The battle toad appearance damages his credibility. In his frenzy, all three hits make contact. Damage: 18, 16, 23 = 57 damage! He dead.

We kill the last ape and release the humanoid prisoners from the cell. People have been getting taken away periodically. They have even taken some giants down to the secret rooms. We assume they are putting frog spawn into the victims. The frog people are always coming from the right hand corridor.

Alora casts Lesser Restoration on Lyra whose arm is bubbling. She immediately feels better. We feel like Lesser Restoration will prevent the disease in the first stage, Greater Restoration in the second stage, but last stage would require a Wish spell.

Aftermath

Lux casts Fireball to put the prisoners who are dying out of their misery. Kaladin returns down the corridor and tells us that one of the toads escaped through a portal. We come across a prayer room with a slimy presence. It appears a ritual has gone wrong or something has gone wrong which has caused them to barricade the space.

We can hear bashing and the sound of a forge. It sounds like the fire giants have gone back to work. Perhaps there is something so important that they have to finish it rather than addressing team Nemesis. Arawn remembers that the forge is beside the meteor crater that we saw near the entry. The giants seem to be victims in this as well.

It seems the asteroids are bringing an alien life that is taking over species. We know the giants are an incredibly ancient race. They are a primordial race that has their own gods and were considered gods themselves until they were shut off from the world. With the recent attacks and the lich going into the far realm, we wonder if it was all a ploy to get a god back that was hidden from the world long ago. Are the giants targeted because they are also an ancient race that had lost their power?

Scouting the Forge

We feel like the Durga are being captured to build a weapon. We send Lyra to scout, with a warning not to engage in any shabby-stabby behaviour.

Arawn, Lux and Lyra sneak down the corridor. Alora sees Vordana and her little sister sneaking back down the corridor towards them. “Are you super-awesome people still here? Is it safe to come over?” We gesture them over, and Vordana and her little sister Kimi embrace. We share our stories.

As Arawn’s group heads off we see the corridor split. On one side we see the ape with the Fear spell on it. It is terrified, with its hands over its eyes. The group walks past.

There are fire giants with bellows pushing air into a giant fire. There is a green shard of metal in the fireplace which is glowing white hot. They are throwing ingredients into the fire and working on the weapon. There are no Durga there, but as soon as the bellows stop they lose the heat. All that work just to keep the fire so hot. They are in a hill giant stronghold. These god-level giants are just working so hard to keep the fire hot. The centrepiece of it all is the rod. The hill giants are talking in Giant.

The Rod of Seven Parts

Lux – who previously cast Comprehend Languages and understands them – hears: “I’m so tired. We need to keep going or the lightning lords will not be happy. They are trying to rebuild this weapon. We have to get it to the smith. I heard that this isn’t even the whole thing, that there is about 6 more of them. Do you think they even have the others?” – “I don’t know man. The shift is almost over, can’t wait to get out of here. Get some more of the Viridian and keep the heat up.” He throws the powder into the fire and the crystal glows. Viridian is a gem that can be anything (e.g. diamond).

Lux has heard about the Rod of Seven Parts. It’s not even written about because it is folklore, like a child’s story. Each part of the rod has its own magical abilities, and connected they have new abilities. They are split across the entire multiverse. (Lux calls bullshit on the multiverse.) The giants believe if they do their part they will be restored back to godhood, and the world will be repaired to what it was before it was split into the multiverse.

Alora can feel Ilmater’s presence as the information is coming to the group. All the giants want to do is increase the power enough (charging it) then get it to the Durga so that he can do what he has to do. We remember the volcano in the north east which may be where the Durga are.

One fire giant walks down the corridor, sees the spikes and walks back. There are three hill giants and two Durga that join the fire giants. One of the hill giants pokes his head out and comes back. “We need to hurry.”

Alora sees the slaad return to regular patrols and feels the need to leave immediately.

Lux’s Sacrifice

Lux falls unconscious. One of the fire giants turns, takes off his gloves and hands it to the group, along with a lock of hair covered in saliva. The group reunites, and we see Vordana with her sister. Alora gives a motivational speech and they leave. We recall back to the castle to recover before tracking the giant and scrying him to ensure we track him and bring Lux’s body with us.

Lyra feels a link to Vecna. Kaladin feels the same shame as Lyra, like he can never belong. It seems artificial, but he still feels it.

Items & Loot

Golden Leaf Emblem (Emerald Enclave) – given to Alora by Vordana
Fire Giant’s Gloves – handed to the party by the giant Lux possessed
Lock of hair covered in saliva – from the fire giant (scrying component)

NPCs Encountered

Vordana – appeared briefly, gave Alora an Emerald Enclave emblem, then shapeshifted into an elk and fled; later sent a telepathic warning about shapeshifters
Kimi – Vordana’s little sister, reunited with her during the battle
Slaad (Battle Toads) – multiple grey and green slaad, some disguised as commoners, one escaped through a plane-shift portal
Fire Giants – working the forge to charge the Rod of Seven Parts, seem to be victims/labourers rather than willing enemies
Orc Prisoners – freed by Arawn, immediately charged out (“Meat’s back on the menu!”)
Humanoid Prisoners – some dying from slaad tadpole implantation, others working on an escape tunnel

Notable Quotes

The orcs, freed from their cage: “Let us at them. Boys, get on your feet. Meat’s back on the menu!”
Kaladin, killing a toad with two hits of identical damage: “Simple math, brother.”
Lux, after Hypnotic Pattern lands on the fire giant and ape: “Cull the numbers!”
Slaad in disguise, pleading: “I’m just a father!” (The battle toad appearance damages his credibility.)
Vordana to Alora: “I was probably safer with you guys. I’m hiding. Things aren’t what they seem. People aren’t people.”
Fire giant overheard: “I’m so tired. We need to keep going or the lightning lords will not be happy.”
Lux, on the Rod of Seven Parts being split across the multiverse: calls bullshit on the multiverse.